The goblins charged straight at him.
Not only did Roy feel no fear, a look of excitement appeared on his face.
Back in his hometown in the Kingdom of Rakia, goblins would also emerge from the forests. Roy was not unfamiliar with this kind of monster—their physical attributes were roughly on par with those of an adult human.
Roy drew the fine village sword. The silvery blade gleamed brilliantly, reflecting the goblins' ferocious faces.
The goblins rushed in mindlessly, opening their mouths to bite.
Roy stepped backward to create distance. After clearly reading their movements, he swung his sword.
The sharp blade fell upon a goblin, easily splitting its skull and tearing apart its scrawny body.
Reality proved that Roy had underestimated the fine village sword. In the upper floors, this thing could be considered a divine weapon. His movements were clean and decisive, without the slightest hesitation. In the blink of an eye, all the goblins were slain.
Bang!
There was no blood splatter. The four goblins' bodies burst apart and vanished into ash, leaving behind several purple magic stone fragments the size of pinky fingers on the ground.
Roy crouched down, picked up the magic stone fragments, and put them into his pocket. He wasn't short on money, but this was the first loot he had ever obtained from killing monsters.
Magic stones were the core of monsters, the source of their power. As such, striking the magic stone was the most effective way to defeat a monster. The Guild collected magic stone fragments and used their energy to manufacture various convenient tools.
Soon, the wall began to bulge slightly.
Several more monsters jumped out. The first floor of the Dungeon only had two types of monsters: goblins and ground spirits—both of which Lv.1 adventurers could deal with easily.
Not to mention Roy, who was wielding a fine village sword worth hundreds of thousands of valis. Fighting on the first floor felt like cheating.
No technique—just raw stats!
After spending more than half an hour adapting to the monsters on the first floor, Roy followed the corridor downward and quickly broke through to the second floor. The environment was no different from the first.
He heard a faint sound coming from above.
Roy looked up and saw a gigantic gecko clinging to the ceiling, staring straight at him with blood-red eyes.
The lizard-type monster, "Dungeon Lizard," had rough brown skin, a horizontally split mouth, and a long, thin tongue protruding outward. Its entire body measured around 1.5 meters. This was a low-tier monster that appeared from the second to the fourth floor, classified on the same level as goblins and ground spirits.
Whoosh!
The lizard monster scurried toward Roy at high speed, opened its mouth, and shot its tongue like a spear toward his head.
Roy tilted his head to avoid the incoming tongue. His right hand thrust forward with the sword, the blade easily piercing through the lizard's rough hide and impaling its body.
Bang!
The lizard monster shattered, and magic stone fragments fell.
Relying on the sharpness of the fine village sword, Roy practically ignored the defensive capabilities of upper-floor monsters, killing one with a single strike. He shook his head with a smile—overly powerful equipment really could make people dependent. Now he understood that saying.
But inside the Dungeon, not using powerful equipment when you had it would be truly foolish.
Roy continued forward.
After killing more than a dozen lizard monsters and goblins, Roy smoothly entered the third floor.
The Dungeon was eerily quiet. Voices and footsteps were amplified. Whenever Roy encountered other adventurers along the way, he would put away the fine village sword in advance.
One should never flaunt wealth. Although the upper floors were close to the surface, it was still impossible to guarantee that others wouldn't harbor ill intentions.
[Strength: 0 → 5 (I)]
[Endurance: 0 → 8 (I)]
Two status panels suddenly appeared before Roy. A faint smile surfaced on his face.
He figured his attributes were about due for an increase.
There were specific ways to raise ability values—Endurance, for example, increased the more you took hits, got injured, and endured pressure. Likewise, running or grip training would improve Agility and Strength.
After killing nearly twenty monsters, the total increase in ability values was only thirteen. This wasn't entirely Roy's fault.
With Agility already as high as 600 (C), killing low-level mobs resulted in negligible gains. As for Dexterity, that required technical training. Since Roy had been one-shotting monsters with the fine village sword the entire time, it would be strange if it increased at all.
Roy wasn't discouraged. Without even relying on a god, his ability values updated in real time after killing monsters. That alone put him far ahead of other adventurers.
The deeper one went into the Dungeon, the larger the space became.
When Roy entered the fifth floor, the difference compared to the first floor was obvious. The passages became much wider, like a sprawling maze branching in all directions. The frequency of encountering other adventurers began to drop.
Bang!
The wall shattered, and seven or eight werewolves leapt out. About 1.6 meters tall, their bodies covered in fur, with sharp fangs and claws. Standing upright on two legs, they were already wielding wooden clubs—unlike previous monsters, these had weapons.
Roy's eyes burned with excitement.
Rumble!
These werewolves showed no fear of death, charging forward with the momentum of a thousand troops.
Roy felt a surge of pressure. Strictly speaking, this was his first real battle. Everything before—those instant kills—couldn't even be called combat.
Whoosh!
The leading werewolf reached Roy first, swinging its club down toward his head, the strike tearing through the air.
Roy raised the fine village sword and slashed head-on. The blade, sharp enough to cut through iron like mud, split the club in an instant—along with the werewolf behind it, cleaving it in two.
Bang!
The bisected werewolf exploded, magic stone fragments scattering.
Instantly killing one werewolf didn't scare the others. Instead, the ghostly green glow in their eyes grew even more ferocious as they attacked from both sides.
Though he lacked extensive combat experience, Roy knew better than to expose his back to monsters. He kept retreating, making sure all enemies stayed within his frontal view.
Gripping the sword tightly, Roy unleashed a wide horizontal slash, easily cutting two werewolves in half at the waist.
At that moment, another werewolf suddenly lunged out from the shadows, its eyes glowing faint green.
Roy was startled. He instinctively stepped back and raised his arm to block.
A flash of cold light—
The werewolf's claws carved a shallow gash across the back of Roy's hand. Blood splattered out.
Sharp pain surged into Roy's brain, snapping him fully awake as his survival instincts kicked in.
Roy raised his sword and stabbed it into the werewolf's chest. It felt like he struck something solid. The werewolf's body stiffened, then instantly exploded, dropping fragments.
"Damn it!"
Roy cursed under his breath.
Sometimes, you couldn't rely solely on numbers on a status sheet. Some things could only be discovered in real combat.
When he had obtained 600 attribute points from killing Douma, he had distributed them too carelessly. He should have invested in both Agility and Dexterity.
Simply put, high Agility allowed straight-line movement. But to flexibly dodge enemy attacks in combat and counterattack, Dexterity was also necessary.
Because his Dexterity was too low, he failed to evade that sudden ambush from the werewolf.
Soon, Roy steadied his mindset again. After all, grinding dungeons and killing monsters would earn him massive amounts of attribute points.
This kind of "failure" was actually valuable experience.
If it were an ordinary adventurer, they'd probably regret it to their core—but for him, this was called demonstrating error tolerance.
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