Danmachi: Reaper

For Exploration-type Familia like the Loki Familia, they will try to explore deeper floors.

Because of this, they need to conserve stamina for unnecessary battles.

Fighting Goliath is one example.

Although Goliath may be one of the Monster Rex, he is the weakest Monster Rex. His strength was at the level 4 adventurer's limit, and all executives could kill him single-handedly if they wanted to.

However, that would require a lot of manpower and effort, making it an inefficient decision.

Besides, Finn wanted to train their cooperation when fighting a strong enemy. That was also why he never took Goliath too seriously. Even so, Finn was still wary if something was abnormal and he needed him to intervene.

Back to the fight, Kelvin stared at the Goliath as he grinned.

He held his huge Savit with one hand, while he stood in front of the still frightened Lefiya.

"Sylpha! Lure him and catch him off guard!"

"Yes!"

Hearing Kelvin's order, Sylpha nodded obediently. She began to move as each of her hands held a twin sword.

Her running speed was extremely fast, and in just a blink of an eye, Sylpha had already appeared in front of the Goliath's body!

"Since Master only told me to distract, that means he himself intends to kill the Goliath."

Sylpha muttered under her breath.

Although she wasn't sure if Kelvin could defeat Goliath with strength, but if he injured Goliath badly enough to make him lose half of his fighting strength, it seemed like it would be enough to make Kelvin win against him.

That was why, Sylpha had already set her goal!

Instead of a direct clash, she would injure Goliath as much as she could, making him exhausted and lose enough fighting power.

Even so, Goliath's regenerative abilities made things a little difficult for her. Looking at Goliath's body that began to heal after she slashed him, Sylpha clicked her tongue with an annoyed expression.

"Langlis Style: Wolf Fang!"

Using her sword, Sylpha moved quickly, diving in such a way as she thrust her sword towards Goliath.

*Roaaarr!

The Goliath let out a loud roar, swinging his arms as he charged at Sylpha.

Only, before the attack hit Sylpha, she had already moved and was under the Goliath's feet.

"Langlis Style: Dual Blade Technique - Twin Dragons Rising."

Sylpha moved quickly, making many slashes on Goliath's body from the feet, moving up to Goliath's shoulders.

Blood splattered as Sylpha's twin blades sliced through Goliath's flesh like paper.

However, despite such a brutal attack, Goliath's body once again regenerated, and as if nothing was wrong, his body returned to normal as before.

Sylpha bent her stance, regulating her breathing as she held her two swords pointed backwards.

"Langlis Style: Dual Blade Technique - Double Tiger Jaw!"

In the next second, Sylpha's body seemed to be blown away, she moved so fast, and somehow she was instantly on the other side of Goliath.

*Crack!

In the next second, with a cracking sound, Goliath's arm was neatly cut off, leaving him with only one arm.

"It's your turn now, Kelvin-sama." Sylpha muttered, her gaze directed at Kelvin who was in front of Lefiya.

Only, Sylpha narrowed her eyes as she stared at Kelvin's current state.

Kelvin's appearance had somehow changed at this time; his skin had turned very pale, which on his face, precisely on the left cheek, had a purple-reddish cracked line.

His eye patch had somehow slipped off, and his bright blue eyes were no longer there-replaced by a pair of pale yellow eyes that had almost no light in them.

Meanwhile, the clothes Kelvin was wearing had completely changed as well, now becoming jet black, like a hard and heavy metal.

"That's ...."

This was the first time Sylpha had seen Kelvin in this state.

Was it...?

Was this one of Kelvin's Skills?

Was this Skill also what allowed him to kill hundreds of monsters when he was a child...?

If that's the case, why-

Before Sylpha realized it, Kelvin started moving! And that speed was ....

He's so fast!

******

Kelvin, standing in front of Lefiya, the little Elf was inexplicably trembling in fear as he stared at Goliath who was fighting with Sylpha.

"Lefiya, there's something I want to ask you."

Kelvin's voice echoed in Lefiya's ears, making the Elf girl stare at the back of the teenager in front of her.

He was not much older than her, only a few years older. Even so, although he was still level 1, but he could stand tall when facing a Monster Rex like Goliath right now.

Lefiya wondered, was Kelvin not afraid...?

Why could he look calm and even feel happy...?

"Why do you want to be an adventure?" Kelvin asked without looking at the Elf Girl's face.

"I-I ...." Lefiya was about to say something, but she hesitated to say it.

Why, why would purple be an adventure?

What was the reason she was doing all this?

Why ....

Lefiya herself felt confused ....

She didn't know why she became an adventurer ....

In the end-

"-A-I don't understand ...."

Although it was somewhat pathetic, but Lefiya herself wasn't sure what her goal was in becoming an adventurer.

Did she want power? Fame? Money? Lefiya did not know it clearly.

Her head was bowed, and she felt helpless. Lefiya realized, she was so useless, so unreliable. In fact, when

But ....

"In that case, all you need to do is search and find your purpose for being an adventurer, right?"

"Eh?"

Lefiya looked up, her incredulous gaze directed at Kelvin.

Finding a purpose...?

What does that mean...?

Lefiya was about to ask this, but in the next second, she heard Kelvin muttering in a muffled voice, and the air around him seemed to distort.

"I, who will soon awaken, am the Embodiment of Madness."

The air around Kelvin began to drop, Lefiya could even feel the uncontrollable flow of Magic that appeared around Kelvin, as if it was raging and disorderly.

"I Laugh at Helplessness and Crave Infinity."

Kelvin's body, his entire skin turned into a pale color. On his face, or rather, the left cheek, there was a reddish crack that traveled all the way to his arm, making several branches of cracks around his arm, and stopped when it almost hit the back of his arm.

"I am the figure that the world abandons and heaven laughs at."

His blindfold-currently starting to burn-showed Kelvin's open eyes, blood-red in color, with vertical pupils in the middle, and his scleras, somehow turning into a pitch-black color at this moment.

"I am the Embodiment that will Cut the Chains of Fate and the Shackles of Causality."

"With this power, I will bring the world under madness!"

As soon as the sentence was finished, Kelvin's breathing began to become heavier, with each exhalation of his breath releasing hot air that spread into the air.

Kelvin's body became hotter, and his muscles became more prominent than before.

It was like Kelvin's body was forcibly forged, which made his muscles swell to such an extent, with his body temperature increasing drastically from what it should be.

As for Lefiya, she didn't know about this. But, Kelvin's true eye color was bright blue.

Now, those beautiful bright blue eyes were replaced by pale yellow colored eyes, which barely had any light emanating from them.

Kelvin's clothes, originally just a normal black robe. But, now it looked heavy with several pieces of armor covering the robe.

"Grrrrrr ...."

The grin on Kelvin's face, widened even more as he raised his scythe and began to jump high.

No, but it was very high!

In fact, Kelvin seemed to fly directly and head towards the head of Goliath, who was seven meters tall!

Lefiya, who saw this was stunned.

Is this Kelvin-san's true power...?

She didn't realize it, but her eyes were locked on the figure challenging Goliath-whose strength was equivalent to a level 4 adventure alone-even though she was still level 1.

Madness Increase.

This was the Magic used by Kelvin at the moment.

When using this Magic, changes began to appear in Kelvin's appearance, making his skin pale as well as his eyes that changed color to pale yellow. In addition, this Skill also triggered crack lines that appeared on some of Kelvin's limbs, apart from his cheeks and arms, also on his back, chest, and legs.

When using this Skill, all of Kelvin's strength, defense and speed would be increased to beyond the limit that his body could handle.

What made this Magic too broken was that it completely released the body's predetermined limitations.

Indeed, humans would not be able to exert all their strength. That was due to several factors, but the most specific one was that the human would die when he exerted 100% of his power.

No, this is not nonsense, but it is the way it is.

Generally, humans can use about 65% of their strength. This was because from the moment a human was born, your body would naturally calculate how much of a limit to not make the human body exert extra force that would result in self-harm.

However, this magic allowed Kelvin to remove that 65% restriction at the cost of his sanity.

When using this Magic, Kelvin's common sense would be sacrificed in exchange for incredible physical strength; unparalleled strength, speed, defense!

In fact, with Kelvin's current state, he could fight on par with a level 3-4 adventure if using pure physical strength!

Of course, with all the great power gained, a great sacrifice must also be made ....

*Boom! Boom! Boom!

Raising his scythe above his head, Kelvin immediately attacked blindly.

He didn't care who the enemies around him were, as he had lost his mind at this point.

The only thing he could see was the enemy in front of him. All he saw were enemies blocking his path!

Kelvin swung his scythe blindly, each swing inflicting a huge wound on Goliath, who roared in pain.

Goliath saw the danger from Kelvin, raising his big hand to attack Kelvin.

Boom!

"Kelvin-san?!"

A huge explosion occurred. Kelvin's body was hit by Goliath's attack, and slammed into the wall behind him.

Sylpha was about to intervene, but she stopped when she saw something.

Kelvin's body, which was full of blood..., strangely began to heal instantly!

Standing up once more, Kelvin raised his scythe. Now, he ran at high speed, ignoring everything around him as his gaze locked onto the body of the huge Goliath in front of him.

Although this Magic gave Kelvin a tremendous increase in physical strength. But, this Skill also sealed all other Skills and Magic owned by Kelvin.

That means, when using this magic, Kelvin will not be able to use other skills or magic before he has released the effects of this magic.

And to release the effects of this Magic, Kelvin's body must be damaged to make Kelvin's body unable to withstand all the regeneration received because of this Magic.

*Boom! Boom! Boom!

The 17th floor shook, rocks flew and scattered in the air, as Kelvin and Goliath fought fiercely.

'Incredible ....'

Lefiya, gazed at this scene in amazement.

Kelvin was just a level 1 adventurer, how could he fight on par with Goliath?

It made her doubt his strength. He was a level 3 adventurer, but he acted cowardly and didn't dare to fight monsters alone.

Could he still be called an adventurer?

Ignoring Lefiya, Kelvin completely lost control of his body.

His arm was torn, repair it.

Broken bones, repair them.

His muscles were torn, repair them.

It went on and on for who knew how many times Kelvin's body regenerated each part of his body rapidly.

Sylpha, on the other hand was horrified by that regeneration rate. Wasn't that power very underhanded? Even so, the thing that scared Sylpha was what would happen after this.

How could she, a level 4 adventurer, who had done many battles with monsters and humans not know this?

With great power comes great sacrifice.

Right now, Kelvin's physical strength, as well as his body's regeneration speed were of course extremely unreasonable. Of course, with such strength, Kelvin would definitely bear no less great side effects.

He was able to unleash the full potential of his body, but, would the moment this Magic was released Kelvin be able to endure all those things?

A drop of sweat dripped from Sylpha's forehead and she unconsciously gulped down her own saliva.

She was very worried about Kelvin's safety right now.

She held her twin swords tightly, but decided to keep quiet and watch until the end.

After all, it was his Master's order, and he could not go against the orders of his Master.

The battle lasted longer than expected, at this moment, the two had been fighting for more than 20 minutes.

Goliath's body had somehow lost its shape. His regeneration ability could not regenerate his severed right arm, as well as his one leg. His body was bleeding, and there were many cuts and stab wounds all over his body.

Kelvin's condition was not much better. His regeneration ability was also barely working.

His face; forehead to eyes, was covered in blood. Both of his eyes also had blood flowing down his cheeks.

The muscles of his hands were torn, and even the bones in his right arm were clearly visible despite the blood flowing from it.

His abdomen..., somehow had a small hole that went through to his back, probably because Goliath's claws had pierced him there.

Even so, Kelvin was still standing and didn't look unsteady. But, different things happened to Sylpha and Lefiya.

Sylpha, she felt helpless and was horrified at her master's condition. While Lefiya, she was crying while covering her mouth with a horrified expression.

The two of them didn't expect Kelvin to fight to this extent. But, neither Sylpha nor Lefiya tried to help, especially since Kelvin claimed that he alone would defeat Goliath.

There was an unwritten rule among adventurers; whoever first claimed to defeat a monster in the dungeon, then other adventurers were not allowed to intervene in the fight. Not until the previous adventurer can't win and dies, or decides to run away and leave it to someone else.

Even so, the act of running away from a fight is the act of a coward, especially if he brings a horde of monsters to other adventurers. It was truly heinous and unforgivable.

But, things were different now. Neither Kelvin nor Goliath had any intention of giving up and were staring at each other with obvious hostility.

With that intense battle, naturally Kelvin's new Scythe also fell victim. The blade was somehow torn apart and had several depressions from being constantly used to cut something hard.

*Swosh!

Kelvin instantly moved and jumped high. Thanks to [Madness Increase], he was able to ignore all the pain he got. It made him feel no pain at all while this Magic was active.

But, since Kelvin couldn't feel pain, this also applied to poison. He wouldn't realize his body was exposed to poison or was severely injured. Thus, it gave him a certain danger despite all the things gained.

Swinging his Scythe, Kelvin intended to behead Goliath directly. Only, how could Goliath let that happen?

Swinging his arm, Goliath had Kelvin sent flying. However, unlike before, Kelvin immediately got up and moved once again.

Time was of the essence, and since both of them were already heavily injured, with just one attack, they could fall at any time.

So, Kelvin ran straight away and didn't give Goliath a chance to attack him again. He swung his Scythe with all his might, giving Goliath many wounds around his legs and body.

Although Goliath wanted to attack Kelvin, but Kelvin's movements were so fast, making him unable to keep up with Kelvin's movements, and could only roar angrily as Kelvin continued to attack him.

Kelvin retreated. Seeing that Goliath was feeling the effects of all his attacks, he had no intention of wasting time, immediately leaping high and intending to attack Goliath from the air.

But, how could Goliath leave it at that?

Goliath immediately swung his hand to attack Kelvin, right before the hand hit Kelvin's body, Kelvin unconsciously did something that became his habit.

He threw his Scythe at Goliath!

The scythe, flew through Goliath's fingers, and hit him hard in the chest, or rather the magic stone on Goliath's chest!

At the same time, Goliath's hand slammed into Kelvin's body, sending him flying backwards and crashing into the rock wall.

Because Kelvin's Scythe hit Goliath's magic stone, it caused Goliath to bow down, before finally disappearing in a puff of smoke.

Seeing Goliath defeated, both Sylpha and Lefiya were shocked and disbelieving. But, their gazes finally fell on Kelvin, who was currently glued to the dungeon wall with many wounds on his body.

"Kelvin-sama!"

"Kelvin-san!"

The two immediately approached Kelvin, looking at his condition and feeling horrified at all the wounds on Kelvin's body.

Kelvin's consciousness disappeared, and his body returned to its normal form. Even so, his body seemed to be on fire as his body gave off heat and smoke billowed out.

This made Sylpha and Lefiya even more worried. Since Goliath had been defeated, the two finally decided to bring Kelvin back to the surface and end today's expedition.