Headscratchers / Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?

• If the monsters of the dungeon are such a danger to the people on the surface, why don't the gods just ascend to heaven and use their divine powers to get rid of it?
  • One answer might be the fact gods find amusement in the affairs of humans. To some of them, the human struggle to defeat the monsters and keep themselves safe might just be another thing to watch, like an after-dinner show. The gods that descend to the surface simply have taken more interest and facilitate some of this "entertainment" themselves, though their thoughts on fighting and humanity may have changed with their time down in the human world. Overall, if they took out something they find entertaining, they might just get bored again.
  • One can think of this question this way: the Gods are the gamers, while the Earthlings are the potential pool of game characters. Gamers, of course, would not like the Dungeon to be cleared of monsters.
  • Either the gods don't have a firm grasp of what the dungeon IS, or they're not telling. In additon, the dungeon is over 60 floors deep, and every floor is big enough to easily hold a small town, with plenty of room left over as shown in episode 11 (there's a town on the 18th floor.) Either way, they may simply not be ABLE to take out the dungeon in its entirety. At least not without significant collateral damage, as in Earth-Shattering Kaboom type collateral damage. It could simply be a case of "the cure being worse than the disease." Presuming there's a "cure" at all.
  • Episode 12 of the anime officially answers the question. When a god or goddess releases the seal on divine powers, the dungeon retaliates in equal measure. A "floor boss" monster spawned on the 18th floor when Hestia unsealed her powers to save Bell.
    • More information is provided in Volume 13 of the novels and Volume 9 of the Side Story. The Dungeon explicitly reacts to have it perceives as threats. Enough localised damage causes it to spawn a specific type of monster that is fast enough, strong enough and lethal enough to take care of what ever is causing the threat while a deity entering the Dungeon and releasing their devive aura causes it to seal the floor they're on and spawn a Monster Rex floor boss even in places and times they normally wouldn't spawn. So anything that directly threatened the dungeon entire existence would likely trigger a proportionate response.
  • A deeper and far more frightening answer is hinted at later on: The Gods may not be strong enough to actually kill what's down there. Later light novels imply that it may be Echidna, the Greek Mother of all Monsters and the wife of freaking Typhon, who in Greek Mythos caused nearly all the Olympians to flee on sight of him.

• What exactly are the conditions/requirements of a "Heroic Feat"? ^note My apologies if the question is answered in the LN, but I only have access to the official English translations, which go up to Volume 2/Episode 6.
  • Going purely by the evidence at hand, it most likely means doing something nigh-impossible for your class/level. Such as Bell defeating an enhanced minotaur single handed as a level 1 adventurer.
  • Pretty much, though not necessarily to the extent that Bell went (in fact, his way is considered suicidally insane). A Heroic Feat can be anything from participating in a fight with a Floor Boss, surviving on a lower floor than before, or doing what Bell and Aiz do and picking a fight with something that should logically pulp you in one blow (again, these two are considered insane at best by the guild).
  • In Volume 3 of the Light Novels, Ryu explains the requirements. An adventurer must defeat an opponent more powerful themselves, gaining a lot of experience in one go. All or most of their stats must also be above Rank D beforehand. When Bell questions how an adventurer is supposed to beat a monster stronger than themselves, Ryu elaborates that you do so as a group with other adventurers while utilising superior technique and strategy. Even with the experience split between all the participants of the battle, there's normally still enough to go around. That's how most people level-up and why Bell and Ais are considered insane for soloing their opponents.
• How does Orario expect anyone to really get beyond Level One if they have a floor limitation plan in place? Level One adventurers are only supposed to go to at max Floor 12 (I remember this being implied if not directly stated somewhere) ^note Besides Supporters, who are accompanied by a Level Two on the deeper floors. This implies they have an estimate on the limits of a Level One, but if a level up is determined by a "Heroic Feat" that surpasses your supposed limits, how is one expected to do such when they aren't allowed to go beyond a certain floor and push themselves further than expected? In addition, could this be the reason that so few are ever able to even reach Level Two?
  • As mentioned, floor bosses acts as rare Metal Slimes in this universe. And you don't need to solo it to get a level up.
• Why is Bell's Realis Phase skill hidden? Does it not work if he knows about it or something? Hestia seems worried that the gods may find out if she tells him, why is it bad?
  • Evidently because he would take it as a sign of destiny and consider himself "locked into Aizu's route", which Hestia obviously wouldn't like.
  • The manga explains (and I assume the LN does as well) that the gods view adventurers with rare skills such as the Realis Phrase sort of like collectibles and would try to seduce or steal Bell away from Hestia. Obviously, she doesn't want this. Additionally, it seems to be implied that if Bell were made aware of the skill's parameters, its effects might be lost or diminished.
  • I went back and re-read the part that first mentions Realis Phase; Hestia's POV says that this skill has never been heard of before by the Gods. Now, everyone reading this is a fan of something; if you're not a collector of some kind, you know someone who is, and you've probably at least heard of more extreme example of collector. What would that person do for a prototype, possibly one of a kind article? Now remember these are Gods. Imagine the freaking carnage! I mean, look at the resulting chaos in book 6 and book 7 when Apollo and Ishtar respectively tried to collect Bell without even knowing about his skill!
  • In the manga Hestia reads the skills description and it literally says it'll stop working if Bell finds out about it, this isn't in the anime or the LN's though so if it's the canon or not is up in the air.
    • this hasn't shown up in the books as of vol 7 (strictly English reader here); but this does make sense to me psychologically. The Realis Skill is specifically described as 'desire leads to growth; stronger desire leads to stronger growth'. Basically, Bell's growth as an adventurer depends on how badly he wants it. So how badly can someone want something that's guaranteed? Answer: they don't, usually, they go from 'desire' to 'entitlement' (compare and contrast with family businesses, someone who has to earn the top job as opposed to the person who knows they'll inherit it.)
    • I just looked at the manga and it didn't say that it would stop working if Bell found out meaning that even if he found out about it it would still continue to work and with Bells personality it's not like he would suddenly feel entitled and more than likely view it as a sign that he is still far behind other adventurers and start pushing himself even harder to improve his skills so telling him wouldn't do anything negative to his growth. No the simple fact and reason for Hestia not telling him is that he is a terrible liar and can't keep secrets something the other members of their familia had agreed with as shown when Bell almost told Finn about the Xenos before Hermes had shown up. Leading to other families most likely fighting over him if he accidentally let it slip.
• Why does Welf have his workshop set up like he does? Any blacksmith can easily spot that the shop seems to be set up for someone a good deal shorter than Welf.
  • Welf is talented and came from elsewhere. Due to him forging magic swords outside Orario, he likely had to earn his forge. Probably inherited his workspace from Dwarves or Prums... The most notable member of the Prum species is of the Loki Familia (a well-renowned adventurer guild, which is suggested to be not the case for many Prums); meanwhile, Dwarves are commonly associated with smithing or adventuring in games like D&D. Due to the mythological DND campaign that Dan Machi appears to be on the surface, it's no wonder that this would likely be the case.

• I certainly don't get why Freya is considered more beautiful than Ishtar since they are equal in terms of looks. I also really don't get Freya's line to Ishtar that character is another reason she's more beautiful since from what I've seen, Freya has shown she has no problems endangering the lives of others to gain something she wants just as Ishtar has done.
  • It might be referring more to their supernatural charm, as Freya is clearly better in this regard. And for all of Freya's faults, she hasn't (as far as I know) done things quite as heinous as Ishtar. Plus, Freya is the only one to say that she's superior in character; I doubt that Hestia would agree with this assessment, for example.

• If Haruhime is still a virgin, why didn't Aisha tell her about this?
  • After Haruhime joins the Hestia familia, Aisha was about to tell her in their farewell chat but is interrupted and decides that it doesn't matter. Haruhime has overcome her self-worth issues thanks to Bell, and her new familia doesn't care that she was a prostitute. As for why not tell her earlier, she was still in the Ishtar familia, and so it might not be true much longer.
• Why do the Xenos never talk during the later half of Season 3 when confronting people on the surface? They only ever talk around the Hestia Familia and Fels (who know they're sentient and relatively harmless) and Dix's crew (who don't care and exploiting them for profit). Even if the Loki Familia were still adamant on their mission it would at least put them off guard or (possibly) force them to have second thoughts.
• Why exactly is Freya obsessed with Bell?
  • It's the color of his soul. Clear, colorless, and pure. Freya is not attracted to mortal's looks, but more their souls. She is searching for her Odr, and she believes it can be Bell, a boy with a quality of soul she's never seen before and one that has boundless potential.