Three levels from a single fight, well, more like a single attack. At his level, he wondered how many people could accomplish the same feat. Then he remembered the flaming sword of the hero, or his brother's ice blade and figured they could have done the same to this group of enemies. Though he doubted their attacks would be as explosive as his. Not that it was necessarily a good point, as he wiped the blood from his cheeks. As soon as he came to, Red had told him what his attack did, and he was most stunned by the damage he had done to himself. He dragged himself off the ground slowly, using a little energy to form something to prop his back against.

Red had healed him enough to move, but his body felt strained. It was as if he had sprinted nonstop for days, and only just managed to collapse. So, it had taken a significant amount of effort to sit up. Wasting no more energy, he started meditating with his inhuman hibernation skill. This was one of his strongest skills in his opinion since it healed him in his entirety. His fatigue and strain were washed away by the magic, though it did take several minutes. He was probably taking his situation too lightly, but he just wasn’t worried about a surprise attack in here. His mana territory had enough range that he could react to any attack that entered. And if he couldn’t, it simply meant the attack was unavoidable for him either way.

He meditated until he felt Luke enter the range of his skill and opened his eyes to him in greeting. The gesture was enough, as Luke had been looking at Mash before approaching him. Mash saw the others too, an expectant gleam in all of their eyes. Mash held his hand up sticking out three fingers proudly. Jill didn’t seem impressed, and her response told him why.

“Honestly, I expected more. That’s how many I got from cleaning up your scraps.”

She winced as she finished her sentence, saying a silent apology to the used-to-be humans. That apology reminded Mash of what his attack had really accomplished. He had ended the lives of over a hundred innocent people, and that was after they had undergone a torturous transformation. He was not a paragon of righteousness, and he knew it but this was a bit much even for his sensibilities. The class system did little to ease his turmoil, and Mash realized that his earrings were the things that let him remain calm.

Mash was a little surprised to hear that Jill had gained the same number of levels. Even though she was a few levels lower, he didn’t see many living monsters when he came too and doubted that she could have killed more than twenty. The fact that it had been enough to gain three levels supported his theory that this dungeon was a special case for one reason or another. Mash pushed the thoughts out and stood up. He found his footing easily; his recovery having finished while his friends fought.

“One more room to go. Hopefully.”

Mash spoke clearly, the tiredness having washed away completely. His friends though weren’t of the same opinion and chastised him loudly. It degraded to them throwing insults at him while they sat down and began their own recovery. Mash stood guard, avoiding looking at the devastation created from his attack. He didn’t want to consider the number of people that had been killed by his attacks. Shaking his head, he tried to think about it in a different way. After struggling with it for a while, he settled for thinking that they were already dead and that he was freeing them from the torture. He couldn’t make himself fully believe that though and considered whether he caused this with his fate.

The damn knowledge of his future, caused him to struggle with all the events that happened around him. Surely, he couldn’t be blamed for them, but each time something happened it caused him to remember the World Carrier’s words. Too many things were happening around him, and he didn’t believe it could all be a coincidence. The obvious events revolved within his mind, and he was stuck ruminating on the thoughts.

His family was famous, each of his siblings had powerful classes that destined them for bright futures, but a part of his mind warned him that they had received them for a reason. They were too connected to Mash and were similarly intertwined with his fate. His friends and the events that they were pulled into were obvious enough, each dungeon visit having been chaotic in one way or another. Even the capital visit had become much more complicated, from the mysterious items to the tournament. It really seemed like he was at the center of a jumble of string, and each thread was another chaotic event.

Each event didn’t break him though, and he had only grown stronger from each event. It was to the point that he was growing more worried about those around him rather than himself. The gap wasn’t that wide right now, but his rate of growth and desire for it was beyond what the others could keep up with. However, he didn’t want to leave them behind either. Seeing his friends do one thing or another to help them recover, Mash thought about what he could do to help them keep up. His mind wandered to different plans, and before he knew it his friends had finished their recovery.

Once they were ready, the group departed. It was a longer walk than Mash expected, and he got to see the full damage his attack had inflicted. This close to the viscera, he could smell the burning pieces of flesh, and the melted misshapen metal from the heat. The walk had shown him some of the power that one of his rank could achieve. Considering what he had managed, lead him to think about what those above him could do. How did the kingdom maintain peace, when at his level he could destroy a small town?

The question bothered him more than he thought it would, having never really considered the damage that simply having power could cause. Mash believed that this was one of the reasons that classes had become so guided with time. One of the ways the kingdom-maintained order was through various methods of controlling what classes the general public ended up with. Mash stopped his thoughts from wandering, taking advantage of his earrings to refocus on the upcoming fight.

The door was indeed as large as he expected, each standing over triple his height. The size didn’t bother him too much, and he knew that it could be opened by any of them. Well, maybe not Jill since her strength hadn’t improved much recently. Luke pushed open the doors, everyone else was prepared to launch some attack into the entrance. It was unneeded though, and Mash was greeted by an empty room. It was a large empty circle, several pathways indicated that he needed to move to the center of the room. Mash didn’t notice anything dangerous, the metal floor was simply painted on, white lines drawing out the pathway. Once they got to the center, the paint on the floor lit up and they saw several white circles lighting up in the distance. Mash didn’t know what was happening but saw the first monsters appear in the circles at the distance.

They were more abominations of humans mixed with another creature. A few were like the spider people from earlier, but he also saw some that were awkwardly attached to wolves and dogs. Each creation was vile, and their movements disturbed him. He was stuck staring at the monster and only started attacking when his earrings kicked in. Normally, he had trouble feeling the effect, but the past few instances had been such a drastic change from his thought process that it was noticeable. Priscilla was quick on the uptake and formed a simple outline for him. Lightning was not necessary yet, and he formed a series of rushing blades that crawled across the ground. It stabbed into the wolf body of the first monster, collapsing from his magic and the human head got trampled under the feet of another.

When the first monster died, he heard the laughter start. The scene reminded him of the colosseum, but it was much more gruesome and depressing than he remembered. These monsters weren’t very dangerous when they killed them at a distance, only letting Luke handle the nearby monsters. Somehow, he was impervious to the weird effect that caused his body to twist, and they were able to butcher the monsters easily. Mash was uncertain if these creatures would have the same effect as the ones outside, but nobody would test it as it was obviously too dangerous. It didn’t take long to be surrounded by a series of corpses, and he saw the creature that was laughing in the distance.

As he suspected it was the thing that had laughed at him earlier, and he saw it behind some kind of glass wall. Its appearance startled Mash, as it was wearing some kind of cloth. Long white robes draped from its body going out of sight beneath where the glass ended. Since Mash could see the creature so clearly, even at this distance he figured it was large enough to use the doors like they were appropriately sized. The smile was wide, and it did in fact bend upwards until it split the eyes into two parts. It was humanoid to an extent, as in he could identify all the parts a human would typically have, but it all seemed out of place and unordinary. It had more than just the four eyes, and he counted seven before stopping. Mash thought that he saw another pop up when he finished with the previous one and realized that it was messing with him. It acted like some kind of oversized child, each of is actions only causing him more discomfort. It revolted him more as he thought about it and focused on the next set of monsters that arrived.

These were opposite to the previous creatures who were more beast than human. These were much more humanoid, with only a few animalistic features. They were even dressed in ways that made their attack styles obvious. At least he thought so until one of the ones with a magical staff ran at him, and another with a great sword started channeling a spell. Rolling his eyes at the image, Mash leaped from his circle. It was clear that standing in the center wasn’t helping him, and instead chose to fully encase his body with wood. He pulled his mask from his storage space and fit it as a faceplate from the wooden armor. It clung to his body like a thick bodysuit, the scales and scars giving it a ghastly appearance.

He slammed into the melee wizard and was surprised when he was thrown back from the force. Whatever this thing was, it was stronger than him by a lot, and he instead channeled his energy into forming two enormous tails that replicated Priscilla. It stabbed into the wizard, able to pierce through its robes easily. Then the mouth opened and ripped the body in half. Mash quickly made some guesses about the situation, as the creation devoured the remains. The wizard fired a simple fireball, but it lacked the same power as the fighter and confirmed his suspicions. This was enough to make him realize that this wall was just a game. He turned again facing the glass pane in the distance. A plan sprung in his head as he saw it, and Mash left his opponents stumbling behind and headed towards Jill.