Returning to the Dungeon, for Lynn, felt like returning to a familiar, reassuring farming spot.
He stood at the entrance of the first floor, the cheap straight sword in his hand. He gave it two experimental swings. The weight, the feel, the balance—everything about it was absolute garbage.
But having a weapon was better than having none.
"Skree-ga!"
A Kobold lunged from behind a rock wall, claws bared.
In the Lands Between, enemies of this level didn't even qualify as fodder. Their attack telegraphing was ridiculously long; their intentions were practically written across their faces in bold letters.
Lynn didn't even bother with a dodge roll.
He simply took a single side-step to the left the moment the Kobold's claws were about to graze his skin. That one simple movement allowed the attack to pass harmlessly by him. Then, with a flick of his wrist, he thrust the straight sword forward.
Puch.
The tip of the blade sank precisely into the Kobold's eye socket, exiting through the back of its skull.
A one-hit kill.
[+40 Runes]
"Not bad," Lynn muttered, pulling the sword out and flicking the foul blood off the blade. His mood was becoming increasingly cheerful.
This place was heaven.
There were no assassins crouching in corners waiting to backstab him. There were no gargoyles hanging from the ceiling ready to execute a plunging attack. Most importantly, there were no shameless enemies capable of input reading—monsters that would trigger a grab or a projectile the exact millisecond he tried to sip a flask.
The monsters here were honest, simple, and filled with a primitive beauty. They only knew how to charge forward blindly, only to be killed by his most basic techniques.
This wasn't an adventure; this was a vacation.
Lynn began his "holiday" tour. He moved through the first floor of the Dungeon like a high-efficiency harvester. To any other adventurer watching, his combat style would have looked utterly incomprehensible. Facing a pincer attack from three or five Goblins, he never blocked and never retreated.
His silhouette flickered through the gaps between blades and clubs. Every tilt of his torso, every low step, and every roll was timed to perfection, evading all damage with zero wasted effort. It was an absolute mastery of timing and distance, as if he could predict every twitch the monsters made.
Roll, close in, strike. Roll, circle around, backstab.
The process was as fluid as flowing water, imbued with a rhythmic, violent beauty. His stamina seemed bottomless; the energy consumed by a roll seemed to replenish almost instantly in the intervals between his attacks.
Even more surprising to him was the discovery that he could still use Ashes of War.
When he instinctively lowered his center of gravity and took a ready stance with his sword, a faint surge of power welled up from within his body, coiling around the blade.
Skill: Square Off!
Facing a Large Goblin charging with a heavy club, Lynn didn't dodge. The moment the club swung down, he slashed upward with a powerful heave.
Clang!
A crisp sound of metal on wood rang out. The heavy upward strike of the "Square Off" stance accurately broke the Large Goblin's posture, sending it into a massive stagger. Without hesitation, Lynn followed up with a standard thrust, piercing its heart.
[+120 Runes]
"Efficiency is up again." The smile on Lynn's face widened.
A full day passed in this high-efficiency, enjoyable labor. It wasn't until the monsters on the first and second floors were almost entirely wiped out—to the point where the respawn rate couldn't keep up with his kill speed—that Lynn finally felt satisfied. He found a secluded corner and sat down.
He opened the familiar, flickering interface.
[Lynn]
Level: Lv. 1
Runes: 8,750
Strength: I 32
Endurance: I 36
Dexterity: I 42
Agility: I 43
Magic: I 0
A full day of combat had allowed his body to instinctively adapt to the rules of this world, causing a slight natural increase in his stats. But in Lynn's eyes, the experience gained from such minor "Great Feats" was practically negligible.
The real growth was about to begin.
His consciousness focused on the Runes column. 8,750.
"Time to level up."
Lynn didn't hesitate. His combat skills were already far beyond his current level; the only thing holding him back was the frail physical stats of this body. He needed speed, faster reactions, and more lethal power.
Level up: Dexterity, Agility.
He sent the mental command.
[Consumed 100 Runes: Dexterity +1] [Consumed 120 Runes: Agility +1]
As the Runes were consumed, a warm current instantly surged through his entire body. The numbers on the panel began to flicker and jump.
[Dexterity: I 42 → H 142] [Agility: I 43 → H 143]
"Wait..." Lynn froze.
He had expected the change to be something like "I 42 → I 43." But the result on the panel showed a direct explosion of a hundred points!
"So that's how it works..." Lynn understood instantly.
In this world, the letter grades (I, H, G, F, E, D, C, B, A, S) represented brackets of 100 points. A single "Level Up" via the system didn't just add one point to the total—it effectively boosted that attribute by an entire sub-tier!
He wondered just how fast this growth rate was compared to the norms of this world.
A long-lost sensation of "power-leveling" washed away the fatigue and numbness of countless previous cycles.
"Haha... Hahahaha!"
Lynn couldn't help but let out a low chuckle. Without further hesitation, he dumped all his remaining Runes into his various attributes. He prioritized Endurance specifically; according to his earlier learning session with Eina, this stat was the closest equivalent to his old Health/HP pool.
[Level: Lv. 1]
Runes: 130
Strength: I 32 → F 332
Endurance: I 36 → C 636
Dexterity: I 42 → E 442
Agility: I 43 → E 443
Magic: I 0 → H 100
He wasn't sure what Magic was used for yet, but he put a point into it anyway. The difference between 0 and 1 was usually a massive threshold in these systems.
Once the update was complete, he felt a scorching heat radiate through his limbs. His state of being was noticeably higher than before.
I thought this 'Miyazaki System' was just going to mess with me... turns out it's not so bad after all.
Maybe I really did misjudge old Zaki... did I?
Lynn pushed through the fifth, sixth, and seventh floors. The density and strength of the monsters increased noticeably. However, in the face of his battle-hardened techniques and stats that now crushed low-level adventurers, these posed no threat.
Usually, the moment a monster started an attack animation, Lynn's silhouette would already be closing in like a ghost. His cheap straight sword would pierce the creature's vitals from the most awkward, lethal angles.
Runes grew steadily. Everything was going smoothly.
Until he stepped onto the eighth floor.
The air here suddenly became heavy. The passages grew wider, resembling the esophagus of some titanic beast. Lynn's pace slowed instinctively, and his grip on the sword tightened.
"Moo—!!"
A muffled, guttural roar echoed from around the next corner, accompanied by a slight tremor in the ground.
Lynn's eyes sharpened. He immediately ducked behind a massive stone pillar.
Seconds later, a colossus burst into view.
It stood over three meters tall, covered in coarse brown fur with muscles as dense as boulders. It had a massive bull's head, and its blood-red eyes burned with pure, unadulterated savagery. In its hands, it dragged a greataxe that was nearly as large as Lynn himself.
A Minotaur.
────────────────────────────────────────
My : https://[email protected]/AuAuMon
Danmachi: My Primary God is Hidetaka Miyazaki? (25 Chapters, Ongoing)
────────────────────────────────────────