- Bell didn't know what to expect when he ran into a room with a minotaur hot on his tail, but a fight for survival? A room full of statues levels higher than him? He should have died. And yet he had endured, all while gaining something even more powerful than a falna. So with this newfound power, he'll follow his dream to become what he's always wanted to be. A hero.
Is It Wrong To Solo Level In A Dungeon?
is a a crossover fanfic where Bell Cranel from Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? attained the power of the System after ending up in a secret room during the minotaur chase at the beginning of the story.
With the Power of the System, it's up to Bell to rise up to the challenges of the dungeon (and the System itself) and answer the following question... is it wrong to solo level in a dungeon?
- 24-Hour Armor: Thanks to the System, Bell is now capable of wearing armour without it being visible on him. He decides to keep the invisibility function off so he doesn't seem suspicious to other adventures, although he hopes one day to exploit the function.
- Adaptation Relationship Overhaul: Due to the Point of Divergence, several relations change.
- As Ais isn't the one to kill the Minotaur and save him, Bell doesn't fall in love with her.
- Due to how Ryuu scared him off, Bell chooses to avoid the hell out of the Hostess of Fertility.
- Adaptational Badass: Due to Bell becoming a "Player", this was inevitable.
- Due to how he already has experience in fighting, Bell has an easier time at the E-rank Dungeon than Jin-woo.
- Adaptational Intelligence: Thanks to being a Player, Bell's more observant.
- Adaptational Superpower Change: Bell exchanges his Adventurer status for that of the Player.
- An Arm and a Leg: Bell loses his left arm when trying to solve the puzzle in the mysterious chamber. Fortunately, he recovers it after becoming a Player.
- But Thou Must!: The System forces Bell to train. If he does not, he's forced to go into the 'penalty zone' where he has to run to survive against multiple giant monsters.
- Call-Back: Bete is able to recognize that Bell's the one that sent the message about the sewer monsters when he finds his blood there, because he also smelled it when he and Ais found Bell in the chamber.
- Chick Magnet: After getting his physical upgrade, Bell attracts the looks of every girl around. Freya and Hestia turn downright thirsty at the sight.
- Clingy Jealous Girl:
- Hestia, much like in canon, disapproves of any pretty girl being close to Bell and of Bell looking at any pretty girl (that isn't her).
- Lefiya, also much like in canon. After she learns how Ais carried Bell piggyback, she drives herself into a jealous rage that she unleashes on Bell when she sees him, even though Bell doesn't even know what she's talking about.
- Crazy Jealous Guy: When Ais decides to carry an unconscious Bell piggyback, Bete angrily shakes his fist at him with Cross-Popping Veins.
- Determinator: Bell. Even when faced against level 2 (or worse) opponents as level 1, armless and afraid, even at the face of a desperate situation he found himself in, he still decides to keep on running to survive.
- Entertainingly Wrong: Eina guesses the reason Bell wants to go deeper into the dungeon is because he has a growth skill. She isn't technically wrong, but doesn't know that Bell actually became a Player.
- Exact Words: When Eina inquires about Bell's new dagger, he replies that it was on a monster's body, so he was able to get it after killing it. He drops the part that it was an item drop from the E-rank dungeon boss he fought.
- From Bad to Worse: It was bad enough that Bell was being chased by a minotaur. Then it chased him down to a completely unknown room. Then said room turned out to be full of statues that could one-shot the minotaur...
- Godzilla Threshold:
- Bell runs into the unknown corridor because he figures whatever he finds inside will be less dangerous than the Minotaur. It isn't.
- He then accepts the offer to become the Player because the only other option is to die.
- Guile Hero: Bell manages to figure out how to solve the deadly puzzle room he finds in the dungeon on his own - and, unlike Jin-woo, he didn't even have the "benefit" of seeing what would happen to anyone that didn't do it correctly nor the help of other people to solve the musical statues puzzle.
- In Spite of a Nail:
- Even though he became a Player and technically lost his falna, Freya still becomes obsessed with Bell because of his soul.
- Bell still buys the Pyonkichi armor.
- Interface Spoiler: When Lili meets Bell to offer becoming his Supporter, she does it while disguised as a chientrope, but the System tells him she's a Pallum.
- Irony: Bell tries to warn the Ganesha and Loki Familias about the monsters in the sewer system. While the Ganesha adventurer (whose Familia are in charge of protecting the people of Orario) that finds the letter rips it apart without reading it, Bete ends up bringing it to Loki, so her Familia is the one that gets rid of those monsters.
- Late-Arrival Spoiler: The story makes clear Freya uses Syr as a disguise of sorts to interact with people and find interesting things, something the books didn't reveal until much later.
- Level Grinding: Not that Bell wasn't doing it before with the falna like any other adventurer, but thanks to the System's help, his growth was increased exponentially, even more so than in canon.
- Living Lie Detector: Gods have this ability. When Bell tells what happened to him, his story is accepted as truth in spite of the lack of proof because Ganesha is present and can confirm it.
- Mythology Gag:
- Eina guesses Bell has a skill that helps him grow faster - exactly the thing he got in canon.
- When Loki and Ais meet with Freya, the former leave when they spot Bell in the Monster Feria crowd - the same thing Freya did in canon.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Played for Laughs. Eina decides she will only allow Bell to go to a deeper floor if he scores a 98% in the tests she gives him. Hestia then makes a sarcastic comment about making it an even hundred, and Eina chooses to take it as an acceptable suggestion.
- Not Helping Your Case: Anya and Chloé's almost maniacal persecution of Bell only makes things worse for them as Bell (who already has a natural instinct to avoid anyone wearing the Hostess of Fertility uniform) legs it.
- Not So Above It All: While Ais is The Stoic, mini-Ais (the internalized personalization of her desires) does things like having starry eyes when she compares Bell to a rabbit or wanting to bury her hands into his hair.
- An Offer You Can't Refuse: The offer to become a "Player" comes to Bell while he's lying on a sacrificial altar, bleeding out from the stump of his left arm, with an animated statue's blade fractions of an inch away from his chest, the quest window even warns him that if he refuses, his heart "will stop in 0.02 seconds", not giving him much choice in the matter.
- Oh, Crap!:
- Bell's reaction as each new danger in the mysterious room shows up.
- Hestia when she realizes her falna in Bell no longer exists - and that she can't restore it either.
- Bell when he discovers his power can create dungeons.
- When Bell finishes his first E-rank dungeon, he discovers Orario's actual sewer system is populated by very dangerous monsters.
- Outside-Context Problem: The System Bell attained. It is beyond both Bell's and, most worryingly, Hestia's comprehension, as she's never seen a thing such as the System, let alone heard of the Great Spellcaster Kandiaru.
- It absorbed Hestia's falna that was inside Bell.
- It gave Bell's arm and ear back and gives him immunity to diseases and poisons (thanks to the blessing of the aforementioned Kandiaru).
- It allows him to boost his abilities by spending points on them.
- It removed the cap on how many magic spells he's capable of using.
- It blocks Freya's attempts to scry Bell's soul.
- Most worryingly, it's capable of creating dungeons. Fortunately, they aren't as big as the actual Dungeon.
- The weapons provided by the System are also very much outside context: magic weapons in Orario are incredibly rare, with most being only capable of firing magic spells a few times before breaking down, and the few that don't are first-class objects whose enchantments only affect themselves, not the targets.
- Puppy-Dog Eyes: Bell does this to convince Eina to let him go down to the eighth floor. Combined with his latest upgrade, it proves devastating.
- Sexy Soaked Shirt: Hestia gets her white dress wet while helping Bell, who really notices the fact that Hestia doesn't wear underclothes. While initially embarrassed, Hestia decides to milk it for all that's worth.
- Shout-Out:
- When Anya and Chloé attempt to catch Bell, they crash into a cart of vegetable produce.
Man: NO! MY CABBAGES! - Skewed Priorities: When Anya and Chloé see Bell while doing a grocery run, they decide to drop the food and try to catch him for Syr. Not only do they fail at the task, they end up destroying a vegetable cart. Mia Grand punishes them with a week of bathroom duty (exactly what they wanted to pass over to Syr) and a docked pay to pay for the destruction they caused.
- Spider-Sense: Bell can feel it when Freya is looking at him.
- Spotting the Thread: When Bell and Hestia ask Eina to allow the former to go deeper into the dungeon in spite of her fears, Eina realizes immediately that Bell has something new that will help him grow faster.
- Take a Third Option: After learning of the dangerous monsters living in Orario's sewer system, Bell knows that he has to warn someone, but doing so would risk questions of how he found about them, which was only possible because of him entering the E-rank dungeon. He solves this by dropping an anonymous letter in both Ganesha's and Loki's familias' headquarters (unfortunately, the Ganesha adventurer that found his letter just ripped it apart without reading it, while the other fell on Bete).
- Tempting Fate:
- Bell is surprised he managed to survive the ceiling collapse caused by the Minotaur without getting hurt. A small rock promptly falls on his head.
- When Bell notices his "Daily Quest", neither he nor Hestia give it great importance, figuring he can do it the next day. Next morning, Hestia wakes to see Bell dropping into their room, after four hours of non-stop running for his life.
- Undying Loyalty: Bell's loyalty to Hestia and unwillingness to leave her alone is what most pushes him forward at the dungeon room, even after losing an arm. It's also why he remains with her even after he learns he's technically no longer her Familia.
- What If?: The entire plot starts because the Minotaur that Bell encountered in the fifth floor opens a hole that leads to the secret ritual room and Bell runs there in an attempt to survive, leading to him getting the power of the system.
- With Bell at the hospital, Hestia takes time off work to be with him, which forces her to go to work and miss the Denatus that Freya attends, preventing her from getting information on Bell.
- Since Bell gets the magical dagger from killing the E-rank dungeon boss, Hestia doesn't go into debt to ask Hephaistos to make a weapon for Bell.
- Bell goes into the E-rank dungeon just before the Monster Feria monsters go wild. Also, as Freya doesn't learn about Bell being in Hestia's familia, she never sets the Silverback on Hestia.
- As Hestia knows about Bell's powers, she reminds him about his Longevity skill after learning of the Venom Gland, so he uses it sooner than Jin-woo.
- With Great Power Comes Great Hotness: Bell looks handsome in a cute way. Then he gets hit by the transformation effect of being a Player, and he looks so hot that Hestia suffers a nosebleed just from seeing his well-defined abs.
