“One… two… three… four… five?” I was counting using my fingers, making pauses to think before saying the next number. We were walking down the pathway towards the eighth floor of the dungeon and I was using our peaceful walk as a chance to review a few things.


    “What… are you doing?” Tarrion asked, raising an eyebrow.


    “I am trying to figure out how many days we’ve been here already,” I said.


    “Hmph, let me think…” Tarrion said, touching his chin with his right hand and looking slightly up to have a think. “Four. It’s been four days since we’ve entered the dungeon.” He then said.


    “Yes, that’s what I counted as well, but we have left Hirvant a day after I made an agreement with Sanokard, so that makes a total of five days us being away,” I told him.


    “Oh, I see. Yeah, that makes sense,” Tarrion agreed.


    “So, let’s say we need four days to return to Hirvant, so that leaves us…” I started counting how many days we have left to stay in the dungeon. “Five… No, four days to farm as many experience as we can basically.”


    “I say three days will be enough for us to return to Hirvant if we simply go back without wasting much time. It was taking two and a half days for my previous party to return to Hirvant from the seventh floor, without making any unnecessary stops of course,” Tarrion said.


    “Yes, but I want to be safe we will return on time. Besides, I bet all of us we’ll be tired when we return to Hirvant, including Lilfira. She’ll need a proper rest in order to be at her best during the Rites of Strength,” I shared my concerns.


    “Yes, that’s true. Sorry,” Tarrion apologized.


    “It’s ok. I’d be needing your help for us to get out of the dungeon when the time comes,” I said.


    “Sure,” he said, continuing to walk forward without us talking much after that.


    “Just a short while ago I would’ve never imagined of going to the eighth floor of the dungeon, especially with my current level, yet here I am,” Krisel said, walking together with the rest of the women. While Tarrion and I were planning stuff, the ladies were having a conversation of their own as well.


    “You seem to be excited, Miss Krisel,” Sylfrin commented.


    “Oh, that’s just what I show on the outside. If I were to try and describe my current state, I’d say I am frightfully anxious,” Krisel said, showing another smile.


    “I would have to agree with Krisel here. It is the first time for me to go so far into the dungeon myself. I have to admit, I’ve never been further than the fifth floor of the dungeon before. Although, fighting Tarkees wasn’t as difficult as I thought it might be. Fighting Goblies was a different matter, however. If not for Rockin and Tarrion protecting us, I am almost convinced we would’ve never stood a chance,” Virghel shared her thoughts as well.


    “I’m really sorry I couldn’t be of much help when fighting Goblies,” Lilfira joined the conversation, feeling sad.


    “You don’t have to feel bad about it, Lilfira. You can’t blame yourself just because your current level is lower right now,” Ranalaiya said, wanting to cheer her up.


    “Ranalaiya is right. We’re here to help you level up, and once you gain a few more levels, you’ll be strong enough to fight monsters on your own for sure,” Sylfrin added, showing a kind yet mild smile.


    “Besides, I believe it was our teamwork for the most part that helped us kill Goblies so easily,” Ranalaiya added, sounding confident about it too. “If it wasn’t for that, we wouldn’t have done so well in the first place.”


    “That’s true too. Teamwork was what helped us get to this point,” Krisel agreed with Ranalaiya, showing a supportive smile.


    “Thank you, everyone,” Lilfira finally cheered up, a happy smile appearing on her lips.


    Differently from the women, I was rather excited to see how the eighth floor of the dungeon looked. It was supposed to be all rocky hills and mountains without a single tree or even grass growing anywhere. I tried to imagine it in my head while we walked through the connecting passage, thinking Tarrion must’ve exaggerated a little when he was telling me about it. After all, he said he had never been to the eighth floor of the dungeon before, but once we have reached the exit however, with a wide view opening in front of us, I instantly knew that his words were no exaggeration.


    “Woah,” I gasped, looking down at the vast mountainous region.


    The exit led us out on the top of the mountain, literally, and we could see quite far in the distance right after we came outside, and just like Tarrion had said, there was nothing but rocky hills and mountains as far as our eyes could see. Tarrion was right about the greenery as well. There was none. At first, when Tarrion said there were no trees on the eighth floor, I thought there weren’t any large, healthy, green trees, still expecting to see some dried, bare trees here and there, but there weren’t any at all. Neither there were any bushes or grass either. The eighth floor of the dungeon was literally just rocky hills and mountains, and nothing else.


    “Wow,” the ladies gasped the moment they came out into the open as well.


    “Such a… vast area,” Ranalaiya commented, enjoying the view.


    “What a great view,” Krisel said, smiling wide.


    “It looks… beautiful,” Virghel commented.


    “This is… the eighth floor of the dungeon?” Lilfira gasped, looking to be in awe.


    “There’s truly only the mountains in here,” Sylfrin added, though, she didn’t look as surprised or as impressed as the other women were.


    Damn. This floor must be absolutely massive. I didn’t say it out loud, but I was taken aback by how far into the distance the mountains in front of me were reaching. It took us a whole day to get through the seventh floor of the dungeon, even if we were taking the long route, but from the view in front of me it looked like it would take a whole day just to reach the furthest point I could see from where we were and I was convinced it wasn’t the end of the current floor.


    “Ok, let’s go,” Tarrion suddenly said, his words sounding like an order as well.


    “Tarrion is right. We better move,” I added before following him, the women stepping up in order to walk closer to us.


    I knew why Tarrion wanted to move away from the entrance as soon as possible. Obviously, much fewer adventuring parties would go to the lowest floors of the dungeon, so there was a much lower chance to encounter people here. In addition, parties who would go to the eighth floor of the dungeon or even the lower floors would go there to farm experience or do higher level quests, and probably hope to find some treasure too. As such, no murderers or thieves would risk their lives coming here, but our concern was not the regular looters or thieves. As slim of a chance as it was, those red dragonkins who attacked Tarrion’s party in an attempt to kill Lilfira might show up here as well, so we needed to move.


    “Stick near the cover at all times and be on your guard. I don’t know what to expect here, so we need to be careful,” Tarrion said when we were almost at the bottom of the hill.


    The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.


    Since the entrance was on top of the mountain, we had to go down, reaching the foot of the hill in approximately fifteen minutes. The area was uneven to say the least. Lots of rocks and boulders, sizes from several feet to probably over thirty feet and up, giving us plenty of cover, but at the same time, the area was perfect to set up an ambush as well. We were moving slowly, making short stops to listen and check for the Stone Golems that were supposed to inhabit this floor.


    “I can’t see any monsters around us, Master Rockin,” Sylfrin informed after using her Echo Sense skill.


    “Really?” I said, exchanging glances with Tarrion, his face showing we were thinking the same thing. Both of us knew it was too strange to be so quiet. Another weird thing was, we couldn’t see or hear any Stone Golems walking around anywhere. I couldn’t remember seeing any movement when looking down the mountain from the top either. You’d think monsters such as Stone Golems would be easy to spot. Unfortunately, it wasn’t, until we found out why.


    “Huh? Master Rockin, there’s movement behind us,” Ranalaiya suddenly informed us, her cat-like ears straightening up.


    “What? That’s impossible,” I said, feeling suspicious about it. We were so careful walking all this time, there was no chance we would’ve missed anything or anyone as we walked.


    “Ranalaiya is right, Master Rockin. There is a large humanoid looking creature right behind this one big boulder, but…” Sylfrin informed, her eyes shining yellow. She must’ve been surprised herself that she couldn’t see it just a few moments earlier.


    “Never mind. Prepare to fight,” I instructed, rushing back to stand in front of the women. “Hah, come on, show yourself!” I raised my voice, pretending to taunt the monster that was most probably a Stone Golem.


    - ‘Crack, Crumble.’ – The moment I said that, the boulder in front of me suddenly moved, parts of the boulder crumbling down before the said boulder grew arms and a head, making its legs appear underneath it too. A big, bulky, about fifteen feet tall and over five feet wide around its shoulders Stone Golem emerged in front of me suddenly. Within a few more seconds, and after some more rubble fell off its face, two dark, empty eyes appeared on it, the huge stone creature instantly raising its left arm to swing at me.


    “Shit! Shield!” I raised my shields to block its swing, my magic shield holding on and not breaking when the Stone Golem’s swing landed. “Hah.” I smirked, feeling happy the Stone Golem’s punch wasn’t strong enough to break my defensive magic shield. “Huh? Oh right, there’s another one behind it. Tarrion!”


    “Sorry, Furball, but I’m busy right now! Shield Block!” I thought I’ll call for Tarrion to have him tank the second Stone Golem, but apparently the third one rose up on the other side too, making Tarrion unavailable to help me right now.


    “Damn it. Use every skill you have on the one in front of me to kill it as fast as possible! Shield!” I instructed my party members before attacking the golem myself right away. However, the creature didn’t even flinch after my attack hit it. “What the…” I gasped, not expecting for it to be that tough.


    “Claw Swipe! Swift Cut! Shadow Claw!” Ranalaiya unleashed her skills on the Stone Golem. Her attacks landed, yet it didn’t look like much damage was done to it.


    “Quick Strike! Double Slash!” Virghel followed with her attacks too from the other side, her attacks sliding through the rocky Stone Golem body’s surface and rising sparks where the metal hit it.


    “Twinstab! Agh!” Lilfira jumped in next, thrusting her spear at the Stone Golem, but her attack half-bounced back, Lilfira’s arms receiving an aftershock, almost making her drop her weapon as a result of it too.


    “Get back! Shield!” I jumped in to protect Lilfira when the Stone Golem raised its powerful arms to slam her from above. “Oops… Tch…” This time however, the creature managed to break my defensive magic shield, its attack landing on the shields I held above my head. “Smashing down with both arms gives you extra power, eh?” I smirked. The Stone Golem might’ve destroyed my defensive magic shield, but I was still able to block its attack without much trouble. “How are you holding up, Tarrion!?”


    “I’m fine! Just get rid of those two on your side! Humph,” Tarrion responded, standing firm on his feet before blocking Stone Golem’s next attack. He seemed to be doing just fine.


    “That’s right, watch out for the second Stone Golem!” I shouted. With the stone creature in front of me being so huge, I couldn’t see the Stone Golem behind it clearly, but Tarrion’s words reminded me it was there. “Slow the other Stone Golem down while we kill the first one!” I instructed.


    “Go help them,” Tarrion spoke to Krisel who was standing several feet behind him, supporting him with her spells.


    “Yes, ok,” she said before turning around and stepping to the side. Krisel could see the other Stone Golem thanks to her being further away from us. “I’ll help. Spark! Huh? What?” Krisel cast her spell at the second Stone Golem but her Spark spell did nothing to the creature, not slowing it even for one tenth of a second. “Ok then, Hindering Hex!” She then followed up with another of her spells, her Hindering Hex spell slowing the second Stone Golem almost to a standstill. “It will last only ten seconds!”


    “That’s enough! Shield! Humph! Sylfrin!” I shouted after attacking the closest Stone Golem, wanting to hopefully make it angry, so it would keep its attention on me, jumping away from it the next moment to make space between us when it swung back at me.


    “Yes, Master Rockin. Frostbolt! Frotbite! Frost Spear!” Sylfrin instantly unleashed her spells on the creature. Differently from everyone’s else attacks, Sylfrin’s spells were very effective against it, pieces of the Stone Golem crumbling where her spells hit it, also freezing the creature in a spot for a short moment.


    “Ok, let’s finish it! Shield!” I instantly rushed in to beat the stone monster to pieces, Ranalaiya and Virghel jumping in to land extra attacks too.


    “Frostbolt!” Sylfrin cast her spell when it became available again, showing the Stone Golem was about to crumble completely.


    “Hah! Hah! Haah! Shield!” I was smashing it with my shields as hard as I could, the golem finally crumbling to pieces. It was tall, easily twice as tall as a human was, so I was able to reach its stomach at best, but it didn’t matter because doing damage to a monster was still doing damage to it, the Stone Golem finally crumbling and evaporating into a cloud of glowing dust.


    - “Wow, now that was an impressive kill if I ever saw one. You’re doing so well, darling. You have gained sixteen experience points and your party members have gained thirty two.” – Lavita was happy to announce it.


    With one of the three Stone Golems killed, and with me and Tarrion tanking, taking down the other two stone creatures wasn’t too hard in the end. We beat down the second Stone Golem to pulp until it crumbled into rock pieces in no time, Lavita letting us know about the experience gain right away. Once the second Stone Golem was killed, all of us jumped on the last one, with Tarrion adding to our damage with his Bone Crusher skill which turned out to be quite effective too. After all, Tarrion had strength to spare himself too.


    - “Well done, cutie pie. With how you moved just now, I couldn’t take my eyes of off you. Sixteen experience points for you and thirty two for your party members.” – Lavita let us know after we have finished off the last Stone Golem.


    “Phew… That was…” I was about to say something but got interrupted by Lavita again.


    - “You just look at that, maximum experience points reached. Time to get naughty, my love. Come on now, don’t make me wait for too long, because I am getting wet just thinking about you jumping on me. Level up is available. Would you like to level up?” – As surprising, or not so much, as it was, I have received a Level Up offer again. It was bound to happen sooner rather than later, considering how many Goblies we have killed since my last Level Up offer.


    “Right…” I mumbled, making a frown.


    “Mind being quick about it?” Tarrion grunted, his helmet hiding an unwanted blush on his face.


    “Hey, it’s not like I’m doing it together with… Whatever, humph,” I wanted to add an explanation, but I knew it was pointless. Everyone in the party already knew the drill, so I simply left the group in order to decline my Level Up offer.


    - “Nooo… How can you do this to me, babe? I was so looking forward to us having sex of our life. Why do you keep declining my offers?” – Obviously, Lavita became upset the moment I declined it, making my skin crawl by how real and alive she sounded. – “It can’t be helped, I suppose. But I can’t just leave it be and do nothing after becoming so horny. I’ll just need to show you how much I love you in my own way then, so you will accept my offer next time.” – And off she went, Lavita’s words and her ecstatic cries making me so horny, my dick started to hurt due to how hard it had become. I couldn’t do anything about it, of course. Definitely not with everyone watching. I had to bite my lips and bear with it until she was done, Lavita leaving a message behind that my stats had been increased at random, like with all of my previous level up declines.


    “I’m so sorry, Master Rockin. It was my fault for not discovering the monsters,” Sylfrin apologized the moment I rejoined the party. I could tell she was feeling guilty about it.


    “No, no. Don’t blame yourself. None of us were able to discover those Stone Golems,” I told her, trying to reassure her.


    “But wasn’t her ability able to discover Lesser Trents while they were still lying on the ground?” Tarrion asked.


    “Tarrion…” Krisel said, nudging him with her elbow.


    “Ah, sorry,” he added, averting his face away.


    In essence, Tarrion was right. Sylfrin could locate hidden monsters, including Lesser Trents while they were still lying on the ground with her Echo Sense and I was certain Sylfrin wouldn’t lie to us about not seeing Stone Golems until they had moved. We were surprised by what has happened for sure, but I didn’t want to blame Sylfrin for it.


    “Don’t worry about it, Sylfrin. Let’s continue exploring this floor and be extra careful. Make sure you take extra time to check our surroundings going forward, ok?” I spoke to Sylfrin.


    “Yes, Master Rockin,” Sylfrin responded, acknowledging it.