Most of the side tunnels did not have useful stuff down them. One led to an empty room with ten slimes waiting to drop down from the ceiling. Another just looped around to rejoin the main tunnel. The third one led to another treasure chest, guarded by a pack of twelve slimes and containing another 2000 gold.
After returning to the hub cavern, I worked my way through each of the tunnels that branched off of it, fighting my way through assorted slimes every step of the way. To my delight, each one ended in a cave holding a Big Slime, giving me multiple shots at doing a no-damage run. The minibosses each guarded a chest, none of which turned out to be mimics. Most of the chests had more gold in them, but two had something much more interesting.
Minor HP Potion
Restores 50 HP upon consumptionMinor MP Potion
Restores 50 MP upon consumption
It's not a lot of HP, only about 5% of my maximum, and my Regeneration skill can recover that much health in ten seconds, but I suppose it takes less time to drink a potion, so it could come in handy in an emergency.
Not to mention I can give a potion to someone else, which I can't do with Regeneration. Although if I give anyone an honest-to-goodness health potion to fix their wounds, they'll probably have some questions...
Well, it's better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it.
Unfortunately, not one of the tunnels branching off the hub leads to a boss room. I suppose it's to be expected that the tutorial might lure you away from the correct direction to encourage you to experience more of the dungeon. Maybe level up a bit before actually running into a boss.
Mapping out the rest of the left side of the first floor took a few hours total, and assuming the other half is sitting at about the same level, I should be able to clear the whole thing well before sundown.
I've got enough attribute points to raise DEX over 50 right now, but I'm not sure I want to invest them just yet. The speed boost from raising it earlier is definitely nice, and it's made my body feel lighter as a whole, but I don't know that it's worth it. If I wait two more levels, I can get my Intelligence up to 50 instead. And while I made a big deal about trying to change things up from my initial plan, that doesn't change the fact that I will need my Intelligence to go up if I want to go home. Of course, until I have skills for magic or some kind of tech tree to work off of, Intelligence doesn't do much for me in the short term. I don't even have active skills at the moment, so the bigger MP pool won't even help.
Well, no sense in worrying about it at the moment. For now, I should just focus on exploring the first floor and raising my level some more.
It doesn't take long for me to see why the tutorial steered me away from the other half of the floor. The slimes in the main tunnel are more or less the same, only instead of their levels ranging from 1 to 3, they go from 3 to 6.
The difference isn't all that substantial now, considering they don't have any new attacks and the higher-leveled ones still die with just a few hits, but if I'd gone over here at Level 1, just taking a few hits would have been enough to take a serious chunk out of my starting HP.
The tunnel feeds downwards, the walls curving to move deeper underground...
Actually, where is the Dungeon? A pocket dimension of some kind seems the most likely answer, but is there a chance it's a physical location in the real world, or perhaps an alternate Earth? Is it even a real location, or is it more like an imaginary space that only exists inside my mind?
...does it matter? Maybe, maybe not, but it's still something to think about.
Just like the first half, the tunnel eventually widens out into a larger, hub-like cavern, the ceiling supported by thick stalactites that have grown all the way to the ground. It's about as large as the previous hub, but there are only two tunnels branching off of this one. Also, there are more than a couple Big Slimes mixed in with the mobs milling around the place.
The mini-bosses become normal enemies, huh?
I weigh the question of whether or not I should spend more time grinding in the hub or just immediately get to exploring. The answer seems pretty obvious though. The enemies in here just aren't strong enough to be worth the time and trouble.
Even the Big Slimes, the highest-level enemies here, are half my current level, and it'll take a fair few of them to level myself up further thanks to my earlier grinding. So instead, I should look for the boss room and advance to the next floor, which should have better enemies for leveling up.
I do take the time to fight a few of the Big Slimes in the hub, but only the ones that fall in my path to the first tunnel.
Unlike the tunnels from before, this one isn't populated by enemies, and it's much shorter than they were too.
In fact, it just sort of stops as a sheer wall, without a room for a miniboss or an ambush or anything.
I check the ceiling, but there aren't any slimes waiting to drop on me from above. I suppose they could be waiting to spawn in, in which case I wouldn't really get a warning. I use Observe on the ground, the floor, and the walls, but get nothing.
Maybe it's a fake wall?
I slowly move to rap my knuckles against the end of the tunnel when I feel the ground suddenly give way beneath my feet. Despite my caution, I can't stop myself from falling with it.
A new skill has been created through a special action! Through the detection of a trap, the skill [Trap Detection] has been created to sense hidden traps!
Skill Acquired: Trap Detection
Oh, cute, the System has a sense of--
I hit the ground with an undignified "bleh", landing on my side and taking a not-inconsiderable amount of damage. I think I felt something break for a moment there.
I push myself to my feet, rubbing at the nonexistent wounds to my body as I look at my new surroundings.
I'm in a pit, circular, about ten meters in diameter, half of which is hidden beneath the wall of the room above. On the side that goes all the way to the surface, I think it's about forty feet high or so.
There's not really anything in the way of footholds or anything that could be used to climb back out. I'm a bit less occupied with that in the face of the pit's other occupant.
Lv 10
Whip Slime
It's smaller than the Big Slimes in terms of overall girth, but it also has two long tentacles extending from the top of its body, swishing slowly around back and forth.
"System, kill the music," I instruct as I adopt a ready stance, and the soft music I've been listening to goes silent in the back of my head.
The slime snaps a tentacle at me, lashing out at me from above. I dodge to the left, then run directly at it. The second tentacle whips at me horizontally, forcing me to drop into a crouch to avoid being hit. The first limb uses the opening to try wrapping around me from behind, but I manage to dive out of its path.
I land gracelessly, tumbling my way to my feet and skipping backwards to avoid another lash, then drawing a stone from my inventory and pitching it at the monster. One of the tentacles blocks my projectile, smashing the stone into powder, and I charge it at the same time.
The unoccupied tentacle spears towards me, trying to impale me through the chest. This time, I plant my feet, pivot, and grab onto the limb itself, Tearing it off.
I drop the severed tendril into my inventory and resume my advance. It swipes its remaining tentacle at me, which gets the same treatment. Both quickly start growing back, but the Whip Slime's body noticeably shrinks as its mass shifts around to replace the lost limbs. Its health also isn't refilling. While it takes the time to replace its weapons, I close the distance between us entirely. Rather than stopping to attack, I run past it, my right hand snapping out and dragging through its side as I do, Tearing away a chunk of slimy flesh with the aid of my momentum. Then I stop, spin around, and grab its half-formed tentacles by the roots.
Doing it one-handed takes a lot more effort without added momentum from running, but using my Tear skill, I rip the freshly-regenerated limbs free before they can be used against me.
One last Tear down the middle finishes the job.
The miniboss' death sees a treasure chest spawn in, which contains a key.
Boss Key
The key required to open the way into this floor's boss room
Ah, so I can't just make a beeline for the boss room on every floor, huh? Good to know in advance.
The Whip Slime's death also sees a ladder out of the pit spawn in as well. Once I'm comfortably secure in the idea that the ladder isn't going to fall over, I climb back out. I try pulling the ladder up to stick it in my inventory-- you never know when a forty-foot ladder could come in handy-- but it's somehow fused to the pit itself at both the top and bottom, so I have no choice but to leave it behind. I took the boss key's chest though.
The second tunnel that branches off this hub falls more in line with what I'd been expecting, with multiple side branches and enemies scattered throughout.
I take my time and explore the side tunnels, finding ambushes by Big Slimes and chests guarded by small packs of ordinary slimes. The exploration nets me a few more HP potions and some more gold, but nothing in the way of weapons. Well, I guess at this point, my Martial Arts Proficiency is at a pretty decent level, so switching to a weapon now would probably be a step backwards.
Observe has gotten to a high enough level where I can see the slimes' weaknesses. They're resistant to stabbing and slashing, and projectiles in general. They're weak to fire and magic. That's incredibly valuable information, not because I have the ability to make use of those weaknesses, but because it confirms that magic is a thing that the System recognizes.
And if the System recognizes magic as a thing, then I can find a way to get it for myself.
The main tunnel ends in a fork, splitting off into left and right paths. I take the right, which leads to what can only be the door to the boss room. It's at least ten feet wide and twice as tall, thick metal doors blocked off by a pair of chains cross in front of them in an X-shape. There's no obvious lock to put the key I just got into it.
The door is guarded by three Big Slimes.
Rather than head in and face them, I turn around to check the other route, which leads to a little arena with another Whip Slime in it.
The miniboss is easier to defeat the second time around, since I've already worked out a winning strategy. Its death yields another 64 XP and a chest containing five HP potions.
Fighting three Big Slimes at once is tough, especially in the fairly confined space, but my speed is high enough that I can weave through their attacks, using their bodies as shields against dealing with more than one at a time.
"Now how do I get you open?" I ask the boss door, pulling the key from my inventory.
Just tapping the key against the chains causes both them and the key itself to disappear, dissolving into motes of blue light. I wonder if I'll have to get the key again if I want to pass through a second time.
Despite how heavy they look, the doors aren't all that difficult to push open. And on the other side...
First Boss
Lv 12
Dark Slime
It's a bit larger than a Big Slime, and its body is dark brown in color, a stark contrast to the light blue shades that all the other slimes have been.
Only a bit higher level than the Whip Slimes, but it's got a disproportionately high volume of HP. I guess boss monsters get bonus health to make them tougher? It's got low-level Physical Damage Resistance too...
I've got 35 attribute points right now. Maybe I should dump them all into INT to get whatever the bonus skill at 50 is? ...no, wait, the bonus skill comes from going over 50, not hitting it. I need one more level. Maybe raise my Strength or Dexterity then, to increase my damage output?
...well, let's just see if I can handle this without making changes first, alright?
As I cross the threshold into the boss room, the doors slowly swing closed behind me. Turning around immediately, I try pulling them back open, and much to my surprise, they do start to creak open again.
I guess you aren't trapped in the boss room once you enter. Good to know.
Turning back to the Dark Slime, I see it's already begun to advance on me, slowly creeping my way. Unlike the other slimes, its body isn't so much a single cohesive ball as it is a spread-out mass, so rather than rolling or scooting towards me, its approach is very caterpillar-like.
Until it jumps.
Unlike the Big Slimes, which throw themselves forwards with impressive forward range, the Dark Slime rises into the air like a wave, splitting apart as it crests and spearing down at me like a rain of spikes, forcing me to retreat. The boss then latches onto the ground and pivots itself towards me, body expanding like a net, ready to envelop me entirely.
I dive to the side to avoid the grab, then seize the slime's body and Tear. A chunk of slime-flesh comes free, which I toss right into my inventory as I skip backwards, preparing for a counterattack. My own attack didn't do as much damage as I'd have liked, but it's not so little that I won't be able to kill it with a reasonable number of hits.
The boss molds a tentacle from its body, slashing towards me. The attack comes too fast to dodge, so I raise my arms to block the hit instead. I'm not actually sure it does anything to reduce the damage, but it does give me an opening to grab onto the tentacle and Tear the end off.
Three more tentacles come at me, two aiming for my head while another dives for my legs. I step towards the boss, stomping down on the low tentacle while my hands snap up to catch the high ones.
As I'm ripping them off, I feel a fourth tentacle skewer me through the abdomen.
I cry out at the brief flash of pain that accompanies my small intestine getting shredded.
The Gamer's Body corrects the damage instantly, but the tentacle is still sticking completely through my body, so while I don't feel any more pain and I'm not bleeding, I still feel it in my stomach. I also took a very large amount of damage.
The limb swings me through the air and slams me into the ground, dealing more damage.
The Dark Slime's main body lunges, and the limb speared through my stomach keeps me from getting out of its path.
The monster's gelatinous body settles over me like a slimy parachute, and it begins to press down, trying to crush me.
I can't breathe. I can't see. The only thing I can hear is the tightening of the boss' body and my own heartbeat in my ears.
Despite the situation, it's calm and steady, a stark contrast to the panic building in my chest.
A new skill has been created through a special action! Due to receiving damage due to lack of oxygen, the skill [Suffocation Resistance] has been created to reduce your need to breathe!
Skill Acquired: Suffocation Resistance
It's not enough. Regeneration and Physical Damage Resistance are barely slowing things down. I Tear at its insides, rip off the tentacle that ran me through, but the damage isn't high enough. I'll die before I kill it.
What do I do? Why am I losing this badly? I'm Level 18, it's Level 12!
...stats. Leveling up doesn't change anything by itself. A Level 100 who hasn't assigned a single attribute point would still lose to this enemy. And with the points I've used, I'm functionally only a Level 11 who got caught off guard and trapped.
I need to use the points, but ho? Raise my Intelligence and hope to get a magic skill that'll exploit the boss' weakness to magic? But if that doesn't work, I'm dead. Raise my Constitution and hope the difference is enough to make Regeneration outpace the damage?
...no. I'm being stupid and overthinking this.
I assign my points.
The skill [Cat's Grace] has been created through raising DEX above 50!
Skill Acquired: Cat's GraceCat's Grace (Passive) LV 1 XP: 0.00%
Through speed and agility, it is possible to circumnavigate an enemy's defenses and evade their attempts at counterattacking. This skill draws upon the user's superhuman dexterity to enhance their speed, balance, and flexibility.
Increases movement speed by 10% + 1% per skill level
Increases attack speed by 10% + 1% per skill level
Thirty into Dexterity. Five into Strength.
I Tear. Then I do it again. And again. Cat's Grace, Martial Arts Proficiency, and my now-doubled Dexterity make my attacks come faster. My enhanced Strength makes each one hit with an additional 50% damage. I attack faster. Since I'm not breathing anything at the moment, I start biting into the slime's body and ripping off pieces whenever it comes into reach. I force myself off my back, clawing my way up into the slime's body.
My HP continues to fall, but the boss is dying, my increased physical parameters more than closing the gap between our damage outputs. I feel a spike form inside the boss' body and stab into my shoulder, and I force myself to attack faster.
After what feels like ages, even though it's been less than a minute, I feel my right hand break through the surface of the Dark Slime's body, my skin touching the air. My left hand quickly follows, and I sink all of my fingers into its slime-flesh from the outside.
Then I Tear it apart with a shout, half-muffled by the slime in my mouth.
The boss' goopy body collapses around me as my head breaks the surface, a bountiful 255 XP raising me to Level 19 in the process. I cough reflexively as fresh air rushes into my lungs, spitting out bits of the boss' substance.
My HP meter blinks merrily at me, warning me that yes, I am sitting a mere 15 hit points from death.
That was way too close a call.
"I'd say some snappy one-liner," I tell the boss' remains. "But as today has shown me, I'm not particularly clever."
At the other end of the room, a ring of faint blue light fades into being, presumably the entrance to the second floor. In the center, a tombstone has appeared.
First Boss
Lv 12
Dark Slime
Time to Respawn: 23:57:33
Pay 2000 G to respawn immediately?
Interesting. So if I want to grind bosses, I'll have to fork over a bunch of money? I have more than enough to pay for the respawn if I feel like it, but I'm not in the mood to fight that thing again, even if I feel like my newly boosted speed would probably be enough to avoid getting pinned down like that again.
I might have gained a few new skills-- aside from Suffocation Resistance and Cat's Grace, I got a Bite skill-- but overall, this feels like a loss. I got myself into a situation where I had to burn through thirty-five attribute points and barely avoided dying.
Even if I managed to survive, this fight was bad.
What do I do now?
Obviously I'll wait for my health to recover before going anywhere, but it's more of a question of whether I should advance into the next floor with tougher enemies or deal with the slower XP gains and grind in a safer environment. And also a question of what I'm going to spend my next points on.
I need forty more points to finally get my Intelligence over fifty, which is another seven levels, or six if I get ten points for hitting Level 20. Alternatively, I could spend forty to boost my Strength above the fifty-point mark and further increase my survivability. ...I think that might be a poor decision. There's no doubt in my mind that without raising my Strength, I wouldn't have dealt enough damage to the Dark Slime to kill it before I ran out of HP, but that doesn't mean I need to keep putting points into STR.
...alright, I think the best course of action is to move forwards and at least explore the second floor, judge it on whether or not I can use it to grind, then decide what floor to use. I'll work my way up to forty attribute points, and decide where to spend them once I get there.
I load the Dark Slime's drops into my inventory to pass the time it takes for Regeneration to do its work. Once I'm sitting back at full health, I step into the circle of blue light.
There's a brief flash, and I'm standing in a new area.
In terms of dimensions and shape, the room is identical to the safe area on the first floor. It has a Shop sitting off to one side, a ring of blue light for leaving, and a tunnel that leads out into the dungeon proper.
It's also much greener than the first floor.
While it's still mostly rock and dirt, there's also plant life. Mostly moss and lichen growing on the walls and floor, but there's a greater volume of leafy shoots coming up from the ground every here and there. Additionally, there're glowing crystals wedged into the walls and ceiling, emitting a soft green glow.
Observe identifies them as low-grade mana crystals with nature affinity, so I pull a few from the walls where I can reach them and stash them in the inventory. They're quite brittle, so I don't expect I'll be using them as weapons. Their only property seems to be improving the growth of plant life, but there's a chance I might be able to make use of them at some point. Plus, having my hands on some mana crystals might be useful for trying to figure out how I can get magic of my own.
I also check the Shop. It's selling HP and MP potions like the ones I found on the previous floor, but they're surprisingly expensive; 10000 gold for an HP potion, 7500 for an MP potion. As for weapons, it's selling a dagger and what looks like a short club. The dagger might be useful for other situations, but piercing damage isn't supposed to be as effective against slimes, so it's probably not a good investment right now. The club would probably work fine, but I'd need to get a new proficiency skill to use it, and I think sticking with unarmed combat is the way to go.
I've got...more than a thousand slime jellies in my inventory, plus the treasure chests I've been collecting but... I'm already sitting on over a hundred thousand gold, so a thousand dollars, which is a pretty generous amount of spending money to have without needing to pay for utilities and stuff. I'm planning to buy some equipment and supplies once I'm done exploring the Dungeon for the day, but I don't think what I want to get should exceed my current funds, so I'm not going to sell any of my drops.
...no, I don't have a hoarding problem, no matter what anyone says. What if there's something I can use them for later?
Leaving the Shop without buying or selling anything, I head into the dungeon proper.
The safe area's greener contents are reflected into the main tunnel, which quickly widens out into a much wider passage. It's not as wide as the hub areas on the first floor, but it's at least triple the width of the big tunnels up there.
There are still a few ordinary slimes here, but the majority are a new variety.
Lv 8
Green Slime
Their levels range from eight to ten, but their health and attack power is comparable to the level six blue slimes, so I think the greens are weaker as a whole.
Or they would be, if it wasn't for one key feature.
You have been poisonedA new skill has been created through a special action! Due to receiving poison-attribute damage, the skill [Poison Resistance] has been created to reduce damage received from toxins and poison-attribute attacks!
Skill Acquired: Poison Resistance
Yeah. It seems they have an ability which makes it so each hit has a roughly one-in-three chance of poisoning their victim. Additionally, if I touch them with my bare skin, such as by punching them, there's also a chance of it triggering. Luckily, while their body slam has a chance of triggering the poisoned status even if they hit an area covered by my clothes, the passive defense doesn't have that benefit. So I can still kill them while unarmed, I just have to tuck the legs of my sweats into my shoes to remove the risk of exposing my ankles or something.
Also, the poisoned status stacks. When I first got poisoned, the damage rate was 2 per second. After getting poisoned again without it wearing off, that number spiked up to 4 per second. So my Regeneration is currently balancing it out, but if I get poisoned again, I'll steadily get worn down.
Focusing on dodging just gives me more opportunities to play with my speed and improve my reaction time and combat awareness though. The clusters of green slimes aren't so close together that I have to worry about being completely swarmed, so this area works as a good place to grind.
Since I figure I might as well earn some experience for my new Poison Resistance skill while I'm at it, whenever the poisoned status wears off, I let a few more greens hit me to get it back. Not only does it seem like a good idea in general, but there's also a not-inconsiderable chance that this floor's boss will use poison as well, so having every edge I can will help.
My path forwards is a methodical zig-zag, sweeping back and forth across the tunnel to kill every slime I can without turning back. I take the time to pick up more of those mana crystals where I find them, but don't bother going out of my way to get them.
When I hit Level 20, I'm awarded with ten attribute points, so I guess the extra points come every multiple of ten.
The tunnel eventually ends, breaking off into four branches, all of equal width, without anything to really set them apart from each other. In the name of simplicity, I pick the leftmost tunnel and head down.
The end of the tunnel branches off in two directions again, so I stick to the left path, which leads to a dead end with a green slime waiting in ambush on the ceiling. The right path curves and bends and eventually widens out into a larger tunnel--
--which leads back to the four-way fork on the rightmost side.
I walked in a circle. Great. Well, it's less ground to cover, so I shouldn't complain.
I pick the second tunnel from the left next. The tunnel runs downhill, eventually feeding into an open cavern with three new tunnels branching off it. The first leads to a room that spawns in fifteen green slimes all at once to swarm me. The second leads to an empty cavern with a chest on the other side of it. Observe doesn't notice anything, but a split second before I step into it, Trap Detection pings in my brain, warning me not to advance.
I poke the spot I was about to step on with the tip of my foot and a small section of the ground crumbles away, revealing a short drop onto what appear to be wooden stakes coated in a dark green liquid. When I move to go around it, Trap Detection goes off again, and another poke reveals more spikes beneath the ground.
I spend the next five minutes poking the ground and tossing rocks into the room, eventually revealing a safe route to the chest on the other side and rewarding my efforts with five Minor Antidotes.
Good to have, in case I end up poisoned past the point where Regeneration can negate the damage over time.
Aside from taking the chest, I also go through the trouble of reaching down into the spike pit to pull out a few of the spikes. They might not be useful against the green slimes, but I imagine having access to some basic poisoned weapons could come in handy.
The third tunnel leads to the boss door, guarded by a pair of Green Big Slimes. Not big Green Slimes, but green Big Slimes. I wonder if that distinction matters. It probably doesn't.
Despite their being the same level as the Dark Slime, they don't really prove to be a challenge. Their attack patterns are the same as the ordinary Big Slimes, so they're almost painfully easy to bring down.
Which finally leaves me with one route to follow from the four-way split to look for the boss key.
This final tunnel has an incline, probably to avoid intersecting with the branches of the area I just finished with. Eventually, the incline ends, leveling out in a wide, rectangular space that's distinctly more overgrown than the other areas.
At the far end of the chamber, I can see a chest, unguarded. Between myself and the chest, however, is a very large pit, at least fifty meters wide, filled to the brim with poisoned spikes. Green slimes are in the pit as well, pushing their way through the hazards in a way that wouldn't be possible for solid entities.
There's a handful of raised platforms running width-wise across the spike pit, each one supported by a wooden pillar about ten or so feet in the air.
There's definitely no way I can squeeze my way through the spikes to get across, and even if I could, I'd be an easy target for the slimes in there. The platforms are too high and too far from the edges for me to jump onto them.
So how...
I scan the room, the floor, the ceiling, the walls...
The walls.
With the greater density of plant life in this room, there's a thick current of creeping vines growing along the walls of the room, in an almost obvious path from the edges to where the platforms start.
"You've got to be kidding me," I groan, staring at the vines. "A video game is one thing, but doing it in real life, with actual plants?"
Grabbing a fistful of the vines, I give them a sharp tug, really trying to rip them off.
They don't budge.
"This is a terrible idea," I tell myself, even as I grip the vines with both hands and start working my way up. The vines are actually dense enough that I can get a half-decent foothold on them, so it's not like I'm supporting my full body weight with my hands.
I climb upwards first, getting myself high enough to be level with the suspended platforms before I start to make my way to the side, over the spike pit. I move slowly, carefully, with three points of contact at all given times. My right hand lets go and reaches out for more vines. Then I move my left leg closer, then my right leg, then my left hand. Then I repeat. My progress is slow, with each full cycle barely moving my body more than a few inches to the side. And I do. Not. Look. Down.
Eventually, I draw level with the first platform, which is only six inches away from the wall.
Getting off the wall is nerve-wracking, but not particularly difficult. The platforms themselves are about two feet apart. Not really a long distance to jump, but it definitely feels further away thanks to the spikes waiting down below if I mess up. Climbing onto the next section of vines is comparatively easier, since I can just lean forwards and get a good grip before locking my feet in.
Then, it's just a matter of climbing over and down.
As expected, the chest holds a boss key.
Unfortunately, no easy pathway appears or opens up to take me back across the pit, so I have to repeat my climb to get back. I earn a Climbing skill for my efforts.
Killing the respawned Green Big Slimes gives me the last XP I need to hit Level 24, putting me over the threshold to level up by a single point. I could take the time to level up one more time and then use my attribute points, but I think I'll head into the boss fight instead.
I hope this one goes better than the last one, because I don't want to have to burn more stat points in a spur-of-the-moment bid for survival.
I use the boss key and push the doors open.