So heavy…
With his Level 1 strength, Evan could barely swing this thing at all. Looks like he needed to "put points into stats"…
No—wrong world. He needed to keep raising his abilities.
Dragging the Glimmer Greatsword with difficulty, Evan decided to just drop it on the ground, sit down to rest, and drink two more stamina potions.
The fight was over.
Lefiya also collapsed onto the ground, exhausted, her face screaming "I feel completely drained."
She'd overdrawn her magic.
Her mind was empty—white noise flooding her head, unable to focus on any thought at all.
That was the weakness of mages.
Chanting spells, gathering magic, and especially the kind of precise spell control Evan had demanded—hitting the same spot repeatedly—all consumed mental energy.
Potions could replenish it, but only up to a point. In a short time, the effect got worse and worse until it stopped working entirely, leaving only time to recover.
In serious cases, you could even faint—or suffer irreversible damage.
It was time to go back. From entering the Dungeon until now, it had probably been more than ten hours. No watch meant he couldn't calculate precisely, but it felt like a very, very long time.
Still…
Before returning to the surface, Evan wondered if he should take a look at the fog gate on Floor 3.
After all, he still had one "revive" left.
So there was no harm in taking a peek, right?
Even if he couldn't win, he could at least see what was inside.
And besides…
Evan looked at Anya, who was sitting there nibbling fried potato balls.
With the cat-girl around, safe retreat should be doable.
"Anya, you could beat that guy just now, right?"
"I'll win, meow!"
"…"
People who say that usually don't win.
But watching Anya—after finishing her potato ball—wander over to the Glimmer Greatsword and casually lift it one-handed like it was a dead branch instead of a nearly three-meter weapon…
Level 4 strength really was on another level compared to his Level 1.
The gap was obvious—so it should be fine.
After resting a bit longer, Evan roused the drowsy Lefiya, and the three of them headed toward the fog gate on Floor 3 before returning to the surface.
Anya carried the Glimmer Greatsword for now.
Otherwise Evan would be completely overloaded. And Lefiya—though Level 2—had even less Strength than him.
She was a pure mage type. Aside from Magic, every other stat was pitiful.
Maybe because the "boss" Glimmer Knight had been defeated, Floor 2 returned to normal. The goblin knights riding kobolds were gone, and so were the rolling boulders.
After some time, the trio returned to the fog gate on Floor 3.
Inside had to be a "boss room."
And when Evan arrived, he suddenly saw something near the fog gate.
In the cavern that had been full of monster "fragments" and sky-blue flowers, a shrine-like Buddha statue with ghostly flames seemed to grow out of the wall—as if responding to something.
Evan felt a lot more at ease.
A save point right outside a boss room… what a great civilization.
He had Lefiya and Anya wait outside while he went in alone to take a look.
The result was…
About a minute after Evan entered, Anya saw wisps of smoke drift out and swirl around the ghost-flame Buddha.
Then the next second, Evan suddenly reappeared—standing up wearily from the ground.
Compared to how he'd looked going in, he was far more battered now.
His armor had been utterly wrecked.
The brass greatshield on his back was cracked, his spear was snapped clean in half, and the spearhead looked like it had been corroded into a twisted scrap of useless metal.
"Let's go. We're heading back."
Evan said it without explaining what he'd met inside, simply motioning for Anya and Lefiya to leave with him.
But as their figures gradually moved away from the abnormal cavern, a blonde girl suddenly appeared in a side passage…
…
Ais watched Evan and the others' backs as they left—then her gaze was quickly drawn to the fog gate nearby.
What was that?!
From it, she could sense danger—danger not to herself, but that whatever was inside was a terrifying existence.
It was a hunter's instinct, forged by years of battling monsters in the Dungeon.
Should she go in and take a look?
The boy had already left, meaning he'd given up on subjugating whatever was inside—so it wouldn't count as stealing his prey, right?
And Ais knew that if he went far enough away, the strange phenomenon here might disappear completely.
But she'd finally caught up!
After hearing in Rivira that "abnormal monsters" had appeared in the upper floors, Ais immediately thought of the strange boy she'd seen a few days ago—fighting a Huge Goblin.
So she set out at once, rushing from the adventurer town on Floor 18 all the way here.
Normally, for regular adventurers, traveling from Rivira to the upper floors or back to the surface took at least a full day. High-level adventurers might do it in seven or eight hours.
Ais had taken, at most, only two or three hours.
Because she was fast—and the monsters along the way were no threat. When she focused purely on speed, she moved several times faster than ordinary adventurers.
And most importantly—
She could fly.
Floors 12 to 16 were called the "First Dead Line" and the "Cave Labyrinth." Even veteran Level 1 adventurers or newly promoted Level 2s faced extreme danger there.
Because there were many vertical pits that generated randomly—and could close at any moment.
One wrong step, and you could drop straight from Floor 12 to Floor 13… or deeper.
For ordinary adventurers, it was terrifying.
For Ais, it was convenient—because she could fly.
As long as she kept moving upward, she could pass through quickly and return to the upper floors.
And those special goblins and kobolds that could stop normal adventurers? In front of a Level 4 like Ais, they were nothing.
"Haa…"
Without hesitation, her desire to train pushed her forward. She reached the fog gate before it vanished and stepped right in.
Inside was a huge cavern chamber.
Not far away, a blood-red pool churned with filthy "fragments" of monsters—goblins, kobolds, Dungeon lizards…
But around it bloomed a deep-blue sea of beautiful flowers.
Countless glowing motes floated among them, forming an eerie tableau—bloody, yet beautiful.
At that moment—
Ais felt the Dungeon tremble.
Almost instinctively she looked up—
And on the ceiling, about four meters high, a massive Dungeon lizard was hanging upside down.
It was pale in color, glaring against the greenish walls.
Its body was enormous—more than five meters long—and…
It had a head in front and a head in back?
The massive lizard heads had no eyes, like two lizards had been cut in half and their upper bodies stitched together.
Front was a head. Back was also a head.
Then, suddenly, the head that hung downward opened its mouth—
And crawling out from its huge pink maw were bodies of female beastfolk, kobolds, and even a female minotaur—wearing ornate priestly robes.
They held various weapons. Only their upper halves protruded from the lizard's mouth before they dropped from the ceiling and crashed into the blood pool below.
——!!!
With a silent shriek, Ais somehow knew its name in her heart:
[The Supreme Saintesses].
"?"
She couldn't understand what she was seeing. She'd never seen a monster so twisted in the Dungeon.
But she had no time to think—
Because the attack was already here.
The massive lizard charged forward. The female kobold upper-body in its mouth thrust a spear—aiming for Ais's heart in an instant.
At the same time, the female minotaur raised twin axes and chopped down, while a female beastman swung a massive club sideways, her other hand reaching up, ready to grab Ais.
Facing the insane assault, Ais spoke calmly:
"Awaken."
A gust of wind rose.
Her ultra-short chant spell boosted her in an instant—so every attack missed, because Ais was already in midair, far behind the monster.
But quickly she saw it:
The rear head lifted, opened its mouth—
And this time, several long pink tongues shot out like arrows toward her.
Shhk!
The piercing sound could hurt the ears. In the blink of an eye, the tongues were severed, bursting into foul blood-flowers in midair—
Because Ais had drawn the sword at her waist:
[Sword of Despair]—a "First-Class Armament" that normally only adventurers Level 5 and above could wield.
Even though Ais was only Level 4—
As the city's strongest talent from the Loki Familia, the "Sword Princess," Ais Wallenstein, she had that privilege.
Its lethality and sharpness had been reduced to specialize in the [Unbreakable] property.
But that couldn't be helped.
Ais fought too brutally—and because of her skill [Avenger Princess], her output against monsters skyrocketed. Normal swords would break easily in her hands.
She was simply too strong.
Ordinary weapons couldn't withstand her strength.
Yet the monster didn't fear injury. Instead, it grew more violent—or perhaps it was already completely mad.
The lizard head, its mouth full of blood, let out a miserable howl.
Then the other head—the one holding the "saintess" bodies—turned, stretched its neck, and launched relentless attacks at the airborne girl.
Ais deliberately didn't use her full power.
So after only a few seconds, she reached a conclusion:
"Strength and speed are around a Level 2 monster. Vitality is enhanced, but not much—not anywhere near a true Floor Boss. But its destructive power and striking force are definitely stronger than typical monsters… A normal Level 2 adventurer probably couldn't take even one hit…"
Information gathered.
Only then did Ais belatedly realize—this was on Floor 3. Yet the monster in front of her was something that would be troublesome even in the middle floors and beyond.
Casually, she prepared to finish it—
But at that moment…
The monster that had been fighting her just a second ago suddenly turned into blue-purple crystalline dust, piling on the ground and slowly "melting," being reabsorbed by the Dungeon.
A few seconds later, everything vanished—cavern, corridors, even the fog gate—along with the monster itself.
The battle ended abruptly.
"…"
Sword in hand, suspended in the air, Ais felt a small wave of confusion.
She knew it was because the boy had gone too far away.
So that…
For some reason, it felt awful.
Could it be… could this be what Loki was always talking about—"edging"?
No—wait!
Ais suddenly remembered something far more important.
She still didn't know the boy's name, or which Familia he belonged to!
If all these special monsters appeared because of him…
Then next time, she just needed to follow him the whole way, didn't she?!
-------
My : pat*eon*com/RuneA
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