Chapter 14-

Into the Dungeon

Bell Cranel jumped out of the way from an Orc's wide swing.

"Firebolt!"

A blast of fire left his hands and incinerated the monster in front of him. Letting out a breath of relief, he wiped some of the sweat off his face with his hands. He had gotten stronger again, but it wasn't enough yet. He was still a long ways away from catching up to Ais Wallenstein, and of Minato Arisato as well. The two adventurers that had saved him, he wanted to be able to return the favor one day and stand as an equal instead of being someone that always needed to be saved.

"Incredible Bell-sama!" Lili praised, awe in her voice. "That Orc didn't stand a chance! You really are amazing!"

Bell just sheepishly rubbed the back of his head in response.

He never did get used to the praise that Lili would heap upon him. He really wasn't that amazing, not compared to the two adventurers he was aspiring to catch up to. It was nice to have someone appreciate his hard work besides his Goddess though.

Putting his daggers back into their sheaths, he moved over to help Lili with collecting the monster crystals.

"Bell-sama, you don't have to help Lili with her job." The supporter pointed out as she pulled out a monster crystal. "You should let Lili handle the harvesting."

"It's fine, Lili. We're a party now, right?" He replied with a smile. "Party members work together and carry each other's burdens."

The girl had a sad look in her eyes for a moment before she smiled at him with a nod. Even though he didn't blame her, it seemed that she still felt guilty about stealing his Hestia Dagger. He really wished that Lili would stop blaming herself for that, especially since he had already long forgiven her for it.

Bell just reached out with his hand and ruffled her hair a bit.

"Ah, hey, Bell-sama!" The girl pouted in response.

He just chuckled to himself until the sounds of running footsteps caught his attention.

The mist on the tenth floor made it hard to see, but that didn't mean adventurers couldn't use their hearing to detect nearby monsters. He turned his attention towards the noise and saw an Orc running straight at them. He took out his dagger in response, but something was strange about this particular Orc.

It didn't seem like it was trying to attack them, rather it was trying to run away?

An arrow zipped through the air, striking it in the back before the monster fell to the ground in front of him. And then from the mist, an adventurer with a bow emerged, followed by another one with a sword in hand. The archer gave him a brief nod before she continued on her way while the sword user followed after her.

Bell wasn't sure who they were, but they didn't look like they belonged on this floor.

Their equipment was far too impressive for that, they must have been a high-level party of adventurers moving into the deeper floors. He couldn't help but raise an eyebrow when more and more adventurers continued to emerge from the mist, however. Just how big of a party did they have?

It all made sense to him once he saw Ais Wallenstein and a female elf stepped out of the mist as well. They must have been the Loki Familia in the middle of an expedition. Ais met his eyes and he couldn't help but blush a little bit in response. He wasn't expecting to meet with her again so soon, but it would be rude to not greet her, wouldn't it?

Taking a deep breath and gathering his resolve, he stood up and walked over to her.

"E-eh, Bell-sama?" Lili called out before she followed after him as well.

"Good morning, A-ais-san!" He greeted, trying to fight back the incoming blush on his cheeks. "... H-how are you doing?"

He wanted to kick himself for that. Really? How was she doing? Was that the best he could think of?!

"... Good." Ais softly replied. "You are… up to the tenth floor now?"

He hastily nodded at that. "Y-yes! I've been working hard!"

"... Good work." She said with a small smile before tilting her head towards the other members of the Loki Familia. "I need to go now."

Did Ais Wallenstein just praise him?!

"A-ah, of course," Bell quickly replied as he regathered himself. "Good luck on the expedition, Ais-san."

The Sword Princess just nodded at him before she walked away. The elf at her side gave him a strange look before she followed after her.

"H-hey, who was that, Ais-san?" Bell heard Ais's traveling companion ask her as they walked away.

"... Friend."

Bell actually had to prevent himself from squeeing once he heard that. Ais Wallenstein considered him to be a friend! He was on cloud nine! He felt like he could die right now on the spot and he'd still be happy!

Well… maybe that was going a bit too far.

"... Bell-sama, Lili doesn't like the look on your face." His supporter dryly replied. "How do you know the Sword Princess?"

"O-oh… We've met a few times before." Bell replied as he scratched his cheek. "We're… friends?"

"Mmm…" Lili mused to herself as she narrowed her eyes at him. "... I see."

Bell just sheepishly rubbed the back of his head.

They watched as more and more of the Loki Familia walked by. Bell even recognized some of them from the stories that other adventures spoke of. He saw famous heroes like the pallum that was known as the Braver and the elf with the title of Nine Hell. They were all so impressive and awe-inspiring that he just hoped one day he could walk next to them as an equal.

Bell continued to wait until he saw the familiar patch of blue-hair that he was looking for.

It had been a while since he had a chance to speak with Minato, so he thought that it would be good to see how he was doing. He had been surprised when he found out that he joined the same Familia as Ais, but it made sense that the Loki Familia would recruit a strong adventurer like Minato.

Bell couldn't help but grimace a bit when he saw who Minato was walking with though.

It was the werewolf from that time in the Hostess of Fertility. Bell wouldn't say he hated him or anything like that, but Bete was definitely not someone that he wanted to meet again. The werewolf was actually kind of scary if he had to be honest... and he was actually starting to rethink even approaching Minato if Bete was hanging around him. At the same time, however, he still wanted to speak with his friend and he wasn't going to let a rude werewolf scare him away.

He still needed to thank him for helping him with Ais Wallenstein after all.

"Hey, Arisato-san!" Bell called out as he walked over towards Minato while doing his best to ignore the werewolf standing next to him. "It's been a while."

The blue-haired boy seemed surprised to see him for a brief moment before he frowned.

"... Sorry, Cranel-san," Minato quietly murmured before he walked away. "It would be better if we didn't associate with one another from now on."

"Eh…?"

For a brief moment, Bell felt his mind go blank. Why would Minato say that? Had he done something wrong? They hadn't parted on bad terms from what he could remember of the last time they had met. Minato had even helped him out with Ais, so it didn't make any sense.

Bell wanted to ask him, but then he felt a hand pull back on his shoulder when he tried to follow after the blue-haired boy. The hand dragged him down, forcibly tossing him onto the ground.

"Bell-sama!" Lili cried out before she glared at the werewolf responsible. "What's your problem?!"

The werewolf simply stood over him, ignoring Lili entirely.

"You heard what he said, tomato boy," Bete replied before he squatted down until they were eye-level and glared. "Don't think that just because Ais tolerates you that we're all going to be pals. Fucking weaklings should know their place."

The werewolf stood back up after having said his piece and just scoffed before walking away. Bell could see Minato glance back at him for a brief moment before he turned away again and disappeared into the mist with the werewolf trailing behind him. Lili helped him back up to his feet with a scowl on her face.

"What's wrong with that guy?" Lili grumbled to herself. "Just randomly pushing people around."

Bell didn't respond to that, it wasn't Bete that was bothering him right now. He just wanted to know why Minato didn't want to speak with him anymore. Weren't they friends? Something must have happened, it just didn't make any sense otherwise.

What if he had gotten into some kind of trouble because of him?

Bell didn't know what was going on, but he needed to find out.

Minato felt bad.

Bell was a nice person that had helped him out during his first night in Orario after all. It didn't sit right with him to have to give the boy the cold shoulder like that, but he didn't want to have Freya sending her adventurers to attack him again either. Loki wouldn't take kindly to that and the last thing that he wanted was to have an all-out war against the Freya Familia. The only thing that would accomplish would be adding even more roadblocks towards his goal of clearing the Dungeon. He didn't want the Loki Familia to waste time and resources dealing with Freya when they could be spending it on clearing the Dungeon instead.

Maybe he could have Ais tell him why he wouldn't be able to meet with him anymore. Freya didn't want him near the boy, but she never said he couldn't send a message. Bell would understand, wouldn't he?

"What happened with you and the tomato boy?"

He raised an eyebrow at the werewolf walking beside him.

"... Tomato boy?"

"He looked like a tomato the last time I saw him." The werewolf explained with a light shrug. "Weren't you two supposed to be on good terms?"

"Freya-sama is interested in him," Minato replied with a frown. "Warned me to stay away from him."

"You telling me that's why fucking Ottar of all people tried to off you?"

Bete just looked at him with disbelief when he nodded in response.

"... Fucking crazy-ass Gods."

Minato couldn't help but agree with the werewolf on that one.

The mist was starting to get thicker, which meant that they would be approaching the next floor soon. The adventurers that were ahead of them cleared out all of the monsters in the area though, so they didn't have much to worry about unless the Dungeon decided to spawn more. Although, it wasn't like any of the monsters on the upper floors would pose much of a threat to them, to begin with.

"Loki know about this?" Bete asked as he kicked a rock in front of him like a soccer ball.

"She was the one that told me about it." He dryly replied. "It would have been nice to have known earlier though."

Bete stared at him for a moment, before realization sparked in his eyes.

"You talking about that day you went to the Hostess with Ais?"

Minato nodded at that.

"... You think she's going to attack again because of that?" The werewolf eventually questioned.

"I don't know." He simply replied. "Loki said she'd speak with her about it."

"I'd like to see those fuckers try," Bete growled in response. "I'll kill that bastard Ottar next time."

From what he had seen of their last battle, he didn't think Bete really stood much of a chance against Ottar, but he wasn't going to tell him that. That would just get him all riled up. He appreciated the sentiment anyway.

The werewolf didn't have anything else to say after that, so they continued their journey in silence. There wasn't much to do, however, with all of the monsters ahead already having been slain. He didn't mind the silence, but it allowed his mind to wander a bit, and he couldn't help but think back to what Tiona had mentioned about Bete. He didn't know what Bete had said to Bell, but it didn't exactly look too friendly so that only reminded him of what Tiona had said even more.

"Can I ask you something, Bete?"

"What?" The werewolf looked over at him expectedly.

"Why do you look down on other people so much?"

Bete just blinked at that before he scoffed in response.

"What's wrong on looking down on fucking weaklings? They're pathetic."

"You didn't answer the question." Minato pointed out.

"Why you even asking me about this bullshit?"

Minato just shrugged. "Curiosity."

"... They just fucking piss me off." The werewolf replied in a low voice. "Damn weaklings thinking they have what it takes to be an adventurer. They don't belong in the Dungeon." He finished with a scowl.

Bete didn't have any more to say after that and it didn't look like he would speak on the subject any further either. He thought that the werewolf was avoiding the question, but decided to not push the issue any further. There wasn't a point in asking if the person in question didn't want to answer themselves.

He felt like he had heard enough to get a better understanding of the werewolf anyway.

The expedition team stopped at Rivira to regroup and do a headcount to make sure that everyone was still accounted for. With how large the expedition team was, it was going to take a while so everyone was already preparing to camp out for the night and resume the march tomorrow.

There wasn't much to do in the meantime so he just wandered around the campsite.

Most of the other adventurers were simply sitting around relaxing and chatting with one another. A bunch of campfires had already been set up and the smell of freshly cooked food hung in the air. He saw Finn and Gareth speaking to each other in front of a campfire while Riveria had a book in her hand. On the other side, the Amazon twins and Lefiya were seated around another nearby campfire just directly south of the executives. Bete was standing off by himself at the edge of the camp fiddling with his new daggers that the Hephaestus Familia had provided for him.

Minato just continued walking until he made it to a small clearing hidden by some trees. As he got closer, he could hear the sounds of a sword being swung over and over again as it cut through the air. Ais Wallenstein was practicing her sword work on her own. She danced around the clearing, fighting against her invisible enemy with the speed and precision befitting that of a sixth level adventurer.

She stopped, however, when she noticed him watching her.

"... Spar?" The blonde-haired girl asked with a tilt of her head.

There wasn't anything else to do and he wasn't tired enough to fall asleep yet, so he just nodded his head in response.

He took out his own sword and gingerly stepped into the clearing. They stared at each other for a moment and when it became apparent to him that she wasn't going to make the first move, he charged forward. He swung his sword at her in a wide slash that she easily parried with her own blade.

"... You're not going to use magic?" Ais asked as she blocked another swing from him.

"Should I?" He questioned back before attempting a thrust aimed at her chest this time.

The Sword Princess dodged to the side before she rushed forward in a sudden burst of speed. He tried to pull his sword back in response, but she grabbed at his wrist, holding it still before she pointed her sword at his neck. Minato knew that he wasn't the greatest swordsman, but he was still surprised at how easily she had defeated him. The physical improvements an adventurer received from the Falna never ceased to impress him. Of course, her skill with a sword was far greater than his as well.

"Yes," Ais said before pulling her sword away. "No challenge otherwise."

"... You know, some people might take offense to that." He dryly replied before he tossed his sword to his other hand and started shaking his wrist. The girl had some insane grip strength.

Her eyes widened in response before she bowed her head.

"... Sorry." She softly said. "... Didn't mean it like that."

"It's fine." He waved off. "It doesn't bother me."

He knew his strengths and weaknesses after all. He was never the best close-range fighter in SEES, that title belonged to the trio of Akihiko, Aigis, and… Shinjiro. According to Mitsuru, his best aspects had always been his on-field leadership and versatility. As just a swordsman, he wasn't that dangerous, but when he could mix in magic and Personas, he became a much bigger threat.

Once his wrist finally stopped hurting, he tossed the sword back into his strong hand and got ready. They fought again, but this time, he weaved in a few spells with his attacks to mix things up. He stuck to low-level spells, however, because he didn't want to destroy the entire clearing and alert the whole campsite. Neither of them was really going at it that hard though, so they just ended up traded a few wins and losses in the end.

"And here I was wondering who was getting attacked."

The voice came from outside of the clearing. A couple of seconds later, a tall eye-patch-wearing woman emerged from the bushes. She gave Ais a wave before she turned her attention towards him.

"Hey, don't think we've ever met but I'm Tsubaki Collbrande, the captain of the Hephaestus Familia." The eye-patch woman held out her hand with a smile. "Nice to meet ya."

"Minato Arisato." He simply replied as he shook her hand.

"So, you're the new guy from outside the city, huh?" Tsubaki hummed. "Heard you were a level five?"

He just nodded in response to that and she gave a low whistle in reply.

"That's pretty impressive." The one-eyed woman said. "It must have been hard to level up without the Dungeon."

"... It's a big world out there."

The woman just laughed.

"I guess you're right about that." She replied before her eyes trailed over towards Ais's sword. "You should take better care of your weapon, Sword Princess. Goibniu-sama won't be happy about that you know."

The blonde-haired girl's face actually blanched at that.

"Don't look so worried, Sword Princess." Tsubaki laughed again. "Here, let me take a look at it for the night. I'll have it good as new before we head back out tomorrow."

"... Thank you." Ais bowed her head.

"Hey, that's why I'm here, right?" Tsubaki took the sword and held it over her shoulder. "You two should get some rest, we're heading into the deep floors tomorrow after all." She continued before turning back towards the camp. "Can't have our vanguards all worn out before we even get there."

Minato watched as the blacksmith disappeared into the bushes. The woman had a point, it was probably better to start getting ready for bed. From what he had heard and from his own brief experience on the fifty-first floor, the deep floors were extremely dangerous. They would all need to be at one-hundred percent for tomorrow.

He looked over towards Ais and gave her a small nod.

"I'm going to go back to camp as well." He said before he turned to follow after the blacksmith. "Good night, Wallenstein-san."

He only managed about two steps before he felt a hand tug at the back of his shirt.

"... Call me Ais." The Sword Princess softly replied. "Everyone else does."

"... Good night, Ais."

The hand let go and he continued making his way back towards the camp.

"Good night, Minato."

Finn cut down another hobgoblin that stood in his way.

Retrieving his spear from the monster's corpse, he took a look around, surveying the battlefield. Various members of the Loki Familia and Hephaestus Familia were busy fighting off hordes of monsters from every angle. Everything had been proceeding as planned and on schedule until they reached the twenty-fourth floor. The sudden influx of monsters on the floor, however, caused everything to come to a sudden halt as they had to focus on clearing a safe passage for the supporters carrying their supplies and the lower level smiths from the Hephaestus Familia.

Finn was a veteran adventurer and he had been to the twenty-fourth floor more times than he could count.

The sudden explosion in the monster population on the floor wasn't normal. He could even feel his thumb tingling as he cut down another monster with a thrust of his spear. Something wasn't right and the thought of putting a stop to the expedition in order to investigate briefly crossed his mind. The Hephaestus Familia wouldn't be happy about that though, they didn't come on the expedition just to investigate strange occurrences on the mid-tier floors of the Dungeon after all. They wanted materials from the deep floors and probably weren't inclined to waste resources on something unrelated to their objective.

Glancing over towards a certain blue-haired adventurer in their Familia, Finn was sure that Arisato wouldn't be too happy if he were to call off the expedition either.

"What do you think, Finn?" Riveria asked as she gracefully knocked a monster away from her with her staff. "Could this be connected with the red-haired tamer and the attack on Rivira?"

It was a possibility, but he didn't know for sure.

As the leader of the expedition, he had to make a choice here. He placed his thumb under his chin and considered his options. They might be able to gain some more insight into the strange events that had been happening as of late, but it came at the cost of potentially alienating the Hephaestus Familia and Arisato. As a leader, he always had to balance the risks and rewards so it wasn't anything new for him.

The chance for information this time around just wasn't worth the costs in his eyes.

"It's a possibility." Finn eventually replied as he killed another monster in his way. "The expedition takes priority, however. We'll move on once we clear the way for the supporters and smiths." He looked over towards Riveria and smiled. "I'll cover you while you chant."

"... Very well." The elf replied with a nod of her head.

It was just like old times.

Finn could have had Lefiya or even Arisato clear the way with their magic, but it was better for them to conserve mind... and whatever it was that Arisato used to power his spells. Riveria had a skill that helped her regenerate mind, so it was better to rely on her in the current situation. Every single bit of energy they could save mattered when it came to venturing into the Dungeon's depths, he had learned that from experience. The elf began to chant and Finn stood guard in front of her, killing any monster that even got within a three-meter radius. Even though there were a lot of monsters, they weren't strong enough to provide too much of a threat to an expedition team that featured a plethora of first-class adventurers.

"Rea Laevateinn!"

There was a brief flash of light, and as the dust settled, it was quite clear that Riveria's spell had wiped out most of the monsters in the vicinity. There were a couple of stragglers that the mage had ignored because she didn't want to risk friendly fire, but they would be dealt with soon enough by the other adventurers. Riveria had cleared them a path into the next floor, so they would be ready to start moving again once the stragglers were dealt with. The sudden influx of monsters had been unexpected, but it wasn't anything that they couldn't handle.

The real challenge didn't start until they reached the fiftieth floor and beyond after all.

Author's Notes- Minato uses 'cold shoulder'! It's not very effective... Bell's too much of a shonen protagonist to just leave things as is.

Anyway, hopefully the ghost chapter bug is gone and everyone can read this. As usual, thanks for all the reviews, and hope you all enjoy the chapter.