After the Dungeon regained its traits as a breeding ground for monsters, Adventurers once again poured in.
However, most of them still lingered between the 1st and 15th floors. Even Lv. 1 Adventurers who grouped together for safety could only hunt on those relatively safe levels. Once they reached the deeper floors, their Lv. 1 strength became more of a burden than an asset.
Swish!
On the Safe Floor of the 50th level, a figure cloaked in lightning appeared atop the central rock platform.
"I didn't expect to come back so soon."
Stripping off the lightning-cloaked mantle, Bell stood alone on the rocky platform in a white robe.
Traces of life were still scattered around: campfire pits buried under sand and shallow indentations in the ground—remnants of past activity.
Just a month ago, Loki Familia had spent several unforgettable nights here.
'Now comes the systematic training.'
'Half a month should be enough time.'
He wasn't starting from scratch; his Status was already at a high level. This training phase was about refinement and reinforcement, and half a month was a reasonable timeframe for that.
Bell didn't waste any time on the Safe Floor and headed straight for the 51st floor.
This was the Dragon's Vase. Any Adventurer entering it would immediately be targeted by the Valgang Dragons on the 58th floor and come under attack. Bell didn't suppress his presence and stepped straight into the 51st floor.
'Here we go.'
The sensation of being watched by countless predators made the hairs on the back of his neck stand up.
He paused briefly at the entrance—just a few seconds—then moved forward.
Boom!
A pillar of intense flame erupted behind him, blasting through the barriers between floors and striking the entrance directly.
When he turned around, part of the floor had already melted under the searing heat.
'As expected, the Dungeon is a one-way road for adventurers.'
'One small mistake, and you're dead.'
Even with the strength of a Level 4, Bell had never once underestimated the monsters of the Dungeon.
Even elephants can be devoured by ants. And Bell, while not seeing himself as an ant, knew that to these powerful monsters, that's exactly what he was.
Only an ant would keep forging ahead through danger, constantly seeking ways to grow stronger.
But this ant didn't crave safety in numbers. What he sought was self-evolution.
Sensing incoming attacks from the lower floors, Bell dodged with precision while staying alert for the monsters on the 51st floor.
Maybe it was the Dragon's Vase's unique nature, but most of the monsters here were tank-like and hard to kill—creatures with poison and restraining abilities.
Take the spiders crawling along the walls, for example. Aside from their massive size, their main threats were web-spitting and weaving. Yet even that was enough to trouble Adventurers.
Once you got stuck in a 51st-floor spider's web, escaping was no easy task.
For underpowered Adventurers, even if they weren't blasted apart by the Valgang Dragon's barrages, they'd still likely fall prey to the spiders, bound and consumed.
These spiders might not be highly aggressive, but you couldn't ignore a monster's jaws. Even a Level 5 Adventurer wouldn't last long against dozens of them.
Avoiding their webs was the key to surviving this floor.
Once you evaded the webs, the next threat came from the Valgang Dragon's targeting barrage.
Attacks that ignored floor barriers—utterly shameless.
To make things worse, the Valgang Dragon had a bizarre targeting ability that let it lock onto Adventurers from eight floors away.
"Boom!"
Bell dodged another pillar of fire erupting from the ground.
This time, because he was paying close attention to his surroundings, his reaction was a fraction slower—just enough for the flames to graze his face. The heat, strong enough to melt solid rock, scorched a red mark across his cheek.
The searing pain briefly distracted him.
"Pft!"
Still, he kept his ears sharp, clearly catching the subtle sound of webbing being shot.
He anticipated the webs' trajectory and moved out of range just in time.
"Pft! Pft!"
Suddenly, as if triggered by command, the spiders lurking in the maze's darkness all fired webs at once.
Bell's gaze quickly scanned the area. The forming threads were unmistakable, and the vibrations beneath his feet brought a rising sense of danger.
'The coordination between these monsters and the Valgang Dragons on the 58th floor is uncanny.'
Bell stopped holding back. Alongside his heightened focus, he pushed his speed to the limit.
Before the webs could latch onto the walls and weave a trap, he slipped through the gaps just in time.
"Boom!"
As expected, the central spot left open by the forming trap was completely engulfed by another pillar of fire.
A painfully obvious setup—but effective.
Yet before Bell could even catch his breath, a deep rumble shook the floor.
The tremors grew louder, and when he turned to look, he saw a herd of rhino-like beasts—each nearly three-quarters the size of an elephant—charging at him.
The heavy pounding of their charge drowned out all other sounds, stirring a sudden, inexplicable irritation within him.
But that irritation brought clarity.
It was a feeling Bell knew well—the taste of "desperation."
His sharp hearing remained locked onto the ground's subtle shifts, gauging the timing of the Valgang Dragon's next strike.
In the face of so many monsters, without retreating or unleashing his full power, what he needed most was experience—real combat experience.
The kind that let him divide his attention three ways at once.
That was the key.
And he was just one step away from reaching the stillness of "mirror-like calm," the essential threshold of mastery.
In that instant, Bell drew Kuji Kanesada.
This was the moment of slaughter—the moment to surpass despair.
He charged straight at the rhino herd.
The rhinos didn't back down either, lowering their sharpest horns and charging in kind—the most instinctive attack of any beast.
For small monsters, a charge like that was harmless. But with creatures this massive, it could be lethal.
Still, there were gaps between them.
After a short sprint, Bell leapt high into the air, regaining his posture mid-jump. Just as he was about to collide with one, he landed squarely on its head.
Using the beast's skull as a springboard, he launched himself again.
In that moment, the world around him faded to gray. While still midair and off-balance, he slashed twice in quick succession. The third strike, however, came just a hair too late.
Time shifted once more—space and flow resetting in an instant.
"Splurt!"
Two clean strikes sliced through the neck of the lead rhino. Blood sprayed skyward like a pressurized fountain.
The beast immediately collapsed mid-charge, skidding across the ground.
But the ones behind didn't stop.
Their hooves crushed the fallen rhino without hesitation, trampling it until there wasn't even a Magic Stone left—just black ash.
Still midair, Bell twisted his body and pushed off, using the faint recoil of the air itself to change direction.
"Boom!"
Another flame pillar erupted from the ground. Had he hesitated even slightly, it would've hit him dead-on.
"Gah—!"
It was close. But the pillar's eruption wiped out seven or eight of the rhinos trailing behind him.
Still, watching that fire pillar incinerate everything in an instant—there was nothing amusing about it. Even those tank-like monsters couldn't endure the Valgang Dragon's breath. If an Adventurer took a direct hit, not even ashes would be left.
Bell had barely landed when the ground rumbled again.
The rhinos that had previously charged ahead had already turned around, coming at him once more with lowered horns.
Even Bell felt a bit suffocated under this pressure.
'So this is the 51st floor... figures.'
Only now did Bell truly understand how many deadly twists the Dungeon could conjure in the palm of its hand.
After all, the first time Bell passed through the 51st floor, he'd simply walked straight down.
This time, he had deliberately left his presence unchecked to focus on training. He hadn't expected the 51st floor's "welcome" to be this enthusiastic.
The Dungeon never gives Adventurers a break—always ready to deliver a fatal strike the moment one slips into desperation.
If not for the sheer number of monsters here, Bell figured a full-blown "monster feast" would already be in motion.
"Crack-crack!"
Just as the thought crossed his mind, the sound of shattering stone echoed in his ears. Bell's face twitched.
'Damn it, Dungeon, that's low!'
He glanced back. Large cracks split open the wall, and from them emerged a fresh wave of rhinos.
The moment their eyes met, the rhinos' eyes turned red, like bulls provoked by a red cape. They lowered themselves and charged straight at Bell.
With enemies flanking him, Bell had no choice but to use the same move—springing off the ground into the air.
But the front-line rhinos weren't stupid. As Bell leapt, the lead rhino jumped too.
Even the newly emerged ones in the back launched into the air to meet him.
That split-second clash in midair hit Bell head-on.
"Bang!"
Like a burst balloon, Bell was struck violently mid-leap, the impact creating a shockwave that momentarily staggered both waves of rhinos.
In that instant, Bell—now without his white coat—rushed straight toward the rhinos that had slammed into each other, Kuji Kanesada in hand.
He didn't aim for instant kills. Instead, he opted to inflict serious wounds.
Blade flashes lit the dark corridor.
Each flash was followed by a bloodcurdling scream.
Before long, the floor was soaked in a thin layer of blood. The rhinos wailed in pain, yet not one of them died immediately.
"Haaah..."
With this wave of the "monster feast" dealt with, Bell finally took a breath. He'd been holding it the entire time while wounding the rhinos. As his breath left him, so too did some of his strength, and the fatigue dragged his condition down a notch.
The redness in his face began to fade, though a visible heat still lingered on his skin.
"No mercy at all."
Without using any magic—just pure skill and his Status—Bell had nearly wiped out an entire monster wave in mere seconds. That was his current limit.
He had intentionally avoided killing the rhinos outright.
Slashed across the neck, they sprayed blood and slowly lost strength. Though they didn't die immediately, they could no longer charge.
And that was the point. It took less energy and stamina to seriously wound them than to kill them, and leaving them alive would slow the Dungeon's monster spawn rate.
A subtle sound made Bell retreat immediately.
"Boom!"
A fire pillar erupted in the area where most of the rhinos had gathered, reducing them to ash in an instant.
As he watched, Bell's ears caught more of that telltale "crack-crack-crack"—the sound of walls fracturing again. His face twitched. Without wasting a second, he bolted.
The 51st floor's welcome was a bit too much.
He'd deliberately spared those rhinos, only for the Valgang Dragon's attack to ruin it all.
And once the rhinos were wiped out, the next wave of the "monster feast" rolled in.
It was like a Dungeon-style death call spam—relentless. The Dungeon really wouldn't stop until it killed him.
He suppressed his presence completely and left the 51st floor at full speed.
Once again, he turned into lightning and returned to the safety of the 50th floor.
This time, though, Bell looked a little worse for wear.
The white coat he always wore had been burned away.
Stopping to catch his breath, Bell took a moment to feel out the state of the Dungeon.
'So it's quiet when I hide my presence, but the moment I let it out—it's like a death call on repeat.'
He'd experienced something similar in the upper floors. But back then, the monsters weren't all that dangerous, so they were easy to handle.
On the 51st floor, though, nearly every monster was on par with a Lv. 4, or even Lv. 5. And with how they moved in packs, no Adventurer could survive a full-on monster tide.
What Bell had just faced wasn't just a tide—it was one tailor-made for him.
'I really shouldn't pull stunts like that in the Deep Floors. If I'm not strong enough, I'll actually die.'
Wiping the cold sweat from his forehead, Bell once again felt the side effects of unleashing his aura.
Next time, he'd need to control its output—to trick the Dungeon into summoning only a proportional "monster feast."
Though for that, he'd definitely need to prepare a "valve."