Spoilers for up to volume 17
Night in Orario was peaceful but not quiet. Adventurers happily relieving themselves of both their stress and coin accumulated over the course of Dungeon diving, bars and brothels filling the air with moans and shouts, singing and laughter. The Drunken Bear was one of many such establishment, a group of prums were singing in one corner, a chienthrope was trying to seduce the serving girl, who in turn was ignoring him in favor of glancing at an elven man nursing a drink and staring into the distance, and various other groups bragging about the days events, monsters slayed or the feats of famous adventurers.
"Hey, Bruce, I've bin in da city fo a couple weeks now. I keep hear'in bout Bill Cranel all da time, what he actually do?" Asked the newest member of the party.
"Ooohhh! Rabbits Foot. Yeah he's done some crazy stuff." said the oldest adventure sitting at the table, a dark, bearded man in his thirties.
"Like what though? All ever hear are jokes, like he got poisoned an stabbed the poison to death, or he was soloing on the 5th floor after a couple weeks in da Dungeon and ran inta a Mino. They ain't even on the 5th!"
"Nah Jonhy, that second one's true, was chased there by some of the bigwiggs commin up from the deep levels."
"What! really!? How'd he survive?"
"Don't know, but everyone saw him runnin down the main street soaked in blood with a big grin on his face just after."
"So he actually took on a Minotaur at level one?"
"Fightin one on his own was how he leveled up actually."
"He leveled up after a couple weeks? yeah right."
"No no no, he fought one solo later, took him a month and a half to level up."
"A month an a half! that's not much more believable bro."
"Check the guild if ya don't believe me, all the level ups are recorded."
The cat person sitting on the left leaned in "Won't give nya any more about what he did though, asked ma advisor for the level up guide from him. She said tellin people to try'n do what he did s'the same as tellin' folks to go die."
"C'mon Cliff, next ya'll be tellin' me the Minotaur had a big sword n was trained by the King."
"Nha ha hahaha, no, can't say I've heard that."
"What about him getting down to the 18th on his first time in the middle floors?"
"I remember that, him and his party were pretty beat up."
"Oh, so he was in a party. If he had other level 2s with him that makes sense."
"Nope. A couple of level 1s."
"...and how'd he get back up if he was hurt?"
"Loki Familia were there, treated his wounds. Apparently he's close with the Sword Princess."
"O'course he is. So he went back up with them?"
"Actually he couldn't, nya see-"
"Oi! We're not suposs ta talk about that! Guild orders remember."
"What, did he beat an irregular floor boss while he was down there?"
"..." The older adventures exchanged looks.
"Ya joking. Right?"
"..."
"...is that how he got to level 3?"
"Nah, that was in the Wargame against Apollo Familia." The older man quickly said, happy to change the subject.
"I actually heard about that! Sieging a castle with five people makes sense as a level up I guess." The Divine Mirrors had broadcast the battel even outside of the city, so John had heard about it in his home town.
"Think it was more him beatin the level 3 captain one on one that did it."
"How does a level 2 beat a level 3? stats only go up to S."
"Rumor has it that Rabbits Foot gets all his stats up to S."
"Gods... Wonder what he'll do ta get ta level 4?"
"I mean, most of the city saw that nya."
"Wait, hang on. He leveled up again? that wargame was only like six months ago, It takes years to level up, but he's already level 4!?"
"Level 5 actually."
"How!?"
"Like Cliff said, most of the city saw it, a bunch of irregular monsters destroyed Rivia and got up to the surface, strongest one was a big black Minotaur that gave Loki Familia a run for their money."
"So he helped Loki Familia take it down?"
"He fought it on his own, through the middle of town before it escaped into the dungeon. It was brutal."
"Why didn't anyone help?"
"Thing's a level 7 monster, he was the only one brave enough around."
"I'm gonna regret asking, but anything after that?"
"Mostly just rumors, a few people saw him fall off the Great Falls, a lota the strongest residents in Rivia died a bit after tat, some say he killed the thing that did it, but Bors is pretty tight liped about what happened."
"Really crazy rumor is that he got trapped in the Deep Floors and had to go through the Colosseum to get out nya."
"The Colosseum?"
"It's a place down there where hundreds of level 4 monsters constantly fight each other." A grim look came over Bruce's bearded face. "No one would be desperate enough to go into that. Either way he was walking around with a cast on his arm for a while after that, so he must have been messed up pretty bad."
"But what did The Guild actually list as the feat for getting to level 5 though?"
"He didn't level up until after he was freed from Freya Familia. Gods that was crazy."
"Freed from Freya Familia? They kidnapped him?"
"Yeah, that was just before you got here, crazy stuff. Freya wanted him."
"How is getting kidnapped worthy of leveling up?"
"They say in Freya Familia they fight each other constantly to get stronger, after he beat all the level 4s at once he had to constantly fight the executives."
"So he was fighting level 5s?"
"6s."
"So how'd he get away from-" suddenly the door to the bar opened and everything went silent. Turning to look John saw a boy looking around nervously as the whole bar stared at him. "Bell! over here." He shouted and waved.
Cliff dropped his drink.
"You know him!" Exclamed Bruce.
"Yeah, this is Bell, he showed me where the guild is when I first got to Orario. Promised him I'd shout a drink some time."
The white haired boy walked over to their table. "Ummm hi." No one else in the bar had yet to speak.
"C'mon, sit down. My party was just telling me about Bill Cranel, know any stories about him?"
