Trolls and a Elemental?

28 minutes into the quest.

Ken, on the 6th floor, stood on a ledge with his sword in hand, looking down at a group of orcs with clear disgust on his face. "They smell horrible... and there is supposed to be a whole kingdom of them... Hell, if possible, I will nuke it..." he muttered with disgust.

The group of orcs, a total of thirteen, were doing what they wanted. Two were fighting, half of them were just lying around, and the others were just eating and sleeping. But that wasn't the point here; there were feces covering the whole floor and even the orcs themselves.

Ken wanted no part in killing them. He looked at the cave wall and ceiling and started to make a path from there; he wasn't going to walk through there.

Ken jumped, clutching an extended part of the wall, and swung himself to the ceiling where there was a good enough edge to grip. He flung himself to the other side, making sure he didn't get any part of these orcs on him.

Ken started to rush through the dungeon, avoiding the now-common monsters, especially the bats and snake-type monsters that were in every dark corner.

Ken stopped, his face scrunching up. "Well, fuck," he cursed in a light tone that didn't match the present situation.

In front of Ken were three trolls, monsters similar to orcs, but they weren't pigs and were green as well. "Sigh... what a pain," Ken lamented and drew his sword.

(Image of the troll)

The trolls hadn't noticed him yet, so he had a good opening to strike at all of them. Ken took a low stance, and in a burst of speed, he arrived right below them, slashed their legs, and jumped back.

"ARRRKKK!!!!" The three trolls screamed in pain, and two of them fell to their knees.

Ken didn't let this pass. He lunged and, in a swift motion, cut off both their heads and, using the remaining momentum, slashed at the last troll that tried to strike Ken but had its hand cut off.

Ken slashed both its legs, making it kneel, giving him room for the execution.

The head of the troll rolled, and the body fell.

Ken moved on and started to rush even more, trying his best to avoid all the monsters in his path but having to stop every time there was a troll present.

"I really don't like fighting them..."

[Huh? They are just Cave Trolls. Be thankful that they aren't Highland or Ground Trolls,] the system retorted, but Ken only smiled in amusement.

"True, but their regeneration is the same as any other troll... not to mention, they chase you till they are exhausted, not something anyone wants."

Ken reasoned, making the system perplexed. [Wha...?]

"You only watched the anime. I read the manga and the novel, and the Cave Trolls are much worse than any other trolls," Ken stated with a grin.

Ken gave the system time to think and rushed to finish off the troll in front of him

[WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU READ THE MANGA AND THE NOVEL?! THIS IS UNFAIR! I AM TOO LIMITED FOR THIS SHIT!]

The system roared in realization as what Ken said sunk in.

[NO WONDER YOU WERE SO DAMN SMUG! YOU ALREADY KNOW MORE THAN ME ABOUT THE FUTURE!]

She wasn't going to let this slide now. "Come on, I doubt you need to know the future to make it hard for me. If you knew the future, then it would be pointless for you to throw just mediocrity at me," Ken naturally had a way to puzzle the system that wasn't thinking right now.

[...???]

Ken finished off the troll and couldn't help but imagine the question marks floating in the air.

"Let's be honest, the 10,000th floor of the infinity dungeon isn't hard to reach. By the time all hell breaks loose, I would be able to make multiple trips there," Ken explained in a convincing tone, making the system pause for a bit.

[What makes you so damn confident? You aren't just trying to convince me of something here... Sigh, I can't read you nor understand you. You are very random at times.]

The system seemed to give up but made sure that Ken knew she was aware that he was planning something and that there was something she didn't know.

Ken smiled in response. "7th floor," he announced.

[Ah...?]

The system became stupefied. "What? Do you think I would stop to kill the trolls for no reason? Trolls hang around entrances; it's their nature to do so," Ken explained.

[Yeah, I realized that. I ain't dumb] 

The system snapped back, making him chuckle.

Ken made his way to the 7th floor and started to openly hunt for trolls, but he had to come to a stop once again. He frowned, turned around, and sprinted at his top speed.

"RROOOAAAARRR!!!!" A deafening roar came from behind, and the floor trembled as if an earthquake had struck.

Ken didn't bother to look back and kept running as fast as he could, but his eyes caught something, and he headed in that direction.

It was the path to the 8th floor. Unhesitatingly, he rushed down and continued to sprint.

After a while, he stopped at a corner and sat down. "Huff huff... why the fuck is there an elemental there...?" he questioned as he caught his breath.

[Butterfly effect,] the system simply stated, making Ken think.

"Sigh, don't tell me... there was an auction that had the core of an elemental as its main item... so the elemental was from this dungeon, meaning shit is about to go down, and I am not supposed to be here," Ken concluded grimly as he got up and started to head deeper into the dungeon.

[Well, you were the one that came here early. Plus, that girl Sophy probably has something to do with the Elemental core getting to the auction,]

The system speculated, her tone very much changed, more serious and calculative but also plain and unclear. It made Ken a little surprised, and he also grew more cautious of anything the system might throw at him.

----------------------------------------

In the middle of the forest.

"Umm... who might you be?" Emma asked, warily glaring at the girl with pink hair and pink eyes holding a little tiger in her arms. This was, of course, Sophy.

Sophy's eyes were fixed on Aisa, who stood a step behind Emma with her staff ready for a spell.

"My name is Sophy," Sophy cheerfully introduced herself and put down the little tiger. "And I think I just met a male version of that girl!" she added, pointing at Aisa.

"Eh? Me? A male version...?" Aisa bewilderedly murmured, but her eyes were on the little tiger, barely paying attention to Sophy or what she said.

But the next moment, Aisa's attention snapped to Sophy, who seemed to always have a smile. "A male version of me?"