@Longhatruong

I understood you literally meant stronger, but I see you actually meant capable of defeating one. About that, not really.

To begin with, Bell was faster, but not by big margin. And I do not mean it just because of the numbers, but in regards to performance as well. Bell barely managed to dodge and intercept attacks. He was also using a trick he learned from Ais in that by hitting the side of the blade he gave himself space to slide past its attacks.

So Bell's dodges weren't a matter solely of speed, but he was using technique as well. Furthermore, even then the problem was that fighting like that was quite dangerous, as it is described as a method that leaves no room for error. Of course, it does mean there is a possibility that a Level 1 with an agility stat basically in the S999 limit pulls this strategy off, but even then that's not all there is to it.

Another issue with the Minotaur is its resilience as it is mentioned that, even if a weapon pierces its skin, there is a good chance it would get stuck in its muscles due to how dense they are. And well, losing your weapon against such a threat is pretty much a death sentence.

The Hestia Knife actually helped with that too. It being Bell's only weapon actually capable of injuring the Minotaur made it be wary of it, which Bell even used to perform a feint in order to take its sword and therefore actually start to hurt it.

And while the Hestia Knife grows alongside Bell, it does not mean its quality is just as good as his level. In DM18 for example it endured a clash with Ottar's sword despite the two levels gap. Meanwhile the Minotaur easily destroyed Bell's baselard despite it proving useful against all Level 1 monsters Bell fought.

So Bell had going for him his speed, technique and weapon. Besides speed (as you mention a theoretical full S999 adventurer), considering how big of a deal Ais' training is meant to be it is at the very least debatable if a regular Level 1 would be as skilled. And a regular Level 1 is also definitely not going to have a high class weapon either.

Personally I'd still say the Minotaur is "overall" basically a low Level 2 monster. I mean, even the Guild says rank G is good enough to navigate floors in which they appear. Having strength and endurance stats within the same league definitely helps, though I'd assume that the speed gained from being Level 2 is the major factor (all attacks are useless if they just can't land).

Ultimately Bell's fight was an anomaly. What allowed a small opportunity of victory was that, for as much of a Level 2 the Minotaur is, its speed is still Level 1 tier. And Bell was a completely extraordinary Level 1. This is just my take, but if the Minotaur actually had Level 2 tier speed I don't think Bell would have stood a chance.

So I'd say it depends in what you mean by "weak Level 2". If you mean a monster who is overall a weak Level 2, but whose abilities are nonetheless all Level 2 tier, I don't think a Level 1 could defeat it. But if you mean one who has at least one Level 1 tier "stat" (maybe specifically agility), then there is a slim chance. So long as you get a really, really good Level 1 that is.

@Longhatruong

I don't see how this makes stats seem important again.

If the minotaur had a strength of 1980 at level 2 and couldn't overwhelm a level 1 like Bell, isn't this conclusive proof that having a strength of SSSSSSSSSSS1980 is just as significant as having a strength of H:100-200? which would be what it showed in battle since it was just something stronger than Bell but nowhere near enough to overwhelm him.

Even if we accept Rigel and AP24's proposal to subtract 1000 points from those numbers under the assumption that the numbering system is different for monsters, the minotaur would have a strength of S980 (level 2) and Bell would have a strength of I(0-100) as level 2 (barely), and still not overwhelmed him. So this would clearly show that having max stats only gives a small advantage over someone with min stats, so I don't see what the great importance of statistics is!

Maybe if you reach a certain high amount of stats it already gives you a higher level power, then there is a clear importance there; but not when the level is the same between the fighters.

@Leinad91

Your argument of "the minotaur strength stat was higher than bells but he still lost, so stats don't matter" makes 0 sense because bells method for fighting the minotaur was doing literally everything in his power to avoid confronting it's attacks directly, and the narration clearly states if he failed even once he'd die instantly.

And the only reason this was possible for a level 1 bell was because of his great agility and the minotaurs terrible agility (for a level 2).

@Efficient-430

But Bell didn't dodge all the attacks, he blocked several of them using Ais' technique. To block you need strength comparable to your opponent's, otherwise they will break your defense.

And if we go to the numbers you would have an opponent with maximum strength for his level and another with minimum strength, which is an indication that having the same level puts you in the same league regardless of the stats, and that's assuming that Bell's strength was already level 2, the stats would be even more irrelevant if Bell could deflect the minotaur's sword even with level 1 strength.

@Leinad91

The Minotaur did overwhelm Bell and was vastly stronger than him. It is mentioned a bunch of times that each of its attacks would be a killing blow if it managed to land. It is also stated there was no chance he could meet one of its attacks head-on, hence why he didn't parry and instead deviated its attacks.

@Rigel31415

To deflect an attack you don't need the same strength as your opponent but it can't be negligible in comparison either. The minotaur's strength was 1980 or 980 depending on the interpretation, but either way it was maximum for a level 2 and Bell would barely be a level 2 and maybe not even that.

So Bell could collide against a maximum strength while having a minimum one, so I don't see what the great importance of statistics is then, if a blow with a strength of 1980 can be deflected by a strength of 0.

@Leinad91

Ais technique of hitting the side of a strike to redirect it isn't a block and it's entire purpose was to avoid confronting the full force of a attack.

Again we're we're straight up told bell is in no way close to the minotaur in strength and a single hit would turn him to paste.

It still isn't that he was making a great deviation, but small ones that helped him just enough.

Quote: The impact of Bell’s knife created just enough space for his body to slide past the Minotaur’s attacks. It was a keen strategy, but there was absolutely no room for error.

The Xenos "four" was listed as a level 5 on the website, but he was defeated very easily by a level 5 adventurer in dix. I always took this to mean that the "level" of a monster is supposed to represent the level of an adventurer required to be able to "safely" defeat the monster.

For example, I can't really imagine even a fresh level 2 Welf losing to a minotaur 1v1. Of course, it's fair to say most of the adventurer's we see in combat are going to be the more "exceptional" ones, so it's hard to say for certain.

Edit: Perhaps this just gives more value to dexterity as a stat. Dexterity is by far the hardest stat for me to quantify it's advantage in a fight.

@DingoDongo4

Although Agility does help, but I think the reason Bell could have dealt with Minotaur's attacks so far is their massive gap in dexterity. Normally, I just take dexterity as how skillful one perform their action physically.