I woke up in my hotel room. Although we were in a fortress, the services here were impeccable. Instead of a fortress, it was more like a training center to the youngsters of the continent. If you had enough points, you could even attend classes taught by powerful and respected people according to what Hannah told me. That was the reason, in the end, she chooses to come here.

Now I knew the importance of the place, I was ready to search for some combat classes on how to use the greatsword as well. I trained for many years and knew a lot of different combat techniques, but I only knew tier 0 techniques, or in other words, mortal techniques.

Now that I had superhuman strength and capabilities, using the sword properly was different; after all, my limits were much higher. Knowing your limits is also a virtue.

I went to the bathroom and took a shower, did my necessities, and got ready to leave again to the Underworld. I remembered the promise of meeting Hannah again the next time I arrived from the underworld and smiled.

Relationships were indeed a wonder. I had never interacted so much with a beautiful girl, but even so, it was a fantastic experience.

After getting everything ready, I went to the elevator and chose to go to the underworld hall. The procedures were the same as last time. The clerk recognized me and didn't give the papers again.

I entered the underworld and felt the Abyss energy everywhere. Now, I knew that the way on the right lead directly to the second floor, so I went toward it.

***

I only encountered one abyssal on the way to the second floor. By what Hannah told me, the abyssal rarely stayed near the stairs leading to other levels. Mainly because powerful people that wanted to go down would pass through it, and if they were on the way, only death awaited them.

It was an unspoken rule that the divers, as they called the people that entered the underworld, wouldn't kill abyssal's on floors that were inferior to them. They only did it in particular circumstances when a truly powerful abyssal appeared.

The stairs that lead to the second floor had numerous runes and formations. They were used to contain the powerful abyssal's that wanted to ascend the levels.

After getting to the second floor, I felt that the abyss energy was much denser in here. It couldn't even compare to the first floor. I looked around and saw that some teams were resting near the stairs.

After glancing at my surrounds, I picked a cave and ran.

The caves on the second floor had illumination, differently from the first floor that was dark. There were some runes spread through the wall and ceiling that gave a weak light, but their numbers were big enough to illuminate the whole place.

For me, it didn't make a difference; after all, my mutation gave me dark sight. I could see in the dark as well as I could see during the day.

I walked with Purbás, my new greatsword, in hand. Being prepared was never a bad thing. I attentively looked around, seeking abyssal and places where they could be hiding.

Going from the first floor to the second was not a joke. From what Hannah told me, the abyssal's on the first floor were the weakest of the bunch. They were too egotistical and ignorant to work together with other abyssal's and preferred to work alone.

From the second floor on, there was a group of abyssal's that worked together, and they were stronger than the ones on the first floor individually. But finding a lone abyssal in the second floor was not good at all, because it meant they had enough strength to wander alone. In short, the challenge got even harder from the second floor onwards.

I looked around and calmed my heart. Despite being hard, the second floor was not impossible for me. I had a body with the strength of a third-tier and soul force in the fourth tier. Even if it came to the worse, I could escape from here.

Walking quietly and furtively, I heard a commotion coming from the tunnel to my right. It was the sound of battle. It looked like a diver team meet abyssal. I sneaked through the tunnel to take a look at the battle.

Getting closer to it, I could see a group of 9 abyssal's fighting against 5 divers. The group was composed by one mage, one archer, and tree warriors.

Two warriors were fighting using the classic combination of sword and shield, and the last one was using a great ax. My eyes widened as I recognized the man using the ax; it was the fierce man!

I looked at the fight and realized that they genuinely had good teamwork, and despite being an asshole, the fierce man was mighty. There was a bronze-colored aura surrounding him, and his skin was transformed into a bronze color as well.

From what I have studied, he probably had a bronze aura mutation. That could transform his skin into metal and form an energy shield around him, and also augment his attacks. It was a truly powerful mutation!

Fortunately, it was only a bronze aura, if it had evolved to silver or golden aura, he would indeed be hard to deal with.

The group quickly subdued the abyssal's, as if they were nothing. Before the battle ended, I retreated through the tunnel to get far away from them as possible!

I went in the opposite direction where they were. Treading through the tunnels, I felt some eyes observing me, and I reinforced my body and sword, entering a combat stance.

Looking at the tunnels surrounding me, I realized that I had fallen on a trap. My eagerness to get away from the group lead me to make a mistake. Dark-colored abyssal's quickly left the tunnels around me and encircled me. They looked pretty much the same as the ones from the first floor, the only difference between them was that some of them were fatter, and others bulkier.

Seven abyssal's were surrounding me. There were four that look the strength type, and three that focused on speed. Their combination gave me a headache. If it was only the strength type abyssal, I could easily deal with them using my speed. But this group was varied, and my strategy would have to adapt because of them.

The first to make a move was two of the bulkier ones. One came from the back, and another from the front. I saw what they were planning, and instead of jumping off going to the sides, where the others were waiting for me, I went forward.

The one in the front looked surprised, but quickly recomposed himself and attacked me with his right claw. Seeing his attack coming toward me, I rolled on the ground and slashed him from between the legs and even extended the attack range with a wind blade attached to my greatsword.

The abyssal staggered a few steps, splitting from the crotch to the middle of his chest.

I quickly got up and turned around in time to see the other ones adapting to the situation and flanking me from the front and the sides. Before they fell into formation, I released a wind blade from my blade to the one running toward my right side and ripped the abyssal half.

Seeing that strategies were not working against me, they gave up surrounding me and began to run in my direction.

Now that every one of them was coming from one side, I accumulated my soul force in my greatsword, lowering my instance and threw a big wind blade in the height of their legs. But didn't use all of the accumulated strength. They saw my attack coming and jumped.

"That was the worst decision that you made today," I said to them.

I reversed my center of gravity and slashed again toward them while they were in the air. Instantly killing all of them.

Their bodies fell on the ground, torn in half. I looked around and made sure that they were indeed dead. Those abyssal's had a perverse regeneration ability. It was good to make sure they were killed.

After making sure that all of them were dead, I was relieved. I put my sword on my back and seated on the ground breathing heavily. I spent all of my soul force during the fight with those abyssal's. If they had somehow survived that last attack, things would get rough.

With a little bit of my energy recovered, I got up and harvested the spoils. The only sad thing was that, to make sure they were truly dead, I released the air slash at the height of their chests, and their hearts were cut in half.

***

Three days quickly passed in the infernal environment of the underworld. I had fought a lot during these past days and got even better at controlling my strength. One of the things that I realized was that, when you go against an enemy, you never, never underestimate it.

I was battling one yesterday and exterminated the group quickly after taking them by surprise. There were only one of the monsters left, and the monster was missing both legs after being cut in half at the waist...

The abyssal laid on the ground and faked that it was dead. I walked toward the group to harvest the materials, when I was passing beside it, he used one of his arms to impulse himself and the other one to slash at my back.

The result? I almost died after having my spine cut and laid on the ground without feeling my legs. The wound began at my right shoulder and ended at the lower left side of my back, even the food that I ate that morning spilled from my stomach through my back. I only survived because the abyssal thought I was dead and didn't attack a second time.

I used my soul power to create a wind blade and finish him while he laid on the ground. Luckily, my ability to regenerate kicked in and the wound began to close slowly. But what truly saves me was the act of enduring the pain and using my soul force to stick the two sides of my back together while my body regenerated.

If I had fainted at that time, I would be a cold corpse on the floor by now. The lesson? Never underestimate an enemy, even more, the cockroaches that were the abyssal's.

I passed the rest of the day lying in a corner and controlling my soul force and body to regenerate. It took the whole day to restore and get a little of my forces back.

I, today, after getting a part of my strength back, was returning to the surface. I needed some time to absorb that experience and train some sword art after that.

Exhausted and dead tired, I finally recognized a tunnel that was near the entrance. Finally! I would have some peace of mind.

This last day was genuinely traumatizing for me. Being on the door of death was indeed a scary thing, an experience that I would never want to have again.

Only a few tunnels away from the stairs, I heard a noise coming from the tunnel to my right. I was exhausted and in the middle of the tunnel. I wanted to hide, but after hearing the sound of people speaking, I unconsciously relaxed and chose not to hide. After all, We were near the stairs, and other divers would have no motive to pick a fight with me. Or so I thought.

"Look who is wandering alone through the Second floor… The weakling." The fierce man said with a wicked smiled on his face.