Seeing the Owlbear fall to the ground, I let go of the knives I was holding and fell on the ground as well.

I chuckled as it was finally dead.

Laying my back on the ground, arms and legs sprawled out, I immediately felt the exhaustion and injuries getting to me.

“Ughhh…”

Groaning in pain, my body could not move, or maybe I just refused to move. I was starting to have regrets about fighting that thing, but I could say that it was an amazing fight.

Blood started to come out of my wounds from my left side and back. It looks like they reopened; should I have let it fully close before I fought the Owlbear?

It hurts too much to use a health potion. Lucia, Wendy, and Alex were still alive and well with barely any injuries; I should ask them, maybe not Lucia since she is still mad at me.

My smile was put away, and I was back to my normal expressionless self. With the little energy I could spare, I called out to them.

“Hey… Could one of you give me a health potion?”

Moving my eyes to look at them, they began muttering to each other in a circle like they were passing on something they really didn’t want to do, like kids. I was too exhausted and in too much pain to care to hear, so I said.

“Could you hurry it up? I’m bleeding out right now.”

“Right.”

Alex, after being pushed by Lucia and Wendy, approached me slowly, and I was thinking to myself, can you hurry up?

Opening a health potion, he pours it over the gashes across my left side and back, then lets me drink the rest, which was hell because it was the worst thing I ever tasted.

Does a higher-ranking health potion equate to how bad it tastes?

After some time for my wounds to heal, Alice, Chelsie, and Maria woke up after being strangled by the vines.

Alex filled them in and told them I had defeated the Owlbear, and they asked why they let me fight that thing alone. Alex, Wendy, and Lucia gave a complicated expression that had some fear in it, said you won’t believe us, and left it just that, refusing to clarify any further.

Sitting by the walls of the boss room, I was sipping a stamina potion that suspiciously tasted like an energy drink that Maria gave me when Alice approached me.

“Thank you again for saving us. I guess I owe you twice now.”

“You could say that.”

“Is there anything I could do?”

Thinking about it, I said yeah. Alice seemed really happy about my response and asked what it was.

“You remember about my past, right?”

“Yes.”

“I was thinking about buying a house or apartment in Acton for a while now since I am running out of space at my inn.”

“What do you need me to do?”

“Could you wear your dress to help me sell the jewelry I had taken with me when I ran away and help me buy a house or apartment with the money since, you know, it would be suspicious for a random commoner to have such things?”

Hearing my request, Alice nodded with a yes, happy that she could return the favor.

“When do you want to do it?”

“In 2 days, I’m exhausted from the boss fight and want a day to rest.”

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

“Got it.”

After our conversation and everyone was somewhat rested, we went through the doors to the 3rd stratum.

Going through the doors, immediately, I felt the blazing hot sun bearing down on me, and the dry humidity made my throat parch.

We walked for a short bit till we were on a sand dune and Maria began looking around for something.

“Hey look, it’s over there.”

Maria pointed out in the direction of the thing she was looking for and began running to it.

Alex shouted out at Maria to not run off since monsters could appear and attack her.

We ran to follow her to see she was picking up some reddish-colored fruits from a cactus.

Let's see, if I remember correctly, it’s called a Corryocactus, which can show up with prickly pears that can increase your stamina and help you resist the blazing hot sun. If you make potions out of it, the effects can be more potent and last a lot longer.

After Maria had collected a bag of Corryocactus fruit, we went back to the 2nd stratum and into the house they were renting.

I looked for Lucia, but she was nowhere to be seen. We were supposed to have a duel after the fight, which I was looking forward to.

That is a shame. I was about to leave to go back to my inn, but Maria told me to wait for a bit because she wanted to give me something.

“Sorry for the wait, but here you go.”

Maria had carried out a basket of potions, of which I counted there to be a dozen.

“These are?”

“High-grade health potions.”

Surprise, I ask.

“Are you giving them to me?”

“Absolutely, you’ve helped me a lot; it’s the least I could do.”

“I see.”

“Also here.”

Maria then took out 2 viles, which I was familiar with, regeneration potions.

“I know you don’t want me to look at your injuries, so here. Just in case you need it.”

I nodded and thanked her, then left the house. Going up the floors was relatively uneventful except that my body was completely tired from the boss fight and people were giving me weird looks since I was covered in my own blood.

Once I got to my room, I made space in my cluttered room to take off my bloody clothes and began cleaning myself, then changed into a fresh set of clothes and went to sleep after I drank the regeneration potion Maria gave me.

The next day my body was sore all over, but I had to do things today, which was to go to Kinwall’s shop to get some armor. I originally thought my direwolf cloak would be enough to protect me from any fatal injuries, but with the Owlbear, it wasn’t enough.

Plus I need Kinwall to do maintenance, especially my short sword that had dents in it from letting the Owlbear bight into it.

Additionally, speaking about cloaks, my direwolf cloak was shredded, and I need a new one.

On the way to Kinwall’s shop, I bought a new cloak from a merchant. It was a black cloak, similar to my old one but better. It was nowhere near the level of my direwolf cloak, but it would have to do.

In Kinwall’s shop, he greeted me and asked what I needed. Taking out the weapons I was carrying, I said.

“Could you do some maintenance on them? My engraved knives and especially my short sword need to be repaired.”

Kinwall looked at my short sword and asked what happened to it because there were 2 dents on the blade directly opposite from each other and there were burn marks on the handle.

“Oh, Alice asked me to help fight the 20th-floor boss, which was an Owlbear. I basically threw an engraved knife in its mouth and pushed it inside with my short sword to make sure it was lodged inside.”

Kinwall didn’t seem too surprised when I said I was helping fight the 20th-floor boss with Alex’s party, but when I said I thrust my short sword into its mouth, he burst into laughter.

“Aha haha haha! I can’t believe you’ve done that; I would love to see it.”

Kinwall laughed heartedly, and once he calmed down, he said.

“I’ll get started. Is there anything else you need?”

I told him yeah and that I wanted to buy some armor since my direwolf cloak was shredded from the fight.

“I see. Go have a look around; if you see anything you like, call me and I’ll resize them for you.”

“Okay.”

I began looking around the shop for some armor that I liked. There wasn’t a lot that could fit a kid, but I managed to find some, which I tried on and moved around to see how much they would impede my movements.

I narrowed it down to a set that I wanted. It was leather armor that was from a monster, with a metal chest plate on top and a pair of metal arm and shin guards.

When I was done, I called Kinwall, who was in the back fixing my weapons. I told him I wanted to buy the armor I was trying on, which Kinwall asked me to spin around so he could take notes since they were a little too big for me.

When I took the armor off and gave it to him, he went back to the shop and gave me back my weapons except for my short sword and engraved knives.

“Come by tomorrow to pick them up, including your armor. I’ve finished with the ones that only needed a touch-up.”

“I see and thank you.”

I thanked and paid him, and the next day I came back and picked up everything, including putting on my new armor, which fit perfectly.

After that, I went to Alice because today was the day I was going to go house shopping.