"Skree! Skree!"
"Skree! Skree! Skree!"
Within the subterranean tunnels formed by pale green walls, countless Killer Ants—their bodies a stark, blood-red—scurried like a relentless army. Their mandibles gnashed together, emitting high-pitched screeches as they surged in a single direction. Like a crimson tide, the sheer momentum of their advance was terrifying to behold.
A gathering of Killer Ants on such a massive scale was a rare sight even on the 7th floor of the dungeon. Yet here they were, swarming together in a unified strike against a single figure.
Faced with such a fearsome insectoid army, any adventurer who wasn't an upper-class Level 2 would typically have no choice but to flee for their lives. Few would ever dare to face such a legion alone.
However, today, a rookie who had only been an adventurer for about ten days stood his ground. Not only did he refuse to retreat before the crimson wave, but he charged forward without a hint of hesitation.
Squelch!
A cold glint of a blade flashed through the air. A sharp, small straight sword sheared through the body of a Killer Ant, treating its infamously tough exoskeleton as if it were nothing more than paper, hacking the creature clean in two.
Leon had completely discarded the small shield he had previously favored. Holding his sword in a single-handed grip, he plunged into the heart of the swarm, initiating a feast of slaughter.
He moved like the wind, his blade falling like rain. With nimble footwork, he slipped past the lunging ants while unleashing sharp arcs of sword light. These strikes wove into a net of steel, systematically reaping the lives of the monsters.
Squelch! Squelch! Squelch! Squelch! Squelch!
As the blade continued to flash, Leon harvested the Killer Ants without mercy. Some were split down the middle, others lost limbs, and some were decapitated instantly. Their bodies dissolved into ash, leaving behind a floor littered with monster stones.
"Skreeeee!"
As time passed, the ant army continued its advance, but the frustration in their screeches grew as they failed to bring down the lone human slaughtering them.
The heavily wounded ants that hadn't yet perished called out to their kin, summoning even more Killer Ants from the surrounding area to encircle Leon.
As the saying goes, "Enough ants can bite an elephant to death." A solitary human adventurer trapped in such a situation would eventually succumb to exhaustion, only to be swallowed by the swarm and meet a gruesome end.
If this had been the Leon of yesterday, facing such a desperate situation, he might have simply lain down and waited to report to the heavens, hoping for a better reincarnation in his next life.
But for the Leon of today, such a challenge only served to satisfy his current needs.
"There are too many of you. Let's thin the herd," Leon whispered as he began his incantation amidst the encroaching swarm.
"[Light of the Heavens, Sword of the Stars.]"
Starlight erupted from Leon's body.
It was a brilliant, celestial radiance unlike anything he had manifested before.
In his recent status update, Leon's greatest growth hadn't been in Strength or Endurance, nor in Dexterity or Agility. It was in Magic—the stat directly tied to the power of his spells.
His Magic had reached the B rank, only two stages away from the pinnacle S rank. Now that he had activated his spell, the magic—fortified by seven full ranks of growth—detonated with a magnitude far beyond his past efforts.
Beams of starlight rose from Leon, soaring upward before abruptly raining down like a localized meteor shower, slamming into the earth.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
The thunderous roar of the falling stars striking the ground echoed through the tunnel. Each beam of light behaved like a true meteorite; upon impact, they triggered violent explosions that tore through the soil and shattered rock, leaving a trail of craters in their wake.
Countless Killer Ants were caught in the indiscriminate bombardment. Some were struck directly and vaporized on the spot, while others were hurled away by the shockwaves, slamming into the walls and leaving behind gruesome smears of blood.
Under the enhancement of his B-rank Magic, a glimpse of the future Leon had once envisioned for his spell, [Meteor Dance], had begun to take shape.
"Excellent."
Leon looked at the tattered remains of the monster horde and a smile spread across his face.
Whoosh!
The next second, Leon kicked off the ground, rushing toward the surviving ants with the sound of whistling wind to resume his slaughter.
Sword light flared repeatedly as the small straight sword struck out again and again, accompanied by a chorus of agonized screeches.
Squelch!
Three minutes later, as the final Killer Ant fell in pieces to the floor, the one-sided massacre finally came to an end.
Standing amidst a pile of monster stones and dissipating corpses, Leon panted lightly, a look of immense satisfaction on his face.
"Now this is what I imagined an adventurer should look like."
Leon's mood was undeniably buoyant.
Before this, with all his stats at I0, he was barely stronger than an average civilian. He had to approach every monster with extreme caution; even against a lowly Goblin, he wouldn't dare engage without his shield.
If he encountered too many enemies or felt that a fight required more than he could give, he would turn and run without hesitation, engaging in a tense and exhausting pursuit.
In those moments, he wasn't so much "adventuring" as he was desperately struggling to survive.
Contrast that with now: Leon could single-handedly butcher a swarm of Killer Ants that would terrify most rookies. He had even reached the point where he found his shield cumbersome and restrictive, tossing it aside to better his performance.
Even when facing an army of monsters, he could charge in without a second thought and wipe them out alone. This was the adventurer Leon—and many others—dreamed of becoming.
Sword in one hand, magic in the other; weaving blades during the heat of battle while chanting spells to incinerate hordes of monsters in the blink of an eye. This was the true image of a Magic Swordsman.
Finally, Leon looked the part of a powerful adventurer. His envisioned combat style was beginning to bear fruit.
"My body has mostly adjusted as well. The sense of disconnection between my mind and my movements has faded significantly. It shouldn't be hard now to perfectly utilize the full extent of my current status."
Leon flexed his empty hand before turning his gaze toward the path ahead.
There, an opening led to the next floor.
"The 8th floor... I should be ready for it now, shouldn't I?"
Leon felt a surge of restless energy.
For the current him, the difficulty of the 7th floor was no longer a challenge. Even if he intentionally let the Killer Ants call for reinforcements to form a massive army, they could no longer stop him.
Since that was the case, it was time to move deeper.
"According to the guidelines, with my current status, I can already head to the 8th floor—maybe even deeper."
Leon thought silently as he gathered the monster stones and carved drop items from the remaining corpses to tuck into his bag.
According to the Guild and Familia records, Floors 1–4 were suitable for those with stats between I and H, Floors 5–7 for G to F, Floors 8–10 for E to C, and Floors 11–12 for B to S.
Leon's status had already far surpassed the 7th floor. Even his weakest stat, Endurance, had reached E rank, which alone was enough to warrant entry to the 8th floor.
Even without counting his exceptional Magic stat, Leon had two attributes at D rank, and his Agility had reached C rank. He was effectively prepared to explore even the 10th floor.
"I'll go down and take a look. Staying on this floor doesn't serve much purpose anymore."
With his increased power came increased confidence. While he wouldn't disrespect the inherent dangers of the dungeon, he no longer needed to be paralyzed by caution or hesitation.
At the very least, he felt no fear regarding the 8th floor, or even the 9th.
And he was right.
While the difficulty of the 8th and 9th floors was higher, the change wasn't yet fundamental.
With Leon's ability to "solo" the 7th floor with ease, he could navigate the 8th and 9th like a fish in water, with very little risk of genuine danger.
Unless a monster from the lower floors wandered upward and he was unlucky enough to encounter it, or if he ran into some sort of irregular incident, Leon could use his magic to blast a path through even a hundred monsters on these levels.
Consequently, as Leon entered the 8th and 9th floors, he still felt very little pressure. He continued to dominate the battlefield, easily slaying groups of monsters and collecting a mountain of spoils.
"Gah!"
A lizard-type monster didn't even last a single exchange in Leon's hands. It only had time to let out a final cry before his small straight sword cleaved it in two from head to tail.
"The difficulty of the 9th floor... is just this much."
Picking up the fallen monster stone, Leon stood uninjured before a dark cave entrance, staring into the pitch-black interior.
"The 10th floor—"
Leon's eyes flickered with anticipation as he took his first step forward.
"Let's see what you've got."
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