Waking up inside the cave. Ryu quickly grabs his bottle, refilling the water before going out of the save zone. Because of the renewed determination, his hunting pace becomes faster than before. Every time he succeeds in his hunts. His efficiency increased, thus increasing his hunting speed.

Every day is passing by a blink of an eye. On the 3rd day, his self-drawn map of the 2nd floor becomes perfect. Also, Ryu's always able to find the save zone to take a rest. He's also able to take down the ladybug pairs quickly, although he still can't use the Quick Slash consecutively.

Finally, the seventh day has come. Ryu is quietly moving out of his safe zone to take the last hunt before going back to the city. After walking out from the cave for some time, he finally founds his prey.

"Fufufu, the times has come!"

Ryu's grinning, it's his first smirk after a while.

"Let's see if you can triumph against me for five seconds or not."

This time, Ryu, as usual, provokes the ladybugs again. The pairs begin to fly and charges their way towards Ryu after getting poked softly.

"Hmph, are you sure you want to charge me thoughtlessly like that?"

Seeing the pairs still flies at him, Ryu just gave out a small laugh. In the first place, they're not even a demi-human, how can they understand a human language.

"Hmm, having eaten their meat continuously for a week, I thought I can communicate a little bit with them. Well, let's end this quickly then."

Giving a sarcastic remark, Ryu quickly dashes forward the pair.

"Die, Quick Slash!"

Without leaving any second, Ryu instantly continued to lunge forward to the next ladybug.

"Again, Quick Slash!"

With that, the pairs of ladybugs instantly fall flat into the ground.

"Take that, it's the power of level 7 novice, you bastard!"

When saying this, Ryu takes a slight glance while his back still turned against them. In the past week, Ryu finally rose to level 7. As usual, he invests the free points into agility again. Combined with his speed and strength, Ryu now can take down a ladybug with a single Quick Slash.

"Oh yeah, because I've leveled up, I must find another 5 Green Worms to fill up my magic storage."

"After this, I should buy a storage ring to increase the things that I can bring with me."

Seemingly to be dissatisfied with his storage capacity, he takes another 'to do note' when he's back to the city.

After the continuous hunting, Ryu's finally able to collect another set of the creatures' horn.

"Now, this makes the storage magic to be full again."

"Well, it's pointless to stay in here any longer. Let's just go back for now."

Placing the last horn inside his storage magic, he proceeds to leave the Dungeon. Ryu's able to do it quickly without much difficulty. Exiting, he's greeted by a bright light. Because he's staying inside the Dungeon for a week, it's making his eyes not accustomed to the direct sunlight. After getting used to it, Ryu quietly moved towards the Hunter association.

Moving towards the counter, he still sees the same face as before.

"You again?"

"What did you mean by that, Ryu!"

The one who gives this response is, of course, Mia.

"No, is there any receptionist other than you in here?"

Being asked this, she got a sudden thought to tease Ryu.

"Of course there's other, what? Are you not satisfied with this big sister?"

"Who's big sister!?"

Seeing the retort that Ryu gives, makes Mia wants to tease him further instead.

"Ara, want me to be your little sister instead? Big... Bro..."

If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

"W-Wha"

Ryu instantly blushes, unprepared by the sudden attack of cuteness. Looking at it more closely, Mia is inevitably a beauty. Her blond hair which tied with a ponytail style. Followed by her azure almond eyes and alluring cherry lips. Also, her fantastic body proportions that can be seen through the curves of her receptionist outfit.

Mia's lips started to form a curve after seeing the kid's reaction.

"Well, that's enough with the fan service. What do you want?"

Knowing this new side of the receptionist in front of him, Ryu can only sigh before stating out his purpose.

"I want to trade the materials."

"Take out all of it then."

"Got it."

Ryu cast his storage magic and put all the materials on Mia's table. Just by glancing at it briefly, Mia can already tell that it all has perfect quality again.

"Maybe becoming a dismantler suits you..."

"Are you hinting that I must quit being a hunter!?"

Somehow, being recommended for other jobs aside from being a Hunter hurts his pride.

"Why you sound so mad like that, of course not, you can try it as a part-time job in your free time."

Ryu shakes that idea with his hands, in the first place, it's thanks to his hunting experience that he can become that good at dismantling.

"I'm currently occupied with this thing, please count it already."

After counting at them more carefully, Mia finally stores all the materials in the table and takes Ryu's card that he puts in the table. Later, she gives it back to Ryu with her small hand.

"Well, it's clear without checking it that much. 35 green Worm horn with perfect quality. That means you got a total of 700 Disks and 105 points."

Ryu nods his head, satisfied with the trade result.

"Is the map for the 3rd floor released already?"

"Do you want to buy it?"

"How much is it?"

Hearing this question, Mia takes out her note to see the listed price.

"For the 3rd floor, it's 100 Disks."

"Isn't that a ripoff? Why it's so expensive."

Ryu never got a chance to buy a map before, it's because the Hunter Association system slowly getting neglected after the Dungeon breakout. Now he got an opportunity to buy it, he didn't expect it to be that high-priced.

Looking at Ryu seemingly not content with its cost, Mia clear her throat.

"Ehem, the association only takes a quarter of the price while the rest is transferred to the one who gives the map, and I found it quite a reasonable price. You don't want to get lost inside there, after all."

Hesitating for a while, Ryu finally gave up and sighed.

"...Fine, I take one copy then."

"Okay, 100 Disk is being extracted from your account. By the way, you didn't have any intention to join a party?"

"Right now? Likely not. I mean, who wants to take a level 7 novice as a partner?"

Hearing the reply, Mia can't help but wears a perplexed face.

"You're already at level 7!? Didn't it only a week ago that you're level 5?"

"Let's not thinks about that. Quickly brings me a copy of the map of the 3rd floor."

"You can't shrug it off like that... Well, please excuse me for a second."

Seeing Mia going to the storage room to take a copy of the map. Ryu breathes a sigh of relief. He himself didn't know how to explain his abnormal growth. Ryu didn't want to drag any attention to him. After all, if he draws unwanted attention, it's bound to him to attracts someone with evil intention too.

Before long, Mia can be seen coming back to her desk.

"Here's the map."

"Thank you, well, I'm off now. Goodbye."

Taking the map off from Mia's hand, Ryu then waves his hand to Mia. In response to this, Mia gives a slight bow to him.

"Bye, Thanks for your visit."

After coming out of the Hunter Association, Ryu was instantly moving towards his next destination. It's the magic shop operated by the Marketing Association.

"Welcome! How can I help you?"

Being greeted by the shop clerk, Ryu instantly states his purpose.

"Do you have a storage ring?"

"Which capacity limit do you want to get?"

"The cheapest one!"

"The cheapest one is 200 Disks. It can store up to ten things. It's also can be enhanced ten times, each enchants cost 20 Disks and increase the capacity of the ring by 2."

Listening to the clerk's explanation, Ryu thinks for a while before making up his mind.

"I'll buy two of them, and please enchant them to the fullest."

"Okay, I will put it on the list. Is there anything more?"

"I also need six basic healing potions and one fire scroll."

"Is that all, sir?"

Affirming that he doesn't need anything else, for now, Ryu nods his head in response to the clerk.

"Yes, how much did it cost?"

"It's 910 Disks, sir."

Ryu's silently glad that the cost is still within his current budget.

"Here's the card, please make it quick."

"Excuse me for a bit, please stand in front of this device, sir."

"Okay."

Being asked so, Ryu took his foot before the machine with a box shape, there's a small lens on the front side of the box.

Placing the card on the machine, suddenly, the device released a blue light from its lens that scans the person in front of it. Confirming it's the card owner, the tools then proceed to takes out the Disk stored in the card.

If it's not enough, the device will glow a red light, notifying that the Disks the owner had isn't sufficient, thus nullifying the transaction.

"With this the payment is complete, please wait a minute to get your storage ring enchanted, sir."

"Okay."

After giving the card back to the owner, the receptionist quickly moves toward the shelf to take the ordered items. Ryu was quietly watching the receptionist while muttering to himself.

"There goes my money."

"I don't even have a single Disk with me now, how awful is that..."

Later, the receptionist is finally giving out his order. After double-checking the things he got. Ryu finally moves out of the place.

Looking that it's still bright, Ryu decides to take a stroll first before going back to the Dungeon.

"Seeing the town is lively like this makes me remember that calamity."

Suddenly, in Ryu's eyes, the lively scene becomes distorted before it turned into a bloody scene. The monster inside the Dungeon keeps rushing out one after another and killing everyone in its way. Because of this, Ryu began to grab his head painfully.

"Fuck! That scene keeps haunting me every fucking time!"

After some time, he finally can regain some of his calm and start to take his hand off from his head.

"Huff, I must keep my calm... Good, let's just go back to the Dungeon again. I got no time for strolling around like this."

Unnoticed by Ryu, his eyes have turned into a bloodshot, and he leaks out an intense chilling aura. Making the person that he passes by backed out and take a distance from him out of fear.