Been a bit longer on this one and still working on xenos arc

Enjoy and for the love of Hestia I have no ownership of Danmachi

"Are you going to be alright Nathan?"

"Yes"

The Hestia Familia and their patron deity had grouped outside the tower of Babel. A few people who walked by them vaguely recognised them, especially the white-haired boy that stood in the middle. Faint whispers could be heard around them, spreading conversation about their War Game victory, how cute the Rabbit looking boy was and for many of the male adventurers, a lot of their eyes settled on the very attractive Renard woman. The Familia were either unaware of the gossip or they didn't care. It wouldn't be hard to guess which category each member fell under if you knew the Familia themselves. This did little to stop the very one-sided conversation that was taking place between the deity and one of the members who was stood a metre ahead of the rest.

"Are you sure you have got everything?"

"Yes"

"Enough food and water to last over the time you said you will be down there?"

"Yes"

"And some spare in case you run out?"

"Yes"

"Is all your gear up to scratch, and your swords as well?"

"Yes"

It was almost comical to watch. A small but heavy chested Goddess was completely losing to her sense of worry and frantically making sure her child would be as safe as someone could be in the dungeon. On the other side, a bland voice responded each time. This came from a bleached half-elf who didn't seem to have any worry or care on his emotionless face.

"Goddess, Nathan will be fine. He is strong enough to survive beyond the safe zone. He has already said before he has been down there a few times anyway."

"Master Bell is right; you need to calm down Hestia-sama. You are making other people look this way with your behaviour."

"I don't care Lil miss supporter. I will worry as much as I want. I'm getting flashbacks of when Bell first started. I could barely work with how much I was worrying. My only comfort was that I could still feel his blessing."

"I can understand where Hestia-sama is coming from, I too am very worried for Sir Nathan's safety."

"Haruhime, I will be fine. Anyway Hestia-same, I'm happy that you are concerned about me but I'm not an inexperienced adventurer who jumps headfirst into danger. As Bell said, I've done this a few times."

"I don't jump headfirst into danger!" Bell quickly retorted but when he turned to his companions, he was disappointed to see that no one could back him up.

"Bell, your luck with danger is about as good as you are with girls."

"W-what does that mean."

Welf simply chuckled in return with Nathan giving the red-eyed boy a sly grin.

"Before that conversation kicks off, I'm going to head off."

"O-ok Nathan. Please stay safe."

"I'll live, I promise that."

"That is all I ask for, thank you." Hestia smiled as she watched her child turn and start to walk into the dungeon.

With a few goodbyes from the rest of the Familia and a warning from Nathan to his captain about not getting into trouble, the half-elf set off on his long-awaited solo dive to the great tree labyrinth.

Nathan skipped down the first 12 floors with ease. He killed any monsters along the way as any excelia was worth it. However, he never side-tracked off the main path, so he only killed the ones that were unfortunate enough to stray in his way. The half-elf hadn't even drawn his swords yet or activated his magic, being able to rely on his kicks and punches easily. This was to also allow him to destroy the stones easier. Nathan had already decided to not waste time getting the stones that would barely be worth anything, so instead, he shattered the weak monsters stone with his kick or punch. If the stone survived his inital attack, like with the minotaur's that for some reason kept getting in his way, he just stomped on them again. He didn't want to be the casue of an irregular incident like the blood troll. He figured if his bag wasn't full, he would pick up a few of the bull monsters stones when he came back.

It took Nathan just over an hour to get to the safe zone on floor 18. He knew the Goliath wouldn't spawn from the great wall of sorrow as he had helped kill it the day before. Nathan didn't bother taking a break in the safe zone, a place where most adventurers could only dream of reaching. The half-elf simply jumped down the cliff near the town of Rivira and landed directly in front of the base of the massive tree that served as where the next few floors lived. A roar pierced the boy's ears, signalling that his first fight of the tree labyrinth had already begun.

Nathan finally drew his swords and waited for the monsters to come to him. He knew that monsters regularly came up from floor 19 onto the floor above, even though monsters couldn't spawn on the floor itself. Nathan listened in closely to what his opponents might be. He heard the sound of loud pounding on the ground, telling the boy that a two-legged monster was coming. The rustling of scales gave away the identity of the monster as a lizardman, wait, make that two. After identifying the unison set of footsteps had actually been two monsters just running in sync, the sound of flapping was the next noise to assault his senses. The half-elf didn't like flying monsters unless he could see them. This was because he couldn't discern whether it was a siren or harpy as both monsters sounded the same when flying. Though Nathan's answer would soon be answered when the three monsters appeared.

Out of the dark, three monsters entered Nathan's clear vision, the bright crystals up above helping him with that, not like it mattered for his heightened sense ability. As the now known Siren was the first appearance, it attempted to immediately fly upwards and into it the sky, where it would be at its best. Nathan quickly shot that hope down, quite literally. He had thrown one of his swords, skewering the flying monster in the neck. The lifeless corpse plummeted back down to the ground, where it obscured the two lizardmen's vision for half a second as one of its wings was still hanging in the air, though that was more than enough for the half-elf. Nathan took the opportunity of their impaired vision to swiftly attack. As the corpse fell below the monster's eye level, Nathan had already begun his swing. This sliced one of the scaled creatures throats open and before the other could either attack or even acknowledge its comrade's death, Nathan used the momentum from the first swing to do a full 360 turn and bring down his sword across the Lizardman's body. The lizardmen twitched a bit and then puffed into ash, showing that Nathan's swing had been deep enough to cut through the magic stone embedded into its chest.

"Tch doesn't matter. I'll be getting enough over the next few days anyway."

After Nathan had sliced the Siren and the Lizardmen, that hadn't turned to dust, open and stashed the first magic stones of his mini-expedition, he set off down the dark entrance and into the mouth of the dungeon where only the experienced and strong will manage to survive. The half-elf activated his magic and prepared.

Nathan estimated that he had now been in the dungeon for 24 hours by now. The half-elf could be seen standing in a room on the 22nd floor, surrounded by 5 deadly hornets and 2 sword stags' bodies. The half-elf had taken his time, coming down from the 19th floor considering his objective changed from getting through each floor as fast as possible to kill anything that moves. And it would be known by parties of high-level 2s and 3s that for the next few days, there would be barely any monsters from 19-24. Though that was an issue for another day, as Nathan finally decided to have a break. After he had removed the magic stones from the now piles of ash and added them to his ever-filling bag of magic stones, the half-elf found a quiet room about 400m away from the main path. He de-activated his magic and got to work shredding the walls, making sure no monsters would spawn within his vicinity. When he sat down and rested for the first time since he sat up in bed this morning, he opened his bag.

Inside, there could be seen an assortment of stuff. Various pouches and zips covered the bag. The front pocket housed two spare knives in case his current magic stone gathering knife, which currently resided in the underside of his right arm guard, broke. In the two-sided zip pockets, there were spare potions as keeping them in the main area would most likely break them. These were there in case of emergency or if he needed to restock his vial holders on each of his legs. He counted 3 mind potions, 4 strength potions, 5 healing potions and 2 empty vials that had previously contained mind potions, not including the healing and mind potion situated on his left and right leg respectively. After he had checked his stock was what he believed it should be, he opened the main zip. In it were two sides. On one side was an area where one bulging bag of magic stones was placed, with 2 empty bags next to it. On the other side could be seen 2 boxes of food and 2 large water canteens. Nathan decided to pick up the one on the right for his first meal in the dungeon. When he opened it, the smell of Haruhime's amazing cooking invaded his nose, bringing a small smile to his face. The half-elf decided to eat only 2 out of the 5 sandwiches, 3 biscuits out of the packet of 12 and 2 swigs from one of the canteens. He did ponder whether to grab another sandwich or one or two extra biscuits just before he put the lunch boxes away, but before he could come to a decision his instinct ability kicked in.

'Must have been attracted by the smell of food. I almost forgot they could eat more than just people or the stuff produced in the dungeon. Might see if I can use this sometimes.'

While Nathan was thinking, he had already packed his lunch away, rested his backpack against the back wall he was leaning on and stood up, both swords at the ready. What came as a bother to the half-elf however was that he couldn't hear any monsters approaching. His instinct was still telling him that danger was approaching and Nathan had never known his instinct to be wrong. His senses were amazing and very sensitive but weren't omnipotent but he would put his instinct under that category every time. Choosing a different route of detective work, Nathan decided to stop focusing on his hearing and instead focus on his sense of smell. All monsters had a smell and Nathan had memorised most of the ones he fought, the only exceptions being the ones that reside in the streams of the Water capital. His smell picked up a scent he was all too common with at this point in his life.

'Poison. That can only mean one thing down here. Gun Libellula's'

Nathan could recognise the smell of poison from a mile away and he knew of only one monster that spawned in the big tree labyrinth that produced this kind of poison. Gun Libellula's were a dragonfly type monster that spewed poison, from its abdomen of all places. This explained the smell of poison but also why he couldn't hear anything. The dragonflies were flying monsters and their wings made little noise, only a small buzz emanated from them. Nathan wasn't a big fan of these monsters as they were one of the quickest and smallest on these floors, making them somewhat difficult to accurately hit. Though with their main weapon being poison, he had little worry about it.

But the dungeon wouldn't be so kind to him, it never had been in the past so why would it change now.

'Of course one of them would spawn near me at the exact time I pulled out food.'

The dragonflies had just come into earshot, giving Nathan the estimate they were only about 200m away. This noise only lasted a second as an almighty roar bounced through the dungeon, immediately being followed up by loud, pounding footsteps.

'Why the fuck has a mammoth fool spawned around here. Surely they stay in the very open areas… oh, I'm camped near the main pathway.'

A mammoth fool is a large monster that is six to seven meters tall with dark red fur and long, curved, spear-like tusks. It is one of the strongest monsters that spawn in the 19-24 range and is also quite rare. Their height not only gives them a strength that rivals mid-level 3s but with its four powerful legs, it has the speed to match its power.

'The main pathway is just over 400m away. That was where it probably came from. That means I have about 15 seconds until it arrives. The Libellula's should be here about now. If there are 3 or less I can easily defeat them before mammoth arrives.'

Five seconds went by and nothing had appeared in the entrance to his room. At first, he was deeply confused but then a grim reality set in. The foreboding footsteps had only gotten louder and had even started to shake the ground where Nathan was standing in. He had come up with a thought that the dragonflies had left after hearing the mammoth fool. But when he thought that his instinct ability flared, telling him he was wrong. He agreed a second later as he could now hear the buzzing once more, the noise getting closer at the same time as the stomping. This could only lead to one conclusion.

'They waited for it to catch up and attack at the same time. They don't have that intelligence this far up, do they?'

His thought was disregarded when his exact worry was realised as bursting into the room was 5 Gun Libellula's and one giant, red-furred, tusk wielding mammoth.

Nathan quickly hoisted his backpack over his shoulder and looked at the terrifying sight for anyone at this level.

Nathan sighed.

'I suppose it's a bit extra money, maybe I might get lucky and get a drop item.' A smile formed on the half-elf's face.

'Who am I kidding, I'm never lucky.'

The dragonflies had hung back a bit, allowing the 7ft monster to hurtle straight at the adventurer in hopes of crushing him with its body or stabbing Nathan with either of its tusks. No chance came to the red-furred monster as Nathan scaled its massive body with a leap. The mammoth smashed into the wall; a foul noise bellowed from its mouth. The half-elf ignored this and landed safely on the monster's back. Looking over at the 5 dragonflies, he quickly threw his knife that was attached to his left leg, hitting one of the monsters directly in its core. As the other dragonflies watched their fellow monster turn to ash, they started to bombard the bleached-haired boy with their special attack, their poison.

Now, Nathan knew he was immune to this, along with any other poison. He had tested it before just to make sure that not even an ounce of pain came from the attack. The same could not be said for the massive monster underneath his feet. Using himself as a target, the half-elf started to simply dodge the poison attacks, letting them splash over the red fur of the mammoth. A roar of agony showed the poison was working.

The mammoth was stuck in the wall, as it had charged so hard at Nathan, when it smashed into the wall one of its tusks got stuck. As it tried to free itself, it could feel the half-elf dancing on top of it and started to kick out its hind legs, though this did nothing but make the half-elf look like he was on a rodeo. Nathan had thought about ending this quick but they had disturbed his lunch and rest time so they deserve to be punished, not even Goddess Astrea herself could say it was not justified. Though the thought of that deity brought a slight grimace to Nathan's features, one that was quickly ignored and replaced with the thought to get back to the fight.

The mammoth had finally broken free from the wall, though it lost one of its tusks in the process. Even though it was incredibly strong and powerful, it wasn't the smartest monster, reason why it was called a fool. As it once again roared in anger and pain at the loss of one of its special weapons, the large monster properly threw its body in the air wildly, hoping to shake off the adventurer off of it. It succeeded in this but that was because Nathan allowed it.

He used the wild shake to give him extra momentum as he jumped towards two of the dragonflies that were flying close together. In a millisecond, both the dragonflies had been decapitated, with the half-elf's swords now dripping in monster blood. Nathan had flown past the two monsters and while mid-flight, he swung both his swords up, detaching the heads from the bodies. As he landed he looked at the remaining two monsters and saw they had spread apart, clearly showing they were the smarter of the two different monster species in the room. The mammoth had now started its attack and started stomping where Nathan was standing only a few moments before, making the half-elf start his dodging once more.

Nathan made sure to stay on the side where it would be difficult for the mammoth's remaining, but still deadly, tusk to hit him. He also kept one eye on the positioning of the dragonflies. They had stopped spewing their poison and had instead tried to attack with their large mandibles. Nathan had taken the opportunity to pick up his two throwing knives while he had been running around and was now looking for the moment to throw them. That moment came when the mammoth fool raised itself onto its back legs and slammed down as hard as it could. This sent shockwaves throughout the room, even causing Nathan to slightly lose balance. But to his surprise, even the flying monsters had been made disorientated by this attack. Just as the red-furred monster attempted another tusk attack, Nathan backflipped. As he was mid flip, he threw both his knives at the confused oversized bugs. Both knives passed straight through both monsters, causing the two dragonflies to turn to dust as the throwing knives embedded themselves into the wall, not even a drop of blood on them.

Nathan had landed on the wall and dug both his swords into it, giving him stability and the ability to stay on the wall. He stared the mammoth down and as it returned the stare, only then did it realise what it was up against. The half-elf was in complete control of the fight from start to finish. It could only realise its mistakes as it watched the adventurer come spinning towards it, both blades in position to cut its head clean off.

As Nathan started to dig through the mass amount of fat the headless mammoth had stored up, he thought back to how the Gun Libellula's had waited for the mammoth fool instead of attacking immediately. He just put it down to some kind of monster intelligence that increased the further you went down. It did bring back one painful memory though, of when had actually come across something he couldn't explain and ,to do this day, he had no idea what it was. Quickly pushing that unwanted memory back to his mind, Nathan found the giant magic stone and after getting the two remaining magic stones from the headless bodies of the dragonflies, he stored his paycheck away and decided to find another place to rest, as the stench from this room would attract more monsters. With that, Nathan walked out of the room and back into the heart of the dungeon.

3 days had come and gone after the fight with the mammoth fool and now Nathan was exiting the dungeon. He was happy with his haul, estimating his current worth to be about a million valis, just like he had promised. All sorts of monster stones lay within his bulging backpack. A few Moss huge, deadly hornets, a couple of hobgoblins while on the 24th floor and even 2 trolls magic stones. He shielded his eyes from the sun that had not touched his skin for over 96 hours. While walking out of the tower of Babel, he did get a few looks but he couldn't care in the slightest. The half-elf made his way to the guild and joined the queue to cash in magic stones. He had thought of going to the one at the dungeon entrance in babel but he thought he should tell Eina about his dive, like Hestia and Bell suggested.

Speaking of the half-elf, Nathan quickly saw her waving him over. He tilted his head a bit and looked forward at the queue in front of him. He turned back round to see that the half-elf had come from behind her desk and was practically running over to him.

"We need to talk, now. We are going to a private room."

The guild employee was frantic and a lot of worrying could be heard in her voice. Now that she was closer, a look of concern and tiredness was etched into her usual attractive face.

"Ok," Nathan responded shortly and quickly, thinking that something must be up.

When they entered a private booth, Eina didn't even give the half-elf time to sit down as she started to tell him what had transpired over the following days while he was in the dungeon. While she was telling it, she was too busy caught up in her own worry and concern that she hadn't paid attention to her fellow half-elf standing across from her.

"And we haven't heard from any of them since." Eina finally took a large breath as she had talked no stop for over a minute. She was hunched over and acting as she had run away from a minotaur. However, as soon as she looked up at Nathan, all the air she had gotten back was now stuck in her throat. A cold, dark feeling was radiating from the boy in front of her, freezing her to the spot.

"Do not touch anything in the bag, do not remove anything from the bag, do not even look in it. I know how much it weighs and I will be able to tell if anything has changed. Understood."

A quiet, cold, sharp voice echoed in her slightly pointed ears but she couldn't muster a response. A loud thump was heard as Nathan placed his exploration bag onto the floor of the private room. He didn't wait for the green-eyed woman to answer him, he knew she heard him and would not disobey his order.

The guild was almost brought to complete silence as no one dared to even breathe as the aura emanating off of the half-elf that was walking through the guild lobby was overwhelming. Nathan paid them no heed though, only one person was on his mind right now.

Finn Deimne sat patiently in his office, not knowing what to do. Ais had just run off with Bell Cranel to go find the boy's captured Goddess from the God Ares and the Rakian Forces. Truth be told he was worried about her but not as much as a certain high elf and a couple of girls. He sat alone for now as he had no orders to give, only to wait and hope their sword princess returns home safe. Finn knew that the level 6 Ais would have no problem dealing with the entire army on her own but that was if she was on her own. Bell Cranel, while impressively doing it in 2 and a half months, was only level 3. He could be a burden to take care of and that's not even speaking of the completely helpless deity they hoped to rescue.

Suddenly a tap at his office window brought him out of his thought. He turned to see a person he could recognise. He looked over to see his spear was in reach and cautiously approached his window.

"Your name is Nathan, right? From Hestia Familia. What do you want?"

Finn decided to go against all formalities and petty questions about how the half-elf had somehow snuck into the twilight mansion property.

"Where did Bell and the Sword Princess go?"

"Do you plan to go after them?"

"Tell me where they went Braver?"

Before he could decide whether to answer or not, or to challenge the unfazed boy, his door swung open.

"Finn, have you received any news on Ais or the Little Rookie?"

Finn looked at his vice-captain. Long Jade hair with eyes the same colour. A green mages robe was her choice of dress wear. Her calm face did little to cover up her worry infecting her thoughts.

Finn turned back to see his window now empty.

'I never even heard him leave. I didn't notice his presence until he made himself known.'

A second later, Finn did give off a small smile though, one that neither of the high elves saw.

"As far as we know, they are both still in the Boar mountains chasing the Rakian army. I'm sure she will be fine Riveria, have trust in her. It's not even been two days yet. Give her time"

"I do trust her; it's just she can be so reckless. That girl makes me worry."

"You know, you are proving Loki right by acting like this, mama."

"Don't you start with that Finn or else I will freeze you where you stand."

The blonde prum held up his hands to show he understands. He also understands that the half-elf that was hiding underneath his porch had left as soon as he gave the location of Ais and Bell.

'I wonder why I felt his presence after a second of nothing. It happened as soon as Riveria started talking.'

Finn's thumb throbbed slightly at this thought, signalling that he was on the right track.

'Damn it, why did she have to show up. I still can't be near her, I even stopped hiding my presence. At least Braver helped me out.'

With that final thought, Nathan raced off back to Hearthstone manor. He told everyone he was back and before they could start, he told them that Eina Tulle had already informed him. He also said that he was going immediately to look for their captain and Goddess, to which no objected too, though they did tell him what had started the whole thing off.

A few days later, Asfi Al Andromeda had spotted 3 figures walking out of a steep valley. The white mop of hair and streaks of gold gave away who they were. They were the exact people she had been looking out for these past couple of days.

"Sword Princess, Little Rookie."

As she started to descend to them, slowing the flapping of her flying shoes, she made sure to remember to tell Nathan that she had found them. To her surprise, two days ago Nathan had appeared and said he was here to help look. She had tried to talk to him about his whereabouts over the last few days but he gave her a quick glare, a glare that she once again was remembering. It told her he was not in the mood to talk. The only surprise she got the following days was how shocked she was to see Nathan tearing his way through the Rakian armour. Asfi had found been tracking the army for a bit and as soon as Nathan laid eyes on them he didn't hesitate to start attacking them. He didn't kill a single one but that just made the air be poisoned by loud groans and shouts of pain as the half-elf went on a rampage. She watched as he made his way to the God Ares himself and watched in horror as Nathan punched the prince into the wall of the mountain and pointed his sword at the God's throat. Thankfully, he accepted the deities answer that he didn't know where Goddess Hestia and the two children had gone. Even though he accepted it didn't mean he was satisfied with it. So he did the only logical thing and kicked Ares in the groin, hard. Even Asfi winced until she realised that the half-elf had just attacked a deity without care. He said afterwards it was for kidnapping his Goddess and Asfi could only numbly nod her head, not wanting to annoy the boy anymore. When she retold this Hermes, he actually laughed at this, spouting nonsense that he was proud of the boy.

The four had finally met up with Nathan half an hour later and before his captain or Goddess could thank him or ask him how he was, Nathan smacked Bell on the head and flicked his Goddess on the forehead, both earning groans of pain. Asfi and Ais could only watch on as the normally quiet, calm and reserved half-elf started to go off at the two. She caught bits of the conversation like how he told Bell to not get into any trouble and how he berated Hestia for running away and straight into danger after something as pointless as a silly rejection. Though it did end happily as Hestia hugged the boy, which seemed to calm him down and both got round to thanking Nathan for coming to help them, with a new conversation starting up about his solo dungeon dive, which explained to Asfi where the half-elf had been. Even the Sword Princess asked one or two questions which Nathan took a few seconds but to Asfi's surprise, he actually responded.

As the group of now 5 made their way back to Orario, Asfi looked over at Nathan and for the first time gave him a quick smile, though he didn't see it.

'I can understand what Hermes-same said before, I'm glad you have found people to give you a second chance. I hope you can only be happy from now on.'

Name: Nathan

Race: Half-elf

Lv. 4

Develpment abilities:

Instinct: F

Heightened Senses: G

Mental Fortification: F

Str: C689-B700

Def: D561-563

Dex: B742-749

Agi: B706-716

Mag: D566-575

Magic: Wind Manipulation

Chant – Gift me the power to control the wind around me, so I have the strength to survive another day.

Skill:

Nightcrawler: Can hide in dark places undetected.

Self-activated.

Total resistance: Grants the person ultimate resistance against any mental, internal and external attacks.

%\&*#!?:

Whew, that was finished and it was my favourite chapter so far. I really enjoyed exploring the dungeon again thorugh the books and wiki when writing this, why it took a bit longer than usual. I'm really happy with this as it ties in nicely with canon as well. It also introduces Nathan to Finn, only briefly but an first introdcutions are important.

SLightly bad news, I'm having to reread the entire 9,10,11 volumes to properly write the xenos arc. I have been going through this story a bit and with new ideas popping in my head every day, I want to propelry structre this out instead of rushing it a bit. SO becasue of that and that I'm now back working again, the uploads will be less frequent. Sorry but I hope you can understand.

Good news though, we hit 50 follows so thanks, it is very much appreciated.

And with that, see ya next time and peace