Guerilla warfare was something I had dabbled at very slightly in Gaia. It hadn’t gone well, considering I had ended up brutally tortured within less than a day, but that was all in the past. Also, I wasn’t the only one here, and apparently, experience with fighting large, oppressive forces had been plentiful on Earth, just not for me.

I watched as the party, which was almost becoming their official group name at this point, scouted another guard tower. This would be the third one we had attacked after our campaign of destruction began, and the opposition was clearly not messing around anymore. I lay on a rooftop with Serge while the other three scouted under the cover of night. We looked up at a night sky which wasn’t our own.

“So, do you think this place is real? Is this some planet in another galaxy that we’re randomly attacking, like the monsters on our own?” Serge asked in a whisper. We were at least half a mile away from the closest guard station but caution hurt nothing. I shrugged in response before the larger man nudged me to get more out of me. I couldn’t help raising a brow at his casual nature but decided it didn’t matter. I liked Serge well enough.

I sighed. “No, I don’t think it’s real. Except for the ways in which it clearly is. The beings of this world don’t know that they’re inside of a dungeon, they reject it when told and go about their lives completely naturally unless interrupted.” My mood worsened as I put the disjointed tendrils of thought together to form an actual opinion. “The guard we took hostage genuinely could not comprehend the possibility we explained, right? It was like certain words and ideas literally couldn’t be remembered or considered.”

My lip curled into the snarl I had been keeping tamped down. It was grotesque. “There’s a robotic nature or something to the Segaceans. I paid attention, and every single person is doing what they did the night before. They repeated their actions throughout the day, and again into the evening. The same children scraped the same knees, the same mothers gave them the same advice. Unless we interacted with anything near them, nothing changed from day to day. They’re slaves to a System they aren’t even allowed to know exists.”

I shivered and Serge laughed, except it came out as a huff. “This is why you’re the boss. I didn’t notice anything like that, not really. I just know that this place feels wrong. All that stuff about the System is over my head, so I’ll just keep looking forward. I’d be lying if I said this wasn’t cathartic.”

This time I laughed, and I allowed it to be a real one. Yeah, I could easily imagine why taking on a regime like the Segacean city we found ourselves within was resonating with the man. His soul had literally been stamped with the idea of “Revolution”, after all. We spoke a little more about various mundane topics but mostly sat in quiet patience until the others returned.

They arrived before we saw them, which was impressive. I was quite handy with my senses and even I was taken by surprise as the night became darker around us. I knew that we were as good as invisible within a pitch black dome atop the random rooftop we lay upon. “I’ll stop saying it eventually, but I love this technique,” Vee commented once they were all gathered.

“The Aspect of Shadows is becoming more and more casual to use, but I can’t keep this up for long.” Javed’s voice was strained, so we spoke quickly. He had been shielding the other, weaker two from view, while they both used scouting techniques unavailable to the rest of us. Vee was able to sense tremors, and therefore positions, while Toulou could gauge strength from a distance due to some magic within people’s blood.

“Seven guards, one at the peak of Tier One, the captain.” Toulou spoke and I nodded. Then I realised no one could see me, so I told them all good job. Javed dropped his ability and the group scattered slightly to remain less conspicuous. Their work was done, and I thanked the System for its generous way of divvying out the gains from a battle.

The System clearly recognised that winning a battle wasn’t all about being stronger than your opponent. Information gathering, scouting, debilitating effects and whatnot all counted towards a kind of group participation reward. I didn’t notice a loss for the energy I received upon actually performing the fight, so I was more than happy to let the others get their gains without getting their hands dirty.

I looked at my gleaming claws. The magic which pulsed through my body at all times actually served to keep me clean, but the metaphor was apt all the same. They would be drenched in blood again and again before all of this was over. The dungeon, yes, but more than that. The path to power was paved with the blood and bones of enemies I hadn’t even made yet.

I steadied my breathing and turned to Serge. The large man just chuckled and launched himself from the rooftop. I rolled my eyes and quickly overtook the big lump. Like a cannonball and a ballista bolt, we struck the guard tower. In a move which would never not make me smile, Serge used an ability to make himself spin at huge speeds. The force he output increased massively with each rotation and he shattered half of the guard tower with his landing. I cackled as he rolled away down one of the streets like a supersonic hedgehog from a video game.

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His work was done. If he was Shock, I was Awe.

A large chunk of the room I landed in atop the guard tower was shorn away by Serge’s attack. A small sliver of kill energy entered my spirit as the comet in human skin claimed at least once life. I had barely been involved, even in the planning of this method, so it was miniscule. I still went towards my cultivation and made me minutely stronger.

The change from Tier Zero to Tier One was a huge jump in all-round power, alongside a Dao to make things interesting. The weaker guards did have a dao, I could sense it on them, but they never used it. It was always the same “scent”, too, which made me feel like it was synthetic. Another sign that things weren’t quite right.

I made my entrance like the arrow I imagined myself as. Vee was able to be precise enough for me to know where to first attack. As with any sensible boss fight, you start with the minions. My dao echoed my punches on the first target, five hits turning into seven, with two of those being the absolute power I could throw, far beyond my actual limit. As the grizzled man became a grizzly mess, the roof became a gorey scene.

It would only get worse.

None of the combatants were difficult, save for the mini-boss. At level 40, the guard captains were the first enemies I had faced which could actually wield their dao. Unfortunately for the captain in front of me, he wasn’t the first I had battled. After the second one, it wasn’t even surprising that they all had the same moveset, just disappointing.

Once the smallfry were dealt with, the captain could let loose. Its dao was flat, like an uninspiring rendition of my favourite song. Just like the other captains, its only usage of the power was to make it hit harder with its weapon. As I said, boring and predictable. I dismantled the mini-boss with what was becoming practised ease and made my escape to meet up with the others.

When I returned, Toulou’s eyes glazed over at the sight of me. Looking at myself, I also thought it was a bit grim. “It’s not mine! For the most part, at least.” For a strange moment I thought he was going to pass out, but instead it was Javed who reacted quickest.

“He’s breaking through!” The older brother said excitedly. Even I could tell that he was getting stressed out by the growing gap in power between himself and Toulou. I was glad for them that the distance hadn’t become too large, they would even out quickly enough. After Javed’s exclamation, everyone was silent, letting Toulou feel the moment.

After only a handful of minutes, clarity returned to Toulou’s eyes. As they did, he spoke. “My blood is yours and your blood is mine.” The world tinted crimson and the taste of iron splashed my tongue, the surprising tang causing me to cough. The other three were less used to getting blood in their mouths and retched instead. They still gave thumbs up to Toulou who looked at everyone with worry on his face.

“Congratulations,” I said, the first to be able to speak. “We’re becoming quite the ominous group with you pair. Between the two of you, we could probably create an Aspect of Dracula or something.” Despite my joke being absolutely shit, Toulou laughed hard. It was contagious, and soon everyone was chuckling, though no one really knew why. The reverie was broken by Vee standing up with a sharp breath.

I moved fast, instinctively expecting an ambush of some kind, but when it didn’t come I relaxed and looked at the woman. She had an apologetic look on her face, but said nothing, and moved to the edge of the room. We had… commandeered a home used by the most recently killed guard captain. It was bare inside, like all the others I had bothered to look into. Could be a cultural thing, could be laziness from the System. I erred towards thinking it was the latter.

“Sorry, City Lord. Seriously, well done Toulou,” Vee scrunched her eyes closed and sighed, “it’s just typical.” When Serge asked what was typical, I almost rolled my eyes, but instead of jumping in and literally mansplaining it, I waited for Vee. She scoffed and did roll her eyes. “I don’t want to be protected by the big strong men.”

She didn’t need to say anymore, and none of the males in the room were stupid enough to press the issue. Vee said she would take the first watch, and once the other three were asleep, I slunk my way over to her spot. “Boo,” I whispered, shushing Vee when she nearly screamed.

“Little bastard,” she muttered the curse under her breath, a rare showing considering the deference she normally showed to me. I smirked and she realised I heard her. “I’m so-”

I interrupted the shit. “Seriously, apologise to me one more time for talking and see how well I take it. I didn’t come over here to scare you, obviously, just had to take the opportunity as it came.” We sat in the quiet of Segacean’s night for a while, and it was nice enough. Eventually, it threatened to turn awkward, so I continued. “I obviously don’t get it but, I sort of do. I’m not like anyone else now, but I did used to be human. Not sure if you knew that?”

Vee shook her head and I shrugged. “It doesn’t matter to most now. Enough people have had random opportunities to change race, whether they’ve done it or not. It’s not that weird, even a month or so since the System arrived. It’s strange how quick you can get used to something completely new.” I couldn’t help inspecting the scales of my arm in the dim light. My eyes were good enough in the dark to see the interlocked links between them. “I’m not sure if it helps, but this is also my second go at this whole climb for power. In my first go, there were many people far stronger than me making moves I couldn’t begin to understand or get in front of. As it stands, you’re still in the top one hundred or so strongest people on Earth. Try not to hold yourself to the standard of others, focus on your own growth.”

Vee’s eyes were unfocused when I looked at her and I felt embarrassed. I didn’t speak much, for this reason exactly. While I worried about feeling self-important, I heard Vee whisper something. “What’s that?” She spoke again but I missed it once more. She began to tap on the floor with her hands in an interesting beat.

“I ground myself and follow my own beat.” Her voice was deep, full of power and carried a heaviness which almost made my head bow slightly. Almost.

“Oh shit, no way.” I debated waking the others up, but I’d give Vee the chance to show off her evolution in the morning or something. I had just told her to focus on herself, so I was quite proud at my restraint. Instead I sat with her as she vibrated, watching the magic fluctuate as the power of the evolution settled into her core.

I was positively beaming. We had been a potent force in the dungeon with just myself and Serge able to fight. While Javed, Toulou and Vee still needed to practise, there was probably no better place on Earth to do that than this specific dungeon. I began drafting up plans in my head for how the next day would go, and the day after that, and the one after that.

Because I was going to wring this dungeon for all it was worth before clearing it.