CHAPTER 2: GREET and GIFT part 2

Bell was speechless at the sight, he was seeing a beautiful golden-haired girl that just saved him from the Minotaur. If it wasn't for the blood that covered him, he would easily think this scene had come from the hero books he had read when he was young. Her beautiful golden eyes shone as she stared at him, making him skip a beat, he quickly tried to recompose himself while quietly doing a breathing technique that his master taught him to fix his nervousness.

"I-I t-thank you for saving me." He said while trying to stand up from the floor.

The blond nodded. "It's no problem, I hope we didn't cause you too much trouble."

"It's alright, I was glad that you made it here in time, who knows what would have happened if that Minotaur had harmed others." He said with a friendly and cheerful tone.

The blonde only tilted her head confused by the Boy's cheerful attitude, why was he cheerful? He was attacked and almost killed by the Minotaur. Before the blonde could question the Boy, the white-haired teen looked at his clothes and let out a loud sigh.

"It will be hard to get rid of the blood from my coat, and new equipment that would replace my broken one, haa~" he said quietly while sighing, due to her high-level status she could hear what the Boy was saying, guilt run through her head as she felt it was her fault, why the boy was having troubles.

"I'm sorry." She said, making the Boy looked at her. What shocked her was the Boy only shook his head and then took off the mask that covered his mouth, showing a wide smile at her.

"No, it's not your fault miss…you saved me from the monster, and that's why I'm thankful." He said while denying the apology to the Girl. "Besides it's my fault for fighting the Minotaur rather than focusing on running away."

The girl was deep in thought about what the Boy said but was snapped out of it when the Boy asked a question.

"Where could I take a shower to get rid of the blood? Walking outside while covered in blood would cause a problem, haha."He said while making a joke.

The girl not getting the joke opened her mouth. "When you get up to the surface there is a shower area in Babel just ask the staff who are working there."

Bell nodded then ran toward the direction where the way to the surface was, waving his hand goodbye. "Thank you."

Throughout the conversation, Bell is composed and friendly while talking to the blonde, however, on the inside Bell is panicking and stammering.

'I-I-I t-t-talked to a b-beautiful g-girl, eeeehhh!' screamed in his mind while having a red blush, luckily he was still covered in blood, if not he would have been red as a tomato for the whole conversation.

Unknown to him, a gray-haired wolf laughed at him because he ran while covered in blood.

Bell was now walking through the busy street of Orario, now wearing a black long-sleeve shirt while holding a bag where his bloodied coat was. He had managed to get rid of some part of the blood but there were still stains remaining, he would clean it again when he went back home.

Before he could get home, he stopped at a giant building and entered it, he had to cash in his earnings first. When he entered, he saw lots of staff and other people who wore armor talking to each other. Making his way to the receptionist's table, he was greeted by a female browned-haired Half-elf who was fixing some papers.

"Oh, Bell good to see you. You're early today." Said the Half-elf.

"Hi, Miss Eina, well something happened today to me in the dungeon, so I have to return from back due to my equipment," Bell said to the Half-elf named Eina. He would mentally regret telling her what happened.

Later, after Bell explained half of the story about what happened in the dungeon, a loud yell erupted throughout the building.

"YOU WENT TO THE 5TH FLOOR AND WAS ATTACKED BY A MINOTAUR!" screamed Eina, making all who were in the building look at her with confusion. Eina quickly bowed and apologized while blushing from embarrassment.

The two decided to talk privately in a private room where adventurers could talk to their adviser about the dungeon. He then finishes the whole story making Eina have a headache.

"Seriously, you're lucky that the sword princess managed to save you on time," Eina said while sitting opposite where Bell was sitting.

"Sword princess?" Asked Bell tilting his head. Eina only let out a sigh and massaged her forehead.

"You know. Ais Wallenstein. Of the Loki Familia, the one that you mentioned saved you."

"Oh, so that's what her name was….." he said while widening his eyes.

"Seriously Bell, what were you thinking going on the 5th Floor anyway?"

Bell could only bow apologetically, he couldn't say to Eina that he was curious about the 5th floor and decided to go there just because he was bored.

"I'm sorry, it won't happen again I swear." He said still bowing.

Eina let out another sigh but smiled after. "It's fine Bell, but you be more careful next time. It doesn't matter if you were trained by someone to fight, one small mistake could still end you." She said while her smile became a sad smile remembering her past clients who died in the dungeon. "What would the one that trained you would say if he heard what happened to you?"

"Well…" He scratched his chin while imagining his teacher. "He would roll around the ground while laughing at me for my mistakes and would congratulate me after."

Eina let out a small chuckle making Bell only blush and cover his face with his hands.

After finishing their talk, they decided to get out of the room to exchange the monster drop. Bell was about to leave when the exchange was done, but Eina suddenly remembered something.

"Oh Bell, I remembered something. There was a package that was addressed to you, we sent a staff to give it to Goddess Hestia, so just ask her about it alright."

Bell nodded then waved goodbye to Eina. "Thank you Eina, Love you," He said before running away with a smile, leaving the blushing Half-elf behind.

It was only seconds later after leaving the guild, he realized what he said then blushed.

It was sundown as Bell walked the street. His talk with Eina was longer than expected but Bell wasn't too bothered about it, he liked Eina's company and had helped him by giving him advice on the dungeon. He then stopped at the road before turning to an alleyway.

Bell went his way through the alleyway until he managed to enter an opening, he saw an old church, scattered around it were rocks and debris but the most noticeable object was a log sticking from the ground with sliced marks plastered all around it. As he got closer to the church and entered it, he was greeted by rundown chairs and a broken altar. Pulling a switch, the alter suddenly shifts, revealing an underground room.

Others would be perplexed and scared seeing a hidden room under an abandoned building, but Bell, just smiled and went in. When he was inside the room, he saw a slightly cleaned area with a large but old-looking bed in the corner and an old sofa on the side. He was cut off from what he was seeing when something darted and hugged him. It was a short girl with long black hair tied in a ponytail wearing a white dress and a blue ribbon.

"Bell good to see you, how was your trip from the dungeon?" Asked the young-looking girl.

Bell returns the hug before opening his mouth with a smile. "It was fine Goddess, but I did end up confronting a Minotaur, Hehe." He said while scratching his chin with an awkward smile, making the girl named Hestia break off the hug and look all over his body to see some injury. When she didn't see any wounds, she sighed in relief and then scolded him for being reckless.

After he was scolded, he decided to check his status for the day. He was now lying on his back while Hestia was checking his status to update his stats.

"I still couldn't believe that you already have a skill. When I asked Hephaestus, she said it would take long to manifest one, you pretty lucky ha, Bell." She said, finished updating and putting it into an old paper.

When Bell looked at the paper, he could not stop but sigh a little.

Name: Bell Cranel

Familia: Hestia

Level: 1

Strength: I-25 to 27

Endurance: I-39 to 41

Dexterity: I-25 to 27

Agility: I-70 to 75

Magic: I-0

Skill:

(Ritmiko): Enhance all senses of the user, and allow to predict the movements of opponents. Prediction slows depending on how strong is the opponent.

Magic:

Empty

If it weren't for his skill: (Ritmiko), Bell would have died from the Minotaur. Although it was slow due to the level of the monster he could still make out the movements but only a little.

"I did get 5 points on my agility and 2 points on the rest of my stat," he said, noticing a slow increase in his stats.

"Well, yeah your agility would gradually rise up if you run all the time, and don't worry about the rest, Hephaestus said it would get hard earning points the more you raise your stats," Hestia said while putting on her gloves back. "Oh, I forgot, there is a package for you. One of the staff from the guild gave it to me earlier." She changes the subject attempting to lighten Bell's mood with the package that was delivered to her.

After scrounging around the room, Hestia returned with a large box with a sun design. When he opened it, he saw a two-wrapped dagger-shaped cloth, a smaller box that was the size of his palm, and a letter from his master.

Dear: Bell Cranel

It's me, your favorite and dashing master. If you are reading this then you managed to get my farewell gift, I had completely forgotten about it when we separated, what kind of master would I be if I forgot to give my student a gift? HAHAHAHA, well anyways the gift….well it is just two hunting daggers that I requested to make from one of my Familia members when I got reunited with them. It is such a shame, my God would have loved you to join our Familia, but I know your heart would decline it, you dream of going to Orario and becoming a hero. Don't forget that dream and good luck. Little Hero.

Sincerely: Your Master

Bell smiled while reading the letter and looked at the wrapped daggers that were said to be a gift for him. When he was about to finish reading he saw another note from his master.

P.S: If you are wondering about the small box…well let's just say is something to remember me by and no matter if you are from another Familia, we would always give you a hand, and that gift would symbolize that.

Curious what the contents of the box, he opened the small box and saw a shield-shaped badge with two swords on each side, one sword was blue and the other was an upside-down red-colored sword, in the middle was a yellow sun, and underneath the sun was three stars.

He smiled as he looked at the badge.

"Oh, that's one nice badge Bell." Said Hestia noticing his smile.

"Yeah, it said that this symbolizes that I'm a part of them and would help me if I ever get in trouble." He replied still smiling at the badge.

"I meant to ask this, what was your master like? I know he trained you, but I want to hear your stories while you were with him." Questioned Hestia, interested in what kind of person Bell's master was.

Bell only chuckled, remembering his time with his master, some were bad, but still memorable to this day. When he recalled everything, he then looked at Hestia and opened his mouth.

"Well, there was one time me and master went…." His stories filled up the night as he recalled every event that happened earning Hestia to smile and laugh.