Level 21's enemy was a zombie. Unlike the slime or the skeleton, hacking it up did fuck all. The trick turned out to be piercing the brain of the zombie or turning the brain to mush somehow. Thankfully, Eva’s sword could thrust with the best of them, so the zombie wasn't hard to kill once she figured out its weakness. She did get a few scrapes for her troubles, however.

The 22nd level was two zombies—keeping in the pattern of the slimes and the skeletons. The zombies were slow, lumbering things. Eva had no trouble killing them, and the 25th level came quickly. That's where her problems started. Unlike the previous times where she had to fight a larger version of the enemy she’d been fighting, the 25th level’s arena was larger, like the 10th had been.

If the hobgoblin was the first boss, this was the second boss—though it would be more accurate to say bosses. There were three of them. The first was like the giant slime, only larger and with a crown on its head. The second was a skeleton horse. Finally—representing the zombies—was a rotten knight in plate armor riding the skeleton horse.

Having already faced the three types of enemies, Eva knew what she had to do for each. The problem would be getting the opportunity to strike without getting attacked by the other monsters when she did. For her planning purposes, there were two monsters, rather than three. She figured her best bet was to try for the slime over the freaky skeleton-zombie amalgamation.

Eva Charged▲ towards the slime, Infusing✦ her shortsword with air just as she got close. She had learned her lesson with fire. The slime responded by shooting out tentacles to grab her. As she raised her blade to slash the tentacles, she felt an impact across her back where the knight’s spear was stopped by her armor.

Whipping around, she tried to hit the knight, but they were already gone. Eva decided to try attacking the slime again while the zombie and skeleton were across the clearing. Just after she’d cut through the first tentacle—and after taking several tentacle slaps to the face—she felt the knight’s spear puncture her body. She fell to the ground as if her strings were cut, the slime continuing to attack her. Eva added drowning in slime to the list of deaths she would rather not repeat.

While she fought the zombies on her way back to level 25, she thought about how else she could approach the fight. Attacking the slime right away had turned out disastrously, so maybe she should try attacking the knight first?

After the monsters appeared, Eva approached the skeleton and zombie with her sword at the ready. She Infused✦ her shortsword with earth before attacking, but was caught off guard by the slime, whose appendages reached far enough that she had to call off the attack before she took too much damage. She tried putting more distance between herself and the slime before attacking, but she ended up with the same result. It was time for her to figure out another way to approach the fight.

Eva remembered how the knight had attacked every time she had tried to fight the slime, and thought she might be able to use that. Instead of actually attacking the slime, she only pretended to. She Infused✦ earth into her blade before turning around and striking the charging knight’s steed.

With a gruesome crunch, the leg of the skeleton shattered on impact. The zombie knight catapulted over the head of the skeleton and onto the slime. Eva took the opportunity to smash the horse to bits before the zombie and slime could untangle themselves. Now that there were two monsters left, she decided to go after the slime next. The zombies she’d fought so far had been slow, and the knight would be even slower with the heavy armor it was wearing.

Once the zombie was standing again, the slime slid its way towards her quickly. Eva readied her sword and Infused✦ it with air. Like the first time she had tried to fight the slime, it hit back everytime she slashed one of the tentacles. Each slap didn’t do much damage—she checked her health to see—but it added up when there were four or five of them hitting her for each one she lopped off.

After dodging around the zombie for a couple minutes, the slime had sufficiently deflated such that she could break its core. She’d used up one of the health potions during the fight on the premise that she was already doing well and would much rather gamble on winning than on dying. All that was left was the slow, shambling knight.

Eva sipped her mana potion and stamina potion to bring herself back up to full. It didn’t take the entire contents, so she put them back on her belt for later. The zombie proved to be a difficult enemy to damage. It was built like a tank, and the armor only served to enhance its defensive capabilities. The spear it used was worthless without the speed from the skeleton horse as she had an easy time avoiding the monster’s attacks.

The rest of the fight took a long time—and the rest of the stamina and mana potions that she’d started consuming earlier—but she was able to eventually cull the knight through its armor.

Zombie Knight, Slime King, and Skeleton Warhorse killed

1 Stat Point gained

Level 25 complete

Prepare to rest

[0:0:0:23] remaining

Eva panted while she waited for the timer to end. That fight really had taken a lot out of her. She was down to just one potion of each type, her armor was battered, and she felt exhausted on top of that; however, she'd done it. The sense of accomplishment she felt was something she'd missed. Her ex had sucked the drive out of her with his betrayal. Until she'd ended up here, Eva didn't have that same want to succeed. It was back. For now.

Congratulations! For completing the 25th floor, you may select a prize. Failure to do so within the allotted time will cause a random option to be chosen for you

[0:0:9:47] remaining

The options were similar to before, but there were some differences.

Novice✦ Skill

Status Effect Upgrade or Removal

Upgraded Item

10 Stat Points

Like last time, she decided that the status effect upgrade and removal were just not worth even the 10 Stat Points. The upgraded item was interesting, but she still decided that the Novice✦ Skill was probably a better option. Her last choice of Skill had gotten her through many levels on its own merits, even if it'd only upgraded by one level in the interim.

Choose a Skill

Quick Strike✦

Slash✦

Stab✦

Block✦

Bash✦

Pierce✦

Bleed✦

Only Pierce✦ and Bleed✦ were new. The others she'd seen before.

Novice Pierce✦ Lv 1

Pierce with a sword ignoring 11% of armor

Choose a second option

Costs 5 Mana to activate

Novice Bleed✦ Lv 1

Slice with a sword that has 11% chance of causing the bleed status effect

Choose a second option

Costs 5 Mana to activate

Of the options from before—and the two new ones—Eva was partial to Pierce✦. Bleed✦ was good for ongoing damage as long as the monster bled, but she struggled with armored enemies more than she did with unarmored or lightly armored ones. That had been made abundantly clear to her after fighting against the zombie knight. She chose Pierce✦.

Choose a Novice rank upgrade for Pierce▲

Damage armor by 0.5% per strike

Bypass 0.5% more armor

Increase damage by 1%

Reduce mana consumption by 1%

The choices were all good. Still, some of them could be ignored as more generic or just more of the same. In her mind, either reducing the cost to use or reducing the enemies' armor to nothing were the better options. She settled on the armor damaging option. As the skill grew, it would be a devastating way to deal with tanks!

Novice Pierce✦ Lv 1

Pierce with a sword ignoring 11% of armor

Damage armor by 0.5% per strike

Costs 5 Mana to activate

Eva then checked her challenges.

Zomboni▲

Kill 10 zombies

Reward: 1 Stat Point

I Want My Quarter Back✦

Complete the 25th level

Reward: 5 Stat Points

Finally, she put her Stat Points and checked her final status.

Name: Eva Greene

Health: 130

Stamina: 97

Mana: 116

Strength: 14

Dexterity: 14

Agility: 13

Endurance: 13

Wisdom: 13

Acuity: 13

Intelligence: 13

Willpower: 13

Vitality: 13

Perception: 13

Available Stat Points: 0

[Skills]

[Status Effects]

Her Skills had a few level ups, but not many. Once her Skills hit Novice✦, the rate of increase slowed dramatically.

Throwing▲: 3

Polearms▲: 6

Unarmed▲: 4

Swords✦: 1

Shields▲: 9

Charge▲: 4

Infuse Weapon✦: 2

Medium Armor▲: 3

Pierce✦: 1

III

She took her time in the break room. Much of her gear was trashed again and needed to be replaced for the next series of fights. Even when she was ready to go and had made the necessary bathroom pit stop—including the all important shower—she waited for the end of the countdown. The bosses had been difficult, and she needed the mental break between them and whatever was coming next.

Eva sighed when the light sent her on. She wasn’t in the right state of mind despite the hour of peace, but what choice did she have? She was good at handling shit sandwiches, and yet she didn’t know if she’d make it through this one as herself.

The 26th level was more open than most of the others had been. It was ringed not by forest but rather by a wall. It made the area she was in look like a fighting ring of some kind, though without a crowd. The light flashed in again.

Across from her was something ethereal. It floated like a ghost, but it had a more physical form than that. It hung in the air like a cloud. The wispy monster floated her way. She felt wind buffet her. It was not enough to push her off her feet, but it was enough to make fighting more difficult. She eyed the monster carefully and swung her sword at it—only for her sword to go right through! The monster punished her by slicing her face with a strong yet sharp burst of wind.

Eva was surprised by the result. How could her sword be so useless? Then both the monster and the reason smacked her in the face. She needed to use magic to harm it! She Infused✦ her weapon with fire and struck at the creature. It sizzled from the attack. The air that made up the monster fed the fire until it was used up completely.

Wind Wisp killed

1 Stat Point gained

Level 26 complete

Prepare to fight

[0:0:0:3] remaining

Level 27 had two of the things. They were harder to fight since both attacking and blocking them was difficult. By the 29th level, she’d suffered a lot of damage. The four monsters she had to fight proved too much. It wasn't from some big attack, but rather a death of a thousand cuts. With as few health potions as she had—and knowing that there were bosses periodically—she refused to use either of the two she had. On the plus side, she was able to get a new Skill out of the ordeal.

Basic Skill Learned: Air Resistance▲

Basic Air Resistance▲ Lv 1

Receive 1% less damage from air elemental attacks

In the hour and a half that it took to finally get through the four levels, she raised the Skill to four. The enemy for the 30th level was a larger version of the same monsters she’d been fighting. It had the same windy qualities that the wisps had, only it seemed more solid somehow.

Eva approached it cautiously. She was bleeding from many cuts, but she wasn’t in any immediate danger of having to try again. The monster slowly floated towards her. As soon as it was in range, she Infused✦ her shortsword with fire and sliced into it. The monster hacked her right back with its wind. The damage she took was a lot worse than the wisps had been, but not as bad as taking four hits from the wisps.

Eva struck the monster again and again. On the fifth attack, the fire caught and burned the monster from the inside.

Lesser Wind Elemental killed

1 Stat Point gained

Level 30 complete

Prepare to rest

[0:0:0:26] remaining

She stumbled into the break room, bleeding profusely. She’d just barely made it there. There wasn’t much pain from the injuries, but they would kill her if she didn’t do anything about them. Eva downed half of a health potion and wrapped the cuts with the ribbons formerly known as clothing.

She decided to look at her Challenges. They were mostly as expected.

Going Beyond✦

Complete 20 levels in a day

Reward: 5 Stat Points

Blow Me▲

Kill 10 wind wisps

Reward: 1 Stat Point

Skilled!✦

Gain 10 skills

Reward: 5 Stat Points

She spread her Stat Points evenly before going to the kitchen. Dinner was a grilled steak with vegetables and mashed potatoes. She’d done her best to cook it medium with a nice crust. Though she’d undercooked it slightly, the dinner was absolutely delicious after a day of murdering—and getting murdered by—monsters.

Eva cleaned up after dinner and soaked in the bath while she contemplated what all of it meant. After the last set of notes, there hadn’t been any more in the break room. Two thoughts warred in her mind. On the one hand, fighting monsters was a challenge that she was starting to want to excel in. The joy of getting visibly better day after day really struck a chord within her. On the other hand, the whole thing was completely insane! Was she insane for wanting to face the challenge? She shook her head.

Whether this was a very real dream, or the world was really changing, it didn’t matter. There were monsters in front of her regardless of how she felt about them. It was time she stopped worrying about the why and focused on the task at hand. Eva caught herself nodding in agreement with her thoughts.

She lay back and closed her eyes, silently praying that the next day would be easier.