Thanks to my increased attributes, I could probably handle monsters that a Level 6 player would be able to handle very well.
The amount of attribute points I had was equivalent to Level 15 or 20, maybe even beyond that. But I couldn't say that it was completely in my advantage... Twice, I had to spend Soul Fragments impulsively. If I had used those Soul Fragments to level up instead of just raising my attribute points, who knows, I might be at Level 15 by now.
Soon, my attributes would be so high that it would be foolish to invest in attributes instead of EXP, because I would be spending more to raise a single EXP point than I would to raise an entire level. Since each level gave me at least 5 attribute points, it made sense.
Besides, luck had been the most decisive factor so far.
I was lucky not to have been killed by Laufus in that attack where he sent me flying, and lucky to have gotten the souls of Odran and Selrik. But in this world, I couldn't count on luck for much longer.
I left the boss room still a little dizzy from lack of mana... I could use some of the Soul Fragments I got from killing Laufus to fully restore myself, but my goal now was to find the people in my group, and it would be good to keep up appearances.
No one would be completely rested and unscathed after spending so much time alone in a dungeon.
As I started walking down the wide corridor that had led me to the boss's room, I thought of something I hadn't done yet.
"It must be because of my Intelligence attribute, which has increased," I deduced as I walked toward the next crossroads.
I walked to the center of the intersection of two long corridors and closed my eyes.
With my eyes closed, all my other senses were heightened. This was basic biomechanics, and it allowed me to see beyond what my eyes would normally see.
More distant sounds began to reach my ears.
First, the faint metallic sound of something hitting the floor — the Hollow Knights were still roaming the dungeon. Then, a whistling sound that quickly died out — the Ghost Wizards as well. Suddenly, I heard a louder sound... Clang! It was a sharp, loud sound, identical to that of two swords meeting with force.
I opened my eyes and looked in the direction the sound seemed to have come from—my left.
If I remembered correctly, I had come from my right and then turned left when I saw the Boss's room, completely ignoring my surroundings in that moment of euphoria. Without realizing it, I was very close to encountering other Climbers.
I could only hope that whoever was fighting wasn't Sun, Anton Wilxes' bodyguard, otherwise she might blame me for everything that had happened, which even I hadn't expected to happen.
Considering that Sun had the full trust of the Wilxes family, owners of the Brotherhood of Fire Guild, she had a power level equivalent to a level 50 player. It would be impossible for me to defeat her if she tried to kill me — especially without mana. Still, I didn't think about restoring myself. I trusted my potential to argue.
Walking down the hallway to the left, the clanging of swords gradually grew louder. When the orange light of a magic torch illuminated my face, a double shadow quickly overlapped my face. In the middle of that chamber, Rosella, the girl with blonde hair and green clothes, was in the middle of a fight with a Hollow Knight.
The moment she saw me, her eyes widened, and she smiled as she said, "I can't believe it really worked!"
At first, I didn't understand what she meant by that. But she quickly showed me that she wasn't having trouble dealing with that Hollow Knight, but rather was using it for some reason.
Rosella used a basic body feint that made the Hollow Knight swing at thin air and briefly lose its balance. Then she kicked the monster's knee to knock him off balance completely, which inevitably brought the monster to the ground.
*THUD*
With the Hollow Knight on the ground, Rosella simply stabbed her thin-bladed sword into the Hollow Knight's lower back—which immediately made it stop moving.
Impressed, I clapped for a moment.
"You also managed to figure out that there's a creature inside the armor?" I asked, since she had clearly aimed the sword thrust and hit the monster inside the armor.
She blinked twice and scratched the back of her neck. "A-AH, YES! Of course, I realized there was another creature inside the armor, and no, I never ran away from them at first because I thought they were ghost armor."
For some reason, I felt like she was lying...
"Anyway, I'm glad my strategy worked so you could find me," Rosella said, sheathing her sword.
At that moment, the impression I had when I saw her easily deal with the Hollow Knight shortly after my arrival was confirmed. Rosella was purposely making those noises to attract the attention of other people who might be around. However, thanks to the structure of this place, where the corridors were long and made sharp turns, in addition to the material, the sound did not travel easily. Even though she was only one corridor away, I had to focus my hearing to hear her.
"That was very clever of you. But what would you have done if you had attracted enemies stronger than those Hollow Knights?" I asked Rosella.
Rosella put a hand on her chin and thought quickly. "I would have defeated them all, of course."
The simple way she said it reminded me that Rosella became strong in the original story not because she was in the Hunter Ruse Guild, but because she had always been strong.
"You're really fascinating..." I muttered as I turned my back to Rosella.
"What did you say?" she asked curiously.
"Nothing. Let's look for the others... This dungeon is divided into six floors. As I recall, I went down some stairs a few minutes ago because it was the only different path I found. I was lost at the time, but now I know I was on the fifth floor because this is the sixth." I explained, walking down the same hallway I had taken.
Yes, as I spent more time here, the memories of those two chapters that Hunter Ruse went through here were becoming clearer. Even before coming here, the original protagonist had already received information that the dungeon had six floors.
Since we were on the sixth floor when that trap was activated and I didn't find anyone on the fifth floor, but on the sixth, just like Rosella didn't find anyone but me, I had already assumed that each of us had been sent to a different floor.
Luckily, one person ended up on the first floor, and I hoped that this lucky person was Mr. Hawklight.
"How do you know we're on the top floor?" Rosella surprised me with her pertinent question.
I could have given her a lame excuse that wouldn't have convinced her, but I decided to show her something that would.
Since the plan was to retrace my steps to get back to the fifth floor, it was inevitable that we would pass by the hallway leading to the boss's office. That's exactly what I did to convince her.
"When I saw that, I knew I had to turn back," I said, pointing to the black door with designs on it at the end of the hallway.
"A boss room... Did you go in?" Rosella asked, her eyes fixed on the door.
"No, I'm not crazy yet," I lied to her, noticing how she clenched her fists at that moment. She was resisting the urge to go down that hallway. "Anyway, when I was about to turn back, I heard sounds of fighting and had to investigate. That's how I found you... I was lucky, I must say. I managed to find this sword here on the way, but I'm not very good with it." I continued down the hallway, chatting to distract her from the boss's room.
It would be terrible if she went there and found the place empty.
Although I continued on, I soon noticed that she hadn't followed me. I looked back over my right shoulder and saw that Rosella was still staring at the end of the hallway.
I took a deep breath. "I don't need to tell you that the place is probably empty, just like these corridors. There are no more treasure chests on the first floors that haven't been looted long ago. People have been exploring this floor for ten years... Everything has already been discovered and found, including the money you hope to find in that room."
She turned her face toward me with her eyebrows raised. "How do you know?"
"A person at rock bottom and in debt recognizes another," I replied.
Rosella Tynes was indeed the heiress to a company that was a veritable personal care empire, Beutynes, but her father had been much bigger a few years ago when he focused solely on women's products.
However, in an attempt to diversify his assets, Allan Tynes invested in many different types of businesses within the Escaladores industry, such as exploration support equipment, elegant clothing, and even nutritious food, but all of his investments failed. Now, although the Tynes were seen as wealthy, they were in debt to many banks and dangerous people.