Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Bell Cranel was always a caring boy who valued his friends and family’s needs above his own. Thus when he found out his kind and caring goddess was living in a poor run down building he decided that there was no way this could go on. So what did he decide to do about it one might ask? Why ask his smart and beautiful guild advisor of course.

“MISS EINA!” Bell yelled out to his guild advisor early in the morning on his second day of being an official adventure. The first day had embarrassingly enough been spent on getting his first kill, running back to his Goddess and telling her. Only then proceeding to run back to the dungeon in embarrassment once he realized he shouldn't be that happy about his first kill.

“Bell you shouldn’t yell in the guild hall like that!” Eina said as she began scolding the young boy for being so loud.

“Sorry Miss Eina! But I need your advice on something.” Upon hearing the young man’s words his guild advisor began schooling herself to answer any number of questions the young man might have. After all, she had done this song and dance a number of times already with a number of her previous clients, of which very few lived long enough for her to talk to again.

“Hmm, what do you need Bell?”

“Do you know any way for me to make a lot of money in a short amount of time?” Of course it was about money, Eina hadn’t thought Bell to be the greedy kind but she supposed he was at the age of wanting more pocket money for anything, or anyone, that catches his fancy.

“Well Bell, I don’t think there is much a level one newbie like yourself can do to make as much money as you need just yet.” Eina said as she prepared to lecture him on not being too greedy, only to see his sullen face at her answer. “Well there are a few things you could do to earn a little more money, but may I ask Bell, what do you need a lot of money for anyways?”

“Oh that,” Bell seemed to be embarrassed at the question being asked, looking like a cute little rabbit who was caught doing something he shouldn't. “Well my goddess ain't in the best of situations right now, you know that we live in a run down church right?”

“Right.”

“Well I want her not to have to live in poverty like that, it ain’t safe for a goddess like her to live in that sort of situation where anyone could just walk in while I am gone and hurt her!.” Usually when someone as young as Bell would say something about protecting another person Eina would just assume they weren’t being serious and trying to look cool. However with Bell it was different, there was just something about him that made her believe that he would protect his goddess with all of his might.

“Well then, now that I know you're serious about this then I suppose I could tell you one way you can get more money quicker. Usually however those who start doing this don’t do it for long. It’s hours of back breaking work and would tire most rookies out quickly.” Eina said with some uncertainty, clearly having second thoughts about telling him once the words left her mouth.

“Tell me miss Eina! Please! I wanna help my goddess out.” Bell was just more determined after he learned just how hard the work would be.

“Well Bell just as the dungeon spawns monsters, it also spawns ores that many blacksmiths treasure more than any amount of money. Upon seeing Bell’s excited look Eina already knew he was hooked on the idea. “They would pay an arm and a limb for the rarer ores that spawn in the dungeon, even the basic ones are bought by rookie blacksmiths looking to hone their crafts.”

At Eina’s explanation Bell began to realize what she was trying to tell him, if he could find even one of the rarer ores than his goddess wouldn’t need to have to live in the broken down church anymore.

“Don’t go looking to mine ore just yet, Bell, you still need to know the risks just as well as the rewards before you can go out mining.”

Bell had the decency to blush and look away embarrassed from his advisor upon being caught daydreaming about all the money he could give to his goddess.

“S-sorry Miss Eina, please continue.”

“Alright then Bell, first off the risks. While finding ore nodes isn't that hard, mining them is.They are much harder than regular ones a person would find in a normal mine, added on is the risk of being attacked by monsters while mining said ores.” Eina said this with a straight face, putting through the fact that it wasn’t an easy or safe job.

“Then there are the rewards, while they may be lucrative, the amount and rarity of the ores that come out of the nodes, which can be found on all floors. First off there are the regular iron and gold ores that may come out of the more common nodes.”

At the mention of gold Bell instantly perked up, knowing that it was highly valued by most non adventurers and even some adventures as a decoration piece.

“Those while normally rare are quite abundant in the dungeon and collecting about a medium sized sack of either would be equivalent to a day's amount of work for a level one party working on floor 5.” This only further had Bell excited at the prospect of going to mine in the dungeon, as he had only been getting a few measly valis for a day's amount of work on floor 2.

“Those ores are the only ones that drop from floor 1 to floor 5. Now the ores that can be found from floor 6 and on wards are quite interesting. From floor 6 to floor 13 those ores still are the most common, however a person has a rare chance of finding some magic iron and magic gold ores.” At the word magic Bell’s eyes dilated and he began growing more excited, he always became excited whenever magic was involved.

“Don’t give me that look Bell, it ain’t what you are thinking. Contrary to popular belief magic iron and its golden counterpart aren’t filled with magic like their names say they are. These ores are much more valuable, if one were to take the same amount of magic ore and compare it to its non magic counterpart then it would be twenty times the value, possibly more depending on the market value at the time.”

With each passing word Bell’s thoughts of repaying his goddess for taking a chance on him when no one else did were starting to spiral out of control. Unknown to everyone present this would be the moment that a legend was born, the legend of a rabbit that could mine any kind of ore and one that would become humanity’s backbone against the monsters.

“The drop chances of these magic ores are likewise lower than their normal counterparts, both are about a 1/25 chance of dropping from a mining node. Granted those odds improve the more floors a person goes down, but it's still uncommon to find lots of the rare ores. Now this wouldn’t be so bad if a person mined them under the same conditions as their normal counterparts. However the mining nodes from floor 6 to floor 13 are much harder than those from the previous floors, and monsters actually guard them, causing them to be much harder to mine.”

“Monsters guard them?”

“Yes, strangely enough monsters actually know not to let people mine them. Since the smarter monsters can actually use them as landform weapons if they wait long enough for the mining nodes to transform into them. It’s all quite a mess when you think about it, that's why the average team takes about three days of mining to turn a sizable profit.”

“Three days! Really Miss Eina?” Bell asked, upon seeing Eina’s nod he was left to wonder just how much harder the ores from the lower beginning floors were to get.

“Well Bell, I believe that is all the time I have for now, I have to get back to my paperwork, thank you for listening to my rambling, I know most adventures wouldn’t listen to any advice I would have for them or any information. Now I suggest you just mine the ores on floor 1 or 2 for now and move on to lower floors once you get more experience and find a party to go mining with.”

“No need to thank me Miss Eina, you are the one helping me out with telling me how to help my goddess. You also don’t need to worry about me so much, I promise to be careful when mining. Seeing Eina’s pleased smile at his promise gave Bell even more conviction to do good. “So I thank you with all my heart and soul Miss Eina, for giving me a way to accomplish my goals.” Bell said as he got up and walked towards the main hall, thinking of buying a pickaxe with the meager amount of valis he still had on him and went to make some money.

Now, little did anyone know. There was in fact a third possible rare ore that could drop from a mining node in the lower beginner floors, however it was a 1/1000000 chance of dropping. Thus since it was on a beginner floor and it being more rare than any drop that could be found on said floors.. Bell would be the first person to discover the ore above floor 25 thus cementing the beginning of his legend.

Floor 8, 6 hours later

Let the world know that Bell Cranel was by far no genius, he was an emotional young man who oftentimes let his desires and emotions take over instead of his rational thinking. So it should have been known to anyone that knew him that he would instantly go to the place that would make him the most amount of money, ignoring the dangers. He was determined to make his goddess some money so that she wouldn’t have to live in a run down church anymore and he would not accept any other outcome.

Thus that is how he got to his current

“Gah!” His shout of triumph rang out in the dungeon as he broke another mining node that had spawned. There in the rubble he found 3 shining ore chunks, each the size of his palm and glittering in the limited light that glowed throughout the 8th floor. 2 of the ores seemed to be normal iron ones, dull albeit strong and sturdy, while the last one shone like a freshly made star.

“Yeah! Another enchanted piece of gold for me!” That was his 18th piece in the last 6 hours. He kept finding the mining nodes easy enough, they were everywhere and easy to find if a person was just thorough. He found them in cracks in the walls, on ledges near the ceiling and in cracks in the ground that were barely noticeable.

His stash so far included 12 iron ore, 18 gold ores, and 18 of both enchanted variants. He had only broken 22 mining spots and already had a sizable amount of ores to sell. Really he thought that Miss Eina was exaggerating the difficulty of finding and mining the ores. He defeated the monsters easily enough and outsmarted the ones that he couldn’t beat.

Let it also be known that the only times that Bell Cranel would act smart is when his loved ones needed him, only then would he use all of his strength to achieve great feats for them.

“That should be enough for today.” Bell said to himself as he packed up the last of his mined ores before starting his trek to the surface. “I wonder how much a normal team of miners get if this is what I got in a day. Man Miss Eina has me wondering just what kind of treasures other adventures get.”

The trek toward the surface wasn’t all that hard, just time consuming. Sure he had to run away at times when he was out matched, but other than the occasional fight it was relatively peaceful. He was even able to mine some extra ore on his way up, adding 10 iron and 2 gold to his stash. Oddly enough the nodes he mined always dropped three ores without fail, he was sure that Miss Eina hadn’t said anything about how many ores a mining spot should drop so he didn’t think about it too much.

Everything was going well until he mined a certain rock on the sixth floor and an odd ore popped out. A chunk of metal that was even smaller than the other ores he found popped out of the remnants of the rock. It looked almost like a dirtier version of silver, yet when Bell touched it he felt deep within himself that no matter what he did it wouldn’t break anytime soon.

“Hmm, Miss Eina never mentioned anything like this appearing here. I wonder what it is.” Bell said to himself as he held the ore closer to himself and simply stared at it. Almost as if nothing but himself and the ore existed, he was lost within his own reflection shining in the dark silver colored ore.

“No use worrying over it for now, gotta get back to Hestia-sama.”

Bell decided to run the rest of the way towards the surface, not bothering to mine anything at the top floors because he wanted to ask Eina what the new one he found was. However the monsters seemed to have a different idea on what Bell should be focusing on as they kept attacking him for some inexplicable reason.

“Hiyaa!” His yell of defiance rang out as he cut off the head of a kobold on floor 3, its partner tried going for a backstab when Bell was distracted only for him to knock it off course by throwing his entire body onto the monster. Bell quickly stabbed the monster in the head and looked away as it dissolved into black mist.

His overall fighting ability was still terrible, yet he was improving leaps and bounds with his responses to monster attacks. Almost as if the monsters were becoming more predictable.

“Grrr!” Another growl came from behind him as he harvested the magic stones, as if on instinct Bell used his bag of minerals to block the attack, the goblins claws pierced the fabric of the bag but stopped at the ores, unable to puncture them. Bell took advantage of the goblins' surprised reaction and stabbed them with a sloppy attack, shattering the magic stone in one hit.

“Dang it, didn’t mean to shatter the stone.” Saddened at his actions, Bell began running towards the surface once again. ‘Hmm, the bag is okay but if I am going to block attacks with my bag again I should get a better bag.’ He thought as he ran towards the surface, thinking of which type of bag would be best for his needs. This time the monsters had already been taken care of by the other adventures and thus he had a free path towards the surface.

“Made it!” Bell childishly yelled out once he got to the surface. He got amused and odd looks from those around him as he pumped his fist into the air and quickly made his way towards the showers the guild provides. His body and armor was covered in monster blood, dirt and other stains that also needed to be cleaned. Luckily adjacent to the shower was a cleaning station where adventures could clean their equipment.

After a quick shower and a not so quick washing of his clothes and armor, the dust from the ores really didn't want to come out, so he made his way to the guild. Quickly going into the line for monster stone transactions, he only had to wait for a couple of minutes for an attendant to free up.

“A few small magic stones come out to 200 valis. Please come again!” The magic stone clerk opened up the transaction slot and Bell took out his well earned 200 valis. Sadly he wasn't strong enough to kill anything on floor 5-8 but he was able to avoid the monsters and mine the ores. He also had not fought that many monsters on his way back up since they had already been cleared.

“Thank you Miss!” Bell said with vigor as he quickly left to go look forEina, spotting her almost instantly doing paperwork at her desk.

“Miss Eina! I’m back!”

“Bell! What did I tell you about running and screaming in the guild hall?”

“Hehe, sorry Miss Eina. But I got a lot of ores!” Bell’s happy grin wouldn’t let Eina stay mad at him, all she could do was sigh and put on her professional smile.

“Alright Bell, let me see what you got.” Eina wasn’t expecting much but she wanted to help Bell get as much money as he could for his goddess. He was a good boy after all and he worked so hard to get money for someone he cared about.

“Look I got a lot of magic iron and gold! Got a lot of the regular version as well!” Upon seeing the magic versions of the ores Eina’s eyes popped out and her mouth dropped.

“WHAT!” She sputtered out and was amazed at all of the ores he showed her, quickly silencing herself and looking around to see if anyone had heard her embarrassing outburst. Seeing people minding their own business for once she quickly grabbed his hand and took him into a private office.

“Hmm? Did Eina finally find an adventure to have some fun with?” A random female guild employee asked as she saw her coworker enter the private room with a young teen. “Pretty cute looking if you ask me.”

“Ha, as if rule stickler Eina would ever get with an adventurer, although this is good guild gossip I can spread.” Of course Eina’s friend and coworker Misha just had to catch Eina in the act as well, leading to lots of rumors popping up that Eina likes her men young and cute.

Meanwhile, while her coworkers started to spread rumors about her, Eina was dragging Bell towards the wall of the private office and put her hand next to his head. Doing what most would consider a perfect Kabedon, holding Bell gently while giving him a fierce look that wouldn't allow him to look away.

“Mr.Cranel explain to me what I told you before you left to the dungeon?” Her glasses shine in the light emanating from the overhead lights of the office.

“U-um, you t-told me to be careful? Miss Eina, you are scaring me.” His weak plea could cause anyone to second guess harming him. However against an angry Eina it was a useless plea that would be heard on deaf ears.

Curiously later on Eina would remember this moment for the next few months as she embarrassingly rubbed her whole body onto his while she was interrogating him. Something that she would rather die than be let known to anyone that wasn’t herself or Bell, also it was something that she would do again many times in the future.

“Yes I did indeed tell you to be careful Bell, and what did you do exactly?” Eina’s tone by this point was barely above a whisper, more seductive and deadly than it should be.

“I was careful and ran away from monsters?”

“NO, you were reckless and put your life on the line for some money! Bell I know you wish to repay Hestia-sama but if you keep being this reckless then you will end up dying down there one day. That would hurt your goddess more than being poor, she just got you and cares for you with all her heart.” Eina’s words cut deeper and deeper into Bell as he listened to what she had to say.

“Oh, I never thought of it that way.” Bell said as he looked at himself, specifically the bruises and minor cuts that still lingered around his palms from mining so hard until his hands started to get damaged. He had thought that as long as he got his goddess out of her current situation then nothing that happened to him mattered. Never thinking that him getting injured would cause her more problems since he thought that an injury could simply be walked off.

“Hestia-sama just got her familia started, with you as her first child. She has been trying for years to get a familia and just as she got one you almost go and die. Listen Bell I know I am being harsh but you being reckless helps no one in the long run, understand.?” Eina was honestly worried about her new advisee and his mental sanity if he didn’t even think that getting injured was something to worry about. That lack of self preservation in new adventurers usually meant that they died sooner than others.

“Yes Ma'am!”

Seeing as Bell understood what she was trying to say, Eina smiled and patted his head.

“Good, always remember that you must live on and not die down there.”

“Um, Miss Eina.”

Yes Bell?” Eina looked down at his blushing face, seemingly not realizing the situation that she was in.

Bell squirmed in Eina’s firm grasp and tried to say what was on his mind. “Could you please let me go? You are rubbing against me a lot and it's making me feel uncomfortable.”

It took Eina all of a minute for her to realize what she was doing and only a few seconds to jump off of Bell into the waiting chair next to them.

“Eep, sorry Bell. I had not realized what I was doing.” Eina looked extremely embarrassed after she realized just how much she was rubbing against her new adventurer.

“He-hem, now then let's see how many ores you have brought.” Using her work as an excuse she proceeded to examine just how many ores Bell had brought up. Counting his stash, noting just how damaged his bag and pickaxe seemed to be, she proceeded to do mental math as she calculated just how much the guild would give him. Neither she nor Bell saw the special ore that was left in the bag and Bell seemed to have forgotten to ask her about it as well.

Eina grabbed a book off the shelf of a nearby bookcase. It was the guild’s trade compendium that held all the information about how much each resource was worth. Unknown to the rest of the guild a certain fat elf had downplayed just how much each item and resource was worth, while also up charging the price outside of Orario. This siphoning of needed funds and resources would eventually be his undoing, all thanks to another elf and a rabbit.

“Alright Bell, with everything accounted for I can give a rough estimate of 60,000 valis.” Eina said in a once again shocked tone, seeing as it would take a whole day for an experienced mining team to make a third of that in a single day. Apparently when Eina had mentioned the miners making a profit to Bell, she had taken into account them already having months if not years of experience mining within the dungeon.

“HOW MUCH!?” Bell yelled out in shock, he barely got 200 valis his first day being in the dungeon and that was on floor 3.

“Sadly that is all the guild can offer you Bell, however I would suggest you go barter with the Hephastus familia and see if they would be willing to buy your ores. They are always looking for more and often buy in bulk from the guild. But their individual smiths would be willing to buy them from you for a much higher price than the guild is.” Eina said as she was still in disbelief at the sheer amount Bell had brought up.

Now a normal team of miners would certainly not go looking for the deposits away from the main path that most adventures took to the lower floors. Since that only meant they would be more exposed to the monsters and other dangers. Meanwhile Bell took every chance he could to find more deposits and run away from monsters when he had to. The biggest factor of his success had to be his unreal luck, a normal miner would never get more than a few deposits to drop more than 1 ore and 3 at a time was almost unheard of.

In the end it was Bell’s determination to help his goddess and his luck responding to his foolishness that got him the insane amounts of ores that he did. His luck especially came in handy when he ran into the special ore drop that he forgot about,

“Really!” Once again Bell showed his youth as his excited face lit up the room with his excitement. He quickly grabbed all of the ore off the desk and ran out, going to tell his goddess the good news.

“Thank you for the information Miss Eina!” He once again yelled out as he ran out of the guild hall, already forgetting what Eina had told him about doing that exact thing only moments before.

Hestia Familia Home, 25 minutes later

“Hestia-sama I’m back!” Bell’s voice reverberated throughout the old run down church as he went down the stairs to the living quarters.

“Bell-kun! I missed you so much!” Hestia’s equally excited response only further drove the atmosphere to become more excited. She had missed her newest and only child and she could still not believe that she had gotten her familia up off the ground. It was a dream come true for the former lazy goddess that only mooched off of Hephaestus.

Bell set down his bag full of ores and went over to hug his goddess, the exhaustion of the day suddenly hitting him all at once and he collapsed into her arms. “Hestia-sama, I made some money for you.” His weak voice was barely heard as he went to sleep in her arms.

Hestia almost tripped over and fell down as she tried to keep herself and Bell from falling, with the added weight of Bell it seemed like a herculean task for the small goddess. However she managed to keep them up long enough for her to set Bell down on the couch. “Bell-kun, you alright?” Hearing no response from him, she realized he had fallen asleep in her arms. Hestia smiled to herself as she put a blanket on the now sleeping Bell as she proceeded to go check his bag.

In said bag she was shocked at the large amount of rocks she found, only to realize moments later when she examined them more closely that they were ores. “Did he get all of this for me?” She looked over at her unconscious child and felt such a strong sense of pride that she couldn’t help but smile a goofy grin.

“What a good child you are, Bell-kun. Sleep well my brave adventurer.”

Seeing as she knew nothing about the value of the ores her child had risked his life getting, Hestia decided to go ask her niece for advice. ‘Hope she isn’t still mad about all the money she spent on me while I was mooching off of her.’ With that last thought Hestia went off to visit Hephaestus, taking the ores with her, not knowing the situation she was walking into.

Hephaestus Familia Home, 10 minutes later

CRASH, a hammer is thrown out of a window from the second story of the Hephaestus familia’s home. It was more like a giant forge that had rooms to sleep in attached to it than an actual home but the smiths seemed to like it. The owner of said hammer could only sigh in frustration at her familia’s predicament.

“Fuck! How am I going to explain this to the rest of the familia, let alone to Hephaestus-sama!” The woman currently annoyed at her situation was Tsubaki Collbrande the captain of the Hephaestus familia and the overseer of item and ore acquisition. “Of all times for a mine to go down, why did it need to happen now!.

To add some context to the current situation, the Hephaestus familia usually buys its ores from the guild, independent miners and independent vendors from far away lands, usually in bulk to save some money. Now however there seemed to be a labor shortage of experienced miner adventures that would usually fill up the orders that the familia placed with the guild. Added on is the fact that one of the major mining familias had just had their best die to mutated monster down on floor 30 and it seemed there was no end to their struggles.

That was just the base of the problem however, what Tsubaki had just been told by a messenger was that one of the biggest dwarven mines in the continent had just had to close its doors. Apparently the remnants of Evilus had targeted it in order to gain the rare minerals and ores that were mined there and the government of the dwarven nation had hired a certain messenger god’s familia to help the dwarves clear them out.

Sadly the raid ended in disaster as Hermes had not predicted the Evilus members to get Amazonian reinforcements in the middle of the battle and that had cost them dearly. The mines had been blown up and the entire infrastructure had collapsed in on itself, making the entire cave take months if not years to clean up. As the whole mine had to be dug out again, the infrastructure repaired and monsters cleared out of the mines again.

Tsubaki sat down in her chair and poured herself a stuff drink to ease her worries about the incoming harsh times. “Fucking hell, bad enough that Ulaa’s entire experienced mining team was wiped out but to add onto this mess is the fact that the dwarves refuse to sell any ore to use until their mines are fixed. Damm that Hermes and his fucking kids. Can’t let lady Hephaestus know about this until I can figure out how much our costs will go up!.” She proceeded to down her entire drink in one go, her abnormal resistance helping keep her from getting drunk.

“Tell me what exactly Tsubaki?” The woman of the hour just so happened to walk in at that exact moment. Hephaestus was a beautiful scarlet haired woman who was missing an eye just like her familia’s captain. In reality Hephaestus knew of Tsubaki’s habit of hiding stuff from Hephaestus and knew that if she did not interfere then her child would go crazy trying to solve everything on her own.

Tsubaki quickly tried to hide away the strong drink she was pouring herself and turned to respond to her goddess only to be given a fierce glare. “Umm, nothing much lady Hephaestus Ma’am!” Her eager reply only served to add more suspicion to her actions.

“Urgh, don’t lie to me Tsubaki, I heard it all already.” Hephaestus said as she took the drink from Tsubaki and took a swing, finding the bitter taste calming. She then took the papers Tsubaki left on her desk and looked them over, knowing that a lot of work must be done in order to minimize damages.

“No independent miners left to supply our needs huh? It was already going to be a tight situation with Loki wanting more damn weapons and supplies.” Hephaestus kept looking through the available papers, wanting more of an insight into what was happening.

Tsubaki quickly got up and got more papers for her goddess, knowing just how serious she could get when her familia was in financial troubles. “Don’t worry goddess, we have been through tough times already and will overcome this one just like the last.” She then proceeded to pour another drink for herself, knowing that she was trying to lie to herself if only to hold out hope.

Just then a small goddess entered the room with a Hephaestus smith running after her, of course Hestia had to enter at the worst possible time.

‘Ugh, Hestia better not be here to get money out of me. This time I will really punish her if she even thinks of mooching off of me, especially as I can’t afford to lend even a single vali at this time.’ Hephaestus thought as she picked up Tsubaki’s good hammer that her child always had on her. Ready to pummel her aunt into the ground should she foolishly try anything.

“Don’t give me that look Phae. I ain’t here to ask for money, just here to show you something.” Hestia said she tried not to tremble from the intense aura emanating from her niece as the hammer in her niece’s hand looked like it was waiting to pummel something.

All Hephaestus could do from committing vast amounts of violence in the next few moments was to point to an open chair that was available. Signaling to Hestia that she should sit and get to talking before Hephaestus lost her patience with her aunt.

“Ok, ok I’m going, I’m going.” With that little exchange over the smiths that was essentially dragged by the small goddess was signaled to leave. “So Phae, my sweet and only child, decided to bring me a very special surprise from the dungeon today! Something that I think you will find very interesting!.”

“Not now Hetia, I don’t care about some silly floor 1 or 2 rare drops that are abundant. My familia can buy that sort of stuff in mass easily and cheaply from the guild!” Hephaestus shouted at her aunt. Not willing to listen to her aunt who she knew only had a freshly blessed level 1 child.
Hestia only pouted at her niece and decided to take drastic action, swinging the bag of ores and emptying the contents onto the floor. “See! MY Bell got me a bunch of ores, he spent his whole day getting this for us so we didn’t have to worry about finances!” Hestia wore a proud smirk on her face, happy to show another person the greatness of her only child.

“W-what is all of this!? I thought you said you only had just gotten a blessed child a 2 days ago! This ain’t the work of a single new level 1!” Hephaestus was looking at her aunt with suspicion but also hope, if what her aunt said was true then maybe she could use this to her advantage. After all, if a new level 1 could bring in this much by themselves then maybe that same level 1 could bring in more if they had better gear. Thus solving her current predicament.

“L-lady H-Hephaestus i-is that what I think i-it is!?” Tsubaki could only stammer out her words at the sight of one of the ores in particular. A certain dirty silver colored ore that glowed in the light, almost as if transfixing the gaze of whoever looked at it.

“I-it c-can’t be! No way Hestia’s brat found such an ore at level 1 of all things!”

“What? Why are both of you reacting like that? My Bell-kun is a great child so whatever it is then you can just thank his greatness for getting it for you!” Of course Hestia didn’t realize the importance of what Bell had brought up. After all she had just established a new familia and didn’t yet realize the importance of adamantine just yet.

Adamantine was one of, if not the single rarest ore to be found in the dungeon. It had the potential to spawn on any floor but it had a very rare chance to appear. The deeper a person went down into the dungeon the more likely it was to appear, however no miner would go deeper than floor 30 to look for it. The risks simply outweighed the rewards, thus it was oftentimes adventuring familias who found it by accident when making expeditions to the lower floors.

The chunk that Bell had just so happened to find was a small one, barely enough to make a knife, but it was all that was needed by the Hephaestus familia. After all, it was why the Hephaestus familia had commissioned the Ulaa familia to go into the dungeon in the first place. They needed just a little more to fix up a valuable weapon the Loki familia had left them.

“WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK HESTIA! WHY AND HOW DID YOUR LEVEL 1 BRAT GET ADAMANTINE!” Of course every single smith in Hephaestus’ familia home heard their goddess shout that little fact. Thus Bell became famous amongst the Hephaestus familia as someone who was to be protected at all costs. After all, if he could get some of the rarest ore at level 1, who knows just what he could get at a higher level.

This prospect was too great for the smiths who dreamed of making weapons that could be compared to those of legends. Anyone who could get them even a fraction of a step closer to that dream was highly valued by the smiths and anyone messing with those who the smiths valued would quickly find out why you never angered the smith who made your weapons.

Meanwhile in the Hestia familia home, Bell slept peacefully on the couch. Dreaming of grand adventures and making money so that His goddess, the only one to believe in him, could live a wonderful life. Never knowing the situation and frustration he caused his goddess to go through.

Chapter Text

A young Bell Cranel laid in a pool of his blood, having been struck in the head by falling debris he laid there, motionless. ‘What happened? Am I going to die here?’ The young man thought to himself as he tried to keep his eyes open. He had tried to help his grandpa by getting ores that had come loose during an earlier rock slide and sell them to his villages local blacksmith,

He had found many ores just laying around on the mountain side, almost as if they were attracted to him. There were many gray colored ores and a couple of golden ones mixed in with them, Bell smiled as he kept up his efforts to collect them all.

“Good! Grandpa and I won’t have to worry about money with all of these!” The young boy said out loud with enthusiasm as he turned to head back to his home.

Sadly his efforts and possibly his life had gone to waste when an earthquake caused yet another rock slide, burying him partially and striking him on the head. The young 8 year old boy’s body was no match for the dozens of boulders rolling down. His luck was his only saving grace, he had only been hit by a few smaller rocks and been knocked down to the side, avoiding the majority of the falling debris.

“Can’t die! Not yet! I still need to get back to grandpa, I still need to become a hero!” Bell said to himself with far more conviction than a child his age should be able to muster. He didn’t want to die just yet, not when he had just formed a dream of his own to follow. So he crawled with all the might his tiny body had and hoped that he would have enough energy to at least get to safety.

“Can’t give up! Not yet! I will not die here! Not like thi-” that was Bell’s last thought as he finally succumbed to his wounds and fell asleep.

“You must wake up, young child.” A voice spoke from the void to Bell, begging him to wake up.

“Wake up!”

“Please wake up!”

“Wake up Mr.Miner!” A loud rambunctious dark haired woman yelled as she hugged Bell’s face into her chest. The young boy's dreams were interrupted as he struggled to breathe and survive the bone crushing hug that was given by a particularly rambunctious woman.

“Mhmm mhm mmm!” Bell’s cries for help were ignored by the woman as he slowly lost consciousness.

Suddenly a hammer hit the one suffocating him in the head, startling the woman who let Bell go in shock. “Oi ya daft captain of mine! No strangling him until we find out if he is the real deal or not, capeesh!” Another woman entered the living room of the Hestia familia’s run down church, her crimson hair reminded Bell of a fire and looked mesmerizing in the little light that was in the room.

Let it be known that a surprised Bell Cranel is an impulsive Bell Cranel.

“Beautiful.”

Hephaestus squeaked out in surprise as she proceeded to turn the hammer, which mysteriously appeared in her hand again, towards Bell. “Silence you! I came here to find out if what my aunt told me about you was true and nothing more.” Hephaestus said as she wore a crimson blush upon her face, the same shade as her hair to be exact.

Suddenly Hestia ran into Hephaestus at breakneck speeds, pushing the smithing god down onto the floor under her. “Phae! What in the world do you think you are doing to my precious Bell!” Hestia began pulling on Hephaestus’ hair and hitting her.

Sadly for Hestia she had forgotten one crucial detail, Hephaestus was a god of the forge and thus had the muscles to prove it. Which she proceeded to prove by tossing Hestia off of her with relative ease and proceeded to pin Hestia the same way that Hephaestus herself had just been pinned down.

“Well Aunty, I need to know if what you said about this guy is true! If it is then he could possibly be my familia’s answer to our troubles!” Hephaestus backed up her words by hitting Hestia on the head with the hammer, surprisingly enough the hammer only did minor damage to the goddesses head. “Just think of this as you finally repaying me for all the trouble you caused me when you descended!”

“Ow, ow! Phae let me go please!” Hestia whined as she tried to get away from her niece and her attacks.

Of course Tsubaki wouldn’t simply take getting hit without retaliating, even if it was by her goddess. Thus she proceeded to tackle her own goddess off of Hestia, trying to take the hammer out of her hands.“Oi! Lady Hephaestus, what do you think you are doing with my favorite hammer! First you hit me then you treat my hammer like trash!”

“Um, goddess what is this about?” Bell said as he just stared at the trio of women arguing with each other. Hestia, having gotten back into the fray, beating the two muscular women with her tiny fists.

Suddenly all three participants of the brawl stopped their fighting and looked at him, seemingly remembering why they all came to visit him. All three of them separated and fixed their ruffled clothes.

“Well Bell, I told my niece here about how wonderful and skilled you were at mining.” Hestia gave a happy smile while thinking about how great her child was, only for her to glare at Hephaestus directly afterwards. “That’s when she decided to barge into our house without a care in the world acting all savage like.”

Hephaestus gave an equally dirty look to her aunt whilst also having a hand on the scruff of Tsubaki’s neck. The smith had a lustful look on her face as she stared at Bell like he was a particularly delicious snack, only her goddess’ hand on her kept her from rushing the boy.

“Well then boy, Hestia here tells me that you got all of these ores by yourself on your first day of being an adventurer.” Hephaestus says as she hits Tsubaki on the top of her head to stop the smith from misbehaving. “Now forgive me if I am wrong, but the majority of gods would agree with me for calling bullshit.”

Seeing the smithing god give him a dirty look on the same level that she had just sent to his goddess gave Bell shivers running down his spine. Instantly he felt both scared and heavily aroused by the look from the smith goddess, her smoldering glare did stuff to him that he had only heard about in his grandpa’s stories. “Yes mommy!”

The whole room went silent as everyone turned to a now blushing Bell who was trying his best to not die of embarrassment. He looked everywhere but Hephaestus as he thought of a plan to escape his current predicament and find a place to hide for the rest of his life.

“Pfft.”

The sudden laughter from Tsubaki brought everyone back to reality as all at once the three women descended into argument. Meanwhile Bell decided that would be the best moment to pass out and hope that things would be fixed by the time he woke up.

Dungeon Entrance, the next day

After the debacle inside of Hestia’s church ended, Hephaestus decided it would be best to have Tsubaki and Bell prepare properly before entering the dungeon. Getting proper lower level gear for Bell including armor and a new dagger amongst other necessities. Tsubaki even brought along a pickaxe she had made for Bell, choosing to believe in his abilities to find ore.

Tsubaki gave Bell one final check to make sure he was properly ready, seeing as he looked safe enough, she gave him a firm nod;. “Alright then rookie, here is the game plan.” She proceeded to take out a map of floor 11, having brought it from her familia’s home in order to show Bell the ore locations they had found.

“The 11th floor is the beginning floor with the most safe mining places, the majority of them are near the path traveled by ordinary adventurers.” Seeing Bell give an eager nod of acknowledgement, Tsubaki continued. “That is not to say that it is safe. After all, many adventurers do not care about how they get money, just that they get it.”

“Huh?” Bell gave Tsubaki a weird look, seeing as he couldn’t understand the meaning behind Tsubaki’s words.

“Let me lay it out for you clearly rookie, if you aren’t careful about who sees you mining, you might end up dead.” At this Bell’s eyes widened as he finally understood what she meant. People would kill him and steal all of his hard earned ore the moment they could get away with it. His eyes hardened as he thought about what would happen to his goddess if he were to die in the dungeon.

“Not gonna happen!” Bell said firmly as he stood up straighter and gained a look of determination.

Tsubaki simply gave him a nod as she started walking into the dungeon, knowing that something good would soon happen.

Floor eleven, 10 hour later

‘How did this happen?’

Crack Crack Crack

‘This shouldn’t be possible’

Crack Crack Crack

‘But I love that it is’

Crack

At last the final node broke and the ore came tumbling out. Iron and gold glistening in the little light the floor provided as they were finally unearthed.

“Whew, that's the last of em!”

Setting down his now worn pickax, Bell quickly dusted the last of the residue of his clothing. Adding the gold and Iron ore that he had mined to the now large pile that was behind him.

Also behind him was a panting and crazed looking Tsubaki. Amazed at what the rookie in front of her had done in the span of a day's work.

135, 135 total ores had been mined in the span of 10 hours. Not only had Bell mined all the ores near the path adventurers usually took. He acted like a possessed man and searched every else on the floor for any signs of nodes to mine.

Like a bloodhound chasing wounded prey, he systematically found each and every single one. Tsubaki couldn’t fathom the thought of any mode being unmined on floor 11.

That wasn’t even the craziest part either. While Bell had not found any more adamantine, he certainly found plenty of magic ore. 37 enchanted iron, 38 enchanted gold, and 30 of each normal ore. Needless to say it was a more than impressive haul for one person to get.

Yet a sinking feeling was all Bell could feel deep in the pit of his stomach when he thought about his companion whose condition seemed to be getting worse as the minutes passed.

Tsubaki had moved on from panting and simply staring, she started withering and gasping for air now. If Bell could see her eyes, all he would see would be the look of an addict having found her fix after days without having it. This would also be the only warning the young boy had to run away and never look back at his companion, but alas he could not see her eyes and thus had no warning for what was about to happen.

“Miss Tsubaki, are you ok?”

Tsubaki suddenly stopped her odd behavior, her head moving so fast that it let out a loud crack sound, Instantly Bell knew that he fucked up, the look Tsubaki gave him was full of desire, pure unadulterated desire, her eyes locking onto his, unmoving, unblinking.

“M-miss Tsubaki?” Bell said with no little trepidation in his voice as he felt every nerve in his body sending warning signals to his brain. All of them were telling him to run, the thing in front of him was not a friend but something dangerous and something that must be avoided at all costs.

“~~Bell-sama~~”

That was all Bell heard as he was pushed against the wall, finding himself in another perfectly executed kabedon. Once again feeling aroused and scared at his predicament, while also feeling a sense of deja vu, he fought against his captor’s hold with all his might.

“Mmm, you smell delectable Bell-sama, almost too irresistible.”

Of course he wasn’t ever going to be a challenge for a high ranking adventurer like Tsubaki, just his luck to be held against the wall by a sexy woman at the worst time. Two days in a row at that! Granted it wasn’t the same woman and the situations were different, but dammit did he just want to give into his desires and get down with Miss Tsubaki.

“Not now mini me, gotta get back to lady Hestia!”

Quickly Bell did his last ditch effort to get free before Tsubaki made him into a man, with what little strength he had left, Bell went for the kill.

“Mmmm, mmmm.” Was all Tsubaki let out as Bell captured her lips and began an intense make out session. She quickly let go of the bunny boy and let him take the lead, not noticing Bell grabbing his pick. “Oh Bell-sama! More, give me mor-.”

BANG

With a single stroke of his pick axe, Bell successfully brought Tsubaki back to her senses. Just as quickly as Bell had hit her, Tsubaki realized the amount of trouble she would be in with Hephaestus if the goddess ever found out what Tsubaki was about to do.

Tsubaki quickly fixed her clothing and wiped off any dirt that was on her person, blushing madly like a schoolgirl who had just confessed her feelings.”Forgive me Bell-sama! I know not what I was doing or why I did it!” Of course she promptly went on her knees and did a perfect apology pose.

“It’s fine Miss Tsubaki. Just please stop calling me Bell-sama and forgot what happened here!” Bell said while also having a school girl blush on his face. All of a sudden, something moved in the corner of his eye.

Tsubaki also happened to catch sight of the same movement at the exact same time as Bell did. She couldn’t help but stare in amazement at the sight before her. She sheer wonder of the situation keeping her in place.

A trio of random adventures, all seemingly from the same familia, putting Bell’s freshly mined ore in a sack.

The silence that followed was deafening.

“WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU THREE THINK YOU ARE DOING!”

Thus Bell’s second official mining trip in the dungeon came to a close, unknowingly sealing his fate at the same time.