"Die!"
--------------------------------
Before the words had even finished, Fron's figure had already vanished from where he stood.
"... That wasn't even his full strength just now? He can still become even stronger!?"
The goddess Artemis's mind could no longer keep up. She had been in the lower world for a long time, but she had never heard of an adventurer so powerful, no, so far beyond his own limits!
Her divine perception told her clearly that Fron Argon's level was Lv.5, and yet... the power he had raised himself to now far surpassed that level!
"Artemis, do you know how the title 'Unrivaled Among Peers' came about? Do you think it means he's only invincible within level Lv.5? No. Even in level Lv.6, with his full power unleashed, Fron could still secure a place."
Hermes said this on the surface, but what he truly thought was something else,
Even among Lv.6 adventurers, the current [Nightweaver], Fron Argon, stood at the very top!
...
Time flew swiftly by amidst the tension.
As Fron's advantage became increasingly obvious, the outcome of the battle gradually grew clear.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
In the battlefield, Fron swung his staff. The magically enchanted, razor-sharp staff tip pierced with ease through the enemy's seemingly impregnable armor with every strike.
Each blow was heavier, faster than the last. Fron's assault was like a raging tidal wave, endlessly building in pressure.
Under his relentless storm of attacks, the cavern resounded with a stirring symphony, the dance of his body against the monster's roars, forming an epic scene that struck awe into the hearts of all who witnessed it.
Seeing such a special adventurer for the first time, Artemis found herself slowly entranced by this supreme performance.
The 'Scholar · Argon,' Fron's staff, cloaked in violet radiance, left afterimages in Fron's hands. His blurred figure flickered like scattered starlight.
Meanwhile, the monster's constant screams of pain only served as a backdrop to Fron's brilliance.
Sensing its stiffening body, Fron narrowed his eyes mid-battle, blue rings of light glowing faintly in his pupils.
"Reached your limit?"
Pssh!
Another thrust. The tip pierced a seam in the monster's armor, inflicting massive damage upon Antares in an instant!
Against a giant-class opponent, precision and accuracy hardly mattered. Fron only needed to drive his strikes into its body, find the gaps in its armor, and then, finish the job.
Just like this!
At this moment, the monster's massive body had become nothing but a burden.
With his overwhelming stats, Fron seemed like an adult fighting a child, effortless, relaxed.
His blurring speed rendered the enemy's counterattacks completely useless, unable to even graze him.
Hammering away mercilessly at its lower body, he soon brought Antares crashing to the ground!
Boom!
With agility and dexterity slipping into the enemy's blind spots, Fron seized the moment, dodging the monster's massive claws and tail sweep by ducking low, then channeling terrifying power into his staff with his right arm.
In the next instant, his figure flashed from left to right, and the black streak of light that followed cleanly severed Antares's massive claws, stripping it of its ability to retaliate.
"ROAAAAAR!!" Disarmed, Antares shrieked in despair!
"It's over."
With a flick of his spear, Fron leapt back, putting distance between himself and the enemy. Standing atop a boulder, his golden hair fluttered in the wind, his cloak billowing behind him.
Facing Antares head-on, his expression remained unchanged, his gaze calm.
With his current strength, an opponent like Antares could not stir even a ripple in his heart, only merciless suppression.
"Die!"
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
From within, black flames and lightning erupted, rising swiftly from Fron's body and expanding outward to form a pitch-dark domain three steps around him.
On closer inspection... within that black lightning, streams of obscure, ominous energy brewed.
That murky chaos was compressed, refined, and fused into the 'Scholar · Argon,' amplifying his power.
"The magical nature of [Surtr]... has it finally revealed a fragment of itself now that I've reached level Lv.5!?"
Feeling this unfamiliar power coursing through him, Fron's lips curled into a smile. Then, with immense mental strength, he masterfully guided the flow of magic, pouring it all into his weapon.
The scene, a lone man against a monster, Fron's abnormal aura clashing against the beast's wails, was engraved in the eyes of every onlooker.
The golden-haired youth mercilessly crushing the ancient monster Antares, every spectator's face revealed starkly different emotions.
Ryu's eyes remained calm, without ripple. To her, the man she acknowledged should naturally be this strong.
Asfi, on the other hand, let out a pout so cute it clashed with her usual cool look, a look as if her entire persona had collapsed.
Unlike these two, who were close to Fron and knew him well...
Hermes, though he had raised his estimation of Fron time and again, found his worldview shattered over and over by what unfolded before him, leaving his mind in complete disarray, his plans in chaos.
And then, the one whose attitude shifted most strangely, was Artemis.
Her expression was pure admiration, the kind of longing look a maiden shows when gazing upon her hero. Perhaps, she had found her own hero, the [Orion] she yearned for.
Perhaps such a sudden change of heart was incomprehensible to men...
But what maiden does not wish for her own hero? Even a goddess of purity was no exception!
...
"What is Fron doing?"
"There's a force... he's gathering it. Just what is that?"
"Waaaaaaahhhhhh!!"
Antares shrieked in terror!
But with its limbs and claws shattered by Fron, it could only struggle helplessly in place, awaiting the final judgment from the terrifying man before it!
As a monster driven purely by primal instincts, it could sense that streams of horrifying power were being poured into the staff through Fron's hands, converging there, so terrifying it felt as though the world itself was being overturned...
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T/N: Second Bonus Chapter for reaching 500 power stones~