"(...something... on top...)"
He tried to open his heavy eyelid to see what was laying on top of his body.
His left eye was halfway opened, and he saw a blurry figure on his chest.
His hearing were starting to come back as he started to regain his senses with the passing time.
A cute sound escaped from the figure's mouth as Shouji could feel its body rise and fall, everytime it breathed.
Now fully awake, he saw that it was actually Hestia, on top of him.
He was not dreaming.
His thought process was revving on full throttle, thinking about why she was sleeping with him.
He thought about last night.
He did felt someone was watching him,but he had cast it aside.
"(So... it was Hestia, huh...)"
The thought of her seeing him in his most fragile state was embarrassing, but also happy.
Happy as he seemed, he needed to get up eventually.
"(...her hands are wrapping around my neck...)" Shouji thought as he looked at the sleeping figure.
"...mm..."
"(...I need to 'swap'...but with what?)"
He looked at any object that could be swapped with, and his eyes locked onto Bell.
He could swapped with the blanket that Bell was using, but it's not interesting that way.
At least he wanted to spice up his life a bit.
He 'swapped' with Bell, so Bell was now being embraced by Hestia, and Shouji was on the bed.
Soon, he took a shower, brushed his teeth, wore his yesterday's clothes, and took off to the clothing store.
He realized that he needed many clothing, since he was an adventurer.
It would be disgusting to wear the same clothes for a week, so he went to the clothing store, bought a shirt, a trousers and an underwear for 1800 valis after bargaining, leaving him with a pitiful 300 valis, and made his way outside of Orario.
He did stop by at Mama Mia's bar, received a lunchbox from Syr, which was surprising, but he gladly took the lunchbox and gave his thanks to her.
"Shouji? I'm free at 3 pm." Ryuu said to him as she saw him passing by.
"Okay!"
Ignoring the other employees enquiries on Ryuu's words, Shouji left the bar and resumed his journey.
--New Scene--
At the church's basement...
Bell woke up, stunned, surprised, shocked that Hestia was on top of him, sleeping peacefully.
"(...aaah... it must be Shouji...)"
"Goddess? Wake up. It's morning already." Bell said as he nudged Hestia's cheek.
"...mmm... one.. moo.. mini..." Hestia muttered softly, still in her sleeping mode.
"Hm..."
"...zzz.. zzz..."
"(So cute!!... but I need to go.. hm...)"
"Goddess? I want to heat up the stew-"
Immediately, Hestia sprung to life, her energy was overflowing as she ran into the bathroom, and took a shower.
Seeing that, Bell could only smiled at his goddess's lust for Shouji's food.
Few minutes later...
Both had finished the stew, the pot was clean to its core as both wore a blissful smile.
"Ah!" was what came out of Hestia's mouth, gaining Bell's attention.
She walked away, and then came back with a towel that was wrapping something inside.
Slowly, she unveiled the object within for Bell to see.
A beautiful knife engraved with hieroglyphs writing.
"It's for you, Bell!" Hestia said, giving him a smile full of happiness.
Bell took the knife, and it seemed to glow for a second as it touched his hand.
He couldn't suppressed his admiration as a "wow" escaped from his mouth.
He stood up and find a spot to stand.
He gave it a few swing and thrust, surprised at how comfortable it felt.
It was as if it was a part of him.
--New Scene--
Outside of Orario...
"Two deer in a pitfall. Tonight will be a feast!" Shouji thrust his self-made wooden spears at the two animal's vital part.
Drained their blood, cut into small parts, removed unnecessary parts, salted the meat, and wrapped them with large leaves.
He put the meat inside his bag, making it heavy.
With all that finished, he went back to his camp, the one that he had abandoned before... well, not literally.
He looked at the cloud that drifted into the sky, thinking of what he should do.
Even though the 'future' had changed, some bits of the 'future' he knew still remained.
One more day to go, before the Monsterphilia festival will commenced.
He was wondering, with his knowledge, just maybe, he could prevent the Monsterphilia's incident from happening, but Bell's growth will be slower.
Should he do it? Should he stopped Freya? He could resist her charm, but that was all.
"(No... too risky... maybe... I should just prepare some countermeasures against the monsters... haa... ever since I'm here, I've been so busy...cooking, hunting... avoiding... maybe I should just go with the flow?...)"
*sound of twigs breaking*
With his knife in hand, he looked at the source of the sound to see a wolf, one hundred medre away from him.
Just as he planned to kill it, three small cubs emerged behind the wolf, running around.
Seeing the small cubs, there was no way he could kill the wolf now.
He relaxed his grip and tried to chase away the animals, but it remained there unmoved.
He noticed the state of the wolf that was too skinny, its eyes were barely threatening at all, as it looked at Shouji's bag.
With three cubs to feed, the wolf might had given top priority to its cub's survival by not eating.
Shouji knew that 'they' were animals that could kill, but still, he felt pity for the animals.
He took one of the dear meat out of the leaves wrapping, and proceeded slowly towards the cautious wolf.
Five medre away, Shouji laid the meat on the ground, and went back to his camp.
Soon, the cubs ate the meat as the wolf looked at Shouji, still wary about the human.
Soon, he left his camp, back to Oraria to search for a library, if there was one.
With the existence of the library, it will helped him a lot.
--New Scene--
"Syr! Your lunchbox. It was good, especially the chicken." Shouji handed the lunchbox to Syr.
"Is that so! Hee-hee!" She said before disappearing into the kitchen.
Shouji walked towards the counter, "Good afternoon, Mama Mia."
"Oh? Shouji. Need anything boy?"
"Um, is there a library here?" Shouji asked, hoping that Mama Mia would knew about it.
"Library... East Main. I think there was one there. It's good to read some, boy. Train that brain a bit... Adventurers this day only know how to just go into the Dungeon and beat the crap out of the monsters without a slight knowledge. It will not hurt to know a little, you know." Mama Mia said as she gave Shouji a piece of paper.
With the information given, Shouji now knew where to go next.
But before he went, Mama Mia had given him a package. "Give this to the old man." And she walked away, leaving Shouji with a vague overview of the person he should meet.
--New Scene--
"(Hm? Is it this building?)" Shouji thought as he looked at the place.
There was a board with the word "library" plastered on it, but the building looked just like a normal house would.
He was expecting something like maybe, the Guild or the Babel Tower kind of buildings.
Nevertheless, he entered the building, a slight sound of a bell resounded as he opened the door to the entrance.
Inside, he saw the typical type of library, chairs, tables, books, except for there were nobody in here.
Except for the old librarian...
Shouji approached the old man, "Delivery, sir."
"Oh? A delivery for me? Here." The old man pointed.
Shouji put the package on the table.
He looked at the name tag on the old man's chest, the word "Melvrich" was written on the name tag.
"Sir Melvrich? I want to read." Shouji told the old man.
Melvrich went to get a small paper, and gave it to Shouji.
Shouji looked at the small paper, which had things like "books borrowed", "borrowed date" and "given date".
At that time, Shouji had realized that Melvrich was an elf, by the looks of his pointy ears.
He took the small paper, went to a section of the bookshelf, looking for any books related to any spell that could seal memory, if any.
Few hours later, he didn't find any books that would help with his problems, so, he decided just to read anything that might interest him.
"(The kingdom of Ares... The legend of Orario... The Hero of Orario...The three ancient beast?)"
He took the latter book and took a sit, preparing to read the book.
After a few minute skimming and scanning, he thought about the book.
It said that this three ancient beast had escaped the Dungeon, which made Shouji asked himself.
How? How could they fit the small entrance of each floor? Or was there something that he had missed?
"The three ancient beast."
Shouji was startled by the sudden appearance of the old man, nonetheless, he calmed himself down.
It got him thinking, elfs had a long lifespan, so maybe, just maybe.
"Is this book based on real event, Sir Melvrich?" Shouji asked curiously.
The old man stood there in silence, before he decided to speak up.
"Of course, in fact, I had witness it, the three ancient beast. The three king of monsters."
"But, how did they got out? I mean, the entrance to the Dungeon is pretty small? How-"
"Of course, they just destroy the entrance. Simple as that. They're the king of monsters... and there is only one of them left to kill."
"One?" Shouji asked.
"Yes. The two had already been slain. Now, only the Black Dragon remained." Melvrich said as he pointed at a picture of a Black Dragon.
Shouji eyes lingered onto the drawing of the Black Dragon.
Then, the sound of the clock snapped him back to reality.
Shouji looked at the clock and noticed that it was almost 3 pm, so he bid his goodbye to Melvrich.
"Maybe I'll come again tomorrow!" He said before he exited the building.
Melvrich looked at the book "The three ancient beast", melancholy struck him.
--Memory Start--
The dark sky seemed like it was a warning for the people.
Lightnings repeatedly flickered from places to places as the sound of battles resounded through the area.
In a wooden house...
An elf boy was cowering under a table, lights flash a couple of times as the whole structure trembled.
"...mom... *hic* *hic*..."
Soon, the building made a rattling sound as cracks started to form around the surrounding.
Melvrich was scared.
He was afraid because the building were shaking violently.
He never seen the building shook like that before.
Cracks started to form as the stucture around him made a creaking sound.
Soon, the structure of the building went down as his surrounding started to break into pandemonium.
He expected to be hit with things, but he felt nothing happened to him.
He opened his eyes.
"Mom..."
He was being embraced, protected by his mother.
He couldn't open his eyes with his head being plastered onto his mother's chest.
But he felt secured, feeling the warmth of his mother.
Soon, he felt something warm drenching him, but he couldn't see what it was.
He was tired.
He noticed that the surrounding was eerily quiet.
And soon, darkness claimed his consciousness.
He once woke up after he felt something cold drenching him.
The sound of heavy rain filled the surrounding.
"Mom?" He said as he looked at his mom sleeping beside him.
There was no response from his mother.
"Mom. It's raining. We'll get sick you know..."
She didn't respond.
"Mom..."
Melvrich reached out towards his mother, and saw a bunch of thick woods sticking onto her back.
Looking down on the ground, he noticed that the water was all red as the rain washed it all away.
"Mom... wake up *hic*..."
He shook his mother gently in an attempt to wake her up.
After a few minutes, he stopped trying.
She was not waking up.
Soon, he felt the earth trembled in a consistent manner.
It was as if a giant was walking around, causing the earth to move.
He was scared.
He tried to find a hiding place behind some rubles, but not too far away from his mother.
He didn't want to leave her.
*tremble*
He closed his mouth as he saw a gigantic foot just a few medre in front of him.
With sharp dark claws and skin as dark as the pit of darkness, the beast continued onwards and flapped its wings, which caused strong gales of winds to spread out on the area.
Melvrich looked up to see the large beast tore through the clouds as the cloud steer away, creating a rain free area beneath the ground.
Sunlight shone on the earth, and Melvrich was shocked.
The forest that once he called home was no more, bodies of elves sprawled here and there.
A few were complete and some were incomplete.
He snapped out of it as he remembered about his mother.
Looking at his mother location, Melvrich was heartbroken.
His stomach felt like constricting as something was desperate to come out.
He vomited.
It was too horrible.
He couldn't look at his mother's figure that was... unrecognizable.
The only thing that was intact was his mother's right hand.
And from there on, weeks passed by before he was founded by some search party.
--Memory End--
Melvrich put the book back at where it belong, and returned to his job.
How many years had passed and none had managed to defeat the vile beast.
--New Scene--
At the entrance of the Dungeon...
"Is everyone here?" Finn said at the group.
"Yup! Tione here!"
"And Tiona too!"
"Here." Riveria answered.
"...here."
The exploration team of Loki familia were consisted of five high-level adventurers, and two supporters.
Today, they decided to just explore the Dungeon just to have some fun.
It was their free time, so they had decided to do some hunting.
"You do know that the day after tomorrow, Ganesha familia will hold the 'Monsterphilia'?" Riveria asked Finn.
"I know... but I don't like it..." For a split second, Riveria could feel the resentment in his voice.
Slowly, they disappeared into the Dungeon's entrance.
--New Scene--
After his training with Ryuu, he met with Bell as he was on the way to the church.
This time, his shirt was intact as he decided to be shirtless during the training session with Ryuu.
Few minutes later...
"Deer meat with ketchup sauce, and some veggies. Here you go!" Shouji put the food on the table.
Immediately, Hestia and Bell ate the food in a rush, but managed to restrain a bit, not like last time.
Soon, Shouji joined the two eating.
And then, Bell retired early as he slept on the bed, Shouji and Hestia were upstairs in the church.
"Shouji."
"Yes?"
Hestia was hesitating, whether she should let Shouji met with Hephaistos.
She was worried about the boy, but she knew that she can't decide on what he should do.
"Hephaistos wants to meet you." Hestia spoke slowly.
Shouji was silent, his mind was thinking on what should he do.
Hephaistos was Hestia's friend, but that was all that Shouji knew.
Should he trust her with his secret? He needed to make a desicion.
"I'll meet her... when?" He asked.
"Tomorrow..."
Hestia was on her way to sleep, but she saw that Shouji had stayed, "Can't sleep again?" Hestia asked.
"Yeah..." Shouji answered.
"(...at this rate, I might be tired all day...I need to sleep, but how?...)"
He was thinking of exercising, but he didn't want to get sweaty.
Then, an idea had came up into his mind, a very brilliant idea.
"I know how to sleep!" Shouji claimed.
Hestia was startled by Shouji's outburst, and she felt confused because "everyone know how to sleep." She thought in her mind.
She followed him into the basement where he grabbed a cup and a spoon.
Immediately, he 'swapped' the two object repeatedly until he couldn't 'swapped' anymore.
Soon, he was hit with the 'mind down' symptom.
He could feel his vision starting to dim.
Hestia watched the boy, confused at what had just happened.
Of course she didn't know about 'mind down'.
Because she was a goddess, not an adventurer.
Beside, she was known as a 'lazy' goddess before in the past, so reading books? No way!
With that, she retired early into the bed with Bell.
000000000
7/1/1
Rng
--Bell.Cranell--
Valis: 21000
Equipment: Hestia knife, dagger,
--Bell.Cranell--
--Shouji.Tatsuya--
Valis: 5100
Equipment: Knife, axe, bag, new pouch
Magic: sight swap
--Shouji.Tatsuya--
