Starter Pack

"So heavy."

Hestia muttered under her breath.

Her fingers swirled around and touched the black and blue holographic lights floating above Bell's back.

When Hestia accessed Bell's falna to update his status.

There was an overwhelming amount of excelia that she needed to process and turn into Bell's strength.

'The numbers keep on going up at a rapid pace.'

Bell's status kept increasing at an alarming rate that it had almost left her tongue-tied from confusion.

And it was not just Bell's absurd status rise that left her stunned.

'So what he said was all real, thank goodness Bell did not go crazy.'

A wave of relief washed all over her body, one special feature of the falna system in Danmachi is that their patron gods could see or feel almost everything from the point of view of their adventurers.

Sometimes Hestia would write down Bell's experiences in a book, a book that she only had the right to read.

The pages were still mostly blank probably because it was still in the beginning phase of Bell's adventure.

'Amazing, a whole new world, if those bored gods would catch wind of this, I bet they would jump ship pretty quickly.'

The memories of Meliodas flooded inside her head, well it was mostly the memories of Meliodas that Bell had managed to see.

Nevertheless, she saw just enough to get the gist of Meliodas' character.

She wore an astonished expression on her face, Meliodas' world itself, how different their system was, the unique races that she had never seen before, and the adventures that Meliodas went through.

Pretty much everything about Meliodas' world shocked her.

'I had no idea that there is a completely different world from ours, the existence of another world... Are there more out there?'

Hestia thought.

After the moving images in her head stopped playing, a tear fell on her cheeks.

'This guy, he had been through so much.'

Meliodas' story alone was way more interesting and heart-wrenching than any other stories that she had read or heard about in her world.

Sorrow, suffering, bliss, happiness, tragedy, hope, friendship, family, destruction, and love.

She could feel all types of emotions just from learning about Meliodas' story.

3000 plus years of Meliodas' life had mostly been a cycle of pain from the curse that he and his lover had suffered until they eventually had their happy ending when they defeated the Demon King.

Unfortunately, that happiness did not last long until the Supreme Deity came into the picture.

It broke her heart knowing that Meliodas was separated once more from his lover.

'If Bell and I were to experience the same... will we have been able to...'

She shook her head and refused to think about it any further.

She couldn't imagine going through the same thing, if Bell was taken away from her, she too would feel immense sorrow.

'It's amazing how Meliodas remained smiling all this time, if it were anyone else, they would've been broken by now.'

Any other mortal would be broken from the suffering that Meliodas went through.

Of course, Meliodas was not an ordinary mortal and was a former demon king that reached the level of a god at one point in time albeit it was only for a moment.

Hestia smiled wryly and shook her head, she extended her palms and pushed back the blue and black lights, and made a circular motion with her index finger on Bell's spine.

'Oh, I feel much lighter now.'

Meliodas thought as the falna upgrade process had just finished, he could feel that Bell's body got gotten much stronger than before.

"As I thought, this is way too abnormal."

She shifted her head to look at Meliodas.

"We need to talk."

Hestia muttered as she held two parchments in her hands, both displaying Bell's status before and after he got a falna upgrade.

Hestia couldn't believe how much excelia Bell had when she tried to update Bell's status.

The number of excelia that she needed to process was too overwhelming that even she thought she imagining things for a second.

She knew that Bell had only slain a couple of goblins, lizards, and kobolds, which is why she was confused because the number of excelia that she has to process was way too abnormal to be obtained from monsters that were slain from the first four floors of the dungeon.

After putting on a shirt, Meliodas turned his head to look at Hestia's expression.

"What's wrong?"

Meliodas wore a confused expression, he knew that she was processing the memories she obtained from Bell, but it was taking more time than necessary.

Even after hearing Meliodas' words, Hestia was still staring at the paper that showed Bell's new status.

Unbelievable events kept happening one after another that she needed some time to acclimate to respond to Meliodas' question.

"Take a look at this."

With a stiff smile, Hestia flipped the paper to show Bell's new status.

It was written like this

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Name : Bell Cranel (Meliodas)

Race : Human?

Level : 1

Strength - 999 S

Endurance - 999 S

Dexterity - 999 S

Agility - 999 S

Magic - 999 S

[Demon Mark] - (same as the show) user can wield the power of darkness, when activated it improves all basic stats, obtains the strength which can rival people above his level, self-healing ability rate increases, and can reattach lost limbs.

[Hellblaze] - a dark fire enchantment type of magic, increases attack power which lingers unto any surface it comes into contact with and cannot be extinguished under any normal methods this enchantment can be used on any weapon, whether it is iron or adamantite.

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Meliodas grabbed the parchment from Hestia's hands and looked at Bell's new status.

He smiled in response and closed his eyes.

"Congratulations Bell."

He had an idea or two about the reason why Bell's status raised so much.

(W-Wa-wa-wa-what?!!! How did my status increase that much?!!? I only killed some kobolds and goblins, I shouldn't receive that much of a boost, can you please explain Kami-sama?)

Bell's voice echoed inside Meliodas' mind but the former forgot that Hestia couldn't hear him.

"Bell, she can't hear you, ya know?"

Meliodas said.

(Ah my apologies, I forgot, please relay my question to Goddess Hestia)

Bell said while making a flustered expression.

Meliodas relayed the same question to Hestia, but the latter was still in a daze and wasn't able to hear him.

Meliodas clapped his hands together and made a loud noise which promptly snapped Hestia out of her drunken stupor.

"Huh, wh- what did you say again?"

Hestia said in a drunken voice.

Meliodas proceeded to repeat Bell's question.

Hestia made a pondering expression and racked her brain about the reason why Bell's status improved so much.

She only just recently arrived in the mortal realm and spent most of her time in her divine home back in heaven so her knowledge about falna was pretty shallow compared to other gods.

She shook her head.

"To be honest, I don't know."

Meliodas looked at her weirdly, he was a bit surprised that a god of this world didn't even know the answer to this question, but he didn't think too deeply about it and made an explanation of his own.

"The falna system works by converting our experiences, battles, struggles, desires, and slain monsters into our strength."

Bell and Hestia nodded their heads, this was common knowledge in Danmachi that even the children knows about.

From Meliodas' speculation, they managed to trick the falna system that the experience that Meliodas went through, into thinking that it was Bell's.

You can gain excelia from killing monsters, training, and experiences from difficulties, hardships, and battles.

The fights and battles that Bell saw through Meliodas' memories tricked the falna system into giving him excelia thus boosting his stats.

"It is a shame that the falna has a 999 limiter or else Bell's stats would be much higher than it is now."

Meliodas shook his head and thought it was a shame.

If there was no such limiter, then wouldn't that mean that Bell could instantly become the strongest in Orario in an instant?

If there was no such limiter, those numbers would be much much higher right about now.

It was no longer in the realm of improvement, it was borderline cheating the system, breaking the laws of common sense in the world of Danmachi.

Bell was in a dazed state from hearing Meliodas' explanation.

Seeing that both Bell and Hestia didn't say anything, Bell decided to change the topic regarding Bell's level up.

To level up, one needs to perform a feat that could impress the gods.

Right now, Bell can level up anytime he wants to from Meliodas' memories.

But Bell wore a conflicted expression on his face and Meliodas knew the reason why.

'He wants to level up with his efforts alone.'

Meliodas thought.

Bell was conflicted, of course, he was happy that he got stronger but at the same time, he felt stifled because it was not through his own efforts.

Bell did not like the feeling of getting fed with a silver spoon without doing anything to deserve it.

He also knew that he needed the appropriate strength so he could help Meliodas return to his world as fast as possible.

It was more of a problem with his moral code, yes he achieved the strength that longed but what about the others who worked hard but never got the corresponding rewards in return?

His grandfather had taught him the value of hard work and hardships, he felt the need to prove himself to be worthy of the strength he was given.

Meliodas was aware of the conflict that was happening within Bell, he had no choice but to console him.

"Bell you don't need to do it if you don't want to, like I said, I didn't want to disrupt your life as an adventurer so you don't need to worry, whatever choice you make, I won't blame you"

Bell showed a wry smile.

Bell was relieved from hearing Meliodas' words.

'I was being selfish.'

Bell thought.

Even though he was being selfish, Meliodas chose to not blame him, he felt guilty and hung his head down in shame.

If he had to go through with his thoughts of wanting to prove himself and slow down Meliodas from going back to his world because of a dumb code, then he wouldn't be able to forgive himself.

Bell shook his head once more, clarity returned to his eyes.

If it meant that he could help his friend, then who cares about his code, if it meant helping his friend return home, he would do anything, to him, Meliodas was his idol and figure of admiration.

'Besides, aren't heroes all about helping people?'

His ideology of a hero had undergone a subtle shift.

After some deliberation, Bell made his decision.

(Meliodas, tell the goddess that I want to level up)