“It smells like shit in here.”

“GRR!”

Leo, still in his large form, growled in agreement to James’ statement.

“I can’t smell in this form,” said Ajartum.

It had been James’ first time using fire magic on an actual enemy, not a target in the training room. His first fireball hadn’t been enough to kill the goblin, so he sent off five more, which did the job. Unfortunately, he hadn’t just killed the goblin. He’d cooked part of it. And burned another part.

This was due to James not having learned the chant for the basic magic <Fire Lance> yet. He was stuck with the even more rudimentary <Fireball>, which had less killing power. Its heat wasn’t that powerful, and it wasn’t focused. It made for some nice goblin steak.

James collected the loot from the goblins, and found something he hadn’t seen in a while: an orb.

Two stripes denoted the 2nd tier.

[Orb of Strength – Tier 2

 Can be consumed to increase strength stat. Maximum 50 for each tier.]

“This is nice, but I didn’t expect this to drop from a goblin mage. Looks like it’s divided by floors, not by the type of monster.”

James swallowed the orb and checked his status, which he hadn’t done in a while.

[James Lu: Dungeon Explorer – Status Monitored

 Cleared 5th Floor

 Points: 1767

 STR: 63

 DEF: 56

 END: 56

 AGI: 56

 INT: 46

 LUK: 

 Skills: Advanced Knife Throwing, Advanced Knife Combat, Advanced Spear Combat,        Intermediate Hammer Combat, Intermediate Close Quarter Combat, Beginning Sword
Combat, Monster Taming, Mental Connection, Intermediate Mana Detection, Beginning  Elemental Magic (All Attributes)

 Tamed Beasts: Mutant Bear Species (Leonardo)                                                                                      ]

There were a few changes. James’ strength went up by a 2 points instead of 1, proving that the orb was tier 2. In the 2 weeks that he’d been training, his Spear Combat and Mana Detection had both increased a level. And of course, he gained magic.

When he put his status away, he saw an item drop - a bow from the goblin archer. This reminded him of the arrow that had hit him earlier. James figured that he must’ve gotten so distracted by the fight and the loot that he didn’t even bother to check his wound.

The hardened leather armor had been slightly caved in at the point where the arrow had hit it. James took off the armor and applied pressure to the dent in order to reverse it, which was possible only because the leather was somewhat flexible. It was a little deformed, but James knocked on it and decided that it was still fine to be used.

Beneath the armor, on the lowest part of James' rib cage, a small bluish patch was spreading. It didn’t hurt until he looked at it. Even so, it was a light bruise that only throbbed a bit. It must have been the adrenaline. James simply sprinkled a low tier potion on it, and his skin quickly returned to its normal color.

“That is a wound you could have easily avoided, yes?” Ajartum asked James.

“Yes.”

James had taken the arrow to protect Leo. Ajartum did not miss this fact.

“Well, you’ll eventually get injured. One of the important things is to know which hits you can take, and which ones you can’t.”

Luckily, the goblin’s strength was not enough to pull the bow very far, and the arrow itself was rather flimsy, resulting in minimal damage. 

Despite the danger, James didn’t consider the notion of not bringing Leo into the dungeon. Given the speed the gluttonous mutant was growing, in a month, he would be the one hiding behind Leo.

He stored the bow in his bag and continued on.

===========

As he didn’t wish to cook all the goblins he encountered, James only used ice magic, his most proficient element, and his knives to carve his way through the rest of the dungeon. Oh. And his bear.

One thing he had to note was his magic reserves - he could only send about 30 <Fireball> spells or 30 <Ice Lance> spells. Since ice was his best attribute, these two spells, even though <Ice Lance> was a more complex spell, due to the shaping of the spear. At any rate, his magic capacity was one of the 2 issues preventing him from spamming spells, the other being his relatively slow casting speed.

On the plus side, he’d become so efficient at using his spear to check for traps that it didn’t even slow him down compared to normal walking speed. On this floor, the traps were more vicious - they were more harmful, even if they wouldn’t kill. The pitfalls had stakes at the bottom, and needles were shot from the wall if a tripwire was triggered. However, they were still easily detectable - and that made them much less dangerous.

James reached a familiar set of metal doors. He looked at Leo.

“Kyu?”

“No. I’m not taking you into the boss fight. You’re not strong enough to face a tier 3 monster, or a horde of tier 2 monsters, whatever type of boss it is.”

Leo seemed disheartened, but cheered up when James gave him a few magic stones, and he happily went back into the card. So simple.

“So, any advice you want to give to me? You know about this dungeon?” James asked Ajartume

“The first floor and 6th floor are quite analogous. The difference between the boss and the normal monsters is about the same, if that makes any sense. I am confident that you’ll be fine.”

There was only one monster in the room. It had green skin, like a goblin, but it was different. It was large and extremely muscular. Tier 2 goblins were anywhere between 3/4 his size or of equal height. However, this monster was about one and a half times his height.

Its face was more handsome than that of a goblin, but it was still hard to look at, mainly because of its cruel eyes and warped mouth.

Ajartum told James the name of the monster: “An ogre. A lesser one, which doesn’t have strong regeneration abilities.”

Indeed, the word “ogre” inspired a different image in James' mind - one that was more powerful, more imposing.

James noticed that the boss room was somewhat larger than the previous ones. He quickly found out why.

“GUUUUUUUAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!”

The ogre let out a fearsome roar that shook the entire room and barreled towards James, reaching out to grab him with its abnormally large hands. It wasn’t armed, but that didn’t make it less scary. James wasn’t scared of being run over by a truck because of the pointy bits on the grill.

A normal human would have been turned into a pancake, but James had superhuman physical ability. He jumped sideways, narrowly avoiding the outstretched hand of the ogre. The ogre ran past him, unable to stop or change direction that quickly.

After taking three or four more steps, the ogre stopped itself. It turned around and ran towards James again, but he was ready for the charge this time. Again he leapt away at the last moment, but he was able to drag his knife along the forearm of the ogre, leaving a somewhat deep cut.

James, el matador.

The ogre was frighteningly strong, but it lacked intelligence - this was a combination James had dealt with before.

The skin was tough, but James could still cut through it. If he was able to get a clean hit on the neck or in the chest, he was pretty sure he could kill it. But that was really risky with a knife, so James took out the spear.

If he had a red cloth, he would have waved it.

===========

The body of the ogre slumped to the ground. It had been a long fight, but James had been in control the entire time, using his agility to maximum. He slowly shaved away at the ogre until it exhausted itself.

That being said, he was quite tired himself.

“Rest in peace, spear. You were a good weapon.”

In the middle of the battle, the spear had been stuck in the ogre’s chest and James hadn’t been able to pull it out in time. The pressure caused by James’ grip on the butt end and the ogre’s movements eventually snapped it in half. James had used a sword for the rest of the battle, just for the reach.

The tier 3 magic stones had a bluish tint to them. James had seen one before - when he first entered the dungeon and accidentally ruined an entire group of goblins. The chieftain had been a tier 3. In fact, the knife it had dropped was the same one in James’ hand now.

James only escaped that encounter because of luck. But James was pretty sure he’d be able to take on that same group now. The ogre and the chieftain were both tier 3, but the ogre was a high level tier 3 monster. It was a boss monster, after all. 

“I really improved a lot.”

“That is true. I didn’t have to help you at all.”

James didn’t even realize that he’d voiced his thoughts out loud until Ajartum responded.

“But, you still have a lot of work to do. You’re nowhere near strong enough.”

“Strong enough for what?”

“The faster you improve, the sooner you’ll find out.”

If James knew how much work the damn beanie would force him to do in the next two months, he would have cried. Very loudly.