A week had passed that day.
A lot had happened since then.
For starters, Fletcher had managed to clear the fifteenth floor. It took a lot of time to make progress up the tower because he constantly had to wait to recover between floors, which took a long time due to two of his weaknesses.
He was getting stronger as he was killing monsters and getting more experience, as a typical hunter would, but it wasn't as fast as it would be to level up.
However, that would take a long time, as even after a week had passed, he was only at 9.32% EXP. The amount of experience points he needed had not only increased a lot, but he could tell that he was getting fewer experience points from monsters that were too weak compared to his current self.
He had been stuck on the fourteen floor for three days, which told him that the fifteenth floor would be even more difficult, so he had been getting stronger by training and farming the tenth floor, which had the perfect balance of difficulty and time that it would take to clear and repeat.
He was getting tired of eating monster flesh, but there was no choice.
There was no source of food other than the monsters that he killed.
Thankfully, although they tasted bad, most of them were edible.
"I want bread. I want ramen. I want food. I want rice. Kimchi. I want real food," he groaned.
His method of seeing using his hearing and his mana sensitivity, he had gotten even more proficient with it that even though there was still no color, very little was missed by the mental image in his mind.
If anything, he was seeing even more as he could see behind objects, unlike eyes that could only see what was visible.
He had been on the verge numerous times and only survived due to his two new abilities, but every time he used them, recovering took so long that he had enough time to "wash" himself with the snow, cook food with the flames that surrounded him, and sleep an entire eight hours.
"I need to clear the tower as soon as possible so that I can get out of here," he muttered as he was watching what his main body was doing.
For Kwon Moon, his life was the complete exact opposite.
Not only did he get a girlfriend who was so beautiful that every boy at school was jealous of him, but she was so rich that every meal he ate ever since was nothing short of gourmet.
Fletcher could only drool whenever he saw him eat.
He had also completed two more raids with the same party that he had gone with the first time. He had gotten even stronger the more he hunted.
The leader, In Jaesang, had judged it wouldn't be long before he reached D-rank in terms of his mana count and output.
If there was one thing he had to complain about, it was Bo Jung.
Was it jealousy?
Whatever it was, whenever he saw Kwon Moon in the hallways or at the dining hall, he always tried to start up trouble.
If it was attention that he was jealous of, then that shouldn't have been a worry since he was still the only C-rank hunter at school, and people still paid a ton of attention to him. They just didn't approach him because of how intimidating he was.
If it wasn't the attention, then what was it?
The answer was none other than Jin Haneul.
"He had asked me out two months ago, but I rejected him. He acted like I was going to say yes just because he's a C-rank hunter. Hmph. My driver is a B-rank hunter, and my father has numerous C-rank hunters under his wing. He's probably jealous that I'm dating an F-rank hunter like yourself, even though I rejected him, a C-rank."
"I knew dating a beauty like you would bring trouble, but I didn't expect to get in trouble with the main boss," Kwon Moon chuckled.
"You regret your decision?"
"No. It doesn't matter what trouble you bring my way. I'll ignore them or deal with them accordingly."
"Good. Cause even if you regretted it, it's too late. You can't leave me. Only I can leave you."
"That's rather selfish," he smiled as he ran his fingers down her palm.
The two of them were eating lunch alone in an empty classroom, away from the prying eyes of everyone else.
"But don't worry. I don't plan on leaving you unless you do something stupid like cheat on me."
"I will never do such a thing," he said as he opened his mouth. She had cut off a piece of steak with a knife and was feeding it to him using the fork in her other hand.
As he was chewing on the meat, he didn't know that in the tower, Fletcher was on the brink of pulling his hair out of his head as he walked up the stairs, having recovered enough to repeat the thirteenth floor.
The fifteenth floor had left him too damaged and he was worried that he wouldn't be able to survive the sixteenth.
"You have another raid today, right?" she asked.
"Yeah."
"Same party as usual?"
"Mhm."
"Why don't you join a different party? Don't hunters grow stronger the more they fight, the more they push themselves to the brink of death? That party can only hunt F-rank dungeons. You should join a party capable of hunting at a D-rank dungeon."
"Brink of death? Are you trying to kill your boyfriend?" he asked in a joking tone.
"My boyfriend won't die. He promised to spoil me for the rest of my life, so he wouldn't dare break his promise."
"...Hahaha."
The two of them were so sweet that if someone had overheard them, they might've gotten cavities.
"I feel it. I'm on the brink of breaking through to D-rank. After that, I'll probably have to find a new party in order to continue climbing."
"Already? That's fast. You only started raiding dungeons a week ago and are already close to D-rank? I heard that it takes most F-ranks a few months or even years to rank up. Some can't even rank up and stagnate at that rank forever."
"Weren't you the one whose gut told them that I was going to become a household name? How can I do that if I didn't have the potential to grow stronger, faster than most?"
"...True. Okay. I'll have my driver drive us to the dungeon after school, but I have to head home afterwards, soooo I won't be able to be there when you get out of the dungeon. Don't miss me too much."
"I'll try not to."
* * *
"Granny, are you crying?" asked Seon Tae.
"No. Sniffle. No. I'm not crying."
Gi Minjee was quick to wipe the tears from her eyes.
Their party had just cleared the dungeon, and during the boss battle, everyone could sense that Kwon Moon had ranked up as there was a sudden surge of mana that came from his direction.
It didn't mean that he suddenly acquired a bunch of mana and was now a thousand times stronger than before.
The surge of mana was very superficial. It just indicated a hunter rising up in ranks. It rarely meant that much had changed because the growth of a hunter was very subtle and took time. There was no shortcut. Except that didn't apply to Kwon Moon.
But that would have to be explained later.
In the meantime.
"Why are you crying?" asked In Jaesang. "We should be proud. We were here from the very beginning and got to see him take a step towards the sky."
"I… I know. But even though we've only known him for a week, it feels like he's a part of our family already."
"He is. He is a part of our family. Do you think that Kwon Moon will forget about us even as he reaches greater heights?"
"No," she shook her head. They had gotten to know his personality more over the past week and they could all tell that his personality was just as good as his talent, if not even better.
He would likely never forget his gratitude for them and would help them out at a moment's notice if they needed it.
Of course, they didn't know that his kindness was sort of amplified a little bit due to the character that Kwon Moon deemed he needed to play.
But a lot of the kindness was actually sincere. Just not to the extent they had concluded it was.
"I'm just sad to see that he's going already."
"We don't even know if that's the case," said Seon Tae.
"Come on Tae. We can't be selfish. He needs to leave us so that he can make proper steps towards his future," In Jaesang said.
"...Yeah."
They all agreed that he needed to start hunting with a new group, and if he tried to decline, they would just refuse him into their party the next time they hunted.
He was too talented to keep himself inside the cage that was their party.
He needed to go and spread his wings elsewhere. Somewhere where he had enough room to fly as much as he desired.
"Kwon Moon, you're not going to decline our invitation to eat with us tonight, are you?" asked the other archer.
"No. My girlfriend is busy tonight, so I'll come along."
"Woooow. We are just an afterthought to you," another jested.
"Yep," Kwon Moon grinned.
The group chuckled at his "bluntness" and they swarmed him.
"Ewwww. You guys are sweaty. Get off me~."
The mood was light, but it didn't take long for it to turn heavy as the conversation at dinner turned to exiling Kwon Moon from the party.
"...Why? Am I not good enough? I… I tried my best," he said as a fake tear appeared on his face.
He knew why they were doing what they did. He was just playing up the role a little bit.
"No. That's not it. You're too good for us."
"That's right. Kwon Moon, you have to push yourself."
"You have the potential to be great. We want to see it happen even if you aren't a part of our party anymore. Don't worry. You'll always be a part of our family."
"What she said."
Before he could respond, Gi Minjee wrapped him in a tight hug and said, "Kid, we'll always be one call away if you need our help. We've only known each other for a short time but you'll always be a part of us and we'll always be a part of you. Reach the skies that we can't reach ourselves. You represent us now. Wherever you go, we'll all be living vicariously through you."
When hunting in dungeons, an extremely dangerous place, it forces relationships to form faster than normal.
When you entrust your life to someone else's hands, you get closer much more easily.
They've sweated together.
Bled together.
Won together.
There was a link that formed between all of them that couldn't be formed in the outside world between them and people they've never raided with, even after years as friends or as a couple.
"I won't let you guys down," Kwon Moon said as he raised his cup of soda.
He only drank alcohol that first time, and when he tried to drink it this time, Gi Minjee had smacked his hands.
The party cheered.