Ren bought the battle vouchers in bulk. Apparently he was just like me as he preferred not to buy equipment or consumables unless he had to. As a result, he had gathered quite a bit of gold. However, despite using up all of his gold in one sitting due to meeting the wrong person, he didn’t seem to mind. 

A look of resolve could be seen on his face.

“I finally met someone who would put in effort for me. If I don’t believe in you, I don’t deserve to call myself Ren!”

Did Ren really have to yell every other sentence? He really was hotheaded.

“Ugh… Take it, shopkeeper. In exchange, I’ll take those vouchers!”

Loretta beamed happily. “Yes, yes. Thank you, customer. Come again!”

The scene of Ren buying battle vouchers reminded me of a first-time gambler exchanging money for chips at a casino. Luckily, with me around, he would always hit the jackpot.

“Loretta, I’m almost out of battle vouchers too. Can you give me 30 more?”

“Yes, Shin-nim. 30, right? That will be 70,000 gold total.”

Strange. For some reason, the discount rate was higher for me. I was thankful for it but unfortunately, Ren picked up on her words.

“Eh? Shopkeeper, isn’t the number wrong? 30 vouchers should be…”

“Customer, it’s 70,000 gold. For Shin-nim, that is.”

Loretta exerted an intimidating aura with a smile. However, that wasn’t enough to prevent stupid Ren.

“Then, shouldn’t you give it to me for that price too? I gave you 4,000 gold per voucher.”

“Huu. It seems customer isn’t very knowledgeable about the Floor Shop yet.”

“What do you mean? Shouldn’t the price be the same?”

Loretta stared at Ren with an unchanging smile, then laughed. Her smile was so scary that I was afraid it would appear in my dreams.

“Shin-nim is a premium member, and premium members can buy items for a cheaper price. Do you understand? As expected of someone Shin-nim brought, you are dense.”

“Mmm? Premium? I see…” Ren mumbled while nodding.

No, there’s no such thing. I’ve never heard of it before either.

I had no desire to hear them continue this insane conversation, so I quickly took out the gold.

“Here, 70,000 gold. As always, thank you, Loretta.”

Loretta glanced at me and huffed, “…Hurry up and go do your raid. Being thanked by Shin-nim gives me chills.”

The common saying was right: women’s hearts were as fickle as the weather. After she happily sold battle vouchers for a cheap price, Loretta’s mood seemed to have turned for the worse as she tried to chase me away with a flushed face. Dejected, I left the Floor Shop wondering if a day would come when Loretta and I would be totally unreserved around each other. Suddenly, Ren asked me a question.

“Are you dating the shopkeeper?”

It took me a moment to process what he said. After standing around as if I suffered from a laggy connection, I barely managed to reply.

“…What?”

Ren continued, “No matter how I look at it, that was a lover’s quarrel.”

Our conversation from moments ago? I suddenly thought of a possibility. Ren certainly had a masculine face and a healthy body. But…

“Ren, have you been single your entire life?”

“H-How did you know?” he stuttered in surprise.

I was right. I could tell because I was the same. Damn it, I really didn’t want to relate to him like this!

“You think any man and woman talking friendly are in a relationship, right?”

“Ahem!” Ren had an awkward look on his face.

I continued mercilessly, “If you see a girl staring at you, you fix your hair and think about what to say when she starts walking toward you, right?”

“Ahem!”

I planned to continuously tease Ren as we walked to the boss room. But because I felt like I was tormenting myself, I stopped.

I hadn’t told Ren yet, but only the two of us were going to fight the boss. In order to completely crush his overly competitive spirit, I couldn’t rely on just sparring with me. Plus, I had to take lesson fees as well. I couldn’t work for free, could I?

That was why…

“Lion Striiiiike!”

“That idiot’s doing it again.”

“Shishik! Die, Human!”

Ren, who was in charge of the Lizard Knight’s backside, bravely lunged at Lizard Knight’s tail while flying toward it. I was like Sancho Panza watching Don Quixote tilting at windmills[1]. I prayed for him to return alive as I watched him with a hopeful expression. At the same time, I stabbed the Lizard Knight with my Silver Spear to prevent it from focusing on its tail.

“Gwarrrr, Human!”

“Yeah, I’m a human!”

After the Lizard Knight sent Ren flying, it rushed toward me. I first threw it off with a light sidestep, and made it fall by making it trip on my spear. Then, I stabbed at its neck. Although I circulated a good amount of mana around my spear, it was still only enough to break a few scales off and damage the boss lightly. Floor Masters truly were tough and the Lizard Knight’s defense was nothing to scoff at. 

“Grawr!”

“Whoa, don’t suddenly get up! You almost scared the crap out of me!”

I quickly jumped back and dodged the boss’s counterattack. Whenever I saw an opening, I attacked it. This fast-paced switch between offense and defense continued until the Lizard Knight raised its spear to use its earthquake attack. Ren had not gotten up this time. I wasn’t entirely sure why but I suspected it had to do with either getting hit harder than before or that we didn’t have healers this time. As such, I was able to smoothly use Tempest to send the Lizard Knight’s spear flying.

“Ugh!”

I taunted the boss, “If you lost your weapon, you need to attack me without it! Don’t just stand around! No, wait, why am I lecturing you, not Ren!?”

It was a piece of cake to toy with the Lizard Knight who had lost its spear. This time, I didn’t even give it the opportunity to use Dragon Skin.

I had defeated the Lizard Knight twice already: once solo and once with a full party. With those two opportunities, I had memorized the change in its stance when it was about to use Dragon Skin. Now, whenever I saw it getting into that stance, I delivered a critical blow to prevent it from using Dragon Skin.

It was only later that I found out it had a technical term called Skill Canceling. Ellos, who explained it to me, blabbered on about it being a legendary secret technique or whatever, but I had long stopped listening to him.

The Lizard Knight growled, “Gwarrrrr! A mere human dares to attack this Lizard Knight! Argh!”

“For a lizard, you sure know how to talk,” I murmured leisurely after piercing its neck with Heroic Stroke added on to Divine Speed.

I called Ren who had been sent flying after being unable to stop himself from charging at the Lizard Knight’s tail.

“It’s over, so get up!”

“Ugh…I-I hit my head.”

“At least you’re tough. I was thinking I liked the feeling I was getting in my hand…”

“Can you repeat that?”

“Wow, look at the rewards!”

I blatantly ignored Ren’s question and looked at the reward list with just two items. A grin spread across my face before I knew it. The item I had been waiting for had finally appeared.

[1. Muscle Strengthening Elixir

2. Lizard Knight’s Iron Boots]

In the second raid, where I brought in nine other people, it perplexed me that an elixir-type item didn’t drop. Until now, no matter how badly the other people did, my achievements alone were enough to make elixir items drop. However, that wasn’t the case for the second Lizard Knight raid. I had wondered what I was missing.

The answer was simple. I wasn’t missing anything. In fact, I had too many. Too many of what you ask?

People. It was the number of people left in the raid. After four people died, there were only 6 of us left to get drops. Even then, we had too many people in the raid to bring out a rare item. The solution was simple. I just had to lower the number of people even more.

Ren had caught my attention then. He had the guts to pounce on a Floor Master, and he had the strength to back it up. Of course, he was still a problematic explorer who was lacking in techniques. This time, I came up with an uncharacteristically clever idea. I formed a plan where both Ren and I benefitted.

I smiled. “Alright, Ren. I’ll take the reward as promised.”

He whined, “Awww, I do have a net gain of 1,000 gold, but…”

“It’s the lesson fee.”

After taking the Muscle Strengthening Elixir, I received the Iron Boots from Ren. Ren had bought Floor Master Battle Vouchers for 4,000 gold each. With the 5,000 gold he gained from each raid we did, he was earning 1,000 gold without doing much of anything. Not to mention, I was personally training him and preventing him from dying.

As for me, I could shorten my Floor Master grind by receiving two rewards every time. It really was the perfect plan.

There was only one thing I didn’t take into consideration. I didn’t realize that Loretta would sell the battle vouchers for 4,000 gold apiece to Ren. I had expected Ren to make 2,000 gold with each raid, but now that he was only earning 1,000 gold, it felt a bit weird. Of course, since we would be doing the raid three times per day, he would be making 3,000 gold in total.

Ren said to himself, “3,000 gold is certainly not a small amount…with personal training from the Crown Prince on top…”

“3,000 gold per day plus personal training from me. Isn’t it great, Ren?” I grinned.

“Hm. I have a lot to say, but I don’t quite know how to put it into words. Agh, my sides hurt.”

I shrugged. “You reap what you sow.”

I swallowed the Muscle Strengthening Elixir like candy. For a moment, fear struck me that my muscles would bulge out like before. Thankfully, nothing of the sort happened. The moment I ate the elixir, I felt every muscle in my body tighten like they were being squeezed. Then, a fiery heat spread out across my body in an instant, followed by a wave of exhaustion.

[Every muscle in your body has become tougher and stronger. Strength and dexterity have both increased by 1.]

Nice! Two stats had increased at the same time. With this, I could get stronger once again. Excited, I urged Ren on.

“Alright, let’s go do our final raid for the day.”

At my words, Ren paled and his lips trembled.

“You…Are you human?”

I looked confused. “Hm? What’s wrong? What happened to your spirit from earlier, Ren?”

“My entire body hurts! It hurts too much!”

Ren had an extremely desperate expression. He was finally wearing an expression befitting of his youthful face. With a calm smile, I consoled him.

“That’s why I said I would massage you well.”

“Aaak! Crown Prince is murdering a dungeon explorer!” Ren screamed tearfully.

Evil laughter burst out from my lips, “Hahaha, you’re free to enter, but not free to leave.”

Like this, the curtains were raised to our fun party raid.

1. Tilting at windmills – attacking imaginary enemies ☜