"D̞͔̑̄͢͠o͓̤̭̿͊͞b͖̫̞͆̈́͡b̰͍̐̆̚͢q̺̮̎̐̕͢f̜̙̤̔̂͞k̗̠̲͋͠͞ḋ̞̫̝͋̀p͎̥͇̏͌̕,̨̠̼̀̓̂ ̡̞̟̉̉͞i̤̥̊̆͢͞f̫̦͓̋́͛q͙̥͇̏̕͠q̧̹͈̀͂̕i̦͔͔̅̇͞b̳̳͎͗̌͊ ̪̘̠̅̀͞ĺ̨̲͈̑̚k͚̖̬͐̑̾b̖͖͎͒͐̉"

An unrecognizable and inhuman voice was heard by Kazuki. It was a voice coming from a young man.

"F̢͚̯̌̊̿ ̢̦̣͒͐̏ę̧̙̅̌̒x̤̞̊̀̋͜s̲̼͍̾̒̇b͉̫̬̂͆́ ̛̱̬̲̾̂x͎̖̦̒͆̐ ̝̭̥͒͒̽d̹̭͈́́̋f̫̪̩̊́͋c͙͊̏̄͢ͅq̛̯͚̭̀͝ ̢̩̤̃͂͘c̤̣̀̽͢͝l̡̢̦̓͊̂o̖̭̗͋̽̾ ͔̗̥̀͐̄v̨̯̓̎͢͞ļ̞̰̄̃͂r̢̜̫̂̆̽!̳̥̖̑̍̔"

The young man sounded mischievous, even sinister if you listen closely. He wore all black, even his hair and eyes seemed to be made of pitch darkness. Though he grinned childishly, the situation at hand was nothing to smile at.

He then bowed, presenting something behind a curtain of sorts. It was a disturbing sight, for normal people that is. But for Kazuki, it was a different scene.

A mountain of beheaded corpses stood in the shape of a pyramid, still filled with blood. And above them stood more than a dozen heads stuck to the mound of bodies with swords pierced through the top of their skulls.

The corpses were mostly still unfamiliar to Kazuki, but some of them were of people he already knew. He saw Markus, Romana, their daughter, Vel, and Tia. But most of all, in the middle of al the heads he saw one really familiar face highlighted by being pierced with a spear, having both eyes gouged out, and both ears torn off. And of course, it was the head of that certain girl.

"Na-"

Kazuki jolted awake, hitting his head on something which let out the sound "Ow!" in a young, girlish voice.

His eyes bloodshot from the nightmare, his heart beating faster than ever. In his mind, he thought of the words, Not that nightmare again…

It looks too real… and something just makes me feel so frustrated and afraid seeing that……

While he thought of something alone, he seems to have forgotten something. Behind him was an irritated girl who touched her stinging forehead, a few droplets of tears building up.

"Aren't you forgetting something!" She yelled at Kazuki, making him finally notice her presence.

Ah, it's Sir Markus' daughter...though the way she's acting right now was completely different from back then.

The girl, wearing her hair down as usual was obviously mad at Kazuki at the moment. He realized his mistake and then spoke. "Ah, I'm sorry about that!"

"You better be!" She pouted before standing up and dusting her clothes. "I even watched over you while you were defencelessly sleeping!"

"Right, I'm grateful for that." He stood up, bowing his head to her. "But I have to ask, what's your name?"

"Hmph! It's Yumi, Yumi Ares Violus."

I feel like her name is from Japan…

"I'm Kazuki." He then reached out his hand, gesturing a handshake.

Though she still seemed a bit annoyed, her countenance looked a bit more calm than before. She then reached for Kazuki's hand and shook it.

"Ahh… Yumi-san, I have to ask…" Kazuki began the conversation, Yumi looking at him with an expression waiting for his question. "Do you have something called a 'system'?"

Of course, this was what Kazuki thought would be the best thing to ask in the beginning. Since asking someone if they were reborn from another world would seem a bit crazy. And since Kazuki has some knowledge about the existence of many systems, he thought this would be a better choice than directly asking.

Yumi seemed a bit surprised by Kazuki's inquiry. But she only answered in a reserved manner, which was more similar to how she acted when the two first met.

"No, I do not." She looked around for a quick second and looked back at Kazuki right after. "Not currently if you want me to be specific."

"I see…" Kazuki then saw the surprising amount of crystals laying on the floor, yet to be collected. "This is just a small favor but… can you help me pick up all of these crystals?"

"Okay then, I don't have anything else to do." She then began to pick up the hundreds of crystals sprawled out around the ground. "Though you do need to give me payment for guarding you while you rested."

"That's fair." He shrugged before beginning to join Yumi in collecting the crystals.

The two of them took a little more than ten minutes in picking up all of the crystals as there were more than what they expected. All in all, they collected about six hundred small crystals. There were even a lot of wolf hide and fangs that they were able to collect due to the fact that Kazuki just massacred six hundred wolves.

After finishing up with storing all of the crystals, Kazuki gave Yumi fifty crystals as thanks for guarding him while he slept. Then, since the amount of crystals that they have was already more than enough, they left the dungeon.

While the two walked together in silence, Kazuki could occasionally see Yumi's cold and uninterested expression. Though due to the fact that once being the quiet, unfriendly kid in class, Kazuki was all too familiar with all the faces their type of people make. He noticed that she was nervous to a certain small degree. He didn't really know why, but had a bit of a guess as to why that was the case.

Another thing he thought about was the abnormal thing he saw before collapsing. His MP being in the negative range. It was impossible to do such a thing. It would usually mean instant death when one breaks the limits of their bodies. But Kazuki was different. He was able to bypass that important rule. He even remembered the fact that he killed an abnormal boss that should've killed him without fail. Thinking that if he was actually able to break the rules of his status at that time, it was actually plausible that he killed the boss. And that he needed two weeks to recover was just even more evidence.

"... Yumi-san, exactly how long was I asleep?" Kazuki asked out of curiosity.

"Roughly three hours. I even assumed you were already deceased." Yumi bluntly replied.

He chuckled. "That's what happens when you're devoid of energy."

The journey to the exit of the dungeon was quicker than Kazuki had expected with the both of them sprinting. Normally, it would take a bit longer with Vel and Tia accompanying him. But with Yumi it was a bit faster. Likely because Yumi asked him to hurry up. She probably felt awkward being alone with a stranger.

Upon leaving the dungeon, the two were met with the sight of the sky's dark radiance and the moon's contrasting luminosity. Outside, the only lights seen were from the lamps that brightened the dark streets. And barely anyone was still roaming the streets at such a time. There were some, but only the bare minimum of people were outside.

"You should go home already, or do you want me to accompany you?"

"Thank you for the offer but there is no need." Yumi replied. "But father did ask me to tell you that you can take your time in considering your reply to their request."

"I see… Then please pass this simple message of mine." Kazuki then gestured for Yumi to come closer.

With their distance shortened, Kazuki whispered a somewhat long-winded message. After hearing the message, Yumi's eyes widened for only a millimeter. The message slightly shocked her, but not enough to make her reaction known.

"I will make sure that father receives this message." Yumi had a slight grin as she said that. "Now if I may excuse myself, I have matters at home to tend to."

Yumi then left with a slightly cheery air around her, likely due to hearing the message from Kazuki. Now that she had left, Kazuki then went to the guildhouse to exchange all of the crystals he had collected from continuously killing hundreds of enemies.

With 563 crystals exchanged, he received about 18 gold coins. The amount of money he got was a lot more than he usually gets. Given that he actually killed six times the amount of monsters he would normally kill, with or without his friends.

Though the exchange was pretty normal, the receptionists on their shift wondered about why Kazuki was still outside at this time of day(?). But as soon as Chloe entered, with a mug filled with warm coffee and bags under her eyes, the receptionists halted their inquiry after her explanation. It seems like Kazuki was slowly getting popular by the day.