The next morning, Five was again woken up by Harriet but this time, he did not tense that much when he heard the door opening.
"You already leveled up? That's great." It was the first thing Harriet said as soon as she entered. She could obviously see the change in Five since her level was much higher than his.
After a quick breakfast, he followed Harriet to meet his mentor.
Today, he learned about the Dungeon Shop; a service that even him had access to. Not only could he buy monsters from it with DP, but many miscellaneous items could also be bought: weapons like the Harpy's Blood he used, ores or food. However, he obviously could not afford much right now, especially after spending his DP to level up.
"Ok, now that you know the basics of the shop, it is time for a break. You should continue visiting the floors of the dungeons. I recommend going to the tenth floor since it is quite different from the other nine," declared Kroff to end the lesson.
Five quietly nodded, when suddenly a green scaly creature appeared right next to him. The creature was tall and had a thin tail; its two vertical irises stared at Five. The latter felt rather uncomfortable. Five jumped in fright as he did not even notice the presence of the creature before its appearance but fortunately, it was not hostile to him. With a single glance, Five could guess that this creature was a lizardman; it was clearly a monster on par with Harriet.
With a very deep voice, the lizardman spoke, "I will be your guide for today. My name is Roy." He signaled Five to follow him.
Five quickly walked up to Roy and greeted him. He was surprised to have a different guide, but after thinking about it, he concluded that it was to be expected. Harriet still had duties and tasks to accomplish and could not spend all her time with him. It was after all, just the second day; that might just mean that the person guiding him would change every day.
The lizardman was emitting a dangerous aura, looking very unfriendly Nevertheless, Five initiated the conversation:" Is it possible to go to the first floor? I would like to farm some slimes, then we shall go see the goblins."
Roy simply nodded and guided him through the tunnels. He was told by Kroff to bring Five to the tenth floor. It did not matter if they went to the first one for some time. Five still could not distinguish between the tunnels; to him, everything was the same.
A few minutes later, they arrived on the first floor. Roy silently stood behind Five with an expressionless face. The latter could only awkwardly ask, "Can you please lend me a weapon? Farming slimes without any is a bit hard..."
The lizardman frowned for a second but quickly, a spear appeared in his hands. With a reluctant expression, he silently gave the spear to Five.
[Ancestral Spear(Grade 3)]
Damage: 39-43
Effect: [Armour Break]: ignores 20% armour
It was the first time Five actually held a spear. It felt very awkward. It was a rather short and thick spear, clearly meant for close combat. The texture felt weird; it was neither wood nor metal. Five held it like a sword and started hunting.
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The unfortunate slimes that met Five all perished one by one. Compared to yesterday, the rate at which he was slaying the monsters was at least twice as fast, partly due to his increase in Strength stat but mostly due to the spear. The spear had higher damage than the Harpy's Blood.
...
One hour later, Five finally took a break. He killed enough slimes to earn 200 DP. He wanted to continue, but he knew he could not abuse Kroff’s hospitality. And so, he asked Roy to bring him to the goblin's village as Kroff advised him to.
With a nod, Roy led the way through the tunnels. He remained silent and expressionless as always. It did not take long to reach the teleportation platform. The tenth floor was not too different from the first; the tunnels and rooms were much larger, and goblins could be seen instead of slimes.
Anxious that he would be attacked by them, he quickly asked Roy about it, but the latter quickly told him that they would not attack him unless he attacked first or offended them. Not waiting for Five's reply, the lizardman let out a growl which caused the nearby goblins to turn and look at the two.
But they did not approach the duo. The goblins simply stared at Five and Roy with a respectful look.
"Just look around. We can go to the goblin's village afterward," declared Roy while positioning himself behind Five.
The latter nodded and started to explore the floor. He was surprised to not find any human guards. There were so many yesterday when the secret room was revealed and yet, none could be found now.
It did not take long for Five to get bored. The surroundings were very repetitive; there were only rooms filled with goblins. He quickly decided to ask Roy to bring him to the goblin's village; it was the one difference this floor had compared to the others.
In front of a seemingly normal wall, Roy turned to look at Five, "That's the entrance. As long as you go fast enough, you will be able to get through the barrier," declared the lizardman, not giving any more explanation.
"Asking me to run into a wall?" doubtfully thought Five. It sounded like something nobody would ever do, but he recalled that there was something like that in one of the movies he watched in the real world. Full of doubts, he sent Roy a questioning look, but the latter ignored him.
With no other choice, Five could only do as he was told. After taking a few steps back, he charged at the solid wall. As he was about to hit the wall, he instinctively closed his eyes, but the collision he expected never occurred. Five opened his eyes, only to find several goblins curiously looking at him.
The goblins wore puzzled expression, "How could a human have found the way to get into their village?" They were about to attack when another figure appeared behind the human and warned them to not attack.
After Five went through, Roy quickly followed behind. Such barriers were very common, especially for higher floors which usually housed a village of the creatures guarding it. With the same expressionless attitude, he silently stood behind Five.
"Fiouff," The latter let out a sigh of relief. He doubted Roy for a second but fortunately, nothing went wrong. Seeing Roy, the goblins quickly changed their attitude to a respectful one and went back to their own tasks.
The goblin village consisted mainly of females and children, with a population of about 3000 individuals of which only 20% were males. Goblins had a high reproduction rate. Normally, a female could give birth once per month. Despite that, the birth rate of the village could not sustain the death rate of the floor, Kroff still needed to purchase goblins via the Dungeon Shop, but the village still decreased the expenses significantly.
Five strolled around the village accompanied by Roy. The houses were made of wood and straws, looking very rustic. But there was nothing interesting to see; most goblins had nothing to do, except for a small group that was patrolling the outskirts just in case a human would randomly decide to charge at a solid wall and went through the barrier.
The goblins did not need to hunt or farm since all the food was provided by Kroff who used DP. All their daily needs were being provided. Their only task was to reproduce and replenish the population. It was no different from cattle on Earth, raised and fed only to be later slaughtered.
Five quickly got bored. He could not communicate with the goblins who could only make sounds similar to grunts and squeaks. At the same time, they did not dare approach Roy who was standing just behind him.
He continued to explore the village. Sometimes, he would see children running around and playing, but they would quickly turn around and flee when they noticed Roy’s presence.
In the distance, Five suddenly noticed a different building. It was much larger compared to the others and seemed to be completely made up of the wooden material. The building also looked like it was isolated to some extent, compared to the other houses which were closed to each other. There were no houses within a 15 meters radius of that one. Compared to the rest of the village, the building and its surroundings also seemed cleaner.
Intrigued, Five proceeded towards the building. There were no goblins nearby. Turning to Roy, he asked him why that building was different, but the latter replied that he did not know since each village was different; he could simply go and have a look if he wanted to know.
Followed by Roy, Five promptly stopped in front of the building's door and pushed it open.