-Ria POV-

After leaving the adventurer guild building I continued walking through the town gazing at the various people continuing about their normal lives. Looking at families living about their normal lives I couldn’t help but feel some jealousy. Perhaps I used to have a family if so I wonder where they are now, why was I alone the day I woke up in the forest. Did I have friends before I lost my memory? Probably not since I realized in the years I lived alone, dragons seemed to be widely feared by every species. I even asked the Derek what were people opinion on dragons and it seems my suspicions are true, dragons are creature feared by every humanoid race as well.

Nevertheless taking the first step to find people I could possibly call a friend is something I will never regret. Perhaps I should try to find a group to go into a dungeon with, similar to how group of people I stalked were in a team. I could go alone but I will most definitely rely on my partial dragon form if I’m alone. At least within a group I will fight with my current form and there is  a possibility of meeting someone who I could get along with.

Since I lacked a weapon the only way to defend myself seems to rely on my brute strength. I could also use my minimal control over the elements to my advantage. I couldn’t control the elements to the extent its fatal in this form but I could try to use it to supplement my punches or kicks. If I had a weapon it would be easier but since I lacked the coins needed to trade for a weapon of any sort I decided that for now I will rely on punching and kicking supplemented with whatever element I deem useful for any given situation. A suitable name would be elemental martial arts perhaps. That sounded good enough to me.

With a destination set and the method of fighting I would use decided all that’s left is to find a group willing to allow me to accompany them to a dungeon of some sort. According to Derek adventurers normally formed teams to go into dungeons and they normally wore bracelets made of different materials corresponding to their ranks. Derek showed me his and it seemed to be made out of gold. He was apparently gold rank. Adventurers started off with iron and than it goes bronze, silver, gold, diamond, and finally a metal known as adamantine.. Apparently Silver is already considered an accomplishment. Silver would be C rank for military standards according to him. If that’s the case perhaps I should look for a group of people wearing iron bracelets.

A realization suddenly hit me as I was about to start looking. I look like a kid. I doubt anyone would agree to allow me into their group since they wouldn’t trust a mere child to be any use in battle. Another thing I neglected to think about before hand. Would they even want a person who wasn’t even an adventurer into their team. My seemingly flawless plan instantly crumbling due to my appearance was rather upsetting but I do intend to go into a dungeon. I should still probably try out my new method of fighting of anyways just to make sure it works.

Despite my earlier disappointment because of my brilliant plan crumbling due to my age visually, I still went around the town to asked about a dungeon nearby. It took a while but after asking around I have found out the closest dungeon from here seems to be a rather safe dungeon for new adventurers. I still want to explore the town a little more but since I could always come back after checking out the dungeon I decided to go to the dungeon first. The fact that dungeons contained creatures I have never met before was a motivation. Furthermore I would be able to try out my elemental martial arts. A theory is still after all nothing more than a idea, I would never find out the efficiency nor how effective it is without proper testing.

Since I had finished my preparations I quickly walked towards the direction the dungeon seemed to be at. It was apparently a cave like structure in the middle of the plains I had to cross through to get to the town. I wonder how I missed it, then again I was completely entranced by the town at the time I crossed the plains the first time. I was feeling good about the trip despite the fact my preparation didn’t exactly existed. My so called preparations were merely the ideas that were running through my head.

Living alone for too long seemed to have cultivated a bad habit. I realized I think too many useless thoughts. I have been aware of it for some time but then again there was never a need to change since it was one of my few entertainments while I was living alone in my cave. Would it be a disadvantage now since I don’t pay too much attention to my surroundings as I get lost in my thoughts. While I was thinking about my problems and started an internal debate whether I needed to fix this problem I had arrived to the dungeon entrance.

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I didn’t have a single encounter with a daema on the way which was apparently normal. Well this dungeon was well known in town as a place for aspiring adventures. My main priority this time around didn’t need a strong opponent and my experiments regarding monster from dungeon isn’t affected by the strength of said monster. If anything this place was perfect for my goals.

With that in mind I walked through the entrance without a second thought excited for my first trip into a dungeon. Initially it was a rather uneven surface but the deeper I went the more even the surface became and at some point it was became perfectly even. The surrounding walls looked as if it was made out of bricks.

At some point I came across a crossroad. Without any hesitation I walked towards the right side.  The further I walked the bigger the passage expanded. The smooth brick walls were soon replaced with more cave like walls and the ceiling similarly took on a cave like texture. According to the information I gathered monster should start appearing in this area.

True enough I noticed tiny green humanoid creatures started to appear. They were shorter than me  yet they had bigger heads than most adults humans have. Their mouth were filled to the brim with tiny rows of sharp teeth. Their limbs were short yet muscle were obviously bulging throughout their tiny limbs. In their hand they held a club made completely out of stone. Their attire consisted of fur wrapped around their waist similar to mine. Their bellies were bulging outwards. To summarize their appearance in one word, Ugly nothing else more fitting could come to mind. I had been warned that being a adventurer wasn’t for the faint hearted. Apparently monster in dungeon were normally repulsive making daema look almost cute in comparison. Since these green creatures were apparently the weakest monster one can find in a dungeon its safe to assume they were the least repulsive I guess.

There were only about five of them encircling around me. I made short work dispatching them with five punches coated with fire. Killing them didn’t leave a corpse behind unlike with daema. Instead  the corpse had turned into a rock, that looked somewhat like gem stones. When my fist made contact it still felt like real flesh and the fire had burned said flesh leaving behind the smell of burnt flesh. The phenomena was weird and apparently still a mystery that no one could solve.

Putting that aside my elemental martial arts seems to be a possible solution to my problem. Creating a little of any element to coat my fist didn’t take as much mana directly launching it would. It wouldn’t normally be a problem but since I couldn’t access my normally infinite pool of mana in this form I had no choice but find the most mana efficient method of fighting. I went around testing a few different elements on a few more of the green things. From the test I had  conducted I came a to a conclusion that the green monster was awfully weak. It looked terrifying but they were on par with rabbit daemas.

Since I had the chance I conducted a few more experiments with elemental martial arts before calling it a day and leaving the dungeon. Back in town I sold the cores I had collected for some coins. I got about one silver coins from the cores I sold. Good thing I had asked Derek in advance about a place to stay. The establishment known as an inn. I went into the place and paid the women behind a counter one silver coin I had obtained. Apparently one silver was enough for three nights stay. Since I intend to continue exploring the dungeon for a few more days I took the key she gave me and went to the room that I had purchased for the next three days.

The room was rather small but it had everything I needed, something soft to sleep on. With that being said I promptly entered a deep slumber as soon as I lied down on the bed.

(Author note) : Sorry if there are a lot of mistakes on this chapter. I wrote the whole thing while feeling  sleepy  :sleepy:  If there are any glaring mistakes please point it out on the comments and i will fix it when i wake up. Since i normally proof read and edit any mistakes i find before posting, too tired to do that right now so this is unedited sorry if i make a lot of mistakes.