Zane looked to see what the soldier had dropped and was surprised to find no skill stones. He found a sword, shield, and one of the large coins. He put the large coin and his old shield and sword into his inventory. He picked up the sword and shield off the floor and could feel the magic within them. "Identify sword."
[Strong short sword of piercing: increased durability, piercing +1]
The sword was less likely to break and can go through armor better. Very valuable if the enemies keep having better armor. "Identify shield."
[Sharp strong shield: increase durability, acquires sharp edge when attacking.]
He got why a shield would need better durability, but what did it mean by 'acquires sharp edge when attacking'? He looked at the edge of the shield and it was rounded like any other shield. He took some swings with it, acting like he was attacking something but nothing seemed to change. No matter, it was still a better shield than what he had. He was excited to get new weapons.
Didn't I have something else to identify? Zane thought about for a second realized that he had that ring I got from the treasure chest. I pulled it out of my inventory and held it up in front of me. "Identify ring."
[Ring of strength: increases strength.]
At least there's no wondering what it does. I slipped it onto my finger. It was a simple iron band, but he kind of liked it. "Stats."
[Congratulations! You have level up]
He was amazing. How did he not notice that he had leveled up? No looking at his stats is even better.
Name: Zane Mangold
Age: 21
Race: Human
Class: Unassigned
Level: 5
Exp: 40/1600
Strength: 45(+2)
Dexterity: 88(+2)
Intelligence: 48(+2)
Wisdom: 26(+2)
Constitution: 79(+2)
Health: 955/955
Mana: 505/505
In addition to the two points received from leveling up, the ring increased my strength by two points. That was the equivalent of one level for me. Considering where my strengths set is at, this wasn't that big of a boost. However, if he was a native of this world and didn't have the advantages he does, this would be a huge boost for a low-level adventurer. Now that he had all these items identified, he needed to get moving.
He grabbed my pack and the kitten then headed to the next level, taking a short break at the fountain. He moved into the main area of the level and began to encounter enemies. He had no problems taking them out and the level was progressing much like the last ones.
His third encounter on this level was a non-elite soldier. It was equipped with a buckler and short sword and no helmet. It looked like its armor was the same, a studded leather. While fighting the rat, he deflected the rat's sword with his own sword and punched it with his shield. However, when he started to punch a blue energy field surrounded the edge of the shield and it cut into the rat instead of bashing it. The rat fell down dead, a large gash running through its head.
Zane stared at the shield in awe. Whatever that blue field was, it obviously acted like a blade. It gave him another deadly weapon that most opponents wouldn't know about. It was like having an ace up your sleeve. You're in a card game.
He felt much better about his chances of defeating the bosses as he went lower into the dungeon.
===============================================================================
Zane took deep breaths as he watched the corpses of the two soldiers, the sergeant, and the lieutenant Ratmen that he has killed in front of the door to the boss on the 9th floor. It had been a long while fighting through these last four floors. He wasn't sure how much time had passed, because he had no sense of the passage of time. He had slept twice by the fountains that were at the beginning of each level. The amount of food he had was very little.
The fighting had been increasing in intensity with every floor. Boss of the fifth floor had been a Ratman sergeant. The sixth floor had a Ratman Lieutenant. The seventh floor had a Ratman Captain and the 8th floor had a Ratman Assassin every floor featured more monsters than before and increasingly stronger monsters. He hadn't run into a rat or a mutant rat in three floors. At least the loot has been good.
He now had an enchanted studded leather armor, that gave him a small passive regeneration. He had boots that increased his dexterity. He also had several other magic items that were in his inventory. It seemed like he now had a good amount of money, but he was unsure about that because he didn't know about the economy of this world. Last thing he got was a few skill stones. Every skill except the truck-kun skill had seen an increase. He was about to hit intermediate level with his weapon training.
Skills
Martial arts (basic) 50%, Weapon training (basic) 95%, Parkour (Intermediate) 8%, Cooking (basic) 26%, Monster Identification (basic) 25%, Life sense (basic) 10%, Summon Truck-Kun (Basic, restricted) 1%, Identify Item (basic) 10%.
He'd had to use the parkour more, especially against the bosses. Those elites we're a pain to deal with. The cooking skilled jump was because of a skill stone and much of the increase on the weapon training also came from a skill stone.
His level had also gone up again and he was only about a third of the way through to the next level. That doubling of XP requirement was a killer. At least these monsters gave more XP.
"Well Kitty, do you think we're ready to head into there?"
"Meow."
"What do you mean, no?"
"Meowwww."
"Just because I almost died fighting that Ratman Assassin doesn't mean it will happen here. That thing was almost as fast as I am."
"Meooooww."
"No, we don't know what's behind this door, but I doubt it will be another assassin. I'm sure it will be something that we will be ready to handle."
"Meow."
"Of course, we. You may not be fighting, but you're cheering me on."
"Meeeeoww."
"You really think this would be going faster if you were the one doing the fighting. Well, you're not, so say things like that, they don't do us any good."
Zane had started talking more to the kitten on the sixth floor and now the chatter was regular. The kitty responded to everything he said and he felt that he could sense what it was saying. He was nervous about this next boss fight. That assassin had been fast and Zane did feel that he had killed it with a little bit of luck. Hopefully, this boss won't be a speed type.