Prologue: You're a Summoner, Bell!

Is it wrong to pick up girls in a dungeon? You know, grab my weapons, travel down to the dungeon in the middle of the city, and by sheer happenstance find a girl that is in danger, and protect her, striking down the monster with a cool flourish of my weapons, then stand over the corpses of the monsters while the girl looks at me fondly from her spot next to me?

Surely that will happen to me, right?

So, this morning when I woke up in the church where I live with my Goddess, the morning after getting my adventurer's license, I journeyed to the dungeon for the first time. It was exhilarating and scary for sure. When I stepped off that elevator into those dark, dirt and stone corridors, lit by torches and the occasional glowing fungi or moss, I could safely say I felt bliss.

The first part of my fantasy had been achieved. Next came the hard part, saving a pretty girl from vicious monsters.

I walked down several corridors until the sounds of other adventurers became a distant and faint sound, interrupted by the shuffling of approaching feet. I raised my two guild-supplied daggers in front of me. I felt small in a way that I had never felt before. Putting your life on the line was a lot more fearsome than I had expected.

I held my daggers out as my brief training had taught me, and I saw them. Green little goblins, standing four feet tall, with crude clubs, and one held a rusty metal sword.

The two with the clubs began scampering towards me, while the one with the sword stayed back, seemingly waiting for an opportune time to strike.

The two goblins jumped at him, attempting to tackle him, and Bell took a long step back, causing the two goblins to land and struggle to keep their balance. They were quick on their feet, and their size made it hard for him to get a good strike in. He slashed at the back of one of the goblins, and it fell to the ground with a screech, where it convulsed on the ground frantically trying to get back up.

While he did that, the other goblin slammed its club into his knee, causing him to yelp and almost drop his daggers, but he grit his teeth and shrugged off the pain, shakily.

"That hurts." He winced before turning towards the goblin that had just struck him, who had capitalized on the strike by swinging at his ribs.

'This is harder than I thought it would be.'

Bell jumped to the side just in time for the swing to overextend, and from the side, Bell jammed his dagger into the neck of the club-wielding goblin, which fell to the ground dead.

As the two goblins lay on the floor, Bell jammed one of his daggers into the back of the convulsing goblin, which went limp in mere moments after.

It was at that moment that Bell felt a premonition and jumped back, narrowly avoiding a large slash from the sword-wielding goblin he had lost track of when he was fighting the other two.

'Thank Hestia, I dodged that. I would have died right there."

In that moment, he was thanking his Goddess, and he felt something strange. His body felt more sturdy, as if his skin and muscles had hardened to protect him. In that instant, the goblin had recovered from its slash and had brought its sword up to stab Bell in the gut.

Bell did not have the time to dodge, and the sword connected with his stomach, tearing through his clothes and began pushing its way into his thickened skin, which slowed it enough for Bell to jump back with only a slight stab wound that did not go in deep enough to do any lasting harm other than leave a scar.

The goblin looked at its sword curiously, as if it couldn't comprehend that its weak opponent survived such a direct attack.

Bell, with only one dagger and at a disadvantage due to the shorter weapon, swallowed his pain and kicked the goblin in the stomach as it was confused, and it fell backwards to the rocky dirt ground, head bounding off a stone, causing it to drop its sword with a scream.

At that moment, Bell pounced, jumping onto it and grabbing its face, slamming its head against the rock, and stabbing it in the chest. Its fragile rib bones shattered under the powerful strikes he had with the dagger.

Rolling off the goblin, Bell lay looking up at the ceiling. He wasn't tired, but he was emotionally rattled.

He had almost died to these monsters on the first floor, and would have likely been severely injured if not for the strange thickening of his skin after he thought about Hestia.

He lay there for a minute before getting up and retrieving his second dagger from the corpse nearby.

Next, he took off his backpack and took out a sheath with another dagger, this one used to remove the magic stones from the bodies of monsters. This was something supporters would do, but considering that he was a fresh level one and had no money, the idea of a supporter was a faraway luxury. One that he could not afford at the time.

Slicing open the chest of the first goblin, he dug in, and where the heart would have been, there was a small fingernail-sized purple stone that he carefully dug out. As soon as he retrieved the stone, the goblin's body exploded in a purplish black smoke, leaving nothing but the stone.

Unfortunately for him, the other two did not have stones, bursting into smoke as soon as he dug into the bodies.

Putting the stone into a small cloth pouch and taking off further down the hallways, Bell walked more carefully where he stepped and stayed alert for any ambushes, realizing that he had taken the dungeon far too lightly and almost died for it.

Walking down another tunnel, he came across two more goblins, one with a shoddy sling, and the other with a spear almost as tall as him. Not a good match. He noticed them first, and the sling-throwing goblin faced away from him, looking at a strange outcropping of a small shiny rock on the wall.

Deciding he had to ambush the two, lest he be pelted down while the spear goblin fought him, Bell shot forward with reckless abandon, kicking the spear-wielding goblin forward, and it fell to the ground, after which he grabbed the spear from its loosened grip. He rolled forward as the goblin screeched, alerting its friend nearby, but Bell was already upon the green little monster that wore nothing but a loincloth, and Bell, using his forward momentum, threw the spear at the nearby goblin.

It burst forward, slamming its stone tip into the right side of the goblin's skinny chest. With a loud crunch and squealing, the spear embedded itself in the Goblin, and it was sent stumbling back several feet before falling to the ground dead.

The other goblin, sensing its impending doom, tried to run away, after which Bell turned and hurled his dagger, which implanted itself neatly between the shoulders of the fleeing goblin that had not gotten even six meters away.

As it fell, the goblin blew up in purplish black smoke, and something small and golden fell from the smoke. It clanged against the rock lightly before rolling to a stop not four feet away from him. Bell walked over and looked down at it.

It looked like a large coin at first glance, being made of solid gold, but it was no Valis. Instead, on one face, it had a carving of three claws pointing forward, and on the back was a strange symbol he couldn't decipher. It looked like a singular flame that twisted as it rose to a pointy top. It looked valuable, and he had never seen or heard of it before.

'Maybe this will sell for a bit?"'

Bell considered his options before shrugging and taking out the tiny pouch he had put the stones from earlier.

When he placed the golden coin in the pouch, a bright light shone out from the pouch as it pulsed with a strange power.

Bell dropped it quickly, and the bag fell to the ground, then popped like a balloon.

With a small purple flash, a connection was formed in his brain to something he had never felt before.

When the strange feeling passed, Bell saw standing in front of him, with a small stone club and shoddy hard leather armor, a goblin, a few inches shorter than him, being quite tall for a goblin, and it looked at him as if waiting for a command.

Funnily enough, the urge to kill it did not come to his mind, as he had a connection with it somehow. He felt it was obedient to him and would not hesitate to sacrifice its life for him.

The thing was, he began to feel a slight strain on his body. No, body wasn't the right word for it, nor was mind. It was something he had never felt before, like a muscle he had never developed before. He flexed it slightly, and the goblin seemed agitated, rolling its muscular shoulders, as if feeling his intensity.

'How did this happe-Oh no!'

Bell's thoughts were cut off when he realized the bag and his stones, as well as the golden coin, were nowhere to be seen.

"Were they used to call this strange goblin here? Did I...Did I do magic?" He muttered, before his eyes lit up and he grinned.

He had learned magic, or well, some form of summoning magic at least. He didn't have any other things to call it. Two and two came together as he realized what had happened. That strange coin, as well as the small pouch and the stones, had somehow fused together, and when it fell, it broke and out came the goblin. Does this mean that if I find more of these coins and fuse them with the magic stones from the dungeon, I can call forth a monster that I have the stone for? What if I use multiple stones? What if I use it multiple times, or differently? So many questions.

More importantly, how have I never heard about this from the guild? Is this a secret? Will I get in trouble for this? Have I done something wrong? I have to tell Hestia about this!

And so, he looked through his pack, finding another small pouch he had brought filled with jerky in case he wanted a snack. Emptying the jerky into the bigger bag, as trying this out again was more important, Bell walked over to the other goblin with the spear stuck into it, and he put his foot on its back for leverage before yanking the spear out of its body; the goblin's body bounced off the floor. Placing the spear on the ground, Bell sliced open the goblin. Hopefully, he grinned when he saw something glinting golden from within the goblin's body.

Another coin.

Slicing it more, he grabbed the small purple stone, and the little gold coin dropped out of his hand accidentally. The body blew up into smoke, and falling out of the smoke was the golden coin and a small purple stone.

Another coin, and a second stone from it, was truly blessed luck.

Picking up the coin, he gently placed the stone and the gold coin in the bag, and it glowed again, forming a strange bag not like the one used to make it. It had faded in color, and a small goblin's head appeared on it.

"I'll save this one to show Hestia," he said with a wide grin, placing it gingerly in his backpack. He really had done it. He had learned magic!

It wasn't the magic he thought he would learn, but it was magic, and it cost him nothing but the stones, which he admitted were very valuable to him, but who knew where this would lead him? He imagined killing a horde of monsters and turning them into his summons.

The thing was, he needed these little gold coins, and he had never seen one before just now.

Taking a deep breath, he looked at his summoned goblin.

"I don't think I can take you out of here, little guy. You're gonna have to go." Bell said with some resignation. He wanted to do more of this magic, but he had to talk to his Goddess about this first, as he didn't want to be using forbidden magic or some evil art.

With a soft pulse of purple light, the goblin vanished.

"Okay, focus, Bell." He said, turning towards the entrance from which he had come in, and began running. It took him little time to go from the dungeon to his church with the speed of a level one, despite the massive, many-mile-wide city he lived in.

Adventurers, even at level one, were bordering on superhuman, and Bell's agility was exceptionally high for a beginner adventurer.

Taking the stairs down to the quarters he lived in with Hestia, he was greeted by his Goddess flying into his arms with a long leap, almost knocking him over.

"My lovely Bell! You're back and safe. You missed me, right? That's why you're back so soon, right?" Hestia chirped and cooed over Bell, gripping him tightly as she rubbed her face against his chest.

Then, as if distracted by something, she sniffed him.

Sniff sniff.

"What is that smell, darling?" She asked, letting him go and walking around to his bag, which she opened as he stood shocked.

As he stood there, she rummaged through his pack and pulled out the goblin pouch.

She furrowed her brows and walked around to face him again.

"Where did you get this, my Bell?" Her voice was stern and concerned.

"That's what I was going to tell you about," Bell said, excitedly, not picking up on the tone of her voice or the severity of the situation.

"Tell me about? What do you mean? You didn't meet up with any strange characters, did you, darling?" Hestia narrowed her eyes at him, putting her hands on her hips, leaning forward towards him.

"Of course not, Goddess. I learned how to do magic!" Bell said cheerfully, with a wide smile.

Hestia squinted, but eventually sighed, relaxing her posture.

"Alright, it looks like you have something important to tell me, so let's hear it." She said, concern in her voice, but otherwise comforted that her darling did not get involved in any shady business with any unsavory characters.