Having made his decision, Alex decided to jump down, as going down the steps was for plebeians. Only kings choose the short path, making a leap of faith into the abyss known as the dungeon. Gaining enough momentum, Alex ran towards the entrance to the first floor and made the leap of faith. While he was falling, he thought it was a pretty good experience of free-falling.
Seeing that the ground was approaching, he decided to do a skillful flip and make a perfect superhero landing. After landing, Alex even felt that in one of the Marvel universes, Deadpool shed a tear, started clapping, wiped a single tear from his mask, and said, "I'm so proud of this bastard, that was the best jump I've ever seen."
Shaking off these silly thoughts, Alex stood up and looked around. He noticed the surrounding adventurers staring at him with wide eyes, not believing what they had just seen.
"Did you see that too? That guy just fell down and landed in a weird pose," said one of the adventurers, rubbing his eyes and asking his friend.
"Yeah, I saw that guy fall from above too," his friend replied with astonished eyes.
Ignoring the adventurers who were whispering to each other, Alex decided to delve deeper into the first floor to test his abilities. Moving forward, he encountered solitary monsters, which he easily dispatched.
Reaching a fork in the path, Alex thought he needed a secluded place where he could test his skills without any disturbances. After a brief consideration, he chose the left direction. Walking down the corridor, he noticed that the walls of the first floor were light blue with gray speckles if you looked closely.
After some time, Alex stumbled upon a room where he found a group of twenty goblins.
"Just what I need for practice," Alex thought, entering the room and casting a spell that paralyzed all the goblins.
"Don't worry, I'm not going to kill you just yet. I'm just going to try some moves," Alex said, approaching the group of goblins that had fallen to the floor after the spell. In response, he heard only coarse growls.
"It's rude to growl at someone who can kill you," Alex remarked, striking one of the goblins on the head.
"Damn, I thought they'd turn to ash immediately, not splatter their blood everywhere. Now my boot is all bloody," Alex said, wiping his shoe and looking at the terrified goblins.
"Now I can test some of my abilities, and you'll be the first test subject," Alex said, pointing to one of the goblins.
Grabbing one of them, Alex dragged it to the other end of the room so that his abilities wouldn't affect the other test subjects.
While Alex was busy testing his abilities, let's return to the loli goddess...
Waking up from a deep sleep, Hestia rubbed her sleepy eyes and noticed that Alex was nowhere to be found. Her drowsy state immediately vanished, and she panicked, running through the rooms in search of Alex. Finally, she stumbled upon a note on the table. Deciding to read it, Hestia picked up the note and realized that Alex had left it. The note read as follows:
"Dear Hestia, I went to the dungeon to check some things. I don't know when I'll be back; it could be after lunch or in the evening. I've left money for food on the table. Take it to buy something to eat and don't wait for me. I'll eat in the dungeon. Please don't spend all the money on snacks; eat normal food. After I return, we'll discuss the restoration of our home. P.S. Once again, don't spend the money only on snacks."
"I'm not a child to live on snacks," Hestia said, pouting at the note.
After that, she decided to go buy herself breakfast and return home to wait for the delivery of her bed and sofa. Leaving, Hestia let out a cheerful laugh and couldn't wait for her new soft bed to arrive.
Returning to Alex...
While Alex dragged his green test subject to the other end of the room, he hummed a melody from his old world, pondering which ability to try first. Placing the paralyzed goblin near the wall, Alex stepped back and decided to start with the simple "Greg" spell (Greg - Flame. Weakest fire spell. It's a small fireball).
After choosing and launching the small fireball at the goblin, it immediately turned to ash, leaving behind a fang and a small mana-filled crystal.
"So this is what those crystals adventurers hunt for look like," Alex said, examining the crystal from different angles. "Given its size, one could conclude that the lower the floor, the larger the crystal and the more mana it contains."
He nodded, stroking his chin.
"Now, let's test other abilities," Alex said, turning his head towards the other green test subjects.
Approaching the goblins, Alex grabbed one of them and dragged it while humming the melody. Placing the goblin near the wall, Alex returned to his starting position and pondered which ability to try next.
"What if..." Alex thought, devising another way to use the "Greg" spell. "What if I try to use 'Greg' like Sukuna uses Divine Flame, change its shape, and make a bow? Then the range should increase, and the accuracy of the shot as well."
After spending some time, he managed to change the shape of the fireball, making it resemble a bow with an arrow.
"Now, let's see how deadly this skill has become," Alex said, aiming at the goblin and releasing the arrow.
The fiery arrow instantly reached the goblin, striking it. The goblin immediately turned to ashes, leaving loot and a hole in the wall. Noticing the hole after the spell hit, Alex decided to check how much damage the arrow had caused.
"Well, that's unexpected. Changing the shape of the fireball reduced the area of effect, but increased its penetrating power, range, and projectile speed," Alex said, peering into the hole and seeing how the arrow passed through several rooms, leaving through-holes in them.
Some time later...
Testing magical skills from Anos's arsenal, Alex decided to test his weapons. Grabbing another green volunteer, he dragged him to a test wall. Returning to his position, Alex assumed a standard stance with his sword, unsheathed the blade, and made a light swipe towards the goblin. The strike instantly hit the goblin, turning it to ashes. Alex noticed that even a simple Yamato swipe had cut through the dungeon wall. Approaching where the strike left a gash in the wall, Alex touched it and concluded:
"Hmm, such a clean cut. And judging by the mana flowing through the dungeon walls, it will take some time before the damage heals," Alex said, looking at the hole in the wall left by the sword. "Now, let's test Beowulf and see how much damage a weak strike can do," Alex said, summoning Beowulf and dragging another goblin to the wall.
Dragging the goblin to the wall, Alex took a combat stance for hand-to-hand combat.
"Now let's try one of Saitama's punches. Ordinary series - ordinary punch," Alex said, striking towards the goblin.
After the strike, the goblin was thrown with such force that the wall behind it also collapsed.
"Well, that was stronger than I expected," Alex said, clenching and unclenching his fist, looking at the destroyed wall and the room behind it. "Now I need to find a way to lift fallen crystals and materials from defeated monsters without collecting them one by one," Alex thought, recalling some characters and their abilities that he could mimic.
"What if I try to mimic 'Ruler's Authority' from 'Solo Leveling'? After all, this skill allows using mana as an extension of the hand, which could be used to gather crystals and materials from monsters," Alex decided.
Spending a couple of hours on trial and error mastering this skill, Alex finally managed to master it and was able to retrieve all remaining goblins with this ability.
"Now it's time to finish testing the skills and do what I loved back in my old world. Namely, let's speedrun through the dungeon aiming to reach the 10th floor as quickly as possible," Alex thought, getting up from the floor and eliminating the remaining goblins, collecting the crystals that fell from them.
Some time later...
Returning to the entrance of the first floor, Alex began to warm up lightly. Adventurers passing by looked at him strangely.
"Hey, look at what this guy is doing. What's this strange ritual at the entrance to the first floor?" said a random adventurer to his friend.
"Who knows. Maybe it's his ritual before hunting. Everyone has their quirks," his friend shrugged.
"What about me?" the first one asked.
"You like to have a drink before descending into the dungeon and say it makes hunting easier for you," his friend replied. The first one just grumbled and headed deeper into the first floor.
After finishing his warm-up, Alex took a running stance.
"Alright, let's go. Speedrunning through the dungeon," he said to himself and sprinted towards the first floor. Breaking through the floors, defeating monsters, and collecting crystals from them, Alex reached the tenth floor. He looked around to understand what this level was like. The walls were covered with brown moss, the ground was scattered with short grass. The light from the phosphorescent ceiling resembled sunlight, and occasional fog worsened visibility for ordinary adventurers.
After a quick survey of the tenth floor, Alex decided to check the loot he had gathered during the run.
"Well, I can say for a first dungeon run, I gathered a decent harvest of crystals," he said, peering into his bag. "Now I can go back and sell what I've collected to find out how much I earned from the first raid and which floor is best to start from," Alex thought, slinging the bag over his shoulder. "Now I can use the spell 'Gatom' to teleport back to the entrance of the first floor," Alex said, casting the spell.
(Gatom - a teleportation spell that connects two points in space. It can only teleport to places previously visited. The farther the magical power, the greater the distance that can be traveled.)
After teleporting to the first floor, Alex noticed there were no adventurers around, which was unusual since there were usually many at the entrance. Dismissing this detail from his mind, he headed to the guild to sell the crystals.
At the guild entrance...
Approaching the guild, Alex headed straight to the counter to sell the gathered crystals. Not noticing his consultant, a half-elf, he sighed with relief, thinking he was lucky.
Standing in line, Alex pondered how much he could earn from this raid. According to Loki's family members, an ordinary group of adventurers earns around 25,000 vallis per run. Lost in thought, he didn't notice when it was his turn.
"Good day. Are you looking to sell what you've gathered in the dungeon?" the girl behind the counter asked.
"Good day. Yes, I'd like to sell the crystals and materials I've collected," Alex replied, handing over the bag of crystals.
"I see, your hunt was successful today," the girl remarked, taking the bag and feeling its weight.
While waiting for the girl to count the crystals and materials received, Alex estimated he had earned about 100,000 vallis.
"Thank you for waiting. Here's the money you earned from the raid," the girl said, handing over the bag now filled with vallis.
"Could you tell me how much I earned from this raid?" Alex asked, not wanting to count the earnings himself.
"Of course. Taking into account the crystals and materials you collected from the monsters, you earned a total of 120,000 vallis," the girl replied calmly.
Thanking the girl at the counter, Alex decided to leave the guild, avoiding Einah who might start lecturing him on how newcomers should approach the dungeon. Exiting the guild, Alex headed towards an empty alley to use "Gatom" and instantly appear inside the church.
Descending into the church basement, which served as the temporary residence of the Hestia family, Alex looked forward to boasting to Hestia about his first earnings from the raid.
"Hestia, I'm home!" Alex shouted, opening the door.
Immediately, he was tackled by the dark-haired rocket. Hestia began inspecting him for injuries. Assured there were none, she sighed deeply and spoke so quickly that even Eminem would be surprised.
"Hestia, I can't understand what you're saying. Slow down," Alex requested, trying to calm her.
"I was saying, why didn't you wake me up when you were going into the dungeon," Hestia replied, pouting.
"You were sleeping so soundly that not even an explosion next to you would wake you up," Alex replied, hanging his cloak in the closet.
"But you should still have woken me up," Hestia began to complain and shook Alex again.
"Alright, alright, stop shaking me. I promise next time I'll wake you up before I leave," Alex said, trying to appease the sulking goddess.
"Now let's go eat. I'm a bit hungry and wouldn't mind a hearty dinner," Alex said, slinging Hestia over his shoulder and heading towards the exit.
"No need to go anywhere, I've already brought dinner. We can eat at home," Hestia replied, hanging on his shoulder.
"Great, no need to go anywhere," Alex replied, slightly disappointed that he wouldn't see any beautiful waitresses.
"Alright, let's go eat. All the food is already on the table," Hestia said and started dragging Alex towards the table.
"Okay, let's go eat, and I'll also tell you how my dungeon run went," Alex said to the hyperactive goddess.
To be continued...