A few hours had passed since then, and by now, I’d made it all the way down to the ninth floor of the [Abyss Labyrinth]. Sitting on the stone floor, I bit into a mixed sandwich pulled straight from my inventory.
”Mmm, this egg sandwich… the bread is so fluffy, it’s seriously good,” I mumbled, taking another huge bite.
I’d already summoned food and drinks from cards several times, and I hadn’t gotten a stomach ache or felt sick once. Even my ‘Appraisal’ skill just said, “Mixed sandwich. Full of nutrients.” The food in this dungeon tasted way better than anything from a convenience store back in the real world, to the point I really wish they’d sell this stuff commercially. Though, I have to admit, not knowing what the ingredients actually are is a little creepy.
Around me, three beautiful yet sinister magic swords floated silently in the air.
The first sword was where it all began: the ‘Abyss.’ A blue blade that reminded you of the deep ocean, it let me create unlimited water and control any liquid however I wanted.
The second sword was the one I unlocked next: the ‘Inferno.’ A crimson blade carved with patterns of explosive flames, it controlled all the heat around me and gave me insane fire powers.
The third sword was the one that could cut through space itself: the ‘Divider.’ A jet-black blade that seemed to swallow all light, it let me manipulate and control the space around me.
By slowly grinding up my proficiency, I could now summon all three swords at the same time. The reason they floated in the air was because of one of the ‘Divider’s’ skills called ‘Object Manipulation.’ Just like it sounds, I could float weapons in midair and control them freely, like telekinesis.
”Oh, spotted some goblins,” I said, leaning forward. “Alright, you guys can be my experience points now.”
I looked down at the big room ahead, past the stone path, and grinned fearlessly.
This dungeon was laid out like a chain—narrow hallways that opened into big rooms, then more hallways, and so on. Most of the monsters hung out in these “room” spaces. Thinking about it, that ‘Goblin Swordmaster’ I ran into at the very beginning was probably just a rare monster that wandered into the hallway.
By the way, every monster I’d met on the way down here was a ‘Goblin-type.’ I made it to the ninth floor without much trouble, and by now, I didn’t feel any threat from the monsters here either. Sure, they were all over level 300, but my stats completely blew theirs out of the water. I mean, I almost died a few times on the way because there were just so many goblins, but I managed to reach this floor without dying even once. All of that was thanks to the cheat weapons I summoned from my special skill, ‘The One Who Wields the Ten Holy Demon Swords.’
I pointed the floating pair of swords toward the goblin horde that had noticed me and started screeching.
”Go… ‘Water Blade’ and ‘Flame Blade’!” I ordered with a wave of my hand.
From the red and blue blades floating in the air, fiery slashes and high-pressure water slashes shot out in waves at insane speeds. The goblins had no way to fight back against the long-range, wide-area attacks that showed no mercy, so they were literally cut to pieces. Some of them burst into flames the instant the blade touched them, while others were sliced clean through by the high-pressure water and froze solid from the cut outward.
”GAAAAAAAH!!”
In the middle of the massacre, one ‘Goblin Soldier’ that had dodged the barrage charged at me, drooling like a savage. It was bigger than the other goblins and had better gear, making it probably the leader of this room.
For me, with my over-leveled stats, its charge looked like it was moving in slow motion. At first, I didn’t really notice the physical changes from leveling up, but now, I felt this overwhelming “I can do anything” sensation. Whatever image I pictured in my head just happened. A light step let me move at near-sonic speed, and a little kick off the ground sent me leaping over ten meters up to the ceiling. Honestly, I felt like a superhuman hero straight out of an American comic book movie.
I stared coldly at the approaching ‘Goblin Soldier’ and muttered quietly under my breath.
”You guys are so predictable! …’Accelerate’!”
I activated my personal skill, layering more buffs on my mind and body. My current stats were already way overkill, but I had a clear reason for doing this: skill proficiency grinding.
After testing how proficiency worked, I figured out one thing. If you use a skill while in combat, you get a bonus to proficiency growth, meaning using it in actual fights like this was way more efficient than just swinging it around in an empty area for practice.
I pulled the floating black magic sword ‘Divider’ toward me, grabbing its hilt tightly. I raised the dark blade that even swallowed light and slashed horizontally through the empty air.
”…’Dimensional Slash’!”
It was a flash too fast to see. It wasn’t a physical attack, but a cut against space itself that sliced the charging ‘Goblin Soldier’ clean in half.
…Thud.
It collapsed, leaving behind a disgustingly clean cut. The ‘Dimensional Slash’ skill cuts through space itself, ignoring obstacles and defensive skills to slice right through the target. Out of all my current skills, this one was easily the most broken and overpowered.
While I was fighting up close, the red and blue swords I controlled with ‘Object Manipulation’ kept wiping out the leftovers. All thirty or so goblins in the room turned into particles of light and disappeared.
”Sigh. Honestly, these magic swords are so strong that this is just turning into a boring grindfest,” I complained, rolling my shoulders. “And the only monsters that show up are goblins. Maybe that ‘Early Access’ thing on the black PC was right, and they just haven’t added new areas or new monsters yet?”
In the middle of the empty room, I shrugged, feeling a little disappointed. Compared to the tension at the start, this sudden easy mode felt a little lonely, and I was already getting bored. But the reason the game balance had broken this badly was partly my fault too. Yeah, I’d just leveled up way too much.
[Status Window]
- Player Name: Kageyama Manato
- Gender: Male | Age: 17 | Race: Human
- Level: 1026 [Next Level: 2070/1026000]
- HP: 102700/102700
- Personal Skills: ‘The One Who Wields the Ten Holy Demon Swords’ | ‘Appraisal’ | ‘Accelerate’
- Skills: ‘Super Growth’ | ‘Inventory’ | ‘Mapping’
”Yeah, okay, I definitely overdid it,” I chuckled softly, scratching my cheek as I looked at my four-digit level.
At first, I was just having way too much fun unlocking new swords and feeling the realness of combat. Somewhere along the way, though, that gamer instinct to test limits and satisfy curiosity kicked in to see just how high the level cap even goes, and this was the result. By now, the experience needed for the next level had passed one million, and since I’d broken past the big 1000 mark, leveling had visibly slowed down.
The goblins on this ninth floor were only around 400 to 500 at best. Normally, fighting weaker enemies would cut my experience gains, but thanks to ‘Super Growth’ giving me 30 times the experience, my level was still climbing fast. I was getting bored of how easy it was, so I started pushing faster to go down to lower floors. Sadly, even on this ninth floor, there wasn’t a single opponent left that could handle my full power.
I gathered up the dropped items scattered around, noting that my collection of loot cards was getting pretty varied. I’d even found things like ‘TV’ and ‘Refrigerator’ appliances, plus camping gear like ‘Portable Toilet’ and ‘Tent Set’ for roughing it. Normally, the blue save points are at the entrance of each floor, so if you want to turn a card into a real object, you have to go back there or move to the next floor. But once you materialize something, you can store it in your inventory and take it out anytime, anywhere.
Honestly, before I got the toilet card, I was just pooping in the wild, but apparently, after a while, the dungeon automatically absorbs and deletes that kind of stuff. Now I just take out the portable toilet, do my business, and store the whole thing back in my inventory with everything still inside. You can just tap it on the inventory screen to delete it instantly.
…Sorry, that got a little gross.
Anyway, I pulled myself together and left the big room. Right away, I found a staircase leading down to the tenth floor, so I went down without hesitation.
…………
Right after descending, I ended up in a small stone room with a door, just like when I first entered the dungeon. So far, there’d never been any monsters in this starting room, and just as expected, the blue save point was here. I held my hand over the stone.
[System Message]
- You can save here. Would you like to save?
- [→Yes] / [No]
- Save complete.
I didn’t think I’d die, but I saved just in case. A gamer thought crossed my mind that if it was this easy, maybe I should have tried a hardcore mode with save restrictions.
I used ‘Mapping’ to check the whole tenth floor. This floor was completely different from the others, being just one giant room in the center. Right in the middle was one red enemy icon, glowing brighter than anything I’d seen before.
”This floor must be the boss room,” I said, cracking my knuckles. “I’m curious what kind of opponent I’ll face. Please, just let it be anything other than a goblin. I’m so sick of them already.”
I opened the iron door with high hopes and walked down the long hallway. From the depths of the darkness, a massive shadow appeared along with a rumbling tremor. The first thing I saw was the head of a giant lion with a beautiful golden mane. No, that wasn’t all, because from its back sprouted the wings of an ominous black bird of prey, and huge horns like a goat’s—or maybe a bull’s—jutted from its forehead toward the sky. And then, its tail was a green serpent writhing like a living whip, staring right at me. Six eyes in total locked clearly onto me, the intruder.
”…Chimera,” the name slipped out of my mouth before I could stop it.
Lion, goat, snake—it was a freakish form that looked like three kinds of magical beasts had been forcefully stitched into one body. It was nearly ten meters long, and even its height alone easily exceeded five meters. I used ‘Appraisal’ to read the target’s information.
[Status Window]
- Name: Primordial Beast Chimera
- Race: Magical Beast | Title: ‘Floor Guardian’
- Level: 725 | HP: 88590/88590
- Skills: ‘Claw Mastery’ | ‘Fire Magic’ | ‘Ice Magic’ | ‘Lightning Magic’ | ‘Tough Body’ | ‘Intimidation’ | ‘Roar’ | ‘Regeneration’ | ‘Swiftness’ | ‘Endurance Boost’ | ‘Physical Boost’ | ‘Limit Break’
- Resistances: ‘Fire Resistance’ | ‘Frost Resistance’ | ‘Shock Resistance’ | ‘Status Ailment Resistance’
If you just looked at the number of skills, the ‘Goblin Swordmaster’ I met at the beginning might have had more, but in terms of pressure and intimidation, this thing was way stronger. What I needed to watch out for were the three types of elemental magic attacks and the three self-buff skills: ‘Endurance Boost,’ ‘Physical Boost,’ and ‘Limit Break.’ Those three are buff skills just like ‘Accelerate.’
”Looks pretty tough, but eh, shouldn’t be a problem,” I shrugged, adjusting my stance. “My level’s way higher anyway, and as long as I don’t get careless, I can win this. Besides…”
I checked my own skill specs on the menu screen.
[Skill Details]
- ‘Master of the Ten Sacred Demon Swords (Degim Gladius Master)’: Allows the user to wield ten demon swords. One sword is unlocked at a time based on proficiency. [Currently unlocked: 3/10] [Proficiency: 89/100]
- ‘Appraisal’: Allows detailed examination of various things.
- ‘Accelerate’: Strengthens thoughts and body for fifteen minutes. *Current: 8x. Once activated, there is a 30-minute cooldown. [Current level: 3/5] [Proficiency: 23/100]
More than anything, the buff multiplier on my ‘Accelerate’ was way more insane. The enhancement started at 2x, then doubled to 4x, and now it was up to 8x.
”I can do this. …’Accelerate’!” I shouted, focusing my energy.
I deployed three demon swords around me and charged straight at the roaring Chimera.
…
…
…
”Hah, hah… Honestly, I was kind of underestimating it,” I panted, wiping sweat from my forehead. “Well, a win’s a win.”
With a deafening thud, the Chimera’s massive body collapsed. After several minutes of fierce fighting, I had successfully taken down the giant freakish floor guardian. The barrage of three types of magic breath attacks and the charges from that ridiculously tough body were definitely a pain, but I stuck to hit-and-run tactics and chopped off its heads one by one with ‘Dimensional Slash’ until it went down pretty easily. It moved around surprisingly fast for such a huge creature, making landing accurate hits a bit tricky, though.
[Notifications]
- Level up!
- ‘Master of the Ten Sacred Demon Swords (Degim Gladius Master)’ proficiency has reached a certain threshold!
- Confirmed boss floor monster defeat. Acquired skill: ‘Status Ailment Resistance’
The pleasant level-up chime echoed through my mind. Thanks to this boss fight, my base level seemed to have gone up quite a bit again, and I also got one new skill. It was the same ‘Status Ailment Resistance’ that the Chimera had, which is a passive skill that reduces the effects of all status ailments like poison, paralysis, and silence.
”The only saving grace is that goblins don’t show up in the boss room,” I sighed, wiping my blade.
And then, I hurried onward.
Trivia:
- The protagonist’s casual admission that he was “just pooping in the wild” before finding the toilet card reveals the dungeon’s automatic absorption system—a subtle worldbuilding detail about how the labyrinth maintains itself.
- The “Super Growth” skill granting 30x experience is the primary reason his level spiraled out of control, transforming what should have been a survival horror death game into a monotonous grindfest.
- The Dimensional Slash skill ignores both obstacles and defensive abilities, making it the most broken tool in his arsenal even among three overpowered magic swords.
- The Chimera’s six eyes all locking onto the protagonist simultaneously emphasizes its multi-faceted perception and makes it far more threatening than a simple beast.
- The protagonist’s casual dismissal of a level 725 enemy shows how drastically his power has grown, yet he still admits to underestimating it—hinting at a learning curve despite overwhelming stats.
- Acquiring ‘Status Ailment Resistance’ from the Chimera suggests that defeating powerful monsters can grant their exact skills, making boss fights doubly rewarding for progression.