"Everything is getting darker. My Goddess, please give me strength if you still have a crumb of mercy for your follower."
Deformed Alexandros's voice echoed through the cave.
Alexandros was one of the most promising soldiers of the western kingdom in the past.
Sharp, powerful, loyal. Alexandros had everything that made him a good soldier.
With this and good friends on his side, he climbed through the ranks and made a name for himself.
But he wanted more. He wanted to become powerful enough to challenge the strongest of the world has to offer, a power many strives for.
To achieve this goal, he did everything he could do. He hunted dangerous monsters, climbed unreachable peaks.
But even after everything he did, he wasn't getting more powerful in the end.
But when Alexandross almost surrendered to his fate and accepted the truth, a shadowy figure offered him a deal. A drug that allowed him to challenge seemingly unbeatable entities, but it had its flaws.
Despite giving him the strength he always dreamed of, drugs slowly took his power away while making him an addict.
He began to lose everything he had. Because of the drug's effects, Alexandros fell to the bottom. He even began to lose his faith in the gods once he loved them so much.
One day someone who he shouldn't trust offered him an ideal. She said she has a treatment that can stop the side effects.
At the lowest point of his life, Alexandros accepted it. In exchange for a one-time service for her, Lady.
The treatment worked. Alexandros wasn't strong as before but found a way to stop the effects of the drugs before he lost almost everything.
For years, he began to fix his life. He married, had a child, lived a simple and quiet life for a while.
One day, his savior from the past sent him a letter. Lady wanted something, and Alexandros must get it for her to pay his debt.
Alexandros tried to refuse it. He offered his savings to her, hoping she may close his debt that way.
He learned why to fear Lady.
Lady ordered his man to kill everyone important for Alexandros, except his daughter. Ladie's man killed his close friends, important relatives, and his beloved wife.
Alexandros saw the Ladies capabilities, and he accepted her offer to protect his child.
"Pain, I am feeling too much pain. It is unbearable, save me."
Alexandros was still following the tracks left by Arthur and Erwin.
He lost control over his body. The one talking is him, but the mission he codded inside his mind before dying. Even after his death, he will still finish it.
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As we reached the second floor, a group of Knights greeted us.
Other than our group, everyone was able to come down here, and as I see, there wasn't even a single scratch on most of them.
Mercenaries, heroes, hunters, knights, everyone is eating and talking with each other, some is singing songs others are drinking.
Arthur pulled me to a corner.
"Now, I want you to listen to me." He whispered. "Lady certainly wants something from heroes, but I can't allow something like that under my supervision. I don't know who I can trust. Heck, I don't even know if I can trust you. I am taking some risks so, please don't stab me from the back."
Once again, I am inside some weird shit.
"Go a little slow, I still don't understand certain things, and you are throwing a bomb at me," I whispered back. "Who is Lady, what she wants from the heroes. First, answer me, then I may try to help you."
"You either a moron or you don't know anything about politics." He sighed
"Okay, I am explaining this one time."
Arthur cleared his throat. "Lady was a powerful political figure, but after she lost most of her power, she moved away from politics as a person who is the shadow of her former self, but I assume she wants to use this opportunity to steal relics from inexperienced heroes."
It sounds like a stupid idea, considering how important heroes are for people of this world, but I don't know the game of cards behind the politics of this world.
"Forgive my ignorance about this topic. I certainly get that some people will try to gain power behind the shadows, but how could we find whose work for Lady and whose not."
He pulled a piece of human flesh with an eye tattoo on it. "This tattoo you see is a dark seal. People who made deals with Lady have that. It has some abilities such as giving the location of the carrier to his dealer, killing the carrier if he doesn't do the job, and lastly using his body to finish the job if needed."
Now, everything makes sense. Lady wanted a powerful relic from heroes, sent Alexandros, who made a deal with her for some reason.
"Then that means his body is probably still alive!"
Arthur closed my mouth with his hand. "Edward, you moron! Do you try to alert her agents? Yes, his body is probably alive. Alexandros is not a guy you can kill with a cheap trick like a surprise bomb."
I lowered my voice. "Tell me your plan. I will try to help you much as I can."
Arthur took a step back and put his hand on his forehead. "That's the problem. I don't have a plan. We can't leave the dungeon right now. Lady's followers may understand the situation, and their tattoos will force them to attack. I can't take the risk of losing a hero."
I began to think. "But, trying to finish the dungeon is also risky because followers might try to backstab heroes in the boss room."
Arthur chuckled with despair in his voice. "You get it fast. Wanting you to risk your life will be too much but try to watch their back. The walking corpse of the Alexandros and the possible followers make this quest ten times riskier than it should be."
"There is not much you can do," I said to him. "But don't give up right now. Let's watch the kids back, and try to finish dungeon fast as we can." I pat his back.
I began to move away from him and walk towards the cheerful group drinking. I can warn at least one more person, and I hope it will make a difference.
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I don't know what hit the people's minds, but they drank too much alcohol, and because of that, group leaders decided to camp and let the drunk sleep (which means more than half the people entered the raid.)
Just before everyone began to sleep, I managed to find Victoria and pull her somewhere away from curious ears.
"May I ask the reason for your act?" She talked first.
"I need to warn my fellow kin." I began to talk. "A shadowy figure is after the relics you carry, and I doubt if they hesitate to kill you for it." I pulled out a drawing of the tattoo Arthur showed me. "If you see a tattoo looking like that, don't go close to them."
"A dark deal, I read about them in the capital." She began to stroke her chin. "You know, I read about something similar to this in one of the mangas I read. A situation like that is not unlikely."
She stopped stroking. "Okay, I will keep my eyes open, but should I tell this to others?"
"Tell what?" Achi showed up from nowhere. He had his usual innocent moron smile on his face.
"Noting Achi, we were just talking." Victoria quickly answered him.
"But about what?" Achi asked.
"About history, politics, general knowledge, anything other than being a cool hero killing demons, Achi." That was a bit too harsh, but knowing Achi's nature, I could understand why she is so annoyed.
"Then why are you here?" He asked.
At this point, I am pretty sure he is just stupid and nothing more.
"To not wake anyone else up, Achi. We just finished talking. Let's go to the camp, okay?"
"Oka-
A loud sound and a shockwave caused by boulders falling from the roof of the floor shook everyone.
"Run!" The Voice of Artur came from far. "The first floor's roof is collapsing! Run for your lives!" He shouted.
We began to move forward. I turned my head to the back.
A very few people were following us.
I began to slow down until I caught Arthur. "What happened back there?"
He was panting.
"I don't know the reason, but the roof just collapsed, and all the drunk men got smashed by the stones. We barely managed to escape from it." He said.
"Is this something common inside the dungeons?" I asked.
"Not much, but yeah, it can happen from time to time," Arthur answered me while still running. "Let's focus on reaching the second floor for now."
"Any known exit. Sir?" A knight shout from the back.
"Only if we kill the boss," Arthur answered back. "So be prepared yourselves for a battle!"
I began talking with a sound only Arthur could hear. "I am not sure, but my guts are saying the reason why everyone got that drunk and collapse of the first floor are both connected to Lady."
Arthur nodded. "And I only thought taking this nap was an idiotic idea, if only I only managed enough to understand everything! Don't trust anyone except heroes, not even the knights."
