It has been two days since the... productive meeting with Darius but nothing further has happened since then. Each time I was there the doctor sent me back saying he was in no condition to speak. Somehow I get the feeling that isn't true.

I'm currently sitting at 1987/2025 exp towards Wizard 5. The missing 38 exp will not be a problem, I'll get the new skill later today. I hope it is something good. Not that a single skill or level will make much of a difference. I've still a long way to go before I can feel even remotely safe with people like the commander around.

Aside from that... the last two days were not very fruitful. I learned nothing new about what demon lords are nor what exactly the title would give me.

I'm getting a bit anxious about this whole situation. I've probably screwed up big time back there with Darius... Well, no changing that now without talking to him ASAP. I'll try again after the dungeon trip, maybe he's better off today.

Training and the shower proceed as normal. Still dealing with the 'stage 2' monsters. A lot of them. At least the necromancers are gone, there were only a handful in the first place.

With that, I've enough exp to take the level once I get a chance to rest for a couple of minutes. I should probably do that after I ditch the others, otherwise, they might get a notification or something like they supposedly get when I appraise anything in their presence.

We gather up before the dungeon entrance as usual and... uhh, do I not get a party invitation this time?

Chloe comes over to me and looks a bit startled, "it seems we have a... tiny problem. I can't add you as a regular party member because of... you know what."

Great, so the familiar bond is already starting to cause problems, that didn't take long.

"Oh, damn, now what?"

She thinks for a moment, "...just play along, I have an idea."

She grabs me and pulls me back to the group, "ah, sorry. I forgot that we have to make a tiny change today. It was decided that Jared should take the role of the party leader so he can eventually unlock a specific title. But don't worry about it, that is just a formality. I'll keep issuing the orders. So, Jared, would you please do the honors?"

A good an excuse as any. Mentally I send out the invitations and soon they get accepted.

"Good, with everything finally in order, let's move out. Same formation as always."

We enter the dungeon exactly like the last two times.

Inside Chloe addresses us, "ok, everyone listen up for a moment. I've to confess I've messed up with your training and the flood appearing is no excuse for that. I've massively neglected to drill some teamwork into you and not let you mad dash forward to our targets. Once we encounter more dangerous monsters that can get someone or even all of us killed. But honestly speaking we don't have enough time to start at the beginning. So I'll keep it simple."

She gives them a small lecture on what to improve. For some reason, I feel left out...

"Good, with that out of the way I don't expect any big changes for now but keep in mind that we need to work on that in the future. Now on to the first floor."

The first floor... is a joke? A lot of fish-like monsters that can only flounder around but not fight back.

And here's the small new skill as well.

That was almost a literal shoot fish in a barrel situation. The dungeon is merciless to both sides with its random spawns it seems.

Floor 2 is populated by another fantasy staple: pig men.

The first non-boss monster with a non-generic monster race? So neither was Ruth's a one-off case nor is it limited to bosses. I'm afraid that increases the potential variety in monster skill sets even more.

Allen asks me, "Hey, uh, Jared, are you sure you should waste MP like this? I mean, don't get me wrong, I appreciate knowing exactly what we're up against but don't you need that to help with the flood?"

Ah shit, bad habits... "ah, sorry, I'm still just... a bit uneasy thanks to the boss we faced outside recently. I kind of had an idea back then that something was off but I didn't look into it... and now a friend of mine is dead", a total lie. I didn't know any of them.

"Ah, sorry to bring that up then. I totally understand you. I know it doesn't help you right now but I'm sure you'll get over it soon, I promise."

"Yeah..."

With that, he finally leaves me to myself again.

There are only four of the orcs. Four of our guys occupy them the other two stab them from the unprotected flank. That's more like what I expected from a professional combat group.

Floor 3 is home to the by now known crawlers again. Our guys break formation like on our first trip. Well, I guess the teamwork part lasted a whole floor so who am I to complain. We're still beginners after all.

Though this time they only manage to take out half of the monsters before running out of SP and then having to retreat. Progress is still progress, I guess.

We return to the entrance like last time, Chloe leaves first, then the five others follow after her and I stay behind like last time then return to floor 3.

I take a step outside the safe zone until the remaining crawlers start rushing towards my position, then step back. I prepare an ice blast and only at the last moment push my hand behind the barrier - like I've done all the time previously.

I repeat the spell cast two more times until all monsters are suffering from the damage over time ailment. No need to empty my whole MP pool now. It is enough that they suffer even the minimum effect of that status and they'll die in four to five hours at most. That way I can proceed with the next group faster than a full twenty hours of wait time.

And until then I take the fifth wizard level.

(And my new skill is, drum roll, please:)

(That's a very small amount. Even my base from [Sleepless] was 0.07% plus skill level divided by twenty.)

(It still adds up and also profits from [Enhanced Regeneration]. In total, you recover about 183% of your pool per day currently. I think that percentage will actually go down, relatively speaking, if you increase your max MP but not the skill levels of the new skill or [Sleepless] because the flat value has actually a pretty big impact.)

(So what, I only need like 13 hours to regenerate MP to full now?)

(Closer to 13 and a half but yes.)

(Uh, Elly, where did the 18.5 hours until full from before go? That little new skill can't make that big of a difference.)

(...I may have screwed that calculation up previously and messed up the decimal point on the flat value from skill level. Math is hard, okay?)

(Fine, I get you. It doesn't change much in the end.)

I see the first few crawlers dropping dead, moments later the rest follows. With that, I can proceed to the next floor.

Floor 4 also houses crawlers. So that means I can't even count on getting something new on every floor. I guess it was too much to ask to at least get a guarantee that I won't have to face the nastiest monster setup ten times in a row.

On floor 5 I'm greeted by earth golems, floor 6 houses a mixture of dire and grey wolves and floor 7 brings back a couple of zombies. Nothing to write home about, cold status still works just as good as it always has. Though at least floor 6 tells me that floors won't always be homogenous. Learned already two things this trip and haven't even made any notable progress in the dungeon. If it really is 120 floors deep I'm only barely past 5% now. I doubt I'm strong enough already to land cold status on monsters with levels fifty to sixty let alone with levels in the hundreds. At best I can extend my range a good bit by choosing the stronger single target spell over area attacks but even that will fail eventually.
I really need more power if I want to clear this dungeon.

Or rather... why should I even care about clearing it? I haven't heard a thing that there would be a reward at the end or anything. Currently, the dungeon is just a means to get some extra exp outside the flood, nothing else. Some of the rare drops seem to be nice but they don't require completion either. Not that I have had much luck with getting what I need so far.

After getting my thoughts back on track I notice that Survivor has hit the next level as well.

I still have another week of the premium membership on that, after that, I need to invest precious exp to get to the next skill.

Floor 8, oh bugger... another case of overtuned regeneration...

And when it says bridge troll it means that it wields a miniature bridge like a club... A ton of health, high WIL and [Rapid Regneration] - does that mean the trip already ends here today?

I step outside and launch an ice spell at it.

Yeah, my whole MP pool is barely enough for half of that then...

To my surprise, the troll moves slowly. Very slowly. It tries for an intimidating power walk but I should be easily able to just move past it. So I do exactly that. Regular floors are not locked off, I can just rush through if the mobs let me. Only boss floors are mandatory kills.

(Do you think that is a good idea, Jared? How do you intend to get past it on the way back?)

(That's what lightning spells are for, Elly. Just throw them until one lands the stun effect then run.)

(Good you have that element then.)

(Well, it wasn't really my choice but I already got some use out of that element against Ruth and potentially here with mister internet. Dark and earth so far were kind of a letdown but that might still change.)

Floor 9 has something new as well.

A bit too big for regular ants, more like shepherd dog size. And there's a big one in the back of the room.

(Hey, you're on the wrong floor, queen! Boss time is next floor! Do you even have a warrant for that! ...oh, right, you do, it is in your name, fuck.)

Despite the sheer amount of enemies my ice-cold strategy still works but the queen keeps on throwing out additional ant after ant, one every minute like a clockwork. But with the status effect in place, there's a timer on the whole disaster.

(Jared, I think that was a bad idea.)

(What do you mean, Elly?)

(The damage over time on the queen. You should've just let her spawn as many offsprings as she can and then cast rain like you do with the flood monsters outside. In contrast to that you even get loot here.)

(Damn, you're right. I didn't even consider that I can use rain in here... That would've been as much 'flood exp' as I want. Or at least until the queen inevitably gets tickled to death. Make a note to give me advance warning for the next similar room setup. We're mostly here for exp right now after all.)

After that realization, I avoid hitting the queen again to get as many spawns out of this as I can.

It takes over a whole day but once the queen finally abdicates there's still a total of over a thousand extra ants that need to be chilled. What am I not doing for this extra exp.

With that I arrive at floor 10 - let's see what the real boss is like.

A... snail. You're kidding me.

It looks helpless but the skills are another topic altogether.

That would make it my arch-nemesis already if it weren't for Darius.

Lucky me that it also includes the snail itself.

(If it wasn't for [Appraise] I wouldn't have noticed that that thing is a boss...)

(Well, I guess that is where this trip ends. It makes the room immune to magic and drains all SP in a hurry.)

(You think that's it?)

I shoot some magic at it but as the skill indicates it just dissipates quite a distance away from the boss without any effect.

(Fine, I guess that the skill works as advertised... but that doesn't mean I drop to 0 SP immediately when I enter the area.)

It has no MP or SP itself so a melee attack with my staff should be safe. As I approach the snail it tries to pounce at me, fails due to lack of SP and then retreats into its shell for shame. Then I swing my staff at it.

(Ok, I admit that my staff swing deals pathetic damage...)

(...)

(Uh, Elly?)

(...)

(Shit, the anti-magic field blocks you, too?)

I run away from the snail to leave the anti-magic field, (hey, Elly, you back now?)

(Yeah, that was awful. Everything turned to static.)

(Did you take any lasting damage from that?)

(No, I'm fine now, I think. So what did I miss?)

(I hit it with my staff for 36 damage then I noticed you didn't respond.)

(Huh, that's not much but you're no melee specialist. Tried your claws?)

(No, then please endure it for a moment. I'll give it a try.)

I run back towards the boss, sharpen my fingernails into claws and hit it.

A bit better. I slash it five more times and then my SP is already depleted from the constant drain.

(That was slightly better, 58 damage instead of 36.)

(That is such a joke. The boss can't even fight back, doesn't regenerate and we're still unable to progress.)

(Technically I can wait until my SP is full again, run in, give it like 10 hits and then repeat for a couple of days. Preferably hit the troll with spells before that for the extra exp. How many days would that take?)

(Given your speed I assume you need to endure about five seconds in the field to reach it, about a second per attack, so... seventeen hits of 58 damage per full SP pool, maybe 18 after the next level up... about 50 days, give or take.)

(So seven to eight blood packs. A bit over a full percent of my reserves. Tough decision.)

(Why don't you then just return for the day, Jared?)

(Quite simple, really. I must get stronger eventually, the sooner the better, and truth be told we don't know what the exact time limit is before the demon artifact causes irrecoverable damage, if it hasn't already. We don't know where it is or what exactly it does. For all we know, the whole world could explode next week. So we can't really afford to idle too much.)

(Well, we can't really go much out there with the ongoing flood.)

(That's true, Elly, but if I become significantly stronger I could at least shorten it a bit. Assuming it even has a limited amount of monsters that need to be killed and it isn't just a survive for X months event.)

(And how does that translate to our snail problem?)

(If I push on now I'll be a little bit stronger for the next dungeon visit and might just get that little bit further than if I just called it quits now.)

Elly is silent for a moment, (...so you are saying it would be a self-reinforcing effect.)

(At least potentially. If I leave with two or three levels extra this time I might next time be able to break through a monster that would just block me otherwise.)

(Yeah, I can see the logic behind that. Then I'd say go for it.)

(I think that is for the best as well.)

So I spent the next nearly two months repeating the same thing, blast the troll with spells, slash the snail and then read some stuff until my SP is full again. The snail didn't really move much from its initial position. When it moves it is literally at a snail's pace and most of the time it just hides in its shell, as little as that does for it. So much for 'terror', Mr. Snail.

Eventually, my claws finish tearing the boss apart.

(It is weird. I would have expected that I manage to read all ten books I have with me and then some while I deal with the snail but I barely finished two. Two in almost two months!! Am I really that slow a reader?)

(Either that or time is just messed up in here. I mean, just look around you. There are no signs that time itself passes, just like it is frozen outside.)

(How is that related to my reading speed?)

(It is just a theory but I think while you are considered 'idle' the time in the dungeon accelerates even more.)

(That sounds extra stupid... would at least explain why I got barely any reading done. This whole world is a mess. Why again did I agree to this job?
Ah, whatever, I can still make more progress now.)

I'm still miles off from getting summoner so maybe when I get back I should look at how much slaves cost, some disposable pawns would be nice. ...what am I thinking, that is disgusting!

I may be a monster but I'm not a monster... I know what I mean, me.

Whatever, I just have to keep going.

Several zombies and zombees call floor 11 their home and floor 12 is populated by more orcs.

Floor 13 has those sea walkers from the beginning. Since they can't move my area damage won't help much, I just tag a few each with a cold status, slash a few with my claws and move on. If the next floors aren't anything special I can continue here with my claws while the next room's monsters freeze to death.

Floors 14 through 16 are just more ghouls, earth golems, crawlers and ragelopes.

And floor 17... is where I have to stop. Sea walkers again but this time most of the room is underwater. I try to shell them from above water with several different elemental spells but all of them already explode on contact with the surface. Stuff here makes as little sense as usual...

On the way back I stun the troll as previously planned and pass by without any issue.

I made some nice progress overall though I would have liked some bigger upgrades like some new equipment or even another Class Core. Also, I'm not sure if I should be happy or disappointed that there was no glitch monster. They seem even more dangerous than their regular counterparts but if their loot table is as glitchy as their other stats this should only be to my advantage. Well, I can't change luck.

With that, I leave the dungeon.

Outside everyone is moving away from the dungeon exit towards the gathering place. I think I can now cancel the party.

Around the corner, commander Darius greets Chloe - then knocks her out? What the hell is he doing?

Kay raises his weapon and speaks out, "commander? What are you doing, what is the meaning of this?"

"Nothing that concerns you. Put down your weapons."

"It is very much of my concern if you go mad and assault our captain."

clang

Darius knocks Kay's weapon out of his hand.

"I haven't been thinking this clear in a long time, soldier. I know quite well what I'm doing."

"..."

"Forgive me, people of Jeth-whatever, for what I'm about to do will cause you undue harm."

I've no idea what he is on about. He really has gone mad, has he?

Darius takes out a strange crystal, "I bear this sin knowingly and willingly for it is my only choice."

Then he points it at me, it starts glowing and everything goes white.

Yes, Elly, I've fucked up.

---

POV: reader