POV Cornelius

The goblins of floor 4 were no match for us. I stood at the front and tanked all attacks with my shield. With Eli and Javier's buffs, I didn't take any damage. Ansgar attacked from the side and knocked down all opponents in his way. Since we weren't interested in the corpses of the monsters, we quickly crossed the plain. The soldiers who accompanied us drove away all the other adventurers so that they couldn't take away our EXP. We returned to the inn that evening satisfied. The mood of all of us was exuberant and we had a good time.

The next day we went to floor 4 again. We didn't have any problems today either. The goblins were just a source of EXP. The chest we found on the way was boring, we didn't find anything interesting inside. The only interesting thing were the potions, but the soldiers got them. After all, we had our own supplies and our healer Eli.

The next day, full of courage, we went to floor 5. There were supposed to be all sorts of plant monsters here and we quickly encountered some. Plants grow everywhere on this level and most of the monsters were creepers. However, they shouldn't pose any problems for us. Javier in particular was able to show his skills again here. Since he had improved his magic to the point where he could throw fireballs, he was unstoppable here. Fireball was an advanced fire magic spell and exploded on impact. As a result, surrounding monsters were also hit and since the plant monsters were almost immobile, they could not avoid it. We had all become strong, as true heroes should be. Not like the little adventurers who didn't know their place.

That evening we returned to the inn in a good mood. Although I couldn't stand the uncouth adventurers, there were some beauties among them. At least they weren't as bad as mercenaries. But many of the women were pretty enough to warrant a second glance from me. Of course, I invited everyone I liked visually into my harem, which I would form soon. And when they were still strong, they also became good bodyguards. One or two had expressed favorably before, but today I had no success. Instead, a pimp threw himself in front of his comrade and wanted to protect her. I just laughed at him and had the soldiers put him back in his usual place. I didn't look at them anymore and just walked past them. They would see what they got out of it. Once I live up to my heroic title and save the world, anyone who opposed me will be condemned to insignificance. And only those who dwelt by my side would benefit from my fame.

The next day we went to the first miniboss on floor 5. Minibosses were placed on floor 5, 15, 25 and so on. The floor boses were placed on the end of floor 10, 20, and so on. Minibosses could be avoided, but it was worth it. Floor boses must be defeated for further exploration.  I explained the plan to fight the miniboss to the others beforehand. We would divided up. I protected Javier so he could throw fireballs. Ansgar protected Eli and removed anything that came too close. We entered the placed were the miniboss would be spawned. The air in the middle shimmered and many monsters appeared. It was just one slime, so he had to be the miniboss. We left that to Javier. Javier opened directly with two firebalsl into the monster with the slime in the middle. The rest waited. The first to come to us were the beetles. I confronted them and, as always, they posed no threat. With one quick movement, Ansgar chopped the first spider in two. He also has little problems with the remaining spiders, but had to take a few minor hits, which is why he was slightly poisoned. But we had Eli for such cases. In the meantime, Javier was able to gradually defeat the goblins with an ice spell, while I simply crushed the beetles with my new boots.

After a short time all the monsters were defeated. The creepers were just a joke as they didn't move and were killed by Javier's fireballs. After the last monster was defeated, all the corpses disappeared and both the stele and a chest appeared. I was looking forward to what the stele would offer me and touched it. I was disappointed because I was expecting something more spectacular. I didn't want to upgrade a random skill. Either they were skills for which we already had a teacher, or they were skills that I would hardly use. Others could do that. It wasn't a big loss not to improve a skill because we were able to save the development point. I just saved that point for later.

I was still thinking when I heard an explosion and a loud scream. I looked in that direction and saw Ansgar standing in front of the chest. His clothes were still slightly smoldering.

“What happened?” <Cornelius>

“Hmmm, Ansgar couldn’t wait and opened the chest. Apparently there was a trap set up and he triggered it when he opened it. Then it exploded and hit him completely.” <Javier>

"That is not good at all. We now also have to expect traps in the dungeon. But since we never find anything useful in the chests anyway, we just leave them behind. The equipment the emperor provides us is significantly better than anything we find here.” Cornelius

“Hmmm, you’re right, but we will upgrade our main weapon skills to the advanced rank. Then we have the opportunity to carry the next better equipment. We should then return to the capital.” <Javier>

“Holy shit, that hurts. Ouch.” <Ansgar>

“Hold still and I will heal you.” <Eleonore>

“It’s okay, I’ll hold still. But Cornelius, what if we soon find traps in the corridors too? None of us have the skills to detect them let alone disarm them. We could really need someone who can do that.” <Ansgar>

“You’re speaking something true. I’m thinking about it.” <Cornelius>

Someone in charge of the traps could be really useful. We couldn't trigger all the traps and heal afterwards, it slowed us down too much. But I didn't want to ask one of the Emperor's scouts. I didn't want to have an old guy with me that I didn't know. Maybe I would find a nice bunny that would want to accompany us. But where did I find one who was young enough and also pretty and cute?