Chapter 34 – Floor 1 – Council Trainee White

The days flew by uneventfully for the members of the Labyrinthian. White walked alone in the shadows of the night down a quiet corridor.

Like Blue, White was nicknamed because of his looks. White used elemental magic and had short, white hair, due to his common physique. Even though his aura changed colors depending on the element he was using, his white hair would bounce up and down as he casted spells.

White was considered by most to be one of the weakest members of the party as a C ranked Wizard. Even though that was still above average by the world's standards, the monsters who composed the Great Dungeon Party just simply outclassed him. White was seen as more of a mascot of the party than a contributing member, which was depressing. Aware of his sad reality, White would train late into the hours of the night while everyone else slept or messed around in their quarters or the mess hall. He wanted to become respected like Ziphe, confident like the High Priest, and powerful like Wizard King Xie.

Hard work would be his guide. White would one day be a full Councilman, and then one day, the Greatest Wizard King.

However, he was young and insecure. Delving deep into the recesses of the Labyrinthian, White practiced his abilities in a dark storage room instead of the Training Room. There was always someone in the high-tech training room, judging him. Fifteen days had passed since the voyage started on the Ocean of Souls, and White spend each night holed up in the storage rooms.

"Skill: Lightning Flare!"

"Skill: Water Gun."

"Skill: Flamethrower!"

Panting, White used skills against the walls of the ship but made barely any progress. He didn't understand why nothing was working! He sat on the floor in frustration, slamming his fists onto the ground. He felt ready to give up for the night.

Bang!

A noise behind White scared him.

"Who's there! Come out…" White thought someone was spying on him, but come to think of it, why would anyone even bother?

"It must've been something falling because of the waves." White convinced himself. He stood back up and practiced all night.

The next morning, he walked into Vladimir's quarters and resumed his duties. Dark black circles were underneath his eyes. Even the High Priest noticed.

"Didn't get a lot of sleep, huh Trainee?" Vladimir joked, but no one laughed.

"Tough crowd this morning…" The High Priest sighed. Vladimir knew he was a bit of a tough person to work with, but he tried his best to be friendly.

"By the way, where's my tea?"

***

That night, White collapsed from exhaustion during his nightly training. Usually, he would still sleep for a few hours to operate efficiently, but he pushed himself beyond his limits. Waking up in the middle of the night, he cried.

"I guess I just wasn't cut out for this expedition. Why did Ziphe even let me join?" White wondered.

He sulked in his weakness and prepared to walk back to his private quarters. Some were issued private quarters while others were assigned roommates; it seemed random to Trainee White, but 21 was the culprit. He micromanaged and even plotted the living spaces of those on the Labyrinthian.

As he walked towards the stairs away from the lowest level of the ship, a sound caught his attention. There was a commotion in one of the storage compartments! Opening up the door to one of the largest rooms, he snuck in to investigate.

Beautifully, a young girl was practicing skills in the dim light of the storage space. Surprisingly, this girl wasn't on the roster; she was a stowaway! White watched from the shadows, trying to figure out who she was.

Then it hit him!

She was in the tournament! The young girl was in her late teens, had brown eyes, brown hair, and was furiously training skills. But, something wasn't right.

"Those are my skills!" Trainee White gasped. This stowaway likely watched White practice at night and studied his skills to learn them. From the looks of her, she was likely at the D Rank Mortal Realm and was already a wizard. Her talent dwarfed his, and he sighed.

Hearing his sigh, she turned invisible.

"Where'd she go?" Trainee White didn't see a trace of the young girl.

Smack!

Sneaking up behind White, the girl smashed his head with a crate. White lost consciousness.

***

"Hey, wake up!" The girl splashed water on White's face. She didn't expect him to be this weak!

"Where… Where am I?" White looked around, but his vision was blurry. He had a concussion. Looking down, he was tied to a chair in one of the storage compartments.

"Who are you?" He asked the girl standing over him. She was short and had a frown on her face.

"Me? I'm Moti, nice to meet you." She said, still frowning.

"I remember now! You're from the first round of the Selection Tournament!" White exclaimed.

"Keep it down… Damn, I thought I could get away with hiding a bit longer." Moti didn't want anyone knowing of her presence on the ship until she was a bit stronger.

In actuality, she couldn't hide her presence from the three Deities on board. The moment the Goddess Diana put Moti onto the Labyrinthian, Ziphe, Tyermsy, and Vladimir noticed her arrival immediately. Ziphe knew of the stowaway beforehand because of 21, Tyermsy wanted to ignore her as long as possible, and Vladimir thought it was interesting a weak Mortal Realm Wizard like her was able to sneak on board but also ignored her.

For now, she was allowed to lurk about, and few knew of her existence. Now that White knew, Moti worried he would reveal her existence.

"You, you were using my skills?" White asked.

Moti tilted her head. Was this really what he was worried about at the moment?

"Yes, and I want to stay hidden. I'm sorry for attacking you." She apologized.

"Why were you using my skills?" White asked.

"What? I need to learn to be stronger somehow, and you just so happened to be down here." She shrugged.

"Someone looks up to me?" White was confused, probably because of his concussion.

"Look, can you make a Soul Contract? I'll let you go if you promise not to tell anyone I'm here." Moti, the ex-slave threatened. She wasn't really in any place to be making demands though. When others realized White was missing, they would just come looking for him down here. Although he tried to be secretive, it was common knowledge he came down here to train.

"Soul… Contract?" White asked. He was really starting to forget things.

"Damnit, yes, the contract that can't be broken. I don't know how to make one." Moti admitted.

"I don't know…" White didn't even know where he was anymore.

"Fuck, I'm going to bring you to the nurse's station." Moti panicked.

Going invisible, she dragged him all the way to Realeh's nursing bay. The stronger individuals at the Royalty Realm in the party all clearly noticed Moti dragging White and laughed to themselves.

Inside the engine room, Ciphe and Elos discussed Moti.

"Hey Elos, did you notice there's a stowaway?"

"Yeah Ciphe, get a load of that! Do you think Ziphe knows?"

"If chumps like us know, he has to know!" Elos laughed.

In the Control Room, the Councilmembers gave Ziphe a strange look.

Tyermsy and Ziphe looked at each other but could only sigh. They didn't want to deal with the stowaway just yet and hoped everyone would just pretend they didn't feel Moti's weak aura. The two Deities got their wish, and everyone strong enough to notice her just laughed to themselves, taking the hint.

The following night, White returned. Realeh swiftly healed his injury, which he said he got from falling down some stairs. Knowing it to be an obvious lie, Realeh didn't press any further and chalked it up to an accident while training.

"Moti come out!" White yelled in the large storage room.

"Could you be any louder?" Moti appeared near him, sitting on a large crate.

"Why didn't you rat on me?" She asked. White blushed. She was even prettier than he remembered.

"I… I thought I could teach you, since you were learning my skills anyways." He offered awkwardly.

"And why would you want to do that?" Moti was not naïve. As a past slave, she understood that White was clearly infatuated with her. She hopped down from the crate and walked up to White.

"I remember what you said during the tournament. You want to save the world and be useful to the party. I also want to be useful somehow. I won't tell anyone you're here." White promised.

"Is that really all you want?" Moti unbuttoned her shirt. Unless she made a Soul Contract, she couldn't trust this random person.

"Stop. I'm not here to take advantage of you. I mean it. I'll even make a Soul Contract if that's what you're afraid of." White put his hand on Moti's stopping her from stripping.

"You're a bitch." Moti rebuttoned her shirt, and White blushed. White was in his early twenties and felt it slightly inappropriate to do anything to her, even though their age wasn't too far apart. Even though Moti knew White had pure intentions now, he could've still accepted her advances and still trained her. It was obvious he thought she was beautiful. She shrugged it off casually but was still slightly upset he stopped her advances.

"Why would you say that?" White protested, upset she teased him.

"Are you going to teach me or not?" Moti rolled her eyes.

"Don't you want a Soul Contract?" White countered.

"Just shut up already and teach me," bantered Moti.

"Fine." White said and showed her his skills, explaining how he made them as he went.

***

21 stopped White one night before he could go down to train.

"Hello trainee, care for a quick prophecy?" He grinned.

"I'm sorry, but there's somewhere I have to be." White tried to go around him. As he walked away, 21 spoke.

"Off to see your little girlfriend again?"

"Keep it down!" White turned back around and tried to shush him.

"If you don't want me tattling on you, I implore you to listen to what I have to say. It won't take more than a few minutes." 21 threatened in a teasing manner.

21 took White to his 'office' and started his prophecy. White grumbled all the way there.

"There was once a slave girl, owned by a rich businessman, but this was no ordinary businessman. This man was ruthless, evil, and abusive. He tortured the young girl and exploited her for monetary gain because of her rare physique.

For her whole life, she was at the beck and call of one of the richest men in the whole world. Only the Dungeon Party Selection could save her. Able to register, she fought her way to the first round of the Dungeon Selection Tournament, only to lose to an experienced Wandering Sage.

I am, of course, talking about Moti." 21 explained.

"Why are you telling me this?" White asked dismissively. It was none of his business anyways.

"I'm not done, trainee. After failing out of the tournament, her boss tortured her further and abused her worse than ever before. She ran away desperately and was found by a gracious prophet. That prophet, was me!" 21 laughed. White looked at 21 like he was crazy. This wasn't funny.

"Being a merciful prophet, I taught her an ability to escape her master. This was a strong Unique Skill that I invented just for her. Taking advantage of her rare physique, I named the skill, Invisible Regeneration. With this, she could hide from anyone below the Royalty Realm, but it was a painful skill to use.

Hiding from the corporate agents, she snuck into the Great Dungeon Party and onto the Labyrinthian. I allowed her to sneak in and informed the party leaders not to stop her. I told her to wait until the stronger members went into Floor Zero, then, she snuck in with the stragglers where it would be difficult to tell her apart from the rest of the crowd.

To her surprise, she learned her boss, Ryko Corp CEO Evaris was a member of the party on Floor Zero. I didn't tell her this, but even if she was caught before going into Hell, Evaris would've taken her on the expedition as a sex slave anyways." 21 explained.

"Stop. I don't want to hear these kinds of things." White clutched his fists together in anger.

"It's something you need to hear, naïve trainee. You want to be strong, but reality is harsher than your dreams. Decide what you really want. Do you want to be Councilman, do you want to be the Wizard King, do you want Moti, do you want to save the world, or do you really just want to be acknowledged?" 21 smiled and slid a book over to Trainee White.

The book's cover read, White and the Stowaway.