Jake and Sylphie won the race to kill two Beast Kings before Dina, the Fallen King, and Sword Saint. Their victory wasn’t by a little either but by more than two weeks, giving them plenty of time to mess around and catch up with the three others. The Unique Lifeform complained about them being faster at crossing large distances, something Jake just saw as a bad excuse.

After killing all four Beast Kings, they had expected the floor to be over, and if it wouldn’t be, then for there to spawn some Beast Emperor or something for them to fight. None of that happened. Instead, the kingdom they could have potentially allied with teleported over an army with the aim of taking down their party with the reasoning that a group of five capable of killing all four Beast Kings was too dangerous for the kingdom’s political stability.

In summary, the insecure king was afraid they would create trouble, and he hoped that after defeating the final Beast King, they would be hurt or tired. A silly hope indeed.

Jake was all ready for a fight, but the Sword Saint annoyingly so talked down the general of the kingdom and reached an agreement with the contingency that Jake and company would leave the planet while spinning a lie to the populace that they were actually hired by the kingdom to defeat the Beast Kings, giving all the credit for the feat to the kingdom and king.

It was all bullshit, and Jake would have preferred to just blast the bastards for trying to backstab them, but the old man wasn’t a fan of that solution. He talked about how the stupidity of a leader should not lead to the death of the average soldier and that they would get nothing out of slaughtering an army of innocents just for a slight born out of insecurities and fear.

After they had negotiated with the kingdom, they got a group of space mages to help them teleport off the planet and thus floor by using one of the treasures hoarded by a Beast King. Once they arrived in the in-between room, Jake did voice his dissatisfaction, only to get a semi-scolding, semi-explanation from the Sword Saint.

“Think about it from their perspective. Five people of immense power arrive on their planet and instantly volunteer to take down the four Beast Kings that have caused trouble for the kingdom for centuries. Within two months, they then proceed to kill every single Beast King within their lairs, all while refusing to engage or involve the kingdom in any way. We are complete unknowns in their eyes and could, in many ways, be worse than the Beast Kings. At least the Beast Kings stuck to their own territories while we have no such inclinations. What would happen if we decided we wanted to take control? What could they do against us? No, from their point of view, striking us while we were still weak from a fight with a Beast King would be their final hope at retaining their own autonomy from five overlords taking over the only world they have ever known.”

Jake did have to admit that the old man made sense… he just didn’t like backstabbing assholes, no matter how they wanted to justify it.

“Their assumptions were shit. We had done nothing to provoke them or even once mentioned we wanted to take over anything. In fact, I am pretty sure we said we were just going to kill the four Beast Kings and then move on. Can you argue they didn’t trust us and reached their own dumb conclusions? Sure thing, but what am I gonna do with that? Rather than me asking them, they should ask us first to clarify what we actually wanted to do,” Jake shot back.

“When one party is in a higher position of power, it is difficult to approach them and ask their intent in such a straightforward manner,” the old man sighed. “We are in a unique position, not just as people on a floor in Nevermore, but in the multiverse as a whole.”

“So you think we should clarify with anyone who comes to kill us if they are at least doing it under the right pretenses before fighting back and potentially hurting them? Oh, geez, I guess I fucked up when I killed two of Ell’Hakan’s goons when they first invaded Earth. Should have asked them if they were super sure they wanted to fight first, I guess.”

“Now you are just being hyperbolic. Each situation is unique and should be evaluated with such uniqueness in mind,” the Sword Saint said, shaking his head.

Jake was about to say more as the Fallen King cut in.

“I thought we were done with the floors about morals and norms?” the Fallen King questioned in a mocking tone. “And as far as I am concerned, any aggressor is fair game. You may argue they have their reasons, but they also had a choice. While it is true the regular soldier had little choice, there is always some level of choice. If you claim they didn’t truly have any choice, then what choice did these Beast Kings have? What choice did the beasts guarding their territories have? For you never argued the innocence of the beasts you slaughtered on your way to the Beast Kings nor tried to negotiate with them.”

“I can admit that my view is flawed, and I inherently treat the enlightened races differently than beasts or monsters. You are right in pointing out the hypocrisy… but I still think that should there be a chance to choose diplomacy over violence, it is worth the attempt,” the Sword Saint sighed. “Do you disagree with that assessment?”

“No, I am saying that it doesn’t matter either way to me. Spare, kill; I am only here for the Nevermore Points, nothing more, nothing less. So I will do whatever entails earning the most points,” the Unique Lifeform stated pretty plainly. “Things are no different outside of here either. Whichever choice brings the most benefit with the least demerits is the one I will choose.”

“But how will you determi-“ the Sword Saint began.

“Ree,” Sylphie interrupted him.

“I think it is-“

“Ree.”

“Bu-“

“Ree.”

The old man stood defeated before the small hawk that looked annoyed at him. Truly, Sylphie did have the best philosophy that one could never argue with. A creature of perfect diplomacy that would forever choose the best option in any situation through her ultimate sage advice:

“Just follow the wind. The wind never likes the baddies.”

Truly, words rivaling the wisdom of the First Sage himself.

“To change the topic… I do wonder where the loot went. After floor forty, it just disappeared without any prompt or warning,” the Fallen King voiced his thoughts on a completely different subject.

“I think you were meditating when we talked about it, but Dina had a theory,” Jake said, nodding to the dryad.

“Right,” Dina nodded, having stayed out of their discussion earlier. “There are certain laws of balances, and it is possible the system won’t give about any more loot after a certain point. It is also possible this was done to combat overflowing the market of C-grades with equipment. On many of the floors, you can still gather some raw materials if you want, and it wouldn’t strike me as odd if there were even characters on some of these floors capable of crafting things. Even if they can’t, there is no lack of crafters spread out across the city floors.”

“I see. That does logically make sense,” the Unique Lifeform nodded. “Though I still believe rewards should be given for completing each floor. Outside of Nevermore Points, that is.”

“I definitely agree with that,” Jake grinned. More loot was always better, and not getting any sucked.

Alright, it wasn’t entirely accurate to say they didn’t get any loot. As Dina said, then there was stuff to obtain on the floors; it just didn’t come in nice boxes. On floor forty-six, as an example, the Fallen King had taken one of the unique treasures, while Dina had taken another as she could use it. There wasn’t just equipment or new weapons lying around, true, but there were raw materials and natural treasures here and there, though they were a lot scarcer than on a “real” planet.

“Too much of a good thing can ruin the market…” Dina pointed out.

“It’s okay as long as I am the one with the most good things,” Jake grinned to lighten the mood.

The old man just shook his head, and the Fallen King solemnly nodded, Sylphie even giving a screech in approval.

Anyway, they didn’t actually know why they didn’t get any loot, but there was probably a reason, right?

Not wasting any more time with philosophical debates or talks about how much loot they did or didn’t deserve, they dove back into the dungeon. Even if they didn’t agree on everything, they were still all professionals who could put aside personal feelings to achieve the best results.

There was still a long time to go and many dungeons floors before they hit the cap for how difficult floors they could do… and once they did hit this cap, it was time to do some Challenge Dungeons.

Carmen really wasn’t a fan of these damn morality floors or whatever the fuck that big space lizard decided to call them. Floor forty-one had been a bloody nightmare, and not just because of how creepy the place had been, but because she was still more than a little salty after floor forty.

The Minaga fight was something she had been looking forward to… but that shit had turned out to be way more difficult than any one of them had expected. Ultimately, they had weak links in their group, and that had bitten them in the ass during the phase where they were all split up.

Warlord Davion and the druid in the party were both bloody excellent and had come out of their one-on-one fights way faster than she had. The problems were the seer and shaman. The shaman had managed to hold on but was too injured to really be of much use for the final phase, and the seer had gotten her ass kicked out nearly instantly when she was alone. She had already been pretty fucking useless in Minaga’s Labyrinth due to his interference with divination magic, but in the fight, she had just been deadweight. Worse than deadweight… she had actually hurt them by being in the party. Her magic didn’t do shit to Minaga, as she mainly did mental magic and illusions, neither of which worked on the Unique Lifeform. So her only contribution to the fight was losing them points and forcing them to constantly protect her in the first phase.

It only helped slightly to learn that at least that guy Casper and the Risen had also failed to do the Minaga fight without losing someone. It had helped a bit more to learn that the Holy Church had lost three members, including that Bertram guy who ended up taking down the Minaga with some insane suicide attack that ended phase three just as it began. Ah, but it was a bit sad to hear that Caleb’s group hadn’t even been able to face Minaga properly but just had to find another damn Demon Lord with a clone of Minaga only there to occasionally fling in spells to make it harder. The same appeared to have happened to Maria and her party.

From what she had learned, the only parties that did the Minaga fight without any losses – of the people she knew or had heard of, that is – were the odd ones or the ones she had really expected to do it. One of them was naturally Jake and his ridiculous party, which was really expected, while another was that weird scientist guy named Arnold, who Gudrun had warned her about not making an enemy for some reason. Carmen wasn’t sure why, as the guy didn’t seem that dangerous on the surface, but then again, the quiet ones did tend to be the ones you didn’t wanna fuck with.

Besides that, Eron had also succeeded with his group of monks. It did suck to hear that bastard Ell’Hakan who had attacked their planet also completed the fight flawlessly based on the intel one of Valhal’s agents told them during a brief on the city floor. To see her party members celebrate him had been a bit hard to swallow, but she kept her mouth shut to not stir the pot and reveal anything she shouldn’t.

It had been extra hard to keep things under wraps, as her party had gotten quite a bit more interested in her and her origins after the Minaga floor… mainly because of the ridiculous intel on her fellow Earthlings, which had led to quite a few questions and subtle probes.

“Your planet is odd,” Davion had said to her in an attempt to break the ice on the subject while they were flying on the barge right after arriving on what they later discovered was a bloody plague-themed floor. This was his first time bringing up the subject directly, and Carmen got the vibes he wasn’t going to hold back.

“Yep,” she just agreed.

“The Unique Lifeform, I understand, is originally from a Tutorial, so that is explained… the Sylphian Hawk also seems related to the Malefic One’s Chosen’s special ability to influence monster Origins. That Judge is also easily explained as he is the brother of the Malefic Viper’s Chosen, so that could just be a case of nepotism. However, that does not explain all the other outliers. A transcendent swordsman, a Risen with enough talent to be recognized by the Blightfather, another individual with an odd Bloodline now part of the Dao Sect, an Augur of Hope. Then there is that enigmatic man who entered a pact with a Void God yet remains human. This isn’t even mentioning you. It just all seems highly unlikely for so many talents to appear on the same planet at once,” Davion voiced the thoughts of everyone in the group. Well, besides maybe the ranger that they had joined them after floor forty to replace that bloody useless seer. Carmen didn’t really have time to talk to that gal much yet.

“I agree,” Carmen just nodded.

“You don’t question it?” Davion raised an eyebrow.

“Nope.”

“Most would. Do you not see problems in the future when too many powerful forces gain an interest in your planet? A curiosity like that will attract attention whether you like it or not,” he continued.

“Oh, sure, I see a bunch of problems for Earth. That doesn’t mean they are my problems. Valhal is in a pretty bad position there already due to the planet pretty much belonging to the Chosen of the Malefic Viper now, and I guess they are just waiting to toss us out or something,” Carmen said. She had to play a little into that lie where the Order and Valhal were actually in a conflict, right?

“That is true, I suppose. Though I thought you had a good personal relationship with the Chosen of the Malefic One already? Or at least some of his party members?”

“I guess I do,” she shrugged. No use in keeping that a secret after their constant meetings back on that Minaga city floor. “I knew him before this entire conflict, after all, and we are definitely still friendly. Ah, but I do have the go-ahead from the higher-ups.”

Yeah, Carmen was bad at this.

“I see,” Davion nodded as he sighed. “A bit of a shame that even someone of your position will have to make such personal sacrifices, but I one must do what is expected. We are still C-grades and subject to the wills of the higher-ups if we wish to remain with Valhal. Alas, I am sure your dedication will be honored. The Chosen’s unique ability is simply too invaluable to give up on, it seems.”

“What are you talking about?” Carmen asked with genuine confusion.

“You have been tasked with trying to seduce and get close to the Chosen to bring him over to our side, right? That is why you kept meeting with him despite the conflict. That is what I have deduced, anyway,” Davion said without a hint of jest.

Wait, what the fuck?

Carmen was about to curse at him, as she stopped herself. This could… work?

“Yeah, you got me,” Carmen sighed in an exaggerated matter. “But keep it under wraps, okay? Now that you know, you must help me make sure no one else suspects I have a personal relationship with the Chosen before it is time to strike. This is a highly secret mission coming directly from Valdemar and Gudrun themselves.”

Davion’s eyes opened wide as he nodded seriously. “I shall do my utmost. I honor your sacrifice and dedication, Runemaiden.”