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.

the current book in her hands—a literature text regarding the common practices

read this particular book before, but that was so

had happened since then, and so she wanted to revisit the literature and see if she could have a new,

a bunch of mundane things—like the outlawing of eating certain

proper sanitation of the streets

like the Capital. Places such as the Adventurer City were

couple of financial limitations and transactional oversights were

complicated for Alicia to grasp in the past, but she understood a lot more

way, she found

she learning so much about a world that she

write a novel about all of this…' As she chuckled, a dark thought suddenly appeared in her

doesn't want to go back…

to cause her bright

too much, though, she quickly brought her attention back to the

on previously accepted practices, there

of them

hard to believe that the Kingdoms used to practice slavery up

beteeen the

The rise of the

Human Kingdoms began to band together, a lot of

was the

book, there were still some who engaged in

were considered among the highest kinds of criminals

in secret—deep in the inner recesses of

is just awful… selling humans as a

world, the stain of slavery remained

wasn't legal

As Alicia had these thoughts, she noticed someone

was a familiar presence she could spot from a mile away, and

'R-Rey?!'

boy she had been thinking of for so long now entered the Library

doing here

came to the Library in the night. She still didn't know what he did in his spare time, and while she had been meaning to ask him about it, Alicia didn't think

Rey said with a smile

'Hmm. Strange…'

to her, she usually had one single

'He smells nice!'

this time

smelled or anything—at least, Alicia didn't want

responded with

to hang out? I was thinking we should

raised her brow in

out with her in the library. He was often very interested in reading as much as he could, and he even sought her consultation on

him to the