After all, he could be considered a seasoned adventurer.
All of Bruno's various ability scores had reached the bottleneck of the current stage. It was only due to the limitations of his innate talent that he was unable to raise them to the E rank.
That did not mean he was a rookie.
Even when facing a mutated Corrupted Lizard, he was still able to maintain a basic level of composure.
He decisively drew the longsword at his waist and barked at the surrounding companions, "Even if it's a mutated monster, there are so many of us—we can definitely win."
"Do you want to die here?"
It was hard to imagine.
That he would actually say such words in a Floor 2 area.
After entering the ambush zone, the Corrupted Lizard, having lost Ron—the most conspicuous target—naturally spread its hatred to the passing adventurers instead.
If one really had to assign a classification—
With the effect of Despicable Outsider, Ron was hated by the Dungeon, but that did not mean it welcomed so-called adventurers to explore it.
Mere rejection alone was already enough to force Bruno and the others to face this unprecedented monster!
Anchored to the ceiling of the wall by its sharp hooked claws, the Corrupted Lizard flicked its tongue and, in an instant, launched a piercing charge straight at Bruno at the front.
Its speed was astonishing.
It did not even give him the slightest room to resist.
In his haste, Bruno had no choice but to raise his round shield to defend himself—yet he still felt a tremendous force, powerful enough to jolt his internal organs out of place, sweep over him in an instant.
Bang!
Even a tall, sturdy adult adventurer—when faced with a monster's charge, his body was still violently slammed toward the wall. The intense pain was enough to leave Bruno's mind completely blank.
He began to question his own life.
"Could it be… an equipment problem?"
"Why was that guy able to block it just now, but when it came to me, it didn't work?"
And while Bruno was momentarily dazed, those Soma Familia members whose strength was already inferior to his found it difficult to withstand the assault even with proper combat coordination.
Yet—the enormous gap in strength only served to highlight the futility of their resistance!
This was not an ordinary monster driven solely by instinctive hatred. The mutated Corrupted Lizard before them even possessed rudimentary combat techniques.
Its seemingly slow tail-swing attack would suddenly erupt once the adventurer's defensive posture ended.
That massive body possessed a speed completely disproportionate to its size. With every swing of its sharp hooked claws, it was able to tear apart the armor worn by his companions!
"This…"
Bruno's eyes filled with terror.
So it turned out that the killing intent he had felt when facing Ron's gaze had not been an illusion. Someone as powerful as Ron could easily slay even a Corrupted Lizard like the one before him.
Perhaps… in Ron's eyes, crushing him would be even easier than crushing an ant?
The stench of blood rushed straight at him, mixed with the putrid odor of the monster, continuously flooding into Bruno's nostrils and completely tearing apart his psychological defenses.
He had to survive.
The desire to live seized the highest ground.
He did not care in the slightest about those Familia companions who were still fighting the mutated monster. As long as he escaped from here, he would definitely be able to return to Orario alive!
And when Bruno abandoned his companions and withdrew, struggling his way to the corner of the cave—
Whoosh.
The sound of an arrow cutting through the air swept in. It cleanly pierced the leather armor on Bruno's chest and, without any obstruction at all, completely punched through his chest.
Blood continuously poured out along the wound.
He only felt his soul being steadily stripped away. His body fell uncontrollably toward the ground, and just as his consciousness gradually began to fade—
Bruno looked toward the area at the corner of the cave.
If Ron were the one hunting him, he would have nothing to say. After all, having regarded the other party as a fat sheep and launched a hunt in the beginning had already sealed the possibility of such an outcome.
But when he saw clearly—
That Goblin, which could be considered a "giant" compared to its own kind, was holding a bow and preparing for the next round of shooting—Bruno was furious to the point of suffocation.
"This Dungeon anomaly…"
"Just…"
"Just which bastard was the one who caused all of this!!"
...
The best symbol representing one's Familia identity was a badge.
No one could refuse looting corpses—Ron was, of course, no exception. But the prerequisite for looting was first dealing with the mutated monsters lurking around.
Looking at the armband on the corpse's arm, it showed a wine cup set against a crescent moon background.
As for why he had been treated as a fat sheep, even openly hunted—Ron's momentary confusion immediately dissipated.
"Soma Familia."
That made perfect sense.
It was originally an extremely chaotic Familia, one that could allow its members to exploit bottom-tier supporters and bully rookie adventurers without any backing.
Ron genuinely felt there was nothing strange about it.
Addicts who could be controlled and driven by divine wine—no one would care even if they died in the Dungeon.
However—
In the end, this group still did not heed his advice. When facing the Corrupted Lizard, they fought with all their strength but were ultimately no match, ending up kicked to death like roadside trash.
"Why does it feel like they're even poorer than me?!"
Suppressing the urge to retch, after finishing the inspection of these corpses—
Ron's expression completely collapsed when he discovered that all the money on those Soma Familia addicts, put together, did not even reach fifty thousand Valis.
He immediately felt that this behavior was nothing but a pure waste of time.
As for those fellows who had been implicated by the Dungeon anomaly and ultimately died at the hands of the Corrupted Lizard monster, he bore no psychological burden whatsoever.
They had not made a move against him—
That was because they had evaluated the battle between him and the mutated monster.
But if his strength had been lacking even slightly, Ron could guess the outcome with his eyes closed: either his equipment would have been seized, or he would have died in the Dungeon!
"Good riddance."
"At least they won't go around screwing over other unrelated adventurers."
After confirming that none of the bodies on the ground had survived and left the Dungeon, Ron had no intention of lingering any longer. High-intensity exploration of the current area placed an enormous strain on physical stamina, and the strength he conserved was naturally reserved for a safe withdrawal.
Most importantly, through today's Dungeon exploration, he discovered that even when he approached the passage leading toward the Floor 3 area, no Floor Boss had suddenly appeared.
"What exactly is this floor lord's respawn mechanism?"
"It can't be that…"
"That this goddamned Dungeon knows ordinary mutated monsters can't kill me, so it's just sending me experience fodder and is getting ready to pull something big?"
"…"
Carrying such doubts in his mind, Ron safely returned to Orario. It was nearing evening, and the fiery clouds covering the distant sky piled up like mountains, an imposing spectacle.
Night gradually enveloped the bustling city.
The high-pressure environment from the Soulslike Dungeon that had been constantly weighing on him instantly dissipated the moment he breathed in the fresh air of the surface.
Following the flow of adventurers leaving the Central Plaza, Ron walked with steady steps toward Adventurer Street. Hestia was probably about to finish her work at the weapon shop for the day.
"Picking up a beautiful girl and heading home."
He figured that sounded perfectly reasonable. Yet, as he suddenly turned his head to glance back at the brightly lit Babel Tower behind him—
"Excellent!"
"Today's Dungeon really was full of trash mobs. With so many monsters spawning, they still couldn't take me down."
"Hm, looks like I really am the legendary king of durability after all…"
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