After having a discussion with my parents and Grandpa, I packed up a small bag, put on my armor, grabbed my spear, and headed towards the Dungeon. Unsurprisingly, there was something of a line of people all waiting to head inside.

  Not too big, I think about 20 or so people, so it took me a couple of minutes to reach the entrance point, and then once inside I was alone once more. Taking a deep breath, I cleared my mind and began the journey to the 26th battle once more.

  I was stronger than the first, second, or even third time I entered this Dungeon, and it showed appropriately in the results of my battles. Whether it was something like the Sun Boar or perhaps the Spinehound, nothing really stood a real chance.

  It just goes to show how important a single Stat Point is in any one Attribute. Because it’s not like I went from 10 Strength to 100 Strength, but the little that it moved has far more impact than it seems.

  Eventually, I reached Battle 26.

  Of course, I didn’t just come here without a plan. I have more information, and I’m stronger than I was at the time.

  Before I even accepted the prompt for the next battle, I activated Water Cloak and stood positioned for Surging Step.

  Every single battle prior to this, I at least had a few seconds before the beast attacked me.

  This damn wolf didn’t even afford me that the last time I did it, and that’s where my initial problems began.

  It painted the arena in flames and then charged after me with blistering speed and power all in one motion. Of course, it was doing the same type of actions that any other wolf would take when it came to attacking, but the speed and power that it struck with were in a different class.

  Then came the fucking durability.

  Even after purposefully allowing it to strike my body just so I could get close enough for long enough to deliver an attack, no one attack I did was ever truly fatal. It took repeated efforts of constantly allowing attacks on my person to strike at the beast until I won.

  I clawed at it, I bit at it, I screamed at it, I did every single thing I could to defeat it. Yet I still almost perished.

  This time will be different.

  I accepted the prompt and in that same second of me accepting it, I activated two Surging Steps on top of each other and dashed off towards the spot it would appear at.

  “Piercing Tide!”

  Just as I raised my spear, activated Piercing Tide, and brought it down, the massive wolf showed up in all its glory.

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  Woosh!

  Instead of going for a stab to its head like I initially wanted to do, I went with an overhead slash just to make sure that I had a really good chance to hit it even if my memory of the location it appeared at was off.

  Unfortunately, I was indeed off a little bit, and my spear cut into its shoulder a fair margin before it couldn’t go any further. Then it was almost like it took a second for the pain and the situation to catch up to the wolf, and then it let out a gut-wrenching yelp of a cry.

  I had already dislodged my spear and jumped back, and at that very next moment, the giant wolf locked onto me and then opened its giant maw once more. Only this time it wasn’t a cry that came out.

  Flames.

  Bright orange flames spread out of its mouth like a firefighter switching the nozzle to jet and just letting it spray. Flames covered the world without caring for anything, and before long the heat crashed into me with nothing but the goal of consuming me.

  Now Water Cloak wasn’t necessarily a shield against the flames since it technically wasn’t even a shield in the first place, and its role was to soften the blow of any physical attack. But water was still water. It was cool against my skin, and while it couldn’t really stop the flames from burning me, it would do enough for now.

  The rest of the battle wouldn’t take very long. The wound on its shoulder was leaking a disgusting amount of blood, and every step it took only continued to cause more and more blood to pour out of it. Of course, the damn thing wasn’t about to let that stop it, and it was already charging after me.

  Unfortunately for it, it was weakened, and I was still at full power. It was fast, but with that wound, I was faster. It was strong, but… well, I wasn’t stronger, but I was strong enough to deliver more and more fatal damage after just a few more exchanges.

  By the end of it all, the wolf was covered all over its body in massive slash wounds caused by my spear and Piercing Tide. Yet it never once stopped trying with all it had to rip me apart. Even as the life disappeared from behind its eyes, the call to kill never once stopped.

  The prompt to proceed came up after that, but instead of jumping into the next battle I took a few moments to collect myself.

  It was a good fight, and even though I knew more about it than it did about me, I still feel proud of what I was able to accomplish, and I will gladly look forward to the next time I fight it.

  Phew.

  I suppose I didn’t realize just how much the previous battle against it weighed on me.

  We move.

  Battle 27 – Ironshell Tortoise

  Classifying something that naturally had a hard shell as iron told me more than enough information about what I was about to face, and upon seeing the massive thing appear in front of me, I canceled any plans I had to even attempt to use Piercing Tide against that shell.

  It was literally the size of a small car.

  …

  About 30 minutes later, the battle was over…

  Now it wasn’t like I was overwhelmingly stronger than this tortoise thing, but it made one glaring mistake, or maybe not a mistake but more so a flaw.

  Using Surging Step, I managed to get on top of its shell, and it was pretty much cooked after that. The reason why it even took 30 minutes or so was because it started spinning like crazy once I made it on there, and I had to hold on for dear life for a good while, but it eventually stopped, and I simply leaned over and tried to nip its head off.

  It went back into the shell immediately, but all I had to do was drive my spear inside of it a couple of times and, well, there was nowhere else for it to run after that.

  A bit anticlimactic after the battle against the wolf, but I won’t be complaining.

  Battle 28 – Stormfang Panther

  Next was the second panther I’ve run into in this Dungeon, and honestly now I just feel bad that the first one was regarded as a cat, while this one was properly named a panther.

  Where’s the justice.