Weapons of Mass Destruction

“Is everyone from round 5 some kind of weirdo?” Spacewolf declares in an unprovoked attack.

That little jerk sure sounds confident hiding behind that mountain of muscle, and as we sit there and plan, he only grows more bold. He’s already been badmouthing the others, and now I’m his target.

Some of his confidence might be bought by his worth as well. He introduced himself as a healer after all.

I just look at him and don’t bother answering.

“You’re wearing that mask, Savant’s just sitting off to the side, and he hasn’t said a word since he arrived. And you haven’t made any attempts at speaking to him either,” the boy continues.

This time I glance at his bodyguard, wondering if I have a chance at sneaking in a petty attack on the boy.

The tournament winner seems to catch onto my intent and flashes a bright smile, placing his teeth on display. A clear challenge gleams in his eyes.

For some reason, that only makes me want to do it even more, and as carefully as I can, I start moving my mana toward the annoying boy.

“Spacewolf,” Leticia says in a gentle tone, “there are some people who just don’t feel the need to talk very much. Noname and Savant might just need some time to get comfortable with us, maybe they’ll be ready to talk then, so let’s not be rude, okay?”

As if she had something to say, the golden retriever Luna pokes her owner, and Leticia just smiles at her, booping her on the nose a few times.

Somehow that gentle-looking woman with her short black hair has taken on the role of a placeholder leader. At the very least she seems focused on trying to guide us to a shared goal.

At that point, I decide to ignore the fact that I was the one who called them all here and hope that no one remembers.

“Didn’t Noname call us all here? Shouldn’t he explain what this is all about?” Savant’s voice interrupts. I don’t even have to turn around to know that he isn’t even looking in our direction.

As eyes turn to me and I sigh. “It’s simple. There is a place I want to reach on the 1st floor. It’s close to a safe zone where you can find a ‘checkpoint’. We will be moving in that direction together, and when we get close I intend to split off from the group while you continue on to the safe zone. I’ll even finish off most of the lurkers to get them to focus on me and time the end of my stay token, so I can escape. That way you don’t experience any losses.”

“What if I want to go with you? It sounds fun,” the bald man asks smugly.

“Then the deal’s off. What’s at that place is mine and mine only.”

“And if I lie and follow you anyways?” he pushes.

“Then I will fuck you up.”

Leticia quickly jumps in, “Noname, CarrotCake, there’s no need to go that far. There are countless lurkers you could fight, even other Beyonders. There is no need for the people of Earth to fight each other.”

“I would like to remind everyone that each of us is wasting their stay tokens because of these two,” Savant follows up, throwing in some wisdom of his own, from his seat further away, probably so he can escape if things get too hairy.

“I agree with Savant,” Derick interjects, turning to me, “Did you plan this as an Earthlings only expedition? Or do you want to recruit others?”

“I had planned to go alone, but then I thought it would be better to have a few more people just in case I meet a powerful named one.”

“Have you met any before?”

“Yes, Whitey.”

That seems to catch Derick’s interest, “I’ve heard of him. He’s supposed to be one of the oldest.”

“How does he compare strength-wise to other named lurkers?” I ask.

“Noelle, any idea?” He asks, turning to the woman next to him.

Her voice is quiet and soft, and very soothing, “As far as I remember, he’s supposed to be a demon with long white hair and kinetic energy. He is one of the oldest, but not the strongest. That’s as much as we know, Mr. Noname.”

“That’s about what I expected, he’s pretty much just like you said. Wide-range kinetic energy field and excellent perception—there is no chance of hiding from him. The place I want to go is near his territory.”

“How do we know you don’t want to use us as decoys while you run away and do something else?” Derick asks me, curiosity evident in his voice.

“He won’t do that as long as you don’t give him a reason to,” Savant says, much to my surprise.

Before I can react, Leticia joins in, “Luna and I have decided to trust Noname as well, and with three tournament winners accompanying us, I don’t think we need to recruit any more attendees. If we hurry, we should be able to reach the safe zone, especially if Noname takes most of the lurkers on himself, and we ditch him once things get hairy.” She smiles at me and winks as she speaks.

Leticia then talks to the others, her voice taking on a playful tone, and the entire time as she does, Luna watches me.

I really want to boop that nose.

“Noelle and I will time our stay tokens so they end sometime in the near future. If the expedition goes well, we’ll use another and try to reach the safe zone. But if everything goes wrong, we’ll just leave,” Derick says.

“That sounds like a good idea. How about we all do that? Spacewolf, CarrotCake, Savant, what do you think?”

Facing Leticia, Savant nods in agreement, and I would bet that was his plan all along, and he was already timing his tokens the same way.

An amusing thought comes to mind: What if everyone times their tokens that way, they leave, and I alone remain? I find the idea hilarious for some reason.

As the extrovert woman drills into the bald man and annoying boy, I stand up and walk over to Derick and Noelle. Judging by their posture and the way they speak to each other I’d say they were a couple, but it’s not like I’m a relationship expert either, so I could easily be wrong.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“What’s the mask for?” Derick asks as I approach.

“It’s annoying, but I’m trying to obscure the nature of my crown. I had too much stored to just cancel it,” I gesture at the crown spinning over my head.

“I can understand that. What about you and Savant, is there any bad blood between you guys? It could drag us down during the expedition.”

Savant doesn’t seem to want to answer, unfortunately, so I have to, “It won’t interfere with the expedition.”

Derick glances at Savant, who nods ever so slightly.

“Fair,” the red-haired man says, seeming satisfied. “Want to exchange information, at least as much as the system will allow?”

“Sure, let’s walk and talk though. The others seem to be getting impatient.”

“It seems so.”

So far, Derick seems to be the most reasonable person in the group. Someone would probably pick Leticia as the candidate for the most normal-looking member, but there is something in me that just can’t accept friendly people.

But Luna seems okay. She’s a good girl.

I wonder if Leticia will let me pet her?

It doesn’t take much longer, and we find ourselves heading towards the entrance to the 1st dungeon floor. Just the seven of us, a much smaller number compared to the twenty from the last expedition.

I don’t entirely trust these people; any one of them could decide to throw me under the bus at any moment, but the same goes for me. Still, there is a little bit of trust, unlike the 1st expedition. All of us are Earthlings, and most of them probably had much the same experience I did.

It’s one of those things that just seems to repeat time after time. People get their start searching for attendees from their own planets. Later they join guilds where cooperation is required, rewarded, and often guaranteed by high-level contracts.

CarrotCake, the mountain of muscle, seems like a battle maniac. I suspect that he is a Strength attribute enjoyer, but soon I should know for sure.

Spacewolf, that annoying little shit, is CarrotCake’s personal healer. Musclehead gets healing, and the boy can be a little jerk without having to worry about anyone slapping it out of him.

Leticia is probably a hidden evil mastermind or something. Gareth seemed perfectly friendly too, that is until we learned he didn’t mind wiping out dozens of natives just for scraps of food to feed his group or anyone else he happened to encounter from Earth.

“Thinking?” Leticia asks, noticing me looking at her, she quickly joins me as we walk matching my pace, Luna nearby as always. And much like her owner, Luna keeps a close watch on me.

“Can I pet Luna?”

Leticia skips a step before returning to her normal rhythm, the look of surprise quickly disappearing from her face, only to be replaced by amusement as she turns to the golden retriever, “What do you think, Luna? Can he?”

Luna seems to think for a moment, her smart eyes looking between me and her owner before taking a step towards me and offering her head.

Sorry, Biscuit, I’m a weak man. I even pet Noodle from time to time when you aren’t looking, and I’m sure you know that. I think that might be one of the reasons you enjoy bullying the poor snake so much.

I reach down and carefully pet the smart little golden retriever. Her eyes watch me patiently, and her head is bigger than Biscuit’s, even her fur feels different. She lets this continue for a few more seconds before nudging my hand and returning to her previous position.

“Luna used to be my guide dog,” Leticia says with a smile and starts to pet her. Unlike before, Luna even wags her tail and licks Leticia’s hand.

“Aren’t guide dogs supposed to be for blind people?”

The question seems to take Leticia aback, but she smiles softly, “You really don’t have much tact, do you, Noname? Yes, they usually are for the blind or visually impaired, but that’s not strictly the case.”

We reach the entrance to the first floor and pause. At which point Leticia continues, “I was blind until the second floor, you know.”

Then she leaves to talk with Derick and the muscle man about something, and I watch her go.

Yep, I knew it. She can’t be normal. There’s no way anyone who survived a month blind on the first floor is normal.

Before entering the first floor of Beyond’s dungeon, we share as much information as we can—mostly about the first floor.

Then, we step inside.

Welcome to the 1st floor of the First Dungeon!

You may exit the 1st floor in designated safe zones spread across the floor. After reaching a safe zone, you will be able to use the array to return from the Entrance Floor.

1st floor quest:???

Rewards:

7-day Stay Token

???

We find ourselves in a sickly-looking area. There are a lot of fallen trees, dried-up grass, water so stagnant that it may as well just be poison. A few old buildings made of crumbling stone bricks can be seen in the distance.

There are huge craters and other signs of damage everywhere we look. Crumbling mountains, sprawling fields pocked with craters, and the drooping edges of melted buildings, with their stone facades crumbling to dust.

As before, the rocky ceiling looms above, reminding me of our presence deep underground. With it, the gravity increases, pulling more heavily on my mana, drawing it toward something far beneath my feet.

Looking at the power levels of the people here, I find myself growing more confident about this expedition than the one before. Looking back I don’t think anyone other than the leader was noticeably stronger than any of us.

I also get rid of the mask made of mana and the fire effect around the crown. The mana signatures and presences of all the people around us disappearing is weirdly comfortable as we enter that destroyed environment of the first floor.

“You’re actually quite handsome. This isn’t how I imagined you, Noname. Though I noticed it even with your mask on—your eyes are beautiful. Heterochromia, right?” Leticia asks.

“Yes,” I answer, my senses shooting into the area around us and as I do, I notice that everyone does something similar.

Not wasting time, we get to running in the direction I pointed out, taking a bit of a detour, to avoid Whitey, whom I intend to pay a visit on my own.

Luna runs slightly ahead of us, and even though I can’t sense anything, I’m sure she’s scouting ahead in her own way.

There is not a single presence as far as I can sense.

Nothing even after thirty minutes.

Going by the expressions on everyone’s faces, even they find this strange, and I can sense them rushing to stack skills and effects around their bodies while keeping their senses sharp.

No one speaks anymore, but the bulky man seems to be growing more excited by the moment.

Despite all our scanning, we detect no presences—not even the slightest trace of mana or primordial energy. The place feels devoid of life both natural and unnatural.

Another hour passes, and still, we encounter no enemies.

We pass a massive mountain, its sides overgrown with unnatural vegetation.

We pass a lake with bubbling light green water.

We pass a city that looks like some enormous creature stomped it flat.

And yet, no one attacks us.

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