After a brief rest to catch their breath, Leon weighed the Magic Stones in his hand and turned to Jeanne. "How did Floor 6 feel? The War Shadows give you any trouble?"
"War Shadows?" Jeanne searched her memory of the Dungeon Monster Manual Vol. II. "The handbook puts their potential ability range around G to F... but I didn't feel anything remarkable. Honestly, they weren't much different from the monsters on Floor 1."
Leon blinked, then it clicked.
It's the skill synergy.
God's Resolution: massively boosts resistance to all magic, with a Strength increase when triggered. Massively boosts resistance to debuffs, with an Endurance increase when triggered. Slightly weakens any target or group deemed hostile.
Saint's Sacred Heart: reduces all incoming damage. Permanent HP and Mind regeneration.
Holy Maiden: enormous boost to all Basic Abilities. Slightly raises mental resistance for allies within range.
God's Resolution dragged enemy potential down. Saint's Sacred Heart cut incoming damage. Holy Maiden cranked every stat through the roof.
Once Jeanne's Basic Abilities caught up with her level, fighting above her weight class wouldn't just be possible. It'd be easy.
All three skills working in concert, weakening the enemy while strengthening herself. Two fighters with similar stats would find the gap between them ripping open into something hopeless the moment Jeanne's buffs and debuffs kicked in.
And even stripping away the skill bonuses entirely, Jeanne's years of combat experience, her refined technique, and her sheer willpower already amplified her base stats far beyond their numbers. Abilities sitting at 300-plus could easily perform at 400, 500, or higher in actual combat.
Seen that way, whether it was Floor 1 or Floor 6, there really was no meaningful difference for her.
Once that sank in, Leon sucked in a deep breath. The grin spreading across his face was beyond his control. "Let's keep going. Deeper."
With Jeanne as his frontline carry, all he had to do was sit back and blast everything in sight.
The exp and gold are going to roll in. Grinding efficiency through the roof. Hell, maybe even the treasure chest drop rates will go up.
...
Floor 7.
Leon had pulled his mask up.
The solid black fabric covered the lower half of his face, leaving only a pair of watchful eyes visible beneath the shadow of his hood.
He unhooked the staff from his pack, unwound the maintenance cloth, and gripped it in his left hand. Every sense was on high alert as he scanned the dim passage ahead.
His gaze drifted down to the weapon, and a flicker of satisfaction crossed his eyes.
Scholar's StaffOrigin: System Type: Two-handed staff Effects: Magic amplification, enhanced spell effects, reinforced durability Description: A two-handed staff with a twisted, helix-shaped body topped by a spherical magic crystal. Runes etched along the shaft dramatically enhance its performance, with room left for future upgrades. The distinctive spiral earned it the nickname "Twisted Staff." A best-in-slot weapon for caster classes in a certain world's golden age. A true classic.
The Scholar's Staff. Crafted from blueprints and schematics that had dropped from a treasure chest, custom-built to his specifications.
The primary material was Leon's own Great Sacred Tree Branch.
Even so, the staff plus supplementary materials and crafting fees, on top of calling in a favor from Lady Demeter, had run him a cool five million valis.
It was common knowledge: anything related to mages, be it weapons, gear, or accessories, was never cheap. Staves least of all.
The price tag was staggering, but the value matched every coin. In gaming terms, this was his signature weapon.
Its raw performance pushed Leon's firepower to another level entirely. Combined with his monstrous Mind reserves and skill bonuses, his overall combat power wasn't just "somewhat improved." The gap between now and before was a canyon.
As the staff resonated with the mana refined from his Mind, the runes along its body stirred to life. They pulsed and flickered like energy veins beating with a mysterious rhythm.
The surge of mana set his eyes glowing with a faint blue luminescence. An aura of pressure radiated from him, something felt more than seen.
That was the side effect of a Mind pool too vast to fully contain. Excess energy, given visible form.
In plain terms: his personal mage-class special effects.
The change drew repeated glances from Jeanne as she scouted ahead. During their sparring sessions, Leon's magic had always been off-limits. The two only ever trained in melee.
This was the first time he'd shown her what he looked like as a caster, and the surprise on her face was unmistakable.
Especially that bottomless well of Mind.
"Unbelievable," Jeanne murmured. "Your Mind is... immense. I can't even imagine how many times mine it must be."
Behind the mask, Leon's lips curled. His voice was casual, but pride bled through every word. "With my Mind reserves, I could cast magic nonstop in the Dungeon for an entire day."
Of course, that's only for small spells like Scorch. He kept that part to himself.
Mind was the fuel that drove magic.
For a mage, the Mind gauge was the equivalent of a warrior's stamina bar. Even a fighter strong enough to punch above their level became nothing more than a sitting duck once their stamina hit zero.
Mages were no different. The size of your Mind pool didn't directly affect spell potency or effect, but it determined how long you could keep casting. It was the length of the mana bar, plain and simple.
What good was mastering the most devastating spell in the world if you didn't have the fuel to fire it?
Just a glimpse of this was enough to understand how absurdly broken Leon's skills really were.
Demon Lord's Crest: doubles Endurance and Magic on top of base values. Multiplies total Mind capacity by one hundred. Permanent Mind regeneration with massively increased recovery speed and casting efficiency.
One hundred times the base Mind pool. That meant Leon's mana bar was a hundred times longer than any mage with the same raw stats.
For other mages, spells were a trump card, kept in reserve for the critical moment when a battle needed to be turned or sealed.
Leon played a different game entirely.
Under the Demon Lord's Crest, combined with True Essence of All Magic granting him Instant Cast, he could sling spells the way a game character swung their weapon on auto-attack. Casual. Effortless. Like a Comet Strike here, a Comet Strike there...
Of course, every advantage had its trade-off.
Instant Cast reduced the spell's scaling coefficient, taking a real hit in power and effectiveness.
But Leon could live with that.
The way he saw it, as long as an instant-cast spell hit roughly as hard as a melee auto-attack of the same element, his ranged advantage would let him dominate any engagement. Add in magic's sheer versatility and the breadth of what it could do, and he was leagues beyond any brute who could only swing a sword.
...
"Quit admiring yourself. Contact ahead. Stay sharp." Jeanne's cool voice cut through, clipped with warning.
When it came to life and death, Leon snapped into focus instantly. His body loosened into a combat stance. Eyes locked on the depths of the passage ahead.
The sound reached him a heartbeat later: a dense, chittering scrape, like a thousand legs dragging across stone. His expression hardened.
"Killer Ants. They start spawning from Floor 7. Their potential abilities and their traits make them a nightmare to deal with. They share the Rookie Killer title with War Shadows. Even veteran adventurers can get blindsided if they slip up for a second."
Jeanne's eyes narrowed, fixed on the shadows churning in the dark. "Rookie Killer? That doesn't sound like something you shrug off."
Leon shifted his weight, feet shoulder-width apart, knees bent. Ready. "The name tells you most of it. As insectoid monsters, they've got specialized hardened shells. Their defense is high. If an adventurer's stats are close to theirs and they don't have a weapon that can cut it, breaking through that armor is a real problem."
"On top of that, their four limbs end in razor-sharp hooks. Close-quarters combat gets ugly fast. Rookies make one mistake, show one opening, and they get torn apart."
"That's one reason they earn the Rookie Killer name."
"One reason?"
"Yeah. Individually, a Killer Ant isn't that bad. With a decent weapon, some technique, and stats in the same ballpark, you can handle one without breaking a sweat. What makes them terrifying is... when a Killer Ant is in danger, it calls for backup."
"And you know how insectoid monsters work. They're never alone. They move in swarms."
Before Leon could finish, the darkness ahead erupted.
One pair of crimson eyes after another blazed to life, malevolent and red, filling the passage wall to wall in a sea of burning light.
"Ssssss..."
A hissing screech that made his scalp crawl, backed by the crushing pressure of sheer, overwhelming numbers.
It was a good thing the two standing here were Leon and Jeanne. Any other adventurers of comparable level, staring down a swarm like this, would have abandoned all thought of fighting. They'd have turned and run.
The Rookie Killer. Killer Ants. Making their grand entrance.
"That pressure..."
The Dungeon's welcome party.