What kind of a golem had bones!? If it was a bone golem, it should only be made of bones. Alternatively, if it was a flesh golem made of a mixture of bones and flesh, it should have been covered with disgusting, rotten flesh. But this guy was neither! I scrutinized it closely and realized something. It wasn’t a golem!

I murmured, “Are you…”

[Kuha!]

Its steel arm extended like a certain pirate king candidate’s[1] and shot toward me. As I had suspected, this wasn’t a golem, but a living being! Golems couldn’t freely transform their bodies like that. However, it could maintain its steel body and stretch its arm. What was its identity? Did it really have bones underneath all that steel…? No, now wasn’t the time to leisurely think about it.

“Lotte, dodge!” I shouted urgently.

She trumpeted, [Leave it to me!]

Lotte dodged the steel arm in an instant. At the same time, her wings produced a raging whirlpool of black flames. Apparently, she had gotten stronger from the trip to the Panan continent. Was it because she spent more time with me? Or was it because she participated in battles? Regardless, I may need to reconsider how I was letting Plene grow.

Lotte warned, [Hero, it’s trying to do something!]

I grinned. “It’s fine. I know what it is, so let’s finish it now.”

The 60th Floor Master wasn’t worthy of blocking me for over nine seconds. It looked like its ability was freely manipulating its large steel-like body. It probably had one or two hidden skills, but I didn’t care. Rather than waiting for it to use them, I decided to just kill it.

However, just when I thought that, its steel body began to boil. As Lotte said, it must have been preparing for something.

“What is that?” I asked.

[An opening, Hero!]

Right! Lotte flew forward at an incredible speed. Meanwhile, I compressed the elongated spear blade and enveloped it with my white aura and chaos flames. My skill of choice was Heroic Strike.

It looked like it was trying to transform its body into something. I reached it before its boiling body could complete the transformation. Cutting off a transformation was one of the best feelings!

I shouted, “Sacrifice!”

A black aura wrapped itself over the spear blade. Realizing that the spear blade now contained an immense amount of power, I hesitated slightly. However, I soon thrust my spear forward as I came to the conclusion that it was probably better to hurt myself than let it do something suspicious.

[Critical Hit!]

My spear penetrated it before the transformation was completed. At the same time, I felt my chest rupturing with a significant amount of pain. It was as if someone squeezed my heart and set it aflame. The pain then spread through my body. Perhaps this was what being in lava felt like. Alternatively, it could also be like being pierced with a thousand needles.

In an instant, everything within my sight turned white. This skill…I couldn’t take it lightly. The damage I took was one thing, but more importantly, it even stopped me from moving for a moment. If it didn’t finish the enemy with one strike, I would be vulnerable to a counterattack.

That said, I only took 50% of the damage, while the enemy received 200% of the damage. Since the boss had bones and had also received a critical hit, the damage it took was multiplied by 600%. Whatever this golem-like thing was, it instantly exploded in the middle of its transformation. Blowing up a Floor Master…Sacrifice, I like you!

[A Grand Achievement! You have defeated the Floor Master, ‘Superior Doppelganger’, alone! Amazing!]

[You have reached level 61. You have obtained the qualification to challenge Beyond’s 10th floor.]

[You have obtained 5 bonus stats.]

[You have obtained the title, ‘Superior Doppelganger Slayer’. All stats have permanently increased by 1. This effect will apply even if the title is not equipped.]

[You have reached Gold Rank 6. Congratulations.]

[You have defeated the Superior Doppelganger alone. You have obtained the special reward, ‘Superior Doppelganger’s Hat.’]

[You have obtained 400,000 gold.]

[Choose your reward.]

[1. Weapon Swap Magic Book.]

After confirming its death, I fell on Lotte’s back. Right, if it didn’t die after how much damage I dealt to myself, I would be troubled. But doppelganger? I was right! After all, doppelgangers were closer to mimics than golems!

Lotte asked out of concern, [Are you okay, Hero? It looked like you received a huge blow just now.]

I reassured her, “Yeah, I’m fine. In fact, this much pain makes me feel slightly happy. It snaps me awake, you know? It’s not like I like pain or anything, but it helps me not overestimate myself.”

[Wise words as expected of a warrior.]

I smiled at Lotte’s words while circulating Peruta Circuit and recovering. My HP had never fallen under 10%. After battling this Floor Master, I became certain about one thing.

Sacrifice had a clear flaw, but if used correctly, it would be of great help to me. It was probably best to use it with weaker skills to minimize the damage I took, or conversely with extremely powerful skills when I knew it would surely kill the enemy. Or perhaps, using this skill with Devourer could mitigate Sacrifice’s flaw.

I muttered to myself, “Anyways, it looks like I’m not the first one to clear this floor solo on my first try…Well, I guess it isn’t that surprising. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was the same for the future floors.”

The world was infinite and full of outstanding explorers. There were undoubtedly other talented explorers who could defeat Floor Masters alone on their first try. In fact, Daisy probably could do it without much difficulty.

For now, I decided to look at the reward. I wasn’t expecting much, so I quelled any anticipation and chose the reward. Immediately, a message rang out.

[You have learned ‘Weapon Swap.’ By using 1,000 MP, you can instantly store the weapon in your hand into your inventory and replace it with another weapon. When empty-handed, you can instantly equip your weapon. Conversely, you can instantly unequip your weapon, becoming empty-handed. For 15 seconds after using Weapon Swap, your weapon’s performance will increase by 10%. The buff duration and performance increase are enhanced with skill levels.]

“Huh?”

That wasn’t so bad! I was curious why something that sounded like a physical technique came in a magic book, but with an effect like this, it really was more like magic.

For example, if an enemy ambushed me while I was empty-handed, I could use Weapon Swap and instantly equip my spear. Although my spear would take the form of a choker, it was still easier to directly summon it in my hands than having to reach for it.

Plus, this skill would let me change between different battle methods. Weapon Swap’s strong point was being able to use it without any delay. I had to use 1,000 MP to activate it, but that much expenditure was something I could easily handle. In addition, I would be able to use different weapons depending on the situation, which was something that I had found difficult to do in the heat of battle.

My Crossbow Marksmanship was high-ranked. Attacking enemies far away was significantly easier with a crossbow than a spear. If I felt like an enemy was nearing me, I would be able to swap to my spear instantly. I quite liked it.

Not to mention, I could now do something entirely new…Huhu.

“Alright, let’s start the grinding!” I yelled out excitedly.

I felt encouraged as the new skill was much better than my expectations. I jumped down from Lotte’s back so she could transform back to her human form. After all, she wouldn’t be able to leave through the door otherwise!

Lotte commented, [Hero, your body is shaking.]

I gasped, “I might be a bit anemic… Let’s rest for a bit…”

I almost forgot about the HP I lost from Sacrifice! Once I left the Floor Master room, I bought a Fatigue Recovery Juice and Special HP Recovery Meat Skewer from Loretta. It was only then that I continued with the Superior Doppelganger grinding.

[Kuaaaaaaa! Human, I will—]

“Die!”

Right when the Superior Doppelganger was about to transform after spouting a cheesy line that a B-rate villain would say, I killed it with my spear. This was my 10th fight for the day, so I happily ended it with Sacrifice Heroic Strike. Now that I had felt the pain from Sacrifice a few times, I felt like I had gotten somewhat used to it. I trembled at my potential.

“Or maybe, I’m just becoming a pervert, a masochist for pain…” I muttered involuntarily.

Damn, I’d rather not have admitted it out loud!

I grumbled inwardly and chose the item I desired from the reward list. The 60th floor also had a strengthening elixir. It was none other than the ‘Mana Circulation Elixir.’

Somewhat like the other elixirs, the Mana Circulation Elixir raised my magic and charm by 1. Supposedly, it cleaned the internal pathway used for mana circulation and increased the quality of mana. Because of that description, I felt like I was getting cleaner every time I ate one. …It was undoubtedly a placebo effect.

It took exactly one hour for me to defeat the Superior Doppelganger ten times. From what I could remember, it took me five minutes to kill the boss and I rested about a minute afterwards, so the total time was about right. These Superior Doppelgangers were rather easy to hunt. I just had to kill them before they transformed!

They appeared as a giant golem at first, but the moment they received damage, they started transforming. Since I’d never seen them complete their transformation, I still didn’t know what they were trying to transform into. My guess was that they took the form of the explorer that damaged it.

Because they started transforming after receiving damage, I easily killed them by taking their head with the first attack or by using two attacks before they finished their transformation. It was too obvious that their real attacks only began after they finished morphing.

Killing them with the first blow was ideal, but for explorers who weren’t confident in their attack power, it was probably better to kill them with their second attack. After all, while the boss transformed, it was noticeably slower. Of course, if they couldn’t kill the boss by the second blow, it was better to just give up.

…Why am I thinking about all of this?

When I left the Floor Master room with a tired expression, Loretta smiled brightly and jumped on me as she had been waiting in the Floor Shop.

“Shin-nim, that was the tenth, right? Then play with me. You can buy some items while you’re at it,” she cajoled.

I rolled my eyes. “I think the ‘while I’m at it’ part is what you really want.”

She shrieked, “How rude! It’s half-half!”

I ignored Loretta’s pleading eyes and bought more of the relatively low-priced Fatigue Recovery Juice and HP Recovery Meat Skewers. Even as she sold them, Loretta tilted her head.

“Shin-nim, why do you need them? Didn’t you finish grinding for the day?”

I answered in-between bites, “Ah, you see, Loretta…That’s because the second season of the thrashing phase is beginning now.”

“Thrashing phase…?”

Loretta looked like she had heard the phrase before. Meanwhile, I snickered evilly.

Ever since I went through the thrashing phase with Father, I always thought that it was more to alleviate the teacher’s stress than to help the student fix a habit. Now, I knew the true meaning behind it: fixing a student’s bad habits and alleviating a teacher’s stress. It was half-half!

Ren messaged me, [Crown Prince, I’m at the training room…Is it really happening?]

[I’ll be there in a moment, Ren!] I replied cheerfully.

[Take your time, please!] I could almost hear him sob at the end.

It was time for the thrashing phase, which was full of Ren’s pain and my happiness.

1. This is referring to Luffy from One Piece ☜