Bell woke up to Hestia preparing to go somewhere. As he stirred, Hestia looked over to address him.
"Oh good morning Bell-kun. I'm going to be away for a few days," she said while putting on her gloves.
"Mmm away?" Bell asked groggily.
"Yeah, a banquet of Gods hosted by a friend. Oh and your status sheets are on the table. It might be better to take the older one first to freak out your advisor less, and then you could use the other one a day or later." She stopped on her way out. "And don't be as reckless as yesterday you hear!"
"Yes, Kami-sama."
Bell took some time thinking about his schedule today as he got ready. First, he needed to talk to Eina about what floor he could go up to. He also needed to apologize to Syr and Mama Mia about running away without paying yesterday and probably pay extra to make up for it. Oh, and he should probably go to Blue Pharmacy first since it was close to where he lived and in the other direction from the other places.
As always, Naaza, a brown-haired chienthrope girl from the Miach familia, tricked or rather pressured him into buying more of her potions. He didn't really mind it too much though, especially since he had money to spare now as well as paying back for the few times when he ran into Miach and the god gave him free potions despite his familia possibly being worse off than Hestia's and possibly anyone in Orario.
"I love you Bell," Naaza teased as Bell left, blushing a bit from embarrassment despite knowing that it wasn't serious. It didn't take a genius to figure out that Naaza liked Miach. Well, the man himself had no idea but that was exactly why he was known as the dense ladykiller.
Next was the guild. Bell strolled up to his advisor as she yawned in the early morning. Before noticing him.
"Good morning Bell-kun, it's rare to see you in the morning," she greeted. Usually, Bell only visited her after coming back from the dungeon.
"I wanted to discuss what floor I can go to."
"That again? Absolutely not! You are already going way too fast." Eina was stern. After all, he had already seemingly dismissed her warnings not just once, but twice. Sure, the minotaur incident was a huge abnormality and he showed that he was fine on the 6th, but that overconfidence was the prevailing reason why adventurers died! Not on her watch, she wasn't letting him past the 6th at least until he got to F in 2 stats with vitality no less than mid G.
"I brought my status sheet with me Eina-san," Bell said as he handed her his sheet despite what she just said.
"Bell-kun, it's not good to be that stub-" Eina's eyes widened as she registered what she was looking at. "THREE Es AND A HIGH D?" That was not possible. It had been less than three weeks since he became an adventurer. But here was, with proof that he was basically ready to level up. It made sense now why he wanted to keep going so badly.
"Ummm," Bell brought her attention back with a nervous expression. Oh right. She had shouted out his status. She was trusted with private information and gave it out in a second flat. Fortunately, there weren't many people around and those that were didn't really understand the context.
*cough* "Sorry about that Bell-kun. You can go up to the 9th floor, but absolutely no further than that. The monsters get a lot stronger after that."
"Thank you Eina-san!" It made her smile, seeing him happy. But it didn't change the fact that he was a rookie going way too fast. He was bound to make mistakes, and with his current gear, she did not feel good sending him to the 9th floor despite his stats.
"Misha, can you do my share of work for a few hours tomorrow?" Eina knew that the bored girl beside her would be listening in.
"Ehhhhhhh? Not everyone is a workaholic like you!" Misha complained.
"I'll do half of your work for 3 days after that."
"5 days."
"Deal."
Bell was lost.
"Bell-kun, meet me at the fountain near babel tomorrow morning. We are going shopping." Eina explained.
With that information in his mind, he was now headed to the Hostess of Fertility. It was going to be awkward but he had to deal with it. After all, heroes don't dine and dash. Plus, he had made a deal with Syr. Bell tried to keep his promises as much as humanly possible.
"Excuse me," Bell called out after opening the front door.
Two waitresses looked at him, pausing their cleaning. "I'm sorry, we are not open yet," said the green-haired elf who he remembered was Ryuu.
"Actually, I need to talk to Syr-san and Mama Mia." Bell replied sheepishly.
"Nya! It's the white hair who dine and dashed. He sucked Syr dry and cheated on her nya!" Exclaimed Anya, only to be smacked by Ryuu. Bell wasn't able to properly see her movements, but Anya wasn't harmed beyond a "nyaah" of pain. Clearly, they were a higher level than him, possibly multiple levels.
"Bell-san?" He heard Syr and saw her come running down the stairs at the back.
"I'm sorry for running away last night. Here's the money for the meal and some extra for the trouble," Bell apologized while handing her the money.
"It's okay, I'm sure you had your reasons. Thank you for coming back. Oh and before I forget, here is today's lunch." Syr handed him a lunchbox.
"Despite what I did… Are you sure?"
"After all, we made a deal, didn't we? I trusted you to come back, and worked hard on this. Oh, how it will hurt my maidenly heart if I am betrayed," Syr fake cried.
"I wasn't going to decline anyway. Geez, you love teasing too much Syr-san," he smiled despite the complaint.
"The kid's back? It's nice to see that you came to pay," Bell flinched as he heard Mia's voice. After ushering the waitresses back in to do some chores, she returned her attention to Bell.
"One more day and I would've gone adventuring." He was glad to have not experienced that.
"You should thank Syr. If she wasn't adamant about you coming back, you would've been somewhere else entirely!" Mia laughed.
'Reminder to never make an enemy of this place, it might end up being my infinite loop,' Bell thought in fear.
"Kid, it's okay to struggle at first, but don't try to bite more than you can chew. After all, the winner is always the last one standing however it happens." What. "You know what, I'll throw you a party when you return in one piece. Now go and be a winner!"
Bell was shocked. She just transitioned from being threatening to giving life advice as if it was the most normal thing in the world. He wasn't expecting it, but it was a welcoming surprise. She was right. He may be weak right now, but wasn't that the case for everyone at the start? He wouldn't become a hero overnight, but he would be persistent. He would struggle and come out victorious, day after day.
Mia gave Bell a big slap on the back. "Don't just stand there now, go get 'em. And don't you dare die on me after all this!"
With a renewed vigor, Bell headed out. "Thank you, I will be back!"
Bell spent most of his day on the 9th floor. It wasn't much harder than the 7th in terms of what monsters there were as the only additions were stronger forms of kobolds and goblins. What really set it apart was the spawn rate. As one monster was killed, another was born. If he failed to kill a monster in one to two clean hits, the spawn rate would be faster than his kill rate. He started understanding why Eina stressed so much about him going lower and lower while being solo. Getting outnumbered also meant that he wasn't able to dodge everything from everywhere.
Bell parried a strike from a killer ant and sent it crashing into other monsters to stop them from advancing, while blocking an attack from a needle rabbit on the side before swiftly dispatching it in one hit. He continued his combination of blocking, parrying and using his agility to stop the dungeon from overwhelming him. After finishing off the wave and checking to see if the dungeon would spawn anymore monsters, he sighed a breath of relief as it didn't. As harsh as the dungeon could be, it had its limits. He checked himself to scan for damages. His knife was starting to get pretty worn out, and his armor was bent and barely holding itself together. It made sense as the armor was meant for beginners on the higher floors, and was probably even weaker than his own endurance. That was not to say that it was useless since it would still protect him from direct hits. The proof of the need for armor was on his left arm after all.
'Thankfully my endurance stat is pretty high now, or this would have been worse,' he thought while looking at the small bleeding hole in his arm where he was stabbed by one of the needle rabbits. He would need armor to cover more than just his chest. Drinking a potion, he headed back up before the dungeon could start spawning monsters on this floor again. He would push himself, yes, but he had promised multiple people now to stay alive after all.
Now on the 1st floor, Bell decided to take a side route instead of the main one. It was a nice way to think of the hectic days he's had recently, and the monsters on the first floor couldn't really harm him anymore. What he didn't expect was to stumble upon a rooster. Thinking back quickly to his lessons with Eina, he recalled that there was a yellow and green feathered monster called jack bird which was extremely rare and found only on the first floor. In fact, it was so rare that many adventurers thought of it as a myth. But there it was, in front of his eyes.
Before Bell could make a move, the bird noticed him and squawked before hightailing it out of that corridor. Bell immediately gave chase, but it was shockingly fast. Even with his 600+ agility, it was faster. Still, it was headed to a dead-end so Bell now had a chance to get rich. Seeing it run into the wall up ahead, Bell stopped for a second. It was faster than him and pretty small, so it had a chance to dodge and run past him. If that happened, he probably wouldn't get another chance because the 1st floor was very populated for most of the day. He had to make this work. Fortunately, the bird didn't seem very bright in terms of intellect. Bell grabbed two small rocks and walked slowly towards it.
As the bird looked ready to run, Bell threw a rock at the wall beside it, and it made a small noise as it landed. The bird gave it its full attention. Perfect. Bell threw another rock, this one all the way to the end of the corridor, and once again, the bird was baited. Bell quickly threw his knife at it, but the bird had freaky senses despite its lacking intellect and immediately jumped to dodge. Exactly where Bell wanted it. He grabbed the bird out of the air and quickly picked up his knife from the ground to end this little game of tag.
While the body exploded into a cloud of excelia, he was left with a drop item of immense value. The golden egg was worth more than ten times anything else in the entirety of the upper AND middle floors with the exception of the goliath magic stone and drops.
Bell quickly put it into his bag before anyone would see it, and happily left the dungeon while imagining what his goddess would think. It was too bad that she wouldn't be there for a few days to hear this news. He could also afford new equipment now, but he obviously wouldn't spend a lot before they decided how to allocate the money.
Even without the egg, he had made over 40 000 valis today but he was too excited to care about that. Before the amused person could congratulate him as he did everyday, Bell pulled the egg out, causing the man's eyes to widen.
"Hey kid, what the hell? I didn't think you would prove me right in just one day, certainly not by this much!" He exclaimed. While just about anyone would have freaked out, this man knew that the white-haired rookie was going places and also had a dream about the kid making more and more money, so he took it in stride.
"By the way, this is worth a million valis. How much money do you want now?" The man asked.
Bell knew where he was going with this. It would be dangerous to carry that much money while alone lest he wanted to risk getting mugged. He shuddered from some memories of his first days in Orario.
"I would like 50 000 for now, please put the rest in the account of the Hestia familia."
"Will do, good choice kid. Once again, congrats on your haul, can't wait for you to get ten million in a single day," the man grinned at Bell as they waved each other goodbye.
As per his routine, Bell went to Eina to have a quick chat and she reminded him of their outing tomorrow and also told him to bring plenty of valis. He still wasn't told why though, but he trusted her. He walked towards the Hostess of Fertility, which was quickly becoming a routine, to fulfill his promise with Syr as well as take up Mia on her offer to celebrate.
'Today was a great day after all so it would be a waste not to celebrate.' Bell skipped as he went, letting out the 14-year-old in him.
"Hestia, how long are you going to stay like that?" Asked a red-haired goddess, exasperated. She adjusted her black eyepatch on her right eye slightly as she looked at the twin-tailed goddess who had been kneeling before her for over two days now.
"What even is that pose anyway?"
"Dogeza."
"Dogeza?"
"Take said that it allows one to ask for forgiveness or for a request with a 100% chance of success," Hestia explained with her forehead on the ground.
What the hell was he teaching her?
"Why are you going so far? You know that I'm not going to sell you my children's work for cheap even if we are friends." Hephaestus was curious. Sure, Hestia leeched off of her many times, but she was never this persistent nor did she ask for something of this degree.
"He has already been through too much, but he still keeps going and trying his hardest. I, on the other hand, haven't done anything as his goddess. I want to get him a weapon to help him, and I am willing to pay even if it takes millions of years!"
'Wow, he must be really important to her. Still, I'm glad that she has found something important to her. Gods are thought to be unchanging, but that isn't necessarily true.' Hephaestus smiled.
"Okay, I will make something."
"Really? Thank you Hephaestus you're the best!" Hestia's head left the floor of the room for the first time in two days.
"You said yourself that you would pay, I expect you to honour your word. Now come with me," Hephaestus called out to her while heading to her forge.
Bell was waiting at the fountain in the plaza in front of Babel. He had been called out by Eina, his advisor, for reasons still unknown to him.
"Good morning Bell-kun!" He heard Eina call out. He looked up to see her waving while towards him.
"Good morning Eina-san." Looking at her, he couldn't help but think that she was pretty. She was usually beautiful, but the casual clothes gave her a different feel and made pretty sound like the more fitting adjective.
'Wait stop Bell, stop being a pervert,' he mentally slapped himself while blushing a bit.
Quickly regaining a semblance of rationality, he asked her what had been bugging him. "So where are we going?"
"We're going shopping at Babel," she replied.
"Eh? You can go shopping there? I thought it only had shower rooms for adventurers and the upper floors and living quarters for gods," a confused Bell stated.
"Sorry, I should've mentioned these things as your advisor. You see, Babel has many facilities for adventurers like for medical purposes, food, as well as an exchange booth. But what we are interested in are the shops there, specifically ones run by the Hephaestus familia," Eina explained.
"I can't afford their stuff!" He was not poor anymore, but he wasn't rich either. Certainly not THAT rich. Bell had taken a look at a dagger from one of their shops while passing through the commercial district and the price was in the tens of millions!
"Come on Bell-kun let's go," she said cheerfully while taking his hand and pulling him along.
"Wait Eina-san, my hand!" Bell tried to let go as he noticed the adventurers around them complaining about a couple being so lovey-dovey in the morning, but she ignored him.
"The Hephaestus familia has rented out floors 4 to 8 to sell weapons and armor," Eina explained as they got to the 4th floor.
"Woah, these weapons look so good… 30 MILLION VALIS?" Bell would have to find 30 jack birds!
"Don't worry, the shops we are going to upstairs are not expensive. You see, while the lower floors sell products of renowned blacksmiths, the familia has a floor dedicated to letting lower-rank blacksmiths showcase their work."
She was right. The prices here were more than affordable.
"Now, let's split up and look around!"
Bell looked around the store, noticing that there were many things of good quality. First, he would focus on armor. He looked around and while the ones on display were good, they just didn't click for him. At the back of the store, he noticed that there was more armor in crates. It was probably lower-quality stuff, but he decided to take a look anyway. That was a great decision. He immediately set his sights on a specific piece of armor and picked it up.
'Feels perfect. It's light, and seems to be my size too.' He looked at the price and saw that it was only 9900 valis. What a steal.
'Welf Crozzo, I should remember this name for buying armor in the future.'
"I see you found something you like, Bell-kun," Eina had come back by now.
"Yes, I'm going to buy this one."
"After all the trouble I went through to find some for you," she faked a pout.
"I'm sorry Eina-san, but we can still look for a weapon together."
They checked out all of the knives and shortswords in the shop and while none stood out to him like the armor, he settled on a shortsword that was longer and a bit heavier than the guild-issued knife, but not enough to hinder his agility.
While he was making his purchases at the counter of the shop, Eina quickly went somewhere to make her own purchase and met him outside of the shop.
"Bell-kun, take this," she handed him a green arm guard.
"Eina-san I couldn't possibly!" Bell didn't think that he deserved it.
Eina pouted. "Being humble is one thing but not accepting gifts is rude, you know?"
"But-"
"I'm sure you know this already, but an adventurer can die at any time in the dungeon. Even stronger adventurers die from time to time, so you should take anything you get that increases your chances for survival. Plus, I want to see you come back alive every time," she said as she booped his nose. That was all true, but she also wanted to help him after seeing him try so hard. She wasn't going to mention it, but after the minotaur incident, she thought she could very faintly see bags under his eyes some days and the sight saddened her.
"In that case, thank you," Bell accepted gratefully with a small blush.
"You're welcome!"
Bell could tell that he was being watched on his way back sometime after splitting up with EIna. Someone had been watching him quite a lot these days so he had sort of built a sixth sense to it. At least that gaze didn't feel like it had any harmful intent. This, however, was different. He could feel multiple gazes dripping with malicious intent. He was not glad because it was evening and not many people were out and about as far west as he was now since the church was a bit past all of the busier places.
"Hey newbie, you seem to have quite the equipment there. How about giving it to us so it can be used better?" Bell gulped.
"While y'er at it, how 'bout droppin' y'er cash if ya know what's good f'er ya?"
"We won't do anything if you listen, hehe."
Three adventurers against him alone. The 'hehe' was a good indication of what would happen to him if he listened. He turned around to look at them. Right in front of him was a tall man with a scimitar. On the right was another human, this one his height, and he carried a sword. The last man was a dwarf to his left with a club. Behind him was an alley that would eventually lead to his home and he could not afford leading them there. He would need to go through them to get to a more crowded place. He took out his new weapon, the shortsword, and got ready to fight.
"The kid thinks he has a chance!" The three laughed at that as they raised their weapons.
He didn't have time to put on his armor, but they looked pretty weak and had flimsy looking weapons. What made him shake was the realization that he was going to fight humans for the time.
'I have to do this, but they're people and not monsters. How do I fight them? What if I hurt them too much? Is it acceptable to fight them? What if I accidentally kill them? Can I even fight them?' These thoughts plagued his mind and rendered him unable to move.
"Hehe, look at him, he's probably about to piss his pants," the man with the sword said with a sadistic grin as moved forwards.
"Stop right there," a voice called out from behind the men.
All four of them looked to see two waitresses approaching them.
"Meow must be pretty dumb to pull this so close the pub, nya."
He recognized those voices. Ryuu and Anya?
"Who the fuck are you?" The man in the middle, presumably their leader, asked.
"Wait, the're lookin' damn nice 'n those un'forms," the dwarf said with a lecherous look in his eyes.
Bell grit his teeth. His hesitance had gotten those two involved and subjected to those dirty looks.
"Yeah, we could-OOF!" The third man wasn't able to finish his sentence as the white-haired boy rammed into him from behind, sending him flying forward to the ground.
The other two men turned around to attack Bell.
"You damn-"
"Leave at once," the men immediately stopped as they could feel the bloodlust behind them crushing them.
"Ryuu can be pretty scary, so nya should meow on out of here, nya!"
The men quickly complied as they did not want to be on the receiving end of whatever monster was behind them. Even the man on the ground got up and ran despite his injuries.
"Are you okay Cranel-san?" Ryuu asked Bell.
"I-I froze on the thought of fighting and hurting people," Bell looked down in frustration. "I'm sorry, because of that you-"
"Cranel-san, you are an admirable person. It's true that you need to be able to fight people as unfortunately, there are many adventurers like that. Regardless, being able to worry even about people like that shows a lot about your character," Ryuu cut him off.
"But because of me-"
This time Anya cut him off. "Like Ryuu said, there are many adventunyers like that, nya. We are used to those looks, besides, meow kicked his butt for us, nya!"
"Thank you very much Ryuu-san, Anya-san. I'll repay the favor one day!"
"Nyahaha in that case leave me tips on nyour next vi-NYAAAAH!"
"We were shopping and have to get back to work, take care Cranel-san." Ryuu bowed while elbowing Anya and then dragged her as she left.
Bell still felt a little guilty, but he also felt blessed. There were so many people helping him, so many people he would need to repay. He looked down at his purchases.
'I am going to be a hero that everyone who has been helping me can be proud of.' His eyes shined brightly as he left the scene to head for his home.
It had been three days since he last saw Hestia. She had mentioned that she would take a few days, but from what he learned, today was monsterphilia. He recalled that his goddess said a few days ago that she wanted to go to the festival with him. The festival was about to start soon and there was no sign of Hestia so Bell decided to go himself after leaving a note on the table in case she got back. He grabbed some money and his old knife just in case, and was on his way.
"Heeeey white-hair!" A voice called out to him.
"Huh?" He turned around to see Anya waving at him from the entrance of the Hostess of Fertility. "Good morning Anya-san."
"Good meowning. Here, take this to Syr, nya," she handed him a purse, presumably Syr's. But was he supposed to know where she was?
"Umm?" Bell gave her a questioning look. He could at least try guessing. "Is she at monsterphilia by any chance?"
"Obviously. She forgot her purse right after saying she will buy us souvenirs nya. What a clumsy kitten, nya!" Anya said while facepalming.
"Alright I got it," Bell replied, accepting the task as he headed into the crowd going towards the festival.
"Yo Freya," a red-haired woman said as she approached a table seating a fellow goddess.
"Loki," Freya greeted her fellow Norse goddess. "Are you feeling better? I heard that you drank yourself to sleep after what happened at the banquet."
"What!? How'd you find that out? Actually, you don't need to answer that since you're always at the top when it comes to information. Just don't remind me of that," Loki sighed. It was humiliating losing to that shrimp! She hadn't felt that embarrassed in quite a while.
"So, are you going to introduce her?" Freya motioned to the girl standing behind Loki.
"Ah, this is my one and only Aiz-tan."
"Nice to meet you," Aiz silently greeted.
'The sword princess. How cute. It's a pity that her soul is clouded by a dark anger,' Freya thought.
"So, what are you up to this time?" Loki suddenly asked with a serious expression.
"Whatever do you mean?"
"You can't fool me. It's rare for you to be at a banquet. You were gathering information weren't you? What are you plotting?"
Freya giggled at that. "You make me sound like a shady schemer."
"..." They stared at each other for a few seconds.
*sigh* "It's a man isn't it?" Loki knew Freya quite well. The goddess of beauty had unlimited lust that she was always trying to quench. There were probably not many male gods left in Orario who she hadn't feasted on at this point.
"It better not be one of my children you hear?" Loki warned.
"Oh Loki, we are friends aren't we? I would never do that to you." Nobody in the room was convinced by that. Well, except Aiz.
"Besides, things are a little different this time. He gets hurt and cries a lot, he is truly a child. Yet, he has eyes that tell a lot of stories. It's intriguing, his soul, something from outside the realm of possibility as if I'm reading a truly unique story from all of history. I was looking out of the window just like right now…" Freya's eyes widened as white hair passed by.
"And?" Loki looked at Freya wondering what made her pause all of a sudden.
"I'm sorry, something requires my urgent attention. Until next time," Freya hastily left.
"What? That was sudden… Should we go as well Aiz?" The sword princess gave no response as she looked out of the window. 'That was Bell.'
He had accepted but how was he going to find a single person in such a large crowd? Bell walked past the various stalls set up near the arena, trying to locate Syr. Worst case scenario, he would have to return to the pub and apologize for not being able to find her.
"Beeeell-kuuuun!" He was suddenly tackled into a hug.
"Kami-sama? Where were you this entire time?" He asked.
"Hehe, missed me?" She replied without answering his question.
"Well, yes, but whe-"
"We must be bound by fate to run into each other like this!" It didn't seem like she was going to answer him. "Let's go on a date, Bell-kun!"
"Date? I remember you wanted to visit the festival with me, but I need to find someone first."
"Aww you remembered that? Come on, let's go! We can find the person on our date." Hestia grabbed his hand and pulled him along to various stalls. Bell was glad that he brought a decent amount of money as Hestia seemed to want to try everything. He didn't mind though. After buying two crepes, they decided to go and sit down on a small grassy field near the coliseum.
"I wonder if Syr-san is already in the stadium. It would be hard to find her there," Bell sighed.
"Bell-kun, have you been doing something funny behind my back with this Syr?" Hestia asked with suspicion.
"What are you talking about Kami-sama? I was asked by Anya-san to give Syr-san her purse."
"Is this Anya also a girl?"
"Yes?"
"There was that advisor girl too. I shouldn't leave you alone at all," Hestia pouted. She knew that he was good-looking. She would curse anyone who said otherwise, but still, her chances were being hurt by all of these girls! At the very least, she would have to meet these girls and decide if any of them are even worthy.
Bell didn't know what she was talking about. Before he could reply, he heard screaming.
"A MONSTER!" *crash* "AAAAA," people screamed in fear while running away as something crashed through a stall. "ROARRRR!" Bell instinctively moved in front of Hestia but was frozen solid when he saw the silverback.
A silverback was a monster from the 11th and 12th floors and a lot stronger than any monster that Bell had killed. Looking at it reminded Bell of the minotaur, and how it killed him. He snapped back to reality as it charged at them, and he grabbed Hestia before jumping out of the way. Ignoring anyone else close by, it simply turned around towards them. He pushed Hestia away and got ready to fight, but the silverback immediately went after Hestia.
'What? It's after Kami-sama?' Bell quickly ran in front of it to block its attack with his arms and was sent flying into a stall.
"Guh." He quickly got up to see the silverback approaching Hestia. Thinking quickly, he grabbed a pot from the stall he had crashed into and threw it at the silverback's head. It turned around while holding its head, and Bell used that as an opportunity to grab Hestia and run away.
"Why is it following you Kami-sama!?"
"I don't know!" Monsters never acted like this, but right now all that mattered was that it was after Hestia. After running for a bit, Hestia called for him to stop.
"Wait, that's Daedalus Street!" Daedalus Street was a place built like a maze. It was rumored that once you got in, you would never get out.
"GRAAAAAA!" The silverback landed in front of them, breaking the ground where it landed. 'We can't keep running forever, I need to fight to protect Kami-sama!' Bell jumped over a punch and swung his knife at the silverback's chest. It pierced the skin slightly before snapping. The monster tried grabbing Bell but he kicked the arm away before running away again with Hestia.
'Damn it, I should've brought my proper gear. I can't protect Kami-sama and fight it at the same time like this.' From the slight skirmish, it didn't feel like he was much weaker than the monster. He wasn't as afraid of it anymore. But without armor or potions, he would be worn down quickly and he didn't have a means of damaging it seriously. Protecting Hestia at the same time would be impossible, and that was what scared him. He suddenly stopped when he saw an open gate, causing Hestia to crash into him.
"Don't stop so suddenly… Bell-kun?"
"Quick, this way Kami-sama." After pushing her into a small tunnel, Bell closed the iron gate.
"What are you doing, Bell-kun?"
"Kami-sama, you are my only family. I don't want to lose you no matter what, so please stay back."
"You're not… Open it Bell-kun, I won't let you use it! You promised!" Hestia yelled
Bell took a deep breath as the monster stumbled into the area. "I won't, Kami-sama. Please stay back so I can focus on fighting." Hestia was reluctant but understood what he was saying. She had a feeling that she was forgetting something… Oh! The Hestia Knife! She felt guilty now for deciding to keep it as a surprise. It was too late now as she would have to do a status update, otherwise the knife would be worse than a twig. It would be her fault if he… All she could do now was stay back and believe in him.
The silverback jumped into the air and smashed the ground where Bell was standing with both of its fists. He jumped back to dodge it, and jumped off of the wall behind him, utilizing his agility, to kick the monster in the face. It was sent reeling back from the force of the kick and fell down. Bell capitalized by stabbing one of its eyes with his broken blade. It flailed wildly while roaring in pain, the chain on one of its arms connecting with Bell.
"Oof," Bell struggled to breathe as the strike to his stomach winded him.
"Bell-kun!" Hestia cried in desperation.
"I-I'm… okay," he got his breathing back under control.
The silverback was bleeding profusely from its eye. If he avoided any more direct hits, Bell had a solid chance to win. It attacked him in a frenzy, but he used his greater agility to dodge attack after attack, this time keeping the chains in mind. Rolling to the side, Bell grabbed one of the chains and yanked as hard as he could. The monster stumbled towards him and he punched it in the face. The monster punched back and he was forced to block it due to the proximity. He wasn't pushed back nearly as much this time, and his already damaged arms did not break. It was getting weaker. He was going to wi-
*boom*
Bell turned around. There was a hellhound. It had smoke coming out of its mouth as if it had just shot a fireball. But he wasn't hurt so where?
"GAAAAAAAAA!"
An agonized scream filled the air, one he knew very well. One that filled him with dread. He looked towards the gate and caught a glimpse of Hestia burning before there was suddenly a pillar of light.
"NOOOOOOOO KAMI-SAMA!" This couldn't be real. Bell fell on his knees while grabbing his head as tears flowed down his face. "AAAAAAAAAAAAA!" He wailed at the top of his lungs for the loss of his goddess as his body weakened from the loss of falna. He wasn't allowed to grieve for long as the silverback stepped on his back and pinned him to the ground, crushing parts of his weakening spine and some ribs. At the same time, the hellhound shot a fireball at him.
Bell screamed. It hurt. It burned so much. He was being cooked alive just like his goddess was moments ago. He wasn't sure what hurt more. He wasn't sure of anything anymore other than the fact that he was in the most pain that he had ever felt. Onlookers couldn't bear to watch the cruel scene anymore and looked away from their windows.
A certain goddess panicked. She had been thrilled by the fight he had been putting up in the face of despair, when everything went wrong. She had only sent one monster after Hestia, and the rest were only distractions. Besides, there wasn't a single hellhound in the monsters she freed anyways. She heard a gut-wrenching scream as he was burned alive. "I'm sorry Hestia, Bell." Freya wasn't one to feel guilty in most cases, but this was going to eat at her forever.
A blonde warrior jumped from rooftop to rooftop to rush towards where she heard a familiar scream coming from. When she got there, it was too late. The body was charred beyond recognition as Bell's screams died down. Aiz had failed.
"..."
"..."
"AAAAAAAAA!" He was on fire! It hurt! It… didn't hurt?
"Don't stop so-aaagh my ears why are you suddenly screaming Bell-kun!" Hestia complained while covering her ears.
Bell turned around. She was right there. She was alive. Bell hugged Hestia without warning as he cried and mumbled apologies.
"B-B-Bell-kun what are you doing all of a sudden…" She was embarrassed by the unexpected hug but quickly noticed his trembling and crying, and most importantly, what he was mumbling.
"I'm sorry for letting you die," he was saying. That could only mean one thing: they had both died in the near future. He needed help, and he most likely needed it fast. She gently patted his back.
"I'm right here Bell-kun. It's going to be alright. Now let's quickly get your status updated." If what she thought was correct, they didn't have the time to cry right now. That could come after they made it out alive.
Bell knew that the silverback was almost there by now so he quickly picked up Hestia and dashed away to create distance. He was not going to let Hestia die again! He pushed away the memories of the final moments of his last loop as they navigated the labyrinth known as Daedalus Street. After a few minutes of running at his top speed, they came across a dead-end. This was it. He would have to fight here. At the very least, there was no way for a monster to sneak in and attack Hestia this time.
"Let's get you updated quickly," Hestia sat down against the back wall as Bell sat in front of her and lifted his shirt up to reveal his back. She quickly took out the knife that she was carrying and handed it to him before starting.
"A gift from me. This blade will grow as you grow. With this, you will be able to hurt the monster!" Bell unsheathed the knife to reveal a beautiful dark blade with the word 'Hephaestus' engraved on it. This changed everything. He would be able to win faster and not be caught off guard by any additional monsters.
"This is… *sniff* I swear I will protect you this time Kami-sama!" Hestia smiled but grimaced immediately afterward as she saw fire. Lots and lots of it. It was as if he was covered in fire in his last moments. 'Not now, I need to be strong for Bell-kun.' She held back her tears while finishing up the work.
Name: Bell Cranel
Familia: Hestia
Lv. 1
STR E - 458 - D - 540
VIT D - 502 - C - 653
DEX E - 439 - D - 507
AGI C - 612 - B - 701
MAG I - 0
Magic
Skills
Return By Death: Upon death, time goes back to a point from where survival is possible and this point cannot go backward or be controlled. Death grants a massive amount of excelia based on power difference.
Bonus effect: Excelia boost based on injuries.
Special effect: ?
Immortal Resolve: Immune to all mental attacks.
Developmental Abilities
"It's done. You can do this Bell-kun." With this much of a stat boost as well as a proper weapon, he was not at a disadvantage anymore. She wasn't able to see where the fire had come from but she hoped, no, believed that Bell would win.
Seeing the silverback enter the alley, Bell prepared himself. Now that he had a weapon, he had a target to end the fight quickly: the magic stone in the chest. They both rushed towards each other. The silverback punched but was much too slow to connect as Bell ducked, dragging his knife along its arm. It tried to grab him with its other arm while howling in pain, but he simply jumped on top of it and used it as a platform to spring towards its chest.
"Hyaaaaa!" Bell stabbed it in the chest with all his might and found his mark as the knife slipped in and the silverback exploded into a cloud of excelia.
"Woaaa!" "He killed the monster!" "He did it!" People started cheering as they looked out from the windows. However, upon noticing the still alert expression on Bell's face, they faltered. With the noise dying down, a new sound was now audible. A hellhound was growling as it entered the alley. The people immediately shut all of their windows.
Hellhounds were canine monsters from the middle floors and were also able to use magic. That magic was what had killed them in the previous loop. The same fireball that was now heading towards him. With a quick glance behind him, Bell confirmed that dodging any fireballs headed to the back wall was not an option as they could hit Hestia. Bracing himself, he kicked the air in front of the fireball and managed to blow some of it away, the rest slightly burning him.
"Ugh," it burned but it was nothing compared to last time. Bell rushed forwards to stop the hellhound from being able to fire anymore. He swiped his knife and it dodged while trying to tear into him with its claws. Bell parried and got into position for a clean strike when, all of a sudden, something slammed into and sent him rolling towards the side. He quickly looked up to see a hard armored. Before he could think anything of it, another fireball came his way and he was forced to block it from his position on the ground.
"Gahh!" His body felt like it was melting and his shirt was on fire. He immediately took it off and stomped on it to suffocate the fire. He tried to dash towards the hellhound but felt a sharp stinging pain in his side.
"Bell-kun!" Her warning had been too late. Bell turned and saw that an imp had attacked him. He kicked its head off and raised his arms to block a spinning attack from the hard armored.
"There's more!" Hestia shouted as another imp and two almiraj popped up. Bell barely managed to push the hard armored away in time to dodge an axe as it whizzed past him. He felt heat behind him and went back behind the hard armored to avoid being roasted alive, it's scales taking a minimal amount of damage.
'Where are all of these monsters coming from, and why are they all coming here?' Bell struggled to dodge and parry the onslaught of attacks, crimson blood leaking from his right side where he had been slashed by the imp. He ducked to dodge another axe and threw his old knife that he had been holding in his left hand at the almiraj that was going to pick up its axe, luckily impaling its eye and causing it to bleed out shortly. He then moved in front of the hellhound and blocked an attack, and promptly moved out the way of the other almiraj's axe as it lodged into the hellhound's side causing it to whimper in pain. The imp snuck up behind him and left a large gash on his back. Bell winced but managed to cut its neck off, leaving him with an injured hellhound, an almiraj, and a hard armored.
The hellhound tried to use another fireball but wasn't able to make one. Coughing out some blood, Bell ran towards it as it struggled with its injuries and exhaustion and finally got rid of the hellhound. His vision became a bit hazy for a second from blood loss, causing him to fail to dodge another attack from the hard armored and he was sent flying towards Hestia.
Burned, bruised, battered, deep cuts bleeding profusely. It was a horrible sight. Yet, he got up again, albeit shakily. Raising his arm, he blocked an axe coming at her with his knife. Why? Why did he have to go through all of this? In truth, she knew. It was her weakness. If she had a bigger familia, he wouldn't have had to fight through death by himself. If she wasn't useless baggage, he wouldn't have to run himself into a corner in the first place. Stomping sounds caused her to look up. There was an orc in the alley now. It was over.
"Bell-kun please, next ti-"
"No. Th-there won't… Be any need… For next time. I promised… Remember? As long as we're alive… I won't give up hope… Until my final breath." He was shaking from exhaustion, pain, and fear. But there was someone he had to protect. He was never going to see anyone important to him die again if he could help it. He forced himself to pick up the axe beside him before the almiraj could and used both of his weapons to guard against the orc which swung its club at him. His arms threatened to crumble. He locked them in place and pushed using his legs, his only uninjured limbs. Suddenly, the orc exploded into a cloud of excelia as a sword pierced its magic crystal from the back.
Bell thought he saw familiar golden hair, but he wasn't able to comprehend anything anymore as he collapsed backward and fell unconscious in Hestia's arms.
"Please save him!" Hestia begged the newcomer who simply nodded, picked him up carefully, and sprinted away.
The world was still going, meaning that Bell was alive. If he was alive, she had to keep going. She could cry later, but he was going to need someone when he woke up. Hestia slowly got up while picking up the knife that Bell had dropped when he lost consciousness. She also picked up his half-burnt shirt and a purse fell out. Oh right, they needed to return this to someone named Syr. Thankfully, the purse wasn't burned. She could at least do this errand for him. Or so she thought. She collapsed from the fatigue from the past three days and someone caught her just before she hit the ground.
"Geez shrimp you look terrible. What even happened?" A concerned voice called out.
"Loki, Bell, I-" Hestia passed out mid-sentence.
Loki didn't like Hestia, but she wasn't heartless. The damage and the blood in the area and on Hestia's clothes showed that a lot had happened here. She had also heard from the crowd and some cowardly adventurers who had watched rather than helped while coming here that a lone boy had been fighting against multiple monsters that spawned below the 10th floor. Hestia had only recently gotten her first familia member so it must have been a traumatizing experience for both of them.
Sighing, she draped Hestia's arm around her shoulder and pulled her towards the alley. Twilight Manor was very far from here, so she would take her to the pub she frequents. Mia wouldn't mind lending a room to someone in this condition.
She looked down at his unconscious form while making a beeline for the Dian Cecht Familia Pharmacy. It reminded her of the time with the minotaur, except this time his injuries were life-threatening. It hadn't been her fault this time, but her guilt from before came back stronger than ever before. He had called her his hero but she was always late to help. She also felt anger. Anger at herself for not hunting the other monsters faster, anger at the monsters for being such despicable creatures that hurt people, and anger at the adventurers who stayed back and watched while a rookie fought on his own. But mostly at the monsters.
Looking at him, she also felt something else. Something like inspiration? She wasn't sure if that was what it was but she wanted to do better. After dropping Bell off and paying for his treatment, she checked the entire city in case there were any monsters left.
AN: His back was covered in blood so nobody could read his status. The onlookers from before his injury can't read that language anyways. I would like to think that as a doctor, Airmid doesn't go around reading her patients' status (if she even can). Who sent all those extra monsters you ask? Find out in the.. uh .. some chapter in the very far future.
Thanks for the reviews. Feel free to give some ideas and ask questions.
Wow 100 followers, thank you everyone.