“Haaaap!”

“Wooooo.”

“Shut it!”

I struck down a wraith with my mana-imbued spear. Although the weapon I was using was technically a glaive, I often called it a spear because of the way I was using it. The wraith seemed to want to phase through my attack, but, unable to do so, it scattered into little pieces. Wraiths could not be damaged by physical attacks, but they were incredibly weak to magical attacks or attacks imbued with mana. Based on that, I realized that the 6th floor was a place where those who could use mana were separated from those who couldn’t.

According to Ellos, they had to learn an applied skill that used mana to fight the wraiths because no one in his party had a high-rank weapon technique. Since I now knew a high-rank spear technique, I could deal with the wraiths using that.

In any case, I was no longer on the 6th floor, but the 7th. Two nights ago, I managed to plow through the 6th floor’s wraiths and arrived at the 7th floor. There, I was met with even more wraiths. When I asked Ellos, he told me that wraiths appeared all the way until the end of the 10th floor.

By now I had gotten used to wraiths popping out incessantly. It made me confident that I at least wouldn’t be scared by any horror movies from Earth for a while.

I now had about 850 mana. Just when I was thinking that the growth speed was beginning to slow down, it jumped by about another 100 when I leveled up to level 7. It was then that I realized that level ups acted as breakthroughs for slowed growth.

Level ups were like mini evolutions, similar to raising my entire self to a higher realm of being. In addition, since each level up came with stat points, it meant that I could truly customize my growth, giving me a big advantage in terms of growth. 

That being said, it was still important to have a mana cultivation method and to use it. By constantly training with it, the speed of my mana’s growth would increase upon leveling up as well as how quickly I recovered mana after using it.

My mana cultivation method positioned itself in my status under the name ‘Peruta Circuit’. I noticed that it didn’t have a ranking, so maybe that was why it was still level 2 even after two months of training.

“All of you, come at me!”

[You used Orc Lord’s Warcry! All party members have been cleansed of negative status effects. All party members’ attack power has increased by 50 percent for the duration. All party members are now super-armored, unfazed by enemy attacks.]

I charged towards a flock of wraiths after using Orc Lord’s Warcry. Other than the fact I could only use it once per day, it was a perfect skill for these floors. I had no time to waste on guys that didn’t drop anything!

“Kiyaaaaaaaa!”

“Tempest!”

Tempest was one of the skills I had learned from Peruta. By using a special breathing method combined with a special mana circulation method, it took the artificial current of mana that was generated around my spear and exploded it forward. Everything in its path was torn up by blades of wind. There was truly no skill better to open up a straight path.

The downside was that it used over 300 mana per activation.

“I see the stairs!”

I also saw the Floor Shop next to it. I once again swung my glaive and killed the wraiths flying toward me. Then, I rushed toward the Floor Shop and was greeted by the same noona I always met.

I had begun to question whether this noona was the same as the ones from all previous floors. Not only did she look the same, but she also knew me extremely well.

She commented, “Oh, you were quite fast. You broke through the 7th floor in just two days. Others take two months or even half a year.”

“I should be able to keep going at this rate for a while.” I boasted.

“Is that so? You remained bound to the 5th floor for over 3 years, but it looks like you didn’t spend your time in vain.”

The shop noona smiled oddly at me.

“Then why don’t you prove your worth?”

“Hm?”

[A quest appeared!]

“…Quest?”

Ellos became excited after I told him I had encountered a quest.

[A quest? Amazing!]

“Is it?”

[Of course! I’m on the 21st floor now, but I’ve never encountered a quest!]

“What’s a quest?”

Just to be clear, I naturally knew what a quest was. After all, it was something easily found in the online games I used to play. In those games, when a player accepted a request from an NPC and fulfilled it, experience points and rewards would be given. Simply put, a quest was fulfilling a request and earning rewards for it.

But I would have never imagined that the dungeon would have quests too. I couldn’t hide my surprise at this revelation, so I contacted Ellos to obtain whatever information I could about it.

[A quest is…a quest. It’s like a surprise present. No one knows what triggers it.]

“A surprise present.” I echoed.

[Yep. In my continent, there is an explorer who conquered the 50th floor of the Third Dungeon. From what I heard, he was only able to climb so high because of a quest he had triggered on the 17th floor. Like I said, no one knows what conditions trigger a quest, but we do know one thing. If you do as the quests say, you can obtain skills or items unobtainable by normal explorers.]

[Through that quest, the explorer I mentioned learned a skill that would become his iconic move. With that skill, he climbed all the way to the 50th floor!]

“Wow, so what happened to him?”

[He fell while fighting against the invaders. It was a truly heroic death. It’s a shame. If he was an explorer of the First Dungeon instead of the Third, he could have become much stronger.]

“You mean the reward is greater if the dungeon’s difficulty is greater.”

[Yep. The number in front of the dungeon denotes how difficult it is.]

According to Ellos, his home continent, Edias, always had magicians, priests who used God’s power, and knights who manifested auras. It was only about 300 years ago that dungeon explorers began to appear. Ellos called the first people to become dungeon explorers the Pioneers.

The Pioneers raised their levels by exploring dungeons and became the strongest in the continent by equipping items from the dungeons. By the time Followers, people who obtained the qualifications to enter the dungeon by the Pioneers’ acknowledgement, appeared, invaders began to show up uninvited in their continent.

These invaders arrived with large armies, and their goal was to massacre and conquer all residents of the continent. Diplomacy was useless, so the residents of the continent were left with no choice but to fight back.

Their enemies used mystical weapons and magic, so obviously only the dungeon explorers could face them. This war that began 200 years ago still seemed to be raging on.

After becoming a dungeon explorer, Ellos also obtained a key position in his country. Now that he had climbed above the 20th floor, he was on the front line fighting against the invaders. When I first heard his story, I was shocked. I found it regrettable that all I could do to help him was to cheer him on.

“Does the First Dungeon have fewer explorers?” I asked curiously.

[Yep. A dungeon explorer’s qualities determine which dungeon he gets to go. Not that I’m bragging or anything, haha.]

“Consider it flattering me then.”

[What? Hahahaha! Anyways, congratulations on getting a quest, friend. I’ll pray for your success.]

“Alright, I’ll talk to you later.”

[Quest – Charge through the Ghosts

Content - Although you dawdled, and was unable to break through the 6th floor for over 3 years, you were able to somehow break through the 7th floor in two days. The First Dungeon’s Floor Shop owner, Loretta, wishes to test the potential she sees in you.

If you can break through the 9th floor in a day, Loretta might give you a rare item unavailable for purchase.

Time Left Until Quest Ends: 23:46:14]

“Kiyaaaaa!”

“Hm, breaking through the 9th floor in a day…it shouldn’t be too hard if I…eh?”

While going through the content of the quest in front of the 8th floor, lightning seemed to strike me as I finally realized something important.

“I have to break through two floors in one day!?”

W-What!? I checked the amount of time I had left. Oh no, my precious 14 minutes! I hurriedly began charging through the 8th floor with my glaive in hand. The wraiths went after me like ants that had just found a lollipop on the ground.

“Screw off! I don’t have time to play around with you guys!” I hollered.

I had 600 mana left.

If I succeed in completing this quest, I swear I’ll focus on the Peruta Circuit! As I made a belated vow of regret, I bravely held up my spear and charged forward like Don Quixote tilting at windmills. The only choice I had left was to rush forward!

[Stupid! I told you to contact me first. Why didn’t you for so long!? Don’t tell me you’re going to stop with just a single message? You stupid Orc!]

I vaguely noticed that a message notification had popped up but I was too busy to pay any attention to it.

I am one with the spear. My spear is the spear that will pierce the heavens!

[Y-You, I finally contacted you, don’t tell me you’re going to ignore me? …Fine, you Orc. I don’t know you anymore! I hope you slip and break your nose!]

“Kiyaaaaa!”

“Huaaaaaaaa!”

Ah, I wonder who can stop this wonderful feeling I’m having! One with the spear, I shall rush forward! My only goal, the staircase!

[Stupid! Stupid! I hate you!]

[…I don’t know you anymore…stupid…]

After about 15 hours, I finally reached the end of the 8th floor.

“Haa…haa…”

The shop noona remarked slyly, “Oh, you look tired. You have 9 hours left. Are you sure you can do it?”

“Hu, huhu… O-Of course… Hu…”

I huffed out a reply as I absentmindedly cleared away the annoying notification windows in front of me. Apparently the shop noona really was the same person on every floor! I could tell because her incredibly glossy, straight hair was quite memorable. Strange. How was it possible? I stared at her trying to figure it out, but the noona must have become embarrassed as she turned away with a slight blush on her cheeks.

“Even if you stare at me so passionately, I won’t increase the time.” She huffed.

“No, that’s not it.”

“You’ve become much manlier compared to before. Even so, you’re still five years too early. I prefer men who can protect me.”

“No, that’s not it either.”

I didn’t want to waste any more time talking to her, so I sat down and began eating beef jerky. Then, store noona began another conversation.

Unlike before, her eyes were shining now.

Author's note: Did you expect a 6 month time skip? Nope! You'll be seeing how our MC grew over the six months!