danmachi: runes master

Chapter 2: The Colossal Goblin's Demise

Ben walked up to the door of the shop and saw the shop owner—a shorter man—then asked him where the cheaper weapons section was.

"Huuu, another poor person," the guy muttered under his breath. "The cheapest weapons are in the back," he said, pointing to a section of the store filled with piles of random weapons.

"Thanks, dude," Ben said.

Ben started looking through all the weapons and armor before finding two perfect-looking gauntlets. However, they were really heavy—he estimated them to be around 12 to 13.5 kilograms each. He then pulled them up onto the counter.

"How much for them, sir?"

The old man looked him up and down before replying, "8,000 valis each. No bartering. You're already wasting enough of my time."

"Understood, sir. Thank you," Ben said as he counted out 16,000 valis and left it on the table. Taking the two gauntlets, he left the store and ran back to the giant tower.

As Ben walked in, he scanned the area for Abby. Once he found her, he ran up excitedly.

"Hi, Abby! Look what I got! I just bought these at that shop you were talking about, and I still have 4,000 valis left!"

Abby looked at the gauntlets with concern. "Are you sure you can walk around the tower with those on? They look heavy," she asked worriedly.

"Positive. They might hurt, but I'll get used to them, and they should work really well. I should be able to get a lot of use out of them before they break."

"What do you plan to do with the dagger we gave you?"

"That was a dagger? It was big enough to be a short sword. But anyway, I plan on keeping it with me just in case."

"Where do you plan on putting it?"

Ben chuckled awkwardly. "Oh… I didn't think that far ahead, haha."

"It's fine, I'll hold onto it. You can get a sheath after you come back from your little dungeon run. You should hurry, though—you only have four hours until it gets dark," Abby warned.

"I'll hurry. Thanks, Abby!"

Ben ran into the dungeon, pushing forward instead of walking like before. After two minutes of running, he spotted a pair of goblins. He stopped, planning to practice boxing against them.

He walked up in a boxing stance, hands guarding his face. The first goblin charged at him with a crude dagger, stabbing forward. But before the blade could reach him, Ben punched with his gauntlets, smashing the goblin's head to pieces. Some blood splattered onto his clothes, but the fabric repelled it, leaving no stains.

The second goblin jumped up and tried to stab downward at him. Ben waited, backing up just as the goblin started to descend. Once it was close enough, he swung full force, punching it in the chest. He heard a cracking sound as the goblin flew two meters away before disintegrating into dust—a clear sign of its death. Ben picked up their magic stones and smiled.

He kept running for seven more minutes before encountering a pack of seven kobolds. Without hesitation, he smashed each of their heads in, collecting their magic stones and a kobold nail before continuing.

Not long after, he came across the same path as last time and followed it.

Ben then ran into three dungeon lizards. He smashed two, but the third was too fast for his gauntlets. It managed to scratch his face, but Ben reacted quickly, lifting his leg and stomping it to bits. He grabbed their magic stones and kept running.

Ben took another path and, upon reaching the end, was immediately ambushed by goblins. He counted about ten of them.

Swing. One down.

Swing again. Another dead.

Ben kept fighting, breaking windpipes, crushing heads, and shattering ribs. But the goblins fought back fiercely. One cut the back of his hand, and several landed hits on his Kevlar armor—though it barely did anything.

The battle dragged on for a minute and a half, leaving Ben exhausted. The constant running and fighting—especially with his heavy gauntlets—took a serious toll on him.

Panting, he started collecting magic stones from the fallen monsters.

"Damn… I was hoping to go deeper into the dungeon, but I guess it's my fault for not buying a bag for these damn crystals," Ben muttered.

As he made his way up, Ben encountered something interesting—a giant goblin.

It turned to face him and threw a punch. Ben instinctively raised his gauntlets, but the sheer force launched him backward.

"What the hell was that?! Why is it so strong?!"

Ben stood up, gripping his injured arm. He countered with a punch, but all it did was turn the goblin's head slightly, leaving only a small bruise. He heard a faint cracking sound—its jaw had dislocated.

But then, to Ben's horror, the goblin snapped it back into place like it was nothing.

"…So you wouldn't be willing to call this a draw, would you? Ha… ha… haa…" Ben let out a dry laugh.

The goblin didn't answer. Instead, it lunged at him. Ben barely dodged, then removed his gauntlets and activated his Ultimate Eyes, maximizing his perception to 100x normal speed.

Thinking fast, he threw one gauntlet at the goblin.

The goblin knocked it away—but that was just a distraction. In that moment, Ben smashed his second gauntlet into its throat.

Seeing an opening, Ben maneuvered behind it, jumped onto its back, and tried to choke it out. But the goblin simply punched backward, knocking Ben down.

Desperate, Ben threw a magic stone into the goblin's mouth.

The goblin swallowed it—and began to grow.

Seeing what happened, Ben kept throwing magic stones into its mouth. With each stone, the goblin grew stronger and bulkier, until it was too large to fit in the corridor.

Ben then stood before the trapped goblin and began punching its massive throat.

The goblin's eyes showed panic. It tried to tap the wall, as if begging for mercy—but Ben kept swinging.

Finally, he heard a gurgling sound—the goblin was choking. Its entire windpipe and esophagus were crushed.

After a grueling two minutes, it died, dropping a huge magic stone and three giant teeth.

Ben stuffed the teeth into his pocket, picked up his gauntlets, and grabbed the huge magic stone.

On his way up, he ran into two more monster groups—three dungeon lizards, which he kicked to death, and a single goblin, which he crushed using the magic stone.

Reaching the surface, he ran to Abby. "Abby, Abby, look! I got this huge stone and these three giant goblin teeth! Also, three dungeon lizard magic stones and another goblin magic stone!"

Abby stared in shock. "What the hell… did you kill a Level 5 monster or something?!"

Ben then went to sleep in a sewer duct, knowing he wouldn't be robbed there.

Chapter 2 End.

Author's note: Messed up and called them crystals there stones sorry guys. Also my head canon is that irregular monsters drop more items I know it's not true but man can dream as long as it's not about kids can't he (A crazed grin and deep chuckle escaped the clearly insane authors mouth as he thought In revelry about his awesome "dad joke")😈😈😈

Love you guys

 -Gachadevildog 

Sorry guys, he has some issues. Oh I hope he stops being so special soon😓 Remember I appreciate collections power stones and readers reading the whole story then reviewing ok I will give more chapters earlier if you do so also sorry it's shorter than normal

-Themasterofsystems 

Ps this chapter can earlier due to the collections thanks guys