“Right, everyone, we’ve been training for a month, I believe we are ready to get into the tenth floor.” Arthur’s words cut through the meal everyone was having, changing the tone from the previous joking to a serious atmosphere.

“Well… yeah, I mean, we aren’t exactly getting much stronger on the ninth floor as it is.” Michael agreed with some reluctance, considering their current strength…

It had been ten days since fighting the Lantern Brute for the first time; it was now the twenty ninth of January. The reason Alice was with them, despite it being a school day, was because she tested early to finish school, and she was just waiting for her results at this point.

“We’re all are level seventeen. The experience we get at the ninth floor is alright, but not enough for us to level up meaningfully anymore.” Emilia added, even though she really didn’t feel like going lower into the Dungeon just yet.

“Yeah, even Shaun was saying that he was stuck at level 19 for the past week right?” right, it was like a soft-cap was put in for the levelling up at that point according to Shaun.

He could probably level up again, but it would take quite a while to the point where it would be near pointless.

“And the reason we’re now level seventeen instead of fourteen or something is because Arthur got it into his head for us to stay twice as long as we normally do… we got out at night Arthur.” Matt complained, and Arthur had the decency to look a bit sheepish at being called out on his training schedule.

“I just thought that if Shaun could reach level nineteen on floor nine, we should also be capable of it… I get that it’s his job to be stronger than Adventurers, but I don’t like the idea of us not being the strongest.” Arthur explained and the group just sighed, understanding what he meant, even if it didn’t make a lot of sense… especially from Arthur.

He normally wasn’t so competitive after all… but then again, he normally didn’t dislike people he just met because they seemed similar.

“We can understand your reluctance about being weaker than someone else, but the moment we’re higher levelled than Shaun we’re slowing down. He’s had an extra month to fight compared to us, even with time being taken up by Guild issues.” Emilia warned and Arthur nodded immediately, not seeing the knowing grins of the rest of Einherjar.

Really, they all saw it happening, it’s just those two didn’t do anything about what the rest could see.

“Right, right… anyway, as I said, I believe we can fight on the tenth floor now… as for winning… that’s something different.” Arthur’s words brought everyone short for a moment, knowing that Arthur wasn’t the type to say something without an explanation.

“We’re all level seventeen, we’re strong… but are we strong compared to living beings of equivalent strength?” Arthur’s words would normally be confusing, but Michael caught on.

“You’re saying that the ‘tutorial ends at floor ten, the monsters will no longer be husks like they were before…” Michael’s words were followed by Matt who nodded.

“They won’t have set patterns to their attacks… they’ll be able to adapt like we can. We’ll be facing intelligence.” Matts warning got the intended effect as they all considered the statement for what it was.

“So we’ve been fighting certain monsters for a while, and we’re now to the point where we can end a Lantern Brute relatively quickly… but they could be killed by us even at level eleven.” Alice started off, considering her words before she finished.

“A Boss is usually higher levelled than the character in video games, or at least of equal level. In cases where you can use many characters against one enemy, the boss is definitely of higher level or statistics.” She added, getting a nod from everyone as Arthur tapped the table, drawing attention.

“The boss is most likely at the very least equivalent to a level twenty, possibly a level twenty five. Not to mention that they would be intelligent to some degree, whether that’s like an animal or like a person could be a deciding factor in a fight.” They stood, their food done as they moved to the Dungeon Entrance.

“Yeah… a person of level ten could defeat an animal around level fifteen based on intelligence, in the same way a man can kill a bear with traps and tools.” Arthur explained as they finally got to the entrance to the Guild, having parked their vehicles here before getting breakfast together as a team…

It was a habit they were trying to build up, to discuss and mingle before going into the Dungeon, friends they may be, but they were still new to fighting together even after almost a month, and it helped to talk.

“Okay, so either a level twenty intelligent being, or a level twenty five animal. Now continuing, do they have class bonuses like we do?” John asked and that got a pause from everyone… only to be answered by someone not even in their team.

“Probably not, there has been a case where an animal has gained a LEV and an Anima, but that was in our world, our enemies don’t have LEV’s.” Shaun’s voice called out, getting a greeting from everyone, even Arthur…

They had finally figured out that Arthur and Shaun being similar was enough reason to dislike each other… because someone similar to you lets you see all your own faults in others.

For many people, it’s easy to dislike the person they see in the mirror, even subconsciously.

“I think I got the idea from what you were just saying, but… are you going to challenge floor ten?” Shaun’s words were serious as Dante walked closer to hear their answer.

“We’re all level seventeen, so we figure that we can at least survive on the floor right?” Matt asked as Shaun considered his reply.

“Maybe… but I’m going to give you a warning, and not because I’ll carry it out.” Shaun walked to the building instead, opening the door as he looked over his shoulder.

“There are consequences to being the strongest. Being the first to conquer the tenth floor is a sign of strength… are you ready for the weight that will place on your shoulders?” he asked as he walked inside, Dante keeping the door open for Einherjar.

They walked in, Shaun was already gone though as they walked to the counter, some people mingling in the building as they watched Einherjar walk past.

It was an open thing that the Adventurer’s Guild was also a place where people could hang out to an extent, sure they didn’t serve food or things like that, but there were areas where Adventurers could sit down and talk to each other.

It was barely audible but there were murmurs about Einherjar as they signed off at the desk, mostly the other Adventurers in the place were discussing the strength of Einherjar.

With every member at level seventeen, their closest competitors within the Adventurers were only level fourteen, three levels below their group, and even then they were on the lowest floor.

There were rumours of Einherjar being government sponsored, of their Anima being cheat-like, or even one where they were bribing people to put them in a team and level their group up.

Their group didn’t care about those rumours though, given that they were being said by people who didn’t know them.

After waving goodbye to Ellie at the counter, they went to the access panel to check up their levels as well as register their team…

Luckily the panel seemed to automatically connect the six if they simply selected ‘Einherjar’ as their team name. Using this, someone could join multiple teams and would be able to pick which team was going into the Dungeon using the access panel.

No one ever encountered another team in the Dungeon though, making them think that it was almost like its own cut off space.

Arthur looked at his stats, just to check them before they entered the Dungeon once more.

Arthur Clive

Level: 17

Class: Linked Swordsman- Grants one stat point to Strength and Wisdom per level

Gives Soul Sight (Unique) Skill

Anima

Dagger of Hunger

Cloak of Will

Anima Skills

Dagger- Devour- Increase Soul Gain by 7.5%

Dagger- Rend- Damage to living beings increases by 1%

Cloak- Defence- lowers damage taken by 1.5%

Cloak- Wise One- Increases Wisdom by 5% (total 120%)

Primary Element: Lightning

Personal Skills

Tactician II (14/100) - increases Wisdom by 15% (total 120%)

Swordsmanship II (21/100) - Increases ease of weapon handling

Soul Sight I (178/200) - Allows insight beyond mortality

Dual Wielding II (2/100) – Greater use of two weapons

Stats

Strength: 25

Dexterity: 26

Intelligence: 20

Wisdom: 26 (31)

Endurance: 20

Vitality: 25

Oh he loved uniformity, it was like a minor OCD for him. people liked multiples of five anyway, though his Dexterity and Wisdom were his favourite stats.

His Dual Wielding Skill had increased as well luckily, so now the only Skill he had yet to level up was Soul Sight… increasing that would be a double edged sword in Arthur’s eyes though…

Pun not intended.

Their stats were all high, in their own specialties at least.

Look at Matt, his Endurance stat was 37 and he never even placed a point into the stat, not counting his stat increasing Skill…

With the Skill, his Endurance stat was now 42… and the rest of his stats sat at 21 points even without it.

It made Arthur feel inferior for a bit, but he reassured himself that he didn’t need to compete with his friends.

Their strength would be his in the midst of battle after all… and besides, Arthur didn’t need to worry too much about being left behind by Matt or the others, Arthur’s Skills levelled up faster than the others actually, due to his ability to use Soul Sight.

By using the ability he could witness how Skills affected the soul, but only slightly, and sometimes his sight blurred when looking for those differences.

Arthur had no doubt that as Soul Sight levelled up, he would be able to better see how Skills were meant to be used, and by following such a guideline, he would level up his Skills faster than his comrades.

See, Soul Sight was a good ability… but it felt wrong to look at the Soul, yet it was his greatest ability.

They moved through the Dungeon shortly after, and within three hours they were at the ninth floor, fighting a group of Lanterns…

On the ninth floor they typically fought Knights, Archers and Brutes, sometimes all at once, though if they did there would only be one of each.

It was a difficult floor in its own right, but it wasn’t something impossible for their group, who were all more than four times stronger than the average human being, not to mention their Skills and magic.

Elemental manipulation technically, but still, it counted.

They had already mapped the entire ninth floor two days ago, so they took the shortest possible path to the stairs, while avoiding as many monsters as possible.

This was only doable because Arthur recorded which monsters appeared where, but he wasn’t sure if it would remain like that after the tenth floor, but for these beginning floors it was possible to chart a path with the least amount of monsters.

They had used these paths Arthur pointed out on Emilia’s maps as they went, and by now they had barely fought half as much as they usually did.

The way ‘spawning’ worked in the Dungeon was that a floor could be cleared of monsters, then if you left the floor and returned, the monsters would be back again.

This was how they had been training for the past two days, by clearing out the entire floor, going back to the eighth floor and popping back down to the ninth.

Arthur would deny that it was because he liked the stairs in the Dungeon, but they all knew that he liked them. The stairs were marble shining beneath their feet, obsidian stone surrounding them with tiny pin-pricks of light surrounding them to make it look like they were walking through the night sky atop stairs of light.

Arthur waxed poetic the first time, they all laughed at him but agreed with his views.

Anyway, they soon found themselves in front of the stairs after taking out two Brutes at once, both dropping their Soul Stones, and one of them dropped a gauntlet.

Every Lantern had an item drop thankfully, with the archers it was a bow, with the Squires it was their blades, with the Knights a shield, and with the Brutes it was gauntlets, either hand.

For the bows, they sold them to the Adventurer’s Guild like they did with the Soul Stones, as well as the shields with the exception of one that Alice kept just in case.

A shield counted as a weapon to her Anima after all, so she was collecting different weapons.

Arthur in particular liked the gauntlets, quickly trying to get a set once they found out about their enemies dropping the items.

Items from the Dungeon had their own rankings as well as level requirements to use, some even had stat requirements but at their level the requirements were all miniscule.

For example:

Name: Lantern Gauntlet (Right Arm)

Requirements:

Level: 8

Strength: 10

Defensive Ability: D

The ranking for the item was the lowest possible, D rank. It also brought to mind that Adventurer’s possibly also possessed ranks, but Arthur was not aware of his own, though it was likely equal to the Gauntlet, D rank so to speak.

Anyway, after defeating the two Brutes they walked down the stairs… and immediately they knew something was different.

For one, the stairs were no longer made of marble, instead looking to be made out of one seamless piece of wood, grass and flowers growing randomly while the walls and ceiling changed to be interlocking branches with tiny beams of light shining through…

It was like they were walking through a naturally made tunnel of trees, and it was just as beautiful as the old stairs to Arthur.

They approached the end of the stairs, walking out onto the tenth floor, their Anima all ready to be used, including Arthur and his two Animae.

Once their eyes adjusted to the sudden added light in the room, their eyes went from narrow to wide as they stared across the room at the world around them.

For that was an accurate description, no longer were they inside monotonous tunnels with ambient light and rock walls…

Now they stood beneath a bright blue sky, white clouds floating around as they took in the fresh forest air.

For that was where they were, a large forest, expanding as far as the eye could see, telling them that they were in fact on an elevated level compared to the rest of the forest.

They weren’t alone though.

Soon after their awe, they managed to take note of the other presence on their elevated stage, and they stared in the direction of the being.

In front of the being was a door, a door frame just standing there with nothing connected to it, and turning around would let them see that their own path back up was in a similar state.

The being sat crossed legged, one leg resting against the floor, the other one acting as a prop for its arm as it turned its head to look at them.

Seeing its guests, the being stood slowly, picking up a sword from the floor as it turned to look at them, allowing them to see the being clearly for the first time.

It looked eerily familiar, considering they had been facing beings of the same ‘family’ since the second floor. The being in front of them was clearly a Lantern, going by the fact that it looked to be made out of armour and a flame beating as a heart inside the glass casing of its chest.

That wasn’t to say it was simple. For one, unlike the other Lanterns, this one had actual feet, looking similar to the clawed feat of big cats such as lions.

There were more differences, such as the fire this Lantern possessed being blue instead of orange/red like the other Lanterns…

Its armour was also different from all other Lanterns with the greatest similarity being to a Knight, especially considering that it had a ‘plume’ on the back of its helmet which allowed blue fire to act as the pony tail seen on some knight helms.

Its blade was different as well, being thinner than a normal sword used by either the Knights or the Squires, and being slightly longer as well, with the centre of the blade being empty resulting in just having the edge of the blade, the spine of the blade being filled with blue fire.

The Lantern also possessed tribal markings all over its chest, though upon closer inspection it was the fire flaring from tiny gaps in his armour, too tiny to put anything but a needle in maybe, but bright enough to draw attention as it looked at them.

Another difference from the other Lanterns were that they had simple eyes made of fire, never widening or narrowing, simply staring.

This one had blue eyes that narrowed at the six Einherjar, before one widened slightly as its left hand came up to cup its chin.

“Interesting… some humans finally arrived.” That caught them by surprise as the being spoke, and the being caught their change in expression as it chuckled, the sound of firewood crackling in both its laughter and voice.

“I understand your surprise… you were fighting hollow husks until you met me, weren’t you? Lord Chronos was adamant that no human would survive meeting me unless given a chance to grow.” The Lantern spoke as Michael looked to Arthur, signalling with his eyes for Arthur to speak.

Arthur was understandably annoyed by this, but stepped forward.

“I am Arthur Clive, these are my teammates and we call ourselves Einherjar. What is your name, might I ask?” Arthur said, making sure to respect the being in front of them as its eyes widened slightly, then narrowed a bit in what might be humour.

“So respectful to the lowly me… I thank you for that, Sir Clive. Very well, I am afraid I do not possess a name of my own, but I was informed on how I was to introduce myself by Lord Chronos.” That got their attention as the Lantern swung its sword absently, the air pressure of the swing creating a sound, allowing them to know how fast and powerful he might be.

“I am the first of the ninety nine Demon Lords under the command of Lord Chronos, Lantern Hero and Guardian of the Forest of the Maiden, I am the Blade.” The aura of the being, Lantern Hero Blade, was overpowering even beyond what little humans no longer felt, they instinctively knew that Blade was dangerous.

“First of ninety nine? So that means there are ninety nine Dungeons?” Arthur asked as Blade blinked, as shown by the fires that represented his eyes flickering between nothingness and wide, before he shook his head while chuckling.

“No, no, no, you have it wrong sir Clive. There are not ninety nine Dungeons, let alone two. There is only one.” The words caught the group by surprise as Blade pointed to the door behind him with his thumb.

“There are ninety nine Demon Lords, and there are ninety nine Areas. Each Area consists of one floor of the Dungeon, split into ten parts. At the end of each Area, a Demon Lord awaits to destroy all enemies.” That caught them by surprise as they figured it out.

The ‘tutorial’ area they were in was not nine floors before appearing here…

It was just nine separate zones on one floor. Granted, they felt the sensation of climbing or dropping, but to the Demons themselves, there were ninety nine floors, not counting Hell…

“So to explain, there are nine hundred and ninety nine parts you humans must journey through to encounter Lord Chronos at the final Area, Hells Throne. I am merely the weakest of the Demon Lords, Ruler of the Empty Caves.” Arthur’s hands tightened on his weapons as he looked at the door behind Blade.

“So… I take it that we have to defeat you to enter the next floor properly? I understand it’s a bit presumptuous of us, but could you perhaps tell me your strength in comparison to us?” Blade blinked and shook his head with mirth in his ‘eyes’.

“You are quite forward, sir Clive… I don’t mind though, I like upfront people. Let’s see… from the feel of you all, I estimate you all to be around Soul Strength seventeen? I would, by your rankings, be around Soul Strength twenty five.”

That got Einherjar to collectively pale at the realization of their opponents strength, knowing their enemy was much stronger than a single one of them.

“Then again, we Demon Lords work different from you humans or even the normal Demons in Hell. We gain more power in comparison to our Soul Strength. At Soul Strength twelve I was roughly as strong as you all.” And that just made it worse, meaning their strength was even further from Blade than they thought.

“Well, I believe we spoke enough, let’s begin.” Blade said, taking a step forward as he began to walk to them, slowly picking up pace as Arthur shouted out.

“Michael, attack him now!” Michael nodded, not even bothering to care if Arthur was taking command; he had always wanted Arthur to step up more anyway.

Michael’s arrows were launched quickly, but they were for naught as Blade simply swatted the arrows out of the air as they approached his running form, Matt quick to stand between the Demon Lord and their team.

They wouldn’t defeat this guy without keeping everyone around as long as possible… worse, from the warnings they had discussed earlier in the day, they were aware this guy had intelligence.

Meaning that unlike the enemies they had faced until this point, this person did not fight in one set manner. A Squire would always react the same to certain patterns, it would block the same, it would attack the same, and it would move the same.

Blade didn’t have that limitation, as shown when he encountered Matt’s shield and instead of attacking, Blade flipped over Matt, to the surprise of the shield user.

Blade used the opportunity to try and land a slash to the back of Matt, but instead of scoring the hit Matt had turned fast enough to block, a small smirk on his face.

That smirk vanished upon Matt being tossed back from the force of the slash, sent tumbling ‘ass over teakettle’ as it were, as Blade attempted to follow the stumbling shield user only to block an attack from Alice, who had swapped to a sword.

A hammer was too slow against an opponent of this skill and she wasn’t sure the handle of her sledge hammer could survive an attack from Blade. So she was using a shield and sword similar to Matt at current, as she tried to force Blade back.

Blade, after a moment of blade-lock, twisted, causing Alice to stumble forward, her strength causing her to move forward once the opposing force vanished as Blade attempted a backhand swing to her neck.

Blade’s attack was stopped by an arrow impacting on his blade, knocking it back as Emilia attempted to stab his chest where his weakness so plainly sat.

She was punished for attempt by Blade reaching out with his off hand, grabbing her by the arm as he twisted, hoping to break her arm and he did indeed cause her pain before she flipped, trying to kick in his helmet while Arthur attacked his blade arm.

Emilia’s kick connected, causing Blade to let her go as she fell to the ground, Blade jumping back with a shake of his head, tossing the flaming plume of his helmet around as he stared.

They gathered together once more, and he nodded.

“Impressive… you all stopped me from taking a single life… can you keep me from doing so until the end of this fight though?” Blade asked as he rushed forward once more…

And then they realized that he now had both hands on the handle of his blade, and collectively winced… he was going to hit harder now, wasn’t he?

They were proven right, but at the same time they had a way to fix their problems as Blade reached Matt, planting his feet into the ground as he gave a horizontal swing similar to one would see from a baseball player.

Matt’s shield got in the way, but they all saw what happened the last time he got hit. Despite his defensive ability, Matt didn’t weigh enough to not get tossed flying.

Fun fact, Endurance increased the density of a person, so Matt did in fact weigh more than he appeared to, though it would never be a hindrance thanks to it being based on the Soul, much like how his skin still felt like skin and not stone.

But even with this increased ‘weight’ Blade still hit him flying the first time around. And yet, the second time around he didn’t, to the surprise of Blade.

The reason was shortly revealed when Blade attempted to pull back his sword, only for Matt to duck and be used as a spring board for Alice standing behind him to lunge at Blade.

The answer was that Alice was pushing Matt from behind with her own shield, using both of them to block one attack and then launching Alice, who was a better damage dealer afterwards.

Blade felt impressed by her actions, but he wouldn’t lose against trickery like that, and so he took one hand off his blade, punching forward.

Alice hid her body behind her shield, treating it like a platform as Blade punched it so that she flew back, flipping in mid-air to come into a backwards roll.

While Alice did this, Michael launched a few arrows at the Demon Lord, who once more parried the tiny projectiles… then a bolt of electricity shot at him and he had to resort to dodging instead, knowing that the electricity went for him better due to the fact that his body was made of metal.

Having enough of this, Blade rushed at Arthur who was sending the tiny bolts of electricity at him, this time ignoring the arrows as he ran so fast Michael didn’t have time to track him just yet.

Blade used the momentary lull in Michael’s attacks to swing at Arthur, who blocked with both his Dagger of Hunger and his Lantern blade, dropping into a kneeling position as Blade launched an overhead strike.

The fact that their blades clashed brought a feeling of glee to the Demon Lord, knowing exactly why Arthur had kneeled.

A common fact is that the person who attacked from the higher position had an advantage…

But something commonly forgotten was that the lower your centre of gravity, the more stability you had.

Arthur used this to his advantage by purposefully lowering himself once he saw what Blade was trying to do, resulting in Blade’s swing losing power.

Blade aimed at a certain position, but Arthur was beyond that position, meaning Blade ended up striking Arthur’s weapons with the edge near the tip of his sword, while Arthur was pressed into the ground, Blade could not exert more force in this position.

Arthur had won the exchange, even just barely, and Blade grabbed Arthur’s shoulder to flip over Arthur’s head as Emilia’s daggers passed where the Demon Lord’s neck was just a moment ago, Blade kicking her in the chest as he flipped causing her to be sent back, the wind knocked out of her as she wheezed.

Blade internally considered her as out of the fight, he hit hard, very hard. She should have a few broken ribs or possibly a shattered collar bone. She was immobilized, he could deal with her another time.

Blade focused on the person who appeared behind him, thrusting his sword into the space between his upper arm and chest, just below his underarm to stab behind him, causing the person behind him to be surprised.

Blade then twisted, swinging as he turned to try and deal a heavy blow to whoever dared to step behind him, revealing Alice who raised her arm to block the sword, shoving forward just as the sword almost hit the shield to produce a parry effect.

The gap was taken advantage of as an arrow pierced Blade’s shoulder, making the Demon Lord wince as he jumped back as far as he could go, landing near the door he was guarding in the beginning of the fight.

From his position, Blade widened his eyes upon seeing the woman he had kicked earlier still capable of fighting, though she seemed to be wincing as she stood…

Perhaps she had a healing factor? No, her daggers were her Anima, so unless she had something absurd such as the combat recovery skill…

Wait. Weren’t there six members of the Einherjar? Where was the sixth?

Before Blade had a chance to contemplate it any more, he was hit in the back, causing him to stumble forward slightly as Arthur and the others rushed forwards.

Stealth, it had to be, their sixth member had stealth… but wasn’t he holding a staff? A staff wasn’t a suitable weapon to an assassin…

“A healer with stealth, how interesting.” Blade commented as Matt approached with his shield in front of him, glaring at the Demon Lord.

“Shield Bash!” Matt’s shield slightly glowed as he thrust it forward, telling Blade that they were about to attack him with Extra Skills…

It was not required to say the name of the Extra Skill aloud, but that was something only available to those who were well practiced with the Skill.

If one was unused to using the Skill, one would need to say the name of the Skill, or even chant in the case of some magic.

Next to attack was their archer, who was holding three arrows instead of one, and Blade recognized the technique as ‘multi-shot’ and opted to rather dodge than parry, knowing that Extra Skills hit harder than normal attacks.

It also said a lot that while some in the group were unused to their Skills, others knew theirs. It also said that those who didn’t need to voice their Skills actually trained in comparison to the others, and that possibly, they had never needed to use Extra Skills before now.

It was impressive to Blade.

In all honesty, he was meant to be defeated by humans around level fifteen as they called it. But that was only if said people practiced their abilities and had a Stat Skill each.

He wasn’t sure of their composition of Skills, but they seemed to be capable.

That didn’t mean he would roll over and die though, so he weaved through the attacks of the archer, finding the injured assassin facing him as ice sprouted from her blades…

Water manipulation, very suitable against a Lantern like Blade, but without it being based off a Skill it would do next to nothing to Blade.

Blade was proven wrong when he attempted to slash at her, only for the daggers to nick into his arms as she jumped away, making him stare at the incisions on his arms.

Shallow, but they existed. They shouldn’t have, given that she didn’t use a Skill… even if she hit him with her Anima, she shouldn’t have done that much damage…

Well, that’s how it would be, but her Anima had unlocked a useful ability when she reached level ten, namely Armour Piercing.

Emilia hadn’t hit Blade until now, so the Demon Lord was still a bit surprised as Alice slashed at his chest, Blade only just barely able to step back, getting a glancing blow instead of a full on one.

They didn’t have a moment to attack as Blade flipped backwards, hiding behind the door to the next floor as he spoke out.

“Interesting trick your healer pulled off, hiding behind the floor doors, that was pretty smart…” he called out as Arthur shouted out his own observation.

“I honestly forgot he was hiding! But ignoring that for a moment… your defence… it’s weaker than usual, isn’t it?” Arthur asked as there was silence for a moment, allowing their group a chance to feel the wind blowing across the plateau they stood upon.

“You are correct, Sir Clive. I am the strongest of Lanterns… but there is a price to pay for my strength.” He walked out from behind the door, and the nick in his glass chest was easy to see.

The problem was that Alice scored a glancing blow, an attack that would barely even harm a Knight let alone a Brute.

“…It’s your fire, isn’t it? It’s hotter than any other Lantern, giving you greater strength… but the glass protecting it is a step away from melting, am I right?” Arthur asked as Blade raised a hand, poking his own chest.

It wobbled at the point of contact as if he stuck his finger in jelly.

“You’re right. I am a Lantern Hero… one of many. I’m not even the strongest type of Lantern but… but I needed to be strong.” Blade said as he gestured to the forest stretching on so far that the edge could not be seen.

“I was a foolish man. A foolish man in love. And I wished to protect my love, and found myself wanting. So I decided to do the one thing that would give me strength above all other Lanterns.” He said, before gesturing to his own heart.

“By burning my life force, I gain greater strength… but in exchange, I will forever be a… how would you say, a glass cannon?” His words were a bit… honestly, romantic for Arthur’s tastes, even if Emilia and Alice both looked to the Demon Lord with kind eyes.

“Your ‘love’… I take it she resides in the forest?” Arthur asked, getting a nod from Blade as he placed both hands on his sword, raising it to eye level as he lowered his stance.

“Indeed, she is the Demon Lord of the Forest. In all honesty… the two of us are meant to be dead by now. I should have died about seven years ago, and she would have followed soon after.” He said, twisting his blade so that if he moved it slightly to the side it would cut his own cheek.

“Lord Chronos appeared, rampaging all over Hell as he moved along, killing all who would oppose him and gathering those who would follow.” Blade gave a tired chuckle as he inched forward.

“I was one who opposed. And I died for my transgressions. And then I was brought back to life.” The words of Blade were met with incredulous stares.

“Chronos brought you back to life? That’s… impossible, isn’t it?” Arthur asked, getting ready for what would likely be the final clash between them and the Demon Lord.

“That was a misnomer I suppose. To be precise, Chronos does not ‘kill’ his enemies. He consumes them. I just so happened to be amongst the ninety nine he felt were worth letting go once more.” Blade’s words ended the stalling, as he rushed Arthur.

Arthur stepped back, allowing Matt to walk forward, a frown on his face as the defender raised his shield.

No one questioned it, even if Matt had been blown away the first time, and needed help the second…

Matt was their guardian, the one to take the hits while the others attacked. If he couldn’t take a hit, the fight was over… so just this once, he had to dig in his feet and survive the hit.

Blade’s swing was completed, and Matt’s shield roared in protest, Matt’s teeth were grit in determination, and his feet dug into the ground.

He stood strong, and Blade was impressed, realizing that Matt had dropped his sword and lowered his stance during his block.

The man had defended, as his was duty.

Blade pulled back his weapon hoping for another attack, but found an arrow aimed at his sword as he pulled it back.

A smart timing, unless Blade tried an immature swing, what would happen was-

With a clang, the sword was jerked back until it almost slipped the grasp of the Demon Lord, giving ample time for Alice to switch to her hammer and swing, leaving Blade no time to use his sword as a shield, instead raising his left arm to take the blow.

His left arm, strong as it may be, crumbled under the force of the blow, everything from his ‘bicep’ down being sheared off from the force of the blow as Blade realized the hammer was coated in Darkness.

Blade attempted to punish Alice for the attack, instead finding Emilia in the way as she summoned up a shield of ice, getting another hint of surprise from the Demon Lord.

Really, who ever heard of using the assassin/rogue as a defensive fighter, even once? Blade’s sword bit through the ice, but the ice did its purpose in slowing down the attack, allowing Emilia and Alice to escape together as Arthur appeared in their place.

Blade found it awkward, but he re-angled his slash to hit Arthur, hoping to cleave his enemy from hip to shoulder… and then he got hit in the back, causing his swing to go slightly wide.

To think, he was done in by the Healer and his stealth…

Blade felt acknowledgement come over him as Arthur’s dagger sparked with lightning, and he thrust into the glass casing that was Blade’s chest, twisting the dagger before-

Ah… you’re back. You weren’t meant to be back just yet.

What do you mean? When am I meant to return then?

At the very least not now… Oh I see… you have slain a mighty foe.

The fight was difficult… is that why I am here again?

Most certainly. An achievement like that deserves a reward… what to grant you… I know exactly what to give you.

With a gasp Arthur sat up, his breath hitching and his heart hammering in his chest as he felt a hand steadying him, as he looked around wildly.

“Easy Arthur, Easy! We’re alive, we’re okay… you passed out after killing Blade.” Emilia said, her hand on Arthur’s back rubbing calm circles as Arthur breathed, eyes still wide in shock as he raised his hands, as if to confirm that they were still his own.

“I… I did? How long was I out?” Arthur asked, noticing the grass beneath him denoting that they were still on the ‘tenth’ floor…

They would probably still consider them floors, even if to the Demons themselves they were ‘Areas’.

“Barely ten minutes… you wouldn’t wake up no matter what, John even used a Heal on you but he said you were as healed as you could be.” Emilia said, the group coming closer after seeing Arthur waking up.

“Yo man, what happened?” Matt asked, worry in his eyes that would get a person very hurt for pointing out.

“I… I think I gained something… something… strange, from that fight.” Arthur said, willing his Dagger to appear, making the group shudder at the feeling it provoked.

“Right… your Dagger provides bonus Soul… so maybe it was just you levelling up more than us? We all feel like we levelled up at least twice from that fight.” Michael stated as Arthur clenched his fists.

He wanted to explain that what happened was more than simply levelling up, but left it alone as he stood with some assistance.

The doors to the stairs, both up and downwards, were now open… and a familiar pedestal stood in the centre of the arena, growing from the ground.

“Is that… an access panel?” Arthur asked as Michael narrowed one eye while giving a ‘so-so’ gesture.

“It kind of is, but it’s like a lower grade version. Just check it out man. It’s important.” Michael said, allowing Arthur to walk up to the Access Panel, already noting that unlike the one at the entrance, this one seemed to be made out of wood, with moss appearing and acting as writing.

Select Area:

Dungeon Entrance

Forest of the Maiden

“Oh… it’s just a fast travel… it’s a fast travel?” Arthur double checked, and he just got nods from his friends as he shrugged and looked at the ‘Panel’ once more…

It didn’t really count as one given that they could only use it as a Fast Travel point, and not as a way to level up or create a team.

“…Can we go home?” Arthur asked, getting a nod from his friends as he pressed the first option, the moss of the Panel floating off of it to touch the six Einherjar, connecting them as they began to glow…

And then with a blink, they were standing in front of the Access Panel at the entrance of the Dungeon.

They barely had any time to do something before Shaun opened the door and walked in, looking at the six before settling on Arthur, who was closest to the Panel.

“Finish updating your Statuses. Then, we have to talk.” His words promised lots of problems as he walked away, but at least he had the decency to let them update their statuses.

Though after seeing his, Arthur thought that maybe, just maybe, he should have left it for after talking to Shaun. It wouldn’t be so complicated then at least.

Arthur Clive

Level: 20 (D-Rank)

Class: Linked Swordsman- Grants one stat point to Strength and Wisdom per level

Gives Soul Sight (Unique) Skill

Anima

Dagger of Hunger

Cloak of Will

Anima Skills

Dagger- Devour- Increase Soul Gain by 10%

Dagger- Rend- Damage to living beings increases by 1.5%

Dagger- Void- can create a minor gravitational pull, 10 Wisdom per use a day.

Cloak- Defence- lowers damage taken by 2%

Cloak- Wise One- Increases Wisdom by 10% (total 125%)

Cloak- Rags to Riches- 3% of enemies drop two times the loot.

Primary Element: Lightning

Personal Skills

Tactician II (19/100) - increases Wisdom by 15% (total 125%)

Sword Sage I (0/200)- Any bladed weapon deals 20% extra damage

Soul Sight II (0/300) - Allows insight beyond mortality

Dual Wielding II (13/100) - Greater use of two weapons

Lightning Elemental I (0/100) - Use supplementary lightning spells

Stats

Strength: 27

Dexterity: 33

Intelligence: 22

Wisdom: 32 (40)

Endurance: 22

Vitality: 27