"Goliath."
The moment that name left his mouth, Loki, who had still been sucking the blood from her finger, instantly spat out both finger and saliva in shock.
With traces of saliva still hanging from the corner of her mouth, her eyes, which were usually squinted shut, suddenly snapped wide open as she stared blankly at Leon.
Her expression looked exactly as if she were looking at her own unfortunate child who had suddenly gone out of his mind, run headfirst into a wall, and completely broken his brain.
"Y-You... Who did you say?"
Loki's voice completely changed its tune.
"Goliath," Leon said with absolute composure. "I already told you, didn't I? The Floor Boss of the 17th floor. Who else could it be besides Goliath?"
His completely natural tone made it sound as though he weren't talking about Goliath, but rather a mere goblin.
"Are you insane?"
Seeing that Leon did not look like he was joking, Loki immediately stood up.
"Do you even know who you are talking about?"
"The Floor Boss! That is a Floor Boss!"
"If you, you unfortunate child, still don't understand the concept of a Floor Boss, then at the very least you should know that its rank is two levels higher than the highest-level monsters found on that floor, right?"
Loki could not help but grab Leon by the shoulders and shake him violently, as if trying to shake him awake, her tone bordering on hysterical.
"That is a Level 4 super-large species! You, a Level 2, are picking that kind of thing as an opponent? You aren't planning to achieve a great feat; you're planning to become a cautionary tale!"
A Level 4 monster, and a super-large species at that—even if a party composed entirely of Level 4 adventurers went to subjugate such a Boss monster, they would probably need a ten-man squad just to successfully complete the raid without any casualties.
After all, Goliath was a Floor Boss specialized in Endurance. If one purely considered its Endurance parameter, it could rival a Level 5. Even a ten-man squad of Level 4s would have to exert immense effort to slowly grind it down to death. A mere Level 2 in front of a monster of that caliber would simply end up crushed to death under a single footstep.
"Even if you found a normal Level 4 to challenge, it would be fine. A monster like a Floor Boss cannot be judged simply by its classified level. Not only is it massive, but it is also exceptionally thick-skinned. Even Ais-tan finds it difficult to cut through that kind of monster, and killing it requires her to give it everything she has. You, a Level 2, actually want to solo that thing?"
Loki was so angry that her lips were trembling, and she cursed out directly.
"You must have let it go to your head, right? Quickly tell me that you've let it go to your head because your growth was too fast and too smooth! That way, I can knock some sense into you without any reservations!"
It was no wonder Loki reacted this way. The idea of soloing a Floor Boss was simply too absurd, even if Goliath was the weakest of them all.
There were countless thousands of adventurers in Orario, but in the present day, there was currently one, and only one, adventurer who had successfully managed to solo a Floor Boss.
That was the strongest adventurer in the city, the only Level 7 in Orario, the captain of the Freya Familia, who was hailed as the ultimate weapon and went by the alias Warlord: Ottar.
No, even that Warlord Ottar had not successfully killed a Floor Boss alone.
He had merely beaten the Floor Boss half to death before his own familia members intervened, causing him to fail in completing the grand feat of soloing a Floor Boss. It was said that he always regarded this as a great regret, and because of it, he had flown into a furious rage and even come to blows with his own comrades.
Of course, the Floor Boss he had challenged was not the Level 4 classified Goliath, but rather Balor, residing on the 49th floor—the strongest existence among the four currently discovered Floor Bosses.
The highest classification for monsters on the 49th floor was Level 5, which meant the Floor Boss residing there was undoubtedly a Level 7, with certain individual abilities even reaching Level 8. Even for the strongest man in Orario, trying to solo such a monster was immensely difficult. Under such circumstances, having his kill stolen halfway through made it impossible for him not to lose his temper.
Therefore, the grand feat of completely soloing a Floor Boss had remained unaccomplished by anyone to this day. Perhaps someone among the two familias that once reigned supreme over Orario had achieved it, but they had never reported this achievement to the Guild, and the Guild had never publicly declared that anyone had done it. So even if someone had, it remained entirely unknown.
At the very least, on the surface, no one had ever accomplished this grand feat.
And if even the Level 7 Warlord had failed to fully succeed in soloing a Floor Boss of his own level, Leon, a mere Level 2, actually wanted to skip two levels to challenge a Level 4 Floor Boss?
If this wasn't letting it go to his head, what was?
However, Leon was actually very calm.
"Right now, the only opponent I can think of that is worth challenging is Goliath, isn't it?" Leon looked at Loki and spoke. "With my abilities, who else could I defeat in the Middle Floors to achieve a great feat sufficient for a level up?"
The moment these words were spoken, Loki instantly fell silent.
It could be seen clearly from Leon's status parameters that he truly had no opponents left in the Middle Floors.
Although he was only Level 2, his various parameters back when he was Level 1 had already broken through the limits. Four of his basic parameters had reached SS, and his most proficient one had even reached SSS. This allowed him to accumulate an incredibly powerful latent ability upon leveling up, making him far stronger right from the start than an ordinary, newly advanced Level 2.
Now, his parameters had broken through the limits once again, with four parameters at SS and one at SSS. This had already pushed his strength far beyond the scope of a Level 2.
Loki believed that with Leon's current status parameters, even if he went up against a Level 3 opponent, he would absolutely not fall into a disadvantage.
And Level 3 already surpassed the intensity of the Middle Floors. According to the Guild's exploration standards, an adventurer of that level could entirely venture into the Lower Floors.
For someone like him, it was indeed very difficult to find an opponent in the Middle Floors that could offer a worthy fight.
Unless he encountered an irregular situation, became targeted by the Dungeon, and faced a crisis far beyond what a Level 2 could handle, it would definitely be hard for him to find a meaningful adventure or achieve a great feat for a level up within the Middle Floors.
But that kind of irregular situation was not something one could just encounter whenever they wanted to.
Since that was the case, it was entirely understandable that Leon had set his sights on the Floor Boss.
After all, Goliath, the Floor Boss of the 17th floor, spawned at a fixed interval of every two weeks and would never leave the room where it was born. As long as it hadn't already been defeated, one would inevitably encounter it upon entering that room.
Under these circumstances, should Leon choose to rely on luck, intentionally trying to trigger an irregular situation to increase the combat difficulty, or should he choose to challenge an opponent that he was guaranteed to encounter?
The answer was already very obvious.
"But... But that's a Floor Boss! And you're only Level 2!"
Loki did not release her grip on Leon's shoulders, her face filled with inner conflict.
"Even though I'm only Level 2, with my current parameters, ordinary Level 3s can't compare to me. Not to mention I still have magic. If we're talking purely about firepower, the current me can already rival a Level 4, right?"
Leon spoke up in a reassuring manner to Loki.
An ordinary mage, even if they could raise their Mage parameter to the highest rank of S upon leveling up, would still be much weaker than the current Leon.
Leon had already raised his Magic parameter to SSS when he was Level 1, which was two stages higher than the maximum S. Now at Level 2, it was once again two stages higher. With the two stacks combined, his latent Magic parameter was probably not much lower than the current Level 3 Lefiya.
Even though Lefiya possessed the Mage developmental ability at rank H to assist her and held a better staff in her hand than Leon's Emerald Staff, as long as one didn't count the magic amplification effect brought by her Fairy Canon skill, her firepower at this stage probably wouldn't be much higher than Leon's.
And with the intensity of Lefiya's Magic, even without the assistance of her skill, her firepower would not lose out to an ordinary Level 4 mage.
After all, most mages did not possess such powerful potential and could not raise their Magic parameter to the highest rank of S at every single level. Some could even only raise their Magic parameter to rank D, which was the minimum required for a level up, before hitting their limit. Such mages, even after leveling up, would be significantly weaker than a mage who leveled up with a higher latent Magic parameter.
Some mages could not even learn the Mage developmental ability, which served as proof of a high-tier mage. Even if such a mage reached Level 4, the power of their magic could not possibly be stronger than Lefiya's.
Naturally, the current Leon would also not lose to that kind of baseline Level 4 mage.
With this kind of strength, he already possessed the magical firepower required to inflict damage upon a Level 4 classified monster. In other words, he had already obtained the initial qualification to deal with the Level 4 Floor Boss, ensuring that he wouldn't fail to even pierce its defense.
"Even though Goliath is specialized in Endurance, I can increase the power of my magic by expending extra mental strength. I believe this will be more than enough to deal damage to it."
This was the reason why Leon wanted to defeat Goliath.
The normal firepower of Meteor Dance had already reached the Level 4 tier. As long as Leon was willing to expend his mental strength generously, raising his firepower to the Level 5 tier to deal damage to the Endurance-specialized Goliath would not be very difficult.
"But can your mental strength endure it if you do that?"
Loki's brow furrowed tightly, still refusing to relent.
"I will bring plenty of supplies," Leon said straightforwardly. "If my mental strength is insufficient, then I will rely on a large quantity of magic elixirs to sustain myself."
He refused to believe that he couldn't challenge the Floor Boss this way.
Loki stopped speaking and began to pace back and forth relentlessly within the divine chamber.
Leon was not in a hurry either, quietly watching Loki as he waited for her to make a judgment.
Since he was undertaking such a reckless venture, it would be entirely understandable if this deity of his chose to disagree. Even Leon himself had actually entertained the thought of whether he was just courting death. After all, he was skipping two levels to issue a challenge, and his opponent was a Floor Boss.
In truth, he didn't need to take such a massive risk at all.
After all, unless an accident occurred, his Outworlder skill had the effect of lowering the difficulty of leveling up. He did not need to take such a huge risk to challenge a monster of that caliber just to obtain a great feat sufficient for a level up.
Yet, Leon still wanted to try.
For no other reason than wanting to step back into that safe floor, which held an extremely special meaning for him, using this exact method. He wanted to tell his past self—the one who had been full of anxiety and completely ignorant of the future back then—that one year later, he was no longer that person who needed others to guide him just to walk out trembling with fear.
Even the self who had been absolutely nothing at that time could, one year later, forge a legend that would leave the people of this world completely dumbfounded.
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