Before you go on, for the people who have read chapter 2 in the 1st few hours that it was published, I would suggest going back to reread a certain scene, the one where it's Ais' pov.

I made a slight edit as I realised that I slightly butchered her character. If you don't want to go and read it, then just know the change was that she slightly hesitated and regretted her actions for the possibility of offending Bell by potentially stealing his kill rather than saving him.

In the original chapter I uploaded, it looked like she didn't even consider the possibility of Bell winning. Even though she doesn't know anything about him, including his level or abilities. There was even a line where she suggested that it really shouldn't matter, but then I remembered what her past was and realised I was an idiot. That line is still there but she takes it back. She still saves him, but again, I made her hesitant and slightly regretful and want to apologize. Which is a plus so she actually has a reason to interact with Bell.

Sorry about that, and hopefully I improved that scene even if ever so slightly and even if it is just a couple more lines.

Bell shuddered for a second as he observed his surroundings. "..." He shook his head as he obviously saw nothing but the busy street he was currently on. He got a strange feeling just now, like someone was watching him, the same feeling of yesterday. He sighed as he let it go, and continued making his way towards the dungeon wearing his same attire. Well, he was actually going to buy a few potions first.

He had some spare daggers from just in case his other ones got destroyed, none of them really being too much better than the last one. The last one being bent and going dull.

Sure he could have maybe found a blacksmith to repair it for him, but it felt more natural having multiple than going to repair it just for it to possibly dent again.

Now that doesn't mean he didn't want a blacksmith in his party, it just wasn't on his mind right now.

"Uhm, excuse me." He stopped in his tracks and slightly turned around. He was met with a girl who had bluish gray hair that she kept tied with a small knot in a ponytail style. Her eyes were the same color as her hair and she had a light peachy colored smooth skin. She wore a white blouse with a leaf-colored knee-length long skirt. She also wore a slightly long half apron around her waist. She wears a pair of brown boots over black stockings.

Ugh, the way he described her appearance in detail, he can hear his grandfather's words. "Remember Bell, you don't want to miss a single detail of any of your girls, you have to treat all your girls equally if you want them to be fair in bed! Or on second thought, don't. Have some favorites, after all, less is more."

He put his attention back to the girl in front of her. "What do you want?" Bell asked.

"Oh, uhm, I'm sorry, it's just I saw you drop this." Bell looked down to the hand she was extending, seeing a magic stone.

"I did?" He wondered as he took the magic stone out of her hand and slightly inspected it. "I could have sworn I cashed in all my drop items yesterday…"

Well whatever, it was free money. He gave a slight bow. "Thank you very much ma'am."

"H-Huh? Oh I mean, you're welcome." Geez, he should have a counter to count the many times people reacted like that or something for how many times he let his 'nice' side show after his snarky side.

Well that's what Hestia called it.

At this point, he should have a card or something.

He ignored her reaction as he put the stone in a small pouch where he kept stones and drop items.

"You're an adventurer right?" She asked.

"Hm?" He looked up at her in curiosity, why was she starting a conversation all of a sudden? Well he guessed it didn't matter, he wasn't in a hurry. "Yeah. I'm heading to the dungeon right now actually."

"You're going to the dungeon this early?" She asked with a tilt of her head.

"Yeah, it's better like this." He simply said.

His stomach decided to growl at that moment.

"Was that… Have you not eaten?" She asked.

"No, but it's fine, I got some leftover food from what my goddess made for me yester-" As he was talking, he was taking said leftovers that was in a small box out of one his bag pockets to prove his point, but once he took it out to show it to the girl, she was gone. "Day…"

Bell stared at the empty air in front of him, but slightly looked up to the building in front of him with both doors open, he tilted his head as he saw a bunch of seats set up upside down on the tables, obviously they were closed.

He was about to shrug the whole encounter off, until the same girl came running out of the building and shoved a wrapped item on his free left gloved hand. "Here!"

"Huh?" He raised the wrapped item that had a square shape in front of his face. He quickly put 2 and 2 together, she was wondering if he ate and she gave him something. "Why are you giving this to me? Isn't this your lunch?" He assumed it was, cause who else would have their food wrapped up so readily?

"Yeah but you don't have to worry." She said as she glanced behind her to the same building she exited. "I work here, so I can just ask for some food pretty easily."

"Well the fact that you made lunch would suggest you like your own cooking better than this restaurant's, no?" It was a genuine question, because WHY WAS SHE GIVING HIM FOOD? "It doesn't really help your case when I have my own food."

"Y-You're overthinking it." She said with certainty. Though that stutter didn't help. "And like I said, it's not a big deal."

"I don't really mind free handouts, but I already told you I have food." Bell said, lifting up the box of lunch to prove his point.

"Just take it, please~." She said in a sultry tone.

What the fuck?

"Uhm, why do you wa-"

"Please?~"

…People were weird.

"Ok, fine." He surrendered. In the end, he supposed it was extra free food.

She chuckled. "If you really feel that bad, you could make it up to me by coming here to eat tonight."

Eat? Well he supposed he hadn't been to too many food areas, just some stands handing out food. And his goddess wasn't great at cooking, only able to make stuff from potatoes. "Hm, I guess. I have a little extra money due to the lack of board games. Plus I should get some more money from going to the dungeon today, even if I'm about to buy some potions."

He had about two potions left. Yeah three potions gone because of sprained fingers and an injured leg, and it didn't even fully heal him. Sure they didn't cost much, but they were still useful. But they still only did so much. He couldn't afford that expensive healing stuff that could heal basically everything but missing limbs in one use.

Besides, he liked helping out Miach and his familia, though Miach himself tried to offer him some free potions. Of course he denied those, but it was so weird, Miach was too kind. He only went to his shop twice, and he treated him with such kindness.

Maybe it was because they were both broke.

But because of his kindness, Bell often visited just to see how he was doing, and always declined his free potion offer. Not that he minded free stuff, but the potions weren't expensive at all.

"Oh?" The girl slightly narrowed her eyes as she smiled easily. "So you'll have a bit of money then eh?"

"...Are you planning on sca-"

"Hehe, I'll see you tonight then!" She said in a cheerful voice as she spun on her heel and went back into the building.

"...Somehow this is grandpa's fault." He sighed as he started walking away. "Man, if only Miach or his members played board games."

/

Freya sighed in delight as she looked out of one of the windows inside of her familia's home, just outside her quarters.

If anyone were to ask about the goddess Freya, almost everyone would say she was the most beautiful being ever.

Well, considering Freya was a goddess of love, and her charm also helped with that. Besides that, Freya wasn't just known for her beauty, her familia has grown to be the strongest familia in Orario.

For the few that overlooked all of that, they knew Freya for who she really was. But that was very few, most of them only being gods or goddesses. And the others were her familia members of course, but they were too loyal to care.

Freya would always find a hidden gem in all of her children, like Allen, and Ottar.

And now something else piqued her interest. Honestly, she passed him by chance more than anything. With her discerning eye ability, she was able to see the color and brilliance of souls. She used this at a random boy passing by, and she was beyond surprised. Soul colors are often represented by a person's personality, characteristic, and mindset, she used this on the sword princess who had a soul of gold, but she had seen a color just like, or similar to it once or twice.

Bell Cranel.

This boy's soul was completely bizarre and new. New was not common to Freya. When she looked at the boy, his soul was nothing like she'd ever seen, a 2 combination of colors.

The best way to imagine it was to think of a circle. Now imagine that circle in the middle area was Transparent, that was the purest and most innocent soul she had ever seen. But now, imagine the rest of the outer circle was covered in a dull grey color, if the fact that part of his soul was transparent, the fact he had 2 colors made Freya very interested.

People never had 2 colors of any soul. Again, it can determine on your personality and mindset, which could change, but the only thing she saw closest to this situation which wasn't even close at all, were when she saw people being both extremely happy and sad for certain things. It would just be something like a very light grey that slightly glowed back and forth from dark to light.

She had a theory that maybe the boy had 2 souls, but Freya would be able to tell, the souls would be somewhat obviously separate. But again imagine that same circle, and imagine the colors, or lack thereof for the clean transparent one, blending in and out with each other, not fighting for control or anything like that, as if it was one soul.

A possible theory that could work would be 2 souls that have combined, but she didn't care anymore.

She wanted this boy.

She's already seen a start of rapid growth, and she was so intrigued by his attitude. The 2 colors of his soul should have made it obvious of the latter, but it was more intriguing to see.

Of course she hasn't actually interacted with him yet, but it was interesting to see him in a few small talks. Going from a polite tone to a snarky sarcastic one and vice versa. Well, that was what Allen told her when she asked him to spy on him, see how he acted due to the soul thing.

Oh, and he apparently had an interesting skill. Though she knew about the description of his skill by taking his adventurer info from the guild, it was interesting to hear it from Allen's point of view.

The skill was apparently called Decay. The description of it was that he was able to make anything he touches with five of his fingers on any hand disintegrate. Though she didn't know how powerful it was, that would be revealed later though as she observed him. But she doubted it was anything too astonishing, there was no way word wouldn't have spread, and she found out that he had only recently been able to go to the sixth floor. For being an adventurer for only two weeks, that was impressive, but it showed that skill had limits, but she would have to see. Sure she could have sent Allen to view him in the dungeon, or convince the gods to use the divine mirror to view him, but Allen had other tasks, and she would save the latter for when she truly tested Bell.

Though she had to find out what familia he was in, that would be her first move. She smiled in delight as she walked into her quarters, with satisfaction as she spoke to seemingly no one. "I can't wait to watch you grow."

/

"If I remember right, Frog Shooter. That's a stupid name." Bell stated as he casually walked up to said monster. It was a frog monster with one eyeball. The frog said nothing as it simply jumped towards him and lashed out its tongue towards Bell. Bell quickly sidestepped it as he charged and shoved his right hand in the frog's mouth.

The monster choked for a second before it's tongue and mouth fell apart, and eventually dispersed into a black mist.

Bell hummed as he picked up the magic stone with his gloved hand, and took out his small pouch of magic stones and drop items. There weren't really too many monsters with huge drop items, but he was sure that would change soon as the monsters get stronger.

Like that minotaur.

He shook his head. He could kill as many as those as he wanted to when he got into that floor. Bell glanced around as he sighed, he'd already been down here for a while, he was about to head back. 'I wanted to up my strength a bit by just fistfighting some of the weaker monsters and try to overpower them, but I have to be somewhere today, so I don't want to do anything too reckless today.'

Bell turned to the direction of the way out of the dungeon and started walking. 'Well, today was more of a money day than anything.'

Bell perked up as he heard the walls cracking, indicating the spawning of monsters. Suddenly over a dozen monsters spawned. Bell slightly scratched his neck as he scoffed. More Frog Shooters and War Shadows, A dark humanoid monster that has long arms with three claws that are sharp like knives. 'Four frog shooters and eight War Shadows? Of course when I'm leaving that's when the dungeon decides to spam these things. Annoying!'

Bell grit his teeth as he charged in.

/

Hestia huffed as she gave Bell his stats. They were in the same spot they always had when Bell got his stats updated.

Bell hummed as he saw his stats. "Huh, I wasn't even trying anything new today."

Bell Cranel - Level 1

Strength H101 - H110

Endurance I58 - I65

Dexterity H129 - H150

Agility G259 - G278

Magic I0 -

Skills - Decay: Has the ability to decay anything with all 5 fingers of each hand.

- L-/-F-/-

Hestia knew what this was, it was the effect of his new skill. The new skill she still hasn't told him about. It wasn't as huge of a boost from yesterday, from when he encountered and apparently fought a minotaur. Obviously she freaked out when she heard that, and Bell's nonchalant uncarness annoyed her. Seriously, she loved her first child, but why couldn't he always be polite and kind the few times he's shown that side of him?

But anyway, the jump in stats with an overall 56 point boost was incredible. Now it wasn't as high as when he got his status boost after his encounter with the minotaur, but it wasn't a huge difference. But she didn't know if the skill activated when he was in the middle of the minotaur fight or after.

And by Bell's earlier comment, he wasn't doing any of his 'experiments' in the dungeon. Though, it was strange how Bell seemed to have a general idea of what to do when he first saw his stats. Always coming back with a boost of one stat specifically. He would always prioritize his agility, his explanation being that he would be able to utilise his skill better. But she was glad he wasn't completely relying on that, he was also utilizing his daggers as much as he could.

Bell really was determined to be an adventurer… She wishes she could help, but here she was, keeping secrets from her only child. For good reason! But still not helping.

Bell didn't seem like one to start a conversation, but she felt like he wouldn't care about telling people about his abilities. Which would be bad if people found out about his new skill, the other gods and goddesses would want him. And Hestia hasn't done anything for Bell at all, other than the broken down home and lack of money due to debt. But he always said he didn't mind.

Bell only gave a vague description of his past. He told her about his grandfather, saying how he didn't know his parents, and how he told him stories about adventures and heroes. With that, you'd think he would have an admiration for heroes or anything of the sort. But it was the exact opposite. The few times he said the word 'hero' he would always have a sour expression on his face. She wondered how his grandfather reacted to that.

Then there was his mysterious Sensei. He never went into detail about him, just that he apparently saved him after his grandfather died.

…Actually, that last part might not have been entirely true. As mostly everyone knew, you couldn't lie to a god or goddess. When Bell said his grandfather died, his Sensei had come to save him. The first part of that was a lie, his sensei did save him, but not after his grandfather's death, but that was it, everything else about his Sensei being all powerful in every way, he seemed to believe. But again, he never went into detail about his Sensei.

It was strange, it was such a small thing but at the same time she felt like it wasn't. If his Sensei didn't save him after his grandfather died, when did he? Perhaps she was looking too deep into it, maybe it was just another thing Bell didn't want to talk about.

Bell placed his sheet on the bed like last time, he got up and walked to the bathroom but stopped halfway to look at her. "Whatever, I'll figure that out later if it happens again. Goddess, I'm going out tonight."

Hestia perked up at that, Bell would usually just play his board games until the next time he went to the dungeon. "You are? Where?"

"...I didn't get the name of the place, just some restaurant that got my interest. Do you want to come, goddess?" He asked.

Gargh! Of course this was after she just ate! "Uhm… Sorry I just ate, thanks though, Bell."

Bell nodded as he walked into the bathroom. "Ok, I'm gonna go shower first."

Hestia just sighed as she was left alone. 'I gotta tell him about his skill eventually… Oh no, I don't want to think about how he might react.'

A few possible lines came into her mind that she didn't want to think about. He would probably complain how he could have exploited that skill like any other 'RPG'. Or call her a useless 'NPC'. Which he would never explain what those terms meant.

She laid down face first and whined into her pillow.

/

Bell eyed the girl who he met this morning, it now being late at night witht the city as a source of light.

He was wearing the same exact attire, the only difference was that he wasn't wearing his chestplate. Now it wasn't because he didn't have any other choice of clothing, it's just that none of them had a hoodie. He liked hoodies, and just the general feel of this attire. Now sure, he could ask his goddess to sew a hoodie part on all clothes for him, but he didn't want to be a bother. That was why he never really asked for anything in return, her falna that gave him more potential to grow was enough.

Maybe he'll find something else to wear that he liked later.

The building that was closed earlier was now packed. The blue-ish grey haired girl standing in the entrance. "Welcome to the Hostess Of Fertility. I'm glad you could make it."

"Well you seemed persistent." Bell said simply.

She chuckled at that. "I never introduced myself. My name is Syr Flover, nice to meet you."

He offered a smile. "Bell Cranel."

She smiled back. "Well, come on in, we only have a couple seats at the bar so we hope you don't mind."

A bar? Just like… "No, I don't mind at all."

She hummed as she gestured for him to follow him, which he did. Once he was inside, still following her, he checked his surroundings. Bell had never been in a populated restaurant since he lived in a small village, even in his other memories due to obvious reasons, well, not entirely true, so it was a unique sight to see at first.

But there wasn't too much going on, even so, it was slightly interesting to see everyone either enjoying themselves by drinking and talking, or just munching on their food.

He glanced at the waitresses, they were wearing the same thing as Syr. One had brown hair with cat ears and a tail, another with pointy ears and green hair. And he thought he saw some more employees in the back but not enough to describe how they appear.

"Here we are." She presented him with a stool on the edge of a bar counter.

He sat down on the seat. "Alright, is there a menu or so-"

He was immediately presented with a full plate of spaghetti. "Here you go. Hope you enjoy it." A bigger lady with brown hair said, wearing the same uniform but in a different color.

"Uhm… I didn't order anything yet-"

Another plate slammed next to him. "And here is our special of the day." A whole fish was on it.

"Wa-"

She walked away.

"Special of the day?" He looked around for some sort of menu, before finding the price for the special. "900 Valis?! That's absurd, I AM getting scammed!"

Syr walked up as she chuckled. "Sorry, I had told Mama Mia that you ate a lot."

"...So you DO like money." He deadpanned.

She genuinely smiled. "Well, more like I like meeting new people." She turned around and looked at the people at the restaurant. "The Hostess Of Fertility is a place where a lot of adventurers come to gather. I like meeting so many different and interesting people here."

"Hm." Bell hummed, he supposed he could slightly relate, his meeting with Miach was nice. But he wasn't going to actively look for friends. He grabbed his fork and stabbed some spaghetti, he put the few that were on his fork in his mouth. It was good. "Hmmm, this is pretty good."

"Hehe, well I hope so. So Bell, why are you an adventurer?" She asked.

"Huh, why?" He repeated.

She nodded.

"Well, at first I wanted to do it for my grandpa, but some things changed on the way. I just want to do it because I want to, plus it satisfies some things." Bell explained. The latter he was talking about was obviously his urge to destroy. Destroying monsters satisfied him enough, he never really met someone who he wanted to destroy, even the few that ridiculed him for being 'weak' when he was trying to join a familia were tolerable. Maybe it was because he knew the dungeon was an option. Oh, but those few got some insults spat back at them, just because he didn't want to kill them didn't mean he liked them.

"Oh, so is adventuring one of those things that gets you satisfied?" She asked.

"No, it's not something people would really like the answer to." He simply said as he took another bite.

"NYA!" A… Meow? Came from the entrance, the same cat waitress he saw earlier. "The customers with reservations have arrived!"

A group of people came from the entrance. The lead had light red hair and red eyes. She dressed up in tomboyish or male attire, jeans and a shirt that shows off her stomach. She tied her hair back in a simple pony-tail.

A small figure with scruffy blond hair, he looked like a kid.

The same elf girl that he saw yesterday.

A man with long brown hair and a beard.

Two brown girls with revealing clothing.

A man with light gray hair with animal ears and a tail.

And a girl elf with long golden hair.

Oh… And her.

He stopped looking and continued to eat as he heard the mummers.

"Woah, she's gorgeous."

"Are they royalty or something?"

"No you idiot, look at the emblem."

"It's the Loki Familia."

"The Loki Familia? Oh, so that's the sword princess huh?"

He had mixed feelings for Ais, he didn't hate her, but he was mad for the kill steal. But at the same time, he probably would have died if it wasn't for her.

"Hm, Bell are you ok?" Syr asked.

"Huh?" He looked at her.

"You were spacing out." She slightly frowned.

Was he? "Oh, sorry."

"Oh, ok. By the way, that's the Loki familia. They always like coming here, their goddess Loki in particular." She said.

"Hm." He hummed as he saw, who he assumed was Loki, reach for Ais' back before getting hit in the head by said person. "Good for them I guess."

Syr frowned. "You don't seem like you want to talk anymore."

"What's there to say about them? Everyone knows they're apparently strong, I already hear mummers just from them entering." He took another bite.

"No, not that, it just seems like your expression soured when you saw them." She explained.

"That sword princess or whatever bugs me. Well, more like what she did." He said as he stabbed his fork on the untouched fish.

"Hm, did you two meet?" She said, glancing between Ais and Bell.

"Well, she possibly might have saved me from a minotaur that was on the fifth floor." He simply said. "Which I'm grateful for, but at the same time, I wanted to kill that minotaur for myself."

"What, that really happened!?" She exclaimed.

"Yeah." He said as he took a bite. "This is pretty good too."

"Hm, so you're a prideful one huh?" She chuckled.

"Tch, no, it was my right to destroy that thing." He grit his teeth.

"Huh?" She tilted her head.

He sighed. "Nothing, it doesn't matter, sorry."

"Oh, it's fine, I don't really get the whole thing, but it sounds like you didn't want help right?" Syr concluded. "Well, whatever the case, I'm glad you're here now." She smiled.

…She was right. "Yeah, you're right. Today is a solid day anyways. So-"

"Hey Ais! Tell us that story again!" A voice cut him off. He looked to see it was that werewolf looking guy.

Ais' expression didn't change. "That story?"

"Y'know! About the 'tough guy'! The one who got all mad cause he was saved!"

Oh, today wasn't a solid day.

A/N

I was planning on posting this sooner, but I kept getting home late due to all this snow.

You guys will see Bell/Tomura's reaction in the next chapter.

Hopefully I didn't butcher the Freya soul thing, it's never really explained in much detail, so I hope you enjoyed it for what it was.

Not too much happened this chapter, and too much of it looks like it's going down canon lane, but that will start to subtly change.

Till next time.