She looked to where she had just been sleeping, and then up at Aren, but decided to ignore it. 

“Morning…” She said, stretching.

They both sat down on top of the blankets and started eating breakfast while talking.

“I’m planning on traveling to that tower you told me about yesterday.” Aren spoke first.

“So you’re leaving soon then?” Lillia seemed slightly downcast.

“Yeah, why?”

“...Take me with you.”

Aren was surprised at this since he didn’t really expect her to want to go with him. But he was happy since he enjoyed being around her.

“Alright then. But you’re going to have to be able to keep up with me.”

“Easily.” She smirked.

After eating and Lillia packing her things, they set off. The distance of 200 miles was extremely easy for them, being able to run that distance in under a day. They did come across some monsters along the way, but they were easily dealt with. Aren was surprised at Lillia’s combat ability, in fact, she could destroy monsters faster than him, despite being much weaker physically.

She was extremely agile and fast and had come up with a way to use her ability that seemed purely defensive at first for attacking. For example, she would lower the force around her fist to where it only spread out one inch, which also did not lower the defensive prowess at all. And then, when that fist would come into contact with the actual monster, she would increase it back up to spreading one foot away. This effectively created an explosion, blasting the unfortunate recipient of the attack to pieces.

Aren also noticed how pleasant it was to have someone to travel with. Usually, when he was on a long-distance trek, it was extremely boring. But now, he at least had someone to converse with.

Soon enough, the forest started thinning out, before completely morphing into large, rolling hills with very few trees present. Most of these hills were covered in a colorful species of flower that Aren had never seen before, their sweet smell calming Aren greatly. Even Lillia’s normally serious expression relaxed.

Eventually, the hills got smaller and the tower could be seen. Lillia had not exaggerated, it was unlike anything Aren had seen before. It was at least a quarter-mile wide and reached far up into the sky. It was completely made out of stone and had no openings in the side until the very top. At the top, there seemed to be a massive balcony of sorts. He thought he saw movement, but his eyesight was not good enough to confirm that.

When the duo reached it, they walked around looking for an entrance, succeeding in finding an enormous door that split down the middle. Aren walked over and started to push. His muscles bulged, and his veins showed themselves. His entire body started to shake from the strain, but despite that, all he heard was a groan coming from the entrance.

Lillia sneaked under his arm, and also put her hands on the door, her back almost touching Aren’s chest. He was surprised at her closeness but focused on the task at hand. She then expanded her barrier out through her hands, and that gave the door the push needed to swing in.

It flew in, slamming to the sides of the walls, sending a shudder through the entire structure. The place past the door was an enormous hallway, but it soon shrunk to the size of a normal hall.

‘What’s the point of that enormous door then…’ Aren thought to himself.

The two started walking through the entrance when a familiar voice sounded inside of their heads.

[Legendary level dungeon entered.]

It seemed as if this voice sounded whenever something particularly significant was approached, giving the bare minimum amount of information.

Continuing on, they walked through the seemingly endless hallway full of turns, the whole way being lit by torches along the walls, showing that there was at least some life somewhere in this place. The brick walls were a dark grey, covered in moss at some points. There was a constant musty smell all the way.

After what seemed like forever, they finally reached a staircase leading up. The two nodded at each other and continued up. As soon as they reached the next level of the tower, they came across the first monsters.

The room they had entered was the full width of the tower, with nothing in it save for the monsters.

They were humanoid in shape, standing at around six feet tall, except they had no features whatsoever. Just completely plain, grey stone. The two could see a staircase at the far end of the room, directly across from them.

They weren’t individually that strong, but the sheer number of them would’ve overwhelmed any normal person in this new world. However, Aren and Lillia were exceptionally strong. Each one of their attacks completely pulverized multiple of these creatures at once.

The attacks from the monsters did not let up even a single time until they finally reached another staircase. The beings on the next floor, however, were completely different compared to the previous. Aren carelessly charged in, thinking them to be as weak as the last.

BOOM!

“Guh!”

The monster dodged his punch, moving at an unbelievable speed, and countered with a strike straight to Aren’s chest.