James was transported to the 2nd floor of the dungeon. He looked around. The dungeon itself was almost the same as the 1st floor. James eyes traced the floor.

“So this is what they meant, huh?”

Starting from the 2nd floor, there were traps in the dungeon. However, these traps, James was told, were really obvious.

“If you fall in one of the traps on the 2nd floor, you’re probably legally blind,” Beck had said.

James was not legally blind, though he did need glasses. For some strange reason, his glasses were indestructible in the dungeon, and they never dug into his nose either. But, even with his glasses off, James would’ve seen the giant pit currently in front of him. It was about a meter in diameter. When James looked down into the pit, he saw that it was simply a hole about 2 meters deep.

“That’s not enough to really injure anybody, much less kill them. I could just climb out of it, unless there’s like poison or something of the sort.”

James wasn’t planning to jump down and find out. He simply walked around the pit. These traps very obvious, but one needed to be mindful of them. If you were distracted by monsters, it was definitely possible to fall into one of these and meet a tragic end.

James slowly walked through the dungeon, while keeping vigilant. As it was his first time exploring the 2nd floor, he was extremely careful, and didn’t dare to move at a faster pace.

James avoided a trip wire that was thicker than your average rope, another gaping pitfall, and a net that was spread across the floor. He got nervous halfway, though. What if some of the traps were hidden? James was told that all of the traps were easily discernible, but fearing the worst, he chose to take out the spear and tap the floor in front of him anyways.

Tap. Step. Tap. Step. Tap. Step.

James continued to check every place he stepped as he continued along the dungeon. After a good twenty minutes or so, James looked up. He hadn’t gotten very far, but that wasn’t surprising considering the pace he was going at. He hadn’t discovered any hidden traps, either. All of the traps he saw were really obvious.

“That’s weird. I thought I would’ve run into a few monsters by now. Oh, I probably just jinxed myself.”

James heard screeching coming from around a bend.

“I definitely jinxed myself. I shouldn’t have said that. I should not have said that.”

James readied all of his weapons. He had throwing knives in one hand, the spear in the other, and his regular knife ready to be unsheathed in case he needed to do close combat. Then, he concentrated.

“There are 3 of them. No, 4. 4 imps.”

Although James couldn’t detect the mana inside of himself, he was really proficient at finding magical energy in his surroundings. He practiced this by trying to find monsters before he could see them and determining the number of monsters.

3 imps rounded the corner.

“Oh, I was wrong.”

Although he could roughly tell whether or not there were enemies in the vicinity, he wasn’t a radar system. He needed more practice. Additionally, the energy that the imps radiated was slightly different from that of goblins.

“This is demonic energy, huh. It feels a bit similar to the energy I felt during that weird dream I had.”

James had a dream where he was in the perspective of an unknown hero, Ajartum, who fought against the demonic beings. Although the magical energy he felt now was much much weaker, there was similarity to the energy of the weird, chimera -like beings that came out of the blackish portal.

The imps were small and black skinned, and they had small horns on their head. Red patterns, almost like tattoos, were imprinted on their skin. They had thin, long tails, sharps claws, and pointed teeth. Two of the imps ran towards him on their feet, while the last one flapped its bat like, leathery wings and flew in the air a few feet above the ground.

“I’ll take care of the flying one first.”

James threw a knife at the imp with bat wings. The imp didn’t bother attempting to dodge, continuing in a straight path, and the knife hit the imp in its stomach. The imp screeched in pain, careened sideways, and slammed into the stone wall.

The two imps that couldn’t fly didn’t even blink an eye at the sight of their comrade making a beeline for the wall. They charged directly towards him without any hesitation, preparing to stab or slash at him with their long black claws. Seeing this, James put both of his hands on his spear and pointed it in the direction of the imps. If the imps kept on running at him, they’d be turned into kebabs.

However, as one of the imps was approaching James, it jumped upwards, avoiding the point of the spear. It hissed and bared its fangs. The claws on the imp’s outstretched hand came closer and closer to James’ face. But, when the claws were only 2 feet away, the momentum of the imp stopped. Its outstretched hand fell to its side, and it slumped over. It was dead.

James had simply shifted the spear upwards, and stabbed the imp as it lunged at him. The imp had been directly impaled through the gut

“How the hell did it get this far? Is friction not a thing?”

The imp’s body was on the spear, in between the tip and the handle where James was holding it. Its momentum had carried it forwards, and the forwards half of the spear was covered in red imp blood. For a moment, James had been afraid that the imp’s claws would reach him.

The 3rd and final imp, however, sidestepped the spear’s point and advanced towards James, who dropped the spear and whipped out his knife. The spear had become really heavy now that the imp’s body was on it. Additionally, the last imp was already in close range, which meant the spear range was useless.

James stepped to the side to evade the imp’s first attack , and then stabbed it from its side while it was still moving forward, killing it. James looked back over to the first imp, the one that could fly. It was still alive, but was heavily injured. It screeched at him, and prepared to jumped toward him, but was was abruptly met with a throwing knife to the face.

“It’s really not that bad, fighting against imps. If I can pick one or two off beforehand, especially the ones that can fly, I don’t think it’ll be any different from fighting goblins.”

James waited for the bodies of the imps to disappear. When he saw the drops left behind, he smiled. There were 3 tier 1 magic stones. Clear in color, and rather small. All in all, they were practically indistinguishable from the magic crystals of the goblins. However, the energy coming from them was different.

But that wasn’t the reason why James was happy. On the ground was a small blue ball with a single band on it. It looked almost the same as the orb of strength, except for the color.

“I wonder what stat it will give me this time.”

James used his dungeon card to appraise the orb.

[Orb of Agility – Tier 1

Can be consumed to increase agility stat. Maximum 50 for each tier.]

“Agility. Well, that makes sense, given that the imps are small but fast creatures. Although I must say that there really isn’t that big of a difference between the imps and the goblins.”