The ride above the clouds was rather peaceful and cool, perfect for preparing to storm a fucking A-ranked dungeon. Maybe if we’re lucky, it won’t be so bad, right? I knew better. If the lower ranked dungeons pulled some bullshit, I wouldn’t be surprised if this one did too.

We ended up landing at the edge of a lake. The dungeon of course had the appearance of a cave with an entrance in which light couldn’t pierce. Upon closer inspection, the darkness seemed to move a little like water. I shuddered. Creepy shit, go figure.

The dungeon itself gave off a powerful aura and pressure, but not on the level of the S-ranked monstrosity, which gave the entirety of Milia’s giant forest a feeling of unease and creepiness. I wondered how long it took for she, the fairies, and other critters of her forest to get used to it.

The hero and his party appeared ten minutes later, their fancy magic horses neighing as they were forced to a stop. I gave the approaching party a nod, though my eyes were on Iris and Ronica.

If I were a violent sick fuck, a part of me then would want for them to betray me, give me an excuse to do something horrible. But this wasn’t a story nor a game. When it came to lives, well, I took things seriously. Even if I didn’t show it. Okay, so maybe giving a fuck required effort. Don’t judge me.

“Oh Great Master, are you going to show us what true magic looks like,” Ronica cooed.

“You’re laying it on too thick,” I deadpanned. “Just Nate. Sir Nate, whatever. But for the love of god, don’t annoy me with that master shit.”

“Wanda’s a goddess,” Nuwa said, as if correcting me.

I wasn’t about to give any thanks to this Wanda, so I ignored the healer. The mystery of her bottom still needed to be solved. Right? Don’t judge me, it felt like an inside joke and me being the awkward guy not knowing.

“Can you blame Ronica for trying?” Kelvin said, also seeming to ignore the healer which made her pout. Yes, I knew the dangers of pissing off a healer, but everyone was currently calm, even playful, including Nuwa. “We’re constantly worried about the overwhelming power of the Peace Spawner and you come out of the woodworks—”

A loud hiss caught the attention of everyone. We turned to the right to see a half creature, half…woman emerge from the forest. Glowing red eyes, long silver hair mostly covered by a helmet, and a thick steel chest plate. If that wasn’t enough, the powerful being was surrounded in silverish aura, matching the scales on her snake half. Armed with a fierce massive bow and a few swords strapped to her waste, this creature wasn’t fucking around. She rose to full height. Fuck, this was someone I doubted even I could beat on my own. She kind of reminded me of a mermaid, only with a snake body instead of a fish.

“You’re loud,” the snake woman said, her accent a mix between Irish and maybe British. Don’t ask me how that works. “Either get into the dungeon and stop disturbing my rest or die. Make your choice.”

“Emiris, what brings you this far out?” Milia said.

Emiris looked at her and smiled. “Ah, Milia, well met. I was chasing a hallow-infused Rowbear but it jumped back into the dark dimension before I could finish it. I made camp here for now.”

“I see,” Milia said. “Sorry for disturbing your rest.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Emiris said. “Go transverse the dungeon. I’ll watch over your pack animals.”

I gave Milia a look.

“Ah, this is a friend of mine, Emiris,” Milia said. “She’s from the Huntress Lamia Clan. A seductive-type being, so there’s no danger. Aside from being foolish enough to attack her.”

The hero and his party flinched and suddenly made sure their hands were as far away from their weapons as possible.

By now, I knew seductive simply meant a part of a mostly-female, low male race and it had nothing to do with actual seduction, though according to Milia, it’s quite common for many to marry outsiders such as humans, elves, dwarves, fairies, so on.

Emiris looked at me and nodded. “You especially do not have to worry about an attack from me.” She turned and disappeared back into the forest.

“So the lesson here is not to be loud and noisy,” I said, laughing. “Now let’s go.”

The hero’s party did not waste time and we filed into the dungeon.

[You have entered a dungeon. Rank: A. Boss defeated: no. Good luck, you’ll need it.]

I didn’t like the tone of that prompt but had little time to process its meaning when the scene emerged into view.

Unlike the E-ranked dungeon, we weren’t in a place that still gave you the feeling of being inside a weird cross between a cave and a giant grassy plain. No, what I saw was a sunny day, equipped with a beautiful blue sky. Literal sunny day because of the second smaller blue sun in the sky that set slightly below the main star. Ahead appeared to be a city of giant fucking books. Strange plants of all shapes, sizes, and colors sprouted in our current standing position and unlike the E-ranker, looked extremely poisonous. In fact, one hissed at me wildly. I…flinched and jumped back, a little startled. My back hit Ronica.

“Hey, watch it,” Ronica snapped. “You’re getting married you know.”

“Sorry about that,” I said. “Didn’t expect fucking hissing demon plants.”

Milia glared at the cactus-like plant which was about two feet tall. It turned away, almost as if in shame.

If this was it, then it’d be just a matter of moving forward, but the real reason why I flinched flew through, perhaps, danced through the skies. Giant, glowing, winged blue snakes. Emiris’s appearance felt more like a weird foreshadowing or premonition than anything.

“Shall we start moving,” Ramon said. “The beauty of an A-rank dungeon never ceases to amaze me. They’re never the same.”

“Worlds we cannot reach otherwise,” Nuwa said. “It is thanks to the mercy of Wanda we’re able to witness such a thing.”

I grimaced, but kept my mouth shut. Milia’s glare at the hissing demon plant, which backed down like a scolded child, was still fresh in my mind. If only this place had recording devices. That would’ve been one for the digital scrapbooks.

We walked toward the giant city of books that looked to be at least a mile away. The closer we got to it, the more I felt dread. But the path to the second floor was quite obvious. I didn’t see anything else beyond the massive dump of a librarian’s dream. Harmony’s friend, Shera, would probably make her home here, assuming the plants didn’t scare her off. They sure did make me mentally question reality and how much more twisted it could get.

“Iris, shouldn’t you have even one complaint for us?” Kelvin said, grinning. Iris elbowed him in the cut.

Ramon chuckled. “I have to side with Iris here, in the speechless department. The hissing plants are starting to wear on me.”

“They’re so cute and creepy,” Ronica said, her voice cheerful. I wasn’t sure if I should be impressed by her mental fortitude or concerned. But they were experienced magicians who probably fought plenty of horrors. And apparently met this Peace Spawner guy. “Can we keep one?”

Milia looked at me, her grin showing her amusement.

“Absolutely not,” I blurted out, which only made the dryad laugh. Everyone looked at us. Ronica pouted.

“See, Milia gets it,” the petite woman said.

The chatting vanished as the ground suddenly shook with the ferocity of a minor earthquake. Winds picked up out of nowhere only making the bright and sunny day ominous.

That’s when I felt at least a dozen presences and didn’t check to see if the hero’s party detected them. I knew they did.

Shadows peeled themselves from the ground, forming into plant-like humanoids. Each of them had long hook-like noses, ranged from the shortest being four feet tall to the tallest being seven feet. Nine males and three females based on the body shape, junk and jiggling goods. They reminded me of fucking Digimon. And if you know how Digimon fans get, we’d need to finish them off quickly.

[Enemy analysis.]

[Forestrals. A-ranked demonic plant monster.]

“Forestrals! Team, get into formation,” the hero shouted. “Watch out for the aphro needles. We can’t have anyone getting eaten.”

“Aphro needles?” I said to Ronica who stood calmly next to me.

“Needles that flood you with pleasure, if you know what I mean,” she said. “Then they violently eat you. They really love human meat I guess.”

Her cheery attitude made me wonder who the greater threat was. Not wanting to deal with any monsters, I tried to raise my killing intent, but the feeling of approaching danger got to me first and I ducked under a needle as large and thick as a microphone.

Annoyed, I aimed a hand at the ground. “Since you’re up for playing ball, here.”

I unleashed a good-sized dragon magic burst. You see, I…was only aiming for that one, hoping to push it back some, so I could run to it and punch it. My brass knuckles needed a good test run. What I didn’t expect was to eradicate the entire fucking group of them! The hero and his party looked at me, their eyes damn near bulging out of their sockets.

“What?” I said, shrugging. “I hate giant needles.”

Ronica poked me. “Are you real?”

I raised my aura until they all showed visible straining on their faces.

“O…okay, I get it, sorry,” Ronica said.

I released my grip. “Let’s get out of here before more of those things show up. I won’t get lucky again.”

Less than a quarter of a way to the book city, Ramon stopped the group with a wave of a hand. Before I had the chance to warn him, he was slapped into the air by a giant hand. Iris’s bows struck and killed three giant birds that came toward him. A second hand appeared and something big, furry and tan tried to pull itself out of the ground.

Kelvin slashed down at it with his sword, not only freezing the emerging monster solid, but damn near the entire ground. The temperature around dropped some.

I nodded, impressed. The hero’s party didn’t intend on letting me do all the work. Thank fuck, otherwise, bringing them along would’ve been pointless.

Not that we were done with the battle. One more giant furry tan bird swooped down intending to grab someone. Ramon killed it instantly with a lightning blast.

About ten minutes later, we were approaching the city of books.

“I’ve never seen anything like this,” Milia said.

“Me neither,” I said. “I’m not trying to criticize the design, but why?”

“Why not?” Ronica quipped.

“Well if you phrase it like that,” I said, leading the group into the city. Ramon looked like he wanted to object to me taking the first steps in, but knew he’d look quite silly running ahead of me. Or to the others, speaking against the master magician.

Milia was behind me.

“Should we split up?” Maxus asked.

“No!”

“Hell no!”

The objections came from me and Iris. I gaped at the elf before laughing. She joined in too. Maxus sighed.

“Splitting up when there are giant flying snakes that could swoop down at any time is a bad idea,” I said. “Let’s search for the second-floor entrance together and get out of here.”

“I think the serpents love it up there,” Ronica said. “They certainly won’t waste their time with us.”

A giant snake suddenly squealed in our direction and shot down with ridiculous speed, straight for Ronica. I punched it back into the sky then turned to stare flatly at her. She smiled sheepishly, like a mother being caught taking a midnight cheat cookie out of the jar.

“Thanks for the assist,” she said, glaring at the sky, her pink aura visibly charging. More snakes turned, glaring at all of us now. They squealed, squawked and hissed. Vines shot from the ground, tangling themselves around more than a dozen of the serpents. Then more shot, until all thirty of them were suspended in place.

“That will only hold for a bit,” Milia said. “They are energy-breathers.”

I analyzed just so I didn’t have to ask anyone who should be focused on finding the stairs.

[Enemy analysis.]

[Sky serpent. AA-ranked demonic monster, but also draconic magical beast. They are neutral creatures.]

While I wasn’t too familiar with double A monsters, as long as they weren’t S-ranked, they weren’t a problem, not even for the hero’s party. We rapidly searched the city and every now and then, Forestrals and other strange demonic monsters attacked us. Maxus stealthily dealt with those unaware of our presence, mostly with mana-infused daggers. Iris and Ronica took down monsters with ranged attacks. Milia, Ramon, Kelvin and I handled things from close quarters. Well, Milia was a mix of both, from using her amazing mana sword, showing off her skills as a sword master, or commanding the earth itself to do her bidding. She was clearly the strongest in the party. Fine, after me, but I don’t feel like I count.

After our latest slaying, I collected some monster samples and stowed them in bottles.

“Ew,” Ronica said, laughing. “I volunteer to test your latest concoction.”

“Yeah, no, I don’t want to be responsible for poisoning you,” I said. “It’s going to be a while before I have anything ready, if monster samples are even usable.”

I mentally grimaced at my prior failures. Seriously, the potion maker class had to be the most difficult of them all. Even worse for anyone that decided to buy all of their ingredients instead of scavenging them.

After more searching and still not finding the second-floor entrance, the blue energy streams began.

“I don’t have unlimited mana,” Milia told Nuwa, who requested for more vines. “If I did, I would’ve just cocooned them.”

“I’ll just strike them down,” Ramon said. “It shouldn’t be too hard.”

“No you idiot, don’t!” my warning was too late.

As the last of the vines vanished, the sky serpents were actually beginning to flee, as if late for something, until a streak of lightning from Ramon’s sword struck one of their friends. It didn’t so much as dent the creature.

“They were leaving,” I said.

The entire pack turned to glare at us. The empty city suddenly became lit with blue beams from the heavens. We naturally started running. None of us could fly after all.

Seeing a beam almost strike Milia, I shouted, “Milia jump! Iris arrow, aim low if you can.”

Milia jumped without hesitation, seeming to surprise herself, though when the giant blue beam struck the spot she was just at, she sped up.

Iris unfortunately hesitated, missing the firing opportunity that I saw. Not that I was angry with her. Having never worked with these people and never intending to do so again, I had next to no expectations. Milia on the other hand could ask me to bake her a hundred blueberry pies and I’d stay up for days just to get it done. Not because I’m a simp, but because she continued to impress me. Don’t worry, I hadn’t tossed my dignity to be a slave to my love interest. That however didn’t stop me from seeing that I wasn’t the only big bad around here. Like I said, I had Milia’s back and she had mine.

“Nate!” Milia shouted. “Can you fire upward!”

Without even looking, trusting my instincts, I aimed a hand upward and unleashed a dragon magic burst. Twelve serpents fell down, though not dead, just squealing in pain.

“Wanda’s ass, this is the power of a master magician, and he’s not even trying,” Kelvin said.

I really didn’t put that much power into the blast, but having people declare that aloud was kind of embarrassing.

“I’m not so sure about killing these things,” I said, deciding not to acknowledge Kelvin’s words.

Milia slowed to run beside me, who kept rear guard. “It looks like we don’t have to worry about that any longer, the staircase is fifty meters to the right path.” She said that loud enough for everyone to hear, including Ramon, who acted as front guard. “Unfortunately, there’s a guardian and the stairs are blocked by its barrier.”

It didn’t take long to spot the guardian. It was basically a massive, obvious mini boss sky serpent. Its scales were red too. The standard sky serpent was likely fifteen feet in total length. This thing had to be tripled, if not quadrupled.

[Enemy analysis.]

[Sky Serpent Queen. S-ranked demonic monster, but also draconic magical beast.]

[Mini-boss fight begin.]

“Head’s up, she’s an S ranker,” I warned. The hero’s party immediately put on their game faces, obviously showing their familiarity of dealing with S-ranked powerhouses. Or so I thought.

“Retreat!” Ramon shouted. “To the city corner. We’ll come up with a strategy as soon as we can find somewhere to hide.”

“What?” I said. “It’s an S-ranker, but not that big of a deal dude.” I aimed a hand at the red sky serpent.

The so-called hero rapidly shook his head pleadingly. The party behind him looked highly nervous.

“Please hold on,” a new voice said.

I flinched then turned to the giant red monster…which had its head low, almost like a bow. “I’d like a saying in this please.”

It was then that I noticed the smaller, blue-sky serpents…flying away.

I looked at Milia.

“I guess they hadn’t faired well against S-ranked creatures,” Milia said, gesturing at the others.

“S-rankers are strong, but we put ours down without too much trouble,” I said. When I turned back to the hero’s party, their eyes were wide like saucers.

“You…can you train us, please.”

That was from Iris. Ignoring them, I turned back to the sky serpent.

“You can speak our language,” I said.

“Y…yes, my lord,” the serpent said. “Please don’t take your wrath out on this lowly serpent. I humbly submit myself to your service.”

So much for the mini boss fight. Maybe lady luck decided to give me a break this once. And she really did. There wasn’t an ounce of hostility from the queen serpent.

I walked over and she allowed me to pet her.

“We’d like to go to the second floor,” I said gently.

“O—of course, great divine magician, I’m just here to watch the sky pact,” she said, almost flustered.

[Second floor unlocked…without a fight.]

“Here, please have the chest over there as an offering. I will be out of your way!”

The queen serpent took to the air and flew off so fast, she left a brief afterimage.

“I’m actually quite glad we didn’t have to kill any of them,” I said. “They weren’t too hostile until someone hit them with lightning. Ronica jinxing us aside.”

Ronica giggled.

Just then, a shiny silver chest appeared where the queen was sitting before her departure. The hero and his party stared at it but didn’t move. They looked to me for guidance.

“What? Do you not want to know what’s inside?” I said.

“After you,” Ramon said. He seemed as terrified as the queen serpent, which only made me sigh.

“We…didn’t earn it,” Iris said sadly. “I feel ashamed for being such a coward.”

I sighed, waving off her comment. “Don’t start getting emo on me now. We’ve got more floors to go.”

**