Dragon's Sin in the World of Danmachi

Chapter 14 : Secrets

Meliodas looked at the minotaur with a small grin. The minotaur saw this and became even more angry, it roared one more time and charged at him, perhaps for the last time.

Meliodas still couldn't use his magic yet, but felt refreshed enough that he doesn't feel like passing out anymore. Without that restriction he felt like a heavy burden was finally released, like that time when his sealed powers returned during the druid trial arc.

Even without magic and without a weapon and even with just one arm, Meliodas knew he could beat the minotaur. 

Meliodas readied himself and jumped over the charging minotaur, kicking the back of its head and did a front flip landing on his feet, this sent the minotaur tumbling down face first unto the dungeon walls. The damage it received from Meliodas' kick following after getting its face planted hard in the walls made the minotaur enter in a dizzy state.

"Sate sate sate" Meliodas says as he nonchalantly walked over to the dizzy minotaur that was on all four on its back, Meliodas then proceeded to grab its horn and stood on its shoulder and snapped its neck with his one arm activating his [Demon Mark] skill for a second, though he did put all of his strength in it but he didn't show it in his face as the defeated minotaur turned to black ash.

The spectators gawked on how calm Meliodas was at the end of the fight, they then changed their cursing from idiot to crazy idiot. Bete looked at Ais' face for a second and saw something unbelievable that he blinked twice before looking at her again.

Ais had a small smile on her face, though it was nearly unnoticeable and something insignificant if you look at it without context. Throughout his time that he has been with Ais, he had never seen her smile like that and she most of the time, always had an expressionless look, almost like a doll.

Bete looked at Meliodas with a bit of jealousy. Though Ais and Bete thought that the boy in front of them was a crazy reckless idiot, they got to admit that they were impressed by his performance especially how calm he was afterwards even though he was almost going to die, it was like he was used to this type of situations, though Bete would never admit that like the tsundere he is.

"Crazy brat, we wasted a good potion on a crazy idiot like you, you better be thankful" Bete says, even though it was their fault that the minotaur escaped in the first place.

"Oh thanks for that, I'll be sure to pay you back" Meliodas says, completely forgetting that Bell's familia was dirt poor and he also has no money, Meliodas was a king before so money wasn't really an issue for him and didn't think much of it.

"Mn" Ais says while shaking her head. "It was our own fault that those minotaurs escaped and endangered you, it was the least we could do" Ais added further

"Tch" Bete says, a bit embarrassed that he had the audacity to say what he said earlier and stayed silent.

"Well I'm just glad no one got hurt well except for me" he said while pointing at his shoulder "I'll be going to the surface now, the minotaur's magic stones and drop items are all mine, right?" 

He didn't know of the unwritten rules of adventurers because Bell was still a new adventurer.

When Meliodas pointed to his injured shoulder, Ais felt a bit guilty and was about to hand him a potion to heal his injuries but Meliodas interrupted.

"No need, tis just a scratch, plus that potion you handed earlier looked high quality and expensive" Meliodas says

Ais protested and handed the potion to Meliodas anyway. "It was our own fault that you got injured and we just stood there and didn't help, please accept it."

Meliodas was reluctant to accept but he did anyways and drank it to ease the worrying adventurer in front of him and immediately felt the effects. He immediately realized the difference of low quality potions and high quality ones. 

Bete was silent the whole time, he was surprised, he never saw Ais acting like this before but put the thought at the back of his mind because it was their own fault that the boy had fought those minotaurs. 

His curiosity was growing towards the boy, when he drank the potion, he looked like he was surprised, it was like he never drank high quality potions before. He thought he was just dirt poor, but for an adventurer as skilled as him, that shouldn't be the case. His curiosity got the better at him and just blurted out "What's your level brat?"

Ais' thinking aligned with Bete. She too was curious about the boy but kept it to herself, because prying for information of other adventurers was considered taboo, she was surprised that Bete asked him that but didn't say anything hoping that the boy would answer.

"Oh, I'm level one" Meliodas says without thinking or at least that was his face tells them according to the two. 

"What!?, NO WAY! That is a load of bull!" Bete shouted, not believing a word he said, Ais too was surprised. There was no way a level one could beat a minotaur even if he was an experienced fighter especially for the fact that he took on three of them. 

And also added to the fact that he had magic and a skill. They couldn't believe someone like this existed under their noses, if someone amazing like this existed they would definitely heard of him even though they usually wouldn't bat an eye when it comes to rumors because they were usually unreliable or exaggerated.

They tried to analyze Meliodas' face for deception, but he looked like he wasn't lying or that was their instincts told them that they cultivated with their years of experience as adventurers.

Meliodas didn't live for 3000+ years for nothing, he was so good at lying that no matter how much people tried to read him, they couldn't tell what he was thinking at all. The only way for them to tell if he was lying or not, are gods and goddesses with their abilities to identify whether someone was lying or not. He tried to find ways to circumvent this and practiced with Hestia before but to no avail, he wouldn't stop finding a way though. 

Meliodas saw their faces of disbelief and sighed "If you don't believe me that's fine, you can ask the guild about me and I've been an adventurer for 2 weeks, my name is Bell Cranel by the way, Hestia Familia" Meliodas says without changing the expression on his face. 

He was confident enough that they wouldn't waste their time investigating him so it was basically a gamble, so he told him his name as the nail in the coffin. 

They couldn't believe what the boy in front of them just said but their doubts decreased, seeing his honest expression. He was a level one with the strength that rivals that of an advanced level 2 or a beginning level 3 but they thought he probably had another power-up skill or something similar, like the one they've seen earlier. And the fact that he has only been an adventurer for 2 weeks which makes sense for the gear that he was wearing and the fact that he didn't bring a mind potion. He even had the courage to say his name, which eased their suspicions a bit.

They were growing even more curious about the boy, but they held themselves back as they were stepping out of the boundaries of prying for his information, plus they already felt bad that they sent minotaurs to a level one adventurer. Both of them even wanted him to join their familia, yes even Bete himself though of that.  

They just believed what he said for now and his face looked like he wasn't lying anyways. They introduced themselves and went on their separate ways, they had a weird feeling that they were going to meet the boy again one day, as they felt that the boy will definitely cause an uproar in the city.