The opportunity to seize the initiative had already been missed.
What was more, he had even drawn all of the aggro of the mutated kobolds onto himself. As a result, the tactics for what followed would have to be adjusted in a technical manner.
That was what Ron was thinking.
He raised the brass heavy shield in his left hand and gripped a rapier in his right, facing the encirclement by the three hounds in a defensive stance.
"Were the past two days already on hard mode, and today the Dungeon has started ramping up the intensity again?"
He knew clearly that if he wanted to leave the Dungeon, he had to kill all of the mutated kobolds in front of him. More importantly, there could not be too many mistakes—otherwise, after revival, the monsters would camp his corpse.
And at that very moment—
With a low, hoarse snarl, one of the kobolds was the first to launch a probing attack at Ron, trying to pounce on the detestable human from an undefended side.
However, the same trick did not work a second time.
He spun around swiftly. When facing the monster, he used the inertia of the brass heavy shield to raise his arm and launch a shield counterattack straight at the kobold's hideous, ferocious head.
Bang!
Skull and metal collided violently, producing a dull, heavy sound.
Borrowing the force of the impact, Ron directly knocked the mutated kobold's body flying several meters away, perfectly exposing an opening right before his eyes.
Seizing the brief moment as the monster staggered to its feet, he gripped the rapier in his hand and, without the slightest hesitation, delivered the finishing strike to the kobold.
The third-tier armament produced by the Hephaestus Familia was more than sufficient even for adventurers exploring the middle floors—let alone the shallow floors.
Even if the monsters had been strengthened by the Dungeon.
"…"
Ron only felt a sharp pain surge from the webbing between his thumb and index finger. Immediately after, there came a strange sensation, as though stabbing into jelly. His gaze focused on the tip of the rapier.
At this moment, it had already pierced straight through the kobold's skull.
Along with the slight trembling of the blade, the monster—its brain matter thoroughly churned—completely turned into dark gray dust and vanished from his field of vision.
"There are still two left."
There was no need for any contest of wits at all.
As long as his reaction speed could keep up with the monsters, and he had a firm grasp of the key technique of "shield counterattack," dealing with them was not as difficult as he had initially imagined.
The taut string in Ron's heart finally relaxed a little.
But in the next instant—
A powerful sense of danger surged forth like a tidal wave.
He turned his head and abruptly discovered that a mutated kobold had already silently crept into attack range and was lunging straight for his neck.
Trying to slip past the armor's defenses and tear the enemy's throat apart with its sharp fangs.
Use the same move as before?
Ron knew clearly that there was definitely not enough time. All he could do was follow his instincts—rolling and twisting his body, then slamming the brass heavy shield vertically into the ground.
The same method, repeated once more.
Bang!
"There's one left."
After clearly confirming the number of monsters, and coordinating with the defensive counterattack tactic centered on "Shield Thrust," Ron took less than three minutes to completely crush all the monsters present, until the final mutated kobold thoroughly turned into dust and dispersed.
The cave passage returned to silence once again.
Only his panting remained—after all, he was carrying a brass heavy shield and had to tangle with the monsters and counterattack; the demands on stamina were extremely harsh.
If this were a Soulslike world, the stamina bar definitely would not be enough.
"Did I… survive?"
In the previous two Dungeon explorations, he had first run into the elite goblin's fast-slow slashes, and then been cold-shot from behind by a goblin archer.
Every time he explored the Dungeon, he had to expend a use of Revival.
Those briefly ended adventures meant Ron did not get any effective improvement in his ability values, but today's Dungeon exploration was obviously different.
With an excited feeling in his heart, he picked up the drops.
[Soul Shards +4]
The dark purple magic stone was about the same size as the ones dropped by goblin creatures; if taken to the Adventurers' Guild, it could be exchanged for 4,000 Valis.
The key was the Soul Shards.
The key item Ron cared about most—once he saved up enough, he could exchange them for a random character card.
"The number of Revival uses still hasn't been consumed."
"It feels like today I can still stay on this floor and find some lone monsters to deal with. Ideally, I'll use that random character card within these two days!"
Ron had not been blinded by joy.
In addition to improving his strength, there was another important commission in Dungeon exploration: helping Airmid verify whether the new potion had any side effects.
He lowered his head and examined carefully.
On the outer side of his thigh where it was not covered by armor, his pants had already been torn open by a kobold's claws, and the blood that flowed out had soaked a patch of the area.
But the good news was that the pain had already disappeared.
Even the flesh that had been torn away by the monster's claws had slowly healed during the recent battle, leaving behind only a faint, light-brown scar.
"Is this medicine really that effective?"
"…"
Ron carefully recalled the sensations from when he had just drunk the potion.
His stomach had felt as though it were being burned, using an extremely extreme method of pain transference—forcing the injured person to ignore their original wounds and focus on fighting?
He could not really explain the specific principle.
Aside from that, as for the potion's so-called side effects—he only felt an unmistakable sense of nausea in his stomach, but it was something he could ignore through sheer willpower.
There was also an overwhelming sense of fatigue.
"I just don't know whether this kind of report will satisfy Airmid."
After checking and confirming that the mutated kobolds had not left behind any additional drops, he rested briefly, then once again advanced toward the deeper part of the current floor.
This was a stage-by-stage improvement.
Perhaps for ordinary adventurers, the first floor was not worth lingering on at all, and it was even less likely that anyone would stumble twice at the hands of goblins.
But Ron remained thoroughly engaged.
He had a strong premonition that after a Dungeon adventure of this intensity, his ability values would definitely see a decent improvement.
And then—
Facing a sudden cold arrow shot from the depths of the darkness, Ron skillfully used the brass heavy shield to block it.
Like a mad dog, an elite goblin wielding a curved blade was swiftly cut down before him, as Ron used the combination of the brass heavy shield and the rapier to easily kill the monster.
The Soul Shards continued to accumulate.
However, the deeper he explored into the floor, the stronger the unease in his heart became.
"Nothing should go wrong… right?"
Ron cautiously walked to the end of the passage. What appeared before him was an extremely flat and open area. When he looked back, he could see that many cave tunnels were also connected around it.
And directly ahead—
A staircase slanting downward into a deeper floor stood there, already marking the endpoint of continuing forward.
The second floor.
Even though he still had remaining uses of Revival, he had no intention of taking risks. If he were ambushed by monsters on the return trip, surely he could not be burning Soul Shards just to revive, could he?
But before he could think any further—
Accompanied by a fleeting sense of dizziness, Ron could feel movement coming from the Dungeon itself, to the point that even his mind could not help but tremble.
This was absolutely not an illusion!
And just as he became alert to his surroundings, the distant wall ahead violently collapsed. Thick green arms slowly extended out from the cave-in.
Then after that—
Forcing its way straight out from within the wall and appearing before Ron's eyes was a colossal figure rarely seen on the beginner floors, and also an old acquaintance of his.
A goblin.
The monster's physique was extraordinarily massive; compared to it, even a Minotaur would seem rather shy.
Clearly realizing that this was some kind of trick the "Souls-style Dungeon" was pulling on him, Ron unconsciously slipped into a player's perspective and abruptly lifted his head.
This big fellow in front of him—surely it wouldn't be called—
"Goblin Guard," would it?
"Brother—if something's up, I'm taking off first!"
---
I will post some extra Chapters in Patreon, you can check it out. >> patreon.com/TitoVillar
---