Quick note: This was a late by quite a bit. I may or may not have time in the next 2-3 weeks to do a monday or tuesday release. I may go off schedule a bit due to studying for final exams for school. Otherwise, I hope you enjoy the read!

(P.S. - Sorry about the shortness of last chapter, and this one! There is a lot I will be putting in the next one!)

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“Attack it from the side!” Nick yelled towards James, who moved in an arc to the left. He gained momentum and slammed his sword into the side of a battle wolf, tearing it in half. James flicked his sword to the side, the blood slid off in the process. Nick nodded, “Good job, Let’s continue.”

The first four levels of the dungeon were fairly easy. There were giant rats and other assortments of monsters, but they noticed the strength of Nick and James and scurried away at the sight of them. Only a few tried to fight and met their easy death. Brutal slaughter, but good experience. They were low levels and already had monstrous stats.

“Elizabeth, how much exp are you getting?” I looked towards Elizabeth after taking a quick glance at my ID card. The experience was rising slowly, I guess it was because I was not in battle.

“So far, it has only risen by 2%” Elizabeth said.

“What level are you?” I asked, I was only level 4, I wonder how much they trained.

She blushed, “I’m level 12. We were told that the last heroes progressed even slower, Nick and James are higher. Nick is level 24 and James is 21.” What?! Damn, I need to level up soon!

“Haha… is that so…” I mumbled.

“Ah, Dante what level did you reach training alone?” She turned to me smiling.

“I’d rather not say…” with that the conversation ended. We began to descend onto the 6th level by this time, the battle wolves that the priest had warned us all about had not been that big of a problem at all for Nick and James, who were already far ahead of me in power.

We flooded out of the bottom of the staircase into an open area. It was bigger than any of the other levels so far. Fang looked down the stairs and said, “This is the start of the real Forest Den. Everyone, from here on out, it will be more dangerous. Traps and other mechanisms are present on this floor onward.” We all shook our heads in response.

With each step my foot sunk deeper into the earth. It was a swamp, nearby I spotted an animal sitting in a tree. It was like a monkey, but it had six eyes…

“This place really went through some drastic changes,” Sean was surprised. He used to speak a lot more, I wonder if Nick and James put him in his place.

We encountered a couple of monsters, they were sitting by a pond grooming. James looked at them smiling, “Haha.. Level 15, finally something challenging. Nick, do you want to get them?” How does he know what level they are? Is that some kind of skill too? The monsters looked like the monkey I saw earlier but they had armor and weapons. Those were probably taken from adventurers with poor luck.

“Alright, let’s try it. Sean come over here.” With one command, Sean stepped up quickly to stand by Nick’s side.

“Yes, what do you need?” Sean asked while looking at Nick. Nick stared back and then pointed at the monsters.

“I need you because you can use water, this swamp should be perfect for you. I feel that water magic should thrive here,” Nick explained, while looking around.

“Alright, What do you want me to do Nick?” Sean smiled, he was glad that he was useful to them.

“I need you to freeze the monsters in place so they won’t move,” Nick pointed at the ground underneath the group of monsters, while looking at sean, “You know what to do right?”

“Yes, I’m ready whenever you guys want to start,” Sean gripped his staff tighter.

“Alright, we’ll start when James gets into position,” Nick motioned for James to get moving. James fought like an assassin, he always came from the side or from behind. His weapons of choice was a set of daggers. They looked expensive, in each of their hilts there laid a yellow gem. When it glowed, his attacks increased and seemed to deal more damage while stunning.

A couple minutes later, James was in position. Nick signaled for Sean to start. Elizabeth and I were waiting in the back next to Fang and his squad. Sean pointed his staff towards the pond, it began to overflow. In a couple of seconds he flooded the ground. He mumbled a few words that I couldn’t understand and the water began to crackle, the sound alerted the monsters. They looked around and tried to move, but it was too late. They began to howl in terror as they saw two unknown figures sprinting towards them. James was coming from the side, while Nick was coming from straight in front of them. James disappeared and appeared right next to one in a flash. He ripped through its throat and blood began pouring out. He was smiling the whole time. He’s more of a demon than a hero in my opinion… Nick preferred not to be as flashy. When he got closer he used his sword to slash both of them in one movement. He was using a katana, it’s blade was silver and reflected the light. No matter how many times he used it on monsters, it never dulled or stained with blood.

“Aww, I was hoping that they would at least put up a struggle,” James said.

“Oh well, let’s find some other groups,” Nick looked at Sean, “I’m sorry Sean, but it looks like these fights will be a little to easy and we won’t get good battle experience when we fight with you. You can go back to sitting back.” Sean came back without any fuss.

“Man, that was the best experience I’ve gotten since I’ve entered.” Sean frowned.

“How much was it?” Elizabeth asked him.

“It was about 5%. I’m guessing that after this level, Nick and James will go up a couple of levels,” He replied. Damn, that’s fast. It must be because of the hero buff.

The deeper we went into the swamp, the darker it was. Fang and his squad still have not said a word since we have entered this place. I guess he really does want everyone to experience the dangers of monsters. As the light disappeared, the groups of monsters began to increase. They had called Sean up to use his water magic as support, they didn’t want to make any mistakes. Their playful attitude from before was no where to be seen. We reached a clearing in the swamp. A old, grand tree stood out right in the middle, it had an arched doorway on it. The arched doorway emitted a white light. “This is the door to the next level. The doors from here on out will look like this, let’s move,” Fang said. We got closer, and one by one we disappeared through the doorway to the next level.

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The surroundings changed drastically from what the 6th floor held. The floor was more solid, it was dry. The area wasn’t dark. A sun shined overhead, Did we go back to the surface? Looking around, I saw the other heroes and the guards. “Why did we go back to the surface?” James turned to look at Fang.

“We are not on the surface, we are still in the dungeon. The dungeons were created long ago and are mysterious to this day. We don’t know how such a thing was made, but this room is like its own dimension,” Fang explained, “This is the seventh floor, the monsters here are more civilized so don’t be rash.”

We took off once again, and started exploring the dungeon floor. The ground was covered with grass like a lush, green carpet. It was a forest, but it didn’t have the same feeling as the forest we travelled through coming here. There were no vines, and wild plants were clinging to the trees. It was more open, like a forest that you would usually see in RPGs. After traveling for twenty minutes, we haven’t seen any life. “Fang, where are these monsters that you spoke of?” Nick said.

Fang sighed, “I said they were more civilized did I not?” He looked around, “They are watching us, but they do not know whether we are friendly or if we will slaughter them.”

“Well, of course we will slaughter them right?” James was smiling.

“I wouldn’t do that, they are known to fight in large groups,” Fang replied, “I’d rather not have to deal with your mess if you make one.” Hearing this, James frowned.

After readjusting the bag on my back I spoke up, “Hey, when are we going to take a break?” I, the one who was designated to carry everything, was feeling pretty tired.

Fang sighed, “We’ll take a break once we hit the 9th floor.” The 9th floor? We are only on the 7th and it’s taken us this long!

Fang pointed, “There’s the gate for the 8th floor, after this we can be on the 9th floor in no time.” At the end of the forest laid a stone temple. There was a path lined with stone pillars leading up to the stairs. At the top of the stairs laid the gateway to the 8th floor.

“Well, we didn’t even have to fight this time, “ Sean was happy, even though he was a gifted mage he still didn’t like fighting. We walked down the path and up the stairs, one by one we went through to the next floor.

“Strange, I’m surprised that the inhabitants of this floor didn’t show themselves once, “ one of the guards chuckled, “I remember first coming here. I got chased back through to the 6th floor.”