Noah felt shocked at how easy and effective the spear had been to use, wondering if he had been mistaken in his assessment earlier. Had he closed in with his sword, there was a high possibility the goblin would have cleaved him with the halberd first. While his one-handed sword was indeed sharp and deadly in mid to close range, if he used it without a shield he would suffer at the hands of long-range melee weapon users- effectively having no way of countering them. Especially if he ran into human enemies, they could simply poke their spear in Noah's direction and he would have no way of even getting close without a decent shield to block the attack.

Liam had stopped laughing by now but had a satisfied look on his face as he twirled his fork around in a bowl of spaghetti bolognese that was held in his other hand "While you failed to surprise me, lad- You sure as hell have managed to entertain me! Haha, that confused look on that green plonkers' face when you lobbed that bludgeon at it was priceless" Liam exclaimed in appreciation, while stuffing a mouthful of delicious-looking spaghetti in his mouth.

Noah just rolled his eyes. "Will anything I ever do manage to surprise you, your royal highness?" he asked, sarcastically.

"Probably not. But if the attempts are going to be so entertaining, I'll gladly watch" Liam replied in an encouraging and pleased tone.

"Hmm" replied Noah, non-committally. Finally, he decided to ask a question that had been eating at him since he realized how effective long-range melee weapons were, asking in an inquisitive tone, "If the spear is so much easier to use than the sword, why didn't you tell me to select it from the beginning?"

"Isn't it obvious?" asked Liam, looking at Noah oddly.

"Um, No," Noah replied, not liking where this conversation was going. He had a feeling.....

"Because I'm not your nanny, kid," Liam chortled in response.

Noah's eyebrows twitched in anger as he heard Liam's response, but this time he had no witty response to offer- Completely blindsided, he couldn't do much else but sigh and take the loss. But he refused to give Liam the satisfaction of winning, just choosing to ignore him and move on with his retrieval.

Pulling out his spear from the dead goblin's carcass, he hit the loot button and the goblin's halberd dissolved into a white mote of light. A few minutes later, he had finished the looting process and retrieved both his dagger and bludgeon.

"Fine, fine I'll stop. Tell me, who put the idea in your mind that a spear is easier to use than a sword?" asked Liam, finally willing to guide Noah.

"Well, me" Noah replied, not understanding what Liam trying to get at.

"And ya numpty-dumpty, how did you figure that out?" he asked in continuation.

"What the hell is a numpty-dumpty? You made this one up, didn't you...." Noah asked in a skeptical tone. Even for British insults, that seemed too far fetched.

"An egg-head, but even dafter. C'mon kid, don't leave me hanging," said Liam in a professional tone, though he just appeared to be pulling Noah's leg.

"By fighting against a halb- Oh" Noah realized what Liam was trying to get at. Had he not experienced it for himself, Noah wouldn't really understand how intimidating fighting against someone who had over double the reach of your sword was. They were practically built for a battlefield scenario, cleaving through oncoming enemies in one mighty swing would mean injuring if not decapitating multiple people at once.

"Exactly kid.....You see, you can read a hundred books on the art of war or ask a seasoned warrior for advice - Until you find yourself pitted against an enemy that is swinging that weapon because he wants to lop your spindly neck off, you won't really understand what they meant. The spear may be easy to use, but so what? If you keep dealing with your enemies from a comfortable distance, what will you do when they finally break past your guard? Unless you want to walk the path of mastering the spear, It will only make you grow soft in the long run. " Liam ended his long-winded explanation, while Noah seemed largely satisfied with this answer.

"Just keep using weapons according to the situation, until you find one that really speaks to you. Experimenting early on saves you trouble on the later floors, because once you have already chosen the path you want to walk on you can hunt for the correct combat art to receive an explosive burst in combat ability. Feel free to test out the spear while I'm gone, if that makes you feel safer. But you shouldn't be under too much pressure, because you already reached level 3" said Liam, springing a pleasant surprise at Noah in the end.

Noah willed his notifications to open, and indeed it was as Liam had mentioned.

Killed Goblin Skirmisher (Level 1) x 2 - 50 XP, 20 EP Awarded Congratulations! You have reached Level 3. You have 5 unassigned stat points.

"Phew, managed to get it done in time" Noah exhaled, relieved that they had managed to hit level 3 and get a few pieces of loot within their intended time limit.

"With exactly 1 hour and 36 minutes to spare. Eh, find some good place to rest and grab a hot cuppa. We've got one last thing left on the itinerary to discuss before I go to bed." said Liam, loudly yawning as if the day's events had tired him out.

Noah found a fairly secluded location after walking around for a bit, a bit of flat land surrounded by dense shrubbery that would hopefully hide him from any prying eyes, before plonking his tired derriere on the rough earth and thinking back on the most bizarre day of his life.