First Dungeon Dive
Nox was walking back to the Twilight Manor while thinking if he could optimize any of his spells or make a new one to help him tomorrow.
Once he observed the magic demonstration the day after, he would have plenty of materials to design new spells but he was quite limited by a lack of knowledge in regards to magic. Perhaps he could have some study sessions with Riveria since she also seemed quite interested in his magical talent.
Another thing that came to mind was the fact Loki hadn't said anything about Nox being a High Human. He theorized that it might not be unheard of since it failed to draw any reaction. It was good! Less unnecessary drama for him.
As he entered through the main gates, he was noticed by another group that was arriving as well. Two amazons and a human but Nox, lost in his thoughts still hadn't noticed them until one of the amazons called out to him.
"Hey, you there! Haven't seen you around! Who are you?" She asked with a smile, the other amazon had a more serious and even slightly suspicious expression while the human was expressionless in general.
Being called out to Nox turned around and spotted them. His eyes lit up as he saw Tiona and Tione Hiryute as well as Ais Wallenstein before him.
Ais was a very beautiful woman indeed. With long golden hair, gold eyes, and a slender body. She was wearing a white and black battle cloth, black arm covers, and long blue boots with her armor over this consisting of a head guard, breastplate, arm guards, hip guards, and knee guards. This was a younger version of her though but eve then, her nearly unmatched beauty was already blooming.
Tiona who had been the one to call out to him, had medium length black hair and brown eyes. Like all Amazonesses, she wore revealing clothing, only a strip of cloth around her chest and a pareo around her waist with bare feet.
Her sister Tione had dark green eyes and long brown hair. She wore equally revealing clothing and had sky blue earrings on her ears.
They had probably just came from the dungeon and were carrying their weapons.
'Being surrounded by beauties is nice indeed! As a man of culture there was no other familia to choose!' Even as he thought this, Nox still smoothly answered.
"Nice to meet you all! I'm a newbie, Nox Lyros! Just entered the familia yesterday!"
"I see, I see! Welcome to the family!" Welcomed Tiona followed then by Tione who had dropped her suspicions with a small "Welcome." from Ais. They then entered the building together and parted ways, each going to their own rooms.
Apparently newbies didn't usually get their own room but Loki had decided to give him one as a small privilege which he appreciated since being alone made meditating for long periods of time much easier and this was a necessity to adjust his spells and whatnot.
Back in his own room, Shiki got to work on his spells once more. He immediately noticed the increased capabilities of his various skills that became far more powerful and thus allowed him to make several improvements on his magic.
Most of it were improvements to efficiency while the power had greatly improved thanks to the greater boost given by the skill Arcanum. He was trying to create another spell. A pulse of Mind to use for scouting purposes.
It still took him awhile even with the boosts of his newly acquired falna and he totally skipped dinner but he finally got it.
Mind Pulse: Omnidirectional wave of Mind that propagates from the user allowing them to perceive anything it touches.
Since Mind without any properties just harmlessly passes through most materials, it also can give Nox wall hacks. Happy with his progress, he decided to call it a day, eating some of the food he still had in his storage he finally went to sleep.
Nox woke up even before dawn intending to make the most out of today. Checking if he had enough supplies to spend some time in the dungeon without going thirsty or hungry he set the spells he wanted in his now four slots and got on his way.
The spells were Mind Cycle, Mind Boon, Mind Pulse and Mind Missile for self enhancement, equipment enhancement, scouting and attacking respectively.
He quickly arrived at Babel and entered, going down the spiral steps into the dungeon with excitement in his heart. His magical senses granted by the skill Arcanum let him literally feel and see the energy running through the walls of the dungeon. It was amazing!
The first floor only had Goblins and Kobolds and although he had already studied and memorized the maps for the first few floors under Eina's instructions yesterday he used his Mind Pulse to see if it worked as intended in the dungeon.
Making his tests, Nox came to a few conclusions in his mind.
'It seems that the energy of the dungeon is making it very difficult for the pulse to penetrate the walls but otherwise it seems to work perfectly fine.'
The monsters here were certainly stronger that those on the surface but still didn't pose that much of a problem to Nox specially since he now had a falna. As he effortlessly cut through the goblins and kobolds SNox thought about what he should do.
'Since I'm only Level 1, this will still give me excelia but if I fight more powerful and higher leveled monsters my gains will multiply due to my low level in spite of my power. But just as he was preparing to go down another floor, a reaction different from the usual appeared on his Mind Pulse. It wasn't an adventurer, goblin or kobold.
'It looks like . . . A bird?' Suddenly, realization came to Shiki. 'A Jack Bird! The ultra rare monster with a guaranteed drop worth one million vallis!' He thought as his eyes turned to vallis.
He knew it was quick so he had to handle it in one shot. His fastest attack was with the Mind Boon enhanced warbow so he approached the bird's position. It was behind a rock and Nox kept his distance and only tracked it with his Mind Pulse since he didn't want to alert it.
Nox aimed an arrow at the Rock in front of the Jack Bird and charged his bow and arrow with an unusually large amount of mind since he didn't want anything to go wrong and then fired.
As soon as he loosed the arrow, the Jack Bird sensed danger but by then it was all too late. The arrow struck true shattering its magic stone and leaving only a perfect golden egg behind. As he carefully picked it Nox said to himself in a low voice.
"So this is the legendary Golden Egg of the Jack Bird, worth a million valis . . ."
"Ha . . . Haha . . . Hahaha Hahaha! I'm fuckin' rich baby!" He shouted already seeing the piles of vallis. he quickly put the egg away safely and headed straight to the exit while thinking.
'If I manage to upgrade my Mind Pulse sufficiently . . . Won't I be able to farm these Golden Eggs!?'
Running nearly full speed, Nox got to the guild fast and immediately went to the exchange counter.
"Good morning! I'd like to exchange this!" Nox announced as he took out the egg.
"J-J-Jack Bird's Golden Egg!!!!" The guild employee was dumbfounded at the phenomenal luck of the adventurer before him.
Nox was taken to a side room since the amount he was to receive was quite large. He used this opportunity to meditate and switch his Mind Missile with Item Box and stored his other gains namely, the magic stones and drop items of the Goblins and kobolds.
A higher ranked employee of the guild brought in Eina and congratulated me before leaving.
"I must say Nox-kun! Your luck is enough to make the gods jealous. First time you entered the dungeon and you not only found a Jack Bird which is incredibly rare all by itself but you also managed to take it down despite being a total newbie!" Exclaimed Eina.
"Well, although I've only recently received a falna, I do have experience with fighting monsters in fact the first four floors will probably not pose any challenge at all from what I've seen." Cooly answered Nox.
"Nox-kun!" Started Eina with a serious tone. "Never underestimate the dungeon! Stay in the first four floors like I said before!" She warned.
Despite the scolding, Nox was quite grateful at Eina's care. She only said so because she has no idea of what he can actually do so to get her to allow him to go down further without angering her, Nox shared a bit of his abilities like his scouting Mind Pulse to put her mind at ease.
He was fine with it since he knew Eina was trustworthy and she also greatly appreciated this. This prompted Eina to grudgingly agree to let him go down until the sixth floor but no further since she had not taught him what to expect beyond and even that was pushing it.
After another round of warnings to be careful and to never let his guard down and constantly check the surroundings with his mind pulse, Eina finally let him go. Nox, endeavouring not to piss off his advisor who had shown such care right from the start, decided to abide by her wishes for today even though he thought he could handle one or two extra floors deeper with his abilities.
So, after switching Item Box with Mind Missile once again, Nox was on his way do the dungeon for a second run.
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