BXBX NOVEL Chapter 358 357: Beginner To Intermediate
My delve into the fourth floor started off with a swift notice of the shift in atmosphere, before I noticed that the enemies were more abundant, and stronger.
Currently, the amount of monsters that had fallen under my blade were in the dozens, and each one seemed to be just a slight bit stronger than the last.
Still not threatening, but certainly showing how much the difficulty could ramp up over the course of this entire floor.
Raising my dagger, I tilted the blade and blocked the rats claws with the flat of the dagger, the shrieking of bone on metal filling the tunnel before the rats squeal sounded out when I kicked it.
Roughly the size of a small dog, the rats were swift, agile little things, and when they were spawned with friends I could see how this would be a challenge.
Hissing at me, the rat didn\'t even dodge as a water bullet pierced its small head, killing it instantly.
Dropping to the floor, the rat dissolved away as I stepped past it, all while my system blurted out a notification.
[Dungeon Rat (M) killed - 542 XP awarded]
A small smile tugged at my lips as I read that message.
No where near the thousands upon thousands of experience points I received from those two people, but still rather large for such an easy kill.
Add on the fact that I was encountering more and more of these little bundles of experience, and I was slowly chipping away at leveling up once more...
Though, I doubt that I would level up anytime soon, since I still needed around 650,000 XP to do so.
That would be roughly 65 people, which is much more manageable, but also much riskier for a multitude of reasons...
Besides, whilst I may enjoy fighting against people, unless they deserve it for attacking me first or do something that warrants death, I wasn\'t going to devolve into some mass murdering imbecile just to see my numbers go up.
I understand that actions have consequences, and those consequences could result in death - or worse - in a land where I had no one to help me.
Shaking those thoughts from my mind, I continued down the mineshaft, following the symbols before making my way down onto the fifth floor, where Minka Carrots had a better chance of spawning.
Once I had a rather large amount of those carrots, I would be leaving for the surface for today and having an alchemist make me some potions, so that I could put caution to the wind and travel at night whenever I reached another road like the one that led here.
That was my current plan, and it all depended on what exactly the forest north of Nevrokopi State offered.
Considering it didn\'t sound like it was cultivated by mortal hands, I imagine I might need to use a few potions to skip through that forest as quickly as I could.
I had no desire to be stuck alone inside of nature again.
Looking around, I chose one of the two paths that split from my mineshaft, running into the monsters that inhabited this floor soon enough.
A blue slime that was half my height, three of those medium rats, and two large bats that had bodies the size of my head.
Unsheathing my Breeze Fang, I stared at the shrieking monsters as they noticed me, and I got to work as the rats lunged forwards, while the bats flapped their wings and lurched towards me.
With my Protective Fang in one hand and the Breeze Fang in the other, I readied myself for the bats first, as their dark green wings beat quickly, speeding towards me in mere moments.
The first splayed out its talons and swooped towards my face, intending to latch onto my skull.
Before it could do so, my Breeze Fang whistled forwards and severed the monster in half, before my Protective Fang blocked the talons of the other bat.
Punching out towards it, I sent it flying backwards, a crunch sounding out as it slammed into the wall and died.
Next were the three rats, and I ducked as one jumped for my face, letting it sail straight over me.
Focusing on the two in front, I impaled one as it lunged forwards, spearing its skull with my Breeze Fang, while the second tried to nip at my ankles.
Raising a booted foot, I grimaced slightly as I stomped its skull into pieces, its warm blood and brain matter coating my leg.
Ducking again, I dodged the first rat once more, before putting it down with a water bullet.
Finally, I watched as the slime bounced towards me, its gelatinous body jiggling with each movement, and I sighed contentedly as I watched the adorable blob make its way towards me.
"You are just so... adorably derpy! I really dislike having to kill you..."
Sighing, I decided to grant the cute blob a swift, painless death, even if those meant little to the slime.
A blade of wind sliced through its core cleanly, and I watched on in sadness as the gel hardened before dissipating.
A deluge of notifications sounded out, and I nodded to myself as I was granted another few thousand experience.
The bats were worth the most at around 750, while the rats averaged 550 each.
Finally, the slime was 450, and I nodded to myself at the scalar for their experience given.
Continuing forwards, I searched every nook and cranny for some kind of carrot looking herb deep inside The Mine, my eyes scanning the walls and floor even as I kept my hearing focused on the sounds around me.
Of course, I eventually found the carrots I was looking for, but not in the ideal spot that I was hoping for.
Entering a small cavern around twenty feet in diameter, I was greeted with the sight of a giant rat gnawing hungrily on some old bones, its beady black eyes and twitching whiskers alerting it to my presence.
Dropping the bones, the rat - which was my height - turned to stare at me before releasing a loud chittering noise, its giant paws bounding against the stone floor as it charged at me.