'Alright, now that we've decided to leave the dungeon, the plan is simple: we have to clear every floor, from the 99th down to the first floor.'
In the middle of the fight with the dungeon monsters, Ryan quickly confirmed something.
His debt skill didn't activate while he was in danger or while any of the girls he was supporting was fighting.
Which, at least to him, was obvious, as it was designed to only activate when there was no danger to him or the person who received it.
'They're very strong...' Ryan thought as he watched them.
Mirian's archery skill was quite useful. She could launch area-of-effect attacks that dealt considerable damage to enemies, and Helen only had to finish them off with her sword.
They advanced rapidly from the 99th floor to the 75th floor. And up to that point, Ryan had given simple orders, thus preventing the debt collection from triggering automatically.
The orders ranged from having them scratch his back, or making one of them jump, to playing arm wrestling or rock-paper-scissors.
And the points he earned were allocated into Strength.
That was how they managed throughout the floors they cleared. Furthermore, because they engaged in combat quickly as they advanced through the floors, it wasn't necessary to give orders for every single floor they passed through.
"So, do you think it will take us more than ten days to reach the first floor?" Ryan asked with curiosity.
Helen sat down to rest and replied, "No way. When we entered the dungeon, we were only C-rank. We reached S-rank here."
"Yeah," Mirian chimed in. "The experience gained here is incredible."
'So, even though a support isn't supposed to fight, if I killed monsters here, could I gain a lot of experience?' Ryan evaluated in his mind with a shameless smile.
"Gross!" Helen snorted and crossed her arms. "Why are you smiling like that? You're thinking of a weird order, aren't you?"
"Of course not!" Ryan defended himself.
Mirian chuckled and waved her hands. "Don't fight, you two."
"By the way, do you know any other S-rank heroes?" Ryan asked curiously.
"There must be some in the capital," Mirian explained. "Normally, it would take many years to go from C-rank to S-rank, and most don't even make it past B-rank. Luckily, we ended up here and now we're S-rank."
Ryan stared at her, recalling both of their stats.
'Luck? Quite the opposite. It was due to their terrible bad luck that they had to end up here.'
"Besides, there are the Demon Kings," Mirian added, her tone growing increasingly serious. "Their strength is undoubtedly comparable to that of an SSS-rank hero, though only the holy knights have managed to reach that rank."
"I hate those damn holy knights and the church," Helen commented.
"Don't you dare say that in public, Helen," Mirian warned.
"Yeah, yeah."
Ryan crossed his arms as he listened to her.
'Holy Knights and Demon Kings. How interesting.'
"Still, I've never seen a Demon King... I'd like to fight one," Helen muttered.
Mirian turned to her with a stern look. "Don't talk nonsense. They are extremely strong. I wouldn't want to run into one even as a joke."
"I wasn't serious, you know?" Helen defended herself.
...
After resting, they continued moving forward. Ryan kept strengthening them with his support spells, and they finally reached the 55th floor. He immediately noticed that the monsters on this floor were already dying in a single strike.
"To think we struggled so much to kill them at first," Helen said as she rested her sword on her shoulder.
"It's normal," Mirian replied, adjusting her bow. "We didn't have half the power we have now."
"Mirian, leave those two to me," Helen shouted. "They're the last ones on this floor."
"Alright," Mirian shrugged. "They're yours."
The monsters on that floor were a species of giant wolves.
Helen charged straight in and sliced one of the monsters in half.
"Wait, Helen!" Ryan yelled before Helen could finish off the last one.
She stopped dead in her tracks.
"What? What's going on?" Helen asked restlessly.
"I order you not to kill it. Just cut off its arms and legs."
"What? But why?" Helen complained.
Ryan raised an eyebrow. "Are you going to stop complaining, or would you rather I ask for something else?"
"Fine, fine. I'm on it," Helen muttered.
After Helen sliced off the arms and legs of that huge wolf, exactly as Ryan ordered, the wolf weakly dragged itself across the ground.
"Why are you giving her that order, Ryan?" Mirian asked with uncertainty.
Ryan didn't answer and approached the wolf. He stood in front of its massive head and took a combat stance, as if focusing his strength into his fist.
Although it wasn't a skill, he was simply preparing himself.
"What? What is he doing?" Helen questioned, watching in disbelief. "A support can't even kill the monsters on the first floor. Especially not without weapons."
Ryan, after concentrating, brought his fist down with all his might onto the wolf's head.
The wolf didn't die, but its head bled.
He dealt damage to it.
Under the incredulous eyes of Helen and Mirian, Ryan knew his strength stats could deal damage. He repeated the attacks, but this time with five consecutive strikes.
"One more..." Ryan muttered.
A tenth strike ended the wolf's life, making it disappear.
"How on earth?!" Helen shouted with wide eyes. "Since when do you have so much strength?!"
Mirian blinked in shock. "Ryan... You actually managed to kill it."
"It's no big deal. It was already half-dead," Ryan replied.
[Bonus acquired: +25,000 EXP]
"I didn't expect to gain so much EXP; maybe I can gain more levels."
Helen and Mirian looked at him with curiosity, but Ryan ignored them because he was too busy thinking that it had been a good idea to allocate the rest of his stat points into Strength. His strength had already reached 830, and his defense had also increased.
Then an idea occurred to Helen: Ryan should finish off the boss of the floor they were on.
"I don't know... that boss has area-of-effect damage. We have to be very careful," Mirian stated with concern.
Helen laughed confidently. "Don't worry. I'll seal its mouth. I'll drive my sword right through the middle."
So they went to face the boss. Although it didn't pose a problem for the S-rank heroines, Ryan knew that with his current durability, taking even a single hit would put him in critical condition, even if he could heal himself.
If he took consecutive attacks, he wouldn't survive, and if he died there, he didn't know what would truly happen to him.
However, they followed Helen's plan, and when the wolf boss was weakened and trapped, pinned to the ground by its four limbs with Mirian's arrows and its mouth impaled with Helen's sword...
Ryan stood before it and unleashed a barrage of punches with all his strength.
On the 17th punch, it finally died.
[Bonus acquired: +420,000 EXP]
Level: 61 → 62
[Level Bonus: +20 points]
[Attributes increased: +10 in all stats]
Level: 62 → 63
[Level Bonus: +20 points]
[Attributes increased: +10 in all stats]
'I leveled up twice just from the boss; nice.'
"Awesome, it really worked!" Helen shouted with excitement.
Mirian smiled and looked at Ryan. "Should we do the same with all the remaining bosses?"
[New reward received.]
[Title: Wolf Hunter - All stats +90]
"A title?" Ryan muttered.
[Luck bonus applied.]
[New reward received.]
'So that's how luck works? Awesome! What kind of reward will it be...?' Ryan was thoroughly distracted looking at his new system notifications. Just then, the excited voice of one of his companions rang out loudly:
"Look! It dropped a rare weapon!"