Once the doctors arrived and cleared me, I found out that it was New Year’s Eve (heck of a day to wake up in hospital) and looking at my LEV, I levelled up three times beating Blade… everyone else levelled up three times too, everyone on the team was at level twenty nine… I wondered why we all levelled up the same amount, but then I remembered that I landed the final hit with my Dagger, meaning I got 1.2 times the experience the rest got.

After allocating my stats, and accepting them, I noted something strange on my Skill List…

Personal Information

Name:

Arthur Clive

Level:

33

2170 EXP

Rank:

K

Anima:

Traveller’s Cloak

The Nameless Dagger

Stats:

Strength: 32 (36.8)

Dexterity: 40 (48)

Intelligence: 23

Wisdom: 40 (64)

Vitality: 32 (33.2)

Constitution: 23

Skills:

Shooting (F), Blade Wielding (S), Tactician (S), Recovery (B), Close Combat ©, Enchanting (D), Å»ª§¤ƺ

There was… something, there, but I didn’t know what it was, let alone the fact that I couldn’t use it obviously… plus, it was some garbled mess of symbols that I didn’t understand but seemed to be from multiple different sources… so I didn’t know what it was… I don’t know, I’ll probably know sometime in the future, but for now, I didn’t know…

…and yes, I boosted my Dexterity and Wisdom by more than was strictly necessary… but hey, Blade was way, way faster than me, and my regeneration wasn’t enough to use Flow Step continuously (it used about 10% per minute, more than double Jolt Step… all these Step spells, one would think I’m a dance instructor or something… eh, not my fault, all the attack spells I thought of took too much mana to use just yet.)

Still, I had a lot to work on… while I managed to close the gap due to my magic, and the ability to summon my Dagger, in pure ability Blade beat me easily… and that annoyed me. It made my victory seem so cheap.

Still, even as I looked on in approval of my stats, I noticed my room door open (it was awesome that people with healing Anima’s were being hired at hospitals, John admitted that he occasionally stopped by and healed a few people just for the extra practice with his Anima) and Emilia and the rest of the team walked in, all in various degrees of bandaged (John was the only one with no basic injury really, though he can’t use mana for a good while due to using too much at once) with Michael being the worst off.

From how it looked I’d say he had bandages for his bandages really… his arms were seriously just a small piece away from being cut halfway through leaving them hanging, so he wasn’t going to be using his arms for a while, though from what the doctors had been telling me, people with high Vitality stats healed much faster than ‘normal’ people…

I had kind of forgotten that such people existed really, I mean, people without LEV’s weren’t exactly rare, but it wasn’t common either… I’d say there was a 30-70 split between people with LEV’s and those without, with the majority being LEV users…

Sad really, they didn’t grow like others, but the majority of those 30% were people too old or injured in some manner to enter the dungeon (people who were unable to walk for instance)

Back to the ‘not using’ part, considering his Vitality stat was a bit higher than 20, instead of waiting a whole month before he could use his arms again, Michael would likely only have to wait a week at max before we’d be good to go… besides, he didn’t need to fight to level with us, though he seemed to think that would be annoying.

“Hey Arthur… um… you have a visitor.” Emilia said, looking nervously at Michael who seemed to be annoyed with something… I looked at him as he clicked his tongue in annoyance, something hard to get out of Michael seeing as he was usually such a calm guy.

“It’s Jason. He came to visit.” I blinked at his words before clicking my own tongue and looking to the side, a small scowl on my face… Emilia looked between the two of us in confusion.

“Come on, it’s just Jason, what’s so wrong?” asked Alice as I looked at her… then I sighed. “You’re right Alice, nothing’s wrong really… Michael and I are just a bit annoyed with him…” I complained a bit.

“Well, I can understand that.” I heard from the doorway and looked over and then widened my eyes a bit at seeing said topic of conversation standing there in a suit…

Jason Grey, a good ‘friend’ of Michael and I, we were best friends easily got along when we were younger, but Jason had left around the time we entered high school and started hanging out with ‘party people’ and such, leaving Michael and I behind while he went to hang out with a different crowd.

“Jason… it’s good to see you.” In spite of my annoyance with his disappearing acts he used to do, he was still a friend… I really was annoyed though, as much as I still considered him a friend… though he didn’t need to know that last part.

“Arthur, Michael… Alice, you’re here too!” he smiled at Alice who smiled back, shaking Jason’s hand. Like me, Jason viewed Alice as a sister of sorts as he turned to Michael, who sighed, nodding at Jason seeing as his hands were indisposed of at current.

“So, Jason, what’s the occasion, other than your old friends being in hospital of course?” I asked as Jason looked at me with an awkward look as he scratched his cheek.

“Eh, you always were one to go straight to the point I guess… long story short, I’m an agent for the government. I was sent here to collect your group… there’s someone high up who would like to meet your team.” He said making me blink.

“Hold up, you are part of the government? I don’t believe it. You always did as you pleased, some of which might not even be legal last I checked, and you were much too laid back to be part of some stiff agent group.” I said straight as Jason chuckled.

“Indeed I was… but, after some issues, I got training at Quantico to join the FBI, but before I finished my training… well, Red Sky Day happened.” He explained as I blinked before nodding.

“So, after that, and getting my own LEV, I was recruited to be part of a group working directly under the boss man himself.” I blinked at his words before looking up slightly.

“Huh… so you work for the President directly huh?” I asked as he nodded, and I blinked… wow, that was really strange in my eyes… I’m pretty sure I remember this being the guy who once said ‘Bro, smoking some good stuff is brilliant! You’ll see strawberry coloured cats!’ and hearing he was in such a serious position is so strange… plus, I’m sure there wasn’t just a plant in whatever he was smoking, not that I ever did.

“Yeah… wasn’t expecting that either… well, I was just lucky to be selected due to my Anima I guess… it’s one that increases my speed by quite a bit, but only for a minute, I can get to the entrance of this hospital in that time.” I blinked at him… then laughed in his face as he blushed a bit.

“What!?” he shouted in return as I pointed at him, Michael also getting the joke before I could say it.

“You always did that disappearing act of yours, so now you even got an Anima that lets you do it literally!” I laughed and he just muttered something about me being a jerk as the rest of the group found or dynamic to be strange… well, it was strange… because once upon a time I was the one being the butt of most jokes, I’ll admit.

I was the youngest between the three of us after all, followed by Michael then Jason as the eldest. Back when we were children I’d follow them everywhere and be happy just being around friends even if they joked at my expense… of course, they’d long stopped doing that after I got pissed enough times.

“Alright, alright… anyway, as I said, the boss wants to meet you, he’s a few blocks away in a safe house waiting to meet you.” Jason added as I sighed, standing and cringing a bit at the bandages around my waist.

“Hey, you think if I dye these bandages green and get three katanas I could do a good Zoro impression?” no one laughed… tough crowd.

Thirty minutes later we were in a building following Jason (we all were in civilian clothes luckily, though Michael needed help with his due to him not being able to move his arms right) as we walked into a simple non-descript building… and I immediately noted the man a bit further down the hall waiting for us.

“Hey, aren’t you… what was your name…Shane or something, right?” I asked, remembering the lazy looking man easily… though seeing him in a suit (even with the tie missing and the shirt un-tucked, and missing his glasses) was strange even as he looked at me clicked his tongue, his eyes gleaming for a second as I tensed.

“Shaun, Shaun Fife… I really didn’t want to meet you again so soon.” He complained even as I frowned… what was his issue with me? Then again, for some reason I didn’t like him much either.

“Ah, commander, I brought them as requested.” I blinked at Jason’s words before linking them with Shaun in front of me.

“Huh, you’re the commander of that ‘special unit’ that works for the President?” I asked as he nodded looking at me, his hands in his pockets as I looked annoyed at our height difference… less than ten centimetres, but still...

“Indeed, I’m the commander of the three dungeon going teams that work for the President, captain of Team One as we put it. Agent Grey, who you know beyond his current role, is my second in command of Team One… when the actual second is busy.” He added making me stare a bit… this guy… he’s actually pretty strong… really.

“Oh? You seem to be capable of telling the strength of those around you with a glance… something that’s good to be capable of doing. And for the record, I’m probably not as strong as you think, considering I’m only Level 27.” I blinked at his words, and then tensed a bit.

This guy… if I hadn’t done that Christmas Eve stunt, or killed Blade, I’d be around the same level… meaning that he could be considered just as skilled as me and my team when it came to dungeon going.

“Well, commander, you downplay your strength, I mean, even though I’m the same level I can’t win you in a fight.” Jason added as I really started to get freaked out… Jason was faster than me when he used his Anima (I checked) and unless I used Echo Step I wasn’t reaching his speed… and this guy could deal with it?

“And you exaggerate it. I only keep winning because you don’t fight smart.” He added, before sighing and running his hand through his (already) messy hair before reaching for the door.

“Ignoring that, come on in, the boss wants to see you.” And thus he opened the door and let us step inside… the President sat at the end of a surprisingly small table, just enough to seat three on each side and one at each end, eight seats… six on my team, plus him, that was seven… then Shaun sat down on the right of the President and I shrugged, guessing Jason was to be standing due to his lower rank.

“Ah, hello there, it’s nice to meet you. I’m sure I don’t need an introduction, but my name is Chayton Andrews, but most just call me, at my request, President Clayton… but considering your position, you could just call me Clayton.” He said as I nodded.

“It’s nice to meet you as well President Clayton, my name is Arthur Clive… but considering you asked to meet with me team, I trust you knew that.” I said as the President shook his head at my words, surprising me.

“Honestly, no, I didn’t know how you looked until now. The only information I had at the time was your Level, your highest skill and your highest stat.” I tensed at his words… how had he…

Of course, Shaun. Shaun was an identifier last time I met him, and he hadn’t acted important at the time, and I didn’t care much that he was replacing a supposedly sick person… but apparently that was the time he got my information… but how… most Oobservation type Anima didn’t get that detailed…

“In case you are wondering, I’m the one who found out that information, using my Anima… in fact, you saw it just as you arrived… you tensed up a bit when you saw it.” I remembered now, his eyes seemed to glow green and feral in a similar manner as cats-eye gems… so that was his Anima? Seemed a bit lack lustre, but the presence he had when he used it…

“Dragon Eyes. That’s the name of my Anima. While I don’t quite trust you, the President does.” I frowned, again wondering what he had against me, then remembering I also didn’t like him for some strange reason… seemed instinctual.

“Indeed, Shaun here has one of, if not the best known Anima when it comes to information gathering… it’s also why I authorized his entrance into the Dungeon, so that he could level up and gain more information when he used his Anima.” He admitted as Shaun shrugged… Shaun was becoming increasingly dangerous in my eyes…

“Alright boss, you can stop bragging about your amazing henchmen… and then we can get to the problem here.” I frowned at his words as Clayton sighed before looking over to me.

“Quite honestly, I hadn’t expected this… I made some arrangements, just in case it didn’t happen, but I had hoped…” I was getting a bit worried here…

“I had honestly hoped that it would have been Shaun who killed the first Demon Lord, and not you.” I blinked at his words, my team (who had all taken seats, Jason helped Michael get his, though Michael grumbled through it) also seemed confused.

“…How would us killing a Demon Lord be a bad thing?” I asked as Clayton shook his head. “No, at least, it can’t be a bad thing… but it wasn’t necessarily a good thing to be the person who did it either…”

I was getting a bit annoyed at this roundabout method of speaking as Shaun seemed to also be getting too annoyed by now.

“What the boss is trying to say, is that killing the first Demon Lord is kind of a double edged blade.” Huh, he explained it in a reference that I understood… I nodded at him as he sighed, continuing his explanation.

“See, the dungeon entrances have appeared all around the world; and those are all bases with which Chronos will use to attack us… this is what was announced to the public, but it is not in fact the truth.” He stated making me blink… of course; sometimes information was filtered to be more acceptable for the masses…

“If you listened to my wording, you’d have caught it already… Dungeon. Not dungeons. All those ‘entrances’ only lead to one particular Dungeon… and it isn’t a Dungeon either… no, that’s just what we called it so that no one panicked.” He added, making me blink a bit at the knowledge that every entrance led to the same Dungeon.

“It… it’s much more than some ‘dungeon’… it’s a gateway... a bridge. Now consider, if demons come through the Dungeon into our world, what is on the other side of the bridge?” I blinked and paled at his words… I… I figured that I’d have to end up going that way to kill Chronos but… the Dungeon is actually-

“Yes, the ‘Dungeon’ is actually a literal stairway into Hell… and as you go downwards, you’re actually getting closer and closer to Hell, literally.” The rest of my group seemed very surprised by this as Shaun looked to the President for permission to continue. Seeing the ‘go ahead’ Shaun turned back to us.

Summing up the explanation, on the day we all obtained LEV’s, Chronos made a private announcement to all governments in the world, and not the civilians.

The details of the announcement was that Chronos was making a ‘path’ for us to invade him, instead of only having us wait for him to invade. If we were to ‘clear’ the Dungeon, we’d immediately arrive in his throne room, and, if we killed him, we’d have taken over Hell effectively, and the one to kill him would hold total control over Hell…

“Wait… so what was so important about the first Demon Lord?” asked Matt (conspiracy theorist that he was, he was probably both paranoid and enjoying this all too much) as Shaun looked towards me, his eyes flashing a bit as his Anima triggered… it was an effective intimidation tactic.

“…So, whoever kills Chronos becomes the new ruler of Hell… and to kill Chronos one has to ‘clear’ the ‘Dungeon’… who is the closest to clearing the Dungeon, at current?” He asked and I blinked, before I looked at my team…

“…Us?” I asked as he sighed and looked at me, this time not even using his Dragon Eyes as he stared. “Try singular.”

“… Me?” I asked as he nodded. “Bingo… congratulations Clive, you’ve become the number one candidate to rule Hell should you kill its current ruler, thus becoming the object of scorn from just about every religion, and possibly government due to the huge amount of military power you’d have at your disposal… happy?” I paled at his explanation reached me…

I… Honestly didn’t care much what other people thought of me, but if that many people hated me and perhaps even tried to kill me…

“Not to worry though… every government has made an agreement to not discriminate and or hate anyone who did the deed. It would be stupid to antagonize anyone who might someday control beings stronger than those that lowered our population by almost a fifth… and while killing you before you reach that point is an option-” I was glad to notice that all my friends glared at him, even Jason, as Shaun sighed.

“As I was saying, while that is an option, President Clayton had a much better idea… endorsing you.” He said as I blinked… endorsing me?

“Basically, we’ll provide so many benefits that you’ll want to not hurt us should you take over Hell.” He said as I blinked… he was a pretty straightforward guy actually.

“Indeed, we are willing to provide you with combat trainers, including Shaun here, financial aid, and, with certain conditions, perhaps other benefits.” Clayton added as he seemed to think a bit.

“…Agent Grey, go get those cards.” He said as Jason blinked and sighed before walking out of the room as I blinked at the words of the President who smiled.

“You see, ever since the LEV’s had been introduced I’d been getting a crash course in the idea of ‘levels’ and ‘skills’ and so on… basically, I’d been playing some video games.” I almost chuckled at his admittance as he smiled.

“And in some of those games, I noticed something called an ‘Adventurer’s Guild’… so I made one.” I blinked… oh, wait, President, forgot… despite America being in some financial trouble in the past few years, Clayton was very good at managing politics and monetary gain, and America was back to sitting comfortably as a major financial superpower in the world… so he had money for things like this, even if it was technically ‘the country’s’ money.

“Those small booths near the Dungeon were the preliminary attempt, and they were working pretty well, and thus we decided to implement the next stage of our ‘Guild’ as these.” He said when Jason walked back into the room with a small case, and opened it, revealing six thin crystal like cards, making me blink at their composition… they looked like-

“These cards were made using the Soul Stones and with the assistance of someone with a creation type Anima.” Of course it was, Soul Stones seemed to work everywhere. Having a creation Anima was pretty rare and awesome too though… most had Blacksmithing…

But occasionally there was someone who had an Anima called ‘Magic Item Creation’ and they could make smaller trinkets which had one use (someone made an Escape Rope and was currently trying to create little red and white spheres to catch Demons in… they (Magic Item makers) were typically eccentric really…) and this seemed more up their alley…

“So, what do these cards do, exactly?” I asked, looking over the see-through crystalline cards, the cards were slightly red in colour, signifying that they were made with Soul Stones… they couldn’t break in one use like most Magic Items, otherwise it would be pointless to hand these out.

“Nothing beyond measuring. They take note of how deep into the Dungeon a person has gone, and from there we can assign rankings amongst Adventurers, as the term will now become… soon.” I blinked at his words and looked at the little cards…

“They synch to your LEV’s somehow, don’t ask me to explain the concept behind it, I don’t have a LEV after all…” the President seemed quite annoyed by that bit of information, though I suppose I could understand, it was the same situation involving soldiers and a general who has never fought in a war, the general couldn’t possibly understand his soldiers, even if he wanted to.

“So, how do we activate them? No dropping blood on it or something?” I asked as he tapped his left wrist and I looked to my LEV… then I touched the card to it, and it burned a bit.

I looked on the card… thankfully it doesn’t have my picture on it, I hated pictures of myself (I don’t know why, it just seemed like I disliked seeing myself… not moving, I guess.) and it had simple information, my LEV, my name, and my furthest floor (10, since there was apparently an option to teleport back then that I somehow used during that period of time that’s missing from my memory…)

“So, it connects to LEV’s… hm… well, I guess that makes sense to an extent… your soul doesn’t lie after all.” I added and the President just shrugged (looked weird to see someone do that in a suit) while Shaun glared at me when I said that… what?

“Anyway! These actually provide benefits beyond assisting with ranking Adventurers, we’re making that Adventurers get discounts for most things all over the country, only public institutions though, such as public transport and so on… I can’t exactly get every shop to provide you with discounts, this is the land of the free after all.” Clayton added and I nodded, made sense, there would be riots and outrage at having such a large amount of people suddenly paying less for more… logically speaking, there would be a deficit instead of a profit.

“That being said, we did find an alternative, you will get discounts when it comes to buying things from the Guild, such as items other Adventurers bring in, and you might even get a ‘quest’ from another Adventurer to retrieve an item they can’t. In exchange for completing a quest the quest giver will be required to pay you, and the guild also provides at least 20% of the costs to issue a quest for those who can’t afford it, though we would need to be reimbursed eventually.” He added and I agreed, that was a good plan actually, get Adventurers to support each other and put it in terms of work and pay…

He was essentially creating a closed economy for Adventurers, who would then use the money earned there and supply the original economy, thus adding another level to the circulation of money…

What? I will have you know that I got high marks in business studies when it was a required subject in high school… the only reason I didn’t go into that field was because of while I knew it, it didn’t mean I would enjoy having that as a job.

“Actually… there was another subset to this proposal…” the President looked a bit conflicted at this point, yet with a look and nod from Shaun seemed to sigh and look at me, focus in his eyes… from this, I absently noted that, despite Shaun being a soldier or worker, his boss really relied on his input, he was trusted, a good advisor too judging by the new policies and how the President seemed to look at Shaun for confirmation at times… much like a child looking for a teacher to see if their work was right honestly…

“You see, Arthur… the point is, you are an important asset to this country at this point, as the highest levelled adventurer on record.” He said making me blink…

“Who is my closest competitor… not counting my teammates?” I asked in confusion as the President sighed with an annoyed look.

“That’s classified information technically… so I don’t know their names. And the reason the President doesn’t know classified names is because I’m not the one who classified them… The Prime Minister of Japan and the President of Russia classified it.” I blinked at his words and my eyes widened a bit in realization.

“So wait, I’m not just the highest levelled adventurer in this country… but in the world?” I asked in shock… no way… that just didn’t seem right…

“Yes, you are. You gained a few levels from killing the Demon Lord, so you’ve skipped ahead of your closest competitors… who are all level 28.” I blinked… then I looked to my team in worry… they were all level 29 at this point… well, they were very close to level 30, but… before the Demon Lord fight they were all level 26. Lower than my competitors.

“And yes, their entire teams are that level… but we only acknowledge leaders of teams in that running, though if someone stood out inside a team we include them…” the President then looked at the rest of my team…

“You all are technically now in the running of strongest Adventurers, level wise, but everyone else will notice that your Leader is a few levels higher and likely dragged you along, even if it wasn’t true.” I frowned at that… from my point of view, it was much of the opposite…

I… honestly speaking I didn’t have much confidence in myself… but when I had to, for my friends and family, I could do much more than if I was alone, simply by virtue of them believing that I could do more… for others, I could do more.

“Ah, that’s fine by me. Arthur did drag us along… but we chose to follow wherever he’s heading, so that’s our fault.” I blinked in surprise at Matt’s words as he smirked. (and considering his ‘bandit’ looks and goatee, it looked predatory…)

“What? Just because we’ve all gotten quieter doesn’t mean we don’t think. Especially me…” he looked up again, not looking at me but at Shaun who sat on the other side of the table from him.

“The two most observant people on this team are Michael, and myself. Michael because he’s our second-in-command, and helps us co-ordinate with his ranged attacks. As for myself, I’m the tank, the defender… if I am not there, someone dies.” I blinked at his words and frowned… I… I hadn’t…

“And because I need to always be there, I need to always watch the team, and make sure we’re all safe… and Arthur does a good job on that front.” I was confused now…

“It doesn’t look like much, to anyone looking at it from the outside in… but to we on the inside, especially Michael and I, we see the effect Arthur has on our team.” He said and I really felt like blushing here… don’t make me the spotlight so suddenly… I don’t handle praise well…

“Arthur… best I can say, is that he gives us confidence. Whatever he says can be done, will be, and it will drive us ever closer to success. If it weren’t for input, we’d hesitate. ‘Do I stand here? Do I attack now? Will someone watch my back?’ we don’t need to worry about such things because Arthur assures us.” He said, then he turned his grin to me and I gulped when he did a small glare.

“We aren’t helpless though… but we work better as a team. If anyone else says we’re worthless just because we follow Arthur around, that’s fine… because we know that he needs us and vice versa.” I smiled… yeah…

Matt… honestly I hadn’t spoken much to my team in a private setting anymore, it was all business unless I spoke one on one with someone… and I hadn’t spoken to Michael or John like that in a while… I regret that now. We’re a team, and we work well together… but I don’t want us to be a team on just a professional level, I don’t want my friends to be considered just tools to help me get my revenge.

“…Huh, this proves my point, right Shaun?” the President spoke up with a small smile as Shaun looked annoyed as he tilted his head and finally nodded.

“Yeah… despite my guesses to the contrary, I guess he does have that quality.” I was confused at this, as Shaun sighed and looked at me.

“Clive, you possess the qualities of a leader, that ability to draw people into following you… and that’s good, considering your new position in life.” He said and I blinked… huh? What position?

“Clive… you’re the closest to becoming Ruler of Hell… you do realize that technically means that you are the closest to being a King?” Shaun added as I turned to the President, noticing his smile.

“Arthur, I want you to be an asset to this country… but realistically that wouldn’t be feasible were you to actually succeed here… so I want to make a deal with you. Not as a President to a citizen, but from a President to a King.” I widened my eyes at his words…

“Me, a king? That doesn’t make much sense…” I said as Clayton smirked… and I had the feeling he was about to back me into a corner to somehow accept the ‘title’.

“Oh? It doesn’t? then I guess your five subjects in the room don’t exist either? Oh, and your leadership qualities that made these five follow you into battle also don’t exist?” I groaned at his words as I looked to Michael who whistled as he notably looked away… I looked to the others, and with the exception of Matt (who was snickering behind his hand) they all seemed to be ignoring my distress.

“No, these aren’t my… subjects. They are my friends, my partners, my team.” I said and Michael scratched his cheek… and I inwardly panicked a bit, cause that was usually a sign of him awkwardly telling me I wasn’t seeing something.

“Uh… well, you’re kind of right Arthur… but you are also kind of wrong? You see, we’re your friends sure… but they have a point. We follow you… as weird as that is to say in our modern world, calling you our ‘King’ is strange… but with the new order of the world, it doesn’t seem that wrong. A King without a country you may be, but you are not a King without trusted attendants.” Michael said (I softly heard John complaining that he was not a subject, only to get slapped upside the head by Alice.)

Michael then smirked. “You’re our leader… it only makes sense that you are also our general, and thus, our King.”

I blinked in disturbance when Michael lowered his head a bit, the rest of the team doing it too (though Matt was grinning like a hyena and John had his forehead on the table due to Alice keeping his head there)… and then I looked at Clayton who looked smugly at me…

“…I hate you.” I blandly spoke as my friends all seemed to want to burst into laughter at this point.

“Well, King Arthur Clive, as President of America, I’d like to make a deal with you and your subjects.” He said as I sighed… then looked back up (I absently noted Shaun’s eyes snapping into green for a second as he blinked at me) and looking at Clayton in the eyes.

“Very well, if you are all so insistent on calling me a ‘King’ then I guess I am one… so, what’s the deal, Clayton.” I switched to using his name now, since he had apparently forced me into ‘equal power’ between us… even though I knew that was nonsense, seeing as while I had personal power at this point, I didn’t have any political nor military might… but I’d just accept it… for now.

“Well, Arthur… I want you to be the representative of USA, and I will pay you and arrange conveniences for you, in fact, you can make a few demands, I’ll say what I can’t accept though.” I raised a brow at his words… really… something so simple? Nah, there had to be a bit more to it…

“In exchange, should you become the King of Hell, I’d like you to share any innovations or resources you might find down there… I don’t expect you to not trade with any other country, I just ask that America gets fair treatment and a bit of importance between the trades.” I blinked at his words…

So he was having me become the ‘face’ of American Adventurers as ‘America’s Strongest’ as well as ‘Most Likely to become King of Hell’ and sponsoring me… for future goods?

Oh this guy was good… I grinned at his words, and my team grinned along with me… by this point, they could already see that I had made up my mind, and just by looking at their faces I could see the approval.

“Well then, I can accept such a deal… what I want though, is information, and resources.” I said, Clayton now learning forward in his seat, resting his elbows on the table, a position I had also gone into actually… when did I do that?

“Exactly what kind of information and resources do you want?” he asked as I raised my hand, fist closed, and raised a finger.

“Firstly, I want a building close to the Dungeon entrance for my team. Half the team already lives together, the other three have their own homes, but this would cut some time out of travelling and communication.” I looked to my team, and they seemed to accept that… though I noted Michael signed to me… okay that one was talk… the other was time… talk after I guess. I raised another finger as I continued.

“Secondly, I want funds to spend on the necessities, such as food, toiletries, water, electricity, and such.” I added as Clayton hummed in consideration.

“Well, the water and electricity will be paid for, as well as the building… as for the funds to spend on food and toiletries, how about a good ten thousand for a month, each?” he asked as I blinked… that was more than necessary for me personally… but the rest seemed happy, so I nodded.

“Good, so that is sorted for now… as for information, I want priority on being updated on information involving both the Dungeon and Adventurers, I could use just about all the information on other adventurers to my advantage in some manner.” At this point, Clayton frowned and Shaun shook his head, opening his mouth.

“Impossible. While the term ‘big brother is watching’ exists, that doesn’t mean we are allowed to spread private information to such an extent… if information is public knowledge, such as Level or Anima, then we can possibly provide those, but as you can guess, such information wouldn’t be as detailed as you’d like.” I smiled, and that seemed to send alarms in Shaun’s head because his eyes flashed green once more (that seemed almost like a reflex of some sort… wonder what I did that caused it?)

“Oh, such information is perfectly fine… after all… I’m kind of a plunderer when it comes to usage of information. I use anything and everything to my advantage, and even small things like ‘what does this Anima do’ or ‘this person uses this kind of magic’ is extremely helpful… it gives me ideas.” I said honestly, though that only seemed to make Shaun more disturbed as Clayton closed his eyes and nodded.

“Alright, information of that level can be arranged… anything else?” he asked as I finally considered… what else could I want? Ah… there was something that was important… and looking over at Shaun, I knew he’d be capable of providing it.

“Training… honestly, we’re just winging it at this point, and while that has worked for us so far, it can’t always work. Blade, the Demon Lord, proved that brute forcing everything isn’t going to always work. I’d like some people to teach us how to fight.” I said as Clayton blinked… then turned to Shaun who sighed.

“That can be arranged… though it is my personal thought that you shouldn’t.” I blinked at his words and stared at him.

“Explain. Why wouldn’t that work out?” I asked as he scratched his head (a habit of his, judging by how messy his hair seemed to appear) as he looked at me.

“That’s because fighting demons in the Dungeon is different from fighting people, which is what most fighting styles are designed to do. The only benefits of any style of fighting you learn would be the movement skills and how to best make use of whatever abilities you already have.” I nodded at his words, though he seemed very disturbed and surprised at my response.

“Oh I knew that part. But the effectiveness of styles made to fight humans, when used against demons, is yet to be determined, right? Not all demons have the same weaknesses, and so they must be dealt with accordingly in different manners… but having the knowledge of how to more properly apply our strengths would increase our strength by a factor.” I added, making Shaun frown… he seemed to know where I was going with this.

“With that being said, Clayton, could you have Shaun train us?” I asked and while my team seemed confused and slightly surprised, Shaun just sighed and Clayton reached over and patted his shoulder.

“May I ask why Shaun specifically?” Clayton asked, likely just to ‘test’ my reply, but I didn’t care really… even if I answered wrong, it wouldn’t lead to too much issues, seeing that whether or not I got the training, I’d still continue to fight, and experience could in fact make up the difference in training… wait, that sounded redundant…

“Well, it’s because Shaun is clearly the person you favoured most for the position I took, meaning he must be very reliable when it comes to both leadership and fighting, traits you seemed to have been looking for in me… though in this case, I’d think he was good at fighting, to be in charge of your own private group of Adventurers.” I said as Clayton seemed to nod in agreement to my logic.

“…Well, that’s up to Shaun, I can order him around, but if he doesn’t want to do it then I can’t guarantee the effectiveness of him being your trainer.” And with that, I confirmed it, as I smirked, making both people not part of my group confused (Jason seemed to have gone missing, likely getting something… huh, his presence is much thinner than it used to be… he used to be the loud one in the room.)

“Well, that confirmed my theory… Clayton, this may come off as offensive, but aren’t you basically just following Shaun’s orders?” I asked and Shaun glared at me.

“…that would be a mixed bag honestly…” Clayton answered quietly as he palmed his forehead, likely trying to think about how to explain that the President was following the orders of a soldier.

“See, I ran for presidency after spending time in the military. Shaun here was my superior officer, so listening to his orders and advice was a holdover from back then… however he now follows my orders, as strange as that idea is to me.” Oh yeah… Clayton’s campaign slogan was ‘a President that fights for you!’

“But yes, I trust Shaun’s advice and ideas, and follow them with only a question to ask the reasoning behind them.” I looked to Michael then back towards Clayton and nodded. I could understand the idea.

“Not just that… Shaun… Shaun was actually the one who pushed me to trying to become President, when I mentioned that it was my dream, and my ambition, he suggested I go through with it. Well, here I am.” Clayton said, and I looked at Shaun with more respect in my eyes… he still disturbed me for some reason, but I respected him a bit more.

You could still respect someone and dislike them at the same time after all.

“Right, that was just a question to satisfy my curiosity… but anyway, with or without training, we accept your terms.” I said and Clayton smiled, nodding his head.

“So, a contract?” I asked as he shook his head, before he pointed to the corners of the room, each with a camera… I had noticed honestly, but I got the drift, he was going to use a recording to show legality I guess… I didn’t trust it as much as a contract or legal agreement though.

“If you want one, we’ll draw up another… though before that… what’s the time, Shaun?” he asked as Shaun checked his watch (on the inside of his left wrist, something most soldiers would tell you was very helpful when holding a gun if you were right handed… it let you check the time and make sense of the ‘enemy at nine o’clock’ that the military used) before he looked up.

“It’s about three… the announcement should be coming up soon.” He said as Jason walked into the room with a muscled guy in a suit, both wheeling in what looked to be a flat-screen TV, before setting it up on the side of the room, some of us having to turn to watch as it was put on.

“So… what announcement is coming on?” I asked as Clayton frowned, before sighing.

“Chronos. Chronos is going to announce something… when he told the governments around the world about the truth of the dungeon he used any close-by broadcasting system, including TV’s, computers, and radios.” Oh, so that was how Chronos had been able to communicate to the different governments… interesting idea in my eyes…

“Anyway, at the end of that announcement, Chronos added that after one of his Demon Lords died, he’d make an announcement the following day at three about a ‘system update’… I hate his wording.” Clayton added and I agreed… his obsession with gaming terminology was very strange, seriously.

“Well, it should be on any second now…” and we waited for just a few seconds before some static seemed to come to life on the screen, before slowly clearing until I looked upon Chronos.

He wore armour of a near obsidian colour, and it seemed similar in manner to Blade’s very body, though some notable differences were the added adornments, such as the strange dark blue… I don’t know the term, a cape-skirt? Whatever that thing was, and a shoulder cape over his left arm, but not his right, showing his gauntlet clad right arm. I didn’t know what weapon he used, but I had no doubt he’d use it extremely well…

Even just sitting there, he had ‘Strongest, run away’ exuding from his seated position.

I couldn’t see his face though, as it was covered by a helmet which seemed alive (why did I have a feeling that I had seen something similar?) as the helmet grinned in its strange caricature of a skull smiling… then the ‘mouth’ opened and Chronos spoke.

“Hello world. I’m sure you all remember my voice, but let’s clarify, I am Chronos, Lord and Ruler of Hell, and the cause of your recent population decrease.” I hate how he said it…

“Well, I’ve decided to make one last announcement for the sake of making this war more interesting to me, and I decided that now would be a good time to do it… it’s been a bit annoying fixing this… I am going to be providing an update to your LEV’s. What does that update do?” Stop running in circles you damn bastard…

“Why, I am going to be fixing some errors in the LEV system, as well as adding two new sub-systems. The main error I’m fixing is going to be skill and spell ranks, some are listed wrong… most are actually… but don’t worry, not all things will drop, some might even rise in rank…” I was a bit worried about that, if my Tactician skill dropped I’d be a bit annoyed.

“As for sub-systems… the first, is the Class System… I’m sure by now, most of you have noticed my penchant for using video-game like systems… there’s a reason for it, but that isn’t important. As for the Class System, it’s exactly what you think it is, Classes which provide Class skills and slight boosts to certain stats based off of the Class in question… with how weak all of you are, there should be a lot of limits in Classes that could be picked, but that’s your choice.” So… a Class system? Well, my group pretty much had ours already chosen… well, except for me, I wasn’t quite sure what I’d get… well, as long as it was good, I’d use just about anything…

“The second sub-system to be introduced is the Kingdom System… I’m sure a few of you have noticed that six is the limit for the partying system, but sometimes a group has more than six… so how do you gather? The answer is the Kingdom System. One person is selected as a King, and then sets up their ‘Kingdom’ using given settings, and your entire group are now considered ‘official’ by your LEV’s. The method to create, join, or leave a Kingdom will be learnt automatically… explaining this technical jargon is annoying.”… Wow, this really did feel like a system update, what is Chronos a game manager (GM)? Wait… I blinked a bit at the last sub-system introduced and looked to my friends to see them grinning at me as I palmed my face…

“Well that’s it for the updates really… you are all really weak at current, and it’s kind of sad… well, at least I have some idea of what humanity can do now… right, rival?” I froze, suddenly feeling as if a large animal had been inside the room this entire time without me knowing it and suddenly decided to roar at my face… what-

“Oh? Did you think I wouldn’t notice you? I know who you are, and I’ve taken note of your abilities… I honestly didn’t expect you to kill my Demon Lord, even if I was hoping someone would be able to.” Oh… oh, he was addressing me directly? At least he wasn’t saying my name…

“Still… you’re interesting… for a human. But hurry… hurry and get here… I’m waiting to meet you face to face… I look forward to ripping yours off.” I froze at his words.

“Well! My rival, no, all of humanity, their champions, their warriors! Run… and keep running towards me… I’ll be waiting… I don’t care if it takes you years, but I’ll wait… because I’ll crush all opposition... it’s going to be fun.” And thus, the TV switched off and everyone in the room looked at me as I gulped… it seems that, other than Shaun, no one else had noticed what Chronos had done… he had paid personal attention to me… he was watching me when that happened just now…

“…Wait, where’s the-” Okay, there’s the update… and the pain… god, it felt like me whole body was melting for a second, the ‘hottest’ place being where the lettering LEV 33 was branded onto my left wrist… then it was suddenly gone and I could breathe again.

[Errors noted and fixed: All skills except Tactician, Enchanting, and Recovery have dropped in ranking. spell ranks have all been adjusted. Stat calculation has been adjusted. Error found in skill: ⌠≥≠∫∩ἐ, skill has been adjusted and changed into skill: Soul Reading.]

Huh… I felt… slightly weaker… but I felt better. It was weird. It’s as if I’d been constantly tensing my muscles and getting them pulled stiff, and all of a sudden they felt relaxed… as if I could do more, even though I had less… weird right?

[Scanning stats, skills and spells… Complete, Class Selection is now open.]

I blinked at the words… so, Classes were determined by SSS (aka, Spells, Skills and Stats) and possibly level and rank.

[Classes available: Warrior, Rogue, Magician, £Ⱦƺª£]

It felt like an ice-pick being stabbed into my brain as I looked at… whatever, that last option was… It… I didn’t understand what it was, but I knew that it was strange. The first three seemed pretty standard, but that last thing…

Do I take it? Do I take the strange and disturbing option or the ‘basic’ option? Heh, the choice was obvious.

[Class Selected: ¥®≤»ȣ. Error, Class cannot be accepted at this time… Class adjusting… Class adjusted. Class: ∫∟∞ℓ₴ has changed to Class: Smith]

…huh? Wait, wait, wait! Smith!? That’s… that’s not a combat Class! I’m a fighter, not a crafter (though Enchanting disagreed, that felt more like a hobby) and I’ve never created anything using that method (blacksmithing) in my entire life!

What the heck was that original thing that it gave me Smith instead? And why did this keep happening to me? That skill also, it had changed to… Soul Reading? What was this? I don’t recall any of the others going through this… wait, the only difference between them and myself was that I killed a Demon Lord… and that I had two Anima…

Two Souls? I… why did I have ‘two’ souls? It… that didn’t make sense… from what I understand, as a human being I should only have one… Hum… this could be the reason these errors kept happening to me.

[Due to Class: Smith, you have gained the skills: Blacksmith (K), Fire Resistance (K), Weight Reduction (K), Weapon Appraisal (K), Armour Appraisal (K), and Metallurgy (K)]

…well… that’s a lot of skills. Not just that, they were all K rank… that’s my Rank. So if I increased in rank, these skills would all increase in rank as well? That made sense, tying my Class skills to my level… but…

“…Why?” I asked myself, noticing again that I was in a room with others who seemed to be checking over their own things… and President Clayton seemed to be frowning, looking left out… oh yeah… he doesn’t have a LEV…

“Why what?” Alice asked, and I blinked at her… she likely solved all her personal stuff quickly then… everyone else seemed to be coming back to reality after making decisions involving their Classes, and thus I sighed palming my head, wishing I could pull at my hair without worrying about appearances and pain.

“My Class… it’s… I’m a Smith.” I finally admitted making everyone in the room seem confused. “Uh… why did you pick it then? Everyone should have gotten a few choices… like I got Archer, Rogue and Warrior.” Michael added, I knew which he had chosen, but still…

“…I was given four choices. Warrior, Rogue, Magician, and… I don’t know what the last choice was… but when I picked it, my LEV seemed confused and apparently dumbed it down to Smith… I didn’t know…” I sighed in annoyance…

“…Is that such a big problem?” Emilia asked as I looked up at her, seeing her tilting her head in confusion… absently I noted she was pretty cute, though I stopped that train of thought when I heard Shaun snicker for a second.

“…It’s not a combat class… I wanted a combat class.” I said as she nodded. “Yeah, I guessed… but isn’t a Smith better for us?” I wondered at her words as she pointed at herself.

“I’m a Rogue, so I got small boosts to my Dexterity stat.” she then pointed at Michael who spoke. “Archer, Dexterity boost with a very slight boost to Strength.” And then Alice. “Warrior, Strength boost, very slight Constitution boost.” Then John. “Cleric… of all things… Intelligence boost.” And finally Matt. “Defender, Constitution boost, slight Vitality boost.” He admitted and then she faced me once more.

“We don’t have any crafting abilities between us, and you already had the Enchanting skill. You having Blacksmithing makes the most sense. I’m sure you’ll make brilliant equipment.” I sighed at her words and then looked at her with a small smile.

“…Thanks.” I added, and she smiled, before I turned back to Clayton, remembering what I was originally here for.

“So, you heard my group’s information, and we’ve fixed our stuff… other than the Kingdom…” I glanced the group… we all knew how it worked… but that was kind of embarrassing… especially for me since they had already planned on me being King, aka, clan/guild leader.

“Right… so, I would assume this meeting is coming to an end?” Clayton asked as I nodded… we were basically done here, as we all stood, pushing our chairs back in.

“Right… this new information adds some details… but not too much. We’ll get in touch when everything has been arranged, but it shouldn’t take too long. By the way… what is your Kingdom’s name going to be?” I frowned at the way he said it, before I looked to my group and smirking awkwardly.

“Camelot.” I said, and Clayton and Shaun both deadpanned at me as I heard Jason snickering. “…That is both narcissistic and it sounds more like something you’d hear from some British group… eh, I’ll accept it.” Clayton chuckled as he held out a hand, and I reached out and shook it.

“It was nice meeting with you, Arthur Clive, Ruler of Camelot.” I smiled back. “Likewise, Clayton Andrews, President of the USA.” And with that, we went our separate ways… we were all tired from simply talking as much as we had, as well as dealing with this new information.

“One last thing, Arthur.” Before we got in the car (Jason was driving us back to Michaels house, we all agreed to just stay there for the night) Clayton called out to me as I turned from where I had the door open, I was almost halfway in the car.

“What is it?” I asked as Clayton sighed. “I forgot to say… you fought the first Demon Lord on the tenth floor… we have reason to believe that there are one thousand floors, or so Chronos says.”

I looked away… then I looked up and smirked. “I had guessed… thanks for the confirmation… that’s going to take a while.” I said, waving one last time as I got in the car, and we drove off, luckily no one had seen Clayton there, otherwise people would be wondering why the President was in public.

“Hey… you know, we should celebrate.” I smiled at John’s words and nodded. “Yeah, we’ve fought something much stronger than us, got what looks like a paying job for doing little, and a few other benefits… plus, we’re alive.” I said, holding my side as we all nodded, glad to simply be living…

That night, we drank a bit (we all agreed to drink lighter since it wasn’t like we needed strong stuff) and simply sat together, talking… and I was glad for the change in pace… for the past month it’s just been fight, after fight, and I was glad to finally unwind a bit with my friends, though it wasn’t much…

Personal Information

Name:

Arthur Clive

Level:

33

2170 EXP

Rank:

K

Class:

Smith

Kingdom:

-

-

Anima:

Traveller’s Cloak

The Nameless Dagger

Stats:

Strength: 32 (36)

Dexterity: 40 (48)

Intelligence: 23

Wisdom: 40 (64)

Vitality: 32 (33)

Constitution: 23

Personal Skills:

Shooting (K), Blade Wielding ©, Tactician (S), Recovery (B), Close Combat (E), Enchanting (D), Soul Reader

Class Skills:

Blacksmith (K), Fire Resistance (K), Metallurgy (K), Armour Appraisal (K), Weapon Appraisal (K), Weight Reduction (K)

That wasn’t quite right… my friends they were… but they’d soon be my ‘subjects’ of my Kingdom… Camelot, the city of King Arthur… quite fitting… but as the clock struck twelve and New Year’s arrived, I just felt happy that all of us were alive and… mostly well… my status was good too.

As I glanced to the window, noting a strange shadow there (was that a cat?) but it was gone when the next firework went off… eh, I’m being too paranoid… I’m just glad I survived the day.

“So, Shaun… any of your suspicions confirmed?” Clayton asked me as I tilted my head, looking out the window as we drove away from that meeting…

“Yeah… yet at the same time, it just raised more questions.” Yeah… that kid disturbed me. No one switched from shy and confused to demanding and shrewd that quickly… and how easily he accepted things afterwards…

He saw through us too easily, and that grin of his disturbed me, he seemed to know exactly what to say to get what reaction… he acted oblivious, but the moment talk of him being a ‘leader’ happened, he started to act shrewdly…

That, and his talk about souls not lying… that was hypocritical, considering he seemed to be unable to see his own strangeness… my eyes did though. And I didn’t trust him.