Dungeon, 17th Floor.
According to the map, the dark tunnel the group was currently traversing was the absolute final stretch leading straight to the safe zone of the 18th floor.
Once they safely passed the "Wall of Sighs" up ahead, only a short path would remain and moreover, they would no longer have to encounter annoying dangers like monsters.
As they drew closer and closer to the tunnel exit, an intense blinding light became visible right at the end of the path.
However, Noah quickly noticed something else.
It was the continuous, heavy vibrations that had been ongoing since earlier.
The solid ground beneath their feet and the loose gravel on it physically shifted with every single vibration and the rhythmic pattern, recurring at perfectly regular intervals, closely resembled the heavy footsteps of a massive bipedal creature.
If such an immense, ground-shaking commotion was indeed being caused by a single entity, its sheer size had to be extraordinarily massive.
They finally approached the exit.
At that exact moment, Riveria walking up ahead and suddenly spoke to the cat-person girl right beside her.
"Anakitty, are there any other Familias currently out on an expedition in the Dungeon besides us?"
The cat-person girl, answered without a second of hesitation, "No, the only recent expedition was by the Miach Familia, and it unfortunately ended in total failure."
"Is that so."
After receiving the answer, Riveria seemed to perk up just slightly, though her tone remained completely calm.
"Then, it should definitely be here."
"Huh? What do you mean?" Anakitty hadn't immediately grasped the heavy meaning hidden behind the Nine Hell's words.
The high elf simply raised her elegant staff, pointing it straight toward the blinding light at the end of the tunnel.
"Do you even need to ask? It's obviously..."
Stepping out of the darkness together, they fully emerged into a bright, massive world completely different from the claustrophobic Dungeon environment they had just been in.
At least, that's exactly how it should have been.
Yet, instead of being bathed in warm light, the entire group remained completely shrouded in a massive, suffocating shadow.
Noah instinctively widened his eyes, craning his neck and violently tilting his chin upward just to gaze at the colossal source of the shadow towering right before them.
Then, it fully clicked.
At this very moment, the pitch-black darkness blanketing their feet was being cast by the enormous monster standing right before them—or rather, directly above them!
Following the massive shadow all the way to its origin, the very first thing that caught his eye was its feet.
Colossal, building-sized feet.
Then the thick legs, the massive calves, and the tree-trunk thighs.
Just by looking up this far, Noah could actively feel his spine screaming in protest.
It was simply way too enormous.
So goddamn enormous that merely tilting his head far enough back to look up at it severely strained his neck.
The shadow alone effortlessly enveloped all 24 members of their expedition party, leaving absolutely zero doubt about the monster's true, terrifying identity.
Everyone now perfectly understood exactly what Riveria had purposefully left unsaid earlier.
The Floor Boss!
"Goliath!"
...
Down in the Dungeon, the larger a monster's physical size, the more insanely powerful it generally was.
So just how absurdly massive was the creature currently standing right before them?
They stood directly at its feet, not even reaching the height of its toes—the sheer disparity was literally that between a towering giant and a speck of an ant.
No one even dared to make a sound.
It was their raw survival instinct desperately suppressing their vocal organs to keep them alive.
Except for the seasoned veteran adventurers!
"As expected, perfectly calculating the respawn time, it should indeed be here right now," Riveria said completely calmly.
"Since we've conveniently encountered it, we might as well just defeat it here and now. It's also to prevent any lower-level adventurers from facing unnecessary danger."
"Everyone listen up! The floor boss extermination operation begins right now! Deploy immediately according to Finn's B formation as we previously discussed!"
The commanding words of the Nine Hells instantly dispelled the creeping fear in the hearts of the Loki Familia members.
That's right.
They were the Loki Familia!
Massive giants were absolutely nothing but routine prey for those proudly bearing the title of "Giant Killers."
"Mages, prepare your chants immediately!"
"Vanguard, we're completely counting on you to draw its attention!"
After his brief moment of sheer astonishment, Noah quickly scanned their immediate surroundings, noting that this was a vast, incredibly open space where both the walls and the high ceiling emitted a soft light, illuminating the entire massive area as bright as day.
The massive crystal cross-section towering nearby—that was the "Wall of Sorrows," the exact spot where the floor boss Goliath was officially born.
The final entrance leading straight to the 18th floor stood directly opposite the dark passage they had just emerged from, meaning to reach it, they absolutely had to cross this enormous chamber.
And standing right in their way was their absolute greatest obstacle—the floor boss!
The rapid movements of the Loki Familia instantly caught Goliath's attention, violently provoking a reaction as the colossal body suddenly turned, the terrifying giant swinging its massive face straight toward the tiny expedition team.
Burning crimson eyes instantly locked right onto its prey.
The very next instant, the giant violently launched its attack without a single second of hesitation!
"ROAR!!!!!"
Goliath roared deafeningly, wildly swinging its massive arm to smash directly into the absolute center of the expedition team.
The enormous, crushing fist was nearly the size of an entire city district, and anyone actually struck by such a devastating attack absolutely wouldn't even leave behind an intact corpse.
"Scatter!" Riveria's commanding.
Even before the order fully left her lips, the veteran Loki Familia members were already rapidly moving in all directions while tightly bracing for the massive impact.
Noah moved too.
The exact moment the command came, he forcefully activated the reverse thrusters of his Construct C3 boots, rapidly retreating far beyond Goliath's massive attack range.
The giant fist violently struck the ground.
BOOM!
Noah honestly wasn't surprised at all by the deafening explosion sound produced by such a massive physical impact.... if anything, he actually found himself marveling at the Dungeon's insane structural integrity, considering the solid floor had only cracked and collapsed slightly from such a devastating blow.
Had this been a standard reinforced concrete residential building back on Earth, that attack would have easily smashed straight through at least fifteen floors.
"Awaken!"
With the rapid completion of her short chant, a golden-haired girl instantly became fully enveloped in violent azure storms.
The very first to move, as expected, was Ais, fueled by her absolute boundless hatred for monsters.
The girl's petite figure, massively enhanced by her powerful enchantment magic, shot straight toward the roaring Goliath with blinding speed.
Though the other members couldn't quite match her insane pace, their coordinated responses were equally swift.
It had officially begun!
The floor boss extermination battle!
Noah had technically anticipated that this might happen, but actually actively participating made him fully realize just how abruptly everything started in reality—unlike in stupid video games, real monsters wouldn't just politely wait around for team confirmations or full battle preparation.
Seeing the brutal battle rapidly unfold, Alicia urgently said, "I'm heading straight to the front lines too Noah. Be incredibly careful."
The beautiful elf lady smoothly drew her staff-sword right from her waist, immediately activating its sharp sword form before charging straight toward the towering Goliath at incredible speed.
Witnessing all this, Noah honestly couldn't help but grin excitedly.
He aggressively tore off his heavy backpack and smoothly pulled out the sleek Annihilator.
"The very first real battle takes place on the grand stage of the Floor Boss's subjugation? Absolutely excellent! It's sufficiently spectacular and completely to my liking!"
Noah smoothly opened the complex magazine and selectively deployed the intricate spell formations hidden within the Annihilator.
First came Phase Observation.
Target locked: Goliath.
Five glowing magic circles simultaneously unfolded in the air right above the gun barrel.
This was the Annihilator's highly advanced sighting mechanism, and once the Phase Observation marking officially took effect, these five-layered magic circles perfectly revealed the unique color signature of the marked target, fully completing the absolute prerequisite for a guaranteed unavoidable hit.
"Next up, loading!"
Tsubaki carefully watched Noah's crazy series of operations from the side, looking somewhat bewildered but actively refraining from interrupting his focus.
It wasn't until she actually saw Noah forcefully insert a heavy metal object as thick as an arm straight into that strange "staff" that she could no longer contain her burning curiosity and was just about to speak up.
But right then, having fully completed his rapid preparations, Noah raised the Annihilator and began a sharp, low chant.
"Artillery strike!"
"Bombard!"
Hearing that incredibly familiar terrifying incantation, Tsubaki's expression changed drastically as she quickly leaped backward, violently distancing herself from Noah while tightly covering her ears.
Noah forcefully pulled the trigger.
A blinding flash of pure magical energy violently shimmered within the long gun barrel as the heavy ammunition underwent massive, multi-layered spell enhancement right before being explosively discharged.
A massive, pure crimson beam violently erupted straight from the pure white muzzle!
Effortlessly crossing the massive distance to Goliath faster than a literal blink, the blinding beam struck right in front of the giant's wide-open, roaring face.
The giant just stared with wide crimson pupils, completely unable to immediately comprehend the insane phenomenon flashing right before its eyes.
Then...
BOOM!
Accompanied by a truly tremendous deafening roar, Goliath's massive head was completely and utterly engulfed in violent explosive flames, causing its colossal body to immediately begin violently tilting backward.
The deafening sonic attacks that had been brutally tormenting everyone until mere moments earlier seemed to have been completely choked off in an instant, abruptly silenced by the blast.
"What?!"
The entire elite mage corps of the Loki Familia stared absolutely dumbfounded at the massive, fiery explosion violently detonating right above the giant's head.
Even their veteran leader, Riveria, openly wore an expression of total shock and deep confusion.
'A magic sword?'
That was her very first instinctive thought, because aside from the elite elf mage corps she personally commanded, literally none of the Loki Familia members capable of unleashing such massive firepower through magic were actually present at the scene.
So who the hell could have possibly launched such a devastating attack?
"It can't be..."
Riveria slowly turned her sharp gaze straight toward where the supporters were strictly positioned, and when the black-haired boy and that strange, smoking white object fully entered her field of vision, she clearly experienced a rare moment of totally stunned disbelief.
"Noah?!"
Alicia looked back at Noah with wide completely incredulous eyes, because being so close by, she had clearly seen the exact trajectory of the fiery crimson beam—it had absolutely, undoubtedly been fired straight from the weird weapon currently sitting in the boy's hands.
After successfully using the heavy artillery spell straight against Goliath, Noah smoothly pulled the bolt back with a sharp clack, aggressively ejecting the spent smoking cartridge.
The heavy silver shell casing fell perfectly to the stone ground with a clear, incredibly satisfying ringing sound.
Finally coming back to her senses, Tsubaki could only stare at him and think helplessly.
'This monstrous kid has actually created yet another completely incredible, game-breaking thing!'
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