"Do you really not want me to assign a veteran from my Familia to take you into the Dungeon and help you get used to it first?"
Demeter's amber eyes were filled with undisguised worry as she looked at Genichi, already geared up in light equipment and ready to leave. She couldn't stop herself from asking again.
For Genichi's first Dungeon run, this gentle goddess plainly couldn't put her heart at ease.
The Dungeon was, after all, a place full of danger. Even the widely acknowledged "safest" First Floor still saw accidents from time to time.
Letting a brand-new Lv.1 who had just received Falna and had no real combat experience go alone… no matter how she framed it, it made her uneasy.
But Genichi had already rejected, clearly and repeatedly, her suggestion of arranging a guide or teammates.
"No."
His answer was short and decisive. His black eyes met Demeter's calmly.
"My Skills mean I'm not suited to, and can't afford to, party with others."
After a beat, he added, "Besides, my target is only the First Floor. I'm not going deeper. With the First Floor's monster strength, someone who's prepared won't face real danger. What I need is the process of adapting alone."
"I know that, but I'm still worried…"
Demeter pressed her full, rosy lips together. Her honey-colored hair lifted in the morning breeze, her expression full of lingering concern.
It wasn't that she didn't understand his reasoning. It was that the worry of someone who cared didn't vanish just because the logic made sense.
Faced with Demeter's obvious anxiety, Genichi didn't say more.
His explanation was enough. Extra reassurance and promises weren't his style.
He simply nodded, shouldered the pack containing a simple map, a small amount of rations, water, and basic bandages, then checked the standard-issue longsword at his waist, funded by Demeter, sharp enough to do its job.
"Then, Goddess Demeter, I'll be going."
His tone didn't change. "I'll be back tonight. Please update my Status then."
With that, he didn't linger. He turned and walked down the road toward Orario.
Morning light stretched his shadow long. In light leather armor with a sword at his hip, he looked no different from countless other rookie adventurers just setting out.
Demeter stood where she was, her gaze locked on his upright back as it receded. The worry in her amber eyes refused to fade.
Her slender fingers unconsciously twisted the hem of her nightgown. More than once she nearly called after him, or secretly arranged for someone to tail him and protect him.
In the end, she forced herself to suppress the impulse.
"Since he clearly said he doesn't want it, I shouldn't do anything unnecessary," Demeter murmured, as if persuading herself. "And he's right. With his abilities, solo action is the best choice. A party would only raise the risk of exposure. I should trust him. Besides… he's my ace."
That last line carried a hint of self-comfort, and something deeper: anticipation.
She watched until Genichi's figure disappeared completely around the bend. Only then did she let out a soft sigh and turn back inside.
She would wait here, on this quiet farm, for his return, and she would record the growth he earned in his first adventure.
After parting ways with Demeter, Genichi went straight to the Dungeon entrance beneath Babel.
He drew no special attention. Like an ordinary droplet merging into a stream, he flowed with the crowd of adventurers, some in groups, some alone, stepping through the massive gate that led into the world beneath the earth.
The air near the entrance was a mixed stench: adventurers' sweat, metal and leather, the musky reek of monsters, and the Dungeon's own damp mineral-and-soil smell.
Noisy voices, the clack of weapons, and vendors' calls tangled together into the unique chaos that always surrounded the entrance.
Genichi didn't stop for long. With Demeter's map as reference, he quickly found the route into the First Floor's main corridors.
His gear was standard Familia provisioning: a light set of tanned leather reinforced with some metal plates, limited in defense but easy to move in; a one-handed longsword, ordinary steel but properly sharpened, enough for First Floor monsters; and a basic adventurer's pack.
For a Lv.1 rookie, it was a solid start. It showed how much Demeter had quietly looked out for him.
The moment he stepped onto the First Floor, the light dimmed.
Phosphorescent moss and faintly glowing crystals grew along the walls and ceiling, providing basic illumination.
The air turned colder and more humid. The corridors twisted, but were still fairly wide.
There were already a few adventurers moving around, mostly Lv.1 rookies like him, either in small parties or cautiously exploring alone. Their targets were the monsters that wandered the shallowest layers: goblins.
Just as Genichi had said, First Floor goblins were among the weakest, most basic monsters in the Dungeon.
Small bodies. Meager strength. Low intelligence. Usually armed with nothing more than crude clubs or stones.
Even an ordinary adult without Falna, as long as they could swallow their fear and hold a decent weapon, could kill one without too much trouble.
This was where countless adventurers' dreams began, and also the first gate that filtered out the ones who wouldn't make it.
Genichi didn't rush to hunt immediately.
He spent some time near the relatively safe entrance area familiarizing himself with the terrain and loosening up. Only then did he move toward areas that showed signs of monster activity.
It didn't take long for him to find his first lone goblin.
The green-skinned little creature spotted him, let out a harsh, gurgling screech, and charged with its battered wooden club raised. Its eyes were dull, its aggression raw, and its movements completely unstructured.
Genichi's expression didn't change. His gaze was cold.
He didn't use the Boosted Gear. He didn't use magic.
He simply tightened his grip on the longsword, shifted his footwork a fraction, slipped aside from the goblin's clumsy swing, then snapped his wrist.
The blade traced a clean arc.
Wet resistance.
The sword cut precisely into the goblin's fragile throat.
Green blood sprayed. The goblin's movement seized up. The club clattered to the ground. Its small body twitched twice, then collapsed into a little pile of black ash and a fingernail-sized, lowest-grade magic stone.
After that, Genichi repeated the same pattern.
When his stamina ran down, he used magic. When his mind ran dry, he went back to spending stamina. Rotating the two, over and over.
He kept killing goblins because he had a hypothesis.
If he didn't chase fast leveling. If he didn't dive deeper and challenge stronger monsters for a "feat" that would push him to the next level. If instead he stayed on the safest First Floor…
Then he could use Greed.
Through sheer volume, by killing these weak goblins in overwhelming numbers, he could grind out tiny, water-on-stone permanent gains.
He could push Strength, Endurance, Dexterity, Agility, and Magic, all five basic parameters, toward the current level's limit.
And then, only then, with a near-maxed, absurd baseline, he could go secure the feat required for leveling and break into Lv.2 in one explosive step.
Once the thought took shape, it refused to let go.
It was the classic "Tenri Slope Sword Saint" route.
Give up early thrills and quick leveling. Camp the safest rookie zone. Polish the fundamentals to an extreme through pure repetition, then skyrocket once the foundation was complete.
For normal adventurers, it was almost unimaginable.
Because parameter growth for ordinary adventurers depended primarily on high-intensity combat and the acceleration provided by Development Abilities.
Killing hordes of low-level monsters for microscopic gains was so inefficient it bordered on absurd. And sooner or later, low-tier monsters would stop providing meaningful growth at all.
But Genichi was different.
As long as he killed, his Greed could plunder. It could generate tiny, permanent increases.
And he also had the growth correction from Demon, and the massive hidden efficiency boost implied by Ascension to Godhood.
Which meant, at least in theory, that even if each kill's return was small, with those absurd Skills stacked together, the long-term compounding effect might become… genuinely significant.
(End of Chapter)
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