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Volume 12 Edit

Prologue Edit

At the Hestia Familia home, Hestia joyfully updated Bell's status, feeling she was filling up blank pages of a storybook with every update and witnessing any changes firsthand. Once finished, she informed her child that he had ranked up.

Chapter 1 Edit

Subsequently, the two began discussing his rank up, which he achieved through his battle with Asterius, a monster the Guild deemed to be around Level 7 in terms of strength. After she briefed him of his new skill and development ability, she remarked how mature he had grown, as evident by his actions. This led Hestia to reveal to him her alias, Vesta, meaning "the fire that keeps on burning", though she didn't know why she did so.

Bell later reflected over the past couple days while atop the city wall, recalling how his reputation had improved and how the children from Maria's Orphanage had come by with her to apologize for their behavior. His thoughts were interrupted by the arrival of Hermes and Asfi, and upon noticing the red mark on the God's face, Hermes revealed that Hestia drop kicked him in the face during an earlier visit to the Hestia Familia home. Hermes apologized for his meddling during the Xenos incident, asking if Bell hated him. When he couldn't decide, the God asserted that he didn't need to try to understand him and that he would continue to interfere in the future even if it caused him to be hated as he claimed to be Bell's fan.

Once the two of them left, Fels, who had hidden to save himself from anger at the departing God, appeared before Bell. He confirmed the boy's resolve and stated that he must conquer the bottom floor of the dungeon in order for the people and Xenos to live together in peace. When Bell asked about the floor, he was only told that there was an oath and a conclusion, a reply seemingly relayed from Ouranos. Fels donned his veil of invisibility and disappeared, leaving Bell alone to look at Babel.

Meanwhile in Babel, the Gods were holding Denatus, eager as usual to begin the naming ceremony. Saving the Little Rookie for last, those in attendance rushed through the other children, such as Welf and Chigusa. Before anyone else could throw out names for Bell, Freya suggested "Vanadis Odr", which Hestia immediately rejected. Despite several outlandish proposals, once the Gods behaved she managed to secure him a safe name with help from Miach and Takemikazuchi. After the meeting, Hephaestus checked with Hestia to confirm that the Hestia Familia's rank had gone up to D, assuring the confused Goddess that they would receive a notice from the Guild soon.

Down at the Guild, the newly decided aliases were posted as usual, with everyone giving notable attention to Bell's. Upon noticing his presence, the crowd parted so he could learn his new alias: "Rabbit Foot". He then walked over to talk with Eina, though she wasn't paying attention. Once Misha brought her back to reality, Eina became flustered by her behavior. Despite herself, she reached into her desk and handed him a sealed envelope which he recognized as a mission.

Chapter 2 Edit

Soon after, Bell, Hestia, and Hephaestus met at a cafe to discuss the mission they were given. Hephaestus explained that dungeon exploration type Familia had to go on an expedition every once in a while once they reached a certain rank, adding that most Familia just increased their achieved floor number, and if they didn't do anything or fail to produce results they would be penalized for it. With her explanation in mind, the two discussed the mission with the rest of the Familia after dinner, with Haruhime providing additional details from her experience with the Ishtar Familia. Eventually, following Bell's decision to get stronger with the rest of the Familia, they recruited Daphne, Cassandra, Ouka, Chigusa, and Aisha, who'd somehow heard of their expedition.

As there were 10 days before the expedition, the members took care of business, like going over their formation, training, taking care of equipment, and learning about what awaited them in the dungeon. On the day of the expedition, the Gods sent them off, wishing them luck on their trip. Despite reaching the 24th Floor, the group was struggling to move along, forcing Bell and Aisha to deal with most of the monsters due to the Bloody Hive that was spawning more and more Deadly Hornets. That night, they set up camp in a room on the same floor, then took the time to rest and prepare. Bell kept watch first, and to his surprise, Aisha came to talk with him, wanting to see how he was doing. Seeing his resolve, she knew that he'd be okay, and told him before leaving that she'd gladly lend him her body whenever he couldn't calm the passion within himself. He was embarrassed but quickly cleared his mind to think about the unknown that awaited them.

Chapter 3 Edit

The next morning, the party headed down the passageway to the 25th Floor, becoming impressed at the scenery on the floor, especially by the huge waterfall that lasted for two whole floors. Making their way to the entrance to the passageways, Lili went over the requirements for completion of their expedition, which involved gathering either 10 Blue Crab Shells and 3 Aqua Serpent Fins, 30 Raider Fish Fangs, 1 Carbuncle Crystal, or 1000 grams of Azure Stone, and decided to search around for them on the same floor to avoid any trouble. While they gathered drop items, Welf noticed some Under Coral on the other side of a waterway, asking the others to fetch it for him. The others agreed once Aisha pointed out that there was an Under Pearl with it, selecting Mikoto and Bell to retrieve them. However, on their way back, they were attacked by an Aqua Serpent, though they easily defeated it with their teamwork.

Back at the Guild, Eina worried about Bell, at the same time wondering if she should've taught him more about the lower floors. As she thought about him, Misha pleaded for help in getting her paperwork done, which she swiftly denied, but then Misha noticed the pile of missing adventurer quests on Eina's desk, prompting her to ask if Eina had feelings for Bell. Eina denied her question but Misha continued on, advising her not to get into relationships with their assigned adventurer in case the worst happened. She ended up sprawling across her desk and ignoring her coworker, all the while hoping that he would come back safely.

After a while, as the party made its way through the northern part of the floor, they noticed an adventurer staggering toward them, recognizing him as Luvis, and were shocked when they saw that he was bloody and missing everything from the elbow down on his right arm. Collapsing in front of them, the party saw a two meter tall humanoid monster appear from behind him, which was holding a crystal mace in one hand and Luvis' torn arm in the other. Seeing the monster attempt to finish the Elf off, Bell attacked it, but was shocked at how strong it was, immediately realizing that it was a strengthened species. Nevertheless, he managed to force it away from Luvis, causing it to survey the party, then hold out its arm, firing seeds from the bulges that appeared on it. The party desperately tried to avoid the seeds, which they were able to except for Chigusa, and seeing this, the monster retreated for the time being. Turning their attention to the injured Chigusa, they were shocked to see vines growing across her body from the injury on her shoulder.

Chapter 4 Edit

The party tried removing the vines from Chigusa, however nothing they tried worked, forcing them to search for other options to heal her and Luvis. Everyone began to panic, except for Bell, who remained calm while asking the others to think of a way they could help them. Calming down with his help, they deduced the monster to be a Moss Huge, a monster that originated from the 24th Floor, but they didn't know how they'd defeat it, prompting Luvis to explain what had happened to his party, revealing that the monster had targeted the magic stones their supporter was carrying.

Having decided to defeat the monster, the party made their way to where Luvis' party encountered it, and on the way there they found a trail of blood leading to a room. Once in the room, they spotted two of the Elf's companions placed at the base of a pillar, their legs destroyed, with the monster itself sitting off to the side. Aisha decided to have herself and Bell fight the monster, Mikoto, Ouka, and Welf help Luvis' companions after fighting off other monsters, and the rest to stay put. As they drew closer to the monster, Bell was suspicious of how the monster didn't do anything, realizing too late that it wasn't a monster at all, but rather the last member of Luvis' party covered in the monster's moss. Turning back to the others, they could see a green shadow slowly emerging from a waterway.

Turning around as fast as he could, Bell tried to regroup with Lili's group as fast as possible. Knowing that he wasn't going to make it at his current speed, he used a two second charge Argonaut on his left leg to shoot himself forward, then destroyed the monster's mace with the Hestia Knife. As the two fought, the monster believed it would win because it was still a bit stronger, but was shocked at his no chant Firebolt, believing all magic to require a chant. Taking a point blank Firebolt, it ran toward the waterway to escape, causing him to chase after it, and it used the opportunity to drag him into the waterway along with itself. The two continued their fight in the waterway, though he was unable to fight properly in the water, allowing the monster to attack him repeatedly. To make things worse, an Aqua Serpent joined the fight, nevertheless he was surprised when the Moss Huge let go of him, once again realizing too late that he was close to the waterfall. Although he finished off the Aqua Serpent, there was nothing he could do to prevent himself from falling down the Great Fall.

Chapter 5 Edit

Not having any way to save Bell, the rest of the party decided to retreat to the entrance of the passageway to the 24th Floor in order to have Aisha go to Rivira to get help. Down below, at the bottom of the 25th Floor, Bell dragged himself out of the water, his entire body in pain from the experience. As he used up his remaining potions, he was glad he didn't fall down any further as he definitely would've died. He quickly decided to regroup with the others to help them, but was then assaulted by a flock of Iguazu, and upon seeing that they weren't going to let him escape, he changed his mind and fought them head on, defeating them all with Hakugen. To his surprise, he heard someone applauding him, and turned around to discover a Mermaid sitting nearby.

Up above, as the party made their way to their destination, they encountered Dormul and three other Magni Familia adventurers, who were also covered in vines, though they were fighting against its effects as best they could. The Magni Familia party soon joined their party and willingly carried the injured Modi Familia Elves, stating that heavy lifting was their job.

Down at the bottom, Bell tried to start a conversation with the Mermaid, but she ran away when a flock of Harpies and Sirens attacked, forcing him to fight them off. Following their defeat, two Mermaids appeared, ready to charm him with their voice, however to his and their surprise it had no effect, allowing him to drive them off with a Firebolt. Once they were gone, the Mermaid from earlier appeared, hugging him when he asked if she was a Xenos. After introducing herself as Marie, she healed him with her blood, then had him meet her in a room.

Back above, the Moss Huge was certain it had killed Bell, recalling the no one survived a fall down the Great Fall, and decided to finish off the rest of his party. To prepare for his attack, he took equipment from a dead adventurer it kept as emergency food, then attacked monsters to Pass Parade them toward the party.

Bell heard the sound of the Pass Parade, causing him to ask Marie to guide him there. At first she was reluctant, not wanting him to leave her behind with the Moss Huge around, but agreed to help him after he promised to protect her, using her voice to charm monsters into telling her where the Pass Parade was happening.

Chapter 6 Edit

The party desperately fought off the Pass Parade, using everything they had at their disposal, though they ultimately had to rely on Haruhime's new spell, Kokonoe, along with Uchide no Kozuchi, to help them by level boosting multiple people. Eventually, Aisha realized in horror that the Moss Huge's goal wasn't to tire them out with the Pass Parade, but rather to gather and eat the magic stones of the defeated monsters. The Moss Huge, strengthened with the magic stones, caught Aisha off guard by stretching its neck, leaving her with no time to react as it bit at her neck. She succeeded in forcing it away from her, though it implanted a seed in her wound that quickly grew, and Welf took the opportunity to use a fire magic sword on it. Despite its incredible power, the attack itself was mostly blocked by the Undine Cloth it had wrapped around its body, and the monsters continued with their assault.

Just as Luvis and the others decided that they would stay behind to let the Hestia Familia escape, Haruhime heard Bell running to their location, and sure enough, he arrived just like she said, bringing with him a four minute charge of Argonaut which he used with Firebolt once his companions hid themselves, annihilating all of the Pass Parade monsters and sending the Moss Huge through a wall into the room next door. Initially, the monster was confused as to why Bell was still alive, nevertheless it soon regained its composure, its confusion turning into anger at the thought of its plans not going the way they should've gone. The two began fighting again, however this time Bell's mind wasn't overwhelmed by his power, making him stronger than before, and he began to overwhelm the monster.

Noticing that the Moss Huge was just going to regenerate over and over, he decided to finish it off in one hit. He first cast Firebolt on the Hestia Knife, dual charged them to increase their power, and unleashed it as one strike at the monster, obliterating it in one hit. After the battle ended, the rest of the Hestia Familia came over to celebrate his victory.

Epilogue Edit

Following the battle, the party returned to Rivira in order to heal their wounded. Bell apologized that they weren't able to save Luvis' arm or his companion's leg, yet he didn't seem to mind at all, stating that it was the cost for seeking the unknown, adding that he'd visit the Dian Cecht Familia to get a prosthetic arm. Both the Modi and Magni Familia parties thanked him for his help and promised to repay their debt someday. Once everything was settled, Aisha announced that they were going to drink, causing Bell to leave before he got involved. Unfortunately, he was stopped by Bors, who asked him to tell him about what had happened in the lower floors, offering to pay for drinks if he did. However, before they could settle the deal, an adventurer reported to Bors that there'd been a murder and that the suspect was the Gale.