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.

in her hands—a literature text regarding

was so long ago—back when she

since then, and so she wanted to revisit the literature and see

things—like the outlawing of eating certain foods out

to ensure proper sanitation of the streets and to prevent dirtying the

like the Capital. Places

transactional oversights

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

a way, she found this whole

a

novel about all of this…' As

want to

to cause her bright smile to

though, she quickly brought her attention back to the

regulations recently placed on previously accepted practices, there were still a few that were

of them

used to

stopping the slave trade was the rising conflict beteeen the Humans and other Races, as well as the most important one

rise of

and the Human Kingdoms began to

of them was the abolition of

were still some who engaged in the slave

they were considered among the highest kinds of criminals in the United Human

secret—deep in the inner recesses

awful… selling humans

seemed no matter the world, the stain of slavery

wasn't legal

with this place.' As Alicia

could spot from a mile away, and

'R-Rey?!'

been thinking of for so long

he doing here so

what he did in his spare time, and while she had been meaning to ask him about it, Alicia didn't think

with a smile as

'Hmm. Strange…'

Rey got close to her, she

'He smells nice!'

time

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

She responded with

hang out? I was thinking we should go to the

her brow in even

to hang out with her in the library. He was often very interested in reading as

him to the current book she