I Became the Protagonist's Best Friend in a Bishoujo Game

"Hunt the floor boss monster?"

Cordelia repeated my suggestion with a questioning tone, her eyes slightly widened. It’s not just her, the others were also surprised when they heard that.

They all froze in place for a second, staring at me as if I had just said something completely absurd.

I nodded my head to confirm to them that they heard me right.

I kept a steady, confident expression, letting them process the proposal without backing down.

"But we’re only allowed up until here on the second floor."

Crystal then suddenly said that.

She stepped forward slightly, crossing her arms as she brought up the official rules given to us before entering the dungeon entrance.

I looked at her and lightly waved my hand.

I gave a casual brush of my wrist, completely brushing aside her concerns with a relaxed shrug.

"So what? We’re just going to hunt the floor boss monster. We can just not go to the third floor."

I replied.

I laid out the logic clearly, pointing out that taking down a floor’s designated boss didn’t inherently mean we were breaking boundary limits.

"They said that we can hunt and stay all the way up here on the second floor, so that includes the floor boss, right?"

And then I added that.

I raised an eyebrow, challenging them to find a single clause in the academy handbook that explicitly prohibited fighting the floor guardian itself.

After hearing my reasoning, the others went silent. They realized that my words aren’t wrong.

Zion blinked, looking back and forth between me and Crystal as the loophole clicked in his head.

And I also know that I am not wrong.

I had tested the exact limits of the academy system during my past playthroughs, knowing every boundary condition by heart.

I already tried this in the game. I killed the 2nd floor boss monster, and I was awarded extra points for doing so.

The evaluation mechanics heavily rewarded parties that took down high-value targets within their permitted zone, boosting their total score significantly.

’I did also try to go to the third floor after that, but I was stopped by the observing staff and they deducted points on our party.’

I thought, recalling some of my gameplay.

I remembered the annoying prompt that popped up on screen when the hidden invigilators stepped in to penalize the team for going out of bounds.

Anyway, the others thought hard about my suggestion, but at the end of the day... They all looked at Crystal and waited for her decision, she was the acting leader, after all.

They turned their attention away from me, leaving the final choice to the person officially tasked with commanding our squad.

I caught a glimpse of Crystal secretly eyeing Cordelia, and Cordelia gave her a small signal.

Cordelia gave a nearly imperceptible, reassuring nod, silently giving her approval to push forward with my proposed plan.

After that, Crystal looked at me, and opening her mouth—

She exhaled softly, tightening her grip on her staff before turning back to address the entire group.

"Okay, our goal from now on is to defeat the floor boss."

She declared that.

She set her shoulders with newfound resolve, officially adopting the ambitious challenge as our party’s next primary objective.

I saw Zion smiling ear to ear after hearing that, Cindy seems pretty excited as well.

Zion let out a quiet chuckling sound, resting his hand on his sword hilt while Cindy gave a sharp, eager nod from the shadows.

And I’m going to be honest... I feel the same way.

The prospect of engaging a high-tier floor guardian and reaping massive evaluation points was far more engaging than idly wandering around basic corridors.

*****

We finished cleaning up the camp and moved immediately.

Everyone moved efficiently, strapping down their travel gear, extinguishing our light sources, and clearing away all traces of our temporary camp.

"You’re going to guide our group straight to the mini boss room again."

Crystal told me.

She fell in line behind me, trusting my navigation without question after seeing how smoothly I had routed our path through the upper level.

"Sure, just follow me."

I confidently replied.

I gestured down the wide stone highway ahead, stepping out of the small side chamber to lead our formation into the main passage.

And just like that, we got into formation and started venturing to the second floor again.

We organized into our standard marching order, keeping our vanguard alert while I maintained our route toward the deeper sections of the floor layout.

... ... ...

The wide cavern halls stretched out ahead of us, lit by the quiet, steady glow of scattered crystal clusters along the stone ceiling.

... ... ...

We maintained a steady marching pace, keeping our distance from unnecessary side routes and sticking strictly to the most direct paths available.

... ... ...

Our group moved like a synchronized unit, navigating through narrow choke points and wide chambers without losing our overall tactical momentum.

Our time on the second floor went smoothly like when we were on the first floor.

The initial worries about sudden difficulty spikes evaporated quickly as we maintained perfect operational rhythm through every section.

We continued encountering Hobgoblin Warriors for some while, and we overwhelmed them in terms of strategy, weapon, and strength.

Their brute force and crude weaponry proved completely useless against our coordinated front line, resulting in short, clean skirmishes every single time.

But after some time, we encountered Giant Spiders and Cave Imps as well.

The environmental flora and regional monster variety began to shift as we entered the lower sectors of the second floor’s main territory.

Giant Spiders are poisonous and their webs trap you if you’re not careful of them, but freezing their webs deals with that easily.

The moment thick strands of sticky silk flew out from the dark ceiling, a single burst of my frost energy made the threads brittle and easily breakable.

Then the Cave Imps, they use a bit of magic and launch earth projectiles at people, their range is pretty far too.

These small, winged pests hovered near high rock ledges, hurling dense lumps of sharpened stone down at our marching path from long distances.

But Cordelia, Crystal, and Cindy were able to deal with them easily as well.

Cordelia’s high-speed water strikes and Crystal’s tracking fire magic blasted them off their perches before they could launch a second barrage.

Once again, I was doing nothing but buffing and supporting from the back. But I’m not complaining, it’s like having a free experience point from doing the easiest and safest task.

I stood safely behind our heavy hitters, casually applying basic stat boosts and elemental resistance shields whenever a fight broke out.

And just like that, we continued for a few hours with me leading the way.

We pressed deeper through the subterranean maze, clearing out small ambushes before they could even fully form in front of us.

I memorized the path on this floor from the game as well, so we didn’t encounter any trap chambers or dead ends.

My internal map knowledge allowed us to bypass hidden floor triggers, unstable ceiling sections, and endless looping corridors entirely.

We only stopped once to have lunch and replenish our stamina, and after that—we didn’t stop.

We sat near a quiet, monster-free rock shelf to eat our rations and rest our legs briefly before pulling our packs back on to continue the march.

We continued, and by the time the second day was nearing its end...

The ambient air in the passage grew distinctly colder and heavier, carrying a noticeable concentration of dense, stagnant mana.

TAP-

My boot came to a quiet halt against a wide stone threshold marking the end of the long winding hallway.

"We’re here."

I successfully led the whole group in front of the mini boss room on the second floor.

I gestured toward the massive, arched stone entryway standing before us, leading straight into the dark, expansive chamber of the floor guardian.

"We’re really here..."

Crystal mumbled in disbelief, staring at the double stone doors in front of us.

She looked at me with a confused frown on her face, then opening her mouth--

"How do you know the path of this dungeon so well?"

She asked me.

"Uhhh, I can read map really well."

I told her.

Crystal looked at me, but she didn’t say anything else to me after that.

Instead--

"Nevermind that, should we rest up for now and enter the next day?"

She asked that to the group.

"Is that even necessary?"

I asked afterwards before anyone could even reply to her. Everyone looked at me, then with a shrug--

"Are any of us that tired? Low on Mana?"

I followed with that.

"We reached this place easily without sustaining any injuries, we can take the challenge right now if you all want."

"And after that, we can use the boss room as our temporary came, then use the last day going back out of the dungeon."

I added, stating that to everyone.

"We can all vote on it, if you want."

I said, then smiling a little--

"I vote on entering now, obviously."

I declared that.