Return of the Woodcutter

After absorbing some of their soul cores, like the other challengers, Aito and his team rested in a corner of the cathedral. 

Aito took the first guard shift while the siblings slept near him. It wasn't hobgoblins he was worried about in here, but challengers. His experience on the fourth floor had taught him they could be untrustworthy—not that he had ever trusted any of them, anyway... apart from the siblings. 

He decided to take this time to train visualization. Closing his eyes, he tried to remember his fight against the strongest opponent he had ever faced, Gwen. 

No matter how hard he tried to find a way to victory, he'd always lose, despite the fight happening in his own mind. 

Suddenly, light stepping sounds nearby alerted him. He immediately opened his eyes to see a challenger extending his hand towards the siblings' bags. 

His presence seemed to be hidden like some veil covered him. However, that didn't seem to render him soundless. 

'Scum.' 

He stood up as fast as lightning, drew his ax, and cut off the man's hand. A just punishment for a thief. 

The thief yelled out in pain. Grabbing his handless arm that let out blood like a fountain. Aito sliced off his knees tendons in one fell swoop. The thief lost his balance and dropped on the marble floor. 

Because of the loud noises, challengers jolted awake, weapons in hand. Their gazes fell on Aito beating the shit out of a thief. They appeared to relax slightly at this sight. 

A giant man with bulging muscles approached Aito, "What's happening here?" 

Aito had to look up to see the man's face. That particular challenger was bare-chested, held a giant metal club, and had an impressive build that would shame bodybuilders. His frame was so large he seemed inhuman. He was barely smaller than Gwen. 

"He was trying to steal from us," Aito replied, stepping on the thief. 

"Ah, I see," the muscular man said like it was normal, "a common occurrence in this place." 

Aito's brow arched up. He had thought the bulky man would cause him trouble, but instead, he seemed quite composed and wasn't just accusing him without proof. 

"Hum, you look like you're new here," the bulky man said, appearing to notice Aito's suspicious gaze. "Don't worry, other challengers on this floor won't interfere with your business. Only nosy people like me would come to see what's going on, ahaha." 

Just after the bulky man said that, most of the challengers went back to sleep. 

On the fifth floor, it was so common for some people to steal from others during the night that seeing such fights happening wasn't news anymore.

Challengers considered it pointless to get involved in those, they already had enough on their own plate to deal with. Even if someone were to die. After months of ordeals, they were used to death, anyway. 

"Please, please don't kill me!" The thief pleaded, "I'll give you everything I have in exchange for my life!" 

Aito didn't reply. He had learned from his past mistake that letting such a person go could lead to trouble. He was about to dispose of the thief when three challengers came running towards him. One had a sword and shield, another a crossbow, and the last was weaponless, probably a mage class. 

"Let go of him you fucker!" 

Aito dealt with the thief nonetheless while the bulky man with the club stood to the side, calmly looking at the scene. 

"You'll pay for this!" 

"You bastard!" 

"I'll kill you!" 

By now, both siblings were wide awake, not that they hadn't sensed the thief before. If Aito hadn't dealt with him, they would have pounced on him as spiders did to their entrapped preys. 

They stayed on standby ready to stop the incoming challengers, but Aito told them it was unnecessary. 

He dodged a fireball that landed next to a sleeping challenger, who got up with an unhappy face. She let out a "mother fucker." 

The challenger with a shield got close enough to Aito for him to hook the shield with his bearded ax. Aito pulled and took advantage of this opening to pierce the man's throat with the pike on his weapon. 

He then lifted the corpse and used it to shield himself from the archer, firing arrows at him. Aito sped up, and rammed into the archer, using the corpse against him, propelling the archer against one of the cathedral's pillars. With a loud crack, the archer's spine broke. 

A fireball was heading Aito's way. His Gift Instinct activated as he used the corpse to shield himself, then hurled it towards the mage. 

The mage dodged the corpse giving enough time for Aito to draw his repeater. The short distance made it hard to miss. One bolt pierced the mage's brain in an instant, putting an end to the fight. 

On the side, the bulky man was clapping quietly, "Not bad, newcomer. You look like you know how to fight." 

Aito didn't reply and gathered his loot, without forgetting to extract the soul cores from the corpses, then disposed of the body by throwing them outside the cathedral. They might disappear by morning, but leaving them here to rot until then was unsightly. 

The bulky man approached him and extended his hand, "I'm George Melbourn." 

Seeing no harm in introducing himself, Aito cleaned the blood on his gauntlets using one of the dead men's pieces of cloth he had torn for that purpose and shook George's hand, "Aito Walker." 

"Aito… what an unusual name," George said, tightening his grip. However, he made a surprise expression when Aito didn't even budge nor wince. "You've got quite the grip, newcomer." 

"Nice to meet you too," Aito replied, applying more strength into the handshake. 

A drop of sweat ran down George's wide forehead as he seemed to realize he was no match for Aito's strength. 

Both men had their strength stat at level 3, though. However, even amongst those of the same level, there could be slight differences. The system could register a basic stat as being level 3 when, in fact, it was more akin to level 3,1 or just like in Aito's case, 3,99. 

However, once the strength stat or any other basic stat went up an entire level, there was a drastic increase, even more so when it was between bottlenecks such as level 4. 

Knowing he had made his point, Aito released his grip, "Nice grip." 

George smiled, also releasing his grip. "I've never crossed anyone in the Tower capable of contending with me when it comes to strength. Until now, that is. Who are you exactly?" 

"Just a newcomer," Aito replied. He wanted to keep his identity as the black challenger hidden for a while longer. Attracting attention was a bother. He patted George on the shoulder.

"I'll be going now.. Good night, George."

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