We descended.

  Fast.

  Quiet.

  The numbers above each landing continued to tick down like a clock.

  61 → 60 → 59…

  The map stayed bright in my vision. Red dots held behind doors, clustered like teeth that refused to move unless invited.

  As we descend, Lilith kept on killing quietly and precisely in many innovative ways.

  Pulling her out of her reverie. I said, “We will encounter a mage soon if we keep on descending.”

  ?SYSTEM PANEL?

  IDENTITY: Level 1 Guard of Hollowlight Tower

  RACE: Undead

  CLASS: magical

  STATS: DEF: F (0%)/ MP: F (40%)/ FOCUS: F (30%)/ STR: F (0%)/AGI: F (3%)/ LUCK: F (0%)

  Mage-type.

  Her eyes narrowed a fraction, and her left palm dimmed even further.

  Mages are different from other undead; they don’t get smarter as their level increase but are born with a high level of intelligence. Once they notice something amiss, we would be swarmed as they draw attention to us.

  Thus, we had to be careful not to be exposed before having the chance of killing it.

  As I was about to launch my great strategy, I saw a dark barrier enveloping me. “We won’t be detected now, but this spell consumes too much mana, so we should kill it quickly. Where is it?”

  My lips twitched, “It is 5 floors below us, on floor 47.”

  When Lilith met the undead mage, it didn’t even notice her as she threw a dark needle toward the back of its head.

  Vorn "..."

  ‘I thought the fight would be tougher.’

  47… 46… 45… 44

  Undead didn’t thin out, but became more dense, stronger, and smarter. We didn’t “clear floors.” We slipped between clusters like a blade finding the gap in ribs.

  When we reached Floor 42, the reality matched the map.

  A corner office had been barricaded with random things: an overturned desk, a snapped door used as a shield, and metal shelving dragged sideways against the windows.

  Pressed against their barricade was a Level 1 undead; it wasn’t strong, but it was relentless, and astonishingly, it held a flicker of intelligence in its eyes.

  It would have already drawn the attention of the other undead, but instead, it wanted to kill them himself.

  I turned my head to Lilith, she understood my meaning, and, as if reluctant, she killed the undead before it could react.

  After killing the bug, Lilith opens their barricade wide open, skillfully enough not to hurt anyone inside.

  From inside the barricaded office, another wave of screams came, but quickly quieted down, and 3 figures, although looking terrified, still jumped out of the barricade as if preparing to go down fighting.

  A tall elf with pale skin, long ears, and hands shaking as he held a machete, Blood smeared one side of his face where someone had bandaged him.

  A short, thick dwarf, with only one functional leg, while the other was bandaged, used a metal pipe to walk him walk, his beard was rugged and dusty, but in my eyes it looked magnificent.

  A beast kin girl, cat-like ears pinned back, with a black tail as tall as an arm, her hands were stained with blood, as she held a surgical knife in one hand, her pupils were wide and bright, as if trying to hide her panic.

  Vorn was somewhat excited; he had never seen any other race except for humans in real life. His world was a small one with a small population of only 5 billion, and all of them were human.

  So Vorn only saw them on TV shows, movies, and some internet celebrities that he used to follow from other planets.

  After a while of awkward silence and a staring contest, they invited us to their little home, and I readily agreed, while Lilith looked at the three coldly.

  After we entered, they started to barricade the office again.

  Surprisingly, only two severely injured humans, helped the elf and the dwarf barricade; the other ten survivors were huddled together, cowering.

  As for the cat girl, she went on to treat an unconscious dwarf who looked more dead than alive.

  ‘Only 16, as far as I remember, there should be more than 20.’

  The elf must have read my eyes, because he spoke before I asked.

  “Four died,” he said, voice tight.

  “It was just like any other undead, with cooperation, the ten of us managed to kill many, but… that one was different, it almost finished us off.”

  One of the humans, with broad shoulders and dried blood under his nails, stepped forward. “We brought it down.”

  The elf hesitated, then flicked his eyes toward the cat-woman who was treating the dwarf. “Because of her.”

  Without looking up, she said, “My class… I can’t fight like her, but I can keep people from dying long enough to swing again.”

  She was refiring to Lilith as she said that.

  The human woman snorted softly. “If some people were willing to move their asses, maybe not many of us would have died like this.”

  Her displeasure was obvious and directed toward the other ten survivors.

  Just then, one of them said, “No one asked you to leave.” Just for the other human to retort, “Weren’t you begging for food from us before? Now we are the bad guys for asking for some help when we were dying a few feet away from you?”

  Just like that, a conflict erupted between the two groups.

  I could not help but look at the six who were half-dead with some pity.

  However, Lilith gave too little attention to anyone but the cat girl as she opened her status window.

  ?SYSTEM PANEL?

  NAME: Nyx Sableclaw

  RACE: beastkin

  CLASS: Support

  STATS: DEF: F (0%)/ MP: F (20%)/ FOCUS: F (65%)/ STR: F (0%)/AGI: F (1%)/ LUCK: F (0%)

  Lilith’s eyes narrowed, evaluating.

  She could see her status window fully simply because she is much stronger than her; if Nyx had been a little stronger, some information would have been restricted.

  The elf cleared his throat, then nodded toward his people as if telling them to shut up, “About the undead outside… we didn’t kill it on purpose.”

  I frowned. “On purpose?”

  The human with broad shoulders answered, “It doesn’t call others, it doesn’t scream, it doesn’t drag a swarm of undead toward us.”

  The dwarf with an injured leg said in a rough voice, “We decided one quiet idiot at the barricade was safer than a hundred swarming at the sound of us failing to kill it quickly, as you can see, we are injured and not battle-ready.”

  The cat-girl returned to the unconscious dwarf, with a faint green glow on her hands that hovered on the dwarf’s chest.

  I shouldn’t say anything.

  A normal man shouldn’t give orders to a demon mage who could erase him for inconvenience.

  However, the sight of that dwarf’s chest barely moving made my mouth open anyway.

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  I forced my voice to stay calm and collected, in a tone that only Lilith would hear.

  “Heal them.”

  Lilith looked at me, calmly; she didn’t refuse, “their wounds aren’t difficult to heal, except for him,” as she said, she pointed with her eyes toward the half-dead dwarf.

  “he would die in about an hour, even with her assisting. He needs a stronger healer, as for me, I specialize in dark magic; although it could heal us devils, it’s poison for other races.

  "I only know minor healing spells with minimal effect.”

  She continued, “We could turn him into a devil’s spawn, although he would be considered undead, he can live with free will, while remaining himself.”

  A

  s Lilith was speaking, I was cursing her entire ancestry, ‘……… You mad woman, rot in hell.’

  WARNING: Loyalty has decreased. User safety cannot be assured.

  Loyalty: Neutral

  ‘Also, what is a devil’s spawn?’

  “Heal the others first, we will see about the him later.”

  She stepped forward, and with a wave of her hand, a dark glow was emitted and enveloped everyone but the cat-girl and the severely injured dwarf.

  Their injuries began to heal, wounds closing, fractured bone reuniting, although slowly, but the healing was happening skillfully.

  When Nyx saw that, she anxiously said, “Can you please heal him, too?”

  The others' eyes lit up; they all knew each other since before the apocalypse, losing four had already given them a great deal of pain, and they didn’t want to lose anyone else.

  Lilith answered without much care, “No, but I could turn him into a devil’s spawn, it’s a magic that would turn him into a sub-type of undead, he would still maintain his memories, personality, and everything.”

  Everyone’s face turned visibly ugly as they heard her words, but they didn’t filar up.

  The reason behind that is simple: after they were destroyed by that undead, they agreed to always check on everyone they see through the system, so they don’t mess up again. As for what they saw, it was very simple.

  ?SYSTEM PANEL?

  NAME: Restricted

  RACE: Restricted

  CLASS: Restricted

  STATS: Restricted

  As for what restricted meant? It’s simple: the higher the difference in strength, the less information you see, even though that undead wasn’t as restricted as these two.

  Lilith noticed the change on their faces and felt disgusted, “On top of that, he will die in less than an hour, even with this woman’s help.”

  As Lilith said that, a drop of blood came out of her index finger, enveloped it in a dark, gooey substance, and threw it toward Nyx.

  “Make your choice before he dies. You don’t need to be angry, like it or not, accept it or not, the world has changed, and survival is the most important; being an undead is nothing more than a change of race.

  Nyx caught the vial or whatever it was before hitting the floor.

  Her ears flattened so hard they looked painful.

  The unconscious dwarf on the ground, ‘Korgan,’ let out a cough mixed with blood.

  The elf ‘Aelar’s' hand clenched around his machete until his knuckles went white.

  He was the closest to Korgan among everyone.

  “No,” Nyx whispered, “No, I can keep him stable. I can…”

  “You cannot.” Lilith’s cold voice interrupted.

  “She’s right,” Aelar said hoarsely. His voice broke on the last word. “Nyx… she’s right.”

  One of the background survivors scoffed from the back corner. “So you’ll turn him into a monster? Just let him die…”

  Before he could finish his sentence, a drop of blood started to slide from his forehead, his eyes dimmed, and he collapsed to the ground.

  I was shocked, but I had no sympathy for him. Even if he was a coward, he should shut up and admit it, but I was afraid that Lilith would create a massacre if they started to yell, “If any of you make a sound, then there is no reason for you to remain alive. I require silence.”

  My voice was icy, but when I saw the quiet sobs and tears falling, I was glad; after all, it meant that Lilith wouldn’t kill them.

  The six looked at this and didn’t say much; after all, they didn’t care for them; they only saved them for convenience, however they were surprised by how cold-blooded these two were.

  A minute passed.

  Then another.

  “If he dies,” Mira Halden, the only other remaining woman in the group, said, “we lose him forever, maybe just like they said. The world has changed; as long as he lives, there will be opportunities to fix him in the future.”

  Lilith and I watched the scene with relish. After about half an hour of deliberation, they decided to give him the pill-like substance.

  However, nothing changed. When they asked Lilith, she answered sarcastically, “To become an undead, you must die first. Let him die slowly, a few hours after death, he should wake up as a devil’s spawn.”

  They turned their attention toward Korgan again as they spoke in hushed voices.

  I stood slowly and faced Lilith, keeping my expression blank.

  “Done,” I said. “Now we leave.”

  She nodded once.

  As we were about to leave, suddenly Nyx stood up and asked, “Where are you going?”

  I answered calmly, “To floor 40.”

  To my surprise, she actually asked to join us, and not just her but her five friends as well, and their reason being “Lilith was right, the world has changed, and if we want to survive, we need a group, as both of you are stronger than us, we will follow you.”

  As she said, Vorn received five requests to become his subordinates.

  In reality, although Vorn felt pity for them, he still looked down on them, after all what they faced was probably just a low-level undead, and they were devastated by it, so he nonchalantly checked on their status before refusing.

  However, after what he saw, he wanted to vomit blood.

  Aren’t you guys too strong? Each one of you could slap me to death.

  Just as Vorn realized how strong the ones he considered trash were, he received a system notification.

  LOYALTY: Loyal

  NOTE: Due to your recruit’s perception of your strategy to recruit subordinates, her loyalty has increased.