Brock willingly left the dungeon without us, but swore that he would be telling the guards outside about "what we'd done". It was unclear exactly what he would be saying, because I really didn't think he meant being scofflaws and going deeper with a party of less than three. (Not that it was a party of love, certainly not yet--you know what, never mind)

Mostly for the sake of Louise, I followed the group of five when they left rather than going our own way, and promise we would try to meet up at the exit of each level, at least for the next biome, although we wouldn't be adventuring as a single party. My pride as a solo diver simply wouldn't let me leech off of others for that long.

As with the town on floor 5, this biome seemed to be based on open skies, with a number of bridges running through the sky. The basic baddie for floor 6 was the "Big busty harp harp harpy," which had giant boobs and musical instruments for its wings. Between the two harps that were its wings and harpies' general tendency to shriek at people, it was mostly a sound-based enemy with the added "benefit" of a hypnotic bosom.

Immediately I learned just how useful having a defense against [Strife] really was.

Because the dungeon had no walls, I was able to see in the distance the party of five being... negatively affected by the big bouncing boobies. It wasn't just that people were being hypnotized by the heaving breasts being constantly shaken as the bird-women flew; women just kind of assumed that the men were affected (or that they would gladly be affected), and men just kind of assumed that women were going to be upset.

Meanwhile, when a pair of harpies showed up to bother us, as soon as I materialized my cloak with the anti-[Strife] aura on it, I got an icon showing up in the corner of my vision indicating that it was actively defending against a [Strife] attack.

I put off thinking about that for a bit. Because my manifested swords were weightless and could be retrieved almost instantly, I was able to throw them at flying enemies without risking falling off the bridges; it cost a bit more mana, which increased the further the blades got from me, but I succeeded in provoking them into attacking me directly, and then hammered them directly when they were close enough to the bridge that I felt safe using Telekinesis.

The sonic attacks were no joke, unfortunately. They seemed to try to lure people off the edge and put them to sleep, though both at a fairly low level--the boob thing seemed much more effective, though the three effects together were nothing to sneeze at. When they actually decided to do damage, they would play their own battle music (I could swear the Administrator stole from several sources that I mostly approved of), and they would manifest some kind of sharp wind blades that thrummed in time to the music and seemed to hang in midair for a moment before flying straight at a target.

The riot shield I'd stolen from prison helped here, in particular because I had to keep Louise safe. The sonic blades were not terribly visible and so were tough to dodge, but they charged up for long enough that I was quickly confident I could avoid the attacks on my own. But with the luring song, the sleepy song, and the bobbing boobs, it would be easy to get distracted and let their music reach my heart, somewhat too literally.

Anyway, it wasn't that bad. The telekinesis helped me direct my blades at a distance, and also gave me a last-ditch ability to move me or Louise if I noticed something late, but the first fight was nothing. What wasn't nothing was Louise being affected by [Strife], which went away as soon as the harpies were dead.

"Whoa..." she put a hand to her head as soon as the second harpy fell. "That was... bad. I felt really mad at you for some reason."

That led to a brief discussion (as we continued forward) about the [Strife] debuff, and everything I'd read about it on Wikipedia. I also started to mention the [Spontaneous Musical Number] debuff (and decided to add that aura in defense mode to my cape, as well, what with music based attacks), but we were interrupted by another fight, and then another, and eventually I forgot to go back to that topic.

By the time we found the exit and looked around, the party of five had made a lot worse progress than us, mostly I assume on account of [Strife], although it's also possible someone in their party had lower resistance to the other musical effects. I chose to roam a little bit and get a little more grinding in, while Louise elected to remain by the exit, which might not have been a guaranteed safe zone, but at least it was an easy escape if something did attack her.

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It took Melinda and them another hour or so to make it the rest of the way, in which time I discovered a rare drop from the harp harp harpies--no surprise whatsoever, it was a torn off wing that became a portable musical instrument:

HARP HARP HARPY HARP - Lv 38 [ INT +3 ] [ CHA +10 ] [ RES -2 ] [ SHARP HARP CHORD - Lv 10 ] [ HARPY HARP HARMONY - Lv 10 ] [ HARPY HOP - Lv 5 ] The wing of a musical harpy, imbued with their mix of beautiful and lethal techniques.

Soulforged: Projector. Absorb time 2H

[ SHARP HARP CHORD ] Create a weapon out of sonic noises. Power and accuracy depends on your ability to [ Perform: Harp ].

Soulforged: Acts as [ Aerokinesis ] [ +5 ] [ HARPY HARP HARMONY ] Music soothes the savage beast, sometimes. May inflict [ Charm ] [ Minor ] on people and monsters. Success rate depends on your ability to [ Perform: Harp ].

Soulforged: Acts as [ Charm Aura ] [ -5 ] [ Requires tool: Music ] [ Synergy: Any Music ]. [ HARPY HOP ] Launches the user into the air on a burst of telekinetic force, and reduces the blow upon landing.

Soulforged: Acts as [ Telekinesis ] [ -2 ].

I had to bite my cheek to keep me from once more insulting the Administrator. She had to know just how... how... punny the names was. Not funny, not... well, I mean, I guess it was useful, but... it's just...

I got back to the exit and showed it to Louise, who took my offer to hold the item as it being given as a gift, which I was okay with but didn't really intend. Instead, as we waited and watched the others approaching, she tried playing the harp. She didn't have any innate talent or existing training, as far as I could tell, but it seemed like once she tried playing the [ Harmony ], knowledge of at least one song was just kind of popped into her head. She didn't successfully play it, but she clearly had some musical talent on some other instrument, because I watched her very patiently noticing her mistakes and correcting them as she played.

I had planned to spend the time thinking about the weird combination of ability tags, but as it turned out, I just found it pleasant to sit and listen to Louise play music, even badly. She had a studious air about her when she sat down to play, and her natural tendency to be withdrawn and patient led her to slowly force her way through the melody of the Harmony over and over without taking any breaks to swear, sulk, or make frustrated noises, like I would have. It was honestly kind of nice.

Soon enough, Melinda the halberdier and her group showed up, and we traded notes on debuffs, harps, and the terrible names that Administrators like to torture us with. I will admit, it was nice to have a break where I felt safe, where I could talk and listen and laugh and feel like my life wasn't an endless hell dungeon, nor an empty apartment, nor a deadend job. Being around people... wasn't bad, especially when I didn't have to drag their ass around like Brock Beetle.

And it was nice to think that it might even last. As long as we were all working together, the chances of anything truly tragic happening were pretty slim. That would be a heck of an improvement in my life.

After a bit, we went down to the next floor, which was notable more than anything because there was a tower interrupting the horizon--a tower that stretched from the almost-invisible floor far below our mid-sky plank path, to what must have been straight up into space... or at least, I thought so.

"That's wrong," said Jenna, their party's mage. "It's clearly just painted on a wall. A tower straight up from that distance would be further away from us at the top than it is at our height, so it would narrow. The only way the tower would appear straight from this distance is if it bends towards us."

"Or widens at the top," offered the archer, whose name I had deduced from context was William.

"If it widened at the top, there's no way it would stand, no matter how big it is or what it's made of--"

"Alright, alright," I offered, laughing, but also trying to pick my words carefully. "Don't harass the Administrator too much. You never know whether they'll take the ribbing with good humor or whether they'll do something spiteful."

"You think they do that?"

I started to open my mouth to respond, but shut it again after a moment. I didn't... really want to explain that I'd had face to face meetings with Administrators, much less the Administrator of this dungeon, already. But my immediate reply to that question was yes, because Pearland's administrator had said as much in a note delivered in a custom item: We can always choose to kill you. "Maybe."

I noticed both Melinda and Louise giving me an eye at that poor attempt at lying, and I quickly rushed us into going our separate ways on the floor.