After completing the "Goblin Guard" raid, Ron returned once again to the shallow area that had troubled him for many days. His gaze briefly swept across the surroundings.
That heart-pounding sensation had already vanished.
Even the monsters he encountered were nothing more than ordinary Goblins and Kobolds. These roadside monsters did not even make him consider stopping.
He advanced along the route stored in his memory.
Returning once more to the room where the decisive battle with the floor boss had taken place, the staircase leading to the deeper levels of the Dungeon came into view before his eyes.
"This is the feeling!"
If there were no grim atmosphere, no faint yet ever-present sense of danger, then Ron would only feel that the flavor of this Soulslike Dungeon was not particularly authentic.
He carefully examined the stair passage.
It was not bottomless; rather, it connected to a brand-new floor.
Only after confirming this crucial detail did Ron choose to continue forward. His left hand tightened around the brass heavy shield, preventing some hidden ambush from blocking the way the moment he arrived on the second floor.
In fact, this concern was somewhat unnecessary.
The environment of the cave passage had not changed much. Illumination still relied on faint light, and visibility remained low.
But for him, already accustomed to the Dungeon's atmosphere, this could no longer have any effect.
Most importantly, when it came to the monsters encountered, it was merely an increase in numbers—mutated Goblins organized in squads, fully armed, wielding scimitars and crossbows.
Placed in the past.
If Ron had encountered this kind of Goblin squad, he would definitely have turned around and run away.
The elite Goblins skilled in close combat could use a high-intensity fast-assault style to provide suppression, while Goblin archers could coordinate and support from long range.
It could be called a newbie's nightmare.
The good news: at the current stage, Ron had already killed a Goblin Guard and broken away from the newbie village phase.
The improvement in his ability values had brought a qualitative change to his overall strength, and moreover, with the function of the brass heavy shield, there was no need to worry about being ambushed by Goblin archers.
Encounter.
Battle.
Until three minutes later, Ron began to clean up the battlefield.
"What a pity."
"Didn't even drop anything for me."
When exploring alone, without any supporters, he could only temporarily take on that role himself.
Thud!
Facing a sudden cold arrow shot from the darkness ahead, Ron smoothly raised the brass heavy shield, blocking this potentially fatal ambush.
The iron arrowhead collided with the brass shield surface, instantly bursting out sparks.
He had no intention of recklessly giving chase. He merely followed the original exploration plan, and only after confirming that there were no hidden threats around did he steadily advance forward.
Until a faint rustling sound of a tongue flicking came from the distance.
Before the monster could even get close, Ron smelled a hard-to-describe odor, like spoiled rotten eggs mixed with socks that had not been washed for half a year.
A foul stench formed by the final mixture.
"It should be a monster that appears in the second-floor area, right?"
He had already prepared himself mentally in advance.
But when he clearly saw the Dungeon Lizard crawling toward him along the upper edge of the wall, the intense visual impact brought a strong feeling of discomfort to his abdomen.
It was not as Eina had described.
The original Dungeon lizards had bodies covered in scales. Their size was comparable to that of a normal adult male—if the slender tail was counted as well.
But the one that appeared before Ron—at the very least in terms of size, it could reach the level of a Nile crocodile from his previous life. Its body had no scales at all; the muscle tissue, completely exposed, was thoroughly rotted.
As for how it was able to maintain signs of life, he could not understand it. He only saw that thick saliva mixed with fragments of flesh kept dripping slowly from the corrupted lizard's mouth onto the cave floor, as if it carried extremely strong corrosiveness.
Szzzz…
"…"
'I'm supposed to fight this thing?'
If this were a Soulslike game, Ron might even call something this rotten "pleasant-looking." But in reality—this kind of mutated monster made him feel nauseous just by looking at it.
He took a deep breath and forced himself to calm down. He knew clearly that no matter how unwilling he was, he still had to fight the corrupted lizard in front of him. There was no other reason.
He treated it as familiarizing himself with a monster's combat style, to avoid a situation where, during solo exploration, he might be surrounded by this kind of freak without having any effective countermeasures.
"Then let's draw blades."
Ron even felt a bit nostalgic for the spear used by the Goblin knight. At least it allowed fighting the corrupted lizard from a distance. He drew the rapier hanging at his side.
Just as he was observing the situation, the corrupted lizard took the initiative to attack. Using its sharp hooked claws to cling to the wall, the speed of its movement was completely inconsistent with its massive body.
Because the monster moved along the top of the wall, fragments of stone fell down and crashed onto the ground, constantly kicking up dust in an attempt to confuse Ron's vision.
In the blink of an eye, the corrupted mound of flesh charged right in front of Ron.
"Feels a bit lacking."
The moment he clearly saw the monster appear, as well as the sharp claws lunging toward his chest, Ron instinctively smashed the brass heavy shield into the ground to block.
The hardened dirt of the ground increased friction by quite a bit.
As a result, he was able to successfully block the corrupted lizard's charging impact, but he was still forced back several meters, feeling the soreness spreading through his arms.
Ron immediately launched a counterattack.
The rapier held in his right hand thrust straight toward the monster's chest. With no scales covering it, the slender rapier smoothly completed the penetration.
The sensation was extremely soft and rotten.
To prevent failing to finish the kill, he decisively stirred the corrupted lizard's abdomen.
"Damn!"
"Why does every freak have fast and delayed attacks?"
Even though the corrupted lizard's chest cavity had been pierced through, it still could not deal effective damage to an undead creature. Immediately after, it rapidly whipped its tail toward Ron.
He could even feel the howling sound of air being torn apart.
Realizing that something was wrong, Ron did not even pull out the rapier embedded in the monster's body. He quickly rolled sideways, avoiding the counterattack from the tail whip.
As for the brass heavy shield left in place, it was struck hard by the corrupted lizard's tail, smashed straight into the wall, and lodged there.
"Not bad."
In a Soulslike Dungeon, there were no ordinary monsters. Even the most inconspicuous roadside wild dog could pose a serious threat to life!
Ron frowned slightly.
He bent his waist a little and lowered his center of gravity, drawing the other short sword. However, just as he prepared to launch his attack, he gripped the sharp blade of the short sword with his left hand.
Sliding it forcefully, the skin of his palm was easily cut open.
Blood flowed along the groove, coating the blade of the short sword. In an instant, a crimson glow enveloped the entire weapon.
Facing the corrupted lizard sweeping in once more, Ron swiftly completed a forward slash. The crimson blade light flashed past his eyes in an instant, containing a powerful force capable of tearing enemies apart.
The coverage of Bloody Slash was very wide.
When the blade came into contact with the corrupted lizard's neck, it smoothly severed the muscle. There was no hindrance at all caused by the presence of the monster's spine.
He would call it—decapitation.
Bang!
The monster's huge, ferocious head was cleanly cut off. After losing all signs of life, the corrupted lizard turned into black dust and completely dispersed.
As the most user-friendly combat art, at least for now, Ron could not find a single fault with "Bloody Slash." If he really had to nitpick, his gaze shifted to the mangled palm of his left hand.
"The effect is good—it's just rough on the hand!"
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