It was almost as if the massive dungeon boss could actively sense the greedy, mocking thoughts swirling inside the intruder’s head.

The giant beast slowly raised its heavy, muscular head from the cold stone floor, its glowing crimson eyes locking tightly onto Leon’s position before it let out a truly deafening, earth-shattering roar that violently shook the entire reddish cavern structure.

The moment their leader roared, the seven other ordinary sabertooth tigers stationed around the boss immediately growled incredibly angrily at Leon, baring their sharp fangs in perfect unison.

They moved with a terrifying, synchronized coordination that was completely absent from the mindless beasts he had encountered on the previous floors.

They soon scattered across the red rock floor and swiftly circled all the way around his physical body, effectively trapping him completely in the exact middle of their hunting formation.

Their heavy paws padded silently across the dirt as they formed a seamless, unbreakable ring of claws and teeth around the young swordsman.

Leon’s sharp eyes narrowed into focused slits beneath the dark shadow of his thick hoodie as he calmly noticed thi development.

He kept his feet firmly planted on the ground, his mind quickly analyzing the pack’s movements, and he thought, ’These specific ones... are actually a little bit intelligent.’

On the previous floors of the high-rank dungeon, the corrupted monsters had simply and mindlessly charged directly at him in a reckless, straight line the very second they caught sight of him.

They had lacked any form of tactical awareness, acting purely on their wild, bloodthirsty instincts to shred whatever was in front of them.

These seven, however, made absolutely sure to trap him securely in their middle first before launching any offensive strikes.

By establishing this tight perimeter, they ensured he couldn’t easily escape or dodge their incoming attacks, forcing him to defend himself from every single direction simultaneously.

Leon guessed that this slightly higher level of battlefield intelligence was entirely due to the direct presence of the C+-rank boss monster itself.

The massive leader was undoubtedly the one telepathically controlling their movements, acting as the centralized brain of the pack to maximize their combat efficiency against human intruders.

Suddenly, without a single warning, all seven of the surrounding sabertooths fiercely charged forward at Leon at the exact same time, coming at him with explosive speed from all imaginable angles.

They leaped through the air with their jaws wide open, their sharp claws fully extended to tear his flesh to absolute pieces.

Leon remained completely unbothered by the incoming wall of teeth and claws, his grip tightening firmly around the handle of his legendary weapon

. He raised Excalibur high into the air above his head, the divine blade humming with a massive amount of hidden energy as he thought, ’Tornado Fury!’

The moment the skill activated within his mind, he immediately and smoothly swung the great sword in a massive, violent three hundred and sixty degree horizontal arc around his entire body.

The sheer momentum of his powerful swing whipped up a massive current of air that completely dominated the immediate space.

Dense, roaring golden flames instantly surged out of the sharp edge of the legendary blade, rapidly spinning around his standing figure in a truly powerful, towering tornado of fire.

The blazing vortex expanded outward in a fraction of a second, creating a massive shield of absolute destruction that lit up the entire red-hued cavern.

The colossal fiery tornado completely consumed all seven of the lunging sabertooth tigers mid-air before they could even touch a single thread of his black clothing.

Their sudden, desperate grunts of immense agony were instantly swallowed up and muffled within the loud, roaring sound of the powerful divine flames burning through their thick hides.

The devastating golden tornado kept violently swirling around Leon’s body even after successfully killing all of the surrounding monsters, incinerating their physical forms into absolute ash.

It continued to spin for a few more seconds, completely dominating the battlefield before finally calming down and peacefully dispersing into thin air, leaving nothing behind but smoking debris.

Leon’s eyes shone with excitement beneath the deep shadow of his black hoodie, and he thought triumphantly, ’I actually did it! I perfectly managed to control the skill this time!’

The last time he had deployed Tornado Fury, which was during the chaotic moment when he first got his hands on Excalibur, things had gone completely out of hand.

Back then, he had unknowingly and recklessly poured far too much raw mana into the activation of the skill, resulting in a truly catastrophic golden tornado that had aggressively torn apart and completely destroyed the entire structural integrity of that previous dungeon.

It also killed Ran and all his party members, but since they had been the goal of the attack then, he wasn’t complaining.

This time around, though, he made absolutely sure to carefully and precisely control the magical output of the advanced skill.

He achieved this delicate balance by explicitly communicating his intent to the legendary sword, mentally telling the divine weapon exactly what he actually wanted it to do on the battlefield instead of just swinging the heavy blade wildly in the air.

He honestly hadn’t fully expected his experimental method of mental control to work out so perfectly on his very first try, but the legendary blade had actually responded to his thoughts beautifully.

It had condensed the destructive swirling flames into a localized zone, completely incinerating his immediate enemies while keeping the surrounding cavern walls perfectly intact.

As the dense smoke from the dissipating fiery vortex slowly cleared away into the high ceiling, a fast-paced sequence of translucent system notification boxes instantly flashed right before his focused vision.

[C-rank Sabertooth Tiger killed!]

[+150EXP]

[C-rank Sabertooth Tiger killed!]

[+150EXP]

[...]

[...]

A couple of these rewarding system notifications flashed rapidly back-to-back before him, confirming that all seven of the ordinary guardian monsters had been completely wiped out of existence by his single strike.

The massive influx of experience points pooled smoothly into his level container, bringing him that much closer to his next milestone.

The massive monster boss suddenly stood all the way up from its resting position at the far end of the cavern, its entire muscular body vibrating with a pure, unadulterated rage.

It bared its huge, jagged two-foot fangs and let out a phenomenally loud, angry roar that was significantly louder and more deafening than the last time it had voiced its displeasure.

The sheer, terrifying volume of the boss’s bloodthirsty roar caused the entire rocky floor of the floor to shake violently, sending powerful shockwaves rippling through the dense atmosphere.

The intense vibrations immediately caused a few heavy, jagged stones to break loose from the high ceiling and crash heavily down onto the ground below, while large chunks of solid rock came peeling completely off from the reddish cavern walls.

The colossal C+-rank apex predator slowly and menacingly turned its massive upper body directly towards Leon’s standing position, its glowing crimson eyes locking onto the human intruder as it growled incredibly loudly.

The deep, rumbling vibration in its throat was so immensely powerful that it made the air itself feel heavy and difficult to breathe.

Leon looked up at the terrifying mountain of striped muscle and ivory teeth, a wry smile automatically forming on his face as he adjusted his combat stance.

He tightly gripped the glowing golden handle of Excalibur, his eyes widening slightly as he took in the true scale of his opponent, and he thought casually, ’Damn, this thing is actually even bigger than I thought when it’s fully standing up...’