Chapter 11

After waking up I noticed Hestia was still curled up beside me and she had a content smile but it almost looked smug... I quickly dismissed that as my morning thought being weird and after slowly extracting myself I saw Bell must have already left for the dungeon.

"Ok guess I can't spend any more time here, I need to throw myself into the dungeon and have an 'Adventure'." I snorted at the thought of the word adventure humph, trust the dick bag gods to make the falna scale its rewards to how much danger you truly are in and not to mention making it story-like in how it can give skills and spells depending on how a person's story develops according to the falna's idea of a challenge.

Seeing Hestia was still dead to the world even with me making a fair bit of noise as I gathered my gear I gave up at having her update my falna before I left but mentally promised to get it done when I got back even if she was a drunken mess and I left and started walking towards the dungeon.

As I was closing in on the dungeon I saw Syr idly sweeping off the front pathway to the restaurant watching the throngs of people passing by and then she saw me closing in as she was people-watching and grinned. "Heya Jake! Wait just one second hehe." She giggled as he jogged back inside and I could hear Mama Mia laughing inside as Syr came out in a minute, obviously flustered followed along by a petite blond-haired elf also in a maid outfit who was wearing a cool expression.

"I remember you looked sad when I wasn't able to give you a lunch box the other day so I had Ryuu help me make it." She grinned and then she blushed lightly as she handed me the boxed meal so I dropped my bag and made sure it was secured in there safely and wouldn't make a mess.

"Thank you, Syr for the lunch I hope it wasn't too much work." I then turned to Ryuu "I can already tell Syr gives you a lot of trouble huh." Making the taciturn elf lightly smile.

"She can be a handful but if she gets too out of hand Mia will set her straight... Speaking of which you better get back to sweeping Syr." After saying her piece Ryuu went back inside and Syr looked a bit irritated as she kept sweeping and knowing I myself needed to get to work I continued on towards the dungeon.

As I reached the end of the fifth floor of the dungeon I stared at the sixth-floor entrance and I came to the realization that if I wanted to keep up with both my quests and the nonsense coming and I don't just mean Bell's stuff I mean the likes of Violas breaking through the ground randomly in the city and other things that could happen, I had to push myself to my limit.

I shrugged my shoulders and continued down the stairs and onto the sixth floor although the fifth floor changed from the previously blue-tinted rock walls to almost entirely brown rock with bright florescent moss lining the walls.

But more importantly no longer was it just a couple of killer ants that would seldom be wandering around solo, like in the fifth floor now they were commonly found in packs, and two new monsters were around now being frog shooters which were oversized toads typically coming up to peoples hips with only one eye in the middle of there head that would shoot there extra long sticky tongues at people and those tongues I have read are fully capable of knocking the wind out of people if hit in the chest but they aren't too lethal even if they manage to pull you into there mouth you simply have to cut yourself out of them ala Konosuba style.

No the biggest problem for newbie adventures is the aptly named Newbie Killer. The War Shadows are famous for hiding within shadows and when passed by would use the three ultra-sharp finger claws on their hands to gouge and eviscerate poor adventurers that miss them and unless you have a multi-million Valis Elixir on hand no amount of low-level potions can save you if your guts are hanging out of your stomach.

I took a deep breath as I saw my first War Shadow and the warnings I was told repeatedly were correct it was almost completely hidden within a thin crack along the wall so I treated it like it would me and just as it noticed me sneaking up on it and tried to escape it's hiding hole I cut off the wildly swinging arm that was the nearest to me.

"Ha not so scary without the element of surprise huh." I taunted as the War Shadow managed to pull itself out and tried stabbing at me with its remaining clawed hand so I dodged towards the side with the missing arm and then stabbed into its chest making it stagger but it didnt poof into smoke yet so I pulled the sword back half way and shoved it back in at a higher angle "Poof" The War Shadow popped and I was glad to see the magic stones were a decent size bigger than the ones I have been getting previously from the lower floors.

"Oh damn look at you haha." I laughed seeing something I was very dearly interested in trying out to fuse which was a War Shadow claw, sadly I haven't been able to convince Bell to leave me some after his own forays into the dungeon because he just wanted to make more money but I am already getting a little irked with how he seems to totally forget my fusing abilities like seriously he spends literally a couple weeks on the most torn up couch that its more likely for you to get hay fever than a good nights sleep and his only reaction to the new couch was "Oh cool..."

Whatever see if I make him a jetpack or something awesome later on.

I quickly ate my lunch which consisted of a stuffed sandwich with what I thought was some chicken breast and some lettuce.

I kept killing more monsters. At least the ones I could pick off alone because I wasn't all too comfortable with the thought of trying to get jumped by several War Shadows at once.

Now as I was traveling through the middle parts of the sixth floor I saw something that made me mentally groan at my luck. "Sir Lili wants to know if you plan on going deeper today good sir." Even if she was wearing that hoody over her head I could recognize that oversized bag on her back any day I mean how many 'midgets' herm, herm, I mean Pallum's are there that carry such a huge bag on their backs I will tell you now as an adventurer of a solid week the easy answer is none...

"What the hell difference does it mean to you supporter..." Came the harsh voice of a man who was holding a Chinese-style long sword called a Jian and both from his tone of voice and his appearance that marked him as a douche with how he looked almost exactly like a Young Master with his long ponytail and superior sneer.

I literally spun on my heel and turned around and started to backtrack the way I came not wanting to deal with the nonsense of Soma's Familia will bring.

"Hey, you! Were you going huh?" Dammit, he saw me as I left...

"What do you want?" I said coolly and both the man and Lilli could see me holding my sword at my side clearly ready to fight making the man frown before putting up a fake smile.

He approached with an easy smile till it faded as he noticed me not losing my guard at him. "Hey." He guested with his free hand at my chest. "I can see you're bag is getting a little heavy why don't you let my supporter help carry the weight huh..." As he said that he took another couple of steps toward me but I was honestly more worried about being shot by Lilli's crossbow than another Level One like me.

"Fuck off or die," I said simply and I was desperately holding in any form of fear and or anxiety at the thought of killing someone or being killed in general, but he still seemed to catch sight of my insecurities and just shook his head.

"Kid I can tell you are new but if you wont pay the toll well. There's always new fresh meat and after you're corpse is taken out clearly killed by other adventurers maybe that will encourage them to be more obedient to there betters." He snarled and then he dashed forward and tried to skewer me with his straight sword making me hop backwards.

It only took a couple more swings for me to realize he honestly wasn't nearly as skilled as he looked with that fancy sword no matter how he twirled it and when he went for another dash I used the hunting knife I fused along with this sword to push his sword aside and then stepped in to meet his dash and my sword cleanly pierced his throat past his spine and I could see my blade as I looked over his shoulder on the other side which sealed the fight.

He dropped his sword as his hands fluttered up gently tracing the blade in his throat, he started choking on the blood and I was starting to have to support his weight on the blade as he was weakening but I had to keep the mans back to Lilli who I could see was already pointing her crossbow at me.

"Hey lets just walk away I don't want a bolt stuck in me and if you miss or if you shoot you're buddy I will have to kill you before you reload..." I could see the conflict crossing her face as she contemplated her chances and I added the weight needed to get her to cave. "Look you got that whole bag on you and with it's size I bet you got a good haul so just go home. No one else has to get hurt." I said comfortingly.

Lili lowered her arm crossbow allowing me to finally allow the now hanging corpse to slide off my sword and my arm was already sore from holding up the literally dead weight at such a weird angle.

We stood there awkwardly for a moment till Lili spoke quietly. "I will trade a paired axe and shield we got earlier if I can keep his money pouch." I frowned not just because she wanted this guys money but how many other people's stuff she may be keeping in that oversized bag.

I crouched down and made sure to keep her in my eyesight as I grabbed his money bag he kept in his coat and grabbed his sword. Standing up I tossed the money in her direction but landing just shy of her. "Alright throw the axe and shield over, and we can both go our separate ways."

Lili nodded and then took out what was clearly a dwarven made great axe and a thick tower shield although it was clearly made for someone that didnt even break four and a half feet tall so that confirmed the corpse at my feet killed a dwarf just recently.

After tossing the weapons over we both cautiously approached our goods and snatched them away retreating around a corner and I kept walking to make sure she didnt follow till I was sure that wasn't the case after reaching the first floor and then with the axe and shield stowed away into my bag I quickly turned in just about half of my monster stones and started my way home.