The duo continued to the north, but all they saw was endless swamps and vegetation and, occasionally, a group of monsters.
"Haaah, when will we find those damn stairs?" Senzo muttered, rubbing his temples.
He had no idea how long they had been walking around on this floor, but it felt like hours had passed already, and it was becoming annoying.
The monsters on this floor were extremely aggressive, and the moment they spotted him and Pest, they immediately attacked. Even though they weren't that strong, there were way too many of them.
"Do we continue onward or return and look in another direction?" Senzo asked Pest.
"Let's keep going, master! I'm sure our hard work will be rewarded soon," Pest replied with a massive smile on his face. The first couple of monster hordes they faced, Senzo did most of the work, but after that, he became bored of killing them and left all the fighting to Pest.
Pest didn't mind in the slightest; this way he could go totally wild, and he had even developed a couple new diseases that were especially effective against these goblins.
"Alright, let's quickly find those damn stairs!"
Pest just nodded, hoping to find a couple more monster hordes; he felt like his newly developed diseases could make a massive breakthrough at any moment now.
Please just a couple more of those uggos! Clasping his hands together, he prayed silently.
Senzo clearly saw Pest acting a little strange, but he couldn't be bothered at the moment; getting off this floor was the top priority.
***
Like that, two hours passed; Pest was completely covered in green blood after taking down another horde of green uggos.
And Senzo couldn't help but reevaluate; Pest clearly loved fighting, or well, he loved infecting his enemies.
Unlike War, who loved the thrill of battle, Pest was more like an "S"; he had to be careful in the future with someone this powerful and with such a twisted personality.
Senzo had a headache. All four horsemen were immensely powerful, but at the same time, they were also very dangerous because of their eccentric personalities.
While he was thinking about all kinds of things, he saw something in the distance.
"What's that?" he muttered, and without waiting for Pest to reply, he jumped above the trees to take a closer look at the weird thing he saw in the distance.
Now floating above the treeline, he skillfully used his vector manipulation to extend his line of sight and took a detailed look at the gray dot in the distance.
"!!!"
"Finally!"
And without hesitation he lifted Pest up above the trees and rushed toward what looked like a staircase; he had actually found it.
But he was still very dissatisfied; it was actually located all the way at the edge of this damn floor.
"War, Famine, and Death, get your asses all the way up to the north; I've found the staircase!"
Senzo's voice suddenly echoed throughout the whole floor while he was rushing toward the staircase at full speed; this floor was just too damn big.
Even though he and Pest hadn't walked at a slow pace, it still took them a couple minutes flying at almost top speed to reach the staircase.
"Pest, go up to the next floor and make sure we can safely come up, then wait for me and the others after you've done that."
"Understood!"
And without delay, Pest quickly made his way up the stairs, while Senzo took a seat and was waiting for War and the others to arrive; he had no idea how long it would take for them to arrive here.
But if it took too long, he might have to go and pick them up.
"..."
"Waiting for a while should be fine, right?"
***
And while Senzo leisurely sat leaning against the staircase, Pest had already arrived at the next floor.
"..."
It looked almost identical to the floor he came from.
"Well, at least I can keep improving my goblin and those weird muscular goblin diseases, I guess," Pest was mumbling while looking around the vicinity of the staircase, but all he could see was a massive jungle.
"Ah, no, it's not identical; there are no swamps."
But seeing that the floor was pretty similar, Pest immediately lost interest and took a seat next to the staircase to wait for his master and the others to arrive.
He had hoped something interesting would happen or that he could find new test subjects, but it looks like it would be the same as the last floor.
At least it's fun to adventure with Master. A smile appeared under his plague doctor mask; he had barely met his master a couple days ago, and it was already so much fun.
"I'll keep showing Master more and more terrifying diseases so he keeps me close!" Pest muttered to himself.
And while waiting, he took out two glass containers, both containing a weird liquid that was glowing; the container in his right hand was light green, and the other one was light blue.
"Hehehehe."
These were the two diseases he had developed on the previous floor; the green one was the natural enemy of all green-blooded creatures, and the other one was to infect any and all drinking water.
Pest was immensely proud of these creations, because different creatures and liquids had different chemical balances; using other toxins or diseases could still work, but they were much less effective. That is also the reason why he needed as much information about his enemies as possible.
The more information he had, the more effectively he could create new toxins and diseases.
But while he was admiring his new creations, he was suddenly interrupted by a rude fellow.
"Aren't you going to show yourself?" he asked, looking at a certain tree.
After hearing that, five wolves with muscular goblins emerged from behind the tree.
"Hooh, interesting," Pest mumbled, and without hesitation he tossed both glass containers straight at them.
Firstly, to see if they were the same as the monsters of the previous floor, and secondly because he was bored.
Now that some enemies came knocking on his door, wouldn't it be impolite to not attack them?
He took a quick glance at the stairs, and when he didn't see anyone coming up yet, he heaved a sigh of relief.
"Looks like you guys are all for me!"