Tetsuo didn't even change before going to the Guild, after all, the faster he got the information, the faster he could start to grow stronger.
Since it was early in the day, the Guild had a good amount of adventurers coming and going, some looked tired as if they had spent the night in the dungeon, others, like Tetsuo, were looking ready to depart to begin their hunt.
The boy had to wait once he got in, he chose the line that led to his advisor, for some reason her's was one of the biggest, only losing to another leading to a red-headed werewolf.
"Good morning Mr. Tetsuo! How can I help you today?" When his turn arrived, he was cheerfully greeted by the pinkette.
"Hello Misha-san, I'd like your help with some things." Although her enthusiasm wasn't contagious, the young adventurer still developed a smile when he answered her.
"Oh! And what would that be?" Seen as she'd have to do something for one of her adventurers, she used a more professional tone.
"I need information on the monsters that I can find in the dungeon. I don't know where to get it, and if it will cost me."
Upon hearing the boy's needs, Misha's expression turned into a mischievous grin.
"I know just the person. Wait here for a second." And she left, Tetsuo could see as the petite girl walked to one of her coworkers, this one had long brown hair and a pair of pointy ears.
It was good that the elf girl wasn't attending anyone, because when she heard what Misha whispered to her, she immediately turned towards Tetsuo and, dragging the pinkette, quickly went in his direction.
"Are you looking for classes about the dungeon?" She seemed too excited, her words were heard by all present.
She realized her outburst when everyone inside the building turned towards her.
Her cheeks turned bright red, and her posture automatically became smaller.
"Um… I'm sorry…" She started whispering.
Seeing as the boy that stood in front of her held a gentle smile, the girl gained courage and after clearing her throat, introduced herself.
"I am Eina Tulle, I'm sorry for that. It's nice to meet you."
The girl gave Tetsuo a bow, which he reciprocated along with saying, "I'm Tetsuo Horie, nice to meet you too."
After the formalities, he had a better opportunity to see how she looked.
Just like Misha, she wore the Guild's uniform, but that was where their similarities ended, she was taller than Misha, and as he had seen before, she had long brown hair and pointy ears, her eyes were emerald and were supported by a pair of glasses.
"So… Is it true that you want to learn more about the dungeon?" Her excitement was back.
"Yes! I wish to know everything I can about monsters, I think it would be very important since I'm just beginning." He mirrored her attitude.
Eina agreed with the rookie and left towards the stairs that led to the second floor of the building.
Tetsuo was caught off guard by the girl's sudden exit, but before he could question his advisor, she interrupted him.
"Don't mind Eina, she's like that, she doesn't do it on purpose." She looked around to see if anyone was paying them attention and seeing as they were all minding their own business, she continued, this time whispering, "She's a Half-Elf, so she didn't have anyone to help her while she grew up, neither the elves nor the humans wanted to associate with her."
The boy didn't know what to say, he had never experienced this nor had known anyone who had either.
"Just treat her kindly, and if she does something that makes you uncomfortable, I'll handle it." Misha saw the conflicted expression on the boy's face and tried to reassure him.
Before they could start talking about something else, the brown-haired girl returned, she was holding a pile of books with some papers in between them.
"These are books about what we know from the upper floors, these papers are full of questions about the books, you'll have to answer and bring them back to me so I can rate how well you've learned." She started passionately lecturing the young adventurer. Said adventurer stood there in a daze.
"Wait, wait, wait. Eina, he's my adventurer, you can't just take him away like that... Unless~" Misha interrupted her friend, her teasing tone made Eina blush.
"I-I don't know what you're talking about Misha, and you're right. He is your responsibility. If it was me I'd give him some lecturers, but I can't. So here take these books, I still think that it would be helpful to answer the questions."
Tetsuo got out of his daze, the half-elf was blushing and the pinkette was smirking, so he decided to leave them be.
"Thank you Eina-san! I'll make sure to take your advice seriously!" He took the book pile, put it in a box that was close by and left, leaving a smiling Eina and a slightly perturbed Misha.
"You know, I was just kidding when I said that. You can't just take my adventurers. Even though he's pretty cute~" Misha's demeanor changed to her usual teasing tone.
"S-Shut up Misha! He is not my type... I prefer younger guys." The blushing elf barely whispered the end of her sentence.
Tsukuyomi was reading a book in the living room by the time Tetsuo got home, his entrance took her attention away from her reading.
"Oh, you're back. Where did you go? And, what is that?" The boy was carrying a large box, so big that it almost covered his head.
"Hello Goddess, I'm sorry for leaving without telling you… I went to the guild to get some information about the monsters of the dungeon, and this is what one of their employees gave me." He said while putting the box on the table that they used to have breakfast.
Tsukuyomi got curious, there seemed to be a lot of books, 'Perhaps they gave him information on all the known monsters?' with that thought she went to have a look as the boy started to take the books out.
"I think Eina-san went a bit overboard, there are books here about adventuring." Tetsuo couldn't help but comment.
"Hmm… Will you read all of them before going back to the dungeon?" The goddess enquired while taking a look at one book about monster drops.
"I don't think that would be the best idea. I'll start going there while I read some of these, even though I said I wasn't going to go hunting for money we still need it. We can't depend on your money for too long."
"You're right… But I don't want you to be the only one to provide for us. I can help as well." Her words were a surprise for the boy.
"What? No, you don't have to, Goddess. Besides what would you even do?" He was reluctant, he just couldn't fathom a goddess working about in the streets.
"Hump… Tetsuo you idiot, I'm more than capable of working, I'll have you know that I used to run an orphanage back in the Far East, I can do a lot of things." She said with a cute pout.
"I-I didn't mean it like that Tsukuyomi-sama. I meant that one such as yourself shouldn't worry about those things… I'll make sure to provide for our familia." Tetsuo was caught off guard by the goddess' displeasure.
"Hump… I won't have that, I want to help!"
Their conversation got at an impasse, they both just stared at each other as if the one who looked away first would lose the argument.
The confrontation got cut when a look of realization took its place on Tsukuyomi's face.
"That's it! I'll make food to sell, the kids always liked when I cooked for them!" She exclaimed.
"Umm… Goddess, are you sure about that? It has been a while since you stopped cooking, no?" Tetsuo tried for a careful approach, the girl seemed like she wouldn't like him to keep disagreeing with her ideas.
"Well… You're right! It has been some time. So I'll just have to practice before I start selling it! You'll have the honor to be my taste tester, Tetsuo-kun!"
The young adventurer felt that this would not be a good idea, however, he felt as if he couldn't deny her, she looked so happy.
"If-If you insist Goddess, I'll-I'll do my best!" He tried to sound confident, but his tone betrayed him. Lucky for him, the girl wasn't paying him any attention, she was now trying to come up with recipes to cook.
Before Tetsuo could leave the room, Tsukuyomi got out of her musings and took his hand, "I have a great idea! Come on Tetsuo, I'll show you around Orario and then we can go look for ingredients… I'll also look for some recipe books at the bookstore." She told herself the last part.
The adventurer wasn't able to stop his goddess, when he tried to stop her they already were outside heading towards Babel Tower.
Once they got to the city's central square, Tsukuyomi started pointing at the streets and indicating what he could find on them.
The one that they came from led towards a bar and to the Freya Familia's house, there was also an entrance to the entertainment district, she pointed out the street which led to the Hostess of Fertility, another building that Tetsuo knew, now he learned that there was cheap potion shop at the end of it.
Pointing towards the street that was opposite to the inn's one, she mentioned it was the one that led to the Colosseum, Tetsuo took note of that, now he knew which way was east, it would make navigating this city much easier for him.
The street that he paid the most attention to was the one that stayed to the left of the one in which their house was located. That was because Tsukuyomi started walking down it.
She mentioned a Cafe, the one that she preferred in the city, she also showed him the square that was near it, a place where she would sit down to eat anything that she'd buy from said Cafe.
Another important piece of information about this street was that it led to the market area, a place that would be very common for the duo since Tsukuyomi had decided to start cooking.
The market area was, as many would expect, crowded with people, they were of many kinds, from those that were common in Orario to those that were barely seen in it. The couple unconsciously stood closer with each other, their pacing slowed down to avoid bumping into the other market-goers.
Their first destination was the area that sold food, there were stalls on both sides of the road, with plenty of variety in them, one sold fresh vegetables, another sold fruits, there could be seen some that sold different kinds of drinks, other than specialized in wine.
Tsukuyomi didn't know how to choose what she wanted, thus she trusted the vendors to do so for her, some did try to make more money than necessary, but they had looked around enough to see when something was overpriced or not.
After getting the ingredients, their next stop was a bookstore, it stayed at the edges of the market area, so they had to traverse the sea of people once again to get there.
The bookstore area was much less crowded, as was the store itself. Tsukuyomi's choice for books were the ones that had traditional recipes from the Far East, them being the style of food she was most acquainted with. Tetsuo chose not to buy any, he already had too many to read and their money situation wasn't favorable enough for them to spend brazenly.
After they bought everything that they needed, the couple made their way back to their house, however, their path changed when they arrived at the Babel Tower.
"Tetsuo-kun, you don't have any other clothes, right?"
The adventurer looked embarrassed, this had been something that he had forgotten to get when he left for Orario, now he didn't know how to approach the topic.
"Yes…"
"Then we are going clothes shopping! We can even look up some armor." The goddess felt energized, now that they had another goal in mind.
They managed to buy enough clothes to last him until he was ready to go back to the dungeon and make more valis for them. However, that made it so they didn't have enough for armor or other items that'd help him when he went back.
This had been a very productive day, now both of them could get back home and start getting ready for the future.
A few days passed, with the food they bought, Tetsuo wasn't pressed to get back to the dungeon, so he decided to give his all in memorizing the books about monsters.
He learned that on the first floor he could find two more monsters other than the goblins, them being the Kobolds and the rare Jack Bird.
By what he read, he wouldn't have any problems on the first floor, the monsters showed up mostly alone and they had pretty basic manners of attack.
He was more concerned with when to move on to the next floors, he had to decide if he wanted to try to find a Jack Bird, or if he should move on once he was strong enough that the goblins and kobolds weren't a threat to him anymore.
The books didn't help much in that regard, so he decided to go with a time stipulation to find the golden bird, and if by the end of it he hadn't had any luck he'd just move on.
The next day turned out to be the one that Tetsuo in which truly began his adventures in the dungeon.
It began very early, with a traditional breakfast made by Tsukuyomi, she hadn't improved much, but she already was a pretty good cook, so there wasn't much to complain about.
With both stomach and mind full of what he deemed necessary, Tetsuo went to the dungeon, his goddess this time choose not to go with him to the entrance, she was too focused on improving her recipes.
The dungeon had been the same as Tetsuo had seen on that first day, this time he was much more focused so he didn't stop to admire the entrance, instead he strategized the better ways to deal with the monsters he'd encounter.
Today he'd stay on the first floor for as long as he could manage. He had brought with him a simple bag in which he'd put the magical core that he'd gather, the same with any drop items he'd find.
His first encounter with a monster was, once again, with a Goblin. Much like the first time, this one tried to rush him, maybe in an attempt to scare him to inaction. But, Tetsuo was ready, he quickly countered the goblin's attack with one of his own, dealing significant damage to make it easy for him to finish the monster off.
With his first catch of the day slain, the young adventurer carved out the magical core, this time much smoother than the last thanks to one of the books he read.
This first encounter gave the boy motivation to go on. Following the large hallway that was on the first floor, he looked for more monsters to kill. The following encounters were all of the goblins, and like all the previous time that Tetsuo fought them, he didn't get any injuries.
As he got to the end of the floor, he started to notice that some monsters were being spawned together, it was also there that he spotted his first kobold. It was a humanoid creature with the head of a dog, they didn't have any type of equipment, much like the goblins.
What differentiated them the most was the fact that the kobold spotted him immediately after he had seen the creature.
The fight that ensued was more fast-paced than the last ones, the monster used all of its body to try and damage the adventurer. From slashes to kicks and bites, the kobold's attempts were much more threatening than the ones made by the goblins.
So much so that Tetsuo was caught off guard and took a hit to the chest, it was a fairly powerful strike, one that made four bloody gashes on his shirt. That strike gave him an opening, one where he used to decapitate the monster. After the fight was over, Tetsuo proceeded to remove the magical stone and get ready to leave.
He hadn't expected to receive any damage, and now that he had he knew that it would attract monsters to him and make it much more difficult to leave in one piece.
The dungeon seemed to read his mind since as soon as he got up from looting the kobold, four more showed up in front of him.
His body automatically reacted, he got in a position to defend himself and deal with the monsters, on his head he was already thinking of ways to safely leave, he knew that physically he wouldn't defeat any of them.
The kobolds had shown up together, however, they didn't fight as a group. They rushed at the adventurer one at a time as if they didn't think he was capable of taking them on one by one.
This served as an advantage for the boy, now that he had taken damage, he was much more careful, and with the monster's strategy to go one after another, he didn't have much difficulty in taking them out.
The problem arrived when he finished them, he was tired, he thought to take a breather while taking out their magic stones, but the dungeon had other plans.
Tetsuo didn't have time to get down and start looting, for he heard the sound of more monsters spawning from the walls.
This time they were a group of goblins, four of them, but different from the kobolds, they seemed to understand a bit of teamwork as seen by the fact that they approached him all at once, one covering each side of his.
They were fast and strong, but they didn't have any technique, and like all the other fights he had, Tetsuo used that to his advantage.
Throwing one of the goblins at another as he took on the pair that wasn't affected was the main strategy that he used to get out of the situation. Unfortunately, he was tired, his injury also helped in making him more tired than usual. His movements got sluggish, his strikes less powerful, and his reactions slower.
Unsurprisingly he received more damage, but none as bad as the one made by the kobold. The goblins littered him with scratches, ones that were painful but didn't diminish his ability to strike back.
And strike back he did, one goblin lost his arm and bled out, another lost his head, the last two died thanks to multiple cuts done to their bodies.
The young adventurer was spent, he'd seen that the dungeon wasn't going to let him rest so he decided to leave the bodies there and head towards the exit.
Luckily for him, some time had passed and more adventures were at the dungeon thus taking away its attention.
Tetsuo only had to stay out of the other adventurers' sight, he had read about their danger, differently from the monsters they would want his items, and after losing those he'd be an easy target for the dungeon.
It wasn't pleasant but he managed to get to the entrance without being spotted, this had been a very fruitful first day, he had even lost count of how many goblins he had slain.
When he got out, he realized that the day was already ending, he had spent the whole day there, and once his body caught up with the discovery, his stomach rumbled loudly.
Seeing the desperate cry for food from himself, Tetsuo decided to sell his spoils the next day, choosing to go back home and treat his injuries, as well as taste the magnificent food of his goddess.
Once he got there, Tsukuyomi was a pile of nerves, she had expected him to get back after the morning was over, not after the whole day was over. Her thoughts had strayed to the worst outcomes possible, and without any means to check she tried to calm herself by repeating that Tetsuo would be fine and return at any moment.
It wasn't a surprise that when the door opened, and the adventurer got in, he was tackled by a blue torpedo, the goddess was suppressing tears as she hugged the life out of him.
Those tears fell once she calmed down and took a look at his state, the shock was such that she froze, only moving again when her child had taken her to the couch and started to treat his wounds.
She asked him how it had gone, and as he told about his day, they both took turns to clean and bandage the wounds on the youth's body.