After school, James and Leah took a seat on a bench on the edge of the grass field. A small distance away, a band of boys were playing American football, shouting and roughousing like high school boys did..

“Alright, what did you come here for? I heard you tell Jack that I was going to help you connect Korean and American culture? I must say, I do not know much about Koreans.”

“No, that’s fine. Difference between Korea and America is minor. Shoes can be worn anywhere. And handshakes are different. That’s all, really. No, I wanted you to help me with advertising. Popularization in America.”

“Advertising? How am I supposed to help you with that?”

“You will help me produce advertisements that are more tailored to Americans.”

“And you say it as a statement, not a question.” James sighed. “I’m not surprised, considering you flew across half of the planet without even telling me. So am I supposed to help you create advertisements? What type? Video?”

“Yes. This is your job. I will hire you. My dad prepared paperwork.” Leah reached into the bag she was carrying and pulled out a few important-looking documents. “With this, we, an international company, can hire American citizens. You are over 16, and can work. You don’t need parental consent, but you should probably tell them.”

James took the papers and looked over them. It seemed to be a contract of employment. James couldn’t really understand what was going on, but tried reading through it.

“Wait wait wait a minute. Here, it says you’ll be paying me $10,000 a month? That’s a bit too much, isn’t it?”

“I thought you wanted to convert the money from that place.”

Leah didn’t mention the dungeon, probably in case someone overheard. James understood anyways.

“I did, but not that much at once. How am I going to explain this? I can only say I’m being hired as an intern or something similar, so I should barely make any money. Less than minimum wage.”

“Hmmm. Well, you won’t exactly be an intern. But, I can lower the amount later.”

“Yeah, lower it to a more believable number. I can’t just drop a stack of cash on them. The entire point was to make money inconspicuously.” James watched as one of the boys made a touchdown. Then he realized something.

“Wait, you said your dad prepared the paperwork? How the hell did you convince him to spend 10k a month on me?”

“10k isn’t that much. Not for us.”

“What?” James was flabbergasted. “I know you’re a billion dollar company, but 20k for some random teenager? I’d understand if he’d left it to you, but you said he handled all the papers?”

“Each monster I kill on the 19th floor is worth 100k.”

“Yeah, but...oh.” James suddenly realized. “Does your dad know about the dungeon?”

“He is an explorer. Hasn’t explored very much. On 6th floor.”

That made more sense. Leah’s dad knew they wouldn’t have any troubles with money. Besides, she might have told him that James was basically going to be paying himself, which would only make sense in the context of the dungeon.

“This dungeon is unfair,” said Leah.

“Hm?” James looked up.

“Why is the exchange rate from points to money only a clean 100 in US dollars? One point is something like 11060 thousand won. Also, the exchange rate. In the dungeon, it always changes with the real money.”

James stared at her.

“Sorry. That was random.”

“...”

Before, Leah had a quiet, solemn, air to her. She didn’t speak much, making her feel more powerful and unapproachable. However, after he’d met Leah face to face outside the dungeon, that image was quickly broken down.

“Okay.” James stored the papers into his bag. “I’ll talk to my parents about this, and tell them I’m planning on working for you. So, do you know what time I’ll be working?”

“Do you have time this weekend? Saturday morning?”

“Yeah, no problem. Will it be only one time?”

“Hmm.” Leah frowned slightly. “Maybe. We will see how it goes. Can I pick you up here?” Or at your house if you don’t want to drive. 8 o’clock?”

Leah didn’t know James was a 5 minute walk away, but he had no intention of telling her. Finding his school was one thing, but his home address was another. James wouldn’t feel comfortable if Leah knew where he lived.

“No, here is fine. I can wait by the eastern side gate. It’s the easiest place for pickup. 8 o’clock in the morning, or afternoon?”

“I meant morning.”

“That’s fine with me.”

So, the time and date was set up, 3 days later, James would come to school in the morning on Saturday to meet up with Leah.

“I’ve never played American football,” said Leah. “I think it would be interesting to try.”

James watched as she stood up from her seat and headed into the field. Approximately 4 minutes later, she’d joined the defending team and had already made an interception and scored a touchdown, causing chaos on the field.

The cool, calm, but powerful senior explorer was gone. Or maybe, it had never existed, and James had made it up himself. He had forgotten that she was the same age as her, and would likely carry out the same amount of shenanigans as she did. 

James hoped she wouldn’t learn trash talking from the other high schoolers, but she probably would.

But, he had other things to worry about:

Why was the US dollar the standard for exchange in the dungeon? Was it because there were a lot of explorers that used dollars? No, if that were the case, it should’ve been the chinese currency, the yuan. China, which had the largest population, probably would have the largest amount of explorers.

James sunk deep into his thoughts.

====================

“Let’s fucking go,” James thought to himself as he was standing in the boss room.

He’d been able to collect 11 more orbs from the dungeon during the past 3 days. All the orbs he’d consumed and the bonuses from clearing 2 floors combined to give him an agility stat of 34. His growth here was faster than when he was collecting orbs of strength on the 1st floor, because he was now killing more monsters in less time, due to being used to fighting multiple enemies at once. 

James could feel the changes in his physical condition as his AGI stat increased. He was more mobile, and could evade attacks more easily now. His running speed increased. Additionally, he felt that his reflexes improved slightly.

At first, James’ battle strategy had been reliant on using his throwing knives and spear to take out a few imps before they got into close range. Now, however, he was confident he could handle 3 or 4 imps at once, so long as they didn’t surround him. If they all came from one direction, like they did in the dungeon, he’d be able to stab one or two before they started attacking him from random directions. This was assuming that the imps didn’t have the intelligence to set up a real ambush, but only the tier 2 boss imp had the capability to think. At least, it could recognize potential danger.

James exited the dungeon, and went to the shop. But, instead of taking a shower like he normally did after finishing exploring, he booked a training room. He wasn’t done for the day yet.

James put the sign outside the training room to signal that it was in use. He walked to the middle of the “room,” which actually was less of a room and more of a stadium. It was massive.

He looked around, as if he was going to do something suspicious. It was partially true - he didn’t want anyone to see what he was going to do next. It wasn’t because he was going to break the law, but he might be branded as crazy.

James took off the beanie he wore. This was a reward given to him by the people who ran the dungeon for defeating the demonized bear before it got out of hand.

“Hey. Wake up.”