The [Lumin Golem - Lv. 2] was a humanoid monster about seveall made of gss crystal—keeping with the theme of the floor. Like the floor itself, too, Natalie didn’t reize the creature. She admittedly didn’t pay much attention in css, but monster manuals were one of the few things she had scoured cover to cover. If she didn’t know the beast, the rest of the team likely didher.

  That wasn’t ideal, since pre-warning of what types of abilities, strengths, and weaknesses a monster had could be pivotal to victory. That said, she aeam were strong for level twos, and this was just a single simple dungeon enter.

  With the monster having spotted them at the same time they had it, Natalie didn’t waste time. She charged forward with a shout, her massive two-handed hammer gripped in both hands. Liz’s emp buff suffused her, even strohan usual—and not just because of Liz’s level-up and improved stats, but because [Juggernaut] amplified buffs. It was a sixty pert ft boost for furor, applied after everything else.

  Power thrummed through her muscles, and her feet hit the ground hard enough to crack tile as she charged. Adrenaline helped carry her forward—this being her first real ce to show off.

  Foing subtlety entirely, Natalie arrived at her oppo, the gss golem raising its palm forward and pointing at her as if to summon some spell or skill. But she interrupted it. She heaved her gigantic on forward with everything she had, pivoting with her waist to get as muentum as possible.

  A hefty block of stone impacted the monster’s gss shoulder with the full might of Natalie’s newfound strength. The blow was even more devastating than she’d hoped. Dungeon monsters could eire groups of delvers and pose a challenge, but faced with Natalie’s strength, that didn’t matter. On impact, the [Lumin Golem] went flying, Natalie’s hammer hitting with a ch of splintering gss that was satisfying on a visceral level. The humanoid creature went tumbling sideways, then smmed hard into the wall.

  It didn’t die in a si, nor was it even crippled, but Natalie knew she’d just burhrough its health pool. It y stunned against the wall, having nearly embedded into it. Meaning Natalie rimed for a follow-up attack. She carried what momentum was left and pivoted with fwless footwork, swinging her hammer in a wide arc, cying herself to her stunned oppo—and smashing another full-strength strike straight into the creature’s skull.

  One shot hadn’t fihe job, but the sed did. The gss skull crumpled, resisting for a fra of a sed, before Natalie’s hammer punctured. Crystal exploded, and Natalie’s hammer smmed into the wall. The decapitated monster slumped to the ground, not having gotten a sialiatory strike off.

  Natalie grunted as she withdrew her hammer—embedded an into the wall—then wound up a finishing strike. It was always best to be sure, especially when it hadn’t started evaporati. She caved in the crystal creature’s chest .

  Bck smoke finally rose from the monster, its form dissipating. A core plio the ground. Natalie rested her hammer on her shoulder. She turned a self-satisfied smile to her teammates.

  Who were, reasonably, watg with raised eyebrows.

  “Huh,” Liz said.

  “I appreciate the enthusiasm,” Sofia said dryly, “but that was reckless, Nat.”

  “Yeah, but did you see how fast it died?”

  At Natalie’s excitement, Sofia rolled her eyes. A smile tugged at her lips. She was exasperated, but also happy for Natalie. Natalie reized she had been a little too eager to throw herself into the melee, but she had wao show off. Regardless, while her yle demanded a mgressive style, maybe not to that extent.

  “A creature made of crystal,” Ana said. “I only assume it was weak to blunt damage, which is why it died so fast.”

  “Or maybe I just hit that hard,” Natalie said. It was a joke; she reized that three shots, even ating for her rength, was an insanely quick victainst an equal-level dungeon monster.

  “Seeing how the floor’s theme is gss, I expect we’ll be seeing simir,” Sofia said. She raised an eyebrow at Natalie. “I guess the dungeon also wanted you to show off.”

  Natalie ughed. Maybe it did.

  “What do you think that spell was going to be?” Liz asked. “When it raised its hand?”

  “We should find out, if there’s another,” Sofia said. “In case any stronger enters e up that have simir abilities. We o gather information for future enemies.”

  “So you’re telli to kill them so fast?” Natalie asked.

  Sofia rolled her eyes. “Not every enter will go that smoothly. We are on the sed floor.”

  “But yes,” Jordan said teasingly, more willing to feed Natalie’s ego. “Don’t kill them so fast, Nat.”

  “No promises.”

  In high spirits, Natalie ventured down the hallway. She scooped up and pocketed the earned monster core befoing.

  Her brilliant first performance did prove itself to be an edge case. While Natalie had grown leaps and bounds from her level one self, she hadn’t bee a literal juggernaut, capable of two-hitting every equivalent-level monster—which were designed for teams to handle.

  Still, as the team explored down the hallway, taking enter after enter, one fact did make itself clear: Natalie had been hly equal footing with her team in their level one delves, maybe even on the low end, but now, she might be their star pyer. She was simply impossible to deal with. Throwing herself forward, empowered by her new skills and Liz’s buff, Natalie could bully level two monsters around, not only doing as much damage as each of her three damage dealers, but at the same time, being a durable frontline.

  Eveer, [Illusion] further disoriented her enemies, making her blows nearly undodgeable, and [Hunker Down] mitigated her biggest fw—that the whirlwind two-hayle ofte her exposed or put onto exploitable trajectories. Should she end up in that situation, she could activate her defensive skill and bee invulnerable to whatever spell or attack had been flung her way.

  In short, her level two upgrade was even strohahought it would be. And that was before she upgraded everything. [Stylish] and [Bigger is Better], to he two important boosts that would be ing.

  Taking a break after their fifth fight, Natalie caught Liz studying her with a frown.

  “What?” Natalie asked.

  Liz chewed her lip, as if hesitant—which especially piqued Natalie’s i.

  “What?” she repeated.

  “I just …” Liz said. “Huh. Don’t take this the wrong way, but your css is really strong.”

  “Thanks?” Natalie asked. How could she take that badly? The glow of excitement that came with her upgrades was hard to fight away; the giddiness still hadn’t faded at how well she erf.

  “Which means I’m worried you’ll outpace us,” Liz finished. “You’re probably getting more experiehan us, now.”

  Natalie paused. “I … guess that’s possible.” It hadn’t been something she’d thought about. “Should I take it easy, then?”

  “What? No way. It’s still better for the team if we steamroll our way through. I just meant …” Liz hesitated for a sed time.

  “You might outgrow us in the long run,” Jordan said for her. “Especially if your css keeps improving at a simir pace. We don’t have broken abilities like you.”

  Natalie’s brow furrowed. “I mean, maybe. I could’ve just gotten a really good level two.” She wasn’t sure if she believed that, though.

  “I guess.”

  “But even if that were the case,” Natalie said. “So what? Just means I help the team more. I doubt I’ll have to, but if need be, I’ll drag you along with me.”

  “Or maybe her perverted skills will give equal boo us, too,” Sofia said dryly. “There’s already one, [Stylish]. Why not more?”

  “Or that,” Natalie said. She waved her hand dismissively. “The point is, we’ll hahat whe to it, and no matter what, I’m stig with you. We’re a team. That’s not ging.”

  Natalie would have thought it didn’t eveo be stated, but Jordan had joked about it once, and now Liz had shown .

  Personally, she didn’t even think it would happen. Outpag her team? Maybe mildly in the best case, a single-level lead, but not more than that. For that to happen, she would o tribute an overwhelmingly rger portion to the fights thaeammates. The dungeon distributed experience mostly equally. tribution mattered, but mostly when there were level gaps, to stop a high level fring a low level through the ranks. Delvers of equal level teo stay in the same rough ballpark.

  Natalie would have to essentially do as much work as her whole team bio outpace them at a meaningful rate. And while she’d seen some impressive upgrades, they weren’t that insane.

  Still, maybe Natalie should focus on upgrading team skills. She’d been selfish in going straight for personal power, but she had no iion to leave her team behind. [Stylish] robably her goal, then. And whatever else came iure.

  Liz seemed reassured by Natalie’s promise. Her brief passed, and they tinued deeper into the dungeon.