While the goblin was attacking the air where James was a few moments ago, he had snuck over to the throne. What was his purpose? He wanted to get to the vials.
Even though the goblin was blind, for the current James, there was just no way for him to attempt to fight the goblin head on. He couldn’t avoid the spear – it was just too fast and too strong for him. James instead wanted to camp the goblin out – it was in berserk mode, and it would probably lose enough blood and die if James waited. However, James still wanted some form of insurance, so he picked up the vials, intending to throw them again if needed. A normal goblin might not die to them, but the berserk goblin, died by slipping the last time. James was pretty sure that a small impact to the goblin’s vitals would be able to kill it or knock it unconscious.
James waited for about 5 more minutes, until the goblin eventually got close to him. He couldn’t evade it forever, since the goblin was faster than him. James took this opportunity to throw a vial. Its trajectory was pointed directly towards the goblin’s chest, until the goblin’s spear grazed it as it was swinging randomly. The vial changed its course and hit the goblin in its left shoulder.
The goblin stopped and turned to the left. It roared, and started charging in that direction.
“That was not what I planned, but it works for me.”
The goblin had started to slow down a bit – its body was becoming weaker as a cost of its berserk state. The longer James waited, the better.
After 3 more minutes, James threw a second vial. This vial smacked the goblin in the forehead, and it stopped and fell. The goblin was a mess. It had lost as much blood as it possibly could, and was in the process of dying.
James waited a little longer, and the goblin stopped moving. Its body began to glow. As soon as he saw this, he let out a sigh of relief.
“I didn’t get hurt, but it was really lucky that I managed to kill the berserk boss monster twice. It was only because I had blinded it at the beginning.”
Why did the goblin go berserk this time? Was it because James had bopped it with the potion vial? This matched up with happened last time. Both times he had thrown potion vials at the boss, it had gone berserk. Pondering this and many other topics in his mind, James grabbed all of the vials and the berserk magic stone, putting them in his bag. Then, he headed back to the dungeon shop.
When James entered, he looked around and saw Mike talking to two other explorers at the table labeled “English”. Mike noticed him, and made a greeting gesture with his hand. James nodded at him and walked over to the bar, where John was wiping glasses.
John looked up. “Hey there. Had a good clear?”
“Yeah, you could say that,” James replied, emptying the contents of his bag on the table. He had cleared. John waved his hand, and the magic stones disappeared again. James had cleared the 1st floor for a total of 4 times, and had netted a total of 104 points. His balance was now at 144. Each boss was worth 10 points, and time, he killed about 15 regular goblins. The numbers added up. James looked at his watch. It was 15 minutes past 3. If he wanted to, James could have cleared the 1st floor one more time, but he decided not to. He wanted to talk to Mike for a bit.
But before that, James had something to buy.
“Do you have any throwing knives?”
“Throwing knives, eh?” John had no idea what James wanted those for, but didn’t skip a beat. He pulled out a few boxes from nowhere. “Well, I have a few sets here. Each of them is quite basic, and they come in sets of 12. Oh, I also have kunai and shurikens here, if you want.”
James had just killed the boss goblin by throwing a vial at it. He wanted a throwable weapon that was better than the vial. Instead of a bow, which would be hard to use and hard to learn, he decided that throwing knives were a better option.
James was tempted to get shurikens and kunai and start Naruto running through the dungeon, but he suspected that they’d be harder to throw, especially the throwing stars. In the end, he chose a set of regular knives, balanced and quite sharp. John had recommended the set to him. Apparently, they were made out of a slightly magical material that would increase the hardness and piercing power. It cost him 120 points. Quite expensive, but James thought it was worth it.
James put the knives into his storage bag. The storage bag was very convenient; he didn’t even need a holder for the knives since he could quickly grab them out of the storage bag. Now, he only had 19 points left. James didn’t worry, though, since it took him less than a single night to make 100 points.
James walked over the table where Mike and the other two explorers were sitting.
<Hey, guys,> Mike said to the two explorers. <This is James, a new explorer. He just came into the dungeon yesterday.>
The unknown man with long golden hair introduced himself first.
“Wassup man. Name’s Beckham Conway, call me Beck. Good to see you.”
James first impression was that this man was a surfer dude from California that rode waves all day.
Next, the Asian woman with a petite frame and black hair and eyes introduced herself.
“I am Lee Ah-Young. English name Leah. English 2nd language. Not very good. From Korea.”
James nodded.
“I’m James Lu. I’m new to the dungeon, so please treat me well.”
Despite the cliché surfer dude look and the less than fluent English, James instinctively felt that they were much stronger than him.
<Haha, well, now you all know each other.> Mike leaned forwards. <Anyways, what were you doing with those throwing knives, James? You’ve been clearing the 1st floor just fine.>
“Ah that’s right. I have something to tell you guys.”
James had only been planning to talk to Mike, but he could tell that Mike definitely trusted these two, so he had no problems with telling them everything too. He sat down at the table.
“So, Mike knows that I fought a berserk boss on my first time through the dungeon.”
“You what?!” Beck looked at James, and then at Mike.
<Yeah, I know it’s hard to believe,> said Mike, <but I saw the magic stone myself.>
“Well, if you say so.” Beck scratched his head. “How did you do it?”
