Chapter 35: Chapter 35
The Dungeon, thirteenth floor.
Kiriya looked at the huge swarm of "Bells" around him—Al-Miraj—and grinned happily.
He was barehanded!
"Blue Silver Chaotic Afterglow."
He whispered the name, then swung both fists at high speed. In an instant, he threw dozens of punches.
The powerful punches created air blasts that sent the Al-Miraj flying.
Their bodies caved in while they were still in the air, then broke apart into smoke, leaving only magic stones falling to the ground.
In the blink of an eye, over a hundred Al-Miraj were gone.
One move but contain a terrifying power.
"Hiss..."
Kiriya felt the soreness in his arms and sucked in a sharp breath.
He quickly used Everflowing Vitality to heal himself.
"Even though my Strength has gone up, this move still puts a lot of pressure on my body," Kiriya thought as he reviewed the fight.
"But as long as my ability values keep rising, I should be able to use it easily before long."
That was one of the reasons he had come to the Dungeon this time.
He wanted to keep polishing his hand-to-hand combat and martial techniques, raising his close-range fighting ability.
Of course, he could not neglect swordsmanship either.
Half his time would be used for sword practice, and the other half for hand-to-hand combat.
Neither side could be left behind.
"This many Al-Miraj doesn’t help much anymore. Looks like it’s time to go deeper."
Thinking that, Kiriya started walking toward the lower floors.
He traveled while fighting and before he knew it, more than half a day had passed.
...
By now, he had reached the seventeenth floor of the Dungeon.
Below this was the safe floor—the Under Resort.
He planned to quickly pass through this cave, but not long after stepping inside, he heard a dense cracking sound.
His footsteps stopped at once.
"Well, well. Am I really this lucky today?"
Thinking this, Kiriya turned his head.
Then, inside the pure white wall, he saw a huge figure.
It had thick skin like black stone, and red light shone from its eyes. It stared hard at Kiriya, the intruder, and let out an angry roar.
This was the floor boss declaring its power.
It was also the signal that it had chosen its target.
Then it moved its long legs and charged straight at Kiriya!
"Boom—!"
Goliath’s fist smashed into the ground and instantly blasted out a huge crater more than ten meters wide.
Kiriya dodged to the side, and the corner of his mouth twitched when he saw the damage.
That power was not much weaker than heavy artillery.
’So this is the strength of a Lv. 4 floor boss? Good thing it’s slow, or I’d really be in trouble.’
Kiriya kept dodging Goliath’s fists while thinking to himself.
On the other side, Goliath missed several times in a row.
The simple-minded giant finally grew furious and let out one deafening roar after another at Kiriya.
But this was not just a threat or a way to vent anger.
It was one of Goliath’s abilities.
It gathered sound waves into cannon-like blasts and fired them at Kiriya again and again.
"Hm?"
Kiriya, who had already activated his Sharingan, felt his expression change.
He sped up again, his body drawing quick, graceful arcs through the air.
"Boom, boom, boom—!"
The sound-wave blasts smashed holes into the ground, tearing up large pieces of earth.
Huge rocks fell from above and completely blocked the path Kiriya had used to enter.
"Well, damn! You really want to fight me to the end, huh?"
Kiriya grinned.
Since Goliath was being this enthusiastic, it would be rude not to respond properly.
He bent his knees, then stomped hard.
The ground cracked beneath his feet, and his body shot toward Goliath’s head like a gust of wind.
Goliath saw this tiny bug dare to charge at it, and its barely working brain felt deeply insulted.
It swung a fist the size of a table straight at Kiriya.
Kiriya stepped onto Goliath’s arm and kept leaping and flipping, dodging the giant hand while quickly closing in on its head.
Then he punched Goliath hard in the cheek.
"Destructive Death: Crushing Style — Ten Thousand Leaves Flashing Willow."
"Bang—!"
A strong wave of force spread out from Kiriya’s fist, rippling across Goliath’s face.
The giant’s head was forced backward, and several broken teeth, each almost as big as Kiriya’s fist, flew out.
’Did that work?’
Kiriya watched with some expectation.
But in the next moment, Goliath’s neck snapped forward like a pulled bowstring.
Its head came crashing toward him like a battering ram.
Kiriya quickly dodged.
"Whoa, your breath is awful. I’ll pass."
He quickly adjusted his stance on Goliath’s arm and launched another attack at the giant’s head.
"Destructive Death: Leg Type — Flowing Flashing Light."
A storm of kicks fell like meteors.
The blows kept pushing Goliath’s body backward.
Dust and smoke covered everything above its shoulders, but the giant still refused to fall.
"Roar—!"
A sound-wave blast came at him.
Kiriya could not dodge in time, so he could only meet it with his fist.
"Destructive Death: Air Type."
"Boom—!"
The air blast Kiriya punched out crashed into Goliath’s sound-wave cannon.
The shockwave sent Kiriya flying backward.
He thought Goliath’s attack was over, but while he was still in midair, the giant targeted him again.
He had no choice but to use Air Type again.
"Boom—!"
"Pfft—!"
Because it happened too suddenly, the explosion was very close to Kiriya.
His body took a solid hit from the shockwave, leaving him badly hurt. The clothes on his upper body were torn and ragged.
"Crack, crack, crack—"
A series of hard cracking sounds came from Kiriya’s chest.
He reached up and brushed his hand over it. Many small pieces of broken wood slipped through his fingers.
"Good thing I added a layer of wooden armor beforehand. Otherwise, that would’ve hurt a lot more."
Kiriya gave a small laugh.
If he had taken the full force of that attack, his body would have frozen up from the impact.
Then he would probably have been forced to take Goliath’s wild fist combo head-on.
"Looks like close combat won’t work. Lv. 4 really is a Lv. 4! It’s not something a fake Lv. 3 like Hyacinthus can compare to."
Kiriya took the katana from his back.
Before coming here, he had spent nearly ten million valis at Hephaestus’s shop to buy this high-quality weapon.
It was strong, reliable, and extremely sharp.
After harvesting the rich gay known as the Apollo Familia, Kiriya’s savings had grown like a rocket.
In the past, even buying a standard weapon from Hephaestus had been difficult.
Now, buying this legendary custom-made weapon was not a problem.
Earlier, when dealing with small monsters, Kiriya had avoided using such a powerful weapon on purpose.
He wanted to raise his ability values, so he fought with wooden swords or his bare hands.
But now he was facing Goliath, a monster with thick skin, tough flesh, and terrifying physical power.
It would be stupid not to use a good weapon here.
"Thunder Breathing, First Form: Thunderclap and Flash."
The moment his voice fell, Kiriya turned into a streak of golden lightning and rushed toward Goliath.
His target was the giant’s throat and this strike was meant to take its head.
Goliath sensed danger by instinct and raised a hand to protect its neck, but it was still too slow.
"Pshh—!"
The sharp blade easily cut open Goliath’s throat.
Blood gushed out like a spring and poured down.
But Kiriya felt no joy at landing the hit. Instead, he sped up and quickly left his position.
The very next second, Goliath’s huge palm slapped down.
If Kiriya had been even half a second slower, he would have been turned into meat paste.
"Even cutting open its throat doesn’t work?"
Kiriya looked at Goliath’s body, now glowing red, and watched as the nearly meter-long wound healed at high speed.
The corner of his mouth twitched even harder.
It already had thick skin and tough flesh, but its health also recovered this quickly?
That was just unfair!
Now Kiriya finally understood why the Guild adviser had warned him again and again not to mess with the floor boss Goliath without strong enough teammates.
If an ordinary Lv. 2 adventurer faced this thing alone, forget killing it.
Even breaking through its defense would be extremely hard.
And even if they finally managed to hurt Goliath, they would probably realize that the damage they dealt was far slower than the boss’s healing speed.
That alone would be enough to break someone’s spirit.
"Roar, roar, roar—!"
Goliath kept roaring.
To Kiriya, the sound was starting to get annoying!
"Heh. You think thick skin means you’re safe? You think strong recovery means you can do whatever you want? Too bad. I’m actually pretty good at dealing with monsters like you."
Looking at Goliath charging toward him with huge steps, Kiriya sneered and slapped the ground.
"Wood Release: Tree Binding Eternal Burial."
Under Kiriya’s magic, several young shoots pushed out from the ground.
In the blink of an eye, they grew into huge trees so thick that a person could barely wrap their arms around them.
Like giant snakes, they climbed up Goliath’s thick legs and tied them down tightly.
Goliath’s charge suddenly stopped.
It lost its balance and dropped to its knees.
"Roar—!"
Goliath roared again and again.
It stretched out both arms, trying to grab the giant wooden snakes around its legs and crush them.
But how could Kiriya let it do that?
He summoned two more giant wooden snakes and wrapped them tightly around Goliath’s arms.
’Drain him!’
Kiriya shouted in his heart, pushing Wood Release’s energy-draining power to its limit.
The giant trees wrapped around Goliath were like greedy beasts, devouring its stamina.
In just a few breaths, the huge wooden snakes swelled at a speed visible to the eye.
Soon, they grew from snakes into something closer to flood dragons.
By then, Goliath had already lost one-fifth of its stamina.
It was not that Goliath did not try to struggle, but the wooden dragons around its limbs tightened with terrifying force and actually crushed its bones, making the giant’s situation even worse.
With one side getting stronger and the other getting weaker, Goliath’s stamina would soon be sucked dry by those four wooden dragons.
By then, the so-called floor boss would just be another meal on Kiriya’s table.
A trace of fear flashed through Goliath’s cloudy eyes.
Even with its simple mind, it realized that if this continued, it would die here.
So it began struggling with everything it had.
"Buzz—!"
Red light burst from its body.
All of Goliath’s wounds healed in an instant.
Then the rock-like muscles across its body twisted like giant snakes, releasing a level of strength it had not shown before.
A trapped beast would always fight the hardest, and Goliath’s desperate struggle was brutally powerful.
Even the strengthened wooden dragons could barely hold on. Dense cracking sounds rang out from them.
"Idiot! As if I’d let you succeed."
Kiriya snorted and gave up controlling the four wooden dragons.
His body turned into a gust of wind as he rushed toward Goliath’s waist and stomach.
The sword in his hand pulsed with light, as if responding to his will.
Without Kiriya’s control, Goliath finally broke free from the wooden dragons using brute strength.
It was about to smash Kiriya head-on.
Unfortunately, it was already too late.
"Blade—Storm—"
Kiriya’s clear voice echoed through the whole cavern, filled with sharp killing intent.
In that instant, Kiriya swung his sword hundreds, maybe even thousands of times.
Every slash carried razor-sharp sword energy.
Goliath’s thick skin and iron-hard muscles lasted less than a second under that storm of sword energy before being torn open.
Flesh and blood flew everywhere, then were shredded into nothing by the violent sword wind.
Soon, Goliath’s stomach was hollowed out, revealing the huge magic stone inside.
That was the giant’s true weak point.
"I’ll be taking your experience!"
Kiriya thrust his sword toward the huge magic stone and pierced straight through the valuable gem.
"Crack—!"
With a clear breaking sound, Goliath’s roaring and struggling body froze.
Then it turned into smoke and scattered with the wind.
The huge magic stone did not survive either. It shattered into countless glowing specks, spreading through the dark cavern like a beautiful starry sky.
"Phew—"
Kiriya let out a long breath.
The battle had not lasted long, less than three minutes in total, but it had drained a full third of his energy.
This was the most exhausting fight he had gone through since entering the Dungeon.
Thankfully, he had won.
Forest of All Things had a huge advantage against monsters that were large but slow.
Calling it a natural counter would not be wrong.
No wonder the First Hokage could use Wood Release to treat the Nine-Tails like a pet dog.
But the problem was also clear.
To bring out its full power, Kiriya had to control it himself.
Once he split his focus to do something else, the power of Forest of All Things would drop sharply, and the enemy he had trapped could break free.
’Sigh. If only I knew the Wood Clone Technique.’
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