He didn’t take any time to think and simply reacted. Zhan had abruptly withdrawn the moment the boost had surged through his body, and with the timer already counting down Alexander had no time to waste. His enemy withdrew and he followed, the metal of his greaves groaning at the stress they were forced to endure as he sprinted forward faster than ever.

There were numerous problems at the moment he had to deal with though. The unknown duration of Ares' boon was perhaps the largest. Beyond that, he didn't know if separation would actually render smaller portions uncontrollable by the Metal Slime's core. With how swiftly the monster acted and moved it was also incredibly likely that its core could be shifted around at will in reaction to attacks. All very troublesome, but ultimately he would find out nothing if he simply retreated from the battle. Actually, that point was debatable as some of the Deities might be willing to answer; it was an uncertainty though given this was one of the challenges presented by the Labyrinth. Well... he also didn't want to just waste the gift he had received from Ares.

Zhan's anger fell on deaf ears as Alexander watched carefully for any reaction before he lashed out with swipes to rip and fling aside pieces of the Slime's body. Did he expect to actually defeat the Floor Boss in this encounter? Not in the slightest, but at the very least he could work out more effective measures of hurting the creature. If ripping it to smaller pieces was ineffective then he would have to move onto a different strategy. Well… he would probably only be able to test this and another method of attack. Anything further would probably run the risk of Ares’ gift ending part of the way through.

Zhan snarled, his body undulating wildly in an attempt to evade and outlast Alexander's continuous assault, shifting its form wildly to place it out of his reach. Even with that, though, the gap now present between their physical abilities was too much for the Floor Guardian to directly bear. The metallic slime that had effortlessly stopped Senna's arrows was torn into like gelatin, pieces of the Slime Prince splattering haplessly against the floor, seemingly unable to act on their own with the connection to the main body cut.

A few moments progressed like this, with Zhan's bodily mass gradually being torn away by Alexander, but abruptly Alexander would feel something change. As his hands tore into Zhan's body, the flow of slime inside the body would change, reorienting the direction of his attacks like a leaf floating down a stream. While the lower-level slimes were utterly incapable of such a feat, Zhan's control over his body had reached the point where, even if he could not directly evade Alexander's attacks, he could at least command the flow of his internal body to mitigate their impact. With this change, each of Alexander's attacks bore less impact, forced out of Zhan's body prematurely or guided away from areas where large quantities of slime congregated. At no point did Zhan attempt to counterattack against the Ares Guild Member, too concerned that doing so would not only be pointless, but also expose him unnecessarily; it was better to stay on the defensive and outlast this power.

In conventional time, roughly thirty seconds passed like this, with Zhan being worn down but managing to hold on. The slime's humanoid form had been abandoned, replaced by a single "rod" of slime. While Alexander had the power to tear the rod in half and use that as a means of figuring out where in it Zhan's core was, his enemy's manipulation of the slime within his body forced Alexander's attacks out before they could cut through him in full, leaving him merely able to scoop out handfuls of the enemy at a time. In these thirty seconds, roughly half of Zhan's body mass had been torn away, splattered along the cavern. If this were to continue for another minute or so, the possibility of Zhan being fully worn down was wholly possible.

However, it was at this point that Alexander would hear a voice in his head, the voice of Ares.

'The medallion's about to wear off; get out of there, now! You don't want to be still on this floor when it runs out.'

His initial strikes worked amazingly well, so of course Alexander wasn’t surprised when his opponent adapted. The Metal Slime Prince seemed smart enough for it, but he silently cursed the creature anyways. It felt like a spar against Matsuha all over again, where the smaller statured man would roll, twist, and turn with each of his strikes and bleed away some of the momentum and force or even turn the blow completely aside. Still, his attacks had only been lessened in effectiveness rather than outright nullified, so he pushed onward as Zhan’s form wavered and shifted. The fact that he had not yet received a single counter attack from his opponent only encouraged Alexander to press on; Zhan probably couldn’t risk the loss of whatever material it devoted to an attack.

As he was forced to fling handful after handful of the metallic fluid, Alexander disengaged with a huff of frustration. The fight had already dragged out longer than any of their other encounters and at his current rate, he would need quite a bit of time to rip Zhan down to size. Apparently his decision to disengage proved to be correct, even if he didn’t particularly like it, as Ares voice echoed in his mind. Without a word he retreated to the stairs and up them towards the handy statue Senna had discovered earlier, intending to use it before the medallion’s effects wore off.

As Alexander withdrew, Zhan sneered slightly, though given his physical form this gesture went unnoticed. While that blinding power the human bore was still visible, it was beginning to flicker; no doubt, he was attempting to flee before it expired. Regardless, until it wore off, Zhan couldn't take the risk of launching an attack at the fleeing adventurer, and simply allowed him to leave instead.

"...damnable Father, damnable Will, constraining me here. Had I been assigned to Yggdrasil's...no, even Kalki's domain, he would have been nothing."

The fourth floor returned to silence as the Metal Slime Prince's body spread out, gathering his form back together.

---

Reduction has occurred. Accumulation of Authority sufficient. Awakening Failed Autonomous Will Extensions. Verifying Inherent Seal on Omnipotent Autonomous Will Extension ■ ■ ■ ■ and Extrinsic Seal on Failed Autonomous Will Extension ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■. Verified.

Contingency for ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ arranged. Check finished.

Given current starting point in reality, obtainment of ■ ■ ■ ■ occurs in 98% of all possible worlds. Deemed sufficient. Removing Priority from task, reassigning to background task to be performed by ■ ■ ■ ■ ■.

Engaging of Temporal Distortion Principle has begun. Actualization in progress.

...alert. Former Secondary Priority, ascertaining status of ■ ■ ■ ■, is incomplete.

Cross-check. Verify.

Error: data unavailable. Cannot gauge location or status. Calculation of possible worlds in order to gauge result impossible; accumulation of Authority is not sufficient to reach total infinity.



Where is he?

Where is he?

WhereishewhereishewhereishewhereishewhereishewhereishewhereishewhereishewhereishewhereishewhereishewhereishewhereishewhereishewhereishewhereishewhereishewhereishewhereishewhereishewhereishewhereishewhereishewhereishewhereishewhereishewhereishewhereishewhereishewhereishewhereishewhereishewhereishewhereishewhereishewhereishewhereishewhereishewhereishewhereishewhereishewhereishewherewherewherewhereWHEREWHEREWHEREWHEREWHERE-

It was with slight disappointment that Alexander darted up the stairs and out of the fourth floor. He had an estimate of how strong he would need to be to challenge the Metal Slime, but with the limited number of floors to explore it would be quite some time until he was at such a level. Assuming that Zhan did not improve itself which relied more on there being no means for it to do such a thing. The creature was obviously intelligent enough to consider it.

The last remnants of Ares’ boon began to leave him just as he reached the statue. As the wave of exhaustion came over him, his knees nearly buckling out from beneath him, Alexander managed to reach out and touch the statue.

Whilst the remaining weight and friction in his joints had continued to dissipate during his walk to the entrance of the Labyrinth, the trip still took Vincent far longer than it had when he'd initially ventured into the dungeon with Lynn. He hadn't seen the girl on his way over, nor Alexander or Senna for that matter- he supposed they were either still attending to their own business or had headed into the Labyrinth without him.

He couldn't help feel a little rankled by the thought, though he quickly shoved it off to the side. Alexander had been more than helpful earlier, Lynn had done as much as she could with her present ability (and the considerable sum of gold he still intended to ask her about helped), and he could hardly fault someone as young as Senna for not being overly concerned with such things.

And he had to admit, he would likely have done much the same- as he proved to himself when he began to make his way towards the mouth of the cave. He'd go retrieve his coat, at least, then he could either see about finding the others in the Labyrinth or head up to meet them on the surface if they hadn't beaten him to the punch after all.

So, as carefully as he'd carried himself the rest of his journey, he slipped towards the cave entrance, just passing the statue when-

Senna's route for escape was very simple, but rather than take the teleport statue up, she decides to cut through the first floors of the Labyrinth first. As she goes past, she decides she might as well check some stuff out and goes about looint gthe weapons of the Goblins she could find. After a few moments of thought, she uses her superhuman strength to throw a few of the bodies over her shoulder, carrying them with little effort as she heads out the Labyrinth's entrance.

There, she sees a collapsed Alexander and the other man from before.

"Hi. Oh, it looks like Alexander got out too, I was a little worried." She looks over Alexander briefly, but after discerning he was alive, she turns back to face Vincent. "We went down without you guys, fought some Acid Slimes and found a "Floor Guardian" or something. He called himself a Metal Slime, and he... was way stronger than us, so we escaped."

After briefing Vincent on the events that had transpired without him, Senna nods at Alexander's collapsed form. "You might want to take him somewhere to recover, he looks a little beat up. I would, since he saved my life down there, but my hands are full. Thanks~"

As she starts walking off, the tiny ranger stops and turns to Vincent. "Also, watch out for the floor that's covered in dead Slimes, if you're going down. A lot of it is poisonous, and the rest of it is corrosive. You'll have to jump over the parts that are totally covered."

And so, with that final warning, Senna heads off into town. She walks to the town square, where that guy Cern had mentioned would be, hopefully. She tries to find his stand, or store, or whatever, and would approach it with a pleasant smile on her face. "Hey, you're one of Hermes's Guild members right? Mind if I sell you this stuff I picked up in the Labyrinth? Also, I have some Goblin corpses here too. I don't have to take them apart myself, but I'm sure you could get some worth out of their parts. What do you say?"

It was time.

At long last, it was time for the greatest hero to bring to bear his legend.

One man cannot change the tide of a war. One man cannot seal the heavens. One man cannot challenge god.

-However, one man can create a system. For with that system, it becomes possible to step out of the bounds of humanity and into something Other. Like an army, attacking in concert again and again.

It is for this reason that he exists. A hero who commands the system that stands over all things exists here, displaying his transcendent might in full. Yes, while his patron God had laughed at him when he had told her he wanted to go into the Labyrinth, while the notion of half of his wares seemed nonsensical to reasonable humans, while the world itself seemed turned against him, he would maintain this system until his last breath.

Its name: Capitalism.

Before this hero appeared a little girl, attempting to sell her wares. With this, an opportunity to display his power in full would be meted out.

"One gold, four silvers."

Did it matter that he had not seen her wares? No, for he could not be weighed down by such pleasantries.

For this was Tarou Tanaka.

It was hard to describe exactly what happened given one moment he was on the stairs reaching up to touch a statue, and the next he was on his ass at the Labyrinth’s entrance as his entire body flipped the switch and simply gave up. He collapsed rather unceremoniously by the base of the statue, trying to catch his breath, as he saw Vincent approach.

He managed to tilt his head and catch Senna’s arrival shortly after. Unsurprisingly, she seemed to have looted a bunch of the remains and equipment from their first expedition; probably in hopes there would be someone in town that would pay coin for all of it. Well, whatever, it wasn’t like he wanted to get rich from the Labyrinth. At that though he scowled a bit and forced himself to stand, even if he had to use the statue as support.

There was no question in his mind that he was too weak at the moment. He would have to find someway to improve himself beyond simply fighting the creatures that spawned in the three floors he had access to at the moment. Perhaps Ares would be able to offer some suggestions? Well, he would have to make it back to the Coliseum first, probably get an earful for the waste of her gift while he was at it.

“Go do what you came to,” he told Vincent as he waved away the other man. “I’ll be fine after a bit of rest.” The feeling had already returned to much of his body and even if it was a task to stand at the moment, Alexander felt that it wouldn't be long until he could move under his own ability. Not swiftly perhaps, but enough that he didn't need to burden the other man. "Stay away from the fourth floor though... The Floor Guardian is probably more than a bit upset."

For a moment, random bystanders might notice the small girl's eyes momentarily transform into the shape of gold coins, before she immediately gains back her composure and coughs into her hand. "Well... seems like a good deal to me."

And with that, she just hands him the corpses and swords, taking her money in exchange. "T-Thank you," she says awe-fully as she counts the small coins. She expected to make some cash from the deal, seeing as the swords were metal and the goblin corpses were probably worth something, but she hadn't expected to almost double her savings this quickly. She doesn't dawdle, instead deciding to just quickly place the money into her purse and smile pleasantly. "I'll be heading out then, see you around, Tanuki!"

Feeling proud of her newly obtained money, Senna decides to look around and try to find Cern. So, she does that.

"...!" It took a fair bit of effort for Vincent to not fall backwards as Alexander seemed to fall into existance just a little shy of him. He certainly hadn't been expecting that.

It was only a few moments later, however, that the other person he'd been intending to keep an eye open for appeared- this time in a much less surprising way, as Senna came out of the mouth of the cave. She started talking as he recovered from his moment of shock, and as she told him about their encounters, the ever-helpful annoying voice supplied him with information.

As intimidating as the idea of the 'Metal Slime Floor Guardian' was- a formidable and deadly sounding foe to be sure- the thought of the Acid Slimes made a small part of him curl up and die.

"Just my luck..." He grumbled, cursing his short-range weapons.

Nonetheless, Senna continued, pointing out Alexander's state before parting with a warning about one of the floors they'd cleared. Vincent nodded appreciatively, only sparing a slightly envious glance at her haul as she left him with Alexander.

"If you don't mind, then, I'll go and get my coat whilst you recover," He replied to the Ares Guild member, as he resumed his walk towards the mouth of the cave. "I'll take your word and hers about the fourth floor, but if the slime on the third is still fresh, it might be worth taking a sample for later."

If Senna was going to do him out of all the immediate material wealth, he was at least going to make sure he got his hands on plenty of raw ingredients.

Senna did not find Cern.

This is because Cern found Senna.

Appearing from nothing as she was wont to do, the God with the appearance of a child revealed her presence before Senna after the latter had been walking around for a handful of minutes. While one would ordinarily expect a patron God to be annoyed or concerned at Senna's reckless attack on Zhan in the Labyrinth, Cern seemed to be neither of these.

"Ha! What you did in there, shooting the Floor Guardian and then just bailing, classic!" Cernunnos giggled furiously as she appeared in front of Senna, walking backwards with her slender arms crossed behind her head. "You're great, really. Okay, okay, so before you say anything, let me guess: stat boosts? Well, lucky you! Since you encountered a Floor Guardian, you not only get a status update, but you also get my second-order blessing! I won't deny that the way you screwed over that Ares boy like that helped you out in earning the blessing, though~"

And then Cern gave boostos.

"...oh, right, I should probably explain what a Floor Guardian is, now that you've encountered one. Eh, I'll just add it to the Lexicon."

“Yeah, go ahead. Let me know if Thoth finds anything worthwhile with the leftover slime please,” Alexander muttered as he stomped his feet a few times to get more feeling in the legs. He had planned to bring some flasks to gather the stuff next time around, but if Vincent could let him know whether or not it was worthwhile than that would be great as well. He watched as the other adventurer made his way into the Labyrinth before he finally figured he had recovered enough to at least begin making his way back to the Coliseum.

He stumbled more than a few times on his way through town, and his thoughts were far from pleasant as the thought of replacements for his lost equipment came up. Nonetheless, despite his condition and bleak thoughts, he managed to make it to the building of his Goddess. While it wasn’t the barracks, he did allow himself to slide down the wall and take a seat with a tired gasp once he was actually out of the public’s eye. He would go get cleaned up, head out and grab something to eat, before finally meeting with Ares.

---

He spent longer than he thought he would in the communal baths the Coliseum offered, though again, surprisingly he didn't see any other members of the guild. As the warm water washed away the exhaustion the use of Ares' boon had resulted in Alexander sighed and sunk a bit further into the water. Eventually he climbed out, got dressed in a set of casual clothes, and left to find a stall for some grub.

He returned to the Coliseum in short order with a half-eaten wrap stuffed with shaved meat, shredded vegetables, and condiments in hand. Then he began to try and find the Goddess for a bit of advice. Could she train him to help improve his skills, and if not, what he could do to get stronger outside from the Labyrinth? If the monsters didn't reappear, or did so at a slow pace, his ability to improve was highly limited at the moment and that was... annoying.

As it turns out, Alexander didn't have to wait too long.

This is because, when he arrived at the Coliseum, Ares was standing in front of the structure, glaring forwards angrily. It's almost like she was waiting for someone, but who could she be-

...oh.

Oh no.

Striding up to Alexander before he had even reached the entrance to the Coliseum, a very annoyed-looking God of War slapped the half-eaten wrap out of his hand silently, the sinless food flying through the air and falling haplessly onto the ground.

"Follow me. Now. I am going to beat some sense into your wasteful mind. You'll get your status update and second-order blessing when I'm satisfied."

Seething out these words, Ares turned on her heel and began walking back into the Coliseum, muttering under her breath. Alexander might have been able to catch a few snippets.

"Wasting fucking medallion on first floor guardian...money to have Heka make another...underwear missing...Loki pretending she's me..."

Ares had a hard life.

He might have looked towards the wasted food if it weren’t for the fact that his Goddess seemed most irritated at him. Yeah… he had definitely fucked up with the choice to use her gift. Like a scolded child, because really that’s what he basically was at this point, he followed after her into the Coliseum wordlessly and with a grimace. This was bound to be unpleasant…

He couldn’t hear everything that she muttered, but it seemed that his dumb idea wasn’t the only problem she had to deal with at the moment. He sighed, unable to really feel cheerful at the moment, and simply resolved to try and move past this incident as soon as he could.

Ares continued to lead Alexander, the human and God entering the Coliseum. Walking rather briskly, Ares took a hand-and-a-half sword from the barracks in passing, tossing it behind her back at Alexander without a glance as she continued walking. Eventually, the War God came to a halt, standing in the center of the Coliseum. A handful of Guild members were up in the seats, evidently enjoying their food and the weather, but seemed confused at the entrance of Ares and some guy to the arena.

After finally coming to a stop, Ares turned around to face Alexander-


-And space seemed to bend around her.

Without warning, Ares's "presence" became tyrannical, an oppressing air that bore down on Alexander. Even those seated in the seats, eating obliviously, were jolted to a halt as the crushing feeling of power radiated off of Ares. In the God's right hand appeared a one-handed longsword, undecorated and unrefined.

"Try to hit me."

Senna blinks a few times in surprise at her new power (and, to a lesser degree, Cernunnos's sudden appearance), before giving a satisfied grin. "This power is awesome, Cern! Thanks. And, um... I'm glad you liked my strategy. Floor Guardians seem like the real deal, those other monsters were kind of... bad."

Going over things in her head, the small girl quickly began to get a better idea of the situation, and how the Labyrinth was supposed to be approached. You were supposed to kill the weaker Monsters to get stronger, sure, but the "boss" encounters at the end of each set of floors was the most important part. From what she saw, the weak enemies could probably be handled solo with no problem, but that Metal Slime... if it weren't for Alexander, she probably wouldn't have stood a chance.

With these thoughts in her mind, she briefly considers the pros and cons of teaming up with the others. She had tagged along with them until now, sure, but she hadn't had any real personal obligation to assist them besides simple self-interest. If they formed a sort of "party", to take down the larger prey, surely that would be an ideal path to take against these "Floor Guardians".

That said...

'Cats always hunt alone.'

The words of her adoptive father come back to her, and she can't help but feeling their importance now. She knew this better than anyone else. It's true that her father, and by some extension she, had been made soft by the passage of years. But, the two of them knew better than anyone else that at the core of their characters, they were selfish creatures. For them, survival and self-interest would always hold the highest priorities. Everything else was an afterthought.

And so, after a moment of quiet contemplation, Senna comes to her conclusion and returns her thoughts to the world around her. The look in her eyes was notably more resolved than before, but that impression was quickly silenced and her entire body returns to a neutral, unassuming state. Nodding and waving at Cernunnos, Senna gives a quick goodbye to her godly patron before heading straight back in the direction of the Labyrinth.

When she reaches the entrance, she takes one last look at the outside, before quietly walking once more through the floors, senses directed outwards. Her presence was completely concealed. If there was anyone in there, she had no doubt that she would be able to take them unawares, even if they were a Monster. With this confidence in mind, she examines everything they had been through until this point, walking past fallen slimes, blood, and a whole lot of rocks. Something bothers her about the first floor, but momentarily occupied by her thoughts, the girl ignores it for now.

Now, standing at the entrance to floor three, she stops.

Why?

Because, from this point on she knew there was nothing but carnage. She would not bother trying to cross the field of poisonous and acidic slime, not just to turn around once she reached the entrance to the next floor. So, deciding she was done her little walk, she returns to the first floor and tries to figure out her weird feeling.

She suspects it was a result of Cern's mysterious new power. And, if that was the case...

Maybe the adventurers had been fooled from the very start.

He caught the tossed weapon without too much issue, and sighed quietly to himself as he continued to follow Ares. Unsurprisingly, he was led to open floor of the Coliseum and a glance revealed that they were far from alone. He recognized a few of his guild members up on the seats relaxing as their day was at an end. He was about to take up a stance when she turned around to face him, but he couldn’t help but freeze.

In his gut he knew he had to move, that if he stayed still he would die—well hopefully not—but the sheer presence Ares had rooted him in place. It was like a wave of ice cold water had just slammed into him; he wanted to struggle, but the chill robbed him of any strength to resist. Still, at the very least, he managed to shift his hand and grip the weapon properly even as she wrapped her fingers around the plain sword’s hilt.

Her order seemed to dispel some of the crushing pressure that radiated from her towards him. With a deep breath he tried to calm himself, with some success, before he charged forward. There was no question if he was outmatched in this situation, in both skills and capabilities Ares was without a doubt his superior. If she didn’t want him to land a hit, he was fairly damn certain he wouldn’t, but to give anything less than his utmost would probably just earn more of her ire. His left foot shot out to stop himself, kicking up a cloud of dirt and dust towards the Goddess. Immediately afterwards his blade slashed through it.

Cran approached the gates of the great city of....well...he didn't know. In fact, he didn't know much about the lands he wanders. Being raised on an island, disconnected from most of the world, he knowledge was limited when it came to things such as money, or names of cities. He'd heard of this place from the sailors that found his raft in the ocean. A place, where the gods gathered...his old master spoke of a god. One that was kind, peaceful, and found all life sacred..........
Cran did not find this god there....Walking into the city, Cran began to explore for a bit, until he saw a
coliseum. Coliseums...a place, or, at least he thought, that people gathered to fight. And to kill, for money and bragging rights .This, of course, bothered Cran...immensely. As such, he decided he's go crash whatever was going on in the arena.... This, to all those reading, is of course going to end badly. Moving though the streets towards the Coliseum, Cran looked like a man on a mission.
Arriving at the Coliseum, Cran entered, looking for the nearest person to speak to. Should he find none, he sorta wanders about.

Ares looked forward impassively as Alexander began his attack. As the human's sword cut through the cloud of dust at her, she reacted without any apparent effort on her part. The arm holding her sword swung around in a tight arc, glancing Alexander's blow off to the side. While Ares was obviously holding herself back, there was a strange sort of vibration that passed through Alexander's sword at the moment of contact. It was neither enough to distract him nor harm him, but was simply enough for the adventurer to note that something about her parry seemed "strange".

"Too many wasted movements. You won't be able to get close if you're swinging haphazardly." Ares quipped coldly. "Concentrate. See the path you need your sword to take, and move it directly along that path. Keep your stance stable, but leveraged enough that you can attack. There are going to be monsters in that place faster or stronger than you will ever be; if you don't hone your combat down to an art, you'll either rely on the coward's tactics of Cernunnos and Loki, or die. And I won't let you do the former."

---

When Cran entered the Coliseum, he would see few people in the immediate vicinity. Those who were around seemed to be busy walking to other locations. Were he able to continue his search though, he would come across the open floor of the Coliseum center as well as the surrounding seats. In the seats, there seemed to be a fair amount of people eating food and chatting amongst one another.

In the center, though, there seemed to be two people holding swords, a man and a woman, with the latter scowling at the former.