Chapter 314

The Minotaur crossed the passage much faster than Bell expected.

He had seen illustrations of the monster in the Guild's materials and knew enough to understand that he should run from one immediately, but a drawing had done nothing to prepare him for the sheer size of the creature charging toward him.

Every step shook the stone beneath his boots, and the horns lowered toward his chest looked large enough to tear straight through both his armor and the wall behind him.

Bell forced his frozen legs to move at the last possible moment.

He threw himself toward the side of the passage as the Minotaur rushed past, narrowly avoiding the horns before one massive shoulder clipped him and sent him rolling across the floor.

Pain exploded through his ribs, but the week he had spent being lectured by Eina had at least taught him not to remain on the ground after an attack.

Bell pushed himself up immediately and drew his knife.

The Minotaur turned.

Seeing the little weapon in his hand did nothing to improve Bell's confidence.

'Don't fight it. Find an opening and RUN.'

The monster roared and charged again.

Bell waited until it committed before moving toward the wall, then cut sharply in the opposite direction.

His timing was better this time, and the Minotaur's horns missed him completely as it thundered past.

For half a second, Bell thought he had done it.

Then the Minotaur planted one foot and swung its arm backward without even turning around.

The backhand caught Bell across the chest.

His feet left the floor.

Bell crashed into the Dungeon wall hard enough that his vision disappeared beneath a flash of white, and by the time he understood he had fallen, his knife was several meters away.

He coughed and tried to breathe.

Nothing happened.

Panic struck harder than the pain until his lungs finally dragged in a thin gasp.

The Minotaur turned toward him again.

Bell tried to stand, but his legs folded underneath him.

'Move.'

The monster began walking closer.

'Come on. MOVE.'

His right hand scraped uselessly across the stone as Bell searched for something to use as a weapon.

There was nothing within reach except broken rock, and the knife he had proudly bought with his first week's earnings might as well have been lying on the opposite side of Orario.

The Minotaur stopped in front of him.

Bell looked up at something that could kill him with a single blow and finally understood the difference Eina had been trying to explain.

There were opponents courage could not make equal.

Knowing that did not make him willing to die.

Bell grabbed a broken piece of stone and forced himself onto one knee.

His entire body was trembling, but he raised the useless weapon anyway as the Minotaur drew back one enormous arm.

'I'm sorry, Goddess.'

A rush of wind swept through the passage.

Bell barely saw the movement.

Something golden crossed his vision, followed by a brilliant flash from a blade and a sharp crack that sounded almost like distant thunder.

The Minotaur stopped as a thin line appeared across its torso.

Then blood exploded from the wound.

The enormous monster split apart before collapsing on either side of the passage, and Bell remained frozen on one knee while warm blood splashed across his hair, face, and armor.

Someone stood between the two halves of the corpse.

Long golden hair flowed down her back, stirred by the fading air pressure of her attack.

She wore light armor over a white-and-blue outfit, and the sword in her hand looked strangely different from the ordinary weapons Bell had seen during his first week in Orario.

For the briefest moment, faint traces of electricity crawled along the blade before disappearing.

The girl turned toward him.

Golden eyes met Bell's red ones.

Whatever remained of his ability to think stopped functioning.

She was beautiful.

Bell had imagined heroic encounters with beautiful girls many times during the stories his grandfather told him, but those fantasies had always involved him being the one doing the rescuing.

Grandpa had somehow failed to prepare him for the opposite situation.

The girl took one look at Bell sitting against the wall covered from head to toe in Minotaur blood, and concern softened her otherwise calm expression.

She sheathed her sword and approached carefully so she would not frighten him.

"Are you hurt?"

Bell opened his mouth but no sound came out.

She crouched slightly and looked at the damaged section of his chest armor.

"Can you stand?"

Bell's face began turning red beneath the blood.

The humiliation arrived all at once.

He had been saved by an unbelievably beautiful girl after spending the entire week imagining himself becoming a heroic adventurer.

He was sitting in monster blood, holding a rock because he had lost his knife, and she was close enough that Bell could see individual strands of her golden hair.

His grandfather's teachings chose that exact moment to return.

'A beautiful encounter in the Dungeon is the beginning of romance!'

Bell's face became even hotter.

The girl blinked when he suddenly scrambled upright.

"I'M FINE! THANK YOU VERY MUCH!"

Before she could respond, Bell bowed so quickly that he nearly fell forward, turned, grabbed his abandoned knife from the floor, and ran.

The golden-haired girl remained crouched in the passage for several seconds, visibly confused.

"Ais!"

Several adventurers appeared from the direction she had originally come from. Bell heard the name behind him but did not stop running.

Ais.

He repeated it once in his head.

Then again.

By the time he reached the stairs leading upward, the name had lodged itself somewhere Bell suspected it would not be leaving anytime soon.

...

Bell did not remember most of the trip back to the surface.

He remembered running.

He remembered adventurers staring at the blood covering him.

He vaguely remembered one Guild employee shouting after him when he crossed the lobby without reporting what had happened.

Most of all, he remembered golden hair and a calm voice asking whether he could stand.

By the time Bell reached the abandoned church, exhaustion had finally caught up with him.

Hestia was inside preparing dinner when the door opened.

She looked up.

The bowl in her hands hit the table.

Bell was covered in blood!

Hestia crossed the room so quickly that Bell barely managed to raise his hands before she reached him.

"Bell!"

"Goddess, wait! Most of it isn't mine!"

That sentence prevented Hestia from immediately panicking, although her face remained frighteningly pale as she grabbed his arms and checked him from head to toe.

Bell's explanation came out in a hurried mess while she worked: the Fifth Floor, the roar, the Minotaur, getting hit, losing his knife, and finally the golden-haired swordswoman who appeared before the monster could kill him.

Once Hestia confirmed that his most serious injury was heavy bruising across his ribs, relief nearly made her legs give out.

Then she grabbed Bell by both cheeks.

"You saw a Minotaur and tried to fight it?!"

Bell's words came out distorted between her hands. "I tried to run!"

"You were on the Fifth Floor! How does a Minotaur even end up on the Fifth Floor?!"

"I don't know!"

Hestia stared at his blood-soaked appearance for another moment before pulling him into a tight hug.

Bell stiffened in surprise, then slowly relaxed when he felt how badly her hands were trembling.

"I thought you came home dying," she muttered against his shoulder.

Bell felt the guilt immediately.

"I'm sorry."

Hestia held him for several more seconds before finally releasing him and pointing firmly toward the washroom.

"Clean yourself up. After that I'm updating your status, and tomorrow you are going nowhere near the Dungeon until somebody explains why a Minotaur was running around the Upper Floors."

Bell knew better than to argue.

...

Hestia's mood improved considerably once Bell was clean, bandaged, and lying face-down for his status update.

At least until the divine script appeared across his back.

She had expected growth.

Bell had spent another full week fighting, had survived being surrounded on the Fourth Floor, and had experienced a life-threatening encounter with an opponent dramatically stronger than himself.

The numbers rising more than usual would have made perfect sense.

Instead, Hestia's eyes stopped on an entirely new section of his Falna.

A Skill had appeared.

Her expression changed as she translated it.

Liaris Freese.

Hestia read the description once.

Then again.

The hand holding her transcription sheet became completely still.

Growth tied directly to the strength of Bell's feelings.

The stronger and more persistent his desire became, the faster the resulting growth would continue.

Hestia had been a goddess long enough to understand exactly what she was looking at.

"This is ridiculous..."

Bell turned his head slightly. "Did something happen?"

"Don't move."

Her voice came out much sharper than intended.

Bell immediately flattened himself again.

Hestia continued studying the Falna while her thoughts raced.

Bell had possessed no Skill at all when she accepted him. Nothing had appeared during his earlier updates either.

Something from today had awakened this.

She slowly looked down at Bell.

"The girl who saved you..."

Bell's ears turned red.

That alone answered more than Hestia wanted to know.

"What was her name?"

"Ais. I heard the people behind me calling her Ais."

Hestia knew exactly one golden-haired first-class adventurer in Orario named Ais.

Her eyebrow twitched.

"Ais Wallenstein?"

Bell pushed himself halfway upright in surprise. "You know her?!"

His entire face changed the moment Hestia confirmed the identity.

Exhaustion disappeared beneath obvious excitement, and Bell started talking before she could stop him, describing the speed of Ais's attack, the strange sword she carried, and how easily she had killed something Bell could not even defend himself against.

Hestia stared at the Skill on his back.

Then at Bell's expression.

Then back at the Skill.

'Oh, you've got to be kidding me!'

Her first child had apparently developed a monstrous growth Skill because he had fallen for the Sword Princess after being rescued once.

Hestia pressed two fingers against her forehead.

Of course he had.

Bell finally noticed her expression and quieted down.

"Goddess?"

Hestia looked at the bruising across his body and felt her irritation disappear beneath a much more practical concern.

Whatever caused Liaris Freese, the Skill itself was real.

Bell was going to grow.

Potentially very quickly.

Which created another problem.

The cheap knife he had bought several days ago had already been knocked from his hand by the first serious monster he encountered.

If his growth accelerated the way the Falna suggested it might, normal beginner equipment would become inadequate almost immediately.

Hestia finished the update and copied his new status onto paper, but she did not hand him the entire sheet.

"You're resting tomorrow."

Bell opened his mouth.

Hestia lifted her finger.

He closed it again.

"Good. Eat dinner and sleep. I have something to do in the morning."

Bell watched her fold the status transcription with unusual care.

"What kind of something?"

Hestia smiled.

It was the expression of a goddess who had already decided somebody else was about to suffer until she got what she wanted.

"I'm finding you a weapon!"