3 Chapter 3: Dungeon

(This chapter was re-uploaded on Monday 14/August/2023 9:00 PM, timezone GMT+3)

('1), ('2), ('3), etc. means that there is some explaining for the thing in the notes at the end of the chapter.

"..." small moment of silence

"Talking"

"He-" Someone was interrupted.

'Thinking'

[Skills' names, chanting and spells' names]

Don't shy from commenting on typos and/or inconsistencies. That and/or suggesting a modification to certain things that didn't make sense to you.

I hope you enjoy reading this chapter.

(Line Break)

"So, you would go to the dungeon with me? Really?! I thought you would be going to do something else today?" Bell's excitement returned.

"Yes, captain. For the last time, Yes. I have finished my business earlier than expected and am free now"

"He-he-he-he. I will adventure with a friend today" Bell giggled.

"But what is that paper you put in your pockets?"

"That, my dear captain, is the Ganesha familia's approval of me keeping Fey with me as a tamer. With it, Fey is allowed to roam the city and go to the dungeon with me. This's the first one and is an experiment. If Fey caused trouble, they confiscate my rights to keep her inside the city. I would either need to take her outside the city or take her to the dungeon's depths. But I know my girl. She won't cause trouble. Rather, she will make our adventures cooler than others'"

"Our cool adventures await us!" Bell got fired-up. He raised a fist towards the sky in a show of enthusiasm. How cool would it be to fight alongside strong monsters led by his new friend?

The duo went to get one of Eina's hellish lectures first thing in the morning, even though Henryk knew most of what to expect on the first few floors.

"You telling me this is the dungeon's entrance? It's quite big for an entrance meant for humans"

"I do not believe that to be true. They say that the dungeon spewed out monsters nearly as big as this hole before. This size was meant for them"

"I can understand it now" Henryk walked alongside the wall rather than the edge of the stairs leading down.

"But, are you sure you do not want a weapon, Henryk? Even a dagger is fine. You should get something to defend yourself, just in case"

"I get the idea. It's just that I don't want to be indebted to just about anyone. And just for your knowledge, we will graduate from the guild-provided equipment in no time. By the way, how deep did you go?"

"I had prior experience. It helped me to go down to the second floor yesterday. Why?"

"Curiosity. Let's get moving"

When they stepped foot in the first floor, Henryk took a look around him.

The first thing they saw was the hallway commonly referred to as the beginning road. After that, the tunnels started twisting and turning slightly. It was not to the point of blocking one's vision, but it was enough to restrict it's range.

*crack* Cracks sounded once they exited the beginning road. Thankfully, only two goblins spawned.

"Taking one each?"

"Sounds good"

As Bell went on to kill one of the goblins, Henryk wanted to test Fey's strength. Depending on her performance, he might consider feeding her a magic stone earlier than anticipated, if at all.

"Fey, eyes, neck" He pointed at the other goblin.

The poor things did not get out of the walls completely yet. They were still wriggling their way out when they were jumped.

Bell's prey fell fast, as he already done this for two days while having prior experience fighting monsters ('1). As for Fey's, she slammed her foot into the side of it's head, then proceeded to claw at its neck and face, including the eyes. The goblin ended up brutally murdered. Its eyes were gouged out and both of its Carotid arteries cut open. It bled to death with the remains of its shredded eyes laying on the floor.

"Is this slow, captain?" The entire process took only a little under a half a minute.

"For a first, it is okay. But you will need to device a better plan for when you encounter many"

"What if I was the one to kill them, but Fey was working on both distracting them and wearing them out?"

"Team tactics are preferable, according to Eina. Your idea seems viable"

"Guess I will have to borrow a mace, then" Henryk suddenly had a moment of enlightenment. "I have an idea"

"What?" Bell got hooked fast. They were talking about weapons when Henryk had an idea. What is it?

"I know just the smith for this job. We will go ask him later" 'Sorry, Bell. Your adventure will take a different turn with me around. I just hope I don't screw up Lili's encounter'

*crack* Another series of cracks started opening the dungeon's walls.

"Shall we start, Captain?"

"Yes!"

They forgot something called limits.

(Line Break)

"How many times need I tell you? Adventurers should not go on adventures" Eina was looking at the bloodied duo. They came in drenched in a mix of goblin, kobold and dungeon lizard blood.

"But, miss Eina, that is exactly why they call us adventurers, because we go on adventures"

"Exactly what captain said"

"You shut up" Eina, out of nowhere, took out a horse whip and threatened them.

"Yes, miss Eina" Bell said.

"As you say, ma'am" Henryk responded.

They will never learn this lesson.

"So, how much did we earn, captain?" Henryk asked after they stepped outside the guild.

"Around 5 thousand valis"

"We should become much more efficient when we get used to fighting by each other's side, going down a few floors could help too"

"True" Bell was in his own world. 'Today, I took my first steps to forming my heroic party'

"So, tomorrow, I will experiment with how Fey's training benefits our dungeon delving"

(Line Break)

It was a few days later when we could see the unusual site of a rabbit being assisted by an eagle. This unbelievable scene was happening in the second floor.

"Fey, neck, crush" Henryk instructed whilst pointing his finger at a specific goblin.

Fey nestled her sharp talons on a goblin's neck and gripped with as much strength as her feet could. The poor goblin's windpipe got punctured while one of its Carotid arteries met a similar fate. It turned to black dust soon after.

"Fey, distract" This time, the target was a kobold.

The kobold was played by Fey. She flew circles around it without doing much aside from making a lot of noise. It was effective, as the kobold did not notice an incoming attack that took its life away.

"Fey, disarm" It was a new word he trained her to do yesterday, after they were done with the dungeon. Her target this time was another poor gob, one that tried to attack Bell while he was distracted by another monster. Its weapon fell from its hand when Fey has gotten it in a crushing grip, breaking the bones. It was no mere disarm.

"Fey, heel" Fey took the foot of some poor gob off his feet. The gob laid on the ground, vulnerable to attacks.

"Good work, Fey. That was last for today" Henryk praised Fey for today's accomplishments. The girl did her job.

"No, Fey. Bad girl. What did we say about not eyeing magic stones? This is not something you should eat. I don't want you to become a monster, not yet"

"But, Henryk, she needs to become stronger to survive down here. With no falna, becoming a monster is the only other option she has as of now. It is not like she will start attacking people"

"Captain, don't jinx it. Fine, Fey. I will give you this one"

Henryk finally complied, after days of convincing from both Fey's insistent desire and Bell's convincing. What happened next was not calculated.

"PIIIIIEEEEEEE" Fey started writhing and pealing in pain. The transformation into a monster was not anything but painful. Her pain was accompanied by an irresistible itch all over her body, especially around the rear.

*crack* They did not have the luxury of observing her transformation. A large group of monsters appeared from the walls. If one counted them, they will count up to 13 goblins and kobolds. Two dungeon lizards were also hidden under the cavern's ceiling.

The monsters all eyed Fey with clear intentions. The dungeon sensed the presence of a monster not of its creations. It did not approve of this monster's existence, and thus, spawned monsters directly aimed at it.

"Captain? Can I rely on you? My girl needs protection"

"Of course, you can depend on me. That is what a hero does, help their friends and any others in need"

"I expected nothing less of his grandson" Henryk's strained smile gained back some of its lost vigor.

A goblin, screeching, tried to jump at Bell, the one protecting the fake monster closely. It was soon silenced by Henryk, who jammed a sharp stalagmite he picked up just then in its head, right from under the back of it. There, an opening in the skull could be observed. His aim came true as his impromptu weapon pierced from the side of the spine, and into the goblin's brain, killing it.

While Henryk was moving towards the goblin, his back was open for attacks. An opportunistic dungeon lizard was falling on the spot he should be standing in. It failed as he was moving to the next target. An attack from Bell finished it off.

Seven goblins, five kobolds and a lizard remain.

Two kobolds targeted him from front and back. Although he did not notice the one behind him, he made the decision to duck down. It saved him the pain of a kobold's claws embedding themselves in his flesh.

Noticing the kobold that wanted to attack him from behind, an idea came to his mind. He used all the strength he could muster from his arms to accomplish his next gory feat.

Holding the arm of the kobold on his left with his right hand and vice versa, he intended for the arms to continue moving to the targets in front of them, the two kobolds' hearts. The arms stabbed true. They stabbed the areas around hearts of them both. One died soon after from excessive blood loss while the other's magic stone shattered, immediately turning it into black dust.

Seven goblins, three kobolds and a lizard remain.

He turned to Bell, who, having dealt with a kobold and a goblin, was being swarmed by two goblins and a kobold, his back to a wall. "LOOK HERE, YOU GREMLINS" He ran towards them while shouting to attract their attention. He succeeded in grabbing the goblins' attention, leaving Bell only the kobold to deal with. The other monsters observed from a distance, waiting for a chance to attack.

As he was running, he scooped the stalagmite from the first goblin's corpse. He used it to stab at one goblin's chest, embedding him to the ground. The other goblin wanted to take this chance to kill Henryk, but a well-timed stab from bell's knife made short work of its attempt.

Four goblins, two kobolds and a lizard remain.

The kobold, whose attention never left Bell's form, was speeding towards his open back. Its claws scratched Bells right arm, the arm holding the knife. It then was rammed into the wall by Henryk, who proceeded to stab his fingers in its eye sockets, gouging them out, and then tear off its ears. It let out howls of pain that made the remaining monsters waiver in panic and fear.

Henryk then reared his arm, holding its neck, and slammed it to the ground. He crushed its windpipe under his foot, suffocating it. The display of brutality here was not something the monsters were prepared for.

Four goblins, a kobold and a lizard remain.

Henryk quickly grabbed his stalagmite and broke off another from the ground. They were both thin and sturdy. They were perfect weapons for now. He held them from the thin peak, as if to make makeshift stone clubs out of them.

"More than half of them died, captain. Do you think we can handle the rest before running out of steam?"

"We should do it before then. The life of a companion is at line"

"THEN WE SHOULD CHARGE!!" Henryk issued a war cry and charged forward. He aimed for a lone duo, consisting of a goblin and the last kobold.

As he charged forward, the kobold found some last-resort courage in itself. It tried to stab at him with its right hand's claws.

Henryk used the stalagmite in his right hand to redirect its hand. Then he slammed the wide, jagged end of the other stalagmite, where it would have connected to the ground, on its face, right above the snout, disorienting it and blinding it temporarily.

The goblin tried getting closer. It was in Henryk's peripheral vision, and as he saw it approaching, he raised his right arm high.

After adjusting his grip on the stalagmite to reveal more of its sharp edge, he stabbed downwards. The stalagmite was able to penetrate through the skull and penetrating the brain inside. The goblin died.

This move came at a cost, though. The pointy end of the stalagmite in his right hand shattered. What he was left with was a club with two jagged ends. He used it on the now recovering kobold. He slammed both stalagmites to the sides of its head as it was shaking its head back and forth, trying hard to gain back the rest of its vision.

What Henryk did disoriented it again. While it was still disoriented, Henryk threw the broken stalagmite in favor of two-handing the other one. He then proceeded to crush the kobold's head after a number of hits. His body was already washed with lots of blood and viscera, this added more to it.

"HENRYK, BEHIND YOU" While Henryk dealt with the duo, a goblin snuck up on him.

As he heard Bell's shout, he tried to avoid it, but it seems that all this fighting, with no restraints, took a toll on him. The goblin slashed at his side with a landform knife-like weapon, leaving an open wound on his left side. ('2)

He kicked the goblin's legs. He had just enough strength to fell the goblin to the ground. He did not have the strength in him to crush its throat like he did to that kobold. As such, he jumped and bent his leg up.

When he was about the right distance above the goblin, he kicked as hard as he could. Unfortunately, the goblin moved to the side in an attempt to get up. In spite of that, its thin arm was broken. It held its broken arm and cried out in pain.

Henryk took the chance to recover his weapons, the stalagmites. After which, he stabbed the intact one through the goblin's heart, killing it.

While Henryk fought these three monsters, Bell had to deal with only two goblins. He easily slit their throats after they were scared witless by Henryk's last display.

A lizard remains.

"Is that all *huff* of them? Huh, captain? *huff*" Henryk was getting tired already. It did not help that the wound on his side was still bleeding, he started getting dizzy.

"Take a potion. It should stop the bleeding" Bell gave him a potion and he drank half of it.

The wound on his side started closing at an incredible speed. And although his blood was not replaced, his dizziness lightened as a side effect of drinking the potion. It was because of this that he noticed a dungeon lizard going for Fey while they were not paying attention.

"Oh no you don't" Henryk sprinted with what remained of his energy. He was barely in time to intercept the falling dungeon lizard with his body. He received the attack in Fey's place. He was guarding against it using his forearms, but the fatigue from the minutes of continuous fighting caught up.

Henryk could not move anymore. So, he looked at the dungeon lizard getting caught by Bell's attack. As the lizard tried climbing the walls again, Bell jumped at its open back, aiming for its magic stone. The knife struck it near the stone, not hitting the stone itself. Bell then opted to gouge the knife out of its side, leaving it bleeding to death.

No monsters remain standing on the field, all dead.

"Is this the end of it? For real this time?" Henryk barely held on. He was out of breath after all of that.

By this time, Fey has calmed down. Her transformation was now nearly finished.

"I can still fight a goblin or two. You two rest for now" Bell had a determined expression on his face. They could not move with one unconscious, one injured and one barely able. They needed to rest to gain some stamina back. Bell helped Henryk lean on a wall, rather than staying prone by laying on the ground.

(Line Break)

They rested there for around an hour. Then, an adventurer arrived at the intersection they were resting at. They saw Henryk and Bell alongside Fey, not minding her existence. Assuming Fey was a tamed monster, they approached to ask if they needed help.

"Heya, there. Need any help?" She was an amazon, a very flat amazon.

"Whas'up, Tiona?" Henryk immediately acted familiar.

"Do I know you?" She got ever closer.

"No. My name is Henryk Williams. And let me say this, it's a fortune that you're the one who chanced upon us, rather than your sister. Your sister wouldn't even ask before attacking my girl" Henryk said while looking at Fey, whose head was under her wing. She was sleeping.

"Oh?! So you were really a tamer? Is she fluffy? Can I pet her?" The simple-minded amazon wanted to carelessly touch a sleeping monster, not that it would have mattered with her high level.

"Only when she's awake"

The both of them did not notice Bell awkwardly looking away from Tiona. As an amazon, she wore exposing clothes. Hers were only a white tube top around her chest and an earthily yellow pareo around her waist.

"Captain, you should get used to an amazoness' dress code. Otherwise, you wouldn't have luck with them" Henryk teased him.

"HENRYK!" Bell was Bell, of course.

"Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha. You two seem like fun! Can I chat with you?"

"You got your comrade there, Tiona. He got all the hero stories memorized by heart. You need only protect us so you can talk to him" Henryk did not calculate this move right.

"Good! We must take you out of here first. Can you stand on your own?" Tiona got excited when thinking of finally talking about hero stories with another person.

"I can" Henryk did not want to be carried out on her shoulder like a sack of potatoes. "Hey, Fey. Wake up" Fey opened her eyes sluggishly. She was sleepy after her transformation was done.

She now had an extra pair of legs that were those of a horse. Her eagle half was exactly the same as before. The horse part was an addition to that. The colors on both halves matched. The horse half was mostly grey, having a dark-grey crucible lit with white flames.

(AN: Think of a crucible that is on the wider and shorter end. Imagine it in likeness to the ones used in chemistry labs in universities and colleagues)

'She resembles a hippogriff now, doesn't she? Although, she looks much more menacing in comparison to a danmachi hippogriff. Anyway, maybe I can ride her back if she got any bigger later. No, wait! I shouldn't be thinking that. Fey's like a daughter to me. I don't want to burden her' "Who is a good girl?" "Pie" Fey pealed and accepted her usual headpats with joy.

"Fey, friend" Henryk pointed at Tiona, who understood what happened in her own weird way.

"YAY! FLUFFY FEATHERS!" "PIIIEEE?" She jumped at an underprepared Fey, who was trying to wrench herself free, unsuccessfully, that is. She was fluffed out all the way to the surface.

Meanwhile, Bell was talking to Tiona about heroes all the time. His embarrassment at her outfit's exposure seemingly forgotten.

(Line Break)

"It was fun talking to you, Bell. Let's meet again" The cheerful ball of energy left them at babel's ground level, above the dungeon's entrance level.

"Beeeeelllllllll" A chill went down the trio's spines. Eina was furious. It was just pure luck that she needed to do a thing or two at the ground level of babel, when she saw their bloodied forms.

They only got to wash up and get bandaged, before getting an earful from a livid Eina.

"Now, we can start hearing your reasons. Speak"

"Let me say this one, captain" A blank Bell nodded. Yes, Bell was lacking in color, enough to be viewed as pure white. "We were doing fine. That was until we had the bright idea of feeding Fey here a magic stone. The dungeon didn't like the fact that I was creating my own monster and spawned what I remember to be about 15 monsters. There were eight goblins, five kobolds and two dungeon lizards. Fey couldn't help either, as she was writhing in pain while transforming"

"Do not do something as reckless again" Eina sighed. She was starting to form a massive headache. She thought that one Bell was enough, only to have two of him.

(Line Break)

"So, captain?"

"Yes?"

"You remember that smith I told you about?"

"Are we finally going to see him?" Bell's eyes shined. How many cool weapons are there in his smithy?

"He's an upstart smith with the name of Welf Crozzo. His skills are immaculate for his level, so don't lose hope yet just because he's an upstart"

"We should go then!" Bell was fired up. Would he be able to get a cool looking sword from Welf's hands?

'Guess I won't be borrowing one. I will be buying it' Henryk left Fey at the churches basement. She still needed a little more rest.

(Line Break)

"Who is it?" Welf asked who they were while opening the door.

"Is this Welf Crozzo's place?" Henryk was the one doing the talking.

"No. I won't sell you any ma-"

"Shut up and listen, man. We want normal weapons. Magic weapons are wimpy shits that break and leave their user stranded in danger without a weapon to defend himself with. Even if you wanted to make one, I will refuse it. Now release the door's nub so I can open it" If a tick mark could, it would appear on Henryk's head.

Henryk and Welf were both holding the door for different purposes. Welf held the nub and wanted to close the door. Henryk held the edge of the door and wanted to push it open. Bell was standing on the side not knowing what to say.

"Seriously, if you thought of magic weapons like that, then you should've said it from the start. I would've welcomed you in"

"Guess who was the one to make a hasty judgement?" Henryk retorted.

"Come in" Welf opened the door for them to hear what they wanted.

"Sorry about being rude just now. People have been bugging me lately, to make them magic weapons and such" They sat on a few makeshift seats made from of his workshop's benches.

"What do we have to do to make a contract with you?"

"Well, I have to know, why are you coming my way? There're many better smiths out there" Welf wanted to make sure why they chose him. He knew he was still lacking in comparison with other smiths.

"You have potential"

"What makes you think that I have that much of it?"

"As you know, the Crozzoes originally could make these ridiculous magic weapons without a falna. Do you know what the quality of their non-magical weapons was?"

Welf took on a contemplative pose. "It was recorded to have been outworldly. The weapons could allow a normal person to kill monsters stronger than they were, or so it was said" He then answered.

"Then let's proceed with the contract?"

(Line Break)

The terms they settled on:

- Welf would join their party until he gains the blacksmith development ability.

- Welf will not make magic weapons for them for the duration of the contract.

- For the duration of their contract, both Bell and Henryk will only buy weapons and armor from him.

- Most drop items are to be given to Welf. In exchange, Most of his magic stones are given to the other party members.

- After the contract ends, Welf is to stay in the party for at least another month. Only then can he decide to leave or to stay.

(Line Break)

"This seems right"

"What do you mean by that? It's heavily in my favor" Although it was welcome, it was by no means fair. Welf did not want to exploit them.

"I want you to get attached to our party. That's why"

"*sigh* From now on, just call me Welf"

"That was the plan. Why do you think I added in that last condition?"

"I'm attractive" Welf wanted to make a joke.

"Well, I gotta admit. You actually are handsome" Henryk took the joke to another lever. The other two gawked at him. "By the way, I'm interested in women"

"Pffft, hahahahaha. You're quite blunt, EH?! Hahahahaha" Welf gave Henryk a slap on the back.

You see, Welf did not account for Henryk's lack of stats and slapped him a tad bit too strong.

*cough* "Look at you, young man, hitting your elders like that" Henryk sighed in exasperation.

"..."

"Don't look at me like that. I was joking about that "elders" stuff. I'm nineteen"

"Lame joke, bud" Welf was smiling.

"Oh, by the way. Did you have any ready-made light armor for captain?"

"I have a few. Although, based on his build, I might retrieve Pyonkishi from the store. Here, have a look before we go take it back" Welf handed them a basic drawing of his light armor.

"This is perfect! Can I have it?! Now?!" Bell disregarded the name and the rabbit drawing on the armor's chest plate. The design just fits his taste. It looked light and easy to move in.

"Then we should go now, Bell" Welf always welcomed someone welling to buy his armor and weapons. He genuinely does not know why people did not like them. 'Was it the quality they didn't like?' He thought.

"Hey, you're forgetting me. I want a mace and a shield" He was sold a mace and a shield which were already made.

They went and took the armor from the flabbergasted shopkeeper. After strapping the armor pieces to black shirt and pants, Bell commented on how comfortable it is.

Henryk struck him in the chest to test something. "Durability should be more than enough for our levels" Welf welcomed the praise.

The armor was made for level one adventurers. Getting praised by one made it clear that the armor fulfilled its purpose. They need only to wait to test it in the dungeon.

(Line Break)

Before they went to sleep, Henryk got his status updated.

(Line Break)

(this is 4 days' worth of work)

Name: Henryk Williams

Familia: Hestia Familia

Level: 1

STR: I0 --> I24

END: I0 --> I19

DEX: I0 --> I13

AGI: I0 --> I10

MAG: I0

Magic:

None

Skills:

Advanced Taming:

By weakening a monster, you could feed it a magic stone to tame it.

The monsters you tame become a new species.

Monsters can heal any injury by eating magic stones. Unhampering wounds are still going to form.

Master of monsters:

Although you may be slower than your monsters, you will be able to follow their movements as clear as day.

Orders:

If out of earshot of your monster, only one order could be transmitted at a time. Upon receiving a reply, you could send the next order. Orders could be ignored.

Fake Falna:

Allows the automatic bestowal of falna to your monsters.

Bestowing and updating the fake falna does not require your blood, only levelling up does.

The fake falna can enhance parameters using only magic stones as a catalyst; they replace excellia.

The monsters you tame at least have one non-racial skill and one racial skill, some could have more.

If the monsters have an animal person counterpart, they will get a [humanification] skill to become that counterpart.

Your monsters' levels increase by one after being tamed.

Monsters will acquire the [Abnormal Resistance I] development ability for level two. Any further development ability could be chosen by you.

Monsters' parameters, upon being tamed, for all levels below their shown level are all S999, regardless of the presence of any magic spells, or the lack thereof.

Feeding the monster a magic stone of the same species, it will make them into a variant with a skill appropriate for the variant type or change an already existing skill accordingly.

- Hippogriff: Fey Williams (Harpy eagle variant)

(Line Break)

End of chapter.

'1:

Bell did fight some loose goblin or two before arriving at Orario's gates.

Have a good day, ladies and gentlemen.