As the sun set in the west, Ryou wearily walked out of the dungeon.
Although he didn't have to worry about supply issues, there were no safe areas within the first ten floors.
He didn't want to be sleeping soundly only to have his head bitten off by a respawning monster—that would be the most frustrating way to die.
Moreover, while physical injuries could be healed, fatigue was much harder to recover from.
After killing another two or three hundred half-orcs, Ryou found his fatigue accumulating to the point where it was affecting his combat abilities, so he decided to exit the dungeon.
Finding an empty corner, he took out an empty bag and began to fill it with the magic stones he'd collected.
The previously flat leather bag quickly bulged, almost to the point of bursting.
Then Ryou headed towards the Guild, which stood opposite the Tower of Babel.
The Guild organization was similar to the mercenary guilds found in various fantasy novels. Here, adventurers could register their information, exchange magic stones for money, and sometimes even receive special missions.
However, according to the original work, the Guild's founder was the god Uranus. This big shot was involved in many major events, and even if he wasn't the final boss, he was at least a shadowy figure behind the scenes.
Ryou was 120% cautious about him.
He went directly to the counter separated by a railing and exchanged all his magic stones for Valis, totaling over fifty thousand Valis.
This amount was at least 10% lower than his lowest estimate. It had to be said that the Guild made a profit from this business alone.
As for the magic stones themselves, they would be processed into various magical items like magic lamps and magic stoves. One could say that magic stones were equivalent to the "black gold" known as oil on Earth, and even the technological advancements in this world were based on them.
While Ryou was internally criticizing the Guild for its money-grabbing ways, a voice suddenly came from behind him.
"Please wait, adventurer."
Ryou instinctively turned to look.
He saw a half-elf girl with short brown hair, wearing a female suit and black-rimmed glasses, standing behind him with a gentle smile.
"A new face I haven't seen before. My name is Eina Tulle, and I am an adventurer advisor at the Guild," Eina said, placing her left hand on her chest and introducing herself politely.
Seeing this somewhat familiar face, a strange light flashed in Ryou's eyes.
Eina Tulle—he knew this name well. In the original work, she was the adventurer advisor responsible for the protagonist, seemingly gentle but very diligent and responsible.
In short, she was a hardworking civil servant.
"So, what can I do for you, Miss Advisor?" Ryou asked casually.
"Just call me Eina. Also, if it's convenient for you, could you register your basic information with the Guild?" Eina said with a smile.
"Is it mandatory?" Ryou asked with a playful smile.
Eina quickly waved her hand and said, "No, no, no! Please don't misunderstand. This is just a measure for the Guild to conveniently manage adventurer information. It's not mandatory. It's just..."
Eina paused for a moment before continuing, "To get information from the Guild, seek help from the Guild when encountering difficult problems, and occasionally receive special missions with generous rewards, new adventurers usually choose to leave their basic information."
"Is that so? Then I might as well do the same," Ryou agreed after a brief thought.
After all, he was still wearing the Deceiver Mask, so his real appearance was hidden. Providing some false information to gain information from the Guild was a worthwhile trade.
"Then please follow me over there to register," Eina gestured politely.
Seated on a soft sofa, he quickly filled out the form and handed it to Eina.
"Let me verify this," Eina said, taking the form and carefully reviewing it. "Mr. Gudao, you just became an adventurer today. Your Familia is... the Scathach Familia? I've never heard of this Familia before."
Seeing Eina's thoughtful expression, Ryou proactively explained, "It's normal that you haven't heard of it. My goddess only descended to the lower world recently, and currently, I'm the only member of the Familia."
As for the alias Gudao, it was the name of the FGO male protagonist. He had used this same alias and false appearance at the Hostess of Fertility as well.
After hearing Ryou's explanation, Eina looked a bit surprised but didn't doubt it. After all, since the first deity descended, there had been thousands of gods in the lower world, and it was normal for some to be relatively unknown.
"Is that so? Then you must have had a tough time," Eina said, a hint of sympathy appearing on her face.
She was well aware of how troublesome it could be to serve gods who descended just for fun; they were almost all problematic.
Just having become an adventurer and already having to take care of his deity alone, Ryou's "predicament" immediately triggered Eina's maternal instincts. "If you encounter any problems, don't hesitate to come to me."
"Alright."
"By the way, since Mr. Gudao just became an adventurer, it would be best to train on the first and second floors for now. The monsters on these floors are the weakest and respawn the slowest. If you encounter danger, you can also ask passing adventurers for help. Adventurers shouldn't take unnecessary risks!"
Eina advised earnestly, raising a finger for emphasis.
If she knew that I had already gone down to the tenth floor and stayed there almost the entire day, she would probably start lecturing me right away, Ryou thought with an inward chuckle, though he outwardly nodded repeatedly, pretending to be a newbie adventurer.
"I will, thank you for your concern, Miss Eina. It's getting late, so I'll be taking my leave now."
"Goodbye, and be careful on your way!"
After saying goodbye to Eina, Ryou walked back to the Hostess of Fertility with a spring in his step.
But as soon as he stepped into the dormitory, he was immediately blocked at the entrance by a charming figure.
"Our esteemed chef seems to be in a very good mood~ Care to share what's making you so happy?"
A gray-haired girl glared at Ryou, her expression somewhat resentful.
"I just went to the dungeon for some training," Ryou quickly raised his hands and explained.
Then he realized that their conversation and the atmosphere between them resembled a scene where a husband returning late was being questioned by his wife.
Syr seemed to notice the awkwardness too and, pretending to be calm, complained, "I even made an extra portion for your dinner..."
She handed Ryou a lunchbox as she spoke.
"Since I've delivered your dinner, I should get back to the tavern to help out."
Ryou quickly expressed his gratitude and saw her off.
Back in his room, with some free time at last, Ryou opened the system panel to carefully review it.
"Not bad, the speed is quite fast. In a few days, I should be able to train my basic attributes to above E-level, and then I can explore deeper floors."
With the Noble Phantasm and the improved blessing provided by his Shishou, the growth rate of his basic attributes had accelerated significantly.
Just today, all his attributes had increased by one to two points.
The proficiency of his two retained skills, Mastery of Cold Weapons and Mana Burst had also increased by 4-5%.
Wearing a satisfied smile, Ryou drifted into sleep.
...
The next day, just as Ryou was about to leave the dormitory to head for the dungeon again, Syr stopped him.
"Here, take this," she said, handing him a beautifully packaged lunchbox.
A girl bringing me a lunchbox!
Internally, Ryou was frantically complaining, but he accepted her gesture with a smile.
"Thanks, Syr."
He then naturally reached out and patted Syr's head.
At Ryou's subconscious gesture of affection, Syr's cheeks immediately flushed, her gaze becoming somewhat unfocused.
"He's already gone far," Ryuu, who was sweeping nearby, suddenly commented.
Syr snapped back to reality, the blush on her face spreading from her cheeks to her ears, and she playfully scolded, "Really, even you are bullying me, Ryuu."
Thus, Ryou fully settled into a simple routine.
Every morning, Syr faithfully prepared a lunchbox filled with her heartfelt care for him.
After receiving the lunchbox, Ryou would head straight to the tenth floor, where he would stop and enter monster-hunting mode.
At first, whenever he faced more than three half-orcs, he would get somewhat injured, relying on his Noble Phantasm and healing potions to keep going.
Ten days later, Ryou had become increasingly proficient in combat. He could now defeat half-orcs with maximum efficiency, the most agile footwork, and the smoothest maneuvers.
However, sometimes, to maximize the effects of his Noble Phantasm within a controllable range, Ryou would deliberately take hits from the half-orcs.
After a while, he even began to wonder if he had awakened some unhealthy interest during his time in the gladiatorial arena.
But in his quest for strength, he couldn't worry about such things.
The gladiatorial arena experience was both a valuable life lesson and a harsh punishment for him.
Without strength, one's fate is controlled by others!
Even though he had escaped the gladiatorial arena, it felt as if an invisible whip was constantly driving him forward without a moment's rest.
Facing a half-orc emerging from the thick fog, Ryou dashed forward in a split second, bent down nimbly, narrowly dodged the half-orc's swinging club, and sidestepped to its flank.
"Hah!"
With a perfectly timed sidekick, he struck the back of the half-orc's knee.
The half-orc's balance was immediately disrupted, causing its heavy body to tip over.
Seizing the opportunity, he delivered a powerful downward elbow strike, shattering the half-orc's grotesque pig-like face.
Ryou's entire sequence of movements was fluid, efficient, and precise.
Bang!
The half-orc's corpse instantly turned to ash, leaving behind a purple magic stone on the ground.
Suddenly, Ryou felt a surge of warmth spread throughout his body.
Ding!
[ Endurance attribute reached 20 points. ]
That's it!?
No reward, no explanation, just a single line of text to acknowledge it.
It shouldn't be that simple...
Instinctively, Ryou calmed his mind, carefully sensing the changes within his body.
Sure enough, his body had undergone significant transformations.
It felt as though he had crossed a threshold and entered a new realm in that instant.
No flashy lights, no special effects, but he knew he had surpassed human limitations!
Howl!
At that moment, a strange wolf-like howl echoed. While Ryou was momentarily distracted, a group of kobolds surrounded him.
One kobold charged at the front, and when it was two or three meters away from him, it sprang forward with a powerful leap.
Countless thoughts flashed through his mind. Seeing the kobold's mouth full of razor-sharp teeth, he steeled his resolve, neither dodging nor evading, and deliberately thrust one of his arms into the kobold's mouth.
How could the kobold resist the meat delivered to its mouth?
Its jaws clamped down hard. Ryou only felt a slight sting in the bitten area, and that was all.
The kobold seemed to realize that the thing in its mouth was unusually hard. As it bit down, it let out a muffled growl.
"You even got addicted, huh?"
Ryou snorted coldly, grabbed the creature by the scruff of its neck, and lifted the audacious kobold as if it were a chick, slamming it forcefully into the ground.
The kobold instantly became a dead dog.
After effortlessly killing the group of kobolds, he looked at the place where he had been bitten.
He carefully observed for a long time and finally found a shallow row of teeth marks that soon returned to normal.
"Hiss!"
Ryou couldn't help but take a sharp breath.
"This toughness is almost comparable to some light armor!"
If he were to wear another layer of armor, it would be like wearing double-layered armor, achieving the defensive power of heavy armor without affecting his body's flexibility.
Moreover, even the speed of healing wounds had reached an inhuman level.
To verify this, Ryou directly slashed his arm with a dagger and simultaneously used his mind to disable the Noble Phantasm's effect.
As a result, the wound still healed at a speed visible to the naked eye.
This meant that his natural recovery speed, just from his endurance, had reached the combined effect of the Noble Phantasm and healing potions.
The difference between a basic attribute of 20 and 200 was like heaven and earth.
Thus, in the following time, Ryou fully demonstrated what it meant to be impervious to damage and to act recklessly.
Whether it was the sharp teeth of the kobolds or the fists and clubs of the orcs, his response was always the same: using one hand to protect himself while the other hand fiercely punched their heads.
To fully understand his limits, Ryou even ventured down to the thirteenth floor, which marked the beginning of the dungeon's middle levels.
Howl!
Ryou had just descended to the thirteenth floor when five or six pitch-black hellhounds, their mouths faintly emitting sparks, emerged from the dungeon walls.
Though surprised, Ryou remained calm. He stomped hard on the ground, launching a fierce assault before the hellhounds could land.
One hellhound was knocked back into the wall before it even touched the ground, dropping a magic stone onto the floor.
The first hellhound to land opened its mouth, intending to unleash a fireball at him. However, Ryou, quick to react, grabbed the hellhound's mouth.
Boom!
With a muffled sound, the fireball exploded in the hellhound's mouth, shattering its head into pieces.
During this time, the remaining hellhounds had all landed, forming a crescent shape to surround him.
To Ryou's surprise, these hellhounds understood simple coordination.
Two of them charged straight at him, while the other two stood at a distance, their mouths opening to release two fireballs.
Ryou swiftly grabbed the heads of two hellhounds and smashed them together, instantly knocking them out.
He then used the hellhounds as shields to block the two fireballs.
Perhaps the fire magic flowing within their bodies granted the hellhounds strong fire resistance.
The scorching fireballs struck the hellhounds, leaving large patches of charred flesh.
Roused from their pain by the burning, the two hellhounds had just awoken when Ryou unhesitatingly made them have another "intimate contact."
Using the two excellent meat shields, Ryou effortlessly approached the hellhounds that were continuously spewing fireballs.
After killing them, he casually snapped the necks of the hellhounds in his hands, which were now so burnt that not a piece of good skin remained.
Who would have thought that just as Ryou collected the dropped magic stones, the dungeon walls writhed and spat out five more hellhounds?
Seeing this scene, Ryou's face instantly darkened.
With such a respawn rate, it's no wonder that in the lower regions, even high-level adventurers of level 5 and level 6 have to form teams to continue pushing downward.
Helpless, Ryou didn't dare to stray too far from the entrance to the twelfth floor. If he couldn't hold out, he would immediately retreat to the twelfth floor.
Once fully recovered, he would charge back into the thirteenth floor.
By relying on this back-and-forth strategy, Ryou gradually managed to secure a foothold on the thirteenth floor.
=====
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