Jihan's leveling speed in the past several days had been disappointingly slow, and meeting Cecilia only confirmed that his current efforts were not enough.
He needed to at least maintain a ten level gap between him and number two on the leaderboard at all times. With such a slow speed of leveling, Jihan would be lucky to remain in the top ten in a month.
Though his leveling speed was incredibly fast even without his dungeon exploits, Jihan was not aiming to be 'Above Average' in this life.
He demanded strength beyond that of anyone else. As such, Jihan began to formulate a method to level up faster than anyone else. Even faster than using Zeref to clear dungeons.
Instead of using only Zeref, why not get a second powerhouse to tag along?
Sure, he would gain less xp from the party with another player, but if he killed three times more monsters, surely it would result in more levels than before. And sure, while having another player level up just as him was not ideal for his goal, Jihan found that the pros of this plan far outweighed the cons.
And his second sla- partner in this method had just logged into Synchronize, a green orb appearing beside her Player ID.
[Player ID: Cecilia (Online):
You invited 'Cecilia' to a party'.]
"And now we wait." He relaxed, sitting outside his next goldmine of xp.
The tenth tower of Zerilith, the Dragon God.
A dungeon that was comprised of fifty floors, each floor consisting of its own unique layout. It could be considered fifty separate dungeons, and was not beaten until a year from now by the player 'Korina'.
Korina's level when she cleared this dungeon?
One hundred and fifty-five.
[Player ID: Ghost:
Level: 53...]
"It should be fine." He glanced at the brooding assassin beside him, who had a habit of excessively sharpening his dagger when bored.
Of course, Jihan had more of a plan than to rush in and die, because that was unfortunately not a good method of acquiring xp or levels.
There was also the unique nature of his 'avatar'. Jihan did not know what exactly would happen if he died, and he was not exactly eager to find out either.
"Ah, it seems my instincts weren't wrong after all."
The distinct sound of a player materializing behind him, and the popup window that appeared before him.
[Player 'Cecilia' has joined your party.]
"You called?" She sat down across from Jihan and Zeref, raising an eyebrow at the men sitting side by side on the log.
"Did you read my message?" Jihan glanced at the chat he had started with her several days prior.
It had even around three weeks since the two of them met, and Jihan had eventually convinced her to join a raid with him and 'a friend'. The details of the raid, however, had not been shared until now.
"This dungeon is a bit special." He explained, drawing a layout of the tower in the dirt with a stick.
"The 'tower' has fifty floors, and each floor is more or less its own dungeon." He continued, a drop of sweat running down Cecilia's brow.
"Between each floor is a checkpoint, so even if you die you won't lose your progress. In short, you have nothing to lose from this proposition." He handed the stick to her, pointing at the base of the tower he had drawn out.
Cecilia inhaled sharply before asking the obvious question.
"What's the recommended level for this 'tower'?" She asked, staring at the layout he had drawn.
Jihan looked away from Cecilia, muttering the level recommendation under his breath.
"...It's Level 150."
The woman's jaw nearly hit the floor, the stick he had handed from her falling out of her now limp hand.
"Are you insane?" She stared at Jihan, disbelief written all over her face.
"Catch." He tossed his Shattered Blade to Cecilia, a blue window popping up above it that gave the weapon's stats and information.
"What a... unique weapon." She sounded almost disappointed as he handed Jihan the weapon, a vein becoming slightly more visible on her forehead.
Her thoughts were obvious with such an expression. 'How does this guy have such a broken weapon? "Did you scam an administrator?!"
"Oops." She turned away from Jihan, whistling.
"Ah, and this is Zeref." He glanced at the assassin beside him, who was still sharpening his blade ten minutes later.
"He seems very... huh?"
['Zeref Atticus' (Npc):
Level: 120
Class: Assassin
Skills: Backstab, Critical Strike, Smokebomb, Hidden body (A), Silent step (A), Assassination (S), Killing with intent (S)
Faction: Hidden]
?!
Jihan panicked as Cecilia fell over backwards, a white spirit escaping from her open mouth.
"Did she really faint?" Sweat ran down his face, confusion evident in his voice.
Perhaps this raid would not go as smoothly as he had thought.
...
After Cecilia woke up, the three entered the tower without much disagreement, though Cecilia found herself to be more and more intrigued by this man.
He played the game like an absolute Madman, but every single thing he said was true, despite not even being a beta player.
On top of his incredible game knowledge, he also possessed a cheat-like weapon and had access to skills she had never heard of.
That was when Cecilia had an idea.
What if this man was administrator?
Weren't they bound to contracts that strictly prevented them from interacting with other players?
No, surely Jihan was not someone with administrative power. But the more she thought about it, the more it made sense.
'But if he really is a corrupt administrator, what happens if he gets caught? What would happen to my profile?' She thought.
Jihan's words brought Cecilia out of her own head, announcing their arrival on the first floor of the tenth tower.
"Welcome to the tenth tower." Jihan pointed up at the sky, drawing Cecilia's attention. She stared up at the now completely changed sky, which was red and dotted with thousands of moons. It really was like another world, and there were fifty floors similar to this one?
"This is the floor of Swords, and the boss is the Sword Spirit Murasama." He handed Cecilia and Zeref identically drawn maps, that had recorded and drawn out the floor's environment as well as a direct path to the boss.
Cecilia debated on asking Jihan how he found this map, but decided against it. Even if he told her, she was probably better off not knowing.
"How long do you think it will take us to clear the first floor?" She asked, unsure of the map's scale.
Jihan looked at the sky, thinking for a moment.
"Maybe a day?" He said with confidence, pointing at the corner of Cecilia's map.
"This is where we are now, assuming that we kill everything on our way to the boss, it should take about twelve hours. Since I'm sure we'll need to take breaks, the total should be about a day."
Cecilia glanced up at Jihan, turning to face the strangely colored forest before her.
Was his reasoning for coming to such a place really just to level up?
Cecilia shook her head, returning to studying the map. Jihan surely had his reasons, and she was already getting an incredible reward in the form of levels. In a level 150 dungeon, monsters would surely give lots of xp, even if it was divided into three¹.
"Rest for a while, and we'll begin the raid tomorrow at daybreak." The countless moons were still shining in the crimson sky, somewhat resembling the night of Earth and Synchronize's world.
In one day, huh? If his words held water, would that not make him a genius beyond that of her brother?
Cecilia giggled under her breath. 'Brother would definitely get along with 'Ghost'.'
"What are you thinking so intensely about?" Jihan's words echoed in and out of her ears without much notice.
"Suit yourself then, but don't blame me when you think all the way until dawn." He plopped down on a bedroll, closing his eyes.
Cecilia immediately turned to him, scrunching her eyebrows.
'He's sleeping in game...?'
She should have expected it at this point. The man who had already fallen asleep snored undisturbed.
This 'Ghost' was really nothing like any other player she had met so far. She got a bit excited at the thought of what he would show her in the upcoming days, and with the challenge of clearing as many floors as possible, Cecilia did not think she would be disappointed by tagging along.
And with that, the woman's avatar once again faded into nothingness, a content smile on her face.