Chapter 33: Skill Effects

Perhaps it was just psychological, but Liang Yue always felt particularly refreshed upon waking after receiving Hestia’s special treatment. The physical exhaustion caused by dungeon exploration had vanished completely.

After getting up and freshening up, he looked at Hestia, who was fast asleep on the sofa. The girl’s sleeping face was serene and delicate, the corners of her mouth curved into a lovely arc. Occasionally, when she turned over, he could hear her faint murmurs.

"..."
"Not bad."

It was a daily routine that could barely be called warm, but Liang Yue had no time to enjoy it. He had to return these two mithril shortswords tomorrow, and the sharpness of his weapons would directly affect his efficiency.

As for his next goal: use the advantage of the final two days of his weapon trial period to push his progress in the dungeon to the 10th floor!

"I need to figure out the danger levels of the upcoming floors..."
"The leveling of the Soul of the Sword class can be slowed down appropriately."

Continuing to linger on the 7th floor, relying on the sheer numbers of Killer Ants to gain levels, certainly had its effects, but the speed would diminish. Furthermore, monsters that presented no combat pressure offered fewer improvements to one’s abilities during training.

"Let the weapons unleash their final ripples."

To comprehensively improve his ability parameters and then perform a great feat to raise his adventurer level—this was the plan Liang Yue had laid out for himself.

He began his preparations before heading into the dungeon, starting with checking his weapons. As a work of Tsubaki, Orario’s strongest blacksmith, these second-tier armaments possessed sharpness and durability that exceeded his expectations. Even after experiencing high-intensity dungeon exploration, they retained their original edge. The blades, which bore the brunt of his sword-qi strikes, showed no signs of structural rigidity issues either.

"The weapons are quite good."
"It’s just that the selling price is a bit high..."

The weapons had no flaws and were very handy; their high price was simply his own problem.

After leaving the Familia’s residence, he headed toward the West Street to purchase supplies for his dungeon exploration. As if waiting there in advance, Syr, standing at the entrance of the "Hostess of Fertility" restaurant, noticed the familiar figure passing by. She held a bento box she had prepared in advance in both hands.

Noticing Liang Yue’s arrival, a smile bloomed on the girl’s pretty face, giving off a refreshing sensation like a spring breeze. She didn't make any demands of him. Just as she handed him the bento, Syr intentionally put on a serious face, though her light gray eyes betrayed a teasing glimmer.

"Liang Yue-kun."
"I hope your adventure in the dungeon today goes smoothly. This is the lunch bento I prepared for you!"
"Thank you."

Thinking back to that deliberately manufactured encounter, he didn't feel it was Syr’s scheme. It was just an expected turn of events. Holding the slightly warm lunch, Liang Yue looked up, his gaze revealing a hint of confusion: "There wouldn't happen to be any strings attached, would there?"

"Not at all."
"I just hope Liang Yue-kun can adventure safely in the dungeon." Syr squinted, her smile full of cunning. She didn't say the second half of her thought, because at this moment, Liang Yue carried the aspirations of many.

—
"Syr Flover."

Liang Yue still had a deep impression of her. To be precise, it was the manifestation of the beauty goddess Freya’s personality, including the plot trajectory from the original story. She had launched a Familia War to forcibly take Bell. After failing, she half-dissolved her Familia without causing any trouble behind the scenes, choosing instead to work as a cook at the Hostess of Fertility. As long as they weren't on opposing sides, he was relatively indifferent toward Freya. She had finally achieved her wish of having Bell, and if he wasn't mistaken, the "Liaris Freese" skill should be bound to himself.

Whenever he thought of this, Liang Yue felt an uncontrollable sense of strangeness in his heart. But from another perspective, wasn't this also a form of safety guarantee?

"..."
"Let's head into the dungeon first. After raising my adventurer level, I can take a short break for a few days."

The Babel Tower, standing in the center of Orario, was like a succubus cave that drained one’s energy, filled with extreme temptation! Every day it attracted an endless stream of adventurers to explore it. Although the rhetoric was a bit abstract, the reality was no different from what Liang Yue imagined.

His gaze swept over the central plaza in front of Babel. Many adventurers had already gathered in the early morning. The white ghost hand hidden by his cloak allowed Liang Yue to blend into the crowd, appearing no different from any other adventurer. If there was any difference... it was that he seemed much lonelier compared to the others who were in groups.

"I hope today's exploration goes smoothly."

Liang Yue smiled, relaxed and full of anticipation, as he looked up at the adventurers lining up to enter Babel. Compared to usual, today’s exploration was filled with more unknowns. The information he had mastered from the half-elf Eina only went up to the 7th floor. His impression of the deeper regions was relatively vague, but it was often this sense of the unknown that stimulated his desire to explore the dungeon!

—
Liang Yue passed through the safe zone of the starting floors; he didn't intentionally look for monsters. Relying on his memory of his time exploring the dungeon, he cleared away the monsters blocking his path—beings like War Shadows, Dungeon Lizards, and Killer Ants...

The meager experience points provided after killing them had caused him to lose interest in seeking them out.

"Flowing Heart skill..."
"It can enhance the damage of sword-qi, but I wonder if the range of the strike will change?"
"..."

As he was about to head to the 8th floor, Liang Yue looked at the winding passage ahead, filled with curiosity about the skills he had mastered after leveling up. If he could enhance the damage and range of his sword-qi strikes, the cost of increased physical exertion from activating the "Flowing Heart" skill would be well worth it!

There was no hesitation; Liang Yue headed straight into the passage. In the pitch-black cave environment, he relied on the lantern fruits growing on the walls to provide faint illumination. The floor passages belonged to the dungeon's safe zones. Soon, an unfamiliar area he had yet to explore appeared before his eyes.

"Today’s exploration... will start from here!"

Having gone through this period of exploration—one could even say he had spent most of his energy lingering in the dungeon, fighting various monsters—he no longer felt the tension of a novice adventurer. Liang Yue scanned the surrounding environment with calm eyes. There were no other adventurers nearby.

He drew the two shortswords from his waist. The cold glint of the blades appeared particularly chilling in the dim, cool-toned light.

"Flowing Heart."
"..."

Buffing before a fight was a habit he had developed in his past life. If a skill required a casting process and he encountered a monster, he would feel tense and flustered. But as the effect of the "Flowing Heart" buff activated, there was no physical reinforcement. Instead, his gaze turned to the shortswords held in his hands. The gray-black blades, forged entirely of mithril, had a layer of faint, flowing light flashing across their surfaces, adding to the chill of the steel!

"The physical exertion is also lower than expected."

Carefully feeling his stamina slowly draining, he realized that after his ability parameters had been updated, this amount of consumption could be ignored. Liang Yue did not hesitate. Just as he prepared to begin his exploration of the current floor, the combat instincts he had honed over this period of training...

In an instant... he caught the danger approaching from not far away!