The fallen giant was basically like an eagle with broken wings.
In the golden rulebook of melee combat, there's a very simple law: height is absolute might, meaning that as long as the taller combatant can maintain their height advantage, they will always hold the upper hand in a close-quarters brawl.
For example, among large mammals of roughly similar size, the ones that can stand on two feet and efficiently use their forelimbs to attack are always way stronger than the poor bastards stuck on all fours relying strictly on biting.
This is simply because, from the perspective of the taller fighter, the enemy trapped below them is completely riddled with fatal openings, leaving every single tiny movement totally laid bare.
When you think your desperate combat roll looks cool as hell, in the massive boss's eyes, you probably just look like a stupid raccoon rolling around in the dirt, meaning it could easily swat you dead at any given moment.
Reality isn't a video game after all, so you can't just slowly chip away at the toes of such a massive enemy and expect it to magically die.
But for the current Goliath, its absolute greatest weapon was already completely broken, meaning the suspense of this battle had all but vanished.
The elite vanguards of the Loki Familia ruthlessly swarmed forward, launching wildly powerful attacks straight at the Goliath's exposed vitals—violently depriving it of its sight, tearing its throat wide open, completely smashing the back of its massive head and brutally piercing its heart.
Yet, despite suffering so many incredibly fatal attacks, a monster was still a monster and as long as its greatest weak point, the Magic Stone wasn't completely destroyed, the giant bastard would remain stubbornly tenacious.
"It's ready! Everyone, fall back immediately!"
At Riveria's sharp command, the highly disciplined members of the Loki Familia immediately distanced themselves from the struggling Goliath at absolute top speed.
A terrifyingly powerful surge of raw magic violently rose from Riveria's direction as a fiery red magic circle rapidly expanded to a massive size of nearly twenty meters in diameter, signaling that the mages' combined chant was finally complete.
"Begin the attack!"
Vwoom—
A violently scorching heatwave rapidly spread throughout the entire massive space, forcing Noah to quickly hide his face deep in his protective coat just to feel a tiny bit more comfortable.
A devastating series of massive explosions violently erupted directly from the Goliath's body, and the brutal blasts echoed deafeningly throughout the entire chamber, making the very earth shake and the surrounding walls sway.
When everything finally stopped and the thick smoke cleared, Noah looked back at the exact spot where the Goliath had fallen, only to find that it had been completely turned into a totally barren patch of scorched earth, with absolutely nothing left.
"Hey, hey, are there seriously no drop items? Don't tell me everything, including the precious Magic Stone and all the materials, was totally vaporized!"
Tsubaki looked absolutely frantic, roughly scratching her scalp in sheer frustration.
Putting aside the highly valuable floor boss's Magic Stone, the Goliath's insanely tough hide was an absolutely excellent crafting material and with just a little bit of expert forging, it could easily be made into top-tier armor with outstanding physical resistance.
Noah had honestly once wanted to get his hands on some of it himself, but he had just never been able to afford it.
"Don't worry about it Tsubaki, there are absolutely no drop items here."
"Huh?"
"I've already looked," Noah said calmly, deliberately pointing to his own glowing eyes.
Hearing him say that with total certainty, Tsubaki was instantly relieved.
"I see. Ah, looks like our damn luck just isn't so good today. Oh, right! What the hell did you do to Raul and Aki just now?"
Tsubaki, who had been standing right by his side this entire time, had clearly seen absolutely everything, knowing damn well it couldn't possibly be a mere coincidence that those two had suddenly grown so much stronger right after she saw him use that strange "staff" to shoot something directly at them.
Seeing her intensely curious look, Noah just casually picked up a small piece of rubble from the cracked ground and held it up to show her.
"Hmm?" Tsubaki stared hard at the small stone, still looking completely and utterly bewildered.
"A random stone? What do you mean..."
Suddenly, a very specific memory violently flashed through Tsubaki's mind—it was from just a few days ago when this crazy boy had literally thrown a damn stone right at her head.
At the time, she had only been smacked by a simple rock, yet somehow the minor explosive burns on her body had instantly started healing, acting almost exactly as if she had just chugged a high-tier potion.
'If that was really the case, then...?'
"No fucking way. You can actually use it like that?!" Tsubaki seriously began to question her entire reality.
Magic! Because that absolute bullshit he just pulled off was literal Enchantment magic!
It was an incredibly rare ability that only a tiny handful of people in all of Orario actually possessed, yet to think this insane kid could come up with such a busted way to use his skills, totally combining three abilities that seemed completely unrelated to standard support magic just to massively strengthen his comrades right on the front lines.
She honestly had to hand it to him.
"So that's the real reason you insisted on joining this deep-floor expedition?"
Noah just nodded, a highly satisfied smile completely visible in his eyes.
"But it's definitely not over yet, considering there are still plenty of other effects I haven't even had the chance to properly try out. It was absolutely great that we randomly ran into the Goliath right off the bat, because now I'm honestly even more excited for all the brutal battles to come."
"There's more?! Just how many of those weird-ass things did you actually make?!"
"Hmm, there are probably around nine different types that can be reliably put into actual use right now, since a lot of my other ideas have been unexpectedly difficult to safely implement, basically leaving me completely stuck at an annoying bottleneck I just can't seem to break through."
Tsubaki was completely and utterly speechless.
Looking at Noah's totally earnest serious expression, she found it increasingly difficult to remain even remotely calm.
A bottleneck?!
Because of a stupid "bottleneck," he somehow managed to create such an absolutely absurd, game-breaking weapon entirely out of thin air and not just one, but a full nine of those totally unconventional things, and yet he still had the absolute nerve to casually complain about hitting a bottleneck?!
'That is absolutely not what a bottleneck means, you damn fool!'
...
Under Riveria's strict command, the massive expedition team safely entered the 18th Floor safe zone, and even after successfully defeating a literal floor boss, they didn't really show any excessive excitement.
To them, the massive Goliath was honestly nothing more than a simple appetizer, because when totally ganged up on by a highly coordinated group of Level 3s and 4s, which heavily included an insanely powerful damage dealer like Ais, a regular floor boss—not some mutated Black Goliath—absolutely stood zero chance against a stacked lineup like this.
In fact, if it wasn't for Ais's completely headstrong aggressive fighting style constantly drawing aggro, the others definitely wouldn't have been able to safely focus on their own critical tasks, meaning at the very least, Raul and the other front-liners wouldn't have been able to brutally sever its thick tendons totally unscathed, since she alone had violently pressured the Goliath to the absolute point where it had zero capacity left to deal with anyone else.
Once everyone officially entered the 18th Floor, all the bulky drop items and weaker Magic Stones they had obtained on the upper floors would be immediately sold off right here at a totally scam-level one-tenth of their actual market price.
Their true goal was the Deep Floors, because the terrifying monsters down below were not only insanely stronger, but their large Magic Stones were also vastly more valuable and their unique drop items were incredibly rarer.
For ordinary low-level adventurers, aggressively dumping loot like this might seem like a massive loss, but if you actually wanted to earn the real big money, this was absolutely the only way to truly maximize long-term profits.
Besides, if they happened to score a super rare material like the Goliath's tough hide, there was an incredibly shady storage service fully available in the makeshift town of Rivira right here on the 18th Floor, although the absolutely extortionate price was definitely not cheap at all, considering that just to temporarily store a single item, you literally had to pay the exact same steep price as a living person staying in a decent inn for a full day.
The infamous town of Rivira.
There was absolutely no such thing as a working moral conscience down here like there was up on the sunny surface, and from his clear memories of the original story, Noah knew well that every two steps there was a hidden pitfall and every five steps there was a literal landmine just waiting to completely screw you over.
Thankfully, the expedition group didn't even bother entering the incredibly sketchy town of Rivira, instead just casually finding a quiet open area near the woods to safely set up camp and rest.
At the busy campsite, Noah also dutifully picked up some heavy tools to help properly build the temporary camp, knowing that in order to safely enter the brutal lower and deep floors, it was absolutely best to completely eliminate all the heavy physical fatigue accumulated from their previous battles right here.
As he methodically hammered heavy iron stakes deep into the solid ground with a large mallet, Noah suddenly felt exactly like he was just on a fun totally normal camping trip with his old classmates from his past life, realizing that totally mundane actions like this had gradually just become his totally normal daily routine.
Clang— Clang—
While he was busy hammering away, a tall elegant figure slowly walked right up to him.
"Noah, may I briefly disturb you for a moment?"
"Riveria-san?"
Even though they were technically officially comrades-in-arms right now, Noah was still honestly a little bit surprised that she would actually take the initiative to walk over and talk to him directly.
But on second thought, it was absolutely most likely about the crazy Bombardment magic he had used from before, meaning she had probably completely mistaken him for some kind of hidden mage.
"Of course."
"Thank you kindly. Let's head inside the main tent to talk then."
"Alright." Noah smoothly stood up from the dirt, and Riveria immediately had another random Loki Familia member step in to fully take over his heavy manual labor.
Upon stepping inside the spacious tent, he immediately found that several people were already sitting there quietly waiting for him, and the total lineup was honestly quite impressive: Ais, Alicia, Raul, Aki, and Tsubaki... and finally, Riveria herself taking the lead.
Literally all of them were highly capable, well-known veteran adventurers in the city.
"My deepest apologies for this sudden gathering. You can completely refuse to answer any of the questions I'm about to ask, as they directly involve your own personal privacy, which is exactly why I've asked Tsubaki, your own Familia's captain, to join us here today as a witness."
"I perfectly understand. It's honestly no trouble at all."
Riveria nodded slightly in appreciation, then immediately cut straight to the chase and asked.
"Noah, you're not actually a mage, are you?"
Her calm tone wasn't even really a question, it totally seemed like she had already definitively reached that conclusion on her own.
'That was her very first question?' Noah was actually a little genuinely surprised by her totally blunt approach, highly surprised that she could completely see right through his act so easily.
"That's right. I am definitely not a mage, nor do I actually possess any personal magic whatsoever, as my magic slot is completely empty."
Giving out this basic level of information wasn't really much of a major secret anyway, since there honestly weren't that many adventurers who were fully blessed with magic to begin with, after all, how could a literal miracle not be incredibly precious when only a very small, lucky fraction of people could ever possess one?
"Then that incredibly powerful fire-elemental magic attack from earlier... was that you simply using a highly advanced magic sword?"
This was the absolute primary reason Riveria had sought out Noah in the first place, because absolutely no one in their right mind would ever foolishly burn through an expensive fragile magic sword in a completely one-sided battle like that, but if it truly wasn't a magic sword, then things became incredibly strange and highly concerning.
"No, it definitely wasn't a magic sword, and honestly, that wasn't even actual magic either."
"Not a magic sword, and not even magic?" Riveria was highly surprised and deeply confused by this totally contradictory answer.
Elves were a naturally highly magical race who could easily use magic even without receiving a god's official blessing, and they were also extremely passionate and totally obsessive about the deep study of magical theories, which was especially true for Riveria, who was widely known as the city's strongest mage.
"Regarding the actual core details of how it works, please allow me to keep them entirely to myself, so all I can officially say right now is... I am just a simple blacksmith, and that is absolutely all."
Noah completely refused to explicitly reveal the completely broken nature of his Spell-Weaver skill, knowing well that phrasing it exactly this way would make the others totally naturally associate his strange powers with some kind of rare development ability firmly placed in the "Mystery" category.
It was totally impossible to keep a flashy combat skill completely secret as long as you constantly used it in front of people, so since that was the unavoidable case, Noah decided it was far better to heavily guide the others into only knowing the specific vague parts he actually wanted them to know, expertly leading them to completely misunderstand the entire situation entirely on their own.
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