Chapter 3

'Cutting through these monsters truly isn't all that difficult so long as you treat them as feral animals at least these goblins and kobolds are that simple we will have to see deeper in...' I absently thought stomping on the head of a hamstrung goblin who screamed as my boot dropped onto its face.

Meanwhile, Bell was slaughtering the lion's share of Monsters who were intent on popping out of the walls to kill us as quickly as possible as we walked deeper into the dungeon.

As I was pulling stones out of the monsters and listening to Bell's advice about the weak points of monsters and where to find them I asked him seriously.

"Hey Bell how far are we going, I don't think I can kill the Killer Ants quick enough with how strong I am currently so can we just stick to the fourth floor for now?"

Bell sighed and nodded understandingly "That's alright it's still very hard for me to kill them quick enough when several of them come after me at once so sticking around the fourth floor for a week or something to get your stats up to H rank would be best."

He then grinned happily. "I actually have someone to teach and rely on me so I will make sure nothing happens to you!" Oh my god, save the Shonen speech, please.

"Hey, Bell what do we do when we meet an Adventurer down here by the way?" Granted I was given a bunch of paperwork to sign and work on to be signed up as an Adventurer but one thing they didn't specify was how we were to approach our fellow Adventurer's down here other than not kill stealing in particular, so I was curious as to how Bell would deal with hostile Adventurer's.

"Hmm typically in these lower levels people just leave each other alone unless you are doing something like parade passing." I shuddered at the thought of an ass literally leading hundreds of monsters to chase them and then purposefully drawing them into other people to loot later.

"There's also the fact that the Guild is so close by in comparison to the deeper floors, so if anyone were to escape from an attack they would be able to easily report them and the Guild would sanction their Familia which could cripple them in the long term." He said solemnly and I agreed to be an Adventurer was a seriously expensive profession with how many potions alone we went through not to mention our weapons and other gear which all the crafting Familia's happily gouged us on...

"So we are mostly safe from the our fellow Adventurers around here is what I am getting correct?"

Bell nodded before frowning. "Yeah, Eina told me most bandits and people who hunt adventures typically hit others at the ninth through the twelfth floor because for one the deep mists that hide anything more than ten meters in front of you, and more importantly its when adventurers start to carry more expensive weapons and, take supporters to carry the day's loot." Hmm makes sense seeing as that's where Lili ganked Bell and left him for dead... Speaking of which what am I going to do about that emo midget, should I get involved or not?

Pulling my thoughts to the present I saw a small group of three goblins huddled together sitting on the floor of an open room facing another tunnel as we were going around a bend. "Hey Bell let me try to take this one my own," I asked him offhandedly as I needed two more kills to finish my goblin extermination quest and I wanted to get them on my own this time.

Bell quietly nodded and stuck to the walls to give me space and I am guessing to make sure nothing stuck me in the back as I fought what was in front of me.

Walking forward with my sword held at my side and I approached the group I guess they were so engrossed in playing sentry duty that even with me not bothering to tiptoe or something I was able to get within a couple of meters of them without them noticing so I threw Bell a 'What the hell' look to which he just shrugged so I sighed which got their attention so I swung my sword with both hands as hard as I could and cleaved through the neck of the closest goblin easily and then as the other two stood up and ignored the fallen body of there compatriot my sword got buried and stuck halfway into the chest of the second goblin with the leftover momentum from my first swing, who I could now tell was trying to shriek in agony but it could only drown in its blood.

Taking a step back I let go of my thoroughly stuck blade as the almost bifurcated goblin was holding onto the blade buried in its chest on purpose and dodged the enraged claw swipe from the last goblin sent at my chest and kicking it in the knee making it drop to the ground. Taking my gutting knife out I slammed it into the back of the goblin and could both feel and hear my knife crack its ribs making the goblin shudder and go limp.

I was taken aback for a moment as the page in my mind seemed to dispel into the mist that made my body feel warm for a moment I am glad I finished my first quest though I wonder if I have the choice of where my points will end up going.

"Ok, Bell I finished up my quest for today how much longer do you want to be here for today." Seeing Bell's frown I matched it but knew what his problem was as I moved to finish off the half-dead goblin holding my sword. "I know it was bad of me for dropping my blade but my thought was trying to fight the dying grips of a monster as another tried to attack me seemed like the wrong move at the time..." I said tiredly.

Bell shrugged and let go of his frown as he explained. "That's why I use knives for one they are a lot cheaper and second of all they are much easier to pull out of a monster after killing them. But hey let's rest for a minute then we can start our way back."

Hmm well, price-wise we will be able to fix up and get better weapons just by fusing things together so that won't be as much of a concern thankfully. "Hey, Bell think I could fuse these monster stones together to make a bigger one?" I absently asked as I yanked the sword out of the goblin and inadvertently must have hit its magic stone because the monster just poofed out of the air and left behind a small fang which I happily picked up with a grin. Seeing Bell already sitting down against the wall I went and sat down beside him for a minute to rest.

Bell seemed to be deep in thought before cautiously answering "I am not sure but if you do manage it we wouldn't be able to sell them often because aberrant monsters are very rare and feeding monsters magic stones to make them is extremely illegal like being executed illegally." He said fearfully before continuing. "It's for very damn good reason they are so strict about it, I heard some people fed a silverback monster stones until it mutated and it turned completely black and grew an extremely tough shell of armor around its weak points because they were feeding it almost exclusively monster cores from Hard Armored's." Wow, a massive pissed-off armored gorilla. I bet that must have been a pain especially with it probably hiding in the mist to attack people.

"So what happened to it?" I asked curiously, like I knew someone must have killed it but I wanted more details.

"Well apparently it was a group of level twos from the Ganesha Familia who did it and wanted to try to tame it but the whole squad got wiped out and several dozen more people died to it until Shakti the level four Captain of the Ganesha Familia learned about it came and personally killed it, to avoid her own Familia being sanctioned into the ground."

Wow alright then so probably not a good idea then.

"Well in that case do you mind if I try to combine this goblin fang into my sword to see what happens? I do know blacksmiths use monster parts to make weapons and armor to give them certain effects and slash abilities so it should work." I asked tossing the fang in question into the air and catching it.

Bell lit up in a grin "Yeah sure let's do it its just a single set of items so it shouldn't exhaust you or anything."

I prepared my mind and honestly, nothing really came to my mind that could really be used with a goblin tooth like really its not like it would burst into flames like if I fed a bunch of Hellhound fangs to it. "Combine" I called out absently minded thinking about what kind of monsters would give the best enhancements if I could actually pull that kind of stuff out of the materials.

The white light from the not Pokémon evolution faded leaving the sword looking slightly different it now looked like its handle was a large fang but with the bottom rounded out probably so I wouldn't end up stabbing myself. Grabbing onto the new sword I could intrinsically feel that the single goblin tooth made the blade ever so slightly better at piercing in other words it made stabbing people easier just like how a fang would pierce a body and not cut.

Along with that confirmation on what it did I had my spell basically handholding and whispering to me, telling me how with the hilt becoming the concept of a fang I could only add more fangs regardless of quality to that part of the sword but I could enchant the blade with another concept and that would be it for the sword.

"Hmm, the goblin fang made my sword better at stabbing so could we get some more? They would make your knives far more effective wouldn't they?" I asked Bell who looked like he was this close to abandoning me to go buy an armload of those fangs to buff his daggers.

Bell shot up pulled me up to my feet and started to jog away shouting "Let's go find out Jake!"

'Shit he is already lost in his head.' I mentally cursed and started running to keep up and within a few minutes, we left the fourth floor and made our way to the first floor.

"Slow down Bell!" I called out seeing Bell leave my sight after turning a corner and I was already panting. I certainly wasn't fat or even really out of shape but trying to keep up with someone who back in your old world was probably close to the peak of humanity's agility when you don't have those enhancements will quickly exhaust you.

I stopped running as I couldn't even hear Bell's footsteps and I luckily had a good idea of the first couple floors' maps so I wasn't worried about getting lost in here and I knew seeing as I was the damn supporter the idiot would have to run back when he got to the surface and tried to turn in our stones only to realize I have all the damn stones.... No, I am not mad at him just disappointed really.

Click click! a series of sharp tapping noises came my way and seeing as I was beside the entrance whoever was coming wouldn't be able to see me so I readied to slash at whatever ran past me.

"Swoosh" I swung at the fast-running blur that sped past and I just barely managed to clip the head of what seemed to be an extremely colorful rooster which seemed to daze it to the point of falling to the ground.

I wasn't sure what the hell it was so I just leaped forward and stabbed it before it could recover and this time my blade seemed to just glide into it making it stiffen and collapse.

"Mumble Mumble" I think I could hear people coming a couple of tunnels away so I immediately just grabbed the bird and stuffed it into my oversized bag and didn't even bother getting the stone out of it and started booking it towards the entrance of the dungeon I didn't want to be accused of kill stealing even though the monster had clearly managed to get away from them.

As I managed to correctly find my way back to the entrance I saw a clearly nervous Bell standing next to a fuming Eina who looked to be one moment away from exploding at the poor boy and deciding to nip this in the bud so we can get back and Hestia can give him his own earful for fucking leaving me behind on my first day... "Heya Bell its nice seeing you here. Oh hey, Eina did you know Bell was so excited at the thought of leaving the dungeon early today that he literally left me all alone on my first day? Just fwoosh he just ran off leaving me all on my own sigh..." I said forlornly like I've been abandoned by the world.

Mount Eina exploded whirling onto the poor boy and grabbed him by the collar and started shaking and berating him.

I could see the light reflecting off her glasses making her prey unable to even see her eyes how terrifying. Also is it a skill possessed only by strict women I wonder?

"Bell how could you leave him alone on his first day! No how could you be so irresponsible in general do you want him dead or hurt?" Eina shouted and I kind of felt a bit touched because we haven't really had any interactions but she truly did seem to care for my safety.

"I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry!" Bell helplessly cried out as the alpha female established her dominance by shaking him silly.

After a few more moments of Bell crying out apologies and Eina's starting to threatened Bell with homework? I cut in to stop the bit with a cough "I think Bell has learned a good lesson on what not to do now, right Bell?" I offered him a lifeline and he took it like a drowning man.

Bell started furiously nodding with the shaking which made him look like a bobblehead. "I wont ever leave you in the dungeon alone again I promise Jake so stop shaking me Eina!"

Having conquered her prey Eina turned to me with a welcoming and friendly smile that was the complete opposite of her previous wrathful state which almost made me reflexively take a step back but I kept my ground. "Ok Jake seeing as you are the one will all the drops lets go take care of those real quick then you gentlemen can head home."

Remembering the weird bird that wasn't covered in the little lessons about the first levels of the dungeon I hesitantly asked. "Hey is it ok if we go to a private room for this I found something weird on the way back."