5 The Great Orcus Labyrinth II
(E/N: We're very sorry for the late update, I won't give excuses for the late update and so for compensation, next chap is a 4K word chap!)
(A/N: I mean, he "kindly asked" me to write a longer chapter.)
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(Shirou's POV)
"Grr...," I groaned, I felt pain all over my body and opened my eyes. My head was on top of some rocks and my lower body was soaking wet under a puddle of water. I weakly pushed myself to stand up as I felt excruciating pain running through all of my entire body.
"Where… in the root am I?" I asked myself and started to remember what had happened and widened my eyes.
"That's right… I was helping Hajime… then a fireball hit us and the bridge broke, and then…," Slowly, my brain cells started working again and started thinking properly.
I looked around and realized that I was in some kind of cave. It was all dark and dreadful but thanks to the crystals on the walls it made it easier to see. I also saw that there was an opening in the wall from which water was flooding out under the cliff, basically a waterfall. And I was in the middle of the river, so the only possibility that I could think of was how lucky I was from surviving the fall by falling on the river.
"Oh right, where is Hajime?" I looked around and searched for him, but I haven't found him. Instead, I only saw rocks scattered on the ground and walked around the place where I fell.
I looked up and saw the hole which I, Hajime, and the Behemoth fell into.
"I guess it is impossible to climb up again, and so the only option is to go down," I said as I clenched my fists. We were probably several floors under the sixty-fifth floor, which was where the Behemoth was, and unlike the floors that I went to, this floor was very fucking huge compared to them.
I continued to look around and found a rabbit-looking monster standing there, but my instincts told me not to approach it, even if it looked harmless. Suddenly, I saw two wolf-type monsters running to the rabbit to eat it.
At first, I thought that the wolves were going to devout the rabbit, but I was wrong, the rabbit easily killed them with one kick and started to eat them.
"This is bad…" I thought. I knew the moment I would be noticed, I would fuck up. So I tried to slowly retreat, but the moment I took a step back, the rabbit's ear twitched and he looked at me.
I felt cold sweat running down my back and immediately grabbed the short swords on my hips, but it suddenly appeared in front of me, as if it was teleporting. I widened my eyes and I felt danger so I immediately jumped aside, dodging in time one of its kicks.
Its kick was deadly as it created a wind slash that could cut through rocks, one of its kicks was enough to kill me.
"[Trace On]!" I chanted my aria as I used [Reinforcement] on my swords and my body and swung my sword on the rabbit. Seeing me swinging my sword in its direction, the rabbit immediately moved back, dodging my sword.
(A/N: I forgot to add "Trace on" when Shirou used [Reinforcement], etc in early chapters, and btw, Shirou says "Trace on" every time he uses magecraft, not only when he uses [Projection].)
'Damn it!' I cursed internally and I could feel sweat forming on my forehead 'Although this monster is small, he is at the same level as Behemoth or even higher! And with its speed it is almost impossible to escape,' I thought as I tightened my grip on the hilt of the swords.
Then the rabbit appeared again in front of me, so I immediately swung my sword at its head, but it lowered its centre of gravity and kicked my sword, destroying my sword successfully. And it kicked again, but I successfully redirected the kick to the side with the other reinforced sword, but it was destroyed due to the impact created by the kick, and I immediately jumped back. I could only follow his movements because I pushed my eyes to the limit with [Reinforcement], but even then I could hardly follow his movements.
'This is getting worse,' I thought as I let go of the remains on my swords. 'I can't use my bow, because it is too close and I don't think it will let me create a distance to use the bow, hell, I am not even sure if it will hit it, with its ridiculous speed'
"I can't die here," I muttered while looking at the rabbit, who was preparing to jump at me, "If I die here, mum and the slouch will lose a son and Illya will lose a brother, not only them but also Rin, Sakura..."
"I can't let that happen…"
"I need a weapon…" I said to myself while clenching my fists.
"I need a weapon I can fight with...!'
"A powerful weapon…" I opened my hands and started to remember every detail of the weapons, "Like the ones that man had!"
"[Trace on!]"I activated every magic circuit and felt my Od travelling in all of my magic circuits like never before, and blue lightning was coming out of my arms. (E/N: 1)
The rabbit jumped and was preparing to kick in my head. I closed my hands and a white and black light appeared inside of my hands. Its leg was reaching my head, so I immediately swung my arms at its leg. The light disappeared and revealed black and white twin swords.
*Clang!* *Clang!* *Clang!*
I counterattacked his kick and immediately tried to slash its chest. The monster dodged and aimed another kick at my torso, but I parried it with my sword and raised both of my swords, and swung down to split the monster into pieces of meat. The rabbit jumped back but I managed to slash its eye and an ear.
*Squeak* *Squeak!* *Squeak!*
It seems the monster was enraged and entered in berserk mode, and it directly charged at me, losing all of its previous intelligence and purely relying only on its instincts. I immediately reinforced my body and dodged the incoming charges, but the monster didn't stop there. It started to attack randomly and even tried to bite me, so I either dodged or parried and tried to slash it.
The monster jumped back to the wall and used it as support to jump straight to me. I stepped aside in time and when it was next to me I immediately raised my sword while spinning the sword and made it point towards the ground and immediately swung it down, piercing the monster's chest. The monster made a last grunt and died.
The swords in my hand faded and I immediately kneeled and placed my hands on the ground.
"Huff... huff...huff..." I was breathing heavily and felt very tired. I turned around and laid on the ground and smiled.
"I won..." I said while closing my eyes and decided to think for the future and rest for a while.
(Timeskip - After a while)
I stood up and looked at my hand while thinking about the battle I had with the rabbit monster. [Projection] was one of the magecraft that I had most proficiency in, although I could only mimic the exterior of the objects, that's why dad said it was kinda useless. But this time it felt different, now it seems more complete and I even saw the history of the weapon, from its forging to the battles that they were used.
"With this magecraft, I will return home, no matter who will be my enemies," I said while clenching my fists.
Then I continued to walk around and search for Hajime. After all, it's better to have a companion than be alone on this floor full of dangerous monsters.
"AHHHH!!!!!" I heard a not-so-manly scream and I recognized the voice, it was from Hajime! So I immediately ran towards the voice.
"[Trace On]," I muttered and reinforced my body and made myself faster while projecting Kanshou and Bakuya, which were the names of the swords in my hands.
When I reached there, I saw Hajime with an arm missing and looked desperate and a fatty bear-like monster. I threw the twin swords at the monster while projecting new ones. The blades managed to make a little scratch in the monster's skin. Now the monster looked at me and raised one of its paws, and claws appeared on the back of its paw and swung in my direction, creating wind slashes.
I dodged and ran around while keeping to throw and project Kanshou and Bakuya. This seems to annoy the monster as none of its attacks hit me and he was mostly covered by small bruises. So it started chasing me, completely ignoring Hajime.
So I immediately ran away and brought the monster away from Hajime. I stopped and turned around. The monster, seeing that I stopped, raised its paw immediately, but before it swung down again, I ran and lowered myself, passing under its legs, which surprised the monster. Before it could react, I immediately ran to Hajime.
"Hurry Hajime! Let's go!" I said while putting Hajime under my arm.
*ROOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAR!!!!*
The monster was coming towards us and it seemed angry as if its prey just escaped from him. I was preparing to run but was interrupted by Hajime.
"W...Wait E-Emiya-k...Kun", he said and I stopped and looked at him, "I will make a hole here for us to hide..." I nodded and walked next to the wall. Then he placed his hand on the wall and started spamming.
"[Transmutation] [Transmutation] [Transmutation] [Transmutation] [Transmutation] [Transmutation] [Transmutation] [Transmutation]..."
He was digging a hole on the wall while blocking the hole behind us, and I heard that monster's roar again and it seems it also started digging.
'This is bad… really fucking bad!' I thought while increasing my speed to its limits, but suddenly the noises stopped.
We sighed in relief and continued to dig for precaution until Hajime passed out from mana exhaustion. I sat there but then I saw there was a hole in the wall in front of us and there was light inside of the hole. So I curiously dug a little and I saw a light blue crystal in the form of a ball, and it seemed like it was dropping some kind of liquid from it. I put my hand under it and a drop fell on my hand. I widened my eyes when I saw that the bruises and injuries in my body started disappearing.
"Don't tell me, this is Ambrosia?" I asked myself. An Ambrosia is a mythological stone formed by the crystallization of mana over millennia, and when it is saturated, the mana turns into a liquid and begins to flow from the stone. And this liquid is called "Ambrosia '', which can heal any injury and dispel any curse, but it can't heal missing limbs or thirst.
I immediately put Hajime under the crystal and some drops of Ambrosia fell on him and all his injuries were disappearing and he was regenerating at high speeds.
I sighed in relief and also laid on the cold ground and slept.
(Timeskip)
I woke up and saw Hajime was also waking up. He looked confused so I explained to him what happened. He was furious when I told him that it was Daisuke who fired the fireball at us, and we continued to talk but suddenly our stomach started growling.
"I guess our only option is monster meat," I said.
"Wait Emiya-kun! Isn't monster meat poisonous and lethal to us?" Hajime asked me worriedly.
"That's right, but we have Ambrosia right? So it's fine," I reassured Hajime.
We dug out of the cave and made some traps for the monsters because it was ineffective to hunt monsters because they were too strong to hunt and it would tire us too much.
I went out and spotted a pack of wolf-type monsters, so I picked a stone and threw it at them. They looked at me and started chasing me, so I quickly ran back to the hole. When I reached the end of the hole, I saw Hajime and jumped quickly over the hole in the ground, but the wolves were caught in surprise and weren't able to stop, so they fell in the hole. Hajime immediately used [Transmutation] and filled the hole with stone. Smashing and successfully killing them.
After that, we removed the stones and brought the wolves to the ground. I dismantled them carefully and reinforced them to make them more edible and more nutritious, even if it was raw.
I looked at Hajime and he nodded back. So we took a bite of the meat and immediately drank Ambrosia. When I immediately swallowed everything, I immediately felt intense pain all over my body.
""AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!"" We screamed in agony and I could feel my body being destroyed and restored repeatedly. I could even hear my bones cracking. I couldn't faint because of Ambrosia, so I stayed awake during the whole process.
I started smacking my head against the wall over and over, but the pain showed no signs of ending. I even wished for someone to end this pain, but then I remembered my family and others, so I gritted my teeth and tried to endure the pain. Then I could feel that my body began morphing.
After the pain ended, we were panting heavily and I felt very weak, I barely could support myself. Then I looked at Hajime but…
"Who the hell are you!?" I shouted and pointed my finger at the white-haired man in front of me.
"It's me, Hajime Nagumo. What do you mean by the question, Emi--wait, who are you?!" The man replied, confused but then asked in surprise.
"I am Emiya Shirou, but there is no way that Hajime looks like th--" I widened my eyes and immediately ran to the puddle of Ambrosia. When I looked, I didn't see myself in the reflection, instead, I saw a young man with white hair, yellowish-grey eyes, and tanned skin with red marks which spread in my body like veins, and I felt that I was a bit taller too.
(Image here←)
'I look like that man, but less… mature? And dayum do I look more handsome!' I thought, then Hajime also went next to me and he widened his eyes as well.
"EEEEEEEEHHHHHHHH!?" Hajime shouted, instead of his previous weak appearance, now Hajime looks wild with white hair and red eyes and he also had red marks on his body and he was taller and more muscular than before.
(Image here←)
'Maybe our appearance changed because of the monster meat…' I thought 'And I feel more powerful too, wait!' I widened my eyes and took out my status plate.
Instead of the previous aqua colour, now it was a green status plate, but not only that, My stats improved significantly, and also gained new skills.
[Emiya Shirou | Age: 17 | Male | Level: 12
Job: Magus
Strength: 230
Vitality: 310
Defense: 220
Agility: 240
Magic: 340
Magic Defense: 340
Skills: Incarnation of Sword [+Weapon Appraisal] [+ Swordsmanship] - Archery - Clairvoyance - Magecraft - Projection [+Tracing] - Reinforcement - Structural Analysis [+History Visualization] - ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ - Magic Manipulation - Magic Resistance - Iron Stomach - Lightning Field - Language Comprehension]
"Holy cow!" I shouted in surprise. All my stats had risen astronomically and I even gained new skills, but what is with that skill censored text? Is it R18 +?
"What happened Emiya-Kun?"
"Look at your status," I said. Then he took out his status plate from his pocket and looked at it, and his eyes widened.
"It seems eating monster's meat increases our stats and levels and gains their skills," I said.
"Wait, does that mean..."
"Yep," I replied. Levels can also represent the proportion of the total potential of that said person, then this means that if we eat more monster meat, the stronger we become while also increasing our growth potential and limits.
"[Mana Manipulation]?" I heard Hajime whispering and he put on the ground and suddenly the ground started moving, unlike before, now he didn't need to say the skill name or the chant to use the skill.
"[Trace On]," I muttered. I felt the mana in the air flowing directly to my magic circuits and traced Kanshou and Bakuya. I was surprised that I spent less Od and that the tracing speed was faster than before. 'It seems with [Mana Manipulation], as the name says, I can directly manipulate mana from the air.,
Then I checked my circuits and the amount was the same, but their quality was better than before!
After we finished testing new skills, we left the hole to find more ores for Hajime to craft. Fortunately, we didn't encounter any monsters during our search and when we finished, we returned to our base. Then Hajime crafted a revolver successfully after many attempts, which he named "Donner", and bullets for it and he also made a new bow and arrows for me.
Then we tested our new weapons on monsters and killed them easily and ate their meat. Although they have an awful taste, I could lessen it with [Reinforcement], but it was still terrible. We gained more skills after eating more monsters but our stats didn't change that much.
Then suddenly Hajime got up and looked at me while grinning.
"I think it's time to repay that monster for my left arm,"
I smiled at him and also got up and followed him outside of our hole. It didn't take much time to find him as it was leaving parts of its prey on the ground. When we arrived, the bear monster was eating another monster and when it sensed us, stopped eating and turned towards us, with its mouth covered with "Yellow blood" from its prey.
"Hey, long time no see big guy! Did you enjoy snacking on my left arm?" Hajime said while trying to provoke the monster and it roared at us, "That's the spirit! Time for revenge!" Hajime said while rushing towards the monster. I didn't move as Hajime said he was going to kill it by himself to avenge his left arm.
Although it doesn't understand us, the monster seems to know that Hajime was provoking it, so it started to run to Hajime and suddenly claws grew from its paw and swung it at Hajime. The claw was almost landing on Hajime, but he didn't move in the slightest.
"[Flash Step]!" Hajime shouted as he disappeared from the spot and reappeared some steps behind from where he was standing previously. We acquired this skill after eating the rabbit that almost killed me.
"That's right! I'm your enemy! I'm not some shivering prey for you to hunt!" Hajime shouted as he jumped and said, "[Aerodynamics]!" He did a double jump and dodged in time an air slash that was aimed at him.
"Tsk!" Hajime clicked his tongue as he pointed his gun at the bear.
*Bam!* *Bam!* *Bam!*
Hajime fired three times but missed all of them. Then the bear raised its claws and sent air slashs at Hajime.
"Dammit!" Hajime couldn't dodge as he was in mid-air and the air slashes hit him and he was sent flying and he let go of the revolver because of the impact. When he fell on the ground, Hajime took a breaststroke position and took a cylindrical object out of his pocket and said.
"I'm proud of this creation. Take a good look!" Hajime said as he threw it at the monster. When it was in front of the monster's face, it exploded and instead of an explosion, a flash of intense light came out and blinded the bear.
Then Hajime caught the revolver and shot at the monster's arm and it separated from its body and landed in front of Hajime. Hajime crawled a little and took a bite from the monster's arm.
The bear growled at Hajime and looked angrily at him.
"Ugh, tastes like your mom, shit. But for some reason, this is better than anything else that I ate here," Then he took out a container filled with Ambrosia and drank it.
*ROAAR!!!!*
The bear roared and rushed at Hajime, but then he grinned and said.
"[Lightning Field]!" He said as lightning came out from his hand and travelled from the bear's blood and stunned the monster. The bear was paralysed and fell to the ground. Then Hajime pointed his revolver at the monster's head and pulled the trigger. The bullet hit the monster's head and died, but it didn't explode due to the thickness of the monster's skull.
*Clap* *Clap* *Clap*
I started walking towards him and started clapping. He smiled at me and said.
"We are going home. We are going to survive this hell and go home! And if someone stands in our way, we'll kill them!"
I smiled and nodded at him and patted his back and we returned to our little base.
After arriving at the base, we cooked the monster meat and ate it, and like another monster's meat, it tasted like crap, but it raised our levels and stats significantly and we also gained new skills. Then Hajime used the bear's fur to make a coat and also made bags for us. And after a talk, it was decided that we were doing deeper.
And currently, my status looks like this.
[Emiya Shirou | Age: 17 | Male | Level: 19
Job: Magus
Strength: 350
Vitality: 490
Defense: 340
Agility: 370
Magic: 520
Magic Defense: 520
Skills: Incarnation of Sword [+Weapon Appraisal] [+ Swordsmanship] - Archery - Clairvoyance [+Hawkeye] - Magecraft - Projection [+Tracing] - Reinforcement - Structural Analysis [+History Visualization] - ⬛⬛⬛ ⬛⬛⬛ - Magic Manipulation - Magic Resistance - Iron Stomach - Lightning Field - Aerodynamics - Flash Step - Gale Claw - Language Comprehension]
(Timeskip)
We descended many floors after that day, and each floor was different from each other as well as monsters were different between each floor. There was one floor that was completely dark and there was also a monster that could petrify us with its eyes. Obviously, we also ate it.
We've gone down 50 floors since we fell and now we are resting and in front of us, there were 2 giant doors with 2 giant statues that seemed like they were guarding the entrance of the door.
"This is like a Pandora box," Hajime said to me while filling some small containers with Ambrosia.
"Yeah, you don't know if there is hope or despair behind those doors," I replied.
"Then the only way to find it is to go there," Hajime said while getting up and started packing up everything.
I also got up and waited for Hajime to finish packing his stuff. After he finished, we went to the doors and I stood behind him. The door had a strange pattern inscribed in it and had a triangle with three holes in each vertex.
"[Trace On...]", I muttered as I traced Kanshou and Bakuya in my hands and I nodded at Hajime. He nodded back and placed his hand on the door. And then he used [Transmute] on the door, but it seems that the skill failed and the ground started shaking so we immediately jumped back.
Suddenly, the statues started moving and gained colours
"Yeah, I should have expected that cliché," I said while running towards one of the giants. When I was approaching one of the giants, it raised one of its legs and wanted to smash me, but before it went down, I jumped on its leg and started climbing its body while tracing nameless swords and fired at it and pierced its back and shoulder.
Then it raised one arm and tried to shake me off, but I jumped and slashed his chest with a diagonal slash, making the giant scream and it immediately tried to kick me, but I jumped back and dodged the kick.
*Groooooooooooowl*
The giant seemed enraged and ran towards me and threw a punch at me, but I jumped and dodged the punch and it hit the place where I was standing, creating a cloud of dust. I landed on its arm and started running along the arm and the giant used its other arm and tried to slap me off of its arm, but I jumped at his neck and pierced the base of its neck with Kanshou and Bakuya.
"Explode!" I said while my magic circuits started glowing and several lines appeared on the giant's neck that connected me and the swords that I fired previously and suddenly, their size increased and pierced through the giant's body.
The giant died and fell to the ground, and I looked to Hajime, who just killed the giant, and we dismantled together the giants' bodies and found two red balls inside them.
Then we stored the giants' meat inside of our bags and walked towards the door and placed the red balls in two holes and it seemed it activated a magic circle and we stepped back.
The magic circle glowed and doors opened. It revealed a dark room without any source of light, but we still were able to see through the darkness in the room. The interior of the room was composed of the same marble-like substance that I saw in the church cathedral. Two rows of thick pillars, spaced out at regular intervals, extended all the way to the end of the room. In the very centre of the room stood a huge cubical slab of rock. Its surface was glossy, and it shone from the reflected light coming in from the room behind.
I used [Clairvoyance] and noticed something was in the centre of the cube, and I decided to take a closed look, so I looked at Hajime and gestured to go. He nodded and we blew up the door, to not fall in the classic horror movie clichés where when people entered a room only to find the door shut themselves behind them.
However, before we looked at the surroundings, we heard a voice from the cube.
"...Who goes there?"
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(A/N: Sorry for the late chapter!! I had this week full of tests and I also had an English exam (which was very hard) so I couldn't write a chapter! BUT worry not, after next week my summer holiday will start! So I can write more chapters like a slave!)
(E/N: :D)
