Christopher’s light floated past Allen and hovered over the bodies. There appeared to be five of them in total, though once illuminated it became difficult to be sure. They were so thoroughly torn to shreds by the monsters that all the gore blended together.

“Yuck,” Allen thought. The little amount of humor that was able to blossom up from under Dead Calm was barely enough to tug at the corner of his lips.

He was only able to count them by their boots, which were the only parts that had remained recognizable. At least their faces had been ripped off and their heads turned to pulp, making the scene just a little easier to look at, in a way. Non-descript gore was better than something that still looked the same as it had when it was alive.

Amelia casually approached the dead bodies huddled between the rocks and knelt down beside the nearest one. Then she hummed to herself after poking a piece of unidentifiable flesh. “Um, they look about a day old, maybe a little longer,” she said and glanced back.

Allen looked over his shoulder and noticed Ty actively avoiding the sight of the bodies. Christopher also looked unsettled, but at least he didn’t look away. On the other hand, Camila was under the effects of Rage, making her appear completely indifferent while she controlled her skill.

“If they didn’t die after we arrived on this floor, then there’s someone still here keeping it from resetting,” the professor said.

Christopher tried to roll himself forward, but the cavern was too difficult for him to manage. Allen quickly stepped into help push the man over the rough terrain, receiving a soft grunt as thanks. Another brief moment of silence was broken as the professor spoke up again.

“I believe we should continue on for now,” he began, “We’ve been going through the quickest path thus far, so if we haven’t seen anybody yet then…” he suddenly trailed off and stared out into the pile of corpses. “…Who’s there?” he asked the room, not taking his eyes away from a spot behind the mangled flesh.

Allen tensed up, as did the others. Among other things, dungeons were the optimal place for an ambush. It was easy to cover up an attack since few would consider it worth the time to investigate a death that occurred inside a dungeon. Few considered it worth the time to investigate deaths in general, but a robbery was still technically a robbery.

Still, nothing came from the shadows, and yet Christopher did not budge. “It’s very faint, but I can still sense your mana, and I know you’re awake,” he continued.

There was another moment of silence before something stirred near the other side of the bodies. A stiff grunt came through after a second, followed by coughing and more groans of pain. Still, no voice answered them.

“He’s badly hurt,” Amelia said, though she made no move to approach the man huddled among the bodies. She looked back at Christopher questioningly.

“Well, go heal him then,” Christopher said after a bit of hesitation. “Take Allen with you though,” he quickly added, getting a curt nod from both Healer and the Assassin.

Allen was struggling with his Dead Calm skill as he approached the stranger with Amelia. He would much rather just continue on through the floor than deal with some random idiot who could end up bringing them down. Although, logically, he knew that not everyone was like him. Even in the hell of a world he was in, most people still couldn’t look at someone who was suffering and think ‘just die and respawn.’ Thus, Allen reigned himself in despite the chilling effects of his skill.

He and Amelia walked over to the man nestled between a stalagmite and the corpses of his teammates. Neither seemed to care about the wet squelching sounds that could be heard as they stepped through the gore. The overpowering smell of blood, feces, bile, and charred flesh filled the air, yet neither so much as gagged. Though Allen fully understood that he was walking on blood and guts, slippery as they were, he had absolutely no emotional reaction at all.

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Curiously, Amelia didn’t seem to react in any way either, and she didn’t have any State of Mind skills at all, as far as anyone knew. Allen actually felt a twinge of perverse admiration for a second, yet dulled as it was, nothing showed on his face.

The stranger coughed again and stared up at the two approaching teenagers. Tears slowly came to his eyes and he started shaking. “Y-you gonna kill me?” he asked, wheezing. He was covered in blood that had crusted over, indicating that he had not moved since the monsters had attacked him.

“Not unless you insist,” Allen replied flatly while checking his nametag. It was actually just a suggestion, though he quickly realized it could be interpreted as a threat instead. He opted not to say anything else.

Name: [Unknown]

Human – Mage – Level 37

The man groaned in response. “N-no, I won’t,” he said, his teeth chattering slightly. “I c-could use some healing then, if you don’t mind,” he continued. The man tried to shift in place, but the motion only caused him to suck in through his teeth and blood to gush out from his wounds.

Allen nodded to Amelia when she turned back to him. Without another word, the Healer knelt down next to the stranger and started treating him. He didn’t have any corrupted wounds, which Allen though was a little strange, but he supposed the man could have just been lucky.

“My name’s, um, Kenneth… by the way,” the stranger said, wincing as his injuries were healed. “I’m just a farm boy. Thought some pals and I could take this dungeon and get stronger. We… we weren’t sup-supposed to be down here this long.

Allen ignored the young man’s irrelevant backstory and poked around for anything useful on the bloodied floor instead. There didn’t seem to be anything left, which was a bit concerning, though mostly it was just annoying.

“I already- I have all their stuff,” Kenneth said, noticing Allen searching the area.

He was still breathing hard while Amelia healed him. Her magic fixed his injuries and refilled his HP, but it ultimately did nothing for the blood covering his face and the bits of flesh and brain on his clothes.

Allen glanced back at the farm boy and stopped kicking the guts around.

“I just didn’t… I didn’t want anybody to come along and take all of it,” Kenneth said, “They… they all got t-torn apart by those things. I hid... It was all I could do,” he trailed off as he stared blankly at the bodies beside him.

Allen shrugged; he would get him to share one way or another. For the moment, he waited in silence with the others while Amelia continued with her magic. It ended up taking around fifteen minutes for her to fully heal the man; all time wasted in Allen’s opinion. They could have killed another ghoul before Kenneth was standing again, yet instead they had helped some random person who would probably just end up taking their experience.

Of course, he didn’t voice any of those thoughts.

“Ah, t-thanks,” Kenneth said, looking much better as he attempted to brush the guts off his body. It took him mere moments to realize that his efforts were pointless. “You’re going more… down, aren’t you?” he asked the group, but he continued before anyone could answer. “That’s fine, I’ll… uh, I’ll just stay out of your way if you like.”

Allen sighed and made his way back to Christopher and the others.

“Yeah, if we need your help, we’ll give you a shout,” Ty said. “If not, then just hang back and you can follow us out at the end.”

Kenneth nodded hesitantly. His hands were still shaking even when he clasped them together. “Um… so,” he started, shuffling and looking around anxiously, “how have none of them attacked us yet? It’s been… maybe twenty minutes.”

Camila grunted unintelligibly. With Rage in effect she was no help with anything but killing things.

“Yes, that would be me,” Christopher replied. “I’m distracting the ones that come near. There are still twenty-two Shade Ghouls, three Shade Carriers, five Gloom Casters, and hundreds of Shade Crawlers. Then there are six of the unknown variants in addition to the boss at the end of this room.”

Kenneth raised an eyebrow. “Locating magic?” he asked under his breath, his tone indicated that he didn’t really expect an answer.

“Yes,” Christopher replied regardless.

Kenneth grunted. “Well, um… the new monster on this floor is called S-Shade Walker,” he said, “It uses… dark magic.”

Ty hummed affirmatively. “Thanks for the heads up, I’m Ty,” he said, holding out a hand and smiling towards the stranger. “We’ll get out this damn hole together, just give it some time.” The Defender’s enthusiastic persona didn’t match the scene around them, yet it seemed to help Kenneth’s mood just a bit.

The farm boy smiled back as he shook the Defenders hand, though he still flinched a little. It was very subtle, but Allen didn’t miss it. It was the kind of expression one makes when they’re handed a participation trophy.

“We’re wasting time,” Allen said and turned towards the far end of the floor. “Keep moving.”