Carefully going past all the traps in the steps, I made my way to the third floor, and what greeted me on the other side—

—GRARARARA

It was a giant metal ball going straight for my head. I narrowly avoided the attack. In front of me, wearing a giant spade hat with a cleanly shaved mustache, was another tin being, the Spade Soldier.

Luck stat? What kind of Luck was it that I had to face something before getting to the floor? A chained mace against my spear in a space this narrow was the worst. It could only shoot the ball front and back and up and down, but that was already way more than my freedom.

"Intruder. Intruder. Kill. Intruder."

"Tsk."

Another attack came straight at me. Ducking was a mistake in front of the mace, so I took a step back and avoided it. The Spade Soldier, with a body much more nimble than the Heart Soldier, followed by getting closer to the stairs.

If only I could make it fall.

But the spear.

My mind flashed back to the items in my inventory. With a calm mind, I started observing the space around me. On the narrow, spiral staircase, the most strength I could bring in was downward.

The Spade Soldier was just around the edge. Its entire body, lacking power compared to the heart, had to move with its mace, gaining mobility in exchange for stability. My sight lingered on the mace itself as it readied for another attack.

I could do this.

As soon as the chains of the mace started to crinkle, a word left me.

"Equip."

The mace came hurtling toward me.

I moved as little to the side as I could, my hand still below its range. Just one swing downward, I would have a broken shoulder.

"Heart Knife."

In the grip of my other hand appeared a small bayonet knife, its handles adorned with a heart-shaped ring.

"HEART!"

The Spade Soldier screamed as it saw the knife and swung his mace downward. At that time, I swerved my hand ahead and stabbed the tip of the blade into the chains, hooking them together.

In one fell swoop, I twisted my body and pulled the knife back as fiercely as possible.

—THWACK!

The soldier slid down the stairs and fell near my feet.

"Give me that mace."

The spear stabbed downward like a snake. It wasn't enough with just once, though, so I stabbed it again and then again.

At last, the Spade Soldier turned into dust, and a sigh of relief left me.

[You have slain Spade Soldier (Lv:29)]

[You have leveled up!]

[You have leveled up!]

Two levels at once.

But my surprise wasn't over yet.

[You have learned the spear skill <Thrust>]

Skill?

Skills! I completely forgot about them. I had read about them; they were apparently things that you could do... on your own.

It didn't sound that different from what I was already doing, but it helped define a precise movement and the effect of my stabs.

But more important than all of these...

"For real? Another?"

Hat.

Another hat.

Who would buy an item that only had the description hat?

I guess the skill was the best outcome from this battle.

"Skill Tree"

[<<Skill Tree>>

--Spear Skills--

>Stab (Active): Basic stab brings out the full potential of a spear movement. Damage + 30

-----

-----

-----]

There was only one skill. There were further options to see the skill acquisition conditions, and it just mentioned stabbing with the spear a hundred times.

I bagged the hat, invested the four new points in Luck, and set off again.

Killing such high-level mobs would have been impossible if not for stats that increased with physical changes, I had to leverage it properly to keep investing in Luck.

The third floor's lights had turned from red to green and blue. This time, all the doors in the passageways were closed.

I pressed my ears against the wooden doors, but there were no sounds. To be careful, I even crouched down and looked for any moving shadows, but the visibility wasn't wide enough.

The lights next to it were green. Using healing magic in the game emitted a green glow. Could this be a safe room of sorts?

The few articles on the forums did not mention it, and none of the guide authors could have encountered it.

Information was a commodity in the mysterious world of the game. Guilds did not reveal the secrets of their dungeons to anyone except guildmates, leaving very few and naturally weak people writing public guides for honeypot dungeons.

If this were a safe room, I would have wanted the break.

There were no sounds anyway. What's the worst that could happen? Maybe five or six of them?

Thinking that, I pushed the door open.

A creak resounded as the door fell open.

Inside the room, tied through ropes from the ceiling, was a gagged Heart soldier, and all around it were three cackling Spade soldiers.

Along with the door, all of their heads creaked my way. The Spade soldiers' faces flushed red as they waved their hands in a fluster.

"I'm sorry," I said before closing the door again.

The door slammed shut, and I took in a breath.

"Fucking weirdos."

—BAM!

And right on cue, the door smashed down, and out came the soldiers.