The morning sun over Orario didn't feel like a blessing; it felt like a spotlight exposing a fraud.
Aiden sat on the edge of the bed in the Soma base, staring at his updated Status Sheet. Chandra had updated it the night before, charging a fee for the privilege.
Aiden Cross Level 1
Strength: I-24 Endurance: I-12 Dexterity: I-6 Agility: I-3 Magic: I-0
Lyra Vale Level 1
Magic: I-8 Agility: I-2
"I-24 Strength," Aiden muttered, tracing the ink. "After killing Killer Ants, War Shadows, and a pack of Frog Shooters. I-24."
Lyra was re-wrapping the handle of her dagger, her movements stiff. "Is that bad? It went up."
"It's terrible," Aiden said, his voice grim. "In this world, stats aren't just numbers. They're physics. An adventurer with Strength D (500+) can punch through a stone wall without a skill. An adventurer with Agility C can outrun a horse."
He stood up, his joints popping.
"We're on Day 6, Lyra. We've pushed to Floor 5. Do you know how insane that is? Most rookies spend a month on Floors 1 and 2 just to get their basic stats to H (100). Bell Cranel... the canon protagonist... he had a cheat skill that multiplied his growth by ten or twenty times. We don't have Liaris Freese."
Lyra looked up. "But we're winning."
"We're cheating," Aiden grabbed his sledgehammer. "My Severance Devil bypasses durability. Your Reverie Devil bypasses mental resistance. We're killing things that should mathematically crush us. But if I miss a swing? If you run out of mana? A Level 1 Goblin has stats around I-30 to I-50. A War Shadow has stats in the D or C range. If that Shadow on Floor 3 hadn't been disoriented... it would have taken my head off before I even saw it move."
He looked at his agility stat. I-3.
"I'm slower than a toddler in adventurer terms," Aiden admitted. "If we go to Floor 6 today... if we face a pack of War Shadows or Almiraj... we die. We are glass cannons made of paper."
Lyra was silent. She understood. They had been riding the high of survival, mistaking desperation for competence.
"So, what do we do?" she asked. "Grind Goblins until we're bored?"
"No," Aiden said. "We grind efficiently. We need to build the foundation. We need to get these numbers up to at least H or G before we touch Floor 6. That means volume. Hundreds of kills. Not desperate struggles against bosses."
They didn't go to the Dungeon immediately. They went to the Northwest District, seeking a specific shop.
The Blue Pharmacy.
It was a run-down shop operated by the Miach Familia. In this timeline, 1 year pre-canon, they were destitute. Their God, Miach, was buried in debt, and their captain, Naaza Erisuis, was struggling to keep the lights on.
Aiden chose this place for two reasons: their potions were cheap, and Naaza had a prosthetic arm. She knew the cost of failure in the Dungeon.
The bell chimed as they entered. The shop smelled of antiseptic and bitter herbs.
Naaza was behind the counter, grinding herbs with her one good hand. Her silver mechanical arm lay on the counter, inert. She looked up, her eyes sharp and tired.
"We're closed for restocking," she said flatly. "Unless you have raw materials to sell."
"We're buying," Aiden said. "Blue Potions. Low grade."
Naaza sighed. "350 Valis each."
"That's cheaper than the Guild," Lyra noted.
"Because they taste like dirt and work half as fast," Naaza retorted. "But they work."
Aiden placed 1,050 Valis on the counter. "Three."
Naaza packed the vials. She looked at Aiden's burns—the scabbing red marks on his face and neck from the Frog Shooters.
"Acid," she diagnosed. "Floor 5?"
"Yes."
She looked at his gear. The mismatched leather, the sledgehammer. Then she looked at his eyes.
"You're rushing," Naaza said quietly.
Aiden paused. "Excuse me?"
"I see rookies like you every week," Naaza's voice was devoid of malice, just heavy with experience. "You get a lucky kill, maybe a drop item, and you think you're ready for the deep end. You're barely Level 1. Your stats... I can tell just by how you stand. Your center of gravity is high. You have no Agility foundation."
She tapped her mechanical arm.
"I was a Level 2," she said. "I rushed. Now I mix herbs."
The room went silent. The warning hung in the air like smoke.
"We know," Aiden said finally. "That's why we're buying cheap potions. We're going back to the upper floors. Volume training."
Naaza studied him for a second longer, then nodded. She reached under the counter and pulled out a small jar of green paste.
"Aloe and Dungeon Moss blend. Put it on the burns. It'll stop the itching so you don't scratch it open in a fight. On the house."
"Why?" Lyra asked.
"Because Miach would scold me if I let a customer rot," Naaza shrugged. "And because dead customers don't come back."
They entered the Dungeon at noon.
This time, the goal wasn't depth. It was density.
"Floor 3," Aiden commanded. "The Silverbacks and Kobolds. We stay near the stairs to Floor 2 for an easy exit."
They found a long corridor known as a "Spawn Hall." It was a high-traffic area for monsters.
"Here's the new rule," Aiden set the sledgehammer down. "I don't use [Render] unless my weapon is about to break or we're about to die. You don't use [Gossamer] unless there are more than three enemies."
"We fight raw?" Lyra asked, drawing her red dagger.
"We fight raw," Aiden confirmed. "We need to stress our muscles, not our devils. The System awards Excelia (experience) based on the struggle. If we use the Devils, the struggle is mental. If we use our bodies, the stats grow."
The first wave came. Three Kobolds.
Without [Render], the sledgehammer was just a heavy block of iron. Aiden swung it.
Thud.
He hit a Kobold in the chest. It didn't explode into ash. It flew back, ribs cracking, but it got back up, snarling.
"Durability check," Aiden grunted, raising the hammer again. "Without the severing, they tank the blunt force."
He had to swing again. And again. It took three hits to kill one Kobold.
By the time the third one died, Aiden was panting.
"Different game, isn't it?" Lyra noted. She had engaged a Kobold with her dagger. Without the Reverie to confuse it, the monster parried her strikes with its stone club. She had to use footwork—clumsy, I-2 Agility footwork—to dodge. She eventually killed it by stabbing it in the eye, but it was messy.
"It's harder," Aiden wiped sweat from his eyes. "But I can feel it. The burn in the muscle. That's the stat growth."
They ground for six hours.
It was boring. It was exhausting. It was dangerous in a mundane way. A Kobold managed to bite Aiden's leg. A Silverback clipped Lyra's shoulder.
They didn't delve deep. They just killed, looted, and repeated.
By evening, they had killed forty Kobolds and ten Silverbacks.
They sat against the wall of the corridor, eating dry rations.
"This is the reality of Danmachi," Aiden said, chewing the hardtack. "Bell Cranel skipped this part. He went from zero to hero because his feelings were superpowered. We... we have to do the math."
"How long?" Lyra asked. "To get to H rank?"
"At this rate? Two weeks of daily grinding on Floor 3 and 4," Aiden calculated. "Maybe three. We need to hit at least I-90 in Strength and Endurance before we look at Floor 6."
"Three weeks in the Soma Familia," Lyra shuddered. "Zanis won't wait that long."
"Zanis thinks we're cowed," Aiden said. "He thinks we're obeying him. We'll play the part. We pay the tax. We keep our heads down. We build the numbers."
He looked at his hand. The skin was blistered from the hammer handle.
"But we need an edge. Stats aren't enough. We need Skills."
"You have [Render]."
"I need something passive," Aiden said. "Something that helps me survive the hits I can't dodge. Or something that lets me move this hammer faster."
He stood up.
"One more hour. Then we go back."
System Log: End of Day 6
Aiden Cross
XP Gained: Moderate (Physical Stress High).
Stats:
Strength: I-24 -> I-27
Endurance: I-12 -> I-15
Dexterity: I-6 -> I-8
Agility: I-3 -> I-5
Observation: Without Devil assistance, combat efficiency dropped by 60%, but physical stat growth increased by 15%.
Lyra Vale
XP Gained: Moderate.
Stats:
Magic: I-8 -> I-9
Agility: I-2 -> I-4
Dexterity: I-0 -> I-2
Observation: Melee engagement forced Dexterity unlock.
They walked back to the surface as the moon rose. They were covered in dust, bruises, and monster blood. They looked like every other struggling Level 1 adventurer in Orario.
And that was exactly what they needed to be. Invisible.
"Tomorrow," Aiden said as they trudged toward Daedalus Street, "We buy a backpack. And we start mapping Floor 4 properly."
"One floor at a time?" Lyra asked.
"One stat point at a time," Aiden corrected.
[Strategy Shift: Power-Leveling -> Base Building.]
[Multiverse Flag: Naaza Erisuis (Acquaintance).]