I couldn’t let myself just drown in misery, though. I needed to do something, and so did Crudia. To be honest, I was… sad that Fink was gone. But I didn’t expect Crudia to be so down as well. As far as I knew, she barely talked to the guy.

  I stepped closer, Talisha’s calming whispers still inaudible. I grabbed Crudia’s shoulder, getting her attention, and gently supported her so she’d stand up. “Hey, Crudia. You okay?”

  “No.” She said with another shaky breath. “But I will be.”

  “Good. We need to go help clean up. I still haven’t received any quest notification for completing the objective.” I did receive several notifications though. Some skill levels and such. But I ignored that for now. I could look them over when I had the time. “Thank you for saving me, Crudia. Again.” I wrapped my arm around her, and felt her lean in for a short moment, after which she separated and looked around.

  “Let’s go kill those wolves.” She looked into the distance again, right at Bryga who was still somewhat visible. Dusk was a smaller figure, barely keeping up.

  “You think they’ll come back?” Talisha asked hopefully, the question aimed at Mark.

  He shook his head. “Doubt it. And if they get too far, we’ll be seeded at a different location on the second floor.”

  That was great information to learn just a few hours before the final day ended. Really, a cherry on top.

  “That’s great. Let’s just hope they get back?” I looked at Mark questioningly.

  He nodded, pointing to the few remaining wolves at the ground. “Yeah, no use just sitting here and drowning in misery. Let’s complete the quest, loot the dragon, and look at the rewards. Standing here and hoping they get back won’t help us.”

  “How long until the floor ends?” Talisha asked.

  “Hmmm. It ends at eleven PM, or so the guides said. We’ve got a few hours.”

  I nodded, and carefully slid down from the head of the dragon, dropping the last few paces with a thump. Already I could see Anthony scuttling from the torso of the dragon, headed straight for me.

  “Your highness Shrimpie! The quest has been accomplished! Her majesty Majorica the First would be most pleased!” He jumped in one spot several times, his antennae and front two feet moving up and down in a linear move.

  Crudia giggled right at my side. She didn’t even make a sound as she dropped from the dragon. “I’ve been focused on the dragon before, so I didn’t focus, but is that the ant you told me about before, Shrimpie?” Crudia bent a little, looking at him with a smile. “He looks like a fun creature! It’s a pleasure to meet you… uhhh.”

  “The name is Anthony, milady! You must be Shrimpie’s companion! I am pleased that he has strong bodyguards, certainly!” His antennae pointed to Crudia, and he extended one of his legs for a handshake. Crudia giggled, though I saw the underlying emotion in her face still, and shook it. Anthony should really learn how to read the room, that guy.

  “Aye, boss! Seen our protect lad, duh?” Another voice sounded from behind me, immediately registered as the weird voice of Gummz. “Also, where these ants come from, duh? They helped us kill the beasties real good, duh!”

  “Is this one of your other compatriots, your majesty? How fascinating.” Anthony looked at Gummz and proceeded to do a full circle around him. “Turning former enemies into allies! How marvellous!”

  “Eh, nice to meet ya too, duh!” Gummz scratched his head, visibly awkward because of the scrutiny. “Boss, where is the Playa? Our protect goal, duh.”

  I took a deep breath, steadying myself. “Dead.”

  Gummz’s eyes went wide. “We… failed?” He looked at me, and I could see the clear surprise in his eyes.

  I let the silence answer him. My thoughts were still a whirlwind, and talking about it… wasn’t something I wanted to do at the moment.

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  Suddenly, without us needing to do a thing, a notification appeared in front of my eyes.

  Quest completed.

  Reward: An Epic Evolution

  Choose your reward in the selection menu.

  Still devastated, I felt a small glimmer of hope. Fink was dead, and I wasn’t sure if Bryga and Dusk would make it back. But we’ve done it.

  Our first step to advancing beyond the others.

  …

  The rest of the day passed in a whir, one event happening after the other. Without Dusk here to coordinate the city, it was safe to say that it became really chaotic. Who stepped up, unexpectedly, was Talisha. She told me and Crudia exactly what to say when we needed to calm someone down, how to talk to a soldier to shut him up, and other things I’d not think of on my own. It still took hours to count up the numbers of the soldiers. More than a third of the city was dead.

  Everyone who lived to tell the tale took it as something worth celebrating.

  Gummz, Anthony and their armies lost more soldiers, but I guessed the fact they battled the dragon himself had a play in that. Neither of them seemed to be sad about their losses, at any rate. The opposite, in fact. They seemed to be more cheerful about the victory than the humans were, and the two got along so well that it was uncanny.

  The dragon was so heavy that there just wasn’t a chance of getting him into our inventories. Mark ordered me to at least collect several of the scales, and I also looted the inventory of the dragon. Although I didn’t plan on going through the items at first, one of the items stopped me from ignoring it.

  The save cube

  Grade: Legendary

  We won’t bother you with long explanations this time. As much as we’d like to watch you suffer through reading another of our lengthy descriptions, we don’t have much time, and there are a few eyes on you who want to see you use this item. So, what does it do? Simple.

  It captures a creature inside, one that you befriended, alongside all of the creatures under its influence. Once inside, they can be transferred in between floors.

  Warning: The creature inside cannot be released until the player is on a NPC-Controlling floor later in the tournament.

  Interesting. It was a bit sad that the highest-quality item wasn’t something that would make me stronger individually, but the ants and goblins won us this battle as much as each of the players did. I could sadly only take one of them, and the time to choose was limited.

  Anthony and Gummz chattered in the distance, and looked at me as I walked near. How to use the item was engraved into my mind, and though there was hesitation, I pressed it to his forehead.

  I’d love to battle alongside him again. He watched, confused, and disappeared into motes of lights, followed by all of his kin around. It took me a moment to realize that I was disappearing into motes of lights once again as well. I met Mark’s gaze, then Crudia’s and Talisha’s, and we went into a circle. Hopefully we’d see Dusk and Bryga soon enough.

  The text started appearing in front of my eyes as I lost the feeling in my arms.

  Stage 1: Complete

  Surviving players: 605 327

  Hello players!

  We’re very pleased with the results of this tournament so far! Not only have you managed to almost hit a new record on surviving species on the first floor, you’ve also managed to create several spectacles to watch! Really, the gods are really pleased with your performance so far!

  Now is the fun part! The ratings! We’ve watched with excitement, but even though we can be at several places at once, we cannot all watch everyone with scrutiny. These ten players have performed really well, however, and they have amounted to giving out the most entertainment! As a reward, they will be given 20 stat points, and 10 thousand gold for each position on the ladder!

  But fear not! If you want to catch up, all you have to do is be more interesting! Or kill one of them. A death of one of these top 10 players will result in getting twice of their gold reward, and also 30 stat points. Have fun hunting!

  The top 10:

  1. Panda - Killer Whale

  2. Jaws - Hippopotamus

  3. Eco - Honey Badger

  4. Xila - Orchid Mantis

  5. Tie - Polar Bear

  6. Speedy - Huntsman Spider

  7. Ogu - Tapanuli Orangutan

  8. Atty - Common Raven

  9. Max - Giant Red Velvet Worm

  10. Shrimpie - Peacock Mantis Shrimp

  And that’s it for the announcement! Your bodies will be reconstructed on the new floor, and you’ll be free to go! Those who reached the level 24 threshold will be soon be leveling to level 25, and will be allowed to select their class!

  Now go out there, and level up!

  I didn’t even get to process the text completely, just barely managed to process being in the top 10. My body dissolved painlessly, and I entered the void again.