It's Completely Different Now

Orario Central Plaza, Babel Tower.

Before dawn, many adventurers had already begun to appear in the Central Plaza in front of the Babel Tower. Some were waiting for their teammates, while others were discussing something. Then, they all entered the Babel Tower and headed to the Dungeon.

Leo arrived at this time as well, his figure blending into the crowd of adventurers, completely inconspicuous.

"I'm a little too early today----"

Looking at the sky, which was not yet fully bright, Leo couldn't help but touch his nose.

Compared to the previous period, Leo did arrive earlier today.

There was no way around it; yesterday was the first time the stats were updated, and the basic ability proficiency was increased by a whopping 3000 points. This made Leo really want to try it out immediately and see just how much of a difference he had made compared to before.

As a result, Leo didn't sleep very well last night, and he got up much earlier than usual today. When he left, Ais hadn't even started practicing her sword in the courtyard yet, which shows how much earlier he was than usual.

He didn't need to wait for his teammates here, so he went straight into the Babel Tower, entered the Dungeon through the deep pit in the center of the first-floor hall, and arrived at the familiar first floor.

Because it was still early, there weren't many people entering the Dungeon yet, so Leo just walked a short distance forward and then there were no more companions around, leaving him back to his usual solitary state.

Meanwhile, the monsters that spawned in the Dungeon had not yet been dealt with by the massive influx of adventurers, so Leo quickly encountered enemies.

"Gah!"

A small Kobold -bodied monster appeared in the passage ahead, howling, and pounced towards Leo without saying a word.

It was the Kobold had a complicated history with Leo.

The opponent remained the same as before, rushing at the adventurers as if they were enemies, displaying astonishing aggression.

Faced with this situation, under normal circumstances, Leo would have quickly raised the small shield equipped on his left hand, ready to receive the enemy's attack.

But today, he didn't do that.

"So slow----"

Seeing the menacing Kobold rushing towards him, that was the first thought that came to Leo's mind.

In his view, the Kobold, who he used to have to take seriously, were now moving so slowly that he could almost stand there and think.

The feeling of being on high alert when facing monsters had disappeared; it was as if his body could no longer sense danger, causing Leo's reactions to become somewhat sluggish.

It wasn't until the Kobold pounced on Leo and extended its sharp claws toward his neck that Leo finally reacted as if waking from a dream.

Then—he drew his sword.

"Bass!"

With a sharp clang as the blade was drawn, a streak of sword light flashed past, slashing towards the Kobold was right in front of him.

The speed was astonishing.

"Pfft!"

The small straight sword, which had become a blur, severed the Kobold's neck before it could react, cutting off its head and sending its skull flying high into the air, still bearing the ferocious look of an attack about to strike its enemy.

"Bang!"

The headless Kobold remained pouncing on Leo, its body exploding in mid-air, turning to ashes and vanishing without a trace.

Fragments of the Magic Stone fell, grazing the Kobold's head, which had also exploded into ashes, making a crisp sound on the ground. After rolling a few times, it came to a stop.

Everything happened so abruptly, and then just as abruptly returned to calm.

"This----"

Leo stood frozen in place, still in the sword-wielding stance, before finally snapping out of his daze and staring at his hands in utter astonishment.

His palms opened and closed, and it took him a while to finally accept reality.

"Was it resolved so easily?"

Compared to the cautious approach taken in the past, the battle just now felt so easy it hardly felt like a fight.

"Is this all the strength I have now?"

Leo murmured to himself, then continued walking forward.

Not long after, Leo encountered his second monster, Goblin.

"Quack!"

Like the Goblin, the Kobold pounced on Leo the moment they saw him.

This time, however, Leo did not choose to wait for the attack in place, but rushed out first before the Goblin could move.

"Whoosh!"

With a whooshing sound, Leo sped by at an astonishing speed he hadn't seen yesterday, arriving before the Goblin in the blink of an eye.

"Pfft!"

The blade of the small straight sword transformed into a swift beam of light once more, instantly cleaving the Goblin in two before it could react.

The poor Goblin had barely begun to react when it was instantly reduced to ashes and exploded, leaving only a fragment of Magic Stone lying forlornly on the ground.

Leo's figure darted forward a distance before slowly coming to a stop.

At this point, Leo was finally certain that he had indeed become stronger.

And it has become much, much stronger.

"Whether it's reaction speed, movement speed, or even the force of the strike, everything is completely different from yesterday."

Leo sensed the difference between the two.

"Yesterday, in terms of physical fitness alone, I was just an ordinary person, completely incomparable to those naturally gifted dwarves, orcs, and Amazons."

"But today, in terms of physical fitness, I'm afraid I've completely surpassed the category of a champion athlete. Even dwarves, orcs, and Amazons, unless their abilities have improved to a certain level, simply cannot compare to me now."

"If I were to fight my past self today, I'd probably only need one move to take down my past self, right?"

While this can't be described as a complete transformation, since Leo has only improved his basic abilities and hasn't leveled up yet.

The biggest difference lies in the level; only by leveling up can one truly be considered to have undergone a complete transformation.

But today's performance has made Leo clearly realize what "power" truly means.

If he was just an ordinary person yesterday, then today he has finally taken a solid step on the path to "extraordinary".

"If it were me now, facing those crises again, I should be able to resolve them easily, right?"

Recalling the desperate situation he encountered on the fourth floor when he first entered the Dungeon, and the situation when he was surrounded by the army of Killer Ant on the seventh floor, Leo felt that if it were him now, he probably wouldn't have needed to get all injured, and he wouldn't even need to use magic to deal with the large number of Kobold and Killer Ant.

But now, he also has a problem—

"I've gotten stronger, but becoming this strong all of a sudden makes it harder to control my power."

Leo frowned.

Just now, Leo actually intended to sever the Goblin's neck with his sword, just like he did with the Kobold before, and behead it.

The neck is a very vulnerable spot, and it doesn't take much effort to cut it off. This can inflict a fatal wound on the enemy while conserving energy and reducing losses. Therefore, Leo often aims to attack the monster's neck, striving for a one-hit kill.

Just now, because of his sudden increase in speed, he couldn't accurately judge the distance between himself and the enemy, and he also couldn't control the force of his attack. Not only did he fail to hit the enemy's neck, but he also couldn't control his body and ran forward a distance. This was undoubtedly a manifestation of a mental and physical disconnect.

The mind, spirit, and memory haven't kept up with the rapidly increasing strength, leading to a disorganized rhythm and problems during battles. This is a state of mind-body misalignment, and it takes time to adapt.

"I never expected that I would experience a mental-physical disconnect before even leveling up."

Leo scratched his head.

Generally speaking, this state of mind-body disconnect only occurs in adventurers after they have leveled up, because the difference between their strength after leveling up and before leveling up is too great. They usually need to adapt for a while before they can find a new combat rhythm and perfectly unleash the greatly increased strength after leveling up.

As for the strength gained when updating ability values on a regular basis, there is usually no problem of mental and physical misalignment.

After all, it's just a few basic abilities that have improved. Even if all abilities were upgraded after an update, the improvement in strength wouldn't be so great as to cause a mental and physical imbalance.

However, without any upgrades, Leo encountered a problem of mental and physical dislocation.

There was nothing that could be done about it; his improvement this time was truly significant. Even if it still couldn't compare to the improvement brought by leveling up, it was still far beyond the improvement of basic abilities by one or two stages.

His weakest stat, "Endurance," has improved by four stages, followed by "Strength" and "Dexterity," which have each improved by five stages. Even "Agility" has improved by six stages. With such a huge improvement, it would be strange if his mind and body were not in sync.

Moreover, he went directly from a state of full ability I0 to his current level, which is almost equivalent to a metamorphosis.

Using the methods of controlling ordinary people's bodies to fight to control one's current body is bound to cause problems.

"I need to get used to it."

With this in mind, Leo embarked on a flat push journey he had never experienced before.

In the past, he had all his abilities at I0, so even when facing the lowest-level monsters on the first floor, he had to fight seriously. But now, he doesn't need to use his brain at all. When he encounters a monster, he just rushes in and attacks, and that usually takes care of it.

Not only the monsters on the first floor, but also those on the second, third, fourth, and even 5th Floor, are no match for Leo. They can't even withstand a single move from him, and sometimes they don't even have time to react before Leo rushes in and kills them with a single sword strike, turning them to ashes on the spot.

Leo continued to enjoy the thrill of easily defeating monsters while adapting to his current strength.

Soon, he arrived at the deepest level he had reached so far—the 7th level.