Sauron and Bell went into the dungeon at 10 PM and left it at 5 AM, tired and exhausted the two made their way back home, Sauron had to carry Bell on his back, but he didn't care, all he cared about is how weak he became, he shouldn't be tired, he should be able to fight against those monsters for days without breaking a sweat, yet a few hours had left him drained, he needed, no, had to correct this NOW.
"Where have you been, why are you two injured? Have you been mugged?" The barrage of questions came from Hestia as soon as Sauron entered the small church he now calls home.
"We were in the dungeon." Answered Bell before being thrown into the bed.
Sauron didn't say anything, preferring to just lay on the small couch.
"I-I want to get stronger." Was the last thing Sauron heard before falling asleep.
XXX
When Hestia woke up it was already evening, the sun was shining brightly and Annatar and Bell were working outside. In order to reform the small church the elf began to take the blocks in better conditions from other run down buildings around the small church, Bell, of course, went to help him. Hestia did NOT spend 5 minutes staring at the 2 shirtless adventurers work, she would never!
After a quick breakfast Hestia updated their stats, Sauron had grown a normal amount, but Bell continued to become stronger than he should.
Sauron took his update first and left right after, while Bell had been only preoccupied with killing monsters Sauron was taking the monster's loot aswell as fighting.
Sauron made sure to take a different path to the guild in order to not meet the girls from the restaurant/bar. In the end he gained quite a lot of valis, but before he could leave the guild his dungeon adviser, Eina, called his attention. "Hello mr. Annatar, how have you been?" She asked.
"I have been good, unfortunately I'm quite busy." Said Sauron, but before he could leave she placed a hand on his shoulder.
"Wait, before you go, just let me ask a simple question. I saw you exchange monster drops for valis just now, that is weird, I swear I saw you and Bell exchange your monster drops yesterday, so either you forgot to exchange all your drops." She took a step forward. "Or you went to the dungeon at night, presumably alone." She said in a harsh tone.
"I can see that you think yourself some expert just by the way you walk, but you are not, you are still level one and you just began this week, don't go around thinking you are that great, because you aren't, adventurers don't go on adventures." Said Eina in a scolding tone as if she was a mother talking her child down, of course Sauron took massive offense to that.
"Miss Eina." Said Sauron as he lightly pushed her away from him. "I'm not stupid. I know exactly what I'm doing, I know my body and limitations from top to bottom, if i think i can go to the dungeon alone, i will. Do not forget that you are only an adviser, if i need your advice i will ask for it, but if i don't then you better keep you mouth shut, for i will do as i please." Sauron said in a weirdly calm manner, he wasn't asking her to not intrude in his decisions, he was telling that she wasn't going to intrude in his decisions.
With that resolved Sauron left for the tower in order to buy some things for himself, materials is what he is lacking, metals, coals and the like.
"Hello, welcome to my store, what can I get for you?" Said the owner of the weapon store, a woman of dark brown hair.
"I would like to buy any scraps you might have." Said Sauron.
"Scraps?" She asked.
"Yes, bits and pieces of metal and wood you will not use, coal that didn't burn quite right so will be thrown off, things like that, materials that I can get for cheap. As well as some tools that are too old." Sauron explained.
"Hmmmm. How much do you have?" She asked.
Sauron placed his bag full of valis on the table. The amount of money made her eyes shine with greed.
"Just wait here a second." She said, Sauron had acquired a good amount of steel and coal and some tools.
When Sauron returned home, neither Hestia or Bell were home, so Sauron began to prepare, behind the small church he had prepared a small open "forge" made of stone blocks and with an anvil that was simply a particularly big and resistant block, but it would serve for now he supposed, Sauron began to heat the coal, and separated his materials, today he would make his first prototype ring, in the dungeon he had found a monster that was clearly stronger than the rest, so when he killed it he took the crystal and separated it from the other crystals, if his theories are correct the ring will work like a line passing the energy from the crystal to Sauron, but without making the crystal run out of energy like when they are still inside the monster and maybe allow the dark lord to control monster by interacting with their crystals, it's all theory of course since this world works under a different set of laws.
When the coal was hot enough he put the steel in the forge and allowed it to heat, while the steel was being prepared Sauron took the crystal and began to sculpt it, slowly and steady to make sure it wouldn't break, until it was a perfect round shape. With the steel ready to be worked Sauron took it from the forge with his bare hands and began to work it, with his hammer he hit and changed it, his magic being poured into his creation with every strike, he used a stone to smooth the steel and a chisel to make his writing in it, slowly and precisely, many times he had to reheat the ring to keep writing until it was done, when he placed the crystal on the ring the writing blinked purple a few times before disappearing into the ring as it cooled down.
Sauron marveled at his creation, it had been long since he created something magical, it felt good to do his craft once more. At a single glance it looked like nothing more than a steel ring with an amethyst on it.
When Sauron put the ring on he felt his strength being elevated, not by much, but it was elevated nonetheless.
Sauron was happy that it worked more than anything, now came testing, magic can be extracted from a monster stone, but can it be put in? Could he kill a bunch of monsters and fuel one crystal to the brim with magic? And better yet, could he put the energy of a non-monster into a stone? If he put the soul of a god into the crystal could he give himself a falna and not be dependent on a god anymore? All those questions will take time, but Sauron promised himself he would put them to the test.
Sauron spent his whole day on the forge, finishing the building and tidying things up, Sauron also forged a sword for Bell, Sauron would not suffer a partner with improper weaponry, it was of a higher quality than what Bell could afford, but not good enough for people to notice the high quality and start asking questions, Sauron needed to lay low for some time, and that meant using low quality equipment for a while.
XXX
There are very few things that could make Hephaestus lose her patience, and Hestia was definitely one of them.
"Why are you doing this?" Hephaistos asked. "Why are you going hungry and doing this dogeza?"
"… Because I want to help them!" Hestia said with conviction without leaving her dogeza pose. "Bell is growing faster than I could predict. He has set a goal for himself, a dangerous one and I want to help him, i want to give him the tools he needs to clear his path and achieve his goal. Not just that, but now that I have a new member in my familia i feel that I need to do more, and won't be living off their hard work."
"… All right. A weapon shall be made for this… boy."
Hestia's eyes shot open as her head popped up. Hephaistos shrugged.
"If I didn't say yes, you'd never move."
"… Yes. Thank you, Hephaestus!" Hestia tried to jump to her feet, but after spending a day facedown on the floor, her limbs weren't ready. She fell back to her knees, an innocent smile on her face. Hephaestus sighed again, but this time it was lighthearted.
Hestia suddenly remembered Annatar's weird forger skill, she had heard of the blacksmith skill, but never of a forger skill, Hestia opened her mouth to ask Hephaestus if she knew, only to immediately close it back again. Hestia knows well that an adventurer's status and skills are personal, so she decides to keep her mouth shut. "It's just a weird version of the blacksmith skill, how bad can it be?" She mockingly asked herself.
XXX
"The goddess left three days ago. She's still not back." Bell thought to himself as he put on his armor as strapped on his sword and knife. Everytime Bell looks at the sword he can't help, but feel jealous of Annatar, the elf is strong, fast, intelligent, and a crafter. Bell knows it's wrong to have such feelings, yet he can't control himself. There was also a weird awkwardness in the air everytime Annatar and Miss Eina saw each other, Bell had asked Annatar if something happened to which the elf had only shrugged, but Bell is not dumb and he knows when something is wrong.
"Are you coming, Bell?" Asked the elf, wearing chain mail armor he made himself. Bell gives Sauron a smile before following him.
The sun shines brightly above Bell and Annatar, filling the young man with energy and hope. It's not until they pass the benevolent mistress, that they stop when someone calls them.
"Oi! Wait up nya, white-head kid! Scary elf!" Calls a catgirl with the elf that almost came to blows with Annatar.
"Good morning, nya! Sorry to call nyou out like that, nya!" She says.
"Good morning, how may we help you?" Annatar asked courtly.
"Got a favor to ask nyou. Here, nya!"
"And what might that be?"
"Syr is nyour friend, white-head kid. So I want nyou to give this to her, nya!" The catgirl said as she handed Bell a coin purse.
Annatar waited a few seconds for the catgirl to tell him where Syr might be, when she didn't say anything it was the female elf behind her that spoke. "Ahnya. You are not being clear. Mr. Cranell and Mr. Annatar are confused."
"Lyu, nyou're stupid! Syr forgot her wallet, playing hooky to go to monsterphilia, nya. She nyeeds it, so I'm asking him to take it to her. Nyou knew that, right, white-head kid?" She asked in a matter-of-fact way.
"We did not, you were vague with your wish, next time you want someone to give something to someone else, you should tell them where the receiver might be." Annatar said in a serious and chastising way.
"Leaving that aside, sure, we can deliver it to her." The catgirl gave a short repentant bow that isn't very convincing because of her pouting expression.
"Please pay her no mind. Are you sure it is okay to accept our request? Ahnya, the other employees and I are too busy preparing to go after Syr ourselves. I know we are interrupting your plans for today." Lyu said to Annatar, Bell imagines she must feel more comfortable speaking with one of her own.
"It's not that big of a deal, but is it true Syr is skipping out on work? That doesn't sound like her." Annatar asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Ahnya did not choose her words well. Syr is not playing hooky. Her situation is different because she doesn't reside at our establishment like we do." Ahnya the catgirl explained.
"You said she was at a "monsterphilia", what is that? Is it a place?" Annatar asked.
"Nyou don't know what the monsterphilia is? I think that Syr said you two haven't lived very long nya. Well the monsterphilia is a festival put by Ganesha where a stadium is filled with monsters that are then tamed nya!" Ahnya explained.
"Tame?" Bell asked with worry in his eyes, the idea of controlling a monster from the dungeon seemed like madness to him.
"It's nyot really that strange, nya? Nyou're an adventurer, nya, aren't cha, white head? Nyou have seen when a slain monster wakes up with a look in its eyes. It wants to be our friend, nya!" Ahnya said, but was ignored.
"Taming is a skill. I am being brief, but a person proves themselves more powerful than a monster. In turn, the monster obeys that person's commands." Lyu explained and Annatar listened intently.
"I see, would you know how to aquire such skill?"
"Unfortunately I don't, you would need to ask someone from the Ganesha familia to teach you." Lyu responded.
"Enough chit-chat nya!" Ahnya exclaimed." Syr just left, nyou can catch up."
"Sure thing." Bell said before leaving with the purse, once away from the waitresses Annatar released a sigh of annoyance.
"Look Bell, Syr is plain and easy to miss, we on the other hand stand out amongst a crowd, so I say we each go look at different places, cover more area, once you find her you can just give her the purse and look for me, but if I find her I can take her to you since you have the purse." Annatar explained.
"All right, seems like a good plan." Bell said with enthusiasm.
XXX
There are few things that truly catch the eye of the goddess Freya, and the monsterphilia is not one of them. The ability to charm and control came naturally to her, so the idea of spending a whole day watching people nearly getting killed to convince a monster not to murder them felt like a waste of time.
Freya suddenly bumped into someone, the bump caused her hood to move backwards a bit, partially revealing her face. The person she bumped into, a tall elf with jet-black hair and fiery eyes that locked with Freya's own for a second before saying. "Sorry, didn't mean to bump into you." and moving forward.
Freya was immediately taken aback by this. "Did that elf just?" She muttered to herself before the elf turned around and touched her shoulder causing Freya to release a sigh of relief. "Why did I think someone would ignore my beauty? The idea is absurd." She thought to herself.
"Excuse me, I'm looking for this girl, she has bluish gray hair that she keeps tied with a small knot in a ponytail style, her eyes are the same color as her hair and she has very light skin, have you seen her anywhere?" The elf asked plainly.
Freya knows what the look of disinterest looks like, she has seen it in many faces, she uses it constantly, but never was it ever directed at her until this moment. She could deal with disgust, anger and jealousy, but pure antipathy towards her left Freya completely out of her element.
"I-uh... no, i h-haven't seen an-anyone like that." Freya finally stammered out, never had Freya stammered or stuttered in her entire divine life.
"I see, sorry for bothering you." The man said before turning to leave, but Freya stopped him, she didn't know why.
As soon as Freya touched the elf she recognized him, she had seen him alongside her precious white bunny, but back then she hadn't seen how peculiar his soul is, it's a black sphere with burning cracks of flame, it gave the feeling of a soul that is pretending to be something else, as if it's being oppressed by some outside force into a form it doesn't belong to.
"Yes?" The elf asked.
"I... It's nothing, sorry." Freya said before turning around and running away like a little mortal girl.
XXX
To say that Sauron is furious would be an understatement, Sauron the great, Mairon the mightiest maia of Vala Aulë the smith, Annatar the great deceiver, he who nearly made middle-earth kneel, reduced to looking for some girl he couldn't care less about, it almost felt more humiliating than when the ring was destroyed by those damned halflings, part of Sauron wanted to have told the catgirl and the elf "no", but these past few days Sauron has been going to the "Benevolent mistress" in order to fish for gossip (and because of the place's delicious spaghetti, but Sauron would never admit that.) so he didn't want to anger them and risk being banned, mortals could be petty like that.
Then there was that strange lady that could barely say a word without stuttering, she was beautiful, but Sauron had seen plenty of better looking elves and a few númenóreans, so he wasn't impressed. And to think things were going so well, over the last three days Sauron had put his ring to the test, he could indeed communicate with the crystal of a monster still alive, with enough thinkering Sauron knew he will be able to make the monsters bow to his command, but for now he was left messing and breaking the mental connection the monsters seem to have with the dungeon.
When Sauron found Bell again he was eating a crepe with Hestia, turning his fury to unbridled rage.
"Hello Bell, good morning my goddess, you two seem to be having fun." Sauron stated. Bell immediately began stuttering out excuses once he met Sauron's burning gaze, but Sauron did not want to listen, he simply put out his hand and Bell gave him the purse without the dark lord having to ask for it, Sauron wanted to chastise Bell, but with Hestia there doing so might have unwanted consequences. "I will continue our mission, enjoy your crepe." Sauron said plainly, knowing full well the guilt his words would inflict upon the white haired boy.
Sauron left the couple behind while muttering about how this day could hardly get any worse.
XXX
Eina has never liked the monsterphilia, it's nothing other than an unsafe excuse to bring monsters out of the dungeon for supposed "fun", but she failed to see what was fun about all this. Eina shook her head, maybe was just overreacting, the people around were having fun, there were couples going on dates, children playing around and eating sweets, Annatar on top of a statue, fun and colorful decorations- wait! Annatar on top of a statue!?!?
Indeed the new adventurer had climbed on top of a statue and seemed to be looking for someone.
"ANNATAR, GET OUT OF THERE!" Eina screamed as she ran towards the elf.
The elf took quick notice of her and quickly descended from the statue.
"WHAT WERE DOING? WHY WERE YOU UP THERE?" She inquired with rage in her voice.
"Firstly, watch your tone when speaking to me." He firmly stated. "Second, I'm currently looking for a girl named Syr, she has blue hair and eyes, and is very plain looking, have you seen her anywhere?"
Eina opened her mouth to start lecturing Annatar like she would Bell, but immediately changed her mind, she knew any attempt at doing so would be met with resistance. "No, I haven't seen anyone that matches that description. Now answer my question." She said instead in a much calmer tone.
"I was using the statue to have a better view in order to locate her."
"That is just so stupid, what if some guard had come to arrest you for that?"
"I have heard about the things many adventurers do in this city, no guard would arrest me for climbing on a statue once, at maximum i would receive a lecture, maybe a fine." Annatar stated in a dismissive tone.
"Still, you cou-" Eina was suddenly cut off by a loud noise, people immediately began running and far away she saw it, a monster had escaped his cage, and was coming straight at them. Annatar immediately picked Eina up like a princess and ran off. Annatar is a beautiful elf, even among other elves he stands out which made Eina blush. Together they entered a small alleyway, but the monster, a giant dog, decided to follow them, suddenly Annatar threw Eina through a small open window and the monster passed without giving a second glance, and Annatar was left alone to deal with this monster alone.
XXX
Ever since his defeat against Huan, Sauron had hated dogs, and yet again he found himself having to deal with a canine, but unlike the great hound, this one is a beast being mind controlled by someone, Sauron could recognize mind-control from a mile away, regardless of mind-control the monster is clearly stronger than Sauron and it's mind-control induced frenzy will not help.
The beast followed Sauron for minutes, slowly it gained more ground against the dark lord, but before it could try to bite, Sauron turned around and extended his hand, flames suddenly exploded from his palm without a single word being uttered, they both came to a stop and Sauron used the opening the flames gave him to drive his hammer on the giant dog's head in a downwards motion, Sauron hit the beast a few more times before it jumped on the dark lord, it's claws managed to lightly scratch Sauron's thigh despite his chain mail, the hound opened its mouth and flames began to ignite down it's throat, the beast released the flames, but Sauron used his magic to make the flames explode inside its mouth, forcing the beast off him and giving himself the opportunity to run while it was distracted by the fire.
Even with his injured leg Sauron managed to run quite a bit while the monster was distracted by the fire, Sauron hid within someone's house, luckly it was empty, there Sauron searched on the cabinets for something useful to make a trap until he found flour and vegetable oil, Sauron spread the flour and oil around the house hiding inside the bathroom to wait for the monster, it didn't long for the monster to find Sauron, it looked around the house with anger and saliva dripping down it's disgusting and burned muzzle, the spell that was placed on it gave the beast a general idea of where his target was, but not their exact location, and because of it's burned nose it could not track Sauron.
The dark lord patiently waited for the monster to walk into the middle of the room before igniting the flour and causing it to explode since flour is explosive under the right circumstances, Sauron was forced to take in some of the blast as he couldn't hide far from where he had set the trap or it might not work, thankfully it did.
The monster screamed in pain and confusion, all around it the oil burned, making it difficult to see, slowly the form of its target began to appear across the flames and the beast pounced, only to find nothing.
"You missed. Hehehehe." Sauron mocked with a dry laugh.
The monster followed the laugh only to find nothing again.
"Seems you missed again. Hahahahahah." Slowly Sauron's laugh grew louder and louder and began to come from different places as the oxygen was consumed by the fire that grew bigger and hotter under the dark lord's command, leaving the monster gasping for air until it fell, exhausted and injured, only them did the dark lord emerge. The beast tried to get up again, but couldn't.
Sauron pressed his ring against the giant dog's crystal that was exposed by the explosion.
"Orrat goth molva dush." His ring and the dog began to shine a bright purple, the spell on the beast was broken and the beast layed dead, but not before passing a message to whoever sent this monster after him. "You have set into motion the prophecy of your doom."
XXX
Atop the highest tower, Freya watched as her two targets left the adventurer's guild. Her precious white bunny whose soul was clear and pure, who had gone above her expectations and killed a white back gorilla.
The dark elf whose soul is darker than than the deepest shadows, who defeated a hellhound with fire, who could tell when a monster was under her charming spell, who could undo her connection to a monster, Freya had released a sigh of relief when she realized the elf couldn't tell who had sent the monster after him, but above all that elf could do, he didn't care for Freya's beauty and that was something no mortal or god had ever done. Freya's interest ran deep to both of them, but for completely different reasons, together they made for a perfect pair, one she needs more than anything she has ever needed before.
"What do you think, Ottar?"
"They are both driven, of that i know, for two level ones to defeat opponents that only appear after the tenth floor is impressive."
"... And?"
"And if what you told me is true, that there is a being who can just ignore your beauty, not resist, but completely ignore, then i believe we must keep a close eye on such a being."
"Yes, my dear Ottar, we must indeed."