“Dire on the left!” Arthur’s shout drew Michael’s attention as the archer moved his hands, firing off an arrow at the much larger wolf which was a step or two away from lunging at Alice.

It was now two weeks since having killed Blade, Einherjar was currently on the sixteenth floor, and they were facing slight issues when it came to the Dungeon.

Namely the floor sizes… it was increasing.

This meant it was taking longer to go through a floor, even though they were getting stronger to the point where they could easily move through the enemies.

Going by the rules of fairness, larger floors with weaker enemies, or smaller floors with stronger enemies seemed to be the rules that would be coming up…

Maybe… There was always the possibility that it would eventually end up that the strong enemies would appear on larger floors in large numbers.

That actually sounded reasonable, and therefore it was a possibility.

The fight they were busy with ended shortly, and Arthur rarely used his Lesser Spark Step during it.

During this week he had begun to study the fluctuations in his magic when using the spell, and Arthur found his power to increase slightly…

His Skill Mastery was increasing quite a bit due to this, and he had talked to Shaun about it… reluctantly.

Shaun claimed to understand what he was talking about, and that it wasn’t a confirmed phenomenon just yet, but if Shaun had to call it something, it would be Skill Enlightenment.

It wasn’t something that would work on a whim, and could only be done by gaining greater understanding of a Skill, especially if it occurred during battle.

Shaun admitted that he had done something similar with his own Unique Skill, and that it was reasonable to assume others could do it as well, but only if they achieved this ‘enlightenment’.

The result of this was that after a week of training with it, Lightning Elemental had levelled up to level two, and gave Arthur the option to use the ‘basic’ Spark Step.

He didn’t use it though.

Not because he couldn’t, but because it wasn’t reliable yet, in comparison to Lesser Spark Step. Lesser Spark Step currently consumed about a quarter of his Mana per minute after adding a few points to Intelligence, while the basic version consumed double that.

And the boost given between the two was also double… which led to a situation where Arthur tripped over his own feet and crashed into a wall when he tried it alone.

The main reason he didn’t use the basic one, his Dexterity stat was not suitable for the spell yet…

Maybe if his Dexterity stat was around seventy, or eighty?

So no, Arthur was trying to get used to fighting without those spells for now, because he was quite frankly losing out on training his Sword Sage Skill or Duel Wielding.

Soul Sight got training all the time, but it was notably levelling up quite a bit slower than before… Arthur guessed that it was the difference in levels, as well as rarity.

Tactician was levelling up faster than Soul Sight, ignoring the fact that Soul Sight needed more points to do so, and it was the same for Duel Wielding.

Who knew when he’d master Soul Sight… it was almost like the first level he gained in it was a freebie.

The end of the fight was met with tired breaths and leaning on whatever tree was not past the runes on the floor.

Starting on the fifteenth floor, they had begun to notice differences in the runes… namely the runes which determined where the path was were a glowing red, easily noticeable on the forest floor.

But on the fifteenth floor they had encountered a wall of blue runes, and after stepping past it, they found out what it was… it was a stereotypical safe-zone.

It made a bit of sense, with the monsters capable of roaming around, a safe zone was a necessary thing when it came to resting. Until they found it, they had been resting with look-outs to ensure someone would be capable of fighting while the others put away their food and drinks.

…No one dared to bring up the need to use the bathroom in the Dungeon at times. Whatever was left seemed to just disappear apparently, but…

It was disgusting to think about, so they usually ignored it.

“Where’s the nearest safe-zone?” Arthur asked Emilia who pulled out the fifteenth floor map and looked around it for any sign of a safe-zone.

“It’s further ahead, on the second possible left turn.” Emilia offered, and Arthur nodded, flashing Soul Sight to make sure no enemies were in the immediate vicinity.

The second Dungeon Area, the Forest of the Maiden, had much more variety in monsters when compared to the first Area. So far, the main enemies seemed to be wolves, but there were also small foxes which could use illusion magic, and a squirrel or two capable of shooting off wind attacks.

Thank whatever being that designed magic that wind magic wasn’t actually invisible, but shown by a green glow. If it was invisible, wouldn’t that be too suitable for assassins?

There was also an occasion or two where the six members of Einherjar all heard a loud roar, which, after later checking, sounded like a bear…

After watching a certain movie filmed in a winter setting, no one in Einherjar felt like dealing with a bear at current.

Luckily the roars seemed to be from far away, almost like a hint at what they would eventually be facing.

There were also plants that attacked them, one resembling Venus flytraps and a flower which somehow made them get hurt easily if they smelt its pollen. Both actually counted as monsters.

Arthur suppressed his wonder at how environmentalist people would take having to fight such plants to live. Would they just let the plants kill them?

Probably not, they’d fight back, and then they’d have to kill the plants and they would be hypocrites.

Shaking off that strange thought, Arthur and his team moved to the safe-zone to relax for a bit before continuing on their journey.

They had already guesstimated where the stairs were, and today they were just making sure of that before turning around… maybe checking out the seventeenth floor for a moment.

One thing Arthur could appreciate, and he was certain the rest of his team appreciated it just as much as he did, was the fact that going from floor to floor in the Dungeon took at max an hour, to as little as twenty minutes.

The only reason they took two to four days per floor was because they were busy searching for the stairs, once they found them, it only stood to reason that their speed would increase once they knew the shortest path.

All this meant was that after finding the stairs, they would be capable of moving from the eleventh floor to the seventeenth in about five hours or so, less if they ran, more if they had bad luck with encounters.

Already they found themselves coming out of the Dungeon in the late afternoon instead of early afternoon like they used to, another hint to the growth of the Dungeon’s floors

Arthur was dreading that one day they might need to resort to camping in the Dungeon if they wished to continue…

Arthur did not like camping, at all, in case it wasn’t clear.

After settling down in the safe-zone, which somehow had tree stumps as seats and tables, Arthur took it as a chance to start thinking.

He was thinking back to his encounter with Blade, and the words spoken by the powerful swordsman Demon Lord…

“Hey, the Demon Lord of this forest, she’s Blade’s lover, isn’t she?” Arthur asked in reminding, the group considered it before nodding, recalling the words of the now empty Demon Lord.

“Yeah, or rather, he claimed to love her but it is still unknown whether there’s reciprocation to those feelings.” Alice offered, and they considered it.

“That’s… actually, isn’t that a bit of a hint to the lore of this place?” the word got Michael and Matt stumped for a moment while John spoke up.

“The backstory? Why do you want to know the backstory of the tower? I mean, it’s not like people need to know the backstory of a game to enjoy what happens in it.” John offered, and Arthur shook his head.

He denied the idea John had, of knowing nothing about what was going on and fighting just to fight. Arthur wasn’t like that.

He needed a purpose to walk into battle, and while killing Chronos was currently universally acceptable as a reason, he needed… no, more accurate to say he wanted more.

Like John said, you don’t need to have more, but Arthur was the kind to want more.

“No, you don’t need the backstory… but I want to know more. Blade had emotion, he had feelings, he was… a person. We killed him, but I’d like to know more about the man before we move on.” Arthur admitted, the weight of having killed Blade resting upon his soul…

Looking at his own soul the day after killing Blade, it was obvious in its own way.

His soul gave a vague sensation of ‘sword’ now, after killing the Demon Lord, and Arthur had a feeling that it was because of the Sword Sage Skill, a Skill he only gained after killing Blade.

The Skill would be the weight of what Arthur did to Blade, proof that the Demon Lord was more than the current soulless husk he was.

Arthur did not feel regret for killing the Demon Lord, he felt regret for not truly knowing the ‘man’ before killing him.

For as I learn of my enemy, I come to love them as they love themselves. And then I destroy them.

Ender Wiggin had a point, even if Arthur possibly butchered the quote… Knowing your enemy was the key to many a battle, but learn too much of your enemy and you begin to sympathize.

This is why, in war, propaganda was usually sent out, claiming the enemy was coming for the soldier’s families, the enemy was possessed by demons, the enemy was the source of all evil in the world.

It’s easy to kill a monster. It’s hard to kill a man.

“Let’s move out, I want to have an idea of the enemies on the seventeenth floor before we turn around.” Arthur ordered as they finished eating, moving out of the safe-zone and moving along towards their destination.

While Einherjar were in the Dungeon, Shaun was in Manhattan Upper West looking at a corpse with a frown on his face.

“How many does this make since Red Sky Day?” Shaun’s question was to Roy, the ‘archer’ of Shaun’s team as the man looked at the corpse, notably staring at the knife wound to the skull and the metallic spine.

“We’re over one hundred and twenty six for now… that we know of. This guy is approaching Luis Garavito in known kills.” Roy offered with a frown on his face.

The Beast, Luis Garavito had a known kill count of one hundred and thirty eight, with a suspected amount of anywhere from one hundred and seventy to three hundred…

The person killed was a ‘known’ drug dealer, and while that would normally supply a motive of some kind, Shaun was well aware that it didn’t matter.

To the killer, it didn’t seem anything mattered except age.

Everything about the victims was random, from gender, to jobs, to personal history, the only consistency was that any victim was over the age of eighteen…

A killer with morals? Not targeting children or teenagers seemed odd, but as it was NYPD was at least glad they wouldn’t have to stumble upon the dead body of a child.

In that regard, Shaun was glad to be dealing with this serial killer instead of the Beast of Columbia, whose victims were only young boys below the age of sixteen, many of which were found to have been defiled…

Disturbing as this Adventurer serial killer may be, he was easier to stomach than the other.

“He or she has been targeting drug dealers and gangsters more often recently though…” Grey offered while looking at the list of victims, more than one John Doe or Jane Doe appeared in there, the bodies too mangled to identify.

“That is true… of the last thirty deaths, more than half were ‘gang-related’. Maybe it’s a clue that this guy is beginning to try and muscle his way into the crime circle?” Shaun considered out loud before he snapped his fingers to get the attention of the nearest policeman.

“Hey, I want standard procedure with this one, and I want you to get me someone with ties to the drug-dealers, I want to confirm a few things.” Shaun’s words were met with a nod from the officer as he and the two members of his team walked away with him.

Shaun was glad they respected his authority… the Bureau and the police force butt heads so much in media that some police officers joined thinking that was normal.

“You’re working on that hunch?” Grey asked as the got to Shaun’s car, a Ford GT… he had an abnormal love for the vehicle, and would extol on the Ferrari-Ford rivalry any time.

“Sure, it’s not like there’s a truly bad idea when it comes to looking for a criminal. Beyond saying something outlandish like ‘there were fifty people to kill this one guy’ everything should at least be given a bit of consideration.” Roy answered Grey’s question, he wasn’t getting in the car with them.

Roy had his own life to live; having retired from the service… but like many a marine he was still a soldier, ready to answer the call.

In his case, the call came at two in the morning a week after Red Sky Day from Shaun, but nonetheless, he was willing to listen…

At a reasonable time in the day of course, Roy ignored Shaun until later that day.

Roy was a human, not a super-being that got called at two in the morning to fight monsters and said ‘sure’.

Dante was the odd one for accepting such a call in Roy’s opinion.

Roy walked away while Grey got into the passenger seat of the Ford, and they drove off, still talking.

“It’s as Roy said, any reasonable idea is to be considered. If the killer is muscling in on drug dealers, then it could be that he or she is selling their own drugs and wants to eliminate the competition.” Shaun offered as he turned down to one of the main roads heading towards the Guild.

“But wouldn’t that result in a gang-war or something similar?” Grey was sadly uninformed in these matters due to being raised spoilt admittedly, so Shaun sighed.

“Normally that would be the case, and I can’t immediately discredit it, but they don’t have an enemy to attack, the killer hasn’t revealed himself yet.” Shaun said as they waited at a traffic light.

“Wait… if he hasn’t revealed himself yet, then why did you ask to interview a contact?” Grey’s question was had Shaun look away in thought.

“I asked to talk to someone with connections to find out if the killer maybe got a statement out without us knowing, or if the killer is targeting specific dealers, and if so, why?” Shaun yawned slightly as he swerved through a bit of traffic, leaving Grey grabbing at the door to stabilize himself.

“So it’s just to get a bit more basic information, not to get anything concrete just yet?” Grey asked and Shaun nodded, and that was when the phone began to ring.

Hearing the Presidential March song being played had Grey raise an eyebrow as Shaun reached for the phone, accepting the call.

“Clayton, I’m driving, it’s not a good time to be calling me.” Grey’s eyes widened slightly before calming down… he was already aware of Shaun’s friendly relation with the president, but it was another thing to hear him talking to the man.

Also, Shaun’s sense of humour was bad.

Incapable of hearing the conversation, Grey just looked around, trying to piece together what was happening based on Shaun’s responses.

“Really? Well, I’m sure we can arrange a meeting…” Shaun’s expression was open but Grey didn’t know the man well enough to know what could cause those expressions on Shaun’s face.

Except for exhaustion, almost anything could cause that to appear.

“…Clayton, tell me you didn’t just say that?” Whatever the president was saying had Shaun’s eye twitching, a funny reaction to be sure, but anything that could cause him to look like that…

“Clayton, regardless of my skill as a bodyguard, I’m not helping you in that.” Shaun seemed irritated by now before sighing.

“Fine, we’ll arrange for the meeting. Ignoring that, what have you found out about Project Pennhurst?” Grey knew nothing about the latter part of the conversation, and even the first half only spoke of a meeting…

But judging from Shaun’s serious expression, this Pennhurst thing was important, very important.

“Not much huh, only news that it was supposedly disbanded decades ago… that’s like something out of a movie honestly, though if you were to believe Clements it would be a book.” Shaun complained aloud as he finally pulled up next to the Guild.

“Well I’m currently at the Guild headquarters, judging by the time, the Champion will be exiting the Dungeon in an hour or two, I’ll tell him your message then.” Shaun said, getting out of the car while Grey was already moving towards Dante at the doors of the Guild.

“Alright, see you then boss.” Shaun ended the call with a tired sigh…

All he wanted to do was retire, maybe become a psychiatrist so he could talk to people about their problems instead of focusing on his own.

Unfortunately for Shaun, his retirement was cut off a month before it was meant to happen due to Red Sky Day.

Sometimes the call finds you instead…

Back inside the Dungeon, Arthur and team Einherjar were turning back to head to floor ten due to their levels increasing.

And because finding the fastest path between floors was already complete.

Already, Arthur estimated that they could head from floor ten to floor seventeen in two hours or so instead of the whole day it was currently taking.

Of course, that meant that on floor seventeen they’d have to either leave two hours early or have two hours less to explore the place, not counting time heading back.

Logistics, it was an issue everywhere.

“Hey John, mind if we talk a bit?” Arthur asked, taking a breather while the other four members of their team fought some wolves.

“No, I don’t.” Arthur blinked at the confusing answer before shrugging and taking it as an approval, as in ‘I don’t mind talking’.

“I was wondering about Spells and wanted to talk to the only other person in our team involved with Spell Skills.” John sighed, already knowing that Arthur was going to be asking or telling him things that would make his head hurt.

“Okay, so what’s the issue?” John truly hoped it was only one thing at this point.

“You had a choice between two Spells, like I did with my own, I was wondering why we’d be given that choice instead of just getting all of the Spells or something.” Arthur’s question was one that John had thought on before.

The first Spell he gained, Heal, was automatically chosen given that he was a healer. The second Spell was a choice between Recovery which John chose, and a spell called Area Heal, the name said it all.

Now John normally would have chosen Area Heal, as it was ‘cheaper’ than casting a Heal on each individual person, but John had taken Arthur’s warnings to heart on the future danger of the Dungeon.

And besides, why would he be given an option to erase bad ‘status effects’ if those didn’t happen? Clearly there was a bit of foreboding in that option…

Considering the first Goblin they fought on floor eleven, John felt his choice in Spells was correct.

“So why not just allow us to learn both?” John repeated the question back to Arthur as he thought and then John shrugged.

“I’m not sure on that man. For all we know it could just be a way to keep everyone different.” John’s words apparently were the right thing to say, given how Arthur smiled while nodding.

“I see, yeah, that makes sense actually… think about it, the LEV’s seem to create uniqueness for everyone when it comes to the things it grants us.” The conversation had drawn attention from the rest of Einherjar by now, though Michael was still on lookout.

He had a habit of attacking Goblin Assassin’s first once they got into their area ever since the sneak attack. No one blamed him.

“The LEV’s give us Stats, Elements, Animae, Skills and obviously Levels.” Alice added, using the common term of LEV in replacement of the annoying term ‘contract’.

For that was what the LEV was in truth, as much as everyone tried to ignore it.

Chronos himself gave them the LEV in exchange for the promise to try and kill him. Those who showed greater ability would be given greater rewards in the form of levelling up and so on.

That was just one way of looking at it, but it was a fact that the LEV was a contract between the Adventurer and Chronos.

One gave power, the other gave the promise of a fight, and thus the contract is sealed.

“Yeah, and if you think about it, with all those things, it’s impossible to find someone with the exact same ability as you.” Emilia stated, looking to her own left wrist and staring at the glowing lettering.

“Some might have the same stats, the same element, the same skills, the same level, and even a similar Anima, but having everything be the same is impossible… it’s culturing diversity.” Matt’s words were oddly profound, leaving all of them quiet and in thought.

They were interrupted by a group of Goblins and cut their previous discussion from their mind until later… for now, they fought.

Once more leaving Einherjar inside the Dungeon, in Manhattan’s Chinatown, Eddie was vomiting in a trashcan.

It was understandable given what his new ‘boss’ was doing in the room with the owner of the building.

“Now I’m certain you wish to actually keep the fingers on your other hand there instead of in your mouth. Now, if you don’t answer my question, I’m going to put your fingers back in there, and make you swallow them this time around.”

Oh god his boss was vile, who did that? Who… oh it was horrible.

It was not the worst the man had done in Eddie’s presence though, Eddie knew the man could do much worse, such as the time he pulled a ‘Nobunaga’ and turned someone’s skull into a metallic cup, while the brother of the previous owner of the skull watched him drink.

“I said I’ll talk, I told you!” the tortured victim screamed, unable to be heard beyond the walls of the room due to Eddie’s own Anima, Silent Room.

Self-explanatory, spreading five metres in each direction was a spherical area in which no sound could escape, and if necessary Eddie could focus effects, such as preventing Spells from being used, or silencing his own footsteps.

An excellent Anima for an Assassin, or a witness to torture apparently.

“Oh… that you did. Just realized, sorry, I was a bit out of sorts there. So again, tell me who is your supplier, where they live, and who you sell for.” Eddie shook his head as he stayed looking away from the torturing.

His vomiting incident was due to accidentally looking at the boss forced the man’s own middle-finger into his mouth to silence the victim.

“It’s Bruce, Bruce from Brooklyn, he gets me product, I sell it, I give him ninety and he lets me keep ten, he lives near the Brooklyn Bridge!” Eddie winced, already knowing what his boss would do.

The scream confirmed that Eddie was getting used to the things his Boss did… that sounded like a bad thing.

“Okay, okay, that’s nice, you told me your supplier and who you sell for is the same person, that’s good information. Then you told me the general area he lives in, I can use that. But I doubt he’s the only fucking Bruce there now is he!” Eddie winced as he began to hear choking sounds and gagging…

Auto-cannibalism… that’s a new disgusting thing his boss tried.

“Well, Eddie, this one is done, let’s go, I’m sure if we get someone from there we’ll figure things out.” Eddie nodded, unwilling to against his boss as the body was left tied to the chair, the spine converted into metal as the boss removed his knife from the drug dealer’s throat.

“Yes Sir Mister Mourn.” A strange surname, more than likely a fake one, but apt…

All the man left in his wake was mourning families for his victims, or was Eddie reading into it too much?

Either way, that’s another victim… How many was it so far?

Eddie lost count after three hundred.

Arthur Clive

Level: 30 (D-Rank)

Class: Linked Swordsman- Grants one stat point to Strength and Wisdom per level

Gives Soul Sight (Unique) Skill

Anima

Dagger of Hunger

Cloak of Will

Anima Skills

Dagger- Devour- Increase Soul Gain by 12.5%

Dagger- Rend- Damage to living beings increases by 2%

Dagger- Void- can create a minor gravitational pull, 9 Wisdom per use a day.

Cloak- Defence- lowers damage taken by 2.5%

Cloak- Wise One- Increases Wisdom by 15% (total 130%)

Cloak- Rags to Riches- 4% of enemies drop two times the loot.

Primary Element: Lightning

Personal Skills

Tactician II (54/100) - increases Wisdom by 15% (total 130%)

Sword Sage I (131/200)- Any bladed weapon deals 20% extra damage

Soul Sight II (32/300) - Allows insight beyond mortality

Dual Wielding II (38/100) - Greater use of two weapons

Lightning Elemental II (7/200) - Use supplementary lightning spells

Stats

Strength: 40

Dexterity: 44

Intelligence: 30

Wisdom: 52 (67)

Endurance: 30

Vitality: 40