“When I said we should go to the tallest tower, I expected things to be a bit more… You know, exciting.” I sulked. “This is kind of lame.”

I couldn’t read Miho’s bug face or Thomas’s lifeless eyes, but I could tell that Ben agreed. Elise scoffed, but I couldn’t tell if it was in agreement or not.

“I think that’s more because your build isn’t that great for what you want to be.” Ben said.

Betrayal! I gasped and gave him my most indignant glare.

“That is true. You’re a support bard, your damage is supposed to be abysmal and your focus should be on making us stronger.” Thomas said. “Unsatisfactory results are to be expected when you go against what you’re good at.”

“But these guys are so much weaker than you! You don’t need buffing!” I rebuffed, my argument genius and bound to convince everyone.

“We also don’t need to grind more levels and skills right away, but you do.” Thomas said without missing a beat. “So you should buff us, so that you can familiarise yourself with your new powers and train these skills up to be worthwhile when the time comes.”

Stupid grown up brains, outwitting mine. He wouldn’t be this clever if he was eleven too, and he had a much higher intelligence score than me, so he was clearly cheating!

Still, he had a point. If I never sang a song, I’d never be good at singing songs and the AI wouldn’t give me any outfits and items to help me be amazing.

Hell, if I sang the right songs, he might even give me an electric guitar! That would be so cool!

I wistfully looked at my lvl2 guitar playing skill, which was surprisingly high considering I could barely play a few chords on my older brother’s guitar before. I- I mean, clearly the AI knew that I would be awesome in no time and gave me a higher skill level in anticipation!

I had hoped that he would give me some kind of guitar earlier, like on the first floor. Maybe he would’ve if I said it out loud what my plan was, because apparently he was actually listening all the time. Even if it would’ve been support only, I would’ve been grinding right away and wouldn’t be so behind the others now!

I didn’t like it. Darryl didn’t seem to mind and Ben grinded even when we were supposed to help me level up, but I still didn’t like having to rely on everyone else to not suck like I did right now.

Well, compared to the rest of my group. We were clearly badasses well ahead of the curve, while most people were being slow lamo’s like the big group I started with!

I stared intently at my guitar skill, knowing that the AI could tell that I did so. Hopefully he’d take the hint. I wisely didn’t stare at my lvl5 Fipple-Blowing skill, because I definitely didn’t want to play a flute in front of my millions of fans! Hella lame! I would’ve never touched the thing if my music instructor hadn’t insisted I had to learn music notes that way!

It was still kinda weird. I looked at my follower count, 31 million and climbing. 31 million people, it was such a big number. If I had that many Tik Tok followers back before the World Dungeon, I would’ve been like the most popular 11-year old ever or something!

Which would’ve been awesome. I totally would’ve been able to ditch school and practice playing the electric guitar full-time, had I been that popular.

I quickly shook my head before my thoughts brought me back to the unpleasant topics that I was headed towards, like my practicing sessions with my older brother who was now… No! Not thinking about it! Lalalalalalala!

Right, singing. I didn’t have an instrument yet, so I would have to sing for the time being. But what songs worked without music?

Nursery rhymes from kindergarten, of course, but those were lame. I’d lose half my fans that way!

And I wanted to keep the good stuff for when I could make them awesome, so maybe I should just start with some pop songs? Like Bruno Mars or Katy Perry?

Might as well. I know the lyrics, at least. Though it was going to be harder to put enough enthusiasm into them. But I obviously couldn’t sing rock songs without a guitar!

“Right.” I said. “So, singing. Anyone have any requests?”

“No Justin Bieber.” Ben immediately said.

“Anything that doesn’t go without saying?” I retorted.

“Just sing something you know, and we’ll see what happens.” Elise shrugged.

Alexa: Hey Livia, how’s Darryl doing?

Livia: I wouldn’t know; my skills only allow me to scry on you.

Alexa: Hey Darryl, how are you doing?

Darryl: I’m fine. There’s this mob called an Assassin Vine down here, but it left me be the moment it noticed I have no flesh to eat.

Thomas: Everything’s going well here too. 23rd floor, so steady progress.

I sighed. Over 20 floors and still nothing but those harpies, giant centipedes and the occasional Facehugger Squirrel. Which weren’t very dangerous when you walked into them. They were dog-sized squirrels with those flaps between their arms and legs that allowed them to glide down, and they lay in wait to paraglide onto someone’s face and then scratch out their eyes or something.

We hadn’t seen them before because we approached the building from the exposed side dominated by the harpies, but we probably would’ve had a whole bunch of these squirrels trying to drop down on us if we approached from any other side. If you found them with their feet on the ground staring intently out of a window, waiting for someone to enter their killing field, they were easy peasy lemon squeezy. And it was kind of sad how they screamed shrilly as they died.

I preferred the harpies. There were more of them, so more experience, and I didn’t feel bad killing those ugly mofos. Which I couldn’t, because Mana Bubble sucked and the others stole my kills before I could kill even a single one!

Maybe songs would be better. I wouldn’t be awesome myself, but at least I would be levelling so that I could maybe be awesome sometime soon.

Right, I’d just do that when the time came. But which song? Hm…

I allowed myself to fall into deep thought as the others climbed up to the next floor. The stairs had been clear these last three floors, so we were rising fast. We skipped the floors we didn’t have to enter outright, as there didn’t seem to be anything interesting to loot or find around there.

There was probably a storyline around to be found if we investigated the place, or so Ben said and the others agreed, but we weren’t actively looking for it. Best not to get too invested or even involved in whatever this Elite was doing.

So we were just climbing the tower and grinding a bit on the way there. That Az-something guy with the cool jacket and the kickass swords that were unfortunately too big for me to wield, damn this small body, was racing us to the top. The others weren’t in a mood to hurry, but we still thought it was a good idea to make sure that jackass wouldn’t get enough time for a thorough investigation.

Argh! I got off track again! Come on, just one song! One song that I can sing without instruments without looking hella lame!

I imagined me singing a few songs, and cringed every time. Definitely not any of the most well-known pop songs, those didn’t work by themselves. I really needed an instrument. Maybe I should sing a golden olden? Yeah, maybe I should.

Alright, I had a song.

As we reached the 24th floor, we were met by a pile of rubble. As was becoming a trend. Several floors worth of stone stairs had collapsed, and it piled up so high that we couldn’t clear it without risking it collapsing in on us.

Well, thus far there had always been a pile of debris beneath a hole in the ceiling or some furniture that was conveniently not rotten soft, to climb on every floor. Sometimes a collapse even ‘conveniently’ served as a ramp. So even if this had been an all human party, we could’ve kept climbing. With spider climb and flight, we could usually circumvent most of these puzzles and climb even faster.

And, flight made sure that we didn’t fall to our death. The floors here could collapse without warning, but that wasn’t a huge deal for most of us. Either you fell just a single floor, or you had enough time to just not keep falling.

Elise opened the door into the 24th floor, and was met with the same decrepit building aesthetic we were used to by now. There was plenty of light coming from the windows and holes in the walls, the same mossy green carpet obscured where the floor would collapse on us, and wooden desks and chairs were rotting away with cobwebs and dust everywhere.

The place looked like an office, but without computers and such because this was a medieval setting. Plenty of places to hide, which meant that those giant centipedes would be around here somewhere.

As it turned out, those creatures were a lot more dangerous if you didn’t have Darryl to render their poisonous bite entirely ineffective. Elise was tough as nails, but a single bite almost killed her! We were a lot more careful after that.

Ben turned into a shadow and slipped into the room. The centipedes didn’t bite at shadows, so he’d be fine.

Miho turned into a Vespa and flew up into the sky. She flew over the desks, occasionally landing on the ceiling to walk a bit, looking for those damned bugs.

Elise closed her eyes and focused, using her wind sense to detect hidden creatures. It barely worked with centipedes, but she found a few squirrels this way before.

And I… I just sat on Thomas’s shoulder and looked at the others being helpful.

I really had to get stronger.

Miho suddenly spat acid, and an angry centipede crawled onto a desk lifting itself up as high as it could to reach the Vespa. Miho just hung from the ceiling looking down at the critter as her acid spit recharged, the bug’s dangerous stinger at a safe distance.

I took off and flew towards the centipede charging my Mana Bubble, while Thomas stayed behind to observe the scene without interfering. Elise rolled her shoulders and took out her bat, but otherwise didn’t move in yet either.

The centipede spotted me and widened its mandibles menacingly as I threw the supercharged Mana Bubble at its ugly face. I blinked in surprise as it actually hit for once, the centipede staggering as it burst open against its face and then faded away.

“Ha! You’re so stupid, not even the AI can make you dodge that!” I cheered.

The centipede shivered, and their health dropped a bit further. A skill called Nasty Tongue jumped to lvl2, and I told myself I should read up on that skill later. Then I began to pelt the bastard with Mana Bubbles.

Miho spat again, and this time she struck the centipede right in the face. Its carapace melted away and exposed its internal organs, and my bubbles immediately became more effective as I was attacking their flesh directly. Well, kinda. The acid already killed it, the bug clinging on to life for just a few seconds before the acid would melt their brain, but I attacked the centipede regardless.

“Who’s next!?” I shouted triumphantly.

The centipedes didn’t answer, because they were rude and uncivilised, but I wouldn’t let that deter me. And thus I… Allowed Miho and Ben to look for enemies while I returned to Thomas.

I sulked as I landed, which Elise ignored. Well, at least she allowed me to go ahead and fight when creatures appeared, even if I had to come back afterwards. The first time we split the group, she just walked over and grabbed me right out of the air before dragging me back to the floor entrance!

It was unfair! Just because I was so young, I had to stay at a safe distance the whole time? Bullshit!

And okay, maybe I had been a bit reckless flying so low to get a good look under all the desks, and maybe the centipedes could’ve reached me at the altitude I was flying, and maybe I flew low to look under a desk without spotting the centipede sitting on top of the desk. Who could’ve dropped down on me had it not been distracted by Miho, allowing Ben to kill it before it noticed me.

But to not let me scout out the place just because of one little mistake, and the two warnings I got before making it? How was I supposed to learn from my mistakes if the others didn’t allow me to do anything at all?

I sat down and rested my head on my knees as I looked at Ben and Miho have all the fun.

Eventually, Thomas stirred and I flew up as he began to walk up the wall. I landed on Elise’s shoulder instead, and my hair immediately got frizzy from the static energy. I didn’t like standing on her, her touch made my feet all itchy.

Not to mention, her whirlwind was really disorienting. Super fun when I was just lazing around, it was like a water slide except I was flying, but it took some effort for me to pull out of her vortex without being hurled in a random direction.

But it would do for now. I watched very attentively to show the others I could totally spot enemies in time now, and no hidden enemy escaped my gaze. As I saw none, that obviously meant there were none. Elise walked in between the cubicles focused on the ground before her, and any hint that it might collapse should she step on it.

Ben: Squirrel near the third window. All yours.

Miho landed and turned into a woolf, slowly crept in closer while making as little noise as she could, and I flew up to be right behind her.

“Ready?” She whispered, her legs tensing up ready to pounce on the squirrel’s back. The critter hadn’t noticed her yet.

“Ready? Let’s see what my music can do.” I took out my wand and held it in front of my mouth, ready to put the microphone part to the test.

“Tonight’s the night we’re gonna make it happen.” I began to sing, my voice surprisingly steady and clear compared to how I used to sound when- I mean, my voice being as awesome and talented as you may expect! “Tonight we’ll put all other things aside!”

The squirrel immediately turned around when it heard me, startled and disoriented. Unfortunately Miho didn’t attack them in time, being startled herself for some reason, and the squirrel managed to jump to the side when she finally pounced.

“Give in this time and show me some affection!” I continued to channel the power of the Pointer Sisters. I got three achievements at the same time, automatically minimised because I was in combat. I’d look at them later.

While she hadn’t taken advantage of the element of the surprise fully, Miho managed to fight the squirrel well despite her small size. The dwarf-sized woolf tackled the dog-sized squirrel as my song gave everyone a bright yellow aura that increased our maximum stamina and stamina regeneration, as well as a raw charisma (seduction) buff.

An odd combination, but whatever.

“Whoa, Alexa. You’re ruining my stealth this way.” Ben said as his shining shadow turned back into an oddly see-through and now shiny person. He didn’t seem to like it at all, but could laugh about it considering we weren’t in serious combat.

I just winked at him as I kept singing, only now realising that this song was more about the piano than the guitar. Hopefully the AI wouldn’t give me a piano instead, those were heavy!

Well, whatever. Maybe I could get multiple instruments to play. Not at the same time, of course, but I wouldn’t say no against some instrumental variation.

“Do you guys hear that?” Elise asked.

“Hear that? I can feel that.” Thomas said. “Then again, I am standing on the ceiling, so it’s not that difficult for me to feel the vibrations.”

“What do you mean?” Ben asked, tearing his gaze from the wolf on squirrel action to look at the giant spider.

“Six or seven, about human size, bipedal creatures.” Thomas said. “Reaching us in three, two, one…”

Seven grey-skinned figures fell through the hole in the ceiling on cue, landing in a messy pile of limbs clawing at each other as they scrambled to get back on their feet as fast as they could. Their eyes were hungry and they were drooling as their clawed hands reached for us.

“I’m so excited! I just can’t hide it!” I reached the refrain, as the others quickly turned to face this new threat.