Thirty-ninth day after the Summoning.

  The Depths of the Labyrinth — Floor fifty.

  Sallow and Araneida both rested near a fire, with Sallow overseeing some skewered monster meat being cooked upon it, while Araneida happily devoured a recently killed Goliath Spider. Jack came from the side, dragging behind him three bodies of huge rabbits, whose teeth were more like jagged fangs – bulging out of their mouth.

  The Tamer threw the rabbit bodies next to Sallow, before sitting on the opposite side of the fire, exhaling. “Got those three for you to sear up. Hopefully they’ll be good enough.” Sallow looked at the rabbits, before picking one up by the ears and examining its entire body a bit more carefully. After a moment, he placed it back down. “I can make something with these. It’ll be a bit difficult to get rid of all the teeth these things have though.”

  “As long as they’re edible, it’s good enough for me.” Jack replied, looking away and down, before opening his status. It has been quite a while now since he had consumed the Arc Crystal and raised his rank and power to A-Rank. However, despite fighting some fairly strong foes and even a High B-Rank monster, he had barely managed to raise his level any further.

  [ STATUS ]

  Jack Alfred Gragbone

  Gender: Male

  Title: He who commands the Goblins

  Level: 4 (5)

  Rank: A

  Class: Tamer

  Stat Points: 0

  Health: 1,780 / [2]

  Magical Energy: 7,350 / [0]

  Strength: 1,760 / [2]

  Defence: 1,680 / [0]

  Agility: 1,680 / [2]

  Skills (Open List)

  [ STATUS ]

  “I suppose the Arc Crystal did give me quite a jump in stats and power, so I can’t exactly complain that the monsters we’ve been hunting haven’t given me much levels.” Jack commented in his mind, sighing gently before closing the window and looking at the crackling campfire in front of him. The heat gently brushed against his face, while the rest of his body didn’t feel a thing due to the cloak that he had acquired from the White Goblin clan. “We should probably start moving much deeper into this place if we want to keep getting stronger.”

  Jack's train of thought was interrupted by Araneida, who lightly tugged onto his trousers, before handing him two of the ready skewers that Sallow had finally finished cooking. Jack smiled, taking the skewers, before patting Araneida lightly on the head. Then, he turned his attention to Sallow, who was already ripping away at the skewers he had in his hands.

  “Say Sallow, mind answering a question for me?”

  “I’m listening, my Lord.” The goblin responded between the bites of his food, lifting his gaze up to his master, before cleaning off his mouth with his right hand. “The monsters we’ve been encountering lately are barely giving me any boost to my power or stats. Perhaps there are some stronger ones we can try looking for?”

  Sallow swallowed the meat in his mouth, before placing the skewer sticks to the side. “Well, you consumed a power crystal, which gave a significant and dare I say, an overwhelming improvement to your strength. Obviously nothing would be a match for you at this point — most monsters down here don’t possess nearly enough magical energy for your strange system to absorb.”

  Jack nodded.

  “Yeah, I kind of realised that myself. I was asking if there is perhaps a way we can get stronger ones?”

  Sallow scratched his chin. “How strong?”

  Jack shrugged, looking down at his skewers before taking a bite of the meat on one of them, and quickly downing it. “At least A-Rank. Maybe as close to my power level as possible. Of course, stronger is also fine, as long as it isn’t by an overwhelming amount.”

  Sallow sighed gently, rubbing the back of his neck. “...I see…”

  Jack raised an eyebrow as he finished the first of the skewers, handing the stick to Araneida. “Something wrong?”

  “Well… Do you remember the reason I told you as to why monsters like us goblins and the clans themselves could be formed and survive down here?” Jack looked away, trying to recall. He does remember Sallow mentioning something about a ‘Guardian’ of this floor that wiped out all the powerful monsters in the floor when it manifested…

  Jack looked back at Sallow. “Yeah I do. The Guardian, right? It wiped out all the ultra strong monsters.”

  “That’s part of the story.” Sallow stated, causing Jack to raise an eyebrow. Then, the goblin lowered its head a bit and after a moment or two, he exhaled looking at the fire. “Truth is, I am unsure if we'll be able to find any monster stronger than High B-Rank.” Jack fell confused, before exhaling and quickly eating the other skewer, handing the stick to Araneida, who brought it back over to Sallow. After swallowing the meat, Jack coughed a bit, before looking at Sallow again.

  “And why is that?”

  Sallow remained silent for a moment, before looking at Jack. “This is but a rumour I had heard when I was still a small, young goblin, however the stories surrounding the deeper parts of this labyrinth on this floor say that the Guardian actively prevents any strong monsters from thriving. Every time a monster stronger than it likes appears, said monster is hunted down by the Guardian and killed by it.” Jack let out a small exhale through his nostrils, a bit surprised by this information before exhaling and leaning back, stretching out.

  “I see. So basically the thing is allegedly ensuring nothing that could one day challenge its life for too long?”

  Sallow nodded.

  “That is how the old rumours went.”

  “Right — Next question, why didn’t you tell me about this earlier?” Sallow shrugged gently, turning towards the three large rabbit-like monsters that Jack had brought earlier. “You never asked, my Lord. I don’t give information needlessly.”

  Jack rolled his eyes, looking at the fire again.

  There was a chance that the Guardian of this entire floor was preventing strong monsters from appearing… That put into question one thing — just how powerful this beast was for it to be able to keep it up for who knows how long? Would Jack even be able to match its power at any point if it is of such grand strength?

  Burning questions they were.

  Ones that slight ate away at Jack's mind, as well as his confidence ever so slightly. While he was no stranger to facing opponents that were far more powerful than him and in fact, had been specially trained to be able to make it out alive in those situations during his time as a Military Mercenary — this wouldn’t be the same.

  While he could easily take on another human he was outmatched against in his home world, since even if he was outmatched, his opponent was still but a human just like him — in this world, a large gap in strength and power can be the decider between life and death.

  Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  Jack sat there silently, watching the fire while lost in his thoughts, thinking of what the three of them could do next. Meanwhile Araneida helped Sallow prepare the rabbits, slicing their meat apart as well as isolating their teeth onto a small handkerchief. Occasionally, Araneida would swoop up and eat up the excess fat these things had in their bodies, while Sallow harvested the raw meat and skewered it, placing it over the fire.

  A little while passed. The three rabbit monsters had been completely devoured by the trio, with nothing but the teeth and bones of the rabbits remaining. Sallow tied the handkerchief into a small pouch before tossing it over to Jack, who without even lifting his gaze up from the fire caught it, before looking down at it.

  “What’s this?” He asked, looking at Sallow.

  “The teeth of the monsters we ate. They’re quite sturdy and sharp. I believe it is worth holding onto them, since they could potentially come in useful to craft weapons or any other equipment in the future.” Jack shrugged, spinning the pouch and sliding it into his bag. Then, he got up from his seat.

  “Are we moving out to hunt for more monsters?”

  Jack remained silent for a bit, before smirking. “I’ve got a better idea. Araneida,” The spider jumped up, looking at Jack upon hearing his call. The Tamer looked at the spider. “Think you can do a bit of tracking?” The spider jumped around in excitement, before squealing happily and nodding. “Perfect.”

  Sallow raised an eyebrow. “My Lord? What are we tracking?”

  “It’s simple really.” Jack responded, before turning around and transforming his left arm into a large wing and using it to put it out the fire of the campfire, before morphing his arm back to normal. Then, he turned back to look at Sallow. “We’ll try heading to wherever the Guardian is.”

  Upon hearing this, Sallow panicked slightly.

  “H-Hold on now my Lord! You cannot be serious!” He quickly jumped in front of the Tamer. “That’s a death wish! Even if you are much more powerful now, we cannot get overconfident. The Guardian is a beast like no other!”

  “I know, you’ve told me what it has done and it most certainly sounds powerful and trust me, I don’t plan on or believe at all that I can kill it.” Sallow raised an eyebrow, as Jack moved past him, walking over to Araneida and gently scratching her chin after crouching down. “My Lord, I’m afraid I don’t follow…”

  “Sallow.” Jack threw a calm look over his right shoulder, a confident smile across his face. “I’m a Tamer, remember?”

  Then, it clicked for Sallow.

  The goblin struggled to hold back a laugh and within no time at all, burst out laughing, before looking at Jack with an amused expression. “I see… So that’s your plan. Not to kill it, but to tire it out?”

  “Mhmm — Well, just enough for it to submit to me willingly, so that my ‘Taming’ skill can activate against it. No way in hell am I thinking about killing it. Not only am I unable to do so with my current strength but also – it’d be a waste of a useful addition to our team.” Jack finished his thought process as he rose to his feet, before stretching out. Sallow, while still hesitant to admit that this was a good idea, now had a clearer idea of what Jack was planning. He couldn’t help but feel just a little bit confident that this may just work.

  “Very well.”

  The goblin stated, before bowing towards Jack. “Whatever you decide and wherever you go, I shall follow you to the end. You want to tame the Guardian of this floor? I will make sure to crush its pride and ensure that it submits to you.” Jack let out a gentle laugh, before placing his right hand onto Sallow's shoulder.

  “Then I’m counting on you, Grey Overlord.”

  Sallow nodded, lowering his head a bit lower before Jack.

  Hours later…

  The Depths of the Labyrinth.

  Hours went by. The trio had spent a long, long time looking around, moving where they assumed the labyrinth's gates could be located, using any sorts of clues they could find around as a ‘guide’ to push them forward. Anything that could indicate them getting closer to the Guardian and the Gates — marks on the floor and walls, dried blood that has been there for god knows how long or even remains of monsters scattered around — everything could be taken as potential signs of them getting closer, especially as they began to grow more and more in frequency and the amount of live monsters all around the place began to drop drastically.

  When they began their hunt, there were monsters basically around every corner that they were forced to fight – but by now, they were lucky to run into just three monsters at once.

  It was definitely beginning to look like they were entering the territory of a potentially dangerous monster — though, the jury is out on whether or not it was the Guardian they were after. “This is starting to look a lot more bleak..”

  “Yeah, whatever is around here is definitely not the peaceful kind. Probably territorial.” Jack added, keeping his gaze moving around – just to ensure that nothing was hiding around them, that could potentially appear. “Keep your senses keen. Make sure nothing gets the jump on us.” Sallow and Araneida nodded gently in response, looking around as well while following after Jack.

  The farther they moved, the more grim the surroundings became.

  Bloodstained walls and ground, carcases laying around and even occasionally rotting organs, splattered around. It looked like a beast was ravaging through here, but not hunting or killing for survival, but rather sport. “These definitely fit the bill for being killed by a creature that won’t let strong monsters exist.” Jack commented looking around at the bloodspillage around him.

  [ NOTICE ]

  Familiar situation encountered.

  Defence & Health boosted by 20%.

  [ NOTICE ]

  “That’s not a very comforting thing to hear.” Jack thought before stopping. Before them laid a large, large open cavern. It was like something had carved out this section of the floor specifically to have a lot of space. “My Lord, look over there.” Sallow pointed across from them.

  Around fifty meters away from them, a large pair of rather fancy looking, old gates stood. On them, a numeral was carved ‘L’. “Fifty… The fiftieth door and floor.” Jack exhaled, before placing his hands onto his sheathed weapons, taking a more defensive stance. “Prepare. We’re at the floor gates and definitely not alone.”

  Sallow nodded, reaching for his blade while Araneida hissed at something in the darkness. Then, the cave trembled – a low, strong hiss echoed through the place. In an instant, Jack's body jerked and leapt back around thirty meters. Sallow and Araneida looked at their master in shock, before following after him, joining his side.

  “What the hell..? My body moved on its own..”

  The cavern continued to tremble.

  Then, a large body moved around the trio — slithering through the cavern. The movement alone was enough to shake the ground and cause slight rubble and debris to fall from the ceiling. The gates at the end of the cavern were blocked, as the creature raised up high above the trio, shining a pair of red eyes towards them, before unleashing a deathly shriek, revealing itself from its cloak of darkness.

  A gigantic, white serpent, whose body looked like it was made of scales and fur. It had four eyes, however only two shone. In its large mouth, was a set of razor sharp looking fangs and its tongue was as long as you’d expect of a snake.

  The most important part of all – the aura surrounding it?

  It was nightmarish. It most definitely was the most powerful monster they had encountered up until now. Sallow unsheathed his blade, shedding a sweat. “My Lord, are you still certain about this?”

  Jack remained silent before sharpening his eyes on the giant creature.

  [ CREATURE ]

  Pale Serpent

  Rank: S+ (High S)

  Level: 72 (6)

  A one of a kind creature, serving the purpose of Guarding the fiftieth floor of the Great Labyrinth. This creature bears the blood of old Prime Dragons, making the scales that cover its body tougher and more durable than any other natural resource found in the world. Its venom is the deadliest there is.

  Warning:

  Creature outpowers you greatly. Retreat is recommended.

  [ CREATURE ]

  Jack smirked, unsheathing his shortsword and khopesh, spinning them around and then preparing for a battle. “I am. Let’s knock this overgrown reptile down a peg.”