'More than two hours have passed but...' I looked towards the carcass of the giant spider, 'But this shitty spider still hadn't disintegrated completely yet.'

With all eight legs curled up, it's dead for sure, but to gain level I need to wait till it disappears from existence. Thankfully, except for the moldy smell of the cave, there isn't any other putrid smell emanating from that carcass.

From its size I estimated it to take twice the time which passed, but I expected more of it to disappear by now. It seems that its volume was more than what I assumed, huh.

There wasn't any rush to the next floor anyway. We all were dead tired to go anywhere, especially Rina. She was in her overexerted state for most of the time in the fight. She had to disrupt the spider's leg attacks, drop debris on it, and even had to lift that giant bastard. It depleted most of her MP. After the battle, when the tension finally relieved, blood started to trickle from her nose and ears. I got worried for a moment there, but she told it was fine and just a little backslash. Nonetheless, I told her to rest. But not before we confirmed the absence of other monsters. We can't have some hidden monster ambush us after finally killing the boss monster, can we?

We have survived and defeated the monster that even the strongest adventurer of his time couldn't, without any casualty and with rather ease, I'd say. We are a lot stronger than I had initially thought. There is now a lot of hope that we can get out of this place in one piece.

I sighed and continued reading Bruce's book. I have skimmed through all the interesting parts of the diary so, it doesn't interest me much now, as such, it's lying in the bag.

Rina woke up after another two hours or so. As she sat, Fena who was in her tiny form, jumped on her forcing her to fall again and accept her licking.

I ignored it, not at all jealous!

The air around us has really changed from fake cheerful to truly cheerful. Well, no matter how much we tried to hide, there was this unease and uncertainty always lingering in the mind. And due to surviving and winning this battle, that uncertainty lessened by a lot. The possibilities of getting out from here have increased. I am being honest, Rina is the one who controls the atmosphere of our group and her smile has become brighter...

"Woof-woof, huff, slurp, slurp, "

"Ahahahaha, stop licking me Fena-chan, Ahahaha...........hm?...............Hey, are you still jealous that she likes me more than you? Awww poor, Ren." She winked.

"Tch," I responded with eyes half-closed, clearly not wanting to engage in this old gag.

"Purr," "Purr", Bron and Yelo snuggled with me and sat next to me.

"Tch." Rina clicked her tongue.

"HA! look, who's jealous now!" I laughed, she pouted and turned to Fena to pat her head.

Fena is in her tiny form right now for rapid energy recharge and speedy regeneration of wounds. Her small form is basically like a low battery mode in a smartphone, so its purpose is clearly not just making her 'look' cute.

"Fena is quite elated, isn't she. Is she alright, though? She fought that spider for nearly all the time didn't she." I asked as I remembered the moment when Fena slammed herself on that spider.

"Yes, she's alright, Ren....." She smiled ruefully and caressed the Fenris' fur with more care.

I get her. But I can't hesitate to use them roughly, or none of us will survive. Besides, physical wounds that may heal later are billion times better than losing a comrade forever. Fena and even Yelo and Bron understand that much. That's also why they don't hesitate to follow my orders.

*Ting*

"The notification of level up ringed just now, let's check, "

"Hmm, "

NAME: Ren Itsuki

AGE: 17

SEX: Male

RACE: HIGH HUMAN

ORIGIN: EARTH-818

TITLE:

The Not Summoned One

LEVEL: 1167

PHYSICAL STATS :

HP: 7002/7002

MP: 11670/11670

STR: 0

DEX: 2334

DEF: 0

AGI: 2334

INT: 5835

LUCK: not defined

ABNORMAL STATE: none

Skills

1. Disintegration lvl 5

♦ A unique skill, that disintegrates living targets into non-existence. To invoke this skill, you need to verbally call out the skill's activation phrase - "DISINTEGRATE", while aiming at the target that you need disintegrated with the hand. The point at which the skill is connected becomes the disintegration center. And the target undergoes disintegration with the disintegration point being the disintegration center. Note, the target does not die immediately once the skill connects, but when, it is completely disintegrated. Note, there cannot be more than one disintegration center in a single target.

♦ Current disintegration rate: 300cm³/s.

♦ Current range: 2000 cm

♦ Number of shots: 243/243

♦ MP cost: 3

♦ Cooldown period: 6.25 hours

♦AIM ASSIST: Helps in aiming. To activate, point your palm towards the target and will it to activate. Additional MP Cost: 110

2. Summoning lvl 2

♦A unique skill, that lets the user summon a beast. The beast summoned by the user can either belong to the past world or the present world of the user, based on the subconscious of the user.

Note, the beast needs to exist in reality in either of the worlds.

Note, you need to prepare a summoning circle to summon the required beast.

♦MP cost: 100

♦Summoned beast contract limit: 4

♦Summon Contracts left: 1

BLESSINGS:

Linguistics [ ⇓ ]

'The spider gave 220 levels, huh. Well, that certainly a lot of level ups! Woah! At last after crossing more than 1100 level mark my skills finally levelled up! I'm glad they did, for the past few hundred levels they weren't leveling up. I~ see, my skills leveled up at 100, 200, 300, then finally 1000 level. So, I'm guessing that next time my skills may level up at either 1200 or 2000. Hmm? An upgrade? Aim assist, huh. To be honest, I didn't need it because I can already aim well enough, but it's a nice upgrade to have anyway... Hmm, the disintegration rate and the number of shots, they increased at the same rate. Range increment is so low, huh. It only increased from 19.2 m to 20 m? I wish I could figure out its increment pattern, so I know what to expect. Cooldown period halved too. Nice! Summoning's level increased too. I can contract one more beast now!'

"Okay.......Hmmm.............. Nice! Rina, what's your level now?"

"It's 1045, and I've got a new SKILL!!!!"

"Oh! nice, what is it?"

"It is called Mana Eye, its description is quite complicated, let me tell you in detail..."

.

.

After she told me the skill's description, I was quite surprised. But the surprise was rather good. I have a good mental image of what her status looks like, it must look somewhat like this...

NAME: Rina Akane

AGE: 17

SEX: Female

RACE: HIGH HUMAN

ORIGIN: EARTH-01Z

TITLE:

The Not Summoned One

LEVEL: 1085

PHYSICAL STATS :

HP: 7585/7595

MP: 278/54250

STR: 3585

DEX: 3585

DEF: 3585

AGI: 3585

INT: 4780

LUCK: not defined

ABNORMAL STATE: none

SKILLS:

1. Psychokinesis lvl 11

♦A unique skill that makes the user able to perform psychokinesis. A special sense is developed somewhere in the body of the user for better control of psychokinesis.

♦Range: 100m

♦Maximum force applied: 100KN (kilo Newtons)

♦MP cost: 10/ 1 sec →Note: can be more if over-exerted

♦Cooldown period: null

2. Mana eye lvl 1

♦ A unique skill that lets the user see the Mana particles in the surroundings. To activate/deactivate the skill user needs to verbally call out the skill's name.

Error!!! :: Unable to find vision in the user's right eye!!! Skill changed from active to passive. Multiple properties of skill may have been changed.

♦ Mana cost: 50/2seconds null

♦ cooldown period: 1hr null

BLESSINGS:

Linguistics [ ⇓ ]

'That "ERROR" sounds like a blessing in disguise, it converted her skill from active to passive and also made it free of MP and removed the cooldown, quite a cheat.'

"So, can you see these... Mana particles mentioned in your status?" I asked, to which she shook her head in denial.It's just a guess but it may be that... Let's remove that bandage first. I think your wound from that time must've been healed quite a bit now. Then try using this Mana Eye skill with your right eye."

I gingerly unwounded the gauze off her head, revealing her right eye. In the meantime, she stared at me with her left eye, which had previously been brown but had now turned entirely red.

I was amazed to see that the wound she suffered a week earlier had totally healed. Even her previous scar was gone. The healing of her recent wound was understandable but how could even her previous scar disappear? A scar that looked a few years old, disappeared in week. There is not even a healing skill on her, then how? I wondered.

'High Human... a racial effect?'

Still, how do I tell her about this? Will knowing this make her happy? I don't know what that scar was to her, a trophy or a stigma. I decided to keep shut for now.

She slowly opened her eyes and blinked them. Both her eyes are of the same color, Red.

"Your scar has vanished, Rina," I said with slight awkwardness in my tone.

"What? Really?" Her eyes widened, "I don't know what to say, it's good that it went away I guess!" She tried to not care, but her smile said the opposite. She was elated. She is a girl, alright. Beauty is something that affects all of them.

"So? What do you see with your right eye?"

"It feels weird...." She closed her right eye with her palm, "My left eye works the same as before," closing her left eye, she looked around to test her other eye, "But from the right one, I can only see crimson. Everything seems to be a crimson fog, including you, Fena, Yelo, Bron, mana stones on the wall, and even the wall itself. In some places, the fog is denser and in some places, it's not present at all. By the way... I can only make out your guys silhouette." A mana stone came out from the bag and floated above Rina's palm, her eyes widened in surprise, "Oh my god, I can see how my psychokinesis works! It-It Ren, oh my gosh. It-"

"Okay- okay, calm down a bit", I chuckled she's too excited I thought, "I know you're excited, but calm down and then explain," I said, worrying she might get overexcited in her tired state.

She complied to my advice, and took a quick deep breath, "So, I was telling you how my psychokinesis works right. So, when I lift an object, the mana gets condensed around it, and I control the mana around it, not the object itself."

"I see, nice. Get accustomed to it a little more, and then when your MP is back to full, we will move to the next floor, okay?"

"Sure!" She chimed and shuffled through her bag. I could guess what she trying to find. The smartphone. We agreed to save it for emergencies, but I guess it's fine.

As expected, she switched on the phone and opened the camera. After admiring her face from multiple angles and expressions, she asked, "Selfie? To celebrate!!"

'She really doesn't acts like a gang leader's granddaughter for sure.'

I shrugged, well, even though we took one a few hours ago, I can't dim the mood now, can I? Besides, a celebration selfie is worth it.

She put her arm around my shoulder, I smiled, and we showed a V symbol to the camera.

"Say Cheeeeezzzzz!!!!"

*Click* *Click* *Click* *Click* *Click*.

.

.

"Okay! let's move, Rina ----*GROWWWWWWWWWLLLLL*--- Sigh... Ahem, let's eat again."

Rina's face turned red in embarrassment. She really wasn't lying when she said she was a glutton.

'Well, her stomach growling has become common now, but she is still embarrassed about it, huh. I don't mind though.'

She took out the pre-prepared food, smoked fish. And the water from the thermos from one of the three bags, she offered me to sit and take a bite.

.

.

"Okay, let's move-"

"Purr"

"Purr"

"Aww, kitties, did he forget to feed you both as well?"

"Hey, I didn't forget, I was JUST going to feed them!" I retorted.

"Heh!"

"Heh, very funny... let me summon them their feasts."

One after another, I summoned three adult deers. They got dragged away to be devoured in the corner of the room.

Summoning their food reminded me that I have an available contract slot.

Now then, what should I summon this time? Ideally, I would like something that could compare with Fena in terms of power and speed both, but Fena has about 30 years of cultivated power, that if I assume that during her hibernation her power didn't increased. I doubt any newly summoned beast of this and my old world could even come close to her in the power department. Also, physical strength alone would be useless if it can't take any attacks. Sigh. I'm thinking in the same direction as when I summoned Yelo and Bron. But at that time, I couldn't summon many beasts due to that "Insufficient INT stat" alert.

'Maybe this time, I would be able to summon 'that'?'

Thinking so, I poured mana into the summoning circle and willed that beast to be summoned.

Failure, one after another.

Again, I couldn't summon most beasts. I was once again left with my previous best choice. A Cheetah.

Well, at least they rival Fena with their insane agility. My contracted summons grow alongside me. It is good that they can also grow in the STR and DEF departments, which I can't.

.

.

"Your name will be... Emy. Do you like it?"

I asked the newly summoned and contracted, Cheetah. I don't know why but it's a female once again. She nodded in agreement, timidly so.

'Does it not like it?'

I know my naming sense is not that good but it's not worst, besides, Emy is a fine name.

Ah! It seems that this one's..... a bit intimidated by Fena. She's trembling. I guess it is their instinct, well, that's the reason why I wasn't required to beat her to a pulp to make her submissive. The same thing happened when it was Yelo and Bron, but still after forming the contract, they were fine. I guess it'll become better after some time.

.

.

"Finally, let's leave, or you all really wanna stay here for life!" I sighed as I finished tying a bag on Fena's back.

"Yeah yeah let's leave," Rina stopped playing and got ready, hanging her side bag on her shoulder.

'Hmm, so this is the gate to the next floor, huh. I wish this itself was the final floor and that door is for the outside world but....' I sighed and picked up the last bag. 'Still there is a possibility.....But that's just wishful thinking.'

"Rina, you wanna open it?" I asked. I was going to open it myself once again as just opening the door costs 500 MP, and I rarely have to use more than 50 MP, but Rina often exhausts hers so, she needs to conserve. But seeing the stars in her eyes, I guessed she wanted to try it once.

"Sure!" Her face lit up, and she skipped to the giant gate without any delay. She placed her hand on the dimly glowing orb in the lowest middle of the gate. With a big smile on her face, she closed her eyes and poured mana into the orb.

The orb shone even more brightly, and the gate finally opened with loud sets of creaks.