Samara sprinted at the giant that had just appeared and grabbed one of the sheep. The rest of the flock stood right in front of the monster, apparently unaware of the danger they were in.

The sheep became spooked when Bazel used the Xanadu gun. Samara didn't know it would be that loud, otherwise she never would have let him use it. When the flock took off, Samara chased after them despite the fact she knew nothing about herding sheep.

Now, one of the precious fluffballs was in the grip of an ugly giant. Samara resolved herself to save the sheep so that their pay wouldn't be docked – she was a mercenary, after all.

Samara ran right through the middle of the flock at the giant. It brought its club up and prepared to attack her. She'd already seen how slow the giants were, so she was confident she could dodge it.

The giant stepped forward and brought its club down.

Samara rolled out of the way at the last moment, diving between several sheep. She smoothly continued the roll and hopped right back to her feet. She spun around to face the giant again and instantly realized her mistake.

The giant killed three sheep with the attack that missed her.

"Dammit!" Samara shouted.

The other sheep had backed off a bit from the action, but they weren't going anywhere. It was as if they had completely forgotten about the loud noises that made them run in the first place. The deaths of their friends hadn't fazed them either, and now they stood within reach of a monster that wanted them for dinner.

They didn't have a care in the world.

The giant looked like he would attack again, so Samara backed off. She didn't want any more sheep to die. There was still the problem of the sheep the giant was holding, however. It kicked and made noise, but couldn't escape the giant's grasp.

The giant watched Samara with suspicion as she walked backwards and out of its range.

Once the giant saw that Samara wouldn't attack, he turned to leave. Apparently, since it already had what it wanted, it was just going to go home. Samara wracked her brain, trying to think of a way to save the captive sheep.

Just then, Bazel came running up by the rest of the flock and pointed his hand at the giant.

"[Mesmerize]!"

Yellow light shot out of his hand and hit the giant. The giant's whole body glowed with a faint yellow aura and it stopped moving. It put both of its hands down and dropped what was in them. The club landed with a thud, and the sheep scrambled over to where the others stood.

Bazel bent over with his hands on his knees and panted like he'd been running a marathon. Samara walked over to him.

"Good thinking, buddy!"

"Thanks," he said between pants, "but I… don't think… it will last long."

"We need to get them away from it." She pointed over at the piles of blood and wool nearby, "He already killed three of them."

"Do you know… how to herd sheep?"

"No, do you?"

"No."

"Well, great!"

"Maybe," Bazel stood up straight, "We can just chase them back to the hill?"

"It's worth a shot," Samara said, "You look pretty winded, though. I'll herd them, you stay here and make sure the giant doesn't come after them."

"Okay, but I don't think I should use the Xanadu anymore."

"Agreed," she nodded, "at least not for the rest of this job."

The giant grunted and looked around as if confused. Bazel pointed his hand at it and used the [Mesmerize] skill again, causing it to stand in place and drool.

"Looks like you've got this handled." Samara said.

Samara jogged over to the flock and made shooing motions while shouting. It worked as intended and the sheep started moving away from her.

Good! All I have to do is chase them back to the hill then.

Samara zigged and zagged behind the flock and did her best to corral them back towards the hill. It was harder than she imagined it would be, but she eventually got them to go in the right direction. She glanced over her shoulder and saw Bazel was still standing sentry by the giant, then looked back at the flock who were just reaching the bottom of the hill.

Another giant appeared as it crested the hill.

"Dammit!"

●●●

Bazel summoned his interface so he could see his status.

Swindler, level 3

Rank E

Health: 60/60

Aether: 85/160

Credits: 300

Stats:

Strength - 5

Stamina - 7

Agility - 7

Sense - 15

Intelligence - 18

Spirit - 17

Skills:

[Drain Strength] - Take your opponent's strength for yourself. 25 Aether

[Entangle] - Slow your opponent's movement for a time. 15 Aether

[Mesmerize] - Put your opponent in a hypnotic stupor. 15 Aether >

He still had enough aether left to use [Mesmerize] five more times, so he could keep the giant occupied for a while.

But what then?

He didn't dare use the Xanadu anywhere within earshot of the sheep, and he had no other weapon other than his fists. He doubted he could pummel a giant to death.

Behind him, Samara shouted and made Bazel turn to look.

Yet another giant was cresting the hill and the sheep were running straight towards it. Samara was doing her best to outpace the wooly critters and get to the giant first.

Should I go help her?

If he left the giant he was currently guarding, it would wake up and possibly go after the sheep again. The giant on the hill provided a more immediate threat to them however, so it needed to be dealt with first.

Bazel watched as Samara weaved between the giant's attack, and hit its legs with her mace. The giant toppled over. Samara capitalized on the situation and attacked the giant's head. Even from a distance, Bazel could hear the crunching of her weapon against the monster's skull.

On second thought, it looks like she's handling it.

The giant standing near Bazel grunted and went to pick up its club. Bazel sighed and used [Mesmerize] on it again, making it drop the weapon it had just retrieved and stand there in a daze.

Four more times…

●●●

"Dont!"

CRUNCH!

"You!"

CRUNCH!

"Touch!"

CRUNCH!

"My sheep!"

Blood, bone and hair flew off the mace as she swung it back up in the air. An entire side of the giant's oversized head was caved in and mangled beyond recognition.

Samara brought her mace down on the giant's skull one more time for good measure, even though it was clearly dead. She took a step back from the corpse and breathed heavily as the flock walked right past the macabre scene to their grazing spot.

With the sheep safely back on the hill, Samara considered what to do about the one by Bazel. She knew he wouldn't be able to keep it occupied for much longer since he would run out of aether. Her own aether was low as well. It would come back eventually, but they needed to rest for that.

Samara looked around to make sure there were no more giants approaching.

All clear.

Leaving the sheep on the hill, Samara charged back down in the direction of Bazel. As she ran down the riverbed, she saw him use [Mesmerize] once more, and the giant returned to being a statue.

She used [Boost Damage] on herself once more. She didn't know exactly how long it had been since the whole fiasco started, but it had been long enough for the skill to wear off. As soon as she used it, her mace began to glow red.

She ran right past Bazel and hit the mesmerized giant in the knee as hard as she could. The cracking noise of its kneecap shattering was like music to her ears.

The giant toppled forward as she kept running right between its legs. The ground shuddered from the impact.

Samara stopped, turned and ran right onto the giant's back, jumped in the air and landed on his neck while bringing her mace down on the back of his head. She repeated the process of bashing in the giant's skull like she had the previous one.

She smashed her mace into it skull over, and over, and over, and–

"Sa-Samara!" Bazel shouted.

Samara stopped inflicting violence on the monster beneath her and looked up at him in annoyance.

"What?"

"I think it's already dead." He pointed at the giant.

"It sure is."

"Then why are you still hitting it?"

"It made me mad."

Bazel took some steps back.

"Sorry," Samara sighed and climbed off the corpse, "I didn't mean to spook you."

"It's okay," Bazel's voice cracked as he spoke.

Samara calmed a little and pointed to the hill, "We should go back to the sheep."

Bazel walked beside her as they went back to the hill, nervously glancing at her every couple seconds. Samara stored her mace in her inventory and patted him on the shoulder in what she hoped was a comforting gesture.

"You did a good job, buddy."

"You think so?"

"Yeah," Samara nodded, "You took down that giant like a pro!"

"Thanks," he relaxed a bit, "it wasn't as scary as I thought it would be… but I feel bad for the giants."

"You shouldn't. They would kill and possibly eat us without remorse, so we're only protecting ourselves and the sheep."

Samara never had sympathy for anyone she killed. To her, it was a simple equation – kill them before they kill you or someone you love. If you showed pity to someone, they would only wait until your back was turned and repay the favor with betrayal. No, she would never hesitate to kill anyone who deserved it.

Never again.

They crested the hill where the flock had already forgotten about the recent melee and were once again grazing on the grass.

"What do we do with those?" Bazel pointed at the nearby giant corpses, "I don't even think you're strong enough to move them."

"You're right," Samara answered, "but I know a trick."

Samara walked up to the corpse and put her hand on it. She summoned her interface, opened the inventory screen and thought about storing the dead giant.

It disappeared with a "pop!"

"That's handy." Bazel said, "I didn't think something that large would fit in the inventory."

Samara shrugged, "From what I can tell, size doesn't matter. You just can't store more items than you have slots. Also, you can cheat by putting things inside of other things. A bag full of items is still counted as a single item."

"I'll have to remember that."

Samara went over to the other giant corpse and stored it as well. She then walked back down the hill to the river bed where the third corpse was lying. Once she arrived, she took both giant corpses from her inventory and placed them on the ground beside the other one.

When she joined up with Bazel again, he was looking over his battle report. He turned the interface so Samara could see it and pointed to a line.

"It says I did one hundred and fifty-three damage to the giant, but my Xanadu does a max of one forty-seven."

"That's the strength bonus I told you about," She pointed at the interface, "pull up the Xanadu's description."

Bazel did so.

< Xanadu Gun, level 2

91-147(17) damage (piercing, slashing)

Causes bleeding effect

Effective range - 200 feet

Reload time - 00:00:10

Requirements:

Level 2-6

12 strength

6 Stamina

Consumes 10 aether per shot

"Ancestral voices prophesying war! But fear not, the Xanadu Gun can rip your enemies to shreds! Patented Aethertech firearms technology allows the Xanadu to be loaded with nothing more than the flick of a switch! Pull the trigger and all should cry, Beware! Beware!" >

"See the number in parentheses next to the attack damage? That's the bonus damage. For every point of strength you have over what's required to use the gun, it will add seventeen damage."

"Oh, I see!" Bazel smiled, "The strength required to use it is twelve, when I used my drain on the giant, I had fifteen. That means every shot will do an extra fifty-one damage!"

"Correct." Samara put her hands on her hips, "You know, I never would have expected a beggar to be good at math."

"My parents taught me when I was a child." Bazel looked off in the distance as he reminisced, "reading and writing as well."

"If you could do all that, then how did you become a beggar?"

"My father was an outcast who spoke against the church." Bazel frowned, "The holy knights killed him and my mother, and left me on the streets."

Samara knew the holy knights were a ruthless bunch that would do exactly that sort of thing – all in the name of gods they claimed to serve. She guessed that enough people in the city knew of Bazel's parentage that it was difficult for him to find work. Nobody would want to associate with the son of an infidel.

Samara wasn't fond of the church herself, and she had no faith in the gods. She didn't think any worse of Bazel for his circumstances. In fact, she sympathized.

"I'm sorry to hear that." Samara squeezed his shoulder.

"It's okay," Bazel's forced smile didn't reach his eyes, "It was a long time ago."

"Just so you know, one of the holy knights is in the dungeon."

"I'll be sure to stay away from them."

"It shouldn't be too hard," Samara assured him, "he's already on one of the higher floors, so we probably won't run into him. But, just so you know, his name is Peton."

●●●

Peton the Light Bearer – first knight in the holy order of the church of the seven divines, protector of the truth, bane of infidels and defender of the faithful – faced down a giant.

Clad in his polished steel armor and wielding a shining longsword, he squared off against the enemy.

The monstrous being was nothing like the giant's he had faced on the first floor however. Peton could see multiple heads protruding from various places on its shoulders, chest and back. It had at least twelve arms that extended from the rest of its torso.

No problem.

The monster attacked, swiping at Peton with half of its hands.

Peton easily dodged or parried most of the limbs. The ones he couldn't evade, he simply sliced with his shining sword. The severed limbs fell to the ground with small thuds.

The monster shouted in frustration as it failed to hurt the human. Once Peton saw an opening, he used a skill.

"[Vorpal Strike]!"

A brilliant flash of light came from his sword and went right down the middle of the monster. Peton flourished his sword and sheathed it at his hip.

The monster looked like it would attack again, but it stopped mid swing. A seam appeared on the monster, bisecting it from head to crotch. Blood began to squirt out of the seam, and the two halves of the monster fell to opposite sides with a crash.

< Congratulations! You defeated a Minor Hecatoncheires (level 13)

1,160 Experience Points awarded!

…

Congratulations! You leveled up! You are now a Crusader, Level 10! >

Peton was happy for the increase in level, it would allow him to upgrade some of his skills. Skills that would allow him to destroy the dungeon.

He knew that the dungeon stood as an affront to the gods, they had told him themselves. Furthermore, they gave him a quest to destroy the massive tower.

Many of the regular knights who had entered the tower at the same time treated it like a game that would earn them power and wealth. They were even willing to forsake their duties to the crown in order to obtain what they wanted.

Peton would not forsake his duties. He would use the power that the dungeon gave him to make it crumble – all for the glory of the gods.

I'll play your games for now, Peton thought, but only for a while.

He smiled in anticipation of completing his grand quest.

Then comes the reckoning!