"Goblins are one of the weakest monsters in the upper floors, with their strength being slightly more than an average human. Their intelligence on the other hand is on rock bottom."
"I can clearly see that."
Ken drying remarked, sidestepping to avoid a goblin's claw, before pivoting on his heel to slash the goblin's neck in a single strike. A shrill, agonized screech escaped its throat before its lifeless body collapsed in a heap. Without even stopping, he dashed towards two more goblins who were raring to attack at him, only to drive his sword through both of them at the same time.
One of the two goblins also disappeared in smoke and from it, a small crystal dropped on the ground. The male picked it up before safely putting it inside a piece of cloth which had been brought from the guild's storage room. The fabric served a single purpose of carrying the stones and monster drops he would be collecting in the dungeon back to the guild to exchange them for valis, in other words, his income.
Suddenly something jumped from right above Ken while he was paying attention to the crystal, only for Ken to raise his sword to pierce through the airborne threat. With a downward sweep of his blade, he flung the impaled creature aside.
"Dungeon Lizard." Tet commented on seeing a brown, quadrupedal lizard monster with sucker discs on its feet, looking more annoyed and in pain. It wasn't happy at all, as its ambush wasn't successful at all.
'This level of ambush isn't enough.' He thought to himself as he took down the lizard monster before it could climb back on the walls. Once a dungeon lizard climbs on the walls, it's very difficult to hunt down for beginner adventurers.
Landing the first strike on dungeon lizards is extremely difficult. It cannot be taken down when it is crawling on the walls. If one needs to take down the monster for good, they would need to have good reflexes and exceptional response time to counter attack at the right moment when the lizard tries to ambush them. Many beginner adventurers tend to have trouble with the dungeon lizard's unpredictable ambushes. Even if its attack patterns are predictable, the ambushes cannot be easily predicted.
"How much further do you plan to go today?" Tet asked, only to be met with silence in regards to this question, something he had expected.
The God of Games and Mischief knew that Ken ventured inside the dungeon mostly unplanned regarding the matter of how many floors he was going to descend into. Having a decent idea of his personality, it figured that Ken was most likely trying to test his own limits as a human without a Falna.
The only thing the God was unsure about regarding whether Ken would throw himself in the jaws of death right after gaining a second chance at life or would retreat when the need would arise for it.
Not replying to the question, Ken went ahead to collect the monster loots and magic stones, which he would be selling in the guild. Having learned that his armor set alone was worth 3000 valis and the sword costs up to 500 vals, he was more than aware that one cloth bag worth of monster loots and stones wasn't going to cut it.
The sound of stomping from the darker corners of the cavern interrupted Ken's collection work and he grabbed the hilt of his sword tightly, waiting for whatever was coming to show itself. He tugged the cloth bag at his waist, before taking a simple stance. He didn't have to wait for long as the source of the stomps revealed itself.
"Is it one of those Strengthened Species you talked about?" Ken inquired his gaze fixated on the goblin in front of him. This goblin had quite a good number of scars on it and even wielded a spiked club. Moreover it was taller and seemed sturdier than the goblins the swordsman had faced up until now.
"Yes it is one of those. Though it should be on Floors eight or nine, not here." Tet had no clue why a monster usually found in much lower floors was here in the upper ones. These floors were usually meant for beginner adventurers and beginners can't face a Strengthened species right away.
That aside, Tet did not commit the mistake of considering Ken a beginner especially in terms of his skills. The deity was more concerned regarding the overall balance of power in the dungeon.
"Just what sort of crappy luck do you have?" Tet mused, earning just a dry chuckle from Ken.
"Shall we test out who has crappy luck?" Right after finishing his retort, Ken jumped ahead to close the distance between himself and the goblin. He swung in a horizontal arc only to meet the goblin's club head on. 'Decent enough.'
Not bothering to lock himself in a stalemate, Ken landed a roundhouse kick on the goblin's face, sending it staggering to the side. The latter almost flinched before narrowing its eyes and rushed in with its club raised and a battle roar. Meeting the club with his sword, Ken grabbed the goblin by the face and slammed it down on the dungeon floor with a jump.
The green humanoid monster, in an attempt to break free and avoid the killing blow coming in the form of a sword aimed directly at its throat, hastily swung its club, striking Ken's left side, sending the adventurer skidding backwards across the floor.
"You were saying something about luck?"
As if to prove that Ken's luck was worse than he assumed to be, more goblins came down from the corner from where the strengthened goblin emerged. Without giving the swordsman a chance to rethink his attacks, the goblins charged with their weapons. Throwing any sort of strategizing out of the window, Ken rushed in, clashing with the goblins with his eyes locked mostly on the strengthened one and its movements.
With not even a single wasted movement, Ken dodged or blocked the goblins' attacks and at the same time countered them. He focused on striking each of the goblins down with a single fatal strike. Once again it was only him and the strengthened one were left.
The latter wasted no time in clearing the distance between itself and the adventurer, whom it assumed was worn out from dealing with so many monsters at once.
The goblin was gravely mistaken.
The human ducked at the last second, avoided a straight hit in the head before slashing the joints in its legs to throw the goblin off-balance before following with a double slash right on the torso, making an X-cut on the goblin's body. The goblin's eyes went blank as it fell on the ground with a thud.
"I shall gladly take back my words regarding your luck." Tet commented with a whistle. "I was talking about the crappy luck of these poor goblins."
Rolling his eyes with a very faint smirk, Ken stabbed his sword on the dead goblin's torso and slightly shifted it as if searching for something inside the monster's corpse. When his sword hit something that wasn't flesh, he knelt and pulled out a magic stone, somewhat bigger than the ones he had collected before. The moment he pulled out the stone the strengthened goblin's body dissipated into smoke.
He then moved forward with other goblin corpses, pulling out their fangs and storing them on his cloth bag. The fangs of the goblins were considered as monster loot and could be sold in exchange for valis. Soon enough his bag had reached its capacity from all the loot and magic stones collected from floors one to four.
"Guess that's it for today?" Tet asked seeing Ken narrow his eyes at the bulging bag as if it had committed a personal offense for being in full capacity. "By now it's already nighttime outside."
"But not midnight. We can still explore a little more before hitting the rest hour." Ken replied back after tying his cloth bag with his sword's scabbard. "I am not tired yet so we can head in further."
With his business concluded on the fourth floor and having defeated some more monsters, Ken soon made his way into the fifth floor of the dungeon. One of the significant changes in the surroundings of the fifth floor was the lighting on the walls. In the first four floors the lights were of light blue color and starting from the fifth floor, the lights changed to a light green color. The structure also changed significantly compared to the previous floors.
'This should be enough for the day. I am out of essentials anyway.' Ken had not only taken equipment and weapons on loan from the Guild but had also borrowed some money from Rose herself to get him some basic supplies such as plain bread and water. He had planned to spend a significant amount of time in the dungeon to understand its nature and how it functioned. Starving or dehydrating himself wasn't on his list.
He did plan on returning that money along with the payment of his equipment.
Finishing the last few sips of water left on him, Ken continued to walk down the given pathway, his left hand resting on the hilt of his sword and all five of his senses on high alert. A lesson he learned from all the encounters he had with monsters in the first four floors was that an adventurer cannot let their guards down at all costs in the dungeon.
Dungeon is just another battle-!' Ken halted at the sight of shadows gathering right in front of him before taking the form of a humanoid monster with long, slender arms. In both of its arms were three claws, almost as sharp as knives.
"War Shadow also popularly known as Newbie Killer." Tet informed with a certain smugness in its voice, along with a little bit of excitement. It wanted to find out how Ken would fare against the monster known for sending many newbies to the afterlife.
The moment Ken drew out his sword, the War Shadow had already closed the gap between them and thrusted its claws, aiming for Ken's shoulder. The latter rolled to the other side in the last second, the claws only grazing his shoulder. Still the first blood had been drawn by the monster.
Said monster didn't give the swordsman any time to recover, already rushing in, brandishing its claws. This time though Ken was prepared as he deflected and parried the claw attacks with his sword. Even with a single sword, he was keeping up with the War Shadow's attacks, parrying the claw attacks no matter which side they came from.
The only problem was that he was struck on the defensive. The attack pattern of the monster was simple enough but its speed was on par with his, and each of its claw attacks was backed by strength. He got a quick understanding of why this monster was regarded as a newbie killer.
A clean claw swipe at his chest made Ken jump back a few steps to create some distance between them. Blood began dripping from his wounds yet his focus was mostly on his foe. He admitted that the enemy was strong but not undefeatable in his current level.
He took a low stance before dashing ahead at full speed. Reacting to the incoming adventurer, the War Shadow raised its hand to bring it down upon its attacker when he would get in range. As soon as Ken entered the range of the monster, the latter brought down its claw on him, only to hit nothing but Ken's cloak which he had thrown off his shoulder at the last minute.
Before it could register what happened, its head had already been severed from its body. Ken had managed to create a blind spot using his cloak and taking into account the simple and instinct-based fighting style of the monsters. They weren't intelligent enough to improvise in the middle of a battle and that worked in his favor.
"Take the claws. They are good materials for making decent knives or blades." Tet circled around Ken's head.
Nodding, Ken followed his advice, breaking away the claws from the monster's fingers and packing them up in his bag. Even if his primary weapon was a sword, knives could serve as good hidden weapons.
Taking a look at his now ripped cloak, Ken visibly sighed before ripping it off into two, tying one around his right shoulder and the other around his chest as a makeshift bandage to stop more blood from flowing out.
The injuries weren't serious but he still made a mental note to get himself treated. He wondered if the Guild had any medical facilities or would he need to look for that in the city.
"Let's head back." Ken spoke before heading down the same path he came from, seemingly satisfied with his current progress.
What he wasn't aware of was the fact that he had achieved more than what a Level 1 adventurer usually achieves in the dungeon. Besting a strengthened species and a war shadow wasn't something that beginners are capable of, especially on their first dungeon dive.
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Entering the Guild building, Ken was welcomed with a flying paperweight, aimed straight for his jaw. It would have landed on its mark, if not for him catching it midway.
"That wasn't the welcome I was expecting." Ken muttered, sparing a glance at Rose who was the perpetrator behind the flying paperweight.
"Welcome? Do you see the time? Do you know how late you are?" Rose scolded with her arms crossed. Her eyes travelled to his chest and right shoulder. Letting out a breath, she started walking back to her table, motioning Ken to follow her. "Visit the pharmacy of Dian Cecht Familia to get yourself treated."
"Noted." Ken replied. He looked around to see the guild building was more or less empty, with fewer employees and adventurers around. 'Guess it's the closing hour.'
"Color me surprised, you actually managed to earn enough to pay off for your equipment." Rose spoke out, surprise and awe evident in her tone, after calculating all the magic stones and monster loot he had brought with himself. It had been a long time since she was impressed by an adventurer's performance.
It also felt nice to be proved wrong for the first time and at the same time, she felt glad about her gamble paying off.
"Here's your promised license and 3200 valis." Rose added, putting forward a bag of coins and his legally approved adventurer license. She kept aside another bag of coins, the payment for his armor and sword. "Congratulations Ken."
"Yeah, congratulations." Tet added, happily floating on top of his head.
"Thanks." Ken thanked both of them and grabbed his license and the bag of valis before turning around to leave. He then stopped midway, a lost facial expression on his face. "Do you know of any place where I can stay?"
"Huh?" Rose asked with a raised eyebrow. "What do you mean a place to stay?"
"Well I need a place to sleep and all that." Ken stated with a plain face as if he was telling something very much obvious.
"I thought you had already looked for that before coming to the Guild." Rose's palm met her face when Ken simply shook his head. 'So the first thing he does after getting into Orario is not look for a house but jump headfirst into the dungeon…'
"What sort of place are you looking for?" Rose asked with an exasperated sigh, momentarily giving up all sorts of hopes she had held for him even for a fleeting moment.
"Somewhere with less noise, more privacy, little to no rent and definitely no roommates." The swordsman put forward his conditions, only for Rose to smack herself on the face with an audible groan.
"There is an empty, rundown, abandoned warehouse in the western part of the city. You don't need to pay rent though you might need to do some cleanup." Rose informed.
"That's literally perfect." Ken replied, his eyes gaining a sudden shine to them, hearing about the specifications of the warehouse. He wouldn't mind a little cleaning at all for a residence like that.
"Well whatever floats your boat." His slight excitement didn't go unnoticed by the manager but she chose not to question it. "Also pay a visit to the Guild tomorrow again. I need to make a report on your monster hunts and record them."
"Sure."
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