If Ray could give an estimated guess, he had been exploring the dungeon for about a day and had probably killed around 200 monsters which got him to level 27, the 3 women he then killed totalling him to level 30. Although he had progressed quickly it had started to take longer due to the gap in strength and level widening between him and the monsters on the first floor who were probably between level 1 to 10 maximum. But this quantity of exp from these monsters had become less sufficient, however the second floor would be different, monsters stronger, closer to his level, his progression should pick up again hopefully after all on the second floor, the monsters should all be between level 10 to 25, which is a huge jump in strength, but that's what they needed. Ray and Ken stand to the entrance to the second floor, “have you ever been to the second floor before?”, Ken asked as they descended the staircase.
“A few times back when I was alive, from my recollection, the monsters on the second floor are a whole different breed, there are a lot more monsters of higher levels, you’ll catch yourself surrounded by a lot of monsters of a similar level to yourself, it is a lot more difficult, but that just means we can finally start levelling up again.”.
Ken cracks his knuckles “That's just what I wanted to hear; I haven't had a real challenge in a while.”
“In a while? How long have you been in the dungeon for?”.
“Well, I don’t know but not long, goblins age quickly, we become fully functioning after 7 days and once that was the case I tried my best to rally my fellow goblins and when that happened, I went out to level up... So maybe about 9-10?”.
they must have been walking for a solid half an hour when the descension had stopped.
Dungeons are organic structures that grow within the grounds of Evoden, and they survive off the creatures that come to inhabit them, dungeons can vary in size, shape and even ecology, one dungeon is different to another and the same could be said about the different floors, a dungeons floors may be completely different to a previous floor. Ray and Ken stood there amazed, they had descended quite far below the first floor, roughly about 60 meters and what lay before them was incredible. It was a giant cave that spread out for miles, so far that they couldn’t see the other side of the cave, the ceiling was illuminated by a variety of shiny crystals that gave light to the dark cave, it was like they were in a vast giant waste land, there was dead trees scattered about whilst some were close together like a dead forest, there were cliffs and deep ravines that stretched deep into the ground. Ken stood there amazed, even Ray was taken aback, this was amazing, he had seen some dungeons like this in the game, but none were this big, was this some kind of mutation? However, their amazement didn’t last long as they suddenly found themselves surrounded by a pack of 10 grey wolves, their fangs bare, snarling at both Ray and Ken, “I’ll take right.”, Ray says as he places his hand on the floor, “Earth wall, threefold.”, Ray had learnt from the magical book on basic magic, that adding commands like threefold, made it easier to cast chained spells in high tensity situations, instead of chanting the spell 3 times, however, it drained more mana this way, so those with low mana shouldn’t over use this trick. 3 walls sprouted around 5 of the wolves, Ray raises his hand, “Fire blast.”, the ball of flames rushes towards the boxed in wolves, with a might BWOOSH of flames, but to Rays Surprise, 3 wolves, Smokey and burnt nut full of energy and hostility, rushed out of the smoke left behind by the explosion, the first wolf reached Ray, they were very quick, Rays sword engulfed in flames, as he lunched forwards, striking the wolfs head with a piercing strike as the wolf fell on him, he noticed that the other 2 wolves had chosen to flank him from both directions, smart, was that a suicide charge from the first wolf to allow its alleys the chance at victory? Ray left his sword in the skull of the dead wolf which had fallen to his feet and “Not bad.” Ray thought as he proceeded to end them both with a fire bolt.
“You have levelled up to level 31.”, a familiar voice said in his head.
“How you holding up?” Ray said turning to look at Ken who had just pulled his axe out of the head of the last wolf left standing.
“No problem, they weren’t that tough.” Ken replied, a slight tone of disappointment in his tone.
“Don’t worry, the deeper we explore, the stronger they’ll get.”, and with that they adventured further into this strange new land. Ray and Ken came across a few more packs of wolves, however against them, they stood no chance at all, they had begun to think that only wolves appeared on this level of the dungeon, when they saw something flying around above them, circling and observing from a distance, however for now, they ignored it, they would deal with it after identifying what it was, for all they knew it could be a seriously dangerous monster. As Ray and Ken perched on the edge of a cliff, Ken snacking on the leg of a wolf they had killed earlier, when Ray noticed what appeared to be a group of humans desperately fighting off a rather large pack of wolves. The party didn’t look like they were doing too well, could they be new adventurers who had thought it would be fun to adventure down to the second floor? No, that couldn’t be the case, were they even adventurers? They sure weren’t dressed like adventurers, adventures would have better gear, these lot looked like they were wearing tattered rags and only one of them was equipped with a weapon at that and they appeared to be defending the group. Filled with curiosity, Ray stood up.
“Can I borrow the collar?” Ray asked.
Ken looked at the scene down below and handed the collar over to Ray without saying a word, mouth stuffed with wolf meat.
Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
“I’ll be back ASAP.”, Ray said walking off
“ASAP?”.
“As soon as possible.”.
“Oh ok, signal if you need help.”, Ken laughed as he indulged himself in more food.
The person who was fighting, fell on one knee and with this sign of weakness, the wolf that was clearly leading the large pack, howled and lunged at the defenseless group, however a flaming sword came flying by, piercing the wolf in the side, almost ripping through it, after seeing the death of their pack leader the rest of the wolves scattered. The group, which from this distance Ray could clearly see consisted of 5 small children and what appeared to be a girl around a similar age to Ray, she was the one that had been fighting, however they weren’t exactly human like he had thought “beast men?”. As the group looked in the direction of where the sword had come from, the little kids' coward in fear, Ray didn't blame them, after all a red skeleton monster, who had just thrown a sword of fire had just appeared out of nowhere. The girl who was wielding twin meat cleavers, stood up on guard shielding the children, Ray was right to think they weren’t adventures, it was clear what they were, filthy, with tattered potato sacks for clothes, no shoes, malnourished and a collar around their neck, “Slaves... but, they're demi-human, humans only enslaved magical beasts and some monsters in Evolution: online, what the hell was going on. He had to be wrong surely, maybe they were enslaved by a monster instead? No, monsters shouldn't have that kind of resource.”. Ray looked at the beast people, who were still cowering before him.
“Can you hear me?”. Ray asked in Demilang, the shared language of all the Demi-human races, Beast-men, ELves and Dwarves. All of them looked at Ray in confusion and disbelief.
“A skeleton monster can speak, let alone knows Demilang?”. The girl said, her cat like ears, that were situated on the top of her head twitching. She had long messy black hair, with a pair of black cat ears on top, she had dark full eyebrows, with cat like eyes that had a honey yellow iris and sharp pupils and a long black tail that wiggles in the air, she’d be quite the looker if she wasn’t so filthy right now Ray thought.
“let's just say I wasn’t always like this; I was once human, and I plan on returning to that form.”. at the mention of the word human the smaller demi humans, 3 girls and 2 boys looked horrified and even more scared, whereas the girl began to snarl like a cat would.
“Did I say something wrong?”. Ray asked.
“Acting like you don’t know your human devil, you humans are evil despicable creatures, you treat those you see as different or inferior to you like crap, you kill, capture and enslave us demi-humans for your own sick pleasure and you're asking if you said something wrong.”. she spat on the floor before him. Ray took a step back, no, surely not. Humans can’t, they weren’t like that in the game, that's the acts of goblins, Ray was about to defend humans, saying surely not all. But he couldn’t bring himself to, it was highly plausible, Ray didn’t know enough about the real life Evoden, it was already clear to him some things were different.
“I’m not gonna hurt you, whether you believe that or not is up to you. I don't believe demi-humans are inferior to humans, I think they're quite cool, so cool that I learnt the language after all, but that doesn't matter right now, I’m assuming your captors are nearby?”. It took the girl a while to respond, she was clearly thinking about what Ray had said and whether she could believe his words or not.
“I don't believe you; we don’t trust humans... not anymore, but yes, they are nearby, if you value your own life, I suggest you get out of here.”. she said, a look of disgust on her face.
Suddenly Ray can hear the sounds of rushing winds, Ray looks in the direction of the sound and suddenly snatches an arrow out of midair, inches from his skull, if that had made connection, he surely would have died. The children look in the direction of the arrow in fear.
“They’re here.”. the girl says, Ray looks over and sees a group that consists of 3 men and a woman, their part seemed to consist of 2 mages, one man and one woman, an archer and a battle-axe wielding warrior.
“Now mister skeleton, why did you have to go and ruin our mid adventure show.”, the man with axe said intimidatingly, the others laughing.
He was clearly the leader, he was big and strong and looked like a gorilla, with the face to match.
“Oh please, why are you even talking to it, we all know skeletons have no brains, this one's so dumb it can’t even attack stupid Demi-humans.", mocked the woman, who was clinging to the leader's arm suggestively. What a weird combo Ray thought to himself, “Must be rich... or packing some immense fire power.”. At the woman's comments, Ray could see the girl tense up and clench her fists.
“So, you're the ones who enslaved these lot and put Slave collars on them?”. Ray asked in human.
“Woah freaky, how's it doing that?”. The man with the bow asked shivering.
“Magic item sends the user thoughts directly into the heads of its targets, though I'm surprised it has thoughts, well they do say unique monsters are well... unique. I mean just look at it, dressed like it's still a human, even has an enchanted sword.”, the mage said matter-of-factly.
“And so, what if we are?”.
Ken looked at the girl and the five children, “Do you want to be free?”, they all looked at each other and nodded profusely.
“I’m gonna have to ask you to set them free.”, Ray asked sternly.
“And what if we don't!”, The man asks smugly. Ray walks over to the dead wolf and pulls out his sword and points it at them.
“Violence.”.
Ray turns to the Demi-humans, you’ll be free soon, but for now, I'll need you to stay in here for a bit.”, they look at him confused. Ray hands the girl his bag, bends down and touches the floor, “Stone prison.”, suddenly a pyramid, big enough to fit all of them in surrounds them.
“Let's do this.”, Ray says as he shoots a fire ball up into the air.