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.

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

book before, but that was so long ago—back when she

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

far, she had encountered a bunch of mundane things—like the outlawing of eating certain foods out in

of the streets

rule only applied to high-brow areas like the Capital. Places such as the

financial limitations and transactional oversights

been too complicated for Alicia to grasp in the

found this

much about a world that she intended on leaving very

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

want to go back…

cause her

it too much, though, she

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

of them

that the Kingdoms used to practice

for stopping the slave trade was the rising conflict beteeen the Humans and other

rise of

the Human Kingdoms began to band together, a

was the abolition of

to the book, there were still some who engaged

kinds of criminals in the

in the inner recesses of the Black

awful… selling humans as a

world, the stain of

it wasn't

place.' As Alicia had these thoughts, she noticed someone

from a mile away, and seeing him made her

'R-Rey?!'

of for so

he doing

in his spare time, and while she had been meaning to

a

'Hmm. Strange…'

Rey got close to her, she usually had one single

'He smells nice!'

this time was

least, Alicia didn't want to think he did—but he just didn't have the same

She responded with a smile

thinking we

her brow in even more

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

to the current book she was reading