“You really met the ninth Floor Ancient Monster?” Umi asked, her expression was like someone meeting an idol, what was with that

“Yeah, we helped each other escape the jail”

“You got along with someone?” Umi’s expression turned into a confused puzzled one immediately, what the hell!

“Yes, I got along with someone! Why do you want to know about her in the first place”

“Oh, I don’t know, other Ancient Floor Monsters just interest me that’s all” I guess that makes sense

“O.k. anyway, why are we here, isn’t this a fair bit away from the stairs to the ninth floor”

“Well, we were going to wait for you at the stairs, but Vnaa said she didn’t like the feeling around us, the guards seemed to not take their eyes of us, I think they might have captured us if we stayed there to long. We ended up running away and then I heard a cry for help around here” It would have made sense for them to capture my party if they were going to capture me.

“A cry for help?”

“We heard a weak girls voice around here, we have been looking ever since” Umi told me sitting down in exhaustion, to be fair, they had made their way to the other side of the floor in less than a day.

“Its getting late, we should camp here for the night and then start to head up tomorrow” I didn’t really care if they heard a cry for help, my only goal was to get Miko back and make sure that over grown squid face karma.

“I’ll keep guard first” Umi told me, it was still hard trusting someone to watch over me, but, I needed to start trusting my party, those words Archey said, ‘letting your heart cloud with hatred and vengeance like this will only cause harm to yourself and those around you’ these girls haven’t done anything to betray me, I can’t let harm come to them. Even when I think about it, Miko didn’t want to fight her friend, I just wanted her to be on my side.

We spent the night switching shifts, I covered Vnaa’s shift, she looked to sweet and cute when she was sleeping that I didn’t want to wake her.

“I can protect us to Papa Udon” Vnaa wasn’t happy that I didn’t wake her for her shift

“I know you can, I wanted to let you sleep, you looked so cute” Vnaa puffed up her cheeks at my reply

“To have Sir Udon spoil you so much Vnaa, you must be very precious to him” Spoil her? Was I?

“Thats not the point, I-I’m swrong too” Vnaa puffed her chest out but bit her tongue

“You ok Vnaa?” I grabbed her and lifted her up in my arms, I don’t know why I did that, my body just moved on her own

“Sir Udon, I don’t believe biting her tongue will cause an inability to use her legs” Umi looked on puzzled

“Right, sorry” I put Vnaa down, she was still covering her mouth, but the tears were easily visible.

“I can help everyone too” Vnaa said under her breath, she sounded upset

“I know you can Vnaa, I was just being selfish” I ruffled her hair up, that always seemed to make her feel better. She looked up at me and gave me a smile, it still felt like she was upset though.

“Sir Udon!” Umi shouted out pointing to what looked like a herd of regular earth deers.

“What is it?” I asked, it didn’t seem like anything was going on, we had made our to the bottom of the volcano, we were going to swim across the shortest part of the lake which would basically put us at the front of the town where the floor 11 stairs was, we were looking at getting some information on where that over grown squid was.

“That voice, it’s coming from that small creature over there” Small creature, where? I looked closer and could see a small purple fox pup, those regular deers were not regular deers, they had red eyes with sharp teeth and their hooves were even sharpened, hmm

“Those deers should give us some good materials for armour” I mumbled to myself, I wasn’t going to intervene between monster fights, I was still traumatised the last time I intervened in two monsters fighting.

“Lets go!” Vnaa shouted out and dashed forward with her claws, that was unexpected

“Right behind you” Umi followed her throwing her Sea Trident at one of the Razor Tooth Deer.

Udon:

*30 Exp Points Acquired

Vnaa:

*32 Exp Points Acquired

Umi:

*35 Exp Points Acquired

I started running into the fight, but it seemed I was not needed.

“Hiyahh!” Vnaa got low and slashed one of the Razor Tooth Deer’s legs clean off, she then jumped off another one and stabbed her claws into the side of another.

Udon:

*60 Exp Points Acquired

Vnaa:

*70 Exp Points Acquired

Umi:

*64 Exp Points Acquired

“Vnaa look out!” Umi shouted out, her claws were trapped in the monsters side, she struggled to pull them out while she was surround by another two Razor Tooth Deer

“Vnaa!” I started to run faster and managed to slash one of the monsters neck, but my follow through missed the other

“Got it!” Umi jumped on the back of the last Razor Tooth Deer and plunged her Sea Trident deep into it spine, killing it on the spot.

Udon:

*64 Exp Points Acquired

Vnaa:

*60 Exp Points Acquired

Umi:

*64 Exp Points Acquired

Level up!

Umi is now level 17.

Weak Intuition Skill conditions met [Locked] 5 SP Required>

Weak Intuition Improvement Skill conditions met [Locked] 5 SP Required>

Animal Whisperer Skill conditions met [Locked] 27 SP Required>

Basic Animal Tamer Skill conditions met [Locked] 2 SP Required>

Basic Tailoring Skill conditions met [Locked] 7 SP Required>

Attributes boosted

30 Skill Points Acquired

“Yay! I’m now the same level as Sir Udon” Umi jumped up and down.

“What a useless thing to be happy about, Umi, do you have the Basic Monster Skinning Skill?” Without Miko here, only I had that skill.

“Let me check…yep, I got it when I was levelling up with Rival Miko” Great, she can help

“Unlock it and skin those monsters please”

“On it” Umi unlocked the Basic Monster Skinning skin and went to work.

“Vnaa?” I walked over to her, she managed to pull her claws out of the monster, she just sat there staring at the other two fallen monsters

“Vnaa you all good? Did they bite you or anything” I knelt down beside her

“I-I’m so weak, I’m sorry Papa Udon, I’m sorry for being so worthless!” Vnaa screamed out, where did this come from

“Hey, hey, come here, you’re not worthless, everyone needs help” I pulled Vnaa tight into me, when did she start feeling this way?

“I-I should be strong enough to take those monsters on by myself” She buried her head into my chest, this wasn’t good, I know the tone she’s using, the words she’s using, the way she feels, Vnaa sounds like she has depression.

“Vnaa look at me” I pulled her off me and tilted her head up with my hand, tears were rolling down her face, she had an angry expression as well

“You’re not weak, those claws got stuck because I didn’t do a very good job and crafting them, I’ll sharpen them later ok, you did an awesome job, you took down two of them in an instance, don’t be so hard on yourself” Vnaa nodded, I don’t know if my words got through to her, she did seem better though, her crying had stopped.

“Sir Udon’s right, keep working hard and you’ll be stronger than all of us combined” Umi walked over, she held a hand full of materials, had she already skinned them all?

“Did you skin them all already?”

“Yep, since I used to be a monster, my skinning technique is very efficient, I even levelled up my Mastery Points by 1” Efficient? More like OP, five monsters in a matter of minutes.

“The only thing left is this little creature, we should put it out of its misery” I walked over to the injured purple fox pup, it was huddled up and had cuts all over its body, it would be the right thing to do to put an end to its pain, plus, I wanted that purple fur to make my next familiar.

“I’ll finish it in one blow” I raised my sword up and was about to swing it down on its head when I realised…

“This thing has six tails? It also looks like three have been cut off” I examined the small fox pup.

“Hero Appraisal”

*Hero Appraisal Mastery-4/10

Ancient Floor Monster Fire Kitsune

Species: Fire Kitsune

Level: 50 Strong

*Critically injured and on the verge of death

“Ancient Floor Monster?” I looked down at the small creature, this can’t seriously be the ancient floor monster…wait, Kitsune!?

“Watch out, these monsters are dangerous” I put my guard up and held my arm out to Vnaa and Umi to stay back

“H-help m-me” Huh? The Purple Kitsune pup opened its eyes and spoke!

“Did that thing just speak!” Umi heard it to, it wasn’t just my Monster Whisperer skill then

“What do we do Papa Udon” Vnaa asked, the three of us just looked at each other, if we killed this monster, since it’s an Ancient Floor Monster, we would gain some serious exp, but, it hadn’t done anything to us. Despite the name, Ancient Floor Monsters aren’t just some mindless creature, they have their own thoughts and base their actions strategically.

“We’ll help her, she might be able to tell us where Miko is, this is her floor anyway” I picked up the Purple Kitsune Pup and we headed higher up the volcano, I had a hunch that since its description was a Fire Kitsune, the heat would help it.

“T-than” I looked down to it, I think it tried to say thank you.

“Sir Udon, what now?” We took the Purple Kitsune Pup into a cave higher on the volcano, I had Umi and Vnaa both unlock the Basic First Aid skill, Vnaa had 155 SP and Umi had 105 SP after it.

“Keep applying the Feverfew Leaf Ointment and then wrap her leg in the hemp bandage, that’s where the deepest cut is” I told Umi, I was down to my last five Feverfew leaves and I just used my last Hemp bandage.

“Papa Udon, what about me” Vnaa asked, she had just finished cleaning the blood off of the Purple Kitsune pup’s fur,

“Take this and make sure she drinks it” I gave Vnaa a vile of Chamomile Flower Medicine mixed in with a new Ghost Seed I made, it wasn’t anything fancy, literally just a seed filled with Blood type O.

Ghost Seed Duplicate Special Abilities

Type: Blood Seed

Production: 5

Plasma: 55%

Platelets: 1%

Red Blood Cells: 43%

White Blood Cells: 1%

Antigens: 0

Anti-Bodies: Anti A & B

Vnaa held the Purple Kitsune pup’s head up and slowly poured the medicine down her throat

“Sir Udon, I don’t know if these are helping” Why wasn’t it working, the Ice Chimera healed in a matter of seconds and his wounds were a hundred times worse than this.

“I-It won’t work” Huh? The Purple Kitsune Pup spoke, it did give her some strength back

“I am not from this floor originally” What does that mean? And why does that matter?

“Sir Udon, if the Ancient Floor Monster is not on their original floor, they have trouble healing from the simplest of wounds” That must be a fail safe measure that the Creator put in place to make sure they stay on their floors.

“What do we do then?” I didn’t know what to do anymore, do we let it die? Put it out of its misery?

“Slave crest, you need to put a slave crest on me and I’ll start to heal” What!? A slave crest! For starters, I don’t even know how to put a slave seal on someone! And for seconds, why would that help!

“Please hurry” The Purple Kitsune Pup fell unconscious again, her condition was starting to become worse, damn it!

“Umi any idea how to do that?” I asked Umi, she shook her head, did Vnaa? Nope, Vnaa shook her head too, damn it!

Help Menu:

Slave Crest Information:

Using the Gems Power, one can imbue a Slave Crest on a willing participant. This is done by holding the Gem over the area you wish the Slave Crest to go, once the Gem is hovering over the area, move the Gem around into the design you wish to place on them and focus your mana into it. Once the Slave Crest is completed the new slave will gain the ability to enhanced skills along with rapid recovery when close to its owner, if the owner permits it. The new method of Slave Crest is a Slave Chain, many of the dungeons slaves are wearing Slave Chains because they are not willing participants.

“Willing participant, really” You can’t force someone to be a slave in this method, so why wouldn’t someone come up with slave chains.

“Did you find something Sir Udon?” Umi tilted her head in puzzlement at me, I had an exhausted expression, all the methods this Creator has used in this Dungeon Crawl world are just softer versions of what I had come up with in my fantasy world.

“Yep, I need to hover my Gem over her to put the Slave Crest on her” I was assuming the Purple Kitsune was a girl, her voice sounded feminine. I looked around the small Kitsune’s body for a spot to put the crest.

“I’ll place it here” I decided to just put it in the middle of her back, once she was healed up I’d set her free anyway, so it doesn’t really matter where I put it.

“This might sting, I’m assuming” It was like getting a tattoo really. I hovered my Gem over her back and started to focus my mana into it, I moved it in a simple design, it was just the Kanji for Udon with a simple wave design for the outline. My sister and I used to draw it together, she said it was our family crest even though we already had one, after my parents left me I started using it as my crest, so it was practically my family crest.

“So cool Sir Udon, do me next” Umi looked at my design with eyes sparkling, did she not realise it was a slave crest

“No, now shut it, let my focus” I finished the Slave Crest, I felt light heated and nauseous, I looked at my MP

“Damn it” I fell back on my ass, that took over 50% of my MP, it now sat at 60/132.

Slave Crest Created-Udon Water Crest

Slave Acquired

Udon-Lv. 17 >

Miko-Lv. 18 >

Vnaa-Lv. 17 >

Umi-Lv. 17 >

Fire Kitsune [Slave]-Lv. 17 >

Slave User Skill conditions met [Locked] 5 SP Required>

Slave Owner Skill conditions met [Locked] 5 SP Required>

Slave Master Skill conditions met [Locked] 5 SP Required>

Slave Ruler Skill conditions met [Locked] 5 SP Required>

New Skills Created:

Hero Slave Crest Creator

Slave Hero

Aren’t all those skills the exact same? New skills created? Wasn’t it already a skill? What does Hero Slave Crest Creator and Slave Hero mean?

Hero Slave Crest Creator: 0/10 Mastery-Unique Hero Superior Skill, Unlocked: Grants the slave a status boost. The slave cannot have another Slave Crest or Slave Chain and cannot be bought or sold while they have the Hero’s Crest.

Slave Hero: 0/10 Mastery-Unique Hero Ultimate Skill, Unlocked: Can bestow a Hero Weapon to a slave

“Papa Udon” Vnaa came over and helped me back up, she’s so precious.