Jill would casually pass over the sidewalk, aside the busty street. She was on her way to a very specific clothing store. Due to the fact that she was from a rich family, she never had to really worry about money, so the days when she would be feeling down, Jill would go out to buy fancy clothes.
'It's been five whole days since I last spoke to Katsuya. I tried texting but he never responded. I hope he's doing okay.'
A part of her wanted to go over to his home and check on him. However, she figured that if he was ignoring her messages then maybe he just needed some time alone.
(Berryle Fashion Clothing Store)
Jill shook her head, clearing her thoughts on the matter.
'I'll think about that later. Now, I'm going to look at some of these fancy clothes. I might find that cute dress I've been thinking about getting.'
___________________
(Progressive Dungeon, Floor #100)
Katsuya awoke on the hard rock floor of the dungeon.
As he sat up, he couldn't recall where too much about what had happened before he had lost consciousness. He grabbed the side of his head as a headache pounded.
That's when a familiar voice spoke.
"Oh. I see you have finally regained consciousness. You fought awfully hard."
Katsuya stood up on his feet and turned his head. There, the Dark Demi-God sat on his throne.
'Of course. How could I forget. We were fighting to the death.'
What had Katsuya on guard was that now, there was no hostile intent from the Demi-God. Not one bit could be sensed. Which brough Katsuya to openly question.
"The last I remember, our sparring match turned into a deathmatch. You won. So, why did you change your mind about killing me."
The Being let out a sigh, waving his hand back and forth.
"Well, put simply, I wasn't actually trying to kill you."
Katsuya wasn't buying the Beings words one bit.
"If you weren't trying to kill me, why did my Adapt skill activate."
"You told me to put effort into my match so I did. It is what you asked for. But in all seriousness, I wasn't trying to kill you. Hmmm. I'm not really sure how I should explain it. First, you should have a seat."
The Demi-God snapped his fingers together.
Snap.
A soft red couch appeared from thin-air.
'There doesn't seem to be anything off.' Katsuya thought to himself.
So, he went ahead and sat down. The Demi-God then picked up where he left off.
"I am a Demi-God, as you know. Beings like me have an unlisted ability. One that lets us interfere with how certain things in the world work. As a result, I was able to take a little peek at your skills. I saw your Adapt skill. So, I gave the activation a little push."
"Okay but, that still doesn't explain why you were suddenly trying to kill me. And why help me like that?"
The Demi-God began twirling a ball of darkness on his fingertips.
"I can interfere with workings of skills as well but, I did have to put on an act in order for that specific skill of yours to activate. And as for your second question, I suppose I shouldn't speak of the exact reason. Hmmm. Let's just say I've taken a liking to you? Does that answer work?"
Katsuya would just rather know the real reason but, before he could speak any more, his HP icon caught his attention.
{Hp: 18,740,667}
"What?!? How much did my stats increase from that fight??"
"Alot" Sora's voice answered.
A screen appeared before KAtsuya, revealing his new and powerful stats.
{Level: 479/479 | Hp: 18,740,667 | Defense: 100,000 | Intelligence: 189
Mp: 1,513,044 | Atk: 3,125,127 | Speed: 814 | Endurance: 13,110}
The change was almost enough to make Katsuya's jaw drop.
'I thought nothing would be able to make me feel this shocked. But...what the hell.'
Going off of stats alone, he could almost rival the #1 adventurer who has an overall of 25,675,745. The dramatic change made Katsuya a bit happy but yet worried at the same time.
'I should keep this change a secret. Can't risk anyone seeing me as a threat.'
'Yeah, that's the best path to take for now.' Sora's voice replied.
The Demi-God stood from his throne, catching Katsuya's attention.
The being stood with a serious demeanor before taking a small bow.
"Katsuya. I think you now have what it takes to challenge lower floors. And there's no need to defeat me first. I will simply surrender my position as a boss of the dungeon. Once I do, the dungeon will no longer be my home. As a result, I would have no reason being here. I will simply go back to my home realm. But, a bestow upon you a privilege. A privilege that will allow you to speak with me whenever you desire. Whenever you activate it, call my name and In will grant you access to a portal. It will lead to my own personal space."
[Privilege Received: Portal To A Realm]
"What's your name?" Katsuya asked.
"My name is Fergus Dramon. As of this very moment, I retire from the title of the boss of floor one-hundred. Farewell for now, Katsuya."
[The Boss Has Retired]
The ground shook and a large, human-sized crystal came from beneath the ground. The neon color it glowed was mystical and soothing.
"What is that?" Katsuya asked.
"That is what you will use to travel between floors. You can use it to travel to any floor you have cleared. Or if you wish to, you can use it to travel back to the surface. Do as you wish now, I'll be going." Fergus replied before walking into a summoned portal and vanishing.
"Oh, so that's how it works. I'll just leave for now."
As Katsuya walked over, placing his hand on the human-sized crystal, a screen came into view.
[Where Do you Wish to travel?]
"Return me to the surface."
A bright neon light covered his entire body then vanished.
He was no longer in the dungeon but instead, the entrance.
The warmness from the sun's light brought a bit of relief to Katsuya's body.
"Feels like it's been days since I've seen the sun. Sometimes I forget how good it feels."
"Actually, it has been days. Exactly five days since you've seen the sun." Said Sora's voice.
"Five days?? How did time move so fast?"
"Well, you were knocked out for a while and also, time does work differently in dungeons."
Katsuya feet began taking him into the forest.
"Oh, that's right." he replied.
"Huh? Why are you walking so normal? You could reach the city in a literal second." Sora asked.
"I know. I'm just enjoying nature for a bit."
"That's abnormal of you."
As long as Sora has known him, she had never once seen Katsuya take a moment to enjoy simple things in life such as nature. He usually always had something crazy on his mind.
"I may have a little bit of a monster in me, but I'm also part human too."
Unexpectedly, Sora suddenly shouted.
"Katsuya!"
"Huh? What's wro-" Katsuya stopped before he even asked. He stopped as he sensed something off.
"You can sense it too? Can't you?" Sora asked.
"Yeah, I can. It doesn't just feel like one single presence. It feels like hundreds."
[Warning!!! 'Jill' has taken damage]
"Something's going on. I need to get back to the city."
Katsuya took one step forward, preparing to run but a sudden raspy voice shouted.
"Ohhh! A strong one!"
Fwsh!
A large hand with claws slashed at Katsuya's face.
Slash.
Instead of being cut by the claws, Katsuya had no visible damage. But one thing was visible, and that was Katsuya's anger.
He glared at the tall grey-skin creature which had large black wings on it's back. In a single flashy movement, Katsuya smashed his fist into the creature's chest.
Fwsh!
Splatter!
Its entire body flew apart and its guts splattered all around.
[You have transferred Hp To 'Jill']
"That should keep her okay until I get to her."
A single dashed forward, Katsuya traveled through-out the forest and reached the outskirts of the city. There, he was able to see the troubling view.
There were many monsters flying through the sky as there were also buildings being attacked and damaged.
"They're all like the one I just encountered."
"Yes but, all the other adventures might not be able to handle them as easy as you. There's no telling how many lives are already lost."
"Right. I need to help as fast as I can."
_________________
It was a scene of monsters running through the streets, police firing their guns and multiple low-rank adventures attempting to fight the many monsters. A mother held her child tightly as chaos surrounded them.
One of the monsters spotted the two and began steadily approaching them. Its footsteps brought it closer and closer to them as the mother started at it in fear.
"Oh...God. Please no…"
Fwsh.
A figure of a man flashed behind the creature and killed it with a single kick.
"Are you guys okay?" Katsuya asked the two.
The mother then nodded.
"You should get to cover. Go." Katsuya commanded them.
As the mother and her child ran off, Katsuya summoned Sora to his side and gave her orders.
"I'll help as many people as I can. I need you to go assist any adventures you come across."
"Okay. I understand." She replied before taking off in the other direction with haste.
Taking a deep breath, Katsuya prepared to move as fast as he could in order to help to his full ability.
'Now….'
Monsters began to surround and move in on him.
'...I just kill as many as I can.'
Fwhs
One simple swing of his leg had cut through 4 of the monsters, killing them.
Next, he ran and passed by each monster around him, striking them down one by one.
1..2...4...7...10...15...20..34
Katsuya had located and killed 34 monsters in only a course of 15 seconds.
But the job was far from finished.
Up ahead, he spotted an area where a small group of adventures were gathered and fighting off more of the creatures.
One person in particular looked familiar. The government agent named Shadow.
Katsuya aimed his palm at the monsters and spoke a phrase.
"Fireballs."
Fwhs Fwhs Fwhs Fwsh Fwsh.
Blazing orbs of fire blasted forward and executed a good number of the monster away.
Mr. Shadow noticed Katsuya's presence.
"Oh, it's you again."
"What exactly is going on? Just a monster attack?" Katsuya asked.
Shadow shook his head.
"It's more than just a normal monster attack. These monsters are well coordinated. These ones you see all around aren't the biggest problem we have right now."
"There's more happening?"
Shadow nodded.
"As we speak, there are 2 locations where intelligent and powerful enemies have made an appearance. Right now, we have high-ranking adventures on the scene of some of these places."
Here, in the city of Pryor, the Town Hall was taken over by an unknown threat. 2Gold-rank and 1 Platinum-rank adventures were sent but were lost contact with. Legendary-rank Nari, Legendary-rank Kenshin were sent as the situation may be more than expected.
In the neighboring city of 'Merit' An unknown threat has taken control of the town hall. On the scene, 5 Silver-rank and 3 gold-rank adventures are standing by.
The Electric billboard from overhead suddenly began broadcasting footage from the town hall in the city of Merit. There, a woman with short red hair and red jewel eyes stood in front of the camera.
"Hello. My Name is Arisa, the ladder of Organization X. This is our declaration of war against the government. You opertetae to sloppy and don't care one bit about the population."
The woman began walking back and forth, explaining more of her reasoning.
"You are filled with lies, hypocrisy and cover-ups. Not only that, but you absolutely are terrible at keeping citizens safe. Today is an example of that. The deployment of all the adventures is sloppy and as a result, many lives were lost that could've been saved."
Arisa took a pause to roughly shake her head before continuing.
"Our organization is filled with powerful individuals. We can fight on equal terms with the population of adventures. But, let me explain what's going on here, today."
The camera's angle was tuned to an area behind where people were tied up, being held hostage.
"To show how sloppy you are at taking care of people. We have ten hostages here. For every 5 minute it takes to save them, one will be killed off. Same goes for the town hall in the City of Pyroras as well. That's all. Now, let's watch you fail."
And in that instant, the broadcast was canceled.
Katsuya stood, knowing well who that lady was.
'Normally I would stay and deal with some of these monsters in the city while the other adventures deal with the other issues but..'
Because of the connection through the 'Servant Pact' Skill, Katsuya knew Jill's exact location, being at the town hall.
'..now I have to get involved.'