3 Days Into The Main Series.
∆∆∆∆
Today is the day the Goliath on the 17th floor finally respawns.
The descent into the 17th Floor was always a grim affair, but today, the floor felt particularly oppressive.
Yuuya stood at the entrance of The Great Wall of Grief. "Let's get this over with." Whispered Yuuya.
The massive, crystalline cavern usually hummed with the distant groans of the Dungeon, but as Yuuya stepped onto the floor, the sound changed. It wasn't a groan anymore; it was a rhythmic, agonizing pulse, like a heartbeat made of cracking stone.
Yuuya adjusted the straps of his silver breastplate one last time, feeling the familiar weight of the empty hilt at his hip.
He was alone today, having sent Bell back up to the surface with their morning haul to keep the kid out of the crossfire.
He also told Bell that he'll be gone for a day or two, telling Bell that he's just gonna meet a very, very angry humanoid monster in the 17th floor.
When it finally clicked to Bell what's Yuuya was about to do, he was already out of sight.
"Quiet today." Yuuya muttered, his voice echoing in the vast chamber.
[Too quiet,] the System chimed in, its voice dripping with a mocking cheerfulness. [It's almost like the Dungeon is holding its breath just for you. How romantic.]
'Don't start.' Yuuya thought, his eyes scanning the massive wall ahead.
Then, the crystals began to weep.
Massive shards of blue glass shattered outward as a hand—significantly bigger than a human—erupted from the rock. But it wasn't the pale, gray skin of a standard Goliath.
This skin was the color of a bruised midnight, obsidian-dark and shimmering with an oily, malevolent sheen. The "Black Goliath" pulled itself from the wall, its roar vibrating through Yuuya's very marrow. It was also bigger than the regular Goliath as it stands at 15 meters tall compared to the usual 7 meter.
Yuuya stood his ground, his face settling into a remarkably deadpan expression as he watched the Level 5 monstrosity fully manifest.
"Of course," Yuuya said flatly. "A regular variant would have been too boring, right? A semi-black one would have been a light workout. No, the Dungeon decided I specifically needed the 'I hate you let's die' edition."
The System laughed in the back of his mind. [But hey, look on the bright side, Yuuya! At least it didn't spawn a hundred minions like last time when you were playing bodyguard for the Loki Familia. It's just you and the big guy. Quality over quantity!]
The fact that the system uses Yuuya's own voice to communicate with him only annoys Yuuya more. It felt like hearing his other self.
'You're really enjoying this, aren't you?'
[I live for the drama. Also, I've done the math. You're currently sitting at 3,000 points across all five stats. That's 15,000 total. On paper, you're a monster. You've got the raw output of a maxed out Level 3, maybe even pushing the boundaries of a Level 4 if we look at your speed alone. But that thing?]
The System highlighted the Goliath in a pulsing red hue.
[That is a Black Variant. It scales to Level 5. Its Endurance and Defense are literally off my current charts for you. You can outrun it—congrats, you're the fastest ant in the room—but if it lands one solid hit? You're going to be a very expensive silver pancake.]
Yuuya didn't wait for the beast to finish its post-birth tantrum. He reached for the hilt at his waist.
"I hate it when you're right," Yuuya muttered. He felt the familiar drain on his mana pool as the shimmering edge of ethereal blue mana of his mana blade hummed to life.
The Goliath noticed him. Its eyes, glowing with a hateful crimson light, locked onto the speck of silver in its arena. It raised a massive fist and slammed it into the ground, sending a shockwave that cracked the floorboards of the world.
Yuuya didn't flinch. He just shifted his weight, feeling a slight pinch in his left boot.
'I really need to break these in better,' he thought, a stray human distraction flickering through his mind even as the Level 5 monster charged.
"Alright, big guy," Yuuya said, feeling the familiar thrill and focus he experiences every time he enters into battle. "Let's see if that black skin is as tough as the System says."
He didn't charge head-on. He moved like a streak of silver light, his agility stat kicking in as he circled the behemoth.
The Goliath swung—a massive, sweeping blow that would have leveled a building. Yuuya dipped under it, the wind of the strike ruffling his hair even through the gaps in his armor.
He lunged, the mana blade humming as he drove it into the Goliath's ankle.
TSCH
The blade bit, but it didn't sink deep. It felt like trying to cut through reinforced carbon steel with a kitchen knife. The wound hissed, black smoke rising, but as Yuuya pulled back, he watched the flesh knit itself back together in a matter of seconds.
"High defense and high regeneration," Yuuya noted, skidding to a halt several yards away. "It's like fighting a mountain that heals itself."
[And it's a mountain that's getting angry,] the System added. [Look at its posture. It's realized you're not a snack—you're an annoyance. Phase 2 is going to be a lot less 'swinging wildly' and a lot more 'trying to crush you into dust.']
Yuuya tightened his grip on the hilt, his eyes narrowing. Feeling the rush and thrill of battle once more.
"Good," Yuuya said, a small spark of human defiance and excitement lighting up his eyes. "I was worried I'd get bored before the afternoon was over."
The Black Goliath roared again, the sound was so loud it shook the entire room. As it also signalled the start of the real fight.
The moment it does, the air in the 17th Floor didn't just vibrate; it started to scream. The Black Goliath wasn't interested in a tactical duel. It wanted to erase the silver-clad flea that had dared to prick its skin.
As the beast raised both massive, obsidian arms for a ground-shattering double-slam, Yuuya felt the constant gradual drain of his mana.
"System, give me a read on the mana consumption for the blade," Yuuya thought, his boots skidding across the uneven crystalline floor as he repositioned.
[Before you got your Mage development ability, it eats your mana at a rate of 1 per second. After getting Mage however, it is now at 0.5 per second.] the System replied. [Your mana pool is still fresh so don't worry about it and focus on the battle.]
As the battle drags on, one thing is for sure. It's becoming a battle of attrition and one that Yuuya is currently losing in.
'I can't chip away at this thing forever. I'll run out of stamina before it runs out of skin.'
The Goliath's fists hit the floor. The shockwave was so violent that the ground beneath Yuuya's feet literally liquefied into dust and shards. He didn't jump away; he jumped up, using the rising debris as stepping stones.
Mid-air, he stretches out his free hand, his left. His fingers curling as if grasping the very air.
•Gospel•
It wasn't a shout. It was a command.
A sphere of absolute silence erupted from his palm.
For a split second, the roaring of the Goliath and the crumbling of the cavern vanished. The air distorted, rippling like a stone dropped into a still pond, but instead of water, the ripples were made of raw, compressed sound.
The invisible block of sound slammed into the Goliath's chest. The spell didn't just hit the beast; it forced the air out of its lungs and caved in its obsidian ribs with a sound like a mountain snapping in half. The Goliath was thrown backward, its massive heels digging furrows into the floor as it struggled to remain upright.
"That's more like it." Yuuya muttered, landing softly.
[Nice hit! Really stylish,] the System chirped. [Small problem: It's already healing. Also, you just made it very, very aware that you have some sort of spell.]
The Goliath's chest, which had been a concave mess of black gore and shattered stone, began to knit. The obsidian skin grew back thicker. The beast didn't roar this time. It let out a low, guttural hiss that sounded like tectonic plates grinding together.
Then, it lunged.
Despite its size, the Black Variant moved with a sudden, explosive burst of speed that defied its Level 5 mass.
Yuuya tried to dodge, his 3,000 Agility screaming as he pushed his muscles to the limit, but the Goliath wasn't aiming for a direct hit.It was actually aiming for the ceiling above Yuuya.
Upon reaching it's intended destination, it slammed its hand into the ceiling.
A rain of massive, ton-heavy crystals plummeted toward the floor, creating a chaotic cage of falling rock. Yuuya dodged one, sliced another with a flick of his mana blade, but the distraction was enough.
The Goliath decided to unleash its own spell. A roar blast.
Yuuya sensing the danger, hurriedly dodges it by jumping to his side. He succeeded but that's what the Goliath wanted.
Seeing the opening, the Goliath swung it's open palm towards Yuuya. Almost as if slapping or swatting him away.
"Crap—"
Yuuya crossed his arms. He knows he can't dodge it so the least he could do is minimize the damage.
•Gospel!•
Just before the Goliath's palm collided with his body, he unleashes a gospel in hope of cushioning the blow. It did work but not by much as the sheer kinetic force of a Level 5 strike was overwhelming.
CRACK
The impact was sickening. Yuuya was sent flying across the arena, a silver streak blurred by the speed of the throw. He didn't have time to recover or right himself.
BOOM
Yuuya slammed into the wall with enough force to crater the stone.
The impact sent a spiderweb of cracks through the wall, and for a moment, the world went dark. His silver breastplate groaned, the metal deforming under the pressure, and the air was punched clean out of his lungs.
[Oof, that gotta hurt. Your internal organs is currently debating a strike,] the System noted, its voice echoing in his ringing ears. [You still with us?]
Yuuya slumped against the wall, his head hanging low, the hilt of his sword still gripped tightly in his hand as his mana blade goes off.
Yuuya spat a mouthful of blood onto the crystalline floor, the metallic tang sharp against his tongue.
He stayed slumped against the crater for a moment, listening to the Goliath's heavy, rhythmic footsteps—each one a death knell vibrating through the wall. His mind racing.
[Okay, fun's over,] the System's voice flickered, losing its mocking edge. [Your Agility won't save you if your ribs are puncturing your lungs. Drink a recovery potion.]
Yuuya did just as the system told. He reached out into his pocket dimension and brought out a healing potion. Drinking it in one go before tossing its vial aside.
He then looked at his trembling hands and made a realization.
He has been fighting half-heartedly all this time.
In his past life, he had been an anomaly—a human born with a physical ceiling so high it was effectively nonexistent. He had mastered everything he touched, not through effort alone, but because he was built for it.
As a result, his body formed a hobby or instinct in which he was in a constant state of self-restraint. It was born from his fear in his past life. Fear that if he did not restrain himself, he'll cause damages upon his surrounding.
Which also resulted in him restraining himself all the time even when he thought he wasn't doing it.
'I'm doing it again. I really need to get rid of this hobby of mine.' Yuuya thought, mentally sighing.
He stood up. The movement wasn't shaky or labored; it was unnervingly smooth.
The Goliath roared, a sound that should have shaken Yuuya's soul.
Instead, he heard nothing. The screaming of the dungeon, the whistling of the wind, even the System's frantic data stream—it all began to fade into a dull, gray static.
Yuuya didn't reach for a skill. He reached for a state of being.
In his past life, they called it the Flow. The Zone. The moment where the brain stops thinking and the body simply is.
Yuuya was normally in this kind of state every time he was in combat. That's what allows him to dive solo to the middle floors despite being a mid-level 2 in his first few days when he was just starting out.
But just as mentioned earlier, because of his life long self-imposed restraint, he subconsciously holds back. In other words, he is only halfway into the zone when fighting.
So what happens when he finally takes it seriously?
Here, in a world governed by Falna and status, the state in which Yuuya fully enters into the zone reacted with his growth skill in a way the gods never intended.
Under normal circumstances and for any other adventurers, simply entering into the 'zone' is not enough to trigger and enter this state.
With the sole exception of Yuuya Mitsukuji of course.
Then, a sudden, blinding white light flickered around the edges of Yuuya's vision.
< Limit Off >
It was a state that only a handful of legends had ever touched—the most famous being the woman whose magic he now carried.
For Alfia, it was a constant, agonizing blessing. For Yuuya, it was the result of a mind finally agreeing to a body that refused to be restrained.
His total stats—the 15,000 points that made him a maxed out level 3 at level 2—didn't just increase. They shattered. The 999 limit was a wall he had already bypassed, but now, the very concept of points became irrelevant.
The Black Goliath seeing that Yuuya is staying still, lunged, its massive fist descending like a falling star.
In the zone, Yuuya didn't see a monster. He saw a series of vectors. He saw the slow, clumsy movement of muscle and bone.
He didn't dodge. He stepped.
A single, precise movement took him an inch outside the fist's trajectory. As the ground exploded beside him, Yuuya didn't even blink. He gripped the hilt of his sword. As he did, his mana sword flared back into life. Its ethereal blue form humming once more.
"My turn." Yuuya said. His voice wasn't deadpan anymore. it was empty.
[Warning: You are entering a state of Limit Off,] the System said. Reminding him of his current state. [Your body cannot handle the strain well compared to your mind. Yuuya, if you don't end this soon, your body will break. End. This. Fast.]
He didn't wait for the warning to finish.
He vanished.
To an outside observer, Yuuya had become a silver blur. To the Goliath, it was as if the air itself had turned into razors. Yuuya moved through the monster's guard, his mana blade carving through the obsidian skin as if it were wet paper.
For a moment, no regeneration could keep up. No defense could hold.
He wasn't fighting a Level 5 monster anymore. He was dismantling it.
The Goliath tried to swat him again but Yuuya was already in the air, spinning with a grace that was beautiful and terrifying. He brought the mana blade down, severing the hand completely. The black limb hit the floor with a wet thud, dissolving into ash after a moment.
The beast let out a sound—not a roar of anger, but a cry of genuine, primal fear. For the first time in its short, violent life, the floor boss of the 17th level realized it wasn't the hunter.
It was the prey.
The fight drags on once more.
Another sword stroke done.
Another combination landed.
Another gospel slammed into the Goliath's body.
As the fight goes on, seconds passed. Then seconds turned into a minute. Then that minute also passed.
As the battle goes on, a undeniable fact was becoming apparent again.
Even though Yuuya has entered Limit Off, the tide of battle still isn't tipping into his favor.
Yes he managed to balance out the scale, but it still remains in a stalemate.
Another moment passed, another sword stroke done. Another gospel is unleashed.
Then, Yuuya finally realized something, he wasn't fighting a creature—he was fighting the Dungeon's spite itself.
Every time the mana blade carved a cavernous hole in the Goliath's obsidian chest, it's flesh just bubbled and knit back together before the blood could hit the floor.
The Black Variant was a biological anomaly. Its regeneration was so violent it looked like the wounds were being sewn shut by invisible, frantic needles.
Yuuya didn't stop. He couldn't. If he paused for even a second, the beast would be back at full strength.
He vanished from his position as a massive fist pulverized the ground beneath him. Mid-air, Yuuya didn't just swing his blade—he extended his left hand once more.
•Gospel• he commanded.
He didn't fire a single blast. He fired a a barrage.
•Gospel•
•Gospel•
•Gospel•
Invisible block of sounds hammered the Goliath's shoulders and knees, the kinetic impact sounding like a series of cannon shots.
As the Goliath's joints buckled under the pressure, Yuuya landed on the beast's rising bicep. He ran up the arm, the mana blade in his right hand trailing a wake of ethereal blue fire, while his left hand continued to pulse with rhythmic, concussive magic.
He was a hurricane of steel and sound. He would slash a deep gashing wound into the monster's throat, then immediately fill the wound with a point-blank magical explosion to prevent the flesh from closing.
It was the peak of combat efficiency: The Blade to open, the Magic to hollow out.
But the Goliath was a Level 5 Rex for a reason. Realizing the silver pest was literally dismantling it faster than it could heal and swat it, the monster stopped trying to punch. It stood still, its black skin rippling.
If it can't swat away the pest with its strength, then it'll simply try to shoot it down.
It opened it's mouth once more. The mana in the air being drawn towards it.
[Yuuya! Warning—]
"I know." Yuuya whispered.
It released another Roar Blast. A visible wave of destructive shockwave energy erupted from its throat, that leveled everything in its path. The walls of the 17th Floor were vaporized instantly. Dust and debris flying all over the place.
Yuuya didn't stand still either. He started dodging.
The Goliath's roar blast didn't end in a single release either. It started sending out barrages of shockwaves towards Yuuya, the same way Yuuya did to it earlier.
This carnage continues for a full minute before finally settling.
The artillery finally ended, leaving a smoking trail of destruction across the room.
As the dust and debris settled, Yuuya didn't escape unscathed either. He stood at the end of one of the craters, his silver armor dented all over the place and his left gauntlet cracked open.
The Goliath stood in the center of the arena, but already—already—the wounds that Yuuya gave it? They were healed up entirely.
Yuuya's breath came in ragged, shallow hitches. The strain of Limit Off in his current level was screaming at him. His muscles felt like they were being pulled off the bone by hot tongs.
For the first time ever in his long life, Yuuya is actually feeling exhausted and fatigued.
[Physical endurance is approaching the threshold,] the System's voice was no longer distant; it was an alarm. [The zone is keeping you upright, but the math doesn't lie, Yuuya. You've cut it a thousand times, and it has healed a thousand times. You're trying to kill an ocean with a bucket.]
Yuuya looked at the hilt of his sword. The mana blade was silent once more.
He was in the state of legends. He was fighting with the mastery of a man who had spent two lives honing his body. He was in the state of Limit Off, hitting with the force of a high-tier Level 4 or even a Level 5.
And it's still not enough.
The Goliath let out a mocking roar. It was already certain of its victory. It only heals up again and again as the fight drags on, while Yuuya was burning out like a dying star.
'I can't win by being faster. I can't win by being more talented,' Yuuya thought, his eyes narrowing as the world started to blur. 'If I want to kill this thing, I need to figure out something fast.'
He needed something beyond mastery. He needed a miracle, or a level of destruction that the Goliath couldn't recover from.
His situation is dire. Yuuya can't keep his state of Limit Off for long. Even though his mana pool is still halfway full, he can't simply spam Satanas Verion in hopes of it shattering the magic stone inside the Goliath.
No. His level and magic stat is still too low. His magic is simply not enough to pierce the Goliath's hide yet. Maybe it can if it was a normal or a semi-black variant. But as one could see, that is not the case.
Meanwhile, the Black Goliath, was preparing for another Roar Blast.
Yuuya can outrun it, but he cannot keep it up forever. He couldn't outlast it. The only thing he had left was the very abnormality that had defined his existence across two lifetimes: his unnatural, limit-breaking talent.
[If you try to cast a gospel normally, it will just absorb it like a breeze again.]
'I'm not going to cast it normally,' Yuuya thought, his silver boots sliding against the crystal floor as he anchored his stance. 'I'm going to break it apart.'
To overcome his current predicament, Yuuya came up with a theory. A two-stage theory. And he is gambling everything into it.
Magic in Orario as we know it required focus, a chant, and for Yuuya's plan, a physical medium.
The miracle of his mana taking form is only possible because of a medium. Without the hilt of his sword or a suitable conduit, his mana blade would simply disperse into the air, a wasted mana in the dark.
But Satanas Verion—the root of his "Gospel"—was a magic of absolute destruction. If he couldn't use a physical medium to give it a form, he would have to force the mana to act as its own medium.
He would split the word. Turning it into a two-stage chant while retaining the spell's super short chant nature.
In the first stage—"Gos"—the moment where the spell manifested in his palm, is the moment where he'll change its properties using his mana.
In that fraction of a millisecond between the syllables, he would use his monstrous talent to completely rewrite the spell's architecture. He already has a solid idea and feels on how to reshape a mana however he desires it, thanks to his mana blade. So he's leaving the rest to his talent.
He would compress it's usual wide-area shockwave into a singular, hyper-dense point, effectively turning a bomb into an armor-piercing drill.
In the second stage—"pel"—he would fire it.
The risk was catastrophic. If his concentration slipped, if he took a fraction of a second too long to shape the volatile mana, the spell would collapse. It would trigger an Ignis Fatuus. If he were lucky, it'll simply fail. But if not, his magic would detonate right in the palm of his hand, blowing his arm off and leaving the rest of him to be crushed into paste by the Goliath.
He had Concurrent Chanting allowing him in theory to do it while on the move, but this required absolute, unyielding focus. He couldn't dodge. He couldn't run. He had to stand completely still.
To pull this off, he needed the Goliath to stop moving. He only needed three seconds.
A second to get in position, a second to focus, and as second to unleash his spell.
All he needs is one second.
One second to gamble everything.
"System," Yuuya breathed out, his lungs burning. "Help me divert all of my remaining physical strength into my legs and my right arm. Everything. Only left a little bit to enable me to limp down the 18th floor."
[Acknowledged. Warning: Muscle fibers will tear. You'll be sore as fuck next morning, that is if you're lucky.]
"Do it."
The Limit Off state flared one final time, a dying star burning at its absolute brightest. Yuuya didn't wait for the Goliath to unleash its roar.
He kicked off the ground with so much force the floor shattered into a massive crater behind him.
He was a silver bullet once more.
The Goliath fired its Roar Blast, a shockwave blast of sound meant to erase him. Yuuya didn't step aside this time. He ducked, his knees nearly scraping the floor, sliding under the shockwave as the air rippled violently above his helmet. Making Yuuya feel the vibration on his helmet.
He slid right into the Goliath's guard, beneath its massive, roaring jaw. He then jumped towards its knee cap.
While mid-air, Yuuya gripped the hilt of his sword with both hands as he commanded his mana to manifest and take form once more.
He poured all of his strength that he can exert for the moment to a one single horizontal swing.
Then, he drove the blade directly into the Goliath's kneecap.
But.
The blade stopped halfway through the Goliath's knee cap. It was stuck. The blade unmoving.
Then reality suddenly slowed down at that moment. As if time itself stopped. Due to the gravity of the situation.
The strike is simply lacking enough strength to make one clean cut.
But...
'So what?' The voice in Yuuya's mind echoed, defiant.
Yuuya doesn't need a clean cut. All he need is to immobilize the Goliath and buy time for his gamble.
'So what if it doesn't have enough force?' The voice in Yuuya's roared. As if questioning the world once more.
'THEN I JUST NEED TO PUT MORE FORCE INTO IT!!!'
HAAAAAAA—!
With a roar that seems to defy fate, as if challenging the world itself, Yuuya pushed and the blade moved once again.
But it was slow.
Yet, that didn't matter the slightest.
"CUT THROUGH!!!" Roared Yuuya as he puts more strength behind his strike.
Then, it finally cuts through. Shearing through bone and it's thick tendons.
CRACK
The sound was like a thunderclap. The hilt in Yuuya's hand finally gave out, shattering into a dozen useless pieces of mundane metal.
But its purpose is fulfilled, the damage was done.
The Goliath's leg buckled. The fifteen meter giant lost its balance, its massive Roar Blast violently cutting off as it crashed forward onto its hands and remaining knee.
Yuuya jumps a few steps back.
Then, he stood. Facing the kneeling behemoth a few steps in front of him. His muscles screamed, his right arm went numb from the backlash of the hilt shattering, and his lungs begged for air.
But his mind was completely, terrifyingly still. He funneled all of his remaining consciousness into the palm of his left hand.
The Goliath glared down at him, its eyes burning like coals. It opened its mouth to blast the stationary human into the floor.
Yuuya took a breath, closed his eyes to shut out the world, and began the gamble.
•Gos—•
To an outside observer, there was no delay. Yuuya's voice was as steady and swift as it had ever been.
To the Black Goliath, the human was just standing there, an exposed target waiting to be blasted by its Roar Blast.
But in Yuuya's mind, time didn't just slow down; it stopped entirely. Within that microscopic heartbeat of a pause between syllables, Yuuya's mind was a forge of lightning.
In the span of a single microsecond, the Zone hyper-focused his consciousness into his left hand.
The raw, chaotic nature of Satanas Verion flared to life over his palm, volatile and screaming to be released as a wide-area shockwave.
But Yuuya refused to let it expand. His mind clamped down on the magic like a vice.
'Denser,' he commanded the mana, his thoughts sharp despite the agony radiating through his body. 'Even denser.'
He felt the spell fighting back, threatening to trigger an Ignis Fatuus that would blow him into bloody mist.
He didn't flinch. He drew upon the Mage development ability, filtering the unstable energy through his monstrous, limit-breaking talent. He tapped into the well of his 3,000 Magic stat points, augmented and amplified by the fading, violent light of his Limit Off state.
'Heavier. Put more mana behind it.'
The sphere of "Silence" in his hand shrank from the size of a melon to the size of an apple, then down to the size of a marble. It turned from a pale white to a terrifying, absolute black—a singularity of compressed sound and kinetic force.
He drained his mana pool ruthlessly, putting all of it behind the spell, stopping only at the absolute bottom. He left just enough to keep himself from getting into a mind down.
'Compress it even more.'
The Goliath's Roar Blast was about to be released. The air pressure was already a crushing judge, an ultimatum on the Goliath's mouth.
If this failed, he was dead. He was exhausted, his weapon was gone, and there was no plan B.
Then, the moment has come to it's conclusion. The Goliath is about to let go of it's roar blast.
But, Yuuya's super short chant is still faster.
With his mind perfectly still and his left hand holding a star's worth of gravity, Yuuya finished the word.
•—pel•
The compressed magic fired.
The release wasn't a roar. It was a terrifying, vacuum-like snap. But at the same time, it was also catastrophic.
The recoil didn't just push him; it exploded. A massive shockwave of displaced air kicked up a blinding shroud of dust around Yuuya, obscuring his vision.
The backlash was so violent that his left arm was whipped backward, his palm snapping toward the ceiling with a sickening 'pop' as the shoulder joint gave way.
He stumbled back several paces, his heels digging deep furrows into the ground as he fought to stay upright.
It was like firing a massive, shotgun with one hand.
But the spell has found it's mark. And it has struck true.
When it hits the Goliath's chest, it doesn't just penetrate through; it erased.
When the hyper-compressed sphere struck the Goliath's chest, the energy expanded just enough to satisfy its destructive nature.
As a result, a hole the size of a grown man was punched clean through the Goliath's giant's torso—a perfect, circular void of missing obsidian and muscle.
The spell carried through, exiting the beast's back and slamming into the wall behind it with a dull, heavy thud that made the entire 17th Floor groan. Tunneling through the rock until the mana finally starved and collapsed.
Yuuya's gamble worked. His spell has done it's intended purpose. The Goliath's magic stone, massive and glowing with a malevolent light, sat directly in the path of that void. It didn't just crack; it was obliterated into sparkling dust.
For a heartbeat, the monster stood, a literal window to the other side of the cavern carved through its heart.
The Roar Blast in its mouth stays for a moment, before detonating into its own mouth due to it being unreleased and thus leading to Ignis Fatuus. Taking its entire jaw down with it.
Then, the inevitable gray ash of the Dungeon's death claimed it. The nightmare collapsed, dissolving into a mountain of soot and smoke.
Yuuya stood in the settling dust, his breath coming in jagged, white puffs. His left arm hung uselessly at his side, the silver plating twisted and mangled. As the ash cleared, two items remained in the center of the crater.
The first was the magic stone. Despite Yuuya obliterating the magic stone if the goliath, it somehow still dropped one. But hey, Yuuya wasn't the one to complain.
It was gargantuan, nearly the size of a grown man, shimmering with a deep, dark luster in its core.
'4,000,000 valis if I remember correctly,' Yuuya thought, his old memories surfacing through the fog of exhaustion. 'At least the Dungeon pays its debts.'
Beside it lay a thick, obsidian-colored hide—the 'Goliath Hard Skin'. It was a rare drop, the primary material for the famous Goliath Scarf.
[Storage capability remains functional,] the System noted, its voice quiet and uncharacteristically respectful. [Let me help you with that.]
'Thanks,' Yuuya thought, his knees finally giving out. 'I'll have Welf turn that into something useful when the time comes.'
Yuuya didn't try to stand. He simply let himself fall backward, his armor clattering against the hard, crystalline floor. He lay there on his back, staring up at the ceiling of the 17th Floor.
He is no longer in a state of combat so he naturally hops off the zone.
Leaving behind nothing but the raw, unadulterated sensation of his body screaming in protest.
"Ah..." Yuuya breathed out, his voice cracking. "My left shoulder... it really hurts. Like, a lot."
He stared at the ceiling for a long time. The silence of the floor was heavy, broken only by the distant, rhythmic sound of his ragged breath and the thrum of his heart. He looked at the crater he had made, then back at the dark ceiling.
He was a Level 2 who had just soloed a Level 5 Black Variant. He was a man with 4 million Valis in his pocket and a dislocated arm. He was a human who had just gambled his soul on a split-second chant.
He went silent for a full minute, just watching the way the shadows danced above him.
Finally, Yuuya let out a long, weary sigh that seemed to carry all the exhaustion of two lifetimes.
"Seriously," he muttered to the empty room. "This place blows."
∆∆∆∆
After he catches his breath, Yuuya dragged his body to the 18th floor.
Every step felt like grinding glass in his joints, and the dislocated arm was a heavy, useless weight that threw off his balance.
'At least it wasn't cut off.' was all that Yuuya could think of.
He bypassed Rivira entirely; the last thing he wanted was a crowd of greedy adventurers poking at his armor or asking him what the hell did he just go through.
Instead, he pushed deep into the safety of the Under Resort's forest, found a secluded spot beneath the massive, glowing boughs of a tree that didn't look like it wanted to eat him.
[Congratulations are in order, I suppose,] the System chimed in. Its voice was back to its usual tone, though there was a hint of something resembling pride buried deep in the code. [You've officially leveled up. Level 3 is yours for the taking officially once Hestia gets a look at your back.]
'Yay,' Yuuya thought dryly, leaning against the bark. 'Can I get a trophy made of ibuprofen?'
[Better. As promised for your solo subjugation of that obsidian headache, I'm giving you a specialized skill:
"Great," Yuuya croaked. "Does it cover being sore as hell?"
[No. That's just the tax for being a human powerhouse.]
Yuuya groaned. He then pulled out a healing potion out of his inventory.
He then gritted his teeth. After that, he grabbed his left arm—just below his armpit, the part where the bicep peaks when flexed—with his right hand, braced his feet against a root, and with one violent, practiced jerk that suggests he'd done this more than once—
CRUNCH-POP
He let out a sharp, muffled hiss as his shoulder slid back into the socket. He immediately downed the healing potion he prepared beforehand. The pain was searing hot for a second before his new skill and the effect of his healing potions began to dull the edge. It still felt like a mule had kicked him repeatedly in the collarbone, but at least the arm was attached again.
He slid down the trunk until he was sitting in the soft moss, pulling out the last of his mana and health vials. He downed them both in one go, the cool liquid doing very little to soothe the deep, bone-weary ache.
[Status check: Regeneration active. You're currently healing at the speed of a very determined snail.] the System noted.
'Good enough,' Yuuya thought, letting his head thunk back against the tree. He closed his eyes, already imagining the headache waiting for him back on the surface. 'Eina is going to kill me. She's going to see that 4 million valis stone and the dent in my armor, and the lecture won't stop for three days. My ears are ringing just thinking about it.'
He could see it now: Eina's glasses reflecting the light as she explained, in exhaustive detail, exactly how many ways a "responsible" adventurer shouldn't solo a Goliath. A Black Goliath one at that.
But that was a problem for future Yuuya.
Present Yuuya was done. He was finished. He was a silver-plated vegetable. He didn't want to move, he didn't want to think about hero stories, and he certainly didn't want to see another black colored dungeon spawn.
"System," Yuuya whispered, his voice fading as sleep started to tug at his consciousness. "Wake me up if anything bigger than a squirrel comes near me. Otherwise... leave me in this forest to rot. I'll leave the angry half-elf supervisor to the future me."
[Sleep well pookie,] the System replied softly. [I'll keep the squirrels away.]
He didn't move. He didn't even take off his helmet. He just lay there in the quiet green of the 18th Floor, lazing into a deep, dreamless sleep that would last well into the next day.
∆∆∆∆
4th Day After The Main Series Begins
The next day arrived and Yuuya felt sore. Very sore. So much so that he doesn't even want to move.
For the first few minutes, he simply lay there. Observing the leaf's of the tree.
"System," Yuuya muttered. "What time is it on the surface?"
[Mornin'. It was currently afternoon on the surface.] System replied.
Yuuya then sighs. He doesn't even felt hungry. He just wants to stay down for a while.
It's a unique sensation to him. It was the very first time he felt such feeling.
So with nothing better to do, Yuuya reflects back on his battle. Then, he realized something.
As we know, he wasn't from this world. By all means, he was an error. The System had warned him early on back when he first got here: the world will try to erase him when it has the chance.
Logically thinking, it's unavoidable that the people around him are caught in the middle of it.
'If it sent a black variant today just because I stepped onto the floor...' Yuuya's mind drifted to the timeline. In a few days, the canonical events would lead Bell and the other important casts back here to face the fated floor boss.
'Knowing how much this place likes screwing with me, the Goliath they... We... Will face won't be the regular one. It'll be a Level 6. A literal walking apocalypse.'
[And I'm also willing to bet that variant will develop and have a better defense to resist your two-stage gospel.]
Yuuya agreed. He stared up at the swaying leaves of the Under Resort, his eyes heavy. He had won yesterday by gambling on a two-stage 'Gospel'.
With his talent, he could probably master that trick—turn the "Gos—pel" pause into something so seamless it felt natural to him. Using the remaining time he had before that fated day.
It was perfect for winning battles yes.
But it wasn't enough.
It wins you a fight. To survive what the Dungeon was going to throw at him—to survive the wars that were coming—he needed something that could end wars.
He needed something with a scale that bypassed the concept of individual mastery.
'Genos Angelus,' he thought, the name of the legendary spell etching itself into his plans. 'That's the next one. A spell to win wars.'
[Planning for global devastation already?] the System murmured, its voice fading into the background of his consciousness. [You haven't even finished growing your skin back yet.]
'Let me dream about it,' Yuuya replied. 'I mean, think about it. With my concurrent chanting, I can cast it while on the move since it wasn't as complicated as my two-stage gospel.'
[You're saying it's perfect for you.]
"Yup. I can stay mobile, keep the pressure on, and weave a long-form spell in the background. If I can master a literal nuke, I become a walking artillery battery that can also parry your sword. Suggestions?"
[If you want raw destructive power, you could try to replicate Riveria Ljos Alf's spell. Vas Windheim was her most powerful spell. Or Rea Laevateinn—the incineration spell. It's a classic for a reason.]
Yuuya shook his head, his mind already drifting to a specific memory of a woman in black gothic dress. "No. Those are powerful, but they aren't her. If I'm already carrying the weight of the Hera Familia's silence, I might as well go all the way."
He took a breath, his resolve hardening. "Genos Angelus. That's the one. It's the ultimate expression of sound magic. A super-long chant that eviscerates everything in a one hundred meter radius. It's not just a spell; it's a geographical restructuring."
[It's also an absolute mana hog,] the System warned. [Casting it is one thing, but creating it? After a day of entire rest, your mana pool has recovered sure. But my point is, at your current level? There's a price to pay.]
"So that means it possible right now? Well what's the price?"
The System went quiet for a few seconds, processing the request against Yuuya's current vitals and his current level.
[The short answer? Yes. Your talent is high enough to bridge the gap. The long answer? Just like last time with Satanas Verion, it's going to trigger a mind down again. You'll be unconscious until tomorrow afternoon, again, at the earliest. You'll be completely vulnerable in the middle of the 18th Floor.]
Yuuya looked around the secluded grove. It was quiet. The monsters here generally stayed away from the thickest parts of the woods, and the Rivira crowd was too busy drinking to wander this far out.
"Do it," Yuuya commanded, closing his eyes. "I'd rather wake up with a new weapon and a headache than walk back into Orario without a trump card. Start the initialization."
[Acknowledged. Commencing 'Genos Angelus' Manifestation Protocol using the Host's Magic
The air around Yuuya began to hum, not with the gentle vibration of a mana blade, but with a deep, subsonic roar that made the trees tremble.
He started glowing into a ethereal blue, it was his own mana. Then a moment later, it leaves his body. Before beginning to swirl around him, glowing with a cold, celestial light, and then finally, it returns back to him.
Yuuya felt his consciousness begin to slip, pulled into the vacuum of the creation process. The last thing he saw before the world turned white was the System's final message.
[See you tomorrow.] The system laughed a bit. [Waking up for a brief moment just to sleep again. Try not to die in your sleep.]
The world of the 18th Floor vanished into a sea of white noise as the System's voice flickered in the back of Yuuya's fading consciousness.
[Creation complete. The manifestation was a success. Congratulations, Yuuya. For getting your new magic and officially inheriting the Silence.]
Then, the breaker flipped. The mind down was instantaneous, a heavy curtain of darkness that dropped over his mind as his mana pool bottomed out into a terrifying void.
His body slumped against the ancient tree once more, but as his physical form went still, his consciousness drifted into that strange, liminal space where magic and memory intertwine.
In the quiet of his subconscious, Yuuya watched the lines of the new spell etch themselves into the fabric of his soul. He had always known that magic in this world wasn't just a tool—it was usually a mirror. A chant wasn't just a trigger; more often than not, it was an autobiography written in the language of the divine.
And that is especially true for the woman who had first birthed this magic, Alfia. Every syllable was a confession.
For Yuuya, her skills were her life's tragedy laid bare.
For example,
Another example was her magic
But Genos Angelus... that was different. That was her masterpiece of self-loathing.
Yuuya then looks at the chant of the spell and begins analyzing it.
"Blessing of the root of evil, curse of birth. My original sin that devoured half of my body. Its not hard. There is no purification. There is no salvation. The resonance of this heavenly sound is my sin. The trumpet of gods, the lyre of spirits. The melody of light, that is, the mark of my sins. Loved by the miniature garden, my destiny is shattered. I hate you. The compensation is here. Destroy everything with the proof of my sin. Cry, holy bell tower."
> "Blessing of the root of evil, curse of birth. My original sin that devoured half of my body. It's not hard. There is no purification. There is no salvation. The resonance of this heavenly sound is my sin." <
In his sleeping mind, Yuuya deconstructed the words. Turning Alfia's self-proclaimed "Original Sin" into three parts:
• It was her status as the "Silence" and the source of her nickname as the "Incarnation of Talent."
• It was the incurable disease that ate her from the inside out.
• And most painfully, it was the guilt of a twin sister. Alfia always believed that while they were in the womb, she had reached out and stolen Meteria's strength and talent, leaving her sister a fragile shell while she became something more.
She hated her talent and her own abilities so much, every spell and skill—if not all of them— that she have are all based of her own self-hatred.
All because she believed it was stolen. She hated her power because it cost her the only person she loved.
She can roam the world, she gained glory, fame, power, money, and everything she can ask for. While her sister Meteria, gets the bed.
The longer the chant echoed through Yuuya's mind, the more he realized why it didn't feel like a foreign object.
It didn't feel like he was "stealing" or copying her magic. It felt like... He was finally speaking a language he had known since his first life.
Yuuya, too, carried the Curse of Talent.
In his past life as mentioned several times before, he had been a Level 2 in a world of Level 0s. He had lived every day in a state of suffocating restraint.
He couldn't shake a hand without the conscious fear of crushing the person's hand. He couldn't run his hardest because the world's records were trivial to him—he could shatter them on a Tuesday morning while half-asleep, and no one would come close for half a millennium.
He was a creature born for the crucible of combat, a physical anomaly whose body was designed for the bloody battlefields of myth, yet he had been trapped in an era of peace and science. He was a weapon with no war to fight, a gladiator in a world of glass.
When he was reincarnated in Orario, that talent didn't vanish. It evolved. It became the growth skill that let him look at the 999 limit of the gods and step over it without breaking a sweat.
It was the same abnormality that made every weapon he touched turn to dust—because his potential was a fire that consumed everything it touched.
For Yuuya, his version of "Original Sin" wasn't about a sister or a disease. It was the isolation of being too much.
It was the weight of being a superhuman who could master a combat style in a single day, who could rewrite a spell in the middle of a chant, and who could never truly find an equal.
His talent was his sin because it meant he would always be standing alone at the top of the mountain, looking down at a world that couldn't handle his pressure.
In simpler terms, for Yuuya, his original sin is the inability to be normal.
Yuuya's dislike of his talent is rooted in existential burden. He didn't rob anyone, but he can't "fit" anywhere. His talent is a wall that keeps him from experiencing life the way everyone else does. He isn't a criminal; he's an outsider.
While for Alfia, her reason is rooted in external morality. She feels she "robbed" someone else. She always told, believes, and views her talent as a crime she committed before she was even born.
If you put them side by side and do an interview of their life and their talent? You'll notice that they are essentially two halves of a whole. They don't like their own talents because of their own separate reasons and beliefs.
But what makes them a whole, is that they both loathed their own talents.
====
Author side comment:
Now that I think about it, the time or era in which the two of them are born in is also ironic in a way.
Alfia was born in an era where talent and strength is needed. Yet, if she was given the option, she wouldn't want her talent if it meant her sister can walk and live a normal, long life.
She and her sister's soul is meant for an era of peace.
While for Yuuya, he was born in a time where talent and physical strength isn't needed as much. He was born in the modern age where science and modern technology governs the world.
Compared to Alfia and her sister, Yuuya's soul is meant for an era of battle and war.
====
The chant settled deep into his Falna, vibrating with the same frequency as his own soul. It was a long, beautiful, and terrifying sequence of words that represented his life as a machine meant for combat in two different worlds.
The creation was finished. The spell was rooted.
Yuuya remained unconscious in the emerald twilight of the 18th Floor, his body healing and his mana pool replenishing thanks to his skill
He was a silver knight sleeping in a forest, but beneath his armor, he now carried a sound that could level cities.
A spell born from the shared self-loathing of two people who were simply too talented for the world they are born in.
∆∆∆∆
5th Day Since The Main Series Begins.
The the sunlight of the 18th Floor's artificial sky poked through the canopy, dancing across Yuuya's dented visor.
He groaned, the sound echoing hollowly inside his helmet, as he forced his eyes open.
Every muscle in his body still felt like it had been tenderized with a blacksmith's hammer, but it was better than yesterday.
"System," Yuuya croaked, his throat dry as parchment. "Give me the bad news. What time is it?"
[Good afternoon, Sleeping Beauty,] the System replied, its voice crisp and far too energetic for Yuuya's current mood. [It's roughly 2:00 PM. You've been out for nearly twenty hours.]
Yuuya sat up slowly, hearing the protest of his armor. "Afternoon... right. If the clock is ticking the same way it did in the stories, then Bell is probably currently running for his life from a Silverback in the middle of Monsterphilia."
[Correct. The Freya-sponsored chaos is well underway on the surface. Your little 'brother' is officially making his debut as a protagonist.]
"Hmph. Good luck to him," Yuuya muttered, leaning his head back against the bark. "I've got my own problems to solve before I head back up."
Yuuya stared into the far for a moment.
He can feel the hum of his new magic
It doesn't feel foreign, it doesn't feel odd, it doesn't feel like he stole it or copied it. It just felt like... Him. It just felt right.
"My original sin huh..." Muttered Yuuya. His mind hovering on the chant of the spell, silently reading it.
With a sigh—not out of annoyance—but that of contentment, he finally got up to his feet. He stretches his limbs, cracking his joints, and testing his left arm.
"Well then," said Yuuya, turning towards the exit back to the surface. "Shall we go back up?"
∆∆∆∆