Lefia's Transformation

The 12th Floor of the Dungeon.

As the final floor of the Upper Floors, the 12th Floor had reached the peak of the Upper Floors in terms of the monsters' strength, numbers, and spawn frequency.

Amid the mist, Shirou Emiya and Lefia were engaged in a relentless battle against the monsters surrounding them.

"Ah!!!"

Lefia continuously swung the spear in her hands. Having grasped the essence of the "wildly hacking around" style, she had forcibly turned the spear into a club.

Fortunately, Shirou Emiya had had the foresight to lengthen the spearhead, allowing it to inflict effective damage on enemies even when used to hack.

But the main reason was still Lefia's overwhelmingly superior basic attributes.

Faced with the ferocious monsters, Lefia wildly swung her spear and clubbed every enemy around her to death.

This was a typical case of attribute suppression.

"Calm down, Lefia."

"You've seen it yourself. Your enemies can't withstand even one of your attacks. Calm down, and deal with them using your own judgment instead of relying on your body."

While constantly slaughtering monsters with ease, Shirou Emiya even had enough energy to guide Lefia.

There was no denying that an increase in level was truly enormous.

"Yes, Mr. Shirou."

Lefia gradually calmed down. After exploring these three floors, she had already gained a clear understanding of the monsters' strength.

She had even eliminated quite a few monsters by wildly swinging the spear in her hands.

Gradually, her resolve solidified.

"Roar!!!"

Watching the Half-Orc gradually approach, Lefia gripped her spear tightly.

Although she had never used this type of weapon before, what she had seen during the expedition had taught her how to use it.

A spear was meant for stabbing!

Lefia raised the spear, aimed its tip at the Half-Orc opposite her, and charged forward with a shout.

But this time, she did not close her eyes. Instead, she firmly etched the scene into her mind.

"Go to hell!"

Following Lefia's shout,

the enormous Half-Orc was instantly pierced through. Its powerless body collapsed, then gradually turned to ash.

"I did it!"

Looking at the spear in her hands, Lefia's eyes shone with delight.

This was the first monster she had killed up close through her own will.

As a proper mage specialized in magic, Lefia had not accumulated much strength during her first two levels. Even so, the qualitative change brought by leveling up was still far beyond what a Level 1 could handle.

Otherwise, how could defeating a Level 2 monster with Level 1 strength be called a Great Deed?

The reason Shirou Emiya had been able to easily defeat a Level 2 monster while at Level 1 was that his weapons and Martial Arts far surpassed those of adventurers at the same level.

Otherwise, a Level 1 holding an ordinary weapon could not even scratch the hide of a Level 2 Minotaur.

And with Martial Arts, one could effectively ensure that one's own attacks struck the monster while the monster could not hit back.

Against a Level 1 Half-Orc with no Martial Arts, Lefia, a Level 3 with no Martial Arts herself, could be said to possess absolute level-based superiority.

After killing the Half-Orc before her, Lefia's confidence soared. Holding her spear, she charged toward the next monster instead of passively waiting for the monsters to attack.

For Lefia, as long as she could steel her fighting spirit, the monsters here were no match for her.

And that was exactly what was happening now.

Although her spearwork was still very clumsy, Lefia was slaughtering her way through the monster horde thanks to her overwhelming level advantage.

Watching this scene, Shirou Emiya killed the monster before him and stopped fighting, turning his attention to Lefia's inexperienced battle stance.

"As expected, with Lefia's Level 3 status, these monsters can't even inflict much damage on her. The suppression between levels is simply too powerful!"

Looking at Lefia, who had recklessly charged into the monster horde and was being struck repeatedly without suffering much damage, Shirou Emiya could not help but sigh.

The suppressive power between levels was obvious from this.

Under normal circumstances, Dungeon monsters had plain attributes.

They possessed enormous basic attributes, but that was all. With superb Martial Arts and rare skills and magic, powerful adventurers could always overcome the strong despite being weak.

But there were also elite monsters with abilities unlike those of ordinary monsters.

The Hellhound in the Middle Floors was one example.

Without the defense of Fire-Spirit Woven Cloth, a Level 2 adventurer would instantly be burned to charcoal upon being fully struck by a Hellhound's flames, with no ability to resist whatsoever.

These monsters were troublesome existences within the Dungeon.

"Judging from Lefia's basic attributes, she should be more than capable of serving as a vanguard even in the Middle Floors. However, she needs to change her weapon."

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

After all, as a proper mage, Lefia's focus in the future would still be magic. Even for close-range defense, she could not expend too much energy, while mastering a spear was extremely difficult.

"If only I'd known, I wouldn't have made her a spear just because she used a staff. A sword would work quite well too! Or perhaps she could use her fists and feet?"

Actually, none of that was important.

What mattered was that when faced with a sudden attack, she had to possess the ability to fight back. Only then could she safely chant her magic.

Although trusting one's teammates was important, one's own strength was even more important.

In Attack on Titan, when faced with the Female Titan's pursuit, Eren had ultimately chosen to trust his comrades, and Levi Squad had nearly been wiped out as a result.

Ultimately, one's own strength was still more important.

As the saying went, having parents was no better than having oneself.

There was never anything wrong with increasing one's own strength.

"No way? Is that really Lefia?"

Hearing a familiar voice, Shirou Emiya turned around. Sure enough, it was Tiona's voice.

Beside her were Tione and Ais.

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

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

"We had to go to Goberniu Familia to collect our weapons, so we set out a little late. We happened to run into the two of you when we got here."

So that was how it was!

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

"That's not important. What matters is, how did Lefia become a warrior? She's an important mage!"

Seeing Tione's expression of utter disapproval at such a waste of talent, Shirou Emiya inwardly thought, Just as I expected.

The mages of this world were basically the proper wizards found in Western fantasy stories.

Unlike later generations, where game balance had reduced mages to merely one of many adventurer classes,

the mages of this world also possessed their own noble status.

That made sense. After all, the abilities of this world's mages were indeed extremely powerful.

If they were compared to heroic spirits, most adventurers would be plain heroic spirits without Unique Skills or Noble Phantasms.

A small number of elite adventurers would be heroic spirits with Noble Phantasms and skills, but who mainly fought with blades.

Mages, meanwhile, were heroic spirits who carpet-bombed the battlefield 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.

Thus, a mage's magical attacks were essentially equivalent to a heroic spirit's Noble Phantasm attacks.

A heroic spirit that only used Noble Phantasm attacks—just imagine how frightening that was.

From this, it was easy to see how high a mage's status was in this world.

However, Shirou Emiya was not acting recklessly. After he explained his purpose to Tione and the other two, they fell into deep thought.

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

Although it sounded absurd at first, after thinking it over carefully, Tione felt that it made some sense.

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

Watching Lefia continue to fight among the monsters, Ais's usually unchanging expression suddenly broke into a faint smile. "Lefia has grown stronger!"