James stopped in front of the door after checking all of his equipment one last time. He’d used a few potions, but he still had stockpiles

“Potions are really cheap, actually. And they’re lifesavers as well. There are supposed to be higher tier potions as well, which is intriguing. The normal low tier potions could heal my busted ribs without a large problem. I wonder what type of wound I’d need to warrant the use of a higher tier potion.”

James hoped he’d never need to use one of them. But, there was no telling what the future might hold.

James slowly opened the door. As he walked into the room, the door automatically shut behind him.

The room was large and circular, indistinguishable from the boss room on the 1st floor. In the middle, 3 imps were standing in the middle of the room. The one in the center of their “formation” was bigger and more muscular than the others. Its horns and claws appeared to be longer as well. James guessed that this imp was a tier 2.

As soon as the door closed, the imps started screeching and moving towards him. James didn’t waste any time and started throwing knives, while moving to the side.

His strategy for clearing the 1st floor had been kind of cheating. But, since the enemies could see and find him now, there was no way for him to cheese this floor. He had to actually fight.

His opponents were rapidly closing the distance, so James threw the throwing knives without any reservation. Once he started fighting them in combat, he wouldn’t really get a chance to use them anymore. James threw 5 of the knives in the time it took for the imps to approach him. The imp on the very left got a knife to the face, and the imp on the right got stabbed in the shoulder. James saw that the imp on the left wasn’t in a very good situation, so he threw another knife at it. The knife gouged open its gut. It screeched, and it began to slow down.

The remaining two knives were thrown at the imp in the middle, but it dodged both of them, only suffering a light scratch from not having completely dodged.

James had grievously injured one of the weaker imps and harmed the shoulder of the other. This wasn’t a bad result, considering that the seriously wounded imp was unlikely to get up and stab him anytime soon.

He pulled out the spear and held it. He felt a lot safer than when he faced the goblin on the 1st floor for the first time. On that floor, the goblin had the spear while James only had a knife. Now, the situation was reversed; the imps only had their claws while James had possession of a pointy stick.

The reach of the spear made a large difference – James was confident that he’d be able to stab one of the imps with the spear, and then fight the last imp. However, he’d need to be careful and react fast – otherwise, he’d have to fight 2 imps at once in close range. James could fight two of the weaker imps, but he was worried about the larger imp. It had dodged his throwing knives, so it wasn’t like the weaker imps that just charged at him.

When James pulled out the spear, the larger, tier 2 imp stopped charging at him. However, the smaller imp, seeing this, also stopped. From what James experienced on the 2nd floor so far, the smaller imp would’ve directly thrown itself onto the spear. However, it seemed to follow the tier 2 imp because of the strength hierarchy.

However, because the tier 2 imp stopped charging at him and stayed out of the spear’s reach, so did the smaller imp. The imps tried circling around James, but James simply moved back a bit and turned the spear towards them again. The imps tried moving the other way, and James followed. James tried stabbing at them, but they were just out of reach. Thus, James and the imps began a game of shuffling, while the 3rd imp rolled around on the ground in agony.

Finally, the smaller imp had the idea to get on James’ other side. It began circling around him, preparing to attack his back. However, James had predicted this outcome. After all, being surrounded was the main danger during this battle.

As soon as the imp made a quarter circle around James, he lunged at it with his spear, piercing it through the stomach. It shrieked and started struggling, but James let go of the shaft and immediately stabbed it with his knife, killing it. Seeing James drop the spear, the tier 2 imp lunged at him, trying to take advantage of the opening. However, James grabbed the shaft of the spear and slammed the butt end into the imp’s jaw.

The imp wasn’t happy, and it charged towards James again. He didn’t have time to pull the spear out of the carcass of the imp, since it was at an awkward angle, so he retrieved his knife and deflected the imp’s claws, narrowly avoiding a wound.

The imp growled at him. It eyed the knife in his hand, recognizing it as a source of danger. The imp raised its claws and looked at him warily.

“This is problem with tier 2 monsters. They have some intelligence. They won’t blindly charge at you, making fighting them a hassle.”

The imp lunged again, stretching out both hands. It must’ve thought that James wouldn’t be able to dodge both of its claws with a single knife. But, it was unpleasantly surprised when James pulled out a throwing knife and used it to block the imp’s protruding claws.

“It may be made for throwing, but it’s still a knife,” James thought to himself.

He twisted his hand, and sliced the imp’s forearm open. James tried to stab the imp again, but it twisted its body to the side. James was confused at first, since it seemed like the imp was making itself easier to stab, but he pulled back when he saw something hurtling towards him out of the corner of his eye. He dodged, but still ended up getting a cut down his arm.

“Shit! That was its tail! Imps’ tails are sharp?”

No, that wasn’t it. All of the tier 1 imps that James fought had somewhat pointy tails, but they weren’t sharp enough to cut. It seemed that this was another difference between tier 1 and 2 imps. The tier 2 imp had what looked like a spike on the end of its black tail.

“Ugh, I have to avoid that too. It’s okay, though. His tail isn’t that long, and he has to move his body in a weird way to hit me.”

Just now, the imp had turned its hips in order to strike at James with its tail. It couldn’t attack James with its claws and tails at the same time.

“Well, maybe one claw and the tail if he moves sideways. Although I doubt he’s gonna try and attack me like that.”

But, now that he knew about it, James would be able to predict when the imp was trying to strike with the tail.

James threw his throwing knife at the imp. He didn’t mind losing his second weapon because he could simply pull out another one: he still had 6 more in his storage bag. As the imp dodged the knife, James moved forward to attack, having replaced his recently thrown knife with a new one. The imp blocked James’ first thrust, but he had already started stabbing at the imp with his other knife.

“Die, bitch!”