They get out of the floor, and meet with Ieva

Hilda sat down on the ground, next to Youngwoo, and started rummaging through her backpack while he put his sword back into its sheath and fixed it to his belt. Having found a bottle of clear water and some bandages, she turned to the man, who'd pulled down shirt over his shoulder and was holding up his phone with flashlight lighting up the area.

She looked at the wound closely and sighed with relief while clearing it.

"It's not a serious wound."

"Good to know." Replied Youngwoo. To be honest, he barely felt this hit in the first place. Actually, the hit that could've broken his nose also didn't give a lasting impression. Was it because he was getting used to the pain? Well, that was a question for another day. "You're quite skilled with bandages."

"I have experience." Said Hilda as she quickly wrapped the bandage around the wound, sealing the bleeding. "Not always had there been so many healers."

"I understand." He nodded lightly.

For some seconds, no more words were spoken. Youngwoo watched as Hilda skillfully finished bandaging him. Watching his arm and shoulder and the semi-professional aid, he suddenly realized. 'She didn't learn it in the Tower.' She shouldn't need to know it so well to survive in this place. Why did she know it? But then again, he didn't know her circumstances. Who knew what her past actually was?

"There, patched up." She said with a calm expression, but he could see something more in those blue eyes of hers. Was that a glint of relief? No, it must've been reflection of light.

"Thank you." He turned off the flashlight and checked time. "Only about 20 minutes left until we can leave."

"Hmm, that's good to know." She nodded.

'About time we returned.' Thought Youngwoo. He didn't mind spending time at the 11th floor, and yet he couldn't help but notice that his eyes felt heavy. Damn, that sudden change from night to day will prove to be tiring. Or... wait, will it really? When would he need to come back here, anyway?

"Hmm... I wonder."

"What is it?" Asked Hilda.

"Oi, Tower." Youngwoo ignored her question. "In accordance to this floor's quest, when will next day begin?"

[Time left: 6:04:27]

"6 hours..." He said out loud. "So I'll be able to get some sleep."

"You want to come here and finish the quest?"

"I want to see what the contribution rewards will be. I'll try to get one."

"Then, I'll come with you."

"Say what?" He turned to her, surprised.

"I also want to see the reward for my contribution. Didn't we work very fast together? Let us work our way up this floor together, Youngwoo. It'll be much easier that way. What do you say?" She looked at him with a glint of anticipation.

"...sure. But I'll be staying here for a week, starting tomorrow." He agreed, a little reluctantly. After all, just why would she propose that? Sure enough, working together has proven to be very effective, but surely there were people who would do better with her, no? "But I thought you had guild members you could ask?"

"My guild won't be coming here for now. They are exhausted after failing raid on floor 10. But I don't have to come here as member of Magician Guild. I can come as an individual, no?"

"...I see." He replied, hesitantly. "So... how soon are we supposed to meet before we come here?"

"I think about 5 and a half hours from now would suffice. Are you alright with that?"

"Yeah." He nodded lightly. Seeing that Hilda immediately did something on her phone, presumably set up an alarm, he prompted to do the same on his.

They then proceeded to sit in complete silence for a few minutes, before they got up and started walking towards the place from which they would go back to Safe Zone. As they finally approached it, Youngwoo took note of how the moonlight lightly reflected on the stone panel that had multiple engravings. There was no mistaking; this must've been the place.

Soon enough, they both received a notification.

[Transmit out of floor 11 is now possible.]

Without waiting for anything, they both said:

"Transmit, floor 1." And then they disappeared, only to appear in front of Gate on floor 1.

The scenery of city at noon appeared before both of them. There was a queue of people who waited in line to get to the Gate and transmit themselves. With hurrying steps, Hilda and Youngwoo went away from the crowd. However, there were some people following them. Wearing nice clothes, with cameras and microphones, the reporters immediately started throwing question at them.

"Hello? Miss? Sir? Did you come back from 11th floor? What is it like? How can Hunters prepare for it?"

"What guild do you belong to? What is your rank?"

"Can we know who you are?"

Never ending cascade of questions would be extremely irritating to him normally, but now, with Calm Mind, Youngwoo simply followed Hilda's guidance and said not a word to them. After a about 20 seconds, the reporters gave up on the chase, deciding it wasn't worth the hassle. The two runaways, however, kept on rushing through the city for a few more minutes, to ensure that there would be no sneaky reporter around.

As they slowed down to just a walk, Hilda pulled out her phone and started messaging someone. Not wanting to seem like he was taking a peek, Youngwoo turned his gaze to the sky. Indeed, it was afternoon; the sun was beaming down, and despite the air temperature being somewhat low, the feeling was nice and warm. In a way, it reminded him of that angel's appearance. But then, he noticed something. Was that a bird? No, it didn't seem to be. It kind of looked like a drone, and its flight pattern was very irregular. Was it a scouting drone?

His pondering abruptly stopped when the device suddenly turned towards them. What did it want? Was it going to attack? As the drone suddenly pummeled down towards him and Hilda, he decided that questions could come later. Right now, he had to deal with this.

He took a hold of handle of his sword, but he heard Hilda's voice:

"Don't worry. It's not here to harm us." She also looked at the drone. Wait, since when was she looking at the sky? Wasn't she in her phone just now? "It's Ieva."

'Wait... Ieva's controlling that drone?' A question arose in his head as the drone came down and leveled itself with Hilda's head. The construct looked actually exactly like drones commonly found on Earth. Four rotor blades on a box that seemed to contain a battery and some circuits to control the machine. In its front, there was a small camera that looked at the red-haired woman.

"Where have you been?!" A voice came out out of the drone. Surprisingly enough, it was very clear, as if it wasn't coming from a speaker.

"On 11th floor." Replied Hilda. "Transmit was blocked for 12 hours."

"What? Transmit blocked?"

"Yes. I'll tell you all about when I get home."

"And who's he?" The drone suddenly shot forward and circled Youngwoo once or twice, before coming to a halt.

"That's Youngwoo. I told you about him."

"..."

"Nice meeting you?" Said Youngwoo, a little unsure of how he should react. "Ieva, right?"

"...don't get complacent. Just because you're helping me doesn't mean we're friends." Said Ieva.

"I don't mean it like that."

"You better don't. And let me be clear. You hurt Hilda..." Down side of the box suddenly opened, and a small, needle-like object came out. "...and you're dead." A small cannon, no, a gun was filled with magic energy. Yougnwoo was certain that a few shots would be enough to end him.

"I'll keep that in mind." He replied hastily. "So, um, I'll be going, then. Nice meeting you, Ieva."

"..."

"Goodbye, Youngwoo." Said Hilda, fixing the backpack straps on her shoulder. "Don't be late."

"Won't be." He nodded, and started going away.

As the distance between him and Hilda grew, Ieva asked:

"'Don't be late'? Late for what?"

"We're planning to go to floor 11 and stay for a few days. I'll explain later."

"...don't you have a guild to report to?"

"So what? They probably sent some scouts already. I don't need to report."

"...whatever. I'll be keeping an eye on him. And you better keep the battery safe."

"..." Hilda didn't reply, instead deciding to simply walk away. She needed to get some sleep. And prepare. Preparation was key, after all.

Meanwhile

The spearman, archer and magician were sitting on some chairs. The largest man was patching up his wound, but his eyes were concentrated on the man sitting across the room, illuminated partially by flame of a small candle just next to him. He was a classy gentleman, but there was some kind of dominance flowing from within him. Indeed, this man looked frail, but was intimidating nonetheless. Iris' of his eyes were all black, and seemed to be connected to some kind of an abyss. His mouth was curved in a gentle smile, but it looked like it could swallow them whole if it wanted to.

"Well done." Said Mobius, focusing his eyes on the leader.

"..." The leader lowered his head a little, and so did the archer and magician.

"As promised, here's your payment." The man picked up a pouch of money and threw it at their feet.

"...Mobius..." Started the magician. "It's not that I'm questioning your orders, but... why did we attack two nobodies?"

"Do you want me to withdraw the payment?"

"N-No, it's just-"

"You were accepted in the organisation on the premise that you won't question orders of your superior. Are you trying to go back on that vow?" He asked, shifting his tuxedo a little. On his belt, just barely visible in the candle's light, gleamed a firearm.

"...n-no..."

"You did your part. Nothing more, nothing less. You're free to roam around as you please until I tell there's a job. Dismissed."

"Y-Yes sir!" Said the leader, picking up the pouch of money, and eagerly got up and walked to the door.

In less than 10 seconds, Mobius was left alone. With a sigh, he snuffed off the flame of the candle and looked through a window. This village, while shabby-looking, did provide a resting place to those who payed. Deep in thought, Mobius thought about what he witnessed from afar.

'A monster has arrived...'