(Lyze POV)
The smile would just not leave my face, not as I managed to cleave an orc in half with little more effort than a hot knife through butter. Grigor was turning out to be better than I expected.
Although it was not a weapon that could store magic, it was able to take a temporary enchantment whenever I wanted to attribute a particular element to it. And for aesthetics alone (which are just as important for a good weapon in my opinion), it hit hard with my blue fire.
I'd been training quite a lot in magic lately. It had come to a point where I was able to conjure blue fire without such an impactful drain on my mind pool as it used to be. I couldn't remember the last time I'd used normal fire. Even the hellhounds seemed wary at this point.
Such as in front of me now. The black wolf creature stalked at a safe distance, its eyes trained on Grigor as my miniature Greatsword was shrouded in the pale fire. But at this point, such a creature was hardly worth the extra effort with a sword.
The hound died before it even knew what happened as I phased out of sight and appeared beside it. Smashing my fist downwards, I buried its skull deep into the stone floor as a shower of brains and bone fragments went everywhere. The tail shot up straight for a moment before it went limp and the body disappeared in a puff of smoke, leaving behind the monster core. I levitated it into my hammer-space before hefting my new weapon onto my shoulder.
Safe to say I was having rather a pleasant time. Although I was beginning to learn exactly how much my style revolved around the thin blade of Libur, and its excessive sharpness. I hadn't used the Holy Sword in a long time now, in childish desperation that perhaps not using it would lessen the likelihood of heroship being imposed upon me anytime soon.
Nonsensical reasoning I know, but just the sight of the damn blade gave me a migraine out of fury. I couldn't exactly part with it either as the sword was bound to me. Fighting with other weapons also proved to be a bit of a reprieve as I didn't have the ghosts of previous heroes constantly connected to me and flowing with me in battle.
Hearing their voices, and taking tips from them in the heat of battle just proved how much more of a crutch it had been than a weapon. On my own, it turned out that while I was still a good swordsman and an exceptional one for my age and level according to Noir, I was nowhere near as skilled as when I fought with Libur. Fighting with the holy sword provided me this sort of natural instinct where somehow I just knew the correct move.
On my own with a completely different weapon, that was non-existent and it provided me with the room I craved to grow further. And the more I did this, the more I was developing my own style. I was aiming to figure out one that could be used against people and monsters alike since it was difficult having to switch between different schools of swordplay to accommodate an opponent.
You couldn't fight an Orc the way you would fight a Dungeon Lizard. The lizard was a fast and wily creature that used the caves of its surroundings as a terrain advantage, and it was nimble and agile while attacking. Orcs were just lumbering pieces of heavy flesh that certainly were no joke when it came to raw power. It was just a shame that it meant little to me, hence why I was able to just cut them into ribbons.
Yes, developing a sword style that could simultaneously be used to handle large, small, fast and strong opponents at once was going to be tiring task but I was confident I'd made some progress with my knowledge bank.
I halted as I felt movement somewhere in the tunnels near me. Tensing for a moment, I made sure to lock onto where I was positive I'd felt the movement before firing a 'Greater Fireball' down the dark mouth of the tunnel. The sudden burst of magic on my part interfered with my 'Thread' for a moment but I definitely felt something evade my attack.
The only problem was that I couldn't seem to see them, nor did they make any noise while moving. I could feel them slipping away though. I let them go. Why?
We as the audience may always think that the main character should inspect every little thing that seems suspicious but I'd learnt a lesson when it came to dungeoneering. If something did not emanate any hostile intentions and it didn't wish to fight, then it was best it was left on its own.
As an adventurer on a mission, I did not have time to go chasing every little thing that created a disturbance. If it was a monster, then I'd leave whatever adventurer it next encountered to finish it off. If it was an actual person, then we were bound to meet face to face at some point, and it would be then that we fought. It was just an unspoken way of life in this medieval fantasy world. Modern people just wouldn't understand with how easy they get it.
Ironic since it's me saying this. Whatever this being was, I was sure to meet it again soon enough.
Something I did notice however was that there were less monsters than usual. It was customary (for me it seemed) to encounter a small monster party every time I was in the middle floors. Apparently that was an anomaly as well according to Finn. Adventurers did not always encounter a dozen monsters at once unless they happened to be having a particularly bad day.
So either I was just always having one of those, or the dungeon just had a particular hate for me. I didn't know if there was any real difference between the two rationale but if there was, my gut was leaning towards the latter for some reason.
Back to the subject at hand, I'd recognised the circumstance of this particular phenomenon. Even if I didn't run into a bunch of monsters at a time, it was still far too empty to be normal. I hadn't seen one Killer Ant the whole time I was here.
The lower levels of upper floors were practically teeming with them. About a fortnight ago, I'd tested out the ability the creatures had according to the guild's guidebook. I captured one ant and broke its legs and left it to scream on the dungeon floor. Sure enough, a swarm of its buddies came to its aid but a burst of powerful fire was enough to incinerate them all at once.
Bell's Firebolt had nothing on my pure elemental magic. But considering the circumstance of few monsters to be found, I learned that this was usually due to one of two reasons in my time as an adventurers. Either there was an exceptionally powerful monster up ahead that was scaring away all the monsters...or a particularly powerful adventurer had passed through here not long ago.
I suppose this would be where I have to draw the line between my different magics in this story. I'd divided them into five categories once I finally sorted my head around them.
Personal Magic which encompassed my elemental abilities as well as my day to day spells like the hammer-space, the cleaning spell I cast on myself every morning when I woke up etc.
Dark Magic was the whenever I used Darkness to augment my physical abilities and provide a boost to my magical spells. It also served as protection whenever I projected the dark magical energy into constructs such as wings, shields, weapons and limbs. This category also encompassed my telekinetic powers since I drew power from Chaos's Darkness when using it.
And you know, even now I was probably only drawing upon a fraction of a fraction of fraction of the Darkness Chaos possessed. The Demon King had nothing on it which made me wonder how he was able to seal Chaos inside a giant pig in the first place. Although clearly it hadn't properly worked as Chaos was still able to create monsters and the vampire clan even when it walked around as Hawk Mama. I half-dreaded what the result would be when I was able to take a hold of it fully.
Then there was Light Magic in which I invoked holy magic for healing purposes. I was also able to use this magic fight if I wanted to. For some reason, one of the key differences between Light and Dark was that Dark enhanced my physical abilities for the most part while Light mostly focused on the magical aspects. I realised this when I made quite a startling discovery back in Valaron when I was experimenting with it to develop attack moves. The only downside was that using Light magic for offensive purposes actually took a lot out of my stamina. If I used it too much, I could pass out in the middle of battle. So that served as a double edged sword.
Both Dark and Light magic was not something I drew from myself but from Chaos while it was sealed in me. That was why my elemental magic was completely my own because I didn't rely on Chaos for those things. So if I'd come to this world without Chaos, I'd still have had my normal magic.
Innate Magic was really the sub skills under my main skill on the Falna. In other words, things like Full Counter, Snatch, Thunder and all the other things. These did not take from my Mind pool but they did take from my stamina. Fortunately stamina was something that I could train so I could use those skills quite a bit before tiring out.
And finally Chaos Magic, something that well and truly made me the most dangerous thing in this world. I was honestly surprised that Nekros trusted me with an open link to this magic at all. Little did the people around me know that if I were to take my blindfold off...well reality itself would become my plaything. I could literally do ANYTHING. In theory at least since to this day I hadn't been able to sustain the magic long enough to try with my eyes open before I had to pull back and save myself from being shredded apart.
But I had seen what what I was capable of doing even if only for a moment, and safe to say I was certain that I could probably defeat every adventurer in Orario provided I could last long enough. I hadn't done so because of a few reasons. One was because I imposed the rule upon myself to use the power as little as possible as I wanted my rise to power to be organic, something to do with my personal pride. Another was because I didn't dare do anything carelessly while people like Loki and her kind were roaming around. There was no telling what their reaction would be if they knew exactly what I was walking around with inside my body. So far Loki didn't seem to suspect anything as not even my main skill 'Xenia Khaos' seemed to give anything away. So I supposed I was safe for now.
Speaking of skills, I'd also learnt the effects of 'Overdraft'. I'd taken the time to make some of my dungeon runs purely magic based in which I used offensive magic alone to clear the dungeon. Last week when I robbed the Astraea Familia of the chance to kill Goliath, I used only magic to kill the thing. I'd met them as well, including Ryuu.
Another bit of a shock to my previous nerd self as I was looking at one of Danmachi's top waifus. Although it was surprising to see her with blonde hair as opposed to the green I saw her with, as well as missing the wooden sword carved from a tree in her homeland. She also was not too happy so I could kiss goodbye to a good first impression. She didn't say a word to me as I left them. Unlike their captain Alise who chewed my ears out.
As it turned out, 'Overdraft' did indeed refill my Mind Pool when it was empty therefore reducing the chances of a Mind Zero by a great degree. But once it did so, my sense of alarm and danger spiked, as if I was missing some sort of vulnerability on my part but I couldn't see it. Had it not been for Loki's explanation, I would probably still be puzzling it out today. In return for more Mind, my vitality would drop and I became a whole lot easier to kill.
It seemed that most of the powers I had were double edged swords. I suppose it just made it more fun and instructive for me in the long run.
I finally reached the very end of the 17th floor, and as I walked through the massive archway laid my eyes on the Wall of Grief. Goliath's spawn time still had a week to go and I'd already fought him thrice. He certainly was a tough opponent. I wasn't sure that singular level 4s could go up against him without various abilities like mine. I definitely expected Ottar to solo him with ease though.
I once read somewhere that the Boaz was able to half kill Balor on his own despite almost getting his own self killed in the process. And that was during his time as a peak level 6 which would be about now I suppose. Comparing Goliath to Balor would be like comparing a toddler to Iron Mike; in other words not even comparable. So in reality, even when people kept harping praises at me for soloing Goliath on my own, I knew very well how it paled compared to the feats of the top adventurers.
So what did that speak of the gap between me and Freya's captain? A whole bloody long way to go. And he was due for a level up in about a year, give or take a month, so he'd be even stronger by then.
I decided not to try and goad the dungeon into prematurely spawning Goliath this time. It was not worth the attention it would bring my way if people found out that irregular spawning of Monster Rexes seemed to coincide with my presence in that particular floor. Plus my gut was telling me that I was to expect something ahead where my safe haven was supposed to be.
And so I was walking through the lush forests of the 18th floor after sliding down the entrance. I was here earlier than I would usually be because I'd managed to pin down the pits that were found on the middle floors. Instead of taking the long way round by finding the stairs, I'd cut down my journey by flying down the pits to the lower levels which was one of the few times I actually flew.
Flying through the dungeon proved that doing so did not spawn monsters for me. The whole point of going into the dungeon was so that I could fight so I traversed it on foot. Plus it provided me the whole dungeon diving experience as well. It had sharpened my responses to surprise attacks from both monsters and adventurers alike. There were so many Familias in Orario that there were practically thousands of adventurers. And not all of them had their morals in line.
Hence why a few seemed to find it no problem to try and jump a child in the dungeon. And some had not really been there entirely just for the drops. I suppose Riveria had a point when she said that my resistance to using my powers on people had lessened considerably, but with the kind of people I'd run into down here, it was no wonder it had happened. Scumbags continued to exist in every universe, and I would deal with them as I always did.
Hence why some Familia were now missing their adventurers. And fortunately, what happens in the dungeon stays in the dungeon. That was the motto that everyone seemed to go by so no investigations took place.
But even the 18th floor seemed different now. As soon as I stepped under the canopy of the tress, my instincts flared. I was not alone in here. There was something else, something that did not belong. Monsters still could be found on the 18th floor since there was a pantry in it but not in these parts of the woods.
Something was seriously wrong. I knew for certain there was something powerful nearby. The only problem was that I had no clue whatsoever where it would be coming from. An adventurer has two options in this scenario. One is to turn back if he wants to avoid a confrontation. Two is to reach for his weapon, stay alert, and stick to a straight path while waiting for the threat to appear itself. I went with option two.
Brandishing Grigor, I cautiously made my way further into the depths of greenery, my vision flicking all around me as I took in some strange details nearby. There were tree trunks I recognized that had slash marks in them. Furthermore, they seemed to by done by a hand as there would be sets of slashes, four each in perfect synchronisation. The tell tale sign of a clawed beast.
But I had not encountered any monster so far that would show such behaviour. What was even more odd was when I came upon the bushes. The 18th floor was known for its quantity of food. Fruits and the like grew in the tress and bush clusters that were around, and the safe zone provided as a place where expeditionary groups would refill on their food supply or at least take a little more to aid them in the coming floors. Fresh fruits were a luxury in the Lower Floors and even more appreciated in the Deep Floors. Adventurers could not hope to find anything similar until they reached the next safe zone.
What was out of place however was that the bushes were torn apart although not completely. No, whatever had torn them apart had been after the fruits that grew there as they were quite obviously missing. People do not just tear up bushes like that, so it was clearly a monster. But what monster would eat fruits here? The only source of food they sought were the adventurers that came by and the pantry on the other end of the floor near Rivira.
I finally came to a stop in a part of the forest where the trees were particularly thick and the light was significantly blotted out. Something in the back of my brain was tugging at my mind. Like I was supposed to know something but I was missing it.
Obeying my instincts, I inspected the area again. And then I realised it. There were no tracks. Even the indent of my footprints on the grass were visible yet they were in the exact same place where all the slash marks on the trees were. Any monsters this far down in the dungeon would have to be heavy enough to leave some visible imprint on the ground yet there were none.
More than that, in this area of the forest where the trees where thick and there was not much visible light coming through from the crystals on the floor's ceiling, there was a considerable concentration of slash marks on the trees around me. Broken branches and a very noticeably greater amount of leaves were strewn around on the ground. All this evidence of the monster's whereabouts pointed to...
'The trees.' I realised as I looked above me. I caught a glimpse of something shiny before everything turned quite fittingly 'hairy'.
It was that very moment that saved my life as well as 'Thread' forced my body to react on its own and made me dodge just in the nick of time as something swung by my face grazing my cheek. Time slowed down just a for a moment as I used my enhanced senses to see what it was.
A giant furry tail, similar to that of a primate was extended towards the position I was previously in. I could visibly see even under all the fur the muscles in that tail drawn taught against the skin. The tail itself thicker than a large adult's arm but that was not the alarming part of it.
The danger lay at the end of the tail. A bone protrusion that sat at where the end of the tail should have been was shaped similar to a barb, the sting found on the end of a scorpion's tail. Except it looked like a cross between a barb and a claw and it was a yellowish-ivory colour like teeth that had not been brushed for some time. The barb that was bigger than my head had nicked me on the cheek and drew a line of blood across my face as time went back to normal and I rolled away to meet the face of my opponents.
I followed the tail swinging back up to the trees and finally caught glimpse of the monster it was attached to. My jaw fell open as I saw a monster that most DEFINITELY did not belong in the dungeon, at least not according to the guidebook.
A giant monkey was sitting, perched like a bird on the branches, its mouth drooling as its lips were drawn into a ferocious snarl. Its eyes locked onto me as its tail flicked about behind him. I noticed that on his lips were stains, ones that I recognised to be from the juice of the fruits missing from earlier. Well that answered that question.
This primate was more typically ape like than the Silverbacks. The Silverbacks looked more like Giant Gorillas, whereas this one was more monkey like in the fact its arms were thinner and its feet more hand-like in appearance. Its fur was a deep brown colour, and its claw tipped hands looked big enough to completely grab me in a perfect hold if it wanted to. And judging by the predatory look it was giving me, that certainly seemed to be the case. This thing was absolutely massive.
But that was not what was most eye-catching about this 'beast'. No, rather what it was wearing was what had caught me off-guard and had me standing still for a moment as my brain fired alarms of familiarity at me. And a fraction of a second later, I got it. Because it was wearing a giant chainmail that looked to be completely made out of gold. More than that, the gold was so beautiful, it seemed to glow even in the dim lighting. It was the chainmail that had been the shiny thing I'd glimpsed earlier.
My blood ran cold while my brain fizzed in confusion as I recognized this monster, or rather this 'Beast'.
"WHAT THE HELL ARE 'YOU' DOING HERE?"
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Does anyone recognise the description of this new monster?
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