Terrarian in the Dungeon

With Heath gone, I was able to finally sit down with the rest of the girls and just relax while eating a delightful thick stew made by Beatrice for dinner. "Anyway, how's Bell's progress looking? I mean she is close to leveling up right?" I asked Hestia in particular as Bell just wryly ate a dinner roll as her goddess rolled her eyes.

"Bell is being too anxious! She wants to match your level up but honestly, she needs another week or something to polish off her stats." Hestia said crossly to Bell who refused to meet her eyes and only nibbled at her large dinner roll like it was the most delightful thing in the world. "But either way I imagine you two plan to hunt the stronger monsters that are on Rivira's floor?" Hestia asked and I nodded firmly.

With my water candles, and other spawn rate multipliers along with building a little base to fortify ourselves. We could fairly easily slaughter the level two-three monsters that were normally uncommon on the Eighteenth floor. Which would give us an amazing amount of Excellia to fuel our base stats, not to mention how Bell was still technically a lower level and to be killing those stronger lifeforms she would be compensated for the action however she accomplished it.

"Yes, we will be safe in my structures and little bases I make," I said confidently before wryly smiling as I continued with my words earning a snort from Seshat and Hestia. "The only issue with my mass slaughter plans is how damned long it takes to extract all the monster stones just to remove the stacked corpses that will pile over our bunker..." I said dryly as my eye twitched at the memory of building a sort of pill box that I almost got squished in as I tried to remove the bodies surrounding it.

Sadly, monster stones are very destructible unlike Terraria drops so should I make a lava pit and hide in a box of glass to herd all the monsters to fall into the pit of lava I would lose all the drops. Could be a decent attempt to drain the dungeon of energy though.

"Anyway, me and Bell are going to talk for a bit. Thank you for the dinner, Beatrice." I said respectfully to the woman who was now cooking all my meals, and just generally taking care of the chores of the house as Seshat and Hestia certainly weren't going to be doing them.

I ended my own little dinner early as I saw Bell was rather deep in thought, so I wanted to grill her on what was bouncing around in the head of hers.

"No problem, Jake. I am happy you enjoyed the meal but uhm do you think you could come to my room for a bit tonight?" Beatrice asked blushing as Seshat threw her a knowing grin as Hestia just cocked her head to the side in confusion.

But what was more interesting was how Bell blushed with the red spreading from her neck up to her face as I told Beatrice she was welcome into my room later on into the night as Bell likely was going to sleep in her own room later after we talked for a bit.

"Alright let's go Bell," I said lightly as followed behind her as she walked into the room that had truly become my own bedroom I had removed the piles of bedding that filled the room to instead have some furniture that I crafted myself including my own sinfully comfortable bed that would perfectly support me.

Once I got Bell onto a couch and sat across from her, I started off by bluntly asking what was on her mind. "So, Bell what's rattling in your head, you were quiet at dinner and Hestia was obviously worried about you."

Bell sighed before she bit her lip softly looking way too cute while doing it and then she shook her head as she finally met my blue eyes with her ruby gem-like red eyes. "I shouldn't have left you at the event... If I was there when Evilus attacked maybe you wouldn't have gotten poisoned and you wouldn't have needed to even teleport home." Bell spoke and I wanted to facepalm and tell her she would have likely been deadweight as the psychos wouldn't have batted an eye at killing or using her as a hostage, but I knew Bell would just get stubborn if I denied her and tried to keep her 'safe'.

Yeah, no she was the world's protagonist and was thus destined to be fate's chew toy until she reached her full potential. So, attempting to keep her safe was impossible.

"Maybe so... But I needed you to go to the Guild to get the money for the event, back home safely as no one knows you really whereas I am already a celebrity of Orario apparently. Not to mention Evilus is supposed to be long dead by now." I said grimacing as Evilus wasn't supposed to raise its head for a couple of months at least according to the Ais timeline in the Sword Oratoria stuff.

But me being a silver bullet that could wipe Orario off the map is too much of an interesting target for them to ignore and allow me to grow outside of their control.

"So, if something happens next time, I will trust you to have my back, Bell." I finished as I gave Bell a reassuring smile my words had definitely touched Bell as she literally leapt over the table separating our two couches and got me into a tight hug.

"Thank you for believing in me Jake," Bell whispered into my neck as she held on to me and I just chuckled softly as I patted her bare back as she was still wearing that backless dress. Apparently, Ais's style of clothing had infected Orario as backless dresses or even virgin killer sweaters were modeled after her style of dress.

Ais and the rest of the high-level adventurers of Orario were no different from my old world's mega celebrity who would push people to wear their branded clothing to try to catch a bit of their idols' glow. Or whatever other reason they used to get people to pay stupid amounts of money to wear Supreme and other stuff.

So, with Ais being Bell's idol I wasn't surprised she was wearing clothes that kind of matched her style even if the colors were almost completely flipped in darker colors and highlights.

"It's alright Bell, so anyway how are you and Hestia settling in with us hmm," I said grunting a bit as Bell was completely latched onto me so I just gave up and laid down across the couch as she laid atop my chest while lifting her head so her ruby eyes could stare up at me like the times, she would snuggle up to me when she gets lonely as she and Hestia began sleeping separately.

Apparently, Hestia had conditioned Bell to literally have issues sleeping alone in the comfort of her own bed or even on the ratty couch they had at the church they used to live within, as she needed a big pillow to either hug... Or be hugged in turn before she could settle down.

Looking down at Bell's adorable ruby eyes looking up at me with affection I just ran my fingers down her bare back making her hum in comfort and push her breasts into my chest.

"Hey Bell, how about we go out on an actual date or something tomorrow?" I asked softly as Bell's eyes snapped open in surprise at my question and her deep blush made a return as she squirmed across my body but with my palm on her back, she couldn't run off to go scream in her bedroom or anything else insane.

Once Bell calmed down and her blush lowered from atomic red to a soft pink she whispered. "Jake... Aren't you and Beatrice or even Lady Seshat dating?"

Bell got to see my eyes twitch as I wryly shook my head I moved the palms of my hand off her back to pull my shirt off so I could point to the scars on my left shoulder. "See this, Bell. This is Seshat's claim on me as I took her as my woman... Because of that, my actual dating pool consists of only human Elves and maybe Pallums as the other more primal races see a beastkin goddess being claimed by me as a magical prime meat sign and the only thing on their mind is the actual act of passion instead of building a relationship." I said and Bell nodded in understanding as she softly spoke.

"That and you cannot build a family with Lady Seshat either... I am not blind to Hestia's affections anymore, but I want to build a family myself." Bell spoke softly as she laid her head sideways on my chest so she could listen to my heartbeat, and I noticed she was actually matching my breathing as she matched our bodies' natural motions just like we would do together in the dungeon as we naturally fought together.

So, with my little reminder about my status, she fell silent for a minute before she snorted softly as she gazed up at me with not only affection brimming in her ruby-red eyes but some other emotions I couldn't sort out as she spoke. "Ok, Jake. I accept your date... As the heroine you saved in the dungeon, I can't just refuse you Hehe." She giggled and then she leaned forward surprisingly pecking me on the cheek in my surprise at her brave act she slipped out of my hands and all but glided out of the room as she went towards her bedroom with her sweet giggling following her path until my door was shut with a loud clicking noise.

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