Roar—!
Facing the pack of hellhounds, Tiona unleashed the magic barrier of Exhaust-devourer.
A crimson phantom emerged, deflecting all of the hellhounds' flames.
At the same time, while hiding behind the barrier, she used her new gauntlet to boost her attack power four times in a row.
"Ora!"
The Amazon girl threw a massive punch.
A terrifying wave of magic exploded forward in a straight line, instantly wiping out the entire pack of Hellhounds without her even having to touch them.
The blast was so powerful that it even shattered the monsters' magic stones into dust.
Even though she had just effortlessly destroyed a group of monsters strong enough to wipe out a full party of Level 2 adventurers, the girl looked completely bored.
"Mmm... fighting monsters on the Middle Floors just isn't fun at all. They all die before I even try."
Swish!
Ais finished off the last enemy in front of her with a single, clean sword slash.
She looked back at the completely bored Tiona—or, more accurately, at the monstrous gauntlet on Tiona's arm.
"So strong..." Ais whispered.
Ais had sparred with Tiona right after the Amazon joined the Loki Familia.
While Tiona had been very strong back then, she had never been a monster like this.
Ais did not know that Tiona was currently using her Berserk skill.
Because the gauntlet was draining her health, the skill was pushing her physical abilities to a completely new level—one that was almost as strong as a mid-tier Level 5 adventurer.
Bete seemed completely uninterested in these weak monsters.
He just followed along behind them with his hands stuffed in his pockets.
Tiona opened her monstrous right hand.
The remaining life force of the dead Hellhounds was completely sucked up by the creepy magic eye on the back of her gauntlet.
Then, Tiona turned the weapon off and she immediately felt a warm rush of life force flow back into her body.
However, the invincible fiery aura she had just been giving off suddenly vanished.
"Ugh... the power is gone and now i feel so weak," Tiona groaned.
The way she acted right now was completely different from the fierce warrior she had been just seconds ago.
Even though her skill description did not mention it, whenever Berserk was triggered, the Amazon girl clearly became much more aggressive and hyperactive than usual.
It was basically a physical reaction to the skill.
Now that her power had suddenly turned off—or rather, returned to normal—it left her feeling tired and sluggish.
'It seems my design was a bit too simple,' Noah thought to himself.
Noah carefully watched how Tiona used the equipment, quietly judging his own masterpiece to see how he could improve it later.
"We have three more floors to go. Minotaurs and Saber-Toothed Tigers should start showing up soon. They fight completely differently than Hellhounds," Tione explained.
Unlike her sister, Tione did not rush ahead to slaughter everything in sight.
Instead, she stayed back and carefully taught Noah what he needed to watch out for on the Middle Floors.
She explained the different types of monsters and how they attacked.
Noah was only a Level 2.
Even though he was a blacksmith, he was still an adventurer.
If he ever formed his own party in the future, he would definitely be exploring the Middle Floors.
It was best to learn as much about them as possible right now.
Just then, Bete spoke up.
"Tch. If all you do is stand there and listen to people talk, you are just going to freeze up like a wooden doll when you actually have to face those monsters yourself."
The werewolf snorted.
He tried to sound mean and insulting, but his words actually carried a lot of helpful meaning.
Tione stopped talking and stared at the werewolf.
Even Tiona, who had been having a blast killing things up ahead, stopped and looked back at him.
"Bete... are you actually giving Noah helpful advice?" Tione asked, shocked.
The young werewolf flinched.
He quickly looked away, trying to act natural, though his voice was still harsh.
"Hah?! What are you talking about?! Why would I go out of my way to do something stupid like that?! I have no reason to help him!"
"Oh, is that so?" Tione smirked.
"Fuck off..."
"Huh? Bete, are you cursing at me again?!" Tiona yelled.
"I was talking to you, you stupid Amazon!" Bete shouted back.
'And just like that, they started arguing like little kids again.' Noah sighed.
He walked right past the two of them and headed deeper into the Dungeon.
As he walked, he looked at Ais and Tione and said, "From now on, unless there is a massive swarm of monsters, please let me fight them. Bete is right, I need to get some real experience fighting on the Middle Floors."
The two girls nodded in agreement.
And so, the group walked down to the next floor.
...
A small group of monsters perfectly suited for Noah's training suddenly appeared in the tunnel.
"Giant Boars. There are four of them," Tione warned, spotting them first.
Ais calmly sheathed her sword and stepped back.
Seeing his chance, Noah stepped forward to face the four Giant Boars alone.
He did not pull out his sniper, Annihilator.
If he used that, a single shot would blow them all to pieces instantly.
Instead, he planned to beat these monsters using hand-to-hand combat.
"Raven Feather, release."
Pitch-black metal feathers slid out from under Noah's sleeves.
They wrapped around his hands and quickly locked together to form his dark gray gauntlets.
The magic circles carved into the back of the metal glowed faintly as he poured his mana into them.
"Appraise."
[Giant Boar]
Level: Lv. 2
Weakness: Fire
Attack Patterns: Charge, Ram
Charge Speed: 0 to 100 yards in 3.4 seconds
Ram Data: Attack range is 4 meters; attack angle is 43 degrees.
Blind Spot: Directly above.
Through Noah's eyes, all of the monsters' secrets were laid bare.
They had nothing to hide.
Spotting the boy, the four Giant Boars all made the exact same move.
They scraped their heavy hooves against the stone floor, locked their eyes on their target, and prepared to charge.
"If their weakness is fire..."
Noah crouched down low.
Just as the Giant Boars began their charge, Noah sprinted straight toward them.
But a split second before they crashed into him, he used Spell-weaver to reverse gravity around his body.
He pushed off the ground hard, leaping high into the air right over the Giant Boars' blind spot.
While floating in the air, he held out one hand and aimed at the boar directly below him.
"Fire."
A small magic circle glowing with heat opened in his palm.
A ball of fire shot out and blasted the monster right in the back.
As Noah landed on the ground, he curled his fingers together, leaving only his pointer and middle fingers sticking out.
He flicked his fingers gently as he spun around.
"Wind Blade."
A sharp blast of wind, squeezed tightly together until it was as thin as a sword, sliced through the air.
It perfectly hit the back leg of one of the Giant Boars, slicing right through its tendon.
Unable to walk, the boar roared in pain as its body caught fire from his earlier spell.
In just a few seconds, it burned away into ash.
One of the other boars that had missed its first charge finally managed to turn around.
It lowered its head and launched another full-speed ram right at Noah.
Noah calmly lowered his fingers.
A blade of wind shot out, flying low to the ground. It spun like a saw blade and smoothly sliced off all four of the charging boar's legs.
Without its legs, the Giant Boar's heavy body just slid across the stone floor until it stopped right at the boy's feet.
Noah crouched down.
He grabbed the monster's skull with his heavy, dark gray gauntlet. With a simple, effortless twist of his wrist, he ripped the Giant Boar's head clean off.
The monster died instantly.
Its body burst into black smoke and faded back into the Dungeon, leaving a shiny magic stone sitting in Noah's hand.
"Whoa," Tiona cheered.
"Tch," Bete grunted.
"Noah, you are very strong," Ais said softly.
"Not bad at all!" Tione smiled.
Noah looked back at his four bodyguards and smiled.
He was honestly relieved that none of them were bothering him with questions about how his weird magic worked.
Dealing with Giant Boars was still pretty easy for him.
However, monsters like these sometimes spawned in huge packs of twenty or thirty.
If an "Irregular" event happened in the Dungeon, there could be over a hundred of them at once.
If a normal adventurer got caught in a stampede like that, they would be crushed into paste before they could even think about running away.
...
"Minotaurs! Three of them!" Tione called out.
Noah was starting to get the hang of this.
He walked forward slowly, his heart completely calm as he faced the roaring, muscular monsters.
Thanks to his Truth Seeker skill, his brain was processing combat experience and sending it directly to his muscles at an incredible speed.
A massive, hairy fist the size of a boulder came crashing down at his head.
Noah calmly stepped to the side, tilting his body just a tiny bit.
He dodged the punch perfectly, missing the giant fist by mere inches.
The wind from the heavy punch simply blew his hair back.
Judge the opponent's attack angle and range.
Do not use big movements to dodge, or you will lose your balance and leave yourself open to a second attack.
Noah gently placed the palm of his gauntlet against the Minotaur's chest.
"Impact."
He sent a low-powered shockwave through the gauntlet.
It was just strong enough to pass through the Minotaur's thick layer of chest muscle.
When the shockwave hit the monster's powerful heart, the heart instantly pumped a massive amount of blood.
Unable to handle the intense vibration, the blood vessels inside the monster burst.
The towering Minotaur coughed violently, and a huge amount of blood spilled from its mouth.
It dropped to its knees and exploded into ash before its body even hit the floor.
"He took down a Minotaur that easily?" Tione said, looking very impressed.
Tiona, on the other hand, did not think it was a big deal at all.
"That is normal for Noah, right? He knocked out an entire group from the Ishtar Familia in the blink of an eye back on the street!"
Bete, who had personally felt the terrifying power of Noah's acceleration magic, crossed his arms and snapped.
"It is not the exact same thing, you idiot."
"Bete, you are so annoying! Why are you cursing at me for no reason again?!"
"Because you are so stupid!"
"Hmph." Tiona suddenly crossed her arms and snorted.
Then, she did a little hop backward and struck the exact same flashy, dramatic pose the werewolf had used in Noah's backyard the day before.
Even though she had nothing in her hands, she pretended to hold a card and dramatically slashed it down toward her waist.
Then, trying to sound as cool and edgy as possible, she shouted.
"Henshin~! Pwahahaha!"
The Amazon girl had perfectly copied every single one of Bete's actions and facial expressions from that embarrassing moment.
She flashed a peace sign at him and burst into wild uncontrollable laughter, looking at the werewolf with total mockery!
"..."
The werewolf's face instantly turned ashen pale.
He ground his teeth together so hard they squeaked and thick veins bulged angrily on his forehead.
'Kill her.'
'No, kill everyone here! If I kill them all right now, no one will ever know about this!'
Seeing the violently dangerous, murderous look in Bete's eyes, Noah quietly grabbed Ais by the shoulder.
He gently pushed the clueless swordswoman as far away as possible from the death-seeking Amazon and the werewolf who was currently about to explode from pure shame and anger!