"So you mean to tell me that you ran into the dungeon and then proceeded to go ham with your new magic until you entered mind down? Not only that but you got found by these two out of literally everyone in the city?" I asked Bell with a twitch of irritation.
On the restored pew of the church Bell sat with a red embarrassed face while Tiona was grinning nearby and Ais was blank faced watching this unfold curiously.
"Um well, I uh got carried away, I guess?" Bell said sheepishly.
"Don't be too hard on him Alex, it happens to most people when they first get magic. Seen a buncha newbies in the familia do it to themselves though usually they don't do it in the dungeon." Tiona said cheerfully.
"I did it." Ais added trying to be helpful.
"While I appreciate you both trying to help Bell get out of trouble the fact of the matter is that I specifically told him to do all his testing here where I could help him if things got out of hand and he didn't listen. The dungeon must have been feeling especially merciful today because otherwise only sheer dumb luck kept him alive." I said seriously and Bell shrank into himself a little more.
"Ah well can't really argue there , gotta follow the captains orders after all or things fall apart." Tiona said with a nod that Ais shared.
"Thank you for agreeing with me , now what can I offer you as repayment for getting this knucklehead back safely?" I said with a smile as I ruffled Bells hair.
I wasn't truly mad at him so much as disappointed that he ignored my advice so recklessly. Beyond all else though I was simply happy that no harm came to him because of this mistake. Gods know that a single different factor and I might never have seen him again as the dungeon ate him.-
"We didn't do it for a reward but since you asked ..." Tiona said with a mischievous grin.
I was fleeced plain and simple as the girls both picked out three of my figurines that they took with them as repayment. While not made from valuable materials each figurine was still highly prized if sold normally due to their collectability. Tiona took an armored knight figurine, ball gown wearing amazon figurine and sleeping bear figurine. Ais took only dragon figurines though of different varieties as she took a western dragon, a flood dragon and a serpent-like winged dragon figurine.-
It was a steep price for merely lending such a small amount of help but I wasn't going to quibble about something like this. Bell however looked mortified watching so much "money" walk out the door, well skip in Tiona's case but you get the point. That alone made it all worth it in my opinion because I doubt he'd forget about this for a LONG time to come.-
Don't get me wrong though I was still going to punish him for this and I had the perfect way to do it. Cardio, lots and lots of cardio, cardio until he dropped from exhaustion which for an adventurer with his stats would take a while. As anyone who has ever actually done cardio will tell you, it's a miserable time. I also may or may not have forced Bell to wear a full set of [Weight] property gear as well that added a hundred extra pounds to him. Yeah I'm sure he'd not be forgetting this anytime soon after he woke up.-
Moving on from that little event things went smoothly for all of another week before in standard otherworld fashion shit hit the fan. Thankfully it wasn't my shit this time but Bells , again. My familia apparently has a serious problem with Minotaurs because Bell also ran into one that he also managed to kill somehow which gave him his level up though at SS 1500 stats unlike my outrageous max limit 3000 ones. I suppose it doesn't really matter though as his new status sheet was a bit odd.
(BEFORE)
Name: Bell Cranel
Race: Human
Level:1
Strength:1500(SS)
Endurance:1500(SS)
Agility:1500(SS)
Dexterity:1500(SS)
Magic:1500(SS)
Spells: Bolt:(Incantation: Bolt) Summons a bolt of pure magic for attacking, can be augmented with one of the elements by saying it alongside the incantation. Example: Firebolt.
Skills: Liaris Freese: Reality is merely the lies we tell ourselves. Augments growth proportionate to the strength of ones feelings.
(AFTER)
Name: Bell Cranel
Race: Human
Level:2
Strength:0(I)
Endurance:0(I)
Agility:0(I)
Dexterity:0(I)
Magic:0(I)
Spells: Bolt:(Incantation: Bolt) Summons a bolt of pure magic for attacking, can be augmented with one of the elements by saying it alongside the incantation. Example: Firebolt.
Skills: Liaris Freese: Reality is merely the lies we tell ourselves. Augments growth proportionate to the strength of ones feelings.
Argonaut: Enduring all hardship in the name of success.
Developmental skills: Luck(I)
"This new skill is odd, it doesn't actually tell us what it does. Your developmental skill is not much better but at least there are records of that so we know roughly that it boosts drop rates and luck based events." Hestia said with a frown.
"Well it's not quite as messed up as my own status sheet when I first leveled up but you are definitely just as abnormal. I mean theres that frankly unfair magic of yours paired up with these two skills , one of which is certifiably cheating and the other that doesn't explain what it does but definitely sounds strong. A strange DS is hardly that odd in comparison." I said honestly while ruffling his hair, he hated when I did that.
We went out to celebrate his level up at the hostess and this time I made sure to bring much more money since that stuff was expensive. In a funny way Bell had pushed Ais's record for leveling up to two down to third place as he was sitting at three and a half months as an adventurer before leveling to her six months. -
She didn't really care besides asking what our secret to getting so strong so fast was but we were honest and explained that she couldn't replicate it. Loki though was all up in her feelings about it though she made me very uncomfortable to be around as she ogled me openly. It came as little surprise then that her soul which was massive and colorful was also tainted with the sin of lust.-
I wasn't terribly surprised at the color of her soul considering the mythology on Loki from earth as a trickster god. Then again not every myth was entirely trust worthy since Hestia wasn't Artemis and Hephaestus's Aunt in reality so I took all my earth myths with a grain of salt here. Don't get me wrong they were more or less reliable but some of the details were simply off here compared to the myths from earth.