My morning began with abrupt knocks waking me up from the comfortable bed I was in. I didn't necessarily need sleep with my maxed rank S attributes and many skills that now became passive, but I always felt rejuvenated whenever I had a decent sleep. I groggily said come in while rising up from the bed where the silk sheets drifted down.
The door opened to a blue haired girl who seemed to have a semblance of worry on her eyes. She came to a stop as she saw my n.a.k.e.d upper half on the bed and turned away as I became surprised at this type of reaction I never would have expected from someone like her.
I equipped my body armor and asked,
"What happened?"
There shouldn't have been anything that went wrong with just a few hours passing. I was even patiently waiting to combine more skills this morning before diving in the dungeon here.
"Something that I didn't completely expect has occurred."
She turned back and spoke in a serious tone as she faced me once more.
"Before we left, I made a few Shadow Guards stay behind to monitor the forces of the Crown Prince in the case of any suspicious movements. I thought there was a possibility he might try something fishy once news of me traveling to the surrounding counties and dukedoms reached him, but I never expected him to make such a bold move."
I was up with full attention as she said this and I asked her, "What exactly did you find out?"
"The Shadow Guards followed a collection of mercenaries working under the Crown Prince as they left the Kingdom. Only the two of them followed to see if this would lead to something while others remained in the kingdom to continue monitoring. The two Shadow Guards that followed those mercenaries closely found them heading in the same direction we are."
This doesn't seem too bad? I waited for her to continue as it seemed she liked holding the best things for last.
"Among the mercenaries they observed was the figure of the woman that was with the Crown Prince a few days ago."
Now, with these words I finally became serious. An EPIC ranked individual was involved? "What's their plan here? Surely your own brother isn't sending people to take your life."
"Hah" A light laugh escaped from her lips for the first time since I met her, and she said, "It's not my life that he wants. I've seen the way he's looked at me my entire life while I grew up. He's got a twisted mind, and I don't know what plans he's created from it."
I thought about this possible new threat and my own level of power currently. Between beasts and humans, beasts of the same rank were always more powerful. Would this be applicable to the adventure that supposedly was heading towards us?
I then looked through the many skills I had brought up recently, as well as the ones ready for combination after this past night, and a smile broke out in my face.
"They won't be making a move while we're in this dukedom will they?"
"No, they will most likely put up an ambush in the snowy roads with low visibility when we leave this place."
The plan in my mind fully formed as this was confirmed. "Great. We'll head out in a few days to clash with these people. For now, let's continue to enjoy the time in this dukedom."
A few days would be enough for me to get much stronger through combinations and loot. After all of this was completed, I even had a chance to gain another EPIC ranked skill from someone that wished me harm? Haha, I couldn't wait!
The calm returned on the face of the Princess as she saw my own face that had no worry, and nodded her affirmation. "You plan to head to the dungeon now?"
"As soon as we grab some food, it's going to be a grueling few days of grinding for me."
"Grinding?"
The term threw her off and I told her not to worry as we stepped out. The plan would be simple for the next few days. Constantly grind and combine skills while gaining new ones from this rank S dungeon, [Waterworks].
This would actually be the first S rank dungeon I dive in, as all the ones I came across previously had dungeon breaks right after. After grabbing some food, I covertly made my way over to the dark monolith. The hazy doorways were striking, the blackness inviting and drawing you in. Without wasting a minute, I entered my first rank S dungeon in this world.
[Waterworks] was a particularly interesting dungeon, as the first floor I appeared in had a few patches of land, with water surrounding the floor for more than 2 times. My [Regal Archer's Eyes] that could see triple the distance that [Eagle's Eye] could observed many movements on the water below.
ZOOM!
Without a second passing, monsters flew out of the water with sparkling sharp teeth spread wide open to take a bite out of my figure standing on the small path of land. The beasts looked completely the same as sharks, just four meters large, but with the addition of wide wings on its sides.
These were the famous monsters in this dungeon called [Winged Shark]. They could stay in the water as well as the air, and terrorized any adventures that were not prepared.
I had the goal of focusing on raising my rank S offensive skills as well as the rank of my one and only summon currently, so I began with those skills. With the shining of the circular rune, the ugly Abomination came out with a loud scream as always.
The [Winged Shark]s in the air found their small wings ripped apart as something much larger than them began to move. [Saint's Return] was casted next as the figure of a golden saint with white hair appeared behind me. The hazy figure had a stern look on his face as white rays of light shot down towards me and the Virulent Abomination.
The light brought about an invigorating feeling to my body as I felt energized and like nothing could possibly hurt me. The summon that had begun battling with the flying sharks found many parts of its body that were injured closing up quickly as it moved even faster.
The next skills I began casting were [Volcanic Eruption] and [Rage of the Thunder Monarch], I was excited to cast these even more as they would be reaching 100 proficiency in an hour or so.
The first floor of this dungeon was cleared like this. The sharks were very aggressive and always dashed out of the water to attack. Even if they didn't though, the constant thunder that rained down in the water as well as the molten flames and gaseous heat made it easy to take all of them down.
The moment any of them died, [Profane Eruption] came to play to cause even more mayhem. The [Waterworks] dungeon had 50 total floors, with the first 25 holding countless variations of [Winged Shark]s and the latter 25 holding the last boss room as well as another species of monsters.
The fact that there were so many floors that provided a ton of monsters made the usage of [Profane Eruption] shoot through the roof and cause the proficiency to visibly rise over time. Hours passed by like this as I enjoyed the rising of numbers and combining of skills while terrorizing new species of monsters.