Fifth Floor

『 Welcome to the Fifth Floor of Trial Tower! 』

The moment the announcement rang in her mind, Sheila immediately looked around her in earnest, perhaps to see if her surrounding has changed to something new. But sadly, all she could ever see was a massive tall tree and some bushes all around her; it was a bountiful jungle. Looking behind her, Sheila could see the 'cave' that she's so used to see whenever she entered the Fourth Floor. 

"What, it's the same floor?"

Sheila couldn't help but feel sort of disappointment as she looked at the cave before looking at the jungle around her. But the announcement really said that she's currently on the Fifth Floor, there has to be something different. Her gaze moved to and fro between her surrounding jungle and the cave where goblins reside. Although hesitant, Sheila walked toward the forest at a specific spot where previously she had slapped right into the invisible wall, but surprisingly, this time she wasn't met with any sort of resistance as she walks a meter ahead from the previous spot. 

"This is!"

Sheila could feel her heartbeat starts beating really hard and tried to cool it down by taking a deep breath. She didn't expect for her to hit right on the spot, the Fifth Floor is not the cave, but instead, the whole jungle is actually the Fifth Floor! No wonder she couldn't bypass it before and was met by an invisible wall! She had thought it was like the First Floor, but apparently, that might not be the case. After calming down herself, Sheila turned back and walk toward the cave, not surprising; she could enter it and even feel the weak aura coming from goblin ahead. 

"So that means I could still slay some goblins in the cave even though it's on the Fifth Floor. Just from the weak aura that I could feel from inside the cave, it doesn't seem that much different than the goblins on the Fourth Floor."

Rather than fighting the same opponents, she would rather find a new one for her to get used to fighting all sort of opponents and to hone her combat ability even further. She could feel that she would lose something in return for growing stronger, but that's a small price for the safety of her loved one. 

"Guaaaaa!"

The Elite Goblin shriek before falling onto the ground and turned into a sparkling light disappeared into oblivion. Sheila steps forward before bending down her body to pick up the shining coins on the ground. When she had entered deep into the forest, the first monster she met was yet another goblin. Although the elite is quite agile and much cunning than the normal goblin, Sheila's stats are even more frightening. She avoids the attacks with ease, and it didn't even take her long for the goblin to eventually killed by her sword. As the fight didn't really make her sweat, it was like a practice before the real thing. 

Sheila looked up before narrowing her eyes and glare deep into the forest, where she could feel a powerful aura that makes her sixth sense ringing an alarm in her mind. Even while fighting the Elite Goblin, she didn't let her guard down as she didn't want to get ambush by another monster or surround by them. The deep she goes into the forest, the more she could feel how dangerous that powerful aura is to the current her. 

"This aura... It's even more frightening than the Goblin King. It must be a new type of monster, no kidding."

Because of the frightening aura ahead, Sheila jumped into her shadow and traveled through the forest via Shadow Magic. It didn't take that much longer before she found a group of goblins which consists of Four Elite Goblins surrounding a Goblin Shaman. Because she was inside the forest, Sheila couldn't use her powerful fire magic, unless she wants to burn everything down. 

Sheila slowly creeps within the shadow toward the lone Goblin Shaman. When she was right beside it, the Goblin Shaman still hasn't noticed her existence, not to mention the Four Elites. The beautiful jade bracelet on her right wrist suddenly shattered before materialising as a sword in her hand. She didn't say anything and quietly swung her sword horizontally toward the Goblin Shaman as it just blankly looks around the quiet surrounding as Sheila's figure still within the shadow. 

When the sword cleanly cut the head off from its body, Sheila figure materialise right beside the Goblin Shaman. The sudden appearance of a female human caused the four Elites to be in shocked as they could only watch their leader getting beheaded by her. Before the four Elites could respond, Sheila waves her sword, and the closer one was killed on the spot while the other three was mildly injured. 

"Grooooar!"

The three Elites growls in anger due to the pain from their injuries and the loss of their leader before dashing toward Sheila. But before they could swing their club at her, a ball of flame materialised and flew toward them before exploding. That one poor elite which stood on the front of her magic was burned to a crisp as it couldn't defend it due to how fast and close they are to Sheila and her magic. She didn't have to worry about accidentally burning the forest since her attack wouldn't miss with such a close range. The other two couldn't even leave any wound on her body before dying by her sword. 

『 Swordsmanship Skill has leveled up! 』

"Oh? Nice!"

Sheila immediately opened her skill window and clicked on the Swordsmanship skill. It seems that on level 4, she could use a technique called Tornado Sweep. It didn't need to be mention on how to use it as one could figure it out just by reading the name. With a thought, the skill window disappeared from her view, and she immediately jumped back into the shadow. 

As she gets deeper into the forest, Sheila met some familiar monster on the way, such as yet another Elite Goblin, Goblin Shaman and even some rare one which is Slime King. By the time she had killed a group of Goblin Fighters, she had heard the notification that she leveled up. 

『 Sheila LV.19 』

『  HP: 101/140  MP: 197/250

GOLD: 103500

  —STR: 32 —INT: 50

  —AGI: 27 —VIT: 30

  —LUCK: 10(+2) AP: 5 』

"One more and I'll be in twenty."

Sheila smiled before nodding her head in content as she looks over her stats. She still remembers the time when she was having trouble killing a single slime, but now, not even a group of Goblin Fighters could pose a danger to her. As she advances deep into the Trial Tower, she starts to pick up a habit of using Presence Detection every 30 minutes. Although she had never gotten ambushed before, it is still better to be cautious. A wise human once said, "it's wiser to be cautious and careful than to be hasty or rash, and so do something you may later regret."

『 Disguise Skill has leveled up! 』

"Oh my, finally. I had been using it since I entered the Trial Tower, and after six hours, it leveled up. It might have gained experience from the various disguise I have tried while hiding within the shadow."

When Sheila check the Disguise skill window, her eyes went wide as she read the new info about it. After leveling up to 4, Sheila now can mask her aura with another person. That's already plenty remarkable, but she could also change her voice! Basically, Sheila could now disguise as another person, and if someone didn't know better, they would have thought it was the real person instead of Sheila in disguise. She had tried changing her voice to Ria, and it's pretty shocking when a different voice was spoken from her mouth.

It seems that her dream of disguising as a cat is not that far ahead. She only needs to go even harder in practice and eventually, her goal will be within the grip of her hands! 

Thump!

While Sheila was pondering on such thoughts, she was suddenly woken back to reality when she heard a heavy footstep ahead. She looked up and could feel a powerful presence ten meters ahead even though she couldn't see the figure. Cautiously, Sheila went forward, and after five minutes, she finally saw her opponent. Green skin, ugly face, but overly huge body compared to what she had seen so far. Yes, it wasn't any goblin variant she was familiar with; it was a new monster— a Hobgoblin.