Start: Livelihood Dungeon!

One sunny morning.

A young man was gently sweeping while whistling happily inside of an empty cafeteria. After the young man finished sweeping the cafeteria's floor, he left the broom aside, he then instead started to clean the ceiling and other furniture within it.

"Peter come to the kitchen for a moment!" shouted an old lady's voice.

"Coming, aling Martha!" shouted back by that young man as he rushed towards the source of the voice. Upon arriving at the kitchen area, the young man whose name was Peter immediately saw a fat figure of an elderly woman entered his vision. This fat, elderly woman was the boss of this young man. The elderly woman named aling Martha is the owner of this small & simple cafeteria.

"What can I do for you, aling Martha?" Peter asked his boss kindly.

"I forgot to buy something at the market. You should deal with these tilapia while I get back to buy something at the market." ordered the fat elderly woman to the young man.

"But I don't know how to scale fishes, aling Martha." strongly protested by the young man Peter to the owner.

"Will you learn if you don't try? Just follow my instruction. Alright, I'm leaving. Some of our customers might come sooner than we think. We might end up losing some of our regulars if we move like turtles." Peter wasn't able to protest anymore with her authoritarian way of speaking.

Peter sweatily looked at the tilapias who were already weakening but were still breathing inside the basin. He tightened his grip on the extremely sharp knife he was currently holding. Peter swallowed his saliva successively out of nervousness without noticing it.

With a surge of conviction, Peter suddenly pointed the sharp part of the knife he was holding towards the fishes. As he did so, the hand holding it trembled more and more. His face turned grey when he accidentally looked into the eyes of the fishes.

"I... I can't really do it, " Peter said tearfully in a weak voice. It's strange to think that the simple task of scaling a fish for others is so difficult for this young man but that's the truth.

"I think I'll beat my personal record today," Peter bitterly said to himself.

The personal record Peter was pertaining to was the time it took him to get fired from work. His current record was being fired in a week's time. Although right now he was in danger of getting fired in his first day of work. It's just yesterday when he applied to work for aling Martha.

You're probably wondering why he is like this? Why won't he just scale the fishes so he don't get fired from work?

It's not just hard for Peter. It's an impossible task to ask of him.

Peter has a secret.

Since childhood Peter can neither hurt nor kill any creature. That's his nature as a human being. A pure guy.

If you ask Peter if he was given a chance, will he want to change that characteristic of his? He will quickly and without doubt answer it with a resounding no. He won't change anything 'cause that's what he always thought was right. Peter equally love every creations of the Almighty God.

In the shows, most particularly animes he watched since childhood, he only ever liked good-natured characters. And if you asked him who is his most favorite character, there's only one that comes to his mind.

"That big burly male android who is very good despite the purpose he was created for. His kindness, it leaves a long-lasting impression on my young mind. In this one scene, he hastily avoided stepping on a crowd of ants that he didn't immediately notice. On another scenario, the burly android was sitting and leaning his back on a thick tree, while resting there, a few wild birds were playing on his shoulders. Wild animals have strong instincts. They might have noticed his true, hidden, good nature. He is so cool. I want to be like him." Peter answered proudly which always ends up with him receiving strange stares.

In the beginning, Peter had no problems whatsoever with that kind of behavior, but in the long run, as he get older, when he entered jobs, it became a big obstacle to his success.

Peter reluctantly dropped the knife by the sink. He decided not to do what aling Martha ordered him to do. He's already bracing himself for what's to come his way. It's guaranteed that aling Martha will scold him for sure.

After a while, aling Martha really arrived from the market.

"How was it, Peter? Did you already finished what I ordered you?" asked by the newly arrived boss. The elderly woman wiped her wet and sticky body from all the sweat and dust she accumulated from traveling outside.

"I didn't do it aling Martha. I can't do it." Peter explained shyly to his boss.

"Get out!" the seething elderly woman coldly pointed to her kitchen's door.

"Aling Martha please give me one more chance!" Peter pleaded.

"No! No! No! Fat chance! I have already heard about your weirdness, you man-child. I'm just embarrased to say no to your father because he is a close friend of mine. But now that I've experience your weirdness first-hand, I can no longer tolerate you being here for this job. Get out of my goddamn kitchen you stubborn kid. You good-for-nothing one. Your parents are pitiful to have you as their son. Leave!" said the fuming Martha.

Peter couldn't do anything but leave because the fuming with rage aling Martha already fired him anyways.

...

Months quickly passed by.

Peter was currently plowing through the mud on their family's little farmland. Carabao-kun was perseveringly working together with him. Carabao-kun is their family's farming partner for a long time now which is obviously a carabao.

Peter was content with the lifestyle he was living now. No one in his current situation will force him to take the lives of any living being. He just needed to plow and do nothing else. That task was very simple for him already. Peter suddenly sighed.

He remembered the day he got fired from his job on aling Martha's eatery.

...

His father punched him in the stomach upon learning the bad news.

"You botched your work again. You really never learn. You'll be working in our farm from now on. No objections will be tolerated. If you don't want to follow me, you're always free to leave my house." Peter's father angrily mentioned his ultimatum.

The very next day, Peter accidentally overheard what his parents was talking about. It's all about him.

"I really have a high expectations from that boy. Even if it's just him, he should at least get out of poverty. He shouldn't be like is who always get tired from farming but were still poor. We no longer have a chance to get rich. First, he stopped his studies to start working but he can't last long in any job later on. I don't know anymore!" Peter's father complained while drunk on the alcohol.

Peter leaned on the wall and he released a deep sighed.

...

"Wait, Carabao-kun! My boots are completely ruined." Peter gently caressed his dear carabao.

He positioned himself in front of Carabao-kun to check on his worn out boots. He confirmed that it's too old and too broken that it can't be fixed anymore. That's also when he remembered something. Today is the day when that manga adaptation of that Japanese light novel will be releasing its newest update.

Peter grabbed his phone from his pocket and he turned-on his data.

Soon the young man burst out laughing.

"Truck-kun is crazy. He sent fatso in another world." commented Peter to the story he was currently reading. Peter was too immersed in reading that he have already forgotten the original reason why he was resting. It's been a few years since then that the light novels from the big 3 of Asia, namely China, Japan and South Korea have been trending. They took the world, not only Asia by storm. The big 3 have turned so many fanatics addicted to reading. Peter just happened to be one of them. Whilst Peter like the three countries works, he prefers to read Japanese light novels the most. The culture of Japan coincidentally happened to be the closest to his own personality. In fact, he was so fond of Japanese novels that he named their carabao in Japanese fashion. That's how Carabao-kun became Carabao-kun. You can also say that Japanese novels have eaten Peter's brain deeply already.

"BANG!" a sudden clamor in the silence. Peter was so immersed in reading that he didn't even hear nor notice that Carabao-kun was panicking. That's why he wasn't able to react properly when his carabao attacked him all of a sudden.

"Eh?" Peter reacted in shock.

"BANG!" produced the crashing sound of the young man. The young man stumbled into the mud, while Carabao-kun runs away in panic from all the on-going fireworks explosions.

There are fireworks because New Year is just around the corner.....

In the Philippines, people are very excited about the arrival of the New Year. It's still a few weeks or a month before its arrival but the people were already celebrating it by lighting up fireworks.

A few moments have since passed but the young man was still not budging from lying down on his stomach. It's surprising.

The soil is soft. After a while, a lot of blood flowed through the soil coming from Peter's head.

...

That very night, the grievance of Peter's parents became the center of attention in their whole village.

The Marites, Misang and Tolits were currently surrounding Peter's parents' backyard in jubilation.

Author's note:

For those who are not in the know, Marites, Mosang and Tolits are famous Filipino internet/street slangs which have derogatory meanings.

Marites is the shortcut for, "Mare, ano ang latest?"

It translate in English as, "Comrade, what's the latest?"

Mare here means the godmother of your child and it's also a term that was being used for close friends.

Tolits on the other hand means, "Tol, ano ang latest?"

In English, "Bro, What's the latest?"

Mosang is the shortened term for tsismosa or in english, gossiper.

End of Author's Note

Peter got unlucky.

Among all the spot in their wide farming field, Peter really fell on the spot which have the only rock in it.

...

"What do we do with this carabao, my dear?" sullenly asked Peter's mother to his equally sullen father.

"Let's have someone butcher it. I can't look at this damn thing that killed my only son." Peter's father said in ire.

Upon arriving on the farmland Peter was working, to their horror, they learnt it too late to rescue him, their son, Peter was already not breathing.

Peter's father immediately noticed the uncontrollable carabao. A realization of what happened dawn on the man.

"Okay!" Peter's mother readily agreed.

"Pardon my intrusion, sir! I know I might sound disrespectful to you guys but let me say my piece. You'll be sending that still healthy carabao to the butcher? From what I've heard ma'am/sir there's someone who witnessed of what really transpired, ain't I right? It's an accident based on that person's testimony. Your carabao is innocent. It got startled by the fireworks. It didn't really mean to ram into your son." a concerned villager butt in on the discussion of the visible sad couple.

"I'll send that damn carabao to the slaughterhouse!" rebutted by Peter's very furious father.

"Sell it to me instead, sir. I can use it to plough our land. It's young and still very much useful." offered the man.

"No way! There's no way I'm selling it to you!" refused Peter's father, angry.

"Where will you get your fund for your son's burial? Your family is not well-off, sir. Even a burial right now requires a hefty amount of money. If I were you, I'll accept my offer. I'll give you a price more than a slaughterhouse can give you so you can give your son Peter a decent funeral." the young man laid out his very tempting offer that immediately silenced Peter's parents and got them thinking thoroughly.

Peter's father accepted the deal with much reluctance. The young man's practical reason made it very hard for them to refuse the deal.

...

"You bought it brother?" asked by another young man towards the guy who bought Carabao-kun.

"Yes. Although it's just an animal it's needed to be rewarded for killing that pest." the man responded with a grin.

There's a lot of people who harbor grudges towards Peter in their place because of his weird but kind personality. These two young men are some of those people. They're elated when they heard the unexpected news of Peter's passing. They also found it funny by the way he died.

"You're evil, bro. You really bought that carabao because he killed that pest LOL!" sarcastically quipped by the other young man, obviously happy from what he just learned.

"Not really. It's true that I will use it to plough our land. I'll be going home first, bro." the man said his farewell to his friend, he started pulling on Carabao-kun who was behind him.

...

Peter was hastily looking around his surrounding in bewilderment. What he saw is an all-white empty room.

Where am I? the young man asked himself inside in his confusion.

Am I at an hospital? Peter speculated doubtfully.

He remembered the last thing that happened before he lost his conciousness.

It's already too late when he noticed that Carabao-kun was charging, then rammed at him while he was busy reading a novel on his phone. The next thing he felt and remembered was that he's feeling a lot of pain in his head. When that realization dawned into him, his hand automatically cop a feel into his forehead where he felt that pain.

"Huh?" he said in surprise.

"There's no wound? Am I dreaming? Then if that was the case, where am I right now?" he mulled hard and deep.

Because of his deep-thinking, the young man, Peter, didn't notice that someone was observing him nearby until a beautiful woman arrived in front of him without him noticing immediately.

"How are you feeling, Peter?" the newly-arrived mysterious beauty asked him with a smile.

Peter's jaw dropped on the floor. He was mesmerized with her beauty. It's the first time Peter got face to face with a beauty of this caliber, and it's like a bonus that she was talking to him on a very friendly manner.

When he recovered he smiled like a loon in front of the beautiful woman.

"I'm fine. Wait? You.. you know my name?" Peter asked. His eyes turned as wide as saucers and he stuttered.

"Of course. I am--" The beautiful lady was about to introduce herself when Peter interrupted.

"Are you a nurse, miss?" asked Peter.

"No." answered the beauty indifferently. Her smile vanished.

"Then, who are you?" he inquired.

"Would you let me speak first?" the beauty answered him with an eyeroll.

"Okay! Okay! I'm really sorry, miss!" Peter scratched the back of his neck, clearly embarrassed.

"My name is not important. What you needed to know was that you're already dead." "And I'm actually a goddess." The beauty dropped a bombshell one after the other.

"Huh?" the young man shouted in surprise. But, Peter didn't know where to be more surprised.

"I'm telling you the truth, Peter. You're really already dead and I'm really a goddess." repeated the mysterious beauty who claimed herself to be a goddess trying hard to convince him.

The young man burst out laughing.

"Me? I'm dead? I'm here talking to you very alive. And you claim yourself as a goddess? Yeah! I'll agree with you even if you tell me that you are like a goddess because you're that beautiful but you telling me you're literally a goddess, that's a different story. And please miss don't take me as a dumbass 'cause I'm not. Oh! Is this a prank, miss?" Peter started to look around. Trying to find a hidden cam.

What the beauty claiming herself to be a goddess do next made Peter's eyes go round one more time.

An invisible energy forcefully pushed Peter to bump towards the white walls of this room from where he's standings from. He was shocked from
the proof the beauty presented him.

"A-ar-are yo--you re-ally a go-go-goddess?" our poor MC's tongue twisted and turned in nervousness.

"I'm trying to convince you since the beginning but you're the one who won't listen to the truth. And one more thing. Didn't you notice that you're not hurt despite the fact that I hurtled you strongly towards the wall that you end up moving far from your original place?" stated the goddess.

Peter's shoulders jumped upon the realization.

"Wha-what happened?" Peter asked the goddess dejectedly. His voice ended up cracking.

The goddess presented the information she gathered when she searched the young man's memory.

"I'm really dead?" he looked blankly.

"That's right, but worry not! I'll give you another chance in life. I'll let you live again." declared the goddess.

"Really?" he shouted in a lively tone.

"Yup!" answered by the beautiful goddess, feeling great about herself.

"If that's the case, thank you in advance for sending me back on my own world." Peter gratefully said.

"It seems like we're not in the same page here. You can no longer go back on Earth. You're body was dead for quite some time and was already buried. And one more thing, Earth, your world, wasn't a part of my jurisdiction." explained the goddess.

"Does that mean I'll be isekai'd?" Peter asked, his eyes turning big as a saucer.
The goddess sent him a weirded out look.

"That's wrong! How about my parents?" Peter corrected his concern.

The weird look the goddess was throwing his way vanished.

"You can't do anything about it. You're time in your original world was already used up. Just be happy that you'll be given another chance right away." - goddess.

"That's true. Thank you very much, goddess! But would your merciful self give this humble mortal the reason why I was given this chance?" - Peter.

"Don't be surprised. I'm a goddess who oversees a parallel Earth. The world I'm overseeing is like your Earth but have differences. The biggest difference was that a good portion of the people from my jurisdiction possesses powers unlike your previous world. It's no different from the isekai anime that you're very addicted to." Peter became excited from the information the goddess have explained to him. He didn't expect that him, a good-for-nothing but logical guy will experience the same thing those protagonists from his favorite isekai novels have experienced. Those things only happened in fantasy worlds.

Peter unsubconciously swallowed in anticipation.

"The civilization of the planet under my jurisdiction is like that of the middle ages in your previous world's present time." added the goddess.

Peter was smiling from ear to ear because of the last statement coming directly from the goddess own mouth.

"Isn't it familiar? Like those manga and novels you loved to read." said the goddess which surprised the lad.

"Are you reading my mind?" Peter asked, his heart beating wildly that it's threatening to burst out of his chest.

"I'm not reading it currently but I already read it when I picked up your soul a few moments ago before you regain your conciousness. I already know everything about you. I judged you to be a good person despite the fact that you're a bit weird." - goddess.

"Thank you." Peter's heart felt warm after hearing what the goddess said.

"I'll get straight to the point. The reason why I'm sending you to my world is because of the turmoil it was currently experiencing. I think it reached the point that I have to intervene. That's when the idea of acquiring a newly deceased soul hit me. I plan to give it a power so that he/she can be my representative, and I intend to solve the ongoing crisis of my world through that chosen representative of mine." - the goddess.

"Pardon me for my discourteousness because I can't help but be curious of why you have chosen me instead of other souls. You said you saw all of my memories, so why me? You should know by now that I can't kill any form of living being aside from plants. So why me?" Peter seriously implored.

"I've chosen your soul randomly so you can say that maybe it's your fate, or if you don't believe in such a thing, let's just say you're lucky." the goddess patiently cleared his doubt in mind.

"I see. I'll do my best! You can count on that. I'm actually happy to know that someone is relying on me. What's even more surprising was it was someone like you, a goddess is the one who's relying on me. But let me warm you in advance my dear goddess, I won't be using violence if it can be avoided. And what sort of adversaries would this humble one would be facing? A demon king and his demon army typically seen in isekai novels?"

"First of all, I just want to tell you that I appreciate your willingness to took up this mission even though you know that you will be traversing a difficult path because of it. Secondly, you will not be facing a demon king. The truth is, my world is currently facing hardships caused by the greed of humans. They waged war against their own race. It reach up to the point that they are committing civil wars. The worst thing is that it was happening in almost every part of the world I am overseeing. I want you to resolve it in your own way." the goddess revelation shocked Peter.

"Civil war? It means that I'll be facing humans?" Peter asked in disbelief.

"Yes."

"Can I still change my mind?"

"No!"

Peter sighed in defeat and he started to think deeply.

The goddess let the young man be.

Soon, the goddess new representative open his mouth.

"What kind of power will you grant me? My dear goddess, would you be benevolent enough to let this mortal one to choose?" Peter courteously asked.

"Of course. I plan to give you the freedom to choose your own powers since the beginning." said the goddess.

"I don't know if you'll grant me my wish but I wanted 3 powers." Peter divulged his wish to the goddess.

"Three? I'm quite shocked that you're hiding some greed in you." the goddess commented in surprise.

The young man laughed sparingly.

Amused, the goddess gave her newly-appointed representative a chance to state his wish. She gave him her time.

Excitedly, Peter presented the powers he wanted to gain from the goddess.

The goddess strongly shook her head, a clear indication of her refusal.

"How about this? Why not combine the three abilities into one? Just remove some functionalities partially for it to work?" suggested Peter.

Peter grinned and the goddess shook her head in amusement. She never expected that this mortal one would have this much audaciousness in him.

The goddess gained a clear image of what Peter was painting on his head.

"You're really greedy and creative about it. Interesting!" Peter smirked upon hearing the beautiful goddess statement. It seemed more of a compliment rather than an insult.

The goddess closed her eyes to concentrate. Right after that, she frowned until her beautiful face was wrinkled. When the goddess opened her eyes, the colour had already disappeared from her rosy cheeks.

"Congratulations! I've already passed the power that you wanted after tweaking it for a bit, then I need to rest afterwards. I consumed a lot of powers for your request. Promise me one thing. Be my representative and stop their madness, please?" - goddess.

"Okay!" Peter clenched his fists as he promised the goddess in front of him.

"Say status." The goddess guided him weakly.

"Status." Peter followed the command with willingness.

...

Name : Peter
Race : Human
Gender : Male
Age : 23
Lifespan : (40-90)

Title : Master of the Livelihood Dungeon!
- Let him use the unique skill Livelihood Dungeon!

Status :

Stats.

Strength : E
Resilience : E
Agility : E
Spirit : E

Main ability :

Livelihood Dungeon!

- A unique skill created by the parallel earth goddess for Peter to solely use.

Dungeon points : 10
Livelihood points : 10
Master points : 10

Sub-ability :

Appraisal

...

The goddess began to explain the newly-acquired power of his new representative, Peter, to him.

"The keyword for entering and exiting the dungeon is dungeon open and dungeon close." - started the goddess.

The explanation between the two continued for a few more minutes.

"Thank you, goddess!" Peter sincerely smiled to the goddess for the gratitude of the new opportunity she gave him.

Peter vanished in front of the goddess.
...

Upon the disappearance of Peter within that white room, a pure white bed appeared behind the goddess. The goddess let herself fall in it. This holy being was too weak to even speak. So it took the goddess her whole effort to speak what's on her mind next.

"I really wanted to follow your whole journey in resolving the ongoing crisis of my world but it seems that I needed about a year for me to see the answer you'll come up with. I've spent a lot of powers to grant you that interesting ability that you wished for. See you in a year Peter." upon using up her remaining energy to speak her mind, the eyelids of the goddess that was feeling heavy since she exhausted her powers, closed.