The blade sliced through the air, severing a skeleton soldier’s spine.
Its shattered fra collapsed into pieces before quickly dissolving into nothingness, leaving only the Iron Beetle corpses strewn across the ground. No more monsters lingered nearby.
It was already impossible to count how many skirmishes Rozelite had fought.
Any ordinary adventurer would have been worn down by now, but Rozelite felt no such fatigue. On the contrary, she could clearly feel power welling up from within her, endlessly replenishing itself as though it could never be exhausted.
She couldn’t see her own status panel.
But she could feel it—she had grown much stronger.
By comparison...
Rozelite lowered her gaze to the sword in her hand, riddled with cracks and notches.
It wasn’t completely unusable... but even during her last battle, she had felt the difference. She hadn’t been cutting skeletons with its sharp edge at all—she had been smashing them apart with sheer brute force.
She bit her lip.
“If I take it back for maintenance, maybe it could still—”
“No, no, what’s the point of maintaining this?”
Russell sounded exasperated. This wasn’t a sword anymore—it was a sheet of scrap iron.
Rozelite’s face fell.
“But, Mr. Sli... a new sword costs three silver coins...”
“For adventurers, weapons are consumables. No one uses a single blade for life.”
Russell sighed.
Of course, he understood her attachnt.
After all, this had been her very first sword. It had stayed by her side for over thirty chapters now. Naturally, her feelings for it were deep—just like the Going rry was to the Straw Hat Pirates. Even if it wasn’t special in itself, she wanted to treasure it.
But in the end, it was just an ordinary weapon.
No matter how well-maintained, a blade subjected to heavy battle would inevitably wear out.
And truthfully, the fact it had lasted this long—chipped but unbroken—was already remarkable.
“But what do we do from here?”
Rozelite asked.
“Should I use that sword instead?”
“No.”
Russell shook his head decisively.
“We agreed—unless you’re using that one technique, you can’t draw the Astral Silver Sword.”
“As for a weapon...”
Russell paused in thought. Then, from Rozelite’s back, a tentacle extended, curling under her arm. It wrapped around her pale arm in a spiraling coil, finally erging from her sleeve, its tip glowing faintly blue.
Under Rozelite’s watchful gaze, the tentacle began to change.
【Shapeshift lv7】
【Mimicry lv5】
【tallization lv6】
【Hardening lv4】
【Mana Reinforcent lv6】
Five skills activated at once.
The tip of the tentacle slowly reshaped into a one-handed sword, its surface gleaming with tallic luster.
“Take it,” Russell said.
Rozelite stared at the strange weapon protruding from her sleeve before finally gripping the sword that the tentacle had beco.
The hilt felt right in her hand, and the weight was perfect—
As though it had been made just for her.
Except...
That tentacle still wound snugly around her arm, running from under her armpit down to her wrist.
It felt a little strange.
“Skills like tallization need a constant supply of mana to maintain. I can’t fully sever it—it has to stay like this,” Russell explained.
“So? Any discomfort?”
“No, none at all!”
Rozelite touched the tentacle coiled around her arm. Feeling its firm, secure grip, she shook her head quickly.
“Actually... I like it. It feels reassuring.”
“Good. Then use that for now,” Russell replied.
“Mm! Since it’s a sword ford from Mr. Sli’s body, let’s call it the Sli Sword!”
“...That doesn’t sound cool at all.”
They spoke as they continued onward.
For a long stretch, no monsters appeared.
Then, distant flickers of firelight appeared at the end of the passage.
As they drew closer, they realized they had reached its end.
The passage opened into a wide clearing. Darkness shrouded all sides, but several adventurer teams were already gathered there.
In the empty space stood another massive door.
Just like the entrance to the first floor, the gateway to the second was the sa.
Rozelite released her grip. The tentacle instantly dissolved its mimicry, sliding swiftly back along her arm until it disappeared into her back. The quick retraction made it look as though the sword had simply vanished into thin air.
She glanced around, noticing fewer people here than when they had first entered.
Had so already gone into the second floor?
No—it didn’t seem so.
She spotted Thomas, his massive fra standing out even among adventurers. His greatsword was planted into the ground as he leaned against it, resting to recover the stamina he had spent in the caves. He wasn’t rushing to advance.
And that was the proper approach. For adventurers, rest was just as vital.
Both mana and stamina needed recovery.
If you didn’t enter the next floor in peak condition, you’d have only regret if you failed.
It matched Thomas’s usual creed perfectly:
—Complete commissions safely and efficiently. That’s the mark of a professional.
Rozelite’s arrival drew curious glances from others resting there. Many looked surprised—because she had walked out of the passage alone.
Solo adventurers were rare.
Apart from fresh novices, most adventurers sought reliable parties. Even if they left one team for so reason, they would soon join another—few would keep acting alone.
And this was an S-rank super-labyrinth.
Even if only the first floor...
No one knew what dangers lay deeper.
Yes, they had intelligence from the first expedition, but who could say whether luck had skewed those results?
In truth, even this was only the second wave. They were still, broadly speaking, a vanguard.
In such circumstances, anyone daring to enter alone was either a fool—
Or a suprely confident master.
“Mr. Sli, should we go into the second floor?”
Rozelite asked.
Russell shook his head.
“The second floor only has Skeleton Soldiers and Skeleton Archers, no Iron Beetles. They’re useless to . We’ll stay here and keep hunting beetles. Let’s push 【tallization】 past lv7.”
“Alright!”
Rozelite nodded eagerly.
She picked a tunnel that bore no adventurer’s markings and strode straight into it.
The adventurers resting in the clearing weren’t surprised. They assud Rozelite knew her limits as a solo adventurer, had no intention of going deeper, and was simply withdrawing.
But Winnie frowned slightly as she watched Rozelite’s back.
“She just left?”
That didn’t seem right.
With the strength she had shown breaking through Ato City, Rozelite shouldn’t have stopped here.
Unless... she had so other purpose.
As Winnie pondered, Thomas’s voice broke her thoughts.
“Alright. The ti’s co.”
He rose to his feet, sweeping his gaze across the gathered adventurers.
“Let’s head into the second floor.”
The great door opened.
What greeted them beyond was a darkness even deeper than the first floor’s.
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