章 185: Crocodiles

The old appraiser was a very tactful man, he never asked Yunan the hows and whats and whys about the so many mysteries that Yunan was capable of, he just followed behind and ate the served food and drank the served wine, he even rejected a bottle of lava wine simply because he would get addicted to such a good taste, so leaving it as a good memory was the best option.

After returning the old man to the guild hall Yunan departed to the 33rd floor, it was a shallow water marsh, filled with crocodiles lying in ambush for any type of fish beasts passing by, as well as any adventurers who are careless enough to pass by with their guard down, further away from the stairway one can find that the crocodiles would have longer limbs and then they would be able to stand and finally become lizardmen.

Yunan killed a few samples of crocodiles as he went along further and further away from the stairway, simply out of habit, after 1 kilometre he was alone in the midst of crocs, with adventurers not needing to move far away from the stairway they got used to it and just trained in the first band of the floor with the ordinary crocs.

The crocodiles had two specialist spells, first was cold blood, it allowed them to escape the heat vision and life vision to some extent, the second was razor scales, it used its own scaled body as sharp razors to slice and dice an enemy they could not tear up with their jaws or had no opportunity to do so. There must have been more spells because Yunan thought only two special spells were not enough and there should be at least one more.

As Yunan kept advancing he took on more and more damage, he also got to see the newer version of crocodiles that slowly evolved into lizardmen. The fight with the lizardmen was what Yunan had been waiting for, a fight where he could use his battle skill and not just dodge and use magic, a most boring thing for Yunan.

With the lizardmen being armed and armoured in addition to the natural armour they were born with, Yunan used his battle skills sluggishly at first before reaching his old level, although he didn't use the armour's effects to boost himself he was able to hold against 3 of them, but he could barely feel when the duel was over, 600 points of difference was too sharp and Yunan surviving that assault was a testament to the advent of his skills and his great foresight into himself and his enemies.

Yunan decided to fight in this place until he caught up to the attribute points needed to challenge the boss, although this would be increasing the amount of stress it would also reduce the time needed to advance forward. Upon returning home Yunan was healed by Ophelia and then left alone to soak in the honey pool, he was told he was needed home daily from that point onwards for dinner every time and not just come and go as he pleases.

The girls were concerned about Yunan, he was not the type to forget the state of his body but he was the kind that endures too much, therefore accumulating more and more stress and risk mental exhaustion and subsequently become more careless and even possibly lose his life.

The girls also made sure to make Yunan was well rested after every fight to make sure he had a better chance of returning, they even reduced their intimate time significantly to allow their man to return alive and well. Yunan was thankful for his girls, although the best he could do was be passionate with them since they never said they wanted anything else, even Ophelia was satisfied with the occasional hug and the shared sleeping time.

With Yunan feeling like he was treated with more care and love, he grew more determined and turned the intensity of each encounter into a slugfest, going barehanded and armourless against as many lizards as he could, and his advancement was marvellously fast, since he didn't kill any of his sparring mates he always found the same group waiting at the same spot, but as he grew stronger and stronger over the span of half a year there were many that would come and watch the fight and cheer on the fighters, the one vs three has become something of a one vs ten by the end of those months.

What Yunan was most curious about was that this species was smart, had a community and were certainly sentient and individual beings, how come they were not chosen to leave this floor like the rest of the awakened and his answer came at the end of his training time with the lizardmen. On his last fight, he had fully defeated the 10 fighters opposing him without taking damage or getting injured, so the next day the welcoming party was only one member who walked away when Yunan arrived making a follow gesture.

Yunan was led to meet the boss of the floor, unlike the two-meter tall lizardmen he was fighting all along the boss was 3 meters tall and packed enough muscles for 5 men, it was waiting in an arena with Spectators surrounding the fighting pit from all sides. The tribe was numerous and this event was a very important one to them, Yunan deliberated if he should throw the match for them or he should fight it like usual and if it leads to a war he could turn this sacred and religious display into a genocide if there was a threat.

The fight lasted for approximately 9 hours before the boss fell back due to exhaustion, he took too much damage from Yunan but was unable to deliver any serious damage that Yunan did not allow to reach him, Yunan was still barehanded and armourless while the boss was in full combat gear, Yunan mixed speed and hard-hitting as his style, he would simply dodge and slip away from the boss while delivering small jabs, and when the boss relaxed he would sneak in a heavy punch strong enough to throw back the hard-hitting.