"Level 19, huh…?"

Rey had Leveled Up four times in the course of this brief event, and while it didn't seem like much, he still found himself smiling at the fact.

"I've gotten stronger."

His goal for the day had been achieved, and that was enough to satisfy him.

'If I can clear one Floor per day, and focus the rest of my time on other things, I'd say that's decent progress…'

Rey would have normally preferred doing two—if not three—Dungeons in a day, but that came at its own risk.

For one, the terrain of Dungeons made exploring a single floor very hectic. Doing so could range from an hour or two to almost four.

And all of this was without accounting for the fact that he would need to stop to fight Monsters and harvest Cores—though he had found a way to circumvent the last problem.

Of course, Rey could easily find a way to speed up his journey though [Flight] and other Skills in the Buff Category, but that came with its own caveat.

'Going fast increases the risk of falling into traps or being careless.'

When moving fast, there were a lot of things one tended to overlook.

If this was any other place, then Rey could have easily shrugged off this underlying risk, but Dungeon Floors were very dangerous and unpredictable places.

He could also encounter Monsters that gave hard counters to his existing Skill-Set.

'I also can't afford to burn through too much of my MP…'

In a place where Rey wasn't certain what would come next, his Skills were his only lifeline.

Which meant MP was his precious fuel.

'I have tons of Buffs and my base MP is rapidly increasing, but it's still not quite there yet…'

Most Buff Skills had Duration and Cooldown Periods, so if he ended up exhausting all of them, he would be screwed.

He also had a Mana Recovery Skill, but that was a passive one, and it restored the Mana over time.

In conclusion, while Rey desired to explore more Floors in a day, he simply couldn't afford to—at least, safety wise.

There was just no way to rush through it.

'Training ends by 2:00 PM. I budget 1 hour for my journey here every day, which means I arrive at 3:00 PM…'

Rey often trained for about five hours, which meant he left around 8:00 PM.

Another hour to travel back, and that meant he would arrive home at 9:00 PM.

He would take a quick shower and reach the Library at about 9:30 PM.

After studying for a few hours—usually two, but sometimes three—he would leave around the 12:00 AM mark.

It used to be a lot different before, but this was his current schedule.

'And training the next morning starts by 7:00 AM… damn!'

Rey had never been much of a hard worker, so it was even surprising to him that he was following such a tight schedule.

Perhaps that was why he tried to have as much fun while killing Monsters and growing stronger.

'I really wish I didn't have to go for training…'

Rey knew that sounded a lot like a child whining about not wanting to go to school, but he couldn't help it.

Training was useless to him, at this point.

He was already way ahead of the class thanks to reading in the library. As for the practical aspect of training, he felt more productive in the Dungeon than among his fellows.

'Anyhow. I don't think this arrangement will last forever…'

Rey and his classmates were summoned for a reason, so it only stood to reason that they would soon be made to fulfill their purpose.

'I don't know when that will be, but considering the Nation's desperation, it shouldn't be too long.'

Rey approximated it to take about one more month.

'The fact that Lucielle and Brutus had to leave abruptly shows how grim the situation is.'

He had a feeling that he and his classmates would be pushed to the extreme when those two returned.

And not long after, they would be made to finally explore the Dungeon and grind their levels.

'They're going to find that I've already defeated the Monsters for them, though…' Rey laughed sheepishly to himself.

'What should I do?'

He was beginning to feel a little guilty about the whole thing.

'The weaker Monsters would have served as perfect cannon fodders for them to increase their Levels, and now they can't have that.'

In this world, there was only one way to increase Levels.

That was by gaining EXP.

Depending on the Class, EXP could be gained in multiple ways. For example, a Scholar could gain tons of EXP from studying, just as a Warrior could gain EXP from fighting a lot.

However, EXP accumulated very slowly in a long process over time.

That was why there was a much easier way to go about it.

Killing and Gaining EXP.

It was a universal principle in this world that one could gain EXP by extinguishing the life of another living entity.

Since it was immoral to take human lives, or the lives of beings with sufficient intelligence to be deemed sentient, the perfect alternative was Monsters.

Monsters were resources useful for quick growth, and Rey was a living testament to that fact.

'If they want to Level Up, they'll have to go to the Lower Floors, and I don't know how easy that'll be for them…'

Rey surmised that the Royal Council had to have other areas they could use for killing Monsters aside from the Royal Dungeon, so he didn't think it would be too much of a hassle for them.

'In any case, I'll just feign ignorance like always.'

Rey prepared himself to depart from the Floor and call the Hobgoblins to clean up the mess he had made and harvest the Monster Cores.

'I should probably burn the corpses, but I'll do it tomorrow…'

*

*

*

Happy new year, everyone!!!

Thanks for reading!