A/N: This chapter is quite brutal so be warned if you have a faint heart. Another thing, I now know much more thanks to the Wiki and LN but I don't agree with it on a lot of things such as floor bosses being on the 37th and 49th floor, what is with these random numbers? As such I have decided that a floor boss will be before every safezone which is every 18 floors.
In other news, this is officially the second most followed and favourited story for Danmachi and the most followed and favourited story for me. Also, Episode 13 was amazing, we got see see Attack on Dungeon and Bell was so badass! However, that brought me down into a state of minor depression, delaying the story further since the Anime was over and I could not hope to match that scene in the slightest. I mean seriously, what am I supposed to do?
Special thanks to OoOXylionOoO for allowing me access to the Danmachi Light Novel. While this was partly the reason why it was delayed I now know much more about the world and will try not to forget it while writing. Note that I've only read volume one so other than that I'm not sure what else is in the other volumes.
The lowest floor accessible in the dungeon currently was floor 58, cleared by the Loki Familia. Based on the patterns, the dungeon should have five safe zones, on floors 18, 36, 54, 72 and 90, with 100 being the lowest floor. A few months had passed since the destruction of the Soma Familia and the city had returned to its peaceful state, although the annihilation of an entire Familia had urged the Gods to tighten their security measures and heighten the strictness of the discipline of their children.
Bell decided to keep a low profile in the months after the raid in order to allow the rumors to die down a little. Some gossip about him was good to strike fear into his enemies but too much would ruin his ability to strike strong targets who would underestimate him. When Bell heard no more word of his exploits in the tavern, he decided to call upon Minos and Lili who had been training to finally come out of hiding.
The group had gone their separate ways after the attack and trained on their own, Minos headed into the deeper regions of the dungeon where he defeated foes numerous floors tougher than him by utilizing what Bell had taught him. Lili helped out as a barmaid at a local tavern and headed into the dungeon on her days off.
Bell spent most of his time in the dungeon, scavenging goods off fallen Adventurers. He maintained a low profile and only fought when necessary, collecting magic stones whenever he could. When he wasn't in the dungeon, Bell was scouting Familias, looking for a weak one to attack on his own.
He also worked on his project, creating armor and a weapon for Minos. He had managed to accumulate a considerable amount of magic stones and used them to create a massive suit of armor and a giant axe for the Minotaur. He had also acquired the materials needed to imbue the magic stones with properties similar to his and allowed the equipment to absorb them.
Within two months, Bell found a suitable target, the Nyx Familia. Nyx was the Goddess of Night and wore mostly dark clothing with a translucent black shawl. The home of this Familia was a decrepit large building where its ten members stayed together with their God. Bell decided to attack in the dead of night, when they were asleep. His years as a thief had taught him all he needed about stealth to enter without being noticed.
He infiltrated the home by going through an unlocked window into the room of two of the Adventurers on the second floor. Bell plunged his dagger into their hearts, between the ribs, ending their lives immediately. He opened the door silently and walked down the hallway. Unfortunately for him, this was when one of the new security measures Familias had begun to put into place activated.
A nocturnal bird that had been trained to cry out at the sight of intruders had been placed in the middle of the middle of the hallway and had spotted him. It let out a deafening cry that woke all inhabitants of the building who immediately came at him with their weapons drawn. There were three women and five men. They were all Level one and as such, were easily defeated by Bell.
Although it wasn't to say they didn't put up a fight, they tried their very best to take him down, utilizing every advantage they could, to no avail. Whatever strategies they came up with, Bell simply destroyed through sheer brute force. With each fallen comrade, they lost more and more morale, powerless before the monster that had attacked them. WIth the last Adventurer eliminated, Bell kicked open the door of Nyx's room to find her awaiting him.
"Why have you come here?"
"To kill you."
"Kill a God? You must be joking my dear boy…"
"No, to kill a fallen angel."
Nyx's face tensed at the mention of those words.
"Just who are you boy…"
"Cranel, God of Ruin, remember that name, for it is the name of the one who shall end you!"
"So… We missed one during the purge… Well, I'll just have to fix that!"
Dark wings sprouted out of her back as her true form was revealed.
"I am Saraknyal, you would do well to remember this when you join the others!"
The fallen angel drew its weapon out of a dark portal and got into stance. It was a simple black broadsword with parallel blood red lines along the blade. Saraknyal brought the sword down on the seemingly ill equipped Bell, only to reel back in pain as one of his hands was sliced off by a glowing purple dagger, causing the sword to fall.
The fallen angel screamed in pain as its hand was lost, gripping its wrist and using magic to stop the bleeding. Bell saw the opening and used the opportunity to decapitate his opponent. He rushed forward with his blades in a cross pattern, intending to slice off Saraknyal's head, only to stop short when the enemy took to the air and fled to the top of the room.
Sadly for the fallen angel, the ceiling was not very high and she was just barely out of Bell's reach. This barely troubled him, he simply jumped up and pulled the winged opponent to the ground where he decided to torture it out of boredom. Bell flipped her and stepped on her back, the magic stones of his armor burning her flesh. He began by first removing her wings, pulling them off one by one slowly and painfully.
"I expected more of a challenge from a supposed God killer but I guess you had very few minions to begin with so you couldn't possibly had regained much of your strength."
The two bloodied black feathery wings laid at the side of the room as Bell moved on and shaved her bald, forcing the fallen angel to eat her own hair.
"Please… Just finish me…"
"Now why would I do that? I need to make sure your kind suffers tenfold the amount my comrades did when you killed them!"
Bell crushed her other hand in rage as he recalled the brutal battle. The fallen angel cried out in pain and he continued to torment her. He stabs his twin daggers into her thighs, twisting them to inflict more pain.
"I'm rather curious, what decides which God you imitate? Do you imitate the one you kill?"
"We were assigned them at random by our leader based on our personalities and traits."
"Azazel right?"
"Yes."
"Is there anything else I should know?"
"Not really."
"Then lets continue."
Unfortunately for Bell, time for messing around was up. The general populace had taken notice of the screams and sent a group to investigate. He quickly killed her off when he felt their presence at the door and absorbed her dark energy. With the destruction of the Familia complete, Bell left for his church home to rest.
'That was too easy, Soma was only difficult because he had such a large Familia. At this kind of difficulty I can easily destroy them on my own, the issue is that there are Gods from every religion present. That seems to be impossible as the Fallen Angels do not have such high numbers. I likely got lucky in finding an actual fallen angel in Nyx, majority of the weak Familias should have faux vessels as Gods which supply power to the fallen angels. Though taking them out would be a good thing it is ultimately not going to make much of a difference.'
As Bell woke up the next day, two people walked through the entrance of the church.
"Master, I have returned."
"Bell-sama!"
"Welcome back guys, Minos, come, I have created a set of gear for you."
"Thank you, Master."
Minos got into his new armor and tested out his new axe. It sliced through the rocks he cut like butter. After some time, the trio gathered together for their meal and discussed their future plans.
"So what will we be doing now, Bell-sama?"
"For now I want you to come over and show me the mark."
Lili did as instructed and Bell touched the horizontal lightning bolt. It glowed red and started steaming, slowly cooling down until it returned to its original form.
"There, welcome to Level Two Lili."
"Thank you Bell-sama!"
"Now back to more important matters, Lili, I need you to help me investigate the Zeus Familia."
"Yes, Bell-sama."
"Minos, you and me will go out hunting for crows."
"I understand Master. It will be a good test of my skills."
"We leave after breakfast so for now let us enjoy a hearty meal."
Lili headed off to the Guild to gather information while Bell and Minos headed into the dungeon. He had gotten Minos to slaughter weak Adventurers while leaving a survivor which he would then follow back to the Familia's base. After marking it on his map, Bell would return to the dungeon and continue the process
By the end of the day, there had been a largely reduced number of people entering the dungeon due to the appearance of a supposed miniboss. Most of the players that were allowed to escape had spread word of Minos and those who knew of an enraged Minotaur previously did not dare enter the dungeon.
Only a few arrogant ones came in and were promptly cut down by Minos. Of course that is not to say they were all weaklings, Minos hid whenever a stronger party passed by as his strength was nowhere near Bell's and could only handle a group of Level twos at most. Bell had gone to the Guild in the evening and retrieved a list of Familias.
That night, Minos and Bell headed out separately and took down some weak Familias. Using the emblems located in the bases, Bell compared it with the list he had gotten from the Guild and crossed out those he had destroyed. Unfortunately, none of the ones he and Minos destroyed were real fallen angels, only faux vessels.
'At least this will put some fear into the rest, destroying enough of their 'farms' will eventually get some of them to confront me.'
Looking at his list, Bell noted how little progress he had made in terms of wiping them out but it was expected considering how many Gods people believed in through all the religions and races that existed prior to the attacks.
'I need to open the gates eventually to speed things up, the lowest floor now is 58 and I doubt the fallen angels actually allowed access to the hundredth so I need to smash my way through the ninety-ninth somehow... There's also the fact that some fallen angels have taken to hiding in other areas to gather energy, monopolizing entire cities and favouring quantity over quality.'
While Orario was the only city with a dungeon which was the main reason for the quantity of Adventures present, there were also other Adventurers that hunted monsters that threatened villages and other settlements. Though only a few could reach Level three, none reached above that. The most prominent group at the moment was the Egyptian God of Craftsmen Ptah's Familia which supplied weapons to anyone who was willing to pay and had amassed a large following.
That night, Minos remembered an important piece of information that he had forgotten to mention earlier and decided to bring up the topic during breakfast the next day. They were having bacon and eggs with some special sauce that Lili managed to get, Minos got an extra large portion and extras were made.
"Master, since the matter of the Soma Familia has been settled, I think it is time we discuss the one who turned me into the state you found me in."
"Yes, it is."
"I know not his name but he was an extremely muscular man, capable of crushing Minotaur skulls with only his hands. He is a Boaz who is over two meters tall and wears black and red armor."
"Wait! I know who that is!"
"Who Lili?"
"That is likely King…"
"King?"
"Ottar, he is the head of the Freya Familia and currently the only Level Seven in all of Orario!"
"What would a man like that want with a Minotaur? Do you have any thoughts on this Master?"
"Hmm…"
Bell closed his eyes and crossed his arms in deep thought for a moment.
"The only reason I could think of as to why he would purposely enrage a Minotaur is because of an order from Freya. Through my information gathering, Freya was said to be one of the most fickle Goddesses, often doing things based on a whim for the sake of her latest toy and I seem to be her new target."
"Ottar is said to be loyal to a fault, one time he tore a man's tongue out for insulting Freya and made him pledge never to do it again before cracking both of his legs."
"That is some scary hell of a monster…"
"Actually, on a more lighter topic, when are we going to move out of here? This dusty old run down church is not where someone as powerful as you should be staying Bell-sama!"
"Well, we are a bit short on money you see…"
"Don't give me that Bell-sama, I know you need them for your weapons and armor but you've probably wasted about hundred of thousands of Valis already!"
"Fine fine, I have some spare left over. We'll use those to get a new base."
"Master, I think it would be most prudent to create our emblem as well, lest a petty thief tries to break in and we have to end him."
"Ugh you are all so demanding, who is supposed to be the leader of this Familia again?! Right I've decided! I'm going to beat the crap out of Goliath over and over again until we have enough to last a lifetime! Then I'm going to the safezone for some food, I heard Mia Grand had her friend set up shop down there."
"Bell-sama please think more clearly about this!"
"I have thought it through very carefully, by defeating the boss, the huge magic stone will easily be enough to exchange for inordinate amounts of Valis."
"Master, allow me to assist you in carrying the spoils back."
Bell nodded and ran off towards the dungeon.
"Bell-sama! Wait for me!"
Outside the Hostess of Fertility, a party of five Adventurers had assembled and prepared to enter the dungeon with the goal of tackling floor 17. They had come from many different Familias and met one drunk night at the bar. The group comprised of a supporter named Mika, a mage named Stiyl, an archer called Tigrev and two swordsmen, Yuuji and Rin.
"Yo, is everyone ready to go? Make you we have enough supplies to last a few days incase we get trapped!"
"Yup we're all set Yuujin!"
"Mika, I said to call me Yuuji…"
"Now now captain, its pretty cute don't you think?"
"No one asked you Rin."
"We should get going, its going to take awhile to reach floor 17."
"Stiyl's right, we need to head out. If any of you are scared in there don't worry, I, the great Tigrev-sama will protect you!"
"As if you could do that with a just a bow Tigrev."
"Enough, we're moving out guys!"
"Yes captain!"
The five Adventurers headed down to the lower levels and began their adventure. Although, Adventurers are not supposed to go on an adventure in the lower levels… They fought their way down onto the lower levels, beating off Hellhounds and Almirages as they advanced. Soon enough they encountered Minotaurs and Lygerfangs as they reached floor 17. The group had a little trouble with the Lygerfangs but managed nonetheless. As they approached the boss room, they heard the sound of the Monster Rex reviving.
"What do you know? It's reviving just in time for us to kick its ass!"
They party walked into the boss room to see a lone white haired boy, unarmed and without armor, standing in front of the ice as it broke and the Goliath begun to break free. Off to the side they saw a giant backpack next to an unarmed MInotaur.
"Oi! Are you crazy kid? Get the hell out of there!"
"Could it be? The Minotaur stole this guys supplies and forced him to fight the boss?!"
"You guys! Get into formation! We're taking this big guy down!"
The party got into formation around him and raised their weapons. Stiyl started chanting his strongest fire spell and Tigrev nocked his bow. The two swordsmen got into stance and Mika tried talking to the white haired boy. Just as the Goliath fully emerged, Bell spoke.
"You're in the way…"
In the blink of an eye, he jumped up above the Goliath and his cloaked dagger revealed itself, a purple shine blinding the Adventurers who watched him. Just as he was about to land, Bell maneuvered himself and stabbed both daggers into the head of the beast, twisting and pulling them out before dashing to its face and piercing its eyes through the protective layer. The Goliath cried out in pain as it lost sight of the world.
Without any eyes to see, the Monster Rex used its sense of smell to determine the location of its attacker and attacked there. Seeing it as an advantage, Bell dropped off its face and latched onto its chest with his daggers. The giant roared and sent its fist flying towards him. Just as it was about to hit, he jumped off and without time to adjust, the Goliath smashed itself in the chest with enough force to crush buildings.
The boss fell back and landed on its back, vulnerable. Bell climbed onto the monster's chest where the fist had smashed and cut an opening. With the ribs broken, he needed only to cut his way to the heart. The group of five watched on as the strange boy dived into the opening and blood spurted out as he sliced the interior of the Goliath, kicking out important organs and other bloody things to reduce the boss' health while he searched for the magic stone core.
Goliath was roaring in pain as it was defiled and bled from the inside out. More holes were created with each part of his body knocked out. Unable to do anything, its cries soon stopped with one final howl as its arms went limp and it burst into dark energy which was absorbed by Bell's magic stones. Paralyzed with fear, the Adventurers looked at the blood covered form of the white haired boy. He turned his head to look at them, and smiled.
The group ran off in terror of this monster, afraid of its massive strength that allowed it to take down the boss in mere minutes. They had been used to such things through their own journeys but the way Goliath was tormented up till its final moments was sickening. Mika threw up at the entrance as she remembered all the gore of the scene.
That day, every inn in town spread the story of an Adventurer which took down Goliath without any effort and rumors of the white haired boy resurfaced once more. People stalked the dungeon entrance to see the man for themselves, only to be shocked when they saw a cart of giant magic stones being hauled up from the lower ends of the dungeon by a Minotaur.
Said Minotaur also had two people walking beside him, a seemingly poorly equipped white haired boy and a supporter who were both carrying magic stones as well. It was early in the evening and the guards were changing shifts, a group of people wanting to make a quick buck tried to extort them outside the dungeon, blocking their path.
"Hey kid, those are some nice magic stones you got there, how about sharing some with me?"
"No."
"We both know you couldn't have legally earned these, I bet you stole them, so hand them over and I'll think about whether or not to tell the authorities about this."
"Get out of my way mortal…"
"Mortal? Who do you think you are, some kind of God? Gods are forbidden from entering the dungeon idiot!"
The others in the group laughed at the joke.
"I will say it once more, move."
"And what if we don't huh? You think you scare us? What do you, some guy who only first entered the dungeon less than half a year ago, think you have against us, seasoned Adventurers of the Enyo Familiar?"
"Yea, you tell him boss!"
"I bet you'll cry once I cut you with my blade, let's put that to the test!"
The man drew his sword, a Kiliji, and attempted to slice Bell's arm. In the blink of an eye, the white haired boy disappeared and reappeared behind the man, poking a finger into his neck.
"Finger of Death…"
The man suddenly swelled and exploded into a mess of blood and guts. Bell walked forwards with Minos and Lili close behind him. The comrades of the now deceased leader ran off in fright at how brutally their leader had been disposed of. The trio made their way to the Guild while Lili casted a spell to make them more presentable.
The bankers were shocked when they saw the quantity of magic stones brought to them and had to use their special scale to measure the amount to pay out. The total price due was about one and a half million Valis. Bell walked away from the bank a happy man and got Minos and Lili to go back to the hidden room in the church to pack up their things.
Bell himself headed to the housing office and bought a building to serve as his new base with the money he just earned. It was a large manor in a secluded part of the city where no one usually travelled to. The building came with a forge set up by the previous owner and had a total of twenty rooms, most of which would be used for storage for Bell since he would not be using them for housing people.
With his work done, Bell went to help Lili and Minos carry the items over. Once everything was done, they got to work cleaning it up while Bell worked on creating an emblem to hang on top of the main entrance. Using molten Minotaur horns, he created a red lightning bolt which he fitted horizontally into a slot he made on a silver shield. As a final touch, he sprinkled magic stone powder onto it which made it shine.
He hung it above the doorway and looked proudly at his creation. Seeing that he had some extra time left, Bell went to test out the new forge and created a magic stone arm mounted crossbow for Lili and a pouch of magic stone bolts. He met up with Lili at dinner, he had brought some more food from Mia at the Hostess of Fertility, making sure to deliver the message her friend from floor eighteen had asked him to deliver to her.
"So Lili, what have you found out about the Zeus Familia?"
"I barely got any information but based on what little I could gather, the Familia is largely defunct with all of its members dead, leaving only the God Zeus, though his whereabouts are currently unknown."
"I see. What could have killed them I wonder, they were said to be the strongest Familia…"
"I don't know Bell-sama, but let us hope we do not have the opportunity to find out first hand."
"I'm sure we could handle it Lili, speaking of which, here is a present."
Bell pulled out the crossbow with its pouch of bolts and handed it to Lili.
"Thank you Bell-sama, I was wondering when I would get something."
"Huh?"
"I mean look, you gave Minos a full set of armor and that huge axe."
"Well, you are mainly ranged so I saw fit to give Minos armor first and I thought that I might as well give him a weapon while I was at it."
"Don't worry, you've done more than enough for me, I'm just happy to be here."
"Lili…"
"Erm excuse me Master, what exactly is the plan now? We've acquired a new base and good living quarters."
"Hmm, for now I think we should continue our usual operations while we gather information. It is not safe to make a move now."
"Bell-sama, with all due respect, I am itching to kill some fallen angels, why don't you ever let me join you and Minos on your attacks? Even if I didn't have a magic stone weapon until now, I could have helped you take down some of their minions!"
"Alright Lili, I'll let you join us, but remember that safety is the number one priority, losing you would mean losing half of my army."
"Thank you Bell-sama."
"Tomorrow will mainly be for raising our stats so be sure to train well, I will be fighting on the lower floors."
"Yes Master."
"Understood Bell-sama."
They headed to the dungeon the next day with their provisions and trained for mostly the entire day. While Minos and Lili trained on around floor twenty, Bell headed deeper to train at floor thirty-five, he had yet to defeat this boss but could safely handle to monsters before it. The Monster Rex's name was Elder Dragon, a grown up version of the Infant Dragon from floor eleven. The beast was a staggering twenty metres tall and its skin temperature was over three hundred degrees.
He was feeling confident and decided to try and take on the boss. Bell uncloaked his equipment and entered the boss room. He spun his daggers as he waited for the boss to awake, jets of fire emerging from the dragon's nostrils with each snore. It soon felt the presence of an intruder and awoke, roaring and blowing fire as it rose.
The large red dragon looked at the one who had foolishly dared to challenge him and unleashed a torrent of flames, engulfing the boy in fire so hot that it would melt bone. As the flames subsided, they revealed Bell unharmed.
"Keh, and here I thought you would be a challenge, I barely felt that, though thanks for the warm up."
Bell dashed forward and sliced a toe of the dragon off, it roared in rage as it started to bleed. The great beast sent forward a jet of fire at Bell in retaliation. The flames felt strange but by the time he had noticed what was wrong, it was already too late. The fire had been a distraction and was not as hot as the previous attack. The dragon had used the wall of flames to conceal his attack, his arm shot out and smashed the white haired boy to the side. Bell got up from where he fell but noticed there was a slight cut on an unprotected part of his face.
'I need to be more careful, this thing is more cunning than I thought it would be.'
Using the opportunity he had created, the Elder Dragon used the time to change tactics. With a loud roar, the skin of the dragon began to change from red to white. The fire that shot out of its mouth began to disappear and was replaced by a torrent of air. The scaly skin of the dragon visibly changed to a smooth texture.
"Right, I forgot you could transform. I'm guessing you must be a wind dragon now aren't you?"
The beast responded with a blast of air which threw Bell off his feet.
'Damn, I can't block the wind with my current set up, I'm at a disadvantage here.'
The jet of air soon subsided and the dragon moved in to attempt to crush the fallen attacker. As its foot came down, it suddenly recoiled in pain as dagger stabbed it. Bell had managed to raise his dagger in time to damage the beast. A mighty roar signaled the dragon was angry. Barely avoiding the initial torrent of air, Bell circled around the reptile and was able to avoid the air blast while getting close to the dragon.
With a stab of his dagger, the dragon cried in pain and took to the air, its soft underbelly had been injured by the attack. It flapped its wings with great strength, creating multiple cyclones and fast moving air that slashed at Bell's armor like blades. The dragon then changed its form again to red and blew fire at the cyclones, filling them with fire as they spun towards Bell. The flaming cyclones formed a wall of defense as they approached Bell, slowly advancing towards him with no openings to avoid them. Out of options, he used his spell in an attempt to escape.
"Finger of Death!"
The red bolt of electricity travelled through the cyclones and hit the dragon in the chest, the shock causing it to lose concentration. The great beast fell to the ground and the cyclones dispersed without the dragon maintaining them, Bell charged forth and stabbed the dragon twice in the stomach again. The monster threw him off and kicked him off to the corner of the room before changing form again, its skin changing from red to blue and texture going from scaly to slimy.
The dragon shot a strange green liquid out of its mouth and it started to melt some of the rubble from the fight, a large boulder soaked in the acid was thrown at Bell who dodged it just in time. With a burst of speed, he ran across the acid soaked floor and brutally stabbed his daggers into the dragon repeatedly in an attempt to end it quickly before anything could actually harm him.
The dragon cried in pain one final time before its neck went limp and it fell to the ground, the great beast had put up a valiant fight but the Elder Dragon was no match for a serious Bell. The Monster Rex burst into dark energy that was absorbed by Bell's magic stone armor, leaving behind its magic stone core which he hauled up to the upper levels. He met up with Lili and Minos at floor nineteen before heading up to the safezone together, only to find the residents of the floor fighting against a huge Black Goliath.
A/N: Well I know what I'm going to do with the Black Goliath but I'm having major writer's block with this Fic. As such it will be awhile before the next chapter, I will mainly be working on other stories for now but will try and write this in between. Review, favourite and follow if you've enjoyed. Don't forget to check out my other stories and poll as well. Story status information can be found on my profile and you can make suggestions on my forum.
