Nora coughed into her elbow a few times before getting herself under control. She brushed a lock of her black hair out of her face before silently twirling it around a finger.

Allen ran his tongue across his teeth to hide a smile. He cleared his throat, causing Nora to shift uncomfortably. “Back to business,” he told himself. “Well regardless, I still need an actual answer to my question. I understand that I saved your city and all…” Allen began, “with five other Spades besides myself,” he thought ruefully, “…but that only explains why you might wind up as one of my stans, or something.”

The girl cocked her head to the side for a moment. She seemed to hesitant to voice her confusion and just went with whatever Allen had said.

Allen mentally shook his head. “She would have been fourteen when her city was sieged. I thought she was a scout before, but she would have been too young for any armed services in Gotou. She probably grew up in a wealthy family and learned to fight to the books from a temple… So then why does she want to be a terrorist?” Allen looked over the girl again and repeated his question. “Why do you want to be Specter’s apprentice? I don’t need to know why you idolize me, which is a mistake, by the way.”

Nora looked down for a moment before she let out a shallow breath. “I can’t do enough on my own,” she began. “I’m the youngest daughter from a minister’s family, but only my older sister and I survived the coup. I thought I would enlist with the empire’s spy order, or even the Shadow Watch, but neither of them did anything during the coup, so why would they give a damn to stop the corruption from spreading through Gotou again? Neither of them came to the rescue, it was the Spades that saved us.” Nora finished and looked over at Allen, her expression somewhat soured.

Allen grunted and adjusted his back on the rough tree he was leaning on. “That makes sense. It turns out that coup was a planned takeover by Silverburn and the Castle of Glass, among others, so it’s no wonder the corrupt Watch and Gotou’s imperial spies wouldn’t lift a finger.”

“The S-Silverburn Empire?” Nora asked, eyes wide.

Allen hid a regretful smile at the girl’s reaction to such a crushing realization. Doc had done the same to him many times. ‘It often hurts to open our eyes after a living a lifetime with them shut,’ the Healer had said on multiple occasions.

“Enough about that though. If you only wanted to be a Spade, then I highly recommend you get Clara as your mentor, you two have very similar magic and fighting style.” Allen gauged her reaction, though it took her a moment to settle down from the thought that the people responsible for her family’s murder were still alive and unpunished. “Why me in particular?” he added. “Come on, just spit it out. I’ve already made my decision.”

Nora seemed to tense up at the question being pressed for a third time. “I… I want to learn Specter’s mind magic. Yours, specifically,” she said.

Allen pushed himself away from the tree and took a few steps toward Nora. He looked back at her with an intense stare that only a madman would be capable of. The girl wavered just a little, but she stood strong.

“Well, that’s good enough for me,” Allen thought. “I just needed her to have a real reason besides thinking I looked cool or something.” He leaned back and softened his shoulders with a long breath. “Okay, you’re my apprentice then, or mentee, whatever it is.” Nora’s shock clear as day as her eyes went wide yet again. “By the way, it’s going to take me a while to get my magic back, but I wasn’t going to start with that anyway. You’re also not going to be tagging along with me all the time either. You’ll get a ring that will help you locate the Wandering Gate; it will connect you directly to the temple dungeon. Whenever I’m gone, you’re free to do whatever.” Allen stretched his back and sighed to himself before motioning for Nora to follow him back to camp. “Well, I’m glad this is over. I’ve never taught anybody before, this could be a fun distraction. Besides, if I go back to Earth, somebody else besides that fucking monster should have the magic I used.”

Nora only stood still while Allen walked off. “Wh— You’re not going to tell me to give up so you can test my resolve, or something?” Nora asked, shaken.

“No, that’s stupid,” Allen replied with a curt chuckle. “I wont need to tell you.”

The two returned to the camp without sharing any more words. Nora seemed the be struggling with a mix of emotions, which was understandable. She went off to her mat by herself and laid down without comment. Allen got a quick grin from Shoam and Camila, most likely for entirely different reasons. Then he went to his mat as well and quickly fell asleep.

The morning blessedly came without another nightmare. Talking to Nora seemed to have put his mind to other things, and Allen was more than happy about that.

In the “morning” the group was feeling refreshed. They all filed back into the colosseum for the third time and were promptly greeted by the three and a half meter tall (~11’6”) machine golem.

“Welcome challengers!” Lord Regis boomed from his spot above the opposing gate. The crowd of unsleeeping homunculi cheered in unison before he swiftly continued. “Many enter the Endless Gauntlet, but none leave until it is defeated! Except for certain valued parties,” he added, muttering the last part, as if to himself.

Allen quickly looked over his status while Reggie performed his theatrics while fires in the braziers lit up one by one. It was basically a loading screen for the dungeon. He quickly put his ten stat points into vitality, but he saved his skill points for later. The hit to his dexterity hurt, but he had had more than enough of it while fighting the trolls.

Status:

Jeremiah Allen Durand

Human – Rogue – Level 146

XP: 6031/44757 (3,088,026)

Stat Points: 0, Skill Points: 30, Job Points: 0

Jobs:

Silent Lurker

Basic – Tier 9

Chaotic Destroyer

Basic – Tier 10

Mentalist

Basic - Tier 3

Stats:

HP: 2250/2250

Regen: 78/min

SP: 3900/3900

Regen: 45/min

MP: 1575/1575

Regen: 70/min

Primary:

STR: 78

INT: 45

VIT: 40 (45)

WIS: 38 (35)

END: 40 (50)

FCS: 70

Secondary:

DEX: 145 (121)

PER: 35

RES: 28

STB: 64

SPD: 119 (109)

LCK: 22

---

“And now for a defender feared across the lands, a flying horror unlike any other!” Regis announced, whirling the crowd into another cheer.

“A’ight, let’s go! Finally, something different,” Camila shouted, pulling a longsword out of her inventory.

“Did he say ‘flying?’” Ty asked no one in particular.

Regis continued in his grand tone as the heavy gate on the other side of the pit opened. “Challengers take heed of their deadly venom; BEWARE OF THE BLOODY STIRGE!”

At the climax of Reggie’s introduction, a small creature plodded out from the darkness behind the gate. Allen’s eyesight wasn’t exceptional, but he could still see it clearly enough from a distance of nearly fifty meters. It looked like a cursed fusion between a mosquito and an anorexic chihuahua. The thing was equipped with four wings, four clawed limbs, and a serrated barb-shaped proboscis below two slightly glowing, purple compound eyes. The creature seemed to regard itself for a moment, before it took flight on its fleshy bat-like wings.

Name: Bloody Stirge

Scourge Beast – Monster – Level 80

“It’s… kinda cute,” Amelia muttered under her breath as if nobody would hear her. Allen wasn’t the only one to respond with a raised eyebrow and an odd look.

“Just one?” Camila asked, twirling her sword with a smirk.

“Not with that level,” Christopher said, watching as the Stirge lazily flew forward, seemingly at random.

Allen chuckled a little. “Like illegitimate children, there’s never just one.” Nobody laughed at his joke.

As if on cue, the sound of screeching and flapping wings came out from the gate, increasing in volume at a slightly concerning rate.

Christopher wasted no time getting everyone ready. He took a few steps back with Amelia and started with his commands.

“Ty, you’re staying back to defend Amelia and me, only move forward if someone needs help. I’ll stay with Amelia to provide support and take out any that get past you that Ty can’t handle,” the professor said. “You three…” he continued, looking at Allen, Camila, and Nora, “Don’t get too far away, and make sure at least two of you are engaged at all times. Amelia will be with me for healing and detoxification.”

Allen nodded, “Solid plan. With these things, it will be a battle of endurance. It all depends on just how many there are.” He pulled his two longest daggers out of his inventory and covered them with a dense layer of Mana Shroud.

The sounds of incoming Stirges reached a limit before a flesh-colored cloud of screeching creatures rushed out like a single organism. After barely a second there were already several hundred rushing up from the entrance and into the air. The cloud of screeching monsters twirled once before rushing toward the group as fast as their leathery wings could carry them.

“Oh fuck.” Allen readied his daggers. He could only cut through things so fast before they would just gut him. “I don’t have any ranged or multitarget attacks.”

“I can do this once every half hour!” Christopher shouted over the deafening sound.

An instant later, Allen felt a wave of warm magic that washed over him. He immediately felt twice as light and fast, his MP doubled as well, though it seemed to be leaking away at a steady rate, and thirdly, a shimmering barrier had formed on top of his armor.

The monsters were upon them in the next moment. Nora swung with her curved daggers and whip like tendrils of darkness. Camila had switched out her sword for two spiked flails, which spun around her in constant motion and created a small explosion of miasma each time one of them crushed a Stirge. Bolts of Arcane miasma took out many of the monster left and right, including the ones that were too high for any of the front-liners to reach.

Allen just cut apart anything he could get one of his blades to quick enough, which was fairly quick. Any that he couldn’t reach either got smashed by Camila, lanced by magic, or simply weren’t a problem yet. The monsters swarmed together like a school of fish, and always swooped back to attack again as one.

He settled on using Heavy Jab to take care of the monsters in one swing since Chaotic Destruction used too much Mana. With all Killer Instinct, Expanded Awareness, and his other skills to boost, he could take out monsters without either attack skill, but his aim had to be near perfect. Expanded Awareness could only be used once every minute or Allen would end up splitting his head open.

The battle with the Stirges continued for hours, and though their numbers never seemed to decrease, the group had gained some ground forward.

Christopher could refill everyone’s mana every thirty minutes, but the mana leaked away so fast that it was mostly useless at the rate they were all using it at. Thankfully, the monsters couldn’t quite get through anyone’s armor so there hadn’t been the need to overuse any magic. At some point, Allen had started letting some of the monsters get past him to conserve his resources, since they would just swoop back around and try again anyway.

He could have been able to cut apart the monsters indefinitely, but his mana was going down faster than he could regenerate it, and his stamina was getting dangerously low, even after he had put extra points into vitality. Allen was also getting bored, but not because he wasn’t getting his blood sucked out. He could do just fine without that.

A wave of force from Ty’s Anchor skill rushed out from behind Allen for the umpteenth time. Every Stirge caught within range slammed into the ground. The moment of rest allowed Allen to adjust his helmet and spare a glance behind him. He saw Amelia purging poison from Nora and Christopher standing with a dozen limbs of solid miasma waving around lazily. Any monster that got too close would be skewered before it could think.

Not that any of them thought anything in the first place.

He turned back around just in time to get a glimpse of the opposing gate through the cloud of fleshy monsters. As one of Christopher’s arrows flew through five Stirges in a row above his head, Allen caught a glimpse of two glowing purple eyes emerge from the darkness. They were each the size of a single Stirge themselves, and the monster they were attached to was all the more horrid for it.

Name: Bloody Stirge Queen

Scourge Beast – Monster – Level 240

“Incoming big one, level two-forty!” Allen shouted as loud as he could over the sound of swarming monster mosquito-bats. “Alright, that’s more like it.”