Chapter 428 part 2

Once past the 10th floor, the monsters gradually begin to respond more effectively. But there’s still no need for real strategy. I bulldoze through them with my strength and speed alone. Letting this body do the work, even as it drags me along, and just wipe everything out.

The girls were different from the Geeks and the Idiots. They trained, they fought, and still, their stats would rise by the next day, so they would keep getting swung around by their own strength. In a world where a single mistake could mean death, they kept fighting every day while being pushed around by the changes, suppressing their fears. They protected each other, helped each other, covered for one another, and fought on without losing a single comrade. They’re true, admirable heroes. As for their daily lives… well, they’re still high school girls, after all.

By the 20th floor, I’ve gradually grasped the feel for my body. I just have to get used to being thrown around by my own power. Since all the sensations are all different, I have no choice but to get used to them until it feels right. That’s what it means to teach it to your body. Yeah, I’m actually really good at that. I mean, every night I’ve been carefully and thoroughly teaching all sorts of things to these bodies, until they’re arching, trembling, panting heavily, and crying out in pleasure, uh, never mind. This is just a story about muscle memory. Huh? You heard me mumbling something like, 『Teaching a lesson to that soft flesh』 while swinging my staff? For real? Then what about『Plowing through that overflowing nectar…』 ? That too? Ahh… well, I am a Highschool Boy, after all?

Got off with just a scolding. Apparently, they judged that my body still wasn’t ready to handle the morning star version of the scolding, so I got away with just sitting seiza-style. Must be thanks to my growing aura of authority as a master.

By the 30th floor, I couldn’t get away with just moving as I pleased anymore. I had to read my opponents, constantly change up my movements. My body creaked under the strain, and while it didn’t break, I was getting yanked around by momentum. Falling mid-fight would be fatal, so I had to suppress and stabilize myself as I went.

Thanks to the newly evolved 『Ultimate Staff Mastery』, I’ve gained way more precision for my attacks, so much so that I could feel the tip of the blade like an extension of my fingers, even the slightest deviations in form became obvious. The effects that brought drastic improvement came with having my own unskillfulness rubbed in my face, so I’m not sure how I feel about this one, but watching Armored Pres-san’s swordsmanship and Dancing Girl-san’s fluid movements right next to me every day, I’ve already been painfully aware of my own clumsiness. The higher peaks are always in sight. I’m also very familiar with the sight of them climbing higher and higher on the ladder of pleasure until they c… Nevermind, I didn’t say anything!

By the 40th floor, I was losing in strength already, so technique became the deciding factor. Stat-wise, I still had the upper hand, but I was just a frail human, and they were hulking monsters. Sharp thinking and the skill to execute it, treading this fine line between life and death is the best possible training. While the training is just getting beaten up. Something felt off about that, but to survive the training, a real combat with my life on the line is necessary.

I feel no fatigue at all. There is the power surging from deep within me. Even last night, I was surging and exploding, utterly tireless, spreading obscene chaos and shrieks, recklessly plunging into the inviting flesh. Must’ve been the effects of 『Bedroom Arts』 and 『Transcendents’ Techniques』.

From the 50th floor onward, I started using『Magic Wrap』. Accelerated Thinking slowed the time to the point it almost felt frozen, and though my body moved sluggishly, it still followed along. I have to control this. Within the blink of an eye, dozens of Skeleton Knights vanished, as if they were simply blown away. I haven’t mastered it, but they couldn’t withstand the brutal speed and power, and ended up reduced to dust.

A crushing victory, but it’s totally no good. Armored Pres-san and others are giving me those 『oh dear…』 looks, so clearly it was nowhere near a passing grade. Yeah, I knew myself how unsightly I was flailing around. In order to avoid self-destruction I kept getting flung and pushed around by the momentum.

Starting from the 50th floor, hidden rooms began to appear more frequently, so our pace slowed a bit, but even so, it shouldn’t be more than one hour. Since I’ve gotten closer to the speed of the Dungeon Emperors, the overall combat time has also shortened. On a Dungeon Emperor level, the upper and middle layers probably feel like brushing off morning dew, just trivial nuisances. In the blink of an eye, a gust of wind sweeps past, and the monsters are already slashed to pieces.

Knowing that only accumulating data (experience) could help, I proceed to the 60th floor. My strength and speed have increased, giving me a surging momentum, though I still lack in control, my raw power has skyrocketed. The mid-tier Floor Boss, 『Strength Gargoyle Lv. 60』, got annihilated. It couldn’t withstand my blows, getting outright overwhelmed by my strength. Up until now, all I could do was slash, but now I could strike and push back. Cutting is faster, but the more options I have, the more my tactics expand, and the harder it is for the enemy to predict my moves. If I can stop or break their rhythm, the ways I can fight are limitless. Potential is directly tied to the number of lifelines one has.

We continue the exploration, aiming for the 70th floor. But even on the 60th floor, when facing faster monsters, I was still getting thrown around by my body. My body was quick enough to keep up, but that made me tense up without realizing it, my form falling apart. I’m used to fighting with a patchwork mess of irregular moves, but being tossed around without breaking down was a first. Yeah, in the past, my arm would’ve gotten ripped off and flung across the room, but now it’s still attached, just being pulled hard. Tripping over my feet and nearly falling is dangerous, but I don’t really want to chase after my ripped-off arm again either?

Spinning around clumsily, slipping, tripping, tumbling across the ground, crashing headlong after charging in, whiffing because I couldn’t control my strength, stumbling with awkward footwork. It’s pitiful, embarrassing, and dangerous, but this is fine. No blood is gushing, no bones are shattering, and most importantly, nothing is getting torn off and launched. It still hurts, yeah, but at least I don’t have to see the worried, pained, and sad faces of Armored Pres-san, Dancing Girl-san, and Slime-san.

Somehow, I was starting to get the feel for『Magic Wrap』 state too. Probably thanks to 『Wisdom』-san, running at full capacity, gathering data, analyzing, calculating, and finally starting to derive optimal responses. To adapt my techniques and body to this new physical performance spec, I use 『Holding』 to keep everything in check, wobbling through gaps between monsters, unsightly flailing my staff as I dance in a clumsy mess.

The 70th floor. I stagger, bounce around, swing without hitting anything, stumble, and rolle across the floor. An awkward and ridiculous attempt at 『Kyojitsu』.. It was terrible, my aim uncertain, but I managed to pull it off. I didn’t self-destruct, but I did self-sabotage. Pretty sure that one left a big bump on my head.

A moment ago, I tried『Air Walk』 missed my step, and dove face-first into the wall. But even so, I have to keep ridiculously flailing around. I can’t use 『Muppet』 yet. That one wraps my body in external magic and moves it directly, a correction feature. Up until now, my body couldn’t keep up with that external correction and would just break. Now, though, that same correction might end up being a limiter, keeping me from drawing out my full strength. So even if I have to tumble around, I’m going to master this power. And I’m so fast now that even if I fall, the monsters can’t catch up, so it’s a safe fall, in a way.

The self-destruction isn’t triggering, but bruises and scrapes are piling up. These isekai dungeons are just packed with danger and thrills. When I get back, I should work on some bandages. If I made 『Armor Bandages』I’d probably be able to sell them to adventurers too, get hurt, slap it on, safely continue your adventuring?

The 80th floor was as bad as I feared! I’ve been somehow compensating with technique this whole time, and now that technique execution broke down I’ve got nothing to fall back on. I deflected sword after sword after sword after sword. With no skill to redirect attacks, all I could do was singlemindedly parry. Desperately deflecting, frantically deflecting, seriously deflecting. Divine sword levels.

If I can land a hit, I win. Even without technique, that alone is enough. And though I’m still flailing and struggling like hell just trying to do that, I’ll cut whenever there’s an opening. No matter how high is VIT, no matter how vast their HP pool is, no matter how strong their armor or how giant they are, if I slash, they die. That’s all I can do, but it’s always been enough to kill.

Even without a level, without technique, with a shabby weapon, even if I couldn’t catch a single fish, even if I looked pathetic and uncool, I still survived and kept killing. Thinking of all the effort the girls put in to get this far, someone like me, who can kill just by slashing, has no right to make excuses. So… just die already!

「Phew… to think I’d be struggling so much against a 80th floor boss. Just not self-destructing anymore doesn’t change the fact that my combat strength is pathetically low. Just not being able to have a proper grasp of own body makes it this difficult and scary?… The girls were really giving it their all, huh~?」

(Nod-Nod, Nod Nod, Jiggle-Jiggle)

After a painful, shameful, desperate crawl, we finally reached the 86th floor, and at last, I’m face to face with Dungeon Master-san. Fighting a beast type enemy when I still can’t move my body properly is hell. That smug, condescending dog-face just makes me want to dump ultra-sour vinegar right on it. But no, I’ll give it a proper beating, convert its corpse into technique, pick up its magic stone and convert into the cash too. As they say 『Chase two rabbits and end up with bunnies in both hands』, a very wise proverb. So I pound away, with reckless abandon and zero thought.

As I fight with everything I’ve got, I focus on my entire body. Loosen up. I’ve been too fixated on strength, too obsessed with force. That’s why I keep missing. Move small and fast, keep low with sliding steps. It’s not about the body’s speed, it’s about how fast I think and react. Don’t get swung around by the stats aren’t even half of Pres and the others. They’ve been wielding several times that strength and still fought through it all. If I can’t even manage this, it’s just too pathetic.

It’s vanity. Clearly… I had given up on ever gaining PoW and VIT, and now that I’ve suddenly got them, I got dazzled, wanted to act cool. But it’s fine to be ugly, pitiful, dirty, and cowardly, as long as I kill. A mob should stay a mob. Even if a mob admires heroes and looks up to them, they aren’t supposed to reach their hands towards them. I didn’t get stronger so I could win, I got strong because I wanted to win. For the sake of my means (killing) I’m not going to discriminate in goals (power).

The beast is growling, breathing heavily. A hairy beastman, 『Lycanthrope Lv. 86』. Isn’t that just a werewolf?! The name went from English to Greek, and the vibe is also kind of different, but it’s a massive wolf-man, lean, fast, flexible, powerful, and reeking of beast. But compared to the Bitches, he is still second rate!

I relax, letting my body ride the flow like a wave, merging with the current. Based on past experience, when things are totally out of control, the best move is to just throw everything together, mash it all into one big sloppy mix, duct-tape it together, bluff my way through, and somehow it usually kind of works out!

「Kyojitsu…ngh.」

My consciousness went blank, all thought vanishing as my mind accelerated into the world of slowed time. Casually, as if simply walking, I take one step forward. It moved. That alone is enough.

Without any wind up, my whole body rippled, moving for the sole purpose of cutting. My entire being, body, magic, mana, item effects, everything, became one with that action. And all that remained afterward was the single truth 『Slash』. No matter how fast, how tough, how strong, or how resistant the enemy is, they will be cut no matter what, and once I cut them, they are dead. Yeah, that’s always been enough for me. As long as I can do that, I’m good.