Chapter 17.
Floor 1 Summary (Hard)
Time Taken: 1:32:52
Rank: 102,354
Goblins Killed: 68 (Exp automatically awarded to top contributors)
Floor Boss Killed: Yes (bonus points awarded)
Secret Locations Found: (0/5)
Stairwell Found: No
Loot: Spiked Club; Minor Mana Potions X5, Minor Healing Potions X15, 1 box 9mm bullets (Copperhead Hollow Point), 1,400 Contribution Points (total), 7,000 experience points (total)
Group Leader Menu:
Assign Exp Bias? (Default: No)
Assign Contribution Bias? (Default: No)
Assign Loot?
Eli was once more detached from his body in a no-space, alone with the system as it presented him with options. He sighed in frustration when he saw that the after-floor summary displayed the difficulty at the very top of it, that was sure to be a sore point when he reconnected with the rest of the party.
After reviewing the screen for a few minutes, he began interacting with the group leader menu. He found that he could assign loot easily enough, and he quickly gave everyone one of the healing potions, keeping one left over for himself. The box of ammunition he naturally gave to Elaine, while the Spiked Club went to Maia to replace the inferior version that she had right now.
He gave three of the mana potions to Luke and kept two for himself before exploring the Exp bias and Contribution Bias options. The Contribution Bias was straightforward; everyone was at one hundred percent and the menu explained that everyone would receive one hundred contribution points for their participation on floor one.
The Exp bias was...more complicated. Not everyone was at one hundred percent. After a bit of playing around with it, he realized that he could increase the Exp that someone would be awarded, but only by decreasing someone else’s gains.
He considered very hard for a moment before he cut Jose Santos’ experience gain down as low as he could. He was frustrated with the way that the man kept challenging him, especially towards the end when they were literally being chased by monsters. But more than that, the guy was a cook. It was better to award those points to someone who would help them survive.
So he distributed them to his mother and his friends.
He considered knocking down Lucy the Seamstress’s experience as well, as she was the other non-combat class and hadn’t contributed anything to the clearing of the floor, but he held off. Instead he mentally saved the settings and willed the changes to take place.
He had a feeling about the noncombat classes that he couldn’t quite place, but he was pretty certain after receiving Lucy’s help with his jacket that her class was more important than it seemed. Perhaps Jose’s was as well, but at the moment the man was undermining his leadership and contributing nothing back to the group.
A few moments passed, and he felt a wave of disorientation as he was suddenly back in his body, lying on the floor. He sat up at the same moment as everyone else, and the entire party looked around in confusion.
He pulled up his status and checked his status.
Name
Elias Mathews
Health
112/112
Age
15
Mana
117/117
Species
Human
Stamina
113/113
Class
Scholar
Strength
11
Level
3
Dexterity
11
Titles
Runekeeper
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Agility
11
Party
Unnamed Party (Leader)
Endurance
11
Guild
None
Constitution
11
Allegiance
None
Magic Power
12
He grinned, pleased that he’d gained two levels in the madness that had been the first floor.
“Okay, now how do we get out,” Jose said once he was upright. “Where’s the damn exit sign?”
Before Jose could say anything, another System message popped up.
A Vote to abandon the Dungeon and Return to the surface has been initiated.
Cast your Vote
Return to Surface?
Yes/No
Eli cursed inwardly, but quickly voted no. He waited impatiently, looking from face to face as the others cast their votes. He tried to speak, but found that he could not. The system itself suppressed the sound that came from his lips until suddenly it was back, along with another system message.
Vote to return to the surface has failed.
4 votes in favor, 7 votes opposed, 3 votes abstain
Vote cannot be repeated until floor 3.
Eli flicked the message away and was about to say something when another system menu popped up.
Welcome to Floor 2 SafeZone
Time until SafeZone Collapse: 23:59
Floor 2 objectives:
Kill 200 goblins
or
Kill 2 of 5 Goblin Champion
or
Find Stairwell to Floor 3
Completion of any of these three objectives will teleport your party to floor 3, regardless of where they are on the floor.
Vote to return to surface has failed: your party cannot withdraw at this time.
Good luck!
Eli was just about to say something when Jose grabbed him by the collar.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing you little psycho?” the man demanded, putting his face right in Eli’s vision. “Do you think this is a fucking game? We could have died! We could still—”
Eli kicked him in the balls as hard as he could. The man crumpled, and Eli backed up before Jose could recover. Holding his bat defensively, he looked at the others.
“It was a vote,” he said. “I voted to stay, obviously, but so did six others, and three couldn’t make up their mind. I don’t make the rules, and honestly, I don’t even know half of them. But at this point we don’t have any choice but to keep going. So we can either sit here and call each other names or we can make a plan for how we’re going to clear this floor.”
“Who else?” Jose demanded from the floor. “Who else decided to stay in this deathtrap.”
“You don’t have to answer that,” Eli said to the other party members. “Jose, I’m going to say this one time. I don’t think this is a game. I think that the system is preparing us for something much worse than we can possibly imagine at this point. Honestly I’m sorry that I can’t return you to the surface, but—”
“I’m not going anywhere without my daughter!” the man declared, standing up. He took out his cleaver and--
“Papi, I voted to stay,” Maia said, lifting her hockey mask. “And unless someone actually dies and we somehow clear the floor anyway, I’m probably going to vote to keep going until we can’t go any further.”
Jose looked at his daughter, his mouth agape. “You don’t know what you’re saying. This psycho—”
“Eli actually knows what he’s talking about, Papi,” Maia said. “At least I choose to believe that he does.”
“Did you forget, Jose?” Erik Estabon asked. “We have fifty days until monsters start spawning on the surface. Now, maybe that means just a few monsters that the army will be able to protect us from and we don’t have to worry about anything. But it could also mean godzilla walking through New York City. We don’t know what’s in store, but our best bet is to challenge the system and try to get strong while we can.”
“Nobody asked you. You’re a teacher, not a parent, you don’t understand—”
Erik punched him in the jaw. The man went down, and he didn’t get up. His wife rushed forward to check on him, then shook her head.
“I could heal him and wake him up, but what’s the point?” she asked. She looked at the others. “This place, it’s safe, right? Can we leave him here?”
“I don’t know,” Eli admitted. “But that’s what the system says. As long as we clear the floor in less than twenty-four hours, he should be safe.”
“Then let’s go,” she said. She pulled up the strap of her medical bag and pulled a bottle out of her pocket. “No, wait, let me write him a note first, telling him to stay put until we return.”
“Um, I’ll stay with him,” Lucy volunteered. The party turned to the seamstress, Erik’s girlfriend, who had been so quiet until then that most of the party had forgotten she was with them. “I’m not any good in combat either, after all.”
“You sure?” Erik asked her.
“Yeah,” she said. She looked at the others and nodded. “Eat an energy bar real quick, then give me the extra supplies. If it works like I think, then as long as I grab the bundles before the timer ends after you kill the next bosses then we’ll be able to keep our stuff on the next floor. I’ll be our porter or whatever, if that makes sense.”
The others exchanged looks, then took her advice, or drank some water.
Conveniently there was a toilet in the corner. Inconveniently there was no privacy, but everyone took a turn using it anyway, the others looking away politely.
As they were preparing, however, Erik took Eli aside.
“I think we should split the party,” he said.
“We are,” Eli said. “Noncombatants are staying in the—”
“No, I mean I think we should split the party another time, so that we have two parties looking for the exit.”