He put on his leather armor.
Its vital areas were reinforced with a special magic metal that came with a magic defense effect.
Slung across his back was a long, straight metal staff, its tip embedded with a light blue magic stone.
This staff was the most expensive piece of equipment on his person, and also the most expensive one in the Reby Merchant Association.
The staff's actual properties were mediocre; it didn't even have the most basic features like shortening chant time or channeling magic power.
Its only benefits were boosting magic effects and being incredibly, supernaturally sturdy.
Crafted from some of the hardest metals in the world, it had caught Li Xiuman's eye immediately.
“Be careful. Don't push yourself too hard.”
“Understood.”
Li Xiuman had no intention of pushing his limits; he always prioritized his own life above all else.
Without hesitation, he plunged straight into the dungeon.
A long, descending tunnel stretched out before him.
Both sides of the passage glowed with a dim blue light, giving it a dreamlike ambiance.
Glancing at the stone walls, he unslung the staff from his back and continued downward.
His first dungeon raid had officially begun.
After walking down the long corridor, he officially entered the first floor of the dungeon.
It looked like a massive karst cave. He could see other adventurers walking around, some even selling items.
Monsters were practically nowhere to be seen.
After all, this floor was home only to Level 1 monsters, which had already been completely cleared out by other adventurers.
He didn't even need to pull out his map, as the walls were already plastered with signs directing the way.
Following the signs, he easily made his way through the first floor's maze, only encountering a few murky Level 1 slimes that yielded exactly 1 experience point each.
Countless connection paths existed between the first and second floors. Li Xiuman found a random cliff edge and jumped down to the second floor.
Then, he took out his map and used it to find an underground river, which could take him directly down to the eighth floor.
The first ten floors of the dungeon were interconnected, but between the tenth and eleventh floors lay a single, mandatory pathway.
Li Xiuman had originally assumed he would need to defeat a boss to pass through, but that wasn't actually the case.
Bosses would only start appearing after the thirtieth floor to block the way down.
Before that point, there were no bosses, only Unique Variants wandering the floors.
Unique Variants were special forms of ordinary monsters, far more powerful than their regular counterparts.
However, they were rarely encountered.
Appearance-wise, they possessed horns.
Horns in the dungeon were akin to a crown; ordinary monsters never grew them, and only unique monsters and bosses bore them.
Li Xiuman crawled out of the underground river. He had successfully reached the eighth floor.
He waved his staff, casting Fire Magic to dry his clothes.
“Gack-gack-gack!”
A green-skinned dwarf lunged at Li Xiuman.
With a large nose and long ears, it was a goblin.
[Race] Goblin
[Level] Lv. 8
[Class] None
[Description] A common monster. It possesses a certain amount of strength; do not underestimate it simply because of its unimpressive appearance.
“Perfect for some practice.”
Li Xiuman gripped his staff tightly. Activating [Great Strength], he swung the staff with full force, smashing it right into the goblin's head.
Its skull shattered instantly, and its entire body flew backward, smashing against the stone wall. It bounced off, hit the ground, twitched twice, and fell completely silent.
[Ding! Killed Goblin Lv. 8. Experience +20]
“What a fantastic staff!”
Li Xiuman swung the staff twice in admiration, producing sharp, whistling whooshes.
He felt like he could use this staff for a long time without needing a replacement.
Next, he stepped over the goblin's corpse and headed deeper into the maze.
He wanted to grind levels.
Soon, Li Xiuman encountered a second goblin.
Stepping forward quickly, he knocked the goblin down with a single punch.
“Gack-gack-gack!”
The goblin struggled frantically, but Li Xiuman ignored its thrashing, pinning its neck down with one foot while raising his staff.
He brought it down with a sharp crack.
The arm bone was shattered to pieces.
Then, he lifted his foot, let the goblin go, and activated [Quiet Steps] to stealthily follow behind it.
He wanted to trace it back to its source and wipe them out completely.
Once he delivered the entire goblin nest to the afterlife, the karmic merit would be absolutely immense.
The goblin ahead darted through the maze, turning left and right.
But Li Xiuman soon realized something was off; this goblin seemed to be leading him in circles.
By the time Li Xiuman caught on, he noticed cluster after cluster of glowing green eyes huddled together in the deep darkness ahead.
He had been ambushed by goblins.
He had underestimated the goblins.
Li Xiuman lamented, reflecting on his mistake.
Pound and Lucia had made mistakes and let him escape precisely because they had underestimated him.
Yet here he was, doing the exact same thing by underestimating the intelligence of goblins.
“Gack-gack-gack!”
The goblin in front stopped and began cackling wildly.
Right after, hordes of goblins rushed out from the darkness.
Li Xiuman gripped his staff tightly.
Although he recognized his error, being ambushed by goblins didn't make him panic in the slightest.
“Quagmire!”
He thrust his staff hard into the ground, and the magic stone at its tip flared with a deep blue light.
Instantly, centered on Li Xiuman, a vast area of the ground collapsed and dissolved into a thick quagmire.
Every single goblin sank into it, their movements grinding to a halt.
The magic stone embedded in his staff was a high-grade water crystal; casting water-attribute magic with it provided a remarkable boost.
However, Li Xiuman found himself unable to move as well.
Within the cave, both sides were solid stone walls, preventing Li Xiuman from spreading his Bone Wings and taking flight.
He could only stand his ground and raise his staff.
“Fireball!”
A miniature magic circle expanded at the tip of his staff, and a fireball shot out with precise accuracy, hitting a goblin dead-on.
It was an instant kill.
“Fireball!”
Immediately after, he pivoted his staff, aiming at the other goblins.
Fireball after fireball shot out.
But it wasn't long before some goblins adapted to the quagmire and began dragging themselves toward him.
Li Xiuman remained perfectly calm. Whenever a goblin drew near, he swung his staff, shattering their skulls one by one as they approached.
Soon, the area around him was carpeted with goblin bodies.
Although individual goblins didn't provide much experience, their sheer numbers made up for it, and Li Xiuman's experience bar began to climb at a respectable pace.
“Gack-gack-gack!”
The cave was filled with the shrieks and cackles of the goblins.
Li Xiuman's arm became a blur as his staff swung faster and faster.
Since they were in a cave, there was only a thin layer of soil on top of solid rock, meaning the quagmire wasn't very deep.
More and more goblins were adapting to the mud and charging at Li Xiuman.
Faced with such a massive horde, even Li Xiuman started to find himself slightly overwhelmed, and his remaining mana was beginning to look worryingly low.
“Looks like I'll have to fight my way out first.”
Picking a direction, Li Xiuman channeled strength into his legs and leapt into the air.
Seizing the moment, his Bone Wings unfurled from his back. He activated Wind Magic to glide across a distance, landing back on the quagmire.
The surrounding goblins swarmed him in a mad rush.
Li Xiuman reached into his coat and drew his rib-bone sword. Activating Fire Magic, he coated the blade in a layer of roaring flames.
Then, wielding his sword in one hand and his staff in the other, he relied on his top-tier equipment to break through the encirclement by sheer brute force.
The surrounding goblins let out frustrated, enraged shrieks.
[Ding! Experience bar filled. Level increased to Lv. 15]
[Constitution +1, Spirit +1]
[Free Stat Point +1]
He casually allocated his new Free Stat Point to Spirit. He still had one Free Stat Point left over from his previous level-up.
He was saving that remaining point to pump into Constitution to save his life if things got dangerous.
As he ran, he didn't forget to lob fireballs behind him.
Hearing the system notifications ding in his ears, he knew some noble goblins had sacrificed their lives to fuel his growth.
It was truly touching.
Rate on N.U.
