We descended and arrived on the first floor spreading out in all directions in our front.

Nao pointed at the straight path. "Heroes always charge to the front." ​​

"That's an old saying. Great men always take the right."

"Then, we shall take right," Nao giggled and dragged me along. The adventurers behind guffawed at her enthusiasm.

Wielding my precious daggers, I plodded through the corridor. Suddenly, a crack echoed behind. I spun around to find the wall cracking and a dog-head peeking out.

"It's a kobold."

Nao adjusted her glasses and flipped through the guide. "The monster with the upper body of a dog. Uses their sharp claws and fangs to kill their enemies. The dog-headed monster travels alone and in a group of two. Weakness is the magic stone deep within its chest."

She could read this because of her language skill. Pretty awesome.

I waited as debris fell and the monster jumped out. Before it could open its eyes, I plunged the dagger inside its chest and scooped out a small, bluish-purple shard. Kobold's body was flattened without a magic stone and turned to ashes.

—You earned 40 XP from killing [Level 2 Kobold]

'How many partners are listed for XP distribution?'

(Aimi, Saya, Saeko, Shiori, Shizuka, Nao, Yuriko, Rini, and Rika.)

'Nine… so this level 2 Kobold gave me 300 XP?!'

(The monsters are entirely made of magic power, unlike the undead who contain a minuscule amount of mana.)

I held in my excitement and grinned at Nao. "We are not leaving this place today."

Nao flinched and nodded twice. "Fine with me…"

The wall cracked in two places this time. I pocketed the magic stone and spawn-camped the kobolds.

Weak.

We wandered through the corridors, slaying any kobold and goblins we came across. My XP bar rose slowly but steadily toward Level 25.

After two or three hours of messing around, we found the path heading to the next level.

Level 4 and 5 monsters on the next floor posed zero challenges to us. The same applied to the third and fourth floor, where the XP we got increased by fifty to sixty percent even though the monsters we faced were still the same.

I let Nao practice her magic on the pathetic goblins. Even Nao could match the physical strength of goblins with the brand new gloves Klyscha created for only 3999 KP.

Ogre-skin Gloves (Rank B): Gloves made from the skin of an Ogre.

Effects: Strength +25, Constitution +15

Skills:

—Bronze Fist (Active Skill): Consumes 20 MP to marginally increase the durability of fists.

Nao smacked goblins with her right hand while casting wind magic from her other hand. Every kill made her smile wider.

"Asahi-kun, did I do good?" she asked, looking up at me with puppy eyes.

I couldn't bear her cuteness and instinctively gave headpats to the airhead beauty. "You were amazing."

This was only the start. Even a level 1 adventurer could survive here. My goal was the 200th floor. What kind of boss will there be? How much XP will it give? A flame burned in my heart. Grind, slay, gain XP, and get stronger. It was like an addiction.

(Should I—)

'No spoilers, woman.'

(Kaaay.)

After flirting a little more, we went down to the 5th floor. The cavern walls around us change to a shade of green, caused by the greenish spars embedded in the ceilings and walls.

While observing the change in geography, a sudden chill shot through my spine. I grabbed Nao and rolled to the side. A tongue flickered to the ground where we stood a second ago. The culprit clung to the ceiling—a one-eyed frog throwing its long, sharp tongue around.

Nao scrunched her nose. "Disgusting."

The thought of getting hit by that slimy tongue made my stomach churn.

Before I wiped out this shit for the greater good, Nao swung her hand. Wind compressed to her whims and a massive wind blade flew straight at the frog. A clean hit and black blood sprayed. The dissected frog fell from the ceiling, never to breathe again.

—You earned 80 XP from killing [Level 4 Frog Shooter]

I did the calculation and nodded my head. Each monster level (According to my system) increased its XP by 150 and after applying the bonus from Klyscha's blessing, we got ourselves a good amount.

But...

—Current level progress: 23,989,37/66,355,200 XP

Way too less. Damn, my high human race was pissing me off a little.

(I am sorry…)

'You don't need to be. I just have to force the dungeon to summon more deadly monsters.'

How about a juggernaut on this floor? A juggernaut spawned on the 5th floor would be ten times stronger than the normal monsters, in other words weak.

"Nao, hop on my back. We are speeding up."

She was a lot slower than my peak speed. Since there wasn't a soul in our sight, we could go all out.

Nao was confused for a moment, but still complied with my request and clung to my back with her legs wrapped around my waist.

The soft feeling on my back failed before the burning passion on my head.

"Fuck every monster you see. Drink potions when you run out of mana."

The little crystal might come in handy later.

"Understood, Asahi-kun."

I kicked the ground and dashed to the right branch. Two tongues flashed in my face. My prepared daggers slashed them. Nao finished them off with her wind blades.

With this speed, we took about an hour to find the stairs leading down.

We were about to speedrun the dungeon!