39 - Sub-Boss

Val awoke just before the sun rose like he did the day before. He was in a better mood than the night before and was prepared for another day of exploring the dungeon.

This time, however, he was not expecting to find any treasure, though he would be elated if he did.

Val got out of the warm bed, leaving the comfort of being sandwiched between Larz and Leo. Val had thought that Larz would be uncomfortable because of his scales, but he had found that the little dragon was quite warm and once you got used to the feeling of scales, he was a great cuddle buddy.

Val performed his usual morning routine, which included washing his face, getting dressed, and heading downstairs to eat, but not before giving Larz something to eat and sending him into his [Personal Dimension].

When Val arrived at the dining hall, he ordered two servings of scrambled eggs and bacon, for himself and Leo and then headed straight for the dungeon.

He did not need to go to the adventurers guild, so he planned to skip it and go directly to the dungeon. Val wanted to spend the whole day inside the dungeon, continuing where he had left off.

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Val and Leo arrived at the dungeon and immediately 'signed in' with a guard who looked like he could fall asleep at any moment. Clearly, the guard had been on duty all night and was exhausted.

Val and Leo entered the dungeon, when they were inside, Val let Larz out of [Personal Dimension] and the trio began their exploration.

Similarly to the previous day, the trio kept facing lone goblins, however, right before they were preparing to take a break and have lunch the trio encountered a small group of 3 goblins. None of the goblins they had encountered over the two days had weapons, and this group of three was no exception.

Val, Leo, and Larz dealt with them easily, taking their ears as proof, and then moved a little away to take a break and enjoy their lunch.

Whilst eating Val contemplated his next course of action, he wondered if he should stay on the first floor, or if he should try and move up to the next floor.

Val knew it was unlikely he would find anything of value on the first floor even with his eyes, and the money he could make was not a lot, even with the help of his two familiars.

The amount he could learn and improve, when he was only fighting weak individual goblins was not much, as he and both his familiars could easily one-shot the goblins, without any difficulties.

Val decided that he would focus on ascending to the next floor, he wanted to fight harder opponents and find grand treasures.

When the trio was done eating they began their exploration of the first floor once again.

They consistently fought against individual goblins and occasionally a small group, but this was not even troublesome for them.

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A few hours after they had finished eating and had been exploring, Val was thinking about stopping here for the day, they had killed 47 goblins in total but had found no trace of treasure or a sub-boss.

Val had determined that they would need to try again tomorrow, and maybe even the day after.

Val decided that they would continue exploring for another 30 minutes and then call it quits for the day. Val felt like this was reasonable, it was getting late but was not too late just yet.

They were wandering in a random direction when suddenly Val noticed a larger-than-normal mana signature with his passive [Mana Eyes].

He put his open hand out to the side, to warn Leo to stop without making a sound, Larz was still sitting comfortably on Val's shoulder so there was no need to stop him. The trio focused on the area Val had noticed, with Val fully activating his [Mana Eyes], so that he could clearly see how powerful whatever was ahead of them was.

When Val focused on his target, he was able to distinguish 6 mana signatures, 5 of them were regular goblins that they had faced many times before, however, one of them was vastly different, it was much larger and had a very strange mana signature than the other goblins with strange light attribute mana particles circulating.

Val found it extremely strange and became very cautious, however, he also realized it was most likely a sub-boss.

The trio approached slowly and cautiously, not wanting to draw the attention of the group of goblins. When Val, Leo, and Larz got close they were able to see the details of the goblin group.

There were 5 regular-looking goblins, Val thought that they might be slightly more muscular, but it was not a big enough difference to matter. The surprising thing was the central goblin-like monster who was surrounded by the other 5 goblins.

The central goblin-like monster looked like some strange goblin variant evolution. However, Val had read in the guide booklet that there were no monsters except goblins on the floor. Val was therefore perplexed and very cautious, thoughts were rushing through his brain very quickly,

'Why is there a different monster on the first floor?'

'The Gods create the monsters in the dungeon therefore it should not be possible for a variant to exist unless it was deliberately made by the Gods.'

'Should I fight it, without knowing its strength?'

'It could be dangerous, but I have Larz and Leo with me, and it is still the first floor, so even if the Gods chose to add an evolved monster, they would not have made it so powerful that it could not be defeated by rookie adventurers.'

'I should check to see if I can gain any information from the adventurers guild card.'

After Val organized his thoughts, and decided he would fight the strange monster, he pulled out his adventurer's guild card from his spatial ring and attempted to see what information would be provided.

Unfortunately, the adventurers guild card provided no information. This was either an unknown evolution or one specifically created by the Gods for the dungeon.

Val was frustrated that he could not gain any preemptive information but decided he would fight the pack of goblins anyway, he planned to target the normal goblins first, killing the 5 goblins as quickly as possible with the help of Leo and Larz and then move onto the strange goblin monster.

Val communicated his plan to Larz telepathically, who then passed it on to Leo.

When Val noticed that both Larz and Leo were ready, he began to dash toward the pack of goblins with Leo by his side, Larz jumped off Val's shoulder and flapped his wings, hovering in the air.

The three of them used their skills simultaneously, Val used [Port] to close the distance immediately, Larz used [Wind Blade] and Leo used [Lazer Roar]. Larz and Leo immediately killed 2 of the goblins, and Val followed by chopping the head off the third, Val then proceeded to use [Ice Spear] to finish off another, stabbing him through the stomach. The final one was quickly finished off by Larz, who shot out another [Wind Blade].

Val quickly used [Port] to create distance, he was unsure about the power of the unknown monster and did not want to take any unnecessary risks.

The monster clearly had Light attribute mana inside him, but it was acting differently than normal, it was as if it was currently being utilized rather than simply being stored. It was a new sight for Val, and he had no idea of the reason.

Val stared down the goblin-like monster, waiting to see if it would leave an opening he could take advantage of, Larz and Leo were smart enough to do the same.

The goblin-like monster, however, did not move. It stayed still and stared back, locking eyes with Val.

When Val peered into the monster's eyes, he was surprised, though he did not allow it to show on his face.

The reason he was surprised was that the feeling he was getting from the monster was different from what he expected, he had expected the monster to be angry that they had killed its companions or rather, its minions but it did not seem to care about that.

Val felt like the monster was afraid rather than confident or angry. This shocked Val, because goblins were very rarely afraid, the only other goblin Val had seen be afraid, was the goblin that had a skill orb inside it.

Val had seen through the mana inside the goblin and knew that there was no skill orb inside, so he was unsure as to why the goblin was intelligent enough to be afraid.

Val decided it did not matter and prepared to attack, if the goblin was afraid, it meant it was not strong enough to fight the three of them.

Val decided to attack, giving a quick signal with his hand for Leo and Larz to also attack.

Val used [Port] to close the distance, and Larz and Leo used the same skills they had used earlier against the regular goblins, as Val appeared behind the monster, he used [Stab], and at the same time, Larz's [Wind Blade] and Leo's [Lazer Roar] both hit the monster, completely decimating it.

As the monster fell to the ground dead, a bright light exited its body surprising Val, who had to shut his eyes for a few seconds.

When he opened them again, he became even more shocked at what he saw.