-(3rd POV)-
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=LOCATION: Mirro-World=
A world without defined layout, consisting entirely of curved floors and walls with checker patterns on them. It's floor is pink and crimson while the walls are light and dark purple.
There's 4 mirrors measuring from 2 meters to 5 meters and are glued to the walls.
The Mirro-World extends farther till the unknown distances that bring questions of if it ends at all.
Within the place there are 3 individuals; the unconscious Grithra, Alex that zaps Grithra into an unconscious state and Nacluv, a homie, happily watching his master.
Alex just ate Memo-Memo Fruit or Memo Memo no Mi, after he entered the Mirro-World.
*ZRRRPPP*
He reached into Grithra's head and extract memories in the form of film strips.
He rewatched the frames filled memories containing the memories from past to the present memories.
I could create false scenario or memory of her leader killing her and falling to the ground while her two teammates are recruited from evilus. That should make her forget me, my abilities but also save me from any contradicting memories. This is the only possible solution for now... Let's do it!
He thought so.
Next, he changed his left fingers with blades
"Edit!"
*Slice* *CHA-CHK!!!* *FWUMP*
He successfully cut those memories and implanted false memories on Grithra's head.
*FWUMP*
The uncut memory frames returned to Grithra while the false and cut memories stored into his thigh pocket, which contains the events of her joining the Evilus, meeting &witnessing Alex abilities up until the present.
After that,
He called Nacluv to be infront of him and used Memo Memo no Mi on Nacluv too since Nacluv has some of the Evilus' members souls containing different memories too.
Alex watched the Evilus members' memories and learned more information about Evilus, including the Evilus' deities.
The memories include their familias, deaths, crimes, some executives and leaders of Evilus, some merchants and familias connected to Evilus, moles planted in the guild, black markets, mining fields, more hidden passageways and many more.
A few minutes passed,
He gained new information and knowledge about Evilus that can be used in time.
*Slice* *CHA-CHK!!!*
He cut all those memories and then stored them within the right pocket too.
He did that to make sure Nacluv will be obedient to him. Also, He did it to prevent Nacluv from having back stabbing and evil personality despite the Soru Soru no Mi' full subservient ability.
Nacluv now only has memories of when he was first created up to the present times.
Alex used Giro Giro no Mi and conversed with Nacluv.
He confirmed that Nacluv is more honest, obedient and happy now, acting like a cute puppy.
After that, Alex praised Nacluv for following his orders and gave him a treat full of magma that Nacluv happily ate.
"Nacluv you did good earlier. Just stay and sleep here for now. I'll find the perfect place to summon you." Alex ordered Nacluv.
"Yes Papa!" Nacluv merrily replied which put a smile on Alex's face.
Alex grabbed the unconscious Grithra and walked towards one Mirror that will lead to the cave.
Nacluv begun sleeping as Alex stepped out of Mirro-World bringing Grithra.
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=LOCATION: Big Cave, 20th Floor=
Alex successfully exited Mirro-World with Grithra on his shoulder.
The smelly sulphur odor of magma lingers around the cave.
I need to get out of this cave quickly!
He thought so and look the cave entrance.
He stored his 5 meter mirror into his thigh pocket.
The Pocket-Pocket fruit ability to store things is great but it's eye-catching to others. Most isekai protagonists just blindly present their dimensional storage to enemies seeking for that ability and they'll face problems later on in the story. F*** problems! Let's hide my abilities for now and play as a Solo Adventurer.
Decided to hide Pocket-Pocket fruit ability and his other Devil fruits to everyone and played the role.
*THW--------UP*
He pulled 2 giant green hermes backpacks labelled as 19 and 20, that contained herbs, maps of 19th and 20th floors, magic stones and loots from monsters and adventurers. The backpacks were from his deceased enemies.
He then peeled and burned off the label 19 and 20 on those green backpacks because it's a sign of being an Evilus member that he recently learned from his enemies' memories.
He sorted the items inside those backpacks.
He sorted the 2 green backpacks to contain maps, multiple magic stones, herbs, 3 potions, 2 dual potions, tools, gathered 500 thousand valis and others have weapons and loots from dead adventurers.
He stored the other green backpack back to his pocket to prevent himself from being mistaken as a murderer.
Next, he pulled 1 elixir from one backpack and poured them on the unconscious and injured Grithra, which healed her severe wounds in seconds.
He then wears the green backpack's straps, placed Grithra in his shoulder again and walked.
Seconds passed by, He's finally outside the cave.
The light shined brightly to him as if greeting him when he finally exited the cave.
He smiled at the sight of radiating moss that gives the entire floor a blue shade of light and the plantations vastly different from earth.
He looked back at the cave and thought of something.
Based from Evilus' memories, This cave is one way to enter Knossos. I should destroy this one. I know many entrances to Knossos.
He thought as he put down backpack and Grithra in the ground.
He used Glare-Glare Fruit's X-ray ability to find the "core" above the cave and jumped to be in front of that core.
Ryu no Ibuki!!(Dragon's Breath)
*BOOOOOOMMMMMMM!!!* *CRAK!* *BOOM!!!*
*BOOM!!* *BOOOOOOMMMMMMM!!!*
*BOOOOOOMMMMMMM!!!* *CRAK!*
The cave exploded,
*BANG* *CRAK* *CRAK*
He punched the "core" above the cave hard enough that it created titanic boulders and fell down.
The cave is now completely destroyed and dust clouds appears
Seconds later, when the former cave now turns into piles of boulders and stone rubble with dust cloud settled
Dusting himself off from the dust and debris
Alex pulled the map of this floor from his backpack and read it, finding the way towards 19th floor.
Based on the dead guy's memories and the map, The way to 19th floor should be northeast from here and just 5 Klicks(5 Kilometers) away. Let's make sure of it.
Alex used his floor 20 map and his recent navigation skills to assess his current position and his next destination.
To confirm the map's legitimacy,
Senrigan!(Clairvoyance)
He thought as he closed his eyes
Using Giro Giro no Mi to look the entire 20th floor in a Bird's eye view, especially northeast.
Seconds passed by, Alex confirmed the map is real and saw everything in this floor (different monsters, radiating moss, 4 pantries in different locations that have 4 huge green quartz pillar with monsters drinking).
From the 1.6 klick(1 mile) East are the corpses lying on the ground, which he recognized. It's from Gierr team's corpses that he learned from Grithra's memories.
He finally saw this floor entrance to the northeast. He smiled as he could use the entrance to climb up to 19th floor.
Let's take care of this first.
Alex reminded himself to deal with Grithra's situation first.
He put the backpack and Grithra into his shoulder again and ran.
Instead of going northeast,
He ran to his fullest towards east
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=LOCATION: Somewhere East on the 20th Floor=
Within less than 3 seconds,
Alex finally arrived at the location where 7 Gierr teammates died.
Alex met monsters while running but the monsters ignored and didn't attack him.
He saw the 7 Gierr team's corpses in front next to monster corpses. It's horrible to smell and see.
They're in bad condition, one headless, some have signs of being beat-up, slashes and wounds with mixed scents of dried blood and tears
He still proceeded,
He place down the unconscious Grithra, his helmet and his backpack in the corner, beside a giant tree.
After that,
he plucked a leaf from a tree.
Next, he placed the small leaf on his forehead
He then closed his eyes and imagined the desired clothing needed for the next step
After the visualisation, he formed his hands into a Ram hand sign.
*Poof*
Smokes appear and disappear instantly, with Alex's new clothes on display. He's now wearing yellow HAZMAT Suit, mask and gloves.
The plan to clean up the bloody scene in front begins.
He starts plucking all magic stones from the monsters' corpses near him.
*Puff* *Puff* *Puff*
The monster's corpses then disappear shortly after
Next, he drags the 7 Gierr team's corpses in a formation to separate them from the bloody scene. He cut corpses' clothes and stored them in his pocket to present them for later.
Then,
*BLUP* *PLUP* *BLUP* *PLUP*
Bubbles generated from his body and spread to the corpses. He's finally using the Bubble-Bubble Fruit he ate earlier.
He continued generating more bubbles to clean dust, dirt, blood stains, piss and putrid scents from their corpses.
Many seconds passed by,
The bubbles disappeared and the corpses are finally clean and scentless but their horrible wounds and their broken armors are still there.
Next, he plucked leaves and placed them on corpses' foreheads.
He then closed his eyes and imagined that the corpses will be wrapped in linen sheets.
After the visualisation, he formed his hands into a Hijitsu/Ram hand sign.
*Puf~~~fff!!*
Smokes appear and disappear instantly, with Alex seeing that the Gierr team corpses are now completely wrapped in old linen sheets, comparable to Egyptian mummies.
Those sheets have labels 'M' for 5 male corpses and 'F' for 2 female corpses written on the center.
Wanting to remove the putrid smell of dried blood and piss still lingers to the bloody ground.
*BLUP* *PLUP* *BLUP* *PLUP*
He generated more bubbles again and spread towards the ground he's in
The bubbles disappeared after many seconds and the piss and blood-stained ground is now clean.
*Poof*
Feeling satisfied, he changed his new clothing back into his old clothing.
He proceeded into his another plan,
*Slice* *Slice* *Slice*
He changed his fingers into blades and easily cuts down many trees beside them.
*Slice* *Slice* *Slice* *Slice* *Slice* *Slice* *Slice*
*Slice* *Slice* *Slice* *Slice* *Slice* *Slice* *Slice*
Before the trees would fall, Alex immediately cut the branches and the trunks into different sizes and shapes(gigantic, medium, thick, thin, circles, rectangles).
The extra logs were stored to his thigh pockets.
The slices were done perfectly
Already envisioning the vehicle that will help him bring the corpses to the 18th floor.
He immediately assembled the compartments together for about a long time.
He learned the Wano carpentry skills similar to Japanese woodworking, which he will build the vehicle only by wood that doesn't require nails nor adhesives.
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=TIMESKIP: 10 MINUTES=
After 10 minutes, while he's building the handcart he used Giro Giro no Mi sometimes to see his surroundings. He then saw Grithra's slowly waking up but he kept building without minding her.
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=TIMESKIP: 20 MINUTES=
After 20 minutes, Alex attached the wheels on the big pulling cart and completely finished building the large wooden medieval pulling handcart, large enough to fit ten people.
Alex knows that Grithra has been vigilant at examining him ever since she woke up.
*snap*
He heard a twig snapped into two.
He looked at the location of the broken twig and saw mad Grithra shakily aiming her shining wand at Alex.
Alex sees Grithra's face and he remembers the crimes Evilus did to the Gierr team and him murdering two of her group mates. He understood that she's really afraid yet she's trying to be vigilant and threatening.
He didn't attack her and kept looking at the woman without emotion. He's sitting next to his newly completed handcart
It took moments later before Grithra spoke.
"Stay right there! w-w-Who are you and What are you doing?" Grithra on high-alert asks Alex while trying to sound intimidating.
Alex is unfazed nor scared of the threat.
"I'm Alex, a strong adventurer. I saw you unconscious and at a brink of death, so I healed you. I wrapped the corpses with linen sheets. I built this cart to carry them to surface and bury them. I wanna ask, who are you and what happened to your friends?" Alex asked in Kione(universal language of this world) while pretending as a stranger.
After Alex introduces himself to soften the mood but Grithra didn't answer his question is still aiming her shining wand and doesn't lower her guard.
She kept asking Alex about himself, where they are and what happened when he met her. Alex replied with short and simple answers that don't reveal anything about him alot.
He only told earlier the 'time' he met unconscious Grithra here.
Alex also described the appearances of the corpses beside him to Grithra.
Grithra became very sad for a short time before returning to her threatening facade.
The next questions are secretly filled with suspicions of Alex being an Evilus member. Alex easily handled those accusations, using questions and common sense, with ease that it made Grithra drop her suspicions.
Another question is asking Alex if he saw a group of robe individuals, which he replied with he didn't saw those group she's asking for.
The last questions were asking why Alex healed her and why he's doing all of these for someone he just met. Alex went silent and begin thinking while Grithra is examining her.
I can't just tell her that I saved her because of a ghost's request, she'll think of me as insane guy and will probably attack me. I don't want waste my effort to save her back then. F*** it let's use this handsome face and lie.
Alex thought and looked at Grithra with a calm demeanor.
"I'm free to do whatever I want, right? and because of adventurers unwritten rules, I could bring deceased adventurers back to surface if I encountered one. Also, I saved you because it's a great opportunity to have a familia be indebted and reward me." Alex 'honestly' told Grithra while smiling.
She accepted his answer while she was astonished by his sudden smile.
Her astonished expression made Alex thank r.o.b. little bit for having a handsome face inside his head.
Grithra comes to her own conclusions that Alex isn't lying nor a member of Evilus. She concluded that Evilus left her here to die. She stopped her wand from releasing the spell but still has her guard up against him.
The whole place was surrounded by silence before Alex broke it.
"Could you tell me now who you are? and who were these guys?" Alex asked her
A depressing gloomy silence appeared within the place as Alex saw Grithra slowly walking and headed towards and she stood in front of wrapped corpses.
"t-The corpses, are they really the ones you described?" Grithra lost her intimidation facade and became very sad with tears falling.
Alex understood what Grithra feeling very well. He remembered the depressing times when he personally saw casualties of war, fallen soldiers and his battle buddies died during battlefields, deployments and line of duties which he was mourning, depressed and crying for their deaths.
He also remembered when he was ordered to deliver death notifications of his battle buddies to their families personally. Most families(parents, husbands, wives and children) cried in his face while some either didn't care, didn't believe, repeatedly cursed him, insulted him with some are blaming the army for their deaths and calling them evil.
*Inhale*
He inhaled and closed his eyes
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*Exhaled*
He exhaled and opened his eyes.
Alex stopped smiling, dropped the wheels carefully and slowly walked to Grithra while pulling the dead Gierr team's cut sleeves parts from his pocket
Already familiar with these situations in his past life, He's now in front of her with a serious face.
He gave the cut sleeve parts to Grithra, who's crying now and kneeling after fully realising the identity of wrapped corpses.
Grithra crying uncontrollably, especially to her sister's corpse, while Alex expressed sadness standing still, unfazed and not comforting her for minutes
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=TIMESKIP: 25 MINUTES=
after 25 minutes passes by, Grithra fully exhausted all of her tears and still in gloomy mood.
Breaking the silence.
"My condolences. Were they your friends?" He sympathetically asked Grithra.
"Yes they were my teammates for years." Grithra replied short.
"What happened to them? And what happened to you?" Alex asked pretending not to know everything.
She went silent again, her grip to her wand tightened and her face changed from fear, suffering and fury for seconds while remembering what she went through.
Not wanting to stay here anymore,
"It must have been something dangerous because of your grim expressions. I just wanna prepare or avoid the dangers you faced earlier. You don't have to tell me about it but we're not in a safe place for you to cry and mourn continuously. We need to head back to 18th floor. You can sit in the cart if you're tired." Alex reminded Grithra that they are still on the 'dangerous' floor.
Take care of Father and Mother for me.
Frithra's, her sister, words filled Grithra's mind before she silently agreed to what Alex said.
She stood up, looked at the wrapped corpse with melancholy and carried her sister's wrapped corpse in her arms.
She slowly walk to the large wooden handcart while Alex walks along with her while bringing his green backpack.
*thud*
Grithra gently place her sister's corpse down to the handcart and sat down
*thud*
Alex put down his backpack far away from the corpse
He then carefully placed the corpses next to others.
Next, He picked up the handles and the 20th floor map.
*Handcart pulled and moving sound effects*
Alex moderately walked towards the 19th floor while pulling the cart that carries his backpack, Grirtha and the corpses.
He uses Giro Giro no Mi while pretending to guarding himself against mosters while Grithra silently watches his back.
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=TIMESKIP: 30 MINUTES=
=LOCATION: 19th Floor=
The first floor of Tree Labyrinth, filled with plantations and monsters.
Somewhere within the floor are Alex and Grithra in front of piles of dead battle boars.
They've met flocks of firebirds, swarms of mad beetles, 6 bug bears and groups of Lizardmen that are impossible for Grithra but not for Alex.
Alex only used his raw strength and speed to easily and swiftly kill monsters in front of them to avoid Grithra from knowing his Anti-Monsters Barrier while also learning his physical abilities.
He also tested his body defense against many monsters, lizardman's weapons, firebirds and battle boars charges and bugbears' claws when Grithra isn't looking at him
He took the full brunt of the weapons, charges, attacks, paw swipes and claws.
The results are shocking. The monsters were injured, wounded and in pain instead of Alex, while the boars died because their brains became mashed when they clashed to Alex's body.
Those attacks didn't damage his skin, they didn't even make him flinch nor move.
He's like an impenetrable wall.
but his helmet and armors have signs of blood, holes, scratches and dents to which he'll replace when he arrives on Rivira town.
Grithra only saw dead monsters and she's not too quick to see Alex killing them.
He slaughtered this many battle boars in mere seconds?! This guy is agile and strong. I am glad he is saving me. With his strength, he should be well known. Whose familia does he belong to? Could he save us if he's there when we were attacked? Probably not.
Grithra watched Alex but she's still on high-alert for any monsters suddenly come to the cart.
Based on the dead guy's memories that's different from the anime, The monsters only disappears when their magic stones were fully separated from their bodies. The carrier's job is to pull magic stones out of dead monsters so they need to have supporter gloves or else their skin will corrode from the poisons and acids of monsters. Thank goodness those Evilus have supporter gloves.
He thought while wearing a black supporter gloves holding his axe and knives.
He chopped the Battle boars' meats, tusks and magic stones. Their bodies disappeared after collecting their magic stones. Next, He threw away the gloves and the large meats on the handcart.
After storing them, they kept moving towards 18th floor for many klicks(kilometer) avoiding interacting to other adventurers from above.
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=TIMESKIP: 30 MINUTES=
=LOCATION: 18th floor=
The 18th Floor is filled with pillars of crystals and nature. Large forests and lakes cover the floor. Within the forest are blue crystals of different sizes that reflect the light from above, causing the forest to be filled with pale blue glows. Along with a Gigantic tree in the middle of the floor with some of it's roots leeds to 19th floor. Alex used one of its root found at the floor corner.
The floor is a safety point for adventurers where no monsters are born but some monsters can come up from the floor below.
Amazing! So this is the 18th floor?! This Dungeon is really like another world.
Alex remembered the sight for the dead guy's memories but he's still amazed by the sight of the 18th floor. The animators for Danmachi Anime cannot draw this entire floor perfectly.
'The Rivira town is within the sight and it's still bright. Let's bury her team first.' Alex thought while looking at the Rivira town that's 2 klicks away.
He used Giro Giro no Mi to see a place possible for burial and he found the right place within moments.
He look back to his handcart and saw his green backpack, Gierr team's corpses and Grithra who was looking at him.
He then nods and smiles at Grithra, signalling her that they'll proceed to burial upon Grithra's new request of burying them here instead on the surface.
After 5 minutes they arrived at the location with grass pastures and aren't far from Rivira town.
Alex and Grithra unloaded the wrapped corpses from the handcart and carefully placed them to the ground
Next, he stored his helmet inside his green backpack and then he grabbed two pairs of gloves, two hoes and shovels from his backpacks which he gave one pair of gloves, hoe and a shovel to Grithra.
Alex walks in front of Grithra and then
*dig*
*dig*
*dig*
*dig*
*dig*
*dig*
*dig*
*dig*
they began using the hoes to soften the ground and shovel to dig 7 sets of six-foot deep graves for hours.
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=TIMESKIP: 6 HOURS=
Somewhere on the 18th floor with the place still bright, there's 2 people with the atmosphere is silent and sad
They completed the graves for 5 hours and they buried the wrapped corpses in the 7 holes and filled them with grave dirt.
Those 2 people placed the newly-created 7 sets of tombstones filled with the names of Grithra's dead teammates.
Alex is silently placing the tools to the handcart while he's mourning too.
On the other hand,
Grithra is mourning with tears flowing down while looking to the 7 graves.
Suddenly, the silence was broken,
"Thank you for helping me bury my team. The Snotra Familia is indebted to you and we'll reward you accordingly when we return to Orario." Grithra said as she's looking at Alex
Grithra who was so silent and high alert against him back then, is now talking to Alex in formal tone and dropped her guard.
Alex understood the sentence and just smile.
"I'll escort you back to Orario tomorrow morning. I'll go to the town first to rest. I'll leave you here to mourn since you know the way towards the Rivira town. Let's meet at town's entrance and depart tomorrow morning." He replied while smiling and Grithra agreed.
*Handcart pulled and moving sound effects*
Alex departed from the burial place with his cart while Grithra returned to mourn.
My clothes and everything I have reeks with pungent blood. Let's take a bath first.
He thought as he hurried towards the near lake dragging his cart along with him.
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{Anti-Monsters Barrier Remaining Time; 11 Months : 30 Days : 12 Hours : 30 Minutes}