The metallic tinge of blood filled Bell Cranel's mouth. He spat it out and moved his right handed dagger out in front of him poised in a defensive stance, his left handed dagger held low to guard from lower angled attacks. This was a guarded stance, something he was rather familiar with. He studied the opponent in front of him, watching it's breathing and footwork, it's subtle movements, and it's slight nuances hinting at its next action.
Even though this was only a goblin on the fifth floor, Bell had to be careful. He was tired and only a level one. These types of monsters weren't easy given his current condition.
His opponent moved forward and swung low at his knee with it's rusty iron dagger then jumped high, it's blade swinging towards his head from the right. Bell dodged to the left, letting the blade swing by him harmlessly before spinning with a slash at the still airborne opponent. Sinking the blade into the goblin's shoulder, Bell moved his hand along it's hilt only to shift his weight and turn towards another goblin that had assaulted him with a knotted wooden club from behind. That strike would have done a serious amount of damage to his head if he had not shifted out of the way, however, he was now at a disadvantage. These two goblins were not enemies he could easily dispatch, at least not at the moment given that he was exhausted from a long day of fighting and collecting magic stones.
Jumping backwards down the earthy stone corridor, Bell brought both of his daggers to a ready position in front of his chest.
The goblins faltered, realizing their trap had failed and stood apprehensively in front of Bell, their weapons pensively raised in front of them.
Bell realized that a battle of attrition was not something he wanted, then charged the two causing them to quickly run backwards, their little legs unable to keep up with Bell's advance. Tripping on a large stone, the one on the right fell backwards with a shriek, scaring the other into turning and fleeing full speed down the corridor away from him.
Bell, seeing his chance, brought down his dagger on the goblin that was incapacitated on the ground and it burst into black smoke. A small purple crystal the size of his thumb shone on the floor, causing Bell to grin happily. He had been blessed by luck today. A stone like this would cover his next three days expenses at least, maybe including a potion if he spent his coin wisely.
Picking it up and putting it in his bag, he was quite happy with the shine that came out of his small burlap pouch. Today was a profitable day, and even without this final stone, he would be very well off even if it was only for a few days.
He had spent some time in the city of Orario hunting in the dungeon, but sadly he had not made too much progress. At least not as much as he had naively believed he would have after arriving in the city. Still, his situation wasn't what would be called bad either. He had a place to live, and he was in a Familia under a Goddess that loved him very much. Still, he did feel the nagging bite of unfulfillment. He wanted to move further down in the dungeon. He wanted to fight stronger opponents.
Despite his small goals at the moment, he would find himself dreaming of greater shores, dreaming of being a legendary hero. Dreaming of having beautiful women doting on him, no matter how unlikely it was.
Returning back to reality, he decided it was time to leave the dungeon. No good would come of fighting when depleted of energy. Even if he was confident, Bell wasn't stupid when it came to the dungeon. Turning around, he took out the map he had purchased in the guild and followed the path leading out. Halfway through the floor, he heard the sounds of what sounded like a raging bull many corridors away causing him to shiver in an uncomfortable quiver, however it was soon silenced and he moved on.
The path to the surface was quiet, aside from killing a a small froglike humanoid goblin on the second floor and a black wolf on the third there were very few interruptions.
Bell made his way out of the dungeon and made a brisk but controlled beeline towards the guild. He wanted to exchange his magic stones as soon as he could, and he had very little time to waste. After all, he wanted to find a restaurant to spend his newfound money on with and for his Goddess that he cared for oh so much. Speaking of his Goddess, Hestia had been doing the most she could to provide Bell with a comfortable life.
Lost in his mind, Bell didn't see the small man who was humming and smoking a wooden pipe walking up to him. Both of the two were not paying attention to their surroundings causing Bell to trip and fall over the man as they collided. The two falling into the street.
"NUTS NUTS NUTS NUTS" A tiny purple suited man with a bulbous head stormed into his pink walled living room shouting. A beautiful woman with long smooth red hair and a sizeable bust lay on a pink couch across from him leafing through a newspaper.
"He beat you again huh?" The woman asked, mostly indifferent, her white shirt ruffling as she turned to the man looking up from the paper.
"Don't you start with me Gsptlsnz! That blasted man always gets me!" The man complained, floating over to the woman on the couch who brought him in for a close hug, kissing him deeply before letting go.
"You know, now that you're stuck here, you'll just have to find another way to pass the time" The woman offered, leaving a lip mark on his cheek from her dark red lipstick.
The man was quite happy about this, Kissing the woman back passionately. The woman, Gsptlsnz was quite happy that her husband actually kissed her back. After all, he usually ignored her, choosing to focus on beating Superman in his game.
The two broke apart again and Gsptlsnz praised her husband.
"I forgot how good of a kisser you were" She laughed carefreely. The man smiled, puffing out his tiny chest.
"Yes, praise me more my lovely wife, Mr. Mxyzptlk is the best at kissing" the little man boasted.
"That's right, so what will you be doing for the next three months?" His wife asked, curious as to how her husband was going to spend the time. Three months was no more than a flash in the pan to her, but her husband took time in a different way than her. He wanted to have as much fun as possible and since Superman was off the table, he would have to find some other universe to play with.
"Well, ever since that weird Batman guy was defeated, all the universes are much easy to travel to. I'm thinking of finding a universe far out of the way. I believe I went there once before by accident with Bat-Mite, but we destroyed it before I could look around. I'd like to know more about it" Mxyzptlk explained, floating away from the couch.
"Alright, have fun. I might come visit you if I get bored" The woman said, turning back to the newspaper and reading the article she had sat up from to meet her husband.
"That would be a nice surprise" Mxyzptlk said, amused that his lazy wife would take the time to even mettle with the third and fourth dimension at all. Then, the fifth dimensional imp snapped his fingers, disappearing from the fifth dimension and into somewhere in the omniverse.
Finding himself in the middle of a busy cobblestone street, Mxyzptlk quickly turned intangible as a group of men and women armed with swords, staves, and bows walked right where he would have been almost trampling him if he wasn't intangible. Cursing them, Mxyzptlk floated up into the air and flew over the city, looking for someone or something that might interest him.
There were many powerful beings that walked through the streets, all suppressing their power like he was. However, they were all three dimensional beings and not on his level of existence.
He watched the beings and people walk around and occasionally followed one for a while, taking interest in them before getting bored and floating away.
Eventually choosing a street, mxyzptlk floated down and decided to walk a bit, having been bored by floating everywhere. Pulling a tobacco pipe from thin air, he took a puff of it and blew smoke rings.
He enjoyed himself for a few moments, wandering off in his thoughts before some human rudely walked into him sending both of them tumbling into the ground.
Author's note: This story is a bit off the hip so I'm not sure which way I'll be taking it. The basic premise is Mxyzptlk having a bit of fun with Bell and the Danmachi universe. I'm open to ideas involving this story. Feel free to offer them.