The three fighters at the bottom of the stairs looked sure of themselves. They had their weapons drawn, and dark energy crackled around them.

They had been left behind deliberately to slow down any pursuit, and they clearly thought they could handle a blacksmith and his assistant. But they were wrong to underestimate Greg and Bork, who already anticipated it.

The tall man with a scar on his face, who led the group, said, "So you're the famous Greg Greyson."

"Elias told us about you. The pacifist who believes that farming tools can make the world a better place."

Greg didn't say anything. He just kept walking forward, and the modified hoe he was carrying was glowing with energy.

"You're not much of a talker, are you?" The man with the scars smiled. "That's okay. Instead, we'll make you scream like a little bitch who cries for their momma!!!"

They all attacked at once, using dark magic to work together and make their attacks stronger. But Greg and Bork had been training together for months, had cleared four levels of this dungeon in record time, and were now working on pure, focused rage.

The scarred man's sword came down to kill Greg, but Greg's hoe stopped it in mid-swing. The tool's magic flared up, and all of a sudden the sword was stuck in a field of solidified air.

The man pulled, not sure what to do, and Greg turned the hoe sideways. But then something surprising happened where the sword broke like a twig because of the hoe's hidden ability.

"What the fuck—" The man didn't have time to finish. Bork's sledgehammer hit him in the chest, and the force of the blow sent him flying back into the wall. He hit so hard that he broke stone, and then he passed out.

The second fighter, a woman with two daggers, tried to get around them. But Greg had used flanking tactics before.

He swept his rake across the ground, and all of a sudden, the floor under her feet became as slippery as ice. She fell, and Greg's pitchfork struck her in the stomach, releasing a blast of compressed air that knocked the breath out of her lungs, leaving her gasping for air and unable to fight.

The third fighter tried to run when he saw his friends fall so quickly. Bork's hammer hit him in the back of the legs, and he fell hard. Greg was there with a simple garden spade against the man's throat before he could get better.

"Where did that fucking bastard bring them?" Greg's voice was cold and empty except for his determination.

"Level nine," the man said with a gasp. "But you'll never catch him. He's going to the tenth level, which is the deepest part. And he will make sure you pay for every—"

Greg pushed the spade down harder. "I don't need any of your useless comments."

"Just the directions."

The man pointed with a shaking hand to a passage that led deeper into level eight. Greg let him go, and the man passed out right away from fear, having seen something in Greg's eyes that promised worse things than death.

"Boss," Bork said in a low voice. "Are you okay?"

Greg said honestly, "No."

"But I will be when we get Marina and the others back, so we end all of this bullshit coming from someone who was daydreaming long enough."

They both start to work together again to clear level eight. And of course level eight was hard, but not nearly as hard as what they had already been through.

The buildings here were even more strange, with walls that looked like they were moving and hallways that went in strange directions. But Greg's compass never changed because it always pointed in the right direction.

The dungeon itself, not Elias's mind control, created the monsters they encountered. Greg took care of them quickly, almost like a machine. Each swing of his tools was precise and deliberately aimed to disable the monsters without killing them, ensuring no movement was wasted.

Bork said, "You're not like your old self, boss," as he cleared another room. "Since what happened to Kael. You seem different... like... colder maybe?"

Greg said, "I have to be."

"Right now, I can't let myself feel everything, or I'll fall apart, turning me into something that I don't even want to feel anymore."

"And Marina needs me to be better than my past, not be broken like I was back then."

After they cleared all the monsters in that level, They found proof that Elias had been there, like scorch marks on the walls and blood trails from the prisoners being dragged along. Every sign made Greg go faster and push harder.

...

Marina, Ryn, and Denna were chained up in a room that smelled like death and blood. The three women were in terrible shape from weeks of torture, but Kael's death had awakened a strength within them that even Elias's torment could not shatter, which was their anger.

Marina yelled, "You fucking bastard," at Elias as he walked back and forth in front of them. "How fucking dare you kill our family...!? He was a true one, unlike you, who acted like one and wanted all the attention to your fucking self!"

"I can't believe I've known a sad motherfucker like you who kills for fun and thinks that every human's life doesn't matter! What a fucking useless piece of egoistic shit you are!" Marina kept on yelling with every swear word she had.

"Heh... I don't even care if you insult me like that because you get your turn to be at the same place as that bastard."

"I do this because I'm worthy of being a true hero, and that fucking bastard..."

"He was a fool," Elias said. "Just like you all. Following Greyson's dumb idea that there can be peace in a world built on conflict."

"At least we're not cowards who hurt people who can't fight back!" Denna yelled, and even though she was weak, her voice was still strong. "And the most important part is that we fight fair without torturing our enemies!"

Elias's face got darker. "Fair? There is no such thing as fair, especially in a world where the strong stand tall and the weak bow like pigs."

"Hear me out, you fucking bitches. In this world... there's only power and people who are too weak to take it."

The women kept yelling at their captor, and their sadness over Kael turned into rage. Ryn, who is usually quiet, spoke up and added her voice to the criticism. People called him a monster, a coward, and a broken thing that was pretending to be human.

Elias had enough while covering both his ears with an angry face. "SHUT THE FUCK UP!!!"

"Do you want to see a monster?" His voice got lower, which was scary.

"Let me show you what happens when you go too far insulting me."

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