@Galatheus Maybe in this game, non-physical beings typically do less damage than physical ones. Ex. ghosts doing less damage than zombies. Alternatively, shadow beings already existed and were known to not do much damage. Being a pro at gaming doesn't mean he knows everything about every game...
As a separate comment, the “how are they so strong? They’re just shadows” quote makes me think of Solo Leveling and how all the undead are “just” Shadow Soldiers.
Assassins are usually focused on speed and one hit attacks to kill a target. After all, it's not much of an assassination if you have a drawn out battle that could alert nearby people. It's not very unusual that it would have high damage or defense piercing.
EDIT: Backstabs are also a good...
He says “I’m glad this place hasn’t turned into a dungeon yet,” implying it will in the future. If it has turned into a dungeon, his “uncle” would be getting a lot of money, and he probably doesn’t want that. So he’ll give him money that seems like a lot, but is much less compared to the value...
Maybe it'll be revealed in the next chapter that his feelings of surprise are more in line with "skip so many floors and artifacts? what a waste". As a regressor, he can easily find the locations of the artifacts while climbing, making him more equipped to deal with the 99th floor.
@Wimbo101 There was actually an image of Braham already.
I don’t know where it came from, but I saw it first here: https://overgeared.fandom.com/wiki/Braham.
@Harmonie Ertha already knows what kind of person the duke is. She knows he'll try and monopolize her powers and kill her. She isn't in a position to fall in love with him.
I haven't read the novel, these are just my observations based on previous chapters.
The people on page 3 behind Marcus don't look that impressive despite being top contributors. Perhaps the three other slots within the top 10 were filled by random people who simply hunted a lot.
@ShinSekai I don't think it's a murder counter, but rather a kill counter. The Sword Saint probably thinks of them as the same, and such uses them interchangeably. However, what Kim Gong Ja did would more be one murder and many suicides.
For a second there, I thought it was the "friend" from ten years ago who died. However, the names and appearances are too different. The "friend" had brown hair and was named Bang Cheon Woo, while this person has Song in their name.
This means the "friend" will likely appear later in the story.