So close

Edward ran into the second room, kicking one of the slimes. It got their attention as one shot a water jet at him. Expecting it, Edward jumped to the side, dodging it.

Andrew walked into the room, a water jet immediately hitting him on the chest. Unexpectedly, the water jet wasn't strong enough to move him an inch. His weight and strength were enough to withstand the knockback effect of the slime's water jet.

Seeing this, Andrew went to the middle of the slimes, sitting down and folding his arm. "I will take a bath. You continue doing what you are doing." He smirked, knowing Edward could not sit luxuriously like him while the slimes attacked him.

Edward shrugged at this, dodging another water jet. 'I could use this to train my awareness and body control.' He thought so himself, seeing this as a win.

Time slowly passed, reaching the thirty minutes mark. Edward was now panting hard, not knowing when the slimes would stop attacking. Giving up crossed his mind, but he decided to keep going to the one mark. If he made a habit of giving up too early, he wouldn't survive this new world.

But, he was tired, so he went to the other room to rest. Thirst didn't bother him, as he could drink water from the slime water jet. If he positioned himself far away from the Hydro slimes, their water jet would become weak like the level 0s, enabling him to drink it.

Andrew was skeptical about this, so he didn't drink water from the slims. He was still sitting in the middle of multiple slimes, tanking their water jet like they were nothing. Edward also returned to the room, with Andrew leaving the room. Even though the slimes attack barely did anything to him, tanking that much for thirty minutes caused his whole body to start getting sore.

Edward continued dodging, which was now harder as all slimes were now focused on him. After a while, he entered the Hydro slime water jet trap again, and Andrew had to come and save him. And so they continued.

Soon, the first slime dropped out.

"My hypothesis was right," Edward screamed in joy, watching as a slime bounced away to the room's corner. It made him lose focus, earning a hit from a water jet.

As time went on, more slimes dropped out, and soon, they all were in one corner. Picking up his wooden spear, Edward walked towards the slimes with a grin.

"They either ran out of mana or water. I don't know." He said to himself, gripping his spear and redying a stab. "But, who cares? Now you fuckers would be easy to kill."

Stabbing forward with all the speed and strength he could muster, Edward managed to pierce one of the Hydro slime's cores. The core shattered as the body turned to water.

"Ahh~," He said in joy, finally able to kill one of these fuckers. "And I got 45 Exp from killing the slime and crushing their core. Killing all 27 will get me to level 4 in no time!"

Hering this, Andrew immediately tapped his shoulder. "Remember, I am here." He said, eyeing Edward's spear and then the slimes. He mentally counted before saying, "There are 27 left, and you killed 1, meaning there were once 28. Why not kill 13 more and live 14 for me. Perfectly balanced."

Edward shook off Andrew's hold, turning to face him. "But you will be using my spear, so I should get one from yours. I kill 15, and you kill 13. Then it is a deal." He said, holding out his free hand.

Andrew couldn't argue with that, but he wasn't giving up the chance to earn Exp and possibly pass Edward. "Two can play that game." He said, refusing Edward's handshake and folding his arm. "I saved you TWO times, so I should get TWO from yours. I kill 16, and you kill 12."

"Fuck." Edward mumbled. He had forgotten about that. "Wait, we shear the Exp, right? Why are we even arguing?"

Hering this, Andrew checked his log, seeing he gained 30 Exp. "Crushing the core doesn't share with the other team member. I only got 30."

"Oh..." Edward mumbled, nodding.

"So, deal. 14 slimes each." Andrew smirked, knowing he had won. He took Edward's left with his left and gave it a strong shake. "Kill you 13 remaining slime, then pass the spear."

Edward nodded as they both let go of each other's hands. He turned back to the 7 Hydro slimes, cramped in the corner, regretting not being able to kill all of them for Exp. Edward could ignore the deal and kill one or two extra, but it would put their relationship and trust at risk.

Relationship and trust is the most valuable thing one could ask for, as they would open the possibility of many other things like trades. Lowering Andrew's trust in him for an extra 15 or 30 Exp isn't worth it.

While Edward was killing his Slimes, Andrew decided to go deeper into the cave for exploration. Leaving the second room, The next room itself was enormous, and unlike the first and second, the ground, the ceiling, and walls were paved with tiles. Six large pillars that held up the ceiling stood in the room.

The ceiling was high, with multiple blue crystals lining it, lighting the room in a bluish glow. There was an elevated platform at the far end of the room, where two tall gelatinous masses of six-foot Hydro slimes stood ideal. Like the King Hydro slime back at school, they had round white eyes staring into space. But, they didn't have the gold marking or crown.

"Is this the boss room?" Andrew wondered, inspecting both slimes. They don't look as menacing as the slime from the campus, but he knew they were more dangerous than the slimes in the second room. "But, are there supposed to be two bosses in a dungeon?"

He was never one to play games much, and the ones he played were all FPS games. He might know about the basic things about RPG games, but it was the first time he saw a two-boss dungeon or even heard of one.

"Maybe Smith would know about this." He mumbled, deciding to return to the second room.

H, where Edward was killing his last slime. He threw his spear at Andrew, who caught it out of the air before sitting down and leaning on the wall.

'Finally, level 4.' Edward thought to himself, sighing. Looking at his status, he saw it was now 352/830 to level 5. Looking at Andrew, struggling to hit the slimes core, he mumbled, "If I killed all those, I would be a level five by now." Sighing, he turned his eyes back to his stats.

He got 2 AP from reaching level four, and now he needed to allocate them. His strength was 12, and Agility 10, his two main stats. Adding them to strength would get it to 14, but that will be redundant.

Andrew is going full strength, and two people that could do the same thing aren't needed. So the other best option would be to add to his other stats.

After thinking for a while, he decided to add both AP in agility, bringing it to 12. He thought of increasing endurance to increase his stamina but decided on more speed than stamina.

Just then, Andrew finished killing all 14 remaining slimes. The sheared Exp allowed him to reach 772/830. "So close to level five." He grumbled, "But fret not. Clearing this dungeon would allow me to reach level five."