“Her? Nimir is a boy. You should check your eyes.”

  “She was definitely a girl. I used identification on her and her name is Nimira.”

  This guy didn’t have any reason to lie to me, but that could only be impossible… I don’t remember using identification on her, but I should have used it at some point. How did I learn about her curses and traits again? That is right… I asked her to show on the snow her status screen information.

  Nimir was supposed to be my age back then, and since he was skin and bones, maybe that was why I didn’t notice anything… But now that I think about it, there were some incidents that looked a bit weird. Nimir looked awfully embarrassed when the healer dy called him cute. I also remember Vincent and Raul looking at me with weird eyes when I was interacting with him. They looked baffled.

  “She was a bit boyish back then, so you probably didn’t realize that. In any case, when are we going to clear the byrinth?”

  “I never said that I would clear the byrinth. I have to look after a newborn baby if you can’t see. I have fought against the final guardian of a demonic byrinth. That isn’t something that only two people can do.”

  With some luck, I would be able to do that before I turn twenty, but I can’t be certain… I need to improve my skills a lot before that can happen.

  “Then how about until the fiftieth floor? That should buy us some time.”

  “You don’t have a single ally that you can ask for this? I will say this, if you are plotting something, I will be sure that you will have a very long time to regret doing this…”

  “I wouldn’t do something like that. If I wanted you dead, I would just attack you directly. Being sneaky and cowardly is too much of a pain.”

  I narrowed my eyes at him, wondering if he was taunting me or if he genuinely believed in his own strength. His words had an edge to them, but there was no arrogance in his tone, just a matter-of-fact bluntness that made it hard to tell. It was really uncommon for me to find this kind of character.

  Still, he didn’t act like someone strong. He moved with a casualness that cked the sharp precision of a seasoned warrior, and he didn’t carry the aura of danger that people with real power tend to exude. If anything, he seemed... ordinary.

  That thought bothered me quite a bit. Was I being underestimated? Made fun at? Could he actually back up his words, or was he bluffing? If it was the tter, he was doing a damn good job of it.

  If it was until the fiftieth floor, then it was feasible. Once things get hard, I can always make Gcien look after Alissandra outside the boss’ chambers. Still, her food wouldn’t st for long.

  “All right… until the 50th floor I will help you.”

  “Great, let’s get going then. I also have things to do.”

  I began to work on dismounting the vehicle. The improved version of the bike wasn’t ready yet, but I still could use the old one to cross the byrinth faster. Once that was done, he gave the items to me. I didn’t feel like risking losing them, so I used Essence Extraction.

  The skill Essence Extraction leveled up. You received 1800 experience points.

  The skill Essence Extraction leveled up. You received 1900 experience points.

  The skill Essence Extraction leveled up. You received 2000 experience points.

  The skill Essence Extraction leveled up. You received 2100 experience points.

  The skill Essence Extraction leveled up. You received 2200 experience points.

  It has been a while since a single skill leveled up that much, and I soon regretted my choice since the headache that followed truly bothered me… those were high rank enchantments, so it was no surprise. At least this time around, I didn’t have a nosebleed. The other time my nose kept bleeding for a while…

  “Do you have forging skills? I don’t think that we can make mythical items with the boss of the 50th floor.”

  “I have, but I didn’t make anything even close to that rank aside from bows.”

  “This will be tough, but I guess we can find a solution along the way. Let’s get going and try not to put an arrow on my back.”

  “It will be fine as long as you don’t give me a reason to do so.”

  Time was of the essence, so I immediately mounted my bike. The cloaked guy seemed like he was the speed type, so he shouldn’t have a hard time keeping up. There was enough room for Alissandra on the back seat, so we would be able to move fast.

  “Gcien, take the lead for now and show us the right path to the boss chamber.”

  “Awoo!”

  “Gcien, huh? That is a weird name. By the way, my name is Roswald.”

  “Good for you.”

  “Hahaha, you are as harsh as they say, friend.”

  We got inside the byrinth and soon Roswald began to dash alongside Gcien. It didn’t look like he was putting in that much effort, but despite that, he could easily run at fifty miles per hour. When the frost lizards emerged, he passed by them and cut their throats with insane speed. I barely had the time to see his weapon. It was one of those cursed and curved knives that I had seen before… when the twilight brotherhood attacked us to kill Louise.

  I couldn’t help but think about it. Guys who fight like assassins are usually terrible when it comes to dungeon exploration. Their whole skill set is built around striking fast and clean, taking down targets in controlled environments. Dungeons, on the other hand, are chaotic for obvious reasons. They are unpredictable monsters and challenges that require endurance and adaptability.

  Stealth and precision might help with the occasional ambush or bypassing a trap, but when you’re stuck in a narrow corridor with a horde of monsters charging at you, or when a boss requires a prolonged, drawn-out fight, assassins usually fall apart. They ck the stamina for prolonged fights, and their reliance on surprise makes them less effective in the face of endless waves of enemies.

  That’s why I couldn’t figure this guy out. He spoke with such confidence, but nothing about him screamed “dungeon expert.” If he really fought like an assassin, then this byrinth was going to chew him up and spit him out.

  ‘Putting that aside… given that he is from here and he is good at collecting information, he should know that I have fought the twilight brotherhood and he is still showing their weapon?’

  That was indeed very odd, but I felt like this guy was just messing with me. Whenever the monsters approached, he would dash ahead even faster than Gcien to kill them first and then he would show his proud smile to her. Whenever that happens, she would growl in annoyance… this guy was indeed very troublesome.

  In order to not let things go the way he wanted, I decided to make my move. I finally had adjusted my how with the enchantments, after all.

  Titan Triple Gcic Bow (Legendary)

  Enchantment Slots: Mana Drain (Adept) (03) – Restores your mana when hitting a target, you can recover mana equal to twenty percent of the damage caused. Critical strikes increase mana gain to 40%.

  Arrow Creation (Adept) (03) - You can summon arrows made of wood for five points of mana, iron for ten points of mana, or silver for twenty points of mana. The arrows can st for 45 minutes.

  Stamina Drain (Novice) (03): Restores stamina equal to 10% of the damage dealt with each hit. Critical strikes drain 20% stamina from the target and transfer half to the wielder.

  Bonus Effects: Homing Shot - Causes arrows to adjust their trajectory to track a target, with reduced accuracy over long distances.

  Pierce - Ignores forty points of the endurance of the target when hitting them.

  Spectral Bond - Mark an enemy with a spirit tether, allowing allies to deal increased damage to that target while the mark sts. It sts for five seconds, making the target suffer ten percent more damage per effect stacked.

  Troll’s Strength: Halven the costs of skills when using this weapon.

  Attack: 120

  Durability: 120/200

  For now, I didn’t need anything aside from Arrow Creation, Mana Drain and Stamina Drain, but the self repair ability also took three slots from the enchantments. I wanted to believe that I had gotten better as an Enchanter, but I still failed in making those take less space. So, I had to compromise. Still, I could always equip that effect ter. It didn’t have to stay on the bow all the time.

  In any case, I began to kill the frost lizards with my arrows before Roswald could attack them, so he looked at me with a frown. I couldn’t be certain, since his face was mostly covered by his hood.

  “Is that a challenge, friend?”

  “Maybe? You can dash ahead and exhaust yourself to kill the monsters if you don’t like it.”

  “Why do I feel like you are trying to manipute me with this? You will have the chance to get the mana cores without working for them, right?”

  “Indeed.”

  “You are pretty devious, friend.”

  “If you weren’t so shady, I wouldn’t have to be.”

  “Hah, you got me there.”

  I couldn’t help but think that Roswald was someone pretty important here… not just because of his skills when it comes to fighting and gathering intelligence. Perhaps he was the leader of an underground organization. Considering that he came in contact with Nimir and the others four years ago, that seemed accurate. Those guys wouldn’t let anyone find them that they didn’t believe that could be trusted.

  With that in mind, I had some ideas of what he could be doing by trying to work with me directly… he was probably trying to assess what kind of person I was before showing his true nature.

  WritingMachineGun