12

The Dungeon, Seventh Floor

Judith

Gritting her teeth Judith threw her body back, putting as much of her strength as she could manage into pulling her broadsword out of the Ant's carapace. The chittering monstrosity didn't stop flailing even with its missing limbs and her sword lodged in its side; its back legs scrambling against the ground as its mandibles strained to reach her.

The razor sharp jaws clicked dangerously close to her face, held back only by the boot she had lodged in its open wound, where its front leg used to be.

"Shit!" She cursed, throwing herself back one last time as the monster's bladed jaw tore another hole into her shirt. This time -thankfully- the blade unlodged with a sickening crack and a spray of green blood, sending her crashing onto her back, blade in hand.

An arrow scraped past her at high speed only to ping off the Killer Ant's hardened carapace. Spying the Ant's raised leg as she fell, Judith turned her motion into a backwards roll, flipping back to her feet as the clawed foot slammed into the ground just where she had just been.

Heaving for breath, she backed up further and readied herself for another bout, but the beast was busy digging its foot out of the stone.

It let her relax, if only a little.

Letting out a shaky breath, she admitted in the privacy of her own mind that their teacher was at least somewhat right about this floor; they were barely ready for this shit. Not because the fuckers were strong, or fast, or any of that. These monsters had only two advantages and those were high numbers and a stupidly hard shell, one that forced adventurers to precisely focus on their tiny weak points.

It was something that, for a rough and tumble fighter like Judith, was basically impossible. Ilya might be able to put the tip of her rapier through a target the size of a nail in the heat of combat, but for most people that was outright impossible without a ridiculous amount of points in their dexterity stat. The only other alternatives were either to just out stat these fuckers with raw strength, or luck out like her other teammate.

Blue steel flashed in the corner of her vision and without thinking she let it draw her eye. The blur was some fancy sword Elric had apparently made for himself out of a material that was well outside of her price range. Something he could just apparently do, as if he wasn't talented enough already. Worse still was the fact that the blade in his hands made her current troubles look downright trivial.

For everyone else this floor was a flailing mess of clawed limbs, snapping mandibles and the occasional moth poison bomb that would leave you blind and crying out in pain. For him though, it wasn't even a challenge; the ridiculous endurance of the Killer Ants just wasn't a match for Elric's tyrannical blade.

He didn't need to bother with weak spots like the rest of them, before his blade the Ants would just fall apart, adding to the graveyard of corpses that had built up around him.

It was hard to tear her eyes away from the display, the sheer and obvious reminder that they were only able to be here because Elric was doing practically all the work. The fact that he could weather a storm of monsters that would have overrun the rest of them instantly, and do so with enough ease to still manage the situation perfectly was…

It was undeniable proof of his strength. The same strength that she'd hungered for every single day since she was a kid trying to survive on the streets. It was beautiful, and tyrannical, and so utterly unfair.

"Judith!" Filian shouted, another arrow pinging off the rapidly approaching Ant. Eyes widening, she desperately shook off her distraction and buried the ugly stirring of jealousy with self disgust.

She met the Ant's charge, batting aside its clicking jaw before sparking another useless strike off its shell. Anger drove her strikes as she rained down blows on her opponent; anger at herself for letting her jealousy control her, anger for dropping her guard, anger at the fucking world for being so goddamn unfair.

It didn't matter, she was just angry.

Side stepping the Ant's charge she dug deep into that feeling, roaring as she lashed out with a wild strike that finally tore off the last leg that was keeping this stupid bastard standing. Watching the damn thing go down in a pile of chitin, its legs desperately scrambling at the floor was downright cathartic. But it wasn't dead yet.

Walking over with heavy steps, she planted her boot on the fucker's head and lined up her sword. The last desperate struggle for life it made was almost relatable in a way, she could think of at least a dozen times she'd done something similar growing up.

The blade sunk into its eye without difficulty, ending its life instantly with an almost anti-climatic finish, as if taunting her with an idea of how easy this would be if she was just better. If her stats were higher, if she was more talented with the blade like Ilya and Elric, or if she had a damage skill like he did.

It was an unfair world, and she hated herself for feeling that way about her friends.

"That was close." The hinting voice Raul spoke up beside her, her pride stinging as she came to the realisation that he had moved in close to be ready to step in.

"I know."

"Your sword almost broke." He continued simply, giving her a pointed look. She couldn't say anything in response, her blade was riddled with chips and rolls at this point; it probably wouldn't last much longer.

"I know." She bit out through gritted teeth.

She knew what Raul wanted; to admit that coming down to the floor was a mistake, that they should retreat, give up and come back when it was safe. She itched to show him up, to say something, anything, but reality was staring her in the face, her blade wouldn't hold up to much more abuse.

Her grip tightened.

"You make a good mother hen Raul." A voice suddenly cut in. Looking up she saw Elric approach, an easy smile on his face and the only scratches on him being on his shield. "All that worried hovering."

She tried to smile back in greeting, but feelings weren't something she was good at hiding, so it probably came out awkwardly, something Elric responded to with an understanding look, because of course he did. He had been stupidly understanding from the moment he caught on to her conflicted feelings.

The idiot could read her like a book.

"It is the job." Raul agreed, his previously taunting expression turning oddly conflicted as he looked at Elric. "Speaking of, you alright?"

"No problems on my end." Elric's light words had Raul nodding reluctantly as the others finished up carving the bodies around them, something she really should have joined them for. "You guys?"

"I'm fine." Ilya said simply, barely a scratch on her as she reached through what used to be an arm socket into the Ant's chest.

Even dead the monsters were a pain in the ass to carve, so they were taught to avoid the carapace if possible at the cost of having to deal with a lot more blood and gore. The only saving grace was that Elric had started nearly bisecting the core segment of every Ant he killed, something only he could manage.

"A few scrapes." Filian admitted reluctantly. Monsters spawning from behind them had taken him off guard more than once, leaving the archer a little battered.

"Then we should be good to continue." Elric hummed.

Raul's expression immediately turned awkward, like he wanted to cut in and say something, but couldn't quite bring himself to do it. If Judith had to guess, Elric was doing this intentionally, shifting the conversation so that they would keep going; he'd been pushing more than anyone to come down here.

And honestly? She was all for it right now. The idea of just giving up…

Elric laughed as he went on. "Hopefully we'll get luckier than Raul did last night."

Their teacher's head whipped around so fast that Judith didn't even see it move, expression agape at Elric. "What? I defini- Wait, we don't talk about that!"

Raul caught himself just as Judith's brain caught up to the conversation, her mind snapping back to the time when her Goddess had apparently invited her friend to a brothel of all places, before said friend promptly invited her.

She'd since done her level best to pretend that that had never happened, happily pretending that she didn't see most of the men (and some of the women) leave the manor last night. A happy illusion that was being tossed out of the damn window by her friend's teasing.

"You sure? Because when I saw you last night, you looked like you were about to blow your load from a lapdance." Elric chuckled. "Something tells me you didn't make it to a room."

The involuntary mental image didn't do any favours for her impression of Raul, the sudden blush she could feel heating up her face, or her desire to punch both of these idiots.

Raul blushed. "I know what you're doing Elric, don't try and-"

"-Tell people that you're a lapdance Andy?" Elric interrupted with a smirk.

"That's…" Raul trailed off. "D-Don't think I didn't see you sneak off with one of the dancers!"

"I did." Elric admitted easily, a teasing smile on his face as Judith's mind came to an abrupt halt. "She was a rather lovely woman who was solicited and paid for by your familia's accounts; my thanks for that."

"You- we're paying f-for…?" Judith uttered to Raul in disbelief, finding herself frustratingly unable to finish the sentence.

"That's not… how do you even know about that?"

"She walked up to me and called herself a gift. Plus you just confirmed it." Elric chuckled as Raul's face crumpled.

"Why would they even do that?" Ilya asked the question that was raging in Judith's mind.

"Well for one they're interested in my potions." Elric smiled winningly. "For two, your Captain wants to suck my dick," before Judith could even process that insane statement he went on, "metaphorically of course."

It took a lot to not to punch him.

"So our familia wants your favour?" Ilya clarified.

"Pretty much." Elric nodded. "If it makes you feel better he probably also had some boring reason behind it like trying to figure out if I was weak to women or something."

"And him finding out you're… interested in that kind of thing isn't an issue?" Filian asked, a complicated and somewhat perverse expression on his face. Men.

"Only someone without a working cock would need to check something like that." Elric snorted. "We're adventurers; fire and passion are the names of the game."

The phrase 'without a working cock' circled in her mind like a curse, inadvertently tarring her image of her Captain.

"Don't insult our Captain please." Raul protested weakly.

"Given the track record between us, I'm being quite civil. Now c'mon." Elric led them off into the dungeon with a smile. "Let's get luckier than Raul!"

Filian let out a strangled laugh at the phrase, before glancing nervously at Raul. Their teacher didn't say anything, instead just following after Elric and leaving the rest of them to follow in a daze, trying to make sense of what just happened.

-

The seventh floor was fun.

If I'd come down here earlier then it would have been one hell of a challenge with its near neverending swarms, the constant threat of a Needle Rabbit bouncing out of the darkness like a bullet, or a Purple Moth tear gassing my ass like a demented Butterfree. Unfortunately -because of my promise to Hestia- I'd already passed what felt like the agility threshold for this floor, leaving the challenge mostly gone.

Instead the fight was a far more relaxed affair, one that I was using to practise a few skills I hadn't really had to tap into yet, the first of which being just simple battlefield awareness.

On the upper floors you rarely fought more than two monsters at a time, with maybe a third in the background looking for an opportunity. That level of multitasking came almost naturally to my monkey brain, letting me keep track of the field and be aware of the threats around me; what didn't come as naturally was keeping track of the swarm in front of me.

Ants would almost climb over each other in their sheer desperation to rip you apart, leaving you having to deal with a lot more than two; they were also ants so they had a lot more limbs to keep track of then anything else I'd fought so far. Combine that with the Rabbits and Moths hiding in the rear and you were left with a situation that was almost dizzying to keep on top of.

To counter this I'd normally just reflex spam this shit, cut off every limb that came at me and call it a day; that's why I invested so heavily into dual swords and why I normally fought so defensively. As long as my opponent's speed didn't exceed mine by a large margin then I could react in the time it would take them to pass through my guard, at which point off goes the limb.

Here though I was trying to mask my speed from the watchful eyes of Raul in order to obscure my levelling speed, something that I was hoping to keep ambiguous until I was forced to announce my level up. Holding back on your speed however was a lot like fighting with one arm tied behind your back, and why I was so focused on trying to keep track of the array of limbs around me; if you can't abuse your reflexes, then you need to be aware of your opponents and predict them.

It wasn't perfect, the dents in my shield and the number of times I'd been forced to dodge were proof enough of that, but I was getting better. I didn't know if this kind of intentionally limited training would help with Falnic stat growth, but even just practising the best way to weave through swiping limbs coming at me was helpful. Instinctually knowing what to block, what to cut and what to move out of the way of could never be a bad thing.

Maybe it wasn't as satisfying as number go brrr, but these kinds of skills were damn important for someone like me.

The other 'skill' I was practising was dexterity. Where dexterity ended and agility began was a bit nebulous but from what Tsubaki told me my highest stat was all about precision and control, something that made it a must for smiths and why she ranted about it to me for what felt like an hour.

In the context of this fight, it was all about precision, about putting your sword exactly where it needed to be to achieve the maximum effect with the least amount of movement. It was everything from making a small adjustment to your blade's arc in order to catch that second limb on your return slice, to slowing and flicking up your blade at just the right time to cut through a Needle Rabbit as it leaps into the fight.

Do more with less. Don't just be fast, be efficient.

It ran almost contrary to the philosophy behind agility, while still somehow being entirely complementary; it turned fast and frantic combat into something almost elegant. More than that, there was a strange niggling in the back of mind that there was more to this style than what I was experiencing, something related to my sword skills.

It felt important, but hazy enough that I couldn't really tell what it was hinting at.

"I know what you were doing back there." Raul suddenly broke my train of thought as my sword wove a bloody line through the head of Ant and the mandibles of a second; the brief moment of distraction letting it escape my blade.

"What was I doing?" I asked, not really sure what he was going on about, nor why he was speaking so quietly. I went to chase after the wounded Ant, but more Ants crawled over its staggered form, forcing me to take a step back as my return slice severed a grasping limb and my shield warded off a second.

"With Judith back there." He clarified, taking up position just behind me, not close enough to get in my way, but close enough to make me feel rather uncomfortable. "You were trying to distract her from what I was saying, why?"

"I was helping her." I answered simply, stepping into an opening in the swarm and letting off a pair of stabs, precisely taking out the two chittering insects on the top of the pile and turning them into deadweight for the rest. It earned me a few retaliatory swipes, but I was already stepping back as they scraped off my shield.

"How?" He asked, seemingly genuinely surprised.

"Well, I was stopping you from needling her when she was down for one, and for two I was distracting her so she didn't get wrapped up in her own head." When people get like that, often the only thing you can do for them is give them some sense of normalcy, distract them from their thoughts.

"I wasn't needling her, I was trying to get her to realise she isn't ready." Raul retorted. "It's something she needed to hear."

"Realisations like that need to come from within. All you were doing was kicking someone while they were down." I countered, meeting an Ant as it charged out of the pile with an experimental corkscrew slice, popping off its grasping arms in the twisting arc and finishing it off by bisecting its undefended head.

It worked, but it felt awkward and almost childish, like windmilling your arms in a fight.

"You're exaggerating." Raul cut back as he rolled his eyes.

"I'm not and even if I were, I've seen that kind of thing enough times to know it all builds up." I claim.

My experience may have come from trying to wrangle internet spergs through MMO dungeons, but the same principles oddly applied here. There was always at least one kid who would take things way too seriously, basing their self worth off their performance in a self destructive cycle that drove them to fits of anger. They were always one bad day away from exploding on everyone, and it always fell to me to sort that shit out.

For Judith, getting her ass handed to her by Ants for several hours straight while she's constantly comparing herself to her teammates -one of which was my broken ass- probably wasn't great on the mental. In that kind of situation, the last thing you want to do is rub the fact that they're not ready for this kind of thing in their face, which is exactly what Raul did and why I stepped in.

I've had enough parties fall apart because of sperg rage, thank you very much.

"If you'd managed to get her to quit then I guarantee you that it would have caused issues down the line." I concluded, absently continuing the fight as the conversation took more and more of my attention.

"And if her sword breaks?"

"We both know you're fast enough to stop anything from happening." I call him out.

"...I don't like it." He said after a long pause, a wary expression on his face. I could somewhat understand his position. Raul just wanted to keep his charges safe, so the idea of throwing them into danger and possibly teaching them bad habits like overly relying on his protection were things he was probably especially concerned about.

"Look, I'm going to be leaving the group after this." I admit to his total lack of surprise. "Let her have this; so that when her sword gives out and she has to go back to the sixth floor, it won't be because she didn't try hard enough."

"That's barely a difference." He tried.

"Having something to blame that isn't ourselves makes all the difference in the world, I don't believe that you don't understand that." I'd lost track of the amount of excuses I'd fed other players in my time, subtly adding comments about lag or tiredness to the conversation just so they could have something to latch onto.

"...I do." Raul admits.

"Then let her have this."

He sighed. "Fine."

"Was that so hard?" I asked with a chuckle, letting my attention shift back to the fight and wincing as I realised just how sloppy I'd let my bladework become from the lapse. Practice, I needed more practice, enough that I could do this kind of thing in my sleep.

"You're the one who insisted we come down here in the first place." Raul reminded me.

"I had my reasons… and that kind of thing would have come up regardless." I answered slowly, focused as I was on my blade. The issue with Judith would have cropped up when I inevitably left the group anyway, due in part to how obvious my reasons for leaving would have been, and how she would have taken a friend levelling so much faster than her.

The only real solution to that would have been sticking with the group and pretending that I was levelling far slower than I was. Unfortunately, as much as I liked Judith, I simply couldn't afford to waste that much time going forward, especially not for someone else's insecurities.

I was already not sleeping, there was literally no more time I could pull out of my ass.

As for how this whole thing would relate to me going forward? I had a feeling that Judith would end up seeking me out.

The desperate glint in her eyes whenever she fought against something stronger than her or saw me fight was telling; she was someone who desperately wanted strength, a lot like her idol Ais the sword autist actually. So if I had to guess -just like Ais- she won't be able to leave someone power levelling in front of her alone.

As for how I would deal with that? No clue. She's in the Loki familia so I can't really trust her, even if I did use Hestia as a lie detector, that would only tell me what she intended in that moment. People often claim things truthfully, only to completely change their minds as soon the relative context changes.

The only way I could really trust her would be if she left the Loki familia, and I don't even know if that's possible.

"Maybe." Raul finally said noncommittally, the pair of us content to let the conversation lapse into silence as I continued my merry slaughter.

That silence lasted until the inevitable happened not much later, the sharp metallic crack of Judith's sword breaking ringing out and signalling the end of my time with the group.