Yuichi stood there as he witnessed the death of the chimera. He was indeed shocked at what he had witnessed. But something is more shocking than that, it was the one that killed the chimera.
Yuichi, without a doubt, recognizes this person. The one who gave him power, the one who saved him from that behemoth golem who almost killed him, the one who is the savior of his life.
'S-She's...!' Yuichi couldn't think about anything other than remembering her.
The young woman hasn't noticed Yuichi's presence behind her and slowly walks into the split body of the chimera. She kneels and grabs something on the floor that looks like it was a loot from the chimera.
Speechless for a while, Yuichi had regained his thoughts and calmed down a bit. He clears his throat and speaks up, calling out the young woman to notice him.
"H-Hey!" Yuichi called out.
She heard his voice and glanced over while kneeling, slowly standing up from the ground, and looked at him with a side pose.
She didn't react surprisingly, instead, she was standing still as if this was normal to her. It was a blank response.
"People... There are people in here..." she mumbled quietly while making a stare at Yuichi, observing.
It may not be her care, but after seeing people in the depths of the dungeon, she was a little surprised by the fact the dungeon was already closed, not allowing adventurers to come inside, there were still people specifically Yuichi inside the dungeon.
She had one conclusion of why there were people in the dungeon– they were probably stuck in the dungeon, which is true since Yuichi is stuck in the dungeon.
"U-Um... Do you-"
Yuichi was about to ask something when suddenly the young woman took a step forward and before he knew it, she was standing right in front of him.
'S-She's fast!' Yuichi gave a quick thought.
It was a split second to realize that the young woman in the distance was now standing right close to him. He didn't see this coming and was surprised by the speed she had possessed.
"Why are you here?" The young woman asked, though, it was not threatening.
Yuichi couldn't form a sentence to reply for a moment as the young woman gazed at him. He was pressured by shock and surprise.
'Crap... I can't speak up to her.'
Ubaki, behind Yuichi, was standing guard while covering Lumiella on her behind. She saw the young woman as a threat for a moment and she held her sword, ready to swing.
Luckily, Yuichi was able to remain calm and glanced over at Ubaki, telling her to stand down. Ubaki saw the nonverbal cues and let her calm down, still incredulous and aware of the situation.
Yuichi faces the young woman as he regains his composure and can think of something to reply to her question.
"It's a long story, but I am temporarily marooned," Yuichi replied.
The young woman slightly widened her eyes as though she knew he would likely answer that. Now knowing the reasons why Yuichi is in the depths of the dungeon, she retracts her broken sword on the ground right beside Yuichi and dispels it into thin air.
"I see," she gave a simple reply.
"U-Um... I want to ask you something. Do you remember me?" Yuichi asked.
The young woman blinks twice and observes his face before she shakes her head, implying she doesn't remember him.
"I don't recognize anyone around here," she replied.
Yuichi was quite surprised that she didn't remember him. But he was also well aware that it may be because of his sudden change of appearance.
'Maybe I am unrecognizable...' Yuichi did think about it. But he wasn't done after that.
"Do you maybe remember saving someone before? You know, on the floor where that golem is?" Yuichi asked again.
"Saving someone?" The young woman tilted her head and made sideways looks, crossing her arms as she was trying to remember about saving anyone.
"It's me. It's the one whom you save that got almost killed by that golem. Don't you remember, even in the slightest?"
The young woman gave a doubtful look to Yuichi before finally remembering and was quite surprised.
"Oh, it's you," the young woman said in a rather flat tone.
"So you do remember me..."
The young woman does remember Yuichi in the first place, she just doesn't care about why she would need to remember him in the first place.
They both gave a silent response after a while. And then, the young woman turned away and was about to leave in haste. Yuichi noticed her and still had questions to ask.
"Wait! Why did you save me back then? You know you could have just let me die right there." Yuichi asked away.
The young woman looks at him and lets out a sigh for a moment. "It was fully coincidental that I managed to pass by, and before I knew it, I saved you from dying."
"I see... Well, I should be thankful that you saved me. Because of you, I have awakened my three passives." Yuichi said gratefully.
The young woman was quite surprised about what he mentioned. She looked at Yuichi with her interest slightly evident on her face.
"Three passives, you say? It was my first time doing a Genome Transfer and the process was a little sensual. Three passives are quite generous to give," she said.
"R-Really? What do you mean by 'sensual'?" Yuichi was quite confused by what she said.
But she didn't reply to him as if she ignored it for a reason.
Genome Transfer is the ability to transfer certain genetic traits or abilities from one person to another. There are two ethical ways to perform this: Virtual Contact and Direct Contact.
Virtual Contact is where two individuals use the system to transfer genomes from one to another. It is mostly used for those who have the power of the system, exclusively for otherworldly people.
Meanwhile, Direct Contact is an alternative way to perform genome transfer. Though it's a little unethical, one individual uses their blood and gives it to the individual they want to transfer by lip-to-lip touch.
But without any knowledge of this, Yuichi will never understand the concept of Genome Transfer until he learns it later on in his life. He may be surprised if he does learn it.
"Um... I just wanna ask something. How did you... get in here?" Yuichi asked another question, changing the topic.
The young woman pondered for a moment before making a response to his question. "You're more of a talkative person than I thought. Why bother asking that?"
"Eh? Uh, well, it's because this dungeon is already closed to anyone. No one can enter this dungeon. Unless..."
"Don't misunderstand. I'm not marooned in this dungeon with you. I can get out of here anytime I want."
"Huh...? Wait, you can get out of this place anytime you want? Then what are you exactly doing here in the first place?"
But she ignored the question, seemingly refusing to answer further.
Momentarily, they fell silent. Yuichi stared at the ground as he was a bit disappointed. He realizes that he does not do any business with it as the young woman's intention has nothing to do with him.
'I guess that was it... She will leave after this conversation.' Yuichi thought while looking solemn.
And then, surprisingly, the young woman speaks after gazing at him for a moment and makes a sideways look.
"Redundant," she said.
"Huh? Redundant?" Yuichi was quite perplexed. A single word was vague for him to understand what she meant.
"I'm looking into a mysterious magic phenomenon that happened long ago above the surface. It's called the 'black flame' because it burns everything in its way and leaves no evidence behind. The last time this happened was 300 years ago."
The mysterious black magic that appeared many years ago has been dubbed "black flame" due to its nonstop devouring everything and engulfing anything in its path.
The first appearance of the black flame was during the supposedly "peace" era after the death of the first Demon Lord. This phenomenon causes certain locations in part of Eldoria to go into nothingness as this mysterious magic eats everything and vanishes after destruction. People were no exceptions.
In history records in the world of Eldoria, the black flame incident occurred 237 times before the phenomenon mysteriously disappeared. The last time black flame appeared was 300 years ago and that was in a mountainous area of the Lysentia Kingdom, which was a religious shrine temple.
"I know some parts of this dungeon that are not supposed to be here. They are called 'redundant' because they are extra and unnecessary, but also, they were former places that existed above the surface. I am investigating why these parts exist, along with a strange black flame that I have noticed."
Indeed, some places are similar to the structure above the surface. For example, the old library place that Yuichi had stumbled upon was an old structure that existed aboveground before existing in the dungeon and becoming a part of a dungeon room.
But something about what the young woman had mentioned gave Yuichi a bit concerning thought – the word "redundant".
'Redundant... I swear I've read that word before... Was it from the system when I was in that dungeon room back on floor 34th?'
He had thought about it and made him gradually uncomfortable. From that time, he unintentionally remembered a mysterious door that led him to that particular boss.
Is it plausible that the room was some kind of redundant? Yuichi is deeply concerned and feels uneasy about it. He can't quite explain why he's getting this strange feeling just by thinking about it.
"I suggest that you should get out of here while you still can. This dungeon is unstable to explore and some of the monsters here are quite phenomenal," she advised while approaching Yuichi.
She grabbed something from behind and it was revealed it was some sort of a key-shaped item. She gave it to Yuichi all of a sudden, Yuichi himself was baffled about the situation.
"An item I'm giving you will lead you directly to the exit of this dungeon. However, please be aware that it's a one-time use only, so you must use it wisely," she stated firmly as she handed the key to Yuichi.
Upon hearing her, Yuichi was shocked about the key's identity. He could not believe that she was nonchalantly giving him a specific item that could finally make him get out of the dungeon.
For the past eight months, Yuichi continued to be marooned in the dungeon as he needed to reach the last and final floor to exit the dungeon– which is the 100th floor.
While being stuck in the dungeon, he was improving a lot by slaying monsters and leveling up, gaining knowledge of how to fight, and strengthening his stats from worse to better.
He had set his goal to reach the 100th floor so that he could get out of the dungeon finally. But after the young woman had given him an item that could lead him out to the exit door, Yuichi was bamboozled.
He was so conflicted by his thoughts that he began to get uncomfortably sweating and gritted his teeth while looking down at his hand where he held the item.
｢Item: Escape Key｣ ｢C｣
｢An item that transports its holder out of any dungeon or enclosed space.｣
'After all of my efforts in this dungeon... I can just get out of here with this item. I can finally leave... I can...' Yuichi was getting convinced to use this particular item by his thoughts. It was the thought he could think of.
However, suddenly he recalls something. He aimed to get stronger while searching for an exit in the dungeon. He realizes that it might be his destiny to be here, and that's why he embarked on this journey in the first place.
He realized an opportunity to finally leave the dungeon with the key but felt a sense of discontentment as if his persistence was worthless without achieving his goals. It seemed to him as if he was bypassing his fate.
'Why bother training myself if I'm just going to leave the place where I'm supposed to be trained?'
If Yuichi had received the key to escape the dungeon a little while back, he could have had no hesitation in using it.
"I appreciate you giving me the key to get out, but I also think that you have misunderstood me," Yuichi firmly stated to her.
The young woman was surprised by Yuichi's response and she looked at him, intrigued to know why she seemingly misunderstood him.
"I indeed wanted to get out of this place, but I'm training myself to become better and stronger before I can leave. I will never leave this place until I reach the last floor, I have set my mind to meeting that goal ever since I was stuck here, so I can't leave without finishing what I have started."
After Yuichi said that to her, the young woman closed her eyes before replying to him. "I see. I won't stop you if that's what you want."
Yuichi gave a relief expression after seeing her acknowledging his intention. It is confirmed, that Yuichi won't use the item the young woman had given to him.
"Oh, by the way, my name is-" Yuichi was about to say his name when suddenly...
"Yuichi Hanateru. Was that your name?" Surprisingly, she knows his name.
Yuichi was surprised that she knew his name even though they were strangers. He didn't introduce himself to her, surely he didn't as they just met literally after fighting the chimera.
"H-How did you know my name?" Yuichi asked in curiosity.
"It is the system's fault for exposing your name." The young woman simply replied.
"I-It's that so..."
'Huh...? How did she know about the system?" Yuichi did think about it as she mentioned the system exposing his name to her.
It's weird since the one who knows about the system are only those people who have access to it, namely the otherworldly people.
Yuichi wondered how she knew about the system. Only people like him can see it and her knowledge raised suspicion.
It may be because she knew of the existence of the system like how Alistair did, but to add up this complexity, people like Yuichi are the only ones who can see the system and others cannot.
In this case, the young woman had mentioned that the system had shown her the name of the young man in front of her, which was odd.
'Does it mean that she's also a player like me?' Even Yuichi is now occupied with this conspiracy thought.
But then, this moment had to break up as the young woman turned away and was about to leave the place.
"I strongly advise you to keep the key, even if you don't feel like using it. You never know when you might need it." The young woman stated firmly.
Yuichi snapped out of his thoughts and immediately noticed something that was particular to the key.
"It's a one-time use, right? I'm sorry to ask, but should you be the one who uses this instead of me?" Yuichi said while trying to give the key back to her.
But she remained still at his distance and refused to take the key out of Yuichi's hand.
"I don't need it to get out of here. I have my ways," she simply replied.
Yuichi was quite confused and surprised. If she doesn't need the key to exit the dungeon, then she must have another way to get out other than using the key to escape.
The young woman took a step away from him as she was going to leave, but she halted and glanced toward Yuichi with her gazing pink eyes.
"I advised you to get out of this dungeon as soon as possible. I have mentioned earlier that the monsters in this dungeon are quite unstable to defeat, but since you won't use that key, be cautious at least on what you're doing." She said and took a step when suddenly she stopped again.
"And one more piece of advice I can say to you... Survive while you still can, Yuichi Hanateru."
And then, she finally walks away stopping this time and she slowly vanishes in the distance as she enters the depths of the floor.
Yuichi was quite surprised at the scenario he had encountered earlier, though, it ended not long enough to make him get along with her. But he's content about it as he was able to say his thanks to the girl who saved him, in addition to the key he had also received from her.
'I didn't get to know her name... Well, whatever. I might encounter her in the future."
Yuichi's relief was palpable as he swiftly pivoted towards Ubaki. He knows that maybe he can meet her at some point and wants to know more about her.
"Come on, Ubaki, let's not lose momentum... Ubaki?" Yuichi was encouraged to continue, but he noticed that Ubaki was looking at him strangely.
Ubaki's expression was a mixture of anger and jealousy that Yuichi found difficult to figure out. Her eyes were narrowed and her lips were pursed, suggesting that she was upset about something.
"U-Um... Is there something wrong, Ubaki?" Yuichi was dumbfounded by Ubaki's expression.
Ubaki's silence spoke volumes, betraying a hint of jealousy that even Yuichi couldn't figure out.
Yuichi was caught in an awkward situation. However, he had no idea that Ubaki's seemingly unreadable face was concealing a plethora of emotions, one of which was already evident to him.
'Is she waiting for the ice cream I'm supposed to give to her...?'