- White Day -

Screaming plant monsters really deserve their names and reputations for being noisy.

These green plants had 4 limbs. With their 2 green legs they could run and their arms could be used for attacking. These monsters didn't seem to have any heads, for their heads were their big mouth that kept roaring and crying. On their throats, there were some holes.

"They're so damn noisy!"

Charlotte controlled Shinsu and got rid of most of them, leaving one of the poor screaming plant monsters behind. Whenever she breaks a chain, she felt that her Shinsu- controlling and reading were even better.

"Why are you leaving one behind?" Sachi asked.

Khun was right. With Charlotte around, these people didn't need to do anything. With her power alone, she could finish all the quests quickly, he thought.

Charlotte didn't answer.

Altaira chuckled, "If you are planning to leave one behind to let it haunt the town every single day and night, then forget about it. You have to kill it in order to do another quest."

"What?" Khun looked at her. "Do you have a grudge with the village or something?"

'Except for the free stuffs, I don't like how these people sing poorly and keep cursing my brother in the fruit of good and evil' Charlotte thought. 'They're annoying.'

With a small green vine, she stabbed the last one to death.

Mi- Eum clapped his hands, eyes were twinkling with admiration and amazement, "Wow! Amazing, warriors! You killed the screaming plant monsters in no time!"

"Can we really reduce that black gauge with this kind of thing? It's way simpler than I thought."

"Of course! When you complete quests, your evil gauge goes down! Just so you know, you received 50 good deed points for this!"

After defeating the screaming plant monsters, their evil gauge did decrease. But it was only a little. In order to completely erase the evil gauge, they need to do more missions and to make it faster, they need to finish the higher level missions. But Charlotte wasn't going to tell them that. Well, Khun might have figured it out from the beginning. It was just like a game.

Mi- Eum explained to them that the "champion villains" were different than ordinary villains. They were the villains of the quest that the "Big Breeders" personally gave to the warriors. Mi- Eum said that the existence of the "Big Breeders" were just like Gods, like administrators.

"Ahh~ they say at first, even they~ were just regular data like us~ but one day, they exceeded their limits with their own powers~" Mi- Eum began to sing a song.

'Big Breeders, huh?'

As what Charlotte thought before, Khun had figure out that in order to meet the "Big Breeders" who he strongly believed to know the location of young Zahard, they must complete even dangerous and higher- level missions.

He grinned and tapped the scroll as he came up with a good plan, "Alright. Now things are finally getting interesting."

'You could tell that something bad is going to happen when he makes that sneaky and scheming face' Altaira thought, having an ominous feeling.

≪ ◦ ❖ ◦ ≫

After having a short warming up by defeating some minor villains, Khun decided to take things seriously and chose a C- level villain to deal with. This time, the villain was an octopus.

"W...what the hell is that?" Boro asked in disbelief when he saw a giant octopus, making the "honk" sound. "An octopus this time?!"

"Haha-"

Khun glanced at the brown haired woman. For some reasons, she was rather quiet. He wanted to ask her what was wrong, but Dee had arrived and said some words first.

"You really are courageous! Summoning a terrifying monster like that!" she said as she walked closer.

"What?"

"That octopus was abandoned in waterways of this village after being raised by a hero who visited here long ago and become a monster which has incurred the resentment of the residents here.....it's an octopus king with quite the history!

It's name is octopus Kim!"

".............."

"..........Kim....?"

The name really didn't suit well with the background story that Dee told them. She made it sound like it was a tough monster until they heard its name.

Just Kim.

"If you fail to defeat that octopus, our entire town will be destroyed! This is a tremendous risk! Heroes, please save us!"

".....ah.....r...right...."

Boro noticed something off with the octopus. It kept twitching and twitching like there was something with it. And a moment later, that octopus shot something.

It shot ink! Black ink!

If it was just a little, it won't be a problem. But for an octopus, it released too much ink that really could destroy the city! Altaira thought that Dee was just bluffing and exaggerating things when she said that the octopus could destroy the city, but she told them the truth! Even though he had seen it coming from the book that Charlotte gave him in the first floor, but seeing things directly was different than reading them in a book!

He didn't want to get hit by the black ink. Neither of them wanted. But the question was that whether they could dodge all the black ink?

With lighthouses, Khun formed a barrier to shield them. But even though they weren't hurt by it, the ink still disturbed their visions.

The octopus jumped from the chimney where it was standing and fell towards them.

"Ugh!"

Khun still could hold him off for now. But without Beta around, there was no way for him to use the [Enna Core].

[Somewhere in the Hidden Floor]

Watching how these young warriors completing missions easily without breaking a sweat, the man smirked as he thought of something fun.

"Allow me to increase the level of difficulty just enough to kill them."

At the same time as he said those words, something strange happened to the octopus.

The octopus suddenly gained more strength. Khun could feel the pressure and the force coming from the octopus were getting heavier and at the end, the barrier made by lighthouse showed the sign of cracking before it was destroyed.

"What the hell-!?"

'The lighthouse's barrier...broke?!'

The pieces of the lighthouse's barrier fell right before their eyes. At that moment, both Altaira and Charlotte shared the same thought,

'Big Breeder!'

"RUN!"

The octopus wanted to hit them. But before that could happen, Charlotte had prepared her fan and then swung her fan. Her fan gathered the Shinsu before blowing the octopus away.

"BROTHER!" She shouted.

"I know!"

Altaira who was jumping on the sky formed a lightning spear with Shinsu.

"It seems like we're going to eat a roasted octopus today- BYE BYE! OCTOPUS!"

Before the octopus could hit him, he had thrown that spear towards it, pushing it down to the ground in a high speed.

With the electricity paralyzing the octopus, the octopus couldn't move for now. Taking that chance, Charlotte immediately used the green vines that she had and those green vines soared from the ground towards the octopus.

Dissatisfied to see his octopus was beaten up sooner than what he thought even though he had increased its level once, the same man decided to increase his power again.

"Let's see how will you deal with this."

Altaira was aware that his lightning spear could have stopped the octopus's movements for several seconds, enough for Charlotte to kill it. But to his surprise, the octopus actually moved.

It turned around to face those green vines and shot black ink. With the force from shooting the black ink, the octopus jumped away and stayed on the chimney. Its tentacles were wrapped around the chimney in order to stay there.

Charlotte jumped away. From her hands, green vines were released and they were wrapped around her comrades' waists before she pulled them away. This was to prevent them from getting hit by the black ink. As she pulled four people in the same time, she couldn't help but to feel heavy. She had to strengthen herself with Shinsu to be able to pull them right on time.

'How tough!' Both of them thought in the same time.

'In the manhwa, one of the Big Breeders attempted to kill Khun and the others. Therefore, he strengthened the power of this ugly octopus again and again. Right now, this octopus isn't a C- rank villain, but around an A- rank villain!'

The octopus looked at Altaira who was on the air and then tried to attack him with its black ink.

"Ugh!" He lifted his right arm in defense even though he knew that he wouldn't be able to dodge this one. Considering its force, even though this black ink was harmless and not poisonous, it would have blown it away.

"Brother!"

"Altaira!"

The green vine couldn't reach that far, how will she deal with this situation?

[Time Manipulation Skill- Time Pause]

The octopus suddenly stopped on its movement and when Altaira fell, he landed on a blue lighthouse belonged to Khun.

"Ouch!"

"Altaira!" He called his half- brother from below.

"I'm fine!" Altaira replied.

Now that she had broke in total three chains, her time- manipulation could last for 30 minutes. It was more than enough to defeat this octopus.

Her fan could change into any form. This time, Charlotte changed her fan into a sword.

'I'll use what the pink maiden taught me and cut this octopus into pieces! How dare it tried to attack my brother!'

[Time Manipulation Skill- Acceleration]

Charlotte hated this octopus even more as it attempted to attack Altaira. It wasn't a surprise when she cut the octopus, her movements were even fierce and sharp. Her movements that suddenly became faster made the others surprised yet amazed and within a few seconds, the octopus Kim was cut into pieces and its pieces fell from the air.

"Whoa....."

Charlotte landed on the ground. Her sword was bloody before the blood disappeared and it changed back to its original form, a fan. She kept that fan back to the storage bracelet and returned to the others.

"......your power has increased....." said Altaira, a bit lost. But then he smiled again and raised his thumb with a huge grin, "Cool!"

Charlotte's lips curled into a smile.

It wasn't as easy as what Altaira said. An A- rank villain was indeed an A- rank villain. At least it took longer than what she expected.

After beating up that octopus, they decided to have a rest. While they were resting, a group of singers were singing while cleaning the area of fighting.

Mi- Eum clapped his hands and with a smile walked towards them, "Well done, warriors!"

"Mi- Eum!"

"I'm amazed that you could also defeat the octopus rather easily and quickly!"

Khun was aware that even Altaira's lightning spear didn't seem to work properly on that octopus. He couldn't help but to ask, "Are level- C quests always this hard?"

"I...I'm not sure. We don't decide the difficulty on each level...." Mi- Eum replied, scratching his cheek with his index finger and smiled awkwardly.

When Khun checked the good and evil monitor, he was surprised to see that all the black part was gone. It was supposed to be a C- rank mission, the rewards shouldn't be this much.

And in the same time as they were wondering why the black part suddenly disappeared, there was a door on a sky.

There was a white circle with three balls on the circle. In the middle of the circle, there was a round door, decorated with three balls with same size but different colors; yellow, blue and red. When the door appeared, there was a bright light, but wasn't bright enough to blind their eyes and force them to close their eyes.

"What's that....?!" Khun asked.

"I think it's a gate?!"

Charlotte's and Altaira's expressions turned serious when they saw that door. The Head Village Dee seemed to know what door or gate was that.

"Ohh!!!"

"What?!"

The Big Breeder appeared faster than they thought.

From the three red balls at the outer circle, there was yellow electricity. The door was then opened, revealing a thin middle- aged man. The thin middle- aged man had black short hair with yellow eyes. He also had a mustache and he was holding a light blue spear with his hands on his back.

"It's been awhile" the man said with a smile. "My jesters."

Charlotte and Altaira glared at him.

'The one who increases the level of difficulty, tormenting and treating these people as toys.....'

'The one who wants to kill us....'

'It's him!'

The Big Breeder was just like the administrator in this Hidden Floor. He controlled everything and everyone, including the level of difficulty of a mission. Who else but him could increase the level of the octopus secretly?

'It was this rascal!'

As he made an appearance, there were two guards like toys that were standing right on his sides.

"....welcome. Warriors traveling the tower. I'm known as Chung, the Big Breeder managing this Hidden Floor. I appreciate you driving all of the energy out of this place and I came here to present you with the grand quest. So, after resting for a moment, shall we get started with the grand quest?"

His smile appeared to be friendly when his heart was dark and poisonous. He opened his arms and said to the townspeople there, "In order for the warriors to rest their minds and bodies, SING US A SONG, JESTERS!"

The group of people who should have cleaned that place threw their stuffs away and ran towards them.

"YOU~ WHO PROTECTED OUR BEAUTIFUL TOWN~ CUT THE LEGS OFF A GIANT OCTOPUS~ THEY ARE THE TRUE WARRIORS OF THIS PLACE~"

"..............."

It was getting harder for them to rest with these people singing. Khun really understood that feeling.

After he sighed and held his head, he glanced at something, something that attracted his attention. A good idea crossed his mind as he smirked.

"GREAT~~ WARRI~~ORS~!"

Both Altaira and Charlotte together held their heads, sighing in stress. Altaira then looked at his younger sister and crossed his arms, looking stressful as he asked, "So you are going to tell him right now?"

"Tell what? About it? Don't worry, according to his personality, nothing will change much" said Charlotte as she glanced at Altaira with stressful look. "Even if there might be some change, you could just electrocute Rak until he loses his consciousness."

"Aren't you afraid that he'll bite me if he knows that I electrocuted him and knocked him out later on?"

"Rest assured. Your skin is so thick. Even if he bites you, you wouldn't bleed."

"...........wow. Just... wow....."

He was lost in words and unsure how to reply to her words. It was like... right now there was a tough enemy disguising himself as an ally... arguing right here doesn't feel right for him. He could only hold himself first.

"Charlotte."

Charlotte turned around, looking at the one who called her which turned out to be Khun.

Seeing Khun walking towards his sister, Altaira had an idea what will happen next.

"Is there something wrong?" Charlotte asked him with her usual smile.

Khun had been putting one of his hands on his back. When he approached Charlotte, he put something right on her brown hair which turned out to be a white flower.

The white flower was placed on her right ear. As he put it on her right ear, he put some of her hair behind her ear rather gently. This was something that he rarely did to anyone else.

Charlotte was shocked. Altaira was shocked.

"I found this before and thought that this will suit you well" he said. "And I'm not wrong about it."

Charlotte lowered her head, unable to say a word. Her right hand was on her chest, whole face was burning red. If Khun didn't notice this, then he must be blind already.

"Then...does...it really suit me?"

"Of course" he said. "What? Are you blushing right now?"

Charlotte really wanted to shake her head right now but even if she shakes her head, Khun will still know it's a lie. This man was reading her like a book. It was as if he could guess all her thoughts so it was useless to lie. She was lowering her head not only because she couldn't see him straight to his eyes, but also because she was happy and smiling sincerely.

Khun smiled back in satisfaction.

"Come on. Don't lower your head like that. Can't I look?" He asked to tease her even more.

Altaira who was watching the two of them thought that he should be happy. He was happy but in the same time, he was sad and jealous.

Gloomily, he played with a brown stick while squatting on the ground, irritating some ants that were just passing by while doing their work with it, 'Celeste, Celeste, where are you? I also want to find the only girl I'll give flowers for. Damn author. How could you separate the two of us at such a romantic day? First is valentine and now White Day. Are we really your children?'