Planning

As the spear went through his head, Five suddenly felt his body freeze. He did not feel any pain but rather, a sense of relief. It was a very weird but comfortable feeling. Without being able to resist, he lost consciousness and only woke up to find himself in a weird environment.

As he opened his eyes, he found himself trapped in a small transparent sphere. The first thing he saw was a giant Roy moving his hands to grab him. He instinctively raised his hand to protect himself, "Hey! Careful" shouted Five. But the giant hand did not touch him. It was stopped by the transparent sphere.

"I am sorry, the 2 goblin guards took me by surprise. I did not expect them to suddenly attack. I need to report this to Master. I shall accept the punishment," said Roy. His tone was as expressionless as ever, not even containing a tinge of sincerity.

"What? Is that all you have to say?" declared Five inside the sphere. But Roy did not even answer him. He turned around to leave, bringing the sphere with him.

"Are you just going to ignore me?" loudly asked Five but still, the giant lizardman seemed to not hear him and continued on his way.

"It looks like he really can't hear me," concluded Five but what just happened? Why did the two goblins attack him and more importantly, why did Roy not growl just like he did when the goblins first noticed him when he went through the barrier?

He was furious. Losing a level meant losing all the DP he earned over his stay there. But there was nothing he could do except for letting Roy bring the sphere to Kroff.

There was definitely something fishy!

....

A few minutes later, Five found himself in Kroff's hands. As he listened to the explanation, he felt the frustration and annoyance rise in him; something was bugging him. Things simply did not make sense and he could not help but feel like his death was planned.

First of all, how could a level 15 goblin outrun Roy who was supposedly one of the strongest monsters of the dungeon? Apart from that, the fact that he chose to attack physically rather than shouting something to warn the goblins further raised Five's suspicions.

But seeing Kroff's response, he felt like something was wrong. He did not feel any sincerity in Kroff's explanations and apologies. Although he understood that the goblins could have mistaken him for an intruder, something was telling him that it was all planned. Especially when he saw how quickly Kroff dismissed the matter. Was that his punishment for not joining the Cyclone Alliance? Forcing him to stay at level 1 and taking away all the DP he collects by force?

Although Kroff mentioned punishing Roy for his incompetence, the tone clearly indicated that it was not an important thing. And more importantly, apart from excuses, Five did not receive any compensation. 500 DP did not mean much to Kroff but to Five, they represented a day and a half of hard work

Five turned gloomy as he understood the situation. Although there was no definite proof, his senses were telling him that everything was part of Kroff's plan.

"Does he really think I am stupid?" said Five to himself. He was really furious. He did not mind not getting help from his mentor but if the latter was now tying him down, that was something unacceptable.

At that moment, he saw Harriet suddenly enter the room with haste. After a quick exchange, Five found himself in the hand of Harriet as she promptly left the room.

With a saddened expression, she started talking to Five without expecting an answer, but the latter was focusing on something else. Even though he could hear what Harriet was saying, right now, Five's mind was elsewhere; he was recalling the previous scene.

When he saw Harriet, he now became almost certain that Kroff planned everything, why wasn't it Harriet who accompanied him to see the goblin village? Was it just a coincidence or a plan?

As pieces got together, the situation became clearer to Five: Kroff was definitely an enemy and a sly one. Using his authority and status to weaken Five because he did not agree to join the alliance.

Did that mean that he would have to stay at level 1 and leave the mentoring period without any DP? That was a really harsh treatment! But there was nothing he could do. In this environment, Kroff did have absolute authority.

But there was one thing Five knew; he needed to make Kroff pay for that. He did not do any wrong but Kroff was now indirectly harming him. There was no way he was going to leave without doing anything.

At that moment, the scene in front of him suddenly changed; Harriet, who was still carrying his dungeon core, entered a new cave. It was clearly different from the previous floors he visited, not only did it consist of only one large cavern, he could also see several ores on the ground and walls. The shiny ores immediately attracted his attention and he temporarily stopped thinking about his plans.

"Welcome to my floor, it is called the Avian Cavern. There should not be any adventurers, let me show you around," said Harriet.

Five instinctively turned his head to look at Harriet when he suddenly froze for a second," Ahh Harriet! Please don't place the dungeon core so close to your chest!" exclaimed Five while blushing. He quickly turned to look in another direction, but he instinctively took a few more glances. It was involuntary, but Harriet was holding the dungeon core with her 2 hands and it was pressing against her breasts.

From Five's point of view, since he was inside the small dungeon core, they looked like two giant white melons. They were especially highlighted by the battle gear Harriet was wearing which was similar to what the young harpies were wearing the first time Five met them.

A few seconds later, Harriet suddenly deployed her wings and flew upwards. It was the first time Five could be considered flying, but he did not feel anything. The usual feeling during take-off on planes did not appear.

Since he could not communicate with Harriet, Five remained silent and observed the landscape in front of him. It felt as if he was exploring one of those ancient underground caverns with a lot of stalactites except that it was well lighted.

Quickly, Harriet stopped in front of what looked like the central pillar. It was clearly different since it was visibly larger than the others. By placing her hands onto a specific spot on the pillar, a rune appeared and a few seconds later, an opening appeared above their head.

Harriet did not hesitate and flapped her wings and went through it. Instantly, the scenery changed; in front of him, Five saw a floating village.

The buildings were not literally floating. They were built on a very thin platform made of the same material as the dungeon wall, but the fact that there were no roads made it feel like a floating village.

"And this is the harpies' village."

Harriet quickly brought him to have a look; harpies were found everywhere but here again, the harpies had no proper goals. Many of them were just lying around, talking to each other. But since the harpies were of higher rank than the goblins, they obviously had more perks, Five could see that some harpies were busy reading while some were playing what looked like chess.

Time quickly went by. It was very boring for Five since he could not communicate with others. He quickly got fed up by all the girl talks that were taking place. Harpies were defending a much higher floor and so, not many adventurers reached there. They had much more free time and only a few were stationed in the Avian Cavern. They would then alert the Harpies in the village in case adventurers would appear.

Five only half listened to the girls talking. He was not really interested in their talks. Instead, he was already thinking about his revenge. But he had limited power. What could he do to deal a sufficiently strong blow to Kroff before leaving? Did he need to pretend to accept joining the Cyclone Alliance?

He was still trying to find a good plan when he suddenly recalled something; if he was not wrong, during their talk yesterday, Harriet mentioned that Kroff would temporarily give him the control of the first 10 floors to learn how to manage them.

"But would Kroff still do that after this incident?" thought Five, as a plan started to take shape in his mind