“Arthur Clive, the strongest Adventurer in the United States… is currently at an arcade?” Arthur cursed his enhanced senses as he lined up the cue stick.

Indeed, what the Adventurer said was true, Arthur, the strongest Adventurer (or at least, the strongest known Adventurer) was playing pool at an arcade with his team of Adventurers, Einherjar.

Arthur, the leader of the team, was a level fifty eight swordsman, though his magic stats were pretty high as well, and he was in charge of researching the Dungeon.

Michael Grave, the second-in-command and archer, Michael was level fifty seven (like everyone but Arthur was) and in charge of food, though originally he was the leader of Einherjar, he still looked out for each of the members, and could be trusted to keep everyone alive if Arthur was busy.

Matt Jacobson, the tank and defender of the team, he was… honestly, no one knew what he was in charge of as he seemed to just hang around threatening anyone who messed with the team, and generally being a pretty rude guy.

Alice Grave, younger sister of Michael and the warrior of the team, she was in charge of making sure everyone had their drinks of choice, tea, coffee, energy drink, whatever else.

John Collins, the healer of the team and resident black guy, he kept morale from dropping too much and looked out for Adventurer news and rumours (even if Einherjar was the source of most accurate information) to tell everyone else.

And finally Emilia Vasilievna, the thief of the team and Arthur’s maybe girlfriend… neither of the two were admitting to anything, despite doing couple like things.

Oh, and she was the cartographer for Einherjar, the map-drawer of the team, and with Arthur the two of them worked out the best and fastest routes to the next floor.

And like the fan said. All six were at an arcade playing pool on two different tables.

Poor etiquette to have two tables for one group, but the arcade owner recognized Arthur and said it was fine.

No doubt everyone else would recognize Arthur and make the same thought.

Adventurers were the new ‘celebrities’ of the world as they were essentially super powered soldiers or heroes to children, and Arthur was well known as the strongest one, the Chosen of America.

For Adventurers, he was a goal to reach for, for those who weren’t Adventurers, he was the face of the group and fought at the ‘front-lines’ every day.

It was rare, but once in a while someone would try and conduct an interview with Arthur in person, to which he refused, citing that he was not much of a talker, and that he’d instead respond to messages.

Which he did. His E-mail account was well known and anyone could message him with questions and it was up to him to answer, and he found it easier to deal with them in this way.

Not only that, but under urging from his ‘kind of’ boss, Guild Master Shaun Fife, Arthur and his team had twitter accounts made for them, not that Arthur went on often.

He disliked social media, but found E-mails acceptable because it was more of a two way street instead of a highway.

“Oh, and look, there’s their mascot, Sidhe.” Another fan murmured as they saw the cat seemingly appear from nothing as it landed on Arthur’s shoulder, lounging around his neck as he took his shot.

Missed… he was average when it came to pool unfortunately.

And his opponent was Michael. The ‘sniper’ of their team.

Arthur was losing quite badly, and they all lost to Michael at least once.

The black cat with a white spot on her chest was indeed Sidhe, Arthur’s Familiar, a sort of soul animal given to him by killing one of the strongest beings in the Dungeon, a Demon Lord.

Demon Lords were fought every ten floors, with every ten floors being one Area of the Dungeon, that made it one Area to one Demon Lord, kind of like boss characters in a video game.

Four of the estimated ninety nine Demon Lords had been defeated already; the first Demon Lord named Blade, the second Demon Lord named Willow, the third Demon Lord Despair and the fourth, Guldan the Goblin King.

The latter was the vilest of the four for reasons known to any Adventurer that entered the second Area of the Dungeon.

And of the four, three of them were killed by Arthur, with only Guldan being killed by the Russian Chosen Albert Ivanov.

There were many reasons Arthur was considered the greatest Adventurer in the world, and part of it had to do with his ability to view the Souls of others, the source of the power granted by the Contract, or LEV, was Souls.

People talk about how physical health affects mental health, and the Contract allowed spiritual growth to affect the physical, though the spiritual growth was caused by killing monsters and melding their Souls to that of the Adventurer.

Arthur could actually see this, and also increase how much Soul he gained when he killed something due to his abilities.

To point, the LEV granted a few boosts to the user.

The level, which increased physical and mental abilities (though the latter was negligible no matter how much they were increased) and effected the ‘grade’ of the Soul.

Magic, like shooting fireballs, was another thing the LEV granted, though there was a difference between manipulating magic and using a spell.

Said difference was Skills which allowed the Adventurer to do things beyond the norm in some manner, such as Arthur’s Soul Sight Skill which let him see Souls, or Michael’s Focus Skill which let him slow down his perception of time while aiming an arrow.

And then for the final main thing the LEV granted, the Anima, Latin for Soul.

It was appropriate as the Anima was an item or ability granted by your very Soul, and all Souls were unique in some manner, making each Anima unique, Anima were the cornerstones of Adventurers, and having a good Anima was usually the difference between a good Adventurer and a bad one.

Arthur was one of the rare group that had two Anima (or Animae) and one allowed him to gain more Soul when he killed his enemies, the Dagger of Hunger.

His other Anima, less mentioned but no less important, was the Cloak of Will, which increased his overall defence to attacks as well as granting one or two other abilities, such as being able to teleport within three metres of his current position.

So considering that he had the highest level, two Animae of good ability, and a Skill that allowed him to more easily understand the mechanics of the Dungeon, obviously he used these advantages.

Sidhe, right, this started with talk of Sidhe and how she was Arthur’s Familiar. It was unknown why Sidhe was the Familiar Arthur gained using that egg, but he had heard that other people were starting to do something similar.

Some would tame monsters from the Dungeon, such as the Forest Wolves which roamed the second Area, and there was one or two others who got a Familiar that were known of.

But Sidhe was special, because she was Arthur’s, and Arthur scratched her cheek as he got out of the way for Michael’s victory.

Their break at this arcade was because they had been rushing through the Dungeon, and while Einherjar was still the ‘strongest team’ they were tired.

So a rest day was needed, even if they usually rested every Sunday, they felt they needed a proper day to hang out as a group.

“Man, it’s nice to watch, but it’s terrifying when he’s going against you.” John whispered from next to Arthur as they both watched Michael somehow sink three of his in one shot.

There were people who could do such things after some practice, but they usually didn’t happen during an actual match… Michael begged to differ.

“We should get him into a tournament… anyway, I know we promised to not talk shop but…” Arthur started off awkwardly, catching John leaving his immediate vicinity as Arthur sighed.

He was a bit… uptight, at times due to the Dungeon. He was so used to talking about it, or being in it, that he was beginning to lose sight of being normal.

It was kind of fine given his occupation, but he really needed to figure things out before he tried to talk to the others.

Walking away from his loss, seeing that it was now Emilia versus Michael, Arthur went over to a vending machine, thinking about what to get.

Energy drink was his go-to, but it got a bit repetitive at times… and it was addictive so Arthur was trying to cut down a bit. A bit.

With his high Vitality stat, he was in doubt that he’d ever experience heart problems, especially if the stats kept rising… but Emilia expressed her concern and Arthur was willing to try.

It’s easy to deny the opinions of others, it’s harder when you like them, and when their opinions are logically good for you.

Arthur stepped to the side subconsciously, realizing that someone was going to buy a drink after him, as he turned to look at the other.

A side-effect of sorts to Arthur’s Soul Sight, was that he could tell when he was around an Adventurer, and how strong they were to an extent.

He couldn’t give accurate estimations, but he could compare their power to his own, getting a sense of ‘weaker’ or ‘average’. As the ‘strongest’ he had never met someone ‘stronger’.

The boy to his left was an Adventurer, probably a year or two younger than Alice, and… he was looking at Arthur for a moment, narrowing his eyes.

Arthur had no doubt that he’d be recognized in a moment, but Arthur took that moment to narrow his eyes at the boy, categorizing his power as ‘weak, but not as weak as most’.

As a person with a level close to sixty, Arthur’s definition of weak was anywhere under level thirty, with average being around forty five to his own level.

So this boy (and despite the narrow age gap Arthur felt justified in calling the other a boy) was between level thirty and forty five, but closer to thirty.

Not a lot of casual Adventurers were around that level, but also looking at the boy, he couldn’t be out of school yet…

Arthur had left his college after Red Sky Day, feeling that his education took a backseat to fighting against the enemy of humanity, likewise with Emilia and John only popped in for tests and assignments.

But school-level people weren’t really allowed to skip school to go into the Dungeon, the Guild workers would stop them anyway… so this boy having such a level was likely due to him going into the Dungeon during weekends with friends.

Going into the Dungeon is allowed by schools but only for select periods and it was never past Area one, Area two if the group had someone around level thirty in it…

“Excuse me, but are you Arthur Clive?” the boy finally recognized who it was drinking a Sprite from across him and Arthur stopped drinking to nod slowly.

“Yeah, that’s my name… but what’s yours?” Arthur usually didn’t like talking to others, as it felt too awkward for him, given how picky he was with his friends… but he also couldn’t really talk to said friends about the Dungeon at current.

And while Arthur could be left alone for long periods of time and still be fine, he wouldn’t shy away from conversation when offered it.

“Ah, sorry, Drew Simmons, I’m an Adventurer like you… though I guess that’s not quite right.” The boy, Drew, said as he scratched his head, the slight glow of his LEV tattoo drawing the attention of Arthur.

Level thirty four, respectable for a normal Adventurer, but for professionals like Arthur it was a bit low.

A professional could be identified by being in the same Area as Chosen like Arthur, or at the very least entering the same Area as the Chosen would fight the Demon Lord.

Drew could probably fight in the beginning floors of Area three, maybe to the end of said Area if he and his team fought smart and rested constantly. But he couldn’t handle Area four just yet, let alone Area five.

“I mean, I’m still in school so getting more Dungeon time is difficult, I’m lucky enough to have defeated the Second Demon Lord two weeks ago.” Arthur agreed, the boy was lucky, Willow was tough, even as a now mindless husk she was dangerous.

No Demon Lord was without their danger, though arguably the first, Blade, was the least dangerous as he could only target one or two people at a time and he was very weak defensively.

“That is kind of impressive… so, is there a reason you called out to me, or did you just want to introduce yourself?” It sounded abrasive, but Drew could apparently see that Arthur was just asking the question for the sake of asking it.

“Oh, sorry, yeah, I actually wanted to ask some advice, about Adventurer stuff, if it’s okay with you.” Drew said, and Arthur looked back to his friends… they were oddly protective of him, despite him being arguably the strongest of the group.

In other words, they would worry if he didn’t say where he was going…

Sending a message to his friends using his phone, Arthur walked off with Drew, knowing they’d see the message soon enough.

Sitting down, with Sidhe on his lap, Arthur looked to Drew who had taken a book out of a bag with a pen in hand.

Taking notes, okay, so it was possibly the serious type of advice. Arthur could appreciate someone who took notes of what he wanted to know.

“Right, first thing I wanted to ask was about levels, if it’s okay with you, I’d like to know how my team compares to yours.” Arthur blinked at the question thinking for a moment.

“If you’re all the same level, then my team is about twenty levels higher than yours.” Arthur said in a straight forward manner, getting a wide eyed look from Drew who nodded, writing down something quickly.

“But as for strength, I wouldn’t know as our teams are not at the same level, perhaps your team has better synergy than my own, maybe if we were the same level your team would be stronger… we won’t know unless that ever happens.” Arthur was honest, he maintained his hold of the title of strongest Adventurer by virtue of being the highest levelled.

Well, that, and he had a huge amount of stats for someone of his level, but still.

“Thanks for that… okay, I wanted to ask about the Areas next, I’ve read your Theory of Dungeon Space, so I get that floors are in fact different places in one Area, my question is… how do the stairs work?” Arthur frowned at the question, looking at the younger Adventurer for a moment.

“I wouldn’t know that, the Dungeon is…” Arthur was about to explain a secret only he really knew, but was it really necessary to keep it a secret?

Not necessarily, but if certain groups were to find out it could cause trouble… Arthur looked to Drew once more.

“The Dungeon is a sort of string. Think of it like a string with beans on it, and each bead is an Area. Then, cut each bead into ten pieces and the stairs would connect those pieces.” Arthur looked down to Sidhe with a smile as she started to lean her ears to Arthur’s fingers.

He was so glad that the cat somehow never left hairs on him.

“My theory is that the stairs are a kind of necessary gateway. Going through ten gets you enough ‘energy’ to enter the next Area. And once you’ve made a path, it’s easier to get there the next time, hence why we can simply jump to a new Area once we leave it.” It made sense in a strange way, and it wasn’t a big realization, but Drew was writing in a flurry.

“Sorry to ask, but you don’t really seem like the studying type, so what’s with the notes?” It was starting to confuse Arthur, especially considering that Drew looked like some stereotypical high school guy that played around, they even met in an arcade.

“Oh, I’m not smart really, I got into school on a sports scholarship… eventually I figured that if I just worked harder than others, I’d eventually get better results.” Drew said, tapping his pen against the note for a moment.

“I guess it’s a habit by now.” Drew shrugged, and Arthur nodded with a small smile on his face at that.

He could understand more than anyone expected… Arthur was always told that he was smart, his family said it, his teachers said it, his friends said it…

But Arthur never really considered himself ‘smart’ as much as he thought that he was good at ‘understanding’. Comprehension, so to speak, he understood things a bit faster than others, but he still had to put in effort to know what he did.

That was, in Arthur’s opinion, the difference between a normal person, a ‘smart’ person and a genius.

A normal person took a while to understand and a while to apply. A smart person was quick to understand but still needed a while to apply what they knew. A genius could be shown something and immediately apply it to what they knew.

Arthur was a stickler for this kind of thought and would always argue his point, regardless of how his friends said that he was downplaying his ability.

For the rest of Einherjar, it was annoying that Arthur was so humble. Virtue it may be, but without pride in his ability he wouldn’t take it further. People work harder for things they take pride in.

“Oh, um, right, side-tracked here… I wanted to ask, I’m a Swordsman with shielding abilities, is there any advice you could give me about that?” Arthur was beginning to liken this conversation to an interview… at least he knew the answers for the majority of the questions.

“It depends on how you want to fight, as the LEV allows you to become anything you want to really, within certain limitations. I’m a Swordsman myself, but I’m good with magic.”

Drew looked to Arthur with admiration at the admittance of his magic skill.

“The way I see it, you could focus in Strength and Endurance to become a tank with countering abilities, or, you could focus equally on Strength and Dexterity, becoming a skilful fighter who uses his shield to parry instead of full on block.” These were just two of the possibilities Drew had, but depending on his previous stat layout…

“I’ve been fighting with Strength and Dexterity as my main stats, then Endurance, and Vitality after that. Intelligence and Wisdom each get a point every two levels.” It was a slightly equalized thing, six stats, two levels earned one ten points, not counting the two given by Classes every level.

With ten points, two going into Intelligence and Wisdom, then two into the other four stats, it seemed balanced in some way… if Drew had a mage class focusing on Intelligence and Wisdom all his stats would probably be equal by now.

Eh, but diverging from that stat layout was fine, Arthur didn’t have a set boost to his stats that he went with, other than constantly upgrading his Wisdom and Dexterity, the rest were all based on his feelings at the podium when he levelled up.

He didn’t focus on Endurance that much though… felt little need for it when he recovered quickly and rarely got hit in the first place.

“I see, I suppose it would work out… I got to go again, but it was a nice talk, Drew right?” Arthur stood, seeing that in the distance his team was finishing another match of pool, so he’d be on next.

“Yes, thanks for the talk sir… by the way…” The boy started to look a bit nervous for this next bit, and Arthur looked over to the boy with a raised eyebrow in question.

“I, um, that is, there were rumours that you were going to be starting your own Kingdom? It’s not important that you answer, but I wanted to know if the rumours were true?” Arthur sighed at the question, not truly wanting to think about it.

Shaun, the Guild Master of the United States of America, and annoying ‘boss’ of Arthur, had made public the Kingdom system and how to do it… and that immediately got people wondering.

Kingdoms were groups of six man teams such as Einherjar, and the amount of teams was determined by the highest levelled member of the Kingdom (i.e. the King) with two teams available from the beginning, and an extra team for every ten levels a person had, like three teams if you were level ten or higher.

So theoretically Arthur, at level fifty eight, could have seven teams of six in his Kingdom. And yet, the only team Arthur worked with was Einherjar.

There were many reasons why he didn’t make a proper Kingdom, but the most basic explanation was that Arthur was kind of shy.

And he didn’t want to work with people he didn’t really know… there were even people he knew in high school trying to contact him for a chance to join his ‘Kingdom’.

Not that Arthur cared that much, if he wanted them to join his Kingdom he’d message them, not the other way around… not to mention there was a very select amount of people Arthur still spoke to from his high school times.

Anyway, as mentioned, the Kingdom system was public, and obviously everyone wanted to be in the ‘best’ Kingdom. And the ‘best’ had to be the one with the ‘best’ Adventurer, right?

So Arthur was bombarded with requests to join a Kingdom that didn’t even exist yet.

“I’m going to be making a Kingdom, but not quite yet… and anyone I select, well, it’s not going to be a big ceremony to join.” Arthur admitted to the younger Adventurer with a frown, getting a nod from Drew.

“I understand, I figured I could just try asking. There isn’t much harm in asking something.” Drew shrugged, admitting that he was really just taking a chance, and wasn’t expecting much from it.

For Drew, it wasn’t a matter of pride, but that realistically Arthur would pick stronger people if he wanted to, or at least that’s how Drew saw it.

Walking back to the pool board, Arthur got ready to play, waiting for a moment to let Sidhe appear draped across his shoulders… difficult to take a shot when the weight appeared in the middle of said shot.

“Hey Arthur, where were you?” Michael asked from the other board, looking away from Emilia taking a shot to ask his best friend what happened.

“Got a drink, spoke to an Adventurer about some questions, considered making that Kingdom everyone kept asking about.” Arthur summed everything up before he started off his game against Matt.

“Ah… interesting mix. We going to be having new teammates?” Michael asked as he got ready to take his own shot.

“Not right now at least. If we’re going to be making a Kingdom, we’ll be doing so at a later date. But the Adventurer seemed interesting, despite him being a high school kid.” Arthur admitted, ignoring the glance he got from Alice at the admittance of Drew’s age group.

She was supposed to still be in high school after all, even if she tested out early.

Then again she was a bit more mentally mature compared to the average high school teen these days.

“Well, you know we’ll go along with your choice, you’re the boss after all.” Matt added, and Arthur shrugged, currently not considering the Kingdom after all.

“I know, and thanks for that. That being said, I’m stripes.” And the games continued for the day, team Einherjar just relaxing for a bit before they continued their battle against the Dungeon… just a relaxing day in the life of Arthur Clive, strongest Adventurer.

Though he wondered if letting Drew know that the Dungeon was actually the Tower of Babel was a bad thing… eh, he’d keep it a secret for a while longer.

Arthur had bigger things to worry about.

Arthur Clive

Level: 58 (C-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 17.5%

Dagger- Rend- Damage to living beings increases by 3%

Dagger- Void- can create a minor gravitational pull, 7 Wisdom per use a day.

Dagger- Feed- Absorb a magic attack from an enemy to be used against them.

Cloak- Defence- lowers damage taken by 3.5%

Cloak- Wise One- Increases Wisdom by 25% (total 145%)

Cloak- Rags to Riches- 6% of enemies drop two times the loot.

Cloak- Blink- teleport up to five metres away from your current position, costs 10 Wisdom per use a day.

Primary Element: Lightning

Other Element(s): Darkness

Personal Skills

Tactician III (113/150) - increases Wisdom by 20% (total 145%)

Sword Sage II (132/300)- Any bladed weapon deals 30% extra damage

Soul Sight II (267/300) - Allows insight beyond mortality

Dual Wielding III (141/150) - Greater use of two weapons

Lightning Elemental III (15/300) - Use supplementary lightning spells

Quick Reflexes II (47/100)- Increases Dexterity by 15%

Stats

Strength: 71

Dexterity: 91 (104)

Intelligence: 52

Wisdom: 95 (137)

Endurance: 52

Vitality: 71