Solomon sprinted for all he was worth. The slope of the hallway gave him wings, letting him run faster than he ever had in his life, just as long as he could keep his feet underneath him. Unfortunately, the slope was also steadily accelerating the boulder that was on his heels.

He could hear the rumble behind him growing louder as it picked up speed.

Part of him wanted to do his best speed bump impression and just hope the boulder didn't smush anything that HP couldn't heal. The sheer size of the boulder, though, made him dismiss that thought out of hand. He wasn't entirely sure it could fit through the hallway if it had to go over him. The last thing he needed was to get his body stuck under another massive rock.

He felt a renewed burst of energy when he saw the X he had scratched into the floor up ahead. Three more steps, then he planted himself and jumped to the side.

His back slammed into the wall at the back of the shallow alcove that he had scouted out before embarking on this plan. He pressed himself back, wedging his hands into the wall and adding what force he could to get himself out of the hallway. The alcove wasn't much more than a foot deep, if that.

The boulder rolled by, close enough that he swore he could feel it brush against the tip of his nose. The air displaced from its passing was enough to suck him right out of the alcove. He sprawled out face first on the ground, facing down the slope.

Fortunately, the boulder was the only thing trying to kill him at the moment. Solomon was free to lie on the ground and enjoy the sensation of the system using his HP pool to heal the abuse he'd put his ankles through. And, of course, to watch the boulder's progress.

Soon enough there was a shattering crash as the boulder reached the end of the hall. Solomon smiled. Just what he'd been hoping to hear. He dragged himself to his feet and made his way down at a more sedate pace.

It was a comfortable walk. Half of his HP might be gone at the moment, but he was in the pink of health. The same couldn't be said for his armored clothing, which was bearing more than a few blood stained scars. Solomon had been using his molding skill to fix rips and tears, but even his supposed "very fine" molding ability wasn't seamless.

He didn't know how he was going to get the blood out. The gear he'd bought didn't seem like the kind of thing you could just throw in a washing machine. Not to mention that he didn't have a washing machine. He'd just have to cross his fingers and hope Mort offered a cleaning service.

Solomon was drawn from his thoughts as he reached the wall at the end of the hallway, a wall that now sported a roughly boulder-sized hole. He studied the rubble for a moment before he smiled and leaned over to pick up one of the rocks. It had been on the very edge of the area the boulder had smashed through and had fallen straight down into a small pile of rubble sitting on the threshold of the next room.

"You thought you were so smart, didn't you?" he said. "Put up a silver lock and hide the silver key."

It would take a careful observer to spot it, but the stone Solomon was holding was indeed decorated on one side with a silvery keyhole.

"Well, look at you now!"

Solomon tossed the destroyed lock to the side and stepped through the hole in the wall. The room behind was lit by the same torches as the rest of the dungeon. One corner of the room was shrouded in darkness, though Solomon could make out the shape of the boulder where it had come to rest after knocking out a torch or two.

Far more important was the stone plinth in the middle of the room, and the ball of light sitting on top of it. Solomon used his spear to test every tile before he stepped on it, but no further traps barred his way to the end of the floor.

Congratulations on clearing the second floor!

100 dungeon coins have been deposited to your account!

400 additional dungeon coins have been awarded for being the first to clear this floor!

How would you like to proceed?

- Continue to fight the boss!

- Exit the dungeon.

Solomon took a step back as soon as he saw the word "boss" on the system display. He would have had a hard time with those lions in a fair fight, let alone whatever kind of monster the system considered to be a fitting boss. Self-preservation had him halfway to selecting the exit option before he caught himself.

Ordinarily, it was a bad idea to jump into life-threatening situations in the hope of some uncertain gain. That was because, ordinarily, there were safer ways to go about your day to day life and keep body and soul together. Now, with the coming of the system, that wasn't an option. The system's opening act had been to disable major chunks of modern technology and drop weird killer animals into the world. Once the current grace period passed and the kid gloves came off, well, it wasn't likely things would be getting any easier.

If Solomon wanted any kind of safe and normal life for himself and, hopefully, his loved ones, he was going to have to build it out of system rewards. He had a lot of questions about the system, but he couldn't doubt its power.

What's more, the system obviously treated dungeon clearing as an important task. He'd already received substantial rewards for getting as far as he had. It was reasonable to think that killing the boss would be even more lucrative. Jumping on the boss before the grace period expired could be his best chance at a big score.

Of course, that didn't mean he was just going to charge in, hatchet in hand. The system clock had just ticked under eight hours remaining until the grace period was over. He could spare some time to experiment. This seemed like an opportune moment to try out his system-granted ability to make magical gunpowder.

If he was going to take on some kind of boss monster, he was going to do it with explosives on his side.