Of his thirty years of life so far, Ian had spent twenty killing and being killed.
His body had already been fully developed by the time he turned twenty, and as Kshar refined it, it had become a physique as close to perfection as possible.
Even without Falna, he could match strength with a Level 2 combatant, and once his understanding of his own body had deepened, he had engaged in a brutal brawl against a formidable Level 3 opponent.
So now that he had received Falna, Ian’s body could withstand the strength of a Level 4.
Of course, it could withstand it; that did not mean his body was tough enough to shrug off blows.
"Urgh... This is killing me."
Struck once more by Goliath’s enormous fist, Ian rolled across the ground several times before being flung away.
Even more red mist began to billow from his wounds.
Ptui. Ian spat out the clump of blood pooled in his mouth and gripped his sword again.
The punches were bearable.
More precisely, damn it, every time he was hit, his mind grew so numb that he could barely even feel the pain.
At this rate, I really am going to die soon.
Gripping his soul with sheer willpower as it struggled to leave his body, Ian kicked off the ground and charged at the giant before him again.
Ian’s eyes, glowing faintly indigo, brimmed with such intense life that they contrasted sharply with his dying body.
Ian had fought opponents stronger than himself a few times in the past, but they had all been bloody battles against humans.
Fighting a monster stronger than himself—especially a creature over seven meters tall—could not help but feel unfamiliar to Ian.
That was why he kept getting hit.
But little by little, the giant’s movements were beginning to come into view.
Ian leapt high to evade the fist crashing down like thunder, then drove his sword into the massive forearm.
Then he used it as a foothold and launched himself upward. High into the air.
The entire sequence was like an arrow released at the very limit of its drawn bow. Perhaps even faster.
Ah, naturally, he did not forget to pull his sword free before flying off.
Thanks to that, one of Goliath’s tendons was severed, and blood burst forth like a waterfall.
It was an absurdly massive fountain of blood for a wound made by a sword barely over a meter long.
As though that strike had landed as a fatal, killing blow... Ah.
As if he had only just realized it, Ian let out an exclamation.
Looking around, he could see what change had occurred to his body.
The entirety of the 17th Floor had already been dyed so red that one could not see an inch ahead.
Blood mist had blossomed in quantities sufficient to densely fill an entire floor.
Which meant the Skill [Poritropos] had strengthened, causing every one of his attacks to register as a critical hit.
Every attack, regardless of the force behind his sword strikes.
And Ian was a swordsman who wielded a swift blade.
Letting his sword hang loosely, Ian began carving up Goliath’s body.
Sure enough, blood flooded from the wounds and began filling the surroundings.
Before the massive giant could even be bewildered by the abnormalities occurring in its body, Ian’s sword split its head in two.
With its brain crushed, Goliath died on the spot.
A Level 1 adventurer had defeated a floor boss alone.
It was truly a staggering feat... but.
*
"What? My level... didn’t go up?"
"What?"
As startled as Loki herself, Ian asked again, cold sweat trickling down his face.
But the answer remained unchanged.
His level had not risen.
His Strength, Agility, and Dexterity had all shot up to B-rank or higher, but his level remained completely unmoved.
He knew one of his Skills was hindering his growth, but he had never imagined it would be this bad.
Loki staggered while clutching the back of her neck, then collapsed heavily to the floor.
Ian gave a hollow laugh as though he could not believe it and looked at the magic stone beside him.
It was the magic stone he had forcibly extracted from Goliath’s corpse and laboriously carried back up.
When he met his comrades, who had come to rescue him around the 15th Floor, they had nearly fallen over in shock after realizing whose magic stone it was.
Ian would often reflect that it had been quite an amusing experience.
"Could something be wrong? No matter what, a Level 1 defeated a floor boss. Even if his Status was still immature, there’s no way he shouldn’t rank up..."
"Well, there are plenty of things I want to say, but at least I think we’ve figured out the power of Ian’s Skill..."
"I didn’t want to find out like this."
"Huh... I thought our Familia was about to get a record holder."
Riveria questioned the collapsed Loki, Finn laughed awkwardly, Ian grumbled, and Gareth sighed in disappointment, their voices filling the lodging.
It was as though the emotion called despair had filled the room and could not escape.
"S-Still... to celebrate our safe return from our first expedition, we ought to have a feast or something."
"A feast?"
"We got Goliath’s magic stone, after all... Well, I suppose we can eat something expensive."
"Then is Ian treating us?"
"I’m rather looking forward to it."
Yet that gloom vanished at a single mention of a feast.
What a simple Familia.
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