It's been a few days since me and Cole arrived at the capital. We mainly focused on leveling up and helping people every now and then. Today is the day Cole would get his equipment, to say he was excited would be an understatement.

Cole: Come on, let's go to Erhard!

It's almost noon, we have just come back from hunting monsters outside the city.

Y/n: I'm coming, no need to yell. I'm not a fan of loud noises.

After a short while of walking we arrived at Erhard's shop. Cole walked in with a smile on his face.

Erhard: Hey you two, you came for your things, right? I don't mean to brag, but I think I did a really good job.

Cole: Can you show it to me?

Erhard: Sure, give me a moment.

Erhard went through the door next to him and came back with Cole's armor and sword.

Erhard: Here, why don't you try it on?

Cole quickly grabbed his equipment and went to change into his new armor.

After a few minutes he was done. The armor was nearly completely covered with scales, besides a few places to allow comfortable movement.

It looked like his plate armor, but simply made out of scales.

His new sword was in his scabbard.

Cole stood proud, smiling.

Y/n: How did you make it a perfect fit, if you didn't even measure his height and everything else?

Erhard chuckled a little.

Erhard: That's a trade secret, can't tell you.

I sighed and asked Cole:

Y/n: So, do you like it? You were looking forward to this quite a lot after all.

All emotions vanished from Cole's face.

Cole: I don't like it.

This shocked both me and Erhard until...

Cole: I love it! It looks amazing!

Happiness showed on Cole's face once again.

I sighed after witnessing that.

Y/n: Well Erhard, I'm really thankful for the fact that you made this for us.

Erhard: No need to thank me, it's my job after all. Besides, using new materials for crafting was very fun.

I smiled at him and started getting ready to leave.

Y/n: Well then, we'll be going. Cole, let's go.

Cole followed behind me as we left the blacksmith's shop.

Cole: So, where do we go now? I want to try this out against some monsters!

Cole said, looking eager to fight.

An idea came to my mind.

Y/n: Remember how I teleported us to Melromarc instantly?

Cole: Yeah, what about it?

Cole responded, clearly interested.

Y/n: Can you hold on to me again for a moment?

Cole simply nodded and put his hand on my shoulder.

I focused on my ring and picked:

-Floor 5

We were covered in a blue light and moments later, we were in a cave.

Specifically, the room in which I fought the Ogre, surprisingly, the corpse was no longer there.

I reminded myself on what I wanted to check, the experience gain here was too abnormal compared to the surface. I checked my menu and noticed a status effect.

Exp gain +200%

Cole had the same effect next to his name, I suppose that explains my rapid growth whenever I fought here.

Cole: Wow, what is this place?

Y/n: A dungeon, you said you wanted to fight, right?

Cole smiled after hearing my answer.

Cole: Of course! I'm eager to fight the monsters in this place.

Y/n: Just so you know, the fighting here is a little intense.

Cole: Come on, how bad can it be?

Cole responded, overconfident.

I sighed after hearing him.

Y/n: Don't say I didn't warn you.

I started walking towards the stairs, Cole was right behind me.

After descending onto the 6th floor, the monsters started appearing. I was sure I already cleared this floor, it seems I only get a checkpoint every five floors.

Cole: Alright! Come at me!

Cole decided to taunt the enemies. Minutes later he was already overwhelmed. I fired my submachine gun at the monsters around him.

Y/n: I told you the fighting here is intense.

Cole: My bad for not taking you seriously, even with my new equipment, this is really tough.

I was good with fighting against multiple enemies, seems like that wasn't an ability Cole had. Then again, he was surrounded by monsters when I found him. That simply confirms this statement.

After a few more minutes, all of the monsters were gone. Cole laid down on the floor, tired.

Cole: This is way too hard.

Y/n: We're going four more floors down, you know.

Cole: What?! Why....

I laughed a little after hearing him. He leveled up a few times from fighting and was up to level 25, while I reached level 33.

Timeskip

The next floors were a little easier for Cole, he now understood how everything worked and used his newfound knowledge to fight more effectively. Eventually, we were done with the 9th floor.

By now, Cole was already level 34, while I was level 39.

Cole: This is really exhausting, thankfully only one floor is left.

Y/n: I'll have to warn you though, this floor will probably be different.

Cole: Different? In what way?

Cole asked, visibly confused by my words.

Y/n: There's a high chance, that at the 10th floor, instead of fighting multiple enemies, we'll have to fight a powerful single opponent. I fought one once, I nearly died.

Cole was taken aback by my response. He thought that he was much weaker than me. The thought of me nearly dying here scared him. Whatever was down there, Cole wouldn't underestimate it.

Cole: I see, well I'm ready.

Y/n: I suppose we should start going down then. Please try not to make any noise.

We walked down to the next floor.

In the room, was a giant golem made out of a material that looked similar to the walls of the cave which obviously, wasn't stone.

Cole was readying himself in case it noticed us. I simply did the same as I did back when I fought the ogre, I pulled out my handgun and fired at the golem's head. It didn't do much, although it clearly dealt damage. The golem charged at the both of us.

Y/n: Cole! Keep it busy while I damage it from a distance!

Cole: Leave it to me!

Cole started striking the golem. Thankfully, it thought that Cole was a bigger threat and focused on him. I reloaded my handgun and decided to initiate my plan. I slowly got close up to the golem, if I didn't have presence concealment, this would never be possible. I quickly jumped up and fired at the golem's head at point blank range. A good chunk of it's face was blown off from my attack.

I started running away while shooting the monster with my submachine gun. To my surprise, the damage dealt was nearly none. My submachine gun was useless in this battle.

The golem was now right in front of me, it prepared to strike me. It reeled it's arm back and tried to hit my head.

Y/n:

I barely dodged it's strike. The golem was surprised by my sudden change of speed. What I didn't notice was the golem's other arm coming right at me. It hit me in the stomach with so much force, that I nearly broke the whole cave wall when I crashed into it. I wasn't in the shape to get up.

Cole quickly charged at the monster and stopped it from continuing it's attacks.

I couldn't bring myself to move, no matter how hard I tried. Even with all of my strength that I had left, I couldn't move a muscle. As I laid down on the floor, I closed my eyes.

When I opened them, I was in what looked like a forest, this time, I was standing up.

I decided to walk forward, eventually I noticed a woman standing next to a lake, I froze completely when she turned around and looked at me. The roses I had in my garden back in my world were in memory of my childhood friend who passed away. The exact person was now standing right in front of me.

Y/n:S-Shirley...?

Shirley smiled at me.

Shirley: I see you've grown up quite a bit since we last saw each other.

Y/n: Am I.. dead?

Shirley shook her head.

Shirley: Not at all, you simply passed out.

Y/n: I need to get back quickly, if I don't...

Shirley: You'll lose someone you care about again?

I just looked at her, not saying a word.

Shirley: You never were a person that gave up so easily. Come closer to me for a moment, okay?

I nodded and walked up to her, with my head facing the ground. She lifted my face up, when I looked at her, she had a worried look on her face.

Shirley: I have a little gift for you, if you don't mind. Can you hold out your knife for a moment?

I was confused, but did as she told me.

She then pulled out a flower from her pocket, it looked like it had only been picked minutes ago. The flower though, was a white rose. She put the rose on my gem, the knife proceeded to absorb it.

Shirley: Now, I think you have a battle to win.

She looked at me with a wide, genuine smile.

I noticed my consciousness fading.

Y/n: W-wait! Will I ever get to see you again.

Shirley just smiled at me once again.

Shirley: Who knows? I think it's better for you to find out.

She was facing the lake once again, before I could say anything, everything was already fading.

I opened my eyes and saw Cole barely holding his ground against the golem, both were severely wounded. Cole noticed me getting up, although that moment of distraction gave the monster a chance to strike. Cole was punched by the golem, he was no longer able to fight.

I shot my handgun at the monster, it quickly redirected it's attention towards me and started charging towards me.

I smiled after noticing that.

Y/n: Can you keep up with me?

I felt the time around me slow down, instinctively, I yelled out:

Y/n:

I was moving at a speed that made the golem look as if it was frozen in place.

I started slashing at the monster from every direction, after a series of slashes, I appeared behind it and shot it in the back.

The time started moving at normal speed once again. The golem roared in pain as it's lifeless body fell to the ground.

I ran over to Cole to help him get up.

Cole: That was... so cool! Where did you learn that? Can you teach me?

From Cole's perspective, I was in front of the golem and instantly afterwards behind it, with my gun drawn and the golem dead.

Y/n: Cole! Now's not the time.

Cole was already standing when I heard something come out of the ground. Last time there was my ring, this time, there was a piece of some kind of some kind of metal. I came up to it and inserted it into my knife.

I was relieved after knowing what the skill did, I really needed some healing after this battle.

I came up to the golem's corpse in hopes of getting a piece of it to put it inside my knife. To my surprise, the golem's corpse vanished, this didn't happen with the ogre, so I was a little surprised.

I switched my knife to it's new form.

It was a mixture of golden and blue, with a silver blade. The blade was visibly longer than my usual knife, that fact encouraged me to use this knife during battle from now on.

I didn't notice one thing though, Cole noticed me changing my knife.

Cole: Hey, what's wrong with your knife?

I decided that it was about time I told him the truth.

Y/n: What I'm going to tell you, has to stay between us, okay?

Cole nodded.

I took a deep breath and started talking:

Y/n: I'm a cardinal hero, the Assassin hero. I'm what you would call an emergency hero, which is probably why you haven't heard of me.

Cole was shocked, but calmed down after a moment.

Cole: Well that explains your knife changing shape, I noticed it before but I decided not to ask about it. To be honest, I'm relieved. I'm relieved that there is a hero which isn't obsessed with justice or anything of the sort.

I realized he was talking about the bow hero and started laughing a little.

Y/n: Thank you for being understanding about all of this, I was honestly expecting a different reaction. Now then, how about we get out of here? We need to get both of us healed up.

I mentioned to my ring, Cole got the message and put his hand on my shoulder, after a moment, we were back at the entrance of the dungeon.