A Goblin charged forward.
Instead of fear, Roy's face showed an excited smile.
Back home in the Rajiya Kingdom, Goblins also appeared in the forests, so Roy wasn't unfamiliar with these monsters; their attributes were similar to an adult's.
Roy drew his Village Good Sword, its gleaming silver blade reflecting the Goblin's hideous face.
The Goblin mindlessly rushed forward, opening its mouth to bite.
Roy retreated, creating distance, and after clearly seeing the Goblin's movements, he swung his sword.
The sharp blade landed on the Goblin, easily splitting its forehead and tearing its small body.
It proved that Roy had underestimated the Village Good Sword; on the upper levels, this thing was practically a divine artifact. His movements were swift and clean, without any hesitation, and in a flash, all the Goblins were slain by him.
Bang!
There was no blood splatter; the bodies of the four Goblins exploded into dust, and several purple magic stone fragments, the size of a pinky finger, fell to the ground.
Roy crouched down, picked up the magic stone fragments, and put them in his pocket. He wasn't short on money, but this was his first gain from killing a monster.
Magic stones are the core of monsters, their source of power, so attacking the magic stone is the most effective way to defeat a monster. The Guild reclaims magic stone fragments, using their energy to create various convenient tools.
Soon, the wall slightly bulged.
A few more monsters jumped out. The first floor of the Underground City only had two types of monsters: Goblins and Earth Spirits, which even LV.1 Adventurers could easily handle.
What's more, Roy held the Village Good Sword, worth hundreds of thousands of falis, making the first floor feel like he was cheating.
No skill, just pure stats!
After spending most of an hour adapting to the monsters on the first floor, Roy followed the staircase down, quickly breaking through to the second floor, where the environment was no different from the first.
He heard a faint sound from above.
Roy looked up and saw a giant gecko on the ceiling, staring at him with blood-red eyes.
The gecko monster, a "Underground City Lizard," had rough brown skin, a horizontally split mouth, and a long tongue sticking out. Its entire body was about 1.5 meters long. This type of monster appeared on floors 2 to 4 and was classified as a low-level monster, similar to Goblins or Earth Spirits.
Whoosh!
The gecko monster quickly crawled in front of Roy, opened its mouth, and its tongue shot out like a spear towards his head.
Roy tilted his head, dodging the incoming tongue, and thrust his sword-wielding right hand forward. The blade easily pierced the lizard's rough skin, 貫穿 its body.
Bang!
The gecko monster shattered, and magic stone fragments fell.
Relying on the sharpness of the Village Good Sword, which almost ignored the defense of upper-level monsters, he could kill a monster with a single strike. Roy shook his head and smiled, realizing the truth in the saying that overly powerful equipment can lead to dependency.
However, in the Underground City, not using powerful equipment when available would be truly foolish.
Roy continued to advance.
After killing more than a dozen gecko monsters and Goblins, Roy successfully entered the third floor.
The Underground City was eerily quiet; conversations and footsteps were amplified. When encountering other Adventurers along the way, Roy would always put away his Village Good Sword in advance.
It's unwise to flaunt one's wealth. The upper levels are close to the surface, but it's still hard to guarantee that others won't harbor ill intentions.
[Strength: 0 → 5 (I)]
[Stamina: 0 → 8 (I)]
At this moment, two panels popped up in front of Roy, and a smile appeared on his face.
He figured his attributes should have improved by now.
The method of increasing ability values can also be described as targeted behavior. For example, stamina increases more with more beatings, injuries, and pressure endured. Correspondingly, running, grip exercises, and similar activities will increase agility and strength.
Killing nearly twenty monsters, the total increase in ability values was only 13, which wasn't entirely Roy's problem.
His agility was as high as 600 (C), so the increase from killing such small monsters was negligible. Dexterity, on the other hand, was about skill training. Roy was using the Village Good Sword to one-shot monsters throughout, so it would be a miracle if his dexterity improved.
Roy wasn't discouraged. He didn't need a god; being able to update his ability values in real-time after killing monsters already put him far ahead of other Adventurers.
The deeper one went into the Underground City, the larger the space became.
When Roy entered the fifth floor, there was a clear change compared to the first. The passages became wider, like a maze, branching in all directions, and the frequency of encountering other Adventurers began to decrease.
Bang!
The wall shattered, and seven or eight Werewolves jumped out. Standing about 1.6 meters tall, covered in fur, with sharp fangs and claws, and standing on two feet, these Werewolves were holding wooden clubs, unlike the previous monsters, indicating they now possessed weapons.
Roy's eyes became fiery.
Rumble!
These Werewolves showed no fear of death, charging out with the momentum of a thousand armies.
Roy felt a surge of pressure. Strictly speaking, this was his first real battle; the previous one-shot kills couldn't even be called battles.
Whoosh!
The leading Werewolf was the first to reach Roy, swinging its wooden club at his head, creating a whooshing sound.
Roy raised his Village Good Sword and cleaved straight down. The blade, which cut metal like mud, instantly severed the wooden club upon contact, splitting the Werewolf behind it in two.
Bang!
The dismembered Werewolf exploded, and magic stone fragments fell.
Instantly killing one Werewolf did not deter the others. Their greenish-blue eyes became even more ferocious, like ghost fire, as they surrounded him from both sides.
Although he didn't have much combat experience, Roy knew not to turn his back on monsters. He kept retreating, always keeping the monsters in front of him.
Roy gripped his sword hilt tightly and performed a wide horizontal sweep, easily bisecting two Werewolves.
Just then, a Werewolf suddenly darted out from the shadows, its eyes glowing with a faint green light.
Roy was startled. He instinctively retreated and raised his arm to block.
A cold glint flashed.
The Werewolf's sharp claws left a shallow cut on Roy's hand, and blood splattered.
Excruciating pain shot into Roy's brain, instantly clearing his mind as his survival instincts surged.
Roy thrust his long sword into the Werewolf's chest, seemingly hitting something hard. The Werewolf's body stiffened, instantly exploding and dropping fragments.
"Damn it!"
Roy cursed under his breath.
Sometimes, one couldn't just rely on theoretical data; some things could only be discovered in actual combat.
He had been too hasty when allocating the 600 attribute points obtained from killing Douma; he should have put points into both agility and dexterity simultaneously.
Simply put, high agility only allows for straight-line sprints. To flexibly dodge monster attacks in combat and retaliate, one needs to combine it with dexterity.
When this Werewolf suddenly attacked, he couldn't dodge the attack due to his low dexterity.
Soon, Roy's mindset recovered. After all, he could gain a large number of attribute points by clearing Underground Citys and fighting monsters.
This kind of "failure" was also a valuable experience.
If it were an ordinary Adventurer, they would probably be filled with regret, but for him, this was called demonstrating fault tolerance!