I Became a Gallery Newbie Beloved by Transcendents

After killing two kobolds, I killed three more.
But still, no level up occurred.

‘Kobold King.’

According to the Transcendent Gallery seniors, the only monster among the kobold race that could be a threat to me.

Will that one be inside this dungeon or not?
If it’s here, I felt like I wanted to meet it.

Has my mind gone strange from being in the Pandemonium difficulty tower for nearly a month?

Except for Laura, the 9th floor resident, no one seemed to have particularly outstanding combat sense.
At best, the Chinese Sun Haoran showed unhesitating movements.

The reason I could move more nimbly than them was due to the excellence of the Dragon Slaying Sword itself and thanks to the training golem mk.2.
I suppose the Orc Army Commander who drove me hard and the Orc Shaman who gave me quite a bit of trouble also played a part.

6 hours and 32 minutes had passed since entering the dungeon.
The reason I know the exact time that has passed is because the current time is precisely recorded at the top right corner of my field of vision.

Current time 6:41 PM.
All seven of us, including myself, were crouched down taking a rest.

Because I had thoroughly taken the very back for 6 hours, only two people recognized me as strong for a 3rd floor resident.
Misaki and the Chinese woman next to her, Xu Xuan. Just those two.

At first, I couldn’t understand people who were resting sprawled out without any tension.
A square golden border surrounded the group.

‘They said it was a safe zone.’

Misaki explained, scratching her head, that it was a completely invulnerable safe area that occasionally exists in Easy difficulty towers.

The impression I got during the exchange meeting was only a sense of disparity.
Indeed, will I ever see this safe zone while climbing Pandemonium?

04 : 23 : 54

A time was floating above the safe zone.

04 : 23 : 53

The time kept decreasing.
It started at five hours. It means that 4 hours and 23 minutes from now, the safe zone that the group is using will disappear.

While Laura, the German woman, was the physical leader, Baek Jin-young could be called the leader in terms of leading communication.

“It’s too early to go to sleep, but wouldn’t it be better to sleep for about 4 hours now and then finish the dungeon entirely?”

Laura nodded.

“Yeah, that sounds good.”

Everyone agreed with Baek Jin-young’s words.
Misaki approached me as I was sitting quietly.

“You don’t have a sleeping bag, right?”
“No.”
“They don’t sell them in the 3rd floor waiting room.”

Misaki held out a sleeping bag to me.

“Use this!”

It’s nice if she gives it to me, but.

“Then won’t Misaki-san be without a sleeping bag?”

Misaki shook her head.

“I have one! I have a habit of not easily throwing away things I’ve put in my inventory once… Ah, don’t worry! That’s a new sleeping bag! I’ll use the old one.”

If I tell her to use the new one saying it’s better, and say I’ll use the old sleeping bag, I’d look like a crazy person in that case too.

“Thank you.”

I quietly accepted the sleeping bag and spread it out.

“What difficulty tower is Misaki-san from?”

Misaki immediately answered my question.

“Easy difficulty.”

I looked at the person next to Misaki.

“And Xu Xuan-san?”

Xu Xuan spoke softly.

“Easy. You noticed, right? That she and I are in a party.”

How could I not notice? The two of them were openly taking care of each other.

Xu Xuan nodded towards Sun Haoran, who was also Chinese.

“Sun Haoran, that person is Normal.”

Baek Jin-young was also Normal difficulty.
Now the only one whose difficulty I didn’t know was Laura.
I approached Laura.

As I approached, Laura opened her mouth, looking above my head rather than at me.

“What is it, 3rd floor?”
“What difficulty are you?”

Laura laughed derisively, as if she found it absurd that I was asking about difficulty so directly.

“Try guessing what difficulty I am.”

She seemed to have better combat talent than Baek Jin-young or Sun Haoran, who were Normal.
However, she was lower than the level I had imagined for a Hard difficulty climber.

“Are you Hard?”
“That’s right.”

Laura clicked her tongue.

“Damn Hard.”

It must be quite tough.
I didn’t feel like offering any words of comfort. My life seems a bit tougher, you know.
There were plenty of questions to ask.

“What kind of enemy appears on the 8th floor of Hard difficulty?”

Laura suddenly shuddered at my words, then slowly opened her mouth.

“Orc Great Warrior.”

Oh ho.

“Did you kill it?”

Laura frowned at my words.
It wasn’t just a frown, she looked like an angry goblin.

“Kill it… How could I kill that thing? I just ran away as much as I could. Since I just needed to endure the time.”

Very disappointing.

“Before the Orc Great Warrior, what kind of orc-type enemy appeared?”

Laura answered readily, perhaps not minding that I kept asking questions about her.

“5th floor, Orc Army Commander.”

Pioneer from the Transcendent Gallery also said it appeared on the 5th floor.
It seems LightSword and ArchMage’s cases of appearing on the 2nd floor were rare.

“Did you kill the Army Commander?”

At my words, Laura slowly shook her head.

“For that one too, I just focused on enduring until the knights came, since I just needed to defend.”

If she was full of pride, she might have answered that she at least killed the Army Commander.

Seeing her speak as if enduring was natural, it seemed that other Hard difficulty players in Laura’s circle thought the same and made the same choices.

“There was one guy among those who cleared the floor together who said we should kill it, but of course his opinion was ignored.”

That guy whose opinion was ignored was right.

In the end, the possibility for growth opens up when you push through and somehow kill strong monsters. That was the direction of this tower that I learned from the process of just the 2nd floor.

“How many people usually attempt to clear it?”

Laura answered dryly.

“For 5th floor and above, of course usually 6 or more people.”

Usually 6 or more people, but not thinking of killing it is the accepted theory.
I heard that the difficulty increases gradually as the party size increases, but from my perspective, it seemed like they were being too cautious.

Hearing that she had never even killed an Army Commander, I lost interest in the Hard difficulty climber in front of me.
I got up and went back to the sleeping bag I received from Misaki.

The others seemed worn out physically and mentally, as they had all fallen into deep sleep in their respective sleeping bags.
Seeing them all sleep so peacefully, it seemed like they had all experienced safe zones before.

I recalled something LightSword had written in the appendix of the Dragon Slaying Sword.

-It’s also necessary to practice sleeping in a way that you can wake up at any time.
-With training, there’s almost nothing impossible.

I thought it was nonsense, but.
So this is when you use it.

That training thing, I can try it now, can’t I?
Thinking that, I closed my eyes.

“……”

As if that would work.
I should ask for detailed instructions later.
It was essentially meditation.

I did need to organize my thoughts.
There was a topic that had been lingering in my mind since I entered the exchange meeting.

Thanks to being given an appropriate amount of time, I was able to come to a complete conclusion about that topic.

Misaki’s head, who was sleeping soundly in the sleeping bag next to me, slowly rose.

“…Ah, did you sleep well?”

Misaki spoke softly while smoothing her disheveled hair.

“Yes.”

I hadn’t slept at all, but I didn’t want to make her feel awkward.

I ate some jerky and nuts.
It was food I had purchased with coins.
I should have a nice meal after returning to the floor waiting room when the exchange meeting is over.

00 : 25 : 34

There were still 25 minutes left on the safe zone timer.
All seven of us, including myself, were ready to depart.

Although it wasn’t a long sleep, everyone seemed to be in better condition than before.

The group moved.
Like yesterday, Jake and Sun Haoran were at the front.
Then Laura and Baek Jin-young behind them.

Misaki and Xu Xuan were in front of me, who was at the very back.

Just like yesterday, no major variables occurred.
They weren’t particularly strong, but they weren’t particularly weak either.

The kobolds were dying smoothly.
If I had to point out something that wasn’t smooth, it would be my level, which was still stuck at 12 even after killing four more kobolds.

A place that looked like a dead end of a maze, made up of three walls, stopped the group.

“Huh?”

Jake’s voice was heard. In Jake’s right hand, which he had lowered and then raised, was a map.

The map showed the dungeon layout.
It wasn’t a map showing the overall dungeon structure.

It was a map showing the existence of a boss room and a room behind it.
Jake’s voice had a questioning tone.

“It says there’s a hidden boss room? Should we enter?”

A moment of silence fell.
The German Laura strode towards Jake and roughly snatched the map.

“The difficulty is important.”

Laura checked the number of stars written below the hidden boss room.

【 ★★★★★ 】

“Tch.”

Laura clicked her tongue after seeing the difficulty.

“…I’ll only go up to the regular boss room and then leave the exchange meeting.”

I knew there was a hidden boss room in the exchange meeting dungeon from the advice of the Transcendent Gallery seniors.
Also that unlike the regular boss room, it tells you the difficulty in advance and lets you choose whether to challenge it or not.

Five stars means the possibility of clearing it in a 10th floor exchange meeting is extremely low.

Baek Jin-young approached Laura.

“Oh, can I see it too?”

The rest of the group also gathered to look at the map.
Baek Jin-young scratched his head.

“Hmm… five stars is too tough.”

I thought that if possible, I should try to enter the hidden boss room alone.

Anyway, what we’re facing right now is the boss room.

“Let’s prepare a bit and then enter.”

Following Laura’s order, everyone checked their equipment.

Kugugugung-!

And Jake opened the boss room door.

[BOSS MONSTER]

[Kobold champion]

Kobold Champion.

Certainly, it looked like the largest of the hairy lizards I’d killed so far.