I took off running up the hill and made it to the top relieved to see that no one was there.

Mezu yawned, stretching and I put him down.

“Morning buddy I hope you slept well.”

I started to take my shirt off so that I didn’t dirty it with my blood.

Mezu’s face scrunched up in a grumpy manner as he fully woke up. He rubbed his stomach and opened his mouth pointing at it as if to say, ‘I’m hungry’.

“Yeah, I know buddy don’t worry I’ll give you my arm in just a second and then there’s some new people you have to meet, okay?”

Mezu smiled, some drool forming at the edges of his mouth. I pulled his blade out of its sheath on the back of my waist and picked a spot right off of my shoulder where it would be the easiest to cut. I heard Mezu squeal in his happy voice as I, with no hesitation forced the blade through my arm.

Mezu caught it before it hit the ground and stuck the bloody end in his mouth sucking on it happily.

I kinda tilted my body awkwardly so that the bleeding wouldn’t get onto my clothes as I sheathed the blade. Then I took the strap off my wrist and tightly tied up my nub to cut off the excess blood before I heard a slapping noise.

And I turned around to see Kayden’s hand on his face and the shocked faces of my soon-to-be party members.

I forced a short laugh and stepped aside slightly, fully revealing Mezu happily eating my arm.

“This is Mezu my uh… summon, he likes the taste of me so as part of our contract my limbs can regrow themselves.”

Alcoroth’s laugh was now audible, and I watched as Paeris turned and emptied his stomach out onto the grass.

Dodger started laughing, “Wow Paeris you really just tossed your breakfast over a severed arm?”

“It’s not about the arm.”

He coughed a bit and wiped his mouth with his sleeve almost instantly getting grossed out by it again.

“It's about the fact that a kid can look so happy eating it.”

“Well, Mezu’s harmless as long as he likes you.”

I fished around in my pockets for a bandage, there were the new ones I had gotten with the markings on them or the ones that I had used yesterday. I forgot to ask Alcoroth what the new ones were, I didn’t want to ruin them, so I took the one from yesterday out.

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“That was considerably tamer compared to what I witnessed.” Kayden said but was shaking his head still.

“But it was just my fingers that time, how was that worse?”

“Because he ate them while they were still attached! Of course, that’s much worse, this is more like you’re actually feeding him.”

I still didn’t get the difference. Size alone, my arm being gnawed on was much more obvious than a couple of my fingers disappearing into his mouth rather quickly.

“Did you have to do it right before we started climbing?”

Paeris was trying to avoid directly looking at Mezu but at least he wasn’t puking.

“Well, I fight mostly one-handed, so it won’t affect me too much. And I don’t think introducing Fluffy to you guys when he’s hungry would have been the best choice.”

“Yes, that was definitely the best choice.”

Kayden nodded a bit too much for my preference.

“Well, let's head on up then,” Sailhin said, patting Paeris’s back.

“Yes, let's get you guys going.”

Kayden pushed Dot and Lefty forward towards the elevator doors. We all clambered in and looked at Kayden from the inside.

“Alright then, Quartz it’s probably best if you burn your papers,” he said and the doors started to close, “Also I’ll see you all on the fortieth floor!”

The doors shut and we all looked at each other.

“What did he just say?” Lefty asked. Kayden really was hiding quite a bit from us, and I wasn’t overly excited to find out what it was exactly.

Now that we were in a confined space, I wasn’t really able to see their weapons. It looked like there was a large weapon strapped to Dodger’s back. I couldn’t see anything on Brick, except for a hilt at his waist. So, he must have had a small to medium sized weapon.

Mezu tugged on my sleeve holding his arms up as if asking to be carried.

“Bud, I can’t really pick you up with one arm right now.”

He pouted around what was left of my forearm.

Brick picked him up for me though and held him out as if asking where to put him. He had a soft smile on his face which was definitely not what I would expect from someone as large as he was.

“Oh, uhhh, thanks he can sit on my shoulders.”

I turned around and felt Mezu get settled on my shoulders, my own fingers grazing my head.

When I turned back around between the look that most of them were giving me and the continuous laughter from Alcoroth I assumed I did something that was far from normally accepted again.

“You’re very casual about being a portable food source, aren’t you?” Dot asked.

I laughed uncomfortably she managed to use Alcoroth’s term.

“Yeah, well I’ve been told I adapt to things pretty quickly.”

“Well aside from the physical pain, how did you get used to looking at him eating your own arm?” Lefty asked.

Sailhin interrupted before I could answer.

“We can get to know each other a bit later. The challenge of the twenty-sixth floor is a bit more of a thought process than just a simple storm the monster camp and move on. Quartz, we all were told what the next few floors were and since we’ll be entering the floor right away, we won’t have much time to discuss the twenty-sixth.”

“We get it Sailhin, whoever gets sent with him will just explain it to him,” Dodger said as the elevator stopped dinging.

“Dodger it's not that simple what if he gets put with Brick?”

What would that change? I looked at Brick who was just standing there quietly.

“It’ll be fine, we’re here already let's go!”

The door opened into a blank black room, and I was confused. I looked at the rest of them, but they had already started to exit.

I sighed and followed them into the darkness.