Five layers... ten layers... twenty layers... Thirty... fifty... eighty...
When the blue, translucent spherical shield surrounding Levi reached 100 layers, his senses via the Vision told him he had hit the cap for Icy Paws.
Maintaining the shield consumed Cryo energy constantly. Relying solely on the Vision's passive environmental absorption was clearly insufficient. In fact, if not for Hestia's blessing and the Exile artifact set bonus, Levi would likely have been unable to maintain it without chugging Mental Recovery Potions.
Three minutes later.
Advancing further along the main path, Levi encountered a second wave of enemies: six Hellhounds. Accustomed to these beasts, he efficiently dispatched five of them, leaving one alive as a test subject for his shield.
Levi didn't simply stand there and take the fire breath to the face. Instead, whenever an attack was about to land, he used footwork learned from the Starshatterer Spear Style to dodge, letting the attack graze the edge of his shield. After repeating this 270 times, the max-stacked shield finally shattered.
It can withstand 200 hits from a lower Level 2 monster?
As he finished off the hound, Levi calculated: One paw-stack can negate roughly two hits. With five paws active at once, I should be able to tank at least one direct hit from a Level 3 monster without an issue.
The result was excellent. In the Dungeon, as long as you can prevent the enemy from piercing your defense, you can theoretically secure a victory. With a shield that could negate attacks from monsters a level higher than himself, paired with two 4-star melee weapons, Levi now possessed a relatively safe path to farming Great Feats.
By nature, he wasn't the type to gamble. He never planned to challenge Level 4 threats while still at Level 2, nor did he intend to hunt the Floor Boss, Goliath, for his quest yet. That wasn't a challenge; it was suicide.
However, in the Dungeon, no matter how cautious an adventurer is, accidents happen. It could be a spontaneous Monster Party or a mess caused by other adventurers. Until today, Levi had mostly stuck to the upper floors. He had yet to experience a true anomaly.
But today...
Pushing into the 16th floor, he encountered it: the one thing he hated most—a Pitfall Trap.
Levi had just skewered a Fang-Toothed Tiger with his spear and was about to pick up the magic stone. In the next second, before he could even react, the ground beneath him collapsed entirely.
The sensation of weightlessness took over. Levi didn't have time to wonder why; falling through the air, he instinctively began spamming Icy Paws. Since he already had over eighty layers of shielding, his durability returned to the 90+ range in a matter of seconds.
Suddenly, light flooded the area. A girl's startled cry reached his ears: "Miss Ais, someone fell from above!"
Another calm, feminine voice followed: "Leave it to me. Awaken!"
Levi didn't dare entrust his life to strangers. He fired off two more Icy Paws toward the ground and downed a High-Grade Potion. Calculating the distance, he pre-cast Signature Mix at his projected landing point. Furthermore, utilizing his Level 3-equivalent physique, he adjusted his posture mid-air—knees bent, hands protecting his head to absorb the shock. He focused all his Mana around his heart, pushing his Endurance to SSS1299 + 1200.
And then... all those preparations became moot.
Levi found himself caught in a "Princess Carry" by a blonde-haired girl. The girl looked down, her doll-like face devoid of emotion. The boy with the pale-gold hair looked up at her, a mix of surprise and bewilderment in his eyes. If their roles were reversed, it would have been a picturesque scene.
Unfortunately, as one of the participants, Levi had no time to enjoy the warmth of her embrace. "Thank you for the help. Also... can you put me down now?"
"Okay," the blonde girl nodded and did as requested.
From the distance, the roar of a Floor Boss echoed.
"ROAAAAAAR!!"
A massive shockwave—the same type used by Minotaurs but many times more powerful—erupted toward them.
"Lefiya, get back!" "Look out!"
Among the adventurers fighting Goliath—likely from the same Familia as the blonde girl—was a slender elf girl with a honey-colored ponytail. Distracted by the newcomer, her reaction was a split second too slow. Just as Goliath's attack was about to strike her, a translucent ice-blue shield suddenly manifested around her.
The roar, capable of crushing a Level 1 into paste and severely injuring a Level 2 or 3, slammed into the shield. The barrier shattered with a crisp sound after half a second, but the impact was significantly dampened. The elf girl cried out in pain, but she wasn't incapacitated.
"!!!"
Everyone present wore expressions of shock. However, since the battle was still ongoing, they had to suppress their questions. Levi, having just loosed a round of Icy Paws, turned to the girl beside him.
"Aren't you going to help?"
He had already guessed her identity. Human, blonde, using wind-enchantment magic, and named Ais. In Orario, she could only be the "Sword Princess" of the Loki Familia, Ais Wallenstein.
Ais appeared stoic, but she wasn't arrogant. She replied, "This is Lefiya's adventure. Riveria said I can only interfere if I'm sure they've failed the challenge."
"I see."
Levi nodded. As he spoke, he casually flicked five layers of shielding onto the rest of the party. The fact that he could use barrier magic would inevitably leak once used in the Dungeon; he figured he might as well do the Loki Familia a favor while he was at it.
Furthermore...