Mathew was now fully geared along with Agnox. Cherry didn’t have anything but her own leaf covered body. “What kind of weapon can you use?” Mathew asked her.

“I don’t use a weapon. I’m a peaceful Dryad. Mom never expected us to really fight, I only have one Ability that could be used offensively. Everything else is healing.”

Instantly, a staff appeared in Mathew's hand. “How does a staff work for you? Do you know how to use one?”6

“I know the premise of it, yes.” Cherry took it. It was a brown wood with a white gem top.

“It’s one of my neutral staves. I used it as a mana storage item, but you can borrow it for now until we get you a better piece of equipment.” Mathew said.

They were traveling the tunnels while Agnox scouted ahead. Even the wisp twins were out. “Speaking of which, what level are you? We need to go over your capabilities properly including stats. That way I know how to best use you. Once we go back to Earth, we can spend time planning out your role in the group further.”

Cherry sighed. “Listen Mathew, I appreciate it, but this is a bit much. Can’t we slow this down a bit? Maybe relax. You are still recovering and I don’t want you to get hurt.”

Mathew stopped walking. “Cherry, we don't have time. I don’t have time. We need to move to the next floor. The fact it’s been an entire day and we have yet to run into a single person, challenge, or evidence of a camp is telling me one of two things. Either we are so far from anyone that none of those things exist, or the floor bosses have already spawned.”

“Right, that makes sense.” Cherry trailed off. “I only have a few techniques. I have an ability called [Control Plants]. I have a skill called [Harvesting]. Then two spells, [Pink Touch] which you’ve seen and [Gaia’s Grace]. The second spell is a buff I can give to someone. I didn’t have it before I was bound to you.”

“Gaia snuck in a little extra to help me? One would think she is up to something more than I expected. That, or she really wants to ensure Cherry does not die.”

“What about your class and level?”

“I’m exactly Level 10, just as I was born as. My Class is . It gives me a few stat bonuses per level. My profession is [Gaia’s Child].”

Mathew nodded, thinking things over. From what it sounded like, Cherry was what he imagined. A mostly blank slate. With a healing spell and buff spell, she could become his caretaker in the group. With Agnox and Jeffery as his offensive line. Cherry to heal. The wisp twins provide two key types of attacks. He was a walking one man army.

The downside was without his summons, he was screwed. He could somewhat survive in a solo fight. However, against something on even footing would destroy him in versatility.

“Good. Let’s focus on what you are good at. How often can you cast that buff spell?”

“Maybe once a day. It’s heavily taxing in mana.” Cherry said, sounding disappointed. “But, I can handle it.”

“That’s fine. Only use it in serious situations. I’ll let you decide when most of the time, but if I ask for it, don’t hesitate please.”

Cherry nodded, “Of course.”

They walked in silence for almost half an hour before Agnox flew back to them, “Boss, you are going to want to see this up ahead. No need to be quiet, but it’s a doozy.”

Agnox led them all to an open cavern. Inside were rows of freshly dug graves. There were almost thirty in total. The ground looked a little packed down, making the graves over a week old, maybe older. Each of them had a headstone with the words ‘May the Light lead you’.

“It’s in English, so that rules out the evangilistic Brazilian, unless they know English and choose to speak it as well. That leaves a majority of the world still though. I don’t think this was Leo or anyone else I know of.” Mathew muttered in thought.

“What about someone on the leaderboards?” Agnox asked.

“It’s like throwing a dart in the dark to guess who it could be.” Mathew thought the entire area gave off a weird vibe. Like he isn’t supposed to be here.

Agnox poked one of the headstones, it didn’t budge showing it was deep in the ground. “It could be the Zachary Mann person. All the way at the top.”

“Maybe.” Mathew didn’t want to stick around in the area. “Come on, let’s go. We still have a floor boss to track down still. I want off this floor, or to find a new group of people before the next monster horde that’s in four days.”

The six of them continued to travel for another day. During that time, Mathew completed another challenge, but had yet to find any Dungeons. Cherry was slowly warming up to the idea of fighting.

There were no plants for her to control, which limited her usage. In the short time she had used the staff, she gained the [Staves] skill. A skill that Mathew too had. It seemed she was able to level it up faster than he did. Either through his teachings or perhaps an internal knowledge given from Gaia.

Twice they have seen evidence of a heavy battle. Splattered blood, rotting corpses, and so much more gruesome sights that sung stories of what happened visually. Both times Cherry grew more concerned for her and Mathew’s safety.

“It’ll be fine Cherry. I’m Apprentice rank, and almost level 40. The floor boss will be stuck at level 24, maybe 25. I’m almost double its level. The Novice Floor boss was annoying, but easy. Trust me. Nothing will go wrong.”

“You know Boss, that’s exactly what is said before something goes wrong.” Agnox snickered.

“That’s for people who don’t know their own limits. I know mine, and all of yours. We do things safely. Remember, this is the Beginner floor I alone outlevel anything here except for the boss on this floor. With all of us working together, we can handle anything here. Unless it’s another person.”

Cherry didn’t say anything. Agnox returned to scouting ahead, keeping a careful eye on possible dangers.

Mathew hadn’t used his Spirit Calling ritual yet. He wanted to wait to use it until he knew what he would be fighting. Mathew was going to try and request a certain spirit to come to him.

He was surprised to learn that the ritual had nothing to do with his soul. It was more tied to his mind. Spirits were souls, but the act of calling them required a strong mental capacity. Mathew wondered if he could somehow use his soul when it was fixed. If his bloodline empowered soul powers, then why not give it a try?

It was a thought for the future. The far future at his rate. He never showed it infront of his summons, but a hint of worry sat in Mathew’s mind. It was his driving force to push forward constantly.

Another day came and went before they found what they were looking for. Agnox came flying back with a look of dread. “It’s a naga.”

Mathew had no clue what a naga was. “Is it some beast from your world?” Mathew asked.

“Worse. Far worse. Naga are a beastman race. They are serpent like creatures that have a humanoid top half. This one is brandishing a scimitar. I think we should look for another creature to fight.”

“We don’t have time. I think everyone left this floor to return to earth or progressed to the next floor. We won’t survive either horde alone. I haven't seen a single dungeon to hide inside of either. So we are limited in our options.” Mathew explained. “We fight it.”

“Mathew, why don't we try to talk to it?” Cherry asked.

“No.” Mathew shook his head. “We have to kill it. System rules. Kill the floor boss, move to the next floor. Don’t kill it, no progress.”

“Naga are a warrior type of people. They will respect our request to avoid pointless bloodshed.” Cherry said. “But…that’s what I worry about. Because they are a warrior people, it will be a difficult fight. Even with us all.”

Mathew put a hand on her shoulder. “We’ve been through worse. It’s just a giant snake man. I’ll open with [Fracture] to weaken it. Jeffery and Agnox, you two are to engage in melee. I’ll cover from afar. Cherry, can you keep your healing spell focused on those two?”

Everyone nodded with the plan. “If the naga proves to be too strong, we rotate. I’ll enter the melee with my Axiom’s and Agnox you cover from afar. Try to burn it before you rotate out if that happens.”

Mathew looked at his red furred summon, “Jeffery, stay on its lower body. If it doesn’t have legs, then it shouldn’t be very mobile. If we do things right, we all get through this easily.”

The naga was sitting in a narrow cave. Mathew spotted two bodies of other people. Based on the dried blood, it’s been several days since they were killed.

The naga was about ten feet high, but easily over twenty feet long. It was brandishing a proportional sized scimitar in its hands. The curved blade seemed to be recently polished.

Mathew was viewing all of this through Agnox’s vision. He didn’t want his own light to alert the naga of his presence early.

Once he had a solid understanding of where they would be fighting, Mathew readied himself.

“Okay, on three.” Mathew placed a hand on Jeffery’s back to hold him. He could feel his muscles tense up ready to jump out toward the floor boss.

“One. Two. Three!” On three, all of them rushed out. The naga was not ready for them all to come around the corner. Its mouth opened up and it gave off a gurgly hiss. Jeffery charged toward the part of its body that was touching the ground.

As he arrived, Agnox had tossed two [Fire Bolts] at the lime green scaled creature. The charging collision knocked the naga to the side. It rolled over itself and came back to a fighting position.

The scimitar collided with Agnox’s blade, forcing the flying imp to get tossed sideways.

Mathew was in range now and charged up his spell. He was going for a strong opening. Those scales were thick. Given how it wore no actual armor, Mathew knew it relied upon its natural defense.

A pale orb of energy flew out from his rod. It was slower moving than his [Mana Bolt], and he couldn’t control it midair. He took the extra time to properly aim it.

The naga tried to dodge out of the way, but Jeffery had his maw wrapped around its midsection that was on the ground, forcing it to stay.

Whis and Wispy tossed their own attacks. Blue bolts of magic flew and dotted the naga with attacks. The [Fracture] spell connected with a thundering explosion. Green scales and bits of flesh shattered off the naga’s body.

Mathew was already refreshing his mana from his Mana storing ring. It was barely enough mana to cover the cost for the spell, but worth every bit.

Now with an unarmored section of its body, everyone was focusing on that one section. Agnox flew close to only be knocked down onto the ground by the naga’s other hand. Its movements were fast.

Agnox rolled to the side to dodge a scimitar slicing his body in half. He then backed up. Mathew saw his armor was already heavily dented. “Cherry, heal up Agnox.”

Mathew charged up a Piercing infused [Mana Bolt]. He fired it into the air, letting it serpent toward the naga slowly. He would lose some power, but the timing needed to be perfect.

“Agnox, focus on its head!”

Agnox jumped up and flew right for the boss's head. The large scimitar and Agnox’s own longsword caused sparks to fly out. Dark flames wreathed around the sword. Agnox was pushing himself harder.

It was sad he was stuck at Level 24 until they left the Dungeon. Unable to use a health crystal, but that meant he had time to work on his own techniques. Pushing them further.

With the naga distracted, Mathew pushed the bolt straight toward the opened flesh. The naga tried to dodge out of the way, but Jeffery was in its way. The giant wolf was too large, forcing it to remain where it was.

The bolt pierced through the flesh and into the stone wall behind the naga. It let out a high pitched scream of pain. Blood poured out of the wound, but it wasn’t dead yet.

The naga ignored Agnox and thrusted its sword downward toward Jeffery. A [Mana Shield] deflected the blow. Jeffery backed off and regrouped with Agnox who was floating right next to the wolf.

“It’s tough. Damn I thought that was going to finish it off.” Mathew muttered.

“Naga won’t go down easily.” Cherry said. “You will need to go for its head. Bleeding it out like this will only increase the odds one of us gets too hurt.”

“I know that.” Mathew readied two weaker [Mana Bolts]. One with his rod, one with his other hand. “Agnox, go for its lower torso with Jeffery. Just keep it distracted.” As he finished his orders, he threw both bolts.

They intertwined. One missed as the naga dodged. The other hit the exposed flesh. Agnox and Jeffery reentered melee. Agnox opened with more flames exploding outward from his body.

Mathew raised a hand toward Whis. He needed Wish to have a powerful attack charged up. He knew the wisp could fire a much stronger attack than [Mana Bolt], it was just longer to charge.

He fed a smaller trickle of mana into Wispy, keeping the spray of fast and weak attacks to help Agnox and Jeffery.

Pink light wrapped around Agnox and Jeffery, keeping the worst of their injuries suffered minimal. The naga’s scimitar found flesh on both of them occasionally. Spraying their infernal blood onto the ground.

“Mathew, they aren't winning.” Cherry said with concern.

“Just a minute longer. Keep healing them.” Mathew said. Visually Whis was growing larger. The darker wisp was twice the size of its twin.

The naga’s tail whipped around and slammed Jeffery to the side. A yelp came from his maw, leaving Agnox alone. He dodged the tail, only to get slammed to the side by the scimitar sinking into his armor.

“Mathew!” Cherry shouted

Mathew ignored her, waiting. “Come on, come toward me you giant lizard freak. Ignore them. I’m an easy target!”

The naga looked toward Agnox as a [Fire Bolt] wizzed passed it.

Mathew stopped feeding mana into Wispy and used his off hand to conjure up his spear. He gripped it and reared back his arm and tossed it, infused with [Enforce], the spear whizzed through the air like an arrow. It penetrated near its neck, sinking a third of the way down the shaft

Its reptilian eyes looked at Mathew. It was ignoring Wispy’s weak attacks. Mathew grinned.

The naga slithered toward him. Cherry took a step back. “Mathew!” The naga used its tail to kill Wispy, its body vanishing in a puff of blue mana. It raised its sword up to bring it down onto Mathew.

A Resistance infused [Mana Shield] blocked an overhead swing from the scimitar that would have cut him in half. As the shield shattered Whis let out a beam of magic that sliced through the naga’s neck. Its eyes went wide as its head slid off its body.

The entire area was now quiet. The body of the naga twitched uncontrollably. Mathew let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding.

“Cherry, go take care of Agnox and Jeffery please.” He handed her a small bag that held some healing pills.

Mathew collpased to the ground, mana fatigue already bringing a straining headache. Cherry didn’t move for a moment, her mouth slightly open in shock. “Please.” He said again as he held the bag.

She took it and then ran over to the two of them. Mathew couldn’t help but laugh to himself. He glanced up at Whis and gave the wisp a thumbs up. “Good job.”