"Knowing full well he couldn't win, yet still choosing to fight to the death?"
The situation was not as severe as Ron had imagined. After completing the update to his ability values, the comprehensively enhanced physical qualities of his body became especially apparent.
Moreover, it was a downhill stretch.
The rolling-stone mechanism behind him was, purely speaking, more imposing in spectacle than anything else.
And this passage leading deeper into the Dungeon was not without an end. When a faint glimmer of light appeared before Ron, he decisively leapt forward.
Making use of the brief moment of suspension in midair, he adjusted his body posture.
In the end, he threw himself onto the floor of an open, empty level, while the massive boulder—its gravity and inertia transformed into tremendous potential energy—smashed into the wall the instant it burst out of the cave passage.
Bang!
A violent impact rang out, accompanied by splintering rubble and clouds of dust.
Even Ron, sprawled on the ground, could feel a brief tremor. If he had tried to tank it with his body, he could guess the outcome with his eyes closed.
"Is this your way of trying to get me killed?"
Even a hundred-ton truck loaded with steel coils couldn't send him off. Yet after transmigrating into the DanMachi world filled with magic and the supernatural, it was just a mere rolling-stone mechanism.
Ron only wanted to say that it was, indeed, pretty average.
However, he didn't have much time right now to complain about the Dungeon's bullshit. He quickly got up from the ground, and after briefly loosening up his body—
He checked the defensive equipment he was carrying on his body, and there were no omissions caused by the rolling-stone mechanism.
"At least nothing valuable was lost. That's good news."
"So, where the hell did this passage dump me?"
Ron took a deep breath to briefly steady his emotions. After the smoke and dust produced by the boulder's impact had completely dissipated, he quickly surveyed the surrounding environment of the floor.
Good news:
It was still a cave passage.
This meant that the floor he was currently on should not be particularly deep, after all, escaping the rolling-stone mechanism had not taken very long.
Bad news:
Compared to the cave-passage environment of Floors 1–2, there was a very obvious difference here.
If the former was more like an artificially excavated, relatively orderly passage, then the environment before his eyes leaned toward a naturally formed cavern.
Visibility dropped once again.
Even the faint breeze brushing past his body carried threads of chill.
As this thought arose, Ron's mood turned strange. "There's no way that in such a short amount of time just now, I got dumped straight onto the sixth floor, right?"
He was only saying it casually.
But what if the Dungeon really heard his mockery and deliberately decided to crank up the difficulty a bit?
According to the introduction from Miss Eina of the Adventurers Guild, Floors 1–5 were the most suitable for rookie adventurers to explore, while the sixth floor was a watershed.
Because here—
There would appear the monsters known as Newbie Killer: War Shadow!
If it were a standard Dungeon expedition, then with his current ability values and the combat techniques he had mastered, it would be very difficult to encounter a life-threatening situation here.
The problem was that what he was exploring was a souls-style Dungeon!
Having finally reached a brand-new area, with a very high chance of encountering unknown monsters, the best option placed before Ron right now was—to make use of his "Revival" counts.
As much as possible, he would explore the current area, comprehensively assess the strength of any monsters he encountered, and if he found himself outmatched, he would decisively choose to retreat and return to the shallow layers of the Dungeon.
"So genuine."
"You've already gone to this extent for me, Dungeon—if I don't explore a bit, it feels like I'd be letting all these arrangements down!"
Ron made his decision quickly.
Facing the challenge of a completely new floor, and with all of his ability values having increased, he decided to err on the side of caution and begin his exploration in the most skillful way possible.
"Shield-poke wheelchair tactic."
After all, there was no stamina-bar system like in souls games.
He could only make some moderate modifications. His right hand—the one he was most accustomed to exerting force with—held the shield, because only sufficiently strong power could withstand a monster's consecutive attacks.
As for the Combat Art he had mastered—Seppuku—it just happened to make up for the issue of attacking with the left hand, granting the weapon a bleeding effect. Even if he could only chip away, he would still be able to slowly grind powerful enemies down to death.
"Very good."
Taking his own safety into account, Ron turned his head to look at the passage behind him. Assuming that he really did encounter danger during exploration, this route would be the best guarantee for safely returning to the shallow layers.
But just as he was about to leave some markings—once again, he felt a brief tremor coming from the ground, right under his gaze.
The Dungeon triggered a healing mechanism. Rocks continuously surged up from the ground, sealing the passage at high speed and cutting off Ron's route of retreat.
"The door cannot be opened from this side."
"…"
"Excuse me?"
The corner of Ron's eye twitched uncontrollably.
Compared to those bullshit monsters, he finally felt the abstract mechanics of a souls-style Dungeon—even the path that led straight deeper inside had been completely sealed off.
What would happen next, he did not dare to imagine at all!
"Very good."
"So everything was smooth while exploring the Dungeon, and you also think that an ordinary Corrupted Lizard couldn't kill me, so you just dumped me straight into the deep floors?"
It certainly was a surprise.
But for some reason, Ron couldn't feel happy about it at all.
The objective of exploration had quietly shifted. While facing entirely new monsters and dealing with them, he would also have to search for a stairway passage that led back to the fifth floor.
A real headache.
He carefully recalled the descriptions of the so-called "Newbie Killer" monster, War Shadow.
Simply put, it was a shadow-type monster, but with high mobility and extremely sharp attack methods, which was why it was considered especially troublesome.
"So what, exactly, is going to greet me?"
He had already resigned himself to it.
Yet when facing the challenge of a brand-new floor, Ron felt a faint sense of anticipation in his heart.
He carefully observed the environment of the floor, not overlooking a single blind spot. Only after confirming that there were no bullshit ambushers lurking did he finally feel safe enough to continue exploring.
Caution was always the guiding principle when exploring a souls-style Dungeon.
Relying on the faint ambient glow, Ron chose a route close to the wall as he advanced. However, before he had gone very far, a sense of danger suddenly surged over him.
This sense of danger stimulated his senses!
And not far ahead of him, shadows continuously writhed across the ground. In the end, they gathered together into a mass of shadow, forming at a speed visible to the naked eye.
They even gradually condensed into a physique comparable to that of an adult adventurer.
"For now, I can't tell what's special about it." Keeping a safe distance, Ron did not rashly launch an attack against the monster before him.
Because he knew very clearly—if the Dungeon wanted to keep him here for good, then the special monster it ultimately created would definitely not be a conventional one.
Reality did not exceed Ron's expectations.
That black shadowy body rapidly solidified before his eyes. And as it became tangible, what truly made his pupils shrink and made him realize that something was seriously wrong—was that the monster before him, whose face had originally been pitch-black, gradually developed human facial features. It even began to resemble a regular adventurer in both armor and weapons.
Until finally—as Ron stared at the increasingly familiar facial features of the monster, he instantly recalled the adventurer who had surrounded and hunted him in the Dungeon yesterday, together with members of the Soma Familia.
"Bruno."
An adventurer who had originally died at the hands of a special monster had now become a brand-new monster himself?
"Damn it."
"Can someone tell me what the hell this thing is?"
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