"Hi," I waved at the group watching me from the bushes. I must have been a sight, looking down my blue jeans where red along with the rest of me. It Turned out the sonic barrier did nothing to stop the blood. "oh well, their just newbies," I thought while continuing to greet the onlookers. "I'm Max, anything I can help you with ?" I called out with a friendly smile; I did not want to have to fight these people. while uncommon, fights did break out on the earlier floors. If I had trespassed on their Territory at best, I would have to pay a toll; worst, they would try and kill me.

"Help us with?" A young man in a hoodie asked.

"Yeah, well, you're all standing there looking at me. surely you need something." I explained.

"Yeah, we need something," a large aboriginal man said, he had a greatsword on his back. He would be particularly hard to kill. "a Fucking explanation! How on earth did you kill that swarm of snakes!? and why was there a swarm of snakes!?"

I blinked at him, trying to think of a reply. "I shot them, and the snakes came from the forest," I said slowly. I was acting if that was obvious. An older gentleman slapped the back of the aboriginal's head.

"Shut it, Lucas," he said to the Lucas "sorry for being rude, I'm Thomas Mackay, this man is Lucas Dillon" Thomas started to introduce his group "The one in the hood is Gibil, and this lady is Julia Qwin" my eyes widen as heard their names. Lucas and Thomas I had never heard of but Gibil and Julia I had. Gibil's name was Michael long, he was a grandmaster Blademaster when he died, but his real forte was daggers. Julia was destined to be a healer in the [pegasus] guild, second in command of the healers.

"Okay, my name is Maxwell Hunt, now that we're all greeted, what can I do ya for," I said trying to move this along, though Gibil and Julia would be greate climbers they weren't now I couldn't have tagalongs.

"you see that nest, was our hunting area, but it seems we will have to find a new one now," Thomas said, nodding at the burnt nest. "why is it burnt anyway?"

"that's how you summon the swarm. but I wouldn't if I were you." I explained, people would find out what I was doing.

"oh yeah seemed like your just fine," Lucas said with scorn

"yes but I'm not you, I have ways to deal with the swarm, I have experience. you, on the other hand, look like a bunch of newbies that have bearly made it to this floor." I said in a way that an adult would talk to a child. "here's how you hunt, you take on one snake at a time. Lucas, you probably take the agro, while Julia heals you. and Thomas and Gibil do the DPS like any four-member party," I said, indicating each member's roles "now that's fine, its the safe way its the proper way to do things, the fairway." I kicked a snake, "my way isn't safe isn't proper and isn't fair."

"whats your way?" Gibil asked some interest in his eyes.

"my way is, burn the nest, place the ringer 2000 down and pray it doesn't break as I kill the snakes as fast as I can," I said as I grabbed the hexagon trap off the ground.

"Ringer, 2000?" Thomas asked.

"sonic barrier trap makes a wall of solid noise, living things cant cross. a shark cage made of glass." I continued.

"how long it lasts?" Julia asked.

"100 minutes under stress 8 hours on standby," I said, dusting it off "takes 4 hours to charge, and seeing that swarm lasted just under 90 minutes, I got lucky." I stored the ringer in my ring.

"can we help you with the next swarm?" Gibil asked, "split on the loot."

"Gibil!" Thomas yelled, "you don't make decisions for the group."

"what's the percentage?" I asked, ignoring Thomas.

"60/40, you get a 10% finders fee," Gibil said

"80/20, Don't need your help, you need mine" I still looking at Gibil, Thomas seemed to be getting angry.

"70/30, and we don't tell anyone about the burning of nests." Gibil rebutted, "and we let the guardians split the loot."

"Okay, I'm open to the deal now tell me why?"

"because 10 minutes the spare isn't a safety net," Gibil said. he didn't understand my question.

"Nope, but I'm 200 snakes stronger now, no why do you need the money Michael" I tossed out his name to through him off his Gibil act.

"What, how do you know my name?" he looked shocked

"not an answer Michael, Why do you need the money," I asked him again bit more pressure this time.

"hospital fees, my sister has cancer," he said, looking me in the eyes. I was shocked didn't know he had a sister, or that she had cancer. I outwardly didn't show my shock.

"Good, I mean not good that your sister has cancer. but good that you are telling the truth" I smiled at him the situation took a breath of fresh air. "so here's the thing, I know where all the nest are on this level, now we can go crack eggs for a few hours because where bored or you can help me set up camp."

"camp, you can't be seriously thinking of sleeping in the tower," Julia asked with a scared look on her face.

"of course, why wouldn't I? Its perfectly safe if you know what you're doing," I explained.

"But why getting down the tower is easy why wouldn't you sleep on a comfy bed in a hotel where it's safe."

"because the floor doesn't end at the stairs up. you can travel for days in here." I explained. "and the deeper you go, the larger the nest are." my newly formed party members looked at me like I was insane.

They were frightened at first after seeing what one nest swarm was like and hearing I wanted to go after a larger nest, they thought I was suicidal. But they didn't consider the snowball effect. Status

Status: Maxwell Hunt

Race: Human

Class: **

Level: [32]

Floors accessible: [1-1] - [1-6]

Health: [160/160] Mana: [180/180] Stamina: [160/160]

Attributes.

Unspent: 36

Strength: 16

Dexterity: 18

Consitution: 16

Intelligence: 18

Charisma: 16

Luck: ???

Skills

Gunslinger Rank [apprentice] level [45/100]

Blademaster Rank [Beginner] Level [45/100]

Brawler Rank [Beginner] Level [10/100]

Alchemy Rank [Beginner] Level [30/100]

Eighteen levels and I got my apprentice rank gunslinger. Time to spend the attributes and check out my new ability. Raise dexterity and intelligence to 30 and the rest to 20.

Status: Maxwell Hunt

Race: Human

Class: **

Level: [32]

Floors accessible: [1-1] - [1-6]

Health: [200/200] Mana: [300/300] Stamina: [200/200]

Attributes.

Strength: 20

Dexterity: 30

Consitution: 20

Intelligence: 30

Charisma: 20

Luck: ???

Skills

Gunslinger Rank [Apprentice] level [45/100]

Blademaster Rank [Beginner] Level [45/100]

Brawler Rank [Beginner] Level [10/100]

Alchemy Rank [Beginner] Level [30/100]

and now for the ability.

Gunslinger Rank [apprentice] level [45/100]

+5.45% damage with guns.

Abilities

[Beginner] Quickdraw

[Apprentice] Rapid Fire

Rapid Fire

[Active ability] For 4.5 seconds and continuously fire without reloading.

this still consumes ammo. can end early.

duration based on the gunslinger Apprentice level (max 10 seconds).

Cooldown 100xduration. (450 seconds)

Nice, that was a serious ability, 10 seconds of continuous firepower, got to work on trying to activate my mana soon if I can get mana bullet and this. my eyes shone with an evil glint. but the clock was still ticking and I need to get moving first thing I did was give the [crobar Fangs] to Gibil as a loaner. we discussed loot rules as I lead them to the next nest on my mental map. we had already agreed on 70/30 split but that was for gold and materials with items it became a bit difficult. because we didn't have an appraiser in the group we couldn't actively know the price of an item. so we went with need before greed with my right to veto a need pre nest. for the next 4 hours, we cleared out 2 nests the slow way break a few eggs summon some snakes and kill them. with my help it went a lot quicker being able to score critical hits nearly constantly by shooting the snakes in the head was always a big help. I judge the group to be around level 30 with all closing in on apprentice rank combat skills. Julias had 2 healing spells as well, Swift Heal, which would heal someone by 75 points and another which was Healing winds, an AOE (area of effect) regeneration spell, it healed the party for 5% of the max every second for 10 seconds. swift heal had a short cooldown of 5 seconds but healing winds was a minute cooldown, for healers timing was everything. use an ability to early, and it might not be off cooldown when you need it, use it too late and it might not work because the target was dead. healers were some of the best people I knew, they carried the weight of the party on their shoulders and they were generally nice people. things went fine for the first swarm we did, then it was back to egg crushing and setting up to camp for tonight. all in all, it was an okay day I was moving a bit slower then I would like but I would still get to my target before having to head back. what I hadn't told the party was why we were actually heading way out of the way. something that would be discovered shortly after the collapse of Earth, Minibosses. I didn't lie also the nest would get larger but that was because nobody was crushing the eggs, the real reason was the [Constricter Queen] miniboss was out near a temple in the rainforest of floor [1-6]. not every floor had a miniboss but some did and minibosses dropped the best loot, and something even rarer, Spirit stones.