"So, my best friend Samantha did go play outside without me. Even Elie was there and they didn't even call me! They also took Elie's cute cat with them, I always wanted to see it!"

"Wow, that isn't very nice of them."

"Right? I didn't even see Elie's cat because we all got to Hell."

"Wow, that sucks… that's too bad." I react automatically and little Isabella continues to talk and talk while I answer her once in a while.

Help.

Help me.

"I'll tell Doggo to play with you if you stay quiet for a while. Maybe practice your skills a bit or something."

"Oh, okay! That's already 9 times you have to tell Doggo to play with me!" Isabella chirps happily.

You're counting that?!

Also, please forgive me Biscuit, it's all for the greater good. My good.

I look at Isabella, little devil, she isn't doing it on purpose, right? It can't be.

"Nathaniel," I lift up my head to look at Cipher who comes closer, mana focused in his eyes as he looks at me, "Can I talk with you? It's important."

Hmm, let's see what he wants, "Go ahead."

"I need you to help me level more, I want to improve my skill so I can create more water."

Huh, it's kind of logical, but somehow I don't like the way he says it. He's right, but somehow it feels like he came to me already knowing how I will answer as if it's only a formality for him and I'm a tool for him to reach his goals.

Quite cheeky these people from Hard Difficulty, aren't they?

In answer, I just nod, pushing my annoyance to the back of my mind with the help of [Focus]. He leaves to join his group and I notice Isabella looking at me with her big eyes.

"I don't think it's good if you push all the emotions away," she says quietly.

What would you know? People are stupid, annoying, arrogant, and sometimes too dumb or smart for their own good. To deal with them, to increase my chance of survival I have to push some emotions away. So isn't it better to think logically? To not get swayed by useless feelings?

[Focus] is great for that and close to level 30 I'm slowly being able to isolate certain feelings. I also run it continuously, worried that the situation with the gargoyle will repeat or useless emotions will appear again.

Yes, I'm a coward.

I ruffle her hair, "Don't worry about it, just practice, okay?" I stand up, my kinetic mana heart still sending energy through my body that I use to ignore my wounds and I join the natives we met and Cipher, Freeze, and Goldie.

"So how can we catch these sparrows you guys here eat? And what about water?" Cipher is asking natives about sparrows they mentioned when we asked them about food.

"Sparrows are really hard to catch, they are fast and can ignore some magic. We have special traps for them, but only in bigger groups, we got split from. Water can be collected from temporal springs in the tunnels under the city," he stops, looking around for a moment, "They are hard to find and no one knows the exact timing or place."

Only now I notice how thin all three of them are. But there is nothing we can do. The food we have is almost nonexistent and the water Cipher can create is quite limited his skill is quite difficult and I don't think I'll be able to replicate it anytime soon.

On the second floor, I saw Lissandra connecting to Ruby's skill, powering it and using it. But that's not something current me is able to do. Somehow it is even more difficult than learning the skill from scratch.

With my [Perception] I feel Isabella messing up her skill and the blue ball of flame that hovers in front of her is about to explode, again.

With a sigh, I send a wave of disrupting mana towards her, dissipating her skill and stopping the explosion that would most likely kill the natives and maybe some people from hard difficulty.

"Sorry!" she says cheerily.

"So you have no maps and don't even know where your group is?" Cipher continues after a while, probably not even realizing what happened, only surprised by Isabella apologizing.

"It's hard to find them, everyone is hiding." this time it’s the woman who says, "If monsters detect you you need to run away. If you kill the monsters you can only kill 10 at most or more of them will start appearing. And never leave a house during the night, there are even stronger monsters lurking around.

Oh? Finally some new information. Should I have a nice nighttime walk sometime?

"So how did you find the hideout if you don't know where you even are?" there is some hostility in his voice as he says so.

"There are marks! Hideouts are all over the city, you just need to find a mark that will lead you to one. There are hundreds, thousands of them!" the man quickly says.

He then starts showing us what kind of marks we need to follow and what they mean and I make sure to memorize it all, even calling Isabella here and having him repeat it.

The entire time he feels honest and even the little girl confirms it to me a bit later.

He also tells us the most interesting thing. A rumor. The closer you are to the center of the city, the stronger the monsters are, but also your healing speed is sped up to the point that there are rumors that people in the middle of the city are immortal.

Hadwin (Hell, group 4) - Yes, food is and will be a problem.

AnotherOneHere (Hell, TheGuild) - We met a few natives and it looks like they need much less food and water than we do. One of our members thinks it's because through the years their bodies adapted, maybe with the help of the field that covers the city.

Lootenant (Hell, WhiteWing) - But what kind of skill or enchantment could be able to cover an entire city? We ran for hours and there is still no end to it.

Savant (Hell, Alone) - I'm sure I've traveled over 100 miles since I got here, yet the city still goes on.

Brainiac (Hell, WhiteWing) - The hell, that's insane.

Lootenant (Hell, WhiteWing) - There could be some weird magic at work, sensory confusion, some sort of space magic - I wouldn't be surprised if something like this did exist.

Noname (Hell, group 4) - Did anyone leave the houses at night? I heard there are some strong monsters lurking around.

Noname (Hell, group 4) - Yes, your sister is safe, do not spam the chat.

Soph (Hell, group 4) - Oh

Savant (Hell, Alone) - Only one question mark monsters. There are a few named ones one question mark in between them. Do you still put everything into mana?

Noname (Hell, group 4) - What do you think?

Savant (Hell, Alone) - Heh

FoodFood (Hell, group 4) - Food!

Oh, you found some food? Good job, Biscuit!

Hadwin (Hell, group 4) - Noname, we are passing by some area that is covered in toxic mist. If you pass by it try to look around, we will leave some marks.

Noname (Hell, group 4) - Understood, will do the same.

"So what's the level of your skill?" I ask Cipher directly and I can immediately see that he doesn't like the question. But it's not like he has reason to keep it for himself in this context.

He requires my help and he knows I will help as I'm someone who thinks about this kind of stuff logically.

"Level 11," he says in the end and his group looks at him with surprise.

"Already level 11? Wow, that's really high, isn't it?" a woman called Goldie says.

"Way to go!" another man adds. All while I just look at them with a big feeling of surprise.

That's it? Level 11 and they are surprised?

"Yeah, I did work pretty hard on it," Cipher smiles, seemingly proud of his skill.

Hmm, is it as I thought? The biggest difference between Hell and Hard difficulty people will be in their skill levels and experience?

"And level?" This time he pauses for even longer so I add, "I need to know how much mana you can have so you can use your skill more." I add, knowing that the way he is trying to act now doesn't allow him to keep it for himself.

The man trapped himself by asking me for help.

"60," he says shortly.

The heck? How is he that weak with so many stats? I was stronger than him at around level 10-20? Is it the difference in difficulty?

"What is your level?" he asks in exchange and I notice the curious looks both of his partners give me.

"Not telling," I say shortly, feeling some amusement in the looks they give me.

My attention is brought to the three natives we met. Taking care of them will be annoying but they also possess some useful information so it's not like I can ditch them before they show us how to hunt for food or how to find water.

"Can you deal with the three of them?" I turn to Cipher and the man nods.

Let's do what I do best and dump the annoying responsibilities on other people.