It was a beautiful day outside. Birds are singing, and flowers are blooming, but beautiful days like these things aren’t going so well.

-Kruu!

-Pah!

Inside a well-lit stone room stood two beings, one a shirtless, tired and huffing Moby and the other the bastard bird that caused the scratch marks across his top boy.

“Heh, you’re enjoying this aren’t you?” he raised his arms the bird braced itself, “Hah!”

He charged toward the creature, but it blitzed appearing behind him.

-Kruu!

It scratched his back. He didn’t flinch and turned to kick it, but it moved again. He followed behind the thing, trying to at least touch its feathers, but the damn bird was practically everywhere, slashing and pecking at him.

A green blur that he could barely see.

The Jackbird was a fast monster. Even amongst hunters, it was stated that its speed was at least S class, which is why it could escape so easily and not even a lucky level 2 or 3 could catch it.

Taming the bird was something he had trouble with even went to buy a nest for it and a feeding pen. It remained hostile, so instead, he would try to catch it physically in a game of tag, except the bastard kept on scratching and tackling him.

-Pah!

He charged into a wall, ‘fuck!’ he pushed off, seeing it look at him and laughing on the opposite side.

“Kukuku!”

Moby’s eye twitched as he got ready in a running position. He woke up earlier than Bell, so he could train before having his Falna given to him.

Upstairs in her separate room was Hestia. Her face frowned as the light hit her face. Her dream was changing where she and Bell were sleeping together in the same bed, except he was more romantic.

“Mn... ah hehehe... n-no~” she moaned as the words that left his mouth were the same as the day before.

“G-goddess, we have our rooms now, s-so we don’t have to share the same bed anymore,” he smiled as the white sky turned dark and his figure disappeared.

-Pah!

“Nooo!” She woke screaming before realising this was a dream, ‘... hah why doesn’t he want me? No, I’ll make him want me more than that, Ais, whatever... but I’m not the reason he’s growing so strong...’

“No, I can do it. I just have to be first!”

-Pah!

“What is that?” She got up and left her room, meeting Bell in the hallway. “Bell, do you know what’s going on?”

“No, goddess, but I think it’s coming from downstairs. I checked Moby, but he isn’t in his room.”

Curious, both went down to the basement hearing mother thuds from the left, kicking Hestia, spoke through the door, “Moby, what are you doing with the Jackbird?”

No reply came after a few more thuds, but soon Moby pressed himself against the door and clapped his hand, covering him and the door in a cone, so the bird couldn’t escape.

“Ah, Moby, your body!” She moved to him quickly, inspecting his cuts.

“It’s nothing a potion can fix, cough! Ah, my skin is on fire. I don’t know what, but its talons aren’t normal,” he chuckled, walking to the storage room.

“Wait, you already bought supplies? How?” Bell asked in shock as he saw the room filled with chests and cases and a weapon rack in the corner.

Walking up to a chest he pulled out a vial and drank it his body steaming as the light scratched closed, “It dropped an egg when I came back, so I sold it and kept a quarter of the money for us saved the rest in the guild bank.”

“It dropped an egg!” Hestia, more than Bell, was shocked at the revelation and started giggling more. Honestly, her joy was infectious, as it caused Moby to let out a small chuckle.

“Moby, are you ready to go to the dungeon?” Bell asked, already dressed in his light armour.

“Just have to get my falna updated, Hestia,” he glanced at the goddess, who nodded. Bell didn’t need to be told as he left, waiting outside the church.

Moby and Hestia moved to the living area where he lay down and, as usual, Hestia did her thing.

“So, your sad Bell doesn’t want to snuggle up with you~” Moby chuckled.

-Prick

“Ow! Jezz I was joking.”

“Hmph, he just wanted to have some time to himself, that’s all, and besides, I’m better than...” she mumbled the rest, but he knew who she was referring to.

Shrugging as the paper touched his back, “well it’s his loss. Who could say no to a cute goddess like you? I certainly wouldn’t,” he mumbled that last part into the cushion.

She stiffened slightly before she shook it off, “thanks... and done, wow your total attributes improved by 130.”

Moby Tick

Level 1

Strength H129

Endurance H163

Dexterity H174

Agility H162

Magic: I 0

Skill: Alchemy-The ancient metaphysical science/mystical art of manipulating and altering matter by using natural energy with your own hands or a transmutation circle. Only one thing can be created from something else of a certain mass. This is the Principle of Equivalent Exchange.

Development Ability: Memory Retention-capable of remembering specific information and calling to it.

‘Not bad, but I need to up my strength some more to handle floor 4 on my own, also bring me to the next part the gloves.’

“Thank you, Goddess,” he slightly bowed.

“Just call me Hestia. Don’t switch between the two,” she said, glancing at her nails.

“Alright then I’ll gear up and leave oh I made some breakfast It’s covered by the table and if you’re thirsty, I made a well outside the waters clean and refreshing,” With that, he got up-armoured himself and left.

“Goodbye Goddess!” Bell waved past the door and they left.

‘Calling me cute, hmph well I’m not falling for him,’ she grumbled, heading to eat, only to be surprised by the omelette Moby left behind for her.

[Dungeon of Babel] [4th floor]

-Boom!

“Gyaah!” Screams of goblins and kobolds mixed echoes in the blue caves as Moby was holding a lighter in his hands.

This one was simply made with alchemy since it was a fling, spark wheel and metal. He sparked it again. Following the alchemy took that spark and turned it into a massive flame explosion, turning monsters into ash.

He put the lighter back and dashed up close to a kobold and blocked its attack. He kept on defending, trying to bring purpose for his strength and endurance and agility to increase.

He dodged one slash and counted with a kick, followed by a swing, slicing it in half. Repeating himself, he sparked his lighter, launching more flames at the group in front of him.

When two or three came at once, he was careful to trade and parry blows countering when he saw the chance; he was adapting to this style slowly.

Bell was natural at using his agility and knife for small swift strikes. They both handled the fourth floor for a considerable while until the monsters stopped appearing for them.

“Huff...” Moby breathed with his back against the wall Bell beside was a little winded but otherwise fine.

“I think we can go to the 5th floor today,” Moby said, glancing at his lighter.

“Really!? Yeah, let’s go!” He got up immediately looking down at Moby, “one moment though.”

Bell turned his head puzzled, “why are you taking off your gloves?” he asked, seeing him place them on the floor and then his lighter on top.

“One moment is all,” he clapped his hand, touching the floor as a small arc of lightning circled his gloves and lighter, ‘should be simple enough.’

-Shua

It was covered in white light. All that remained was a partially disassembled lighter and the gloves, except the thumbs, were a little grey and two fingers of each covered in a silver material.

Bell looked on confusedly, “why did you break your lighter?” That was all Bell could tell had happened.

“Alright, let’s try this out,” Moby got up putting on the gloves, he felt them and rubbed the three main fingers for snapping, he snapped twice and was glad he saw sparks appear, ‘it's no ignition glove and won’t last but its more than I can ask.’

He grinned and snapped his fingers, controlling the oxygen in the air.

-Snap! -Boom!

“Haha yes!”

-Snap! -Boom!

-Snap! -Boom!

He sighed, stopping, “alright we’re good to go,” he patted Bell, whose mouth was hanging, and grabbed his glaive. Now alternating between the glaive and lighter isn’t an issue.

[Dungeon of Babel] [5th floor]

Entering the new floor, the walls changed to a light green colour and the structure of the dungeon got larger.

“Brace yourself, the monster birth rate is much higher,” Bell said as they moved forward.

“Halt,” Moby aimed his glaive at the shadows on the wall. They changed and take shape.

War Shadows.

Ten of them surrounded the duo. The slender man-like monsters hissed, and Moby scoffed and charged Bell, doing the same.

-Snap! -Boom!

As he got close, he launched a torrent of flames towards them. Three died, leaving two he charged, leaping and swung down and missed.

-Kachang

He stabbed the ground instead of jumping. He moved, quickly slapping it using his alchemy to stab the two war shadows from beneath. ‘easy,’ he got up to pat himself when his sense flared up. He turned quickly and blocked a punch.

-Bam!

It still sent him back, skidding across the ground. ‘what?’ he looked up, seeing their bodies wrap around the spike. ‘Fuck,’ and his blade was too far.

He got up and charged both war shadows, doing the same. Moby glared as they swung to clash.

-Snap! -Woosh!

Right next to his fist, a ball of fire erupted before they clashed.

-Boom!

He exploded the top half of their bodies. Their cores revealed themselves but were quickly being hidden by their smoke body.

He dashed past them, pulling his glaive and swung back without even looking, slashing the cores in half. He glanced at Bell, seeing him having some trouble. But he couldn’t act as more war shadows appeared from the ground.

-Snap! -Snap! -Snap! -Snap! -Boom!

He handled the rest of the war shadows immediately, but sadly, “huh?”

-Snap!

“I guess I can only use nine or ten tries with this...” he looked at his gloves now having three holes in each, ‘guess I need it tailored.’

He shrugged and went on with it. He wasn’t planning on relying on one aspect of alchemy forever and, besides, using it hindered his physical growth.

“Grrr!” Three war shadows appeared. He twirled his weapon and charged.

“Yraaaa!”

[Hostess of Fertility]

“Ha,” both collapsed in their booth, Syr came over to greet them, “Hey guys, how was it in the dungeon?”

Bell chuckled before taking a swig of his drink, “ah, it was eh great, we made a lot of Valis, but the monsters were strong.”

“Despite that, we made it to the sixth floor with slight difficulty,” Moby chuckled, remembering he constantly scraped his glaive across the floor, swinging in an arc to burn the monsters.

His whole body was aching on the way back, but he was sure he improved.

“Hihi, sound like you both need rest,” she moved over to Bell, grabbing his shoulders, “your shoulders are so tense I can give you a massage~ one on one,” she grinned, getting closer to him.

“Is Ryuu here?”

“Hm? No, not today. Sorry, I’ll let her know you asked.” Her smile vanished when Bell took the chance to escape her grasp.

“Alright let’s leave,” Moby paid for the drinks, and they left. He had no interest in Syr’s bullshit.

Plus, he was feeling like passing out at any moment.