Only the living have the right to get stronger!
Only the living can become strong!
At the Lv.4 stage, Leon had started to focus on efficiency and stability.
Concentrate raised his focus while casting magic, Accuracy strengthened the hit rate and control of his attacks and spells, and Strong Defense made him steadier in positional fights.
The three abilities together optimized his combat rhythm and his resource efficiency.
And now, at Lv.5, Leon was no longer some small fry.
At the height he stood at now, simply adding more combat-type Development Abilities would do very little for him.
On top of that, he held special resources like the Wild Mixture, the Stimulant Elixir, the Monster Hunter Special, and the Wonder Pack, plus Inscription and Magic Scrolls, which he had yet to study.
To bring out the full power of these "pay-to-win" methods, he had to unlock the matching professions to strengthen them. So this time he chose without hesitation:
Cooking, Tailoring, Alchemy.
...
"Cooking, Tailoring, and Alchemy Development Abilities are added, so the next step is learning Inscription..."
Leon raised his head slightly and looked at Jeanne and Rose standing side by side up front, giving everyone some kind of instructions. He wasn't listening closely, his eyes drifting as he thought.
"Once we get back to the surface and I get a grounding in Inscription, I can try making Magic Scrolls."
"Once I manage to make them, they could absolutely go head to head with the Magic Sword, the ace product monopolized by the smithing Familias, Hephaestus Familia chief among them."
"Even..."
Leon lowered his eyelids, his eyes dark and unreadable.
"A Magic Sword, in the end, can only carry attack magic."
"But my Magic Scrolls aren't bound by that. Support magic and healing magic can both be sealed inside them. So their uses are broader and their adaptability is higher."
"For a big Familia, this thing would be an absolutely essential strategic resource."
"Even a small Familia short on funds, or a solo adventurer, could scrape together one or two to hold as the trump card that turns a fight around..."
He could already picture how explosively popular Magic Scrolls would be in the future.
Imagining that scene, his heart ran hot.
...
Assets: Reserve funds: 4.13 million | Cash: 588.86 million (fixed monthly income: 10,236)
Excelia: 148.4 (points)
...
But when his gaze swept over his "wallet" and his Excelia bar, and he thought of the mounts and the base of operations that needed investment once they got back to the surface, that hot heart of his cooled right down.
He sighed. "Since it's come to this, let's go farm Excelia first!"
...
"Move out!"
Jeanne swung her arm, and Rose raised her shield and stepped into the passage first. As vanguard, her steps were steady and firm, opening the way for the whole party. Right behind her came the midfielders responsible for roaming the flanks and backing Rose up at any moment, the nimble swordswomen Kureha and Laurier.
Further back was the center commander Jeanne, and behind her, protected in the middle of the party, Margaret, Irisviel, and Aura.
The rear group, with the heaviest job of all, covering the retreat, protecting, and supporting, was handled by Leon and Persephone, a Lv.5 and a Lv.4. In the end, nothing mattered more than staying alive.
As long as they kept their lives, failure was fine.
The nine of them tramped in a grand procession straight into the floor passage leading to the 28th floor.
...
...
The Dungeon, Lower Floors, 28th floor.
After the Water City, the most unusual region of all with three floors joined into one, the Dungeon's environment changed drastically once more.
The Withered Bone Wasteland.
As they stepped out of the floor passage, a barren, withered, eerie gray-white forest spread out before them.
"So this is the legendary Withered Bone Wasteland."
Jeanne leafed through the Adventurer's Handbook in her hands, frowning slightly as she looked around.
"There's something familiar about this place..."
"?"
They had only just entered the Withered Bone Wasteland on the 28th floor, and before they could take a proper look at the new environment, an attack came out of nowhere.
There was a wet splitting sound.
"...Laurier, look out!"
A burning prickle ran down Jeanne's back, and her face changed.
But before she could get the warning out, before anyone could react...
A jet of green liquid shot through the air and splashed squarely onto the elf girl's arm.
A sizzling corrosion sound followed, along with piercing pain. Laurier went white and a scream tore out of her.
Everyone's expressions changed.
Rose flickered to her side and pinned down the enemy's position in under a second. She swung her arm without hesitation, and the Kite Shield tore through the air, spinning with a shrill whistle, cutting the enemy in the shadows in two with a single hit.
The shield then carved a graceful arc through the air and spun back into Rose's hand.
Her silver-gauntleted left hand caught the returning shield cleanly, and the pure white light on it faded away like a breath.
The technique Avenger's Shield.
This was the other combat art Rose had mastered besides Infinite Counter, once she hit Lv.4 and her stats met the requirements.
It combined skill, magic, and force-application technique into a ranged strike that carried stun, interrupt, and silence effects.
"Laurier, how are you!"
The monster had just been cut down and everyone quickly closed around her. At the same time, Irisviel had finished chanting her healing magic. She laid her palm lightly on Laurier's forearm, a soft glow lit up, and the wound began to close at a visible rate.
"It's, it's not good...!"
"It's all right, my healing magic..."
"Hm?"
Iri seemed to notice something. Her eyes shifted slightly and she pushed more output into the spell.
On Laurier's forearm, the soft glow and the sickly green corrosive liquid fought each other, healing on one side, corroding on the other, and for the moment neither could win.
Margaret noticed it and her eyes went wide.
"How is that possible!"
"Iri's magic is being canceled out?"
Laurier bit down hard on her lip against the pain, her forehead covered in sweat.
"It, it hurts... this, this is poison!!!"
Leon didn't join the crowd around her. He put a layer of Frost Armor on himself first, took his staff in hand, and carefully approached the remains of the monster Rose had killed. He narrowed his eyes and studied the corpse of this monster he had never seen before, his face darkening.
Jeanne and Rose came over with grim faces too, both racing through their memories for records about Dungeon monsters, trying to find matching information.
"Don't bother."
Leon drew a deep breath and spoke up.
"This is bad. If I'm not mistaken, this should be a Poison Vermis!"