Hilda got off the succubus and sat up, annoyed.

  “So?” She asked, creating a small shield around herself.

  “What?”

  “Your name.”

  “Yours first.”

  The succubus crossed her arms, staring at Hilda while maintaining eye contact, Hilda doing the same.

  “You do realise I could kill you?” Hilda gently poked her shield with the tip of her sword, slowly exerting more strength along with mana and sword qi as the shield started to crack.

  “If you kill me, the shield around the entrance of the cave will go too, you really want that to happen?” The succubus said, responding to Hilda’s silent threat with her own despite her obvious nervousness as it started to crack further.

  Hilda stared at the succubus, her sword still pushed against the succubus’s shield, before sighing and breaking the hastily made shield before she placed it back into her soul.

  “Fine. Mine is Hilda, what’s yours?”

  “Litah.”

  “Hilda,” Shila suddenly spoke up.

  “What?”

  “You still hadn’t read the notification for this floor.”

  “We had one?”

  “Yeah, just not the time to read it.”

  Hilda opened the system, and the notification popped up immediately.

  Notification.

  Defeat a being higher than your level.

  “What? What if it's just a single level higher?”

  Hilda turned to Shila, getting a nod from her.

  “Nice, this should be pretty easy.”

  Hilda turned to Litah, who immediately backed up defensively, creating another couple of layers of shield around herself.

  “I’m not gonna kill you indiscriminately, what kind of person do you think I am?”

  “A bad one,” She muttered softly, Shila mentally agreeing with her.

  “Well, if a level 400 is so pathetic, then a level 301 shouldn’t be hard.”

  Hilda looked at Shila as Shila glanced at Litah, who was staring at Hilda in annoyance before looking back at Hilda.

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  “You do realise level 301s are rare? And, she is stronger than you if given preparation time; we couldn’t break her shield before.”

  “But I have skills.”

  “She has a race advantage.”

  “Dammit…”

  Hilda sighed before turning to Litah.

  “You're gonna help us.”

  “No.”

  Hilda and Litah stared at each other again, neither side willing to give in as Shila watched this go on.

  “What the hell is this, a staring contest?”

  “Why should I help someone like her?” Litah asked, turning to Shila.

  “Because…” Shila said, trying to think of any reason she could. “Because it’ll make you feel good about helping others?”

  Right, and you think I want to help the likes of her.”

  “Then just tell us what you want.”

  “I don’t want anything.”

  “Liar. If you didn’t want anything, you wouldn't have helped us in the first place.”

  “I was just trying to be kin—”

  “No, demons have an instinct to fight. You may be able to ignore that either due to your will or cowardice, but that doesn’t make you a good person.” Shila interrupted.

  Litah stayed quiet for a short while before sitting on the ground, getting rid of her shields and sighing.

  “Skills. Since you came here, I assumed the cultist sent you guys here evn before you told me, meaning you guys can buy skills and whatnot.”

  “What skills?” Hilda asked, unwilling to buy anything too expensive.

  “Growth, I overheard some stronger demons talking about it before.”

  “Growth?”

  Hilda turned to Shila, who walked next to her, opening up the shop for her and showing her the skill.

  Growth(Growth type)

  Helps the user to grow stronger at a faster pace, along with providing a boost to their strength depending on every stat.

  Cost: 10,000

  “Oh, nice, I’ll get it for myself too.”

  Hilda clicked it only to get an irritating message.

  Warning, Users with authority level 1 over the system or higher cannot use the skill.

  Hilda turned over to Shila with oddly blameful eyes.

  “Hey, it isn’t my fault. You upgraded me willingly, and even if you didn’t, the system starts off at level 1, only inhabitants of the tower have authority level 0, which allows them to check their stats, level, name, race, and bloodline only; they can’t use most other functions.”

  “Fine…”

  Hilda reluctantly bought the skill as a random green orb suddenly appeared in her hands with which she tried to use but failed in doing so, passing it to Litah, who grabbed it excitedly, the orb getting absorbed into her body.

  “You. Owe. Me. So get to it.”

  Litah reluctantly walked to the entrance of the cave, checking for any monsters before undoing the shield as she walked out, Hilda and Shila following closely behind.

  “There, that should be a small habitat of hell hounds,” She pointed into a random direction as Hilda and Shila used mana to enhance their eyesight, finding some wolf-like creatures in the distance.

  “Alright, bye, have fun.”

  Hilda and Shila quickly started travelling in that direction as Litah reformed the barrier back and began to start doing something weird, which Hilda and Shila both ignored.

  “Almost there,” Hilda muttered, running at full speed, having to stop every once in a while to wait for Shila.

  “Slow poke.”

  “Shut up, I only have 75 percent of your stats.”

  Hilda stopped once again, waiting for Shila before getting annoyed enough and picking Shila up in her arms, carrying her the rest of the way without any struggle.

  “Annoying,” Shila muttered as Hilda placed her back onto the ground in front of the hellhound’s habitat.

  “Alright, Shila. I choose you! Scan them!”

  Shila glanced at Hilda, deciding whether or not to scold vulgarities or to hit her, before deciding against both options and just did as she was told.

  Race: Hell hounds

  Bloodline:Cerebus(3 percent)

  Level: 320

  Stats.

  (542 S) (200 E) (542 A) ( M)

  “Well, I suppose level 320s aren’t too far from level 301s.”

  Hilda took her sword out, preparing to attack the group of around 6 approaching hounds as the floor slowly started to rumble.

  “Seriously? Every time this happens, it's never good news.”

  Hilda and Shila both watched defensively, trying to figure out the source of the rumbling as they kept watching the cautious yet approaching hell hounds at the same time.

  “Hilda, there,” Shila pointed towards the hell hounds, noticing the ground starting to crack as hell hounds began to crawl out.

  “Their hell hounds, not worms!” Hilda shouted in annoyance.

  Hilda and Shila kept watching as more came out, the ground eventually becoming a giant hole as the original group of around 5 became over 100.

  “God dammit.” She muttered.