Ch.14 Versus kobolds

Turning towards the right immediately, the two children started to explore the new floor. The dungeon card map had immediately changed to a new plan upon entering the second floor, which allowed them to continue their work assigned by the goddess.

As they walked through the corridors, they were not surprised by the slightly higher number of adventurers. However, they were surprised that there was undoubtedly a higher concentration of monsters. It brought a smile to their face as they started to search for enemies.

The second floor of the dungeon was incredibly similar to the first floor, with some exceptions. Compared to the first floor, there wasn't a beginner road which was a straight hallway to the next floor. However, the rest was pretty much similar. The walls were light blue coloured while the corridors were of stone. On this floor, except for the monsters, there wasn't anything different.

As they walked on the second floor, they stayed on their guard. It was their first time on this floor, and they knew about the second type of monster, the kobold. As they walked further from the stairs, they met fewer adventurers, and both of them held their swords tightly in their hands as they were aware that their fight was approaching.

And indeed, a few moments later, Aidan and Ais faced three goblins and two kobolds. Seeing this, they immediately ran towards the two closest goblins. They wanted to solve one or two of them at least before the other monsters had a chance to approach them, especially with the two kobolds, which they had never fought before.

As he closed in on the monster, he side-stepped to the left while the goblin's claws swept his previous position. At the same time, he swung his right arm, holding the sword at the height of the goblin's neck, slashing it. At the identical moment, Ais, on the other side, also evaded the monster's attack while she pierced the goblin's heart with her sword.

By the time they completed the fight, no more than five seconds had gone by, and this left them with the two kobolds and one goblin. The remaining monsters were in a triangle position, with the goblin in the back between the two kobolds who were in the front. "Take the goblin. I'll stall the two kobolds. After that, we take one each." Said Aidan as he approached and took the monster's attention, allowing Ais to take a detour and kill the goblin from the back while it wasn't paying attention.

They wanted to fight the new monsters and improve their fighting strength. As such, they didn't want to use the card magic until it was necessary. After all, it was an excellent way to save their life when necessary.

While Aidan fought a few rounds with the kobolds who kept dodging his strikes, Ais, after killing the goblin, took one of the kobolds, allowing Aidan to focus on the other one.

In a one-on-one, Aidan could give all of his attention to his enemy and could finally turn on the offensive without sending strikes to only stall the monsters. Fixing his eyes on the dog-headed creature, he lifted his sword and started attacking. The kobold on the other side lunged towards him as it extended its hairy arm towards his waist. The kobold's claws were highly sharp as Aidan didn't doubt the attack would hurt him. Taking a step back while rotating his waist towards the left, Aidan's switched his attack target from the monster's body to its outstretched arm.

The sword, slashing on the arm, caused blood to spray as the arm got cut from the monster's body. As the beast got hurt, he tried to attack with his second arm. However, Aidan, who held the extremely light sword, stopped his weapon's swing and sent the attack, on the other side, towards the monster's waist, bisecting it.

Having finished his fight, Aidan looked at Ais, who was still fighting with her enemy. The kobolds were faster than the previous goblin and a lot more dangerous since they had a more extended reach than the green monsters. However, Ais was using her speed to her advantage as she side-stepped her enemy lunge and quickly cut down on the opponent. Seeing her when fighting, Aidan had no doubts that she had some experience in swordsmanship as she easily repelled the monster before finally dispatching it.

"How was it?" Asked Aidan as he wanted to know if she wanted a break.

"We can continue." Answered Ais as she collected the loot on the ground, quickly followed by Aidan, who took the few magic stones on the floor. By taking the magical stone which represented the monster's core from the goblin and the kobold, Aidan could see the difference in them. While it was small, the kobold's core was a bit bigger and seemed to be a bit more radiant, showing that it held a bit more magical energy inside of it.

Once they collected everything, they continued on the road. From time to time, the two golden-eyed youngsters encountered small groups of goblins and kobolds or monsters alone, which they quickly killed. Finally, three hours after arriving on the second floor, they met a group of ten monsters with seven dog-headed monsters and three green ones.

Seeing this, the two looked at each other as they both held their weapons tighter. Since the previous day, they hadn't updated their status; their parameters hadn't changed from when they had first entered the dungeon. The only difference was their experience and their understanding of the enemies, which did not significantly increase their strength.

As they both gave a quick look to the other, the ten monsters in front of them noticed them and rushed to the two. Aidan immediately took his fireball card in his left hand before throwing it towards the enemies. When the card arrived in the middle of the group, Aidan quickly commanded the card in his head by imagining what would happen. The card immediately combusted, and two fireballs appeared at the place of the card. The attack went on the left and right as they immediately exploded in the monsters group's center.

When the explosion disappeared, the two of them rushed towards the remaining disoriented monsters. The two fireballs had managed to kill three kobolds and a goblin while disorienting the remaining ones. They took the opportunity to attack while they weren't focusing on them and killed three additional dog-headed monsters and the two remaining goblins.

As for the remaining kobold, they both rushed towards it, and before it could defend, they ended its life. With the ten dead monsters slowly turning into powder as it dropped the loot, the two partners clapped their hands together while smiling at their win. Collecting their winnings as soon as possible, they found that in addition to the magic stone, there was also a Kobold nail remaining on the ground.

With a raised eyebrow, Aidan collected it and, seeing the additional rare loot, he smiled happily before receiving everything into the storage card. "Do you want to take a break to eat?" Asked Aidan as he was hungry and could hear Ais's grumbling stomach.

Seeing the girl nod, he took out the barrier card and with Ais coming closer to him, he threw the card in the air. The dome appeared, surrounding them before the two sat on the rugged and cold floor. "You know, maybe tomorrow we should bring a table and chairs? Since I can transport everything in the card, we should bring those convenient items." Noted Aidan as he shared his idea with his partner while taking out their food. "Yes. With the storage and barrier cards, we could stay a few days in the dungeon each time." Added Ais as she thought about the possible ways to stay longer in the dungeon. "Right. Good idea. We should do that when we get deeper into the dungeon since I don't always want to go up and down the floors. It would take too much time." Nodded Aidan as they started eating their lunch while leaning on each other's back.

As they ate, Aidan took the map card they had started to fill. "We haven't even explored 30% of the map yet if we compare it with the map of the guild. I doubt we'll have time to go down another floor today. The monsters here are more numerous and a bit stronger, which slows down our progress." Said Aidan as he looked at their uncompleted map. "Mmm. Let's complete the second-floor map today, and tomorrow we go down." Answered Ais between two mouthfuls of her sandwich.

For the next half hour, they relaxed behind the shield, only going out to fight when a monster appeared in the distance. And finally, after having rested in the dungeon, something no other level one adventurers dared to do, they restarted their exploration.