Now that they had decided to leave the dungeon.
The plan was simple; since there was no other way out, they had to clear every floor.
From the 99th down to the first floor.
Ryan quickly realized something.
His debt skill didn't trigger while he was in danger or while any of the girls he was supporting were in peril.
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 quickly from floor 99 to floor 75.
So far, Ryan had given simple orders.
Like having them scratch his back.
Or having one of them jump, and later playing arm wrestling or rock-paper-scissors.
That was how they managed during the floors they cleared. Also, because they entered combat quickly upon advancing through the floors, it wasn't necessary to give orders for every single floor they passed.
"So, do you think it will take us more than ten days to reach the first floor?" Ryan asked curiously.
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 interjected. "The experience gained here is incredible."
'So, even though a support isn't supposed to fight, if I were to kill monsters here, could I get a lot of experience?'
Ryan smiled.
"Gross! Why are you smiling like that? You're thinking of a strange order, aren't you?"
"Of course not!"
"Haha. Don't fight."
"By the way, do you know any other S-rank heroes?" Ryan asked with curiosity.
"There must be some in the capital. Normally, it would take many years to go from C-rank to S-rank, and most don't even make it past C-rank. Luckily, we ended up here, and now we are S-rank."
'Luck? On the contrary. It was because of the terrible luck you guys have that you ended up here.'
"Besides, there are the Demon Kings. Their strength is undoubtedly comparable to that of an SSS-rank hero."
Ryan crossed his arms as he listened to her.
'So there are Demon Kings too. How interesting.'
"But I've never seen a Demon King... I'd like to fight one," Helen murmured.
"Don't talk nonsense. They are extremely strong. I wouldn't want to find one even as a joke."
"I wasn't being serious, you know?" Helen grumbled.
...
After resting, they continued advancing. Ryan kept strengthening them with his support spells.
Now they were on the 55th floor.
The monsters here were already dying with just a single attack.
"To think that at the beginning we struggled so much to kill them," Helen said as she rested her sword on her shoulder.
"It's normal. We didn't have even half the power we have now."
"Mirian, leave those two to me. They're the last ones on this floor."
"Alright. All yours."
Helen went straight in and sliced one of the monsters in half—some kind of giant wolf.
"Wait, Helen!" Ryan shouted before Helen could finish the last one.
She stopped dead in her tracks.
"What? What's going on?" she asked uneasily.
"I order you not to kill it. Only cut off its arms and legs."
"What! But why!" she grumbled.
"Are you going to stop complaining, or would you prefer I order something else?"
"Fine, fine. I'm on it."
Helen cut off both of the wolf's arms and its legs as well. It dragged itself along weakly.
"Why are you giving her that order, Ryan?" Mirian asked.
Ryan didn't answer and approached the wolf. He stood in front of its massive head and took a combat stance, as if concentrating his strength into his fist.
Though it wasn't a skill; he was just focusing.
"What? What is he doing? A support can't even kill the monsters on the first floor. Especially not without weapons," Helen stated, watching incredulously.
Ryan, after focusing, 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 increased strength stats could cause damage. He repeated the attacks, but this time with five consecutive blows.
"One more..."
A sixth blow ended the wolf's life, making it disappear.
"But how! Since when do you have so much strength!"
"Ryan... You actually managed to finish it off."
"It's no big deal. It was already half-dead," Ryan replied.
[Bonus acquired: +25,000 XP]
'I didn't expect to gain so much XP; 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 apply the rest of his attributes to strength. His strength had already reached 830, and his stamina had also increased.
Then an idea occurred to Helen: Ryan should finish off the boss of the 50th floor where they were.
"But it has area-of-effect damage. You have to be very careful," Mirian stated worriedly.
"Don't worry. I will seal its mouth. I'll drive my sword right into the middle of it. Ha, ha, ha."
So they went to the boss. Although it didn't represent a problem for them, Ryan knew that with his current stamina, receiving even a single hit would leave him in a critical state, even if he could heal himself.
If he received consecutive attacks, he wouldn't survive, and if he died there, he didn't know what would actually happen to him.
When the wolf boss was weakened and trapped, pinned to the ground by its four paws with Mirian's arrows and its mouth with Helen's sword.
Ryan stood in front of it and unleashed a barrage of blows with all his strength.
On blow number 17, it finally died.
[Bonus acquired: +420,000 XP]
[Level increased]
[Level bonus: +20 Points]
[Attributes increased: +10 to all stats]
[Level increased]
[Level bonus: +20 Points]
[Attributes increased: +10 to all stats]
'I leveled up twice just from the boss; nice.'
"Great, it actually worked!" Helen shouted with excitement.
"Should we do the same with every remaining boss?"
[New reward received.]
[Title: Wolf Hunter - All Stats +90]
"A title?" he murmured.
Ryan was distracted, observing the title's attributes.
"Look! It dropped a rare weapon!"