CHAPTER 35: NO TIME FOR SMALL FRY

"Well..." Nolan muttered, his voice carrying in the silence, "what monster am I going to see first? Hopefully the Behemoth. That’s the kind of challenge I need to get stronger."

He smirked to himself as he pressed onward.

That was when a small shape slithered out of the shadows. A translucent blob oozed across the floor, faintly quivering in the rune-light.

Nolan blinked. "Isn’t that... a slime?"

The creature gurgled, then sprang forward, its gelatinous body stretching to envelop him.

"I don’t have time for this," he said flatly.

As it leapt, he casually thrust his hand straight into its body, fingers piercing through to the glowing core at its center. With a sharp squeeze, the fragile crystal cracked and shattered, and the slime collapsed into nothing more than a puddle of formless goo.

Nolan shook the slime off his hand, wiped it on the wall, and kept walking deeper into the dungeon without a second glance.

"I know some of these creatures," Nolan muttered under his breath, memories flickering from all the manga he used to read in his previous world. Slimes, skeletons... next will probably be something nastier.

Sure enough, the next shadow he saw moving in the faint glow of the walls was tall, bony, and holding a rusted sword.

"...A skeleton?"

The thing’s empty sockets glowed faintly as it rattled forward, joined by another... and then another. Soon, more than a dozen clattered into view, their broken teeth snapping, their brittle bones scraping against stone.

"Wait—are those undead?" Nolan swore, shaking his head in disbelief. "Creepy... moving skeletons? Of course it’s the undead."

The pack of fifteen raised their chipped weapons and charged, their bones clattering in unison.

Nolan didn’t even bother to draw a weapon. "I don’t have time for this."

A faint shimmer spread across his body as his magical shield activated. The skeletons’ swords slammed against him uselessly, sparks bouncing off his invisible barrier. They swarmed, clawing and biting, but he just kept walking, shoving them aside like fragile sticks in the road.

One by one, they were pushed back, toppling into heaps as Nolan passed straight through them without slowing his stride.

When the last of them faded into the distance behind him, Nolan glanced at the glowing stairway descending deeper into the dungeon. "Didn’t she say it would take a day to reach this dungeon?" He frowned. "It didn’t even take me three minutes. Two minutes and some seconds at best. And that was only eighty kilometers—without me even running at full speed."

He shook his head in amusement and began his descent.

The staircase was steep, carved straight into black stone. As he went down, the air grew heavier, warmer, and the faint scent of iron lingered in his nose.

At the bottom, a massive figure loomed in the rune-lit chamber. Nolan’s eyes widened slightly.

Standing there were hulking monsters with crimson skin, each easily 10x his height. They wore nothing but ragged cloth around their waists, their bare chests bulging with thick muscle. In their hands, they held enormous wooden clubs, spiked with metal scraps, each swing strong enough to shatter stone.

"...Red Orcs," Nolan breathed, opening his mouth in awe. "I’ve seen them in manga before... but now I’m staring at them in real life."

The orcs roared, their voices echoing through the chamber, and began stomping toward him.

There were five Red Orcs in total, hulking together as if sharing some guttural conversation. Their deep voices rumbled like thunder, but Nolan didn’t care what they were saying.

"In order to keep searching, I’ll have to clear you guys out, huh?" He cracked a grin. "Well then... let’s jump in."

Without hesitation, Nolan leapt from the ledge above, dropping thirty feet into the heart of the chamber. He landed in the middle of the orcs with a heavy thud that echoed across the stone floor.

The Red Orcs stopped their chatter instantly. One by one, their glowing yellow eyes turned toward him. Slowly, they stood, each raising their massive wooden clubs bristling with metal spikes.

The first orc roared and swung its club downward with crushing force. Nolan sprang upward, landing lightly on the flat of the weapon. The impact shook the ground, but he balanced perfectly, marching a few steps along the orc’s weapon as if it were nothing more than a beam of wood.

"What the—?!" The orc snarled in confusion.

Then Nolan kicked off, flipping gracefully to land back on the ground.

Enraged, the other four roared and attacked together. Five spiked clubs came crashing down at once, slamming the ground with explosive force. Dust and shards of stone blasted outward.

When the smoke cleared... nothing. Nolan was gone.

The orcs grunted, bewildered.

"Up here."

Nolan’s voice came from above. He had leapt onto the head of one orc, standing calmly as it swayed under his weight.

The monster bellowed in fury and raised its own weapon. In its blind rage, it swung straight at itself, trying to knock Nolan off.

At the last instant, Nolan hopped away, landing lightly a few feet back.

The club came crashing down with brutal force—straight into the orc’s own skull. The beast groaned, staggered, then collapsed in a heap.

Nolan smirked. "Big and scary, sure... but dumb as hell."

He spread his arms, taunting the four remaining orcs as they snarled and pounded their chests.

"Well then—come take me down."

The Red Orcs grew more enraged, their guttural roars shaking the chamber. Their voices overlapped into a deep, echoing chant that made the walls tremble.

"NONON!" they bellowed together, the sound vibrating through the dungeon.

Nolan clenched his fists. "Tch... I don’t have time for this. Better end it quick."

With explosive speed, he launched himself forward. His body blurred, closing the distance in an instant.

The first Red Orc swung its massive club, but before the strike could land, Nolan leapt high, driving his fist straight into its stomach. The impact boomed like a cannon blast. The monster folded, spittle flying from its mouth as its enormous body crashed backward.