The Dungeon, Floor 15.
Dim, cavern-like passages ran everywhere, the damp air drifting through this gray cave with the smell of stone.
The scant light sources near the ceiling flickered like campfires, carving parts of the faintly dark scene into irregular shapes, like an eternal night.
In this gloomy underground labyrinth, in one corner of a cave passage, a ferocious slaughter was underway.
A flash of silver light blurred into an afterimage, cleaving the air, then cleaving the wind, carrying an unmatched sharpness as it slashed at a Hellhound.
Blood sprayed. The Hellhound, which had been compressing flame in its mouth, had its body cut open and its nerves severed by that godlike slash, and though its muscles were solid and its hide tough beyond compare, that slash still effortlessly cleaved it in two, split clean apart, dead beyond dead.
Watching their companion's wretched death, the remaining Hellhounds let out furious howls one after another.
But the flames flickering in their mouths still couldn't be spat out; the adventurer who had so effortlessly cut down their companion charged in at astonishing speed, raised a hand, and silver light flashed again, slashing at them.
The sound of bodies being cut by a keen edge kept ringing out, and the Hellhounds' furious howls turned into agonized death-wails, sending blood leaping through the air to weave together with that silver light, blurred into afterimages, into a hellish tableau of slaughter, which at a glance held a certain beauty to it.
Before long, the pack of Hellhounds had all been slaughtered by the adventurer who had burst in here, and everything in the cave passage fell silent.
Only then did the adventurer holding the silver sword halt his ghost-fast steps, emerging from the gloom.
It was Leo.
"S-so amazing, Mr. Leo!"
Line, who had been watching from the rear the whole time, ready to support Leo at any moment, watched with her mouth rounded into a circle, and then her whole self grew excited.
There was no helping it. The strength Leo had just shown had knocked her jaw clean off.
That strength was clearly far stronger than what he'd shown the day before yesterday, stronger by a lot, even.
No wonder... no wonder that today, after entering the Dungeon and reaching Floor 13, Mr. Leo had suddenly suggested deepening their clear and brought her to leap straight down the vertical shaft from Floor 13, skipping Floor 14, crossing floors to arrive at Floor 15.
Line had been worried Leo wouldn't be able to handle it, yet who'd have thought that after reaching Floor 15, Leo would show strength far greater than before, a crushing dominance.
"You updated your Status?"
Line ran up, asking with anticipation.
"Yeah." Still savoring the feel of the fight just now, Leo answered with a smile. "After I got home the day before yesterday I updated my Status at Loki's place, and my strength grew a bit."
Line very much wanted to say this was no mere bit of growth.
With the strength Leo had just shown, he was no less than a veteran among Lv.2s.
Killing power or speed, compared to the day before yesterday, was on a completely different level.
"With the strength you just showed, Mr. Leo, forget Floor 15, you could adapt even to the floors past Floor 18, couldn't you?"
Line said this as if in amazement.
And it really was so.
With this Status update, Leo's all-abilities proficiency had risen by a total of about 2,700, of which Strength and Endurance had reached E, while Dexterity and Agility had reached the point of satisfying the basic conditions for a level up, and as for Magic, it had even reached C, an ability score that forget Floor 15, would satisfy the standard provided by the Guild even past Floor 20, or even all the way down to the deepest Middle Floor, Floor 24.
By the clear standards the Guild provided, the lowest floor of the Floor 13-24 Middle Floor region, namely the clear standard for Floor 24, was still Lv.2, with required ability scores of C-S.
By that standard, Leo already had one score, Magic, that met it.
If he were matched with two teammates who likewise met the clear standard, then right now he could go adventuring on Floor 24.
In a situation like this, just roaming Floor 15 wouldn't put much pressure on Leo at all, even if he were alone, without teammates fighting at his side.
Of course...
"Being able to fight this cleanly is also thanks to having the right weapon in hand."
Leo raised the silver sword in his hand, looking at the edge still glinting with a cold gleam, without the slightest sign of wear, a satisfied look crossing his face.
This Third Class equipment, made with the Infant Dragon fang as the main material and a little Hardsteel mixed in, originally priced at four million five hundred thousand valis and haggled down by Loki to one million eight hundred thousand valis, truly lived up to its touching price.
Before, when fighting Hellhounds, even if Leo could land a hit at top speed, the short sword in his hand would be greatly obstructed by their pelts, harder than ox-hide, to say nothing of the stout muscle beneath those pelts.
You could say that before, to cut a Hellhound dead, Leo had to put his full force into every single attack; without an all-out strike he couldn't move their bodies at all, and even when he did manage a cut, it would most likely just open a wound, and unless he struck a vital point, there was no way to finish one in a single blow.
But now it was different.
Just now, Leo had used hardly any force at all, yet had successfully broken open the Hellhound's pelt, cut through its muscle, and split it clean in two with one sword, dead beyond dead.
That alone showed just how sharp this new weapon was.
Its power already came extremely close to Second Class equipment; cutting down a Middle Floor monster, you could say it had plenty of room to spare.
"With this, I figure I won't even need to think about switching weapons until Lv.5."
Leo turned the silver blade in his hand, more pleased the more he looked at it.
Generally speaking, even among first-class adventurers, not just anyone could use First Class equipment.
Take Bete, whose main weapon was still Second Class equipment even now, except his equipment was extremely special, its value in no way inferior to First Class equipment.
Equipment, barring exceptions, usually matched an adventurer's Level; for instance, a first-class adventurer was best off using First Class equipment, and a second-class adventurer best off using Second Class equipment, so that their gear wouldn't hold them back.
A Lv.2 like Leo, that is, a third-class adventurer, would normally use Third Class equipment, but the sword in Leo's hand already had power close to Second Class equipment, its Endurance and hardness even fully comparable to Second Class equipment, and that being so, even when he later leveled up to Lv.3 or even Lv.4, he could just barely keep using this sword.
"Decided. I'll call you Dragon Fang Sword."
Leo gave the sword in his hand a name.
Because it had been commissioned from someone else, and on a very tight schedule at that, this sword hadn't had time to be given a name since it was forged.
Since the main material used to forge it was the Infant Dragon's fang, calling it "Dragon Fang Sword" was fitting enough.
"Mr. Leo!"
Watching Leo fondle his newly acquired weapon, unable to put it down, Line was about to say something with a smile when out of the corner of her eye she glimpsed something dreadful, her face changing abruptly as she cried out.
Leo heard it too. From the passage behind him came a sudden heavy tread, along with thick, rough panting.
That was the kind of tread and panting only a large, ferocious beast could have.
Amid the commotion that set even the ground trembling faintly, Leo slowly turned around.
And then he saw it.
In the darkness, a giant body slowly walked out, giving off an astonishing presence, one that would frighten even upper-class adventurers and make them want to flee at once.
The giant body was red-copper all over, huge muscles surging across it, the knotted shoulders and arms bulging like thick rope carrying a powerful sense of pressure, the rock-hard hooves landing on the ground sinking it with every step, stamping out hoof-shaped marks.
Heavy snorts kept blasting out.
Its mighty horns curved.
Its height definitely topped two meters, with a bull's head, a human body, blood-red eyes, and in its hand a colossal natural weapon like a great battle-axe.
The terrifying bull monster that emerged from the darkness let out a roar that shook the cave.
It was a roar that could rouse the most instinctive fear in a living being's heart.
It was a horrifying intimidation that could bind a creature's body and mind, leaving it unable to move.
The intense roar could shake an adventurer's will to fight, sap an adventurer's resolve, and make everyone who faced it head-on form a single thought in their heart at the first instant: "Cannot be opposed."
Whether the strength to stand and fight or the courage to fight head-on, both would vanish in an instant at that roar, leaving a person's mind blank, their body stiff, until at last they lost all power to resist and were left to be slaughtered at will.
"A Minotaur!"
Line's voice changed in tone, carrying an instinctive dread within it that she herself didn't even notice.
The Minotaur, the most representative monster of the Middle Floor Cave Labyrinth.
It was a ferocious beast classified as Lv.2 even alone, and within the entire Middle Floor region, up to the safe floor of Floor 18, it was unquestionably the strongest monster aside from the Floor Boss at the end of Floor 17.
This kind of monster generally appeared only on floors below Floor 15, the nightmare that all adventurers who came to the Cave Labyrinth to clear the Middle Floors could least afford to ignore.
Even the likes of the Hellhound, with its magic attacks, fell far short of a single Minotaur in the hearts of adventurers, even when the Hellhounds came in packs.
The bull monster let out another roar that shook the atmosphere and kicked up countless flecks of dust, then stamped the ground to pieces and came charging madly at Leo.
"Be careful, Mr. Leo!"
Line's face went white at once, her voice growing panicked and flustered too.
She was only Lv.2, and a non-combatant at that; even though she'd followed the Familia's elite to the super-deep region below Floor 50, facing this terrifying monster that could freeze the bodies of upper-class adventurers and leave them unable to move, she still couldn't help feeling fear rise in her heart.
Forget Line, even Leo, who was used to the Dungeon and no longer got tense the way he had facing a monster for the first time, couldn't help his whole body tightening as he faced this bull-headed, human-bodied monster, and his gaze changed sharply in an instant.
Seeing the bull monster come charging with earth-shaking, ground-quaking heavy steps, as if to trample the entire cave passage to pieces, and raising the great stone axe in its hand high, Leo drew the jade-colored staff hanging at his waist almost on reflex.
"Light of heaven, sword of stars."
The crystal-like orb flickered with a dazzling light, aimed at the bull monster roaring as it charged.
"Meteor Dance!"
As the brief chant fell, at the tip of the jade-colored staff, a magic circle blazing with gorgeous starlight spun open.
A meteor shot out from the magic circle, carrying a dreadful momentum, blasting thunderously at the oncoming Minotaur.
The meteor was nearly twice as large as the pillar-thick specification of when Leo had cast his magic before.
So when it appeared, all the darkness in the cave passage was driven off, the blazing starlight lighting up the whole passage directly, turning the once gloomy, eternal-night-dark passage as bright as day, glaringly so.
The Minotaur, which had come charging in full fury, didn't even manage to react to this massive meteor, nearly equal to its giant body, before it was struck.
A thunderous boom rang out, and the bull monster was blasted clean away by the immensely thick meteor, its whole giant body pinned at the very front of the meteor, pushed forward all the way until it slammed heavily into the wall and burst apart along with countless rocks.
In an instant, shattered stone filled the air, smoke and dust billowed up, and the whole passage trembled in the roaring blast, raining countless flecks of dust from the ceiling.
Line was already stunned blank.
Forget Line, even Leo, once he came to his senses, was a little shocked.
"The power of my magic... it's risen this much?"
This firepower, even if it hadn't reached the standard of Lv.4, was probably not far off, was it?
"Is this staff's effect really this strong?"
Leo's gaze toward the jade-colored staff in his hand changed.
The magic just now, cast with this staff, had been smooth to an almost unimaginable degree, and he could clearly feel a force flowing out of his body amplifying his magic, raising its power, and even reducing his Mind consumption.
"So this is the difference between having a staff in hand and not?"
Just like an adventurer with a weapon in hand and one without were surely different.
But Leo, thinking this, had forgotten that his Magic score, compared to before, had risen a full six stages, jumping straight from the lowest, I, all the way to C.
Add to that the boost to the Magic score from the staff, plus the amplification of magic power, and that was what had so greatly raised his output, giving him firepower nearly reaching Lv.4.
Firepower like that, used against a single Minotaur classified at a mere Lv.2, was already a bit excessive.
So when the smoke and dust cleared and the shattered stone had all settled, both Leo and Line saw it: the bull monster, battered and bloody all over, having nearly lost half its body, lying in the crater blasted into the wall.
Whether alive or dead, no one could tell.
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