Lefia's Transformation

Dungeon, 12th Floor.

As the final floor of the upper levels, the monsters here had already reached the peak of the upper strata—whether in strength, numbers, or respawn frequency.

And within this mist, surrounded by monsters on all sides, Shirou Emiya and Lefia fought without pause.

"Ah!!!"

Swinging her long spear wildly, Lefia—who had thoroughly mastered the 'random flailing school'—somehow managed to use the spear like a club.

Thankfully, Shirou Emiya had the foresight to lengthen the spearhead, so even her wild chops could effectively damage enemies.

But the main factor was still Lefia's overwhelming basic stats.

Facing the ferocious monsters, Lefia's chaotic spear swings simply bludgeoned every enemy around her to death.

This was textbook stat suppression.

"Calm down, Lefia."

"You can see for yourself—your enemies can't even withstand a single blow from you. Settle down, handle them with your own judgment, not just your body."

Cutting through the monster horde with ease, Shirou Emiya even had the spare composure to coach Lefia.

He had to admit—the boost from leveling up was enormous.

"Yes, Mr. Shirou."

Lefia gradually steadied herself. After exploring these three floors, she had a clear grasp of her enemies' strength.

Even just flailing her spear wildly, she had already taken down quite a few monsters.

Little by little, her resolve hardened.

"Groooar!"

As a Half-Orc closed in on her, Lefia gripped her spear tightly.

She had never used this kind of weapon before, but from what she'd seen on expeditions, she knew how it was supposed to be used.

A spear is for thrusting!

Raising the spear, she aimed the tip at the Half-Orc, shouted, and charged forward.

But this time, she didn't close her eyes. She firmly etched the moment into her memory.

"Die!"

With Lefia's shout.

The massive Half-Orc was instantly pierced through. Its limp body crumpled, then slowly dissolved into ash.

"I did it!"

Staring at the spear in her hands, Lefia's eyes gleamed with exhilaration.

This was the first monster she had killed up close, relying on her own will.

Although as a magic-specialized orthodox archmage, Lefia's strength accumulation over her first two levels wasn't particularly deep, the qualitative change from leveling up was still something a LV.1 couldn't handle.

Otherwise, if a LV.1 could defeat a LV.2 monster just like that, how could it be called a Great Deed?

The reason Shirou Emiya could easily defeat LV.2 monsters at LV.1 was his weapons and Martial Arts, far beyond what other adventurers of the same level possessed.

Otherwise, a LV.1 wielding ordinary weapons couldn't even scratch the hide of a LV.2 Minotaur.

And with Martial Arts, he could effectively strike monsters while keeping them from hitting him.

Against a LV.1 Half-Orc with no Martial Arts, a LV.3 Lefia with no Martial Arts was simply a level stomp.

After killing the Half-Orc in front of her, Lefia's confidence soared. Spear in hand, she charged at the next monster instead of waiting passively.

For Lefia, as long as she could steady her Fighting Spirit, these monsters were no match for her.

And that was exactly how the fight played out.

Though her spearwork was still crude, the level gap let Lefia carve a bloody path through the monster horde.

Watching this, Shirou Emiya killed the monster in front of him, then stopped fighting to observe Lefia's clumsy combat style.

"As expected—at Lefia's LV.3, these monsters can barely even damage her. The suppression between levels is just too strong!"

Seeing Lefia recklessly charge into the thick of the monsters, get hit repeatedly, yet take almost no real damage, Shirou Emiya couldn't help but marvel.

The power of level suppression was plain to see.

Normally, dungeon monsters had blank stat sheets.

They had massive base stats, but that was it. With superior Martial Arts, rare skills, and magic, strong adventurers could always overcome stronger foes with skill.

But there were also elite monsters with abilities beyond the ordinary.

Like the Hellhounds in the middle floors.

Without the defense of Fire-Spirit Woven Cloth, if a Hellhound's flames hit a LV.2 adventurer directly, they'd turn to charcoal in an instant—no chance to resist.

These were the troublesome monsters in the dungeon.

"Looks like with Lefia's base stats, she can even serve as a frontliner in the middle floors. But she'll need to change her weapon."

Watching Lefia's fighting style, Shirou Emiya felt that a sword might suit her better than a spear.

After all, as an orthodox mage, Lefia's focus would always remain on magic. Even close-quarters defense couldn't consume too much of her energy, and mastering the spear was extremely difficult.

"I shouldn't have made her a spear just because she used a staff. A sword would be great too! Or maybe fist techniques?"

None of that really mattered, though.

What mattered was that when faced with a sudden attack, she had to have the ability to fight back, so she could chant her magic with peace of mind.

Trusting teammates was important, but one's own strength mattered more.

In Attack on Titan, when facing the Female Titan's pursuit, Eren ultimately chose to trust his comrades, and then the Levi Squad was nearly wiped out.

In the end, one's own strength was what truly counted.

As the saying goes, what your father has or your mother has isn't as good as what you have yourself.

Improving your own strength was never wrong.

"No way? Is that really Lefia?"

Hearing a familiar voice, Shirou Emiya turned around and saw that it was indeed Tiona's voice.

And beside her were none other than Tione and Ais.

"What are you all doing here? Don't tell me you followed us?"

Hearing Shirou Emiya's question, Tione rolled her eyes in exasperation. Were they really that bad?

"We went to the Goberniu Familia to pick up weapons, so we left a bit late. We happened to run into you two on the way."

So that was it!

Shirou Emiya suddenly understood. Indeed, he had been there yesterday when the three of them sent their weapons for maintenance.

"None of that matters. What matters is how did Lefia turn into a warrior? She's an important mage!"

Seeing Tione's expression of wasted talent, Shirou Emiya sighed inwardly. Just as he expected.

Mages in this world were exactly like the orthodox spellcasters in Western fantasy stories.

Unlike later eras where game balance made mages just one of many adventurer professions, mages in this world carried a certain noble status.

That made sense, too, since mages in this world were indeed very powerful.

If comparing them to Heroic Spirits, most adventurers were blank Heroic Spirits without Unique Skills or Noble Phantasms.

A few elite adventurers had Noble Phantasms and skills, but they were mainly close-combat Heroic Spirits.

Mages, on the other hand, were Heroic Spirits who carpet-bombed with Noble Phantasms.

Unlike the Caster class in the Type-Moon world, magic in the DanMachi world was itself equivalent to a Heroic Spirit's Noble Phantasm.

So a mage's magical attacks were essentially a Heroic Spirit's Noble Phantasm attacks.

A Heroic Spirit that only used Noble Phantasm attacks—tell me, wouldn't you be scared?

From this, one could understand just how high a mage's status was in this world.

But Shirou Emiya hadn't acted recklessly. After telling Tione and the other two his purpose, they fell into deep thought.

"Using close combat to build up her courage? That's a bold idea."

Though it sounded absurd at first, upon careful thought, Tione felt there was some logic to it.

After all, wasn't Lefia right now the best example?

Watching Lefia constantly fighting among the monsters, Ais's usually expressionless face suddenly broke into a light smile: "Lefia has grown stronger!"