Dungeon Delving is Damn HARD (danmachi / kinda SI)

“Hurry up, newbie-kun,” Tiona said, grabbing my arm and almost carrying me out of the building. “Mou, you already missed a day, I won’t let you get complacent!”

Doing my best to ignore my still aching muscles, I followed after the Amazoness as she led me towards the city’s wall. Out of nowhere, she dragged me to the side, taking a narrow side street instead of the usual path.

The pain from my last trip into the dungeon was almost gone, Loki’s potion having worked wonders, to the point that a good stretch would have me moving normally, but the girl seemed intent on not giving me time.

Reaching the end of the street, Tiona put a hand on my chest to stop me and poked her head through the side of the building, looking around with narrowed eyes before starting to walk again.

Looking around, I did my best to search for any watchers, but I didn’t even feel the usual gaze on me. As far as I knew, the people keeping tabs on me were gone. Still, she was a first-rank adventurer, I wouldn’t think my senses were better than her’s even with the Sharingan.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing, nada, everything’s fine, why?” she hurriedly said but didn’t slow down or stop acting like we were being followed.

“Because you’re acting like we’re gonna be attacked at any time,” I said, my hand gripping the sword at my waist.

“What? Nope, I just don’t want a certain nuisance following us,” she pouted, releasing my arm and avoiding my eyes. “If you’re gonna keep getting into fights like that, I have to increase your training, no need for annoying distractions. Hurry up, I want to see how much you’ve grown!”

Shaking my head in amusement, I continued to follow her as she tried to sneak her way toward the wall. Tiona had no talent for being a rogue so we attracted far more attention than if we walked normally, getting quite a few amused looks thrown our way.

“Here, Newbie-kun,” she said when we finally arrived, extending a large purse toward me. “I talked with Aisha, this is half the loot from your last delve.”

“I thought it would take more time…” I wondered. Grabbing the heavy bag, I stored the money in my backpack without counting. “Wait, were you just trying to avoid Lena?”

“Humph, she already went on one heroic adventure with you, no need to intrude on our sparing as well.”

“Are you… jealous?”

“Mou, no fair! I want to go on an adventure as well!” the Amazon almost shouted, her arms lifted in the air. “The last delve was fun, but we only managed to push two floors and nothing unexpected happened, no new and unknown monsters, no dastardly plots.”

That… wasn’t exactly what I had asked, but I didn’t think she was lying either. Well, I hadn’t been dungeon delving for long, but I could definitely see how it could become routine.

Starting to stretch, I thought about what I’d do in the same situation. My own delves had been fairly eventful but, even at my level, I could probably earn a comfortable amount of money without facing much danger if I didn’t push myself, taking my time to grow stronger.

I didn’t NEED to be like Bell, most adventurers weren’t after all, taking years for each level and being content as a level 2 or 3.

I hate to admit it, but I had never felt more alive, or more accomplished, than after I survived the last attack and left the dungeon. It had been terrifying and stressful, yes, but the adrenaline…

Yeah, I could definitely see things becoming boring if nothing unexpected was happening for a long time after that.

“Alright, Ready?”

“Tiona, why are your eyes shining?” I asked, taking a step back as I saw my teacher lifting her two-handed sword over her shoulders. “Also, why does it seem you’re going to use Urga?”

“I told you, didn’t I? I want to see how much you’ve grown!” twirling the weapon over her head as if it didn’t weigh anything, she got into a fighting position. “There’s no use running away Newbie-kun! Show me what you’ve got!”

Throwing my eyepatch down, I barely had any time as the woman charged me, a heavy downward blow aimed at my shoulder. Unsheathing my sword, I sidestepped, hitting the side of her blade and parrying it away, then it was on.

Ten minutes. Ten minutes of uninterrupted sparring was what it took to satisfy the Amazoness. Back in my world, I always thought fights lasted longer, but Ten. Freaking. Minutes. Of full power sparring against a first-class adventurer felt like an eternity even with my improved Falna.

Tiona hadn’t let me breathe, every time I took a step back she was right there, in my face, trying to kick me out or, worse, weaving that huge piece of metal faster than I could move my small sword.

Still, I didn’t have a single broken bone and had lasted until she stopped, a smile on her face as she dropped Urga point first into the ground and, even with its dulled edge, the sheer weight of the blade drove it twenty centimeters into the wall.

Collapsing back, sweat dripping all over my forehead, I let my back hit the floor, the sword clattering to my side. “Was that strictly necessary?”

“Yep, I wanted to see how much you’ve grown,” she nodded, a huge smile on her face as she sat down beside me, her legs crossed. Extending a hand, she happily tussled my already messy hair. “Good job, Loki was right, you really learn fast, just like a hero. I don’t even think Ais learned faster.”

“Where… huff… where is your gremlin of a god anyway?”

“Dunno, she wanted to come, but Riveria dragged her away for a meeting.”

I wondered what that was about, did something else happen or was she dealing with those people I faced in the dungeon already?

Slowly, I pushed my body back up. My shirt was plastered to my chest and I was still out of breath, but my body seemed to be recovering much faster than before, two hundred points in endurance had made a huge difference.

“Ready for round two?” Tiona asked, a glint in her eye.

“Ugh!” I complained, but already got to my feet, the sword in my hand. Looking at Tiona’s amused smile, I couldn’t help teasing. “This is because Lena has bigger breasts isn’t it?”

“Gah! Leave the boobs out of it!”

In hindsight, maybe I shouldn’t have teased the vastly stronger adventurer just before sparring with her. Live and learn.

An hour and a half later, I drank the expensive healing potion, feeling the effects spreading through my battered body. Still, it was the first one I had consumed and, again, I hadn’t broken anything. Its effects were immediate, leaving me tired but healthy.

Tiona was standing on top of the wall, balancing on the edge as she waited for me to recover and push myself up, Urga leaning safely on my side of the battlements. Turning around, I put my arms over the defenses and took a deep breath.

Damn, being able to move this fast, trade blows with someone at that level, it was so cool.

Poking my shoulder with a toe, Tiona crouched down and sat, legs hanging freely over the edge. “So, tell me about the fight, how was it?”

I thought about it but didn’t speak. I had a better idea. “Come here,” I said and pulled her back.

Tiona let me lower her down on top of the wall walk, sitting opposite me on the floor. “Alright, can you not resist? I want to see if I can show you something.”

“Sure!”

Closing my eyes, I concentrated a little and opened them again, staring straight at Tiona’s eyes and sending a visual illusion. Unfortunately, even with her permission, it didn’t stick.

Tiona simply tilted her head sideways, her eyes wide as they continued to look at me in puzzlement. “What was that?”

“My skill, did you resist?”

“Not really?” she shrugged, then shook her body and relaxed her muscles even more. “Come on, try again!”

Sending my mind to the ring on my finger, I filled it to the brim with power before drawing the empowered mana and trying again, if it didn’t work I’d just talk normally. No need to waste the mangekyou on this.

Either because it was enough or, much more likely, because Tiona had unconsciously broken my skill before and had fully opened herself this time. I felt the illusion take hold.

I had spent a night composing this one, it was the biggest illusion I had made but, since I had seen everything with the Sharingan, it was so integrated into my brain as to make things… far more convenient.

I remembered every monster. Damn, I remembered every stray hair ON the monsters as if it happened only a few seconds ago. Turning that vision into an illusion had been pretty easy, most of the time had actually been spent trying to include sound and feel to what I remembered happening.

It helped that I had already been trying for something like this, trying to replicate Lord of The Rings with my illusions was MUCH harder since I hadn’t watched the movie with the sharingan.

I felt the drain on my mind attribute, more than half of my power was gone in an instant. Still, in front of me, Tiona’s eyes went distant as she watched things from my perspective.

I didn’t put everything in it, I didn’t want to stay here for an hour, but I included all the important bits.

“What is this?” Tiona asked, her eyes still not focusing on me.

Eventually, I wanted to be good enough to watch the illusion with her or have a true conversation but, for now, I couldn’t manage that. Still, I hadn’t blocked her senses and could answer here. Hopefully, the illusion wouldn’t break if she didn’t try to break out of it.

“Don’t try to resist,” I warned, watching as her body remained relaxed. “If you do, even a little bit, I’m pretty sure you’re gonna break the skill and I’m not strong enough to use it again anytime soon. I thought you’d like to watch the fight, not just hear about it.”

She didn’t resist, trusting me enough to simply let the illusion run its course. Like with Yoshi, I had accelerated the time inside the skill, but it still took 15 minutes for her to watch everything.

Well, not everything, I hadn’t included some of the worst parts… or my use of Susanoo, but almost everything, including the majority of the fighting.

“Newbie-kun! What WAS that!” she finally snapped out of my illusion, jumping to her feet with wide eyes.

“My fight, at least what I remember of it.”

“SO COOL!” She yelled. “Is that what your red eyes do? I thought they just let you see better.”

“I didn’t think you’d be this excited, it’s not like I was fighting level 5 monsters,” I said, a little embarrassed by the praise.

“No way, I don’t think I was that good as a level 1!!” grabbing for her weapon, she copied some of my moves when fighting in the dungeon, only much more skillfully, clearly excited by what she had seen. “That knee to the face! So cool!”

I couldn’t help smiling at her, yeah, that knee had been epic. I still felt a little uncomfortable at having killed the man —No, a LOT uncomfortable— but that flying knee with all my speed had felt… very satisfying to use.

Revealing some of my eye’s abilities hadn’t been an easy decision, but I trusted Tiona, and she should have already guessed many of them after our spars.

Also, Lena already knew about even more of them anyway.

Better yet, having a willing partner that could give me feedback would help improve my skill, there was only so much I could achieve without an intelligent test subject.

In truth, I was hoping to tempt Loki into asking for it. Trying to trick the God of trickery wasn’t exactly smart, so I wasn’t gonna do anything underhanded TO her, but I wanted to test if illusions worked on gods and this was a good way of doing it without repercussions.

If I couldn’t snare her in an illusion at all or, like Tiona, she had to lower her defenses to accept it, there would be zero chance of using kotoamatsukami against any god.

But if I could snare her easily unless she actively resisted…

Yeah, Loki would probably see through me, knowing I had ulterior motives for using her, but I doubt she’d refuse anyways and she also shouldn’t know about kotoamatsukami. Heck, even if she could guess I was plotting something or what that was, I think she was willing to let me do it for amusement.

It was the difference between trying to play a prank on her and pranking someone with her help. No matter if she was really the good guy she portrayed here in Orario or the asshole from mythology, she should be able to help out with tricking someone else.

“Tsk, you’ve been holding back on me Newbie-kun!” she pinched my waist. “Why didn’t you use this in our spares?”

“As I said, it’s not exactly something I can use freely. Besides, you’re too strong, my skill is weaker against those higher level than me. The only reason it worked on you was because you let it.”

“Very well, I forgive you.”

I snorted, letting her pull me to my feet. “Also, I wanted to be able to do something like this first,” I confessed. “Remember how I promised to tell you some of my stories? I wanted to be able to show them to you too.”

“That’s it! You’re now my favorite student!”

“I’m your only student.”

“Yes, but as a new heroic teacher, I’m obviously gonna have more than one apprentice, like the god Quiron,” she said, nodding. “You’re gonna be my favorite then.”

I just shook my head, grabbing the pouch of water, I threw it over my head, getting rid of most of the sweat still clinging to my skin. I had to take a bath after this, but I already felt refreshed… even if the sparring had left me exhausted again.

“By the way, do you know if I can take a tamed monster out of the Dungeon?”

“Huh? Well, none of us use tamed monsters… hmmm, I think the guild only lets you bring them out during the monsterphilia.”

“Do you know anyone who would know?”

“Well, Ganesha familia do have a lot of tammers,” she said, then puffed her chest. “I can ask around if you want?”

“Thanks, I don’t want to lose my lizard if someone finds and tries to kill him.”

Grabbing Urga from the wall, Tiona tied it to her back and cracked her neck. “Ack, it’s almost midday. Sorry Newbie-Kun but I gotta go. Are you gonna delve today?”

“No,” I had no desire to tempt fate by entering the dungeon again so soon. “I need to resupply and fix a lot of my equipment, only my sword is ready for use.”

“Good, even heroes need a break. See ya!”

Tiona didn’t wait for me, jumping down from the wall to fall on top of a house. It seems she wasn’t losing any time because she dashed away as if weightless. With a groan —I had stopped moving for too long and my muscles had gotten cold— I swung my bag over my back and adjusted the sword on my waist, taking the long way down the wall.

Later that night, I downed a full mug of beer on the Hibachitei, the bar was filled with adventurers laughing and partying, with Scott, Guile, and Mord leading a half-drunk chant around the window.

Consuming alcohol as an adventurer was strange. Even as a level one, my stomach simply wasn’t big enough for me to drink enough normal beer to fully overcome my endurance. As a result, Adventurers had to either consume VERY expensive special brews or simply be happy with a light buzz.

For me it was great. I both didn’t like and wouldn’t dare to get truly drunk, but drinking enough to keep a light buzz was cheap and left me with only a small disadvantage that would pass after a minute or two without the drink.

It was still a risk with people after me, but only a very small one.

“To being alive!” Mord yelled, dropping on the seat beside me and almost spilling his mug.

“To being alive!” I said, sharing the feeling. “Damn monster train.”

“I have to say, you have one shitty luck,” Scott sat down. “Who’d have thought you’d be caught on such a large fuck up like this?”

In hindsight, I was basically an isekai protagonist, I really should have expected something like this to happen.

“So, any more cores for us from that little tussle?” Mord cracked his neck.

“Sorry, I got the other survivor to sell them,” I said, not sorry at all. 15% for selling my cores was fair but that didn’t mean I was gonna just give it to them when I didn’t need to. “Got my share today.”

“Smart,” Guile nodded, still shirtless despite the cold of the night. “At least if you had a way of guaranteeing they would pay you back?”

“Tiona offered to guarantee it.”

“Well, that would do it, nothing like waving a first-class adventurer about to make people honest,” Mord took another swig. “I bet they were really thankful when you trusted them with all the lot.”

“So, you’re paying then?” Scott joked. “No way you didn’t get a huge boost after what you told us.”

Again, I hadn’t told them anything but the rough outline of things, but a parade pass was a parade pass, lots of monsters, lots of loot and growth if you beat it. Not that anyone would want to if they could escape.

“One round,” I offered, “I have to fix all my gear and pay back the witch for a magic item she sold me.”

“Didn’t know the old bat sold on credit.” Scott lifted an eyebrow at me.

“She found the project interesting or something like that,” I said, getting a nod in return. “Say, what can you guys tell me about Ishtar?”

“Ah, my friend, finally feeling up for some fun huh,” Mord laughed, putting an arm over my shoulders. “Wanting some stress relief?”

“Something like that.”

“Well, her girls are expensive, but the service is first class, I tell you,” Mord said, getting a thumbs up from Guile and a shake of the head from Scott. ”The Berbera are another thing, if you catch one of their attention, expect to be drained dry for a week.”

“Talking from experience?” I said.

“Couldn’t even delve for the first three days,” Mord nodded, a dreamy look on his face. “But oh, it was worth it! So worth it.”

“Wouldn’t shut up about it for the week too,” Scott mocked.

“Ha, You’re just jealous she didn’t choose you!” Mord said.

To that, Scott had no answer.

“What about the goddess herself, she ever sees anyone?”

“You dream big don’t you?” Mord just looked at him with respect.

“She does,” Guile answered. “Seen it happen once.”

“Really?” I asked, leaning forward.

“Yep,” It was Scott who continued. “But she’s not exactly hurting for choice you know? She usually accepts a first or second-rank Adventurer… when she’s not with one of the other gods. Ishtar doesn’t have a problem with prostitution, but that doesn’t mean she’d spare someone like us the time of day.”

“Well, if you start to make a name for yourself, she may want to have a try,” Mord said, asking for another mug. “Until then, want to visit the pleasure district tomorrow?”

“I thought you weren’t going there for a while?” I asked. “What with your debt and all?”

“I can only work so much, you know?” Mord said, his voice absolutely serious. “Gotta relax sometimes too if I want to stay productive.”

Around the table, both Scott and Guile nodded, their faces very serious as they agreed with their leader. Right, paying for sex was essential for keeping productivity… right.

Well, I had no desire to pay for sex, mostly because I wanted it to mean something… but to each their own I guess. Still, it was as good an excuse as any to get closer to Ishtar.

I had to test illusions with Loki before trying anything, but it would look less suspicious if I “joined” Ishtar familia after visiting their bordels a few times instead of just… out of the blue.

“Sure,” I said. “I do have an unexpected couple of thousand valis burning a hole in my pouch.”