*tic* *toc* *tic* *toc*

The sound of the clock made a steady rhythm, indicating the time was moving on.

Shouji didn't know why, but he couldn't sleep as his eyes hovered at the two sleeping figures sleeping so soundly.

Evidently, from the fight with the hybrid orc.

His eyes flickered onto the clock on the wall.

"(Hmm... what time is it?... 11.35 pm... she's pretty late... probably late night shift.)" He thought.

He tried to sit up straight as he left the hard floor where he slept.

It was quite a horrible experience, sleeping on the floor.

He rather slept in the wild.

At least, the ground was soft there.

Seeing that he was not sleeping anytime soon, he decided that maybe, walking out would do him good.

Going upstairs onto the church, he couldn't help but shivered a bit as cold air met with his warm body.

He made his way onto a bench, leaning his back as his face faced upwards.

He could see the stars, since the ceiling were full of holes.

His mind lingered onto the night sky, thinking about what he should do.

Now that he thought about it, he hadn't try his new magic!

With his new founded excitement, he rushed downstairs.

He carefully searched for his elixir potion as he made sure to not make any sound.

Making his way up to the church, he found a place to sit from the many broken seats of the church.

With the used elixir on his right hand, he muttered 'replicate', which created another version of the 'used elixir' on his left hand.

"(Yes!! It's working... but such a shame... I could only replicate potion...)"

Before, Shouji had tried to bargained with the Grimoire so that he would have the ability to replicate any items.

He could replicate valis, weapons, armors, houses and many more.

He would be an over powered adventurer!!

But the Grimoire said that it didn't have the power to grant Shouji his prefered ability, but he could grant an ability that was a bit similar.

Hence, he obtained 'potion replicate'.

Guessed it was naive of him to think that the Grimoire could grant him anything.

Sitting down, he was thinking about his previous battles with the monsters he had encountered in the Dungeon.

His magic was useful, but it was kind of hard for him to keep track how many times he had used his magic.

He was keeping track so that he knew when he would reach the limit, avoiding the 'mind down' symptom.

That would be dangerous for him.

He sighed.

"Hm? Is that you, Shouji?"

Shouji turned to the source of the voice, which was Hestia.

"Welcome home, Miss Hestia." He said as Hestia approached him.

"Hm? What are you doing?" She asked.

"Nothing." Shouji answered as he 'replicate' more elixirs.

"Hm? *yawn*. Well, I'll be going downstairs." She said, ignoring whatever the boy was doing.

"Okay..." Shouji said as he focused on his elixir's production.

Then, it clicked on him.

He forgot about Lily that was on Hestia's bed!

"(Oh shoot!)"

Shouji ran downstairs, just in time to see Hestia standing near the bed where Lily was sleeping.

Shouji had seen that eye thingy that Hestia always did when she wanted-

"WHA-mmph!"

-to scream.

With his hand over Hestia's mouth, he had successfully muffled her screaming.

"(Whew~ this goddess. Screaming at every opportunity. People are sleeping for goodness sake.)"

Damn, people should give him some rewards or something for making their sleeps comfortable.

"Well, firstly. Calm down. Okay?" Shouji slowly said to Hestia.

Hestia nodded.

Feeling that she was calmed, he slowly peeled his hand away.

Seeing that Hestia was paying attention, he slowly told her about how he and Bell met with an injured girl, which took a couple of minutes.

And now, Hestia stood at Lily's side, her eyes roaming onto the Pallum.

"Is she going to be okay?" She said softly.

"She did run into a hybrid." Shouji stated.

Hestia eyes widen, and Shouji knew the reason because he had forgotten to include the 'hybrid' in his retelling.

He did 'briefed' her.

"Nothing too serious. Just some minor cuts and probably exhaustion. I've already bandaged her." Shouji said in an attempt to calm Hestia down.

He could see that Hestia went back to her worry mode as she eyed the injured Lily.

He also looked at the Pallum.

"Hey. Why don't you use the elixir?" Hestia asked.

"Well, she's sleeping. Have to wait her to wake up so that she can drink the stuff."

"But you can just apply it on her body." Hestia said like it was the usual thing.

Shouji looked towards Hestia.

"(I can do that?)"

Maybe Hestia knew how elixir worked,but he was not too knowledgeable of its practical use.

Should he felt stupid knowing that Hestia knew more than him?

"(I should read more...)"

Shouji looked at Lily on the bed.

He took out an elixir and pour its content onto Lily, colourful liquid spread onto her figure.

He could see how the liquid seeped into the cuts and soon the cuts were gone as if it was never there to begin with.

"(Well, she seems to be fine.)" Shouji thought as he saw Lily breathing more slowly.

Shouji yawned, which Hestia soon followed.

--New Scene--

Shouji had already woken up as he was pretty much all prepped up.

Dishes were all cleaned, which he gratefully thanked his mother for drilling the activity into his head.

And now, he just stood in the area where Lily was still sleeping.

"(Hm... I guess she's really that tired huh...)"

Shouji noticed that the blanket was on the floor, which might had fallen during Lily's sleep.

So he bend down to reach for the blanket, and when he got up, he saw two brown eyes looking at him.

He could tell that Lily was being cautious as she looked stiff.

Slowly, Shouji raised his hands up, and slowly back away, letting the blanket fell helplessly onto the floor.

"Um... hi..." Shouji started the conversation.

Lily didn't respond.

"We've found you in the Dungeon, injured and brought you here to our home. The name's Shouji."

Lily had a looked of contemplation before speaking, "Maya... that's my name." Lily said.

Shouji knew 'Maya' was a fake alias she had made, since he had knowledge about 'Danmachi'.

Only first season though.

"Oh? You're awake!" Hestia said as she neared Lily.

Maybe it was because Hestia was a female, so Lily didn't seem to show any signs of being uncomfortable.

Soon, Bell joined in.

Few minutes later, Lily was now saying her goodbye and thanked Bell and Shouji for saving her life.

Shouji looked at the receding figure of Lily, and he contemplated on how to bring her into the party.

"WHAT!" Hestia screamed.

Shouji heard the shout, but he ignored it as he was trying to think of a way for Lily to join their party.

He needed a plan.

His thought was then disrupted by Hestia as she beckoned him and Bell inside.

Inside the church basement...

Shouji and Bell took a seat opposite of Hestia.

Seeing the two grimoires on the table, Shouji knew what Hestia was going to say.

Maybe that was why she screamed just now?

Even last night, she wanted to scream.

"(Sighed... maybe I should call her screamo goddess now.)"

Shouji looked at Hestia's face, which currently looked like someone that had swallowed something bitter.

There, Hestia was pointing her finger onto the two books, which Bell and Shouji had read.

"This... two books are grimoires. A book that bestow skill onto anyone that had read the book. The book can range from tens to hundreds of millions valis." Hestia said, her voice shaking a bit.

Hearing that, only Bell was showing a look of surprised.

"And it is a one time use only."

"One time use!" Bell shouted, registering what Hestia meant.

Bell looked at the book in front of him, horrified of the facts that had been pointed out.

His thought went towards Shouji as to how Shouji had managed to get the two books.

Shouji was the one that gave him the book.

"Oh... damn... welp. Guess it was their loss." Shouji said as he made a fake statement.

He rubbed his head as he closed his eyes, just for the sake of looking sorry.

"Their loss!?" Bell asked.

"Yeah. The books. Someone left it at Mama Mia's bar. Thought it was some storybooks or something, you know."

With shell-shocked face, Bell turned to Hestia. "What do we do!? I-If we try to compensate for the-no. It's not enough!" Bell said to himself.

"Bell... there's nothing that we can do. It's their loss. Once used, the books are as good as trash. And trash should be burned. Remove all evidence. This secret is only for the three of us." Hestia said.

"But!"

"The world is not that just, Bell. Where there is light, there is darkness." Hestia said.

Shouji left the scene as Hestia talked to Bell about how someone's misfortune was somebody's fortune thingy.

He was on his way upstair, but Hestia's voice stopped him.

"Shouji, Wait! Let's update both of your statuses."

--Bell Status--

Strength: E 403 -- D 500

Defense: G 201 -- F 300

Dexterity: E 412 -- D 510

Agility: D 521 -- C 660

Magic: I 0 -- H 100

Magic

Firebolt: Swift-strike Magic

Skill

Realis Phrase: Rapid Growth, continued desire results in continued growth, stronger desire results in stronger growth.

--Bell Status--

--Shouji Status--

Strength: I 50 -- I 60

Defense: I 31 -- I 47

Dexterity: I 25 -- I 40

Agility: I 23 -- I 35

Magic: H 145 -- H 153

Magic

Sight Swap: An ability to swap two objects within the sight of the user. User can swap places with one object/living thing or user can swap an object with an object within his sight.

Potion Replicate: an ability to replicate any potion.

Skill

--Shouji status--

--New Scene--

Outside Orario...

Shouji was at his camp where he did all of his hunts.

He was thinking... making up strategy for the future.

Lili, stats, minotaur, Welf, and the 18th floor boss.

Almost forgot... his locked memories.

Then, there were his stats.

Not too great.

He needed to grind inside the Dungeon, but his magic limit might be an obstacle.

Shouji was dependent on his use of 'sight swap' magic.

His magic was not infinite.

After contemplating for awhile, an idea had popped up into his mind.

A creepy smile had crept up on his face as he had found something that could solve his not infinite magic.

Now that was settled, he thought it was time to prepare all the stuff he would need as he was planning to grind for three whole days inside the Dungeon.

He might as well brought Bell along.

Although his competitive spirit was rejecting the notion of Bell joining him and grind, it was better this way.

Powerful Bell was as good as his own protection.

And also for the familia.

Few hours later...

Shouji had already prepared rations for their meal in the Dungeon.

Now, he needed to buy a few potions.

He had elixirs, but thinking about the many adventurers that might passed by, it would look suspicious, hence he needed potions.

But first, he needed to clean his body in the river.

He swam around in the river, enjoying the coolness of the water.

With the trees surrounding the river, no one was going to see him here.

Well, maybe a few might see him, but he was fine with it.

Who knew maybe they would like to join?

Then, he heard something nearing him.

Something was in the water.

As he turned around, something was standing 2 medre in front of him.

It was a goblin...

Shouji swam away as the goblin gave chase.

"(Fudge!! Monster!! Wait? Why am I panicking?)"

Shouji turned back and got into a water wresting match with the stray goblin, which he had of course won the fight.

"Whew~ almost forgot there are monsters outside of Orario. Still, they should be rare." Shouji mumbled as he went back to the shore.

Now, he needed to convince Hestia to let them be in the Dungeon.

"Thinking about Bell, he should be playing with his magic like crazy he he..." Shouji mumbled.

But he remembered how the events that had occured for the past few weeks, none were the same like what he had saw in 'Danmachi'.

"(Damn!)" Shouji cursed as he ran towards Orario.

--New Scene--

Shouji was risking himself as he got deeper and deeper into the Dungeon, but fortunately, he got his skills to back him up.

And a loophole to create endless potions.

At the 7th floor, Shouji could see Bell lying down on the ground.

Shouji was going to pour the elixir he had, but stopped midway as he thought about the "if Aiz would give Bell a lap pillow".

But that was if the two of them would meet up.

And he thought about the monsters that resides on the 7th floor.

It was too dangerous.

So, he used the elixir to wake Bell up, did some grinding in the area, since Bell was there.

Soon, they finished up and was on their way home.

"(I wonder where Aiz is... so many changes... I really want to see the lap pillow scene.)" Shouji sighed.

--New Scene--

Somewhere in Orario that was affected by the 'Monsterphilia' tragedy...

Finn and the others went towards a stone shack, which they believed to be connected to the place where the plant monster came from.

Getting inside, they had navigated through the sewage system, and finally, they reached an end, a large iron door stood in their way, chained with a metal padlock.

A wooden plate had words written on it, just barely readable, but it said that it was the sewer from the old days.

"We stopped at here that day." Finn said as he looked at the iron door. "Everyone ready?"

Finn swung his spear down, cutting the metal padlock like butter.

They passed through the metallic door and saw that there was a staircase going down.

Finn took note of the wall-mounted-magic-stone, which seemed to be new, in comparison to the old sewer.

"Hey, ain't this suspicious, eh?" Loki said as she was looking at the marks on the rock floor created by the opening and closing of the metal door.

Finn approached the marks, and he could see how the marks were quite deep, probably due to the frequent used of the metal door.

Going down the staircase, they reached a path that seemed more like a corridor, except that it was a large corridor.

"Well, captain. Are we going in?" Tione asked.

Finn looked at the path, slightly larger in height and width.

At the end, there seemed to be a division of pathways.

And taking note of the materials on the pathway, he thought up of a plan.

"Here's what we'll do. If the Plant-Monsters are in here, we could lure them here into this path and destroy them here. Lefiya will conjure a spell, while we will try to hold down the line. And if in the case the monsters still coming strong, we'll just repeat. Lefiya, you have the potions with you?"

"Yes!"

Soon all the players were in position, with Lefiya and Loki positioned in the rear.

Tiona and Tione guarded the right and the left side, just close enough to be able to reach Lefiya and Loki, if there were some monsters that got through.

Garreth, Finn and Bete took the front, making up a barrier.

Finn took a last looked on the group, and feeling satisfied, he readied his weapon.

"Lefiya, you can start." Finn ordered.

Lefiya followed Finn's command as the others prepared themselves.

The sound of incantation reverberated in the path, since it was a closed space.

Soon, Bete's ears were twitching as he had heard some kind of movement heading towards them.

Moments later, the ground started to shake a bit as if an earthquake was bound to happen.

More and more rumbling sound followed by the ground shaking became more active.

And came the swarm of verocious Plant-Monsters coming from the division of pathways in front of the group.

"Damn, there are a lot of them." Bete spoke as the path in front of them were swarmed by the Plant-Monsters.

Bete, Finn and Gareth met with the incoming swarm.

Bete saw that Lefiya hadn't finish her chant, so he used his magic 'Hati', which had a slightly faster incantation.

He tried to test something, and seeing that Finn didn't stop him, he continued.

With an aura of flame flickering randomly on his body, Bete charged forward to the nearby Plant-Monsters.

He kicked one of the monster, and to his surprise... he sliced through it.

Two, three, four, five... he was obliterating the monsters.

Meanwhile, Gareth and Finn were just pushing the Plant-Monsters back.

Soon, Lefiya's incantation had ended and the others retreated back, allowing Lefiya's magic to incinerate the swarming Plant-Monsters.

Lefiya restored her mind with potions as the others held the line, prepared her incantation and fired.

The cycles continued for three times before the swarm was reduced to a smaller number.

Soon, they went to pick off any remaining Plant-Monsters that survived Lefiya's magic.

"Well, that was easy!" Loki spoke as she looked at the incinerated corpses.

"Ain't this monsters weak compared to the ones we've fight eh, Bete? Skin still tough, but the other one was tougher!" Gareth spoke up as he shouldered his weapon.

Soon, the party moved in deeper, and saw there was a hole in a wall, which led them to a reservoir.

That was all their lead had led them as any holes that might had been created were closed down.

With that, Finn and his party went back to their home.

--New Scene--

On the 18th floor...

Aiz and Riveria had just arrived at the safe point in the Dungeon.

Wear and tear could be seen mostly on Aiz's armor and clothes, obviously from the fight with the powerful Udaeus, a large boss skeleton.

"We'll rest here for awhile." Riveria said.

Aiz nodded her head, exhaustion could be seen on her face.

She really wanted to just go and took a nap on a nice, soft bed.

Soon, she felt herself being pushed away as an explosion occured on their original position.

Aiz immediately took on a defensive stance as her eyes locked onto the figure that tried to attack them.

It was the female 'Creature'.

Aiz couldn't believe it.

"...why are you here again." Aiz spoke up.

"Oh, Aria. I couldn't hold myself upon this golden opportunity." The female Creature spoke as she gazed upon eyes.

A predatory gazed.

Aiz was trying to move, but the strain from fighting Udaeus was apparent as she felt sluggish.

Even lifting Desperate was quite an obstacle to her.

And Riveria knew this, so she went head on with the female creature, trying to cast a spell while fighting.

A fast paced combat ensued between Riveria and the enemy.

But the enemy was too fast, and always interrupted her spell, which frustrated her.

Then, the enemy shouted "Violas!"

Soon, Plant-Monsters were appearing one by one, and increasing by the second.

It was deja vu all over again, but this time, there were only the two of them.

Riviera and Aiz was far from the other adventurers as they had just arrived at the 18th floor, so there were only the two of them, versus the swarm of monsters and the enemy.

Riveria saw how the situation was not quite favorable, and with Aiz current condition, they were fighting on a losing ground.

With the Plant-Monsters into the equation, her magic became a disability as it would roused the Plant-Monsters into a rampage.

Immediately, the enemy lunged towards Riveria.

Riveria blocked the attack with her staff, and then blocked another attack from the Plant-Monsters.

With Aiz still weak, Riviera could only be on the defensive as she repelled the attack from the Plant-Monsters as well as from the enemy.

With every second passing by, Riveria was getting more and more tired as she became a melee combatant, not her usual tactic.

Her armor and clothes started to have tear and scratches from the constant onslaught of the enemies.

Taking a glimpse in the distance, it seemed like assistance would never come.

If only there were someone strong.

Soon, her instinct kicked in.

Instantly, Riveria grabbed upon Aiz and jumped away as a powerful blast obliterated the swarm of Plant-Monsters, creating an empty straight path.

The enemy looked at the source of the blast that obliterated the Violas.

At the entrance, the female Creature saw the perpetrator.

It was a male Boaz.

"Violas, attack him!" She hissed.

Evidently, that seemed to be a signal for the male Boaz to attack as he disappeared, and reappeared in front of the female Creature.

Then, a cracking sound could be heard as the Boaz punched the female Creature.

The female Creature flew away as her body crashed through a lot of things.

After tumbling through a bunch of obstacles, she immediately stood up and ran away.

At that time, Aiz tried to look at the person that had helped them.

And to her surprised, it was Ottar the warlord, one of Freya familia.

Ignoring Aiz, Ottar walked away, unconcerned of the many Plant-Monsters heading his way.

One swipe cleared a bunch of the Plant-Monsters.

Aiz couldn't help but felt like Ottar was cutting down a bunch of weeds in a garden.

Soon, Ottar disappeared out of sight.

Riveria immediately tended to Aiz's wound and healed her up.

After the healing was done, Riveria looked at the surrounding, lots of Plant-Monster's corpses on the ground.

Where they struggled to inflict physical damage on the Plant-Monsters, Ottar just shredded all of it with pure strength.

Befitting of the name 'Warlord'.

She looked at where Ottar came from, the entrance where they had just passed through.

"(Seems like he had just came back from the Dungeon...)"

They were lucky.

Soon, they made their way into the city to rest.

--New Scene--

Meanwhile, at the lower basement of the church...

It was already nighttime as the streetlights were doing their job as a guidance for adventurers in the night.

Hestia sat there looking between Shouji and Bell.

Shouji had already told Hestia about his plan to train in the Dungeon for a long time, while Bell would be joining him from morning till nighttime.

He took into account of Hestia as she would be lonely if he and Bell spent their time mostly inside the Dungeon.

There was some issue that Hestia brought up about how he wouldn't get enough rest.

That was the thing that he wanted to share with Hestia and Bell.

--New Scene--

At the 4th floor...

Slash, kicked, punched, clawed... Shouji was in his four hour marked inside the Dungeon, monsters were the only thing he saw inside.

While adventurers had already slept, Shouji was still going strong.

But his armor could be seen a bit battered as he had already went through a lot of battle a couple of hours ago.

*plopped* * gulp*

His bruises and cuts were gone as he felt himself feeling refreshed all over again.

He replicated another six bottles of elixirs, one was used to restore his mind, and he went ahead to search for monsters.

"Hehehehehehehe!" His creepy laughter resounded in the Dungeon.

00000000

12/1/1

--Bell.Cranell--

Valis: 54600

Equipment: Hestia knife, dagger, chest plate, elixir

Magic: firebolt

--Bell.Cranell--

--Shouji.Tatsuya--

Valis: 12700

Equipment: Knife, bag, x4 holster, x2 gauntlet, x5 (1/4) elixir, torso armor, x5 small potion

Magic: sight swap, potion replicate

--Shouji.Tatsuya--

vkg313: Why are you observant!!! T.T I was planning to just make up random numbers. But thankfully, now I'm using microsoft excel to see the stats gain to make it more logical.

On another note, all chapters have some change, just itsy bitsy tiny change.

Nothing to big, but everyone can re-read. Meh.