Welcome back. Sorry for not posting for a long time, got caught up with homework. You guys ever have that one teacher that like on the first day of school assigns like 4 papers and 30 assignments? Well, that was all my teachers this semester. Thankfully they're due throughout the semester. Still doesn't make it better. Trust me though, I'm still working on these stories. As of now, Elemental Hero's chapter is halfway done. I'm also starting work on a new new story that will be released at a later time. Yeaaah, I write a ton. As a sort of apology, I went to town with this chapter and wrote a ton of stuff. I could've written more honestly, but then I'd burn myself out. So, next chapter will pick up where I left off. And yes guys, I named their child Max as an homage to Maxim, the previous Zeus familia captain.

Fair warning though, for this story a couple characters may be out of character, but it's fine. Guys honestly, I have a huge arc planned out later and I honestly think you guys will love it. Is it weird that I've half written that arc before even writing this chapter? Idk.

ANYWAYS, enjoy the chapter!

"So where are we stopping by first mom?" Bell asked.

"First we're stopping by the guild to re-register our familia back and to get you registered too. After that we'll head to babel to get you some armor. It's on us this time, but don't expect us to pay for everything in the future." Alfia said. She did not want him to become too dependent on them, even though she'd give him the world if he asked. What? Doesn't everyone get to spoil their son?

"I know. Thank you so much!" Bell said with a smile. Alfia's lips betrayed her and returned the smile back.

"Here we are." Zard announced as they reached the building. It was huge, and packed too. Well, that was mostly due to the crowd that followed the heroes there. They didn't dare say a word but wanted to see the two heroes in all their glory.

"I can help the next in line!" A half-elf worker called to them after an adventurer left.

"H-How can I help you?" She asked them a little intimidated by how big Zard was.

"We'd like to re-register our familia as active. And to get this one registered." Zard told her.

"That's fine. What familia would that be?" She asked completely unaware of who they were. The other adventurers and workers in the know were in shock and awe.

"Zeus familia." Zard said.

"Huh?" The half-elf asked surprised.

"So it's true!" An adventurer shouted.

"Zeus familia has returned!" Another yelled.

"""""WOOOOOOOO!"""""" They all cheered.

"Silence" Alfia commanded. And just like that, the crowd dispersed.

"Z-z-z-zeus familia? Uhm, are you two 'Silence' and 'Gluttony' by any chance?" The half-elf asked the two nervously as she remembered how the two heroes were described and how these two fit the bill.

"Yes. That a problem?" Zard asked her.

"NO! NOT A PROBLEM!" She replied. "But uh, who is this?" She asked looking at Bell.

"Our son, Bell." Alfia nonchalantly said.

"""""WHAAAAATT?!""""" Everyone shouted.

"Do you want to die?" Alfia asked and brought up her fist. The crowd once again disappeared.

"Good. Can we hurry this up elf? It's too noisy in here." Alfia asked the half-elf.

"Oh, I'm sorry. Yes. We'll just need you all to sign a couple papers. And my name is Eina." She said.

"Alright." Alfia said.

….

"Does it usually take this looong?" Bell whined as Alfia and Zard were signing away.

"We've been inactive for over 15 years kid. Did you really think this would be a walk in the park?" Zard asked as he looked up from his mountain of documents.

"And this is all because of Ouranos. That old god really wants to make us his lap dog. It feels like were signing our lives away." Alfia groaned.

"Hey, why don't you take Bell to Babel and get him some armor? I'll finish up here." Zard said to his wife.

"Really? Are you sure?" She asked him.

"We've survived worse." He joked.

"Thank you Zard." She said softly. "Come on Bell." She added and stood up.

"Coming!" Bell replied.

….

"And this, Bell, is Babel tower. The lid to the dungeon. And where we're going shopping." Alfia told him.

"Wow. It's even bigger up close." Bell gasped.

"Just wait till you get inside Bell." Alfia said and led him inside.

"So, where exactly are we shopping mom? The only way it looks like we can go is down." Bell asked and pointed towards the stairs leading down into the dungeon.

"That's not the only thing here Bell." She said and led him to a strange floor.

"Stand with me." She instructed.

Bell followed and when they both stood on the strange floor it lifted into the air..

"Huh? What is this?" Bell asked.

"It's an elevator silly." Alfia laughed.

"Mooom." Bell whined.

"Fine. It's a magic item that lifts us up to a new floor as you can see." Alfia explained as they kept going up and up.

"Wow. Orario sure is advanced." Bell said amazed. "Which floor are we stopping on?" He asked.

"We'll be stopping at one of the Hephaistos floor shops. I hear they've improved since last I was here." Alfia said.

They stopped at the 6th floor and got off the elevator. Bell looked at the cramped quarters with the many adventurers squeezing to get through one another.

"Uh, it's smaller than I thought it would be." Bell pointed out.

"Did you really think I was going to get you godly armor to start out with? You'll have to earn it if you want better equipment." Alfia told him. "That doesn't mean I'm not going to leave you out to dry. Come on. We'll see where some good starter gear is." Alfia said with a smile and led him to their first stop.

…..

'What's with women with their shopping?' Bell thought to himself. They were at the 26th shop on this floor while Alfia kept searching for decent enough armor for her Bell. Hell, at this point bell would just put on whatever an amazon calls armor and go home rather than stopping at the 30th shop. Huh? When did they get there?

"Moooom! Just let me get whatever. It's almost sunset." Bell whined as he stared out the window.

"Not yet Bell. We need to find you the perfect set of armor so that you won't end up dead." Alfia explained and looked at another set of armor.

"I won't get the chance to die if we spend an eternity looking for something!" Bell replied.

"Watch your tone boy." Alfia warned.

"Yes ma'am." Bell said and froze in place.

"Aghh. There's nothing here either. On to the next place." Alfia said and made for the door.

"Not agaiiiin." Bell whined and followed.

"Come on! You've gotta charge more for that!" A voice yelled at a nearby shop. The two turned to see a certain red-haired smith arguing with the clerk.

"That one looks a little busy. Next one." Alfia said and kept walking.

"What are they arguing about?" Bell asked.

"It could be anything. Let's go." Alfia replied.

Bell was about to follow her when he saw an armor set way in the back of that shop. His curiosity got the better of him.

"Hang on mom, I'm gonna check in there." Bell said and entered the shop.

"Huh?" Alfia asked and turned to see Bell gone.

"Let's see. Where was it? Hah! Here it is." Bell said to himself and found the armor set he was looking for. It was a light armor set with red highlights. It looked like it was just his size.

"Of course it had to be red." Alfia complained as she caught up to Bell.

"Mom can you get me this set?" Bell asked and held up a piece of the armor. Alfia took it from him and started to examine it to find anything wrong with it.

"Well, I'm no smith or anything, but at the very least it looks decent enough. Does it have to be red though? It reminds me of a certain useless supporter I'd rather not remember." Alfia said.

"So is that a yes?" Bell asked with stars in his eyes.

"… Ah what the hell. Sure. I can't say no to that face." Alfia said with a smile and played with his hair. "Grab it and let's go." Alfia told him.

Bell put the armor piece back in the box and picked it up and followed his mother to the worker to pay for it. When they said they'd like to buy it the worker chuckled a bit.

"Is something wrong?" Bell asked him.

"Believe it or not kid, but remember that loudmouth that was here when you walked in? That's the smith that made this set." He told him.

"Oh really?" Bell said and looked down at the armor.

"Yup. So, will that be all?" He asked.

"Know where we can get some good weapons for cheap old man?" Alfia asked.

"Hey, I'm not that old." He said sadly. "2 floors up. You'll find a shop at a corner after the elevator. He's a buddy of mine and makes great weapons for reasonable prices."

"Thanks. Here you go." Alfia said and handed him his money and left with Bell following.

"Pleasure doing business with ya." He said and grabbed the coins.

….

"Wow it fits really well!" Bell said happily after trying on the armor set back at the mansion. He was looking in a mirror and checking himself out. "It's really easy to move in." He noted. He picked up a greatsword that Alfia got him and admired how cool he looked with everything on. They had stopped at that shop the clerk told them about and got the greatsword and 2 knives as backup. Zard had teached him how to use a greatsword but Bell wanted to try to be a little different from him. He didn't want to solely use a greatsword, hence the knives.

"Alright." Bell said after putting everything away. "Tomorrow we'll see how well this stuff is." He said and took one more look at his armor. "Welf Crozzo huh?" He said as he read the smith's signature out loud. "Hope your work keeps me safe." He joked and put it with the rest.

….

"Ouranos wants us to do what?!" Alfia asked angrily.

"You heard me right. He wants you two to travel to the deep floors and bring back some drop items that haven't been seen since we left." Zeus said.

"I know but aghh. We don't have any supporters and no way in hell I'm bringing Bell straight down there." Alfia groaned and sat back.

"We may be able to hire other supporters from other familias." Zard told her.

"The lowest floor explored since we left is floor 58. Ouranos wants us to bring items from the glacier zone from floor 59 onwards." Alfia said to him. "Everyone here is too weak to do anything." She added.

"Hmm." Zard hummed in thought.

"This is impossible. I can't go down there because I have to feed Max." She said softly and looked at her son snoring softly.

"We can't exactly refuse Alfia. This is one of the terms for letting us back in." Zeus said.

"Dear, how fast can you get down to floor 50?" Zard asked.

"You really have to ask? If I hightail it, it shouldn't take more than a day." Alfia said nonchalantly.

'I forget how strong these two are, even with their illnesses.' Zeus thought with a sweatdrop.

"How about I head down there myself and in about a week you run down there with more supplies for me? I won't need much." He told her.

"But I'd still need to feed Max." She said.

"Hmm." Zard went back to thinking.

"Why don't you bring him with you?" Zeus joked.

"I'll kill you now." Alfia said and gathered her magic.

"I'm joking! I'm joking!" Zeus yelled pleading for his life.

"Please don't kill him dear. You'll wake Max up." Zard asked her.

"Fine." Alfia said and calmed down.

"Thank you Zard! You were always my favorite!" Zeus yelled and hugged Zard.

"Quit it." Zard said and pushed him off.

"Alright." He added. "I'll go down there myself. Like I said, it shouldn't take me more than a week." He told them.

"Oi, are you serious?" Zeus asked him.

"I know you're strong but even you being down there by yourself is dangerous." Alfia said concerned for husband. "We don't even know if using our full strength will worsen our sickness." She added.

"Well, I'll definitely find out." He joked with a small smile.

"Hey. I'm serious. I don't want to lose you." She said and took his hand.

"Don't worry Alfia. You know it'll take a lot more than those frost giants down there to kill me. And we've gotten better over the years. I'll be fine." Zard told her and squeezed her hand to reassure her.

"I know." She said softly and looked down. "I don't want to lose you too." She said.

"You won't." He said and kissed her forehead.

"Awwww. You're making an old man cry here." Zeus teased and wiped an imaginary tear away. Zard immediately picked up Max and ran away so he wouldn't wake up from what happened next.

"GOSPEL!" Alfia yelled and sent the god flying through walls.

….

"Hyah!" Bell yelled as he tore through another goblin.

"This is easy!" Bell said as he cut another one down.

"Well of course it'll be easy. It's a goblin." Alfia said as she watched him have fun.

"How is the armor?" She asked.

"It's great!" He said while looking at his armor once again. "It's not too tight and it lets me move around well." He said and started moving around to demonstrate.

"I wish you'd get better armor to protect yourself more." Alfia said.

"So, Dad really went to the deep floors by himself?" Bell asked worriedly as he took a break.

"Sadly, yes. He will be gone for about two weeks." She said with a sad look.

They all spent the last 2 days getting supplies for Zard and today was the day he left down there. He had stayed to watch Bell kill his first monster and then had to leave for the deep floors.

"Do you think you'll be okay from here on out?" Alfia asked him.

"Yes mom. And I know, I won't go past floor 2 today." He said.

"Okay. I'm going to head to some lower floors and get some money. I'll see you at home later." She told him.

Meanwhile…

"Come on Max! You're going to get me so many women today!" Zeus said as he dressed Max up to hit the town.

"Abbbbaaba!" Max mumbled in excitement. It was time to have fun with grandpa Zeus!

….

Later at Floor 58

"HAAAAAA!" Zard yelled as he slayed another Valgang dragon.

"This is odd." He noted as he got closer to the stairs heading to the next floor. "Why can't I feel the cold air?" He asked himself.

If his memory was correct, by now he should be feeling the chilly air of the glacier zone from where he was. But it was still as hot as ever.

"This isn't right." He said as he made his way down the stairs.

When he made his way to floor 59, what welcomed him there wasn't the cold icy glacier zone he was used to, rather there was a huge jungle zone there instead.

"What the hell is this?" Ha asked as he looked around the area. There were trees all over the place and there was an abundance of green everywhere.

At the center of the floor he could see some type of tall monster eating some new species of monsters. It looked like some giant caterpillars that willingly let themselves be eaten.

"What the hell is this." Zard asked.

'This is bad. It looks like some sort of enhanced species. I need to stop it before it can get any stronger, but who knows how strong it is now. I may not be strong enough to fight it myself.' He thought to himself.

Suddenly, a whistle was heard and he was attacked by vine-like monsters and some stray caterpillars. He easily fended off the attacks which surprised the red-haired woman above him.

"Just who is the person?" She asked quietly.

"Funny. I want to know the same about you." Zard replied and jumped to where she was.

"So you found me out." She said.

"It's been some time since I was last here. Don't suppose you'll tell me what this is." He asked.

"I suppose I could tell you. Right before I kill you." She hissed and drew her sword.

"We'll see who's dying soon." He replied and brought his greatsword down and pointed it at her.

The red-haired woman charged at him with a rush of attacks that would've killed any normal person. But Zard was no normal person.

He easily deflected all her blows without moving from his set spot.

"Is this all you've got?" He asked her.

"Tch. Don't get cocky." She replied and changed up her strategy and tried attacking him from all directions. Amazingly, he kept blocking all of her attacks, even the ones he couldn't see. After a few minutes of this onslaught, the red-haired woman backed off to catch her breath.

"Are you done yet?" He asked calmly while twisting his greatsword around. He wasn't even phased.

"Hah… hah… just… what are you?" She asked, still trying to catch her breath.

"Just a normal adventurer." He said and charged at her landing a single punch to the side of her face which sent her flying 50 meters away crashing into multiple trees.

"Okay oww." She whined while holding her fractured jaw.

'Is he a level 6? No,7?' She thought to herself. 'If this keeps up I'm definitely dead.' She added.

"Alright you lot. Attack him!" She commanded and the nearest vines and caterpillar monsters all made a beeline towards Zard. The red-haired woman took this opportunity and left.

As Zard killed the monsters, the caterpillars started spewing some sort of purple colored acid. He dodged it and saw the trees that the acid hit disintegrated into nothing.

"Maybe I should avoid those." He mused.

After taking care of the rest of the monsters he noticed that his blade had started to dull from the caterpillar's acid.

"Well, this could pose a problem. I still need to find the glacier zone. If it even still exists." He said to himself.

He decided to call it a day and headed back to floor 50 where he had set up a mini camp. As he made his way through floor 58, one of the dragons he killed left some scales and claws as drop items.

"Excellent. It won't be perfect but this will sharpen my blade for the meantime. I'll have to see Hephaistos when I get back for repairs. How hard can this be." He said and took the drop loot with him.

'Now, what should I do with this information?' He thought to himself. 'That red-haired woman could not be stronger than a level 5, so how did she get down here all by herself? It looked like she's a monster tamer. This could pose a problem in the future. I'll have to avoid that irregular monster and come back with Alfia to deal with it at a later time. Everyone here is too weak to go down there regularly so it should be fine.' He concluded.

….

"Here you go sir! 3,000 valis, keep up your hard work!" The female teller said to Bell and handed him his earnings.

"Thank you very much!" Bell said and took the coins from her.

'3,000 valis huh? Not to bad for my first day if I do say so myself!' Bell thought to himself feeling happy about how today went. He was finally a full-fledged 'adventurer' and had the valis to prove it.

"Although, I'm pretty sure mom could make like 50 times this in an hour if she tried." He said sadly thinking of the huge difference between them in terms of strength and experience.

"Hey! Get back here with that!" A man yelled from a stall. It looked like someone had stolen some food.

"Move it kid!" He yelled and ran through Bell.

"Hey come back!" Bell yelled and made to chase after the man.

"Stop right there!" A voice commanded from above.

Everyone looked up to see a red haired woman with light armor and a rapier at her side.

"Look! It's the captain of the Astrea familia!" Someone shouted.

"Alise! We love you!" Another one shouted.

"Get him Alise!" The people shouted.

"Astrea familia?" Bell asked.

"Mhmm! Are you new here kid? That's the captain of the Astrea familia, goddess of justice's followers, Alise Lovell. She's a level 6." A man informed him.

"Level 6? Wow." Bell said in awe.

"Are you alright young man? Were you hurt?" A female elf asked him.

"Huh? Oh I'm fine miss. He just bumped into me." He replied.

"That's good." She told him.

"Uhm, I'm kind of new here. Who are you?" He asked politely.

"Ah. I'm Ryu Lion of Astrea Familia. Nice to meet you." Ryu said introducing herself.

"Hello Ryu. I'm Bell Cranel." Bell said doing the same.

"Cranel-san, please be more careful. You never know when something like this may happen." Ryu told him.

"I'll keep that in mind." Bell said with a smile.

"Lion! Stop flirting with that kid and let's go home; Astrea wants to talk to us." Alise said after turning over the criminal to a nearby Ganesha member.

"Alise! I told you to stop saying nonsense like that!" Ryu yelled with a slight red blush.

"Please excuse me, Cranel-san." Ryu said and followed Alise away.

"Hey lucky you kid! Getting to talk with Gale Wind!" The same man from earlier said to him.

"Gale Wind?" He asked confused.

"Yeah. That Elf's second name is Gale Wind, level 6 as well from the Astrea Familia." He told him.

"Huh. I really need to learn more about this city." He said to himself.

"That you do kid." The man laughed.

"Well, I'll be off!" Bell told him and made his way home.

…..

"Mom! I'm back!" He yelled as he entered the mansion.

"Mom?" He called for her when he didn't hear a response.

"Mom?" He asked as he checked the living room.

"Mom?" He called as he checked the kitchen.

He repeated the process as he looked around the mansion looking for Alfia.

"Oh, Mom! I'm back." Bell called when he found her in the back with Max sleeping in her arm and a book in the other hand.

"Welcome back Bell." She replied.

"Hello Bell!" Zeus called from above.

"Uh, mom, why is grandpa hanging from the tree.?" Bell asked as he saw Zeus tied up and hanging upside down from a tree they had in the backyard.

"Punishment." Was all Alfia said and then went back to her book.

"What did you do now grandpa?" Bell sighed with a facepalm.

"Nothing! All I did was spend quality time with my grandson out in the town." Zeus said.

"You mean you used my son's cuteness to hit on women." Alfia said while glaring at him. "Now look at him. My poor baby is all tuckered out." Alfia said while smiling at Max.

"Again with that Grandpa?" Bell sighed in disappointment. Apparently, Zeus did the exact same thing with him when he was little.

"Oh mom! I made 3,000 valis today." Bell said with stars in his eyes.

"Good job Bell. Ah, I remember my first time going into the dungeon. It was too noisy." Alfia said while reminiscing.

"How many decades ago was that?" Zeus asked.

"Hang on Mom! Stop! Stop! Please Stop!" Bell pleaded while physically trying to stop her from killing Zeus as she just kept walking towards him with fire in her eyes.

"Please don't Mom! Dad is still in the dungeon!" He added.

"I'm not stupid enough to kill him while my husband is in the dungeon Bell. I'm just going to teach him a lesson." Alfia told him as she kept making her way towards Zeus.

"Mooooom!" Bell's voice screamed as Zeus said a prayer to whoever was listening.

1 1/2 weeks later

"Finally. I can get out of this hell hole." Zard said as he double checked the list of drop items and counted the loot drops he had. "Maybe I can get something for Alfia with the rest of this." He added thinking of what would go well with Alfia's beauty.

Truth be told, Zard found a crap ton of loot drops, just not the ones he needed. What took him the longest was the last item. 10 tusks from a wooly mammoth from floor 64. They were rare monsters, but since no one was there to kill them they were tons of them throughout the floors. They stopped being rare at floor 64 where the glacier zone ended as that was where they spawned and competed for food. Some that did not like fighting would wander up the floors in search of food.

"And a couple of Cadmus hides as well." He counted while looking at the rest of the loot. "I may have to leave a couple of things behind." He continued.

After packing as much of the loot as he could into a comically oversized backpack, even to his standards, he started making his way up the dungeon on floor 49.

"Those stupid caterpillars better not be up here. Else I'll have to make multiple trips if this bag tears." He said remembering when he was ambushed by those overgrown insects and destroyed one of his bags and had to carry the stuff by hand.

He was taking his time heading up to look around and see if anything else had changed in the dungeon since he last left. And on floor 40 he found other adventurers.

"Tiona! Ais! Save some monsters for the rest of us!" A loud voice was heard as the sound of fighting was going on. Zard out of curiosity of who it was made a detour and found the Loki familia fighting the few monsters that were there.

"Shut up Bete! It's not my fault there's any monsters to fight!" Tiona shouted at the werewolf.

"You'll scare all the monsters away with all that shouting going on." He shouted at an attempt to make a joke. The entire Loki Familia turned to him in surprise as they thought they were the only ones down here.

"Who are you? Show yourself!" Finn's voice was heard in the back.

"Not my fault you're still too short to see me." He mocked as he remembered who the voice belonged too.

"Zard!" Riveria gasped as she saw him. "What are you doing down here?" She asked.

"What else would I be doing down here? I'm down here running errands." He joked.

"T-t-t-that's what you call running errands?" A black-haired human asked as he pointed at Zard's oversized backpack.

"Yeah." He said.

"It's good to see you again Zard." Finn said trying to be nice.

"Can't say the same to you." He said while staring down Finn. If there was one thing he picked up from Alfia, it would be here disdain towards Finn for forcing their familias and her ill sister out of Orario. It didn't help that she was pregnant with Bell during that time and while the trip didn't end up killing her, it certainly did not help.

"HUH?! WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE TALKING TO THE CAPTAIN LIKE THAT?!" The other Amazonian sister yelled and made to attack Zard.

"Tione don't!" Finn warned, however it fell on deaf ears as she charged Zard for disrespecting her man.

"HAAAAA!" She yelled as she pulled out her kukri knives and got close to Zard.

"Aghhhh. Kids." Zard sighed as he just punched her in the gut which stopped her attack and made her instantly vomit out her lunch onto the ground as she held her stomach in pain.

"Tione!" Her sister called out and almost went to attack before Gareth stopped her.

"Trust me lass. He's too far out of your league. We're lucky he just gut punched her." He said.

"Finn. Keep your members out of the dungeon if this is how they react to any provocation." He lectured.

"Mind your tongue. Zard." He glared.

"Hoh? Still think you can fight me you conceited prum?" He said as he put a hand on his swords handle.

"I know you're still weakened from the Behemoth old man." Finn retaliated while gripping his spear tighter.

"FINN!" Riveria and Gareth shouted at him in surprise.

"Who's the weak one here? You lot still can't get past floor 50." Zard mocked.

"And you can?" Finn asked.

"As a matter of fact." Zard started and took his backpack off and dropped it on the floor, with the sheer weight of it causing a small earthquake from the impact. "Yes." He finished.

"C-c-captain! Is this Gluttony?! From the Zeus Familia!" The same human from earlier asked.

"Yes, Raul. It is." Finn replied.

"Uhm, Mr. Zard sir. What are you doing here?" Raul asked trying to diffuse the situation, no matter how much he wanted to flee.

Zard just stared at him causing Raul's flight or fight reflexes go haywire.

"At least one of you has some manners." Zard said while taking his hand off his sword.

"If you must know, I was down the deeper floors getting some loot drops from the glacier zone." Zard said

"That's a lie! No one has been down there for years! Not even the King has!" A cat person yelled at him.

"Take a look." Zard shouted as he pulled out a frost troll's coat and threw it at her.

"Is this for real?!" Gareth asked as he took it from her to examine it. "It is!" He yelled in shock. "Where did you get this from?" He asked.

"Where else? On floor 62 where they spawn." He replied nonchalantly.

This shook the rest of the familia to their core. The lowest floor they've been able to explore as a familia was floor 58, while this guy went to floor 62 by himself!

"As much as I'd love to chat, I'll be heading out now." Zard said as he picked up the gigantic backpack and put it back on.

"Uhhh. Wait! You're forgetting this!" Aki shouted as she was still holding on to the coat.

"Huh? Oh, that. Just keep it. I have too many to count." He said as he waved her away.

"Oh, Finn. Watch out for the monsters down there." He said not wanting for the familia to die.

"I know what I'm doing." He replied.

"….."

"What is he?" Raul asked voicing the others thoughts.

"Heh. That's someone that made themselves strong. Why can't you weaklings be like that?" Bete said trying to spur them on.

"That's Zeus familia for ya'." Gareth said with a laugh trying to ease the tension.

'How did he get so strong?' Aiz thought to herself.

"Come on! We're still in the dungeon. Ready yourselves!" Finn commanded as the dungeon started spawning monsters as Zard left the area.

….

"How long will this take?" Zard asked irritated.

"Please, sir! We're doing our best!" Eina said as she and others were trying to count how much valis all the loot Zard brought back and trying to see if he brought back all the loot drops required.

"It's never taken this long." Zard said exhausted.

"Mr. Zard, please understand that it's been years since we've seen loot drops and monster crystals this pure so we're having a hard time trying to judge how much this is worth." Eina tried explaining to him.

"Just let Zeus familia know how much it is later. I'm going home." Zard said wanting to see his family again. "Royman, I trust you won't try to fill your pockets by rounding out the numbers." He said to the fat worker.

"How dare you!" He shouted.

"Just making sure I get paid the correct amount for my 'hard work'." He said.

'I need to make sure word of what I saw on the 59th under wraps. Alfia and I will just have to take care of it later, but I'd like to have backup just in case.' He thought to himself.

After a few minutes of walking, he finally made it back to the Zeus familia mansion.

"Anybody here?" He asked as he entered inside.

"Dad!" Bell called from the living room. He saw Bell for the first time in about 2 weeks and yet it looked like he missed so much.

"Hey Bell. Did you get into any trouble with your mother?" He asked him.

"Nope. Grandpa did though. Multiple times actually." Bell said with a sweat drop.

"Of course he did." He laughed softly. "Speaking of, where are they?" He asked as he looked around for the others.

"Grandpa went to sleep early today. I think mom is putting Max to sleep right now. You should go see her. She really missed you." Bell said.

"I missed you guys too." Zard told him and messed with his hair like Alfia did. He could see why she did that a lot. It was like petting a fluffy rabbit.

"Dad!" Bell said trying to fix his hair.

"You should go to sleep too, Bell. I want to hear what I missed tomorrow." Zard said sending him to bed.

"Yes dad." Bell said and walked away.

As he watched Bell leave, he wondered if one day he'd be gone for a while again and would come back to see Bell and Max grown up. He would make sure that he stayed alive long enough to see them two grow up to become the fine young men he knew they'd be.

He soon made his way to where Max's room was and slowly opened the door to see Alfia slowly rocking Max's cradle as he slept.

"Hey there you two." He said quietly.

"Hey." Alfia said softly as she turned to look at him. "Didn't know you'd be back till tomorrow." She said. "Not that I'm complaining."

"I wanted to surprise you all. Too bad those guild workers took too long." He told her.

"Hey, they're just doing their job." Alfia said with a laugh.

"Since when do you sympathize with others." Zard joked.

"Rude." She replied. "Nothing else matters much. What matters is that you made it back safe." She said and held his hand with hers.

"Nice to see you still care about me." He laughed. "Hey little guy." He said and softly patted Max's head. As if sensing his father's presence, he reached out his hand and wrapped it around his finger.

"There's a lot we need to talk about. A lot happened down there." He told her.

"What happened?" Alfia asked curiously.

"Let's save it for tomorrow. It's been too long since I've slept in a bed." He said tiredly.

"Okay." Alfia said. "Hey, how are you feeling?" She asked.

"I'm feeling fine. The medicine still works. Nothing to worry about here." He reassured her.

"That's good." She said with a smile.

"I'm heading to bed now." He told her and turned towards the door.

"I'll be there soon." She told him and kept watching over Max.

…..

"So that's what happened to your knife." Zard laughed as he looked at one of Bell's destroyed knives.

"There were so many Kobolds dad!" Bell said trying to explain himself.

"You need to take better care of your equipment Bell. I thought I taught you that." He said to him while examining the other weapons.

"I know. I'm sorry." Bell said sadly.

"Now, now. Don't get so down Bell. You're still a rookie and learning. That's completely understandable. Even we messed up when we first started." Zard said trying to make Bell feel better.

"Really?" Bell asked them.

"Of course we have. We all make mistakes. Just not this badly." Alfia teased him.

"Mom!" Bell whined as she started laughing at his expense.

"Alright, alright. Bell, shouldn't you be heading to the dungeon soon?" Zard asked him.

"Oh yeah, you're right. I'll see you guys later." Bell said as he grabbed the rest of his gear and headed out.

"Alright. Now, let's talk about what I saw down there." Zard said as he put on a serious expression.

…..

"Hyah!" Bell shouted as he disposed of another group of Kobolds and Goblins at floor 5.

"Whew." Bell said as he wiped sweat off his forehead. His drive to get stronger increased now that Zard was back from the deep floors; he wanted to make his father proud.

'This is weird.' He thought to himself. 'There aren't as many monsters here as there normally are.' He continued.

He was wandering through the floor looking for monsters to fight or just anybody. Soon he heard a loud monster roar down the hall.

"What monster is that?" Bell thought as curiosity got the better of him and he walked towards the monster roar to see what it was. As he turned a corner, he saw a large minotaur staring directly at him.

"A minotaur?!" He yelled in surprise. The minotaur in question just huffed out smoke from its' snout.

"Hello there. Nice, minotaur." Bell said as he started walking backwards quietly. "Wonderful weather we're having." He laughed trying to keep his nerves in check.

"ROOOAAAAAARR!"

"Okay. This is where I run now. AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!" He yelled and ran away from the damn thing as fast as he could. He could hear the minotaur chasing him as its footsteps kept thudding close behind. Bell couldn't even spare a moment to look back otherwise he'd get to scared to do anything. He ran down many hallways while have a competition with the minotaur to see who was louder: his screaming or its roar.

He did everything he could to dodge the many swings it took at him with its landform axe. He was able to avoid all its attacks thanks to Zard's training, but that's all he could do. He knew how to attack, but this thing gave level 2s a hard time.

"What's a minotaur doing on floor 5!?" He yelled to no one in particular. "MOM! You need to get your information updated!" He added scared out of his mind.

"AH!" He yelled as he dodged another attack from the Minotaur. However, he lost his footing doing this and fell to the floor. The minotaur used this opportunity to try and split Bell in two. Bell rolled away at the last second and the Minotaur got its' axe stuck deep in the ground from the force of its attack. That didn't last long however, as it got it out in 2 attempts.

Bell crawled away a bit only to find his back against a wall and found himself trapped as the minotaur quickly found him. Bell equipped his great sword in an attempt to save himself and made to block the minotaurs attack with it. Sadly, the greatsword shattered from the force and Bell was again knocked back into the wall.

'Is this it? Is this how I die? I won't even get the chance to be mom and dad's hero. Hell who am I kidding? If they can't find a cure, how am I supposed to?' He sadly thought to himself while he was still alive.

'Still, I don't want to give up.' He continued and pulled out his last knife. He didn't want to just roll over and die and let a stupid monster be the end of him. He was trained by the two strongest warriors! How could he let himself die so easily?!

"Let's go!" He yelled and got back to his feet. But before he could do anything a quiet slash was heard and both Bell and the minotaur looked down to see the tip of a sword sticking out of the monsters chest.

"Huh?" Bell asked in confusion.

"Orgh?" The minotaur asked as well.

Another slash was heard and the minotaur cried out in pain falling forward, forcing Bell to fall back into the wall to escape the falling body. Before either of the two could react, the same sword cut the arm holding the landform axe off and the minotaur howled in pain. It turned around to face its assailant only to be cut from the shoulder down in half as it fell to the ground in pain before exploding into excelia.

"Uhm, are you alright?" A heavenly voice asked Bell. Bell finally looked up at his savior to see a beautiful blonde swordswoman looking at him with a quizzical expression while she held her hand out to help him up.

'So beautiful.' Was the only thing his mind could think of as he kept staring up at his savior as the events kept replaying in his mind. He couldn't help but admire her skills as she flawlessly took down that minotaur.

"Ah, yes. I'm fine now thanks to you." He said as he grabbed her hand and she helped him up.

"That's good." She said in response.

"Yo Aiz, you done here?" A werewolf asked her.

"Ah, yes Bete." She replied.

"Good. I'm heading up." He said and turned to leave while stuffing his hands in his pockets. But before he left, he sent a glare towards Bell. Bell flinched at the sudden glare, causing the werewolf to scoff at him and with that he left.

"Uhm, don't mind him." Aiz said trying to waive off her familia member's insult.

"Uh, okay." He laughed a bit.

"Will you be okay now?" She asked him.

"Huh?" Bell asked.

"Well, your weapon." She said and pointed to the remaining shards of his great sword.

"Oh, that, ha. Yeah I'll…" He started to say before picking up the hilt of his knife, "be fine?" he finished as the knife crumbled in front of their eyes.

"Uh. This is embarrassing." Bell said and shrunk in defeat.

"If you want, I can walk with you out." She offered.

"No! I wouldn't want to waste your time." He said trying to waive her off.

"But then, how will you make it out? Besides, your hurt." She said.

"I am?" Bell asked.

"Aren't you?" She asked and pointed at his arm. Bell looked and saw that shards of his great sword were imbedded into his arm.

"Guess I am." Bell said as he now started to feel the pain.

"Come on. Let's go." Aiz said as she lead the way out.

While making their way out, Bell kept wanting to make conversation with her, but he was so stricken by her beauty that he couldn't think of anything. Eventually, sadly, they neared the exit. Oddly, Aiz started talking to him.

"Uhm, how are you feeling?" She asked him.

"The pain is bearable. I just wish I wasn't so stupid to let that happen." He said dejectedly.

"It, it wasn't your fault." She said trying to keep his spirits up.

"Yeah. Why was there a minotaur on floor 5 anyway?" He asked her.

"Well, a party of them ran away from us when we were coming up from our expedition and ran up the stairs." She explained.

"Expedition?" He asked.

"Mhmm. The Loki familia expedition." She said.

Bell was shocked and started to piece together the information. As it turned out, he was saved by none other than the sword princess: Ais Wallenstein. Level 5. Ohhhh boy. Of course, he had to fall for someone in a famila mom didn't like. He'd have to keep this a secret if he wanted to live.

"Here we are." She said as they made it to the surface.

"Thank you miss!" Bell said and ran off to see his Naaza about those injuries and then head home.

However in doing so, he left behind a startled Aiz.

"Oh, he's gone." She said sadly. She wanted to apologize for what happened. But sadly, that wasn't going to happen yet.

Annnd Fin. Damn, over 7k words. Awesome! What did you guys think of this chapter? Feedback is definitely appreciated and welcome. I read everyone's reviews and will listen to what you guys say. Am I doing a good job with Alfia and Zard's relationship? That's one thing I'm not sure of. I've never been good at writing romance stuff. And how do you like little Max? He's adorable! Anyways, it's night. I'm tired. I'm off to bed. Good night y'all!