The passage led downward, deeper and deeper below.
The enraged roar of Goliath that had been echoing behind me was already fading into the distance.
I forced my trembling legs to keep moving and headed for the 18th Floor.
Every muscle in my body was screaming, and with my [Mind] completely drained, my head felt hollow.
With every step, I could almost see the hundreds of thousands of valis I’d lost along with my shattered swords flashing before my eyes.
How long had I been walking?
As if it had all been a lie, the dark, damp cavern scenery vanished, and an unbelievable sight spread out before me.
A vast underground space.
Instead of a sky, countless crystals embedded in the ceiling glowed with a blue light, sparkling like stars in the night.
Soft grass grew across the ground, and a clear, transparent river flowed through it.
The air was so clean and refreshing it was hard to believe I was still inside a cave.
18th Floor, the Safe Zone.
The only paradise in the Dungeon where monsters did not spawn.
It was also known as the Under Resort.
The moment I reached the riverbank, I collapsed where I stood.
As soon as the tension left me, all the fatigue in my body came crashing down at once.
My reflection in the river was a miserable sight.
My hair was a complete mess, and my whole body was covered in cuts and dust.
“...I really went through hell.”
I let out a hollow laugh and buried my face in the river.
The cold water snapped my mind back into place.
First, I needed to sort out the situation.
Two of the three swords I’d paid a fortune for were destroyed.
All I had left was one longsword with [Fire Aspect] on it.
Even that blade had taken quite a beating from colliding with Goliath’s skin.
My [Mind] was empty, and my physical condition was at rock bottom.
Going any deeper in this state would be suicide.
But I couldn’t go back up either.
Goliath was still waiting on the 17th Floor, furious as ever.
In the end, there was only one choice.
Go to Rivira, the adventurers’ town on the 18th Floor, and wait to see how things developed.
I washed off the blood and dust in the river, roughly straightened my torn clothes, and started walking slowly along the riverbank.
Before long, I could see the silhouette of the town ahead, built atop the cliffs of an island in the center of the western lake.
Beyond the crude wooden palisade, I could see countless tents and the lights leaking from caves.
The 332nd Rivira Town.
The old sign hanging at the entrance told me this was a town that had been destroyed and rebuilt hundreds of times.
Rough-looking adventurers stood guard at the entrance.
They looked at my small frame and ragged appearance with eyes full of contempt and caution, but once they confirmed I wasn’t a wanted criminal, they quickly lost interest and let me through.
Inside the town was even more chaotic than I had imagined.
There were almost no proper buildings.
Most of the shops were set up as stalls using tents or canopies, while some used naturally formed caves as storefronts.
First, I needed a place to stay, so I headed for the largest tent, which served as an inn.
“What do I need to do to get a room?”
The beastman who seemed to be the innkeeper looked me over from head to toe and grinned greedily.
“Five Middle Floors monster Magic Stones for one night.”
I pulled five Minotaur Magic Stones from my backpack and handed them over.
On the surface, they would have been worth enough to buy several High Potions, but here, that was only the price of a single night’s lodging.
Next, I went looking for a smithy.
“I’m here to look at weapons.”
The inside of the smithy, carved out of a cave, was filled with scorching heat.
The dwarf blacksmith gave me a once-over, then pointed at the weapons hanging on the wall.
“Since you’ve come all the way down to Rivira, there’s no cheap junk here. Everything’s something you can use on the Middle Floors and beyond.”
This wasn’t like the surface, where they only sold secondhand goods.
The blacksmiths here made weapons themselves, and some even did custom work for adventurers.
“I need two longswords. Make them as sturdy as possible.”
I picked out two swords that fit my hand best and had the smoothest flow of magic through them.
They were a little lower quality than the ones I’d bought on the surface.
“I’ll take these two. How much?”
“Hmm... for weapons like that, you’re looking at the equivalent of 200,000 valis in Magic Stones.”
Expensive...
Magic Stones were the basic currency here as well.
But the exchange rate was different from the surface.
Here, they bought Magic Stones for cheap and sold goods at absurd prices.
200,000 valis. They were asking for that much in Magic Stones for swords worth less than 100,000 valis on the surface.
It was a complete rip-off.
“...That’s way too expensive.”
“Then don’t buy them. Plenty of people are lining up to do so anyway. If you had a Familia voucher, I might cut you a deal, but there’s no way I can trust a voucher from some tiny brat’s Familia.”
He snorted.
In the end, I gave up on buying new weapons and settled for scraping together the last of my Magic Stones to buy the cheapest two steel swords and a repair kit.
I’d have to Enchant these myself and make do.
Even that cost me dozens of Almiraj Magic Stones.
I headed to the tavern in the center of town, which was also made from a tent.
In a place like this, gathering information was the most important thing.
The tavern was packed with adventurers of every race.
I took a seat in the corner and ordered the cheapest ale I could with the few Magic Stones I had left.
Then I quietly listened to the conversations around me.
“Did you hear? Goliath appeared on the 17th Floor. And it wasn’t even the respawn cycle.”
“Damn, seriously? I was just about to head up to the 17th Floor today.”
“Did some idiot provoke it by mistake? Thanks to that, we’re stuck here now.”
Sure enough, Goliath’s appearance was the talk of the entire town.
Rumors were already spreading that one of the top Familias, like Loki Familia or Freya Familia, would organize a subjugation expedition within a few days.
Then a conversation from the next table caught my ear.
“That’s not even the biggest thing. Didn’t you hear the Guild’s announcement this morning?”
“What happened? Is there something bigger than Goliath?”
“The record holder changed. Apparently someone broke the Sword Princess Ais Wallenstein’s record for the fastest Level Up.”
“What? That’s impossible. The Sword Princess’s record? Who the hell was it?”
“That’s the crazy part. They say it was a Pallum from some unheard-of new Familia. The name was... Nia, I think?”
For a moment, it felt like every eye in the tavern had turned toward me.
I kept drinking my ale as if nothing was wrong, but cold sweat ran down my back.
Damn it, the rumor had already spread this far?
Record holder, new Familia, Pallum.
It was an attention-grabbing combination in every possible way.
There would be no end to the trouble from here on out.
I hurriedly drained my cup and left the tavern.
Back in the inn tent, I lay down on the hard cot, and only then did the tension finally leave me, dragging exhaustion down with it.
A complete defeat.
And unexpected fame.
The first day on the Middle Floors had been an absolute disaster.
But at the same time, I had a new goal.
Goliath...
Someday, I would definitely bring that thing down with my own hands.
Not by running away, but by becoming strong enough to overwhelm it head-on.
For now, I should rest and think things through.
Tomorrow, I’d Enchant the cheap new swords I’d bought and train my body on the 18th Floor while I waited.
Planning out tomorrow’s schedule, I drifted into a long-awaited deep sleep in the depths of the Dungeon.
That's what you get for being arrogant. When you notice that your sword can't do anything against Goliath, you should have came back your way and go to the surface. When you come back to the surface, take a whole 4 days to fully enchant your swords and armor and spend the rest of the 4 days dating istaroth.