Chapter 1: Welcome to the World of Gods
Sora finds himself in a strange dungeon after fighting Yozora. When he hears someone in need of help, he runs and kills a minotaur, saving the life of another teen that presents himself as Bell Cranel. As they return to the surface, Bell, realizing his savior doesn't know anything about Orario, he gives him a crash course on the city and the purpose of the Dungeon. At the Guild, Sora ends up as the target of a long lecture from Eina, Bell's Adventurer Guide, when she learns of Sora's ignorance.Since Sora doesn't have any place to live in, Bell offers a place at the place he shares with his Goddess Hestia, which Sora accepts. When Hestia asks him about his life, Sora tries to improvise a cover story, but the Goddess easily sees through it thanks to her divine ability to detect if someone is lying. Seeing that he won't be able to avoid it, Sora explains who he really is.
Chapter 2: The Hearth's Key
Sora tells Bell and Hestia about his adventures through the different worlds, astonishing both of them with everything he's gone through. The former, though, wishes to return home to his friends, but the only way to find a method lies in the Dungeon, so Sora joins the Hestia Familia in order to blend in and explore without attracting undue attention. Seeing his first Falna sheet disappoints him, but Hestia explains that the numbers are the same independently of their previous strength. When Hestia mentions Zeus, Sora brings up how he met him when he was at Olympus, but the differences between what each of them knows makes them realize they are speaking of different people.The next day, Sora registers in the Guild as an Adventurer. On the way to the Dungeon, he and Bell meet a girl called Syr, who offers a hungry Bell her breakfast in exchange of them having dinner at the Hostess of Fertility, the bar she works at. After she leaves, Sora teases Bell about catching Syr's attention.
Now that they are within the Dungeon, Sora finds himself having too easy a time: the monsters at the first dungeon levels are too weak to present a challenge to him, in comparison to everything he's already fought. When they decide to call it a day after doing a good part of the fifth floor, though, they end up meeting something unexpected: Heartless. Sora takes the fight to the large group of shadow creatures, but Bell is forced to join the fight when a smaller number of Heartless attack him. Bell does manage to get rid of most of them, but a larger Heartless gives him trouble - until he rides it into crashing on the group Sora was fighting.
After healing Bell with his magic, Sora realizes there's something fishy going on, and decides he needs to investigate. Bell gets hard on himself because he wasn't strong enough, but Sora cheers his friend up by pointing out that everyone starts at a weak point, and expresses his belief that Bell will become stronger.
When they return and have Hestia upgrade their status, Sora finds out that his stat improvement is minimal, but Bell's stats have skyrocketed. Hestia, however, has hidden part of Bell's and Sora's status: Bell has a skill called Liaris Freese that boosts his growth based on his determination to continue growing, while Sora's Link to All makes it so his allies will strengthen faster depending on how strong his bond with them is. Hestia resolves to keep both things hidden away, knowing that any of the many gods in Orario would do anything to have them both in their familias.
The three of them go to the Hostess of Fertility, where Sora mentions his work as a cook and offers to trade recipes with Mia, the bar's owner. While they're having dinner, Loki comes with her Familia, prompting Hestia to ask about leaving, since she doesn't like Loki and isn't keen on dealing with her.
Meanwhile, Ais reminisces about a boy she and her Familia met at the 50th floor, someone that proved to be stronger than Bete, as well as strange, shadow-like creatures that stopped her and Bete while they were following a minotaur that had escaped their group.
Chapter 3: Monsterphilia
Sora and Bell continue their forays into the Dungeon. When Sora finds a War Shadow, a 6th floor creature, he tests if his Guardian of Light skill works with them as well - and brings it down in one punch. While War Shadows are the only known darkness-based monsters, it bodes well for his quest to stop the Heartless. Still, Bell's stats continue to grow at a fast pace, much to Hestia's distress: while she doesn't like Bell's hero worship of Sora (mostly because it's admiration not directed at her), she acknowledges that Bell's best hope to grow strong enough to protect himself is to continue fighting alongside Sora.Ganesha hosts a Celebration of the Gods, and Hestia meets her friend Hephastios, the Goddess of the Forge, as well as Freya... and Loki, with whom Hestia quickly engages in a verbal fight. After Loki leaves, Hestia asks Hephastios for a favor: craft a weapon for Bell with, and in exchange of, some of the materials Sora still has in his inventory. When Hephastios asks how Sora found said materials (since some of them are incredibly rare, and others are actually completely unknown to her), Hestia mentions it is a long and complicated story. Hephastios is further shocked to learn that Sora is giving up the materials because he has no use for them. Hestia also brings up the possibility of Hephastios building a "flying wagon" for Sora: while skeptical about it, Hephastios agrees to consider it if Sora brings the blueprints.
In the Dungeon, Bell, even when using accesories boosting his defenses and healing, starts to have trouble with the Heartless as they start showing up with both magic and ranged attacks, as he is only armed with his knife. As Sora demonstrates how he can use his Keyblade as a thrown weapon, he remembers a previous enemy of his that fought with thrown knives, and offers to show Bell videos of Larxene's combat skills... only to realise too late that Bell doesn't even know what videos are. However, Bell learns fast, and begins to take in what he can use from said videos.
A few days later, Orario celebrates Monsterphilia, a large festival whose main event is the fights between tamed monsters at the Stadium. Bell and Sora are, however, not joining, at least until some of Syr's friends show up and ask them to bring Syr's wallet to her. As they speak of taming monsters, Sora brings up some of the friends he has been able to summon during his adventures.
Meanwhile, Freya meets Loki for a talk, only to see both Bell and Sora (both of whom have caught her interest) passing nearby, and she decides to raise a little chaos for the sake of her interest.
Seeing the large crowds at Monsterphilia, Sora suggests splitting to cover more ground. However, Bell ends up getting shanghaied into a date by Hestia, and Sora is unable to find Syr. Just then, several monsters get free and begin attacking people, and Sora quickly gets into the battle. After dealing with a few monsters, Heartless spring out, and Sora tells some of Ganesha's familia members to start evacuating people, since he's pretty much the only one that can deal with them.
Sora also ends up saving Lefiya Veridis, a member of Loki Familia, after she gets gravely hurt by a fusion of monster and Heartless. When Ais attempts to kill it, it proves to be surprisingly resistant, and she gets hurt in the fight. Lefiya begins to cast a spell while Sora covers her. Much to everyone's shock, the spell is nowhere enough to kill it, so Sora closes in and finishes it off. Lefiya, Tione, and Tiona express sadness at him apparently losing his magic shield, and Sora is forced to keep silent since he doesn't want to reveal the truth about the Keyblade. Loki shows up and is shocked to learn about Sora's actions - and more when she learns he's a Level 1 Adventurer of Hestia Familia.
Meanwhile, Bell and Hestia have been dealing with their own set of troubles - a Silverback monster. When his weapon gets destroyed during the fight, Hestia gives him the knife Hephaistos crafted for him and updates his stats, being once more shocked when they show to have grown even further. While having problems with it, eventually Bell is able to kill the Silverback, getting congratulated by the just arrived Sora.
Chapter 4: Upgrades & Smiths
As they return to their home, Hestia complains how the monster attack ruined her date with Bell, only for her mood (as well as Bell's) to be worsened when Sora mentions his fight with the Heartless. Going by his description of the people that saw him fighting, Hestia realizes that Ganesha will soon learn about the Heartless as well... and when she learns Loki Familia also saw him fighting, Hestia grumbles about Loki not only seeing that, but also Sora fighting with several Keyblade forms. However, she figures that they might be able to mislead Loki about the true nature of Sora's power. More worrying, though, is the strange black magic stone dropped by the Violas Heartless hybrid.Sora and Bell return to the Dungeon the next day, and keep fighting Heartless and Dungeon monsters as part of their training, with Bell showing better fighting power thanks to his new knife. Sora demonstrates a skill called Flowmotion, which he claims Bell could learn eventually. When they return to the surface, Eina berates them for going to the eighth floor so soon, and disbelieves Sora when he points out that Bell's stats have gone well beyond H-level, but seeing his Falna is enough for Eina to accept the truth. Eina decides to have Bell buy new equipment to deal with his new enemies. At the Hephaestus shop in the Tower of Babel, Bell buys a set of armor and throwing knives.
Meanwhile, Sora meets Hephaestus and proceeds to utterly astonish the Goddess with his Gummiphone and the blueprints for the Gummiship. When Hephaestus asks about details to build the latter, Sora states that he was never concerned with the building part, and that he can't access the original engineers (Chip and Dale) without the Gummiship. Hephaestus cites her price for trying to build the vehicle, and Sora answers by pulling out a large quantity of Synthesis materials from his pockets: when Hephaestus asks where he got all of those materials, Hestia covers for him by saying it comes from monsters that only show up to Sora because of his skill. In spite of the lack of details, Hephaestus accepts the job.
Ganesha receives all the reports on the attack during Monsterphilia. Something comes to his attention: the appearance of multiple shadow-like monsters no one has ever seen, and the spiky-haired boy that they seemed to concentrate on.
Loki, finishing her upgrade of Lefiya's stats, notes that they have grown a lot. While Lefiya ponders how to pay Sora back for helping her during the attack, Loki considers recent events: the attack at Monsterphilia is the second time a member of her Familia encountered the strange creatures, Sora's abnormal skills that should be impossible yet are still there, and the mysterious boy her Familia found at the 50th floor. All of it is connected, but she cannot see how.
Chapter 5: Supporter
Bell starts training on his agility and dodging skills, as Sora believes this will allow him to learn how to use Flowmotion, complemented with sparring to learn how to dual wield knives, improve his fighting ability and correct his own mistakes. After a morning's worth of training, the duo is ready to dungeon dive. Sora notices several adventurers carrying large backpacks, and Bell explains about Supporters, adventurers who help others by carrying things and extracting magic stones.Just as Bell wishes they had a Supporter, one called Lili (whom Bell seems to recognize) offers to join them. While initially reluctant to accept her, due to their mission to fight Heartless, they decide to welcome her on board and pay her extra so she will keep quiet about anything strange she sees. Lili accepts, intending to try and steal Bell's knife at some point... only to be shocked when she runs into Heartless for the first time, and even more as she sees how skilled Sora is as a fighter. When Lili asks about the strange monsters, their answer only makes her think they are hiding their existence for their own benefit - even after they give her more than half of the money they've earned. When Bell and Sora ask her if she's willing to continue working with them, she agrees.
In the meantime, Hephaestus is having a hard time trying to figure out the Gummiship: in spite of all of her notes and experience, nothing she has (save for her Arcanum, which she refuses to use on principle) can pierce the veil of knowledge. Tsubaki enters to tell her that she's spent a full day locked in her office, and Hephaestus shows her the schematics for the ship, astounding her child with the complexity of the project. A comment by Tsubaki makes Hephaestus realize that the truth behind Sora's story must be much more complicated than she thought, and when Hephaestus reveals the materials she gave her and the other smiths the previous day came from Sora, Tsubaki decides to find Sora so she can get more of those materials for herself.
The next day, Bell, Lili, and Sora are back into the dungeon, with the Supporter being further surprised at how fast the other two are progressing, as they move into the next floor. When Bell and Sora decide to go have dinner at the Hostess and Bell invites Lili to join them, they are approached by Shakti, Captain of the Ganesha Familia, who informs them that Ganesha wants to speak with Sora.
Chapter 6: The God of Masses
Realizing that both of them are tense (but not the actual reason), Shakti clears things up: no one isn't in trouble, Ganesha simply wants to learn about the threat he fought during Monsterphilia. While Bell takes Lili to exchange the magic stones they got, Shakti leads Sora to Ganesha. Judging that the God of Masses is trustworthy and that he will use it to protect the people of Orario, Sora decides to entrust him with knowledge about the Heartless: both Ganesha and Shakti are disturbed by the extent of the potential danger they represent for Orario, and promise to keep the knowledge secret to prevent people from panicking.Ganesha then realizes that this new discovery might be related to another issue: there are reports that a part of the city is experiencing strange tremors with no known source. Now that they know about the Heartless, though, they can consider other options - such as the Heartless being in the sewers. Sora requests to be allowed to join the investigation, which Ganesha grants, since Sora is their only expert in the Heartless.
Modaka, one of Ganesha Familia's members, arrives with bad news: Hestia is at the gates of their mansion, and she isn't happy at all. As she demands to know where Sora is and asks the latter if Ganesha did anything to him, the God of Masses realizes belatedly that he didn't inform Hestia about his request. Hestia finding out that Sora revealed the secret of the Heartless doesn't make her any happier, but Ganesha convinces her that it will allow them to protect Orario and its people better. Both Gods hash out an unofficial alliance between their Familias to deal with the Heartless. Sora asks Bell to keep an eye on the Dungeon to deal with any Heartless that move up the floors, while he investigates the sewers with Shakti.
Chapter 7: The Underground Darkness
While waiting for Sora to appear, Shakti ponders on the recent reveals, as well as Sora's role in everything: if the Heartless are such a threat, why would a Level 1 adventurer be the only one that could deal with them? And if the threat is real, how could Sora be that strong? While she doesn't have much to base her suspicions, Shakti thinks the investigation should yield some answers.Right on time, Sora arrives to their meeting point, and they set out for their destination, while Sora shares his experiences in dealing with the Heartless, although he almost reveals the existence of other worlds, causing Shakti to realize he's hiding something big, but also to accept that Sora's being as honest as he can be. Entering the sewers, the duo begins to search, and soon finds something of interest: a large gate made of adamantite, which shocks Shakti due to how much of the valuable material is being used to make a door. Shakti's attempt to force it open fails, but Sora is able to open it using the Keyblade. Entering through a passageway that Shakti can tell was created too recently, they arrive to an empty, spacious room... that soon sprouts a large Behemoth Heartless. Both adventurers begin to fight, with Sora sharing what he knows about the Heartless' weakness to aid Shakti. Injuring the monster, Sora is shocked when it starts doing things the Behemoth he fought before never did.
At the same time, Loki has brought Bete to investigate the matter of the abnormal Violas inside the sewer system, which leads to the werewolf being forced to fight an entire room of them on his own. As Bete is forced to pull out a magic weapon to deal with them, the Behemoth charges through the wall and throws Shakti off itself. Sora arrives just behind them, and he and Bete quickly get in a verbal scuffle over the latter's dismissal of him. Sora begins to blitz through the Violas, followed soon after by Bete and Shakti. When the Behemoth attempts to strike everyone with a storm of dark energy, the three adventurers use the Violas as cover, and split so Sora can finish off the Violas while the other two keep the Behemoth busy.
Bete and Shakti manage to injure the large Heartless, but it still tries to attack Sora, who ends up using Airstep to dodge the attack. When the Heartless try to use dark energy attacks, Sora quickly unleashes several Frozen Crescents in order to kill the Violas, while Shakti throws her spear and hits the Behemoth's horn. As the Behemoth prepares to charge again, Sora accidentally triggers a Trio attack, giving them all enough strength to put down the Heartless.
The Heartless leaves behind an accessory, which Sora picks up for Bell to use. Loki takes advantage of the moment to question Sora about himself and the Heartless and then leaves with Bete, wondering how Sora became so strong before joining Hestia Familia.
Sora and Shakti return to Ganesha's mansion and report the events to the God, who is left frowning at learning the extent of the threat to Orario. Shakti admits to Ganesha that the Heartless, at least the ones she fought, are strong enough to give her trouble, although Sora points out that normal Heartless are more in level with the common Dungeon monsters. Then Shakti brings up the adamantite door, which she realizes means that there's someone else in Orario that knows about the Heartless, as the latter couldn't have built the door. Before Sora leaves for home, Shakti (who compares Sora with her deceased little sister and has realized he is a virtuous person) warns him about the dangers coming from other adventurers... including the existence of a group called Evilus.
Chapter 8: A Radiant Flame
Summary: In the Dungeon Bell is killing Goblins as target practice for his throwing knives. After said target practice Bell begins to think about how despite his rapid growth it's not enough to contribute against Heartess as he'd like to and wishes that he had a new power to add to his arsenal. Just as Bell is considering going back to the Dungeon Syr approaches him and asks for help which turns out to be due to the Hostess of Fertility being very busy on that day and prompts Bell to help with washing the dishes. At that point Bell sees Sora who finished the investigation and had also been asked to help working in the kitchen with excellent skill and speed.
Once the busy period is over Sora presents a plate of delicious ratatouille to Mia who judges it to be good enough to add to the menu. After Bell finished a portion of ratatouille that Mia gave him Syr talks with him and recommends him to read a book that an adventurer left behind since said adventurer didn't come back for it. Later as Bell reads the book it turns out to be about magic and causes him to experience a Dive to the Heart. After Bell wakes up from that Hestia discovers that Bell gained magic and Sora and Bell end up testing it out in the Dungeon in the following night where they realize that it has homing properties and is infused with the power of Light. They then have a short conversation about the nature of darkness and after that decide to go back. They then encounter Ais and Riveria with Bell's heart skipping a beat upon seeing Ais.
Chapter 9: It's Never Simple and Clean with Sora
Summary: Ais reflects on the recent events which she experienced and include a murder case which then escalated into a chase and then a fight for her life where she was saved by a mysterious boy with absurd abilities. Due to wanting to become stronger following that she fought against the Floor Boss of the 38th floor in order to become a Level 6. On the way up she and Riveria encounter Sora and Bell with whom they proceed to talk a little bit and they decide to go to the exit together. Riveria and Ais then incidentally find out about how Bell got involved with a Minotaur which they conclude to be related to an indicent their Familia had with a pack of Minotaurs and was therefore their responsibility. They agree to have Ais give lessons to Bell as compensation. After Sora and Bell separated from Ais and Riveria Sora begins to think about Bell's reaction upon meeting them which causes him to realize the implications much to Bell's horror.
In the morning the Hestia Familia realizes that the book Bell read to learn magic has become blank which causes Hestia to realize that it is a Grimoire which is an incredibly expensive item which in turn prompts her to tell Sora and Bell to stay quiet about the matter since they can't afford the price. After that Sora and Hestia have a conversation with Hephaestus who asks them about Gummi blocks and makes it clear that she needs the information to make progress.
This causes Sora and Hestia to decide to tell Hephaestus the truth about Sora which causes Hephaestus to regret asking for it due to the complicated and ridiculous nature of the context. They then talk about how Hephaestus needs the Gummi blocks to build the Gummi Ship and how Sora would need to find the door to the World's Heart and open it in order to find them which would be dangerous due to the Heartless though Sora wants to deal with the presence of the Heartless first either way.
At that moment Tsubaki shows up and once she realizes who Sora is offers him her service as a personal blacksmith in order to channel the synthesis materials to her though much to her bafflement Sora rejects the offer on the basis of already having good enough equipment which causes her to want to know more about Sora's weapon. Hestia decides to leave with Sora in order to avoid further questions from Tsubaki. Sora then quickly meets up with Lili and Bell and goes to the Dungeon which allows him to escape from Tsubaki.
In the Dungeon they end up encountering an unusually large amount of Heartless which puts Lili and Bell who is protecting her into jeapardy and forces Sora to start holding back less much to Lili's surprise who is also confused about Sora and Bell's concern for her which she hasn't experienced with other adventurers. After that Sora and Bell decide to increase their payments to Lili for her to keep quiet about Sora's capabilities after they conclude that Sora needs to hold back less in the future though Lili agrees to do so without any additional payment.
Sora and Bell meet up with Ais for Bell's training. They start with a spar but it quickly becomes evident that Ais has trouble with holding back which causes any spars to end one-sidedly and quickly. Sora then spars with Ais to gauge her strength and much Ais' surprise Sora is able to match her blow for blow despite her having recently Leveled Up. After a while Sora stops the spar and proceeds to use gravity magic on Ais in order to handicap her under the guise that the magic comes from one of Sora's items. The gravity magic allows Bell to actually spar against her for a good period of time and pushes Ais to the limit. The three of them then eat Jagamaru.
Chapter 10: A Link's Effects
Summary: An exhausted Ais returns to her Familia's Twillight Manor thinking about Sora and Bell. When Riveria asks Ais about the training Ais tells her that it was fulfilling which causes Riveria to tell Ais that she can continue to spend time with Sora and Bell regardless of the debt, so that Ais can enjoy life outside the Dungeon. Up high in the tower of Babel Freya is thinking of Bell and the effects Sora's soul seems to have on other souls and tries to figure the puzzle that is Sora out. She is irritated by Ais getting close to Bell and then has an idea.
Tsubaki is frustrated from her attempts to find Sora since she hasn't seen him again since their first meeting. While contemplating if she should aks Hephaestus to help her Tsubaki gets told by Hephaestus that she would prefer it if she didn't do so. They then proceed to talk about Sora and his weapon with Hephaestus telling Tsubaki that she should give up on trying to form a contract with Sora and admitting that his weapon surpasses any weapon that she creates shocking Tsubaki. This only makes Tsubaki more determined to learn about Sora's weapon.
Ganesha is looking through reports with Shakti bringing more with Shakti using that moment to ask for an update for her status which is motivated by her experience with the Behemoth Heartless. Shakti jump in growth that becomes evident with the status update proves to blow out any high record in the Ganesha Familia to Ganesha and Shakti's surprise which causes them to theorize that defeating Heartless gives a great amount of excelia. Shakti's jump in status also makes her eligible for a Level Up if she can perform an achievement that would astound even the Gods.
Bete also wants a status update and is asking Loki for one. He has gained a lot more excelia than Loki expected but it isn't much overall and doesn't leave Bete satisfied since he doesn't want Sora to show him up as a Level 1 even if he welcomes Sora being capable. Loki knows that Sora, Ganesha and Shakti are hiding something about the Heartless but doesn't understand what the reason could be for that. This makes her think of Sora whose capabilities make her desire him for her Familia and she then gets the idea to hire him as a Supporter for her Familia's expedition.
Miach is in his store thinking of Bell and how he hasn't seen him lately and at that moment Bell and Sora are entering the store. Just as Miach is about to offer them free potions Naaza interferes and insists on the price while reminding Miach of their precarious finances. Then Dian Cecht enters the store with a rude attitude to collect money due to Miach's debts to him with the timing being rather unfortunate for Miach. Sora then puts Dian Cecht to sleep with a spell and nonchalantly drags him out despite everyone else's shock. After that Miach explains to Bell how Naaza lost her arm to a monster and how Miach ended up in a large debt to get Naaza a prosthetic causing everyone but Naaza to leave the Familia.
Sora returns after having placed Dian Cecht on a bench in a nearby park though Miach finds that mind boggling since the next park is a few blocks away. Receiving an explanation regarding the situation he alongside Bell is ready to help Miach and Naaza who ask them to collect ingredients for potions which is rendered unnecessary by Sora simply handing them a large assortment of high quality potions and items from his pockets. This causes Naaza to become suspicious of Sora's intention of coming to their store with Sora explaining that he was hoping to buy magic restoring potions and he tells them to consider this to be an investment from him.
Chapter 11: A Rowdy Rumble
Summary: Lefiya has observed over the last few days that Ais is acting differently which causes her to follow Ais out of curiosity but she ends up losing track of her. She then bumps into Sora whom she recognizes from the Monsterphilia incident and who is with Bell. Upon finding out that Lefiya is looking for someone Sora offers his help which ends with her being present for Ais' training session with Bell. Ais requests to spar with Sora again with the awkward excuse of warming up which Sora accepts to Lefiya's confusion. Lefiya then gets shocked by how well Sora does against Ais with Bell expressing his admiration for Sora and his desire to catch up with him which Lefiya sympathizes with. After the spar Sora notes to Ais how her fighting style isn't used to fighting people and more geared for monsters and suggests to her to ask her fellow Familia members for spars. They then proceed to another round of sparring with Ais under the effects of gravity magic against Bell.
This causes Sora and Lefiya to talk about training befriending each other. While Lefiya isn't sure what she wants to improve outside of raising her status Sora thinks of other magic users he knows and suggests using magic in close quarters combat which then causes the topic to go to Concurrent Chanting which Lefiya explains to Sora. Sora then decides to help Lefiya learn it using another item to cover up for his magic creating Balloons for target practice. After seeing that striking at her with his Keyblade startles her too much he decides to switch to using the Storm Fan which absorbs a certain percentage of the Aero magic Sora channels through it. Lefiya manages to cast her spell while dodging the Aeros which makes Sora decide to increase the difficulty. At the end Lefiya managed to make progress with Conccurrent Chanting with her, Bell and Ais being exhausted from their training. At this time Sora takes out three Jagamaru and brings out one Soufflé to account for Lefiya which Lefiya finds delicious.
The training continued to last for a while until Sora decided it was enough. They were then approached by a bunch of people with visors or helmets with a Cat Person trying to attack Bell with a spear which is intercepted by Sora. The true identity of the Cat Person is Allen Fromel who is Vice Captain of the Freya Familia though Sora isn't really being challenged from fighting him. At the same time Bell is taking down many of the Level 1s of the Freya Familia while Lefiya is only watching to avoid property damage.
Sora chooses to put an end to the fight and not long after that the 4 Gulliver brothers were defeated by Ais which causes Allen to order a retreat which he manages to succeed in by distracting Sora for a moment and going for the alleys. Ais, Sora, Bell and Lefiya then talked about how Bell seemed to be the target. In the evening Sora and Bell continue to discuss the issue with Sora getting the idea to use his Summons for help though none of his Heartbinders except the one for Dream Eaters work due to the effects of Sora misusing the Power of Waking.
Chapter 12: Faith
Summary: Freya contemplates how Sora easily defeated the Level 6 Vice Captain of her Familia and talks with Ottar about how someone like that could be Level 1 and how he gained that strength without a Level Up. She also notices how Bell's soul was tainted with uncertainty which she plans to deal with through Ottar. Sora and Bell at their usual meetup spot with Lili though Lili is late and they are approached by a man who wants to rob her together with them which Sora refuses. After the man leaves Lili arrives and gives them a fake smile to reassure them. On the 9th floor Sora and Bell tell Lili that a Spirit is going to join them there to her shock and confusion and Sora summons Meow Wow.
Sora remembers how Hestia and Bell first reacted to Meow Wow by enjoying cuddling it with Hestia realizing shortly after how Meow Wow would attract a lot of attention due to the rarity of Spirits and being possibly mistaken for a monster. In the present Meow Wow is affectionate with Lili and the group goes to the 10th floor. There Lili witnesses how Sora and Bell treat a group of Orcs as a training session. Shortly after that they encounter a bunch of Large Body variants with Sora telling Bell of the Large Armor's strong vulnerability to fire. He then sends Meow Wow together with Bell to fight them with him himself jumping in after Meow Wow quickly broke the Heartless' formation.
The group decides to call it a day after they are nearly done with 10th floor with Meow Wow immediately returning home. Lili is having a lot of conflicted feelings due to her previous negative experiences with adventurers and how much Sora and Bell contrast that which both of them notice and begin to speak to her about with Bell telling her that he thinks of them as friends. At that moment the man from before, Ged, shows up and tells them that intends to take revenge on Lili for stealing his sword and selling it which was due to him using Lili as bait and not intending to pay her. Sora responds by taking a bag of magic stones and throwing it to Ged, so he can go and buy a new sword but Ged still wants to beat her and take everything she has. Ged calls for Canoe who is a member of Lili's Familia and with two others from the Soma Familia.
Canoe tosses forward half the body of a Killer Ant which attracts other Killer Ants which fill the hallways behind Sora, Bell and Lili with Canoe intending to kill them which causes Ged to run away. The Killer Ants, Canoe and his companions get almost instantly annihilated by Sora's Faith spell with Sora holding back a lot on Canoe and his companions to turn them in to the Ganesha Familia. Bell then proceeds to talk with Lili why he trusts her even though she is a thief. After turning the trio in to Modaka they decide to have Lili stay with the Hestia Familia. They then have a conversation with Hestia about how Lili needs the approval of the distant and indifferent Soma to leave his Familia with the Familia captain Zanis having made the rule that 10 million valis are needed to leave. In order to avoid potential legal trouble which would put a strain on their relationship with the Ganesha Familia Sora decides to go to the Deeper Floors to gain valis.
Chapter 13: Dungeon Dive Distance
Summary: In the early morning Sora departs for the Dungeon and runs into Shakti. After everything was explained to her Shakti decides to help Sora with the Upper and Middle Floors since she already wanted his help for a Level Up. They then encounter Tsubaki who still doesn't think that Sora's equipment is sufficient due to him being Level 1 and her being unaware of his strength. Shakti simply backs Sora's position of not needing any more armor up and goes with him to the dungeon while Tsubaki follows them.
Meanwhile Hestia wonders out of worry if she should have asked Sora to limit himself to the Middle Floors while two people enter Hephaestus' shop where she is working her debts off and remind her of an attempt from the Loki Familia to recruit Sora from her for an expedition to explore the Deeper Floors which she refused. Without Sora Bell's spars against Ais returned to being one-sided though after Bell tests how much progress he made against an Ais without the effects of gravity magic he proceeds to part 2 of Sora's training plan that combines Lefiya's Concurrent Chanting training with the spars.
In the Dungeon Sora and Shakti are taking care of a variety of Heartless with Tsubaki observing from a distance Sora's prowess and his weapon. Sora and Shakti reach the end of the 17th floor where the Monster Rex spawns and encounter the Infernal Engine Heartless which causes Shakti to call out to Tsubaki for backup. During the fight Tsubaki learns more about Sora's weapons abilities, his spells and his Skill which astonish her. After defeating the Infernal Engine a new Heartless shows up which gets dubbed Demon Wall with another fight ensuing. During that fight Tsubaki witnesses Sora's weapon turning into another which absolutely shocks and confuses her with Sora showcasing even more of its capabilities and displaying another spell which helps defeat the Demon Wall.
After the fight Tsubaki questions Sora who doesn't know how his weapons work which causes her to want to know about Sora's blacksmith but she gets stopped by Shakti. In the end Sora manages to come to an agreement with Tsubaki in exchange for the materials from the Demon Wall which means that she won't ask him question relating to his weapons and that she uses these materials to forge something for Shakti. Following this they head to the 18th floor. Somewhere in the Dungeon is a Minotaur which has completed a brutal training from an adventurer which gets penetrated and enveloped by a dark cloud.
Chapter 14: Moment's Reprieve
Summary: Hestia finds out from Ganesha that Shakti Leveled Up to her disbelieve and they have a small conversation about Sora and the Heartless. At the same time Shakti is busy cracking down on the Soma Familia with it turning out that many of its members engage in illegal activities. She remembers her last interaction with Sora in Rivira where she was worried about Sora heading for the Deeper Floors and Sora promised to be back within a week. Since then half a week has passed. Tsubaki meanwhile is heavily immersed in forging Shakti's new equipment using the new materials she received from Sora which causes Hephaestus to question her and find out about Tsubaki fighting a Heartless alongside Sora and Shakti as well as how Tsubaki now wants to find Sora's blacksmith. Loki is frustrated that Sora cannot be found anywhere with Finn who is listening to her complaining also being curious about Sora.
Within the Loki Familia some are skeptical about Sora and suspect that lies and exaggeration are involved with higher Level members being curious. Bete avoids the topic contrary to how he would usually act in regards to Level 1s. Riveria and Ais stayed quiet about the topic which got Finn's attention with him concluding that are hiding something for a good reason and that recruiting Sora isn't very likely. Bell, Lefiya and Ais are continuing their training with Lefiya mangaging to pull off Concurrent Chanting during the spar. Lefiya and Ais remark that Bell is superior to any of the Level 1s of the Loki Familia. In the Dungeon on the 37th floor Sora is decimating the monsters but has some struggles with extracting magic stones with him deciding to go further into the Dungeon before he has to go back. On the 12th floor a member of the Soma Familia is hiding from the Ganesha Familia but falls victim to a shadowy Minotaur which is hungering for hearts and taking his heart.
Chapter 15: Face my Fears
Summary: The Loki Familia is setting out for their expedition with Finn deciding to use that time to question Riveria about Sora with him citing changes in Ais' behavior. Riveria explains the circumstances of Ais meeting with Sora but also notes that she doesn't know the details of said meetings. Bell is thinking of how Sora has been gone for a week and how the atmosphere despite still being good has changed without Sora's positivity. On the 9th floor Bell and Lili talk about Sora and his endeavors in the Dungeon with Bell desring to Level Up in order to go past his limits and towards where Sora stands. It is at that moment that a Heartless Minotaur shows up forcing Bell to fight and Lili to flee. At the same time Sora is making his way through the 10th floor believing that he got everything he needed. He comes across two adventurers who are carrying another adventurer who is injured and whom Sora heals. They warn Sora about an irregular Minotaur causing Sora to speed through the floor but the way gets blocked by Ottar who challenges him.
Meanwhile Bell is fighting hard against the Minotaur with him struggling against the Minotaur's strength and abnormal abilities to the point of nearly giving up only to be encouraged by his memory of Sora. The fight between Ottar and Sora is fierce as Ottar has to use all of his strength with Sora ultimately getting him out of the way by switching to another Keyblade and resorting to a Formchange. This causes Ottar to become excited at having found a challenge. Upon hearing of a Minotaur attacking a kid with white hair Ais sprints from her Familia to get to Bell and spots Lili who begs her to save Bell. The members of the Loki Familia come across Bell's fight but decide not interfere due to his determination. Bell proves able to accumulate a considerable amount of damage on the Minotaur but the Minotaur still causes significant damage to Bell and shows no sign of letting up to the point of making the Loki Familia contemplate interfering.
This is the moment Bell begins utilizing Firebolt Raid managing to turn the tide and win. After the Minotaur perishes a dark cloud emerges and heads for Bell but it is quickly destroyed by the arriving and worried Sora. It quickly becomes evident that Bell is suffering from Mind Down, so Sora and Lili take him out of the dungeon. Riveria managed to see Bell's parameters and tells her fellow Familia members that they are all S though she privately thinks to herself how they were all SSS. Back with the Hestia Familia Bell is recovering while the others discuss the darkened Dungeon monsters. Sora then remembers his promise with Shakti who is waiting for him and goes to see her.
Chapter 16: Level Up
Summary: Freya is pleased with Bell's fight against the darkened Minotaur bus is confused with the Minotaur becoming an irregular variant after Ottar trained it. She considers it mind-blowing that Ottar, Orario's only Level 7 and strongest warrior, lost to Sora whose power and influence she contemplates. Bell wakes up to Meow Wow licking his face and finds out after some hectic moments that he can Level Up with his Level Up in a month and a half breaking Ais' record of her first Level Up in a year.
Sora's Falna has by comparison only gone up slightly up due to his strength with Hestia being surprised that it has gone up at all. Hestia tells Bell that he has to choose a Developmental Ability now that he can Level Up while adding that he should consult with his advisor and that she recommends Luck. Eina is shocked about the news and privately discusses with the group Bell's options with her having never encountered Luck before. She tells Bell to consider his goals for his decision which allows him to make up his mind.
It is at that time Shakti enters to exchange a massive amount of magic stones and she later gives Sora the valis since the magic stones have been given to her from Sora to avoid drawing attention to him and to create a cover story for Shakti's Level Up. She remembers how Sora came back relatively unscathed and managed to get past the Upper, Middle and Lower Floors which would need at least the strength of a Level 6 and how stated to have reached the 50th floor which has only been reached by the Freya and Loki Familia with Freya having only gone 9 floors further.
They then discuss Lili leaving the Soma Familia and consider the possible complications. Back with Hestia the group notes that Sora got definitely more than 10 million valis with Bell telling Hestia that he chose luck. Sora intervenes before they can proceed with the Level Up however with him explaining that he'd like Bell to summon his own Dream Eater, so that he has help while Sora isn't around. They improvise with the Heartbinder and Sora's Skill which allows Bell to summon a Me Me Bunny.
Chapter 17: Greedy Darkness
Summary: Bell and the Me Me Bunny quickly bond and Lili becomes curious about the possibility of gaining a Dream Eater which they decide to postpone until after Lili left the Soma Familia and joined the Hestia Familia to avoid risks of people finding out about this part of Sora's abilities. After the Level Up the group finds out that Bell gained two Skills with the second skill coming from Bell and Me Me Bunny forming a connection which Sora explains to the others. After some rest and making preparations they go to the Soma Familia manor at late afternoon which has a strong scent of wine. They encounter the gate guards who become hostile upon mistaking their intentions to be about asking Soma to give them his wine but they are quickly put to sleep by Sora. On the Soma Familia members are intoxicated with Soma's wine and run into Zanis who makes up excuses to avoid Lili leaving which backfires due to Sora previously having turned Hestia invisible to have her listen to the conversation undetected and confirm if Zanis is lying.
Zanis then tries to throw them into the Soma Familia's cells but Shakti shows up to arrest him. This causes him to summon Heartless but he gets turned into one himself and his Heartless begins attacking everyone. The Ganesha Familia then evacuates everyone while Sora fights Zanis' Heartless and Bell and Lili go to get out Soma. Outside the manor the Ganesha Familia fights the various Creeper Plant variants to stop them from spreading through the district. Meanwhile Soma gets warned, saved and then transported to outside the mansion by Lili and Bell who summoned Me Me Bunny to support him.
Sora is continuously dealing damage to the Heartless while avoiding all attacks and the Heartless then unleashes a blizzard which engulfs the mansion. Witnessing this from the outside prompts Bell to head inside to help Sora. Shakti is doing her best alongside her fellow Familia members to not let a single Heartless get past with new ice shards having emerged which block entry into the mansion. The blizzard failed to hit Sora who used a Reflect spell and demonstrates in front of the newly arrived Bell's eyes a level of combat far above his status as a Level 2 which would get Bell killed if he jumped in.
Zanis' Heartless attempts to charge a stronger Blizzard attack but gets interrupted by an enhanced Firebolt attack from Bell who then proceeds to take care of the spawning Ice Plant Heartless, so that Sora can concentrate on the main threat which Sora goes on to defeat. Bell and Sora then realized that Bell's new Argonaut Skill must have enhanced his Firebolt and Sora thanks Bell for his contribution to the fight which lifts Bell's spirits. Shakti looks at the mess and considers the implication of Zanis having been able to control Heartless but is reassured by the thought of Sora being on their side.
Soma is disheartened by the destruction but Lili comes and gives him multiple large bags of valis to help him recover and asks to leave his Familia. This causes Soma to test Lili with some of the remaining wine with him being impressed by Lili resisting the effects unlike the other Familia members and subsequently granting Lili's wish. Lili then joins the Hestia Familia with them deciding to celebrate with a 5 course meal. Even with the expensive ingredients used they still have a lot of valis left of which the 10 million were a mere fraction which they contemplate to use for beds though due to their concerns about the lack of space Hestia gets the idea of moving into a new home.
