Preparations for conquering the dungeon:

Breathing heavily with my arm aimed forward, but with a calm mind, I am standing upright.

Lying before me are the bodies of Arachnes that attacked us just now.

There are eight of them. They are still being disintegrated, at a slow pace, but at least they're dead.

They were incredibly agile but maybe because of level up, it was a bit easier to aim. Well, I think, the other reason I didn't miss the aim, is due to my natural reflexes.  

 

I relaxed a bit, seeing that more of them were not appearing anymore. But I still am on alert.

I moved closer to a dead Arachne lying in the corner and tried to use my skill on it once again so that I could disintegrate it faster. 

But as mentioned in the skill's description, "there can't be more than one disintegration center in a target", which means I can't cast my skill twice on a single target.

It will take nearly 23 minutes for them to completely disintegrate into nothingness. 

Ashly is resting at the moment, I shouldn't disturb her. I guess I'll just wait and keep watch.

 

 

'Sigh... this kinda reminds me of those fps games that I used to play.'

'I am a normal person who has lived a normal life..................... But what if, I was tricked into believing that? What if, I really am a Devil's servant?'

That Goddess called me Imposter, devil's servant, scavenger, sinner and what not...

Is there any chance that she was telling the truth?

A scavenger that feeds on the dead for nutrition. 

I wait for these dead monsters to disintegrate to level up, to gain strength, to get the 'nutrition'.

I am still alive because of this power that I "scavenged" from the leftover of the Champions' powers. 

Will it even be called my power?

'...'

So be it!

I don't care if it is called my power or not!

What I know is that I am the one that uses it, and no one else. 

I don't care if I AM an Imposter or not.

What I know is that my family is waiting for me outside of this dungeon, they love ME and I love them. That bond is not artificial. 

I don't care if I AM a scavenger or not.

What I know is that this power, even if taken from someone else, is something that's going to be cultivated by me. 

I have already increased its level from 1 to 3. Maybe luck was a part of it, but luck isn't something that can be found anywhere rather it's something that descends on those who chase after it. 

It only happened because of my last desperate attempt to kill the Arachne with me. Only that's why my skill connected at the perfect spot, only that's why it upgraded and only that's why I... no, WE will survive this shitty dungeon.

.

.

*Ting*

"<NOTIFICATION>  hmmmm..."

"Oh! ...<NOTIFICATION>"

"<STATUS> "

"<STATUS> "

"Ashly, did your level increase?"

"Yes, Jack, I am now a level 326, and my skill's at level 4, it increased 3 times!" 

"Hmm, my skill's level didn't increase neither after crossing level 300 nor level 400, but at level 500 it did level up. I am at level 537 right now."

"Um, Jack,"

"Yes?" 

Ashly gushed excitedly, "I think I am extremely powerful now, my stats have multiplied by the level I gained with my initial stats, which was 3. Now all my stats are above five hundred and my HP and MP are in thousands!" 

"Oh yeah?" 

'most of my initial stats were 0 and 1, fuck they remind me of binary codes!'

'But,'

"Ashly, I don't think that you're that strong.... I mean, well... let me tell you, my friend's stats were above 500 at level 1. So, you can guess how your stats compare with those who are or will become really strong, right?"

"Oh is that so..." 

Her face hung down and her shoulders slumped. She seems a bit dejected, but that's the reality that she has to face as well as accept. 

Seeing her like that, a chuckle escaped my mouth.

Sigh...

Whenever I talk to her, my tension and worry decrease a bit. Well, at least this is better than thoughtless depression.

Ashly seems like a nice person to be with, she even tried to protect me. Twice. Also, I think, she has kind of opened herself to me. I've never seen her change so many expressions in school. She always had this indifferent look on her face and didn't talk to anyone in the whole school. 

I know nothing about her. I never tried to talk to her before as she never approached me too. I once overheard some girls teasing her for being a weird, so I thought that must be one of her peculiarities too. 

And me being the selfish bastard, wouldn't want to meddle in someone else business.

Anyways, Ashly is now a partner. A partner who will help me escape this dungeon. Having a partner to talk to in a place like this can keep your mind at peace. I mean how can someone who can watch your back will not keep your mind at peace. And a mind at peace can make better decisions too.

"haaah~" 

It has barely been a bit more than two hours since we were thrown here and it feels like a few days have passed.

 

 

Sigh...

What should we do from here? 

Those Arachnes and other kinds of monsters too must be roaming everywhere on this floor. This dead-end can be said to be a relatively safer place. As here, they can attack from only one direction and with my skill. I can eliminate them a bit easier because here, AIMING is a bit easier. After all - they can come from only one direction.

They are extremely powerful as this is the lowest floor ever ventured, it can also be inferred by their speed and agility. They can walk on walls too. And since they have partial spider bodies, so, webbing ability wouldn't be a surprise, but I haven't seen it yet.

The physical strength of theirs is not known to me as the first one was just playing with us, and the others didn't even get the chance to display what they could do. 

Well, that's good anyway, I have no desire to see their tricks. If I see any of their kind, they're going to get disintegrated.

But first, I need a mental image of what Ashly's stats and skills look like, I need to know what their uses are and how we can use them effectively.

Since we can't show our status screens to each other, I queried her about it, she told me willingly with a serious tone.

.

.

.

. 

'Hmmm, I see, I see, so that's it, huh.' 

I mused after I formed a mental image of her status in my head.

[ ]

    NAME: Ashly Evans      

    AGE: 17

    SEX: Female

    RACE: HIGH HUMAN

    ORIGIN: EARTH-018

 

                                     

    LEVEL: 326

   PHYSICAL STATS :

    HP: 1650/2282  (7*326)

    MP: 16300/16300  (50*326. 50, quite high initial MP, huh)

    STR: 978  (3*326. My initial stats were 2)

    DEX: 978

    DEF: 978

    AGI: 978

    INT: 978  (my initial stats for this one, was 5)

    LUCK: not defined

    ABNORMAL STATE: none

                                      

    SKILLS:

    Psychokinesis lvl 4

 < >

• A unique skill that makes the user able to perform psychokinesis. A special sense is developed somewhere in the body of the user for better control of psychokinesis.
• Range: 20 m ( 5*4)
• Maximum force applied: 9000 N ( 300*300*0.1 "maybe" I'm not that sure for this one)
• MP cost: 10/ 1 sec →Note: can be more if over-exerted
• Cooldown period: null  (cool, but won't her skill be unusable when her MP hits zero. Doesn't that mean that her cooldown period is the same as the refill time of MP?)

 < >

                                    

   BLESSINGS:

   Linguistics

< >

All-father has blessed you with the ability to understand all languages that exist in, EARTH-818. You can communicate and write in any language that you already know or have come to know through the blessing. 

 < >

[ ]

 

'Hm? I don't get it. Why is there so much difference between her current HP and maximum HP? Wait does it mean that in her case, when there is a level up, the ratio between (new - current HP/max HP) and (old - current HP/max HP) should be same? No...upon closer look, it seems that the new current HP is a bit more than what it should for it to be true and in my case too there wasn't this much of a difference......... Ah! Wait, what if her HP increased such that the ratio is the same but level-up healed her a bit.... well, it might be true.' 

'Hoh! Yeah, it does provide some healing when levelled up, my pricked finger is almost patched up!'

'Hmm......... back to her status, the special sense must be the "organ behind the neck" she was talking about? The range is 20m, good. Oh! the maximum force applied has increased to 9000, impressive. I see, so the square of level which her skill levelled up is multiplied by the initial value, which was 0.1 in her case, huh. Well, maybe I'm just looking too deep into it. It could be a random increase for all I know. But still, with a maximum force of 9000, now she can even lift a small car if she wants to. This can be extremely helpful. What does this over-exerted mean exactly? Sounds like, we need to test this to know the answer to that.'

Anyways, she seems enough powerful to help now. I can relax a bit as I can entrust my back to her.

I checked my status once again to calculate how much time will it take me now, to fully disintegrate an Arachne.

 

[ ]

   NAME:  Jack Anderson   

   AGE: 17

   SEX: Male

   RACE: HIGH HUMAN

   ORIGIN: EARTH-818

 

          

   LEVEL: 537

  PHYSICAL STATS :

   HP: 3221.7/3222

   MP: 5370/5370

   STR: 0

   DEX: 1074

   DEF: 0

   AGI: 1074

   INT: 2685

   LUCK: not defined

   ABNORMAL STATE: none

           

   Disintegration lvl 4

 < >

♦ A unique skill, that disintegrates living targets into non-existence. To invoke this skill, you need to verbally call out the skill's activation phrase - "DISINTEGRATE", while aiming at the target that you need disintegrated with the hand. The point at which the skill is connected becomes the disintegration centre. And the target undergoes disintegration with the disintegration point being the disintegration centre. Note, the target does not die immediately once the skill connects, but when, it is completely disintegrated. Note, there cannot be more than one disintegration centre in a single target.

♦ Current disintegration rate: 240cm³/s.

♦ Current range: 1920 cm 

♦ Number of shots: 81/81

♦ MP cost: 3

♦ Cooldown period: 9 hours

 < >

          

  BLESSINGS:

  Linguistics

< >

 All-father has blessed you with the ability to understand all languages that exist in, EARTH-01Z. You can communicate and write in any language that you already know or have come to know through the blessing. 

< >

 [ ]

'hmm... My HP looks a bit weird with that decimal value. Oh-kay, Stats increase has the same pattern, the parameters for the skill too have the same kind of increment..... Hmm?...Range..... I can't figure out how my "Range" is being upgraded. Earlier I thought that it was just multiplied by 16, but now it got twice its previous value? What's the pattern?..... Well, knowing it would've been good, but I guess its increment is simply random, unpredictable, or some higher math. I guess seeing more values as I level up might help me understand the pattern, let's leave it for another time.'

'Now, onto the main point. Now the time taken to completely disintegrate an Arachne is nearly 14-15 minutes which is a huge perk in itself. With this range, rate and number of shots, maybe now we can escape this place a bit more safely....... But still, it doesn't mean that we can let our guard down.'

"Heh!"

Moving away from here may be risky, but we also can't stay up here for more time as there is no guarantee that they will always come in a number that I can handle. They may charge at us in millions for all I know and this dead-end might become our grave if they really do.

We should move from here. 

That's the decision I told Ashly and to which she agreed.  

.

.

Before moving from here, Ashly practised her ability for about an hour. 

She can use her ability without any difficulty, which means that she doesn't need to concentrate to move something, she uses her skill quite naturally. 

She used 'me' to further test the control on her ability. She lifted me, made me fly, made me walk and tried to squeeze me to check the maximum force I could tolerate.  

When she made me walk like a puppet, I tried to resist walking but couldn't, and when she tried to stop me from moving, I tried my hardest to move but failed again, it was as if I was paralysed. 

At present, I think the most useable application of her skill will be to paralyse the enemy or at least slow them down if they have insane physical strength. The slower they are, the easier will it be for me to aim. And yeah, if we can burst the heads of the monsters that would be good too, this much force should be enough for that. 

She can also make a barrier, which we can use to fend the webbing ability that the Arachnes may possess, in case they shoot us with webs or even poison, i.e if they can. At least we will have a measure to defend ourselves. 

Of course, she can fly too but using her ability to fly through the dungeon's path is not feasible because it will constantly eat up her mana. As well as dangerous, due to the low height ceilings.  

.

.

Before moving from this place, we also checked our supplies. They consisted of Ashly's school bag. A 1000ml water bottle(700 ml water left after using it to wash Ashly's wound). A box of sandwiches(10 pieces!!). A packet of bandages. A pack of bandaids. An antiseptic cream. A packet of cotton. A bunch of safety pins. A few sanitary pads, a bra, a panty. A few stationaries and a few books. A smartphone and a portable solar charger. 

To be honest, when we went through her items, I was surprised quite a bit to see her preparation. But since she is a daughter of a... sinner group, I guess this much should be normal.

"Ashly, were this many sandwiches supposed be to be eaten for the lunch break?

"Yeah, I am a glutton!"

'She looks quite prideful about it, heh.'

"Well, this much food can only last till two to three days at max, I highly doubt that we can get out of here that period of time. The monsters that live here must be preying on each other or something else for food. I doubt that these spider looking monsters will be edible for us, they have a high possibility of being poisonous."

"Agreed, we should look for other edible looking monsters for eating and for drinkables, they could possibly have a source of water. If we find it along the way, then it would be good otherwise, we might starve to death."

"Hmm, that would be good.... I really do hope we find some edible monster here, but in this dungeon, Devils dwell. Though we have been calling them monsters, their species, is different, they aren't the monsters that adventurers hunt in the forest for raw materials and meat. The dungeons of this world have never been explored for meat and edibles, they are only explored by the adventurers for Mana stones and other minerals." 

"Jack, keep hope. We will escape this place no matter what!"

"Yeah!"

" "let's go" "