"Whoops! Way too obvious!"
Inside the only room with a door on Dungeon 1F.
Rei had sensed a presence within the room, but after poking inside with his spear's shaft and triggering nothing, he judged there were no traps. However, the moment he stepped through the threshold, he felt something lunging at him from above.
Reacting exactly as anticipated, Rei kicked off the cobblestones and leaped forward to evade the descending attacker.
As if they had been waiting for that exact movement, two small, dog-faced monsters standing further ahead thrust their spears toward him.
Rei twisted his body in mid-air to dodge the incoming points. Closing the distance in a heartbeat, he swung the spear in his hand in a heavy horizontal slash.
The impact vibrating through the spear told him everything he needed to know: flesh struck, bone crushed. Then came the sharp crack of the wooden spear's shaft snapping under the force.
Clicking his tongue at the sensation, Rei shifted his gaze to the left.
The monster he had just battered was the one on the right. Since there had been two monsters waiting in front of him, the one on the left naturally remained.
However, Rei’s initial step had been so fast that the creature had completely lost sight of him.
The broken spear tip spun through the air, flying off in a random direction, but Rei ignored it entirely. He thrust the remains of the spear's shaft still gripped in his hand toward the monster's head.
The shaft part of the spear was made of wood, and because it had snapped in the middle, the break had left a jagged, lethal point.
That wooden spike plunged into the monster’s head—specifically into its eye. Driven by Rei’s immense strength, the spear remains easily reached the brain, destroying it instantly.
"Gyan!"
The monster let out a short, sharp yelp as it was blown back with the remains of the spear's shaft still impaled in its socket. It tumbled across the floor, convulsed a few times, let out a final, thin whimper, and went still.
Without waiting for it to stop moving, Rei pivoted on the cobblestones. With his now-empty right hand, he reached inside his Dragon Robe and activated the Eye of Nebula equipped at his waist.
He flicked his fingers, launching the arrowhead produced in his palm.
"Kyauun!"
A pained shriek echoed from behind him.
The arrowhead generated by the Eye of Nebula wasn't enough to kill it, but the surviving monster clutched its face and screamed. Even while wounded, it managed to level its spear.
Now that he could finally observe his opponent clearly, Rei’s brows furrowed slightly.
It made sense. Standing before him was a small monster with the face of a dog. Its stature was roughly the same as a goblin's, perhaps only slightly larger.
Rei was well aware of what this monster was.
While this was only the second time Rei had encountered them, they were as famous as goblins.
The E-Rank monster: the Kobold.
That was the identity of the creature standing at the end of Rei’s gaze.
In terms of pure physical ability, they were only slightly superior to goblins, but they were significantly smarter. They were capable of the kind of coordinated ambush Rei had just witnessed. They were also more dexterous, handling weapons with a skill goblins lacked.
"Well, at the end of the day, you're still just E-Rank monsters."
He drew the Death Scythe from his Misty Ring and delivered a horizontal slash.
The strike was so keen that several seconds passed after the follow-through before the creature’s torso finally slid apart in two.
"Their materials and proof of subjugation parts are worth more than a goblin's... but it's still a lot of effort to dismantle them for what they're worth. If they were higher-rank, I could at least use the meat for Seto."
Ultimately, Rei decided not to store the Kobold. He left the remains of the corpses where they lay. Like the goblins before them, he expected the slimes would come along and clean up the mess if he left them alone.
He gave the Death Scythe a single flick to clear the blood before storing it back in the Misty Ring. Then, he pulled out another spear similar to the one that had just broken.
The reason he hadn't used the Kobold spear was that it was simply too crude. It might serve as a disposable throwing weapon, but it was clearly unfit for regular combat. He decided the Kobold spears were better suited for throwing and tucked them into his Misty Ring.
With the room cleared, Rei surveyed his surroundings.
"Now, where are the stairs... Ah, there."
Sitting solitary in the center of the room were the stairs to the floor below.
The rest of the space was entirely unremarkable; just a vast, empty hall. Well, aside from the three Kobold corpses scattered across the floor.
"It would have been better if the ogre had been in a room like this. Or... did it actually wander out precisely because this room was so large?"
Musing over the thought, Rei headed for the stairs when—
"Gyagya."
"Gyogyagyah!"
The sounds of voices drifted up from the bottom of the stairs, causing his face to twist in annoyance.
"Again? There are seriously way too many goblins in this place."
Sighing at the thought of how many goblins he had already dealt with today, he leveled his spear and kicked off the ground to ambush the creatures before they spotted him.
Rei closed the distance in an instant.
The two goblins were too busy peering down the stairs to notice his approach.
(I bet there are even more of them down there.)
Accepting that this was becoming tedious, he lunged with a sharp thrust, crushing the first goblin's head. Before the body could even hit the cobblestones, he retracted the weapon and struck again, crushing the head of the second.
The two goblins were snuffed out in a heartbeat. A third goblin, unaware of their fate, poked its head up from the stairs exactly as Rei had predicted. In the next instant, his follow-up strike crushed its skull, ending its life just like the others.
He waited for a moment just in case, but no fourth or fifth goblin appeared.
"Well, I guess that's that."
He watched the headless goblin corpse slide down toward the landing and checked the room one last time. Confirming there was nothing but dead goblins and Kobolds, he descended the stairs, following the path the corpses had taken.
"The second floor was cave-style, wasn't it?"
Muttering to himself as he walked down, he stepped over the goblin corpses and exited into the next area. Spread out before him was a subterranean landscape exactly as he had described.
Unlike the cobblestones of the first floor, the ground here was soil, littered with small stones. Faintly glowing stalactites hung from the ceiling like icicles, providing just enough light to navigate the passage without needing a torch.
However, the passage width was roughly the same as Dungeon 1F. Just as Rei had heard from the information he gathered in Gilm, there was very little room for maneuver.
"This layout is pretty nasty. If you came here with a party, only a few people could engage at a time. I suppose you could pack the group with archers to compensate... but then you'd likely lose money."
The monsters appearing were almost exclusively low-rank. Even the ogre Rei had fought was noticeably weaker than standard specimens. At that rate, it would be difficult to even cover the cost of the arrows spent in a fight.
If they were lucky, they could recover some arrows, but the odds were poor. Arrows often snapped against the rock walls, arrowheads chipped, or they were rendered useless by monster fluids.
"Thinking of it that way, my Eye of Nebula is actually pretty handy. It can mass-produce the arrowhead part, which is usually the most expensive bit. Though, they do vanish pretty quickly."
He continued down the path, pondering the magic item on his hip that was notoriously difficult to use efficiently. If he were an archer, the Eye of Nebula before modification would have likely been an incredible asset.
It was strange to only realize that now, but Rei had never intended to use a bow as a primary weapon. He would much rather throw a spear from his Misty Ring if he needed to attack at range.
"A bow, huh... With the Misty Ring, I'd never have to worry about running out of arrows. Accuracy would be another story, though."
Given his physical ability and his incredibly keen five senses and sixth sense, he suspected he might have a high aptitude for archery. But once his Beast Magic had produced the Death Scythe, he felt there was no other choice but to master it.
"Whoops, lost myself in thought there."
The sound of monster cries echoed from further down the straight passage. Recognizing that enemies were approaching, Rei prepared to level his spear, only to realize he didn't actually need to get close.
(I was just thinking about spear throwing, so it's only natural this came to mind.)
Muttering to himself, he leaned his current spear against the wall and pulled out one of the crude spears he had just looted from the Kobolds.
(I didn't think the chance to use these things would come so soon.)
It didn't matter if it broke; it was a literal disposable tool. Rei gripped the spear and took a stance, casting a sharp gaze down the tunnel.
Even with the stalactites providing illumination, the light was far from daylight. Under these conditions, locating the enemy relied more on intuition and sensing their presence than on vision.
The approaching cries grew louder. The moment he was certain they were monsters and not adventurers, he took a few steps into a run and threw the spear with the full twisting force of his body.
The spear sliced through the air, flying straight and true until—
"Bumoo!"
A pained grunt reached Rei’s ears.
"Based on that presence and the cry, it's definitely not a goblin. This is... heh."
Recognizing the familiar signature, his lips twisted into a grin. He snatched his spear from the wall and kicked off the ground.
The floor of the second floor was soil and loose stone, unlike the solid cobblestones of the first, so Rei couldn't use his full leg strength. Even so, his pace was overwhelming compared to an average adventurer. In an instant, the figure of a pig-faced monster crouching on the ground came into view.
It was an Orc. While only a D-Rank monster and hardly a "high-rank" threat, its meat was exceptionally delicious for its rank. Rei still had a decent supply of meat from his previous attack on the Orc settlement stored in his Misty Ring.
Both Rei and Seto were fond of it, and he had been hoping to replenish his stock. The Orc ahead of him had been impaled through the abdomen by Rei’s thrown spear, yet it was still desperately trying to stand.
Nearby, a second Orc stood dazed, staring at its companion as if it couldn't comprehend what had just happened. Its stupor didn't even break when it heard Rei’s approaching footsteps.
Rei’s spear lunged. A thrust aimed at the throat of the impaled Orc destroyed its neck instantly. Only when the creature's head rolled onto the ground did the second Orc finally realize they were under attack. It raised the club in its hand toward Rei.
Rei didn't give it the chance to swing. He unleashed a rapid series of thrusts before the club could even begin its descent.
Three strikes, delivered almost simultaneously.
An instant flash of steel pierced the Orc's abdomen three times. Though the monster was protected by thick layers of fat and muscle, it couldn't withstand the raw power behind Rei’s thrusts. It collapsed onto the ground.
Its limbs twitched feebly—the only sign that life hadn't quite left it yet. Blood pooled from the puncture wounds, staining the dirt floor.
Rei watched the creature for a moment before leveling his spear one last time. With a single follow-up blow to the head, the Orc's life vanished.
"Are the Orcs here weaker than the ones I've fought before too?" Rei wondered aloud.
Then again, it might simply be that the current Rei was far stronger than he had been during his previous encounters with them.
More than the monster's combat strength, however, Rei was concerned about the quality of the meat. Since he was going to the trouble of restocking, he hoped the flavor would be the same, regardless of how weak the monster was.
He stored both the Orc corpses and their weapons into the Misty Ring and resumed his trek.
Rei continued down the straight passage. Eventually, the path split into two. Unlike the first floor, this wasn't a T-junction, but a Y-junction.
"Now, which way to go..."
On the first floor, the path had essentially looped back around to the central room with the stairs. He suspected the layout here would be different.
Following his intuition, Rei stepped onto the path leading to the right.