The next day started early for Tetsuo, even though he had been anxious, the grand amount of events that happened the day prior were enough to make him sleep the whole night.
He woke up with the smell of food, he couldn't discern what it was, he just knew that the smell made him hungry.
After making himself presentable, Tetsuo left his room and went to the kitchen, when he got there he saw Tsukuyomi taking food out of some bags and putting them on two plates.
"Good morning Goddess!" His voice broke the girl's concentration, making her turn towards him.
"Good morning Tetsuo!" Her smile was contagious. Seeing that all members were ready to eat she gave him one of the plates and pated one of the chairs, all the while sitting on one herself.
"Come on. This is something that they call a Croissant. It is delicious!" As soon as she finished inviting him, she began eating, her happiness, much like her smile, was contagious.
After they finished, Tetsuo thanked her for the food and went to his room, where he took both of his weapons, strapped them on his hips, and got ready to leave.
Tsukuyomi knew what he was doing, so she prepared herself. She had seen other gods do this a bunch of times, it was time for her to do it. To send her child to the dungeon.
The couple left together, their track was short. Each of them had something on their minds, one was excited to finally begin a new life, the other was anxious because she knew that the dungeon was a very dangerous place.
Upon getting there Tsukuyomi did the ritual that she had seen many times, she got in front of her child, took a deep breath, puffed up her chest, and began.
"Now listen here Tetsuo-kun, the dungeon is very dangerous, all the monsters in there will want to kill you, so please, be careful… Also, don't go further than the first floor, you're only allowed to go there after I give you permission. Understood?"
Tetsuo, for his part, took his goddess' words seriously and, much like her, took a deep breath to calm down. "I got it Tsukuyomi-sama, I won't let you down!" he finally said.
Believing that he diminished Tsukuyomi's worry, he moved toward the dungeon's entrance. He kept repeating in his head, 'I can do this! She gave me her blessing, I got it!' in an attempt to reduce his nerves, the goddess' worry had made him lose his excitement.
He didn't manage to calm down, thus when he got into the Tower of Babel, he didn't even notice how the first floor looked, he immediately went to the flight of stairs that lead downwards, towards the entrance of the dungeon on the first underground floor.
On this floor he stopped, how could he not?
It was incredible, the room was circular, with stairs hugging the wall since in its middle was an enormous hole, so big that he couldn't see its bottom. This was further helped by the lighting, which was provided by small blue crystals stuck to the walls.
Another fascinating detail was the ceiling, where Tetsuo could see a beautiful night sky, one that resembled the one seen in Orario.
Tetsuo stopped inspecting the room when he heard the other adventures talking, he couldn't understand them, only small murmurs were heard, it didn't help that they were getting further away, going down to the first floor.
'Okay, enough stalling, I'm going in!' With that thought, Tatsuo started going down the stairs. Without anything else to keep his mind busy, he started trying to calm down once more.
By the time he got to the bottom of the stairs, he wasn't feeling nervous anymore, now the excitement that he felt while going from his home to the tower came back. And it was fueled with that excitement that the boy took his first step in the dungeon.
Tetsuo saw that the first floor was fairly empty. He didn't focus too much on that, he had more important things to think and do.
With his mind fixated to go further into the wide hallway that was ahead of him, Tetsuo got ready to draw his weapon whenever with the right hand holding his sword's handle and his left hand in the mouth of the scabbard.
He took a deep breath and started delving in. He managed to focus, he remembered all the classes that he had when he was younger, how to hold the weapon, how to strike, where to strike.
Suddenly he heard a noise to his left, immediately he turned his body and his attention to said place.
What he saw there was not pleasing at all, the dungeon had just spawned a Goblin. Instantly after coming out of the wall, the creature and the adventurer locked eyes.
It was a shock to Tetsuo, he had never seen someone, or something, look at another being with such hate, with so much desire to kill.
'This is different! This is not like Sensei taught me.' He couldn't help but think.
And for some reason, that thought changed his body. His pupils dilated, his breathing got rougher, his heartbeat got stronger, so much so that it was all he could hear.
Ba-dum... Ba-dum... Ba-dum... Ba-dum… Ba-dum…
And the creature ran to him. As soon as the boy saw its movements he drew his katana.
The Goblin got close so quickly that he had to dodge the action, thinking it was an attack, the monster got even angrier. It used the momentum of his backward dash to propel it even faster towards its enemy.
With an angry well and with its sharp nails ready to rip the boy apart, the Goblin attacked, a diagonal slash going for the boy's left shoulder, a place where the dungeon had inscribed in its instincts as a weak spot of the intruders.
Tetsuo saw the incoming attack and managed to block, he was surprised to hear the sound of metal hitting metal, he was also surprised to see that the Goblin got out scot-free.
The monster snarled once more and tried to go for a horizontal attack on its enemy's head, another weak spot, however, due to the size difference, it had to jump, and that was its biggest mistake.
It was all a bit too fast for Tetsuo, in one moment he was defending from a strike to his heart, in the next, he was faced with the Goblin's torso. He had to be fast, faster than this creature, he didn't register the monster's attempt to hit his head, he only saw an opportunity.
Using all of his strength, the adventurer made a downwards strike aiming at his assailant's shoulder. He connected, but his sword got stuck in the monster's body.
The Goblin howled, blood gushed out of the enormous hole on its torso, the monster couldn't do anything, it had lost all its strength, but even as it fell and saw that death was all that would come, it still looked at the one responsible with nothing but hate.
The boy didn't let go of his sword, not even as the monster fell to the ground, he ignored the noises it was making and looked at its face, it was still there, the hate, the urge to kill him.
He didn't want to look at those eyes anymore, but he couldn't turn away, so he removed his katana from the monster's body, ignored the yelp of pain that the creature let out, and with his eyes locked into his enemy's, he stabbed it in the neck.
The goblin let an undistinguishable sound and turned into particles of light, all that remained was a small magic stone.
Tetsuo's body started to feel sluggish, he felt tired, his legs seemed to want to just stop working, thus he kneeled, his breathing got steadier, his hands were still grasping his sword, now stuck on the ground.
At that moment, the boy thought about what just happened, he had killed, taken a life from this world, granted it wanted to kill him, but he still did it.
'Is this what I want to do? Is it right for me to keep going?' He couldn't help but think.
The adventurer took his sword out from the ground and turned it to inspect its blade.
'Nothing, there is nothing left of that life. No blood, no markings…' Then he saw the stone, it had a bluish-purple color, with a crack on its side.
He had heard of the magic stones, that they had to be removed from the bodies of slain monsters, he had even seen one, much bigger than this one but very similar in shape and color.
What he didn't understand was why had it dropped, and why had the monster disappeared. Curious, he grabbed the magic stone and tried to inspect it closer, however as soon as he picked it up, the stone turned into dust.
Now he truly felt as if he had gained nothing from the fight, with a tired sigh, he let the dust that had once been a magic stone fall to the ground and got up.
He didn't know what to do now, to go back seemed the best option, but he did want to at least leave with something so his goddess wouldn't say anything.
His indecisiveness got interrupted by another sound, this time coming from behind.
Tetsuo took a deep breath, held his katana properly, got up, and turned to see what was going on.
It was another goblin, this one was wandering about, his back turned to the adventurer.
This gave Tetsuo time to think if he really would fight this monster, he remembered the hate-filled eyes of the first one, how it never left its face. 'Maybe that's similar to all of them? So as soon as he sees me he'll try to go for a kill.' He thought.
That thought gave him enough peace of mind to go after the monster, but he wanted to be quick and avoid another confrontation, so he tried his best to approach quietly.
In the beginning, he was successful, however, as soon as he got within striking distance from his foe, it turned around, letting out a rage-filled sound and using its claws in an attempt to hit him.
Tetsuo was prepared, he knew how fast these creatures were, how they were strong enough to trade blows with. So he didn't take it easy.
His first move was to block the goblin's strike attempt, but, differently from last time, he managed to parry the blow, making it so the monster's attempt fueled its momentum to make it lose its footing and stumble towards the adventurer.
Taking the opportunity, Tetsuo quickly inverted his hands and delivered an upwards diagonal slash at the goblin. Once more there was blood, however this time it was to a much lesser extent.
With such an injury, the goblin couldn't counter-attack, the pain from it made its anger rise, so much so that it disregarded everything and jumped at the intruder.
The green thing still had the power to keep going, however, it wasn't as fast as it was before, this made it easy for Tetsuo to see its next attempt and prevent it.
The adventurer's reaction was very efficient, he simply turned the tip of his sword at his assailant, and the goblin, in its fury-like state, did nothing to evade such tactic.
The sword pierced the monster's chest, the momentum from the body alongside the strength of the wielder made it so the stabbing happened without much resistance.
The goblin's body couldn't resist any longer as seen by its slumped form on the ground. Tetsuo was once again in this situation, with his sword taking the life of another being, but this time he didn't see it fade from his foe's eyes.
This time he chose to not think about it in the dungeon, it was a hostile place, one where he couldn't simply sit still for too long.
This mentality prompted the boy to take out his other weapon, a dagger, very similar to his katana but much shorter. With it, in his hands, he started to carve the magic stone out of the corpse.
He remembered his first fight, how he hit the goblin on his neck and it disappeared, thus that is the place where he first started looking for it.
It didn't take long for him to find the stone, his dagger was sharp enough to cut through the monster skin and muscle, the problem came with carving the piece out, he'd never used any sort of tool to cut meat, so his attempts at it were pitiful.
Eventually, he cut enough to take out the nail size stone, when that happened the body, just like the previous one, turned into light particles and disappeared.
This magic stone was identical to the one that had crumbled, the same size, shape, and color, it didn't have any cracks in it and it didn't turn into dust upon contact.
With his loot acquired, Tetsuo sheathed his weapons and put the stone in a pocket that he had inside his kimono. Immediately after he turned towards the path he had taken and started walking.
He wasn't far from the entrance, during his track there he also didn't find any other enemies, he did spot a few adventures heading inwards, but he didn't interact with them.
The boy focused on only leaving, he had nothing on his mind, all he wanted to do was get back home and think about it all, maybe talk with Tsukuyomi and figure out what he would do.
Tetsuo's walk home was short and uneventful.
When he got there, he was faced with a surprised goddess.
"You got back quickly. Did something happen?" She was already inspecting his body to see if there were any injuries.
"No... I just wasn't feeling right." His response rendered him an annoyed look from the worried girl.
"Then something did happen! Come on, we'll talk about it." She took his hand and dragged him to the couch that they had in the living room.
After sitting down beside him, she made sure that they were both face-to-face before she urged him to talk.
"Go on, what made you come back so quickly? You were so excited when we left."
Tetsuo fought the urge to turn away, he knew that he had to talk with her, he wanted her help, but he still felt embarrassed by it.
"I… I killed a goblin, and I don't know how to feel about it." He started, he could feel her hands going to his in an attempt to give him a bit of support.
"I saw how life left its eyes… And all I could think about were the words of my sensei. 'What I'm teaching you is a very bad thing, to take a life is something that should not be taken lightly. I hope that I can imprint in you, with my teachings, how easy it is to lose it and how precious life is.' He told me that during our first class, and he would always mention it later on."
Tsukuyomi squeezed his hand and said, "And now you don't know if you should continue killing those monsters, right?"
Tetsuo only nodded at the goddess' words, she took this as an opportunity to continue.
"Tetsuo, I have heard that the dungeon is alive, that it is trying to take over the world by releasing its monsters onto the surface. The only reason that it hasn't happened is that Ouranos descended from heaven and used his divinity to prevent it."
That was information that the boy didn't know, so he tried to pay as much attention as he could.
"Later on, the Tower of Babel was built as a physical barrier to the dungeon, and the city of Orario grew around it. Now, the monsters that are there are all made by the dungeon in an attempt to kill those that get in so it can grow from absorbing their mana... What I'm trying to say is that the dungeon still wants to take over the world, and now that we gods have descended it wants us all dead as well."
She trembled a bit saying that to her child, she had encountered some monsters before she got in Orario, she still remembered their gazes, the killing intent that they leaked.
After some time to calm down, the goddess looked at Tetsuo's eyes and said, "I don't want you to feel obligated to go in there, because you aren't. But I want you to know that the dungeon and its monsters are enemies of every single being that lives on this planet, and I don't think that you should worry about how they feel, you should use them to make you stronger, so you can get strong enough that if something happens you could help protect us all."
Tetsuo didn't expect his goddess to say those words to him, she didn't look like someone who'd say them.
They, however, were good at helping him make up his mind. They were monsters, beings that only wanted to kill him, he could simply not go to the dungeon, but he felt like it would be a waste of all he had learned.
He knew that other people would go there, he knew that they were sacrificing their lives, he knew that he could defend himself and others while going there.
So he decided, he wasn't going there to make money. Now that he knew that the dungeon just wanted to get stronger so it could try and take over the world, he didn't feel right to stand by and do nothing about it.
He was certain that with his current strength he wouldn't accomplish anything, so he had to do as his goddess said, get stronger, so he could be able to help the people that were threatened by the dungeon.
"I see… Thank you, Goddess, I'll keep those words in mind." Tetsuo got up and went to take a shower.
Now he had a plan, he just needed to prepare to execute it, and the first step to do that would be to gather information, so his next destination was the best place to do that, the Guild.