Disclaimer: I do not own Danmachi or anything created by the author Fujino Omori; all rights go to him. I only own my original character Sleipnir and ~~~~~~ (Xenos OC).

Speech: "Second half of the first chapter. I have to create new anecdotes for the new chapters."

Thoughts: 'It's quiet we should take a step back and think.'

Magic: "Illusio."

Screaming/Demonic Voice: "Misha wake up."

Chapter 2 First Dungeon Delve

Orario in front of Babel

Ouka was already waiting in front of Babel. He didn't carry a backpack but instead brought two pouches that were fastened to his belt. On his back, he carried a heavy tower shield that was at least 150 cm in height and managed to reach barely above his head. He also carried a 180-cm-long, greataxe on his shoulder. Last, there was his trusty spear, which he strapped to his back.

Mikoto joined Ouka 5 minutes ahead of their planned time and brought her standard equipment with a small pack to not lower her agility. As usual, she carried her katana inside her scabbard. Like all melee fighters, she only carried one health potion for emergencies.

After a short greeting, they were joined by Asuka, who had the biggest backpack and would act as the team's supporter. For battle, she also changed into practical leather armour. Whenever possible, she would also use her bow to shoot down opponents with Chigusa. She also carried half the healing potions because of their fragile nature. In melee battles, it would be far more likely for them to be broken. She also had a few hidden concoctions from her alchemy work.

The other half went to Chigusa, who was the ranged specialist of the party and always fought with her surprisingly heavyweight metal war bow that required about 240 pounds (100 kg) to draw. She also carried a bigger backpack with the second half of the potions.

After the others waited a moment longer, Sly also joined up with them with his pack, new knives, naginata, and one health and stamina potion alongside three mind potions. Considering he is the main mage of the party,

Ouka then signaled for them to finish their conversations. "Well, it's show-time. We will take up our standard formation. I will lead the charge in the vanguard position, with Mikoto right behind me. Then in the middle, Sly will use his magic or tricks as he sees fit, and in the rear, we will have the archers and our support.

We will take it slowly and let every one of us get accustomed to the new dungeon monsters while exploring the floors, one after another. If anyone needs a break, speak up, and we will search for a defensive position to rest."

With that, they entered the dungeon. The entrance was controlled by guild members stationed at the quest board and before the door to the dungeon. For today, they ignored the quest board and immediately went inside the dungeon. The entrance was a big spiral staircase leading about 100 meters down to a hole that led to the first floor.

While going down, Sly looked at some of the groups that also went down and the few that were returning. 'Some of the returning parties have been severely wounded. From their gear, it looks like they are beginners. I wonder what did this to them.'

Dungeon floor 1

The first few floors of the dungeon have a cave-like interior. The walls are light blue and there is a big straight path through the first floor with many smaller side passages with split paths. Small fluorescent crystals inside the ceiling and walls light the floors.

Their course was towards one of the side passages, where most monsters spawn.

Goblins on the first floor appear in smaller groups of two to three and have a green humanoid appearance with a height of barely half a meter. They rarely carried stone daggers and only wore rugs.

Goblins were the weakest monsters and a single slash from Mikoto was enough to sever their limbs without too much difficulty. Ouka, who used his heavy greataxe, had an even easier time, sometimes even bisecting an entire group with a single swiping swing.

Sly focused on those that survived first contact with Mikoto and Ouka. He also observed them exploit any opening to slash at them. When Asuka spotted monsters behind them, Sly would also use his high speed to help them as needed.

While the vanguard fought mostly goblins, Chigusa focused on the kobolds before they could join the melee fighters. Kobolds were slightly stronger dog-headed humanoid monsters. They appeared individually and had sharp claws and greater speed when running on all fours.

As a countermeasure, they all had their chain mail equipped. Sly noted that the few kobolds that hit them could still break through and cause light injuries. Those injuries would be far more severe if they had lower endurance stats, but they all had high stats and only received small gashes through their mail. It also made them a priority target for Chigusa to reduce the damage their equipment took. She often even hit the monsters in the head or into their hearts, which instantly killed them. Her accuracy was scary as always.

Asuka used her carving knife to cut open the monsters to find their magic stones to let their bodies disappear. Which took a while when the goblins only had a magic stone the size of a fingertip.

Sly also used continuous battles to test out where the magic stones of the monsters were located. He observed them until they left him an opening before slashing at their chests where their magic stones lay.

His first few tries didn't defeat the goblins and kobolds with a single strike, but because of his A in agility, he could easily dodge most counterstrikes. After the fifth one, he figured out where their magic stones were located and consistently hit them within a few swipes, thus reducing the monster into black particles. Of course, it was only this easy, because all of them could slash into the flesh of the monsters with every strike.

'Interesting, it actually works. On the surface, monsters are weaker and can't be slain by hitting the magic stone or some even have none, but here the monsters are stronger with the addition of a magic stone. This is a big weak point that can instantly cause the monster to lose its integrity and collapse into black particles.

Most monsters guard their stones, like the kobolds that always cover them with their claws. These monsters are easy, but I will read their movements and prepare counters for their movements. Although all the monsters I have seen up to this point have had no discernible technique, other than lunging straight at me.'

After Sly finished the monsters and only their magic stones remained, Asuka collected them all and even found a few drop items. Although they were mostly goblin teeth.

They continued clearing the floors at a fast pace while testing their opponents for weaknesses to exploit. Which lead them to go through the entire first floor in less than an hour. Lower floors will probably take progressively more time because the floors grow larger and more dangerous the deeper they go.

On the second floor, they were attacked by a bigger group of four goblins, one kobold and a single dungeon lizard, which was just breaking through the dungeon wall.

Dungeon lizards are brown quadrupedal lizard monsters with sucker discs on their feet. Sly rushed towards the emerging dungeon lizard and hit him on the head with his naginata.

But the dungeon lizard didn't die with his slash, which surprised Sly and broke through the wall, trying to bite Sly. He instinctually dodged just before being bitten and jumped back.

'That lizard has durable scales that make slashing it difficult. They also camouflage the lizard on the ceiling. The only weakness I see is the eyes. Let's see if I am fast enough to pierce the eye before it can dodge.'

Sly then focused his next attack towards the eye of the lizard. With his focus, it almost seemed to him as if the lizard began slowing down. Meanwhile, the fully emerged lizard climbed the dungeon wall to jump at them from above. Sly didn't allow that to happen, brandishing his naginata while jumping towards the lizard at his far greater speed. He then stabbed its eye with the spiked side of his naginata. It then cried out before falling to the ground, where Sly finished it with a strike to the throat.

Back on the ground, Sly turned towards his party and saw that they had finished as well. 'These climbing lizards could surprise us if they stay on the shady parts of the ceiling that aren't illuminated by crystals. It's also difficult to reach them if they are on the 5-meter-high ceiling because we can't dodge in midair.'

"I think it would be best if use my foxfire to illuminate the floors with dungeon lizards to protect us from unexpected lizards." Saying so, Sly then raises his tail and uses his racial magic skill. "Foxfire."

From his tail appears a single small blue fireball that constantly consumes a little mana. But as compensation, Sly can use pyrokinesis to command the fireball. He then guides it over their heads, thus illuminating the walls and roof around their party.

While clearing the floor, Sly spots a strange, dark corridor. Closer inspection and his foxfire reveal that in the darkness was a hidden pit. with stalactites after a 7-meter-long fall. 'This is an obvious trap. Although it's good to know that there are traps in the dungeon. Should we ever have to retreat into an unknown corridor, we must pay extra attention to not run into one.'

After continuing for a few minutes, Mikoto asked the party. "What do you think should we take the main path towards the fifth floor? Because I think we are far too strong for the top of the upper floors."

"As far as I can tell, we are more than ready, seeing as all of us have fought far greater numbers than these tiny groups of monsters before and stronger ones at that. It would also save my mana for more dire situations," replied Sly while glancing at the floating ball of fire.

'Unfortunately, I only mapped the first floor. Well, we have the guild maps for the first ten floors, although they aren't as detailed as the map I drew. I might have to take my time when I am alone and finish the other floors then.'

Looking towards the others, they all nodded along and then followed the main path into the depths of the dungeon.

Guild Hall

Still, early in the morning, Take made his way towards the guild. It's around 8 AM and the streets are very busy with many adventurers shuffling around.

Entering the busy guild, Take has to wait in line for 10 minutes until he once again meets their advisor Misha. "Good morning, Flott-san. I have returned to inquire about a compound that should still be in the possession of Amaterasu. She gave me a permit to use it for my familia."

"A property form. I will have to inform the head advisor about this. Takemikazuchi-sama could you please lend me the paper? I will need a few minutes to find the correct residence papers. Takemikazuchi-sama, if you have any more questions you may ask my colleague Eina Tulle."

Misha gets the papers while calling a half-elven woman with brown hair and green eyes over to help Take, before leaving while muttering. 'Why can't I ever have some free time? Even Eina has more free time than me and she loves her job. I should never have accepted the promotion to an advisor.'

Eina and Takemikazuchi then continue the conversation about the rates of different residences and the costs he would have to expect for Amaterasu's dojo. Eina also spoke about her anxiety over the adventurers that recklessly entered the dungeon, she hopes to get a nice and calm one when she gets promoted to an advisor.

After Misha returns, she hands Take the papers. "The dojo your familia wish to use is still reserved for Amaterasu-same, but as she has given you the permission to settle there, you will only need to buy the land from the guild. The cost for such a plot of land is currently set at 100'000 valis."

"Hmm, I certainly do not have such money with me. Flott-san, it will take my familia a few days to gather such funds. Until then, I will have to wait before finalizing our business."

"There is no problem Takemikazuchi-same. There is only a minor question I still have about one of your familia members if there is no problem in asking." Misha replied with a friendly smile.

Take looked at her for a moment, as if judging her intentions before returning. "As long as it's nothing too personal, I should be able to answer any of your questions."

"In that case, why did Sleipnir-san leave out his family name in his form? All others in your care are also orphans, but he was the only one without a family name."

Take narrows his eyes slightly before answering with his normal calm voice. "Flott-san, I would advise ..."

Dungeon floor 5

Sly's Dungeon Study

Upper Floor: 1-4

Structure: Cavelike interior with one well-discernible main path on the first floor and smaller side passages with multiple paths at the edge. From floor 2 onwards, there is no main path. Instead, there are many passages with many paths and dead ends.

Monsters:

Goblin: Small agile green monster, that uses group tactics to sneak attack from behind unprepared adventurers.

Weak points: Eyes, chest where a human heart would be

Kobold: Human-sized wolfman. Has sharp claws that can cut deeply into unprotected flesh and a very fast running speed on all fours.

Weak points: Chest where it normally guards with its claws, neck if within reach

Dungeon Lizard: A quadrupedal lizard monster that can climb on walls and the roof with discs on its feet. Prefers ambushing from blind spots by jumping from walls. Bringing a light source is recommended.

Weak points: Mouth shortly before biting, feet to disable its climbing capacity, the belly has weaker scales

'That went surprisingly well. Even if I haven't mapped the floors yet, I already have very valuable data for future reference. Although pushing a dungeon lizard on its back was far harder than anticipated. I first had to attack its feet, otherwise, it would have just kept sticking to the wall forever.

I also found several uses for my knives. I wish I had more of them, but I can at least kill goblins if I throw them right and they allow me to conserve mana while taking pressure from both the front and backline.'

The party was stomping everything while passing through the first 4 floors. On the way, they passed a few smaller groups of level 1 adventurers that were fighting monsters. They didn't intervene in any battle, as that was frowned upon unless the situation got out of control.

Before entering the fifth floor, they maintained their equipment and removed all the grime their weapons collected and also checked their weapons for damages. They also had to fit a few holes in the chain mail the kobolds created with their claws.

When they descended the stairs down to the fifth floor, the dungeon walls changed from the previous blue to a light green colour. With them also increases the number of monster spawns and their respective strength.

Once they reached the end of the stairs, there was silence. They did not see any monsters. Sly even summoned his foxfire, but still, there was nothing.

Chigusa whispered to the other. "What should we do? This does not seem normal."

"Should I cast an illusion to hide us?"

Mikoto heatedly whispers back into the silence of the fifth floor. "I say we continue in our defense formation with courage and honour. Ouka-san can prepare his shield, while you guard him and I protect Chigusa and Asuka from ambushes. Nothing on this floor is able to stop us."

"Mikoto-san please let me at least send an illusionary clone through first. I don't trust this quiet."

Looking at Sly's worries she relents. "Fine, send your clone Sleipnir, but we should still prepare our defense formation." Mikoto gives in with a tense look.

"Hero goes nothing. Hiding trickster, oh cunning fox spirit, refracting prism." Sly begins his magic chant, thereby saturating a sphere around himself with his mana and changing the perception of all who look upon it. Sly is the only one that can see both reality and illusion, but he also has to focus his mind on maintaining his illusion.

"By the father of the eight-legged horse, I command thee to affect the judgement of reality - Illusio." 5 meters in front of Ouka there appears a replica of Sly. At the same time, anyone looking directly at them would see nothing but an empty space in the dungeon with a few almost imperceptible symbols floating above the party.

'It's nice that we used this tactic enough, such that everyone knows where the others are located. Although the others can only see themselves, the symbols in the air are visible to all because I made them slightly above us and almost transparent. Only those that know of them can orient themselves in my mass invisibility spell.

All of us have different symbols. My symbol is a simple fox. Ouka has a shield, Asuka a pouch, Chigusa a bow and Mikoto a katana.'

"Wow, that's far more exhausting inside the dungeon than outside of it. I can at most do one or two more illusions of this calibre before I run out of mana," Sly reports while feeling lightheaded, before refocusing his concentration to move the unarmed clone of Ouka to the edge of his 5-meter illusion radius.

'The amount of mana required to cast an illusion depends on the volume it has to cover and a constant supply to keep it under control. It seems that it is more mana intensive to create illusions inside the dungeon. I would guess that because there is a lot of dungeon mana in the air, which I first have to overcome. At least once the illusion is prepared, I can maintain it with a far lower mana consumption, which is around the same as on the surface.

I still have to look out and dodge attacks without taking damage or risk Ignis Fatuus. Otherwise, the magic I am maintaining will break, and the leftover mana from the spell will implode within me causing an Ignis Fatuus. At least with my concentration intact, I can actively change the illusion inside the prepared area.

Unfortunately, I still need to keep the focus on all my illusions, which get progressively harder, the bigger the area and the more detailed the illusion is. For a quick change, I still need to simplify the overall illusion in case of a mass illusion spell like this.

I could also allow the illusion to hide the scent of the people inside and create false scents, but the mind usage of hiding more than one sense at a time is far too high for me to sustain. I would also need to chant a longer chant to include these effects, but it won't matter when I can't even maintain them.'

Thus, the see-through floating symbols followed after the illusory Ouka clone. They follow the first visible path carefully to reduce the sounds of the footsteps they produce as much as possible.

They continue for 10 agonizingly slow minutes, where nothing happens but the quiet rumbling or far-off sound of a monster breaking out of the wall. All the while, Sly's mana was slowly decreasing and he is already halfway to mind down.

Then they enter a big empty room that's far darker than the previous passage, with three more paths. Ouka whispers. "Which one should we take?" And at that moment, as if summoned by the sound, five shades materialize in front of the three passages. Two in front of the east and west paths. As well as one smaller one littered with scars in the black cloth, right behind the clone.

War shadows are monsters that can fly. Their body is like a black line cloth without much substance and only their heads, core and 10 cm long razor-sharp claws are corporal.

The small war shadow screams and strikes the clone from behind, passing right through its neck. It then looks back at the clone with a glint of curiosity in its eye, while the four others converge on the clone.

Sly observes how Chigusa jumps back a step in fear, while Asuka prepares to shoot the smaller war shadow. Meanwhile, Sly maintains his concentration while taking a few steps back until he reaches the limit of the illusion range. Ouka's clone acts as if it was dodging the attacks, but is still hit by the faster small war shadow.

Asuka observes the war shadows while waiting for an opportunity to attack. Then she notices that the smaller one seems to be striking at weak points while the 4 other shadows are attacking randomly. It is also faster than the others. Once she recognizes the signs, she tells the others. "The small one must be an irregular."

Ouka, who seems far more serious after Asuka's words, takes his spear and strikes the closest one to the right while Mikoto rushes from behind Chigusa to the left shade.

The four normal war shadows are still confused about the immaterial foe, while the smaller one seems to have heard their voice and is now looking in their general direction.

Sly notices that the small shadow is ignoring his clone and tries to force its reaction by striking it with his clone, but it still does not react. Then the invisible Ouka and Mikote reach their target. Both manage to target the heads of their war shadows, and both shadows are defeated due to the surprise attack. This also leads to Ouka and Mikoto losing their invisibility, as Sly is unable to hide interactions with other creatures.

An arrow then flies next to Sly's head for the small war shadow, but it manages to block the projectile after it leaves Sly's illusion. It then rushes through the clone and strikes the now-revealed Mikoto at a speed that far surpasses their expectations for a monster on floor five.

Sly sees that Mikoto can't react in time to dodge the small shadow's attack and has to forcibly change his illusion in a fraction of a second. This breaks their invisibility but in turn, allows Sly to create a blinding light above Mikoto's head.

The shade is blinded and slows down just enough for Mikoto to move sideways and counter with her katana. Unfortunately, Mikoto still takes a deep slash wound on the left side of her torso that breaks through her chain mail, but at least she managed to counter and cut off a big piece of cloth from the irregular. Below the missing piece of cloth, they can barely see a midnight black ribcage with an unblemished magic stone in its center.

Sly observes all this while thinking of how to help with another illusion, while Mikoto, who is still bleeding extensively, retreats towards the backline. He then sees Ouka charge one of the other two blinded war shadows and he manages to strike its magic stone, before turning towards the still-blinded small shadow and shield, bashing it.

Then another war shadow storms at Sly before it is hit with an arrow. Sly then stops his illusion field and goes for the war shadows torso, where the core is located. After dodging a few swipes from the wounded monster, he ducks below its claws and strikes through its guard and cuts away the cloth hiding its magic stone.

Chigusa, who shot the arrow, then continues with her momentum and begins chanting a spell. "Twin birds hear my call, enchant my pull, guide my path - JIAN YAJIRUSHI."

She then draws her bow with an arrow, but at the end of her chant, two one-winged birds appear in place of it, before she releases the two connected birds. They then fly towards the last normal war shadow, but instead of flying straight, it is now homing in on the exposed magic stone.

The war shadow was still attacking Sly without pause with its claws. It even managed to give Sly multiple superficial cuts before the Jian arrow reached it. Before hitting the shadow Chigusa commands her arrow to split into twin birds where the first breaks the rib protecting the stone, while the second follows the gap and hits the stone directly.

At that time, Ouka was striking at the dazed irregular shadow nonstop, but he was very tough and Ouka could not pierce its ribs easily. After a few strikes, the shadow regained its bearings and screamed, causing the dungeon to shake before all around the room 6 frog shooters broke out of the walls. All of them were green amphibians with a height of about 1 meter.

The irregular was then once again bashed by Ouka and momentarily stunned, allowing Asuka to use one of her techniques on it. She has been charging her "Piasu Isshi" (Penetrating Arrow) since informing them about the irregular at the beginning of the battle.

Now finally ready after 12 seconds of charging, Asuka releases it. Nonetheless, the irregular manages to partially block it with one of its claws, but because of its strength, it breaks through the small shadow's defense and splits its claw.

Sly then sees the frog shooters come out of the walls and attack their party with their tongues. Sly is surprised by the speed of their tongues because they fly around 5 meters per second. Everyone besides Asuka reacted fast enough to dodge to the side, she on the other hand had to take the hit to protect the wounded Mikoto. She was then pulled off her feet towards the frog shooter.

Chigusa then fires at the one frog pulling Asuka and managed to hit it in the head, defeating it. Sly used one of his daggers to cut the tongue of the one attacking him, before burning it with foxfire.

Mikoto drinks her health potion before rushing another one. Ouka is now hard-pressed to defend against the small shadow and the three frog shooters in the front, while the others only dealt with single opponents.

Luckily, he was the smallest and most equipped of the party, but he was still cut multiple times by the small shadow's remaining claw while dodging the dangerous tongues that could pull him off balance. His armour was in shambles, and he was only barely able to continue moving from the strain on his muscles.

Now that the backline is free, Sly used his chance to deal with the small shadow. He cast his foxfire but gave the spell far more mana, about half of his remaining reserve, thus creating a 30 cm (diameter) fireball with an incredible velocity that lit the remaining cloth of the small shadow on fire. In the confusion, the irregular crashes to the ground, trying to quench the flames searing its cloth.

"Thanks, Sly-kun," Ouka calls back while finally taking his spear and heaving it straight at the burning irregular and hitting its core. The biggest magic stone they have ever seen drops to the ground alongside the remaining claw of the war shadow.

The rest finishes quickly now that both Asuka and Chigusa can once again fire at the remaining frog shooters. Sly also used his throwing knives to harm the ones trying to use their tongues and protect the injured Ouka. Mikoto, meanwhile, looks around to ensure no more reinforcements would appear.

While the others finished the battle, Ouka first drank one potion, then went towards Chigusa when he still had a deep laceration on his chest and let her pour a potion over it to heal it as well. Mikoto then drank one as well to heal her injury.

"If I'm not mistaken, we just fought our first irregular monster. That small shadow was far too tough and was as fast as me and I'm the second fastest in our group. I can barely believe that a monster with the strength of a peak level 1 adventurer was on the fifth floor."

Mikoto turns to glare at him. "Of course it was fast, otherwise it wouldn't have managed to strike me at the beginning." Sly prepared to counter her argument. "But still, you should have been able to dodge it with your agility ..."

"How even you, the ever-cautious trickster, were surprised."

Chigusa then interrupted them both with a strong but quiet voice, ending their argument. "Of course Sly was surprised. I mean the monster was faster than me. I'm just happy its first strike went towards the illusion instead of us. That could have gone far worse. We need to be better prepared for something unexpected in the future. And both of you, stop arguing in the dungeon. We could be attacked at any time."

"Okay, now that I'm healed, I think it's high time we continue on the top 4 floors for today. If I'm not mistaken, all of us are tired and our stamina has dropped severely in that last fight. Not to mention that Sly-kun should be almost out of mana after that last stunt with the fireball. We need to be more " Ouka replied with a small laugh.

"That's true, I barely have 1/4 of my mana capacity left and am feeling quite lightheaded, which makes it difficult to concentrate. I can only manage another illusion or a few normal powered foxfires."

"In that case, let's return to the upper floors to collect some valis. While I don't think we should push further. I can still help you lasses train a bit on the upper floors."

They then turned around and ascended the floors while carefully avoiding big groups of monsters. After all, one adventure is enough for one day.

? Flooded Passage

"Are you happy now? You sneaked up here two weeks ago when you were barely even at rank two strength. But now you are too large to return." A high-pitched voice lectures her protege, while a rhythmic ticking sound came from a pocket watch she wore as a necklace.

"Of course I'm happy. I can finally hunt and grow stronger to reach the surface. The other Xenos can't order me to stay back or prohibit me from hunting here." A deeper but far more childish voice answers quickly before trying and failing to growl. "Grrr"

"And what of the men with the pointy sticks? Those who have neither scales nor fur and smell as bad a as dirty mad beetle. Have you at least followed my lessons concerning them?"

"Yes, Arles I know. I know when to trust my instincts. When feel danger I run before being seen and by now I know to avoid the most dangerous paths. And the others that find me are the weak ones. Most of them avoid me and only a few attacked me before falling into one of my traps."

Arles sighs quietly. "Good. Continue as such and the most dangerous situations can be avoided. As another precaution, you should change the floor you are staying on regularly. I will visit you again in a few weeks Ikuchi."

Author's Note

The second half of the first chapter. Future chapters will also focus more on Sleipnir and less on the team effort, but for this first dungeon dive, I had to focus on the entire party as a whole. Stats for all the familia members will be in the next chapter.

Update 17.07.23: The last scene was a preview of a few Xenos I plan to introduce. I also significantly reworked the character introductions in the beginning.