Chapter 68: Attack by the Dark Factions (Patreon)

Renan silently ran the numbers on the timing, then swept his wand through a quick pattern in front of him.

He still didn't speak the incantation. With the combined effect of the Development Ability Fantasy and his psychic powers, Renan could now drop the incantations of nearly every spell and cast without chanting.

In the Harry Potter world, that alone would have made him the elite of the elite among wizards. All that separated him from becoming a professor at the academy was an accumulation of knowledge and magical power.

In reality, though...

—Crack.

Something shattered close to his ear. Then, five centimeters above the surface of his armor, the air twisted and blurred.

It was as if something unseen had settled snugly over him.

—Reinforced Shield Charm.

It was a spell Renan had just cast, and as the name suggested, it was derived from the Shield Charm.

Unlike Ice Beam, which had only undergone a slight change in form, the Reinforced Shield Charm actually had the psychic moves Barrier, Light Screen and Reflect that Renan currently knew woven into it. Where the original lasted only a few seconds after activation, a successful cast now stayed up for several minutes, shattering only once it had absorbed attacks beyond its limit.

In truth, Renan wanted to go all the way and weave Protect, which could completely negate a single attack, into the Shield Charm as well.

Unfortunately, all he had mastered so far were some of the psychic moves plus the Fairy type's Moonlight. As for techniques like Protect, he had seen the Squirtle Squad and the Water-type Pokémon living in the Cerulean Gym use them, but he still couldn't work out how they actually triggered.

You can't make bricks without straw.

Still, going by the extra defense it provided alone, the Reinforced Shield Charm at its current stage was already far from bad.

As for exactly how good it was... five days ago, right after he'd developed it, Renan had tried getting a Minotaur to attack him.

The result: right up until the spell's duration was about to run out, that big brute never broke through the shield.

Judging from that, the Reinforced Shield Charm could now block at least several attacks at Lv4 level.

Against Lv5, barring accidents, it could still negate a considerable portion of the damage.

'What a pity. To gather enough of a feat to reach Lv3, with my current strength, I can only choose between the Floor 27 floor boss, Amphisbaena, or going past Floor 49 into the Dungeon beyond.'

But clearly, neither Amphisbaena, whose actual challenge difficulty reached Lv6, nor the swarms of Lv5 monsters past Floor 49, a hell for adventurers, were something Renan could handle on his own.

He needed a few helpers who could watch his back, or he needed to learn Apparition, that long-range teleportation magic.

'Forget it. It's too early to be thinking about this.' The black-haired youth, entirely sheathed in armor, let out a long breath, the mana in his body converting into pure spiritual force that radiated out through his body. 'At the rate I've been farming these past few days, my total kill count should hit 10,000 by tomorrow afternoon at the latest.

'By then...'

Renan's eyes flickered.

He had actually been in the Dungeon for a week now.

Setting aside the first day, spent traveling, he'd banked somewhere between 1,000 and 1,200 kills nearly every day since.

By a rough estimate, even if the number of monsters that had died by his hands hadn't reached 9,000 yet, it was very close.

After another three-plus hours of farming through the great sea of trees, Renan called it a day.

As on the previous days, he didn't stay on Floor 19. He spent a little time heading back to Floor 18 instead.

He pitched a tent at the edge of the floor and, while he was at it, set down a few stones around it inscribed with runes for repelling, lowering presence and confusing.

Only after all that did he take dried rations bought on the surface out of his backpack, which was enchanted with preservation and reinforcement runes, heat them up, and wash them down with clean water.

Most adventurers who made it to Floor 18 were Lv2 or above. Apart from a very few sheltered hothouse "buds," there wasn't a truly harmless one among them.

Renan hadn't been an adventurer for long, but he carried the memories of his selves from five whole worlds.

On top of that, he had a pile of secrets on him, and from start to finish he'd had no intention of getting involved with anyone. His mind was set on one thing: growing stronger.

But not looking for trouble never meant trouble wouldn't come looking for him.

As night fell, a sudden explosion by his ear jolted Renan awake where he sat cross-legged on the ground.

The black-haired youth stepped out of the tent and looked toward where the sound had come from.

Almost at once he saw that the sky above the area where the town of Rivira stood had been stained a blazing red.

In the air, he could faintly make out the roars of large numbers of monsters of every kind.

Clearly, the buildings in town were on fire on a large scale. Or rather, the town had been invaded by monsters from who-knew-whether Floor 19 or Floor 17.

Renan narrowed his eyes.

If Alize, Kaguya Gojouno and the others had been here right now, then with the girls' sense of justice, they would surely have charged to Rivira to mount a rescue without a moment's thought.

But Renan had never once considered doing that.

Drawing his wand, he cast a Disillusionment Charm on himself and on his backpack in turn.

On his metal boots, the rune symbolizing the Levitation Charm lit up in an instant as well.

The next second, the black-haired youth, buffs fully applied, hesitated no longer. He kicked off the ground, leapt onto the nearest tree branch, and then raced toward the passage between Floor 18 and Floor 17.

In his previous life he had only watched the anime, but he knew the many grudges between the dark factions and the surface Familia of Orario perfectly well.

Under normal circumstances, even if monsters wandered up into a safe floor, there would never be many of them. A party of a few Lv2 adventurers could clear them out with ease.

But right now, going by the beast roars in the air alone, there were at least several hundred.

The reality could only be more.

Obviously, these monsters couldn't have come to Floor 18 on their own. Combined with the explosion he'd heard earlier, a little thought was enough to deduce that the dark factions had used some kind of method.

Renan remembered that in the side story Sword Oratoria, there had been a red-haired freak who could fight the Lv5-era Sword Princess to a draw, or even beat her. Back then, watching the scrolling comments, some viewer had even spoiled that a dangerous being on par with Ottar would appear later.

In terms of combat power, he was now no more than an adventurer at Lv4 level. Even if he wanted to gather the feat needed to reach Lv3, he could never set the dark factions' people as his target.

—Both were Lv5, but monsters with little reason to speak of were far lower in challenge difficulty than adventurers.

But since the dark factions had chosen to attack Rivira tonight, how could they possibly let adventurers run back to the surface to sound the alarm?