Disclaimer: I don't own anything, not even the soundtracks. Danmachi belongs to Fujino Ōmori, Final Fantasy XV belongs to Square Enix.

Is it wrong to seek answers?

Chapter 11: First Day in the Dungeon

WEST MAIN STREET OF ORARIO – NOON

After both went outside, they walked the main street towards Babel. As Noct saw before, they were plenty of people.

As they were passing the street, Noct could see a large House like building with wooden carvings on the left side.

(OPENING: HIROYUKI SAWANO feat: Eliana – S_TEAM)

Then, suddenly, he saw two green dressed women in white aprons waling outside. the first one was a blue-haired girl with a small knot, who was followed by the second one more familiar green-haired elf, whom Noct recognized immediately.

Bell also seemed to recognize them both, as Noct saw how he suddenly started walking faster.

„Ryuu, Syr" Bell screamed towards them.

They both turned their heads to them.

„oh Hello, Bell, didn't you go into the dungeon? where have you been?.", the blue-haired girl said to Bell,

then she noticed a spicy black-haired young man with besides Bell, „and who's this man? " Syr asked Bell with a smile.

Bell then started to smile proudly, „Syr, may I introduce, this is Noct Gar", Bell said while Syr looked at Noct again, „he's a new adventure in our Familia". Bell then looked to Noct, „...and Noct, this is ..." he was about to introduce.

„Nice to meet you, my name is Syr Flova, like Ryuu, I'm a waitress of this pub, called Hostess of Fertility", Syr decided to introduce herself, „Ryuu told me a lot about you, Noct" Syr said, „that you fought a large sea snake for instance ", Syr then turned her head towards Ryuu, who turned away, blushing. Syr then looked again to Noct.

Noct, still looking at Syr, nodded his head, „yes, that monster dared to disturb our's and the other's vacation, so I had to give it a 'very good' lesson" Noct announced proudly since it wasn't easy fighting it.

„is it also true that you lost your trunks? " Syr suddenly asked while looking at Noct, who immediately felt embarrassed thinking about that.

Noct then looked at Ryuu, wondering why she said that too since Ryuu didn't seem like someone telling that kind of thing.

„I didn't tell her that, sir Gar" Ryuu answered, still looking away from Noct.

Syr, while trying to remember, started speaking again, „no, recently, I've heard many our guest's talking about how 'an adventurer's pants got ripped apart by a sea snake in Melen's beach' and then they all looked at Ryuu, saying that she was also there protecting the sight between you and the beach guests."

While Ryuu got more reddish on her face, Noct wondered how that story could spread so fast.

Bell then started to ask, worried about the upcoming answer, „and how did they feel about that ? ".

„well, while most of them were impressed and laughing about the lost trunks, some of them were quite angry."

„ „angry ?" " both, Noct and Bell asked.

„yes, those men said that their girlfriends fell unconscious while bleeding from the noses ", Syr said, while getting much happier than before for some reason, which terrified Noct, but there was also something else that concerned him about Syr.

Syr leads to Noct's ear, „and now I understand why" she quietly said while making a rather lustful expression, as Noct perceived, which terrified him even more.

Syr also had some kind of striking energy on herself. Noct realized it was very similar like on Hestia and Astraea, but at the same time, somehow different.

„It seems like not everyone can handle such sights, right" Noct remarked.

„I agree with that" was Syr's answer before going to Bell again.

„you forgot your meal for today, " Syr told him, „ I hope it's still fresh"

„a-as always, thank you very much, Syr"

„Please take care of yourself" „and no recklessness, ok"

„yes"

After saying goodbye to the 2 girls, the two adventurers continued going towards Babel.

And after passing the main street with its many people, they reached Babel again. While this time there weren't that many people, but that didn't bother them at all.

Both saw Lily, waiting with a large backpack.

„Liliiiiiiii" Bell screamed.

She turned towards them.

„master Bell, master Noct, I was concerned, where have you been", Lily then noticed Noct's new attire, „don't tell me you've been spending all the time looking for that, how much valis did you spent anyway."

„no reason to be concerned, I bought it with my money after all," Noct said to Lily. Noct then controlled if his two potions Miach gave him were still in his small brown bag under his left arm.

The 3 now started going towards the Dungeon's entrance.

Noct looked at Bell, „it's time I guess" Noct said while starting to smile.

Bell nodded, „now, you'll see Orario's Dungeon" he announced.

INSIDE – DUNGEON - 6th floor – AFTERNOON

Noct's first impression about Orario's dungeon was, that it wasn't different from the dungeon's he visited in Eos, 'which means it's just was a pretty large cave' as Noct thought. The only difference is, that the air seems cleaner than in the dungeons of Eos.

In the previous floors, Noct and Bell finished off many Goblins and Kobolds, while Lily happily put the collected items and magic stones in her backpack.

As Bell, Noct, and Lily continued through the 6th floor, Noct remembered that Eina said something important to them.

Noct then looked to Bell, „uh, Bell, how deep did Eina approve for us to go?"

Bell put his left hand in his chin, „if I remember correctly, Eina said we should remain in the upper floor, which means we can go down until the 12th floor. " he answered.

Lily was shocked by Bell's statement, „what, despite master Noct being at Level 6, your advisor didn't allow you to go deeper, that's unbelievable !".

„hey it's not like I'm OK with this either, but it's my first day here with you both " Noct while looking towards Lily and Bell, „and what's more, I could easily lose my way down here when we get suddenly separated, which already happened before".

Bell and Lilly now got curious again.

„ how do you mean that, master Noct? " Lily asked since she has seen him for the first time, Lily wondered who Noct is because it was very rare for a person outside of orario to be at Level 6, not to mention a young man.

At this point, Noct knew he had to spill out a bit about his past again, „during a treasure hunt with my previous comrades, we found out about a large chest, hidden in an abandoned mine near our home."

while Noct explained them both indirectly about his adventurer on the 'Balouve Mine' near his home, they went many floors deeper while also easily fighting many monsters on the way.

INSIDE – DUNGEON – BETWEEN THE 6th and 11th floor – AFTERNOON

During their journey towards the 11th floor, Noct told to his comrades about his adventure in the so-called 'Balouve Mine', he also explained about the monsters he has fought back near his home, while right now they all finished several monsters around the floors they could visit right now.

After reaching the 8th Floor, Noct finally finished his story about the 'Balouve Mine'.

Then Bell started telling Noct about his experience in the Dungeon he could gain. The most interesting part for Noct was at first the 'red Minotaurus', which caused Bell to reach his limits back then. The second one was the 'Black Goliath', whom Noct already heard Astraea mentioning before. This one, however, has not been defeated only by Bell himself, despite getting all the credit for it.

It was at this moment, where Noct also told them that when he visited the 'Balouve Mine' a second time, they also fought against the 'Mini-Boss', called the 'Aramusha'. Noct also described it in details.

INSIDE – DUNGEON - 11th floor – AFTERNOON

„so let me get this straight, not only that there's also a small dungeon near your home, but you said that the Goblins there are uglier than here? " Bell asked.

Noct nodded.

„and the 'Mini-Boss' looked like a demon-human with clothes and a sword similar to Mikoto's ?" Bell asked again.

Noct nodded again.

Bell couldn't believe it, the more he heard about Noct's experience the more he respected him.

Lily, on the other hand, realized that while Noct explained that story, he was moving his eyes a lot, which indicated that he wasn't telling the whole truth. And since Lily still didn't trust Noct completely there was one way to prove otherwise.

„And what happened to your comrades", Lily asked while Noct looked at her, „ I mean the way how you described them, it seems that they're also very strong, so why didn't they wanted to accompany you here ? ".

Lily saw how Noct's face suddenly fell, knowing what his answer may be.

„I indeed had a great time with my friends, but I can't deny that my life wasn't perfect", Noct turned his face away from his 2 new friends, „ I'm sorry but if possible, I don't want to talk about it".

Lily and Bell realized that something bad must've happened to his friends, maybe even to his home, which is why both felt sad for Noct.

Noct then looked at Lily again, „ I know it sounds ridiculous, but even someone like me experienced things which can't be undone, no matter how hard I try it." Noct said while remembering the last camping with Gladio, Prompto, and Ignis during Eos's eternal night after his long sleep.

Bell remembered how his Goddess told him yesterday, before they went to sleep, that Bell shouldn't ask Noct about his past too much, since it wasn't 'positive', as Bell might believe.

Lily, on the other hand, remembered her hard times in the Soma Familia, how she was abused by her previous 'comrades', but the worst thing she remembered was how an old couple of the flower shop got injured because of her running away from the soma familia.

'so even you want to forget the past' Lily thought while looking down at the floor they're walking.

After that, the group became a little bit quiet, and therefore a little bit awkward.

But it was at this moment that about 3 large yellowish-green Lizards with long 'Hair' around their whole back appeared, immediately attacking them.

„These are 'Hard Amoreds', they have the strongest defensive ability on the whole upper floor," Lily said worryingly.

„Really?" Noct wondered while starting to smile, „well let's see how strong they're for real, right Bell.", he looked to his comrade, „Y-Yes." Bell said while he nodded.

Noct and Bell started running towards the Hard Amoreds.

Noct took out his 2 Guild Knives, while Bell put out his Hestia Knife.

Bell attacked the first one with his Knife on the right side of its body. Bell succeeded since after it fell on the floor, it vanished. He saw drop items after it disappeared.

The second one was attacked by Noct, whom he also hit directly with one of his Knives, but this time it didn't vanish immediately, compared to Bell's target. Noct hit it more times with his knives.

The third one got rashly after witnessing Noct's kill, so it looked towards him, who appeared to be much weaker than Bell.

The third Hard Amored was about to injure Noct, who was busy taking the item, only for it to be attacked by Bell himself through its stomach.

„you alright, Noct? ", Bell asked while looking at him, who fell on the floor with his knees.

Lily, with her large and full backpack, immediately run towards Noct, „master Noct, did you get hurt." she said worryingly.

„I'm sorry, seems I've been counting on my swords too much" Noct apologized to his both comrades after standing up again.

Noct then looked to Lily, „how much did we collect today? "

Lily's expression became happier again, „more than we could gain without you, master Noct." she said towards Noct.

„which means we can return, right ?" Bell asked.

„yeah, I guess …" Noct said a little bit sad, which was noticed by Lily.

„wait, are you sure we won't go deeper, master Noct? " Lily asked in disbelief while thinking which Level Noct as, „I know that master Bell is at Level 2, but with you at Level 6, we could at least reach Rivira" Lily proposed.

Noct and Bell also desperately wanted for them to go deeper, but then they remembered they didn't tell Lily anything about the visit at the guild.

„We really would like to, but our advisors told us to remain on the upper floors"

„seriously ?", Lily couldn't believe what she heard right now.

„We know, but Eina wants to play it safe since it's our first time together working in a team, " Bell said while looking at Noct.

Lily then became sad while looking down, „that makes sense".

They decided to return to the surface.

(ENDING: KARMINA - WALK YOU HOME)