The [Monk] smiled in front of him. They were seated in the dining room in a random house they had chosen. Hollowness dominated the house, and it was calming to the point it was almost eerie. After the bird attack, this sudden change in scenery was a bit too much for Suna’s mental capacity. He still hadn’t fully let his body relax, especially now that he had been separated from the others.

  Now that the clouds had cleared, there's no stopping the moonlight from beaming in its glory. Light lanced at the bald [Monk] 's head, his figure plastered as shadow on the table in front of him.

  According to the [Monk], the Tiefling only wanted to speak to him because he was the rightful owner of the items they had taken. Apparently, they also wanted to discuss the fates of the humans, too, with him..

  “So,” Suna started.

  The man tilted his head, still smiling.

  “Do they believe me?”

  “That you took down an entire base of Drow? Yes, I think they did. You are quite a man to do that!” The [Monk] exclaimed. “Oh, you're the one who got forced into the Archer classes! Well, things working out in the end didn’t they?” he laughed, clasping his hands like a seal.

  True, this class was not bad, especially considering he had been forced to pick it out of the two choices.

  But, there's a limitation–like he could do nothing against the bird flock.

  “So, what's up with you? Suddenly show up with these Tieflings?”

  “Well, I spawned underground, and—”

  “Underground!” Suna exclaimed, banging his hand on the table, and the clap of flesh and wood rang, pushing away motes of ash. He coughed as some made their way into his nose.

  “You good?”

  “The Necromancer! You know anything about him?”

  The [Monk] shrugged, shaking his head.

  Suna had to stifle a sigh, but now that he knew.. Now they would have a direct path to proceed.

  “Oh come on! Don’t look so disappointed, I was escaping undead dogs and various monsters. Let me tell you, it was stuff right out of a nightmare. The Tiefling found me near one of the sewers. We stumbled into each other, although in the end, I had to offer them a place full of items to prevent them from stealing my stuff.”

  “What kind of stuff?”

  “Mainly, some ragged swords, worn by a skeleton and a bunch of shields too.” The [Monk] scrunched his face. “I was taken up, and I begged these Tieflings to take me in, since I don’t know what else to do. The girl did say to meet at the highest place, but honestly… I would rather be with a seasoned group.”

  “So they took you in?”

  “Yes, but that's about to change. They found me weird for being able to level up beyond three. Apparently, it was abnormal according to them. I asked around, and they were born with level three as their cap.”

  Suna tapped his chin, trying to remember. “The Drow Warriors are level 5, while the Rangers are 7. And the two Matriarchs I encountered were all level 15.”

  “Yes, they’re similar to my experience. None of the Drow I encountered were higher level than that for each variant you mention. And the undead, too, they also had a level cap.” The [Monk] paused, chewing his lips. “But, there’s an aberration…”

  “Us and those Humans that turned to Drows”

  “Yep, the Beastmaster Drow was level 25, the Tiefling had panicked because that one kept increasing its level fast. And Drow are the Tieflings’ enemy. So this attack that they planned… It was one made out of desperation, to be frank. You guys just happened to be there, and the plan got kick-started to take advantage of the situation,” he explained.

  “What about you? Or the other Tiefling? The one that confronted us?” Suna asked.

  “Me? I’m the only one who can level up within them. They basically kept me as a hidden weapon of some sort. So if this plan failed, they could get me to level up and eventually challenge the beastmaster. But some faction did not trust me, and who can blame them… Hence, this attack happened.”

  Suna nodded along, that made sense, but what concerning is… these factions. There’s a hostile faction against humans?

  “Well, now there are six of us. What do you think will happen?”

  The [Monk] smiled brighter, and it was like his whole being lit up as he stood straighter and the moonlight dappled over him. The word ‘Us’ seemed to genuinely bring him happiness.

  “My friend! That's what we should be talking about, right now. The faction that hated us will be weak, and the plan once they fall will be to send us against some Drows, there are plenty of Drow’s bases in this place! We just have to raid them one by one and level up! Then we can challenge the underground, and eventually the highest tower.”

  Suna let out a wide smile. That was a great plan. He absolutely agreed wholeheartedly with it. And with the Tiefling to lead them, this should be smooth sailing.

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  “The highest tower–what's in it? And why did you put it in the same category as the underground?”

  The [Monk] grinned, his eyes twinkling with excitement. “Well, hear this.” He leaned in. “The reason is the biggest Drow faction is inside, not because of the tower’s height, but because of what is inside… On the highest floor, there’s an altar. Each person can offer one gift to the altar, and the altar will reward you with equipment befitting your gift. But the catch is that one person could only offer a gift once.”

  That was intriguing, but they had no reason to go up there. Although it might be wasteful not to go, because who knows what will happen once they find the gateway?

  No, not only that.

  What would happen if they went back to their world? Would everything be normal as usual? That white creature mentioned the system trying to help them, didn’t he?

  Maybe it was much better to grow as much as possible. This is a ‘Tutorial’ after all.

  “Uh, excuse me,” Suna coughed, suddenly feeling weird; he had forgotten to ask for his name. “Who are you?”

  “Oh! Please don’t apologize, I also forgot to ask for yours. My name is Pito.”

  “I’m Suna. Would you mind if I got the others? The Tiefling will probably take a while, right?”

  —--

  “Uh… Suna? I really think we should wait.” Pito rushed after him as Suna went upstairs.

  He gripped the railing, offering the bald man a confused look,

  “Why? They will take time.”

  “Look, the Tieflings are a very organized creature; they will be displeased.”

  “Not very ‘organized’ when they could keep making us wait for hours, are they?” Suna said and began ascending.

  He hated how hard it was to breathe in these houses; specks of dust spun around, and croppings of wood rotted at various edges. Now it sank in for him that cleaning was an absolute necessity.

  Something his brother and his wife had kept reminding him of, Suna let out a thin smile. What would happen to both of them? And of course, his parents had a falling out with both him and his brother, but still, he did not wish them to die. If he could choose one person to be with him right now, it would probably be little Elle, his brother’s daughter.

  That stopped him. What happened to the kids? Did they get transported also? The youngest among them was probably Slea, who was 19.

  Something bumped behind him, pushing him to the second floor.

  Pito grumbled about his sudden stop.

  Suna muttered an apology before a voice boomed at him.

  “Human! Why leave the meeting!” a Tiefling roared,

  “There’s no one for a ‘Meeting’,” Suna snapped back.

  “Then wait! Now our brethren are risking their lives to fight!”

  “I want to talk to my own brethren in the meantime, then,” Suna said.

  The Tiefling merely growled at him. He held the crossbow, and there were two of the tieflings, guarding a door to the master bedroom. But, there were only two of them, and both of course only level 3. This was far from intimidating.

  “Suna, let's calm down.” Pito pushed himself between the Tiefling and him.

  “I’m calm,” Suna said, and he really was. The [Monk] seemed very nervous at this for no reason.

  “Look,” Pito turned to the Tiefling. “There’s no reason for us to wait down there; might as well bring up the others to speed…”

  The Tiefling looked at the other, the one who had been talking to Suna, still growling, baring its yellow teeth. But the other one was full-on shaking, and he kept looking at his own brethren for command.

  “Fine. Go inside, human!” The Tiefling growled, opening the door.

  Suna and Pito entered, and once they were in, the Tiefling snapped the door shut with a loud thunk.

  “What was their problem?” Suna exclaimed.

  “Told you these Tieflings are very traditional,” Pito grunted.

  “Suna? And the Monk…” Min stood from the bed.

  His conversation had been quite eventful; the information he got from Pito was a literal goldmine. But it looked like what was happening in this room was also eventful.

  Noa, slumped in the corner, with an obvious fresh red smear across his face. Standing above him was Slea with her back to him. She shielded him…From Reki, who glared at her, with his fist clenched.

  Anger flared inside Suna. This was far too ridiculous. Did they fight again?

  “Pito and I will tell everyone what we discussed, so…” Suna looked at the three who were painfully obviously involved in some sort of scuffle. “Please sit, and listen.”

  Pito told them everything, and some stuff that Suna hadn’t heard too.

  Like the Undead’s level, there’s a dog, Skeleton, Knight, Gatekeeper, and other variants. Each capped in 5, 10, 20, 25. According to Pito, there was more depth to this underground; he had gathered information from Tiefling, and there were apparently only three depths. All the monsters mentioned by Pito were from the first depth. The Drow and Tieflings struggled to make it to the second depth, and they never managed to do so. Yet, the Tiefling somehow knew there’s a third depth.

  He also told them about the altar, which was called the ‘Sun Altar’. The item offered said to have a strong resonance to light.

  “This is amazing!” Reki exclaimed, his face, which always scrunched up, befitting an office worker, now brightened like a real sun. He jumped up and tapped Pito to both soldiers. “My man! Good job on finding out about this.”

  “Indeed,” Min smiled. “Now what we must do is clear.” The woman breathed out, and her hair swayed with her head. She was clearly relieved now that they had a clear path to get out of wherever this was.

  “Ah, thanks,” Pito blushed, scratching his bald head.

  “Pito, you’re with us now, right?” Suna asked, hopeful.

  “Of course I am!” Pito said quickly, “But…”

  There’s a but?

  Suna killed the complaint that threatened to come up from his lips.

  “I want to help the Tiefling…They have been very helpful to me, and they’re reason I survived. At the very least, the highest tower, let's conquer it.”

  Suna hummed. “These depths you talk about… it sounds like we will be barely ready for the second depth, might as well level up?” He asked the last part to Min and Reki.

  “It's always been our plan,” Reki said, “To level up and get stronger for this world so none become a burden.” He added. The last part sounded almost venomous and directed at somebody.

  “Reki…” Min warned, her voice low.

  Beside her, Slea’s body bristled, and she growled at Reki. Suna looked at Noa, who still had his head down on his palm.

  Okay, I need to know.

  ‘What happened here?” He asked.

  Silence greeted him. Like no one was willing to be the first to answer.

  “Uh, I would like to know too,” Pito mumbled, eyeing all of them. He mouthed ‘What the Hell?’ to Suna once their gaze met.

  Suna shrugged and shook his head.

  How am I supposed to know?

  Then Min sighed, and she glanced at Noa. “Noa here says he doesn’t want to fight anymore, and he just wants to stay holed up until someone finds the gate.”