8 Chapter 8

I awoke with a massive yawn and the feeling of a rough hardwood floor on my face. I was startled for a moment until I remembered my new living situation. Looking over onto the bed I could see that Miach was already out of the room. That meant it was probably about time for me to be taking my bath before heading off to the guild and then the dungeon. I was excited to finally start my great adventure now that I felt I was properly prepared to face any monsters on the upper floors.

Even though I figured I can probably handle the middle floors, I decided to take it easy for now. I would just go and kill a few monsters, enough to buy a mattress or something and maybe some food from the Hostess of Fertility even though that place is a social landmine. I already know that not being able to see my soul will attract Freya's attention to me, but at the same time, I don't think she'll make a move this soon.

I continued on deep in my thoughts until I got dressed and was about to walk into the bathroom. I stopped when I reached for the handle, thinking about where I am for a moment. This is an anime world, which means anime moments will probably happen, meaning that Naaza is almost certainly naked behind this door. I knocked politely on the door and my theory was confirmed when I heard Naaza call out that she would be done in a moment.

As I lay in the tub I thought about what I could do to move out of the room with Miach, and eventually decided on creating a "secret" base under the building. This base would basically just be my room, but also double as a basement. It could also prove to be a safe place to hide if anyone too strong decides to wipe our home off the face of the earth. It would take me a while to prepare everything for this project so I decided to put a pin in it for now.

After exiting the bath I got dressed and walked out of the shop and toward the guild, sighing due to the increased distance I need to walk. I followed the sideroads of our new residential area until I hit one of the main roads and walked straight to the guild building. Upon my arrival, I approached one of the desks at random and saw a beautiful demi-human woman working the line I am standing in. I immediately recognized her as Rose Fannett due to her long red hair that hung down to her waist.

Eventually, I got to the front of the line and stood in front of the red-haired beauty, looking down at her slightly due to the height difference between us. She wore the standard guild uniform and had a polite, but disinterested smile on her face as she spoke.

"What can I help you with?" she asked in a smooth voice.

"I am here to see who my dungeon advisor is, I filled out the form with Misha a few days ago but forgot to follow up after," I replied

Even though Rose is very attractive I am not gonna pull a harem protagonist move and flirt with every girl that moves I have some self-respect after all. Truthfully I do want to get a girlfriend in this world, but I honestly have no idea who I am interested in. I definitely had a top-five list in my previous life, but now that this is real I am not sure. I'll just have to see how my relationships with some people develop. (A/N: I have literally decided on the love interest right now and it isn't Rose or Ais. I am going for a less popular character.)

"Hmm..." Rose hummed as she sorted through a pile of paperwork under her desk.

"Ahh, here it is. Your dungeon advisor is going to be Oliver over there," She said plainly, handing me a sheet of paper.

'You can't get a named character from the series for everything I suppose,' I thought to myself as I walked over to the man named Oliver. He was around my height and built like an absolute tank, with short black hair and green eyes. From his ears and tail, I could tell that he was a demi-human right away. He saw me approach and took the initiative to meet me halfway and shook my hand firmly.

"You're Augustus right?" the man asked in a deep voice.

"Yep, you're Oliver?" I asked, receiving a nod from the man.

"If you have time we can start our first meeting now. From your sword and armor, I assume you're about to head off into the dungeon,"

"That's perfectly fine with me,"

For about the next hour, Oliver went over basic tactics for the first three floors with me as well as how to deal with the monsters I will find there. Despite Oliver's intimidating appearance, he was quite a good teacher. Everything was short, to the point, and easy to understand. Any question I had he was able to easily answer by expanding on his previous explanation. The man was practically a natural-born advisor and teacher, leading me to be glad he was my dungeon advisor.

After my departure from the guild building I finally made my way into the dungeon itself. I descended slowly through the circular entranceway to the dungeon, glancing at the beautiful murals adorning the walls of the decent all the while. It wasn't long until I finally reached the first floor and immediately started walking off toward a side hallway, away from where I could see that most other adventurers were heading.

As I walked I inspected my surroundings carefully. While it was definitely dim inside the dungeon, it was in no way dark either. There seemed to be a soft blue glow that illuminated everything, but I couldn't identify the source. Also, there were twists and turns in the path, but for the most part, from what I could see and was told by Oliver the first floor has pretty wide pathways. That is what made it easy to see most monsters coming for you. There are still some narrow side passages that lead to dead ends where you can get trapped, but only people trying to challenge themselves go into the narrow side passages.

Even though I was currently walking along a lesser tread side path the path was still fairly wide. There was enough space for 4-5 people to walk side by side. I had my sword drawn and felt my heart beating slightly faster when I saw my first monsters. There was a trio of goblins in front of me, just having emerged from a hidden crack in the stone wall. They all had green skin and were short, skinny, and had large heads. They noticed me immediately and began to charge, making weird speaking/growling sounds as they approached.

Instead of attacking with my sword, which I wasn't too confident in yet, I raised my hand and used a fireball instead. As soon as I activated the Art, a glowing red magic circle appeared over my palm, before a bright orange fireball emerged from the circle, blasting toward where my palm was pointing. The goblins didn't have time to dodge the projectile. It hit and exploded in a brilliant flare of light, illuminating the surrounding tunnel clearly.

The goblins didn't even have a chance to scream as their flesh melted off of their bones and all that remained was their charred skeletons and their crystals. I quickly collected my loot and moved on, feeling more confident than before. It wasn't long before I encountered some more monsters, this time two kobolds. The dog-headed monsters approached me at a speed much faster than the goblins, but still manageable for a newbie adventurer. Instead of using magic I raised my sword and attacked.

I wanted to get a gauge of my raw sword skills, so I refrained from activating any of my Arts. I did, however, release my magical aura at full blast when they got close. I could see them get stunned by the power my body was now emitting, so I took that time to strike, quickly cutting the first's head clean off. I jumped back to dodge the enraged strike of the second, drawing a long gash over its chest as I did so. I toyed with it for a few more minutes, practicing my swordsmanship while still in the relative safety of the first floor before the monster dropped dead and I collected my loot.

As I continued I checked my status, pleased to see that I had attained the Extra Skill, Haki from releasing my aura on the two kobolds back there. As I tucked the two crystals in the small leather pouch at my side I realized that I should probably try to gain some spatial magic. I know there is one that basically works just like an inventory which would be invaluable when traveling in the dungeon and collecting loot.

I decided to put off Summoning magic a bit longer and try to invest in spatial magic for now. Just to make my life easier.