"This is more than usual..."

  Dozens of goblins were sucked into a small portal in front of me.

  Of course, I had made sure to cut off their ears beforehand

  I had become pretty used to the sight, although I was still curious as to just how it worked.

  The portal only seemed to suck living things, and, well, it had no effect on me.

  It didn't take long for me to wonder if it could be used as some sort of attack, but for whatever reason, Blue only seemed willing to form the portal to eat dead or near dead things.

  'Oh well, maybe in the future something like that could happen.'

  Wasn't Blue basically my pokemon?

  So if he evolved...

  Maybe he'd get some new abilities?

  Or maybe I'd get new abilities?

  My musings ended as the portal closed, indicating that Blue had finished his meal.

  I crouched down to the ground, picking the worm up.

  "Aren't you getting a little fat?"

  It seemed he had grown in size.

  At first, I remember him being no larger than my pinky finger, but now he was larger than my middle finger.

  Blue lazily entered my body through the mark on my chest, queitly settling back into my heart.

  "Right then, let's see."

  "Damn."

  It wasn't the most satisfying result, but I had come to expect it over the last few weeks of grinding.

  At the rate my experience was increasing, I'd probably have to kill nearly four hundred goblins to level up.

  Frankly, it was by all means a doable task.

  'But I'm not the patient type.'

  It was probably a given that my progress would slow down, considering I hadn't been pushing myself as of late.

  I exclusively took on missions full of large numbers of weak mobs rather than singular strong mobs.

  I could guess that me taking on a strong monster such as an Ogre would yield me a solid amount of experience, but I wasn't confident that I could take such a foe on by myself.

  And well, if I partied with other C rankers to take it on, I obviously wouldn't be able to extract experience.

  I sighed and started making my way back to the City.

  "Oh hey, isn't that the kid you were talking about?"

  "Yeah, he's the one."

  "Damn, thought he'd look different... Like, a little tougher, y'know?"

  "Apparently he's a mage, you know how those types are, right?"

  You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

  "Heh, yeah, shameless backliners."

  "But, to be fair, that fella's been taking on missions solo, so can't really compare him to the rest, y'know."

  I ignored the comments regarding me, as they had become quite commonplace by this point.

  Over the past few weeks, I had apparently become a bit of a 'rising star' in the eastern part of the city.

  I mean, the development wasn't out of my expectations.

  Considering that I was a kid taking on C rank missions solo with a perfect clear rate, it would be weird if I didn't receive attention.

  It wasn't like I was a celebrity or anything, after all, at the end of the day I was still only a C rank, but it was just that people had begun to recognise me.

  It also meant people had started requesting me to party up with them.

  As I sat down at a table eating breakfast, a generic looking swordsman approached me.

  He immediately began his pitch, but I quickly interrupted him.

  "...Sorry, I'm not interested."

  "Please reconsider, I'm aware you've been clearing missions by yourself up until now, but it isn't sustainable, having teammates is a-"

  I cut the man off, my tone sharpening with harshness.

  "Didn't I make myself clear? Not interested."

  "Fine then, but I'll keep my invitation open, one day you'll realise that kind of atti-"

  "Yeah, sure."

  He walked off with a frown after being interrupted for a third time.

  Anyway, considering my abilities, what I had actually been doing was far from impressive.

  I was just bullying large numbers of weak monsters, so I didn't really think it made any sense to think highly of me.

  But to be fair, it's not as if those adventurers had much idea of how I operated.

  By now I was proficient in slurring my magic, meaning I had achieved full auto fire.

  So in other words, even if a hundred goblins gathered in front of me, all they'd amount to is fast food.

  These days, I had more or less fallen into a routine.

  Wake up, head to nearest association branch, take on a suitable mission, go kill some monsters, return to the city, repeat.

  Of course, I mixed in training where I could.

  But recently, I found something to break that routine.

  About a week ago, a low rank dungeon had been discovered by association scouts.

  Dungeons were some kind of rare natural formation.

  I didn't even bother trying to understand how they 'naturally formed'.

  Perhaps it's just another given for a fantasy world.

  Anyway, outside of Babel, the discovery of any kind of dungeon was extremely rare, but as a side effect of the absurd geography surrounding the city, dungeon formations were far more common.

  Still, they were rare enough to only come around about once a month.

  As soon as they announced that they were looking for adventurers to clear the dungeon, I signed up.

  It was purely a guess from my end, but it was probably thanks to my stellar completion record that I was accepted to be one of the fifty adventurers who would raid the dungeon.

  And as soon as I was saw that I'd been accepted, I was given a quest.

  There were no clear rewards according to the screen, but I would have joined up regardless of if I had received a quest or not.

  Dungeons contained rare artifacts and gear with special abilities.

  'Maybe this world really is straight out of a videogame?'

  Why a supposedly natural formation pumped out weapons and armor for humans was beyond my understanding.

  But hey, gear is gear.

  With some luck I could probably get my hands on something suitable for me.

  And with the money I had been saving up so far, I'd be able to buy something that I'd had my eye on for a while.

  ...

  This was the second time I had properly sat down with the S rank party 'Odyssey'.

  I did occasionally see them time to time, making small talk, but nothing serious.

  But apparently Kara had seen on the noticeboard that I'd be raiding the dungeon, and so I was quickly roped into meeting with them again.

  "Ohhhh boy, I 'member my first dungeon like it was yesterday, that damn twin headed o-"

  "Vengir, let us not regale the boy with our war stories, yes? I imagine he'd want some more practical advice."

  The elf, Judari, quickly interrupted his ally before he could launch into a tirade.

  "Yeah, some tips on what I should look out for would be good."

  Information was always a good thing to have, so I hoped they'd be able to impart me some useful knowledge.

  The four adventurers seemed to think for a minute, before Mai eventually uttered a single word.

  "People."

  Her emerald eyes gleamed with aggression, though I couldn't comprehend why.

  "Come again?"

  "She means you need to watch your back, people are oftentimes just as dangerous as monsters in those low level dungeons."

  Thanks to Kara's translation, I got the idea.

  "Aye, best not to stand out too much, 'specially if yeh find somethin' good."

  "My short friend is correct, if you find an artifact or anything of the sort, you would do best to hide it. Backstabbing tends to run rampant amongst adventurers of your level when raiding dungeons."

  I nodded my head, identifying my fellow raiders as a possible threat.

  For a moment I questioned why they kept specifying that it was common amongst adventurers of my level, but I supposed that at their level adventurers would have a little more pride and honor.

  "Anyway, don't worry too much, you seem like the cautious type, so I'm sure you'll be fine."

  Lightening the increasingly heavy mood, Kara tried reassuring me.

  But frankly, my thoughts were headed in a different direction.

  'Wouldn't it be damn easy for me to do the backstabbing?'

  A bullet through the back of the head was a tried and true method after all.

  LOG 38 - DUNGEONS

  Dungeons are considered to be natural formations that appear seemingly at random in undeveloped areas. As one would expect, they contain large numbers of monsters and traps, but on the flipside, they also contain treasures matching their danger. There are varying theories regarding the true nature of dungeons, but no one answer has become widely accepted by the masses.