After the ordeal, I had taken a long shower and now I lay in bed thinking…  

'Was that really the best option, staying hidden for 10 days and now lying. I could have walked up to the school building and asked to see the chairman, explained 80% of the truth and asked for help. On one hand, that could have solved my problems of being allowed here and provide solid support, on the other, how would people react to this shit? Is there a magical fail-safe in the HQ that will prevent anyone but me, accessing the lower floors or some other magical mumbojumbo. Plus, I will be putting my entire life into other people's hands. Info leaking sooner or later…a government black van pulling up… dissection. No, people are too unreliable, especially anime people. Bullshit happens in anime daily.'

"I have made the choice, now man up and mop up the consequences."  

'This hot mess has too many variables and unknowns, I may end up screwed either way.'

I stay in bed, shuffling music to distract myself and maybe get an inspiration of some sort. "Haa… If I'm fucked either way, I may check the gate room regardless of my apprehension to portals of death."

I check my tablet again for any changes.  

"Haa… 10 days of training, cooking, drinking magical water and nothing. No sign of OP-ness anywhere. Haa…"

With resignation and mind made up, I walk to the gate room. "Yup, definitely Stargate design, it is just lacking a protective cover, fingers crossed that there's a magic based one, since nothing came out yet."

Besides the actual gate, the room has a control terminal, that lists the same functions as my tablet. Next thing of interest would be some sort of sci-fi thermos, plugged in a Mana storage device, judging by the info on the display. "I'm guessing this is the mana battery S and it shows 0/100. Do I take it with me or not? Hm… It sat here for 10 days and it's empty. Let's try to unplug you first."

I pull on the handle of the battery, after a twist it easily slides out. I plug it back in for my first expedition, in case it really needs to be connected to the device to collect mana. "Moving on."

'This really looks like a large weapons storage cabinet.' There are no locks, so I open the large metal doors.

"OFff!? For the love of God, FY devil ass fuck!!! A Fucking gardening shed!!! If there are blood thirsty monsters out there, what do I doo!?Aah!?! It's a portal to a dungeon! Not, to my grandparents garden!!!"

'This is fucking ridiculous. Fighting with an axe is cool and all, if, and only if you are a monster berserker with a healer, because it has zero reach, and I am an untrained, flesh and blood human! Ok, ok, ok… Pickaxe, only if I'm fighting rocks, like literally unmoving rocks. Hoe, cutters… fragile crap is useless… A fully metal shovel? It can be used as a spear, sort of, maybe.'

"Ok… rule 1… You run back through the portal if anything dangerous appears. Rule 2 no sounds. Rule 3 come back alive and intact."

I test out swinging all the available equipment and decide to take the shovel with me. It happens to be the sturdiest and easiest thing to handle here, allowing to keep a bit of distance between me and anything that may attack me.

'I lack any protective equipment but considering rule 1, my gym clothes will do fine.'  

I take my shovel and stuff the empty sack with rubber gloves, water bottle and plastic bags I took from the kitchen. 'This is not dungeon exploration gear, this is less than `I'm going to the veg.garden to dig up potatoes` gear.'

"This is recon, no fighting just look, and run if anything looks back at you. Ok, I got my gear, my adamantine balls, my tablet. 10 minutes in and out, now go!!!"

Self motivation is an important aspect of life. I try to see the destination of the portal by sticking only my head in it, just like I felt with my hand, there is only blue smoke/water substance. Holding my breath, I fully cross the event horizon.

The first thing I notice, is that the sun was setting, surrounded by mighty trees 5-10 meters in diameter, the shadows were covering the surroundings. I was, in what I assume is an ancient forest, with no human traveled path in sight. On my right, behind me, inside a giant, hollowed out tree is an entrance into the depth of the earth. It looks like an actual path, the only one I saw after walking around the tree. I dare not walk into the forest with so little light, even with the map, it's too dangerous in the open.  

I am successfully able to go back through the portal, so I resume my exploration.

The cavernous path into the tree dungeon is covered by luminescent moss, it just screams THIS IS A DUNGEON! I hear no large animals and it's best I don't get noticed too, a wolf might just kill me, it is safe going into the dungeon, no traps or hidden mimics.

I walk down the incline slowly, letting my eyes adjust, listening carefully. I tread into the cave for ~100 meters, coming up to a clearing, that opens into a underground ecosystem. Short bushes, more trees, tall grass up to my knees, sounds of water splashing, some wrongly coloured bush berries, from sand yellow to poison purple, I only look and refrain from touching things without gloves for safety reasons.

I stand next to the mouth of the tunnel, with my back against the wall, watching for movement, listening for sounds. There is a distinct presence of wind even underground, rustling leaves and grass. I spend 10 minutes waiting, nothing, after 20 minutes I decide to walk a bit further in, moving slowly to minimize noise, there are patches of clear ground, the grass eaten by some critters.

Critters I found soon enough.

About 10 m ahead, eating grass, is the staple of all fantasy worlds, a slime.

'Sigh … a slime, ~10 cm higher than the grass, sure, why not? More importantly, is it alone? Is it an acid or poison or something slime? Hopefully a lv 0 grass slime, a bottom feeder since it's eating grass. Should I attack? I may finally level up, I'm not a tamer anyway and this is a dungeon.'

I lay in wait, trying to notice an unseen foe, ready to thrust my spear or run for the portal. My nerves are strained, my pulse quickened, my hands sweaty. This is my first combat, first kill. 'Fuuuu… Do it, better sooner than later, SURVIVE! THRIVE! GO!!'

I take off my improvised backpack, center myself, wipe my sweaty hands and assault.  

With steady steps I walk 5 m, switching my shovel into an overhead position, I run up to the slime, and bring down my shovel like an axe, pulling my hands back I thrust with my shovel into the slime. Not taking any chances I repeat my thrusts until there is only a unmoving puddle of green slime.

I step back, breathing heavily, I watch the slime puddle and my surroundings for a minute. Nothing is pouncing on me, so I start to calm down.

'Slimes are easy, 1 hit 1 kill, I could solo the 1st floor boss in 2 hits, if I get a crit.'

I raise my shovel and take a few steps back, as the slime moves, it forms a much smaller sphere, of blue surface and white core. I stay alert, ready to fight, but nothing else happens. I move closer and poke the thing, resulting in a water balloon like `popp` and a spill.   

I await any new development with bated breath, keeping eyes peeled open. Another minute passed, and I approach the white spill on the ground. Crouching I sniff and recognise this white liquid as fresh milk. Finally, I put 2 and 2 together.

'Kill monster + get food loot = food production dungeon. Fuck. I'd rather dig up potatoes than risk combat. Well…the slime was rather weak… haa don't risk it, better safe than sorry. Right, let's look for another one on my way back, if there are none then so be it, I've had enough for one day.'

According to the map I have traveled under 300 m from the gate, feeling no discomfort of having my soul ripped apart I assume that I have the same 2 km of travel distance on this side, until proven otherwise.

I traversed the way back in a zigzag pattern, filling in the map, defeating 4 more slimes, taking the loot drops for examination, at the HQ. I collect a few handfuls of different berries and double bag them, hopefully coming up with a way to safely test them later.

Carefully manoeuvring around took up over an hour. 'It is time to go home.' I find no trouble getting back through the portal, back to relative safety.

"Haaa… That went better than expected, no injuries, except for sore hands from hammering slimes to death. I need an actual weapon, not a gardening tool. Hmm, let's see the mana battery, nope still empty, I'll try taking it with me next time. Ok let's check the loot first and shower after."

I ascend the stairs to the kitchen, take 4 bowls, poke a hole in the slime bag and empty their content. The first two are the same as the one I spilled in the dungeon.  

"So roughly half a litter of milk from two slimes. The third one feels more viscous and it weighs slightly less." I poured the liquid and sniffed it. "Ha, ha, ha. What? First milk and now fresh cream, what's the next logical step? Ice-cream? Custard?"

The last slime bag is the smallest, filled with a yellow green liquid. "Well, maybe ice-cream is a rare drop? This is olive oil, ~100ml or less. Would I find liquid chocolate or even, maybe, alcohol if kill enough of them? I do need supplies so, I will need to go back either way, and finding booze is a bonus objective at best. Lastly...No idea how to test the berries, it's just that I have a feeling that they are edible, should I feed them to some critters later? Haaa… time to soak in some magic water and relax."

I am plagued by too many thoughts running rampant to fall asleep early.

---

 ... morning alarm...

"The Night" by Aurelio Voltaire | Female Cover by Justine M.

"A new day, a new challenge… yawn!… I should go to the dungeon in the mornings, since the day starts much earlier on the other side. First just to make sure … [Human lv 1], no changes anywhere, haa…"

'It's not like I expected much from 5 slimes, but some exp bar or +1 exp pop-up, would have helped to put my mind at ease.'

My morning routine is unchanged. I make 100% sure, that I have not gained any explosive strength growth, in the gym by trying more weights. 'Same old human limits, maybe another time.'

I take the berries up to the roof with our breakfast, as usual the crow is waiting for food. "You are a scavenger right? Help me out with your bird instincts. These berries… are they edible?"

I place the food trays on the table alongside the bags of 4 different coloured berries. The ones that are larger and darker than blueberries, give me bad vibes, I feel they are poisonous, and so I place them closest to the crow.

"Caw, CAW, caw, caw, caw."

The crow skipped the first ones completely, probably judging them inedible, it ate the orange ones, a couple of red a half of the dark orange ones. 'Just to be safe I'll try one tomorrow, if you are still alive then.'

We finish our breakfast around 10.30 a.m. and go our separate ways. I make a move for the dungeon again.

"Right, same rules, run if it's dangerous no MC bullshit, working limbs are important. Let's bring along and test out that mana battery too."

With my trusted shovel in one hand and the battery in the other, I move for the gate. Looking at the sun on the other side I estimate that it's afternoon here, approximately +4 hours difference.

'No making noise, stay vigilant' I creep along the cavernous entrance. I take the roughly same route from yesterday. 'This is certainly a dungeon, the empty patches of grass are back to full height in a day.'

With more confidence I dispatch the first slime, in one, good, downwards swing and get the drop. Checking the battery revealed no charge added. 'No passive charge from just being here, no active charge from my kill either. Haa… Ok, the slime body transforms into loot, that is magic, magic = mana. Sooo… put battery in-between those two processes? Eh, could work?'

After spilling another slime all over the floor I quickly take the battery and put it on top the puddle. A few dozen seconds later, as the slime starts to transform into loot, it congregates towards the battery.  

'Heh, it worked, let's see... 1/100. This IS the first floor and a bottom feeder slime. It does make sense.'

I do not delve too deep into the dungeon forest sticking to 500 m from the gate, at most. I gathered some more berries my [Artisan lv 5] intuitive says are good to eat and slay a few dozen more slimes. Two hours have passed, I will need to find more food, meaning I'll have to move deeper into the dungeon.

'I am 90% sure I've heard chickens, at least one cock... fresh meat. I can clobber a chicken for sure... deep-fried haaa...'

It is time-consuming but I move back to the portal to leave behind my spoils and the battery. "10 minutes of rest and relaxation."

I lock-in the battery into the device and see the charge go from 15 to 0. Consulting my tablet shows that, indeed I've got +15 to total mp. 'So this works. I need like, over 15000 mp to unlock everything available.'

"One step at a time. Slow and steady wins the race, fast and reckless gets eaten by monsters."

"Ok, new scouting mission, move 1 km away from the entrance and look around. Bigger slime? Deal with it. Monster tree? Go get an axe. Something big, with sharp teeth? Run like hell!!!"