And So, Bell Cranel Became a Hero

Description: Bell's Grandfather had a more impactful role in the boy's early life until his disappearance. Bell, with his newfound morals and dreams, and the help of an unexpected Goddess, starts his own journey to become a Hero like the one in the stories of his gramps.
Tags: Mature, Action, Romance[Harem]. Adventure.
Setting: Bell's 15 years old instead of 14, Zeus had a more impactful live in the boy's early life and did more than just teach Bell his lecherous ways.
Mature Story/Harem: There are GRAPHIC scenes in this story which include gore'ish scenes and smut/lemons/limes. Both of this are important parts of the story. The Harem will be large due to influences you'll read about later.
Authors Note: Heya! Jas here, if you'd like to support me, please consider joining the dis cord server (42SQENPj54) or supporting my patrn (IreJasmine)
DISCLAIMER: Danmachi belongs to its respective owners. Everything that occurs in this story is of my own creation and the characters abide by the fictional laws in the setting.

Reviews

Thank you very much for your continuous support and the reviews! I had originally planned on uploading this chapter a couple of days ago but after much deliberation decided to make it a xmas special, kind of. Today is this chapter, and tomorrow will be the next one as my Xmas gift for you all~ There's also another requested Omake on its way!

DanDrake: Hypothetically speaking, yes. If Hekate were to die her curses would still live on. The fertility curse I went with is the 'Soul-Bound' type, so even if she were to disappear it would still be bound to Bell and not her. Obviously, I'm not killing Hekate, or Hestia for that matter, so no chances of something like this happening in the story.

T.B.R: Un, Rose's supposedly 28 years old according to wiki. The main focus of the story is Bell becoming a Hero, forming a harem along the way, not him becoming a parent and having to shift the entire story into a teen dad kind-of thing. Besides, the curse is only until Bell grows old enough and is ready for the heavy responsibility that children are. Maybe once the story ends I'll have some 'after-story' chapters depicting Bell's future life as a father but that's still in the far-off future.

Jackpierce375: I'll admit the way I went about it falls into the 'easy-way out' category but it's not like there's many other options left, this one I felt was the more believable considering we have Gods walking left and right, granting humans their blessings that can make impossible stuff happen on the daily. Hekate's an unsealed Goddess so something like that is as easy as breathing for her, and considering that it was due to Zeus's blessing that Bell has a godlike sex drive, nothing short of another God's blessing would counter Zeus's one.

The other options left were the over-used 'morning-after tea' that wouldn't work with Bell, or not having lemons all together. Not acknowledging the characters having sexual relationships is also a bullshit way to cope-out so that's a big fat no either xD. Other than that, there's really no such thing as 'safe-sex' in Danmachi since we're in setting that hasn't developed advanced contraceptive procedures (condoms, birth-control pills, etc). There's probably some contraceptive methods but I wasn't going to spend time going over those when it wouldn't be relevant to the plot of the story itself.

I hope the explanation for choosing that option satisfies others who may have felt the same as you, it was a really good critic and one that I had thought about a lot before going with it. ^^

Chapter 12: And so, Fair Play is Overrated part 1

Part 17

'Gramps, please! Make me a hero'

The gruff looking gray-haired old man crossed his arms and looked down at the twig of a young boy that was his grandson.

'Why?'

'Because I want to make you proud!'

The old man kneeled in front of his grandson, and he placed both hands on the boy's small shoulders.

'I'm already proud of you, my boy'

A blinding smile lit on the young boy's face.

'Then I'm already a hero?'

The same smile blossomed on the old man's face.

'Yes, my boy'

'The best one?'

'Not yet, but I'm sure in the future there will be none better than you!'

'Really?'

'But of course! When have I ever lied to you, my boy!?'

'Umm… when you peep at the women of the village in the river, or when you're fake sleeping, or when-'

'Pah! All those are test for you, my boy1' The old map slapped the boy's shoulders lightly 'To become a Hero you must be determined to face everything head on! Only then will you become the best hero with the greatest harem the world has ever seen!'

'What's a harem?'

The old man grinned, and thus the young boy would be taught his first lesson on how to become the 'best' hero the world had ever seen.

Or at least what the old man believed to be the greatest hero the world had ever seen.

/0/

Bell woke up with dried tears on his cheeks, the memories of his grandfather crazy shenanigans slipped into his dreams and by the time he woke up, the young adventurer had become aware that everything he was living was a dream.

Dreams that had been a reality at one point, but the harsh reality cared not for his feelings, for his grandfather was no longer with him.

The white-haired boy took a deep breath that filled his lungs with the sweet scent of his partners, only then did he become aware of their possessive hold on his arms and lovely sleeping faces on each of his shoulders.

'I'm certain this would make you proud of me, you old pervert' Bell mused to his own, admiring his partner's covered frames under the dawn's light shining through the main bedroom window.

The adventurer took his sweet time enjoying the warmth shared between the three of them while replaying the memories of his grandfather he saw in his dreams before his body's call of nature became too strong. Bell struggled for a moment, but he managed to slip from his partners embrace without waking either of them up.

Once he was done with his needs, the young adventurer took a moment to admire himself in the bathroom's mirror after washing his face.

The update from yesterday said most of his stats were above the 1500 mark and he felt stronger, but his athletic build had not changed in the slightest.

He'd ask about it later to either of his goddess, today the boy had a mission of his own to accomplish and that was to learn more about the unknown effects his Determination skill had and learn how to control them to avoid the situation he had spoken with miss Kat.

Bell quietly took his change of clothes from the main bedroom, chancing another look at the two sleeping ladies on the bed and smiled silly as he dressed in his regular dungeon outfit. Dressed and almost ready, the boy silently gave a kiss to both on their cheeks before leaving downstairs.

There he was surprised to find his goddess Hestia awake and filling a cup of coffee for herself.

"Good morning goddess" Bell warmly whispered, sliding next to the petite goddess, and taking a cup for himself.

"Mmmornin' Bell" Hestia mumbled before she sipped her cup and sighed blissfully "I didn't think of you as an early bird"

Bell smiled, he got that a lot back at the village "There's some things you can only do in the morning"

Hestia hummed with a raised eyebrow "Like?"

Bell listed as he counted with his fingers "Preparing the day's meals, milking the cows, feeding the pigs, preparing the fields without the sun burning your skin and more"

Hestia hummed again, her curiosity was piqued, and the goddess decided to use their moment alone to learn more about her first Child "What was your life like before coming to Orario?"

"My gramps would wake me in the morning, we would visit the village chief, get the list of things needed to be done in the village to prepare for the winters. Most of it was farmers labor or maintenance on the buildings but sometimes we would go hunting"

As Bell continued speaking the goddess and Child moved to the L-shaped sofa.

"He would tell me stories of the heroes he had known, how they had lived their lives and what they fought for. I remember, when I was a child, I had asked him if I could become a hero like those in the stories" Bell laughed lightly to himself "My 'training' if you could call that began the day after I asked him that"

Hestia leaned forward, her child's honesty and amusement was as refreshing as the coffee she was drinking that morning.

"My gramps was a super perverted old man and he always tried to make every situation we found ourselves in some kind of 'test', and more often than not it ended with me having to deal with the angry women of the village after he had peeped on them" Bell shook his head in exasperation.

Hestia frowned but kept quiet.

"I learnt a lot about how to deal with women from him, more than I'd like to admit…" Bell mumbled, his words caught by the Hearth's goddess, but she decided against commenting on it.

"But he was also an incredible teacher when it came to actual training, his motto was that as long as I had enough determination then I could make the impossible possible" Bell laughed again "Imagine an old man with gray hairs yelling at a boy swimming upstream with logs tied to his legs 'YOU LACK DETERMINATION'"

Hestia snorted at the mental image "There's no way he did that, you were a child then right?"

Bell smiled like a feline that found its pray "Oh he did and more, my gramps made me go through the same kind of training all the heroes in his stories went through, but he always made sure to never overdo it"

Hestia laughed once her lie-detector ability found the boy words to be true "Your gramps sounds like quite the character Bell, what happened?"

Bell smiled forlornly "Winter was coming so the village prepared a group of men to gather resources to last us during winter, the group went out, but it seems they were attacked by the monsters of the surface…"

Hestia gasped, a look of concern crossing her features.

"Nobody… made it" Bell whispered with his head down and Hestia instantly pulled her child into an awkward hug, mostly because of the height difference, but the intention of consoling her child was transmitted the same.

"It's kind of funny, if it wasn't for his… disappearance" It hurt to even utter those words, but he'd learn to come to deal with it, the young adventurer smiled at his goddess as he separated from her hug.

"I would've never left the village, it's all thanks to that that I decided to venture out of the village where only memories of him resided and start my own journey to become the hero he would be proud of" Bell's crimson eyes glinted as he uttered those words, almost as if he was reminding himself of his primary purpose.

Hestia was once more impressed by her child's determination, she'd seen men break down when an important figure in their lives were lost through the countless eons she'd lived, and here was a child, her child, willing to use the pain of his loss to live up to the expectations his only family member had placed on him.

"I'm sure he's watching over you and is proud of how strong you have become" Hestia responded to Bell's determination in kind, the goddess ruffled Bell's hair affectionately and added "Know that I am proud to call you my first Child, Hekate's meddling or not, you will become a great hero like your grandfather said you would!"

Bell couldn't contain his happiness at his goddess words and pulled the petite woman into another hug, one that was not so awkward with him being the one to embrace her first and he profusely thanked her for believing in him.

With their spirits high in the morning, Hestia helped Bell prepare for another day in the dungeon by fixing the straps of his armor and pouches before she herself got ready for another day at the Jagamarukun stall.

-0-

Bell left the apartment in high spirits, a smile that threatened to split his face apart as he ran through the increasingly crowding, morning streets of Orario. There were more stalls set up on the street sides than the previous day and it was in one such stall that the boy made a stop to purchase three loot pouches more.

They were on the cheaper side, but they'd serve their purpose well.

Since Eina had stayed the night at the apartment, and they had not set up a second advisor for their Familia, Bell had foregone reporting at the Pantheon.

And unlike the last time where the boy had run down the streets and stumbled upon the elf with the radiant eyes of the Loki Familia, the boy had no issues arriving to the giant tower that served as a lid to the Dungeon.

Thus, the white-haired boy found himself standing under the faint, eerie, light of the first floor of the dungeon making sure his three new pouches were properly secured to his upper thighs.

'My resolve must become stronger than my willpower' Bell affirmed to himself, vowing to live up to his goddess expectations and his own.

He would learn to control his unique skill, whether said skill wanted to or not.

The hero in making dashed into the tunnels, the map of the first five floors already memorized in his mind thanks to the lecture given by his two partners the previous night and made short work of anything that crossed his path.

With the latest update and increase to his stats, the boy found less monsters willing to step into his path and he had to go out of his way to kill them.

In a way, it was kind of funny to him.

One month ago, he had entered the dungeon ill-prepared and by the grace of whatever thing was controlling his fate, the boy managed to survive by sheer determination.

Now, here he was, decimating monsters for breakfast in the literal sense as the young adventurer made his way to the sixth floor and stopped only to loot the precious drops from the monsters he killed on his path.

His first step into the sixth floor was an eye-opener for Bell, the way the dungeon walls and light changed every floor down made the dungeon feel as it was alive and considering every story he had heard from his grandfather, it might as well be.

Bell's thoughts on the dungeon's origins were cut short by the appearance of one monster he had never seen before and only heard about last night, with an appearance similar to a giant frog with a single eye at the top of its head and a grotesque, pink tongue that was already extending at fast speeds towards the boy's head.

Bell's reflex of catching an object being thrown at high speeds towards him allowed him to instinctively grab the grotesque muscle centimeters before it could hit his face with his left hand.

Croak?

The monster must've not expected the boy's dexterity, and certainly not strength. Bell pulled hard on the muscle, twisting his body, and pulling overhead causing the frog to be pulled along for the ride with another confused croak.

Once the monster's body was overhead the young adventurer, a single upwards trust of his lance into the underbelly of the monster was enough to kill the monster.

"Huh, soft underbelly indeed" Bell muttered to himself, picking up the crystal dropped by the monster and beginning his slow walk into the new corridors.

Bell's exploration led him into several more lonesome Frog Shooters that the boy dispatched with methodical care to learn their moves. When he was sure he'd learned everything he needed to know about the monster along with his Insight giving him extra information, they became nothing more than another stepping stone for the young adventurer.

Whatever entity controlled the dungeon was not happy with Bell's progress, for when the boy confidence was high enough that he had killed groups of Frogs Shooters the dungeon had sent its latest attempt of a trap at him.

One that was doomed to fail from the very start.

Bell had just finished killing three Frog Shooters when the light around him dimmed out and his Insight skill screamed danger, the boy reacted as expected of a veteran, dodging the shadowy claw that would've pierced his heart from the back by rolling to the front and coming face to face with another of the monsters that had ambushed him.

It was humanoid, that much Bell could say. Its body was made entirely of a shadowy whisp of darkness with a single red-eye gleaming evilly at him.

"War Shadows" Bell acknowledged the monster in front of him, and the monster responded in kind by clawing at the kneeling boy's face.

The young adventurer blocked both claws with his spear vertically, Insight warned him of the other five War Shadows that crept from his back and were preparing another blind attack.

It was a good strategy, Bell reasoned. He was locked in place by protecting himself from the claws of the one in front while the others went for his back. He understood then why Eina had been so adamant on him needing a support, or a party, to cover his back once he reached the lower floors.

The monster's intelligence was starting to show, and for novice adventurers, just that much was enough to spell doom for them.

But not for him.

He was Bell fucking Cranel, and by his divine Goddesses will, his determination and resolve would carry him through every hardship.

If he couldn't move, then he would just make the monster move for him.

Bell let go of his spear, lowering himself even further down and passing below the attack that had been meant to his face, ending with his own face mushed against the monster's creepy chest whose momentum had led him forward and Bell capitalized on this.

The young adventurer forearms hit the monster's groin and with an herculean effort, the boy lifted and threw the monster above, and behind, him into the other four attacking ones.

The cry of the monster being gnashed by its own allies was music to Bell ears, but one that he did not stop to enjoy since he knew time was precious. The momentary lapse of opportunity was fully taken advantage of by Bell.

He grabbed as many pebbles as he could in one fell swoop and spun, throwing the objects with precise dexterity into the War Shadows gleaming eyes, three out of the four blocked the attack and the one that did not was momentarily stunned.

That much was enough for Bell to leap in between the four, piercing the stunned War Shadow's eye with his dagger and slicing it down in half. The monster exploded, the crystal falling midair, and Bell kicked the loot into the nearest War Shadow that once more stopped to block the attack.

Two down, one momentarily stunned, and two attacking his unsteady form.

There was no way to dodge the two attacks, but that did not mean he would take them head on. Bell moved into the attacking monsters before they could finish their swings, the powerful attack strength diminished by not being completed hit the boy's new armor and shoulder plate.

The shrill of claws and steel echoed in the corridor as the monsters racked his armor and Bell waited until they finished their attack to counterattack, when both monsters' arms were down, Bell's arms were up.

His empty left hand grabbed the side of the left War Shadow's head, and his right hand held the dagger in a reverse grip that pierced the right War Shadow's head.

Bell smashed both War Shadow's head together, the dagger piercing through the right's one head and into the left one all the way until the tip passed between Bell's own open fingers.

Two explosions of dust and one last war cry on his back followed next, Bell kneeled, dodging the overhead attack and grabbed the dagger with both of his hands to stab upwards into the overextended monster's eye.

One last explosion with a core and a red crystal clinking to the ground was everything that was left behind by the dungeon's attempt at an ambush for the young adventurer.

"Note to self" Bell huffed as he picked up the loots and crystal from his last fight "War Shadows don't play fair, so play just as unfair as them"

And so, the boy took a moment to regain his breath before continuing his latest adventure into the dungeon.

-0- Chapter End -0-

Author's Note: Finally, some progress with Hestia, about time! She'd been on the sideline for too long since I needed to flesh out Hekate first.

I hope the difference between Hestia's and Bell's meeting from the original to my own gave a reasonable explanation for the difference in the goddess character. I honestly like Hestia, just not when she's being the show's beating horse/jealous cliché goddess.

I wonder how she will react when she learns that Bell's grandfather was Zeus… and she indirectly complimented the old pervert, ahahaha.