A break day

A break day.

Youngwoo and Hilda transmitted back to floor 1 soon after receiving their rewards. The floor 12 was about to be unlocked for transmit, and hundreds of people were standing in front of the Gate, awaiting to go and attempt the floor 12. After hearing the news of how simple the 11th floor was, many wanted to try their chance at next one. Well, it's not like any of that mattered to either of the two who just returned.

They appeared not far from the Gate, and after realizing their location, they started going away. A sigh of relief escaped their mouths; it seemed nobody noticed their arrival. That meant no pesky reporters trying to ask them about the ending of 11th floor. Why did they have to ask and couldn't go themselves? Ah well, who knew, who cared?

After walking for some time together, they arrived at Hilda's place and, after saying some mundane goodbyes, they parted their ways. Youngwoo felt like jumping with content due to what he gained from the 11th floor. Not much about the bracelet, but a pouch filled with gold and silver coins. After doing 81 quests, he managed to get 51 gold coins and 90 silver. Well, it might've seemed a little underwhelming considering that during a single week, a Hunter could gain as much as 100 gold on lower floors (since a lot of humanoid monsters tended to drop some), but for him it was a lot nonetheless. It wasn't easy to earn money when he had to take care of every step he took. And besides, paying for heals of healers tended to be a scam.

But this changed, for now at least. Wanting to celebrate a little, Youngwoo quickly went back to his dormitory room, changed into some fresh clothes (surprise surprise, washing same 4 sets over and over didn't mean they were very fresh, although Hilda didn't seem to mind) and took his steps into western part of the city. Passing by some tall buildings belonging to Knights Guild, he soon entered his place of interest: Restaurant Gallery.

It was a large building, build in the same fashion as a shopping mall, in which instead of shops there were all sorts of restaurants. This building was made with the thought of uniting all the Hunters by simply serving foods from all the different cultures that every person represented.

One could find multiple different types of rooms, but in reality all of them were just one, humongous restaurant. The menu was so large that it wasn't even fully described, and instead there were touch panels every few metres with access to the whole library. Thousands of dishes in categories sorted by ingredients, names, or cultures where they came from (depending on customer's choice). Well, but Youngwoo already knew what he wanted to eat.

Entering a room, he was pleasantly surprised to see that not many people were present; well, the hour was pretty early. Checking his phone, he saw numbers 8:20 come onto the screen. Indeed, a lot of people were still asleep or were just waking up.

He came to a cash register. After ordering what he wanted, he found himself a neat spot in the corner of the room. He scanned the receipt on a small scanner on the table (there were indeed a lot of conveniences all around the Safe Zone), and awaited his meal. Soon enough, the ordered pork belly and Jajangmyeon (both were very popular in Korea when he still lived in there), which he hadn't had in a few years at least, arrived. And so, he started spending his break day leisurely eating.

Meanwhile

Hilda went into her apartment and closed the door behind her. Then, she went and placed bag with most of her clothes in her room. To be honest, she didn't feel like doing laundry for now. Instead, noticing how an alarm came on her phone, she went to the kitchen and started making herself something to eat.

After a few minutes she heard a sound of door opening. Looking towards the source, she saw Ieva come from her room, only clothed in bra and panties she used to sleep in. With half-closed eyes, she went into the kitchen, opened the fridge, took a bottle of some yellow juice (presumably lemon), and chugged half of what remained before closing both the bottle and fridge.

"Good morning to you too." Said Hilda, with a completely indifferent expression placing some omelet on two plates.

"Sup." She replied. "You back?"

"Yes. Taking a day of break before we attempt floor 12. How have you been doing?"

"Eh." Ieva shrugged lightly, digging into her portion. "How was your date?"

"It wasn't a date." Hilda said. "Did something happen while I was gone?"

"Meh, typical stuff. Donnie was on my tail for half a week to show him some tinkering." She rolled her eyes. "Figured out some stuff, created some stuff, you know, the standard norm. By the way, where's the battery?"

"Safe."

"..." Ieva suddenly stared daggers at her sister. "Are you FINALLY going to get it from that guy? I think it's been safe for plenty of time already."

"He has a name, you know?"

"..." The woman seemed irritated and annoyed in equal measure.

"I'll retrieve it tomorrow."

"You better do. I'd like to finish what I started."

And then, Ieva went to the common room. Setting herself on the couch lazily, she just barely covered herself with some thin blanket that was on it (used to fill in some space on the otherwise empty piece of furniture), and her hand quickly found a small remote. With a few clicks, TV on the wall started up, and the laying woman started watching something.

Meanwhile, Hilda finished up after the breakfast she ate. No, wait, wasn't it dinner already for her? After all, it was already past noon after she came out of 11th floor. Oh well, not that it mattered much. While washing the dishes, her mind drifted towards what awaited her. And, deep inside her, she felt something she didn't feel for a long time. Anticipation.

"...it was nice."

"What?" Ieva suddenly turned the volume of TV down a bit.

"...nothing. Just thinking to myself." Replied Hilda. Unbeknownst to herself, she formed a small smirk. But, Ieva noticed that.