章 8: First dungeon run
Shoutout to my new patron:
Akira light
You are a legend!
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I free fell for about 30 seconds I guess, although during the fall it fell like an hour. I had to say that I was a little freaked out as I did it. A residual fear of heights from my old life I guess, as well as questioning my sanity initially upon doing so.
But as the bottom slowly came nearer and nearer, and the shadows bellow receded to reveal a a stone floor, I bent my knees to absorb the impact as well as lessen the damage I would do to the environment as I landed.
When I finally did, I nearly created another crater. Would have been the second in less than 24 hours. Instead, I just created wide spider cracks that spread out around me in a 2 meter radius.
I looked up to see the astonished faces of adventurers looking at me like I was crazy. One guy was a fat wolf-man in leather armour carrying an axe over his shoulder. His eyes were bugging out to the point where a cm more, and they'd drop out of his head.
I couldn't help but roar in laughter at the funny sight. It reminded me of the time I spooked cats that snuck in my back yard to take a dump, and then I'd suddenly open the window.
And because the walls were smooth concrete, there wasn't really an immediate getaway for them and they'd just jump back with their hackles raised, their eyes wide and bugging out the same way as they hissed.
The older adventurers just started grumbling at me, shaking their heads as if mentally chastising my rash behaviour, typical of brazen youth and whatnot which was no doubt a thought running through their heads.
The younger lot were still staring at me in a perplexed manner as they still weren't able to come to terms with the fact I probably jumped a good couple hundred stories down here, and emerged unscathed, much less without broken legs.
I'll admit I was relieved as well. I couldn't even feel any sort of pain in my feet. It didn't even feel like I'd fallen at all, as if I'd been walking normally up until this point.
Well Saitama was able to jump the height of skyscrapers and keep a poker face, which honestly made sense if this was the extent of his endurance. I probably ought to watch out when jumping around in the dungeon. Wouldn't want to get my head stuck in the ceiling.
Also had to pull punches on the environment as well. If I ended up damaging the dungeon too much, there was a chance it would spawn a Juggernaut in the upper floors just to deal with the threat.
I'm positive I could take it no sweat, but on the off chance it might attack some of the level ones in the area, I couldn't make the gamble. Perhaps when I was positive nobody was around.
I never could find images online of what a juggernaut looked like. All I knew was that it was meant to have sharp claws and teeth but that was about it. It would be nice to finally see its appearance in person and not on a computer screen or in the pages of a manga.
"WOAH! How did you do that?!"
Somebody shouted behind me. I'd turned back to the staircase to see the reactions of everyone one who'd seen me pull a suicidal stunt. I looked over my shoulder to see four people I didn't think I would see so soon.
Finn was standing there, with Tione standing very close to him. As a matter of fact I could see her hand slightly outstretched near his left one, as if interrupted by my sudden arrival. The partial look of annoyance on her face seemed to confirm my theory.
Behind them a little farther off was Ais garbed in the gear she was always seen in. Her hand rested on the hilt of her sword as her mouth was slightly opened in mild shock. I noticed her eyes were slightly wider than usual, but other than that, there was no visible expression on her face.
What did it take to make this girl properly move her face?
I'm guessing it would only be the black dragon that would do that. After all, she hated that thing with a passion that burned hotter than a [FIREBALL] spell.
In the event I encounter the beast, perhaps I should give her the final blow? I mean, I wanted my fill of it. It was the last of the three great world quests after all, and the strongest monster to exist yet. Nothing would stop me from seeing exactly how strong it was.
If I knew my stuff correctly, that thing was hiding somewhere in the North. I had no plans yet to travel out of the city, but once I built a sizeable adventurer party, if I ever got round to it, then perhaps a possible expedition was in order.
Anyway, the one who seemed to exclaim so loudly was Tiona. The caramel coloured Amazoness was standing in front of me, her hands curled up into balls below her chin as she stared at me with stars in her eyes. Realizing she expected an answer as did everyone else there, I answered.
"Well...I'm strong?" I offered weakly.
She shook her head to get rid of the stars (which is another thing that is not normal might I remind you!) and looked at me in exasperation.
"Well DUH you're strong! We established that last night! But how strong are you to survive a jump from all the way up there?!"
"I'm also interested to know as well." Finn commented, his head tilted with a smile on his face.
I contemplated my answer. While I would technically be lying since I hadn't actually done anything of the sort, I also wouldn't be since it was part of the sacred training regimen.
"100 squats every day for a bonkers amount of time without miss nor without break, and you'll be able to fall from the sky and not worry about breaking your legs." I replied.
Tiona pouted deeply, disappointed that I ad given her what seemed like a fib. I mean she was not wrong, And who's to say the same thing could be done to achieve the same results in this universe? Saitama's training regimen was only a small part of why he became strong apparently, and to this day or as far as I knew, the true answer to his abominable strength was unknown.
Finn just gave me heavily skeptical look as he tilted his chin forwards and raised both his eyebrows in a sarcastic manner.
"Oh really?"
"Really, really."
"Hm." They all said in unison. There was an awkward silence for a moment as we all looked at each other. Them at me for calling me out out on BS and them between each other as they decided whether or not to accept it, and me in an earnest attempt to sell it.
I decided a change of topic was fitting.
"So what are you guys doing down here today? On an expedition or something?" I asked as I started walking forwards into the caverns. They also started walking with me side-by-side. I noticed Ais trying to stay closest to me out of the four of them.
"No, there was nothing really much to do at home. And the next expedition is still about a week off, so we decided it would be good to kill some time by coming down here for the day and farming monster cores and drops." Tiona said as she folded her arms behind her head.
"You come into the dungeon for pastime?" I asked them.
"It's a normal thing for us to do. Why do you ask?" This time it was Tione who answered me. I felt a little glad that her previous annoyance was now non-existent. These were good guys. I didn't want to to do anything that would make them mad.
"Well, I would've thought you'd go to the Hostess or some other bar to drink yourselves silly or something. Seems to be the most common pastime around here." I said in reply.
"Meh, we do that as well. We just decided a dungeon run would be little more fun today." Finn waved his hand about, as if dismissing my previous supposition.
"Are you sure it's okay for you to be down here any time you want?"
"What do you mean? We're adventurers. Coming down here is what we're supposed to do."
"I mean that you're the Captain of the Loki Familia. Forgive me if I'm being rude or intrusive, but I would assume you've got plenty of responsibilities or something to tend to considering you have to manage such a large Familia."
"It's no biggie. And yeah, you would usually be right. But I foisted all the paper work on to Riveria today, so I wouldn't have to do them, Haha." Fin chuckled in his mirth. He really did seem like a great guy.
"You sly dog." I said in a mocking deadpan.
"So what are you doing here? This time your first in the dungeon?" Tiona asked me while leaning forwards as she sped up her pace to keep at my side.
"Yeah. I registered as an adventurer this morning. Actually only less than an hour ago really. Thought now was as good a time as any other to get a taste of what the dungeon was really like."
"Well if it isn't a stroke of luck for you that you're with us to show you the ropes." Finn chuckled. I returned the gesture.
"Yeah. I seem to be getting a lot of things handed to me on a plate these days, haha." I said half seriously. If only they knew exactly what I meant by that.
"So does that mean you're part of a Familia now?" Ais finally piped up in a voice a few decibels lower than normal. Not too much that I couldn't hear her but enough so just our group could hear.
"Actually, no. I'm not."
"Hm? You mean you're down here in the dungeon, and you don't even have a blessing?" Tiona asked in shock.
"Yeah. I'm registered as a free-lancer until I eventually do join one. I should be getting results by the time I get back today."
"You've got guts, Garth. Real guts." Tiona said. I quirked an eyebrow.
"First name basis ,eh Tiona?"
"Umm, yes?" She said, making a small pout. "Is that okay?"
I laughed and ruffled her hair, making more of her locks fall in front of her face.
"Yeah sure. I guess we're friend at this point? I wouldn't mind regardless, unless you were someone I didn't like of course."
Her pout deepened as she brushed her disheveled hair back into it's previous state, which probably wasn't much better anyway. I only just caught her muttering.
"...usually I'd break someone's face if they did that. But I guess you're okay."
"Well I'm honoured to be exempt!" I boomed out loudly as she jumped a little, realizing she'd been heard. She pouted even deeper, which honestly looked more cute than terrifying. But I also knew that when this girl was serious, terrifying would be an understatement when describing her. She was level five after all.
"I can't imagine you'd enjoy yourselves much on the upper floors, what with you being high level adventurers after all." I continued with the convo as we pressed deeper and deeper into the caverns. "You headed down to the middle floors or what?
"Actually, kind of. With our speed, we should be there and back before sun down. I'm not sure you should come with us though. You're only a newbie after all. No offence." Finn said to me.
"None taken. And don't take this as arrogance, but I'm certain I am capable of going that far down with you all."
"And why would that be? As strong as you demonstrated yourself to be yesterday, it's hard to believe that you can go that far on your first ever run, without a Falna no less." Finn said with a raised eyebrows.
"You'll find that I'm even stronger than that Captain Finn?"
"How can you be so sure?" Ais said again, This time she was the one leaning towards me eager for an answer.
"Let's just say that I have an assortment of abilities which give me a very shar edge in battle."
"Well, would you care for another demonstration of your almighty power Sir Gareth?" Finn gestured towards a wall.
I looked to see the walls parting, revealing the an unusual amount of goblins emerging from the walls. It looked really strange, seeing stones walls parting like wet clay to release these creatures.
As for the goblins themselves, I received yet another shock as the fact I was in another reality smacked me in the face again. They honestly looked grotesque the things. Their skin was green, and slightly saggy. It had a leathery look to it as well. Their eyes looked too large for their body and they were a sickly yellow.
It's probably in my best interest if I get over the disgust soon enough. I might encounter Xenos in the future. Those were monsters I didn't want to have to kill.
"That's strange." Ais said as her eyes narrowed at the goblins.
"Why? What is it?" I asked her. Finn answered in her place.
"Even for a party of powerful adventurers, for the dungeon to spawn more than 30 goblins is not a normal thing, especially on the first floor."
"I see." I narrowed my eyes as well. I once read somewhere that the dungeon spawned monsters according to how much of a threat the adventurer was to it. Though, I had to say I was hurt. To give only 30 of these little freaks was an insult to my capability.
"So, are you going to show us that amazing move of your or what?" Tiona tilted her head.
"Yeah sure. Would you all mind stepping behind me?"
They complied and stopped walking, allowing me to advance ahead of them. Did I draw a weapon? Did I cast a spell? No.
I raised my arms outwards as my companions raised their eyebrows in confusion. I looked back and smirked at them as I brought my hands in together in a loud clap.
That simple clap created a large shockwave that nearly ruptured everyone's ears there, evident by how they clasped their ears, though still keeping their eyes on the scene.
The shockwave travelled across the cavern, tearing up rocks from the floor, kicking up dust and shattering stalactites and stalagmites. But the main eyecatcher was how the goblins were taken of their feet and flung back against the wall from which they emerged.
Every single one of them, splattered against the walls, like a smashed egg with its contents smeared all over the rocky surface. Bones and flesh were churned into paste from the pressure of the clap as no distinguishable feature was left of an of the goblins. They stayed there for a couple of seconds as the wind died down before they disappeared in a puff of dark smoke just as depicted in the anime.
The monster cores tinkered on the ground like marbles, dropping from the places where I assumed had been the toro areas of the little mongrels.
...
Pin drop silence.
I looked back again at my companions to see them staring at me eyes wide, their jaws dropped.
Except Ais though. Her eyes had only widened a little more but that was it.
"You guys okay?" I asked.
They all shook their heads furiously before looking back again to stare at the scene. They seemed to become even more astonished at the sight of devastation.
Confusedly I looked as well to see what was going on, before my mouth opened slightly as well as I took in the sight before me. The face o the wall had become molten rock, which had slowly dripped down to the ground, swallowing the dropped monster cores. They quickly cooled, and while I doubted I couldn't fish out the cores from the rock, I was not sure about the conditions of the cores themselves.
"Oops?" I offered meekly.
"What the hell are you?" Finn whispered. Tione had the same look in her eyes. Tiona just gained stars again, and I noticed Ais's gaze had become more focused as well.
In the depths of her empty eyes, I saw the spark of ambition, which would later turn into a blazing inferno further down the line.
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