It happened not long after Leo leveled up.
By this point, Leo had already been pushing through the Middle Floors alongside Line for several days.
And it was after these few days of fighting that the short sword Leo had kept on using all this time... broke.
"Mr. Leo, you want to forge a new sword?"
Leo told Line about it, leaving her a little surprised.
"That's right." Leo nodded, taking out the now-ruined short sword, and said with a wry smile, "I can't very well use Magic to take down monsters forever, can I? My Mind can't hold up to a whole day of using it, you know?"
At that, Line looked at the short sword in Leo's hand.
The blade of this sword had already shattered, with less than half of it still connected to the hilt, and that remaining piece was so pitted and chipped it was probably duller now than a rock by the roadside.
Just a moment ago, when Leo was tangling with a Hard Armored on the 13th floor, this short sword had only blocked one of the thing's charges before it cleanly broke apart.
So, unable to keep fighting, Leo and Line had already left the 13th floor.
Right now, they were in the mist-shrouded 12th floor, having just left the cavern room that connected to the 13th floor.
The two of them didn't keep heading up either, but instead stayed there in the mist and started talking.
"Every time you finish exploring, Mr. Leo, you take this sword in for repairs, but for it to have lasted this long fighting in the Middle Floors is already remarkable," Line said. "I thought you'd have replaced it sooner."
After their last conversation, Line had assumed Leo would go replace his weapon, but who'd have thought he kept using it for several more days, until today it shattered completely and he had no choice but to give it up.
"I figured I'd earn for a few more days, then go swap it out for a better-quality sword all at once."
Leo looked a little rueful, and Line's face cleared with understanding.
"If that's the case, why not just go to one of those fine weapon shops and buy a new sword, Mr. Leo? Why go to the trouble of forging one?" Line asked, puzzled. "If you don't have a shop you're familiar with, I could introduce a few to you."
Generally speaking, adventurers only start wanting to specially forge their own dedicated weapon, tailored to their own needs and circumstances, once they reach Lv.3 or Lv.4.
Because by that stage, the standard mass-produced weapons can no longer meet their needs.
Take Ais. Her fighting style is actually very brutal, very unkind to her weapons, to the point that after every battle the wear on the weapon is severe, and she even breaks weapons often, which makes the cost of repairing or buying new weapons very high each time, and has had a serious impact on her fighting as well.
Because of this, she needs a weapon with very high durability, one that can withstand her style of fighting, and for that it doesn't matter even if the weapon's sharpness drops a bit.
So she specially commissioned someone to forge a First Class equipment tailored just for her, which is the beloved sword she carries now, Desperate.
This sword's power is slightly below that of an ordinary First Class equipment, but it possesses a special property called "unbreakable," and no matter how it's used it won't break, making it, you could say, the weapon most suited to her, the one that best fits her requirements.
High-level adventurers usually need dedicated gear like this, suited to their own fighting style and combat needs, and the standardized mass-produced goods laid out on the counters simply can't meet their requirements, which is why they need to specially commission someone to forge them.
But Leo was only Lv.2 right now, so there was no need at all to forge his own dedicated weapon, right?
When your Level is low, generally a standard weapon is enough. Only once your Level is high and your fighting style and everything else has matured is there any need to forge a dedicated weapon.
This was the basis for what Line said.
This, of course, Leo knew as well.
It was just...
"Buying a new weapon outright isn't out of the question, but I want to save a sum of money, see if I can get a wand."
Leo shrugged and told Line his thinking.
After this month of effort, Leo had built up some savings.
When he first adventured alone, Leo earned a total of three hundred thousand valis, and later, after teaming up with Line for half a month, over that half-month, setting aside personal expenses and weapon repair costs and the like, Leo could save up roughly one hundred and fifty thousand valis a day, which over half a month came to around one million eight hundred thousand valis, and adding the three hundred thousand valis saved before that, made two million one hundred thousand valis.
Then there was this stretch of pushing through the Middle Floors after leveling up. Apart from earning four hundred thousand valis on the very first day, Leo's earning efficiency climbed with each passing day after that, and yesterday he outright earned five hundred thousand valis, so over these few days he earned close to two million valis in total, no small profit by any measure.
The upshot was that Leo had saved up around four million valis in total.
Four million valis, a sum that was neither a lot nor a little.
Call it a lot, and it could probably only buy one fine Third Class equipment, at most one slightly lower-quality Second Class equipment, and not a heavy weapon like a greatsword, battleaxe, or war hammer that uses a lot of material.
Call it a little, and an ordinary Lv.2 adventurer really might not be able to save up this much money, especially earning it in the span of just one month, which made it seem all the more incredible.
This sum could certainly buy a weapon that would satisfy Leo at his current stage, but turn it around, and that was about it.
If Leo also wanted to buy a wand, then it was absolutely not enough.
A wand equivalent to a Third Class equipment was worth several million valis at the very worst, and if Leo wanted to buy a wand, then the money left over wouldn't be enough to buy a weapon.
To buy both a weapon and a wand that suited him at the same time, Leo could only find a way to save money.
"It's not that I want to forge my own dedicated weapon, I just want to supply the raw materials myself, then find a smithing Familia to forge a sword for me," Leo said, laying out his thinking. "If I supply the raw materials myself, then the asking price definitely won't be so high, and that way I might have the money to buy a wand."
"So that's how it is." Line had a sudden realization, then quickly asked, "Then what kind of raw materials do you need, Mr. Leo?"
Though they hadn't explored for a full day today, they had still gathered quite a few drop items.
Almiraj horns, Hard Armored claws, Hellhound fangs and other drop items, Line had some of each in her backpack right now, and could readily supply them as raw materials for forging a weapon.
But Leo shook his head.
"I want to use what drops from an Infant Dragon to forge the weapon."
The Infant Dragon, a rare species monster that only appeared on the 11th and 12th floors, fewer than five at a time.
It was one of the dragon-kind monsters, said to be the strongest among the many monster races, and although it had no wings, its tough flesh wrapped in hard scales, it held latent ability far surpassing any monster of the Upper Floors. It was both the first dragon-kind monster to appear in the Dungeon and, in the Upper Floors that had no Monster Rex, the effective equivalent of a Floor Boss, a formidable foe a newbie adventurer could absolutely never handle.
A so-called Floor Boss was the equivalent of the boss that only appears at the very end of each stage in a game, a super-large category monster in the Dungeon, unlike ordinary monsters, that generally only spawns once over a long stretch of time and only appears on specific floors.
Generally speaking, a beginner area like the Upper Floors wouldn't spawn this kind of super-large category monster. The first Floor Boss to appear in the Dungeon was in the Middle Floors, at the far end of the Cave Labyrinth on the 17th floor, an ultra-powerful guardian stationed before the entrance to the 18th floor.
At present, before the deepest floor that the lower world's adventurers could reach, people had confirmed a total of only four Floor Bosses, and they appeared on the 17th floor, the 27th floor, the 37th floor, and the 49th floor respectively.
The gods jokingly called them the Four Heavenly Kings, and it was said that their Level was the Level of the monsters on their own floor plus two more.
Take the 17th floor. Most of the monsters that appear there are classified as Lv.2, and the floor's Floor Boss at the far end is classified as Lv.4, and in its specialized abilities can even reach Lv.5, so adventurers exploring on the 17th floor have no possibility at all of defeating it. They were always meant to be something that many adventurers band together in groups, joining hands and cooperating, before they'd even dare to attempt.
The joining hands and cooperating here doesn't mean the way adventurers exploring on the 13th floor do it, where forming a three-person party is enough.
If the adventurers in the party are only Lv.2, then they'd need at minimum a large corps of several dozen people to have any possibility of conquering it, and even forming a large group of over a hundred wouldn't be excessive, and it can't be stray, scattered troops either. It has to be a team with clear divisions of labor, with all the various classes, vanguard, middle guard, rearguard Mages, Healers and so on, all present, extremely well-drilled and smoothly coordinated.
This is the terror of a Floor Boss. Not only is it a super-large category monster far exceeding the large category monsters, but its abilities also far exceed the floor it's currently on, which is why people, full of awe, call them this, Monster Rex.
Among them, the weakest Monster Rex appears on the 17th floor, classified as Lv.4, and adventurers only need to start considering whether they might run into it down the line once they reach the Middle Floors. Newbie adventurers roaming the Upper Floors don't need to think about this thing.
But the Infant Dragon that appears on the 11th and 12th floors is called the effective Floor Boss of the Upper Floors, which shows just how powerful this dragon-kind monster is.
The Infant Dragon doesn't go so far as a true Floor Boss, whose Level is two ranks higher than the monsters on its current floor, but being about one rank higher is more than enough.
In other words, the Infant Dragon's abilities are stronger than the Almiraj, Hard Armored, Hellhound and the like on the 13th floor, and it's itself a dragon-kind, and a rare monster at that, so the value of its drop items is also much higher than Almiraj horns, Hard Armored claws, Hellhound fangs and the like.
This time, Leo had set his sights on this dragon-kind monster's drop items, intending to use the materials that dropped from it to forge a weapon.
"This... won't it be too risky?"
Learning of Leo's plan, Line grew hesitant.
It wasn't that she thought Leo couldn't beat an Infant Dragon. Even without a weapon in hand right now, with Magic whose firepower reached the Lv.3 level, dealing with a single Infant Dragon wouldn't be hard for him.
The problem was, drop items weren't something every monster dropped. The monsters that drop items are, in the end, a minority.
And the Infant Dragon was a rare species on top of that, with fewer than five appearing in the entire Dungeon at any one time, and even if you found them all and subjugated them all, there still might not be a drop item.
Besides, finding a rare Infant Dragon on the 11th and 12th floors might not even be doable.
"Drop items are usually the more developed parts of a monster's body, which means the more powerful and rare a monster is, the more likely it is to drop an item, since the odds of a developed part appearing on them are relatively high."
Leo said this to Line.
"Based on the available information, it's basically been confirmed that the more powerful and rare a monster is, the more likely it is to drop an item, so the odds of getting a drop item from an Infant Dragon are actually pretty high."
The weapon was already broken anyway, and today's exploration could no longer proceed normally, so he might as well go try his luck.
If it really didn't work out, Leo wouldn't force it. At most he'd give up the wand and prioritize buying a good melee weapon.
His Magic firepower already exceeded his current Level, and even without a wand to amplify and strengthen it, it was enough.
"If I can get a drop item from an Infant Dragon today, then I'll go buy a wand, and commission a smith to forge me a sword using the Infant Dragon's drop item as the main material."
"If I can't get a drop item from an Infant Dragon today, then I'll just find a shop and buy a high-quality weapon."
"Call it a two-pronged plan, I guess. It just depends on whether luck's on my side today."
Leo said this, and Line nodded.
"In that case, let me help you find the areas where Infant Dragons might appear, Mr. Leo."
Line dug out the Upper Floors map she'd drawn who knew how many times, carefully checking the terrain of the 11th and 12th floors, calculating the regions where Infant Dragons might appear.
Under Line's lead, Leo veered off the main route and started wandering through the more out-of-the-way areas.
They ran into quite a few monsters along the way, but these Upper Floor monsters could no longer pose any threat to Leo, and he dealt with them easily using Magic.
Before long, under Line's lead, Leo got his wish and ran into an Infant Dragon.
"Roooaaaarrr!!!"
Along with a vicious roar erupting in the thick fog, a colossal creature appeared from deep within the grassland.
Its height was a full three meters and more, and its body length even more, over four meters, its whole body wrapped in amber scales, a long tail growing from its back, muscles bulging all over, its physique visibly tough, a pair of blood-red eyeballs rolling ceaselessly, fixing on Leo after one high roar, killing intent drifting within them.
"So this is an Infant Dragon?"
Looking at this dragon-kind monster, bigger than the large category Orc and Silverback, Leo felt no fear, only curiosity and a craving for the drop items on it.
"Roooaaaarrr!"
The Infant Dragon seemed to sense the adventurer before it, and let out an enraged roar and charged.
Leo broke into a sudden smile, both hands empty, but a magic circle appeared beneath his feet.
Starlight drifted, and gorgeous meteors began to dance, offering up a beautiful sight to this fog-laden grassland.
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