We started getting ready to climb the minute my leg grew back fully.

The incident at lunch was still bothering me. Even though I kept telling myself that eventually my memory will get fixed, and I’ll know, it kept bothering me. It wasn’t just the crying for no reason, but it was how Alcoroth was acting. He didn’t tease me about it, and he had sounded considerate of me when it came to feeding Mezu. It was like he was concerned for me, like Paeris seemed to be.

He was floating just at the edge of my sight and with everyone around me like this I couldn’t just ask him.

“Alright, let’s get going then.”

Sailhin pressed yes on the door and a banner popped up in front of each of us for confirmation. We all pressed ‘yes’ as well and the door opened.

I followed Paeris through and we entered the darkness together. Once the door closed, the world built around us and we were standing atop a plateau looking out on grassy plain lands.

A ding and I looked up for the banner.

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Welcome to the 30th floor: A Fight for Central Earth

Description: Your team of adventurers was hired for a scouting mission to find the enemies and report their numbers to the king. After arriving on this plateau, you’ve realized that the enemy is much stronger than previously thought. Even though you are hired adventurers you’ve decided to become heroes and attempt to take down as many as possible before these forces can join the main battle.

Completion Requirements: Eliminate a minimum of 10 of their mounts before the time limit has been reached.

Completion progress:

Enemy Troops: 0/1700

Enemy Mounts: 0/17

Time: 3:00:00

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

“This doesn’t look very hard” Dodger said tilting her head.

“This wasn’t one of the ones that our seniors told us about,” Sailhin said, “don’t worry I’m sure it isn’t as boring as it seems.”

There was a trumpeting sound followed by a chorus of horns. We turned around to see seventeen enormous grey colored animals. Their bodies were thick, and their ears were about the size of their head. Two sets of tusks protruded from the side of their head and a long bendy thing reached out from their face and almost reached the ground. It was even longer than that though, but it curved up a bit at the end so that it didn’t drag along the ground.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

The top pair of tusks was shorter than the lower pair and the lower pair was only slightly shorter than the long bendy thing. The longer tusks looked like they were equipped with weapons. One had a long spike covered wire or rope strung between its lower tusks. Another had large spikes wrapped around the points closest to the ground.

On the animal’s back was a large, complicated tent structure, which I could only assume was filled with the enemy we’d need to fight. The straps that were holding it to the animal looked surprisingly vulnerable, so the tents themselves probably wouldn’t be too annoying to deal with.

“Let’s have a competition, Quartz!”

I looked over to see that Dodger was beaming. I couldn’t help but feel the corners of my own mouths start to move up into a grin.

“What are we counting? Mounts or people?”

“Both, mounts count as ten and people as one, but if you say knock off the tent then that counts as a hundred.”

“I guess you can do basic math when it comes to this,” Paeris muttered in elvish.

“Even if you’ve killed some of the people on it?”

“Yeah, don’t want to do too much math. Plus, this will be a really good way for you to get used to things. With your aura fully awakened it’ll take a bit for you to get used to your new strength. It’s probably best for you to stay away from the others when fighting till you’re fully used to it. And the winner gets the other’s rewards from the floor as long as it’s a physical item.”

“Sounds good.”

“Great!”

She turned and charged towards the edge of the plateau. I ran after her.

“Oi! Idiots wait a second!”

I think it was Sailhin that had yelled but I kept running. Dodger made it to the edge first and leapt off towards an elephant to our right. I looked for the one behind it and changed my direction slightly to get closer to it. As I reached the edge, I reinforced my legs and pushed off from the ground.

I felt the ground soften below me before I was completely in the air and flew over the one I aimed for. Instead, I slammed into the leg of the one next to it. I slammed headfirst into it and scrambled to free my head from its flesh.

I remembered the strange feeling of the flesh of the giant I’d burrowed into a couple floors before. I was surrounded by that familiar uncomfortable texture this time surrounding me entirely. I shuddered trying even harder to get out.

I got my head out and breathed in fresh hair only to hear laughing to my right.

I looked to see Alcoroth on his side laughing uncontrollably. This was new. I didn’t have time to contemplate it though, there was a competition for me to win.

I pulled my arms out one by one and then my legs. I shook each of them to try and get as much of the blood and fleshy bits off of me. Once I was mostly comfortable, I stated climbing up the leg. About halfway up I looked around and saw that I was on one of its back legs. The tent strap was closer to the front legs then the back.

With a good enough swing and some timing, I should be able to get to its stomach. I dug both hands into its flesh slightly to my right and did my best to just lightly place my feet against its leg without digging in too much. I only managed to do it with one of my feet though. So, I re positioned slightly higher up and managed with both my feet this time.

I gripped decently with my fingers and put about half the amount of aura in my arms and legs compared to when I had jumped earlier and pushed off throwing myself forward when its leg took a step forward.

The flesh being softer than the ground gave way even more and I was unsteady in the air. I landed in the back of the front leg.

This was so annoying.

I pulled my head out and felt the animal shift a bit.

I didn’t have time to miss this much. I looked behind me for the strap and saw it about ten arm lengths away. To be safe and not overshoot it, it’d probably be better just to climb there.

I moved as fast as I could, and it got easier the more I did. Even though I was in a rush, putting my hand in and then pulling it out took less effort than I was expecting, and it didn’t rip too much as I climbed. Occasionally though I did go a lot deeper than I wanted, but soon enough I was at the girth. I dug my right hand in and my feet to give myself a solid grip and pulled out my sword.

I focused more than I had before to put only the amount of aura I needed onto the blade but then I felt the hilt crush beneath my grip.