1005. Dreams Aren't Just Wishful Thinking / 1006. The Neighboring Shirou Who Steals Talent

A boy who grew up in the countryside, always yearning for the heroic tales he read as a child, arrives in Orario, an urban dungeon city for adventurers, carrying his dreams and full of hope.

Then reality hit hard. He had been a member of the Familia for over a decade, but hadn't contributed anything to its growth. The High God hadn't visited the basement in a long time; she had given up on him because his abilities remained at the lowest level, unchanged. The High God had no choice but to train newcomers with more potential.

He only went to the dungeon every few days to fight low-level monsters like Earth Spirit and skeleton soldiers to earn a living, but he was always stuck in the top ten levels. Even after more than ten years, he had not advanced, all because he was afraid of monsters.

The weapon he was using was already broken and he was too lazy to repair it. The disappointed look in his Big Brother Shirou's eyes made him afraid to face the blacksmith again. If the weapon he had was broken, he would just pick up old weapons that others had thrown away.

However... staying at the lower levels, sometimes you'll encounter teams returning from the depths of the earth.

Loki Familia has once again successfully conquered a new social class, returning in triumph. The golden-haired girl... Sword Princess, is still as beautiful as ever. But he just burys his head like an ostrich, because even a glance at her makes him feel ashamed of himself.

One day he came to the lakeside and saw his own old, haggard, and numb eyes; he couldn't even recognize himself anymore.

That was the real nightmare, that was what truly broke him down.

Life's choices are always filled with bitterness. Even the most positive and ambitious person can easily find themselves in a dilemma if they encounter setbacks.

People are often like this: they are afraid of failure and therefore unwilling to break their current routine. If God could guarantee that the path you choose is the right one, even if the road ahead is full of treacherous cliffs and muddy paths where you could slip and fall at any moment, most people would still choose to do it.

But reality is like searching for Slytherin's locket; first, you have to drink a potion, and then there are ghouls in the pool that will steal your soul.

Voldemort hid it in a cave on a remote island far from Hogwarts. To retrieve it, one must drink the potion inside, which causes excruciating pain and worse than death.

In order to defeat Voldemort, Dumbledore had no choice but to drink the potion, and then he was on the verge of collapse. However, no one could guarantee the authenticity of the locket inside, nor could anyone guarantee that someone else had already gotten to it.

That's why many people hesitate when making a choice.

What if I try my best but still can't succeed? I really can't imagine such a future.

So it's better not to try at all, at least you can deceive yourself, thinking, 'If I really put in the effort, I can do what those people have done!' 'I just haven't found something worthwhile to dedicate myself to yet.'

But time waits for no one. If you drift through life, constantly escaping, and it becomes a habit, it will be very difficult to change. Before you know it, one, two, or three years have passed in this lifestyle.

Coming to my senses, I realized I'd already passed the Kintoki of my life. My body felt heavy and I couldn't lose weight no matter what I did, I couldn't get enough sleep, and I was always mentally exhausted. It was impossible to change my future...

The white-haired boy pulled the dagger into his hand, lowered his head, and gritted his teeth, blood flowing from his lips.

"Although monsters... are dangerous! Troublesome! Terrifying! And their breath is foul! I can't help but want to run away as soon as I see them! But... there's one I absolutely refuse to accept! Even if it means dying here!"

These surging monsters, with their bloody mouths and foul stench, treated him as easy prey.

But!

Don't underestimate people!

You've got your positions backwards! I'm the one on the hunt!

I must realize my dream! I must become a true adventurer!!!

At this moment, the white-haired youth, like the protagonist in those adventure legends, was fearless and faced alone a beast tide that was a hundred or a thousand times larger than himself.

"Come on! Bring it on!!!" Bell turned around, raised the dagger in his hand, and fought like a berserker, charging towards the dozens of beasts chasing after him.

Chapter 1005 Dreams are not just daydreams

A flash of silver light fell, the dagger severed the wolf's head, sliced open the core of the lunging slime, and continued to circle around it, yet the monsters still surged forth relentlessly.

The goblin, hiding to the side, cunningly thrust its bamboo spear at Bell's arm.

There was no time to dodge! With a heavy heart, Bell let the bamboo spear rip off a large piece of skin from his arm.

A flash of silver light, and the dagger in his hand severed the goblin's arm in the next instant. He then pulled out the same dagger from before, and with both blades, he slashed at the neck of the goblin beside him, taking his life.

Skill activation - Energy Drain!

The crimson bat absorbed energy from the goblin's body and then transferred it back to Bell, stopping the bleeding from his broken skin and turning it into a scabbed black patch.

Cowardice and laziness are a curse upon one's own future. Only physical pain can give one the real sense of effort and progress, preventing one from being swallowed up by a future of decadence and failure.

Not enough!

The attack needs to be more efficient!

Bell kicked a black tiger Demonic Beast in the eye, shattering it, and sent it flying.

But that's still not enough!

To become a true adventurer, you must also become stronger.

To fight several Demonic Beast surrounding us at the same time, we need to be even faster!

Bell gritted his teeth, wishing he had three heads and six arms; if he could, he'd even use his teeth.

"Awooooo!!!"

"Roar!!!"

The beast let out cries of pain and roars of rage.

"Again!!!"

The blood-soaked youth stood in the middle of the ground, panting heavily. The dagger he held in one hand was broken, and fragments of Magic Stone and some monsters that were not quite dead yet were still breathing were scattered around him. Blood-red puddles had formed on the ground.

"Woo woo!" Even the monsters that had been attracted from behind were frightened by this scene and ran away with their tails between their legs in the direction they came from.

"Aaaaaah!!!" Bell's crimson eyes burned with flames as he pounced on the monster. He had completely gone mad, charging at any monster he saw without regard for his own life.

Fortunately, Shirou was watching closely, and whenever he was seriously injured, a potion bottle would fly over, and he would shatter the bottle with an arrow, saving him. Otherwise, the outcome would have been very different.

Two hours later, the incense had long since burned out, and hundreds of fragments of Magic Stone were scattered on the ground. The white-haired boy lay on the ground, too weak to move.

His entire body was stained red with blood, some of it his own, but mostly from the Demonic Beast. Even his clothes were soaked in blood, stuck to his rotting flesh, inseparable from it.

"Ahhh... I think I see a golden expanse... Is that Miss Ais?... Or is this heaven?" Bell stared blankly at the ceiling of the cave.

With a splash, golden liquid was poured onto Bell's head. It turned out that Shirou, who had returned sometime earlier, was carrying a luxuriously packaged medicine bottle and applying it to Bell's wound.

"You only slept for half an hour, and you were only bitten and scratched a few times by the monster. As long as your head didn't fall off your neck, you won't die. You'll be fine after a nap." Shirou tore open the wound where Bell was still attached to his clothes and continued to pour the powerful recovery potion on him.

"Ouch!!" Bell was in so much pain she couldn't speak, screaming inwardly:

'Big brother really has some misunderstandings about the human body's limits!!!'

Bell lay on the ground, looking utterly dejected.

"Well, you really put in a lot of effort, that's great! Bell, you're a qualified adventurer now." Shirou said with a pleased smile.

"Is that so..." Bell replied softly, his eyes blurry for some reason, warm water droplets reflecting the light and shimmering with iridescent colors. He had not let his dream down, nor had he allowed it to become a tragic fantasy.

On the other side, others are having different dreams.

There was once a little girl with a very expressive face.

Laughter, surprise, sadness, and joy were ever-changing on her face, sometimes flushing her cheeks and revealing an innocent smile.

The girl sat in the lap of a woman with long, golden hair who looked like a fairy, a book open in front of her, waiting for her mother to read a story to her.

"Mom, read it quickly, read it quickly!" the girl urged repeatedly, trying to get the story to continue.

The voice reading the story was filled with love.

The girl, nestled in the soft embrace, looked up and saw her mother smiling at her. The girl smiled back.

The mother was a timelessly beautiful woman, appearing to be only fifteen or sixteen years old, with her beautiful long golden hair swaying in the breeze. She was as innocent as a baby, no different from a young girl; they were like sisters.

"Princess, forever asleep, was imprisoned deep within a dark forest. A young man awakened her. Her frozen heart thawed because of the young man who saved her, and the two lived happily ever after. The Princess was saved..."

"Alright, that's the end of the story. Did you like it?" the gentle woman asked.

The girl nodded emphatically.

"And what about Mom?"

"I am happy because of him," the woman smiled carefree.

With envy and longing in her eyes, the girl focused her gaze on the book, then blushed at her own thoughts and looked up at her mother.

"I hope you'll meet someone wonderful," the woman said, offering her her blessing rather than mocking her.

"Yes!" The girl smiled and nodded happily.

The scene changes.

The girl lying on the bed opened her eyes, tears streaming down her cheeks and dripping onto the pillow.

She looked almost exactly like the mother in the dream who read picture books to her, and she was a carbon copy of the little girl listening to stories. However, her expression was stiff, and even when she was crying, her face did not change at all. Like a delicate doll, she was forever fixed in a delicate mold.

The Princess was saved by a young man, and thus found happiness.

Mom met Dad, and that's how she found happiness.

But no one has ever seen the Princess, and now her father and mother are also missing.

The girl lay on the bed, lost in thought for a while, then slowly propped herself up with her hands and looked around with her still not fully awake mind.

The gloom had dissipated, and the room was now bright, with sunlight filtering through the gaps in the white curtains.

'It's morning. I haven't slept this soundly in a long time. I guess I overslept and missed my wake-up time,' the girl thought to herself.

"Ais! Are you awake? Time for breakfast!" After a while, a young girl's voice came from outside the door. It was Tiona, a fellow member of the Familia.

Was it the fatigue from the expedition, or the result of those memories?

In any case, Ais felt a peace she had never experienced until last night.

"Yes, I'll be right there," the girl replied.

Chapter 1006 Shirou Next Door Steals Someone's Job

Ais Wallenstein, bestowed the title of 'Sword Princess' by the gods, is sixteen years old and a member of the Loki Familia.

She pushed open the door and saw a pair of tanned, brightly dressed young girls.

Good morning, Ais.

"Good morning."

They are Amazon twin sisters, Tione and Tiona, from the same generation as Ais. The older sister is a voluptuous woman with long flowing hair, while the younger sister is a slender, energetic girl with short hair. However, when they get angry, they are actually the opposite; the older sister becomes a berserker with red eyes. They both wield heavy weapons and charge into battle on the front lines, and like Ais, they are LV.5.

"Good morning, Ais ~!" A ponytail-wearing elf ran towards them with a smile.

"Oh, it's Ais's favorite again today," her younger sister Tiona said with a teasing smile.

"Don't say that, after all, Ais took care of her before," said her older sister Tione.

"Good morning, Leifya," Ais said softly to the elven girl.

The ponytail-wearing fairy Leifya, is a junior to Ais and the others. Currently at level three, she possesses the top-tier rare skill 'Fairy's Song,' which doubles the effect on offensive True Magic, making her True Magic's destructive power approach that of a level five fairy. Her bestowed title is 'Thousand Fairies.'

Ais was with the three of them, and although she didn't quite understand why, she felt at ease. She felt that she was gradually becoming different, even though she was still called a doll outside. But within the Familia, everyone seemed happy to see her changes.

"Alright, let's go to the restaurant, I'm starving!" Tione said.

"Yes!" the girls readily agreed.

Breakfast had already been laid out in the restaurant, and many adventurers from the same clan were already seated. Upon seeing the girls arrive, they all greeted them.

"Good morning."

Good morning, Ais! You look radiant just as much as you do today.

However, the overall atmosphere wasn't as cheerful as it seemed on the surface, since yesterday's return was due to the failure of the expedition. Although no one said it, morale was affected to some extent.

This expedition failed due to the unexpected appearance of a new species of demonic insect.

It was a monster unlike any I'd ever seen before. Its entire body was a yellowish-green, its swollen, seemingly soft green skin adorned with strangely vibrant patterns. Countless short legs formed its lower body, which, as Lefia had described, truly resembled the shape of a worm. Its upper body seemed to rest on its long lower body, rising like a small hill, with thin, flat tentacles—likely arms—extending from both sides. At the tips were four slits, somewhat resembling fingers.

Both the venom and blood he spews are strong acids capable of melting weapons. Unless a weapon has special resistance or Indestructible Attribute, it will be completely corroded upon contact.

The clan was caught off guard and had to abandon their advance, but everyone rallied.

After breakfast, everyone started dealing with the loot. Apart from some special passages, the dungeon didn't have any fixed shortcuts like the Heavenly Ladder, so you could only walk down and back.

Therefore, before setting off, the Loki Familia would accept quests along the way and complete them on the way. If they passed by places with rare items, the Loki Familia would also try to collect them.

Some people were responsible for exchanging the Magic Stone for money at the guild, some were responsible for completing the commissioned tasks, and some were responsible for going to various shops to sell the rare forging materials and herbs dropped by the bosses they had collected along the way.

All of this was also to obtain enough funds to prepare for the next expedition.

"Ais, wait a minute. Are you going to see that Demon Sword Forging we talked about before?" Finn, the Spear Wielder and Little Folk, called out to the girl.

"Yes." Ais nodded.

"Well, although I feel a bit apologetic towards Gubinyu's clan, if the other party possesses even more advanced technology, that god won't be able to find fault with him. If you see that he has real skills, please introduce me to him," Finn said.

"Yes, that person said it could enhance my attack power." Ais nodded.

"Hehe, I'll come too! My twin blades were melted by the bugs, so I need new weapons. I'll come along too," Tiona said, leaning closer.