I charged into floor 3.
[Defender: Giant Rat (3F)]
It was a rat the size of a cat.
"What the…not even a goblin?"
Squeak!
With that cry, the thing launched itself at me.
I lightly stamped my foot and swung the scythe in a wide arc.
Schwick—!
Squeak squeak!!
The rat tumbled across the floor.
Blood splattered, but it evaporated almost instantly.
"Too easy…"
Absurdly, pathetically simple.
Enough to make all my earlier agonizing feel ridiculous.
[Floor 3 Giant Rat Defeated]
[Victory in a duel against the floor's guardian. You become the new master of this floor.]
[Promotion Reward: 200G acquired!]
"Oh. More money than before?"
It was 100 gold higher than what I'd gotten for killing the slime.
Seemed like it went up by 100 gold per floor.
At this rate, I'd be raking in absurd amounts later on.
[Level Up! 2Lv → 3Lv]
[Stat Points +3!]
Stats still going into STR and AGI and SEN.
[STR stat increased by 1.]
[AGI stat increased by 1.]
[SEN stat increased by 1.]
"If it's this easy, then floor 4 should be…"
Thinking that, I immediately stepped onto the staircase leading to floor 4.
Floor 4.
[Defender: Cave Bat (4F)]
This time, a bat.
Bats were definitely trickier than oversized rats.
"Feels like it's getting a little stronger with each floor…"
Fwap fwap!
The bat swooped around the ceiling, tracing erratic paths through the air.
Swish—! Whoosh—! Slash—!
I swung the scythe around like I was waving a bug net, and before long I managed to land a hit.
"Got you!"
Shrieeek—!
The bat, sliced by the scythe, dropped with a thud.
[Floor 4 Cave Bat Defeated]
[Victory in a duel against the floor's guardian. You become the new master of this floor.]
[Promotion Reward: 300G acquired!]
[Level Up! 3Lv → 4Lv]
[Stat Points +3!]
STR, AGI, SEN again.
[STR stat increased by 1.]
[AGI stat increased by 1.]
[SEN stat increased by 1.]
"Oh. Something feels…"
Subtle, but my body felt lighter.
"Alright, let's go!"
No need to pull up the Gallery again.
My stamina wasn't drained, and everyone had said there was no useful info on floors below 100.
Floor 5.
[Defender: Poison Toad (5F)]
A grotesquely bloated toad was winding up to spit something at me.
"Ugh!"
I lifted my foot and sidestepped.
First ranged attack pattern I'd encountered.
But the wind-up was way too slow.
Crunch!
I slammed the scythe down before it could fully inflate.
The toad, split in half from the head down, melted away.
[Floor 5 Poison Toad Defeated]
[Victory in a duel against the floor's guardian. You become the new master of this floor.]
[Promotion Reward: 400G acquired!]
[Level Up! 4Lv → 5Lv]
I wasn't even breathing hard.
The Floor-574 Anon was right—brainless auto-attacks were enough to plow through everything.
Alright, stopping here for now.
I pulled up the hologram panel in midair.
____
Title: Cleared floor 5. Dumping everything into STR/AGI/SEN is actually pretty comfy?
Author: Anon (5F)
{Photo of defeated floor 5 monster}
Parked on floor 5.
Easy, just like Floor-574 said.
______
The moment I hit refresh, comments started flooding in.
[Comments]
Anon (418F): ???????????????
└ Fenrir: What the hell, not even an hour and you're on floor 5?
└ Anon (211F): Absolute freak talent wtf lmaooo
└ Anon (148F): 4 floors in one day is genuinely insane lol
Anon (741F): How are you just casually stomping 4 floors above your own?
└ Anon (339F): The mobs below floor 100 were just trash to begin with lmao
└ Anon (574F): Exactly.
People were starting to trust Floor-574 Anon's theory.
└ Anon (431F): Without that guy, we'd be watching the newbie meditate for a week straight.
But there were still worried voices.
Anon (435F): Isn't this too reckless though? One slip and you're dead.
Anon (505F): Pace yourself, newbie;;
Makanong: Please don't push yourself too hard ㅠㅠ
Then a familiar username appeared in the comments.
"Ugh…"
Death Note Grand Canon: Begin your meditation at once!
└ Death Note Grand Canon: Do you not wish to learn an instant-kill skill?
└ Anon (143F): 'That guy' has entered the Gallery.
└ Anon (431F): Let them climb a bit first lol
Instant-kill skill.
The sheer appeal of those words was immense.
Death Note Grand Canon: Are you aware that the Death God race can learn an instant-kill skill with just a single circle?
└ Anon (651F): The sales pitch has begun lmaooo
└ Anon (344F): Wait, is that actually true? An instant-kill with 1 circle?
Oh ho. So an instant-kill skill wasn't some endgame ultimate—it was something you could learn right from the start.
Anon (513F): Looks like he was planning to tell you later but got impatient lol
Death Note Grand Canon: Had you invested all your stats into INT, the time required to learn it would have been considerably reduced! By as much as 20 percent!
└ Anon (635F): Started out all dignified and now he's throwing out specific numbers lmao
20 percent, but no point regretting it.
I was going to dump into INT from here on out anyway.
└ Anon (5F) (OP): I'll start meditating now, Master.
└ Anon (431F): Why'd you suddenly get all wholesome
└ Anon (317F): Just keep climbing, you said it was all one-shots.
└ Anon (5F) (OP): I will keep climbing. But I wanna try meditating once too.
Continuing to poke at that Death God's nerves wouldn't be smart.
There was a lot I'd need to learn from him going forward.
So this was…
Call it goodwill management.
I closed the hologram and planted myself on the floor of floor 5.
"Let me just get a feel for it."
I had absolutely zero intention of meditating for a whole week.
No telling when the hero might start climbing from below.
I just wanted a quick taste.
I crossed my legs, closed both eyes.
'Focus on the dantian… draw out the circle…'
I breathed in deep and let it out slowly.
Stillness settled over me.
1 minute.
2 minutes.
3 minutes.
"Ah, screw this…"
My eyes snapped open.
I was losing my mind.
No progress whatsoever—I was too restless to sit still.
"Okay! Giving up! I'll meditate after I put points into INT."
I jumped to my feet.
Time to go earn some stat points.
'At least spend the ones I've got saved up.'
[STR stat increased by 1.]
[AGI stat increased by 1.]
[SEN stat increased by 1.]
"Oh…something…my vision…"
Stats were strange—every time I allocated them, I could feel the difference immediately.
If just +1 each felt like this, what kind of monster would I become later?
'Requesting floor advancement.'
I climbed the stairs to floor 6 with a light step.
[Defender: Horn Beetle (6F)]
A massive insect encased in a hard, glossy carapace.
Clang—!
I leapt and brought the scythe down, tearing through the shell.
[Floor 6 Horn Beetle Defeated]
One-shot.
[Victory in a duel against the floor's guardian. You become the new master of this floor.]
[Promotion Reward: 500G acquired!]
[Level Up! 5Lv → 6Lv]
[Stat Points +3!]
"Hmm. Maybe I don't need to allocate stats anymore?"
That thought crossed my mind.
If the mobs were this weak, there was no need to keep investing in STR and AGI.
And while I'd need to raise INT going forward, there was no rush to do it preemptively.
'It's a safety net.'
There might be emergencies where I'd need to dump everything into HP or STR.
And next time I opened the Gallery, there might be a better direction or more fitting build advice.
'Not that I distrust the Death God teacher, but…'
I headed upward.
Floor 7.
[Defender: Cave Spider (7F)]
Hisss!!!
Another bug.
Oh wait, spiders were arachnids, weren't they.
The spider spat white solid threads from its mouth.
I just hacked through the webbing and everything attached to it.
"Definitely overpowered."
Kreeee!!!
[Floor 7 Cave Spider Defeated]
[Victory in a duel against the floor's guardian. You become the new master of this floor.]
[Promotion Reward: 600G acquired!]
[Level Up! 6Lv → 7Lv]
[Stat Points +3!]
'Holding stats.'
Floor 8.
[Defender: Death Worm (8F)]
A gimmick where it burst up through the ground beneath my feet.
At level 1 I might've panicked, but the power of just +4 SEN was remarkable.
'STR/AGI efficiency was genuinely insane.'
I drove the scythe straight down vertically into the head as it erupted from the earth.
[Floor 8 Death Worm Defeated]
[Victory in a duel against the floor's guardian. You become the new master of this floor.]
[Promotion Reward: 700G acquired!]
[Level Up! 7Lv → 8Lv]
[Stat Points +3!]
Still one-shotting everything.
No reason to hesitate.
'Requesting floor advancement.'
Floor 9.
[Defender: Dire Hound (9F)]
This one looked a bit mean.
It bared its teeth and charged straight at me.
But it was moving at the speed of a regular dog.
Crunch!
[Floor 9 Dire Hound Defeated]
[Victory in a duel against the floor's guardian. You become the new master of this floor.]
[Promotion Reward: 800G acquired!]
[Level Up! 8Lv → 9Lv]
[Stat Points +3!]
After clearing floor 9, my breathing had picked up just a little.
'Kind of want to dump into STR/AGI.'
Just for a moment, that urge hit me.
Up through floor 5, I'd been able to feel the scythe getting lighter and my body getting faster with each allocation.
But right now, I felt no sense of growth at all.
If I'd kept dumping into STR, I'd probably be some kind of monster swinging this scythe without any recoil by now.
But instead I was just coiled up, holding back.
And then, finally.
I went to open the door to floor 10…
Actually, I didn't—I opened the Gallery instead.
The number 10 felt dangerous somehow.
Every mob had been a one-shot, but still.
By the universal law of base-10, this was the kind of floor where a mid-boss could show up.
It might be stronger than floor 11.
I opened the Gallery.
Writing a post.
______
Title: [Warning: Human-ish Face] Status report.
Author: Anon (9F)
{Full-body photo of a silver-haired girl with a giant scythe resting on her shoulder.}
[STATUS]
Race: Death God (死神)
Floor: 9
Level: 9
STR: 18
AGI: 23
HP: 7
INT: 15
SEN: 22
MP: 16
LCK: 9
DEF: 3
MDEF: 13
Remaining Stat Points: 12
Trait: Unawakened
Skills: None
Weapon: Death Scythe
Was about to lose my mind meditating so I pushed through to floor 9. Sorry, Sensei.
But everything was a one-shot so you don't need to worry?
Only put 1 point each into STR/AGI/SEN up to floor 5, been holding all points since floor 6.
Is there a sudden difficulty spike starting at floor 10?
Should I dump all 12 saved points into INT now and start meditating?
______
The moment I hit post, comments came flooding in.
[Comments]
Anon (148F): ????????? Did you take an elevator?
Anon (418F): Floor 9?????? What the hell you're on floor 9???
Anon (599F): Can you please report in every single floor instead?
Anon (248F): N e w b i e i s u s i n g t e l e p o r t a t i o n
Anon (312F): So floors below 100 really are complete trash huh lol
└ Anon (134F): This is true but the newbie's getting a bit too cocky, let's not overhype it
Anon (741F): Holding stats and freepassing to floor 9 is genuinely unhinged.
└ Anon (431F): Real, the concept of saving stats is something I've literally never seen before;
Among the comments, the first to appear was the teacher, absolutely furious.
Death Note Grand Canon: You fool! Focus on drawing out your circle at once!
└ Anon (612F): The newbie is literally a baby…
└ Anon (341F): And what happens if the hero shows up while you're meditating lmao
Below that, a comment that sounded like someone wiping cold sweat.
Fenrir: Jesus;;;;; holy shit my heart nearly stopped. Still, stopping before floor 10 was genuinely the right call. Take a breather there for now.
└ Anon (9F): Is there actually a sudden power spike every 10 floors?
Fenrir: Nothing like that, just take a break already;;;;
└ Anon (414F): He's anxious about the hero climbing up lmao
So there was no sudden spike every 10 floors.
Then, a long comment appeared.
Death Note Grand Canon: It is impudent that you defied your master's orders and acted on your own… but I shall at least commend your spirit for not fearing death.
└ Anon (431F): Did he just take a sedative?
└ Anon (621F): He's trying to coax the newbie along lol
└ Anon (351F): Doing everything he can to get them to meditate, it's honestly kind of pitiful lmaooooooo
Death Note Grand Canon: Pour all 12 of your remaining stat points into INT! Do so, and your meditation time will be drastically reduced!!
└ Anon (9F) (OP): I'm sorry, Master ㅠㅠ When you say drastically, how much exactly?
└ Death Note Grand Canon: It will be cut by more than half, at the very least.
"50 percent means…"
If I had any talent, three and a half days.
"…That might actually be doable?"
Being 9 floors away made the anxiety about the hero feel a lot more manageable.
And after fighting monsters, I'd developed a real hunger for skills.
└ Anon (9F) (OP): I'll accept your teachings from now on, Master!
└ Death Note Grand Canon: One more act of insubordination and I will excommunicate you.
└ Anon (377F): Newbie shows some respect and he immediately flips the power dynamic lol
└ Anon (315F): Gonna be "just twice, just three times, just four times" from here on lol
└ Anon (9F) (OP): I'm genuinely going to work hard;;
I made that promise and was about to dive into meditation.
But then.
A username appeared that cut through the entire flow in one stroke.
Anon (574F): Hmm.
└ Anon (312F): ?
└ Anon (418F): Why does this feel ominous
└ Anon (199F): The big brain has entered the chat
Refresh.
Anon (574F): If everything was a one-shot, you could probably push to floor 50. Don't rest, keep going
A bomb had been dropped.