"Our biggest problem right now is that newcomers, who replenish our ranks most of the time, don't carry any weapons with them. What makes the situation worse is that most of them don't have any experience when it comes to fighting such creatures. I admit, sometimes people join the dungeon with experience, but these are rare, and to be honest, most of them die because they end up overestimating themselves. As for now, we have to fight against these low intelligent mutant creatures since they've overrun the first floor," admitted Alex.

'Why do I have to cross the tower at the wrong time!?' went through Gab's head.

Seeing how depressed the young boy was, Alex merely chuckled.

"I would recommend that you join us temporarily. Sure, other groups may have more to offer. But I see it as my duty as an experienced veteran to temporarily help the inexperienced newcomer," Alex told him while offering his hand to Gab.

A smile formed on the latter's face as he took the hand and replied, "I'll gladly join you."

"We humans are divided into several groups, which regularly clean the beasts in the lower levels. But whenever we meet each other, it can also quickly end up tragic here. Basic goods such as clean water and alcohol to disinfect your wounds are rare commodities here in the dungeon.

Our goal is to find the next entrance as fast as possible and find our way to the fifth dungeon floor," Alex told Gab as the latter devoured his ratio.

But before he could continue with his narration, Gab interjected him: "But why the 5th dungeon floor? Didn't you state earlier that it was the former home of the parasite queen?"

"Well, that's true, but on the 5th floor, there is also the first safe resting place. There you will also see the other groups that have formed," Alex explained it to Gab, who was eagerly listening. The rest of the group members were silent the whole time.

And with that, Alex ended his narration, and the group grew more lively. Gab still felt like an outsider since he didn't know anyone outside of Alex. It took a short while before one of them approached him. To his surprise, it was one of the girls. She had a concerned look on her face and asked him quietly: "Did you see two young women?"

"Yes, I think I saw two young women getting overrun by a horde of monsters right in front of my eyes and..."

The woman immediately cut him short, asking him with a shaky voice: "Why didn't you save them?"

Alex who had been listening to their conversation sighed before interrupting the girl's tantrum.

"Jessica… Your sister is dead. Nothing can be done about it."

The girl still trembled, and her anger towards Gab, who didn't do anything to save her sister, was clearly visible.

'WHAT THE HELL DOES THIS GIRL EXPECT FROM ME??? I DON'T EVEN HAVE A FUCKING WEAPON. HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO EVEN SAVE TWO GIRLS, ESPECIALLY TWO WHO I DON'T EVEN KNOW OF!?' cursed Alex loudly in his mind.

Tears began streaming down her face. One could hear her sentence deranging into gibberish with every passing second, as her mumbling grew from: " She was so young. It should have been me…" to "Wh-why?"

Alex, who felt pity for Jessica, hugged her tightly. On the other hand, Jessica pounded weakly against his chest as she continued her weeping for her sister's death.

Gab felt pity for her. The scene which unfolded in front of him made him pray. 'Hopefully, my brothers won't die so fast. May our dear writer and narrator give all my siblings plot armor to survive this madness of a world.'

「Unfortunally, the narrator isn't allowed to comment on the matter if his siblings have the privilege of getting a plot armors at all. Live doesn't seem to be fair.」

Alex hugged her and whispered, "Please don't give up and let your younger sister's death be in vain. We will avenge your sister. … We will kill the parasite on the upper floors. Each of its descendants will be trampled under our feet and wiped out. I promise you," Alex whispered into her ear while trying to comfort a crying girl.

'Am I in a teenage romance novella now, or why is the cliched comforting scenario happening. We're on a freaking floor with monsters, and the only thing we're doing is chilling. We're all so going to die,' were the thoughts running through Gab's head as he looked at the two with a forced smile.

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

Somewhere else, a young boy armed with a spear ran through the forest while a group of hogs ran behind him.

"Young master. Show these guys. I believe in you," Otaz shouted to Az while jogging next to him with a smile.

'Why can't you just help me, instead of annoying me like that,' went through Az's head before he cursed loudly: "If I hesitate for even a moment, I will die."

Az was aware that his endurance would not last much longer, so he decided to climb up the tree.

"Otaz, pass me the bow, please," Az said as he continued to climb onto a tree branch.

By now, he was around 2 meters above the ground while a bunch of wild boars gathered below him.

"Are you sure that you want the bow and not the scythe," Otaz asked, who was standing on a different branch, handing him the bow.

"Yes, how am I supposed to use a scythe in this scenario," cursed Az while aiming at the pigs.

To Az's favor, hitting them from two meters away wasn't that hard. The pigs squealed as they periodically ran into the tree. A couple of them jumped up frequently, which Az took advantage of to stab them with his iron spear, wounding one after another, till they retreated. Of the 20 pigs, 8 died in total.

"Not bad young man," Ogron applauded before collecting the dead animals.

"Only 100 more to go."

"Excuse me? The mission only wanted to kill 15 of these pigs, not 100." Az replied.

"I don't care. I expect it. Put effort into it," Ogron told him with a wry smile.

'Ogron, I should have never disturbed your endless sleep!!!' went through Az's head.

"Keep listening to mommy. The bow fits you best," said Simaev, who suddenly stood on the tree and pinched Az's cheek.

"Please leave my cheeks alone," Az sighed, but the latter merely responded with: "never."

For the rest of the day, Az continued to hunt wild boars, but in the end, he got close to 30. Despite this exhausting hunt, Az gained some experience when it came to fighting against pigs and other animals in that weight range.

Around evening, the hunting stopped and got replaced with weapon training. This time it was the scythe and the spear. In any case, a spear was easier to handle for Az than a scythe.

The spear training mainly consisted of how to handle a spear and the steps. Ogron seemed to find that more important than teaching Az any fancy move. Whenever he made an incorrect move, Ogron hit him with the shaft of his own bone spear against the back of his head, which didn't make his training that pleasant.

"Master Ogron, sometimes I wish I had the chance to live a normal child's life, where I would have time to relax," Az sighed while doing the footsteps.

"Sucks, doesn't it? If only YOU DIDN'T DISTURB MY RESTING PEACE. Then you wouldn't be forced to train like a maniac," Ogron remarked as he hit Az again on the back of the head.

"My head," Az grumbled.

After seeing how Az slowly lost any will to continue his training, Ogron changed his mind.

"Well, that's enough for today. Your body will be screwed tomorrow. We will then move on to the basics of magic," Ogron mentioned while reading a book on magic for beginners.

"Master, why are you even reading such a book. You're not even a beginner anymore," Az asked, confused.

"I'm not. But you know things change over time, and theories get replaced. I'm curious about how much the fundamentals of magic have changed so far. Also, I'm so old that my knowledge of magic is rusty on the basics. I mean, I don't know how far behind you lag from your fellow mages, who are also at your age range. Furthermore, I'm not aware of what exactly they expect from you," Ogron stated.