It only took a few moments for high pitched, squeaking voices to be heard from the other side of the walls. These were voices I had heard before, and I immediately knew what type of enemies we’d be facing. “Pygmies…” I muttered under my breath, drawing my twin short swords.

Sure enough, the gate burst open a few seconds later, a swarm of shriveled up bodies charging at us with spears held high. Each one was no taller than a single foot, but there were hundreds of the creatures in every village. What they lacked in power, they more than made up for in numbers.

“Got a plan, here?” Lilith called out, backing up with her knife in a reverse grip. I wasn’t sure if she was planning to fight that way, or use it to stab herself.

The first dozen pygmies in the front all threw their tiny spears at us. I could see a faint liquid dripping from the tips, likely indicating that they were poisoned. Wanting nothing more than to stop them, I felt my body move on its own. My arms sliced through the air, swords cutting through several spears with each swing.

Of the first wave of spears, none managed to hit their targets. Lilith behind me was staring dumbly as I cut through the attack in midair, but the pygmies were far less impressed. The dozen that threw their spears quickly reached us while the next wave, this one at least fifty, all threw their own poisoned spears

I felt my mind empty itself, a single thought rising up, the name of a dual sword skill. Spherical Beheader Stance. My arms moved with a flourish of steel, the tips of the two blades never going beyond half my full reach. With my swings pulled in, I was able to move faster, close most of the gaps so that I would immediately cut through anything that entered my range.

Unfortunately, this stance fell under the category of skills that I did not have the stats to properly wield. Of the twelve lunging pygmies, ten were struck down by the quick swings, while the other two managed to latch onto my sides, biting fiercely with their small mouths. Although I felt the pain rampaging through my body, my arms never stopped moving. This stance made me into a protective barrier for anyone behind me.

From the fifty or so spears, I had even less of a chance to block them all. I felt eight pierce into me, with six being in the legs and the other two in the chest. I also heard a brief cry from behind me, meaning that Lilith had likely been hit as well. Dammit… no choice!

At this point, I had two options. I could let the pygmies slowly devour my flesh, one tiny bite at a time, feeling nearly endless torture before one managed to bite into a key artery, and I bleed out. Or, I could make it quicker. “Lilith… do it.”

Given the nature of Layers of Hell, it should come as no surprise that every weapon type has a ‘suicide’ weapon skill. I still felt the tearing pain of the pygmies eating my sides, and if not for my current supernatural skill with these swords I would have likely lost my ability to control my body long ago. As such, I could only rely on calling the skill with my mind, and letting my body do the rest. My swords fluidly moved from their constant flourish, almost as if I was making a mistake in handling them, and came together at my neck from either side. There was a brief instant of pain, but then nothing.

The next thing I knew, my eyes were shooting open, one arm lashing out and cutting through a pygmy that had lunged at me. Sitting up, I found the wounds on my body recovered, and naturally my head was back on my shoulders. Lying around me were nearly a dozen pygmies, and one Lilith. I wasted no time moving around, immediately beheading all of the remaining midget monsters. I wouldn’t take any chances that they’d run away and find another settlement near here for reinforcements.

Only after that was done did I bother looking at my surroundings. This was the fifth layer of hell, a layer of eternal night. Luminescent plants covered the landscape, like stars dotting the ground. Above was a curtain of pitch black, with not a single trace of true stars being seen.

I sat down next to Lilith, waiting for her to wake up from our shared suicide. Thankfully, I woke up before the few pygmies I killed before could do anything to us, otherwise we’d be sent to the sixth layer. If I can find some equipment, I should be able to hold my own in a fight on either this layer or the sixth, but I doubt Lilith can claim the same.

What am I even thinking about? Shouldn’t I be focusing on getting out of this mess? How the hell did I even get here, anyways? I looked down to my swords, still coated in blood. How did I so easily accept this? Was it only because I didn’t have a choice? Was I still hoping that I’d be able to slip past the Gatekeeper on the first floor, and go home?

I laughed bitterly at that thought. Go home? I couldn’t even handle a pygmy village without having to kill myself. What, then? Die until I reach the 999th floor, and try to fight the new overlord? That’s even less possible.

What’s left, just try to live a normal life in Hell? Is there even any hope of me getting back home, after all? As I was asking myself that, I noticed Lilith stirring awake in front of me.

“Hrmm… is this the fifth floor?” She asked groggily, looking out into the endless darkness.

“Yeah. The floor where the sun never rises.” I shook my head, standing up and offering her a hand up as well. As she stood, the last remnants of her rags finally gave way, falling to the floor and leaving her entirely exposed. Those pygmies got some lucky hits in…

We were frozen like that for several long seconds, both of our eyes slowly drifting downwards. Afterwards, an ear-shattering scream rang through this layer of Hell, and Lilith immediately turned around, crouching down to cover as much of her body with her arms as she could. Though, this only gave me a good view of her perky--”You ass!”

She turned her head to glare at me. “You did that on purpose, didn’t you?!”

“No… not really. Though, I can’t say I don’t like the view.” I did my best to avert my eyes, which only seemed to make them linger even longer. “Let’s hurry, we should be able to find something to make more clothes with on this level.”

Unfortunately, I knew just how right I was. The floor of eternal night held host to a number of nocturnal creatures. Among these, the most common was the Shadow Lurker, a giant arachnid who can become nearly invisible in this level of darkness. However, their silk is extremely valuable, used in making clothing that is durable, flexible, and innately resistant to magic.

“Well… if you say so. But you’re walking in front!” She glared at me, and I could only helplessly shrug. Reaching down, I grabbed a few of the pygmy spears lying around, figuring they would come in handy later. After all, they are only a little bigger than needles, so maybe I can use them for that?

Naturally, I did not have any pockets, so I snapped off the poison tips of the spears to discard, and then stabbed what was left through my own remaining rags. Having an inventory would be really nice here, but even in the game you could only store items like that after getting a bag. That would have to be the next thing I work on, after getting us some better clothes.

Walking ahead of Lilith, I kept my eyes peeled for any signs of movement within the darkness. The shadow lurkers blend almost perfectly with the landscape here. So, the only chance to notice one before it attacks would be listening for the small sounds they make, and the off chance that one moves in front of a glowing plant. Due to this, I was keeping completely quiet while I moved, not willing to start a conversation and miss the signs of an approaching attack.

Unfortunately, even though having the Equipment Mastery skill seemed to let me react as if I was a master swordsman, and let my body move on instinct alone, it did nothing for my senses. In that respect, I was still only a normal human. So, by the time I noticed that I had walked directly next to one of the very creatures I was looking for, its body had already struck out.

There was a clanging sound, as if metal was striking metal. I had barely managed to raise one of my swords in time to stop the surprise attack. “Found you!” I called out, and then immediately regretted it. Another aspect of shadow lurkers that I had initially forgotten, they live in swarms.

There was a slight clicking noise from all around, as dozens of unseen figures seemed to be standing up. “Oh fuck… Lilith, make sure we take at least five down with us!”

“Uhm… okay?” She responded, her voice shaking. Was this really the same girl that controlled all of Hell? At the moment, I felt like I had been ripped off.

Bringing my free sword up, I cut off one of the front claws for the shadow lurker, freeing my second blade. Moving to hold the second blade in a reverse grip, I stabbed it down into the head of the giant spider, causing it to issue out a high-pitched screech. One down.

I could hear the skittering of the other creatures as they moved towards us. Without any luminescent plants close enough to use as a light source, we had no way of telling exactly where they were coming from. “Please tell me you’re hiding another trick, Grim… We could really use one right now.”

It’s funny that she thinks we could get out of this without dying… And really, I would like to, but it didn’t seem realistic right now. A swarm of shadow lurkers always had at least twenty members, if the information was the same as I was used to. And, the only weakness that they have is their reliance on darkness. “Not unless you have a way to brighten things up around here.”

My current plan was simply to take enough of these creatures out before we die that I can kill them again on the next floor to harvest their silk. The fifth layer is the floor of eternal night, while the sixth is the floor of eternal day. With the shadow lurkers going into hibernation in bright light, they will be easy pickings if we can get them to the next layer.

“Light? Uhm.. light, light.” I heard Lilith muttering frantically behind me, as I moved to hold both of my swords in a reverse grip. By now, the skittering steps were right before us, so I simply closed my eyes and charged forward. Spiral Star!

After activating another dual-wielding skill, I felt my body jump forward, my torso parallel to the ground. Swinging my right arm towards my left side while returning the sword to a normal grip, I began to spin in the air, with one sword stretched out to strike at everything I passed by, and the other held defensively to my chest, in order to block frontal attacks. I’m not sure how many times I felt my sword sink into thick carapace, but I doubted I dealt any fatal blows with such an imprecise attack.

However, it did put me where I needed to be, right smack in the middle of a bunch of angry spiders. Blade Dance, Circle of Carnage. I simultaneously activated two weapon skills. The first was a stance, which allowed me to attack enemies from all sides by using constant footwork to eliminate my blind spots. The second skill was an attack designed to go with it, one that caused my right hand to swing up and down, as if I was directing a performance.

With each swing of my primary sword, there was another pained screech. Whenever I heard a claw cutting through the air to get to me, my body bent back slightly, my left hand whipping up to sever that claw. Like the Spherical Beheader, this was not a combo that I could properly execute for very long, as the constant movement and precise control was rapidly draining my energy.

“Found it!” I heard Lilith exclaim happily. “And the lady said, let there be light!” There was the sound of steel clashing against stone, and suddenly the area was lit up as bright as day. Well, a green day. From off to my left, after I stopped moving, Lilith was knelt on the ground with her dagger stabbed into a strange root. That root was issuing out a bright glow, which spread to other such roots hidden just along the surface of the ground for over twenty meters.

Part of me regretted being able to see. At least when I was blind, I didn’t see the dozens of giant spiders, each as tall as my waist, surrounding me. Talk about nightmare fuel. On the bright side, pun not intended, the spiders all recoiled away from the light. Each one that still survived let out pained screeches, scurrying away as fast as they could. Those that had injuries forgot their rage, their natural weakness to light forcing them to flee.

The only shadow lurkers left were those that I had killed, and one that I had somehow managed to cut off every leg but one without dealing a fatal blow. I wasn’t sure if I should be impressed or depressed at that. Still… there were enough for me to make what I needed, if we harvest the silk.

“Grim…?” Lilith said carefully, walking over towards me.

“Yeah?”

“You have a claw sticking out of your back.” She pointed to my back, where I began to notice a dull, warm feeling. When did that get there?

“Yeah… well, there are three of you.” I retorted, far too dizzy from my constant spin to see straight at this time. “Could you, uh, get this out of me? And maybe see about harvesting some silk from these spiders?”

Lilith raised a curious eyebrow. “What, you want to make us clothes with their silk? That’s what you meant earlier?”

“Uhm… no? Coincidence?” I averted my eyes guiltily, knowing that I was doing a very poor job of keeping my secrets secret.

“Uh huh… and, how do you expect to make clothes out of that stuff?” She crossed her arms under her impressive bust, giving her a menacing, yet seductive look with the green lighting coming from the ground below her.

“I think I have the skills?” I asked, not entirely sure of myself at the moment. It SHOULD work, maybe. I really hope this works. Either way, it should be good for temporary clothes, right? RIGHT?