BXBX NOVEL Chapter 62 - Second Floor
The group finally descended to the next floor, and immediately, at the end of the lengthy hallway in front of them, they could see their first enemy. Just that this time, it wasn't one of those death slimes. Instead, it was an animated skeleton. Of course, it immediately reminded Foster of Thiodrus, even though this one clearly didn't have even an ounce of intelligence or sentience.
It was just a wild beast in the shape of a skeleton, shown by it just running at the group the first chance it got. With Foster in the front of the group, as they were still following the same formation as before, he was of course the one that had to take initiative to attack first and foremost.
He pressed his feet into the ground and waited for the skeleton to approach him, taking a deep breath while it was still out of range. And once it was actually close enough, Foster let out a deep huff of air and pushed his fist forward at the height of the skeleton's chest, using the single-strike martial skill to empower the attack.
The moment that Foster punched the skeleton, its ribcage shattered apart as it was thrown away. As the monster hit the ground, a message already popped up in front of his eyes.
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[21 Experience Points Rewarded]
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"...For real? That's it?" Foster asked with a wry smile, looking at the skeleton that just died a second time, as he slowly turned around toward his friends, "I mean, I knew that skeletons were light, but this light..? They feel pretty useless as enemies..."
"That's only the case when they're alone like this. The bad part about animated skeletons is that they can end up surrounding you pretty quickly. When they throw themselves at you, and especially when they can grasp you, it can be really hard to escape." Lynol explained as he looked at the skeletal corpse slowly disappear into small particles, standing above it while clutching the handle of his sword. Somehow, it seemed like he wasn't talking about knowledge he was taught by others. Rather, it was as if he spoke from experience.
"That so? I mean, it shouldn't be an issue with all of us though... Honestly, I thought it would be a bit harder..." Foster pointed out, somewhat disappointed, but Kyla quickly chuckled, "At the end of the day, this place is still a beginner dungeon. Beside the slimes, this place should be pretty easy to conquer."
"But even then, it does seem weirdly easy... is it just because none of us beside Foster actually had to fight the slimes?" Octer asked, and Kyla nodded her head with a wry smile, "Most likely, yeah..."
Foster grinned a bit as he continued forward, "What does it matter? If it's easy, that's even better for us. We'll be able to get to the fifth floor in no time at this rate!" He exclaimed, and just a moment later, he could hear a familiar sound in the distant darkness.
"Lynol, get back, a slime is coming, I think." Foster warned, getting into a position where he could quickly react. It did seem like this slime was moving surprisingly quickly. The worst part was the slime's color. Since it was so dark, it was hard to spot it here in this dark dungeon. But even so, it didn't take long until its white bones came into view.
It was certainly a bit larger than before, but it was still just a small animal. It was a slime surrounding an actually quite large hare's skeleton, which was running at Foster at full speed. Compared to before, just the impact from this thing should hurt quite a bit. Although, Foster figured that this was a good chance.
"Aster, spark some fire to the left." He instructed the spirit sitting on top of his head, and it quickly did as Foster asked. It let out a larger 'spark' than normal, which the hare-slime naturally tried to avoid, and instead ran toward the other half of the hallway. But there, Foster was kneeling, using his 'block' martial skill. He wanted to see how good it worked against these sorts of enemies.
Foster could feel the front of his body be surrounded by some sort of invisible shell that the hare-slime soon jumped against. The shell cracked apart immediately, but in return, the hare-slime was also stopped to move for now, a chance that Foster immediately took to push his hand into the slime's body to destroy the bubble in its center.
The slime fell apart and the bones disappeared, and Foster turned around with a smile, "These are also super easy to take care of!" He exclaimed, wiping his hands clean from the slime that was still on them, "It really seems like we could take care of this floor pretty easily as well."
"As long as you're sure about that, then good." Lynol replied, and Foster took a deep breath as he kept looking ahead. With a broad grin, he kept walking forward as his companions followed him. They were on the fastest path toward the room where the closest monster source on this floor could be found. They encountered more skeletons that were carrying at best rusted and bent weapons, and at worst weren't carrying anything at all. Sure, sometimes there were groups of death slimes running at him, but they were manageable as well, especially since they now knew that the death slimes were going to avoid them, at least as long as there was a more accessible target, in the form of Foster, available for them.
There were some close calls every once in a while when the rare slime ended up running past him, but for the most part, everything went quite smoothly.
"Alright, then now.... it would be best if we all went over there together, right?" Foster asked, looking at the mostly rotten wooden door at the end of the hallway that the party was currently walking down.