The Goblins rushing toward him did not frighten Roy. Instead, a smile of excitement appeared on his face.
Back home in the Kingdom of Rakia, Goblins would sometimes run out of the forest, so Roy was not unfamiliar with these monsters, whose attributes were roughly similar to those of an adult human.
Roy drew the Village Good Sword. The silvery-bright blade shimmered, reflecting the Goblins' ferocious faces.
The Goblins charged mindlessly, trying to bite him.
Roy retreated, creating distance. After clearly observing the Goblin's movements, he swung his sword.
The sharp blade landed on the Goblin, easily splitting its forehead and tearing apart its small body.
It turned out that Roy had underestimated the Village Good Sword. In the upper levels, this thing was practically a Divine Weapon. His set of movements was clean and decisive, and in the blink of an eye, all the Goblins were slain.
Bang!
There was no blood splatter. The bodies of the four Goblins burst apart and vanished into thin air, leaving several fragments of purple Magic Stones, the size of little fingers, scattered on the floor.
Roy squatted down and picked up the Magic Stone fragments, putting them in his pocket. He didn't lack the money, but this was the reward from his first monster kill.
Magic Stones were the core and source of power for monsters. Therefore, attacking the Magic Stone was the most effective way to defeat a monster. The Guild collected the Magic Stone fragments and used their energy to create various convenient items.
Soon, the wall bulged slightly.
A few more monsters leaped out. The first floor of the Dungeon had only two types of monsters: Goblins and Dungeon Lizards. Even Level 1 adventurers could easily deal with them.
What's more, Roy held the Village Good Sword, worth hundreds of thousands of Valis. Fighting on the first floor felt like cheating.
No skill, just pure stats!
After spending half an hour, once he had adapted to the monsters on the first floor, Roy walked down the staircase and quickly broke through to the second floor. The environment was no different from the first.
He heard a faint sound from above.
Roy looked up and saw a giant lizard on the ceiling, staring back at him with blood-red eyes.
The lizard monster was a Dungeon Lizard. It had rough brown skin, a horizontally split mouth, and a long, slender tongue darting out. Its entire body was about 1.5 meters long. This was a low-level monster found on Floors 2 through 4, similar to Goblins or Kobolds.
Whoosh!
The lizard monster quickly crawled in front of Roy, opened its mouth, and its tongue shot out like a spear, aiming for his head.
Roy tilted his head, dodging the incoming tongue. He thrust his sword-wielding right hand forward. The blade easily pierced the lizard's coarse skin, running through its body.
Bang!
The lizard monster shattered, and Magic Stone fragments fell.
Relying on the sharpness of the Village Good Sword, which almost completely ignored the defenses of upper-level monsters, Roy could kill a monster with a single strike. He shook his head and smiled. Too powerful equipment can lead to over-reliance; he now understood that saying.
However, in the Dungeon, refusing to use powerful equipment would be the truly foolish thing to do.
Roy continued forward.
After killing more than a dozen lizard monsters and Goblins, Roy smoothly entered the third floor.
The Dungeon was exceptionally quiet. Conversations and footsteps were magnified. When he encountered other adventurers along the way, Roy would put the Village Good Sword away beforehand.
Wealth is not to be flaunted. The upper levels were very close to the surface, but it was still hard to guarantee that no one would harbor ill intentions.
[Strength: 0 → 5 (I)] [Endurance: 0 → 8 (I)]
Just then, two status panels appeared before Roy, and a smile spread across his face.
He had guessed that his attributes were due for an increase.
The way ability values increase could also be described as targeted behavior. For instance, Endurance increases with more beating, injuries, and stress. Correspondingly, running and grip exercises would increase Agility and Strength.
Killing nearly twenty monsters resulted in a total ability increase of only 13, but that wasn't entirely Roy's fault.
His Agility was already as high as 600 (C), so the increase from killing these small monsters was negligible. Dexterity, on the other hand, was improved through skill training. Since Roy spent the entire time using the Village Good Sword for one-hit kills, it would be a miracle if Dexterity increased.
Roy was not discouraged. He didn't need a God; he could update his ability values in real-time after killing monsters. This feature alone gave him a huge advantage over other adventurers.
The deeper one ventured into the Dungeon, the larger the space became.
When Roy entered the fifth floor, there was a noticeable difference compared to the first. The passages were wider, and it resembled a complex labyrinth. The frequency of encountering other adventurers began to decrease.
Bang!
The wall shattered, and seven or eight Werewolves jumped out. They were about 1.6 meters tall, covered in fur, with sharp fangs and claws. They stood on two legs and, unlike the previous monsters, they were holding wooden clubs—they possessed weapons.
Roy's eyes grew fiery.
Rumble!
These Werewolves showed no fear of death and charged with a momentum that suggested an army of thousands.
Roy felt a surge of pressure. Strictly speaking, this was his first real fight; the previous one-hit kills could not truly be called battles.
Whoosh!
The leading Werewolf arrived first, smashing its wooden club toward his head, creating a whistling sound as it cut the air.
Roy raised the Village Good Sword and struck directly. The sword, which could cut through metal like mud, sliced the wooden club in half the moment it made contact, and then split the Werewolf behind it in two.
Bang!
The bisected Werewolf burst apart, and Magic Stone fragments dropped.
The instantaneous kill did not frighten the other Werewolves. Their green eyes became even more ferocious, like ghost fires, as they rushed him from the left and right.
Although his combat experience was limited, Roy knew he couldn't leave his back to the monsters. He continuously retreated, always keeping the monsters in front of him.
Roy gripped the sword hilt tight and performed a wide horizontal sweep, easily severing two Werewolves at the waist.
Just then, a Werewolf suddenly darted out from the darkness, its eyes glowing with a faint green light.
Roy was startled. He subconsciously stepped back and raised his arm to block.
A cold flash streaked past.
The Werewolf's sharp claw sliced a shallow cut on Roy's forearm, causing blood to splatter.
The sharp pain jolted Roy's mind, bringing him instantly back to full awareness. His survival instinct surged forward.
Roy thrust his long sword into the Werewolf's chest, hitting something solid. The Werewolf's body stiffened and instantly burst apart, dropping fragments.
"Damn it!"
Roy cursed under his breath.
Sometimes, one couldn't rely solely on paper statistics. Certain things could only be discovered in actual combat.
The 600 attribute points he gained after defeating Douma were allocated too hastily. He should have divided the points between Agility and Dexterity simultaneously.
Simply put, high Agility only allows for a straight dash. To flexibly evade monster attacks in battle and retaliate effectively, Dexterity is also needed.
When this Werewolf suddenly attacked, he couldn't dodge because his Dexterity attribute was too low.
Roy quickly regained his composure. He could gain plenty of attribute points by farming monsters in the Dungeon anyway.
This "failure" was a good lesson.
If it were an ordinary adventurer, they would likely be full of regret, but in his case, it was called Displaying Room for Error!