I have made quite a few edits for the first chapter, but this is going to be the first major edit. I will probably keep editing this chapter until I think it's been polished up to the finest, then I'll start writing the next chapter. Make sure to read what I have written on my profile, so you don't have to ask any questions unless if it's not mentioned on my profile. Make sure to review and most importantly, enjoy!

Prologue

"I will be a Hero."

Those were the words of a young boy, a boy who aspired to be something that others thought he could not. Those were the words of a timid, young boy, who pursued a goal to save a damsel in distress. Those were the words of a timid, young but faithful boy, who wanted to thrive to be the best, so that he could both prove that he was worthy of praise from his grandfather, as well as to slay the monstrosity known as the One Eyed Black Dragon. Those were the words of a boy, a boy who goes by the name of Bell Cranel.

Ever since the death of his grandfather, Bell had always tried to push himself to his absolute limit, both for the sake of his grandfather, and for himself. He knew that what it would take to accomplish his goal, a perilous journey of harsh training and adventuring in order to get stronger, but he knew that it would all be worthwhile in the end.

This is the story of a boy who will become a hero.

"Bell? Hello? Is anyone in there?"

Bell felt a throbbing pain coming from his head, as he awoke from his deep slumber. He soon opened his eyes to the face of a woman, a woman that he recognized so well. She had dark blue eyes that matched the colour of the sea. She had pale, white skin which came with her charcoal black hair, tied into two twin tails which reached down to her thighs. She wore blue and white petals on her hair, as well as two bell shaped ornaments and her clothing of choice is pretty revealing. She had a white dress on, held together by a single blue ribbon which went around her body, and to top it off she wore nothing else below her hip.

It was his goddess, Hestia, the only deity to have accepted him into a familia.

It was midday.

Bell was almost at the entrance, he could practically see it. The entrance to Orario was surrounded by walls which probably were probably high enough to touch the clouds, the walls probably needed to be that tall so that monsters couldn't get further away from the dungeon, if they were lucky enough to even reach the surface that is. He had travelled all the way from his rural farming village with a travelling merchant to a hill, before saying goodbye as he started to head to the city of Orario. Bell had an excellent view of the city when he stood on the hill, and he felt overwhelmed with excitement and joy, as well as shedding a tear, since it was his grandfather who told him all about Orario when he was a child. It was his grandfather who told Bell the stories of heroes and their battles with legendary monsters such as dragons that breathe out blazing hot fire, or giant serpents that had poison which was deadly enough to kill a person within minutes, you know, those kind of stories. But it was only when his grandfather had perished, and only then, was he consumed by his dreams to one day be one of those heroes that his grandfather had kept telling him about.

As soon as he had arrived at the entrance, he saw a massive queue before him. He had to wait a few minutes before he actually was next to the entrance. Once it was his turn, a member of the guild approached him and checked for a falna, from which the result was that he didn't have one. After he was permitted to enter, he was shocked by how massive the labyrinth city really was, as he didn't expect it to be so large. Bell didn't know what to do at first, but soon enough he ultimately decided that it was best that he get into a familia, as he knew it would be suicide to go down into the dungeon without a falna. He knew it could vary on how long it would take him to find a familia that would accept him, as it could take from just a few minutes to many hours or even days! But, he felt like it today was going to be his lucky day.

But, before he could put his plan into action, he witnessed a large party of adventurers walk down the street he was in, and learned that they were the famous Loki Familia, aka one of the most powerful familias in the whole of Orario. But, his eyes were directed to one particular adventurer, one with golden hair and eyes, one whose beauty could have been compared to that of a goddess of the subject. It was someone by the name of Aiz Wallenstein, or more commonly known as the Sword Princess of Orario, or just the Sword Princess for short. His gaze was directed to her and to her only, as the Loki Familia passed by him.

"Now is not the time to be admiring an adventurer that I don't even know." Bell tried to warn himself, as he tried to avert his gaze away from her but to no avail.

"But she just looks so... beautiful..."

He just couldn't stop admiring the golden beauty that was walking before him, and he only managed to snap out of it once the Loki Familia had completely disappeared from sight. 'Anyway, now it's time to find a familia which I can join.' He set off in a good mood, hoping that he could find a familia that he could join soon.

But, to his misfortune, his luck wasn't as good as he thought it was, as he couldn't find a single familia that would accept him. In fact, for the next few days he had the same bad luck he had since his first day upon arrival, and he started to lose hope in his dream of one day becoming a true hero, or even becoming an adventurer at this point. He had already spent around 4,500 valis to stay a few nights in an inn and it would seem as if though his money had gone to waste, as wherever he searched, not a single familia wanted him to join. As he started to walk into an alley, drained of all of his hope at that point, a voice called out to him from behind. He felt that this voice was the voice of salvation, it seemed to light a fire inside of him that ignited the hope that had subsided over the past few days. He felt that Lady Luck had truly smiled upon him on this fateful day. And for once, he was right.

Bell felt really dizzy as he tried to get up from the couch that he had slept on, only to slip and fall back onto it.

"Wha.. where am I?"

"You're at home, silly."

"Oh, hey there goddess, how are you feeling today?" Bell said, as he managed get up from the couch and come to his senses.

"I'm good thank you."

"Well that's nice, but to be honest I feel like my head has just been pummeled by a minotaur."

"Let me guess, you drank a little bit too much over at Mia's yesterday and got yourself drunk."

"Not really, it's probably more to do with the fact that I spent quite a lot of time in the dungeon yesterday without taking any breaks."

Bell then immediately started to get his equipment ready. He put on his light armour that Welf had forged him, then he equipped the emerald green sheath that Eina had given him during the day when they went shopping for Bell's new armour, onto his left arm and tucked his knife that Hestia had acquired for him inside.

"So, you're heading over to the dungeon already?"

"Yeah, me, Lili and Welf have decided to go today so we can gather some more magic stones for valis and possibly some drop items too for new gear."

"Okay okay, just be careful, you know how hysterical I'd get if you ended up dead, like you did that one time when that Aiz Wallenwhatever had to come and save you."

Bell had arrived at the dungeon's entrance.

"Woah..."

Bell was completely flabbergasted at the extreme amount of adventurers that were gathered around Babel today. But other than that, it felt like it was a regular day today. Bell soon entered the dungeon and went down to the first floor. He encountered some goblins on the first floor, which he dispatched with some effort. It was very much the same with floors 2, 3 and 4, as he encountered more goblins, as well as some kobolds and the occasional dungeon lizard. But as he arrived on the fifth floor, he heard a nerve-racking scream come from somewhere on the floor he was currently situated in. Bell went over to investigate the situation but was greeted by a massive beast, with the head of a bull and the body of a person. It was a minotaur.

Blood had stained the monster's weapon, which was a piece of landform the dungeon had provided it with. It was truly a force to be reckoned with, for rookie adventurers at least.

"Hang on, how is there a minotaur on the fifth floor, I thought they could only spawn on the 15th floor and above?!"

Monsters spawn on specific floors, but they have the ability to traverse a few floors up or a few floors down. But 10 floors was a few floors too many for a monster to be able to traverse.

Bell bolted as soon as he knew the minotaur had detected his presence, and the minotaur soon started to chase after him. Bell feared for his life as he knew death was a few seconds away from him, and with each turn the higher the chance of heading into a dead end. His legs soon started to give up on him, but he forced them to keep on running, no matter what. But unfortunately for him, he soon enough saw a dead end right in front of him. Bell tripped and unintentionally performed a somersault on the floor, before getting cornered as he had nowhere left to run, and the minotaur was edging closer and closer to him. He instantly knew that this was going to be the end of Bell Cranel, and he didn't even accomplish at least one of the many goals in life that he had set for himself after his grandfather's passing, and he felt a breeze of shame drift slowly around him, as he just knew that his grandfather would despise him for the rest of eternity. As soon as the minotaur started to swing its heavy weapon towards Bell, he just hoped for the best once he was in heaven.

"URUAGHHHH"

The minotaur shrieked in immense pain, as you could tell by its voice that it was suffering. Lines appeared out of nowhere all over its big, bulky body, and from within those gashes, blood started to spray everywhere like a garden sprinkler, and the minotaur soon collapsed, then turning into ashes which revealed its large magic stone, for the upper floors at least. But, standing before him was the one figure that he was admiring when he had first arrived in the labyrinth city of Orario. It was the golden haired beauty from before. She wore long, combat style blue boots, which were decorated with silver emblems that further increased its aesthetic rating. She also wore a white, sleeveless dress, with blue outlines that went around the apertures where her arms and head go through. On top of that she wore silver armour that surrounded her neck, hip, arms and breasts. It was Aiz Wallenstein, again.

"Are you... alright?"

She said it with such a soft tone, as it reflected her quiet personality, which was one of the qualities that Bell admired of her. She then proceeded to stretch her arm out over to him, to which Bell responded by getting up and bolting as fast as he could, almost as fast as he ran when he was being chased by the minotaur. In response to his actions, she got really confused but it provoked her to meet this white-haired boy again, as she wanted to apologize but she also felt intrigued as she thought that the boy reminded her of when she was young and carefree, full of emotion. She must meet this boy again.

"You can count on it, I will never leave you all alone!"

"Well that soothes my heart to know that."

Bell left the Hestia Familia home, and then started to move at a steady pace over to the dungeon, with his vision directed at the tower above known as Babel.

Babel was an incredibly tall tower that stretched all the way up to the heavens. It acted as a seal to the dungeon, so monsters couldn't escape from the dungeon. The 4th to 8th floors of the tower were owned by the Hephaestus Familia, a renowned familia known for their extremely well made weapons and armour. At the very top of Babel situated the home of the Freya Familia, a mysterious familia that had the best of the best adventurers in the whole of Orario, including the only level 7 in the entirety of Orario, the Boaz known as Ottar, aka the King. The goddess of the Freya Familia has had her eye on a particular individual for quite some time now. She looked down below. A sea of all sorts of people flooded her vision. But she didn't care about them.

Freya was a unique goddess. She had the ability to see the colour of the soul of anyone she desired. This ability isn't considered as Arcanum though, so she could use it freely without having to feel like she had done something wrong.

Freya had been idle for many months, waiting for a certain individual that would spark up her interest. And she didn't know if it was purely just a coincidence or that fate had heard her plea, but that certain individual had appeared right before her eyes. It was a boy with white hair, as well as red, crimson orbs for eyes. His appearance could be compared that of a rabbit. But it was not his physical appearance that sparked her interest in that boy. It was the colour of his soul. It was transparent. She had never seen anything like it before, and it really make something inside of her light up when she saw his soul.

"You will be mine, soon enough. Sooner than you know it." She quietly whispers to herself, before making an unsettling smile.

Down in the dungeon, Bell was on the fourth floor. He was with Liliruca Arde, she was a Chienthrope, a type of race that had features similar to that of a dog. Chienthropes were distinguishable by their possession of both dog ears and a tail. She had chestnut coloured hair and eyes, and she wore a completely white, hooded robe, as well as black tights and light-brown boots. Lili was part of the Soma Familia, a familia known for their infamous wine, which is known as Soma.

The Soma Familia lures adventurers that rake in the most valis into a trap, by letting them have a taste of their wine. The adventurers that try the wine get addicted and are enticed to do anything in order to get another sip of Soma. The Soma Familia doesn't have a good reputation with the guild, as members of said familia would complain at the guild exchange that they didn't get enough valis for the magic stones and/or the drop items that they had provided.

Bell was also with Welf Crozzo, he was a human who had short and spiky, ruby red hair and blue eyes. He wore a dark blue scarf around his neck. He had a black kimono on, as well as a navy blue undershirt. He also wore tan pants and long, grey boots. He was part of the Hephaestus Familia.

"So, where we going this time?" Welf asked Bell.

"Well, I figured that since I have nothing else planned today, we should try and go down as deep as we can into the dungeon."

"But what if we run out of supplies?" Lili stated, as none of them had carried that much food or potions along."

"I guess you're right, but maybe we can at least try to get to the tenth floor?"

"Well I mean after all you are the leader of the party, so do whatever you think is good."

"I agree with Lili, I mean come on, you are smart enough to figure out what to do by yourself." Welf said with a grin.

"Yeah, then lets do it! Tenth floor, here we come!"