"Clap, clap, clap—"
Tsubaki, who was positioned at the rear of the battlefield, couldn't help but applaud and walk forward upon seeing Levi's first battle with the Hellhounds conclude.
As she helped pick up the magic stones from the ground, she praised him aloud: "Little brother Levi, your strength is already greater than many Lv.2s. It seems you trained quite hard before receiving your Falna."
Levi gently flicked his right hand, which held his Sky-Piercing Sword, dispersing the Cryo element from the blade and flinging the clotted blood onto the ground.
He glanced at the character panel that appeared before his eyes:
[Levi Bright]
[Lv.1 (1.8%)]
A progress bar had now appeared after his previously clean level indicator. If he wasn't mistaken, when it was full, it would mean he had accumulated enough excelia to level up from Lv.1 to Lv.2.
'Just 0.3% excelia from one hellhound?'
'That's a bit low.'
'But it's better than nothing.'
Thanks to his more intuitive panel, Levi had an unparalleled understanding of his own condition.
As the captain of the Hephaestus Familia, Tsubaki had often brought junior members here in the past to accumulate excelia.
Therefore, she could easily see that a few Hellhounds would definitely not be enough for Levi to level up.
"Hellhounds are too easy for you. Even if you fight many at once in every battle, you'd still need hundreds of fights to accumulate enough excelia to level up."
"I'd recommend you head down a few floors. The Minotaurs on the 15th floor, or perhaps the Fanged Tigers, should provide more experience."
"Of course, the danger will increase accordingly."
"So, what do you plan to do?"
If Levi were alone, even if he went down to the Middle Floors, he would have only stuck to the 13th floor for safety reasons.
However, with a first-tier adventurer like Tsubaki by his side, he didn't have to worry about encountering a crisis he couldn't handle.
Hearing this, he nodded and said, "Let's go to the 15th floor then."
Starting from the Middle Floors, the number of adventurers decreases drastically, so the phenomenon of kill-stealing rarely occurs.
In other words, any adventurer or party could occupy a fairly large monster-spawning area for themselves if they wished.
Because of this, although it had taken Levi and Tsubaki less than two hours to reach the 13th floor, the journey from the 13th to the 15th took them nearly three hours of stop-and-go travel due to the monsters they encountered along the way.
Fortunately, thanks to the constant monster attacks, Levi's own excelia had accumulated to a considerable degree.
By the time they reached their destination, his progress bar was already a quarter full.
After walking about 50 meters deeper, Levi stopped. "Let's wait for the monsters to respawn here."
Tsubaki nodded. "Alright."
The Dungeon holds a very strong malice towards humans. Not long after the two of them stopped, the surrounding rock walls began to crumble, and seven Minotaurs slowly emerged.
Since it wasn't his first time fighting outnumbered.
Unlike his initial encounter with the Hellhounds, Levi didn't start with enchanted arrows. Instead, he took out a normal arrow, and as he drew his bow, he silently activated 'Mana Burst - Ten'.
—TWANG!
—WHOOSH!
"AAGGHH!!!!!"
An arrow soared through the air and struck one of the Minotaurs directly in the eye, embedding itself more than halfway.
The beast let out a pained scream but couldn't escape its fate of turning into black ash.
The other six Minotaurs, completely unfazed by their companion's death, roared and charged from different directions.
Levi didn't rush to dodge. Instead, he fired off two more arrows with a whoosh, whoosh.
After all, Minotaurs were just 15th-floor monsters, with stats likely ranging somewhere between G and E.
Trying to evade an attack from Levi, who had an additional 1100 points in Dexterity, was clearly beyond their capabilities.
After two more pained screams, two more piles of black ash appeared on the ground.
By this time, the remaining four Minotaurs had closed in on Levi.
As monsters specialized in close combat, they didn't use any ranged or magic-like attacks, instead trying to immobilize Levi with the shockwave from their roars.
The Minotaurs succeeded.
Or rather, Levi had let them succeed.
Switching his weapon to his Sky-Piercing Sword, he held the sheath in his left hand and the hilt in his right.
When the four Minotaurs were about three meters away, he drew the longsword from its sheath at a speed almost invisible to the naked eye.
At the same moment, the mana originally gathered in his arms surged along with his blood flow and appeared on the blade of his Sky-Piercing Sword.
This instantly extended the weapon's attack range from just over 1.2 meters to a full three meters.
But that wasn't all!
Bluish-white ice crystals now formed on the mana-forged blade.
These crystals, condensed from the Cryo element, formed the sharpest of edges and, in less than a quarter of a second, sliced through the bodies of all the Minotaurs.
—Hiten Mitsurugi-ryū: Amakakeru Ryū no Hirameki - Ice!
About a second later, Levi sheathed his sword without moving from his spot.
—Click.
With the faint sound of the tsuba clicking against the sheath, the forward momentum of the last four Minotaurs came to an abrupt halt. Then, their upper and lower bodies separated, and they disintegrated into black ash from head to toe.
[Levi Bright]
[Lv.1 (25.4% → 29.6%)]
Since this wasn't the first time she had seen Levi's fighting style, Tsubaki didn't show much surprise.
She just calmly walked forward and picked up the magic stones scattered on the ground.
Levi, meanwhile, used the Dungeon's monster respawn cooldown to review his battle, thinking about what he could have done better.
About three minutes later, the surrounding walls began to shake again. The two of them knew a new round of battle was about to begin.
...
Inside Hephaestus's Workshop.
The red-haired, one-eyed goddess sat on the sofa, her eyes closed and arms crossed, fingers tapping lightly on her arm.
On the other side, the goddess with black twin-tails grew increasingly agitated as time passed.
She would sit down, then stand up, then pace in circles. As the sun began to set in the west, she could finally bear it no longer.
"Why aren't Levi and the others back yet?"
"Hestia, you're too impatient."
Hephaestus opened her left eye at her friend's words, squinting slightly.
"While I can understand your concern, please have a little faith in my child."
"Ah, I'm sorry, I didn't mean it like that."
Hestia showed an apologetic expression; her worry was making her flustered.
The blue-ribboned goddess who was in love with Levi knew perfectly well how cautious her Familia member was. Plus, he was accompanied by a Lv.5. Unless they accidentally fell into the Lower Floors or Deep Floors, they should be able to return to the surface safely even if they encountered an Irregular.
But the fear in her heart did not lessen because of this.
______
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