A month passed by and Alex became competent at completing all kinds of small jobs as an adventurer.

Most of his days were completing F rank requests, which mostly considered of manual labor jobs. He had pruned hundreds of hedges, helped build a house for a week, and been on one herb collection request.

When taking out his food and lodging expenses, he only made a measely 40 copper coins from his work and hadn't even levelled up.

Goblin extermination, the most basic of quests, was E rank, which he needed to be a member of the guild for at least a month and completed ten F rank requests in order to reach.

Today marked that day, so after he finished his current request for the day, he strolled straight into the adventurer's guild with his head held high.

"Yo, Readathon!" A samurai dressed swordsman called out to Alex with the nickname he had earned over the past month. "Come mow my lawns for me, my wife has been on my case for the past week to get it done. I'll pay you top coin for it."

"Yeah… tomorrow, alright?"

"Hahaha, come take this request to the receptionist."

Alex accepted the request instinctively, feeling like a lackey to these adventurers. He clenched his fist and swore he would get stronger, but that day seemed to be getting further and further away.

"Oh, a lawn mowing request this time?" A man desk attendant this time tagged Alex's citizenship card with a device that made the request get sucked into it in a truly fantasy world way.

"Readathon, why do you keep accepting so many of these requests all the time?"

A beautiful black haired witch leaned on his shoulder as he sat down at a long bench with a pale of local beer, a luxury he learned to appreciate recently.

"That's what we all have to do to get up to E rank though, Blaire."

"Next to nobody does that though, you know?"

"…Eh?"

"They are only to earn some basic money when you are young. Why don't you level up at the dungeon and apply for an assessment exam? That's what everyone else does."

"What dungeon?"

"…The city dungeon?"

"Where is that?"

"…In the city…" The witch called Blaire abruptly pulled out a chair and sat next to him, her arms crossed under her breasts and legs crossed. "Hey, Readathon, don't tell me that you don't know about the dungeon?"

"Do you mean that there is a dungeon in the city? Isn't that a bit dangerous?"

"…"

"What?"

"…Where do I even begin?"

"I'm the confused one here!"

"Do you know what type of city this is?"

"A city?"

"A dungeon city."

Alex had heard the term of a dungeon city plenty of times before, but it had never occurred to him as to why it was referred as such. He had just assumed it was something to do with it being a fantasy world.

"So, this city has a… dungeon?"

"Every dungeon city has a dungeon."

Alex's jaw dropped open while Blaire broke out into a high pitched laughter, causing plenty of the other adventurer's to turn their heads and look at them.

"Can you believe it," Blaire looked at the nearby adventurers, "Readathon hasn't been harvesting mana crystals and instead doing menial jobs because he didn't know that there was a dungeon inside a dungeon city."

It took a moment to sink in before everyone joined in on the laughter. Alex was humiliated and buried his face in his arms.

The door to the guild swung open and a man with red hair and crimson plate armor strolled in, a large spear strapped to his back. Behind him, a full party followed behind him. There were three men and two woman, who stayed closer to the party leader.

As soon as the group appeared, everyone quietened down a lot and the previous jovial atmosphere immediately died.

"Two victims this time, huh?" Blaire commented in a dry tone, looking at the red-haired man in disdain.

"What is it?""Jovran the Red. It looks like he is back with two new party members."

"…I don't know him."

"That's fine, he hasn't been here over the past month so it's understandable. He isn't a bad person per se, but he is notoriously sexist and treats men poorly while often getting his female party members pregnant."

Alex looked at the man who was undoubtably extremely handsome and felt pangs of jealousy. He was handsome, powerful, rich and had all the women he could want. Alex was the exact opposite, so he held himself in stark comparison.

"And woman still join his squad?"

"Some don't know, others do and believe they can resist him, or join just for him. Either way, he is an extremely powerful Third Step ranker who is suspected to be close to reaching the Fourth Step."

"You sound like you've experienced it yourself?"

"Come on," Blaire changed the subject and patted him on the back hard enough he nearly coughed, "Gather your stuff. I have some time so let's go to the dungeon and try your mettle."

"It's at mfpphhh…"

"What?"

"I said, it's at the inn…"

"We will go there first then."

Blaire picked Alex up by the collar and practically carried him out the front door of the adventurer's guild.

The two returned to the inn he had been staying at, the innkeeper immediately raising her brow at the two of them together.

"Alex, dear, you are finally bringing a woman back." She said while making a motion of wiping fake tears. "If you stain anything though, you are paying for it."

"Th-that's not it!" Alex immediately defended in embarrassment.

"Am I not good enough for you, a mighty Compounder?"

"N-no, I didn't mean that at all!"

"So, what is it?" The innkeeper grinned at him, relishing in the awkward position he found himself in.

Alex's mind span and he didn't know how to react when Blaire whispered into his ear.

"If you want me to take your virginity, you just have to ask nicely. I have some experience in the area."

"I-I'm not a-"

"You are~"

"For-forget it!"

Alex grabbed his belt of vials, sword, and shield. He also equipped his expensive armor which he had contemplated many times whether he should sell it and purchase a cheaper one. Then he would have enough money to fund his Compounding skill training.

~~~~~

⠀

"So, this is the dungeon?" Alex asked with wide eyes as Blaire and himself got off the public carriage transport in the heart of the city.

"This is just the public entrance, the main dungeon is the following 50 layers underground."

Blaire explained while leading Alex into a grand cathedral with nearly a hundred grand double doors serving as entrances and exits.

Inside, there were a plethora of people with advertisements for party members, or to join a party. Others wanted porters to carry their goods, a role which anyone could instantly find a party if they wanted to do that.

"This is just for the two of us, let's head straight in."

Blaire wrapped her slender fingers around Alex's wrist and led him through the crowd to the main entrance of the dungeon.

Dozens of city guards created a barricade and signed people in and out of the dungeon, ensuring that everything was documented.

Blaire and Alex descended a grand staircase after passing through the checkpoint. They descended for what Alex felt was far too long a period to go one floor down, but when they arrived at the enormous underground cavern that felt as big as the city itself, he quickly understood why.

"Come on, draw your sword, let's see what you are made of," Blaire giggled and blew in his ear, causing him to jump.

Alex only had a limited amount of potions, so he did his best to fight with a sword and shield no matter how clumsy he was with it.

The monsters on the first floor consisted mainly of goblin like creatures which had brown skin and attacked with stone clubs and spears. It was the perfect floor for beginners and even Alex was able to easily defeat the monsters.

Each one would dissipate back into mana, but they would also leave behind tiny shards known as mana crystals. These ones were relatively cheap, and many vendors wouldn't even buy them, but higher level monsters left behind larger and more valuable stones.Alex did struggle however when they attacked in numbers, especially when one came from his blind angle.

Blaire stood by him the entire time and guarded his back.

"You really are <Lv. 3>, aren't you?" She asked while poking him with her staff.

Alex was somewhat frightened by the witch who would cause a goblin's head to twist 180 degrees with a twitch of her staff, or effortlessly and brutally cave its head in with the same weapon.

"I'm currently near <Lv. 4> though now."

"I actually don't even think a standard <Lv. 3> would have as much trouble as you are."

"Urgh…"

"Hehe, most aren't blind in one eye, though."

Alex looked at his eyes in the reflection of his sword, one green while the other was a cloudy white.

"…Sorry for being weak."

"Oh, it's okay, you are just the kind I like."

Blaire wrapped her hands around his neck from behind and embraced him. Her breasts weren't overly large, but Alex felt them squish on his back and couldn't help but get shy.

"Y-you're just teasing me, now. What would you do if I really pushed you down?"

"I would force you to marry me, of course~"

Alex couldn't deal with her joking attitude, so he went back to hunting monsters until he reached <Lv. 6>.

"I'm curious, how does someone as weak as you, with no money, talent, is illiterate, and doesn't know about dungeons," Blaire rubbed shoulders with Alex while they rested on the entry stairs, her every word stabbing into his heart like sharp knives, "have such expensive equipment."

"It was given to me."

"By whom?"

"By…"

"Hurry it up, I'll give you a present if you tell me~"

"By the ones who summoned me into this world, the royal family."

"…Eh?"

Alex sighed and explained his circumstances to the witch, who became more and more interested over time.

"I had heard rumors of the summoned heroes, I didn't expect one of them to have run away."

"Do you think I'm a bad person for it?"

"Nope, you are so weak you would make everyone else weaker, after all."

"Urgh…"

Alex felt like his heart was cut into countless pieces by her words.

"It's not all bad though. If you like, you can be my own personal hero. As for your present~"

Blaire leaned over and covered his non blind eye with one hand before leaning her head over and kissing him on the lips. It was very brief, just a faint touch, but it left the taste of cherries on his lip as her scent engulfed his senses.

Alex staired at the witch stupefied at his 'present', who grinned before leading the way out of the dungeon.

"Halt!" An intimidating guard stopped the duo as soon as they exited the dungeon. "You need to undergo a procedural inspection upon leaving, please line up alongside the other adventurers leaving."

Blaire pouted and directly stated, "This is anything but procedural, what's going on?"

The guard hesitated, but quickly explained.

"An unknown intruder set off an alarm, causing us to enact our safety procedures. You just need to have your bags inspected and a higher levelled identity verification."

Blaire waved nonchalantly at the guard to signal she understood before leading Alex to join the others leaving.

"Well this is annoying, what a mood killer…"

~~~~~

⠀

Alex returned to his inn late in the night, only to find a familiar woman waiting outside the front door of the inn patiently.

She stood below the subtle lamplight of a magic street lights, her black hair cropped at her shoulders and a small beauty spot under her eye. She wore her standard maid uniform yet appeared completely natural under the night.

"Irene…" Alex said in a stupefied yet somewhat frightened tone.