We arrived on the 24th floor sometime later. Mikoto seemed quite nervous, so I decided to calm her down. "Don't worry. With me here, nothing will happen to you. You must already know what monsters are on this floor, right?"

We had already encountered some monsters from this floor on the 19, 22, and 23 floors, but many new monsters would appear here. And many of them were monsters that used poison.

"Yes. I'll be careful not to be caught by surprise."

"If something happens, I have potions to help, so don't worry. Right, let's head this way." The walls and floor were made of wood, and the paths were similar. You could get lost if you didn't have a map like me.

We found some monsters, and Mikoto faced them with my help. They were monsters I had faced before when I went through this floor.

The most troublesome monster was Bloody Hive, which could create traps. I managed to avoid Mikoto getting caught in one of its traps because of my reaction time.

After that, I used my black sword to cut the monster. However, it had a very high defense, and I needed to give a few more attacks to kill it. As soon as the monster died, it dropped a magic stone.

"Thank you for saving me. I could have died."

"You wouldn't have died, but it would have hurt. They do it to incapacitate and then kill you; it doesn't kill you instantly."

"..." Mikoto smiled bitterly. I realized she knew that and was just wanting to be kind.

"So, shall we move on?"

"Can't we rest a bit? There don't seem to be any monsters around."

"Sure, we can rest. Would you like something to eat?"

"That would be great. I'll have some water too."

"Here you go." I pulled some stuffed buns and a bottle of water from my inventory and handed them to Mikoto. We both sat down on the wooden floor of the dungeon to rest.

I was on alert, for we could be attacked at any moment.

And as I imagined, we were attacked by some monsters while we were eating. But I dealt with everything quickly using magic and my sword. I put the items the monsters dropped on my inventory and returned to Mikoto's side.

"It's amazing how you can kill these monsters so easily."

"I'm level 3. Isn't that normal?"

"..."

####

A few hours passed, and I was back in Rivira with Mikoto. Mikoto had trained hard. She fought many strong monsters, but I interfered in most of the fights.

However, she was evolving.

I could see that her movements were getting better with time. Whenever she faced the same type of monster, she would kill it even faster. Honestly, she was very talented.

Much more talented than me.

I can only fight using a sword because of my skills. I have no experience with swords. Mikoto was different. She didn't have a skill that gave her experience like I had.

She's amazing.

"Would you like something to eat before we leave?" I asked her.

"I would like to sleep here. Can we?"

"Well, I don't mind. I stayed in an inn with Lili when we came here together. We can stay there; the bed is very nice."

"Sure," Mikoto replied with a smile.

So, we headed towards the inn I had stayed with Lili last time. We had had a lot of sex inside one of those rooms.

"Excuse me; I want two rooms. One room for me and one for my friend." I said to the receptionist. The old woman stared at us for a few seconds and sighed.

"I have only one room available. It's a room with two beds, so you don't have to worry about sleeping together." Hearing the old woman's words, Mikoto was paralyzed, not knowing how to react.

[ Feeling nervous ]

"What do you think? Mikoto?"

"Well, I don't mind since there are two beds. What about you?" Mikoto's face was a little red.

[ Feeling embarrassed ]

[ Feeling nervous ]

I smiled at Mikoto and took the room key from the woman after paying her. Then we went up to our room.

"It looks the same as the room I stayed in with Lili. The only difference is that our room had only one bed."

"Only one bed? You two slept together?"

"Yes, she doesn't mind that."

"Speaking of which... You two are dating?"

"We're very close friends." I didn't confirm that we were dating. But were we dating? I didn't ask Lili to date me. But I think we are dating; our relationship is already very serious.

"I see. Are you going to sleep now, or are you going out again?"

"I'm going out for a bit; you can sleep in the meantime."

"You don't look the least bit tired." Mikoto placed her sword beside the bed and sat down.

"I'm used to going days without sleep. Don't worry about me." I said goodbye to Mikoto and left her at the inn. I'll go out for a little hunt through the dungeon to have fun.

As Mikoto said, I wasn't tired and couldn't sleep now.

So, I'll go to the 25th floor again to continue the exploration I interrupted last time after getting the crystal from Carbuncle.

"Speaking of which..." I took the crystal out of my inventory. It was large and shiny. "Should I sell this or keep it? I don't think my luck has increased by keeping this crystal in my inventory."

I put the crystal away again and walked down the Great Fall until I reached the bottom. On the way, I killed some monsters called Harpy and some monsters called Siren. It was a boring battle.

It was a very uneven floor, and the waterfall was a big problem. And the monsters were making long-range attacks, which forced me to use maiga to deal with most of them.

"Right. Should I go to the 28th floor?" I just wanted to take a look around before I came back. I'll just keep moving through the floors bit by bit. It's probably necessary to do this to level up.

But I'm being too greedy, aren't I? I've just reached level 3.