Book 4: Chapter 21

A few days had passed as they explored the trash dungeon. Talia and Soohyun had managed to gather a small group of humans and recruit them to their cause. Though it didn’t help. There were no signs of the little ant, and eventually they gave up.

Part of the problem of finding the little guy was that the doppelgangers had run off and hidden in the tunnels after the corruption was defeated, and they reclaimed their senses. This made it much harder to search for the ant’s energy signal, as there were lifeforms all around them.

This wasn’t easily solved. It was one thing to kill hordes of corrupted doppelgangers who were trying to kill them, and another thing entirely to hunt them down as the doppelgangers cowered in tunnel passages.

Anyone who had made it this far had accepted some degree of brutal cynicism. But certain things were still off limits for most. Besides, there was no guarantee they would find the ant, regardless of whether it was even alive.

Once they gave up on their search, the group gathered in the city above the exit, where the orb had been. Talia and Soohyun called everyone they had found. In total, they found five other humans who joined them, including Timmothy, whom they were still a little uncertain of.

It was possible that there were more who had yet to finish the first floor, but there was only so much waiting around they wanted to do.

However, it hadn’t been a complete waste of time. Despite not finding the ant, they had found some strange metals amongst the trash. Powerful ones, and they stored them away in the spatial storage for later.

“Anything left to do?” Talia said, glancing around at the group.

“I think we’re all good.”

“Alright, let’s move then.”

Traveling below, they found Aaron as he finished up his cooking. He looked rather proud of himself.

At least all the melons were gone, and the room only smelled like normal trash, which they had gotten somewhat used to.

“I don’t want to know what you cooked to make yourself look so smug,” Talia said.

“Me? Ha, nothing that strange,” Aaron flashed an awkward smile at the newcomers.

She had to admit, it was always amusing to see how Aaron still got embarrassed about his powers when meeting new people. After all, it was only a matter of time before he showed his true colors.

“Anyway,” she said, ignoring his response. “Are you done? We can move on now, if you’re ready.”

“Done? Yeah, I am actually. So, these are the guys you found? I take it we’re allies now?”

“Yep,” she replied. “They’ve all agreed to join us in Dober. It might take them some time to get there, though. Depending on where we end up after the dungeon.”

“Yes,” Konrad said. “From what we understand, we are some distance away from your camp. But we’re just roughing it in a forest right now. Nothing special. It has been good for training, though.”

“I see. Maybe we can figure out some means of helping you on the journey. Have you got world maps?

“No, unfortunately, we don’t. I made it to the trials just in time. But I barely achieved anything,” Konrad said, looking a little doleful. “And didn’t have many points at the end.”

“Oh. That’s a bummer. We could have shared our locations with each other. Oh well. I’m sure we can come up with other ideas. Anyway, what’s important is you’re in this together, right? The more the merrier,” Aaron said.

“Yeah, more the merrier!” Konrad agreed.

“Yep, me too!” Timmothy said, like he didn’t want to be left out.

“Anyway,” Talia said, gesturing toward the portal.

“Yeah, let’s move,” Soohyun agreed. “I’ve smelled enough trash for a lifetime.”

**Aaron Dober**

Aaron glanced around at the group and nodded as he turned to the portal. New companions were always welcome, and better yet, they were elites. Dober needed more elites. He was already getting sick of being the city’s protector.

Sure, it was fine enough to be called upon if a major threat appeared. But he didn’t want to be the only one to deal with every D-grade beast roaming about. And he was fairly certain Talia felt the same way.

“Alright, let’s move!”

Aaron passed through the portal first. He was by far the hardest to kill, and it made sense for him to take up the vanguard.

Passing through the portal, he found himself standing on a platform of black bricks overlooking a world of hard rock, spewing lava, cloudy skies, and rivers of ash. And far in the distances, he could see mountains climbing toward the sky, and they were oddly parted by seemingly equal distances.

It was a truly harrowing sight, and the chilling howls of demonic beasts traveled through the air.

“I have a feeling Talia is going to love this place,” he sighed.

Grand Dungeon, 3rd Floor Quest: Align the Planar Temples

There are nine temples, and each temple may only be claimed by one party! Once all nine have been aligned, the floor exit will open!

Reward: 30 auction points!

Well, at least the quest sounds interesting.

Moments later, he turned and stepped as Talia, Soohyun, and Zero passed through the portal after him. Then paused, raised a brow, and wondered where the rest were.

The plan had been for everyone to pass through the portal together a few seconds after Aaron.

“Look at the quest,” Aaron said. “See that? If I’m reading that right, our world needs nine parties to beat the quest to move on to the next floor.”

“I think you’re right,” Talia said. “Think that’s going to be a problem?”

“Dunno, maybe? Wait, where’s everyone else?” Aaron said as he looked around for the rest of their companions from the other floor.

“Wait, where are they? They should be here?” Talia said, turning around. “They came right through with us…”

Aaron immediately realized what had happened. It was just the four of them who were in a party together. Soohyun had joined when she and Talia left to search for the ant.

They had, in fact, joined a raiding party with the other five. But they were in a separate party. It felt like it made sense at the time. Parties had a five-person limit, and there were five of them.

Besides, everyone wanted to be part of their party, since it was the one with all the top rankers. And while Zero didn’t actually take up a spot, it seemed easier to just let them be in a party together, rather than picking a favorite.

In retrospect, it wasn’t all that surprising. Parties and raiding parties had different rules, and many dungeons and barriers that restricted party size were limited to individual parties, and didn’t work with raiding parties.

But they hadn’t considered that at the time.

Dungeon Floor Leaderboard Activated!

Raksha Tiksus Vakmal

Aaron Dober

Talia Rhineheart

Terry Cadillac

Kim Soohyun

Vikran Takeshi Udon

Konrad Schneider

Teemu Pekkonen

Aju Varghese

Maria Białkowski

Aaron blinked at the leaderboard that appeared before his eyes. He was a little surprised to see that they weren’t the first to reach the floor, considering how fast they had been going. Then again, other top rankers likely wouldn’t have had any issues defeating something like the trash lord monster if they didn’t have to deal with the royal guards.

But that was hardly the only thing that caught his eye.

He was ranked second now.

Aaron wasn’t entirely sure how the dungeon rankings worked. Was the starting rank indicative of their planetary rank when entering the floor? Or was it a combination of that and what they had done on the other floors?

Either way, he couldn’t hide his grin from Talia.

“Looks like we’re not the first,” he said, trying not to smile too widely.

“Don’t act so smug,” Talia said. “If not for your stomach, you’d have been struggling to keep your stomach down, too.”

Soohyun seemed not to pay too much attention to them, going over the list. “There’s a bunch of names I don’t recognize,” she said. “It’s interesting, don’t you think? We just entered, but Aaron still took second place. That must mean that whatever points we’re worth, it isn’t so easy to overtake us.”

“Right,” Aaron said. “So, you reckon most top rankers from our world haven’t actually reached the floor yet?”

“Exactly.”

“You think that’s intentional?” Talia mused. “I can’t imagine someone like Darius struggling against the trash lord.”

“Neither can I,” said Aaron. “But like us, they probably figure they’ve got plenty of time. Why rush?”

Terry Cadillac:

@Kim Soohyun

,

@Aaron Dober

,

@Talia Rhineheart

, Oi, oi, oi! Finally, some human top rankers. I was starting to wonder when you slow pokes might show your faces. Chat’s been awfully boring with these squids that don’t speak. I hope you lot are a little more lively!

Aaron glanced over at the others. He vaguely remembered the name. He had seen this Terry guy make it onto the rankings, but hadn’t seen him in the trials. It made him curious about him.

Also, the man was likely human. Based on his name and his own chat message. And if there were friendly humans, why wouldn’t they work together? In fact, it made a lot of sense for all humans to work together, besides Darius, of course.

“What do we say?”

“I dunno. Offer to team up?” Talia proposed.

“Might as well,” Soohyun agreed. “We don’t have to commit to anything just yet. Just keep the door open.”

Aaron nodded and replied.

Aaron Dober:

@Terry Cadillac

, Hey, Terry. Nice to meet you. We’re open to working with all humans, if you’re interested. Best that we stick together, don’t you think?

Terry Cadillac:

@Kim Soohyun

,

@Aaron Dober

,

@Talia Rhineheart

, Oh man, you made my day, Aaron Dober! I knew you wouldn’t be some soyboy, not at the top of the rankings like you are! We gotta work together and smash these weakling squids! Show them what humans are capable of! United as one!

Aaron bent his head. Terry was a little more straightforward than he had expected. Not that he was necessarily wrong. But the way he said it made him a little cautious.

Talia Rhineheart:

@Terry Cadillac

, take them out? Why? Have we confirmed that they’re a threat?

Terry Cadillac:

@Kim Soohyun

,

@Aaron Dober

,

@Talia Rhineheart

, Confirmed? What are you waiting for? You want them to attack first? Talia, honey, this is war! Our entire species are at stake! Let the men speak.

Aaron could already see Talia fuming through the corner of his eye.

Oh, great.

“Who does this bastard think he is?” Talia huffed. “I’m gonna punch him in the face when we meet him.”

She glanced at Soohyun, hoping for support, but Soohyun was lost in thought and didn’t notice at first.

“Huh?” she said when she finally noticed Talia. “Oh. Yeah. Me too.”

“Yeah, he shouldn’t have said that,” Aaron said. “But he’s kind of got a point about the human stuff.”

“A point?” Talia flashed red. “We don’t even know if they’re enemies yet.”

“I know, I know,” Aaron said, raising his hands. “Look, I’m not defending the guy. But like, humans come first, don’t they? I’m not suggesting we attack anybody peaceful. But we should look out for one another. If we’re at each other’s necks, there’s a better chance that the thal’kesh end up in a better position. And I haven’t seen any reason to trust them. Terry might be a jackass, but if that’s all he is, it’s still much better to be friends than enemies.”

“…Point taken,” Talia sighed. “I still want to punch him, though.”

“Okay,” Soohyun agreed. “But we shouldn’t just go making enemies with strangers either.”

Soohyun was right, he knew. The top-ranking Thal’kesh would have likely gotten the universal language racial Skill back in the trials. So they could no doubt understand the chat. And Terry was talking about attacking first and asking questions later.

“Maybe we should say something? Give them a chance to respond?” Aaron suggested.

They talked it over for a moment and decided that Soohyun should extend a subtle olive branch, since she hadn’t talked yet.

Kim Soohyun:

@Everyone

, We’re not unreasonable. But we will defend ourselves. If you don’t want to be considered an enemy, speak up.

Terry Cadillac:

@Kim Soohyun

, I can’t tell if you're a woman or just a soy cuck, but that kind of attitude is how you lose a war!

@Aaron Dober

, are you there? Come on, brother! You know what needs to be done! Let’s fucking smash these squids!

“Looks like your boyfriend wants to talk to you,” Talia said.

“Yeah. Looks like I made another friend.”

Aaron groaned. If Terry could be a little more measured in his responses, that would make life easier for everybody. But he wasn’t going to get hung up over political correctness when monsters from the multiverse were trying to kill him.

“What do I say now?” he said.

“I say we go along with him for now,” Soohyun said.

“Soohyun!” Talia hissed.

“Hear me out. Look, it’s not like there are any thal’kesh around right now. Let’s see what we can get out of this.”

“Yeah, I get that. But he’s already threatening them. If we agree with him over global chat, we’ll be marked as enemies by the thal’kesh as well,” Talia said.

“We’ve given them a chance with Soohyun’s message. And we’re not getting any replies. If there’s any thal’kesh out there that are friendly, they’re certainly not acting like it.”

“Fine,” Talia said. “At least try to make us sound neutral.”

“Alright,” Aaron nodded as he opened the chat to reply.

Aaron Dober:

@Terry Cadillac

, Hey! We hear you. We’ll be looking out for you, Terry.

“How was that?” Aaron said.

Terry Cadillac:

@Aaron Dober

, Hey, brother! I’ll keep an eye out! Wish I could say where I am. But we don’t want to give anything away, do we? Anyway, come find me at the temples!

The group glanced around at each other. Everyone was well aware they might have made some enemies. But in truth, they all doubted that there were any peaceful thal’kesh here, since none had said a word.

But at least they had tried.

“Alright, let’s go figure out what these planar temples are,” Aaron said as he took a step forward, and the others followed.