Under the immense pressure of a life-and-death battle, Fati instead calmed down.
He felt his mind was clearer than ever before.
‘Discard the dagger, force it to block!’
He paused, his feet suddenly stumbling as he feigned a loss of balance, his body appearing out of control as if he had tripped.
Sure enough, the opponent took the bait!
It lunged impatiently—its claws turned into two black lines, stabbing straight for Fati’s throat!
“Ha!”
Fati let out a loud shout as power suddenly surged into his right arm.
The jagged, worn blade of his short sword let out a piercing screech of friction as it forcefully deflected the claw’s strike!
The moment he parried the claws, Fati seized the opening while his opponent was wide open.
He pushed off with his toes to retreat rapidly, leaning his upper body back to the limit to create space.
Simultaneously, he threw the jagged short sword with his right hand like a flying knife, forcing the opponent to choose between [Blocking] and [Pursuit].
Everything went as he expected!
The War Shadow instinctively swung its claws to block!
“Clang!” The short sword was knocked away!
But in that brief moment of blocking, Fati had gained precious distance and time!
Now, his leaning upper body had stabilized, and his right index finger was pointed like a spear, steadily aimed at the mirror-like disc on the opponent’s head—the distance was less than an arm’s length!
“Scorch!”
Before the War Shadow could even react, its body was ignited by the Scorch spell.
“Sizzle—Boom!”
This time, the claws had no chance to cleave through the magic.
The orange-red flames ignited the dark shadow, instantly covering its entire body.
“Scorch!”
“Scorch!”
“—Scorch!”
“Sizzle—Boom boom boom!” Three magic shots fired without any gap, and the violent flames completely swallowed the dark shadow!
The firelight illuminated every inch of the Cave Room’s walls before finally fading away reluctantly, leaving only charred ashes and a pungent burnt smell permeating the silent space.
In the entire room, only Fati’s solitary figure remained.
As the battle ended, he could no longer hold himself up.
His body swayed, and as if all his bones had been removed, he fell backward heavily onto the ground.
The hard, cold floor struck his back, but it was far less sharp than the heart-wrenching pain coming from his left arm.
He gasped for air, each breath pulling at the wound on his left arm and bringing a surge of piercing spasms.
Every exhale carried the tremors of a survivor and the smell of blood.
“Huff…
huff…
huff…”
The heavy, broken sounds of gasping were exceptionally clear in the empty Cave Room, sounding like an old bellows being pulled with difficulty.
Sweat had long since soaked his undershirt, sticking clammily to his skin and mixing with the warm blood still seeping from his left arm, forming a small dark red pool on the ground.
I survived!
The sudden release of immense pressure didn’t bring relief, but rather a strong sense of exhaustion and dizziness, as his vision flickered with darkness.
After a good while, the sharp pain and exhaustion finally receded slightly, allowing a sliver of clarity to return.
Having barely recovered some spirit, Fati endured the sharp pain and slowly stood up.
“Crackle—”
He stared gloomily at the pile of burning dust, panting heavily to soothe his nerves, which were still tight from the immense pressure.
He placed his right hand on his chest, feeling his heart still pounding wildly, and exhaled a heavy breath of turbid air.
“I won.”
Unique Individual [War Shadow] VS Fati Tirtiberne;
The winner, Fati Tirtiberne…
“Goddammit, this is only 7th Floor, how could such a monster be born?
Is Lord Ouranos’s prayer a fraud?”
“Fucking hell, this is some bad luck.
I’ve been playing it so safe, yet I run into an abnormal situation the moment I reach Level 6.
This is only the sixth floor!”
Thinking of this, Fati shuddered violently, a chill creeping from his tailbone to the top of his head.
He could hardly imagine what kind of terrifying existences those big shots hanging around the Deep Floors were.
Fati felt they were all pressure-resistant monsters, able to explore with ease despite the immense pressure.
Compared to them, his own level of skill was still far off.
In addition to hard power like combat Experience, there was also a gap in mental aspects like personal conviction and fighting will.
“Whew—”
A short while had passed since the battle, but reviewing that life-and-death crisis still left Fati’s forehead covered in cold sweat and his heart pounding wildly.
He sat leaning against a cold rock, grimacing as he performed emergency bandaging on his mangled left arm.
“This ‘healing bandage’…
it’s been sitting in my backpack for nearly a year.
I never thought there would really be a day I’d use it.”
He smiled bitterly as the scene of that now-youthful Belly-black Saintess solemnly explaining how to use it when he bought it surfaced in his mind…
her words had turned out to be prophetic.
Carefully following the basic first-aid knowledge he had crudely learned, he clumsily but meticulously wrapped the bandage, which emitted a faint herbal fragrance, around the wound.
Every touch made him gasp in pain.
After the bandaging was done, he pulled an exquisitely packaged crystal bottle from his leg pouch, pulled the plug, and drank the sea-blue liquid inside in one gulp.
[Name]: high potion (High Recovery Potion) (high potion)
[Origin]: Orario · Dian Cekte Familia
[Type]: Elixir
[Effect]: Greatly restores stamina, significantly eliminates fatigue, and achieves a recovery effect comparable to magic, though the recovery speed is slow; can fill in sliced-off flesh, stop bleeding, and repair broken bones, but cannot regenerate missing body parts;
[Description]: A sea-blue solution packaged in a luxurious polyhedral crystal bottle, priced at 50,000 currency, an essential item for adventuring and exploring the Dungeon.
The liquid slid down his throat without any special taste, but soon, a gentle yet powerful warm current diffused from his stomach, rapidly surging into his four limbs and hundred bones.
The heart-wrenching pain in his left arm began to noticeably ease under the dual effect of the bandage’s medicine and the elixir, and his lost stamina slowly recovered like a dry stream being refilled with fresh spring water.
“As expected of a ‘high potion’, the effect is excellent and worthy of its expensive 50,000 currency price tag.”
The improvement in his condition allowed Fati’s tight nerves to relax slightly, but that was immediately followed by a pang of financial pain.
“This time, I’ve really suffered a massive loss!”
The damage to his equipment was severe: there was extensive damage to his armor, the gauntlet on his left arm was pierced and needed major repairs, his short sword was practically scrapped, and the holes in his leather armor also needed mending.
Most importantly, he had consumed a high-value ‘high potion’ and a precious ‘healing bandage’.
With a quick calculation, the total loss was close to 100,000 currency.
“100,000…
how many days will I have to grind monsters to make that back?” Fati’s heart ached.
“Forget it, my life is more important.
If it weren’t for this 49,900 currency light armor being tough enough, I would have checked out today.”
He looked down at the scarred but still sturdy black armor on his body, extremely satisfied with this piece of equipment he had spent a fortune on as a bargain find.
“The money was well spent, it was worth making that painful decision back then!”
After this battle, if anyone ever dared to tell him that ‘equipment and armor are all redundant,’ he would definitely give them two slaps to the face and then make them brave the Dungeon empty-handed.
Gulp!
Gulp!
Gulp!
He tilted his head back and drained the water from his canteen in one go.
The cold liquid washed down his throat, bringing a sense of relief after surviving the ordeal.
“Alright, now it’s time to see the ‘blessings’ that come after’surviving a disaster.’ Hopefully, I can recover some of the losses.” He stood up and walked toward the pile of ashes left by the unique individual with somewhat unsteady steps.
His gaze swept over, and a glittering, magnificent golden treasure chest was lying right in the center of the ashes!
“Holy shit!”
“A cheat treasure chest!”
“I’ve won big time.”
After the emotional roller coaster, he finally couldn’t hold back his expression anymore, his mouth grinning almost to his ears.
But the ecstasy lasted only a moment.
His long-cultivated alertness immediately made him snap his head up like a startled rabbit, his sharp gaze scanning the surrounding passages.
After confirming no one was around, he lunged forward with lightning speed, opened the treasure chest for a glance, and without even looking closely, grabbed the items inside and quickly hid them against his person!
Only then did he look at the corpses (ashes) of the other ordinary War Shadows.
“Ho!
It really is ‘blessings follow a disaster’!” His eyes grew even brighter as he pulled three sharp claws—war shadow finger blades—out of the ashes!
“Three of them, that’s 150,000 currency in the bag!
Not only did I make back today’s losses, but there’s even a surplus!
Hiss…
has my luck finally turned?”
However, just as he was happily tucking the finger blades into his loot bag, his fingers touched something unusual in the finer ashes of the unique individual.
“Wait, what’s this?”
He brushed aside the ashes, and an inconspicuous, pitch-black finger blade lay there quietly.
Completely different from the ordinary, cold-glinting war shadow finger blades next to it, it seemed to absorb all light.
It was as black as ink, cold to the touch, and faintly emitted an aura that made one’s heart skip a beat.
Observing this ‘little thing’ in his hand and recalling the scene where the claws had sliced through his [Scorch], Fati’s brow twitched, and his heart rate slightly accelerated.
‘A rare drop material similar to the Juggernaut’s Magic-Breaking Claw?
It can’t possibly have that kind of power; it’s probably a lite version.’
In other words, while the mechanism was similar, compared to the Claw of Destruction, this thing’s stats were quite poor, likely not even reaching the high-tier level within the Lv.1 range.
But he wasn’t discouraged, because his intuition told him that this thing might bring him a huge surprise.
After all, he had never heard of any weapon with a magic-breaking effect, even if its applicable range was only Lv.1…
Carefully putting it into his loot bag and hiding it against his person, Fati cleared the traces of the battle and left the area…
Although his injuries had stabilized under the elixir’s effect and he was in a state where he could barely fight, Fati, who always prioritized safety, chose to withdraw early without hesitation.
He checked his brass pocket watch; there was still an hour until sunset.
There weren’t many Adventurers returning to the surface yet, so the path wasn’t too crowded.
Following the safe route he knew well, he soon returned to the plaza beneath the Tower of Babel.
“First, I’ll go exchange the money.
I’m afraid more than half of today’s income will be handed over to the healers,” he thought helplessly, walking toward the always bustling Tower of Babel Exchange Office.
“Clink-clink-clink—!”
A small pile of Orario gold coins sparkled on the tray; these little darlings were truly delightful.
“Here is the currency you’ve exchanged.
Please take it.”
“Thank you.”
Fati replied expressionlessly.
With a swipe of his hand, the gold coins clattered into his purse.
From the corner of his eye, he keenly caught sight of several figures peeking and prying with shifty gazes in the corner of the entrance.
He let out a cold sneer in his heart, tightened his hood, and quickly merged into the crowd in the plaza, disappearing after a few turns.
“Boss, aren’t we going to make a move?
That kid just exchanged a lot of money…” a lackey whispered unwillingly.
“Idiot!” The man called Boss spat, his eyes shrewd.
“From the way he acts, you can tell he’s an old hand.
Who knows what kind of stuff he’s hiding in his pockets?
What if he pulls out a magic sword?
Are you going to go up and die?
Keep your eyes sharp!
The water in this business is deep!”
“As expected of the Boss!”
“Boss is wise!”
…Fati had long since grown accustomed to this kind of low-life coveting.
Which newcomer hadn’t been ‘taught a lesson’ at the entrance of the Exchange Office?
After being beaten up a few times, they naturally learn to be smart.
It could be considered a ‘welcome ceremony’ unique to Orario.
Fati liked to call this ‘Orario-style bullying.’
Coming out of the Exchange Office, he walked straight into northwest Adventurer Street, finally stopping diagonally across from the City Management Authority – Adventurer Headquarters.
Before him was a solemn building constructed entirely of pure white stone, with a striking emblem hanging over the lintel.
[Dianket Treatment Center]
—A top-tier city medical institution operated by the large-scale pharmaceutical management faction, the Dian Cekte Familia.
Its main god, Dian Cecht, was an old man with a rather nasty personality according to rumors, and gossip said he had been arch-rivals with the main god of the Blue Pharmacy, Miach, for many years.
Fati pushed the door open, and a unique scent—a mix of herbs and disinfectant—wafted toward him.
“Welcome, how can I help you, guest…”
A healer dressed in a pure white uniform came forward to greet him.