James took out a clean cloth from his item bag that he kept specifically to wipe orbs. He had qualms about eating something directly off the floor, especially the floor of the dungeon. After wiping over 10 of these things off with his shirt, he decided to just put some napkins in his storage bag.

After cleaning the surface of the orb, James popped it into his mouth and swallowed. He felt the familiar sensation of his body changing, growing stronger. It was painful, but it was a good type of pain, like when you finished your reps at the gym.

“It feels even better when you’re using orbs to skip all the hard work. I’ve gone to the gym like twice in my lifetime.”

The pain faded, and James stretched his body a bit. Then, he tried jumping around a little bit.

“I feel like my body is a little bit lighter. I’m not sure if I can truly feel it, or if it’s a placebo effect. I don’t think I would have noticed the change by myself.”

James checked his status.

{James Lu: Dungeon Explorer – Status Monitored

Cleared 1st Floor

Points: 1006

STR: 57

DEF: 2

END: 2

AGI: 3

INT: 42

LUK: 27*$!9

Skills: Intermediate Knife Throwing, Monster Taming

Tamed Beasts: Leonardo the Bear (Leo) }

His agility did increase.

After taking a little break, James started to move forward again. He decided not to use the spear.

====================

“God damn.”

James poured the contents of the potion into his mouth and felt the cut on his arm start to regrow.

It hadn’t been a very deep wound, just a clean cut. James was more worried about infection than the cut itself, but those problems appeared to be solved by the potion.

The 2nd floor was definitely harder than the first floor. Not because of the difficulty of the monsters, but because of the amount and pacing. James ran into imps much more frequently He also didn’t find a single lone imp. Every time, he fought against a group. It wasn’t that bad, since James had figured out a system. He would use throwing knives to stall or kill 2 imps, use the spear to stab another, and fight the last. Then, if any of the imps were still kicking, he’d go and finish the job. This had worked quite well for James as he moved through the dungeon.

He got the cut while fighting a group of four imps. He’d thrown 2 throwing knives, but one of them missed. He’d managed to stab an imp with the spear, but then had to fight a flying imp and. It wasn’t as if his life was in imminent danger, but it was still had been a bit shaky.

“Ah, the dungeon is bitch. I guess I’ll have to get used to fighting multiple monsters at once. I feel like I’ll have to fight hordes eventually.”

James wondered what type of equipment he should use. A shield would be nice against multiple enemies, since it would protect him from attacks. But a large shield that would give him a lot of protection seemed to be too bulky for him to use properly. A spear had reach, but wouldn’t be good against a lot of enemies at once. Blunt weapons, like hammers or maces, would be a bit unwieldy. This left just swords and knives.

“Ah, whatever. I’ll think about it later. I have to clear this floor now.”

James exhaled. To be safe, he should probably practice fighting against multiple imps at once.

“I’ll start with two at a time. Once I’m confident in that, I’ll practice fighting more.”

====================

James continued through the dungeon. He met and killed what felt like droves and droves of imps in the dungeon. Each time, he chose to engage two imps in close combat, instead of picking them off from a distance. This was in order to train himself. As time passed, he got wounded less and less.

“Whew.”

James wiped imp blood off of his knife.

“They’re not that bad to deal with, since they’re not smart. It’s easy to see their attacks, and they’re not so fast that it’s impossible to dodge.”

James could deal with them simply by evading their attacks, though it was harder when they came at him from two opposite sides. He collected the magic stones and continued walking. As he was approaching a net on the floor, James detected a fluctuation in the mana in the dungeon. James didn’t even have to focus on the disturbance; he already knew what it was.

James grinned. This had happened to James once before. The biggest danger on the 2nd floor, according to his seniors, was fighting imps with traps nearby. The first time, James had run backwards until he decided it was safe, and then fought the imps using his usual method. However, this time, he moved forwards.

5 imps charged towards James. As they approached him, James used the butt end of his spear to push the clearly visible tripwire on the dungeon floor. The net moved upwards and caught 3 of the imps.

The net only stopped the imps from moving, though. James quickly stabbed at the imps with his spear, killing two before the remaining imps converged on his location. He dodged both of the imps and stabbed at one of them, wounding its shoulder. James pulled out the knife and was about to stab again when he saw the other imp swiping at him. He brought his knife and thrust it. It was on course to cut at the imp’s wrist, which in turn was headed towards James’ face. Neither of the imp or James stopped, so their arms collided.

The imp got it worse. Its wrist cut so deeply it was all but severed, and hung loosely off a bit of tissue. James, who had only gotten a light scratch from the imp’s claws, dug the knife into the imp’s eye and killed it. He looked behind him and saw that the imp with the wounded shoulder was struggling with its wound. James approached in order to kill it, but spun around as soon he heard the sound of rope ripping behind him. The third imp in the net, which James hadn’t killed, had broken free. This imp wasn’t capable of flying. It leapt towards James, who lunged at the imp as well. James had a longer reach, so he won the joust. His knife dug into the imp’s chest, and it died before it could attack James.

The last imp that had been stabbed in the shoulder screeched. James turned around. Seeing the imp, he fished a knife from his storage bag and hurled it. The imp stopped making noise. After a few seconds, the corpses of all of the imps began glowing.

“It’s better if I’m aggressive. When I fought the goblins, I always played it safer, dodging attacks and then finding an opening. However, that’s dangerous here, because the imps have an advantage in numbers. I have to go for it and take them down first. They’re weak anyways.”

James looked at the drops and was pleasantly surprised. In addition to the normal magic stones, there was also an orb of agility.

“That’s two in a single time. I guess I’m lucky? No wait. I definitely killed more monsters during this run of the 2nd floor than I would on a run of the 1st floor. I can’t tell if the rate is higher or not.”

James cleaned the orb and ate it. Again, he felt his body becoming lighter. He dashed around the dungeon, but he couldn’t feel too much of a difference. It felt like he could run slightly faster than before. The orbs would show their true importance once he collected more of them.

“Yeah man. 4 agility points. I am the fast.”

James rubbed his forehead and cleared out idiotic thoughts. He looked up. At the end of the hallways, he could see the massive set of metallic double doors that signified the boss room.