5 Chapter 5: Dungeon Diving

-First Draft-

I walked for a while before finally getting past the forest, coming upon what looked like a road used by travelers. I decided to split off from the river and start walking down the path.

I limped a bit from some phantom pain from my previously wounded body. I walked under the sun for a while, sweating from the heat.

Until finally, in the distance, I could see a massive city, with a huge wall surrounding it. I could see a couple of other travelers that were also on the road to my destination.

(Perception: 2+2=4)

I observed them and found that I couldn't really identify much from them other than that they were also heading to the city. So I continued down the road towards the front gate where I could see two guards staring people down as they passed, looking to see if anyone seems suspicious.

As I passed through the gate, the guards gave me a passing glance before moving on to the next person coming through the gate.

Looking around, I found myself in a bustling city, with a lot of different races around. I could see a variety of different animal people as well as the traditional elves, dwarves, and humans.

I looked around and found that my common language translated to the local language, allowing me to easily read the signs.

This led me to try and find an inn or tavern to rent a place to sleep and eat.

But I remembered that at my character creation point, I chose to get starting equipment and it didn't include currency, especially whatever is the local currency.

So I started to look around to try and found an adventurer's guild or some other place to get some money.

As I headed closer and closer to the center of the city I realized that at the very center of the city, there was a massive tower that seemed to reach above the clouds and continue even further past it.

This made me try and remember if there were any such towers in worlds that I could remember and it wasn't until I linked together with the various animal humanoids as well as the large number of adventurers I had seen since I entered the city, that I was in a dungeon diving city.

This was good since that meant there must be a place for me to sell whatever I could find in the dungeon so I looked around for some official-looking building to sign up for dungeon diving.

(Perception: 8+2=10)

I looked around until I found a large building with its doors wide open with many adventurers entering and exiting the building.

I headed in and found myself in what looked like a classic adventurers guild and so I mustered up my courage for the social interaction and lined up for one of the counters.

Once I reached the front of the line I found myself talking to an elf with glasses who looked familiar that smiled at me and said,

"Hello miss, what can I do for you?"

I took a deep breath before I could muster up the strength for this social interaction and said,

"I'd like to sign up to be an adventurer."

"Alright then miss, please fill in this form, and then we can move on to assigning a staff member as your advisor."

I took the form and moved out of line to fill it out. I filled out my name, race, role in a party, and level. I stopped when I saw a box for familia.

This made me stop and think about what world I could be in. Dungeon diving, familia, levels, I looked up at the elf I was just speaking with.

I was in DanMachi! This led me to some trouble since there are gods in this world, do they know who I am? Are they already aware of me? Or am I just another adventurer in this city.

I immediately decided not to interact with the plot as much as possible since I was literally level 1. And a level 1 DnD adventurer is much weaker than what a level 1 DanMachi adventurer can be since stats work differently.

This also made me wonder whether or not I would be able to level if from the exp I had set my levels to be from or if I would have to align myself with a god and have them increase my level.

But I decided I would leave this for later and I just put N/A for my familia before standing up and returning to the elf that I remembered as the elf that served as the advisor for Bell Cranel, the protagonist of DanMachi.

"Here you go," I said quietly, as I handed the forms over.

"Thank you," she said while she took the forms and looked them over, she frowned when she saw that I wasn't part of a familia.

" Are you not in a familia?"

"No, I haven't yet joined one, but I think I'll be alright for now."

She frowned again and advised me that the dungeon is very dangerous and that until I joined a familia, that I should stay near the entrance of the first level since there would be many other adventurers there so there isn't much danger.

Of course, this also meant that there wasn't much profit since, in the dungeon, risk and reward normally go hand in hand.

I thanked her for her advice and set off towards the tower to try and get some money before night comes so I could rent a room for the night.

As I entered the dungeon, the first level was pretty large, with many corners and paths, and not many rooms.

I went forward listening for any monsters around the corners, trying to take quiet steps, and stealth my way through.

(Perception: 8+2=10) (Stealth: 14+3=17)

I couldn't hear much but eventually, right before I turned a corner I could hear some sounds of what seemed to be goblins since they weren't trying to be quiet.

Luckily it seemed that the goblins were either talking too loudly or were too distracted and so couldn't perceive me through my stealth

It sounded like there were two goblins and that they were conversing. I listened in and I couldn't hear anything else so I prepared myself for another series of combat, taking a deep breath before I turned the corner and charged to the goblins that I could now see.

(Longsword: 19+2=21) (Damage: 8)

Taking them by surprise I was able to quickly lash out with my long sword and kill one of the goblins before they could even react to my surprise attack.

The goblin yelled out as I turned to it to try and quickly deal with it with another slash before it could get a chance to attack.

(Longsword: 7+2=9)

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to hit and it was able to dodge my slash before it took out its blade and made a stab for my waist.

(Goblin: 2+4=6)

Luckily I was able to move out of the way of the blade before it could go through my stomach. Taking a step back I casted the light cantrip to blind the goblin before I took another slash at it in its blinded state.

(Longsword: 17+2=19) (Damage: 2)

The goblin was lucky enough to be stumbling back from the light and so my sword was only able to just catch it on the chest, which left a long scratch that didn't kill it.

Blinking away the blindness from its eyes the goblin made another attack at me with its sword while I was in the after-effects of my over-commitment to swinging my sword, due to my inexperience with a sword.

(Goblin: 7+4=11)

I was able to just manage to dodge out of its way to make another swipe at it. (Longsword: 14+2=16) (Damage: 5)

The blade cut into its skin and it screamed as it cleaved through its body. Blood spewed from its body as it fell from being nearly cut in half.

I stood still taking deep breaths, getting slightly more used to seeing all the blood. I took a few moments to breathe before I moved to one of the bodies since I needed to extract the monster shard from its body.

I stared at the bloody body before I mustered up my courage and tried to quickly and methodically search through where the shard should be, which is where the heart should be.

(Survival Check: 17+2=19, 12+2=14)

Luckily, even though I was rushing, and this being my first time, I was able to retrieve the two shards without damaging them.

The bodies turned to dust the moment the shards were removed, leaving no special loot behind.

(d20:4)

Seeing as how I was able to defeat the two goblins without getting hit once, I continued through the dungeon, feeling more confident with my skills from the double kill.