The morning fog covered the square as Welf sat on the edge of the fountain, a few other early bird adventures already having joined up with their parties and heading for the Dungeon. He was eager to start with his new party and had arrived earlier than the others. He had since taken the time to think about his new party, Naaza seemed knowledgeable on the Dungeon and Bell was probably just as eager as him to start, being the rookie of the group. There was something about the kid that made Welf want to look out for him, maybe he was getting some big brother instincts or something.

The Blacksmith was glad that someone had finally seen the potential in his equipment enough to buy it even and from the looks of it, Bell didn't seem to know the Crozzo name which was a plus, while Naaza might with her more experienced knowledge she hadn't said anything about it. While at the moment he was in a joint contract with Tsubaki, it was no doubt aiding him in his craftsmanship. Still Tsubaki was a pain in the ass to deal with at the best of times. Only now she was constantly hovering over him as he worked, making sure that he didn't let his quality drop. She made him restart on Bell's new armour four times before she herself would add the finishing touches to it.

But Welf had to admit, Bell's armour was some of the toughest light armour around. Tsubaki had really made Bell dig deep into his pockets to fill his end of the contract with her, he was sure the kid was broke before he went to Melen with Naaza. He pitied the kid and was kind of glad he had only wanted a position in the party otherwise the kid would never be able to afford it.

The most interesting thing about Bell though, or what had piqued both his and Tsubaki's interest in the kid, was the axe and shield he had with him. The shield, he'd never seen such a mechanism, sure he heard smiths all over talking about ideas or theories of how something like that might possibly work, but Bell had an actual working one. Then there was the axe, he hadn't seen it in action yet but there was something about it that caught the smiths eye. It was special somehow.

However, Bell had made a deal with the dwarves that he had received the shield and axe off, not to let anyone but them work on them. Bell took that as saying 'don't let anyone else touch them' which was fair enough, any smith would probably feel the same. Maybe he'd get Bell to introduce him to the two dwarves, Brok and Sindri, he recalled their names, maybe they could teach him a few things.

It wasn't long before Naaza made herself known, walking towards the fountain where their designated meeting point had been decided. Welf rose to his feet and raised a hand in greeting.

"Yo, morning." He greeted the approaching archer.

"Bell isn't here yet?" Naaza questioned.

"Not quite yet." Welf shrugged. "We're still a bit early." He told her, she simply glanced at him before looking around, more and more adventures beginning to show up as the morning went on. Welf gave her a quick glance over, she was a level two adventure but didn't have high end gear, the bow was a little worn with a new string it seemed, her quiver of arrows stocked and full, she also had a large satchel, full of potions more than likely. He honestly didn't know anything about her.

She seemed close to Bell at least, he didn't know how the two met but it couldn't have been that long ago considering Bell had told him that he himself hadn't been on Orario for all that long. Even so the kid had managed to create a strong friendship already.

"There's something I'd like for you to see, before Bell gets here." Naaza started pulling her bow from her shoulder and holding it out to the smith. Welf took the offered bow and examined it, checking the wood, still strong and nowhere near as worn as he originally thought it was, oiled and well looked after. Then his attention came to the string. New, probably bought in preparation for their first trip to the Dungeon and her first trip as an Adventurer again.

"Seems to be in good condition, you know how to take care of it." Welf told her offering the bow back. Naaza nodded as she took the offered bow, however didn't lower it.

"This is what I wanted you to see." Pushing forth her own mana slightly the string came alive with sparks of electricity. Welf's eyes shot wide open in surprise at the sudden burst of magic as he quickly snatched the bow back, immediately the flow of mana into the weapon stopped and so did the sparks of electricity. He stared amazed at it before looking up at Naaza.

"It's not a magic weapon." Welf stated, knowing all too well how a magic weapon differed from a normal weapon.

"No, before yesterday, it wouldn't even do that." Naaza told him. "Bell's told you of the two dwarves, Brok and Sindri?"

"Yeah." Welf nodded before she explained to him what they had done with the strange tooth, how they had run it over the bow string a few times and then somehow, the bow could draw on her own magic power to bring the magic in the bow to life.

Welf was stunned, he really had to meet these dwarves, to imbue a weapon with magic after its creation was unheard of these days. Yes, enchanting a weapon was still common but what these dwarves had done was something else entirely. Enchantments had their limits, a few uses before becoming useless, this didn't put pressure on the weapon to contain the magic, it was solely a means to transfer mana from the user into an attack. How the hell did Bell know these dwarves?

"S-Sorry I'm late!" Bell's voice called out as he came running up to them, Naaza slinging her bow over her shoulder once more as she turned to him with a smile, Welf noticing her change in demeanor as her tail started to sway slightly. Maybe it was a closer bond than he originally thought? Hiding his smirk he greeted Bell the same way he had Naaza. After a little exchange of pleasantries and pre dungeon discussion, they three headed for the entrance to the Dungeon.

Loki growled slightly as she sat behind her desk, fingers drumming across the stained wood as she tried to figure out what the hell Freya wanted with Bell. If Freya wanted something, she uprightly took it, didn't matter who it belonged to. This whole dancing around wasn't her usual motive, just what was her plan here? Why was she so fixated on Bell, did she know something about his quick growth abilities? His link to Valhalla or their very own Mythos?

"Gah! This isn't getting me anywhere!" She shouted, flinging herself back into her chair, it spinning around a few times before she was faced to the window looking out to the towering spire that was at the heart of Orario, Babel. No doubt Freya was watching Bell right now with her greedy little eyes that saw everything. "Freaking pervert!" Giving a one finger salute to the tower hoping Freya was paying attention.

Hearing a knock on the door, without even answering the door opened inward, Loki peering over the chair to see Riveria enter. Loki knew that the elf had met with Bell yesterday at the guild where he had apparently been doing something stupid and ended up with a mind down, no doubt thanks to the axe considering Brok and Sindri's upgrades. Those two morons really needed to explain how that axe worked to the kid before he got himself killed. Riveria had given the kid the task of memorising his new spell.

"Mama!" Loki smiled. "Come for some lovin?" She questioned with lewd hand gestures only getting a glare from the beautiful elf. Loki simply laughed the glare off as Riveria sighed.

"What is your plan here Loki?" Riveria questioned. "Do you really intend to go against the Freya Familia?" Loki huffed and sat back in her chair with a pout, arms folded over her chest.

"Freya's the one getting all uppity." Loki huffed. "Bell's mine and she can't have him." She muttered more to herself than to Riveria. Her chair quickly spun around and Loki was staring straight into the serious face of Riveria.

"If you two go at it, Orario will fall into chaos, it will be all out war." Riveria told her. "I'm not sure it's one we can win." She spoke truthfully.

"It won't get to that." Loki told her. "I'll convince Freya she can't have Bell." Loki shrugged. "Simple as that." Riveria sighed, why did she expect anything else other than stupidity from her Goddess? She highly doubted it would be as simple as telling Freya of all people 'no'. Loki grinned, reached up and with both hands squeezed Riviera's chest through her robes only to be swatted to the side and out of her chair moments later. "Did they get bigger? Hard to tell because you wear such unflattering clothes Riveria, dress sexy!" Riveria's fist was trembling but she held herself back from pummeling her goddess once more.

"What is it about the boy that would make you go to war with Freya?" Riveria questioned as Loki lay on the ground, hands folded behind her head as she stared up at the ceiling. It was rare to see Loki with such an air of seriousness about her, just what was it about Bell that drew Loki's focus so much?

"He's just… special, I guess." Loki shrugged, rolling on her side, her back to Riveria. "Spend some time with him, maybe you'll see it too." Honestly, at the start Bell had just been a time killer, she didn't actually know when that changed. Was it when he got the Valkyrie's Gift, or when he received Einherjar Heart? She had only known Bell for a short while, yet felt more of a connection with him than a large majority, save a select few, of her Familia.

"Honestly." Riveria sighed seeing her Goddess lost in thought. "I've tasked Bell with memorising his new spell, once he has achieved a satisfactory level we'll see about increasing his magic to the point he can use his spell effectively. I doubt he could even begin to cast it without causing himself a mind down at this point." Riveria admitted.

"The Leviathan Axe should help with that, the more he uses the axe's power, the stronger his magic will grow." Loki waved it off, knowing that the axe would use Bell's magic to use its power. "Sindri and Brok knew what they were doing." She told the elf. Riveria sighed before heading for the door.

"I hope you know what you're doing, Loki." She told the goddess before leaving the room. Loki rolled onto her back to once more look at the ceiling with her hands folded behind her head.

"Me too." She breathed out.

Welf and Bell stood back to back as Naaza was perched up on a small incline, out of the way. Bell and Welf were surrounded by Killer Ants, despite this the three were in no way in danger. They had purposely caused a swarm of the ants to fight against. With Naaza's skill as an archer, she picked off the Killer Ants that Welf and Bell didn't have time to deal with, if they started to take on more than they could deal with, she'd be instantly capable of firing her arrows to allow them breathing room. It would allow the two level ones to gain more extalia.

Welf cleaved with his massive broadsword, Bell used his axe to both slay the enemies and to draw them into Welf's strike zone. Bell also used his shield to bash the ants out of the way if they got too overwhelming.

Welf's Greatsword cleaved straight through a giant ant only for another to launch at him from right behind, the teens eyes widened before an arrow sank into the side of it's head before bursting into ash. Another two arrows struck two more approaching ants giving Welf a slight breather as he glanced over to Bell to see the young adventurer dealing with two ants himself, One was clawing at his shield while his axe was buried in another. Welf Turned and slashed at the ant attacking at Bell's shield, the blow wasn't enough to kill it but it tumbled back into more approaching ants. Bell reared back dragging the ant with him sending it flying into the air, Naaza had already lined up her shot and before the ant could hit the ground it burst into ash, magic stone toppling to the floor, the area they were in littered with dozens of magic stones.

Bell smiled up at the Chienthrope who nodded as he turned back to the remaining monsters. Brandishing his axe as Welf stood beside him a smirk on his face as he hefted his greatsword onto his shoulder. Without a word the two dashed forward, Welf slashed overhead bringing his sword down onto the hard plating of one ants head sending it crashing to the ground, adjusting his grip he drove the tip of the sword straight through its body resulting in a burst of ash. Welf didn't wait as he adjusted his hands on the grip again, firming his footing before swinging wide, the blade slicing through another two ants.

Bell himself was faring just the same, already having defeated one ant he was onto another in moments, as agile as he was he was unlike any other axe wielder. Capable of performing moves heavy built users would never be able to.

One ant launched at him raising his shield up he used the ants weight against it, lowering himself to the ground slightly allowing it to roll over him before he crashed it to the ground on it's back with his shield pinning it as it squealed, releasing his shield as he rose his axe up Bell drove the blade of the axe into its unprotected gut turning it into ash.

Looking up he saw an Ant going to launch at him, instead Bell threw his axe as it leaped, the blade sinking into the ant before it turned to ice crumbling as it hit the ground. Bell dashed forward, leaping into the air as he called the axe, in midair he caught it, raising it above his head with both hands he came down with a shout as he drove the axe into the final ant, a gust of freezing air drifting over the area.

"Well." Welf began with a grin as he leaned on the hilt of his sword chest heaving as he caught his breath. "I have to say." He took a moment to regrain himself. "I think we work pretty well together."

"Yeah." Bell smiled as he sat on the ground with a smile, the axe resting in his lap. Naaza landed on the ground, having jumped down from the ledge she had used as a sniper's nest. Taking one look around the area, she immediately began to collect the magic stones littering the ground as well as the arrows she had fired off.

"How about we think of getting a supporter?" Welf voiced his opinion, directing his question to Naaza, Bell trailing along behind them seemingly lost in his own thoughts at the moment, neither Welf or Naaza wanted to disturb him at the moment. The party of three were currently making their way back to the surface as they headed through the first floor of the Dungeon, coming up from the seventh floor.

Since coming back to the first floor their guard was down more and they were able to relax slightly, considering their experience nothing on the first floor would catch them off guard. Naaza and Welf had taken to exchanging comments on the days activities. Naaza hadn't used her new electrified bow today and neither Naaza or Welf had brought the subject up with Bell.

"It's not a bad idea." Naaza agreed. "We'll be able to focus more on battles if we have an experienced supporter, someone capable enough." She added knowing the benefits of a supporter. Her mind was already at work, just who would be a likely candidate? There were numerous supporters everyday waiting outside of the Dungeon looking to be recruited by a party. Perhaps they should start there?

"It will also even the party out a little." Welf suggested. "It'd be bad if half way through a fight you were to run out of arrows, or if we get to a lower floor and we don't have enough equipment." Naaza nodded in agreement as they came to the exit of the dungeon before a howl caught their attention. All three looked up to see large cages taken from the depths of the Dungeon up to the surface, all of them filled with a range of different species of monster.

"Members of the Ganesha Familia." Naaza stated.

"That time already, huh?" Welf nodded.

"Huh, what's going on? Why are they taking monsters to the surface?" Bell questioned, not really getting what was going on.

"It's called Monsterphilia, an event held by the Ganesha Familia. A bit of entertainment for the citizens of Orario." Welf told him, causing the white haired teen to blink and his blank expression showed he didn't know what Welf was going on about. "Right, you're new to Orario." Welf smiled.

"It's a festival." Naaza explained to Bell as they followed other adventurers up to the city. "Held once a year by the Ganesa Familia."

"It's a pretty good time to make your name known as a smith, the guild lets us set up shop in the streets." Welf told them. "But, I'll be sitting it out this year. We've got to focus on getting down to those middle floors." He nodded.

"A festival huh." Bell mused.

"Honestly." Naaza began, a frown on her face. "It's barbaric." Welf laughed awkwardly as a silence drew out between them. "We should simply focus on the Dungeon instead, less adventure's will make it down during this time."

"That is true." Welf nodded. "Most will be making most of the Festival."

"Right, we should focus on the Dungeon." Bell agreed, while he would have liked to see what all the fuss was about this festival, he wanted to continue his adventure in the Dungeon.

"Now just what have you been muttering to yourself since the seventh floor?" Welf asked as they exited the Dungeon, standing at the base of Babel tower.

"Oh." Bell awkwardly rubbed at the back of his head. "I… uh…" Both Naaza and Welf glanced at him with questioning looks. "I have a magic spell now, and I was trying to memorise the chant."

"EH!" Welf took a step back in shock, the kid was already ready to start throwing out magic!? What kind of level one was this guy! Sure, Welf himself had Will-o-wisp, but that was more of a defensive magic, it was rare for a Level one to get an offensive spell, usually it came later and to most none at all.

"One of my seniors from my Familia said that they'd train me to use it properly, I only have a few days to memorise the chant, then I'll start my training." Bell explained. "It's really long." He pouted.

"Do you have the chant?" Naaza questioned, already leading them towards the guild.

"Uh huh, here." Bell reached into his pouch, pulling out a slip of paper, the same one Riveria had given to him to learn from. Bell handed the chant to Naaza, the chinethrope surprised at the length of the spell. She had no idea how Bell got his hands on this but surely there was no way that he had the magic to pull a spell like this off right now. Naaza herself didn't know a great deal about Magic like this, but she could help anyway she could. Plus, she still needed to give Bell the information that Sindri and Brok had given her, that the power of his axe would drain his own magic to activate its abilities. It was best he start carrying mind potions just in case of emergency and increase the amount of magic he possessed.

"I can help you study, if you'd like?" Naaza suggested making Bell's eyes widened as a wide smile came to his face.

"You're a lifesaver Naaza!" Bell surprised both Naaza and Welf as he leapt and hugged her without thinking. Welf had to smirk, while Naaza had definitely set up a plan of action it seemed the older girl was really caught off guard by the sudden embrace, he could tell by her rigid stance and of course the full face blush.

"N-No problem." Naaza stated backing away, doing her best to hide her flushed face as she heard Welf chuckling off to the side, Bell in all his innocence didn't seem to know what was happening. Welf just had to help out.

"So, where are you studying, your place Bell?" Welf smiled and he strangely watched all the colour drain from the boy's face, had he said something wrong? He had gone paler than usual, as if the very thought of bringing home a girl to his Familia home a bad idea. Something was up. Jealous Goddess or God maybe?

"It's fine, we can meet at the Blue Pharmacy later." Naaza told the boy. Naaza didn't know the circumstances with Bell's Familia, but it was clear that Bell was keeping it a secret for a reason. Bell breathed a sigh of relief at that… if they knew that he lived in the pleasure quarter, just what would they think of him. Bell took the lead this time, heading for the guild as Naaza turned to Welf with a glare. The blacksmith simply gave the girl a thumbs up.

"I'm rooting for ya." He chuckled before hurrying after Bell, Naaza's face was red either in embarrassment or rage, Welf couldn't quite tell. But it sure as hell was funny.

Bell was amazed, he could barely believe it. Just one day of heading down into the Dungeon with Naaza and Welf and he had made more Valis than he had the entire time since becoming an Adventurer. While in the grand scheme of things it wasn't a huge amount, but it was more money than he had ever had. He was practically broke after his first payment to Tsubaki, but now he had at least four times as much as he had paid her for her abilities as a craftsman.

As he walked down the street, leading to the rather raunchier part of Orario, he became acutely aware of just how much money he was currently carrying around with him. The teen began to grow nervous… he was also very acutely aware that the money that was now in his possession would allow him… too… his eyes were drawn to the girls already claiming their first customers of the night.

Shaking his head, no he wouldn't do that. He wouldn't pay for it. Hurrying along the boy soon found himself on the familiar street where his home was located. Hurrying his footsteps, he'd go home freshen up and then head over to the Blue Pharmacy where Naaza would be waiting to help him with memorising his chant.

"Well now." A shiver ran up Bell's spine as the familiar voice breathed into his ear, inches from him. He hadn't even felt her presence and she'd gotten so close without him even realising it till she spoke. "You're home a little earlier than usual." Bell turned and back stepped to reveal the beautiful amazon that had knocked on his door a few days prior, Aisha. "Oh come now, don't say you're frightened of little old me now."

"Ah… wha…" Bell tried to form a coherent sentence but he didn't know where to focus his eyes let alone his words. Aisha's eyes gleamed, even now in his meek pathetic state, she felt it from him. Strength, he may not have it yet but her instincts as an amazon screamed that he would become stronger. Quelling the urge to force him down right there in the street, she laughed.

"Lighten up." Aisha chuckled as she strode towards him, Bell's face heating up as he was forced to look up, the amazon clearly taller than him, his face just a few inches above her buxom chest. "Back from the Dungeon?" She questioned.

"Uh… uh huh." Bell nodded, Aisha pursed her lips as she leaned down slightly, face only inches from his as a smirk came to her face.

"Tell me something…" She began. "I'm curious…" Bell began to sweat nervously. "Why is one of Loki's Familia members not at the Twilight Manor?" Bell's face dropped and Aisha's smirk grew. "A secret huh? Hmm… well, I've got a price if you want me to keep it that way." Bell swallowed nervously, he couldn't even bring himself to ask what it was. Aisha backed off and walked past him. "Follow me." Loki had told him to keep it a secret... reluctantly, he followed the beautiful amazon.