The Butcher's chains were heavy. Thick. Dense. Oozing with miasma and corruption, the metal wasn't even scratched when Cless' black broadsword hit it with all of her almost three hundred points of Strength.

"I don't even want to know how hot must be a forge to smelt this thing," the fledgling Queen grumbled.

She stored the five hundred kilograms of chains, the cleaver that was as long as she was tall and the Butcher's head in separate deeppockets. Then a notification from the Dungeon popped up.

Miasma production on floor 9 suspended for one year.

What? Wasn't it usually the opposite? The Dungeon would increase the miasma to force monsters to migrate. She looked at the vent and the last wisps of miasma flew from it and Shad made an annoyed grunt. The little mole was feeding on the vent while they fought. Kate was sleeping on Venaris' arms while Vic, Kurt, and Silverfang were wary of the Dungeon tunnels linking the boss room to the floors. They couldn't see miasma, Cless remembered.

"You must gather your party before venturing forth," She mumbled. Turning to address her guild, she spoke out loud. "Is everyone alright? We shold go back to the surface."

They were out for two or three days already. There was food and they still had the stamina to go on. There were several benefits from going upstairs, like changing Classes or dumping the special metals they acquired. And she knew these two books the Dungeon gifted her would be delightful to read. The paper smelled new, unblemished, without that yellowing that old books had. Did the Dungeon create these items on the fly? How did it decide what item to give?

Who the hell was Angus? And how did he know who she was? Cless burned the note and scattered the ashes.

"Yes, let's go. Our tank is not very tanky for quite some time." Venaris commented as she caressed Kate's back.

They climbed to the ramp and found some corpses. Undead corpses. The other five percent of the floor's population came after the miasma flow as it would be natural for monsters and engaged the former Steelhammer delvers. A dozen beaten undead bodies were everywhere but the humans were not where they should be. Cless checked her notifications for anything she missed.

Curtis McCarthy broke his contract and suffered the consequences. You gained +2 Agility, +2 Health, +1 Intellect.

Dale Frost broke his contract and suffered the consequences. You gained +2 Strength, +2 Health.

Tommy Calderon broke his contract and suffered the consequences. You gained +2 Intellect, +2 Magic.

Kent Anderson broke his contract and suffered the consequences. You gained +1 Agility, +1 Intellect.

Brett Lopez broke his contract and suffered the consequences. You gained +2 Health, +1 Intellect.

Wesley Benson broke his contract and suffered the consequences. You gained +2 Strength, +1 Intellect.

Donald Kirk broke his contract and suffered the consequences. You gained +2 Strength, +1 Agility.

Ian Jensen broke his contract and suffered the consequences. You gained +2 Agility, +1 Intellect.

Erick Duke broke his contract and suffered the consequences. You gained +2 Strength, +2 Health.

Alec Macdonald broke his contract and suffered the consequences. You gained +2 Strength, +1 Agility.

Your contracts earned you 25,000 Experience points.

They tried to run away. Dumb idiots. Dumb, dead idiots. Divided though she felt regarding these death contracts, they were murderers.

Cless followed her now useless map of the ninth floor toward the tunnel leading to the cow level. Not so useless, for a year now the whole floor would be a safe zone as no monsters would drift off to the edges of the floor. Neither more undead would spawn without the miasma. She found a trail of blood after a few minutes and then the bodies. They were still warm, but some of them were attacked and bitten by the zombies. She purified the bodies right away so they wouldn't raise as undead. After looting them and storing their gear, Cless piled the bodies and set them on fire.

Cless hid the Amulet of Midgard as they moved up through the tunnel, making noise so the people currently farming the boss room for the metal plates knew they were coming. She really didn't want another fight with Delvers.

"Coming through. Not to fight!" She shouted before the last bend that would put them in sight of the boss room. There were no sounds of a fight.

The boss room was occupied by a team of Delvers she didn't know. Several bull carcasses were piled up in a corner and a pile of metal plates was fiercely guarded by them. Cless waved and pointed at the ramp. The man she thought was the lader nodded. They were about to go when he spoke.

"Coming from the eight floor? Do you know where the groups from Steelhammer are?"

Cless frowned and nodded. "Downstairs. Dead. Zombies got them running and they died halfway though their escape," She answered without lying but without the truth either. "They gave me their charter before dying."

She got a mixed reaction from them. It was obvious they didn't believe her, especially because of the charter, but she didn't want to leave too many loose ends. Better to earn a lot of distrust now and later prove her words were true than to embellish too much now and get a setback when everything blew up.

"Did you kill them?" To Cless' surprise, they asked straight away.

"I didn't deliver the death blow. They did try to gank us but nobody died. I got their charter because they lost. They died while we were busy elsewhere in the floor out of our sight. We're going. I can hear the bulls are coming. Good hunting."

She kept her sentences truthful, short and slightly disconnected. if they were going to take it out of context anyway, better give them less ammunition. Cless made her way up the ramp with her guild and dodged out of the way to a couple of delvers that were kiting a copper bull. She didn't fail to notice they were younger than the others down there. Good way to screw the future, she thought.

They moved through the floors in the way back to the surface, meeting a few Delver parties obviously farming for the lower levels' materials. Fortunately, nobody tried to mess with them. After leaving the Dungeon, they went straight for the Association. It wasn't like they had any choice. The guards at the Dungeon entrance took note of the time they exited. In fact...

Cless turned around and addressed the guards. "Hello, good morning! Sorry to interrupt your chat but how long did we spend downstairs?"

He raised his head and checked the book. "You entered the Dungeon two nights ago, guild master."

He made a strange gesture Cless didn't know what was. She gave him a ducat because she thought he was asking for a tip. She grimaced inside for her skewed sense of value.

"Thank you."

"You might want to buy a pocket watch, guild master. Helps tell the time!" He advised as she went away.

Pocket watches were awfully expensive. Their cases were made of gold just as a ploy to justify their costs. The inner mechanisms had thousands of gears, some the size of snowflakes, or so she heard.

Cless entered the Association and looked around. She saw Agatha and Clara sitting on a table with some guild members. Cless waved at them but the woman from the Association she met at the Lord's mansion came to intercept her.

"Guild master Cless. How do you do? I have a question for you." She didn't do anything Cless could recognize as a greeting.

"We met before, but I didn't get your name, miss..."

"Sondra. We are missing a delver guild, the Steelhammer. Do you know their wereabouts?" She gave an inquisitive look as if she was about to accuse the younger girl of something.

Cless tilted her head. "Should I?" She answered noncommitally. By this time the conversations around died, giving the place an eerie silence only drowned by the sounds of people coming and going in the streets outside.

Sondra narrowed her eyes. "They were farming the eight level but left, saying they were going down to save you from foolishly dying on the ninth."

Cless snorted. "Yeah. They were going to save us by killing us before the undead could if that is what you mean. They ganked us," Cless said that to the people around, moving her head slowly to measure their reactions. "And we spared them in exchange for their charter. We went on our way and didn't see them for a while, but as we were leaving back to the surface, we found their bodies. It seems they fought with a big pack of zombies and died on their way to the surface."

"Another one? Did you sto—" Sondra was going to burst but Cless cut her off with a glare. After her sudden Stat growth, it was hard to ignore her glares.

"Measure your words before you say something you'd regret," Cless warned with a low voice.

She was pale. Sondra wobbled and grabbed a counter to avoid falling down. "Are they all dead?"

"Yes. I have their names," Cless pulled back the notification and read them out aloud. Sondra teared up halfway. Maybe that Wesley guy meant something to her. "I'm sorry if one of them was important to you."

She pressed a fist to her mouth, sighed and shook her head. Meeting Cless' eyes, Sondra asked. "Let me see if I can picture it. They were farming the bulls, you descended to the ninth level and they went after you."

"Yes, that's it. They ambushed us. Here's proof we were on the ninth level." She approached Harrisson's counter. The scarred dismantler was there, waiting for her. "Harrison, how much is this loot worth?"

She put the Butcher's head on the counter.

"Butcher!" Some delvers murmured.

Cless noticed the whole building was set up in a way that granted little privacy to any dealings made in the common room. Well, let them have the spectacle. Maybe, just maybe they avoid all the shit they had to go through in this delve. Sondra approached to look at the head.

"Do you have the cleaver?" Harrisson asked.

Cless nodded. "Do I have to show it?" When she saw Harrisson inflexible in his intent, she produced the weapon.

"The butcher's head I cannot buy. There's an outstanding bounty for his cleaver, seven sovereigns."

She felt someone behind her back. Adele. "Guild master," Cless nodded at her.

"You can get at least ten sovereigns or more for the cleaver, and even some pretty decent coin for the head. There will be a Dungeon loot auction in Bluffgate in a month. You can list your items there."

Cless slimed. She glanced at Clara and the girl raised her mug. "I think I won't sell them today," She told harrisson. "The kill still counts for ranking, right?"

After Harrisson nodded, Cless stored back the two items in her Deeppockets.

"Guild master Cless," Sondra called her with a polite business tone. "You have the charter for Steelhammer with you, right? Are you going to sell or absorb that charter?"

She thought a little and answered, "It depends. After slaying the Butcher, where does it put us in the ranking? I won't lie, I'm not looking to spend a whole day waiting to delve again."

"I'll tally your score myself. Sell to Harrisson whatever loot you have with you and have the clerk send me the strip."

Cless sold some loot, borrowed the fourth and fifth tiers class books from the Association, and rented a private meeting room in the Association. The room had privacy wards. She brought her guild inside and locked the door. Taking out the class book, she told them.

"This is one of the two items we got from the floor clear chest. It has racial specific classes. Since you are going to pick the fourth and fifth tier classes, I think we can find in here something specialized for you."

The book had the classes in a format where two classes were described by page. It had classes whose requirements were, obviously, a specific race. Dwarves, elves, beastkin, giants, minotaurs, several kinds. Some classes were a little more flexible and allowed a broader category of races, like all winged races, or all aquatic races.

The first one they found a suitable class was for Vic. Fang Lord, a fifth tier class that enhanced a scaled one's venom, poison, and poison magic. Had a great progression for Magic and Intellect with Health and Agility as secondaries. For his fourth-tier, he was going to pick Geomancer. The magic-oriented class wasn't bound to any race and didn't add any spells to his repertoire but could enhance some aspects and use techniques based on terrain.

The next one was Kurt. Twilight Talon, a class for agile flyers that relied on surprise dive attacks. It was a fourth-tier class. For his fifth-tier, he was getting War Chanter. The class had the promise of being able to combine bardic effects to work at the same time.

Venaris could get a class for the "short folk", War Slinger. It improved the sling attacks and added the ability to trigger ricochets or inflict stuns or confusion with their deadly ranged attacks. Her fifth tier class was going to be Arcane Sniper. A class that blended spellwork and ranged attacks. She needed a boost for Intellect and Magic.

Silverfang could get Moon Guard. It was a fourth-tier class for wolf-kin protectors focused on defense. His fifth tier class was going to be Weald Champion. Another racial class for beasttkin in general that focused on standing one's ground against stronger creatures.

It was Cless' turn. She could pick a Queen Class for her fifth tier class, but that was a variable class. It meant that if she delayed getting Queen as her sixth or seventh tier, it would be way more powerful. She instead browsed for some class that could help her master all kinds of magic, or command, or combat better. Preferentially all three at the same time. She was divided between two. Magister, a combat mage class that could learn spells from lower-tiered classes and enhance them, or Holy Magus, a fifth-tier divine caster that also gave a minor boost to arcane magic. The Holy Magus required Wisdom and granted points in the Stat.

Maybe something without magic. Something that can empower her allies even more. Even statless it would be okay. No, it would be even better. Cless turned the book on its back cover and started from the last page. She looked at the classes, not much more than a small three-line entry and tried to pry the classes' purpose from that. She found one. Hirdmaster. Requires one to be of the noble station and is basically the [Protector] series from the Princess class on steroids. It grants several benefits to the Hirdmen including the Stats and some techniques to make fighting as a unit better.

The main drawback is that the Hird members must bond willingly without coercion and if the Hirdmaster dies, everyone dies together. But as a fifth-tier class, when maxed out, it would grant eighty Stat points to each one of them but none to Cless. As if she needed her Classes to give Stat points.

"Hey guys, I am thinking of picking up this class here..." Cless explained everything to them.

They all agreed. Cless noticed that her own Charisma and Skills might be affecting her party members. Not much to do regarding that, she shrugged away the thought.

It left her with the need to pick a new profession. The General she passed to get Master Instructor sounded just perfect. But it was a second tier profession. Maybe there was something better in the third tier.

Brigadier General (2nd tier).

Increases all your martial and weapon proficiencies by a sixth (x2) of the profession's level and their learning rate by 50% (x2)

Increases all your subordinate soliders' weapon proficiencies by a third (x2) of your profession level.

Increases effective Level of all your subordinate soldiers' by a third (x2) of your profession level up to one level lower than you.

Something to bridge the gap between stronger monsters and them. Or maybe a profession to help her learn magic because she went for an enhancer class.

Arcane Researcher (2nd tier).

Increases all your non-divine spell proficiencies by a third of your level (x2) and their learning rate by x2 (x2).

It did not help with the divine magic and was of the second tier. She felt like there was missing information here. As if the church removed it on purpose to control such information. She would have to try some permutations in the crystal. Maybe using words like "magical", "eldritch", "sage", "scholar", "magus"...

Shaking from her musings, she looked at her guild members. "Did everyone decided what you want?"

They went to the crystal and changed their classes. Cless' immediately had her Hirdmaster class raised into level seven. She searched for the profession and didn't find what she wanted. Cless just wanted to sling as many spells as she wanted. Maybe that. Dweomer. Thaumaturge.

Lady Thaumaturge (3rd tier).

Increase all your spell proficiencies by a fourth of your level (x2) and their learning rate by 75% (x2).

Increase all your Academic proficiencies by a third of your level and their learning rate by 100% (x2).

That's it. She selected the profession and it bumped to level four because of the deferred Dungeon floor clear bonus. Cless waited for everyone to adjust their settings while she petted Shad and the shrunk Kate on her arms.

"We are all done!" Venaris came out of the crystal selector room.

She looked at them. Proud smiles. Teeming with newfound power.

"Let's go home!" Cless ordered her guild.