Chapter 7: You Think You Know Me?

A/N: Yo wys. I'll keep it short.

Me have exams.

Me no have time.

Me upload this and disappear until june.

Me hope Danmachi season 4 revives the fanfic community.

Oh and this may mark the first appearance of my editor Jax.

No, he's not on

(Jax: Messed up the spacing due to file conversions, my bad ;))

Tata~

There Bell was. In the guild looking at the notice board, with his eyebrows twitching in annoyance. He had come back from the surprise visit to the Xenos with some thoughts swirling around on how not to mess everything up.

Don't get him wrong, the first time he had saved Wiene and brought her to the surface was important. He considered everything a precious memory, but the thing is that with Wiene going berserk and everything, things were difficult, to say the least. It really had affected the public opinion of monsters, and the thing that was already bad became even worse. Not to mention it brought even more controversy to his name.

He appreciated that he got a chance to redo things, for better or worse. After all, there were plenty of mistakes he had made last time.

What he did not appreciate though, was the bounty on him. Or rather Wrath.

Bounty

Masked man with distinctive black designs.

Brutally assaulted 2 men at night, critically injuring one and knocking another out.

200,000 valis

The bounty itself was low most likely because they took into consideration how he had helped protect

Why in the hell this was happening was not something within the realms of logic. What did Wrath even do?

Protected Eina? But who could've seen that scene and still blamed him?

...Well ok, he could've taken it a bit easier on them, but he was in a rush and they were in the way! Hardly his fault that they couldn't handle his love taps.

"Oh Bell kun, hello." A voice spoke up next to him. It turned out to be Eina, still wearing her usual gentle smile. "Interested in that bounty?"

"Yeah, well it's not everyday you see a bounty like this be put up." Bell commented trying to not make anything sound suspicious.

Suddenly Eina got real pout on her face, as she crossed her arms. "I met him yesterday, the masked man saved me from 2 drunk men. But the Ruffian took things way to far! He came in, broke their bones not even trying to negotiate with them, and then had the gall to tell me to be careful. He should've really taken his own advice, maybe I wouldn't of put up a bounty for him." Eina huffed.

Meanwhile, in Bell's mind.

'EIIIINNNAAAA! WHY?! JUST WHY DID YOU DO THIS?!' he screamed internally.

Ruffian? Too far?

He was being efficient!

"Don't you think so too Bell kun?" Eina asked.

'No, I don't woman. They were too cliche for me to care what happened to their sad sack of bodies.'

But Bell seeped a breath in, his hand strangling themselves in his pockets, "Y-yes. I agree," he replied in a strained tone, if he could be biting on his hand to calm his frustration he would be. "But E-Eina, from personal experience. It is rather impossible to try and negotiate with most drunk adventurers, maybe he was in a rush?" He tried to defend his buddy Wrath.

"Most. Most Bell, not all. You can't juge by appreances, the fact that he did that makes it even worse!"

And from the frying pan straight into the fire we go.

"Anyways, are you going to the dungeon?" Eina's mood did a 180 and she looked brightly at him.

" Not yet, Welf has a few things to do and I need to go buy some throwing knives." Bell explained.

"Wouldn't you ask your smith to make them?" Eina asked tilting her head in curiosity.

"Well yes, but throwing knives need to be disposable. So it would only be a waste of his time, if I keep telling him to make throwing knives." Bell explained.

As the conversation was about to continue, Misha Flott, Eina's friend interrupted it, "Eina! Stop flirting with your boyfriend and help out over here!"

Eina turned rose immediately as a blush crept onto her face, "H-he's not m-my boyfriend!" she stuttered out.

Bell chuckled at Misha's antics, "well I see you have your own things to do. See you later."

So he left to go towards Babel. Going to the 6th floor where weapons of low to mid quality was sold. He could surely afford, to get higher priced items, but he chose not to simply because there was no point in doing so. Throwing knives for him were mainly to be coated in paralysing poison for him, so he didn't rlly need to them to pierce but rather to graze.

Of course, it was a bit of a weird feeling using poison, and he doubted the past him could really use such an instrument, but when you see shit, and do shit, you'll feel like shit and you'll do shit.

(Editor note: This dumbass acc said 'shit' 4 times in one line smh.)

After making his purchase however, he took somethings into consideration. And once he thought about it, it really didn't make much sense.

He was moving things along way too fast. He was worried about the butterfly effect, so he brought Wrath to life. But what about what was happening with his familia? He had saved Haruhime and already he was preparing to do the same with Wiene.

While, yes it would prevent needless suffering if he got rid of Ikelos familia quicker, it also raised questions if things would ultimately change because of his impatience.

Just as he was thinking that he felt a solid slap on his back. It was pretty powerful although all it did was make him lurch forward slightly.

"Bell Cranel, what are you doing staring into space like that?" Aisha asked with her usual feral grin. However, for a split second, he saw the future version of her, injured and on the verge of death as he had last seen her. Aisha seemed to pick up on this sudden change, "What's up? You're looking a bit more pale than usual, did all your blood get stuck down there?" she asked looking down at his pants.

Bell recovered quickly, Aisha may have been perverted but she was very astute, she was one of the last people he needed to be suspicious. Even if he was reminded of why he chose to grow stronger, he needed to come up with something.

"Let's say my breath was taken away by your beauty." He replied and instantly regretted it, ' God damn it. There is no way she's gonna buy that, that's not how I used to act...'

Aisha seemed to pause a bit before leaning into his ear, "You know... if you keep talking like that, I may be unable to stop myself. And then I may sneak into your bed very quietly one night and then..." she didn't finish the sentence but rather ended it with a lick of her lips.

Bell's mind was preoccupied with sometihng else, 'She BOUGHT IT?!' he mentally thought about it before, 'roll with it.'

"Well, I wouldn't complain." Bell shrugged.

"Oh my, look at you, Mr. Charmer." Aisha told him as they became silent and were simply walking, " You probably wouldn't want that. I may not know much about hero stories that you and the dumb fox fawn over all the time, but I know that 'prostitutes are the symbol of destruction to heroes,' right? And unlike the fox, I am not a virgin. I'm the very thing that you should oppose."

Bell didn't know if he heard it right, but he had detected a faint trace of sadness in her voice. As if she was regretting the fact that she was a prostitute herself.

Bell turned to look at her, "Don't think like that." He began, " You may have been a prostitute, sold your body for money, but you did many things any other wouldn't. You did extra work so that Haruhime's lack thereof would be excused. You went out of your way to make sure her purity was intact, and did everything in your power to go against a charm which frankly was second to only Freya."

"Heroes are drawn of noble spirits, and the reasons behind your acts were more noble that a lot of other things I saw. Besides," He paused as he flashed her a wide smile, "If I need to stop being a hero to be with you and be-friend any person I want, then I'll quit aiming for the title of a hero."

Aisha stared wide eyed and somewhat silenced by his words. It sounded almost like sweet nothings you whisper into someone's ear to calm them down, but his words were sincere. While Bell began walking off again leaving a stumped Aisha behind, she felt a type of heat she hadn't felt ever before rise to her cheeks. It was the kind that she didn't even feel during sex.

Thus she did a mental check list.

'Strong? Check.

Young? Check.

Loving? Check.

And clearly interested...'

"Hey are you coming? I wanna go buy some groceries, it's my cooking duty today." Bell snapped her out of her daze.

"A-Ah, Coming..." she replied.

Bell grinned dumbly, "I bet you are."

It took a second click in.

Aisha ran towards him and joined him on his walk to the store, regaining her usual behaviour.

Later that night, Bell decided to visit Ouranos using the secret tunnel as there were something's to be discussed.

As he walked into the room, he looked to see the poor deity still sitting up on his seat, praying away.

"Bell Cranel, what brought a visit this late so suddenly?" Ouranos asked with a calm voice.

Bell sighed a bit before speaking, "Yeah, see I'm going to need a couple favours from you."

"Well, you are helping us a lot with the Xenos and what not, speak away."

"Well first, I'm going to have to ask permission to hide my level." Bell began and immediately he saw Ouranos stiffen. Not that he didn't expect as such.

"...May I know why?"

Understanding that Ouranos probably wanted to assess the nature behind his request, Bell decided to be open about things, "Well we both know what's going on with me and Kronos artefact. I know what happens in the future, both with the Xenos and the cause of our ultimate doom. Now, as much as I don't want anything weird to happen, I am trying to limit myself. But you can't expect me to just stand by and watch things I can easily prevent. Problem is, that may be affected if the public know my true level. My already abnormal growth has already been over the top, and I don't need the name of a cheater this early. Amongst other reasons." Bell ranted.

Ouranos thought over his points, and clearly was weighing the pros and cons. It was understandable, if this got out, which it inevitably will one day, then the deities may as well rebel against Ouranos.

Blaming his supposed 'biasedness' for whatever tragedy were to occur. But then, Bell being able to hide his level would indeed greatly benefit their operations.

With a heavy sigh uncharacteristic of Ouranos, he nodded, " Fine. But only by one level. You tend to grow rather quick, so if you seem that much stronger, it'll be pretty obvious."

Bell bowed respectfully, before shamelessly going to his next demand, " Also I would like you to remove the latest bounty on the masked man, you know the one put up by Eina Tulle?"

"...That's rather easy to do but why?" Ouranos asked confused. Until, Bell pulled out the mask and put it on to show his hair colour change, "Oh. Why are you always doing these things?"

"I wish I could tell you. But honestly I only saved her life is all I did." Bell shrugged. "Anyways, off to the dungeon with me, thanks for everything."

" Wait dungeon? At night? You do know its banned right?" Ouranos asked.

"Well yeah, but why though? You're still praying right?"

"Yes I am but my prayers weaken at night," Ouranos informed him. Bell didn't say a word, silently insinuating for Ouranos to give him a reason why, "I become a bit sleepy at night is all."

...

...

...

"Seriously?"

"Seriously. I have a physical body here as well you know."

"Meh, I'll be fine. I can just run away." Bell shrugged before bidding Ouranos goodbye. It's not that he wasn't concerned about the potential that one day he may fall asleep and never wake up again, it also did little to worry about useless things, so he figured to look at something more important.

The dungeon.

Going towards the long tower, he entered the first floor and dispatched a couple monsters here and there. He still remembered how the monster had become afraid of him when he had reached level 8 so much so that they stopped being born for a bit in the initial 20 floors.

He made his usual way down. Now that his level was guaranteed to be hidden, even if by only one, he could afford to let go a bit and truly begin thrashing things about.

Now was the time to go, he would grow quick up until level 8 and sort of level 9 but after that even with Liaris Freese, his growth wasn't miraculous.

So at least until that level he needed it to get there as quick as possible. Level 8 or 9 would soon be considered weak anyways, and he fought with one bitter thought in mind.

It was pertaining the deity he had just visited, but Ouranos seemed to know himself,

that no matter how strong Bell had become or were to become. People were still going to die at their hands...

and Ouranos would be one of them...

"Firebolt!"

A cloud flames engulf a monster only leave behind dust. Floor 23 had been solo clearedd by Bell and he collected the magic stone.

After some thinking of what to do with all the extra money, since Maria wasn't willing to accept all of it, he decided only give half.

It was still a lot, but he could simply keep the other half to get some major boons. Things that will help him combat the scouts of the Phalanx.

In the past, the Phalanx had actually a mixture of scouts. Of the ones Bell was aware of, there were 2 weak ones, 1 mid and 1 high level opponent. Now normally that's not a very high number, but when the fact that the weaker ones were level 7 is taken into consideration, things become a bit for twisted.

Their judgement clearly was based on who would return. The scouts did engage hostile actions, but didn't kill anyone besides deities. Ultimately, the level 7s were collective killed by Bell, and the Loki familia. Bell who was level 8 at the time had killed a single one, while Finn and the others killed the other one.

It may have seemed that the Loki familia was weaker, but they had simply taken a longer time because their opponent had an ability that was a pain in the ass.

What was annoying was how the mid level Phalanx scout was a level 9 standard. The highest levels were Ottarl and Bell at level 8. The two battled with the thing, and battled it hard. Alas, they lost and were both left on the brink of death.

The only consolation being that they had managed to cut both arms of the darn thing off. Later on it only encouraged them to grow stronger as much as possible. By then Bell had realised the secret to Liaris Freese.

The second ability he had to allow those he was close with to grow at an accelerated speed as well. Good thing was, that he and his friends would grow much faster, although the others didn't quite get his gains, in a single dungeon dive they would get the same amount of excelia as a couple hundred points overall.

Considering that most higher-level adventurers would typically gain 8 or 9 points at max, it was a massive boost. Still nothing on Bell, but it would do.

Bell spent at least 4 to 5 hours in the dungeon there, murdering everything sight. Before, collecting the stones and making his way back to the surface.

At the guild exchange, he got 60k payment. It wasn't the biggest, but he was distracted. Bell quickly went to visit Maria. Last he had seen her, she was recovering from that illness of hers.

Frankly, he found it rather impressive how Rye and the others were managing to take care of Maria and the entire orphanage all by themselves. He thought he would visit the place and help out, but it seems the plan quickly back fired.

"AAHHH, someone broke in!" one of the younger girls screamed. This seemed to get everyone's attention, and Bell had realised that he was still dressed as Wrath, they could hardly recognise him.

He contemplated removing his mask to calm her down, but with the typical kid being a loud mouth, his cover could be compromised.

Thankfully, Maria was good enough to walk around, so she had appeared in the room, a frantic look on her face.

However, upon seeing Wrath, she calmed down. "Hello Be-" She tried to greet but was cut off.

"Wrath. I'm Wrath."

She seemed to get the message before changing the name.

"Wrath san, it's nice to see you again. How have you been?" Maria asked with that sweet little smile of hers.

The girl who had screamed earlier looked at Maria confused, "Do you know this scary masked man, Mama Maria?" She asked innocently.

Maria gave a bright smile to the girl, "Yes I do. It's thanks to him that we were able to buy so many new things and good food."

The girl made an 'o' face as Wrath chuckled, " Here's some more money today, it's not as much as before because you keep refusing money."

Maria looked at the bag, it was still considerably big from her standards, "This is still so much!"

"I'm not hearing it. I kept another bag for just myself this time, so just take this." Wrath placed the bag of valis onto the table. "Right also, how are you feeling now?"

"I'm getting better now, still a bit difficult to do certain tasks, but the children have been great help!"

"That's good. Don't push yourself or else it'll do you harm in the long run."

After that chat, Wrath bid Maria goodbye. This time making sure to take his mask off, so as to not arouse suspicion amongst people. Clearly, the city was waking up and since Wrath still had a bounty on him, he'd have to wait until Ouranos managed to successfully take it down.

Wrath, was a necessary personality to camoflauge his movements. Bell could not have it be compromised, otherwise things will become very difficult. He still had to let his familia meet the Xenos and get used to the concept of intelligent monsters. Of course, he would still hide his persona as Wrath, so he'd have to warn the xenos thoroughly to address him as Bell in front of his familia.

Not that there was any chance of his familia ever recognising that name since they had no clue who it was.

Another person who could potentially lead to his exposing, was watching him right now.

From the top of Babel, he was sure Freya had yet to figure a lot of things out. And though, Freya is a bold deity, an expert in taking the right gambles that always pay off, not even her can predict a man from the future.

After all, all it seems to her is that his soul had suddenly changed values, and although it was still plenty attractive, it made no sense to her. It was unknown to her.

And as you do with just about anything that is unknown, you observe. You watch and try to learn so that you can familiarise yourself with the new version, and then you'll investigate.

'She must having the time of her life, writhing in confusion as to what in the hell I am doing.' Bell smirked.

Bell returned to the manor in his room. As always he had expected things to be how they usually were. He'd be able to sneak in a couple hours of sleep before the day for Bell Cranel would start.

However, this time. His dear Antianeira was here once more. And awake this time. If someone were to be asked about being caught trying to do something, it'd be trying to sneak out of their time.

But this time Bell was caught sneaking...into his own room...

"Well hello there, captain~" Aisha smiled, her glossy red lips shining in the light.

Bell began sweating bullets, he slipped a finger into his collar and tried to cool himself down as much as possible, alas it wasn't very useful. However, he did try to steer the conversation towards another direction.

' It's fine Bell, you aren't the same kid you were before, you know how to manipulate people.' He assured himself.

"H-hello there A-Aisha, Beautiful weather today right?" He asked.

What an amazing value of 23 years of age. And still no lying capabilities.

"Mhmm." She responded, "Now you see captain, if this was under any other circumstance I would not hesitate to rat you out..." Aisha smiled seductively as she walked up to Bell, her hips swaying alluringly, "but this time, I guess I won't."

Bell barely managed to control himself, he had to keep reminding himself that this Aisha and him aren't as close, " Is that so?" he asked.

"Yes, don't get me wrong. I'm not the only one who's aware of your late night expeditions. But I am the only one with the, metaphorical balls, to sneak into your room at night to wait for you. Everyone but Hestia is basically aware of it but no-one says a word, and neither will I." Aisha leaned closed to his ear, "after all, what kind of subordinate doesn't trust their captain?"

Bell looked at her wide eyed. Aisha, surprisingly, for once flashed him a sweet smile. It wasn't like anything she had ever shown.

It wasn't the sultry smile she usually had, nor was it the sadistic one. Gently, she grabbed the back of his head and slowly pulled him into her well endowed chest. Making sure not to suffocate him, but enough to slowly lull him into the dreamland.

"Rest captain. Even if no-one in the city can see your work, we all can see how much you give for us. Hell I ain't even been here for that long, but I feel like I learnt more than I ever done before. You freed me and Haruhime, let us both into the familia, the least I can do is help you sleep, don't want any wrinkles on your cute face after all."

Her words reached Bell but weren't fully registered, as a heavy feeling overtook his eyelids. Maybe...just maybe a little nap wouldn't hurt. Even if she had found out about him.

* A Couple Hours Later*

Aisha had taken Bell to the bed. Lying his head on her laps, figuring that it was the best pillow he could have. She did have a really developed body after all, and simply looked down at his sleeping face.

"From this angle you look so adorable and naive, it's feels like its impossible that you planned the downfall of the Ishtar familia." Aisha muttered to herself.

From start to finish, ever since Bell had kept his promise in saving her and Haruhime, she had kept an eye on him. The way he would act, the traits in his fighting and most importantly the parts of the day he disappeared.

It was rather hard to keep track of him. Most of the times she ended up getting lost herself, but all she needed was to see a certain someone going into the dungeon at night to understand the whole gig.

'His familia is basically holding him back.' Aisha had realised. Of course she didn't tell anyone else, it wasn't going to be anything but demoralising. Realising that his party is too weak to keep up with him such that he has restrict himself when he was with them.

It wasn't any of their fault, after all, Bell's speed of growth was clearly an outlier. No-one could keep up with it. But it was only a matter of time, if he continued on growing at this rate, no-one could keep up with him.

As she continued her thoughts, she hadn't noticed she had long since began running her fingers through his hair. Her dark fingers were a stark contrast to his white hair, and the way his fluffy hair felt in her hands. It was simply the best feeling.

Unfortunately, Bell's eyes opened. Not a trace of sleep in his eyes, she questioned whether he was awake the entire time or not.

But the yawn that came afterwards signified that he had indeed been asleep, even if said yawn was silent.

"Morning. How are you feeling?" Aisha asked.

"Best I've felt in weeks." Bell replied smiling at her. He was finding it hard to maintain eye contact with him facing directly upwards, where her breasts blocked more than half his vision, so he got up.

" So what are the plans for today?" Aisha asked. Usually, Bell and the others would make their way down the dungeon, today was no different. Their only rest day was on sunday, since everyone had their own things to do and well, everyone needed some rested.

"Well, Hestia has work and then she plans to go out for dinner with Hephaistos sama, so I guess we can go to the dungeon as usual and go to the Hostess afterwards." Bell shrugged as he changed clothes.

"Ah that place. Heard it's really popular."

Bell stopped, "You've never been to the Hostess before?" He asked somewhat surprised.

"Never had any reason to, we had restaurants in the pleasure quarters anyways. Always wanted to visit though, seemed like an enticing place since it was called the 'Hostess of Fertility.'"

"Oh, it has practically nothing to do with fertility, nor is it really hostess bar. They do only hire women, but I might warn you. All of them are level 4, maybe at the peak of it too."

"Eh well, as long as the food is good I don't care."

And that was fair enough. You go to a pub/ bar/ restaurant to eat anyways. Food and drinks are what matters most.

Bell and Aisha came downstairs together to see the rest of the familia having breakfast.

"Hmm?" Hestia noticed the two come down together, her eyes narrowed as she looked at them, " You two came down at the same time? What a happy coincidence." She commented skeptically.

Bell nearly rolled his eyes at her drama, "Yeah. She asked me what we were going to do today. Can you believe she has never been to the Hostess before?"

"Oh? Well, you guys may as well go today. Don't forget to tell them about it before hand." Hestia reminded before, she put on her coat. A new coat that Bell had bought for her as a present. It was a white jacket with red highlights, streaks of blue flowing down the middle.

They had to get it custom made, as even though they had the right size of Hestia it was still tight in certain areas...namely the chest.

Bell and the others finished breakfast and head out. The plan was to go down to the 26th floor and grind kills there, and come back by 7 pm. At 7, they would wash up and get ready for dinner and meet at the Hostess by 8 pm.

On their way they stopped by the Hostess, entering it even though it was yet to open.

"Excuse me, we aren't open y-" Bell heard Ryuu's voice speak but she stopped herself as she saw Bell, "Oh Bell san. Is there something you needed?" He saw Ryuu's eyes flash to Aisha for a split second before returning to him.

Bell was a frequent customer, so of course he knew the place wasn't even open yet.

"Uh yeah, sorry for the last notice but can we make a booking for 8 pm? It seems Aisha and Haruhime have never had food from here and they are clearly missing out."

Hearing the compliment, he could a few solid stomps on the wooden floor approach from the kitchen area. Mia Grand came out with a big ol' smile on her face, " Boy, it seems ya know what's good for ya." she laughed.

She too looked at Bell and the rest of the party before raising an eyebrow, " Increased the numbers eh? Got yerself an amazoness and a renard. What next?"

Bell laughed in response, " Well who knows. I don't really plan it ahead of time."

Aisha suddenly came and wrapped an arm around Bell's neck, "What? You told me that you were planning on saving me from beforehand didn't you?"

Bell quirked an eyebrow, before he felt something approaching, he immediately caught the object. It had clearly been thrown with considerable force, the object was a serving tray. He looked at Ryuu, who was glaring positively at Aisha.

"Move away from him Amazoness." She snarled.

"Please, I'll move if my captain tells me to." Aisha responded.

"Ladies please. I'm here to plan a dinner party not a war." Bell chuckled, " also, I said I planned on saving you with Haruhime as well. I only found out when Mikoto began acting suspiciously."

"Boy...did you level up again?" Mia joined the conversation. It was at this moment, Ryuu realised that he had caught the tray she had thrown with ease. Bell smiled and stuck his tongue out.

"Now, who knows?" Bell smiled before beginning to leave.

The group left and Welf came to Bell, "Bro, you levelled up? Why didn't you tell us?"

"Yeah Master Bell, do you not trust us?" Lili asked shocked that he had left it out.

Bell shook his head, "It's not that. I just don't want anyone to know my level, its going to be hidden for now."

"Don't we have to report it to the guild though?" Haruhime asked tilting her head.

"Under normal circumstances? Yes. But we're not going to be reporting our levels much. We'll always keep it one level behind."

"Won't we have to pay an astronomical tax for that?"

"If Hermes can do it, then so can we." Bell smirked, as he continued walking towards the dungeon, "Besides I've gotten permission. So we'll be fine."

Lili was still worried about what Bell was planning. She did not like the recent changes at all. Before it was basically like reading an open book when it came to Bell's intentions. She could take one look and tell exactly what he was thinking, he used to stick to the rules and would be a lot more bashful and polite.

Now?

He delibrately broke rules, found loop holes to exploit, wasn't as easy to read anymore. Bell became more mysterious, she couldn't even understand what was going through his mind at times. He would be hugged by that harlot, and wouldn't even bat an eye.

Hell he even began to domesticate Hestia in some sense, she doesn't or rather can't put up any fight against him. It was total chaos, not to mention him finding out about the skill. They didn't trust the naive Bell. Lili still believed that they were in the right, seeing that he could not lie to save himself...but this Bell wasn't naive.

And she doubted that it was because of the new additions, specifically Aisha, that this change came about.

'Aghh but that doesn't even make any sense, they are basically not near each other and even when they are, there is always someone that is there with them. She may have that Bell's escapades during the night may have been the time when the two met, but on most if not all nights, Haruhime affirmed that Aisha was with her the whole night.

She couldn't doubt Haruhime, there was no way she would lie. Not when it involved Bell.

"Lili-dono, you okay? You have been spaced out for a while now." Mikoto asked as she fell back to her side.

They were in the dungeon by now, yet Lili had not fired a single arrow from her wristbow. Usually, she would provide support from the back, but this time there wasn't any. Not that they struggled since they were still in the middle floors.

Bell noticed this and after killing the final monsters with a single slash of his sword he turned around.

"Lili." He called out. She visually stiffened and looked up at him.

"I-I'm sorry, Master Bell. I-I was lost in my own thoughts." Lili told him with a guilt striken voice. Bell smiled softly, and pat her head. Something she didn't expect, but happily accepted.

"Look, you can doubt me and my decisions as much as you want." He began, feeling her stiffen once more as if to confirm that was what was going through her mind, " It goes for all of you. I may be your captain, that doesn't mean my decisions will always be right. And you have the right to doubt my choice, but ultimately when we're in the dungeon. No thought should be polluting your mind. One slip up is all it would take to die, and I don't want to see any of you guys die understand?" Bell asked.

Welf grinned, " Of course, Bell." He nodded, "Although I for one don't doubt the choices you make. Whether it's through your weird luck or incredible foresight, every time things end just fine. So, I can easily trust you with my life."

"Indeed, so can I." Mikoto joined in.

" M-me too Bell sama. Y-you saved me from my despair, I- I trust you too." Haruhime threw in her own two cents.

Bell planned on simply telling Lili to relax, but instead ended up being told how everyone believes in him.

'Its as if nothing has changed...' Bell chuckled internally, before continuing, "Ok, onto our goal to floor 26. We need to get as many drops as we can, it's best to do the quests that we have undertaken."

*Evening time*

Bell and the others had made it safely back. They had made a whopping 120k valis, some 20k per person. Who could've known having 2 level 4s, and more level 2s helped out that much?

They had gone back to freshen up after a bloody day at the dungeon. They had planned to meet at the Hostess anyways.

Bell let out a sigh of relief as the hot water splashed against his ear drums. It always made him feel alive, to take a hot shower. Hearing the pitter patter of the rain falling onto his ear drums, the heat of each water molecule seeping into his being.

After taking a shower, he dressed up in casual wear. Of course, it wasn't the same as usual where he wore a plain black shirt and pants. He had a girl to impress damn it!

Even if she simply opted to barely wear any clothes at all anyways.

He wore white undershirt and dirt coloured short sleeve. Thankfully it was still quite warm outside so he'd be able to live. He wore black fit on pants that hugged his legs and a pair of boots.

Nothing special yes, but even if he had someone to impress, he's going to dinner with his familia not a wedding party. So, this would do.

Coming downstairs he saw Aisha, Haruhime and Welf already there. It seemed that Mikoto was taking her bath, and well, no-one could get her to hurry that up.

"Yo Bell, looking good." Welf complimented. Haruhime blushed a bit after looking at him, nothing new there.

Bell smiled, "Thanks man. Maybe you should try dressing up, Hephaistos sama would be all over you." he grinned, as they all watched Welf go bright red.

"Oh my, we got a God kink in here." Aisha pretend gasped as she looked at Welf.

"It's not a kink! I-I only love her alone!" Welf shouted back, before realising his errors as he covered his mouth. Both and Aisha grinned together.

"You guys are so in sync." Haruhime commented looking between the 2.

"Well, when you train together in the morning like that, you tend to understand the other person more."

Mikoto walked into the room, fully dressed. Lili coming in behind her as well.

"That's quite true, ah Bell dono, apologies for being so late." She apologised.

"No problem, I know you need your daily bath fix."

That seemed to be enough to leave Mikoto blushing out of embarassment.

"Do we have to do this? It's a waste of money, we have food at home!" Lili grumbled.

"You sound like a mum who's refusing to let her child have Mcdonalds, Lil' Lili."

"Mc what?"

"Don't worry, anyways. Since all of us are here, let's make our way there shall we?" Welf

cheered as if he was excited to go to the Hostess. Which was understandable, the poor man spent his days and nights in the shack eating only cold sandwiches, it was about time for him to get some real hot food.

They made their way to the Hostess, laughing and talking along the way.

Entering the Hostess, Anya was the one to greet them.

"Oh Syr's friend nya~ heard you made a reservation for 6 people today, welcome." Anya greeted the group. Aisha was taking her time to look around the place.

It seemed the typical bar she would go to, but it was pretty popular. Filled with people wearing armour or normal people who were just destressing after a day of hard work.

"Hey boy! Better be willing to spend a lot of money today," Mia grinned.

"Of course, not like I could stop you from robbing me."

"Bah, it's called equivalent exchange. Ya get food, I get money." Mia jokingly admonished. Soon Ryuu came up to them and took their orders.

She tried skipping over Aisha but Aisha herself told her the order first. So she had to take it. Bell was reminded of the rivalry (?) between Ryuu and Aisha from his previous timeline. Although things were a bit different this time.

"I would like a steak and an alcoholic beverage of Mama Mia's recommendation." Bell ordered.

"Oh? Bell you're gonna drink alcohol tonight?" Welf asked a bit surprised, it's not that Bell couldn't hold his alcohol, quite the contrary he actually could hold a lot, but he typically didn't drink alcohol.

Bell shrugged, "It's a happy occasion anyways, plus I get to train my abnormal resistance so that's also a benefit."

As they continued chatting amongst themselves, Bell's head swung to the door. Not just Bell, but all the adventurers turned their head towards there.

With the aura of the man that walked through, how could anyone not take notice?

Bell recognised the man however, "Ottar. How are you?" He asked with a smile on his face.

The others looked at him as if he was crazy to call out the 'King' in such a casual manner, but what followed next surprised them even more.

"Cranel, you're here too? Good evening." Ottar greeted.

Even his familia stared at Bell somewhat shocked. Wondering when they had gotten so familiar with each other.

Bell looked at the rest of them weirdly, "What? We're drinking buddies." He said as if it was nothing of importance.

Ottar shrugged, and went up to the counter. He had simply come in for a drink, since his mistress had some things to attend to.

" Wait what?!" Lili shreiked, "The strongest in the city is your drinking buddy. How? When? I mean when do you even go out for drinks?!"

"Every now and then, whenever my and his schedules line up. You'd be surprised, he's actually a pretty chill guy." Bell praised him, although all of them had some trouble believing him, "Oh unless you offend Freya sama, in which case good luck surviving."

At that moment Bell had a new thought, "Hey Ottar...are we friends?"

Silence ensued for a bit before Ottar spoke or rather..."hmph."

"The best." Bell smiled before returning to his food. Despite the comical conversation, that only served to rouse Lili and the others' suspicions of Bell, it provided a much better use to Bell.

'The plan can be set into motion now...' he smirked thinking of the things that could've been done. Having some help from Ottar would certainly be helpful, not that he could convince him to go against Freya, but he doubted Freya would choose to oppose his decisons.

After all, even if she were to be infatuated by him, she was still a deity. Oh so full of curiosity, so full of intelligence that hungers to know entertaining and the eternal what could've been.

Although that's all for later, for now...he would enjoy some dinner.

A/N: And that's a wrap. Sorry about any grammatical error, it took so long just to write this chapter. Extremely busy rn, so much that I haven't watched any anime or anything in ages.

Hopefully, I get to live. Sorry if writing was improper, Jax is still new to this so error aren't very uncommon for him (Hey!) Either way, me and him will try our best to make things as correct as possible.

Bless.