Born in apocalypse

[You have killed the unique monster: Goblin Shaman Boss.]

[You have earned 5000 CC.]

[You have earned experience.]

[You have leveled up.]

[You have leveled up.]

As Dhruv saw the last sentence of the notification, a frown appeared on his face. ’What, only two levels? That’s cheating.’

Dhruv felt cheated, but when he thought about it, he knew that it was the right amount. He had recently leveled up, and now he had almost reached the experience required for the next level as well, so in a way, he had earned experience for three levels from a single monster.

Three levels worth of exp from a monster he was able to finish with a single spell, wasn’t a bad trade after all.

’Talking about spells, what type of weird magic was the shaman using? It could send monsters into madness, and then there was that voodoo doll bullshit,’ Dhruv thought as shivers ran down his spine.

He was so afraid of dolls because of a particular movie he had seen long ago. That movie had given him nightmares for several days and now he knows that he was still afraid of any weird creepy dolls.

Sigh!

While Dhruv was in the middle of his thoughts, the dungeon core had already formed on top of the shaman’s chest. Dhruv bent down, picked up the rock, and looked at it with curious eyes.

’It looked almost the same as the core from the first floor,’ Dhruv thought as he looked at the core in front of him.

The only difference Dhruv found in the core was that the mana, or whatever the energy that was inside the core, was almost—no, actually, twice the amount compared to the first-floor dungeon core. 𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖

Dhruv was about to bring out his ring to learn the description of the object but stopped when he remembered that, this time he was the one who had killed the boss, which, in turn, made him the owner of the core.

From how things happened till now, Dhruv knows that the owner of the item could see its description without the need for any item like the [Inspect-or glass], no matter the rank of the item.

Dhruv thought to make the description of the item appear in front of him. In just a single second, a screen appeared beside the core. All the information about the core was mentioned on that screen.

...

[Name: Goblin Forest Core (Second Floor)]

[Rank: Unknown]

[Tier: Unknown]

[Description: The Goblin Forest Core (Second Floor) is an item that will be formed after killing the unique boss [Goblin Shaman Boss]. This Core has been formed from the boss monster of the goblin boss, which resides in the north part of the second floor. Collect two of these cores, and you can advance to the final floor.]

[Enchantment: Forest Portal]

[Forest Portal: Place this core in the box beside the portal of the second floor. When all the cores are placed in the right location, the portal will be available for travel to the final floor of the Goblin Forest Dungeon. Good Luck.]

...

After reading the dungeon core, Dhruv instantly realized that the description of this core and the core from the first floor are very similar. Despite the similarities, he found many things worth pondering over.

’So there are only two villages on this floor. Well, that explains twice the amount of energy in this core. This one is in the north, does that mean the other one is in the south? Well, that could be the case,’ Dhruv thought as he reached the last part of the core’s description.

’So, the third floor is also the final one. Well, that was within the expected range. If we follow how it was till now then the monsters on the third floor or the final floor, would be at Tier 3 and the boss of the village would be at Tier 4.’ After thinking about this for a while a smile appeared on his face.

’Ummm! I can deal with that,’ Dhruv began to imagine what type of goblin he would be facing on the final floor.

Will it be a mage type? Will it be a very strong warrior? Will it be a stronger version of the Shaman, or will it be a totally different caste?... Dhruv thought about these for a minute or two, but he couldn’t come to a reasonable conclusion. He was still trying to figure out the caste of the boss when he realized something,

’Why am I thinking of fighting the boss when I still haven’t found where the portal for the third floor is located?’ The smile on his face didn’t remain long as this question popped up in his mind.

’Should we attack the second village or should we search for the portal? Well, I can task Alaric to search for the portal while Vexar and I deal with the second floor...’ While he was still in the middle of his thoughts, a shadowy being appeared in front of him.

"I killed everyone I could find from the back of the village. I think Vexar has done the same, but we couldn’t find the boss of this village," Alaric quickly began to report everything he had encountered.

"Okay, don’t worry about the boss; I’ve killed him already," Dhruv said as he showed the dungeon core to Alaric.

"As expected of you, my Lord. Very efficient. Should we wait for Vexar, or do you have anything else to do in the village?" Alaric asked.

’’Uhmmm! There aren’t many things we can do in this village except to loot all of their weapons and collect the corpses to throw them in the slime farm." Dhruv paused for a moment before continuing,

"Ahhh! They are monsters at Tier 2, so they should have a strong enough core in their bodies. We shouldn’t waste them in the slime farm and extract these for us,’ Dhruv suggested.

The reason he didn’t take the cores of the Tier 1 goblins was because everyone on the island is at least Tier 2, and the ones who are Asteris are at Tier 3 making Tier 1 cores very inefficient for absorbing. Thus, Dhruv decided to give the cores to the slime monsters so they could strengthen themselves a bit, increasing the rate of production.

"That is a good plan. I should collect all the monsters while we wait for Vexar, then," Alaric said and began to move toward the pile of monsters Dhruv had just killed. Alaric had already collected all the monsters’ corpses he had killed.

After a while, Dhruv could see a demon with red flaming hair walking in his direction. He was covered in blood from head to toe. When the demon reached the place Dhruv was standing, he swiftly bowed.

Dhruv nodded and said, "How was the fight, Vexar?"

"It was good, but they were very weak. I could kill them with just a single attack from my sword; there is no fun in that. I want to fight something stronger, someone who can withstand more than a few attacks of mine," Vexar said with a disappointed look on his face.

Dhruv couldn’t help but notice that Vexar’s expression truly conveyed his disappointment.

"Well, we should be going to the third floor soon, and there you can find someone who can withstand your attack... maybe," Dhruv couldn’t help but add the word "maybe" at the end of the sentence, as he knew that not many Tier 3 monsters could fight the demon in front of him.

"Thank you, Master," Vexar expressed his gratitude then turned to look at Alaric. He quickly went towards him and began to help him load the corpses in his shadowy realm faster.

When everything was done in the village, Alaric approached Dhruv and said, "Everything here is done, but there should be more corpses at the place where Vexar had fought. I think both of you should go to the next village, and I will come after cleaning everything."

After pondering over Alaric’s suggestion for a second, Dhruv replied, "Hmmmm! That’s a good idea. In that case, after cleaning up the village, you can go and look for any caves or any other portals besides the one from which we have come here, so we can enter the final floor anytime."

"Final floor?" Alaric asked with a surprised expression.

"Yes, I’ve come to know that the third floor is also the final floor of this dungeon," Dhruv explained how he got this information from the core’s description.

"Then I shall proceed as you said, Master," Alaric said as he dived into Dhruv’s shadow.

Dhruv knew that he wasn’t going to appear from here anytime soon so, he looked at Vexar and told him to follow him. By following the map Dhruv quickly reached the main portal and then began to move toward the south of this floor.

On his way toward the south village, Dhruv found numerous new wildlife as well. He took note of every unique beast he encountered. While discovering new things, he also found one particular tree. A tree he was very familiar with.

The Proteger Sweet Apple tree, the tree in front of him was even more impressive than the one he had found on the first floor. Dhruv quickly pinned this location on his map and continued his journey.

After another ten minutes of walking, he could finally see the silhouette of the village appear in his field of view.

"Here we go..." Letting out a faint whisper, both of them entered the village.