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.

her hands—a literature text regarding the common practices of the people of H'Trae which had now

was so long ago—back when she just started frequenting

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

encountered a bunch of mundane things—like the outlawing of eating certain foods out in

to ensure proper sanitation of the streets and to prevent dirtying

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

of financial limitations and transactional oversights were also mentioned in

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

way, she found this whole

much about a world that she intended on

back, I should write a novel about all of this…' As she

want to

thought was enough to cause her

could dwell on it too much, though,

on previously accepted practices,

of them was

Kingdoms used to practice

rising conflict beteeen the

rise

began to band together, a

was the abolition of the slave

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

were considered among the highest kinds of criminals in the

in secret—deep in the inner recesses of

is just awful… selling humans

the world, the stain of

wasn't legal

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

mile away, and seeing him

'R-Rey?!'

so long now

he doing here

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

a smile as

'Hmm. Strange…'

got close to her, she usually had

'He smells nice!'

time was

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

responded with a

was thinking we should go to the Town

brow

often very interested in reading as much as he could, and he even

the current book she was reading