Some looked more like humans or elves in their stature, others a bit more bulky and muscular like orcs. And there was a single one that was far taller than the rest, a cyclops. Though cyclopes were a species that was in the vast minority here in this country, making up only about a percent of all people in all of Riveria, they made up a significant portion of workers during the era of industrialization, and, to this day, could be seen in construction and these sorts of factories. However, right now, seeing a four-meter cyclops made of stone was quite terrifying, and the fact that these “worker” monsters were replications of the people that used to work in this factory quickly became quite annoying. Ryan frowned lightly as he stared at the crucible. It was nearly filled to the top.

  Since this is a fairly new dungeon, there wasn’t too much information about this place yet beyond some basic maps that were created using special tools, as well as the general appearance of the monsters. So far, three monsters had been found.

  The first, most common, and weakest; the worker. The ones that were currently swarming the dungeon. The second had been dubbed the foreman, which seemed quite similar in general, but the gaps in between bricks were filled completely with copper, and there were certain areas completely covered in copper as well. The last kind, the manager, was even more enhanced, but Ryan did hope that he didn’t have to encounter one of those today. However, as he looked around, Ryan thought this was too good of an opportunity to simply pass up.

  He looked at one of the sheaths attached to his pants, detaching the scissors from it. Silvia had sharpened these a ton apparently, creating a second edge on each of the scissor blades, meaning that Ryan had to be really careful with this. But this seemed like the best tool for the job.

  “Ready to nip some buds?” Ryan whispered, and Maximus immediately nodded his head. He held the hammer back toward Ryan and then swapped it for the scissors. Maximus opened them wide, and when they were opened to their limit, the piece that was keeping them together in the middle released with a click, and the knight was now holding dual blades.

  Ryan carefully picked up Maximus and continued moving forward in a crouch. Soon, they got close to one of the workers that was up here on the catwalk with them. It was walking toward one of the sets of stairs, but looking around, this seemed like probably the best time to attack. Ryan looked for the flower bud, but it wasn’t by the ear this time. Instead, it was on the left of where a belly button would be. Right now, the two were hidden behind on of the old, half-rotten crates, and the monster would be walking right past them.

  It was about five steps away when Ryan got ready. Maximus carefully held the scissor blades while hanging on to Ryan’s hands; Ryan was holding the knight in front of his chin, getting ready to toss him forward.

  Once it was three steps away, Ryan could feel his heart pound in his chest, almost drowning out the sound of the monster’s footsteps on the metal surface. Maximus activated his Knight’s Attack skill.

  When it was just a single step away, Ryan slightly pulled Maximus back the moment that the monster stepped into sight, and Maximus’s blades were fully enveloped in that soft red light.

  Maximus was thrown forward, passing right in front of the worker’s belly. With a skillful, quick motion, the soft pink flower bud was cut apart. The monster seemed to react for just a moment, but immediately fell forward onto its knees as the roots holding its body together were rotting away.

  The sound was quite loud from where Ryan was standing, since it was right in front of him, but considering the general volume in the room, it didn’t seem like any of the other workers heard it. Or if they did, they didn’t seem to care to investigate, simply continuing on with their work without batting an eye. Though, they didn’t have eyes to begin with.

  Ryan grinned lightly as he dismissed the kill message in front of him, as Maximus carefully landed on the branching catwalk that Ryan had been facing. This seemed like a fairly simple tactic of fighting these things, at least as long as Ryan knew where the bud was and the monster didn’t see them beforehand. So while it did require a few things to fall into place, it still seemed effective. Just knowing for sure that the flower bud was the weakness of all these guys was already good enough for Ryan to figure something out for the others. Having such a basic, fragile, and clearly exposed weakness would definitely make this a lot easier.

  Ryan could once more feel that wave of experience come over him, and carefully started putting the monster’s bricks to the side. Once again, only seeds were dropped. Ryan carefully picked up as many of them as he could and placed them into his pouch.

  Though, as he did, a red window popped up in front of him. From the color, he could tell that it was a notification relating to Maximus.

  [The -Knight’s Attack- Skill has leveled up]

  Already? So it’s level 4 now, Ryan thought. It was the highest skill either he or Maximus had so far. The Spirit Link and Spirit Construction skills were the next in line, each being at level 3. Though, as Ryan looked at the skill’s effect, he couldn’t help but be impressed with that level of growth.

  [Knight’s Attack]

  [Level - 4] [Proficiency – 2%]

  [An offensive aura envelops your weapon.]

  [Effect – +17.5% Damage for 1 Minute]

  [Cost – 13 AP] [Cooldown – 2 Minutes]

  At level 1, the skill only gave a 10 percent damage boost. If it kept growing like this, this would clearly be a ridiculous skill, though with the AP cost rising alongside the damage, it would also get quite expensive over time. Luckily, it was apparently possible to use a skill at a lower level than what one actually reached, though it would yield much less proficiency. It was something that usually only the cream of the crop were able to do, but seeing how Maximus moved, Ryan was confident that he would be able to do it at some point.

  Whichever the case, Ryan looked around at the other parts of the catwalk. There were more monsters here. Maybe if they took all these down, it would be enough to earn either Maximus or himself a level-up.

  Chapter Ten

  Level Up

  Ryan sneaked around the wooden crate, getting dangerously close to that humanoid figure made of brick, held together by a flower’s roots. And then, he finally found the bud of that flower; it was hidden at its side, covered by its arm most of the time. This was going to be a bit rougher to deal with, but he and Maximus really did have to take this one down. It stood in the way of where they needed to go; a door leading to another room via these catwalks.

  However, Ryan had an idea. He locked eyes with Maximus and carefully placed the knight down onto the front of his left boot, where Maximus held on to the laces. Slowly, Ryan moved forward toward the back of the monster, tightening his grip on his pickaxe. He had practiced with this plenty yesterday, so he had a pretty good feeling of the range of this thing. But it was also going to be his first time actually swinging it at one of the monsters in this dungeon.

  Ryan suppressed his breath, trying to be as quiet as he could be, as he stood up and straightened his back. He pulled the pickaxe back and, with a swift motion, swung it right at the monster’s underarm. The pickaxe was lodged between the bricks as fragments were flung around. Keeping the pickaxe pushed in so it wouldn’t dislodge, Ryan leaned his whole upper body backward while shifting his weight onto his right leg, pushing his other foot into the monster’s hip, or where its hip would be, as though he was trying to tear its arm off. With this, before the monster was even able to properly react, Maximus was delivered right to the flower bud and was able to quickly cut through it. Immediately, Ryan could feel the resistance of the bricks disappear, and quickly twisted his body around so that he wouldn’t be thrown backward.

  The monster fell apart into a pile of bricks as the roots that supported its body disappeared, and Maximus glanced up at Ryan, who wasn’t able to hide the broad grin on his face. Doing things like this, fighting freely without restraint, was just exciting beyond belief. It made Ryan feel a bit of regret at not having gotten a physical class that would allow him to train his combat abilities much more easily, but at the same time, fighting alongside Maximus was a unique experience as well. Not to mention, he had grown quite attached to Maximus, so he wouldn’t trade this class for anything. Not even that massive, life-changing amount of money that Bluesky was offering to buy his class.

  Ryan squatted down in front of the pile of bricks, pushing it all to the side to look for the seeds, when two windows appeared in front of Ryan. One was white and mostly transparent, like the ones that always popped up in front of Ryan when he was checking his own skills. And one was a deep red, belonging to Maximus.

  [Maximus has leveled up!]

  [You have leveled up!]

  Ryan’s heart pounded in his chest. If he didn’t know any better, he would swear that others would be able to see his chest rapidly pop up and down, and a broad grin appeared on his face.

  Immediately, Ryan pulled up his and Maximus’s status windows.

  [Ryan Aglecard] [Age - 19]

  [Spirit Keeper | Level - 2 (+1)]

  [MP - 21 (+3)]

  [Stats]

  -[Dexterity - 1.17 (+0.05)]

  -[Intuition - 1.1 (+0.09)]

  -[Mana - 0.62 (+0.06)]

  -[Sociability - 1.06 (+0.08)]

  -[Spirituality - 0.55 (+0.08)]

  [Skills]

  -[Spirit Construction | Level - 3]

  -[Spirit Domain | Level - 1]

  -[Spirit Link | Level - 3]

  [Maximus]

  [Knight | Level - 2 (+1)]

  [AP - 23 (+5)]

  [Stats]

  -[Aura - 0.66 (+0.1)]

  -[Strength - 0.87 (+0.08)]

  -[Stamina - 0.77 (+0.06)]

  -[Resistance - 0.92 (+0.06)]

  -[Physicality - 0.9 (+0.09)]

  [Skills]

  -[Knight’s Attack | Level - 4]

  -[Knight’s Guard | Level - 2]

  -[Knight’s Martial Knowledge | Level - 2]

  Ryan looked at the increases within the knight’s as well as his own statuses, and was more than just happy with it. Both his and Maximus’s five base stats increased by more than 0.3 total each, which was actually slightly above the average. Especially Maximus—his stats increased by nearly 0.4.

  While Ryan couldn’t feel a massive difference just yet, there was definitely something tangibly different than it had been just a minute ago. Whether it was his senses or that subtle heat flowing through his body; it all just became clearer. Though, the kinds of stats that Ryan had were a bit harder to really notice in the first place. He should really start working out with Yanna so that he could unlock some physical stats beyond dexterity. Those wouldn’t automatically increase by leveling up, but training was usually considered a more effective method of increasing your stats anyway.

  That was, if you weren’t Maximus. He was training like a madman whenever he was in the domain, but his stats never increased. Which, to an extent, made sense. His body was something that was “built” by Ryan, after all. It most likely wouldn’t be able to increase in strength that easily. Though, Maximus didn’t seem to care that his stats didn’t increase through training, at least when Ryan asked him about it. Maybe that training was just some kind of habit that had formed, like something to let off steam.

  For a short moment, Ryan looked over at Maximus, who was seemingly hoping to quickly move on. He was right; Ryan could geek out over all of this later when there wasn’t a constant threat of being attacked. After getting rid of the system windows, Ryan quickly picked up the seeds that the monster dropped and then grabbed Maximus. The two quickly hurried over to the doorway that this worker had blocked. When they peeked through, it seemed to be completely empty. It seemed like some kind of break room, with old tables set up in rows for the factory workers to eat their lunch at.

  Since this place was empty right now, Ryan took the opportunity to check his phone. There was a specific place that he was looking for: the office.

  When you looked at the factory’s original blueprint and compared it to the map of the dungeon, the only room that seemingly wasn’t copied over was the elevated office space overseeing the main foundry hall. Of course, a dungeon’s layout usually didn’t adhere to what it was before. For example, this break room was originally near the entrance and on the ground floor, not here on this elevated level you could only access through the catwalks. However, it was unusual for a space to be completely missing from the dungeon.

  That was, unless it was done deliberately. Maybe the dungeon was initially born within the office space, so it was treating that area as a bit more “special,” turning it into either a unique or a much rarer occurrence. That was Ryan’s current theory, at least. And if that was the case, whatever it was that pulled Maximus to this dungeon would probably be in there. He didn’t even bat an eye at anything else in the dungeon so far, after all.

  He looked at the map provided on the Awakened Forum’s page for this dungeon, trying to figure it out somehow. But if the dungeon could purposefully hide away the offices, then it probably had a fairly high connectivity to the space itself, so there should be some kind of pattern there. Because the monsters were acting in very specific ways, Ryan guessed that this dungeon might already be a lot more intelligent than you would think.

  And then, Ryan noticed it. At the edge of the currently explored dungeon was an empty space on the map. It wasn’t particularly large; actually, it was quite small, so it was easy for him to overlook it until now. Adjacent to that empty space were hallways as well as one of these production halls that Ryan was in just now. Initially he thought that it would just be a space that the dungeon hadn’t taken into account, but looking at the rest of the map, it was all fitting together like a perfect puzzle. Having that kind of space just left open like that without any kind of entrance was far too suspicious. However, it was pretty deep into the dungeon, so Ryan would have to be careful on his way there.

  Just as he was thinking that, Ryan heard heavy footsteps outside in the large hall. He peeked up and looked out of the door leading back. There wasn’t a monster there, so he carefully stepped out, and saw that something was going on at the crucible. It was overflowing now, with splatters of molten copper hitting the ground. But right in front of it, where the molds would usually be placed, stood one of the workers. The cyclops-shaped monster was holding on to the edge of the crucible, and carefully tipped it over. A flood of red-hot liquid metal flowed over the worker. That whole massive crucible was emptied on top of it, but there was barely a puddle forming at its feet, as though its body was soaking up all the metal like a sponge.

  It didn’t take long for the metal to seemingly cool down; it happened much faster than normal, but this wasn’t quite the usual process anyway, so Ryan dismissed the dungeon’s logic. All that copper was created by the dungeon in the first place, so it could do whatever it wanted with it. Either way, once the metal had cooled down, Ryan saw the second type of monster for the first time.

  The newly created foreman took a step forward. The flower bud that had been growing on its chest had now bloomed into a metallic copper flower, and the gaps between the bricks were completely filled in with metal as well. Nonetheless, it seemed to be moving perfectly fine.

  Without hesitation, the foreman walked over to a nearby pile of copper ore that hadn’t been thrown into the crucible yet, picking up a piece of the oxidized, green ore before holding it up to the flower on its chest. Like a ball of hair sucked in by a vacuum, the copper was quickly devoured. The foreman did so with all of the remaining copper that was laying there, and when it was finally done, a small area of copper had formed around its chest, now covering the bricks, as metallic tendrils started to spread over its body starting at the flower’s base.

  So that’s how they transform … Ryan thought to himself. If he could report that later on, he might actually be able to get a bit of money from the DMB. Unless someone else already reported this, of course.

  Ryan carefully stepped back into the break room. Now that a foreman was in this hall together with all the workers, Ryan really didn’t want to take any risks. There was another exit on the other side of the break room.

  Ryan rushed through the space, carefully peering through the doorway. It was another catwalk in some kind of storage room. Looking around, there weren’t that many workers in here, and only one or two on the catwalk network up here. Down below was a massive pile of raw copper ore, which different workers were shoveling into the minecarts so that another worker could start bringing it away. Though, the rails were leading away from the room that Ryan was just in. If the dungeon wanted to create more foremen, then it would’ve been a lot easier to just connect this storage room to the adjacent room with the crucible.

  Maybe there’s something about the ritual of bringing the ore through the rest of the building, Ryan thought to himself. Most dungeons worked in that kind of way, following arbitrary rules that it imposed on itself. Whichever the case, Ryan didn’t really have the time to think about that right now. He slowly continued on, trying to get an overview of the space and the monsters within it. Before long, he figured out a good moment to try and get out, and quietly rushed down the catwalk’s stairs. He turned around the corner into the hallway, trying to remember the map in his mind.

  One right, two lefts, straight, and then right and left again … he repeated in his mind over and over again. Luckily, by now the Spirit Link skill had cooled down, so he was able to use it again and send Maximus ahead for scouting. Even when he was sprinting, Maximus didn’t make any noise due to his low weight, so the knight was running a bit of a distance ahead of Ryan, checking out the hallways and spaces that they had to go through to get to their destination.