“Ahhhhhhhhhhh!!!” Sain no Peter let out a scream as he was ejected from the capsule. The sheer presence of the behemoth was so large and so frightening that Peter felt like it was truly real and was really going to kill him.

'This game....Royal Road is too realistic. It's the reason why everyone is captured by it but....'

Peter was having some slight problems of how the game handles strong monsters and dying. Even if the pain sensors are decreased down to 30%, getting smashed into paste or being pierced by giant horns still hurt like hell.

“Peter you fine?” asked Hina who heard Peter scream like that. It was an extreme reaction that even surpassed the scream that Grace let out when she died as well.

“Yeah....” Peter could still feel the chills from in the game even now although it was quickly fading as his body was realising that he was not in mortal danger. After a while as his nerves finally calmed down Peter prompted to have a meeting with the others about what just happened.

“To sum it up.....we got completely smashed” he said putting it out there immediately with a sigh. While he had no idea at what level the behemoth was, it was a lot stronger than they were to the point that they were unable to even match it at all.

“Was made into paste....” muttered Mark remembering what happened to him.

“....”

The others were silent hearing this since Mark seemed to have gotten the worse of things. To literally die like that no matter how low the pain sensors was, it would still hurt like hell.

“Well at least we can finally get out of that dungeon now” finally said Maria seeing that they died and should respawn back into the city though under the eyes of Eden once again.

However Peter remembered some words in which appeared when they 'entered' the dungeon and said, “Actually....I don't think we'll spawn back at the city....”

“What?!” “What?!”

Both Maria and Hina retorted at the same time. The main point of respawning back at the city was to regain supplies and set off once again from there. If players spawned where they died then PK which is player killing would be overrunning the place.

“I think we need to get to the floor 10 before we can escape...though this might not be the case and we would spawn back in the city to....Eden....”

“....”

The group was now comparing the experience with the dungeon to Eden now. Unfortunately they felt that the dungeon filled with monsters was more peaceful compared to the guild they have joined with Eden and Alexandra who were 'humans'.

“Ether way, we'll have to deal with it when we can log back into the game.”

With that the group split up inside this large mansion to wait for the time to pass.

[p=center]xXx[/p]

Hina had greatly underestimated the game known as 'Royal Road'. Rather than a game, it was better to say it was an entire new world and she lacked a large amount of information on it. Although she knew some basic information like the city names, some item names and what to do here and there; it was only a drop of the vast ocean of information that existed in the game.

'I believe that this place has some books on the game....'

Hina walked to one of the computers in the room and brought up the information that was collected from 'Royal Road'. There was quite a large collection of information that was stored and sorted in the computer.

'Looks like they spent quite the time researching the game....good, this means I can use this as well...'

Hina browsed through the vast amount of information that was now in her hands. First of all, she wanted to research what kinds of paths that she could take personally. She now had three types of magicks to use; sound, illusion and ice. From what she found, only ice magic was the true offence type one while sound and illusion worked better as support.

First of all, Hina looked up on details on ice magic since it was widely used even now.

'Let's see....ice magic has a good balance between offence and defence due to it's solid nature where it allows you to create defences as well as attack at the same time. Spells such as 'Ice Wall' is popular in dungeons since it can block monsters away from the party. Most variations of attacks are of the firing type....so I guess they are similar to 'Ice Bolt'? 'Ice Spear' and 'Ice Hammer' are another two types of attacks that I can learn. 'Ice Spear' has a stab effect while 'Ice Hammer' has a blunt effect on foes. There's also AOE ice spells as well here....but all of them require at least intermediate level in Ice Magic Mastery and Magic Mastery.....well let's see what Sound Magic has then...'

Hina changed the information in front of her to the details that were available for Sound Magic.

'Sound Magic....not much is here....I guess it's isn't as common as I thought.....it says here that it is a magic that is commonly used by Bards....interesting. I think Jenny said she was a magician bard or something like that before. Applications of sound magic....can be used to buff allies...I know that. Can also debuff enemies as well...interesting....and here it says that sound magic can be used to cause status deflects or remove them as well....how interesting. I think that's similar to how 'shriek' is being used to stun enemies. So....theoretically I can cause an enemy to light up into flames if I have the proper skills? I guess that's going to be a long way ahead...probably in the intermediate stage at least.'

Hina closed the information on Sound magic getting out the info on it she wanted. Next was illusion magic which she had the least use on. With sound magic she had, 'Melody of Sound', 'Cracked Barrier' and 'Shriek' but for illusion based magic she only had 'Clairvoyance' which isn't that useful aside for exploration.

'Illusion magic....there's even less here than for sound magic! Damn...and this was the one I wanted the most information out of. Well....it says here that you can go invisible with illusion magic....obviously.....I wonder if they slacked off on this. Other than that is control over light....to make it seem that something is there when it's not and something is not there when it is.....so...blending like can possibly make doubles of a person. I suppose if there is two Marias running around she will an easier time with the enemies not targeting her as much or two Ians....I don't think they will even catch him if that's the case....it could also be used as defence....other can making clones of people I suppose I can use it on a smaller scale or something like that....or cause the enemy to think there is a strong creature in front of them or even make enemies attack each other....the possibilities are interesting. But I currently lack the skills to do that. I would like to train my masterys up to intermediate stage before I try...'

Hina closed the information in front of her again and thought about it a bit more. In order for her to be the most effective as possible, she needed to increase her magic skills. Other than that is the inherit problem of all magicians which is poor close combat skills. With Hina and even Grace, they have higher agility and vitality compared to other magic users but it still pales compared to the others. Even Peter who is a combination of both has a pretty good physical side...though as a result his magic lacks power behind them.

Hina knew that her magic attack outclasses Peter's and Grace's healing too. The main problem was that Peter did not have the Magic Mastery skill which greatly boosted the effects of magic. She did not know if this was because of having the 'Shaman' class or something else. Sooner or later he would get the skill or something similar to it.

'Since Eden didn't tell him that it was a problem I suppose he has other plans for him....'

Moving along her thoughts she increased the knowledge she had on monsters and locations of them as well. Information on how to clear a dungeon was actually quite common and even had specific guides on certain popular dungeons. Hina also searched and found that labyrinths types dungeons were particularly difficult to clear since you could get lost in them. The trick was to either have a method to not get lost or simply use a map....both of which the group had thanks to the auto-mapping and Hina's spells.

Since the beginning of this search of information Hina realised it had been a number of hours already. It was time to eat but...

“I suppose I can search for information on Eden and the guild....I wonder who that other guildmaster Alexandra is as well and the one we didn't she yet.

Hina typed in the search parameters on Eden, Alexandra and the Guild. The first time that appeared was on the Guild.

“Sleeping Sheep Centre....do not search for information on them....? Guild is highly secretive and has connections to the highest powers....all attempts to investigate were stopped before they started....major guilds avoid clashing with them and has a history of 'removing people' when necessary...what the hell kinds of guild are we in? Never mind that...what about Info on Eden and Alexandra?”

Several more windows popped up as she read them.

“Eden....age unknown, been in the game since the early days....gender...unknown...? Well he says he's a guy but looks like a woman...to the point it makes me sad....”

Hina's pride as a woman was still damaged by Eden....

“Anyway....more information involves abilities and actions....complete magic monster machine...??? What the hell kind of description is this? Past actions include the complete destruction of several cities and valuable historical buildings??? Once held the highest bounties recorded in the game and has several wide known hidden achievements which include the unification war of the Western Continent and later on war of the underworld where a major God rebelled? This is so ridiculous....but seems to be true...I wonder what Alexandra was like...she seems more normal than Eden at least.”

Hina looked at the information on Alexandra as well.

“This is....”

What Hina saw were abilities and actions that were on the same level as Eden...sometimes worse. Even more so, she had a deep connection to EVERY church in the game that people would want to join as well as connections to powerful knight groups as well.

“Even the power of Divinity....wait didn't she say that she threw that aside and took on something else...? Close connection to Gods and the first Holy Templar in centuries and later the first Dictator of Light as well....she's a complete monster that rivals Eden as well!”

Hina was feeling a bit faint that she talked so casually and even disrespectively to these two beings that had powers that rivalled the Emperor himself. However she still continued searching for information on the third Guildmaster who she didn't know.

“The third guildmaster is....a person named....Viv? A witch?”

Hina was a bit confused since the witch class was rare but was a lot more common compared to what Eden and Alexandra had. Then she looked further down where the more interesting information was....

“My God....what the hell is this?!”

She felt sick just by reading the actions that this 'Viv' took. She couldn't even imagine what it must have felt like for those who saw it in person. Compared to this person, it was quite fine to cross Eden and Alexandra both at the same time....

Feeling the lack of energy to continue, Hina went to get something to eat.

[p=center]xXx[/p]

“Peter, so in the end you joined the guild and Eden has taken an interest in you all” said Simon.

Peter nodded and said, “Yes though I believe this is the right choice.”

Simon pondered for a bit and then replied, “Yes...I suppose it is with the massive network that guild has. I believe finding the young lady is matter of time when you make enough contributions to the guild or beg Eden...or both.”

Peter raised his eyebrow hearing those words. It seems that Simon knew Eden in the game and could have easily done what the group have planned to do much more easily then them. What was the point of them if Simon held quite the power in the game already. Peter remembered that Simon in game was a high ranking official in the Kingdom. He could easily order the Kingdom to search for the missing grand-daughter.

“Why didn't you use your powers to solve the master's request?” Peter asked. To this, Simon was a bit shocked but then replied, “I cannot since my position does not allow me to. The matters in the game and in real life are kept separate and if I do not, my position will be stripped from me.”

“Then what about with Eden? Couldn't you request for help from him?”

Simon gave a wry smile and said, “And give him a reason to make me owe him? There are only a few things so frightening that can compared to when Eden requests for your help...with the Emperor Weed...you at least get something from it but with Eden...there is nothing and you are used up until you run dry where the next one takes your place as the slave...”, Simon had hollow eyes saying that, “But it is very uncommon for Eden to ask for any help if he can.”

Simon left these words for Peter and the others as he went back to his duties.

“Remember...you cannot escape from Eden. All you can do you get stronger and fast to endure what is to come with staying with him and that guild.

“....”

Seeing the time, Peter went to get something to eat with the others.

[p=center]xXx[/p]

“Ahhhhhh!!!” screamed someone on the image being played.

Eden was watching the group get destroyed by the behemoth one by one and eventually they all died.

“....”

'A level 250...no level 200 creature and quite a powerful one for that level as well....at least that dungeon didn't put an impossible task like that....could be on the level of a named monster but not of a boss monster....' he thought seeing the strength of the behemoth.

At the end he sighed since they in the end died without that much resistance. All that training on increasing their agility and vitality was for nothing if they themselves froze up against a more powerful foe. While the group may not have seen it, Eden saw that their bodies froze for a split second whenever the behemoth attacked.

It was a fatal flaw that most players had for a while against much stronger foes. If such a flaw did not exist then many people would be able to at least try to escape from battles that had no victory or even achieve it in an impossible way for normal people to replicate. A good example of this were the Gemichi group where they cared not for death in the game and in the end continued to attack the enemies fearlessly.

“What ye doing?” asked Alexandra leaning on him from behind. Since she was wearing casual clothing instead of her armour, Eden did not feel uncomfortable around her. The soft feeling was definitely superior to the hard cold metal in the end.

Without him even answering, Alexandra continued to say, “Ah! Your spying on them again!” with a tone like Eden was a dangerous person.

“Just checking on how they died to be precise. And I only spy on you to make sure your not doing anything dangerous” said Eden rejecting the notion that he was spying on them or anyone by any chance besides Alexandra for obvious reasons.

“Aw~ You care about me that much?” Alexandra hugged from from behind.

“No, I care about the people around you since you're too dangerous to not monitor. Unlike you, I know restraint and that is why I am the one to keep you in check.”

(Sound of arms tightening around one's neck)

“Can't.....breath......”

Eden tried to looked behind him but the arms were forcing him in a deadlock where he couldn't even move the rest of his body. It was like the reaction of a puppy being lifted up in the air not daring to move even my instinct.

From the edge of his eye, Eden thought he saw White and called to him via the same method he used since White couldn't speak.

[White! Help me!]

[….]

[White?]

Eden was getting worried now.

[I...have been defiled....]

[….]

Those words were not the ones that he wanted to hear right now. But it seems Alexandra noticed White and let go of Eden and used him as a hugging toy.

“Come here~”

Eden coughed several times seeing that he could finally breath now. He took a few seconds to turn and look at Alexandra who was hugging a white haired girl in a maid outfit.

[White? Where are you? All I see is Alexandra hugging someone who looks like she could be your sister]

Eden looked around and even used his sensing skills but White wasn't anywhere at all though he knew he was somewhere in the building.

[Over here....]

The voice directed Eden to turn his head to where Alexandra and the white haired girl was again. Confused he continued to try and search for White. If something were to happen to him then....several thousands dragons will come to attack him even though he was a Dragon King as well.

[I'm the....]

White directed Eden's vision once again to Alexandra and the white haired girl once again till Eden realised what happened.

“Don't tell me....” muttered Eden a bit paled face.

Hearing him, Alexandra responded with a, “Yep, I did~”

Eden almost face palmed himself seeing what Alexandra just did. She had just sexually assaulted a young boy....and a Dragon King to boot. It wouldn't be funny if Eden was forced into this kind of trouble when things were so far stable.

[Don't worry....I'll make sure you can escape sooner or later]

Eden gave those reassuring words to White.

[But....what about you?] asked White timidly since he was not used to being hugged so much like this.

Eden shook his head and replied, [It's too late for me, the beast has me in her hands completely]

When Eden was about to help White in any way he could, Alexandra at the same moment knew of these plans....and said:

“Eden...do you want to dress up as well~?” she asked looking at him with hungry eyes. With that, Eden felt a giant cold chill come down his spine.

“NO NO NO no no....never again.....”

Alexandra smiled to this reaction and then said a bit curious, “So where are those recruits when they died?” while dragged White along seeing the image hovering above the desk.

“The Eternal Dungeon.”

Alexandra looked surprised and immediately said letting go of White in shock, “Isn't that the one we couldn't complete no matter what? I mean the first floor along was ridiculous enough.”

“Please don't remind me....”

[Wait, what happened? What is this Eternal Dungeon?] asked White now curious since both these two were unable to clear it as well.

“Basically as the name says, it's a dungeon that goes on infinitely with an infinite number of ways of being formed” explained Eden. Alexandra continued with, “The worse or best thing depending on who goes in it is that it forces you to fight stronger monster than you though not that much stronger.”

“And sometimes it throws in a random death trap that is certain for you to die most of the time.”

“Plus the place considers how many people are there with you and their strengths and weaknesses as well making it overall difficult to even go through later on though the first floors are there for the dungeon to find your weaknesses. When me, Eden and Viv went through it, fighting Dragons were actually quite common along with other rare and powerful creatures...there weren't that many liches on my runs though...” Alexandra at the end looked a bit disappointed.

“That because you are a living light producing machine. It's natural that you won't face any at all. Plus your runs were better than my ones” replied Eden brushing off taking care of liches.

[What happened?]

“....”

Eden looked away not wanting to remember that event as much as possible. Instead Alexandra told White about it.

“When Eden entered the first floor, he was met with 5 Heretic Gods at once and almost died in an instant. If he didn't use his 'Destroyer' powers, which is super effective against Gods and other Divine creatures, he would have lost. The next floor consisted of hundreds of chained traps, the one after that was-”

“Enough! Don't remind me!” shouted Eden really not wanting to remember it at all. The dungeons picks up what you REALLY don't want to face and forces you to face it. Because of that, he regained his fear of mechanical things for a while after that event.

Eden looked at the image again with the Behemoth leaving the place where it killed the group and sighed.

“Basically...think of that dungeon which is actually under this city as a big dick to people. The person who made this dungeon must have had a thing of making people frustrated.”

“Rather than frustrated it was more like he didn't like really strong people like us and rather watch weaker people struggle until one of those random death traps appears to clear them out at once” added Alexandra.

'Plus for players...they can't escape unless they reach the teleporter on floor 10..they will have to continue grinding and training in the place until they do reach it...by then however...perhaps that flaw they have will be gone....' thought Eden hoping that they do not break so easily.

[p=center]xXx[/p]

Much later on...Lyndis was the first one to log back into the game when they were literally slaughter by that creature that Sain later on pointed out as a Behemoth. It was 5 metres tall which wasn't that bad but alternated from walking on two legs and four legs depending on when it was charging.

Fortunately, it seems that it was gone....or just a bit away that it wouldn't come here to kill them. The first time Lyndis checked was the equipment that was dropped. It was a pair of boots and some pieces of food. Looking around, she quickly found them since the Behemoth did not loot their dropped items and left them behind.

“Ah good~” she said while equipping them back on. Next she gathered the rest of the stuff that was dropped which were some armour and even a spear into one pile waiting for the rest of the group to log back in. Lyndis believed that most of them were sleeping after all at this time and would sooner or later wake up and come into the game.

“Might as well check to see what was reduced...”

Lyndis opened her status window and skill window at the same time.

Status Window[quart=Name,Alignment]Lyndis,Neutral[/quart][quart=Level,Profession]73,Sword Priest[/quart]RaceElfTitleBlade DancerHealth3203Mana1047[quart=Fame,Infamy]610,0[/quart][quart=Strength,Agility]170 +31,139 +16[/quart][quart=Intelligence,Wisdom]89 +27,12 +17[/quart][quart=Vitality,Stamina]102 +14,84 +17[/quart][quart=Fighting Spirit,Endurance]16 +20,21+13[/quart][quart=Leadership,Luck]0 +14,2 +14[/quart][quart=Offense,Defense]40,35[/quart]Magic Resistance5%Elemental Resistance[quart=Light,Dark]0%,0%[/quart][quart=Fire,Ice]10%,-10%[/quart][quart=Earth,Lightning]0%,0%[/quart][quart=Wind,Nature]0%,0%[/quart]Bonus- Magic Affinity increase by 5

- Magic Resistance increase by 5%

- 10% more movement speed

- Fire Affinity increase by 5

- Intelligence increases by 14

- Wisdom increases by 3

- All Stats +14

- Strength +17

- Agility +2

- Fighting Spirit +7

- Stamina +3

It had been 2 weeks in game since they entered floor 2 and made their way down to floor 4 where they were all killed at once. Before, Lyndis was at level 74 but now it dropped down to level 73. When she checked, her skill proficiencies of her skill decreased of around 25% each.

Skill Window- Sword Mastery Beginner 7 (52/100)

- Fire Manipulation Mastery Level 5 (0/100)

- Cooking Beginner Level 2 (59/100)

- Pocket Fireball Beginner level 4 (14/700)

- Fire Blade Beginner level 8 (573/1500)

- Life Burn Beginner level 3 (180/500)

- Power Strike Beginner level 5 (40/900)

- Speed Strike Beginner level 5 (70/900)

- Power Stance Beginner level 5 (60/900)

- Speed Stance Beginner level 4 (10/700)

- Precision Stance Beginner level 4 (55/700)

- Burning Touch Beginner Level 4 (122/700)

- Flame Strike Beginner Level 6 (23/1100)

To get the experience that was lost from these skill, she would need to repeatedly used them for several hundreds of times in order to get back where she was before.

“Damn...! And they say that craftsmen have it worse when they die...” Lyndis let out a shout with her frustration. It would take a few days for her to regain the skill proficiencies lost but a few weeks for the same craftsman.

Her sword mastery skill was progressing fine with a good supply of monsters in this place, Fire Manipulation is increasing bit by bit with her use of fire skills but her cooking skill....

“Miriel reached beginner level 3 before she died as well didn't she? Damn...now I'm even further behind then her!”

Lyndis' own cooking skill was at beginner level 2 and was three quarters way to beginner level 3 with a few more days or weeks until she would reach there. But now she was pushed back to halfway which made things a lot more difficult. Besides that were her most of her combat skills which were just over a quarter full to begin with before she died and as such they reverted back near the beginning and not completely back to 0.

Lyndis kicked her legs while sitting on some stone bench waiting for the others...

Soon enough a bright light shone at the centre of the place and....Miriel appeared.

“....” “....”

The two looked at each other. From what Lyndis knew, they had a nice relationship with lots of fights involving food at least. Other than that, they don't click that well but could stand each other well enough to help one another. Or at least that was Lyndis thought.

“Pile of equipment and other stuff we dropped is over there” said Lyndis pointing at the pile she made. It was neatly arranged at least instead of a messy pile thrown together at the last moment. Miriel nodded and collected the stuff she dropped from the pile and sat on the opposite stone bench on the other side of the place.

“So...what happened to that Behemoth?” asked Miriel.

Lyndis replied with, “No idea. Wasn't here when I logged back in. Probably wandering around so it's better for the others to log in soon. Are they awake yet?”

“I think so, Peter said he wanted to get some breaksfast before logging in and Grace and the others joined him so it may be another....5 minutes I suppose.”

“....”

“....”

A minute passed.

“AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!” Lyndis let out a loud scream piercing the air.

Miriel shocked asked, “What-What the hell happened to you?!”

“This damn mood! Why is it that we're staying silent together and not even fighting?! This is too depressing for me! Hurry up and insult me or something at else!”

“There's nothing to complain about right now since your not doing anything wrong” replied Miriel calmly.

“And that's the problem! At least try to pick a fight with me! This awkward mood with nothing said is killing me! Tell me about yourself at least! We don't even know what happened to each other in the past!”

Miriel's eyes sharpened with those words and she mockingly said, “Then why don't you tell me all about yourself. I'm sure it was all bright smiles and clear roads to you.”

Lyndis was silent for a second when those words left Miriel's mouth and was seriously considering whether to beat her up or not. She knew that as a melee fighter, she had an advantage over Miriel.

“In that case I might as well tell you” said Lyndis calming down feeling that Miriel intentionally said those rude words to her.

“It was actually all smiles...at least at the beginning. I was actually popular with most people I knew and generally had a good time...then the boys started acting up and the girls seeing the attention I was getting was becoming less and less friendly. This chained up later on with the boys not wanting to be hated by the girls started hating on me as well and so on. Basically people were a bitch and essentially blocked all paths that I could get. Haha, even the teachers didn't do anything to stop the bullying...if you can call it that. It was much worse than you think; there were many cases where I was assaulted at night. Naturally I wanted my safety and called the police where they 'investigated'. Yes...in the end everyone I knew was an enemy and was isolated from everyone as a result. Things continued to spiral out of control and one attack succeeded at last and even that was blamed on me! Just because I have no parents or 'backings' doesn't mean I'm worth less than other people. There's actually a scar on my back in real life though technology and make-up improved a lot to cover it up...so there. That's my story. Laugh at me all you want.”

Lyndis was fully prepared for Miriel to criticise her and 'bring her down' like everyone else she met with. But that never came. Miriel was simply thinking about it and then after another minutes replied with:

“That's...actually not too far from my story...instead of bright smiles at the beginning. I was alone from the very start...then things went well....made 'friends' and had 'fun'....yes. Then...something went wrong where it could affect their future....how quickly did they turn on me instead. I was alone so I was perfect 'bait'....but in the end I turned it all on them. All their 'facts' were flawed to begin with so it wasn't too difficult to to turn everyone on them. Well in the end I ended up all alone again....not daring to trust another person in that place....to have something and have it stripped away from you all of a sudden...not exactly the 'fall from grace' you had but still....”

Miriel stopped with this and it was Lyndis' time to think and respond. She knew immediately that this was a serious question and there was no joking around here....not like she intended to joke around to begin with.

“Well...it seems that our past are similar in some ways that other people are just awful in the end.”

“That's true....”

“Honestly I wonder what happened to the others as well. I doubt that they don't have anything they don't want to talk about. From the start, gathering 6 kids together for such a vague goal that is uncertain to be complete is strange right?” Lyndis let those thoughts out for Miriel to hear.

“....”

Lyndis looked over and found that Miriel was in deep thought.

“Huh?”

“Quiet!”

When Lyndis tried to respond to this, she was immediately told to shut up. Lyndis sighed and thought:

'Looks like Miriel figured something out and is thinking about it....although it IS strange that all of us are similar in some way to begin with....if it were other 'normal' people than we wouldn't even get along. Plus we all went and train ourselves to be useful....I know why I did it and Miriel as well now but the others as well...?'

Several more minutes passed and the others logged in as well.

“Ah you guys are quite early” said Sain looking at the two. By his side were Serena, Shadow and Raven as well whom were looking around. Seeing this, Sain sighed saying, “Looks like we're trapped until we escape this place....”

The thoughts of why they were gathered will have to be saved for later. The time for dungeon exploring began again.

[p=center]xXx[/p]

“Shadow can you scout the area around this place for a while? I want to know the types of monsters and their strengths and weaknesses as well....also watch out for that Behemoth. Do not engage and tell me where it is roughly located. We're avoiding it as much as possible” said Sain to Shadow who confirmed the order and set off to scout for the group.

Shadow leap through one of the paths that the place that they logged in had leaving behind the group as he scouted out. After running through a couple of twists and turns, Shadow encountered a monster almost immediately.

'Need to hide now....'

Even though his 'stealth' skill was unnaturally high for his level at Intermediate level 5; he still needed to properly use his hiding skills in ordered to not be detected. Hiding is basically a matter of avoiding the attention of enemies. While in a group battle, Shadow used the others to draw the attention of the enemies and as such could almost literally move freely around without anyone knowing where he was since for some reason 'stealth' was active most of the time whether he wanted or not.

Crouching low and masking the sound of his footsteps as much as possible, Shadow peered through the corner when he felt that they weren't looking and saw what the type of enemy was on this floor.

'That appearance...an ape? No...I looks more human than that and could be called a furry human...they don't seem to be wearing any armour or weapons....I think they are a bit stronger than us...there are 4..no 5 of them in a group. This would be quite a pain to deal with when it comes to that.'

Seeing the type of monster they had to face, Shadow followed from from afar for a while seeing where they were going and how they moved. By looking at those things, you could sense how they could fight.

'They seem to have some difficulty walking normally....but they have that long tail like a monkey but look like apes instead...are they the type to jump while chasing?'

Shadow thought he had enough to go for, at least as a early analysis of the enemy type. Moving along, he went on a different direction from the ape like creatures and followed that path as well. As he moved, the place was becoming a but darker the further he got from the place the rest of the group was.

As a result, his skill 'Night Vision' which was a good passive skill activated making it brighter than what it actually was.

Shadow touched the edge of the wall and felt that it was a bit wet as well.

'Is there a water source near here?'

He continued forward heading straight as the path only allowed him to. This was a dangerous stage since he wouldn't be able to avoid traps or monster ambushes as well as he liked in such a straight path. However his worries were false since nothing happened on the way.

“A lake...” muttered Shadow after confirming that there weren't any enemy monsters here.

The lake in front of him was quite small and could also be considered a small pool but it also had some plant life on the edge that made it look quite colourful compared to the dull grey walls that surround them.

Shadow walked to the lake and took a small scoope in his hands and drank a bit of it. He was testing whether it was no a trap and poisoned. Although very dangerous, Shadow believe he could escape in time if this was a trap before something bad happened to him. Once again, his worries were false since this was a pure and clean water source.

“....”

Taking the chance, believe that this is not a long delay trap, he scooped some water in his canteen and filled up a total of 3 of them which he carried at all times. With this, he returned back to the rest of the dungeon and explored for a further hour mapping out the area around where the rest of the group were and confirmed that the Behemoth wasn't in the area right now.

He returned after doing all of that.

[p=center]xXx[/p]

When Shadow returned and told the others of the water source, Sain decided that it was a good time to refill on water since they were half full either way. They followed the path Shadow look and ended up at the small lake that Shadow found.

“This is actually quite the nice sight” muttered Sain looking at the place that would fit into the frames of a painting rather than this dungeon. While the others were generally relaxing for now since it was a rare chance to do so, Sain looked up the conditions to clear this floor.

You are on floor 4

Conditions to advance to next floor:

- Find exit to next floor

- Slay the boss monster that guards the exit

Extra Event

- Slay the Behemoth that walks on this floor (If this is complete then you can be teleported out of the dungeon without reaching floor 10 and clearing it)

“So the behemoth was not originally part of this floor eh....but if managed to slay it then....we could cut back several weeks in here...but....”

Sain remembered how they were completely destroyed by it. It was not something they could currently beat even they it took them by surprise immediately.

“What are you thinking up?” asked Miriel who noticed that Sain was having a serious look on his face.

“Whether or not to fight that Behemoth again” he replied.

“....”

Miriel looked at Sain as if he was crazy and asked, “Are you serious?” in a sarcastic tone though it seems Sain didn't pick that up.

“If we can beat it then we can escape from this place much much earlier. Else it might take a few more weeks until we actually reach floor 10 and finish that as well. The monsters are slowly becoming harder to deal with...usually in large numbers as well more often now...and enemies that are harder for us to beat than normal” Sain explained his reasoning.

If they did manage to beat it then they would be able to get back to the surface...but that is honestly dependent if they can beat it to begin it.

“You have a plan...right?” asked Miriel wanting to know we're going blind here against a monster that was that much more powerful than they were.

“Well....I suppose we can level up for a while here....probably to level 80 I would think would be fine....after that I'll think about it later.”

“....”

Miriel was a bit speechless to the laid back thoughts of Sain. Did he really think that things will go well or was he a dimwit at these important moments. When Miriel was about to ask about it, there were several loud sounds coming from behind them.

“HUMANS!” one of them shouted in a loud shriek.

“This is bad” said Shadow immediately hearing those sounds, “There are at least 10 of them in this area and.....”

The group looked and turned around to see that the single path out of this section of the dungeon was blocked off by ape like creatures that were shorter than the average person but had longer arms and quite sharp claws at the end.

“AOOGOGOHHOOH!!” their beast like shouted came out as 3 of them at once jumped around on the walls charging at them.

“Ice Bolt!” “Magic Arrows!” “Flame Strike!”

Miriel, Sain and Lyndis all attacked quickly casting their long range attacks at them as fast as they could.

Bang Bang Bang!

However just before the attacks hit...not a bit before that, the ape like creatures dodged the attacks using their tails to latch onto the walls and move their air bone bodies away to safety.

“RAVEN TO THE FRONT!” shouted Sain as he also took out his spear preparing for close combat. Raven responded charging forward as well to the ape creatures that also had tails for some reason. The reason on calling on ape like creatures was that their faces where like the apes you would see in real life but their bodies were similar to monkeys that they had a tail as well.

“Double Strike!”

Raven tried to strike at the apes with his long spear but they spun around the place voiding the attack and continued past him.

“What?!” said Sain seeing this ridiculously high mobility.

“Burst Speed!” Shadow moved along the walls like the apes as well and attacked the three of them at the same time with speed that was superior to theirs causing some wounds to appear all of a sudden. They did not 'feel' Shadow was naturally they didn't try to defend or dodge when he attacked.

'Since precise spells don't work....'

“Mana Bolts!”

Sain fired 13 mana bolt at once since his proficiency with it increased to Beginner Level 7 since weeks ago when they were still on floor 1.

Bang Bang Bang....!

Although several of the attacks were dodged, some of the mana bolts did hit the apes. With that, he said quickly to Miriel:

“Use mana bolts to pin them down!”

Miriel responded adding her own mana bolts to the mix as Raven and Lyndis tried to take them down from close range and Shadow attacking once in a while.

“Heartbeat Healing!” chanted Serena finished chanting the group heal on the group.

Health will regenerate for 12 points every second for 10 minutes

With the increase in her mastery skills, the strength of the heal per second increased as well. Now Serena started to chant for her support spells. 3 seconds later...

“Root Bind!”

Serena casted that spell on one of the apes that were attacking Raven and pinned it down to the ground easily. However it's long arms weren't completely restrained and it could still attack from that position in unusual ways.

“Raven stay back for a bit” said Sain seeing that Raven couldn't get close to it easily.

“Magic Arrows!”

3 Magic Arrows came from Sain and pierced the arms of the ape.

“Hmp!”

Next Sain stabbed his spear into the head of the ape and killed it in one go making turn into grey light immediately. Seeing that it's comrade died while being suppressed by a combination of Lyndis, Shadow and Miriel, the other two apes attacked even harder.

But the group was too slow in dealing with them.

“HUMANS!”

“HUMANS!!”

“KILL THEM ALL!!”

From the end of the path came another 7 of those apes. With great rage, they charged at the group together.

'At this rate, we're going to die again!'

Sain quickly thought of a way to get out of this alive...though barely.

“Raven! Charge in and continued to run straight at full power and then attack from behind!” ordered Sain while attacking one of the apes on Lyndis and injuring it enough for Lyndis and Shadow to finish it off.

Raven looked stunned for a second since charging in there was a suicidal act...but he still followed it since Sain seemed confident that this would work.

“Footwork! Ram!”

Raven used these two skills together and ran at the apes with his shield up blocking any attacks that came to him.

Bang Bang!

Raven hit two of the apes head on but kept on charging using 'Footwork' to continue his charge even while getting hit on the back, some of the apes even turned around to attack him. Before he reached the end and turned back to attack, however, Sain was already preparing for the next stage of the attack.

'Two are down....5 more charging at us....'

“Miriel with me! Mana Bolt!” said Sain quickly.

24 mana bolts flew out to strike the apes head on. 3 of the apes fell on the ground sliding due to being hit too much by the magic attacks even if it didn't kill them.

'2 more left....until we're in the clear.'

“Root Bind!”

Serena casted her spell again since it had been 20 seconds since the cool down started and one of the remaining apes that recently came was stuck to the ground as roots grabbed it's legs and tripped it over.

The last ape with little intelligence still came charging at them though. The ape went to attack Miriel but that was a big mistake on it's part.

“Ice Burst!”

BANG!

Ice exploded in the ape's face killing it in one shot.

You have gained experience

“....”

'That attack seems really overpowered if you ask me...though it's a good thing since we have a uber close range measure now' Sain thought seeing how that spell instantly killed the ape in one go. Again, Sain realised how powerful magic could be.

“Backstab, Double strike.” “Double Strike!” “Power Strike!”

When Sain looked over, he saw that the others had already gotten rid of the other apes with ease killing them with one or two hits each.

'Scratch that....all of them are quite powerful in their own rights...in combat I can switch between long range and close range but I only have enough power to become a support for them all....fine then, I'll become a good support for them all then....'

Sain seeing that his comrades were becoming stronger and stronger as time went on with speeds that made his progress insignificant, vowed to become someone good enough that he would be able to support them.

'That means....I need to learn some better spells as well....first would be some spear skills I suppose then a better healing spell and perhaps buffing and debuffing spells as well....yes...I will ask Eden later about those....or maybe Gen would be a better idea...'

While Sain was stuck in his thoughts, the others were already cleaning up with looting the bodies and gathering their spoils. They looked at Sain not knowing what to do since he seemed to be thinking of something important.

“Right! We need to grind up our levels right now” said Sain all of a sudden, “Let's find another pack of those monsters, we need their experience points!”

For some reason, Sain's eyes shone with a strange light that told the others that there will be more life and death situations.

With this battle, Raven almost went to critical health, Lyndis lost half her health and Shadow as well being hit a couple of times with his thin armour.

'However since it's Sain, he wouldn't let us die.....right....?'

[p=center]xXx[/p]

Some weeks later....

You have gained experience

You have levelled up

“Puha! Finally! We finally reached level 80!” said Lyndis in relief dead tired. Sain looked around and saw that the others were strangely tired as well.

“Is there something wrong with them?” asked Sain to the black and white wolf that was next to him called Luna.

Since a while back, Sain summoned Luna into battle in order to level it up as well in order to make it gain experience to level 30 until it could also fight along side with them. At this point Luna was level 35 while at everyone else was at level 80 or above. Because it turned into a 'adult', Luna now had the ability to talk to Sain directly through thoughts alone.

When Sain first realised this and happily chatted away with Luna, the others thought he snapped and went crazy.

“Damnit Sain....” Shadow who had quite the stamina level on par with Sain was puffing air, “How long do you think you made us hunt for?”

“Umm....a few weeks. Isn't that amount fine?” asked Sain innocently.

“Of course not! We barely got any breaks in that time period!” retorted Shadow angrily.

“Then why didn't ask for a break?” asked Sain once again in the same tone.

“Because when we did you would give us a death glare and forced us into absurd situations!”

Shadow remembered when he asked for a break since he was mentally tired that Sain immediately forced another few battles in which Shadow almost died a few times in a row. Plus Sain was working on his skills actively during this time as well and had less sleep than anyone else. Then why the hell was he was the only one fine right now were the thoughts Shadow had.

Luna seeing how the rest of the group fared, gave pity to them and said to Sain:

[Master since we have achieve our goal for now, I suggest we take a break in order to get ready for the next goal]

Sain thoughts about and then said, “Yeah, that would be fine.”

“....”

The others sighed in relief. Ever since that battle at the water source small lake, Sain had been acting strange for some reason. Was there something in the water? No one knew since they drank it as well but they were fine.

'It's been 2 months since we have been stuck here....plus the 3 months with Eden on that Guild Quest, another 2 months of training from Eden and then that month of hunting and finally the month where we started off....a total of 9 months passed in game which means a bit over 2 months passed in real life. This amount of progress....it's too slow.....but thanks to that, I managed to get something good in the end....'

Sain brought up the skill window of the new skill he managed to create while down in this dungeon.

Compressed Magic Mastery Beginner Level 2

An alternative, more dangerous version of the normal magic mastery skill. With this skill, the power of your magic attacks will not increase passively at all but the leftover mana from your spells will gather and can be unleashed to rapidly increase the power of your spells temporary.

Magic Strength when unleashed: 40+%

Casting Speed: 6%

While this skill only increased his casting speed a bit, the other effect was massive even if he had to actively use it in the end like a normal skill. Sain was already used to the feeling that his magic attacks were quite weak but now he had a chance to turn it all over with this skill.

One a day he could use this skill in it's max power. After waiting an entire day not using this skill and using only normal magic attacks without it, the effects of the skill essentially tripled to 120% extra damage instead. If he used it 2 times a day the effects only double the normal value and if he used it 5 times a day then the skill would only go at it's minimum value of 40%. Any more than that and the skill won't work due to the lack of mana stored inside him.

Seeing that the preparations were done...as in his skills proficiencies increased greatly to the point that several of his skills were about to get to the intermediate level; Sain checked everyone's skill level rather than their status windows since he knew they were all over level 80 mark now.

Skill Window[third=Serena,Miriel]Lyndis[/third][third=- Magic Mastery Beginner 7 (62/100)

- Nature Mastery Beginner 7 (42/100)

- Mediation Beginner level 5 (19/100)

- Mana Burst Beginner level 2 (2/100)

- Minor Health Regeneration Beginner level 9 (120/1700)

- Minor Stamina Regeneration Beginner level 8 (101/1500)

- Quicken Death Beginner level 1 (0/100)

Language Comprehension Beginner level 1 (0/100)

- Blood Burst Beginner level 5 (77/900)

- Root Bind Beginner level 6 (322/1100)

- Heartbeat Healing Beginner level 6 (12/100),- Magic Mastery Beginner 7 (59/100)

- Illusion Magic Mastery Beginner 4 (32/100)

- Sound Magic Mastery Beginner 5 (22/100)

- Ice Magic Mastery Beginner Level 3 (25/100)

- Magic Control Mastery Beginner 5 (78/100)

- Mediation Beginner level 5 (76/100)

- Cooking Beginner Level 3 (3/100)

- Identify Beginner level 2 (12/100)

- Mana Bolt Beginner level 6 (252/1100)

- Clairvoyance Beginner level 4 (156/700)

- Melody of Sound Beginner level 7 (130/1300)

- Cracked Barrier Beginner level 5 (120/1800)

- Shriek Beginner level 5 (99/900)

- Ice Bolt Beginner Level 6 (450/1100)

- Ice Burst Beginner Level 2 (15/300)]- Sword Mastery Beginner 7 (72/100)

- Fire Manipulation Mastery Level 5 (18/100)

- Cooking Beginner Level 2 (65/100)

- Pocket Fireball Beginner level 4 (54/700)

- Fire Blade Beginner level 8 (873/1500)

- Life Burn Beginner level 3 (380/500)

- Power Strike Beginner level 5 (240/900)

- Speed Strike Beginner level 5 (270/900)

- Power Stance Beginner level 5 (260/900)

- Speed Stance Beginner level 4 (210/700)

- Precision Stance Beginner level 4 (255/700)

- Burning Touch Beginner Level 4 (322/700)

- Flame Strike Beginner Level 6 (223/1100)[/third]

Skill Window[third=Raven,Shadow]Sain[/third][third=- Spear Mastery Beginner Level 6 (24/100)

- Shield Mastery Beginner Level 7 (27/100)

- Shield Bash Beginner level 6 (821/1100)

- Double Strike Beginner level 5 (453/1100)

- Footwork Beginner level 6 (622/1100)

- Repair Beginner level 3 (67/1200)

- Ram Beginner level 5 (36/100)

- Shield Parry Beginner level 6 (25/1100)

- Spear Parry Beginner level 6 (7/1100)

- Body Reinforcement Beginner level 4 (389/700),- Dagger Mastery Beginner 7 (75/100)

- Stealth Intermediate Level 5 (94/100)

- Hearing Beginner level 6 (45/100)

- Dark Vision Beginner level 3 (15/100)

- Night Vision Beginner level 3 (49/100)

- Locate Trap Beginner level 5 (25/100)

- Disarm Trap Beginner level 5 (42/100)

- Backstab Beginner level 6 (711/1100)

- Double Strike Beginner level 5 (274/700)

- Climbing Beginner Level 7 (16/100)

- Become Mist Beginner level 3 (16/100)

- Burst Speed Beginner level 5 (425/900)]- Compressed Magic Mastery Beginner Level 2 (15/100)

- Spear Mastery Beginner Level 5 (12/100)

- Identify Beginner level 2 (50/100)

- Party Scan Beginner level 4 (60/100)

- Mana Bolt Beginner level 8 (555/1500)

- Mediation Beginner level 7 (88/100)

- Summon Familiar Beginner level 4 (4/700)

- Minor Heal Beginner level 8 (22/1500)

- Weaken Beginner level 8 (146/1500)

- Bursting Will Beginner level 5 (45/100)

- Wolf Summoning Beginner level 1 (65/100)

- Magic Arrow Beginner level 7 (123/1300)[/third]

Everyone else more or less made some progress though not as much as he liked. Compared to that, most of his own skills increased by a level each. Sain was a bit happy with himself and wondered if he should practise alone some more in order to get his skill proficiencies up some more.

With a smile to the currently resting comrades he had, he said in a kind voice, “Okay~ Time to hunt down that Behemoth.”

“....”

The rest of the group made a utterly distorted look at Sain without exception. No matter how kind they were or how obedient they were, fighting that Behemoth was asking for death. Seeing that his comrades wouldn't obey him...

“Looks like this won't work after all...just watch out for attacks from behind.”

Sain had a smile on his face still though unknown to him, he changed from the kind smile to the evil smile that forced the others to act on his whim no matter what. A tyrant in the group was born in this dungeon!

“....”

Sain looked confused and then asked once again with a 'smile', “Still want to not go fight?”

The others shook their heads immediately to this 'new' Sain that was in front of them. It was like something pulled a trigger and he changed completely.

Onwards?PreviousExitNext

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Author's Notes:

- Word Count: 9400~

- Well....I'll post the epilogue tomorrow since I just finished this and it an hour ago. There might be some mistakes since I didn't check it properly. Hopefully there isn't that much....

- All yeah...there was some more backstory to both Lyndis and Miriel though not that much...I intent to take this part of the story slowly....very slowly since these things can't be rushed since I'm bad with these kinds of things. Characters like Eden and Alexandra with no care in the world are easy...other characters with motives, backstory and complicated 'emotions' aren't.

- This IS the end of the second volume essentially with a 'sudden' change in Sain. I always imagined Sain as a two faced commander, one being the kind caring one while the other being the cruel ruthless one. Basically this change will be explained in the next volume along with a who bunch of things.

- The part with Eden, Alexandra and White....was a bit too entertaining to write...it naturally flowed out as well.