Is It Wrong To Become A Psycho In A Dungeon

Chapter 4

Psycho Smiths in the Middle Floors

"Let me guess, something really, really good happened to you," was the first thing Eina asked him once he got to the guild to update his status from level 1 to level 2, "that maniacal grin that you now have is a dead giveaway, well," apparently she really wanted to know why he was so happy.

"Okay, now get this," Bell wasn't even the least bit embarrassed or shy when he told her the truth, "my most recent status update was the best one I've ever had, I don't have a new skill or anything, but I can say with full confidence that I'm now a full level 2 adventurer," he informed.

"WHAT," she practically screamed once she heard that information, "you mean you hit level 2 in just a little over a month," the information was clearly something nobody expected, and his grin wasn't giving her a lying vibe, but the exclamation did what he wanted, it spread to others.

So that led Bell to grin like a sinister idiot as he walked back to the church, the word had quickly spread and there was no way his name wasn't out there now, all that was left was for him to get his name and one or two others in his party, and they can begin making their way deeper down. Him and Lili had been talking about adding more members and hopefully going deeper, now that he's level two he should be able to take a team down with him, at least to the middle floors, they should be able to tackle at least to floor 15 if they had just one more fighter in their party. Him and Lili were able to fight for a bit a few days after his level up to see where he is with his power level, it's safe to say that no monster on floor 1 through floor 12 can take him on in a fight, nor can they try and jump him either, seeing as how he is able to handle multiple foes at once.

So he has his plan, his power, and now all that is left to figure out is his second name, the alias used by all adventurers when they reach level 2 and higher, with regular updates to those names at every other level up or so, and there was one group who decided on what those names are. The gods, held at each time with a meeting called the Denatus, would choose second names to call adventurers, many notable ones are Sword Princess, Braver, King, Thousand Elf, Nine Hells, Vana Freya, and so many more that were in use, but that didn't mean his would be a good name. Which is why he decided to pen a letter to the rest of the Denatus and gods as a whole to make sure he got the name he wanted, Psycho Silver, which was a fitting name for him if he did say so himself, to others, what was about to be given to the gods would indeed be Psychotic of him. Which is again why he was gonna make it, he already had some off what he wanted to say in his head, and it wouldn't be long before said meeting, so it wouldn't really be a surprise that when it happens, news of it would spread, and if he wasn't targeted afterwards, he just didn't do it right.

Wouldn't you know it, as soon as he got to the church, it seemed today was that day, "Bell, I was just about to leave for the Denatus," Hestia informed him with a hesitant smile, mainly because she heard what would happen to lower ranked Familias, and since she didn't have much pull….

"Wait one moment while I right the letter, I'm so excited," add on the fact that her Bell was clearly planning something that would likely earn him the alias he wanted, and you had a full course feast of both embarrassment and hopefully, for him, gods gunning for his head soon. Yet that didn't deter Bell as he began to write the letter, it wasn't gonna be a good letter either, "hehehe," and with the constant chuckling to himself, and the waves of malice coming off the paper, it was clear that this was going to be a Denatus to remember, he gave it to her to read.

Attention idiot gods of various kinds, I know you bunch of cock sucking egotistical excuses for air are going to try and give a bullshit name for your own entertainment, I'm gonna tell ya now that the only name that I'll go by is Psycho Silver, and to prove to you that I've earned that name. I've decided to write a letter telling all of you gods why you suck such huge dick and why you goddesses eat such rancid pussy, you dumb fucks think you are so much better than everyone else when you're nothing more than containers for power to give out to those you choose. The only few exceptions to this are Hestia, Freya, Hephaistos, Miach, Takemikazuchi, and Ganesha, the rest of you are pathetic, useless ingrates that are useless without your arcanum, your captains run your familia better than you lot and none of you have the power to stop them. At least the six I mentioned acknowledges this and works to better themselves or decided to work harder at what they are good at, but the rest of you are useless, so I have no reason to work with any of you fucks and if you give me a shit nickname, I'll kill anyone who calls me it. Special shout out to Loki and the sword princess, beat her record no sweat, and I'll even let you in on a secret, she's not special either, yes she has talent but she is also a no emotion showing doll that doesn't know any common sense, prove me wrong you flat chested god, not goddess.

Sincerely fuck you all, Bell 'Psycho Silver' Cranel.

Hestia stared at the letter in horror before looking up at Bell, "I can't read this out loud, especially at a place that has so many big gods there, are you out of your mind," she asked him as if she didn't already know the answer, and by his grin, he knew that she knew the answer as well.

"Don't have to, just give it to the speaker of the gods this time and they'll have no choice but to either acknowledge the Psychopathy of the name, or prove that their own entertainment is just as I described in the letter," Bell informed her as he guided her out, "hopefully I'll get hunted soon."

"You are absolutely insane, crazy, mad, Psycho," she insulted him as best she could, but he just kept that grin as if she was actually complimenting him, "you don't even care that they'll hate you now," the grin was just getting on her nerves now, "fine, but when you're hated, don't cry to me." She marched out with the note in hand, now in a bad mood with no care that she's about to let loose all the gods wrath on him, exactly like he wanted, if there wasn't a mob of angry gods coming for him, he didn't do a good enough job with the note, maybe next time insult some more.

It was a few hours later when he felt the twinge of a rush from his goddess as she rushed down the stairs, not from a rush of excitement, but out of pure terror at what seemed to be quite the rebuttal letter that they sent his way, she held it out to the side as if it itself was poison and evil. Bell opened and read the contents, and he was actually impressed with the amount of gods and goddesses out to get him now, not even caring about trying to get him into their familia, just straight up killing him, but the one thing that stuck out to him was the message from Loki. It was basically just a tirade of insults and remarks of why she thought Ais was the best, nothing of actual substance, but it was the last line that really was the only thing he needed, apparently she was the host this time, so she decided on his new alias, good news, Psycho Silver was in it. Bad news was that the full new alias they chose was, 'Psycho Silver, Enemy to the Gods', with absolutely no room for wiggle, anyone who says it will be told to say the full name, just to piss him off, the gauntlet was thrown down, and the gods responded in kind.

"Oh, this is gonna be so much fun," Bell commented as his mind was going over scenarios now, ways he could inconvenience the gods as much as possible, and making sure he could get away with it too, "hehehe…hahahahaha…HAHAHAHAHAHA," this would begin the true bout.

Later

"'Psycho Silver, Enemy to the Gods'," Lili said the full name of his new alias as soon as she was told, "is that really what they call you," and she was looking at him like he was crazy again at his grin, "honestly… I'm pretty sure that it isn't a bad name, except for the last part, they're mad."

"I Know right, it's hilarious," Bell couldn't help but to laugh at such a ridiculous name, the first part was what he wanted, but the second was just too much, "and they're insisting that everyone say the full bit every time they say it, that'll be a mouthful 'Psycho Silver, Enemy to the Gods'."

"Might be a mouthful, but it's still a cool name," the voice of his lovely little waitress, Syr, came to them, that was right, they were in the Hostess of Fertility, celebrating both his new name and his level up, "congratulations on ranking up sweetie," she leaned in and kissed his cheek. She laid the tray of drinks onto the table, while Ryu put down the tray of food that she had brought with her, it was enough food and drinks for four people, so they were clearly going to be joining them for a long break, with a glance to the kitchen, Mama Mia was grinning at him.

"Thanks dear, extra long lunch tonight," he asked when she sat down next to him and snuggled up into his side, while he wrapped an arm around her, she barely had to nod as Ryu sat across from them next to Lili, who was gawking at the two of them like they were the scariest thing.

"Y-y-y-you," the little Prum could barely get the words out as she looked at them with horror, "you're cheating on Hestia with a waitress," she finally got the words out, but they weren't the words that anyone was expecting, though there was also a bit of hurt there as well, but not much.

"First of all, me and Hestia aren't dating at all, she's my goddess, not my lover," Bell held up his right index finger as he said that, then raised his middle up beside it, "second of all, wipe that look off your face, I know that you were developing feelings for me, but sadly I'm taken."

Lili just looked on in shock at the revelation, and the fact that she had been called out, but at the same time, could she really be blamed for almost falling in love with him, he's great looking, kind, and for some reason has the mind and skills to survive quite far into the dungeon by himself. Though the fact he was dating a waitress of all things was a bit odd, if she was a fellow adventurer then Lili would understand, but it being a normal civilian was just an odd add-on to his personality, though she did feel like asking, "are you going to tell Hestia, and does she know?"

"Sadly I haven't found the right time to tell her yet, not for lack of trying mind you, but as of this moment she doesn't know and even though she's updated my status since Syr and I got together, she hasn't mentioned it, so I'm going to act just as her first follower, that's all I can do," he said.

Since the atmosphere was getting too heavy, Syr decided to speak up, "awe, are you not going to tell your goddess about me, and I thought I was special," her voice made it clear she was just teasing, and her light banter was a welcomed reprieve from the now growing mood.

"You know I will tell her eventually," Bell assured her with a pat on her head, making sure his skill didn't activate, though she seemed okay with it if it did, "and you are special… special in the head if you think you aren't special to me," he kissed the top of her head as she hugged closer to him.

As they ate and drank, they heard all kinds of people talking about Bell, how he ranked up so quickly, and all were either impressed or suspicious of such an advancement, "well, them talking about you happens when adventurers get famous, take it as a compliment," Lili commented.

As they continued, conversation steered when Ryu stated, "I have a question," the three turned to listen to her, "did I hear that you and miss Arde are planning to go down to the middle floors of the dungeon sometime soon," she asked what was on her mind, and that was indeed true.

"You are correct, but not until we have more people and are ready for the dive, our party is a bit too small to tackle that right now, most we'd get right now is floor 14, but I want to go even deeper, so we're gonna wait until we can find some more people to join our party," Bell reasoned.

They then heard a hearty laugh, as if just the right person was listening in to try and stir up some trouble, "havin' trouble makin' some friends, are ya, new fella," the way he said that last bit just brought a spike in the Psycho's anger, one that he knew was caused by who this guy was. "If you wanna join up with our party, we got plenty of space for you on the team, we're a buncha level 2's, we like to hit the middle floors… though there is one condition," he knew he'd catch a charge tonight, "you're gonna have to bring these hot little barmaid babies along with ya."

The man didn't get the chance to say anything else, cause as soon as he stopped speaking in a pause, Bell blinked and was behind the man wrapping his hands around his neck from the back, transformed into his silver armor in an instant and looked plenty like death itself with his aura. "You have two choices, you get on your knees and apologize to these ladies, especially the silver haired one, or a fry your brain with so much lightning that you'll be a vegetable for the rest of your life," though he was planning on frying him with lightning anyway no matter what.

"Hey now," the man tried to act tough, but he was shaking, "partners are s'posed to share their goods, y'know what I mean," clearly trying to downplay his remark, and relegate the waitresses as playthings, sadly that also sealed his fate, as the next moment anyone knew, there was light. That light came from lightning being forced into the man's body and very lethal levels with his mouth and eyes becoming white with power, his jaw stretching and unhinged in a silent scream that soon became just how his mouth was now as the light faded and the man slumped down.

"Take a nap for eternity, waste of space," Bell just walked past the body and sat back down as the guy's friends came up and carried the body, that was unresponsive and drooling, away and back to whatever whole they came crawling out of, "serves them right for trying to darken our mood." So the night went on further without much else of an incident now, just going along normally as if not interrupted by some random guy, and so they all talked until it was time for Lili to go home and Ryu and Syr to go back to work, Bell went home too, making sure to have a full night's rest.

Next Day

It was the next day and he and Lili were off from the dungeon for the morning since she had her own business to attend to, and he decided to head for Babel tower to visit that blacksmith shop he found his first set of armor in, he decided to give the armorer a good review. The armor that was made was quite good and kept up with him all the way down until his fight with the Minotaur, that's not to say that the armor would have lasted much longer either since it might have gotten destroyed when he got his new armor anyway, but it was good nonetheless. When he got there, there was already a guy at the counter, he had red hair and black clothing with a red belt tie around his waist, Bell listened in, "hey man, why is my stuff always in the back, I put my life on the line to make it and you can't even gimme some decent shelf space."

The desk worker was as disinterested with the complaint as he could be, wanting any other thing to focus on than the guy complaining at the moment, so when he found Bell, he jumped on the chance, "ah, welcome sir, can I help you find something," the other guy didn't seem to like that.

Yet Bell didn't have too much time to focus on that, decided to get what he came here for, "I came to give a great review on the armor that I had bought previously, the one made by Welf Crozzo, it held up the best it could against a Minotaur, so I wanted to up the guy's fame some."

The shopkeeper looked to the other man, who gave a snort before laughing loudly, it didn't take long for the conclusion as to why he was laughing so hard was revealed, "shop till ya drop my guy, armor by Welf Crozzo," the guy, Welf, chuckled with a smile now that he introduced himself.

"I would, but like I said, just came to give a good review, sadly thanks to my skill, which includes its own armor set, I have no need to shop for armor anymore," to emphasize this, Bell changed into his armored form, to which Welf whistled at the armor form, he was clearly impressed.

They took their discussion outside onto a balcony, "so, the infamous Psycho Silver, Enemy to the Gods was interested in my work, even though you don't need it anymore, thanks for the good review," Welf told him at a standard voice, as if they were chatting, and the Psycho knew why.

"You're about to talk loudly for a good endorsement and free advertising, aren't you," Bell asked the smith plainly, to which he got a grin in return, with a look around the Psycho saw everyone around them looking at them, might as well start it, "so Mr. Welf, I've purchased great armor!"

"Yes, thank you, Bell Cranel, you've purchased my armor a few times now, haven't you, and have even given quite the glowing review, I suppose that makes you my very satisfied client," the smith was laying it on pretty thick, but considering the territory they were in, free press helped.

"Yes I am very satisfied, in fact I would like for you to use this Minotaur horn I collected from when I leveled up to 2, and make me a great knife with your skill," Bell used this opportunity to go ahead and ask for the knife that he wanted made by the best smith he knew, which was one.

"So, you wanna forgo any armor I can make and go directly into weapon making from the rare drop items you get," Welf took the offered horn at a normal volume this time, "so I'll give you a special deal on any weapons you need, but I do have one little 'ol request in exchange."

That request was a simple one, to join his party and let him use the drop items that they didn't sell to make weapons from, which wasn't a bad thing, or something that they couldn't not accept, so Bell accepted on behalf of the rest of the party, aka Lili, who didn't look happy about it at all. Yet when it came time for Welf to pull his own weight, he was surprisingly good, he used a thick two-handed greatsword that looked really well made, and he was able to use it quite well, meaning they had two fighters on hand, one mid-range, the other one long and short-ranged.

"Finally, I made it to floor 11," Welf cheered as soon as they got to the floor, not able to contain himself, he turned to them, "sorry Bell, I guess I shouldn't have asked you to do this right away," he apologized since he wanted to come along that day, though it wasn't really a big deal anyways.

"Not an issue, no time like the present to make sure that your fighting skills are able to keep up, though I think Lili is the one that appreciates it the most, though she'll never admit it," and that was true, since Welf wasn't as fast as Bell, they had to slow down, giving Lili an easy day today.

"Hey, I can handle the extra work too, and I am still not okay with you just accepting this guy without asking me," Lili turned her ire from the Psycho to the smith, "and don't you think you should be adventuring with somebody from your own Familia," the response was just a grunt.

"Are you really one to talk about someone's own Familia when you can't really go back to yours, and it's not like we have a quota for people of outside Familias joining our party, so relax, especially since he can handle himself well," Bell told her plainly, the benefits outweighed much.

Lili still didn't look convinced though, mainly because she wasn't asked first, but at least the guy was friendly and not a pure meathead, "am I that much of a burden, huh, pipsqueak," though when he gives a nickname like that, could anyone really blame them for not liking that.

"Hey, don't call me pipsqueak," was Lili's immediate reply, "I have a name and it happens to be Liliruca Arde," oh this was gonna be an entire thing with the two of them, banter back and forth and in the end they might end up as the best of friends, not that he was complaining.

"Oh, pardon me, little bit," the smith walked forward with his hand out, "put 'er there," which was instantly denied by the girl, and so that was the nail in the coffin, that was gonna be how they were going to become the best of friends, through some dumbass banter.

"Can't you just get along with him right now, we have a job to do and Welf Crozzo does make some good armor, could probably help you out if you asked him nicely," Bell mentioned to speed things along, though he noticed how both of them flinched at Welf's last name.

"Crozzo," Lili had the realization of who the smith was now, "the cursed magic swordsmiths from the failed smithing nobility," the look that his helmet gave her gave her the impression that he didn't know, "you really didn't know that Crozzos used to be famous for powerful magic swords."

"Then one day, we lost all of our abilities, and now the family's ruined forever, right," Welf finished for Lili, turning to where his back was facing them, "so yes, the Crozzo name is worthless, but who cares about what we used to be good at," he asked them with a casual wave of his hand.

Then the sound of rocks moving let them know that monsters were nearby, "Now isn't the right time to discuss this trivial thing," Bell stated and flicked his wrist, his Psycho Silverizer coming out as numerous Imps came from out of the ground, and Orcs came stomping through the fog. "Welf, you handle the Orcs, I'll take the faster Imps, Lili will back you up as best she can," said girl pulled up her sleave to reveal a wrist mounted miniature crossbow, neither of you get too close, I need to cut loose," with that said, the Psycho shot forward to take on the Imps.

The problem was, they were slow now, they were always slow to him, his advanced speed and reflexes helped with that, but now that he was level 2, he saw just how big of a difference it really made, when one jumped at him, he felt like he had plenty of time to dodge to the left. It was just a step, but that single step allowed the Psycho to just casually slice through the Imp with his blade, and when another jumped, a single swipe of his open palm downward was enough to send the monster into the ground, and when another jumped, a single thrust outward killed it. Bell jumped high into the air and with a shot out of his left hand, sent a wave of blue lightning that electrocuted all of the Imps within seconds and leaving behind just dust and magic stones, with a turn he saw that a Hard Armored was now here as well, and headed for him. It took nothing more than a Dark Vortex to crush and implode the monster and left its crystal flying through the air, it was mainly thanks to his level increasing his magic, and so they killed all of this wave of monsters easily, with minimal assistance needed from Lili to help Welf.

So him and the smith were waiting near a rock as the supporter picked up all the magic stones to put in her bag, "woo, sure is good to be in a party, am I right," Welf commented as he sat on the big rock and watched on as Lili collected the stones, knowing that another monster could spawn.

"Yes, one can go out a greater distance to attack and another can watch those that can't fight, so this will be a good arrangement," Bell commented as he just stood and watched the fog for any threats, he spotted another party out of the corner of his eye, but didn't care much for them.

"Let's eat lunch after little bit finishes picking up all the magic stones," the smith commented, "we can leave some monsters to them," it wasn't long before something else happened, another monster appeared, this one was bigger and had glowing eyes chasing the other party.

It wasn't long before said monster, and Infant Dragon, spotted Lili and was about to target her, "Lili, get that ass moving," Bell commanded her as he ran in to get the dragons attention, it was easy to do since he moved at hard light speed and got on its back, and stabbed his blade in. The monster roared in pain and tried to shake the Psycho off, but he held on and when it looked like the Infant Dragon was about to do something, he shouted, "Dark Vortex," and sent it for the monsters head, with a swirl of darkness, the head was soon evaporated and the monster dust.

Later

That night, Bell wanted to update his status, thankfully Hestia was able to get home around the same time and began updating his status when asked, he was progressing along nicely, not too fast to draw undo attention and not too slow that he would fall behind of his goal and ambition.

BELL CRANEL
LEVEL 2

STR: F365
VIT: G271
DEX: F349
AGI: E469
MAG: G270

MAGIC:
Dark Vortex- Quick attack magic. Fire a vortex of darkness and destruction outwards so that all in its path is reduced to dust and nothingness.

SKILL:
Psycho Ranger- The mind and body is turned into a living weapon, able to do and comprehend things no other being can, the peak in both physical strength and mental capacity, and all the _ powers that go along with the holder of this skill including but not limited: BLINKING, TELEPORTATION, SINKING, BINDING FORGING, LIGHTNING SUMMONING, ENHANCED SENSES, ENHANCED SIGHT FORMS, PSYCHIC COMMUNICATION WITH OTHERS OF THE SKILL, MONSTERIFICATION, GIGANTIFICATION, PSYCHO ARMOR, PSYCHO SILVERIZER, HARD LIGHT MOVEMENT MIND READING. My mind is twisted into madness and devoured by the oncoming storm of darkness, I am a Psycho Ranger, I'm faster than you, smarter than you, stronger than you, but I'm _.

Liaris Freese- Fast growth, the effect lasts as long as user maintains his feelings, and increases depending on how strong they are.

DEVELOPMENTAL ABILITY:
LUCK

"Well, another great stat boost, I think you are getting double the growth rate because Liaris Freese and Psycho Ranger are both in full affect," Hestia commented once she was done, and she looked down in something that could be classified as depression at the mention of those.

Bell waited until she got off of him and handed him the page detailing his stats before he looked to her, she didn't say much right now, so it was left to him to start the conversation that would either make or break the Familia, "I'm quite sure you know, you know and you don't wanna say."

The goddess took a long moment to gather herself, there wasn't much that she could do about who he liked, because of the way the falna worked, what Bell experienced, she would also experience, so his life was an open book, a book that was being processed by Hestia right now. "You're dating Syr, who is the cover for Freya to find her true love, the one that is immune to her charms and a match in personality to her, and you are drawn to her not because of charm, but because of her personality, not because she's a goddess, but because you feel connected."

That was it exactly, and right now he could practically hear the pain in her voice, how her heart was shattering, but through all of his experience that she saw, he needed her to focus on a conversation that he had with Syr, "and what did I say as to why I'm not into you like that?"

What he was doing was harsh to some, but it would be harsher if he didn't make sure she knew where she stood with him in the long run, it could drive a wedge between them if this situation wasn't resolved, "because for you, I'm your goddess, like a parent, a childish parent, but still." Bell knew that she knew why this had to be like it is, why for him she would always be a childish mother figure and not like a lover, it wasn't a matter of who she could change into, and if she tried, she knew that he would hate that more, she wouldn't be true to herself if she did that. So it was with a broken heart that she had to accept that her feelings for him would remain one sided, or at least it might be turned differently, "you also said that these feelings could be more like transference or knight in shining armor syndrome, and I think I know why, but not really."

"Transference is when you're feelings are transferred from one thing to another, most times from one person to another, sometimes a mix-up of feelings will have you mistaken gratitude for love, and sometimes the love between parent and child is mixed-up in a forbidden way as well. The knight in shining armor syndrome is when the appreciation and gratitude for one from something, such as loneliness or maybe a physical attack, this is another form of transference, but the feelings are stronger and based on someone who saved you from something," Bell explained.

"Such as you saving me from my loneliness and feelings of despair when you joined my Familia and I began to not feel so alone anymore," Hestia realized what he was saying, so her feelings of love might actually be gratitude or maybe just the love a parent has for their child.

"Exactly, though that doesn't mean that you don't feel genuine love for me, but that love I think is closer more towards a mother might have for a child, a deity is more like the parent of their Familia than anything else, I think that of you at least," Bell stated, he watched her expression.

Hestia's face contorted into different expressions a few times, it looked like she was contemplating something she didn't want to, the emotions he saw were all varying degrees of sadness, and it didn't get any better the longer she thought and the longer the silence went on. Yet the Psycho remained silent, knowing that she needed the time to process the information and her emotions on her own, eventually her expression seemed less sad, there was still quite a bit of sadness, but just a bit less, "she's really the one you fully chose, and no dream of harems either?"

"Ugh, I regret telling you about that detail from my grandpa," Bell lamented with a groan at the still hopeful serious joke, "no, no harem, I'm a one girl kind of guy, though I never really had a mom, so I would actually like to have one, ya know," he nudged her shoulder a bit playfully.

Hestia looked like she was thinking about it, it didn't sound like it would be a bad idea, and that is often how the gods viewed those that joined up with them, it would be tough but she was sure that she could do that, "alright, I'll agree to it, and I'll accept your feelings as they are, if I can."

"All I ask is that you try," he told her as he wrapped his arm around her in a side hug, they were able to stay like that for a while until they discussed what their next step was, "I'm planning to hit the middle floors, nothing big just yet, but I plan to stock up on supplies in case of everything."

"That's a good plan, your luck might have improved, but it is still strange when it comes to the dungeon, both extremely good and extremely bad happens to you," his goddess liked the plan to proceed, they already knew where to get their potions from, and where their info would come.

Days later

It was days later and in that morning that we found Bell standing before Hestia in front of the church in his armored form and wearing a wool cloak, "well, I'm off goddess Hestia," their relationship had gotten better after their chat, not like it used to be, but getting better.

"Hm, you know what," Hestia leaned forward to take a look at the cloak, "that salamander wool is a lot more conspicuous than I thought it would be, though with it being recommended by miss advisor, I can't really complain too much," she commented as she stood with her hands on hips.

"It is flashy, but so is my armor," he casually stated as stuck his arms out for a bit, "this is just a recon dive anyway, we're gonna gradually go further each time we go in," a thought struck him, "speaking of us going in, I'm gonna need you to promise me something very important here." His goddess tilted her head in mild confusion for a moment before he continued, "I need you to promise me that no matter what you hear, what news you receive, and what others do, you do not enter into the dungeon with any search party, I know you and I know what you might do."

The goddess was shocked that he would think that far ahead, but ultimately knew that this was for the best, "very well, I promise not to tag along with any search party, no matter the circumstances, and I'll be sure to trust you completely and not go after you," she promised him.

"Good, and with that, I promise to return to the surface, alive and with new stories," Bell turned and turned into hard light and began hopping from one spot to the next and left for the tower of Babel, having already said goodbye to Syr, who agreed to switch with Horn to watch him herself.

The Psycho party cut their way through the floors easily, going past the first 12 floors with ease, each route carefully marked, and it was time to enter the middle floors, the first few steps were easy to take, not a single monster appeared, but the cave with dripping stalactites was too quiet. When in the middle of the 13th floor, they encountered their first monsters, it was a pack of Hellhounds, vicious wolf-like monsters with black fur that breathed fire, they came for the party suddenly and without warning, one charged straight in and tried to take Bell's arm off in a bite. The Psycho didn't even feel the teeth as it chomped down onto the right appendage, he just flicked his wrist and stabbed the monster in the head with his Psycho Silverizer in his left hand, it dissolved into black mist quickly as another was about to spew fire breath at them from a bit out.

Lili quickly got into the action and shot it in the eye with her crossbow, the bolt digging into its eye and blinding it, allowing Welf to close the distance and cut off its head with a mighty swing of his large sword, the smith turned towards them, "well, we survived our first middle-floor fight."

"Not bad, if we stick to the plan and wipe out all that we can on the 13th floor and gradually work our way down, we should have an easy time," Bell surmised as he began to plan, he wanted to grow stronger but knew that the strength had to be managed and not a rushed mess.

"We need to find an open area," Lili reached down to collect the fallen magic stones, "this isn't a good place to be surrounded by monste-," a loud squeaking sound came from one side, there they found white rabbits, furry white rabbits with red eyes and for a moment they looked cute.

It was with a startling realization that these were Almiraj, and that they looked a bit too close to what Bell looks like, "hm, little Bell-bunnies," Welf commented, the smith and supporter had deadpan faces on while staring at the monsters, Bell had quite the different face on.

With a glare at the three monsters, who soon brandished crude small stone axes, they jumped for the group, which was swiftly halted with a wave of pale blue lightning that caused them to start smoking and their eyes and mouth to glow from the mount of power coursing through them. When the current was stopped, the Almiraj fell to the ground with a thump, which soon attracted more of them to start coming their way, Bell didn't let them get too close to them, he sent out a large wave of lightning out that shocked every single one of them, until they were fried. Yet, more kept coming, he didn't know what limit he had on his lightning, he wasn't out of breath yet, and his energy didn't feel depleted in the slightest, but he didn't want to risk it, so he decided to see what some shots from his blade when firing could do to them, hopefully enough.

Bell raised his Psycho Silverizer and pulled the trigger, the pale-yellow energy shot out and tore through the head of one, it dissolved into dust as another rabbit replaced it, so the Psycho kept firing as the smith and the supporter fought beside him, keeping a tight formation for now. He kept his eyes focused on his surroundings as he fired into the pack of bunnies, watching as any tried to sneak past him to get to the other two, "they just keep coming, I can't catch my breath," Welf commented as he kept slicing more of them, and more kept on coming.

"Then maybe you shouldn't waste it by talking so much," Lili commented as the three backed up to stay next to each other, they continued to fight beside each other as eventually there was a change, that change came when another party ran by them, "they pass-paraded us," she yelled. Pass-parading was a term when one team passes along the monsters that were targeting them, to another set of adventurers, it was frowned upon, but not outright illegal to do, and the party that passed by looked to have an injured party member, so it was somewhat understandable.

Didn't piss him off any less though as now a large pack of Hellhounds came from the tunnel the other party came from, along with even more of the bunnies they had already been fighting, the numbers would soon overwhelm them if their numbers weren't thinned out somehow. With various shots of his Psycho Silverizer, Bell thinned some of their numbers shot for shot, but not enough as more kept pouring in, it wasn't long before they had to head for a path to corner them in and steadily decrease the monster's numbers, a random path that was narrow. It worked for a bit and Welf cut down what was in front of them while Bell shot many monsters down, when they went over a bridge with sharp rocks at the bottom, they thinned the numbers even more when the Psycho shot off a Dark Vortex to take some of the monsters out as well.

For the moment the horde was done harassing them, allowing them to breathe for a moment, the moment they had that, Lili fell to her knees for a moment, "I'm fine, just catching my breathe," Bell looked at Welf and noticed that at some point he got bit on his arm, wasn't too bad.

"We shouldn't rest here, not all of us, Welf, drink a health potion to take care of that cut, we have enough for a 10 injuries like that each," they all stared at Bell like he was insane again, "good planning, you're useless without it," he tossed one to the smith as he heard more monsters. They were closing in on their position fast, based on the noise, it was from the front and back, "we're surrounded for the moment, this is gonna be both fun and a pain," the Psycho popped his neck as he got ready to fight again, and remembered some of what was discussed by him and Ryu.

Ryu said, "Mr. Cranel, the dungeon is a cruel place, it'll overwhelm you with small challenges, until eventually you're left with an impossible and painful burden, and then you buckle and give in and collapse like a castle made of sand, no time to rethink your strategy, only cry in anguish. Then once it does, listening to you cry and weakened to the point of exhaustion, the dungeon finally bares its true fangs," he remembered those words as they fought more of them, more Hellhounds and Almiraj coming from all sides, and him and Welf carving them up nonstop.

Soon, the roof began to crack on them, they heard it before in a large rumble and the beat of wings, it collapsed in on itself with dust and debris everywhere, Bell crouched and covered himself until the dust cleared, plenty of monsters dead around him, with the faint grunting of Welf. Bell scanned his surroundings and found him, he was curled up with a large rock on his left leg, quickly the Psycho picked up the rock and tossed it to the side before looking for Lili and saw she was trapped as well, and went to help her up and retrieved a potion for each of them.

A Hellhound soon came to the top of the ruble with its mouth on fire ready to send it towards them, a quick flick of his hand and lightning shot from it and fried the thing with an explosion that rocked the place, and with an arm around both of them, Bell helped them up to stand.

They couldn't stop yet though and instead moved as quickly as they could away from the area, after a bit of roaming they found they were on floor 15 now, but Welf was able to walk and Lili was feeling less tired then before, the only one fighting for too long though was Bell right now. They made their way forward as that was the only thing they could do, "how awesome are we, as soon as we tried to make our way back upstairs… we end up falling down two floors," yeah, Welf was right, when that ceiling caved in, so did the floor, sent us down here too fast.

"The floor caved in so fast, it's a miracle the three of us were able to make it out, or that master Bell wasn't able to prepare for so many outcomes so quickly," Lili commented from directly behind them, but their stock wasn't unlimited, and they had very few if any mind potions either.

"Got to give props to your fashion advisor to, pretty smart to wear salamander wool cloaks to help with the Hellhounds too," Welf also commented as he looked around a corner for anything that would be there, saw a dead end, they couldn't really afford to walk around aimlessly either.

"We can't afford to walk around aimlessly, so that this doesn't happen again and again, we need to make a choice, is there any safe area we can go to, Eina never told me in our studies, never got that far," Bell asked the two if they knew of something, they were more experienced.

"I think I might know of one, we may be able to get out alive, we have to somehow make it down to floor 18, it's a dungeon safe zone, which means monsters don't spawn down there, if we can meet up with some higher-level adventurers who might be on their way out of the dungeon."

"it'll give us a much better chance of surviving this," Bell finished up on Lili's statement, he saw where she was going with this now, "we can use a pit to get down there, middle floors are full of them heading straight down to the lower floors and would get us there a lot faster as well."

"The only thing that would be a concern would be the floor boss, the one on 17 is Goliath, the Loki Familia should have already beaten him, and considering his average recovery time… we should just barely make it," Lili proposed, though that just barely was a stretch as well, by hours.

"We would barely make it by hours, maybe a day if we're lucky, but it might just be the only option we have left," Bell stated as he looked at the two of them, they were fine right now, but soon they would get exhausted, "I know I'm Psycho enough for it, are you two," he asked them.

Welf reluctantly agreed with the assessment, and this might also prove that he was a Psycho as well, and Lili knew that she was since she was also in the party to begin with, so they used some rope and Welf longer sword and made an anchor for them to climb down with, Lili then Welf. Last was Bell, who dislodged the sword from the anchor position and dropped it down to the smith, who gave a confused shout as the Psycho just jumped down, his descent down slowed and he softly landed thanks to his power, the other two looked amazed as they marched onwards.

Thanks to more planning, this time on Lili's behalf, they had some protection, a monster repellent, yet their only saving grace was also their greatest annoyance at the moment, "please little bit, can you please do something about that smell," Welf asked as he about gagged on the smell.

Lili was annoyed and turned around, "oh just shut up," she help up the stinking neckless, "how do you think I feel, you jerk, I'm the one who's holding it," she shook the bag in front of her and at them for the smith's question, "why don't you try carrying it master Welf," she asked him. That brought an idea to Bell's mind, what if he was able to process the air differently, with a thought his helmet was able to circumvent the air, and now he didn't have to smell it, but he decided not to tell them that so that he didn't have to hold it either, it looked to be disgusting too. "This stink-bag is our last hope for survival, as long as it keeps on smelling disgusting hopefully it'll keep the monsters from trying to attack us," they just had to deal with it, and he did mean they did since he didn't have too, score another one for his mysteriously awesome skill.

A flash of flames caught their attention, it was a Hellhound, "let me get this one," Welf crouched down and stuck out his right hand, "Ignite, Heretic Spell: Will O' the Wisp," he called out and a wave of magic shot out towards the creature, the flames died out before it exploded right there.

Everyone took cover behind walls as flames shot out and in a flash, Lili checked the remains and turned to the smith, "wow, that's a great spell, I assume it uses the enemy's own magic to make it self-destruct," her assumption seemed to be spot on, the Psycho's advanced sight said that too.

"Yeah, and well, I never knew when I was going to have to actually break it out and use it," Welf admitted, but that brought forth a large drawback, they didn't have many mind potions, and they couldn't risk too many things slowing them down, even unconsciousness brought by mind down.

"Don't risk too much, we don't need to waste the supplies if we can help it," Bell commented as they began to move again, this time he thought they should pick up the pace, he didn't want them to run out of the monster repellent, too far away from their target right now.

They began to pick up the pace a bit, at times getting attacked by monsters, which Bell or Welf dealt with quickly, they were low level monsters though, not a big threat, their timing wasn't bad, it was a steady pace, not too fast to induce a break and not too slow to waste time either. That was when luck turned away from them, the smell was gone based upon the readings from his helmet, meaning their protection was gone, "guys, we're all outta the stinky stuff," Lili informed them, and since he was hearing heavy footsteps, they were already found out.

"Oh goody, looks like four fucking Minotaurs," Bell commented as they came into view, they were each brown, with glowing red eyes, "at least I don't have to worry about you three being trained to fight me," he charged in with his Psycho Silverizer drawn, right for the leading one.

With a swipe upwards, he deflected a downward swinging crude stone axe, and a quick Dark Vortex tore a hole through its chest, as it was falling, he used it as a springboard to attack the other three, he shot lightning at the one in the middle and hard light moved to the right one. The Psycho began stabbing it in the neck repeatedly before backflipping off of it swinging his left foot down on the head of the monster that was on the left, before jabbing it in the brain with his blade, as the monster turned to dust, he jumped again and sent a Dark Vortex out. This one tore through the stomach of the one that was in the middle, who had been paralyzed thanks to his earlier lightning, it didn't last long with a hole in its stomach and soon succumbed to its injury and with a loud thump, hit the ground and exploded into a cloud of dark dust as well.

"Let's keep moving," Bell commanded them and they chose to move on, they needed to pick up the pace now, making sure that they didn't tire themselves out too soon and still let them keep on moving, they had to plan now, "Welf, defend Lili, do not leave her side, I'll fight most of them."

It was the only logical way through the hordes now, his stamina and energy made this a simple affair right now, the monsters might be getting tougher, but he was the only one with the best shot at fighting them and leading them down to the safe zone, they didn't have too long though. Even with such a formation, Bell could only do so much, only so many Hellhounds and Almiraj that he could take down on his own, the Minotaurs weren't too numerous, but Welf had to defend more and more as more were forced through the cracks of his defense, not able to go offense. The strain of everything would have been too much for many, yet he was able to keep going, his party though were only barely keeping up, each encounter and lack of rest exhausted them, each time their mana reaching near zero and a mind potion down, another step closer to the end.

Finally it happened, Welf used his last Will O' the Wisp and collapsed, "finally went mind down," he looked back to see Lili just barely take a step before she too collapsed as well, her strength finally giving out as well, "this is just shit timing for both of you to collapse," he informed them. "If I was anyone else, I'd leave you here or dock your pay, aren't I so nice not to do that," Bell commented to himself as he hefted Welf onto his shoulders in a fireman carry, "come on Lili," he hefted her on his shoulders too, pack and all, right on top of Welf, tying them with some rope.

After making sure they wouldn't fall off, he began to run as fast as he could, along the path he went as fast as he could before getting to the preplanned hole, the hole that led to the path of the boss chamber, he jumped down without hesitation, landing with a light touch to the ground. With a breath he went on not bothering to let his own nerves get to him, he could already tell that this was going to cut everything really close, by his own internal clock, the floor boss should be just about to awaken, and with it, their only roadblock to their current salvation.

Soon the opening came into view, a large doorway with a large arch on the top, and a sort of discoloration that came from the energy waving off of a large rock wall, "the great wall of lamentation," it wasn't really all that smooth though, in fact, it looks to have been cracked open. It was with a huge groan that Bell could see the red eyes of the Goliath within those cracks in the wall, a large titan of a monster that was humanoid no less scary than any other monster, its head turned towards them, and then it began to move its large feet out of the prisoning wall. "You better be lucky I like you guys," with an immense amount of his energy he untied the rope from around him and spun in place as fast as he could and released when the time was right, just as the large behemoth was about to step in front of the exit, his party passed through the exit.

The Goliath roared in fury that a target got past it before turning its attention towards Bell, the only thing the Psycho offering it was a left-handed middle finger for its troubles, while his right hand flicked his wrist and brought out his Psycho Silverizer, and pointed it at the massive thing. Could he beat it, hell no, could he fight it, not for long, but could he try his luck and see what damage he could do, oh fuck yes he could, so he didn't even think about it as he channeled his magic through his right hand, and allowed his energy to enter at the same time as well. This would hopefully overcharge the output, and it did, he could literally feel all the energy, magic and otherwise, in the blade, all converging into a very powerful attack that he felt should just take a moment longer to charge up, it was gonna be a veritable canon in his hand.

"I'm gonna say this once you overgrown brown bitch," Bell grinned under his helmet as he poured all of his magic and energy into the overcharged weapon, "Psycho Silverizer: Dark Vortex," he called out and pulled the trigger on his blade's handle, just the discharge was a shockwave.

The power that he had condensed was massive, greater than anything he had ever seen, from the very tip of his blade came a large pale-yellow ball of energy with pure darkness mixed into it, and it shot forward in an even wider stream of mixed energy in a beam like his smaller shots. The yellow and black beam shot out a spiraling pattern straight for the Goliath, that quickly realized what was going on and swung its fist out as if to punch the beam, which it did, the entire thick funneling beam stopped in its tracks as smaller beams were discharged from the main one. Yet the giant didn't hold the power back for long, soon the very skin of its hand began to melt away, followed by the muscles, and soon the bone as well, the longer the beam went, the more of the arm was torn through, until eventually the only thing left was a torso with a crescent hole in it.

Yet the Goliath still wasn't dead though, it was just breathing heavily, about as heavily as he was breathing now, "ha… fuck… ha… you… ha… giant… ha… fuck," Bell called out to the thing through heavy pants, his vision was growing dark now though, and the last thing he saw was green wind.