Close. Too close. When Bell had crawled out of the dungeon, he was zealously protecting the measly five percent health he had remaining and all he had to show for it was a hand full of magic stones and five goblin fangs.

He looked as bad as he felt. And he only had one potion on top of that! After chugging down the potion, he felt much better with a healthy sixty percent health. The potion didn't change the fact that he looked like he was on the losing end of an arena match.

Sneaking into the guild, Bell made an immediate break for the showers. After washing as well as he could, he put his clothes back on and made his way to Eina. Though the blood was gone, Eina still met him with a dissatisfied frown. "Bell, why are your clothes so torn up? I went with you to buy armor for a reason."

Bell looked around for a minute to ensure no one was close enough to eavesdrop before leaning over to first girl. "Eina, are the things I tell you confidential?"

"Technically, I'm supposed to report your status and your skills, like the heads-up display you told me about, but if it's really important, I suppose the guild doesn't have to know." She said with the most chelating smile he had ever seen. First girl Eina definitely secured a spot in his harem with that super-effective move!

"I could kiss you! Thank you so much!" He said excitedly before composing himself and leaning in for a whisper once more, "I also have a skill that artificially increases the strength of monsters I'm fighting."

When he stood straight once more, he saw Eina stare at him blankly. For several moments he stood waiting for a response before Eina seemed to snap out of her spell.

"You what?" She asked, still slightly fazed.

"My skill makes it so I can increase how difficult monsters are to fight, and in return, I get a much greater boost to my stat gain." He explained quietly.

"Ah, and is that why you've only brought twenty-six magic stones to me tonight?" She asked, completely unamused before morphing her face into a frown, "I want to see your status update tomorrow to prove what your saying is true. You better not have gone to a lower level than you were ready for."

"Of course Eina, I'll bring that to you tomorrow." He said slightly embarrassed.

"Well, you've managed to earn yourself 5,100 valis today." She said, taking his bag of monster crystals and drops before handing him a bag of valis, "Rest easy tonight Bell."

"Of course Eina, you have a good night as well." Bell told her earnestly before leaving the guild. On the way home, he thought about buying two more potions from Dian Cecht's place, but they seemed to be closed for now, so that was something he would have to do tomorrow. That also led him to question if he was going to buy health or stamina potions. Of course, if he played on Brutal he would definitely need the health, but earning valis in the early game seemed more immediately appealing to him. Ultimately, though, he would wait to see just how much his increased stat gain was worth first.

"Hestia, I'm home!" He said to a pouting goddess when he finally returned home.

"You left without saying goodbye, you come home with your clothes in tatters, and what? Do you want me to just pretend like nothing has happened?!" She shouted at Bell.

"Ah, sorry goddess, I didn't want to wake you this morning. As for my clothes, I did try to fight on a higher difficulty. I'm sorry for not letting you know my plans beforehand." He said, bowing deeply. It was of the utmost importance that he maintained a good relationship with his goddess.

"Mmh, well I suppose that's fine, but from now on I don't want you leaving without saying goodbye or doing dangerous things without telling me!" She said, pointing an accusatorial finger towards him.

"Yes goddess, I will." He said with a sly smile, "Speaking of which I received a job offer by one of the shopkeepers in Hephaestus' shops. He was impressed that I could tell how good a set of armor was on sight, and I think he wants me to evaluate his wares."

"Hephaestus?" She asked.

"I don't think Hephaestus would be directly involved, no. It was just one of her merchants." He explained with a nervous chuckle.

"If you accept the job, I want to come with you."

"Huh?"

"It's a good excuse to go see Hephaestus without her thinking I've come to mooch. Plus, we could make it a date!" She said with a brilliant smile as she latched onto his arm for a hug. Bell remembered how she had asked if she could be the one he would date instead of Eina, but he didn't think she would so easily join his harem based on her reaction yesterday.

"Well, I was planning to speak with him again tomorrow if that works for you." He said.

"Great, I'll ask for Susie to cover my shift!" She said, raising a fist into the air out of excitement, causing her rather large chest to jiggle in a way that made Bell feel something he was completely unfamiliar with. Some sort of debuff? His HUD didn't show any active debuffs though. A hidden debuff?! Women were more dangerous than he thought.

"Now that we've discussed what to do tomorrow, could I get my status update, please goddess?" He asked bashfully.

"Oh yes, of course! Strip down. And just your shirt this time!" She demanded, and Bell obeyed. Once more, he found himself on the couch with his goddess straddled over him. A few minutes later and he received his status update.

Bell Cranel Lv 1

Strength I 8 - I 24

Defense I 4 - I 31

Dexterity I 5 - I 17

Agility I 8 - I 22

Magic I 0 - I 0

Spells

Skills

Heads Up Display - awareness of surroundings, status, and quests

Save State - The user has one alloted save state and the ability to place a new save or load the old one. Loading old saves grants a 50% penalty to exp gain for 24 hours (effect does not stack)

Difficulty - Easy (75% exp gain), Normal (100% exp gain), Hard (125% exp gain), Brutal (150% exp gain, 5% luck), Hell (200% exp gain, 10% luck)

Chosen One - 5% luck, 5% exp gain

"That's so much better!" He cried in excitement upon receiving his status update. It was stupidly hard to fight just a fraction of the goblins, but the exp gain was beyond worth it. It had almost made him want to try the Hell difficulty tomorrow. Though if he wanted to try Hell and not die, he would need better weapons and armor, and for that, he would need valis. Depending on how much that merchant was offering, it would probably be better to play on Easy just for the valis for a few days so he could properly gear up for Hell.

"Bell, I know this status update is... large, but don't get ahead of yourself. Even if you can load saves, I don't want to see you die when I update your status. Alright?" Hestia said, masking her worry with authority.

"Of course goddess. After our date tomorrow, I plan on fighting on Easy just to get more valis. I want some better gear so I can fight on the higher difficulties more efficiently." He explained to his goddess' satisfaction.

"Great, now let's get to bed!" She said happily, grabbing Bell by the hand and physically dragging him to bed. Once the two were lying down, Hestia pulled her only child close to her, smothering him in her breasts. Not that Bell cared. He was already out cold, the fight earlier taking more out of him than he thought. Hestia, however, had trouble sleeping as she was too busy thinking about their date the next day.

The next morning, Bell woke up with his goddess holding him in a crushing grip. Rather than try and wiggle his way out, he gently shook his goddess awake. It took several minutes before Hesta would properly wake up, and once she finally had, it looked like she hadn't slept in three years.

"Goddess, are you okay? Do you still want to go out today?" He asked the barely awake

"Ten more minutes." She groaned, eyes closing once more.

"Okay, then I'm going to go to the dungeon for a bit so you can get some more rest. I'll be back in a few hours." He said to Hestia as she began to doze off again. Hestia offered no protest, so Bell went on his way.

On his way to Babel, something unexpected happened. Bell felt a tap on his shoulder from behind. When he turned around, he was greeted by a cute girl around his age with short light grey hair brought into a ponytail and matching grey eyes. Oddly, she was holding out three magic stones to him with a large smile on her face.

"Excuse me, mister adventurer. I believe you've dropped these." She said with a warmth Bell hadn't expected. There was one issue though. She said he dropped those magic stones when he knew with certainty that he had exchanged all of his the other day. Was this some sort of bandit who was offering him false promises only to rob him later, setting up a revenge quest line? He didn't want to bother with such a quest line at the moment, so he looked over his dialog options in search of the one most likely to decline the quest.

"You can keep them, I'm running late today." He said, turning around and quickly making his way to the dungeon. That option was the least offensive way of turning the girl down, so she likely wouldn't hold any sort of grudge. If she did, then the quest was probably mandatory anyway. Only time would tell.

Ignoring that odd encounter, Bell found his way to the dungeon. Quickly setting the difficulty to Easy, he went down. Not even a minute passed since he entered, and the dungeon began to form several goblins ahead of him. Bell's mouth shaped into a grin as the five goblins popped out of the wall. Running forth, he stuck his dagger into the head of a goblin, killing it instantly. Two of the others took that opportunity to strike at him while his guard was open. Woe to the goblins, on Easy, with an AR of forty-five, and his recent status update, they did so little damage that he could barely see his health bar move.

It may have been a power trip to mercilessly butcher the goblins and kobolds of the first two floors, but with how badly he got beat up by just a handful of monsters yesterday, he didn't really care that he was power tripping. It was always fun to stomp on some trash mobs every once in a while. Feeling reasonably confident fighting on Easy, Bell made his way down to the third floor after killing forty or so monsters on the first two floors. Really, so long as he was on Easy, there was a good chance he could fair the fifth floor and progress his quest line, but there was no need to rush. Better to get upgraded gear before advancing the story. Bell knew from experience how some games loved to throw early bosses at you when you think you're safe.

On the third floor, Bell did actually fight more cautiously in spite of his confidence. The third floor was when the dungeon lizards would begin to spawn, according to Eina. The lizard apparently had a habit of crawling along the dungeon walls above adventurer's sights and attack them from above. Monsters may not do much damage to him on Easy, but Bell was not eager to taste the damage multiplier of a sneak attack. Though that did make him consider his future. What kind of build would he run?

As far as builds went, sneak assassins were incredibly fun. Fun as they were, it wasn't very practical for fighting in the dungeon. Unless he gathered some followers to agro monsters, he would only be able to pull off a single sneak attack before having to fight all of the other monsters. There was the mage class as well. He would love play as a mage, but again he would need to find powerful followers to help negate the mage's natural weakness in close combat. There was also the fact that he would need to manage a mana bar and the rarity of grimoires. Some sort of melee build would be the only real choice. Now the only question was pure DPS, a tank build or a mix of the two?2

"I can decide later. Maybe if I get a grimoire as a quest reward I could even play as a spellsword." He muttered to himself as he dogged a dungeon lizard as it fell from above. Despite playing on Easy, the dungeon lizards did take three to four hits before they died. Bell could farm some easy valis for now, but he was definitely going to upgrade his weapon before going further. Sixty-five magic stones and one kobold nail and Bell decided now was a good time to make his way back. He still needed to go on a date with Hestia and speak with that Hephaestus merchant after all. After making his way out of the dungeon he immediately made his way for the guild to turn in his stones. Inside awaited first girl for whom he waited in line to meet.

"Nice to see you doing well today, Bell. Better than you being cut up and bloody." She said with a smile as he finally got to her.

"Yeah, I decided to take it easy today. I wanted to talk to that guy in the Hephaestus shop, anyway." He explained while handing her his stones and kobold nail.

"I hope it goes well for you. This is a great opportunity." She said, taking the bag of loot and walking into the employee only section. After a few moments, she returned and handed him his empty bag as well as a pouch full of valis. "You've earned 7,750 valis today."

"Thank you Eina. I'll see you again later." He said, taking his valis and leaving the guild. It didn't take him long to get home and once he did he saw that Hestia was still asleep. While he hadn't been gone all that long, it was amusing how lazy Hestia was being. Not that Bell would complain. Hestia was very cute while she slept.

"Hestia, wake up. It's time for us to go." He said, lightly shaking his goddess. He watched as she slowly opened her eyes and yawned.

"Is it time to get up already?" She asked softly, trying to fall back asleep.

"It is the afternoon now goddess." He chuckled.

"It's what!" She said in a panic, bouncing straight up.

"You wouldn't wake up this morning, so I went into the dungeon for a few hours. It's the afternoon now." Bell explained to a now hyperventilating goddess.

"Oh no, I'm late for my shift, and I haven't asked anyone to cover for me yet!" She said in a panic, quickly throwing on some different clothes and running for the door, "I'm sorry Bell, but let's go on a date tomorrow instead."

Bell wanted to respond, but his goddess was already out the door. With a sigh, he decided to look over his quests instead. Earn 1,000,000 Valis (12,850 - 1,000,000). So that was about the valis he earned since he got the quest, not the total valis he owned? Obtain a Harem (0/5). Eina didn't count as one yet? No, that made sense. He only did one side quest with her so far. Speaking of which, Go on a Date with Eina! (1/1) complete, 15 skill points awarded. After turning in the quest he saw a prompt to assign his skill points. Seeing as he still wasn't entirely sure what sort of build he wanted to work towards just yet, he elected to split the points evenly throughout his five skills for a total of three each.