———Wiina———

  <12: 48 pm>

  “Definitely shows how far we’ve come, don’t you think?” Jeff said as he looked at the corpse of the oni creature. I wouldn’t call it that impressive, especially since he needs my help, but I shouldn’t say that. Many are still taking baby steps.

  “It’s definitely more than what we managed a few months back.” I said, not giving much aside from pure observation. “So will you go to the next floor?”

  “I mean. I still have plenty of energy left. Why the heck not.” He said with confidence. It’s mainly because I was sneaking in attacks to make his fights easier. If he were to be with one of our cssmates not named Karra, Kenni, or Emmie, then he’d run out of gas by now. And if he was with other students, probably be stuck on the sixth or seventh floor.

  “If you say so. I’m also still pretty good.” Even if this body only runs on a twentieth of my full strength, that would be enough to even get to the fiftieth floor. “Maybe the fifteenth floor is the best we could go for.”

  “That’s pretty optimistic coming from you.” He remarked. “Well. As long as you can keep healing both of us, then we can keep going for a long while still.”

  I suppose as long as I apply spells to heal his wounds and reinvigorate him carefully, he can keep going, but at that point there is going to be some suspicion cast upon me.

  “Let’s go then!” He said before picking up the rewards for the boss clear and heading further in. The oni corpse wouldn’t be any good, since the officials told us to only collect materials that won’t spoil. Something that for certain people won’t mishandle, and also cuts down on things divers are obligated to bring back to the surface. Most of us don’t have the ever-so convenient ability to store everything into a pocket dimension tied to our soul. It’s a powerful ability only a select few have access to, you need more than raw strength in order to access such a space.

  Hopefully he doesn’t get cocky as I continue to assist him. If he ended up doing a reckless charge because of me ter on, it wouldn’t do good on my conscience.

  Now then. My other two bodies, one with double the output, and one with the rest of my resources, are fine at the moment. Neither should end up in any situation that could cause big deys thanks to any distress. I should be fine accompanying him and providing assistance without issue.

  ———Orrel———

  <1: 03 pm>

  “Well then. It looks like those two head in without any of us.” Qyunda remarked, sounding slightly bitter. “Guess we just have to go in and pull them back out.”

  “Is that really needed? Jeff might act idiotic sometimes, but he’s not stupid enough to risk his life. Being in a dungeon is very risky for multiple reasons, and he knows that.” Gregori chimed in. Quite a rare sight for him to come to Jeff’s defense. He’s usually quite irritated with some of the things he says. “Now the more important question is if the monsters have respawned already. We should help clean those up on their return trip if we can spare the time.”

  “I don’t have my sword on me at the moment. So I’d rather not.” Useph said, not wanting to get involved due to not being prepared.

  “Same here. The best I could do is be a backline attacker.” Gregori replied, sounding unfazed. “Orrel is more of a caster, and the two muscle heads who wrestle each other in bed can fight unarmed. I think that is enough until we reach the tenth floor. Can’t see the two going down further than that.”

  “Hey. The fuck you call us?” Qyunda said while gring at the guy who still kept a straight face. “Also, I know how to wield swords, dipshit.”

  “Calm down.” Malk said, his tone remaining calm, but shared her scrutinizing stare directing at Gregori.

  ———Kenni———

  <2: 14 pm>

  *Bang* *Punch* *Boom* *Kick*

  It's absolute anarchy over here. The sounds of screams and gunshots. The smell of blood and gunpowder. The red-painted street.

  The more I look at it, the more puzzling it feels. People have penchants to do good and evil, that much is true. A sight of unadulterated violence shouldn’t be so surprising, at least no more than a peaceful neighborhood. And yet this feels… so unwarranted in many ways.

  Even as I stood atop of one of the few buildings left standing with a solid foundation, observing the scene before me, it is still hard to believe there’s a pce where people have devolved into fighting and killing each other on sight, showing so little empathy towards one another.

  I don’t get why a wless wastend like this even exists in this day and age. It’ll only create a vicious cycle of death until no one is left.

  I have only heard rumors of this pce, but to see it in person, it is quite baffling. A bit thought provoking I supposed, but certainly a sight for sore eyes just like many have described.

  Observing many conflicts that have come about since the Eclipse, this one feels rather hollow. There doesn’t seem to be a greater purpose beyond killing for the sake of it. At least when people do it, it’s for the sake of survival or wealth. Very few would dare to say they did it just because they could.

  …Am I looking too much into this? All that matters is that this area turned into a wless pce no one dared to enter, at least without a lot of confidence.

  I don’t dare to get in the crossfire of firearms and magic, but my ability to run away is pretty impressive, if I dare say so myself.

  …Anyway. That’s enough entertainment from these folks. Let’s go do something more productive than watching people kill each other. Some stray bullets or spells will soon hit this building anyway.

  *Fp*

  ———Lynda———

  <9: 34 pm>

  …Feels like it has been a while since I walked on the street at night. A lot of fishy things happen during this time, no matter what the current state of the world is, but at this point and time this is when the night became the most unpredictable, even in our small town where very little of note happened, at least retive to the others.

  I have my bat with me, just in case I run into any trouble. I just haven’t been out during this time in a while, missed it a bit.

  “You have to be the one who ignores all the warning signs, aren’t you?” Who’s there! Ah! It’s Rico. Don’t scare me like that.

  “What’s up, Rico.” I said, looking at the familiar figure approaching me.

  “Still no respect. You’d think people would call me with honorifics by now.” She jokingly compined. “So what are you up to? A lot of miscreants roamed about freely during this time… Well. I guess a lot already were taken care of, but you know what I mean. A dark night is dangerous no matter where you are.”

  “Easy for someone like you to say.” I said while I tapped the ground with my bat. “Where the hell did you get all that strength anyway? Seven months. That’s all we got.”

  “Hm? Have you not… Whatever. How have you been these past weeks?” She asked, avoiding the initial question.

  “Fine enough. Chump changes are still income.” I said, still rather annoyed at the payout. “I’m guessing you have been fine as well?”

  “Of course! I got bitched at another day by a friend about making her job harder, but that’s par for the course at this point.” She casually said. I don’t think sabotaging someone’s career should be mentioned so… lightheartedly. “Nothing particurly distressing has popped up, and most of the world at rge still has a sense of order. I don’t see anything as having gone catastrophically wrong just yet.”

  That’s a rather weird way of answering it, but I guess she doesn’t have much else to add about her own personal life, something that seems like a rabbit hole now that her strength came to the forefront, and her oddly… callous way of addressing certain topics.

  It’s like a mask has been peeled off. It seems that way, but what do I know? I don’t really know her personally up until this point. She’s a popur student, sure, but that doesn’t mean I know her well, and unlike with celebrities there aren’t people obsessively documenting her actions.

  What I’m saying, is that there was nothing truly arming about her up until the Eclipse. Nothing about her seems to change, though. Her appearance has always been striking with her abnormal hair color, so if something about her changed, it should be easy to tell, if only because your eyes are naturally drawn to her because her appearance has always been rather eye-catching. It’s more likely to notice if something about her is different.

  But nothing about her has changed at the outset, so what was it? Has she changed, or has she not?

  “You seem to be drowning in a sea of complicated emotions right now. Something going on?” She asked, unprompted. Was my expression easy to read?

  “Nothing important. Just a bunch of stray thoughts that won’t mean anything.” I replied, and she looked at me skeptically. She’s not convinced despite my tone not being any different.

  “If you insist.” She said before leaning herself against a streetlight. “Is there something comforting about the night for you? This is far from the first time I’ve seen you wandering at night. When people walk around during the night, they usually have a destination, keeping their time out in the open to a minimum, but you’re mostly wandering.”

  “I like to take a walk. There’s not a lot of people during nighttime, so it’s easy to go about uninterrupted.” Obviously, there are risks that I have run into before, but those are rare so I don’t think about it. “What about you? I never see you go anywhere specific.”

  “Is that so? Maybe you’re just blind.” She bluntly said. Mocking me now, is she? “I can’t bme you, with a dark night looming over us, it’s hard to tell where you’re going or what you’re seeing.”

  “...Is there a point to that tidbit? You’re being oddly verbose.” I pointed out, starting to feel a bit concerned. Just why is she talking about all of this?

  “Nothing in particur. It’s just meaningless talk.” She admitted. Does she not have someone else to talk to? She’s not antisocial or introverted, she has plenty of charisma to boldly talk to others. Are they all asleep right now or something? “That didn’t set you off as much as I thought. Feels like you’ve been mellowing out a bit.”

  “The hell do you know? We were never friends.” Of all the things she’s saying, it’s that? We’re not even from the same grade, let alone cssroom.

  “Perhaps, but I do remember a few faces from the school before I graduated. Some are easier to remember, and you were one of them by a smidge.” A smidge? For what reason does she feel the need to tack that on at the end?

  “What even is the criteria… Whatever. So why are you here this time?” I asked just so I don’t get derailed further.

  “It’s a simir reason to yours this time around, wandering aimlessly in the night.” She answered. Very much a straightforward response. “I’m in no rush to do anything, and I doubt there are ears hidden that are listening in on us.”

  “If there was, I’ll crush their skull in.” I said while tapping my bat. Stalkers are bad news, so better to beat them up than leave them alone.

  “I’m thinking of doing something a lot worse, but you do you.” She said with an ambiguous tone. I could definitely see her being able to inflict some… unsavory actions toward others with that giant pool of strength, but would she actually do it?

  She then suddenly looked up in the sky. Is there a clear view of a consteltion or something? Doesn’t look like it. The sky is cloudy and the moon barely visible. What is she looking at?

  “They have good instincts, if nothing else.” She muttered. What does she mean by that? “Hm? Oh right, you’re here.”

  “The hell were you looking at?” I asked, wondering if she’s leading me on again.

  “Some flying monsters. They were trying to encircle us earlier, but they quickly scurried away once I took notice of them.” She expined. Was that what happened? If that’s true, they flew away real quick. “Skeptical? Can’t bme you for that. It was a brief moment.”

  “Why do monsters come out at night, anyway?” Shouldn’t they only be stuck in dungeons?

  “Have you not been reading any of the school library books? Those show quite a lot of insights on these things.” She asked, clearly scrutinizing me again.

  “I have. Just not a lot of it.” It’s more like skimming pages, but she doesn’t need to know that.

  “Hmph. Guess I have to be the one to expin the situation then.” She said, sounding a bit… unsatisfied?

  *Ring*

  “Seriously, of all times?” Suddenly her phone rang out, and she had to take the call. “What is it, Mom… I see, guess I should hurry back… No. It won’t be a problem, I was just taking a night stroll anyway… Yeah. See ya.”

  *Beep*

  “Sorry, kid. Can’t give you the exposition dump.” She said before putting her phone away. “Go read some more, and stay safe, alright? See you ter.”

  And so she walked off before I could say anything back. What an odd encounter…