One thousand, one hundred and eleven steps.

Such was the number the Smith recorded in his writings later in life.

Hot and sweaty from wearing that heavy armor the entire way, lugging around the heavy full sized tower shield, and exhausted from the mental strain of keeping his guard up the entire time in case another kitten monster sauntered around the next corner, the legendary Smith emerged back into the main cavern of the fifth floor of the Dungeon. Teeming with lux essence, composed of glittering white stone and over-illuminated by large amounts of Glow Crystals, one could hardly imagine an adventurer being able to explore the floor, or, if they were so foolish as to do so, imagine them surviving against the monsters within while blinded by the light.

The Smith, who was also an Enchanter, did so by creating a helmet that perpetually blinds the wearer with a Dark type enchantment, reducing the light level to something tolerable for the human eye. No self-respecting Enchanter would ever think to use the [Blind] enchantment in such a way, given its design and intended use on knives and arrowheads to weaken enemies. To inflict [Blind] on oneself would be utterly foolish, and even if a customer requested such a creation they would be laughed out of the Enchanter's workshop.

And even if such a customer insisted, if they were to also request that the helmet be dual enchanted with the Light type enchantment [Reflect], they might actually start a physical altercation.

There are limits to jokes.

And there is a fine line between foolishness and genius, and genius and madness.

The legendary Smith was not mad, but at this point in his life, neither was he a genius. He was a fool simply unbound by common knowledge of the limits of what could be done, and empowered by the synergy of his classes and the quality of the materials available to him. And so he regularly found himself doing the unthinkable and unimaginable with a casualness that beggars belief.

James leaned on his Light Tower Shield, sweating, catching his breath from the long walk. One more path to check, then he could go back to basecamp and check on the serpent flesh he'd set to smoking. After a moment, he straightened up, hefted the shield with his right arm, and continued to the last unexplored passage.

The passage was wide enough for four men to walk abreast, which was just enough room for James to be able to swing his Earth War Hammer if needed. The path was straight as an arrow, despite the tunnel itself looking as though it were a natural cave otherwise. Outcroppings of Glow Crystals added needlessly to the light, and James could see some several dozen yards ahead a corner, the tunnel continuing off to the left.

He slowed down as he approached, and readied his shield. The tunnel neither narrowed nor widened after the corner, and with a quiet, deep breath, he poked his head around.

A scant ten more yards of tunnel.

Two serpent monsters coiled up on the ground, looking right at him.

A treasure chest at the end of the tunnel.

No other monsters spotted on the walls or ceiling.

He pulled his head back as he heard the serpent monsters hiss and slither towards him. He took a step back, readying himself behind his tower shield.

The two shining white serpents slithered around the corner in sync, and the closer of the two darted in to coil around the Smith and start crushing the life from his body.

But the Smith was already swinging his hammer.

[Hammer Strike]

[Heavy Blow]

BOOMcrunch

The first strike landed true, smashing the serpent monster's head into the ground and forming a small crater. The second snake also lunged but rebounded off the tower shield, which more than covered the Smith's entire body, even in his bulky armor. By the time it had recovered and lunged again to coil around its prey, the Smith was once again ready to strike.

Crunch.

And with that, both serpents were dead, heads smashed to paste in the ground. James did a quick scan for more monsters, found none, and then took the time to put down some warding stakes. The last thing he wanted was a kitten monster sneaking up on him while he was investigating the treasure chest.

As always, he tried to be mindful of traps, poking the chest with a shovel from a distance and looking all around it before bending down to open it. His excitement grew as it didn't collapse into dust, and at the bottom of the large chest he found a small white stone pendant on a leather strap.

Though he couldn't identify the enchantment precisely, he could feel the resonance with his armor.

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A Light Enchantment boosting Amulet.

Immediately he put it on, and checked his bracers and boots, those being the easiest bits of his armor to see while wearing it all and his helmet.

[Appraisal]: Light Bracers, Quality: Very Low, Durability: 25/25, Enchantment: Reflect (110)

[Appraisal]: Light Cleat Boots, Quality: Very Low, Durability: 30/30, Enchantment: Reflect (99)

James was stunned a moment. Yes, definitely a boost to his Light enchantments.

He really wanted to learn how to make such enchantments himself.

But he pushed that thought down and refocused: he had to carry the two serpent monster carcasses back to camp and smoke their meat.

So he did so, walking past the carcasses of dead lizard monsters on the way, and hearing no more thumps of them attacking him and dying to their own attacks.

The cavern was eerily silent, but he pressed on.

Back at base camp, James collected what meat he could from the serpents, along with their Light Magic Stones, and set the meat to smoking. He tasted the meat he had smoked prior, and found that it was okay, not really tasting like anything in particular, which of course was a massive improvement from the mole monster meat, though not as good as crab monster meat.

He sighed. Overall, the floor was a disappointment. The smallest yet, and other than three serpent monsters, nothing edible. Even the kitten monster had dissolved into light, leaving nothing behind but a magic stone. And that one monster had held him up for a full week of forging and enchanting; well worth it, of course, since he did survive the fight and everything else on the floor, but really.

His food stores were low, very low.

He could only press on.

And so, after a good night's sleep and a hearty breakfast, James broke down his base camp save the smelter and forge, and made the long trek to the iron door leading to the boss monster of the floor. He stopped for a while, ate the last of his bread—he was now out of flour—and drank some water, recovered his strength, and without further ado, opened the door to peer inside.

For the first time he felt the pressure of knowing that he needed to get past this boss: there was no other way out of the dungeon.

As usual, there was a set of steps leading down to an arena where the boss monster lay in wait: a brilliant white, large, cat-looking monster, but fiercer, with a more square head, lounged on the floor of a cavern much like the boss monster room of the first floor. But where there had been blazing mushrooms illuminating the room, this room was overlit by clusters of Glow Crystals at regular intervals on the walls, and the entire ceiling seemed be nothing but one big sheet of the crystals.

The ground was flat and clear. No obstructions.

James took a deep breath, hefted his Light Tower Shield and gripped his Earth War Hammer, and walked down the steps. He reached the bottom, stepping down onto the hard packed dirt floor, and the door slammed shut behind him and the boss monster roused itself. It was tall, even fifty yards away, and gazed at him imperiously.

Waiting for him to approach.

James did so cautiously, ensuring his footing was stable, and even anchoring his Light Tower Shield anew with each step. After several minutes of this, once James was within ten yards, the boss monster stood tall and roared and shone with a brilliant light that dazzled James even through his helmet–

Boom

BOOM

Two loud sounds nearly overlapped and James found himself crashing to the ground, pulling his Tower Shield down on top of himself only because his stiff, numb right hand couldn't let go of the handle it was gripping. He couldn't see anything but the bright ceiling above, and as he tried to sit up to see–

Boom

BOOM

Once again, the loud sounds and James found himself shoved to the ground. The pain was much reduced thanks to his armor and the padding, but he needed to get up, needed to fight the boss–

Boom

BOOM

Boom

BOOM

Boom

BOOM

Flashes of light made it through his helmet and the angry roar of the beast filled the room as the last tremors of the fast series of attacks spread through the ground and faded. James managed to sit up a little further this time and saw the boss monster writhing on the ground near the wall, which was covered in craters as though he had struck it repeatedly with his Earth War Hammer. The room spun a moment until James shook his head and got his bearings at the same time as the boss monster. It roared at him furiously, and he hurried to his feet, readying his shield just in time as he saw the boss monster leap at him and slash, claws noticeably not glowing, and with a shriek of metal gouged partway through his shield, knocking it aside despite its heavy weight.

The follow up slash nearly made it entirely through his cuirass, the feeling of tearing metal reverberating through James' entire body.

But the Smith was already swinging his hammer in a counter strike.

[Hammer Strike]

[Heavy Blow]

With all the mana he could muster, and it was at this moment, in the middle of his strike, that James realized he was terribly low on mana, used up by [Reflect] protecting him from the boss monster's attacks stronger than even the water spears from the second floor; all the mana he could muster, he channeled into his Earth War Hammer.

BOOOOM!

The diagonal strike from the upper left struck the boss monster's cat-like head in the temple, jerking it down and to the right. The boss monster's neck muscles were powerful, however, and resisted the strike without letting the neck be broken.

But the blow was heavy.

Down, down, down the head was bent, the hammer continuing on with magically-powered inertia, transmitting force from the spike on the hammer head into the skull, which fractured and broke, and then into the soft tissue of the brain.

Down, down, down. The remainder of the skull was pushed along by the mass of metal, until finally, head bowed, the bottom of the monster's head touched the ground.

But still the pressure. Still the force pushing down. Just how hard had this shiny prey swung its puny hammer? Compression began, the ground yielding somewhat beneath the head as a crater started to form, but not enough, the ground pushed back up, and something had to give.

It turned out to be the skull.

Crunch

Splat

With a crunchy-wet sound, the monster's head was crushed entirely, blood and flesh spreading out in a splatter all around the small crater formed by the strike.

James found himself panting, woozy from the extreme mana consumption. Only a small portion remained, and the drain on his mana from the helmet became evident, significant now that he had so little remaining.

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