As he became Selene’s new pet, Arthur got a free entry to the notorious 6th floor. It was much smaller than the 5th floor and only had four cells as well as a big red Magical Rune engraved on the ground.

Besides one man, there were no guards on this floor.

‘The Black Guard.’

Gastin had mentioned this man, who was supposedly the one in charge of all the guards and someone whose authority was second only to the Warden.

The Black Guard, dressed in a light jet-black armor with similarly-colored black sheathe holstered in his waist, stiffly bowed to Selene and Bernard.

The girl didn’t pay the man much attention, and he didn’t seem to mind it either. He just stood at the back, his face stoic and body motionless like a statue.

He had his hand behind his back and his eyes fully-open and scanning everything.

He noticed the black mouse, but he offered no comments nor did he seem to have noticed anything, fortunately.

Just like before, Bernard Capilla deactivated the rune for a split second as Selene and Zenzo stepped inside.

‘He’s using that bronze badge to manipulate the Magical Formation. Is it somesort of artifact?’

Arthur had managed to confirm Christopher’s identity, at last. He no longer had any reservations about his plan to break his ‘brother’.

The man on the 5th floor was undoubtedly Christopher, the man Arthur had grown up with. There was no denying it, and it wasn’t just because that inmate looked exactly like him.

If they just looked the same, it could be a coincidence, no matter how uncanny it was. Because of that, Arthur looked for something else, something that was distinct to the Christopher he knew.

For example, a small tattoo on his right. A tattoo of clumsily-drawn black wings with the letter ‘I’ in-between.

The tattoo was the decisive factor, which confirmed Arthur’s suspicion and made him feel sad yet happy, oddly enough.

Christopher’s appearance here meant two things: First, he had died on Earth. Second, he must have experienced the same thing as him, to a degree at least.

While Arthur became a parasite, Christopher was ‘taken’ to Astria.

‘Could it be that man who claimed to be ‘X’? No, Chris isn’t stupid enough to fall for him. Then who or what orchestrated all this? Knowing what I know, a powerful God might be involved.’

..

“Darling! I’m back again!”

Selene excitedly dashed close to the cell and lovingly greeted the inmate. As per usual, the only response she got was silence, which didn’t bother her at all.

At such a distance, even Arthur could see the muscular and bronze-skinned man locked inside.

‘A Southerner? I don’t recognize him.’

He turned his small head to other cells, but they were much smaller than this one and really dark, as if done purposely to hide the identities of the other 6th-floor prisoners.

‘Considering the layout of the preceding floors, this one is simply too small. There must be something else in here. Maybe the Shadow Pit is connected to this floor specifically? I’ll have to investigate that and the trapdoor on the 2nd floor.’

“Look at my new pet!” Selene raised the parasite and showed it to the disinterested man.

“Isn’t it pretty cute? It’s not running away either!”

Surprisingly, the man, who was doing push-ups, suddenly stopped and walked towards the thick metal door.

He first gazed at the black mouse and then at the Warden.

“The pill.”

Bernard let out a grunt of annoyance and retrieved a black pill from his pocket. He threw it toward the inmate, who swallowed it on the spot and sat in a meditating position.

“Is this really necessary?”

With a sad and pitiful expression, Selene looked at the man, whose skin turned slightly red and his veins bulged in unnatural way. He was twitching from time to time due to the excruciating pain he was going through.

“It would be problematic if his power ran rampant, My lady.” Kindly explained the old man while intensely staring at the prisoner, making sure he was processing the effects of the pill.

“But why? It’s not like he’ll pose any trouble if he doesn’t take the pill. I don’t want my darling to be in pain.”

Seeing her snort and raise her voice, Bernard prepared himself to calm her down lest she started throwing a tantrum, which was a pretty common thing.

Out of nowhere, however, one of the other inmates lightly tapped on his door and peeked his head.

“What do you want?!”

Bernard seemed displeased to see the man suddenly become active and reveal himself. Even the Black Guard tensed up, his hand resting on his sheathe.

The inmate was a man of average and forgettable face, two hollow eyes, a short nose that ended up in a blunt plane.

His eyes darted from one person to the other before resting on the black mouse for several seconds.

“Nothing.”

He muttered that word and then retreated back into the darkness.

The conversation between Selene and her ‘lover’ was pretty much one-sided and very awkward. After half an hour of rambling, she grew tired and left the 6th floor after promising to come back as soon as she could.

She was escorted outside, in which the black mouse jumped out of her hands and darted away.

Selene, as well as Zenzo, chased after it but thanks to its small size and impressive mobility, it quickly disappeared from their view.

As he successfully escaped from them, Arthur could hear the spoiled girl complain and blame her Knight for its pet’s escape.

The rest of the day was relatively uneventful, at least until Arthur went to the Easternmost room of the 2nd floor, which was an unused storage.

There, when he retrieved back his storage artifact, he immediately felt a reaction. He slipped into the room at the dead of the night and with the use of [Mist of Decay]. He was still possessing Kezar and couldn’t stay outside of his cell for long, nevertheless, the guards weren’t that active at night and he had gotten used to their patrol schedule, so the feat of leaving and exploring the area had become significantly easier.

‘It’s the orb!’

It was the transparent orb he had gotten from Nader’s acquaintance. The item parasites used it to communicate with each other in times of need.

The orb letting out subtle magical vibrations meant that it was a call of distress from another parasite.

‘The timing is definitely strange. Nader didn’t go into details, neither did the Black Market Broker, but…’

The System provided some exposition on the artifact’s simple but useful functions. The Call of Distress was divided into types, long-ranged and short-range. The one Nader was planning to respond to was, apparently, long-range.

However, short-range Call of Distress provided more ‘information’, so to speak.

Arthur examined the orb and saw an arrow pointing directly down.

‘Could it be?!’

The only odd occurrence that happened today was the unknown inmate on the 6th floor.

‘He’s a parasite? Is that why the Magical Formation reacted to me? It would make sense. Since they have a parasite locked up in here, they would naturally take precautions, big or small.’

Arthur held no affection towards the other parasites, nor did he feel indebted to any of them. The Call of Distress notwithstanding, he didn’t feel obligated to act or save that prisoner.

Admittedly, that parasite might be able to help him breakout, but he was on the 6th floor.

‘If the Shadow Pit is indeed connected to the prison, then, during the escape, it would be better to go down instead of up. I’m going to make sure the Magic Formation is broken, which will give me some leeway… and breaking out the prisoners on the 6th floor would be a good idea as they’ll act as a distraction. There is, however, the Black Guard, whom I might be able to defeat if I use the Cydian Knight’s body. No no no… that would be too reckless and I won’t have that much time to act. Hoping to breakout without fighting anyone is ridiculous, but I’ll need to keep Chris close and safe. I need to exactly write down the necessary steps to be taken and prepare for all eventualities. No matter the cost, I am not leaving here without you... Chris.’