With my clothes dry and back on, and my arm mostly grown back I stood with Mezu and Alcoroth at the front of the door.

I pushed the door open and wanted to stab whoever built this floor. All there was, was the entrance to a long spiral staircase going upwards.

Who the hell designed this floor, and what’s with all the fucking stairs?!

It took a while but soon we reached the top. The light shining through the ceiling was bright and once we were off the stairs and my eyes adjusted to it and I looked around amazed.

We were now standing on a wide-open grassy plateau with a very large black snake. From this point, we could see the world and it was quite spectacular. Sure, the large snake that hadn’t moved an inch since we got up here was blocking quite a bit of the view. But it was still probably the nicest view I’d seen.

When I heard the ding I didn’t look around for the banner. Instead, I went over closer to one of the plateau’s edges so I could see the world. When we were leaving the elven lands, I didn’t really stop and look around. The view from the mountains must have looked just as amazing as this one.

“Hey idiot!”

I turned and saw Mezu punch the snake in its head.

“This one is the young master’s, so you don’t have to do anything.”

“What?” I went over to him as Mezu’s fist connected and threw the snake into the ground shaking the earth.

“It’s the young master’s challenge so don’t worry about it.”

“Okay.”

I sat down on the ground as the snake slapped Mezu, throwing him into a boulder.

“But why?”

“I thought you weren’t curious?”

“Not in the larger sense, I’m just curious if it’ll happen again? It's nice to have a break.”

“Yes, there will be times where the young master will have to fight instead of you.”

“Great, doing the whole thing alone would have gotten annoying at a certain point.”

“I’m sure you already found it all quite annoying.”

“Being alone with you will be the most annoying part.”

“I’m glad we’re on the same page.”

I looked back and watched Mezu continue his little fight. For whatever reason it felt like he wasn’t really fighting to kill more like it was a play fight.

Now that’s not to say that any human would’ve lasted trying to join in on their little play fight, but still, I could tell that Mezu wasn’t really trying. For some reason, I felt really confident saying that. He really looked like he was having fun.

And soon enough, it was finished.

There was a ding and a banner appeared, but it froze halfway through the text being written out.

I figured that whatever that Monarch was, they were just manipulating the completion requirements so I ignored it. Instead, I watched as the snake healed itself and then seemed to be discussing something with Mezu.

I say discussing, but it really just opened its mouth every so often without a sound coming out and then Mezu was either nodding or moving his arms about as if he was explaining something.

“Is this one of those times you’d be glad for my lack of curiosity.”

“Yes, you aggravating idiot, why don’t you go do your daily quest.”

I rolled my eyes and stood up getting started by running laps around the plateau. This was probably the nicest place I’ve done the workout quest. And actually, having the time to do it without much of a time pressure was nice. Especially since the last couple of times I did them in the in-between floors space. Running in a circle of darkness really wasn’t overly pleasant.

By the time I had finished, Mezu was also done and eagerly waiting at the newly formed door in the middle of the plateau.

Above it was the banner that congratulated us on completing the floor.

“Alright let’s get going, shall we?”

Since I had already done my daily quest, we moved on to the fifth floor which wasn’t much but a puzzle.

It was overly labor intensive since it was just a recreation of a puzzle game - that one where you have to move all the pieces around until you can slide the specific one through the opening on one side of the enclosure- except that all the pieces were almost the size of a carriage and solid wood, so it took a long time for me to push them all around.

So, I was extremely glad when I stepped out onto the sixth floor and entered a snowy forest.

“Nice an outside realm.”

It had been a while since I’d seen snow, so I plopped myself down into it and was soon joined by Mezu who proceeded to roll around quite a bit. The grime of blood and dirt he left behind in the snow was slightly disturbing but there really wasn’t a different way to clean him off well.

And not to mention I left a mess behind too, even with Alcoroth wanting Mezu’s food cleaned the parts of me that he doesn’t eat were quite dirty.

I didn’t want to think of how I smelt to other people. I had gotten so used to my smell I barely noticed it but I’m sure it’s not great.

Wait? No ding?

I looked around and didn’t see a banner.

“Alright bud, let’s get going. It seems this one is for you too.”

I stood up.

“Why do you say it like that?”

I looked over at Acloroth as I picked up Mezu.

“Well, the last time it was his turn, the banner stopped being created mid-way so I figured that since there was no banner at all this time that monarch dude or whatever already altered the floor for us.”

Alcoroth looked at me and I had gotten slightly used to his expressions, but this wasn’t one I was familiar with.

His eyebrows were raised, and his mouth was slightly opened.

“What?”

“I’m just surprised, you actually figured something out on your own.”

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

I laughed slightly, “Yeah well the time between that incident and now hasn’t been that long that I’d forget it.”

“Are you saying that the next time it happens you will forget it?”

“Depends on how much time has passed. It hasn’t been a full day yet, right? Since you haven’t reminded me about my daily quest, give it a day or two and I’d probably forget it.

We headed through the woods; the snow was fluffy. It had been a while since I’d seen snow let alone snow in a forest. Wait, was there even a time I had seen snow in a forest like this?

Well, whatever, it didn’t matter either way. Without a direct goal, I wasn’t really sure where we should head to, but Alcoroth wasn’t commenting so either he didn’t know whether or I was walking in the right direction.

“So, what do you think it is this time?”

Alcoroth shrugged, “Doesn’t really matter, does it? It just needs to pass relatively quickly.”

In the distance, I heard a chorus of chanting. As we headed closer and closer to the sound, we saw the glow of lights from a village. We got to the edge of a cliff, and I looked down into the valley to see the source of the lights. In the village center, a large group of people were gathered around an altar of sorts.

The drop didn’t seem too bad so with Mezu in my arms I leapt down to a ledge about a quarter of the way down into the valley. I kept jumping until I made it to the entrance of the village. At this point, Mezu was struggling in my arms so I let him go.

He ran off into the village. Now if this was an actual quest, I probably wouldn’t have just let him do that. Especially since I started to hear some screams.

If this wasn’t his task, he could’ve messed with my completion rate, but it didn’t matter in this case.

I walked into the village and came across Mezu starting to massacre the village.

It was a bloody sight. The once pristine snow was now covered in blood. I always thought that since blood was in the body it was warm and that it could melt snow at least slightly, but instead, there were now almost solid pools of blood around the courtyard.

The screams were muted, probably because of Alcoroth. I wouldn’t dare thank him, too much praise might get to his head. Then again, I don’t think he’d consider a thanks from me to be anything close to praise.

Mezu was being quite aggressive, there were quite a few limbs that he had sent flying.

“Huh? Why’s he so pissed off?”

Then around the scent of fresh human blood, I smelt the blood of an animal.

How I did that, I would also like to know, but I don’t care too much.

And on the altar table were two badly injured tiger cubs. That makes sense. While I walked towards the altar, punching whoever ran at me out of my way, Mezu continued his massacre around me.

I knew when this was all over, he’d be concerned about the cubs, so I should go check on them.

When I got to the altar, the cubs were larger than I was expecting. Each was about the size of Mezu and was covered in bloody matted fur. The amount of breath I could see coming from their noses was concerning. I don’t really know how much a tiger of this size should be breathing but it was less steam than what had been coming out of Mezu’s mouth earlier, so I assume it wasn’t good.

“It’s not looking so good.”

Alcoroth was floating above them looking at them more closely.

“Well, I know you’re pretty limited with your magic, but is there anything that you could do for them?”

“You’ve been doing first aid for yourself all this time, why don’t you give it a try?”

“Yeah, for my wounds that will heal on their own given some time. I’d say that doesn’t make me all that qualified.”

“You’ve got more experience than me, so give it a go.”

I think he was lying but if he wasn’t concerned about it, then he must’ve thought it was simple enough for me to deal with it.

I sighed and took out the few bandages I had left.

If he had confidence in me, would it kill him to just say it?

The minimum I knew to do was just to wrap up the cuts and get them to stop bleeding by putting pressure. Honestly, though, I didn't think they would last very long.

By the time I had finished bandaging them up the screaming noises around me had stopped and I heard Mezu’s footprints come up next to me.

“Hey bud. I did my best, but I don’t know how long they were like this.”

I picked him up so he could look at them closer. He was glaring angrily, and his eyes were a bit wet.

“I’m sorry, Mezu.”

He reached out and put his hands on them and all the wounds under my mediocre bandage job started to glow a slightly familiar green color. It grew brighter and brighter till it completely disappeared. We looked at them, Mezu’s eyes getting a bit wetter and then he began to cry.

Oh, Alcoroth wasn’t confident in me, he was confident in Fluffy.

Since Fluffy was so distracted by his crying he didn’t notice when the two cubs began to move.

“Mezu, you did it.

“Well done Young Master you’ve managed to un- I mean you’ve saved them.”

Alcoroth coughed at his mess up, and yet again he was still bad at hiding things from me when it interfered with praising Mezu.

Mezu sniffled and I put him down in between the two cubs as they stood up. He hugged them happily and they nuzzled into him.

A soft noise came from them which Mezu copied. They really looked cute like that.

“Alright young master, we need to get them home.”

“Home?”

“Yes, I had some time during the fight to look around. There is a cave at the top of the mountain, and in it, seems to be their mother.”

“Well, alright. They probably shouldn’t be walking just yet. Mezu, can you get on my back so I can carry them?”

I turned around to make it easier for him. Instead of staying on my back, he perched himself on my shoulders. I sighed and picked both of the cubs up,

“Alright, you gotta stay still though, I won’t have a hand on you with them in my arms.”

He made a noise of agreement and I followed Alcoroth out of the village and towards the mountain.

The hike itself would have probably been better if it wasn’t for the fact that I was carrying three kids.

“Are we almost there?”

“You haven’t done anything on this floor yet. Don’t complain about carrying the three of them.”

“I wasn’t complaining, I was just asking the question. You made it sound like it was so close, but I guess the actual climb part was pretty far from the village. This snow is really slowing down my pace.”

The sun appeared to be setting, I could only really tell since the light was dimming, but with the snow clouds in the sky, I couldn’t see the sun. At this rate, I’d have to do my daily quest on the side of s snowy mountain, which I’m sure Alcoroth would be quite happy about.

About halfway up the mountain, collectively I heard Mezu and the two Tigers’ stomachs growl.

“Alright, I can’t hold both of them if I feed you Mezu, so you need to help.”

I stopped and sat down with them in my lap. Mezu climbed off my back and sat in front of me nodding eagerly.

I sliced off the entirety of my arm. He probably worked up quite the appetite killing all those villagers.

“If you had any talent for magic, you probably could do basic healing on your limbs.”

“Yeah, well they heal fine on their own.”

Mezu worked so hard today anyway, I can’t ask him to heal me just so the climb would be easier.

I bandaged myself up and watched as Mezu, unhappily, shared my arm with the two cubs. And by 'shared', I mean he gave them both half of my upper arm. He looked so disappointed.

But how could I not feel proud of him? He shared his meal with the cubs.

“Alcoroth, can you cut my hand off?”

I held out the knife to him.

“Why?”

“He looks so sad that he had to share.”

Alcoroth chuckled and lopped it off quickly passing it to Mezu who beamed at me.

“You shared without me asking you to, so enjoy it okay?”

He nodded, his mouth still dripping with my blood. Alcoroth bandaged my hand nub up for me.

“So how do you plan on doing it now?”

“With Mezu on my shoulders keeping one on my head. And I can still carry the other in my arm.”

Alcoroth sighed for some reason, and I tilted my head at him confused.

“What’s wrong?”

“I’m just a little annoyed, you’ve stopped really feeling pain when losing your limbs.”

“I thought that would be useful! It makes feeding your precious young master so much easier.”

“Don’t mock the young master like that!”

“I wasn’t mocking Fluffy! I was mocking you!”

Mezu jumped on me beaming, having finished eating with the other two.

How could I ever be mean to this fluff ball?

“Alright, Mezu, take one with you on my head.”

Although Mezu did his best putting one on me, he ended up mostly holding him in an arm while holding only my hair with his hand. I picked the other up and stood continuing on our way.

By now, I was thankful for my mixed blood. The sun had set and the clouds were still covering the sky, so there was no moonlight to help with visibility. If I wasn’t half-elf, I’d probably be walking into a bunch of trees. Soon we’ll be high enough that trees won’t be an issue, but still.

Once we were out of the tree line all that was left was the main climb to whatever cave Alcoroth had mentioned. When I was about to ask how much longer, I saw some stone lanterns that lit up and a long staircase was now visible. It twisted up around the mountain peak in front of us.

“Alright, we’re almost there.”

I don’t know why, but the stairs felt longer and more of a workout than the climbing through the snow I just did.

At the top, I really wanted to just flop down and rest. My hand and half of my arm had grown back, and I put down the cub in my arms.

“Alright, stay out here and do your new daily quest.”

Alcoroth waved his hand and a ding, and a banner appeared. This time all the totals were doubled.

“What’s this for? Why’d you change the numbers all of a sudden.”

“This seems like the only way to torture you since cutting your limbs off does nothing.”

“You’re such a piece of shit.”

I felt Mezu get off of me, so I flopped down in the snow, only to realize how cold it was, and got up fully again.

“It’ll keep you warm up here so get to it.”

He then smiled and softened his face looking at Mezu.

“Shall we go young master?”

Mezu nodded and waved at me before he and the two cubs went into the large cave opening.

I finished my quest before they came out, but still jogged around to keep warm. The second Mezu and Alcoroth came out, the door opened up and we left the floor.