James got his strength back from drinking the two potions and stood up. He picked up the magic stones beside him and walked over to the place where the campfire used to be. James remembered that the goblin mages lost control of their spells, causing an explosion. The goblin's corpses were gone, and more magic stones were scattered around the area.

"Are magic stones tough enough to survive explosions? Or did they appear after the explosion died and the goblins' corpses disappeared?"

[Both. They appeared after all the goblins died, but they would be just fine with a small explosion like that.]

"Small explosion?"

James felt as if he had heard something worrying. He shook his head and picked up the magic stones. They were rather large, so James tore off his bloody and torn shirt and made a makeshift bag.

"14 magic stones in total. Did I really kill that many?"

[Yes. You killed 5 archers, 5 mages, 4 warriors, a scout, and a shaman. That is 16 goblins. Then, you paid two of them to me to buy the potions.]

James' brain went into overdrive. 14 magic stones. Each of them went for 10 points, and each point could be exchanged for a hundred bucks. That was 14 grand! James didn't know if he wanted this to be a dream or not. But, he noticed something.

"Announcer woman, this magic stone is blue!"

Among the stones he had picked up, one of them was larger than the others, the size of a fist. Instead of the gold tint that the others had, this one shone blue.

[That's the stone of the leader, the goblin shaman. It's a tier 3 monster, so it dropped a tier 3 magic stone.]

"Oh, so this one is worth more than the others?"

[1 tier 3 stone is worth 10 tier 2 stones.]

James froze. This stone in his hand was worth $10,000 if this was real.

[I don't believe it.]

"I don't believe it either. $10k?!"

[No, I'm not talking about the money. That amount of money isn't that much. I'm talking about that.]

James' sight shifted over to a red sphere sitting on the ground. The sphere had two black stripes on it.

[An orb of strength. And it's a tier 3, as well.]

"What's that?"

[Remember how I told you that you would have chances to improve your stats? One way is the bonus you get when clearing a floor for the first time. The other, is is to collect orbs.]

James blinked. "So, this orb will raise my strength stat?"

[If you eat an orb, one of your stats will go up. Orbs have tiers too. This one came from the shaman, a tier three goblin, so this orb is tier three. However, you can only eat 50 of each tier. Very few people actually hit that cap, however.]

James looked the small orb in his hand. He wiped it off with a part of his pants that weren't stiff with blood and swallowed it.

"Guuuh..."

James immediately regretted it. He felt as if his body was being torn apart. Each one of his muscles was ripped apart and built back, stronger than before. James clenched his muscles and endured. After a while, the pain faded away,

"Does it always hurt this bad?"

[Check your status.]

James pulled the ID card out of his pocket and looked at the stats.

{STR: 6

DEF: 1

END: 1

AGI: 1

INT: 41

LUK: 9999}

James wasn't very happy.

"All that pain, and my strength was only raised by 5 points."

[That might appear to be little, but it's not. You just increased your strength by six-fold.]

When James thought about it, it was true. He was, at least in terms of brute strength, now 6 times stronger. But James was still a bit discontent. Why? Because he was still weaker than a child.

James had collected all the magic stones, but there was still one thing on the ground. It was a knife.

"I remember. The chief goblin, the goblin shaman, was holding this knife. Shame he never got to use it and died."

James picked up the knife. It was very pleasing to the eye: the blade was about 8 inches long, and was made out of a metal that looked similar to iron. The handle was made out of high quality leather, and there were patterns drawn into the hilt. The knife was very sharp.

[Items, such as weapons and armor, can also drop inside the dungeon. You can use your card to appraise them.]

James pulled out the card and tapped it on the knife.

{Steel Knife

Attack: 35

Quality: Excellent

Mana Conductivity: D}

[Oh, a mana conductive weapon. Not bad! That knife should be able to carry you to the 10th floor, at the very least.]

James didn't have a sheath, so he held the knife with his right hand. He learned his lesson last time, and was not going to run into another fight without a weapon.

"Will all the fights be as hard as this one?"

The announcer woman hesitated before answering.

[For some reason, the goblins were higher tiered than what where supposed to appear on this level. Goblin warriors, scouts, mages, and archers are tier two monsters, which are only supposed to appear on the 1st tier floors as mini-boss monsters. This floor shouldn't have had those monsters in a group. It should only have tier 1 goblins, which are much easier to fight.]

James wasn't expecting this answer.

[In other words, what you just fought should've been a tier 2 mini-boss fight.]

"In other words, you and the other administrators can't manage this dungeon for shit."

[…]

James made a jab at the announcer woman, but he was really relieved. Those monsters he had defeated were actually quite strong! This meant that the way forward wouldn't be quite as hard as he had thought it would be.

[I think, that with your new status and knife, you should be fine for the first floor.]

"That's reassuring."

James gripped the bag of magic stones with his left hand the knife with his right, and started to walk forward. This floor of the dungeon only had one way forward. There were no forks. James, however, noticed that his physical condition was much better than before."

"It's already been around 150m, and I still haven't fallen over. I guess that means I'm more adjusted to the mana in the atmosphere now?"

However, his thoughts were interrupted again by a small green thing.

Another goblin.