Chapter 9: Armor, the First Line,

I'm sitting at the table, actually eating breakfast for once.

Bell said he needs to tell us something. It's probably about what happened with Lili…

"So, uh, Goddess Hestia?" Bell says "So, uh… er…"

I tune Bell's awkward stuttering out. I wouldn't know how to say that someone you trusted betrayed you, to the person that said that they didn't trust them.

I pretend to be shocked, mirroring Hestia, when Bell finally gets around to it, and the same when he says that he still wants to help her.

"Bell, are you sure?" Hestia asks

"Yes, she reminds me of me before you came for me, Goddess," Bell explains

"I'll leave you too it. I really don't want to deal with drama, so sorry if I'm being rude." I say rudely before also leaving rudely.

Honestly, I can't stand drama.

It's the opposite of my cup of tea.

I get that I'm being a jerk, but still.

I'm shopping on Babel's 8th floor now. The prices here are quite cheap. I have all 15,000 of my valis on me right now, and I'm ready to use every last bit of it.

I look at all the hidden boxes. I can't find anything by Welf Crozzo, and nothing really speaks to me.

I keep looking.

Look up at a higher shelf and bang my head on an overhanging box.

I look at it. Welf Crozzo, whadya know. It's so damn Cliche that this is how I find it.

I look inside the box.

Perfect.

1 set of medium-light armor.

1 single edged sword.

And 1 circular shield.

It's like this set was made for me.

I look at the price tag.

Perfect

It's 14,990 Valis.

I take the armor out and try it on.

What do you? Perfect Fit.

This was definitely made for me. I'm buying this. 100%

I grab the box and head to the cash register.

A man in a grey clothing that has red hair is standing there arguing with the register. Welf.

He kinda just pushes the Welf aside.

"I'd like to buy this please," I say handing the box over

Welf stares at the box in shock. The register does too.

The register does something extremely rude and asks "You sure you want this?"

"Yep" I say "My familia member got some armor by the same smith, and really likes it, so I wanted to try some too. Plus, I need to graduate from beginner's equipment sometime."

Welf looks very, very upset.

"What the Hell! I made that and you're trying to get customers to not buy it!" He yells

The register ignores him before writing down that I bought it. Then I hand over all my valis.

"That was quite rude, you know," I say to the register as I hand over my Valis.

They just stare at me as I take gear out of the box. I walk out of the shop.

Why am I being so rude today?!

I look behind me to see Welf flashing me a smile before going back to arguing.

"So… have you figured out what you're going to do about Lili?" I ask Bell

"I'm going to ask her to be my supporter again." Bell says

"Cool. Also… I can go Dungeoning with you now!" I say

Bell smiles. I smile back. "Wanna go now? We can show each other our magic." I offer.

"Sure!" Bell says

We put on our gear, grab our weapons, then head out to the dungeon. It is only noon right now. We still have quite a bit of time left.

I'm definitely going to stop myself from drinking monster blood today.

We enter the First floor. A Goblin charges us.

I don't even bother to use my sword against it. I kick it's groin and smash it's face under my boot. Then I rip open it's chest and grab it's magic stone. I lick the blood that lands on my lip.

Bell looks at me in half horror, half astonishment.

"What?" I ask "I shouldn't waste my blade's sharpness on a Goblin skull."

Bell nods. I stick the magic stone in my backpack.

I start walking towards the entrance to the next floor.

Another monster, a Kobold this time, walks towards us. Bell uses the Hestia Knife to slit it's throat before cutting open it's chest and grabbing it's magic stone.

We continue forward.

We go down the steps to the second floor.

We continued on to the 5th floor, where we are now.

I slice a Frog Shooter's tongue off. Bell dashes in and stabs it through the eye, and into it's brain.

It falls dead. This floor is probably too easy for Bell…

"My status is mostly up to E. We can go higher." I tell Bell technically, I can go up to floor 9 with my status.

"We'll go to floor seven then." Bell tells me

Fighting against a bunch of new enemies should be exciting...

I stop on the head of a Dungeon Lizard before sticking my blade through it's neck. Honestly, I think this floor is too easy for me now too.

I bend down, cut open the Dungeon Lizard's back, and grab it's magic stone.

I'm definitely ready to face the whole of the First Line. If you don't know, the First line is floors 5-7, and are known as such for killing off a bunch of Rookies.

I follow Bell towards the entrance to the 6th floor.

Bell jumps over the tongue of a Frog Shooter before once more hopping like a rabbit and stabbing the Frog Shooter in the brain from the top.

We continue on our way.

I stab my sword through an ambushing Dungeon Lizard. I get the Magic Stone before continuing to follow Bell.

He takes a turn and goes down a set of stairs.

I take my first step on floor 6.

I ready my sword. I use it with one hand, so I ready my shield too.

Three shadows seem to melt off the darkness of the roof of the tunnel.

Creepy.

I hold my shield close. The dark Shadows gain red eyes and charge at us.

Bell shouts "Fire-Bolt!" with an outstretched palm. One of the Shadows lose their eyes and falls backwards.

Bell starts fighting with one of the Shadows, and I can barely keep up with his movements as he dodges in and out away of the Shadow's claws.

I block the last shadow's claws with my shield. It's tough. So these are War Shadows, huh?

I stab my sword towards the monster, only for it to meet my blade with it's claws. They snap, but I fail to kill it. I bash it with my shield and stab it with my sword again.

It's red eyes lose their light. I cut open it's chest and take it's magic crystal.

That was a very short, but difficult exchange. I'm not used to fighting things that can actually block me. This must be why these floors kill off so many rookies.

Bell finishes off the war shadow he was fighting.

"Want me to show you my magic?" I ask

"Yea! What is it?" Bell asks

"...I'm warning you, it's self harming magic, that's quite gory and freaky." I say

"Okay..?" Bell says

I cut my finger on my sword, before starting to look for a monster. I hear the hopping of a Frog Shooter.

Imagine my blood forming a small disk in front of me. It does, and quite a bit faster than last time. The Frog Shooter flicks it's tongue towards me. I dodge and let it eat my blood.

Bell seems like he's going to ask me something before I say "Give it a few seconds. I advise you to take cover."

Bell nods his head before taking cover behind my shield with his eyes poking out from behind it.

I duck behind my shield too. I hear a thud as the Frog Shooter falls over. Bell starts to get up, but I push his head down a bit.

He lets me push him down.

A loud pop makes itself heard as the Frog Shooter's head explodes like a bomb.

Blood rains all over the place.

"See? Gory." I say

"Yea! That was really cool too!" Bell says. He's a sucker for magic, isn't he?

"Yep. I kinda wanna test it on a Killer Ant." I tell him "Expeccially one that's a horde of Killer Ants, so it's skull kills it's party."

Bell nods, agreeing.

We get up and start walking towards the entrance to the 7th floor.

I cut into a Killer Ant, but leaving it without killing it, before cutting a needle rabbit in half.

Bell finishes off a purple moth before asking "Are we really going to bait a horde of Killer Ants?"

"Yep," I say "I want to see if it actually acts like a bomb."

I can hear the clacking of other Killer Ants closing in now.

I draw my sword across my arm. I'm also going to test if the magic is actually more powerful if I add more blood.

I make the blood form a cube about half the size of my head, much bigger than any other time I've used my blood.

I make my Blood start to enter the wounded Killer Ant before moving away. I look at the Killer Ant from behind a corner.

A dozen Killer Ants enter the room from the opposite direction that I am at. They crowd around the wounded Killer Ant.

Explode, now! I think

It works. The Killer Ant starts to screech louder, clacking it's mandibles wildly, before it gets a dead look in it's eyes and it stops moving. The other Killer Ants move to inspect it before a loud Boom! Sounds out.

Me and Bell duck behind the corner. I can see Blood Splattering past me.

That was… much, much more powerful.

When the rain of Blood ends, I look at the mess.

Blood, bits of brain, bone, and everything else in between are all over the floor and walls.

I walk over and pick up the 13 magic stones on the floor.

Bell's just staring at the mess.

"Neat, huh?" I say

"Yep," Bell says

I think we're a bit scared of my magic…

I walk into the Guild building with Bell.

Eina's at her front desk this time. I walk up to her.

"How deep did you go?" Eina sighs

"To the seventh floor." I tell her "But before you start yelling, Bell went with me, so…"

"Fine. At least you got new armor too." Eina says

"Thank you." I say

After that, I walk over to the turn in station.

I hand over me and Bell's magic stones and get 10,000 in return. I go over to Bell and hand him 5,000 Valis before saying "I know it's not nearly as much as you usually get, but this is what we got."

Bell nods and says "I kinda miss Lili…"

"Yea a supporter would be really nice…" I sigh

We had run out of space in our bags in the dungeon and had to leave quite a lot of magic stones behind. We probably could have gotten twice as much if we had someone to carry it all, even if it's only late afternoon. We didn't actually spend all that much time in the dungeon today.

I get an annoyed expression on my face. I forgot I was going to take today off…

5,000 Valis is much more than I usually get too.

We exit the Guild and head back to the Church.

We finish up eating.

"Hey, uh, Hestia?" I ask "Umm… are we going to get more members?"

I actually wonder about this. We should get some members before Hestia's debt is found out.

I've decided to not stop it from happening. I've decided that I would like to keep the familia small, so I'll let it happen. But I do need to get Hestia to get more than just a few members.

"Hmm?" Hestia blinks "Of coure!"

"Shouldn't we look into expanding our home at least a little bit first? I can build a little." I ask. It's true too. My dad and mom redid the house in my first life, and I had to help a bit, so I know how to do some basic building, or at least some basic fixing.

"Ah… yea, we should." Hestia admits

"I'll start tomorrow then." I say "Goodnight"

After that, Hestia once again drags poor Bell into her room, and I lay on the couch and go to sleep.

Goodnight, world.