5 First Floor

The Upper Floors consist of the first 12 floors. They are perfectly suitable for adventurers who have just started their exploration.

The first floor had dark blue walls and a ceiling about three/four meters high. Alec entered a wide hallway known as the 'Beginning Road'. He had a very specific idea of what his first kill should be. There was a monster that lived on the first floor called Jack Bird, which drops an item that not only was always guaranteed but is said to be worth at least 1.000.000 Valis.

Normally, the Jack Bird is not aggressive, but it's very fast and tends to run away if senses any enemies.

It was a good starting point for Alec, it wouldn't not only test his abilities, but it would give him quite some money.

"Byakugan," Alec used a one handed seal to activate his ocular power.

The scenario in front of him completely changed. He could see almost at 360 degrees and through obstacles as well. Alec started to look for his prey, and after a few moments, he found it in one of the deeper rooms on the floor. It was almost completely hidden, and if one didn't know where to look, one could only stumble there by pure sheer luck. It was for all intent and purpose a hidden part of the dungeon.

To reach the Jake Bird Alec had to go through four rooms guarded by monsters and considering that it was the first floor, there was an unusually high amount.

Alec was surprised to see that monsters had something that resembled a chakra pathway, that started from the magic core in their chest. It was like a second circulatory system, and he wondered if anyone knew about it. Then it made sense that if one destroy the magic stone inside the monster, it would die and disappear. It was like ripping out the heart of a human, it would be an instant kill, with the difference that the magic stone was also used to sustain the body itself, and once it was removed, the body would disintegrate in a black mist, leaving behind the magic stone and sometimes a drop item.

He deactivated the Byakugan before starting to move. The entrance to the room was well hidden and covered with moss.

'It seems that my first kill will be a goblin' Alec thought as he walked into the first room.

As Alec entered the room, he noticed that there were twenty goblins and how wide the chamber was and he knew that if he wasn't careful he could be surrounded. They quickly took notice of him, but before they could even move, Alec took six kunai, three per hand, from his pouches and threw them, hitting six goblins on the head and killing them. Their body dissolved into black mist and the other goblins froze like they were rooted in place by an invisible force.

They looked startled and Alec took advantage of the moment by throwing six other kunai, obtaining the same result, killing them on the spot. The goblins were down to eight, and Alec deemed it safe enough to approach them.

They charged at him, once they overcome their shock.

Alec quickly drew his Kusanagi and slashed at the closest monster, then kicked the head of the other, and lastly, he had to step back to evade the attack from the remaining goblins. Alec quickly and easily decapitated his two enemies; the goblins had no chance to fight back. Alec was too fast for them.

The four remaining goblins seemed to be angered by witnessing the death of their kin. Alec charged at them, slashing the throat of one, piercing the head of another, and kicking the reaming two in the head.

The goblins let out cries of anguish as Alec kill them, and their bones made a sickening sound when Alec kicked them.

Once the fight was over Alec took a moment to collect himself, and thought that he didn't do too bad, considering that it was his first fight, but it didn't let it go to his head. It was just one fight, nothing more, and he expected to face countless other, more difficult and with higher stakes.

The humanoid monsters had green skin and large eyes, they resemble green ugly plump children, but Alec didn't feel much for them when he killed them. He didn't feel bad if anything just a bit of pity, nothing more. Alec looked around searching for the magic stones and if they dropped some items, but there was nothing on the ground, aside from his kunai.

Alec collected them and put them back in his pouch, and then decided to check the system. During the fight, he received some notifications, but he decided to ignore them in favor of focusing on the fight.

[Level up]

[Quest completed]

[Auto Looting unlock]

Alec was taken aback by the last notification, so he decided to investigate it.

[Auto Looting: After killing the loot will be directly sent to the inventory. The killed targets will be dismembered: blood, bones, organs, claws, skins, scales, fur, magic stones, etc will be categorized according to level and race, ready for the host to use.]

Alec had to read it three times before snapping out of his shock. He didn't know if he was impressed or disgusted, maybe a bit of both. He opened the inventory to check his loot, and it was there. The new system function unlocked a world of possibilities.

'Well, with that I can craft some unique items and sell them for some money. With the bones, I can make weapons and accessories imbued with magic. With the skin, I can create magic scrolls or armors. The most advantageous thing is that since the cost of production is almost zero, I would be able to earn some nice money. The only thing I'm not sure is how much Yggdrasil gold is necessary' Alec pondered. He was well aware that for some things like imbuing spells on objects it was required to spend gold. He deduced that it would be the same for him, as the system had an option of gold, and he assumed that it referred to Yggdrasil Gold, a fundamental component of the game mechanics and the crafting system.

He pondered the issue for a few more moments before deciding that it wasn't the time nor the place to think about it, so he refocused on his task. After all, he wasn't willing to risk an injury, or worse, death because he had his head up in the air. He knew how important was to keep his head in the game.

In addition, he decided to check all the notifications once he was back home. He didn't want to waste too much time. It was early in the morning, and he wanted to make the most of it, and see how low he could reach.

With a smile on his face, he walked the short path that connected to the second room. This time the path wasn't hidden and was easily accessible.

There were 17 kobolds, dog headed humanoid monsters with fur on their back, groin, and thighs, and a small furry tail.

He tried to use the same strategy as before, but he only manage to kill four out of the six as two were able to avoid the kunai. Unlike the goblin, the kobolds didn't freeze, instead, they started to charge as soon as they saw him. It was probably due to their enhanced smelling and hearing, that they menage to sense him approaching and not be caught by surprise.

Alec gripped his swords tighter and ready himself for the clash. He managed to kill two of them before being surrounded, but Alec tried to keep his cool. He was aware that panic and fear would be a hindrance, but he was only human after all. He couldn't shake all the fear from his body, nonetheless, he was still able to move and think clearly.

Time seemed to slow down as Alec charge the kobolds and pierced his sword through the monster's heart, who let out a wail before vanishing in a poof of dark mist. Alec rolled forward to evade the other kobolds' attack. He almost felt their claws burying into his back, but he paid no attention to the feeling.

Alec quickly stood up and turned to face the surviving monsters who tried to take advantage of the situation. He met one of them head-on and pierced its head with his sword, but the other kobolds didn't give him time to do anything more before they tried to strike him down.

Alec couldn't do anything as the hits landed, but oddly enough he didn't feel pain. He felt confused, but after quickly examining the situation, it was clear to him what just happened.

When the four kobolds hit him, there was a sound that resemble metal hitting metal, and a moment later the monsters let out heart-wrenching cries of pain. Alec took advantage of the moment to jump in front of them to try cutting them down.

As he eyed the monster, he noticed that the kobolds were holding their right hands. The hands were bloodied and their sharp claws were broken. Alec took advantage of its distraction and easily decapitated them.

The remaining five kobolds held hatred in their eyes as they looked at him. They moved and tried to surround him again, but Alec decided to use his speed to his advantage. In a blink of an eye, he was in front of one of them and quickly brought down his sword, killing the monster. A moment later he was in front of another and kicked him on the side of the head. There was a sicking sound of breaking bones before the monster popped into black mist.

The last three kobolds didn't seem discouraged, nonetheless, Alec managed to kill them in under one minute.

'It seems that the cloak protected me and low-level one monsters are not able to bypass its defenses' Alec reasons and felt relieved that he had some protection. After all, it didn't matter how careful and focused one was, accidents were bound to happen. No one was immune to that, but one could be prepared to face them.

[Level up]

[level up]

[Level up]

[Quest completed]

Alec went on and the third room was a mix of goblins and kobolds, a grand total of fifty of them.

He didn't even hesitate a moment before quickly weaving three hand signs.

'Majestic Destroyer Flame' Alec didn't shout out the name of his technique, he merely restricted himself to call it in his mind.

Alec started to spit fire from his mouth.

A sea of flames spread out and engulfed the room, quickly burning alive the monsters in the room. Alec pointedly decided to ignore the agonizing cries of his victims. The temperature in the chamber rose quickly, and some perspiration formed on Alec's forehead.

Of the 50 monsters, nothing was left behind, not even ashes.

'That was quick' Alec was in awe of what he was able to do.

Alec sighed as he already knew what was waiting for him, and made his way to the last room before the Jack Bird.

Once again, the approach was different as Alec wanted to try as many abilities as possible. He sheeted Kusanagi and charged forwards assure of the defense the Akatsuki Cloak granted him. There were about 100 monsters, a highly unusual number for the first floor, but probably it was because they were protecting the Jack Bird. Alec wasn't sure if it was normal or not, but he knew very well that if a regular level one were to face the same number of monsters, the likelihood of his survival was slim.

Alec vaguely remembered that the Jack Bird roamed the first floor without protection, and while it was hard to find and catch, it was in no way this difficult.

He run and punched the closest kobold to him and it exploded at the contact with Alec's fist. It was due to his explosion release that allowed everything he hit to explode from the inside.

He jumped in the middle of the monster formation and hit the ground, which exploded. A few monsters were caught in the explosion, dying instantly. He continued to hit everything in his path, evading when necessary. He was hit sometimes, but as before he didn't feel a thing.

Alec started a massacre and didn't stop a moment. Hit after hit, he killed his enemies.

He killed them in about ten minutes, after which he was slightly out of breath. He took a moment before continuing to the last room.

This time he decided to activate his Sharingan, and he didn't need to weave signs. He walked in while ignoring the notifications from the system.

[Level up]

As he entered the room, something flew past him at high speed, he was able to see it just because the Sharingan augmented his perception. It looked like a rooster with fluffy blue-ish feathers. Without missing a beat, he turned around and started to chase him down. He threw a few shurikens, but the damn bird managed to avoid them, and it did the same when he tried to hit it with a kunai.

Alec would have put him under a genjustu, but the monster didn't give him the chance as it avoided looking at him. To make things worse, it was chirping happily, like it was mocking Alec.

He had enough of the chasing, and they were almost at the entrance that led back to the Beginning Road and Alec didn't want to give a spectacle to the other adventurer. He waved only one hand sign while still running.

'Vacuum Bullets' Alec took a deep breath and ejected projectiles made of pressurized air. The bird managed to avoid a few of them, that hit the Dungeon wall and left moderately deep holes behind.

Ultimately, the bird was hit by a bullet and met its end.

[Quest completed]

[Level up]

"Yes!" he let out excitedly as he snapped his finger in celebration.

Alec was happy and felt that the day was already worth it as he made a million Valis just by the Jake Bird dropped item.

Alec decided to spend a bit more time on the first floor and mapped it out. Unfortunately, it seemed that the map of the system is filled and completed for everything outside the Dungeon and inside, it only mapped the area where he was before, or so he thought at the beginning. With his Byakugan he didn't have to go around walking, the system recognized it as him being there, and mapped out what he saw. It was very useful, but unfortunately, it didn't show monsters or other adventurers on it.

Armed with this new knowledge it didn't take long to map the entirety of the first floor.

[Quest completed]

[Level up]

Alec ignored it once again and started to make his way downstairs to the lower floors.

After a few hours, he managed to completely map the first four floors of the Dungeon. The only difference with the first floor was that the monsters were slightly stronger the deeper one went and the frequency of the encounter was a bit higher as well. Nonetheless, he didn't encounter more than 20 monsters at a time and the only new monster he met was the 'Dungeon Lizard'. A brown quadrupedal lizard monster with sucker discs on its feet. It preferred to crawl on walls and attack people by jumping down at them, possibly in ambush.

The first time Alec encountered one, he almost had a heart attack. He saw something jumping at him from the corner of his eyes, and instinctually slashed his sword, killing it on the spot. Thankfully there was no one around to witness the high-pitched scream that accompanied his attack.

He continued to level up and complete quests he didn't even know he was undergoing. He stopped a few times to drink and one time to eat some sandwiches that he bought along with the breakfast. Having the Sharingan active, was a bit tiring. He hoped that in time he would be able to feel overcome the tiredness, but for now, he decided to keep it on as he was not too worried about it. Not only it was useful, but in that way, he would get accustomed to it sooner.

The clock on the system said that it was 01:47 p.m. and Alec was about to go down to the fifth floor. He encounters some adventurers along the way, but he decided to mind his own business to avoid problems. It was his first day and he wanted to go as low as possible. He had a few more hours before he had to go back, and he wanted to make the best out of them.

From what he read in the book that Jo gave him, stronger monsters like War Shadows and Frog Shooters should be starting to appear from the sixth floor so he should have another entire floor before he had to slow down and get used to the new monsters.

Alec was thrilled to continue his diving into the Dungeon. He made his way downwards and he left the fourth floor behind.

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