Arifureta: From Commonplace to World’s Strongest Volume 1.
Chapter 5: Setting Off.
Hajime felt something soft and warm enveloping his entire body. It felt rather nostalgic. It was the sensation of sleeping on a bed. Cushioned by a soft mattress and covered by a warm down blanket, Hajime’s mind was thrown into a panic.
What the hell? I thought I was in the labyrinth… What am I doing on a bed? Still somewhat groggy, he blindly tried to grope around his surroundings. However, his right hand refused to move. It was wrapped in a completely different kind of softness than the bed and actually couldn’t move.
What’s going on? He experimentally tried to squeeze his hand a little. There was a soft, elastic thing between his fingers that molded to his touch. He found himself enjoying the sensation and began squeezing the soft object over and over again, when suddenly…
“…Aaahn…”
Huh!? He heard a sensual moan. His hazy consciousness was instantly alert. Panicking, he frantically pushed his body into a sitting position. As he did so, he realized he really had been sleeping on a bed. A magnificent four poster bed furnished with pure white sheets.
The bed was on some kind of raised stone terrace. A faint breeze blew past his cheek. The view of his surroundings was blocked by thick pillars and thin curtains. It was like a bed had been dumped smack dab in the middle of the Parthenon. Warm yellow light, light that he hadn’t seen in ages, spilled into the room.
I thought we’d just gotten done with our death match against the Hydra. Where on earth am I? Don’t tell me this is heaven! The
ostentatiousness of it all made Hajime instantly think of the worst outcome, but the voice he heard beside him a moment later brought him back to his senses.
“…Nhaah… Hajime… Aaah…”
“Wha—!?”
Hajime kicked off the sheets and saw that he had been sleeping next to a beautiful naked girl. Yue was sleeping peacefully beside him, her tiny body wrapped around his right arm. It was then that he realized he too was naked.
“I see… Guess I’ve become a harem protagonist… Wait, no I haven’t, what the hell am I saying!?” Hajime acted out some kind of weird skit in his confusion. Somewhat disoriented still, he tried to wake Yue up.
“Yue, get up. Yue.”
“Mmmf…” Yue mumbled incoherently in her sleep and clung even tighter to Hajime’s arm. His right hand was getting dangerously close to a certain part of her lower body.
“Guh… Don’t tell me this really is heaven!?” Spouting absolute nonsense, Hajime attempted to disentangle his right arm. But every time he tried to move it…
“…Mmmf… Mmng… Ah…” Yue would moan provocatively.
“Gah, I need to cool it. No matter how old she is, she still looks way too young. I can’t let myself get excited over something like this! I’m no lolicon!” He repeated those words to himself, knowing it was this moment that would decide forever whether he was a pervert or a gentleman. Hajime gave up on freeing his arm and instead tried to wake Yue up, but no matter how loudly he shouted her name she simply mumbled in her sleep and continued snoozing.
Eventually, he started getting a little annoyed. How dare that little brat sleep so peacefully while I’m tearing my hair out worrying about where we’ve ended up!
Unable to bear it any longer, he screamed at her.
“Wake up already, you stupid sexy vampire princess!” After that, he activated his Lightning Field. There was a crackle of electricity and tendrils of lightning raced down his arm.
“Abababababababababa!?” Yue twitched as the electricity jolted her awake. She quickly let go of Hajime’s arm and opened her eyes.
“…Hajime?”
“Yep, it’s me, Hajime. Morning, sleepyhe—” “Hajime!”
“Huh!?”
Yue gazed blankly at Hajime for a few seconds before suddenly opening her eyes wide and leaping into his chest. With the both of them still stark naked, of course. He felt the soft sensation of her skin caress his entire body while a sweet aroma tickled his nose. He couldn’t keep himself from getting aroused any longer.
However, when he saw her sobbing into his chest, he couldn’t bring himself to peel her off. Instead, he smiled awkwardly and patted her head.
“Sorry, I probably worried you, didn’t I?”
“Yeah… You sure did…” She clung to him for a while, showing no signs of letting go. Hajime reasoned that since she was the one who looked after him when he’d collapsed, she deserved at least this much, and so he simply continued stroking her head.
Finally, after Yue had calmed down, Hajime asked her about their current situation. He made sure she wrapped herself up with some sheets too.
“So what happened after we beat that thing? Where are we?” “After you collapsed…”
According to Yue, she crawled over to Hajime, exhausted from using up all her mana, and was clinging to him when the door suddenly opened by itself. Prepared to fend off a new wave of enemies, Yue sat there vigilantly, but no matter how much time passed nothing came through the door. Finally, she recovered enough of her mana to be able to stand and went to examine what was on the other side.
Even though the Ambrosia was healing his wounds, he was still on the verge of death and in a very unstable condition. His abnormally powerful half-monster body was keeping him alive, but there was no telling how long the Ambrosia would be able to counteract the effects of the poison. Had new enemies popped out of that door, it would have been the end for them both. Which was why Yue went to go confirm what was on the other side.
What she’d seen on the other side of the door was…
“The maverick’s lair.” She’d discovered a very comfortable living space. After she had made sure there were no enemies in the area, she had carried Hajime to the bedroom she’d found and given him every last drop of Ambrosia that came out of the now dwindling Divinity Stone. Finally, it appeared that the Ambrosia’s power had overcome the aurora’s poison and Hajime began healing normally. Exhausted, Yue had fallen asleep next to him.
“…I see. So you saved me back there, Yue? Thank you.”
“Mhm!” Yue’s eyes sparkled with boundless happiness at Hajime’s gratitude. The expressiveness of her eyes made up for the lack of normal expressions by her.
“By the way… why am I naked?” he asked, genuinely curious. He sincerely hoped it wasn’t because they’d had sex. It wasn’t that he didn’t like Yue… He just wanted to make sure he was mentally prepared before he made that jump.
“You were dirty… so I cleaned you up.” “Why are you licking your lips like that?”
That seductive smile of hers was the same one she always wore after she’d finished sucking Hajime’s blood. Shivers ran down his spine.
“Okay, but then why did you sleep next to me? And why… naked?” “Fufu…”
“Wait, what’s with that laugh?! What’d you do!? And quit licking your lips like that already!”
Hajime kept questioning Yue, but she simply gave him that same bewitching stare and refused to answer any further. It looked like she was having fun. Finally, he gave up and decided to start investigating the maverick’s lair.
As they prepared to leave, Yue pulled out some clothes she had found while exploring earlier. They were men’s clothes. Which meant the maverick was most likely a guy. Hajime discovered they fit him quite nicely and began inspecting what remained of his equipment. One never knew what kind of traps they might encounter in a labyrinth. Yue finished dressing herself as well, and Hajime turned back to look at her.
All she was wearing was… a single long-sleeved shirt. “Yue, are you trying to tempt me?”
“Hm…? The shirt’s just too big.”
Hajime supposed a guy’s clothes would be too big for Yue, who was only 140 centimeters tall. However, the shirt hugged her body tightly, accentuating her modest breasts, and stretched only down to her thighs, leaving her slender legs exposed. Despite her young appearance, she looked positively alluring. Hajime was unsure where to look.
“…If you’re not doing this on purpose, then that’s scary too.” Hajime couldn’t tell if Yue was purposely doing it or not, but that charm of hers was frightening either way.
As he exited the bedroom, he was stunned at the sight that greeted him outside.
The sun was shining brightly into the room.
Of course, they were still underground, so it couldn’t possibly have been the real sun. There was a giant conical structure hanging high above the ceiling, with a dazzlingly bright orb hugging the cone’s bottom side. The reason Hajime’s mind had instantly thought of sunlight was not only due to the light and warmth, but also because it had none of the artificial quality present in lamps or fluorescent lighting.
“…It looks like a moon at night.” “Seriously?”
The sight of the sun was so shocking that it took him a second to realize the sound of rushing water filled the room as well.
The room they were in was about the size of a baseball stadium, with the wall in the far back completely covered by a waterfall. Water poured out of a small opening in the ceiling and fell into a river below that flowed further in, passing through a cavern on the far wall. The rush of falling water created a refreshing breeze that blew pleasantly across their faces. Upon closer inspection, Hajime discovered that there were fish living in the river too. It was possible the fish had followed the river’s current and traveled there from the surface.
A short distance from the river was a miniature farm. There didn’t seem to be anything growing there at the moment. Next to the fields stood a cozy looking barn. Though it seemed empty, it was clear with the supply of water, fish, meat, and vegetables present that one could cook anything they were so inclined to. The entire room was covered in greenery and there were trees scattered about the area.
Hajime decided to explore the side closest to him first, and started walking toward a building located next to the bedroom they’d been sleeping in. It was more a structure carved directly out of the rock wall than a building.
“…I investigated it earlier, but most of the doors were locked.”
“I see. Yue, don’t let your guard down.” “Okay…”
The rock that the house was carved out of appeared to be some kind of white limestone. It gave of a very clean look, and another one of those light spheres was hanging from the entrance’s ceiling. The light was a bit too dazzling for Yue and Hajime, who’d spent a great deal of time surrounded by darkness. The house was three stories tall and well ventilated throughout.
They decided to start by exploring the first floor.
There was a thick rug laid out next to a fireplace, a living room furnished with sofas, a kitchen, and even a bathroom. Interestingly enough, the place appeared brand new. Though they found no presence of other people, it seemed obviously lived in. The appliances and furniture hadn’t seen use in quite some time, but it was clear their owner took good care of them. Rather than an inhabited dwelling, it felt more like a house someone simply managed. Hajime and Yue warily continued deeper into the house.
After a while, they found themselves standing outside again. There was an oval-shaped door that led to a backyard of sorts that contained a lion statue. The lion’s mouth was open mid-roar. Next to the statue was a magic circle. Hajime experimentally poured some mana into it, and hot water jettisoned out of the lion’s gaping maw. Apparently lion fountains were a staple of high-class places no matter which world one was in.
“This is basically a bath, isn’t it? Perfect, it’s been months since I last took one.” Hajime smiled happily. Until that point he had never had the luxury to worry about hygiene, but now that they were finally able to take a breather he realized he was filthy all over. He used the magic circle to pour out some more water and lightly wiped his body down as a temporary measure.
Still, that wasn’t enough to satisfy him. He was Japanese, and like all his countrymen, he loved baths. Once they were sure the area was safe, he was going to take a nice long soak and cleanse himself properly.
Yue watched his growing excitement, and chimed in with her opinion on the matter.
“…Do you want to go in together?” “I’d prefer to relax alone for a bit…”
“Muu…” Yue was playfully kicking around the water, and Hajime thought that if she bathed with him his bath would be anything but relaxing, so he refused her. She pouted unhappily at his curt rejection.
Their examination of the lion statue complete, the pair made their way up to the second floor. There they discovered a library and a workshop of some kind. But the bookshelves and the door inside the workshop were all locked, so they weren’t able to do a thorough examination of the rooms. They tried various means of opening them, but none worked, so they simply gave up.
After that, they climbed the stairs to the third floor and saw a single room set in the back.
There was nothing else on the floor. As Hajime pushed open the door, he saw an eight-meter-long magic circle inlaid on the floor that had some of the most complex and subtle inscriptions he had ever seen. The circle’s design and layout were so detailed that it wouldn’t have been an exaggeration to call the whole thing a work of art.
But what caught Hajime’s eye most was the person sitting in an ostentatious chair right next to the circle.
Said person was clearly dead. The corpse had already decayed until nothing but bones remained, and it was clothed in a grand robe of black and gold. There was not the slightest hint of dust or grime anywhere on the robe. The impeccable cleanliness of the corpse made it seem more akin to a haunted house prop than something actually scary.
It was splayed out on the chair in a relaxed pose, with the skull’s empty sockets staring down at its own figure. Almost as if the person it had once been had simply sat down there and died that way. The skeleton and magic circle were the only objects in the room. Why’d they chose to come here to die and not their bedroom or the living room…?
“Looks suspicious… What should we do?” Yue seemed concerned about the skeleton as well. Hajime assumed it must have belonged to the maverick that was said to live here. The strange thing was that he died peacefully sitting like that, as if he were waiting for someone.
“Well, if we want to find a way out, this room seems to be our best bet. Even Transmutation couldn’t do anything to the locks we found in the library and the workshop, so… this is the only thing left to investigate. Yue, be ready for anything. I’ll be counting on you if something happens.”
“Okay… be careful.”
Hajime tentatively took a step forward. Nothing happened, so he kept advancing slowly. Then, when he reached the center of the circle, the entire room was filled with bright yellow light.
Hajime closed his eyes, unable to handle the intensity. A second later, it felt as if something invaded his head, and he began seeing flashbacks of his time in the abyss, starting from when he fell all the way up until he fought the Hydra.
Finally, the magic circle’s power began to wane and the light dimmed somewhat. Hajime opened his eyes… and saw a black-robed young man standing before him. He hadn’t sensed him enter the room at all.
The magic circle still glowed faintly, filling the room with a mystical light. Hajime instantly shifted into a battle stance, but after a few seconds he lowered his guard. Not only could he not feel any hostility or malice coming from the man in front of him, but the figure himself didn’t seem real. When he scrutinized it a little further, Hajime realized the robe he was wearing was the same as the one the skeleton had. That told him enough to guess who the man in front of him probably was.
Hajime silently gazed at the figure, waiting for something to happen. Finally, the apparition began to speak.
“I congratulate you on overcoming my trial. My name is Oscar Orcus. I am the man who created this labyrinth. I suppose to the world I’m known as a maverick.” It seemed the dead man sitting in front of them was Oscar Orcus, the creator of the Great Orcus Labyrinth. Hajime and Yue stared, half surprised, half expecting it.
“By the way, please spare me the questions. This is nothing more than a recording I left behind, so I unfortunately cannot answer any queries you may have. I wanted to tell those who made it this far why it was that we, who learned the truth of the world, chose to fight against the gods… so I decided to leave a message. And this was the simplest form to convey that message in. I want you to know… that though we were mavericks, we were not truly rebels.”
The story he wove for them was completely different from the history Hajime had learned from the Holy Church’s records, or the stories Yue had been told about the mavericks. The revelations Oscar had for them shocked them to the core.
His tale was one of mad gods and their descendants who fought against them.
A short time after the Age of the Gods, the world was engulfed in strife. Humans, demons, and even beastmen all fought against each other in a never-ending war. Their reasons were as numerous as their battles. Land, resources, personal values, greed, but most important among them was theology.
In that age, the races and countries were split up into numerous factions, each of which had their own god. And it was each tribe’s god that incited its people to fight against those who worshiped others.
After some time, a group appeared that sought to put an end to this centuries-long war. They called themselves the Liberators.
There was only one thing they all had in common. Each member was a direct descendant of one of the gods. Their leader was someone who had, by coincidence, happened to learn of the gods’ true intentions. It appeared that the gods were using the various races like pawns, playing a grand game of chess with the world as their board. The leader of the Liberators couldn’t stand their sickening disregard for life, and began looking for comrades who felt the same way he did.
After an arduous search, they were able to discover the location of Asgard, the home of the gods. There were seven among the Liberators who were exceptionally powerful, and they were chosen to be the vanguard in the battle against the gods.
However, their plans were foiled before the battle could even begin. The gods manipulated the sentient races and made them believe the Liberators were trying to destroy the world. They were marked as enemies of the gods, and every human, demon, and beastman considered them their mortal foe.
After a great many conspiracies, events, and dramatic encounters, the Liberators found themselves on the run. They couldn’t bring themselves to fight the people they had sworn to protect, but those very people believed they were ungrateful heretics trying to bring about the end of the world. Their true name was forgotten, and they were known simply as mavericks in the annals of history.
The Liberators were killed off one by one, until only the strongest seven remained. With the entire world against them, they realized they wouldn’t be able to defeat the gods. So they scattered to the ends of the earth and built huge labyrinths to hide themselves in. They created a series of trials, praying that someone who could clear them might one day appear, so they could bequeath their powers onto them in hopes that these new warriors would carry out their dreams.
After he finished his long speech, Oscar smiled peacefully.
“I have no idea who you are, or why you chose to fight your way down here. Nor do I have any intention of forcing my own dreams of the gods’ demise onto you. I simply wanted you to know what it was we fought, and died, for… As a reward for hearing me out, I shall grant you my strength. How you use it is entirely up to you. I can only pray you won’t use it for evil. That’s all I have to say. Thank you for listening to the end. May the ‘blessings’ of the gods never reach you.” Oscar’s apparition vanished once he finished talking. At the same time, Hajime felt something strange enter his mind. The sensation was quite painful, but because he knew what was happening, he quietly let it enter inside him.
The pain finally subsided, and the magic circle grew dim once more. Hajime let out a long breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding in the whole time.
“Hajime… are you ok?”
“Yeah, I’m fine… But man, what a tale.” “Yeah… What are you going to do?”
Yue was referring, of course, to Oscar’s tale.
“Hm? Nothing really. It was those good-for-nothing gods that summoned me here in the first place and told me to go fight in their war. I hate them as it is anyway. Still, this world’s got nothing to do with me. All I care about is making it back to the surface and finding a way home. That’s all… Did his story bother you, Yue?”
The old Hajime might have been more sympathetic to this world’s plight, but the reforged Hajime discarded Oscar’s tale without so much as a second thought. It’s this world’s problem, so the people of this world should deal with it.
That being said, Yue was someone of this world. Which was why, if she said she wanted to do something about it, Hajime might have reconsidered. His bond with Yue wasn’t something he could discard as easily Oscar’s story.
However, Yue shook her head without hesitation.
“My home is wherever you are… I don’t care about anywhere else.” She sidled up to Hajime and squeezed his hand. The warmth of her hand told him she wasn’t just trying to be considerate.
Yue once devoted her entire life to her country. Despite that, she was betrayed by the ones she trusted most and left to rot in the darkness. None of her subjects came to save her. Three hundred years had passed since then, and all the people she knew were long since dead. For Yue, there was not a single thing left to care about in this world. In fact, much like Hajime, she had started to see the realm as a prison more than her home after being trapped for so long. And it was Hajime who had saved her from that prison. Which was why she only cared about being by Hajime’s side.
“…I see.” Hajime blushed a little. He then cleared his throat and dropped a bombshell of an announcement.
“Umm, also, I think I learned a new spell… Some kind of magic from the Age of the Gods, I think?”
“…Really?” Yue said, amazed. Her surprise was understandable. After all, magic from the Age of the Gods was something the gods had once used, magic that no longer existed in the present day. Teleportation magic was from that age as well.
“This magic circle did something to my head, and it’s like I suddenly understand how it works, kind of.”
“Are you sure you’re all right?”
“Yeah, I’m totally fine. Even better, this spell’s a perfect fit for me.”
“…What kind of spell is it?”
“Umm, it’s a creation spell of some kind. It lets me add magical properties to minerals, and create new ore with special traits.”
Yue’s jaw hung open as she listened to Hajime’s explanation. “You can make artifacts?”
“Yeah, something like that.”
The creation spell Hajime had inherited was the same magic people had used to create artifacts in the Age of the Gods. Truly, it was the perfect skill for a Synergist. Though Hajime didn’t know it, Oscar’s job had also been Synergist.
“You want to learn it too, Yue? You just have to step into the magic circle. It does this kind of thing where it runs through your memories. Oscar said something about a trial earlier too, so since we cleared it together, you should have the right to learn it as well.”
“…I can’t use transmutation.”
“Oh yeah, I guess that’s true… Still, it’s magic from the Age of the Gods. There’s no real harm in learning it either way, right?”
“Okay. If you want me to, Hajime.” Urged onward by Hajime, Yue stepped into the magic circle next. It began glowing faintly and started probing Yue’s memories. It must have decided Yue had cleared the conditions as well, since the apparition appeared once more.
“I congratulate you on overcoming my trial. My name is Oscar…”
Oscar’s disembodied voice rang out for a second time. Having it happen a second time kind of ruined the moment. Oscar repeated the same words he had earlier, so Yue and Hajime ignored him and continued their conversation.
“How’d it go? Did you learn it?”
“Yeah, I did. But artifacts don’t make much sense to me.”
“Hmmm, I guess even ancient magic is useless unless you’ve got an affinity for it.”
The vision of Oscar smiled as it wrapped up its conversation. It was kind of surreal, really. Hajime couldn’t be sure he didn’t imagine it, but it felt like the skeleton behind the vision looked somewhat sad.
“Ah, since I guess this house is basically ours now, we should get rid of the skeleton.” He had no respect for the corpse at all.
“Yeah… He’ll make good fertilizer for the fields.” Neither did Yue. Though there was no wind, Oscar’s skull fell forward another few inches.
They buried Oscar’s skeleton near the edge of the field and even gave him a modest gravestone. In the end, even they felt enough pity for him that they didn’t just make him into fertilizer.
Once the burial was finished, Hajime and Yue returned to the two places that had been locked before. When they had buried him,
they’d relieved him of the ring he’d been wearing on his skeletal finger. It wasn’t grave-robbing, since he hadn’t been buried yet. The ring had a symbol of a circle with a cross splitting it into even sections engraved on it, which matched the engravings on the locks perfectly.
First, they went to the library. They were hoping some of the books would have knowledge on how to get back to the surface. Hajime and Yue broke the seal on the bookshelves and started perusing the volumes. During their search, they discovered what appeared to be the building’s blueprints. It wasn’t nearly as detailed as a proper set of blueprints, but there were a lot of memos about what would be built where and how the layout of the house would look.
“Bingo! I found it, Yue!” “Nice.”
Hajime let out a whoop of joy. Yue responded happily as well, though with less intensity. According to the blueprints, the magic circle on the third floor connected to another circle that would teleport them back to the surface. It seemed that function could only be activated with Orcus’ ring, though. It was fortunate they’d sto— taken it from him.
They also learned that cleaning was handled automatically at set intervals by golems that normally rested in one of the workshop rooms, and that the globe hanging from the ceiling possessed the same properties as the sun, so they could grow crops if they wished. So that’s why it’s so clean even though no one’s lived here in ages.
There were a number of artifacts and rare materials Oscar had been working with in the locked room of his workshop, according to the memos. Hajime decided to ste— take those too. It couldn’t hurt to have more items to work with after all.
“Hajime… look at this.” “Hm?”
Yue had been looking through the other books while Hajime had pored over the blueprints, and she came to him with one of them in her hands. It turned out to be Oscar’s diary. It chronicled the normal everyday life of Oscar and his six powerful companions. One of the passages in it talked about the labyrinths his six comrades had made.
“…So basically, that means if we conquer the other labyrinths, we can get all the ancient magic the other Liberators possessed too?”
“…Maybe.”
According to his diary, his six comrades had also designed their labyrinths so that anyone who made it all the way to its furthest depths would be granted magic from the Age of the Gods. Unfortunately, it didn’t go into the specifics of what kind of magic each had.
“One of them might help us get back to your world.” Yue definitely has a point there. After all, the teleportation magic that summoned my class here was from the Age of the Gods too.
“Yeah. Now we have an idea of where to look next. Our goal after we get back to the surface is to conquer the other six labyrinths.”
“Yeah.”
Hajime smiled, glad he’d finally found a lead. He started unconsciously patting Yue’s head, to which she closed her eyes happily and let herself be spoiled.
They searched around the library for a while longer, but they couldn’t find any books telling them the exact locations of the other labyrinths. For now, they were stuck with the two whose locations were known, the Grand Gruen Volcano and the Haltina Woods. They could also start searching around the Reisen Gorge and Schnee Snow Fields, where two other labyrinths were said to be hidden.
Once they finished rummaging through the library, the pair headed over to the workshop. There were a number of locked doors in the workshop, all of which Hajime opened with Orcus’ ring. Crammed inside were all manner of ore, tools with unknown purposes, and work manuals. The entire treasure trove was a Synergist’s dream come true. Hajime folded his single arm as he lapsed into thought. Yue tilted her head, puzzled, and asked him the question on her mind.
“…What’s wrong?” After thinking deeply for a few minutes, Hajime turned to Yue and answered.
“Hmm, well I was thinking. How about we stay here for a little while, Yue? Don’t get me wrong, I’m eager to return to the surface too… but since there’s all this stuff to explore and learn about, it might be better to make this our base and rest up for a bit. Especially since if we’re going to be heading for the other labyrinths next, it’d be best to prepare ourselves as much as possible. What do you think?” Hajime was trying to be considerate of Yue, since he figured after 300 years of darkness she was aching to see the light, but she agreed rather quickly after looking at him blankly for a few seconds. Hajime found that a little strange, but she just gave him a curt reply.
“…As long as I’m with you, Hajime, anywhere is fine.” It seemed she didn’t harbor any burning desire to see the sun. Hajime blushed and scratched his cheek when he heard her declare that so boldly.
With that settled, the two decided to stay there to train and prepare as much as possible.
Soon enough evening fell, and the bright sunlight turned to pale moonlight. Hajime was currently soaking in the bath, letting his entire body relax for the first time in months. He’d been on edge ever since he’d fallen into the abyss. The bath cleansed him in both body and soul.
“Haaaah, this feels great!” This kind of carefree tone was a first for the new Hajime. As he let the energy drain from his body, he suddenly heard the sound of footsteps heading his way. He cursed himself for letting his guard down.
“I told you I wanted to take my bath alone!” There was a loud splash.
“Hmm… This really does feel nice…” And then, Yue was sitting next to him. She scooted over next to Hajime, completely naked.
Her beautiful porcelain colored skin glowed enchantingly in the moonlight. That was the first time Hajime had seen her do up her hair. The exposed nape of her neck only served to increase her charm.
“…Yue, I distinctly remember telling you multiple times that I want to bathe alone, so why are you here?” Hajime knew the flush rising up his body had nothing to do with the heat of the water. He scolded Yue more angrily than usual, trying to hide his excitement.
Yue could easily tell what was going through Hajime’s mind at the moment, so she gave him her most seductive sidelong glance yet as she replied.
“…But I refuse.”
“Hey! When’d you get the time to read Jojo!” “……”
Hajime retorted reflexively. Which, unfortunately, meant he looked right at her. Her slightly flushed skin filled his vision. There was a slight blush painting her face, making her look all the more erotic. Her current appearance reminded him that she really was far older than him. He was already unable to stand, but somehow he was far calmer than he had been even when he fought the Hydra.
“At least cover your front. I know this house has a lot of towels.” “I want you to look.”
“……” Hajime was at a loss for words. Her unexpected reply left him even more flustered than before. His lower half was raring and ready to go as it peeked out with a “You rang, master?”
“…See? Hajime, don’t you want to look?” Yue followed up with another attack. Her pleading voice was slowly whittling away at Hajime’s reasoning. “Master! Target spotted at 12 o’ clock!” His breathing started growing ragged.
“U-Umm, Yue. I’m not sure I…” “…Am I not pretty enough?”
Hajime tried to reason his way out of the situation, but Yue cornered him with a very depressed-sounding follow-up. When his eyes met hers, he realized the sadness and insecurity in her voice had been real.
“Not at all. Trust me, you’re really pretty. There’s no way I’d ever think you’re ugly!” Before he realized it, Hajime’s voice had grown louder and he was nearly shouting. After he finished shouting, he suddenly realized how heated he’d gotten and realized it was too far too late to back out. Yue had the same seductive expression she’d worn at the beginning.
“…I see. That makes me happy. Because I belong to you, Hajime. So look as much as you want.”
“……” Yue abruptly stood up. Bathwater dripped down her soft skin as she bared herself to Hajime.
Hajime watched a single bead of water trail its way down her body. It passed over her modest breasts, clung tightly to her slender waist, and trailed down her nether regions before finally running down her thighs and rejoining the larger body of water below it.
There was not a single blemish on her pale skin, and her proportions were almost perfect. She wrapped her arms behind her back, not trying to hide any of herself from Hajime. There was no way such an action wouldn’t be embarrassing, and she was indeed blushing slightly, but she still stood there proudly, her body trembling slightly. It was the perfect combination of bashfulness and seductiveness.
Framed by the fake moon, her golden hair glowed around her like a halo. The sight was so perfect that she seemed almost divine. At that moment, Hajime wouldn’t have doubted her even if she had told him she was a goddess.
At a complete loss for words, he could only continue to stare, clearly enthralled by the sight of her. And as Yue had planned, that was enough to blow away any last traces of reason he had left.
“Fufu…”
“Hah!?”
Yue laughed triumphantly, and Hajime finally returned to his senses. She was staring at the only part of his body that was being honest about his feelings, and he swiftly decided to beat a hasty retreat before his lower half got the better of him.
At this rate, he would get sucked into Yue’s pace. It was precisely because he valued her so much that he didn’t want to do something in the heat of the moment without carefully considering it first. As a man, he wanted to make sure he was ready to commit to Yue before having sex.
However, it was already too late for him to escape from the vampire girl’s clutches. She flung herself at him, determined to settle things once and for all.
“Gotcha.”
“…I-I can feel your—”
“I know, I’m doing it on purpose.”
“Where’d you learn about all these cliches from!? Screw it, I’m getting out!”
He could clearly feel all of Yue’s soft bits as she hugged him tight. He didn’t think he could hold on for much longer. If he didn’t leave, he would turn into a mindless beast and ravish the only person he held dear.
Unfortunately…
“You’re not getting away!” “Hey, wait! Ah… Aaaaah!”
The vampire princess wasn’t going to let her prey escape. What happened after was… well, exactly what anyone would imagine.
Two months had passed since that fateful night in the bathtub.
Both Hajime’s body and spirit had been reforged by fighting the monstrosities that inhabited the deepest pits of hell. But no matter how much the abyss might have toughened him up, he still had had no chance of fending off Yue’s aggressive advances. So, in the end, he decided to simply accept them.
He’d known for a while that Yue had feelings for him. It was actually part of why he’d promised to bring her back home with him. Plus, he’d realized he loved Yue, but had given himself flimsy excuses like telling himself he needed to keep his mind focused on the goal or he’d never make it back home to keep himself from acting on those feelings.
But then they’d managed to discover a safe location to turn into their base, and a hint on how he could find his way home, so even that flimsy pretext had vanished. Without any reason left to turn down Yue, he could no longer resist.
Their idyllic lifestyle in the following months had been so full of coquettish flirtation that anyone watching them would have started tearing their hair out in annoyance. Around the same time, somewhere very far away, a girl was terrifying her best friend with an expression so demonic that it appeared as if the avatar of rage himself had manifested behind her like a stand. It was an omen of what was soon to come.
“…Hajime, how does that feel?”
“Ahhh, yeah that’s perfect.” “Fufu… Then how about this?” “Aaah, that’s good too.”
“Then… this will be even better…”
Yue was currently giving Hajime a massage. An honest to goodness, non-erotic massage. They were both fully clothed too. Hajime had modified some of Oscar’s old clothes to fit Yue.
She was currently dressed in a short skirt that left most of her slender legs fully revealed. The reason she was straddling Hajime and giving him a massage had something to do with his left arm. His left arm that ended in a stump below his elbow. Attached to that stump now was an artificial arm. Yue was in the process of massaging the area around it to work the kinks out of it.
The fake arm he had attached to his left elbow was an artifact, and with the infusion of mana it could be moved just like a real one. The arm had pseudo-nerves installed within it as well, and Hajime could feel things with it like he could with his real arm when he filled it with mana. There were lines of pure silver running down the black surface of his new arm, with magic circles and other engravings carved into the apparatus at odd intervals.
The arm was fitted with all sorts of interesting gimmicks. Some of them had originally been part of the arm when he’d found it in Oscar’s workshop, while others were new additions of Hajime’s own design. He had used his creation magic to materialize all kinds of specialized ores and added them to his arm. As it was now, his artificial limb was an artifact that rivaled the greatest national treasure of any kingdom. That being said, one needed the ability to directly manipulate their mana to operate the arm at all, so it would be useless for most people. Over the course of the past two months, Yue and Hajime had both improved their strength and equipment far beyond what it had been when they first arrived. These were Hajime’s current stats, to put into perspective just how much they had grown.
Hajime Nagumo. Age: 17. Male. Level: ???. Job: Synergist.
Strength: 10950.
Vitality: 13190.
Defense: 10670. Agility: 13450.
Magic: 14780.
Magic Defense: 14780.
Skills: Transmute, +Ore Appraisal, +Precision Transmutation, +Ore Perception, +Ore Desynthesis, +Ore Synthesis, +Duplicate Transmutation, +Compression Synthesis, — Mana Manipulation, +Mana Discharge, +Mana Compression, +Remote Manipulation, — Iron Stomach, — Lightning Field, — Air Dance, +Aerodynamic, +Supersonic Step, +Steel Legs, +Riftwalk, — Gale Claw, — Night Vision, — Far Sight, — Sense Presence, +Precision Sensing, — Detect Magic, +Precision Sensing, — Sense Heat, +Precision Sensing, — Hide Presence, +Illusion Waltz, — Poison Resistance, — Paralysis Resistance, — Petrification Resistance, — Fear Resistance, — Elemental Resistance, — Foresight, — Diamond Skin, — Steel Arms, — Intimidate, — Telepathy, — Tracking, — Increased Mana Recovery, — Mana Conversion, +Stamina, +Healing, — Limit Break, — Creation Magic, — Language Comprehension.
A person’s level was meant to denote their current degree of growth compared to their max potential, and capped at 100. However, Hajime’s body had undergone so many transformations after absorbing demon meat that after a certain point his level stopped growing even when his stats did, and finally his status plate had simply decided to mark his level as unknown.
It did make sense, considering his current stats would normally be unthinkable with the starting values he had initially begun with. His upper limits as a human had increased with his stats, so it was safe to assume that his status plate was unable to calculate the limits of his potential with his body so transformed.
As a comparison, the hero Kouki Amanogawa’s maximum stats were somewhere in the 1500 range. With the Limit Break skill, Kouki could temporarily triple those stats, but even then, they barely came up to one third of Hajime’s. And thanks to the Hydra he had consumed, Hajime could use the Limit Break skill too. He had far surpassed his overpowered classmates and become an overpowered cheat himself.
Most average humans had maximum stats of no more than 100 to 200, while those who possessed a job ranged from 300 to 400. Demons and beastmen could have stats ranging anywhere from 300 to 600 depending on the individual race and its characteristics. If the hero, Kouki, was overpowered, then Hajime had to be some kind of monster. With how much he had changed both physically and mentally, monster probably was the best description for him.
The artificial arm wasn’t the only new piece of equipment Hajime had plundered from Oscar’s workshop. Another handy piece of equipment he’d obtained was the “Treasure Trove.” This was a ring- shaped artifact that had a small one centimeter ruby set in its center.
The ruby was actually an artificially created dimensional space where things could be stored. It was like a bag of holding, basically.
Hajime wasn’t sure exactly how big this space was, but it was large enough to hold a decent amount. There had still been space left over even after he had crammed all of his weapons, tools, and crafting materials inside it. It only took a little bit of mana to activate the magic circle engraved on the ruby to add or remove things to it. Anything within one meter of the ring could be deposited, and withdrawn objects could be placed anywhere within the same radius.
It was a very handy artifact by any measure, but for Hajime it was especially useful because of his weapons. Because the ring could transport withdrawn objects anywhere within one meter of the ring, Hajime had toyed with the possibility of reloading with it.
When he had put his theory to the test, he met with limited success. While the ring wasn’t precise enough to let him warp the bullets directly into his magazine, it could bring them out perfectly aligned in position to be loaded. So instead he combined his skills together to teleport the bullets into the air above his gun chamber and let them fall into the magazine. It was an impromptu form of midair reloading.
The only type of gun suited to that style was a break-action revolver. Unfortunately, break-action revolvers weren’t as powerful as swing- out revolvers. However, reloading a swing-out revolver in midair was also far more difficult.
In order to remedy the situation, Hajime had created a makeshift kind of swing-out cylinder. Part of it swung out to the top to allow for midair reloading. By manipulating his mana, he could discard old shells as well. Then all he needed to do was spin the chamber and let the bullets fall into place.
It had taken him only a month of nonstop training to perfect this technique. And there was a reason he managed to master this superhuman feat in only a month. His Riftwalk ability. Riftwalk not only gave him the ability to heighten his other movement skills, but it also enhanced his five senses to their limit. It made it seem as if the rest of the world was moving in slow motion, which was what made midair reloading possible.
On top of improving his weapons, he had also crafted a two-wheel mana-powered vehicle, Steiff, and a four-wheel mana-powered vehicle, Brise.
As their description suggested, they used mana as fuel. Their frames were covered with Azantium, the hardest metal in existence. Both of them were loaded to the brim with weapons too. For all his transformations, Hajime was still a boy at heart. He still had a burning passion for all things military. There had been times that he had gotten so focused on his crafting that Yue had started to sulk, and he had all sorts of fluids sucked out of him before she forgave him. He had also developed something he called the Demon Eye.
Hajime had lost his right eye fighting against the Hydra. The heat of the aurora had evaporated his eyeball entirely, so the Ambrosia had been unable to heal what at that point had become a “lost” appendage. Yue had felt guilty about it since he had lost it protecting her, so she had helped him develop the Demon Eye.
Even with ancient creation magic, Hajime was unable to reproduce an actual human eyeball. However, he had instead imbued a piece of the Divinity Stone with Detect Magic and Foresight, which created an artificial eye that saw different things than a normal one.
He then added the same pseudo-nerves that were in his artificial arm into his artificial eye, allowing for the images it captured to be sent directly to his brain. His Demon Eye couldn’t see things his normal eye could. Instead, it saw the flow and strength of mana surrounding a person or object, its color, and the element and “core” of the spell they were trying to activate.
The core of a spell was basically the gist of how it was being activated and the effect it was attempting to enact on the world. He had known that the effects of a spell were governed by the inscriptions inlaid into the magic circle invoking the spell, but until now he had never considered the possibility that the spell and the magic circle must somehow have been linked for the circle to continue directing the spell after it was invoked. None of the books he had read in the palace had mentioned anything of the sort. It was quite possible he had made a new discovery in the field of magic. Especially considering that even Yue, who was an expert in magic, hadn’t known anything about it either.
Much like Sense Presence, Detect Magic as a skill only gave Hajime a vague idea of the position and amount of mana being used. It wasn’t much better than an alternate way of searching for enemies. However, with the enhanced Demon Eye, he could pinpoint the exact amount of mana being poured into what kind of spell, and because he could see the spell’s “core,” it was possible for him to shoot it down and nullify the spell entirely. Shooting down a spell’s core required an extreme amount of precision, though, so it wasn’t always practical.
The reason he had used the Divinity Stone as the base material for his eye was because no other ore would have worked. Hajime’s guess was that only the Divinity Stone could hold enough mana to maintain the spells he had imbued it with. He was still unskilled at using his newly acquired creation magic, which was why he had only been able to add two spells to the Divinity Stone so far. But considering how much mana it could hold, he suspected he would be able to add even more spells to it once he got better at using his creation skill.
Since the Demon Eye was made out of Divinity Stone, it was constantly giving off a faint blue glow. In other words, his eye was always glowing. No matter what he did, he couldn’t seem to do anything about it, so he gave up and covered it with a black eyepatch.
White hair, a fake arm, and an eyepatch— Hajime looked like some kind of edgy anime protagonist now. The kind that might have spouted cliched lines like, “Be still, my sealed left arm!” When he had seen himself in the mirror, Hajime had been so depressed that he had spent an entire day moping in bed. Yue had to resort to some rather… drastic measures to finally cheer him up.
Hajime had upgraded his weapons too. He had remade Schlagen, which had been destroyed in the battle with the Hydra. He used Azantium for the frame and bullets, making it harder than before. And since he no longer had to worry about carrying it around thanks to the ring, he lengthened the barrel as well, increasing its range and power.
He had also added a new gun to his arsenal— Metzelei, a railgun- enhanced gatling gun. The inspiration for it had come from the time they had had to fight the army of raptors and hadn’t had enough firepower to take them all on. It was a monster of a weapon, with six rotating barrels capable of firing 12,000 30mm caliber rounds a minute. He had used creation magic to form the barrel out of a special, self-cooling ore, but even then he could only fire consecutively for about five minutes before the gun ran the danger of overheating. Plus, it needed a long time to cool before he could use it again.
Also, as a way to gain complete combat superiority, and simply because Hajime thought it was cool, he had created a rocket launcher called Orkan. It had a rectangular barrel, and boasted a large magazine allowing for 12 consecutive shots. He could fire different varieties of rockets too.
He had also created a sister revolver to Donner, Schlag. Since he had a prosthetic arm, Hajime figured he could use two revolvers at once. His preferred style of combat was close quarter gun combat, gun fu basically, with Donner and Schlag overpowering his enemies. The reason he had settled on close combat was to work more efficiently with Yue, who was a stereotypical back liner. That being said, he could fill any role in a party with the variety of equipment he had at his disposal.
Hajime had created a wealth of other miscellaneous tools and equipment. However, the Divinity Stone had finally lost most of its original mana, and had ceased producing Ambrosia. He only had twelve precious vials of it left. He had tried suffusing it with mana again, but the stone had refused to produce any more Ambrosia. The reason being that mana had to be concentrated in the stone over centuries in order for it to take effect.
But even then, Hajime didn’t throw it away. It was, after all, the person— or rather stone, that had saved his life. It was a sheer stroke of luck that he had found it at all, and without it, he would have died for sure. Which was why he was so attached to it. He loved it as much as that one plane crash survivor from a certain movie had loved his volleyball.
So instead of discarding it, he had made use of the fact that it could store boundless amounts of mana to make his Demon Eye. He had then carved the remainder of the stone into a necklace, a pair of earrings, and a ring that he decided to gift to Yue.
Yue could use extremely powerful magic, all without incantations or magic circles, but because she could so easily pour mana into her spells, she quickly ran out and became unable to move. But by storing mana in her Divinity Stone jewelry beforehand, she would be able to use them as a battery, allowing her to fire off powerful spells one after another without collapsing.
With those thoughts in mind, Hajime had presented the Magic Stone Accessory series to Yue, but her reaction had been rather unexpected.
“…Are you proposing to me?”
“You wot mate?”
Hajime was so surprised he slipped into some weird accent.
“It’s to keep you from running out of mana quickly. I made these to protect you.”
“So you are proposing.”
“How many times do I have to say no before you get it? It’s just
equipment I made for you.” “Hajime, you’re so shy.”
“Do you just ignore the words coming out of my mouth or something, Yue?”
“…You’re shy in bed too.”
“Can we please not go there!? Please?” “Hajime…”
“Uh, yeah?”
“Thanks… I really love you.”
“…You’re welcome.”
Almost all their conversations devolved into flirting after a while. They completed their preparations to the utmost over the past two months.
Ten days later, Hajime and Yue finally decided to return to the surface.
As he began activating the magic circle on the third floor, Hajime quietly spoke to Yue.
“Yue… my weapons and our powers are probably considered heresy to the Holy Church. I doubt they or the various human kingdoms are going to just let us roam free.”
“Yeah…”
“They’ll ask us to give up our artifacts or try and force us to help them in their war.”
“Yeah…”
“If it was just humans we had to deal with, it wouldn’t be a huge problem, but those crazy gods pulling everyone’s strings are probably gonna be after us too.”
“Yeah…”
“We might end up making the entire world our enemy. No matter how many lives we have, it might not be enough to come out unscathed.”
“So what…” Hajime smiled at Yue’s unconcerned response. She looked up at him, and he gently stroked her golden-blonde hair in response. He looked deeply into her crimson eyes, and saw that they were glowing with happiness. After a moment, he took a deep breath, then spoke aloud his hopes and convictions in order to carve them into his soul.
“I’ll protect you, and you’ll protect me. As long as we watch each other’s backs, we’ll be stronger than anyone. We’ll beat down anyone who stands against us and bust our way out of this shitty world!”
Yue held her hands up to her chest, as if carving Hajime’s words into her own soul as well. Her deadpan expression crumbled, fading away to reveal the most beautiful smile in the world.
Her reply was the same single syllable she always gave: “Yeah!”
Diamond. diamond. diamond.
A Very Prologue-ish Epilogue.
A vast ravine cut through the earth, a scar marring the land’s otherwise unblemished surface. Boulders of all sizes tumbled down into the parched canyon below. The howls of monsters punctuated the air, reminding any who passed by that this was a land where only the strong survived.
This was a land where humanity’s prized magic was ineffective, and food was scarce. Climbing out of the ravine required scaling a hundred-meter-tall cliff. A cliff that held no cover, and was filled with monsters waiting to feast on any foolish enough to attempt the climb.
There were staircases leading out on the eastern and western ends of the ravine, but once someone fell, the monsters lurking below had no intention of letting their prey escape.
To most people, the ravine was synonymous with hell. Though for some, it also made for a convenient execution grounds.
A solitary silhouette suddenly moved within that godforsaken canyon. A pair of rabbit ears poked out from below a boulder. They twitched a little, as if searching for any noises. Such a cute spectacle was completely at odds with the hellish surroundings of the ravine.
After ascertaining its surroundings were safe, the figure tentatively stuck its head out from behind the boulder. Surprisingly, the rabbit ears were attached not to a rabbit’s head, but a human’s. The figure was actually a bunny girl in her mid-teens. After poking her head out, she looked around, confirming once more by sight that there were no dangers around.
She was quite beautiful. She was covered in grime and her shabby clothes were in tatters, but that did nothing to mar her stunning looks. She had light blue hair and azure eyes, and gave off this aura of majestic mystery. And that dignified looking girl was currently…
“Ugh, I’m so scared. I wish I were in bed eating snacks right now.” Her rather undignified outburst ruined the entire effect her looks had.
The bunny girl continued muttering complaints for a while, but then she suddenly slapped her cheeks and renewed her determination.
“If I don’t do something, then it’s my family that’ll end up being the monsters’ snacks,” she muttered to herself, her eyes shimmering with resolve.
“…I’ve gotta hurry. I need to make it to that future, to that person.” She straightened her back and dashed off deeper into the ravine.
A few minutes later, a pathetic scream echoed throughout the gorge. “Hiiii! I’m not tasty, don’t eat meeeee!”
Diamond. diamond. diamond.
