6th Floor

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[Welcome to the 6th Floor. the Forgotten Mines]

[The 6th Floor is a group Floor, you will be randomly teamed up with other areas]

[Quest: Kill the Spider Queen]

[Description: The Forgotten Mines were abandoned a long time ago and spiders started calling it their home. Kill their Queen to stop them from getting even stronger]

[Reward: 1 Gold]

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The Quest for this floor was simple but neither of the two was paying it any mind right now.

"What was that?" Orthis asked the equally shocked Urman.

"I- I think this was the Tower making sure we didn't spread its secrets." He answered "I have heard of powerful people making unbreakable oaths with the Tower as a witness but never of the Tower itself forcing someone to take an oath"

"Of course, you haven't, that's the entire point of the oath"

"Oh, right. So, what now? Do we just not tell anyone and be fine?"

"We should be, the Tower was at least fair enough not to kill us to keep its secrets hidden and only made sure we didn't tell anyone."

"Well, then I guess it's fine, we weren't planning on telling anyone about it anyway." He shamelessly acted like it was his idea in the first place.

"Right… Anyway, isn't it about time that your Talent awakens? It's been a week now."

"Nope, still nothing. I'm also starting to get a bit worried, maybe I should take another potion, maybe the one I drank was expired or something."

While this did sound plausible considering how long the potions might have been in the Workshop, Orthis' Insight told him otherwise.

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[Talent Awakening, approximate time: 4-6 hours]

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"Just give it a bit more time, if you still don't get it by the end of the day, you can take another potion."

"All right," Urman begrudedly agreed, even someone as impatient as him could see the danger of drinking more than one of these potions at once. "What rewards did you get? I got a Poison Resistance Potion and a Crystalized Fire Core from the Hidden Quest."

"I assume the spiders here will be poisonous, so the potion might come in handy. I got a Regrowth Potion and Ariadne's Thread from the Hidden Quest."

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[Potion: Regrowth Potion]

[Description: Slowly regrows a missing limb or body part in a matter of hours or days, depending on the size]

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[Item: Ariadne's Thread]

[Description: Created by Daedalus and given to the Princess of Crete. It can elongate to great lengths and is incredibly durable. Contains faint traces of Space Affinity]

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Orthis didn't see any immediate uses for these two rewards but he was sure their time would come someday.

With the rewards settled, the two took out torches from their inventory and lit them to see better in these dark caves and mine shafts. It was very inconvenient to wield a weapon while holding a torch, especially for Orthis who used a spear, but it was better than not being able to see more than three meters ahead, and that was with their enhanced eyesight.

"Can you see anything?" Orthis asked frustrated.

"No, not more than you. How are we supposed to fight spiders when we can't see them?"

Whatever this darkness was, it inhibited Orthis' sensor in his HUD, limiting the range to only 20 meters. Luckily, that was enough to alert him of the first spider sneaking up on them.

"There's one coming from the ceiling in front." He warned

The moment he said that something jumped at them from the darkness in front of them. This was the first time Orthis was wielding his large and heavy spear with only one hand and he wasn't able to react properly to the situation but Urman came to his rescue as he thrust his sword through the spider's head.

"You all right?"

"Yeah, I just need some time to get used to this. The narrow walls aren't doing wielding a spear any favor either."

"Then just leave the spiders to me, you just tell me where they are hiding."

Orthis didn't like the feeling of being protected, especially by someone weaker, but he knew that until they reached a wider tunnel, he would be more of a liability than a help. With no other choice, he just focused on lighting the path and scanning for spiders.

After Urman killed almost twenty spiders under Orthis' direction, they arrived at a new area. The Tunnel was now several meters wide and had glowing crystals and moss in its walls, solving both of Orthis' problems.

With him once again being able to fight properly, they began advancing a lot faster and in just an hour they killed a few hundred spiders.

"There is no end to these things. Are you sure this is the right way?"

"How am I supposed to know? I don't know where the boss is or which tunnel will lead us to it on the fastest way."

The deeper they ventured into the mines, the more paths they had to choose from, and the more unstable the tunnels became. To this point, two tunnels collapsed behind them and four grounds collapsed under their feet.

"Did you feel that?" Orthis asked.

"Feel what?"

"A simple no would have sufficed. I felt an air draft."

"Are you sure? We are at least hundreds of meters underground, how can there be an air draft?"

"Again with your questions, I couldn't possibly know. Let's just follow it and see."

They began aimlessly following the gust of wind for several hours. As they got deeper, fewer and fewer spiders began ambushing them and even seeing webs became rare. They finally came to a stop when the tunnel they walked in abruptly stopped. The wind was now so strong that even Urman could feel it brush through his hair.

"Something tells me this is not where the spider queen is living," Urman said as he looked down the bottomless pit in front of him.

"Only one way to find out," Orthis said before jumping off the edge.

He could hear Urman shouting above him but he could only hear his heartbeat in his ear as he thrusted his spear in the wall to slow his descent. He wasn't just being stupidly reckless, he knew what was down there and that should he fail, a forest of giant mushrooms would soften his fall.

This leap of faith was also meant for him to get a bit more confident in his superhuman stats because deep down, he was still a human afraid that a fall from such height would turn him to paste.

Just when the spear almost stopped his descent, he heard a scream as something fell past him. This was naturally Urman who also tried to use his weapon to slow his fall but his weapon wasn't nearly as hard and sharp as Orthis' World-Eater, causing it to break and doom him to fall.

"Are you all right?" Orthis shouted down once he no longer heard his teammate's screams.

"Yes"

Hearing his confirmation, Orthis kicked himself off the wall, pulling the spear out, and falling into the darkness. He fell for several seconds before the darkness grew weaker and he entered a truly gigantic cave.

It was at least a hundred meters high and many times that in diameter. The ceiling was filled with giant glowing crystals, much like the ones they saw upstairs, while the ground was covered in mushrooms as tall as trees.

Orthis safely landed on a mushroom not too far from Urman, releasing a big cloud of spores that while not poisonous, were incredibly smelly.

He didn't get up immediately as he just lay there with a stupid grin, staring at the ceiling as his adrenaline was wearing off.

"Three things," Urman said from his mushroom with a threatening and somehow excited tone "One, let's never do this again. Two, don't you dare tell anyone this happened. And 3, I think I finally got my talent."

Orthis couldn't help but chuckle as he heard the first two, as he remembered how his friend fell past him screaming but shot his head at him at the third one.

"So? Don't leave me hanging like this, tell me what it is." He urged him. He was aware of this blatant invasion of privacy but he was just curious by nature.

"It's a freaking SSS rank Talen called Border Lines. It's a bit complicated to explain but basically, it allows me to cut anything as long as my sword is sharp enough."

"Can't you also just do that with a very sharp sword? How is that SSS rank?"

"Like I said, it's complicated but I can cut things that are neither real nor material. I'm pretty sure I can cut things like time, souls, and maybe even the very system of the Tower if my blade is sharp enough."

"Ok, that sounds a bit more like an SSS rank talent but it has a heavy requirement."

"Well, there are not many records on SSS rank Talents but most have in common that they get more powerful the stronger their user is. Talents of this rank that can instantly give a huge power boost and stay that way as the user gets stronger are incredibly hard to come by."

That made sense, even Orthis' talent was meant to grow with him as he explored its powers. He always had the feeling that he was merely touching the tip of what Sage could do but he was also sure that most of its functions would only activate when the right conditions are met.

"So, I guess that means we will be looking out for very sharp swords from now on."

"That, or I find a way to turn the Void Shard into a sword artifact. It is already incredibly sharp, not to mention what it might become after turning into an artifact that can grow with me. I already had some plans to make my own artifact before but getting the talent strengthened my resolve."

"What are you talking about? Why am I getting some very ominous vibes there?"

"Never mind, let's just see where we ended up."

For now, Orthis decided not to ask for more details as Urman clearly didn't want to talk about how he was planning to create his artifact.

"Any idea where to?" Orthis asked once they both were back on solid ground.

"I think I saw an open space with a building a few hundred meters that way."

"A building? Here? Why, what's so good about these mushrooms that someone wanted to build something here?"

The two walked in the direction Urman saw the building until Orthis took a quick glance at his map that showed that the path they put behind them by foot was anything but straight.

"Hang on, I think the mushrooms have a very light hallucinating effect. Not enough to be a problem but enough to mess with our sense of direction. If this continues, we will take three times as long as planned."

"I knew something was smelling fishy, cold also just be the spoors. Just cut down the mushrooms in our way, we would see when we are no longer in a straight line by just looking back."

"That sounds like an idea that would come from you but it makes sense, somehow."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

Orthis ignored him and cut down the first mushroom, Urman also started helping out by punching through them, an easy feat for someone with stats in the mid-tens as they were barely harder than common wood. This also proved to be a good exercise for his body and improved his Cleave sub-skill by two levels until they finally arrived at the clearing.

It was an old castle but the more interesting thing was the giant golem guarding the only entrance. Whatever was in there was not meant to be found which only made the two more curious.

The golem was probably about 6 meters high and made of black rocks with magma flowing through them.

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[Corrupted Spirit King's Gate Guardian Golem]

[Strength: 30]

[Endurance: 30]

[Agility: 15]

[Mind: 5]

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They both gulped as they saw the golem wake up and look at them. Even someone who couldn't see its stats was feeling the pressure and heat emanating from it.

"Okay, maybe we shouldn't have come here," Urman whispered to which his partner only nodded.

"On the bright side, it's already too late to turn around, and whatever is inside must be very valuable." The swordman's greed came out again and the other man was doing his best not to smack his head.

Before he could make up his mind if he should smack him or not, they saw the golem raise its huge magma fist. Just a second after they jumped away, the fist smashed a large lava crater into the ground where they just stood.

Orthis used this opportunity to slash at the golem's arm, only to feel his hands get numb from the recoil. To his frustration, his clean hit only produced a loud clang and a wound that was insignificant compared to its size, not to mention that it was repairing at a noticeable rate.

"This is going to be troublesome. Staying alive won't be a problem with how obvious its movements are but actually defeating it will take a long time."

"Do you see something on its head? Like something spelling [Emeth]?"

"Don't you have eyes? No, I don't."

"Figured, I was hoping it was that kind of golem but most no longer use it as its weakness was too obvious and well known."

"Spare me the history lesson and help me."

"I can't, my sword broke, remember?"

A long time ago, golems had the word Emeth engraved on their heads but after its weakness became more well-known in the Tower, people started looking for alternative methods to create golems. Emeth meant Truth but once someone removed the E, the meaning would become Death and the golem would crumble to dust.

Sadly for them, this was not a golem of ancient times.

Orthis spent half an hour trying to destroy or at least find a weakness in the golem, all to no avail. Urman was of no help either as he just ran between its legs to draw away its attention but that wasn't doing much either.

To be of any help, he needed a sword, a sharp one preferably to use his talent. Actually, did it have to be a sword?

"Hey, does your talent require you to use a sword?"

"No, it's just what I train in. Why?" Orthis didn't answer and simply retreated from the golem.

"Catch." He threw his beloved spear to the one who really needed it at the moment.

The moment Urman caught the spear, he could feel his talent activate properly for the first time. The world began to lose some color as lines began to appear everywhere. Some on the ground, some in the air, and some on the golem.

He could also feel how heavy the spear was and its protest of being used by him but was silenced by its master. Even if he was not an expert when it came to spears, he could see that this spear was absolute perfection.

He didn't have too much time to observe this artifact as the golem's attention was now on him but he was now confident that he could kill it without much problem.

Urman ducked under its fist and cut along a line on the golem's leg, causing the spear to go through it like air. He didn't even feel any kind of resistance as the leg simply fell over and the golem lost its balance.

Before it could repair its destroyed leg, Urman jumped on the now-downed golem's chest and plunged the spear into a point where several lines connected. The golem stopped moving instantly and began to fall apart.

"Wow, this was amazing. No wonder it's an SSS-ranked talent, you took the golem out like it was nothing." Orthis said as he took back his spear. There was no doubt that Urman's attack power was a lot higher than his.

While Urman was catching his breath, Orthis looked at the remains of the golem, its severed leg to be precise. It was impossibly smooth and didn't look like it was cut apart by a spear but more like a space cut.

Aside from the spectacular show, Orthis also got a slight power boost since the golem was killed with World-Eater.

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[Strength +3, Endurance +2, Agility +0,015, Mind +0,00005]

[Your Fire Affinity reached High level]

[You gained the Trait, Fire Immunity]

[You absorbed a sliver of Eldritch taint, it has begun to infect your Soul]

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He wanted to be happy about the first stat increase since he came to this floor but the last message was a bit too worrisome to celebrate. If his guess was correct, it was this thing that corrupted the Spirit King and a part of it transferred to the golem when it was created.

While it was worrying, his Insight didn't tell him much about it either.

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[Eldritch taint: Eldritch taint has begun to infect the soul, it's minimal but it shouldn't be ignored]

[Fire Immunity: Immune to fire and heat below the divine realm]

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"By the way, I never asked but this spear is an artifact, right? I had my suspicions but now that I held it in my hands, I am sure of it. How did you even get it?" the golem slayer asked.

"Yes, its name is World-Eater but I would prefer it if you didn't ask me how I got it, it's personal."

Urman just raised his hands in defeat and walked to the giant door the golem had been protecting until recently, only to find it barely budged when he tried to open it with all his strength.

"A little help here?"

Together they pushed open the stone gate that probably weighed several docent tons. The inside was old and dusty, going by the smell and dust on the decomposed wood furniture but at least it seemed to have some magic as torches automatically lit themselves when they entered the entrance room.

Despite their caution, they didn't encounter any traps. Whoever built this place didn't expect someone to get past the golem. The entire building only had two rooms, the entrance and another one sealed off by a heavy door.

The moment a slid in the door opened, a bright light blinded their eyes. It wasn't unnaturally bright but more than their eyes could handle after moving in the darkness of this floor for so long. Once the door was fully open, they could see what the golem was protecting.

At first glance, it was just a grey fire, unusual but not too strange. What really made them feel the difference of this fire was the feeling it was giving them, just by standing there, they felt both hot and cold, while at the same time, they felt like their hair was getting electrified.

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[Artifact: Corrupted Fire Spirit King's Essence]

[Description: The Essence of the Fire Spirit King. Spirits don't have souls like most life, instead, they possess an Essence. The Fire Spirit King hid his away to become quasi-immortal but it was corrupted by an unknown force.]

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Since it was an artifact, Urman couldn't see its description unlike with the golem or other items as he didn't have the Insight cheat. That was also the reason why he didn't know what World-Eater truly did and only noticed its anomaly when he couldn't see it.

That was a flaw Orthis would have to correct someday but for now, he had no idea how to create false information through the Tower system.

While Orthis was thinking about how dangerous the soul of a corrupted spirit king might be, Urman was throwing things into the fire with a thoughtful face. When Orthis saw that, he had to ask, it was just too rare for this musclehead to actually use the muscle between his ears.

"What are you thinking about?"

"Hm? Oh, nothing, just… thinking." He said still somewhat absentminded before his eyes cleared and he stood up with determination, while Orthis just watched in confusion and curiosity.

"Hey, can I have the Regrowth Potion you got as a reward for the last floor? I might need it to survive."

"Hang on, survive? You're not planning on jumping in there, are you? Because I don't think the potion would be of much use against plain stupidity."

"I'm not that stupid. No, I want to make an artifact in this fire and I might have to cripple myself a bit. So, can I have it, please?"

"Cripple? You're not planning on doing what I think you are, are you? That's just insane, even for you." Orthis had a hunch about what he might be talking about as he also read the books on artifacts in the Workshop.

"Can I have it or not?" He asked, now a bit more impatient.

"Ok, fine. I would like to talk you out of this madness but it's not my place and you wouldn't listen anyway. Do you even have the necessary things to do this?" Orthis asked as he gave him the potion.

"Don't worry," Urman pulled several things out of his inventory, amongst them a hammer and a knife. "I prepared for this as soon as I read about it in the Workshop, I just didn't think the right opportunity would come so soon."

"Where did you even get the hammer from? A normal one wouldn't work with the materials and fire you will be working with and this definitely isn't the hammer of your average blacksmith."

"Oh, I took it from the Workshop. It was lying around there, collecting dust. I'm sure the owner wouldn't care too much about a single hammer."

Orthis' left eye twitched a bit as he heard his friend and inwardly swore to never leave something important lying around his friend who was developing kleptomania symptoms.

Urman carefully put the materials he wanted to use for his artifact around the grey fire of a Spirit King. The blade would be made of the incredibly sharp Void Shard, the guard from the two Minotaur horns that had divine traces, and the Crystalized Fire Core in the middle of the guard.

So far this looked rather normal for an artifact but anyone with some knowledge about how a sword is built would notice that something was missing, the handle. The handle was also the reason why Orthis was freaking out right now.

He watched in defeat as his friend took the knife with his left and began cutting into his upper right arm from the shoulder down, deep enough to see the bone. That alone was probably painful enough but what happened next was what really disturbed him.

Urman threw away the knife, ripped out his humerus, and placed it to the other materials before downing a health potion to close the wound and the regrowth potion to slowly regenerate his bone.

Yes, Urman was going to use his own arm as a handle for his artifact. This disturbing way of creating an artifact was forbidden by many factions and the knowledge was mostly locked away but they just had to come across the Workshop that didn't seem to care about such taboos.

Using your own body as material to make an artifact would not only make the artifact exceptionally strong but also make it grow with its master. It was needless to say that the bond between this kind of artifact and its master was a lot deeper than normal.

By now, Urman was barely keeping himself awake but he still threw the materials into the flame and began hammering them with the hammer in his only working arm. Orthis wanted nothing more than to help right now, especially since he got the Fire Immunity trait but he read the book, he needed to do this alone, if he disturbed him, it all would have been for nothing.

Just as he was signing at how easily he had acquired his artifact compared to his friend who had to literally cripple himself, he received many alerts of approaching enemies. He didn't think long and just grabbed his spear as he closed the heavy door behind him to protect Urman.

Outside, spiders were rushing at their location in the hundreds, possibly even thousands. It seemed that they didn't like that someone touched the flame, or maybe they just felt the birth of a powerful new artifact. Whatever it was, Orthis couldn't allow them to disturb Urman, so it was up to him to kill this army of arachnids.

They weren't very strong but their numbers seemed endless. Every time Orthis killed a spider, two more crawled out of the cracks in the walls, this was the first time he noticed that there were other holes except the one they fell through.

Orthis fought for two whole hours and the corpses of spiders began piling up. He didn't have a stamina problem thanks to World-Eater supplying him with more every time he killed with it but fighting so many spiders was not a very rewarding task.

They barely got any stats and the only trait they gave him was super silky hair, which made sense with how hairy these things were. At least after killing so many of them, their quantity finally surpassed their quality and Orthis got at least two stat points, both in Agility.

Not long after the two-hour mark, the spiders stopped coming completely and after a few checks that there really weren't any others hiding, he went back to check on Urman.

As he walked to the second door, he noticed that it was eerily quiet, even while he was surrounded by spiders he could hear the sound of the hammer hitting something else but now there was nothing.

Worried, Orthis pushed open the door and saw his friend lying in front of the fire unconscious. After checking for his pulse and injuries only to find he was fine, he started taking a closer look around.

The first thing he noticed was that the grey flame was no longer as big and was now reduced to less than a meter tall. The second thing was the lack of anything else in the room, that was how it was when they came here but not how it should be after he created his artifact.

Upon closer inspection, he noticed Urman's missing shirt and burned skin that was already recovering. The lighter his skin became, the more Orthis could make out a tattoo on his right arm that he could swear wasn't there before.

Now that he thought about it, the arm shouldn't even have a bone right now as the Regrowth potion would take more than just two hours to regrow a whole bone. A quick use of Insight lifted the mystery of the new tattoo.

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[Artifact: Void Edge Sword]

[Description: A sword of incredible sharpness forged in the Essence Fire of an Eldritch Corrupted Spirit King. It is part of its master, Urman]

[Powers]

[Void Edge: Due to being made from a Void Shard, it is already incredibly sharp from the moment of its birth. It can get sharper infinitely the more energy is fed to the sword.]

[Eldritch Fire: Forged in the Essence Fire corrupted by Eldritch taint and embedded with a Crystalized Fire Core. The sword, and by extension its master, can summon and control corrupted fire from an unknown origin.]

[One Entity: Due to being forged from its master's own bones, this sword is part of his master's body and will grow with him and can be summoned back to its master in the form of a tattoo.]

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"God damn is this a cheat. I don't think it's that much worse than my World-Eater Spear." Orthis almost couldn't believe his eyes. He thought that his artifact was already a cheat but now there was a second one. Not to mention that it was absolutely perfect for his Talent.

He could already imagine the future of their team. He with his unnatural stats and traits, and Urman with his unmatched attack power. At least his World-Eater still had a chance to get some traits that could at least bring him closer to Void Edge, even if he can never match its true power.

"Hey, wakey wakey, stop with your beauty sleep, no amount of sleep can fix your face anyway." Orthis taunted as he gave his friend a light kick to his legs.

"Says you. Just give me five more minutes, I will get up in… ten minutes. Just a bit longer." His voice began to drop as he slowly fell asleep again while talking.

"Sigh, let's just let him rest. I'm in no hurry anyway." Orthis just closed both gates behind him and began wandering around the surrounding area.

An hour later and the sleepy head was still napping like a baby, so Orthis just began grilling some meat to snack on. Just as he took his first bite, he saw two humanoid silhouettes falling from one of the holes in the ceiling.

Curious, he decided to check it out. As soon as he got closer to their drop location, he was greeted by a disgusting smell that made him lose his appetite for the skewer in his hand.

After getting through some bushes, he finally saw the crater the two beings landed in. Inside the crater was a figure mutilated beyond recognition and another figure standing over the pile of flesh with a smile.

The creature had a human form but it didn't seem to have any gender and looked like it was made of solid light, which was strange because it wasn't blinding in any way. Some might have confused this creature with something divine if it wasn't soaked in blood.

"Hm? There's still someone alive? I thought I killed everyone." The being asked with what sounded like many beings talking at the same time.

"What do you mean you killed everyone? Is this why I haven't seen any other climbers on this floor yet?" Truthfully, he found it strange that he hadn't encountered anyone so far. The Forgotten Mines were huge but not to this extent.

"Duh, who else would I be talking about? So, how do you want to die? Please don't try to run like this one here, I had enough chases for today." It pointed at the remains of its previous victim. Orthis knew that he would eventually encounter some crazy people but he didn't expect it to be this soon.

While the thing was talking, Orthis used Insight on it and found out some shocking details.

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[Name: Ishum Shanon]

[Race: ????] (Insufficient Insight)

[Talent: Incarnation (???)] (Unable to view details due to it being a True Talent)

[Strength: 23]

[Endurance: 24]

[Agility: 26]

[Mind: 26]

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Whatever this thing was, it was special. The Orthis couldn't see its race didn't interest him too much but this was the first time he encountered another person with a True Talent, to make matters worse, this being was extremely bloodthirsty and wanted him dead.

This was also the first time Orthis met another climber with stats that could compare to his, not that this meant much since he hadn't met many yet. But despite all these surprises and disadvantages, he was afraid, if anything he was excited. Maybe Urman was starting to rub off on him.

"Preferably, not at all but I have a feeling that is not on the menu, is it?"

"Nope, but if you hurry up, I promise to make it quick and painless."

Orthis didn't answer and simply tried to cut this thing's head off in one swift motion but it seemed to have expected this and ducked under the spear.

"It seems like you decided. Death by battle, not a bad choice, and since you made the decision so fast, I will make it painless." Ishum still didn't seem to have noticed that this prey was a lot stronger than its usual ones as it was just too confident in its abilities.

Ishum's shiny white hands turned into long claws and it tried to just rip out Orthis' heart, only for its claws to be blocked by a spear. Before it overcame its surprise, Orthis skillfully cut off one of its arms and went for its head.

Ishum had always used its high stats and dangerous body to hunt climbers that were significantly weaker than it, so it lacked some serious combat experience and skill. Even without the necessary skills to match Orthis, its superior stats allowed it to jump away before it lost its head.

Orthis didn't allow it to gain too much distance and came right after it. With one quick leap, he was face-to-face with the being he was going to have a very complicated future with and drove his spear into its chest.

Instead of bleeding or showing signs of pain like a normal living being would, Ishum just coughed a bit before smiling.

"Interesting, I didn't expect to meet someone like you here. What's your name? I'm Ishum, by the way."

"Orthis. We didn't have to kill each other, you know? I don't care that you killed the other climbers on the floor but why did you have to go after me too?"

"Are you seriously asking that? Well, I guess it's because of boredom, the floors are just too boring. Killing intelligent beings is so much more fun compared to killing goblins or spiders." By now, Ishum's body was beginning to turn into light particles around the wound in its chest.

Orthis didn't say anything as he knew there was no point in talking to someone insane, not to mention to someone soon-to-be dead.

"Anyway, this happened sooner than expected, so I guess I have to thank you. We will meet again, Orthis. You better watch your back." And with that Ishum completely turned into particles and disappeared.

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[Your Affinity to all Energies increased drastically and reached Unnatural]

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The unusual death scene made Orthis a bit worried. In addition to what it said, it was very likely that Ishum wasn't dead and they would meet again in the future. He had a feeling that its way of cheating death had something to do with its True Talent.

Although the threat of a possibly immortal enemy was troublesome, there was nothing he could do about it for now, so he just put this entire thing into the back of his mind.

After his affinity with all energies increased, he could actually feel a difference for the first time. He could feel many things but it was also very confusing, he could feel energy in him, the air, the ground, basically everywhere which was not more helpful than seeing until he got some training.

He also put spamming Insight on Affinity to find out what exactly it was on his to-do list, it would have to give him some useful information eventually.

When he returned to the building, Urman was finally up and sitting in front of the campfire, grilling his own meat.

"Finally awake. Do you want to get going or do you first want to play with your new toy?"

"Don't call it that. Void Edge is way cooler than your stupid spear." Urman barely had his artifact for a few hours, of which he was unconscious most of the time, and he was already bragging about its great power.

"Did something happen? You look concerned."

Orthis just shook his head as he was inwardly a bit surprised that he was so easy to read by his teammate. He was indeed a bit worried about his new, possibly immortal, enemy but since it didn't seem to even know about Urman and only targeted him, he didn't want to get him involved. Maybe he was also just overthinking.

"Nothing, just a bit tired after I killed every spider on this floor while you were napping. Let's just find the queen and get to the next floor."

The two began looking for a way back to the originally intended path for this floor. The only paths up were steep and narrow, forcing the two youths to often crawl upwards while burying their fingers in the stone walls. With their stats, they could easily make their own ledge to hold onto.

After half an hour of climbing and destroying every piece of fabric on their body, they ended up in a chamber full of cobwebs, indicating that they were back on the normal path.

"I fucking hate cobwebs, are you sure that you got all the spiders?"

"Pretty sure that if I didn't, they would have swarmed us already with how much you were cursing on the way up."

Urman grumbled a bit but didn't answer as they both put on new clothes. They were absolutely dirty from the way up but it was better than walking around naked together.

"Who do we have to kill around here to get a shower?" Orthis asked nobody in particular.

"Right? And I need to urgently restock on new clothes, I've destroyed way more on these few floors than expected. We really need to get some better clothes with enchantments to hold a bit longer."

They kept following down the path with the most webs until they finally arrived at a giant chamber full of eggs. They didn't have time to consider destroying them as they were surrounded by dead climbers.

"Holy, are they all climbers? How did they die? It doesn't look like they were killed by spiders, these are definitely cuts, not bites."

"Why don't you ask the guy up there?" Orthis pointed to the ceiling. He knew the answer but he already lied about nothing happening, so he had to keep the lie up.

Above them, a giant spider watched them intently with its eight eyes, like a hunter waiting for its prey to fall into a trap, only that it wasn't the hunter this time. Noticing that it was discovered, it stopped hiding and spit a good liter of purple poison as it fell to the ground.

Not too keen on finding out what it might do to them, the two jumped away, just in time before the poison began to corrode the ground they stood upon a second ago.

"Interesting, this purple stuff works as both a poison and an acid. I would like to have a few samples of that stuff."

"Now's not the time to get nerdy." Urman interrupted his train of thought.

And he was right, the Spider Queen proved to be much smarter than expected as with a light move of one of her long legs, webs began to tighten, turning the entire chamber into a huge trap.

Orthis was the first to notice the anomaly as one of the sticky webs attached itself to his spear, restricting its movement unless he got it free. The webs were a lot more durable than expected and there were many different types, some were super sticky, some sharp, and others were dripping with the same purple liquid the giant spider spat at them a moment ago.

With a light pull, he snapped the web that was trying to hold his weapon. Urman summoned his sword for the first time and began to cut apart any web in his way without a problem.

Seeing no problem, Orthis began engaging in the fight and ran to the Spider Queen as he cut apart any web in his way. With a jump, he aimed to destroy the monster's head in one blow but it tried to defend by using one of its many legs. The spear cut right through it but it gave it enough to retreat a bit and even counterattack with its other legs.

Just as Orthis cut off one of its legs, another came from his side, attempting to pierce his side. Already seeing the attack coming, Orthis repositioned his spear to block the leg. Just as the leg and spear collided and began a contest of strength, something jumped on Orthis' shoulder.

It was Urman who took the opportunity to jump over Orthis and use him as a stepping stone for a front flip with an aerial twist. After landing behind the spider, it stood still for a moment before it began to split in two.

While in the air, Urman used his insanely sharp sword to cut the giant spider open from its head to its large behind, making for a not only easy but also spectacularly gymnastic end for this floor.

"That was easy. I'm surprised you didn't end it immediately."

"I wanted to know if it had any more cards besides its acidic poison and being smart enough to create traps," Orthis grumbled, slightly disappointed that he didn't get the kill. You never knew when a monster would give you an insane trait.

And with that, the 6th Floor ended. So far, it has been the least rewarding floor for Orthis, with only two stat points and super silky hair as a reward but the same could not be said about Urman. This was easily his most rewarding floor ever and it would be very hard to top what he got here.

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[Welcome to the 7th Floor, Battle of Wits]

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