I let my body drop to the floor, copious amounts of sweat running down my face. Turning my head up, I took huge gasps as I tried to regain my breath. Damn I didn’t even need to use a potion.

“Good job Newbie-kun! Ne, ne, can we start using weapons now?” Tiona asked. The damn Amazon wasn’t tired at all.

I took a glance at her giant double headed sword and gulped… still, I nodded. It was about time I really started to train with my spear. Hey, maybe I could even survive a few blows now!

Grabbing at the water skin I drank a few gulps and poured some on top of my head to help me cool down. With a grunt, I threw the water pouch towards Tiona and couldn’t help but stare when she did the same.

Why? She wasn’t even sweating! Still, I decided to stay quiet. The view was amazing after all.

Opening my pack, I pulled out my new eyepatch, a black piece of cloth that covered one of my eyes and completely blocked its vision. Today I was wearing it on my right eye.

While the Sharingan wasn’t really doing much outside battle, using the eyepatch halved the amount of mind it used just by being active. I was also hoping it would be enough to stop the damage it was doing, or allow the potions to fully heal it.

Plus… well it looked good. Tiona approved!

“Great, I can’t wait to start training you with my Urga. Using weapons is far more fun than just my hands!” She crouched in front of my tired body and poked at my eyepatch. “Hey, do you think I should wear one too? It looks soo cool!”

I tried to think of Tiona wearing an eyepatch. “Somehow, I think it would look cute on you.”

“Really, you think so?” She asked. Her face far too close to my own. “Let me try!”

“Hey, get your own!” I pinched her hand when she tried to steal my eyepatch causing her to pull back.

Tiona briefly pretended to lose interest, but even with only one sharingan I wasn’t fooled and managed to block her second grab, then the third. With a glint on her eyes, the Amazon attacked with both arms and it was all I could do to keep her from grabbing the piece of cloth.

“Mou! Now I really want to take it!” She grumbled as I struggled to keep her fingers away from my head.

“Ha, now I really don’t want you to!” I answered and continued to struggle.

Using my legs, I finally managed to push against the ground and slip aside while jumping to my feet. Panting hard, I adjusted my clothes and smugly lifted my head high. I won.

Glancing back, I caught the glint on Tiona’s eyes and shouted. “I still have to go to the dungeon, see you!” then scrambled away as fast as I could.

“Bye newbie-kun!” She waved with a smile on her face. “Remember, I have a mission outside the city tomorrow so I won’t be able to train you, but don’t you dare slack off!”

“Don’t worry; I’ll probably spend the day in the dungeon then!” I shouted back and waved at the Amazon.

I took a very quick bath and ate something on my way to the dungeon. I had just gotten my magic ring yesterday and had yet to test its effects on any monster. I also had to pay the Witch and, while delving mainly on the fifth floor for half a day had been enough for now, it wasn’t gonna let me gather enough funds.

It was about time I push further into the dungeon.

Taking off the eyepatch again, I put it into my backpack and entered the dungeon at full strength. While blocking one eye didn’t really affect my daily life, I wasn’t about to risk facing monsters without my depth perception.

Kobolds and Goblins weren’t even a threat anymore. I dispatched them with contemptuous ease as I rushed through the first three floors, only having to watch out for dungeon lizards. They could still surprise me if I wasn’t paying attention.

Reaching an empty room on the fourth floor, I found one of the Lizards sneaking through the ceiling for an ambush and decided to use it as a test subject.

Using my spear, I blocked its first attack and used the shaft to slam it into the ground, then pressed it down. The beast struggled to free itself, but my strength had grown enough that, with leverage, I could keep it pinned with no trouble.

Finding out how to channel my mana into the ring took some time. I was far too used to channeling it into my eyes passively, guiding it towards somewhere else wasn’t easy, but I eventually figured it out.

The ring absorbed my power for three seconds before I felt it was full. Pulling the mana back was actually uncomfortable, it felt slower and thicker, but not to the point that it hurt.

Still, when I stared at the Lizard’s eye and sent it an illusion of darkness. I immediately knew it had worked. The skill felt almost as powerful as if I had used the mangekyou to cast and the lizard took nearly three times as long to break free.

A few more tries and I was sure. Using the ring took me four seconds, instead of being an instant cast, but it more than tripled the power of my illusion and I suspected that even a lesser illusion could affect a level 2 target, if for a short amount of time.

That gave me ideas. Unfortunately, the ring could only hold a small amount of mana, and I didn’t have the skill to constantly be using it, so I couldn’t walk around with a charge ready.

Still, it was a great improvement, and made me feel much better about risking delving lower floors.

Opening my small leather bag I checked my potions and noticed it wasn’t full, I had been forced to use four health potions and two stamina potions this week. I sighed.

I quickly decided to break through the fifth floor tomorrow. I’d refill my potions today… and maybe buy another bag to keep in the backpack. Tomorrow, with my supplies full, I’d have the entire day to explore the lower floors.

I could continue to hunt today, but the drops would probably pale in comparison to tomorrow and the monsters were no longer a threat. It was better to continue experimenting.

Well, time to improve my monster taming abilities.

Jumping up from the Lizard’s back I used the butt of my spear as a lever to flick it away. The beast flew through the air and fell in a heap, giving me enough time to charge the ring and catch it into another greater illusion.

I assumed the lizard would continue to blindly attack me for a while, and that it wasn’t smart enough to figure out when something was wrong. So I just put it into a loop where it would charge me, bite my arm and then experience debilitating pain.

The creature stayed immobile as my illusion played out, after only 7 seconds it lost control of its limps, twitching in place like a fish out of water for a full second and stopping again.

The same 8 seconds loop played out in the creature’s mind twelve times before it finally broke out of the illusion… either that or the spell just lost power.

Lying with my back against a wall, I watched curiously as the beast gathered itself; it got up and finally found me. The lizard actually growled at me and hesitated, but still tried to attack.

I put it into another illusory loop. In this one it wouldn’t just suffer pain when it bit me, but I’d actually resist and stab it through the eye. Then it would feel the pain.

The creature learned fast, it stopped trying to attack me after only twelve minutes and tried to desperately run away.

Thankfully, with the ring charged, I managed to catch it in lesser illusion powerful enough to dissuade it from running. The dungeon lizard just lay on the floor and gave a pitiful whine.

Damn, now I felt really bad. I know it was a murderous beast hell-bent on killing any and all humans, but torturing it until it obeyed me felt far too much like animal cruelty. There had to be a better way.

With a sigh, I stepped away from the beast and it didn’t try to escape again. Finding a large boulder I sat on top of it and started creating new illusions, those ones were ways to teach the lizard to obey commands.

I spent nearly half an hour teaching it how to ‘follow’, ‘hold’, ‘attack’, and ‘run’ by showing it an illusion of what I wanted and sending a pleasant feeling whenever it obeyed.

It helped that Dungeon Lizards were ugly as fuck, so I didn’t feel as bad about brainwashing it. I don’t think I could have done it to a whimpering Almiraj.

Wandering around with the lizard following me by walking through the ceiling, I quickly found a group of three goblins. They hadn’t noticed me so I quickly pointed and shouted. “Dungeon lizard, I choose you. Attack!”

My monster dropped on top of a goblin and bit down on the creature’s head, crushing its skull. The other two goblins seemed extremely confused at the lizard’s attack, giving me enough time to dispatch one with a thrown dagger to the back of the neck.

The last one finally caught sight of me and screeched, but my loyal companion wasn’t done. Twisting around, it delivered a tail swipe to the monster, smashing it into the wall before tearing out its throat.

I quickly channeled mana into my ring and sent it a sense of accomplishment, as well as some pleasure. I harvested the goblin’s magic stones and sighed as there was no loot drop.

Looking from my bag of magic stones to my new lizard companion, I considered things. Pulling one of the smaller ones out, I threw it to the beast. The lizard’s tongue darted out and it scented the air, but didn’t seem interested in the stone.

A quick lesser illusion of it eating the thing changed that and the monster consumed the stone, it seemed to shake a little as the stone dissolved into its mouth, but wasn’t really changed.

I was probably gonna regret this, but I so wanted to see what would happen.

Composing an illusion of the creature attacking a different human and getting the same pain. I sent it and hoped it would cause the beast to focus mainly on other monsters instead of adventurers.

Together, we continued to explore the fourth floor; I constantly sent it after other monsters, feeding it one in every four stones we got. After two hours of this, the monster had consumed nearly twenty magic stones and grown capable of killing four goblins by itself.

Still, the other dungeon monsters seemed completely oblivious to my little pet, only turning to attack it after it had initiated an attack and never before. It allowed the lizard to always kill at least one monster before the others turned on it.

The little guy actually seemed to get a taste for Kobold’s magic stones and started guiding me through the dungeon while hunting them. Made for a much more effective delve.

Eventually, I noticed a lone adventurer coming up from the deeper floors and took some distance from my pet.

“Hold.” I told the beast and turned a corner. I wanted to see what it would do when faced with another human… or whatever race it was. Almost forgot Danmachi had more than humans.

I still kept an illusion ready, just in case the lizard got the jump on the adventurer, but it wasn’t needed.

“Ugh. Another one of those.” The man said and laid his backpack on the ground before pulling out a sword. My lizard hissed at him and took a step back, causing the man to pause in confusion. “What the…”

The dwarf advanced towards my lizard, the creature held its place until the last second, hissing and pawing at the ground until the dwarf was nearly upon it. With one last hiss the lizard decided that avoiding a human was worth more than obeying my command and ran back towards me.

Waving between my legs the lizard hid behind me, its tongue nervously darting out in quick jabs. I laughed and rewarded it with another illusion, trying to cement the behavior with positive feedback. I also feed it another two stones.

The dwarf turned the corner at a sprint and nearly didn’t manage to stop when he saw our position. His eyes quickly looked from the hiding monster to my satisfied smile and he grunted. “Huh, guess you tamed it.”

It wasn’t really a question, but I nodded anyway. “Yep, this guy’s turning out to be quite capable.”

“Humph. Bit of a waste if you ask me. Spending time taming such weak monsters, that is.” He said and sheathed his sword. The dwarf still kept his distance and maintained a wary eye on the both of us. “Impressive taming ability though.”

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“Thanks, I’m just practicing before trying it on stronger monsters.” I answered and stepped aside, letting the dwarf continue his way up.

“Good delve.” He nodded and passed me by, his hand still gripping the handle of his sword. I nodded back.

Wandering some more, I choose a room that was completely out of the path from one floor to the other and, after eliminating the monsters inside, sat down.

By this point, my lizard had learned to dig into the monster’s chest to fish out their stones by itself, so I watched it consume the three kobolds that had been on the room and settle down by my feet.

I considered eliminating the thing to avoid causing some unlucky adventurer trouble, but the creature had avoided confrontation with other adventurers quite well and… well, I really didn’t want to kill it.

So, I spent another hour or so bombarding the thing with illusions, trying to teach it to run away from any adventurer, be it human, dwarf, pallum or whatever. I also instilled in it a sense that this room was its home, so I’d know where to find it on my next delves.

I knew what I was doing was dangerous, but the dungeon lizard was a fairly weak creature and I was pretty sure it wasn’t developing a resistance to my illusions anytime soon.

I had also observed the rate at which it grew during the day and it wasn’t going to become a problem anytime soon. It could eat the entire floor several times over and it still wouldn’t be a match for a level 2 monster.

Eventually, I left the lizard on the room and made my way back up in record time, my backpack holding only half my usual loot.

Putting my eyepatch back on, I made my way to the market and sold all my loot drops before restocking my potions, leaving me with only a thousand valis or so. Hopefully, I’d be able to get far more loot tomorrow.

Getting home, I counted the magic stones I had gotten today and threw them inside my locker. I had made a little over eighteen thousand valis in stones in the last five days, but fifteen percent of that was gonna go to Mord and the rest was only enough for me to live for another week or so.

Waking up the next day, I dropped some blood on my back and checked my current status:

Roland Synclair – level 1

Strength – G – 202

Endurance – H – 194

Dexterity – H – 199

Agility – H – 187

Magic – E – 401

Skills:

- Chosen of and Outer God

- Mangekyou Sharingan (Shisui).

Hey, I had grown about 50 points in every status! From what I had read, my growth was still far above the normal, but my magic was just ridiculous. To think I haven’t been on Orario for even two months and it was already E rank.

I suspected it would slow down eventually, but I could enjoy the fast improvement while it lasted.

Since I was going directly to the Dungeon today I didn’t bother with the eyepatch. With one last check to see if everything was in order, it was, I made my way towards the dungeon.

I actually smiled when I found my lizard resting under a rock on the same room I left him. “Alright, since you’ve actually survived the day, how about I name you?” I asked the creature as it trailed behind me, carrying my backpack on its back.

The beast just stuck its tongue out at me.

“Alright, I’m gonna call you Yoshi. Now come on.” I smiled as I passed by a girl giving me a strange look while she harvested some Kobold. “Come on, let’s go.”

It seems like a high level team had descended just a few minutes ahead of me, a few of their kills still lying on the floor unharvested. Yoshi quickly darted forward and bit down on a goblin’s chest, pulling out its magic stone and swallowing it in a single bite.

I shook my head and harvested the remaining before the glutton had a chance, then made my way forward.

Killer ant’s proved to be Yoshi’s bane. The lizard’s mouth wasn’t strong enough to bite trough their hard shell and it didn’t really have claws to try and pry them open. It quickly learned to leave the things to me and focus on the other monsters.

I slaughtered my way down to the sixth floor with no problem. My days of sparring with Tiona had made me far more skilled, to the point that I could face groups of goblins or kobolds without even using my illusions and my hammer was making quick work of the ants, smashing through their shells and crushing them.

I stepped into the sixth floor and immediately had to duck down as a tongue flew through the space my head had been, it struck the wall with surprisingly strength, sending pieces of stone flying. Pulling out a dagger almost on instinct, I cut up and severed the frog shooter’s tongue before it could recover, then sent my dagger flying and pierced through its single large eye.

The thing jumped back, blood flying all over the place, but I didn’t have the chance to attack again before two tongues flew towards my body. I managed to dodge one while the second hit me square in the chest and was blocked by the armor.

The tongue stuck to my armor and the frog tried to pull me in, instead of resisting I charged. Wrapping my arm around the slimy appendage I pulled it to the side and caused the creature to stumble, leaving it wide open for me to drive my spear all the way through the creature.

I had aimed right for the frog’s middle and, with the sharingan. It was easy to pierce it through the magic stone, causing the frog to dissolve into dust. Losing a stone was a pity, but it got rid of the sticky tongue and freed my spear at the same time.

Pulling my spear back I was ready to face the other frogs when I saw my lizard tangling with the only remaining one, the first having died from blood loss.

Well damn, seems like I didn’t need to destroy the stone after all.

In close combat, the frog couldn’t use its tongue as a projectile and died under Yoshi’s bites, as a reward, I let him ate the stone and only harvested one. Thankfully, the one I had destroyed actually dropped a frog leg.

After killing twelve ants and another seven frogs, I was feeling quite confident in my strength when something new caught me by surprise. A dark patch darted from behind a large rock and rushed me.

Compared to Tiona, the creature still seemed slow, but it was actually much faster than me and I almost didn’t manage to block its first lunge. Its three large claws left a dent on my armguard.

The war shadow attempted to smash into me, but I lifted the butt of my spear and struck its triangular head, causing it to stumble back, with a downwards slash with the tip of my spear I opened a gash on its chest.

I was just about to finish it off with a stab when a second war shadow forced me to retreat in order to keep it from backstabbing me.

The healthy monster was just about to charge me when I decided to attack. The tip of my spear flew towards its head and the beast proved why it was the strongest monster on the floor by dodging back and attempting to use its long arms to slash at my head.

Stepping back I attacked again, my spear sliding through my hand in a flurry of consecutive stabs. The thing was much faster than me and, despite my superior skill; it managed to dodge every one of them.

The wounded war shadow had recovered when I wasn’t looking and nearly took my head off while I was focusing on the second one, cutting three lines of blood on my cheek when I desperately jumped back. Alright that’s enough, time to use my skills.

Unfortunately, that was easier said than done, the war shadows had an orb in front of their faces, but it didn’t really seem to be their eye as I couldn’t cast greater illusion, and they were too strong to be snared with a lesser one while in a fight.

I tried to channel mana into my ring, but it required concentration, something I just couldn’t afford with two of them attacking me.

My spear flew through the air as I used the shaft to block or bat aside dozens of strikes. The wounded shadow attempted to attack the spear itself, but it paid for the mistake with a stab through the shoulder that destroyed its arm.

Suddenly, my lizard dropped right on top of the wounded monster and bit down on its orb. It cracked as if made from glass and the shadow dropped on its knees. A second bite ended its life before it could really hurt the lizard.

Even with only one enemy I still struggled, the creature was fast as lightning and, like me, it seemed able to follow my every movement and dodge my attacks perfectly.

Fuck, I’d have to be tricky then.

Taking some distance, I struck. Lowering my position I lunged, feinting a stab towards its right leg and, when it stepped back to dodge, my spear changed course directly towards its chest.

The war shadow reacted with a burst of speed, it twisted it’s body sideways and my stab only pierced though it’s left collarbone, leaving me wide open for a strike from its right arm.

I ducked and felt the rush of air as its claws passed above my head, ruffling my hair. Grabbing its extended limb with my left arm I punched its arm with my right hand as hard as I could.

The arm broke like a tree branch, the war shadow didn’t seem to have bones, but its arm splintered into hundreds of pieces and hung useless from its body. Putting my shoulder on its chest I pushed the beast away from me and pulled out my hammer.

The war shadow tried to attack me with its wounded arm anyway, but the damage made it far slower and clumsier, I just ducked under the blow once again and pulverized its leg with my hammer. The war shadow fell to one knee, leaving its head at just the right height to be crushed by my returning swing.

Breathing hard, I stepped away from the dead monster and laughed. “Damn that was fun!”

Finally, I dropped my hammer on top of the dead beast and looked at my hand. I had put far too much strength on that punch and the war shadow had been far harder than I though. Two of my fingers were bent the wrong way.

Then the pain hit me. Fuck did it hurt!

With my left hand, I pulled a healing potion from my pouch and was just about to drink it when I remembered how Tiona usually aligned my bones back whenever I had needed it. When I protested, Loki had laughed and informed me it could heal wrong.

Fuck. Pulling out a dagger I bit down on its handle and gently touched the fingers. Talking a deep breath I squeezed my eyes and moved.

“God fucking motherfucker!” I spit out the dagger and cursed, then drank the damn potion and felt its effects. My pain immediately lessened, but didn’t go away.

Cradling my hand against my chest I harvested both war shadows with my left hand and sat down, deciding to take a small rest while my hand healed. Quickly, I poured the potion on a wooden cup and soaked my fingers inside it.

Pulling out a piece of jerky, I ate it while waiting. Thankfully, with such small area to work in, and with my endurance having almost reached G rank, the potion should be effective enough.

While waiting, I saw an elf glance into the room I was occupying, but he quickly changed directions when he noticed me and moved on. Then a robed man stepped inside and caught sight of me.

The guy wore a large, white robe that covered his entire body, but that wasn’t all, he also wore a white cowl and a piece of fabric in front of his face that covered his mouth and nose, leaving only his eyes uncovered.

I briefly considered how the guy fought covered with so much cloth, but he carried a large sword and didn’t really seem worried so I just shrugged. He had survived until here.

Really, with how unique his clothes were, I was half considering if he wasn’t some secret badass in hiding. The guy actually entered my resting room, causing me to tense and Yoshi to get up, hissing at him.

Pulling my hand from the cup I tested my fingers and noticed they had already mostly healed so I grabbed my spear, but didn’t lift it.

“Greetings. I see you’re taking a rest. Having trouble with the floor?” The guy asked in a conversational voice.

“Not really, got a little tired fighting three War Shadows at the same time, so I decided to have a bite before exploring some more.” I lied. I didn’t want the guy thinking he had a chance fighting me.

If he was much stronger, he probably wouldn’t be interested in the loot of someone who delved around this floor and, if not, he’d probably avoid fighting someone who could beat three of the things without injury.

Still, I kept my ring charged and was ready to use the mangekyou at the first sign of aggression.

“Hmm, impressive, those things are a real nightmare to fight, and it’s rare to find more than one at the same time too.” He nodded. Glancing at the dungeon lizard at my side he lifted an eyebrow. “A tamer are you?”

“I can tame, yes. Why?”

“Just curious, I have never seen you around here before. It’s still early in the day, are you gonna Delve much deeper?” The Masked man asked and stepped closer, causing my grip on the spear to tighten. “Since you’re able to kill three War Shadows alone, it won’t be much risk going one or two floors deeper. You can clearly hunt on floor eighth or ninth.”

“I don’t see how that’s any of your business.” I growled. It was like this guy was fishing for information and I didn’t like it.

The man’s eyes went to my grip on the spear and he lifted a hand to placate me. “I'm sorry. I wasn’t trying to worry you. Just wanted to meet a new face is all.”

“Well, trying or not you’re bothering me.” I said truthfully, and smiled when Yoshi hissed at the man.

“I see, I apologize.” He stepped away and lowered his hand. “I guess I’ll leave you alone then.”

I shook my head as the strange man left. In truth, the meting made me want to leave the dungeon immediately. It just left a bad taste in my mouth.

Still, I wandered the sixth floor with Yoshi, killing killer ants and frog shooters. The loot droop seemed unusually high today, with one in every five monsters dropping something, so I decided to stay the entire day anyway.

I faced another two War Shadows, The first time I had the chance to charge my ring and managed to catch it in a lesser illusion. I made the shadow see me rushing straight at it, it caused the beast to attack a point a meter ahead of me with both arms and leaving it wide open for a simple lunge with my spear that ended the fight without much trouble. It left me feeling highly unsatisfied.

The second one caught me just as I was turning a corner and left three deep gashes on my armor. It was already too close for me to use the spear and the hammer was too heavy, it made me too slow to react in close combat with such beast.

It meant that I fought it with only my daggers, and it was almost as bad as fighting Tiona.

I ducked and waved under its claws, using my armguards to parry its knife-like claws more than once. I tried to grapple it several times but, with both arms fully active, the thing was too fast. I couldn’t lock one of its arms without suffering a deadly blow from the other and the cuts I was leaving with my daggers just weren’t doing enough damage.

I tried to retreat, but the thing was following me close, its strikes hitting the ground or the walls with terrifying strength. My heart beat hard on my chest and a smile made its way into my face despite myself.

The beast actually seemed angry when I started smiling, its movements becoming more and more frenetic. Lifting both arms in the air it prepared to deliver a huge blow, but paid for it with a thrown dagger to the leg that sent its strike of course and allowed me to wave aside.

Its blow hit the grown and sent shards of stone flying up. I spun away from the attack and drove my dagger into its exposed neck. One of the war shadow’s claws recovered fast enough to swing at my head and I laughed as I leaned back, then stomped on the dagger embedded into its neck and drove it all the way through, pinning the creature to the wall.

The beast struggled despite its wounds and it gave me enough time to put some distance between us before I picked up my spear. With a mighty effort, it pulled itself free of the wall, aggravating the neck wound and showering the ground with blood.

It turned and stumbled towards me, but it was already too late. My spear caught it on its already mangled neck and actually decapitated the beast, the creature had already lost so much blood it didn’t even spray me.

Putting the butt of my spear on the ground I leaned on it and looked down at the creature. Damn that had been fun.

Before I could react, Yoshi fell on top of the war shadow and stole its magic stone in a single bite. “Hey! What the hell, you damn glutton, see if I give you another!” Watching the war shadow dissolve, I smiled when I saw a war shadow finger blade appearing from the ashes. Those things were expensive!

It was still barely past midday so I decided to pull out a stamina potion. I chugged it and considered my option, it had been two hours since I met the strange dude and nothing had happened.

I hadn’t even noticed anyone watching me and, with the sharingan, that was saying something.

From the books I read, floor seven wasn’t much different from this one, and even floors eight and nine only had stronger versions of goblins, kobolds and dungeon lizards, war shadows were the strongest thing around here and they were nothing I couldn’t deal with.

I could always use charge my ring to cast illusions on the thing and, even if I didn’t have the time, there was still the Mangekyou. It was probably enough to catch one of them in a lesser illusion.

I nodded to myself. “Come on Yoshi, we’re going deeper!”