Bell wiped the tears from his face, now more determined than ever, his will supressing the bloodlust of an Asura temporarily.
He waited for the backlash to end, and swore he would never use [Asura Soul Reaping] until he got way stronger than he was now.
Bell got up from the floor, his steps still wobbling from the after affects of earlier while he started to walk towards home with steady steps.
Night had already fallen, lights shone across Orario.
He made his way back home, his body in dire need of rest, his mind on the verge of a shutdown.
Bell walked inside his house after closing the door, the voices of Goddess Astraea and Goddess Hestia still mingling in the hall.
Goddess Hestia was probably about to crash at their place for some days.
He did not look towards Goddess Astraea, or rather he could not look towards her.
The visions from earlier had definitely left deep scars in his psyche.
Bell reached his room and laid his head on the bed without waiting for a ceremony, and changing his clothes.
His exhaustion overwhelming his instincts as he fainted the moment his head touched the bed.
__________ Next Day ___________
He woke up next day feeling like someone had punched him straight in the guts.
Forget about dungeon diving, he was not even sure if doing any strenuous activity would directly put him out of his misery.
Bell pulled himself up from his bed, went to freshen up and change his clothes, and then walked to the dining hall.
Goddess Hestia was there, chewing on some butter bread like a hamster.
Goddess Astraea was in the kitchen, watching over the boiling morning tea.
"Good morning Goddess Astraea, Goddess Hestia." Bell greeted them while taking a seat at the table, consciously making sure to not look anywhere near Goddess Astraea.
"Good morning Bell, how was your first dive in the dungeon yesterday?" Goddess Hestia asked with a energetic and kind smile while taking a bite out of her bread.
"It was the usual, you know, the unfriendly environment of the dungeon, caution against other adventurers, and constantly spawning monsters, along with the thrill of an adventure." Bell described while grabbing a bread and spreading a generous amount of butter over it.
He took a bite of the bread while asking "What about your day yesterday Goddess Hestia? Had fun after meeting an old friend?" Bell pointed his lower chin towards Goddess Astraea's direction along with the question.
"Oh, yesterday was really fun! It had been ages since I've met and had a good talk with Astraea. You won't believe me but Astraea has changed a lot from how she used to be in 'Tenkai,' I guess this is what others meant by lower world brining a change?" Goddess Hestia talked with genuine enthusiasm and ended her words while scratching her head in a little confusion.
Bell really had to hold back his laughter at her silly gesture, he now kind of understood why she was so famous back in the other world.
Who won't like a cute, airheaded Goddess with a bombshell of a body? Maybe only some flat board like Loki, or God Apollo, who is a little Geh....scratch little, he is a full time Geh.
His thoughts were broken by the loud sound of a cup being slammed on the table.
"Now, now Hestia, you certainly are my friend, but we can't have you getting too close to my child, right?" Astraea spoke with a special emphasis on 'my' while pushing the cup of tea towards Hestia.
Was that a little jealousy he heard in her voice?
Bell unconsciously looked at her face, but felt electrocuted because in his gaze, her current face seemed to overlap with the same betrayed face she had when his Asura self tore her heart apart.
He ducked his head back down, his face turning pale and breathing getting heavier.
"Child, Is everything okay?" Astraea asked in worry after seeing his unexpected reaction.
Bell took a deep breath, steadying his nerves and burying those memories even deeper as he relaxed his tensed muscles.
"It's nothing Goddess Astraea, just some aftereffects of diving in the dungeon for the first time." Bell spoke without thinking, not wanting her to worry about him.
Both the Goddesses at the table sensed his lie, yet they didn't speak up or expose his lie.
"Alright then, here...have some coffee and relax for now. Remember I'm always with you and you can talk to me about anything going on in your mind." Astraea spoke in a gentle tone while bringing a hot cup of tea to his side, brushing her hand against his shoulder in reassurance.
His shoulder flinched from where she touched him, but he forcefully shoved the complex emotions he felt downwards.
Bell finished his lunch in silence while the Goddesses talked about common gossip going around Orario nowadays.
As he wash putting his dishes in the sink, Goddess Astraea spoke to him from the dining table.
"Child, today is the day for Monster Feria, would you like to take a break from the dungeon and accompany me there?" Astraea asked in a gentle tone, mixed with a hint of expectation and care.
"Yes Goddess Astraea, I'm a little tired after my first dive from the dungeon, so let's go and experience the Monster Feria together." Bell spoke in a hesitant tone after thinking for some time.
"Me too, me too, Astraea, Bell, you both can't leave me behind, or I'll really cry right here." Hestia butted in between like a third wheel while throwing a tantrum on the spot.
Goddess Astraea felt her blood pressure nearly spike at Hestia's antics, almost regretting allowing her to spend some days here.
-
Monster Feria, a large-scale event hosted by the Ganesha Familia in Orario where they tame Dungeon monsters, showcasing them in spectacles like bullfights, to gradually reduce public fear of monsters and normalize their existence for the secretly known Xenos (intelligent monsters). It's a vibrant Hispanic-style market festival featuring music, stalls, and monster-taming displays
And also the first place where Evilus attacks with their 'Violas'.
Violas are man eating flower monsters, with different colored magic stones than normal monsters and reacts to magic, each estimated to be around Level 3 to 4.
Forget about Level 4.
Could he go against a being at Level 3?
The answer was 50/50....His [Ittou Shura] and [Instinct (A)] would both work critically against Violas, though he would only have 60 seconds.
By continuously using [Ittou Shura] yesterday, he had gotten a rudimentary grasp over it.
He had noticed it yesterday that the energy he could use to boost his physique had increased from a 20% to a whole whooping 40%, which was a tremendous improvement from before.
60% was still getting wasted in the process of burning his lifeforce, but it would take at most one week before he mastered [Ittou Shura].
This was the monstrous martial talent he had inherited from the incarnation of talent herself.
In his current [Ittou Shura] state, he could probably exchange a few moves with a peak Level 1 adventurer without loosing out, though he would get folded like a lawn chair after that one minute wore off.
He still had to get his Falna updated after killing all the monsters yesterday in the dungeon.
It should boost his current strength even further.
Still, he would be nowhere near having enough strength to go against a Level 3 monster even if he added [Instinct (A)] in the equation.
The most he could kill would be a newly minted Level 2 monster even with all his current specs.
But he had learned from his fights against the hobgoblin and the monsters in the dungeon that the environment and knowing a monsters weakness could make a tremendous difference in a life and death battle.
Luckily for him, he knew the weakness of Violas, they had their roots connected to a greater source, through the ground, so if he somehow severed or burned the roots of the Violas, then those monsters would directly fall from being Level 4s and Level 3s to Level 2s and Level 1s.
Now the question was, could his mind and wheel bridge the difference of a whole Level?
Bell honestly did not know, but he was willing to give his all to find out.
_______ Later __________
"Yay, yay, we're going to the Monster Feria, my last time here was with that grumpy Hephaestus, Hmph." Hestia started bouncing energetically while the gazes of countless men surrounding them were drawn to Goddess Hestia, though they settled not on her bouncing, but the bouncing of something else, If you know what I mean.
"Calm down Hestia, you're already making me regret allowing you to accompany us to the Monster Feria." Astraea spoke in deep exasperation while looking at the dumb headed Hestia—unknowingly making the nearby men drool by her actions.
Bell covered his face with shame, not wanting to get associated with Goddess Hestia any more or he might someday die socially.
Goddess Astraea ignored Goddess Hestia's antics as she walked with elegance and calm while wrapping both her arms around Bell's hand.
He wondered inwardly about where to focus, the bouncing Hestia or his hand stuck between Goddess Astraea's assets.
The nearby male gazes moved away from Goddess Hestia to focus on Goddess Astraea and the hand she was holding with a gentle grip.
Then, the sounds of teeth gnashing, breaking of hearts and curses under their breaths washed over Bell.
Why did it have to be him?
Stuck in between all of this was Bell, Goddess Hestia bouncing at one side, Goddess Astraea at the other side, holding his arm, and the teeth gnashing sounds of sharks from behind.
Bell wondered.
'When did my dungeon adventure turn into a romcom?'
He was pulled further into the market of the Monster Feria by the Goddesses, they visited shops filled with souvenirs, stalls filled with Orario styled food, area's where monster taming was being showcased.
There was even a live event going on in the big colosseum nearby, but Bell refused to go there, since it was too crowded there and Evilus could attack at any moment.
He had already set up everything in the morning by coming here earlier when most people were merely setting up stalls to set up his own battleground to fight the Violas.
Bell felt his eyes shrink to the size of pinholes as his gaze settled on the Sword Princess, Ais Wallenstein standing at a Jagamarukun stall with the Crusher, Tiona Hiryute and the Jormungand, Tione Hiryute. The Thousand Elf, Lefiya Viridis standing anxiously behind Ais.
He knew the Evilus were coming.
Bell was standing at a sweets stall with Goddess Astraea and Goddess Hestia trying some sweets besides him, with the Loki Familia women in his field of vision when he felt it.
He was the first to feel something amiss as his [Instinct (A)] roared like a banshee in his ears, responding to a slight vibration coming from beneath his feet.
The ground beneath and surrounding Bell, or rather the whole street and area he was standing on, started to shake.
"B-Bell, what is going on?" Goddess Hestia asked in bewilderment while Goddess Astraea held tightly onto his hand without speaking.
The ground some distance away from them was torn apart as flower shaped monsters crawled out from the holes they made from below the ground.
One, two, three, five, nine, twelve, twenty.
Twenty Violas crawled from the ground, ranging from Level 4s to Level 3s.
Absolute mayhem spread across the crowd as people started panicking and running at the sight of those flower shaped monsters releasing enormous pressure in their surroundings.
Bell had planned to first take the Goddesses to a safe place, then come back and lure a single Level 3 Viola into his preset traps.
But as they say, plans rarely stay intact with the collision against reality.
A Level 3 Viola from the group separated and started heading straight for him.
He was incredulous, why would a singular Viola focus on him specifically.
Bell was literally not even on the Evilus' radar, so why?
He went through everything he knew from *Danmachi*, the puzzles clicking in place.
'Fuck! He was already on Evilus' radar from the start, since he was now a part of the Astraea Familia, which had given them a major headache seven years ago, so they would most probably want to nip him in the bud to avoid problems later down the line.'
These Evilus' people were not brain dead like those Chinese Young Masters.
Bell did not have time to consider more as [Ittou Shura] rumbled to life, his newly upgraded stats were.
[Name: Bell Cranel
Attributes -
Strength: 206 [G]
Endurance: 259 [G]
Dexterity: 155 [H]
Agility: 301 [F]
Magic: 0 [I]
Magic:
Skills:
Eight Handled Wheel -
Adaptation to any and all p******na.
Ittou Shura -
Burn life, transcend limits, for a single minute, become a One-Blade Shura.
Instinct (A) -
Your Instincts are the sharpest. In combat, You will see a path to victory.
Asura Soul Reaping (Sealed)]
His strength skyrocketed from a mid Level 1 adventurer straight to a newly minted Level 2 adventurer.
He had pushed his body to the absolute limit yesterday by the continued use of [Ittou Shura] and slaughtered a lot of monsters in the dungeon.
This much growth was normal, since growth was easiest at Level 1 for adventurers.
Bell thought as he pulled Goddess Hestia up by her legs, holding her across his shoulder like a sack while he wrapped his other hand around Goddess Astraea's waist, pulling her legs above the ground as he sprinted with a Goddess in his embrace and another over his shoulder.
The sight was a bit comical amidst the war zone.
Goddess Hestia over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes.
Goddess Astraea hugging him like a chick.
Bell running like he had millions of regrets catching up to him from behind.