First Floor

While Noir was making his way towards the dungeon, Alice was still sleeping in her brother's room unaware of what had happened earlier between them.

"Big brother…Hehehe…" Instead, She was seen hugging the pillow and nuzzling her face on it like a cat showing its affection to its owner. One could only imagine what kind of dream she was having with that kind of loose grin on her face.

"Ah… Don't touch me there... Big brother…. We haven't signed… The papers yet."

Her face was getting progressively red as heavy pants soon followed. Her body began grinding on the pillow as she made suggestive sentences. If Noir was still here, he would've found the situation adorable yet a little creepy.

"Huh?" Unfortunately for her, the blissful land of sleep does not last very long as she wakes up in a familiar bed, but not the one she owns.

'Ah, that was a dream…' Being the quick thinker she is, she quickly understood where she was and what just happened. It wasn't real after all. There was no way Noir would've done that to her in the real world.

At least that's what she thinks.

Speaking of Noir, she realises that he's not here.

'Oh, I'm in my big brother's bed. Where did he go?'

She looked around and found it weird. Her brother likes lazying around and sleeping in, which makes it a perfect opportunity to wake him up with her younger sister's charms.

It was at that moment she found a letter on the bedside table. The handwriting is a little messy, but the contents were about Noir training today.

'Oh, he's training. What time is it- wait, he's training at 9 in the morning?! Usually, he wakes up at 13 am!'

Noir was essentially a NEET in this world. Although the usual residence here would get about 12-14 hours minimum, Noir would sleep a full 15 hours and still feel tired. Sometimes even needing 20 hours of sleep.

This world operates differently than Noir's old-world thanks to evolution and how the day cycle works. If it wasn't for the days being significantly longer than Earths, Noir would've spent two-thirds of his day just sleeping.

And It was thanks to this fact that Alice was feeling unsettled.

'Since when does he wake up earlier than me? Yesterday he woke up early because of our stupid father waking him up.'

Alice thought yesterday was a one-time thing due to their obnoxiously loud father not being able to contain his excitement. But now that Noir's gone, she has an unknown feeling in her chest.

'Why does it feel like I've lost something from seeing him change?'

It was a mysterious feeling to her. She was watching him slowly change while she remained the same. It wasn't that long ago when he was still just living just for the sake of living. What should she do to change?

"Alice, are you awake?"

While Alice was in her thoughts about her big brother and reaffirming what she could do to impress her brother, her mother called for her.

"Oh, coming!"

She yelled before leaving her brother's room to see her mother at his door. Her eyes widened a little before she smiled like she usually does. She's already used to this kind of scene.

"Help me out with cleaning today, would you dear?"

"Sure."

Alice was unfazed by her mother's reaction as the family is more than aware of her unconditional love for her brother, but they simply don't do anything about it. Her mother simply thought it was a good thing that the siblings are getting along well.

"That reminds me, Alice. Have you seen your brother?"

Since she was at the door and is half a head taller than Alice, she noticed Noir wasn't there and got curious.

'That's odd. He's usually a heavy sleeper,' Even his own mother found it slightly alarming but didn't think too much about it. It was normal for teenagers to change suddenly, it was just a part of puberty after all. Unlike Alice who was worried about the change, she was more than happy about it.

'I can't wait to find out what kind of man he becomes,' She was interested in what kind of future he'd have. Although it's scary, it was also something she's keen on.

Later on, she'd see what kind of man he'd become in a different way.

"I haven't seen big brother today but he left a letter saying he's gone outside to train and might be late."

Alice explained unaware of what her mother was thinking but she saw her have a joyful smile on her face.

"Oh, training? Then I'll be sure to make something extra nutritional for tonight's meal," Her mother said as her eyes sparkled. She was pumped to help out her son. He was still a growing boy in her eyes and wanted to have him well fed if he wished to get stronger. It reminded her of the old days when her husband used to work out and train with the sword.

Hopefully, this isn't a short-lived experience like the fathers.

"I-I see… I can't wait…" Unlike her mother, when Alice heard the words "Extra Nutritional" her body shivered. Whenever she says that it means she'd be prioritising on the nutritional value of the meal over the flavour and smell. In most cases, that means eating something that looks like it came from the devil's guts.

Alice dreaded on that outcome but didn't know how to tell her mother to not cook it when she looked so excited. She's been stressed lately thanks to everything going on so she didn't want to burst her bubble.

'I'll ask my big brother where he went when he gets back… I hope the cooking helps his body and makes it worth it,' She cried on the inside as she walked to get the cleaning supplies. Today was going to be a long day for her.

<Meanwhile>

Outside the kingdom and in the mountains, Noir had just entered the password for the dungeon and had a strange encounter with an eye.

'Alright, that's… That doesn't look like a good sign,' Noir was standing still as he began wracking his brain on what just happened. The door was already opened and was tempting him to enter, but he put those urges behind him as he tried making sense of what that was.

There was nothing mentioned about an eye for the dungeon in the source material.

'What was that eye thing? What does it mean acceptable? Was it the dungeon itself talking there?'

He figured it was most likely the dungeon talking to him, but for what reason he doesn't know. Could it have scanned Noir to see if he was worthy of challenging or entering the dungeon? Did he pass some kind of hidden test? What would've happened if it deemed him unworthy? Did he survive an instant death stare there?

Questions like these blazed in his head as his nervousness peaked. He didn't know how to feel about all his hopes and dreams being stored in such an unknown and dangerous place now an unknown variable suddenly appeared.

"It suddenly feels like the world's difficulty shot up from hard to hell mode all of a sudden."

Noir sighed as he tried calming himself down. He had already figured before that the dungeon might've been a little more challenging than the original, but he thought it would still be doable for him to accomplish.

But with something strange like that appearing, Noir wonders what else has changed within the dungeon. If he enters it, does he have a higher chance to die here than in the original?

'I can't back down now though,' As much as he wanted to grind a little before challenging what could be hell, he wasn't going to back down after everything that's happened to him.

He recalled the annoying talk he had with the guards, the looks he had from that noble, the commoners talking badly behind his back, even his classmates that looked down on him whenever they hear his household name.

Going back now almost guarantees nothing will change and all those people will continue looking down on him. Although his mind was telling him he shouldn't go in, he knows that without overcoming challenges he won't ever succeed in his goals.

'Worrying about everything won't accomplish anything. Being challenged and having life punch you in the face is inevitable, but giving up and not getting back on my feet is an option that I won't take.'

With conviction in his eyes, Noir faced the labyrinth. He somewhat recalls the names of it, the unending dungeon or the infinite labyrinth. It was a dungeon where Noir finds Olivia in the original source, on the second floor tied up in chains for the past 200 years.

'Though depending on how the first floor goes, I'll probably spend the time exploring and looking for ways to level up instead of progressing the dungeon,' His guts were telling him to be careful instead of being ambitious. He didn't want things to end things here after finally getting himself a chance at a new life.

'I wonder if that unknown entity was the cause of this change? How am I supposed to even remember the conversation we had?' It was his assumption for the things that have changed in this world.

This just means he has to be extra cautious when he's interacting with any of the future characters and for the future storyline. He's almost certain that they'd be different in some ways after this.

With such thoughts, he unsheathed his longsword and used his left hand on the dungeon wall to avoid getting lost, as he warily walked his way through the dim tunnel.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

After about 10 minutes of walking in the dim cave, Noir finally found his first magical creature in this world. A slime! One of the most basic fantasy creatures that exist and the ones most commonly seen in isekai stories.

'A Blue Slime?'

However, this wasn't the type of slime he was expecting to see here.

"What's one doing here?"

Noir said in a hushed voice as he tried taking cover and analysing it. In the dim lights, it was a light blue blob with a blue core near the centre of it. It had eyes that were of a lighter shade and something like a mouth.

If Noir had to make a comparison, they looked similar to the slimes from a certain gacha game he used to stream.

"This floor was supposed to contain Golden Slimes. Looks like I was right…" Noir sighed when he saw it. He had a feeling something like this would happen. In the original series, the first floor was full of golden slimes, a type of slime that was rare in this continent.

Slimes usually stay in areas with mana that matches their element. It's where they're born and live. Golden Slime were extinct for an unknown reason, but many say they are found in areas rich in both mana and gold.

As for the other slimes, specifically a Water Slime, there has to be some kind of water source along with a lot of mana in the area.

'At least that's usually the case,' Chances are these slimes don't need a source and the dungeon could simply spawn them. Which would make sense on why golden slimes were abundant in the original series and not outside the dungeon.

From the host's memories, golden slimes normally stay in humid environments and are often the result of gold and acid mixing.

'I should-' Just as Noir was about to start attacking it, the Slime suddenly made a u-turn as it fired a large ball of water towards him.

"Whoa!"

Noir was just barely able to dodge it in time and found the cave wall now has an indent in it. If it hit him instead, he probably would've had his bones crushed off.

'Looks like the slimes are stronger than the original ones too. I can't let them hit me.'

Noir began running around as he was looking for an opportunity to attack it. He wasn't recklessly going to attack until there was a chance.

After about 10 seconds since he started running, another water ball was shot out. Noir saw the water ball and ducked to avoid it before running towards the slime and kicking it.

The slime was sent flying towards the cave wall but didn't look like it felt anything. If anything it seemed a little dizzy from spinning around.

'Yup, kicks aren't effective, but…'

Noir didn't wait for the slime to recover from the kick as he run up and with both his hands he swung his longsword down the slime.

'...It gives me opportunities like this,' Noir thought as his arms felt like gooey resistance from the slime's body before it darted off again. The cut wasn't deep at all, which is expected since slimes are resistant to physical weapons.

'But that doesn't mean they're invulnerable,' Noir repeated the same tactic of dodging, kicking and slashing. Its recharge time was quite long and it didn't seem to remember any of Noir's patterns, making it an easy target for him.

After repeating the process a few more times, the body of the slime popped like a bubble, leaving a blue core in its place.

"Damn, that thing took about 6 swings…"

Noir was panting as he wiped the sweat off his head. For his first battle, he was quite pleased with himself. In fact, he felt better than ever. As if he could run a marathon now.

'Wait, my body doesn't hurt now,' It was at that instance Noir checked his body as he realised nothing hurts. Everything was healed. Not a single bit of his muscles were crying out like earlier.

'Was it because I killed the slime? I might've levelled up from it which helped with my fatigue. Awesome,' Another factor he didn't consider much. He knew that levelling up would help with his overall body strength, but not for healing. Which was perfect for him as that meant he wouldn't be needing as many rests as he originally thought

He was making steady progress with this, but he didn't let it get to his head though. He still remains vigilance of his surroundings in case the noise attracted anything else, but to what he can see and hear, nothing else was nearby.

'I can't relax just yet. There's gotta be more of them further in the floor,' Considering how long it took to defeat a single slime, he had to think about how to deal with his new situation appropriately.

'I'm gonna have to adjust plans. If there are Water Slimes here then there's a high chance that there are other types of slimes on this floor too. Most likely there are at least the four basic elements and the Golden Slimes, but I can't rule out there being slimes that have rare elements like Dark Slimes or something.'

Slimes were creatures that people don't give much credit to. They're a lot stronger than you think. Other than their squishy health, they're resistant to melee attacks and to their own element. For one to defeat slimes easily, they would need to know the right way to swing their weapon at them.

Defeating a slime by itself wouldn't be much of a problem to a rookie adventurer, but facing a group of them head-on would most likely spell their end.

'It might be because of streaming Genshin impact, but I think slimes can be annoying as hell to fight against for a noob.'

He recalled times when the Geo Slimes would be a nightmare to fight against early on because he had no good claymore users, or against cryo slimes when your only healer starting out would make you "Wet" whenever she heals you, causes you to freeze up and spam to escape the condition.

And if they group on you while you're checking something, you'll quickly find yourself dealing with a bunch of them as they quickly sap away your health.

Anyway, back to the slimes in Noir's situation.

'Just like in Genshin, dealing with a lot of slimes can be annoying. Unlike those characters, I don't have a high hp value and can feel pain. Thanks to that, I need to prioritise running away if I see a group of more than two. I'm still low levelled to deal with them properly,' Noir recalled the water ball from earlier and looked at the indent it left on the wall. It was about 2 cm deep.

'Yup, if that had hit me then I wouldn't be as fine as I am now. Dammit, I just wish I had an appraisal skill so I can plan things more efficiently.'

It was at times like these that having a research tool would be helpful. If he could know their levels and skills, he could make plans on how to deal with them better. And if he was given enough time to plan, he could probably think of a way to create an exp farm.

'I'm curious if something like that is even possible. Can't wait to try it out one day,' He had ideas he wanted to take advantage of. This was simply one of them if he wanted to get only his level up, but in the long term, it wouldn't be the best thing to do in terms of gaining battle experience.

'Before any of that, what's this stone looking thing?' Noir picked up the item that the water slime had dropped. It was a light blue stone that seemed to glamour under the dim lights. It was a beautiful looking stone, but Noir had no clue what it was.

'I can feel something from this… Wait, I remember now,' Noir suddenly remembered reading about this in the past. It was a mana core. When a monster is in an area that's condensed with mana, it's able to form a mana core. Its basic attacks would skyrocket as a result, which explains why the slime was a lot more lethal than the average slime.

While holding the Water Slimes Mana Core, Noir was trying to get accustomed to the energy it had around it. It was hard to describe the feeling like there was something invisible around the core that was giving it a cool feel to it.

It was thanks to this that Noir ended up looking at the core for some time until he felt like something clicked in his head.

'Let's try something,' he began using the breathing techniques the Great Sage mentioned earlier but this time while focusing on the mana core. Unlike the previous times when Noir was clueless on what to do, during the process, this time he felt like he could feel something. Both from the mana core and from within him.

He focused on the feeling inside him as he tried grabbing and releasing it. He did so a couple of times until he felt like he was adjusting to the right amount of pressure on it. The sensation started from under his chest before he slowly transferred the sensation towards the mana core, where it made a reaction.

A handful of water started being produced as Noir's hand quickly became wet.

'Was that feeling mana?' Still feeling engrossed in what he did, Noir began testing what he just discovered. He tried moving the energy called mana towards his legs instead. He made the mana go through the circuits in his legs before stopping once it reached his toes.

He immediately knew what he was doing, and to test it out he performed a jump. But maybe a little too high.

'Oh fuck!' Thanks to being unaccustomed to what he was doing, Noir put a little too much power into the jump which made him nearly bang into the ceiling. If he was able to jump 0.5 meters before, then now he's able to jump nearly five times that amount.

'I've learned how to embed mana! Let's go!' Noir, feeling excited, couldn't control his lips from creating a smile as his eyes started gleaming. He's finally figured out how to use magic! Not only that, but he also found an item that could be useful down the line.

'I need to test out if the water from the slime's mana core is edible or not. If it is, then I got myself an endless water source as long as I can supply it mana,' Noir was starting to feel psyched up from the new prospects. Although he didn't want to test it out now in case it was inedible and would give him magical diarrhoea instead

'Even if it's not edible, I can think of a few uses I'd have with this,' Noir laughed as his journey in the dungeon so far was quite the fruitful one. He not only figured out how to use the mana in his body but was able to use it along with his martial arts. This gave him a better chance at completing the mysterious first floor of the unending dungeon.

But how long will his luck last?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Don't forget to give me power stones if you liked the chapter. Thanks for reading!