by Fujino Omori
Hestia didn’t wait for the half-elf to respond and got straight to the point in a desperate voice.
“Did Bell come here yesterday?!”
“J-just in the morning before going into the Dungeon. I haven’t seen him since then…”
Hestia’s face contorted as if in pain after hearing her answer.
Seeing a look of confusion on Eina’s face, the young goddess immediately started explaining.
“Bell never came home last night.”
“!”
“I don’t know where his supporter and the other boy are, either. Most likely, all of them are still in the Dungeon.”
Welf was a member of Hephaistos Familia. Lilly lived at a gnome antique shop.
Hestia had visited both places earlier this morning in hopes of getting information about Bell and the others—just like her, nobody had seen them since early the previous morning.
Eina’s face turned a few shades lighter, her emerald eyes wide open as she listened.
Asking the goddess to wait a moment, Eina disappeared from the reception desk like an arrow released from its bow, only to return a minute later.
“I just spoke with the Exchange. No one matching Bell’s description went there yesterday.”
“…!”
Hestia’s blood ran cold.
It was likelier than ever that the entire party never left the Dungeon.
Although, she couldn’t completely rule out the possibility that they got mixed up in some incident after they came out. More than anything, she wanted to believe that that was the case.
Especially because yesterday was the day that Bell was planning to crawl the middle levels of the Dungeon for the first time.
Indeed, Bell had said, “I’ll tell you what the middle levels are like when I get back!” before leaving yesterday morning.
Hestia had made him promise that whenever he went to a new floor he would contact her immediately once he got back. Yesterday was the first time that he had ever failed to do so.
Hestia was smart enough to realize what this meant, and had been unable to rest the entire night.
Bell and his party had failed to get out of the middle levels.
Her divine intuition only further confirmed her conclusion. The feeling that she was right was driving her mad.
“…Ms. Adviser, please, can you find out if anyone has seen him?”
“Yes, I give you my word. I will ask as many adventurers as possible for information.”
Hestia’s racing heart seemed to calm down for a moment after making her request. All she could do was sigh and put her next words together in her head.
The goddess was thankful for Eina’s cooperation, but she needed more than a promise.
“Also, I’d like to issue a quest. The goal is simple: find Bell.”
She didn’t have enough time to be picky, so this was the fastest and most effective way to have other adventurers participate.
Eina understood immediately and returned to her desk with a quick nod and came back to the counter with a sheet of paper. She started filling out the registration form with a few quick strokes of a feather pen.
“What do you propose for the reward?”
“Four hundred thousand vals. My Familia’s entire savings.”
That was the largest amount of money she could prepare right away. Answering a few more of Eina’s questions, the two of them worked out the rest of the details.
Lastly, Hestia snatched the pen out of Eina’s outstretched hand and practically threw her signature onto the bottom of the form. The registration was complete.
“I need approval from upstairs to post this. Please understand the process will take about an hour. I’ll have the quest posted as soon as possible.”
“Thanks. I’m counting on you.”
Eina gave another quick bow before getting up and making her way to the stairs. Hestia turned away from the counter and headed toward the door.
The goddess went through the doors and onto the Guild headquarters’ front lawn. Many adventurers made their way past her, walking by a row of beautiful marble statues. The sky was clear and the streets were relatively quiet, completely unlike the storm that was raging in Hestia’s heart.
Miach and Nahza stood next to a beautifully carved monument in the center of the headquarters’ front lawn.
“What did you learn, Hestia?”
“Nothing. Looks like they really didn’t make it out of the Dungeon.”
Miach and Nahza stood in silence as Hestia shook her head from side to side.
Having already heard all the details from Hestia, the two of them knew how serious the situation had become.
The image of the entire party wiped out flashed into the back of her mind.
Hestia suddenly screamed as loud as she could to try to flush it from her head.
“Bell is still alive! My Blessing is still with him!”
He was the only person on Earth to receive her Falna. She could still feel the ichor from her blood edged into Bell’s Status on his back—their bond had not been broken.
The other two were surprised by Hestia’s sudden outburst. Cautiously lowering her arm, it was Nahza who started the conversation about what to do next.
“Lady Hestia, have you already applied for a quest…?”
“Yes, thanks for your advice, Nahza. It should be up soon.”
Miach and Nahza were the reason that Hestia had decided to register one in the first place, despite having almost no information on Bell’s whereabouts.
If he turned up out of the blue, then they could all laugh about this later. However, Miach Familia had once nearly lost Nahza in the Dungeon in a very similar situation. Hestia needed to exhaust every option before it was too late.
“In that case, I suggest we pay Hephaistos and Takemikazuchi a visit. We need as much help as possible.”
“What are we waiting for?!”
Hestia was quick to agree with Miach’s suggestion.
They left the Guild headquarters behind and headed out onto the street.
One hour later.
Just as Eina had promised, Hestia’s quest was posted on the bulletin board at Guild headquarters.
Amid all of the adventurers looking for a quest to undertake, one in particular found the newly posted quest and leaned in for a closer look.
Without warning—rip! She tore the post from the bulletin board.
“Something very bad has happened…Lord Hermes.”
Twelve hours earlier.
The Dungeon was silent. With no monsters around, only the moldy smell of the damp air and ash-colored rocks was there to provide atmosphere.
The tunnel was very dim. The only light came down from far above, spots on the ceiling flickering like distant campfires. Only the sounds of heavy footsteps on gravel reverberated through the darkness.
Bell silently made his way one step at a time through the tunnel, his face softly illuminated by the lights above.
A bead of sweat worked its way down his brown, dust-covered face and fell off his narrow chin. It landed quietly at his feet. The cuts covering his head had finally closed, and rivers of dried blood covered his cheeks.
“Hunh…Hunh…” His deep breaths pierced the silence as he adjusted the arm draped over his shoulder.
“Sorry, man…”
“Don’t…worry…”
Bell managed to get the words out between breaths, in response to the weak voice in his ear.
Welf wore a very pained expression, his face coated with sweat as Bell helped him to move forward. Bell looked out of the corner of his eye behind Welf and saw Lilly, looking just as ragged as they did, not too far behind. She noticed his gaze and flashed a shaky smile as if to say, “Lilly’s okay.”
The three of them had managed to survive the hellhounds’ volley of fire, although it had been a near thing.
The attack had come from a rather large pack of the monsters. They made their move to escape before the smoke cleared, and
their mad dash to safety had been successful.
But they had paid a high price to win their improbable survival. One of Welf’s legs had been crushed in the rock slide on level thirteen. It was impossible for him to walk on his own. While Lilly didn’t have many visible injuries, Bell could tell by the look on her face that the weakest member of their party had had the most difficult time during their escape. Also, her backpack was in tatters. There was no doubt they had lost a large number of potions and other items.
Bell looked down to assess his own condition after checking up on his allies.
We’d have been wiped out without the salamander wool…
The red fabric still sparkled under what was left of his armor. A fresh bead of cold sweat ran down the back of his neck as Bell thought about what would’ve happened without it. All of them would be a smoldering pile of ash at this point.
The magical protection that resided within the fairy-made cloth was the only reason that they’d survived at all. The salamander wool had protected their bodies from the intense heat.
Looking at the light burns on his hands, Bell inwardly thanked his adviser over and over.
Eina had saved all their lives.
“Lilly, what items do we have left…?”
“Four potions and two antidotes; no high potions made it…”
Lilly’s response made Bell realize just how much danger they were in. Just getting out of the middle levels was going to be extremely difficult.
He tried to do the math in his head—how much distance they had to cover with their current stock of items. All adventurers knew that weapons could break and that healing items were extremely important in the middle levels. The fact that Bell and Lilly didn’t have much physical strength left made Welf’s condition even more of a dilemma.
Normal potions were designed to restore physical strength. Only high potions and elixirs could clot blood and save someone with deep gashes, broken bones, and other severe injuries. Welf’s lower left leg—everything below the knee—was coated in a mixture of dark red and black colors, the bone obviously broken in many places. It was impossible for Bell or Lilly to treat such an injury with the items they still had on hand.
Their formation had lost its only frontline fighter. Surviving in the middle levels had just became a lot more difficult.
And we also…fell.
Bell took a look up toward the lights and could just make out holes in the ceiling as the group pressed forward.
They were on the fourteenth floor.
All of them had fallen through one of those holes. It happened during their mad dash after the rockslide on level thirteen while trying to get away from the hellhounds. No one saw the hole in time, and they’d fallen to the floor below.
They were indeed trapdoors. The shock of falling all that way made standing up again extremely painful for Bell and his party.
All of the holes above them were lined up in a neat little row. However, the walls leading up to them were too high and smooth to climb. Then there was the hole itself; they would slip and fall back down here long before they could reach the floor above. The Dungeon was merciless.
This was the worst possible situation that they could have been in. The group had fallen victim to a “Dungeon Gimmick.”
“Bell, Li’l E…If it comes to it, you gotta leave me behind…”
“What does Mr. Welf think he’s saying…?”
“No, absolutely not.”
They exchanged feeble conversation. Bell readjusted the shoulder that supported Welf after the blacksmith’s unnecessary attempt to tell them to save themselves.
They had yet to encounter a monster in the quiet darkness. The only sounds to come through the shadows were made by Bell, Lilly, or Welf. The lights above were only strong enough to illuminate their silhouettes, adding to the feeling of despair that surrounded them.
The sound of the gravel crunching beneath their feet was deafening.
With each step he took, Bell wondered if it would be the one to reveal their position to any nearby monsters.
They had fallen to this floor. Of course the monsters down here would be stronger than the ones they had been fighting on the thirteenth. More of the trapdoors lined this tunnel on both sides. Careful to stay in the middle of the tunnel, every echo sounded like the first warning of a monster’s approach. Bell couldn’t tell the difference between sounds anymore, his mind completely on edge. Only now did he realize his mouth was bone dry and desperate for some water.
Their path started to curve up toward an intersection. First they turned left, then right.
Plop-plop. All three adventurers’ eyes shot toward the source of the sound in unison. It was only a few small pebbles falling from the ceiling. It took all the willpower they had left to slow their racing hearts.
The sound of their own breathing filled their ears. They were tired, but that wasn’t the only reason for their shallow, ragged gasps.
It was fear, plain and simple.
Fear of the darkness, fear of what the Dungeon had in store.
Bell thought about how proud he’d felt when he leveled up and became an upper-class adventurer, his name spreading around Orario. He scornfully laughed at himself. Wasn’t it Eina who told him adventurers were in the most danger when they thought things were going smoothly?
They were in the deepest pits of hell, all because of one little hole.
Each of them was on the verge of being overwhelmed in a place so deep it had never seen sunlight.
“…A dead end.”
Bell managed to stop himself from saying “another.”
They were completely lost. Of all the dangers that lurked in the Dungeon, getting lost was the one thing that you needed to avoid at all costs.
The only road markers available to adventurers in the Dungeon were the staircases that linked each level together. However, Bell and the others had fallen through a hole. There were no landmarks or staircases to help them get their bearings. In addition, compasses and other magnetic field–based navigation equipment were completely useless in the Dungeon due to the presence of metals like adamantite in the Dungeon walls.
Without even a map to go by, Bell had no idea which direction would lead them out.
Bell’s and Welf’s eyes narrowed in frustration as they encountered yet another road block.
“Let’s take a rest for a moment.”
Lilly took a deep breath and made a proposal as the two young men stood, staring at the solid wall in front of them. They turned to face her and saw that she was soaked with sweat but was somehow forcing herself to remain calm.
By the same token, Lilly’s composed brown eyes had a calming effect on Bell and Welf. They were beginning to become desperate, and yet here was this small prum, barely half their size, who could keep a cool head. They both nodded and lowered their bodies to the ground.
Just as Lilly had proposed, the three of them stopped to catch their breath and started trying to figure out what to do from here.
“First, how many healing items do we have? Lilly has four potions and two antidotes. What about Mr. Bell? Mr. Welf?”
“I got nothing.”
“I still have a few potions in my leg holster.”
Lilly took the potions out of her backpack and passed them to the others. She kept only one for herself. Thinking of the road ahead, Welf was in the greatest need of the healing liquid.
“What about weapons? Lilly lost her bow gun during the fall. Mr. Welf’s sword is okay…”
“Bell, did you lose the shortsword, the buckler, and the broadsword?”
“Y-yeah.”
Bell was getting more and more anxious as their conversation continued.
The three of them were sitting in a small triangle at the end of the tunnel with only one exit. There was nowhere to run if the monsters found them. On top of that, they had no idea if or when monsters could be born out of the walls surrounding them. Bell did everything he could not to express the fear gripping h
is chest. Welf and Lilly were no doubt doing the same.
They kept their voices low to avoid attracting attention. Bell reached behind his back and felt for the sheaths of his two weapons, the Hestia Knife and Ushiwakamaru.
“But both my knives are here.”
“And the salamander wool is still kickin’.”
“Okay…Taking all of this information into account, Lilly believes that our best chance of making it back to the surface alive is to avoid combat with monsters if possible. Only engage if we don’t have a choice.”
Bell was kneeling on the ground while Welf had his rear end firmly planted on the cold gravel, sticking his injured leg straight out. A fresh wave of sweat rolled down his face as Bell supported him, but he nodded in agreement.
Sitting in front of them, Lilly took another deep breath and worked up the courage to say what had been bothering her all this time.
“Mr. Bell, Mr. Welf, please listen closely. This is just Lilly’s gut feeling but…this could very well be the fifteenth floor.”
““…!””
Their jaws went slack as Lilly continued her explanation.
“Taking into account how long we were falling, it’s very possible we went down two floors. Judging by the color of the walls, the width of the tunnels, lack of light, and complexity of the Dungeon layout, this area looks more like the fifteenth rather than the fourteenth or thirteenth.”
Bell remembered being surprised by how long the fall took as well. That was more than enough to convince him that she was right.
That would mean that the road to the surface just became staggeringly long. This was already a hopeless situation had they been on the fourteenth floor, but now they would have to wander around the Dungeon and hope to find the correct path through the fifteenth, fourteenth, and thirteenth floors in order to reach the upper levels. In their condition, that was impossible. They had to contend with strong monsters and complex terrain while dealing with a great deal of physical pain and exhaustion.
That’s checkmate. The words came from the back of Bell’s mind, a wave of cold dread washing over his body.
Lilly took another breath and kept going.
“This is the important part. It is true that our chances of survival going up are very bleak. However, we do have another option beneath us…We can take cover on the eighteenth floor.”