Chapter Two
Anya wants to be an influential instructor.

"Name." Twin wolf ears twitched as the Guild receptionist gave me a flat stare from across the desk. There was absolutely no life to the glance whatsoever, and for most people signing up to be an adventurer, it was probably intimidating.

Unfortunately, it barely registered on the Hikigaya-danger scale, and I returned it straight at her in full force. Such was the nature of my special ability, Full Counter; I could reflect any gazes directed at me with more than double the original power.

The receptionist, for her part, was unfazed by both my internal monologue and counterstare. "Age?"

"17." The registration procedures continued. Place of Birth? Unavailable. Background? Unavailable.

"Familia?"

"... Unregistered." The receptionist shrugged, as if to say "Your funeral", and dispassionately jotted down my status. Unregistered adventurers were apparently rare and never extended beyond the Upper Floors.

In the months since I had arrived at Orario, I hadn't been idle. What information I could hear from eavesdropping on patrons through the Hostess's thin walls was committed to heart.

"Please wait over here. We'll have an advisor assigned to you shortly." Following the werewolf's instructions, I waited in one of the consulting rooms patiently. A minute passed before my name was called and I was met face-to-face with a young, fidgeting, pink-haired girl dressed in the Guild's uniform. Pairing newbies with newbies, huh? That was one way to maximize efficiency.

"Hi, I'm Misha Flott, your advisor!" The girl gave a hurried bow. "T-truth be told, you're my first time, so please take care of me!" Hey, learn to phrase your sentences better, Flott. If it had been any other guy besides me they would've already ended up getting the wrong idea and ended up being subjected to a fate worse than death, you know.

Following formality, I stood up and returned the gesture. "I'm Hikigaya. Please take care of me as well." Following a handshake, I cut straight to my objective. "Would the Guild happen to be willing to provide weapons and equipment for me? I don't really have a lot of money on me…"

"U-um, sure! Please follow me to get your measurements taken." Going out of the room, I soon found myself equipped with a chestplate, a sword, and a knife, all of which I attached to my body with no small amount of satisfaction until I heard the price. "The total amounts to 12,000 Valis."

I nearly choked. 12,000?! That was a mistake, right? Even the most hellish RPGs didn't screw a player like this right off the bat, right?Wait, I forgot that I was playing the most hellish RPG: reality. What good fortune on my part.

In the span of less than a year, I'd gone from comfortable modern living to being homeless to working hand-to-mouth for a living to going straight into debt. Wonderful.

I forced myself to focus on Flott's next words. "You probably can't pay that off in one go, so we'll simply deduct a set proportion of whatever you make in the Dungeon and use that to pay off your debt. You can also take out a loan from the Guild to pay it off. Well, I'll send you off, then. Good luck, Hikigaya-san!" With those words, I found myself moving with the crowd towards the white tower standing in the middle of Orario.

~~This is a Line Break~~

Like every male who reached adolescence, I once had my fair share of teenage fantasies, and as embarrassing as it was to admit it, there had indeed been a phase in my life where I had delusions of becoming a sword-wielding LN protagonist with a black trenchcoat and a harem to wait on him hand and foot.

Standing in front of the Tower of Babel, into which the Dungeon opened, the irony was not lost on me that now, of all times in my life, was the time where I actually had the chance to become one of those protagonists.

Except there were several problems.

The sword felt rather clunky and unwieldy in my hand, and I doubted that the seemingly-10 kilogram chestplate weighing down every movement in my body was helping, either. Ever since coming to Orario, my physique had not seen particular improvement, even though Mia worked me to the bone every day. Neither did the fact that I had never killed anything larger than a fly in my life before, much less a hostile dog-sized monster like a goblin.

Did I mention that the sword was unwieldy?

Calm down, Hachiman. It's just like an RPG. Today is just a recon trip. Kill some goblins, get used to your equipment. Starter quests, that type of stuff. Take it easy.

I sucked in a breath through my teeth and forged into the staircase which led into the Dungeon.

The 1st Floor's main hallway, also known as the 'Beginning Road', was the place where all newbie adventurers inevitably took their first step past the starting line. As a result, it was full of people wearing Guild-provided starter equipment, generally milling about as if they had no clue what to do. To avoid the crowd, I ducked straight into one of the side hallways, keeping the sword out at the ready.

There was a snarling sound and I was face-to-face with a green-skinned, chubby humanoid. A goblin. It crouched, getting down on all fours as it eyed me with a yellow glare. Its body tensed up, and distinctly, it seemed to be winding up for something.

I wound the sword behind my back like a bat as I inched closer to the creature before I realized something: It was going to pounce.

At me.

Too late. The goblin screeched, its muscles pushing it off the ground as it sprang at me.

I did the most logical thing that occurred to me in that moment: I dropped the sword and ran.

~~This is a Line Break~~

As I caught my breath on the edge of the stairs that led into the Tower of Babel, a familiar voice called out to me.

"Hm? Hikinya? What're you doing out of the Dungeon so early, nya?"

That verbal tic was recognizable anywhere. "... Anya? What're you doing here?"

"Mama Mia wanted me to deliver a meal order for someone at Babel, nya." So it was a cat-ering job? Heh, get it? I'm hilarious.

Regardless, I had a pressing problem. Anya looked at me up and down. "Munya… what happened to your weapon, nya?"

"Uhm…" I didn't have an explanation, but as Anya looked at me, she nodded.

"Hikinya… you've never been in a fight, have you, nya?" In response to my slow, reluctant affirmation, she sighed. I felt like a child being scolded. "Well, come along then, nya. I'll get your weapon back, nya."

As I led her through the hallways of the 1st Floor, I eventually came to a stop when I heard a familiar skritch-skritch of claws on stone before me. There was a goblin standing in between the two of us and my sword.

My blood turned cold. Neither Anya nor I had a weapon. I wasn't even sure if Anya could–

There was a SCREE and then I watched as the goblin's head suddenly caved in from the force of Anya's foot slamming into its skull before it crashed into the wall.

I hadn't even seen Anya move from my side. That had been unbelievably fast.

"Here's your sword, Hikinya!" While I had been preoccupied with staring at the goblin's corpse, Anya had returned while holding my sword. I accepted it before sheathing the sword into my back.

As I did, however, Anya's face morphed into a frown. "You're a total newbie, aren't nya?"

"Yeah." There was no denying it.

Anya sighed. "One of the first rules of the Dungeon, Hikinya: Always keep your weapon out, nya. You never know if there could be a monster anywhere, nya. In my experience, you've got to be constantly vigilant in the Dungeon, nya."

Anya was a former adventurer? Just by looking at how she acted at the Hostess, I wouldn't have been able to tell. Although from the looks of it, her klutziness really wasn't an act–she really was just that incompetent at being a waitress.

I was broken out of my thoughts when Anya tapped my shoulder. "Hikinya, got a familinya?"

"No." From what I had heard, familias were nothing more than glorified guilds. Perhaps they were guilds that had deities backing them, but given what I had both heard and seen, this world's version of the various mythological deities were rather… well, light-novel-y.

By that, I meant that a good half of them had been beautified into bishounens and the other half had been turned into pretty anime girls.

Loki, cunning trickster of the gods? JAPANIZING BEAM! Instead, you have a flatter-than-a-washboard goddess who frequently pervs out over her familia members!

Hephaestus, described in the myths as an ugly and deformed male god cast out of heaven and forced to rely on a crutch to stand upright? JAPANIZING BEAM! Instead, you have a red-haired anime girl with a nice pair of… anvils… and a cute eyepatch!

And so on, and so forth.

Those same deities tended to be rather… well, human. Sure, there was always that explanation about how they had all agreed to seal up their power because this was the perfect game for them, but I would've expected that these deities have some sort of mature wisdom that the rest of us mortals were lacking.

Instead, they partied their familias into the red, gambled their familias into the red, offloaded personal debts onto their familias, and got so drunk that they couldn't even sit up straight. Sometimes all of those at once. Source: Loki.

But as a result, it seemed that joining a familia wasn't really what I was looking for. Anya was probably going to tell me otherwise, though.

"You should really try and join a familia, Hikinya. If you don't, you won't last long in the Dungeon, nya."

"I'm not a team player."

"That's not what I mean, Hikinya." Anya adopted, of all things, a lecturing pose. "You can only get a Blessing if you're in a familia, Hikinya."

"Blessing… ?" Was this some sort of marketing scheme to brand familia members with a god's symbol?

"That's right, nya. The Blessing is something given by gods to their own familia–" I knew it! "–and as you accumulate excelia by defeating monsters and opponents, you get stronger, nya. There's really not a lot of other ways to survive in the Dungeon otherwise, nya."

'Accumulate excelia by defeating monsters and opponents'? That sure sounded familiar. So, it was some sort of magical RPG system. Although…

"Wait, Anya, you mentioned other ways to survive in the Dungeon?"

"I mean, there's always just practicing until you're really, really good, nya. Or being really, really stealthy, nya. But still, a Blessing is still your best bet, nya. The rate of growth is completely different, nya. Even a Level 1 is much, much stronger than an ordinary human, Hikinya." Anya peered at my eyes before sighing. "You don't believe me, do you, nya."

I really didn't. Sure, Anya had been fast, but that was more likely because I was severely inexperienced, not because it was a shounen manga series where people could use Shunpo.

"Hikinya. Just watch. This is what a Level 4 can do, nya." And in the blink of an eye, Anya disappeared.

Then, a familiar voice echoed out from behind me. "Behind you, nya."

I jumped as I turned around, tripping over my feet and landing into a sitting position on the ground as Anya laughed almost… maniacally. "Myahahaha! This is the true speed of a Level 4, nya!"

Level 4? From what I knew about adventurers, the Levels went up to 7, with each Level being progressively harder to obtain. I had always assumed that these Levels were more indicators of how long one had been adventuring and their lists of accomplishments, like membership cards… rather than whatever Anya had just done.

"Do you see what I mean now, nya? The higher your Level gets, the stronger you are, Hikinya. It's a familia-only benefit, nya!"

"But you're not in any familia, though…" I pointed out. Anya wasn't even an adventurer. She might've been one at some point, but if it was a familia-only benefit, then when she left, wouldn't she have lost it?

"Oh, right, nya. There were extension circumstances, nya…" I'm sure you mean 'extenuating', but judging by how suddenly the mood changed and you're currently on your hands and knees and your cat ears are drooping and your tail is limp on the ground, I'll let it slide.

It wasn't long before Anya snapped back to attention, though, her fugue disappearing. "Anyways, Hikinya! That's why you need to apply to familias, nya! Even if you're not going to join their main attack force, it's still useful to have a Blessing, nya!"

I made a mental note to check it out and apply to several familias.

"And also, also, Hikinya!" Anya patted me on the shoulder with a self-satisfied air. "If you're ever in need of help about adventuring in the Dungeon, you can always come to the great Anya-senpai, nya!"

"I actually don't know how to fight, so if you could teach me…"

"Hm?!" Her eyes snapped open as she turned to look at me. "You went into the Dungeon, and you don't even know how to swing your sword, nya?"

"..." I'm not answering that question.

Anya sighed. "Sometimes, I wonder about your intelligence, Hikinya." You're the last one I want to hear that from. "If that's the case, want to learn from me, nya?" She proudly puffed out her chest. "The great Anya-senpai can teach you everything you need to know about fighting, nya!"

I quickly weighed the pros and cons in my mind. There weren't really any downsides, though. "That sounds good to me."

~~This is a Line Break~~

… Past me, there was a downside to learning from someone like Anya.

I puffed a breath into the air, the cloud of warm vapor dissipating in the early morning cold. It was 5 in the morning. Did I mention that? It was 5 in the morning.

"... Mo-mo-mo-morning, Hikinyaaaa." Letting out a wide yawn, Anya swayed back and forth. "W-why are we so early out today, nya? Let's just go back to sleep, nya~"

I felt a minor stab of irritation. Very small. Definitely. It's not like Anya was the one who decided that we should try waking up at the crack of dawn and practicing. No, it was definitely not her who came up with that bold-faced declaration. Most definitely not.

I articulated my mild irritation by holding up my knife and lightly tapping it against my chestplate, letting the TAK-TAK of metal on metal echo through the entire courtyard.

"I'm awake! I'm not sleeping, nya!" Anya sprang to life instantly, only to wither beneath my flat stare. "Al-alright, Hikinya. Let's do this, nya."

She had me enter my ready stance. "Hmm… that's okay, nya. You're a complete newbie, aren't you, nya?" I nodded. "Hm… well, I'll see if I can help you with some basic exercises I know, nya."

Swordwork.

"Completely incorrect, nya." Anya picked up the sword and easily twirled it with one hand, as if it were nothing but a stick. How strong was she? "This is more of a one-handed sword, so you shouldn't be swinging with both arms too often, nya." Saying that, she proceeded to effortlessly demonstrate some swings that made the blade blur through the air, almost faster than my eye could see. "You should probably practice with both hands, just in case you get your dominant hand injured in the Dungeon, nya." She had me go through the basic swinging motions with each hand.

By the time we were finished with basic swordwork exercises, I was already covered in a sheen of sweat and the sun had already risen above Orario's city walls.

"Huh… a little faster than I expected, nya. But no worries! Lemme just put on a cloak and we can head down to the Dungeon for some live training, nya!"

'Live training'...? That sounded ominous.

~~This is a Line Break~~

"Alright, Hikinya!" Anya cheered me on as I stared down a goblin, who was hunched over into a crouch, ready to lunge.

I sucked in a deep breath and readied myself. No more running.

"Annndddd… swing, nya!"

I swung.

The blade connected at an angle, sending the goblin to the floor with a nasty cut across the ribs.

"Alright, now finish it, nya! Finish it, Hikinya!" Very reluctantly, I stabbed my sword through the goblin's throat and let it bleed out onto the floor. It twitched viscerally, and I suppressed the reflex to drop my sword and run away.

That wasn't… so bad. For my 8th try at killing a monster today, it wasn't too bad.

It's not like I had chickened out on the other 7 or so tries and needed Anya to bail me out and hold down the monster so I could stab it to death. Definitely nothing like that happened. If it did, I remember nothing about it.

"And nyow, cut it open, nya!" Right, of course. Cutting the monster open–that's right, actually cutting it open–was necessary to retrieve the magic stone inside the monster. Unlike typical RPGs, there was nothing as convenient as the monster corpse vanishing into nothingness, leaving behind floating items which I could then pick up at will.

I grimaced as I picked up the knife. Even though I had already cut up 7 other goblins, this experience would still take… quite a while… to get used to.

Slowly, I positioned the knife at the center of the chest, just a little below the hard bone that was probably the sternum.

The knife sunk into the goblin's chest with an unceremonious psh right up to the hilt, and flecks of blood sprayed outwards. As the blade traveled downwards, cutting a thin line through the goblin's stomach, the skin parted to reveal purple muscles, which twisted as my own knife continued to move.

It reminded me of a dissection I had done in middle school. Well, of course, we weren't dissecting a creature the size of a large dog, and I wasn't holding a knife that was 30 centimeters long, but still, in the end, I was the only one doing it.

Everyone else had said that it was gross and that Froggy-gaya should do it, so I ended up having to do it. But that was turning out to be a valuable experience, since now I could resist the urge to puke every time the knife moved and the muscles twitched! Take that, you riajuus who know nothing about isekai life!

As I stuck my hands into the goblin's chest cavity and slowly sifted through them, I wanted to slowly mutter "We search for the organs! Where's the heart? The precious heart is mine…", but ended up not doing it. The reference would be lost on everyone else present–that is, Anya and the goblin corpse.

Finally, after some searching, my fingers grasped at something hard and small embedded within the goblin's chest, and I pulled it out, wrenching it free of the muscles binding it to the monster. As I did, the corpse dissolved into dust.

... I stand corrected on that idea about convenience.

"Yay, Hikinya! You did it, nya!" Anya happily pranced up and down. "You've taken your first step towards finishing Anya's adventuring course, nya!"

Wait. First step?

~~This is a Line Break~~

Footwork.

"Footwork, aside from handling your weapon, is the most important thing, nya." Line after line chalked out in the Hostess's inner yard with a knife to form a grid. "Footwork equals movement, which raises your efficiency and also maintains balance, nya. Footwork creates a system which you can act on to dodge, move in or retreat, and get more power for your attacks, nya. In essence, it's the most fundamental basics that one needs to grasp to fight properly, nya. We're going to start with these squares, nya."

Sparring.

A broomstick slammed into my ribs. "Oof!" The other end poked at my shoulder, sending me to the ground even as I tried to defend. I tried to frantically hold my sword up into the guard position, but Anya easily slipped past that, jabbing me in the chest and sending me stumbling again. I retaliated accordingly by swinging my sword from left to right, losing my balance, and tripping forward. The last thing I saw was the end of a broomstick hurtling towards my face.

Swordwork, Part 2.

"Swinging and stabbing are the most basic of basic motions, Hikinya." One-on-one combat with Anya, wielding a golden spear. "Once you get to deeper floors in the Dungeon, you're going to run into weapon-using monsters, nya." Parry. Riposte. Two-part slashes. Learning how to combo with attacks.

Sparring, Part 2.

I parried the broomstick that was aimed for my ribs. I then backed away from the jab that was aimed for my shoulder. I wasn't falling for that combo attack this time–

My feet were suddenly swept out from underneath me, and the last thing I saw was the end of a broomstick hurtling towards my face.

Hand-to-hand.

"If you lose your weapon against your enemy, you're dead unless you can pick it up, nya. Therefore, you need to learn some basic hand-to-hand combat skills, nya." Punching. Kicking. Knee strikes. Basic throws. Improvised weapons, such as rocks and landform weapons.

Sparring, Part 3.

With my sword, I blocked the swipe that attempted to knock out my feet from beneath me before quickly stepping on top of the broomstick, pinning it to the ground. Now that Anya had lost her weapon, I'd definitely be able to–

The last thing I remembered seeing before waking up again was Anya's fist zooming towards my face.

Sparring, Part 4–

Wait, hold on, I think that's enough.

Slowly, as I was beaten black and blue every day before heading into the Dungeon to fight the monsters inside, a revelation gradually occurred to me.

It finally reached me during sparring with Anya, as I woke up from being knocked out yet again.

This was a training montage, wasn't it?

Addressing some concerns, some people have also been confused as to where the time of this first setting is, and that question will be answered in the next chapter. For people who have been inquiring in particular, yes, it is set to the point before Ryuu joins, around 4-5 years before the beginning of the main storyline.

Until then, farewell! I hope you enjoyed it. Be sure to drop a review, follow this story, and leave criticisms or compliments.