When the pain was finally gone, Zane reached behind his back and felt where the wound should be. His finger met smooth skin. He heaved a sigh of relief. That had been one of the most unpleasant things he had ever been through. Unfortunately, he didn't think that was the last time it would happen in this dungeon. The further he went down, the more powerful enemies he would encounter and the more likely that they would be able to injure him in some way.
Despite trying not to, he had become a little complacent. The first three floors had been very easy and no boss had even challenged him until this one did. Even with the fact that he got injured this fight still didn't not pushed him too much. The rogue had taken advantage of a skill, but was not able to wear down his hit points enough. Zane was grateful for the reminder that pain could bring. It was not anything he actually wanted to experience, but it did help when it had to happen.
He took out the two stones that rat had dropped. He really wished that the stones had some kind of identifiers on them, but there was a sense of excitement about not knowing what you would get. He crushed one stoned and waited for the announcement.
[You have received the skill identify item.]
[This skill allows you to identify magical properties on items you encounter. At the lowest levels, it will give you the name of the item and whether it is cursed. As it levels up, you will receive additional information about each item.]
"What a coincidence, this is exactly what I was needing," Zane muttered to himself. He didn't believe it was an accident that this was the next skill he got. He looked down at the other Stone he had gotten from rogue and used the skill.
[Skill improvement Stone]
So, the skill he would improve wasn't specified. At least all the skills he's had were worthwhile. He crushed the stone and took a look at his skills.
Skills
Martial arts (basic) 30%, Weapon training (basic) 42%, Parkour (Intermediate) 2%, Cooking (basic) 1%, Monster Identification (basic) 6%, Life sense (basic) 3%, Summon Truck-Kun (Basic, restricted) 1%, Identify Item (basic) 1%.
It looks like the skill boost went to his martial arts. It also looked like his weapon training, monster identification, and life sense had gained a couple percentage points. He wondered what would happen when he finally increased his weapon training from basic to intermediate. Parkour was at intermediate and didn't look any different from the rest of the skills.
Well, the only way to find out if anything would happen when he leveled it up, was to go level it up. He filled up his water bottle put on his pack. "Well, Kitty, let's get going. Let's see what this next level has for us ."
Zane made his way through the next level fairly quickly. It was larger than the last and he met more enemies, encountering groups of enemies more often. Unlike the last couple floors, this floor did not have multiple encounters with a weaker version of the bossier just fought. The only rogue that he ran into didn't even use a backstab skill and was not nearly as quick. Guess the elite title isn't just for show.
He walked into the boss room, dropping his pack the door. At the other end he saw the boss and he used the monster identify skill on it.
[Ratman Soldier (Elite). 300 HP]
This rat had studded leather armor, an arming sword, and a herald shield. The only thing that was similar to the Ratman he had faced a few floors up was they were both wearing a leather helmet. Zane started walking towards it with his shield and sword in front of him.
The soldier brought up his shield so that it was covering his body and twisted so that his side was facing Zane, minimizing the area that could be struck. It held its sword so that the blade was pointed toward Zane just above the shield. It crouched a little and started forward towards Zane. When they got close to each other, they started to attack each other. Zane deflecting the longer sword with his buckler and the Rat simply adjusting his shield so that Zane's sword wouldn't get through it. This continued for a minute, before Zane stepped away, frustrated. He began to circle his opponent, who took little steps to keep Zane in front of him.
Zane was at a disadvantage in this fight, considering his own buckler was better for deflecting and not just tanking a sword hit. The shield the rat man was using was much better for protecting himself. Zane needed to do something different if he was going to break this thing's defense.
He readied his weapon and stepped forward to engage the rat again. As the rat swung its sword, Zane brought his sword up to block it instead of his buckler. The rat's blade slid against his and Zane took the opportunity to bring his smaller shield around him and crush the hand that was holding the sword.
The Ratman screamed as it dropped its sword and brought its shield around to bash on Zane. He stumbled from the weight and power of the shield bash, but recovered quickly, jumping back into the fray. He slashed his sword across its back as it spent to pick up its sword, but the rat didn't receive any sort of injury. Its armor had absorbed the majority of the blow.
Zane struck again and then was lifting his sword to strike again, when the rat shoved its shield into his chest and pushed as hard as it could, sending Zane stumbling back. Zane rushed forward to try and prevent the thing from retrieving its weapon. As he got close, the shield of the Ratman came up again, ready to push Zane back.
Zane jumped up and then activated his parkour skill, creating small platforms beneath his feet that allowed him to jump over the rat. He twisted as he flew over its head, making sure that he would be facing towards the rat as he landed.
The rat didn't know what was happening and did not turn fast enough. Zane thrust his sword into the back of the monster and then did it a couple more times.
Zane took a deep breath, feeling elated about this last encounter. While he did not think it was an especially difficult fight, the fact that it made him pull out more of his skills was exciting. This was the first time he was able to use the parkour skill in a fight and he looked forward to more opportunities to do so.