Ashes of the Fallen

"What nonsense, I'm just a step ahead of ye all!" he bellowed as he confidently started to walk down the next passageway. The rest of us let out a laugh and followed suit. Heading down the narrow tunnel that led to the fifth floor… a floor that was in even worse condition than the fourth.

That was to be expected, though.

The air quality was horrendous and my eyes had instantly started to water as I could barely see what was ahead of me in the dark tunnel. A few steps further and I knocked my head on a low-hanging rock that instantly sent a sharp pain through my skull and deep into my neck.

I cursed under my breath and became pissed as I anticipated the oncoming massive headache and all of the other issues I was used to experiencing. Impaired vision, the ringing in my ears, clouded judgment, those were all things that had manifested and lingered after my previous head injuries… and now, I was so susceptible that the smallest impacts sent my mind a flutter.

But, nothing happened; the pain simply washed away.

"Ah… that's right," I whispered to myself.

We were in a game, my mind was fine.

I was still moody, angry that I had accidently hit something once again. I didn't consider myself a clumsy person, but when a little bump happened, it always seemed to end with the worst possible outcome. I faltered in that other boss fight and ended up stabbed and in ghost-form shortly after, from such an infinitesimal lapse in judgment.

Oh well, it is what it is.

It didn't take long for us to reach the first group of trash mobs on the fifth floor, but when we did… well, we were all a bit surprised. They were a step above the rest, and to call them trash was incorrect in every sense.

Yeah, even I didn't expect this kind of change.

"Can you believe it?" Alan asked while scratching his head.

"Nothin' surprises me anymore," said Barik while shrugging his shoulders.

"Well, we'll get plenty of practice in," I said casually as I looked over the situation. In front of us were a level forty-four [Outcast Goblin Guard], a forty-four [Goblin Priest], two level forty-five [Goblins] and lastly a level forty-five [Goblin Archer]. That lineup was essentially on par with the third floor's boss, if not slightly better.

There were also seven such groups on the way to the fifth and final boss now, which wasn't going to be a cake walk. Sure, it wouldn't be too bad, but we would have to take a break after every sub-boss fight… in the end, I was expecting it to waste a lot of our time.

And my expectations came true.

After nearly an hour of clearing through the seven groups we had finally made it to the fifth floor's final boss, the final boss of the dungeon. The fights were a lot harder than those on the fourth floor, and only a step below the previous boss fight. Barik broke three shields on the way, but was able to replace them every time with another [Cracked Aspis] off each [Guard].

We had actually amassed a rather sizeable collection of fourteen sixty-copper swords and seven spears from the trash on the fifth floor alone, plus the seven shields that were used to replace Barik's shattered ones.

It was quite the haul really.

The only thing I found disappointing was the bow that the [Goblin Archer] dropped.

It was a fairly basic bow, a [Crude Practice Reflex Bow] which was a poor quality, common grade item and was maybe worth fifty copper at the trade post. The only benefit to a Reflex bow was its shorter length compared to the Recurve bow I was using, which made it easier to use in the tight confines of the mining complex.

My [Old Hunter's Recurve Bow] was a decent quality, common grade item that was fairly good for the level and didn't cost me that much in trade. It had good range, was accurate enough, and if it did break, I wouldn't mind.

The cost to acquire it wasn't that bad really.

In the end though, there were hardly any items worth picking up as an upgrade and everything was considered vendorable. Ah, but we couldn't really complain, we were making a couple hundred copper each easily from the fifth floor alone. If anything, despite the harshness of the fights, the increase in experience and monetary value of the loot was certainly worth it.

Yeah, I had no complaints there.

Now, all that was left was the final boss.

"I'm thinkin', we've got no shot," said Barik to break the silence.

"Yeaaaaah, that looks impossible," followed up Ethan.

Alan and the frost mage just stood there silently, waiting for the rest of us to make our decision. I was in agreeance with them, as the goblins that were gathered in a line were beyond the normal scope of the dungeon. To say it deviated greatly wasn't an exaggeration… in fact, I'm not even sure why it changed so much.