You are all my wings!

Mark: "??? Does it make a difference?"

Carl: "At least it sounds better now, doesn't it? I've been quite comrade-in-arms with you, and I wouldn't have given such a fitting nickname to anyone else."

Mark: "Hmph!"

Bovary ignored the feud between the two and, watching Britta eat her meat with elegance, suddenly felt a subtle sense of accomplishment.

He discovered that Lyon, who stood before him, had suddenly been shrouded in a mysterious and powerful aura, which filled him with genuine admiration.

Even the Holy Maiden was influenced by Lord Leon to try these monster meats that weren't recorded in the recipes!

My judgment was indeed correct!

Lord Lyon is indeed unfathomable!

Only the Holy Maiden and I can see how formidable Lord Lyon is!

……

The third day of exploration has arrived.

Although Leon slowed down his exploration pace as soon as he entered the eleventh floor, he wandered around various side areas.

However, it cannot be denied that the overall benefits are quite considerable.

Firstly, many rare items and rare monsters were discovered in the side areas, and they were hunted and collected one after another.

Not to mention the materials that are intended to be kept for crafting equipment and alchemy, the ones that can be sold will guarantee a minimum profit of over seventy gold coins.

Although it was far less rewarding than encountering powerful monsters, the past two days had been quite easy, and he had eaten many different kinds of monster meat. Combining this with the "Monster Diet Guide" from his previous life, Leon discovered a monster part that was effective.

A rare monster, a second-tier golden-eyed long-haired rabbit.

Its heart can increase vitality if eaten.

This thing looks pitch black, and after cooking it, it has the feel of the ultimate delicacy in the world of dark cuisine.

It lacks color and aroma, and is even a bit nauseating, making it a bit psychologically stressful to eat.

If it weren't for the fact that the "Monster Diet Guide" mentioned that it was edible, and Leon's experience in dismantling monsters led him to believe it was non-toxic, he wouldn't have prepared it separately to eat.

The taste was only so-so.

When the two women asked Lyon about the taste, he said it was astringent and not very good. Both of them refused to drink it and stayed far away from it, since astringency is not good.

In the end, only Lyon enjoyed this growth in vitality.

The price increased by 2 points, which is quite pleasant considering the taste.

Unfortunately, this golden-eyed long-haired rabbit is a rare magical creature.

We may not be able to hunt them again in the future.

Rare monsters are not necessarily powerful monsters, but they are definitely rare in number, or good at escaping or hiding, making them difficult to hunt.

Fortunately, with the help of four temporary teammates, they were still able to successfully capture even those who were good at escaping.

Only those skilled in concealment can be outmaneuvered by sheer numbers and must be temporarily abandoned.

Apart from Britta, none of them in this group were particularly skilled in detection skills; at most, they only possessed ordinary detection magic.

And it's clear she wouldn't make a move during a regular event.

Chapter Sixty-One: The Unassuming Bovary

Next, we'll explore the 20th floor.

Here, the probability of encountering powerful monsters will be greatly increased.

Although the last battle went smoothly, that was because Chiron cleared the way in advance and eliminated most of the monsters.

Even with ample manpower, Lyon remained extremely cautious this time.

Before entering, Lyon checked the current panel information.

【主要属性：生命力48/魔力量48/体力39/力量36/敏捷47】

There's been no feedback yet regarding the con artist's skills, but we can see a change in Bovary's gaze towards Leon.

On Iris's side, after two days of actual combat and replenishing herself with various ordinary monster meats, her magic power increased by 1 point. Combined with the 1 point of strength she gained from consuming the Jade Needle Bee pupa, her current attributes are:

【主要属性：生命力61/魔力量70/体力33/力量39/敏捷43】

Her magic power ceiling has reached a level that most ordinary humans at the fourth or fifth rank do not possess.

However, due to the lack of rank enhancement, casting intermediate spells is still troublesome, and the immediate combat power is still inferior to that of a fourth-ranked player who can quickly cast intermediate spells.

Of course, she has strong magic endurance, so when facing a fourth-tier opponent, she can choose to slowly whittle them down.

Leon could also see Britta's attribute information, which showed that she had gained 1 point of magic power and 1 point of vitality compared to when he saw her nearly a month ago.

It's safe to say she's a character with S-rank potential; although her growth rate isn't as high as Iris's in exploring dungeons, it's still pretty good.

【主要属性：生命力60/魔力量60/体力49/力量45/敏捷51】

Her overall attributes seem similar to Iris's, but with the boost from her fourth-tier rank and the protection of the second-tier gods, she can easily defeat Iris.

It's fair to say she's the strongest player on the field right now.

For a case study, you can refer to their previous encounter with a Tier 4 weak monster, the man-eating flower.

If they hadn't been able to use a clever long-range attack, they would have been completely outmatched in close combat.

Although Lyon has many special skills, he can defeat Iris by relying on intelligence and high-speed spellcasting, and he can fight within the third tier.

But facing Britta, who was considered an absolute powerhouse among the fourth-tier fighters, he could only use the Shadow Walker's skill to escape.

As for the information on the other four knights, Leon couldn't see it; he estimated that he could only see the stats of characters with double A ratings or higher.

After all, he couldn't see the panel information for characters like Grani Karen and others who were at least B-rank.

"Let's go."

The seven people entered the 20th floor.

An hour later.

"What's going on? Why is the 20th floor suddenly so quiet?"

Iris held up a torch and looked around the dark, enormous cave.

They have now entered the branch area of ​​the 20th floor, and have explored several branch paths. Except for those with particularly unique terrain, they have tried to explore all the ones that are passable, but have not encountered any monsters even once.

"It seems that someone else is doing the same thing as us, sweeping through the side streets. We started sweeping from the 10th floor, while they may have started from the 20th floor."

Leon surveyed the surrounding area and remembered the detailed map Marie had given him.

It seems that this map has also been given to other expert teams, causing some expert teams to start trying to conquer the side roads outside the main area.

After a moment's thought, he pointed to a relatively deep passageway ahead:

"Bovary, go deep into this passage and look for any recent footprints or traces. Be careful."

"Yes, sir."

Bovary drew his sword and crouched down to go inside.

After these few days of getting to know each other, Lyon has learned about Bovary's fighting skills and style.

He specializes in the fast sword fighting style popular within the Astalia Cult, and his physical training focuses on basic skills such as quick reaction, agile turning, rapid slashing, and sound-based positioning.

His common combat skills are Whirlwind Slash, Mounted Thrust, and Whirlwind Step. These three skills form the core of his basic fighting style. In addition, his core class skill, Swift Sword, makes him quite powerful, slightly stronger than Mark and second only to Karl.

Among the third-tier knights that Leon had seen in his previous life's game, he was a formidable opponent, easily ranking in the top thirty.

However, he was a man of few words and kept a low profile. If Lyon hadn't discovered that Bovary was a big fan of his and that he was a good candidate to bet on, Lyon wouldn't have taken the time to observe him and see his true abilities.

After all, of the four knights present, only Karl was famous and had considerable potential.

As for the other characters, Leon could only vaguely recall them, but he didn't know how they ended up.

A moment later, Bovary came out.

"Your Excellency, we have found footprints left over the past two days, as well as signs of a battle with a monster, but they are very faint."

Lyon pondered.

Most of the monsters here have only faint traces of being eliminated.

The passage we just passed through was only wide enough for one or two people to pass through freely, yet the traces were very faint, indicating that the average skill level of this team is very high.

"Let's go, let's go check out the next floor."

Lyon increased his pace slightly.

Since the surrounding area has been cleared out, there's no point in lingering here.

As Leon gradually tests the basic effects of each part of his body on common monsters, he now selectively avoids them to save time.

Of course, he's the only one who can perform this test.

Because others don't have a panel to check whether their attributes have increased after consuming the food.

Others might only notice that they feel they are more full and energetic.

Everyone's base stats are not low, so it's hard to say whether the slight increase in attributes is just an illusion after eating a lot.

Most monster meat has the effect of accelerating the recovery of physical strength and magic power. It is even harder to detect the effects if you eat it after some activity.

Along the way, the main road and most of the side roads had been cleared by other teams.

Three hours later, the group quickly marched to the 25th floor of the Water Ruins.

As the roar of the waterfall grew louder, the group stepped out of the passage and were suddenly confronted with an exceptionally brutal scene of battle.

The ground was covered in blood, and a small patch of water was stained red.

With a thud, a severed limb flew down from the front and landed in front of Karl, whose pupils contracted sharply and he took a step back.

One move affects the whole situation, and everyone immediately assumed a fighting stance.

Looking closely, they saw two third-tier Papal Knights fighting a powerful monster at least eight meters tall. They were clearly at a disadvantage and could be killed at any moment.

The monster had a ferocious appearance, with rough, black wrinkles covering its exposed face. Its body was covered in short, black and yellow hair. It stood upright with an inverted triangular body, its muscles resembling dense lumps of iron balls, its five fingers with thick nails, and its bare feet like hammers. With a single stomp, it would cause water to splash everywhere.

On the ground, two knights had already been smashed to pieces, their flesh and blood splattered on the ground, and they were clearly cold.

"A powerful fourth-tier monster, the Water-Swallowing Ape!"

This is a powerful monster from mythology that once swallowed up a human river in one fell swoop, almost causing the extinction of ancient humans.

Lyon recognized it at first glance.

He had encountered this thing several times in his previous life. It existed deep within a side path on the 31st floor. Initially, it was only a powerful tier 3 monster. Because few players discovered it, it survived by the time it was discovered by players in the second part. By then, it had grown into a powerful tier 5 monster, incredibly strong.

It now appears that these four knights discovered the Water-Swallowing Ape on the 31st floor and were chased up the waterfall, eventually reaching the 25th floor.

This is also a characteristic of the massive waterfall in the Water City, which connects 25-35 levels, causing monsters from the lower levels to wander up at any time.

The white unicorn that Leon discovered last time was most likely also a creature that wandered from the lower levels to the 25th level.

"withdraw!"

Without hesitation, Lyon immediately issued a retreat order.

at the same time--

boom!!!!

An astonishing water arrow shot out from the mouth of the water-swallowing ape, blasting a knight who was resisting in front of it to pieces.

Then, with its remaining force, the water rocket hurtled towards the crowd.

Iris waved her wand, gathering a large amount of magic power to activate a light defense spell.

Chapter Sixty-Two: Mouthpiece Water Arrow

A defensive light shield appeared, enveloping the seven people.

BOOM!!!