He lowered his weapon slightly, his eyes scanning the entire perimeter of the red-hued cave with a look of pure disappointment.

He ran a hand through his hair and muttered in a low, annoyed voice, "No drops..."

He stood entirely still among the scattered carcasses, shaking his head in disbelief.

He honestly didn’t know whether to laugh or cry at his incredibly bad luck right now, finding it hilarious and tragic that he could butcher an entire pack of elite C-rank beasts and walk away with absolutely nothing but experience points.

He had intentionally fought all thirteen of the ferocious sabertooths on this floor without using his powerful Radiant Ascension skill in order to strictly conserve his remaining mana pool.

He knew that leaving such a demanding transformation active would have drained his reserves far too quickly, especially since he still had to navigate the higher floors of this dungeon.

Because of that self-imposed restriction, clearing this massive red-hued floor wasn’t as easy as the last one had been.

He had simply used his base swordsmanship, as well as Crescent Slash, which didn’t consume as much mana.

That effort was precisely why him getting absolutely no item drops from the entire pack annoyed him so much.

There was absolutely nothing he could do about his terrible luck right now, though, except pull himself together and keep moving steadily forward.

Dwelling on the low drop rates of the dungeon wouldn’t help him grow any stronger, nor would it change the empty status of his current item inventory.

He tightly gripped the glowing handle of Excalibur to shake off the lingering fatigue.

’Onward to the next floor.’ he thought.

He wasn’t actually sure how many floors were hidden in total within this specific C-rank dungeon, as he had jumped into the portal blindly without any official brief.

Standard dungeons usually had anywhere between three to ten individual floors in total, and the absolute last floor was always where the terrifying boss monster would be waiting to guard the core.

Clearing that final room was the only way to successfully conquer the dungeon, seal the gate on the surface, and claim the ultimate treasure hidden inside.

The exact information regarding the estimated number of floors on this specific dungeon would be fully known by the rival guilds outside, since it was part of the standard metrics that could be accurately predicted along with dungeon gate appearances using advanced magical radar technology.

The guilds always did their homework before deploying their player parties, ensuring they knew exactly how many supplies and personnel to bring along.

Since he had completely and illegally entered the dungeon perimeter by bypassing their security perimeter, there was simply no possible way for him to know these details, as such confidential corporate data wasn’t usually leaked to the unawakened general public.

Leon quickly shook the useless thoughts from his head, keeping his eyes focused on the path ahead as he scanned the dark corners of the rocky cavern.

He soon found the familiar glowing gate to the next floor of the dungeon standing silently at the very end of the red pathway, and he confidently walked straight into its swirling light without a single trace of hesitation.

Leon safely materialized on the other side of the spatial barrier, his eyes quickly adjusting to the lighting of the new environment.

This third floor was actually remarkably similar to the last one he had just cleared, except it fortunately had significantly fewer ordinary sabertooths roaming around the red-hued rocky area, numbering only seven in total.

Lying lazily at the very far end of the wide floor, though, was a particularly large, terrifying sabertooth tiger that immediately commanded the entire room’s presence.

This monstrous creature was almost two full times bigger than any of the other standard beasts he had fought so far, its muscular body looking like a massive wall of striped fur and raw physical power.

Its enormous fangs were also about twice as big as those of the ordinary sabertooths he had effortlessly butchered on the previous layers, measuring nearly two feet in length.

Furthermore, these massive ivory teeth had some strange, jagged reddish-brown lines running all over their sharp surfaces, pulsing faintly with a cruel, bloodthirsty energy.

Leon’s eyes instantly shone with a brilliant, intense light as he locked his gaze onto the giant creature.

A wave of pure excitement washed over his mind, and he thought confidently, ’The boss monster!’

If the monstrous beast’s significantly bigger physical size and terrifying, jagged fangs hadn’t already completely confirmed its high-ranking status to him, then the system information tab floating quietly above its head definitely did.

[C+-rank Sabertooth Tiger]

[Dungeon Boss]

Leon’s lips instantly curled into a wide, eager grin, completely replacing the frustrated expression he had been wearing just a few moments prior.

He tightened his firm grip around the glowing handle of his legendary blade, and he thought deeply to himself with immense anticipation, ’Finally... another drop is waiting for me!’

Despite the incredibly huge beast standing menacingly across from him, and the terrifying, jagged fangs currently bared in his direction, all Leon could see at this very moment was his next guaranteed legendary drop.

Any ordinary player would have felt a deep sense of dread facing a C+-rank dungeon boss alone, but Leon felt nothing but pure, unadulterated greed.

This fearless attitude was because monster bosses were universally known to be the only specific type of monsters with a guaranteed drop rate attached to them upon death!

Unlike the ordinary minions that could be incredibly stingy with their loot, a dungeon boss was a walking treasure chest waiting to be cracked open.

It didn’t matter at all what specific rank the dungeon was, or how much terrifying strength the boss monster possessed, they all mathematically had a flawless one hundred percent item drop rate built directly into the system.

Knowing his unique SSS-rank talent would instantly extract a legendary-tier item from that guaranteed drop, Leon stared at the giant beast as if it were already a pile of valuable treasure resting at his feet.