Feeling his mind stir from the darkness and his feet landing on the ground, he braced his legs to keep himself upright while he felt a breeze on his skin. Opening his eyes, Sam stared with wonder at the vast plains stretching in front of him towards the horizon.
The light of late afternoon shone in the sky from a singular sun far off in the sky. Turning around and looking in different directions, it was the same everywhere he looked. There were scattered trees and plants, but it was mostly grass and dirt as far as the eye could see.
It was a crazy sight for a city boy, one he couldn’t believe was connected to the black tower he had touched. It may not be as beautiful as the 0th floors clouds, but the size was something else entirely. He couldn’t begin to imagine how far these plains stretched from one side to the other.
When he stopped looking around, he heard a “ding!” noise and a menu appeared in front of him.
Floor quest: Find the four types of keyroot Search for the plant known as keyroot, and find the 4 colors (green, blue, red, and orange). Successfully finding all 4 colors will allow you to exchange them for access to the 2nd floor.
Closing the menu, he heard a coughing noise coming from his right and noticed Rubio and Riord standing there. “If you’re done sight-seeing, let’s get a move on. The gobs aren’t going to hunt themselves, at least not on this floor.”
Gesturing for him to follow, Rubio set off with the two of them in tow. He seemed to know where he was going, which seemed difficult given the lack of notable landmarks.
“Maybe he has a directional skill of some kind? Seems useful on a floor like this, I should try to get one too eventually.”
As they walked along, a few minutes turned into a half hour before they saw anything or reached their destination. They were approaching a forest that Sam hadn’t even noticed until they were a few hundred meters away from it.
He figured this floor was nothing more than plains, but now he knew he was wrong. As they got closer, Sam noticed a few goblins hanging around the edges of the forest. Rubio stopped before the gobs noticed them and gestured for Sam to come closer.
“These gobs are going to be your target, take all of them out using your sword and shield I provided. You’re going to be graded on how you do, so don’t just rush in. Whenever you’re ready, go for it.” With that, Rubio crossed his arms and waited for Sam to do something.
Looking at the goblins, he saw there were 4 of them outside of the treeline waiting around and he had seen a few entering the treeline and heading deeper into the trees. Their vision didn’t seem to be very good given they hadn’t noticed the groups presence yet, but that would change when they got closer.
Knowing what he needed to do, Sam stepped beside a nearby tree and put his foot in the shadow of the tree. He had never tried this, but figured he’d give it a go.
Jumping into the shadow of the tree, he attempted to hop between a few nearby trees multiple times without surfacing and found he was able to do it fairly easily. Exiting back where he had started, he looked around to find a good path towards the treeline.
“If I can exit behind them, I could get the drop on one or two of them and make the fight a lot simpler. I don’t have the benefit of terrain here, so I’ll need to make do with whatever advantage I can get.”
Giving Rubio a thumbs up, he equipped his sword and shield and dived back into the tree’s shadow. Hopping along a hazardous path through the random trees outside of the forest, he zigzagged towards the forest, not having a good direct approach. A few moments later, he found himself behind the goblins and shook off the slight fatigue from the Shadow Step skill.
Slowly approaching the goblins from behind, he readied his sword. “I wish I had asked for sword lessons before doing this, shit.”
Looking at his options, he approached the goblin carrying a sword and swung horizontally at its neck. The blade cut clean through, but lost some of its momentum after cutting through bone. The blade was sharper than Sam had expected, surprising him, but he didn’t have time to dwell on it now that the goblins body had crashed to the ground.
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Before he knew it, the other three goblins turned towards him and scream-shouted. He couldn’t tell what they were saying, but the message was clear: it’s time for you to die.
With that, they charged him with their clubs in hand and he raised his shield to brace against their attacks. Remembering how he faced down the goblins last time, he decided to be a bit more offensive this time. As two of their clubs swung at him, he swung his shield at both of them and knocked the monsters back. Not having much time until the third one would reach him, he stabbed one in the chest with his sword and pulled it free before turning to block the third goblin.
As the goblin he stabbed fell to the ground, clutching its chest, he barely braced against the goblin’s attack. He had managed to hold steady, but it left him open to the goblin to his left who took the chance and smacked his club against Sam’s leg. Feeling a sharp pain shoot up his leg, Sam looked at the goblin and shouted “Mirror Image!”
Successfully mirrored
Lesser Goblin Capacity used +40 (150/180) Stats +14 to all Passive skill(s) N/A
With that, Sam used the small boost to his strength and smacked the goblin that had landed a hit with his shield. Turning back to the one readying to hit him again, he met its blow with more momentum from his shield and knocked the club from its hand before stabbing it through the chest with his sword. He aimed for where he thought its heart would be, but he didn’t know goblin anatomy.
As the goblin fell to the ground, dead, he turned the goblin scrambling to its feet and smacked it with his shield again to stop it from getting up before stabbing his sword into the back of its head. Stabbing the rest in the heads to make sure they were dead, and with that the battle was over.
Watching their bodies disappear, he saw that these goblins dropped small silvery orbs that had swirls of purple inside of them. Grabbing and pocketing them, he felt a wave of pride that he beat the goblins again. He knew it was just due to his stats and their weak levels, but in time maybe he’d be able to beat stronger monsters too.
Turning back to Rubio, he gave him a thumbs up and walked back over to him. “Four goblins, dispatched, as requested. They also dropped these orbs, I grabbed them.”
Rubio nodded and scratched at the stubble on his chin for a moment. “Those are their magic cores, you can sell them. Anyway, what are your stats now? I saw you suddenly gain extra strength in that battle, was that one of your abilities or did you level up?”
“That was my trait, Mirror Image. It can absorb stats from enemies and store them up to a specific capacity limit, I don’t know how the capacity for it works yet but it seems to scale with the enemy’s stats and skills.”
“I see… we’ll need to talk more about that ability in the future. For now, I have a mandatory challenge for you. I’m sure you’re up to the task after seeing that fight.” Rubio took a breath before continuing.
“It’s simple: you have until the morning to defeat 200 goblins and cut down 25 of these trees and place them in your inventory. If you can pull it off, I’ll forgive your debt to me for the clothes, gear, food, and learning my party’s skills. If you can’t, you’ll owe me with interest. If you can also beat the floor quest by that time, I’ll let you learn two more skills from my party. Deal?”
“He’s asking for me to do what!? That’s absurd… I beat 4 of these goblins, and now he wants to beat 200 of these? And by morning… does that mean I can’t sleep?”
Grimacing, Sam looked at Rubio and saw the seriousness in his face. The man wasn’t joking, not that the boy had expected he was.
Sighing, he nodded slowly. “If that’s how it is, fine. I won’t promise I can do it though, so how much will I owe you if I fail?”
“20 silver coins with 30% weekly interest. That equivalent to more than 3 weeks of work done by a low-level unskilled challenger like you, for the record.”
Sam gulped and realized how deep he was in it, he should have never trusted in this man’s help. Now he wanted him to do something absurd to pay for everything, something that didn’t even make sense. “Do you want to sell the orbs and trees to pay off my debt or something? He asked, confused.
“Something like that. I’ll explain if you can pull it off. Your challenge begins now, we’ll see you in the morning. And if you get help from anyone and I find out later, I’ll charge you double the fee and interest. No cheating.”
Giving him a dangerous look, Rubio threw an axe on the ground, turned around, and walked off. Riord threw him a sympathetic look and raced off after his boss. It seemed like that was the end of the conversation, he had no choice but to do it.
Realizing he didn’t even have any food or water, he groaned loudly and picked up the axe before stowing it in his inventory. This was going to be a long night.