Ch.7: The Monster of the Abyss

Hajime woke up with the water hitting his face.

"What? I thought I was dead."

He looked around. He was in a river with a relatively strong current. "This river was probably my salvation." He muttered as he looked up. He saw a rounded stone ceiling, it was probably a cave.

"Looks like the current carried me away."

When he got a better look he was in an underground cave lit by crystals of green light.

The cave had many plants but Hajime didn't see any animals or monsters. This cave was very different from the other floors of the maze, it was less artificial with rounded walls and vegetation.

"Looks like I got lucky. Is there any way I can go back?"

Hajime encouraged himself to continue forward to look for a way back.

●●●

30 minutes later Hajime heard a sound and hid behind a rock.

He spied the place where the sound came from and there he saw a small red-eyed rabbit.

Aren't there supposed to be super strong monsters down here? Hajime thought.

A gray wolf with gray and red details approached the rabbit as red colored electric sparks came out of its back and attacked it.

Totally against Hajime's expectations the rabbit dodged easily, but the wolf used its 'electrical discharge' ability to attack while the rabbit was in the air, so to yet another surprise the rabbit propelled itself onto an invisible platform in the air. It was his 'aerodynamics' skill he used aerodynamics once again and kicked the wolf which killed it on the spot.

"Hugh!" Hajime put his hand in front of his mouth to cover his cry, but it didn't work and the white rabbit took off to attack them. It delivered a flying kick at Hajime who defended it with his left arm.

"Shit!" Hajime was thinking about how to survive while the rabbit seemed to be having fun. The rabbit was about to go on the attack once again, but then he stopped. It stared at the top of Hajime's head, or so it seemed, but Hajime noticed. The rabbit was looking at something behind him.

When Hajime turned around he saw a white bear with huge claws and red eyes, it was walking in a bipedal fashion while looking at Hajime and the rabbit as if choosing its prey.

Hajime realized that this bear in front of him was not normal, it had an overwhelming pressure that far surpassed the Behemoth.

The Rabbit attacked and was torn apart by the bear's claws in seconds. Meanwhile Hajime stared

That kicking Rabbit could easily kill the Behemoth with the force of his kick but the bear in front of him treated him as a nuisance at best. Hajime couldn't move, because of that look in his eyes. A terrifying look that the bear gave him as it ate the rabbit.

The bear swallowed the rabbit whole and stood up slowly walking towards him. The bear seemed to say "You're next."

"Ahhhhhhhhh!"

Hajime used all his strength to run but it was useless. The bear's claws glowed and it made a vertical slash in the air. And when it did that three lights went straight at Hajime that were similar to Kouki's light swords but they were smaller and there were 3. The curved claws went towards Hajime and hit his left arm.

"Guah!"

Hajime fell with the impact. He coughed to try to catch his breath. He was already dazed from the pain and the fall, but what he saw in front of him made him forget all that. The bear was eating something.

"But what is it eating?" Hajime thought and then he realized that his left arm was strangely light. He looked at his arm and It was no longer there. Hajime's brain and heart tried to escape reality, but it was impossible.

The pain woke him up to reality and he began to instinctively crawl backwards.

"AAahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!"

Hajime's scream echoed through the Dungeon. He began to crawl backwards as fast as he could to get away from the White Bear. The bear finished its 'meal' and began to slowly walk towards Hajime.

The bear extended its paws towards Hajime as if it planned to swallow him whole.

"Ahhh...khhh, t-tran-transmute!"

With his tear-covered face deciding the extreme shot, Hajime put his hand on the wall behind him and used Transmutation, it was a reaction caused by pure fear.

The ability created a hole that the bear couldn't get through but Hajime could, only the bear wouldn't give up so easily he began to break the wall with his claws in anger at having his prey escape.

"Gruaaaaaa!!!"

The wall was shattered by the single curved claw magic.

"Wuahhhhhh! Transmute! Transmute! Transmute! Transmuteeee!"

Hajime completely forgot about the pain and everything. He could only run away as his instincts commanded him.

"Transmute...Trans-mute...tran."

Hajime used every last mana point to escape the bear and it seemed to have worked, the bear gave up on breaking the wall and walked away.

"Ah, I'm going to die right?"

Hajime muttered in disgust as he looked at the bleeding on his arm. There was no way he could stay alive like this. Hajime felt his consciousness fading.

Hajime as he fainted recalled his memories of the past. His life flashed before his eyes from elementary school, to moments with his family, to that moment with Kaori in the moonlight. Then he felt something drip on his face like tears and he fainted.

●●●

Feeling a sensation of the water tasting in his mouth Hajime slowly regained consciousness.

Why am I alive?

While remembering the events Haime asked himself this question. He tried to get up but hit his head.

"Hugh!?"

Just at that moment he remembered that the hole he was in was small and did not allow much movement.

At that moment he felt a phantom pain in his non-existent arm. And out of reflex he pressed on the wound.

"Is-is it healed?how?"

Hajime felt a sea of blood surrounding him, anyone who lost that amount of blood would die on the spot. At this moment another drop of water fell on his cheek and dripped into his mouth.

Hajime noticed that the moment the drop of water entered he felt a little more recovered.

"This is..."

Hajime endured the pain and raised his right arm to use Transmute on the ceiling when he used it he saw a blue light coming from a Crystal. This crystal was the size and shape of a soccer ball and it let this water flow out that recovered Hajime.

Hajime was fascinated by the beautiful crystal that saved his life. And he moved closer to drink more of the healing water (it's called ambrosia, but Hajime doesn't know it yet.)

When Hajime took more of the water all his pain and fatigue went away.

Hajime didn't know that this was actually the greatest of all treasures in history. It was a rare magical stone that sucked mana through the air for millennia until it was formed and was called the Divine Crystal. It would take him hundreds of years more to transform this magical power into a liquid. This liquid was called Ambrosia and it was said that drinking it would heal all wounds and diseases and if you drank it constantly it was said that you would gain eternal life.

Hajime crawled to the wall and cringed in fear of the creatures that would be there if he went outside.

Both his heart and mind were broken he could only remember the look on the clawed Bear's face. That look broke any determination Hajime had, now he had nowhere to go.

"Someone... save me..."

Those words reached no one.

●●●

Hajime was lying hugging his knees.

It was the 4th day he had been like this.

Hajime barely moved these past few days. even though the ambrosia kept him alive it didn't satisfy his hunger and Hajime spent all this time starving while the ambrosia kept him alive. He was also left feeling a lot of pain in his phantom limb.

"Why did I end up like this?"

He thought about this several times during the last day. While suffering hunger and phantom pain he could only think this.

So after suffering for so long he decided to stop drinking ambrosia and take the easy way out. But then.

"No. I want to live..."

He didn't know why but he couldn't let himself die. He plunged into thought once again.

●●●

It was the 7th day since Hajime arrived at the cave.

Hajime was still suffering heavily from hunger but the fear of leaving was much stronger.

"Why don't I die... ahh hurry... no I don't want to die..."

●●●

On the eighth day Hajime's mind began to go through changes. Shifting between wishing to die and living Hajime began to have dark thoughts.

"Why do I have to suffer so much? I didn't do anything to deserve this. I was kidnapped by God, my colleague betrayed me and it ate my arm."

These past few days while thinking about what brought him here Hajime remembered the fireball that hit him. There was no way that one of his cheated colleagues could have screwed up a spell and the spell coincidentally hit him. Someone did it on purpose, and he had a good guess. It was the boy who tormented him every day because Hajime was jealous of Kaori.

On the 9th day Hajime's thoughts got darker.

"Who did this to me? Who hurt me? Who forced all these irrational events on me?"

Hajime began to look for an enemy. All these horrible events ate away at Hajime's soul.

Why didn't anyone come to help me? What must I do to make this pain go away?

What do I want? I want to live. Who is stopping me? The enemy. Who is the enemy? Those who get in my way. What should I do with them?

Without realizing it Hajime began to talk to himself and answer his own questions.

Day 10.

There was no longer a grudge in Hajime's mind, neither against God, nor against his fellow traitor. All that remained was the memory of the girl who said she would protect him. And the memory of his family.

That's right, she said she would protect me, didn't she, so why am I here? She is the reason my life turned to shit in the first place.

When he saw that memory was gone too and only the memory of his family was left.

"That's right I just want to go home..."

"I want to find my brother and go home with him. Anyone who stops me is my enemy. Anyone who becomes my enemy I will..."

"Kill"

.......

.......

.......

"Kill"

"Kill"

"Kill"

"Kill"

"Kill"

"Kill"

Without realizing it he began to speak these words. Without malice, hatred or hostility. It was simply murderous intent. Just kill to survive. Everyone who got in his way was going to die. That was the conclusion he came to.

And so the monster of the abyss was born.

Now Hajime decided to leave the tunnel. He first needed to eat to regain his strength so he decided to set a trap.

●●●

At a certain place in a natural cave of the Orcus Dungeon.

Two gray wolves were hiding waiting for some monster to pass nearby to attack him.

They were hiding 10 meters away from each other each behind a bush. This was so that when some monster passed by they could attack from both sides making it difficult to defend themselves.

The wolf on the right heard a strange noise coming from where his hunting partner was.

He moved closer and saw his friend and a square hole and then heard a whisper.

"Transmute."

The ground below the wolf warped and took him next to his mate.

The wolf looked up and saw a black haired boy. He tried to scale the wall of the hole to attack the boy but when he did.

"Transmute"

The boy whispered again and immediately the hole wall wrapped Around the wolves leaving them motionless.

Hajime transmuted a stone spear from the wall and stuck it into the wolf but the spear did not penetrate the wolf's skin.

"Tsk, I was hoping for that."

He used Transmute on his spear turning its tip into a spiral.

"Well this is going to be painful for you, but I don't care because I'm hungry."

He began to twist and thrust the spear while the wolf screamed in pain and let out red rays from its back trying to electrocute Hajime, but since the spear was made of stone the electricity couldn't reach him.

After killing the wolves he passed on a knife and removed their pelts. It would take him a long time to make fire and he was very hungry so he decided to eat the raw meat.

When he ate it.

"How disgusting."

The taste of the meat was horrible, But it was better than starving.

"Ugh!?"

He felt a pain run through his entire body. It was then that he remembered that monster meat contained a mana that was deadly to humans. But he had to resist, otherwise when the ambrosia ran out he would starve to death.

The pain began to worsen and his muscles began to tear. He took a stone jar that he made with transmutation and took the ambrosia in it. After that he began to heal himself, and then the mana from the flesh began to attack again, and the ambrosia healed again.

Healing, breaking, healing, breaking.

The pain was so horrible that Hajime began to bang his head against the wall to try to pass out, but the ambrosia had the disadvantage that it didn't let the user lose consciousness. After a while of torture the pain stopped. Hajime felt confused and tried to stand up, when he did he felt his body lighter. He looked at his reflection in the small stream beside him and saw.

His hair was white, his eyes were red, and his body was muscular. He also noticed that his mana that was a faint blue color was now crimson red(which was the color of mana that monsters had).

"What?"

So he looked for something in his pocket is he found his Status board, which somehow had not been lost. And it showed...

Name: Nagumo Hajime

Age: 17

Class: Synergist

Blessing:Crest of The Storm

Level: 8(+6)

Strength:100(+88)

Vitality:300(+288)

Stamina:100(+88)

Agility: 200(+188)

Magic power:300(+288)

Magic resistance:300(+288)

New Skills: ... Mana manipulation... Iron Stomach... lightning cloak...

"Why is he like this?"

Hajime was surprised, he had greatly increased his statuses and also gained 3 New skills.

"Mana manipulation is that red Magic power? What does it do?"

Hajime had a hunch so he tried using Transmute and as he expected he didn't need to use chanting or magic circle as well as the monsters did.

"Is that serious? That should be impossible."

"By the way eating magical beasts gives me their abilities."

Hajime began to look at the descriptions and test his new abilities.

Iron Stomach: allows you to eat magical Beasts' flesh without causing death.

"I won't have to spend so much holy water. That's good."

Lightning Cloak: allows him to use Lightning Magic.

He did some tests and nothing activated. Then he remembered that he had read in a book that he needed a clear image of the spells to cast them.

He visualized his magic, raised his palm and

"Wow that'll be useful, too bad I can't cast it."

There at the top of his hand were red electric beams. They couldn't be cast like normal magic, but they would still be very useful.

Hajime took the gray wolf meat and used lightning cloak to roast it. When he ate it it still tasted bad, but he didn't feel any pain or anything like that.

He finished eating and then left his temporary base.

●●●

A day passed and Hajime was full steam ahead.

He trained his new skills and his new strength, he also gained a transmutation derived Skill 'mineral evaluation' normally it would take years to develop a derived skill, and he didn't know if he got one so fast because he was from another world or because he ate the flesh of monsters and got stronger.

Hajime examined various minerals around him and the most interesting ones he found.

Green light stone: stone that when injected with mana releases a green light. If it is broken when fueled all light will be released.

Hajime decided to take some to use as light grenades.

Burning stone: highly flammable ore that when it reaches high temperatures will start to burn and get smaller eventually. It will reach a bursting fit if the temperature continues to increase.

It was basically like gunpowder. Hajime had an idea when he saw this description and started looking at other descriptions looking for something. And he found it.

Turu metal: black, tough metal.

Hardness 8 (scale of 1 to 10)

Will become weak when cooled and strong again when heated.

"That's it!"

Hajime celebrated and began his project.

He had several failures and tried several times when he finally succeeded.

*DOPAN*

The sound of a revolver was heard at the bottom of the abyss.

This gun that Hajime called Donner was made with turu metal and flintstone ammunition that Hajime activated with his Lightning Cloak Skill. Making for a powerful shot.

●●●

Hajime used his Donner and easily killed a white rabbit similar to the one that played with Hajime.

He ate the rabbit's meat(which also tasted horrible) and looked at his Status board again.

Name: Nagumo Hajime

Age: 17

Class: Synergist

Blessing: Crest of the Storm

Level: 14(+4)

Strength:300(+100)

Vitality:400

Resistência:300(+100)

Agility: 500(+200)

Magic power:450(+50)

Magic resistance: 450(+50)

New Skills: Divine step... Aerodynamics... Teleportation.

As before, eating magical beasts made his status increase. He doesn't get any stronger if he eats a monster he ate before. He also gained 3 new abilities.

He immediately tested divine step.

Divine step made you move at high speed leaving only a blur behind and teleportation basically amplified divine step.

Aerodynamics meant that Hajime could jump while in the air creating a transparent platform with mana.

Hajime after looking at his statuses spoke.

"It's time to face my nemesis."

Hajime headed towards the place that all monsters in the abyss avoided. The lair of the beast.

●●●

Hajime was hiding and saw the white bear making a meal lying down.

"Well let's get started."

He muttered and approached the bear without hiding.

"Hey man how are you? Did my arm feel good?"

The bear looked at Hajime with curiosity and his expression showed "did he come here to die?

"Yeah I came here for revenge, how about we get started?"

Hajime pointed and fired with donner.

The bear deflected on instinct. And it took off on Hajime running in zigzags to avoid being hit. When he came close, Hajime leapt up with divine step.

"That's it. I am no longer your prey, I am your enemy now."

Hajime spoke this with a fearless smile and shot again. The bear was very fast and managed to dodge his shot and immediately launched curved claw.l Hajime dodged it with a jump, but immediately the bear launched another curved claw thinking Hajime wouldn't be able to dodge it while in the air.

Hajime used aerodynamics to dodge and shot the bear. Perhaps because he was surprised that Hajime could jump in the air the bear couldn't fully dodge and the shot hit his left arm ripping it off.

"Huh! How ironic."

After saying that Hajime picked up the arm on the ground AND ate a piece. He thought that with that he would get stronger and win easily. But something unexpected happened...

"Hugh!?"

Hajime felt a sharp pain. By the way the flesh of stronger monsters still caused pain even with the 'iron stomach'.

The bear that realized Hajime was vulnerable was about to attack, but Hajime stepped forward and threw a green crystal on the ground causing it to break and release a blinding light.

Before the bear could recover from the blindness Hajime used lightning cloak on the blood that was on the ground. The red electric current spread through the Bear's blood trail until it reached him. Causing him to die electrocuted.

"Haha! finally."

Yes he finally killed his enemy.

He ate some more of the clawed bear's meat and looked at its status.

Name: Nagumo Hajime

Age: 17

Class: Sinergists

Blessing: Crest of the Storm

Level: 20(+5)

Strength:600(+100)

Vitality:500(+100)

Resistência:460(+100)

Agility: 550(+50)

Magic power:600(+50)

Magic resistance:600(+50)

New skills:ore smelting... ore splitting... air claw.

Hajime finished eating and went His way.

***

By the way guys Let me explain the purpose of the blessings since some what to know why I add a blessing

So the blessings actually acts like a protection it will active when the individual's life is at treat and also Just to add more function Blessing also enhanced The speed of leveling up and Enhance the skill of the blessed person.