On his 14th birthday, Bell had a small celebration before being sent off to Orario. His falna was removed so that he could join Hestia's Familia. He had a large backpack and was wearing simple farming clothing. He had a sword and two daggers on his belt, as well as five throwing knives in a side pouch.
This time he knew the proper path and he could jog the whole way without getting tired, so he arrived in ten days. He waited in line for about half an hour until he was next in line.
"Name!" the guard grunted.
"Bell Cranel," he promptly responded.
"Business?" asked the guard.
"I'm here to become the first member of the Hestia Familia," he announced passionately.
The guard snorted.
"Good luck with that kid. Sign here and pay the 10,000 valis entry fee, and you're free to enter. Try not to die before you're old enough to drink," the guard said with a bored drawl.
Bell knew the guard was trying to scam him, so rather than paying the fee, he stepped out of line and searched for someone with higher authority than the gate guard. Thankfully, he found someone who looked to be a strong female adventurer from the Ganesha Familia.
Bell waved to catch her attention. "Excuse me, miss. I could use your assistance in a small matter," he said after he was noticed.
"What do you need, young man?" The adventurer said.
"I was under the impression that entrance to Orario was free, but the guard that I spoke to was demanding a 10,000 valis fee. I could have paid it, but that would have left me dangerously low on funds," Bell explained.
The Ganesha member blinked in surprise. "We haven't had any problems like that in years. Gate guards are paid well for their work, and they receive plenty of benefits. Corruption is a rarity these days," she explained.
"So, can you help? I'm really anxious to get to Orario," asked Bell.
"Yes, of course. Take me to this corrupt worker, and I will sort things out and let you through the gates," she said.
The two of them walked to the front of the line, and Bell pointed out the guard who had tried to scam him.
"I'll take this gentleman off to the side for a short interrogation. I'm sure he's either stupid or despised. He won't be hard to crack. In the meantime, I'll let you through the gate. Enjoy the city, and ask for Filia of the Ganesha Familia if you ever find yourself in more trouble," said Filia.
"Thanks for the help, Ms. Filia. I hope we can be friends," Bell said with a smile.
Fillia smirked. 'The ladies are going to eat this kid up,' she thought.
"Sure, kid. Now scram. Find a familia," she said.
Bell bowed deeply, and then he ran through the now-opened gate. "Thankyousomuchbye," he said as he sprinted off.
Filia laughed. 'He's certainly an energetic one,' she thought.
If his timing was right, it should be right around the time that Hestia descended. This time he had a place to stay for free: Hestia's abandoned church, so this time he only needed to spend money on food, and he had enough valis to last a couple weeks if he was frugal.
He didn't like to stay still, twiddling his thumbs. He didn't know how long it would take for her to arrive, so he needed to find something to do in the meantime. He was curious about how his new skills matched up against the first couple floors of the dungeon.
There was no rule against exploring without a falna, was there? It was best not to check. 'I can't get in trouble for ignorance... Probably,' he thought.
He did a couple of hours of light training before he entered the first floor of the dungeon to test his strength.
The goblins were still weak; they required a couple of regular slashes or a mildly enhanced attack. Kobolds were faster and stronger, but still defenseless. Dungeon lizards were durable but slow and not very threatening. They were all much slower and more predictable than a level 2 adventurer, which is what he was used to. They're meant for adventurers without any stats leveled.
He was way stronger than any new adventurer. A fresh falna barely increased the strength of the user. They needed experience for that. He didn't have a falna active at the present moment, but he could still access his skills, which greatly increased his combat ability.
Bell mowed down the weak goblins, dungeon lizards, and kobolds until he made it to floor 5. Minotaurs were NOT supposed to be until floor 15, and he trusted that it was a one-in-a-million occurrence. This time he got some experience versus war shadows and frog shooters. It took a decent amount of time to deal with the monsters without using his mana enhancement, so he decided to start using his mana more actively in order to speed up the combat he was engaging in. He just needed to make sure not to get overwhelmed and burn through his mana too quickly. He didn't want to risk a mind-down.
It was stupid of him to go down this low last time. The upper floors offer more than enough experience for a new adventurer, and it gives them time to adjust to the dungeon and improve their combat abilities. His story wasn't unique; someone went too deep, but they also usually weren't strong level 2 monsters on the upper floors. The whole second life thing was like a miracle after a ton of bad luck.
Level 5 didn't have that many monsters, at least not enough to threaten him, so he descended once more. It was floor 7 that he wanted to avoid. The killer ants on the floor could call in for help when they were badly injured and had strong attacks and a hard shell. Purple moths released poison. Neither was something he wanted to tackle without a falna.
He ended up spending around 4 hours in the dungeon before he was out of mana and had to head back up. He was astonished at the amount of monster stones he had been able to accumulate. A quarter of his bag was filled. He managed to exchange the stones at the guild without issue. He even asked if it was legal to enter the dungeon without a falna. It was in fact illegal, but it was such an uncommon occurrence that they didn't ever ask to see an adventurer's falna apart from providing infrequent updates to the dungeon advisors.
Bell was shocked at the amount of valis he received for his modest efforts. He made 9,000 valis in about 6 hours, and he used to only scrape by 3,000 valis after more than 12 hours in the dungeon. Having combat training and his mana enhancement ability made combating the early floor monsters child's play. If he kept up at the same relatively modest pace, he would be flush with valis within a couple weeks.
One bright part of the waiting period for Hestia's arrival was Bell meeting a beautiful waitress, Syr Flova. She ran up to Bell and handed him a magic stone that he had "dropped," and she absolutely refused to entertain the possibility that it was not his stone.
Bell was confused, but eventually relented and put the stone away in his bag. He's not entirely sure what happened next, but Syr kept talking to him about this and that, and before he knew it, he was inside the Hostess of Fertility, with a hearty supper and a strong drink. The drink was especially unusual; Bell had never tried alcohol until an exuberant Syr shoved it into his hand and called for a celebration.
"You're sneakyy, youu know that," slurred Bell, who was very much a lightweight.
"Oh!" Syr gasped dramatically. "How so? I'm as innocent as can be."
"That trick with the monster stone—you did that to get my business here," Bell replied, feeling a little more clearheaded after he collected his thoughts into a coherent sequence of events.
"How cruel of you to insinuate anything about me; I had the purest of intentions when I gave you that stone," said Syr in a sly tone.
Bell snorted. "I'm sure you did," he said dryly. "Whatever Syr, it worked. You have my business. I hope you're happy. And get me another one of those drinks. I can see why it's popular; I'm feeling great."
"Coming right up!" cheered Syr.
The next day, he dove down to the 6th floor of the dungeon, only killing monsters directly in his way. He focused intently on minimizing his mana consumption and maximizing his combat efficiency. He managed to last 5 hours this time, sticking mostly to the 6th floor, and he received 15,000 valis for his efforts after exchanging the monster stones at the guild.
'I guess I can upgrade my equipment while I wait,' he thought. He already had enough money to buy some decent, basic combat gear.
With not much better to do, he decided to go back to the Hostess of Fertility for dinner. Syr might have somehow tricked him into spending his money at her place of work, but she wasn't malicious about it, the food was good, and he had the valis to spare for a little luxury. Although, being honest, the main motivating factor was that Syr was an attractive young woman who enjoyed talking to him.