Chương 8: Souls

When we went to the guild to register Bella amongst our ranks, I had the pleasure of meeting the guild adviser, Eina. She didn't have the air of beauty and elegance that every fantasy book claims elves had, but that could just be because she was only a half-elf. Still, it didn't take away from her beauty, with her shoulder-length brown hair and her shining emerald eyes.

I don't know why people in this world have eyes that shine, but I swore that I would discover the secret behind it one day.

She had a slim body, like my fellow familia member but lacked her curviness. During this visit, Eina took it upon herself to also become my adviser since I didn't have one yet. After receiving a mountain of books that would help us go through the first floors of the dungeon, and after promising to read them carefully before going back again inside the abyss sitting in the middle of the city, we went straight towards the tower of Babel to enter the dungeon.

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I watch as Bella kicks away the goblin closing in on her, ready to take her down. Once it was on the ground, Bella straddled him to stop his movement and repeatedly stabbed him in the torso until the monster disappeared. Feeling winded out by the fight, Bella slowly stands back up when she hears the sound of another monster appearing.

She overcame her initial struggles at an impressive rate, going from someone who had a hard time stabbing a goblin to managing two or three at once. I do not doubt that she has some experience with fighting since I know that a truly new adventurer probably would freeze at the sight of multiple enemies attacking all at once, but she still is new enough that she had to go over that first aversion to killing.

She probably has some sort of training, but nothing that allowed her to kill something before.

As she kills her next enemy by dodging its claws and stabbing it in his side, she looks at me in the small window where she can breathe without having to worry about being attacked, looking for approval. I give her a thumbs-up, which prompts her to smile happily at me.

She's really cute like this.

Goblin blood ends up tainting the floor while Bella's body count steadily increases. The dungeon does not stop pouring out monster after monster in hope of killing the tired Bella. I stand to the side, ready to intervene if it becomes too much for her.

"Ahh!" she cries out while stabbing the skull of another goblin with her new dagger. Bella's new weapon remained undamaged through her amateurish wielding. Yet another monster falls and Bella's legs start to give up on her. She's out of breath and sweat pours down from her forehead.

I quickly reach her and give her the support she needs to stand up properly, before deciding to just pick her up entirely.

"W-What are you doing?" she mouths, blushing heavily at the fact that she's now being carried in my arms . Bella gets even more embarrassed when she sees my smirk and decides to just hide her face with her arms.

However, she doesn't do that for much longer since I start killing the incoming goblins with ease. Delivering a kick to each of them, either killing them or stunning them long enough for us to depart from here.

"What, do you have a problem with me caring for a fellow familia member," I ask her, gloating because of her reaction. She is stuck between admiring the ease with which I destroy the kobolds and the goblins appearing in our way, or pouting because of my words.

"You jerk…" she murmurs when we reach the entrance to the second floor. Leaving the floor, I decided to not embarrass her publicly and let her down, once I can feel her breathing start to become normal. She is still tired but has no problem walking anymore.

"Now, the first four floors do not fluctuate much in difficulty, but often the terrain becomes disadvantageous for adventurers. For example, the corridors are narrower and not straight anymore, there's a lot of dead-ends… To summarize, it's basically becoming like a maze," I inform her, checking if she can still fight at the same time. "The monsters can spawn much closer to you than in the large corridor of the first floor, but don't worry, I'll protect you if things go wrong."

I pat her head a bit when I see her slight blush, which is rewarded by a discreet smile from her. She looks like a tamed rabbit when she does this.

Reinvigorated, Bella walks confidently a bit further away from me, where she sees kobolds spawn.

She takes the initiative this time and goes for the throat of the unarmed kobold that just got out of the wall.

The gurgle of the dying monster doesn't slow down Bella, as she fearlessly goes for her next opponent. The rest of the kobolds, angered and eager for adventurer's flesh, converge towards her.

The humidity of the dungeon's corridor was mixed with the foul smell of the dying kobold's blood seeping out from his wound, before his body started to disappear, leaving only the crimson liquid on the ground.

The clang of Bella's weapon hitting the kobold's sword resonates through the dungeon, and the way Bella dodges repeatedly becomes nearly graceful, using her flexible body and great reflexes to stop any attempt from the kobolds to use their numbers against her.

The girl keeps on retreating, parrying each strike with difficulty and concentrating on positioning herself well enough that the kobolds can't surround her. They try to grapple her, but she proves to be too fast to allow that. They try to grasp her arms, but she proves to be too agile to allow that.

Bella sees an opportunity and doesn't hesitate to capitalize on it as the corridor becomes narrow enough that only one creature can pass through.

Bella thrusts her dagger through the skull of the unfortunate kobold that didn't think through rushing at her when his buddies couldn't follow him.

As the second one tries to climb over the disappearing body of the first one, Bella doesn't hesitate to meet it head-on, stopping the incoming strike. At the same time, she pierces the monster's neck. The groans of the creature die down little by little when the blood gushes out of where Bella's blade is stuck and sprays her arm.

She tries to use the body of the dying kobold to block the blunt weapon crashing down on her from the final monster trying to force its way through the crowded opening, but I can hear the sound of her wrist being broken when the kobold's mace proves to be too much for her.

She falls to the ground, her right arm, the one carrying her dagger, unusable.

Bella bits her lips in pain, audibly cursing herself for this mistake, and doesn't waste a single second before picking up her dagger with her other arm, letting the right one wobble to her side.

The last monster grunts in satisfaction after seeing Bella's condition, but rushes at her as soon as the others' bodies disappear completely.

Bella takes a deep breath, waiting for the kobold to reach her, meanwhile I am watching the battle with anticipation and smiling slightly at the way she continues to break through her limits.

At the same time, I am ready to jump to save her at any moment in case things go wrong.

The moment the kobolds raise his mace with a battle cry, Bella dashes towards him, before dodging the strike of the surprised monster with a display of agility far above the average beginner adventurer and plants her dagger into the exposed side.

The kobold screeches in pain but tries to grab her with his left arm. In response, Bella, with narrowed eyes, brutally twists her dagger inside the body of the monster.

She then promptly proceeds to choke the kobold, moving her dagger in the wound, trying to draw out more and more blood. Just like that, her fight ended.

I approached her once the last corpse disappeared, hearing her exhaustion by her rough breathing. She drops down, the adrenaline leaving her body making her feel the pain of having her wrist broken.

"Yeah, that's going to sting for a while," I say, watching how bent her hand is.

"It, huff, it hurts quite a bit…" Bella whispers through each breath.

"I bet it does," I remark. "Do you know any healer in this city?"

"No, huff, I don't," says Bella.

"...This is going to be a problem," I note before I suddenly get an idea.

It shouldn't cost anything to try this anyway. I grasp Bella's wrist, making her hiss in pain, and focus on my ki. Flowing from my soul sea, the ki goes into the material world and seeps through her skin.

Intending on healing her, my ki responds to my will by transforming into wood ki, granting it healing properties. Alas, with my amateurish control of the ki, it takes a while and a lot of ki to properly fix Bella's injury.

Who, meanwhile, is looking at me, confused, before she realizes what happens and gapes at the implications.

After all, I just managed to heal her, at level 1, without using any incantations.

"There you go, you should be good now," I say, knowing that close to 30 minutes passed.

It took me about half an hour to heal a wound that a decent healer would have taken seconds to take care of.

Bella, now understanding why Hestia was reticent about telling her the situation with my status, nods in gratitude and stands up, carefully moving her wrist along the way to see if she's completely healed.

"It's only been a day and I'm already in shock about what you can do, Tian…" she says, looking at me with admiration.

I chuckle, "I am also the same way," I truthfully tell her, "It's… everything is so sudden," I remark, losing my smile and just contemplating what has happened to me in less than a week.

"Are you also new to the city?" Bella asks me, trying to know me better.

"Yeah I am, just arrived yesterday to be precise. I… I didn't even know what adventurers were before that. You could say that I've heard little things about them, but for me, they were more legends than anything else."

"Legends?" she notes, her eyes widening in recognition. "It was the same for me! I lived in a quiet village, so except for a couple of wild boars, nothing came close to what I've just experienced," Bella explained. "My grandfather always told me about the heroes that went into the dungeon to protect the civilians from evil!" she says, before looking like she just remembered something and becomes sad.

"Uhm?"

"Ah, it's nothing…" she says while being flustered. "Anyways, I've always dreamt of being a brave adventurer going through the dungeon and slaying powerful foes!"

Her words being accompanied by a dreamy smile, I can't help but fondly smile at her conviction. I suddenly wish I could believe in an ideal as strongly as this girl does. In a way, she's not that different from her male counterpart.

"A-And also…" she murmurs, looking very embarrassed at the same time, "M-Meet my hero one day…"

I pat her on the head and sigh with mirth, "I'm sure you'll be able to find him one day."

She blushes, sheepish that I was able to hear her, but just nods and enjoys the patting.

We reached the first-floor entrance quite easily since I had to only get rid of a couple of monsters on the way. I think I've gotten a good grasp on her ability to survive in the dungeon.

She has passable basics and knows how to take advantage of her natural agility, but shows many telltale signs of someone new at fighting. Over-extension, inability to process information quickly enough sometimes, and trying to think too much, which results in her unable to use her great reflexes.

She also does not care about preserving her strength and often tries new moves as if the previous ones didn't constantly work. If she didn't try to go for these flashy dodges, she would have been able to kill many more monsters this evening.

All of these are fixable so there should not be any problems.

"We should probably look to make a schedule for our visits to the dungeon," I say. "To be truthful, you're a lot better than I thought you would be, therefore I don't think I have to babysit you every day."

"Thank you…" she says, smiling a little bit at my compliment.

"I think I should take one or two days off of my grind to follow your visits in the dungeon, see what you do in this environment, and one day to train you outside of the dungeon," I explain, thinking that four days to myself is more than enough in the week. "After all, we won't be only fighting monsters here in Orario."

"W-What?" she blurts out, before understanding what I said, "Is there anyone that wants to hurt us?" she asks, gaining a serious look on her face.

I smirk at her reaction, "Not right now, but you never know what could happen in the future. Most of the adventurers aren't necessarily bad people, but they're also not good either. So if we happen to have something that would benefit them, I doubt they would hesitate to do much to get it," I claim, knowing exactly the kind of troubles that await us.

Bella furrows her brow, thinking about it, before humorlessly sighing at the realization that we might have to fight other people in the future.

Or something else, I couldn't exactly tell from her expression alone this time.

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"You see, this is a normal status!" said Hestia once she updated Bella's status.

She then slammed the paper on the table, allowing me to see the numbers written on it.

Bella Cranel

Level 1

Strength I0->I15

Endurance I0->I18

Dexterity I0->I30

Agility I0->I38

Magic I0->I0

Skills:

Magic:

"Thank you for being normal, Bella-chan," Hestia says while grabbing her and hugging her, rubbing her face against hers. Bella simply smiles fondly at our goddess's actions, already being used to it.

"I take pride in being better than normal," I say in a faux-offended tone, crossing my arms on my chest.

Hestia smirks, "I guess it can be a good point as well…" she nods, "But are you sure you don't want me to update your status as well?"

"There's no point, I didn't do anything today that would warrant an increase in my stats," I answer, already readying myself to go cultivate.

Seeing me stand up, Hestia decides to ask me a question she probably wanted to ask since yesterday, "By the way Tian-kun, what were you doing outside yesterday night?"

I pause, thinking about what I can say without outing myself.

"I have a way to interact with my magic to make it stronger, but it takes time and effort, therefore I took upon myself to at least train each day with it," I lie, although not completely.

Hestia's lie detection doesn't pick it up and she nods in understanding.

"Well, I don't know much about magic from the mortal side, so just be careful, ok?" she says, showing her characteristic caring side. I can't stop the blush threatening to emerge on my face, so I just smile and mouth a 'don't worry' before searching for the bucket I used to carry water yesterday.

Bella observes my movement with curiosity burning in her eyes and hesitates for a few seconds before asking me if she could come to watch me.

"Uhhh," I trail off. "It can be dangerous for you if you come close, but if you feel like watching from afar, then sure," I shrug, not seeing a problem with it. Either way, one day I'll have to come clean about it to the members of my familia, and I've never been able to keep a secret for long anyway, especially one that could endanger the people I care about.

Not even two days passed yet and Hestia and Bella have already weaseled their way into my heart…

Bella seems excited by my answer and smiles brightly, following me immediately after I gave her the green light. Hestia looks at both of us with a fond gaze, sighing happily.

"Don't do anything too dangerous Tian-kun!" Hestia repeats, trying to make her point clear.

"No problem," I wave her worries off.

#####

Orario

Highest floors of the Tower of Babel

The room Freya slept into was dark, the only light coming from the red-tinted windows in front of her, presenting the immensity of Orario. The room offered a way to watch the whole city if the one in it had sufficiently good enough eyesight, something that the beautiful goddess certainly didn't lack.

She sat upon her throne, as if she was the queen of this city, and observed the passing adventurers with a bored expression. Her figure was the representation of perfection itself.

The curves she displayed freely, with just the right amount of secrecy, as if her body was a forbidden fruit, too beautiful to hide completely, but also too beautiful to reveal completely, only made her more enticing.

Her long silver hair was shining through the dark room, and her silver eyes were full of lust and gave off the impression that she could see right through you, even when Freya was bored just like she was right now. Her appearance was easily above Hestia's or any goddess for that matter, and she was beautiful enough to turn even the straightest women into nothing but an obsessed dog for even the slightest of her touch.

Her aura overwhelmed the room, tainting it with her scent.

She sighed once more, every breath coming out of her mouth sounding extremely erotic.

"Hmmm," she hummed in thought, lifting her eyes from the streets below her.

"Now that I've seen this person's soul, I can't be satisfied with just watching the boring mortals wandering about in their life," she said, no one being seemingly in the room except her.

She gained a beautiful smile, thinking back about what she saw this evening, and her cheeks started to gain a red color. Blushing, she held her body while moaning as if her passion was about to burst from her.

"Bella… Cranel…" she whimpered in pleasure. She tried to search for the most unique and beautiful soul she had ever seen, her gaze locking in the direction of the ruined district of Orario.

At the same time, she sees the other anomaly, Tian. Her body once again heats up at the implication of Tian's soul. While not necessarily as impressive as Bella's or Ais' souls in color and intensity, Tian's soul possessed something even grander than those two. Something that would require time to bloom, until it was ripe for the picking.

"I can't endure it anymore~" moans Freya, her body constricting in pleasure, as if she orgasmed from the appearance of Bella's soul alone. The sight was magnificent, at this moment all of Freya's beauty was revealed in its full splendor, but only one person was able to appreciate the view.

The tall and muscular man hidden in the shadow was impassive before Freya's pleasure.

After calming down her erratic breathing, Freya took a sip from the wine left in her glass.

"Ottar, you know what to do," she ordered.

"Yes, my goddess," the deep voice of the King of Orario resonated in the room before the only sound that could be heard was the footsteps of Ottar immediately departing to fulfill his goddess' request.

"I'm sorry Bella~," Freya said while sitting back down on her throne. "I am too impatient and can't wait for you to grow normally."

"As for you Tian…" Freya giggled in anticipation. "I wonder what your soul will unveil once it is ready…"

"Ahh~Hestia, you really always have the best gifts for me," said Freya, relaxing in front of her window, viewing the whole of Orario. "A soul that can grow, something never even imagined before, and a completely transparent soul, something never seen before."

"Both will be mine in the end."