Chapter 1. Chains

A boy who lives with his grandfather who dreams of being an adventurer. A grandfather who tells tales to his grandson about epic heros and their greatest achievments. A dream rhat burns so brightly that it will reach out to others and forge bonds that are hard to break. A different boy who sometimes listens to the stories from the other boys conciousness like he is actually there with him.

The first boy is named Bell the grandfather is Zeus, but the last boy has no name all he has are chains. As far back as he could remember these chains restrained his wrists and no matter how much he grew the chains grew with him. To survive he had to hunt the monsters that show up daily to attack him. Being restricted in his movement and forced to fight in a certain radius the boy suffers. His only light is when he shares events with the other boy Bell. Bell doesn't realise he's there but that's okay.

Finally the day came when the boy finally broke of two chains from the nearly industructable shackles. Taking a sharp black sword that was out of his reach this whole time.The boy moves out from his prison, A dark crevice somewhere out in the wilderness. Using the knowledge he learned with Bell he follows the stars to the labrynth city. Ready to become a hero not an adventurer, finally free to become anything he wants to be.

(Think of the blade to look similair to Ichigo's Bankai.)

First person

I've finally arrived to the city all I need to do now is find a famillia and join so I can explore the dungeon. I spent the entire day going to every famillia that I could find but they all rejected me. They claimed that they didn't want a kid, some tried to capture me because they thought I was an escaped slave. The city is cruel the people are crueler, no one had that pure feeling that his soul friend Bell did.

'My luck sucks where do I have to go to join a good familia.' My thoughts were soon cut short as I bumped into a cloaked woman. Her hood fell of revealing her Violet eyes and her beautifull face. She had raven black hair that went down to her knees and she looked like she was in her teens.

"I'm sorry miss I wasn't looking, quick put up your hood it fell down." She quickly grabbed her hood and flipped it up hiding her face but not her glaring eyes.

"Why were you not paying attention to where you were going idiot?" She yelled at me grabbing my collar and picking me up.

"*Choking* because I don't know where to go no famillia wanted to let me join."

She just laughed. "Yeah well it's cause no one with half a mind would allow a child to join their famillia, now why don't you scram on home." She dropped me on the floor and turned around to walk away.

"I don't have a family or a home, I've never had anything but these chains on my wrists. I had no tormenter to boss me around so I was no slave and the only thing I could eat was the monsters that passed every other day in that cave. Sorry I bumped into you." It was kinda weird telling someone my life stiry like that but after being stuck alone for so long I guess I just really needed to share it with someone.

I turned around to walk away but I was stopped by a hand on my shoulder that turned me around forcefully. "So you're out of options and are looking for a famillia huh? Well I guess this goddess will let you become the first member of her famillia. Whats your name boy?"I was shocked that she was a goddess but even more shocked that she would let me join her famillia. "I don't have a name. What's yours?"

"You fool i'm Adrestia the godess of balance and you not having a name is a problem. I shall name you chain as you have two on you wrists. I find it fitting that one is white and one is black, it fits me well. Any problems?" I didn't really mind the name mostly because the chains would most likely remain on my wrists for the wrest of my life. "No that's okay."

"Good now follow me home so that I can mark you as part of my famillia." She turned around and walked away, so I followed her until we reached an old house on the edge of town. I was suprised at all of the furniture and the bed, it even had a bathroom!

"Wow this is the nicest place i've ever been in!" She looked at me like I was an idiot. " what's good about this run down piece of crap, it's shabby and all of the other goddeses make fun of me for it." She looked angry and sad and that mafe me displeased for some reason.

"I don't know as this is the first place i've ever been in but if you dislike it so much i'll work hard so you can buy a new place."

She quickly calmed down and smiled at that. "You better now go lie down over there so we can begin, cloak off by the way." So I took off my cloak revealing my upper body and all of the scars I had scattered across it. Ardestia winced at the sight of my body. "Alright I will now mark you as a member of my famillia, it will hurt a little bit so stay strong." She then proceeded with the ritual that honestly didn't really hurt at all but it did sting a little.

"Okay Chain good job not screaming that happens a lot apparently when godesses ad new famillia members. Why don't you go check it out yourself in the mirror over there." I walked over to the mirror and saw myself for the first time. I had really messy long black hair and one crimson red eye on the right side of my face. On the left side of my face I had a bright blue eye, but what freaked me out the most is that I looked exactly like Bell. It wad interesting but it made me happy knowing that atleast I looked similar to such a nice person.

My famillia mark on my back was a yin yang symbol it looked neat and fit my goddess very much. Adrestia continued telling me that tommorow we would have to register me as an adventurer and that I could finally head into the dungeon.

"Listen Chain your stats are all in the E ranks so you probably won't be allowed far down into the dungeon. Do you even have a weapon because I can't afford to buy you one yet." She looked at me with concern and I just smiled at her. "Don't worry i've never used a weapon to kill monsters yet but my bare hands. I know I need one now but luckily I grabbed this before I left, it was always out of reach before so i'm glad I get to use it now."

I pulled the Black sword out of the chain on my right which was also black. My goddess's eyes grew at the sight of my weapon. "How did you get such a weapon and how did you take it out of that chain?"I told her that I honestly don't know and that all I did know that it was linked to the chain.

"Do you have anything else in your chains?" I nodded. "Yeah all of the monsters that tried to kill me alwags dropped these stone things so i've stored them up for years." She looked insanely happy at my comment. "Quickly take them all out for me now!" So I did.

She started drooling all over the huge pile of cores that filled up about half of the room. "Chain is it okay if I take all these crystals from you because this is a lot of""sure"" money and it would really hel..."She just paused. "Did you just say sure?"

I just nodded at her question. "But why do you know how much money this could get you?" I just shrugged at that.

"I don't really want money I just want to make you happy and to go on adventures. I wan't to try new foods but your now my goddess so everything I do we do together, I just want you to be happy that's all I need." And I smiled, she started to tear up and she hugged me and cried herself to sleep. I carried her to her bed and tucked her in, I then proceeded to lay on the ground and stare up at the ceiling thanking my luck for letting me meet Adrestia.

The next day Adrestia woke me up and we headed down town to get me registered as an adventurer. The recepcionist gave me weird looks and the one who was assighned to be my adventurer councler or whatever was named kaylith. She was a tall human woman with green hair, she had glasses and kept giving me weird looks. She went on about all the rules like how I could only re enter the dungeon after 12 hours and that currently I was only allowed to go down to the 3rd floor. I was glad I was able to leave when she finished because I swear she was looking like she wanted to eat me more than some of the monsters i've met, I hope she's not a cannible.

After we left Adrestia took me shopping with the money she got from selling all of those crystals I gave her. Hehe you should have seen the recepcionists faces when we brought all of the crystals in it was hillarious. Anyways Adrestia bought me a long sleave black shirt, long black pants, brown boots and a black sheath for my sword. She said it would be good so that if I partied up with anyone no one would be suspicious. Finally she purchased a custom made cloak for me, it was also black but it had some white desighns at the edges of the hood. It didn't have sleaves or anything it kinda just draped over to about my knees, but I liked it.

When we got home she looked tired so I tried cooking her dinner. It was okay but not really to good she ate it which made me happy.

"Okay Chain go take a bath your still dirty and after your done I'm cutting your hair." So like she said I took a bath and allowed her to cut my hair and it turned out looking just like bell's if not a little longer.

"Thanks so what are we going to do about the house."

"I was thinking about what you said about how you liked this place. And well your right this is my sanctuary why should I move it so i've decided that we'll be expanding it with the money you earn. We fall a bit short for now on what I want done so all were getting now is a hammock for you to sleep in." I was happy hearing that she would keep our home so I just nodded happily.

The next morning I woke up early and dressed up into my new clothes and equiped my sheath to my back. I put the black blade into the sheath and then put my hood up to cover my face. I whispered goodbye to my sleeping goddess and rushed off to the dungeon.

After I reached the dungeon I had to wait for a bit before I could rush in. After waiting for around half an hour I rushed in and started laying waste to the ants in the dirst three levels. They weren't that tough and they had extremely predictable movements so I just wiped them out with the blade on my right hand.

My strategy is mostly to rush into the enemy dodge their attack and then leave a finishing blow befire going to the next one. The faster I am the harder it is for them to land a hit on me. Honestly it was childs play and I would have quit this tedious work if it wasn't for my goddess needing all of the money she could get. So I continued wiping our everything on all three floors for atleast 13 hours. Once I finished I left the dungeon and headed into town to collect my spoils. I earned quite a lot, the receptionest said it was atleast four times the amount a normal level 1 adventure team would earn.

So I happily reported to Adrestia of my spoils and she praised me for doing a good job. "Okay chain it's time to update your status please lie down on the bed." So I lied down on the bed and let her di the update thing. The funny thing is that afterwards I felt a lot stronger than I did before. "Oh my me. Chain it looks like your stats have all been raised to D rank. What! you even have a skill!

Unbreakable determanation: Once you have a goal nothing can stop them from beaking all limits to achieve it. Through hard work any limits can be surpassed.

"Cheat yiur a cheat this is ubelievable. I've never heard of this skill listen chain don't tell anyone about this skill okay no one can know about this alright." "Sure okay I promise not to tell anyone."

Afterwards we went to bed. The next day we went down town to report to kaylith so that I could go deeper into the dungeon.

"Oh my gosh ahhhhh Chain you look so cute what happened to you!" Kaylith started hopping up and down and kept touching me all over squeling about things. She was really scary I couldn't see her eyes through the glasses because they had a weird glint to them and she was drooling really badly. Thankfully Adrestia was there with me and got her to back off.

"You stupid child my Chain here cleared the first three floors repeaditly yesterday and even had all of his stats go up to D rank so give him permission to go to lower levels you idiot pedophile." Kayliths eyes widen at what I guess she just heard about me clearing the floors I just didn't understand one thing.

"Hey Adrestia what's a pedophile?"

Kaylith jumped off her chair to cover Adrestia's mouth before she could say something.

"Oh chain I think you misheard her she didn't say pedophile she said something else didn't you?"

And I felt like the temperature in the room dropped a good 10 or 20 degrees.

"Ye yep. You just heard wrong Chain. Anyways about him going in deeper?"The temperature returned to the room and Kaylith started smiling again.

"Sure I don't see why not but make sure you only go down to the seventh floor and no further than that *wink*." I just nodded and then quickly grabbed Adrestia's wrist and ran.

Afterwards we soon split up and I once again headed down into the dugeon. I enjoyed the lower levels more as there was more monsters to kill and it was more narrow. It was really fun running across the walls to attack from above or get behind them to attack. I had no problem fighting the more armored ones either as I just aimed and attacked their joints.

I got down to the seventh floor and absolutely wiped everything out once again. I spent many hours in the dungeon and kept up this routine for a few days. After the fifth day in the dungein I earned enough money so that Adrestia could pay for her first renovation to our home.

For the next 3 days we stayed at a hotel so that the workers Adrestia hired could finish renovating our home. During the time I still went down into the dungeon. Rumors of a cloaked monster clearing out the rest of the monsters started to spread around town lately oops.

Aftsr the construction was finished Adrestia took me to see our new home. Man was it pretty it was a small chapel with a yin yang statue in top of it instead of a cross or something. There was a garden in the front yard with nice looking flowers and everything. Inside looked like a reception room and a prair room. There was a door to the right that led to our original room which was fixed up and had new nice looking furniture. My hamock was still next to Adrestias bed and well home still felt like home.

That night Adrestia took my status again and informed me that all of my stats were now C rank close to B rank. I happily shockes Kaylith and made her let me go down to the tenth level. She said I couldn't go down any further until I was level 2. So I happily agreed once more and fought through the 8th and 9th floor until I finally arrived at the 10th floor.

The 10th floor was really weird it was really open and their was orcs or whatever they were called but they were harder to kill. I had to kill a ton of them before I found out that the fastest way to kill them was to actually stab them in their snoots. Once you do that they just go poof and the. their crystal just goes into my chain rinse and repeat. After another week of doing this I finally got all of my stats up to A rank.

Adrestia was glad for me but I was sad that I wans't leveling up. I kept trying for days bit nothing happened until finally I ran into a mutated low born dragon. They sometimes appear on this floor and it's extremely rare, this one specifically was white and had blue eyes compared to the normal yellow dragons. It spit fire at me and kept slashing at me. I gave it my beat to dodge all of it's blows but I messed up and got sent flying into a pillar. It then set me on fire but luckily my robe was resistant to flames, but it still hurt. I was bleeding pretty bad but I couldn't help but smile because I haven't had a good fight like this in a while.

I jumped up and sent my sword into one of it's eyes and I was suprised to find out that they were as hard as stone. So I quickly avoided it's swipe at me and I jumped into it's mouth. I started cutting it up inside out until I found its crystal. I stabbed the crystal but it wouldn't break for some reason so I just beat it with my white chain until it broke. The dragons body dissapeared and only a white egg remained behind which got sucked up into my white chain.

After the fight with the dragon I had no stamina left so I quickly headed back home. Once I got home I went straight to my hammock and passed out before explaining anything to a worried goddess. The next day I woke up to a crying Adrestia she was yelling at me for making her worried and I appologized.

"Your not working today you need a break you can't keep working yourself to death like this today your taking me out." I shook my head to show her that I understood.

Today we spent most of our day going around town eating food and just hanging out. To be honest i've never done anything like this so I had a lot of fun with Adrestia.

"I had fun today with you chain we should do this more often and maybe when your older we could even go on an actual date.""Yeah I had fun too, and I don't mind taking you on a date if you want." 'Whatever that is.' She just giggled and said that she would like that. She then checked my status again tonight because yesterday she didn't get the chance to.

"Oh my! congradulations Chain you finally got all of your stats up to S rank. Your even level 2! Wait you have another skill Tamer what the heck!

Tamer: ( Allows user to raise and train one monster from the dungeon and allows them to evolve into their ultimate form. Comes with a chibi form.)[Target of Tamer has already been selected target is [Holy Dragon Egg] ]

Adrestia started slapping my back. ""What the hell is wronf with you two unknown skills and getting a pet dragon. You even have all your stats at S rank and you levelled up to level 2 in less than a month. You cheat!"

"I'm sorry." She took a deep breath and then sighed. " No it's okay because yoir my cheat all this means is that I have to go and win you your title." I just nodded.

"Adrestia what's a title?" She just deadoanned and slapped her face.

"You idiot a title is what other adventurers call you. You win it after you reach level 2 you could be known as the big butt Chain or Stupid pervert Chain if that is your title and it would never go away." I went pale at her comment I mean who would want everhone to call them a stupid pervert. No one would respect me ever not even my own children if I had any.

"Adresria please tell me your not going to pick a title like that." She smirked at me.

"I don't know I might and I might not depending on my mood tomorrow."I gulped. "Why tomorrow?"

"Because there just so happens to be one of these meeting tomorrow. Also we do have to register your second skill because there is no way of hiding your little pet. Speaking of it I want to see it where is it?""Oh yeah after I killed it it kinda turned into an egg and was absorbed into my white chain." I willed the Chain to release the egg and out plopped a white egg the size of someones head. It shook a few times before cracking and out popped a chibi white dragon with blue eyes. It looked just like thd original except this one had little white wings that had golden outlines. From it's belly to the back of it's tail was also golden it really did look like something holy.

It plopped itself on top of my head and just stared at Adrestia. " It's so cute!!! Chain were keeping it!" I nodded I mean sure wasn't that the plan all along?

"It needs a name how about shiro. Yeah shiro works man i'm good at naming things." I just laughed, I didn't mind her naming sense. "You here that your name is Zero from now on. I'm chain and over there is our goddess Adrestia. Our job is to make sure she's happy okay?"

"yiipp!" I'll take that as a yes. So after Adrestia stopped playing with shiro we all went to bed, shiro making my stomache his bed. The next morning I went to see Kaylithe to have shiro registered as my partner and I had my Tamer.skill registered. She cooed at seeing the small dragon sleeping on my head. She registered shiro as my partner and gave him a little blue necklace to prove he was a pet.

Later that night Adrestia didn't come home from her meeting so I spent my time teaching Shiro new tricks. The next day Adrestia came home telling me she got a perfect title for me.

"So your title is Loli stalker Chain don't you like it I tried super hard to get it for you?""Nooo why would you do that? I don't want that title it ruins the name you gave me. How am I supposed to get people to respect you if they all call me a loli stalker?" I couldn't help the tears coming out of my eyes.

"Haha i'm just kidding thats not your title. Your real title is Cloaked Knight Chain. I'm not that mean to my famillia." Oh thank Adrestia that that isn't my title that would have been terrible.

So all across the city news spread about the new rookie who levelled up in less than a month who wasn't even 11 years old yet and already tamed a dragon. He wears a cloak and uses a blade that is black, he had a white dragon riding on his hood and is known to slay every monster that is on the same floor as him. He has a black chain on his right wrist and a white one on his left. He has a blue eye and a red one and if you ever look at him wrong he'll reap your soul the adventurer known as the Cloaked Knight. Chain.

Which was hillarious to Adrestia because when she heard this rumor all she could picture was a cute Chain shaking scared about if he cooked the eggs right or not for her.

Other people didn't think this was funny though because when the sword princess found out she made sure to find out where this cloaked knight was and to challenge them.

[End of chapter 1. This story will be a little bumpy due to the lack of content the original series provides us about the dungeon. Currently this is a few years before the main events of the story so i'll make it fun.]

Thanks for reading]