The next few days passed without incident. Winston and Erynd occasionally went out to hunt, and the rest of the party had come by as well. After a series of profuse apologies from both sides, they agreed to hunt together again the next day.

  Winston padded around excitedly, looking forward to spending time with the party, especially Norra. Winston liked Norra. Not quite as much as he liked Erynd, but it was close. Erynd had gotten a lot better over the last days, but he still wore an expression of guilt and regret wherever he went. Whether it was over Roderic’s death or Erynd’s own failure, Winston didn’t know.

  Taking a deep breath, Erynd stood up and strode out of the tent. Winston, who was perched on his shoulder, let out a yip of surprise at the sudden movement.

  They had agreed to meet at the entrance to the tunnel out of camp, so Winston took the opportunity to check his status.

  Name: Winston

  Race: Corgi

  Class: Relentless Consumer (Unique)

  Rank: Initiate 5

  Titles (3/5):

  Non-Humanoid Progenitor

  [Redacted]

  Modified

  Food Energy: 300/300

  Stats:

  Strength: 10

  Dexterity: 6

  Toughness: 10

  Charisma: 44

  Stomach: 30

  Free Points: 0

  Active Skills (3/10):

  Consume lvl 7

  Channel Food Energy lvl 4

  Charm lvl 3

  Passive Skills (2/10):

  Enhanced Stomach lvl 3

  Passive Charm lvl 6

  Winston let out a happy yip, satisfied with his gains. Consume was leveling up fast, already nearing level 10. The rest of his skills and stats had made significant jumps as well, with all of his stats but Dexterity at 10 or above.

  His usage of food energy had become more efficient, and he believed that in a fight, his current pool would last him several minutes. Perhaps longer if he didn’t use too much at once. Still, of his active skills, [Channel Food Energy] was by far the hardest to strengthen. The only reason it was a higher level than [Charm] was because of how much time he’d spent practicing it, pushing the limits of what he could do.

  A minute later, they had reached the tunnel. The group exchanged awkward greetings and set out. Winston watched with amusement as the Caltherans avoided eye contact with one another. It was both unnerving and amusing how similar they were to humans. They had already made up and apologized, so why did they have to drag the issue on?

  As they made their way through the tunnel, Erynd spoke, “I’m sorry, I really am. I just froze. I—”

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  He was cut off as Norra lightly slapped him. “Oh, shut up, Erynd. You’ve said this a million times already. We know that you're sorry. And we’ve forgiven you! So please, don’t make this take forever. We know why you froze. We probably would’ve, too, but if all you’re going to do for the rest of the trip is apologize, one of us is going to attack you!”

  Erynd nodded, “Alright. I’m sorry—”

  Norra slapped him again, and Winston broke out laughing. The rest of the group froze and stared at him.

  “Is…he alright?” Renir, the spearman, asked. Winston had learned the entire party’s names the day before, but Renir was the only one he remembered.

  Erynd looked at the wheezing Winston. “I think he’s laughing? He does this when he finds something amusing. I don’t think his anatomy lets him laugh the same way we do.”

  The group nodded, but still bore expressions of concern until Winston finally calmed down. He liked Norra more and more each time he saw her. If he could’ve, he would’ve thanked her for putting a stop to Erynd’s nonsense.

  The trip went smoothly, with them taking out beast after beast. Winston helped as well, stabbing at their eyes and ankles with his food energy. And, as always, in exchange for his aid, they paid the tax. Soon, Winston’s whole storage ring was full, and he had to sneak off into the woods to consume the meat.

  As they fought a massive bird, Norra went in for the finishing blow, but she tripped, her hammer slamming into the earth. The bird took the opportunity to flee, but no one noticed. They were all giving their undivided attention to the screen before them.

  Congratulations, contenders!

  Your group is the first to have a member clear the floor and move on to the next. You’ve done it in near record time as well! Because of this, your group, as well as the other groups, will be given an opportunity. All beasts will now grow in strength twice as fast. This can be either a blessing or a curse, depending on your mindset.

  Additionally, all Acolyte rank beasts will automatically attack any contenders within their territory, which is usually at least a mile wide. On a separate note, the first floor’s objective will be revealed to all groups. Find and kill one of the four Beast Emperors of your floor to open a permanent portal to the second floor. Good luck and goodbye, contenders!

  Your group has 92,774/100,001 members remaining.

  Winston’s eyes widened as he read through the message. Had someone already cleared the floor? And what was a ‘Beast Emperor’? It sounded strong. Also, all Acolyte-rank beasts would attack any contenders who got near them? Winston shuddered. That was terrifying.

  At the beginning of the floor, he’d been given the floor quest by the System, but it had only shown question marks. What was the point of that if the System was only going to reveal it now that someone had cleared the floor?

  With a thought, he pulled up the floor leaderboard.

  Floor Leaderboard (Group):

  1st: Caedric (2nd Floor)

  2nd: Othrin (1st Floor)

  3rd: Sol (1st Floor)

  4th: Thalric (1st Floor)

  5th: Laora Hale (1st Floor)

  …

  37,955th: Winston (1st Floor)

  It seemed that Erynd had already done this a moment before.

  “Caedric,” Erynd sputtered. “Wasn’t he the scout that we picked up at the beginning of the floor? How did he do this? This doesn’t make any sense!”

  There was a moment of silence as the rest of the group pulled up the leaderboard, expressions of shock on their faces.

  Norra asked, “I doubt that’s the same Caedric as the one you’re talking about. It’s not a common name, but I’m sure there are several of them.” She sighed. “We should probably go, shouldn’t we?”

  Erynd nodded. “Definitely. We don’t know what these changes will bring. We need to—”

  A deafening screech cut him off, sending several members stumbling. The group spun around to see the source of the noise, not noticing that the cry had sent Winston flying.

  The humongous bird they had been fighting had returned, but this time, it wasn’t alone. With it were half a dozen birds of similar size around it, and there was a single, even larger bird flying above them. But there were more. All around them, there were hundreds of tiny finches.

  “Damnit,” Norra said, “I knew we should’ve been killing them this whole time.”

  Before any of them could attack, the massive bird that seemed to be their leader began to glow. It grew brighter and brighter, forming a small sun around itself. Then, the sun collapsed on itself, creating a blinding sphere of light dozens of feet around itself.

  Winston found himself just barely out of range of the blast, but he was still momentarily blinded. When his vision cleared, he found the rest of the party on the floor. The huge bird that had unleashed the blast was now resting on the ground, with two other birds defending it.

  Then, one of them spotted Winston, squawking in alarm.

  As the rest of the birds turned towards him, Winston realized for the first time that he was alone. It was one against hundreds, and the one was him.

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