Despite the aching pain in his head from the night before Bell couldn't help but hold a stupid grin. His familia was truly turning into something spectacular. He was growing much stronger, Matthew had mind blowing magic and Lili, though she wasn't technically part of the familia, was proving herself extremely useful. Speaking of which, she had decided to follow him today after Matthew-san declared his intent to spend the day studying his spellbook. He found it strange since she was always hovering by Matthew's side. He figured she would stay with him.
"So Lili, do you know where I could get some armor?" He asked thinking of the absurd amount of vals they made. With the pass parade and Matthew's drops from the day before that, Bell imagined he could get some really strong armor and a new weapon, but he didn't want to blow their budget for himself.
"Yes Master Bell. Babel contains the Hephaestus familia shops on the fourth to eighth floors, that would be the best place to look for new armor Lili thinks." She said making Bell sigh. He understood that Lili was a victim of abuse, but her insistence on calling him and Matthew-san master was getting on his nerves.
"You know you don't have to call us master, right Lili-san?" He asked as they made their way towards Babel.
"Lili may trust her masters, but until they are stronger, other adventurers will want to punish Lili for being informal." She said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. Bell couldn't help but wonder how many adventurers must have mistreated her for her to adopt such a worldview. It also soured his mood quite severely. He may not be her hero, but he still wanted to help her.
"We'll get there one day Lili." He said simply.
"Bell-kun." Syr said from behind the two causing them to turn around.
"Oh what's this nyow? Bell-kun is with another woman nya?! I told you he was a nyo good heartbreaker Syr." A cat person with brown hair said shortly before being smacked in the back of the head by a green haired elf.
"Don't say its true Bell-kun, I was just about to ask you to Monsterphilia." Syr said with tears in her eyes. Lili, on the other hand, was not amused by their little act.
"Lili and Master Bell are in no such relationship. Lili is only a supporter " She adamantly denied.
"Sooo, if you two aren't together, would you like to come with me to Monsterphilia tomorrow?" Syr asked with a smile causing Bell to blush. He didn't know what monsterphilia was, but he fully understood that Syr was asking him on a date. He hasn't had the opportunity to save Syr in the dungeon, but that didn't mean he couldn't add her to his harem.
"Sure, I can take you out.. but um.. what is Monsterphilia?" He asked bashfully.
"You must be new to Orario nya." The catgirl said. "The Ganesha familia does it every year nya."
"What are you three doing out here? I don't pay you to fool around!" Mia shouted at the three servers causing them to jump. They quickly apologized before scampering back inside. "Hey you're that kid from the other day. Where'd your friend go?"
"He's staying home today." Bell responded meekly.
"Well don't get ahead of yourself in the dungeon. Remember that coming back alive is always the most important thing." She said with a reassuring smile.
"We will. Thank you." Bell said. Mia may have scared him, but at the end of the day it was nice to know she was looking out for him. After that exchange the two of them found their way into Babel and quickly found the Hephaestus shops. Bell's jaw dropped to the floor when he saw the weapons they were selling. Not just because they were visually impressive, but because they sold for hundreds of thousands of vals, even over a million. It seemed that Lili understood his reservations as she quickly explained that the lower floors were reserved for only the most skilled of the Hephaestus smiths. The higher floors were where they could find armor within their price range. And as she said, on the eighth Bell found plenty of weapons and armor in his price range.
"What do you think about this set Lili?" Bell asked pointing to a set of armor priced at forty-five thousand vals. A little bit pricey, but not over budget. Lili put down the set she was eyeing and glanced over to the one Bell picked.
"Welf Crozzo huh? The Crozzo family has always been known for great smiths. The armor speaks for the legacy, but I'm surprised he would be selling cheap armor rather than magic weapons." She said after eyeing the armor critically. Bell had to double take. Well Crozzo was a famous smith that could make magic weapons? Good thing he found this armor before anyone else then.
"Thanks Lili, I appreciate you." he said with a smile.
After paying for the armor, the two of them finally made their way into the dungeon. It didn't take long before she started spawning monsters. It wasn't anything Bell had to worry about, especially not with his new armor. Even though the dungeon was spawning monsters at a more regular pace he still kept on his toes. Matthew-san had told him about the dungeon following rules so he wanted to make sure he was paying attention to what he was doing and what would make the dungeon react poorly. With a more attentive mind to the dungeons behavior he noticed that the first floor seemingly never spawned more than three monsters at a time. The second floor spawned no more than five and it spawned goblins and kobolds at an even rate. The third floor also had a spawn limit of five, but it heavily preferred the stronger kobolds to the weaker goblins.
As the two descended the floors Bell began to truly understand why Matthew-san had asked him to keep an eye out for these things. Once they started reaching the middle and lower floors, knowing what would come after them and when would be important. It would also be important to find out what Dungeon-chan didn't want them to do. They were lucky that the pass parade happened on the first floor that day. If Matthew-san had decided to test his magic on the fifth or sixth floor they would all be dead. Bell could only imagine breaking one of Dungeon-chan's rules when they were on the twentieth floor. It was a grim reminder. He needed to get stronger and fast. Until they found out just why the dungeon behaves as she does he needed to treat it as if it could go berserk at any moment.
After fighting several dozen monsters on the sixth floor Bell decided it would be time to try the seventh. This was the floor were Eina said purple moths and Killer ants would begin appearing and he was nervous. He couldn't help but think back to what Mia had told him. He didn't want to push himself and Lili too far, but he also needed to get stronger. When the first ant began to crawn out of the wall it didn't come alone. Seven ants in total appeared before the two of them. Bell thought briefly about using his magic to dispatch the group before casting the thought aside. He wasn't like Matthew-san, he couldn't rely on magic to carry him though and would need to learn to fight creatures like this without it.
Entering a fighting stance Bell watched as the ants began creeping their way to him. They were slow, however they seemed to move in unison. After thinking about it for a moment Bell realized that it would be incredibly difficult to attack one ant without opening himself to one or two others. 'Dungeon-chan is really mean spirited' he thought to himself as he understood just why Eina called these ants 'newbie killers'. Dungeon-chan was trying to lure adventurers into a false sense of security with how slow they are. It didn't help that this problem would only get worse if those ants got the chance to call for backup.
Running for the lead ant Bell feinted an attack causing the lead ant to stutter and the two to its side to lunge at him. Taking advantage of their mistake he stabbed into the neck of one of the ants before it had the chance to attack again before jumping back. The ant wasn't dead, but it was severely wounded from the attack. Three ants had tried to charge him with two on each side moving to surround him. Seeing that the wounded ant was with another on his left he decided to rush the healthy one planting his knife in the head of the monster. It killed the ant, but didn't go in easily. rushing past the dead ant he fell back to Lili.
Before rushing back to combat Bell observed the ants. Seeing that one was dead and another was wounded he wanted to see how they would react he saw that they were less organized than they were before. The wounded ant was in the backlines and that made sense, but two of the ants were holding back, staying by the side of the injured one, seemingly unable to decide which ants to support as the three others wildly charged towards him. The three that were charging him were no better. Two were close enough to support each other but the third was too far back. Bell quickly ran past the first two using his greater agility and sliced the head of the lagging ant clean off. The two that had stayed back to protect the injured ant suddenly charged him as the other two turned around to attack him.
Perhaps getting himself surrounded by four ants to kill one hadn't been the best idea. He was lucky that the ants were so slow that he could get himself out of that little circle before they were able to take advantage of his mistake. Unfortunately his little move had caused all if the remaining ants to regroup and once more they were in a position where they could easily attack him if he struck at them. What he didn't notice is that the fifth injured ant was emitting a low, almost imperceptible noise as he prodded the defense of the four healthy ants. As he managed to kill one without being hit he heard Lili suddenly shout in fear.
"Master! More are arriving!" She screamed in a panic. Bell turned to the injured ant to see that it was no longer alone. Beyond the three ants in front of him was the injured ant with more than a dozen at its side. Bell couldn't help but wonder if this was how many would normally spawn or if Dungeon-chan just had it out for him. He didn't think he did anything that would upset her. He was just going about this like normal. He wanted to comment about it to her but the three original ants decided that they wanted him dead now. He was able to quickly kill two of the ants, but before he could finish the third more than a dozen ants. Worse yet he could see the injured ant in the back calling for more ants still. They were steadily streaming in.
Throwing caution to the wind he began wildly attacking the ants trying to carve a path to the injured ant, but his every move was blocked by no less than three ants. Their bites hurt a lot. Bell could feel his armor block attacks that would have otherwise left him dead, but that wouldn't matter if he couldn't get to that ant and kill it quickly.
"Let lightning strike my foe, true as blade!" He shouted as the boom of his spell crippled all of the ants around him and frying seven of them in an instant. Taking advantage of the momentum he quickly cut down any ants still standing and the final wounded ant without issue.
"That was mean Dungeon-chan." He sighed as Lili began to harvest all of the ants. "Do you do this to every adventurer or did we make you mad somehow?"
"You know that even if the dungeon really is aware it can't respond to us right?" Lili asked with a huff.
"I figured it was worth a try. We need to figure out how she works anyways." He responded simply. Lili just hummed and continued cutting into the ants with practiced ease.
Bell thought about the encounter. If that was the normal encounter for ants he would need to use his spell straight away if Dungeon-chan decided to amp it up, but he believed it wouldn't be to difficult to fight them otherwise. His mistake was not finishing off the one ant. A mistake he wouldn't be making twice. The problem would be if Dungeon-chan spawned poison moths and ants at the same time. The poison moths would deny critical space needed for an encounter with the ants. He hoped the poison also affected the other monsters. He still needed to encounter the needle rabbits to get a true understanding of the floor, but he wasn't particularly worried. According to Eina the needle rabbits were extremely weak and were only really a threat due to their numbers, again, something that would only be a problem when spawning with other monsters.
"Lili do you think we'll be able to stop her?" He asked waving his arm towards the dungeon.
"That's impossible master. Even back when the Zeus and Hera familias were around, no-one has conquered the dungeon." She responded.
Bell has always wanted to be a hero, ever since he could walk. His grandpa would tell him stories great heroes who would charge into danger to rescue a helpless maiden, how they would fight no matter how daunting the odds. When he first arrived at Orario he couldn't help but lose hope in his dreams of being a hero. There was no real danger outside of the dungeon, and until the day Matthew-san returned with Lili he worried there would be no damsel to save inside of it. Now he had a real danger to face. He wouldn't back down.
"Well then we just need to be stronger." He said with a grin.
"Master is an insane idiot." Lili responded immediately. Bell frowned at her pessimism, but didn't respond otherwise.
As time passed Bell became better at dealing with the ants until they were no real threat to him at all. He couldn't really do anything about the purple moths, Lili just shot them from a range and Matthew-san could deal with them after he was done studying today. Bell and Lili spent the better part of the night fighting against the monsters of the seventh floor.
"Excuse me." A woman's voice said from behind Bell as he was was slicing up a group of seventeen needle rabbits. The suddenness caused him to fumble allowing thee of the rabbits to hit him. He was lucky Crozzo's armor was well worth the price. He was going to finish off the rabbits before answering the girl, but before he could even blink the wind around him blew violently and all of the rabbits were split perfectly in half. Before him stood the most beautiful woman he's ever seen. Actually she kind of looked that girl from the Loki familia.
"You're that boy from the minotaur incident." She said. 'She was the girl from the Loki familia!' Bell mentally screamed. What did she want!? "I wanted to apologize for that incident. We we're the ones that drove the monsters down."
"Oh, I forgive you, thank you for the consideration." He responded quickly. The girl just stood their staring at him. "Did you want anything else?"
"How have you grown so fast?" She asked. Bell was stunned, he didn't know how to respond. He didn't even really understand what she meant either. "When I last saw you, you shouldn't have even been on the fifth floor... Now you fight on the seven with practiced ease. That would take other adventurers months."
Bell thought about the question. He hadn't really been doing anything different than what he had been. However he has been trying harder ever since he learned the true nature of the dungeon. "Well there's a goal I have to achieve. I need to be stronger."
The girl didn't verbally respond, but simply nodded. "My name is Aiz Wallenstein, executive of the Loki familia."
"Bell Cranel, captain of the Hestia familia." He responded simply.
Aiz left without stopping, leaving Bell's heart to fluster. He knew at that moment he wanted Aiz to be his.
"I think that's the longest Aiz has ever spoken to anyone master Bell." Lili said suddenly, spooking him.
"Really? How would you know?" He asked incredulously.
"The useless drug addicts may not seem like it, but the Soma familia excels at information gathering... mostly on things to steal though." Lili admitted with a red tinge on her cheeks.
"Well, we've been here a while. Lets head out." He said and Lili simply nodded.
As they were about to exit the seventh floor Bell had a mischievous idea. "Say Lili, I have a date for Monsterphilia tomorrow, what about you?"
Her face lit up a brilliant red as she quickly scoffed and began walking ahead of him. She didn't talk to him for the rest of their way out of the dungeon. Bell thought it was worth it though. Partially because he wanted to see how she would react, but also because he wanted to put the idea in her head. Bell was quite confident in Matthew-san as an adventurer, but he hasn't so much as looked at Lili yet. As the two left the dungeon and found their way to the guild Bell was greeted by Eina.
"Good to see you Bell, Matthew gone again as usual?" Eina deadpanned. "If I didn't know any better I would think he was dead."
"Sorry about that Eina, He stayed home to study his magic today." Bell responded as Lili put their magic stones and drop items on the counter.
"Well as long as you aren't going too far into the dungeon without him. Speaking of," She said as her eyes narrowed and she was engulfed by an intense aura, "Why do you have killer ant drop items?"
"Eina it's fine." He said putting his hands up in surrender. "I even talked to Aiz Wallenstein, she said I handled the seventh floor like a veteran."
"Don't lie to me Bell."
"No Lady Eina, Master Bell is telling the truth." Lili interjected.
Eina glared at the small girl for a moment before sighing deeply. "How?"
"Well Matthew-san's magic is really helpful." Bell said. He didn't think he would have fared well if he didn't have his magic to fall back on if the worst were to happen.
"But he stayed home today?" Eina asked.
"Oh no, he taught me magic the other day." Bell quickly explained. This revelation seemed to shock Eina as her ears wiggled slightly and her eyes opened wide.
"Bell you can't tell anyone else that ever!" She whisper-shouted. "Teaching magic is an astronomically rare ability. You can't let anyone else know this."
He had no idea that it was such a big deal. He knew magic wasn't common for races other than elves, but Matthew-san never acted like it was a big deal. Matthew-san acted like anyone could learn magic.
"Sorry Eina, I'll kept it to myself from now on." He said with a sheepish smile.
"Anyways, here's your earnings for today. Forty-thousand six-hundred vals." Eina said with a soft smile. "Stay safe Bell."
He thanked her taking the vals. Nothing out of the usual happened on their way back home and they were greeted by an odd sight once they entered the church.
"That won't work Pride"
"Squaaaa!"
"Even if they hate each other I don't think he'll turn his back on his familia."
"Caaaww!"
"Don't forget that we need to handle this in a way that won't make every other familia in Orario hate us."
"Squall!"
"Pride you're not being helpful."
"Are we interrupting something master?" Lili asked impatiently. Matthew for his part looked over with a smile.
"I was just discussing some of the things Pride found out. I sent him to spy on the Soma familia. Did you know that Chandra actually hates Zanis' guts out and three of the members of the soma familia are looking to leave but can't because of Zanis?" He explained casually.
"So why can't we use them to our advantage?" Bell couldn't help but ask.
"Well the problem is twofold. One, they're still addicted to Soma and won't leave if they think they won't be able to get more. Two, Zanis is well aware that they want to leave. No doubt he's got something planned for them." Matthew explained. Bell frowned at that. He didn't think his first big adventure in the big city would be fighting another familia. even more so that it was such a delicate situation. He would have preferred to rush in there, fight Zanis and save the day like a real hero.
"So what about your studies? How was it?" Bell asked hoping to change the subject to something less disheartening. The wide smile on Matthew-san's face did indicate it went well.
"Guess who learned tier three spells today?" He said with a stupid grin.
"Congratulations master."
"Is it something strong?"
The question actually caused Matthew-san to frown. "It's not bad per say, but it will be absolutely useless in the dungeon until we run into another boss monster."
"If it's not that strong then why is it tier three? How do the tiers work anyways?" Bell asked.
"Well it's not that the spell is bad. It is strong, just not well suited for the dungeon. And to answer your second question the tiers of magic represent how powerful a spell is. Like the spell you already know. Ice Spike, is decently strong for a first level spell, but it does not even compare to a tier nine spell like Meteor Swarm." He explained.
"And how many tiers are there" Lili asked.
"Ten technically, but only nine practically." He responded, and before Bell could even ask what he meant Matthew continued. "Ninth tier magic is the height a mortal can reach. The difference between ninth and tenth is the difference between mortals and gods."
Bell was astonished by his answer. He knew magic was strong, but he didn't know you could reach such heights with it. To have the strongest magic be the defining feature of whether or not someone was a god or not. It made him want to learn more. He also wanted to ask Hestia about her magic.
"But enough about me, how was your day Bell, Lili?"
"Nothing so exciting master." Lili said with a slight blush. Bell then got an idea.
"You know Matthew-san, there's a celebration tomorrow, Monsterphillia. Syr asked me out on a date so I won't be able to dungeon dive with you." He said tapping Lili's back as her face turned bright red. Matthew-san had a contemplative look about him. after a few moment he sighed deeply.
"I can continue my studies tomorrow I suppose." He said tiredly causing Bell to groan and Lili to sigh in relief.
"Why don't you take Lili out tomorrow, I'm sure she could use some time to cut back and relax after all that's happened." He said luring Matthew into asking.
Matthew hummed for a minute before asking "Would you like to go out tomorrow Lili?"
Lili couldn't even form a proper response and was just stuttering prompting Bell to answer for her. "She would love to."