020 Histories.

Dungeon twelfth floor.

A crystal clear lake lies in the middle of a huge paradise-like cavern. Different kinds of oddly looking plants and herbs are growing on the sandy shore surrounding the lake sheltering the small pools of white sap looking liquid that are scattered throughout the room.

This place is so beautiful that anyone will forget that they are still inside the dungeon. It's simply breathtaking.

Dungeon Pantry.

Monsters, of different varieties are coming here for sustenance, to feed themselves. There's already quite a lot that have already arrived and are now feasting with the white liquid saps.

There are approximately more than three hundred monsters that were here already and more and more are still coming through the entrance. But even so, the place doesn't look crowded at all due to the place being very huge. Probably around two football fields in size or a bit smaller but... still. This pantry was the biggest among all the other pantries of the lower floors.

Hiding behind one of the huge cluster of crystals, Bell was silently observing all these monsters. He's studying them.

It's very serene. Not a single sign of chaos was there. It's surprising to see how these mindless monsters who would attack any humans on sight can peacefully coexist with each other here without fighting against each other. The way they are right now will make anyone who are not knowledgeable enough to think of them as harmless creatures.

But not Bell.

This pantry was very memorable to him as it's the place that had almost killed him a few times already and had sent him running for his life for quite a lot of times. It's a place full of embarrassing memories for Bell that he wanted to erase from his head.

He has been trying to clear this place again and again for sometime now but always failed. He can't be blame on this because there's simply too many monsters here to fight while Bell's alone on his own. There's also the that this place being a dungeon pantry where 'monster party' frequently spawns. It's already surprising enough that Bell's able to face-off against these monsters again and again without actually losing his life.

He's like an undying cockroach!

Despite the extremely high percentage of death of this place, it is also an excellent training grounds. That's the reason why Bell still keeps on coming back to this place again and again because here, there's no need for him to seek for monsters. They will come on their own will and in huge amount at that.

All these time, the main reasons that prevents him from fully conquering this place was first, Bell's only level one. He's still not strong enough to face all of these monsters head on. And that is why he's utilizing every tricks and strategies he can think of to at least shorten the gap between them.

Second was his weapons and other supplies. His weapons are not that strong enough to last a long period of insane battle. They always broke leaving Bell no choice but to flee. His supplies also tend to ran out really fast due to the intensity of their battles especially after one of his weapons broke. It will trigger the domino effect that will lead to his defeat.

But not today. Definitely not today.

Bell was determined to finally conquer this place for once so he came here as prepared as possible. He will do this for two things, for Excelia and for his Ego.

He ordered a lot of healing and strength potions from Miach familia yesterday and Bell had already hidden them in different areas of this cavern. He did that so he can easily maneuver himself later, for easy access in case he needs to resupply again. Those things will serve as his life saving beacons in case of emergencies.

Not only that, Bell also brought two pairs of good quality daggers with him just to make sure. Each of these daggers costs 20 000 valis, quite expensive but he didn't mind. 80 000 valis is nothing compared to the benefits he will get later once he conquered this place today. Just the item drops alone was enough to cover the cost. He wanted to be as prepared as possible and no one can stop him from doing that.

But...

The biggest factor of Bell's confidence on conquering this place today lies not on those items but instead on the one-handed ash colored sword that hangs on his waist. Its sheath has an intricate patterns that looks 'Super Cool' in Bell's language. That along with the prominent Ἡφαιστος mark printed on it.

That's right, this sword was the one Hephaestus forged herself. The customized weapon she made specially for Bell!

After four days of work, it's finally done. Hestia gave it to him very early this morning and as soon as she did that, she passed out. Probably exhausted for working tirelessly these past days. Bell ended up carrying her to the bed and also cooked some food Hestia can eat after she woke up.

He's grateful, not just to Hestia but also to Hephaestus as he knows that these two Goddesses have worked really hard just to make his weapon. Hes really lucky meeting these two.

But Bell has no time to think about that for now.

All of his attention was focused on the battle that was about to take place. Everything has been prepared, even his position. A place in the middle of crystal clusters where he will not be surrounded in all directions so easily while also having multiple rooms to escape. The only thing Bell needed now was a trigger to turn this paradise looking place into hell.

" Let the party.... begin.. " he said before throwing a dagger to the Orc standing more than ten meters away from his location. It landed on the monster's left shoulder, mercilessly severing the flesh on that area. The natural weapon it was holding then fell on the floor with a thud sound.

" RRRRROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!!!!! "

It was enraged by the sudden attack and released a very loud howl, alerting the other monsters nearby. Following the direction of the attack, they saw a white haired young man standing there with a smug face.

He's looking down at them!!

"""MMMROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOUUUUUUUUUUUU!!! """

"""GRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! """

Around forty to fifty monsters made out of orcs, imps, haudarmadus and many more. There's even one hellhound that should only be seen in the middle floors! They all rushed to Bell without hesitation, ready to devour him.

It was the hellhound that was first to arrived and stopped a few meters away from Bell. It opened its mouth preparing to scorch him with its fire-breath.

Bell frowned after seeing this hellhound.

Just how terrible was his luck? How can this black dog even be here in the first place? And he didn't see it prior to now. Did it came here just to mess with his plans? He asked himself but the only response he got was the sounds of continuous charging of fire on the hellhound's mouth. It's about to be released!

" As if I'll just stand here and let you do that, you stupid dog!! " Bell roared. He pulled out another dagger and threw it forward. It accurately went inside the Hellhound's mouth and pierced its throat.

BOOOOOOOMMM!!!

A loud explosion followed. The fireball that was supposed to be for Bell, had exploded prematurely inside the Hellhound instead due to the sudden interruption. Bell has no doubt that that kind of attack will definitely take away his life if it ever hit him. It's simply too strong and violent. He also didn't have any salamander wool with him right now so he's very vulnerable against such attacks.

Luckily, there's only one Hellhound here because if there's two or three of them plus the hundreds of monsters that are around, Bell will have no other choice but to flee once again wasting all of his efforts in the process.

The explosion was able to take out some of the rushing monsters burning them to death but majority of them remained unscratched and more and more are still coming, even the orc from before. Bell didn't waste any second and quickly unsheathed his sword.

Unlike its sheath, the sword itself looks way simpler, devoid with hieroglyphs or any complicated markings. The only eye-catching thing about it was the slightly hourglass shape along with the small hollow circle at the root part of the blade.

Slash! Slash! Slash!

Three consecutive sword slashes flew out.

""" EEEEEEEEEKKKKK!! """

Puchi!!

Blood splattered as the three bodies of the imps that just jumped off towards Bell fell on the ground in pieces.

Ting!! Plank!

Bell didn't even have a time to celebrate as he immediately deflected the upcoming land form weapon of the orc. The tide of monsters has arrived leaving no room for Bell to get distracted even for a second. It's a life and death battle and it finally began.

0.-.0