‘In my past life, it took me four months to leave this place. Three months to gather the one thousand points to purchase the First Floor Ticket and the last month to earn enough points to exchange for mana stones and expand my mana pool as much as I could.’

‘The hardest part of this room is the solidarity between the participants. As more people leave, it will become increasingly harder to deal with the daily wave of monsters. At some point, the tower will collapse, trapping all those who failed here.’

I headed to the canyon carefreely.

‘I will need to leave the Grand Canyon as soon as possible. Not because things will get difficult here but because of the situation on the upper floors. The other races are not going to be very friendly to humans. They should be expecting us to enter the first floor in a couple of months. If I want to avoid any confrontation, I should ideally leave in about a month and enter the city.’

‘The other thing I will need is a way to earn a living. I chose the Healing element because I can work at a temple. But that does not mean they will accept anyone with the Heal spell. I’ll need to either improve my Heal spell by using it a few times or have a rather large mana pool.’

“Hey.”

‘This is not going to be easy but the one advantage I have is this weapon. Compared to Room 4, the Grand Canyon puts a lot more importance on the use of magic.’

‘There should be four different monsters. First, Coyotes. Simple beasts with similar attributes to the silver wolves. They are the ones we are expected to hunt during the first few weeks. Second, Ogres. With their strong body full of vitality, it is extremely hard to take them down simply by hitting it with weapons.’

“Heyy!”

‘Third, Slimes. They are basically immune to physical attacks and can only be killed by magic. I would stay away from them if I did not have this magic spear. And last, Golems. Strong bodies made of rocks; it is a pain to deal with them without magic or blunt weapons.’

“Huh?” I froze mid-step as I noticed someone standing right in the middle of my walking path. ‘A kid?’

“Are you pretending to not hear us?” A young child, not older than fifteen shouted aggressively. He was accompanied by a group of children of similar age.

“What do you want?” I involuntarily cocked my head in confusion.

“Hmmp! We are looking for people to join our group for a quick exploration. Join us!” The young child exclaimed proudly.

I rolled my eyes and sighed. “No, thank you. I work very well alone.”

“Are you looking down on us because of our age? You are just like the earlier group of old men!”

I felt some pity for these children; it was probably not easy for them to have reached this place and they were being looked down upon because of their age. Nevertheless, I wanted nothing to do with possibly troublesome kids.

“I don’t care about your age. I just want to hunt alone. If you are so desperate to have someone accompany you, then go back to the village and ask the next group. If not, I am sure you will be able to deal with the monsters as long as you stick together. There are ten of you; you have more members than adult groups.”

I left behind a few words and continued on my way into the canyon. ‘These kids won’t last for very long. If I remember correctly, not many kids managed to enter the first floor. Although they were given a lot more opportunities than adults, at the end of the day, they were not disciplined enough with themselves to overcome their challenges.’

I stepped into a small water stream. It came down from the river running from the depth of the canyon. I had now officially entered the Grand Canyon.

The canyon was desertic. Monsters rarely came out, especially that close to the entrance. I slowly made my way deeper into the canyon. Then, I finally noticed the presence of a monster.

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‘That d*mn sly fellow. Trying to sneak on me from behind. They are a real pain to deal with.’

In the corner of my eyes, I noticed a shadow moving and very quickly, identified the monster. It was a coyote; the weakest monster but also the most vicious. It liked to sneak attack but once discovered it would generally keep its distance.

Sensing the change in my stance, the coyote did not rush toward me. Its instincts were sharp, and it understood that I was not to be trifled with, especially since the weapon in my right hand was radiating a deadly aura. The monsters could distinguish between a regular weapon and an enchanted one. The difference between the two was like day and night.

I faced the coyote for a moment and the beast mirrored my actions. We observed each other in silence until eventually, I took a step back. It tactfully copied my movement and soon, we both went separate ways. It was the best outcome. The coyote was not confident in being able to dodge my spear and I also knew that the coyote would be able to run away if it was injured, wasting my efforts.

‘Only pick fights I know I can win. My focus should be on the slimes for now. Minimum risk for maximum reward.’

I went deeper into the canyon, encountering more than one coyote. Fortunately, none of them wanted to be involved in a fight.

I eventually came across a slime: the familiar round gooey creature that left behind a small trail of sticky fluid behind it. Without hesitation, I stabbed my new spear into the slime and pushed my mana into the weapon.

The spear trembled and emitted a sharp spark, electrocuting the slime. The Static enchantment itself was not a very powerful one but it was more than enough to instantly kill a slime. This low-level monster could easily be killed by anyone with an offensive spell. They were only a threat to the humans at this stage because very few have had time to expand their mana pool. At most, the humans would be able to kill five slimes before having to run away.

The slime exploded, leaving behind a mana stone. The rest of its body quickly decomposed. Compared to the other monsters, slimes left nothing behind aside from their mana stones.

[You have obtained 1 Point.]

I smiled faintly. I was about to make a killing. It cost me about half of the energy contained in a mana stone to activate my spear’s enchantment while killing a slime gave me one point and a whole mana stone.

Thanks to the spear, grinding the slimes could not have been easier. Furthermore, I have yet to walk into any slime nest. In general, these creatures preferred to stay in humid caves, away from the sun.

‘Judging from the position of the sun, I should have a couple of hours to hunt. The monster wave would generally appear near the end of the day. Then, it would be slightly more dangerous to stay in the canyon with all the monsters roaming around.’

One slime… Two slimes…

As I went on, the number of slimes I encountered gradually increased. I would not complain; to me, the slimes were just giving me free mana stones and points. After killing every two slimes, I would simply toss a mana stone in my mouth, replenishing my mana.

‘Being rich has its perks.’ I smiled to myself as I recalled the harsh experiences I went through in my past life. I was forced to hunt coyotes during an entire month until I gathered enough points to purchase an appropriate weapon, all because I was drowning in debt.

After killing twenty or so slimes, I finally noticed an abnormality in my surroundings. There were a large burn mark and traces of explosions. ‘A battle should have taken place here. Is it the group that came here before me? According to the kids, there should be a group of old men.’

‘I am catching up but it not necessarily a good thing. People can get aggressive when they think that you are taking away their prey.’

I paused for a moment to take a breather. I carefully scanned my surroundings, looking for a cave or any hidden places. Unfortunately, luck was not on my side this time.

…

Not far from the village, a small silhouette suddenly dashed out, rushing toward the canyon.

“D*mn human! It is all your fault! I have never been so humiliated my whole life! Because of you, all my peers are looking down on me. The reputation of I, the great Levi is completely ruined! Who will take me seriously after I come back with zero points!”

Levi, the fairy, shouted angrily. Just like last time, the fairies of all the humans present convene to exchange information. At that meeting, the competing fairies would naturally evaluate each other’s performance and when it was his turn, Levi could only shamefully admit that he has not been able to swindle any points out of his host.

The results baffled the fairies, so much that they only believed him after the other seven fairies, who had seen his human’s points, vouched for him. Then, the meeting turned into a nightmare for Levi.

He could still hear the laughs, the mockery, and the sarcasm in the words of his peers. They were all looking down on him.

“Stupid human! How can I even show my face when I return home?”

Levi angrily clenched his fists as he flew toward the Grand Canyon. Fairies were linked to the human they were guiding and could instantly know their exact location.

“F*ck! I really want to beat up that human, but I don’t have the right to attack him. And even if I did, it is probably not going to change anything. Is there nothing I can do?”

The words the human said earlier still weighed on Levi’s mind. ‘Is it possible that treasures are lying around nearby? But even then, it will take a lot of time to find these hiding spots… F*ck, I will have to work to earn something when my peers can simply blurt out a few words and earn a fortune.’