As Zomo descended into the dungeon, he noticed quite a few other adventurers were around the floor- all of them looking for goblins or kobolds to kill.
The first floor was relatively safe in terms of floors; there weren't many spawns which was why many people found it difficult to get any stats up in the short term. After all, with so many people wandering around the dungeon it was hard to find monsters to kill for yourself.
However, Zomo wasn't worried. After all, he wasn't in a great rush to get stronger. With Dia Kaos, growth was natural for him. Killing one goblin for him would be the same as killing five, maybe even ten or more. All he needed was patience, to be careful... And then- give it his all.
The Falna would give results based on effort. Just look at Ais for your example- she would go down into the dungeon regularly and kill dozens of monsters or more every day unless she was forced to rest. The result was that she ended up setting a new record- at the time- for levelling up. Where most people would take two or even three years to level up and be grateful for it, Ais levelled up in only a single year.
Even Ryuu proved this true. Ryuu was considered a prodigy on par with Ais, even if it wasn't directly called out. She took just over a year to reach Level 2, and the roughly amount of time to reach Level 3.
It wouldn't have surprised Zomo if Ryuu held the title of 'fastest level up' until Ais appeared.
Regardless, Zomo pushed those thoughts out of his head and focused as he began to scour the dungeon, looking for an enemy to face off against. The large number of people was precisely why adventurers adhered to an unofficial 'dibs' system. If you declared something as your kill, then nobody else would interfere.
So, it took Zomo some time... But finally, he got lucky. The wall began to crack and break before it made a pathway, a goblin stepping out of the wall and wielding an earth formed axe.
He slowly drew Bifrost out of its sheath, the blade glinting in the faint light of the dungeon.
At first glance, Bifrost was a seemingly ordinary sword with a black colouring. Slightly strange, but not entirely unusual- many adventurers would make requests for certain colours on their blades to make them stand out more. It was as simple as adding a special dye during the forging process to colour the blade- and some weapons naturally had different colours depending on the materials used in their creation.
However, to the trained eye, Bifrost's entire blade were covered in countless Runes from the Nordic Realm- arranged in a pattern that created a formation of pure beauty.
Zomo didn't marvel at the beauty of the blade, however... Instead, his focus was purely on the goblin... Before he charged.
The goblin charged right back, swinging down while aiming for his head.
Zomo moved to the side and swung his sword in a wide arc- cutting off the Goblin's head instantly.
He blinked in confusion and looked at Bifrost and then looked back at the dead Goblin on the ground split into two parts.
That... Wasn't hard at all? That was strange, he knew that early on that fights weren't exactly hard- even Bell was capable of killing Goblins and Kobolds before ever awakening Liaris Freese. But he had thought it would be a little bit harder...
Hell, he hadn't even infused his attack with the void attribute. Nor had he used his Sky Flames.
He looked down at his body, frowning in thought... Was the body he was in better than he'd expected? He had no memories or prior experiences with this body before his reincarnation beyond his name, and the Falna didn't account for past experiences- at least not in terms of stats.
Or maybe this was a passive benefit of the diary? Who was to say?
In the end, he supposed it didn't really matter all that much. So, he pulled out a dagger and knelt down- stabbing down into the goblin's body and ripping open its stomach before he reached inside and pulled out the magic stone.
As soon as he did, the Goblin's body faded into black ashes that melted back into the dungeon.
All of that... For only a single magic stone.
Zomo was quickly beginning to realise the real reason why five Level 1 adventurers working together could only scrape 25,000 Valis a day... It was simply due to the competition they faced on the earlier floors.
Only once you got past the initial barrier- getting your stats from I to H or even to G- could you finally start to make more money. If you wanted to make money otherwise, you had to come exceptionally early on in the day or extremely late at night.
"Now I understand," Zomo nodded, rubbing his chin. In other words, it was all about coming to the dungeon at the right time to monopolise the spawns. In exchange, you ran a chance of getting mugged in the dungeon or on the way back from unsavoury individuals like the Soma Familia.
With that in mind, the answer became simple- come down early, as early as 1AM. Killing as much as you can before anyone else for several hours- leave in the early hours of the morning.
The chances of someone replicating this idea? Very low, people wouldn't risk coming to the Dungeon too late at night out of superstition and weariness of being attacked in the late hours of the night.
But Zomo? He knew that in order to get ahead in life, you had to take risks.
"Well then, that's decided," he nodded to himself. "Still, I'll gather up as much as I can now... Every little bit helps, after all... Besides, I'd like to eat something nice to night."
With that in mind, Zomo continued his Dungeon dive. After all, just thinking wouldn't put food on the table.
.
.
.
"This is..." Hestia murmured, staring down at Zomo's back later in the day after his return from the Dungeon.
Strength: I94
Dexterity: I81
Endurance: I62
Agility: I77
Magic: I0
Compared to the likes of Bell Cranel, Zomo's status increase was nothing special.
But that was only compared to Bell Cranel.
Doing quick maths in her head, Hestia breathed out in shock, "A total status increase of over 300 points...?"
Based on what Zomo told her too, he hadn't been able to kill many goblins due to the number of people- only about 10 after several hours. He'd still made enough to buy some groceries on the way home so they could have a good meal that night.
Hestia was left reeling... Having never seen anything like this, she realised that she had underestimated his Growth-Type Skill severely.
She had believed it would only be a few points... But over 300 total points in a single status update? From a single day on the first floor?
Suddenly, the Goddess of Hearth felt incredibly relieved that she'd stopped by Hephaestus's place... She hadn't been very surprised that her friend had a diary. It meant that Hephaistos immediately understood the situation and had told Hestia how to 'lock' the Falna. Essentially, telling her how to make it not appear on someone's back unless someone used Status Thief or Status Snitch.
"How are my stats looking?" Zomo spoke up, snapping Hestia out of her thoughts.
"... Incredible," she admitted, copying the stats down onto a sheet of paper and handing it over to him as she climbed off of his back. "Here you are."
Zomo took the status sheet, and legitimate surprise emerged on his face as he looked at them.
'I know I have a growth skill, but I only killed around ten goblins,' he thought to himself. 'My stats are almost at H? At this rate, I may end up hitting Level 2 by around Floor 6.'
That was good for Zomo. More power was always good- fuck what anybody else said. The real pain in the ass would be the adjustment period, learning to wield your power within your body. This was especially important for people like himself and Bell- who would level up several times in a short period and thus their body was out of sync with their actual stats.
"Nobody can know about this," he said aloud. "Except my Dungeon advisor."
Hestia looked at him in surprise. "Your Dungeon Advisor? But why would you tell them that?"
He looked at her. "Hestia, my Dungeon Advisor is a very serious but caring person from what I've seen. She doesn't want people diving down to other floors sooner than they should be. How can I possibly explain suddenly being able to go to Floor 4 potentially a week from now?"
She considered it before she nodded. "Alright- but only them. And you make it clear they are not to share information about your skill under any circumstance- they aren't even to write it down somewhere it can be seen!"
"Of course," he nodded in agreement. Truthfully, this was risky on his part- but by doing this, he could also prepare Eina for Bell's eventual growth skill when he showed up.
I wasn't planning to let Bell fall for Ais- but even so, I knew Bell would develop his growth skill. All Bell needed to develop the skill was a goal- a resolution that he would follow through with and remain unshaken on his way to accomplish it.
A path he may stumble off of but would always make his way back onto.
"Good," Hestia nodded firmly. "Now then, you've worked hard today- so let me make my world famous Hestia soup!"
"World famous?" He asked with amusement. "What makes it world famous?"
She just grinned at him. "The fact the future strongest Adventurer is going to be eating it!"
Surprise flickered in his eyes before a smile bloomed onto his face. "I'll be looking forward to it then."
Hestia beamed and practically skipped off to the kitchen to make them her 'world famous' soup.
As she left, Zomo lay down on the bed and relaxed- looking up at the ceiling as he began to think. He contemplated writing in the diary but ultimately decided against it. Besides his first Dungeon dive, nothing worth writing had happened. And he wasn't going to reveal his plan of going down late at night.
That would practically be like screaming in the diary, 'If you want to find me, come here.'
Being in Hestia's Familia meant they knew he was at her church- but they also couldn't observe the place 24/7, and it wasn't like he was there for many hours of the day. Revealing his plan to go into the Dungeon so late at night would draw several people to look at him.
He wasn't ready for them to know what he looked like just yet if he could help it.
Diary Systems, from what he remembered, didn't just give diaries to other people... It also gave them rewards the more he mentioned them in the diary.
While he didn't know if this was a feature of his own diary- it was better to play it safe and not mention times and locations in the diary if he could help it from now on.
He would find out in the future as his name began to spread through Orario. After all, there was no way that the people with the diary would be able to resist hanging around him frequently if it meant getting more rewards.
It was another reason that he'd decided to not write in the diary as often- if they got too strong, then there would be less chances for him to interfere and build a good rapport with them. Less chances for him to shine.
Was he a selfish and manipulative bastard? Absolutely.
But in a dangerous world of gods, monsters, and magic? He would take every advantage he could get his hands on.
And if he could get his hands on women too? Well, he wasn't above taking advantage of that. After all, the one who kills the big bad is the hero in the end, right?
Zomo chuckled softly and closed his eyes, taking a short nap before dinner... After all- he had a long night ahead of him.