The fifth floor was the graduation zone of a green newbie to just a newbie.
This was the second time I had been on this floor now, the change of the grey stone walls to the more earthen brown stone was a good contrast.
It made the dungeon itself feel less artificial almost as if you were actually underground rather than just wandering around the labyrinth corridors of a highrise building.
The other difference was the shift in monsters.
No longer did Kobolds, and Goblins appear.
Now there were Killer Ants that appeared In fairly large numbers compared to the goblin packs roaming the halls, and then there was the newbie killers.
The war shadows.
The true graduation test for newbie, survive the war shadows throughout the fifth through seventh floors and you would graduation from being a newbie to a true adventurer.
Now if Neme had the guild provided guide he would be instructed to only reach this floor after his stats had reached rank G at minimum.
But with his Strength and Agility already surpassing S rank, this floor was an easy culling ground for him.
Having only briefly reached the fifth floor the other day, he still had a good number of monster lives to reap before he advanced down the dungeon further.
His hammer remained his primary weapon of choice, its blunt surface easily capable of dealing crushing blows to the killer ants even with their armored carapaces.
As for the War Shadow, likewise they didn't serve to much of a danger to Neme.
They relied on their stealth to sneak up on adventurers before striking with speed far beyond what a newbie would possess.
But as a fake ranker, Neme was swinging his hammer with reckless abandon.
Ants burrowing through the walls and floor were smashed in the face before they could even get an attack in themselves.
As for the war shadows they were just unlucky monsters each one that appeared was blasted away by the concussive force of his blasts.
The shadows splattering the earthen walls before being absorbed once more, leaving behind only a mana crystal as a reminder they had once existed at all.
Each crystal was larger than those of the goblins or kobolds.
Sadly their boost in size did not mean a boost in stat point gain.
Each stone absorbed was still only worth a single point addition to his status.
His goal for today was to find out the true limit of his status.
Strength was already at 1,000.
When would he no longer be able to allocate stat points to strength?
Where it was now?
Nope doing a quick test he found he could raise it to 1,001.
So would he be capped at 1500 when his stat reached SSS?
Or rising up to the mythical EX rank would it allow growth until 9,999?
That was the goal.
Ultimately even if his stats could rise beyond 2,000 per he wouldn't do so.
The gains from the dungeon were limited, and he was willing to take a hit on his first level up to learn that the kill count for each floor reset or not, before making a decision to devote all his time to optimal level one growth, compared to his other levels.
Worst case he could remain a level one, attaining power of a level five, or six only to finally level up and find that while he was now roughly the same as a level seven but unable to grow any further due to the limitations of his own growth system.
Besides with all except for the top adventurers levelling up around Rank A if possible while only Bell, and Ottar level up beyond S.
Simply reaching EX rank would mean Neme could reach 2-3x the power of even the top rankers.
The other noted advantage of his systems growth method was the absorption of mana crystals.
Sure it didn't help his wallet any, but with it, that meant he didn't need to hire a supporter, or return regularly to the surface every hour or two just to cash out his crystals.
The only thing he needed to carry beyond rationed food and water, was the occasional drop items such as ant mandibles, or the finger blade of the War shadow.
Though his profits would take a hit, even still Neme would manage to walk away from the dungeon with more than 10,000 valis with each dive.
Amounting to 30,000+ valis per day in total.
A more than reasonable amount for a novice, more so when that novice is alone.
Purchasing potions from Miach's shop would eat up a few thousand valis per potion, but you couldn't be without a stock of health or stamina potions, while this would give him a chance to build up a reputation in the store as a consumer, and in time when he gained access to magic he could use that reputation to acquire a stable supply of mana potions.
The other thing Neme was looking forward to as his power grew and the time of his level up approached was the acquisition of a Skill.
Skills were generally received on a 1-1 basis each time someone levelled up they would be able to choose one skill from a list available to be acquired.
Skills typically adhered to whatever the adventurer was doing during their growth period.
For example if you fought only with swords, you'd likely see Swordsman, but you wouldn't see Mage.
Berserker if you fought in bloody battle never giving an inch even when wounded.
If you had a special bloodline you'd see things like Bell's Liaris Freese, or Argonaut.
But for Neme?
Right now he'd expect to see something like Soloist, Swordsman, or Warhammer.
Given his activity in the dungeon these last three days, though…
After he slays a god, would a new skill appear?
It would be the first time in recorded history that an adventurer not corrupted by Evilus had slain a god afterall.
With Evilus corrupted humans possessing mana crystals and increasing their ranks similar to monsters rather than by using Excelia like the races do.