Note to readers, when I say giving someone a lap pillow - it is half-joking and a 'catch-all' for silly interactions - especially if something like Welf giving Bell a lap pillow. I thought that was clear but apparently not.
Moving Forward
After Bell-kun and Ais were thoroughly teased by their colleagues and goddesses, Loki wanted to make an announcement.
Loki "The Loki Familia will be planning an expedition to the 50th floor. With full expectations with Bell-kun will reach level 3 strength within 6 weeks, that is the target date of our expedition. We welcome other familias to join though we are setting a level 4 minimum. Having smiths joining would be a great help, Hephaestus"
Finn "Please contact me if you want to go. We do expect this to be a fun trip."
With the new expedition as the last major piece of business for the evening, many got thoroughly drunk and had to be carried home, including Gareth, Bete, Tsubaki, Ouka and Welf. Even in the merry atmosphere, many did noticed that Ais left with the Hestia familia. As Loki had announced, a level 6 would always stay with Bell-kun during his recovery. At Hestia's insistence, Ais would sleep on a different floor as Bell-kun...
- A Week Later -
Bell was still slowly rebuilding his strength. He had reached a point where Airmid will allow him to spar. Airmid did attended Bell-kun's sparring to monitor his progress. To start, Bell started sparring with Welf and Ouka for 2 hours in the morning and 1 hour in the afternoon, leaving plenty of time for test and recovery. Welf and Bell were pretty even strength-wise when they started, while Ouka was able to give Bell a couple lap pillows.
In his off-time, Bell practiced his magic, firing firebolts into dummy targets for 3 hours after dinner.
Everyone was fully satisfied with Ais' recovery, as she had regained her full strength. They also successfully tested lil lafarga. While Bell started sparring, Ais went into the dungeon for her Hestia funding mission. Tiona, Tione, Lefiya and Bete went along with her. When Ais was in the dungeon, Gareth stayed with the Hestia familia as a bodyguard for Bell-kun.
- Three Days Later -
Airmid was satisfied with Bell-kun's conditioning, allowing him to increase training time to 3 hours in the morning and 2 hours in the afternoon. After the 3 days, Bell was still pretty even with Welf, but Ouka was no longer a mismatch. After dinner, Bell-kun continued to practice his magic for 3 hours.
In the dungeon, Ais and her group were hunting for magic stones and drop items between the 37th and 45th floors.
- Four Days Later -
Ais and her group had returned from the Hestia funding mission. It was quite successful, with Ais' share of the treasure worth 30 million valors. That brought Hestia's debt down 20 million valors, a tenth of the original number. There was a mini-celebration for the Hestia members and the Loki members.
Bell continued to progress in his training at his typical accelerated level. By the end of the week, there was clear improvement in his strength. Instead of a typical level 2 adventurer, he was closer to his original strength when he reached level 2 several months ago. As a result, Bell gave Welf a couple lap pillows, while Bell was about even with Ouka.
With the return of Ais and her group, Bell started sparring with Ais and Tiona for 3 hours in the morning. Ais could tell that Bell was still weaker than before the Apollo War Games. Thus, there were many lap pillows served everyday, making both Ais and Tiona happy.
In the afternoon, Bell would spar with Ouka for 2 hours. When Ouka was not available, Mikoto and Welf would team up to battle with Bell. That was quite a mismatch with Bell having lost a lot of speed, which allowed Welf to gave Bell more lap pillows.
In the evening, Bell continued to practice his firebolt for 3 hours. Ais and Bell would also start practice a joint attack with firebolt and ariel in which they time their attacks. With the resulting fiery tornado, they had to find a safe location to practice they join attacks outside the city.
- A week Later -
Bell continued to progress in both his strength and speed. By the end of the week, he appeared to reach his original level 2 strength, which is similar to a typical level 3.
Bell also continued to be beat up by Ais and Tiona. In fact, Tiona was having so much fun that Tione decided to join in the lap pillow fest.
With Airmid's approval, Bell was now practicing 3 hours in the morning with Ais, Tiona and Tione. In the afternoon, he practiced for 1 hour with Ouka and 1 hour with Mikoto and Welf and 1 hour with Ais.
With the week of progress, Bell was giving lap pillows to Ouka while receiving far less lap pillows from the team of Welf and Mikoto.
In the evening, Bell continued to practice his magic for 3 hours. For half that time, Ais and Bell would be practicing joint attacks with firebolt and ariel to improve their aim and timing.
- Another Week Later -
Bell's rate of progress continued to be at his 'typical' fast pace. By the end of the week, Ais believed that he had finally returned to the strength and speed he reached before the Apollo War Games.
For the morning, Bell-kun still sparred with Ais, Tione and Tiona. Of course, the girls were still much stronger than Bell, and they could get lap pillows any time they want. And there were so many lap pillows that they had their 'own competition'...
In the afternoon, with Ouka having had too many lap pillows, Aisha replaced Ouka for sparring. At level 4, Aisha had significant advantages over Bell and thus gave Bell many lap pillows.
Bell also made a lot of progress against the team of Welf and Mikoto. As a result, there were no more lap pillows, though they still had an advantage double-teaming him.
In the evenings, magic practice became focused on joint magic use with Ais. By the end of the week, Ais and Bell could synchronized their spell launching. It was a devastating flamethrower whirlwind aimed precisely at targets.
Finally, Airmid tested Bell-kun and determined that he roughly had the strength of a typical level 3. At the end of the week, it was about 1 month after the celebration. Thus, actual improvement was roughly within Airmid's expectations, which was based on Bell-kun track record of 1 level every 1 to 2 months. As a result, Bell-kun was allowed to enter the dungeon again.
Preparation for the Dungeon Mission
It was 2 weeks before the mission. While Bell kept sparring to improve his strength and speed. He was also practicing his magic with the mission in mind.
With the initial success of the joint attacks, Bell and Ais wanted to start using argonaut charged firebolt with lil rafaga. That did require Ais to practice carrying Bell-kun in the air. There were 2 obvious options, Ais princess-carrying Bell-kun and Bell-kun getting a piggyback ride from Ais. With the humiliation of being princess carried, they went for the piggyback approach.
The very first time they tested their combined finishing move, they went a good distance away from the city for safety concerns. Both familias also went along to witness the test, and Asfi was flying below for precautionary reasons.
As they got into position, Bell-kun had been charging argonaut for 1 minute. As Ais activated lil rafaga, Bell-kun fired off firebolt. The result was really intense as they launched forward in a huge fiery tornado. With no target, they simply flew a good distance in their flaming inferno, with Asfi again following a good bit below them.
Suddenly, tomato-red Ais "Aaaaah, ... Bell, hand, hand, hand"
Bell-kun, who was captivated by the firestorm, was wondering what Ais was talking about.
As he was starting to ask, he noticed his left hand was clinging on something wonderfully soft and was squeezing regularly and happily by itself. Along with the comfort sensation came instant shocking embarrassment"
Embarrassed Bell "Sorry! Sorry! Sorry!", letting go of the softness, though along with the loss of comfort from the stress reduction mechanism.
When Bell-kun let go, he forgot that he was no longer holding onto Ais, thus started falling towards the ground!
Realizing that Bell-kun was falling, Ais sped towards him, as Asfi was also getting ready to intercept the falling Bell-kun. Fortunately, Ais was able to catch Bell-kun pretty quickly before Asfi had to attempt to catch a plummeting adventurer far below. They landed shortly and rendezvous with their familias.
Worried Hestia "What happened, Bell-kun?"
Bell "I forgot and let go and started falling"
Loki "How could you forget, you should have been holding on tight. We do not want a repeat of the tournament!"
Bell "I understand"
Hestia "Bell-kun, whatever happens, do not let go"
Bell-kun "Yes goddess"
Loki "Ais, did you notice anything that caused Bell-kun to let go?"
Having to tell the truth, embarrassed Ais "Bell got nervous and held on to the wrong place. So he let go", causing everyone to OMG and Loki to think perverted thoughts.
Hestia "I promised to let you do whatever you want. I even supported you with all the pretty girls! But flying in ariel is not the time to do such things, Bell-kun!"
Loki "Bell-kun, absolutely no naughty stuff during flight!"
Bell-kun "Goddess Loki, Goddess Hestia, I am sorry, but I was nervous and did not realize what my hand was doing..."
With the mystery unraveled, they started more practices after a short break for recovery potions.
In the following practices, Bell tried hard to control his hand, but after launching argonaut strikes, his hands appeared to have their own mind. Almost half of the time, Ais found the same naughty hand doing the same stress reduction. Having experienced the potential danger, Ais learned to contain her own reaction and only used her hand to move Bell's hand whenever it was doing its own thing...
At the end of the day, Bell-kun's hand was becoming a problem. While there were no more falling incidents, everyone could notice Ais' unusual flight patterns following the launch of the finishing move. That is a dangerous time to lose control at the heat of the battle. Thus, a new flying position had to be figured out.
The next day, it was decided that Bell-kun would be princess carried, despite the embarrassment. Thus, the pair took off to practice while their familias looked on with big grins on their faces.
Bete laughed "I rather die than be princess carried by a girl, lol"
Tione "I bet you would die to be carried by that girl lol", making the wolvie growl.
Tiona laughed "Argonaut-kun is really cute being cradled by Ais, lol"
Finn smiled "This is an embarrassing position for Bell"
Riveria smiled "Seems kind of adorable to me lol"
Hestia "Bell-kun looks ridiculous, but it is safer"
Welf "Bell, that is not a good look, ROTFLOL"
Lili "Welf, don't tease him too much. This is safer"
The results of the test was mixed. They were in control with the finishing move, but however, Ais did not have the use of her hands during flight. Thus, she could not attack or defend herself with her sword, and Bell can only defend against frontal attacks and attacks from the side where his arms were. That brought them back to the drawing board.
The next day, they tried both positions again. But it became wandering paw versus Ais without the use of her hands. However, Asfi came up with a suggestion. She could build a safety harness for Bell-kun so that he is clipped onto Ais to reduce the chance of a free fall, and furthermore, Bell-kun would be linked by a short chain to Ais to prevent a total free fall. This reduced the chance for a deadly accident, but there was no solution for the wandering paw. Ais simply had to learn to fly better when the paw did its own thing. Experiencing the entire mess was making Loki pretty envious...
By the end of the two weeks, substantial progress was made both in strength and speed recovery as well as the joint magic attack.
Bell was able to fight Aisha almost evenly and thus also started sparring with Raul, who gave Bell-kun many lap pillows. Bell-kun was also finally able to fight evenly against the pair of Welf and Mikoto. Thus, Bell-kun physically was roughly at his original level 3 strength and speed.
On the magic front, Bell-kun and Ais had their timing down for simple short-chant strikes as well as launching their finishing move. Also, having adjusted to Bell-kun's free hand during their flight, Ais was able to maintain her flight control much better after their joint release.
Thus they were as prepared as could be when the dungeon mission launched...
