After spending two hours exploring and mapping the area, I still hadn't encountered any monsters.
"Despite not finding any monsters at the moment, there seem to be some herbs scattered around the map."
When I heard stories about dungeons, I was expecting... more. Anyway, now that I've mapped the first floor, I can move on to the second.
Unlike the first floor, I found myself in a normal-looking forest. While I was admiring the change in environment, something I still couldn't get used to...
*Rustling*
I heard the sound of leaves moving, which put me on high alert. I turned towards the source of the noise.
*Growling*
There stood a monster with an appearance similar to a wolf but smaller and standing on two legs – a kobold. Realizing that his attempt at stealth had failed, he abandoned all caution and lunged at me.
*Clang*
"Heavy."
Being alert and prepared, I managed to defend myself by colliding my sword with his claws. However, due to the hardness of his claws, I could only defend myself without causing any injury to him. The collision created some distance between us. Taking advantage of this, I decided to attack him. However, when I saw that he wasn't retaliating, I had a bad feeling.
*Aooo*
I managed to hit and finish him with that attack, but not before he let out a howl.
"Damn, damn, damn."
I could hear several howls throughout the forest, along with the noise of many footsteps and rustling leaves. Staying in one place while waiting for the monsters to come to me didn't seem like a good idea.
As I ran and tried to find a spot with better visibility, I encountered several kobolds along the way. While dealing with them individually was easy, the larger the group, the more challenging and time-consuming it became to eliminate them.
"Forget what I said; this is too exciting, maybe even too exciting."
Repeating the tactic of not staying in one place, I avoided large groups of kobolds and attacked solitary ones or those in pairs. After eliminating about 30 kobolds, the howls and footsteps seemed to have diminished.
"I think I managed to shake them off and reduce their numbers somewhat."
I decided to stop running for a bit and take a break. This was the first time I had hunted alone, or rather, without anyone to help me deal with the monsters. It made me realize that I needed to train more and put in more effort if I wanted to become an adventurer.
"When I get out of here, I'll ask my father to increase my training."
While I was resting, I didn't notice any movement in the trees. By the time I realized that something was amiss, it was almost too late.
A new monster appeared in the trees – a small, grotesque humanoid creature with bat-like wings on its back and horns on its head.
The surprise attack from the new monster caught me off guard, and it struck me with a powerful blow. I was thrown backward and collided with a tree. I felt intense pain where I had been hit and from the collision. I was disoriented for a few moments.
The monster approached slowly, wearing a wicked grin on its face. It looked at me with an air of superiority, as if I were nothing more than prey or a toy.
That look in its eyes made me grit my teeth. Forgetting about the pain, I quickly got up and held my sword tightly. At that moment, I felt a fire inside me and a determination not to become prey.
Still looking at me with that superior gaze, it was ready to attack me again. This time, I was prepared, watching it and waiting. When it got close enough, taking advantage of the lack of space it would have to dodge, I decided to dodge its attack and counter.
I could see my sword moving slowly through the air; everything seemed to be in slow motion. At that moment, I realized that the trajectory of my sword was slightly off, and it wouldn't hit anything. Without panicking, I tried to correct the trajectory of my strike. After that, I felt the world return to normal speed, and my attack hit one of the monster's wings.
The blow made the monster scream and flap its wings erratically, preventing it from stabilizing or fleeing. I began to attack it furiously.
Before I could finish off the monster, it decided to abandon the idea of escape and attacked me with the last of its strength.
Realizing it was about to launch a desperate attack, I decided to move away a bit and dodge. However, I couldn't avoid it completely; I felt its claws graze my arm, tearing some of my skin.
Even after feeling the blood flowing down my arm, accompanied by intense pain, I managed to strike my sword into the creature's chest. It stopped moving and attacking. Shortly after, the creature disappeared, leaving behind its drops. Despite being just its claws and horn, I decided to take them as souvenirs.
After quickly tending to my wounds, I decided to search for the exit of the dungeon.
On the way back, I faced another 8 kobolds and 2 imps. This time, as I was prepared for them, the fight wasn't complicated. After losing the element of surprise, dealing with them became much simpler. Due to the forest and the trees, the imps lost some of
their advantages of being able to fly.
While hitting them proved to be somewhat challenging, they didn't have much room to maneuver in the air.
When I reached the first floor, I felt relieved and decided to tend to my injuries more carefully. Along with the relief, I felt physical and mental exhaustion. However, after taking care of my wounds, I immediately sought the exit.
Even though I hadn't encountered any monsters on this floor before, the fact that I was still inside the dungeon didn't allow me to relax completely.
Upon exiting the dungeon, something magical happened – all my injuries were healed. If it weren't for the pain I was feeling, the overwhelming fatigue, and the damage to my equipment, I might have thought it was all a dream and that none of it had happened.
"Incredible. How does this even work?"
Despite being "healed," I felt that the pain and exhaustion were much greater than I remembered.
After sharing my findings, I discovered that I wasn't the first one to exit the dungeon. Because of this, I became curious about what the others had found inside.
While some had ventured farther than I did and even explored other floors, it seemed I was lucky. One person had been surrounded by kobolds and imps and couldn't escape. As they fought, more and more monsters appeared.
After hearing the stories of the others, I was accompanied back to the village. Upon arriving, I went straight to my house to rest.
--------------------------------- Change of POV ---------------------------------
"Some of them seem really strong. I thought 15 days was too short, but watching some of them effortlessly take on monsters and lead them, 15 days feels like an eternity."
"I don't know, many of them don't seem to be making an effort to conquer the dungeon. Even after finding the passage to the next floor, they stay on a single floor, killing monsters and exploring the entire level. I even saw one of them focused on gathering herbs and examining trees."
Rebeca was right. Even though they were dealing easily with the monsters, they didn't seem to be in a hurry to conquer the dungeon.
"Furthermore, even though they're handling the monsters with ease, these are just the first few floors. My monsters haven't seen any improvement yet."
"Well, since we can't talk to them or do much else, all we can do is observe and wait."
"I still find it strange that the dungeon heals their wounds when they exit, and the fact that they don't die permanently during the invasion."
"Yeah, I tried to look for settings in the dungeon that would allow us to change that, but I couldn't find anything."
"It seems like this option will become available in the future. That's the only response I managed to get, and nothing more."
"Well, on the bright side, at least they'll still feel the fatigue and pain."
"Alright, I'll take a break. If anything happens, please call me."
"I'm counting on you, Rebeca. I have a patient to attend to shortly."
Since we could only make basic alterations to the dungeon, our routine continued unchanged. It's a bit frustrating that we can't interfere or interact with the challengers. We can't disrupt their conquest, convince them not to conquer the dungeon, or show them that it's more valuable to let our dungeon exist there.