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.

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

was so long ago—back when

since then, and so she wanted to revisit the literature and see if she could have a new, more informed, grasp

far, she had encountered a bunch of mundane things—like the outlawing of

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

areas like the Capital. Places such as the Adventurer City were

limitations and transactional oversights were also mentioned in the

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

way, she found this whole thing

about a

should write a novel about all of this…' As she chuckled, a dark thought

to go back…

thought was enough to cause her bright smile to

though, she quickly brought

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

of them

hard to believe that the Kingdoms used to practice slavery up till even a

catalyst for stopping the slave trade was the rising conflict beteeen the Humans and other Races, as

rise of the

Dragons invaded, and the Human Kingdoms began

of them was the

to the book, there were still some who engaged in the

among the highest kinds of criminals in the United

the inner

awful… selling humans

the stain of slavery remained

wasn't legal

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

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

'R-Rey?!'

been thinking of for so long now entered the Library and instantly spotted

doing here

spare time, and while she had been meaning to ask him about it, Alicia didn't think it

with a smile as

'Hmm. Strange…'

close to her, she usually had one

'He smells nice!'

this time

wasn't like he smelled or anything—at least, Alicia didn't want to think he did—but he just didn't have the same

She responded with a smile

to hang out? I was thinking we should

brow in

to hang 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 some books to

even been thinking of introducing him to the current book she was reading once she was