"Ha…! Huff…!"
The air is so cold, it's freezing. It's making his breath become smoke due to how cold it is while he is running upwards on the spiraling staircase. The first third floors and the fourth floor are slightly far from each other due to how dangerous the fourth floor is compared to the first three. The long staircase was built for the adventurers to think about their choices and whether they wanted to proceed or not. In Nash's case, he doesn't have a choice.
In about 20 minutes, the crimson moon will appear. An event that happens every year, but it randomly appears so it is unpredictable when it will come.
However, if it did happen, every single monster inside of the dungeon would get their levels increased thrice. This means that the difficulty of killing them will be much harder, and it's happening when I have to escape the dungeon? It's as if the world and fate hate me!
Normally, I would be happy if a crimson moon came but the way I spawned makes it difficult to fully enjoy the double exp boost I get from the crimson moon! I'm not even fully prepared! This is bullshit!
<---------------------->
After 19 minutes, he arrived at the 3rd floor of the Infinite Dungeon. Nash places his hand on a stone wall, breathing heavily and trying to catch his breath to move on and escape this floor immediately. The 3rd floor… also known as the beginner's end training. It got its name due to its difficulty for rookie adventurers to slay monsters that are too tough and durable to defeat with just physical attacks, which is why Mages can go through the enemies here easily due to their powerful magic.
𝙎𝙥𝙡𝙞𝙣𝙩𝙚𝙧𝙨…𝙘𝙧𝙚𝙚𝙠…!
"It appears that they have found me first. God damnit…"
A small creature appears and walks forward from the looming darkness that exists on the dungeon floor. It holds a sharp stick and a small tree shield connected to its limb.
A blue holographic interface appears above the creature's head.
[ Treario Lvl.3 ]
[ Details: A tree monster that exists on the third floor. It does not originally belong to this floor, it got lost along with its comrades. Now, they wander the third floor in hopes of connecting and reuniting with their mother tree. ]
[ Weakness: Magic, Fire ]
[ Resistant to: Physical Attacks ]
"One minute left, I have to kill this monster!" A holographic interface appears on his waist, pushing his hands through it before pulling out a bow and 4 arrows.
He drew his bowstring a little farther than usual using his fingertips and released it for the arrow to shoot the target in front of him. The arrow traveled faster, it was moving like a blur. Then, It hits the forehead of the Tree Monster.
𝙏𝙃𝙐𝙉𝙆!
[ Critical! ]
The tree monster didn't even get a chance to react to the incoming projectile, it went straight to the forehead. But, it did not go through. The tree monster is resistant to physical attacks, including arrows. Despite it getting damaged significantly, it is still standing.
"..."
It opened its mouth and moved like a child. It's as if it is screaming but tree-type enemies barely have a voice due to how they are made, so it's just doing nothing but move erratically. Suddenly, it runs to the archer, setting up a horizontal swing using the wooden stick it has in its right hand.
Behind Nash are the stairs, moving backward will only trip him up and roll like a clown. So, in an instant, he dodged to the side and pushed the treario towards the stairs by kicking its tree foot and pushing its body from behind as he dodged on the side.
"It's saddening that I don't have time to loot the body, but safety first!" He salutes.
The Treario rolled on the stairs, it kept rolling down and hitting the walls nonstop. Then, it fell in the middle. It took a few seconds for the tree monster to reach the ground. The moment it touched the ground, it exploded into pieces. The ground is covered in splinters, and the tree monster is killed by fall damage.
"I don't have enough time to reach the stairs for the second floor!"
He ran into the looming darkness, only using the vivid light the cave has due to some of the ores having magical properties, making them glow faintly.
[ The Crimson Moon has risen. The effects of the Crimson Moon will last until the sun comes up, it increases the monster's levels thrice than their level and the loot and exp they dropped has been increased. Goodluck, Adventurers. ]
"Shit!"
It has begun.
Suddenly, a large swing can be heard approaching the archer's back. Nash rolled forward and quickly turned behind with his bow and arrow pointed towards the enemy who attacked him.
A purple interface popped up above the creature's head- No, Heads.
[ Treario Lvl.9 ]
[ Treario Lvl.9 ]
[ Treario Lvl.9 ]
Unlike the one he fought earlier, these tree monsters are under the effects of the Crimson Moon. Vastly increasing their levels thrice than their usual level. Their resistance to physical attacks has also improved, so he cannot do the same thing he did earlier.
The most optional thing to do is to use the Book of Fire, but he doesn't have the required INT for it. He already used his status points so he can't do what he did during his fight with the goblin-mage.
If magical fire isn't an option, that just means that he has to create a real fire! But how? Will he even have enough time to create a real fire? He can't just sit down and start a campfire, that's risky and stupid. So, how? How?
How will I do this? I have wooden clubs, I can turn them into torches by combining them with the dirty loincloth. How will I light it? Is there anything else? Anything I could use around me that can light it?
Nash moves his head and eyes around, looking for anything that he could use to light the makeshift torch that he is about to create. The Trearios ran towards the archer, with the intent to strike him down with a diagonal strike using their sticks.
He slides backward and puts his bow and arrows back in his inventory.
The lad pulled out a club that was in terrible condition and wrapped it with a dirty loincloth, and then… something shiny below attracted his attention.
"Aha…!" He laughs.
He swung his loincloth-wrapped club onto it and it glowed brightly. It was a magical ore. Then, the human grinds the club onto the pieces of the glowing magical ore. It produces heat and starts smoking, he lifts it and blows wind on it multiple times.
The trearios realized what the human was doing and lunged towards him, hoping that they would interrupt and stop what he was doing.
𝙎𝙬𝙞𝙨𝙝…! 𝘽𝙤𝙤𝙢…!
With a single upward swing, the top part of the loincloth-covered club combusts into flames. With this combination and process, he has created a makeshift torch using magical ores to light it.
The trearios stopped lunging the moment the club burned into flames. It had realized what had happened and what exactly was in front of them, their weakness.
"Now this is what you call fair play! Now, attack me you tree-trunk fucks!" He swung the torch into a horizontal arc, keeping the trearios away from him.
[ You have crafted a "Makeshift Torch". ]
[ Durability: 100% (slowly reduces durability by 1 every three seconds.) ]