Floor 37, an area near the central region...
In this world where only white phosphorescence provided the faintest illumination, a frequent clattering sound kept ringing out, bringing an eerie atmosphere with it.
The source of the sound was a group of monsters whose entire bodies were shuddering.
They had neither skin nor muscle. Their ribs and pelvises were bared to the open air, and their whole frames were nothing but white bone. On top of that, many parts of their skeletons had armor-sharp ridges jutting out, giving them a decidedly jagged look.
This group of skeletal monsters made up entirely of bone had the formal name Spartoi, and they appeared in deep regions like Floor 37, belonging, like the Barbarians and other monsters, to the warrior class.
They possessed the highest-grade combat ability on this floor. Unlike their fragile all-bone appearance, they were not only immensely strong but also fast, and they came equipped with bone swords, bone axes, bone shields, and all sorts of other bone weapons. They were acknowledged as the strongest monsters on Floor 37, classified at Lv.4, and even adventurers of the same level could rarely beat them in a one-on-one duel. They might not quite rank as boss-class monsters, but calling them the elite monsters of this floor was no problem at all.
Now these eyeless skeletal monsters turned their pitch-black eye sockets in unison toward the group of people before them, and while their skeletons shuddered all over, they raised the bone weapons in their hands and charged as one at their opponents.
An ugly roar rang out from them, hollow and grating, as if blown through an empty cavity, but what it drew was not fear from the enemy, only a flash of silver blade.
Clad in the Giant's Battle Garb, hooded cloak streaming behind him with the momentum of his charge, Leo came in at bullet speed. His sword swung straight down, and before the Spartoi could raise the bone shield in its hand, it cut into the monster's body and split it in two, slaying it on the spot.
"Guorrrr...!"
The Spartoi around him thrust bone spears, hacked with bone swords, some even brought bone axes chopping down from above, all with staggering force. But Leo only shifted his footing, dodging a few times to the side, and evaded every one of these scattered attacks, so that all the bone weapons landed on empty air.
"Guorrr!"
The skeletal monsters whose attacks had missed were still roaring in pursuit, but before their second wave could form up, Leo's figure had already closed in.
First a horizontal sweep, drawing a sharp arc of light, cut down the bone-axe wielder who dealt the greatest attack power and the most damage.
Then a diagonal slash flowing from it cut in two a bone-sword wielder that had crept up silently beside him, splitting even the magic stone open and killing it on the spot.
Next came a three-stage slash, like three flashes of blade swung all at once, sending flying together the arms of three Spartoi who had raised bone spears to thrust, fast and fierce.
Like this, Leo cut down the Spartoi with the highest-grade combat ability on Floor 37 at high speed and with efficiency far surpassing before. That commanding showing looked nothing like a Lv.4 second-class adventurer, and more like a newly minted first-class warrior.
And in fact that was more or less true.
Setting aside the latent ability accumulated across the previous few levels, at his current level alone Leo's Dexterity had already reached SSS and broken past its limit, while his other parameters, Strength, Endurance, Agility, were either closing in on S or outright at S. Such a Status undoubtedly exceeded that of any Lv.4 second-class adventurer, and the close-combat strength Leo displayed was now infinitely close to Lv.5, so close that even compared to a newly minted Lv.5, the gap wouldn't be all that large.
Add in a full week of steady attacking, which had let Leo basically figure out the Spartoi's combat patterns, and the Leo of now would definitely have no great trouble taking on a group made up of monsters classified as high as Lv.4.
Watching this scene, Tiona, Tione, Lefiya, and the others were a little lost for words.
"Hey, is Leo really Lv.4?"
Tiona said it like someone whose whole understanding of the world had just come apart.
"He hasn't secretly leveled up already and just not told us, has he?"
That remark alone said plenty about just how astonishing Leo's performance was.
"Does it make a difference?" The corner of Tione's eye twitched slightly, and she clicked her tongue. "With that strength, even if he hasn't leveled up yet, he's got to be pretty close to it, right?"
"You've got to be kidding..." Lefiya stared hard at Leo's back, murmuring in what might have been an inability to accept it or sheer disbelief. "It's only been two weeks since he ranked up to Lv.4!"
Two weeks, that was half a month.
That's right, half a month again.
However hard it was to believe, however much they didn't want to believe it, neither Tiona and Tione nor Lefiya could deny it: Leo's strength really had grown again to the point of nearly leveling up.
Even without having seen Leo's Status, without knowing what his actual current numbers were, they could tell from experience that he was right now at that critical stage.
Lefiya, a Lv.3, couldn't be certain of it yet, but Tiona and Tione, having been through it themselves, were quite sure.
"He probably only needs one last great feat now to level up, doesn't he?"
Tione said this in a low voice, leaving the surroundings dead silent.
"No way?" Tiona had started scratching her head, and she blurted out, "Doesn't that mean we're about to get caught up to?"
Once Leo saved up that last great feat and met the requirement to level up, he'd be Lv.5.
And they were currently Lv.5.
Tiona, Tione, Ais, and Bete, these four executives of Loki Familia, were all currently Lv.5.
The four of them had been training at the Lv.5 rank for several years now and had all reached the very top of Lv.5, in the same boat as the current Leo, only needing enough great feats to level up. But looking at the current situation, none of them looked anything like they'd be leveling up before Leo.
If Leo took that step first, then even as a newly minted Lv.5 he'd be an existence at the same level as them.
So they really were about to be caught up to.
"I never dreamed even in my sleep that Leo would catch up this fast..."
"...Who isn't thinking that? The guy only received his blessing a bit over two months ago."
Tiona and Tione looked at each other, expressions complicated.
"Lv.5..."
Lefiya, for her part, kept muttering it as if she were staring at a wall too high to ever climb no matter how hard she tried.
As for Ais... she'd long since drawn her sword and charged at the Spartoi with her feelings held down inside.
Her eyes didn't turn Leo's way, but the thoughts surfacing in her mind were all about him.
He caught up in the end, after all...
Ais swung her sword, forcefully cutting the skeletal monster before her clean through along with its bone shield, her heart surging.
Why can he grow so fast?
Why couldn't I get strong like him?
Why... am I this weak!
Ais thought of the mysterious woman.
If she'd been strong enough, she could have kept her there back then and not let her escape, right?
If she couldn't escape, then Ais could have learned from her own mouth why she knew the name "Aria."
The appearance of that name had woken a feeling that had always lain sleeping in Ais's heart.
That feeling was called hatred.
Ais had already been badly rattled by Leo's forceful rise, and now, witnessing his growth once again, forced to face the reality of being caught up to as well as the memory sealed deep in the very bottom of her heart being dug back up, the feelings Ais had kept pressed down finally went out of control.
The golden-haired girl's eyes involuntarily lit with black flames, and her back too grew hot as if searing. In an instant her whole body seemed wrapped in a pitch-black power, turning into a black storm that rushed into the monster horde and unleashed violent slaughter.
The presence she gave off became terrifying beyond measure, and the air around her, no longer anything like before, turned pitch-black, turned dreadful.
In this state, the combat power Ais burst out with actually surged dramatically, faintly even surpassing her when she activated Ariel.
"A-Ais...?!"
Tiona, Tione, and Lefiya, who had been focused on Leo all this time, were shocked by this sudden change, and cried out one after another.
Leo, who had been immersed in the fight, jolted awake too, whipped his head toward Ais's direction, and then his expression shifted slightly.
That state...
Something clicked in Leo's mind, and he stopped, calling out toward Ais.
"Ais!"
His voice wasn't loud, but it carried real force, like a blow to the head that woke the golden-haired girl who'd been ruled by that pitch-black feeling.
The great slash Ais had been about to swing halted abruptly in midair, the force it carried breaking loose as a blast of wind that kicked up heavy clouds of sand.
It was not hard to imagine what would have happened. Had that strike come down, then never mind one Spartoi, the whole horde of them in front of Ais would have been blasted to pieces along with the ground.
The horde of Spartoi still had no idea they'd just stepped one foot through the gates of hell. Seeing Ais suddenly stop her attack, they immediately flung themselves at her, heedless of life or death.
The next second, a thick meteor blasted in and swallowed this horde of Spartoi, snuffing them out into starlight amid their screams, not so much as a fragment of bone left behind.
"Ais!"
Tiona and Tione charged in as well, one wreaking havoc with her great double-blade, the other slicing wildly with her kukri, cutting down a group of Spartoi that came in from the flank and shielding Ais.
"Miss Ais!"
Lefiya came running over too, a picture of panic.
Leo came to Ais's side without a sound and looked at her quietly.
Surrounded by everyone, Ais fell silent.
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