The Smith shook his head, rattling his helmet's visor. Self-reflection was one thing, self-loathing was another. All he could do was the best he could do. And in this fight, he felt he had done about as good as he could have.

His shield had been proof against the long range surprise attack.

His armor had been proof against both the serpent's lightning and its constriction.

His hammer had been effective at attacking, and he had followed his mother's teachings and gone on the offensive and won. Not just once, not just twice, but thrice, against boss monsters in a Dungeon.

Not to mention all his other successes so far. The bat monster swarm, the spi-, er, the bird monster swarm, the snowy passage, and so on.

Some past experiences are simply too painful to reflect on.

As for this fight, was there anything he could have done better, other than expect the boss monster to be hiding?

James, at that moment, honestly couldn't think of anything.

Was there anything that could have been a huge problem if it had happened?

Yes, at least two things.

First, if his right arm had been pinned to his side, like his left had with the shield, he couldn't have hit the serpent with his hammer.

He would need to be extra careful to keep his hammer arm free while fighting.

Second, if it hadn't been for his armor, he probably would have taken a lot more damage from the lightning. James had seen thunderstorms before, and he knew about lightning in theory. But obviously he had never been struck by lightning. Let alone magical lightning.

He couldn't be sure, down here in the Dungeon, but he had a strong suspicion that lightning was related to Air, given that his armor had resisted it so completely. Probably similar to how Ice and Water were related magically.

Going forward, he would need to carefully consider his armor and resistance enchantments. It would be best if he could do all of them at once, but…

James had no idea how to create metal alloys.

And James had no idea how to enjoin enchantments.

He didn't even know if it was possible to put more than one enchantment on a single item.

At some point in his reflections, standing silently over the carcass of his vanquished foe, he grew hungry and sat down on the serpent's body, conveniently almost as high as a chair, and ate some crab meat and bread.

He was really running low on bread.

Once lunch was over, he examined the serpent's body.

[Appraisal]: Lightning Serpent Scales, Sylph Essence

So he removed what scales he could, put them in his magic bag, and considered the meat. There was actually a fair bit of meat, given how large the serpent was. He collected the meat, pulled out his smoker and some tree monster wood, and set the meat to smoking. It would take some time, given the quantity, so no point in waiting to get started.

For some reason, the boss monster rooms didn't seem to reset.

It is ever the nature of man not to question oddities when they are convenient.

Finally, setting aside the organs and whatever James couldn't identify and the bones, he found a glowing pale yellow jewel embedded in the monster's heart.

[Appraisal] failed. Still, common sense prevailed, and James compared it to the Earth Jewel and Water Jewel he had obtained from the previous two boss monsters.

If he had to guess, it was Lightning rather than Air. But he still had no idea what to do with the Jewels.

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So into the magic bag they went.

James left his smoker to its work, and walked over to the treasure chest. He felt himself getting a little excited. Would there be treasure this time? Or would it be empty?

Of course, he still looked around carefully for traps, at least attempting to be careful even though he had no idea what Dungeon traps even looked like.

The ever trustworthy shovel-poke didn't produce a response, so James opened the treasure chest to reveal a seed.

Granted, it was a large seed, larger than his fist even, but still a seed. When he picked it up, he felt something like a tremor go through his armor, not physically, but through the enchantments? Unlike the Water Amulet, it didn't seem to empower the enchantments.

Once again [Appraisal] failed. The Smith had a feeling that he wouldn't be able to use this in his crafting, but maybe his father, Farmer that he was, would be interested? James decided to keep it as a gift, for someday in the future.

Into the magic bag it went.

Finally James turned to the tunnel and the staircase down.

Time to investigate.

Step by careful step he descended, taking his time to let his eyes adjust to the dim light. His shield was raised and Earth War Hammer gripped tightly, ready for anything.

It took him some time to notice.

It was only when he stopped to raise his visor and wipe the sweat from his brow that he realized.

It was getting hot.

The Smith, of course, had the [Heat Resistance] skill. But that meant that if he was feeling hot even with that, it was pretty darn hot. He happened to still be wearing the cooling system he had designed, so he activated it and proceeded onward, mindful of how much mana he was using.

He could see a dim red light at the bottom of the staircase, and soon enough, he had reached the last step. There was a short tunnel, and he proceeded down it carefully, shield raised.

James' first impression was that it was another cavern, like the first floor. Only there was pools of glowing, molten rock dotting the cavern floor. In the distance, he could even see the lava flowing down the wall into a pool in a corner of the cavern.

There were no glowshrooms in this cavern, but there were plenty of the blazing fire variety. The fireshrooms tended to be less common the closer they got to the lava. In addition to all this, there were pools of near boiling water producing constant gouts of steam, reducing visibility and scattering the dim red light. Some places on the wall also produced small amounts of steam, and one happened to be right next to the tunnel exit.

[Water Identification]: Pure Water, Steam

Smith Class Skill [Water Identification] has reached level 2.

Enchanter Class Skill [Water Identification] has reached level 2.

Synergy Skill [Water Identification] has reached level 2.

James was starting to feel a strain on his mana as he fought the rising heat with his cooling strips.

Quickly he scanned around, but saw no monsters, even on the ceiling. Finally, he checked the ground. It was the same kind of hard packed dirt as the first floor. The cavern walls were also the same, except that where on the first floor of the Dungeon, Brown Iron Ore had been the most common, on this floor, it was Red Iron Ore. This wouldn't have been very interesting, given that over the last few floors James had been able to accumulate a decent stockpile of Red Iron. But this ore…

[Ore Identification]: Red Iron Ore, Salamander Essence

Smith Class Skill [Ore Identification] has reached level 4.

It was teeming with Salamander Essence.

James couldn't resist. He pulled out some warding stakes and set up a largish ward around a large vein of the Red Iron Ore, and then pulled out a pick-axe and got to work mining. The work felt like it went quickly, and he mined out plenty of the essence-filled ore, but he had to stop.

The ward had failed.

James whirled around, hastily picking up his shield and dropping his pick-axe. He scanned around, looking for monsters, but he didn't see any. He tried to add more mana to the ward, but the connection was broken.

Cautiously, he picked up one of the now-inert warding stakes.

[Appraisal]: Forged Iron Stake, Quality: Low, Durability: 0/5 Broken]

The metal felt soft in his hands, and as he squeezed, he felt it give just a little bit.

It was also hot, and seemingly no longer enchanted.

Thankfully James had plenty of spares, but losing three warding stakes still wasn't good. It was time to go. He gathered his things, and all the ore he had mined out, and climbed the long staircase back to the flying serpent's boss room.

Once out, James removed and inspected all his armor as well.

[Appraisal]: Wind Visored Helmet, Quality: Very Low, Durability: 17/19, Enchantment: Wind Resistance (25)

[Appraisal]: Wind Cuirass, Quality: Very Low, Durability: 18/20, Enchantment: Wind Resistance (25)

[Appraisal]: Wind Armored Skirt, Quality: Very Low, Durability: 8/12, Enchantment: Wind Resistance (30)

[Appraisal]: Wind Codpiece, Quality: Very Low, Durability: 7/10, Enchantment: Wind Resistance (23)

[Appraisal]: Wind Greaves, Quality: Very Low, Durability: 12/14, Enchantment: Wind Resistance (25)

[Appraisal]: Wind Cuisses, Quality: Very Low, Durability: 13/15, Enchantment: Wind Resistance (30)

[Appraisal]: Wind Left Pauldron, Quality: Very Low, Durability: 13/16, Enchantment: Wind Resistance (27)

[Appraisal]: Wind Right Pauldron, Quality: Very Low, Durability: 11/14, Enchantment: Wind Resistance (27)

[Appraisal]: Wind Bracers, Quality: Very Low, Durability: 10/13, Enchantment: Wind Resistance (30)

[Appraisal]: Wind Cleat Boots, Quality: Very Low, Durability: 10/16, Enchantment: Wind Resistance (22)

The Enchanter grimaced. Even with the cooling strips active, the heat had damaged his armor and worse, the enchantments. He forced himself to check his Earth War Hammer and Green Iron Shield, as well.

[Appraisal]: Earth War Hammer, Quality: Very Low, Durability: 9/15, Enchantment: Heavy Blow (4)

[Appraisal]: Green Iron Round Shield, Quality: Very Low, Durability: 5/15, Enchantment: Reflect (6)

It took all of James' self-control not to scream in fury.

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