Waking up to the invasion of Faris's tongue, I feel so at ease having a proper place to call home again, though it seems like we will have to devote some time to cooking and cleaning now.

Remembering the item I bought yesterday, I get up to place the calendar on the nightstand next to the bed. Today is the 25th day of the second month, there are also twelve months in this world, each with thirty days, and each week being only five days. This makes today the first day of the 6th week of the second month. Maybe I don't have much time as I thought until the slave auction.

We prepare for another day in the dungeon before setting off towards the guild. I enter into my routine once I arrive at the guild, sell my mana crystals and head to the training ground to train with Morgan. We earned a total of 142 mana crystals yesterday so I received a gold coin and 42 silver coins, bringing my total to 21 gold coins, 142 silver coins, and 21 copper coins.

It's really nice being able to use water magic freely as I can wash off the sweat from training and cool myself off.

We enter into the third floor of Greens Filth directly today.

As usual, Faris senses our first prey of the day before me.

"Master, there seem to be a dozen goblins fighting a small pack of wolves."

"Hmm, let's take the opportunity to cash them all in at once."

We move closer and sees the group of goblins ganging on six wolves. The wolves look slightly bigger with more muscle than the ones we've seen on the previous floors. The wolves are all bleeding from their wounds while the goblins seem fine in their leather armor huddled together in a makeshift formation with their spears lines up together in an half encirclement.

"Attack the goblins first once things get more chaotic," I whisper to Faris crouched next to me.

The goblins move in, prompting the wolves to all charge toward one side of the encirclement, devolving into an all-out melee as the goblins push in on the wolves.

"Go."

Faris dashes into the opposite side of where the wolves went to flank the encircling goblins from behind while I shoot out a large water stream I've been channeling towards the center of the fray. I charge in with my spell, with my spear in hand and freezes once my spell makes contact with their feet. I stab my spear into the back of the closest goblin who is panicking from being unable to move his feet while I cast ice spears at the goblins to my sides.

Faris makes short work of the few goblins who didn't get caught in my spell and were focused on the wolves. The remaining monsters are all frozen in my spell while still stabbing to biting into their nearest enemy. To be safe, I conjure a stream of water flowing at the monsters atop the ice and channel an electric current with it to immobilize them while Faris finishes them off easily.

The monsters starting from this floor are getting more numerous, though their strength is still pretty much the same. We proceed like usual but didn't find any monsters until half an hour later where we find a team of eight goblins, I guess they are grouping up so it is also harder to find them.

Though they are greater in numbers, they still only have melee attacks outside of dungeon bosses so the fighting ends uneventfully for most of the morning. Near the end of the morning we find the familiar door at the foot of a small mountain, marking the entrance to the next level, it must still be pretty easy to find or we're getting lucky if we are finding one so often.

We enter the door into a spacious tunnel that would allow two carriages to pass side by side. We use the same old strategy of having a guiding ball of light lead the way, though it became useless as we enter into a spacious room with light shining down from a hole in the ceiling.

The moment we step out from our more narrow corridor, rows of goblins step out from the shadows in front of us. They march forward with shields and spear in hand while the back row readies their bows. I count a full ten in the first row so there must be around twenty of them.

I ready an ice shield at the approaching small army of goblins while Faris stays behind me, there's no place to flank them as the entire area is an open area with light illuminating the area between us and the goblins.

Both our groups close the distance while hiding behind our shields, I fire off ice lances one after the other straight into their formation while the goblins fire volley after volley of arrows at an angle over their frontline. Our shields soak up all their projectiles as we draw near.

"Faris, I'll make an opening after they fire the next volley, can you deal with that many archers?"

"Once I get close I should be fine, master."

"Okay, on the next volley go on my signal."

I time when the goblins are about to release their next volley and charge up two lightning bolts and aim it at the center of their formation, I don't use this spell often as it isn't really mana efficient but it has the firepower we need right now. I fire at the same time they release their arrows, the lightning bolts punches a hole straight through each of the two shields along with the goblins holding them and the archers behind.

Faris shoots out away from me heading toward the goblins that I indicated to her, trying to dodge the volley by putting as much distance as she can away from me before the arrows come down. She reaches the goblins just in time for the two goblins to fully collapse to the ground from my attacks, proceeding smoothly through their formation without stop.

The screams of goblins ensue as Faris wreck havoc on their backline, she cleverly uses the goblin's own allies as shields as she deftly moves in between goblins while reaping their lives.

I charge forward loudly while firing off ice lances at the one who tries to turn back to help their allies and chuck my shields at the ones looking to square off with me. Their formation collapses and it becomes a massacre as the goblins lose their ability to work together. I finish off goblins closest to me with my spear while firing ice lances at the ones further from me while Faris is like a shark in water, moving about freely on her prey.

We finish collecting the mana crystals and found the statue to the next level before heading out for lunch, I'm glad we don't have to eat our bland rations so far as we always reach the next level in time.

After a quick meal, we continue hunting on the fourth floor where it is starting to get more difficult. The goblins travel in groups of at least six with archers now and are more frequently spotted compared to the third floor. They're also traps placed all over this floor that we encounter from time to time like the classic pitfalls or nets dropping down on you if you make the wrong step. The good side though is that they're many more monster to hunt, giving us better profits than on the previous floors.

With Faris here, the traps are easily avoided but we are still moving more slowly in fear of ambush with bows. I still can't form a shield fast enough if I only discover the arrow mid-flight so I hold the shield that's strapped to my back while Faris walks first with her sense danger, ready to jump behind me at any time. Thankfully it seems the goblins aren't savvy or patient enough to layout ambushes, seeming to just hang out around their traps, ready to respond to any noise in their surroundings.

We easily bypass traps and in a frontal battle, whether they have bows or not made no difference as we hunted group after group. The only thing more annoying on this floor is that occasionally, some goblins are equipped with shields like the ones in the boss room, blocking my ice lances, though the frequency of encounters more than make up for it.

We continue to hunt and harvest mana crystals from our prey when suddenly I find a round red gem instead of the usual mana crystals.

"Faris, take a look, do you know what this is?" I bring it up so Faris can get a clear view.

"Oh! Master, that's a fire gem, it is found only by chance from monsters and is used in enchanting. Master is really lucky to find one in these early floors, it usually drops from stronger monsters and even then, it's still rare."

"How much is it worth? Do adventurers usually sell it or use it for themselves?"

"Master doesn't know? Oh right, let me explain then. Most adventurers would definitely sell it as it is worth at least a whole platinum coin, more depending on the quality. The gems let you enchant equipment to either give you resistance to the gem's element or increase your strength when casting that element of magic. Although the effects are amazing, the enchantment isn't permanent as damage to the piece of equipment will destroy the enchantment, so only the rich and powerful adventurers aiming to conquer dungeons will use them frequently."

"So they're consumables huh, well we don't really need them yet right now and this one's a fire element gem, let's sell it when we get back. Do we have to sell it to the guild?"

I can't help but think that getting this gem in the early floors isn't pure dumb luck as a person who came from another world. Maybe I got a luck boost or some bullshit like my fate is strong, either way, I don't think this will be that long until I find another one so I'll sell it now to get the funds I need for the slave auction.

"Yep, people usually only trust buying from the guild unless you're an enchanter who can tell the quality of the gems but it's illegal to sell to anyone else if you're an adventurer as it's one of the main sources of income for the guild to trade in the magic items from dungeons."

"Let's make our way back, it doesn't seem like we'll find the entrance to next level soon and it's getting late."

---

We ended our day at the dungeon after spending an hour to get back to the statue we entered with. Today we managed to get 204 mana crystals and 1 fire gem.

We head back to the city but the sight of a huge line greets us at the gates of Unatis. We see the usual laid back guards carefully interviewing each person before letting them enter the city.

"...Something must've happened but we got no choice but to wait in line."

We waited until the sky started to darken a little until we got passed the gates after being asked who we were and scanned our guild badge to confirm our identities. I didn't want to look suspicious asking the guards questions so I head straight to the guild after entering the city to find out what's going on.

Thankfully, the guild's atmosphere isn't all gloomy and weird like the time when Norton was kidnapped, I head straight to Lawrence who seems like he's pissed off that he's not getting off work yet.

"Working hard there Lawrence, careful or you might go bald before you know it."

"Tsk, it's rare to see you coming to the guild at this time, guess you want to know about what's up in town?"

"Haha, you saw right through me, please enlighten me Mr.Lawrence."

"You're new in town so it's probably your first time this has happened for you, but it's nothing to worry about, it happens every few years or so. Tensions are rising with the neighboring kingdom so the city is worried about spies as we aren't that far from the border, once a war starts or peace talks go through, it'll be back to normal."

"Why would war starting turn things back to normal?"

"The border would be completely closed and guarded and all the military units would be already deployed so there won't be much value for spies to come snoop around by then to guess our deployment from logistics when they are already fighting it out. The military will also move all assets and supply lines away from cities anyway to keep things under wraps."

"So war happens often? What are they even fighting about anyways."

"Who knows, noble disputes, it's good business for the adventurers though. We get missions from the military to help with logistics, protect the nearby farms and villages from raiders who slip through, and basically, prices and demand for adventurer services spike up, entering the high season for adventurer work."

"...Getting involved in wars doesn't sound like something I want to do, I'll just stick to entering the dungeon."

"That's fine too, suit yourself."

"Anyways, is there a way to sell things more discreetly to the guild?" I lean in and whisper.

Lawrence nods and guides me and Faris to a meeting room upstairs.

"The counter is really only for mana crystals, anything else you get just ask one of the staff for a meeting privately. So, what do you have for me today?"

I bring out the fire gem along with the 204 mana crystals from my space ring.

"Found this today."

"Ohhh, aren't you the lucky one," Lawrence says while pulling out the pair of glasses that I've seen all the staff at the counter wear, he puts on the glasses and pushes the bridge.

"This one's of a lower quality, with your rank, I can give you 1 platinum coin and 25 gold coins for it, deal?"

"Deal."

Lawrence exits with the gem and crystals and comes back a few minutes later.

"Here's a total of 1 platinum coin, 27 gold coins, and 4 silver coins. With this, you have earned enough contribution with the guild to be promoted to the next rank, though you'll need to qualify for it."

"Qualify?"

"Every two ranks you will need to prove that you're qualified to rank up, in this case, you'll be taking the bronze qualification test to become rank 3 adventurer with bronze badges. This is to ensure that the ranks correspond to strength to a certain extent, can't have someone who just hunts on the first floor for their entire life be a rank 10 now, can we?"

"Okay, so what's the test?"

"You can either win an official duel against a current bronze ranked adventurer in the guild and take their rank from them, though you would have to wager something that they accept, or get a good placement in the iron badge dueling tournament that takes place at the beginning of every month."

"...The first time I've heard of any tournaments, are there any prizes for it?"

"Of course, it's one of the big events the guild is known for where many people come to spectate and to gamble on the event. The first-place prize for the iron badge tournament is one platinum coin I believe, the other tournaments like silver and gold have much higher prize pools but they are only held semi-annually and annually in certain cities."

"Sign me up for it, the other option seems like it would breed some bad blood with other adventurers more than do me good, what's the advantages of ranking up anyway?"

"Oh iron ranks barely have anything benefits but starting from bronze, you can access the guild store to buy better equipment and magic items that are hard to come by depending on your rank. The guild would also give you better prices on items you sell like the gem, though mana crystals aren't included in that."

"...So the whole system is geared toward adventurers looking to increase their strength to conquer dungeons."

"Pretty much, they are people who are only looking for money too who just farm the first floors in relative safety, they pretty much keep the supply of mana crystals stable so we need people like that too."

"Thanks for the info, I'm gonna head back for today, see you."

We stop by the market to buy some ingredients for dinner as well as the thing that I find to be missing from my life so far, something to tell the time with. We searched around until we stumbled into a magic items store selling miscellaneous everyday items like magic lights or something for boiling water. I ask the shopkeeper and got two options, both seem familiar with me, a pocket watch and a clock. I bought both, costing a whole 15 gold coins, no wonder it's not that popular to have around, that doesn't even include the 5 mana crystal needed every day to power each of them.

We finally head back home to relax and eat. There's a lot to sleep on, the dungeons, how to fight in the dungeons more efficiently, the upcoming tournament, and the slave auction with Norton. I should ask Norton the next time I see how much would I need to buy a decent slave in the auction too. Though none of these things will stop me from taking a bath and loving my Faris, I've been ignoring her enough since I entered the city, it's time for me to pay some attention to her, especially before bed.