"I obviously disagree indeed you are strong but i don't know if i trust Gabla that much to leave the village, i don't think she understands how cruel of a world it is yet. Even if she did i don't think she gets that the only way for a monster like us to leave the dungeon level they were born on is to form a pact with a human .That pact would be detrimental to since it would be like you became a human yourself... in other words you would be a enemy to all the dungeon monsters"

"So what are you saying ? " Gabla said with her hands crossed

"in order to leave the forest you would have to become a servant to this human."

I now understood the chiefs concern. What father would want his daughter to be a servant to some random boy. Even if she said I'm her boyfriend in his eyes and reality im still a stranger.

"So the other monsters in the dungeon will be hostile towards me ,and ill be a servant.?"

"Yes " he said in a single answer

"If that's what it takes , that's what it takes" she answered without hesitation

"Gabla! you cant be serious is the forest here so bad that you would rather be a servant to him then stay?"

"I've been here 29 damn years, do you really expect me to just look at trees and grass my whole life? i want to see what the other floors have to offer."

"The other floors only have more monsters that are hostile to you! Goblins are at the bottom of the food chain when it comes to monsters, why do you want to die that bad!"

"I'm not going to die, i'm a strong women! and plus i have a dragon master to protect me"

Woah who said anything about protecting i barely knew if i could protect myself, wasn't she suspicious of me at all? I could see why the chief said she was naive , for all she knows i could be a lunatic who loves to eat goblins.

"Gabla...sigh i've known you've wanted to leave for 10 years now i just never expect it to be so soon. Your grown and i cant stop you, just promise me, promise me you'll be safe and stick by his side. The outside world is horrific please understand that. If you ever feel scared you can always come back you know daddy loves you."

"Dad" Gabla said with tears in her eyes and they formed together in a hug.

seeing this really reminded me of mom and pops. Gabla was a really sweet and silly girl, there was no way i was going to mistreat or if she really went through with this contract .All she wants to do is escape her prison , in a way she was similar to me .

After a few minutes their hug ended

"So daddy how do we , initiate the contract?"

"Mhh i'm going to need a golem core" he said as he turned to me "Golems can be found southwest of the village and are the strongest monsters to roam this floor. Don't bother speaking they couldn't careless for organic life , only stone life. "

Golems were pretty strong and this was only the first floor out of 9999.I still didn't understand how all of this worked , magic mainly. The gap between rank F and rank D were extreme i'm starting to see why the S rankers looked down upon me so harshly, maybe i should ask Zhilsiza

"ill let you get ready Gabla , im going to speak again with Zhilsiza "

Walking outside the village i called for Zhilsiza telepathically of course

"What do you need Alioth"

"I wanted to know more about magic and how we gain power you were knowledgeable about it so i thought you would know more"

"What do you need to know?"

"How do spell works, what the max amount i can get, how do i get stronger, how do you get stronger the whole shindig"

"You really are a amateur but that's fine. Look for a summoner you only get 1 spell per rank , this may seem limiting but in reality you also get the spells of your summons. You cannot learn other spells because of the way god made the system , so blame your luck if you feel disgruntled .We get stronger by killing things, in a way we kind of absorb their essence when they die strengthening us little by little till we reach next tier . As we grow stronger ill get bigger and learn more spells .How many Tier you have left in you no one knows but i can tell that you aren't maxed out on rank yet, so congratulations .You can check your spells by mentally thinking spell sheet, why don't you try it out?"

That was informative.

"How do i know if I'm stronger when i kill something?"

"You'll just feel it"

Ehhh good enough of a answer i suppose

"Ok ill try spell sheet"

Spell sheet!

as i thought that a mental picture of my spells popped up in my head

Summon Baby dragon Breath of madness

2 spells that wasn't so bad lets look at the description

Breath of madness: A fire breath of a chaos dragon that burns as all things .Passive effect can be turned off or on

Wtf you could turn off the passive effect?

"Zhilsiza did you know we could turn of the passive for breath of madness?"

"Yes but i will not!"

Figures.

As i thought that Gabla exited from the chiefs building

"Im ready when you are "

Gabla was wearing something different then her normal hunting cloths , her gear was all brown and black leather armor, with two pistols by her side and one big rifle on her back, i had no idea she was a gunner.

"You look surprised, yeah ol girl over here is a gunslinging badass, we're about to smash that golem .I'm pretty sure I know where pops is talking about already ,so it's alright if you just follow me "

"ok" . I had a decent amount of faith that we wouldn't get lost.

We traveled for about 30minutes to a rocky barren wasteland with a few small trees fighting against the odds. This seemed about right for where a golem would be inhabiting.

"There she is "

Gabla made a effort to keep her voice low .In the distance where 3 golems ,2 smalls ones and one big one. The 2 small ones where just basic rocks with arms they looked to be around my size if not a little bigger from the distance we were at. The big one though had a floating green core and was covered in moss. They didn't have any eyes or ears but I'm guessing they could hear by the way Gabla was speaking.

"Ok lets get a few things planned before we go into combat, what is everyone good at and what are they bad at?"

Gabla looked like she wanting to find out our strengths and weaknesses, she was serious about trying to make this pact and leave this floor. I respected her seriousness it would play a role in keeping us alive in the future and it was a good quality in my opinion. Also i needed to kill some things so i could get closer to D- Rank i wondered what wonders awaited me. Since she was being so honest with us i think i should go first.

"Im weak and know no spells other then summon baby dragon , Zhilsiza is practically my only avenue of attack"

snorting Zhilsiza said "Right now in my infantile state i only have my dragon breath. I cannot be hit much the golems could easily send me back to the spirit realm in a head to head confrontation"

he was being more humble then usual i also appreciated that , guess when rubber hits the road he was not joking around.

"Thank you for being honest Zhilsiza this is why your an amazing summon"

Got to be sure to reward that type of behavior

"well of course"

He said sticking his head up with obvious pride, almost blowing our cover in his tomfoolery. "Lower you head please the golems can see movement in the environment fairly well. now that you guys are done flirting im kind of the same as you all ,high damage low hp. Knowing that i honestly think we should just snipe them from here "

That could work but i don't know if Zhilasiza's breath would reach that far .mhh lets do some revising and see how they take it.

"Zhilasiza's breath might not reach that , how about we get a rock and lure them closer then unload everything we have on to them?"

"Mhh i don't think they're that dumb, how about this I use ol popstick over here and snipe the big one through its core ,That should either kill it or immobilize it .Worst case scenario is it stuns them for a few seconds, then you jump up and act like you did it that should give Zhilsiza the opportunity to sneak adjacent of them and let off a fire breath. If they still aren't dead yet i'll keep knocking em with pittlesticks "

"i thought it was popstick and that sounded like a makeshift plan"

"Its both now ,what do you say"

"Do these golems have any long ranged abilities i don't want to act as decoy if there is a chance of me being attacked .For Zhilasiza to make a fire breath as huge as last times i need to concentrate with him"

"oh so its like a joint attack? i see , truth be told i don't know if they have any long ranged attacks ,if you see anything fishy just jump out the way."

I didn't like that sound of that , but what other opinions did we have .Probably plenty but we were already here, i couldn't be cowering on floor one if i ever wanted to rank up and leave this floor.

"Ok lets do it, you give the signal since your the first shot... don't miss!"

"yea you don't have to tell me twice ,this is my ticket out of here"

pittle pop BOOM! a hyper powered bullet flew out of her rifle straight into the golems core. Now i can see why they were called pop stick or occasionally pittlesticks. The core of the golem wasn't broken but cracked ,I could see Zhilsiza run up to the left of them but still was hidden in the bushes. I guess it was my turn jumping up from the bushes i moved slightly to the right just incase they threw something i Gabla wouldn't get hit either.

"HEY STONE HEAD!" i shouted

Luckily the two minions just started sprinting full speed towards me , ok so far so good.

"Alioth its time I'm going to annihilate the enemy , help me to make the best fire breath that this world has ever seen"

"Understood"

With my eyes wide open i envisioned destruction, a fiery destruction of black flame. Flames of madness dance , dance DANCE!!!!

FOOOOOOOOSH everything before me was black the two golems were completely gone , all that was left was mama golem and its almost shattered core. Every step it took towards me it loss strength piece by piece it fell apart. Until finally the heap of rock collapsed one step before it got to reach me. I felt something i never felt before , This feeling wasn't the one i was used to of cowardice and submission .

It was triumph

In a flash of hubris i walked through the field of scorched earth un beknownst to whatever protentional danger the conflagration may cause to my human body. Grabbing the golem core with two hands i raised it high above my head i felt myself get 10% stronger from killing that golem. Seeing Gabla was about to join my in my victory pose i snapped out of my madness.

"WAIT! stay there and don't move"

Stopping dead in her tracks she just said

" uh ok?"

"Zhilsiza turn off the passive damage effect, we wouldn't accidentally want Gabla or her father getting burnt would we. Its only for now"

"As you command"

Still i didn't know if i should hand it over to Gabla, one mistake and i would have to go to the next floor without heading back to the village .Then for some reason i sort of just felt like the passive effect was removed , guess that what happens when you're linked with the Zhilsiza.

"Can i move now?" Gabla asked impatiently

"Yeah"

Not wanting to join in my celebration since the compulsion was ruined she simply said "Alright good job boys , i know we're going to make a good team"

"Quite so" Zhilasiza said while rejoining us in the main group " you're getting better at thinking about fiery death, i'm pleased"

" uhh thanks " i said not knowing what to say

I could feel i was 10% closer towards D- ,i wanted to hit that rank before we left so maybe i could just do some killing. I knew Gabla wanted to leave in a hurry so i would run the idea by her

"Gabla, Zhilsiza nice work , um when we form the contract how about we do some killing to getting stronger before we leave."

"Absolutely not" Gabla said instantly which shocked me

"Why?"

"dude think about the wildlife if we just kill'd everything , how would that effect the ecosystem... do you even have a brain? "

Ouch rude much but it was true living outside the dungeons made me not realize that dungeons had ecosystems, where do monsters even come from in the first place now that i think about it .If i asked her again i'm sure she would say when a boy goblin likes a girl goblin very much they fuck! well that's my impression of what she would say at least ,Still we had to do some killing eventually as terrible as it sounded i needed to get stronger.

"When then"

"Floor 2 , If we killed everything here my village would have nothing to eat and hunt"

Made sense i would have to wait for floor 2

"Alright i get it, lets head back before it got dark"

" Gotcha "

we retraced our footsteps back to the village though notably more sweaty .When we returned to the hut the chief was sitting there wide awake.

"so you've returned?"

Showing him the green crystal i added " successfully returned"

"Mhhh you smell like shit... don't you want to bathe? "

"NO! lets do this now " Gabla said in a hurry .

Maybe she thought that moment the pact was complete we were going to leave, That was close to the truth but while we were here we still had to gather some resources. The next floor could be a icy wasteland for all we knew.

"So impatient my dear child but i understand Alioth please come here"

Listening to his orders i came to face him

"stick out your hand"

I did as i was told. Stick out my hand though? i hope this wasn't painful , he didn't need to hit me with i need to cut your hand to form the pact or something.

AHHHH!

right as i was thinking that he pulled out a blade and gave my hand a good gashing blood was splurting all over the crystal

"Don't be alarmed we need your blood to mix with hers in order for the spell to work."

called it, holding my now throbbing hand i tried not to be such a baby. Especially after Gabla got her hand cut just the same and made no visual emotions.

"It pains me to say this but get closer to my daughter .As close as possible"

Ackward, but in a way the universe was taking revenge for him slashing my hand... I needed to stop being so childish This was a paradoxically liberating moment for Gabla and i needed to treat it as such. Getting close as possible with being respectful to her personal space i made myself look determined.

"Tsk son if your dating my daughter knowing her you guys have already did the in and out , meaning GET CLOSER there will be absolutely no room for error."

Ahhh yes, i forgot she told him that we were somehow dating even though we met each other yesterday, well for what its worth i had no perverted intentions and she was cute. Listening i got close to the point where our bodies were touching. Seeing me be such a bitch with my skittish behavior Gabla took it upon herself to Intertwine both our bloody and non bloodied hands together , in the process knocking me over and forcing herself on me .Now her whole body weight was supported by your truly.

"Finally , now lets get started" Chief started doing some type of shamanic chanting

Ha do la do mana pa la ah mo pa le la me ne cana meh nay , After 10 minutes of that on repeat The blood from our hand and on the crystal starting to rising and swirling around the whole room, it was a truly spiritual experience . as quick as if started it finished the blood vanished into then air, leaving behind nothing tangible but something ethereal. I felt a connection with Gabla like i never did before , as if we were one being .I didn't feel as if this was some master slave contract but it felt like we were equals now to the truest sense. I wonder if something went wrong or this was just a unprecedented occurrence, either way i knew our relationship was now more trusting .I didn't know how i knew that, i just did.

"Ok you can get off each other now "

Standing up i grabbed her by the hand and lifted her to her feet.

Looking at me she said" you feel it too right? "

I most certainly did

"Gahh goddamn love birds , i'm going to get some fresh air"

That's not what we meant by feel it but hey he was free to interpret it however he wanted. Gabla had her back on Zhilsiza while she was sitting down as i sat in front of her.

"What's the plan now? when are you trying to leave" she asked me

"We're going to leave soon but we have to pack supplies mainly cloths and water, food is ok but its more likely to attract other monsters and spoil. "

"ahh smart thinking Ali wait here"

Was my new nickname Ali now? that was fine i wonder what she was going to bring out. After a few minutes of hearing shuffling and some Ouch my toe thrown in there for good measure ,Gabla came out with a Medium plastic jug of sorts it looked huge in her hands though. Good start but we would need more water then that .Not that i want to tell Zhilsiza this but we might need to build a luggage holder on his back, i could carry my fair share of luggage but it wasn't enough to live off of .The situation had radically changed and we needed to be prepared for whatever.

"Ahh ,that's a start but we'll need atleast 10 or 15 of those "

"This container has spatial magic cast on it, to put it bluntly it can hold an incredible amount of water "

Oh that was interesting to say the least how did she even get that. Looking at the smug smirk on her face i figured its better not to ask.

"how much water can it hold?"

"100 by 100 meters of water"

ok that was insane

"Waa! how would we even fill it? wouldn't the weight be ungodly" i asked

"oh you poor smhuch the weight wont change it's magic silly and we can just put it in the lake and come back for it later when "

That was smart-ish and she was a smartass what happened to talks about the eco system though ?Sorry fish we're renovating your house , your going to stay in an NYC apartment from now on

"Ok water issue is solved what about the gear and cloths "

"don't worry i have that covered and then some, when you witness my mental capacity you'll be prostrating yourself before me"

guess she's only meek when she's scared go figure

"lets hear it o great one"

" well for me i have tons of cloths so ill just bring them all " she said while simultaneously patting her over sized backpack that was bigger then her. "For you since your like 3x my size you couldn't fit in anything i wear so you'll just have to wear covers and sheets as makeshift clothing if needed. If you wondering my scent is on everything so don't worry you'll never forget how i smell"

That was ... weird... to put it lightly but hey i wont say anything those covers could save my life.

"So with that being said i'm l super hungry you promised a while back we would get some food if i came with you to this village"

"Oooh yeah i did say that didn't i, ok ill cook something up for you"

Clasping my hands together i offered thanks " thanks"

Then, well then i passed out. Yep. Right there in the middle of her house

I was woken by the smell of grilled fish and the sight of the chief standing over me in like what the hell are you doing boy. When he noticed i was awake he pretend like he wasn't even looking in the first place. getting up and seeing a big grill over the fire pit with Gabla cooking up some fish ,my mouth couldn't help but start watering.

"Mhhh hold on its not done yet i know your hungry" She said in a teasing manner

What about Zhilsiza thought isnt he hungry, i mean he was a baby and babies were always hungry.

"Zhil are you hungry?" i thought

"Zhil? i suppose that name is adequate but to answer your question , no i am not hungry i'm a spirit."

"You aren't a baby?"

"I'm a baby spirit, power is my food"

How fitting for Zhil "Ahhh i see"

Gabla and i basically engaged in small talk for the next 10 minutes

Walking back over to the grill Gabla took a peek at our dinner "Foods ready " looking at my face in pair with my growling stomach she gave me a smug smile. Pinching both her cheeks i asked "what are you smiling about?"

"Good grief i'm going back outside damn kids" Chief said as he exited the house for a second time

"What's gotten into him" she said cheeks still pinched

"No idea"

Zhilsiza just snorted i could feel he wanted to say something slick but didn't.

she slapped my hands off her cheek , then slapped me directly she handed me 3 fish on sticks

" For you" Then she took 1 " For me! "

we sat side by side and ate our food while talking about the upcoming journey while making some jokes on the side. In my mind at least were becoming fairly close friends and i was starting to enjoy her quirky personality. If this was true then she would be my first friend , sad i know but F rankers didn't get much love .We where either ridiculed, picked on, or abused and taken advantage off. I needed to get back home so that i can help mom and dad they weren't going to be able to work forever and i hated the conditions they lived in. This dungeon had 9999 floors though so i had to get powerful enough to beat it, The only saving grace was that i was stockpiling money just incase i went missing. Thank you paranoia they should be good for at least 6 or 7 years because i left my life's saving under my bed. Sounds stupid but no one would ever think to rob a F ranker, we were the poor in that country.

"Hey Gabla"

"Yesh?" She looked at me while stuffing her face fool of fish meat, which frankly was hilarious

"Are we friends? If so your my first"

She seemed to be stunned and confused by the question

" uhm whatcha mean" she said while munching on her fish

"Well if were going to be going together through this dungeon i should probably tell you who i am, that goes for you as well Zhil"

i explained everything from then until now ,i might've spilt even more then i needed to but i was caught up in the story.

...

There was a dead silence in the room

crap i probably shouldn't have been so detailed

"Ali... We friends, best of friends" she said while holding back tears

Uhhh for some reason i felt like i guilted her into saying that somewhat. I just wanted to tell my story though how did things get so complicated.

"You mean it? Cool" i said as i continued to eat my fish as if nothing ever happened

"Kid" i turned back to see the chief eyes full of tears, Next thing you know he pounced on me almost knocking me and my fish sticks over .He had tears in his eyes for some odd reason

"I didn't think you had it so rough, you better give me grandkid!"

What was it with parents and wanting grandkids, maybe one day ill understand

"uhhh maybe"

"That's a promise!" He said as he wiped away the tears, then he went back to his usual same old same old "Tch! damn kids i'm gonna leave and you better not be making grandkids!" he winked at me then skittered off with a mischievous smile across his face, eccentric personalities must run in the family.

Well ok i was well rested and fed everything for me was in order, time to check with everyone else.

"Gabla when do you want to leave ? i'm ready when you are"

Stuffing the rest of the fish into her pockets she smiled at me " Yea im ready ! i packed everything while you were sleeping , My whole village knows about us departing so you can expect a big exiting party .You have no idea how long i've been waiting for this "

Getting up she walked towards the door "c'mon lets go!"

She was excited as always but this was a time when that is ok, we've accomplished all our goals on this floor .Getting up from behind her i opened the door to find hundreds of goblins young and old cheering and shouting Gablas name.

"Gabla!" " Gabla!" " Gabla!"

" i'm going to miss you all and make the village proud!"

"YAY!!!" the crowd responded back to her

"especially you Gob,Lob,Job,Fob,Clob,Mob,Dob,Sod,Eod,Rod,Aod,Qod,Pod, and Goba,Loba,Joba,Foba,Cloba,Moba,Doba,Soda,Eoda,Roda,Aoda,Qoda,Poda,!"

I guess goblins really weren't that creative when it came to names , I let her say her goodbyes uninterrupted as we walked down the isle of goblins. Eventually that isle stopped and the chief was in front waiting, He gave Gabla a big hug and held her by her shoulders.

"If you ever get into any trouble just know you can always return to the village , daddy will always have a place for you here"

"Dad i know " she said blushing but not hiding it

" And for you if any harm comes to my girl I'll literally kill you and eat you! so you better keep her safe"

Was that possible with Zhilsiza right next to me? Plus Glaba wasn't a little kid she was older then me, but i understood he was doing it more for his mental health then ours. So i gave a answer that would help him sleep at night

"Of course sir i will personally risk my life to save her and pull her out of the jaws of danger" It was a bit of an exaggeration but ultimately wasn't a lie

"good that's what i would like to hear, now follow me we're going to the first floor exit"

"ok daddy"

"yes sir"

We followed him for close to 30 minutes only to wind back up where we killed the golem.

"oh so this is where the first floor ends, was the golem guarding it?" i said

"yes" he pointed to a nicely hidden door that was covered in golden grass,

How did i miss that, even if it was hidden its a completely different color. Its like playing where's waldo but waldo is kicking you in the face, gosh sometimes i'm such an idiot .It was probably because of my delusional state when i saw the flames .I wonder what caused that it would be wise to battle with a mental impediment but we do what we can.

"Well what are you guys waiting for? I have complete faith that my daughter will come back unharmed and better then ever"

"Dad i'm going to come back the strongest goblin to ever live! I promise that in this lifetime!"

"Yea prove it to me! now get on isn't this your dream?" Chief looked at me

"go on boy i know you have some STONES! open the gate "

I'm going to miss this guy "Yes sir" i opened the door and i didn't even need to walk through it as the environment around me completely changed but the golden grass now made sense.

We were in a safari.