"So, have you decided whether to join us or not?" inquired the woman, bringing Nox's attention back to the current situation.

The choice was obvious for Nox.

At first, an independent house would be fun, but the man knew how lonely it would get if he lived alone. Therefore, he preferred living at the inn.

One gold coin was valued at about ten points. So, five thousand gold coins would be worth fifty thousand points. That would mean six hundred thousand gold coins yearly. But, of course, it was a joke compared to the wealth Nox acquired on the fifth floor.

However, there was one thing that attracted Nox. The authority of an elite knight was one of the kingdom's highest-ranking positions.

He would hold a lot of power on the zeroth floor, and there was a good chance that the settlements of the other floors would give him preferential treatment.

Gaining that much power would allow him to learn more about his parents and the beings in the library.

But, there was a single problem with it. Nox didn't enjoy holding a lot of power since many needless troubles arose due to it.

"I apologise. I do not wish to join you yet," Nox replied.

"Yet?" the woman inquired.

"There may be ways you will be able to gather my interest, in the future. After all, no one knows what the future holds," he replied.

Rejecting straight out would make the guild develop some enmity towards him. Telling them that they still had a chance was the best thing to do for the time being.

Kaya's face wore a slight smile, 'I guess it was my foolishness to think that the one who beat all the legends of the Tower in the rankings, would be naive.'

"It was a pleasure speaking with you. I thank you for sparing your time for us," the woman said, standing up.

Nodding, Nox headed towards the door.

'It isn't over yet. The least I can do is look at his level,' Kaya thought, taking out a silver monocle from her desk drawer.

It was an A-rank item that allowed the user to glance at a part of the status window of the player it was pointed at. The woman held the monocle in front of her eyes.

**********

Name: ???

Level: ???

Title: ???

Class: ???

**********

[Viewing the player's status screen is not possible!]

The woman was shocked beyond belief. Something like this had never happened before.

"Just who are you?" she mumbled as the masked man left the room.

.

.

.

The sun had already set by the time the man exited the castle grounds.

'Its good that I bought this ring,' thought Nox walking out of a dark alley.

After leaving the castle area, he disappeared into an alley so that no one would notice his face when he removed the mask and the cape.

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On the pinky finger of his left hand, he wore a silver ring, the new item he had just bought.

**********

Ring of Deceit (A)

Conceals the arcane and power emitting from its user.

The current concealment level has been set to: 60%

Cost: 95,000 points

**********

Nox had covered his face with a mask, but people could still recognise him by the energy he emitted. So, buying an item which hid his true strength was the best thing to remain unknown.

However, it would have been suspicious if Nox concealed all his power and didn't emit any energy even after climbing up to the fifth floor. That was why he decided to conceal about sixty percent of his power.

As he exited the alley, he noticed the same posters covering the wall beside him.

"Beware! Slavers around!"

According to the poster, over a hundred players disappeared within the last week.

"I wonder if its the same gang I encountered when I first reached the zeroth floor," mumbled Nox, heading towards the inn.

The cool night breeze blew through the interweaved roads, giving the crowdless streets a new life. Most of the shops had closed down, except a handful that was about to.

It had been more than a week since Nox had come to the zeroth floor. He felt a certain homely comfort on this floor, like no other.

Soon, he stopped in front of the gate of the Boar's Hat inn, the place that had become his home during his time here.

"You're finally back," excitedly yelled a familiar red-haired woman as she came running towards Nox.

She wore a black skirt with a white shirt, and her long hair was tied into a neat bun.

"Nice to meet you after so long," Nox replied, widely smiling, happy to see the familiar face after a week.

"You have grown a lot stronger!" the woman commented, noticing the arcane emitted from the man.

"Thank you," Nox replied.

"You must be tired. Please, head this way," the woman said, leading Nox to a quiet table in the corner. Through her interactions with him, she knew what kind of environment he liked the most.

Not long after, Nox's table was filled with dishes he had never seen before. The aroma they gave off was something so pleasant that it could not be described in words alone.

"Today's special is the delicacy that the elves have to offer. Enjoy!" Margaret exclaimed, before disappearing, leaving Nox to enjoy his dinner alone.

Nox picked up the cutlery and began to eat the strange dishes kept in front of him as elegantly as he could.

However, all the elegance he carried was thrown out the window when his tongue came in contact with the first bite of one of the elven delicacies.

The man's mind went completely blank as the sweet and salty nectar melted on the tip of his tongue, making its way all over his vulnerable mouth.

'The blend of flavours is heavenly! Not to mention the tenderness, that makes it melt as soon as it touches the tongue!!'

Taking a deep breath, he shouted, "Delicious!!"

Like a madman, starved for a month, the man started devouring all the food on his table.

Food and cutlery flew about as Nox finished a dish, kept it down and picked up another before repeating the process. Fortunately, Margaret was present and caught the stray pieces of food and the cutlery before they crashed into another customer.

'He really likes food, doesn't he?' the red-haired woman thought, catching a spoon about to hit a dwarf drinking its beer.

.

.

.

At the restaurant's corner table, Nox quietly sipped his orange juice, curled up in embarrassment due to the show he had just put up.

'Why do I always have to lose control when it comes to extraordinary delicacies!' the man shouted internally before smashing his wooden glass on the table.

"Don't worry about it. There have been wilder incidents here," Margaret calmly said, placing another glass of orange juice in front of Nox.

"Thank you," Nox replied, gulping all the orange juice in one go.

The waitress smiled heartily as she picked up the empty glasses from the table. She was about to go back before a thought struck her.

"By the way Nox, are you aware of what happened during your absence?" She inquired.

"I'm afraid I do not know what you mean," the man replied.

"Well the thing is–" The waitress was interrupted by the voice of the familiar elf, who had appeared near the table.

"Nox! It's been so long! How are you?" Zelphar excitedly asked, making his way to Nox.

Nox was happy to see the elf once again. After all, Nox shared a lot of personality traits with him.

"I'll tell you about it later," said Margaret, making her way to the kitchen. Nox gave her a nod.

'I hope it wasn't anyhing important,' he thought, seeing the waitress disappearing through the door at the corner of the room.

"I've been good. How are you?" Nox asked Zelphar, who had already welcomed himself to the chair opposite Nox. Elrid and the elf's other team members sat at the table beside the duo.

"Amazing! I climbed up to the third floor!" excitedly replied the elf, reclining on his chair.

"That's great!" Nox replied, offering a warm smile to the elf.

Waving back the hair which had come in front of his face, Zelphar asked, "So, which floor did you climb up to?"

"The fifth one," Nox replied, choosing to tell the truth instead of weaving a lie.

The elf was taken aback. His eyes opened wide as he looked at the human across him with greater respect than before. But, what mainly attracted the elf wasn't the fact that Nox had climbed up to the fifth floor.

"So!! Have you met Menace!?" The elf yelled, jumping up from his seat.

On the mention of Menace, the entire inn went silent. All the eyes turned towards the elf, who had just uttered the name of a newborn legend.

A few of the drunk dwarfs and humans, sitting at the centre of the inn, shouted, "Did you really meet him!?"

All the gazes were fixed on Nox, awaiting his reply.