"Your soul structure is quite strange 🤔 …"
"When mortals receive Falna for the first time. Mostly they don't awaken any skills or magic."
"Unless it's a racial trait. Like the magic of elves or skills born of the physical traits of Beastmen and so on"
"Of course. It doesn't mean you won't awaken any skills or magic in future"
"Falna will turn your daily training. Your life experience and your deepest desires as key to your growth"
"This is how most awaken their skills or magic. So don't worry "
Say Hestia. While writing divine words with divine blood on Kael's back.
"I see. I will try my best "
Kael replied softly While his mind wonders else where
Soul structure? So is this related to that dream? Since Lady Hestia doesn't say anything it probably doesn't matter Kael thought to himself
Warmth flooded his body—not heat, but something deeper. Like his soul had been touched and recognised.
"It's done" says Hestia while whipping her forehead with the back of her hand
She gets up to bring paper. Lay it on Kael's back where Falna was written. And draws a circle to transcribe it in a way a mortal could understand
Then hand it over to Kael. Who is setting up to take it
Status: Open.
Name: Kael Verdan
Level: 1
Strength: I0
Endurance: I0
Dexterity: I0
Agility: I0
Magic: I0
No Skills.
Pure ordinary Huh!Kael thought to himself
Well, what could I expect? I have never trained professionally
Before Kael thought about anything else Hestia started to urge him
"Get ready. We are going to the adventurer's guild"
"Coming" Looking at her bouncing excitedly. Kael replied with warry smile—
Since I have joined her Familia. Lady Hestia has started to treat me like a child. Kael thought to himself
While looking at Hestia. Who is holding Kael's hand and arguing with the blacksmith
It's been 3 days since Kael joined Hestia Familia
During these 3 days. Hestia has been taking him from place to place
From the adventurer's guild to register him and Hestia Familia
To the shop of her best friend hephaestus. God of craftsmanship
To buy cheap equipment
Cheap sword
Cheap armor
Thats all
Even so, it's better than going empty-handed.
Her most important help was letting me ask the (Hephaestus Familia) senior adventurer's experience
Which contains maps of the one to five floors and rough monster distribution
Which is something even money can't buy. It is written and stored on library of a large Familia by their senior adventurers
———
Standing from some distance in front of the Dungeon
Where adventurers with their teammates are coming from and going to the dungeon
Hestia stood with Kael and helping him adjust his equipment
"Please promise me you won't die. Okay?" Ask Hestia.
While adjusting Kael's clothes and equipment.
Her face was hidden beneath her shadow
Kael can't see her expression but he can see her trembling hands and worry and reluctance hidden carefully
He raises his hand and rests his palm on her head
"Don't worry. I won't take any extra risk. I will be extra careful" Kael assured her while patting her head gently
"Okay. Don't take long to come home" says Hestia
"Alright. I will be heading to the Dungeon. Bye"
Kael steps towards the dungeon while thinking to himself
I must protect her. I have to become powerful. So Lady Hestia doesn't have to worry about me
Kael stood in front of the dungeon entrance staring at the darkness
Hardening his resolve and stepping in dungeon
The Dungeon didn't welcome you.
It waited.
Kael felt it the moment he crossed the threshold—
like the air had weight, like the darkness was listening.
The noise of Orario faded behind him. The laughter. The shouting. The life.
The first floor was wide and quiet. Blue crystals glowed faintly from the walls like frozen stars.
The air smelled damp and old
Down here, there was only stone, crystal light, and the echo of his own breathing.
He took one step.
His boots scraped against the Dungeon floor, and the sound seemed too loud.
Kael flinched at his own shadow. His hand tightened around the hilt of his cheap sword until his knuckles turned white.
Honestly, this is an opposed atmosphere that is hard to handle. Kael thought to himself
His body became stiff from tension
From the moment he steps on dungeon as if he is being stared at from every angle
His sense going crazy and his heart is beating loudly
Kael take a deep breath.
To calm himself and relax his stiff body while being at attention and looking out for danger in his surroundings
As he cautiously moves forward
Just then–
He heard a sound from up ahead
Scratch
There was sound coming from the back of the rock up ahead then the shadow became visible
Kael stopped
He tightened his grip and readied himself for what was coming
As the shadow comes closer, his shape becomes visible
Small, green-skinned, humanoid creatures with sharp teeth, wielding a crude club
A goblin
Kael have seen the picture and the introduction of it on senior adventurer's notes
But seeing it face-to-face. Its face beaming with a smile filled with malice
Kael's breathing hastens. His muscles become tense
Goblin don't wait for him any longer and longforward while welding his club
Kael gripped the hilt with both hands, the steel catching the dim light as he brought the blade up into a high guard.
His knuckles whitened, and he planted his feet firmly against the uneven ground, preparing to meet the coming impact.
But a goblin is not a machine that will follow his order.
Before he could react goblin brought down his club on his left shoulder, pain exploding through his arms as he stumbled back, nearly lost his foothold and fell down
"—Gah!"
His sword almost slipped from his grip.
His face contorted in pain
Move! Move!
The Goblin came again, attacking him while Kael stepped back and tightening his grip on the sword's hilt with his right hand.
Kael began to swing his sword wildly in panic.
The blade cut the monster's neck, Black smoke burst from its body.
The threat vanished.
The dungeon's air, suddenly heavy, felt too thick to breathe.
Kael gulped at it, his shoulders rolling with the effort to ease the pain, adrenaline making his body sing with agony.
He collapsed onto shaking knees, his breath coming in wet, heavy thumps that echoed the frantic drumming of his heart against his ribs.
The air barely reached his burning lungs before being shoved back out in a panicked, rhythmic wheeze.
He inhaled, hitched midway through, and forced the rest of the air in with a desperate shudder.
Kael slumped further, lungs screaming as the fight-or-flight high began to recede, leaving only the brutal reality in its wake.
The heavy silence of the dungeon returned, thick with the smell of damp stone and the faint, acrid scent of the smoke that, just moments ago, had been a living creature trying to end him.
He looked down at his hands.
They were shaking so violently he barely managed to sheathe his sword before he dropped the weapon.
The blade was clean—no blood, no gore, only the lingering, unnatural chill of the monster's essence.
That was pathetic, Kael thought, his inner critic a cold voice of reason.
In his very first real battle, he had made such a rookie mistake.
In his panic, he had completely forgotten the single, crucial instruction he was given by the senior adventurer: Rule Number One: always stay calm.
But...
"One," he whispered, his voice cracking in the empty corridor.
He is not a hero.
He was just a survivor.
But as he stared at the spot where the Goblin had dissolved into smoke, he saw it:
A small, dull-green crystal glinting in the dirt—the only proof that the nightmare had been real, and his first step into the adventurer's life was complete.