The Growth of Bell Cranel
=Dungeon Floor 1=
Bell dodged an attack from the dog headed monster. He turned around and twisted its arm causing it to howl in pain. Bell smirked as he slams his blade into its chest feeling the fight to be one side as he easily read the monster’s move set.
Despite being quite fast to fresh Level 1 newbies in Bell’s eyes they move so slow, but that may just be because he has trained his senses and skills over the years of living in his village.
"The First Floor is bigger than I anticipated, I've been down here for who knows how long and still have not gone past it." Bell mumbled to himself as he picked up the magic stone that the monster dropped.
'Well at least I got a good read on this monster, it's the first time I’ve encountered it today. But I already its move set. Let's see what Eina written on the foes for this Floor.' Bell thought as he glanced at the notes Eina had given him. It was the only copy made which was done by Eina in an effort to lessen the casualties of newbie adventures. She did this by combing through loads of information from pervious adventures she was in charge of.
<~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~>
Dungeon Guide:
Floor 1-4:
Structure:Cave like interior, multiple paths with some leading to either a cave in, dead end or split paths.
Monsters:
Goblin: Short but agile, green monster, likes to use small daggers to perform sneak attacks on adventurers to the back. To kill them, stab them in either the eyes or center of the chest.
Kobold: Human sized wolf man, Uses sharp claws to cut away at its prey, To kill it either dodge under its claws and cut into its chest or spin around it and cut into its neck.
<~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~>
As Bell reads what was written down, he can't help but stop to think about the Jack Bird. He knows that it exists and that it spawns on Floor 1.
However its spawn rate was extremely rare, to the point that it can be an entire year between spawns. It was one of the monsters Eina had told him about. The last time a Jack Bird was killed was just shy of a year ago which meant it should be running about in the dungeon right now.
He was forever grateful that Hestia had accepted him so quickly, which meant that he wouldn’t wasted an entire amount of time for growing because he couldn't find a Familia. Bell got this estimate after discussing what happened earlier that day to Hestia yesterday.
To hear it from him, she was less than pleased. Unfortunately she couldn’t do anything right now as the Familia was just barely dipping its toes. Hestia will await the day that she could enact the pain those three gods inflict on her first member.
Back in the Dungeon, Bell continued to walk forward and finally managed to came up to the staircase that lead down to the next floor. 'Good' Bell sighed as he took off his backpack. "Finally I'm done with this floor.” Bell said taking a small break and counting the magic stones he had collected so far.
It was for the best. He can’t push himself too much and risk being overwhelmed down below. Bell knew that he would come across stronger monsters. After 10 minutes, Bell had finally finish counting the magic stones. In total, he has collected over 110 stones, which attribute to the foes he had face in the six hours he spent down in the dungeon.
Bell walked down the stairs and was greeted by a group of Dungeon Lizards. "Tsk, The dungeon really likes to welcome new adventurers huh." Bell said smirking as he took on this challenge.
"Well, Let's do this then.” Bell said as he felt the adrenaline spread throughout his body. Without a second more he jumps towards the group and started to slash away at them knowing that Dungeon Lizards give a better quality excelia than the two species he has already come across.
(XXI)
=Guild Office=
To say that Eina was worried was an understatement, she was the only adviser that hadn't left work yet since a certain new, white hair adventurer decided to not come back on time. She was anxiously waiting for him to return, hoping that he hadn’t die on his first day down in the dungeon.
"Please Bell, come back. I really don't want to lose another adventurer on their first day." She mumbled to herself, pouting and hoping for his safety. Eina's eyes opened wide as she saw Bell come through the door, his clothes completely drenched in blood. 'not his blood.' Eina realized.
"Bell! What happened? Are you alright? No wait, What took so long? You made me worried." Eina bombarded Bell with questions but didn’t give the new adventurer time in between to properly answer them.
" I'm alright, Eina. It just took longer to get through Floor 2 than I originally thought. But I managed to make it to Floor 3 before calling it quits. What time is it anyway?" Bell asked, his chest heavy with how tired he is from today’s venture. Every breath he took felt like fire to his lungs and Bell was wondering if he truly did push it too far for his first day.
"Bell, it's 9 PM! You've been gone for nearly 12 hours, and the guild office closed two hours ago! I was really worried about you!" Eina yelled. She was angry at both Bell's non existent knowledge of time and his nonchalant demeanor.
"I'm sorry Eina, it’s hard to keep track of time down there. I mean, there is no sun, and time quickly goes out when going up against the dungeon monsters." Bell replied, trying to suppress a laugh at her antics. It felt strange to Bell how someone he barely met is already worried about him. But then again, he did give her quite the scare today after only joining today.
"Fine, I’ll let this pass, but I’m only doing this once. Now, will you drop your magic stones in the box to your left so I can leave for the day? Or do you plan to keep me here for the rest of my life?" Eina asked, already resigning herself to the future headaches her new adventurer will cause in the future. Her other adventurers weren’t as cruel as Bell. That much she could say.
"I’m sorry for worrying you. I'll collect my reward for today's work then.” Bell said as he unclip his backpack and set it down on the box to his left.
"Don't expect too much Bell. New adventurers never earn much in the beginning since the first floors only have magic stones worth less than 100 valis each."
"Hmm, that would be good information to add to your book. How much would you say this crystal is worth?" Bell asked as he pulled out a magic stone that dropped from a goblin on the First Floor. Eina wondered why she didn’t put the value of magic stones in her book. But the half elf rationalized that her duties took up too much of her time that over time she eventually forgot.
"Let me see…I would say, around 50 valis for the stone." Eina answered while Bell wrote down the information in the book Eina had left him.
After Bell got the information of what each of the individual species of monsters he killed was worth, he glanced back at the documentation.
<~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~>
Dungeon Guide:
Floor 1-4:
Structure: Cave like interior, multiple paths with some leading to either a cave in, dead end or more split paths.
Monsters:
Goblin: Short but Agile green monster, likes to use small daggers to sneak attack adventurers in the back. To kill them, just stab them in either the eyes or center of the chest. Magic stone value: 50 Valis
Kobold: Human sized wolfman, Uses sharp claws to cut away at its prey, To kill it either dodge under its claws and cut into its chest or spin around it and cut into its neck. Magic stone value: 75 Valis
Dungeon Lizard: Medium sized lizard that uses its claws and tongue for attacking, focus on cutting its tongue off then going for the finisher. Magic stone value: 100 Valis
<~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~>
After finishing up his business at the guild, Bell and Eina parted ways with the former starting his walk back to the abandoned church. While walking back home for a well earned night's rest Bell’s mind drifted to the valis he earned today.
For a solo adventurer, 25,340 valis was a good haul. When added to the 10 000 valis Bell had on him totaled to 35,340 valis.
‘It should be enough to buy some armor.’ Bell thought, thinking of visiting a store to garner so much better equipment than what he had on hand. The guild’s knife was good for now but if Bell wanted to head deeper, he would need to buy equipment that won’t break on him. His grandpa had taught him that every weapon should be used with care and respect, that your weapon is not a tool but an extension of one’s self.
Which was why Bell was taught to use multiple weapons, those included Swords, Spears, Axe’s, Daggers, Longswords, and Greatswords. In all aspects, Bell was trained as a well rounded fighter courtesy of his Grandpa who knew of what lay ahead of the boy.
<~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~>
=Abandoned Church=
"I'm home, Goddess Hestia!" Bell announced entering their shared room. Hestia pace around the room waiting for said boy. As soon as he cross the threshold Hestia launched herself at Bell, hugging him, all in an effort to quiet down her worried heart.
"Bell! Why did you take so long? I was worried!" Hestia replied her voice laced with quenched fear.
"I said it would take longer than normal didn't I?" Bell replied with a hint of confusion. He knew it would take a lot longer because he wanted to get a feel for the dungeon and what the first two floors would throw at him.
"Yes you did, but in normal circumstances adventurers usually exit the dungeon around 6 PM, not this late!" Hestia replied not noticing she was starting to squeeze the life out of Bell.
"Goddess Hestia…Please…Air." Bell said, rapidly losing anny air in his lungs. "Oh, sorry Bell. I did not mean to hug you that tight! Well it's nice to know you're fine, want to update your stats for the day?" Hestia asked, a big anxious to get going with the first status update she would ever do.
However she didn't expect much since Bell is still a new adventurer, despite her interest in Bell’s unique appearance. She still needs to figure out why but that’s a quest for future her.
"Of course Goddess Hestia, I will lay on the bed.” Bell said, taking his shirt off as he laid down on his stomach. He was shirtless exposing the status on his back.
Hestia sat on his back when she pricked her finger, allowing a single drop of blood to fall on his back, lighting it up allowing Hestia to use the excelia he gained, and update his status.
'This is weird, why is there so much excelia. It look like he killed a Minotaur! This is ridiculous, just one day of exploring the lower parts of the dungeon shouldn't give this much. This is much excelia is equal to the amount a Level 1 would normally achieve in the span of a single month!' Hestia thought as she stared at Bell’s status update, anxiously wondering how much they would continue to increase.
Hestia eyes nearly popped out of their sockets as she witnessed his stats coming through. All of Bell’s stats already over 100 points minus magic which is at 76. ‘This is ridiculous, what the hell could have caused this?’ Bell placed a piece of paper on his back and copied his status onto it, then gave it to him.
"This is pretty good, Goddess Hestia!" Bell said his excitement bursting through his faces. To Hestia, Bell looked absolutely adorable as he gushed over his status.
"It’s more than just good, Bell. This status update is absolutely ridiculous! In normal terms children only go up by 5-15 points each time.
You, on the other hand, went up by over 100 points in each stat except magic. This is not normal" Hestia exclaimed, surprised at his nonchalant manner.
"Oh, really! I didn't know that Goddess Hestia, then I'm really happy with what I've managed to accomplish here." Bell replied with a smile the shine brighter than the sun. Hestia could tell he was truly happy with this and she couldn’t help but smile along with him. ‘Is this how it feels to watch one of your children grow? Is this why they push me so hard when I suggested the idea of wanting to form a familia of my own.’ Hestia thought, remising on old memories.
"That's good to hear, having an arrogant adventurer as my first child would be quite embarrassing." Hestia mumbled, glad that was not the case with Bell.
"Well Goddess, I'm tired for the day. I will go brush my teeth outside then I'll be going to sleep" Bell said with a yawn, his eyelids looking partially closed.
Hestia could understand him. If he killed enough monsters to get this strong this fast, it must have taken a lot out of him.
As Bell left to go upstairs, Hestia chose to inspect his status, something must be causing this.
<~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~>
Name: Bell Cranel
Lv 1
Status:
{STR} I-0 - H-113
{VIT} I-0 - H-108
{DEX} I-0 - H-114
{AGI} I-0 - H-138
{MAG} I-0 - I-76
Magic:
Boost
Blade
Roar
Crimson
Skills:
Development Abilities:
Looking at the status update, Hestia notice that everything was fine and no anomalies to speak off. But instead of feeling relieved, Hestia just felt even more confused. Bell had no skills that could explain the rapid growth he experienced today. She sighed, feeling a headache already coming as she wondered about the mystery to her first child. She wondered, just what king so change Bell will bring to Orario.
(XXI)
1 Week Later
In the following days since Bell’s status update, He had ventured back down into the dungeon and managed to clear Floors 3 and 4. Bell chose to take it easy and not have the same thing happen again like on his first day. Despite taking it easy, Bell was still able to earn at least 20,000 valis.
All the money that he was earning was going straight towards their sayings, but Bell did set aside a couple thousand just for him. As time went on they were steadily increasing in profits and were actually able to afford real ingredients instead of having the food that Hestia gets from working at her food stand.
Granted, Hestia didn’t know how to properly cook, but lucky for her Bell did know. When asked about, Bell told Hestia that his grandpa had raised in the arts of cooking, saying how no man should be unable to cook. Hestia smiled at that and offered a quick prayer to deceased man before chowing down on her dish. Today was no different as Bell had woken up the crack of dawn and was putting on his clothes. He was mindful of being quiet so that his goddess could earn more hours of sleep.
Once the final strap was secured, Bell exited their shared room and up the stairs. He then left the church and made his way to the dungeon.
”Today’s the day. Once I come home with my earrings, I’ll grab myself some better armor.” Bell thought, smiling to him as he counted the amount of money he had available to spend.
Unbeknownst to him, this would be the day that his life changes forever. Not only his future, but the entire world’s as well. And all this starts with Bell going on an adventure.
(XXI)
Bell Cranel made his way through the dungeon, paying attention to his surroundings in order to not be caught off guard by either the Kobolds or Goblins that live on the upper floors.
He had decide to try going a bit further in than he usually did. Although it's only been a week since he became an Adventurer, he has already made it to the Fifth Floor. According to his Guild Advisor, Eina Tulle, most newbie Adventurers stuck to the first two floors and didn't go further without prior preparation.
This didn’t apply to the white hair adventurer as Bell felt that he was good enough progress that he could go a bit deeper. He has proven that he could already handle Goblins, Kobolds, and Frog Shooters on the first four floors. He also wanted a change in scenery.
"But even so, nothing's come out yet.” Bell muttered as he looked around expecting some monster to be prowling around. Instead he was face with just pure silence. This made him feel a bit unsettled, he should have already been attack by something and yet nothing has.
He’s been on the fifth floor for at least an hour now but not a single monster had appeared so far.
"Did someone else come before me?" Bell wondered. It wasn’t a far fetched possibility and was actually a common occurrence he’s seen over the eight days he’s been going down in the dungeon.
Although Monsters are being born within the dungeon, it wasn't a constant spewing mass. If another Adventurer or group of Adventurers had cleared out an area of monsters, it would be some time before more would be born.
"Should I try another path?" Bell considered retracing his steps a bit until he spotted something out of the corner of his eye.
It was located in a dead end path off to the side of the main path. A rather small red box…no it was more like a red chest with golden edges. It was just sitting there without a single care in the world.
"A treasure chest!?" Bell shouted before clapping a hand over his mouth and looked around. Lucky for him no one seemed to be there. "Is this a new kind of drop? Why didn't anyone find this before?" Bell asked. He was confused as this should not be possible.
If someone had found it before, they would consider a chest sitting on the upper floors a rather obvious looking trap. However Bell held no such thoughts in his head aside from the possibility of finding some treasure.
He was confident in his skills of dealing with whatever the chest might throw at him.
"Maybe it's some kind of sword…or maybe some armor?" Bell wondered hopefully as he crouched down in front of it and placed his hands on the box. "Oh, it's not locked!" Bell said, overcome with the possibility of not having to waste the money he’s earn and save it for a later date.
With a small heave, he easily opened the box and found…a beautiful golden goblet.
Though he was a little bit disappointed by the fact that it wasn't something like a holy sword or a black armor set, the goblet mesmerized him all the same.
It held a rather simple in shape, but the detail engraved into the gold itself was amazing.
"Wow…" Bell said, his eyes fully mesmerizing the goblet in his hands. He had no idea how much this thing was worth, but it definitely couldn't be a small sum.
Or rather, it was so beautiful he couldn't even think of selling it, even if it could help his Goddess a bit and their tiny Familia of One.
Instead of selling it for money, it might make a better gift for his Goddess instead.
"This is probably enough for today.” Bell said as he stood up with the golden goblet in his hands.
"I should head back and-" As he turned around to make his way back to the surface, a giant brown skinned monster with the head of a bull and the body of a man appeared in front of him.
A minotaur. A monster so powerful that it could easily defeat a high class Adventurer if they weren't careful.
And it had somehow made it’s on to the upper floors, where only newbies resided.
"URRRRROOOOOARRRRRR!"
”Crap.”