Despite all of my protests and advice, we stepped to the 9th floor. No matter how I approached all fell into dead ears and the only answer I got was a cold “No!”. Come on Blanche, you are smarter than this! Thankfully, the snow that covered the ground on previous floors wasn’t here. Though that didn’t make this floor very original since the full moon and night sky once again followed us here. The ground beneath us was dry and cracked like it was hit by a drought. It reminded me of radiation-filled wastelands back on Earth and I suddenly wanted snow back.

I took a step forward and the ground crumbled even more. With a cold like this, it should be frozen solid.

Death.

This place reminded me of death. Even on snowfields, there were several trees and nice-looking flowers. On the earlier floors, there were mushrooms growing from walls. This floor had none of those things. Even the coldness here was different from other floors. On other floors, cold was similar to a blanket. Covering me entirely and slowly absorbing my heat. But this cold was already deep inside of me. I could feel it inside my very bones. I wanted to believe it was because this place was colder. It just had less heat.

But I knew that it wasn’t the case. Hell, this place was actually warmer. What I felt wasn’t the cold.

Fear.

Hmmm. Weird. My own being was feeling fear. I raised my right arm. My hand was shaking. I felt emotion drain from my face.

How ridiculous.

It was normal to be afraid.

To be alive is to be vulnerable.

To be vulnerable is to be afraid.

Every alive thing felt fear. Okay, maybe not the Horde but we do NOT talk about them. However, I didn’t have a single reason to be afraid. As I pondered about that, Agatha fell to her knees. I looked around, searching for what enemy attacked her. Percavel covered her with his shield. Even though there was some distance between us, I could hear her hyperventilating.

“We will die. All of us will die!”

She screamed. Her voice was filled with terror. She tried to claw her own face and Percavel had to stop her.

“This is a status effect. I don’t know where it is coming from.”

I said.

“Knight’s Protection!”

Percavel slammed his shield to the ground. Light engulfed both him and Agatha. After that Agatha’s breathing calmed down. I have seen Percavel use that skill several times. It had the ability to increase his and one ally’s defense and abnormal status resistance.

“Are you okay?”

Percavel asked. Agatha had to collect herself before answering.

“Yes. Yes.”

She repeated before getting up with Percavel’s help. Blanche didn’t seem to care while Duncan looked annoyed. I was starting to believe it was his default face.

“My Lady, can you see if we have enemies close to us?”

Blanche didn’t react. I had to shake her arm and after that cast her magic.

“Detect Life.”

After her casting, she turned to me and shook her head.

“Is it possible that the entire floor has some kind of status effect? Whatever the case, we should move quickly. If we cast skills just to move, we will be drained before reaching the boss.”

I took a breath.

“Agatha, cast buffs on yourself to increase your resistance regularly. Others, if you feel like you are being affected say immediately.”

Percavel and Agatha nodded while Duncan and Blanche didn’t react.

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Fuck.

My team leader is sick with a sickness I don’t know. I am not even sure if it is a sickness.

The strongest person in my group hates me and worse doesn’t even have a speck of respect for me.

My healer can’t even resist a mere status effect.

Percavel… He is alright actually. He reminded me of some of my comrades. He had the military discipline and followed orders. He actually cared for his teammates. From our previous conversations, I also knew that he wasn’t racist like others. If I ever gather a team in the future, I definitely want him.

Fuck. I will need to form a team in the future, don’t I? While Star pulled me here to “save the world” or whatever, I wasn’t arrogant enough to think I could do something like that by myself. I needed powerful allies. Thinking this I glanced at Duncan.

“But power isn’t everything.”

I would rather have weaker yet good-hearted allies. And loyal ones.

We walked for an uncertain time. With the full moon looking down on us without ever changing, it was hard to tell the time. Since we were in this god-forsaken dungeon for a long time, I already lost my sense of time. If my body was mature, I maybe could have told it by my beard’s length but I only had thin, short, and hard-to-see hairs on my face right now. Both Duncan and Percavel didn’t have any beards growing but maybe they just couldn’t grow one. Poor bastards. I grabbed my chin. Also poor me.

“You will not be forgotten, my glorious beard.”

I still miss you. But this is not the time for that.

“Is this normal? We haven’t encountered a single enemy since we arrived here.”

“It is not common but…”

Percavel spoke. His voice was different as if his throat was sore. Was it caused by whatever status effect here?

“It happens when all of the mana gathers in one monster.”

Surprisingly, Duncan finished what Percavel was about to say.

“So, we just have to kill one monster.”

I said.

“Just!?”

Agatha shouted, at least as loud as she can when she barely kept herself sane.

“Only Anshar knows how strong that monster is!”

“And?”

I said, nonchalance in my voice surprising not only Agatha and Percavel but also me. Duncan looked at me with weird eyes, as if I was gone insane. Blanche just had a blank expression on her face.

“We are going to find it and we are going to kill it. It is simple. What we have been doing since we entered here? Finding strong monsters and killing them. Why does a single, a little bit stronger one makes a difference?”

I sounded confident. Good. Because God knows inside I wasn’t confident. I didn’t trust my team and I didn’t trust myself. Yet, I currently had to use those things to survive and get the fuck out of there. Okay, “use” doesn’t sound good. Lead. Yes, that sounds better.

“What we are feeling is nothing but the effects of a skill. Nothing more, nothing less. A cowardly trick to stop us from reaching and slicing its throat. If it is that powerful, why use that kind of thing? So, abandon your illogical fears and hesitation and move.”

I think I am going to throw up. I met people who could make grandiose speeches without cringing. In my eyes, those guys were the real psychopaths. But seeing Agatha and Percavel’s faces lit up was worth my nausea. We moved forward, now slightly faster. Maybe thanks to that speed increase we were able to find a man-made, stone road. It was old and time must had took some part of it since it was cracked in many places and even ground and dirt overtook it in some places, yet it was there. Because of its condition, its original shape was hard to guess but my money was on it looking like one of those Ancient Roman roads.

“This road must lead somewhere.”

Thanks, Captain Obvious, I said to myself even though I was the one who said it.

Naturally, we followed the road. As we continued I noticed that the condition of the road got better and better. It was almost like as we traveled forward, we traveled back in time. It was a weird sight and caused me to look back at the road we came from to see if we actually did travel in time. And no, we didn’t travel back in time. Maybe it was related to mana and how it interacted with space. Blanche probably knew what was going on but she just walked with a blank expression on her face. It wasn’t her usual cold expression.

“You are not going to like this, Madam Agatha.”

I said while looking at the symbols and figures carved on the road. As the condition of the road became better, I could see them clearly. It was similar in nature to the drawings we saw back on the first floor. Except they were much more… primal? It was hard to say. The craftsmanship of these symbols was worse but it wasn’t only that. It was like the difference between a cave painting and a renaissance painting? I wasn’t the best when it came to art. Then I remembered something:

“After I died, my own blood fell to ruin and degeneracy.”

Perhaps this was what Wolf King meant? His race losing their intelligence and dexterity? Hmm. Looking closer the story depicted was the same but it was simpler and shorter? Drawings on the first floor were much more detailed not only with the art itself but with storytelling too. This art had two scenes. One where Wolf King(?) was howling to the Moon and the other one was him fighting an armored man.

“Wait, that’s just those two scenes repeated along the road?”

I noticed it wasn’t the case as we moved forward. Yes, it was those two scenes being repeated but … Drawing got better as we moved forward. It was almost like whatever or whoever drew this decreased in skill as it got further away.

Some of my comrades in my world didn’t have the required compatibility with some of the more advanced neurological modifications. This caused them to slip away as time went on.

They didn’t become violent or anything. It was just… They lost themselves as time went on. Memories

Skills

Names

Friends

Family

And even control of their own bodies. They turned into babies or old people that needed others to survive.

W̶e̶ h̶a̶d̶ t̶o̶ p̶u̶t̶ t̶h̶e̶m̶ o̶u̶t̶ o̶f̶ t̶h̶e̶i̶r̶ m̶i̶s̶e̶r̶y̶.

Whatever happened here felt similar. And I didn’t like it. I sympathized with Wolf King for the first time. Before, I only accepted our deal because of what it could bring to me but…

I don’t know. I felt bad. I felt bad for HIM. And maybe that was enough.