28 Chapter 27

(MC is not going to forget the incident with Bete, but he can't do anything as a level 2, even a peak level 2. Probably when MC becomes level 3 he will beat the ever-living shit out of Bete. Trust me, there will be revenge)

I walked back home after collecting my hefty sum of money, giving most of it to Miach. Then, I walked down to my room and began to test out the new capacity of my aura and magic reserve. I then proceeded to practice for a few hours before I figured that my reserves had more or less doubled, giving me a lot more room to use my abilities in the dungeon. After that practice, I began to more on unlocking a new magic that would be extremely valuable to me, Flight magic.

I hadn't forgotten my idea of using the holes in the Middle Floors to try and find a good passage to the Lower Floors of the dungeon. As I suspected, it wasn't too difficult to obtain the new magic, but it burned through even my newly enhanced reserve quickly, leading me to have a new idea. So far I had unlocked the spell [Fly], but I tried to create a new, less energy-intensive spell that would still be useful. That led me to create the spell [Glide] as an alternative to straight-up flight.

That got me on a creative binge, causing me to try and create a few more Earth magic spells so that I can eventually unlock [Earth Manipulation]. After a few hours, I had two new, original spells, [Rock Fall], which causes a small section of the ceiling to collapse if it is made from earth or stone, and [Stone Spear] which pushes a spear of stone up from under the opponent, impaling them.

With that done I crashed into my bed and passed out. The next day I was up and heading toward the dungeon. I wasn't really planning on boosting my stats, or at least that isn't my main goal for today. My plan is to start using my [Unique Skill: Explorer] to map out some of the floors and maybe even some of the drops into the deeper floors, but that would be riskier. I was also planning to focus only on Moon Breathing while exploring the dungeon, to improve my proficiency. Though, I wasn't entirely sure how to perform any of the forms that need an enlarged sword yet.

With my plan firmly set I began my trip to the dungeon in a good mood, the strength of a level 2 flowing through my veins. It didn't take me long to reach the dungeon as I ran at full speed while cloaked in [Concealment]. I directly bypassed the circular walkway down to the first floor, using [Glide] to float down through the center of the circular stairs until I reached the first floor.

I ran down the floors, making sure to kill any monster I saw, due to me wanting to work towards ranking Hunter up. I didn't bother using Moon Breathing on any of them until I encountered a Minotaur on the 17th floor, then I jumped forward and used [Loathsome Moon, Chains]. Two gigantic crescent slashes ripped from my blade, followed by a small storm of smaller crescents that ripped apart the already dead monster's corpse. I didn't even both with the stone, heading down to the next floor.

I began to slow my run when I approached the entrance to the 19th floor, this is where my objective for today would really begin. Before I went down to the 19th floor I went to a far corner of Rivera and cut down a fairly large tree and carved the magic circle needed for [Warp Portal] into its stump. Next, I had Regulus sink the stump into the ground so that only a small layer of dirt rested above the stump. This would allow me to teleport to the floor in the future.

I was about to head down when I saw something that made me disable my [Concealment] and approach the steps to the 19th floor casually. A woman with tanned skin and only bandages wrapped around her chest to keep her modest and big baggy red pants. I acted ignorant, but I knew that this was Tsubaki Collbrande, captain of the Hephaestus familia. My sword and sheath dropped into my hand while she wasn't looking, but I made to show it off without doing so in an overt way.

As I approached, she turned to look at me. I saw her eye patch covering one eye, but her other one scrutinized me before turning to my blade. She looked at my sword for a moment, clearly seeing the Hephaestus brand clearly on the scabbard.

"Nice sword kid," she said to me as I got closer to her and the stairs down.

"Thanks," I said simply, acting as though this was just a casual compliment from a stranger.

She looked back, seeming to expect to see my party close behind me, but she saw nobody. In the meantime, I walked by her and began to descend the steps. I could see her raise an eyebrow with [Magic Sense] and then start to follow me down.

"Where's your party kid?" she asked me after a few moments.

"Never had one," I replied casually

That made her laugh until she realized that I was serious. Then she started to look at me like I was crazy, but I didn't mind. My goal was now just to make a good impression on Tsubaki, after all, I would need one of the best smiths in the city to forge Balmung in the future. If she remembered me then the chances of her making something for me in the future would be higher. She stopped questioning my lack of party and returned to talking about my sword.

"How do you like the blade?" she asked, after all, customer satisfaction is a key part of running a business.

"I like it, but the durability is a bit lacking, that's why I am saving up to eventually get a Durandal blade," That caused her to laugh loudly, especially because she could tell that I wasn't joking.

"Durandal is quite expensive," she said, still chuckling.

"I never said it wouldn't take me some time," I said, grinning at the woman.

She grinned back, but focused on the first bit of my initial reply, "What about the durability is lacking?" she asked, confused by my criticism of what she saw was a perfectly fine sword.

"I'm not saying that the smith made a mistake or anything, its durability is good for the price. I just require blades with above-average durability for my fighting style," I said, trying not to sound like I was complaining about the sword.

She nodded in understanding, probably thinking that I was a strength-based fighter, not that the sword would disintegrate in my hands if I used all my abilities to boost it to its maximum. We finally reached the 19th floor, but Tsubaki continued to walk alongside me, probably curious to see how I fought with the blade. I decided to go all out to make a bigger impression on her, from what I could remember she liked a challenge. Perhaps if I showed her my style of fighting then she would consider making me Balmung an appropriate challenge.

I didn't have to wait long as a Bugbear emerged from the dense foliage that was present all over the 19th floor. Tsubaki stood back to watch as I engaged the Bugbear, she was probably equal parts curious about my fighting style and concerned about me having no party with me. The bear charged at me, but I just calmly drew my sword and activated [Magic Aura Sword], [Galvanize], and [Flame Manipulation] in quick succession causing me to feel a small tremble in the blade.

I could see Tsubaki's stunned face as I stepped forward and swung my blade using [Moon Spirit Calamitous Eddy] to create multiple curved slashes layered over one another. This created a rising vortex of sword slashes and crescent moon blades that were all charged with flames, electricity, and my aura. To say the Bugbear died would have been an understatement, it might as well have been completely erased from existence.

I looked down at my blade and showed it to the still-stunned Tsubaki. The blade was steeming and still tremored ever so slightly as the last of my power flowed out of the blade. To her credit, she recovered quickly from her shock and looked down at the blade, the professional blacksmith in her taking over. She took the blade from me and analyzed it closely before handing it back to me.

"No wonder you need a durable blade," she said, "I think you'll need a Durandal blade if you want to do flashy moves like that often,"

"That's why I'm saving up, but I can't bum rush the Lower Floors by myself," I said with a shrug.

"I could go down with you, you've got me interested, do you know what type of blade you want?" she asked, catching me off guard.

"Well, you see, I'm not a high enough level to hit the Lower Floors either," as I spoke Tsubaki's eyebrow rose.

"You seem to be a high enough level to me," she said giving me a skeptical look.

"I actually just became level 2," I said, nearly causing Tsubaki to vomit blood in surprise as she looked at me wide-eyed.