Wet Feet

"Thank you, Lord Miach for seeing me off."

"No problem, can't just let you go off on your first dungeon dive without something special. Besides I come this way every now and then to advertise anyway. Just make sure you come back." I had to smile at that.

"Will do. I'm off."

"Farewell, stay safe!"

'Why does he sound like an overprotective mother? Well anyway into the dungeon.' I feel the excitement course through me as I jog to the babel entrance. Right inside is one big lobby area set in a ring shape. There are numerous counters set in front of tunnels going through the inner wall. Some of them are massive while others are only wide enough for several people to walk through. Whoever designed this I think they built it for monster outbreaks. With the different sized tunnels you could easily separate large and small monsters while chokepoints are always good. Anyway seeing as the lines at the smaller halls are generally smaller I pick one and head in. A quick wave at the guild worker at the tunnel entrance has me pause.

"Hey what do you do here for the guild."

"Oh new adventurer right."

"Yeah, is it that obvious?"

"Well the armor is pretty much standard guild loan equipment and no seasoned adventurers ever stops and asks that. To answer your question the guild keeps people here at the entrance to the dungeon to make sure no fights break out and to keep track of if you make it out or not."

"That does sound important. Well I better not keep you and I've got monsters slay, bye."

"Make sure to take the stairs for those going down not up, and good luck."

"Thanks!"

I head through the tunnel and come out into a large domed room. The room is large with plenty of room to fight in and while not crowded contains a steady stream of adventurers heading into or out of the dungeon. Shouldn't be too hard to figure out which are the 'down' stairs. While moving I take my time to look at the room and notice its bare save for what looks like what used to be arrow slits in the ceiling and walls. Guess they must have left those just in case but if so why is the ground in here bare? You would think they would leave at least some road blocks or something. They must figure letting the adventurers get in as easy as possible is more important. As I begin my decent I focus less on what's there to use and seeing what's out to get me.

"Alright time to get my feet wet."

The first floor of the dungeon was, dare I say it, disappointing. Yes the monsters were stronger than outside. I could tell that much by how they didn't scream Leeroy Jenkins and run at me like that first goblin I met. My biggest problem I found was not the monsters but the dungeon itself. I had taken the time yesterday to map my route for today so I wouldn't get lost but with the dim lighting and monotonous landscape I could tell mapping and route planning was going to be either what saved me or killed me. Most of the monsters I could just thrust at and if I didn't kill them in the first shot I could just repeat till it hit something vital.

"This is getting repetitive. I could go to the second level but I'll start running into packs down there. I should stick with the first floor today and work on technique until I feel I can take two at once."

With that decided I started using more sweeps in my attacks, seeing what worked. I also tried out shoves, punches, and kicks, trusting my armor to block any damage I would take. It worked pretty well. I think my favorite was when I managed to sweep a goblin on its feet and impale its head in short order. If I could do that quick enough I could handle a small group. Of course it would be better if I could knock several down at once. The kicks and punches didn't work as well as I had hoped. Where my first goblin reeled from my fist, these seemed to take it in stride. Sure I still pushed them back and gave them a bloody nose, but they fought through the pain to swing at me and came back even fiercer because of it. Got a few scratches trying those moves out.

It was a good first run truth be told. I even went for another round on the route I had mapped out. Truth be told I was getting tired and I think I wouldn't have made that second round if the monsters weren't so sparse on this floor. For a day's work my backpack was full and it was time to head home.