First mission

The next morning I head out before the others wake up and go to work. Arriving at the unassuming building I enter and am once again greeted by the receptionist lady.

I hadn't noticed while leaving yesterday but this room really looked like a reception hall. Comfy looking couches, elegant chairs filling a large room, and a reception desk smack dab in the middle.

Come to think of it, I never asked the receptionist lady's name. I'll have to do that.

"Nice to see you could make it. Let me introduce myself, I am Valeria, I usually take care of the reception."

Or maybe I won't ask her because she's just going to tell me. An awkward silence follows. What am I supposed to say?

"Nice to meet you, I'm Guy."

"I know."

Right, she knows. Of course, she knows! Why did I have to say that?

"Now that you are here it's time for you to meet the chairman. Please follow me."

I follow Valeria through multiple hallways and enter an office with a golden plaque on the door. Inside is a somewhat empty-looking office where a pudgy but young man is lounging on a couch. In his right hand is a worn book while he shovels snacks into his mouth with his left.

When I enter, his gaze unhurriedly detaches from the book and lands on me. He gives me a kind smile and motions for me to sit on the couch opposite him. I sit down and sink into the soft material of the couch.

"Nice to meet you, I am Darwin, acting chairman of VR dungeons HQ. Now, let me explain some of the inner workings of our company. VR dungeons is a cover for our operations but we actually do provide services.

"We offer a virtual reality experience of clearing dungeons and an extensive amount of training for both stats and skills. You will also act as an instructor on dismantling. Any earnings from this will be considered a bonus to salary. Should you master any other desirable skills they can also be taught for additional income."

"Isn't our purpose to preserve dungeons? This is counterproductive!"

"It is but that just makes it a better cover. Additionally, we gather all our customers' data in our systems and have knowledge of their weaknesses.

"Regarding training, you as an employee have unlimited access to all standard training along with one advanced training per month. Since you only teach one skill and, forgive my bluntness, at a not very high level you can spend the day training. Once a team of adventurers you can take on is detected you will be called to the reception. Any further questions?"

"Not really."

"You are a little confused by your new environment but you will acclimate quickly. This is a normal occurrence. Believe it or not, all of us here were once like you. Valeria, please take him to the gym and have Edward take care of his training."

Just like that I'm once again walking through the hallways. We enter the lobby of an empty gym and Valeria rings a bell. An old, midget-like geezer emerges from the back and makes his way over to us.

"The new guy?"

"Darwin wants him training until he has his first mission."

After saying her piece Valeria turns on her heel and stalks off. Edward takes a glance at my clothing and ushers me into the changing room where a change of clothes is already present. Well, I call them clothes but it's just swimming trunks and a towel. What kind of training is this going to be?

I emerge from the changing room and follow Edward to the back of the Gym. He leads me into a pool area with a track next to it.

"Run on the track until exhausted, swim until you have recovered then back to running."

Kurt but clear instructions however...

"If I run until I'm exhausted how am I supposed to starts swimming?"

"Less talking and more running!"

Reluctantly I begin to run on the track. I had expected to be swimming so I'd left my shoes in the changing room. Running barefoot was more than a little uncomfortable but I knew better than to ask if I could go get my shoes.

<Good decision. Edward would never allow you to get your shoes. After all, you won't be wearing shoes as a goblin.>

I was so scared that I stumbled and faceplanted straight onto the track.

<Sorry if I startled you. I'm Navi, I'll be staying in contact with you if you ever need advice or if I'm just bored.>

You can read my thoughts?

<Indeed I can. In case you ever need me please just mentally call out my name.>

I get up again and keep running. It's barely been two minutes and I already feel the exhaustion setting in. Guess those lower stats get really noticeable when you exert yourself.

I grit my teeth and endure another 3 minutes before collapsing on the track.

Edward appears behind me, lifts me up despite being half my size, and chucks me into the pool. Like a drowning rat, I thrash in the water until I can get my bearings and let myself float.

"Get moving or I'll come in and drown you myself!"

And hearing that threat my tired muscles suddenly find the strength to start moving again. At first the water feels ice cold but soon it becomes a nice and cool current that envelops me and reduces my body heat. I mainly swim with my arms since my legs still feel like they are on fire.

The second the burning in my legs subsides I need to get out of the pool and start running again. Two whole hours of this torture until Navi's sweet voice frees me by telling me to head back to the reception. I quickly change and follow Navi's guidance back to the reception.

There, Valeria takes over again and leads me back to the room where I woke up yesterday.

"Lie down and you'll be transferred to the dungeon. For now, we decided to send you to an easy dungeon with goblins. Your opponents will be natives of that world so the difficulty is even lower."

As soon as I lie down sudden sleepiness assaults my mind and I black out.

<Transfer successful. You are now safely within the dungeon. You are currently on the third floor while the target just entered the second floor. The estimated time until they reach the third floor is half an hour.>

Sorry to bother you already but what am I supposed to do now?

<It's no problem. There are about 40 low-level goblins on this floor. Using them as cover you should be able to reach the target and attack them.>

But I have no weapons!

<You can buy weapons at HQ or steal from the adventurers.>

In other words, no weapons for the time being.

I look around, I'm in a small cave-like room with only one entrance, an exit, and nowhere to hide. Unsuitable for an ambush.

Thankfully I have the dungeon map skill and don't need to explore the terrain myself. With one thought a semi-transparent 3D map appears before me. I can clearly see myself represented by a small replica of myself. Besides myself the map is also filled with green dots and one group of red ones.

<Green represents monsters of the dungeon while red represents enemies. The larger a dot is the stronger the entity in question.>

Looking over the map I finally find a good spot to fight them. It's a room that can't be avoided with a ledge that allows for a higher vantage point.

While walking over there I pick up any well-sized stones I find. If I don't have any real weapons I might as well use the things on the ground.

As for the goblins... Navi, can I communicate with the goblins?

<That would be the main use of the universal monster language skill you possess. A fair warning though, a goblins intellect isn't particularly high so while you can speak to them they might not understand.>

I decide to try this skill of mine to see its effects. I approach a lone goblin on my way and attempt to initiate a conversation.

"Hey, how's it going?"

"What wants?"

I receive an aggressive answer like I'm interrupting the goblin during his favorite past-time. I mean, goblins in dungeons likely don't do much between wandering around but that's no reason to be like this. Still, I should try being nice, teamwork with the goblins will make killing the adventurers much easier.

"I was wondering if you would be willing to join me in setting an ambush for the incoming adventurers?"

The goblin gives me a look as if I am an idiot that speaks another language. I'm using the universal monster language, right?

"What wants?!"

A little more assertive this time the goblin repeats his question. I am a little frustrated at the prospect of needing to work together with a group of mindless beings I can't communicate with.

"How are we supposed to kill the enemy if we can't communicate!"

"Kill... Enemy?"

Hearing those words the goblin becomes excited, its breath quickens and its eyes turn slightly bloodshot. Seems my words from before were too complicated and I'll have to speak simpler.

"Follow me to kill the enemy."

"Follow!"

The goblin seems very content and follows me without another word. I slightly adjust my path to the room I choose for the ambush to gather more goblins on the way. By the time I arrive, I have a group of fifteen goblins behind me.

"Wait here. Prepare for the enemy."

"Prepare?"

"Wait for the enemy."

I take another look and notice that the group of red dots has come quite close to my current position. I try to herd the goblins onto the ledge but only two seem to understand such an advanced command.

I provide those two goblins with some of my stones hoping that they will imitate my throwing. The ledge goes along the left side of the room and allows me to stand directly above the entrance to this room. But for now, I position myself further down the ledge so that I have a better view of the entrance.

Time for one last look at my status.

Status Guy Lv. 1 Goblin

Mp 10

Strength 5

Constitution 5

Speed 5+1

Magic ability 0

Skills:

universal humanoid language, universal monster language, dungeon map

Sword use lv. 1; enhanced stamina lv. 2; dismantling lv. 4

Why do I suddenly have a plus one behind speed? And why is it displayed like that?

<I assume you are aware of the skill series enhanced strength, constitution, speed and magic ability. Monsters don't have access to such skills but can instead directly grow their stats through training. A monsters stats will be displayed as an additive of three numbers. First the base stats, then the level up stats and finally the trained stats.>

Is there no limit to this?

<Technically, no, there is no limit. However, the amount of training needed to gain even a slight improvement increases exponentially at higher stages.>

No more time to think about this. I can hear voices from the entrance of the room. The goblins below start to get agitated as they too hear the sounds of someone approaching.

"There are so few goblins around. Are you sure that this dungeon wasn't recently cleared?"

"It's a newly formed dungeon. It hasn't had enough time to spawn many goblins and we can destroy it before it does."

"Shut up, both of you know that any dungeon is dangerous and unpredictable. Don't underestimate it!"

Apparently, me gathering some of the goblins on my way here had caused some adventurers to think lightly of the dungeon. A fatal mistake!