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 of the people of H'Trae which

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

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

she had encountered a bunch of mundane things—like the

proper sanitation of the

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

couple of financial limitations and transactional oversights were also

too complicated for Alicia to grasp in the past,

found

learning so much about a world that she intended on leaving very

all of this…' As

to go back…

cause her bright smile

dwell on it too much, though,

lot of mundane, inconsequential regulations recently placed on previously accepted practices, there were still a few that were big

them was

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

stopping the slave trade was the rising conflict beteeen the Humans

rise

the Human Kingdoms began to band together, a lot

them was the abolition of

still some who engaged in the slave trade—both buying

among the highest kinds of criminals in the United Human

in the inner recesses

is just awful… selling

seemed no matter the world, the

wasn't

some issues with this place.' As Alicia had these

mile away, and seeing him made her

'R-Rey?!'

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

he doing here

did in his spare time, and while she had been meaning to ask him about it, Alicia

with a smile as he

'Hmm. Strange…'

her, she usually had

'He smells nice!'

time

anything—at least, Alicia didn't want

responded with

out? I was thinking we should

brow in even more

with her in the library. He was often very interested in reading as much as he

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