Then keep practicing.
That was Rhodes’s answer.
Make the most of the time available, explore the Dungeon, and improve his Status so he could handle the trouble ahead.
Naturally, he absolutely wasn’t taking advantage of having Lili as his supporter to devote every last ounce of energy to exploration.
Fortunately, his efforts were paying off.
After Hestia updated his Status last night, the improvement in actual combat was greater than the sum of its parts.
One plus one had become more than two.
The same goblins and Dungeon Lizards that had once been a little troublesome were now no more threatening than stray dogs.
Rhodes dispatched them with ease and kept moving.
Before long, they reached the sixth floor.
The surroundings hadn’t changed much.
There were still tunnels and cave passages.
But Rhodes was noticeably more focused.
After all, Miss Eina at the Guild had warned him about the monsters called War Shadows.
The Rookie Killers.
“Have you ever encountered a War Shadow?”
“…I have.”
Lili didn’t hide anything.
She had visited these floors plenty of times while working for other adventurers.
And she knew he wasn’t asking out of idle curiosity.
Thinking back over those encounters, she explained, “War Shadows are… quite difficult to deal with.”
“But their Finger Blades can sell for a good price!”
“I was asking what they look like…”
“A mass of black shadow.
Long arms with hooked claws at the ends.
And something round on top of the head.”
“…”
Rhodes looked ahead.
Something was slowly writhing along the floor, gathering into a humanoid form.
It matched Lili’s description exactly.
Pitch-black from head to toe.
A War Shadow.
Had Rhodes not watched the thing come into being with his own eyes, some ancestral reflex might have stirred.
He suppressed the urge to take a whip to it.
The sharp, hooked claws at the ends of its hands were particularly intimidating.
And if the Guild called these creatures Rookie Killers, they clearly had a record of killing adventurers.
“This could be a tough one.”
In another world, Rhodes would happily have stayed in the starting area, grinding until he became a sword god.
Unfortunately, DanMachi didn’t have conventional experience points.
If he wanted to improve his basic abilities, he had to explore deeper floors!
Holding his shortsword in a reverse grip, he watched the approaching War Shadow.
Rhodes wasn’t particularly skilled at fighting.
But he was a seasoned Souls player.
He had developed a certain instinct for this sort of thing.
Especially when facing a monster with a well-earned reputation for being a pain in the ass.
He needed to stay alert.
The War Shadow, however, had no such considerations.
It was a monster driven by the instinct to kill.
The moment it spotted Rhodes, it accelerated.
Using the momentum of its charge, it swung its arm, sweeping its hooked claws toward his chest.
Clang!
The sharp sound of colliding metal rang through the passage.
Rhodes had already raised his sword to block, but the force of the impact still traveled down the blade and jarred the web between his thumb and forefinger.
The War Shadow’s strength exceeded his expectations.
It was nothing like the monsters on the previous floors.
But Rhodes had reasons he couldn’t afford to lose.
Hestia’s hopes for him were one.
More importantly—
He didn’t like pain.
“…”
Rhodes seized the opening after his successful parry.
Lowering his body, he released the strength gathered in his legs.
In an instant, he shot forward like a cannonball.
The War Shadow was still staggering when he closed the distance and delivered a decisive sideways slash.
Shhk!
Unlike cutting through other monsters, the strike offered little resistance.
The creature was essentially a mass of shadow.
By the time Rhodes registered what had happened, the so-called Rookie Killer was already dissolving into dark-gray dust.
A Finger Blade and a magic stone fell to the ground.
Honestly, the grueling battle he had anticipated never happened.
Compared with a goblin, the main difference seemed to be that the War Shadow came with better weapons.
“Huh?”
“Why doesn’t it feel… as strong as I expected?”
“…”
Having witnessed the fleeting battle from behind him, Lili desperately wanted to object.
She just couldn’t find the right words.
Because he really was a novice adventurer.
Yet a Rookie Killer she would have had no hope of handling had looked like the rookie in front of Rhodes.
Was she simply too afraid to fight monsters?
Or was there something wrong with this guy?!
The good news?
Perhaps Rhodes’s absurd adaptability really would give him a way to deal with Enwan Kovo and his lackeys.
The expedition went smoothly, without many complications.
The reason was simple.
The monsters were stronger.
Fighting them consumed more of Rhodes’s energy, and he still had to reserve enough strength for the return journey.
He looked out over Central Park.
Judging by the time, it was probably around two or three in the afternoon.
The sun blazed overhead, and the air itself seemed to shimmer with heat.
Rhodes glanced at the supporter beside him.
She looked distinctly uneasy.
“I’m going to the Guild to exchange today’s haul for valis.”
“Are you coming?”
His reason for inviting her was simple.
At least while Lili stayed with him, she wouldn’t have to worry about her immediate safety.
And he needed to pay her properly for today’s work.
“No, I…”
“I still have to pay you.
I can’t make you work for nothing!”
“…”
Lili looked up in surprise.
She had already resigned herself to working for free.
After all, in her mind, this whole conflict had happened because of her.
She was about to say something when she noticed several familiar Soma Familia adventurers near the square.
“Then…”
“Bring it tomorrow, when we meet.”
She handed over all the loot without explaining further.
But she quietly held on to the kindness behind his offer.
Lili watched Rhodes leave.
Then she turned her attention back to those ill-intentioned “senior members” of her Familia.
Rhodes’s battles in the Dungeon were over for the day.
Hers were only beginning.
The strong have always bullied the weak.
Does that make it right?
“…”
For the first time, Lili felt that perhaps…
It didn’t.
….
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I also have many more novels in my collection that you might be interested in I upload ten novels a day, with 3 to 4 chapters per title depending on the length.
If you’re following a particular series, please wait your turn a little If there’s a particular novel you’re enjoying on Patron, please give it a ‘like’ so I know to focus on it