“So, these were the Stone Golems?” I spoke to Tarrion before we were to move out.
“Lesser Stone Golems most probably,” he said.
“Right, there’s normal Stone Golems here as well,” I said before adding. “Still, you didn’t have trouble holding out, did you?”
“No, not really, but the normal Stone Golems would be much stronger,” Tarrion shared his concerns.
“Yeah, I guess,” I agreed.
After a short chat, we continued onward. We were at the bottom of the mountain from where we came from and had multiple choices which the direction we could take to go. A vast, rocky valley was looking right in front of us, not offering any particular path that would be better than any other path we would take. After a quick debate, we turned towards the area that was leading to another mountain, mainly because once we reached it, we wouldn’t be seen from the top of the mountain where the entrance to this floor was.
We were walking slowly just like before, with Sylfrin constantly using her Echo Sense skill in order to spot any Lesser Stone Golems that were hiding somewhere. Having Lesser Stone Golems break out of the rock boulders, we were wary of getting too close to the bigger ones and only after Sylfrin confirmed those were just normal rocks, we moved on. However, the same thing happened as before. After a short walk, one of the rock boulders behind us shook and broke, a Lesser Stone Golem appearing out of it, with another one appearing right in front of us as well.
“No. That was just a normal rock boulder, I was certain of it,” Sylfrin exclaimed when the big rock materialized into a living stone creature.
“Maybe it was,” I commented before gripping my shields tighter.
“Huh?” Sylfrin became a little confused.
“Don’t worry about it. Let’s kill them!” I instructed everyone.
“I’ll take the one in front of us,” Tarrion said before going to meet the stone monster.
With only two Lesser Stone Golems around, we have killed them faster than when it was three of them. Lesser Stone Golems were tough and strong, and they didn’t go down easily, but they traded power and toughness for speed, so after beating them up good, both of them crumbled to pieces eventually.
- “Good job, lover boy. I knew you could do it. Sixteen experience points for you and thirty two for your party members.” – Lavita was happy to announce our experience gain.
“Phew, they are tough cookies,” I said, stretching my shoulders in order to relax my muscles.
“They aren’t Stone Golems for nothing,” commented Tarrion. We were tanking the second Lesser Stone Golem together, so he was standing next to me right now.
“Well, what do you think?” I asked him.
“I don’t know. Maybe she can’t see through the disguise because her level is too low?” Tarrion offered an explanation.
“Hey, that… makes sense,” I agreed, touching my chin to think about it.
“I’m sorry, Master Rockin, but I honestly couldn’t see that rock boulder being a living creature,” Sylfrin started apologizing the moment Lavita went quiet.
“It’s ok, Sylfrin. I believe you,” I told her.
“Huh? You… believe me, Master Rockin?” Sylfrin asked, my words surprising her.
“Of course, I do. Why wouldn’t I?” I asked her.
“Thank you, Master Rockin,” she was glad to hear I believed her, but her concern that she couldn’t see the Lesser Stone Golems hiding in form of rock boulders was still there.
“Tarrion made an observation that maybe due to your own level being lower than the Lesser Stone Golem’s level you couldn’t see them as living creatures while they were hiding. We’re on the eighth floor of the dungeon after all and they say only parties of level fifteen and above would risk coming here,” I explained.
“Oh, is that so? Ok, I understand that, but if I can’t see where the monsters are, we won’t know when we will be attacked, Master Rockin,” Sylfrin was still concerned about our safety.
“We’ll just have to figure something out,” I said that, but I was yet to figure the something out part.
“We’ll just need to be careful and take down those Lesser Stone Golems as fast as we can,” Tarrion said.
“Yeah, I guess,” I sort of agreed with him, but at the same time, I didn’t feel like we should just walk into an ambush every single time. Besides, from the two fights we’ve just had, we were able to take down a group of two and a group of three Lesser Stone Golems, however, if we were to encounter four or more of these stone creatures in one go, it might become problematic. I needed some sort of solution for that.
“Huh? You have something on your mind?” Tarrion asked after noticing my thoughtful facial expression.
“Yeah, sort of. I have an idea I’d like to test out. Let’s move out, shall we?” I suggested.
“Sure,” Tarrion said without asking for a clarification.
We walked a short while, until I asked for everyone to stop.
“What is it, Master Rockin?” Ranalaiya asked.
“Wait here a moment, ok?” I instructed before picking up a rock that fit into my palm, walking a few steps forward. “Humph!” Then threw the rock at the stone boulder about fifty feet away from us that was about the size of those Lesser Stone Golems we have fought. The stone bumped at the big boulder before falling on the ground, nothing happening after that.
I guess it’s just a regular stone boulder. I thought to myself when nothing happened.
“I see. You wanted to force them to come out,” Tarrion picked up on what I was trying to do.
“Yeah. I thought it’d be better than being ambushed all the time,” I admitted.
“It doesn’t look like that one was a Stone Golem, though,” Tarrion added.
“Seems that way,” I agreed before picking up another rock and throwing it at another sharp on the edges looking stone boulder. I put in some extra strength into my throw this time too.
- ‘Crack. Crumble.’ -
It almost made me jump when the second rock boulder cracked and moved suddenly, a Lesser Stone Golem emerging out of it.
“Nice going, Furball. I’ll get that one,” Tarrion smirked before rushing the stone creature. “Provoke!” Getting it to focus its attention on him right away.
“Hey, any golems coming at us from behind us?” I shouted to check.
“No, Master Rockin! But I can see two more coming further away in front of us!” Sylfrin informed loud enough for me to hear.
Just as I thought. They come in groups after all. I thought to myself, feeling happy I was right about that part too.
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“Ok, great! Let’s kill this first one quick!” I instructed, my party members unleashing themselves on the Lesser Stone Golem that Tarrion was tanking.
- “That was wonderful, darling. You have gained sixteen experience points and your party members have gained thirty two.” – Was one last message from Lavita after we have killed the third and the last Lesser Stone Golem.
“That made things a little easier,” Tarrion commented after the fight.
“Totally,” I said with a wide grin on my face.
Since my ingenuous idea of throwing rocks to find the hiding Lesser Stone Golems actually worked, we have decided to keep using it. Fighting golems one by one was so much easier, not that it was easier to kill them. For starters, they were really tough and needed us to give them a very good beating. Second, normal weapons were almost ineffective against the Lesser Stone Golems. Ranalaiya’s attacks were stronger and sharper than Virghel’s attacks, but cutting stone was still cutting stone. In addition, Ranalaiya’s Shadow Claw wasn’t inflicting any bleeding and Virghel’s Spider Queen’s Pincer chance on hit effect couldn’t apply any poison on them simply because rocks could neither bleed nor could be poisoned. Same was with Sylfrin’s pet Voras. It was trying to bite and scratch at the stone creature it was attacking during the fitghts, but the damage it was doing was questionable.
Tarrion was mostly tanking, but his strength stat was pretty high and he was using mace as his weapon. Apparently, blunt attacks worked much better on the Lesser Stone Golems than slicing or slashing attacks which wasn’t a very big surprise, really. Krisel’s Spark and Lightning Bolt spells were completely ineffective, however. Rocks were resistant to lighting after all. Lilfira tried attacking during the fights now and then too, but it was obvious her attacks did little to no damage to the Lesser Stone Golems simply because she was too low of a level and her stats were too low despite the fact strength was her dominant stat. Compared to the others, Lilfira had lower quality gear and less bonus stats too, so her total Strength stat wasn’t high enough to do serious damage, but it was a good experience for her.
We had one person in our party who quickly rose up to be our party’s main damage dealer, however. It was Sylfrin. Differently from Krisel’s Lightning Magic spells, Sylfrin’s Frost Magic spells were very effective against the stone creatures. We quickly worked out a rotation to make the best use of Sylfrin’s spells, helping us defeat the Lesser Stone Golems faster. Well, maybe not faster-faster, but after fighting those stone creatures several times, we’ve learned how to kill them in the most effective and efficient way possible. Once we became confident our tactics worked, our hunt for the Lesser Stone Golems had begun for real.
- “What a joy to my eyes and ears, my love. You have reached maximum experience points just now and you are ready for another level up and hopefully not only for a level up, if you know what I mean? You know, I couldn’t have asked for a better timing since I was missing you so much. Come now, let’s enjoy each other to the fullest. Level up is available. Would you like to level up?” – Lavita announced only after a couple of hours of us killing Lesser Stone Golems.
“Say what? You’ve got another Level Up offer again, Furball?” Tarrion asked, looking and sounding surprised.
“Well, with how my leveling works, I need only seven hundred experience points right now to reach my next level up,” I told him.
“Damn,” Tarrion grunted, not that he was angry or anything.
“Might be a good idea to take a break since we’ve been fighting non-stop for a while?” I suggested.
“Sure. Might as well eat something too,” Tarrion agreed.
Obviously, I had to leave the party to decline Lavita’s Level Up offer, but since there were no trees around, I had to stick close to my group. It’s not that there wasn’t anywhere to hide behind, but given we were on the eighth floor, and fighting multiple Lesser Stone Golems solo was a no go for me just yet, I decided not to risk it. I went to sit on some rock about thirty to forty feet away from everyone else before declining Lavita’s Level Up offer, facing away so the others wouldn’t see all of my facial expression I knew I would make while listening to Lavita pleasuring herself.
Before Lavita really got into it, Ranalaiya and Sylfrin surprised me by coming to sit next to me from both sides. At first, I became worried they might try something in the middle of Lavita’s performance, but they simply kept me company. Well, ok, both of them were leaning close to me while hugging both of my arms from both sides. That got my fantasies going and I was starting feeling hot for real, also becoming worried this might not end well. Noticing me starting to become anxious, Sylfrin simply said: ‘We’re here to help you relax, Master Rockin. We’re both your women and you can rely on us too.’ Her words put me at ease in an instant.
Ranalaiya and Sylfrin giving me kisses after Lavita was done was an added bonus too. Of course, that made a few other women jealous as a result of it. Big surprise. I’d give good morning and good night kisses to Lilfira too now, so letting her kiss me after I returned wasn’t an issue, but I knew Virghel liked me too. However, we weren’t exactly close with Virghel yet, so us kissing each other right now would’ve felt awkward.
“Mind if I ask how many Level Up offers you have received since we’ve entered the dungeon?” Tarrion asked after I sat down to have a drink.
It was only the two of us right now. A few of the ladies needed to do what we all need to do on a regular basis, so we had all of them go together to do that for safety reasons. It wasn’t a topic you’d talk about, but the dungeon was very kind to us in regards to us leaving our ‘gifts’ for it. The dungeon was consuming our excrements within minutes, leaving no traces, nor any smell behind. Maybe it was preserving its authority over us this way, not allowing us to mark ‘our’ territory within its domain. I wasn’t exactly comparing humans to dogs here, but that’s the most reasonable explanation I could come up with while I was still living at that Secret Area inside the dungeon. It also made my living much, much cleaner too.
“Oh, ahm… damn, I don’t know. I’d need to think about it,” I said, tilting my head up. “Three… maybe four?”
“Really? I thought it was more than four,” he said.
“Maybe. I wasn’t exactly counting. It’s our fourth day inside the dungeon now,” I said.
“Mind if I see your stats?” Tarrion asked.
“Yeah, sure,” I agreed.
***
Rockin Starling. Level 7.
Class: Shielder.
Character Stats:
Stamina – 54+23
Strength – 67+14
Agility – 27+6
Spell Power – 8
Magic Energy – 15
Growth – 6
***
The bonus stats from my equipment were lower right now because I had my shields unequipped, but I knew Tarrion was more interested in my base stats.
“Your Stamina was increased by four and your Strength by six since the last time you showed me your stats,” Tarrion commented the moment he saw my stats.
“Yeah, maybe,” I said, feeling half-perplexed. I didn’t expect him to remember how my stats looked since I showed them to him right before we had entered the dungeon. Of course, he only mentioned my Stamina and Strength stats, but I was certain my Agility was increased with one of my level up declines as well. My Spell Power and Magic Energy could’ve been increased as well, not that I could remember it now.
“You were so damn lucky to acquire your Overgrowth skill, Furball,” Tarrion commented, not hiding he was envious of it.
“Lucky, you say? Hah, it was more because of my stupidity, really,” I said, scoffing at myself.
“Stupidity? Humph, I’d trade that for all of my levels if I could in a blink of an eye,” Tarrion said.
“No, you wouldn’t. It almost got me killed more than a few times back then,” I told him, making a frown when I remembered the time I was living at that Secret Area on the third floor of the dungeon.
“But you survived,” he said.
“Yeah… I guess I was somewhat lucky in that regard after all,” I had to agree on that part with him.
“Mind… mind if I ask what you did to acquire your Overgrowth skill?” Tarrion asked, hesitation and extreme curiosity being heard in his voice.
“What I did?” I basically asked a question addressing myself. I never thought about it, but it could’ve been that Tarrion was curious to know for a long time now. “Like I said, because of my stupidity.”
“Ghm… Humph, fine,” Tarrion grunted, averting his face before furrowing his eyebrows and making a frown.
“It’s the truth. I was declining my Level Up offers while I was at level one,” I told him.
“Eh? You were declining your level ups while being level one?” Tarrion looked at me again. “Ok, that makes sense. How many Level Up offers you had to decline in order to receive your Unique Skill?”
“I don’t know and I never thought about it that way. I was just… declining my level ups on purpose, that’s all,” I said.
“On purpose?” He looked at me strangely. He didn’t ask the question he wanted to ask, but I knew what he was thinking.
“Because I was stupid. I lived in that Secret Area on the third floor of the dungeon for over a year probably. I don’t know how I got there, but I was trapped and my whole world was thrown upside down. I was angry, mad, bitter, furious, you name it. I was pretty ignorant and dumb back then about this worl… this whole level up thing and… because of the things that had happened in my life in my past, I simply refused to accept my Level Up offers. I had never expected to acquire the Overgrowth Skill because of it, though,” I told him a little bit about what had happened, almost tripping and revealing I come from a different world entirely.
“But you did,” Tarrion said after a short pause after I finished talking.
“Well… yeah and… I’m actually glad that I did,” I said, scratching my left cheek with a finger.
“Humph,” Tarrion rolled his eyes in response. After that, we didn’t talk much, but waited for the ladies to return.
“Hi, we’re back,” Krisel said before adding. “I’m sorry for us taking so long, but Sylfrin has found something that might be of interest to you, Rockin.”
“Really? What did you find, Sylfrin?” I became instantly curious.
“We’d have to go back over there for me to show you, Master Rockin,” Sylfrin told me.
“Oh, ok. What is it?” I agreed, but then still asked because of how curious I felt.
“It’s a plant,” Sylfrin said.
“A plant? Wait,” I tilted my head to the side before turning to look at Tarrion.
“Hey, it’s my first time here, remember? And I have told you what people who usually come here have told me,” Tarrion said in his defense.
“Hey, I didn’t say anything,” I showed a silly smile in my own defense before turning to the rest of our group. “I guess we can move out now anyway. Please show us to where you have seen that plant, Sylfrin.”
“Yes, Master Rockin,” Sylfrin said.
All of us equipped our weapons, and shields, and then we moved out.