Chapter 6: Starting Life in Another World
Chapter 6: Starting Life in Another World
In retrospect, all of Great Earth’s games were fundamentally designed around party play. Whether it was a childhood friend you grew up with or a fellow cadet from the knight academy, every game had a story-driven reason for you to have at least one companion from the very beginning.
What if Sex at the Dungeon was the same?
What if the difficulty was designed with the assumption that the story would give you a companion right from the start, forcing you to tackle even the dungeon’s entrance as a team of two or more?
Thinking about it, I should have realized something was wrong the moment I, a level 12 with the overpowered Saint class, felt that a rabbit’s attack—one of the weakest monsters in the dungeon—was genuinely fast, even if I hadn't invested any bonus stats into Agility.
Come to think of it, the looks the beautiful receptionist and Alicia gave me on the day I went to register as a level 1 adventurer were also strange.
Since the basic story was about becoming an adventurer and clearing the dungeon, I naturally tried to become an adventurer from the get-go. But maybe, in a normal playthrough, you weren't supposed to do that right away. Perhaps the story was designed so that you started with a companion, had sex with them to level up at least a little, and then registered as an adventurer?
It was all just speculation at this point, but I had a strong feeling that was the case.
And to think I got so cocky just from steamrolling a few monsters at the dungeon entrance.
On the first day, I should have just scouted the entrance to get a feel for the place, observed the other adventurers in the guild, and learned the lay of the land.
I admit it. I was being a little complacent.
But that was then, and this is now.
Just because I’m reflecting on my mistakes doesn’t mean you guys are that fucking strong, nor does it mean I’m in some kind of life-or-death crisis.
No matter how real this place is, my body is the same one I had as my game avatar.
If this were my real-world body, which had gone soft after I was discharged from the military and became a gaming shut-in, it might be a different story. But there was no way I, a seasoned gamer with this incredible body, could lose to a bunch of fucking mutts just because they had numbers on their side.
First, Guwon dumped all his remaining bonus stats into Strength, Durability, and Agility.
Name: Guwon
Race: Human 24
Job: Saint 12 / Adventurer 1 / Martial Artist 1
Level: 12
HP: 2500/2500
Essence: 1200/1200
Strength: 40
Durability: 41
Agility: 41
Stamina: 23
Intelligence: 21
Spirit: 22
Charm: 61
Bonus Stats: 0
Status: Normal
In the previous battle, it took two or three of Guwon’s hits to kill a wolfdog.
Considering that even the ones that took three hits were already on the brink of death after the second, I could now definitely finish them all in two.
The only unsettling factor was that I hadn't been hit once, so I had no idea how much damage their attacks did. But there was nothing I could do about that.
I’ll just have to try my best not to get hit.
I’ve raised my Durability this much; surely I won’t die from one or two hits, right?
The wolfdogs, already thinking of Guwon as a cornered rat, slowly closed in from all sides with leisurely steps.
Their confident demeanor seemed to say, ‘My mom taught me how to swarm someone, you bastard!’
A bunch of fake-ass dogs just pretending to be wolves.
In any case, being surrounded like this was disadvantageous. First, I needed to get my back against a wall.
“Here I go!”
Whine!
I feinted a forward charge with a shout to confuse them, then immediately spun around and rushed backward, kicking a wolfdog that had let its guard down. I broke through their line and put my back to the wall.
With that, I no longer had to worry about attacks from behind.
The trade-off was that the ones I’d caught off guard were now wary of me, but it was a reasonable exchange.
After a brief standoff, three wolfdogs charged at me simultaneously.
Fools. Didn’t you see me take out two of your friends before you even got here?
If you’re going to attack, you should have come with more numbers.
I planted a fist into each of the two charging from the sides and dealt with the one in the middle with a kick.
It left me in a strange, unstable stance with both arms and one leg extended, but my physical abilities, far surpassing those of a normal person, kept me steady.
Next, I delivered a low kick to each of the fallen dogs.
Just as I expected, all three went down in two hits.
Nine enemies remaining.
I felt the pressure to finish them off before they could call for more reinforcements like last time, but this was looking more manageable than I thought.
As if reading Guwon’s mind, the remaining pack sensed the danger and all prepared to charge at once.
Even so, with my back to a wall, the most that can attack me at once is five or six. Are you dumb animals not smart enough to figure that out?
Sure enough, five of them rushed me.
Hitting all of them with a single blow each like before would be difficult.
In that case, I’ll make the first move!
Before the wolfdogs could reach me, I lunged at the one on the far left to take it out quickly.
I landed a punch to stun it, grabbed its tail with both hands, and as the others leaped toward me, I swung it with all my might!
See that? This is the wisdom of a tool-using human.
That’s what you get for stupidly jumping at the same height.
The moment Guwon thought that, his eyes met with a wolfdog that had leaped up to his head level.
My hands were still swinging to the right, carried by inertia.
The beast seemed to smirk at Guwon, then opened its massive jaws wide.
You son of a bitch!
Guwon quickly snapped his head back to dodge the incoming teeth and twisted his torso to deliver a powerful shoulder check.
“Hah, for a mere beast, you’re pretty cleve—Aargh! Fuck!”
A sharp pain shot through my right leg. I looked down to see that another one had snuck up and sunk its teeth into me.
“That hurts, you fucking mutt!”
I reflexively shook my leg, but the beast refused to let go. In that time, the ones I’d hit with the full swing got back up and charged again.
Panicked, I swung my fists wildly. One of them connected with another dog’s leg, but contrary to my expectations, it didn’t die and came at me again.
What, wasn’t it supposed to be two hits?!
From that point on, it was a truly desperate dogfight.
And I don’t mean a dogfight because I was fighting dogs; I mean a dogfight because I fought like a cornered dog.
The one latched onto my right leg wouldn’t let go no matter how much I kicked or punched it, my mind went blank with pain and panic, and the rest of the bastards were lunging at me from every direction—up, down, left, and right.
It was a chaotic mess of punching, kicking, biting, and tearing.
I seriously thought I was going to die.
At one point, when one of them postured to howl for more allies, my heart genuinely dropped—something that rarely happens.
Thankfully, I managed to ignore all the others biting me and beat the ever-living shit out of that one bastard before it could make a sound, averting the worst-case scenario.
The mutt on my right leg held on until the very end. I thought my leg was going to be torn off.
I may be a fan of a certain red-legged chef, but I have no desire to share his disability.
In the end, after an ugly brawl, my superior stats won out and I managed to kill them all, but the price was steep.
My body was a wreck, covered in bite marks, and my tracksuit and sneakers were blood-soaked rags.
The wounds on my body could be fixed with one of the lowest-grade potions I’d carefully saved for just such an occasion, but I’d probably have to give up on the clothes.
Oh well. I’ll just consider it an expensive lesson.
It’s a miracle I’m not dead, right?
Just in case, I should drink a potion right away.
I glanced at the HP gauge in the corner of my vision, which I hadn't been paying attention to. The red bar was still comfortably over half full.
…R-Right! Well, I did pump a ton of points into Durability before the fight, didn’t I? My defense is pretty decent!
Besides, it was my first time being bitten like that without any kind of pain limiter. It’s not like I was overreacting.
If anything, I did an amazing job.
I faced a level of pain I’d never felt before in my life and still managed to defeat all my enemies, right?
I feel like I should pat myself on the back!
…Anyway, it seems dangerous to stay here any longer. I should hurry up, harvest the Magic Stones, and get out of here.
As he harvested the stones, Guwon mentally reviewed the battle.
First, looking at my stats just made me sigh.
There was a reason I had intentionally saved my bonus stats until now.
In any game with a system where stats increase through actions, it’s only effective when your stats are low. Once they reach a certain point, it becomes much harder to see any improvement. That means bonus stats become more and more important in the late game.
Also, I prefer a balanced stat build. Right now, I have nothing, so I have to rely on my body, but I might get a job like Mage later and go down that route. Even if I don’t, the ability to acquire jobs without restriction means an overpowered, all-rounder build that masters every job should be possible.
Of course, games have a time-scaling feature that lets you play for hundreds of in-game years and become a one-man army. That’s probably not possible for me right now, but my initial goal was to be an all-rounder, and that plan was already shot to hell from the very beginning.
And one other thing.
There was definitely a dog that withstood two hits. I have to admit that was a miscalculation on my part.
It was an error that occurred because, while I knew on some level that this world was real, another part of me was still thinking like I was playing a game.
In a game, an attack is just a matter of a successful hit check.
Whether the attack lands deep or shallow, or which body part it hits, the result is the same as long as the hit registers.
There are special cases, like giant raid monsters where different parts take different amounts of damage, but those are exceptions.
It makes sense. If hitting a vital spot in a game meant an instant kill, then a player could ignore an attack that only deals 1 damage, get stabbed in the heart, and die instantly. Conversely, any powerful enemy could be dealt with in a single hit to a weak point, which would completely break the game’s balance.
But this world isn’t a game.
No matter how successful an attack is, it’s meaningless if it doesn’t land properly. And no matter how weak an attack is, it can be fatal if it hits a vital spot.
I should have been clear about that.
Even though my head knows this is reality, with things like HP and Essence gauges and a map floating in the corner of my vision, it’s incredibly hard to shake that gamer mindset.
Is this something I’ll just have to wait to get used to over time?
Anyway, I’m exhausted.
I collected all the Magic Stones, completely erasing any trace of the wolfdogs, but that didn’t bring back my torn clothes. And while it wasn’t a huge amount, the ground was still pretty dirty with my own blood.
Maybe I should call it a day.
I checked the time in the corner of my vision; it was already evening.
Right, it took quite a while to get down to this floor.
I hadn't eaten anything since morning, so I was hungry. This should be enough to at least cover an inn fee.
Let’s go back.
The return trip was quick, as I took the shortest route back.
It paid off to have painstakingly completed the map by wandering around earlier.
First, I need to sell these Magic Stones at the guild.
But the manual and the official website only said to sell them at the guild, not where in the guild to sell them. And the guild was massive.
The guild building, constructed in a ring around the dungeon entrance, was as large as a shopping arcade all on its own. The only saving grace was its simple donut shape, which meant I didn’t have to worry about getting lost inside.
When in doubt, ask a receptionist.
Guwon went to find the beautiful receptionist who had registered him as an adventurer that morning.
Why her again, when a guild this large must have dozens of receptionists?
Because after a quick look around, I couldn’t see any receptionist prettier than her.
As the faces of the guild, they were all quite pretty, but her beauty was on another level entirely.
An overwhelmingly large chest that defied all competition, a neat yet mature aura as if measured with a ruler, and to top it all off, she was a picturesque blonde with blue eyes.
There was no way I was going to look for another receptionist when there was an intelligent, beautiful woman who so perfectly matched my tastes right here.
“Welco—Gasp! Are you alright?”
Huh? Oh, right… I look like a mess.
My HP had fully recovered on the way back, so my body was fine, and I’d briefly forgotten.
That aside, she really is a beauty. Even her surprised expression is lovely.
“Ah, yes. I’m fine, thanks to you.”
She must deal with countless adventurers a day, so I doubted she’d remember me, but my crazy antics this morning probably left the worst possible first impression. So, this time, I tried to give the most sensible answer possible. For some reason, however, the receptionist’s expression clouded over.
A beautiful woman looks like a work of art even with a face like that.
“Don’t tell me you went into the dungeon?”
“Yes.”
“But you’re level 1! What on earth were you thinking! No, I’m sorry. I should have explained things properly from the start.”
It seems she remembered me perfectly. And it looked like she was feeling incredibly guilty, thinking my current state was her fault.
Did she take my “I’m fine, thanks to you” as sarcasm? I just said it as a polite greeting without thinking.
Of course, if she were some mediocre-looking person, I would have raised hell about her not doing her job properly, but seeing such a beautiful woman with that expression made my heart soften.
But wait, if I play this right, isn’t this an opportunity?
Exploiting an opponent’s weakness is the most basic of basics. I can’t let this chance slip by.
“Now that you mention it, you’re right. If you feel that sorry, how about we get a meal sometime…”
“No. I don’t feel that sorry for you.”
She shot me down before I could even finish my sentence.
Her expression was one of profound apology, but she was sharp as a knife when it came to things like this.
“It’s late, but I can give you a basic explanation now. Would that be alright?”
“Yes, please.”
And so, Guwon finally received the basic explanation about being an adventurer that he should have gotten much earlier.