Chapter 21 - Surprise. (Patreon)

I continued staring at the girl, who was visibly frightened. She finished chewing her food and swallowed. Then she asked, "Can I help you?"

I smiled at her and stepped a little closer.

The people around us looked at me as if I were doing something extremely suspicious.

"What's your name? Which Familia do you belong to?" I asked.

The girl hesitated for a long moment before answering. "Why do you want to know? You're Rui, aren't you? From the Loki Familia."

"So you know who I am."

"Everyone knows who you are. Of course, you don't exactly have a good reputation."

"Could you tell me a little more about that? What kind of reputation do I have?"

From what I remembered, I didn't have an especially bad reputation. People knew I liked drinking and spending time with women, but I had never been seen as some idiotic womanizer.

Even though I really had been an idiotic womanizer for a good part of my life in this world.

"I don't want to talk about it." The girl turned around and started walking away, but I followed her. When she realized I was following her, she said, "Could you stop following me? I'll call for help if you keep this up."

"I just want to talk to you. Can't I?"

"Talk, and then what?"

"Hm?"

"Do you really just want to talk? Do you approach women just to have a conversation? Before long you'll be inviting me to dinner and trying to get me drunk."

I was surprised by her words.

Get a woman drunk so I could take advantage of her?

I would never do something like that.

Not even in my memories had anything like that ever happened.

"I would never do something like that. I think you've heard too many lies about me, huh?"

"Lies, you say..."

"They are lies. I've never gotten a woman drunk to take advantage of her. I would never do something like that."

"But you've invited plenty of women to dinner hoping for something more, haven't you?"

"Yes, of course."

"And that's exactly why I don't want to talk to you." She quickened her pace to get away from me, but I had no trouble keeping up.

I couldn't tell how strong she was, but she probably had strength similar to Bell's at the beginning of the story.

Level One or Level Two.

She suddenly stopped walking and turned toward me.

"Could you stop following me!?"

Her crimson eyes locked onto mine. She was starting to get genuinely irritated.

"Fine. If you tell me your name, I'll stop following you. Simple enough, right?"

"Why do you want to know my name so badly?"

"Because you remind me of someone I met in the past."

"Fine, fine." The girl let out a sigh before saying, "My name is Bella. Satisfied? Bella."

The moment she told me her name, something appeared floating before my eyes.

[New Quest Available]

[Win Bella's Heart]

[Time Limit: 9 Days]

[Reward: 100 Points]

The moment I read the system message, my eyes widened.

"Satisfied?" Bella asked again.

"You're part of the Hestia Familia, right?"

"Yes. I'm the only member. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to get to work."

"Work..."

Well, exploring the Dungeon is an adventurer's job, right?

Bella quickly walked away from me.

I let out a sigh and looked at the quest once more. I had imagined something like this might exist, but I hadn't expected a quest to appear at a moment like this. Was it because Bella was the protagonist of this story?

I smiled and closed the system window.

With my hands in my pockets, I looked around and noticed that people were staring at me.

Sometimes attracting so much attention is a bad thing.

I picked up my pace and walked in the same direction as Bella.

Not because I was following her, but because I wanted to kill a few monsters. I wanted to see how much my swordsmanship had improved after acquiring the "Swordsman Lv.1" skill.

I hadn't had the chance to test my abilities.

####

As soon as I entered the Dungeon, I gripped my sword tightly and smiled. There weren't any strong monsters on the first floor, but I didn't care. I quickened my pace and searched for monsters I could kill.

Of course, as I searched for monsters, I also made my way toward the passage leading to the second floor.

The monsters I encountered along the way were Goblins and Kobolds. None of them were armed, so I had no trouble dealing with them. In fact, even if they had been carrying some kind of weapon, it still would have been easy.

I didn't even break a sweat.

I moved swiftly and decapitated each monster with a single strike.

The moment their heads flew off, their bodies disappeared, leaving behind magic stones on the ground. Since I hadn't brought a bag with me, I stuffed the magic stones into my pockets.

Before I even reached the second floor, both of my pockets were full.

I shoved my hands into my pockets and tossed all the magic stones onto the ground. They were getting in the way of my movements, and they would have fallen out sooner or later anyway.

After throwing the magic stones away, I continued exploring the second floor.

From then on, whenever I killed a monster, I didn't bother collecting its magic stone.

When I reached the third floor of the Dungeon, I opened my status to see whether my stats had changed.

Level: 3

Strength (STR): B 725

Endurance (END): C 669

Dexterity (DEX): B 729

Agility (AGI): A 814

Magic (MAG): D 599

"Oh? They actually increased after killing a few monsters."

Still, it was far too slow.

I continued advancing, using nothing but my sword to kill monsters. It was even easier than I had expected.

The "Swordsman Lv.1" skill, despite being only Level One, was helping me tremendously.

I had much greater control over my body.

More than that, my body seemed to move on its own. My movements had definitely become more refined and precise.

If this skill is already helping me this much at only Level 1, I can only imagine what it'll be like at its maximum level.

It will probably level up as I continue using my sword to kill monsters. I don't think I can spend points to increase the level of my skills.

"Huff..."

I let out a sigh before continuing onward.

However, when I reached the seventh floor of the Dungeon, I was caught off guard by an explosion.

BOOM!

Along with the explosion, I heard the voice of a woman.