14Bell looked to the tower of babel with great anticipation. This is where he would start the main quest line. Join a familia and become an adventurer. And thanks to the foreknowledge his grandfather passed on to him, this would also speed up the progress on his side quest. Obtain a harem (0/5). If he could save a girl in the dungeon like his grandfather suggested, he would instantly add one member to his harem.
Entering the guild, Bell immediately made his way for the guild worker with the shortest line. After waiting for around ten minutes, he meet the guild worker proper. A really cute half elf with chin length brown hair was waiting for him to introduce himself. After mulling over the dialog options for a moment, he decided that the simplest option had to have been the best.
"Hello miss. My name is Bell Cranel, and I would like to register as an adventurer." He said with a smile.
The half elf blushed slightly before introducing herself. "Hello Bell, my name is Eina Tulle. Are you already part of a familia?"
Unfortunately, Bell had not joined a familia yet as his map hadn't updated his quest-markers. The entire reason Bell had started at the guild was to update that. However, looking through his dialog options, he saw the option to flirt. "I haven't actually joined one yet. I'm new to town and don't know where the familias are. Maybe you could show me around? Wink."
"Did you just say wink?" Eina asked.
"No?" Bell said, slightly confused and upset about how his flirt failed the check. 'Wink' was clearly italicized, making it an action. So why would she say that?
"Well, okay then. Here's a list of the familias in Orario. I would recommend the Ganesha familia if you're looking to become an adventurer. They're always recruiting. Then there's the Loki familia. I don't believe they are recruting right now, but if you're lucky, they could really help you. There's also..." Eina droned on and on. As little Bell cared for her explanation, he couldn't help but think of how cute her passion was. She was definitely contender for his harem's first girl.
Unfortunately for her, first girl's long-winded explanation fell on deaf ears. Bell was only interested in joining a goddess' familia, as adding a goddess to his harem was a secondary objective for his side quest that rewarded a butt load of exp. After waiting for a good point to stop Eina, Bell excused himself.
Leaving the guild with his map markers updated, he immediately headed for the first goddess on the list. Unfortunately for Bell, he didn't even get dialog options. A rude male cat-person opened the door and immediately slammed the door on him before he could even get a word in. Bell frowned as the map marker turned red, indicating that this objective was no longer available.
Not letting that deter him, Bell made his way to the next map marker. Only he was immediately rejected again and again and again. By day's end, the sheer number of red marks on his map had really started to get to him. He briefly wondered if he would have to load an old save to try again. Thankfully, though, RNG decided to smile upon him as his HUD showed there was a goddess behind him. A goddess who had not yet rejected him.
"Hello, I'm Hestia. Would you like to join my familia?" The goddess asked with a prompt to accept or deny appearing before her.
And with the single press of a button, the first part of his main quest was completed. He still needed to register at the guild, but that could be saved for later. Bell followed his new goddess to her home only to find she was living in an abandoned church. Now, the appearance of the home didn't matter much to Bell, but the hefty -80% reputation gain, limited storage, and follower capacity made him physically recoil. He hadn't expected the starter home to actually come with downsides. Unfortunately, his goddess saw his reaction as well.
"I know it's not a lot, but please bear with me." Hestia said with a deep bow. Hestia was lucky though. Bell intrinsically understood that his starting position would naturally suck and that the familia home would only get better as he completed more quests. His decision to stay was also aided by a dialog prompt Bell saw pop up. Taking Hestia's hand with a smile, he selected the prompt.
"I promise to stay by your side forever, Hestia."
Bell smiled as Hestia leaped at him for a hug. Bell had thought wooing a goddess would be much harder, so he could only assume he had used up the rest of his good luck for the run or that running into Hestia had been a scripted event. Either way, Bell was happy with how this game was going.
After the emotional hug, Hestia led Bell into the church, where he was then led into a surprisingly roomy cellar underneath. It was then that Hestia led him to a couch and ordered him to strip. Not that Bell had any issues stripping, but he hadn't expected to go so far just yet. Stripping all of his clothes off made Hestia begin to blush heavily as she stammered for him to lay on his stomach. His goddess then began to straddle his back, which excited him slightly. Unfortunately for Bell, he would not be claiming the goddess so soon as she had only straddled him to apply his falna, allowing her to see his stats.
"Wh-What!?" Hestia stammered. Bell had expected as much. As the player character, he was afforded many conveniences and luxuries that the other NPCs didn't have access to. His difficulty slider is one such advantage. "What the heck is up with your status!"
Bell Cranel Lv 1
Strength I 0
Defense I 0
Dexterity I 0
Agility I 0
Magic I 0
Spells
Skills
Heads Up Display - awareness of surroundings, status, and quests
Save State - The user has one allotted save state and the ability to place a new save or load the old one. Loading old saves grants a 50% penalty to exp gain for 24 hours (effect does not stack)
Difficulty - Easy (75% exp gain), Normal (100% exp gain), Hard (125% exp gain), Brutal (150% exp gain, 5% luck), Hell (200% exp gain, 10% luck)
Chosen One - 5% luck, 5% exp gain
This all looked as Bell would expect it, though he had hoped for just a little bit of exp before he started his game properly. He did win against a goblin on easy that one time when he was a child, and a few more on normal when he was making his way to Orario. That said, he wasn't entirely surprised by his lack of exp. Goblins were trash mobs after all, and out of the five he's killed, one of them was on baby easy mode.
"So, Bell. Why did you want to be an adventurer in the first place?" She asked, drawing him out of his thoughts.
"Well, because it's my quest, of course." Bell answered as if it were obvious. Hestia, however, was baffled by her adorable yet extremely strange child. Her child seemed so non-pulsed by everything. When she told him to strip, he didn't even question it, throwing off all of his clothes, leaving him exposed without any shame. On top of that, he had all of those weird skills. Hestia may not have been on the mortal world for long, but she did know that even a single skill was supposed to be rare, and yet this child had four. Discarding the thought for the moment, Hestia dragged her new child to bed with her after making him dress. She had never slept with a mortal before, but the warmth he provided made sleeping an easy task.
The next day, Bell had eagerly returned to the guild to tell first girl Eina that he's joined a familia and that he was ready to officially become an adventurer. He had also somewhat hoped she would clue him into a side quest, as his main quest had updated to just Reach the Fifth Floor. Normally, the main quest was something more specific than that, so Bell had hoped the main quest wouldn't just give him goals to progressively descend the dungeon. He was already planning on doing that anyway!
Worse yet when he got to the guild and told first girl he had joined a familia, she had pulled him into a private room and lectured him for a full two hours. It was incredibly boring, but Bell had paid attention to every second of it for first girl's sake. His reward was a new icon for a bestiary in his HUD. For now, the bestiary only included monsters up to the fifth floor, and most of the information on them was marked as unknown. Bell suspected that the more he killed specific monsters, the more information would fill out in the bestiary.
When Eina had finished her lecture, she let Bell finally make his way to the dungeon. In the dungeon, Bell had set his difficulty to Easy and prepared for what was to come. Normally he would play on a higher difficulty, but he really didn't want to face the heavy penalty of a game over and he could always complete the bestiary for a small damage bonus against whatever monsters he had full info on. And so Bell went on a one man massacre on every kobold and goblin on the first two floors. Fighting for as long as his stamina would allow he had left the dungeon with a fair few cuts and bite marks on him, a hundred magic stones, four goblin fangs, and full bestiary info on goblins which gave him an additional 5% damage against the little green nuances. All in all, a good dungeon run. Tomorrow, he planned to finish the kobold bestiary page and to try the hard or possibly even brutal difficulty.
Once he returned to the guild to meet Eina and turn in his loot, he had earned an earful from her. It seemed Eina was the type to care for adventurers, it might earn him affection to prove he won't up and die on her, so it would be for the best to see her as much as possible and leave the dungeon before his health fell too low.
"You've managed to earn yourself 10,000 valis for your magic stones, and and additional 2,000 for your goblin fangs. But don't think fighting that many monsters is okay just because you made a lot of valis today! Okay Bell?" She chided. Bell couldn't help but be charmed by Eina's worry for him.
"I understand, Eina. I'm going to use the valis I've made today to buy some potions and armor." He said after spending a moment looking over the dialog options.
"Well, if you're going to get armor anyways, maybe I could show you a good place to shop." Eina suggested much to Bell's surprise. He hadn't expected for Eina to ask him on a date like that, so perhaps she didn't see it as a date, but rather just assistance from guild worker to adventurer. This would be a good opportunity to gain more affection with first girl. Side Quest obtained: Go on a Date with Eina!
"I would love that, Eina." He said with as much charm as he could muster. With the arrangements of their date made, Bell made his way back to the abandoned church. Returning home and greeting Hestia with a warm hug. In return, he received a new status update. That status update did seem to upset Hestia for some reason, though.
Hestia was mad. Bell didn't know it, but as a god, she could see everything through his falna. Not only had the foolish boy fought a hundred monsters, but he had the audacity to openly flirt with that elf girl at the guild. She never really cared for a man before, but it pained her heart to see her precious child falling for a different woman. And they had a date tomorrow!
"Goddess, is everything okay?" Bell asked, unsure of what caused that reaction.
"You know I can see everything you do through your falna, right?" She asked. Bell was completely unconcerned with the reveal though, because as far as he was concerned, he had done no wrong.
"If you're concerned about me fighting so many monsters, you should know I was fighting on Easy difficulty, and I never went below half health." Bell dismissed. Hestia remembered his Difficulty ability and realized that must have been why his status barley improved despite fighting so many monsters.
"And what about that girl in the guild?" Hestia asked. Bell had so easily stripped in front of her, so she couldn't help but worry that her child would chase any woman that showed the slightest interest.
"Oh, that's for my side quest." He explained.
"Side quest?"
"Yes, they're side objectives I get that give me exp rewards." He said as if it were so simple. Hestia pondered the implications of these 'side quests' but came to realize Bell's weirdness could work in her favor. If his side quest was to date a woman, then all she would need to do would be to ask him to be hers first.
"And does it have to be this Eina girl? Could you date me instead?" She asked curiously.
"Well, it would certainly count for one of the five I need." He said calmly. It hadn't taken more than a moment for Bell to say those words, but they had completely knocked Hestia down. Her first child desired a harem. Even her divine self would not be enough for her child.
"Goddess? Are you alright?" Bell asked as he watched his goddess collapse on the floor. After a few seconds of not receiving any sort of response, he lifted the small divine up and put her to bed. After he made sure his goddess was properly tucked in and ready for bed as an unconscious goddess could be, he looked over at his stat gain in despair. In total, his stat points have only gone up about twenty-five points. It was completely pathetic. To make up for his pitiful gains, he decided he was going to fight on brutal difficulty at least.
Heyo, new fic. This is just a silly little thing I'm not going to take too seriously. It may be short, I may make it longer like my first fic. I am going to try and improve my writing technique over my first fic still, but this is just a silly little story while I work on other things.
And two little side notes.
I'm not sure if I still want to write out larger numbers or use numerals. I'm going to write them out as the numerals in this story for now just to see how I feel about writing them out that way.
And I'm using a lot of percentages. I'm going to try and loosely follow them, but if things don't perfectly add up, then it's probably just a bug in the code ;)