Crossbows were a bit louder than bows. Even so, since they only made a sound for a fraction of a second, Ryan killed nine of the ten goblins without waking up any of them.

You obtained four coins.

You obtained four coins.

You obtained four coins.

…

Ryan had a hard time convincing himself that he just obtained forty coins without doing anything crazy. However, given his light-headiness, he actually had to pay the price. His mana was almost empty.

“Crossbows are convenient, but everything has a price…” Ryan muttered while he was preparing to kill the last goblin.

After concentrating for a second, Ryan felt his stamina being drained. Power Shot could actually be used with that kind of weapon, it was surprising, but Ryan wouldn’t complain since it was convenient for him.

In any case, after firing the tenth dark, Ryan regretted it a little. His attack destroyed the goblin’s head, and that wasn’t a good sight for him… even though Ryan had killed dozens of animals while hunting before, he trained to do so in order to avoid making them feel unnecessary pain and make the hunt needlessly bloody.

“I need to train Power Shot, but I guess I will do it by using the wooden bow,” Ryan muttered while he looked for drops.

Goblins and all the other monsters were the enemies of the human race, at least for the time being. They were at war, so there was no point in feeling depressed over the enemy's death. However, Ryan was a hunter, not a soldier. So, even though he obtained the power to fight monsters, it would take a while for him to get used to causing overkills.

In any case, that group of goblins didn’t drop anything. However, they had three rustic knives, so Ryan stored them in his backpack. After that, he began to meditate in order to restore his mana. Even if he had a powerful weapon, without mana and stamina, Ryan was essentially useless against monsters, after all.

Congratulations! The skill Meditation has leveled up.

Meditation Lv 2 ➞ Lv 3

Effect: Restores three points of mana per minute.

You obtained 01 status point.

“I wonder if there is a way to restore stamina faster like this…” Ryan rubbed his chin. “It is not like sleeping can become a skill… right?”

It would be too weird if that were the case. Then again, everything that was happening to Earth was weird. So, one or two more crazy things happening wouldn’t surprise Ryan or everyone else. In any case, after his mana was full again, Ryan returned to the intersection and followed the path on the right since he could some signs of goblins’ footsteps there.

This time he found a group in which one of the goblins was awake and watching the surroundings. The creature had enough time to wake up the rest of the group with its grunts before Ryan finally could see them with his eyes, so he didn’t have much choice but to fight them while eight goblins were running toward him.

“There is no other choice…” Ryan muttered and then pointed his left hand toward the creatures.

Ryan fired a Flame Arrow and then burned the face of one of the goblins. Since he was leading the group, his fall slowed down their charge, and Ryan had enough time to kill four goblins before they could get too close. But in the end, he had to grab his short spear in order to protect himself.

Still, when the three remaining goblins leaped to attack Ryan. one died before it could land any attacks thanks to a dark on the head. Half a second later, the crossbow was ready to be used again, but Ryan didn’t have time to aim. So, instead of attacking, Ryan used his short spear to block both goblins’ charge. Even though the spear increased his strength a little, Ryan wasn’t strong enough to stop both creatures in mid-air. His body and left arm got pushed backward, but at least that bought him enough time to aim with his crossbow.

The remaining goblin still managed to grab Ryan’s left arm and prepared to bite him since the creature didn’t have a weapon, and Ryan focused on killing first those who did have weapons. However, before the creature’s mouth could get too close, a knife pierced its ear and damaged its brain.

You obtained four coins.

You obtained four coins.

You obtained four coins.

…

Congratulations! You have learned the skill: Spearmanship.

Effect: Increases damage when using spears and lances by one percent per level.

You obtained 01 status point.

Congratulations! You have learned the skill: Knife Mastery.

Effect: Increases damage when using knives by one percent per level.

You obtained 01 status point.

“Phew… that was a close one,” Ryan sighed in relief. “I knew it wouldn’t be easy to clear this dungeon, but I didn’t expect to see monsters from up close while they are alive.”

Even though Ryan decreased by a lot the amount of time he needed to prepare since the crossbow could reload automatically, the number of goblins was just too large. Although that was already impressive, he could only shoot two darts per second. Unlike the slimes’ dungeon, that one had too many bifurcations, and not a single path was a straight line, so Ryan couldn’t always attack first.

Ryan probably could use magic faster than that, but he didn’t have enough mana even to slay all the goblins that were spawning, much less to slain the one hundred fifty goblins that ran to the dungeon.

“No drops again…” Ryan sighed. “Two more knives and two short spears… loot is loot, but with whom can I trade these?”

Unfortunately, Ryan couldn’t carry that many weapons once he clears that dungeon, so his only option was to negotiate with Daniel, Mia, and John. Just thinking about it was enough to make his head throb. In any case, Ryan grabbed the items and his backpack and then put them near the entrance since he was tired of carrying so many things.