Tione's thoughts, of course, Leo couldn't have known just then.
He only knew that right now, fighting felt great.
The swordsmanship Ais had taught and the combat thinking and combat principles Finn had taught, these two arts were gradually coming into play as the real fighting went on, even slowly fusing together to form a way of fighting that belonged to him alone, which made Leo feel as though his whole body had come alive, the more he fought the more pumped he got, the more he fought the smoother it flowed.
He no longer clung to single moves and forms, no longer ran through fixed routines, but fought however he wanted, used whichever move he wanted. At first it seemed a bit messy, but as he fought on his body adapted to this way of fighting at an astonishing pace, settling his style firmly into place.
By the later part of the fight, Leo even felt he didn't need to think at all. His body would respond naturally to the enemy's offensive, blocking, dodging, or just plain counterattacking, striking second but landing first to cut them down before their attacks could touch him, smooth beyond words.
Every one of his movements seemed more and more natural.
Every one of his moves seemed more and more nimble.
One movement flowed into the next, until in time even the pauses between them vanished, each motion connecting the instant the one before it finished, drawing out his body's strength and stamina completely, leaving not the slightest gap.
This is what real fighting is.
Leo sank deeper and deeper into the motion of his body and the rhythm of battle.
By the time he stopped, all the Minotaurs had been wiped out, leaving only magic stones and drop items scattered across the ground.
And at some point a group of girls had gathered around him, all watching him with strange looks in their eyes, which made him feel rather uncomfortable.
"What are you all looking at me like that for?"
Leo couldn't help asking.
The girls said nothing, only exchanged a glance.
"You seem to have changed from before, Leo."
Tiona couldn't stay silent forever and was the first to speak.
"Changed how?"
Something stirred in Leo's mind, but he said nothing of it, only asking back.
"You haven't noticed yourself?" Tione said, oddly displeased. "Your moves are completely different from before."
"Right, right, right!" Tiona nodded again and again. "It's not that your Status got stronger, it's that something more fundamental became different."
Tiona didn't know how to put it, so she just said the thought in her heart outright.
Ais, who'd been watching him silently, summed it up in a single sentence.
"Apart from your Level, other places got stronger too."
As for what places, well, that was for each to judge in their own way.
In any case it definitely wasn't simply skill, but included his mental state, his frame of mind, his thinking, and every other aspect, otherwise Leo wouldn't have had that feeling just now either.
Leo didn't deny it.
"It really is different." Leo looked at his hand gripping the Dragon Fang Sword, slowly tightening it as he smiled. "It feels like I've broken free from some cage, and finally understood what strength means, what fighting means."
This was the greatest transformation Finn's teaching had brought him, not simply growth in skill, but progress in thinking.
The girls watched Leo's undisguised, pleased smile, each with different thoughts.
Tiona and Tione felt that this person was truly terrifying, growing faster and faster, more and more incredible.
Ais simply felt wistful, felt envious, as though she were watching her own child gradually become independent, no longer needing to rely on her.
As for Lefiya...
...He's really sly.
Yes, she just felt this man was too sly, always managing to change when she wasn't paying attention. Every time she worked up the courage to chase after him, she'd be left behind in a moment of inattention, and cruelly made aware of just how big the gap between them was.
This left Lefiya feeling quite sour inside.
"It's handled here, let's keep moving forward."
Leo paid no mind to the girls' complicated feelings, called out to everyone, and walked on ahead.
Seeing this, they pushed down the feelings in their hearts and followed after him one by one.
Crossing the spacious tunnels and dealing with the many monsters, the five of them gradually reached the deepest part of Floor 17 and saw that familiar hall space.
That was the end of Floor 17, where the passage leading to Floor 18 was located, and at the same time the room of the Floor Boss Goliath.
Coming here again, Leo could face it with an even mind.
True, he'd once fought a desperate battle here against the Floor Boss known as the Monster Rex, but back then he'd only been Lv.2, whereas now he was already Lv.4, and he'd come here during the expedition too, so coming here again, Leo no longer felt anything special.
The main thing was that this time when he came, he didn't get to see that huge figure that barred adventurers' path, and in its place were many of the monsters active on Floor 17 wandering around here aimlessly.
"No Floor Boss." Tiona looked at the scene and said quietly. "Has it already been beaten?"
The Floor 17 Floor Boss Goliath had the shortest respawn interval of all the Floor Bosses, just two short weeks.
And Leo soloing Goliath was already roughly a month ago.
In other words, in that span Goliath could have revived at least twice, so even if they'd run into it here it wouldn't have been anything strange.
But whether to call it lucky or unlucky, Goliath's figure hadn't appeared in the end space of Floor 17, taken over instead by a pack of wandering wild monsters, which showed the Floor Boss had been subjugated and entered its respawn cooldown again.
"Well, it's not like the ones below, after all. The floor Goliath's on is too near the front, any Lv.2 at all comes to this floor and wants to keep going down, and that being so, it being stuck here is just too much of an eyesore."
Tione said all this without much interest, telling everyone that Goliath's cause of death was usually just one thing: that it caused a traffic jam.
Adventurers wanting to go down had to beat it, adventurers wanting to go up had to beat it too, and even those crooked merchants doing business in the town of Rivira on Floor 18 would worry that having it blocking the way here might scare off their customers and get in the way of their earnings, so the adventurers in that town would also regularly form parties to come subjugate this Floor Boss, throwing the doors wide open for the adventurers who came here.
In other words, not running into this Floor Boss was actually perfectly normal.
Leo was a little disappointed, though.
"I was hoping to use it for some more practice."
The Leo of now was qualified to say something like that too.
"...Honestly, he's begging to get smacked."
A certain Elf girl started muttering resentfully under her breath.
Using a Floor Boss for practice, huh?
Aren't you something!
Lefiya was envious, but Lefiya didn't say so.
In any case, with her current strength, she definitely couldn't say something like that, that much was certain.
Ais, for her part, drew her sword without a word and charged straight into the hall now lacking its master, cutting down those monsters that couldn't even react in time.
Leo and Tiona quickly joined the fight, while Tione stayed where she was on guard, and together with Lefiya served as Supporters, picking up the magic stones and items dropped on the ground and packing them into their bags.
Before long the fight ended smoothly, and the group walked into the deepest part of the great space, entered the cave hollowed out in the wall, and headed down to the next floor.
"Yes! We've reached Floor 18!"
Arriving at the safe floor where no monsters were born, Tiona immediately cheered, as if to cast off all her complicated thoughts.
The others gradually relaxed their expressions too.
The gentle light spilling down from overhead shone on the group, and though it wasn't like the sunlight on the surface that could bring them warmth, the mild, soft glow and the fresh air still brought a refreshing, carefree mood, making one relax the body without realizing it, no longer tense.
"So what are we doing next?"
This beautiful scenery finally let even the constantly muttering Lefiya recover her usual composure, a young yet beautiful smile rising to her face, her voice carrying a touch of cheer.
"Yeah, are we heading straight to Floor 19?"
Tiona looked toward Leo too.
Though it hadn't been said outright, this party was probably the same as last time when they went to Floor 51, with Leo in command.
Who told him to be the one who first launched this whole undertaking?
These girls had more or less joined the party Leo put together, and that being so, naturally they'd go along with his arrangements.
"What do you all think?" Leo didn't decide outright, but asked for everyone's opinions. "Do we need to rest a bit?"
If it were just him alone, he'd of course lean more toward heading straight to Floor 19.
Hurrying all the way from the surface down to Floor 18, while you couldn't say it cost them nothing, it wasn't enough to leave them too worn out to walk, and on top of that only half a day had passed so far, with the surface probably still around midday and a long way yet from dark, so naturally Leo wanted to keep going down.
Unfortunately, he wasn't alone now, and had to take everyone else's thoughts into account too.
"Let's deal with the loot first." Tione knit her brows, looking at the bags on her and Lefiya's backs. "We've collected quite a lot of magic stones and drop items along the way, we've got to sell this loot off first, otherwise even if we go down to the lower floors our packs will fill up in no time."
At these words, Tiona's face fell in an instant.
"We've gotta go get fleeced at those rip-off shops again? So annoying!"
The little angel had reluctance written all over her face.
"Stop hollering, I don't want to either, but we've got to go when we've got to go, otherwise how are we going to tackle the floors below?"
Tione's face was full of displeasure too, which showed just how unwelcome those rip-off shops and crooked merchants in the town of Rivira were.
Seeing Leo wear a curious look, Ais spoke up softly.
"You haven't been to that town yet, right?"
At this, Leo nodded.
"I've only come to the Under Resort three times, this is the fourth."
The first was over a year ago when he'd just come to this world, and back then he'd only gone up alongside Ais, not over toward the town.
The second was last time during the expedition's forced march, when he'd been too busy going to the forest with Ais to reminisce about the past, and after coming back he'd entered Floor 19 along with the expedition force, with no chance at all to go over to the town.
The third was on the return trip when the expedition ended, when they'd only rested here briefly before continuing on the way back.
So this really was Leo's fourth time coming to Floor 18, but as for Rivira, he hadn't had a single chance to go.
"Let's go take a look together."
Ais knew Leo hadn't been there, and seeing him curious, she said this.
"Sure."
Leo smiled and replied to Ais.
Lefiya of course had no objection either, still sticking close to Ais like an obedient little tagalong.
Once the group had settled on their destination, they walked out of the forest to the south and then headed west.
There lay an azure lakeside, with a large island floating on the lake, and Leo's group crossed the makeshift bridge built from great logs laid across the lakeside and came onto the island, then headed for its summit.
The town of Rivira was built near the island's summit, on the eastern part of the island facing the lake, atop a cliff at least two hundred meters high, surrounded on all sides by walls made from crystal and rock terrain, and here and there you could faintly make out rock slabs set down all over, thick and tall, plainly meant to defend against monster attacks.
The town as a whole had nothing impressive about it either, looking instead visibly run-down and worn, nearly all the buildings put together from wood, the entrance likewise an arch made of wooden posts and banners, with the words "Town of Rivira (334)" written on it, which made Leo's group stop in their tracks despite themselves.
"This number, '334'..."
Lefiya wore a somewhat subtle expression.
"That's the number of times the town of Rivira has been rebuilt from the very first construction up to now, of course."
Tione replied with a curl of her lip.
Although this was a safe floor where no monsters would be born, just as had been said before, it wasn't as though there were no monsters here. Some monsters would come up from the floors below, or come down from the floors above, and add to that the abnormal situations that might occur at any time, and this sole town built on this floor naturally couldn't avoid being attacked.
The crooked merchants here were sharp too. The moment they sensed a crisis they'd immediately abandon the town and flee, then come back once it was all over to rebuild the town and carry on doing business, not a care in the world.
After all, it was only a simple town put together from wood, with no commoners living here, and even if it were destroyed it could easily be rebuilt with basically no loss, so naturally these shrewd merchants wouldn't mount a desperate defense here, which had led to this place being destroyed three hundred and thirty-three times, the one currently rebuilt being the three hundred and thirty-fourth generation of the town of Rivira.
After passing through the arch, the many tents, little log huts, stall-type shops and the like that the group saw were all piled up layer upon layer along the cliff slope, all low-cost storefronts convenient for rebuilding the town, scarcely a single house that could be called a building. Calling this place a town was really flattering it, and Leo would rather call it a primitive tribe out in the wilds, only the white crystals and blue crystals growing all around setting it off in gorgeous splendor, which together with the azure lake water nearby and the floor's beautiful scenery kept it from being an utter eyesore.
Naturally, the arrival of Leo and the others drew the attention of quite a few people too.
"Isn't that Loki Familia?"
Plenty of people cast their gazes over.
[Read 20+ chapters ahead on Patreon: patreon.com/NiaXD]