The throwing knife in James' left hand was in a deadlock with the imp's right hand claw. Neither of them wanted to move their hands, for fear that the other one would be able to injure their wrist.
However, James' right hand was currently stabbing towards the imp. The imp, instead of blocking with its hand, ducked under James' attack, planning to strike at James's side. Even though the tier 2 imp was larger than a normal imp, it was still quite a bit smaller than James, so it was able to do this.
Seeing this, James brought up his knee.
Shink!
The claw hit James' side, but it didn't wound him at all. The claws were deflected off his side, as if they'd hit something hard.
Crunch!
James' knee dug into the imp's body, smashing a few of its ribs. The impact of the strike was emphasized by the opposite momentum of James and the imp. Even after James kneed the imp, they continued moving closer to each other.
At this point, James and the imp almost looked like they were hugging. In reality, they were locked in a fight to the death.
Unfortunately for the imp, James was in a much better state that the imp. After all, he hadn't been the one to take a knee directly to the ribs. James didn't hesitate and plunged his knife into the back of the imp during the time it was stunned, ignoring the shrill cries of the small demon. He stabbed the imp over and over again, until the imp finally stopped moving.
James sat down on the cold, hard floor, breathing heavily. He was expecting to hear the voice of the announcer woman announcing that he cleared, and see the bodies of the imps to disappear. However, he waited for a while, and the voice never appeared. Instead, he heard the sounds of a moaning imp.
James turned around and saw that the first imp, whom he had incapacitated with his throwing knives, was still struggling on the floor. He felt like slapping himself in the face.
"I'm an idiot. I let my guard down too early. That imp could've killed me if it hadn't been wounded so much."
If the imp was able to move, it could've ended James' existence with a single swipe, as James had been distracted.
Fortunately, it was injured so badly that it couldn't really move. James would need to finish it off.
But first, James took out and drank a recovery potion. When he kneed the imp, he'd definitely injured the imp more than he injured himself. But, hitting something as hard as bone with your knee definitely wouldn't feel good. James was pretty sure he'd fractured his kneecap, but this pain was nothing compared to the pain he felt when he used the latent potential pill, so he'd been able to ignore it and kill the imp.
James checked his body for any other wounds he might've missed, but only had a few miscellaneous scratches which quickly closed up. James' shirt had 3 slash marks where the imp had tried to end his life . Underneath, brown leather peeked out. This was a hard leather chest plate that James had bought from the shop. The armor had slight scratch marks on it.
Why was he wearing it beneath his shirt? James still was a bit confused himself.
"I know it's supposed to be magically and automatically fitting armor, but I didn't think it would fit so snugly that I couldn't put on a shirt underneath it." James recalled the armor magically molded to his skinny torso.
Even though he was complaining about it, the leather armor did fit very well on James. It didn't impair his movement in any way, nor was it uncomfortable. Somehow, it had good ventilation. James' shirt was ruined, but he didn't mind. It wasn't like his clothes on Earth would be messed up. If that was the case, James would have destroyed his entire wardrobe already.
After James felt that his knee had been healed, he picked up his knife. He approached the imp, dodged its last, half-hearted attack, and stabbed it to finish it off. Only then did he hear the voice of the announcer woman.
[Congratulations! You have cleared the 2nd floor! You will gain +1 stat point in each category!]
He'd successfully cleared the 2nd floor. James felt the changes in his body occur as his stats increased. After it was over, his body felt like it was much lighter, much more indestructible. He took a seat on a stone step, and pulled out his dungeon card.
{James Lu: Dungeon Explorer – Status Monitored
Cleared 2nd Floor
Points: 1006
STR: 58
DEF: 3
END: 3
AGI: 5
INT: 43
LUK: Error
Skills: Intermediate Knife Throwing, Monster Taming
Tamed Beasts: Leonardo the Bear (Leo) }
All of James' stats did increase by one. Additionally, the dungeon card now showed he had successfully cleared the 2nd floor. There was still a field that showed "Status Monitored," but James couldn't do anything about that. He just assumed it meant people like the announcer woman and the voice he met while picking out his reward were keeping tabs on him.
James put his card away, and went to pick up his throwing knives and the magic stones of the imps. As soon as he picked up the magic stone, Leo the bear popped out of his dungeon card. Leo looked at James with puppy dog eyes.
James sighed and gave the magic crystal in his hand to Leo, who ate it happily. It purred softly and rubbed its head against James, who yelped.
"Hey! I'm covered in blood, you know! Get off!"
It was too late. Part of Leo's brown fur was covered in dark red imp blood. It wasn't too much, but it was still sticky and annoying. James was planning to go.
He shook his head and picked up the rest of his knives and the other magic stones. Then, he picked up Leo and headed to the portal that would take him to the dungeon shop. He'd cleared the 2nd floor for the first time today, and he decided that was enough. He'd take a little break.
"I am going to take a shower. And you are coming with me." James flicked Leo lightly on the forehead.
James went into a shower room. He cleaned all of his equipment and stored them in his bag.
For some reason, the beanie which was "sealed" never got dirty. It seemed to repel all the dirt. James didn't mind, since that meant he didn't have to wash it, but it did make him much more suspicious of the beanie.
James then tore off his filthy clothes. After he'd finished taking a shower, he plopped Leo into the sink and gave him a good scrubbing with soap. Leo didn't seem to particularly hate or like being washed, which James was glad for. He might have tossed Leo into the wild if he thrashed about like a cat trying to avoid water.
James came out of the shower rooms after cleaning himself.
"Hey! Stop it! Don't get water everywhere!"
On top of his slightly damp head was a slightly damp bear that started shaking itself off, propelling water droplets everywhere.
At first, Leo had drawn the attention of a few dungeon explorers. Some of them were on guard because they sensed that Leo was a beast with mana, and could be possibly be hostile. However, their suspicion retreated as they saw the way James and Leo interacted with each other. None of the explorers had ever heard of a monster tamer, but there had been a necromancer before. A monster tamer was fully feasible. Additionally, John, the shopkeeper, didn't blink an eye at the sight of the bear. John was the one who kept the security of the dungeon shop, so this was reassuring to them.
In fact, Leo had been somewhat popular within the dungeon recently. He was really adorable, and a lot of the explorers, not just his close seniors Leah, Mike, and Beck, liked to pet him and feed him magic stones.
"Hey!" James heard Mandarin and turned around. In front of him was handsome looking Chinese man.