Quests and Beginning floors.

Dungeon. According to popular belief, a living creature, the mother of all monsters in this world and an architectural masterpiece that drove some people crazy with its grandeur. Once upon a time, the gods who descended made a deal withit, the details of which are not known to mortals. To this day, the god Ouranos spends years under the Guild building saying prayers to keep the underground in check.

The ground floor was a large room with a spiral staircase around the perimeter of a hole going into the ground. On the ceiling, supported by columns located at equal distances from each other, there was a painted sky, the last reminder of the outside world before the descent.

Deciding that it was not worth wasting his time in this place, Shichika began his descent to the first floor. Along the way, adventurers passing by cast interested glances at the almost naked boy walking alone into the dungeon. However, oddities are common in this place. For everyone, this was just another topic that could be discussed during a drink after a successful raid, nothing more.

Having reached his destination, a network of passages with light blue walls stretched out in front of the boy. Although families whose main profession is expeditions to the dungeon make detailed maps and notes of the floors, the same cannot be said about the upper levels of the dungeon.

This is due to the small size and weakness of the local monsters. Often, adventurers simply walk along the main road of the floor in order to quickly go down further, because there is nothing interesting in the rooms on the sides. This is especially true for the road on the 1st floor, called Beginning Road, since even people who come here for the first time prefer to go down lower so as not to crowd on the small floor.1

The same could apply to Shichika, but a voice spoke in his head.

- Hello? Can you hear me? This is Belphie, some of us have already come up with your first tasks. For me, you must fully explore all floors up to 12 inclusive, do not forget about frontiers and panrties. In the temple you can find copies of maps well made by your mind.

- Try... - Verif's hesitant voice sounded in the background.

- I don't think he can handle it... Or? Asha, Levi! Will his body survive?

- Yes! x 2

- Okay then, our glutton wants you to try the quartz and liquid of each of the quartz columns that the monsters feed on, as well as each of the magic crystals of the monsters on these floors. In addition, at the top you are obliged to gradually try different dishes.

Levi thinks that you should destroy each of the rare creatures and a huge number of ordinary ones once.

Venus will have enough that people will talk about you in the city, and monsters will several times run away in fear from your presence.

Mammon insists that you be able to accumulate 5 million valis. However, if you put a couple of people into debt along the way, she will really like it.

Asha and Iblis have not decided yet, they will contact you themselves when the time comes.

- I understand.

Contracts:

Belphie - 1st floor - 3 %... 12th floor - 0 %

Vaalverif - Pantries - 0%, Magic stones - 0%, Regular food - 2 %

Leviathan - Rare creatures - 0%, Regular creatures - 0 %

Venera - Fame - 0,5 %, Fear - 0 %

Mammon - Networth - 0%, People who owe you money - 0.

Asha - 

Iblis -

____________________________________________________________________________________________________

Nothing interesting ever happened on the first floor; the significant event was Shichika's meeting with the goblin. A small green humanoid monster, the body is partially covered with fur and has a single horn on its large oval head. Taking a stance, the adventurer began to wait for the enemy to act. And he didn't keep himself waiting. With clumsy movements, the goblin rushed forward waving his arms.

- Too slow, - martial artist's words hung in the air.

A quick step towards the monster at the moment before the collision and two hands with open palms left afterimages and drew oblique lines at the level of the goblin's chest. A tenth of a second later, two smooth and deep wounds appear on his body, from which a fountain of blood gushed out. The goblin fell on his back and disappeared in a black haze, leaving behind a magic stone.2

Picking it up from the ground, Shichika without hesitation threw it into his mouth and bit into it. The stone tasted like... a slightly sweet piece of plaster.

.....

- Disgusting!

- What else could you expect?

...

At the same time, the adventurer's body began to experience aching pain, the limbs lost strength, an adventurer fell to the ground as if an unprepared person had received a good blow to the liver. Head began to pound, his body seemed to be preparing for loss of consciousness, and nausea appeared. The beating of the heart began to be heard, and then... Everything stopped. Multiple gifts prevented Shichika`s death from magic stone, but it's still not pleasant at all.3

He got up and continued on his way. It didn't take long before the first floor was fully explored. Apparently no Frontiers or Pantries.

Considering the time and effort expended, this time it was decided to explore at least a couple more floors.

With each new floor, the dungeon came up with new ways to deal with adventurers. For example, on the first floor the enemies are isolated encounters with goblins, or if you are unlucky with kobalds. Starting from the second floor, monsters already appear in small groups of 2-3 creatures, and on the middle floors the dungeon periodically sends monsters in a continuous stream, trying to strangle those brave men who went below.

As confirmation of the above words, in one of the last rooms of the second floor, Shichika was met by a gang consisting of a shaggy humanoid creature with the head of a wolf in whose hand there was some kind of stick and two brown lizards, at the end of their four limbs there were sticky disks with which they hung on the ceiling of the room. From the position of the creatures it became clear: they were expecting guests.

Realizing that waiting would solve nothing, the adventurer rushed at the screaming kobold, who raised his armed hand far behind his head in the hope of delivering a powerful blow to the approaching target. But miscalculating the time of the boy's arrival, a hand in the form of a spear tip, no, in the form of a katana tip, pierced his chest, tearing out the magic stone.

At the same time, one of the lizards decided to exchange the life of its fellow monster for an attempt to injure its target. Jumping straight onto the adventurer's back, the reptile attempted to strike the back of the neck to immobilize its prey. Fortunately, her plans were unsuccessful. Shichika, who deviated at the last moment, hit the side of the creature's head with a turn with his heel, instantly breaking its neck.

2 out of 3 enemies were defeated with almost no casualties; on the back of the boy's shoulder there was a shallow wound from which blood slowly flowed. The last creature, having seen the tragic death of its predecessors, decided to wait for an opportune moment on the ceiling of the room, 3-4 meters from the ground. 

- Come down, it will all be over quickly, - a guy who took the stand stood at the exit.

The unimpressed lizard remained in place, waiting for the moment when its prey would lose its vigilance. A minute passed, the second, a hanging reptile began to yawn and shake its head, driving away drowsiness. Third, fourth, fifth, the monster's body began to visibly tremble. The sixth, seventh, eighth, lizard momentarily unhooked from the canvas and fell to the ground where its head was met by a quick frontkick from Shichika, as a result of which it shattered into pieces. The bags under the boy's eyes disappeared a little, and his figure gained some semblance of vigor. There wasn't much blood coming from the wound on his shoulder.

- Was wounded despite knowing about the enemy. Shame on me. Is it all because of fatigue? No, that's just an excuse. I need to become better, - while the winner was looking for his mistakes, his eyes noticed a strange gap in the wall.

Every adventurer knew that repairing damage was the number 1 priority for a dungeon, surpassing even the birth of monsters, so there could be no damage in this room. Approaching closer, the newcomer began to strike with his fists along the wall, gradually widening the gap. The resulting passage opened up a view of a small room 3 by 3 meters, in the center of which there was a bird's nest.4

- As far as I know, there is not a single monster resembling a bird on the upper floors. I'll ask Riveria later.

This time the boy's path lay on the 3rd floor, along the way he picked up 3 magic stones left by the monsters after death, 2 of them he put into his mouth, causing another rejection and a couple of blood spits. The remaining one put into his pockets the hakama, carefully made by artisans commissioned by the Loki family.

- Next time I'll ask for a bag.

The third floor was the most boring of all, fights here and there, not a single hidden room or interesting monster. The hakama's pockets became more and more stuffed, which irritated Shichika, who, however, due to his restored strength, finally decided to explore the fourth level.

Starting from the fourth level, monsters crawled out of the walls right on time. It seemed that the dungeon was holding the first real test for the people descending. People called newcomers stayed in this place much longer. On the floor below, the monsters become stronger, their spawn time is significantly reduced, and the structure of the dungeon becomes more confusing, plus Pantries appear for the first time. 99% of dead adventurers meet their death from the 5th floor and below.

After spending an hour and partially exploring the area, Shichika met a group of adventurers. To be more precise, he had passed by representatives of other families in the dungeon before, but this time was different.

A group of three men with a gangster appearance and in cheap equipment noticed a boy coming towards them without an escort or equipment, with magic stones crackling in his pockets. After they passed each other, a voice was heard.

- Wait a minute, is it just me or are the things you are carrying the same magic stones that I left in one of the rooms to pick up later? - a man with a tail and raccoon ears decided to start the performance.

- I thought it was my imagination! - one of the remaining realized what was going on.

- Boy, if you return what was stolen, we will let you go.

- No, I collected them myself.

- Well, you don't have to lie to us. We know that's not true, and so do you.

- No, they are mine.

- Listen here, kid! - the raccoon's hands reached out to the boy's hair, but he managed to jump away, increasing the distance.

- You! This is the first time I've seen you, you're completely green and you want to say that you collected them? Impossible! You have no weapons or armor, what kind of poor family took you in?

- I serve the goddess Loki, - unwavering eyes looked at the three black lights; at one moment the men seemed to smell of alcohol, but soon this feeling disappeared.

- What did you say? - the meaning of what was said instantly extinguished the trio's desire for profit. Enmity with one of the strongest and most united families in the city was not part of the plans of the three scum.

- You know, I think we made a mistake this time, we apologize.

- Yes, yes, it's a misunderstanding.

- Okay, - the concept of fraud and extortion was unfamiliar to the socially awkward adventurer.

The further journey passed without incident. Having completed his research, fully filled with strength Shichika went to the surface, where he decided to exchange dropped loot for a valis.

This time, a red-haired werewolf was assigned to the exchange counter, her name tag read Rose Fanett.

- Hello, I want to sell magic stones.

- You are the same boy who tried to register a few days ago, so what family did you join? - counting the stones, the girl decided to ask a question that interested her.

- Lady Loki took me in.

- Then the probability that you will live a little longer is quite high.

- What?

- Nothing. For your efforts you will receive 18,000 valis, questions?5

- No.

- Then don't hold up the line and let others pass.