Floors two and three were annoyingly simple and didn’t take any time whatsoever. The rewards weren’t too useful for me, just weapons I would never use. I kept them though since Alcoroth could just carry them around and I thought Fluffy might get interested in one of them at some point.

The contents themselves weren’t too different from the first floor but were easier. They were both contained to a hallway. The first was filled with traps we had to avoid. But for someone who could heal it really didn’t mean much.

It was an utter waste of time.

The third floor was a bunch of puzzles that were large and took a lot of strength to get the mechanisms to even move. It really was more of another form of strength training than anything.

It took me a while to get the first one and Alcoroth was so annoyed by my stupidity, he just told me the answers for the rest of them and enforced some more training as payment. They each ended with a fight with a monster that I hadn’t seen before, but they didn’t have names attached so I still don’t know what they were. They were both much easier than the first floor’s boss, but still hard.

Alcoroth explained that the first floor is the only one that is changed for each person that enters. Every other floor up to the twentieth seemed to be the same challenge so the difficulty level could be easier or harder based on your first floor.

The fourth floor was excitingly different.

When we stepped out of the door we entered what seemed to be an old collapsing castle. I looked around amazed at how real the space felt. I went over to one of the large gaps in the wall and looked out at the world seemingly created just for us to look at.

There was a ding.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Welcome to floor 4.

Description: This castle was taken over by a great terror and forced the people to flee the land. Work your way down to the basement and defeat the great terror.

Completion rate: 0%

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Well this seems easy enough. Go on.”

I rolled my eyes at Alcoroth and headed down the stairs that were set in front of us.

There weren’t any specific descriptions of what I would actually be facing, so I just assumed they would be animal monsters of some sort.

And I was right. Not too far down the stairs a Kobold jumped out of a large hole in the wall. I simply punched it away. Their skin wasn’t nearly as thick as most mobs and if it would be this easy, I wasn’t going to complain. By the time I had made it to the bottom of the staircase I was covered in bits of fur and blood.

I tried shaking as much as I could off of me.

“You’ll need a good wash before you feed the young master.”

“I’m well aware of that.”

There was a howl and I looked down the hallway, gripping the hilt of my sword. Soon I heard the sound of multiple claws scraping against the floor. I smiled as if I could feel the excitement of Mezu pumping me up.

I didn't bother waiting for them to show up. I charged towards the sound and soon I was slicing apart the Kobolds one by one. When I got through the first group, I looked down the dimly lit hallway at the sound of heavier footsteps.

A large Kobold wearing armor and dragging a large metal club was now coming towards me. I didn’t wait for it to have time to prepare to strike and I dashed towards him.

To its right was a piece of rubble and to its left it was clear. With the club in his left hand, it was probably best to go to the right. So, I jumped up onto the rubble and launched myself up in the air.

Its reaction time was quick but it didn't have too much room to swing the club efficiently. I was quick enough to get to him before he could swing the bat upwards at me.

I gripped my sword with both hands and swung towards him aiming for as close to his elbow as I could. Hopefully my momentum and my strength could cut through him without too much difficulty.

But I missed, and my sword got lodged into his bone. The kobold stumbled backwards from my impact. I held onto my sword tightly and warped my legs around his forearm to hold on.

It grabbed my head as I put my hand on the back of my blade and pushed to force it the rest of the way through. I was almost completely sure I couldn't survive getting my head crushed but Alcoroth hadn’t stepped in yet. I must still have some time despite the sheer pressure I could feel from his fingers.

I yelled as I threw as much force as I could into his arm, but instead of crushing he was now trying to pull my head off of my body so I let go of my sword and his arm.

He couldn’t control the sudden release of tension and I, with his arm, flew into the wall. His hand released me, and I tried to land on the ground properly.

As usual, I didn’t and so I scrambled from my messy position and leaped back towards my sword. I figured my hand would miss, so I kicked at my hilt. It went further into his bone and finally the club fell from his grip.

I ducked without thinking and saw the shadow of his arm pass over my head. His own hand hit his arm and now his forearm was hanging by a few pieces of his upper arm, my sword falling from it.

It howled in pain, and I picked up my sword, looking up. Its torso was completely open. I re-gripped my sword, so my sharp edge faced the right way and slashed up at him as I stood.

I had gotten used to feeling the ground soften beneath me, but it was a bit stronger than that this time. I guess these stupid ruins really were weak. If I didn’t want to go through the floor, I’d have to be careful, I guess.

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I slicked through the top layer of his flesh easily and as he stepped back, I stepped and jabbed with him, stabbing him. I hit his ribs a few times but made it through the gaps a few times as well.

It coughed up blood and after a stab where he instinctively reached towards his chest, I didn’t pull out right away. Instead, I put a hand on the base of my hilt and pushed with all my strength. I felt it slide through his body and then out the other side.

I pulled it all the way out and he stumbled for a second before completely falling backwards.

I heard Mezu run towards me, and I turned to look at his beaming face. That was a bit rough, but Mezu’s smile somehow made it worth it. I put my sword away and caught Fluffy as he leapt into my arms.

“You really are quite sloppy in your fights, but you haven’t fought someone with a club before so I guess that’s all you could do.”

“The last big ones on floor two had axes and were smaller than this one. Plus look at this smile.”

I turned Fluffy around to show Alcoroth.

“How could you criticize me when he looks so happy?”

Alcoroth’s face twitched trying to stay serious.

“Even if the Young Master smiles like that, I’d rather have him be happy when you fight well, not all messily like that. Once he sees you fight properly, he won’t smile after such a performance.”

I glared at him, slightly annoyed.

“Fine whatever, let’s just keep going.”

I put Mezu down and we continued on our way. The next large Kobold we saw was closer to what I was expecting. Large but not as large as the last one and wielding a great axe.

It charged at me and swung its axe horizontally.

I slid underneath it pulling my sword out slicing at its upper leg. I got a deep gash as it moved in the opposite direction from me.

I awkwardly stopped my slide by grabbing its tail to slow me down. Then I stretched out slicing at the thin bit of the back of its leg.

I just barely nicked it, losing my grip on its tail but I hoped it was enough to cripple that leg.

I heard that familiar snapping sound as I looked up which was a relief.

The Kobold faltered trying to flex its leg to take a step, but I saw it just hang there limp as it lifted its foot in the air.

“Yes!”

I crawled another step forward on my knees and slashed at the other leg before standing up fully.

The kobold fell on its face, and I wasted no time stepping up onto its back and slicing a clean gouge into the back of its neck.

“That was much better.”

I looked towards them, and not to my surprise Mezu wasn’t as excited as the last time.

“I know I know Fluffy, I’m sorry this one wasn’t so entertaining. But they can’t all be like that.”

He pouted at me and Alcoroth had a scowl on his face.

“Young Master, this fight was much better than the last one. You mustn't encourage such things.”

Mezu shook his head and headed off in front of us. Alcoroth hit the back of my head after floating over to me quickly. I rubbed where he hit me and headed after Mezu. Alcoroth floating beside me still.

“You need to fight better more often, we can’t teach him that those sloppy fights are admirable.”

“Let him like what he likes. And if we ever get me some decent gauntlets the fights will be messy on their own.”

“Your fights with your sword shouldn’t be like that, if you fight like that while using gauntlets that’s fine. If the young master can’t tell the difference between a sword fight and a fist fight, how will he learn to be proficient at both?”

“It’s your job to teach him not mine, as long as he keeps smiling at me like that, I don’t see anything particularly wrong with it.”

Alcoroth hit me again.

“There’s no need to hit me. I’m coming along with you without arguing about it because of that cute smile.”

And the threat of becoming a walking food source.

“If I can make him smile from fighting how he likes I’ll keep doing so.”

I didn’t bother looking at Alcoroth as we headed further downwards at the next set of stairs that we found.

By the time we reached the bottom floor I was covered in blood and bits of fur. It had gotten to the point that a simple bucket of water really wouldn’t do the trick.

“Oh no, Mezu looks hungry. I don’t think you’d like him eating with all this special sauce on me.”

I had a feeling he could actually use magic to just clean me off but was refusing to for whatever reason.

“If I clean you off with magic, I won’t be able to turn off the sound of your fighting.”

“What? Are you really that weak?”

“The higher we climb the more power I get back, maybe if we get high enough, I can do both with no problem. But for now, you can have a bucket to clean at least your arm off.”

“Wait, can’t we use that material cleaner thing? If we put it in the water, then couldn’t I just easily be cleaned off?”

“If you do that then your hair will also be cleaned. I thought you didn’t want to do that.”

I groaned in frustration but the look of hunger on Mezu’s face wouldn’t let me decide against it.

“Fine! Just give me a bucket already.”

Alcoroth summoned a couple buckets. Between the two I poured some of the potion into them. In one I dumped all of my clothes and the other I picked up and poured all over myself.

After clearing the water from my eyes, I looked down to see my entire body clean of not only the blood and fur, but also quite a lot of my own oddly colored hair was in the pile at my feet. I gagged at the sight of it and stepped out from it pulling the bucket with my clothes away from it.

“What on earth did you do to your hair?” Alcoroth asked, looking at me amazed.

“What? It didn’t change?”

I pulled some strands to where I could see them. Nothing had changed.

“I told you it was basically permanent. I did the majority of it when I was-”

I couldn’t remember.

“When you were what?”

“When I was really young, it never faded.”

I wasn’t too sure about my own answer, and I hoped Alcoroth couldn’t tell.

When did I dye my hair? Well specifically this muddy greyish brown bit. The rest of my hair seemed cleaner than before. So, it worked on everything but this part of my hair.

It was in the middle of the majority of the length of my hair. Uneven and jagged throughout, but still in the general middle of my hair. It couldn't have been the first time I dyed my hair. So why couldn’t I remember anything before that. Was I really so old that my memories from my childhood were fading?

Or was my memory always this bad? But why was my memory this bad?

“You don’t remember, do you.”

Alcoroth startled me, he was right in front of me looking at my hair.

“Look okay, yeah, for whatever reason I don’t remember it does it matter?”

Alcoroth looked at me, his lips were pursed and his eyes squinting a bit. Whatever that look meant, I didn’t know, and it didn’t really matter.

Mezu was luckily completely uninterested in my hair, and the issue of my memory.

He chomped on my now clean hand and looked up at me with it fully in his mouth. I could still feel his tongue as it slid across the palm of my hand.

I took the knife and cut all the way up to my shoulder and he looked at me wide eyed.

“Just enjoy it okay?”

He nodded and I looked around for my bag to get some bandages. While I was wrapping my arm Alcoroth moved away from me.

“The same thing happened on the first floor, have you always had issues with your memory?”

“I don’t know, I mean I’m like in my … sixties now? Is that old for a half elf? I just have never had to think about it before… I guess…maybe?... Look, I remember living with my uncle in the dwarven city and then leaving and then coming to the tower city and most of the stuff until now.”

“What about before your uncle?”

“There was no before, he said I’d been in that orphanage since I was a baby.”

Alcoroth raised his eyebrow, “what if you just don't remember and he lied to you?”

I glared at him, my uncle wasn’t a bad person.

“Look, my uncle never flat out lied to me about things, he just didn’t say things if I asked a question he didn’t want to answer.”

“You asked questions? You aren’t curious about anything.”

He’s right, I wouldn’t’ve asked him any questions. Why did I say that?

“Okay look I don’t know, I just have that feeling or whatever can we move on?”

Alcoroth slapped his face again, groaning.

“I want to meet this uncle of yours, how on earth he dealt with such a strange child like you I will never understand. Just get dressed, will you?”

“My clothes are wet, and I just cut my arm off we’re not going anywhere any time soon. And if you don’t want to look at me naked then turn around.”

I lay down on my back, there was no need to rush into the boss room.