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.
Chapter 13: And So, Fair play is Overrated Part 2
Part 18
A young white-haired adventurer drenched from head to toe in monster blood crunched the head of a Killer Mantis beneath his boot, he spat the gore that had gone inside his mouth and wiped his face with the back of his hand.
Bell Cranel's adventure into the seventh floor was met with heavy resistance from the very start by the dungeon, not two steps in the boy had found the first monster that had proven to be capable of wounding him when nothing else above had managed to do so.
It hurt his pride to admit that the little Needle Rabbit had been the first monster to draw blood after his status update. Bell took the pain inflicted on his forearm from the monster's horn as another lesson.
The little rascals were fast, so fast that Insight barely tracked their movements that had it not been for Bell's innate instincts developing just as fast as his stats, the boy would've needed to go back to higher floors.
As it was, the boy learned their attack patterns after the third time one of the little pests had smashed horn first into his chest piece. Bell was faster than the rabbits, but they always attacked in groups of threes and fours, forcing him to take a reactive stance to defeat them to avoid further injuries.
After finding a reactive stance that would allow him to whittle them down without slowing down, or being corralled, the young adventurer thrived in the carnage of his own making down in the dungeon.
By the time he found the next new monster, two of his pouches were filled to the brim in cores and loots. The new monster was the Purple Moth that Bell became creative with his use of the dungeon's materials and killed them from afar by either using his spear as a javelin, or rock with sharp edges as projectiles.
Eina and Rose had made it very clear that fighting a Purple Moth in close range would end up with him getting poisoned, and without a supporter or another party member to cover his back while he healed up, could prove to be fatal.
Still, the young adventurer continued forward.
Bell Cranel resolve was set from the moment he woke up that morning, and there would be no monster that would make him back down this time.
When monsters started appearing in groups again past the midway point of the seventh floor, Bell had to change tactics yet again. Insight was used to track the position of the Moths around him while he dealt with anything that came close to him, he took more than a few hits for this change of tactic, but it allowed him to win despite the hardships.
It wasn't until he stepped down to the eight floor that Bell met his new foe, the Orario renown 'Newbie Killer'.
The Killer Ant.
Which proved to be a joke for the young adventurer to deal with, unlike the Needle Rabbits whose small bodies and group tactics allowed them to attack in fast exchanges that kept the boy on the defensive.
Bell was allowed to take a proactive stance against the Mantises, and so long as he followed his lover's advice about not fatally injuring one and leaving it alive, he knew there would be no issues whatsoever.
So once more the young adventurer went on the offensive, tearing apart the new monsters without any show of mercy.
He fought, and fought, and continued fighting.
What felt like seconds in the boy's mind between every encounter were minutes of a never-ending fatal dance with the dungeon's monsters where one single failed step could end with his death.
But Bell would not fail, his determination would not allow him to do so. There was too much at stake for him to take it easy as his lovers wanted him to.
Yesterday, the boy had been willing to take it slow since the dungeon would not go anywhere and there were people waiting at his new home for him, but with the explanation given to him by his goddess Hekate about how his skills had created a pseudo-charm that was, currently, out of his control and who knows what else the other unknown effects would create, or had created, then Bell did not have the opportunity to take it slow anymore.
If he did not learn to control his unique Determination skill, he knew it would come back to bite him in the ass later and create a lot of problems for his Familia, problems that could be solved if he simply became stronger.
Superficial wounds started accumulating, forcing him to take his only mid-grade potion of the day before he continued forward into another group of monsters. Bell's fervor was not shared by the weapons he brought along with him, midway fight against the new group of monsters the first small mistake of his adventure occurred.
The dagger that he had trusted so much pierced deep into a Mantis's head, and when the boy made to take the weapon out, it broke apart leaving him with the pommel in his hand and open to another horn tackle from a Needle Rabbit.
The hit connected with his forearm once more, the horn piercing through the skin but no further than that as Bell impaled the Rabbit's core before it could continue further.
He was down to his spear that after a second of inspection alerted him that it would meet the same fate as his dagger sooner than later left the boy with no other option than to return to more primitive instruments of attack.
The Mantis that was wounded, and had yet to die, had its pincers cut off and with it the boy had a new weapon in his hand. His fingers bled as he tightened his hold on the crude weapon, but it wasn't enough to inconvenience him.
In his moment of desperation, the boy forgot about the Mantis special pheromone ability and left the monster alive to not have his new weapon disappear while he finished with the rest of the group.
He was not prepared for the horde of Mantises that suddenly showed up at his footstep, and Bell could've sworn the wounded Mantis behind him was cackling despite slowly dying.
Bell's back burnt, his mind entering a clear haze with Insight working overtime to compensate for the number of monsters that showed up. He could not afford to let a single attack of his be anything but a one hit kill, if he did then more monsters would pop up and that would be the end of his tale.
The Dungeon was Bell's sole witness to the adventurer's rampage.
Monster that entered the range of Insight, monster that exploded in dust as Bell had become a maelstrom of attacks that focused only on the monster's core, killing everything in one hit.
From above, their underbellies were exposed.
From below, their pincers did not reach him.
From the sides, their numbers did not allow them to get close.
From behind was their only chance, but Bell never allowed them to get that far.
Bell did not know how many seconds, minutes, or hours passed since the first monster died and he did not care, all he knew was that he would get through his mistake whether the dungeon wanted to or not.
He could not fail.
No.
He would not fail.
Quantity meant nothing when his willpower was stronger than theirs.
Wounds accumulated but he persevered through the pain.
Slowly, but surely, their numbers dwindled until only the Mantis that had been the cause for his mistake remained, the monster was no longer cackling. The jeweled monster's eyes stared fearfully at the crimson's orbs of the adventurer painted from head to toe in gore, the last thing the monster's brain registered was the sole of his foot connecting with its head and it was no more.
Bell spat the gore that had gotten inside his mouth and wiped his face with the back of his hand from the gore. Trembling hands went into his pouch and pulled out the last, and only, high health potion he had left and greedily drank the red liquid.
Next was a stamina potion that was drank just as greedy before the boy started to collect the
The Dungeon was angry that the white-haired adventurer had persevered through another of its traps, but the Dungeon was also satisfied, thus it did not retaliate further. For the first time in eons, the Dungeon had met a foe worth of its begrudging pride.
Wiping the sweat that had accumulated on his forehead, Bell went around retrieving all the cores and drops from his kills and quickly realized that four pouches were not enough for everything he had gone through.
After a split-second decision, he took off his heavily scratched armor and coat, then used the coat as a makeshift bag to carry everything that couldn't fit in his pouches. It felt weird wearing the armor directly over his shirt, but he paid it no mind.
Knowing that he must've spent hours down in the dungeon, Bell raced back to the first floor. His increased agility turning the hour-longs trip into a thirty-minute run due to no monsters willing to cross his path.
The light of the surface almost blinded him as he climbed the final steps, one of the many clocks adorning the entrance of the dungeon marking almost four in the afternoon let him know that he had indeed spent a lot of time inside the dungeon.
Bell received many stares from the adventurers around him at the Pantheon as he waited in line to exchange his drops, the closer he got to the teller the more judgmental the stares became, and Bell knew it must be either due to his bloodied appearance once more, or for the number of loots he was carrying.
When he emptied his makeshift bag and the four pouches his fears were confirmed when the teller closed the window, and he was told to wait.
Thanks to Eina and Rose, Bell knew the difference between the common drops and rare drops of the monsters down to the tenth floor, and he knew for certain that about half of the things he had emptied on the box were on the rarer side.
Bell awkwardly shuffled in place while he waited, the adventurers behind him crossing their arms in annoyance at the delay and he made his best effort to ignore their stares. The young adventurer's nervousness went up a notch when a group of four members dressed in the uniform of the Guild approached him with various papers in their hands.
"Are you Bell Cranel?" The first one asked, a tall bespectacled male.
"Hai"
The Guild members nodded between themselves, another short haired-guy walking forward with a paper in his hand hand "Your file says you're currently a solo-adventurer, is that correct?"
"Hai"
Bell felt the stares digging into his back from the other adventurers in the line, and he noticed even more people stopping to look at the rare commotion in the Guild lobby.
"We have a report of your exchange the previous day, which contains many common drops, more than the normal amount-"
Bell nodded.
"And today you've returned with more drops, rarer than last time-"
Bell nodded again, more eyes, more people, more words.
"Considering that you've been registered as an adventurer for a month-"
Bell nodded, a slight buzz entering his mind.
"The Guild is concerned as to where you have been obtaining these amounts of drops and if it's done fairly-"
Bell grinds his teeth, the harsher stares, the more people, the more insinuations created by the Guild member words.
"If possible, we'd like your cooperation and follow us into the backrooms to investigate what's been going on"
Bell closed his eyes, closed himself to the world as it slowed still in his mind.
He understood their concerns, Bell knew it must not be normal for a new adventurer from a no-name Familia to suddenly bring in as many drops as he had been doing so in the last two days in a fair manner.
The teller from the previous time had even said as so, that only a lucky party could obtain as many drops as he had done alone, and he had returned with even more this time.
However.
Did they really have to go about it in this way? Under the judgmental stares of other adventures and regular folk visiting the Pantheon and allowing their words to cause a misunderstanding that could make his, and his Familia, future a nightmare with their insinuations?
Bell dearly wanted to slap himself for being so engrossed with earning more for his Familia and becoming stronger that he forgot he was a rarity among adventurers. All he had to do was exchange the rare drops he obtained over the week, but he went and brought it all in one go.
Biting the inside of his cheek, Bell eyes opened once more as the world sped up and he was ready to try and clear the misunderstanding before it got bigger.
"What's going on here?" A voice asked, parting through the crowd gathered around him and the Guild members.
"Ah! Miss Ankusha, good timing! Could you please help us?"
"Sure, but what's that got to do with the crowd?" The voice came from behind Bell, the cool tone tickling his memories.
"The Guild believes something unfair is happening and this adventurer is involved in it" The bespectacled male pointed at Bell with the papers in his hand.
Bell kept his calm to those words; the damage was already done so no point in making a sense that would worsen the situation.
"I see" A hand landed on his shoulders, and he tensed for a moment before he was pulled into the bosom of the person speaking, he looked up and his eyes widened in surprise to find her cool blue eyes looking down at him.
"Miss Varma!?"
Dressed in her formal patrol gear consisting of a long orange cheongsam with slits over her thighs displaying her dark thigh-high tights, detached short frilly sleeves, back long gloves under her metal gauntlets and her trademark steel combat boots.
"Hello again Cranel, I see trouble follows you wherever you go"
"Ahahaha…"
Her piercing blue eyes made him squirm in her hold as he laughed awkwardly.
"Do you know him, miss Ankusha?"
Shakti looked down at the teen she was pushing his head into the side of her chest "Do I know you, Cranel?"
Bell scratched his cheek awkwardly "I would hope so, miss Varma"
Shakti chuckled softly "What did you get yourself into this time"
Bell mumbled, low enough that only she could her "Luck related skill, don't believe I obtained the drops fairly"
Shakti raised an eyebrow, nodding to him before setting her piercing gaze on the Guild members waiting for her response.
"I do know this man, what is the issue with him?"
"Well, he's brought a large amount of drops that is concerning since we do not know how he obtained so many of them in such a short span of time…"
"Oh, so it's just that" Shakti tilted her head, using her regal façade to make it seem as if such a thing was a usual occurrence "Don't worry about it, Bell Cranel only recently learned that you could trade drops at the Guild and has brought all the drops his Familia obtained from other sources all at once after learning this"
"But-"
"Or are you insinuating that the words of the captain of the Ganesha Familia, the one in charge of protecting the rules and laws of Orario, are not enough to validate this claim?"
"No, no, no of course not Miss Ankusha, we apologize for the inconvenience we've caused" The bespectacled male bowed, an annoyed look sent at Bell before he left with the rest of the Guild Members that had initially approached him.
With them gone, the crowd dispersed too since the drama was over leaving behind the white-haired adventurer still being held against Shakti's soft assets who were approached by another Guild member with a bag in her hands, the same one that had scolded him the previous time for his bloodied appearance.
"Hello, miss Ankusha" The pink-haired woman waved at the captain before looking at Bell apologetically "and hello Bell, my apologies for that. With the festival so close to starting the Guild has upped their security measures and some people have been a bit too itchy for something to happen"
The pink-haired woman handed him the heavy bag with a wink "Next time you can come directly to me to exchange your drops, just ask for Misha Flott in the reception all right?"
Bell tried to nod, but with his precarious position doing so would probably anger the captain he was currently head pressed against. Misha giggled again and left the two adventurers to their own.
"I guess we're even now, aren't we Cranel?" Shakti asked, finally releasing his head but kept him close with her arm over his shoulder while they walked outside the Pantheon.
"Uh, shouldn't I be the one who owes you one?" Bell asked, confused.
"You kept quiet about what happened at the gate, I helped you out here. I'd say that puts us on equal footing now" Shakti explained keeping a straight face.
"Oh, but I paid less then, no?" Bell pointed out, falling into step with her.
Shakti hummed "Yes, but if word got around that a member of the Ganesha Familia was scamming people coming into Orario, we would've quite the problem in our hands. You, keeping silent about that, has been a blessing in disguise for us. I'm glad my trust was not misplaced in you, Cranel."
Bell blinked owlishly, having never thought of that.
"Oh, that… makes sense, but still thank you for helping me again Miss Varma"
Shakti chuckled again, releasing him once the two stood outside of the Pantheon "Now what's this about a skill affecting your luck?"
Bell scratched his cheek and decided to trust the woman that had helped him twice already "I have a skill that's similar to the Luck ability, but more potent"
Shakti hummed, crossing her arms under bust. Bell's gaze lingered for a second, his brain recalling the softness he had felt moments earlier, but he shook his head free of those thoughts and focused on her curious eyes instead.
A light bulb went off in his head.
"Miss Varma are you free right now?"
Shakti glanced at one of the clocks outside of the Pantheon, there were still 20 minutes left before she was free but her curiosity about Cranel gained the best of her.
"Yes, I've finished my patrol for the day, why?"
Bell gave her a mischievous smile "I would like to show you my luck-related skill first-hand in case a God ever asks you about what happened in the Guild"
Shakti smiled the same way she did when he tried lying to her at the gate, a breathtakingly refreshing smile on her cool features "You are quite shrewd, lead the way Cranel"
Bell memorized her smiling visage before taking stock of his spear, the weapon was severely chipped from his fight for survival and what better way to say goodbye to it than to break it in one last fight.
So, down the two adventurers went to the first floor of the dungeon. They stayed near the entrance waiting for any monster to come close for Bell to show his skill. And, as his luck would have it, four goblins wandered near enough for the demonstration.
The young adventurer was tired from his previous ordeal but thanks to the potions he drank, there was enough fuel in his tank for a couple hours more of action. He prepared the cracked spear and in one swift dash that blew the short locks of the Ankusha, Bell pierced the four goblin cores.
His weapon broke apart as the monster exploded into dust, the clinking of its pieces accompanied by the drops of the monsters.
Four cores, three common drops and one rare drop.
"Well, I'll be, that skills of yours is very effective" Shakti retrieved the items, inspecting them with a keen eye "You're quite strong too, already level two?"
Bell gave a silent goodbye to his broken spear before replying to the captain. "Still level one"
The goblin teeth she had been inspecting slipped from her fingers.
"Huh, interesting…" Shakti murmured, an idea forming in her mind.
The white-haired adventurer recollected the loots and followed the silent Ankusha who was deep in thought, he was exactly three steps behind her when they were climbing the spiral staircase of the dungeon entrance when Shakti suddenly turned around to tell him about her idea.
Bell felt his back burnt at the exact moment the Ankusha started turning around, and as his luck would have it.
Shakti's slipped before she could complete her turn.
Insight triggered an instant later, giving Bell a view of the stone that had crumbled from the years of constant stress under the captain's foot, his perception slowed down and memorizing the wide-eyed look of the normally regal woman.
Bell acted before his brain could catch up to his thoughts, being three steps below her meant that she would collide with him, and both would tumble down unless he caught her, and there weren't many options on how to go about it.
So, when his hands moved, it was Bell's instincts doing it for him. One hand grabbed her waist to stop her turn and hold her steady while the other came from below, the speed of his reaction causing him to mistakenly use his entire strength to catch her.
His hand arced up, palm open intent on catching her.
And catch her he did, with a cacophonous slapping sound that echoed in the massive chamber that housed the spiral staircases followed by a moment of silence as both adventurers stared the source of the sound with their mouth opens.
Said source being Bell's second hand that was firmly pressed into the Ankusha's absurdly soft derriere, his fingers literally sinking into the supple flesh that spilled between his fingers.
Bell had slapped Shakti ass.
Hard.
And so, the young adventurer escaped the dungeon clutches and tightly clutched his own extremely soft and supple reward for surviving another day.
-0- Chapter End -0-
Author's Note: I hope you all had a merry xmas' day/night/eve~ (2021).