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We spent the next few days trying to climb the floors of the labyrinth as quickly as possible to obtain high-grade materials, and thus, get a discount on the cost of my sword.

We're already a week in and Deirdre is getting more and more confident at fighting.

Her abilities to fight on her own are improving significantly, although she is becoming somewhat reckless.

Or so she was until we got to face the new type of monsters between floors 41 to 49.

We've been on the 41st floor for a few hours now, and we've already faced them several times.

The monsters on these floors are insects of gigantic size.

There are mantises, ants, wasps, beetles, and spiders.

All are over a meter tall, with some reaching 2 meters in height.

In addition, they are all capable of performing some sort of magic.

Deirdre seems to be afraid or disgusted by them, because I see her trying to eliminate them and get away as fast as possible every time we see them.

And this is often leading her into borderline situations, where I have to help her.

Although she has no problem dodging the monsters' attacks, because she has a very good speed, she fails to take advantage of the openings left between the monsters’ attacks and uses those moments to run away.

"Fear is an important emotion, but don't hold on to it," I say when I see her running away from the spider she is facing, instead of attacking it.

"I'm not afraid of anything!" she says stubbornly.

"Well..." I say, hesitating about how to continue "It might be your body that can't handle fighting this kind of enemy. But, if your physical abilities are not enough, prevail with your heart. Let your mind control your body, and not the other way around."

"What if my mind and body are equally disgusted by facing them?" she asks worriedly.

"Hmm... Well, you have to overcome hardship" I say trying to sound convincing, though I can't think of anything better to say to her.

"That's easy to say..." I hear her mutter.

"Hmm, and don't approach an enemy until you determine their range. But, once you know their range, you have to take much better advantage of the openings they leave between their attacks. If you see that you don't feel comfortable near them, you can practice throwing the dagger at them, but then you'll have to go for it, anyway..." I say, but I'm interrupted mid-sentence by her.

I can't think of how to get her to face these enemies if she can't stand to be around them.

"whoa, that's a lot of advice all at once.... master," she says with a dazed look on her face, but adds the last with a smirk.

"I already told you not to...! Hah, whatever. It might be a lot of advice... I'm new at this teaching thing. I'm doing what I can," I say as I continue to think about the problem.

Hmm, I think the best thing to do is to take advantage of the fact that I can eliminate the monsters easily, and climb these floors as fast as possible.

This way she can get back to feeling comfortable in combat.

***

And so, throughout these days I have been advising and teaching Deirdre things about the art of combat.

Most of it is stuff I learned from Julia or Gideon, but there are also some things from my own school.

I've also been slowly teaching her how to read and write, and some basic math as we fight.

And, although she doesn't seem very interested in these things, she is slowly making progress.

Another week has passed with this routine, and we are now on the 59th floor of the labyrinth.

Once we left the insect floors, Deirdre took the lead in the fights again.

And, as I keep taking advantage of the loot bonus to gather as much money as possible to pay for my sword, she is always fighting with the experience bonus active.

Which has allowed her to keep up the pace in combat, even though we're moving up floors very quickly.

And, even though I don't have the experience bonus active when we fight, I've managed to get Explorer up to level 30.

And the rest of the classes went up two levels.

So, I was finally able to raise Intellect to 77 points, and raise it to the level of the rest of the stats.

Also, since I'm only fighting with magic, I've finally raised the spells 'Magic Bullet' to level 9, that is to say, the maximum level, 'Mana Bomb' to level 4, and 'Piercing Magic Bullet' to level 3.

I've also raised my 'Magic Sense' to level 6, so I can cast my spells much faster, and now I even have the ability to cast a spell in each hand.

…

We were walking out of the labyrinth, talking happily, when I see a face that looks strangely familiar.

It's a tall, slender, curvy girl about my age, with blonde hair and light green eyes.

If I had to describe her in one word, only one word comes to mind 'Pretty'.

She is dressed in expensive-looking clothes and, although I can't identify where, I have the impression I have seen her before.

On her back, she carries a light-looking bow, and at her feet is a cat that has the same color fur as her.

Hmm, I don't know where I've seen her from, but it's irrelevant, I think as I look away and refocus on the conversation with Deirdre...

Or it would be if it weren't for the fact that she's coming in my direction!

"Hello, Xelean. You sure are a hard one to find!" she says as she catches up to us.

When I hear the voice, I recognize her instantly.

It's Lilian, the girl I went to the labyrinth with one day long ago.

The same girl who I suspect is responsible for the change in the situation for Mia and Julia.

Hmm, I see I'm not the only one who changed drastically in appearance in these months.

Where before her height was rather short and her body was slender, in these months she must have grown about 30 centimeters.

And her body, although still slender, has a lot more curves.

"Um... Hello?" my response to her greeting comes out unconsciously in the form of a question, as I am very confused about meeting her again.

"Ahh, right. When we first met, I told you my name was Vin.... But that name was fake. As was my appearance… as you can see. My real name is Lilian… Lilian Estella. Sorry for misleading you." She says this last part with a grimace, as if she thinks I might be mad at her for misleading me.

But frankly, I don't care.

It's irrelevant to me what name she uses...it doesn't change who she is.

And, from what Julia told me, I think she's a good person.

Besides, when we met, I was also altering my appearance. This brings me to the question...

"There's nothing to apologize for, but... How did you recognize me?" I ask quizzically. "You're not the only one with a different appearance."

For all answers, she points to Azur, who is perched on my shoulders.

Which is his usual spot when we move to the capital, as he can't walk around in his full-size draco form since that would create problems with people.

The capital, unlike everywhere else we've been these past few months, is overflowing with people.

So, if Azur were to walk the streets in his draco form, adopting the size of a dog, we would at times have trouble moving together. Due to the density of people on some streets.

"Hmm, Xelean, w-who is she?" asks Deirdre and I'm surprised to see how uncomfortable she looks, being that I've never seen her like this before.

While I'm thinking about this, Lilian walks ahead of me and introduces herself.

"Hi, I'm Lilian Estella. You probably met my mother when you and your companions dealt with the queen. And what's your name?" she says, taking a step and extending her hand to shake it, but Deirdre steps back and stands behind me.

"D-Deirdre and I ... I have to get back to my place," she says stuttering and, leaning close to my ear, whispers "see you tomorrow at the usual time."

And with that, she runs off.

As soon as she is covered by a passerby, she disappears from our sight.

It seems that the condition for activating her ability is to hide from the sight of those who are watching her for a moment.

"I don't know what happened to her... She's a very cheerful girl normally," I say confused by how my companion left. She looked like she was running away from something.

"It's probably my mom's thing... She's against us letting refugees from the new continent stay in the capital. She's probably said all sorts of barbarities while they met with the queen. And, as my appearance is quite similar to hers... Anyway, it's not the first time it's happened to me," she says in a sorrowful tone.

"Ahh," I say, starting to understand. The mention of her mother, makes me remember our conversations while we were resting in the labyrinth, and that reminds me of how I told her about Julia's story "I guess you were looking for me for something, but first of all I think I have something to thank you for".

"What?" she says, and for once she's the one who seems confused.

"What you did for Julia," I say simply because I don't think it needs much explanation. "thank you so much, really"

"Ahh, it's nothing," she says when she understands, and makes a gesture with the intention of downplaying it. "Noblesse obliges. It's the least I could have done given the situation".

"It's still a great gesture, thank you. The fact that Mia can leave her house freely is already invaluable," I say, stubbornly, trying to make her understand. I don't understand why she downplays what she did. "Now then. Why were you looking for me?"