Going through the next portal, the area changed once again. My foot stepped off the platform and sunk into sand. The sand was soft as it pushed back on the soles of my leather boots. It felt good after walking on solid ground for hours. The floor that we were on was a sandy desert, it had grass but the spots were surrounded like islands in an ocean that varied in sizes. There was a ripple moving in the sand in the distance, that disappeared after traveling across the floor a few feet.

“Fang, what monsters are on this floor. The priest didn’t really give us much information about the 8th floor and beyond,” Nick looked back towards the gate at Fang, who had just stepped out.

“Lizardmen and desert wurms, there are others but they aren’t notable,” Fang replied.

We began to explore the desert going towards the direction Fang pointed us in. A lizardman in the distance was fighting a desert wurm. After a while two more ripples came from other directions and desert wurms shot out from the sand and surrounded the lizardman, it let out it’s last breath a couple seconds later.

“Finally, a challenge!” James was grinning, he was a battle freak.

“I’m surprised, the lizardmen are around my level,” Nick said looking towards James, “James, what level are you now?”

“I’m level 23, and you?” James replied.

“I’m level 27 now,” Nick smiled.

“What the hell man! You level at such a faster rate!” James felt defeated after learning the difference in their power once again. He probably didn’t like the feeling of being beneath someone. I wonder if he would like it if he was in my place.

I looked towards Sean and Elizabeth and asked, “What levels are you guys now?” I, myself, have leveled up only once since we entered this dungeon. I must have a leveling rate of an average person.

“Level 14 now,” Elizabeth replied.

“I’m level 14,” Sean replied, “by the way, the desert wurms are around level 32 and the Lizardmen vary from 20 to 35, so we will have to fight more often in a group now. We may not be able to protect you.” I frowned at his response. Protect myself? How?

---

After some time, Sean and Elizabeth moved up. Elizabeth was made to heal James, and Sean gave support magic to Nick, who couldn’t handle multiple targets well.

“Sean, use !” Nick yelled, as he ran straight towards three lizardmen. Sean mumbling words, pointed his staff towards the ground where they stood. Cold air rushed about the feet of the lizardmen and ice began to form on the ground, it was weaker than before because water magic didn’t work well in dry areas.

Nick slanted his katana to his side, and slashed upward at the closest lizardmen. The blade slid up the stomach and went up to the chest, blood spurted out of the wound and dyed the sand red. The lizardman fell over onto it’s side. James appeared behind one of the last two and shoved a dagger into the back and punctured it’s internal organs. They died fast, but without proper planning it could take a while.

“Dante, come here. Now.” James ordered. Sigh, I walked towards the mess of lizardmen bodies spread out in front of me. Everytime they ended a fight, I was called over to look over the bodies and collect the useful items.

Hovering my hand over items, I used over and over picking out the useful items. Lizardmen dropped all kinds of herbs and sometimes crude weapons and leather armor.

Ding!

Skill Upgraded!NameIdentifySkill TypePerceptionLevel: 6EXP: 48%Description: Ever had an item, and you don’t know what it is? Well, worry no more! The more things you identify, the stronger your skill is!

***You can now identify Monsters!

I wonder if that’s how they could tell the difference between monsters’ levels by looking at them!

I looked at the dead body of one of the lizardmen and activated .

Monster informationName???? ????RaceLizardmanRankNormalLevel21SkillsNone

Ah, this is cool!

“Dante, hurry up,” Nick looked over at me, who was wasting time identifying dead bodies.

“Ok, I’m finished,” I pulled the string to grasp the bag shut and stood up. So far, the dropped items were all crude and useless to heroes. They would probably help out a farmer somewhere, it would be best to sell them at a market.

“Good, let’s continue,” Nick continued walking in the direction of the next gate. Everyone was tired and wanted to hurry to the next floor so they could get some rest.

---

After a couple more fights, we finally arrived at the gate. Night was arriving in the desert, the temperature had dropped. The cold wind brushed against everyone. “Man, I can’t wait to get to the next floor and set up camp!” Sean said as his teeth chattered. Everyone felt the same.

A couple of ripples appeared meters away from the gate in the sand. “So, they want one last fight do they?” James said as he unsheathed one of his daggers. Sean gripped his staff tightly. The ripples were heading right towards our group, but they disappeared. Instead, dark figures rose from the sand and unsheathed weapons. There were at least thirty of them. They were Lizardmen and the average level of them was thirty.

“What the hell?” James said as he looked around.

“James, stay back.” Nick stepped forward and Fang stepped up to his side as well.

“What do you guys want?” Fangs voice rung out, but it didn’t reach them. Lizardmen were known to be intelligent and were able to speak english, but they rarely tried to, they were an aggressive species.

“You killed many of the young ones,” The lizardmen behind us parted, we turned around to look. There was a staff jingling, an older lizardman stepped through.

“How about you part way,” Fang sneered at him.

“Just because they are a hero, doesn’t mean one can come down to my floor and wipe out the young ones.” The elder lizardman furrowed his eyebrows. Fang reached back and pulled his broadsword off his back. It was the biggest out of all of the guards. Seeing this, the lizardmen were enraged.

“You dare try to go against our elder!” a raspy voice escaped from one of the lizardmen. I activated identify on the elder.

Monster informationName???? ????RaceLizardman (Elite)RankElderLevel??SkillsEmpowerment - ????

Strange, my identify skill couldn’t find the level. This is the first time a monster has had a rank, or a skill.

“Such a high level…” Nick looked towards Fang, “Fang, how come we weren’t made aware of these dangers?” He didn’t know whether or not this was supposed to happen.

“Intelligent group of monsters have a ranking system, but I didn’t think that an Elder such as him would come out. They usually don’t care, there has to be something influencing them. There has been weird activity since we entered the seventh floor,” Fang looked worried. The other guards took notice long before we did and already had their broadswords out. The air was thick, killing intent seeped out of the Lizardmen.

Fang looked towards Nick, “Blow a way through the lizardmen and go through the next gate. They won’t follow you, we’ll clean up this mess here.” Fang’s broadsword began to radiate a white aura. It must be holy power.

Nick nodded and turned to us, “Let’s go.” We all nodded and turned towards the gate. The lizardmen towards the gate were less in numbers, with Nick out front we began to push our way through. I struggled to keep up, the bag weighed me down. “Dante!” Elizabeth yelled out, as she began to mumble words. White light began to cover my body, it felt lighter.

You have received the Buff: Holy Strength!

Strength (+24)

Endurance (+28)

Agility (+14)

As I picked up my speed, we approached the gate. Rumble… Rumble… The ground shook and a wall shot out from beneath the earth. “What! Who put this wall here!” James yelled out, he was beginning to move forward to try to destroy it but Nick pushed him back.

“Be careful! This is not a wall!” As Nick yelled, a giant roar erupted and the sound of slaughter behind us stopped.

The elder and Fang stopped fighting and looked towards us.

“See! You fools have even caused Rasheek to come!” The Elder was furious, “Lizardmen! We will eradicate them!” He hissed and continued to attack Fang. Fang was on par with the Elder Lizard.

Ding!

Information began to flood into my mind.

Warning! Rasheek, King of Desert Wurms has appeared!

Monster informationNameRasheek, King of Desert WurmsRaceDesert Wurm King (Boss)RankKingLevel40Skills????

Level 40?!?

Everyone stepped back. The gigantic wurm towered above us, a slimish sounding voice filled with anger rose from the back of our mind. “You dare come to the floor I reign and cause trouble! You and the ones that came before keep slaughtering my family!” What? Monsters can send messages through the mind?

Nick holding his blade ran forward along side James, James didn’t dare to try to pull a sneak attack. “Elizabeth, Sean, Dante!” Nick yelled, “Run to the gate, we’ll hold it off and follow behind!” I stood still, afraid of what might happen. Is everyone going to die?

“Dante! Hurry!” Elizabeth was close to the gate, and was yelling out towards me. Huh? The scene flashed through my mind, Nick and James were knocked away by the wurm, who afterward turned around towards the gate. It shot forward at Elizabeth in its path. Shit. She was the only one who has actually cared about me since I got here! I began to run, picking up my pace I dropped the bag on the ground. After losing the bag, my body felt even better than when I first received the buff. The speed was even faster than the wurm, rushing towards Elizabeth I reached my hand out. Swoosh!

Argh! Rasheek slammed against my back, my health was disappearing and was almost empty. I’m going to die...

I laid on the ground, it felt like a chunk of flesh had been ripped out of my back.

“Dante!” Elizabeth yelled, a surge of warmth surrounded my body. My back began to slowly heal, Elizabeth ran over and kneeled at my side. “Dante, are you ok?” she said with a worried look.

“Elizabeth, the giant wurm is still here. What are you doing?!” I yelled.

“Don’t worry anymore,” Nick’s voice resounded the surroundings. The air began to heat up, as I looked towards Nick I noticed his body had a red and white aura. Combination of holy and fire power?

“You’ve made me get serious,” Nick was calm still, even in a situation such as this. Nick wielding the katana, flicked his wrist. White flames lined the surface of the katana, the light got brighter and brighter. He disappeared and appeared next to the giant wurm in a flash. Rasheek’s body was flung to the side like a rag doll. Nick began laughing, “So, this is the power of awakening!” He disappeared once again and appeared on the opposite side, with a slash he cut through the body. The ground began to shake.

Warning! Rasheek has been enraged! (Rasheek has gained more power!)

Rasheek, twisted dodging the next slash and bolted forward towards Nick. Nick blocked with the flat side of his blade and was launched backwards. A green circle appeared underneath Rasheek, with a smash it fell to the ground. It tried to raise it’s head but was smashed yet again into the desert floor. Nick was seen again walking slowly, with his arm pointed at Rasheek, mumbling words. He stopped and dashed forward. A streak of white light was left behind him, he appeared above Rasheek’s head, falling and stabbing his blade into it. The white flames on the blade surged and bursted. He pulled out the blade, “Well.. fair enough.” He fell off the body and crashed into the desert with a thump.

Elizabeth picked up her staff and ran towards Nick. She kneeled down next to him and began healing his body like she did to me. James was laying unconscious meters away from where the fight took place. He used both of his daggers to block at the last second. Damn…

I raised my palm, and rested my head against it. My vision slowly faded to black.

*****************

Thanks to Son of Kasei for editing!

Otherwise, finally some action this chapter!

I hope you enjoyed the read!