Warning!

That is why I want to warn you. This chapter will......get graphic. I checked the horror box for a reason and some cases the story is going to take some of those dark turns we talked about. But we're slowly starting to build a story aren't we. Your starting to see maybe those 9 months of intense loneliness and feelings of weakness maybe......hurt our mc just a bit more than we realize.

SO i'll be taking some big swings here and there with the story. Hopefully you guys stick around because this is only the surface of what I have planned on the story is only going to get bigger. I wasn't even planning on doing this arc in the beginning. I wanted to skip to the.....i'll say more interesting aspects of what I had planned. Hopefully though you guys don't mind as I'm having a lot of fun building up a world that our mc has found himself in.

Ladies and Gents.....

Chapter 13: The Legendary Annunake

“Ha...Ha...HA..HA!”

“Good follow through, but after rotating your foot always keep your feet planted...Don’t lose your balance ever!”

“...Right..Got it....Ha..Ha..HA..HA!”

‘I got to say this kid isn’t half bad.’

I gave Noah the basic stance and a couple exercises to do and he is already showing great promise. He has some sloppy parts to his technique but after throwing punches and doing this movement thousands of times yesterday, regardless if his muscles are tired he is keeping his form pretty good....’....Perhaps I can take him to level in the dungeon with me sometime soon.’

In the coming weeks I plan on leveling in that dungeon quite a bit with the inhabitants there. I need everybody as strong and as healthy as possible if what I have planned is going to work. It’s not just to conquer this dungeon but for what is going to come afterwards. I have a meeting with Lucy and hopefully the king in just three days. If I were to somehow accomplish and beat this dungeon, there are going to be thousands of demi humans fleeing from the hell they’ve been trapped in for the entirety of their lives.

Not only will this be hard on the demi humans who haven’t set foot into the actual world before, but the other nations and kingdoms of this continent might not know how to handle something like that. To say the least the kingdoms here aren’t very high level compared to the other continents. Though if a large number of high leveled demi humans appeared out of nowhere and the local human kingdoms got wiped out by them, the central continent could take notice and attack....’...That’s why I need to meet with this King Asher.’

I seriously wonder just how high level these central continent nations are. I’m told the eastern continent kingdoms aren’t very strong due to them acting as a sort of borderland colony to spread their interior nations power. Though....I’m hard pressed to imagine how other kingdoms could compete in levels with the clans I met in Balor’s dungeon. For leveling purposes I’d assume a dungeon would be the best environment for something like that.  Each of the races down there have lived and fought in a dungeon everyday of their lives and survived. They’ve experienced hardships in a living nightmare of an environment and continued on for centuries. These races don’t seem to have high magic like I’m sure the central continent have, but these are a race of demi humans that take on giants.

‘I’m truly lucky to have been given Loki’s blessing....I may one day have to thank him. It really is a cheat skill.’

Spatial magic is honestly a hack in itself. In the game Divine and Conquer Online there were some teleport type skills or warp skills that classes like warlocks could use, but they had cast times or an incantation had to be said for it to work. My magic is immediate and sort of works like an emergency escape skill as well as being incredibly useful on offense. It doesn’t take much mp to use either, it all depends on how far or what I am using the spatial magic towards.

It is pretty cool to see the different kinds of uses I can come up with though. To warp that wolf man from yesterday into the sky I had to simply wait until he lunged at me and I had the space he moved into open up elsewhere. To use my ability like that the person has to be either still or I can predict where they are moving. It also helps if it’s closer to me.

‘ If I didn’t have this ability I probably couldn’t have taken on those 3 in that duel yesterday either.....No...I’m sure if I had to fight all of them in that environment without my spatial magic.....Yah I probably wouldn’t have made it. They clearly didn’t seem to care of I died out there but I feel if I killed any of them during that battle I wouldn’t have been able to talk them over to my side as easily.’

“Ha...Ha...HA!”

Noah is starting to slouch more and he isn’t controlling his breathing very well.

“Noah...Take a water break for a minute.”

“I’m good.”

I started to walk up in front of him as he did his shadow boxing and I swung my fist in front of his face and stopped an inch away from his face. He closed his eyes and fell back on his butt.

“Wha...hey!”

I reached my hand out to pick him up.

“Always keep your eyes open. If your eyes are closed you can’t avoid the hit that’s coming.”

“Oh.....Got it!”

He took my hand and stood up.

“Now...take a water break .”

He took my advice and sat down on the porch and drank some water out of a large bucket I had gathered from a river earlier this morning. I woke up a few hours earlier and already did my morning workout and cooked everyone breakfast. Now Lily and Ari are both inside with mom learning how to read, though last time I went in there mom was just performing magic.

‘Well....I guess no harm done, mom was smiling and everyone did seem to be having a good time.’

“Hmm......Oh Noah!....After you get a drink of a water you should add those stones over there again and jog around the house 100 times..”

He looked up at me with a shocked look on his face as the water then began to spill over on his chest.

“...You just said I could take a water break.”

“Yah.....that’s what your doing right now......and since all the water is now gone you should get started.”

Noah looked back at the now empty bucket that he didn’t get to finish due to my harassment. He walked over to where the rope and stones were and I think I heard him mumble something about drinking slower next time. ’...Hehe...eh it’s good for him.’

He needs to build up his stamina right now, if he wants to become strong enough to take care of his sister in a world like this he needs to put in the work. Hopefully he works hard and I can get a good gage at how demi human’s stats progress. From what I’ve gathered with meeting so many from the dungeon, I’ve come to find that each race of demi human have their own interesting characteristics that give them a specific advantage over other races in their particular field.

Each race I met could see quite well in that pitch black environment and have survived extreme conditions for centuries. I wonder what race traits this boy has. He should be a Lycanthia race. Even his sister is among the same legendary race of Annunake that were well respected in that dungeons alliance. From what I gathered from Jiji and Pixies had said to me is that they have magic infused in their claws and teeth and were always the ones who stood on the forefront of every fight. Due to some accident that happened on floor 44 a few years ago a large number of their species was wiped out, and after the annihilation of the Elkia race many of them fled down to floor one.

Noah then had wrapped the stones around his body and just before running he hit the tree next to him in anger. Though seconds after hitting it he stopped and just looked at the tree oddly.

“Ugh.....woh huh?”

“What’s the matter? Don’t tell me you have hallucinations too?”

“No it’s...wait what?”

Noah still looking at the tree oddly then turned and seemed confused by my question.

“Well maybe it is a little hot today. Am I really working you too hard?”

“What no it’s....I just gained a skill.”

“Oh....that’s cool what is it?”

“Hand to hand combat!”

“Well look at that....That’s great congratulations. Now you can start working on your mastery of this which will increase your abilities by quite a bit.”

“Wow...so with this fighting style of yours can I take on multiple opponents at one time?!”

Noah seeming excited for once looks at me with eager eyes.

“Well yes.....though I wouldn’t recommend using my particular fighting style against armed opponents. In fact Muay Thai isn’t really a martial art that would probably fair well in war or weapon based combat, not to mention magic.”

“Wha...then why am I learning it? I want to learn something that is going to make me stronger fast!”

“...I learned this particular martial art for a reason, I chose learning it over several other styles and would you like to know why?”

He nodded his head in anticipation.

“Well....How’s about after you get your exercises for the day through and I’ll tell ya.”

“......”

He just looked back at me with dead eyes and didn’t seem to like that I was smirking back at him. Eventually he gave up and began to run around the house with the added weight of all the stones wrapped around his body and dragging shortly behind him.

‘Hmm so he gained the hand to hand combat skill after roughly.....4,000 punches and kicks....Is this average for demi humans? It took me around two or three thousand punches to receive the skill. I wonder if that’s for me being a blessed being or maybe hand to hand combat is just harder for some races to attain, I think I should start training Lilly too. I really want to see the growth rates of other humans however. It would help to see if the Annunake or especially the Reiki have some sort of hand to hand combat mastery system of their own. It would be beneficial to look deeper into this.’

After receiving all of the added experience in killing the smog dragon and those fomorians, as well as healing all of those down on floor one rose my level by 12 yesterday. Killing the level 400 giants gave the most experience but even using my healing ability gave me quite a bit of experience. I guess this is one way how priests can gain levels, I really would like to see what else the humans of this world do to get stronger.

Each of those demi humans I fought yesterday showed to have several unique abilities. I never did get to see the power of an Annunake. That Reiki woman though, she showed to have exceptional skills with a sword but I’m much more interested in the other skills she used on me. Not only did it deplete my stamina and cause massive internal damage it also depleted my from my mana pool. If I had to fight someone like that without magic she would be a truly frightening opponent....Even with my magic she was incredibly dangerous.

My current level is 165.  With my Demonic Awakening ability with raising all stats by 25% putting my level roughly around level 206, while my defense and strength are doubled. My stats are already quite strong for my level. I just don’t know how high some of the stats of those I was fighting were, it really is hard to tell with the cheat like abilities I have. If I had to fight all three of them I would have gotten to see just how strong each of them were, but then I wouldn’t have been able to put myself in a commanding role. Thinking of the skills that Reiki must have had I opened up my own skill menu to observe what I’ve accumulated so far.

Skill’s List:

Divine Blessing of Loki:

Spatial Magic

Universal Language  Acquisition

Racial/Acquired Skills:

Decaying Mist (Abysmal)  (Semi-Passive) 44/150

Bite (Active) 0/50

Dark Pressure (Semi-Passive) 3/100

Death’s Grip (Active)   77/150

Demonic Absorption (Passive)

Demonic Awakening (Semi-Passive)

Fire Ball (Active)  45/100

Flicker (Active) 96/100

Hide Presence  (Semi-Passive) 14/100

Lightning Step (Semi-Passive) 55/150

Lord’s Earth Shattering Smash (Active) 24/150

Magic Manipulation (Passive)

Sense Presence ( Semi-Passive) 92/100

Tool Creation (Passive)

Learned Skills:

Cooking Mastery: Novice Level 3

      - Added Flavor (Passive Boost)

Freya’s Soul Recovery: Intermediate Level 9

Hand to Hand Combat Mastery: Intermediate Level 4

       - Powerful Strike (Active)

       - Stunning Blow (Active)

       - Quick Fists (Semi- Passive)

Negotiation: Beginner Level 1

Ingredient Identification Mastery: Intermediate Level 2

Scythe Mastery: Beginner Level 8

        - Slice (Active)

        - Staff Strengthening (Semi-Passive)

Combined Skills

(Decaying Mist) + (Darkness Affinity) = ( Abysmal Mist)

Seriously my Absorption ability has allowed me to acquire an odd assortment of skills. If there was anyone who could somehow view my status and skill list I’m sure I wouldn’t look like a good person.  Though these aren’t so bad an assortment of skills so far. A few of these skills can’t be increased in mastery but I have good offensive and defensive skills to use should a difficult fight come my way. With Demonic Awakening I can increase all abilities as well. With Flicker, Lightning Step, and my spatial magic I even have great evasion and emergency escape abilities as well. I also have an intimidation skill I haven’t really used yet. In a world where one false move could be your end I’m lucky to have been able to acquire such skills early on.

With Abysmal Mist and Death’s Grip, I haven’t quite figured out the extent of their potential yet. They’re truly fearsome abilities.Though when I tried to stop that Reiki girl in her tracks by just tapping into her pulse I couldn’t even use it to halt her movements. Maybe it was because she was much higher level than me that the skill didn’t work.

’ I guess Death’s Grip is not so bad to have should things get desperate. It just....doesn’t feel right to use Death Magic, but maybe increasing it’s mastery could be beneficial as well. Though to increase my mastery I need to continue using it......Hmm...’

Ruf!

I hear the sounds of Fenrir’s footsteps trotting around the side of the house and appears to have Ari riding on top of him. She’s still very small and can fit quite easily on top of him.

Her entire complexion and look has changed so dramatically it’s amazing to think only a few days ago she was so close to death. Now she’s even managing to take a few steps with minor assistance.

Fenrir ran up to me while Ari held tightly onto his fur. Even though Fenrir still held the form of a pup, Ari’s reach only wrapped around part of his neck to hold on while riding on top of him.

“Hey....What are you two up to?”

“...Coming to see you.”

Ari reached out her hand away from Fenrir to try and crawl into my lap. She has seemed to grow attached to me for the last few days. I guess who would blame her considering her circumstances.....’ But it’s odd. From my conversations with Noah and Lilly, they only met humans roughly a few weeks ago. They were sold into slavery together and didn’t experience nearly as much torment from humans as Ari did.....And yet, Ari has warmed up to me much quicker than the other two. I’d just assume Ari would have more precautions about humans but she shows to have absolute faith in me. She just doesn’t show the same signs someone who has been a slave her whole life would normally show in my opinion.

“ What are Mom and Lilly doing?”

“ Elyria is giving Lilly a bath. She just gave me one too so I snuck away with Fenrir when she wasn’t looking. “

Now Fenrir walked up and is rubbing the side of his face against mine and trying to be playful. Thinking about it this guy and Ari seem to be quite close. Last night when I got home I saw Ari trying to walk and Fenrir catching her when she was about to fall..’..he is a pretty smart animal....Loki made this guy hmm.’

“Good boy....”

Looking down now at Ari who was looking back up at me, I noticed her hair had began to show a much lighter, silkier color than the day I met her. Her ears looked to be quite soft now too and a pleasant scent began to fill my nose.

“Hmm...well whatever shampoo that is smells nice. Did Mom make this one too?”

“...Mmhm. Elyria said she use to make some like that from her old home. It smells so good!”

‘Mom is quite the clever fox. She seems to have a lot of these random concoctions or remedies from her old life as a shaman. When I first found out her level it was 52. But now it is 63, which makes me wonder what she’s been doing when I’m not around. She simply says she’s been training too but her growth seems too rapid for being a mere simple method. She really is mysterious, she has been teaching me to learn magic but it’s much more difficult than anything I’ve ever tried to understand. It’s strange because things come to me much quicker than before, but understanding the basic properties of magic for elements I haven’t used before seems impossible for me right now. She said she is advanced in several elemental magic which baffles me. If I didn’t have my absorption I wouldn’t have been able to grasp this much in the short time I’ve been here. Magic takes decades to comprehend and perfect it seems.’

“...So...What are you two doing?”

Ari who was looking up at me began to look at the slowly jogging Noah passing around the house.

“Oh Noah is just training a bit and I was just going over my skill’s list.”

“Can I see?”

“Sure why not.”

I activated the display version of my status thus illuminating the skill’s list I had been viewing. A small skill’s list screen illuminated in front of Ari sitting in my lap in a light blue glow. Her mouth was wide open and she looked curiously through my skills.

“How’s the reading lessons with Elyria going?”

“...good! Diiiee..vine be less eeng!”

“Wow that’s really good yes! It’s pronounced Dee vine bless eeng.!”

‘It’s actually quite amazing how quickly she picks things up. In fact everything this little girl shows is quite something. Whether it’s cooking ingredients or anything else she has quite the good memory. She also picks things up rather quickly and only needs to be taught something once or twice to remember it permanently. Which is much quicker than my two siblings ever could do. It’s quite impressive actually. Noah and Lilly can both speak human language fairly decent already but still couldn’t read the language real well. Ari I think is starting to quickly surpass them.’

It didn’t take me very long to translate human letters of this world into my own alphabet. Even if learning new magic might be difficult learning a new language actually wasn’t all that difficult for me. It’s good to know that my increased intellect counts for something....

“Hey Ari want to show me your skill list?”

“Oh ok! Mmm”

She looked to be focusing hard and trying to read the letters on her status. I wonder if the letters on her status are in human language or some other language system? Within a few seconds a small pink display popped up showing Ari’s skill list.

‘Hmm she seems to have a few skills already. And what’s that skill?’

Ari’s Skill List:

Racial/Acquired Skill’s

Bite 22/50

Golden Rule

Scent Tracking Level 1

Learned Skill’s

Cooking Mastery Beginner Level 2

‘She had 4 skills already and one had a different mastery system it seems than the other ones. And what’s golden rule?’

“Look we both have Bite!”

“Hey look at that...Who do you think bites harder?”

“Hehe I dunno...”

With that she started grinning her teeth up at me while her tail started wagging back and forth. Ari’s mood has become much more playful, and after talking with each other through the late nights I think she’s learned it’s ok to be close to me. I just figured she would be more reserved like the others but we have a good time together. She then fumbled around in my lap to read the other skills she had. This may be the first time she has been able to read her skill list but I don’t know. Ari said she learned to speak some from other slaves but didn’t know how to read when we met.

Her tail continued to wag back and forth and the fur of her tail has also began to show a much lighter color than the first day we met. Even her skin now is so soft, it did say after using the skill the person’s skin would look more beautiful than before. I do use this skill quite a lot on Ari, everyday in fact. I wanted to see what this healing wounds that can’t be seen actually is.

Freya’s Soul Recovery truly is a phenomenal healing ability. It cured this girl, it helped saved that Arachnee yesterday. It even cured many of those pixies with that strange disease, though that was only possible with using one of those magic cores. Still it seems rather convenient of a skill, but it doesn’t work like other healing abilities I’ve seen in games.

I assume most healing abilities heal outside wounds and then the rest of your body. It feels like Freya’s Soul Recovery heals individuals from the inside out. I can only use Soul Recovery on one person at a time so far regardless of the amount of magic I pour out but maybe with time that can change as well. If I recall the Freya ability came from a priest from the Asher kingdom. Hopefully I can find out more about the skill when I meet with their King in a couple of days....But I have a lot to do before then. I still need to go train at the dungeon when Hjokk gets back from giving her report to Loki.

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Lilly POV:

‘Where does he go everyday?’

Vali, the man who saved me and my brother only a few days ago is such a mysterious human. I’ve only known humans for such a short period of time but he doesn’t act much like the ones I’ve seen.

The other humans would always get so angry whenever I couldn’t understand what they were saying and would even sometimes hit me. Noah would then always have to come to my rescue but they would only hurt him much more. But...Vali and Elyria are different. They have took us in now. They’ve fed us, clothed us...Elyria is even teaching us how to read.

Everything is much different for Noah and I now. For the first time since I lost the rest of my family, I feel.....safe. It’s all because of him. The man called Vali not only saved Noah and I but others, and he’s never once asked for anything from us for it. Noah was sure it was all just an act and we might just get sold back into slavery later but I don’t think so. The way he treats us....the way he treats Ari....I don’t believe he would hurt us demi humans. He has such kind eyes, they just look so sad sometimes. I just want to know more about him.

I’m trying to follow the path he left with Hjokk only a short while ago. She came flying down from the sky in her bird form and they both left shortly after that. Vali leaves everyday to someplace so I snuck away while Elyria and Ari were inside and Noah was busy training.

‘Ugh....this place really looks unfamiliar....Where did he go.’

I’ve been walking in this forest for a short time but I can’t find his tracks anymore....

Snap!

‘What was that!’

I heard an odd sound deep in the forest. I turned around and didn’t see anything. I started to walk faster but the noises began to grow louder. I could feel eyes staring at me and the sounds slowly getting closer.

My breathing quickened and my heart started to race..’...Ugh maybe I shouldn’t have come out here....Vali...Where are you?’

Snap!

“Eh!”

I started to run deep into the woods after the sound of something snapping close behind me. I ran as fast as I could, even though I had no idea where I was. I just kept running....

‘Vali.....if I can just find him!’

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Vali’s POV:

Arriving back at the dungeon I witnessed a scene I wasn’t exactly expecting.

Hjokk arrived back at the cabin earlier and we soon went back to the dungeon to go level. I don’t like the idea of taking Noah or anyone else for that matter just yet, not until I build up a good report with the inhabitants there. If relations with these races get better maybe I can take Fenrir here to level later, maybe even mom. We would need to wait till Ari is able to walk, but I think if everyone were to raise their levels some it would be beneficial for each of them. Especially in a world like this.

‘If this game world works like the game I played it might be possible to try power leveling with everyone.’

In Divine and Conquer Online it wasn’t rare to see some small level parties with one or two larger leveled players. Together they would take on much stronger opponents so the smaller leveled party members can increase their level quicker. There are usually penalties to the experience gained when this act happens, but it is still not a bad way to level up a player.

‘Well....that’s what I was planning on doing with everyone in the lower levels today anyways, I just expected a bigger turn out.’

When me and Hjokk arrived on floor 52 of the legendary grand dungeon, Malfius along with many other Reiki and pixies were waiting for me. No other races however showed up. I guess I just assumed I would be speaking to the race leaders today about some of the plans I gave to Malfius yesterday. The same red pixie leader from yesterday is here along with many other members from her race that also glowed like the others, but no other races are here. We are currently in a courtyard in the inner city on floor 52 and even though there are other races walking around they don’t seem to be paying attention to us.

“Ah...Vali, you’ve arrived. I figured you’d bring some new odd animal with you.”

“Haha hey Malfius. Yah Fenrir is back at home but I have Hjokk again with me. So are we going to meet with all the leaders to discuss what we’ll be doing from here on out?”

After questioning Malfius he made a troubled face but didn’t break eye contact with me. He was a very strong founded man that looked to have been through countless war, he never broke character once but he did seem to not look very pleased.

“Yes well.......this is it. These are the individuals who have decided to go along with you Vali.”

“........”

‘I assumed after my display last night it would have been enough to make the leaders submit to my ways and hopefully make them want to believe in me. The only races I see here are Reiki and Pixies. Do they not trust humans that much?’

“But it is ok son....We will make the others come around soon. We will continue with our own plans, let me handle the other leaders for now. I will make them see the value in the Reiki way of life, I will make them see the value in you, they won’t have a choice but to take notice.”

He seemed confident, in fact everyone behind him who stood at attention were in an intricate formation. Each of them stood tall and proud, these were people who for centuries have fought for one single purpose. Even after failure and heartache they continued the fight to escape this prison. Many gave up and decided it was better to live out their days in this dungeon. But these few never gave up.

“....I’d be proud to fight next each of you.....Soon you are all going to escape this place!”

All the Reiki smirked and looked back at me but the pixies started talking amongst themselves and started to flicker their wings excitedly.

“...Yes...And we too would be proud to fight next to you sir Vali!”

The small red pixie started to walk up to me and Malfius. She had short crimson hair but he light surrounding her along with her dress was a bright red. The light  from her bright red wings sparkled and danced with the environment she walked around. She was level 186 but she proud amongst everyone present.

“...Tha...Thank you for healing so many of our own.”

“It’s ok Cosmia, He doesn’t mind if you hug him!”

Walking out from the other pixies I see the girl Aurora I had healed last night. After I noticed her I felt a light tug on my clothes and a small weight pressing against mine. The small pixie queen embraced my much larger body.

“Umm it’s ok, just happy to help where I could.”

‘She seemed much different than the other race leaders. She didn’t have childlike features but she did have a rather small body. But the impression I got form her was also different than the other race leaders. Even yesterday when I first saw her she didn’t give me the same looks as the other races there.’

“You see Vali, not many of us were aware of your exploits just before the Alliance meeting yesterday. There are many unhealthy and wounded down on floor 1. There is also a weird disease that infected many of the pixie race not too long ago. We aren’t sure how the disease first spread but once it infected the pixie it would begin to rot them from the inside out. We had never seen anything like it before.”

The small pixie woman Aurora called Cosmia slowly backed away from me and then continued to look into my eyes with extreme sorrow.

“Yes...We didn’t know how it spread so quickly amongst our race....so....we had to quarantine those with the symptoms as to not infect everyone else.”

“So you all just sent them to floor 1 and that was that?”

“You see Vali...The pixie race aren’t like the other races. They are..... each connected to one another. When one is hurt or injured, the others in the surroundings will share their life force with them.”

“Yes...and when the rot started to set in amongst our race no matter how much life force we would share, the disease would win out......If we continued to live beside those that were infected....our whole race would reach annihilation. “

Malfius and Cosmia both began to explain to me the strange epidemic that struck the pixie race only a few months ago. The pixie’s appear to be quite the peculiar race as if one is injured in this case sick, the surrounding pixies will share their life force or hp and mana with one another. That’s quite the convenient race trait. Alone they might be weak but if they were to fight coordinately together they could have some real potential.

Cosmia looked to be quite despondent over the whole situation. She told me that her race are all family to one another, not only that but they live for one another. When they had to separate from one another made them all heartbroken. Apparently many of the pixies who weren’t infected still decided to leave to floor 1 to be with some of those who were. Tanin was one of those such individuals who wasn’t infected originally but left to be with Aurora.

Though I don’t see him right now....Now that I think of it he was one of the pixies I didn’t get to heal last night. Since none of the pixies ever really walked up to me to be healed they just danced and hugged those who were. He just happened to be one of the ones I didn’t get to.

“Well.....how’s about today we work on collecting as many of those odd magical cores. They are apparently the only thing to take away that odd rot and heal the pixies so lets begin there.”

“Yes...I have sent a small team to floor 14. There is a good hunting spot that have many monsters with those stones in their heads or chests. We’re also trying to do some trades with the other races for theirs. We should have a good number by the end of the day for you.”

“That’s good. I was planning on going and fighting some of the monsters on each floor and hopefully take some of the lower leveled inhabitants with me. Is it possible if some of your men can also start going to the lower floors and take groups out to level....make a priority on safety.”

“...Yes that can be arranged. We each have our own training and quotas to reach but we can work something out in shifts with each of our members. Are you planning on making some of the smaller races fight alongside us against the Fomorians?”

Malfius said this while looking to those standing at attention behind him. They were all in monk attire aside from one. I didn’t see her before but it’s that Reiki girl I beat in the 3 on 1 duel before. She isn’t in her normal black attire but she isn’t in the same attire as everyone else either. She’s wearing something that resembles an asian qipao but it’s much longer and more elegant...’..She actually pulls off the whole exotic look.’

“Mmm I’m not sure. It might be impossible but we need everyone as healthy and high level as possible if we want all of this to work. It will just help a lot is all.”

“I agree. It is going to be a joint effort to escape this cell. If we continue down the paths we have already walked we will only be met with more loss.”

He seemed confident in me. After looking into his eyes I could see though that Malfius had a lot more on his mind than he was letting on. I guess I can’t blame him. He looked off into the bright red sky and said with a serious face.

“ If we only focus on making the best moves, we will never get the better of our enemies. When necessary, we must take those big risks in battle, and prepared to lose it all. That is the only way we will accomplish victory here.”

The words of a man who’s willing to fight giants with his fists....Even if I haven’t made many allies in this dungeon, this person seems to be very dependable. He isn’t a simple warrior who fights monsters but one who analyzes everything. I feel that I can trust him.

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Roooraghhh

Looking at the odd large beast in front of me I’m amazed this is a monster on floor 1. It’s pretty big for a level 24 monster and has a mouth that opens bigger than my whole body. It looks kind of light a black eel and hovers just above the ground.

It floats just a few feet over the floor and slivers its body like a a snake throughout the dungeon. It’s very quick for its large size but shouldn’t pose much trouble for me. With me are Hjokk, Aurora, Tanin, and another pixie girl named Cyanna. Karma the archnee girl along with her mother Reinma also decided to join us in leveling today.  There is also that Reiki woman from earlier, she eventually introduced herself as Meifeng. Even if she is a Reiki she has apparently joined the Eis Neko’s but after her loss with me she promised to teach me how to use a sword.

Those shining swords are apparently only awarded to high ranking  members as they are very valuable and made from a scarce material. I’m using the frost sword for now. I’ve told everyone here that the first time we encounter a particular monster to stay in formation but allow me to take it on. This way I can get a feel for their movements and abilities before allowing anyone else to jump in....we are training with a priority on safety. Last night one of these monsters went through the city walls and killed roughly 10 people before being taken down. I also found out after coming back to floor 1 that 3 more pixies passed away that didn’t receive treatment from yesterday. Even though Soul Recovery healed their wounds and lightened their symptoms, this rotting disease is quite lethal to pixies. But it hasn’t effected any other race that I’m aware of.

The reason the pixies who were infected were moved away from the healthier pixies is that due to their race trait of sharing their own life force with one another would ultimately mean the end for all of them. If one is affected by the disease the others would continuously share life force with them until they were eventually all gone. Simply sharing health and magic with one another wasn’t enough to heal the strange rot.

Since the only cure we know of for this rot using magic stones, I had Malfius and many of his followers to collect these strange monster cores and to bring them to the lower floors. I also sent them to acquire any supplies, food, and old armor or weapons they weren’t using. I found it odd that in a dungeon I haven’t seen any of these demi humans use any form of armor.

When I asked them why this was they said they use to wear armor on some of the lower floors, but once they met with the Fomorian race armor was meaningless and only slowed you down to get eaten by those monsters. Regardless of what armor they developed it was merely ripped to shreds by their long skewer like claws.

Right now though the pixies are wearing some odd leather armor that looks to be made out of some hide of an insect monster, and the Arachnee girls are each holding large sticks with sharped horns on the tips of them. Each of these items were made by the Jiji race and I’m becoming more and more amazed at each of the races down here. I was expecting everyone to be a in a sullen and broken state living in such a place their whole lives but each of them have quite the drive to stay alive. Everyone contributes together on floor 1 and helps hunt together. Even if they aren’t strong individually in fighting they work together quite well.

I’ve seen each of them fight already with some mongoose type monsters earlier on this floor. Even though their levels aren’t very high and they aren’t quite strong, they were all quite crafty. The pixies would make the arachnee and themselves invisible for a short time and then strike at the enemies flank. Whenever the monster would turn in their direction the Arachnee would then attack it from the other side with their spider legs. The Arachnee use their front spider legs almost like lances. Even though Karma’s legs weren’t very sharp she could still secrete a small neurotoxin that works as a paralysis on some monsters. It’s not incredibly strong but it’s enough to slow down an opponent long enough for everyone else to take it down.

Her mother Reinma can also produces tiny threads from her fingers that she uses to help bind the mongoose type monsters. Each race has such interesting methods and these aren’t learned abilities but racial traits they were born with. It’s interesting to see how they coordinate each of their abilities to take on monsters. I wonder what kind of growth these species can have if trained properly.

Even though I have seen them take on other monsters already I’m having a bit of trouble with this new type of monster. If you don’t take it out before it notices your presence the beast becomes quite difficult to catch. Not that it’s in anyway faster than me but it has probably one of the most incredible abilities I’ve seen so far from a monster.

I jumped towards the long eel like monster known as a  Boden Esser swinging my sword. I’m not sure what the title means but they refer to it as the floor one devourer. Just before my sword struck the slimy hide of the eel it slithered and passed straight through the solid rock of the dungeon wall.

“Wha!...Damn!”

It was starting to get kind of annoying as anytime I got close it would phase right through the dirt or rock surrounding it and pop up somewhere else. This strange skill gave it the ability to travel freely through solid matter. It is also the same ability that gave this beast the way to enter and exit the city with ease. I didn’t know just how dangerous this floor was until I started to fight this monster. It can honestly appear anywhere it wants to with such an ability and has left the residents of this floor in a pretty desperate state.

I activated my presence sense but it was hard to get a good idea of where it was with just by a 2D display in my view. It also apparently had an ability to secrete some type of toxic gas that stuns individuals giving it the opportunity to devour the victims while they are still alive.

Seeeehhh SAAAA!

Hearing the strange noise it made a small green vapor started floating into my view and I looked below the floor at something trying to bite me. The Boden monster attempted to bite my leg but my defenses were much to strong for it to penetrate.

Before it had the opportunity to flee I activated lightning step and crushed the top of its head like one of those wack a mole games you’d see in an arcade. The moment the sword blade touched the head of the monster, it splattered completely with the neck area being slowly encroached with icicles. It was a one hit kill.

“Hey I went up another level!”

Karma started to show her mom her status and everyone was now in a much less tense state now that all the enemies were killed. They had each killed several bat type monsters as well as helped take down this Boden Esser that we came across while hunting. We were using the party system with everyone here besides Hjokk and Meifeng. We were using this time to train the lower leveled people along with many other groups on this floor.

Several of the other Reiki took other groups to go out hunting. If you register everyone in your group in a party every monster you take down share the experience with everyone registered under that party. Since Hjokk and Meifeng weren’t really fighting but observing this worked out well for us.

“Hmm that appears to be quite the sword you have there Vali. May I have a closer look?”

While I was looking at the drops an eel like monster would leave behind, Meifeng walked up behind me looking at the frost sword I had with me. She motioned that she wanted to observe the weapon more closely while I began to dismantle the large eel like monster in front of me.

Meifeng promised to teach me sword mastery but today she has taken more of a backseat role and just observed me. She has told me the proper way to hold my sword and basic swinging motions but other than that she hasn’t said much. She may still be upset about yesterday.

Since the eel monster was stuck in the ground I had Reinma wrap her threads around it so we could pull the rest of the dead monster from the dirt.

“This seems to be quite the strong sword, it may even have some special abilities added to it.”

“Yah but even though it’s a legendary weapon it can’t even cut the fur of a Fomorian.”

“Hmm...are you sure? It definitely feels strong enough, perhaps you weren’t using the sword properly.”

After Meifeng said that I remembered that I still don’t have the sword mastery skill yet. After raising my hand to hand combat skill, it said I wouldn’t receive any penalties when holding weapons but maybe that doesn’t apply if I don’t even have a sword combat mastery system. I just used it essentially like a saw to see if it could cut any of the meat but it couldn’t cut past the thick dark fur. A legendary and even an ancient class weapon is strong enough that kingdoms would move to acquire one. Maybe Meifeng is right and I just couldn't pull out it’s true power yet. I guess I won’t know until I gain a sword mastery skill of some kind.

Thinking of this I continued to dismantle each of the monsters along with the pixies and Arachnee in my party.

Even though each of them were low level they worked quite well together already and brought unique abilities to the party. Though we didn’t have any Jiji with us today, I was learning more and more the benefits of having a demi human party. Many of the Jiji race who didn’t go out to level are actually working in the city right now. They used the leathers from those bull like animals from yesterday’s feast and made blankets and clothing out of them. Even though the material weren’t that great they also used it to cover the outside of their shacks to help with ventilation.

The Jiji race don’t look very strong physically but it’t amazing to see the things they can make using such odd materials. I believe they are the race that is responsible for creating that big wall, maybe even those odd cannon shaped weapons. I must say out of all the races I’ve met down here they might be the most phenomenal. They are a race of little tinkers that have even built houses with items resembling trash and kept their homes standing.

After we collected all the monsters leather and meat we decided it was time to get back to Anfang. Amongst the drops from the monsters were just the meat, leather,  mongoose claws, and some weird oil like substance that came from that eel. I gathered the hearts as well and decided I would eat them later while we prepared another meal for everyone.

Since we weren’t the only party that went out hunting today, and there are more Reiki who are fighting on other floors we should be able to have enough food to feed everyone again. If not I guess it wouldn’t be so bad to have Hjokk go gather some food again, but I don’t think she likes being sent to collect things for me very much.

------------------------------------------------------

Congratulations! You have learned a new skill!

Echolocation

Congratulations! You have learned a new skill!

Vampirism

After eating the hearts of the two bat creatures from earlier I gained two new skills. I then dug into the other two hearts from the mongoose monsters and creepy eel from earlier.

Congratulations! You have learned a new skill!

Wind Claw

Congratulations! You have learned a new skill!

Burrow

Congratulations! You have learned a new skill!

Eclipse View

While everyone gathered around the bonfire and filled their bellies with the bountiful feast, I snuck in few hearts while no one was looking. The skills I was given all seem quite interesting, but I didn’t get that incredible phasing skill that eel used. If I had an ability like that.....well, it could definitely come in handy. But the ability I received from that eel was called Eclipse View.

When I activated it my entire vision under my mask became distorted and a bright color began to fill my view. I took off the mask and everything in the darkly lit dungeon were all covered in an odd assortment of colors. It almost looked like heat vision but it felt different, like I can actually see life wherever it is.

Even weirder.....Whenever I close my eyes I can still see the same images of Eclipse View. ‘It’s such an odd skill.’

This is the first time I’ve felt disappointed at receiving an ability from a monster though. I guess this is the first time I didn’t receive the skill I was hoping for. I always assumed that was due to my high luck stat coming into affect but maybe that isn’t how it works.

I guess some of these skills can be quite helpful though. Echolocation allows me to view my surroundings similar to a sonar that bats use, and it works differently than my presence sense. I also have an interesting vampire bat trait that allows me to replenish a small amount of health from drinking the blood of a monster or person.

Burrow allows me to dig much quicker while Wind Claw I’m not sure what it is. The party I’m with did a good job at wiping out the monsters on this floor and we didn’t get a chance to see all of their abilities.  The mongoose monsters weren’t much of a trouble to the residents here, its that eel like monster that is the most dangerous. But I didn’t get a skill I wanted from it. I guess it’s good that the skill works even if my eyes are closed......’Hm....maybe this is how this creature sees when passing through walls?’

‘I mean it would be weird to think how something could see what’s in front of it while pushing through solid matter maybe this is how it sees what’s in front of it?...If that’s the case and I didn’t receive this ability first I may have tried walking through a wall and wind up getting stuck somewhere.....Maybe my luck stat does work.’

I guess today’s profits weren’t so bad. I didn’t gain any levels since all the monsters down here were too low level but I did get some interesting skills I could try out later. I also gained 2 levels in mastery for my cooking another large feast. Not as many levels as yesterday but it is still a good gain.

‘If this dungeon only gives double the experience for a week maybe I need to start fighting on the higher floors for the next few days. That could be better.’

Wisdom + 1

‘Hah!....Oh yah I forgot, you can gain stats for something as simple as figuring out a new method at something.’

This world is interesting. I guess even if my growth isn’t quite at what it was yesterday that’s fine. I can go level a lot tomorrow and hopefully have some of these lower floor members level with the Reiki as well. I need to learn sword mastery from Meifeng as well, but  I guess I can do that while I fight down here. After defeating her in the match put together by the alliance yesterday she promised to teach me sword mastery. I guess she’s a woman of her word.

Looking over at her she was sitting next to a couple of the Annunake race and eating together. She as well as them still eat my food even though they still seem quite weary of me. I also heard that some of the Annunake race took some people to go level as well today so maybe they’ll come around soon too.

“Ah...ugh....Vali. I umm....wanted to give you this.”

Walking up slowly to me was Karma. Her spider legs moved cautiously towards me and she was holding something in her hands.

“Oh...what’s this?”

“I umm....made it for you. To say thank you....For saving my mother yesterday.”

She handed me a small bracelet. It had very colorful rocks and even a small red claw connected to it. It looked similar to one of the mongoose claws but it had a different color to it. She said she made it using her own spider silk and wanted to give it to me as a gift for earlier. I couldn’t help but smile at the nice gesture as this little girl only wanted to reward me with one of the only ways she could.

“Hm....thanks Karma. This looks cool! You made this?”

I put it on and Karma just smiled back up at me while nodding. It wasn’t a bad looking bracelet even with the odd claw on it. I thanked

“Mmm you have such a beautiful accent sir Vali.”

Walking up next to Karma was her mother who commented on my accent. I wasn’t aware I had one.

“Oh...I didn’t know I had an accent.”

“Oh well you speak Spinne quite beautifully. I don’t believe I’ve ever heard it spoken so well from another race.”

“Spinne?”

As I questioned Reinma about what she had said, every race in the dungeon can speak one language that they all use to communicate between one another. The arachnee however have another language they only speak amongst themselves which is called Spinne language. I wasn’t aware of it but apparently whenever I speak it gets translated into whatever language the person understands the most.

‘Hmm....I wonder what language Ari heard whenever I first spoke to her. She couldn’t speak real well but she looked to understand me just fine.’

After talking with Reinma and Karma for a little while longer Malfius and several other Reiki appeared with a large assortment of food, weapons, armor, even clothes and blankets. They brought a lot of materials I had never seen before and had packed it all in large wagons. Amongst the materials he brought were a lot of liquid containers with a dark red fluid and I even see several magical cores amongst the items he brought for me.

I wanted the people down here to be well equipped and well fed while they stayed down here. I’m not sure about the living conditions of the other floors but if it’s impossible right now to move these people out of this floor I wanted the conditions to be a lot better.

I told anyone who was still sick to come forward and made it quite clear for all the pixies to line up. Even if they don’t care to come ask me to get healed I need to see if it is possible to heal everyone right here and now. If we can get rid of the rot maybe the disease as a whole will become eradicated and become possible to reunite with the rest of their race.

I started grabbing several of the blue and green magic cores and started using my freya ability on all of the pixies who still were inflicted with disease. Last night 3 of their own had died from this rot. I tried not to look up to see them but I couldn’t help myself. I found several new bodies hanging from the cave ceiling that weren’t there yesterday. I don’t feel guilt for not being able to save them, but I do feel some form of remorse. My memory is one of the cognitive functions I feel has increased the most. It’s why learning to read in this world came so easily to me. But now I can remember the faces of those who were laughing and smiling just last night, and are now.....they’re decorating the walls of the dungeon.......this prison.

‘I can only imagine the amount of heartache it is to live here amongst them, to lose those you fought with, you survived with. To see their grim appearance hanging there only as a sick reminder of where your trapped. Reminding you of what you’ve known your whole life.....A life trapped behind these walls.’

The pixies were very depressed when I first came down to see them today but they have an interesting way of getting over grief.

Crash!

“Ah!...Wha...again!”

As I went to sit down on a large stone I wound up crashing on the ground.

“hehehe”

Pixies enjoy mischief. I guess you can say they enjoy.....pranking people. It’s how they show they like someone I’ve come to find.

I’ve already had two situations where I’ve tried sitting down on an invisible chair only to find the chair was all an illusion and crash down on the floor. But it’s not only me they play pranks on....they equally do it to each other as well. It’s such an odd behavior but it’s how they’ve come to find enjoyment in living down here.

I looked up and saw that the one who did it this time was Cyanin. So as she started to fly away I opened up the space she was flying into to open up an inch from the ground.

Bam!

“Owe!....Hey!”

“AHahaha”

“hehe ehe how’d Vali do that?”

I and all the pixies started laughing and it eventually made Cyanin start laughing as well.....They really are odd creatures.

After using several of the stones on the pixies, the dungeon floor began to light up like fireworks. Each pixie glowed in their own unique ambient light. They shined and lit up the surroundings while they flew and each danced in happiness. Even after Aurora was healed, she continued to live down here with Tanin. She came and fought with us regardless if she would only become sick again. Tanin said she was much farther along than he is and was originally against her coming down but when I told him he would be cured soon the energy in his eyes began to show again.

It was now his turn to get healed and I reached in to grab a stone. I actually saw a yellow one in here. Huh this is one that is the same level of magic power as that purple rabbit from before. Hmmm

As I grabbed the peculiar stone and observed it I thought what the hell and activated it on Tanin.

OOHHHMMMMMMM!

In a bright a brilliant light a bright red and orange aura began to flow out of Tanin like a gushing waterfall of fire. The light shined much more wildly and bright than all the other pixies. The light had an intense heat to it at first but after the surge of energy flowed from the stone and into him the light that surrounding Tanin looked more like an intense flame. It eventually dimmed down a bit but there was still a difference in light between him and the others.

“.....Woh!”

Tanin spread his wings and they spread out like a butterflies with feathered points. His wings were translucent like the other but they appeared to be made of actual fire. His hair turned a bright orange and even his skin color almost looked gold.

“What....what happened just now.”

I asked him to open up his status and his stats had increased dramatically. Not only that but he had a natural fire element added to him from the stone.

“Everyone come open your statuses!”

After looking through everyone who had been healed by the green or blue stones and they all had their stats buffed in some sort of way. The magic cores aren’t just healing these pixies, it’s doing something to each of them.

The ones who I gave the green stone had a large increase in health and some in strength. The ones I gave a blue crystal too got a large increase in their speed and some in everywhere else. Tanin also now has a small auto heal ability. He now recovers 100 health a minute.

I’m told that magical crystals are the cores of monsters with high magical affinity. The cores are used in some magical ingredients and weapon making. I never knew if used on a pixie could give it such nice buffs

“Hey can each of you continually receive buffs with these cores, or can it only be used once?”

They each looked up at me confused and telling me they didn’t know...’...I guess they wouldn’t know would they. I don’t know why I asked that question.’

After I continued to heal the rest of the pixies Malfius came up and gave me an odd purple crystal.

“We’ve been doing a lot of training on a floor with a peculiar spider type monster known as an Adamantine Spider. It poses as one of the highest defensed monsters we’ve found in this dungeon. This came from the top of one of their heads.”

“You sure you don’t need this to make strong armor or weapon?”

“To those titans, armor’s useless. It is simply added weight to make you easier for them to devour. As well as the Reiki weapons are their paws.”

“I see.”

Looking back at Malfius he started to look around the large crowd that had gathered and a small smile appeared on his face. He said that he too wished for a better unity between the races. He also wanted to let those stuck in floor one to be allowed to live on a higher floor but it wasn’t agreed on by the rest of the council. He mentioned he wished that he could move everyone here up to floor 45 but the land they live in there is actually quite small. The Reiki found a small patch of terrain on that floor that was protected from the rest and could support a small village.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

Thinking over this I grabbed the small crystal and looked for next person in line....’....And looks like Cyanin gets to recieve this buff.

A bright purple hue shot out from the crystal and a wave of blue light starting pouring out from Cyanin. Her hair glowed much similar to her name, and her wings grew back and shined in a brilliant royal blue. Her eyes started to shine the same color as her hair and the light began to fade down

Her wings looked to be made of glitter, and where much larger than the other pixies. Her skin now turned a bright metallic color. The bright light from her wings made her skin show to have a unique shine to it. I touched her cheek but her skin showed to be quite soft...I then looked at her status and her defense had shot up by 500. Cyanin’s wings can now be used as weapons too as they also look quite strong. and sharp. Her’s almost look made of diamond.

She started to run off and dance with the others but she came back and hugged me.

“Thank.....you Vali.”

She had tears forming in her eyes and then jumped into her friends and started hugging Aurora and everyone else still standing in line. They had grown close down here on floor 1. They all probably thought this was the end of the line for them, being told your just going to be healed I guess you wouldn’t truly believe it till it happens.

I then asked Malfius to go gather some more of these purple crystals if he could because I would like to test if some of these pixies can continually receive buffs or magical traits from these cores. If that’s possible then the pixies race’s potential is truly something to fear. Essentially these cores could work similar to my own absorption ability as some of them even take on some of the traits from these cores. I’d really love to look into this more.

“Ah...well you see you got to find one of their nests and hope they’re are some with the crystals imbedded in their heads. Plus taking a raid party on a spider nest right now I would have to assemble a large number of the Reiki. “

“Didn’t you say you were already training on that floor?”

“Yes...we are attempting to invent a new technique to take on those furry bastards. I’m quite close to perfecting it. But an adamantine spider nest regardless of what floor we’ve cleared needs to be handled correctly. Many of died on expeditions through their nests not many go to floor 48 for this reason. ”

‘Hmmm....I’m guessing because it’s getting late it would be hard to assemble a lot of people to go to such a location. Hmm I’d really like to go level there right now actually, but I still have quite a bit of people to heal here. After losing 3 people just today from this disease I feel it necessary to see if it’s possible to purge this disease entirely.’

I told Malfius to take Hjokk and motioned to the purple bird sitting on my shoulder.

“What!”

“Huh, your bird can talk?”

Hjokk finally voiced her opinion and outed herself in front of Malfius and a couple of pixies.

“It’s ok Hjokk...I think we can trust this guy. I need to stay here and finish healing the pixies. See if you can go with Malfius and collect a bunch of of those purple crystals with him.”

She glared back at me and wanted to protest but I don’t think killing monsters in a dungeon is going against the rules of the treaty between the god’s.

“So Hjokk is going to help fight the spiders? I have been curious about that birds level. Is it an item?”

“I am a Valkyrie of Odin. Servant to the God Loki, and overseer of his champion Vali, as he grows in middle earth. “

“......A what now?”

Hjokk looked back at me and seemed annoyed but I just smirked back at her. I guess you can’t blame him for not knowing much about the outside world. I mean I’m not even sure if these people worship any Gods as they have been trapped in the dungeon by a fallen one for centuries.

“Hehe...I’ll let her explain, you guys should hurry up though.. Hjokk we have curfew soon and after I’m finished here I wanted to see if we could test more with those magical cores before leaving. “

‘Tomorrow I’m seriously going to level hard in this dungeon and try to gain as many levels as possible for the next week.’

“....Ugh fine....Last time!”

She started to fly over to where Malfius was and spoke in contest to me.

“Oh come on....All you’ve done all day is sit on my shoulder and eat my food....might as well contribute.”

“I’m not suppose to get involved! I have strict rules just to watch...Oversee!”

“Listen, you’ve clearly already done wayyy more than just watch or oversee.....Did you even look at the entrance to this place? Besides is killing monsters in dungeons in anyway breaking your treaty?”

Malfius started staring oddly between me and Hjokk. Not only him but Cam has just walked up and now stops at our conversation.

“....Fine, but stop thinking of me as some pack mule for you.”

“I don’t think of you as my pack mule Hjokk...Your my bird companion who’s always chirping away in my ear and eating my food.”

‘I don’t know why but it’s always fun harassing Hjokk. She’s such a proud Valkyrie acts kind of high and might sometimes. I don’t blame her....she’s strong. But she talks of being so high and mighty but she’s actually quite simple. ‘

Today she’s just sat on my shoulder and ate some of the food I cooked. She would use her feathers to bring the meat to her beak and was eating the entire time we were here actually. She’s been eating since we arrived, she’s been eating when I was hunting, she’s also been eating while I was healing all the pixies.....All day long while sitting on my shoulders. Yet she’s still this small little purple crow.

“.........Keep it up child.”

After they left I continued to heal the rest of the pixies and gained 2 more levels putting me at Novice Level 2 in Freya Soul Recovery. The Recovery skill now has an area of affect likeness to it and can heal multiple people at once....‘Yes....now I can start using this in battle with a party.’

I healed roughly 150 pixies on floor one and there was just enough to heal every sick pixie down there. They all had such dull and tired looks in their eyes before they were healed. Even though they were hugging one another some of them were too weak and simply smiled while holding those that were healed. Each of the pixie race is amazing as they all share in one another’s happiness. Now that each of them has been healed the entire dungeon floor looks like an artificial sun has been created on the dungeon floor. The number of different lights shining in dark dungeon produced a bright white light that covered the entirety of the dungeon.

Each and everyone in attendance looked at the bright rainbow light that shined down on all those below. It was a warm light the touched the skin in a different way the the bonfire did. The light tickled the skin slightly and felt almost like a refreshing gust of wind had rushed over me.

Looking up at all the pixies flying overhead they all started flying straight for the ground floor at a tremendous speed....No...they’re flying towards me.

Within seconds I was swarmed by hundreds of small pixies and was being hugged and thanked by each of them individually.

“Thank you Vali!!!”

“Tha..thank you Vali!”

“Thanks Vali!”

Each of the pixies including the three who I hunted with today were in tears and continued to wrap their tiny arms around body. My my arms, legs, waste, head, pretty much my whole body was covered and being hugged by every pixie that was living on floor one. I didn’t really know how to respond to the instant swarm of so many people touching me but it was incredibly hard to bring myself to push all of them off of me.

Each of them were crying and many of their tears were rubbing all over me, some of them were still had dirt covering their bodies from working hard today. I just let them basque in their own happiness for now and let them celebrate in their own way.

You have received a new title!

Beloved One of the Hildr Pixies

‘Huh...I got a title....Hildr....that...that word I believe translates to war, or battle.....War pixies?’

Looking at each of the small delicate hands that wrapped around me embracing me like a small child would, I looked at each of their crying and delicate faces. They were now shining in a brilliant light and the warmth from each of them washed over me like nothing I had ever felt before. It felt like a cold breeze that sent shivers across my skin....I’ve just....never been thanked in such a way before.

And just like that...I started to wrap my arms around many of them and smiled....’...Neh....couldn’t be.’

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After all of the pixies had finished embracing me many of them flew off dancing through the air. I started to look around at everyone eating their fill or making something with today’s spoils. I still need to go through some of the things that Malfius brought. I’m sure even if armor is useless against the Fomorians they can still be used someone whose leveling up in this dungeon.

I walked over to the large wagons and started looking through everything. Originally I saw Cam and a woman standing here guarding the wagons, but I see they’re both now sitting with Meifeng and eating with everyone else. I see some Annunake there as well. Each of them were eating and I could see Cam was laughing and seeming to enjoy his meal.

As I was looking over there every one of them looked up at me...’...Ugh...that’s awkward.’

I then started looking through all of the armor and weapons and noticed some very interesting weapons. There were swords, spears, axes, daggers, bows, helmets, chest plates.... There were a lot of assortment of leather and iron armor..’Hm what’s this.’

I brushed off a pale blue armor and inspected it. It had a light weight but looked to be rather old....’...Is...is this mithril?’

The moment I brushed off the top of the breastplate a gentle blue hue came out from the armor. It had a slight glow to it. ‘Hmm that’s cool.’

“Hey Aurora come here...”

The armor appeared to be for females so I was going to see if it fit a pixie.

The moment Aurora touched it and tried to put it on it somehow magically contorted to her body and fit as if it were molded to her own body....’...Huh?’

“Hey what are you guys doing over here.”

Cam and some of the others had noticed the odd display and walked over to us.

“I didn’t know you guys had something like mithril. This armor’s old but it looks to be quite strong.”

When Aurora put it on a bright glow started to shine out from the mithril giving it a dull glow that it didn’t have before.

“Wha....that cruddy armor? It’s about twice as strong as steal but nothing too spectacular in terms of defence....I’ve never seen it glow before though.”

Cam told me his thoughts on the shining blue armor Aurora was wearing and I started to inspect it myself.

“Those are artifacts from the elven race. We tried wearing them once but they weren’t all that strong.”

The woman who was with Cam said as she walked up next to him.

‘Hmm...I started inspecting the armor surrounding Aurora and I’ve noticed her defense has risen by +650. That is clearly more than any ordinary armor. I can’t see if the armor has any attached stats since I don’t have an appraisal skill yet. I can’t quite see if there’s any information I can gain from this. But Cam said they tried using it before. Well if this belonged to the elven race from long ago maybe this armor is only at its strongest when worn by someone with high magical affinity. The pixie’s are clearly a race of magical beings as ambient light gushes out of their skin depending on their mood.

I ended up telling Aurora to make all the pixies wear the blue armor and let them pick out between themselves. There wasn’t enough for all of them so they played games to see who would get it. Even if one lost they each laughed and enjoyed having a good time. We’re going to need to distribute a lot of these weapons and supplies to everyone else here soon as well....’...Maybe I can leave that with Malfius after I leave.’

“Oh hey Vali! My your food earlier was so delicious, thanks for the meal.”

The voice of Akino walked up and stated while getting rather close to me. Her bright silver eyes looked back into mine as our heights were actually quite similar. I was fairly tall so for her to match my view is something.

“...Anytime.”

I started looking around at everyone enjoying helping themselves to the large broths I made for everyone. It fed everyone in the dungeon and I even gained 3 more levels of mastery in cooking. Putting me at Novice Level 6. The flavors that I can pull out of the meat now is actually incredible. The flavors that come from my hand I don’t know how tastes so good but it has a flavor that I can’t quite put my finger on. It feels as if there is an added boost in my cooking in this world now. I guess this is how chefs or cooks raise their levels in this world too so it makes since.

I didn’t however raise any overall level doing this as experience for making a meal and hunting monsters is much different.

“So.... I’m quite impressed with all you’ve been doing down here for those of us on floor 1. I feel bad I treated you so poorly before.”

“....No problem it’s nothing.”

I don’t know why but Akino kept getting closer to me. Since I haven’t really spoken to her much yet the vibe I’m getting from her just is off. I don’t know if she can tell but I’m on to her schemes. She tilted her head and her bright white hair cascaded down to the side.

I can tell this girl doesn’t trust me at all. Hell that Adimar guy and his buddies are all still staring at me from afar. Obviously she’s just trying to get me to warm up to her so I let my guard down. I guess she wants to see if I’m trustworthy or not.

“But no! I want to show you how thankful I am to you! Please come with me!”

Before I had any chance to reply I felt her skinny soft hands grab the side of shoulder and a strength that I don’t know where came from grips me tightly. It almost felt like the meat was being hard pressed to my bones. My weight was almost non existent as she ran holding onto me through the darkly lit city. I asked her what she was doing but she said for me just to hold on. I used my spatial magic and appeared right in front of her and she gave up. She said she wanted to take a walk with me and show me the histories of floor one, so I agreed and followed alongside her.

We rounded a corner of the street and many of the residents were walking around and seeming to collect supplies. Though a larger number of those on floor 1 were still back at the bonfire. Still the city streets were quite busy. We ran through the city streets through the crowd at an alarming speed. We in no time arrived to a large opening to a structure that had many large monuments inside of them. 9 to be exact....no there’s 10.

Looking at the old statues I saw large scale rocks carved into each of the 10 races that were all trapped her. 9 of them were still in tact but one of them had been demolished entirely. It was the human one....’...Well Malfius did say the humans were the first to go for their greed.’

I walked past Akino and looked at the artwork left by sculptors trapped her centuries ago. They looked to have shown unity here. But sometimes grand artwork like this rarely shows the reality of some of the things that go on. Even outside this dungeon, art work such as these depict the world the way the artist wants it be, not the way the world actually is.

Each art work was starting to crumble and has barely managed to last the test of time. Though due to their large size and having to stand far away to view all of it. It was still quite an amazing display. If only the species showed the same unity as it did in this statue.

Akino got close to me and wrapped her arms between mine and tried to push her cleavage into my arms. She saw me looking at her and only smiled back up at me....’...Is this chick being for real.’

“So your quite strong yah. You even beat Diaga so simply. You have quite the amazing talents.....human. Mhmhm.”

“....Can you not get so close.”

“Oh...what’s wrong...Don’t you find me attractive?”

I started to look at her oddly as I couldn’t figure what she was all about. Just something off about her. Her eyes keep wondering around and it almost looks like she’s trying to be sexy or alluring.....‘Did that Adimar guy tell her to do this?’

“For the love of!....Akino, perhaps I should have just had another girl from the pack do this....You clearly can’t be alluring at all!”

“Wha!....Yu huh! He was totally ready to jump my fur if he wasn’t an undead!”

“....Ugh I don’t want to hear it. That display earlier....Please follow me and then don’t give him any chance at a response. Is that how you normally find a mate hahahaha.”

Walking out from the dark was a large figure with silver eyes. It was Adimar. He started to walk up to me while Akino let go of my arm and walked towards Adimar seemingly more interested in her debate.

‘Wait...did they just call me an undead?’

“So....Vali. How are you enjoying the city of beginnings?”

“....Quite well Adimar, thanks for asking.”

I turned on presence sense and noticed it was only the 3 of us here...’...Wasn’t the city streets just filled with people walking through it.’

I activated echolocation and then found two more points that weren’t there roughly 20 meters behind me...’...Hehe...so...they set up a trap for me?’

“Why don’t you take off that mask human. I wish to see your face.”

I smiled back at him and removed the white mask I had forgotten I was wearing up until this point. I got use to the night vision that I was using. After removing the mask I activated Eclipse View.

My eyes started to glow red and there I saw it. There standing in front of me were the bright figures of Adimar and Akino standing only several meters away from me. But what I saw behind them were maybe 50 new heat signatures. Eclipse View didn’t just see heat but saw life force even past layers of solid rock.

“So....are we inviting anyone else to this little dance of ours or is it just gonna stay the three of us?”

I commented to him and the large white wolf chuckled to himself while there behind him walked up several more large figures. Each of them were large white wolves similar to Adimar but he stood a head taller than each of them. Walking up beside him was Akino and glared back at me. Their eyes still shined in the darkly lit room coming off their life signatures.

“Hehe....You know your the first human anyone down here has ever seen....We had to look through old ruins and artifacts of old just to see what humans looked like. We went through old bones and saw that they weren’t much different than us demi human tribes......is that true.”

Guessing he wanted to have some small talk I flattered him because I was curious what their beef with humans would be considering they’ve never even met one before.

“That’s true. In fact other than animal like traits I think we’re not much different.”

I answered him back sounding bored and looking around my surroundings. Each of the white wolves standing on two legs were around 270. They each looked to be quite strong and each stood a head taller than myself. They were all members of a legendary race of demi humans made by god long ago. Though now they’re just stuck here like all the other races.

“You see ya say that......but I don’t think your human.”

“Huh?....Why’s that? Listen is this about me dropping your boss out of the battle yesterday?”

“Haha No...We all thought your little display with Diaga was quite funny. This is about something else entirely boy.”

“Oh...enlighten me.”

As I tried to press the wolf further he and none of the other wolves moved from where they were standing. They continued to stand quietly back at me. Adimar smiled and continued.

“You yourself said that humans and our race are quite similar, did you not?”

“...I did.”

“And yet your bones are black, not like any of the other white bones from the ancient humans we found. We had to dig quite deep into the sands of floor 2 just to find them....Your bones don’t have the same color...in fact they remind me of another creature I’ve sen before......He also held that weapon you  happen to be holding.”

“Yes.....tis convenient don’t ya think.....human? Or are you still going by Malthiel now?”

With that I glared back at them noticing now what this entire situation is about.....These people think I’m that King Reaper.

“....You all think I’m Malthiel.....Listen, I know it’s hard to believe but I’m really someone from the outside...”

“And what about your heartbeat?”

Adimar then contested before I could finish speaking.

‘Huh...what is he talking about?’

“What are you talking about?”

Cling!

“You don’t have one....”

Appearing right next to me was the visage of Meifeng. She had appeared so close to me it was startling as I couldn’t notice her presence with any of the tracking abilities I had turned on. Presence sense, echolocation, even eclipse view. Nothing picked up her presence standing next to me. She then something very odd and walked off and stood next to Adimar and the rest behind him.

“I don’t....what do you mean?”

“What do you think it means?.....I think it tells me you aren’t who you say you are Vali. The convenient story about being a human from outside, his scythe, those bones, no heartbeat......I think it tells me your not at all who you say you are.”

‘Maybe I acuqired more traits from Malthiel than I originally realized.....Absorbing something like him. Did it really change my body to such an extent that I don’t feel a heart beat. I always wondered why I could never feel my own pulse with Death Grip.....I just thought it was some safeguard against backlash from the ability.’

“.....Although I didn’t know about the heartbeat thing.....I can explain. I’m a human from outside this dungeon. I’m not Malthiel.”

“Oh I’d love to hear all about it.”

Cling!

Adimar raised his large fist and attached a small black shackle across his wrist. It was then I noticed it....Attached to the black shackle was a chain. Following down the chain I saw a long trail leading up to.......my hand?

“See told ya Akino, I can subdue males better.”

Meifeng stated this and my vision started to blur and distort. I felt a slight pain pierce my brain, and it began to become hard to breath. I just kept hearing a loud rattling noise....

“Umm.....I have a thing about chains.”

“Oh do you Malthiel...Sorry....Vali. I’m just using this as a precaution you see.”

‘I ca(rattle)n hardly he(rattle)ar what he’s saying. (Rattle) He thinks I’m (rattle) Malthiel?’

(Rattle) “Im tell(rattle)ing you (rattle) I’m not(rattle) him.”

I activated Dark pressure for the first time as a warning for each of them to submit or things were about to get ugly. Immediately upon doing this I could see the hairs on each of their furs stand on end and their eyes started to glow brightly. After only a few seconds they each shook their thick coats and bared their fangs back at me. Each of their growls echoed in the dark room. It was hard to hear though....The sounds of rattling just kept filling my ears. It reminded me of unpleasant memories. It reminded me of being to weak. It reminded me of losing them.

“That’s quite the first attack. Allow me to show you ours.”

HOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!

A piercingly  loud battle cry from the practically ruptured my ear drums echoing against the solid walls made of rock surrounding us. I could hear the sounds of the walls shaking and with that all my hairs began to stand on end.

You have heard The Cry of the Wolf

You have been struck with fear!

Due to your resistance to fear some effects have diminished.

Strength reduced by 10%

Agility Reduced by 5%

Ability to perform skills reduced by 7%

And with that loud howls came from the white wolves standing behind them and each of them began to rush me. Their speed was incredible. Lights on my display began to flicker and now I notice I’m actually being surrounded. Within only a second everyone converged on my location.

I activated my spatial magic and appeared just behind Adimar.

‘What....Where is..’

I turned around and Adimar was standing behind me. Though he should be standing just behind him on his flank.

“Haha! You know I didn’t think this trick would work but Izzie said we had about a 40% chance of this working.....Try to jumping around now.”

With that Adimar gripped the chain that was connected to me and wrapped it around his forearm. He started back at me grinning his fans.

‘Apparently when I move between spaces, I open up the space I’m in. Somehow with this wolf attached to me he can come with me. But if I were to use spatial magic I couldn’t get closer to him as he would just come along for the ride appearing the same distance away from me again.’

He branded his large fists and glared at me begging me to fight him.

I activated flicker and dashed towards him.

ROARRGHHH!

A large white beast attacked my shoulder from the side and suck his fangs deep into my flesh.

You have been struck by Vicious Assault

All movement speed decreased by 30% for 30 minutes.

Mana has been decreased by 6,000

Stamina has been decreased by 20%

You have received 750 damage.

All movements will be tracked now within a 100 meter radius of the pack

‘What. UGHH!!!”’

I grabbed the back of this things neck but it had a good hold deep into my flesh. I tried to yank him off me but he appeared to be quite strong.

Then suddenly a sharp pain pierced my other side. Then my legs. Then the sides of my neck....A flurry of lightning fast attacks began to scratch and pierce through my tough flesh as if it were paper. Blood burst through the tears in my skin and an intense pain rushed up my spine and into my brain. The term mind mind numbing comes to mind as each of the lacerations sent shockwaves through my body.

You have been struck by Moonlight Paw

Mana has been decreased by 9%

Stamina has been reduced by 4%

You have received 950 damage

You have been struck by Crescent Cleaver

Mana has been decreased by 2,000

Stamina has been reduced by 6%

You have received 1100 damage

You have received an additional 1200 poison damage

You have been struck by Blood Moon’s Descent

All Recovery will be reduced by 50% for the next 10 minutes.

All Mana Recovery will be reduced by 33%.

You have received 1,200 damage

You are bleeding, you will lose 20 hp per second until wounds are healed. Due to the nature of the cuts, mana will continue to deplete until healed

“AHHHHHGHGH!!!”

The pain rushed through me with each attack. The white wolves had surrounded me and continued their relentless assault. Whatever their claws and fangs are made of feels like a paralysis poison as it is honestly so painful just to receive their attacks. My skin has now been opened up and my body has been torn apart, but I don’t care. I activated Freya’s soul recovery to slowly heal some of my wounds.

The pain was somehow magnified straight to my head. I activated it Demonic awakening and everything became much slower. A surge of energy washed over me but it didn’t feel the same as the last time I used it. It felt like the first time back in that castle.. I was filled with rage.

I grabbed the back of the wolves head tearing him away at my my skin and threw him. As I gripped the back of his head the skin he had sunk his fangs into began to peel off along with him.

I tossed him into an in coming wolf and advanced towards him!....Towards the leader!

BAM!

My entire body then was rushed by several wolves at the same time. My arms, shoulder, legs, and the side of my ribs had one of these large wolf men biting or clawing away at my body. The pain was unbearable. I tried to reach up to pull Abgrund out of my inventory.

ROARGGHHH!!!

Another white furred wolf man lunged and sunk his fangs into my forearm and yanked it down. My whole body was being turned into ribbon by these things. Sensing the crisis I activated one of my trump cards. My only area of effect skill.

“Abysmal Mist!”

A small dark cloud began to overlap my body and the wolves that were sinking there fangs into me took on the full force of my darkness.

RAHHHH!

Many of them began to be eaten away by my attack but continued to dig their fangs even deeper into my skin. I started grabbing and throwing each of them away from my body only to tear more of my own body with them. I gripped their thick forearms and snapped them with my overpowering strength and threw them back at rest of the oncoming pack.

I continued tearing each of them away and activating lightning step to parry or counter any oncoming attack.  Some attacks got through but I continued to gain ground against these animals. With my Demonic Awakening my defense has been raised so it’s much harder to tear at my skin now. My strength was barely enough to overpower them before but now I’m simply landing blow after blow. The mist covers my blind spots as anyone who wishes to attack me from the back will only get enveloped by the power of the abyss. I continued towards Adimar at a much quicker pace.

'Flicker!'

Congratulations Flicker has now advanced to Grade 2

Flicker had finally passed the beginner stage. After activating it looked like there were around 3 images of me all dashing into different directions. The speed of my dash has also increased to some extent.

Then I saw Akino dashing towards me. Her appearance had changed and now had much bushier hair as well as her hands were covered in white fur. She darted towards my ankles and paid no mind at all to the other images of me. I was about to react whenever a large attack exploded on my back.

Shing!

You have been struck by Moonlight Claw

Mana has been reduced by 12%

Stamina has been reduced by 8%

You have received 2,000 damage

BAM!

You have been struck by Mantra Bomb!

Your internal concentration has been greatly affected.

- All Mana has now been reduced by 33%

- All skills have been cancelled

- You have received 6,000 damage

My vision went dark and all I could see was the darkly lit city of Anfang. We were still in the  monumental room but with that last attack my vision now went back and my Eclipse View was canceled.

I could feel the breathing on those surrounding me. I was about to be attacked by the pack again. I looked and attached to Adimar was the chain that was still attached to my arm.....

I activated spatial magic and opened the space up on the roof of a building next to this one.

“...Just me and you now.”

“Wouldn’t have it any other way boy!”

He tightened the chain around his arms and I activated flicker towards him.

I won’t deny these opponents are truly terrifying. My hp right now is at roughly 40%. I tried healing some of my wounds but my recovery is somehow been reduced by their oddly sharp fangs. My mana was at about 50%. I sealed up all my cuts and open wounds and continued towards Adimar.

I activated Flicker and lunged towards him. Regardless of the increased speed or other images lunges towards his direction, he never broke eye contact with me.

Bam!

I swung my fist and it landed on his open palm. It was much larger than man and stopped the impact entirely.

I knew he would deflect so I landed my second strike into his ribs while activating lightning step.

BAM!!!!

GUAHH!!

Blood flew out of his mouth as I felt the bones in his ribs were crushed by the increased velocity of my swing. Activating demonic awakening along with lightning step is incredibly. My cognitive functions almost feel.....to have doubled. With my stats risen along with lightning step, the effect was incredible. I continued to unleash strike after strike into his tough stomach. Even with my increased strength his exterior gave a lot of resistance to my punches. I started using my claws and opened him up.

RAAHHH!

He swung his arm like he was going to strike me but caught my forearm with his claws. He swung his other claw at my throat and I ducked. And swung my claws at his thigh. He somehow managed to stop my movements in lightning step with his claw. He then flung his large mouth into the direction of my neck and chest.

Critical Hit!

You have been struck by Alpha Fang

Mana has dropped by 10%

Stamina has dropped by 5%

You have received 8,000

“Ughh!”

‘These stupid notifications are getting distracting!’

I swung my arm at his left eye and activated lords earth shattering smash.

CRACK!!!

RAHH!!!

The force from my blow sent the wolf man flying towards the other building.. My chest and shoulder that his fangs had torn into was torn off with him. Their fangs are so strong that it can even pierce my strengthened defense. The image of him flying towards the next roof leaves my site...’.Ha...serves you right....’

Chink!

When a heavy force began to yank my right arm I forgot that this person and I.....are chained together.

I flew along with Adimar and landed on the roof next to this one...’...Ugh....I keep calling myself a genius. I really need to stop that.’

I stood up and faced Adimar who was breathing hard. His left eye looked to have been completely destroyed. Blood was coming out of his head but he still stood tall. His hp was at about 50% after that last attack on his head. Mine was at about...25%?

What how? My hp just keeps dropping. I activate Soul recovery and increase my mana to put my hp and stop at about 50%. My mp is started to get dangerously low. I have about 15% left.

Me and Adimar faced off again. We lunged at each other with everything we had. I’ve never had a battle like this in my life. Everything was laying on the line and I wasn’t thinking straight. I just wanted to beat the opponent in front of me. I’ve already lost so much already, I want to see just how much I’ve grown. I’ve realized that with my abilities I am sort of a cheat.

I never got to see just how strong some of these fighters are due to my cheat like abilities. These aren’t just a normal race either. Not a lot of time has gone by since this battle has taken place....Maybe 2 minutes tops, I don’t know it’s all been a blur. And they have drawn me to such a state. They aren’t just strong their highly intelligent.

They’re a race that has lived a long life of trying to figure out the weaknesses to certain monsters or bosses in this dungeon. They have actually made a life out finding the weaknesses of other creatures to survive down here. They only watched me fight once and figured out a clever way combat my unique fighting style. I can activate spatial magic but it would only bring along him for the ride. All because of this odd durable chain.

I landed another lords earth shattering smash into his ribs and now I’m positive I’ve broken them. After landing to solid hits to this spot I can only imagine the type of internal damage I’ve done to this wolf.

After landing the hit his hp dropped by 20%. . He then gripped tightly only my arm that had landed the blow and wrapped his incredibly large fists around them.

RAAHHHH!!!

He then took me to the ground by bending my arm in an odd way. My strength was much higher than his in this state but he managed to take me to the ground. He then began to sink his fangs into my arm.

You have been struck by Alpha Fang

Mana has been reduced by 4%

Stamina has dropped by 3%

You have received 3,000 damage

His chest was write in full view while he continued to gnaw at my arm. I sunk my arm deep into his side and twisted my hand. His fur was strong. It actually caused me light damage whenever his hair would brush against mine. But my claws in this state became able to pierce threw it.

ROOUGHH!!

He thens swung his arm backwards and the claws crashed through my face. The claws dug through the skin and peeled away quite a bit of meat along with with hit. I can feel my vision is already distorted by some of my loosely hanging skin.

I started swinging my free arm into his chest and began to open up a wound of my own. I continued tearing away at Adimar’s chest while he tried to continue tearing away one of my arms. He felt more like an beast than a demi human at this point. The pain was unbearable but I continued to open up wounds and activate fireball.

RAAHHH!!!!!!

AHHHH!!!!!!!

We continued to tear away at each other as our hp began to decrease percent every second. His hp was at about 20% and mine was at about 8%.. I don’t know why but my health just continues to drop for some reason.

I looked over at my arm and the meet from my forearm to my fingers has been torn away. Only a black skeleton hand remained. Some flesh hash had lingered in place but it was literally be picked cling by this wild animal. I then decided to activate one of my new abilities.

I then grabbed his free arm sunk my own fangs into his arm....

‘Hey an arm for an arm!’

I then activated vampirism and started to chew away through his deep white fur.

My hp wasn’t going up very well as the blood rushed into my throat it had an almost wine flavor to it. It had a kick to it and I could feel a slight increase to my health. But my health was still decreasing at too rapid a rate.

My mp was at about 4% now. I can’t die here.

I then decided to tap into my second trump card. I activated death’s grip and tapped into his pulse. His movements began to freeze. Beat....Beat....Beat..Beat.Beat.Beat beat beat beat.

His heart began to race and I could feel the flow of his blood being sent through the veins and arteries lining his body. He really was made quite similar to humans. His anatomy isn’t very different from ours actually. I then started to change the rythms of Adimar’s. I channeled the blood flow with the effects of death’s grip and vampirism and began to drain this wolf of all of his blood.

My hp was now at 12% and his was at 10%. My vision started coming back to me as I got out of the critical condition I was in. I drained him until he was at about 2% and tossed his limp body away from mine.

I staggered up as I saw that I was actually surrounded this entire time. All those who had attacked me before were now surrounding me. Only now there was also several Eis Nekos and that same blue haired woman from before.

Alysteir yelled..”Sic em’”

Everyone brandished their weapons and lunged at me. The Annunake there each leaped into my direction and were flying through the air. They each showed looks of rage at me defiling their leader.

Wooooosh!!!!!

The sound wind blowing past my face as I stopped everyones movements with death’s grip. I decided if they came to kill why shouldn’t I use death magic as well. I can’t find Hjokk or Malfius right now so I’ll have to explain later.

I was actually quite tired. This Adimar guy and those white wolves tore at me like a scratching post. My entire left arm is gone and I have no idea how my image must look. I’d heal myself but I need to use what HP I have left to end them.

Everyone then began to hover above the ground. I staggered towards Alysteir and floating next to her were Akino and Meifing.

‘Akino and Meifeng, one pretended to want to be close to me while the other swore to be a teacher....Rattle.  Not that I have a thing against killing women (rattle) but if you were to kill me then.....I wouldn’t be able to save Kaylan from this place. (Rattle)’

‘Rattle....rattle....’

I began to clutch onto each of their life forces. I remember Meifeng’s being difficult to grasp at first but I’m thinking quite clearly now. Lightning Step, Demonic Awakening and Death’s Grip.....All at once my mind is actually quite clear. If it weren’t for that constant rattling.

I gripped much tighter and those floating in front of me all began to hope for air and clasp their chests. The Annunake, the Eis Neko’s. Everyone there with a pulse was within my range of death magic. They.....are all going.....to be executed!

As I gripped around their life forces my vision began to become dark. My vision became dark. a bright light shined at the bottom of my vision and my consciousness started to fade away.

Sp: 0%

MP: 0%

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Akino’s POV

“Seriously Alphi, you should be in bed healing. That monster nearly killed you.”

“No...I need to be here for this.”

“Yes...I understand Adimar.....Though watching something like this is never good for the eyes.”

‘Yes...we had finally managed to subdue the one we believe to be an affiliate with Malthiel if not the disgusting undead himself. It took us roughly ten minutes to subdue him but the injuries we faced at taking him down were staggering. Those of the pack that had latched onto him receiving the full brunt of that black mist have been horribly disfigured. The ones who have survived are currently covered in bandages receiving treatment but it’s not likely they will all survive.’

Maybe we can get him to heal them. He did show to have healing magic along with his other abilities.

‘It’s hard to believe things came to this. But after receiving the information gathered from Alysteir it is highly likely this person is not who he says he is. He claims to be human, and yet one of the boys hands hands has been entirely torn off. Only a black undead like arm remains. After looking through some of the bones we excavated....human bones are white....same as ours.’

“Ohhh.....You are quite strong aren’t you Mr. Vali!”

Shing!

Alysteir began to dig a short dagger made of the same material of their swords into Vali’s chest. His appearance was nothing like when I saw him for the first time yesterday.

He honestly didn’t look much different than us Annunake’s. He had shaggy white hair but was much shorter than the males in our race. He however was incredibly strong. Regardless of showing a level of 165 he managed to take on the entire pack of Annunakes still loyal to the alpha Adimar. We were once the elite’s of this dungeon. His movements were odd, not like any warriors I’ve ever seen before.

But the white haired boy moved like a storm through my brethren as if we were dogs. He wasn’t large but he he was incredibly durable. Anyone who gripped onto him were tossed away and the extent of Adimar’s injuries cannot be over looked. He is the alpha, and he almost died by this man. It’s obvious the pack wants him to pay for his crimes here.....But Alysteir is the one taking charge of this situation......It was agreed that, she would torture him, to find out who it is.....But this is just....

I started to look away from the boys grizzly appearance. I remember only a few hours ago we were on floor 1. I was eating a meal he had prepared for everyone one who wished for it on floor one. He didn’t ask for payment and simply made it all himself. Anyone who was hurt or injured throughout the hunts from today were all healed by his bright touch. It almost resembled the same touch of the hands we knew most......

He even managed to heal so many of the pixie race who are practically extinct down here. They were just too small and without any powerful magic they were simply food for the devourers....Even with our presence here on floor one, deaths happen everyday. So seeing Vali save many of those who were only going to eventually become a new decoration of this place was.....

“Mmmmm!!!!”

He finally made a noise as his whole body flinched when Alysteir began to flay one of the boys fingers. His entire left arm up until his elbow was missing. His face was now had three gashes and some of the bone from his chin and face can be seen......They’re also black.....Just like this eyes were....Although, the majority of those injuries came from Adimar.

We just don’t know if this person is Malthiel but he does appear to have the same weapon. After hearing the reports and gathering data it’s just impossible for this person to be who he says he is. The black bones, the same magic. Meifeng said she never once felt a heartbeat coming off of him as they hunted together today.

After the information we received we needed to find out who these people are. It is been wildly known that their is most likely a traitor in a ranks. It is one of the reasons that Adimar decided to move away from the higher floors as he feared treachery would only end our race.

Malfius says he believes the boy has the ability to help us escape this place......Ha!....Maybe once I would have believed that sort of thing. I tried to smile but....looking at this site really is bad for the eyes. Even if he is an undead, his appearance of a boy smiling just a short while ago, now being skinning in front of me.....He hasn’t said much since he woke up. He just grinned and looked back up at all of us surrounding him.

He almost killed everyone on that rooftop. We found him and Adimar fighting one another on even terms and then the fight turned into trying to remove the others limb. It’s a normal fighting technique our kind has performed for centuries. If you take away a limb you reduce the combat risk of the opponent your taking on by roughly 40%. . But regardless of what weapon or our claws....he just kept plowing through us. Going after Adimar. Alysteir tried cutting the bone with her sword but not even it can cut this persons black bones. With a level like 150......well the evidence just speaks for itself.

Maybe in this body his powers have deminished to some extent. But he wasn’t mindful of his surroundings. He didn’t take notice of the poisining we attached to our weapons......‘One of the old spider queens venom......still quite potent.’

“Oh come on Vali. I need to you to focus.”

Alysteir then sat on Vali’s lap and started to tear his chest open. Anytime he was about to bleed out she would use a strange tool to heal him. She said this helps in her torturing. Alysteir was always.......like that.

He didn’t respond. He only stared straight into Alysteir’s eyes. He then blinked and looked up at me.

“Oh come now, we don’t want you getting distracted.”

She then had one of the Annunake scratch Vali’s shoulder. She continued to do this after every few minutes. She determined that Vali had a large mana pool. We’ve faced plenty of high class monsters in this dungeon that can do quite a lot of damage with only a little mana.

We can’t see just how much mana he has but we determine since his body is that of someone at 150 he can’t have as much. Anytime his mana would start to rise to a certain point Alysteir would have one of our brethren strike him. Our claws were blessed by the wolf god Amarok. They deplete magic and decrease healing abilities with every scratch. It is what has made us so dominate against bosses of this dungeon. Only after a few minutes the monsters mana will be gone and their stamina would be non-existent.

That must have been what happeend to him. He went brain dead when his mp hit 0. It’s something that we’ve seen from the Elkia race before. They wake up later, we used it as an opportunity to transport him to a room on floor 52.

Some wanted to just kill him there but Alysteir wanted to find out information on him. Adimar actually agreed to this as well but I can’t know why. The extent of his injuries......His left eye is gone. His chest down to his stomach has massive scars covering his body. We used as much treatment as we could but his wound is still open. We wrapped his stomach and arm up with bandages and he said he needed to be there for the questioning.

He continued to keep the chain attached to him. He said he couldn’t let this person escape if he’s what he thinks he is. If he is malthiel this could be a great opportunity to take him down. If he’s just some subject of his then we can gain any information we can off him.....And if he really is a human......

“Come on you didn’t think I was going to let you zap out of here did you. I only let you gain a few mana here and there to crush your hope later....Now why won’t you talk really. “

“......”

“What? Who are you?”

“....I’m someone from outside this dungoen. I found ....”

SMACK!

Alysteir stood up and back handed him.

“What did I tell you about lying Vali....tsk tsk”

She walked back to the table with sharp and odd torture devices. She’s used these a lot considering the shape their in. She’s the strongest in this dungeon and wasn’t always. She too use to live on the lower levels once. I don’t know what caused her to become like this but she seems to enjoy torturing people.

“Hehehe”

Alysteir turned back at the laughter. It was Vali. He just kept staring at the floor and laughing to himself.

He looked back up at us and his eyes weren’t blue anymore. They were black. Just like when the pack attacked him.

“Oh..Are you finally starting to have some fun with me Mr. Vali?”

Alysteir continued looking at more torturing devices....Did....did she already break him?

A large portion of the skin on his face has been torn away. His jaw shows his white teeth connected to a black jawbone. His left arm was missing and now a large majority of the right hand was gone as well. It was hard to look at him. Red blood was dripping down his arms dripping off his bony fingers. Blood continued to drip down his legs and made a small puddle at his feet...’....But ...but he stole that blood from Alphi. He deserves this!’

Anytime he was about to die, she would heal him. After all of the agonizing pain he never once showed a face of pain. He would at times flinch but hardly ever made a sound during the heinous acts that were being enacted on him. Most of the wounds he held came from the fight with Adimar however. His entire left arm, his face. Going toe to toe with an Alpha and he somehow managed to survive....

“No....I just think it’s going to get interesting in a minute.”

“Oh!...How so?”

She asked him nonchalantly as she started digging away at the meat on his legs.

He looked up at me, then moved his vision over to Adimar, then Meifeng. He then lazily looked over at Alysteir and smiled. He looked to barely be hanging on. I don’t know how he has survived everything that has happened to him so far. How was he acting so confident in such a situation.

BAM!

Crashing through the front door was Malfius. Flying above him was that strange bird without the level that was on Vali’s shoulder all day.

The purple bird flew in and looked around the room until her vision met with Vali’s. The eyes of the purple bird widened and froze while her her wings started flapping quickly.

“Wha...What have you done!...WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!”

Malfius’s voice yelled when he saw the extent of the wounds the pack and Alysteir had put on him.

“Oh Malfius....It’s just you.”

Alysteir didn’t seem very interested and raised her large saw towards the right leg of Vali.

ROOOOORORRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A loud roar shook the building and the ceiling began to cave in and crash into those in the room. Debris and dust began to fill the room.

Wha...who’s making that noise.

Everyone covered their ears as the sound that was rupturing our ear drums sounded like loud horns that have immobilized all of us.

I started looking around frantically and noticed the source of the sound was....the...the bird?

The sound that was being emitted by the bird was so loud that it destroyed the building we were standing it. A bright purple light started being emitted from it and it flew towards Vali..

‘No...I cant.....let....him ......escape!’

I started trying to crawl into his direction but that sound was so loud.I’ve never felt an attack like this before. It felt like my head was going to explode. ‘...What did he say about that thing.....I thought it looked tasty he said......it was scarier than he was?’

“I won’t.......let you!”

The chains covering Vali were crushed and the bird picked up the weight of Vali who couldn’t hold himself up. The loud sound continued to ring and Vali looked up at me. He smiled and glanced over at Alysteir with his same dark eyes.

“See...told you it’d get interesting.”

I used quick paw and every agility buff I had and lunged towards Vali at the fastest speed I could manage. I felt the form of Adimar fly past me and I gripped onto his tail to slingshot me.

ZAP!

Wha.....What?

Right now the image of Vali and his purple bird are standing right in front of me and Adimar, but everything else has changed. There’s a large open area. A large battle occurred here. Theres clouds and a......Moon! It looked nothing like the crimson moon on the floor we use to live on. It’s.........so beautiful.

“Wow!”

Adimar stood next to me and was swept away by the gorgeous sight in front of us.

You have bathed in Moonlight

All stats rise by 300% when under the light of the full moon

It was a buff we of the Annunake received when under the light of a moon. But it’s never buffed us so high before!

“Now....now that were outside shall we have a decent one on one?”

I turned my head and there standing was Vali. Not the same Vali I saw just a few minutes ago but one that has been entirely healed....Ho...how?

RRRRrrrrrrrr!

Adimar glared his fangs and showed we didn’t have time to enjoy the view.....‘He said outside?’ We have to work together to take this person together. With the power of the moon....we’ll tear him apart!

“VALIIII!!!!!!!!!”””

“Wha....Lilly?”

‘Huh...where’s that voice coming form?’

I turned my head and running towards Vali is a ..........an ....an Annunake?

“Alphi...tha...that girl!”

“What!.......”

The small white haired Annunake girl was running away...from......Are those Baums? Large dark tree monsters that slither across the ground were chasing her. There were at least a 100 of them all around level 100-120. Why are there so many.

The girl was roughly 300 paces away. I leaped and covered the distant in an instant and gripped the girl tightly. She was......healthy. Such a beautiful little Annunake girl but what was she doing out here? Where is here.

She looked up at me curiously and I pressed our noses and foreheads together. It’s a sign of love and admiration towards your fellow wolfman. It’s how you show your a friend.

“Eh...umm....who..who are you?”

The little girl looked up at me and then back at Vali. He too was looking at me oddly. He gave me an odd face then looked towards the encroaching monster heard. He squared his body towards them when a white flash zoomed past me and him.

ROOOOWWWWWWWWWWWRRRRRRRR!!!!

Adimar had leaped into the incoming hoard of Baums and landed right in between the monsters and me and the girl.

“Hehe...I’m Akino, you?”

“...Lilly.....Wha...Vali?!”

‘Huh...I saw the image of Vali now flying through the air. Attached to his wrist is still the chain that bound him to Adimar.

He crashed next to Adimar and stood up wobbily. Adimar continued to slash the bark easily away between every oncoming Baum while taking notice of Vali. He however didn’t face Adimar to fight him. He just held his head and looked back towards me.

No he’s not looking at me.

“HJOKK!!! You forgot one of the chains!!!”

“SORRY!”

The purple bird was now.....talking?

“AHHHH!!!”

He then turned around and starting fighting the Baums.....alongside Adimar.

“Who are these people?”

End of Chapter.

I'll start editing and redoing some old chapters now. Rate my fiction guys and tell me what ya think in the comments. What do ya think of the legendary Annunake race. Or maybe the Hldr pixies?