6 - SWORDS, JADE EMPEROR AND FESTIVAL (2ND SPECIAL CHAPTER)

For two entire days, they didn't leave the Dungeon, but considering that Bell couldn't remain without eating or drinking like Tehom, he had no other choice than leave the dungeon to buy him supplies, other than that, whenever Bell was too tired to continue, they would retreat to the fifth floor while he kept fighting monsters non-stop, right now he was doing something that could be considered insane.

He was letting the monsters attack his body, he wanted to know if this was enough to increase the rate at which his endurance increased. He had been like this for an hour already, but it was too boring, so he simply killed the monsters that came from other directions.

Looking at Bell who was sleeping peacefully inside the cave he was protecting, he thought about how many hours he had fought, basically, it was 48 hours in total. Bell on the other hand only fought for 32 hours since he had to sleep and do some other things like eating.

Their oversized bag was filled to the top with <Magic Stones>, and some <Loots> that the monsters dropped some times.

Noticing that Bell awakened, he killed the remaining monsters and went to him.

"Let's go, we need to repair your armor and exchange the stones for money, today we will start the procedures to build a true headquarter for our Familia."

Bell nodded and after yawning, he took his sword and followed Tehom closely behind.

On their way out of the dungeon, they heard many adventures talking about some sort of festival, they even went past a group that seemed to head to a <Raid>, they had lots of cages with them, and some had monsters inside. After arriving at the guildhall, they went to the cashier and exchanged their loot for Valis and left.

It was already evening, the sky had already been completely dyed into a red color. The streets close to the dungeon were very lively and noisy, you could see the various races walking around.

Orario had a total of eight avenues that can be called the <Main Streets>, it spreads from the center to the city wall in eight different directions, and since they lived between North-West Main Street and West Main Street, they could take any of those two paths.

So, after exchanging the loot for money, and repairing Bell's armor, they took the North-West Main Street, they were about to arrive at the Church when they crossed paths with someone. It was a handsome man, he was a little shorter than Tehom, and looked like a prince.

Seeing that Bell bowed to the man and called him Miach-sama, Tehom stopped walking and observed the two.

"Who is this man accompanying you Bell? I think I've never seen him before."

"Oh, he is the captain of my Familia."

"Eh? Hestia managed to recruit one more person? That's unexpected." He had a truly surprised expression on his face.

He extended his hand to Tehom and said with a smile on his face. "Nice to meet you Mr. Tehom, my name is Miach."

Seeing the hand, Tehom sighed and shook hands with him before replying. "Nice to meet you Miach, I'm Tehom."

He expected this god to frown at his words like the others, but seeing that he only nodded and kept talking with Bell he was quite surprised, it's almost as if this man doesn't care about his status as a god...

Bell then asked if he knew where his goddess was, but Miach shook his head and told that he hadn't been attending this sort of party for some time because he had a lot of work to do.

His Familia was pretty similar to Hestia Familia, they were quite tight in money.

At some point, Miach gave Bell two potions, seeing those things Tehom finally understood the focus of Miach Familia, and this also gave him a pretty good idea, this would remove Bell's dependence on him, and gave him more time to search for new members and dive deeper into the dungeon!

Miach patted Bell's back and was about to leave when Tehom held him by the arm. "Please wait, Mr. Miach!"

"Oh, is there something you want to ask Mr. Tehom?"

"Didn't you just talked about patronage with Bell? Well, we are interested in making a deal with your Familia."

"Eh?" He and Bell were surprised by Tehom's words.

"You see, we are currently in need of Potions, so why don't we make a contract?"

"What kind of contract?

Tehom made a few calculi based on the overall price of potions and said. "We will pay you 250 thousand Valis per month, for a supply of 30 health and mana potions per month, not only that, but we will also escort the members of your family inside the dungeon whenever you need for free so long as the contract still exists..."

"What is your guys' floor count?" Miach asked in curiosity.

"11th-floor." They weren't on this floor for real, but considering the strength of those monsters, it would be easy to transport someone back and forth from that floor with their current level of power.

"Alright, it's a good deal, we can discuss other details later, I have to go now, farewell!" Miach waved his hand and left in hurried steps.

Seeing the man leaving, Bell turned to Tehom with a shocked expression on his face. He couldn't believe the deal he had made with Miach, where would they get so much money!?

"Relax kid, money is meant to be spent and not stored, this will increase our productivity, and it won't take long before we recruit more members to the Familia, I can't keep taking you around, it is too inefficient, that's why I said that this week would be hell for you, we will make as much money as we can to start our operations while I make you a capable person, after that, we will have to split to cover more areas of the Dungeon."

"Ah... At least you could tell me such things first so that I can avoid such surprises."

Tehom could only laugh at his words.

Soon they arrived at the church, Tehom had some things to do, so he told Bell to rest or play around while he dealt with adult business.

Bell simply nodded and left to wander around.

Seeing this, he turned away and went to the building closest to the church, he wanted to discuss with the owners how much they wanted for them. In order to build the new headquarter for the <Hestia Familia>, he would have to demolish the church and the closest buildings, all in all, the project that he had in mind required the space of 500m².

And based only on his observation, that meant he would have to buy no less than 6 of the closest buildings.

While he went to talk with the owners of the buildings, inside Hephaestus's workshop...

'I can't take this anymore...' Hephaestus sighed. She couldn't focus on her paperwork. So, she set her feather pen on the side of her desk and piled up the papers that still needed her signature.

The night was almost upon them.

"Hestia, tell me. Why are you going this far?"

Her finger lightly scratched her eye patch as she asked.

"Because I want to help him!"

Hestia didn't look up, only raised her voice loud enough to be clearly understood.

"He's changing, and quickly. Bell has a goal, and he's chosen the hardest path to follow. It's a dangerous path, that's why I want to help! I want to give him the strength he needs! A weapon that will clear a path for him!"

Hestia kept talking with her face to the floor, never looking up.

"He is always helping me! I feel like I am living off his hard work! I'm his goddess, but I haven't done anything godlike for him!"

Hestia's whole body tensed as she squeezed out her next words.

"I hate being useless..."

At that moment, the truth in Hestia's words convinced her to act, however...

"I understand your desire to help Bell, but at the <Denatus> you've asked me for two weapons, why two?"

Hearing this, Hestia's face involuntarily sunk.

"Well... Another person joined my Familia, it has not been long since he arrived, but he is truly helpful and is even teaching Bell how to fight and is protecting him inside the Dungeon..."

Hephaestus was surprised hearing this, the only reason she knew of Bell, was because he was with Hestia for quite a long time, the same goes for the other gods, those who knew of him was because they had some level of proximity with Hestia and saw him with her a few times. But she never heard of this new member.

"Who is it?"

"He is the red reaper..."

Hephaestus looked at her in surprise, her eyes wide open and her mouth agape.

"You are really lucky that he decided to join your Familia, even if he isn't strong yet, his immortality is good enough to allow him to enter the area around the 20th-floor, all gods of the upper families were interested in him, but he made the guild tell us to never look for him unless we were willing to give him the position of captain, for obvious reasons nobody tried to take him in."

Hestia nodded and sighed at the memory of him asking for the Captain's position.

"So... Will you help me?"

Hephaestus sighed and looked through the window for some time.

"...Alright... So, what kind of weapon shall be made for them?"

Hestia's eyes shot open as her head popped up.

"If I didn't agree you'd never move."

"Yes. Thank you, Hephaestus!"

Hestia tried to jump to her feet, but after spending a day facedown on the floor, her limbs weren't ready. She fell back to her knees with an innocent smile on her face. Hephaestus sighed again, but this time it was lighthearted.

"But let me say this: You will pay back every single Val, understood? I don't care if it takes one hundred years, you will repay me."

"I know, I know. I can do it, and it won't be that difficult with Tehom around. I'll prove to you that my feelings for Bell are the real thing!"

"Haha, what a lovestruck girl..."

She wasn't really listening to Hestia at this point, she walked to a shelf on the other side of the room. The shelf held a line of brand-new short hammers of varying colors.

"What do they use?"

"Uh... Tehom is a master swordsman, and he is teaching Bell to use a sword..."

Hephaestus then picked one of the hammers from the display shelf. After that, she walked farther down the shelf to a clear crystal case and opened the lid. The case contained a mix of assorted metals and alloys. She selected one that sparkled a light silver hue, Mythril.

"H-Hephaestus? Are you going to make it yourself?"

"Yes, this is a private matter between us and has nothing to do with my Familia. I can't let them get involved. Besides... It will be interesting to create a weapon for the famous red reaper." She turned to Hestia and said. "And you will be lending me a hand. I'm not going to let you just sit around."

"You can count on me!"

Hephaestus had a small smile on her face as she turned to leave.

"But I want to see the red reaper, I'm really curious about him, a mortal that can't die."

"It's fine for me." Hestia followed her like an excited puppy.

As she walked Hephaestus thought about every info she had on Bell and on Tehom. It didn't take long to think of a perfect weapon for him, but for the red reaper...

"Hestia, what can you tell me about the red reaper? The more info I have on him the better the weapon I can create."

"Aren't you going to ask about Bell as well?"

Seeing Hestia pouting at her question, she sighed.

"I already have enough info on him, but I know close to nothing about the red reaper. So tell me what I asked you."

"Sigh... He is arrogant and uneducated. Despise the gods and looks like a war veteran."

Hephaestus ears perked up at those new pieces of information about him.

"He is also a master swordsman of the highest-grade... and..." She thought for a moment, should she reveal his information for Hephaestus? She was her best friend and probably wouldn't tell anyone...

"Hephaestus..."

"Hm?"

"Promise to me that you won't tell anyone what I'm about to tell you."

Seeing the seriousness in her voice, Hephaestus was surprised. What was she about to tell that requires a promise?

"Alright, I promise."

"He is a true hero and a living legend."

"WHAT!?" Hephaestus stopped so suddenly that Hestia bumped at her and fell to her knees.

"Ouch... Why did you stop walking so suddenly?"

"Ah... Sorry." Hephaestus help her to get up and kept walking.

'So... unlike Bell, he is basically a really amazing individual.'

.....

It has been three days since Hestia left.

Tehom had talked to the owners of the nearby buildings and managed to make a deal, they would sell the building for 1 million Valis each, usually, it would be more expensive but the buildings were pretty old and were almost collapsing on its own. He was quite lucky about this part. However, he only had two months to collect the money, so he would have to work extra hard for the next few weeks.

He and Bell were going to the dungeon when suddenly a catgirl called out to them.

"Heyyy! White-hair and dangerous mister! Wait a minute, nya!"

For some reason, Tehom reacted when he heard the dangerous mister part, how was he a dangerous mister!? He and Bell went to the girl to understand what she wanted.

"Good morning, nya. Sorry to call nyou out like that, nya!"

"Ah, morning... Can I help you...?" Bell asked.

But Tehom was in a hurry and didn't want to waste too much time so he said.

"Let's get done with this, what do you want?"

The catgirl looked at him while pouting. 'So disrespectful...'

She ignored Tehom and turned to Bell with a smile. "Could nyou give this to Seal-san? Nyou are her friend so I wanted nyou to give this to her, nya!"

She gave him a clothe coin purse.

Knowing that Bell would help no matter what, he simply asked.

"Where is she?"

"She is at the festival, nya!"

"Alright." He took Bell and went started running to the festival.

"Wait, captain, won't our bags make it more difficult to get there?" Bell asked hurriedly.

"No, it won't because we won't walk through the streets."

"What?!"

Unfortunately, Bell didn't get a reply and was forced to run with all his strength to follow Tehom.

The whole festival thing was happening at East Main Street, there were countless citizens walking here, Bell and Tehom had to walk on the ceiling of the buildings in order to walk through this place.

As they jumped from the ceiling of the Cafe to another building, a woman who was sitting next to the window followed their silhouettes with her beautiful eyes, she was wearing a navy blue cloak to prevent her face and snowy-white skin, from being seen.

The people inside were fascinated by every move she made, they couldn't help but stare at her. Freya the Goddess of Beauty, ignored them and kept her eyes on the two that just passed by the window.

In front of her was sitting the trickster god, Loki, and behind Loki was a blonde girl who was also looking at the two who just passed by, her name was Ais Wallenstein.

"What is so interesting that you two can't stop staring outside?"

"Just a little rabbit and a monster..." Freya smiled.

"What? So you came here to look for a man? Is that what you are after?"

Freya just stared at her without saying anything, simply smiling.

"Then, you are interested in the child of another Familia again?"

All of the gods and goddesses knew about Freya's "habits" when it came to men. Once a male on Gekai caught her eyes, she would make a move. Her beauty was powerful enough to make her target her own. Exactly how many men had fallen under her spell, no one knew...

Obviously going after someone already in another Familia, to take them away from it, would not end well. The god of the other Familia wouldn't sit by and do nothing. Freya was picking a fight.

"I found him by accident. He just happened to walk across my line of vision. But then, one target became two, who would have expected that such a weird man would appear out of nowhere..."

Seeing that the two left her field of view she smiled and said.

"I'm sorry, something has come up."

"Eh?"

"Let's do this again soon."

Loki could only watch in disappointment as Freya left.

"What kind of person leaves you hanging like that?

.....

Ouranos was watching the East Main street from the guild with a blank face when a bird approached him from behind and turned into the figure of a man, however, he didn't wear any clothes, his face was blank as if it didn't exist and he had nothing where his pp was supposed to be.

"What did you discover about him?"

On the man's hand, a piece of paper appeared out of nowhere and he gave it to Ouranos.

Ouranos observed it for a moment and frowned after reading this, to some this wasn't enough to tell anything about a man's past but for him, it was more than enough, he threw away the piece of paper that had the words:

(Tehom

Lv 1

...)

His face sunk and he looked at the sky while frowning.

"So you went there... what are you scheming this time. I should have destroyed that place after you ascended. How could I be so childish and leave that world still existing, that was a big mistake..." He clenched his fists...

The jade emperor wasn't a normal god, he was powerful, a threat to all of the other gods, there wasn't a single eastern god that wasn't part of his faction, with each year his forces would slowly increase.

Not only that, but he also was greedy and was always looking for ways to break through his limits, something that they weren't capable of doing. He had stolen two treasures from Ourano ever since he ascended, and he always questioned why a man like him would keep searching for ways to get stronger.

At that moment, a weird genderless voice echoed from behind Ouranos.

"He is like Chronos and Zeus. Their existence brings unbalance. That was why he was killed in the first place, wasn't it? I'm just surprised that you failed to kill both of them in the end, Zeus and the Jade Emperor, you better prepare yourself, because his act of breaking past you barriers just to transmigrate a mortal, looks more like a declaration of war than anything else."

"Proteus..."

"You do remember, right? That day he killed my father."

Memories of Poseidon flashed through Ouranos' memory. He shook his head and sighed... Perhaps he was getting too old for this. He just wanted to know the Jade Emperor's motivation, was it vengeance for having blocked the gods' access to the prime world? Or was he aiming for his position?

"Keep an eye on Tehom, don't let anything escape from your eyes, also take this." He gave to Proteus some sort of orb.

"It will hide your presence inside the dungeon even if you use your Arcanum."

Proteus silently nodded and once again transformed into a bird and left through the window.

.....

"Here it is."

Hephaestus still dressed in her work gear, handed Hestia two cases. Hestia let out a squeal of delight. She had bags under her eyes, but her face still beamed with energy.

"Does it meet your expectations?"

"Yes, yes! Very much! No complaints!"

Hestia put down the cases and opened them, the one on the left had a beautiful broadsword, the surface of the blade was pitch black and didn't reflect the light no matter which angle you tried to make it reflect. As for the one on the right, it was a katana slightly bigger than the broadsword, it was purplish-blue and the blade seemed to come out of the mouth of an eastern dragon which was the handle of the sword.

"Ah! Hephaestus, we have to name the blades! Can I give Bell's blade one? Let's see, how about something that binds Bell and me together? 'Love Sword' or something like that?"

"Please, no... This sword is worth more than that. But this is your blade now..."

Hephaestus suggested "Hestia's Sword", but Hestia wasn't too excited by that name. And since Hestia didn't care that much about the red reaper's sword, she decided to call it "Draconic Reaper", it was a mix between Tehom's nickname and the appearance of the sword. It's a pity that she didn't have any means to give the sword a red color, this would make it much more suitable for the "red reaper".

"Let me remind you of something really important."

"What is it?"

"Do not go back on the loan." Hephaestus had a cold look on her face as she spoke.

"I won't! I won't!"

Hestia started adjusting her clothes as if she was getting ready to go.

"Leaving already?"

"Yeah, sorry!" Hestia went for the exit.

Hephaestus could only watch as she ran carrying the two cases.

'I can't wait to give this to him... Only Tehom's sword can wait!' Just thinking about Bell's face the moment she gave him the Sword made her so happy that she could die. Hestia blushed as she thought how to set up that moment. She was walking down the middle of the road, her face stuck in the same expression, giggling to herself.

She was planning to go home and wait for him there, but she heard someone talking about the <Monstherphilia>, since Bell and Tehom were new in Orario, they would probably be there. She was so excited to see him, that the idea of searching him in a massive crowd didn't bother her at all.

She stopped a taxi and paid him to take her to East Main Street. Because of the size of the city, those methods of transportations were the most efficient ones to cross the city, and although they were called taxis, it was more like a horse cart.

Unfortunately for Hestia, most of the streets were so crowded that there was no way she could continue through a taxi, so her trip only took a few minutes before she had to leave it and go on foot.

She had to walk through the side road in order to increase her speed. It was dark and narrow, giving a bad feeling to anyone that walked there. At some point, she almost ran into a woman covering her entire body with a navy blue cloak at a small intersection. Hestia could tell that it was Freya with a single look.

"What are you doing here, Freya?"

"Hestia?"

Hestia looked at her for a moment and asked.

"Did you come to see the festival?"

"In a sense yes. But the streets are too crowded with children, so I'm staying out of sight, this way is faster to get there."

"I see... Oh, Freya, have you seem the boy in my Familia? I'm looking for him, he is a human with white hair and ruby-red eyes. Similar to a rabbit.

Freya stopped smiling and went silent. But her smile returned soon after.

"Yes, he was together with the red reaper, it seems to me that they were going towards the stadium. So if you take the left up there, you should be able to avoid the crowd completely."

Accepting her directions without a second thought, Hestia thanked her and set off.