After walking for nearly five minutes through the dim, glowing corridors of the first floor, my senses suddenly spiked. I stopped in my tracks, my hand tightening around the hilt of my steel sword as I focused on the path ahead. I didn't want my very first encounter with a monster inside this dungeon to be a fiasco due to overconfidence.
A moment later, a gray, roundish object emerged from the shadows. It was hopping rhythmically, approaching me with a strange, wet slapping sound against the stone floor. As someone who had consumed countless stories and played dozens of games featuring fantasy worlds, I recognized it instantly. It was the quintessential starter monster: a slime.
***
Race: Gray Slime
Sex: None
Status: Normal
Level 1
***
If I hadn't already faced fierce beasts in the forest and fought men with higher levels than this creature, I might have felt a flicker of anxiety. But seeing that "Level 1" tag made my caution feel almost excessive. Even so, I kept my guard up. I held my iron shield firmly in front of me and waited for it to initiate the assault. I wanted to gauge its raw strength and attack patterns before I committed to a strike.
When the slime came within range, it noticed me and increased its pace. It was still slow by human standards, but it moved considerably faster than it had when I first spotted it. When barely a meter remained between us, the creature compressed itself against the floor and then bounced with surprising force, colliding directly with the center of my shield.
The impact was underwhelming. Even if I hadn't invested heavily in my Strength stat, I could have easily held my ground against such a weak repulsion. I allowed it to collide with my shield several more times, observing its behavior. While it bounced back and forth, I noticed a small, hardened sphere in the center of its gelatinous body. It was a lighter gray than the rest of the slime, and its radius appeared to be roughly one-tenth of the creature's total size.
Once I was certain there was nothing more to learn from its movements, I timed my counter-attack. As the slime bounced back from my shield and hung momentarily in the air, I thrust my sword forward, aiming directly for that central sphere. My blade split the core in two with a satisfying crunch. Instantly, the slime’s body began to dissolve into a gray, watery foam, and a thin, circular object clattered onto the stone.
I picked it up and examined it under the dim light of the glowing veins in the wall. It was a copper coin, but not the Targonia currency I had been using. It was a copper Obscura coin.
The rumors were true: dungeon monsters dropped international currency upon death. The only disappointment was the amount—a single copper coin for a single slime. However, I didn't let it dishearten me. This was only the first floor, after all. I knew that as I delved deeper and defeated more formidable foes, the rewards would grow exponentially.
Given that my stats were high, I possessed the bonuses of five different jobs, and I was far from a greenhorn in combat, I decided to stop dawdling. These slimes were no threat. I took out the first-floor map I had received from the guild and plotted the most direct route to the boss room.
On my way through the labyrinthine halls, I encountered approximately twenty more gray slimes. They were easily dispatched. At first, I continued to block their initial lunges with my shield, finishing them while they were airborne. But as I grew accustomed to their predictable arcs, I stopped using the shield altogether, simply slashing them down mid-jump.
I also passed several other groups of people. None of them seemed to be struggling significantly with the slimes, but they lacked my efficiency and ease. I noticed their gear was mostly primitive—copper swords or simple wooden clubs. It made sense; those who were relegated to hunting on the first floor likely couldn't afford the iron or steel equipment I had already secured.
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After two hours of steady progress, I reached a long, wide corridor that ended in a pair of massive black twin doors. According to the map, this was the entrance to the boss room, though the sheer scale of the doors made the map feel redundant. I held my guard high regardless of how weak the previous monsters had been. It was my first time facing a designated "Boss," and I didn't want to be the victim of a sudden difficulty spike.
I pushed against the heavy doors. They groaned and swung inward slowly. I took a deep breath, centered my focus, and stepped inside. The room was a vast, half-spherical chamber, significantly wider than the corridors, with a radius of about fifteen meters. As I walked toward the center, the twin doors slammed shut behind me. At that moment, a mass of gray jelly began to coalesce in the center of the room.
The resulting creature was exactly what I expected: a slime. However, this one was nearly 1.5 times the size of a standard monster and possessed three distinct cores floating within its mass.
I decided to gauge its strength using my established routine. The boss slime charged at me with a speed at least twice that of its smaller counterparts. I blocked its lunges a few times, feeling a bit more force vibrating through my arm, though I couldn't tell if it was due to the creature's increased velocity or its larger mass.
The attack pattern remained the same. Seeing no reason to drag the fight out, I timed my strike after its next bounce. I stabbed one of its cores, splitting it cleanly. The slime flinched but didn't dissolve; it still had two cores remaining. I blocked another lunge and slashed a second core. Then, only one remained.
I hesitated for a moment, wanting to see if it had a "second phase." During this intentional pause, I noticed something interesting: one of the cores I had previously shattered was beginning to reform. The cracks were knitting back together, and it was clearly restoring its integrity. It was a regenerative boss. Realizing that prolonging the fight only invited risk, I struck the last stable core and watched as the entire massive entity dissolved into a thick vapor.
My first boss fight was over. Before the creature vanished completely, it dropped ten copper Obscura coins. It was a clear confirmation of the dungeon's economy: standard Level 1 monsters dropped one coin, while the floor boss dropped ten.
A new door appeared on the opposite side of the chamber, likely the path to the second floor. I checked my internal clock; I had been inside for nearly three hours, making it around noon. Since I had plenty of time before dinner, I decided to continue. So far, I have collected only thirty coins. Given that my daily expenses for the inn and food totaled 120 copper coins, I wasn't even covering my costs yet, let alone saving for a slave or better gear.
The guard's warning about difficulty spikes echoed in my mind, but the first floor had been so laughably easy that I couldn't imagine the second floor being a major hurdle. I decided to at least take a look. But before I stepped through the new doors, I paused to check my progress.
***
Equipped Jobs:
Swordsman Level 12
Warrior Level 3
Dungeon Raider Level 3
Hunter Level 16
Villager Level 16
—
Acquired Jobs:
Villager Level 16
Hunter Level 16
Swordsman Level 12
Warrior Level 3
Dungeon Raider Level 3
***
My Swordsman job had increased by two levels thanks to the slimes and the boss. Satisfied, I approached the second set of twin doors. They were smaller than the main entrance but still imposing. I pushed them open to reveal a corridor that looked remarkably similar to the start of the first floor.
I stepped onto the second floor but stopped after a few meters. I didn't have a map for this level yet, so I decided it was the perfect time to test my "Dungeon Walk" skill.
“Dungeon Walk!” I commanded.
A black, rectangular shadow flickered onto the wall beside me, resembling a doorway made of ink. I stepped into the shadow and instantly found myself back at the very beginning of the first floor. It worked perfectly. Eager to return to my exploration, I tried to cast it again to go back to the second floor.
“Dungeon Walk!” I said.
Nothing happened. I checked my mana, but it wasn't depleted. While I was standing there confused, something slammed into my side. I staggered but remained upright. I raised my shield and turned to find a lone gray slime that had apparently wandered back into the entrance area. I dispatched it instantly.
A sudden realization hit me, and I tried the skill one more time.
“Dungeon Walk!”
The black shadow reappeared immediately, and I stepped through to the second floor. It was exactly as the job description had mentioned: I couldn't use the skill while an enemy was nearby. I cursed myself for not paying closer attention to the fine print of the ‘Identify’ results. With the lesson learned, I turned my attention back to the second floor, ready to see what new challenges awaited me.
[Edited]
