Idle Talk 7 — 3 Heroes, Initially Levelling Up
Kanon, Rio and myself were standing in front of the dungeon entrance accompanied by our three Knight companions. We had spent the previous week since we had been Summoned to this world learning the basics of how to use swords and spears as well as how to cast magic spells. We had also registered as Adventurers as the leader of the Kingdom's Knights had recommended.
Now we were going to raise our levels and entering the dungeon before us was, as it had been explained to us, the most effective way of doing that. The dungeon entrance looked just like it would in a game and I felt excited at the idea.
"Well then shall we go in?" said Leonard as we stood in line with the Adventurers waiting at the dungeon entrance. He gestured for us to go ahead.
"Hey, is this okay?" Rio asked. We were getting some stares from the other Adventurers as we pushed forward through the crowd towards the entrance.
"There's no problem." Kanon replied. "The Knights are escorting us so it's fine. We're honoured guests of the Kingdom after all."
"It's as Kanon says. We're just getting priority, that's all since we're Heroes." I added. I didn't want a boring wait like the others, I wanted to get into the dungeon quickly.
"It still doesn't feel right though." Rio muttered.
"Come on, let's hurry. The Knights are waiting for us." Kanon prompted. Rio was a bit reluctant to push through the crowd but followed Kanon and me anyway.
"Right then everyone," said Leonard. "Ready?"
"Yes!" we chorused.
"Today is your first time in a dungeon." Leonard gestured at the open portal before us. "It's a limbering-up exercise but I'd like to push forward as far as we can. Because I've got a teleportation mana stone we don't need to worry about making our way back afterwards so please fight the monsters with all your might."
A teleportation mana stone is a magical item that allows teleportation as its name suggests. We'd been told that it was an rare item drop that sometimes appears when you defeat the 10th floor boss of a dungeon. It's an incredibly valuable magic item, a national treasure and we as Heroes have been privileged to borrow it for our training. Knowing that we're regarded so highly by the Kingdom's rulers just makes me want to do my best.
The first floor of the dungeon was populated by Slimes, the second floor with Giant Rats and the third floor with Grey Wolves. We progressed rapidly through these initial floors. The Grey Wolves were tricky as they moved quickly but we were able to deal with them without much difficulty.
The fourth floor had goblins. Kanon and Rio had some qualms about fighting monsters that appeared to be a bit like people but they were pretty repulsive-looking and I had no problems attacking them. The first goblin I hit died and then the body disappeared. After that Kanon and Rio joined in dealing with the goblins.
The fifth floor held a mixture of goblins and Grey Wolves. There were a lot of both types of monsters but we beat them without any real problems. There was a Boss room on this floor with a Goblin General who we defeated soundly and we got an item drop. We were ecstatic even though it was just a normal sword, nothing special but it was our first-ever drop, just like in a game. It gave us a real kick and we pushed on with greater enthusiasm.
The sixth floor had poisonous spiders which were called Poison Spiders, not surprisingly.
"These monsters are poisonous as their name says." Aaron explained as we descended the stairs. "The ones on this floor, the Spider's poison won't kill you but if you're bitten you'll be paralysed for ten minutes or so. You'd be defenceless and you might be killed then so be careful, OK?" We nodded.
The Poison Spiders were about 50cm long and made screeching sounds as they descended from the high ceiling on spider threads. I remembered something Louise had said in our training, that spider monsters were weak against fire and we should use Fire magic on them.
"Blazing orb of fire, burn our enemies to ash! Fireball!" I chanted, casting the Fireball spell we had been taught in our magic training sessions at the spiders. They caught fire immediately, screaming as they burned.
"That's well done." said Louise behind me and, encouraged by her praise I launched more and more Fireballs at the monsters. After that we cleared the sixth floor easily thanks to our Fire magic.
The seventh floor was also populated by Poison Spiders but in addition there was also a Giant Poison Spider, more dangerous than the ones we had encountered on the sixth floor. The bite from a Giant Poison Spider would be fatal, we were warned so we should be extra careful. Kanon and Rio looked worried when they heard this but I felt our Knight companions were being a little over-protective since we had Fire magic and that had sufficed on the previous floor.
There were a lot more Poison Spiders in the seventh floor than on the sixth but I just launched more Fireballs into the clusters of monsters and then we dealt with the survivors with our swords and spears.
We finally reached another Boss room on this floor with a Giant Poison Spider. It was really big, maybe two metres tall with a horde of smaller Poison Spiders clustered around it.
"Kaito, use a Fire Arrow on that big guy." Lousie ordered while Kanon and Rio were advised by Leonard and Aaron to use Fireballs on the smaller Spiders. Good idea, I thought as the Giant Poison Spider started to move towards us. I needed a powerful hit to take that monster down quickly.
"Fierce-flaming arrow, pierce my enemy. Fire Arrow!" I chanted.
The Fire Arrow hit the Giant Poison Spider and the monster exploded in fire while the Fireballs launched by Kanon and Rio burned the other Poison Spiders.
"Hooray! We did it!" we shouted in triumph but our Knight companions brought us back down to earth.
"You're not finished yet." they said as some surviving Poison Spiders scuttled towards us. We got back in formation and cut them down. When the last Poison Spider was dealt with and its body vanished, a bundle of glistening threads remained, an item drop which we Appraised as "Thread of Giant Poison Spider".
"That's proof that you defeated the Giant Poison Spider." said Lousie as she gave the threads to me. "Okay, the seventh floor is clear, let's finish here for today and go back." We returned to the entrance using the teleportation mana stone. When we got back to the royal palace, I checked my status using Appraisal.
[Name] Kaito . Saitou
[Age] 17
[Type] A Hero from another world
[Level] 5
[Fitness] 926
[Magical Power] 882
[Attack power] 891
[Defense force] 867
[Agility] 860
[Skill] Appraisal, Item Box, Holy Swordsman, Fire Magic, Water Magic, Earth Magic, Wind Magic, Light Magic, Lightning Magic, Ice magic
Wow, I'm at level 5 already! Great! Kanon and Rio are also level 5 now, of course. We'll get even stronger in the future and then, maybe Louise would…
(Knights' Conversation)
"So what do you think?"
"Well that's their first-ever dungeon. They did okay."
"I think that it was a decent effort for a first dungeon myself."
"Kaito's Fire magic was quite good, however Kanon and Rio may need a little more training."
"They're a bit sluggish using magic, that could be a problem later."
"Their use of swords and spears is pretty good for just one week's training but we need them to improve quite a bit more to justify calling them Heroes."
"Don't tell them that though."
"Is it maybe too early for them to go back into the dungeon?"
"Yeah, maybe. The lower floors are a lot harder and they were starting to struggle as it was."
"Right then… for the time being, we'll abandon the idea of them going back into the dungeon tomorrow and concentrate on training them up in magic as well as fighting with sword and spear."
"Sounds good. We're getting pressured by the higher-ups to work fast but it'll all be for nothing if they get injured or even killed."
"Yeah. Still, they fought in their first dungeon all day and only got to level 5. Are they really Hero material?"
