“It makes sense. Anathema informed me that something had changed in the dungeon. That things were different now.”

“Who?”

Oh right. He wouldn't know about her.

“Anathema is the current leader of the Gejan on the first floor. She, like you Dragkenoss, was trained by the Kitsune.”

The old centaur quickly perks up, his posture improving slightly compared to his previous lack of a proper sitting position. Currently, the old fart is nursing his wounds, refusing to be healed until all of the other injured are taken care of. The battle had created a great many wounded.

“I see. I would enjoy speaking with her some time.”

“You will eventually. But first, you’re sure that the boss didn't formerly have the ability to regenerate?”

Dragkenoss nods.

“As far as I know, the boss has never had that ability, otherwise I doubt this city would exist.”

“Same for the appearance of those awakened?”

“Yes, they exist on the third floor, but not on the second. Their presence is disconcerting, especially considering the information I obtained from the third floor. Apparently, the number of awakened are increasing, and those idiot [Herdmasters] are calling it a good thing.” he says, snorting in displeasure at the end of his last sentence. Apparently, he very much dislikes the centaur leadership.

“Good? How is an increase in enraged, organized, dangerous monsters a good thing?”

Dragkenoss scratches his side, ears flickering, “It's all because of those stupid crystals. Apparently creating enchanted items is far more important than keeping people alive. The idiots, all of th- is something wrong?”

Seriously? Monster crystals are used for enchanting? Fucking hell. Is that why I've been struggling to progress my class? Ughhhhh, goddammit.

I quickly stand up, turn, and then stop.

I sit back down and turn my attention back towards the now very confused centaur.

“I just remembered I have no crystals to try enchanting with.”

Dragkenoss blinks several times, his head turning towards the opening of his home, a windowless opening, and gazes at the standing undead second-floor boss… my new minion.

“I can't regrow that dome. Not gonna happen. He's coming with me.”

The old centaur rolls his eyes, refusing to continue our earlier argument over turning a defeated monster that had killed so many of his people into an undead minion.

Fuck Morale! I want a goddamn boss monster.

He sighs.

“So what was your theory again?”

“Well, it seems as though some dungeon mechanism was recently broken and is now taking a much more active approach to the dungeon. Levels are rising, awakened monsters are showing up and it even looks like bosses are being upgraded. At this rate, I don't think this dungeon will continue to be habitable for your species in the next ten years.”

Dragkenoss swallows hard, hands turning into fists. A hard look on his face. The old centaur feels the same way.

“If what you say is true, then you are going to have to conquer this dungeon before my species perishes.”

I start to nod, before stopping, confused at his tone.

“You say that like the centaurs won't be helping me.”

Dragkenoss frowns.

“The fourth floor, where the Kitsune live, my species cannot go. The magic on that floor will drive us insane. Only the lizards and the Kitsune can travel that floor unimpeded.”

I kinda figured that would be the case. This dungeon seems to be designed to limit species from traversing to the next floor or the floor below it. Minotaurs can’t travel up because they can't see through the dark, neither can they travel down due to how slow they move and their weakness to poison, which is, (if what Dragkenoss says is true), ever-present on the third floor. The centaurs, on the other hand, can’t travel through the second floor due to the terrain being so congested. A large dexterity stat is required for the centaurs to traverse that terrain safely… and it seems the fourth floor has some mind magic thing going for it.

“Wait, how come the Gejan can travel through the fourth floor?” I ask. Something seems to not add up there.

“You don’t know? Their scales disperse magic around them.”

Fuck. What the hell, Gejan have a loaded kit. Powerful resistant scales, magic resistance, night vision, they’re carnivores, I wouldn't even be surprised if they have resistance to poison too.

“Fucking hell, they're probably descended from Dragons.”

Dragkenoss gives me a confused look.

“Massive lizard monsters with wings. They can breathe fire and are most likely able to use magic strong enough to level cities.”

“I would not wish to fight one.” The old centaur nods.

Considering my luck, I’m probably going to have to fight a swarm of them or something.

“Yea… so it seems like I won't be able to get much help from your kind… I’ll still need their loyalty for after I conquer this dungeon. Centaurs would make great cavalry… and ranged support.”

“The [Herdmasters] would not like it. They dislike sharing power and are very against a centralized figure, especially since the war. Granted, there would still be many who would join you, and I can get an army for you together thanks to my old reputation, but most of the population would not listen.”

*Snort*

“Don't worry, I know a couple of things about politics. I’m sure I can assist you in taking control of the floor.”

“Me?”

*Chuckle*

“Of course you. Gladius was smart, but he lacked what it truly takes to become a leader. He adapted well and abused the political system, but that isn't enough. He was too forceful, too rushed. Too much needless blood was spilled.”

I shake my head.

“I’ll write up a guide for you… Wait, you guys can read and write right?”

Dragkenoss immediately gets up, grunting in annoyance as he walks towards a chest. He opens it up and comes back to me with a scroll.

“Yes, she taught us how to make this… papyrus. She also imparted the knowledge of words to us.”

I take the scroll of papyrus, feeling the hardness of it. I open it up and gaze at the words splayed out.

“This is Korean… a very old Korean.”

“I do not know this Korean, but the language is called Hangeul.” says Dragkenoss, slwoly sitting back down on the soft fur blanket, his wounds still everpresent.

“Koreans are a people who use the language called Hangeul. Which raises a lot of questions for me, but doesn't change much. I learned over thirty languages and this is one of them. Anyhow, I’m going to need whatever you use for writing and probably several more of these scrolls.”

I stand up, stretching, “I should have a full plan of action written for you by the time I start moving to the fourth floor.”

“What will you do now?” Dragkenoss asks, watching me as I head towards the floor.

I wave.

“I have twenty-nine days to prepare what I can on this floor before going to the next. I don't fancy my chances of killing the boss again, especially if it gains another ability upgrade.”

I stop, about to leave, “In the meantime, prepare to abandon this city. You won't be able to hold it anymore.”

I step out.

____________________________________

Cracking my neck left and right, I allow the door to close behind me before gazing towards the rather busy city. Centaurs run to and fro, working quickly. Some are cooking, others are patrolling, but most are further down, towards a tented area which houses many of the wounded.

Focusing my vision, I find Jessica, already hard at work, healing as much as she can while… yelling at the centaurs… and pointing.

I should check on that…

“Ughhhh, so much work to do. Twenty-nine days to take over all the Minotaur tribes, organize a training regime for them, create a military leadership and train them enough to actually do shit… FUUUUUCCCCCCKKKKKK!”

I yell loudly, attracting the attention of centaurs near me.

I ignore their contemplative and confused looks. Instead, I stop thinking about what needs to be done and instead focus on what I want to get done now.

Which is to check my motherfucking stats.

“RNG gods, if you actually exist, I’ll fucking kill you if I get shit.”

I allow the stat messages to flow.

Hmmm, interesting. Is it because Jessica healed me? Does she count as a part of my group?

So the RNG gods get to live… for now.

OHHHH YEAAAAHHHHHH

Useful, but the increase in mana sustain is negligible already, especially considering it already scales with willpower.

Useless now due to my low level, but I can see this becoming extremely powerful in the future.

Err. I don't know how to feel about this one. Maybe it is faster? More useful? I’ll have to remember to actually try it out and test it.

Awwww shit. Where the fuck am I supposed to find Royalty?

Oh, this is actually an Aura ability. Not bad, should be rather useful for the next couple months.

Is strength determined by level difference or difference in stats? I wish I could get a better explanation.

Really? That's it? I get nothing after 12 freaking levels? That is such bullshit.

I wait a couple of seconds, slightly hoping that there was more. That I might get some other skills or something.

Unfortunately, it seems that that was it. [Hero] seems to give me nothing and [Enchanter] barely levels from combat. And the levels I gained were probably because my enchanted weapons were used against the boss.

Which were utterly useless considering the only enchant I can use is [BloodLetting], which requires a wound to be afflicted..

At least my [Necromancer] class gained so many levels and skills alongside my [Noble] class.

Though I am annoyed that I can't just outright upgrade to [Lord]. Hopefully, I can figure something out later. Maybe the class can upgrade on its own if my level becomes high enough.

I wonder if others have leveled as much as I did… Dear god, Jessica probably leveled about as much as I did.

With my curiosity increasing exponentially, I start to slowly jog towards Jessica.

_____________________________________________

“Gallis, straighten out that leg slowly, and for the love of Eir, if it is not straightening easily, don't force it.”

Her hand moves quickly, a dagger slashing into a centaur thigh, opening it up. The centaur squeals.

“Keep him down and don't let him move,” she orders.

Immediately, several hands fly out onto the centaur, holding him down.

With practiced ease, Jessica’s hands moves into the now open wound. The Centaur squeals loudly in pain but is unable to do anything about it.

Jessica’s hand moves around, grabbing bones, shards of bones, and everything else out of place. She moves it around, reconstructing the bone inside the body.

Once reconstructed, she closes her eyes.

“[Heal].”

An influx of mana travels down her hands and straight into the bone, healing it back together with impressive speed.

She stops her skill once the bone had healed and removes her hand from the wound with a wet slurp.

Considering the number of injured, wasting mana on flesh wounds that can be healed by the [Healers] or Ezina, it’s best to heal what they can’t and move on.

“He is good. Take him away and bring the next one. And don't drop them again.”

Her helpers, [Soldiers] with high stats in strength, nod to her. They lift the injured centaur and start to carry them to where the centaur [Healers] are.

Jessica wipes the sweat off her face with her forearm before turning and plunging her hands into a basin of water, frowning at the sight of it having turned a dark red.

“I need a fresh basin of water.”

She cleans what she can with the bloodied water and then dries her hand on a dirty cloth.

“Bring me fresh towels or whatever you have for cleaning. Make sure they are clean!”

She looks around, staring at the makeshift tents connected to one another. Many injured are sprawled out on the floor, still requiring help. Centaurs move around, carrying food and feeding those that can't feed themselves.

She turns to the right, watching as a [Healer] stitches wounds closed before activating her [Minor Heal] skill. Like her, the [Healer] looks extremely tired. They have been up for several hours, constantly spending their mana while trying to be as efficient as possible.

“You,” Jessica yells, pointing at a centaur who is holding a wooden tray of food.

“Bring the [Healers] something to eat and drink.”

The centaur, a female that looks to be part goat, stops in her tracks, eyes widening in fear.

“NOW!”

The centaur squeals before hightailing it (literally) towards the [Healers].

She glares at the retreating centaur before looking around, annoyed that her next patient isn't in front of her yet.

“Hey Jessica, you seem to have tak--- what?”

Jessica turns her head, finding Quasi, smiling his usual cocky smile. He stops after seeing her glare.

“Why are you here?”

“Uh.”

“Did you come to help?”

“I came to see how you are doing.”

Her glare intensifies, causing Quasi’s cheery smile to turn into a panicked one.

“I have been healing for the past several hours! I’m tired, hungry, thirsty, and angry enough to stab a [Hero] right now.”

“Well then… Can I he-”

“LEAVE!” Jessica yells as her hand tightens around a knife. The yell travels far around her, causing all in the vicinity to first look towards her and then towards the [Hero].

Quasi’s eyes widen,” You’re using aura. When did y-”

“NOW” Jessica leans forward.

“Shit.”

The [Hero], a man who has lived for eons, seen so much, killed boss ranked monsters, turns and runs away.

The centaurs stare at his retreating form, though not with pity, but instead with envy. After all, he has successfully escaped the clutches of the one now nicknamed ‘Tyrant Healer’.