We ran as fast as our legs could take us, hoping that the next room coming up would be safer than the ones we had passed.

I was upfront this time, with one hand holding Agos and the other hand holding onto Alice’s hand. Arga was at the rear, defending us from anything behind and on our sides.

The tunnels all seemed to blend together, once we exited one, we would enter into another that seemed identical. Every so often we would pass through a large room leading to other tunnels but most of them met up again at some point.

It didn’t feel like there was an end to it.

“Coming up.”

“Got it, keep her safe!”

I let go of Alice and leapt into action. The dark tunnel was illuminated even further by a bright flame crawling on the ceiling of the dark crystal tunnel.

It was a Salamander, a monster we haven't met before but I expected to encounter further into the Floor. Kana told me that these guys were a good sign that signalled an adventurer was nearing the door to the next Floor.

Its thin features hid behind the open flame that fell from its mouth. It dripped to the floor like a waterfall of bursting embers. Bright orange and red flames pulsed out from deep within its body and left its mouth like a breath.

The salamander opened its mouth wide and the flames shot towards me. I stepped to the side and avoided it. The closer I came to the monster the faster I needed to be.

Fwish Fwish

Two more balls of flames hurdled my way and I dodged them both. The first few were easy but as I got closer they were starting to cut it close.

The air in the tunnel was increasing over time, growing hotter and hotter the longer our fight dragged out.

My speed had definitely dropped by quite a bit, it happened after I swapped out my passive skill for that other one. I hadn’t gotten a second to read over what the new skill did but I wasn’t too worried about that.

As long as it's small fries like these, I won’t have a problem catching up.

I jumped against the wall and ran up alongside it, running higher and higher until I was at the right spot to leap off of.

“Hyah!”

I cut through its body and caught it right before it had the chance to blow me away with another ball of fire.

Its lifeless eyes fell to the floor and the rest of its lower half came crashing down soon after.

As I dropped from the ceiling and landed, Arga and Alice came running with wide eyes.

“That was amazing Rei!”

Alice had become a lot cheerier since we left the room we found her in. Even with everything going on, I’m just glad she was able to smile. It’s been about half a day since then and she’s been slowly opening up to me.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

Not much luck with Arga though.

“That was a salamander right, man what a break! These things are great for materials, I could make a really good pair of pieces with a couple of these guys.” Arga went over to admire the dead monster's thin scales.

As she rummaged through the corpse my eyes crossed over Alice and I spoke my mind to her.

“Alice, doesn’t this bother you? That we kill other monsters in the Tower?”

Alice shook her head from side to side, waving her silky pink hair back and forth.

“I don’t hate you for it, Rei. These creatures want to kill us, if we didn’t kill them then they would have tried to hurt us first. Lower creatures don’t have the same minds that elders do, so I guess it's fine as long as they are like this.”

She didn’t hesitate to answer, it made me wonder how much thought she must have given it. I couldn't just ignore her words either, she was surprisingly mature for her age.

Wait…how old is she exactly? I know she looks young and acts it too but I don’t know how old she is. I want to ask but I learnt pretty young not to ask a woman her age. My father made sure I learnt that when I was still a kid, he-he~

“What if I were to kill a dragon?” I asked her.

“I’m not sure what I would think…”

Oh shit—I think I took my questions too far. I don’t want her to think I’m going to kill her family or anything.

I waved my hands around while nervously trying to collect my words into a sentence.

“No—I uh…I don’t even want to…Ugh!” I got so flustered that my face was heating up, I’m sure I must have looked like a tomato at that point.

Alice flashed me a heartfelt smile after seeing how worked up I had gotten. Her lips curved into a precious semi-circle and her eyes glimmered a starry twinkle as the golden glow of her pupils focused on me.

“I know you wouldn’t hurt my family, you’re too kind for that.”

Her words set my heart at ease. My stiff posture and nervous frown melted into a relaxed smile again and I simply nodded back.

“Sorry to interrupt the moment but we really should get going you two. Other adventurers might end up passing through here anytime now.”

“Right, let’s get out of here. I think the Door should be just up ahead.”

I held out my hand over the Salamanders body and stated,

“Devour.”

{Salamander Skill Tree has been unlocked}

{Skill Flare has been unlocked}

Before walking away from the screen I decided to pay attention to the list of notifications this time. I didn’t want to end up skimming past something important again without getting a chance to read it over.

{Flare: User is able to summon a small amount of fire that can be launched at an enemy}

“Is this what that Salamander was using before? I just hope I don’t have to shoot the fire from my mouth…”

I clenched my hand and grinned, thoughts of how to use the skill came to mind as my eyes read over the description.

“Oh, I think we have some more company--a lot more actually…”

Arga held out her sword, her voice was higher than usual with a tremble behind it. I looked out at what could have set her so on edge and noticed the large shadowy figures racing from deeper down the tunnel.

Shadowy figures ran together in a tight line, there were six of them racing towards us. Their claws practically scratched the ground as they pushed themselves closer and closer to their prey.

“Freaking Shadow Howlers…” Arga muttered with a widened stare.

On cue, Alice hid behind me and grabbed tightly to the cloak hanging down over my shoulders.

I had already killed one of these before so I wasn’t worried about running into them. They spawned on this floor so it was common to run into a few while progressing but a pack this big was the exception.

Usually a shadow Howler would spawn and take a few Prowlers into its pack to add some numbers to its side. Closer to the end of the Floor the amount of Prowlers diminished because they can’t survive against the other monsters.

To survive, the Howlers collect other Howlers and form one large group where they fill in each other’s weaknesses.

A pack of Howlers, especially one this size. They have enough power to wipe out a full party of experienced adventurers if there’s even the slightest mistake.

Large and powerful attacks came from every angle with near to zero chances of escape.

A terrible omen inside the Tower known as…

A death pack.