Page 24

I'll skip the conversation Miriel and I had yesterday since it's a bit boring, but to summarise, we decided to make the boss room first to design the eighth, ninth and tenth floors without editing them again. 

20 Days Left

On the morning of the twentieth day, I left things to Miriel to create the eighth floor by himself, while I was gathering some monsters for the floors that had no monsters populating them at all.

Since Valentyn only gathered "strong" monsters, I had to spread them across several floors so it would be fair for the challengers. I often called them "elite monsters", for convenience's sake, and planned to officially call them something else when I thought about the name later, however, since I'd used it so often to describe the group of thirty or so, the monsters decided it adopt the name as their official title. 

So now, their full title is like "Elite Monster: XXXX of the Lake" or something. They'll be placed all over the ten floors, each owning a small territory within a particular section of a floor I've put them on. Across the current seven floors, we finished, there are four elite monsters on each floor, and on the seventh floor, I've put five of them. 

I know it's unfair to have FIVE elite monsters on one floor, but! Once we're done with all ten floors, I'll even it out to three per floor with the tenth floor having four. No wait, I should put more of the weaker elite monsters on the upper floors while having the more limited number and stronger elite monsters on the lower floors. 

So then... the strongest on the tenth floor, two on the ninth floor, three on the eighth floor, three on the seventh floor, four on the sixth, fifth, fourth and third floors, five on the second floor, and none on the first floor. 

To simplify that, I should determine the strength of these thirty individuals give them a rank from 1 to 30, and then put them on their suitable floor. Alright! That sounds good to me! I'll do that later after I return with Valentyn and some monster and guardian contracts. The current strength of the vampire that Hestia summoned is not bad, maybe comparable to the elite monsters of the ninth or tenth floors... so I'll promote her from the Guardian of the First Floor to Guardian of the Third Floor. Yeah... that sounds reasonable. 

Okay, since I got this all sorted out, I should meet with Valentyn near the outskirts of Orth's capital city. But first! I must be sure that Akane, Mob 1 or 2 won't come and challenge my dungeon when I'm out... again. Oh geez, why does she always come when I'm not present in my dungeon? I've been out for what, a total of six hours, and she's challenged this place like four times already! And then I've been stuck here for over ten days and nothing! 

Oh boy. I vented out a little too much of my frustration with Akane. If I hadn't planned for her to serve as an advertisement for my dungeon, I would've made her "disappear" long ago. Although I'm not a Reincarnation Angel anymore, I still have the authority to reincarnate people if I wish. 

I must send a small spy device to where Akane is and track her movements. But hey, that could wait until later. I have faith that she won't attack my dungeon for the next hour I'll be gone. Now, let's meet with Valentyn. 

So, I confirmed things were safe to leave as it was (I left all responsibility to Hestia), and went outside for the first time in a long while. I stretched my small body and feeling refreshed, I revealed my wings and took off, soaring a hundred metres above the ground. 

I wasn't expecting too many people to see me flying since currently, it's the morning and most people around here won't be up until like another three or four hours. Crossing the lush and fog-filled plains and hills of Orth's countryside, I quickly made my way to Orth's capital where I landed in a deserted area. Valentyn must've sensed my energy as he was already prepared to greet me in the place where I'd landed. It's not too far from Orth's capital, there was a large forest nearby as well, and this small circle of open land between the dense forest and flat, rolling plains of the countryside made it an unusual sight to see. 

The air smelled of the early morning dew and wet soil. I was afraid mud was going to ruin my white one-piece dress, so I put up a small and thin barrier around myself to prevent that from happening. Valentyn walked up to me, "Good morning, master. Feeling good?" he asked, bowing. 

"Yeah, yeah, good morning to you too. I'm feeling alright," I answered, "Besides, I've told you, I don't need sleep, there's no point in saying these meaningless things like 'good morning'." I said with annoyance. For Valentyn, it might make sense, since he's a mortal being who requires rest, like sleeping, however, as for me? 

I'm an angel, there's no need for rest. Although... it doesn't feel bad when he greets me with "good morning...". Valentyn just smiled at my response. 

"What?" I glanced over to his smiling face. 

"Nothing," he replied, "nothing at all." he continued to smile. I turned around to avoid his smile; it was a little creepy... but in a good sense. 

"Well... okay? Anyway, hurry up and show me where these monster habitats are." I demanded, requesting the data that he had collected over the past few days. 

But, before he could do that, a sudden rustling of the small bush behind me caused Valentyn to go on the defensive. He leapt to a position in front of me, his left arm extended out, protecting me, while he had his other arm extended out with a small fireball ready to be fired at any moment. 

"Hey, Valentyn..." I began, but I was cut off. 

"Master, don't worry, I'll take care of it. I know you are the strongest in the world, but I just cannot let a girl- uh, a woman like you be in harm's way while I'm here," he said with determination in his voice. And he didn't seem to back down either. "Just let me handle this and I'll show my growth." 

"Well, alright, that's fine. I was just planning to tell you that there's a large number of humans just behind the little... what, furball, is it..?" 

Valentyn turned his head around to face me. I saw his face of confusion, and I explained further. "Yeah, there's a little furball taking refuge in that bush. It seems like he's critically wounded and there's a bunch of humans chasing it down. Go help it. Understood?" 

He clicked his tongue. "I understand, master. It seems like my skills are not worthy to be of use to you yet." he continued. 

Umm. When did I say that? I never did. But I'm interested in Valentyn's current skill. I know it had only been less than two weeks since Valentyn had joined, but since he and Hestia were training every single day (mostly), I'm interested in what he had learnt from Hestia, one of the strongest native beings in this world. 

I had a large and wide smile on my face. I placed my hand on Valentyn's shoulder and as he turned around to face me, I pushed him into the forest. "Have fun! I'm going to watch from above to see your current skills. And don't worry about holding back, I already had deployed a barrier displaying the usual environment, hiding the battle that was about to commence. 

"Sheesh, my luck is horrible, isn't it? A battle less than ten seconds in? I don't like the feeling of this. Maybe I should head back to my dungeon and go tomorrow..."