For a moment, Uhtred only held her in his arms, staring numbly at the hovering level right above her head.

So many thoughts were firing off in his head in that exact moment as he tried to come up with explanations for what he was seeing.

First, the hovering display only showed her level and not her race or species, like it usually showed with beasts. This further cemented the fact that she was fully human.

And it was that particular fact that brought up the rest of the questions that were firing in Uhtred’s mind.

Why then was she not on the global ranking panel? Being at Level 16 meant she was just one level behind him. How fast was she leveling? What was her Cosmic Essence Core grade then? How come he was only learning about her just now? Was there a way to hide one’s details from showing on every single ranking panel entirely?

At the same moment Uhtred was having all these questions, he was also coming up with answers of his own that might explain the girl’s existence.

There was the fact that he just found her in a dungeon, and it was no secret that the System had randomized the landing points of Pioneers, people with talents that were good enough for the System to decide they did not need the initial explanation phase.

So perhaps this girl was someone who somehow found herself in a dungeon after the integration...?

Was that even possible? Especially because there was that mandatory quest that called back all the Pioneers to Zone 0 after their initial level gains.

For Uhtred, the quest was "Your Law, Your Order." And he guessed a similar quest was given to every Pioneer, one that made them all retreat back to Zone 0 at the same time.

Why wasn’t she called back then?

Uhtred swallowed and forced all his roiling thoughts to calm for the moment. He looked down at the girl, assessing her features more carefully.

Nothing about her and nothing about this situation made any sense. And any theory he came up with right now was going to be useless. He could simply just ask her directly when she woke up instead.

Still, the fact that she was the only one alive in the midst of all these dead beasts pointed to one singular fact: she had been the one to clear this dungeon... on her own... at Level 16.

Whoever she was and whatever her core grade was, she was certainly very powerful.

"Dammit... What do I do now?" Uhtred looked to the end of the dungeon floor, where he could see the faint glow of the portal leading to the next floor.

Floor 20 was just right beyond him, but there was also this girl who was unconscious and could really do with some healing from Diya.

The more the gray sludge cleared from her body, the more Uhtred saw just how dire a state she currently was.

Cuts and bruises littered her entire body, especially her arms, as though she had used them as brute force weapons. Her fists were raw and open, showing even some of the bones.

The steel-like skin of the beasts of this floor must have made her go all out. The fact that her hands were still even in one piece just went to show that she was definitely a powerful individual.

Still, she had taken excessive damage to the point where she was now fully unconscious. Any more time Uhtred wasted could actually put her life at risk.

The logical choice was clear.

Uhtred hissed under his breath, but hefted her onto his shoulder regardless, picking up his battle-axe and standing to his feet.

He turned back and began to head upward, straight for Floor 5, where he had left Diya, Minh Quan, and Dennis.

He knew he was giving up whatever clear reward he would have gotten if he had cleared Floor 20 on his own in one run. But a human life at stake was still of more importance to him than whatever titles he might have gained.

He could always gain more titles later on, a life that he could have saved so easily, and he didn’t, would haunt him endlessly.

Besides, he also consoled himself with the thought that perhaps the System might not have given him as much of a reward as he had initially thought.

There was the fact that Diya, Minh Quan, and Dennis had helped in clearing at least the first five floors of the dungeon. There was also this girl who had cleared Floor 19 on her own, so perhaps the System might not have read the dungeon clear as a solo run for him.

It was with these thoughts that he rushed all the way up to Floor 5.

However, upon getting there, he didn’t find Diya, Minh Quan, or Dennis, though he could see the ruins of their battle.

Uhtred didn’t know how long it took for a floor to reset after each clear, but he reckoned it was a significant amount of time, because across all the floors he passed coming up here, he hadn’t seen any of the beasts he had cleared respawn yet.

Seeing that there were still a few of the Level 5 Stone-Hide Wolves milling about Floor 5, he immediately knew the three had chosen to retreat.

There were a bit more than a dozen of the beasts left, and their gazes immediately locked onto Uhtred the moment he stepped onto Floor 5 from behind them.

They began to let out low growls under their breath, but Uhtred could not be bothered with them. He released his aura in full, roaring as he charged straight at them.

"Out of the fucking way!"

Under the oppression of his aura, the beasts scampered away immediately, clearing the path for him. In fact, some of them staggered to the ground from the oppression alone.

There was a sharp edge to his aura, perhaps because of how much killing he had gone through just moments ago, so a bit of that bloodlust still tinged in his aura.

He charged all the way up to Floor 1, where he finally saw Diya, Minh Quan and Dennis sitting at the end of the floor, discussing among themselves.

They looked to be re-assessing and going over their prior battle, talking about where they could have improved, when all of a sudden their gazes flitted up, noticing Uhtred’s figure dashing at them.

"Diya, to me now!" Uhtred didn’t waste time explaining anything. And Diya, despite her surprise seeing someone new on Uhtred’s shoulder, also held back her questions for the meantime.

The others also remained silent, only standing up to surround the girl Uhtred had brought, just as he placed her gently on the ground.

Diya quickly went to work without needing to be told. She began by assessing the entire damage across the girl’s body first. Her hands moved all over, from her arms to her shoulders, her rib bones, and her thighs.

She assessed all the damages on her body, and she couldn’t help but let out a low mutter of surprise under her breath.

"What is it?" Uhtred asked. "How bad are her injuries? Will she survive?"

"Oh, she’s going to survive," Diya replied, her eyes fully focused on the girl as she began to cycle her cosmic essence to begin healing. "I was just surprised by how much damage she’s taken and the fact that she’s still alive..."

Diya paused for a moment, then looked up at Uhtred.

"The only other person I’ve seen with such intense injuries and was still somehow alive... was you, Uhtred."