Gearing Up

As soon as the two arrived, they saw that the area was bustling with people and there was even trading happening like a market place.

"This place is pretty nice, it's good to see that things are kind of going back to normal and people are managing to go on with their lives despite everything that is happening."

"I do not know how normal this is because my parents never really let me go anywhere before all of this happened."

"Oh yeah, I forgot that you were kept inside by your parents. I did not go outside for eleven years so I can relate to that one. I only know that this is normal based off of the short time that I went to school."

"You never told me about that properly, why did you stay in for eleven years?"

"Well, I may as well tell you. I am the only surviving test subject of a secret experiment that involved me and thirty other people. We were all taken there when we were five years old and forced to train for this apocalypse so that we could adapt better to it but I was the only survivor."

"That is terrible, I am so sorry about all those children that you knew dying."

"Oh I do not care. I never really met any of them and I even killed one personally."

"I have no idea how to respond to that."

"Are you bothered by it?"

"No, I have seen you kill people and I have killed some as well so I don't mind it. You just have such a sad past that I am confused at how to react."

"Well it helped me out so it is not that sad. I did also spend most days talking to the head scientist which got me through it. I wonder how she is doing, she was kind of like a super fucked up maternal figure."

"That is messed up but also sweet. It seems we have arrived at the dungeon though so we need to get ready to fight."

"Let's do this as quick as possible. We will go in and run through all the levels until we find stage six monsters. We'll kill them and eat the evolutionary material and keep speed running the levels until we reach the bottom floor."

As he said they would, Leonidas and Iris ran through all of the levels and when they reached floor forty five the monsters were stage six. Using his skills, Leonidas killed the monsters and collected all of the materials. After duplicating them, he gave half to Iris and got her to stage six and after he ate them he made some progress to stage four.

At floor fifty five the monsters became stage seven and while it was challenging to defeat all of them, they were quickly dispatched of and their materials were duplicated and eaten by the two which got them up to stage seven which made Leonidas' skills become colourless which would allow for sneak attacks.

At floor seventy there were monsters that were stage eight and much stronger than any of the other people on Earth at the time. They had eight arms and huge bodies but Leonidas killed them all. Unlike before though, he was injured a few times but healed thanks to Iris' ability. Although equipment had dropped from these monsters, Leonidas decided to just take the things from the highest possible rank monsters in the dungeon. After eating all of the duplicated material, both Leonidas and Iris reached the eighth stage. Iris' abilities became stronger and so did Leonidas' but the colour was unchanged due to the usefulness of invisible attacks.

Floor eighty five had stage nine monsters that were incredibly fast and strong and Leonidas had to be healed multiple times by Iris. He killed the monsters and was amazed at his and Iris' growth rate over the last few hours. After duplicating and eating the evolutionary materials, they both reached stage nine. Iris just got stronger along with her ability and Leonidas' skills became soundless and faster and more powerful.

Floor one hundred was home to the stage ten monsters who were insanely strong in every category and caused huge damage to Leonidas but thanks to Iris he managed to survive. It took hours, but he managed to kill them all while protecting Iris from being murdered. He duplicated the evolutionary material and him and iris reached stage ten. Iris unlocked a new ability which was to reinforce items to get them to a stage higher. It was very useful but could never get any stronger. Leonidas also gained a new ability which was Phasing through objects which would negate all damage if he was hit and would let him walk through walls. It also could not be improved by evolution as Leonidas would need to get used to it and increase his proficiency normally.

The two went around picking up equipment as they saw that there were no stairs to the next floor but instead an altar. This meant that they would need the stage ten weapons and armour before going to investigate it. After collecting all of the items, increasing them to stage eleven and sorting through them, they took the best equipment.

Iris got an entire new set of clothes that were incredibly defensive and increased evasion as well. She also gained a light and easy to handle shield with incredible defensive properties that could absorb damage. The only other useful thing for her was a staff made specifically for healing as it increased the effect of healing abilities by 200%.

Leonidas also got a whole new set of clothes that were made for evasion and speed while still having good defensive properties. He took two knives that were insanely sharp and durable that came with holsters and attached them to his legs. He also took a spear that was powerful and sharp as well as having a bleeding effect that meant enemies that were injured by it would continually take damage until they died.

After getting their equipment, they went to investigate the altar.