A few minutes later, they reached the transfer room, in the center of which was a pedestal. If they inserted the crystals into the hole in it, they could teleport to the middle floor. Finally, they were approaching the climax.
Melissa said that she'd been thinking about this for a long time, but he never got lost, as if he knew everything about this castle.
He answered her with a smile that he had bet his whole life on this, and then inserted the crystals, and they were teleported to the middle floor, where there was another portal.
Allen told the girl that the middle floor was an instance dungeon, and she remarked that it was strange to see a portal to a dungeon within a dungeon. Allen said it was like a Russian doll. Of course, she didn't understand what that was, and he promised to show it to her if he remembered.
After conquering the castle, he was about to go through the portal, but Melissa stopped him. Before tackling the dungeon, she offered him a small bet.
According to the information she had gathered, the middle floor consisted of two separate sections. In the first section, they would face a huge crowd of weaklings.
Allen noted that this seemed true, and she asked: since the number of defeated enemies was recorded during this battle, why didn't they see who could destroy the most?
He smirked and noted that the odds were clearly tipped in her favor. Melissa's class, sorceress, specialized in area attacks. On the other hand, the firearms he used specialized in single target attacks.
She decided to challenge him and asked if he was afraid of losing to her. He noted that she knew how to provoke, and she said that her magic wasn't just a source of energy for transport. It would show him the true value of a sorceress.
She had challenged him only to get him to acknowledge her. She was confident she wouldn't lose to any ordinary adventurer.
He told her the terms were fine with him. In any case, it would likely help them get through the floor faster.
She said they'd agreed that the loser would treat the winner to a potion, and Allen added, "An expensive potion."
They reached the middle floor, the first section. A ton of weak enemies lay ahead of them, and the battle began.
There were 1,500 monsters in this hall, and they all rushed to attack at once. Melissa waved her hand and cast a black nebula spell. A black hole appeared above her head, from which balls of purple flame flew. They quickly smashed all the enemies to dust.
She turned to Allen. What was his opinion on her strength?
He told her that was to be expected of a sorceress, and now it was his turn. He took out a machine gun, told the monsters to taste lead, and opened fire, watching the monsters fall quickly.
Melissa asked in surprise what kind of weapon that was. Both the power and the rate of fire were on a completely different level.
He told her that the machine gun had limited movement, but for clearing, it was one of the best among all firearms. She should give up while she still could.
This only made her indignant. As a sorceress, she couldn't allow another class to surpass her in clearing power.
Two minutes later, Allen had 888 kills and Melissa only 612. He had won, which made the girl very upset, and she said that he was just mocking her. Couldn't she really win even in clearing enemies?
He told her not to be so upset. The difference wasn't that big. She had just chosen the wrong enemy.
She thought that he really had fixed the exceptions, after which they moved on to the second section.
Next, they had a boss fight for this section. If they won, all that remained was the top floor and the fight with the crystal dragon. They were almost at the point where they could get the jade dragon orb. Melissa said that with it, this dungeon would be so easy, even though it was considered the highest difficulty for their level range.
And finally, the boss appeared: a level 50 crystal ogre riding a crystal manticore.
Melissa was surprised by two bosses at once. Allen noted that it looked like they used combined attacks. She suggested that he somehow separate them, and then he simply created a rocket launcher, saying that he would simply blow them both away.
Melissa was very happy. This was the same weapon that had instantly killed the boss of the bottom floor. But unlike that rocket launcher, this one had no additional effects, and she asked if it wasn't weaker than the one he had used on the bottom floor.
He told her that it was the normal version, but he had increased the firepower too much anyway. She asked doubtfully if everything would be all right, to which he replied that even with standard stats, it would kill in one shot if it hit the target directly. Also, since it was a standard build, it wouldn't break after firing. Weapons crafted using magic stones were powerful, but the downside was that they broke when they ran out of ammunition, leaving a window of vulnerability until the next creation.
The two monsters rushed to attack. He told Melissa to freeze the ground, and she immediately did so. A layer of ice passed along the ground in a line forward, and Allen thought it through. The speed was inferior to the werewolf, but the manticore still had high evasiveness. If he attacked from the front, the monster would simply dodge. So first he needed to force it into a situation where dodging was impossible.
To avoid the ice, the manticore jumped, and then Allen took aim with a smile. The enemy didn't have wings, so it couldn't use its mobility in the air. He fired.
The ogre saw this and immediately jumped, which surprised the two of them. He used the manticore as a springboard. The blow hit the monster, and the ogre himself survived. It was a move that was impossible in the game.
The ogre appeared from the smoke after the explosion, heading straight for Allen, raising his club above his head.
Melissa called out to him worriedly, telling him to run. Her strength wasn't enough to stop it. She understood that his level was incredibly low, hidden behind the overwhelming power of his skills. Moreover, he didn't have proper armor. If he got hit by the boss in this state, he would die instantly. But she had to somehow withstand it, if she took the hit instead. She ran toward him, but the ogre was already very close, and she realized she wouldn't make it in time.
Melissa called out to Allen worriedly, and he thought that using the manticore as a springboard to dodge had been unexpected, but the situation itself was exactly as he expected. By this time, he had already managed to reload, and as soon as the ogre was very close to him, he fired.
There was an explosion. After that, he breathed a sigh of relief. Everything had happened pretty much as he expected. Because of defeating the boss, his level increased to 26.
Melissa, confused, said that she had thought he'd run out of ammo, and he told her that it was an automatic reload function, unlike the weapons he had crafted earlier. The rocket launcher he had just used automatically reloaded when its ammunition reached zero.
She said that for a second, she had thought it was over. To which he replied that it actually had been pretty close. If the reload hadn't finished in time, he would have died.
She remarked that he was too calm for someone who had just been on the brink of death. To which he replied that this was because he had already factored the second shot into his calculations.
She noted that he was one step ahead, as always, after which he picked up the magic stone and stood up, saying that only the crystal dragon remained for them.
Looking at him, Melissa thought that she had met many adventurers who relied solely on brute force. But she had never met anyone so full of absolute confidence and calm as Allen. And that was why they had set their sights on his life.