At dusk, Eina finally saw Ye Yu step into the Adventurers' Guild.
Seeing the boy appeared unharmed, the beautiful half-elf let out a slow breath of relief.
For his very first adventure, Ye Yu had taken almost an entire day—Eina had nearly feared something had gone wrong deep within the Dungeon.
Sure, there were pitiful souls who died on their very first day of adventuring, but such cases were rare. She'd almost forgotten how long it had been since she'd encountered one.
Though relieved, the young woman was still too angry to hold back as she launched into a reprimand.
"Didn't I tell you to come back after killing just one goblin? Why did it take you so long?"
Goblin—timid and weak creatures—were hardly a challenge. Their strength barely matched that of a normal child. Unless they traveled in packs, they wouldn't dare attack humans.
The only real difficulty when dealing with goblins was making sure to kill them before they fled.
Eina didn't believe goblins could have caused Ye Yu much trouble. In her mind, the only reason he'd taken so long was that he'd gone down to the lower floors without permission.
While the danger on the second and third floors wasn't especially high—still filled with goblins and treants—there were simply more of them.
Goblin packs there could be far more aggressive, making them a serious headache for newcomers.
"Sorry..." Ye Yu lowered his head, feeling a bit embarrassed under Eina's stern gaze.
"As long as you're back safe, I'll say you got lucky. But how far down did you go?"
Seeing his sincere apology, Eina softened somewhat and asked with a wave of her hand.
"I wasn't paying attention… I think I went below the fifth floor?"
Ye Yu scratched his head, unsure, and his careless answer almost made Eina choke on the sip of tea she'd just raised.
"W-what did you say?! You went down to the fifth floor?!"
With a sharp bang, Eina slammed her teacup down on the table and shouted hysterically, instantly drawing every eye in the guild hall.
Realizing the awkwardness of the moment, she suddenly remembered herself and grabbed Ye Yu's hand—still confused—leading him into a small room at the back of the guild.
This was a private room usually reserved for one-on-one lessons. Just yesterday, Ye Yu had endured hours of Eina's endless lecturing here.
Well, not just lecturing—calling it "teaching" would be more accurate.
Still dazed, Ye Yu sat down by the small table inside the room. Suddenly, Eina slammed the door shut, turned around, and glared fiercely at the innocent-looking boy. Swallowing her anger, she demanded:
"Did you forget what I told you? Absolutely! Absolutely no going to the lower floors on your own! And yet you not only went down, you ran all the way to the fifth floor! Are you trying to get yourself killed?!"
Eina stormed forward, her presence almost pressing down on Ye Yu as she leaned across the table.
Feeling awkward and overwhelmed by the half-elf's intense gaze, Ye Yu averted his eyes.
"Well… the first floor didn't have any goblins, so I thought I'd check the lower floors."
He answered honestly, which left Eina momentarily speechless.
"Even if there were none on the first floor, surely there would be some on the second, right?! So why did you go all the way down?"
After all, the first floor was frequently cleared by adventurers, so it wasn't surprising if there were no monsters. But even if the first floor was empty… the second floor wouldn't be, would it?
And yet here was this guy who had gone straight down to the fifth floor!
The fifth floor—an area even seasoned adventurers with a month or more of experience dared not tread lightly. And here he was, on his very first day, running straight there.
"Because there were no monsters on the second floor either."
Ye Yu continued to speak honestly, causing Eina to pause in slight surprise.
"You're not going to tell me that you didn't encounter any monsters on the third and fourth floors either, and then just went straight to the fifth floor, are you?" she asked, eyes narrowing with suspicion.
Looking completely sincere, Ye Yu nodded without hesitation.
"That's right. I didn't see a single monster on the third or fourth floor either."
His straightforward answer slowly calmed the furious Eina.
It did seem plausible—after all, there was no other way to explain why Ye Yu's clothes were spotless, without a single scratch or mark.
The only reasonable explanation was that he hadn't fought a single battle because he simply hadn't encountered any monsters.
Of course, there was also the possibility that Ye Yu hadn't actually gone down the Dungeon at all—that he had spent the whole day somewhere else and returned just to make her worry.
But Eina quickly dismissed that thought. Having met countless people before, she was confident she could tell if he was lying.
So that left only one other explanation: this absurdly lucky fool had blindly wandered all the way down to the fifth floor, spent an entire day there, and yet hadn't encountered a single monster.
That wasn't just luck anymore—it was borderline unbelievable!
Eina stared at the innocent-looking Ye Yu sitting before her, speechless. She had a long list of scolding ready, but somehow found herself unable to say a word.
"Well, anyway…" she finally muttered, rubbing her temples with a sigh, adopting a more patient tone.
"Whatever you do, don't ever do something like this again. The fifth floor is no joke. Just because you were lucky today and didn't see any monsters doesn't mean it's safe. Do you know how many adventurers die in the Dungeon every day?"
Ye Yu nodded obediently, like a little chick pecking at grain.
"All right, all right, that's enough for now. As for goblins, you can try again tomorrow. Just remember—never go down to the lower floors on your own, okay? If there aren't any monsters, just wait in one place for a while. That's how monster respawns work in the Dungeon. If you keep moving, you might actually be unlucky enough not to encounter any."
Eina waved her hand, signaling Ye Yu was free to leave.
"I understand," Ye Yu said, nodding, then turned and left. After wasting so much time today, Hestia was probably worried about him.
Eina watched his retreating figure thoughtfully, tilting her head as she sank into contemplation.
To have walked all the way down to the fifth floor without seeing a single monster… was this really just incredibly good luck—or was there something else?