Aaron settled down in the camp and closed his eyes. There was 0% chance he would break through if he cultivated with the spirit. So it was fine to absorb the spirit right here. He was not as vulnerable as he would be breaking through to another minor realm. But he doubted anyone would disturb him and he was fairly sure he could interrupt the process without much danger. Some of the Qi would be wasted maybe, but that was about it.

So it was time to get his reward for doing this mission. 6 more spirits to devour would give him a nice boost in cultivation, maybe one or two breakthroughs, getting him closer to the Foundation realm. One thing at a time though. Aaron slowed his breathing and started to meditate, let himself relax after the rapid rush of fighting and focused on the here and now. Absorbing the spirit ended up being easy. Comfortable. It was the largest spirit he had ever absorbed but he was also the strongest he had ever been. His Qi dissolved the spirit like every one before it and his control was more than sufficient to hold that spirit in place. The fresh Qi filled his dantian and yet it barely made a dent in his incredibly sizable dantian. When Aaron was done absorbing the spirit his dantian was barely half full. Which meant he would have to absorb two more spirits to break through to the sixth realm. Despite how strong the spirits were it was barely enough. He doubted that he would reach the seventh realm, which was a disappointment. But getting to the sixth was good enough for now.

He stood up after he had finished cultivation, stretched and then went over to the Prisoners, who sat in the back of the camp and spoke quietly to one another, retelling what happened to the two reunited members. They stared at Aaron as he stepped closer to them.

"You are next, healer boy." Aaron said and grabbed him by his bound hands.

"No, please, you don't have to do this." he protested and the girl, the ranger threw herself at Aaron.

"Leave him alone!" she yelled, but she was weaker than a kitten to Aaron. Her desperate attack more hindrance than anything else. She was a normal person now, so she was slow and powerless to his eyes.

"Oh please, don't be so dramatic. I am not gonna kill him. He loses a few months of progress. You are all young, don't waste your life on a futile fight." Aaron said with an eye roll. Then he swatted the girl away that was trying to claw his eyes out and lifted the boy up by the back of his neck, like a dog would with a puppy. Aaron formed the Qi construct of Soul Stealer and touched the boys back. He felt the spirit, latched onto it and ripped it off the man's body. Miran stiffened and his flailing increased, before Aaron let him go and he fell face first into the arms of his teammates.

"There, done." Aaron said and turned away from then, ignoring their protests and outrage. The insults of 'monster' and 'asshole' were barely noticeable. But Aaron did note that Myria, the leader of the group did not partake in these insults. She tried to calm everyone down instead. Either way they would not be his problem for much longer. Aaron sat down at the campfire and ate three big bowls of stew before his hunger was not unbearable anymore. It was still eating a hole through his stomach, but it was enough to sustain himself at least. There was not enough food going around and Aaron had found an interesting phenomenon while breaking through and cultivating with spirits this frequently much. He did not get as hungry while absorbing a lot of Qi. Which was a welcome reprieve from always feeling like he had to eat a full feast to sate his hunger. It had still been mildly distracting before and he felt better now with some food in his stomach, as little as it was.

"I'm gonna take a nap, wake me if they try anything." he said and chose one of the sleeping bags that did not smell much. His oversensitive nose made most of the tents very unappealing. He settled down next to the camp fire and stretched a bit before he laid down.

"Sure thing." Shia said with a big yawn herself, while she sat on a rock next to the fire, looking over the camp.

Aaron tried his best to settle down, closed his eyes and tried to slow his breathing, but it was difficult to find any actual sleep. His mind was too active. He had finished this mission, all he had to do now was to take the spirits and rank up. But then what? Aaron's plans for the future were not as clear cut. This mission had taken far longer than he had wanted it to and it had taught him a lot about the tower. Two floors had been explored if not outright conquered and yet, Aaron knew how many were still above him. It would take ages to climb at his current pace. Sure he would be faster without this group, but only marginally, since they could guide him through the difficult to navigate floors. He also wanted to finish his business on the first floor, build a proper shelter in the forest for convenience when he would stay on that floor. Which would be frequent considering his teachers were imprisoned on the first floor. So after finishing up this mission he had to check on what he had ordered Iris to build.

But what should he do after that? Continue doing missions for Mars and rapidly climb in cultivation ranks like he was doing right now? Aaron felt like this might be a mistake. His proficiency in combat had not risen as much as his Cultivation and he knew that mastery of the Heavenly Kata and Wind Steps would be the true measure of being able to move up the tower safely.

The fifth floor was calling to him for many reasons. There were supposedly real monsters with beast cores he could endlessly hunt on that floor and above. Which meant he would have an alternative source of Qi and more importantly monsters he could train on. True life and death challenges like the fight with the Darkstalker. Hunting people, as lucrative as it was, was much more annoying and potentially dangerous than hunting beasts and brought with it many not immediately visible risks, like family members coming for him, if they found out who killed their loved ones. But Monsters he could farm and train on as much as he liked that would give him monster cores on top of that? That was a natural resource that would probably respawn infinitely. It sounded like the perfect training ground for him to grind until he was finally in the foundation realm. Sure he could continue hunting Vessels for their spirits and he would if the opportunity arose, but he had to stick to Mars commissions for now. Unless he had someone backing him or he was able to make the entire party vanish it would backfire on him if he went out of his way to hunt other Adventuring parties. Besides the most trouble would be to find them. Their group had only met other people by chance once on their journey, so the chance of him finding any party to steal spirits from was remote to say the least.

Besides Aaron had enough of being hunted and would love to fade into the background for a few years at least.

So hunting monsters with beast cores sounded like a better alternative. But it did have downsides. It would slow down his progress to a crawl and he guessed it would take him months probably a year until he had amassed enough power this way to ascend to the foundation realm. But Aaron had time. He did not need to rush. He could spend a year without blinking an eye. He would live for centuries. It was still hard to wrap his head around that fact.

Aaron forced himself to slow his breathing even further and tried to relax. Eventually he focused on the fire crackling nearby. The sound of the fire put every other noise in the background and sleep embraced him at last.

When Aaron woke up just a few hours later he felt refreshed. His need for sleep had decreased steadily with his cultivation rank, but still his mind felt much clearer after a good nights rest. Like he had rested for days. Lazily he started stretching and fell back into his routine. Which earned him a wide eyed stare by Shia who walked past.

"How...just...how?" she asked as Aaron paused mid movement, his own foot on his shoulders, before Aaron released the stretch.

"Training." Was all he said and Shia shook her head in disbelief.

Aaron continued stretching, but decided not to do the katas here, it would be only half as effective without training the Unceasing Palm kata anyways. So instead he ate a hearty breakfast. He was actually glad he had the group to cook for him although the food was only mediocre and not enough. His hunger was the best spice. He devoured a whole pot of stew that had bubbled over the fire during the night and some hard tack as a bread substitute.

His basic needs taken care of he settled down to meditate and absorb the next spirit. But Roger came over and Aaron opened his eyes when the Ranger stopped in front of him.

"So, how is it going?" Roger asked casually and Aaron raised his eyebrows.

"5 more to go. 4 Vessels left."

"I see...well we can wait until you are done with this spirit and then go for the kids camp."

"Thanks." Aaron said and waited for the Ranger to continue. Roger looked awkward and then chuckled.

"So after we get back from their camp we thought you could help us out maybe?"

"I am all ears."

"As you know the price of crystal dust has been astronomically high on the first floor and so we got a little bonus mission. Bring as much dust as we can carry. Most of which will add up to a nice bonus at the end of the mission. We will have to leave someone with Stab here to guard the kids, so just three of us gonna have a hard time clearing out nests of the damn moths very quickly."

"And so you want to ask me if I could clear them out for you."

"With us. Unless you insist on doing it on your own."

Aaron thought about it and shrugged.

"On one condition."

"Sure, what?"

"Teach me the fastest way through to the fifth floor."

"From here or from the start of the floor?"

"From the start."

"Heh, you plan on going up to the fifth floor on the regular?" Roger asked with a smirk.

"Absolutely and I would rather not spend days trying to figure out a way through this labyrinth of a floor."

"I assume you don't mind fighting, considering you said the fastest route?"

"No problem with fighting."

"Well sure, I can do that. The shortest route leads through 6 big monster nests though, each with their own boss."

"But its the fastest?"

"By a lot actually, depending on how fast you can kill the bosses."

"How long?"

"Well considering your strength and around half an hour for a boss…. Around 6 hours to go from the start of the fourth floor to the closest way up."

"Sounds reasonable, I'll help you make some extra shards then."

"Great, after we come back from looting the kids camp?"

"Sure."

Aaron settled back down and concentrated on absorbing the spirit. It was a slow process this time, because he got distracted by the people walking around and the silent chatter of the Prisoners. His concentration was directly proportional to the amount of distraction around him. His senses were just too good. It was difficult to ignore the distractions while trying to focus on one sense to make the others disappear. Only after he had spent a long time to get to the tranquil place of sensory deprivation where all his senses had collapsed in on themselves and only his dantian was left in his mind. Only then did he start. There were no differences in the spirits depending on the class they had, only their total level, so just the strength of the spirit counted. Slowly Aaron absorbed the spirit, filling his dantian more and more with usable Qi after cycling it. Aaron drew upon all the Qi in his body, on all the Qi created by his body from absorbing mana and then channeled it into the Fiend-god art. The cultivation session lasted about an hour, Aaron guessed when he woke up from the deeply meditative work.

This had felt almost as refreshing as sleeping. He opened his eyes feeling calm and controlled. His senses on a leash, yet sensitive and all encompassing. His dantian was filled to around 80% and Aaron knew he would only need one more of the spirits to progress. He stood up and the group stirred when he did so.

Shia, Roger and Mortimer were in full battle regalia and all three of them had big backpacks on their backs that usually were carried by the two warriors, but were now evenly split. Shia being the most petite got the smallest backpack, but it was clearly empty and Roger strung up his bow when Aaron approached.

"Finally done with sitting around sleeping?" Shia asked with a smirk.

"Yep, we can go if you want to."

"Yes, lets head out." Roger said and called out to Stab and Robin.

"Take care of our guests."

"Will do, no worries." Robin answered and Stab just nodded. Aaron paused.

"Oh yeah, let me make this easier on you. I'll take another spirit with me." he said and went over to the group of prisoners who looked absolutely terrified. Miran was visibly sick, his skin pale as he laid with his head on Cloe's lap. Ketris was still in the same position and the rest of the group were looking at him like he was their executioner. Aaron decided to take Ken's spirit next, his ability was the most dangerous that was left besides Myria herself and she was not as impressive without a sword.

He knelt down next to the boy and Kentris straightened and looked Aaron in the eyes, defiant, but he did not defend himself.

"Sorry, but you warriors will be twice as sick as the others. Make sure he does not die by accident. Lay him on the side so he can't choke on his own vomit." Aaron said and the boy blanched before him.

"I have an offer for you, Aaron." Myria said very silently, barely a whisper, but Aaron could hear her of course and looked at her.

"I am not gonna stop taking your spirits."

"You don't have to. We need to go to the first floor to get all our spirits back either way. But I would rather do that as soon as possible and not when the red-light district wants us to." she said quietly.

"Oh? And why would I help you with that?"

"We know a lot of things, things that can help you. About the tower and cultivators."

"Right, we had this conversation before."

"Yes, but I am willing to tell you a bit to ensure you of our sincerity." Aaron raised and eyebrow and then reached out with soul catcher and took Ken's spirit. The stoic boy gasped and sagged back against the wall. His breathing harsh and Myria looked distressed for only a moment before she continued whispering very quickly.

"There are elevators in the walls of the tower only Cultivators can use. Upstairs we have people called the Elevator wardens. Cultivators from the time of the Rebellion on the fortieth floor. Their cultivation has been shattered and they have been enslaved to operate the elevators at our behest. But they still remember the time before the gap, remember everything. They could be a valuable resource of knowledge, techniques, everything."

"I knew about the elevators, but it is interesting that there are Cultivators who are still alive from so long ago. How does this matter to me?"

"We can give you access to them, can tell you some of their knowledge."

"Nothing you can tell me would be worth it. They would not divulge their techniques to you and even if, I doubt they are commonly known to kids like you. No, if your Nation had their knowledge it would be a secret you have no acess to or you would have more Cultivators upstairs." Aaron said and Myria faltered.

"Please, I can promise you access to them once you reach the 50th floor, a free escort up to the 52nd floor and a warm welcome."

Aaron chuckled darkly.

"Yeah? Your people would do that out of the kindness of their hearts? Please, they would try to kill or enslave me if they could. Besides by the time I am up there I won't need your help." Aaron shook his head.

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

"Accept your fate. Mars is ambitious and shrewd, but he is reasonable as far as I can tell. Tell him what he wants to know and he will let you go. I will not help you." Aaron said and stood up. He walked back to the group waiting for him and he followed Roger out of the camp into the rest of the fourth floor.

"What was that all about?" Roger asked Aaron curiously.

"The kids are trying to hire me with some information and assurances." Aaron said with a chuckle.

"But they have nothing I want or need, so don't worry. I will deliver them to Mars just like the mission asks me to."

"Good. Not that we could stop you." Roger said with a small shrug.

Aaron chuckled and fell in line behind the Ranger with Shia behind him and Mortimer brought up the rear.

"I have done too much shit to get an alliance with you people to throw it away like that." Aaron said and Roger nodded. They moved through the tunnels and Aaron guided the way, told them where monster nests where and of what kind and how to move around them. Roger apparently had no problem with this, but he did ask Aaron to be on the lookout for Moth nests.

The group reached the lava cave after only like 15 minutes of walking, as Aaron could take more risks with the group of Vessels around him. They did not have to fight once, but they got close to some of the monster nests. The low light they traveled with was bad for Aaron's ability to look into the darkness and it always took a while to really get a good look. Most of the times it was not necessary through. His other senses told him all he had to know. His ears and his sense of smell did the most work. The lava cave stunk of sulfur and was completely abandoned. Shia went to work immediately checking out the camp, while Roger looked for Traps. Mortimer went over to the furnace and studied it with interest. Aaron just stood back and let them do their work. He had no real idea of the value of any of these things and so he observed and learned.

Roger did not find any traps, but he said some of the alchemical powders the Alchemist had used could be quite explosive and he left almost all of them there. It was too risky and none of them were able to distinguish the powders, so taking them was incredibly risky. Mortimer was disappointed as well, saying that the metal in the forge was nothing special. Just steel. Aaron guessed the special class he had taken was the reason Ken did this and yet they did not come out of this with nothing.

Shia collected valuables like shards from the tents and the discarded clothes the kids had left behind. She also found some small books Roger was excited about. They were encrypted diaries with dates, but unreadable contents. Or they might be something entirely different. But they took them with them either way. The raw materials were the best find except the shards. Mostly alchemical in nature and there were a few beastcores and higher ranking manastones hidden around the camp. Shia found them all and then folded up some clothes before putting them into Mortimer's backpack.

"Gotta give the kids something to wear, or they will be miserable going down the Tower as normal people." Shia explained and when they were done with the camp, they left. There was nothing here they wanted and they left everything they could not use behind. Such as the spell scroll book. Which none of them could safely use and as such they ignored entirely.

"Not a bad haul, although not as much if we split it 6 ways." Shia complained.

"The real money is gonna come from what we are doing next." Roger assured her and Aaron lead the group out of the lava cave and followed his nose to the next moth nest.

It was a fair distance away, but the acrid smell was unmistakable. After another 30 minutes of walking they reached a moth nest. This one even had a light pool and a boss in it.

Roger peered into the cave and then ducked back into the darkness.

"Alright, those are moths used to the light, so they won't go crazy. This is an actually dangerous nest. So focus, please. I will give you fire support from the back, Mortimer tanks and Shia intercepts. Aaron can I ask you to kill the boss?"

"Sure, it sounds just like a very big moth to me."

"It basically is. Lots of big insectile limbs with sharp mandibles though."

"No problem."

"Good. Make sure you have your masks on so you don't get done in by the dust. We will fight at the entrance until the boss is dead and then retreat back to where we are now. The tunnel is higher than the cave the nest is in, so the dust will stay below. We can draw them in and take a breath while doing so. Got it?"

"Yep."

"Sure, boss."

Aaron nodded although he was sure only Shia would notice that gesture in the light conditions they were in.

"I'll start then."

"Go ahead."

Aaron stepped out of the dim light of their glowstones and into the cave. The group followed behind him and Aaron leapt into the air with a Wind Step empowered jump. The cave was vaguely round and had more than one entrance. A light pool glimmered in the deepest part of the cave, giving everything a surreal shine. The moths were everywhere. Almost every surface was taken up by the winged pests and they fluttered and stirred when they detected Aaron barging into their midst. The moth boss was massive. Its giant wings were scaly, almost armored and the pattern on it was black on a brighter gray base. Its thorax ended in many legs that all had hook like claws that looked sharp enough to eviscerate even people in armor. It had two more mobile arms at the front towards its head, multifaceted eyes and giant sharp mandibles in front of a horrible looking maw. Its two fluffy antennas were the size of a fully grown man and it flapped its great wings and took flight almost as soon as Aaron stepped into the cave. It turned towards Aaron too slowly though.

Aaron accelerated by jumping of a stalactite and then dove into the wing of the beast. His fists imbued with Qi he crashed into the boss monster with full force. There was an audible crack as first his fist than the rest of him burst through the wing with all of his momentum carrying him further until the tough exoskeleton halted his charge. Instead of crashing into it, Aaron flipped over one of its legs and onto the giant moths back. Dust billowed out from the wings, enveloping Aaron in a single moment and making it hard to see where he was going. Aaron held his breath, but the acrid chemical dust irritated his eyes more than anything. He blinked furiously, tears in his eyes as he smashed into the back of the moths head. It skittered and flew aside, but with the hole in one of its wings it was far less mobile. It careened to the side smashing into a few stalagmites and was almost impaled by a pair of stalactites, before it crashed to the ground, taking dozens of moths with it, crushing them under its massive weight.

Aaron kept going with his assault, his fists bashing into the carapace, each blow sounding like a sledgehammer coming down on concrete, but for now there were only a few cracks in the chitin for his efforts. Moths swarmed around him, their furious attack unceasing. Aaron defended himself, swatted a whole group out of the air, before smashing into the same spot on the back of the boss again. The boss reared up, using one sharp leg to scythe across its back. But Aaron simply jumped over it and used the momentum of his jump to smash back down, finally breaking the carapace. There was a deep pained screech before Aaron's second fist turned the moths innards into mush. The moth started to flail wildly as Aaron buried his fists in its nervous system and for a few moments the boss turned the surroundings into a blender of wild flailing sharp limbs. Then it screeched and died finally. Aaron was covered in the moths blood and in more dust than he had ever imagined could exist. He closed his eyes while tears ran down his cheeks flushing out the dust.

For a few minutes Aaron just stood there, destroying any moth that came close to him, using the Unceasing palm kata with his eyes closed, let his ears alone guide his movements. When his eyes did not burn anymore and he started to want to take a breath. Aaron jumped into the air and opened his eyes. The cave was a scene of carnage, the three Vessels with him had turned the entrance to the cave they had come from into a knee deep graveyard of moths and Aaron could hear them still fighting up the tunnel against the rest of the moths. Around the boss corpse were around twice the amount of dead moths and when Aaron took a slow breath almost at the ceiling of the cave, he could feel the alchemicals. It was a dizzy feeling that vanished in just a moment. Aaron guessed it was his body working significantly better at handling intoxicating substances. He could not get drunk anymore, because his body processed the alcohol too quickly and this was similar. As long as the dose was low, it had almost no affect on him.

He spent the next ten minutes finishing off any moths in the cave, swatting them down and turning their squishy bodies into meaty stains around the two moth grave sites. When he was done Aaron went into the tunnel. Mortimers greatsword was stained with moth blood, as was his armor. Shia on the other hand had only splutters of the moths and Roger looked almost entirely fine. Aaron noticed the many arrows sticking out of moth heads all around him while he walked into the light. Mortimer flinched, but calmed down immediately.

"You take care of the boss?" Roger asked as he ripped out an arrow out of a moth.

"Yep, was pretty easy, the cave is clear of moths, but almost filled to the top with airborne dust."

"Great job, lets wait here until it has settled down."

Shia sniffed and looked at both Mortimer and Aaron with disgust.

"I could not go on the frontlines like you guys. The stench and the dirt alone." she shuddered.

"You would look just the same if you had not ducked behind me every damn opportunity you got." Mortimer complained.

"Ah but you are our tank, I have to utilize you or I would do a disservice to this team." she said with a smirk.

"At least give me some of that soap stuff of yours." Mortimer grumbled.

"Yeah, I would appreciate that too. But I think we will get covered in moth guts again real soon if we hit another Moth nest." Aaron said and sat down on a nearby rock.

"I gotta get myself multiple stain resistant outfits somehow. Because this sucks."

"You could try dodging the blood and gore you produce you know."

"That would leave me open to get attacked though. Remember I fight alone, no big metal shield like Mortimer for me."

"I still don't get why you don't fight with other people."

"Because people are unreliable." Aaron said and then sighed. "No, I guess that is not fair. I just never had anyone who was not hunting me before. Never had the chance to work together with someone."

"Well, wanna try for the next nest? Mortimer is a great meat shield."

"I am still listening you know." Mortimer said and Shia chuckled.

"I mean unless there is another boss, sure. Moths are not the greatest training anymore." Aaron said with a nod.

The group waited a few more minutes until Roger decided it was time. Then they got small hand shovels and small brooms out of their backpacks and started to gather the dust that covered every surface in a thick layer. Aaron and Mortimer were tasked with removing the corpses, or at least making a path before cleaning themselves in the light pool. Then Mortimer joined his teammates to gather up dust. They had a very careful routine making sure not to disturb the settled dust. They scooped some with their shovel and then put the broom on top of it to keep it from billowing out before depositing it very slowly into smaller cloth bags. Once a bag was filled it was put into the backpacks. Aaron ended up helping them because it took ages to do this even with three people. They spent almost an hour on collecting the dust until the cave was basically clean.

"Uargh I hate doing this. My back hurts from bowing down that much." Shia complained.

"Just think about all the shard this is worth." Roger said, closing the last bag and looking over the cave once more.

"I think we are done here. Lets take on one more nest and we should have enough for our quota."

"This was a rather large nest of the buggers." Mortimer said while he polished his breastplate with a cloth.

Aaron had washed his own clothes with Shia's solution and was glad to be clean again, although he guessed it would not stay that way for long. Roger turned to him as they put their backpacks back on.

"You know of any other nests close by?"

"I would not say close by but yeah."

"Great, lead the way then."

Aaron lead the group out of the moth nest into the fourth floor, he chose the path based of his memory at first and only after around 15 minutes he found the right smell and knew they were more or less on the right track. It was easy to go around monster nests as they each had their signature scents. But sometimes this lead to rather long detours to avoid the monsters and so Aaron stopped in front of a tunnel.

"There is an ant nest in between us and the next moth nest. Would take us around 30 minutes to find a way around. Alternative is to fight the ants or go dark."

"Go dark?" Shia asked with raised eyebrows.

"Yeah, the ants leave you alone without light, we can just stroll through and if something happens we can always fight. But you gotta trust me and walk in the dark through a nest full of monsters." Aaron said with a shrug.

"You are not filling me with confidence, Aaron. I mean we have done it before to open that shortcut, but I do not like it."

"Its no big deal. If it fails we can always fight." Roger said and got out the bag where he kept glowstones and opened it before putting his glowstone in.

"Fine, if you are sure." Shia said with a grumble and the whole group extinguished the lights.

"Grab on the shoulder of the one in front of you, Mortimer in the back, Roger in the middle, Shia in front." Aaron said and guided them in the darkness. It made the most sense to go by height, Shia would have trouble following Mortimer since she could not hold onto his shoulder without stretching out her arm up. Satisfied with them he put Shia's hand on his shoulder.

"Just follow me, slow even steps."

The group started to walk down the tunnel entrance and they could all hear the skittering of big insect feet on stone and the distinct clicking by sharp mandibles. In the absolute darkness it was sounds and distance that governed your steps. His feet felt for anything and slowly he guided them forward. The tunnel took a while to cross and afterwards they directly walked into the ant nest. Aaron had to navigate the group past one of their paths and so the moving insects all around them made for a really scary soundscape. But none of the insects bothered them in the dark. Some even turned around upon realizing there was an obstruction in their path. They walked slowly and the Vessels behind him flinched whenever they heard something close by or they felt something bump into them. Luckily none of them screamed, although it was a close thing at times. They exited the cave without problem and Aaron stopped.

"Alright, you can take out your lights again."

"Oh thank the Lord." Mortimer murmured.

They all hurried to get glowstones out and they blinked wearily into the light.

"That was absolutely terrifying." Shia said with a shudder.

"I would rather fight them next time."

"Agreed." Roger said, looking distinctly uncomfortable.

Aaron chuckled.

"Its was faster though. The next moth nest is not far."

They reached a cave that had a fairly low ceiling and looked down into the moth nest. Aaron pointed it out and Roger nodded.

"Okay, if you are fighting with us, stay behind Mortimer, take his right side and just take care of any moths that come from there if you can. Shie will take his left, but Mortimer will take the brunt of the bunch."

Aaron nodded and got into position, he was always ready, since he did not rely on weapons. But it was a novel experience to fight with someone. They slowly moved down the tunnel in formation.

"We will pull them back up here, so move back if you get overwhelmed. Look at your teammates and react accordingly. I will cover you with my bow."

When the first light of their glowstones hit the moth nest the insects woke up and with a fluttering whoosh. They came at them in a wave bringing with them the dust like a small sandstorm. Aaron stayed back, his feet in stance for the Rejuvenating Fist as he let the moths come to them. Two arrows flew past their heads, burying themselves in moths and taking down clusters of the swarm coming for them. Then Mortimer stepped forward and roared, before swinging his giant sword horizontally and taking down a whole score of the insects. Aaron dove to his side, slapping moths out of the air with the Unceasing palm kata, for now just defended Mortimer. Shia on the other side had a different strategy, she let the moths attack Mortimer and then cut them down while they were busy futilely biting into the metal of the armor. Her daggers flashed blindingly fast and she only needed one swipe of the weapons to finish them off. The moths were as fragile as they had always been and Mortimer soon started to take care of Shia's side. He stood his ground and any moths who flew past them were taken down by precise shots from Roger. Most of the moths died to Mortimer's big, heavy swings that moved in an arc from the left to the right, taking in his momentum. The hits were taken by his armor and Aaron tried his best not to get in his way and take down any offending moths.

It was far easier to fight this way than he had expected. Aaron did not really have to defend, he just had to help Mortimer not get surrounded. On a call from Roger they moved backwards, leaving behind dozens of corpses and a billowing cloud of dust. Their slow retreat helped keep up the pace and Aaron fell into a routine. He slapped one moth after another out of the air, his strength making them pop like meat balloons. It took a while to fight this way but none of them were in any real danger. Mortimer's armor took the brunt of the attacks and the man seemed unbothered by the amount of enemies crowding his front side. After 20 minutes the swarm was thinning out and eventually Mortimer cut down the last moth with a quick cut. He sighed and then looked down on himself.

"Dirty all over again."

Shia and Aaron were almost without any moth guts this time, except Aaron's hands and arms that were covered in the stuff. Aaron studied the big warrior who shook off the most egregious gore.

"How exactly does this work? You should be cut up all over from those moths."

"Oh, I have a skill. Its called [Barrier], protects the rest of my body like it is covered by the armor I wear. Which is why its important that armor stays intact. The more armor I wear, the better. With the greatsword and my size I am basically there to take all small enemies and defeat swarms of them."

"Huh, interesting."

"Its a really common skill in Emnu's Army, turns into something much stronger at higher levels they call Aegis. Supposed to be able to protect a whole group, but I am nowhere close to that yet."

"Hmm and how did you guys kill bosses then? Without Stab I mean."

"I am our boss killer." Roger said and started to collect arrows, ripping them out of the corpses and inspecting them carefully. "I am a precision Sniper, not many shots, but I can make them very strong and I am always precise."

"Robin usually tanks the big hits with his shield, he is more like a Bulwark, able to take the heavy hits with his shield, but he needs to get close, so the axe makes sense. I have more range, people use halberds or poleaxes with my class too. I just like the nimbleness of a sword and the option to cut and stab properly." Mortimer explained while he started to clean his armor.

"Does he always do that? Clean his armor after a fight?"

"Oh yes, every time. But we haven't been fighting much or at all." Shia said with a smirk. "Just like I don't have to use my throwing knives in fights like this."

"Too easy?"

"We follow the old philosophy of stats and basics. Have good stats to give you an advantage and use the basics to deal with everything as long as you can. Skills are great, but only useful when you have them off cooldown. There is no point in building a strategy around them if you don't have the option to always use them. Skills are there to deal with unexpected things and mistakes." Roger explained.

"Or bosses." Mortimer cut in.

"Or bosses, yes. But we have killed bosses without skills just to ensure we could. All part of training and making sure we are not reliant on a mage."

"Which makes you so unfair, Aaron." Shia said with a pout.

"You kill anything almost instantly and you defend yourself somehow and you can almost fly. God I wish I could fly like you." she said with a hint of longing.

"Its not really flight, just a very strange jump."

"Same thing if it allows me to do the stuff you can do."

The group waited for a good 15 minutes while they reclaimed arrows, Mortimer cleaned his armor and they moved the corpses aside so not to block the cave. The dust settled slowly and then they spent the next hour collecting it and pouring it into small cloth bags. It was tedious work and yet strangely calming. Eventually they were done and Roger put the last cloth bag into one of the three by now entirely filled backpacks.

"That was a good haul. Few people farm these nests down here. Just too far off the usual paths." Roger said satisfied.

"Lets return to camp. We can get some more camps when we are ready to return to the first floor."

Aaron lead them down tunnels, avoiding most of the dangers, but keeping the way back relatively short. It still took more than an hour to return. If they had just fought their way through it would have taken far less time, but they did not want to risk bursting the cloth bags in their backpacks. When they entered the cave where they had their camp Aaron turned around.

"I am gonna go take a bath. I still feel like the moth guts is sticking to my skin." he said and Roger nodded.

"Sure go ahead, thanks for your help."

"No problem, just make me a map up to the fifth floor or something."

"I will mark the map we have with the shortest route for you. You can have it after this. I can get another one easily enough."

"Awesome." Aaron said and waved before he walked off into the darkness. It was time to break through to the next minor realm and then they would finally go back to the first floor. Aaron was so looking forward to some proper food. The meals he had endured so far were barely enough to sate his hunger, not to speak of his appetite. He longed for some properly cooked and seasoned food, but one thing after the other. Now he just needed to find a good spot to bathe and have his breakthrough.

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