About two years after my first triumph against the Orc Lord, any party with me in it was guaranteed to succeed.

In fact, it was at the point where party composition no longer mattered and even worthless hanger-ons could join. Regardless of the conditions, I could beat the Orc Lord without any issue.

I made sure to defeat an Orc Lord every day, and I ended up having a stockpile of gold that grew slowly with every 100 gold I got from winning. 

Since I was now able to kill the Orc Lord every time, I naturally had more opportunities to obtain a Muscle or Bone Compressing Elixir. By now, I could no longer expect to get stat increases from eating one or two elixirs. Instead, I had to eat at least ten to get a stat benefit. 

From my consumption of these elixirs, I had gained 28 ‘free’ stat points in total. This was almost equivalent to the amount of stat points I’d get from six level ups. Thus, I was considered equivalent to a person at level six without really being a level six. 

On one particular day, I ended up choosing the Orc Lord’s Glaive as a reward for winning because no Muscle or Bone Compressing Elixir had dropped. The only reason why I did so was because my wooden spear was on its figurative last legs. In actuality, it was surprising I had lasted so long with a beginner’s wooden spear. Once I began carrying around the glaive as my weapon, people regarded me in a completely different light compared to before. I immediately noticed that it was easier for me to get an appropriate role in parties, so it finally dawned on me that weapons were truly important in the dungeons.

After I obtained the Orc Lord’s Glaive, my attack power increased exponentially. Following that, I ended up with a leather helm, leather gloves, and leather armor. These were all equipment dropped by the Orc Lord.

“Crown Prince…”

“It’s the Crown Prince…”

“Yes, after 5 years, I can finally escape the 5th floor!”

As time passed, my name became more and more well-known. Now, when I began recruiting party members, all ten slots filled up in an instant. Other dungeon explorers also called me the ‘one who leads the path past the 5th floor’ and ‘savior incarnate’. Although I tried to stop the embarrassing nicknames from spreading, all of my attempts were in vain.

Because I didn’t want to make money by hunting orcs like my father, once I finished my daily task of defeating the Orc Lord, I left the dungeon and studied. I had to make good use of my intelligence stat, which was now at 20. Consequently, as a result of my efforts, my grades at school went up. My mother was happy and the number of universities I could attend in the future went up.

From my mother’s perspective, it didn’t matter how much money I made from the dungeon, I still needed to attend a university when I graduated from high school. There was little I could do to change her mind. In addition, the thought of attending a university excited me. Before my intelligence had increased, becoming a university student was a pipe dream for me.

Mhm, if I didn’t think about the problem where I couldn’t get any mana, my life was quite perfect now.

I focused my efforts on the Orc Lord raids and paid little attention to maintaining a social life at school…not that I had much of one to maintain in the first place. To my utter surprise, on one particular day, I was called to meet up at a part of the school that teachers rarely visited.

I was nervous as I wondered if delinquents were trying to pick a fight with me. Instead, a familiar girl had appeared. She was from my class. In complete contrast to her usual cheerful and enthusiastic self, she seemed reticent, shy, and had her head lowered when she approached me.

She stuttered, “I-I like you.”

“… Huh?” I was flummoxed by her confession.

Who? What? This cute girl is saying that she likes…me? Me? She likes me?

I thought she was joking. Even though I had been taking Muscle and Bone Compressing Elixirs that were altering my bulky physique, I was still the person who was once called an orc by a certain bratty girl. When I asked if she was just teasing me, she began crying and ran off.

“Why are you crying!?”

She sobbed, “I-I wasn’t kidding! Wahhhhh!”

After that unfortunate incident, a rumor had spread throughout school that I was rejecting girls. When I came home and told my mother and sister about it, they stared at me as if they had just heard the most ridiculous thing.

“W-What?”

My mother huffed, “You didn’t notice?”

“Oppa... stupid…”

“Eh? Stupid? I’m not stupid anymore…” I weakly defended myself.

“Stupid.”

“Hey!”

An unsolvable mystery was created that day.

About halfalf a year after that incident, I began to wonder whether I truly needed ten party members to defeat the Orc Lord. To test my hunch out, I went into battle with just eight people in the party, but it was still an extremely easy task. The ones who came in with me all had expressions of shock and disbelief when the raid ended.

“It worked…”

“But how?”

“It’s…a bug…”

Bugs referred to monsters that dropped an unusually high amount of gold or a high-grade item that normally would not drop on that floor. They were considered treasures, created from mistakes by the ones who operated the dungeons. But, for some reason, it seemed like I was being treated as a bug.

“Hahahaha.”

“This is no laughing matter, Crown Prince.”

“He’s right, Crown Prince. You should hurry up and head to a higher floor.”

“Stop calling me Crown Prince.” I retorted bluntly and checked the list of rewards. The items that appeared made me so surprised that it felt like I had been struck by lightning.

[1. Orc Lord’s Glaive

2. Power Potion

3. Middle Potion

4. Skin Compressing Elixir

5. Orc Lord’s Boots

6. Muscle Compressing Elixir

7. Mana Potion

8. 230 Gold]

No way! Am I seeing this correctly?

I rubbed my eyes and looked at the list of rewards again. Orc Lord’s Boots had somehow appeared. I had been hunting the Orc Lord for two years and this was the first time it had shown up. In addition, there was something else that surprised me: Skin Compressing Elixir! Coincidentally, I had been pondering about the issue of my skin as it wasn’t contracting at the rate that my muscles and bones were reducing.

Without a shred of hesitation, I chose the Skin Compressing Elixir.

[Skin Compressing Elixir (Rare)

Warning. When someone who has not consumed both Muscle and Bone Compressing Elixirs consumes this elixir, he or she could experience severe pain and permanent body damage. For those who have consumed both Muscle and Bone Compressing Elixirs, this elixir will make one’s stretched out skin tighter and stronger, boosting one’s defense, and giving the skin a clean, smooth texture.]

I immediately ate it, and my constitution stat increased. It was the start of a new grind.

From this, I discovered that when the number of people in the party decreased, new items would appear on the final reward list. When I thought about it, this phenomenon made sense. Quantity decreased and quality increased.

I hunted in a party of eight for a while, then switched to seven, then six, then five. Even with half the number of party members, everything went smoothly. Skin Compressing Elixirs appeared more often, and Muscle and Bone Compressing Elixirs were always an option.

I compressed my body endlessly. The more I repeated the process of eating elixirs, the smaller and stronger I became. By the time I had reached winter break in my 3rd year of high school, I realized that I had gone down in height from 6’10 to 6’2. 

“No way…”

As I stood in front of the mirror, I muttered in disbelief at the sight that greeted me. The mirror was now capable of reflecting my whole body without a problem. Did I somehow become blind to all changes when I was focused on something? Although I washed myself every day, I had only just noticed the remarkable and significant changes in my body.

The person in front of the mirror was a normal young man. No, I wasn’t exactly normal. Anyone who worked out could easily see the abnormal strength that was hidden in my muscles.

In terms of appearance, I could be considered slim, toned, and fit. More importantly, my muscles weren’t repulsing to look at anymore. In fact, it was the exact opposite. My body finally matched my face, which took after my mother’s good looks. Although I felt like I was still a bit too tall, it was nothing to complain about.

“Ahhhh…”

I sighed quietly as I finally felt a sense of fulfillment. It had been a long journey, but I had finally done it. To be exact, I had reached a plateau with the compressing elixirs, so my stats would no longer increase after eating any. So, I quit.

After taking elixirs for almost three years, I had gained a total of 40 stat points: 10 strength, 10 dexterity, and 20 constitution. With my stats alone, I’d be on par with average explorers at level 14.

“Ellos and Palludia must have passed the 15th floor now…”

I murmured bitterly and let out another sigh. The fact that I couldn’t use mana had tied me down to the 5th floor for 3 years. Self-pity crept into me. I then realized that my father must have felt the same when he came to the cruel truth.

It explained why he harped on getting qi at his age.

[Name: Kang Shin     

Race: Human     

Sex: Male

Class: None     

Title: None     

Rank: Bronze 7

Level: 6

HP – 1,940/1,940     

MP – 0

Strength – 34(+2)     

Dexterity – 30     

Constitution – 39

Intelligence – 20     

Magic – 0     

Charm – 16     

Luck – 10

Skill – Low-rank Martial Arts (Master), Low-rank Spear Technique (Master), Mid-rank Spear Technique (Master)]

If any other dungeon explorer could see my stats window, they’d wonder if it was fake for someone at level 6 to have the stats of a level 14. It was a bit unbelievable even for me, but the numbers in the window didn’t lie. 

What was even more strange was that my charm stat had gone up by itself. It was at 7 initially, but it had gone up until it was 16. Since both the charm and luck stats were considered bonus stats, I didn't pay much attention to either stat because I couldn’t distribute points to them. 

Most importantly, my magic stat was still 0. Compared to the HP I had, my MP bar looked completely barren.

The equipment I had was entirely from the Orc Lord. I now had its helmet, chestplate, leggings, boots, gloves, and glaive. I even had an Orc Lord’s Earring dangling from one ear; it raised my strength stat by 2 points.

If I walked around Myeong-Dong [1] like this, would people think I was cosplaying? I quickly erased the thought from my mind. With how the world was these days, it wouldn’t be surprising if someone really attacked me thinking I was a monster.

“It looks like I’m ready.”

Oh, what was I ready for? It was killing the Orc Lord solo!

I had always kept the possibility in the back of my mind. After all, the drop quality increased as the number of explorers in the party decreased. If I succeeded in defeating it alone, what reward would I get? As far as I knew, there was no one who managed to defeat the Orc Lord alone. The reason was simple. Once an explorer defeated the next floor master, it was impossible to go back and hunt the previous floor master.

In other words, explorers above level 11 could not come back to the 5th floor to kill the Orc Lord, and those below that level did not even think about hunting the floor master alone. If there was such a person, it would only be someone who had farmed for elixirs year after year like me. I had asked my father about the elixirs, but he said that as the man in charge of the house, he gave up hunting the Orc Lord and focused on hunting as many normal orcs as possible. Others in the same situation as my father probably did the same as him. As for those who could pass the 6th floor, they did not need to kill the Orc Lord over and over again.

What all of that meant was that I would likely be the first to do this. That is, I should be…or it was that I would like to be.

Trying was not enough for me.  If I was going to attempt this solo, I wanted to succeed. I stood in front of the huge stone door as I pressed down on the Orc Lord’s helmet that I had equipped.

“Ahem… here I go.”

Then, just like 3 years ago, I pushed open the stone door and shouted.

“Orc Lord! Fight me!”