I decided to test my physical capabilities by challenging the Blood Knight to a footrace.
"We're going to that wall on the opposite side."
The Blood Knight lined up beside me.
"Ready… go!"
I kicked off the ground.
BOOM—!
The marble caved in and my body launched into the air.
WHOOOOSH—!
Insane speed.
The edges of my vision blurred and smeared as they streaked past me.
'Am I faster than the Blood Knight now?'
The sound of footsteps behind me seemed to be fading.
The moment I reached somewhere near the middle—
THUD! BANG! THUD! BANG!
A terrifying vibration caught up to me, and then a crimson shadow blew past my side.
"Huh…?"
It was the Blood Knight.
He was even carrying his greatsword.
And just like that, he overtook me.
"I guess the only reason I was faster at the start was because I gave the signal myself…"
Just as I was about to accept defeat—
I murmured quietly.
"Black Shift."
WUUUNG—!
Black mist bloomed around me.
In an instant, I appeared right in front of the finish line—the far wall.
Tap.
I pressed my hand against it.
The Blood Knight arrived a beat later and skidded to a halt.
…I know it's shameless. But I can't help it.
I'm the master, after all.
"Hehe. I won, didn't I?"
I grinned smugly and shrugged my shoulders.
Right at that moment.
FWOOOOOSH—!
A massive gust of wind slammed into my field of view.
"Whoa!"
CRASH! THUD!
Something tackled my body and sent me rolling across the floor.
I barely managed to lift my head.
It was Barang.
He was sitting on top of me, wagging his tail like a motor.
He'd been watching the race between me and the Blood Knight, and had chased us all the way to the end of the room.
It happened in an instant.
"Right… you're the fastest one here, aren't you."
I barely managed to peel Barang off and pull myself upright.
To summarize: in terms of agility, Barang was first, the Blood Knight second, and I was dead last.
So then, what about attack power?
I went with the most brute-force method available.
"Alright, let's take turns hitting the wall once each."
The Blood Knight went first.
BOOM—!
The marble wall exploded apart, leaving a massive crater.
Same as what I'd seen before.
Next was my turn.
I clenched my fist tight… and drove it forward hard.
CRACK—!
Fragments scattered in every direction.
It wasn't as much as the Blood Knight's, but I'd carved out a fairly sizable pit—big enough for a couple of grown men to fit inside.
Last was Barang.
GRRR—!
He raked his claws across the wall.
CLANG!
"Hmm…"
All that was left on the wall were three shallow scratch marks. Nothing that could be called a crater.
"So the reason he was carrying a sword in his mouth was… because he's an agility-type and needed to compensate for his attack power?"
He seemed to be the type that had gone all-in on speed.
"Good boy."
Scratch scratch.
I ruffled his coarse fur.
He immediately got excited again and started bouncing around erratically.
"Hey, hey…!"
Even during the race earlier, I hadn't given him any command to start—he'd just taken off on his own because he felt like it.
Compared to the Blood Knight, his ability to follow orders left something to be desired.
"Sit."
He planted his rear on the floor.
But there was no stopping that furiously wagging tail.
THUMP THUMP THUMP THUMP!
The sound of his tail smacking the ground.
"I hope the floor below doesn't think something's attacking them…"
The Blood Knight, on the other hand, was different.
He had been serving as a timer during my sleep periods and had even been neatly organizing my belongings.
Whether the difference in intelligence from their lives carried over into necromancy, or whether something diverged during the Spirit Blood Tea Rite infusion process—I couldn't say.
"Does being cute just make everything okay…?"
I watched him panting and wagging his tail, and smiled despite myself.
An idea came to me for how to put this one to good use.
"Let's head to the next floor."
CREEEEAK—
The door to floor 87 opened.
[Defender: Poison Hive Mother (87F)]
A massive hive-shaped creature hung from the ceiling.
The open holes in its body looked ready to unleash a machine-gun barrage of poison stingers.
One glance and it was obvious—an area-of-effect ranged-pattern monster.
"Death Mark."
[⬛]
I stacked one mark, then vaulted up onto Barang's back.
"When you've got something fast that won't listen, the best move is to ride it and steer it yourself."
The moment I climbed on, Barang went absolutely berserk with joy, bouncing in place.
CRASH! LURCH!
"Barang, go right!"
My vision shook violently.
'If I hadn't put points into physical stats, I'd already be unconscious…'
Not long ago, just staying on his back would have been impossible.
But my body now could handle this movement just fine.
And I had magic I could use to control him, too.
What Barang was made of was spirit blood.
His dark crimson fur was solidified blood.
That meant it was a medium I could manipulate with my own mana.
"Blood Command."
WIIIIING—!
I spun the circle in my core and channeled mana into him.
My intent was to take full control and direct his movements.
But then an idea flashed through my mind.
"Using the same principle as when I restored the Blood Knight… what if I made reins…"
As I pushed mana in and visualized the shape in my head, the fur at the scruff of Barang's neck stretched out and hardened into form.
"Got it!"
I gripped the reins with both hands.
SCREEEEEE—!
The Hive Mother on the ceiling let out a shriek and began moving as if to unleash its stingers.
"Blood Knight, draw its aggro!"
The Blood Knight raised his greatsword and charged straight at it, splitting its attention.
Seizing the opening, I yanked the reins and directed Barang.
"Head for the left wall!"
ROOOOAAR—!
Barang surged up along the wall.
WHOOOOSH—!
Speed that seemed to defy gravity.
We wove through the rain of falling poison stingers like acrobats.
I didn't even need to give verbal commands—every time I pulled the reins to change direction, Barang responded to my intent.
And even as my vision spun wildly, my Sense stat kept locking onto the monster without losing it.
I fixed my gaze on the Hive Mother's swollen abdomen.
FLASH—! FLASH—!
Every 13 seconds of cooldown, a Death Mark drove itself in.
[⬛⬛]
[⬛⬛⬛]
Three marks were carved in, and the moment the fourth cooldown cycled—
"Blood Knight, fall back!"
I wrenched the reins hard and launched us into the air.
Just as the Blood Knight's greatsword scraped across the Hive Mother's outer shell—
FLASH—!
The final mark was carved.
[⬛⬛⬛⬛]
The moment the character was complete—
THUD!
The massive hive monster crashed to the floor.
Green liquid splattered in every direction, but thanks to Barang's nimble movements, not a single drop touched us.
Tap.
We landed gracefully on the ground.
[Floor 87 Poison Hive Mother Defeated]
[Advancement Reward: 8,600G Acquired!]
[Level Up! 87Lv → 88Lv]
[Stat Points +3 Acquired!]
"Good. Feels like we're actually working as a team now."
I stroked Barang's fur and smiled.
The current setup was just about perfect.
The Blood Knight as the bruiser, Barang as a mount with incredible mobility, and me with a ranged attack option.
I couldn't really think of a scenario where we'd get stuck.
Even if Death Mark didn't work, or something showed up that could punch through the Blood Knight's defense and Barang's evasion at the same time—it was fine.
As long as I could get my scythe to touch it, I had an instant-kill skill that could finish anything.
Floor 88. Floor 89. Floor 90. Floor 91.
Cleared them all with zero tension, same as before.
Not every monster even needed four Death Mark stacks.
More often than not, they just lost to the Blood Knight in a straight one-on-one.
And at last, floor 91.
[Floor 91 Mason Drake Defeated]
[Advancement Reward: 9,000G Acquired!]
[Level Up! 91Lv → 92Lv]
[Stat Points +3 Acquired!]
"Finally, the second milestone."
I opened the stat distribution window.
I distributed the remaining points—one each into Strength, Agility, and Sense.
[Strength stat is now 79.]
[Agility stat is now 79.]
[Sense stat is now 79.]
Strength, Agility, Sense, Intelligence.
All four stats leveled out at 79.
"Hmm…"
But there was none of the harmony or satisfaction I'd felt when I first evened out Strength, Agility, and Sense at 74.
Intelligence and Mana.
These two stats were genuinely disappointing.
Even when their numbers went up or aligned with the others, there was no intuitive physical sensation to go with it.
Compared to the physical stats, the thrill just wasn't there.
But from here on, it would be different.
"I can start reducing Death Mark's cooldown."
Magic cooldowns were said to be inversely proportional to Intelligence.
So now that I'd be raising Intelligence alongside everything else, I'd start feeling the difference.
If I kept growing like this, I'd eventually reach the final milestone too.
The Mana milestone.
Mana was already climbing on its own through the stacking earring effect, even without me directly investing stat points.
It should be above 230 by now.
If the charge cap was 100%, it would eventually catch up—but that was still a distant peak.
"Let me post proof first."
Still seated on Barang's back, I reached out with one hand and activated the holographic camera.
Click.
______
Title: Got a new familiar & reached floor 91
Author: Anon (91F)
{Photo of a silver-haired girl riding a crimson wolf, together with the Blood Knight}
Made my second familiar.
Riding it while firing Death Mark is insanely comfortable.
And current status:
STR, AGI, SEN, INT all leveled to 79. Equalization complete.
[STATUS]
Race: Death God (死神)
Floor: 91F
Level: 92
Condition: Normal
Strength: 79 (▲5)
Agility: 79 (▲5)
Vitality: 16
Sense: 79 (▲5)
Intelligence: 79
Mana: 232 (▲5)
Luck: 11
Defense: 13
Magic Defense: 14
Remaining Stat Points: 0
Trait: Unawakened
Unique Skills: [Sentence of Death – Slash], [Sentence of Death – Sight]
Weapon: Death Scythe
Equipped Items: [Ring of Arcane Might], [Adventurer's Ring], [Magitech Cerulean Earring (+2 / Charge: 75%)], [Twin-Tail Black Ribbon]
______
I hit refresh and checked the comments.
[Comments]
Anon (312F): Gonna clear floor 100 before the day's out lmaooo
Anon (643F): So curious what's on floor 100
└ Anon (543F): Probably better not to expect much. If there was something amazing there, newbies would die before they could report back…
└ Anon (227F): Can't you just… slow down a little…
└ Anon (466F): Give up on that lol
Anon (519F): Actually went and maxed everything out huh…
└ Anon (635F): Fr the status is legendary. ;;;
└ Anon (148F): Wait, has nobody in the Gallery ever done an all-stat build before?
└ Anon (643F): Our stat directions get locked in the moment we're assigned them, so there's no way to balance them out like that…
└ Anon (148F): Fair enough.
└ Anon (465F): But isn't Void Hermit stacking defense stats too?
└ Anon (643F): He's got that Indestructible Against All Things thing going on, so maybe.
Anon (247F): Whoa, got another familiar. The wolf looks sick.
└ Anon (351F): But can't you just keep making familiars as you go? Why only one?
└ Anon (647F): The floor-702 guy said you can only maintain one per circle
└ Anon (351F): Wait?? So she's already settled into 2nd circle???
└ Anon (647F): Looks like it…
└ Anon (351F): That's insane;;
Those who were stunned that I'd actually gone through with the stat equalization.
And comments expressing shock that I was already making use of 2nd circle.
After that—
A username appeared with a noticeably larger reaction than the rest.