Another World Gacha

The overwhelming blue light that enveloped them diminished bit by bit until it was completely gone. What welcomed their group after that is a new environment called a dungeon.

They were teleported inside a dusty, dingy old cave, dimly lit by lamps and some torches.

Nicholas: "Ughh, Clarice? Maria? You guys okay?"

Nicholas was slightly light-headed after entering the portal. The lecturer said it was normal for people entering the portal for the first time, so Nicholas just endured and waited for it to ease up.

Maria: "Just a little bit dizzy."

Clarice: "The smell here stinks."

Both of them replied while while holding their head in dizziness.

The odor of the place, as Clarice stated, is quite stagnant, as if the air never circulates. Checking himself and the others afterwards.

Nicholas: "Okay, it will be fine. We will get accustomed to the environment naturally. Let's start conquering our first dungeon after our vision adjust to the environment."

*ding*

Suddenly, a notification rang through their ears.

[Dungeon Quest]

[Requirements: Defeat the boss at the end of the quarry and open the chest.]

Looking at his two cute helpers, Maria is not in maid attire but in clothing suited for adventurers. While Clarice was wearing plated armor, which might weigh a little bit but not so heavy that it would hinder her movement.

Nicholas: "Remember to not break the formation. And if you guys are ready, let's go." he reminded them

Maria and Clarice: "Oohh."

Clarice and Maria both replied simultaneously, indicating that they were both ready to go.

They proceeded deeper in the cave, Clarice is carrying a sword and a stout shield on the front, Maria is in the middle with floating beside her is a grimoire. Behind the group is Nicholas, holding a dagger.

This was the formation they decided to apply for since there were only 3 people in their group.

Following the path illuminated by the torches attached to the walls of the cave, they pushed through their exploration. After a few moments, at a distance, Clarice saw a group of five kobolds resting on the ground.

Clarice signaled to the two of them her sightings. Both slowly approached near Clarice, trying not to alert the group of kobolds to their presence to confirm the number of kobolds in the vicinity.

[Kobold Tunneler Lv.1] x 3

[Power Level – 1,500]

[Kobold Lv.2] x 2

[Power Level – 1,600]

In a low and muted tone, Nicholas instructed the girls.

Nicholas: "Let's reduce the numbers first before engaging in direct combat." he suggested

Nicholas: "This will be our first combat with a real monster; let's play it safe." he reminded afterwards

Both girls nodded and proceeded with Nicholas's plan. The plan aimed to eliminate the three front-most monsters to reduce their numbers before directly engaging with the rest of the opponents.

Maria started channeling her skill [wind arrows]. Several arrows made of wind element appeared beside her; they were spinning at an incredible rate, which sure would tear a hole in the unfortunate target it would hit.

As Maria used her skill, Nicholas also compressed the soil to several earth daggers by using his skill [Earth manipulation] it was as tough as a stone enough to pierce through flesh of the monster with enough force behind it.

Both of them aim their projectile before propelling it towards the kobolds. Simultaneously, Clarice is waiting for her team's attack to connect before dashing and slashing at the other kobold in front.

[1 exp][1 exp][1 exp] 

The skills few straight at their target, killing the unsuspecting kobolds, then Clarice and Nicholas dash in front to engage the remaining 3 kobolds. They proceeded to attack the ones left, taking some minutes as they traded attacks before finally taking the other kobolds out.

[1 exp] [1 exp]

[Nicholas Lv. 1–5/100]

[Maria Lv. 1–5/100]

[Clarice Lv. 1–5/100]

After the battle, they left the bodies of the dead kobold behind without taking anything. Most of the spoils in dungeon exploration come from the dungeon monsters that awakeners eliminate, and the ores or gems they find inside, but unfortunately, kobold bodies are pretty useless in terms of value; no one buys any parts of their body. The only purpose of this dungeon and several low-level dungeons is to provide experience farms for beginners since it is relatively safe and straight-forward to clear them. 

Proceeding further in the cave at a slow pace to digest their first dungeon experience, they continued to eliminate and smoothly advance to the depths of the quarry. It was a quite straight-forward exploration—no traps, no forks, and no twists and turns. Nicholas wondered if that was the reason why they chose this as a trial dungeon for everybody who had recently awakened.

Finally, after an hour, at the end of the dungeon, a kobold Lord awaits, waiting and guarding a chest. Their journey wasn't that hard battle wise, but it was quite tiring due to the tense atmosphere of their first dungeon.

Maria: "Let's go clear this dudgeon so we can leave and change." she said as her clothes already absorbed the dingy and stinky smell of the cave 

Clarice: "How about we celebrate and eat our very first dungeon clear before going home?" she followed up

Nicholas: "Sure, let's eat after I'm a bit famished. But first, let's focus on defeating the boss first so we can clear the dungeon." he calmed them down

"Follow the plan we discussed before..." Approaching the kobold lord, starting the boss fight.

[Kobold Lord Lv.5]

[Power Level – 2,000]

[Kobold Lv.2] x 3

[Power Level – 1,600]

As Nicholas approached the boss, he saw the additional kobold as its lackey. He wanted to draw their to him, while his teammates behind him slowly followed, going to their respective positions.

Nicholas, who was getting pretty close to the boss, used his skill [Earth manipulation] and has thrown several earth daggers at the face of the kobold lord and the other monsters to distract them. It worked, and the kobold lord blocked it with his weapon, slightly blocking his field of vision. While the other kobold became more aggressive and attacked Nicholas directly.

This gave Nicholas the opportunity to then dash straight to the boss while he was distracted. But he chose to wait for the kobold to close their distance, then when they were getting close to him he vaulted over them dashing directly to the boss.

The kobolds, looked backwards wanting to chase after Nicholas when.

*slash* *puchi* *puchi* *puchi* *puchi*

Taking advantage of the of the opportunity, both Clarice and Maria used their skill to kill the three kobold who were facing their backs at them.

Before Nicholas arrived face to face of the boss, he again thrown several stone daggers that he conjured as he was running to the kobold lord. This time on the other hand the boss chose to dodge the stone daggers and run directly to confront Nicholas, since it saw that its subordinates died.

The kobold lord rushed to Nicholas and it used its huge cleaver to try to chop off Nicholas vertically.

Nicholas saw the boss's wind up attack so he used his skill [Earth manipulation] to soften the ground then dodging to the left.

*boom* a loud sound reverberated all over the cave walls, Nicholas managed to dodge the boss's attack quite easily while simultaneously making the boss's cleaver got stuck to the ground after softening the ground its supposed to hit.

He then took the opportunity to attack, and he slashed its ankle using the steel daggers that he carried as his primary weapon to reduce its movement.

*Slash* *Puchii*

*Roar* *Roar*

Successfully slashing his target, the boss lost its balance fell to one of his knees. His attacks were effective, which is why the kobold lord was enraged, and it immediately punched its free hand towards him.

But even before the attack connected, Nicholas immediately evaded the large fist coming his way by jumping out of his attack range.

He easily dodged the attack since it was grounded, but the kobold lord immediately followed his previous attack by forcefully uprooting his cleaver to the ground and unleashing another slash directed at Nicholas.

But even before Nicholas was able to dash out, Clarice saw this and dashed forward to Nicholas's position intercept the kobold lord's attack and perfectly parries the attack. This parry made the kobold lord's arm flung upwards, creating an opening in his torso.

This gave Maria a chance, who was left behind channeling [wind arrows] to simultaneously fire several to the unprotected eyes and torso of the kobold lord.

*puchi* *puchi* *roooaaar* The kobold lord roared in pain and agony.

Successfully blinding the boss and slowing down its movement made the battle much easier for them. Nicholas and Clarice proceeded with a flurry of attacks and skills to damage and whittle down the boss's life so that Maria, who was channeling another flurry of [Wind Arrow], could finish the battle.

After some time, the kobold boss inevitably fell in battle.

[15 exp]

Nicholas: "Great job everyone!"

Nicholas, with a smile on his face, congratulated both of them for a job well done.

Clarice: "That was easier than I thought."

Maria: "That was because we have a great plan to execute; that won't always be the case." 

After opening and collecting the rewards on the chest, another notification rang through their ears, saying.

"Congratulations on clearing the dungeon." 

Then an exit portal opens up near them, indicating that they can leave the dungeon.

The three of them left the dungeon to return home, but before that, they had a stop at a café recommended by Clarice to celebrate the victory. After arriving at the establishment, they went to a corner table, ordered food from the waitress, and proceeded to share their experiences about their first adventure.

While they were conversing, Nicholas checked the story quest reward of the system. "What's this?" he thought while checking the description of the scroll. 

[Story Quest 02: Venturing to the Portals]: Complete

[Rewards: Promotion Slot Scroll]

[Promotion Slot Scroll]

[Description: An ancient awakening module lost in time that is way better than its modern counterpart, this scroll has the capability to allow multiple soul cores to accumulate in a single vessel.

Following the instructions in this scroll will increase the amount of soul core residing inside the vessel by 1.]

[Number of uses: 1/1]

Nicholas: "Ohh, that's nice," he mumbled silently. It was a great scroll that could further enhance his power. He decided to keep it first and use it later.

Closing the panel, he resumed eating while conversing with Maria and Clarice.

In their conversation, Nicholas asked both Maria and Clarice about clearing multiple dungeons per day. At first, Clarice was excited at the thought of gaining more experience points to level up quickly. But Maria immediately shut down her idea by scrutinizing Clarice's performance in the dungeon.

At the end of their conversation, they decided to do only this dungeon for tomorrow and the day after, which serves as further practice since there are still gaps in their teamwork before proceeding to the next one.

[Clarice Lv. 1–35/100]

[Maria Lv. 1–35/100]

[Nicholas Lv. 1–35/100]

(Check out this Clarice in the dungeon)