‘I’m finally free!’ Moby woke up early after the last day of being grounded had passed.

He stormed out of his room, first taking a hot bath before putting on his equipment.

An additional set of fully black reinforced monster leather armour and a full metal jacket, no joke. The jacket was green and had silver metal sleeves, a custom order he asked for from special smiths. He practised before bending the jacket into a shield, and it worked well.

He could also form the metal sleeves into extended claws or metal gauntlets.

There was one more thing: he got something that was valuable gloves, the white ignition gloves, another custom order that burned through the budget they had.

-Snap!

His fingers sparked a flame appearing above it before vanishing. “awesome.”

He stood in front of a full-length mirror, checking himself out. “I look so cool.”

Moby struck some poses, even flapping his coat in the wind like a superhero, opening his window to see if he could get some drift of action.

“Pff hehe,” a chuckle came from down the hall.

Hestia and bell were watching him with smug looks on their faces. He left his door open.

“Shut up, please don’t.”

“Pff hahaha!” Hestia burst into a fit, “you look wonderful Moby,” Bell smiled.

“Posing like a hero hehe that’s adorable hahaha,” she laughed even more.

‘Damn it,’ flushing red, he ran past them quickly with his glaive he would not stand there and let her have her fun. “I’ll wait for you downstairs.”

“Aw Moby, don’t be like that. It was cute~ hehe.”

“I was trying to be cool!” he shouted from the staircase.

“Hahaha oh go have your bath, Bell. I’ll be downstairs.”

They spent the morning with Hestia, laughing at Moby when he did some extra poses downstairs, thinking he was safe and alone. Even Bell even joined and they had breakfast together.

“Alright, go now, but remember, be safe and don’t do anything reckless.”

“Yes, Hestia.”

...

‘Well, shit, I’m grounded for three days. This happens.’

Moby stood with a frown, realising what transpired in his absence.

“Hi, my name’s Lily. It’s a pleasure to meet you. Bell has been talking about you for a while,” the short pallum smiled, reaching out her hand.

“Hi, Moby likewise,” he gave a forced smile and shook her hands, ‘well she comes around.’

“I don’t understand why we need her when we can already do great ourselves?”

Lily shook off his unwelcoming attitude, But Bell stood up for her, “What if we ever need support in case of trouble or we run out of inventory? She’s helped me make things easier, so I think she’s good for our team.”

“... fine, let’s go today. We’re heading to the eighth floor.”

“Hihi yeah!” Bell jumped.

[Dungeon of Babel] [8th floor]

-Fwoosh!

“Burn hahaha!” Moby laughed as the flames ate away at the shadows, and goblins in his way, “ah I missed this.”

He pulled out his glaive and charged in, this time for melee combat. It was easy clashing and countering the war shadows’ attacks even simpler than dealing with the ants as he jumped over them and crushed their heads in with his boots.

Bell, on his own, was making quick work of goblins using his flexibility to dodge getting up close and sticking them in their cores.

All the while, Lily looked on. “these guys are really strong.” she couldn’t help but watch them fight in awe. She’s seen many others as adventurous, but none like Moby and Bell either, but his case because he was gullible.

“Alright let’s try this,” he cracked his neck and planned his glaive down.

-Clap!

His sleeves morphed and extended into single spikes from each side. He punched the air slightly, getting used to them.

‘Not bad but a little heavy though, but that’s fine!’ He grinned and kicked off the ground into a wave of war shadows and ants.

-Pah!

He blocked a swing perfectly before countering with a right hook. It landed and severed its head clean off. Just as he did so, another war shadow appeared ready to strike, but an arrow shot past, impaling it in the head.

-Swish Thunk!

Quickly Moby moved in, delivering body combos, breaking its crystal in two. He looked back to Lily, who shot with a crossbow, both nodding before he went back to hand combat.

Clashing, blocking and smashing the monsters with difficulty showed that he had little skill in hand-to-hand combat, but it was fine, as his defence was enough to let him learn and make some mistakes.

Bell also focused on putting his all in, fighting his enemies with careful precision. He moved like he owned the battlefield with the occasional help from Lily, and he picked up the crystals as they steadily moved forward in the dungeon.

Eventually reaching the halfway mark, they found a safe spot to break and recover.

“Phew, that was amazing, Moby. I didn’t know you could fight like that and those things you made from your jacket were cool,” Bell awed, glancing at his metal jacket.

“Thanks,” Moby smiled back, ‘sometimes I forget he’s fourteen.’

“I have to say Mr Moby that glaive of yours is unique, and the spells Bell never said you had magic or is an Item launched the awesome explosions,” Lily said trying to start a conversation her eyes glistening like a fan meeting their favourite star.

“Yeah, the glaive is unique. I made myself, and no, I don’t have a magic item and I’d like it if you stop with questions.”

“Ah, I’m sorry to intrude I just thought you were a blacksmith,” she looked away, faking being hurt.

“Oh no, he’s an alchemist. He did everything himself.”

Bell just blurted it out without care. Then again, Moby didn’t care how he was, a sure word of him would spread depending on if Loki wanted to or not.

“Alright come on guys let’s get back to hunting, shall we? Hopefully, we can make it to the 9th floor.”

[Dungeon of Babel] [9th floor]

“Alright ready?” Moby turned back, asking the two.

“Un,” both nodded, and they stepped down to the ninth floor.

They ventured and met rogue groups of goblins which Both Bell and Moby took care of together.

Further in he came across some war shadows. He exploded with his flame into alchemy.

“We’re entering a larger space. This might be a busy area, so get ready.”

Just as he finished, a group of goblins and war shadows appeared, a large one. He pulled out his glaive Bell his knife and Lily moved back.

“Ha!” He shared, shaping his fingers as a trial of flames followed his glaive from behind. He jumped up, slamming it down, the flames exploding in a come.

-RAAAAH!

They roared and howled in pain, but it worked, splitting them apart. Bell dashed to the right, taking on his half while Moby did the same to the left.

-Snap!

Another flame followed his glaive as he spun it around in a spinning attack! He slashed the nearest in two, killing them instantly before charging to a war shadow and piercing its core. Another appeared with a swing he blocked and jumped, kicking its head before delivering one more with a backflip.

Bell on his side was working fast, constantly moving in between the goblins and war shadows slicing their legs and chest before circling back, dodging and weaving before stabbing them in their cores.

Moby focused quickly on parrying another attack from a goblin, but the force pushed him back as three came charging at him. “Tsk.”

He grunted and reeled his glaive back and launched it towards the three they dodged, but the attention was on the weapon as the front goblin got its head squared.

-Shunk! -Poof

With a metal blade from Moby’s full metal jacket, he dashed into the second monster’s space before delivering an uppercut; a punch from behind sent the blade stabbing through its head.

“Ugh,” he got up and huffed as the goblin chuckled before an arrow shot into its head.

-Poof

He watched as the other war shadows and goblins all charged simultaneously, ‘alright no better time than the present.’

Moby gulped, getting into a stance and putting his hands together.

-Snap -Snap -Snap -Snap -Snap -Snap -Snap!

Before a flame is made, the spark is used to ignite the oxygen, causing the explosion, but he didn’t gather oxygen. rather, he controlled the spark instead of increasing the volume. Of course, the spark grew into a yellow ball of electricity.

“Moby, what are you doing!?” Bell yelled over to him as he kicked the goblin away. It was only shortly after another monster invaded his space.

Now to go into science, air does not conduct electricity and for lightning to occur, high charges need to be built up. Moby knew this, but the amount he was building up he did not know. There is so much more that goes into this, but currently, he believed he was building up a storm.

‘They’re close, come on Ka! Me!’ he drew the ball of electricity back. ‘Ha! Me!’ He had his hood on to act as a defensive shield. His hands were numbing from the ball of lightning.

-Kree! -Kruar!

They got close, a claw stretched for his face. He grinned, thrusting his hands forward to blast! “HAA!”

-BZZZT!

It didn’t work out as he expected. Instead, it shot barely a meter forward and expanded into a dome, shocking everything inside, including him! His clothes were laced with leather, so it helped shield him somewhat but sadly, just as the electrocution was nearing its end.

-BOOM!

The dome exploded, every monster within was turned to ash and it sent him flying back, tumbling to Lily’s feet.

“Hah ed a toon,” his body jerked as he mumbled gibberish to her pain clear in his eyes. His tongue was burning and quickly Lily got down and fed him a potion.

A minute went by and he pushed himself up with her help, as he was still smouldering and shaking.

“Another one please, cough! Ah, there’s the t-taste of burnt f-food,” he gulped it down soon and then one more, “hah,” steam escaped from his mouth and his body as he sat down.

Bell was just about done and came to check on Moby, “what was that you launched lightning from your hands! How?”

“Heh trade secret, but cough! Uh, I’m not doing that anytime soon. Also, do not tell Hestia about this, understand?” He gave Bell the eyes that said he snitched, he’d suffer.

“Mn, but don’t do that again, please.”

“Yeah, on and thank you, Lily, for the potion,” he smiled at the pallum, who nodded back.

“So, are we going down to the tenth floor?” Bell asked, a grin appearing on him.

“Are you crazy? Hell no, I don’t have a single B-ranked attributed, and you want me to dive deeper?”

He shook his head at Bell and got up with their help. “Let’s gather the stones and get back up.”

And that’s what they also found: a few goblin fangs, which they agreed to sell since they had no use. They left the dungeon and were making their way to the guild. On the way, Lily struck up a conversation she had been wary of Moby because of the glances he made towards her and could tell from before that he was the leader.

“Um, Moby, sir, how are we going to split the Valis? Bell and I previously did a fifty, fifty share, but this time we gained more than before, more than I thought.”

He turned back looking at her, “we’ll talk about that when we get there. Oh Bell, you can go home. I’ll handle this.”

“Okay sure oh tell Eina I said hi,” he smiled and ran back to the church, leaving the two at the front of the guild.