I woke up on a hard cot.
The morning felt awful, starting in the stale smell of an unfamiliar tent instead of the goddess’s warm embrace.
The reek of mold, mixed with the rough snoring coming from the next partition over, pounded at my head.
Still, after a full night’s sleep, most of yesterday’s fatigue had faded.
My depleted [Mind] had also fully recovered.
That was thanks to the dramatic increase in both my total [Mind] and its recovery speed after reaching LV2.
Or maybe that was also influenced by my Genius ability...
Damn it, how useful were you planning to get?
I got out of bed and did a few light stretches.
“All right, let’s get started.”
I took two cheap steel swords and a repair kit out of my backpack.
Then I began by maintaining the [Fire Aspect] sword, the only one that had survived the battle with Goliath.
I sharpened the dulled edge with the whetstone in the repair kit and rewound the loosened grip with leather cord.
There were tiny cracks from colliding with Goliath’s skin, but it should still be usable for now.
It wasn’t perfect, but it would do.
Now it was time to breathe new power into the remaining two swords.
I went to the open space behind the inn tent, where few people passed by, and laid the two newly bought swords on the ground.
The weapons I’d bought from the blacksmith yesterday were far lower in quality than the ones I’d bought on the surface.
The mana conductivity was poor, and the durability looked weak.
When I gave them a light swing by hand, the balance was a mess too.
But I had [Enchant].
The power to turn trash into magic swords!
I picked up the first sword and focused my [Mind].
“Sharpness 4, Unbreaking 3, Absorption 2, and Frost.”
“Let fate be bestowed.”
With a short chant, the light flowing from my hand wrapped around the sword.
When the light faded, a thin layer of frost had settled over the ordinary blade.
I immediately applied the same [Enchant] to the second sword.
“Sharpness 4, Unbreaking 3, Absorption 2, and Lightning.”
As the light wrapped around the blade and vanished, tiny sparks burst from the tip of the sword.
I fastened the newly born magic swords and the repaired [Fire Aspect] sword to my waist.
After finishing all my preparations, I left the inn tent.
I had no intention of idly waiting until Goliath was slain.
Yesterday’s defeat had taught me a great deal.
Especially how powerless my attacks were before an overwhelming monster.
As I was now, I had no way to land a meaningful hit on an LV4 monster.
I needed to get stronger.
I headed for the Crystal Forest on the outskirts of town.
There, I floated the three magic swords into the air and began serious training.
Simply hunting monsters wouldn’t push my technique to its limit.
I needed something more precise, more complex.
I gave each of the three swords a different command.
The [Fire Aspect] sword repeatedly thrust straight toward a giant crystal in front of me, the [Frost] sword practiced defensive maneuvers, circling around me in a wide orbit, and the [Lightning] sword practiced evasive maneuvers, darting back and forth at high speed between the trees of the Crystal Forest without colliding with anything.
Controlling three different movements at once demanded more concentration than I had imagined.
The closest way I could describe it was like drawing a triangle with one hand, a circle with the other, and a square with one foot all at the same time.
My head felt like it was about to explode, but I didn’t stop.
Sweat poured off me like rain, and whenever my [Mind] ran dry, I took a short break before resuming training.
And so, several days passed.
By day, I trained in the Crystal Forest, and by night, I returned to the inn to sleep.
The adventurers in town had initially stared at my strange training with curiosity, but after a few days, they must have gotten used to it, because they no longer paid me any attention.
To them, I was just some oddball record holder.
Then, on the afternoon of the third day, the town of Rivira began to stir.
“Did you hear? Loki Familia has reached the 17th Floor!”
“Really? Then Goliath will be slain soon!”
“Kahaha! At last, we’ll be able to return to the surface!”
The adventurers cheered, brimming with anticipation that the path would soon open.
I stopped training when I heard the news too.
At last, I could return to the surface.
I packed my things and headed to the tavern.
As expected, the tavern was in a festival mood.
“A messenger just arrived! Loki Familia has slain Goliath!”
At someone’s shout, every adventurer in the tavern erupted into cheers.
The path was open.
I left the commotion behind and quietly slipped out of town.
When I reached the 17th Floor, the area around the Great Fissure was covered in the traces of a massive battle.
The ground was gouged out, and the walls were marked with clear scratches from something enormous. Goliath had already been slain and vanished.
I passed through the area and set off toward the surface.
From the 17th Floor to the 1st, I began hunting again.
With my sword technique sharpened by days of training, I hunted the monsters of the Middle Floors.
The three magic swords flew through the air like dancers, slaughtering monsters left and right.
The combo of freezing their feet, stunning them with lightning, and finishing them off with fire was almost perfect.
Thanks to the [Absorption] [Enchant], my stamina barely dropped at all.
As I climbed, I slaughtered every monster I encountered and filled my once-empty backpack with Magic Stones again.
I’d gathered more than enough to make up for the losses I’d suffered to Goliath.
A few days later, when the light of the Dungeon entrance finally came into view, I let out a sigh of relief.
Let’s go back. To the goddess’s side.
Comments (0)
Please log in to leave a comment. Login or Register