Even if I was being followed, I didn't stop hunting. Already on the 13th floor, I continued killing the monsters I encountered along the way. Most of them I had fought before.
The most annoying one, in my opinion, is the Crystal Mantis—a monster made entirely of crystal, with a powerful resistance to magic. Not only to magic—even hitting it with a sword barely causes any damage.
Fortunately, they become more common on the 15th floor. On the 13th, they're still pretty rare.
The most common monsters on this floor are definitely Bad Bats, Hard Armored, Almiraj, and Hellhounds. Almiraj are the weakest. They're basically rabbits that can be killed with a single hit.
Bad Bats, Hard Armored, and Hellhounds are a bit more annoying—especially the Hellhounds, which use fire and have a higher resistance to fire magic. Still, if I use a strong enough spell, I can kill them. But whenever I encounter one, I prefer using gravity magic instead of fire.
Before they can reach me, I crush them against the ground and kill them instantly.
I kept walking through the 13th floor calmly.
Any monster that approached would get crushed into the floor.
They died in a single attack, and their items were automatically transported to my inventory.
Before I realized it, I had already reached the 14th floor.
And it was the same story there.
Hellhounds approached in groups and tried to attack me with fire spells, but I blocked them with ice magic. And before the ice melted, I would finish them off with gravity magic.
Then, some more time passed, I leveled up twice, and reached the 15th floor.
'My clones must have reached Rivira by now, right?' I thought about using my skills to teleport there, but I decided to make my way on my own. I had a feeling it would be more fun that way.
Starting from this floor, monsters like Minotaurs begin to appear.
Minotaurs are the only monsters that gave me any real trouble.
They take some effort to deal with, but not too much. Their speed is limited, so I can dodge their attacks easily and turn them into punching bags. Still, it's definitely fun.
Besides Minotaurs, another powerful monster starts to show up on the 15th floor: the Ligerfang.
My clones have already fought a few of them, but I never faced one myself.
So I began exploring the 15th floor, feeling pretty excited.
As I walked and killed the weaker monsters (the same ones from previous floors), I received a message from one of my clones.
Berserker.
[Master, we've been in this place called Rivira for a while now. Should we stay or keep going? We're bored.]
'How long have you been there?'
[A day. The other groups just got here too. We spent a lot of time farming exp and items on the 17th floor before coming down. We leveled up a bunch there.]
When did Berserker start talking like a gamer?
'You guys can move on. I don't mind. I'm on the 15th floor now, using clone body number 16.'
[Need help? I can bring my group back to assist you.]
'No need. I'm planning to enjoy myself a bit.'
[Alright, Master, have fun. We're heading to the 19th floor.]
'Sounds good.'
So, they're already heading for the 19th floor. Pretty soon, they'll be reaching some of the more interesting parts of the dungeon.
"I don't think it'll take long before all the clones exploring go through their second evolution."
I need to push myself to evolve this body too, and also get my original body to the next evolution.
With a smile, I started running.
As I ran through the maze-like paths of the 15th floor, I finally found a monster I could really have some fun with—a Minotaur. I dashed toward it and closed the distance in an instant.
The Minotaur turned around, and I jumped. Before it could even roar, I drove my sword into its shoulder and used the weight of my body to slice through it. Blood splattered over me, and the Minotaur screamed in pain.
'Didn't think it would cut that easily,' I said, shaking the blood off my sword.
The Minotaur's fierce eyes locked onto me, and it let out a roar.
At the same time, I felt a small tremor run through my body.
"Your skill's not going to work on me," I said, forming fireballs.
More and more fireballs appeared and flew toward the Minotaur, like a magical submachine gun. I created small but powerful fireballs that kept exploding on impact and pushing the Minotaur back.
Tiny holes began appearing all over its body as it struggled to withstand my assault.
In just a few seconds, the Minotaur stopped screaming and its body dissolved into particles.
"Even after using that much magic, I don't feel close to running out. I think I can do this ten more times."
I smiled and picked up the items the Minotaur dropped.
"These are worth a lot."
Speaking of which, I wonder how Madara's doing. He hasn't contacted me yet, and I haven't seen any notifications for big XP gains. That must mean he hasn't killed anyone.
####
POV: Madara
This is taking forever.
It had already been hours since Master left me here, and I was still waiting. 'What is that guy doing?' I walked to the door of the room to leave.
I was in a waiting room. It had a big sofa, a table, and nothing else.
I tried to open the door, but it was locked.
I smiled to myself. 'I think it's going to start getting fun.'
I went back to the couch and sat down, waiting a bit longer before doing anything rash. Several more minutes passed. Then, the door slowly opened, and in walked the man—their leader.
"Sorry to keep you waiting," he said.
Then two more men entered the room.
Tall men. Much taller than Master.
'...'
"So, have you calculated the value of everything?"
"Yes, yes. The total came out to several million Valis."
"Millions? Oh, that's interesting. Didn't think it would be that much."
"So, you've got more where that came from, don't you?" the man asked with a smile.
I didn't know the exact amount, but I knew Master had tons of items.
"Yeah, a lot more," I said with a grin.
He grinned back and then looked at the two men behind him.
"Restrain him and make him cough up all the items. Be careful," the bald man said, stepping back to leave the room.
"Told you things were about to get fun!" I said with a sinister smile as I stood up from the couch.
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