An Extra’s POV

"Huu…"

Once Rey was done collecting all the Monster Cores, he heaved a heavy sigh.

As misty breaths escaped his lips and nostrils, he could clearly see the gateway to the next Floor.

The doorway existed at the furthest end of the ring—almost as if it was being guarded by the Boss Rey had just defeated.

That was his next destination.

"I Leveled Up three times just now…" Rey mumbled, realizing just how much EXP he must have received from the Boss and his minions.

With every Level Up, it got increasingly difficult to do so again.

Considering the fact that Rey had Leveled Up a total of five times before reaching the Boss Room by killing hundreds upon hundreds of BigFoot Monsters, it was surprising that he was able to Level Up three times just from a hundred others and a Boss.

'The BigFoot Monsters here were holding weapons, so they're probably stronger than the ones I faced outside…' Was Rey's line of reasoning.

The Boss had to also be quite strong.

With those thoughts in mind, Rey was happy he didn't dawdle at all.

'I still have about two hours left. I can still challenge the next Floor, right?'

Rey knew he was pushing it, but he liked his current streak.

He didn't want to ruin the momentum.

'If I can reach Level 30—no, Level 35—today… I'll be satisfied!'

He stared at the black gate that led to the next Floor. It wasn't covered in frost or anything, which surprised Rey.

That had to mean that the gate had special properties, or… the Floor that it led to was extremely hot.

Rey braced himself more for the second possibility.

"I'll have to speedrun this one…" He whispered, more white clouds of cold air escaping his lungs.

Time wasn't on his side.

*******

Alicia silently read her book in the library, flipping through the pages with a small smile on her face.

She wasn't smiling due to what she was reading, but because of something else.

… Someone else.

'In a few more hours, Rey will come here.' She didn't want to explicitly admit to herself why she was happy about this prospect.

But she was.

regarding

read this particular book before, but that was so long ago—back when she just

to revisit the literature and see if she could have a new, more

she had encountered a bunch of mundane things—like the outlawing of eating certain

to ensure proper sanitation of the

rule only applied to high-brow areas like the Capital. Places such as the Adventurer City were exempt from

transactional oversights were

might have been too complicated for Alicia to grasp in the past, but she understood a lot more

she found this whole

a world that she intended on

back, I should write a novel about all of

to

thought was enough to cause her bright smile to

too much, though, she

a lot of mundane, inconsequential regulations recently placed on previously accepted practices, there

them

to believe that the Kingdoms used to practice slavery

the Humans and other Races, as well as

The rise of

Kingdoms began to band together,

was the abolition of the slave

were still some who engaged in

kinds of

usually operated in secret—deep in the inner

just awful… selling humans as a

matter the world, the

it wasn't legal

was, I'd have some issues with this place.' As Alicia had these

was a familiar presence she could spot from a mile away, and seeing him made her smile return

'R-Rey?!'

for so long now entered the

he doing here so

what he did in his spare time, and while

Rey said with a

'Hmm. Strange…'

got close to her, she usually had one single

'He smells nice!'

time was

anything—at least, Alicia didn't want to think he did—but he just

responded with

I was thinking we

raised her brow in even more

was often very interested in reading as much as he could, and he even

had even been thinking of introducing him to the current