Second Floor (1)

Once again Ivan found himself inside a cave. From the first look, this cave seemed just like the one where the first floor started.

[[ Welcome to the "Tower of Challenge" Level 2 'Goblin Hunting Ground']]

This message greeted him as soon as he appeared. It was already expected by him since he already knew the name of the floor. He also knew that unlike the first floor, here goblins would appear in small groups of up to three. But most of them would still be weaponless, with a few exceptions, that used stones as weapons.

There also wasn't any boss and the level was as linear as the first one, a row of rooms, each containing a random number of goblins.

As he had thought before, these levels truly seemed like a tutorial and this level seemed to be about fighting small groups.

The first thing he did, was getting rid of the backpack and checking the room. Although the backpack was great for carrying refreshments and loot, it would also hinder him in combat, so he had decided to always leave it in the last room and only get it after he cleared a room. This would make him run around more, but he didn't want to take the risk of having to carry it when getting involved in a fight.

Since he didn't find anything in the room he then continued on towards the next room, while keeping his knife ready. Although the number of rooms, as well as the number of goblins in each, seemed to be random, the connections between the rooms were just like on the first floor. Between each room was a curved hallway that would block any hide of sight between two goblin groups. And the moss would also take care of any sound, allowing the player to focus on one room at a time.

He carefully made his way towards the first room and looked into it, hoping not to pull aggro. Sadly the three goblins in the room were standing with their front towards him and as soon as his head appeared they saw him.

Without any hesitation, they started to rush towards him.

Even while hastily planning his next step Ivan stayed surprisingly calm. It wasn't sure if it was because of his experience on the first floor or something else, but his mind was able to calmly calculate the optimal reaction to the onrushing goblins.

He moved towards the right and swung his knife towards the incoming goblin. Just like he had planned, it easily sliced through the incoming claws, cutting them off cleanly. By moving to his right, he had also managed to delay the attack from the other two goblins, leaving him the time to swing his knife sideways in an attempt to cut off their claws as well.

It could be said that his combat style had completely changed from the first time he had entered the dungeon. Back then, he had fought completely defensive, blocking incoming attacks and only counterattacking. But now he took the lead and used his attacks to stop the enemy from attacking him.

This offensive style had been made possible by his new weapons and his increased confidence. It also ensured that he would use less energy to end a fight, not to mention that it was much more suitable for fighting multiple enemies. Here the most important thing was to take them out as fast as possible or they could easily wear you down. Of course, the style also had drawbacks, since it increased the risk of injury but with how the dungeon floors worked, he felt that injuries were an acceptable risk.

Anyway, back to the fight. After Ivan swung his knife sideways, he didn't manage to heavily injure the other two goblins, since both of them jumped backward after seeing what the knife had done to their third guy. It seemed like these guys had some self-preservation instincts. Or at least enough to try to keep in fighting form.

Now Ivan had to take care of one injured and two fresh goblins. Luckily his move had also positioned him at the sidewall of the tunnel, so they couldn't completely surround him.

Also, these goblins lacked any kind of cooperation between them, as they just came at him right again. The one who had his claws cut off was the first to come since the other two had just jumped backward.

This time, now that it didn't have claws, instead of trying to swing its claws at Ivan, it tried to stab him with the rest of the claws. Evading the stab, by turning his body, Ivan used his knife to speedily stab towards the goblins head. He didn't have much time to take care of this attacker, since the other two had already reversed their momentum and were now once again coming towards him.

Surprisingly his attack was successful, it seemed like he had some talent in fighting with a knife.

Pulling the knife out of the goblins head, he had to hastily roll over the floor to escape the attacks from the other two. Having played on the street when he was a child, sure helped in such situations.

While coming up behind one goblin, he moved his knife upwards in a slicing motion, leaving a deep cut on the goblins back. Although it wasn't deadly it inhibited the goblin's movement, making it turn around slower than the other goblin.

Now he had time to focus on the last uninjured goblin. While he had taken care of the one, the other had finished turning around and was now slashing at him with his claws.

He didn't have enough time to dodge the hit and neither would he be able to position his knife to block the attack. This only left him with the option of using his left arm. He tried to position it in such a way that he could block the goblin's arms, without getting scratched by its claws.

Sadly he didn't quite manage to do so and the claws scratched along his arm. Although they didn't cut deep it still hurt like hell. "Fuu...", he couldn't help but exhale in pain. But now wasn't the time to be distracted. He had to take care of the two goblins fast.

Clenching his teeth, he used his knife to slash at the goblin who was still in the movement of pulling back his claws, to get them ready for another slash. While spinning around he slashed his knife through the goblin's throat, which fell back before vanishing in a sparkle of light.

Now only the goblin with the wound on its back was left.

The rest of the fight was easy since he already had a lot of experience in disposing of a single goblin, and the fact that it was already injured only made it faster.

He had barely made the last goblin disappear in a sparkle of light when a wave of exhaustion washed over him. He hadn't realized it during the fight, but he had truly exerted himself fighting those three goblins. Not to mention the painful wound on his arm.

But what made him lively again were the two drops lying on the ground. Since it was the first time he was clearing this floor the drop rate had been drastically increased, which made the experience much more wonderful After all who didn't love loot as a reward for their hard work?

Both drops were nothing new since he had already gotten them on the first floor before. One was a piece of 'Goblin Steak' while the other was 'Goblin Leather'. Although they weren't anything special and not as great as maybe an Energy Pill, they were still extremely useful for him. The steak was great in case he got too exhausted or he could sell it later. Meanwhile, the 'Goblin Leather' was just what he needed to craft his next knife. Of course, he would still need to get an iron ingot somewhere but having it was important as well.

After picking up the two drops, he went back to the first room to get his backpack. Then he searched the room, taking this opportunity to rest a bit. In combination with some water and an energy bar, he felt ready to take on the next room.

In the next room, only one normal goblin waited for him and he easily dispatched him, which resulted in nothing at all. Although the drop rate was great, it didn't mean that every goblin would drop something. Sadly the search of the room resulted in nothing as well.

"Hopefully there will be something better in the next one.", he murmured to himself.

Since there had been only one goblin in this room, he didn't really need a break, so after searching the room he continued on to the next room.