Splash—!!
The defensive light barrier stopped the Minotaur's cleaving battle axe.
Leon's final killing strike landed dead-on the hole in the Minotaur's body that had been pierced by the spear of light, widening the wound into a cracklike gash.
With more black blood dripping out—and with the Siphoning Wind behind it continuing to draw blood—
the Minotaur finally lost too much HP. With a heavy, muffled crash, it toppled to the ground.
But its huge bovine eyes were still open.
The battle axe in its hands still twitched violently, struggling as it tried to muster what little strength remained.
Leon stepped on its bull head, pointed the sword downward, and drove it in hard.
Pfft.
The sword tip pierced its right eye, plunged into the skull, stirred three circles, then slowly withdrew.
After finishing the kill, Leon didn't relax. He kept himself tightly wound and highly alert to the surroundings. He endured the pain—this was the moment when other monsters were most likely to ambush.
He calmly took out the rabbit jerky he'd prepared in advance and chewed it while standing atop the blood-soaked corpse, the stench of gore rolling up in thick waves.
Iris, seeing this, didn't find it "too bloody" that he ate on top of a monster. Instead, she felt a surge of admiration.
That habit of staying vigilant after a fight—he was clearly a reliable adventurer. A mature one.
Leon quickly reviewed his expenditure: both mana and stamina were still at about half, and the main issue with his injuries was pain rather than serious damage. A water healing spell could ease it; the rest just needed time.
In his own assessment: passable.
If Iris hadn't been there, the moment he encountered a powerful monster he would've run immediately. Simple reason—having a ranged teammate who could heal and support was completely different from his previous lone-wolf situation.
Also, recovery potions for mana, stamina, and HP were outrageously expensive—and lifesaving in emergencies. A small bottle cost fifty gold coins. In this fight, he'd only spent half his mana and didn't need to burn a "save-your-life" potion, which was clearly the result of good tactics and good coordination with Iris.
It proved that although Iris still suspected him, her combat discipline and character were as reliable as Leon had always known.
Now they needed a place to recover mana and stamina—and harvest the spoils.
At present, Leon only had enough spare funds to keep one HP recovery potion on him at all times.
Mana and stamina recovery had to come from eating.
As a side note: if stamina and HP plummeted, mana regeneration also slowed.
For ordinary people, mana recovery was usually more than half again as slow as stamina recovery.
Fortunately, Leon had the passive skill High-Speed Mana Recovery, so his mana regen was roughly on par with stamina regen in daily conditions.
As long as his stamina didn't crash into the gutter, the recovery rate was excellent.
With meat available, an hour of rest could restore 10 mana.
A normal first-tier human could recover at most 3 mana per hour. If they ran their mana dry, they'd need half a day just to recover.
To recover even faster, Leon would have to wait until his Mage class advanced—or class-change into an elementalist.
Because mana recovery took time, Leon's rule to Iris had always been: once mana dropped below half, report immediately—shake off the current blocking monsters and quickly find a safe place to rest.
Before long, Leon finished the rabbit jerky.
Whew. That hits the spot.
Even though his mana and stamina hadn't recovered much yet, his body felt fuller, steadier.
Huh?
That was when Leon noticed other updates on the panel.
[A perilous battle—evasion is king, life and death ignored: Agility +1]
[Technique "Phantom Step" (Tier 2) has evolved into "Flashshadow Step" (Tier 3)]
[Primary Stats: Vitality 30 / Mana 27 / Stamina 30 / Strength 31 / Agility 40]
"So it's agility that went up."
Leon stroked his chin, a little surprised.
Real combat and training were the best ways to raise stats.
But Leon's agility hadn't increased for over half a year—he'd probably already hit his current class's agility cap.
On the other hand, he wasn't surprised that Phantom Step evolved early into a third-tier technique. Combat usually boosted skills strongly—especially at low tiers, where growth rates were high.
And as for the relevant skills in his Phantom Walker and Mage classes, he'd already trained them to the point there was nothing left to grind; it was entirely possible for his skills to outpace his tier, building deeper class foundations.
In any case, it was good news.
An early skill evolution meant his Phantom Walker class had met the foundational conditions for tier advancement—he only lacked a suitable advancement item. If he could find one on monsters, the breakthrough would likely be excellent.
But there was another issue he needed to consider.
"Yesterday when I took the Trickster class, everything except agility rose immediately… so the agility bottleneck shouldn't have lifted."
"Does that mean my agility was already too high, so the gains only show up through training?"
After thinking it through, Leon could only conclude that his agility was already high enough that the class change hadn't immediately added more; it required training or real combat to touch that part of the cap.
While thinking, he turned to look at Iris and saw her patrolling other angles of the cavern, eyes sharp.
No slack after the kill—she'd immediately secured the perimeter while he executed the finishing blow, preventing surprises.
This was the future demigod Iris.
Even without being tempered by blood and fire yet, she already had a solid, disciplined style.
This teammate was good.
"Iris—how is it? Any monsters attracted by the fight?"
"Not for now," Iris said as she returned after a circuit. "The Minotaur's presence might be too oppressive—other monsters heard the commotion but didn't dare come to scavenge. Or they just haven't arrived yet."
By this point, Leon had pulled a skinning knife from his pack and started cutting into the Minotaur's hide.
This was valuable stuff.
That hide was the root of the Minotaur's high magic resistance and physical resistance.
Even though the silver sword and spear of light had punched several holes into it, with some repair and reforging it could still be turned into a solid second-tier leather armor—worth two or three hundred gold coins.
Sold as raw material, it would likely still fetch seventy or eighty gold.
If it were undamaged, the value could easily double.
That was the value of powerful monsters.
A normal second-tier monster's hide might only make a first-tier leather armor at best. Some monsters didn't even have any useful parts at all—meaning you only earned the guild's subjugation reward or bounty, with profit not even reaching a few gold.
And that was exactly why Leon and Iris teaming up mattered.
Either of them could reach this depth alone, but to defeat a Minotaur, both would have to burn through gear and supplies heavily—and if their execution slipped, there was even the risk of being surrounded by other monsters. Successfully retreating would count as a win.
Dungeon exploration, at its core, was an activity that balanced economics and training.
Whether your strength improved or not was one thing.
But if you couldn't turn a profit, couldn't obtain your target item, and instead lost money on gear and supplies, you couldn't keep doing it.
"Leon… you're not dual-classed. You're triple-classed, aren't you?"
Just as Leon was nearly done cutting the hide, Iris—who had been watching with her hands behind her back—suddenly spoke.
Leon's hands paused. Then he replied,
"Since we're teammates now, I won't hide it. As you can see, yes—I've awakened three extraordinary classes."
That was the truth.
Leon then finished the last cut, took out potion and silk cloth, and began wiping away the blood residue clinging to the hide.
"Iris, I hope you'll keep this secret for me. I believe you can guess: using divination, I learned many secrets—and because of those secrets, I gained knowledge about multiple extraordinary classes and managed to awaken three. But that will absolutely offend the court and the church—those who monopolize hidden knowledge."
Busy wiping, Leon didn't see Iris's expression.
It was unusually complicated.
There was the confirmation of her suspicion, the deep respect of having her view of Leon refreshed yet again—and also the sense that her doubts had been validated.
So… was the "off" feeling I had before—the suspicious parts—because he was hiding this? But hiding this is reasonable, isn't it? Or… does Leon truly just need a reliable teammate, purely?
"I understand," Iris said. Her voice carried a gravity it had never had before. "Even with divination, the hardship you endured to obtain three classes must be beyond words. Someone like you isn't someone those knowledge-hoarding elites get to insult. Don't worry—I'll keep your secret."
Iris's mind unconsciously filled in images: Leon seizing every spare moment, gritting his teeth, training relentlessly—sweating through endless practice.
He had talent, yet to overcome humanity's racial disadvantage, he worked that hard.
How worthy of respect…
Those lines, those muscles…
The more she imagined it, the softer her gaze became—almost watery—until she jolted back to herself.
What am I doing?
Iris, be alert! You've only known him a short time. You must examine every suspicious point carefully—don't get tempted again!
She silently repeated a few warnings to herself, suppressing the strange emotions.
Leon blinked.
He was still working on the hide and hadn't looked at Iris.
But beyond Iris's unusually earnest statement, he also noticed another panel update:
[Iris Affection +5. Current Affection: 64%]
That broke past the 60% affection threshold?
Wasn't affection supposed to get harder to raise the higher it went?
Just what on earth did Iris imagine?