“What the hell is with this choice?! Attack! Kill that monster!” someone shouted banishing his sword at the large meat creature.

“Yeah! Charrrrrrge!”

The players started to attack the monster together slicing it into pieces. While it was the size that took up all the room in the corridor, it made it an easy target for mages especially.

“Use fire to burn it!” one player recommended which was generally accepted as the mages started chanting their spells to use.

“Let the light burn through flesh and bones, Flash Burn!”

“GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRR!”

The meat creature was lit on fire and it let out a deafening scream through the human mouths that appeared all of a sudden from all corners of it's body.

“Don't mind the screams attack! Attack!”

“Sonic Blade!”

“Fire Sword!”

The mages continued on using fire magic mostly on it to keep it burning while the other players in the area tried to stop it from moving by slicing off the hands and legs it used to move around. Even though the monster was quite large, there wasn't enough room for everyone to fight it at once.

And it was also stuck blocking the way through a corridor as well.

As such, only two-three players at a time could fight it except for ranged players who attacked the higher area of it's body to not hit the players fighting the lower area.

After a few minutes the monster was slain with the group helping out as well especially with Lyndis who by far amongst the players had the most powerful fire related skills yet even against some of the mages.

“GARRR....” The meat monster fell silent as it died at last.

“YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!” And immediately afterwards the players cheered in their victory.

However their cries of victory was short lived with the voice of a mad man echoed to them all.

“Oh~ How nice to kill the creature made up of innocent people. Yes, I am running out of parts to build them and you lot are more than enough to stock up on~ Oh and make sure you don't make a mess dying, cleaning up is nil impossible with so many hands at stack.”

“....”

There was another short laugher at the end of it as the players shattered around now more alert than ever with a monster slain and one of their comrades..the one that seemed to have the more powerful equipment instantly killed.

“That man is mad as hell. He was happy we killed his creation” one player said with other agreeing to it.

“Hurry up and get rid of the corpse of that thing...it being made if human parts makes me want to vomit when looking at it” another mage player said using some spells to make a path through that corridor even though there were several more paths available to take.

“What?” that player said seeing the disapproved looks of his peers, “There is a chance that where we need to go is through the path this thing blocked.”

His party members took the loot that he dropped when he died and said some small words of sorry that they couldn't prevent it in the end. Without a clear leader, the players merely knew of their objective.

Clear this lab and collect the reward killing everything else in the way.

Up until now, the group was completely silent simply observing everything around them. They knew that given the chance and opportunity, some would want to take advantage of them and they did not want that.

They had learnt from Viv on what to do at least in these kinds of things. Be invisible and don't attract attention at least.

But it didn't stop them to at each stop talking to each other as well.

“There a few people who are still trying to get out” muttered Miriel pointing Sain to behind them where a party was clearly not ready for such a sight and were trying very hard to get out.

Due to the ratio of male and female overall was shocking bias towards males in this case, the group attracted much attention with their above average looks. Even though the three girls considered themselves average in looks, they still had male players gazing at them at a time.

“We can get out when we kill that mad man who trapped us here!” one player shouted trying to stop the group of 5 players from wasting their time.

That party venting on getting out stopped and looked at the other players who were close by with frightened eyes. There was a hint of desperation.

“I don't want to do this anymore. I want to leave” said one of them.

“Oi...”

And then one of them started to attack the other players obviously taken in by the words of the mad man at least.

“Shit! Restrain them!” said one player blocking an attack and then trying to grab and pin down the player that was trying to kill everyone else around him. Chaos ensured with a player attacking another.

All groups including Sain and the others spread out just in case there were more as if on some sort of strange instinct to avoid death this way.

“Die! Die! I WILL be FREE!”

That party made up of five people made it their goal to kill everyone else and make it out alive by themselves. Sain observed quickly and counted that party had three melee user and two ranged users with no healer.

'Perhaps they don't have a healer...or the healer doesn't agree with them trying to kill the rest of us' Sain thought while still looking.

“Shit! Don't attack to kill! We don't want to be player killers!” shouted a man with a giant bastard sword seeing the archers and about about to attack the five at once. The archers did not stop but shot and hit the legs of the players that were attacking everyone else.

Seeing this, the player smiled at least and thanked them under his breath as the five players continued to try and attack and kill everyone else in range even if they couldn't move with their legs having arrows in them.

He moved in and used the hilt of his sword and knock out one of the players in question. With a light sigh he turned to the archers to thank them at least. At the same time he said, “Make sure you don-”

Stab!

A sword went through the back of his head and instantly killed him leaving his limp body to fall to the ground. Everyone looked to see who was the caused of this...

“I wanna leave...I wanna leave.”

It was one of the five players that managed to drag himself more quickly than anyone thought to the players that knocked his friend out. You could see the blood trail on the floor which was more than it usual was since moving like that and quickly caused his flesh to be ripped open.

“I WANNA LEAVE!!!”

The player now branded with the red marking on his for head stabbed and killed one of his team-mates nearby and rushed swinging his sword wildly at everyone else despite him moving quite slowly and limping as well.

“Serena!” Sain shouted, “Bind him!”

“Root Bind!” Serena chanted hearing the order causing vines to grow quickly from the gaps in the grounds and trap and pin the man onto the ground with no way to move. He continued to mutter over and over again about something that was not in the human language anymore as he wailed.

However his desperation was very clear to anyone who looked.

“How long can you keep him like this?” Sain asked.

“A-Around...an hour I think. M-Maybe two if I don't have to bind any one else as well” she answered honestly to him.

While 'Root Bind' used mana initially, for it to last long, the spell had to drain more mana from the caster to make sure the target doesn't break out by weaken the vines too much over time.

“Three dead...forty seven left” Miriel muttered with a sigh.

With this, the number of players remaining numbered 47 with 3 of them possibly willing to kill other players for their own gain to get out of this place.

The first to die...the leader with the golden shield and sword...the second, the player with a bastard sword, and the third who was knocked out by the second. Seeing this Sain sighed and regretted simply watching since lives were lost even though they were no NPC lives.

This event surely caused a great mistrust for all players right now for it opened up the possibility that they may not be killed by monsters but by other players.

Seeing that he was the one who ordered his team-mate to take action, Sain was being stared at now by the other players as well. Suspicions and fear were in their eyes.

“Serena, can you direct your vines to the other two risks as well” he said with the other players listening particularly on the word 'risks'.

“Nooo!” one of the players, a woman screamed as the vines went and coil around her as well. The other player, a male while silent resisted as well but in the end was trapped like their now player killing comrade.

Sain ordered Serena to move them together and took took their weapons away. Both of them had their weapons drawn with blood on them although they had not killed. They had certainly tried though.

Miriel moved up to him and then said what all other players in the area wanted to know, “So...what now?” also pushing her expectation onto him.

“Yes what to do~” the mad man's voice was heard again, “Two leaders down and so many more to go~ How many more will have to die? Who know! Perhaps it will total to 49 or will it be all 50? One who leads will decide on this~” The voice cut off there with a deafening silent from everyone at once.

Each person would not want to take charge. The chances of them being targeted was too high and they wanted to save their own skin. Besides, whoever will lead will most likely be blamed at the very least.

“....”

Sain thought about it. In the end they just needed to clear this place right? But at the same time this place made everyone feel fear in their hearts. A lab where monsters are made from the corpses of it's victims.

“First...we will split up into three groups. The first, the vanguard group will be the ones who will explore each floor the most and see if they can find something. The second group will rotate in turn with the vanguard and will stick to the third group, the rear guard when resting. The rear guard will be players that aren't confident they can fight...those things” Sain said in one go taking up the leader role even though the other players did not trust him as much as the other person.

However at the same time, no one else was taking charge and what he said made sense at least to the point that it was quite hard for one to try and kill the other before being stopped. As such, as much as they were reluctant to follow what a stranger like Sain said, they did.

“No choice...”

“Better than nothing...”

Such comments about him were directed in no particular way.

Sain then looked at the bodies of the two players that were killed. He had no reason to but his eyes were somewhat drawn there as they were the ones that died. But at the same time there was something particularly wrong with this scene.

They had no disappeared yet.

'It can't be....'

“Burn the corpses and make sure not even bone remain” he said with a serious tone while the other players were gossiping about him right now.

“What?” that word was echoed in the other players. Such a thing to do to another human body was something that they could not tolerate. Even Miriel and the others were surprised by his words.

But before they could complain...

“NOW!” Sain shouted with a fury in hopes he was not too late.

However it was already too late and the body parts....started to move.

BANG!

A player was fling to the side and killed to the force as two corpses combined into one like someone melted them together. The creature quickly took on the third corpse as well into itself the moment it took the chance to create a strange three headed creature.

“Flame Strike!” “Fireball!” “Burning Arrow!”

Three people including Lyndis immediately fired their spells to hit the now monster. But while it burned, it was still 'alive'. Seeing this, Lyndis then shouted, “Fire Bomb!” throwing one of them at the creature while it was about to run and attack.

“Run!” Lyndis shouted when the fire bomb landed near the meat monster.

BOOM!

The fire bomb went off and made a large explosion where it was. The monster's body was shattered all over the place as well and the smell of burnt flesh was there. But even so...

“That thing is still trying to reattach itself together?!” Miriel exclaimed seeing the small bits of flesh trying to form one body again despite everything.

“Mages! Hurry up and burn those parts!”one player quicker than the others in his wit shouted trying to avoid saying 'human parts' or 'flesh' at any rate.

“Fireball!”

Another player shot a fireball at the little bit of flesh and burnt it all as he chain fired his spell one by one at it.

Just when things calmed down a bit with the threat of death gone again...

“Ohhhhh~! Good work team!” the mad man's voice came back now. It seemed that it would talk to them for the most part when something happened, “Now you just killed your friends and burnt their corpses as well~ Feels good doesn't it? I had to make special, very special preparation for you all~ The bodies of freemen~ The joy in how I can use you all~!”

“....”

And then there was silence amongst the players again as everyone felt pale and dizzy. This kind of things...was not good for the heart. Other than that, there was anger at the mad man for causing this to begin with, some to Lenny on giving them this quest and even to Sain who ordered them to act.

Seeing this, Miriel and Lyndis both scowled muttering curses to them while defending Sain's actions in their hearts with a few others.

“Those meat monster” Sain said at least to make sure everyone was in the same place, “....are made up of corpses. The bodies of players that die should disappear immediately and yet they remain after death. That mad man probably wants us to kill each other to leave bodies for him to gather and make more of those creatures...”

He took in a deep breath and then said, “At this rate, we will surely wipe ourselves out much to his amusement.”

He then looked at the other players that now really did not know what to do.

On one hand Sain was the one who warned them of the risks dead bodies had since they seemed to not disappear in this place. That would mean that they had to destroy the bodies no matter what when the player died even if that means their equipment goes with them.

But on the other hand there was still a risk that Sain would drive them to their deaths. Those meat monsters were the kind that would give you chills down your spine.

This kind of monster was one that took away many things when you face it. The sheer shock itself was enough to paralyse thoughts.

“What do we do now?” one of the players, a young looking person who was almost as short as Serena asked and continued with, “If we...don't follow someone, we will die one by one right?”

Sain took a few seconds to think about it. If he did not lead them then their trust in him would drop quite a bit and with mistrust comes trouble. But if he did lead them, someone thinking otherwise would not like it and that would bring trouble either way.

'In the end, what matters is whether I wish to lead them and make sure as many are alive at the end?' he thought.

No matter what, Sain could not see a situation where everyone here was alive and fine. There were simply too many people with unpolished skills. Most players here aside from them had not drilled to being up their stats or skills at all.

They were the common player which was fairly easy to kill.

But in the end, could he use them at least to finish this Guild Quest that he got?

Sain decided that he could.

“Right. Start to split up into groups. Those who are sure they can defend themselves without being killed will be at the vanguard and middle guard, those who cannot will be at the rear guard” Sain clapping his hands once issued that order.

As such everyone's thoughts started again with someone to lead them.

The players that could, numbered 46 including himself split up into the three groups.

Shadow, Lyndis and Raven all went to the vanguard with this while Sain and Miriel were at middle group and Serena remained at the rear guard seeing that she was pale when the meat monster appeared.

“Is everyone prepared? Rear guard and middle guard will remain here for now while vanguard searches. We will move up as you find safe areas per hour. Make sure for those in the vanguard that you have at least one contact at the middle or rear guard! Vanguard will move in groups of three or more! Dismiss!” Sain shouted in a loud voice.

There was a short shamble as the players in the vanguard moved froward immediately splitting into four more groups as they went to explore the depths of the fourth floor.

There were 11 players that went to the rear guard, unable to take the risks of dying like that.

With the three other players that were risks to them now, the vanguard and middle guard totalling 32 players would each would consist of 24 players in the vanguard and 8 players in the middle guard with the read guard.

“You seem really good at command others as always Sain” said Miriel next to him.

He almost snorted and replied, “How can I be good at potentially ordering people to their deaths. Plus they don't trust me as much as they would otherwise. You're more suited to controlling them Miriel.”

While the other players were sorting themselves up and with three of them going off to be part of the vanguard group and Serena healing some people, no one really payed attention to them.

“I am really not” she replied with a smile, “They would sooner go against me compared to you.”

“I doubt it since you are a pretty girl.”

Miriel resisted a blush and said, “And that is more reason why they would quickly turn on me. Emotions and views can quickly be overturned to the other side if expectations are not met. Noticed how they all immediately looked at you to command them at once when they could despite you being not as remarkable as others would?”

“...Yes.”

“The reason they did is that you look like you were someone who knew what to do next. Well other than that people tend to rely on those who can't help but to help others. You are the perfect person to blame if things goes wrong” she said striking a chord at Sain.

“Of course I know that. I am willing to trust people but not to the point to be ignorant to their feelings and intents.”

'You are the perfect person to blame if things goes wrong.'

That thought echoed in Sain's mind. If that was the case. If that was really the case then...

“No...things wouldn't go that way so easily...” he muttered trying not to go to those thoughts. And yet at the same time he could not help but to feel the glove on his right hand.

Yes...he would had to do what he must if it came to it.

xXx

Lyndis was with Raven and Shadow...two people that she 'got along with'. Although it was more like she was commanding them how she liked, she felt like she got along with them well enough. Besides she could boss them around all she liked.

“Man...nothing here as well” she said to Shadow. She was at least disappointed that she hadn't had a fight to a while even within this dangerous place.

After leaving into one of four initial paths, they and another group of players split up to explore the place in more detail. And when they say detail, it means looking and checking if there were things that could kill them.

“Are you really that desperate to fight something?” Shadow asked, “Couldn't you do something about it? It's only been a few days since we last fought something.”

“Of course! I hate doing nothing!” Lyndis exclaimed, “The more time I can spend fighting, the stronger I can get! Isn't that the point of this game?”

“....” Shadow was silent for a moment until he said, “You are the type to get 100% in a game or whatever you try to do aren't you...?

“Of course! What else should I do when I am doing something, hold back?” She turned to the direction where Raven was.

“Raven, are there any of those meat creatures around?” she asked loudly to Raven who was a few metres away in another room searching there as well.

Raven appeared out of the room and shook his head much to the disappointment of Lyndis. Shadow sighed since Lyndis was like this for a while now...no a long time now.

Shadow remembered that Lyndis wasn't like this at the beginning...or was she hiding herself until then like him? Either way, it was a pain for him to deal with her as she was the charge and noisy type while he was the opposite.

“What were you expecting? If it were as such than we would definitely heard it attack someone if not us” scorned Shadow.

The logic behind that was that these creatures seemed to want to hunt humans and as such they would come to them else they will be the type to wait and lure people into a trap before attacking which is far worse.

“Hmm...it could still hide right? That's why we're searching” she said still hoping a bit.

“But the first one that was seen was a giant meat ball that was as wide as this corridor. I doubt that something like that can be hidden well” Shadow said shaking his head.

Lyndis smiled and then opened a door, “Really let's-”

Lyndis walked into another room and stopped...with dead silent.

“Ding dong ding dong! We have a winner here!” the mad man's voice came back with an announcement.

“...You'll be surprised...there are so many....” she muttered with a bit of a fright on her eyes. Noticing this serious tone as well as the message from the mad man, Shadow and Raven ran up to her.

“I'll be damn...I guess you get what you want” Shadow muttered.

In a hushed whisper, Lyndis quickly said, “I wanted a fight but these numbers are overwhelmingly bad for us!”

Lyndis decided to immediately contact Sain about this.

Lyndis: Hey Sain...

Sain: Yes?

Lyndis: What would happen if someone discovered a dozen or so of those meat monsters in a room?

Sain: Well...don't tell me. That message was-

Lyndis: Yep.

Shadow: Lyndis! They're starting to move!

The meat monsters started to move. Eyes opened and mouths appeared as their main bodies expand as if it was breathing as evidence of the bodies remembering when they were still...alive and human in form.

“RUN!” Lyndis shouted when she noticed that they noticed them.

“GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORRRR!!!” A combined voice from a dozen creatures...with even more mouths screamed at once.

BANG BANG BANG!

Several arms flew and smashed into the walls of the room they were in. Arms and legs came out of their bodies as they rolled themselves to the three.

A dozen of those meat monsters...one was enough to instant kill a normal player awakened at once. But Lyndis and the other two weren't normal players at all. Trained by monsters they could be anything but normal.

“Throw your bombs!” shouted Shadow not exactly keen on reminding her of what she can do.

“Right! Fire Bomb!”

Lyndis dropped one of the bombs behind her as she and the other two ran for dear life away from the meat monsters. However before the three second detonation happened, she noticed only three of the dozen meat monsters came chasing them.

'Why aren't...don't tell me...'

BOOM!

The fire bomb exploded onto the first meat monster and damaged the other two near it as well. Part of the wall broke down due to the blast.

Lyndis took this chance to contact Sain again.

Lyndis: Sain! Nine of those meat monsters are unaccounted for! Only three of them chased us! They're probably going to attack everyone else!

Sain: ….

Lyndis: Sain?

Miriel: Yeah we kinda noticed! Three of them are here as well! Ice Burst!

The party chat cut off there with Shadow and Raven listening in onto it as well.

“Shit! They got to Sain and the others!” she shouted.

“How can they be so quick! It should at least take a minute to run to them from here!” Shadow complained drawing his two weapons and prepared to fight.

They knew they the others were being attacked as well. However at the same time the meat monsters combined into one large one that was 5 metres wide now and as much as Lyndis did not want to admit, more disgusting looking than before.

It was like a blob of flesh.

“Umm...I don't suppose we can run since it's quite big right?” Lyndis asked the other two at this point changing her mind on fighting it.

“Not at all. Remember the person who wanted to fight?” Shadow said in a sarcastic tone.

At this point, the blob of flesh turned muscular and looked like it was hardened for a fight now.

“Strong” Raven replied which was not good news at all.

And just like what Raven said, the meat monster became a lot stronger as well. The arms that were now too short for it to move around with, attached to each other as if they were grabbing at itself and made a new longer, larger arm made up of arms full of muscle.

Bang!

The arm was overshot at them and missed breaking the wall behind them. At the same time the main body was being pulled them quite quickly.

Shadow was the one who took action first. He ran up to the meat monster or at least the arm and sliced at it with high speeds that was faster than the common eye could see. Even Lyndis had to admit that his strikes were almost too much for her to see.

“Double Strike!” Shadow shouted trying to cut through this arm from the meat monster after seeing the his quick but weak blows weren't doing much.

His short sword was too short even with this to cut it through completely and only managed to slice through half of it before getting stuck.

“Shit! Burst Speed!” he cursed pulling the sword out dodging another attack with extreme speed which was the near flying main body of the meat monster as it pulled itself to where Shadow was standing.

Seeing what he was doing and not wanting out on the action, Lyndis aided him and swung her own sword now that she got it back from Viv from the trip.

The large condensed bunch of arms wrapped around each other was her target and with a shout, “Fire Blade! Power Strike!”

In one clean blow, the large arm was completely severed off with the extreme heat coming from her blade enhanced with fire and extra damage from the increased strength when swinging it.

The meat monster let out a scream as countless mouth popped out of it. The scream made Lyndis feel a bit dizzy but at the same time pissed off since it was so annoying to listen to.

“AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!” The meat monster continued to scream as it changed it's form. It now rather than a blob of muscle looked like a cube of muscle though Lyndis had no idea what that form could mean.

Several of the human arms, in total six of them extended out to grab onto Lyndis all at once but she easily dodged and started slice them into pieces as well.

“Speed Strike!” she shouted while using 'Speed Stance' as well at the same time to quickly slash three times in a second cutting off one of the arms though another was immediately produced.

The six arms each came out of one side each and served to perfectly balance it no matter what side it was on. Because of this the meat monster's main body was suspended into the air. She thought it was at least better than sitting on the floor with the arms having to drag it around.

“Damn this thing is really creepy” Lyndis muttered still seeing that it was made up of human bodies, “Flame Strike!” she shouted firing off one of her flame projectiles to hit the meat monster's main body.

The meat monster started to burn but at the same time it started to latch out more of those arms all over the place though each arm was thinner than the main six.

“Oh~?” she said humoured as the fire spread to those thin arms and were immediately detached and left to burn while the rest of the body was safe from the flames.

'Looks like it isn't a complete bunch of meat after all' she grinned not caring that it was quite disgusting. It couldn't be worse than the silver butt monkeys that had a perverted fat human face as they tried to grope her before she burnt them all into cinders.

But as she was in her thoughts and as Raven and Shadow continued to battle with the meat monster, the main body started to move to one of the holes in the walls. It was attempting to escape from them.

“Shit! Cut those arms off before it can escape!” Lyndis shouted preparing herself to at least cut off one of those main arms.

“Burst Speed! Double Strike!” “Footwork! Double Strike!” “Sword Dance! Power Strike!”

All three of them started to fight shouting their skills and using them over and over again. The first instance that passed, all three of them managed to cut off one of the main arms each. The second instance, they moved onto the other three main arms.

It took them another instance to cut them off as well and at this point, the creature with the thinner and thus weaker arms could not sustain itself in the arm fell to the ground with a thud. However the thinner arms grabbed onto the walls and tried to slingshot itself out.

There were possibly a dozen of those thin arms preparing to stretch and pull it off away from them.

Raven did not have the speed to get there in time and Shadow did not have the power to do it at once before it was too late. Thus Lyndis charged in ignoring some of the attacks that came her way that ripped part of her armour off her.

“Life Burn! Speed Strike!” she used those two skills at once. The first to cause her body to be covered in flames and the second to accelerate herself and her attack at least.

In an instant her body was at the many thin arms that came out of the meat monster and cut through it with fire and sword at once.

“Backstab!”

Shadow at the same time also leaped into the air doing a flip and landing onto the top of the meat monster's head stabbing both his dagger and short sword into it. With blood spouting out of it's body, Shadow knew that it dealt some critical damage there.

When the meat monster was about to attack Shadow, it tried grabbing his legs first but by then Shadow was already off it using 'Burst Speed' to get off quickly and 'Shadow Step' to make sure to make it believe he was still on it before he escaped.

Stab!

Raven also started to rapidly strike at the core of the meat monster instead of Lyndis who focused on the arms that it was spouting. His stabs as Lyndis found were quite powerful...stronger than her cuts at least.

There was a firm but neutral look on his face as several arms were shot at him rapidly. He used his armour to block most of the blows and his shield to knock away attacks that would otherwise be fatal. Blood also spouted out of the place he stabbed deeply in.

Continuing to attack with their usual abilities, the three sliced up, burnt and stabbed the meat monster in pieces even though it was reattaching the cut off limbs back on. It was only with Lyndis' fire skill that the meat monster's size ultimately decreased gradually.

However at the same time, as the meat monster's health gradually decreased, so did theirs. Only now did Lyndis regret not taking Serena or Sain with them or at least another healer from another group.

“This is taking too long!” she finally shouted after several tens of minutes passed and her health passing into the critical state. Her control over how much damage she can take isn't as good to survive with mere 2% or 3% of her health in the end. She pulled the limit when she reached 10% health left.

At the same time she wondered what happened to the others at least. Since the last party chat with the others, they had not been in contact with them at all.

Checking her mana, it was only a third of it's max value now thanks to her using 'Life Burn' which did not take mana. She had enough man to use six fire bombs at once which at this point would be enough to kill the meat monster...or most of it at once.

“Raven! Tank and lure it away from me!” Lyndis shouted not caring that he was in a worse shape than she was. She thought she could hear that Shadow scowled for a second at the same time.

Raven nodded and then shouted, “Anchor Howl!” causing the meat monster to stop and glare at him before attacking with all it's might. Even with all his defence that was several times better than hers, enduring that many attacks would be difficult.

Using the death knight shield, he blocked one..two blows before he was thrown away and pinned to the wall. More arms poured over him like a wave.

“Raven!” Shadow shouted worried.

Shadow moved in to back him up by landing on and stabbing the arm that shot and hit Raven causing it to stop pinning him down. However at the same time she was caught by the countless other arms coming to grab him.

It was at this point that Lyndis finished gathering her mana for her skill.

“Fire Bomb! Fire Bomb! Fire Bomb! Fire Bomb! Fire Bomb! Fire Bomb!”

A string of fire bombs appeared in Lyndis' hands. Although they had no cool down in use, it in turn was a bigger mana drain than usual.

Even if she used them all now, it would only cause some outer damage to the meat monster. As such, she ran and smashed both of her hands with the fire bombs into the meat monster while it wasn't paying attention to her.

“Take this~” she said not sure that she would live after this. But with her instincts, she jumped as far away from it as possible in one go.

BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM!

The fire bombs explosions stacked up over each other and blew everything away including her and the other two as well. And then her vision blacked out

….

….

Slap!

“Ow!” Lyndis shot up looking around confused. There, Shadow was standing over her with Raven on his shoulders.

“Hurry up and bandage Raven! He's going to die at this rate!” Shadow shouted in her ears though it was still ringing even now.

However Lyndis knew of what to do and immediately took some rolls of bandages from her inventory and focused on wrapping them over the wounds that Raven took.

You have used the bandaging skill: All bleeding will be stopped on target area

Then, Raven was finally out of his life threatening situation.

However than she checked her health and she was in the same situation as he was!

'Damn that bastard Shadow...I would've wanted to heal myself first! Isn't it the duty of you males to allow people like me to live first especially since I'm the only one who can heal you in the end in this situation?!'

She started cursing Shadow in her mind until she saw that Shadow was actually in a worse situation then her.

While she had around 2% of her health left he would have had around 1% left and was about to hit the bucket with all that bleeding from his body.

Raven who was still hazy eyed said, “Thanks” to her in his gratitude as she immediately and faster than with Raven wrapped Shadow in bandages.

Then, Lyndis patched herself up as well and just in time before she died.

“Puha~” she let out that sound exhausted from the near death situation they were in.

“Never again use those bombs like that when we're near” Shadow advised also resting at this point. When you don't move and do anything, health regenerates faster.

“If I didn't then we would have died either way” she responded.

“Chain reaction, power” Raven said with Shadow nodding his head and adding in, “Too powerful in fact. Before with the death knight, I haven't considered how powerful the chain reaction would be.”

“Me too but that was probably due to it negating some of the damage with it's shield” Lyndis' eyes went to the half broken shield on Raven. It seemed that before the blast happened, Raven used the shield to protect Shadow and himself.

If not for that, they would have died.

As for her, she was further away from the explosion than they were and only took damage when hitting the wall from the force.

“Anyway I believe we haven't been this close to death since Sain went all crazy in the cave with all the skeletons” Lyndis said with some humour in her voice remember those times a bit better than they actually were.

“Yeah...please don't remind me of that...I still have nightmares about it...” Shadow muttered obviously remembering it perfectly unlike Lyndis.

xXx

“Push! Push two of them away as much as possible now!” Sain shouted taking charge of the force that including himself totalled 15 right now.

Four players died instantly when the meat monsters did a surprise attack on them.

In this group, including himself, Miriel and Serena, there were a total of 6 magic users. From what Sain saw, one of them was a fire mage, another a wind mage and the final one was an earth mage. It was not exactly the ideal situation with mages with completely different elements having to fight together.

He would rather have a row of mages with the same element to further boost their spells in damage but such a convenient thing would not happen would it?

Other than that, the other 9 players were melee players though half of them were part of the rear guard and were shaking as they fought. Some of them had shields while other did not but had enough armour to defend themselves with.

Sain had them all face the meat monsters since if they did not, then they would all be dead, overwhelmed by how powerful each one was.

Finally there were the three other players that were risks to the rest of them, bound in vines at a corner where they cannot do any more damage though draining Serena's mana slowly. He was tempted to either free them or kill them so Serena could completely focus on the task at hand.

“Root Bind!” Serena chanted creating vines to wrap around the meat monsters. At this point with her restricting the meat monster could the melee players go up close to the meat monsters without being killed by it.

“Paralyse Shot! Paralyse Shot! Paralyse Shot!” Sain used those spell just in case as well to make it a bit easier for them to do the job he instructed. The attacks of the meat monsters immediately slowed down after that.

Sain even casted 'Weaken' on them a couple of times as well for good measure.

“Shield Charge!” shouted the group of players with their shields raised and using their bodies to push two of the three meat monsters away to the walls. The ones who did not have a shield at the very least help push or attack the arms that were spouting out from the meat monsters' bodies.

There were three melee players assigned to each meat monster. The reason being if one player suddenly died, the ones left over would not be able to endure long if it were one person. Another thing was that he wanted the meat monster to be split up.

They were small enough to do that and he rather not find out that they can combine into a large and more fearsome single creature that was capable of taking care of them all.

He had also checked that he had buffed them all with extra strength and endurance with his buffing spells as well to make things slightly easier. Miriel had also buffed everyone in the area in range with her spells as well.

'Melody of Sound' was set to increase vitality under his orders. Otherwise, Miriel also used 'Cracked Barriers' on some of the players as well. The ones without shields at least so they won't be one shot in the end.

“Start attacking the one at the centre! Magic Arrows!” Sain shouted and chanted soon after. His attack opened up some holes in which blood poured out a bit.

Sain clicked his tongue seeing that his attack was too weak but then the other mages attacked at the same time.

“Wind Slash!” chanted one of the mages cutting off several of the arms that the confronted meat monster to aid the other players.

“Earth Bullet” chanted the earth mage firing off a spell that was similar in nature to his 'Magic Arrows'. He immediately noticed that that spell dealt more damage than his.

'Was it because of the element factor...the difference in magic mastery or stats in intelligence...or all of them?' he wondered as the other three left to attack followed up.

“Ice Bolts!” Miriel shouted firing off several of her attacks as well which only opened up the holes in the meat monster even more.

“Blood Burst!” Serena chanted using her most destructive spells onto them. The red orb moved quickly not only going through the meat monster they were targeting but at good measure, the other two which were about to escape as well.

Sain immediately stopped the fire mage from casting for him to fire his spell a little longer later.

The ten seconds passed very slowly to him and the others....

BANG!

Immediately the flesh of the meat monsters broke into pieces as Sain shouted, “NOW!” to the fire mage who was stunned at such a sight.

“Let the light burn through flesh and bones, Flash Burn!” the fire mage chanted burning as much of the meat monster as he could before it could regenerate. Soon enough all three meat monsters were now dead with no way to revive.

“Serena, start healing everyone” Sain ordered seeing the battle ended now though knew that Serena were getting some stares with the spell she used.

“Heartbeat Healing” Serena chanted immediately casting a spell onto every player in the area.

Allied players in range has been buffed by the spell 'Heartbeat Healing'

Health will regenerate for 24 points per second for 10 minutes

Due to both her 'Magic Mastery' and 'Nature Mastery' skill getting to the intermediate level, the boost to her spells increased by a further 100% in total above the amounts gained otherwise.

“Thanks!” said one of the players pushing back one of the meat monsters thanking Serena again for a second time though completely ignoring the fact that she also instant killed those meat monsters.

'Her affinity to kill killing creatures...is the best of all of ours after all' Sain thought humoured seeing Serena at the same time was the most gentle of them all.

You have levelled up

'Ah...I gained a level again' he thought not really caring at any rate. He can deal with levels later on. This was far worse than he initially suspected.

“Good news everyone! I've developed a plague to destroy all of Versailles!” The mad man started to speak again.

“Oh wait~ Wrong person and wrong time to speak~ Never mind me my little lab rats~”

“....”

There was a stressful mood around again replacing the joys of victory very quickly. Sain sighed seeing that the mad man was doing this to agitate them and it was working.

Slowly build up stress...and then give them a decision that they will take. That is the way to manipulate someone when you have no good relation to them at least that was Sain knew of the topic.

Now they they had finished with this issue, he needed to contact the others first to make sure they are fine. Sain already knew they were alive though.

“Contact the those in the vanguard! I want to know what they are doing!” Sain ordered followed by a dozen players contacting their friends and team mates. Soon enough information was given that all of the meat monsters, in total a dozen were slain and their bodies burnt to ashes.

However at the same time, seven players lost their lives bringing the total number of players left to 37. And three of them could not be trusted as well.

Sain was happy enough that Lyndis, Raven and Shadow managed to take on and kill three of the meat monsters on their own. They shared that they gained a level thanks to that though they were at any rate near death for a while.

Seeing that all was in order for now, Sain decided it was time to deal with some annoyances.

'At any rate having to keep on eye out from begin you is an issue' Sain thought immediately walking to the three players that once tried to get out and later attacked them.

Before they were shouting and as such, gags were placed in their mouths to stop them talking. Sain removed two of them, the ones that did not kill a player no matter if they tried.

“I have a deal for you two if you wish to not die” Sain said. The two players, one male and one female were silent to his words listening in if this was good for them.

“Since we are trapped here and need to proceed further down. I wish that you help us rather than stay here and drain mana from my comrade” he continued ignoring that they were trying to ignore him to seem uninterested.

“....”

“If that is how you wish to play it...”

With more silence from them, Sain then took off the gag from the third player, the one with the red mark on his forehead. The sign of the murderer, a player killer or otherwise criminal.

It was ironic that the mark will only appear when you kill enough NPCs that were lawful and good while it instantly appeared when you killed a fellow player without the same mark no matter what they did.

This only worked to make players treat NPCs lesser than players.

“Hey you...I'll let you free if you kill these two. What about it?” Sain said with a smile as bright as day as if nothing was wrong.

Everyone who heard even Miriel and Serena were shocked at his words. He could not do that...right?

The other two players paled immediately. While they were still comrades, there was nonetheless proof that he was capable of killing other players if he willed.

“Wait! Please!” the female player plead bashing her eyes at Sain at some hope he would save her.

“I am waiting for your answer you know” Sain said coldly ignoring the female player as she screamed left and right almost causing Sain to kill her instead of his original plan.

“I will do it” the red marked player killer said with a grim face though his eyes shined that he would be two steps closer on escaping this place if he did.

“But what reason do you have me to do it?” he asked Sain. To this Sain smiled and said in a bright tone, “But what use do I have on getting the murderer mark like you? If you kill them, nothing more will happen to you while if I do, everyone else will turn on me as well. What do you say to this?”

“I see...I still agree then” the player said with hands itching to take a life as fast as possible. The battle that he recently seen only strengthened his resolve to get out of here alive as fast as possible no matter the cost.

It was only when the other side was bound and him, to be unharmed in killing them that he was calm. After all there was no point if he, the greater person was harmed.

“Good” Sain replied simply stabbing his spear into the player killer and thus causing his health to be reduced to nothing.

“Wha-” the player barely managed to utter before dying with the light faded away from his eyes.

Killed someone with the murderer mark, Fame +10

With the killing, Sain had gained a bit of fame along the way as well which was a nice bonus.

“Huh?” Everyone was shocked at his actions.

It was the reversed of what he seemed to be implying. They were actually expecting for Sain to release the player killer to kill the other two before killing that one in the end resolving the whole issue.

“Right” Sain said looking casually at the other two, “If you defy me and attack anyone else. You will also die understand?”

The two players nodded their heads rapidly and caused a slight blur. Sain let out a bright smile once again seeing this.

“Serena” Sain called, “There is no need to bind these two anymore. Recover your mana while you still can” he said.

Serena nodded obeying and released the bindings. No one dared to stop Serena seeing what she was capable of and her battle potential for later.

And to the two players, Sain in a low voice muttered, “If you dare attack another player even with my warning, like your friend...you will be like him. Dead in this place and I won't make it quick. We are trapped here completely, what? Don't believe me? Try logging out. You can't escape. Like in a battle we are in a state where all of us are considered in a battle with something and that is this place itself.”

Sain turned his back to the two player showing his trust in them even though they were currently unarmed and then said in a loud voice, “All right, we will move up to a safe location when someone tells us where there is a big enough space to go to. Small corridors are these meat monsters' best area to attack.”

He then looked at the corpse.

“And someone burn this corpse before it turns into one of them” he said as well leaving it to the fire mage that was present.

There were now 36 players left. 14 died on this floor alone. He would need to adjust the group formation to lower this number as they went on.

Alone with Serena, Miriel muttered, “As expected from Sain...I could never do that...” to herself and Serena only.

xXx

With that, another half an hour passed with them moving to the location that the vanguard players said it would be good to move to at the very least. It was an open space similar to the one they were in and had lots of space to defend from.

As they walked however, there was a deep silence from everyone that was understandable.

They had just experienced the extent of their enemies at the very least. Most of the players here were higher than level 100 and some of them capped to level 150 or at least near it. Still there was a large disparity in strength between the players at least.

Those who panicked more were of the lower level while those who were more calm were at the higher level.

Experience shows after all though Sain and the others were at the mid point of the level range and yet never panicked once...at least too much at the enemy like frightened rabbits.

There were also a few suspicious glares at the two players that once tried to attack them, but most of them were directed at him.

There was no issue at all with players keeping their distances from other players while looking around worried. In the end all you had were yourselves before comrades and quite far away were strangers.

The 17 players walked for another hour meeting up with the rest of the vanguard group.

“Nice to see that you guys weren't wiped out” said one of the older looking players. Most players at the lower levels were quite young with the age average increasing as the level got higher and higher.

Royal Road was released for more than a decade after all and those who were young back then were considered middle aged now.

“It's a good thing we had numbers...though you guys were split up so the causalities were much higher” Sain replied naturally.

The player laughed and and then said, “Yes, there was an issue with the corpses reviving after all. It took a while too long before we could take them all down permanently.”

With that Sain nodded and then looked around with the others in the group that just got here. It was a good place to stay and rest for a while at least.

“What of the search?” he then asked the vanguard players.

“This place is huge, it might take a day to get down to the next floor and...” one player said worryingly, “I fear we may not have enough supplies in the end for another 5 floors since we expected this to be a quick run.”

The other players nodded and so did Sain. They packed expecting this to be a short and easy trip at least. Sain did not since he got a guild quest and it would be more difficult than it seemed. But the amount was not enough to last for more than a week still with only six of them let alone several dozen more.

In total five more players went with Sain to discuss a few things while the other players watched on or did something to prepare for later.

“We on one hand need to get to the next floor as fast as possible but at the same time need to be prepared to face those meat monsters...too many death could be the end of us later on” Sain said in a grim voice.

“Safety in numbers again?” asked one player with a particular rat face that was hard to miss.

“Yes...increase the size of each individual group in the vanguard to the standard six and make sure that two groups are close together at all times...that way the number of deaths later on will decrease” Sain said not wanting for them to fail in the end with too little forces at hand.

“And what of the search?!” one player demanded. Without the search, they would be trapped here...and then....

“I'm getting to that” Sain said annoyed. Did they not think that he did not think of that yet?

“From the previous floors...each stairway was barricaded for reasons we now know...find the place with the most defences and we find what we want. Any clues so far? Any locked doors, furnitures moved in the way” he said with his theory. Each stairway to the next floor was strangely blocked quite well the further they went down.

“Ah” one player seemed to remember something, “There was this place that was strangely locked away from everything else. A whole bunch of stuff in the way but no idea what's on the other side. Might be a dead end, might be the stairway or might be...”

“Another group of those meat monsters. They are quite...disturbing” said Sain with a wry smile.

“Aye...they can stretch their arms as well and you can even see the faces of it's....materials” the rat faced player said. There was some fear in his eyes and his body shivered due to it but at the same time he had enough resolve to not let it completely get to him.

“Anyway that should do it leader” said one of the players.

Sain frowned to this. Were they really pushing everything on him now?

Sain corrected him saying, “I'm not your leader as you do not need to take my orders at all.”

“But you still command us?”

“That's because I rather not die here due to everyone else not being able to do anything. Plus you five are as much as a leader than I am, perhaps better. You are not sheep or at least I hope not or this will end quickly with our deaths if you cannot think right.”

With a chuckle from the other players, the meeting finished quickly and a group of player were sent to look around at that area where it there was a possibility that they could quickly get off this floor to something worse.

Sain in the end hoped that he would not need to turn his spear at them at any point. Facing thirty players was not a thing he wanted to do.

Although...at any rate there was a good chance something like that might happen later. Either way, they rested for the rest of the day.

Author's Notes:

- Word Count: 10000~

- This was a much longer chapter than I expected. When first writing it was only 17 pages long extending to the next floor and by time I finished editing it, it went to 27 pages and was so long that I had to take away the content from the end of this floor in the lab to reduce it down to this.

- As for the rest of this part of the volume...it will last for another 1 or 2 chapters since I did not expect the length but as long as it could be