Jack's POV

  I didn't pass out. I was awake, and painfully aware of what had just happened.

  I had lost control.

  Again.

  And to be frank, I was beginning to doubt that it had anything to do with the rage buff. Maybe there was something wrong with me. Something on the inside. Never had I ever before stepped into a place as dark as that. Unlike the time I fought Benzo and ignored the pain altogether for a precious few moments. This time it was different.

  "You awake?" asked Jensen, while he carried me on his back from one corner of the dungeon to the other, where the goblin nest was located. "Can you move?" he asked, while the orb lit up the way ahead.

  I could move, and I knew that I should. But I didn't. With my arms in the front hanging limply, and with him holding on to my legs. I stayed like that for a long moment, while he ran carrying me.

  "Shit happens," he said.

  "It wasn't the rage buff, was it?" I asked him.

  He didn't answer. But he did slow down.

  "With Benzo…" I said. "It was all me, wasn't it?"

  "Jack—"

  "Yes or no?" I asked him. "There was no rage buff to begin with. Those flowers that we collected, they do nothing, don’t they?"

  He stopped in his tracks, with me on his back.

  "Yes," he said to me, as he couldn't lie due to the restrictions. "Yes, those flowers don't do anything for us humans, and yes, it was all you this entire time," he said.

  "I'm a monster," I said, under my breath.

  "Yes, you are," he said. "But you are a human too…" he added, softly.

  "A human who kills others and smiles while doing it?" I asked him, and got off his back.

  I landed on my feet, right behind him. But my legs couldn't carry the burden of this new side of my existence, and I just fell to my knees. My head drooped, and my palms were on the dungeon floor, as a weight settled down on my shoulders. "My friends," I said. "They weren't wrong when they made me the monster every time we played..." I paused. "Maybe they could see the monster that I was even back then—"

  "Kid," said Jensen, and I stopped mumbling. "Look at me," he said, and I raised my head to meet his eyes. But he had his back to me. A part of me was thankful that he wasn't facing me. Because I didn't want to see the same indifference in his eyes that I seen in the eyes of the people I once called friends. "I will tell you this once, and never again," he said.

  "Tell me what?" I asked, my throat parched, my shoulders slumped, and my body hurting in places I didn't even know existed.

  He turned, his cape flaring up behind him in a dramatic fashion, and he got on a knee in front of me. The orb too glowed bright for a heartbeat, illuminating the tunnel and pushing back the darkness.

  "We all have our own demons to deal with," he said, while looking me dead in the eyes. "In my case, I can't stop myself from being who I am. A liar, a thief, a thrill seeker with a long list of regrets."

  He placed his hand on my shoulder.

  "Should I tell you a little secret?" he asked me.

  I furrowed my eyebrows, being unable to read his expression.

  How could someone look so happy and look to be in a great deal of pain at the same time? I asked myself.

  "Self imposed restrictions," he said. "The System doesn't just allow anyone to take part in it," he said. "You have to be a little…" He whistled while winding a finger near his temple. "For the system to recognize that you are crazy."

  "Have you tried fixing that?" I asked.

  "Have tried, and have had the most miserable time of my life," he said. "So I just embraced it instead."

  "But how do I embrace that side of me?" I asked, with my heart squeezing inside my chest. "I live with my family. They can't know that I'm—"

  "A little koo-koo, like me, but in a different way?" he asked.

  I swallowed in.

  "Well," he got on his feet and put his hand out for me to take. "We will figure something out," he said. "For now, we have a quest to complete and a lord of the dungeon to outrun," he said.

  I took his hand and got to my feet. The unanswered questions still weighed heavily on my chest. Questions like, did my friends know this side of my existence? Is that why they treated me the way they did? Or is that why Ellie left?

  But before my mind could drag me into my past, and drown me in what ifs. My entire being came to a screeching halt as a bucketful of cold water was poured over my head.

  I gasped as every fiber of my being stretched, and went back to normal.

  "What the hell?" I asked him with chattering teeth.

  "You were covered in blood," he said.

  "So are you," I said, shivering.

  "Ha-Ha-Ha," he laughed, and with one swift motion of his cloak. It became as clean as the night I met him. Unlike me, who was now both filthy and wet.

  A change of clothes from the System shop, and a little grumbling later. Jensen and I finally reached the goblin nest. By now, a good two hours had elapsed since I had spoken to the other lord of the dungeon. If he could have blasted his way through the floor opening, he would have done so by now.

  So Jensen had calmed down a little about that whole situation. Or he was just hiding his worry after seeing the state I was in. Either way, we found about fifty huts made of wood, and about three hundred goblins in them. The lord of the dungeon interface identified the exact number and average level of those goblins.

  "Shall we get started?" I asked him, relaxing my arms by moving them around. Jensen was going to fight along aside me, and that's what gave me the confidence to jump in despite the numbers. Well, that, and the fact that they were half my level. I could most probably one shot most of them, if I wasn’t holding back. Not to boast, but ever since he started buffing me. I pretty much felt unstoppable.

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  "Not yet," said Jensen, yanking me back, and we stayed in the tunnel instead.

  Before I could ask him what the holdup was about.

  Jensen told me that the moment we would have stepped into that dome shaped room, which happened to be the end of that particular tunnel. The goblins would have attacked us, and both of us would have had to fight. Whereas he wanted me to gain the experience for all the kills.

  So we backtracked until we met a bunch of wandering goblins, and he let me fight them so that I could reach level ten. I was hesitant at first. Fearing that if I let go, I will step back into that dark space. But one goblin after another fell, without me going all koo-koo on them.

  Ping!

  Level four goblin slain!

  Exp awarded: 5xp

  P.S As you are the Lord of this Dungeon the xp awarded is reduced by half.

  Ping!

  You have leveled up!!!

  8,000xp Reached…

  Level up!

  Stat points plus five!

  Ping!

  You have reached Level 10, and a system restriction on you will be lifted.

  Choose one of the penalties to be removed from the following!

  Option 1: See the information such as health, special ability, etc, of your minions when you come face to face with them.

  Option 2: Hide the "Lord of the Dungeon" title to mingle in with the adventurers and learn their secrets.

  Option 3: Reactivate your ability to form a party with others.

  "What do we do?" I asked Jensen while we both stood in the tunnel, side by side, staring at my interface. "All the options look good. But the second one can help us when we move down," I said.

  "I know," said Jensen. "But remember what I had asked in our original deal?"

  I looked at him.

  "I want you to take me down to the final boss as soon as you can," he said. "We have spent five days already at these low levels." He paused, with his arms crossed, and eyes on the interface. "With the other lord of the dungeon in the picture. I want to expedite our progress," he said.

  I waited for him to tell me about his decision.

  "Let's go for option three," he said. "I will calibrate the drops, xp, and credits to go to the lowest leveled member of the party."

  My eyebrows raised at that.

  "You would do that?" I asked him.

  He eyed me back. "You are not the only one who is on the clock," he said. "Plus, the faster you level up and get rid of the penalties and gain perks." He paused. "The faster you will be in a position to fight the other lord of the dungeon when he shows up. Which he will," he said.

  A tightness grew in my chest at that. I had to fight that monster who was just a floor above us as we spoke.

  "Let's do it," I said. "But…" I hesitated, scratching the back of my head. "Wouldn't it be like cheating with you power leveling me like that?" I squinted my eyes at him.

  He laughed at that.

  "What?" I asked.

  "Look around," he said. "Is anything fair about the place we are in?" he asked.

  I had no answer to that.

  "If you continue to be this na?ve. The people in the tower will have a field day with you," he said, continuing to chuckle. "Moreover…" he added. "Who said about me killing everything for you?" he asked, with an eyebrow raised. "The floor bosses will still be yours to deal with," he said.

  I nodded at that and looked at the interface.

  The option from the System still stared at me, and I chose option three. To re-activate the ability to form a party with others. The moment I selected that. A tab went green on my interface.

  As everything on the right side of the interface had to do with me being a dungeon lord, and everything on the left had to do with me as an adventurer. The tab of forming parties went green on the left side column of the interface. It was the third tab from the top, and even before I could click on it.

  A prompt was displayed in front of me.

  Ping!

  Jensen wants to form a party with you...

  Accept?

  Yes/No

  I selected yes, and the party tab opened up. It was just Jensen and me. The tag next to Jensen was of a party leader, and the level displayed was eighty three.

  "You are level eighty three?" I asked out much louder than I had intended to.

  "Oi, shh…" said Jensen to me. "We are quite close to the nest," he hissed.

  "Sorry, sorry," I placated my hands, while facing him. "So what rank are you?" I asked in a low voice. "Gold?"

  He nodded.

  "How did you afford to go from silver to gold?" I asked. "It should cost a fortune—"

  "It costs fifty thousand credits," he said.

  My eyebrows raised all the way to the ceiling of the dungeon. Compared to the fifteen thousand I needed to go from bronze to silver. That amount was more than three times that.

  "But that's not that difficult," he said, and my ears twitched. "It's the low xp you get for killing the same mob as you level up." He huffed.

  "How much xp is required to go from silver to gold?" I asked.

  "Additional one hundred thousand xp," he said.

  "So to go from silver to gold. I would need to have a cumulative experience of well over one hundred and fifty thousand xp, and fifty thousand credits." I blinked as the math clicked inside my head about how much money I would need to push my entire family into the gold tier.

  I went quiet after that for a long moment.

  "You are level eighty three," I looked at Jensen. "So your cumulative xp would be way higher." I stared at him in awe. "And you wagered five levels for the system restriction at your level?" I furrowed my eyebrows when that realization hit me. "You are one crazy son of a goblin," I said.

  "Ha-Ha-Ha…" he said, totally forgetting about the goblin nest nearby. "You are a lifetime worth of effort away from reaching my level," he said.

  I eyed my xp, which had just breached eight thousand. And then I eyed my credits, which still hovered around some four thousand as the system didn't award them for every kill. I had given up on finding the math on how many I killed and how I was awarded.

  The interface just popped up in front of me, and crashed my chain of thoughts.

  It was the journal tab same as from two hours ago.

  What's on your mind?

  I read that first line, and was ready to shut it down. But Jensen held my hand. I looked at him to my right, while something was being typed on the screen.

  "Hey, congratulations on hitting level ten," read the message from the other lord of the dungeon.

  "Thank you," said Jensen, and nodded at me to type the same.

  I thought those words, and the system typed them for me.

  "If you don't mind me asking," said the other lord. "Would you let me in on how you managed to gain so many levels in such a short duration?" he asked. "You have gained two levels on average each day, even with the system taking half of your xp."

  "No secret here," said Jensen, and I had that typed next. "Same old, good old, grinding. And…"

  "And?" asked the other lord.

  "How about you catch me, and I tell you?" I typed out and looked at Jensen.

  "Send it," he said, and elbowed me.

  I sighed and sent that text with a thought.

  "Hehehehehe, I like it," he responded. "This is going to be fun."

  Jensen and I shared a look.

  "I can't wait to catch you now," he continued. "I can't wait to rip into you."

  "Well, good luck," I typed out based on Jensen's instructions. "In the meanwhile though, want to see something really crazy?"

  "Yes, please," he said, and sent a wolf's face with the tongue hanging out on one side of the mouth, salivating.

  "Watch me reach level fifteen before the floors open up," I sent, and my heart was thumping in my chest at this point, as Jensen kept nudging that lord of the dungeon through me.

  "Now, now, did you negotiate a restriction with the system?" he asked.

  "Well, well, won't you like to know that?" I responded.

  "Hehehehehe," he sent, and shivers ran down my body.

  "Okay, that's it," I said to Jensen. "I'm out," I said, and shut the whole thing down with my hands shivering again.

  "He is a predator," said Jensen, before I could ask him what the hell he was thinking, provoking a maniac who laughs like that. "He likes the thrill of a chase," he added. "So we give him one. The more unhinged he is. The more mistakes he is bound to make in his excitement."

  "More like rip into me the moment he sees me," I said.

  "You have me," he said, and slapped me on the back.

  That didn't dial down the unease in my chest one bit.

  "I know his kind," he assured me. "He must have tormented Benzo into hiding on floor thirteen," he said. "These kinds of freaks get off while scaring others into submission. If you challenge them, they get unhinged easily."

  "Easy for you to say," I said, eyeing him. "It's not you he is after."

  "Remember our deal?" he asked me. "I have to protect you no matter what," he said.

  That eased up the tightness in my chest a little, and I huffed out while nodding at him.

  "Now, don't we have a quest to clear and unlock your inventory?" he asked.

  *****