Hey guys it took a while on this chapter as I was trying to make everything set up correctly for what's happening next. So I waited till the next chapter was hashed out. Expect the next chapter hopefully by like Sunday, hopefully. These next two chapters were originally going to be one long one so if it feels different than other chapters or unfinished, it's cause there was so much to talk about and explain. There should be another chapter on the way soon. Hopefully this tides you over until then.   A lot gets revealed in the next few chapters so hope you each enjoy!

Again...think of all of this as my rough draft. I did say I want to go back after I finish this arc to make it all cleaner, and the story just flow better with more dialogue and what not. I also want to add more comedy in there too and make some scenes more dramatic. So remember I'm just posting my rough draft out so each of you can enjoy it and I get to hear what some of your thoughts are.

Don't forget to rate my fiction and comment! I always enjoy reading your comments.

Chapter 16:  The Away Team

  It took a long while until I could calm down Daisy. Whenever Balor touched down on this floor, all residents of the dungeon were then warped to floor 52 to listen to his warnings. He said if anyone tried to escape he’d execute those involved and to make an example of it killed Malfius, Cosmia, and another race leader known as Griphlocke. He was the huge bird like Adler I fought in the 3 on 1 duel. After he did this it enraged many of those present and many tried to attack Balor. His Fomorians then attacked and every race clamored for safety.

I can’t imagine the number of casualties. Daisy then ran away in terror and hid in a tree ever since. Whenever she felt what she called my ‘magical signature’ she flew as fast as she could to find me. She cried for a long time, she wasn’t like the other pixies, but I think Cosmia may have been a sort of special existence for them. She wouldn’t calm down no matter what I tried to tell her so eventually she said she would calm down if she could......hold my hand.

“....So what’s with all the children who warm up to him like that?”

“.......”

I could hear Sting whisper something to Akino but she only gave him an odd then annoyed look. I don’t think Sting has figured out yet that Akino and Adimar don’t speak human language.  I forget this sometimes but he’s attempted talking to them quite a bit and doesn’t seem to mind if they don’t answer back. He must hear me speak human language whenever I speak to them and just assumed they comprehend human speech.

He seems to think Daisy is a child too. Believe it or not pixies may appear child like but Daisy’s face looks to be in her early twenties. She like the other pixies are a couple feet taller than the jiji race. She also has a small yellow glow surrounding her but her wings look different than the other pixies. They’re small and rounded but also are transparent like the rest. Her’s however look like small flower petals.  I’m guessing this is why they named this one Daisy, she sort of resembles a flower.

bam

“Owe.....”

“..tehe.”

A stone appeared below my vision and I stumbled over it when my foot collided. It wasn’t there before but I’m guessing this was Daisy’s work. She like all the other pixies are adept in illusion magic and also enjoy playing games or pranks to get over their grief. I heard Aurora say it was so they can find some sense of fun in this world. They know their families who have left them would be upset if all they did with their lives was wallow in sadness. I could hear her small voice giggle when I tripped and I just decided to let it go. Her state right now isn’t a good one. Her face is covered in dirt and tears from before, it took forever to get her to stop shaking.

In all honesty, I have no idea what to do at this point. The two leaders I relied on in this place are now gone. Outside of this dungeon is growing more and more complicated. For what my plans intended I needed allies here. Whenever this dungeon is conquered it’s not like any of the residents would want to stay here so they would all wish to leave. Whenever they left I was hoping they would live in a territory under my authority. Though due to the actions of those inside this place I was practically forced to ally myself with Asher. I however don’t believe Asher will cross me now. I’m not sure how strong that guy Lestat was but considering the power level coming off that trident he must have been one of the strongest on this continent. I would have enjoyed taking his weapon but it was completely destroyed by Abgrund’s skill. Midnight Aura just absorbed everything.

Not only on myself but the 18 others present including Fenrir. All damage that was done was just absorbed and replenished by the darkness surrounding us.  I’m not sure the power of this during the daytime but during the night, it’s no wonder it’s a divine item.

I however can’t show off such items around now. From what Loki and Hjokk have warned me, it’s never a good job to show off all your trump cards. I learned that quite easily from these Annunake’s following me. They saw me fight just once and figured a counter for it almost immediately, whenever I went for my weapon they stopped me. But I won’t be making the same mistakes I’ve made before.

’Balor moved.....The only thing strong enough I can think to hurt him would be Abgrund. It was enough to pass a divine barrier surrounding Loki....Maybe it’s enough to hurt a fallen god? A god that falls has to adhere to the laws of this world, as such it’s given a status as proof. And he himself seemed to have tampered with this weapon. Hmm... I’m going to need to grow this scythes abilities as much as possible in this dungeon over the next 3 days. But the state of those in the dungeon right now might make that difficult.‘

Loki and Hjokk both warned about showing off my weapon to others. I won’t deny that is probably best in this situation. The Elliot family is looking for a masked man wielding a powerful scythe. They have connections to the inner continent. Kingdoms would move for a ancient or legendary weapon. That’s why those with powerful weapons like Aldus usually become vassal’s to kingdoms for protection I assume. If they heard about someone who had a weapon far more powerful than those that shaped their empires.....They would probably each move to kill the individual and acquire it. I can’t just pull that weapon out whenever I want to outside the dungeon right now, but inside.....I can use it as much as I want. These people only know this as the weapon of the monster who helped trap them in here.

‘Ugh things have gotten more complicated. Luckily I killed all those who saw the weapon from Aldain. How did they find out about that meeting anyway? Hopefully I can trust these Asher’s. They seemed like good people. Nothing like that idiot who showed up from Myro. He treated war as if it were a game. Was he really so powerful he was able to do that? He clearly had been through many battles. He just didn’t seem too smart, no....he just seemed to confident. Too much confidence can kill you, Malthiel is a prime example of that. I however need to learn from my mistakes and continue to grow stronger. Like Loki said, it’s not the strong or smart who survive, it’s those most willing to adapt.’

“Damn...”

“What are you going to do now?”

Hjokk then whispered in my ear after I had voiced some of my frustration over the situation worsening.

“I don’t know yet. I need to see who survived first. With Malfius gone this..... this may become difficult. I think I’m going to....Oh my guh....”

As the stench of blood and death floating through my nostrils I covered my face as I saw the devastation in front of me. As we passed the clearings of the forest of the tall trees I see a decayed and barren earth. The dungeon floor has a cleared path that looks to have been decayed and rotted. The grass looks as if it hadn’t received water in thousands of years. Just a ways away from the decay I see several large dark fomorian bodies littered throughout the battle ground that has been soaked with blood. A very big fight happened here. There are only 32 dead fomorian giants lying tattered on the ground, but the ground is soaked in blood as if it had rained down from the sky. I however didn’t see any dead bodies of the residents here. Only a large stretch of land littered with dead giants and blood from the fallen. I felt Daisy clench my hand tighter.

“What the hell are those things.....?”

Sting looked at the sheer size of the fomorian and gasped. Walking closer I can now see the images grow larger and larger. They must have been over a 100 feet tall while standing. I never got a good look at them from falling from the wall but these beasts really are large. Each of them had several long red gashes in them and their bodies looked to be in tatters. The residents here must have clamored to kill these things but got overrun. Daisy did say Balor had an army of them.

“Dark giants known as Fomorians....I was planning on hunting some today but....Things seem to have changed.”

“You were going to hunt these....?”

His facial expressions always showed disbelief. I was. It’s not like I originally planned on him surviving this place. I’m still trying to figure out what this Sting guy is all about. He doesn’t seem like an awful guy, just odd is all. Ari and my mother told me he seemed good. I guess I’ll just wait and see if he slips up, he can be an outlet of knowledge to the central continent for now. I use to think Hjokk just wanted me to learn this information all myself but I’ve come to understand she knows very little about the world itself. She apparently doesn’t come down here too often, and the vibe I get from how she spoke as if most of the god’s don’t really pay attention to much down here is all.

‘Well....I only have around 3 days left on the double experience bonus this dungeon will give me. I didn’t even come to the dungeon yesterday so I need to get all the benefits I can here. I was even going to skip sleeping but things just keep getting in the way.....Why did Balor have to make a move?’

I started walking closer to the wall whenever I noticed something moving on my radar. It was....coming from where one of the dead fomorians was suppose to be.

I stopped and looked diligently towards the dead corpse. Everyone stopping at my actions seemed puzzled but with my seriousness seemed to also stare intently at the dead giant.

There a small figure appeared next to one of the dead fomorians and started to walk quickly towards us. Wait....

“Commander Cameron?”

Akino asked. As I saw Cam’s large body he started walking towards us. As he saw me his eyes became wide.

“Be quiet!....Vali cover your face now!”

“Wha....guahh!”

BOOM!

You have been struck!

You have received 8,000 damage

Cameron just walked over and punched me in the gut.....What....the..

“I said be quiet....Now please cover your face, you too! Hurry!”

He stood over me and rested his hand on my back. He ushered Sting as well to cover his face. The blow from his fists hurt a ton. Honestly, it hurt worse than Master Fe, it hurt worse than Meifeng. ‘I didn’t know Cam was this strong. That wasn’t even a skill, just his fist did all that damage.’

I felt like my spleen had just ruptured but I had then covered my face with Loki’s mask as I saw other people now approaching us.

“Adimar?....And Akino....So you both survived too huh?”

“Yes....We’re good here I found a few stragglers but I’ll take em with me back to base.”

Cam then nodded towards the two men who approached us wearing a black uniform. They each looked at Cam then all of us. Their eyes both went and observed those present but mostly were admiring Akino. It’s as if they weren’t even looking at me hunched over like this. They each walked by after that smiling back at her. She simply stared at them oddly then looked back towards Cam.

“Cameron....What’s going on?”

“Adimar....You and I are going to have a long talk later. Vali...I need you all to come with me immediately, I’ll explain later.”

He ushered us to follow him and simply walked off before we could give an answer. His tone was serious and I could feel the atmosphere has changed. Adimar and Akino didn’t know how to respond so they simply followed behind him. Daisy seemed like she was still scared and I gripped her tighter and nudged her it was ok to go.

His back was towards us and he started to turn left before we reached the city gates. He started walking to another forest deeper into floor 52. These floors really are massive. And the races here couldn’t all just coexist on a few of the floors?

Now that I look at it Cam is rather big. His back muscles are bulging out of the thin red cloth he and his race wear. His arms are behind his back and he seems to be very tense.

“Uh...Va...Val...i..”

I could feel Daisy clench my hands tighter as she whispered....’Is she still scared? It must have been a frightening experience for her.’

“What is it Daisy?”

“Tha....that’s....no...not.....Ca...Camer...on.”

“...............”

What did she just say? My heart started to pound as my senses went on high alert. My head started to heat up. Could this not be Cam?

Daisy then flew up to the shoulder opposite of Hjokk and sat there while whispering in my ear. She said she isn’t sure who it is but she’s positive an illusion barrier has been set over this person. ‘I guess a pixie would be able to tell if an illusion had been set.’

Cam then stopped walking and turned his head to the side.

“Something wrong child.”

‘What did he say? Cam never referred to me as a child before. In fact he’s not even that much older than me if I recall.’

“...Who are you?”

At my words Adimar and Akino both glared their fangs while Sting seemed puzzled at the development.

“...In due time Vali. Now come.”

“No...I think we should talk.”

“Oh...Do you?”

Cam then turned around and stared everyone down. The woods were dark due to the shade from the tall trees. Behind him stood a rich dark forest while one of the only things shining were his bright blue eyes.

I then started to see multiple images on my radar pop up and start to advance on our position. I looked back at Cam and he simply stared back at me before turning his head to the side at those approaching.

Heheeheh yuhyuhyuhyuh

Deep echoing noises started approaching. A small figure then jumped out from the woods. It looked disgusting. On the status it says it was a Gnoll level 217. It looked nothing like gnoll’s from the game. It didn’t have a face. It didn’t have eyes either. It had a small humanoid body but it stood on all fours while having a few long hairs coming out of the top of it’s head. It was dark grey with lime green hairs coming off its balding scalp.

GUAAAHHH GUAAAHHHHHHH!

It started making a noise and then all the surrounding dots converged onto one point. I took out Abgrund and swung at the first oncoming gnoll. and landed my scythe right into its neck. It severed straight through with the power of my swing and cleaved the gnoll straight through, ending its life.

“Wah!....I need a weapon!!!”

Sting started wining as all the small animals started to jump around and lunge towards us.

A gnoll then jumped towards Stings neck. It’s face opened up as an eery looking mouth ripped open to bite into Sting.

I activated Flicker and appeared in front of the gnoll and swung Abgrund down in front of it. That’s when I noticed that it wasn’t moving.....In mid air?

It started to twitch but I could see now it’s movements have been stalled. Looking more closely I see now attached to the gnoll are very finely thin wires. It was squeezing the gnoll to the point its flesh was pushing through the openings of the thin wire.

I turned around and there standing was Cam with several gnolls also frozen in place. There are also several gnolls who have the same shiny wire wrapped around each of them.

SHRINGGG

SPLAT

Each of the gnolls bodies then burst and severed into many large chunks of meat. The wires then showed to be all over the forest and the trees. They glistened in the darkly lit forest and dripped with the gnoll’s bright red blood. While I went to observe one of the wires the lines loosened and seemed to have been retracted.

I activated echolocation and then saw that their was several other large figures in the forest. They started to walk out from the trees.

“....Cameron.....You shouldn’t be wondering around so closely to the entrance.......You know thissss..”

It was an Arachnee.  Their voices sounded much different than the other species. She looked different than the one’s I’ve seen up until now too. She had a much harder and sleeker hide than the other arachnee women. It was black and looked to have very sharp legs. She had short black hair with the length different on one side than the other. I then could see there were several other archnee women emerging from the forest and were  all gathering here. She too called this man Cameron.

He ushered them not to be concerned and tried to usher us all to follow him but it wasn’t happening. I need to know who this is now, and if we’re walking into a trap. He want’s us to leave the city and come out here? Daisy also seems to think he isn’t who he says he is.

“....Back at that again are we...Hmm...I said I wou...”

“Vali?....VALI!”

A small blue blur blinked on in the dark forest and flew towards me. It was Cyanin. Her sleek and crystalline look was unmistakeable amongst other pixies. She flew quite quickly towards me and pushed her face into my chest.

“Everyone...It’s Vali!...He’s BACK!”

Blink.

Blink.

Blink Blink blink blink

“Look and he brought Daisy with him!”

Red, blue, pink, purple, the forest began to light up as dozens of bright lights started to shine. Pixies began to flash and dart towards me and hug me like before. I must have looked like a damn christmas tree.

“Daisy!”

“I’m...so glad....everyone’s alive!”

“I was...so scared, something happened to you.”

Pixies began to crowd around Daisy as well while Cyanin then whispered to me with the other’s she was happy to see me. Daisy was in tears and began to hug everyone around her.

My eyes were drawn elsewhere though. It was Cam, he just continued to look towards me.

Boom!

The image of one of the Arachnee women jumped a span of several meters within a second and darted towards me. She then stopped and turned her head to the side while looking towards us. I was currently wearing Loki’s mask, and Sting was in Malthiel’s cloak standing behind Adimar.

Her movement’s were ridiculously fast for something her size. She’s about 2 feet taller than me with her spider body but her movements with her feet could probably match my flicker skill. She just tried to observe who each of us were then clicked her tongue back at Cam.

“Mm...he’s always so warm!”

“Not as warm as Tanin tehehe!”

“Hehehe!....Ugh....”

The pixies then saw Cam who was giving them an angry look and tried to usher me to follow him quickly. I tried to tell them no but they then covered my mouth with their small hands. They said to trust them and just follow them immediately. Cam then told the four Arachnee women with us to follow along as well. Since most of the bodies of the gnolls were in pieces I just had Akino collect the one heart from earlier. She gave me an odd look but then agreed to it willingly.

We went through the forest for a short ways whenever the scenery suddenly changed. What was once a deep forest now lies a brightly lit space where even the leaves and grass glow. A small pond connected to a serene waterfall doesn’t fit the dungeon floor around it. Cam and the others continued to walk through the pond water and then passed underneath the waterfall behind it.

The pixies continued to pull my arm and pull me in with them and I followed along. ‘Why can only Daisy see the illusion? ‘The Arachnee however stood behind us waiting for us to go in first. Some of them gave us curious looks but one of them looked directly at me. It was as if she was staring straight through my mask. Her hair was light blonde and wore a similar hairstyle as the arachnee next to her. She had short hair on one side while the other side grew to her shoulders. In all honesty regardless of the spider legs she is a gorgeous woman.....‘Wait am I into that sort of thing? No...I can’t think about that right now.’

We walked past the waterfall into what appeared to be a wall but now I can see there is yet another illusion barrier set up. What we walked through appears to be a cave entrance. There may have been over a 100 people in here. Arachnee, Reiki, pixies, even some Eis nekos are here. Some of them stared towards us and made different looks all together. Some gave us looks of anger while some just gave looks of not caring at all and returning to what they were doing.

Cam walked towards a small door built into the cave wall. He walked past everyones gawking stares and towards the door. There stood two Eis Nekos I had’t seen before. One was a guy roughly 6 feet tall and short spiky hair. The girl next to him had short blue hair that reached her shoulders. They both appeared to be in the same military as that woman but they wear a completely different black uniform. It’s different than the black ones I’ve seen from those other Eis nekos. They each have a crest on the front of their shirts. It’s the same as the one on the back of their hooded capes. It was a the skull of a cat plus two criss crossed  white swords underneath them.

They saluted Cam and gave a peculiar knock on the door. I started to look around and noticed some eyes were still on us. But they weren’t on me.....they were on Adimar and Akino?

“...Oh...Who is it?”

“For the god’s sake....Izzie open the damn door!”

Cam sighed then shouted at the door.

Chink..

Chink..

Chink...chink..

“Hold on.....There’s quite a bit of locks on this door......Just a second.........Almost.........ok done!”

Cam then just started to shake his head in frustration angrily. The pixies around us started to giggle and chuckle amongst themselves.

“My my Cameron, did I keep you waiting nya....”

Peeking out of the cracked door was a thin neko woman. She had long blue hair in a pony tail and had the same cat ears like the other nekos. She wore glasses and unlike those at the door only wore one sword at her waste, it was silver saber with blue crystals on it. She looked up at Cam who only gave a mean look back.

“Oh...and who might these young fellows be......”

Her eyes scanned who was by the door and then she smiled while twitching her whiskers. She closed her eyes and opened the door for everyone.

We each walked inside behind Cam. I had a huddle of pixies surrounding me, while I walked into the room there must have been 30 plus people inside. Many I’ve never seen before and some that look familiar. The Arachnee queen is over in the corner with a few of her guards. Her large white exterior is hard to miss. There is also a large table in here much similar to the war room I was in before, however there are boards up with paintings and writings on them all over the place. There in the center of the table is also what appears to be a mapped out design of this floor with several figurines on top of it. They all seemed to be finely carved and designed to look like different races.

Click

I turned behind me and the woman Izzie had just locked the door behind us. The Arachnee woman there behind us also seemed perplexed by this. I then turned around to survey the rest of the room.

Sitting at the head of this table, was that same grey haired Jiji that was a race leader. He didn’t seem interested in us entering. There were several Eis neko’s and Reiki crowded around the table talking amongst themselves. When they noticed our entrance they each stood at attention.

“Vali?.....Daisy!.....”

A small pink spark turned towards the table and started to run towards me. I honestly don’t think I’ve met this one yet. Beside her are also pixies I’ve never seen before. They look much more muscular than the pixies surrounding me. They even have spears and equipment on them. The pink girl flew up and towards me she put her head into my stomach and hugged me. She then looked over to Daisy and wrapped her arms around her.

“Daisy....I thought....I thought.....”

“.....”

Daisy looked at her oddly and tilted her head. She was still teary eyed from seeing all her family just a minute ago.

“It’s me Daisy....”

She then flipped her hand over and showed a very bright crimson ring on her right hand.

“Co...Cosmia!”

Daisy then wrapped her arms around the pink headed pixie with tears in her eyes.

“Wait....What?”

As I said that Akino and Adimar also made strange voices of concern as we didn’t understand what we were hearing.

“Do you see now child....”

I turned over and looked towards Cam. He had his hands behind his back and stood at attention. The way he speaks is different than any of the others I’ve met in this dungeon. His dialect and the sounds he makes whenever he says some words are just so familiar.

“.....Malfius?”

“What?”

“......”

At my question Akino and Adimar both showed looks of disbelief. How is this possible?

He nodded his head and smiled.

“How?”

“Perhaps I can explain that.....”

A tall eis neko man stood up from where he was sitting and walked towards the one claiming to be Malfius.

“Hello....I am Commander Erwin Locke. Leader of the Away team, of the Dawn Bringers Corps. “

He presented his arm to shake it. He may have been the first person in this world who has done that.  I shook the mans solid grip and he appeared to be in his late 20s. He had a very sleek look and looked very dignified.

“Yes...I’m Vali. Nice to meet you.”

“Yes... I’ve heard all about you Vali. It is pleasure getting to meet with you finally. “

Commander Locke's attitude was a very serious one. He spoke very clearly about the events that had lead up until this point. ‘Well....at least he doesn’t make that ‘nya’ sound nearly as much as the other ones.

Locke spoke about how the Away team is a group of multiple races who continue to hunt past 52 floor. They continually search for ways to push the Fomorians back to continue their journey of escaping this place. The eis neko units in this cave as well as a few other races are what is left of the Away team.

While the away team was out on a mission past floor 52 they were doing scouting on floor 59. The small villages that were just starting there were barren and destroyed by the appearance of the fomorians not so long ago. Since no one really other than the away team goes past floor 52 they thought it odd when they came across a meeting there between two individuals. They couldn’t make out their race but from what they gathered was the evidence of someone trying to escape the dungeon. The culprits were Cosmia, Malfius and they were being helped by a human from outside this place. He spoke of them talking about a meeting of the race leaders and those that could be involved in trying to escape the dungeon. When they relayed the information to Commander Locke, it became the obvious choice to rescue the two race leaders. Any and all those who have attempted to escape this dungeon have been executed by Malthiel in horrific ways. They have only met Balor a handful of times whenever they have conquered certain dungeon floors and he presents himself to tell him of what lies beyond it.

When revealing the information originally to Cosmia and her elite guard, one of the pixies proposed a body double. He then took place of Cosmia against her wishes. Cam who was also present during this meeting with the Away team offered his own life in  exchange for Malfius’s as to protect their own race leader. Malfius who was not present for this was unaware of the meeting entirely so he couldn’t object to this idea. Balor killed them at the beginning of his speeches and didn’t give much warning. It all apparently happened too fast.

“But how was it possible to switch their bodies without Balor finding out?”

“That’s.....that is because of this.....”

Cosmia who’s head was still hanging low took off her crimson ring and presented it to me. I couldn’t view much about it at all. But after reading it I could understand how it could have worked.

Pixie Queen’s ‘Illusion Maestro’ Ring          (Ancient Class)  

I couldn’t see any skills attached to it but I’m assuming it has some. She then told me that this particular crimson ring was passed down to her from her mother and the rest of her family. It has the ability gifted to them by a being similar to a god, which sets up an illusion that is impossible to see through while the illusion is active.. Though it’s cool down time for the skill is two days. These illusions however are what has kept the pixie race alive for so long. Balor acted so quickly that she thinks the illusion didn’t really matter But to have a ring that is capable of fooling a fallen god, but not Daisy? She then noticed me staring oddly at Daisy and shook her head is if understanding what I was thinking. She said the illusion that we are currently seeing is just her own magic.

“Then.....Why don’t you turn back to you Cosmia?”

Daisy then asked but she looked back at her with even sadder eyes.

“I’m sorry Daisy. We couldn’t tell everyone about the plan, we didn’t know Balor would execute those pretending to be us but.....He killed them so....so quickly....sob”

Cosmia then started to cry while looking at the floor but Daisy only pushed her cheeks forward towards hers.

“Don’t be sad Cosmia.....I would have done the same for you....Your our queen.”

The two small girls then hugged and cried with one another over the loss of their brother.

“Ohhh....I’ve never seen an Arachnee woman before......So beautiful....And oh look at these blue haired cat people?.....Hello I’m Sting....What’s yours?”

I turned to the side and saw Sting was approaching one of the Eis Neko woman from the away team. He tried to talk to her but she just kept looking at him oddly.

“Umm.....Why is this thing trying to talk to me?”

The neko girl then tried to look away as if giving him the hint that she couldn’t understand him. I guess she could feel that he was attempting to flirt with her but a lot of these eis nekos look to be quite serious military men and women....Nothing like those oddball knights from Asher.

’..Oh gosh I completely forgot how awkward that meal with them was....Truly the weirdest group of people I may have ever met in both of my lives and I feel as though I might now be of equal rank to some of those characters now.  Well....at least none of them seemed like horrible people, and the King and Queen seemed to have raised a nice child. But I don’t have time to replay the memories of those weird knights....Ugh well at least things are starting to look up wit the appearance of Malfius and Cosmia now. I’m no longer on alert and now have the freedom to think things out rationally for a bit.....’

I smiled lightly back at the two in front of me while telling Sting to can it. I then walked over to shake Malfius’s hand. It was honestly great to see him considering the circumstances.

“I must say... I did not plan on ever seeing you again child. But I am thankful.”

Even though Malfius currently resembles Cam I can tell with the particular facial expressions he does appear to share the same mannerisms.

“So Cam is gone huh? I’m sorry for your loss.”

The idea of Cam’s death affected me. He was someone I had only known for a short while but he seemed like a good person. He was even willing to switch places with Malfius here even if it meant he could wind up dying.

“Yes...If I had known, I wouldn’t have allowed such a thing. He has a wife, a child...And yet he put everything on the line for this. For me, and for you.”

“Why?...Did he have such faith that I’d be able to kill Balor?”

“You...are the first good thing this place has seen in years. It was not just faith in you being able to slay Balor. It was faith in you being able to reunite the remaining races together under one person we could whole heartedly put our faith into.”

“...I don’t understand. Why would Cam hold such blind faith in someone he didn’t even know? Are you trying to guilt trip me into helping you or something?”

“No Vali. It is because you were an outsider everyone in this room can be able to unite behind you with trust. Everyone in this dungeon can unite behind you. Because you aren’t from this place.”

“Why? Listen is it because of me helping kill Malthiel. Listen I...”

“It is because there are things much more dangerous that lurk in this dungeon than just monsters. “

Commander Locke then stepped into our conversation and continued to try to sway me. The way all of the neko’s in this room including the Reiki looked at me was much different than before. Each of them continued to look at me diligently while Locke continued talking.

“Vali...Dark Eden is a place that won’t even allow those that die here to escape its clutches. All the souls of those who have fallen in this place, remained trapped here. We do not only seek freedom from these walls, we seek liberation for all those who have fallen in this twisted hell. Balor owes us a blood debt. And we intend to pay him back in full.”

“I knew it...”

Hjokk then made a whisper in my ear before Erwin started continuing. She didn’t seem shocked at all at his comment. Why didn't you tell me something like this if you thought that!

“Those who die in this place...Don’t always stay dead. Malthiel would bring back the dead and uses them as his puppets throughout some of our ranks...Even those that died centuries ago will suddenly appear as a hero on the battlefield today. Many mistakes have been made in the misplaced faith in these puppets. It was impossible to prove this but we’ve had this suspicion for several years now. With this confirmation with Balor coming down to the 52 floor, we now have solid evidence to take action without the need for the other race heads approval.”

“...Damn.”

Balor really is a sick freak. Everyone in this dungeon who dies here stays here. Not even their souls get to move on to be with their loved ones. To me that is a fate worse than death.

“That is why I tried to place a gag order on all those present at the leader’s meeting with you the day we met Vali.. If you happened to not be another puppet of Malthiel’s and word got out that a human was actually from the outside attempting to set us free, everyone may have been executed for such talk...It is because Balor has taken away our ability to trust in this place.”

Adimar then interjected. He however said it in a polite and upholding tone. He wasn’t making an excuse for what had happened to me, he was simply saying his views before learning the truth. Erwin then continued off of what Adimar had said.

“For centuries, all those who have attempted excavation projects to leave this place have been viciously mutilated in front of the publics eye by Malthiel. For centuries this dates back. All the projects were public knowledge of the time, and always it was Malthiel who did the executions, not Balor. However 60 years ago several men from the jiji race attempted to build a private tunnel and escape. They told no one of this but eventually it got out. Malthiel came down and executed them all...They however had been digging the tunnel for roughly 6 months before they were killed. It was then that we had our first suspicions about their being a leak in knowledge to those who have trapped us here. With the intel we gathered along with Balor came down personally, we thought the word around the garrison of a white haired human thought to be Malthiel, may actually have killed the son bitch.”

Locke continued to talk about some of the strifes these people have had to go through while trapped here. It’s impossible to trust anyone in this place. It’s also why Adimar said many of his pack left to floor one. To escape from the treachery. This may have been what caused that accident on floor 44 they each don’t enjoy talking about.

“But can their souls just be recycled like that? Do the people not come back the same?”

“No, it’s not them that comes back. It’s merely the shell of their bodies, their souls are simply trapped inside. The Elkia who was my brother in law, he was one of Malthiel’s puppets. He must have died at some point in this dungeon without any of us knowing. It’s impossible to know how long he wasn’t really him. But one day we followed under his command, whenever he saw the great beasts known as Soul devourers, he told all those present the intel they were simple opponents....We walked into a slaughter. We lost...so many. I stood at the back with my brother in law leading the pack. He merely laughed...laughed at the chaos he created. It was a laugh I have burned into my memory. It was the same as the monster who wielded that scythe you killed...”

Adimar then continued to speak while all the other races in the room looked at him with sad eyes during his story. However the Arachnee  and Reiki  present hadn’t heard this story before judging by their reactions.

“When I questioned him what was the meaning of this. He looked towards me and smiled. He smiled as the creature clutched his soul and tore it apart in front of my eyes.....It was most definitely not my brother in law.”

Adimar then looked like he wanted to continue speaking but he did not. Looking at me I can see it pained him to speak about. I then looked towards the other person who helped mutilate me in this room. Akino looking towards me with sullen eyes. Her ears drooped to the side and her eyes fell to the floor.

Locke I think may have originally been telling me this story to eventually ask for my help, I think that woman at the door’s name was Izzie. If I recall Adimar here said that name just before that pack pounced on me. If what this guy says is true, it’s now hard to trust everything he says as true either. Hell, how do I know everyone in this room isn’t a puppet right now, including the small yellow girl still holding my hand.

“We know what your thinking...Those in this room are the few that have been proven to not be among the dead. Those on floor one we believe Malthiel or Balor would have had no use putting a spy towards, most of those there were cleared of suspicion.“

“That wasn’t all I was worried about. How can I just trust any you. Izzie was it?...If I recall that was the name this wolf over here said came up with the interesting plan of surrounding and attacking me.”

“ Hey!..I had no idea those mangy muts were going to swarm all over you without at least questioning you first! Those stupid..”

“Izzie...Stop talking...”

“Vali...You cannot put the blame onto the Away team. They were unrelated in the matter of questioning you. We got our information from other nekos. Izzie simply gave her analysis on the data that was provided and gave her opinion on the matter. She held no merit to what happened to you.”

Locke tried to quiet Izzie down while Adimar then interjected with trying to help her case. Is he really so sorry about what happened?

If I recall none of these neko’s were in the room the day of the meeting with the race leaders. Perhaps this team isn’t that high enough in rank to do much. They don’t seem to be lying. They’re a small unit that continues to go past the floors that have been taken from then and try to escape this place. If they were lying they wouldn’t have attempted to save Cosmia and Malfius.

“Yes Vali, our sins are our own. We don’t expect you to forgive us. Nothing can make up for what happened to you, but please don’t hold it against all those in this place.”

Akino then spoke up and then kneeled on the ground with Adimar. They stood their chests out towards me. Many of those in here gasped at this action however. Even the small grey jiji at the end of the table stood up to see this action. Akino and Adimar looked like they were accepting death. ‘What are they doing?’

Looking towards my confusion Locke then told me this is a form of submission to the Annunake. An alpha doing something like this is unheard of over the hundreds of years they’ve been in here. They were presenting their lives to me. I guess it’s about that time to decide on what to do with them. Malfius and Erwin then both spoke about the fact that the two and those involved all needed to be punished for moving without the proper consent of all the race leaders. The crime was something they asked if they could choose the sentencing for. I wasn’t sure how I felt about it, I don’t want any of these people getting off easily. They won’t feel just death. Loki said he wanted me to make this race submit to me. He spoke as if it were the same as making something like Fenrir see me as a master. Are these races so similar to animals? How can I trust them?

[I think you can trust them Vali. I believe they were telling the truth about the souls being trapped here as well.]

Hjokk’s voice began to whisper throughout my head. How is she doing that.

[I can use this as a means of talking to you through your thoughts. I think you can trust them. They’re telling the truth about the souls being trapped here.]

[First off....I would like to know how long you’ve had this skill and why haven’t you used it until now? And why do you say that?]

[It doesn’t matter to those who have already seen me talk in this dungeon. But Loki has given me strict instruction to not interfere but guide you. I can only assist should a dire need suddenly arise. But to answer your question. Isn’t it amazing that no other god’s or even Hades have found out about this place yet. So many souls trapped on middle earth by a dark god. One race is even from a divine being. Why do you think Amarok hasn’t come and tried to rip Balor’s head off yet? If he heard of the deaths of his tortured descendants would he or other gods not move to have this place destroyed.]

Hjokk continued talking in my thoughts with her odd skill. She said that Loki too was puzzled by the emergence of such a dungeon because other god’s would obviously have become aware of such a place. It would be a place were people died everyday and the souls would then  go to the afterlife in this universe. God’s like Hades who is a god over death wouldn’t tolerate such an act, as well as other god’s would have probably moved to destroy him by now. If the souls were trapped here however, no one would know of what was happening inside. ‘Why did Balor create such a place?’

Hjokk may have just been saying some of this to convince me to abide by Loki’s wishes at allowing this race to survive. I won’t deny the idea of having a race such as this under my will is something that appeals to me. I need to be able to provide a place that can protect my family. I may even need strong individuals to help me with that. I need someone I can trust, but with the bindings of Gleipnir, I don’t need trust. They’re forced to obey. Considering everything, I need a strong force to protect what is close to me. There’s war happening outside this dungeon. Having these strong races unite together with me would be beneficial. For now...I’ll leave the sentencing up to Malfius, they are still under the authority of gleipnir so anything they do cannot harm me.

When I spoke of allowing the sentencing of these two to be up to Malfius they agreed and I was then motioned to use my hands to scratch both Akino and Adimar’s stomach by Erwin. It was the ending of the ritual they wanted me to do. According to them me doing this was a sign of dominance over them and the Annunake’s way of saying they submit. Dogs do this to one another. When dogs show submission to their master or to a more dominate dog they show their most vulnerable spot, their bellies. They presented it to me and I was suppose to scratch it as a way to show I was now these two’s alpha. If I decided them to die, they would even have to obey it.  I don’t intend to make their lives pleasant at all. I will however show them I am the dominate one in this relationship, should they cross me again.

I’ll make an example out of them. I then scratched their stomach and whispered in their furry white ears.

“Regardless of what Malfius and the others decide to do with you...Your lives belong to me now.”

They both nodded seriously and didn’t refuse, they don’t look like they are wanting to try anything. They may even be truly sorry for what was done to me. Who knows they may regret those feelings later?

‘Living in such a place, it can drive a person crazy. How can you trust anyone? But I don’t intend to forget everything that has happened between us at all. I believe they too have a blood debt they will each pay in full. The rest of the wolves I may be able to make submit to me through this alpha’s actions. That woman Alysteir will not be allowed such a kindness.’

Erwin and Malphius then spoke to me about the plans for what we were going to do further. Under Erwin and Izzie’s suspicions we can assume at least one of those present at the meeting I had with the race leaders are one of Malthiel’s remaining puppets. We need to acquire information from one of those puppets as to what it is Balor is doing here. If he doesn’t have a way of knowing if people leave and enter this place, it can be possible to warp everyone outside of this dungeon. But if we move to gather everyone to escape he will easily find out about it and come stop it. We need to find all of his puppets remaining in this dungeon before we move forward.Only those present at this base have been cleared of suspicion, while those in this room are the only ones who know of Malfius and Cosmia not actually being dead.

They have determined many who aren’t puppets already.  Most of those on floor one or individuals who stay out of battle have been deemed people that can be ruled out for now. Puppets from Malthiel only started popping up several years ago. They would appear only to cause chaos to stop the advancement of further floors. They believe this was due to them being the strongest generation and conquering dungeons at a much quicker pace than before. This halted their advancement speeds drastically.

Those on floor one wouldn’t have much intel or worth to do so and those that have been deemed puppets by these people already have been strong individuals who have sought only destruction to the advancement of floors. It has only happened a handful of times but each time the individual had lead many into a slaughter or started a feud between races to stop further advancements.

The Arachnee queen and her subjects have been out of battle for a long time. Of every race, the Arachnee don’t really get along with other races. For any of them to be a puppet to gather intel would be useless. They live on a floor alone and they each have the fastest growth rate. They also have high birthing rates so many of their species were forced to live on floor 1. They tend to not look kindly towards other races though those on floor one got along well with the Jiji there to my knowledge.

They then spoke of the Jiji man in the room.

The small grey haired Jiji man was known as Pek. Even though they say not really many people can communicate with him he’s still revered as the leader of their race. However he wasn’t necessarily a race leader he is just looked up as the  genius amongst his race. According to Henly, the Jiji race don’t really have any form of government or infrastructure in their race it seems. They are just a bunch of families amongst the same race that live amongst one another. They’re essentially a race of fine artisans and don’t enjoy battle since they are so small, as such they don’t really have much power or say into the inner workings of this dungeon.

Pek was once revered for his brilliance and was the one responsible for making those canons. I’ve been seriously wanting to talk to him since I heard about this discovery. Henly told me the tale of the discovery by Pek. He had been working on some kind of ore that when heated would explode. The small metal rock then flew straight through his wall and outside his house at the time. It was then he had the idea for something I thought was quite similar to a gun. He then gave up on the idea considering it needed to be bigger to cause any considerable damage so the idea for a canon was drawn up. Truly someone in a world without knowledge of something like that thinking up ideas like this is truly brilliant. People like Einstein or Teslav didn’t have outside knowledge and later invented things that changed the world for their ideas. This little furry guy lives in a dungeon and came up with a truly  amazing idea that ultimately changed my world drastically.

He and several of the Jiji are also responsible for a lot of the architecture around here. All they have done, is for the advancement to escape this place. They even dug up and found old blue prints from human housing and used it’s knowledge to build some towns.  Regardless of every other amazing race I’ve seen in here, these little furry creatures may in fact be the most phenomenal. ‘They can make things, their similar to what engineers are in my world but their incredibly crafty. Are they just naturally smarter than other races? Why would a race that could do so much be looked down on?’

The Jiji as a race also tend to not enjoy very bright environments. Henly actually said other than the smell, lack of food and the floor one devourer’s it wasn’t a horrible place to live for them. Pek however and a lot of Jiji lived on floor 52 under the protection of the other races there. They lived their because it was much safer for their families and he was only allowed to take some of with him. He apparently lost many of his own today.

Locke then began to go over some of the targets they have identified and planned on pursuing tonight. They even had set plans on what the targets did each day, with who and even had specific times. These Neko’s seem to be very thorough.

I look at the large blocks of wood that have dark colored paint with names written out on them. Each of them are the names of those suspected of being puppets. Some of them have already been crossed out. There are honestly quite a lot on there. Meifeng is even one of them. Wait.....

“Why the hell is Alysteir’s name marked off!?”

“.........”

“.........”

Everyone remained quiet at my comment. Even the pixies quieted down. They had been lively throughout this whole time during this talk. Many of them even looked at Adimar and Akino with rage during most of our interactions from before. Each of them I’m guessing where aware of some of what happened to me. They just stood beside me the whole time. They at this comment however only widened their eyes and froze. Even the arachnee made odd faces.

Locke then spoke up. His whiskers twitched some and his mannerisms began to become more catlike.

“Though she will pay for her crimes for what she has done. We don’t believe her to be one of the remaining puppets....Nya, she is well...”

“That woman has been that way for a long time child. She is however the strongest of us all. She also wishes to escape this place more than anyone. She herself is the one who has conquered more dungeon floors for us than any other. Whenever Balor touched down it was her and her unit that allowed so many to escape the Fomorian’s onslaught.”

Malfius then cut off Erwin to speak about that insane woman who tore into me. This is bullshit!

“That could easily be a lie to set you up! She helps only to make her image look to be that of someone helping you all!”

“......”

They each just made troubled faces.

“Listen Vali, we aren’t denying it’s possible. I think what Malfius and Erwin are saying is that, Alysteir is guilty of tearing away at you...Not Balor. She’s also not someone who gives orders. She simply fights to kill things. She wasn’t always like this I’m told, but it seems this place may have already claimed her mind.”

Adimar then spoke up.  He walked over to me and made a troubled face.

“Well that won’t rescue her for what’s to come.”

“...I do not deny that she needs to answer for her crimes this time. She however is a woman who only moves when ordered to by Malaki. He is currently also on our list. I’m not saying we aren’t going to make her answer for what she has done...We only wish to go after these names first.”

“Why?!”

I then questioned Erwin at why this was so. I’m not waiting on these people.

“Should some of these people on the list be trustworthy...they could then assist us in bringing her in. She is....very strong.”

“Yah I get it the strongest of you all. I don’t think she will be able to put up much of a fight whenever I’m through with her.”

I then answered him and everyone in the room became silent at my words. Everyone looked around the room in shock at what I had just said. Then Adimar spoke up.

“Vali, do not underestimate that woman. She is frighteningly strong.”

“You saying your frightened? An alpha of a godly wolf race, scared of a thin blue haired cat girl? Your pack can’t take her?”

“....If our whole pack went at her at once, I don’t know maybe. You have the added benefit of moving wherever you want with magic, she can move at a similar speed with just her legs alone. She just moves too fast. She has multiple items from bosses she’s claimed and anything that gets within 5 feet of her gets torn to shreds.”

“Big bad wolf huh. Well you guys are gonna help me take her down then. I guess we can wait if you guys think it’s that necessary... I’ll wait and just go hunt for a while then.”

They all nodded and agreed. The neko’s and reiki present however showed a rather grim appearance.

“She really that strong?”

“We roughly put her skills equivalent to two floor bosses and three field bosses combined. She has just reached the expert stages of sword mastery and is considered the strongest one in this dungeon by a large margin. Other than the Adler race, the neko race has risen to one of the strongest races in this dungeon thanks to her sword.”

The woman Izzie then spoke up. She appeared to be something similar to a sports analyst, but spoke similarly to a scientist in game speak.

“Wait the Adler race? They are one of the strongest races? That big bird dropped easy.”

“The Adler’s are actually as a whole considered the strongest race in this dungeon. Their versatility is enough to probably even overwhelm Alysteir.”

“How is that?”

The cat woman named Izzie then became excited at my question.

“Well you see nya, the Adlers as a whole aren’t necessarily Adlers at all. It is just the name we use to classify them all since they have so many different species amongst them. Some have blade like tipped wings and fly at super sonic speeds, some are great at archery, while others have enough strength to even overwhelm a full grown Annunake in close quarters combat.”

“What? How is that?”

‘I’m beginning to think this term ‘Legendary’ title the Annunake have is starting to sound like a load of crap.’

Izzie then became more enthralled at my question and her tail and ears began to move around. She seems like Loki in the since if you act any at all interested they’ll respond more enthusiastically.

“Oh well the dead Adler king Griphlock was actually from a race of bird from legend nya....It had the head and wings of a bird and the body of four legged beast....Oh and it’s tail!...”

“That’s enough Izzie! Sorry if you seem interested in anything she says, she’ll talk your ear off all day.....trust me. Now come on Izzie, we need to prepare for what comes next.”

Commander Locke then walked over and grabbed Izzie by her tail and pulled her with him to go over plans over some of those they were going to go after tonight. I’m not sure how they plan on figuring out if they are actually puppets or not but they said Malfius may have a way.

I however would not be going with them. I will be going to level in this dungeon and hunt strong monsters for now. I only have a few days left. I will however assist in them going after those responsible for attacking me whenever they have prepared for it.

‘Could she had been talking about a gryphon? Well that would make since how it would be so strong then, it was half lion and half bird. The Adler’s could actually become quite the allies here if they didn’t seem so stubborn.’

Cyanin who was originally talking to one of the other pixies then looked at me and gave me an odd look and then looked at Daisy who was now holding my hand again. She then looked to her then darted towards me.

“Hey...Why do you keep getting to hold Vali’s hand...Vali! Wanna hold my hand!”

She then latched on to my hand with her tiny fingers and smiled. Her bright turquoise aura around her brightened as she glistened looking up at me.

“Wait...I want to hold his hand too!”

“Vali let me hold next!”

Several pixies then rushed me. Girls and boys which I found strange. They didn’t seem to think it was weird at all and were clamoring to see who would get to hold my hand. Before I could say anything Cosmia walked up. ‘Ugh...thank you.’

“Now, now everyone will get a turn to hold Vali’s hand. Everyone form a line, after I have had a turn everyone will....”

“Cosmia?”

“Oh sorry...Everyone we have to wait to hold his hand later he is going to level!”

‘That’s....that’s not what I meant’

Some of the pixies made noises a child would and flew away solemnly. They however continued to bump into each other while flying away. It kind of resembled aerial bumper cars...Really such an odd race.

Malfius then turned to me and said the pixies here are actually all quite young compared to the other races. Each of them including Cosmia lost their parents not too long ago from another floor accident. Their strongest members died and only a small number of elite pixies have remained. They each however all revere Cosmia as their queen even if she isn’t the strongest or the oldest. Which is something I found strange originally but it’s just how their race is. They don’t look at the strongest as their leader. That’s not how the dynamic with their race works.

Malfius then asked me for either Adimar or Akino since he needed to ask them questions over everything that had happened. I do need them to provide Malfius with what had happened outside this dungeon. I’m guessing he is asking me as I am now looked at as in charge of them. I can’t understand quite what that odd ritual is they made me do but I told them both to fill him in for now.

I then walked over to the pixies as if remembering something just then.

“Hjokk, did you and Malfius ever gather a lot of those purple crystals?”

“Yes, I gathered 44 of them.”

“...Geezes how many of those things did you have to kill?”

“I don’t know, 20 thousand something.”

“.......”

Calling Hjokk a monster at this point doesn’t even apply. I’m glad to know I have something like that always sitting on my shoulder. She however is against the idea of collecting things for me anymore, her reasoning is to always stay at my side after what happened. But like Loki said, I can’t rely on her. If I think about it, her fate is linked to mine. I have to learn from my mistakes, but I think I have an interesting way to make up for my shortcomings before. I’m going to take some of these pixies who have been loyal to me and take them power leveling. I think I have just the way to aid them as well as myself. I’ve been thinking up new ways to fight ever since gaining those new items from Malthiel and Adimar. Because of these items I have the ability to fight differently now. I don’t have to just be the aggressor anymore. I think with my spatial magic I can even become a new type of player on the battlefield entirely. Not just for myself...but for those I use it on.

Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

“Cosmia come here.”

“Oh...wha...what is it Vali?”

She looked up at me shyly and I could see the red light around her became even more crimson. I took out all the crystals I had bought at the shop in Aldain, I then had Hjokk take out all the purple crystals she had gathered. I explained to them what the purple crystal would do and pointed at Cyanin. I wanted each of them here in this room to take one, and to decide amongst themselves who would get the others. I also had these 4 other crystals, 2 blue, 1 yellow, one red. The yellow one would be equivalent to the one I gave Tanin while the red one would be more than that. Their mouths opened wide at hearing my descriptions of what these small magical crystals could do for them.

“I however don’t believe it will necessarily give the same abilities as Tanin. In all honesty I have no idea what abilities each of these four will give you but I believe that these will each make you stronger.”

“Ugh...but. Are you sure you want to give us such treasures?”

I nodded and she just smiled back at me. The four pixie guards behind her were green, purple, magenta, and silver. Each of them had animal leather armor and held small spears or weapons that look like an animal horn. They looked slightly older than Cosmia and each held a strong demeanor while looking at me. However upon hearing this they each looked at each other oddly. I hadn’t met any of these four yet to be honest.

Cosmia and the others began to clamor each to one another. The purple pixie then stepped forward and said that Cosmia should receive a crystal that could boost in her defensive abilities. Then the green one said maybe they should give the yellow one to Tanin to help him receive a stronger fire, or should they give it to another? Each of them clamored about how they should distribute some of them as the idea of a game over these seemed to be a bad idea to them. Tanin however wasn’t here, he and Aurora were down on floor one defending the residents there from monsters. They said Tanin has become something of a hero down there. Apparently he burned through an entire nest of those devourer’s down there with his fire. If I recall I did get an oil like substance from those creatures, fire is probably bad news for them.

I then noticed Daisy was still attached to my arm. I guess I forgot she was standing there. I asked her why she wasn’t joining the others and she said she didn’t need to be one of the ones who received a crystal since she wasn’t good at fighting. If I recall Daisy was one of the ones who actually won in one of the games to receive a mythril armor, but she gave it away after winning. It’s why I remembered her name so easily. I thought the action was amazing at the time, here in a world where people covet power this race gives it to one another like they do with their own life force. They share in everything.

The silver colored pixie then spoke up and said ‘Yah! We should give the yellow one to Daisy! Then she can become stronger like Tanin...If we each become a little stronger we will all become strong together!’. A lot of them clamored and agreed. Cosmia nodded at me.

I then grabbed the yellow crystal and activated it on Daisy without her response. The same noise came from the crystal like it did with Tanin and a bright yellow light gushed out of the crystal and showered all over Daisy. Her wings became like larger and covered in what looked like small flower petals. Her short yellow hair began to shine with a yellow glitter while the rest of her body beamed a bright yellow throughout the room. Her eye color even turned a brighter yellow than before and her whole body glowed.

She then looked up at me as if still trying to say it should go to someone else.

“WAh....But!”

I then told them all this wasn’t an option. It wasn’t for them to be able to fight, it was for them to become stronger and to survive. This world is a ruthless one, and this race is one that is strongest when it is together. If I think about it what that silver pixie said was spot on, don’t strengthen one link in the chain strengthen every link together.

She then looked at her hands and wings and cried a bit. Her wings were still see through but it looked like hundreds of small flower petals made up the entirety of her wings. Many of them then began to pick off and float beside her. They twirled around and floated to the other pixies around her. One then flew to me.

“Tehe....Thank you Vali.”

Wait what? The sound I heard from Daisy came off from one of the flower petals in my ear. She gained an ability to communicate with these small flower petals. That’s amazing. She then giggled and explained that wasn’t the only thing it says she can do now. The flower petal started spinning and bright yellow mist floated from it and onto myself and the other pixies.

You have received Sun Kissed Boost!

Strength has risen by 3%

Stamina will increase by 20 every 10 seconds.

Immunity to poison has risen by 2%

Sun Absorption is in effect. Effect of Sunlight will increase buff from the sun flower

‘Well, I guess that mean’s it’s possible to use multiple stones on someone. Woh, she found some interesting abilities too. Ha! What luck, her abilities were related to a freaking flower. It’s not all that strong but to her whole race who fight together this could be something truly strong. They are a species that can heal one another by sharing life force, when Tanin gained the ability to heal himself they even used that as a way to continually heal one another. Now they even have someone who can buff them from the back.’

Plants have unique abilities. Even though they can’t move that doesn’t mean they can’t communicate with one another. In fact plants can communicate with bugs with particular scents to lure in predators of other insects. She now has the ability to strengthen her allies, I can only imagine the type of monster that gave such a trait.

“I guess your lucky the ability came out flower related. “

“Huh! Why what does that mean?”

“I don’t know, what if you got something weird like a tentacle ability or a tail, I’m just saying it’s ironic because your name is Daisy.”

‘What? I’m not lying, the purple crystal was 1 level over the yellow one and only gave a trait and no skills. While the yellow one Tanin gave him a fire element. They didn’t just take skills with some of the crystals some gave them traits. But the skills were something they could individually increase such as the skills I gained according to Tanin.’

“...Eww....Are you saying I could have gotten something gross like that from one of those things!”

She tried to run away but I grabbed her and activated one of the purple ones on her instead. She forgot that I said every pixie in here should receive one of these purple ones, including herself. She tried to resist but a loud noise rang out and again everyones eyes were on us. Her body began to glow an intense yellow that the light in the room didn’t compare to the bright aura surrounding her. Her flower petaled wings became hard as diamond. The shapes of the petals then turned to yellow crystals that shined in their own unique light. The skin began to glow a bright yellow and then subsided. It looked to be finely smooth and had a small yellow glow to it as well. Her hair looked similar to yellow glass however it was still soft to the touch.

Daisy then made a confused look as her wings even began to take a new form. They each elongated a bit and reached upward over her head making a ‘U’ shape. She looked in all honesty pretty cool. Just like Cyanin, her skin is smooth to the touch but maintains the same durability as her wings. Now her defense has only risen by 500 so it won’t stop much, but this is an amazing start.

All the other pixies began to clap and admire her new look and she began to blush and hug everyone. She became very bright, much brighter than all the other pixies in fact. She currently had a yellow, purple, and even a blue crystal in her from the first time I healed her. Her defense now has increased by roughly 50 levels while her other stats have also increased by a lot. Mostly in wisdom and strength. While she can also still use her form of communication through her petal like skill. The petals just now have a hard diamond like surface surrounding it. She will become quite valuable to the future plans of the pixies from now on.

[This truly is something Vali. These pixies are not normal.]

Hjokk began to whisper her thoughts through my head.

[Yah, they’re called Hildr Pixies. Their potential may even be stronger than my own.]

[WHAT! These are Brynhildr’s pixies? I thought they were all gone!]

[Can you not yell in my head...And who is Brynhildr?]

[She is the strongest Valkyrie of all the daughters of Odin. She is a master in all weapons and forms of combat, and prides herself in being just as strong as a divine. In the war of the gods many divine beings had followers that fought alongside them, these things fought at her side. I just had no idea they were the same kind of pixies. They’re small  but were an undeniable force to be seen on the battlefield that changed the dynamic of the fight the moment they entered....I should tell her of this discovery.]

I continued to look at the child like pixies after hearing Hjokk talk about them. It was true, these little lightbulbs have amazing potential. They are even similar to me in the aspect of absorbing traits and abilities. Even if they have to collect rare magical crystals to do it, it’s enough to make them something truly frightening late game. You wouldn’t expect such things from the way they act.

I noticed everyone else in the room may have become distracted by our light displays up until now. The pixies however did not care and then decided the red one should go to Cosmia.

“Seriously are you guys going by colors now?”

“What! Of course not! I’m simply saying we should also give our leader who is still young something strong!”

“........”

I don’t believe them. I thought they were originally clever, they may just be picking it according to color. I’ve given up and just decided to use these crystals now as I’m not wasting anymore time with this.

I activated the red and purple crystal at the same time on Cosmia.

WOOOOOOOOHHHHMMMMMMMM!!!!!

A bright purple and then piercing crimson color flooded the entire room. The entire cave started to shake.The light was so intense  everyone in the room became blinded by it. The light surrounding Cosmia was so bright I had to shield my eyes as it would not stop pouring out from her. The power of a red crystal is not to be ignored. The power I felt leaving that red crystal felt as hot and intense as the beam coming off that idiot’s black trident.

It wrapped around her and she began to look at herself. She too had wings of diamonds but her’s actually began to grow longer and  form spikes. I could see her hair now had a red crown of diamond surrounding her head. It was large and spiky and resembled the look of ice. It even had faint frost coming off of it. The temperature in the room has even become much colder. ‘I wonder what kind of monster dropped that red one anyways.’

I looked around and now everyone else was in awe of what I was doing now. I didn’t pay much mind to them and started grabbing purple crystals and activating it on the other pixies. They weren’t even paying attention to me as they were each looking at Cosmia’s new profound look. Now that I think about it it has gotten a lot colder in here now that I’m siting next to her.  According to her, each of her stats have all risen by over 200 and she has received an increase of 850 to her intellect. Her defense rose by a total 750 as well from the two crystals. Since I didn’t want to waste time so I continued to use the other crystals on everyone else.

That red crystal was what made the price almost a 100 gold when I bought them. The merchant who sold it to me even made a comment that it was a material too difficult to work with so he got a good price in another kingdom.

‘Hmm, now I wonder if using it on Cyanin again would only raise her defense. Or would she only be able to absorb one of these crystals of the Adamantine spider....Let’s see.’

I activated it on her and her wings began to grow much larger and fling over her head resembling Daisy’s. They grew much thicker and the aura surrounding her changed to brighter and lighter turquoise...‘Yep, that clearly raised her defense. She showed me her status and even her strength has risen by some but is still less than 200. Her intellect has risen by some as well since I last saw her. Her defense however rose by another 500, she has mithril armor on and yet her status shows her defense is now slightly above 1900. I don’t know how her defense has risen to such an extent but it’s also clear now the mythril armor might be effected by the level of magic of the wearer. This one has had two purple crystals from a very strong defensive monster used on her. Her wings now even look to be even more sharp.

‘With the added affects of the mythril armor, they are going to become like little flying tanks. All thanks to Freya’s Soul Recovery. Gah I completely forgot to ask the Asher’s about this skill.’

“Hey!....Some of these skills look really creepy!”

Cosmia then yelled while looking over something with her finger. I’m assuming she is reading a skill tab. I wonder what skills she got. Tanin now is constnatly engulfed in fire from a yellow crystal and got a skill from it plus an auto heal ability. While the purple crystals only added defense by a lot. I can’t imagine what that red crystal could do. One of the pixies tried touching her and his finger turned blue as if it became too cold upon touching her skin.

“Everyone run! Vali’s crystals are bad! “

Cosmia and the other pixies began to scatter and run away. I got frustrated at this as I have clearly said I’m in a hurry and would like to go hunt.

‘Ugh...’

I then began to use my spatial magic and activate each crystal as I came across another pixie. They ran away laughing as if it  had become a game of tag for them. Some of them got to the door and flew outside. I activated my spatial magic outside the room where all the race leaders were and into the space of multiple races outside. Everyone then became wide eyed at the development of me chasing and holding down pixies before breaking purple crystals over each of them.

“AH!....He got me!”

“Hehehe! Oh no run Mauri!”

It only took a few minutes but eventually I used a purple crystal on every one of them. I even used two of the blue ones on Cosmia’s guards.  It rose their intellect and agility by about 200. Now I have 6 purple crystals left. The light surrounding each of them now looks much more dense now. Each of the pixies are now shining much more brightly making a white glow cover over the entire cave room.

After I finally finished playing games with the pixies I told them I would use the rest on those they decide to later. They agreed to go gather the other pixies and decide on that later. Cosmia gave me a very dignified look and the rest of them came over and hugged me with her in the center. She was cold at first but she started to warm up after everyone crowded around us. It was just like they had done on floor one. They each thanked me from the bottom of their hearts. This is why I enjoy helping the pixies. They’re in all honesty very simple creatures, if your nice to them...they’re nice to you. Not much more complicated for them than that.

“Wow! I’ve never seen magic like that before. Truly what did you do to all those little things?

I ignored Sting for now as I’m kind of in a hurry to go hunt. I don’t have a lot of time left on hunting in this dungeon to receive its bonuses. I plan on hunting all night. Which is why I should use my spatial magic to go home for a bit. I should tell my mother and everyone I’ll probably have to return for breakfast tomorrow.

“Vali....May I have a word with you before you go leveling?”

Walking up to me was then Commander Locke and Izzie. They looked at me strangely and told me if it was possible to come back inside for a minute, they needed to discuss something with me.

“Nya...So magic crystals can do all that nya? Well, I always thought it was only used in weapon manufacturing or magical elixers but that really is fascinating!”

“Yes...What Izzie said is true we were unaware crystals could do something like that. Tell me, could you do something similar with say a magical core? Like from the belly of a boss monster?”

“Wait what? Aren’t they essentially the same thing?”

‘If he’s talking about a magical core. He may mean something similar to the core I received from Malthiel.’

“Well not exacto6 nya! Magical stones are simply crystals packed with magic to help a monster control large amounts of magic they wield. While a magical core is essentially a collection of the monster’s magic but some of their lifefroce as well from after they die. It is what remains from monsters who are classified as boss type’s and have overwhelming high magical affinity in them that when they die it all gets stored into one place. “

‘Hmm, I did’t know that but if what they are saying is true a magical core is essentially similar to a crystal. This may be something similar to Malthiel I could probably eat it.’

Erwin then handed me a large black egg with bright purple veins surrounding it.

“This came from a monster that was pretty tough to take down. It took the entire Away team  to kill it, but we essentially got lucky.”

“So it was strong?”

“Not really, it’s lack of defense is what ultimately did it in. But the things it summoned were damn near hard to deal with. It was a high class dungeon boss on floor 54. It could summon hordes of ghost knights that were each immune to any and all physical damage. They however did have a slight weakness to magic.....Well we couldn’t find any way to use it in anything but maybe it can become use to you.”

I then grabbed it and observed the dark egg. It still felt, alive. I took a bite of it in front of them. They each didn’t however seemed surprised. I’m guessing Adimar and Akino have already discussed with him what they saw outside the dungeon, and how I acquire abilities. They however don’t know I am a blessed being. I assume a Magical Core is essentially similar to the core from Malthiel and doesn’t have a 24 hour timeline to absorb the skill. It’s not even a heart in that it has bits of the monster’s life force dwelling inside of it.

Until I ate the whole thing a skill finally appeared.

You have learned a new skill!

Dullahan Creation

You have risen in darkness resistance by 3%

I activated the skill and there appearing in front of me were two large dullahan knights. They were two heads taller than me and carried large square shields. They each had large claymore type swords in their hands and didn’t move an inch. The two dullahns resembled ghosts but both shined in a dull, light purple glow. Their heads were detached from their torso. Their shoulder pieces were detached from the gauntlets that held their weapon and shield. They however stood there with each of their limbs hovering next to each other.

“NYA! Look at this! It’s incredible! They look different from the ones we faced but wow!”

“Izzie......Ugh, well that surely is incredible. Clearly your uses keep increasing. Your a good ally to have Vali.”

Izzie then began to inspect the ghost Dullahans beside me. I landed a punch into the shield but they didn’t budge an inch. They also didn’t appear to be sentient. I tried to create another dullahan but the amount of mana I needed to use was close to half just to create another one. The skill cost says it’s only 15,000 mana to use the skill and 200 mp per minute after that to keep them active. I guess even with the extent of magic manipulation I can’t produce more dullahan’s efficiently without raising the skill. It’s just too much of a cost. Still...this skill will become very useful to me.

I thanked them and Izzie didn’t pay much attention while she continued testing out the ghost knights. Erwin only just shook it off and said to think nothing of it. Due to my assistance with them they wish to help me as in return.

I then activated Demonic Awakening. I even activated Toughened Exterior and Abysmal Mist by only a small amount. I looked at my mana and currently it was only going down by 20 mp a second. Other than the initial cost for all of the skills my mana is hardly going down at all. In my demonic awakening state my mana pool has also increased by another 25% making my availability of magic much more than before.

‘Interesting...I can keep all of these skills active for quite some time. This isn’t just my own passive buffs in mana recovery per minute...It’s got to be the Infinity ring. The ring on my finger gives a high many recovery along with possibly the reduction to magic cost for skills. I first noticed it whenever I would activate a skill and not as much magic would be used.’

I however can’t see anything about this ring, I should have a guy like Pek look at this item for me later.

Now I can keep all of these skills active for a long time. That along with the effects of the midnight gauntlet I can now fight differently than I have before. I can even use my spatial magic to make myself or allies appear anywhere on the battlefield of my choosing....‘I’m becoming dangerous but I can’t get confident. With the wars outside and the mad god inside, I have to continue to get stronger.

I then had Akino give me the heart from the gnoll and also took out the heart from the farmer.

You have gained a new skill!

Pheromone Excretion

You have gained a new skill!

Farming Beginner Level 1

‘Hmm, the farming ability I get but Pheromone Excretion? Pheromones are chemical hormones that are secreted in sweat and are assumed to affect the brain in terms of sexual arousal. I got this from one of those gross things? I don’t even want to activate that here of all places with everyone around. Who know’s what it would be like?’

After hearing about Daisy’s new abilities Commander Locke asked her if she would be able to help them in communications through their missions over the next few days. She seemed shy about it but eventually agreed when Cosmia said it was a good idea.

I however wanted to take Sting, Adimar, Akino, Cyanin and Cosmia to go level with me. Cosmia’s guards insisted on the protection of Cosmia so they wanted their sister Vale to join us as well. She was the silver pixie. She now glows in a slight glitter and shines in a bright and platinum light whenever she’s happy. Her hair is however longer than the others and she keeps hers in a pony tail. She was one of the elite pixies ordered to guard Cosmia after each of their parents had died. She was also considered to be one of the strongest of the pixies until Tanin and Cyanin gained their new abilities

I decided then to leave Sting and take along Vale. He seemed however completely ok with that and continued to try to talk to some of the people there. I honestly just let it go, they can deal with it.

I was originally only going to take 5 people with me as Dark Aura would not protect more people than 6. But  several members of the away team said they would come with us as escorts. Malfius would also be working with the rest of the away team in finding and questioning people who are possibly some of Malthiel’s remaining puppets.

They were immediately promoted due to their new unique traits. Cyanin was to become a body guard to Cosmia while Tanin would become stronger while protecting those on floor 1 with Aurora for now. This pixie Vale however appears to be decently skilled with a spear for a pixie. Now she even has a much stronger added defense. Each of the pixies here have at least gained 50 levels in added defense for a common human so this should help, but if it all starts to go south I’ll just use my spatial magic on them.

The Away team wanted to pick a location that wouldn’t have others who could potentially find out who we are, we needed a location that no one would be.

I then decided the perfect location to go level. The few in my party did not make a very nice smile towards it.

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

“Everyone keep the formation tight. You two go set up a grid of your spider thread around us. You two scout ahead!”

The one laying out the orders was not me. It was a reiki man. He had long white hair with black bangs and bright blue eyes. The tension of everyone currently was high. We weren’t in safe territory. Currently we were on floor 63. The floor where the first fomorians were sited. The floor where I’m sure a lot of them will be. We had to use a warp key given to one of the race leaders to travel between floors that have been conquered.

He looked like a pretty boy but his muscles were dense. His level was 265. Those in his group were around 20 to 30 levels below him. I was honestly amazed whenever the Reiki guy first introduced himself to me.

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

“Hello there! Might I shake the hand of the guy who whooped my sisters ass!”

‘Huh?’

“Hehe, hey how’s it going. I’m Ollierion, Most folks just call me Ollie. I’m a Captain in the Dawn bringers corps and Meifeng’s older brother! I heard you gave her quite the whooping.”

This Reiki was the brother of Meifeng. I also found out another interesting detail from him. Their father....Was Malfius.

‘This makes my revenge plans for these people seemingly difficult. But my friendship with Malfius will not make up for what has happened. He understands the weight of what they’ve done. I plan on paying back Meifeng for what she did regardless of her intentions or who she’s related to. I may even make it to where they are never allowed to escape this place.’

“ Yeah, it’s nice to meet you I’m Vali.”

“Oh I know. Father told me everything. Might I say, for the first time in years I can finally feel my blood start to boil again. All because of what you have done. Living now, these are truly the days of our redemption!”

‘He seemed quite excitable. He too seems to have this misplaced trust in me. I did not kill Malthiel, I simply assisted in his death. But I don’t believe they all care about that. Malfius said the reason Cam put so much faith in the idea of me was to have someone the rest of the races could put their faith in. Someone who was in no way a puppet of Malthiel, but someone from the outside, unrelated but only wishing to help. They believe with the death of one of the ones who trapped them here there is a possibility of escape.’

“You seem to have a lot of faith in me too...”

“Well why not? Wouldn’t be here on floor 63 if we didn’t. You managed to take down Malthiel, gave the leader’s council a piece of their own medicine, and even got ol’ alpha Adi to submit to you. Surely, these are interesting times!”

He just started marching off happily while laughing to himself.

“So Dawn Bringer’s huh?”

‘I remember this was the second time I’ve heard this word.”

“It’s what the Eis Neko’s named their swords. The weapons that will bring forth the dawn for us all. It is also what they named their faction. We are actually a small unit that stemmed from them actually, but we are the only groups who continue to fight past floor 52 currently...The Away Team”

“To the DAWN!”

Several of them began to raise their hands up in an odd salute. They brought their fists to the air and raised them as they continued to march forward.

I then looked around at the small unit of the Away team. None of these members were present during the leader meeting. They were away fighting on higher floors at the time.

He had two eis neko’s with him as well. They each wielded the same twin swords at their sides. Ollie or however he wishes to be called, wielded a massive Guan dao that looked to be enchanted. It was a large pole type weapon with a curved blade similar to a sword on its edge. It was large but he had it resting easily on his broad defined shoulders. Their was however two other reikis here who had bows and arrows. The two arachnee woman also in this unit who came had twin spears but they are mostly used for recon or crowd control missions.

I told each of them whenever we encounter a monster to stay back behind me. This was not only for me but for them. We formed two parties of seven. We were going to try power leveling. But I guess Hjokk didn’t count in our party system so 6 for us. I wouldn’t need to use the Dark Aura for her but I will leave her with Cosmia. Cosmia and the pixies have always tried to pet Hjokk calling her pretty. She keeps trying to imply to me she isn’t a bird but I’ve only told her that was her fault to begin with.

Before leaving my shoulder she pecked at me.

If things get too dicy I’ll simply use my spatial magic to warp us all out of here before Hjokk would have to use any emergency maneuvers. I won’t do something to cause her to get too involved. She says since this is for myself to grow stronger she won’t just jump in. But due to the rules of the treaty, I doubt she can help her champion defeat something like a dungeon boss. Hell she doesn’t even know just how far she can go, that’s how obscurely it was written. I’m not even sure how it’s enforced, but she does assume she may be forced to get involved if Balor were to appear. If I remember she was attacked first with Malthiel.

I then told everyone the plan and explained the details of the aura that I was going to use to surround them. I explained how we would fight. I wished that I could use Midnight Aura but it only works at night. I told them not to engage until I gave the order. All the plans of the formation were set until Ollie started to interrupt.

“You just said ‘Midnight Aura’ only works at night correct? Is that gauntlet anything like other dark attribute related items?”

“....I don’t know, why?”

Ollie then looked towards one of the arachnee next to him. Now that I notice many of those in this unit seem to have many different types of peculiar items on. They don’t just use their fists like the other Reiki, or common twin swords like the other Nekos. They use the weapons they’ve forged and items they’ve acquired in this dungeon.

The arachnee with short black hair then told me something that completely changed how I was planning on fighting today.

“Are you kidding...?”

She shook her head at me and smiled while describing the affects of the ring on her finger. I couldn’t believe what she had just said so I had to try out something.

“Midnight Aura!”

A large dark aura then surrounded all of us. Not only those in my party but I could with those in the other party as well. How is this possible? This floor isn’t greatly lit, it’s similar to a swamp but we appeared only in a corner of floor 63. Even outside this dungeon it was daytime.

‘Incredible....What the arachnee had told me was that her ring had a darkness attribute to it that would give buffs in the night. They found out that in this dungeon, all items with the darkness attribute gives buffs at all times through day and night, regardless of the time. I then remembered in the game Loki created, the same rules applied. Inside a dungeon, all darkness attributed classes like assassins would receive buffs at all times in dungeon. It buffed their darkness attributes as well.  This also applied to all monsters in the dungeon being nearly twice as strong than the ones right outside. It made being a dark related class so strong for fighting in dungeons.

I simply forgot about it because I figured the game didn’t apply in this situation. But Loki seemed to have made the game more similar to his world than I thought. ‘ That means Midnight Aura which can only be used at night can work 100% of the time I’m in here. Now we can hunt to our hearts content in this place. Balor really shouldn’t have given such interesting toys to Malthiel.’

The darkness aura is thick and solid. It can absorb any and all attack and will continually replenish itself. It is as powerful as it is during the night. I then took out Abgrund and the aura surrounding us even began to increase. I forgot the scythe benefits all dark related magic. Malthiel really was a cheat himself. The barrier surrounding us is now three times stronger than it normally would be.

‘ It increased it’s originally capacity by 200% due to the effects of this scythe. I wonder if the effects will grow when I unlock other tiers?’

“Oh...Things are surely interesting with you around!”

“Ooooh. Look Vale!”

“...Mm it’s like a warm blanket.”

Ollie proclaimed his astonishment while observing the dark aura surrounding him. While Cyanin and Cosmia continued to talk nonchalantly.

BOOM!

The ground started to shake.

BOOM!

Another tremor. Where is it coming from?

BOOOOOM!

“Somethings coming!”

One of the Arachnee started pulling on her wires and yelled.

ROOOOAAARRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!

You have heard the roar of the Fomorian!

You have been stricken with fear! Due to your resistance you have lessoned the effects of fear.

Strength has been reduced by 40%

Agility has been reduced by 33%

Ability at holding a weapon has been decreased by 12%

Just up ahead from us the two reiki that went out scouting jumped out from the large trees and began to run across the soft dirt.

ROOOOAAARRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!

A massive 30 meter fomorian then pushed the trees down in front of them and swung towards the two running away. They then split apart from each other and started sprinting across the thick swamp water. The swamp water behind them sprayed behind them as they ran for their lives. They moved quickly.

CRASH!

A large arm swiped towards one of the reiki running back into formation as another Fomorian showed itself. He jumped towards a tree and used it as leverage to launch him forward. He continued to run back into formation.

The other Reiki woman then began to jump towards the soft dirt in between us and sprint towards us. Just then a large shadow towered over her.

YEEHEEHEE YYYAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

Another 30 meter fomorian jumped on all fours towards the reiki girl. Their speed was unnatural for their size in this swamp.

BOOOOOM!!!!!

A large crash rang out as the sound of the fomorian crashing into the ground. Water began to spray around and a mist began to float into the air. The fomorian began to look at it’s feet for the reiki below her but was troubled when it couldn’t see anything there.

“Ha..ha....thank...you...”

I had activated my spatial magic and warped her to our position. I then did the same for the other reiki running for his life. Now that were in formation.

“ Stay back...Dark Sever!”

YYEEEEEAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!

An earth shattering cry filled the dungeon floor as a large beam of dark light flew towards the oncoming giants. The horizontal slash flew towards the three fomorians severing their torso’s in one swing. They in no way tried to dodge the large dark slash coming towards them and severed each of them. This however did not kill them all. One died and the other two began to crawl towards us.

Your Level Has Risen...

Your Level Has Risen...

Our levels slowly began to rise. Everyone then voiced their awe in what I had done. All other than those who have seen it.

“Such power!”

“Vali’s amazing!”

“Wow!”

“Their wounds aren’t healing....”

“ Everyone shut down the other two. Surround it and kill it. Don’t allow it to grab you. Regardless of this barrier I don’t want any casualties today!”

Ollie then barked orders and we each ran towards the other two Fomorians. The Away team surrounded the two fomorians and within one minute the beast had died. I have no idea what they did but it wasn’t just the neko’s who took it down. They let the Arachnee get close to them and bind them up while the others began to sever at the giants vitals. Ollie ended one of their lives by crashing his weapon through one of their skulls. The power coming off the tip of the blade cracked through the tough fur and I think it’s due to the help of the aura surrounding him to pass through. Even he seems amazed at his new found power.

They however never gave the fomorians a chance to lunge at them. Regardless of the barrier they fought in a way to stay alive.

Your level has risen!

Your level has risen!

Your level has risen!

Everyone’s levels continued to rise. The most levels someone gained was actually Cosmia. She and Cyanin both gained over 20 levels. Even if they didn’t attack any of the fomorians. I had gained 5 which is only due to me having double experience being an outside discoverer. Cosmia and Cyanin are just such low level. Vale originally was 107 but now she’s 116. It was a good idea to bring them indeed.

I walked over to take out two hearts from the dead beasts.

“VALI!”

BOOOOOOM!!!!!!

A large shadow appeared overhead and within a second my body was grabbed and thrown out of the way.....Akino?

BOOM!

The image of her body was then sent flying. Her body crashed through into the rock wall behind her that was connected to the Mountains of Jheroki. The barrier surrounding us took a hit and roughly 5 percent was taken off the barrier with just that attack. However within just seconds the barrier then rose again back up to 100%. None of her health had gone at all. She huffed and puffed and got back up.

‘Why did this girl jump in front of me? Doesn’t she know about the barrier. She seemed to have forgotten about it as she’s looking at her body in disbelief.

I then warped her back into formation. The 10 second cool down for dark sever was over and I activated it again this time splitting the fomorian in half.

Your level has risen!

“Sorry...I forgot about the barrier, seeing those things brings back bad memories.”

She then drooped her white ears and looked away from me. Her long puffy tail even curled up under her legs.

“This isn’t going to make things better between us or anything you know.”

“Yes...I know it won’t. And I doubt I can make up for it with my own life, but I wish to try. If you wish to end our lives you may. But you are our alpha...We will remain standing at your side.”

She did not seem to be trying to sway more or lie. I guess not even I know what would happen if one of those giants tried to eat one of us with this barrier in tact. On all fours those large beasts can cover a very large distance whenever they leap. It’s much more than I previously predicted. She looked away from me and then stood towards our flank.

ROOOOARRRRRRRRRR

Another fomorian then ran on all fours towards us.

I then activated Dullahan Creation and had my two ghost knights stand at my sides. I told them to stand in front of the Away team for added protection.

‘Seriously what kind of ritual was that I did with them? She has not been able to look me in the eyes since she found out I was human but she’s even trying to save me now? I’m not going to lighten up on their punishment even if they are sorry though.’

BOOOM!

A large explosion hit the large fomorian from the side.

I turned to my right and saw one of the reiki had shot some special type of explosion arrow towards it. The blast was barely enough to burn past the tough dark fur. The wounds then began to heal almost immediately.

These things apparently can heal their wounds quite easily but I haven’t seen much of that. It must be due to this scythe. It did belong to one of the wardens of this prison.

I then appeared over the side of one of the fomorians and tore at it’s shoulder while also activating Abysmal mist. It felt like tearing through paper. The intense feeling you get when tearing meat with Abgrund is mildly addicting. The large limb then was torn off the fomorian and it crashed into the swamp below. It then began to turn around to grab at me with its other arm. He was then only engulfed by the large cloud forming around me. It then ate away and ripped his body apart.

Yah...If I had this scythe out whenever I fought those wolves, there would have been no chance.

ROORaah gaggagagg

It then hit the ground and was then surrounded by members of the away team and and then killed. The eis neko’s on their squad move similarly like other acrobats. They along with Ollie were the only one’s who could do any real damage other than me.

ROOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRR!

HEEEHEEEHHEHEHEE!

BOOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

“Ugh, what is that?”

Ollie then noticed that the roars were much louder. Loud eery laughs can be heard screeching through the swamp. It hurt the eardrums upon entering them. Looking in the distance of the foggy swamp I see what looks like the trees moving. I then look even higher up and what seems to be walking our way is a heard of fomorians. Maybe 30 or 40 of them. A large heard of Fomorians must have heard all destruction from Abgrund and decided to come see if it’s food.

Well we do have Midnight Aura. But can a skill like that really help if these things try to grab and eat any of them?

“Dullahans! Shields up!!”

At this they each raised their shields to their heads while also continually holding their large claymores forward. At my comands at standing in front of the away team they don’t even budge at the oncoming heard. They don’t have sentience so they follow orders wonderfully.  This should aid in protection for now, if their shields and body have 100% physical damage resistance then the Fomorians might not even be able to hurt them.

I’ll need to use my spatial magic with everyone efficiently during this. If things start to get sour, I’ll just warp everyone outside.

‘There’s too many of them. I need to wind their numbers down.’

They began advancing towards us and I noticed many of these fomorians were over level 500. They were much larger than these too. Fomorian’s I’ve noticed aren’t at all smart monsters, but they aren’t something I can call slow for their size.

The ground continued to shake and tremble at the advancing giants. We all remained tight in formation.

The fomorians began to get closer and I activated my spatial magic to appear over them. I had to drop from high up since even on all fours these giants are still too big.  I then activated a skill I have been waiting to use for quite a while now but while I’m in this dungeon, I should raise my mastery with such a weapon. Even in the mist of all of these dark giants . With Midnight Aura Aura, Demonic Awakening, Lightning step, Toughened Exterior, and Abysmal Mist all active I dropped in between all of them with Abgrund. A dark black cloud descended behind me and  I could feel time slow down to an almost stand still. These things can heal pretty easily other than with a Dawn Bringer or Abgrund. It even halts their healing ability until they end up dying by everyone else. With midnight aura surrounding me I activated the skill.

“Wrath of Balor.”

An intense black glow began to pour out from the miasma surrounding Abgrund and centralize towards the base. I could feel the intense magic energy was enough that I was in all honestly scared to use it due to the after effects. My hands began to shake pointing my scythe but I could feel Abgrund almost whispering to me to use it. To use it’s power. To feed it. To feed myself. To take everything away as my own.

‘Feeeeeeeeeed!’

I then pressed the base of Abgrund onto the dungeon floor.

CRAACKKKK!!!

Crack

BOOOOOOOOOOM!

AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A loud deep scream centralized along with thousands of screams from others began to cry out from Abgrund and everyone began covering their ears. The ground began to decay and rot away while it then rippled and tore apart. The walls even the ceiling began to fall apart and crumble away. It felt like the entirety of Jheroki was crumbling away. It was then that I regretted using such a skill.

A dark intense pressure began to erupt from underneath Abgrund and exploded the floor below us. It’s as if the ground became dust and decayed right there. The current from the blast split across the dungeon floor and broke it all away.

A large crack on the ground ripped towards the Fomorians and they fell into the darkness below. Darkness began to flood into the floor and everything became pitch black. Everything...Covered by the darkness the continued to flood from the scythe and surround us all. Nothing could be seen in the entire floor. Only crashing sounds of everything being absorbed and eaten away by darkness.

The feeling of myself falling and I could hear the sounds of everyones screams. They however could not drown out the sounds of the cries coming forth from the scythe. The pressure continued pouring out until the entire floor was covered in darkness.

I looked up at midnight aura was still active. I activated Eclipse view and heat signatures of everyones life force began showing. The pixies looked much different as their life force was the color that surrounded them naturally, Hjokk looked like a small purple star, but she shined much greater than the others.

I activated my spatial magic and began to grab onto them. We then linked arms and continued to do that throughout the darkness. We continued to fall but we did not know for just how long. I could hear the sounds of some screaming but whenever we would appear and lock arms they would quickly catch on and latch their arms together. I could even feel the Arachnee shooting their webs to each of us to keep us in tight. The away team were quick learners.

We gathered everyone from both teams and held on to one another as the surroundings around us crumbled away and all that surrounded us was darkness.  

The debris from the floor above us I could hear cracking and breaking apart. I warped us to a higher location and we continued to fall. The floor had been completely destroyed and engulfed in darkness. I looked into the distance and saw several of life forces through the pitch black dungeon fade away as if they were never there at all.

With Midnight Aura surrounding us we fell. The three pixies then shot bright flares of their spark towards the ground that cut through the dark ness surrounding us. It hit the debris on the ground.

The arachnee then began to throw as much web as possible out of their fingers to make a bed to catch us as we fell towards the floor below.  

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

Effects of Midnight Aura have been canceled

Cough...Cough...

I looked up and still surrounding us was a thick darkness. I however could see a feint light pouring in from the sky. Or no the ceiling.

This is a world where light and darkness can coexist. So the pitch black darkness surrounding is being split in half by the light pouring out from above. I looked through and I could now see towering above us the walls to the dungeon have been cracked and destroyed. It has broken out to the outside of the Jheroki mountains and the light from the sun is pouring into the dungeon for the first time in its history.

I stood up over the bed of webbing that was created for us and looked at my feet. All those that were with us were uninjured. The midnight aura surrounded and protected all of us from the attack of the skill while the webbing made a nice cushion for the fall as well... They each got up and looked at the devastation surrounding us.

The rubble filled up around and underneath us that spread across the entire dungeon floor. I glared on my vision and we were currently on floor 62. Looking up the sky to this floor looks broken and extends much higher up than the previous floors. It doesn’t look like a floor at all after that attack. It’s been partially destroyed. But floor 63 is completely gone.

Your level has risen!

Your level has risen!

Your level has risen!..........

Notifications continued to blink for what felt like a minute for all of us. I looked at the experience we gained and I was shocked my level had just increased by 44. ‘What?’

Everyone else was also staring at their status’s in disbelief.

“Wha....what happened?”

“I think we all survived the fall. Status?”

“Everyone survived sir...We are currently on floor.....sixty.....sixty two? “

".................."

“So that last attack destroyed the whole floor?”

“Not just that....I think floor 64 might have also collapsed as well. Just look at this mountain of debris we’re standing on. “

The away team began to clamor to one another. I continued to look at the tremendous amount of experience I just gained. It was in the 9 digits place. It should have been distributed between the party system right? Regardless if I get double experience or am a blessed being this is ridiculous. My Dullahan Knights are now also missing.

“...........”

‘Did everything on floor 63 and 64 really collapse onto floor 62?’

"Look at what he did. Malfius was right....we can leave this place."

"Amazing!"

The away team then began to look towards the light shining in from the whole high up on the mountain wall. The light shined down cutting through the thick darkness and warming our skin. Looking towards each of their faces. I can even see tears in some of their eyes. Each of them smiled and looked at one another. The possibility to leave this place had existed, they saw it right before them in the symbol of a large whole in the wall.

"Ha....There's the dawn!"

"It's....beautiful..sob"

Ollie began to smile while the others continued to bask in the light. Even the arachnee who don't show emotions as much as the others couldn't help but cry at the sight of the true sunlight their races have been depraved of since birth. She then turned to look at me and smile politely towards my direction as if saying with her thoughts 'thank you for this.' They have lived a long life of pain and struggle, getting signs of good news comes around rarely.

“WOH!....Cosmia....Look I’m level 94 now!”

“Tehe..Well I got you beat, I’m 98!”

“I got you both beat...I’m 154.”

The pixies began to dance and clamor to one another. The light surrounding them has gotten increasingly brighter than before. The Away team then looked at them in half amazement. Akino and Adimar didn’t seemed too surprised however. Just speechless.

“Vali, I know we just started hunting but we will need to leave soon.”

“Why’s that?”

Olli then walked up to me with his weapon now shouldered again. He warned me that increasing your level past a certain point without rest is dangerous. You will burn through your stamina at roughly 5 times the normal rate and can be very dangerous in such an environment. After resting you will then gain the appropriate stat gains from your large level increase. They were amazed at such a development for them but they needed to get back and speak to their commander about what has just happened.  Even if it cut the hunt short they too received some moderate level gains as well. They must be doing this for those in my party. ‘I guess this world has some limitations too.’

ROOOOOARRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

KYAAAAA KYAAAAA KYAAAAA

SSSSSsssssssssss SSSSAHHHHHHHHHH

Appearing before us was a large heard of maybe 50 fomorians. To our right....

‘Is...Is that a Hydra?’

There slithering up was a very large 6...7...no 8 headed hydra.

Each head was a different color than the rest. They were each damaged severely and even a few of its heads had been crushed or severed. Each and every one was slowly healing and repairing the damage that had made their body look in such a horrible state. The health of the beast slowly got back up to 100% within a few seconds. It could even be faster than the fomorian’s rate of recovery to repair limbs so quickly.

’..Such an interesting ability.  Each head has a small crystal imbedded into them....4 blue, 2 yellow, 2 purple.’

I then turned to my left and there was a large snake like monster. It had strong looking outer shells but a lot of them looked to be heavily damaged.  It grew and grew until it towered almost as tall as the fomorians. It was long and covered in sparks of lightning shimmering and coming off its broken and destroyed flesh. It’s health however was at around 45%. It even had an overly large purple stone attached to its head.

“These must have been the two floor bosses that fell.”

“Damn, we are so screwed.”

The away team began to look at the approaching enemies and widen their eyes. I just now remembering that Midnight Aura is not in effect need to make a move. I however can’t resist such an opportunity. That hydra, it’s level is 497 and its title is King Hydra. It has a small crown next to it’s name telling me it’s a boss. In the game a king hydra was a boss even amongst bosses, but I’ve never seen one that looks like that.

Since it’s a boss monster it will be much stronger than a normal one at that level. The hydra even had multiple magical crystals imbedded in each of one of its heads. It’s abilities in all honesty make me not even think of the fomorians and the other boss monster right now. Each crystal could have tremendous effects to the pixies, and killing all of these monsters here will make everyone rise in a lot of levels.

Each head is breathing a different element and snarling at us angrily. Not only does this thing probably have a heart for me , I can’t even imagine what abilities they could gain from those crystals.

Everyone began to look at my serious face and I thought everything over. I activated lightning step and thought out everything. I thought out leaving, I thought of fighting. I thought of how to handle this.  Things were moving much slower but not slow enough I had a lot of time to myself. Looking around everyone was staring at me in a much slower state. They each wouldn’t be able to go very long. But if we work together maybe we can take down these monsters and take home a bigger prize....‘Hell I bet if those hydras regrow heads so quickly, they would regrow the magic crystals too....That damn thing would be a fountain of gold!’

If only I had midnight aura, too bad the skill got deactivated by the light from the outside...Wait!.

I then smiled to myself and deactivated lightning step. I then activated Dark Aura and a similar dark aura surrounded us again. It worked even after using Midnight Aura, it wasn’t nearly as strong but it was enough to cover those of my choosing. I selected some of the members of the Away team and Adimar and Akino. The others then stood next to the pixies and Hjokk put up a small barrier of light to surround them all. I guess she can at least do something of this much. I plan on using my spatial magic a lot in the next few minutes for all of us.

“Vali...Why do you wish to continue to fight?”

Cosmia then asked and I told her my intentions. That hydra slowly growing closer could be incredibly valuable, those crystals could make them very strong. Each of the pixies then made a determined face and asked me if they could fight as well. They pleaded saying they didn’t want me to be the one risking my life for something for them. Cosmia even told me she has an interesting way she can help. Well...Maybe I can work something out with this.They clearly aren’t frightened at all. Something that surprised me, but I can’t let anything happen to them. Their race would never trust me again.

I can use aura to make sure they can at least gain some extra experience. The party system splits of experience rather evenly whenever fighting a boss monster in a dungeon. These things were already way over our levels, the experience gain for both parties will still be great even if they don’t touch the things.

I can use my spatial magic to people in and out of battle. I’ll use it to warp us out if we start to lose. It won’t be easy, but I won’t allow any casualties... I’m going to make sure all of these people go home safely tonight. I then re-activated the Dullahan Knights and had each of them stand at 3 o’clock and 9 o’clock blocking all those behind them. They were big, I doubt they can last against the magic of a hydra but I can use them for emergencies with these other monsters. I stood at 12 o’clock while everyone else stood in the center. Ollie and the rest were only a few steps behind me.

“The illusion has been set Vali!”

Cosmia then smiled her red lips and flew back towards Vale, Cyanin, and Hjokk. They were all in a small bubble around them that the Arachnee and even Reiki are in. They each looked at it in surprise but I guess they thought the skill was from me.

Ollie then commanded the other members who were surrounded in darkness and they each got in formation behind me. The snake with the scaled armor looked badly wounded. We can end it’s life quickly. We have 10 minutes. I told them all that I would take care of the fomorians while they concentrate on the boss monsters but to stay away from their mouths for now. Not to get cornered and always stay within my field of vision. I have healing magic as well, as Cosmia’s illusion has now been set. ‘It’s time.’

“Ugh....You really are crazy. Are all humans like this?”

“Eh...My old master told me I had a problem when to stop training. Don’t worry, we’re all going to go home today. If you guys aren’t sure about this  I can warp you all out of here.”

“We all gotta go someday. Your out here risking your life for us in here, the Away team won’t run.”

“ Well alright then. Try to take off as many heads of that thing as you can before your 10 minutes is up. Regardless of this barrier around you try not to get hit, the barrier won’t last if you take too much damage.”

“Got it, to the DAWN!”

Ollie then flashed his large staff towards the King Hydra with two eis neko’s. They however had two large Dullahans now out in front of them for added protection. While Adimar and Akino stepped towards the injured snake coming in from the left. The two reiki prepared their bows and arrows while the arachnee stayed back with the pixies for now.

The countdown timer of Dark Aura then began to count down from 10 minutes....

End of Chapter.

(How many of you get super excited for a chapter in some fictions to find it was an explanation chapter when your done. Well I plan on making up for that with the next chapter!)

Please rate my fiction! New chapter soon!