'First, trust.'
Ryuu could not figure out why she would encounter Ron here, yet after their earlier interactions, she knew clearly—this guy was actually quite normal.
Willing to put in the effort.
Even after being knocked down repeatedly during training, he remained unyielding.
At most, his behavior during their first meeting had made her somewhat embarrassed. Aside from that, she truly could not find any flaws in the young man before her.
'It should just be…'
'Encountering this kind of special monster, he wants to fight, right?'
The girl kept her distance as she observed.
She did not believe that Ron—who showed no instinctive bodily resistance—would have anything to do with Evilus.
And the simplest, most direct approach would be to ask Ron for the reason after this battle ended.
Of course...
If Ron were to be defeated, Ryuu tightened her grip on the Alf's Lumina in her hand and looked toward the monster stitched together from countless limbs and torsos, her azure eyes filled with disgust.
And then—
During Ron's battle with the "Grafted Scion," the girl rarely felt a sense of familiarity—it was the very tactics this guy had used during their first training session.
Probing attacks, and when encountering counterattacks from special monsters, he would evade by rolling.
Far too practiced…
Ron's practiced calm when confronting special monsters had, in fact, already hinted at the answer she had been desperately searching for. Ryuu's azure eyes grew extremely complicated.
She suddenly realized—
Was it not her own heart that seemed to be resisting this answer?
...
Although the floor boss's body was extremely bloated, that did not mean its movements were slow. More importantly, the monster's methods of attack were highly diverse.
Its stitched-together body wielded weapons of various forms.
Standing before Ron like a weapon master, to the point that even his simple probing attacks against the floor boss required him to be especially cautious of the opponent's offensive patterns.
The good news:
In terms of strength and speed, he was no longer the rookie he had been when fighting the Goblin Guard.
When facing adventurers, Ryuu's theory applied perfectly. But against this stitched monstrosity resembling a "Grafted Scion," Ron truly did not dare to test things lightly.
Relying on his own high mobility, he rapidly probed the floor boss. Even the wounds inflicted by his frequent use of "Ash of War: Bloody Slash" would be quickly healed by the monster within a short time.
Moreover, that towering, unmoving mass of flesh—over a dozen stitched adventurer faces spread across its surface—provided the monster with all-around vision.
"Using wall-hack vision—how is this even playable?"
Several attacks proved ineffective.
This made Ron clearly realize that he was like a flea in Dark Souls, rolling and jumping around, scraping at the monster without dealing any substantive damage at all.
Instead, his own stamina was being rapidly depleted.
The number of times he possessed "Revival" was merely a superficial resurrection method; even after it took effect, it would not fully restore the stamina consumed during battle.
This really left him with no options…
Compared to a slow death, it was better to go all in!
Thinking this through, Ron's gaze hardened as he quickly made a decision. If it truly came to it, he would retreat from the Dungeon and, after elevating his level to Lv2, consider challenging the Grafted Scion again.
"Very well."
The effect of the Combat Art "Seppuku" was to grant the weapon the bleeding attribute, continuously accumulating wounds over a short period of time, and once the damage was sufficient to be lethal, directly trigger a bleeding detonation.
The price was instant death the moment the magic "Heal" effect ended.
"At least I have to try…"
Drawing on past experience, a blitz playstyle meant scraping off as much damage as possible in the shortest time—after all, it was going to consume his Revival uses anyway.
Thinking this, Ron decisively cast the "Heal" spell. A gentle light continuously surfaced in his palm, gradually dispersing the darkness of the arena until it sank into his body.
After drawing his thrusting sword, he gripped both weapons in a reverse hold and, without hesitation, moved toward
[Combat Art: Seppuku]
Puh!
With no armor to obstruct them, the tips of the two weapons plunged straight into Ron's abdomen. Accompanied by intense pain, his face instantly turned pale.
He could clearly feel the weapons siphoning his blood.
Only after that draining sensation gradually faded did he pull the two fully enchanted weapons from his abdomen, his gaze sweeping over the eerie red glow clinging to them.
It carried an extremely ominous, blood-soaked aura!
"Very well…"
"After the durability attribute increased, my physical condition really has started developing toward an athletically built physique."
Harder to kill.
Ron did not rashly launch an attack. Instead, he took out the medicine kit he carried with him, which contained the topical medicine Airmid had prepared for him earlier.
At a time like this, there was no need to fuss over usage instructions!
After biting the wooden stopper open with his teeth, despite it being a topical medicine, he poured it straight into his stomach without hesitation, feeling the gradually rising burning sensation.
And the slight easing of the abdominal injury as well.
"You—of what rank are you, daring to cosplay as a Grafted Scion with me…"
Ron nimbly sidestepped the volley from bows and crossbows, then sprinted straight toward the floor boss. The stench of rot and rancid blood was so strong that he could even smell it in his nostrils.
Facing the gaze of those several pairs of furious eyes, he chose to ignore them outright. A succession of rapid slashes followed, accompanied by extremely dazzling crimson blade light, striking the Grafted Scion's body with precision.
Putrid blood continued to gush from the wounds.
Moreover, the "Bleed" attribute carried by the slashes had already overwhelmed the floor boss's formidable regenerative ability, as dense wounds spread across the monster's body.
"¡%!@#!!"
The continuously stacking injuries triggered the Grafted Scion's furious howl.
A roar belonging exclusively to monster speech echoed incessantly through the empty arena, releasing the effect of "Forced Stop" on targets at close range.
Feeling the vibration in his eardrums, Ron's thoughts went briefly blank. But when the wounds left by Seppuku stimulated him back to normal, he saw the Grafted Scion's attack.
The floor boss clenched its massive fist, seemingly intent on smashing him to pulp right here.
"Lady Hestia, will I still be able to come home for dinner tonight?"
As a floor boss born from "Dungeon Hatred", possessing a Forced Stop that was especially effective against adventurers was not something Ron found surprising.
Just as he began to think about how, after reviving using "Revival", he should quickly put a safe distance between himself and the Grafted Scion, he suddenly felt the scene before his eyes receding rapidly.
Something was off.
By all logic—taking head-on a full-power attack infused with a floor boss's fury should at least leave him black and blue, yet the pain he had anticipated never came.
Instead, a faint fragrance kept seeping into Ron's nostrils.
It was very familiar.
Like the scent of orchids intertwined with nature. He turned his head, only to see a figure draped in a gray cloak, carrying him as they made a rapid retreat.
And, amid the continuous leaps, the streak of green hair sliding down from the girl's face, along with the bone-chilling cold aura about her, were already giving the final answer.
Ron's heart, which had been hanging in suspense to begin with, was now more or less completely dead.
"…"
'It would've been better to let the Grafted Noble help me remake instead!'
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