The mist lingering oh floor of the Orario dungeon made the pce look ethereal, like some sort of dream. The white grassnds and trees further enforced that dream-like visio, it wasn’t the type of dream that a human being would want to experie was the kind that would bring the worst of misery, the kind where the monsters would crawl from the ground and bit off y.

  And, right now, one of those monsters was not a mo all, but a man in agony. His name was Bke and he was on the brink of passing out. If only his determinatioo be lost against the entig grassnd, which looked so fortable, he would already be dead. However, he wasn’t, but he was struggling, that was for sure.

  The pain around his injuries was extreme, f him to lose the sensation of his own body. It was so numb that Bke had to look down to remember that he was a funing being. Despite his weakness, Bke’s mind was more active than ever before.

  As he was ying against the tree, Bke’s dark, nasty eyes were sing the surroundings. His chakra was slowly being ed by the transformation jutsu, yet he hadn’t seen Ais or a, but he khey would e. Bete was surely using all of his seo find the bastard who shot him in the leg.

  Thus, Bke waited. His body growing apart from his senses, his mind growing weak and his chakra depleting slowly. The grassnds tio move, forced by some invisible wind, when Bke spotted an Imp slowly walking up to him. The Imp was looking at Bke’s transformed body, scratg its head with its finger.

  Bke stared at it, not in the mood to even move an inch. He was so tired and he didn’t feel like wasting his energy on this annoying creature. Therefore Bke did the only sensible thing. He raised his hand into the air and then slowly pulled down all of his fingers except the middle one.

  The Imp spotted the gesture, but Bke followed up on making a fist. The Imp scratched its head, stared at the hand, uanding the gesture. Then the Imp simply shrugged and walked away, letting Bke tio s the field in peace.

  -

  “Something is wrong.” Bete stopped abruptly, grunting as his injured foot came to a halt. He removed his hand from Tione’s shoulder, sniffing the air with narrowed expression. “I sehat bastard everywhere.”

  “You sense him everywhere?” Finn put a fio his , scrutinizing the white grassnd in tration. He g Ais, whose expression didn’t betray aions. “He must have uood hoere trying to find him. I think he might have spread his st all over this floor in order to fuse us.”

  “That’s pretty smart, and he isn’t that weak either, sidering that he mao run away from Ais.” Tione mumbled, bored, shotting a g Ais, who, even then, didn’t bat an eye. “If he wasn’t a murdered, he would have been a great adventurer.”

  Riveria listeo Tione’s words, nodding. “However, his strength is mysterious. I have never seen skills like that, he must have quite a powerful bag.”

  The group pondered upon the background of the mysterious man, as they began to walk further into the 10th floor, stantly looking around. Bete kept grunting and sniffing, whilst Ais walked in the front, defending them from any of approag monsters. Once Orcs showed up, the two Tione sisters aided her.

  “Look!” Riveria said, walking up to one of the trees and pig up a crimson bandage from the ground. She brought it back to the group, letting them take a good look. “It seems that these bondages are spread out around the entire perimeter of the floor. It is a bit troubling.”

  Finn nodded. “The 10th floor is big , we don’t have that much time to search the entire floor.”

  “So, we should just give up?”

  Everyouro Ais, but she didn’t seem like she wao tinue.

  Finn sighed. “Let’s divide into three teams and search for the man. He must be hiding somewhere, but it wouldn’t be that hard to spot a person in midst of all the monsters and the white setting.”

  “And, unless he has a healing potion, he must be pretty exhausted from all those injuries. Once you spot him, it shouldn’t be difficult to defeat him, but be aware of his strange explosives.”

  Finn looked around. “Now, Tione sisters, yoing to stay with Bete and slowly walk around the perimeter. You should be able to take care of the monsters on this floor pretty easily, but don’t overtax yourself. Bete, you aren’t in fighting dition, so just focus on sensing anything peculiar in the air.”

  He turo Ais. “Ais, yoing with me. Riveria manage alone. We gather in this spot in 30 minutes and asses what to do if we don’t find him.”

  Everyone nodded and turned into a, no questions asked. This was how the Loki familiar operated, with Finn being the brains, for he was the one who always delivered the best result, along with being one of the stro.

  However, they found no trace of the man. They discovered a bunch of new bandages ying in random spots, some of them even picked up by the monsters, but the blonde hair man was o be seen. Riveria raised her hand, aimed at the pile of bandages on the ground and bur into ash.

  “Bete, now that there is less of his st, you locate him?”

  Bete shook his head, grunting in both fury and pain. “His st still lingers, and we have definitely not found all of the sources. In some pces, the smell is stronger, but not by much.”

  Finhed out in mild irritation, which he didn’t show on his expression. “Well, we try searg for him in the pces where the smell is stronger, but it seems like it is going to take a lot of time.”

  Riveria added. “The longer we linger here, the more monsters will gregate around us. Damn it.”

  Yet, as the hope got dim, Bete suddenly smiled. “I sense something.”

  Everyouro him.

  “There is one distinctive trail of smell going to the 11th floor. The man…he fooled us.” Bete was irritated, to say the least. “The bastard must have spread his foul smell around this floor to make us waste our time, whilst he slowly desds further into the dungeon. e o’s go!”

  “Wait.” Finn stopped him, raising a hand, thinking. His eyes sed the area.“Let’s just sider ourselves in his position for a sed. He is iired and probably on the brink of passing out. If I was him, going deeper into the dungeon wouldn’t be my objective, as it would be much more dangerous than above. He might have some tricks up his sleeve, yet would it be enough to survive in the deeper floors?”

  “That’s a good point.” Tione nodded. “However, why did he kill those guys in the first pce? He didn’t even take their gear or anything. Was it a brawl between teammates or did he just kill them in cold blood?”

  “What are you implying?” Her sister asked.

  “The man was definitely not stupid, trig us so well. He has some sort of objective, which has something to do with murder, and we know that he must have bag as well. Maybe he is going deeper into the duo meet up with some allies, whilst we wait here in doubt and give him time to do that?”

  Everyoared at Tione for a while. It was rare that she said something that actually made sense. Finn pondered on her words, tapping his foot on the ground. Riveria was looking at Finn, whilst Ais kept sing the surroundings. Bete’s face was a snarl.

  “He might be aiming for the Sanctuary.” Finn cluded, sing the surroundings. “Wasting time on this floor and searg for him will take a lot of time. I might be wrong, but I say that we follow the st going deeper into the dungeon. If the trail va some point, then we rush bato the 10th floor.”

  Everyone nodded, as Bete pointed which way to go. They promptly began walking, whilst Ais kept looking around, when her eyes suddenly came to a halt. An Imp y behind one of trees, his face even more sy than that of the normal ones. Ais made eye tact with the creature, its eyes dark. The creature immediately rolled behind the tree, hiding.

  Ais took out her sword, beginning to walk forward, when Riveria put a hand on her shoulder. “Ais, let’s not waste our energy on these monster. One Imp means that there are a few more hiding around in ambush. We are on tight schedule. Let the adventurers appropriate to this level deal with them.”

  Ais sidered the words, still staring at the white tree, before she nodded and put away her bde. She began to stroll away from the Imp, followieam as they made their way deeper into the dungeon. Oher hand, the Imp behind the tree was clutg his heart, sweating rapidly, until finally breathing a sigh of relief.

  Bke waited for a few minutes before stopping the transformation jutsu, releasing a puff of smoke and revealing his true being. The injuries all over his body opened up again and his chakra reserves were empty. Bke’s face ale, featuring dark eyebags and red eyes. Nothing was left in his stamina and even raising to his feet required extreme effort. Yet, he was alive, and he o kill two more people. Fast.

  He couldn’t just make his way bato the city, as they probably raised the security and he would be invited for a questioning. He o kill two people. Just two. Bke frowned, for the regret about killing people disappeared pletely, and simply turned into number.

  Two for one.

  Taking a sip from his water bottle, Bke strapped it to his bad grabbed the gun from the ground. It was still sturdy and hadn’t beguing. He had a dagger, ice gun, poison bombs and a drained body. Killing someone in this state would be hard, yet at this point, Bke was willing to give anything.

  Slowly and carefully, Bke made his way across the expanse, careful not to attray creatures. He kept his head low, his body hunched. “I ’t feel my arm at all.” Bke scowled, trying to move his right hand, which proved futile. There was ion in it, and Bke feared that he might not feel it anymore at all, but he kept his thoughts at bay.

  He focused on the mission instead.

  It seemed that his high luck stat had pyed its role for once. Despite walkiremely slowly, Bke entered only a few Imps and one Orc, from which Bke simply hid by ying low on the ground and waiting until they passed. It proved quite effective, sidering that he basically blended with the white grass with his white hair, bandages and bare skin.

  Bke tio walk, until finally reag the 9th floor, and that’s where his luck disappeared.

  “Fuck me.”

  In front of him stood five abnormally huge ants, staring at him with the same stupiditidy as in Bke’s gaze. Before they could do anything, Bke raised the gun with his left hand, beginning to fire shots. Now that the gun was actually accurate, Bke killed three ants whilst they were advang at him. The other two were too close already, one of the jumping on top of Bke, trying to stab him in his face.

  Bke released the gun from his hand, reag towards his belt and grabbing his dagger. He used it to stab the ant in the bondmen numerous times, as it pressed him to his knees, releasing its green fluids on top of him. And, then, it vanished, dead. The crystal fell onto his head, as Bke promptly threw the dagger towards the remaining ant that was trying to jump him.

  It peed it from the side, stopping it advance. Bke grabbed the gun at that moment, raised towards the ant, its eyes bzing with death. “Eat this, you freaking steroidal ant.”

  He pulled the trigger, causing an explosion. Together with the explosion, the ant disappeared, releasing some gas that lingered in the air. Bke khat as soon as they died, more would e, so he pushed on his legs and tried to stand up. Yet, he couldn’t.

  “Curse this.” Bke punched himself in the leg twid then stood up promptly, grabbing two more monster crystal from the ground, along with his dagger. Breathing heavily, vision blurring, Bke stumbled further into the floor, sometimes losing his footing and hitting the wall.

  His vision blurred, headache overwhelmed him, yet he kept going. The blurriness tinued, with darkness spreading from the ers of his vision. Bke kept hitting himself in the head to make the darkness disappear, yet it kept engulfing his sight. It was so bad that Bke had to stop in his tracks, not able to see anything.

  At that moment, Bke felt something push him hard against the wall. His breath left his lungs, vision reappearing for an instant to portray an ant on top of him. Bke aimed the gun, shooting multiple times, killing the ant. Yet, now, Bke was on the ground, uo move. No matter how hard did he try, he couldn’t raise his body. For a single moment, Bke closed his eyes, and that was mistake, for he didn’t open them again.