At the very center of Orario's eight districts lay a circular zone.
Above ground stood the towering structure known as Babel.
In Cid's original world, Babel was a building from the Old Testament.
According to that story, if the tower were completed, it would reach the realm of God.
And because of that, Babel provoked the one true God, Yahweh, and was destroyed.
But the Babel of this world had not been destroyed—perhaps carrying two meanings.
First: the gods here were willing to live in the same domain as mortals, making the relationship—at least on the surface—something close to equals.
Second: mortals could, through certain means, reach the gods' domain.
After spending enough time around gods, almost anyone would have entertained the same fantasy at least once.
If you fought and struggled in the Dungeon, refining the Blessing to its utmost limits… could you eventually obtain power on the level of a god?
And just so happened: beneath Babel lay the Dungeon itself, suppressed by Orario and restrained by the divine power of Ouranos.
Cid descended into Babel's first underground floor—the Great Hole, the entrance to the labyrinth.
This place was called the "Path of Beginnings," a safe zone large enough to hold thousands of people.
If you watched carefully, you could often see adventurers hesitating here.
They waited until they had steeled their nerves before daring to enter the Dungeon.
Even with a god's Blessing, the death rate in the Dungeon remained frighteningly high.
Especially for rookies. They died in waves—like harvesting chives, one batch after another.
The Guild had headaches over it year-round. They even trained "adventure advisors" who would solemnly give warnings like: "Adventurers should not go adventuring lightly."
"Yahoo!"
Cid practically skipped as he stepped into the Dungeon.
Even though he technically hadn't left the Astraea Familia yet, this was his first time coming to the Dungeon alone!
"Inhale! Exhale!"
This was the scent of freedom!
At long last, he had overthrown Alise's tyranny!
…Though to be fair, even under her strict control, Cid had actually liked it.
Alise was narcissistic, violent, and a complete pain to deal with—but she truly treated him like family.
Maybe that was why he'd never left the Astraea Familia all this time.
"The adventure of Shadow-sama begins for real today!"
Cid rushed straight down to the fifth floor before finally changing into a mask and armor made from slime materials.
The boost in defense was… negligible. But the important part was that it looked cool!
And he didn't have to worry about appearing suspicious.
Any other adventurer who saw him dressed like this would keep their distance.
In a sunless place like the Dungeon, mugging and looting happened all the time.
So if you ran into an adventurer who hid their face, odds were high you'd stumbled onto a seasoned professional of that line of work.
Aside from special cases like the Astraea Familia, most adventurers avoided the Dark Faction like the plague.
How much money did you even make from one Dungeon run? Why risk your life for that?
Just as Cid had hoped, once he disguised himself, any adventurers he encountered reacted as if they'd seen a flood or a beast—no one dared approach.
By the sixth floor, an ordinary Level 1 adventurer would become extremely cautious.
Starting from this layer, a monster called a War Shadow appeared.
These creatures were like living shadows—pitch-black from head to toe.
For a weak Level 1, if your personal skill wasn't strong enough and your party wasn't good enough, the result of facing a War Shadow was simple:
Death.
That was why War Shadows were also called rookie killers.
Cid, sprinting along at high speed, casually killed more than a dozen of them.
Each time, he struck once—shattering the magic stone completely.
Monsters at this level had tiny stones that were useless to him anyway.
And large monsters and small monsters dropped the same kind of magic stone—the only difference was size.
So in Orario, magic stones weren't rare at all, and they didn't sell for much.
As for why he always shattered them completely: besides ensuring the monster was truly dead, it was also because Alise and the others had repeatedly drilled it into him.
Magic stones could be used in Orario, exchanged for the city's currency—valis.
But in the Dungeon, monsters could also grow stronger by devouring magic stones, turning into enhanced individuals.
Making monsters stronger was not something adventurers should ever do.
On the upper floors, if magic stones were left behind because people didn't have time to clean up, the Guild would sometimes send personnel to sweep the area.
Strictly speaking, you didn't need to obsess over it.
But in Alise's words: don't make trouble for other people!
Just because there's someone who cleans the streets doesn't mean you get to throw garbage everywhere.
Especially not toxic, hazardous garbage.
On the seventh floor, the Killer Ants—hard-shelled, capable of calling for reinforcements—were also known as rookie killers.
Cid still didn't slow down. He casually killed more than a dozen.
Monsters at this level weren't worth even a second glance.
Only when an item material dropped did Cid stop to pick it up.
Unlike magic stones, item materials were actually valuable.
First, materials weren't guaranteed to drop—you needed luck.
Second, there were countless uses for them: forging, alchemy, mixing, and more.
The equipment Cid wore was made from similar slime materials.
In short, these materials sold for good money, and you never had to worry about demand.
He had no interest in upper-floor magic stones, but materials? Those were worth collecting.
When Cid pushed into the twelfth floor, he felt a bit disappointed.
"No spawn for the young dragon… what a shame."
A young dragon wasn't particularly strong—only capable of bullying people in the upper floors.
But it was a rare breed, which meant its drops were expensive… and often impossible to buy even if you had the money.
That's right.
The mighty Shadow-sama had come to the Dungeon for one purpose:
To make money.
Anyone who had ever lived independently knew the truth—there were far too many places in life where you needed cash.
And in this life, Cid was even poorer than in his previous one.
From childhood to adulthood, every single valis he earned had been confiscated by Alise. In the end, she left him with nothing but pocket change.
It wasn't that Alise was trying to starve him.
It was that the familia was genuinely broke.
Because the Astraea Familia had so few members, they didn't have a large pool of Level 1 adventurers supporting the main force. Overall, the familia didn't bring in much money.
As second-tier Level 3 adventurers, Alise and the others could earn a decent amount.
But as Level 3s, the costs of weapons, armor, and supplies were anything but small.
Sometimes they would excitedly go on an expedition, do the calculations afterward… and realize they'd actually lost money.
Even the reason their home had only a single bath was because the Astraea Familia truly wasn't wealthy.
In this situation, every coin had to be spent where it mattered. They couldn't just let Cid burn money freely.
How could the great Shadow-sama be chained down by mere finances?
After this trip into the Dungeon, Cid identified two methods.
Farming monsters and collecting materials was one.
But the other method made money faster.
When ordinary adventurers encountered masked "bad guys" in the Dungeon, they avoided them.
When a justice familia encountered them, they fought.
But Cid?
Cid felt pure joy.
"Those kindhearted folks must have gathered a lot of supplies by now, right?"
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