"Congratulations! You have completed level 7, you may rest for one hour." An hour? That's quite a lot. With that time, I can rest enough to restore everything to its maximum point except my mana.

"I didn't want to do it…" I look at a bottle in front of me—a rank 3 mana recovery potion. It has no chance of causing mana poisoning or any other symptoms; the only drawback is the long thirty minutes it takes to take full effect. After clearing any doubts, I drink the contents of the bottle and feel the effect grow with each passing moment. It's like a booster to recover my mana faster, but it still takes thirty minutes for the full effect.

"Glia?" I call out loud for my companion, and she immediately appears, locking eyes with me. "Any advice about my last fight? The final floor will be more complicated." The little jaguar with fox-like fur "frowns," or so it seems, and thinks.

"Advice? Let me analyze for a bit." Something I've noticed lately is her ability to learn—she's like a sponge, absorbing almost everything just by observing and reaching decent conclusions. It must be part of her nature, having to learn quickly to survive.

"It's hard to think of something you could improve when you're already strong in almost every aspect." Am I? "However…" Here comes the typical observation. "You need to improve your movement skill quickly." Her words catch me off guard; it's true—my movement skill is the most stagnant. I've gained a few levels in it over these seven floors, but I'll check them after finishing this dungeon.

"Let me explain a bit better." She curls up like a cat before continuing. "By staying close to you all the time, I can tell it's the skill that consumes the most mana for what it offers. It only lets you move quickly in a certain direction." That's true—the cost is still low, but it's quite inefficient. I've seen some skeletons move faster than me using their own skills. "In my opinion, you should take advantage and get something similar to Grandma Rita." Is she talking about when my grandmother showed me how her skill works?

"Since you have a domain better than hers, your skill will make the leap it needs to compete with your other abilities." My grandmother spreads her mana in all directions to detect mana and people, though she's less effective at the latter. She can teleport within that "field of flowers," as she calls it, with mana consumption increasing with distance. It's quite costly for the maximum range.

Her skill is perfect because it seems to have no limit—she can move wherever she wants. The difference between our skills is height; hers covers up to three meters high at most, while mine is a massive dome.

"Thanks, Glia." I smile, and she returns the smile. "How can you analyze so well if you're a baby?" I'm genuinely curious about that.

"I got Mom's smart side." She says it with a mocking smile as she lies down on my legs. Did she just call me an idiot? I'll let it slide just for her advice…

The hour feels like just a few minutes as I sit to rest.

"Level 8, enter the main hall and slay the Death Knight to grant him eternal rest." The massive door before me opens slowly, and I walk in, excitement bubbling in my stomach.

Upon entering, I'm shocked by the decoration—it feels like the interior of a massive old castle. The area is enormous; easily three of my houses could fit inside, and mine isn't small. Elegant lights line the sides with a gloomy look, the dim light illuminating just enough.

In the middle, there's a single chair, massive in size, with a skeleton seated on it. Judging by the distance, he must be at least three meters tall, holding a sword planted into the floor by its hilt in his right hand, and in his left, a helmet resting on his armored left leg. His eyes are a dark green—intense and piercing.

We lock gazes for a few short seconds before he slowly stands. He puts on the helmet and lifts that enormous sword, holding it before him.

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I take out two different swords from my storage; the previous ones are badly chipped and could break at any moment. I prepare all my skills—my mana should be around 60% thanks to the potion and my meditation. Hopefully, it's enough.

I feel Glia has woken and is fully ready to assist me. During this time in the dungeon, I've greatly improved my fortified construction and interwoven weave—almost able to execute them simultaneously. They consume nearly double the mana, but their defensive and offensive power is unmatched, several levels above before. Fighting under life-or-death conditions sharpens your skills fast.

Armor covers my entire body, my swords strengthened to the limit with my mana, Imra, and my laws. Every active skill I can use is running—I'm ready for this fight.

I dash at the skeleton, dodging massive dark spears along the way. They appeared out of nowhere, as strong as the mage's from the previous floor.

When I get close, I execute a horizontal slash to gauge his strength and speed. My blade is easily stopped by his, feeling like I've struck a solid wall.

Strong as the squire? Quick reactions like the lancer? This is a problem—it's like a combination of the three commanders in one. This Death Knight is definitely stronger than the Denosis from the dungeon. I never thought I'd face a grade 3 monster this powerful in my life—he's clearly the peak of monsters in this rank.

A smile spreads across my face; if I can beat this skeleton, I shouldn't have trouble with a monster one grade above my rank.

Even while analyzing him, my body hasn't stopped—my swords constantly searching for an opening in that damaged armor. Why do I feel his bones are harder than the armor? That's my impression—his body skill must be at least on par, if not superior, to my armor created from two of my skills.

He hasn't moved a step from his starting position, while I dodge his few counterattacks with minimal movement or redirect the weight of his strikes with my sword. The fight turns into a contest of swordsmanship—one I'm clearly winning, though he manages to keep up thanks to his strength and speed.

I spot a small gap in his last defense and slip my left sword in with a horizontal strike. I get a bit overconfident after landing it, but my blade hits bone and feels like striking unbreakable steel. The impact almost makes me drop the sword and throws me slightly off balance.

He seizes the chance to deliver a vertical slash with all his strength; I try to block it, but my strength isn't enough—I'm forced to sidestep using my charged steps. I notice my death affinity trying to erode his body skill, but it's almost completely blocked by some kind of law of his. I only manage a small scratch on those hard bones.

"This will take a long time." If I can only scratch him, this will be a battle of attrition.

Before I can close the distance again, something stops me in shock. The damn Death Knight has summoned skeletons—five in total, just regular ones.

Bad news for me; now I have to be more careful. I'm forced to move quickly as I detect spells from the two skeletal mages aimed at me, while the Death Knight also launches his own. I'm forced into constant lateral movement to dodge their long-range attacks, spotting a squire and two swordsmen charging at me.

I become like a mouse fleeing their attacks, using my Joyeuse to block some spells. I need to try to damage the melee attackers now. I only manage two cuts on one swordsman and another on the squire before I have to run again—the pattern repeats several more times.

I finally bring down one attacking skeleton, but my head nearly explodes in anger when the Death Knight summons another.

Minutes pass quickly; I'm killing some swordsmen or squires in that time, but they're summoned again. The only good thing about all this is the Death Knight's mana—it's being drained quickly from summoning so many skeletons, and his spells have already lost much of their power.

I kill another skeleton, but this time I don't break its core—only sever its head. To my surprise, it turns to smoke, and the mana flows back to the Death Knight.

"That's unfair," I mutter under my breath. From now on, I have to destroy their cores if I want to end them.

I take down three more skeletons in the next few minutes, and he finally stops summoning. He must have realized how unprofitable it is—he loses too much mana and can't absorb them back if I break their cores.

He stares at me, as if analyzing me for a few seconds. Then, in an instant, he vanishes from his spot and appears a few meters away, right where a dark spear is embedded—the one I just dodged.

"You can do that too?" I complain aloud about his abilities, using the language from my old world just in case he might somehow understand.

His sword swings to cleave me in two, and I'm forced to use a charge of my electrified steps to escape and dodge the skeletal mages' spells. Their attacks are no longer as strong or frequent as before—I doubt they can break my armor—so I dodge to conserve as much mana as possible.

"Let's begin the second round, little one." My body reacts to my thoughts, and in an instant, I'm right in front of him, my swords forcing him into defense. "It's time to give you your eternal rest."

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