Falling Into The Abyss!

The reason Rob was heading in the opposite direction to where the heroes and knights were going was that he knew what was coming. He had decided to replace Hajime's role in this world. Therefore, he headed towards Hajime to shadow him, so when Hajime was about to fall into the abyss, he could take his place as well as help him.

Rob stopped near Hajime and stared at the Behemoth buried in the bridge. When he saw the Behemoth at close range, he had to admit that he was intimidated and a little scared. The Behemoth had an extremely sinister presence, and he could sense that it was far more powerful than the Traum Soldiers he had defeated before.

'If I have to fight that alone, my chance of defeating it is almost zero percent. To think even the weakest monster on the first floor of the True Great Orcus Labyrinth could destroy it so easily, I couldn't help but question my sanity to willingly go down there,' Rob thought with a wry smile.

Rob got cold feet. He wanted to cancel his intention to go down there. However, he remembered his reason to go down there, so he reaffirmed his conviction. After all, if he wanted to become the strongest in this world, he had to go down there, struggle to survive against the monsters inhabiting that place, thrive from every adversity, and break through his limits.

Rob realized that sounded like cliche lines that were said a lot in the shonen series. He didn't know whether to laugh or cry after realizing his life had turned out like this. Nevertheless, he stopped contemplating about his wild, crazy life when a new development occurred.

Hajime finally decided to leave. After transmuting the ground once more and strengthening the Behemoth's restraints for good measure, he jumped back and headed for the stairs to the top floor where the other students and knights were preparing their offensive spell to give him a chance to get away from the Behemoth.

Five seconds after Hajime had started running for his life, the ground behind him shattered. Then, the Behemoth roared menacingly as it freed itself from its restraints. Hajime risked a glance back and saw the pure rage in the Behemoth's eyes.

The Behemoth looked around wildly, searching for the little shit that had forced it into such an unsightly struggle. It quickly found Hajime running away from it and roared angrily. Then, it brought its head down and prepared to charge at Hajime. However, before it could move, a barrage of spells slammed into it.

It was like a bizarre meteor shower, where each meteor was a different color. The various spells didn't do any damage to the Behemoth, but they definitely slowed it down.

Hajime sprinted forward, his head bowed low. Despite the procession of spells flying inches above him, Hajime wasn't afraid. He was certain his classmates wouldn't miss it. Within a few seconds, he was already more than thirty meters away from the Behemoth.

Hajime unconsciously broke out into a smile.

An instant later, however, that smile froze in place.

Among the multitude of spells flying at the Behemoth, one of them had a slightly lower trajectory... And it was heading straight for Hajime. Someone had clearly aimed their attack right at him. It was a betrayal worthy to be immortalized with other top anime betrayals all the time!

Putting that lame joke aside, surprise and confusion showed on his face, but Hajime quickly braced his legs in an attempt to stop, so the fireball merely exploded inches in front of his face. Still, the shockwaves from the detonated fireball blasted him back toward the Behemoth.

Hajime had avoided a direct hit and suffered no lasting damage, but his semicircular canals had been thrown into disarray and he completely lost his balance. He staggered to his feet, trying to put as much space between him and the Behemoth as possible, but the Behemoth was tired of being bombarded.

Right after Hajime managed to find his bearings, the Behemoth released another roar. He glanced back and saw the Behemoth gathering its dark red mana for the third time as it finished heating its helmet. It was glaring squarely at him.

The Behemoth then used its heated helmet as a shield against the spell barrage and charged straight at Hajime. He was still somewhat disoriented, his vision still blurry, so he could only hear the Behemoth closing in behind him, and his classmates screaming and yelling ahead of him.

Hajime gathered the last remaining dregs of his strength and jumped to the side. A second later, the Behemoth smashed into the ground, using all of its hate and rage to fuel its attack.

The entire bridge shook as it hit the ground, and massive cracks spread out from the point of impact. The bridge groaned in protest one last time, before... collapsing entirely.

The repeated attacks had finally driven it past the point of endurance.

"Graaaaaaaaah!?" The Behemoth roared angrily as it desperately tried to find purchase on the crumbling bridge with its nails. However, everywhere it latched onto crumbled as well.

After a final, fruitless struggle, the Behemoth fell to the depths of hell. Its final screams echoed throughout the chamber.

Hajime also crawled desperately across the collapsing bridge, trying to find somewhere to grab, but all of his handholds crumbled away just as quickly. Soon, he gave up.

Looking over to his classmates one last time, Hajime saw Kaori desperately trying to run over to him, while Shizuku and Kouki had both of her arms and were holding her back. His other classmates were all pale as well, covering their eyes or mouth with their hands as they watched.

Meanwhile, Meld and the other knights all watched with painful expressions on their faces as they saw Hajime going fall.

But, all of sudden, like a phantom coming out of nowhere, someone appeared in front of Hajime!

Hajime was taken aback. He wanted to scream "Where the heck did you come from?!" at the boy whose bangs covered his upper face. He vaguely remembered the boy to be his classmate who was always unnoticeable due to his thin presence,

However, the boy didn't give Hajime a chance to open his mouth as he grabbed Hajime's outstretched arm. Then, he swung Hajime to safety.

As the boy threw Hajime away, he accidentally dislocated Hajime's shoulder. Hajime wanted to shout and complain at the boy, but he could only let out a pained cry from his dislocated shoulder. At least, he was saved.

Unfortunately, the boy, who was no other than our protagonist, Rob Freeman, had taken his place to fall into the abyss. Before he fell into the abyss, he turned to the students and the knights. They were surprised because of what happened, but some had snapped out of their daze and tried to run towards him.

Among the students running towards Rob were Kentarou and Jugo. They were unquestionably loyal to their friend, Kousuke Endou, despite often forgetting him.

However, Rob wasn't Kousuke, and it had always been a hassle to pretend around Kentarou and Jugo. In addition, it was his choice to take over Hajime's place to fall into the abyss.

Other than Kentarou and Jugo, Kaori, followed by Kouki and Shizuku, ran in his direction. Granted, Kaori was heading there because of Hajime, while Shizuku and Kouki followed Kaori to keep her safe.

Rob decided to do something out of spite towards the boy who had shot that fireball at Hajime. He hoped that his parting gift would make the boy's life hard once everyone came back to the surface. Therefore, he shouted "Fuck you Hiyamaaaaa!" as loud as he could before falling into the abyss.

---

--

-

After getting out of the twisting water tunnel, Rob didn't let himself get carried away by the waterfall. He decided to use his Water Dance skill to run down vertically on the waterfall before running horizontally on the surface of the lake until he reached the edge.

Previously, when he fell from the bridge, Rob had taken out a makeshift parachute from the Item Box. It was something he prepared for his fall. He was glad that it worked as intended.

After discovering some water tunnels he believed to bring water to the True Great Orcus Labyrinth, Rob discarded his parachute and entered one of the tunnels. As he let the water stream bring him through the tunnel, he had to be careful with the stone wall all the way.

Since Rob was still awake, it was obvious that he successfully protected his head all the way through the water tunnel.

Back to what was happening, after arriving at the edge of the lake, Rob immediately checked his surroundings. His surroundings were relatively dark, but thanks to the green crystals scattered about, it wasn't pitch black.

Rob risked a glance back and saw a five-meter-wide river and the waterfall he came out from, after which he gave his surroundings a cursory glance. His surroundings resembled a cave of sorts.

It was nothing like the orderly rectangular passageways on the upper floors. Boulders and other obstructions showed up at random intervals, and the path itself was twisting and winding. Much like the path they had found at the end of the twentieth floor.

However, the size of this one was on a completely different scale. Even with boulders and the like obstructing parts of the path, it was twenty meters wide. In fact, even the "narrow" stretches were still at least ten meters wide.

After he stopped observing his surroundings, Rob used his Detect Magic and Detect Danger skills to check the presence of monsters around him. He also actively isolated his presence and activated the Minimum Mind derivative skill on full throttle to be sure.

Fortunately, Rob didn't feel any monster nearby.

Even though it looked clear, Rob didn't let his guard down. He immediately went to the wall in front of him and made a tunnel with the Transmute skill. He immediately closed the hole behind him and kept digging a tunnel forward. His immediate goal was to find the Divinity Stone.

Rob lost track of time as he kept digging around. Sometimes, his tunnel would end up bringing him to the main passageway of the floor. When it happened, he would turn aside and continue digging without stepping into the main passageway of the labyrinth.

Even though it felt like a long time since he started digging the tunnel, Rob couldn't find the Divinity Stone fast enough. Still, he didn't give up. That Divinity Stone was essential for his survival and ascension.

Continuous transmuting also ate through his stamina and magic power. Therefore, Rob had to take a break to recover his stamina and magic power many times.

After resting for the umpteenth time, Rob continued digging the tunnel. A short while later, he sensed a small space in front of him.

At first, Rob thought it was another bust like several instances he experienced before, but he decided to check it out. In the end, he discovered it was the real hiding place of the Divinity Stone.

"Heh, I finally found you!"