Frostfire Legacy

While Aster was watching the flames, his ears suddenly picked up on a rustling noise from the grass ahead of him.

"Hmmm?"

He quickly reached for his pistol, kept it ready, aimed forward, and waited for whatever was coming their way. His pulse was racing in anticipation of what was about to happen!

*Rustle!* *Jiggle~!*

And to his relief, it was just a few slimies, roughly three of them, hopping over to attack. Aster sighed before returning his gun back to its holster, pulling out his sword, and walking forward.

"There is no need to waste bullets against mere slimes."

With him being level 3 himself, he already was way more powerful than he was at level 1. Furthermore, due to their rushed hunting, he got the hang of Slime's movements, making it easy for him to catch them mid-jump, their most vulnerable moment.

*Stab!* *Slash!*

He weaved between the slimes as they rushed forward, quickly dispatching them with a swing of his sword. Their blue, gelatinous content splattered across the ground, helpless against his casual attack.

"That was easy..." Aster sighed, placing his sword back in its holster.

After that, he returned to his previous spot, ignoring the Slime's loot and keeping vigilance over the surroundings. Every once in a while, slimes would come forth, trying to attack. He wasn't sure why no wolves came during his watch period, but this continued for two hours until Kali and Cassy woke up.

Soon after, the group started eating the remaining soup and steaks from last night for breakfast. Of course, Aster reheated it over the campfire, letting them feast on piping hot food once again.

After a short breakfast, letting them feel full and energized, their party started packing up and preparing to resume their travel. They still have a lot of distance to cover, after all!

Their formation was the same as yesterday's, with Kali and Cassy roaming around, clearing slimes and wolves that tried to approach Aster. Since they were going at it preemptively, they haven't been surrounded and besieged again.

Of course, they didn't go in a straight line, as they tried to avoid going into the forest as much as possible. After all, goblins have bows, making them quite a headache when undetected.

Soon, noontime came, and they decided to take a short rest.

"How much progress have we made by now?" And while resting, Cassy decided to ask, a little curious, about how far they'd gone.

Aster took out a tablet, checked the downloaded map of the first floor, and estimated their location from landmarks they passed by.

"Right now... we're roughly 70% through the first floor. If we could maintain our current pace, we should reach the other end before five."

"Hmm... so five more hours?" Cassy tilted her head in wonder. "After we reach the second floor, we'll exit immediately, right?"

"Well, we can hunt a few Green Slimes on the second floor before returning, to at least recoup a little of our expenses..." Aster shrugged, suggesting.

While the two were discussing, Kali turned to them and scoffed.

"You two, rather than that, you should prepare to fight. After all, accessing the portal to the next level isn't that easy."

"Fight...?" Aster quickly picked up on her words, realizing what was waiting for them. "Could there be a gatekeeper of some sort?!"

In games, it was normal for floor-type dungeons to have floor bosses guarding the stairs to the next level. Or, at least, on every n-floor, a boss would appear to block their way. Aster thought that the floor boss was the Dire Wolf that they had already hunted twice, but it seemed like his guess was wrong!

"Oh, right! I remember reading that in the dungeon manual!" Cassy exclaimed with surprise. "But it didn't say anything about the floor boss's identity..."

"Because it's random." Kali continued. "The floor boos would be any of the floor's monsters' upgraded versions. For the first floor, that would be a Big Blue Slime, a Hobgoblin, or a Dire Wolf."

"..."

Aster, just hearing the names, understood that they were the "easy," "average," and "difficult" level bosses in order. "I pray that we get any of the first two bosses then; the Dire Wolf is just too bothersome."

"Yeah! My attacks don't even work against it!"

"That's because you'd need a strength rating of at least 18 to be able to inflict damage on it." Kali sighed, explaining further. "Though there's a little randomness added to each boss's stats, so we can't say it'll be as tough as usual without trying."

"... It's as if you're sure that we'd be facing the dire wolf." Aster grinned.

"No way. Hahaha!"

"..."

Seeing Kali simply shut her mouth, the two started to harbor doubts in their hearts. What if the boss turned out to be the Dire Wolf? They could only imagine such a scenario.

After resting for a while, they resumed their travels. The same as before, they moved through the open fields, only fighting against slimes and wolves. Although the two have hunted hundreds of them across several hours, they didn't show any signs of leveling up any further. This gave Aster a glimmer of hope to catch up to the two!

Without much trouble, they managed to reach the other end just in time and finally saw the portal leading to the second floor.

"Finally!" Aster exclaimed, looking excited.

Cassy was looking around, her ears flicking randomly. "But where's the boss?"

"*sigh!* Stupid Rabbit, the boss only appears after you approach the gate."

"Ohh! So there's such a feature!"

Kali nodded her head before turning around and giving commands to the other two.

"Right. Aster, prepare to fight. You should put down our packs nearby first to make sure you're able to run around freely. Stupid Rabbit will attack the boss together with me."

"Got it! I'll prepare my gun too, just in case!"

"Roger!"

The three, wanting to go home as fast as possible, started to prepare. Aster followed instructions and put down the two backpacks beside a nearby cleared space. After doing so, he also started preparing his gun while loading the special bullets that he got just in case they encountered the Dire Wolf again.

After he was done, he moved to where the two girls were standing and nodded.

"Let's go!"