“Are we done yet?” It was with practiced patience over the past few weeks that I did not get annoyed with my ‘student’.

Instead I just sighed and shook my head. It was a step forward considering I was questioning his intelligence before.

“Drew, listen, it’s not complicated. Here are the paths from the floor entrance to the exit, the highlighted paths have different colours, the different colours signify different things.” Indeed, to me it wasn’t so complicated…

Then again, I was told more than once that I can somehow look at something complicated and believe it to be simple…

“I got that part… and I do understand it… it’s just… sorry Arthur, but why do you micromanage your team like this?” Drew asked and I had to wonder…

Was I micromanaging my team?

…I had all their stats on a PDF, recommended stat layouts moving forward, suggestions for fighting styles and magic use, and I from time to time offered to give advice to Matt or Alice on leading half of Caliburn…

Okay, maybe I was micromanaging my team from time to time, but I know for a fact I didn’t force them into any of my ‘decisions’ for them.

Mostly because they’d get pissed at me and let me know I was overstepping my boundaries.

“Well, after thinking it over, I don’t really micromanage them… a lot. Okay I do to an extent, but I make it an option.” Drew raised an eyebrow at my words, clearly I had to explain it a bit more.

“I don’t know what is best for my team, I can only make guesses, and share those guesses with my teammates. Whether they follow my suggestions or not is their choice. I asked Matt to boost his other stats a bit more, but he clearly ignored me.” Drew chuckled, having seen all of Camelot’s stat sheets.

I had his entire team’s sheet as well, and made copies for Drew himself to look over.

He honestly reminded me of Michael when it came to leading a team, but the difference between Michael and Drew is that Drew delegated much better.

Again, Michael was not a bad leader, he just wasn’t a great one for Caliburn.

“Yeah, Matt’s Constitution stat is unfair.” Drew summed up my thoughts on Matt’s over two hundred and fifty points of Constitution pretty well.

Oh, yes, I forgot, the date, it’s been two weeks since slaying the Siren, I got to take my own shot against that thing…

Poor Siren, having a Water element against me, someone with a Lightning element.

On that note of elements, I’ve been using the internet to research how elements should react to each other, based on physics, I was surprised to find that Water actually is not a great conductor.

Who knew? I was lied to all my childhood… damn you Pokémon…

It was apparently the impurities in the water that conducted the electricity, especially salt water… so there was some truth at least, but not wholly.

Not only that, but Lightning acted strangely… all Elements acted strangely in truth.

Fire should burn oxygen, but magical fire does not. A water-ball is just as damaging as a fire-ball ignoring magical affinities… and Lightning could be used to boost reaction speeds.

Yeah, imagine my surprise when I learnt that my ‘Step’ series of spells made only a slight amount of sense scientifically… it was too late now though, they were created and clearly working somehow.

Oh yes, back to Drew.

“Exactly. I gave him advice, but he felt he had a better idea, and I couldn’t force him to take my advice since it was his stats, his life, not mine.” It brought to mind that old bit of life advice about not taking the advice of people who would not feel the consequences of your choices.

“I see, so it’s just ‘options’ you give them… and these paths though?” Drew asked, pointing to the map he was looking at in front of him, I had sent him my ‘map data’.

Chronos once more proved to be ripping off popular media… at least we weren’t stuck in a hundred floor floating castle.

“Well, this is where being a leader comes in. As the leader, I cannot force my teammates into making their stats as I hoped, but it is most certainly my job to handle logistics.” I then pointed at the highlighted paths.

“I research the enemies we face, where we fight them, how many we fight on which path, how long we take to go between floors, remind everyone to take enough food and drink, and so on.” Drew looked a bit worried…

Makes sense, he and his friends were just ‘wandering’ into the Dungeon up until I picked them up, even after running into me and letting me destroy their entire team.

And considering that when it came to being an Adventurer I was the professional, Drew was now well aware of how differently he and I viewed the Dungeon.

He was slowly but surely taking it seriously, but originally it was just a place to hang out with his friends and feel ‘progress’. For me it was a career and something important, a life-goal at this point.

“Oh… I guess I’m not much of a leader in that regard huh?” Drew asked… I just shrugged at his questioning look.

“Maybe, maybe not, I’m one of the six strongest Adventurers, but it’s not like we all lead the same… I’m pretty sure you’re leading style would be similar to Ichiro’s though.” I admitted, getting a smile from Drew.

I actually chat to Ichiro often over social media (on the rare occasions I went on those sites) often…

Not because of the Dungeon or politics, but we talk about games and anime.

Ichiro is a true blue otaku, and he even admitted that before he got his LEV he wasn’t exactly the most photogenic (aka he was chubby) but fighting a lot and adding points to Dexterity literally slimmed him down.

It explained why his Dexterity was actually higher than mine, and mine was pretty high.

But Drew admired Ichiro for one simple reason… they were around the same age.

That fact let Drew know that there was a possibility of reaching our strength, and it wasn’t impossible.

It’s the same way you might think flying is impossible until watching someone get on a plane and leave, seeing someone else do it gives one the feeling of ‘I can do it too’.

Even more so if it is someone under similar circumstances, the feeling just increases then.

“Ichiro honestly isn’t much of a leader, and he’s man enough to admit it. All Ichiro really does is keep everyone together and working. That’s what you’re doing currently.” I admit, I’d like to do something like this, delegating, but I’m way too paranoid to do much of that…

The struggles of someone who wishes to keep things ‘optimal’.

“…So I’m… a morale booster?” I think I can understand why Michael and the others complain about my denseness…

Drew seemingly doesn’t realize that the force of his personality draws his team along with him, making them want to progress and help out or else be left behind…

Bad wording, but the idea was there…

“Yes, as simply as possible, that’s what you are. And that’s alright, for now. But you can’t stop progressing, both physically and mentally. Physically, we all progress through levelling, but mentally, we need to learn, and it’s why we have these talks.” Indeed, I suggested them three weeks ago and since then we’ve been talking for a few minutes every day about leadership.

“I get it… consistently improving myself to be my best… though, is that really all I should be doing? I’m not really a fan of these talks but I know they’re necessary… but is there other things I should do too?” I sighed, thinking about it…

I’ve been having a few of my own talks with Michael and *shiver* Shaun… I’m actually using what I’ve learnt about myself and my team in those talks here in my talk with Drew.

“Nah. There is no correct way to lead, but a consistent thing is that a leader who is constantly moving forward is one worth following.” The idea made sense to me, seeing someone with will moving forward drew people to follow him/her.

The problem was that some of those people were shy or humble…

Like Charles Bukowski said- The problem with the world is that the intelligent people are full of doubts, while the stupid ones are full of confidence.

It was an amazing quote that was used to compliment me by Michael once after I expressed my doubts on being a leader during one of our talks.

Shaun was also quick to agree, saying that it was often the reluctant who best understood what was being asked of them.

They were reluctant precisely because they knew the responsibilities given to them.

“Okay then… well, we’re going to go for a Dungeon run, we’re closing in on the third Demon Lord now.” Drew was a bit lower levelled than I was when we faced Ignus, let alone the Dark, but then again I was over-levelled.

Really, we killed the fourth Demon Lord, Siren, with only half our team… I’m honestly waiting for the other boot to drop at this point, things were going too well.

“Good luck, I’ve given you the notes on the Dark, it’s body shape isn’t made to turn quickly, so have one person draw its attention from the front, and…” I allowed Drew to complete the thought, he wasn’t an idiot after all.

“Attack from the flanks, got it. Good luck with your own day.” Drew waved as he left to go get the rest of his team.

Oh yes, while my team was still Caliburn, his team was now renamed to Lancelot, keeping in theme with the whole ‘Camelot’ naming scheme.

Stepping away from my computer, I walked to the lounge seeing the rest of my own team busy with their own things, from Michael and Matt playing pool to the girls playing some gun games…

“John, why are you sneaking?” I asked, looking to John who was sitting with his phone, using the aforementioned skill to hide his presence slightly.

“Training it. So, we off to the Dungeon?” Given that no one except Emilia acknowledged his presence, I’d say he was pretty good at this point…

Plus, he has a huge Intelligence and Wisdom stat at this point… I wonder…I’ll talk to him about my ideas later.

“Yeah, besides, we all know Michael’s super excited for these floors.” The smirk on his face said it all, but there was a reason…

The enemies were plant-based for the most part, meaning that Michael’s fire-element was being put hard to work at this point… I understand his annoyance, Blade and Ignus were both fire based, the former more than the latter, the Dark simply didn’t care for the fire and the Siren countered fire.

So Michael was having fun burning plants and other plant-like beings with flaming arrows… we were tempted to call him a pyromaniac but it was actually a necessity… at least he had a moment to star in the Dungeon.

Within the next ten minutes were at floor forty one, and moving on from there, having moved to floor forty four already with my ability to devise the best possible paths.

I had the feeling that would be a skill I’d get eventually, I was offered the path-finder skill at one point after all…

Taking a moment to go over my status screen, I nodded and motioned for us to move in formation.

Personal Information

Name:

Arthur Clive

Level:

77

9 182 EXP

Rank:

I

Class:

Smith

Familiar:

Cait Sith (Sidhe)

Kingdom:

Camelot

King

Anima:

Traveller’s Cloak

The Nameless Dagger

Stats:

Strength: 60 (75)

Dexterity: 90 (191)

Intelligence: 50 (55)

Wisdom: 100 (230)

Vitality: 60 (75)

Constitution: 50

Skills:

Shooting (J), Blade Wielding (S), Tactician (EX), Recovery (SS), Close Combat (A), Enchanting (S), Soul Reading, Dual Wielding (E), Quick Reflexes (SS),Critical Strikes (D)

Class Skills:

Blacksmith (I), Fire Resistance (I), Metallurgy (I), Armour Appraisal (I), Weapon Appraisal (I)

I Finally reached the max Skill level in something, and I’m so glad it was Tactician… At EX it doubled my Wisdom, combined with the boost I get from my Cloak, it resulted in my current total Wisdom of 228.

Compared to the other people in my team, I have the most ‘boosted’ stats, and the most skills, my only real limitation being my sub-par weapon in the Nameless Dagger…

And even that could be a powerful weapon if used correctly.

It levels me up faster, and it was extremely hard to damage or even chip, and even then unsummoning it would repair it over time, making it a useable projectile when combined with my attempts to turn it into ammunition for my ‘rail gun’ spell.

Granted, it could be more damaging, but it’s what I have.

By the way, the boosted stat thing: I have 284 bonus stats, that’s about fifty six levels of stats (plus four more points) extra.

Matt, the one with the second most boosted stats in our team for comparison, has about 120 bonus stats, about twenty four levels.

It’s pretty obvious why I’m considered the strongest in my team when taking that into consideration, despite how my teammates all have powerful things going for them.

“Alright, lets…” I spoke, gaining a vague sense of dread…

I waved it off though, we were fine up until floor forty four, there’s no reason I should feel dread moving to there…

Shaking my head, we continued, taking out our enemies while following the path I chose for the day, mowing down the much weaker enemies with ease.

It wasn’t too difficult seeing as I could use fire now as well, but killing these plants was something easy for all of us, Alice having swapped to a pair of sharper Kukri knives she asked me to smith.

Another thing I was thankful for with my new status was the increasing ranks of my smithing skills.

Being able to make our own weapons and armour was a major save for our group, money wise, not to mention that I sold the equipment I made online.

This one guy, his username was ‘B(23)SS’ quite liked my equipment if he was to be believed. Weird username though… whatever, he bought some of the lighter armour I made, mentioning he had a Metal Element and access to the Fire Element, I enchanted the armour pieces with those two elements.

But yes, the smithing was getting us some good money on the side, with twenty five per cent coming to me, twenty five per cent for supplies like food and drink, and the remaining fifty split between my five comrades.

We all had money to spare, and we were pretty open with sharing, so money sort of flowed between us because we knew that if we gave money to someone we’d be getting some in return.

Basically, it was silly to keep money from my teammates when we all shared it.

I still had carte blanche when it came to using the money earned from my smithing, but if I didn’t have any desperate need for it then I’d split it out.

“Hey, Arthur, you seem a bit… twitchy.” Emilia caught me out on my feelings and I looked at her with a frown before looking to the floor in thought.

“I… I don’t know, I just have this bad feeling about being here… I feel like I’m supposed to be somewhere else.” My words were a bit rushed, but I think my team got the idea.

“Is it your Soul Reading Skill acting up? Is there trouble near here?” John was quick to ask, not wanting the team to be in trouble when it could be prevented.

“No… maybe? I don’t really know when the Skill is being used, it’s like I move with a higher purpose during its use… but now I’m not feeling a need to do something… it’s like… I’m making a mistake, coming here.” I don’t know how to explain it…

It was a deep feeling of shame, and fear, like you’ve made a mistake bad enough that you know you will be punished for it, incapable of doing anything about it… and even that punishment isn’t as bad as how bad you yourself feel about said mistake.

I just couldn’t understand… what was it?

Well, that guy is interesting…

I don’t know what his Anima is, though the guy probably has two… Whatever the case, I’d still need to accomplish my job.

A job given by myself, but eh, self-employment is the way to go for me, I doubt I could take orders from anyone but my Boss…

“Uh, Boss, why are we doing this?” I glanced over to Cheshire, a sigh in my throat… really, shouldn’t this scared cat have learnt by now that I am not to be questioned?

“I believe that I mentioned it already. So why do I have to actually repeat myself?” My question was valid, I obviously told my second-in-command about the plan, so why did he need to hear it again?

“Oh, I know you said it. It’s just that you explained it as ‘let’s go adopt a Chosen’s younger sister and hold her hostage.” See, it sums up the plan perfectly.

“Boss, that still doesn’t mention how we’re going to ‘adopt’ her as you said, why we are holding her hostage, and what we’re hoping to get out of doing so.” Ah, logic…

I’m quite good at messing with it.

“Simple, we’re going to go to the old lady she stays with while her older brother is in the Dungeon. Then we’re going to knock her out and then brutally murder every single living being in that building, bar you, myself, and our target.” My words drew Cheshire into an eerie stillness.

Maybe he blue-screened?

“Sir, even for me, that sounds a bit… horrific.” Oh he was one to talk, serial killer… he didn’t even do it for the joy of murder, he did it for money. Cheap bastard, ruining the good and honest work the rest of us serial killers do.

“Listen Cheshire, I don’t get what is so horrific about knocking the little girl out before we massacre people she has cared about since her family died, but if you want her awake…” I knew exactly what I was implying, and I also knew that Cheshire didn’t mean it like that.

But he also got the hint that if he kept trying to stop my suggestions I’d just make things more ‘horrific’ as he said.

“Got it sir, knock out the girl, kill everyone else… can we keep it clean, no splatter?” I sighed at the request but nodded, I know Cheshire was a clean killer…

Boring, but elegant. Boss enjoyed those ones because he claimed to not have the physical strength for the more gory ones.

I agreed, he wasn’t that strong physically… oh how I miss my best friend.

“Alright, let’s go.” And thus we knocked on the door.

“Yes?” I smiled kindly at the old woman… such a shame.

“Something horrible just happened.” I could feel it in my gut, similar to that sensation I felt on Red Sky Day, when I realized that my parents were also in danger.

That strange sense of knowing that you are too late to stop something, even if you don’t know what it is at first.

“…Okay, everyone, we’re heading back.” Simply looking at my face I could guess that Emilia understood something was wrong…

I felt like I was watching my own body from somewhere else for a moment… my breathing was erratic, my throat felt clogged and I stumbled, falling forward for a moment as Emilia held me up.

I registered these things happening even as I fell unconscious…

…Is this a dream? Looking around, I’m only seeing a pitch black space.

“As far as you are concerned, this is a dream!” I ‘looked to the source of the voice to see a cardinal red suit floating. The usual occupant wasn’t there, but I could guess by the voice.

…George, what are you doing here?

“Oh I’m not George, this is just the form your mind associates with ‘crazy but truthful statements’. I’m the manifestation of your ability to ‘read’ Souls.” The suit seemed to fold its arms as it sat on some invisible chair.

My mind is weird.

Oh. So why are we talking, and are you the one who knocked me out?

“Yeah. Normally I’m only allowed to give you a boost in confidence and let you know what to do slightly, but I was given a bit of leeway to let you know that when you wake up… well, things aren’t good.”

… What gave you the leeway?

“…Arthur… I get that you don’t like not knowing things… but sometimes things aren’t meant to be known.” As the suit said this, I heard the sound of chains clinking.

“…at do you mean?” I blinked blearily as I mumbled, unable to get my thoughts in order as I sat up.

“Arthur… you’re awake.” I looked around, worried about the situation, as I woke up in Caliburn’s Guild building… to Agent Shaun staring at me.

“…what happened?” I felt that it was a horrible question to ask, given the quietness of the room, but something was telling me it was necessary.

“…Your sister has been kidnapped, and her caretaker was killed.” I think I felt my heart drop.

There it is, the bad news.

“Boss, I know that I’m a thief who killed his victims so I have very little moral integrity, but why did we kidnap a little girl, even if she is the sister of a Chosen?” I looked over to Cheshire, who was maintaining his Anima on the little girl.

“Cheshire… I did not just kidnap a little girl, I kidnapped people close to all six of the Chosen.” I smirked, looking down at my phone and the messages that all five ‘packages’ were ‘secured’.

“…Boss… the Chosen are sponsored by the governments, they possess political backing and are important enough that the countries they belong to cater to their wants and needs just to keep them around.” I’m pretty sure it wasn’t as simple as Cheshire was saying, but I let him continue.

“Now I need to ask Boss, why would you compromise our businesses like that, we’re earning so much, and-” I cut him off by grabbing his neck, causing my much weaker second-in-command to grab at my wrist with his eyes wide.

Ah, I broke through his veneer of calm and got to the scared person underneath. Which meant that anything I said now would stick a bit more.

“Cheshire. Let me let you in on a few secrets of life. Firstly, blood doesn’t squirt as exaggeratedly as it does on bad movies unless you got a particularly strong artery or something.” I squeezed a bit, letting Cheshire know that despite the nonsense spewing from my mouth that I was quite angry.

“Secondly, There is no ‘our’ business. It’s my business. I built this crew with power, callous lack of care for other living creatures and blood. Money helped.” His pupils were shaking…

“Third, spilt milk can be cleaned with a mop, but spilt blood isn’t that simple, I learnt that first hand.” With the insertion of a suitably ‘scary’ fact, I lifted Cheshire off the ground.

I don’t think he quite appreciates the fact that I’m much stronger than him.

“And finally… Cheshire. You are replaceable. You are only where you are because I wanted someone slightly sane at the upper echelons of my organization. I could go get any random person on the street and have them replace you, the only thing I need from you is common sense and a bit of logic.” It was the truth, and my smile finally vanished from my face.

It was a rare thing, as I was always wearing a mask of emotions so as to throw the people around me off guard in some way, exaggerating my emotions to the point that people aren’t sure when I’m serious and when I’m actually joking.

But I am a Pennhurst Soldier. Trained to kill my fellow humans and cause as much damage in an area as possible before I’d be killed.

I’ve been doing quite a bit of reading, and I got a few guesses as to my own behaviour.

For one, I do not really care about dying. I don’t want to, but the idea of dying is just a ‘meh’ to me.

It’s hard to take life seriously when life makes a joke out of you.

So I just mess with people, all the time… to cope.

Or maybe I just enjoy hurting people, no one knows, not even me.

All I do know, at the current, was that Cheshire was turning blue, and I was beginning to see things… ah, his Anima.

I dropped him, the visions of a kangaroo jumping to me on its head while juggling basketballs with its feet disappearing as Cheshire took a deep breath.

“Cheshire. Wonderland is my kingdom, and I, its king. You just follow my orders, and you get money and whatever else you want… but if you keep bringing up things I don’t like…” I summoned Razorback, twirling my flesh-rending blade between my fingers.

“Well, I know you can’t live without a throat, but I wonder how much I can remove while keeping you still alive…” I wondered aloud as I walked into the room of our guest, given that Cheshire used his Anima on me, the little girl was now awake, glaring at me.

There was also a massive axe with what looked almost like a black hole on it resting near her feet. It was an impressive Anima.

“Where’s my brother… where am I?” the little girl said, and I kneeled down in front of her, stretching out a hand capable of tearing through mundane steel and…

Patting her head.

“Your brother, is not here. And you, are in deep trouble.” I was a good liar, but sometimes you could hurt someone more with the truth.

My Boss taught me that.