“One more left,” Christopher said while his miasma whips shredded any nearby Stirges.

Allen gripped his dagger with a hastily reconstructed and completely numb hand, watching as Camila struggled to fend off the last remaining Royal Guard. Ty stepped between the two and the larger Stirge slammed ineffectively into his shield. Barriers formed around it, and it tried to evade with quick flitting movements, but it only ended up flying straight into one of Christopher’s arcane shackles.

The spell hit the monster in the form of a ball which instantly unraveled into a net of tethers made from pure miasma. The monster crashed to the ground before it was pushed across the coarse sand by a barrier until it reached Allen.

There was no build up or anything. Allen just stabbed his dagger though the Royal Guard’s brain with Chaotic Destruction, destroying everything inside its head and blowing its eyes out. The monsters were actually rather fragile on the inside, especially the Rogue-like Royal Guards.

Similarly, Allen was just about as fragile himself. He looked down at his shattered hand and stifled a sigh. “It’s not that I’m fragile, per se, I’m just too strong for my own body.” His sigh ended in a weak chuckle as he looked around for Shoam, giving the elf a nod when he found him near the edge of the pit.

The elf appeared next to him in the next instant, smiling based on the look in his eyes.

“Can you get rid of all the small ones please, I’m done with these shits,” Allen said, swatting at a divebombing Stirge with his dagger.

“Why of course,” Shoam said as he raised his right hand into a strange sign, “I was getting bored anyway.”

Allen scoffed to himself, still emotionally and mentally shielded by Dead Calm. Shoam cast his magic, lancing almost every Stirge with thin beams of burning violet shadows that shot out from his own shadow beneath his feet. Christopher took out the remaining monsters with his arcane bolts.

Dead calm tapering off and Amelia showing up beside him signaled the end of the fight, as well as the messages, of course. Allen allowed himself to sit down, careful of his numb and wobbly ankle.

Your group has defeated 2734x Bloody Stirge – Level 80

Your contribution: 28% Damage

For fighting 2734 enemies in a team of 6, you receive an 455% XP bonus!

Awarded: 82975 XP

Your group has defeated 8x Bloody Stirge Royal Guard – Level 260 – 263

Your contribution: 93% Damage

For fighting 2734 enemies in a team of 6, you receive a 455% XP bonus!

For fighting an enemy far above your means, you receive a 100% XP bonus!

Awarded: 370132 XP

Your group has defeated 8x Bloody Stirge Queen – Level 240

Your contribution: 87% Damage

For fighting 2734 enemies in a team of 6, you receive a 455% XP bonus!

For defeating a horde boss, you receive a 50% XP bonus!

For fighting an enemy above your means, you receive a 50% XP bonus!

Awarded: 24720 XP

Congratulations, you are now level 147…156

Requirements met: 48020 XP

Awarded: 50 Stat points – 10 Skill points – 1 Job point

“Six levels too high to get the one-hundred percent bonus for the Queen,” Allen thought to himself. Still, it was a respectable amount of experience. “I honestly don’t feel like I killed more than a quarter of the normal Stirges. Camila is better at crowd control it seems… Something to think about.”

“Damn,” Ty exclaimed as he flopped onto the ground near Allen, chest heaving with each breath. “I fucking hate fighting hordes, but man, you can’t argue with that bonus.”

Camila grunted in affirmation as she too flopped to the ground for Amelia to heal.

“I can’t regenerate your arm yet,” Amelia said in a tired tone, “I’ll come back to finish up once I’m done with the others.” She got up and shuffled towards Ty, unhealed cuts and scrapes still showing through the tears in her armor.

“Alright,” Allen replied. All of his wounds were patched up, but not fully healed. His left arm was still a stump at the shoulder, but it no longer hurt. That was good because Dead Calm was most of what allowed him to cope with the pain and not pass out.

“Well done Challengers! Well done indeed!” Reggie’s voice rang out. The noises and cheers of the homunculi audience rose to a crescendo as the huge automaton clapped with his metal hands.

Allen rolled his eyes and looked up at the parapet above the opposing gate. Regis was standing there with a wide smile along with two others who looked like children by any comparison of height. Allen raised an eyebrow, having easily recognized both of them.

“What are you doing here asshole?” Allen started, smirking up at one of the free figures in particular.

There was a burst of black smoke followed by another right in front of him. It quickly dissipated, revealing the towering automaton, his best friend Jack, and a woman made of white marble.

Name: Jack Maverick

Human – Ranger – Level [hidden]

Jack just looked down at Allen for a moment, mirroring Allen’s smirk as his eyes silently went over the stump he had for an arm. He brushed a hand through his black hair and snorted. “What’s it to you, pissbrains,” he said.

Allen scoffed, but couldn’t hide his smile. It was good to be back, he realized. Seeing Shoam again was nice, but the elf was more like a little brother, and he didn’t talk much.

Name: Gatekeeper Waiya

Primordial Soul Golem – Healer – Level 950

The Healer of the gatekeepers was exactly how she had been before. Like the other six, she was made of solid marble with streaks of black almost as dark as the orbs of darkness she had for eyes. Yet her soft features and kind smile somehow canceled out the ominous feeling those eyes might have had, though the four curling horns on her head conflicted with that just a little. Her locks of hair hung to her knees and covered most of her thin body. It should have weighted a ton, but somehow the hair waved around with her as if it weren’t solid stone. She was also rather short; the golden staff she caried was about Allen’s height, but a whole head above her.

She was even shorter than Amelia.

“It’s convenient that she’s here,” Allen thought, catching a smile and a probing look from the gatekeeper. “Just the arm,” he said, wiggling his stump before nodding towards Amelia, “leave the rest for her.” Allen returned the golem’s mile as she knelt down to his level. Waiya was one of his favorite dungeon beings from any dungeon, though she could be a little clingy at times.

“Ah, okay,” she said. It only took her a fraction of a second to form a perfect arm from miasma and fuse it to his shoulder painlessly.

Christopher was upon the two of them in a heartbeat. “Can you do that again, but a bit slower,” he said, giving Waiya a rather intense look. The professor was still covered in blood and Stirge guts, which gave him a more unhinged atmosphere than what was really accurate, probably.

“I mean… I know how rare Control Healers are but give her some space.”

“Sure she can,” Jack said, grabbing Allen’s newly regenerated wrist with one hand and forming a blade of spinning wind at the end of the other as he raised it above his head theatrically.

Allen yanked his arm away from Jack. “Kiss my ass,” he said with a dumb grin. “Camila is missing an arm too, use her,” he added for Christopher and pointed over at the Berserker as she chugged a bottle of rum with her one good arm.

The golem nodded and walked over with Christopher. Reggie was already in a conversation with Ty and Amelia was working on healing Nora. She seemed almost done, but the damage to the girl’s shoulder had been extensive due to her inferior armor.

“We should have gotten her better equipped before coming here,” Allen thought to himself before turning his attention back to his friend. “So, what’s the visit for?” he asked, casually leaning back now that he had both arms again. “Is there an update on those kids?”

Jack cleared his throat. “Yes actually. They’ve recovered enough to go home, but they wanted to thank you personally before leaving.”

“Have you tracked down their village yet,” Allen asked, straining his brain slightly to remember if Lucas had said anything about where he and the rest of them lived.

Jack took a long breath and scratched the stubble on his chin. “I know where it is, a farming village in the Southern countryside of Nash, but I haven’t gone there yet to investigate.”

Allen hummed to himself before giving Jack a look. “I doubt there’ll be anything left,” he said.

Jack just clicked his tongue and continued. “I agree. Anyway, Amon put me on this case, and I’ve been focusing on the Lanthinus company for the past few days. They’re just your everyday trading company that uses legitimate goods as a cover for their illegitimate goods, and those illegitimate goods as a cover for the slaves they smuggle across the Fharran Ocean. It seems they’ve been around for about a year and a half, and they trade with many nobles on both continents, but I don’t know how deep it goes yet. As for the villagers, it won’t do anybody any good to shield them from the inevitable, but many of them are just kids. We have to find their families first, if we can.”

Allen nodded in agreement, mostly to himself. “Alright. It’ll probably be another two weeks before we reach level three hundred, then my group and I will have to go on a mission.” He glanced back at Jack’s impassive expression for a moment, then continued, “but we could use some time to grow into our builds, and I can’t think of a better way to kill time than busting a child slave trafficking ring.” Allen returned Jack’s grin as he got to his feet. “Although, if we’re fighting people, maybe I should wait until I have my illusions to use… or maybe not, they aren’t super effective until level five hundred anyway.”

“Hah, okay then. Shoam can come… and I’ll ask Clara is she wants join us as well,” Jack said, clapping hands together and glancing over everybody gathered in the pit.

“You just want to hit on her,” Allen said. It was a statement, not a question.

Jack smirked and pointed at Nora laying back on the sand while Amelia healed her shoulder. “She can come too,” he said.

Allen’s expression dropped into a frigid glare, which only made Jack’s smile widen. “If you lay a hand on my girl, I’ll… I’ll be very angry with you.” He could barely keep himself from laughing.

“Hah, I remember who said that, what was his name again, Phillipio Van Dipshit or something.” Jack said, laying a hand on Allen’s shoulder as they laughed together. “What did you end up doing to him, I was too busy fighting that Wyvern?”

“Oh uh, if I remember correctly, I put him through an illusion where he was chased by the memories of all the women he had raped, then I castrated him to death in front of the Imperial Aristocratic Council.”

Jack laughed again even harder, “Jiira’s fucking tits! I remember now. What the hell is wrong with you sometimes.” He shook his head and took a deep breath in an attempt to get his laughter under control.

Allen placed his hand on Jack’s shoulder and spoke in his best friendly voice. “And if you fuck with Nora, I’ll castrate you to death too,” he said.

Jack bit his lip in response, but he was still laughing. “Noted,” he began and took a deep breath. “Well, with that settled, there’s another reason I’m here. Another friend wanted to see you.” As Jack finished, he turned around, revealing a pale white spider clinging to his back, completely motionless.

The furry spider nearly filled up the entire space of Jack’s back with its legs stretched out. Its body had about the same circumference as Allen’s head, though a bit longer with its sleek and narrow abdomen. The spider raised its head to look upside down at Allen with all eight unblinking solid black eyes, two of which were much larger than the others. They recognized each other instantly.

Name: Phantom

Awoken Pale Cloaked Hunter Spider – Rogue – Level 712

“Phantom!” Allen shouted as a huge smile sprouted on his face. The spider had jumped and tackled him to the ground before he could even react, not that he had even seen it move in the first place. “Holy shit you broke seven-hundred!”

Phantom went crazy on top of Allen. He didn’t have a tongue to lick with, but he could still rub Allen with his mandibles and spin around in the Assassin’s arms with more force than he could control.

“Good boy, Phantom. Yes, I missed you too,” Allen cooed, scratching behind the spider’s head. The spider made happy hissing noises in response, making Allen laugh. Phantom’s mannerisms were somewhere between a cat and a hyperactive puppy, it was almost enough to make him forget just how efficient of a murder machine he was.

Then suddenly, Phantom snapped to attention on top of Allen’s chest, his front two legs raised and ready. He stood motionless as Allen followed the spider’s gaze to Amelia crouching next to him, looking a little pale in the face.

“Phantom,” Allen began in his commanding voice, “friend,” he said and pointed at Amelia.

The spider relaxed, as evidenced by him lowering his deadly front legs.

Allen looked over at Amelia who seemed to have calmed down just a bit. He also noticed that everybody else was quietly looking at him, even Nora was awake again, and looked more than a little shaken. Waking up after a fight only to see someone seemingly getting mauled by a giant spider seven times your level was a concerning scene for sure.

“…Yes, you can pet him,” Allen said, pushing Phantom towards Amelia. To her credit, she didn’t flinch, she even smiled when the spider testily climbed onto her lap to sniff at her. Or rather, to touch her since Phantom was a spider and spiders smell via touch.

Satisfied, Allen stood up and brushed himself off before looking over everyone present, other than Reggie whom he pretended didn’t exist. “Alright, now that I’ve got your attention, I should tell you that it looks like we’ve landed ourselves a job.”

Camila took another swig of her rum without saying anything, while everyone else went back to staring at Amelia stroking the spider that had smuggled into her lap.

“He’s so cute,” Amelia said as if to herself.

Allen snorted. “Well, we can agree on that one.”