I chose the one that dealt with fire, "Hell's fire." Before I could even appraise it, Seere spoke up.

"Interesting. This power is even more powerful than the fire source if used correctly."

Hearing that, I appraised it.

Hell's fire

Rank: SSS/UU

Level: 1/1

Mana use: 5000

SF use: 15,000

DE use: 150

Requirements: fire affinity, void affinity, burn nullification 20N

Description: ????

"What's it do?" I asked, seeing the description was just question marks.

"Use your demon eyes," Amon stated.

Description: Summon the flames of hell. Full authority over the flame of infernal damnation, one of the five primordial flames of hell, the purest flames.

"Seems scary," I said. I was slightly disappointed that, even with my outrageous status, I wasn't even close to having enough to use it.

The altar still didn't disappear. Another spell book came out, so I learned it as well.

Heaven's rain

Rank: SSS/UU

Level: 1/1

Mana use: 2500

SF use: 20,000

Requirements: heavenly affinity 150% (human)

Description: ???

I, again, used demon eyes.

Summons the rains of heaven, extinguishing all fire and purifying evil. Full authority of the rain of the sick, one of the corporal rains, the purest water.

It was another overpowered spell I couldn't use, due to the MP restriction. With Bella's assistance, though, I wouldn't have to worry about the SF. I was also surprised that it was the exact opposite of the first spell! What is with this class that even my demon eyes couldn't pierce through?

The next day, Bella and I entered the teleportation. We arrived in a forest, full of high trees and perfectly-manicured grass. It seemed so peaceful.

"I love hanging out on this floor!" Bella exclaimed.

"Isn't it similar to your old home?"

"It is, but it isn't as grand here—and there's less SF than Mom's world," she explained. "It's our vacation floor. We pass through here when we have free time to have fun. Regular explorers can't stay here for too long, as there are spirits based on this floor."

"What spirits?"

"The monsters here include lesser treants, or tree people. They are monsters who look like trees. The spirits are the treants, or tree royalty. They're our friends, and they keep explorers away from their non-spirit counterparts. You don't need to know their job, though—even I don't know. They just stay around here most of the time."

With that explanation, I saw a tree start to move. I imbued Blackmail with fire and > it at the moving tree. It caught on fire and slowly withered before it could make the long distance towards us. It left an EXP shard that gave three points of experience.

I took out my bow and used the techniques I'd learned, as well as the lava forest, to decimate all enemies near me. Satisfied, I shot some fireballs in all directions. A large area of the forest burned before Bella and I used > to stop it. I used > to acquire the loot. There were forty-eight EXP shards—I took forty and Bella took eight. There were also some tree branch swords and spears I sold. Finally, there were "essence beads." These three beads were used to power up earth-type spells.

Seemingly mad at losing its brethren, a larger treant charged. I quickly > before using a fire-imbued > from Blackmail. At that time, I received a notification from the system.

[Elementary sword techniques level up! Level eight!]

The new technique was nimble movements, which makes maneuvering with the sword and using the associated skills easier. My movements became slightly more fluid while using the new skill to kill a few more straggling treants.

Once satisfied there were no enemies left, we moved to the next room.

In this room, there appeared to be trees with bat-like wings awaiting us. Using my bow, I was able to snipe them while dealing with the few treants who came close to us. Appraisal showed they were wood bats. The dungeon actually made bats out of wood.

Easily, Bella and I spent the next few days going between forests, fighting tree people and wooden bats. There was one we couldn't defeat, though. It was known as a "hell bat," and it was speedy. We only saw one until we arrived at a room further in. In this room, numerous hell bats flew through the air. Unlike the other monsters on the floor who were weak to fire, fire seemed to strengthen them.

Using my >, I was able to get into the sky, but it was still difficult to deal with the thousands of bats assaulting me. At least my armors and mana shield helped me. I spent some BTP to get SF recovery potions, and, along with using them, I cast > a few times, bringing down the thousands of bats. Even at top speed, it took a few days to traverse the barren landscape the bats had previously inhabited.

My EXP after all this was 459/694. As such, I only had about one third remaining until I level up! In the room after the hell bats, there was another forest—similar to all of the rooms here. In this forest, hell bats and wood bats traversed the skies in adequate numbers so that there was a delicate balance between them, with no group dominating the other.

In this room, I saw a new monster that looked odd. There were eight roots connected to a knot in the center. Bella didn't seem to like this one, so I asked her about it.

"They're parasitic roots. They take over the brains of unwitting explorers. I've had to deal with them a lot before—the dungeon doesn't like them any more than adventurers do."

"Then, Bella, are you ready to fight them?" I asked, seeing more coming towards us.

"As long as I'm with you, Husband."

"Then let's charge," I responded, taking hold of Blackmail while Bella takes out her spiritual weapon sword.

After imbuing my sword with fire, it isn't too difficult to deal with the annoying parasites, and we safely avoided getting our brains overrun. Bella and I also completed a quest after dashing through a whole bunch of them. I got a small seed, but I was unable to learn more. Even > and > could not tell me what was important about this seed! Bella got some EXP shards and a potion to increase her maximum SF by one thousand.

Bella was excited, as she knew of a spell which cost 25,550 SF to cast. It was a spell to cause spirits in the air to occupy the surrounding landscape and force back enemies. She said that her mom also uses it because it can create a lovely song of nature when used.

Since Bella wanted to learn the spell, spiritual natural sympathy, we used my key to meet her mother.

"Welcome back, Bella, Roberto. I'm glad we aren't meeting in a conference room again," the queen greeted us.

"Likewise," I said.

"Congratulations, as well, on completing your dungeon quest."

"Yeah!" Bella exclaimed.

"Additionally, the void door is being investigated by some other members of the management team. You two are no longer under suspicion."

"Thank you," I said, trying not to bow since we're family.

"Mom, can I get that spell you use to make music?"

"Natural symphony?" The queen asked back.

"Yep."

"But it requires a lot of SF. Are you sure?"

"Yep."

"Don't cast it carelessly or else both you and Roberto could get into danger—especially with the void playing tricks."

"K," she said, still excited, even though we all knew it would still be a while before she could use it safely.

"Roberto, you'll learn it, too."

"Why me?"

"Since I'm giving Bella the spell, there's no reason not to also give it to you. After a few hundred years, it shouldn't be impossible for you to have enough SF to activate it," the queen said as she began walking.

We arrived where I previously learned the skills and spells from the queen, and, with Bella going first, we went to the magical circle and received our new spell.

Once done, we parted ways with the queen and continued to march on in the dungeon.

In the next room, we encountered more of the same monsters. It was much denser, though. While here, Bella led the way to a secret campsite. In a small clearing stood tents and the remains of a firepit. According to Bella, one of the tents leads to this floor's elemental source. We went to the tallest and widest tent, and, inside, we found a trapdoor. Underneath was a narrow road paved with leaves on either side. We walked for a few minutes before arriving at a small, wooden structure. I opened the door, and, on the other side, was a white orb emitting sparks. As I got closer, I got scanned, similarly to the other orbs I'd encountered. Once that was completed, Bella and I returned to the campsite.

On a tree nearby, I noticed some mana strings. I pulled one out, and the trunk of the tree opened. Inside was a small, wooden tablet covered in a veil of leaves. It was written using spiritual writing, and I could read what it said.

"We once thought the great catastrophe was a blessing in disguise. With new weapons, new precious metals, new materials, new potions, and other new discoveries, we thought there was a silver lining. We thought that, once those bestowed these jobs practiced using their skills, their creations could save us all. We were wrong. They came after some of us, trying to steal our treasures. We had to escape, so we came here. An illusion elder, close to becoming a master, created a largescale illusion to hide us. We fear it's not enough. If you find our writing, we are gone. Hopefully, you can secretly carry on our techniques to better the world. The two books here will teach you some alchemy and blacksmithing. Please be safe in this tumultuous time!"

After reading the letter and showing it to Bella, I looked back in the tree trunk. There, two old, dusty books were sitting atop a bed of leaves. I could not open them, though, as the system messaged me as soon as I tried.

[book is class-locked. Only those with class: apprentice blacksmith or blacksmithing techniques may read]

[book is class-locked. Only those with class: apprentice alchemist or alchemic techniques may read]

I noticed, below the book, there was a bright green leaf, emitting mana. I picked it up, and, once I did, it became a scroll.

[skill book has been converted to conform with Earth items]

Now that I knew what it was, I opened the scroll and learned elementary blacksmithing techniques. The three skills I gained were smithing knowledge, which gave me insight about how the entire creation process works; melt metal, which allows me to melt metal, and forge, which is the skill that forges the actual weapon or object.

I immediately wanted to try out the new skill, but I realized I needed fire. Using the firepit and >, I made myself a makeshift forge. I then took an extra frail sword from the warehouse and melted it using >. For the forging process, I opened the book to look up how it works. As soon as I did, the system messaged me.

[Book: Blacksmithing Techniques of. Error: Authority level insufficient. Book: "Blacksmithing Techniques from Another World" has been bound to explorer: Earth01. Can now be summoned and can't be stolen.]

I wondered what my authority was too low to find out, but I didn't dwell on it. The book flipped to an appropriate page about making a sword. According to my > and >, I knew the materials in the sword were closest to 1029 carbon steel mixed with 0.01% orichalcum, an ore I'd never hear of before.

With the book's help, I extracted the new ore and put it in the warehouse. I then > the remaining clump of metal into a short sword. In so doing, the carbon content increased. Even though the end result was a smaller sword, it was no longer frail—it was now just a D- ranked "unsharpened short sword." It wasn't too impressive, but just the one success caused my level to increase!

I used the new ability, >, to sharpen the new sword. I put it in the spiritual fire and used my hands to mimic a whetstone. It took longer than I expected to sharpen and hone the piece. Finally, I removed it from the fire. Just by sharpening it, its rank went up to D! Knowing the large chasm between D+ and C-, I didn't want to continue attempting to get it to rank up only to be unable to continue further. I stored my new sword before night fell upon us.

The next day, I went to school. I also spent the rest of the week running around school and town. Friday, October 1st, was the day of my school's festival. It was a carnival with many sports events. Even though I didn't have to, since I tested out of all my classes, I still chose to participate in the five-kilometer race. With my speed at forty and endurance even higher at forty-eight, I didn't have to worry. Bella was also going to participate, but I was worried that she wouldn't be able to restrain herself. I knew how to keep my speed below thirty kilometers per hour, but, since Bella could go at speeds faster than commercial planes, I didn't know if she could slow down enough.

Easily, I came in first place and got my little metal. The track and cross-country teams also wanted me to join their teams, but I declined. On the surface, my excuse was merely that I spent my time after school working on my tae kwon do. In reality, however, I didn't want anything to cut into my dungeon-exploring time.

The next day, Bella and I went back through the forests to the campground from where we had been before. On the way there, Bella showed off by flying faster than a plane and reached the other side of the forest in less than a few seconds. I, of course, congratulated her on her achievement, giving her a "gold metal" I purchased from the dungeon store. It actually was a bronze and zinc medal, which must have been because the medal I brought from the competition was not made of actual gold. At least it only cost me $5BTP.

Bella next led me to another part of the forest. Here, I could see treants waiting for me.

"Wait," Bella said. "They are spirits, not monsters."

"Okay, then. Hello. I'm Roberto."

"Hello, fairies. It is nice to meet a new face. I'm Georgetta. I already know Bella."

Georgetta led us further in the forest until we saw spirits that looked like trees in the shape of humans.

"These are the other tree royalty currently on this floor. Everyone, we have a vacationing guest," Georgetta announced.

"Actually, we're just visiting," I tried to say.

She didn't listen, bringing us to a pond.

"Please, take a dip—it's heated. How long will you be staying here? Better yet, how long until your mom notices you haven't returned, Bella?"

"But, I'm with Husband, so its K."

"Husband?"

"I'm sorry, yes. I'm Bella's husband," I said.

"Why didn't you tell me? I thought we were good friends. You've been up here many times." Georgetta said.

"Well…" Bella trailed off. Her shyness returned.

"It's okay. Just relax. Don't forget to go back tomorrow, though. We can't have the queen's daughter slacking off."

"K," Bella said sheepishly.

We both stayed in the heated pond talking and relaxing for a few hours, but it was soon the next day. We didn't want to stay for too long. Bella just wanted to introduce me to her acquaintance. As such, we left on time and continued our route through the floor. We had three choices for the next room to head to. The correct one was the one we chose last. The other two were dead ends filled with parasites and wood bats. At least I got 36 EXP and some small stones to refresh my stamina.

There were a few more similar choices we had to make, fighting the same types of monsters, before we went back to a single path. Once we knew the way forward, we went to my magical training field.

During this trip, I practiced using > and > to create fireballs and water balls, respectively. I specifically practiced creating multiple of them and shooting them in different directions. It was easier than practicing > since there was no chant. Bella and I also practiced our >. Finally, I used the last bit of time to strengthen my mana shield. I could move the static shield parts slightly, but it wasn't enough to increase the skill's level.

Once satisfied, we returned to what we believed to be the final room of the sixth floor.

Here, there was luscious, green grass as far as I could see. There was, surprisingly, not a monster in sight. It felt peaceful, as if Bella and I could stay here and relax for many years before returning home.

While we didn't stay for years, we did have a picnic and hang out for a few hours before continuing. Finally, something happened. As soon as my foot touched a specific blade of grass, it seemed, a giant cage sprung up around us. I learned a new elementary rune, the heating rune, by looking at the spirals of the cage. It made the cage hotter each time it was touched. There were other runes of at least the basic level being combined and moving along the rest of the prison walls.

Blackmail couldn't penetrate the wall, and I discovered that, even if we leave the dungeon, we'd still return to the exact same spot!

With no other choice if we wanted to continue our exploration, we began walking towards the center of this strange cage. Suddenly, everything became pitch black. I couldn't see anything, even with my demon eyes! Neither the small light rune nor > lightened my way. With my demon nose, I couldn't smell the grass nor Bella! I tried calling out to Bella, but, even with my demon ears, I couldn't hear a response; neither could I hear the wind whistling and the grass shaking.

There was nothing for me to attack. I could not feel anything. My mana didn't detect anything.

While thinking of all this, I noticed I began falling. I didn't know how deep, but it felt like I was falling in this black world for eternity. I couldn't grab on—there was nothing to grab onto. Even while flying, I was still somehow falling. I couldn't outrun the gravity overtaking me.

I tried contacting Seere and the other demons, but they didn't respond. I tried summoning Samantha, but she wouldn't come out of my hand. I wanted to see something in this black world, so I looked inwards. I used the elementary soul technique's strength on my soul, and I was able to detect its faint glow. I finally found something that wasn't black. Once I realized there was something I could see, I found my mind felt clearer.

I began to calmly analyze the situation. I remember walking on the grass, surrounded by the strange formation. I remember that I suddenly fell before finding myself here. I still did not know where I was, but it was somewhere in the dungeon. I tried taking out Blackmail for a >, but I realized Blackmail also wouldn't come to me. It was then I felt something was off about this area. I then sat, while still falling, and began to ponder what was off. Suddenly, I realized what was wrong with this world, and I hoped it was enough to escape from here, meet back up with Bella, and move on to the next floor!