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Hestia looked at the three who were still home—Sakura, Illya, and Shizuka Marikawa—and let out a helpless sigh.
Looked like she wouldn't be going to her part-time job today. She'd be stuck babysitting instead.
Then something suddenly hit her.
Alex and the others still hadn't registered as adventurers at the Guild!
Without the Guild's dungeon information, wouldn't that be dangerous?
This was bad!
Alex, meanwhile, had already arrived at the plaza beneath Babel Tower.
Merlin stared in surprise. "The dungeon is under the tower?"
"Yep." Alex nodded and led the group inside.
To enter from the surface, they first passed through the "Beginning Road," a wide passage connecting the surface to a massive cavern easily over ten meters tall.
A slow spiral staircase wound down from the walls of the giant cylinder and reached the first basement floor of Babel.
The B1 floor was enormous, big enough for thousands of people to gather. This area was completely safe.
Going further down would take them to the dungeon's first floor.
As they descended, Alex looked around curiously.
He'd never seen what the entrance looked like in the anime. The novels described it, but the anime skipped all this.
He also remembered the anime and novels had plenty of differences—like monster corpses.
In the anime, monsters vanished into dust when killed, dropping their items and magic stones automatically.
But the novel was different. Monster bodies didn't disappear. You had to carve the materials and stones out yourself.
The first twelve floors of the dungeon were made of countless narrow caverns that crisscrossed each other like a maze. Adventurers even called it the Cave Labyrinth.
The passages twisted like tangled tree roots. Without the Guild's maps, it was easy to get lost.
Once they entered, the lighting dimmed. There were glowing objects in the walls, but the light was faint, leaving the caverns gloomy.
"The environment down here is awful," Merlin muttered.
"Don't worry. Only the upper floors are like this. Once we reach the eighteenth floor, you'll see a whole different landscape," Alex said, recalling scenes from the anime.
"Captain, isn't this your first time in Orario too? How do you know the dungeon so well?" Merlin asked, spotting something off.
She'd already noticed plenty of odd things—like the chat group.
It was obvious there was some special link between Alex and Hestia's group. That link was probably why people from different worlds could travel between them.
But since it involved their secrets, Merlin chose not to pry.
Alex just smiled. "Think of it as my special ability. Don't you Servants from the Fate world also have similar skills? Like 'Omniscient, Omnipotent Star' or 'Clairvoyance EX.'"
"I see. That makes sense." Merlin nodded and dropped the topic.
Just then, the cavern wall ahead cracked open and a few green-skinned creatures crawled out.
Short, green all over, pointy nose and ears, ugly expressions—classic goblins.
The monsters of the first floor.
Artoria was about to strike, but Alex projected several spears and hurled them forward, wiping the goblins out instantly.
He turned to her. "Upper-floor monsters are super weak. I'll clear these. Save your strength for the middle and lower floors later."
Artoria nodded and put her holy sword away.
The goblin bodies lingered a moment before fading.
"Looks like the anime version applies here," Alex murmured, walking over.
A few magic stones lay on the ground—monster cores.
He picked one up. The purple gem glittered in his hand. He couldn't resist using Beiming Divine Art.
In the next instant, the magic inside the stone was absorbed into his body.
But goblin stones were tiny and held barely any magic. After two seconds, it was empty.
The drained stone turned into a clear crystal. Useless as a magic source, but still pretty to look at.
The group continued downward.
Every monster they ran into, Alex shot down with Unlimited Blade Works.
Since they lacked a map, they had to wander blindly.
Only after combing through the entire first floor did they finally find the entrance to the second floor.
Naturally, that wasted a ton of time.
At this rate, it would take days just to reach the middle floors, never mind the lower or deep floors.
And they'd brought no food or water. That wouldn't do.
Alex sighed. "Looks like we can only mess around in the upper floors today. Next time we need a map and supplies."
"No worries. We've got plenty of time anyway," Merlin said lightly.
They were going to be in Orario for a long while, unlike the Holy Grail War's strict seven-day limit.
"Then you all should try fighting too. Upper-floor monsters are weak, but it's good practice for learning their patterns," Alex said.
Merlin and Artoria nodded. Only Morgan stayed quiet.
They each began fighting monsters on their own.
Alex casually shot down an Imp, and this time it dropped a material.
Imp Claw.
He could sell it to a weapon shop. Nice little profit.
Then he noticed his luck was incredible.
About one in every ten kills dropped materials.
A ten percent drop rate. Completely insane.
"It must be because of my development ability—Luck," Alex thought.
Honestly, this ability was amazing.
If he leveled Luck up high enough, would his fortune keep skyrocketing?
At max level… would he basically have protagonist-level plot armor?
The thought alone was exciting.
They spent the whole day farming monsters across the first three floors.
There were so many drops they couldn't carry them all, so Alex just used Unlimited Blade Works as storage and dumped everything inside.
Outside the dungeon, night was falling.
The streets of Orario lit up as adventurers returned from the dungeon. They headed to the Guild to exchange magic stones for money, then rushed off to enjoy nightlife.
Bars and restaurants were packed. Even the Pleasure District run by the Ishtar Familia overflowed with people.
For a moment, the entire city felt like it never slept.
When Alex's group emerged, they were taken aback by the sheer liveliness.
Artoria sighed. "If only Camelot under my rule could be this prosperous."
Merlin agreed. "So many races living together in peace. Far more interesting than Avalon."
Morgan said nothing, but her eyes showed she liked Orario's atmosphere too.
Alex, however, said, "This is only surface-level peace. Behind the scenes, things are still filthy."
The city looked harmonious, but that was just the façade.
The dark factions hiding in the shadows were always planning something.
Most gods in DanMachi loved peace, but there were still evil ones who enjoyed creating chaos.
A perfect utopia simply couldn't exist in any world.
Merlin chuckled. "If water is too clear, no fish can survive. Everything has two sides."
Alex nodded. He understood that well enough.
They headed to the Guild's exchange counter.
When Alex pulled all the magic stones and materials out of Unlimited Blade Works, the staff nearly jumped.
"That's… a lot," the middle-aged man in a suit muttered.
The quality was low—just upper-floor monster drops—but the sheer number was shocking.
He didn't question Alex's storage method. Orario was full of adventurers with strange skills and magic. He simply assumed Alex had a storage ability.
Soon, several employees gathered to help tally everything.
Alex and the others waited patiently.
It didn't take long.
Magic stones: 2,688 pieces. Worth 1,075,000 valis.
Low-grade monster materials: 163 pieces. Worth 815,000 valis.
Total: 1.89 million valis.
Material prices were a bit low. A weapon shop would've paid more.
But Alex didn't feel like going around, and most shops were closed at this hour anyway, so selling to the Guild was fine.
A moment later, the staff brought out a small chest filled with high-value coins.
"Didn't expect this much," Merlin blinked.
"It's alright. Magic stones sell for four hundred each, monster materials only five thousand. We just had a lot of them," Alex shrugged.
On the middle floors, a single monster material could easily sell for a million.
And deeper? Even more.
Artoria asked curiously, "If monster magic stones are worth so much, doesn't that mean everyone in Orario must be rich?"
"..."
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