Chapter 10: Pride's downfall.

-Goblin Crawler Dungeon-

The Goblin Crawler Dungeon was situated to the south of Frozen Cavern Town. It was surrounded by a large forest and had its entrance at the foot of a giant mountain in the middle of the forest.

Outside the entrance of the Goblin Crawler Dungeon, a ton of slime monsters roamed about with some parties hunting some of them.

"H-Hey...isn't that the Dark World party?" some of the adventurers hunting the slimes recognized Nash's group.

"Holy shit. They're with the Dark Swordsman!" another adventurer recognized Alex. "They're being taught by an Advanced-rank Swordsman! That's so unfair!!"

"Do they have a new member? Who's that blonde Human?" a man with a particularly keen eyesight caught Nash's figure from within the group.

"He's not converted to the Dark? I thought they all converted to the Dark to join the party." a man said as he casually killed a slime.

"All of them except for Rob, Rebecca, K. and the Dark Swordsman were born to the Dark. It just so happened that all of them except for the Demon are Darks." a knowledgeable Adventurer said as he stared at Nash with a smirk. He was an info broker in Frozen Cavern Town and he has been looking for a blonde Human with blue eyes and an arrogant air around him for a while now. 'The brat's got protection now, huh?'

"Alright." Alex spoke to the party as they all lined up in front of him. "As everyone here knows, while Nash has Master-rank Mage knowledge, he's a Low-Tier Novice-rank Swordsman. What I want you guys to do is judge him as harshly as you can."

Alex then turned to Nash. "What I need you to do is kill two Slimes."

"Alright." Nash started stretching.

"W-What are you doing?" Alex looked at Nash with squinted eyes.

"I'm stretching. No matter how strong or weak a monster is, you need to make sure that you're always in peak condition for the fight. You'll be turning in your grave if a Tier 0 monster killed you because your leg cramped up in the middle of the fight." Nash said as he finished stretching. Even he, as a Master-rank Mage, always stretched and did some mental exercises before fighting even the weakest Tier 2 monster.

Nash smiled as he unsheathed his longsword on his waist. He slowly approached two blue slimes just sitting on some grass.

"Listen up." Alex whispered to the Dark World party. "He was a Low-Tier just two days ago, but he's already stepped into Mid-Tier. Whatever you do, don't tell him that. I don't want him to get even prouder. That Master-rank knowledge won't do him any favors as a Swordsman Class."

"What?!" Rob's eyes widened in shock. As a Swordsman himself, he knew how wide the gap between Low-Tier and Mid-Tier. It was even wider than the gap between Mid-Tier and High-Tier! Low-Tier Swordsman Classes literally just swing their swords like a stick while Mid-Tiers would be recognized as master swordsmen back on Earth. "He must've been already close to Mid-Tier!"

"No. He was trashier than the usual Low-Tier." Alex smirked as he remembered Nash's explosive boost when he fought the Beginner-rank puppet. "Putting aside the unusually fast progression of his swordsmanship, he also has insane Aura control."

"I doubt he's that strong..." Rob scoffed to the side.

"Are you doubting Master, Robert?" Leon glared at the Dark Human with rage behind his fox eyes.

"N-No! That's not what I mea-"

"Both of you, shut up and watch." Natalie grew tired of the two.

As the group was talking, Nash was standing 10 meters away from the slimes. He was analyzing his prey. Nash always used to hunt with Kane back in the day, and if he learned one thing, it was to always watch and be ready.

"What is he doing?" Naetir asked as she watched Nash standing on top of a tree and just staring at the two slimes.

"Is he...analyzing slimes?" Rebecca asked in confusion.

"He must be scared." Rob grit his teeth.

"It would be understandable if he was against a Boss monster, but a slime?" even Leon raised an eyebrow in confusion.

"Alright...let's do this." Nash whispered to himself as quietly climbed down the tree. He then rushed the two slimes with Mana in his legs and eyes.

His muscles in his arms bulged as he quickly swung his sword at one of the slimes.

Whoosh!

The slime split into two and turned to Nash with rage.

Now two small slimes and one large slime looked at Nash, ready to pounce.

'This is what I wanted to test. A fight where you know you're safe isn't a fight at all. What can you do against real danger?' Alex watched with focus.

Nash did nothing to the two slimes and turned to the bigger one and slashed at it too.

'That idiot!' Alex's eyes widened in shock. 'Slimes can't do any physical damage, but they poison your Mana core! A Novice-rank Swordsman doesn't have enough Mana to fight off two slimes' poison!'

Alex pushed Mana into his legs as he rushed forward, but he quickly noticed the two slimes start to vibrate right before they could touch Nash. Then, they started to dissolve as they melted and died, dropping two Mana cores.

"...what the hell?" Alex looked on as Nash split the second slime into two and watched it die too.

Nash picked up the four Mana cores and walked back to the group. "What's your evaluation?"

Alex saw Nash's smug smile and knew that the brat had set him up! He had fought monsters before! "You took too long! You wasted around three minutes to kill two slimes!"

"It takes an average Mid-Tier Novice-rank Mage two minutes to kill a single slime due to its ability to split into smaller and smaller versions of itself. Magic attacks are more effective against slimes than physical attacks, so how long would an average Mid-Tier Novice-rank Swordsman take?" Nash smiled deviously. The man had trained thousands of people, he would've been a fool if he didn't have data complied on certain beginner suitable monsters like slimes!

"It takes around one minute!" Rob blatantly lied.

"Oh! You're saying that a Mid-Tier Novice-rank Swordsman can take one minute to kill a single slime?" Nash's smile widened.

"I'm saying it takes one minute to kill two slimes!" Rob raised his chin as he looked down on Nash.

"Rob...don't fuck with him..." Rebecca whispered in her brother's ear.

"Remind me again...your rank was...?" Nash asked with a confident smile.

"I'm a High-Tier Beginner-rank Swordsman!" Rob smirked.

"Well...Rob...if you can kill a group of 10 slimes in an hour, I will give every one of your party members 3 pieces of Gold Coins." Nash smiled deviously.

"That's easy! You've got a deal!" Rob also smiled. In fact, his entire party smiled. Such an opportunity wasn't easy to get.

Even Alex smiled, yet his smile was different from the others'. It wasn't a happy smile...it was a knowing smile.

The Adventurer's Association repeatedly warned Adventurers from fighting a group of 10 slimes and up. While that warning was for Novices, it held up, even for Alex. He wasn't confident in killing a group of 10 slimes by himself, though he could easily escape or save someone from the slimes' attacks.

The group quickly looked for a group of over 10 slimes.

"I found one!" Natalie reported back as she led her party to the group. She also whispered to Rob on the way. "Rob, we have 7 members in our party including you. That's 21 Gold. More than we make in an entire fucking year. Do. Not. Mess. This. Up."

She also handed him a small potion.

Rob looked at the potion with shock. "Natalie! That's the berserker potion! We only found that thing after taking down that Tier 3 Boss! You almost died for this thing!"

"If I had anything stronger, I would have given it to you! So, win this bet!" Natalie glared at him.

"..." Rob looked at the potion in his hand with hesitation. Then, he sighed and looked at his party leader with determination. "I will pay you back for this in full!"

"You can do that by winning." Natalie smiled as she patted his back. She then turned to the rest and pointed towards the group she found. The slimes looked to be stuck in a pit hole trap that someone set up here. "They're over there."

"I'm gonna do this in less than 40 minutes." Rob smiled. He then threw a wrist watch to Nash and smirked. "You can even time me."

"Oh, I won't need this." Nash chuckled as he glanced towards Alex.

"Alright, let's go." Alex said as gestured to Rob.

"Master, you don't have to go with me. I can handle this." Rob reassured his teacher.

"I need to inspect your progression up close." Alex lied as he dropped into the hole that was about 10 meters in diameter. Alex looked around him and raised an eyebrow. 'Who the hell would make a hole this big just to capture some slimes?'

Rob dropped down too and immediately rushed towards the group of 10 slimes. He immediately slashed at one as it split into two. The two then attacked back as the other 9 slimes came to back it up.

Rob started slicing right and left. He took quite a long time to whittle them down to foot-sized and stomp them to death, even getting a little damaged in the process. He finally cornered the last slime. He took a bunch of breaths as he smiled. "Done in half an hour."

The slime then flattened itself as it rushed towards the 70 small Mana cores laying on the ground. It quickly absorbed every core until it turned a dark shade of red. The blue slime grew from around 10 centimeters in size back to its original 50 centimeters and it grew past it to reach 3 meters in size.

"Oh shit..." Rob cursed as he stared at the monster.

"A Tier 3 Special Boss?!" Natalie yelled in disbelief. Slimes were Tier 0 monsters, so how could one evolve into a Tier 3 Special Boss in a few seconds?

"Alright, the joke is over." Alex said as he grabbed Rob by the waist and jumped up to leave the hole, yet he quickly hit a Mana wall. A chill went down his spine. "A barrier?!"

"An Advanced-rank barrier?! What's this thing doing here?!" Nash looked on with disbelief too. He knew that a single normal slime could absorb 60+ Mana cores to evolve, but an Advanced-rank trap at this level of a dungeon was unheard of to say the least.

"Boy! It might be time to show off that Master-rank knowledge!" Alex yelled as threw Rob to the edge of the hole and lured the Boss to the other edge. He made an active effort to not slice the Boss. The last thing he needed right now was another one.

"I got it! Just hold it there for a while!" Nash yelled as he began to inspect the barrier with Mana strengthening his eyes. 'This isn't going to be enough.'

Nash grit his teeth as he thought of a Spell he had Perfect Cast in the past, the Beginner-rank Mana Eyes!

His teeth began to bleed as he clenched his jaw from the pain. 'Shit! I can't even analyze this fucking barrier with this damn headache!'

Nash's eyes turned bloodshot as he saw Alex struggling and taking a few hits from the Boss. 'Damn it! I can't let those dumbasses die because of me!'

Nash turned to Shinrith and handed him his Mana storage ring. "Fill it all the way up! I don't care if the Mana overflows, just do it!"

"A-Alright!" Shinrith filled the ring with all his Mana. The ring was literally glowing with Mana.

'As expected of a Tier-2 Mana storage ring! It can hold more than 10 times its maximum for a little while!' Nash smiled. He then braced himself. "This is gonna hurt like a bitch."

"..." Natalie's eyes widened as she saw Nash jump into the hole. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!"

"Hey, Darkie! Wipe it out when it splits!" Nash yelled as he gathered the Mana in his ring into his body, his skin turned into a very dark red. His actions were reckless and they almost caused his entire body to explode! Just a little more Mana and he'd be dead!

"Are you insane?! You're only going to make it worse!" Alex glared at Nash, yet the boy paid him no mind as runes appeared in the air in front of him. He was Perfect Casting his most helpful Spell, the Advanced-rank Mana Short Circuit!

The area around the Boss turned blue as Mana stopped working in that area. The slime's body turned back into blue as its body shrunk back to its original size.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!" Nash screamed in pain as he held his head. As soon as he hit the ground, he broke his shoulder, yet he continued screaming as he rolled on the ground.

Nash's screams woke Alex up as he turned towards the slime and immediately killed it with an Advanced-rank Skill named Lightning Swipe. Lightning escaped his sword as it devoured the slime, not even allowing it to drop a Mana core.

"Shit..." Alex cursed as he rushed to Nash's side. He yelled to K. who was at the top looking down into the hole with the rest of the party. "K.! Come down here, now!"

K. nervously dropped down.

Alex quickly threw him a Tier-3 Mana core. "This will help you out for the next week or so. Now, help the kid!"

"A-Alright!" K. got to work as he healed Nash. As soon as a little bit of Nash's pain was relieved, he fell unconscious.

"What a monster..." Shinrith, as the best Mage here, recognized Nash's Spell as an Advanced-rank! While he could Cast an Advanced-rank Spell, his limit was Low-Tier Advanced-rank Spells that were the better versions of Spells he already knew. Meanwhile, the Spell Nash just used was a Peak-Tier Advanced-rank Spell that started at the Advanced-rank and was refined throughout time until its most advanced form reached the God-rank! The Master-rank was used frequently even by God-rank powerhouses!!

Shinrith truly recognized Nash's strength now. Had he not awakened a Swordsman Class, Nash might be someone even Alex could only look up to. "I need to make him my master..."