Before I start this chapter, I think I've decided on the pairing route this story will take. Namely I think I'll keep it a single pairing with just Bell x Ryuu. I have written meaningful harems before when I wrote a long time ago, but for this story, as you'll see over the story, this version of Bell isn't the type of person who could do that.

I do not own Danmachi or it's companion series.

I finished my meal while enjoying the atmosphere of the Hostess. I'm a bit sad I didn't get the chance to talk to Ms. Ryuu again but it was nice to fill my stomach with such amazing food and to listen to the other patrons making merry about recent adventures, a wedding and other stuff like that. It was nice to relax without the threat of immanent peril hanging over my head for a bit.

But that was then, this is now. It's time to go. I've got 72 hours to dive five floors deep into a labyrinth that I don't know the solution to. Before I had planned to take it slow, be methodical in my approach to the dungeon, but now that isn't going to fly. I need to make sure I don't get lost, but that I'm still able to move quickly until I get to the fifth floor.

After that I need to start searching meticulously. Guess I'm going to be stealing the idea of another hero from my Grandpa's stories… It won't be magical, but I'm sure I can find some string in the market while I'm getting dried rations so I can retrace my path.

Ah, I've just been sitting here for a while now without food. Now that I have a plan in mind, it's time to get to it, I'm still on the clock after all. Getting up from my seat I made my way to the door, passing a gray haired waitress on my way out.

I don't know why she was staring at me as intensely as she was, but she seems to have been disappointed by whatever she found while doing it if her frown was anything to go by.

While making my way back to the market it was difficult to resist the many calls of snack carts along the way. I had tried one of the so called "Jagamarukun" on my first day in Orario and while it was delicious, its also massively overpriced and I don't have the money to waste.

So despite the cute girl with twin tails calling out to me specifically, I kept going into the market. Goodbye money…

It's an hour later and I'm standing in front of the endless abyss that we call the entrance to the Dungeon. I had bought three days worth of dried rations and almost a kilometer of string on various spools because a shop had been going out of business and offered me their entire stock for a thousand Valis! It was an absolute steal!

Apparently with gods of weaving around, a civilian tailor isn't very profitable. Who would have thought?

The other thing I purchased, and I'm quite proud of this one, was an obnoxious small bell with a detachable clapper. It only occurred to me when I heard a clock tower ring out but I'm going to need to sleep eventually so being able to rig an alarm system of sorts is going to be necessary or I'm going to just die in my sleep.

Again I noticed the beautiful werewolf from this morning talking to a colleague as I made my way past the guards, this time with real confidence instead of the falsehood I carried last night. Seeing her turn and point towards me I gave a smile and a wave.

Even if she is a bit of an ice queen that doesn't mean I should be rude after all.

I don't quite know why she pointed at me but I shove it to the back of my mind as I descend into the darkness. It's time to focus.

The call of my heart is even stronger than last time I was here. It's begging me to go deeper, to explore the very depths of the dungeon, to go on an adventure. Without hesitation I took a step into the cold, welcoming, damp air of the dungeon and happily obliged my desire.

I followed the rather simple path for a little while before I found a stalagmite I was able to tie my first spool of string to, the largest of the bunch, and made sure it was secure before continuing deeper through the labyrinth.

Trusting my instincts to guide me through the many twists and turns of the Dungeon, I explored ever deeper. I saw a heard a few goblins but passed them by. I don't have time to fight all of them so I figure I'll only stop to lay traps if I encounter signs of kobolds. From what my Grandpa told me, if I find signs of a kobold, it will have already caught my scent which means I'm in for a fight anyways.

I continued walking, keeping a cautious pace and staying aware for any sign of monsters, for about an hour or so when I noticed my first spool of string was already starting to run low. I seriously under estimated the size of the dungeon, it doesn't help that I'm starting to feel the exhaustion from staying up all of last night wandering and goblin hunting affecting my awareness.

Stumbling over steps I normally never would, struggling to walk completely straight and other signs that I might pass out soon.

I can't stop now though. I need to find the stairs to the second floor first. Then tomorrow I'll make it to the fifth floor's pantry and the third day will be to get hom- when did I start thinking of the hostess as home? I've only been there once! It must have been Mama Mia.

Something about the kind, if intimidating, woman makes me unbelievably comfortable. Just like that one week when I was a child…

Wait, what week as a child? I know for certain that the first time I felt so comfortable in the presence of someone else was with Mama Mia. I must be mixing up memories because of how tired I am.

I breathe a sigh of relief when I finally stumble upon the staircase.

Using what little brain power I've got left, I cut the string at my waist and tie it to a nearby stalagmite and set about setting an alarm system up using what little remains on the spool and with some of my steel wire I also trap my surroundings.

It won't do much to a monster and it isn't exactly complicated, but it should be enough to cut into their ankles and hopefully slow them down enough for me to kill them.

With my meagre preparations complete, I lay down against the cavern walls and pass out. My dreams filled with adventure deeper into the labyrinth armed with a magic sword, magic string and a fight in a grand coliseum with a minotaur at its center.

I'm not sure how long I slept, but I definitely woke up in a hurry when I heard the infuriating sound of the bell.

I grabbed the knife from my hip and leapt to my feet. It isn't a strong or even particularly sharp weapon but its faster than my cleaver and in this type of situation I need to be able to respond and I was about to, until I noticed that the kobold that set off my alarm had also tripped over the steel wire, tangling its feet in the process.

HAH! Take that old man! "Of course its wrong to set traps in the Dungeon" my ass!

My victory over a dead man aside, the kobold is completely helpless now and continued to be helpless even as I collected my cleaver and swung it down like the executioner I feel I am at the moment.

Of course, without its head the kobold disintegrates leaving behind a small magic stone and unfortunately no trace of it's fingernail. Oh well. It would have been nice to get the extra money from the drop item but that's not my goal right now.

The plan is to cover four floors of the dungeon today. Dungeon lizards spawn from the second until the fourth floor according to my Grandpa. It would be a death sentence for me to try and sleep with them around, especially since it would make my alarm system obsolete. They can climb on ceilings.

I hadn't considered it before, but my Grandpa sure knew a lot about the Dungeon… Maybe he was friends with an adventurer or something?

Ah, it seems while I was lost in thought, I finished packing up what supplies I could salvage and having a snack on the dried rations I brought... they really are entirely tasteless if I didn't even notice I ate them…

Barely containing my excitement, I sprint my way down the stairs. Its time to explore the second floor after all!

As I'm running down the stairs, I'm honestly surprised that even though it hasn't been very long, that I haven't seen any other adventurers yet. From what I've seen there should be constant adventurers on these early floors.

Huh, I'm slightly disappointed that there's no real difference aesthetically between the first and second floor, even though I knew that when I was descending. I guess I couldn't help the part of my that was enamoured by the thought that this second floor would be like a whole new world to me.

Oh well. Guess I'm in for cavern walls until the middle floors like Grandpa said.

Now that I'm down here though, it isn't hard to figure out the answer to why I haven't run into any adventurers yet: they all skip the first floor if they can.

The signs of battle are everywhere. Scarring along the walls, bits of frost and scorch marks that haven't yet disappeared yet from magic and a litany of severed monster limbs, corpses and blood stains in various states of disintegration.

Figuring that adventurers would simply kill everything in their path as they descend further, I start following the trails that the adventurers before me left behind. May as well use all that I can after all.

I passed a few adventurers as I followed the trail with the most damage. Most of them looked at me like I'm barely more than the blood on their boots. I guess that makes sense though, I really don't look all that impressive.

Following the path I easily made it to the second floor's stairs. I'm honestly surprised I didn't run into any monsters with how dense the battle signs ar- Oh. That's why. These easy but slightly more profitable floors must be hunted clear constantly. New adventurers rake in money and Excelia, and the veterans get to walk through without having to think about the canon fodder.

It's a mutually beneficial system designed to make the most out of the time everyone puts in. It's also probably why those other people looked at me with disgust. They probably thought I was in the same station as them and yet I'm just using their efforts to my own gain. I'm pretty sure that this "rookies and veterans" system dissolves at the fifth floor though. Until then only relatively weak monsters spawn. But on the fifth floor?

On the fifth floor war shadows start spawning.

The terrors of the middle upper floors. They stand as a sort of test for rookies. After all, they don't bleed, so cutting them does nothing. The only way to kill a war shadow is to destroy its magic crystal, which is visible through its translucent body or use magic. It doesn't help that they're fast, have fingers as sharp as knives ranging from 30-40 cm long and that the crystal is small, making it a good test to be precise with your attacks and make sure you are skilled enough for the other half of the upper floors.

If it weren't for the fact that they exclusively hunt alone, it would have been war shadows with the moniker of "Rookie Killer" instead of killer ants. They were a large enough threat that even someone who's only been in Orario a bit more than a week knows about how dangerous they are.

Anyways, I need to stay diligent. Most of the monsters may be taken care of at this point, but that doesn't mean new ones can't spawn nearby.

I guess for the next few floors I'll just follow the trail of destruction.

Meanwhile on the surface, its now evening and the Hostess of Fertility is at its busiest. The cheery atmosphere infecting everyone within it. Friends drinking together, new couples having awkward first meals and even a table of people gambling, all with a grand smile on their face.

It's a scene that threatened to draw a tear from the proprietor every time she saw it.

"This is all I ever wanted during those long eight years" Mia Grand thought while plating the most recent order to be sent out. "It was absolutely worth it to leave the Freya familia during that dark time"

She would have immediately begun cooking the next order but caught sight of a certain elf that could never just speak her mind. As such she walked over to Ryuu who was shifting nervously in the entryway to the kitchen.

"What is it you clumsy elf?" Mia asked. She cared about her girls, truly, she did. But she had a reputation to uphold so mean nicknames they shall have.

The slight stink eye was completely expected and made Mia giggle, if only a little bit. "Mama, what about Mr. Cranel made you so amused by him?" Ryuu's voice was level but after knowing the elf for so long, Mama Mia could tell there was genuine curiosity underneath it "The girls and I heard you laughing earlier in a way that was completely new to us."

"Ah, so that's what this is about…" She thought. "It's simple really," Mia began "the kid has a dream to be a hero, and for some reason I genuinely believe he can pull it off. He's broke and homeless, but he's still struggling forward. People always think a hero needs to be strong and in some ways perfect but that's not exactly true. Sure a hero will eventually have all of those qualities, but more than anything, they need an unbreakable will to move forward."

Ryuu stood there, too surprised to say anything for a few moments "You sound like you know from experience?" she probed uncertainly.

Mia Grand shook her head "No, but I know someone who used to share that same dream but couldn't push through. It's probably why I offered him a roof and a job when he gets back from the fifth floor haha!"

Just like that, Mia left a stunned Ryuu and resumed her cooking. She'd wasted enough time after all.

I don't know how long it's been, but I'm now standing at the stairs to the fifth floor. The last few floors came and went without issue. Not even a goblin. But every floor deeper I went, there have been noticeably less battle signs and adventurers. Since the last turn in fact, I haven't seen any except for a small mark where a mace seems to have crushed the wall a bit, but that regenerated! Just like magic!

I wonder if the lower density of damage is because the people fighting down this way are more skilled so there's less wasted attacks or overboard magic?

Anyways, it's time to get going. The real test starts now. I can barely contain myself!

So that's chapter 3. The word count is growing slowly, I'm making sure of it, but please be patient with the length of the chapters.

I had always wondered why someone who was considered a brand new adventurer was able to get to the fifth floor in the first place, even if they did take to the dungeon like a fish to water, with Bell's stats at the start of cannon, there's just no way he could have done it on his own. This is my take on how he pulled it off.

Please remember that this is a bit of an AU and will likely not follow cannon very closely.

Anyways, see ya next chapter.