After a good night's rest Bell took me out to the dungeon while I introduced him to Pride. Reginald was left at home to clean and do dishes. And, as I would come to learn, Pride was an absolute attention whore. As I explained the spell to Bell and how Pride came into existence, Bell couldn't help but gush about how cool the spell, and Pide were. This made Pride puff out his chest and set out a feeling of smug superiority. On second thought, I wasn't sure what I should have expected from a fey which wanted to be named Pride.

Once every six or so seconds I would cast False Life on myself as we walked. Pride thought it was silly that I was taking this precaution apparently. His well... pride, seemed to extend to me as well it seemed. As his master, it is apparently impossible for me to be any less amazing than him and it is foolish to think that a lowly monster could bring me down when I was able to summon him, 'The Great and Mighty Pride'. It was quite humorous and made me chuckle. If nothing else, Pride would provide a good ego boost and chuckle once in a while.

'Don't simplify me like that!'

I could imagine him screech. He wasn't able to form actual words verbally or through our mental connection, but I was sort of able to feel what he meant. It was quite strange, more instinctive than structured. I didn't really need words to understand him.

"So Pride is like Reginald?" Bell asked only to have Pride squawk at him indignantly.

'Die bastard, how dare you!'

"Well Pride here is a sentient being. Capable of acting of his own accord, and he didn't quite like that you compared him to Reginald." I explained as Pride cawed once more.

"Oh I'm sorry Pride-san." Bell said doing a quick bow. Pride puffed his chest out proclaiming himself Bell's better, earning him a flick from me.

"Pride accepts your apology." I told him as we got closer to the Tower of Babel. It was amazing how tall the thing was given the era. It reached past the clouds.

"So any specific plans for the dungeon or am I just gonna sling spells and you cut goblins up?" I asked.

"Well I figured that you could just fight how you're comfortable with and I'll do the same. Today I think we'll be able to reach the sixth floor if we're careful." Bell explained. Yeah so the game plan is for me to spam False Life and Toll the Dead got it.

Before we could enter Babel proper a woman called for us. "Excuse me you two, I think you dropped something."

Turning around I saw a real cute girl with light grey eyes and hair done up in a ponytail. In her hand she had a magic stone. I never did turn those into the guild yesterday.

'Bow wow'

'Silence you'

"Thank you miss." I said with a smile whilst mentally chastising Pride. No eyeing up random women you pervert bird. Birdvert... No that's dumb.

'Very dumb'

"Think nothing of it," she responded with a smile of her own. "Say, are you two heading to the dungeon this early in the morning?"

"Yeah I figured we would get a head start today." Bell jumped in before his stomach let out a low rumble. Which reminded me that I hadn't eaten breakfast either which caused my own stomach to rumble.

The girl chucked before heading into the nearby building and returned with a basket. "Here you two, I wouldn't want you to go into the dungeon hungry."

"That's very kind, but-"

"Are you sure we can accept this?"

"I'll make this sacrifice, but in exchange you two have to come to the Hostess of Fertility for dinner in exchange ok." She said with a sly grin. Ah I see what's going on now. I'll take that deal anyways. I'm hungry now.

'Sneaky vixen'

'That may be true, but you still need to hush up'

"You can count on it." I said taking the basket. "I'm Matthew Mathers by the way."

"And I'm Bell Cranel."

"I'm Syr Flover, and I look forwards to seeing you tonight Matthew-san, Bell-san." She said. Bell and I waved her off and made our way into Babel and I quickly scarfed down a sandwich. For a moment I almost gagged and told Bell that we weren't going to the Hostess tonight. How hard is it to mess up a sandwich? But a promise is a promise. Hopefully Syr wasn't a cook.

Once we made our way into the first floor I searched for a batch of goblins to see how temporary health worked. Asking Bell to stand back I allowed the goblins to bite and slash at me. It was apparent that the temporary health didn't make me any harder to hurt. Every bite and claw slash hurt like hell, but as soon as a wound was opened, my skin would glow a sickly green and patch itself back up. Cool.

'Totally don't need it though'

'Better safe than sorry'

After my little test I just resolved to kill things with Toll the Dead and save my temp health for an emergency. If I want to level up my defense we could do that later. The thought did make me chuckle though. Cheesing flana growth by giving myself false life. Turning myself into a magic tank.

Bell must have heard me chuckling to myself at some point during our monster massacre because he asked what was so funny. I found out how hard it was to describe a tank to someone that lived in a fantasy world.

"You know how you see adventurers that wear really heavy, bulky armor?" I asked and Bell nodded along. "It's like that, but on a wagon."

"But why would a wagon need armor?" Bell asked as a new monster nearly dropped right on top of him. I looked up myself to see a fat brown lizard plummet from the ceiling directly above me. Dodging before the thing could land I cast Toll the Dead once more as the lizard began to rot.

"Well the wagon also has a cannon on it so it needs to be defended." I said which only prompted Bell to ask what a cannon was. Pride apparently found the whole thing amusing, which annoyed me because he only knew what a tank was through our mental connection. He could just feel what I meant.

"Well, a cannon is a-" I began before a deep and terrifying roar echoed throughout the dungeon. "Bell what was that?"

"I don't know, I think we should turn back." He responded. Before we could even turn around a giant minotaur appeared just down the corridor and glared at us with vitriol. I know a boss fight when I see one! There's no way I'm strong enough for this thing!

"Binding Ice!" I screamed in a panic. In an instant ice shot from my hands towards the minotaur and began crawling along its body beginning to entrap he beast in ice. That is until the monster flailed about wildly sending ice everywhere.

"Bell run!" I yelped as the minotaur closed the distance and struck me with its weapon sending me flying across the room. It hurt, even with the hole in my chest stitching itself together I felt like I was on fire, I couldn't breathe.

'Follow Bell'

'What about you?'

'Just go!'

The minotaur seemed to ignore me after I fell, instead targeting Bell. I think I got one or two more hits left in me before my temp heath is depleted, so I need to buy Bell time to run.

"Ice Knife!" I shout sending a shard of ice rocketing towards the beast. The ice spike lodged itself into the eye of the minotaur before exploding in a blast of frost. The minotaur cried out in pain before fully turning its attention towards me.

After confirming that Bell had bolted I cast Minor Illusion to create an image of myself in my current position and then casting Invisibility immediately after. Not a moment to soon. Any slower and the minotaur would have had my head. I'm not confident False Life would prevent a decapitation. The minotaur was clearly confused by my trickery striking the false image over and over again until it dissipated. It turned its head on a swivel searching for me before it suddenly stopped and started to sniff the air. It then turned to look directly at me and I felt my heart sink. Then the minotaur exploded in a shower of blood.

"Hey what happened to that newbie trash the minotaur was fighting?" A dog eared demi-human asked with a scowl.

"Who knows? All that magic stuff was cool though! He was all like 'Ice attack' and the minotaur was like Aahhhhh I'll get you for that Raaah." An energetic tan girl giggled.

"..." the blonde girl who actually killed the minotaur was just standing there silently. She was looking at my direction, but not directly at me so I wondered if she could see me.

Should I thank her? I did promise Hestia I wouldn't show off my magic everywhere and these three had already seen at least three spells. At least three spells if they figure out Minor Illusion and Invisibility aren't the same. Nah, I'll thank that girl later once I know stronger magic and don't have to worry about whatever a war game is. For now my thanks is silent mystery girl.

After the group left I made my own way out of the dungeon. After that heart attack of an encounter I decided to keep concentration for my Invisibility spell rather than spam Toll the Dead. I wasn't going to recover another second level spell slot until after I went to sleep anyways.

After the hour was up I made it to the first floor, and I was lucky enough not to run into any monsters on my way out. In the guild I waited in line to see Eina. Bell was the one who carried all of our magic stones, but I wanted to let her know I wasn't dead or anything.

"Next." Eina said before her eyes met my own and went wide.

"M-M-M-maa a ghost!" She cried.

"I'm not a ghost yet Miss Eina." I told her tiredly.

"How are you alive?" She asked.

"Familia secret?" I said cautiously, causing Eina to frown deeply. What? You just want me to reveal all of my secrets willy-nilly Miss Eina? How scandalous!

"This isn't funny, Bell thinks you're dead." She snapped.

"I know, I know. I'm going to make sure he's alright here in a moment, I just wanted to let you know I wasn't dead first. I probably won't be returning to the guild again today after all." I explained which seemed to placate Eina.

"I also wanted to ask you about another group of adventurers." I said. Eina raised her eyebrow at this. Hey, what's wrong with that Eina? Don't give me that look.

"Well there was a blonde swordswoman, a grey haired, dog eared demi-human and a tanned girl with short black hair." I said.

"You mean an Amazoness?" Eina asked. Wait, those gals were an entirely different race? No that's not important. I nodded my head to Eina's question.

"Mmm, that sounds like Aiz, Bete and Tiona from the Loki familia, why are you asking about them? Did Aiz-san capture your heart? I should let you know that she's turned down hundreds of men." Eina teased. It didn't really bother me though. I only really needed to know that they were in the Loki familia, now I can thank them later.

"No it's nothing like that, she's just the one who saved me and I wanted to thank her properly." I explained.

"Alright, if you say so. But you should probably get going, Bell was crying his heart out when he got here." She scolded. I simply nodded and headed home. Yeah that was a bit too much of an adventure for one day.

On my way home Pride found me and perched on my shoulder.

'Idiot"

"How was I supposed to know we would run into a boss fight on the fifth floor?" I asked indignantly.

'Idiot' He repeated louder.

"Fuck you too then." I mumbled as the streets became less populated. When I got back to the church I could hear the sobbing before I even entered. Oh man, how to I handle this? Casual? I'll just go with casual.

"Hestia, Bell! I'm ho-" I couldn't even finish before a gibbering Bell tackled me to the ground.

"Matthew-san, Matthew-san I thought you di-ie-ied!" Bell wailed, "I'm so sorry for leaving you Matthew-san!"

That statement made my eye twitch. Chopping his head I explained, "I have magic to get out of tough situations like that. I told you to run for a reason, idiot."

Hestia surprisingly joined my side and grabbed me in a hug. "You may have strong magic but you're not allowed to do anything like that again. You hear me? You're my child now and you're not allowed to die."

"Don't worry Hestia, I don't plan on dying anytime soon. Oh and Bell? For future reference, if I die then Pride will disappear as well, so if he's with you then that means I'm fine." I told them. Pride pecked at my cheek and called me an asshole

'Death forbidden' he communicated causing me to chuckle.

"I'm sorry for worrying the two of you." I apologized. Pride pecked at me again.

'Three of you'

"Just don't do it again problem child." Hestia sighed tiredly. Hey I'm not facing down a minotaur again until I at least have tier four spells. "Let's get your flana updated Matthew, Bell."

Taking my shirt off and laying down I felt the droplet of blood once more as the process began, after three or so minutes Hestia handed me my update without any screaming or fanfare.

Matthew M. Mathers Lv 1

Strength I 0 - I 5

Defense I 0 - I 27

Dexterity I 0 - I 14

Agility I 0 - I 7

Magic I 0 - I 63

Skills

Arcane Spellcaster III - Rather than drawing from a pool of mind to cast spells, user expends spell slots. Ritual spells do not expend spell slots.

Available spell slots - I (4) II (2) - Spell slots recovered via long rest or study of spellbook.

Arcane Student III - Ability to learn new spells up to tier II through study of spellbook

Arcane Tradition Necromancy I - Necromancy comes naturally. Study of spellbook reveals necromancy spells quicker, ability to cast necromancy spells as if they were one tier lower.

Spells

Mending (cantrip), Toll the Dead (cantrip), Minor Illusion (cantrip), False Life (I), Find Familiar (I, ritual), Identify (I, ritual), Ice Knife (I), Tasha's Hideous Laughter (I), Shield (I), Crumbling Dead (I, ritual), Cause Fear (I), Expeditious Retreat (I), Binding Ice (II), Invisibility (II)

I wasn't quite sure what I was expecting but I hoped for more than that. Well I guess that since Aiz killed the minotaur then she would get the lion's share of the exp, if I even got any at all.

"Ok Bell your turn." Hestia proclaimed as I got off the couch. She then straddled him and began the process again. I tried to take a peek at it, but the glyphs were illegible. The paper she wrote it down on wasn't though.

Bell Cranel Lv 1

Strength I 82 - I 97

Defense I 13 - I 24

Dexterity I 92 - H 114

Agility H 172 - G 203

Magic I 0

Skills

Spells

Pretty impressive Bell. Going for more of a glass cannon build I see. Fair enough, if I didn't have my magic I wouldn't want to try and grind my defense against monsters. Though if you want to be a glass cannon we will need to raise his DPS. Assassin type characters are no good if they can't kill their targets, and I won't let Bell just be a skirmisher.

"Well I'm going to go study my spellbook." I told the two of them. They said something about dinner, but I tuned them out. Sitting down I opened my spellbook and turned to one of the illegible pages. After about fifty minutes of trying to piece the jumble of words together I finally deciphered the words 'Sightless/Soundless'.

If I remember correctly that was a tier two necromancy spell. Hot damn, if it took me that long to decipher just the name of a necromancy spell then how long will it to take to learn a spell from a different school? Hopefully I'll get better at this with time I thought to myself as I continued deciphering the sightless and soundless spell. After about another two hours I finally finished. I immediately put the book down and passed out.

"Matthew-san we still need to visit Syr-san at the Hostess." Bell said shaking me up. Oh yeah I forgot about that. Ugh, fine.

"Alright, where's Hestia?" I asked. It would be terribly rude to dine out without bringing our goddess.

"Some of her work friends are meeting up and she went to go greet them." Bell explained. That was a fine explanation, but I'm still gonna see if we can't get something as takeout.

Simply nodding I followed Bell to the Hostess. After spending so long staring at that book I was pretty out of it. At the restaurant, Syr greeted and sat us at the bar. After that a giant of a woman came up to us.

"You must be those two Syr told me about earlier. The ones here for a feast! The name's Mia Grand and I'll put some meat on your skinny bones." The giant woman laughed gleefully.

"A feast! When did we say we wanted a feast?" Bell cried. Syr just made a tee hee sound while sticking her tongue out a little. It was pretty cute. I also wasn't upset because I sort of expected something like this. She did give us her lunch after all. I wasn't sure how much money we had relatively but I'll just bust my ass tomorrow to make up the difference.

"There's no way we're getting that much food!" Bell whined and I just put my hand on his shoulder.

"Whatever we don't eat now, we bring home to Hestia." I told him with a straight face. He visibly deflated at my words as both Syr and Mia burst out laughing.

"I like the attitude on this one." Mia chuckled. "So what can I get for you two?"

"I'll have a pasta." Bell said as I ordered a meat dish with alcohol.

"Also, that bird of yours better not cause any trouble." Mia said suddenly with a terrifying expression as I felt the immediate pressure around us build tenfold.

"Understood Miss Mia, Pride won't cause any trouble." I said nervously. I had a feeling that upsetting this woman would be the most painful mistake I could possibly make.

'Scary'

'You got that right Pride'

'I'll behave'

'You fucking better'

"Reservation for Loki Familia." One of the other servers shouted... Loki? That's the familia I have to thank later. Hopefully those three don't recognize me. I don't know how I'm gonna explain my magic without lying or just telling them it's not their business. I mean I could do just that, but it's not very diplomatic.

After my third mug I cut myself off so I didn't end up doing anything embarrassing. Bell was just chatting Syr up the entire time not even aware that the blond girl saved me. Syr also didn't seem to mind that I wasn't talking to her much. Like I said earlier, Bell has to be some sort of playboy or something ha!

"Hey Aiz tell us that story. You know the one. When we were chasing that minotaur." I overheard Bete say. Not that it was hard, he was loud and probably already drunk.

"It was so cool!" Tiona said. "He tried to trap the minotaur in an ice spell but it failed and the beast struck him and sent him across the room." She started as Bete laughed at the description of me getting slapped like a bitch.

"The minotaur then started chasing another newbie, but he was all like 'no you don't! ICE SPIKE-'"

"Ice Knife" Aiz corrected.

"Yeah, and then the shard of ice blinded the minotaur. What happened next was kind of weird and I don't understand it though." Tiona finished.

"Yeah the little shit just disappeared. Like he was there one minute, the minotaur hit him again, and then he was just gone." Bete growled. I really am sorry for turning away without thanking you dude.

"And what race did you say this new adventure was?" A tall elf with green hair asked.

"Eh? I didn't pay attention to the newbie's race. Either a human or elf though." Bete snarled. The elf then turned to Aiz.

"I didn't pay attention before he disappeared." She said with all the passion of a text to speech device.

"He was a human!" Tiona chirped.

'She's totally into you'

'She's just impressed with my magic Pride'

'Dumbass'

'You're just a bird, what do you know?'

"A human that knows magic? How impressive." The elf said.

"Chantless magic no less." The short man, pallum I think, piped up.

"I'm more concerned that a new adventurer could survive a hit from a minotaur. Are you sure he was level one?" A second, bustier Amazoness asked.

"Eh? Who cares about that coward? His magic still couldn't hurt a lowly minotaur." Bete sulked. Oh I get it now, he's insecure and wants more attention. Don't worry Bete, I'm sure you'll have your chance to show off to the ladies.

Turning to Bell I noticed he stopped speaking to Syr and was sending a death glare to the Loki familia.

"Chill out Bell, it's fine." I told him placing a hand on his shoulder. It seemed like I started him as he deflated.

"Yeah sorry." He responded meekly. It was sweet how he was willing to stick up for me though. After the Loki familia finished gossiping about me, Bell and I were ready to go. On our way out the three I saw in the dungeon didn't seem to recognize me, be it because of the booze or just because I wore a new shirt after mine was destroyed by the minotaur.

"Hey Matthew-san?" Bell said.

"Yeah?"

"Do you think you could teach me magic tomorrow?"

Well I had been dreading that question.

"I can try."