World Isekai

[0-1-S]

Mori pressed it.

He was transported to yet another room that looked truly basic, like his.

Black tiles, torches, the same boring decor, he thought.

Already?!

The room he arrived in had a small skeleton in it, staring straight at him.

There were no doors, no windows, no passageways, only him and that skeleton.

Readying his spear, Mori slowly dragged his feet forward.

The skeleton was also taking its time, as if he was figuring out the best approach to take.

Without warning, it sprinted toward Mori, its fists clenched as the bones clicking against each-other echoed through the room.

Mori readied his spear behind him, ready to do a wide swipe as soon as it would be in range.

It kept running at a constant pace, soon within his reach.

Now.

The air whistled as Mori tried his best to time his strike with the Skeleton's pace.

The hit connected, propelling the skeleton sideways to the ground, rolling a few times.

It felt good.

He could tell he had gotten twice as strong. The strength he could apply to his strike and the speed at which he unleashed it were way better.

He leisurely walked to the skeleton that was getting up, striking its head with the spear, making the monster disappear within seconds.

Only 1 kindle dropped, with no items showing up.

Mori turned on himself, scanning the room.

He quickly went around it, taking the torches so he could recycle them, his best money-making method so far.

They all gave 1 kindle, but each room he had been through on [0-1] had at least 4 of them, and this room was no exception.

He wasn't rich yet, but food would be no issues if he kept going this way.

Still, he wasn't aiming to live a luxurious life down there.

The true goal was to tier-up the shop one more time.

Once he had gathered all the torches, he looked around again, but there was no passageway.

One wall had the outline of what could be a passage drawing itself in the middle of it.

It was slow, and dark but he as he approached he could clearly see it.

"So there's a downtime between rooms. Good to know."

Mori sat down before the door, but as time went, he eventually laid down and napped.

A distant echo woke him up, it was faint and small but constant.

He sat upright.

He noticed the passageway had fully materialized, for how long he couldn't tell.

He squinted, his vision still adjusting.

Someone was walking toward him.

Swiftly, he got up and pointed his spear forward.

The person who was walking toward him lift both hands up.

Mori got the [Dungeon] menu up and running, ready to press the [0-0] button whenever needed to get out of there.

The person walking through the passageway was slender, and gracious in the way they walked.

It was clearly a female, but Mori's internal turmoil calmed down as he finally could see her face.

An elf.

He slowly lowered his spear, but kept it pointed toward her.

"Who are you?" he asked.

She was surprisingly taller than him, but not a trait Mori disliked.

She didn't have a smug or pretentious look; she looked mostly concerned and worn out.

Her arms were slightly shaking as she held them up.

"Aleesia, I'm friendly, truly," she said.

She wore leather armor; it looked rather used and in bad shape, cuts and nicks covering it.

"Why should I believe you?" asked Mori.

She frowned a moment, thinking.

"I have no weapons on me," she said.

"You could use magic, for all I know."

She bit her lip while looking to the side.

"Hmm. I guess you're right. Well, I don't use magic, I'm only good with bows," she replied.

"That proves nothing," said Mori.

"Here."

She turned sideways and opened her profile.

Mori approached within a few steps, his spear still in her direction, as he quickly glanced at it.

"Level 2, so you haven't been here long too," said Mori.

"It's been a week, maybe."

Mori finally took his spear away, letting her finally lower her arms, which were barely holding up.

"I'm guessing you're also farming this level?" said Mori.

"Farming?"

"You've been clearing [0-1-S] rooms to get more levels and items?"

"Hah! Hahhahah..."

Aleesia's laugh was truly desperate.

"No, no no no. No farming at all. I've barely held on all this time, actually, so when I saw a path open..."

"These monsters aren't tough. What do you mean, you barely held on?"

"I leveled up after clearing [0-1], so far things were going great, but I broke my bow during the fight..."

Her stats did support what she was saying.

Mori internally sighed.

Her problems were her problems. He had no obligation to help at all.

"Sounds rough... Listen," he started, before being interrupted.

"That damn mind reading cat! It told me if I came here, right now, then I would meet someone who could help me out, and here you were... I did have to spend hours dealing with the skeleton in that room... but still..."

Her movement was erratic, her speech barely made sense, it was almost muttering.

She looked exhausted.

"I'll help you," said Mori, cutting her mid-sentence.

Her eyes brightened, as if the exhaustion had vanished.

"Thanks so much. Truly, I don't know how I..."

Her sentence trailed off, as her eyes went upward, following the motion of her head.

She fell backward, barely giving Mori enough time to jump forward to grab her by her wrist.

He guided her descent to the floor, saving her head from what could've been a serious injury.

Carefully, he laid her against the floor. She didn't look in pain, but still seemed to be in bad shape.

I guess she was running on adrenaline, thought Mori.

He sat next to her, studying her closer.

He reached over, touching her face. Her skin was smooth and surprisingly hot.

He crossed his arms over his chest, closing his eyes.

1% chance, huh?