This time, I won't be the devil.

In order to convince Noelle, Frey made up a reason.

"Actually, I understand the Hani language. This Hani wants to talk to me alone. If I'm lucky, I might be able to get some useful information."

Seeing that Noelle was still a little skeptical, Frey had no choice but to imitate Honey's cry.

"Hani~Roar~"

"Hani~Roar..."

After Noelle left, Frey looked at Honey in front of him and smiled lewdly.

"Haniho!?"

Perhaps sensing the change in Frey's aura, Hani turned around and tried to escape, but was hugged by Frey.

"Honey~, now it's just the two of us, it's time to start our happy time."

Honey feels soft when you hold it in your arms because underneath its clay shell lies white flesh with a texture similar to silicone.

In the labyrinth city, some adventurers who have been sexually repressed for a long time will even specifically capture honey and make it into Fiji cups.

Of course, Frey is not that perverted. Although he also covets Honey's body, what he covets is their magic immunity ability.

As early as the beginning of the time travel, Frey, a Tumu man, thought of using a large number of Hani to create a wall with magic immunity effect.

However, creatures like Hani would soon die once they left the maze and went to the surface world, and their magic immunity would also disappear, so Frey's great idea could not be realized.

And now, Frey used his amazing wisdom to think of a new way to use Honey.

He took out the space ring hidden deep in his clothes.

As the only remaining prop in the world with the ability to store space, the inside of the ring is an extremely special alien space, and the objects placed inside will fall into a state of complete stillness.

In other words, it keeps fresh forever.

Normally, space rings cannot accommodate living things, because any living thing will have some magic power to a greater or lesser extent.

But Hani, who has magic immunity, is an exception.

Among the items brought out from the Demon King's Castle, except for the valuable information that might reveal his identity, the remaining magic books had been secretly buried in the backyard of the tavern by Frey using earth magic. With the current storage space of the ring, it was no problem to put in a Honey.

Just as Hani was about to break free in his arms, Frey activated the space ring and took him in.

Seeing that the experiment was successful, Frey shouted excitedly:

"Pokémon, Getだぜ!"

After that, with just a little modification, Frey can obtain a Honey Shield that provides magic immunity at critical moments.

In the early stages, this is a life-saving artifact.

After capturing Honey, Frey reunited with Noelle.

"Frey, what did you talk about with that monster?"

"Honey said it had no opinion..."

Because it took quite a while to help Noel with the catheter, by the time they walked out of the maze, the sun had already begun to set. The dim light cast a tired atmosphere over the city, merchants began to prepare to close their stalls, and most of the adventurers also set out on their journey home.

Unlike Frey, who was in a good mood, the other Black Iron-level adventurers on the road were sighing over the decline in income.

There are only a very small number of people like Frey who explore the maze for the purpose of gaining experience and increasing their levels. The vast majority of low-level adventurers enter the maze just to make money.

This is because they don't have much room for upgrading.

On the continent of Aiden, the level of normal adult humans is between 3 and 5, and even well-trained soldiers and adventurers are only around level 10.

Even if a person with mediocre talent tries his best to kill monsters and train, it is impossible for him to level up to level 15 or above.

This is not because they don't have enough experience points, but because of the existence of the [level cap].

A person's upper level is roughly equivalent to ten times the strength of their soul.

When ordinary humans are born, their soul strength is mostly around 0.5. Those who can reach above 1.0 are already very outstanding talents. If the innate soul strength exceeds 2.0, they are rare and peerless geniuses.

Afterwards, as the body and mind grow and life experiences accumulate, the soul strength will also be improved, but the amplitude will generally not exceed 1.0.

There are only two ways to get further improvement.

One is to overcome difficulties that ordinary people cannot overcome, or to hone yourself through dangerous adventures.

The second is to use external forces, such as the blessing of gods, to strengthen the soul.

It is because Frey lost the blessing of the three pillars that his soul strength dropped from 8.0 in the Demon King period to 5.0 now. The level cap is 50, which is also the highest level that players can reach in the game.

For Frey now, as long as he gains experience, he can continue to upgrade.

After leaving the maze, Frey and Noelle first came to the nearby magic stone recycling point.

The magic stones they obtained today were worth a total of 130 rupees, but after deducting taxes, the actual amount they received was less than 100, and the tax rate was over 30%.

In the maze city, the lowest-level Black Iron-level adventurers have to pay the highest taxes.

It is precisely by imposing heavy taxes on the majority of low-level adventurers that the association can provide preferential treatment to elite adventurers above the silver level.

After all, as long as the treatment of high-level adventurers is guaranteed and they become the defenders of this system, low-level adventurers will naturally have no ability to object.

When it came time to split the profits, Noelle wanted Frey to take 7%, but Frey insisted on splitting it in half.

Noelle then offered to compensate for the damaged crystal ball, but Frey also refused.

"The damage to the crystal ball was just an accident. Accidents are perfectly normal for adventurers."

In order to make Noelle feel at ease with the money, Frey imitated Toyokawa Shoko's lines and explained:

"We're teammates, a community with a shared destiny exploring the maze together. We should split the profits equally and shoulder the risks together. If we reduce the income distribution because someone made a mistake, we'll only be caught in endless questioning and blame-shifting..."

To be honest, Frey even wanted to give Noel a little more. After all, from the perspective of efficiency, letting Noel eat and sleep well would be more conducive to future maze exploration.

Unlike the MyGO team who were courteous to each other, the recycling point was filled with arguments and complaints from other Black Iron-level adventurers.

Among them was Frey's acquaintance, the adventurer Zaku, who was currently arguing with the staff at the recycling point.

“Why is the tax going up again?”

"I'm very sorry. Yesterday, His Majesty Antoine of the Vatican issued a decree to temporarily increase taxes in all regions to celebrate His Holiness the Pope's birthday..."

"That bastard... cute tax-raising four-eyed guy, I want to fuck him like a fucking bastard!"

The Four Eyes of Tax Increase is the nickname of Bishop Antoine, one of the three cardinals of the Holy See of Light and in charge of the Executive Council. Since he took office, he has been finding various reasons to increase taxes from time to time.

Zaku was still cursing and greeting the tax-raising four-eyed mother, while his few lesser teammates were talking worriedly:

"Each person only gets 50 rupees. After deducting the cost of food, lodging and equipment maintenance, there is not much left."

"Besides, the price of low-level magic stones is still falling. I'm afraid we'll end up losing money in the future."

"How about we go to the 9th floor and look for Rank 2 monsters next time?"

"You're not going to die, are you? Don't you know how many people have died on the 9th floor recently?"

"But if I keep going like this, I'll starve to death sooner or later. I'm going to die anyway, so I might as well try my luck..."

After dividing the money at the recycling point, Frey and Noelle headed to the nearby upgrade array.

Unlike Frey who can upgrade directly through the panel, ordinary people who want to upgrade have to go to a special upgrade array or ask the clergy of the Holy See to help them guide the power of the soul.

In order not to arouse suspicion, Frey decided to accompany Noelle to upgrade today.

After entering the upgrade magic circle, as the prompt sound of "bang bang ka bang~" sounded in his mind again, Frey's panel changed.

Level 2 (Experience 50/150)

[Attribute panel: Strength 2.5, Endurance 6.2, Agility 2.6, Magic 9.5]

After confirming his own panel, Frey checked Noelle's changes through [Identification].

【Level: 3】

[Attribute panel: Strength 2.8, Endurance 1.9, Agility 1.5, Magic 31.4]

Putting aside his exaggerated innate magic power, when leveling up, Frey's total attribute improvement was greater than Noelle's.

This is because soul strength not only affects the level cap, but also the efficiency of conversion to experience.

The total value of attributes directly increased during the upgrade is equal to the value of soul strength. As for the specific improvement of each attribute, it depends on many factors such as training methods and physical fitness.

For example, a magician's magic power will increase more when he levels up, but if he is a pure warrior without magic talent, his magic power will hardly increase when he levels up, but his physical panel will be improved.

Compared to an ordinary person with a Soul Strength of 1.0, Frey gains 5 times the stats when he levels up.

However, since you will gain an additional attribute point with a total value of 1.0 that can be freely allocated when you upgrade, and learning and training can also improve attribute values, the actual gap is not that exaggerated. But at the same level, Frey's attribute panel is undoubtedly far ahead.

Speaking of strength, Frey always felt a sense of disharmony while interacting with Noelle today.

The reason he contacted Noelle was to utilize her power as a dragon.

But now Noelle seems to know nothing about his own bloodline and power.

If we follow the positioning of the characters in the novel, then Noel is more like the protagonist with hidden powers in his body, and Frey is the old grandfather who is responsible for guiding him.

In order to get to know Noelle better, Frey tentatively asked during a meal after the leveling up:

"Speaking of which, Nowen, why do you want to go to the deepest level of the maze?"

Noelle was a bit bewildered by the sudden question. After thinking for a moment, he looked into Frey's eyes and answered seriously:

"Frey, you've probably heard of the Holy Grail, right?"

According to legend, on the 99th floor, the deepest part of the maze, there is a holy grail that can grant all wishes.

But this is just an ancient legend after all. 300 years ago, the demons once conquered the land near the maze city and launched an investigation into the maze.

According to the intelligence within the demon clan, the place where the warrior Green sealed the corpse dragon Jabberwock is now the 70th floor of the maze.

As for what it will look like after the 70th floor, or even whether the Holy Grail exists, no one knows.

"Do you have any wish that you want to fulfill?"

Noelle shook her head and continued:

"It's not clear yet, I just know I have to go to the deepest level."

“Once you get there, you’ll understand everything.”

It is not because you have a desire that you need to go to the deepest level, but you need to go to the deepest level to find your desire.

Frey felt that Noelle's ideas were somewhat naive, but he would not deny other people's ideals.