DanMachi: Hero Diary

Hello, everyone. My name is Bell Cranel. People who know me usually just call me Bell.

For the record, I am a transmigrator. I did not end up here because I got flattened by a truck or anything that dramatic. Curiosity and desire got the better of me, and I chose the one-way road to another world with my own two hands.

The boy writing those words was Bell Cranel: fourteen years old, white-haired, red-eyed, and only two days into his life in this world.

Normal people did not keep diaries. A diary exposed too much. If someone else read it, the humiliation might kill him before any monster did.

Bell still wrote one.

Being alone in an unfamiliar fantasy world had shaken his sense of reality hard enough that he needed somewhere to put the thoughts he could not say out loud. Some things were too dangerous to speak. Some things were too heavy to keep locked inside his head.

A diary was the best outlet he had.

The little house held almost nothing: two beds, a table, a chair, and a fireplace. Bell sat beside the fire, letting the warmth soak into his hands as he continued writing.

The most valuable free first pull was guaranteed to be a five-star. I thought I might pull a Heroic Spirit. Instead, I got a Craft Essence.

Still, for my current situation, it is a very good five-star Craft Essence. It is even at Max Limit Break. I suppose this is the biggest handout the system is willing to give me.

Bell wrote that line with a quiet, heartfelt sigh.

"Personal Training": Gain a large amount of experience through combat.

That should be the replacement for Liaris Freese. Without it, I probably would not awaken an Early Growth-type Skill.

With this five-star Craft Essence, I should be able to grow quickly even if I have not joined a Familia yet.

By then, Bell's red eyes had narrowed in frustration.

The real headache is the gacha.

Right now, I am still in the beginner stage. The pool is capped at three-stars, and everything in it is a Craft Essence. Only after I break past the beginner stage will the restrictions lift. Only then will I have a chance to pull Heroic Spirits.

What does that mean?

It means I need to accept that, for a while, most of my pulls will be one-star and two-star Craft Essences.

The good news is that the Craft Essences drawn from the Type-Moon System can all be carried at once. There does not seem to be a quantity limit.

That is my edge. As long as I have enough valis, I can grow stronger by throwing money at the system.

One pull costs 1,000 valis for now, and that is the discounted beginner price. Once the restrictions lift, a single pull will cost 10,000 valis. The funding gap is brutal.

So becoming an adventurer is my only real option.

Bell set down the pen.

He carefully stored the notebook inside the Spatial Storage provided by the Type-Moon System. As long as it stayed there, no one else would be able to read the things he had written.

Firelight warmed his face. He rubbed his hands together and held them closer to the hearth. The room was not warm enough on its own. Without the fireplace, spending the night in this wooden house would have been miserable.

"Next stop is Orario."

The words came out softly.

Unease still sat in his chest.

"I hope this is the right choice."

He let out a breath.

"Sleep. I need to leave early tomorrow."

With hope and anxiety tangled together, Bell fell asleep soon after.

The blanket was rough, but it was comfortable enough. More importantly, sleep was the one time he could stop thinking.

People said the carefree slept best. Bell did not know whether he counted as carefree, but for the past two nights, his sleep had been shockingly good. The moment his head touched the pillow, he was gone, as if the worries crowding his mind had never existed.

When he woke at daybreak, he felt better than expected.

His body felt rested. His mind was clear.

"My stamina recovered well. My head feels fine too."

Bell got out of bed and walked to the window.

The wind still howled outside, but the day itself was clear. In fact, the weather had been good for several days in a row. There had been no rain lately, leaving the ground dry. Crossing dozens of kilometers of forest would be much easier if he did not have to fight through mud.

Knowing today was the best day to leave, Bell packed the essentials into the Type-Moon System's Spatial Storage.

Not having to carry extra weight was one of his few advantages. It made him far more mobile than he should have been.

By early morning, he was ready.

He wore a thick wool sweater beneath his outer coat. The forest was cold at dawn, and traveling through the wild with too much skin exposed was asking for trouble. Venomous insects were no joke, especially here.

Bell lived in a remote village on the edge of nowhere. Adventurers almost never passed through, and there was no reliable way to get antidotes or proper medicine. Poison was one of the dangers he had to take seriously.

Once his preparations were complete, Bell glanced back at the wooden house.

"I probably will not see this place again for a while."

After a short pause, he added, "I hope I get the chance to come back someday."

Then, quieter:

"Goodbye."

Once he made up his mind, dragging his feet would only make things worse. Hesitation invited doubt. Doubt forced him to reexamine choices that had already been made, and most of the time, that kind of second-guessing achieved nothing.

At a crossroads, what mattered was choosing a path and walking it.

Too many choices only created more ways to suffer.

Once the first decision was made, he had to move forward. Hesitation became confusion. Overthinking became a stone underfoot.

Forget the extra roads.

Keep your eyes on the one you chose.

Bell did not look back.

Carrying both hope and fear for the future, he set out.

Far in the distance, Babel rose toward the sky.

That was his destination.

There was no point thinking about anything else now. All he had to do was keep moving.

Leaving the village felt like walking away from a backwater settlement toward the city at the center of the world.

Unfortunately, the road to that city was terrible.

He had to go on foot. If there had been a carriage, even a simple wagon, the trip would have been easier. He could have covered dozens of kilometers in the time it took to doze off.

"That is the problem with places this remote," Bell muttered. "I cannot even find a horse."

With a horse, he might have crossed the forest in less than half a day.

On foot, he still had no idea how long it would take.

But no matter what, spending the night camped inside the forest was asking to die.

He had to get through it today.

He had to reach open ground before nightfall.

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