Dungeon - First Floor
After he showed his adventurer ID to the guards, Haru lost no time and immediately entered what was the first floor located below the ground. The first thing he noticed was related to the circular room he was in, with stairs leading to what Haru knew was the actual first floor of the Dungeon.
Looking up for a moment, he could see that instead of a normal ceiling, in its place there was a beautiful azure painting of the sky that resembles the real sky. It really impressed him, but this feeling didn't last long. Even if it would take at least a couple of minutes to get down the stairs, that didn't mean he could be distracted by something else in a place like the Dungeon.
'The first enemies are kobolds and goblins.. Better be careful. '
Now with his head full of warnings from both Eina and Misha to not underestimate even the weakest of the Goblins, Haru had an expression particularly determined and especially attentive to any detail that normally could escape him, and once he got to the first floor, he could hear that in the Dungeon there was no shadow of a single sound, except those emitted by his shoes every single step, and the realization made him even more attentive to his surroundings. There can usually be few reasons why the dungeon was so quiet. Either there were monsters that had to appear, or a Monster Party had to act and take Haru by surprise, but after a few seconds, he could see a figure of an olive complexion rising from the ground, and having already memories of this monster before both in the catalogues and during his trip to Orario, Haru knew very well this monster with frail arms, long ears similar to those of an elf, a much wider head than a human and a sort of fur that covered the lower parts of the body. There was no doubt, this was a goblin.
However, the difference from the others could be found in its attitude. If the goblins that were on the ground had an intelligence and could understand when it was time to retreat or how to hide from opponents too strong for them, this goblin had an air of complete madness around it, and even if not armed, As soon as it saw Haru, it didn't hesitate to rush against him.
Although the figure of the goblin was rushing against him, the speed of the latter was nothing to worry about for Haru. So, he took a breath before laying his hand on the hilt of the sword. Knowing the time would come for him to use it, Haru was committed to learning a very simple technique, but that was still quite effective.
Unleashing his sword and confirming the goblin had now reached his range of action, Haru made a horizontal cut using all the force he could burn at that time. Although the technique was quite simple and contained only that move, it was more than enough to face an enemy who threw itself headlong against its opponent, and in fact, his blow didn't encounter much resistance and managed to cut the flesh of the monster with a facility not even Haru expected.
Seeing the monster disappear shortly after leaving behind a magic stone of a violet colour, with inside sparkles visible to the naked eye, Haru wasted no time and collected it. Having purposely brought a small bag so that he could put all the magic stones he would have collected in it, Haru had no problem even if he had razed to the ground a hundred monsters given the size of the magic stones that were in the close-ups of the Dungeon.
'It was really easy though.'
He didn't know if the reason was related to his development ability [Swordsman] or to the fact that all his parameters were close to the rank H and therefore he had an advantage over ordinary adventurers, but Haru had no intention of wrapping his head around questions to which he couldn't get answers, so with a sigh, he chose to continue further.
Shortly after these thoughts, in front of Haru a group of 3 goblins appeared. Although the only technique he had was a single horizontal cut for the time being, thanks to his skill [Swordsman] Haru was able to fight even without the using it, which made the assimilation of how to use the sword more versatile and easier since he could understand the limits of his body and also that he couldn't swing the sword in certain ways because he lacked the strength and also the endurance to keep going.
Swinging the sword unceasingly would certainly have both strengthened his muscles and given him more familiarity with the sword, but there was no doubt that real fighting would have made him able to gain much more experience, to the point that Haru was thinking about whether it was appropriate to try and learn a new technique to fight against groups of enemies.
Although he had these thoughts, and the monsters were slow enough to allow him to do so, Haru decided to not overdo it. The most he could do was to impress in his mind the feeling of having to fight against real enemies, then try to remember their movements and how they responded to it to find the perfect attack to slay them.
Having already the idea of how to deal with them, Haru decided to quickly hit one of the monsters and then let the two approach him. His plan was to induce the monsters to attack him with no regard for their lives, but this was something he didn't even need to do, as they had no interest in the death of a companion, Their only wish was to slaughter, Everything else was of no value to them.
Cutting off the first goblin, Haru didn't hesitate to use his sword to protect himself from attacks. His goal was to also learn defence. Although he didn't yet know much about the sword, Haru was slowly realizing even if he defended himself from attacks, this didn't mean that the monsters couldn't go to the mark, in fact his defence although good, was not enough to defend from two goblins simultaneously, causing one of the two goblins to have free space to inflict an injury to his left arm.
If the goblin had been smarter, he probably wouldn't have tried to do that, because by the time Haru realized the monster rested no value in its life, and that it was willing to die to wound him, Haru sighed into his mind as he cut off the arm that had wounded him.
A normal adventurer would probably bleed from the wound, as although small, goblins had fingernails that could easily tear off the flesh, but the fact was Haru had higher parameters than the standard, thus allowing him to have only a small wound that hurt, but not as much as it should've.
Seeing how the other goblin was now fundamentally incapacitated, but even that was not enough to stop it, Haru chose to deal with the goblin still in possession of both arms, and in so doing he dealt with both goblins with relative ease. It could have happened the first time that Haru made mistakes, but now that he had proper information about the monsters, Haru will surely avoid the blows instead of blocking them, or at least until he finds a way to block them without risking ending up with injuries.
Collecting the magic stones, Haru moved again. He didn't know how far he had come, but certainly defeating 2 or 3 goblins wasn't enough to move on to the next floor, or so he believed.
During his journey, Haru had met a group of goblins, this time composed of four of them, but he didn't hesitate to implement the new 'technique' he had found to fight against the goblins, a war of attrition. Given the lack of intelligence of the monsters, and the fact that he didn't want to try to learn new techniques while exploring a floor for the first time, Haru chose to wage a war of attrition against the groups of goblins. His goal was to attack one, defeat it, and then move back when the goblins were about to attack him. Although he didn't feel that he had yet exceeded a normal human limits, Haru felt extremely faster than before, so dodge the attacks of goblins, monsters much slower than him was relatively easy, the only problem that arose was precisely the resistance. Since Haru had decided to aim at the strength than the resistance, he now had the advantage, but if he didn't finish the fights quickly, he was afraid it could result in him exhausted while a party of monsters encircled him, and this would be a second way to indicate death.
But after the first groups of goblins, Haru could see that his tactics were quite effective, to the point that no matter how many goblins stood up in front of him, Haru could come out victorious by killing one by one.
Right after defeating a total of 26 goblins, something changed. From the ground Haru could see what was appearing before him wasn't a goblin this time. The complexion of the monster was cloud-colored, the musculature was completely different and more compact, but the thing that made him understand this wasn't a goblin laid in the head. It didn't resemble a human like that of the goblins, But it had a wolf-like shape, with some fur of a slate colour that descended from the back, until it stopped shortly before reaching its knees, he had also seen this monster in the catalogue, this was a Kobold.
The latter was said to be a fusion between wolf and human parts, and although it was initially not visible, Haru also saw a tail of the same colour as the fur, but he didn't have time to focus too much on the details. Unlike the first goblins that were all unarmed, the Kobold held a wooden stick, which did not seem very resistant at first glance, but Haru couldn't underestimate it, as this was his fight with another kind of monster. The latter may have a completely different way of being approached or perhaps could possess more intelligence, so Haru didn't hesitate to keep the guard high, ready for an attack by the Kobold.
However, the monster didn't attack him immediately. In fact, the latter crossed his gaze with Haru for a moment, but after that he didn't hesitate to rush against him with all its strength. Although he didn't understand the reason for that momentary pause, he decided to face the monster directly.
The kobold appeared to be faster and in possesion of much more dexterity compared to goblins, which meant it wouldn't be easy to avoid its blows as well. He chose to learn how to counter-attack as it was better than trying casually new techniques. It seemed to be an easy thing to do, but it required great experience in being able to seize the right moment, and above all it was necessary to possess an excellent control of the sword, reason why Haru was hesitant to try this type of attack, but the speed of the Kobold was a problem that had to be solved in one way or another...
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(Next chapter is the ending of the fight with the Kobold and after that, I will explain how the Goddesses took his words and how he will be scolded for his behaviour since it seems y'all thought he is some kind of white knight only for Hephaestus...)