54 Hammer party

The 5th floor didn't prove too different from the other floors so far (They used a stone of passage to reach the 5th floor), there were slightly bigger goblins there, possibly a evolved type, but Mike could not tell for sure, one thing that was sure though was that they were armed now and their weapons were surprisingly decent, it was just that when anyone from the party tried to pick a weapon up it would turn to dust in mere moments, Mike didn't take it too hard, after all he had the knife and Julie still had the rather expensive sword he had bright for her so all in all it wasn't too much of a loss, the group continued while picking up monster crystals that hopefully would prove to be worth a little more than the ones from the higher floors, as they explored they also found out that the monsters was a lot more frequent than the higher floors slowing down exploration but increasing their earning substantially, by the time they found the boss room they had killed a little under 50 armed goblins

'48 to be exact… wow, we're going to be able to afford a bigger house at this rate… Maybe we should buy a barrack…'

As Mike thought about expanding his army Julie walked up to him which snapped him out of his train of thought

"Mike, are you ready for the boss?"

Mike gave a nod as his eyes regained their focus

"Yeah… Let's do this… Now we don't know what to expect so full force, maximum effort and all that"

"""Yes Master"""

Mike heightened his control over the three servants and soon a red light was shining in all their eyes, it glowed ominously in the dark dungeon

"Okay... I am ready, ladies first"

Mike made a synchronized bow with his three servants to Julie as he used Clare's left leg to kick backward thereby opening the door, the group walked into the boss room and saw a single hobgoblin that was armed with an impressive looking broadsword surrounded by four goblins armed with daggers, now as for the fight with said hob and four regular goblins it was significantly harder than the previous boss battles, but still it was a breeze for the five of them especially for Mike as he had his heightened control over the three servants so after fighting for about a minute the hobgoblin turned to dust that condensed into a stone of passage for the fifth floor, also a monster core was found in one of the goblins and was given to Elina that used it but she didn't gain a new skill

"Well then, let's head down"

Julie gave a nod and so the five of them headed down the stairs to the sixth floor, where they were up against armed hobgoblins, still, this was far below their level so they slaughtered their way through the oncoming horde of hobs and received plenty of monster crystals on the way, the two blood zombies were ecstatic as they had all the blood they could ever want but Mike had a feeling that the knife was starting to get tired of monster blood

"Master look~"

Mike looked over and saw that Elina and Rebecca had made a flower each out of broken bones and hobgoblin íntestencs, he gave a sigh as it was obvious at this point that too much blood would get them 'drunk' or maybe even 'high' which resulted in them being way more brutal with their kills than before, if not for the fact that their skin seemed to absorb blood both of them would likely be covered in blood like their clothes were at the moment, especially Elina that had bitten through the jugular of a hobgoblin not too long ago, still, Mike saw that they had made the 'flowers' in hopes of pleasing him so he praised them for their handiwork

"Well done girls"

""Ehehehe~""

Julie was used to them being gross but this was all new to Clare that asked Mike in a whisper

"Master, what's wrong with them?"

Mike gave a wry smile and spoke in a quiet voice

"Nothing they just have another look on life after being tortured and brutally killed"

"Wait they were killed? Then how---"

Mike ruffled Clare's hair and ears before with a wide smile on his face as he spoke

"Congratulations Clare, you are immortal now, actually you have been for a few days"

Clare looked at Mike in wonder before she suddenly kneeled down and spoke in a passionate voice

"I thank you for this gift, Master"

Mike gave a smile as he responded

"I did not give it for free, I expect a lot from you Clare"

"Yes, Master!"

The exploration continued for some time but suddenly there was light up ahead, torchlight, Mike and the rest took a little for their eyes to adjust to the light as it got closer before they eventually saw that it was a party of adventures, Mike signaled for Elina and Rebecca to behave normally and throw away their 'prizes' of various gore they had picked up on the way before he stepped into the light and greeted the party of adventures

"Hello there"

The party of adventures was startled before they took up defensive positions with drawn weapons glaring at Mike that asked

"What's wrong?"

Eventually one of the adventures spoke

"Where's your light?"

Mike pointed to his eyes

"Don't need one, I and my party see perfectly well in the dark"

The party of adventures lowered their weapons a bit before one of them gave a sigh and muttered

"That almost scared the shit out of me…"

Mike showed an apologetic smile and spoke

"Sorry about that"

The one that spoke before, a man in his late 30's gave a wry smile and asked

"Is it a skill that allows you to see in the dark or..?"

"Nah, it's my race"

"Oh… you just look so… Human"

Mike gave a smile and gestured for the rest of his party to step out into the light, when they did the male adventures from the other party let out sighs, well it was as to be expected as all the girls in Mike's party were pleasing to look at, to say the least, the man in his late 30's gave a wry smile and spoke

"Your party sure has some beauties, we would love to have some drinks with you sometime, what do you say?"

"Sure, the name's Mike by the way"

The man gave a laugh before he spoke

"Oh where are my manners, my name is Hector, I am the captain of the Hammer party, it's a pleasure to meet you, Mike"

Mike gave a nod, for a while Mike chatted with Hector for a bit while Julie chatted with some of the girls in the other party, the guys in the other party, however, behaved as teenage boys and just sneaked glances at Julie and the three servants without doing much else until a brave soul walked up to Rebecca and asked her for her name while smoothly introducing himself, then Rebecca answered

"Go away, I have no interest in men other than my Master"

Promptly shattering his hopes as he walked back to his comrades dejectedly, Mike and Hector watched the whole thing and shared a laugh before Hector asked

"Those three girls… They're slaves aren't they?"

Mike plainly admitted it

"Yeah"

Hector gave a nod

"I see… Well it looks like you treat them well"

"Yeah"

'Well, most of the time anyway…'

"That's good… My impression of you just got a whole lot better Mike"

Mike was a little confused before he asked

"Why's that?"

Hector collected his thought for a moment before he asked

"Well, no one would blame you if you treated your slaves like shit right?"

"Yeah?"

"So given the fact that you could but don't makes you a better person in my book"

"I see…"

Mike felt that it made sense and does his impression of Hector improved by a bit

'He seems like a sensible person…'

Mike talked with Hector for a bit more until they were rudely interrupted by a group of armed hobgoblins, just as Hector's party was reading their weapons did Mike raise his hand and asked Hector

"Do you mind if we handle this? We're a little short of cash"

Hector thought for a moment before he agreed with a nod, then Mike spoke out

"Make it clean girls"

"""Yes Master"""

The three girls quickly tore apart the group of hobgoblins with superior speed, strength and skill much to Hector's amazement, after being baffled for a bit he asked

"They're level 3?"

Mike didn't want to explain that they were strengthened with his skill so he just gave a nod before he pointed at Julie and spoke

"And that beautiful woman is level 4… I am level 3"

"Wow… What the hell are you guys then doing on the sixth level?"

"Well we only just arrived in the city a week ago"

"And why don't you just buy a stone of passage to say, the 30th floor?"

"Well that wouldn't be fun now would it?"

"I see… Well doing it at your own pace seems fine, that means you don't get overwhelmed"

"Yeah, that's what I figured too, we're going to take it slow while getting used to the monsters and layout instead of just jumping into the deep end all at one"