“Okay. Floor thirteen, here we go. Here’s hoping that the Goblins are gone.” Arthur’s words were heard across the table, and anyone close enough to hear probably got whiplash from how quickly they looked at the table Einherjar sat at.

The majority of Adventurers were actually around floor eight and seven, around level twelve or so. This was barely a week after having slain Blade in the Dungeon.

There were many, many reasons for this, from limited time, bad fighting skills, being forbidden from entering the Dungeon, and so on.

The last one was something Shaun enforced on anyone who caused trouble in the Guild more than once… being blacklisted set back everyone from the rest of the group by a large margin.

There was a boom of people getting blacklisted due to the realization of their power at some point… everyone gets a bit cocky when they realize that they’re stronger than the average human.

Then they think they can swagger around and cause trouble…

Not likely. Shaun set them straight, easily, and then gave them a length of time in which they could not enter the Dungeon.

Some tried to evade this blacklisting by going to a different Dungeon entrance and the guild there. This didn’t work, as Shaun was extremely high up in the hierarchy of Guild-masters.

It was kind of obvious in hindsight; considering he was the highest levelled Guild-master in America… he was the Head Guild-master in all but official title.

So yeah, because of all these oddities, the average level of Adventurers were lower than Arthur or Shaun’s teams, not to mention that their levels didn’t match the floors they reached correctly…

This was more a case of Arthur and Shaun both believing in being over-levelled. Truly they had similar thought processes when it came to games… no wonder they disliked each other.

So with them being above floor ten, it was obvious that their team was hilariously strong. Some passed it off as empty lies, others took it with a grain of salt.

Their team didn’t care though.

“Yeah… I’m tired of fighting those things… assholes.” Emilia’s statement was accepted without care…

Yes, it was Emilia who cursed, not Matt. The Goblins were that bad.

“Well, if they are gone, you know we’re going to be fighting more Forest Wolves right?” Michael asked, and while he was a bit concerned, the only one who showed any concern about those enemies was John.

“Forest Wolves aren’t dangerous because they are bestial enemies, their intelligence is much lower than the Goblins. They even give more experience because of it.” Considering other Adventurers might be capable of listening in, Arthur decided to use the more common term instead of Soul.

It was easier to understand for everyone, even if that technically wasn’t what it was.

“They have simple attacks, sure they’re fast, but the only things they do is claw at you, try to bite you, and maybe jump on you. If you can stop all three, they’re weaklings.” Alice said after taking a sip of some energy drink.

They really were getting addicted to those…

“They behave just like real wolves, just a bit faster. Nothing I’m not used to.” Emilia said with an innocent smile… her words, on the other hand, caused a bit of a record scratch in the minds of everyone who heard it…

They moved past it. Emilia was strange, and knew odd things about hunting.

The idea of this woman killing wolves with nothing but a knife was something her teammates could believe, but no one else who saw her would, given her kind disposition.

“Well… okay, so the wolves aren’t as much of a problem as they could be, I get it. John, you’re just going to have to get used to being attacked by wolves from time to time.” The resident black guy looked offended.

He probably wasn’t given his idea of humour, but they got the idea, he wasn’t happy with the idea of having to protect himself from wolves.

This had nothing to do with Matt’s ability to block the wolves really. They were easy to defend against, but… the amount, and speed of the wolves, were factors against Matt being able to defend John reliably.

Blocking one or two wolves were easy, but wolves are pack animals.

Never had they encountered a literal lone wolf, they were always in groups and always had the same light green/white colouring.

The largest group they encountered in the twelfth floor was comprised of ten wolves.

Michael and Emilia handled one wolf each, Matt kept three occupied and Arthur and Alice fought two each.

That was the plan until the fight started at least…

“Hey, Arthur… your magic, you said you can toggle it, between on and off right? How long can you use it for?” John asked, as a magic user he was understandably curious on this new branch of magic.

Magic was mostly defined as single or multi targeting magic, and then separated into attack, defensive or support magic, for a total of six groups.

Arthur’s magic would count as single supportive, except that most magic had limits on usage per day, such as John only being able to use Heal ten times a day, or Recovery five times, determined by a certain amount of Wisdom, with Intelligence determining the strength of the spell.

Arthur’s spell, Lesser Spark Step, on the other hand, had no limits on usage beyond how much magic he had, and Intelligence seemed to have no effect on the spell.

“Hm… I’d say it takes about thirty per cent of my current Mana per minute, so I can use it for about four or so minutes.” Arthur’s statement was indeed surprising, as no one had known about his limitations.

“That’s bullshit.” John, the resident magic user other than Arthur called out, and even Arthur nodded in agreement.

Arthur’s swordsman class didn’t help with magic but for some reason boosted Wisdom, so he studied magic, sharing his findings with John who likewise did the same.

John was the laziest one on their team, without a doubt, but he worked in other ways.

A fight, for them, never lasted long, and this had to do with how their stats were rising continuously, making them stronger and faster.

That fight with the ten wolves was over in about a minute and a half, and that was only because it was the first time they fought such a large group of enemies.

Arthur killed the majority of those wolves due to that spell, Lesser Spark Step.

‘Lesser’ was a worrying addition to the spell name considering that would normally be followed by dropping the word, and then adding ‘Greater’ to the beginning… meaning this spell was not complete.

Arthur’s speed when it was used was insane, though he claimed that if his Dexterity was too low then he’d be incapable of precise movements while using it.

That was the only thing that made that spell acceptable.

“Okay… we get it, Arthur’s lightning magic is bullshit. Let’s go to the Dungeon and see it in action again. It’s not like it’s bad for our leader to be strong.” Arthur pointedly looked at no one.

He was still a bit embarrassed for suddenly being placed in the leadership position of his team.

They stood and left for the front desk where Ellie was waiting for them, the line in front of her being shunted to the left where another secretary was standing.

There were multiple lines now, the Guild being improved on little by little as time went on, and this Guild was popular due to its closeness to Times Square and Broadway.

Arthur and his friends didn’t quite get what was so amazing about the place despite seeing the New Years Eve Ball Drop every year, as they grew up near it.

Tourists liked it though…

With all the popularity this Guild had, as well as Shaun being its leader, this section of the Adventurer’s Guild was being considered to be the Main Branch after a while, according to Shaun.

Slowly but surely more people were being brought into manage the Guild building and talk to Adventurers, everyone being given a certain time-limit to check stats and then enter.

Arthur and his team obviously had preferential treatment though, as Ellie was the first secretary of this branch of the Guild and therefore she was the most known one.

Customer service hoped for familiarity to bring customers back again, kind of like McDonalds and their plan to cater to children, then the children grow up, remember their time there fondly and bring their children.

In this case it was just getting more and more people lining up by Ellie than the other secretaries, who were still learning the ropes.

But when Arthur’s team came, everyone had to move… it still irritated many people who were standing in line, but their team didn’t care, beyond Arthur getting a bit irritated at the stares.

“Ah, Einherjar, going into the Dungeon again? Remember the deal with the boss okay?” Ellie reminded them and Arthur nodded.

They logged their time and went to the entrance, though as they left Arthur glanced at someone paying for a nine page booklet filled with A3 pages, the USA equivalent was roughly eleven and a half inches by sixteen and a half inches.

That was a rough measurement. Again, Arthur grew up with the Imperial system but he wanted to work abroad originally, it led to him learning the Metric system by necessity, and he liked it.

Besides, even drug dealers used Metric.

Seeing the printed words on the booklet had Arthur give a brief laugh as they entered the room with the access panel.

“What’s so funny?” Matt asked as Arthur thumbed towards the door in reference.

“I saw someone there buying the first Area Atlas.” They all chuckled a bit at that, with the exception of Emilia who was a bit awkward about it… understandable, given that they were the maps she drew.

It was mentioned by Shaun, but a complete map of a floor was worth a lot to those who hadn’t completed the floor yet, even better considering Arthur worked with Emilia to mark different paths to the stairs, as starting from the sixth floor there were multiple paths to them.

They would have put markers on which monsters were where, but by floor eleven, such things wouldn’t matter, as the monsters roam around instead of waiting in one spot for Adventurers.

“I think they sell them for five dollars per floor, fifty dollars total… and for each sale, they give us twenty per cent. That’s ten dollars per sale, which amounts to every six people. You’re earning a lot huh, Emilia?” Arthur joked and Emilia looked a bit awkward at the mention of the money.

Mostly because she refused to accept it for herself, saying she wanted to share it with them, and help pay their debt to Dante who forged their current equipment.

That was already done by now actually, to their surprise…

You could earn a huge amount of money in the Dungeon if you went in every day.

And considering the Dungeon was in fact just one large bridge, Babel, their map was being sold world-wide.

There were a country or two which refused, stating that they had their own maps, but it was being shared all over.

They couldn’t keep people from sending copies all over the internet though, but at least some appreciated the work put in and bought the booklet.

No doubt some of those buyers actually had the maps on their phones, but at least there were any at all.

They stopped joking with Emilia long enough for Arthur to set up the team once more, taking a moment to check his stats.

Arthur Clive

Level: 24 (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

No Change

Primary Element: Lightning

Personal Skills

Tactician II (39/100) - increases Wisdom by 15% (total 125%)

Sword Sage I (46/200)- Any bladed weapon deals 20% extra damage

Soul Sight II (32/300) - Allows insight beyond mortality

Dual Wielding II (28/100) - Greater use of two weapons

Lightning Elemental I (26/100) - Use supplementary lightning spells

Stats

Strength: 32

Dexterity: 39

Intelligence: 25

Wisdom: 41 (51)

Endurance: 25

Vitality: 32

None of his skills had levelled up unfortunately, but he was comfortable with that due to his stat growth.

Sure he disliked putting points into Intelligence and Endurance, but he really needed those stats.

Emilia had more Endurance than him, and she was a Thief. As a Warrior class, that could not stand.

He could accept losing out to his comrades in certain stats if that was their specialization, the only one he refused to accept being beaten in was Wisdom.

It was his most important stat with his Lesser Spark Step, and as it was, he regenerated five per cent of his Mana per minute.

He had no idea what the average for that stat was, but Arthur was pretty sure he had one of the highest values for it in the world if even John had about the same base points.

With his Tactician Skill, Arthur had to have the highest Wisdom stat around.

Selecting to teleport to the Forest of the Maiden, the door flashed and the Einherjar walked into the tenth floor.

As they had begun to do, they paused to take in the view, feel the sun-kissed breeze and appreciate the beauty of the place.

It was odd that a being that ordered the deaths of over one billion people would have such a beautiful place included in his reign, but even Hitler had a pet dog he cared for.

They stepped into the eleventh floor, ready to try out the thirteenth floor as soon as possible.

Within three hours they found themselves at the thirteenth floor’s beginning, looking around wearily.

The concept of danger had been hammered into their skull during their movements through the eleventh and twelfth floor, especially with Goblin Assassin’s.

Wolves didn’t so much as ambush as they believed in executing a blitzkrieg, attacking violently and as quickly as possible.

By now, Einherjar had turned exploring a new floor into something they did on basic instinct. It was something they could do while barely paying any attention except for when fights occurred.

They also made sure to take as many paths as possible, because knowing which path was the correct one was something they wouldn’t know until they took the paths.

At one point they even hoped that there would be treasure chests or something down some of the paths… they were quickly disappointed because there was no way the Dungeon would be that kind to them.

Fair the Dungeon may be, but helpful it was not.

Arthur was adamant that it was still a possibility if one considered that all the Areas existed inside of Babel, and the creators of Babel might have left things they created around inside it.

But things like that, if they survived to this modern era and being in Hell, would definitely be way too valuable to appear in the first Area, let alone the first ten.

So it was a ‘maybe, but if so, not now’ on getting treasure chests of any type.

Also, it was very quick, but the Einherjar were certain that wolves were the only enemies on the thirteenth floor.

They had barely been moving for half an hour and had already killed over thirty wolves, they always appeared with at least three, to nine at max currently, but by the end of the floor that might change.

It was the same with Lanterns and their variations of Squire, Knight, Archer, Brute and Hero.

The last one was a Demon Lord though… but he did admit that he wasn’t the strongest of the Lantern race until he started to burn his life-force to increase his strength, so there was likely another variant Arthur’s team hadn’t encountered yet.

“There are so damn many wolves… I think I’ll never be able to look at dogs the same after we get through to floor twenty.” No one argued against Matt’s complaint, because likely they would be capable of destroying a crowd of wolves each by then.

At level twenty three, they could all kill two wolves each with the exception of John who could survive a fight against one until someone killed it.

Arthur still maintained his one level lead due to his Dagger of Hunger letting him level up faster. Everyone maintained that he was unfair because of it, and the fact that his Cloak he wore was an extra Anima.

Sometimes they collected the Soul Stones after the fight and found one or two more than they should be, and they considered this to be the Cloak skill Arthur had, Rags to Riches.

Between his Dagger and his Cloak, Arthur got more experience, and more gold for each kill, it was like everyone was playing a game on normal while he was working on easy.

Again, the members of Einherjar all considered it a bit unfair, but no one complained beyond basic envy.

They were a team. If one of them was strong, it made the team stronger, so it was something to be happy about, not to get jealous.

“We’re coming up on a group of wolves… it’s large, there are like fourteen wolves.” Michael said, as their scout he was to inform the team about enemies ahead of time, but only if he saw them.

There were times where they hid from basic vision, in which case Arthur and Emilia were the ones to look around using their own methods, Emilia by looking for tracks, and Arthur cheating by looking for their souls.

Again, he considered it ‘okay’ while his friends considered it cheating.

They called it ‘protagonist syndrome’ when a person had this many special skills…

Lightning Elemental, Sword Sage, Soul Sight. One was Rare, the other two were Unique Skills.

The idea of one person having two Unique Skills got Shaun to look at Arthur with a twitch in his eye when he found out.

“Fourteen… Michael, how many can you kill from here?” Arthur asked, as Michael drew back his bowstring, activating Focus.

“Two, but it’s better to expect one and an injury.” Michael was honest with his ability.

There were some Adventurers with no set party who just grouped together in the morning with whoever was available, these people sometimes formed permanent teams, but before they did so they were called Freemen.

Gender discrimination in the name aside, there was a problem of some of them bragging of their skill, and then not being able to match up to their boasts.

If they were lucky, situations like that resulted in an injury… the more common result of lying like that was death.

Arthur and Einherjar typically didn’t think much on it due to their power, but there were plenty of deaths in the Dungeon, to the point that Shaun was considering making a ‘noob class’ for Adventurers to teach them how to fight, decision skills and more.

Some of those couldn’t be learnt until in the Dungeon though, and the Guild was still busy picking up employees, so they would be immediately understaffed in the case where they tried to do that kind of class arrangement.

“Hm… alright, we can take them… if I used LSP, I can take out five.” Arthur wasn’t bragging… if anything, he was underplaying his ability when using that spell.

There exists a dangerous website where, once one enters, they never leave…

It’s called TVTropes, and contains commonalities in television, games, basically most forms of media.

One of the ‘tropes’ on the website is ‘Disc one nuke’ and that spell qualified as one, being overpowered for the beginner areas…

Before entering the thirteenth floor they encountered ten wolves at once. While the wolves were split to allow for everyone to face at least one except for John, the result was that Arthur ended up killing his ones within barely twenty seconds and then going to go help Matt, and so on.

By the end of it, Arthur had killed six of the wolves. And he had levelled up after that, so his ability would be slightly better now too.

“Okay, that’s six or seven wolves out, leaving the other seven or eight for Matt, Emilia and Alice… Matt will definitely be taking three, Alice can handle three too, Emilia, two.” Michael offered, and Arthur nodded, agreeing with the statement.

Arthur was now the leader of the Einherjar, but he wouldn’t forget to take in the opinion of his comrades… if he just ignored their opinion there was no doubt they’d get pissed at him, and the same likewise.

…Didn’t they ignore his opinion when they made him leader?

…It was a catch-22 situation, so he decided to ignore it in exchange for signalling for Michael to take the shot.

The first arrow of flame punched through the eye of one of the wolves, killing it instantly. They would have to go there to get the Soul Stone after the fight.

Immediately the wolves turned to stare at their group, growls collectively rising as they charged towards the Einherjar members.

Matt stood in front, a frown on his face as he readied his shield.

Just behind him stood Arthur, who was taking a deep breath, taking a moment to close his eyes and focus on the lightning within his soul.

And then, through activation of the Lesser Spark Step, the lightning in his soul moved outward.

The change was instantaneous for Arthur, the clarity of his vision increasing, however the other details began to blur, a literal tunnel vision situation, slight sparks of lightning shooting off of his boots and his hair spiking from the lightning.

His Dagger in his left hand, and Soul Flame in the other, he clenched his fists before loosening his grip.

Within the world of the spell, Arthur felt a combination of everyone moving slowly and himself moving too fast, clearly showing that the spell was flawed as if it truly worked as it should, he would not get the latter feeling.

The first of the wolves dodged past Matt, instead trying to strike Arthur behind Matt, the jaws of the wolf aimed to perfectly strike the neck of its prey.

Unfortunately for the wolf, such an action opened its own neck to its ‘prey’ and thus allowed Arthur to use the broad side of Soul Flame to knock the head of the wolf out of the way.

In the same instant, the Dagger of Hunger flashed out, stabbing into the throat of the wolf and ending its life.

A wolf had already attacked Matt at this time, the wolves acting almost like a wave of water, washing between the gaps of their formation to attack each of them separately.

It might have worked, if Arthur didn’t move slightly away, and then activating Void to summon as many wolves as possible to him.

He managed to jerk three out of the way, drawing their attention as they changed directions to attack him.

Void was a Crowd-Control Skill, or CC for short. That brand of spells was normally left for tanks like Matt or wide area magicians.

Against an enemy with intelligence, the spell wouldn’t attract much more attention than weariness, and would only be used to cause an enemy to stumble, giving Arthur’s comrades a clear opening to attack.

Against wolves though, they took it as a challenge, following that adage of animals taking the path of least resistance when moving.

If moving towards Arthur was easier, then they would do so, it wasn’t like they were planning to leave him alone and not attack him.

Two were dead, three were occupied by Arthur at current, and unfortunately John had two with him.

Matt, Emilia and Alice each had two, and Michael was trying to kill one…

The training they did was paying off here.

They had asked Shaun for a place to train a bit, and Shaun had shown them that the Guild had actually had a basement included at some point.

Shaun admitted that he was planning to have any training/ sparring sessions there in the future, and that Arthur’s team was free to use it when it was empty.

During their training, one of the things they picked up on, at Shaun’s request, was that Michael learns how to fight up close.

“Even the military possesses guns and long-range weaponry… so why do soldiers need to train in hand-to-hand? Sometimes the enemy is too close, sometimes you don’t have ammunition, sometimes you are caught off guard and don’t have time to draw your weapon. Learn.”

Shaun’s monologue got Michael immediately interested with how he had at one point wished to join the military, and so Shaun began to spar with Michael.

The result was that Michael was capable of fighting using his bow as a close-range weapon of sorts, using it as a blunt weapon to create space with his enemy before attacking at range.

And if he couldn’t do that, he could choke an enemy out with it, or even dodge long enough to shoot the enemy with his bow.

Shaun was hoping to one day get Michael to the point where he fought even better up close than he did long-distance.

Michael, as an archer, felt conflicted on the matter, but admitted that it would have its perks.

It’s a bit of a side note, but this training would actually have an effect on Michael’s future growth, far into the future, and he would be both thankful and annoyed at the results.

But that’s a story for another time.

Even as the three wolves charged at Arthur, he felt the surge of power.

He had used Lesser Spark Step multiple times, and the first time was indeed a rush…

But as Arthur used it, he felt it. The potential, the energy within him wishing to burst out in a violent wave, untamed, incapable of being controlled, he felt it within his core…

Arthur was a methodical fighter, if he could win in one hit, he would. If he could win without getting hit, he would. If getting hit would be better, he’d reluctantly do so, as long as the attack wasn’t something that would result in his defeat.

But… just this once… he felt the urge to run wild. To let this feeling of power flow freely without limit… he wished he could.

He didn’t have the Mana to do such a thing for long… but for a moment, he didn’t care. He didn’t want to.

As the lead wolf attempted to bite at his thigh, Arthur gave into the feeling at last.

Barely noticing it happening, Arthur allowed Soul Flame to slip into his inventory, using the suddenly free right hand to slam his palm onto the head of the wolf, crushing it into the ground.

The other wolves didn’t let him do this without worry as they attacked as well to help their pack member.

Arthur registered the attacks approaching and instead of moving out of the attack range, he increased his grip on the skull of the wolf as he raised his hand.

With a strength stat of over thirty, Arthur was six times stronger than the average adult male. The average adult male could lift roughly seventy one kilograms in a deadlift, the equivalent being one hundred and fifty five pounds.

This weight was adjusted by factors such as training, condition and the weight of the person doing the lifting.

With the Dungeon, all Adventurers start off from the same point, a woman with five points of Strength was just as strong as a man with five points.

So going by the ‘six times stronger’ attitude, Arthur could lift almost half a metric ton from a deadlift position.

Swinging a wolf into another wolf was something difficult, but possible.

One of the attacking wolves was surprised to find its entire body flung away from the force of having a similarly sized wolf thrown at it.

This left only one wolf close enough to attack Arthur, it’s claws aiming for Arthur’s shoulder due to his kneeling position.

Arthur saw this and raised his right arm, summoning Soul Flame was something easily done in comparison to trying to swap armour in the middle of a fight, and the blade appeared, slashing at the front legs of the wolf and removing the limbs.

The wolf’s howl of pain distracted the other ones for a moment, giving Arthur’s teammates an opening to attack back while Arthur plunged the Dagger of Hunger into the gap of flesh created between the neck and jaw bones.

The wolf died instantly, leaving Arthur to turn and move towards the two wolves, both on the floor as he concentrated the already dense aura of Lightning he had into his right leg, kicking forward.

Arthur and Shaun, for all that they had similarities in personality, were pretty much opposites in other terms.

Arthur was a warrior with a minor focus on magic, especially in regeneration.

Shaun was a wizard with a minor focus on physical ability… as much as he wished he could have a set up similar to Arthur.

Their stats gained from their classes were also ‘opposite’ if one looked closer.

And amongst the most mundane of opposing things…

Arthur was right footed, while Shaun was left footed.

Carrying on with actually important information, the force of this kick broke the ribs of the wolf it impacted, killing it instantly when its heart was crushed from the force, such a kick wouldn’t have done so without the added force of the lightning.

The other wolf lying on the floor was clearly looking with Arthur with fear now as Michael had killed his own wolf, now helping John.

Emilia and Alice had both killed one each, busy with their second, and Matt was still feeling a bit annoyed against three… he was a tank, strong as he was, he wasn’t exactly an offensive based fighter.

Arthur barely spared the scared wolf a glance as Soul Flame carved through its neck…

He aimed for that a lot, he noted… but it made sense, it was an obvious weak-point of almost every living creature… especially given how separating a head from the body usually killed something.

No doubt they’d eventually find something that such thoughts wouldn’t work on, but for now it was fine.

Arthur turned, rushing towards Matt to help him out…

Lightning. When one thought of lightning, what did one imagine?

Loud booms, stormy skies, and a sudden brightness, burnt into the eyes as it vanished.

Lightning… a flash of brilliance and power, fading into nothing.

Arthur considered this… and felt a smile come onto his face.

He was mistaken from the beginning… while he did not think his pursuit of always having Lesser Spark Step active was false, he was incorrect on his vision of the element itself.

An explosion of power, a brilliance that could not be matched by any, and vanishing after that fleeting moment, nature’s vary own firework.

So was the power he had to put in.

Now that he was focusing on how lightning was, he felt it, the undulations of his own energy, falling and rising like the crests of a wave.

Sure, he had kept LSP active for about two and a half minutes by now, so his Mana was decreasing, but he felt it…

If he had to describe it, Lesser Spark Steps energy felt similar to how one would think an alternating current worked.

Now feeling the pulses, Arthur attempted to move in time with the pulses, stepping forward as it ascended, and it was slight, but there was an increase in his speed…

He arrived at the first of the new group of wolves with a spark of electricity flitting from his person as the wolf looked to him while snapping its teeth at him.

Arthur did not simply allow it to bite at his arm without reprisal, and swung his arm towards the wolf to its surprise, slightly injuring himself as its head was knocked to the sky.

Taking the chance, Arthur felt the energy rise once more, and decided that it was enough for now, he had immersed himself in the feeling for long enough, he’d be thinking on it later, but for now, he had to stop.

So with that rising energy, he struck out with Soul Flame, the fire burning in the spine of the sword suddenly sparking out with lightning as it pierced the wolf.

The energy as Arthur shut off Lesser Spark Step was to the point that the lightning leapt off of the blade, blasting towards the wolf behind his target and stunning it long enough for Matt to bash its skull in, the third of the wolves being killed by Emilia striking its neck with her Bloodletting Daggers.

With that, their largest group fight ended, leaving them all huffing in exertion, Arthur even just directly falling to his rear as he sat down.

It was a ‘short’ encounter, barely four minutes total… but it was enough to tire them all out with how they had fought.

“We… can’t fight like that forever.” Arthur was quick to notice as he removed a bottle of water from his inventory, everyone else doing something similar.

“That was… difficult. No injuries, but we’re way too tired after such a fight… I thought Endurance was supposed to prevent this?” Alice complained, and it was Emilia who responded.

“It’s not physical exertion. Physically we’re actually fine, just slightly short of breath… but mentally, we’re exhausted after the focus we put into that fight.” Emilia admitted, and they could see her point.

Already their breathing was evening out, showing her words to have truth in them, and the reason they felt mental exhaustion was also slightly obvious…

Their fear. Not a lot of people experienced it in their lives, but going through a scary situation resulted in a faster tiring rate. The reasons weren’t quite clear to them, but it made sense.

They were stronger than the wolves, but they weren’t so strong as to be above human nature when it came to fearing animals capable of killing them.

It was the same reason why, in a four or five minute fight against Blade that lasted barely four or so exchanges they ended up all tired as heck, and Arthur seemed to have even passed out.

They didn’t know why he did, but they assumed it was because he was tired. Only he knew he had met the being that granted him power…

“…We’re going to need to get past that.” Easier said than done, but everyone agreed.

“You do that.” Except John, getting half-hearted glares as he alone relaxed on the side, his mental strength higher than theirs only by the fact that he wasn’t actually a fighter… yet…

They’d make him fight… not now, but they would.

“The thirteenth floor is likely going to be full of wolves… that’s annoying, but we’ll work through it, bit by bit like we always do.” Arthur’s statement was met with smiles and nods…

They continued for another two hours on the thirteenth floor before returning to the surface, understanding that they had much to improve on.

More than they knew.

Arthur Clive

Level: 25 (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

No Change

Primary Element: Lightning

Personal Skills

Tactician II (41/100) - increases Wisdom by 15% (total 125%)

Sword Sage I (53/200)- Any bladed weapon deals 20% extra damage

Soul Sight II (21/300) - Allows insight beyond mortality

Dual Wielding II (29/100) - Greater use of two weapons

Lightning Elemental I (62/100) - Use supplementary lightning spells

Stats

Strength: 33

Dexterity: 39

Intelligence: 26

Wisdom: 44 (55)

Endurance: 26

Vitality: 33