A/N: yo wys. K so I re-read my previous chapter, I realised how quickly I was moving things. Like in the beginning he was at the hostess, antagonising Ryuu who was his friend. By the night, he had already found Haruhime. Also, funny thing is, if you remember the last chapter, Bell kept repeating, I have a plan.
Let me allow guys a secret... I have no fucking plan on how they will combat them. Truly, I have no clue, but I guess it'll be pretty similar to the canon. Bell goes in after getting caught, he finds Haruhime in time and decides things from then on.
Bell felt extreme displeasure. He thought that even after the massive hint he dropped to Hestia about how much he hates secrets, she would tell him about Liaris Incrementum, but she still chose to remove it. 'Sigh, I guess making her tell me straight away was an expectation I shouldn't of had. Oh well, I'll give her a bit more time to come clean' Bell thought as he went to train.
"Bell kun, I think you should sleep for now, you didn't get to sleep all night after all," Hestia told him.
"Nah I'm good. A bit of coffee will wake me right up," Bell said as he went down to the kitchen to make some coffee. He sat with some breakfast and coffee on the table and just ate quietly. He knew he was being watched by Welf, Lili and Mikoto from the door but didn't bother telling them about it.
"Hey.. don't you think he's being a bit weird?" Lili whispered to the two above her. They both nodded.
"Yeah, he suddenly knows where I am going, readily calls war on Ishtar familia, he is going so far just for a girl that he doesn't even know," Mikoto said.
"and yesterday, he suddenly asked for a new weapon as well, a sword this time," Welf whispered as both Mikoto and Lili looked at him.
"And how's the progress on that?" Bell asked loudly without looking up. Although he could see from the corner of his eyes, they stopped moving. "you may find it strange, but all I'm doing is acting now. I just want to help Haruhime san and the other barbellas," Bell said.
"why do you want to help them though?" Mikoto asked.
"when have I actually had a reason for helping anyone?" Bell replied. Fair enough, he kind of had the habit of helping people because his nature was just too good.
"then why did you suddenly want a new weapon?" Welf asked.
"it's not sudden. I had been thinking about it for a while, You know that I train with Ais san in the mornings, I just asked for it the first time yesterday. I had a weird dream which ironically spurred me on to asking you," Bell said.
"what dream?" Welf asked.
"Well, from what I can remember... It was of me, repeatedly being stabbed in the stomach by a sword, while someone kept on taunting me to 'use my knives and block it'" Bell said. The others stared with open mouths.
"so you had a nightmare?" Welf asked.
"essentially," Bell said sipping coffee. The concept seemed dumb, the fact that because of a nightmare someone asks for a sword is stupid, but very Bell like. They sighed relieved, it seemed as if they were worrying for nothing. Except for Lili. Lili didn't care for the pleasure quarter incident or the weapon request, when she asked them about the changes. She was referring to his attitude. Which was still present, it seemed as if Bell had changed who he was completely overnight. He somehow became more knowledgable, more impulsive yet he had perfect reasoning behind every single one of his actions.
This sort of... perfection was what confused Lili. Bell, by no means was meant to be perfect. He was a crybaby, who held a true admiration for heroes, and that all added up. The fact that he even talked with Haruhime all night about heroes made sense. However, the fact that he so readily jumped to go to the pleasure quarter, while somehow already knowing the situation was extremely bizarre. Ultimately, Lili did not address it thinking she was just being paranoid.
Bell and the others all decided to go into the dungeon.
Bell had done a good thing the day before. Had he gone to the dungeon with this party and gotten injured simply because he wasn't used to his weaker body, it would be very suspicious. Thankfully, he had adapted and managed to use the faster mental cognition to his advantage. He kept his cool through the battles and the party went down all the way to floor 20.
"Woah, we've been on a roll up till now," Welf said as he killed a battle boar. The party had been moving pretty efficiently, they made it to the 20th floor in relative ease. Bell was stuck thinking.
'This isn't even to grow fast enough' Bell thought, although it was risky he decided to ask. "hey guys, do you think we can go a bit deeper?" Bell asked. They all looked at him.
"I don't mind, but we don't know what type of monsters come up after this floor," Welf said.
"no, it'll be too risky," Lili said. "besides have you forgotten, we are only level 2?" Lili asked.
Bell went back to thinking then he decided to go back. While they were walking back Welf fell back and started talking to Bell.
"So, why did you suddenly want to go further down?" Welf asked curious.
"I don't know, maybe the fact that we would be attacking the Ishtar familia has put me a bit on edge?" Bell said. Obviously, it was a lie. He just wanted to see how much his familia could grow if they were put against a true challenge, now that he had Liaris Incrementum. His familia could grow faster as well.
They went back to get their statuses updated and surprise surprise all of them grew much faster than normal.
"WOAH, what the hell is this increase? I went up by 20 points in just one day?" Welf said his eyes bulging. Bell found the whole ordeal quite hilarious. All of them looked like drug lord, with how big their eyes were.
Bell got his own status updated
(Cba to put all the details in again, he went up by 30 points ok?)
'30 points huh? This isn't good enough. I need to be a high level 3 at least to be able to fight the Ishtar familia even decently well.' Bell thought. He once again thought of telling his friends to go deeper but then he remembered it. Originally he was supposed to be taken by the Ishtar Familia in the dungeon. If they went too deep, and he got kidnapped, there would be no way of his familia making it out alive.
They all went to have dinner, though all of them could see that Bell was distracted. He was staring outside, at the moon. However, all of them chalked it up to the fact that he was worried of saving Haruhime in time. And While yes, he was quite worried about that, he also had other worries, his main worry was preparing for the phalanx in the distance. After all, they had arrived after only 3 years of Bell being the dungeon city. When he had become a level 8 and stopped growing as fast after having no reason to level up. He stood on equal footing as Ottar.
But the appearance of the Phalanx changed everything. With a new stronger hunter, Bell once again desperately wanted to get stronger, not for approval, but for survival. He wanted his comrades to grow. Thus his skill came to existence, if only he hadn't stopped growing then perhaps his comrades could've still been there with him. Regardless, this time would be different.
Bell went to "sleep" and after a couple hours, he snuck out to go to the dungeon. He had to keep an exact track of time, after all, the earliest person to wake up there was Welf, at 6 am and the rest soon after. Of course Bell usually woke up at 5 but this time, he would be in the dungeon. He gave himself a half hour window to get back.
Bell raced through the floors. However, his existence seemed to change things, now that he was there by himself. It was much more different than usual. It was as if the dungeon was intentionally giving him harder opponents. He made it to Livira at floor 18 before he decided to head back. The minotaurs and other opponents had been more difficult than usual, nothing impossible, but he felt the difference between day and night. He fought and collected the magic stones.
It was early morning, at 5. The guild had just opened for the early birds. 'It would be suspicious if I just appeared with money after one night, what should I do with it?' Bell thought. Until, he got the idea to give it to Maria's orphanage. Bell put a cloak on, because people would otherwise see him. He gave in the stones for a hefty, 29,000 valis. Solo, run in one night? Not bad.
On his way to the manor, he took major side trip to Maria's orphanage.
Normal POV
Maria had just woken up. The kids inside were still sleeping obviously, it was too early for them to get up. As she decided to quickly broom up the outside, she saw a cloaked man approach the gates.
"maria san," the man called out. She walked cautiously towards them before, the cloaked man took off his hood to reveal, snow white hair. It was Bell.
"Oh? It's Bell kun, why are you wearing a cloak?" Maria asked confused.
"I decided to secretly walk around for a bit, either way, I came to give some money." Bell said holding up a bag of valis. It seemed quite large.
"Oh, no I can't take so much, I appreciate the consideration but it's too much," Maria said trying to wave off the money. Bell still insisted.
"I know, but please take this and buy something nice for the Kids. Maybe some jagamarukun for them," Bell said. Maria was hesitant but sighed and accepted the money. Bell bade farewell, and left towards his house.
He entered through the window on his room, although he lived on the second floor, nothing a jump can't achieve. Bell took the opportunity to quickly sleep a bit.
He was however, woken up within a couple hours by Welf.
"Man it isn't like you to oversleep." Welf said as Bell yawned.
"yeah, I don't get what is going on with me right now," Bell said tired. Of course he knew what was going on, he just pretended to be dumb. He went down to have breakfast with the rest. He got his typical black coffee.
(COFFEE IS JUSTICE IDC)
"ugh, I can't believe you can actually drink that." Welf said slightly disgusted.
"I don't know, I am not that fond of sweet things, I mean I don't mind them. But when it comes to richness and flavour, nothing beats coffee," Bell shrugged.
"Heh, so you like coffee, I guess we do learn everyday" Welf said.
Soon, Bell finished his breakfast. So did the rest of them. "alright let's get going to the dungeon," Bell said as he geared up.
"I won't be going today, after all, I got someone's sword to finish." Welf said.
"suit yourself, how about you come with us only until floor 10 then," bell asked.
"Well if it's just 10 then we can do that. Although why do you want me to come?" Welf asked.
"materials." Bell said.
They all went down the dungeon. A few noticeable changes in Bell fighting. He seemed more... ruthless. He went straight for the throat, in one effotless swing he killed the monsters.
"hmm, seems like this new skill is pretty useful." Bell said.
"Oh? You got a new skill?" Lili asked.
"yeah, it's part of the reason I wanted to come today. I got a new magic spells as well." Bell said.
"WHAT?"
"Yeah, I don't know how that worked," Bell spoke.
"Well what is it?"
"you'll see, for now let's keep going." Bell said. His luck status led them to finding some good materials to use. After the 10th floor Welf came back up and the rest continued to Rivira.
As they approached the 18th floor they heard screams coming from the Goliath's room.
"AAAAAH SOMEONE SAVE US," a man screamed.
"Ok, so we don't need to go to floor 18 today," Lili said.
"That's a bit heartless don't you think?" Mikoto asked.
"say that when we have more members, there is no way we can fight the thing if we go now, let's go Bell sama," Lili said only to see Bell walking towards the boss room. "BELL sama, did you not hear me?"
"Do you not know me, you honestly think I'll just spin around and leave?" Bell asked without turning around. Then he dashed.
"tsk. Should've known." Lili said as she followed.
In the room
As the Goliath was whacking around the party. The swordsmen's sword broke. The female swordwoman, was bleeding badly. and their healer was down.
"God damn it, I said we were too early to go down to Rivira," the woman said. "now, we're gonna die."
As the Goliath was about to hit them by swinging its hand.
"FUUUUCCCC-" but the hit never came. The woman opened her eyes to see the arm of the goliath get blazed with cuts. "what the" she said as cuts appeared one after another. Obviously, to a level 2, a level 3 like Bell, who moved especially faster since his last two levels agility reached 1300+ she couldn't see a thing.
"hey you ok?" Lili said as she came to the party. "alright, so not ok," she answered herself. She got a potion and gave it to them.
"Who is fighting, I can't even see them." The man asked.
"that's our captain fighting that thing right now." Mikoto responded.
"Mikoto, get your magic ready," Bell shouted while blitzing about. He dodged efficiently, and made no wasteful movement.
"Alright Bell dono." Mikoto responded as she started chanting.
"alright everyone close your eyes, unless you want to go blind," Bell shouted.
"almighty sun, burn my natural enemy, steal their sight and encoat their vision in darkness, SOLAR ECLIPSE." Bell chanted as he became a yellow burning ball of flames. It seemed almost as if a mini sun had covered him, the goliath's eyes burning out. The surrounding body parts also burning. Bell continued to damage it. Lili only stared wide eyed, his new magic, new fighting style. Could this type of change occur overnight? She was shocked to see him overwhelming the goliath. He moved about in such a manner, the goliath didn't even know where to hit.
"wow..." the swordswoman said.
"Bell dono, I'm ready." Mikoto said, seeing Bell move away, "FUTSUNOMITAMA," she chanted as a purple barrier covered the monster. She progressively shrunk the monster.
"no don't Mikoto. Just put enough pressure on it so that it can't move, don't try and crush it." Bell told her. Mikoto did as told. She knew better than to doubt Bell especially after his recent displays.
Bell went forth, he took a sword from the ground without asking. 'Development Skill, Blademaster' he thought as his back glowed a faint white. See, it was actually one of his skills activating. Blessing of Time. The other skill Bell got from coming back. It had primarily two main benefits. One, it allowed to temporarily access one of his abilities from the future. Or call upon a certain type of power he was aware of, such as the fact he could use Ariel if he so wished. Although, it would be weaker and temporary access only. This somewhat broken ability allowed Bell to use just about anyone' magic, as long as he knew how it worked.
However, with development abilities the rules were bent a bit. The development ability was full to the max, it couldn't be weaker if it only gave a certain trait. So in this case he could temporarily use his development skill Blademaster, which gave him complete mastery over all types of blades, knives, spears etc.
He used the sword, with double efficiency, making the owner of it stare in awe, not that he could see him move, but the fine cuts that appeared on the body were evidently precise. Soon however, Bell jumped off.
"What's he trying to do?" Lili asked. All of a sudden, they could hear the tolls of Bells. They immediately understood what was going to happen.
" Firebolt," Bell shouted as the head of the goliath was blown off. The monster disappeared and a massive magic stone was left behind alongside a drop. 'heh luck is the best' he thought.
"You guys ok now?" Bell said as he went back. "sorry, I had to borrow this for a quick sec" he said with a gentle smile which reminded the people of human compassion once more. The girl blushed.
"ah, no it's fine. I didn't expect people to just help like that." The woman replied, "I am Maya by the way." she added.
"no problem Maya, I wanted to try out a new attack anyways so I guess it's a win win." Bell said. "alright so we will be going now,"
"wait, Bell sama, what about the gem and drop item." Lili asked.
"We broke the dungeon rule. We stole their monster without permission, we aren't allowed to take it without permission." Bell replied. Mikoto nodded.
"but Bell sama!" Lili exclaimed.
"Lili dono. Bell dono decided on something, we should respect it." Mikoto added.
"it's fine, you guys can take it, we just wanted to go to Rivira because we heard of it being like a paradise in the dungeon." Maya told them.
"no, I can't simply do that. You need the money more than us, I mean, not to be rude, but you will need better equipment if you want survive deeper down." bell said. Maya thought for a second.
"Then how about this, we split things in half. But the drop item you can keep, since I doubt it would've been there with just us anyways." Maya proposed. bell was hesitant since, he didn't like taking other people's things but to save himself from Lili's constant nagging he agreed.
Then they made their way back up and through the entire process, Bell urged Lili and Mikoto to do most of the killing. Throughout the entire thing, Bell kept thinking of the future, 'this isn't fast enough... we need to be going deeper, faster' Bell thought. Although, the floors they were covering wasn't deep, thanks to Bell's evolved Liaris Freese, his companions are getting much stronger. He suspected, Hestia would do something about it later on, she would most likely send him off on an errand while she talked to them.
Even in the future, Bell was furious with Hestia when he found out that she was hiding his skill. He found out when she accidentally forgot to throw away one of his other sheets. Bell questioned her with tears in his eyes, she stared shouting at him, acting all possesively. However, at the time, there was some issues going on with Aisha in the city, she was believed to be a traitor, believed to have slept with a phalanx, which was obviously a lie. So when Hestia had refused to shelter her, He decided to leave her familia and went to the Hermes alongside Ryuu, who surprisingly wanted to help Aisha out even though she evidently had a dislike for the amazoness.
Now, he hoped that if Hestia was given enough evidence, she would crumble and admit it herself without him explicitly saying he knew it. He really hoped it to be true, he had realised before, just how important Hestia was for him, but he couldn't forgive the fact that she kept it a secret. Especially, since if he knew, he would've worked harder, although, he can't be making those excuses.
When they got back, they were all shocked at the growth, except for Bell who knew why but pretended to be shocked.
"I... w-went up by 50 POINTS?" Lili shouted. In a single day of dungeon diving, it was surprising in itself.
"I too, went up by 50 points, this is honestly surprising. At this rate, we'll level up very soon." Mikoto said with glitter in her eyes. However, the surprise came when it was Bell's turn to get his stats updated.
"WHAAAT? THE HELL HAPPENED" Hestia screamed from on top of Bell.
Bell Cranel level: 3
Title: Little Rookie
Str: 300 - 340
Vit: 321 - 357
Dex: 311 - 333
Agi: 401 - 500
Mag: 333 - 350
Magic:
Firebolt
Solar Eclipse
Skills:
Liaris Incrementum
Inheritor of Kronos's will
Blessing of time
Dev. skills:
Luck
' his stats went up by over 200? his agility went up by 99? How did he go up so much. This is like 3 times his usual growth.' Hestia thought baffled.
"uhh... Hestia, mind getting over me if you are done?" Bell asked snapping Hestia back to reality.
"Oh, uh sorry," she said as she put the paper drew the circle and got off.
'hmm, it must be because of that skills evolution. Oh my God, I need to have a talk with the others' Hestia thought.
Bell decided to pay a visit to Welf in his shed. He could hear the sound of hammer and metal clanging.
'oh boy, he won't be able to hear me anymore..' he thought as he remembered of Welf's absolute concentration. He decided to take the goliath material and left it next to Welf with a note.
Bell had dinner and as he expected, Welf never came, not surprised he took some dinner and left it in the workshop alongside a lot of water. He was working with fire, his thirst should be overwhelming.
Bell then went to "sleep." and once again repeated the process. This time it was even harder to get Maria to accept the money, he would have think of better ways. He decided to take a small portion of the 40,000 he earned that day, and took it with him.
2 days of repeating the same thing Maria had enough, she started lecturing Bell.
"Bell san, you can't keep giving away money like this. This large quantities is absurd, what are we going to do with so much?" Maria asked. "you have your own familia to manage right, keep it to yourself." She told him. Bell backed away slightly.
"Maria san, don't be like that. I have no need for this, that is why I'm giving it to you. Besides," he paused, Maria could've sworn she saw a small flash of nostalgia in his eyes, "I'm sure there are some aspiring adventurers in here, keep it for them. I know how it was to start adventuring with basically no gear, this will all help them in the future." Bell said.
"that's... still no reason to give away this much. You gave us over 100k valis in the last 4 days alone, a level 2 party would only dream to make that much, and you are giving it to us?" Maria scolded him. It was true, the amount of money Bell was bringing in was absurd. However, he had good reasons anyways, his skills became polished more and more, he was even going to the 23rd floor now, and considering he came back relatively unscathed everytime, his strength was really taking on form.
"Maria san, take it, if you feel like the people here, in Daedelus street need it more than you, then you should give it to them," Bell told her.
"why don't you give it to them?" She asked as she watched Bell start walking away.
"You are a priestess, I am but an adventurer, their opinion of me may change at any given point, however, you will forever be a worshipper of the Gods, they will never forsake you." Bell said as he left. The words leaving a true impact on Maria.
At the Manor
Bell returned to sleep. However as he soon woke up, now that he was using the energy potions, he heard someone running up the stairs. Bell immediately gave way as Welf seemed to skyrocket into the air.
"Yo, Bell, you have to look at this, I finally finished the sword." Welf said excitedly.
"as much as I would love that, I think we both need some breakfast first, besides, you need a shower, how are you going to show yourself to Hephaistos sama in this state?" Bell said as he pushed Welf to take a shower.
"but the swor-" Welf tried to argue.
"it can wait, you hygiene cannot, now take a shower before I am forced to bathe you in perfume." Bell said. Welf got a bit mad, but took the shower. He came back within 5 mins and was about to drag Bell out.
"wait." he said.
"what now? I thought you would be the most excited for this sword?" Welf said.
"I am, I haven't been able to stop tapping my feet for a while now." Bell said as Welf noticed it, and said oh. "Lili come here," he told her. "sniff him,"
"why would you want me to do that?" Lili asked.
"experiment." Was all Bell responded with. Lili hesitantly took a whiff, and she told him, he smelled fine. Bell then went into the shed with welf. On the table, lay a polished laque of a wooden box. The cover saying the words 'masterpiece' Bell cringed a bit, but he opened the box and his eye shone like a jewel.
The sword was a perfect electric blue with white lines branching out as if it was lightning. A single edged one hand sword, that fit in his hand perfectly. The grip made of some black material, and a pure matte black sheath for the sword. The holster redesigned, to hold both knives and a sword. It was a masterpiece. Bell gave it a couple test swings, it flowed naturally. he felt as if he was using Blademaster, without actually having it yet. It felt... so right.
"This has to be the weapon you have made for me," bell complimented Welf who only pushed his chest out even further. "don't push your chest out so much, you'll look like you have breasts." Bell joked. Welf laughed and didn't push his chest for the rest of the day.
"Well my friend, I have the money ready but before that," Bell said as he started walking to the door, "come with me. I'll prepare you for tonight." Bell said with a smirk.
"What's tonight?" Welf asked confused. Bell's grin got wicked.
"It's your date night, with Hephaistos." Bell replied. "Don't worry, you got the best wing man in Orario," Bell said. Welf turned pale.
"I uh... need to go the toilet for a bit," Welf said as he tried to run. Bell stopped him.
"Welf." he said with a serious tone, Welf turned back to look at Bell, "Although, I don't say much about it, but considering we are going against the Ishtar familia which has a disgusting level 5 toad captain. Our survival is dependent on her arrival. We may as well die, so don't run from this chance. Take it." Bell said with a heavy voice. His voice low but having every bit of impact he needed to have on Welf.
"Bell..." Welf said in a tone which he himself could not distinguish. 'So you too have been worried about this. No wonder you are trying to push us so hard in the dungeon.' Welf thought. "fine, let's get ready for this." Welf said, Bell eased up and smiled.
"Oh by the way, you're gonna have to ask Hephaistos on a date. It would feel wrong if you didn't. So first, we get a decent outfit, then you ask her out for a romantic dinner." Bell explained.
"never did I think Bell would be my wing man, how the times have changed." Welf said aloud.
"yeah, well, you are very important to me," Bell said, "I never knew my family, maybe I even had a sibling who knows, but if I ever had an older brother, I would want them to be like you." He said as Welf stared with wide eyes. This may or may not be part of a major ploy Bell had. His goal was easy to understand, raise the morales. None of what he said was a lie, but the timing he used was specifically to get Welf to be more confident and driven.
And boy did it work wonders. Welf found Bell a bit different, but he didn't mind the change. And that's precisely what Bell wanted. He knes he could never hide the sudden changes. I mean getting two new skills and a new magic all at once, would raise questions in itself. But if his personality changed all of sudden, it would bring the attention of people like Lili. Hence, this is what he's doing.
He is making them aware of the changes, but he's doing it in a way that they don't mind, they like the change hence, they don't question it.
Bell regardless took Welf clothes shopping.
"Hm, yes that looks quite good on you," Bell judged. It was like a red kimono. Except it suited him perfectly. His well toned muscles from forging really made their presence known, not too burly but not one you would mess with easily.
"Yes it may look. But the price? That doesn't look Good." Welf said looking at the price tag.
"Oh don't worry about the price, I'm paying for it." Bell said as he went to the cashier. In fact, it had been years since Bell went shopping with his familia, perhaps it was just his desire to do such a thing while peace lasted that he was doing it.
"wait, seriously no Bell it's fine I'll pick," Welf tried to speak but Bell glared at him menacingly.
"Thank you for your purchase." The cashier said as Bell and Welf (still wearing that outfit) left. The outfit seemed to do the trick as Bell found people glancing with a few rosy cheek at Welf. 'look at the difference some clothes made for him.' Bell thought. As they approached Hephaistos' workshop. Thankfully, Tsubaki was busy so they didn't have to deal with her, so they went directly to Hephaistos's office.
"come in," she called out. Bell entered first. "ah, Bell welcome how may I help you?" she asked with a smile.
"Oh uh.. I actually didn't need anything. But it seems Welf has something very important to ask you," Bell played Welf into a trap. Internally, he was grinning from ear to ear.
"W-Welf has something to ask, I see. Well, where is he?" Hephaistos asked. Welf entered and just did as Bell told him. He held his posture tight, he gave a genuine smile at Hephaistos.
It seemed to do the trick as Hephaistos' face turned the same colour as her hair.
"ah- yo, Hephaistos sama," Welf said politely.
"hwelo.." Hephaistos said and a moment of silence passed. It took everything in Bell to stop himself from burst out laughing, Welf only blushed a little as he found it pretty cute, while, Hephaistos... was internally dying.
Bell pushed Welf signaling to continue.
"uh... would you, like to have dinner.. together?" Welf asked.
"t-today?" Hephaistos asked.
"y-yeah..." Welf responded. A moment of silence passed.
"g-g-give me half an, no, an hour." Hephaistos said reduced into a blushing mess.
While Welf and Hephaistos were being awkward Bell slipped a note into Welf's pockets and dipped. It was dungeon time for him.
He returned to the manor. After giving Welf tips. Lili asked where Welf is and he told them that he went on a date with Hephaistos. Mikoto had a blush showing her innocence.
Bell went into the dungeon after everybody went to sleep. He took his sword, unable to hold himself back from testing them out. Needless to say, he was giddy. It was the same as the future, whenever he had a new good weapon on his hands, he would want to fight really badly. He was often called battle junky but he couldn't care less.
Bell started clearing floor after floor, meanwhile, in the pleasure quarters
Isthar sat atop a throne, her hair tied up, in contrast to her rather slutty appearance. (Just the easiest way to describe her) Her thoughts had recently been preoccupied by one adventurer. Bell Cranel. The past few days she had her people look into him. She was now getting a report.
Aisha walked in. "So, I did what ya asked." She said.
"Oh go on, tell me," Ishtar replied.
"well, it doesn't seem like he has any troublesome special connections. The Hestia familia have connections with the Takemikazuchi, Miach and Hephaistos familia but they are unlikely to attack for him. He does have close ties with the Loki familia." Aisha reported.
"Loki? What's up with that?" Ishtar asked curious.
"well it seems, they had coincidental inclusions from the past. Then as Bell started levelling up faster, it seems to me, that they got some interest in the guy." She reported, "but... from what I can tell, they aren't likely to attack us only because of him."
"hmm, are you speaking the truth?" Ishtar asked releasing her charm. Aisha started blushing a bit.
"y-yeah I am, they merely are acquaintance level. It isn't likely that they'll declare war on us for just one brat."
"perfect, then tomorrow you and a few others will kidnap Bell Cranel from the dungeon. Take Haruhime with you. You two are the same level." Ishtar told Aisha. Her eyes widened.
'How the hell did the guy predict things this far?' Aisha thought surprised.
"any issues, Aisha?" Ishtar asked.
"nah, I ain't got none." Aisha said as she went back to work.
Back in the dungeon
Bell had made his way to floor 20 within an hour and a half. It was surprising how much progress one can make in such times. Bell's outfit was different. To avoid suspicion he made sure to wear a mask although one could say his white hair was like a trade mark, but this mask was different. This mask had special properties, meaning when Bell wore this mask, his eyes turned midnight blue and his hair was coated black. Almost as if he was a raven. The mask covered up to his nose, leaving his eyes and forehead out in the open but it still affected his entire face. It had detection warding properties, although at a minor scale as that would become too costly.
As he was running through the dungeon, he came across Ais.
"A-Ais?" He said suddenly. Ais's head whipped round.
"who are you?" Ais asked in an aloof tone.
'distant as ever I see, I can't believe I liked her. I mean, she didn't reciprocate my feelings, which I get. But it still hurt for young Bell man' Bell thought. " Sword Princess, what are you doing here this late at night?" Bell asked trying to mask his voice.
"you..." Ais said coming closer, Bell thought he was busted. "you smell like jagamarukuns, you had recently didn't you?" She asked face close to Bell's mask. She couldn't see but he was blushing pretty hard right now. But after the question, Bell couldn't help but burst out laughing. "why are you laughing?" she asked with a pout.
"Sor.. sorry, I didn't mean to make fun of you. It's just that, I have been for the past couple hours and you just brought that up of all things. pfft," Bell held back his laughter. "but yeah, you were right. I just had a jagamarukun, I brought with me. I still have one, but it won't taste fresh, you want it?" Bell asked. he had to make an effort to hold back his laughter once more as Ais's face lit up and she starting nodding enthusiastically.
Bell took out the food and gave it to her. "Grrrr," they heard as they turned to see a small pack of lizardman approach them.
"let me handle this, you just eat that," Bell said patting Ais' head out of familiarity. She didn't deny it, after all, anyone who gives up their jagamarukun could never be bad.
'you know what, let me give her a surprise' Bell thought.
"DI ASLA (DEVOUR THEM IN AMAZONESS LANGUAGE APPARENTLY?)" he cast as his sword became imbued with deadly poison. He ran fast, and made cuts on the lizardmen. The poison was quick acting and they all crumbled to the floor dead.
'Strong...' Ais thought as she finished up her jagamarukun. Bell picked up the magic stones. He thanked the fact that in the future, he had seen plenty of people use magic, now he could use their magic. Including Bache Kalif's Velgus. If he roared firebolt here, there would be no point to the mask anyways.
"Hey.. what's your name?" Ais asked.
'shit, I didn't think of anything to tell her.' Bell panicked. "uh... please call me Wrath," he said.
'aaaaaahhh, that's such a bad name. Seriously, brain you couldn't think of anything else?' internally Bell regretted his life choices.
"I see... well Wrath thank you for the food, I'll see you around." Ais said.
"you probably won't. I prefer to move in the background, this time I just got unlucky." Wrath/ Bell told her.
(From now, Bell will be referred to as both Wrath and Bell)
The next morning
Bell went by the orphanage.
"Oh, hello." Maria said as she sweeped the front step.
"Hello Maria san," Wrath said.
"Bell san? What happened, why is your hair black?" She asked.
"Oh right, I forgot to take this off," he said as he took off the mask. His hair returning to the same pure white colour and eyes becoming red.
"I got more money..." Bell said as he held up the bag.
"sigh, Bell san, I can't keep accepting money like this." Maria said exasperated.
"take it and fix up the building or something Maria san, those kids need a good foundation to grow upon, please accept it." Bell said as he practically shoved the bag of valis to Maria and left.
'sigh, is he working at night for this? I can see the deep bags under his eyes... Gods, I pray to you, please don't let any harm come to this man.' Maria prayed.
It was finally the day, Bell's plan will be put into motion.
A/N: So I decided. This series will go up every 2 weeks while, the other series will go up whenever I feel like it. I mean u saw right, the last chapter was more than 20k words, so it will evidently take a bit of time to write. Either way, thank you for 50k views, that is a big milestone to reach in just 3 months.
Bless.