Chapter 5 - Entering the dungeon for the first time. (Patreon)

Besides checking his status, Kael also received a sheet containing his stats from Hestia. However, he noticed something strange: the “Swordsmanship” ability was displayed in his status, but his teleportation ability was nowhere to be seen.

It didn’t exist.

Hestia noticed Kael’s confusion and asked, “Is something wrong?”

“Oh, no.” He shook his head, putting the matter out of his mind. “Cough… Cough…” He cleared his throat and then stood up, putting his shirt back on. “I’m going out now. I intend to head straight to the Dungeon.”

“Hm? What? Aren’t you going to wait for Bella?”

“You said she’s exploring the Dungeon right now, didn’t you? She won’t come back just to help me, so it’s better to do this alone.”

Concerned about Kael’s safety, Hestia asked, “Are you sure you’ll be okay? You have a sword, don’t you?”

“Hahaha, yes, I do.” Kael showed Hestia his basic sword. “It’s not a particularly high-quality sword, but it’s good enough. I used it for training.”

“I see. But please be careful. Would you like me to accompany you to the Dungeon?”

“Huh? Are you going to explore it with me?”

“No, of course not. I’ll just go as far as the entrance.”

“All right, let’s go.”

Kael left the Hestia Familia home with Hestia. Within minutes, they arrived at the Dungeon’s entrance. The people around them looked at the two with curiosity. Kael even managed to overhear a few conversations about himself.

“Hey, isn’t that the Goddess Hestia? Who’s that guy?”

“Could he be a new member of the Hestia Familia? She rarely accepts new members, doesn’t she?”

“Actually, nobody wants to join the Hestia Familia. Doesn’t she only have one member? That famous white-haired girl.”

“Oh, right.”

Kael glanced at Hestia, who didn’t seem particularly bothered by the two men’s conversation. In fact, she had a smile on her face and looked excited.

Kael smiled and said, “You look happy.”

“Yes, of course I’m happy!” That was all she said.

####

After saying goodbye to Hestia, Kael walked toward the stairs leading to the first floor. He descended calmly, passing other adventurers who completely ignored him.

Every now and then, he felt someone watching him, but before long, he would be completely ignored again.

As soon as Kael stepped onto the first floor, he felt it.

Thump! Thump!

His heart began racing, and an overwhelming sense of exhilaration washed over him. He hadn’t encountered a single monster yet, but he already felt incredibly excited. How would he feel when he actually encountered one?

Would he be able to kill a monster without any trouble? Would he feel comfortable cutting down a Goblin with his sword?

With thoughts like these running through his mind, Kael continued forward.

He walked slowly as adventurers passed him by. They looked at him as though he were an idiot, but Kael didn’t care. Eventually, he calmly came across a monster.

His first objective was to kill the creature standing before him.

A Goblin with empty hands.

It was much shorter than Kael and extremely scrawny. Kael felt no fear or anything of the sort. Instead, he studied the monster with curiosity. Since this was the first monster he had ever seen, he wanted to examine it.

However, the Goblin wasn’t going to stand still and let Kael observe it.

Even though Kael was much taller and had a sword in his hand, the Goblin wasn’t intimidated. It charged straight at him.

Kael smiled and raised his sword. Then, he thought:

‘This is going to be an instant kill.’

The Goblin was less than a meter away, ready to grab him and hurt him with its claws and even its teeth. However, Kael vanished completely.

The Goblin, with its limited intelligence, was left confused.

But before it could even figure out where Kael had gone, its vision spun.

Its head had been severed.

Blood sprayed through the air, and the Goblin’s body slowly disappeared, turning into particles of light. A magic stone fell to the ground. At the same time, a system message appeared before Kael’s eyes.

[Congratulations on killing your first monster!]

[EXP Bonus x10 Applied]

[You have received 20 EXP points]

Seeing those messages, Kael was confused.

“What do you mean by EXP? Isn’t my system connected to this world’s system? Shouldn’t I level up like everyone else?”

Kael opened his status and was surprised by the numbers displayed right beside his Level.

Name: Kael

Title: Teleporter

Familia: Hestia

Level: 1 (20/100,000)

Strength (STR): I 10 (11)

Endurance (END): I 10 (12)

Dexterity (DEX): I 10 (11)

Agility (AGI): I 10 (12)

Magic (MAG): I 10 (12)

Abilities: Teleportation (EX) LV1 / Swordsmanship LV1

“Wait a second… 100,000?”

Kael’s eyes nearly popped out of their sockets. What kind of numbers were those? It was absurd. On top of that, more numbers had appeared right beside his stats.

Kael quickly understood what they meant.

They were his future stats, the values he would have once his Falna was updated.

‘At least I can track the growth of my stats in real time. That’s already a good advantage. And apparently, I don’t need to accomplish anything extraordinary to level up. I just need to obtain the required amount of EXP.’

Kael smiled.

‘And my EXP gains will probably increase as I descend to lower floors. Not bad.’

Feeling confident, Kael continued onward.

He walked through several corridors on the first floor and encountered monsters along the way. He used his teleportation ability every time, without worrying about how much magic it consumed.

However, his exploration ended there, on the first floor.

Kael even found the passage leading to the second floor of the Dungeon, but he decided not to descend. He wasn’t quite that confident yet. In fact, he wanted to study the Dungeon a little before proceeding.

He knew about the original story, but his knowledge was limited. He hadn’t even read the series’ wiki to gain any in-depth information about certain things.

And the previous owner of his body hadn’t known much about the Dungeon either, despite dreaming of becoming an adventurer.

‘A few days of studying should be enough.’