In the eight room, I found another arm made from the liquid and used the dark dagger rather than the spear to test my theory. I had to get up and close to the arm with its short range and almost got grabbed by the arm as the dagger pierced into the ore. In an instant, the liquid forming the arm and even a portion of the puddle dried up but didn’t fully dissipate. An interesting effect that would surely be useful on later floors if the puddle continued to get larger. However, in my current situation, it was safer and more reasonable to just use the spear.

Keeping an arm at hand’s reach was just playing into its strengths. Like that, I defeated the puddle in room nine and reached the tenth floor. Just as I had expected, the puddle was slightly larger with a second arm reaching for me along with the first towards me at the same time. I swiped the spear to the side, aiming just to hit the hands, even if not with the blade. The first hand was struck by the side of the spearhead and collapsed while the second hand was bashed by the shaft, sending the ores and dissipating water off to the side.

Then, I sifted through the puddle and took out the last enemy, if I were to treat them like separate beings rather than one combined entity. With that, I now had thirteen ores in my bag and it was already starting to get a little heavy. Not heavy enough to go back as with the markets current condition I’d be lucky to get one silver for this amount. Unless of course there were some shopkeepers late to restocking or another merchant came through.

The tenth room contained a bit of a surprise. A sword, similar to the ones the skeletons had held in the dungeon I found the necklace in. Somehow one of the arms of the puddle was holding that sword and there were only two arms. Not only that, but the puddle wasn’t larger than the one in the previous room. If this puddle started spewing flames or glaring at me with glowing eyes, I would be in deep trouble. However, it appeared to be the same as before other than the sword.

When I approached it and swung my spear at it, it raised the sword to guard against my strike. This was even worse than attacking me with it as the shaft of the spear was wood. It didn’t break as it hit the sword, but the blade cut into it, creating a ridge where the spear might one day snap off upon hitting something, rendering the spear almost worthless for resale and only usable for a few more dungeon runs.

My spear was stuck and I couldn’t pull it back. The puddle’s sword was stuck in the shaft and I couldn’t get it off. Pulling would make the damage even worse and pushing to the left wasn’t doing much. Surprisingly enough, the hand, despite falling apart with the tiniest hit in the previous rooms, had quite a bit of strength and kept a vice grip on the sword. Meanwhile, the other hand started to approach me, forcing me to unsheathe my sword with my left hand awkwardly while straining my right to keep myself from losing the spear.

At this moment, I was sorta wishing I hadn’t sold that spear to the merchant. Even though it was shoddy and broken, it would have been better in this situation than the sword as it had more reach. I could have freed my spear by striking the hand holding my spear hostage with the sword then taken out the other hand within a few seconds. Instead, I swung around my sword wildly at the other hand as it came closer, hoping that I would hit it as soon as it came into range.

The damn thing grabbed my sword instead of blindly moving into my blade, gripping the sides so it wouldn’t be cut. The flames seemed to do nothing to stop the hand from touching the blade just as they did nothing to damage the puddle when I tested it in the first room. As a result, I was stuck with no way to properly retaliate nor could I let go. I had no other weapons with a good reach and these hands were acting way more intelligent than they had in the previous rooms.

If I let go of my spear, that would clear the way for the hand with the sword to get up close and stab me. If I let go of my sword, I would be faced with two sword-wielding hands rather than just one, with one of the swords being on fire. In that stalemate, I waited for an opportunity to wrest free one of my weapons to counterattack. Instead of any openings, the puddle itself started to slink towards me, touching my feet and surrounding me. Things were getting bad fast but if I thought about it, was this not the opportunity I was looking for?

There was a third ore acting as a core for the puddle. Without that, the puddle would become much weaker and I'd get the upper hand in this fight. I moved my feet the best I could without losing my balance or weapons. The ore was somewhere just beneath my feet and if I found out where I would stomp on it. Eventually, I found an area that was slowly avoiding my feet just out of reach. My legs couldn't reach it and it stayed there, ignoring any attempts to push it towards me or around the edge to a spot where I could.

My hands started to shake from the exertion of keeping the hands at bay while moving my feet as far out as I could. It was at a point of no return now so I let go of both my weapons and immediately jumped on the ore. I managed to land on it and watched the puddle below me start to disappear as I slid on the ore, slamming onto the ground hard. The impact was mostly on my back so I didn't hurt my head but it knocked the breath right out of my body.

Before I could even register the impact or feel the pain, I was getting back up to face the two remaining hands only to find them gone. There was nothing but my weapons and the sword that the hand had still lodged in my spear. The ore within the puddle acting like the main body for the hands was all I needed to defeat the enemy. It seemed like it really was one monster that could be defeated entirely by hitting a weak point. However, there were no ores dropped.

The sword was dropped so I wasn't sure if the ores didn't drop because the sword did or because of the way I defeated it. It didn't matter. All that mattered was that I was tired and hurt. My body pretty much collapsed as I started breathing heavily, trying to recover. Even though I hadn't been cut or majorly injured, it felt that way with the strain I had gone through.

I laid down and rested for a bit while letting out a good long laugh. Not only had I made it out of that desperate situation alive and intact, but I had also gotten a sword out of it rather than those shitty ores. It would be even better if it was enchanted but a sword alone was worth maybe two to three silvers. Basically, it was worth more than all the ores in my bag.

After catching my breath I started putting all my things away while staying seated. I could have thrown the sword in the bag with the ores since the bag was quite tough, but I decided to strap it to my back with the spear in case I needed to use it. Separated from the puddle's hands, it took only a second to pull it off the spear and inspect the damage. It wasn't as deep as I expected it to be, cutting only a fourth of the way through the shaft. Only a tiny sliver some would say but since it was so close to the end of the spear, it could easily snap and break the next time I hit something hard with it.

It wasn’t something I could really use as a weapon anymore, unfortunately. As soon as I start to make some money, something bad crops up. We came to the city not only to escape the knights but also make a name for ourselves, make money, and hopefully get the opportunity to find more items with enchantments or divine blessings. Nothing was going to plan, except maybe the money part. More or less, I was starting to turn a profit from these dungeon runs.

There was just a whole new level of pressure with the fee to enter. Before I could go into the dungeon for hours on end without worry, even if I wasn’t grinding, then come out at the crack of dawn and know that I had a place to eat and sleep. If the dungeon wasn’t right, I could leave after trying things out then immediately re-enter and try again. Then the ores, while rarer, could be traded for a silver or two on their own, making it just far more convenient to run the dungeon. I could see why only one dungeon was open to the public despite there being three in the city.

After a bit of rest, I picked myself up and headed out of the dungeon. There was no way I would go any farther or enter the dungeon again today. Maybe tomorrow, maybe the day after but not today. Perhaps tonight after the last hour which is technically the next day but preferably after a good meal, drink, and sleep. The bag I brought with me was heavy but less so than when it was carrying the body of the dog beast. There were more ores than then so perhaps the fire gem had more weight to it than I thought. The gem was currently resting in my shirt, tucked into my pants partially like the dark dagger.

With the way I carried the dagger, I was surprised I had not cut myself upon its blade yet especially with how I had been thrown about. It really needed a sheath and while I was at that, a new spear and clothes. All those expenses and barely any profit. Dealing with myself alone was a money pit, not even talking about this startup knight order I was forming.

The worst part is that I still didn’t know when I’d do enough to have my liver healed. My quest was to form a knight order and one was formed, if not a big ragtag with me being the biggest rag of them all. At what point would my quest end? When there was enough of us to be considered a worthy force, when all of us bore a divine item of our own, or did we have to be acknowledged by others as a proper knight order? I felt the urge to find a nearby temple and ask the goddess what I had to do. Surely there was one inside the city that I simply had not found yet.

On the outside of the dungeon, I headed back towards the inn to drop off my rewards from this trip until the prices would go back up. For now, I looked around and saw Jerry’s prediction of the prices going way lower than usual to be right on the mark and even if there was a shopkeep coming late, they could easily just buy their stock from a neighbor without much of a loss.

Back at the room rented at the inn, I dropped off the bag with the ores on the bed and set the sword off to the side of the bed. Stephen reached out to take back the shield and his leg was coming quite close to being fully healed. His stub had regrown to his knee and already something looking like a small foot was starting to form. Alas, I refused him and explained that I needed it for but an hour longer to consult the goddess. He understood and started ruffling through the bag and finding spots to place the ores where they wouldn’t get in the way of our sleep.

Jerry and Matt were still in the dungeon or perhaps back in the queue waiting for another try after a bad attempt. I didn’t look around too much when I left the dungeon, not caring what the guards or crowd thought about my appearance. It didn’t take long to find the temple. At first, I asked some of the people in the alley at the inn but they just glared at me when I tried to talk with them. However, the merchants back at the food markets were more than happy to direct me towards the temple after I bought another tomato to eat on the way.