I take a deep breath of fresh air as I look out into the pale green dungeon and open up my link with Ember.

"It's time we head back to the 10th floor."

"Understood."

Ember flaps his wings and glides down to the nearest pillar of smooth white stone below us.

With a careful step, I hop off his back and land on the square 3-meter wide platform high up in the clouds. I open my item storage and Ember flies inside.

I down at my arms and chest.

My armor is still completely destroyed. My shirt is ripped and the black line from the Greater Demon's Core is exposed on my left arm.

I attempt to heal the armor with my self regeneration skill like I normally would, but things go a bit differently than they did last time.

The dim white glow of mana begins to shine, but I get the odd urge to push further with a new depth of mana control that I haven't quite felt before...

The white glow begins to turn into tinted red. MP seeps out of my body at an alarming rate as the armor is healed, I can audibly hear a buzzing sound coming from the heavy metal gear.

Then, a sharp pain in my head and chest stops me from pushing further.

I grit my teeth and drop to one knee on the hard stone surface below me, letting out a gasp and deactivating all my skills.

I'm still way too worm out to be trying anything fancy...

I take the now completely restored armor set off and throw it into my item storage before standing up straight again.

Looking down, I still see the Demon's Black mark on my arm under my torn shirt. I reach into storage to grab a fresh long-sleeve as well as the new pair of magic lenses that Bri gave me during our last meeting.

I throw the shirt on and activate the new lenses of illusion. I'll only be wearing these in public, they'll always come off during battle or training from now on. Burning through that last pair was such a waste.

Now that my appearance problem is out of the way, I'll need to think of an alibi... I'll head back to the 10th-floor Inn, but telling people that I defeated the 20th-floor boss is a bad idea.

I take a deep breath, then close my eyes.

"Dungeon Walker."

The moment my transport skill is activated, severe pain surges through my head making it hard to visualize where I'm teleporting to.

Everything in my mind is foggy, but I lock onto a familiar point deep in the 10th-floor dungeon and let myself blip through.

I fall to the rocky floor at the base of the mountain I trained at earlier in my labyrinth climb. I spent a few days throwing attacks at this rock wall, I know it well.

It seems like in a tired state, tempting to familiar regions is much easier than places I've only been once.

I catch myself with both hands and fall to my knees, but look to my left and right before hitting the ground.

"No one else is here, that's a good sign."

I let out a sigh as my headache and chest pain slowly fades away and the sharp pain that travels all the way now my spine becomes much less irritating.

I get to my feet and begin slowly walking towards the Inn thinking through how exactly I'll explain my current weakened state and progress to anyone that asks.

It takes me nearly an hour to make it to the backside of the poorly built Inn. I can already hear hunters training and selling goods on the small stone path in front of it.

Even from just the short walk over, my muscles ache, and my skin itches. All I want to do is lie down, but I push forward and make my way to the building's entrance, opening the wooden door.

A few heads turn, but soon after, they go back to eating and drinking. I walk forward until I meet the Innkeeper's gaze.

He gives me a cheerful smile.

"Glad to see you're back Jay! Have a good training session? It sure looks like you're pretty worn out. Need a room?"

He lets out a chuckle as I lean forward to rest against the wooden counter.

I reply in a low, yet relieved tone.

"Yeah, a room would be great."

Without another word, the old man lets out a light whistle while writing something down under the wooden table and fetching me a key.

He hands me the small metal item with R209 labeled on the side of it in thin black writing.

I nod and take the room key.

"Thanks. I'll be back once I'm rested. If Rylan or Fisher come looking for me, tell them to wait. I need time to recover."

He gives me a grin, then turns his head to the stairs beside the counter.

"Sure thing, I'll let ya rest kid."

I push myself up off the counter and slowly walk toward the stairs.

It's already been a long day... My full body and mind are giving out on me after a 1km walk and a simple conversion.

My eyes are almost shut by the time I walk upstairs and find my way into the small yet cozy feeling room.

I collapse onto the bed wooden bed with white sheets and fall asleep almost instantly. Unfortunately, it isn't a peaceful slumber.

The full-body shivering from a few days ago comes back as I drift off into a half-dazed state of tossing and turning. These mana withdrawals are no joke.

I tough it out and get my rest. Eventually, I fall into a deeper sleep.

Time passes until I'm rudely awakened.

*KNOCK* *KNOCK* *KNOCK*

My eyes open wide as I come back to reality and almost fall off the small bed.

I shake my head and rub my eyes before swinging my legs over the edge to hear the wooden floor creak while walking over to the door mid-yawn.

"Who is it? What's going on... I thought I said not to wake me up-"

The excited voice of a familiar redhead cuts me off.

"Oh come on Jay, Conway said it's been over 16 hours since you got in! You need to eat something! Plus, ya gotta tell me how your climb went!"

I feel my stomach churn as I approach the door handle and lick my dry lips.

Apparently, It's been another 16 hours. I've been out of it for almost another full day again....

My muscles feel a bit more healed, and my head it less foggy enough though I'm dying for a good plate of food and some water.

I guess I've made a little progress, but I'm nowhere near 100%.

I fully open the door to see Rylan grinning ear to ear in the narrow hallway. The moment I do, he throws an arm around my shoulder and starts leading me back to the main Inn's main tavern downstairs.

My room door closes behind me as the C-Class starts talking my ear off like I never left.

"So, what happened? Did you go to Floor 19? Did you make it to the 20th? What's it like up there? It must have been tough!"

I chuckle a bit, realizing what I just accomplished is actually a pretty big deal.

He's asking if I even made it to the 19th floor. In reality... I make it to the 21st.

I beat the monster that separates normal hunters from Elites In my first week of training.

Well, technically I took over 2 months... but no one has to know that...

I let out a sigh, but can't help but let out a little grin.

It's time to begin my facade. I'll take Bri's advice and keep a low profile for now.

"I made it to the 19 Floor, yeah."

I smirk as we make it to the stairs and begin to walk down. Tables come into view and the sound of Association Hunters trading gear and eating food fills my ears.

Rylan responds.

"Oh yeah? How'd you fair against those monsters? I've heard even Fisher struggled with the 19th floor his first couple months of Elite training."

I nod slowly and reply.

"Yeah... They were tough, gave me quite the workout. I'll have to rest up before I try to go any further."

I stretch my arms and make a pain-filled expression to reinforce the fact that I'm in no condition to continue fighting right now.

Rylan smirks.

"So you're really going to try and defeat the 20th-floor Boos?"

I shrug.

"Maybe if Fisher comes back, I don't want to push my luck."

Rylan continues without even registering my response.

"I've heard stories about a cooldown timer on the 20th Floor Boss room. Apparently, once someone faces it, they can't leave the entire floor until they've defeated the boss. No new hunters can enter or leave until the fight is over. It takes a full 7 days for the entrance portal to open up again even if the boss is slain."

I clench my jaw and tighten my gaze at the words that come out of the redhead's mouth... My mind starts racing for a moment as we make it down to the tavern's main floor.

I curse under my breath as I look up to see Conway smiling and setting up a table with a feast fit for kings upon my arrival. The old man waves at both of us and we begin to walk over.

This whole situation just got a lot more complicated.

If Fisher comes back anytime soon, he'll most likely want to face the 20th floor to complete our weekly quotas. It's not going to be an easy task to talk my way out of this one...