Entering the Fourth Floor

Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud.

"Hngh… haah… nngh…"

Inside a modest yet cozy and luxurious room at the Galaxy Hotel, Serena clung naked to a small vanity, hips pushed back as she took me in. I gripped her waist and drove into her without mercy.

Her smooth back, the narrow dip of her waist, and the beautiful curve of her ass filled my view all at once. Every time I thrust, Serena couldn't hold back her moans.

Was this what they called Stockholm syndrome or something?

After I'd bought her meals and clothes all day, Serena had softened a little compared to yesterday.

In the mirror mounted on the wall above the vanity, I could see her face—brows knitted tight as she drowned in the pleasure of being filled. And below that, her breasts swayed with every thrust. I couldn't tear my eyes off the way they bounced.

My head, though, was elsewhere.

What skill should I even pick on the fourth floor?

S-rank skills were absurdly powerful. They could produce results outside every normal standard. But they were also excessively unique, overwhelmingly strong, and riddled with restrictions.

Time of Sonic Speed is incredible, but a one-hour cooldown is way too long…

Brand of Subjugation is broken too, but it doesn't help in a fight.

Right now, I was short on fundamentals. I was a one-trick pony with my A-rank skill, Slap Fighting Champion. Today's duel had driven that home hard. I needed a way to land a slap. My senses, combat technique, and base stamina were all lacking.

What I actually need right now is an A- or B-rank skill.

I sorted my thoughts. On the fourth floor, I would aim for an A- or B-rank defensive skill. Since I could only see skill names, some of it would come down to luck—but that much was just the cost of doing business.

Defense skill on the fourth floor. Combat-technique skill on the fifth.

I'd seen a C-rank skill before—Swordsman's Talent. There had to be something similar that suited me. Something like Martial Artist's Talent, maybe. Whether that even existed was another question.

I shut the thoughts down and focused on the sex again.

I gathered Serena's swaying golden hair into a neat bundle, gripped it like a handle, and yanked as I ramped up the piston rhythm.

Thud-thud-thud-thud-thud!

"Hngh! I—I'm going to come. Hic! Slower—!"

I ignored her and worked myself even more ruthlessly.

"Kyah! I—I'm coming—!"

Serena's body jerked as if seized by spasms, and she shoved her hips forward. I slipped free of her, and she clamped her thighs together, legs trembling.

A clear rush of fluid poured from between her legs and soaked the floor.

"That good, huh, you ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠little slut?"

I gave her ass a light smack and piled on the praise.

"Yesterday you were still a virgin, and now you're enjoying yourself more than I am. Heh."

Serena brushed off my dirty compliments and simply collapsed where she was.

"I—I really can't get up. There's no strength left in my legs."

The sight of her sitting on the floor, thighs quivering, looked delicious.

"That so? ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Then I'll help you."

I crouched in front of her, hooked her arms around the back of my neck, and slid both hands under her thighs to hoist her up into a carry. Her soft thighs sank into my palms, and ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠her pliant breasts pressed against my hard chest.

Our eyes met. Anxiety flickered through hers at what was about to happen.

"You're not seriously going to do it like this, are you…?"

"You're sharp."

"This position… it's going to go too deep! I don't want to!"

Even as she said she didn't want it, Serena only clung to me tighter. Hopeless girl.

I hardened myself fully, adjusted the grip under her thighs to line her up, and lowered her onto me.

"Hngh…! Too deep…! Nngh…! It feels good…!"

Her true feelings leaked out through the pretense. She probably didn't even know what she was saying.

I started thrusting while holding her like that. Impaled ruthlessly deep by her own weight, Serena couldn't keep her head straight. Her moans filled the room.

"Hic! Hngh! Haah—!"

Whatever she was feeling, the arms around my neck tightened with unbelievable strength. I felt the drool that had spilled from her mouth slide down my throat.

My arms started to go numb. I laid her down on the bed.

Panting, Serena begged me.

"Please… please come already. I can't take any more…"

I settled over her and lined myself up again.

"Just a little more fun first."

I drove back into her. Her body never got old. I could do this all day.

"Haaah—! I'm going crazy! Save me!"

Serena's sweet moans tickled my ears.

Stray thoughts started blooming in my head again.

My ultimate goal was to escape this godforsaken labyrinth world. For now, that broke down into two intermediate objectives.

First: keep going down. The deeper I went, the more I would learn about the labyrinth's secrets.

Second: find the lord of the Entrum Family—the ones who ruled Entrum, the safe-zone city on the third floor of the labyrinth. Whether he would willingly hand over centuries of accumulated family knowledge was another matter, but if words failed, I'd take it by force.

For that, I had to get stronger first.

My head cleared. Once I went down, I'd figure it out somehow.

Sex really was good for mental health.

The next day, we checked out of the hotel and headed back to the central plaza.

The massive stone pillar rising in the middle of the square—the fourth-floor transfer monolith—was waiting for us.

"Let's go, Serena."

"Yes."

Having steeled myself in a few short words, I clamped one hand around Serena's slender wrist and pressed my free palm to the cold face of the monolith.

A few seconds of silence passed. Then a blinding white light began to swallow us whole.

In that fleeting instant, every sense in my body vanished as if paralyzed. In the pitch-black dark, the only thing that still felt real was Serena's pulse clenched in my fist.

A strange weightlessness, as if drifting through zero gravity, lasted only a moment before gravity seized me again and yanked me downward.

Thud—!

My feet hit the ground. The moment I opened my eyes, I saw colossal ancient trees towering as if to pierce the sky. Only faint shafts of light stabbed down through the dense lattice of branches. When I turned to look behind me, an endless sheer cliff rose like a wall.

So this is the fourth floor. The tropical rainforest layer.

Hot, humid air washed over me at the same time the long-awaited fourth-floor entry reward bloomed before my eyes.

Ding!

And right on cue came my personal specialty—system ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠noise.

Zzzt—!

Bang!

Error messages flooded my vision, and beneath them stretched a special list of options visible only to me.

There aren't any F-rank skills?

Even scrubbing the list with my eyes, the lowest grade I could find was E-rank. Apparently from the fourth floor onward, even the floor of random skill rewards got bumped up.

That was when Serena, standing beside me, couldn't hold it in and let out a shriek of pure delight.

"Kyah!! Jackpot!!"

"What? Did you hit something good?"

"Yes! D-rank—Low-grade Water Spirit Contract!"

Utterly thrilled, Serena immediately flipped her palm up and held it out in front of me.

With a murmuring flow of mana, a transparent droplet of water about the size of a tennis ball rose and floated above her pale hand.

"Kyah, it's so cute…!"

Watching her look at that little blob of water like it was the cutest thing alive, I frowned in disbelief.

"Serena. All I see is a round water blob. What's cute about that?"

"Huh? It just looks like a water blob to you? To me it looks like an adorable little kid."

Ah. So I was just too blind to see it properly.

"That so. What can the thing actually do, though?"

"Um… first, it can generate clean water! And I can throw the water as an attack, or spread it thin and use it as a barrier!"

Watching her chatter excitedly as she showed off, I let out a dry laugh. Was she planning to graduate from pure bus-riding healer and reclass as a spirit mage now?

Either way, it was good news. After back-to-back garbage F-rank skills on the second and third floors, she'd finally hit a real jackpot the moment we arrived on the fourth.

Alright. Time for me to find a skill of my own.

I turned my eyes back to the skill list. Praying for a skill with a name that would hit me just right, I scrolled rapidly downward.