Chapter 59: Bright Future Ahead

Pulling the hood over his head and throwing the bag to the side, Peace’s eyes adjusted slowly.

A hoarse, rugged voice sounded from his side.

"Well, well... I was afraid you went and croaked on me."

’Ralph...’

Peace had been summoned to his party leader’s side, whose Anchor was apparently located near the Bright Forest, on the edge of the Convergence Zone.

"The rumors about you finally reached me... then I heard rumors that you disappeared."

’They could’ve at least taken the bag off... I must have looked crazy with it on.’

Dusting himself off, Peace pushed off the grass and shoved the leather sack into his bag.

In spite of Peace ignoring him, Ralph continued:

"I thought you’d gone and kicked the bucket."

Peace froze, his eyes shooting wide before narrowing on Ralph’s both pleased and consternated expression.

Peace asked:

"So... what now? What do you want from me?"

A moment later, like reality had forgotten what it was meant to be, folding and wobbling on itself, a woman appeared out of thin air, an axe slung over her shoulder.

Ralph tapped the grass with his tower shield, then said:

"What else... we fight together to earn our keep in this glorious citadel!"

Peace traced his pointer finger over his neck.

"Hmm... I thought you’d immediately go for my neck."

Ralph stilled his fidgeting.

"Why would I ever do such a thing...?"

A second later, a booming voice sounded from Peace’s side.

"Hi friends!"

Volkar had arrived.

Immediately, he pulled Peace into a headlock under his left arm, and Ralph under his right.

’Damn his pits stink to high hell!’

Gagging, Peace weaseled his way free and fell to the ground. His hood nearly bounced off, so he quickly adjusted it.

As he once again brushed himself off and stood, he looked around.

’This really is a sight to see.’

Hundreds upon hundreds of people were appearing by the second. All Divers looking to earn their keep. Many of them would soon ascend to higher floors. Many others would still be wandering the first floor, like Ralph and his party, for the entire week.

’I’ve never seen this many Divers in one spot before in the game.’

Ignoring Ralph, who’d also escaped Volkar’s clutches and gone back to trying to intimidate Peace, Peace looked around at as many faces as he could.

Sadly, Dita wasn’t one of them.

"Tch."

"Hey, are you even listening to me?!"

His head snapping toward Ralph, Peace spat back:

"No, not at all."

Jumping a little, Ralph stammered:

"Buah— You little—"

The tall red-headed woman, who was stretching her legs, glanced at Peace, then said:

"I’m Maura, by the way."

Nodding at her, he said:

"I’m Peace."

The interaction caused Ralph to stare in utter disbelief.

Maura quickly added:

"I don’t care if you trust me or not. I wouldn’t expect you to, but I don’t trust you."

"Back at you."

Thankfully for Ralph, his racist contemporary soon arrived: the short elven boy with green hair and blue eyes.

Peace looked over at the boy as he staggered to his feet, his eyes trained on Peace the whole time, only for the half-naked Giant to suddenly slap him on the back, sending him straight down into the dirt.

"Hello, tiny friend!"

Smiling, Peace crouched over the fallen boy, then said:

"Hello... tiny friend."

Looking over at Ralph, Peace added:

"So, other friend, you oh so graciously invited me to join your party to earn our keep in this glorious citadel... What is our first objective?"

Forcing a smile, Ralph said:

"As we always do..." His eyes darted left to right, then he shouted, "Nothing! We wait for this lot to clear out so we can actually hunt!"

As he said that, Ralph set down the pack on his back and pulled out a rocking chair far too big to have a chance of fitting inside.

’Spatial storage...?’

Studying the bag and comparing it to the pixelated version in the game, Peace could vaguely tell it was one of the cheapest spatial storage bags available: the 25kg one.

Then, Ralph pulled out a small barrel of ale and three empty mugs.

’That’s seriously what he has in there? With that limited space...?’

Pouring himself a mug, Ralph sat down and began rocking as he watched the sea of Divers flood into the Bright Forest.

Unconcerned, Maura kept stretching. The elf boy began rubbing his back. Volkar, on the other hand, had started trying to run into the Bright Forest, following the mass; however, one curt order from Ralph stopped him:

"Volkar, have your muscles grown?! Come here and let me check!"

’I... I don’t exactly know what I was expecting.’

Perhaps scorn and constant scrutiny. Ralph holding a knife at his back, ready to stab the moment Peace blinked. Maybe being quickly led into the forest and executed when Volkar wasn’t looking.

’Not this?!’

Waiting for the stronger Divers to clear out was entirely logical, though everything else strayed far from what Peace had in mind.

’I’m starting to think they had a fifth. Someone who forcibly made Ralph remove them after witnessing... this.’

Peace took a deep breath, then began studying the party.

’I’m definitely still weaker than them...’

Running away was risky, as it served as ’proof’ that Peace had lied to Volkar about being a ’friend.’

’I see.’

Stuck, Peace got comfortable, making sure his hair was swept back so it didn’t poke out from under the hood.

He sat down on the grass and looked up at the open blue sky above.

Sure, there were hundreds of screaming and clamoring Divers all around him, any one of whom might kill him on sight, but he’d prefer this over the Maw of Hell.

’Hell, this sight is kind of beautiful. Relaxing even.’

The sky was clearer, purer than anything he’d ever seen back on Earth.

’That rocking chair seems kinda a vibe.’

Peace wasn’t here for vibes, nor was he even here to earn a living anymore.

He was here to ascend. Pursue a strength great enough to meet the king to question him.

’I’ll make it so that nameless freak doesn’t have to wait long.’

That didn’t mean absentmindedly walking into the throne room, nor did it mean sneaking in.

While the king held the key to the Gate of Purity, the key to the throne room could only be obtained on the ninth floor of the dungeon.

And it wasn’t simply something one could find and pick up...

Getting it was a whole process.

Peace took a deep breath as he thought back to the arduous process he’d gone through with his sister.

In the same run, they’d had to defeat every boss on a floor, then the mini-bosses, and, finally, challenge the floor’s ’scenario.’

The scenario was a little story event that showed the backstories of the bosses and, finally, allowed one to fight the true boss of the entire floor.

’I never paid any attention to them.’

Anyways...

Killing a ’true boss’ gave one of nine key fragments.

Repeat that process on all nine floors, and you’d get all the fragments.

’Man, that sounds like a chore.’

’Why can’t he simply come to me...?’

’Or invite me in.’

Worst was the mini-boss stipulation.

It sounded a little redundant that one had to kill the mini-bosses, which could only be done after a certain number of days had passed on each floor; this meant it would likely happen after a group had already defeated every main zone boss.

However, the reason was in how they operated.

It was nearly impossible for a group to travel together and defeat every mini-boss. Either another group would get to them, or they simply wouldn’t find all of them in time, since they didn’t exist within a set Domain.

So, the only way to truly do it was to split the party up.

One person in each quadrant, excluding the healer, who would party with the weakest member.

A feat only truly accomplishable long after surpassing the floor’s typical strength requirements.

’I wonder if it’s ever been accomplished here.’

As far as Peace knew, none of the NPCs ever did the key quest.

’If someone did it, it would probably have to be a Soul Stealer.’

Peace studied Ralph as he absentmindedly continued rocking in his chair, having at some point taken a steaming potato out of his bag and begun munching on it.

’I know one thing for certain.’

This group, consisting of two people who would kill him without hesitation and treated the dungeon... ’like a vacation home,’ was certainly not the one who’d do the key quest with him.

Volkar was promising, however. And he also seemed very easy to control.

’Friends and muscles.’

As for Maura...

Peace didn’t exactly have a read on her yet, but she at least knew how to hide her intentions, if she had any.

As they lounged around in the Convergence Zone, time continued to pass, and fewer and fewer Divers remained in the area around them, until only a handful of Tier 9 Divers were left.

Eventually, despite it still being bright, enough time had passed for their eyes to grow weary, Peace’s included.

Especially since, as the name suggested, the Bright Forest was a day biome, where he not only no longer received the boon of night, but also had his strength hampered.