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Dungeon Delving is Damn HARD - Prologue
🕑 Added 2022-10-28 03:57:33 +0000 UTCI was looking at my phone and trying to message my friend to know if he was already inside while waiting in line to enter the convention. I had been to one convention before but this was the first time I was actually doing cosplay so I was very excited.
Truth be told me and my friend had wanted to come as the main character from overlord, I wearing momon’s armor and my friend in his skeleton robes but, as it was my first time, the armor had turned out so shitty I was too ashamed to wear it and my friend had similar trouble so we went with our second option, the fast option.
Cosplaying as Uchiha Shisui was incredibly easy, dark blue clothes a forehead protector some contact lens, sandals, a leather chest protector and a foam sword at my back and I was done, less than 3 days to get it all and extremely convenient since we were out of time, my friend’s costume as Itachi was even easier with the large coat in place of the clothes, the bastard I bet it was cheaper than mine too.
Suddenly I noticed a loud noise coming from above so I looked up and stared directly at a burning piece of debris as it smashed right through my upper body pulverizing my head and chest, sending what remained of my body flying and on fire while leaving a two meters wide hole in the ground and pelting the bystanders with pieces of bone and asphalt.
Floating there above what little remained of my body, a hand, most of a forearm and two legs, I continued to stare stuned “Well… that just happened.” I couldn’t help but say, at least it had been so fast I didn’t even have time to feel pain.
I was floating in the air a little above the crater, my body now transparent and without any strength, stuned I tried to touch one of the pieces of my body only to pass right through it, shit I was a ghost wasn’t I?
Looking at everyone screaming in horror or running away from the scene I felt strangely detached, a fat guy trying to crawl away while screaming like a little bitch, two hot girls wearing Alliance of Legends costumes frozen in shock, a mother cradling a little boy in a darth Vader costume who had been hit by one of my bones… I wondered if anyone was gonna miss me.
Fuck, thinking about my life I never really did anything that I liked, always doing what others expected of me, always woried about how other would think, always trying to apear normal, always too afraid to step up, to do something, shit I had even died a virgin because I was too stupid to ask a girl out.
If I knew it was gonna end so soon I would have done things differently.
A Loud, guttural voice spoke from behind me it’s words echoing in my very soul as it seemed to shake the world around me and I felt pain at my very core, filled with dread I noticed my extremities had started to dissipate in the air, almost unable to stop myself I turned and looked at the…thing that had spoken.
Eyes, eyes and mouths and too many limbs coming out of tentacles made from screaming heads, they were all looking at me, all starring as if I was a particularly interesting insect, then the tentacles shifted revealing what laid inside them and I screamed, I screamed as I tried to claw my eyes out, tried to rip out my own hearth or bash my skull until it caved in but my hands had dissolved and I couldn’t even close my eyes, I screamed until my entire body had dissolved and I didn’t have lungs anymore and then did it some more anyway.
I felt myself snap back into sanity as suddenly as I had died, I didn’t feel my body recovering and couldn’t speak anymore but the last thing I remembered was looking at something, and then darkness “Sorry, sorry, didn’t mean to appear like that but you were kind of a last minute addition and I was getting ready to leave”
Crouching In front of me was a young Steve Buscemi wearing a white shirt and jeans, he poked at me with mild interest and I wondered if this was the devil, I had always thought he would look like Al Pacino.
“I don’t think you’ll wanna see what I really look like again huh?” he commented before lifting me up in his hand and turning what remained of my soul from side to side “Don’t worry it seems you’re still salvageable, a bit more effort than what I was looking for but what can I do”
I didn’t really remember what I had seen but I still shuddered, I did not want to go through that again, what now… do I go to Hell? I doubt I deserve heaven but I don’t think I did anything bad enough to burn for all eternity.
“Well usually I tend to give you guys the illusion of choice, offer to let you go and all that but we all know you’re all gonna take the reincarnation option in the end” the creature shrugged and swiped a strand of hair out of his eye “So let’s see, where can I send you… nope, nope, already did that one… there! There's already a lot of them playing over there, no reason not to do it myself.”
As for skills… yeah you don’t have anywhere near enough good karma for something good, nope no broken system or inspect for you… hmm nope… ha, you’d like that wouldn’t you… snort you really think we don’t know when your kind is trying to game us by exploiting some ‘weak’ skill?”
The… creature continued answering questions before I had ever formulated them leaving me incredibly frustrated and confused as it kept me inside its hand then it focused back on me and sighed heavily
“Fine, I suppose it’s kind of my fault for letting you look where you shouldn’t and I’m not completely opposed to making someone OP every once in a while but you will only get the eyes not the entire body”
‘What?’ I wanted to ask him but the second I tried to speak I felt a wave of pain wash over what remained on my being.
“Tsk, don’t try to speak” the creature chided me while bringing me closer to his face and poking me with a finger “now let me ask you, do you prefer a random rebirth or keeping your current body? Yeah, probably for the best since a medieval society, even one with magic, isn’t the best place to be a baby, or a girl, or the poor, or… well you get it, plus there’s already a neat spawning mechanic over there so I can even save some power when building your body, let me just fix you up a little and… done, well here you go”
Then the bastard squeezed his hand and everything went black.
.
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.
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I Woke up in darkness, held in place by walls around me as if the thing had squeezed me inside a box, testing the limits of my box I felt the wall in front of me give a little so I braced myself against the back of the box and pressed my shoulder against it before pushing as hard as I could.
With the sound of breaking glass the wall shattered and I half fell out of the box into a forest, light coming from the ceiling as if it was illuminated by thousands of lamps, looking around myself I noticed I was a meter from the floor hanging from a dark gash on the wall so I put my arms around the rough stone and pulled myself free falling on all fours on the soft grass.
Taking a few seconds (alright it was quite a few minutes) to freak out I finally managed to gather my wits and take some deep breaths, then I pinched my arm to see if that would wake me up.
It didn’t, I started hyperventilating again.
.
.
.
Patting my clothes to get rid of the dirt and trying to use my hands to comb my short hair back into place I took stock of my situation once more while pretending I hadn’t just had a panic attack, At first I thought I was still wearing my cosplay but, upon closer inspection I noticed my clothes had much better quality, they fit me better and even the leather armor in my chest was much harder and heavier with a layer of metal underneath it for some actual protection.
Grabbing at my back I pulled my foam sword to notice it had now became shining steel with a wicked edge, passing it lightly over my arm actually shaved off my hair better than a razor, using the sword’s side I checked my reflection only to find two red eyes with three tomoe each staring right back at me.
Holy shit I had freaking sharingans!
Channeling power into my eyes happened almost on instinct and I saw the tomoe starting to rotate until they took the form of a pinwheel with a back dot on the center, turning towards a tree I tried to burn it with amaterasu but nothing happened, damn did I have to train it or something? What did that… thing say again? it was answering questions I hadn’t even thought to ask so…
Of course, if I had to ask for one of those overpowered eyes I’d try for the greatest of them all, the one capable of Kotoamatsukami, I had Shisui’s eyes and he never had amaterasu.
Eager to test it out I instead concentrated on the one ability common to all Uchiha, around myself a green flame appeared starting to condense into a single gigantic bone around my body, then the side effects hit me, I felt a terrifying pain, my eyes were killing me, grabbing at my face with both hands I felt them being covered in blood before exhaustion hit me and I passed out.
I woke up with a groan, my eyes were still hurting a little and I now had a killer headache to go with it, at least I wasn’t face down on the floor anymore, instead I felt a straw bed under me, not exactly the most comfortable but the… creature had said I’d be in medieval times.
“Hey you survived!” Came a cheerful voice from the open door, it only drove another spike of pain on my head “We’d all thought you’re gonna die since the banshee herself threw you into the inn but guess not”
Opening a single eye I glared at the man on the door, the guy wore an old green shirt and was completely average except for the pair of cat ears atop his head, he seemed somewhat amused at my predicament.
“Hey don’t glare, it’s not my fault you gave yourself a mind down” he entered the room and put a plate of soup on the table before helping me up into a sitting position and handing me a cup of water “anyways how the hell did a newbie like you make it all the way down here?”
“Here, where?” I asked while patting myself to see there was nothing missing besides my sword which I found hanging by a chair.
“Rivira of course, what other town did you think you’d find inside the dungeon?” he said and then noticed me looking for my things “yeah don’t worry nobody dared touch anything since the Banshee paid for it herself and even Bors don’t wanna mess with her, anyway what's your name?”
“Ugh, I’m Roland Sinclair” I was still disoriented by my headache but Dungeon, what the heck? “And I didn’t even know I was inside a dungeon”
“I’m Villi by the way and damn, that’s some vicious prank someone is playing on you” the cat man said and started walking away not really that curious, or just unwilling to get involved “anyway you’re gonna be here for a while, the Goliath just spawned and you’re gonna have to wait for some big shot to slay it before you could make it upside again, drink your soup when you’re feeling better come down, I’m sure Bors will be able to figure things out”
He waved me away and I cradled my head once more, this reincarnation thing was already turning out worse than I thought, and what the heck was a mind down? Did I run out of chakra or something?
A few minutes later I managed to get out of the bed and sit at the table to start drinking my soup, it was thin and without spices but I was hungry enough it didn’t matter right now so I devoured the entire thing and reclined back into the chair, the headache was still strong but no longer crippling.
Finally making my way downstairs I saw a plethora of different people wearing all kinds of classic adventure gear from full plates to mage robes and anything in between, some of them glanced my way with frowning looks but I ignored them until I saw the cat man waving me over towards a large, muscular man with an eyepatch.
“So you’re the guy who dared go after the banshee huh!” the Eyepatch man said while grabbing my shoulder and invading my personal space “tell me your secret boy did you really tap that?”
“What?”
“the woman, did you tap that?” he embraced me and made a very lecherous face “I mean she terrifies me but I can’t deny the elf is hot”
“I don’t even know who you’re talking about!” I protested and the guy forced me into the seat before his face became serious again.
“So how did a little newbie like you find yourself down here?” he asked while taking a huge drink from a wooden mug.
“I don’t remember, I barely remember my name really” I told him and it wasn’t exactly a lie, I didn’t remember anything from this world.
“Well you don’t have any head wounds but I guess the banshee could have healed you” Bors mussed and took another swing of his beer “anyway, from your disposition I’d guess you’re a very new level 1 so you’re stuck here until someone slays the Goliath and even then, if you don’t manage to get a group, it’s unlikely you’ll make it to the surface by yourself”
“I… can’t I just get someone to take me up then?” I asked while massaging my temple.
“Ha, do you have a lot of coins with you? because nobody will want to take care of a newbie in the middle floors unless you can make it worth the danger” Bors laid back and, seeing my look sighed “Look, your familia will probably come get you soon and, worst case you can probably return with the Loki or Ganesha familia expeditions, they’re big and powerful enough not to mind a single newbie tagging along”
Wait, Loki familia? Dungeon? I started to connect the dots, I was in DanMachi wasn’t I, home of the asshole gods and overpowered adventurers, shit I had only read the first few volumes of the manga, why couldn’t I have been sent to Naruto or Avatar where I knew the entire plot?
Releasing a groan I let my forehead bang against the table in frustration, I was stuck deep inside the dungeon and didn’t have any coin whatsoever, how was I gonna eat? Where would I sleep? From what I remember this was supposed to be a safe floor but monsters could still come from other floors so even foraging wasn’t very safe much less sleeping outside the city, glancing at the muscular wannabe pirate I asked “You wouldn’t know how I could get some coin would you?”
“Hmm, well your gear seems to be high quality so I could pay you some Valis for the sword and armor… let’s say around 15 thousand for the set” Bors patted a pouch on his hip.
I didn’t know how much my gear was worth but judging by the glint in the man’s eye he was probably trying to cheat me, plus I’d be without a weapon, inside a dungeon, with murderous monsters, not something I was eager for.
“Ha, good joke, no seriously is there any way to earn some money around here?”
“Well there’s a lot of adventures waiting for the Goliath to be slain so I could use some help in exchange for food and letting you crash at my room” said the cat man who was passing through their table before continuing to serve what seemed like dinner.
Noticing the frown on my face Bors smirked at me “You’re an adventurer alright, don’t like doing housework” Then the arrogant bastard took the time to pick at his nose dismissively before continuing “Tell you what nobody's gonna want a green rookie like you to delve into the Tree labyrinth but I could get you a job as a supporter, for a price”
“And what exactly would I have to do?” I asked suspiciously while narrowing my eyes at the man, his whole greedy face just screamed scammer.
“Wow don’t you have some creepy eyes, don’t worry I don’t deal with shady things, plenty of money to be made the legal way if you know how to do it” he took another swing of his mug and wiped his mouth with his arm before releasing a burp “you just have to carry their gear, stay out of the way, keep yourself safe and harvest the monsters for drops and magic stones”
“And what’s in it for you?”
“35% of what you get” I was about to protest but he leaned over the table and glared at me “Don’t even try, a supporter won’t be making all that much so it’s just not worth my time for anything less, plus I’ll be making sure you actually get paid and chose a more respectable group, no telling what can happen in the dungeon if you try to find a group by yourself”
Shit he was right, I didn’t read the manga all that long but I know the tropes, there’s bound to be a lot of assholes in the dungeon who wouldn’t mind killing me just for the gear on my body even if they weren’t that great.
Trying to ignore my headache I considered his offer, I didn’t really know if I could trust the guy but he at least would have an interest in seeing me come back alive since I’d be paying him and, even if the pay was small, it would probably be worth more than my average equipment so I didn’t really have to trust ‘him’ to find a good group but his greed, plus I’d get to observe some experienced adventurers with my sharingan and copy their moves “So I won’t have to fight for them?”
“Well… it’s the dungeon so there’s always the chance of a monster party and ambushes, you'll have to at least survive long enough for them to finish everything off but nobody will be expecting you to kill anything”
“Alright I’m in” I agreed and almost banged my head against the table when the guy patted my back with the strength of an elephant.
“Great, you can rest and recover today and leave tomorrow with the party I found, I have a good feeling about you boy don’t disappoint me too much”
Seeing as disappointing him probably meant I’d be dead again I’d try not to do it at all if I could help it, ready to go back to my room and try to sleep my headache away I started to push my chair back before remembering one last thing “hey Bors, this Banshee you guys keep mentioning saved me, who’s she?”
“Filvis Challia from Dionysus familia” he told me with an unusually serious voice “She’s a survivor from the nightmare on the 27th floor and since then everyone who gets into a party with her dies”
“She kills then?” I asked in surprise, I thought the guild kept things like that from happening in danmachi.
“Who the hell knows, plenty of adventurers die every week in the dungeon it could just be luck” he sighed and finished his beer “Personally I saw her when she returned from the nightmare, she spent weeks covered in blood, her hair all messed up and with a crazed look in her eyes, I think it broke her and now she just runs away whenever there’s real danger but, no matter the truth, nobody wants to risk an unreliable fighter”
Yeah, thinking about it I know it's cruel but I probably wouldn’t party up with someone like that either, an unreliable supporter wouldn’t cause too much trouble but a fighter who ran away could probably mess with the entire formation
“Anyway I have money to make, see you tomorrow kid” Grabbing his mug he tied it wo his belt and got up before throwing a few coins to the table “Use it to pay for another night here I’ll take it from your pay later, with interest of course”
Asshole, grabbing the coins I approached a busy Valli “hey, is this enough for another night?”
“Yeah, Bors left you just enough for it and a meal” the cat man told me while filling another plate with soup for his other costumes “Anything else I can do for you?”
“You got a mirror around here I could use?”
“Sure, I have a small one on the back” putting the plate down he took a second to search inside the kitchen and came back with a handheld mirror a little bigger than my hand, then continued serving his guests.
Going back to my room I locked the door and took off my shirt, the mirror was small but I managed to check out the faulna on my back for the first time, at first I thought I didn’t have one but then I remembered gods had to use blood to activate it, cutting one of my fingers with the sword I let a drop fall over my shoulder finally revealing my status.
it looked like a huge eye surrounded by tentacles with the information written in english between the spaces
Roland Synclair – level 1
Strength – I - 0
Endurance – I - 0
Dexterity – I - 0
Agility – I - 0
Magic – I - 15
Skills:
- Chosen of an Outer God : Since your god cannot physically manifest into the world without risk of destroying it he has chosen you to act as his avatar allowing you to modify your own falna.
- Mangekyou Sharingan: Can never forget what one has seen, after study can read muscular tension to predict how one will move in the future, makes it easier to learn techniques one has seen, greatly increase ability to track fast moving objects, can see the amount of magic a target has and if it is being affected by any mind altering spells.
Grants the spell: Lesser illusion (capable of applying lesser illusions simply by looking at a target, the illusion’s quality depends on how much concentration is put into it, affects two senses but can be easily broken if noticed)
Grants the spell: Greater visual illusion (Capable of applying strong illusions when meeting the eyes of the target, which are harder to resist, more difficult to notice and can affect stronger targets)
Grants the spell: Izanagi (Can turn reality into ilusion to completely heal the user even from death at the cost of an eye)
Grants the spell: Izanami (Can trap an enemy into an inescapable illusion of repeated actions regardless of level leaving the target frozen in place until said target fully accepts the consequences of his actions at the cost of an eye)
Grants the spell: Kotoamatsukami (Can enter a target’s mind and implant false memories changing their actions while making them believe it’s from their own will regardless of level, uses an enormous amount of mind, causes severe damage to vision and requires a long recovery period)
Grants the spell: Susanoo (Can manifest a magical construct around the user in the form of a giant warrior equal to a Monster Rex a level above the user that has enormous endurance and strength but costs a large amount of mind and causes severe damage to vision)
With an effort of will my fauna disappeared once again and I was left thinking, so I didn’t have chakra, the being who sent me here had modified my skills into working with mana instead and, from the looks of it I had a normal sharingan without the uchiha bloodline meaning I’d have to be very careful when using the mangekyo unless I wanted to go completely blind.
The greatest question for me was Kotoamatsukami. would I have to wait ten years to use the spell once again like that crow in naruto? From what I understood of Danmachi levels are steps towards divinity and even a level 1 adventurer was better than an average human in every way so did my fauna act like Danzo’s hashirama cells allowing me to recover faster?
With my mind filled with questions. I laid my head on the pillow, then exhaustion hit me like a truck and I was sleeping in less than a minute.
