Chapter 6: Floor 1

I performed the front double biceps flex, then the front lat spread, and every other pose I know how to do while inspecting my body and my muscle contractions with every little movement.

'I like this.' My build is a masterful blend of muscle and flexibility, tailored perfectly to my monumental frame, allowing me a range of motion that belies my size, with my muscles being pronounced but not excessively bulky. 'If I was the size of an average human, I would be considered to have a lean yet muscular physique.' 

Performing the side chest pose to my reflection in the water, I smirked. "That's the stuff." This size would 100% draw a lot of eyes, especially when I am in a human village, but who cares? This is the true body of a warrior. 

"Kahahaah!" This body was immaculate. I love it. Thank God I chose it. It wouldn't have been that much different if I had picked Gargarean, only shorter and with a more 'bulky' build, but this was much, much better.

Getting in a makeshift boxing stand, I threw a quick one two punch, and nodded. Not only was I much faster than my old self, I seemed to have as much control of this body as I did with my old body. It was as if I had this body my entire life. 

Terrifying. 

"Now, I am ready." Entering the cold river, the water reaching up to my knees, I walked over to the mace lying on the bottom of the river and picked it up. It was still heavy, but I could effectively pick it up.

After a few tests, I noticed that I could swing the mace and control it for shorter combat and was able to manage the mace for basic maneuvers—with two or one hand—though prolonged or highly dynamic combat might still be challenging.

This was the power of a Goliath. In my game, Female Goliath dealt 3.3x—male 3x—more physical damage than a human, even with equalized stats and equipment; and, right now, I felt about 3x stronger than my old self. No, a bit more than three times.

3.3?

'Hmm…' I am a hybrid and a male, so I expected something like 1.5, or at least 1.65, but 3.3 times? 'Is my body just a carbon copy of my mother but just male and my soul is that of my father?' I would assume so, and it did make sense. 'I guess I picked the best combination.'

'Lady luck blessed me.' Calling up my status, I noticed that just like I was informed, my stats did not change at all, which was good.

"Now." I sent the mace into my inventory, removed the strips of boxers from my waist, and then equipped back my black combat attire. The shirt seemed to be at its limit, stretching against my triceps and biceps, with the pants straining against my legs. 'And this is really hurting my dick.' Scaled with my size, my dick had also grown, but that was not something I cared about.

It's not like I was going to use it to fuck any woman. I have a face even a mother wouldn't love. 

'I need to find something better.' But, I can only do that after leaving this tutorial area.

[Now that you have picked a species and a story, it is time for you to leave. In one minute, twenty-seven seconds, you will be transported to the first floor of the dungeon. Your goal is to reach the last floor.]

'I know.'

[You can speed up the time by saying now.]

"Now." 

[Transportation will now commence]

My body began to fade, and my horse, who was stretching his tongue to touch the tip of his massive dick, looked up at me. "Neigh?" Noticing I was disappearing, it screamed and ran towards me. "Neeeigh!" It roared as it quickly reached me, stretching its tongue to touch my face.

'Oh, hell no.' I leaned back, barely avoiding its tongue, and I disappeared.

The next place I found myself was in a hallway in some kind of cave, the rocky walls being light blue in color, and with multiple glowing rocks protruding along to the top of the wall, illuminating the hallway. The ground was rocky and uneven, with the wall being about three meters tall and the hallway width being around 4 meters.

'I won't be able to use the mace here.' So, the next best option was the Caestus—

A screen suddenly appeared in front of my face.

[A new day has begun. Do you wish to sign in? *Depending on where you sign in, you might get different rewards.]

"Oh?" I guess I will.

[You have signed in and been rewarded. 'Perfect map of the Dungeon First Floor.' The Map functions have been unlocked.]

Multiple screens suddenly popped up one after the other, flooding my vision in less than a second. 'Damn.' I stared at the screen, not knowing which one to focus on first. 'Arrange according to appearance.'

The first one that appeared came forward, and the others went back.

[7-Day Gift Rewards]

Day 1: 10,000 Level EXP (Collect?)

Day 2: 20,000 Level EXP

Day 3: 40,000 Level EXP

Day 4: 80,000 Level EXP

Day 5: 160,000 Level EXP

Day 6: 320,000 Level EXP

Day 7: 640,000 Level EXP

[7-Day Gift Rewards]

"Exactly the seven-day reward in the game." This is to speed up the initial growth of the player, giving them the illusion that it will be easy, so they will stick with it for a longer time. "Collect."

After collecting the reward, the screen disappeared, and another one popped up.

[28-Day Check-In Rewards]

Day 1: 100,000 Valis. (Collect?)

Day 2: 10 Premium Armor Summoning Tickets. 

Day 3: 1 Enchantment Stone

Day 4: 10 Premium Weapon Summoning Tickets

Day 5: 10 Premium Summoning Tickets

Day 6: 1 Random Gem

Day 7: Personal Pendant

[Unlock the remaining reward after day seven]

"Ah, PP.." That's all I am waiting for. Personal Pendant is a growth-type pendant that all characters get after seven days, with the capability to reach 'God' level. 

It is a pendant that can be customized for the 'perfect' build you want, an item you will use even until the endgame. Since I am a physical character, I will need to build the pendant to be mainly magic-based, and I already have a build in mind. 

[Ranking Journey]

Reach Rank 0: Rank 0 Common Weapon Selector. +30 enhancement crystals (Collect?)

Reach Rank 1: Hidden*

Reach Rank 2: Hidden*

Reach Rank 3: Hidden*

[Unlock the remaining reward after reaching rank 4]

'Collect and move on.' Not really important, as all it gives is common weapons and enhancement crystals. Well, the enhancement crystal is important, but not the ticket. The common rank-0 ticket was sent to my inventory with the crystal, and a new screen appeared.

[7 Day-Mission]

Day 1 (3/10)

Monster Hunter: Kill 100 Monsters (0/100) 

Money Spender: Spend 15,000 Valis (0/15,000)

Growing Stronger: Spend 30,000 level exp (0/30000)

Strength of Weapons: Enhance one weapon to 6 (0/6)

New Strength: Defeat an elite-type monster (0/1)

Welcome to Orario: Explore Orario for 5 hours (0/5)

New Items: Summon 30 times from any summon (0/30)

Stronger: Get 1 stat to level 500 at rank 0 (1/1 Completed)

And Stronger: Reach total level 1500 at rank 0 (1500/1500 Completed) 

B-Rank: Get 1 stat to level 700 at rank 0 (700/700 Completed) 

[7 Day-Mission]

Collecting the three missions I have completed, they gave me 3000, 500, and 700 exp, respectively. Which brought my held exp to 14,318.

Now that all the screens were done, the first thing I did was call up the map, and it showed me one option. 

[1st Dungeon Floor (Perfect)]

After selecting the option, a 2D screen of the first floor of the dungeon appeared in front of me.

The map looked like the everyday map you see in games, with squiggly double lines showing the passageways in the dungeon and the rooms in the dungeon. A blue dot in one of the passageways marked my location. Mentally scrolling through the map, I saw green dots I assumed were humans and red dots that were monsters. All the human dots were the same size, but I noticed that around 3 of the monster dots were larger than usual. Mentally tapping it, a screen popped up.

[Elite monster]

So I need to kill one of these. However, these elite monsters always appeared in a group of 12+ monsters, which would be a challenge for me. 'It might be easy, but I don't really know the strength level of the monsters on this floor.' They shouldn't be hard to kill, seeing as my stats are above average and I am a Goliath. 

As I continued inspecting the screen, I noticed a door icon, and clicking on it, a screen popped up.

[Door to Floor 2]

No need for the second floor yet. Let's get used to the first one.

'And it's rather large.' The map also had a scale of the total floor area, which was 55 km². 

Yep, that's right, the circular first-floor dungeon has an area of 21 km², with a radius of approximately 2.6 km, a diameter of approximately 5.2 km, and a circumference along the path at the edge of the floor of approximately 16 km. 

Much larger than I expected, and the lower floors will be even larger, I assume. 'With this, it should be easy to avoid---'

Suddenly, I saw the map glow red, and with a thought, the map scrolled back to my blue dot, and then I saw it. Moving rapidly towards me from my back was a red dot.

Desummoning the map, I quickly pivoted on my left foot, my back now to the wall, narrowly avoiding the lunge of a monster that looked like a chimera mix between a dog and a human. The 'Kobold' continued its forward momentum, and time seemed to slow as the creature passed directly in front of me, its yellow eyes filled with madness locking onto mine. 

Not wasting time, I summoned every ounce of strength, raising my right leg with all my might. My muscles tensed and bulged, the tendons in my leg straining under the force, and I could feel the texture of my combat boots pressing into my foot as I slammed the top of my foot into the Kobold's underbelly. The impact was solid and satisfying—a resonant thud accompanied by the sickening crunch of bones shattering. The Kobold's mouth went agape in a silent scream, its eyes bulging with shock and pain.

Then, time returned to normal. The force of my kick sent the Kobold flying up like a bullet, its body slamming into the top of the dungeon with a resounding boom. Dust and small debris rained down, the air thick with the scent of earth and the metallic tang of blood.

As the Kobold fell back down, its body limp and uncontrolled, I braced myself as the creature's descent brought it directly in front of me. My muscles coiled like a spring as I launched my fist forward with the speed and power of a cannonball. The knuckles of my fist connected with the creature's neck in a brutal, bone-crushing impact. I could feel the rough texture of its fur and the hard resistance of bone giving way beneath my knuckles.

Without hesitation, I charged forward, and the Kobold's broken form was carried along with me, its neck cradled by my fist. As I quickly reached the opposite wall, I transferred all my forward momentum into one final, devastating punch. My fist, a blur of speed and strength, drove the Kobold's neck into the sturdy wall. The bones shattered completely under the impact, the sound a sharp, gruesome crack that echoed through the dungeon. The wall itself seemed to tremble, with dust and small rocks falling from the ceiling.

"Fatality," I muttered, stepping back. 

The Kobold's twitching body slumped to the ground, its breathing coming in wheezing, torturous gasps before finally ceasing altogether. I ignored the exp-gain notification, looking down at my fist. The skin was slightly torn, the flesh raw from the impact with the creature's bones. Blood, both mine and the Kobold's, oozed from the small wounds.

I knew I couldn't continue fighting with my bare fists, and the Great Mace would be impractical in this confined space, so… Opening the map, I checked for any nearby humans or monsters before retrieving the common Caestus from my inventory.

It appeared as a light in front of me and fell into my hands. 

They were light, made of tough, durable leather with metal studs and plates embedded along the knuckles and forearm for added impact and protection. The leather was a deep brown, weathered, and worn, with the metal studs darkened with age, each one precisely placed to maximize the damage dealt with each punch, and the forearm section was reinforced with additional leather straps.

'Hmm.' It would be a tight fit, but this will do.

As I slid my hands into the Caestus, I felt the interior was lined with softer leather, making it comfortable to wear despite its heavy-duty appearance, and like I suspected, it was a bit tight, especially around the forearm. I could barely move my wrist, and my fingers were tight against each other in the gloves; however, it shouldn't hinder me much.

'Wait.' I opened my inventory and clicked on the [Rank 0 Common Weapon Selector] ticket. Within were 64 weapons, and two of them were fist-based weapons.

One was a Caestus weapon like this one, and the other was something called 'Iron Ball.' I could pick the Caestus, but the one I had on wasn't too bad, so it wouldn't make sense to pick it again, so I chose the iron ball.

It appeared in my inventory, and after I unequipped the Caestus, I summoned it. With a white light, two balls fell to the ground with a loud bang. "Woah." That sounded heavy.

Looking down, I noticed they were both basically spherical-shaped gauntlets crafted from solid iron with a rugged, textured surface marked by visible hammer strikes and imperfections, indicative of hand-forged craftsmanship. 

The main spherical body transitions into a neck-like extension leading to a slightly flared collar, which might serve as the entry point for the hand, and it was dark and metallic in color, with patches of rust and discoloration. 

'I hope all my weapons aren't rusty.' Picking one up, I found that each at least weighs 25 kg—not too heavy for me, but still a lot of weight for a rank 0 gauntlet.

I tried to put my right hand inside one, and found I could easily fit it. 'Like I thought.' The weapon of my choice seems to 'scale' to fit me. It wouldn't be a choice weapon if I got a gauntlet that would only fit human hands. 'I guess this weapon Selector isn't too useless.'

With my hands inside, I found that there was nothing to hold on to within. '???' I placed my right arm to my side, and the metal ball fell off my hand, hitting the ground. "???"

"This can't be real." But it was indeed real, so I thought of something else. 'Equip Caestus.' With a white light, the tight Caestus appeared in each of my hands.

Squatting, I tried to put on one of the metal balls, but my fist couldn't go through the hole. 'As expected.' Touching them, I sent them into my inventory and then, 'Equip Iron Ball.'

[The Common Caestus(Rank 0) is already equipped in your hands.]

[Equip either way?]

I held my hands in front of me. 'Yes.' With a white light in the form of the iron ball, the gauntlet was equipped. With my hands beside me, it didn't fall off due to the thickness of the Caestus, though I could feel the weight on my wrist. 'Not anything back.' I can handle it.

Now, time to hunt.