Yesterday there were many things to consider before going to bed, so a relaxing, uneventful morning felt just right for calming the soul.
Since there were no rolls on the [Mana Banners], I had full energy today, so, breakfast came early.
It didn't take long for Licia to wake up and come see me.
Licia: "Morning."
Miwen: "Good morning."
Licia: "You've obtained a new skill thanks to your Gift yesterday right?"
Miwen: "Yes, I did."
She seemed quite interested in it.
It was understandable since they can also benefit her, but considering the excitement she showed previously, I think she has a genuine interest in this.
Licia: "Was there any good one?"
Miwen: "[Faster Tree Climbing] at level 2."
Licia: "Are you being serious?"
Of course. It was my strongest skill... if we're considering only the levels.
But yeah, there's probably not a single world where this is considered a good skill, so after teasing her a bit with it, I went ahead and told her about the actually good ones.
Miwen: "I got a skill that enhances sight and a skill may allow the user to resist a fatal attack at a rare chance, it also boosts training, so it's pretty useful overall."
Licia: "Um... Will you share them with me?"
She was finally done beating around the bush.
Her intent was pretty clear from the start, but it was funny to see her trying to avoid being direct, only to surrender to her desires once she noticed they were actually useful.
Miwen: "Maybe later. I'm broke for Kingdom Points, and although I could claim some now, I'd rather do it after we're back from the Dungeon."
Licia: "...And why is that?"
Miwen: "There's always the possibility of a level-up, so it's better to do it after. If I happen to really need it, I can quickly do it inside the dungeon too."
Licia: "I guess..."
Although she only came back to her usual face, which hides most of her emotions, now that I know her a little better, I can tell that she got a little disappointed by this.
Still, she seemed to understand that it was for the better.
So, after breakfast, we headed toward the dungeon again.
Licia was still puzzled by some things along the way. It looked like it was going to take some time before she adapted to her surroundings.
Still, she seemed more calm, and the most common things didn't catch her attention as much as last time.
It was a slow process, but she showed progress.
Once we arrived at the dungeon gate, we found Sam and Roy waiting for us.
Roy seemed slightly anxious about today, while Sam seemed deep in thought.
They always come together, and also arrive earlier than us, even if just by minutes. It makes me wonder if they live near one another.
Roy: "So, we will be fighting the floor boss today huh? We are going at a very fast pace."
Miwen: "That's for sure, but I think victory is assured for us as we are right now."
Taking into consideration the old times, yes, even the first floor of an easy dungeon was a challenge.
Nowadays, thanks to all the information that we have acquired, it isn't as difficult, and you could often see parties progressing at our pace, if they decided to be risky about it, even faster.
Still, this was a good balance between being quick and being cautious. We took a few challenges, but we tried not to be too reckless.
Sam: "I think so too, but let's try not to get overconfident okay?"
Roy: "Yeah. What about you Licia, are you sure you can fight the boss?"
This time, Roy's worries were a little more reasonable.
Well, considering what he knows, they have always been.
With this being our first boss battle and Licia not being at the cap, it was natural for him to worry, and even Sam looked worried for her.
Licia: "Yes, I think that if Miwen and I were to fight it together, we'd be sure to defeat it."
Roy: "That would leave Sam and me to take care of the goblins right?"
Sam: "Well, it was bound to be this way even before Licia came you know? One of us would have to grab the boss's attention while the others defeated the minions."
Although without Licia, the best one to do would probably be Sam herself.
Roy: "I guess so."
Our plan wasn't very complex for this boss.
He is not known to have many special abilities, and the room does not possess any gimmicks attached to it.
The most difficult part is that he doesn't stand alone against us, instead, four minions accompany him.
This makes the battle challenging for newbie solo adventurers.
Bringing at least a party of three is recommended so that each has one opponent to face.
In that regard, we were above the recommended number, but it was also far from overkill.
However, once I was done explaining the battle to Licia on our way here, she seemed to believe the two of us would be enough to defeat the boss.
If we're talking about just the boss, I do agree with her, but the minions are also slightly stronger than what we usually find in the dungeon. Not on the same level as a [Superior Goblin], but definitely more dangerous than the normal ones.
As such, we passed by the settlement on the first floor and made our way to the closest boss room door we could find.
We found a few slimes and goblins along the way, but they didn't stand a chance and were quickly wiped out.
It showed we had come far in just a few days, as there was no denying that we had become stronger.
Yet, the last challenge this floor had for us still stood in our way.
In front of us, there was the door that led to the floor boss. Once something we feared, but now...
Sam: "Is everyone ready?"
Sam calls for us.
We gather our confidence, and with a nod, one after the other, we all tell her that we are ready for this battle.
Once inside, there was nothing to see but darkness. No signs of any monster anywhere.
We didn't let our guard down, and as if rewarding our decision, the door behind us closed by itself.
There was no going back.
The only way to leave the room was to defeat the boss.
In front of us, the torches in the walls started to light up, revealing 5 human-like creatures.
Right in the middle was the Goblin Lord, the boss of the first floor of this dungeon.
He's stronger than any monster on this floor and is on par with a superior.
He also carries a small sword with him, but thankfully his skill with it is not noteworthy.
As for intelligence, he's a little better than other goblins, but the chances of him coming up with a scheme are low.
The other goblins all carry clubs with them, but those might actually be an advantage for us as they make them slower and quite exposed when attacking.
Licia and I targeted the Goblin Lord, while Sam and Roy focused on the other goblins.
She was rather quick on the offense, attacking the Goblin Lord multiple times.
She seemed way more reckless now than her usual cautious self, which left me a bit confused.
However, considering her experience, I thought there was a good reason for it.
And it did provide me a good opportunity to try and sneak behind the opponent.
Licia's knife met the Goblin's sword, and the sound of their clash reverberated throughout the room.
Even though she was alone, and a level under him, she was doing a great job at keeping him at bay.
But looking at her fighting him, I finally understood what she was going for.
Her weapon had a smaller reach than his. It was also not very durable. If she went on the defensive, she would have to take the brunt of his force. Not only could the knife break, but it would also work to his advantage, as he could reach her without risking retaliation.
However, by storming him with all she had, he forced him on the defensive, controlling the momentum and lowering the risks on herself.
It seemed quite hard and risky to do, but she was managing it perfectly.
Not only that, but she also created a perfect opportunity for me to strike, and once she saw me in a good position, she cast her ice magic, making the knife that was connected to the Goblin Lord's sword freeze, taking away both of their weapons and forcing them to be stuck to one another.
The boss tried to free himself, but with both of them applying all their strength, her knife eventually broke.
Still, she did way more than necessary. The opportunity she created was enough for me to attack him from behind and cut his head off from his neck.
A battle that should have been quite challenging ended up not posing any risks to me.
However, even though I took the kill, she was undoubtedly the MVP.
Her battle sense and the way she makes use of her abilities is quite scary.
After dying, the body of the boss disappeared. But one thing remained on the ground.
His sword.
Licia: "It's gonna unfreeze soon so... loot acquired!"
Since she did almost everything in this fight, I had no problem with her taking it for herself.
Her looking so pleased about it was only half the reason for this decision.
Her weapons had also been broken during the fight, and well... I was a bit curious to see how she'd fare with a sword.
We ended up being quite fast in our battle since Roy and Sam were still dealing with their opponents.
Thus, we decided to separate to help them.
Roy: "Oh hey, are you finished already?"
Miwen: "Yep, we had it in the bag."
Roy killed one of the goblins while I took care of the other one.
It didn't seem like he struggled too much during his fight, and since it was a 2-on-1 he decided it would be better to be cautious and take his time.
It could also be that he was too anxious to go for the finishing strike, but I decided to look at it optimistically, seeing it as growth on his part.
Miwen: "I think the girls are done on their side as well."
Roy: "Looks like it."
After dealing with their opponents, Sam and Licia came to us and we all noticed something had changed in the room.
A new door appeared in front of us, and we went through it only to find ourselves in another settlement.
A little smaller than the previous one, but it still had a considerable number of people in it.
Sam: "Do you guys want to try exploring a bit?"
Roy: "Well, we'll have to do it sooner or later, so I don't see any reason to postpone it."
I didn't know the exact reason, perhaps it was because I was the one to kill the floor boss, but I was quite close to a level up already, so I thought that it was worth trying to get to level four as we were still doing okay energy-wise.
Miwen: "Let's not go too far from the settlement though, the monsters on this floor range from level 4 to 7 and there are stronger species."
Roy: "Oh yeah, online I saw some comments about the hobgoblins and the orcs being a pain to deal with."
Sam: "It's gonna be fine as long as we don't go too deep."
And so we decided to explore a bit of this floor, since no one got badly injured we thought it would be fine.
Even if a stronger species appeared we should be able to run away from it as long as we stayed somewhat close to the settlement.
Since we didn't go too far, we ended up not finding many monsters. Mostly goblins.
Although they were stronger than what we had found on the previous floor.
I also noticed we hadn't seen any slimes.
Still, I'd say the exploration albeit short, was a success. I managed to get to level 4, and Licia reached level 3.
Roy and Sam made no comments about leveling up, but it was no use pushing more as not far from the settlement we saw a hobgoblin carrying a sword and commanding three other goblins.
The ability to command other monsters is usually linked to a [Noble Monster], there are many ranks for nobility for monsters, the lesser being a "Lord".
His command showed that he was at least of the lowest rank, but he could have more monsters somewhere, and depending on their numbers, his rank could also be higher than expected.
Licia: "A hobgoblin is decently stronger than a goblin, his level is unknown and he's at the very least a lord... in the worst case scenario we would be facing four monsters of level 7, I think we should go back."
I agreed with her assessment. Even if I was feeling happy about myself thanks to the new level I reached, confidence wasn't going to be enough to cut it.
Especially since I had decided to increase intelligence and defense at this level.
While the defense could be useful, intelligence was done mostly to be able to roll more on the [Mana Banner], as well as to use skills that required mana without instantly suffering from mana depletion.
I felt the wiggle room was valuable, even though I could increase my mana pool with other means.
The difficult spike was clear though... on the first floor, we hadn't run from a battle even though we had some close calls and a few injuries.
Roy: "Can't you shoot your ice magic at the hobgoblin? Then the rest of us could kill the goblins."
Licia: "I could, but I doubt one hit would be enough to take it down, and depending on his level, we would have a hard time."
Sam: "Let's just retreat, there's too much risk at play here, and it's doubtful that we would be able to level up even if we were to defeat them..."
Roy: "Sure."
He didn't look very happy about it, but there was nothing we could do.
We would simply be gambling our lives for almost no reward at all.
Although a bit of a sour aftertaste for today's exploration, it provided good results.
As for money, it was hardly worth mentioning since we didn't hunt too much and only got two cores valued at $4 each.
With the level-up Licia and I had, as well as the defeat of the floor boss, we would eventually be able to increase our income on this floor.
It would still not be enough to count on it, but more is better.