Chapter 2: 2
After finding out what world I'd been drop kicked into, I'd had this rather silly notion that went a little like this: something, something, butterfly effect, Bell is now dead, something, something, big dragon kill everyone.
Which honestly? It wasn't a bad conclusion to come to; Danmachi was clearly building to something big that the main character would play a central role in, and Bell? Well, he got saved by sheer random chance, a lot. Move his schedule off a bit and suddenly he's not going to be saved by the random high level adventurers who just happened to be there for the fourth time in a row.
Some might call it luck, but I personally call it bad writing, which is tragic because I live here now.
Regardless, if you take that logic to its extreme, then suddenly it seems like a really good idea to just not be in Orario. It's a bit harder to butterfly someone out of existence when you've got a hundred miles between you in a medieval age.
Indeed, it all seemed like such a great fucking idea at first, but unfortunately I failed to account for one tiny little thing.
This is a medieval age.
The peak of entertainment in this world is reading and maybe going to the pub to drink shitty ale if you have the money. And I couldn't even begin to afford the red light district, even if I did get bored enough to risk getting the magical world equivalent of the clap.
I'm a monkey-brained gamer from the twenty-first century, I need stimulation, I crave it. I still haven't even multi-tasked once since I got to this god forsaken land. I miss my two monitors, my memes and the sweet, sweet feeling of stimulation to fill the void.
Which is all to say I got really, really bored and decided to say 'fuck it, let's risk this entire world for fun and profit'. Which, when put like that really makes me sound like a dick, but honestly? I put a lot of thought into what I would do and how, and after yesterday? I have very high hopes. The idea of a Danmachi adventurer with the Skyrim system stacked on top is just that nutty.
"Elric-kun~" Hestia's whine brings me back to reality, as my Goddess wriggles around cutely on the pew I dragged out behind the church for her. "I'm bored..."
"I thought you wanted to watch." I remind her patiently, my hands subconsciously sacrificing yet more flowers to the dark gods of alchemy. Yes, it'd only been a day since I arrived at the church and already the grind had begun.
We'd found out earlier that I did indeed have the skill system that I remembered from Skyrim, the constellations seemingly integrated into the Falna itself. So naturally the first thing to do was pick a shit ton of plants and sacrifice them in some old alchemy equipment Miach was willing to lend Hestia.
Cool guy that one.
The results thus far? About the same as if you never bothered to remember the plant combinations in Skyrim and just do the whole thing blind. You win some, you lose a lot.
Unfortunately this isn't a game world so I apparently don't get a magic 'make potion' button, which means I'm doing all the crushing and grinding and cutting by hand. Which meant that despite the fact that I'd been at this for the entire morning, I had only made forty or so potions of note corked in some glassware Miach had lent us on a loan. On top of that I was down to only a quarter of the rather large pile of ingredients I'd started with.
This was improving -slowly- with what I hope is a sign of my skill levelling, but given that Hestia barely understands what's going on with the constellations, I don't even know what level of alchemy I started with. Probably fifteen or so.
But that brings me to the next problem; I can barely tell the poisons from the good shit and thus have no idea what these liquids do. I could stuff a vial of poison down a Goblin's throat and it could do some weak DOT or tickle them for a minute for all I know.
That was getting better fortunately, like with my actual production technique I was gradually improving all round; steadily increasing my budding ability to tell the difference between these potions by smell. How that works, I have no idea, but this one smells of cranberries and my gut's telling me that's a bad thing.
Into the poison pile it goes.
"Mah~! That was before I knew how long this would take." Hestia complained. "And you keep getting distracted! It's like you're barely listening to me."
That's... kinda fair actually.
"I did tell you it would probably be boring." Oh wait…
"Lie!" Hestia jumped up, pointing at me indignantly. "You said 'Hestia come check out my amazing alchemy skills' and then ran off to pick flowers!"
"No, I said you can come check out my sick nasty alchemy skills later if you want." Even as I correct her my skill keeps me moving, grinding out the next failure that I dump into an ominously bubbling bucket.
I really, really need to find a good place to dispose of that before it either explodes or corrodes the bucket and poisons the local water table.
"That's the same thing..." She whines.
"Fine." I say, putting down the pestle and mortar. "You wanna do something fun?"
"I want to learn more about my child." She shoots me a deadpan look.
"Err- how about no?" I tease, though I end up nearly wincing as disappointment flashes across her face. As poor taste as it is to deny her, I abjectly can't get into my past with her, my world- my personal history just isn't hero origin material. "I was more thinking about trying the Falna thing again; I've levelled alchemy up at least once, so hopefully it'll be a bit more clear."
The disappointment slowly gives way to a feigned look of disinterest. "Well, if you insist…"
I smile, trying to get Hestia to stop poking and prodding my Falna after we'd found how to open the constellation had actually taken some work. Apparently the language it was written in was completely foreign and even I can't read that shit, so we're a bit at a loss on that one. Which, of course, made it way too interesting for a god like Hestia to resist poking at for several hours.
It took me eventually just tossing her off to get her to stop. People have biological needs that can't be met with a Goddess sitting on your ass.
"C'mon Elric-kun I'm waiting!" She urged, in response I just showed her my filthy hands.
"You're a Goddess, have some patience." I chided her with a mature smile as I washed my hands with a trickle of water from the clean bucket. Hestia just pouted harder.
"Mou, I've been patient! For an hour!"
"Yeah, yeah…" I smirked as I took off my shirt and kneeled with my back turned to her pew. She hit my back lightly in response, before her interest got the better of her and her fingers began tracing the patterns engraved into my soul. She was leaned so close in that I could feel the warmth of her breath on my back.
I resisted the urge to roll my eyes.
"It's changed!" She exclaimed.
"Anything you can do with it?"
"There's something…" Her voice trailed off, her feather soft touches sending shivers down my spine. "I think you have those perk points you mentioned yesterday. It feels like..." I'd explained the basics of Skyrim levelling to her the day prior, but without reference material it felt like I'd only conveyed half the picture.
"Potential." She whispered in a faint, far away voice. "This is amazing Elric-kun…"
"I really am, aren't I?" I chuckled as she faintly slapped my side. "Can you put it anywhere? And is there anything else?"
She hummed again. "One of the constellations is brighter? Fuller? It feels like it's over a fifth full. Other than that…" She adjusted me a little, pushing me around like she was a damn hairdresser. "No, I can't see anything else that's new; you were expecting those health or stamina point things, right?"
I glance suspiciously over my shoulder. "You sure you didn't miss anything?"
"Ne." She gave me the gremlin eye, patent pending. "Are you really going to look down on a Goddess Elric-kun...?" She seemed awfully serious about this, so I looked her dead in the eye.
"Yes." I deadpanned.
"Mou!" She slapped me for what felt like the hundredth time. "My first child is such a meanie~"
"And my Goddess is very abus-" I threw up my hands in surrender when she raised her hand again.
"That's what I thought~" She declared smugly. "And no, you don't have those point thingies."
I'd have to trust her on this, at least for now, but I was expecting... well something I guess. Then again, I suppose it did kind of make sense: how would hit points and stamina that wouldn't even let you run for a minute translate into a world like Danmachi? And magic? Can I even use Skyrim magic?
Asking the question didn't make the answer magically arise from my soul, so I guess I'm on my own for that one. Oh wait-
"Hestia, how many constellations are there?" I asked something I probably should have asked from the get-go.
"Umu…" A rather cute noise of concentration rang out behind me before she announced, "Eighteen!"
"So I do have magic then." I stated thoughtfully.
"You're still thinking about that?" She huffed. "I know we talked about this yesterday Elric-kun, but normal adventurers can only have a few spells. I don't know if you can cast as many as you were talking about yesterday, but even just seeing three spells from a level one will draw attention."
"I know, I know…" I rolled my eyes. "Skyrim magic is pretty weak late game anyway, I'm just thinking about my options here; having a healing spell alone would be nice."
"...That would be reassuring." She admits softly.
I hum in agreement. "I also want to see if it levels up my magic stat."
"Maybe…" She said distractedly, before her tracing suddenly stopped. "I got it!" She exclaimed.
"It?"
"Your perk point! I can put it somewhere." She said smugly. "Ne, Elric-kun aren't I amazing?"
I sarcastically clapped for her. "How amazing you are my Goddess." So smug was she that she didn't even hit me for my teasing.
"Umu~" She agreed. "Now, where do you want this thing?"
"Can you find the one-handed skill? For swords I mean."
"Yup! I can do that for you, Elric-ku-" She cut off suddenly. "Eh! Why are there two?"
"Are you going off feeling back there or something?" She nods and I can't help but blink, levelling up really shouldn't be this… weird. "There's two sword skills; one is one-handed, the other two-handed, go for the smaller one."
"Ohh…" She exclaims, before a soft touch blossoms across my back and my mind shifts.
"Oh." I joined her in amazement, I can't exactly tell what just changed but I really want to stab something right now, specifically with a one-handed implement.
"This is the damage perk right?" She asks curiously.
"Hell yeah it is." I happily agree, still somewhat high on the feeling of power- my power. "Do I have another perk point? And is the second tier of that perk open yet?"
"That's…" Hestia trailed off, diving back into my Falna. "You have one more, and…"
Anticipation filled me as-
"I did it!" She announced her success cheerfully, and oh shit could I feel it.
I laugh perhaps a little manically. "You're the best Hestia." I claimed truthfully, my mind awash with… I don't even know how to begin to describe it, but I do know that I'm going to have some fun in the dungeon.
"Ehe~" She emitted happily, soaking up the praise.
I stood up suddenly, my grin widening ravenously across my face.
"Hey I was-" Hestia cuts off as I casually lift her by the armpits, she blinks. "Eh? Elric-kun?" Is all she can get out before I bring her into a crushing hug and start spinning her around.
Small people deserve no mercy.
"WAAAAAIII-!" She cried, but I didn't stop until I was satisfied, only then letting her drop down onto unsteady legs. "Why…?" She moaned.
"Because you're the best." I answer smugly.
"I don't think I wanna be the best if it means you keep spinning me…" She whined.
"Sounds like someone wants to be spun again~" I teased, not expecting Hestia to take one look at my wriggling digits and promptly run off.
"YOU'RE SO MEAN!" The abusive Goddess shouted, fleeing from my victorious self.
Remember kids, always get even.
Since I no longer needed to appease her, I supposed that I could go back to my alchemy and burn through the rest of my ingredients, but honestly? Those perks left me wanting to do only one thing.
And that thing is grinding.
The dungeon is a calling boys, just waiting for a murderhobo hero to plunge its dark depths... it all sounds a little romantic to be honest.
Now, before I made the trip to Orario I'd worked as a labourer in Ratan, the pay was shit, but as long as you were strong enough they wouldn't care if you came to work in say, some rags you found on the street, and given my circumstances, that was kind of perfect. Plus, at the time I didn't exactly have much overhead -on account of sleeping on the village streets- so I was left with a decent little nest egg; part of which I'd since put to good use.
A good use which I'd thankfully remembered to take from my kit downstairs and put in my inventory, I really didn't want to deal with Hestia's pouting right now. The moment I reached for them the warm glow of objects materialising out of my inventory lit the air, and I was suddenly left with a shield on my arm, a rather light steel cuirass on my chest and a sword on my hip.
Why sword and board instead of stealth archer you ask? I'd thought this through back in Ratan, scrubbing my brain for what I knew of the Danmachi dungeon. Two things stood out: one was that monsters in the dungeon always seemed to know where Bell was and/or spawned on top of him, and the other was that the dungeon was at least partially sentient and wanted to kill those who stepped into it.
Now granted, my Skyrim knowledge is limited to the game alone and not any of that weird deep lore you find on the internet; but somehow I don't think crouching will let me fool a domain-type enemy with seeming omniscience in said domain, regardless of my skill level. Worse still I can't even test it because I don't know if the monsters will scale with my level like in Skyrim, so until I find that out fudging my build is the same as committing suicide.
So, stealth archer is out, what about magic? Dunno how to activate it, and the skill damage was fixed in game causing it to crap out at the higher levels; that might be different for me given how the magic stats works in Danmachi, so I'll come back to it later. All of that only leaves melee, a personal favourite of mine and -if I'm being honest- the only choice I really considered.
Sue me, I'm biased.
When the masses are talking about Heroes they want flash, they want tales of bravery- of people running head first into danger, sword in hand. They want people like Ais and her overly elaborate and acrobatic sword style, the Braver and the story he's built up around himself; they want Riveria and her grand, floor clearing magic.
They don't want a tale of a guy who hid for a bit, shot some arrows and then everyone died, no one would tell a tale about that... Okay well, maybe they would -because that's kinda funny- but that's not the vibe we're going for here.
Big boy hero energy here only.
I don't care that I already have one broken ass skill, if I'm fighting the world ending dragon then you can bet your ass cheeks that I'm not going to stop trying to squeeze more power out of this world. This is the Holy Church of Hero Maxers and it's fucking gains day boys.
Which means it's time to fuck up the dungeon... right after I finish registering with the guild.
It's as I'm leaving that something amazing occurs to me. I turn to look at my lovely, ominously bubbling bucket... could I? Picking it up very carefully, I watch with a growing smile as it disappears into my inventory.
Oh the monsters are going to love my bucket.
The Geneva Suggestions are only for humans after all.
"HESTIA I'M GOING TO THE DUNGEON! BE BACK SOMETIME." I yell into the chapel, running off before she can respond.
-
The closest guild branch was a rather tasteful affair I decided, like someone had taken over a bank to serve as their fantasy adventurers' guild, and then decided to just adopt the aesthetics into its operation. Formal vested uniforms and cute professional girls were the rule of thumb here and they operated with a clinical efficiency that I could genuinely respect.
Unfortunately that same efficiency saw me swiftly guided to a line for a clerk that had me bracing for the worst. Eina Tulle was perhaps more beautiful than she was in the anime, but I just couldn't be arsed to deal with her. If Bell's experience was anything to go by, then I was in for an overly long lecture on how to kill green midgets with the reach of a toddler; all from a woman who's never been in the dungeon.
If this were a game, this would be the kind of tutorial level bullshit that I'd have skipped straight through, because honestly? I'd rather huff the fumes coming out of my bucket than be forced to sit through an extended tutorial on the absolute basics.
I am not a patient man.
Spacing out, I fantasied about just leaving and running into the dungeon like a goober, I didn't even realise I was at the front of the queue until Tulle cleared her throat politely.
I blinked. "Oh sorry, spaced out for a second there."
"What can the guild do for you today, Mr?" She inquired formally, her eyes were fixed on my armour and a somewhat strained smile sat upon her lips.
"Carne, and I just need to register as an adventurer."
Her smile becomes just that little bit more strained. "Do you have a familia to register yourself with?"
"The Hestia familia." I inform her; from the notch in her brow, it's clear she hasn't heard of my Goddess before.
"I see..." She frowned. "Before I get the forms, I need to ask if you also require a dungeon advisor?"
That was a choice? Holy shit I'm going to save so much time.
"No." Her smile outright became a frown. "My familia has already filled me in." I deflect, Hestia most certainly hadn't, but I had a solid understanding of the first twelve floors, never mind the first.
"Have they now?" Oh that's cute, she's making assumptions. "I'll be right back with your forms."
Watching the half-elf walk away I thought for a split second that maybe this wouldn't be so bad, that I had perhaps misjudged Eina and her overbearing nature. That thought lasted right up until she returned with a stack of forms thicker than my thumb.
Motherfucker.
I should have just gone straight to the dungeon, just said fuck it and hopped right in; I can literally feel my time in there slipping through my fingers.
My trepidation must've been showing, because Tulle took one look at me and then just smirked. Fucking bureaucrats, it's not enough that they have to suffer, oh no, they have to drag everyone down with them.
The first full fifth of the stack all required sizable chunks of information to be filled out and that took ages. Immediately after that were the waivers of life and responsibility -that you had to read through entirely- a mass of legalese that basically translated to 'fuck you and your family, this idiot signed off on his life'.
Which I did, so kinda fair, but I'd still rather be head first in my bucket right now.
It was as I was reading the ninth and final waiver that Tulle decided she couldn't wait anymore.
"Carne-san." She got my attention. "I can tell you're set on this path, so I'll just give you a piece of advice I give to every adventurer that comes through here: Adventurers must not go on adventures, the dungeon is an incredibly dangerous place and the only way to find your fortune in there is to be safe." She stated firmly, imploring me with her eyes to listen.
I should probably just nod and move on, however...
"I know you mean well and all, and you're probably just talking about reckless adventurers without a lick of sense." I state blandly. "But even so, you're still wrong."
Her eyes narrowed dangerously. "...Is that so?"
I resisted the urge to roll my eyes, playing obtuse huh? "The Falna responds to challenge, anyone following your advice will never make it to d rank stats, let alone further."
Eina adjusted her glasses, face cold. "It's advice intended to stop people from recklessly endangering themselves, Carne-san."
"So now it's 'adventurers must not go on adventures, other than all those times they should'?" I parody her motto back to her. I was honestly being kind of a dick here, but I wasn't the biggest fan of Eina to begin with and she was kind of in my way.
"If you wish to see it that way." She stated sternly.
I hum, signing my name on the last form with a flourish, looking up to shoot Tulle a satisfied smile.
"And done-" I get cut off as she drops a new set of forms in front of me with a sadistic, bureaucratic gleam in her eye.
"I'm afraid that the Goddess Hestia left much of the formalisation process of her familia for her future child." Eina smiled, a cold malicious smile on her face that hinted at untold -paper laden- horrors. "I'll have to insist on you taking care of that right away."
I don't know who I'm more annoyed at right now... No, it's Hestia, it's definitely Hestia; I'm spanking that Goddess when I get back.
She dares drop this shit into my lap? I'll make sure she can't sit for a week!
"Where do I start?" I asked with a forced smile, glaring into the face of the bureaucratic demon.
-
My mood thoroughly ruined by the miracles of bureaucracy and Hestia, I turn my attention to Babel, the enormous rock hewn tower that dominates the centre of Orario and serves as the dungeon's grand seal. At its base -through the grand arches- I found the titanic staircase that served as the dungeon's entrance, as well as something that was definitely not in the anime.
Craning my neck up to take it all in I stared in awe at the seemingly living painting of the azure sky that dominated the ceiling of the grand room. It glowed beautifully in the shadowed hall and I couldn't help but wonder if this was Ouranous' seal.
Due to Tulle and her paperwork I arrived well past noon and thus long after the morning adventurer rush. The staircase was basically empty apart from a few banged up adventurers resting up on the lower stairs, and a single group that was heading towards me who seemed inordinately pleased with themselves.
As I passed the apparently lucky group, the leader called out, "Give em hell brat!" to the laughs of his comrades.
Thanks random guy, I kinda needed that after the guild.
I smiled and kept bounding down the stairs; this thing went deep and I was not looking forward to having to take them back up while already battered by the dungeon. Without a Falna just getting in and out of the dungeon alone would probably be pretty tiring.
As I got near the bottom, the brickwork of Babel gave way to something far older and more ominous, the dark stone forming an ancient doorway, its heavy doors of nearly glowing metal opened wide in invitation. The pair of adventurers guarding them nodded at me as I passed, and just like that I was in the dungeon.
The air was cool and smelled like that particular combination of stale, earthy and just a little metallic that you sometimes found in caves. The walls were a strange light blue colour instead of the more earthy tones I expected from the anime, and dim light filled the space from somewhere. The thing that stood out the most however was the unnatural quiet that filled the space.
God, these vibes are perfect, my hair's already standing up on the back of my neck. With a grin and a scrape of steel on leather, I advance into the dungeon, sword in hand. I remember Bell just running around with his knife sheathed, but swords are a bit more awkward to get out and I don't have Bell's speed. Qahnaarin might have buffed my damage already, but Skyrim doesn't have shit for speed outside of a pair of shouts.
Shield first, I put one foot in front of the other and advanced excitedly, straining my senses to try and hear anything I could. When 'heroing', the most important thing to do is never look stupid, and that means avoiding all the common rookie mistakes. Never get relaxed while in a place that wants to kill you, otherwise you end up like Bell, half dead and having to be rescued.
Nothing is less heroic than having to be saved… or dying like a goober I guess.
It took five minutes of exploring like this before I found my first Goblin, which probably said something about the spawn rate on this floor.
It was a funny little creature, like a toddler with oversized, gangly limbs and a bulbous head that flopped about as it scrambled towards me. Its range was shit, its speed was only a little bit more than what you'd expect from its toddler legs due to their adult-like strength, and its intelligence was apparently limited to running in a straight line towards you.
It was -in short- hilarious, and maybe a little sad as the grand start of my heroic journey, but I could deal with that. All adventurers started here after all.
As the little potato-headed bastard got close, I smiled, yeah, it all started with this. A single textbook thrust taken straight from my childhood fencing lessons punched a hole straight through its skull, puncturing through its resistance with the same ease I would an overripe watermelon.
Not that I've stabbed a lot of watermelons, but y'know.
I rechamber my arm, stepping back with my shield at the ready. My caution proved a bit too much given all the points I've already outlined, and the Goblin just collapsed anti-climatically. The only real surprise was that the body just kept bleeding out onto the floor instead of turning to ash like in the anime.
Is it still alive?
Well safety first.
I cautiously slash its throat, but it didn't move aside from the force of the blow, just leaving me with an even bloodier corpse. My mind flashed back to the sky mural I saw only a few minutes prior; maybe this was just another difference between the anime and the real world? But if that's the case, then...
"How the fuck do I get the drops?" I mutter, still standing a healthy distance away from the corpse; I've seen enough horror films to know to never stand close to 'dead' creatures.
Staring at it, sword in hand, I realise that I'm just going to have to start cutting and see what happens.
"You weren't a worthy opponent, but I'm sorry for this regardless." I offer as a shitty prayer, crouching down -still out of reach- and just start cutting. I immediately found out three things, swords don't have the leverage for precision work for one, and for two, monsters have a lot of blood in them.
My clothes did not escape untouched.
The final thing I realised was that the Goblin's magic stone was in the obvious place; I know this because I accidentally broke the damn thing while I was poking around its chest.
At least it finally turned into ash, and I now know I need a carving knife. Carving this shit out of each monster is going to be such a pain though; I guess that's part of why a good supporter matters.
Standing up I thanked the Falna once more for its buff, my knees would probably not survive this hero business without it, if this was to be any indication.
Another ten minutes pass before I find my second Goblin, one that's slain just as quickly as the first, just a contemptuous flick of my blade and the thing is bleeding out on the floor.
I genuinely can't express enough how pathetic these things are.
And that made me cautious, because the only reason I could think of to churn out these shit tier enemies, was if they were a psyop designed by the dungeon to make adventurers overconfident and let their guards down. Now I might be giving it too much credit here, but I'm a conspiracy theorist at heart and this smells more than a little sussy.
The extraction thankfully goes a bit better this time and, after a short while rummaging around in a Goblin's bloody insides, I managed to produce a dimly glowing purple gem, something that my skill reacted interestingly to. No, it wasn't a soul gem but it felt similar enough, just far too weak.
Which was kind of a relief honestly. I'd been worried about Skyrim ingredients since I'd sat Hestia down and went through the skill with her; alchemy working with the surface plants had helped assuage those worries, but enchanting and smithing are the big boys, and if they were off the table, then the skill….
Well it would still be overpowered, but not nearly as much as I first thought.
It was as I was crouched there -contemplating the gem- that I heard the first cracks, immediately forcing me to ditch the gem and back up from the patch of ceiling the gobbos had decided to spawn from.
"That's a little better Dungeon…" I tease, watching as the little green men fall to the floor; it was kind of cute how they flopped over and had to scramble up just to glare at me. I backed up to an appropriate distance, putting my shield between me and them, sword at the ready.
In your face Tulle, I am the very soul of caution, even against these pickle brained toddlers.
They ran at me with their standard lack of strategy, leading me to experiment with a step to the side that brought the pathing of two of them just a bit too close, a fact that had them madly scrambling over each other in an almost Charlie Chaplin-esque manner. I laughed, meeting the unimpeded Goblin with a casual slice to its throat at a range it couldn't even hope to respond to. It didn't die immediately, but I just stepped back as it bled out scrambling on the floor.
The dynamic duo finally managed to fix their pathing and ran at me side-by-side, something that I fixed with a long thrust into the Gobbo on the right's skull. With my blade overextended into his friend, the last Goblin showed some basic reasoning skills and took the chance to leap for my throat. The problem? He was on my left side and my shield was very much not overextended.
I snorted at the expression that twisted its vile little face as my shield slammed into its torso and ripped the air from its lungs. The creature bounced off with a crunch and slammed into the jagged wall, where it fell to the floor in a boneless heap.
I shook my head in contempt, these things really were a joke of a psyop.
A casual swipe finished off the still bleeding out first gobbo, leaving me alone with the paralysed little bastard who was still glaring at me with unending hatred.
"You would have happily done the same." I reminded it, my boot pulping its skull into a gory mess.
Carving out the new gems proved to be just as much of a pain as the first time and I found myself lamenting that this world wasn't a one-to-one of the anime. But well, whining about it won't do anything, I'd just have to see about getting a supporter soon; if Lili was any indication then they probably kicked about in front of Babel waiting for parties. I'd just have to see about finding one tomorrow during the morning rush.
Before that though, I'd have to decide whether I was staying on the first floor or- Oh who the fuck am I kidding, of course I'm going further. The Falna grows through challenge, through pushing ones self, and this floor hadn't even come close.
"Maximum effort." I grinned, venturing deeper into the dungeon that apparently wants to kill me; it's just been doing a pretty shit job of it so far.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
One_Fall_Leaf
One_Fall_Leaf Thanks for reading and for the support this story has gotten, I really, genuinely appreciate it.
If you couldn’t tell I have a lot of disdain for Goblins and fantasy in general’s lack of understanding when it comes to the basic concept of size and reach. If people start thinking that things like man-sized spiders are of the same danger level as green toddlers, then you’ve done something wrong (barring absurd speed).
In regards to the Eina Tulle stuff, Elric was showing a bit more of himself there than he otherwise would in his usual act; he can be surprisingly impatient, he thinks he knows better than others and is quite obsessed with the idea of being the hero. Had he listened, he’d have learned about the need to carve out crystals beforehand and brought a knife... probably not the last time those quirks of his will come back to bite him.
To clarify skill levels, Elric started with level 20 one-handed and 15 Alchemy, his two level ups came from pushing alchemy up to 22. He put his two perks points into the damage perk of one-handed. Hestia will get better at reading the skill, so just bare with the fuzziness for now.
There are there no health/stamina/magicka stats, hence Elric's confusion. He also can't currently work out how to access his magic, but will in future. Elric is not dragonborn and has no way to learn shouts in this world. I saw a fair amount of confusion on those points so I just wanted to clarify before I went further.
Hope that cleared up some things up and sorry for the long ass AN; I hope you all have a great day.
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