"Is he alive?" said a croaky male voice.

"I am checking!" snapped a more dominant man's voice. Two fingers gently touched my neck. I tried to speak but I coughed instead and opened my eyes gradually. Through blurred vision I saw, kneeling over me a man with a bandage over one and his bold head. "he is alive, come, kid, sit up" he helped me sit up and leant me gingerly against a wall, my vision was fully back and I am sat in a circling space with only one entrance. From the dried-up blood around the bodies, I guess they are dead. 8 bodies lying there. It's strange seeing a dead body for the first time; they look real and don't look real at the same time. I turned to the one-eyed man, in blood-soaked armour and behind him, was another man, he had one arm, his right, but that looked to be a recent thing with the makeshift bandage around the stump on his left arm, he looked defeated in the face, his eyes have light in them, he has short blond hair and a nose ring and his armour is broken.

"where are we?" I asked, my voice didn't sound normal to me.

"My guess?" the bold man said, "the 20th floor, I was awake when the troll brought us here".

"20th? For fuck sake" I tried to stand up, pushing myself up against the wall. "how do we get out?"

"out? I like this kid!" the bold man said. "the 25th floor, is a safe zone no monsters can get in, if we get there we can get out from there"

"25th? okay let's go" 

"Marty, on your feet," the bold guy said, lifting his friend. "What is your name and rank, friend?"

"I'm Ronnie and rank?"

"yes, rank A, the guild?"

"I don't have one; today was my first quest" The bold guy and Marty stopped and looked at me curiously.

"what was the quest?"

"I had to get Glowroot"

"how do you damage the troll?" the bold guy demanded, "I seen the marks you left it. And the way it threw you in here you pissed it off, no one on an E-rank mission can do that"

"I punched it"

"YOU PUNCHED IT?" both Marty bold guy said together, 

"yes!" I explained about going to the guy yesterday and learning about magic and discovering that I can only punch hard for the time being thanks to these green crystals that are still stuck to the palm of my hands

"Where is my other arm?" Marty asked; the bold guy leaned Marty against the wall. He walked close to a dead body and came back with a left arm, "Take the gauntlet off please, and this one too" The bold man slid the sliver gauntlets off the spare arm and then the one remaining arm. "Ronnie comes here. I walked towards them. I am a good few inches taller than both of them, "put these on; they will help you, and I don't need them anymore. 

"Arms up," the bold guy said, sliding the sliver gauntlets that looked like scales across my hands and forearm; they even had finger holes and protected up to the middle of my finger; I guess they left the last bit so I could still grip things properly. The other one slipped on nicely too. 

"Vivian, the crystals too," Marty said, and I guess the bold guy's name was Vivian; he turned my hands and pulled the green crystals from them; they peeled off like a facemask. He then slid a piece of the gauntlet open from my forearm and put the crystal and my arm tensed up for a moment. Vivian grinned and me and then looked back at Marty.

"That's a good sign," Marty said, "you have a lot of magic when you can use it properly you will be a force" My arms finally stopped tensing up and shook them and did some light shadowing boxing, they felt good and surprisingly I feel good too. "you will be able to fight better and block attacks with them on"

"Marty thinks of a strategy," Vivian said.

"Since Ronnie can't perform magic and isn't as injured, he shall engage the enemy in combat, Viv and I will give cover fire with magic, we need to be fast no messing about, we have to clear these floors fast before that Troll comes back and notices we aren't here"