Arifureta Shokugyou de Sekai Saikyou (LN) - Volume 1 - Chapter 3

Chapter III: The Golden Vampire Princess 

“Dammit, why can’t I find it...?” It had been three days since Hajime had killed the Claw Bear, and he had spent every waking moment scouring the labyrinth for a staircase leading upward. 
At this point he had mapped over 80% of the floor. After killing the Claw Bear, Hajime’s stats had made another huge jump, so there was no longer anything on the floor that posed even a mild threat to him. As such, even though the floor was vast, his search progressed rapidly, and without incident. Despite that, he was unable to find any stairs no matter how hard he looked 
Actually, that wasn’t strictly true. While he had been unable to find any staircases leading up, he had already discovered the staircase leading down two days ago. As the labyrinth was strictly divided into floors, it stood to reason that there had to be a staircase leading up as well, but no matter how he searched, Hajime couldn’t find it. 
He had already tried transmuting his own staircase up to the floor above, ignoring the rules of the dungeon. The only thing he had discovered as a result was that past a certain point, whether he tried to climb up or down, the walls around him simply stopped responding to his transmute skill. He could transmute as much as he liked within the confines of the floor, but the layers that separated the floors seemed to have some kind of magical protection cast on them. The Great Orcus Labyrinth had been created during the Age of the Gods. So it wasn’t that odd for it to have some mysteries still. 
Which was why Hajime had spent his time searching for the actual staircase, but he was soon coming to realize that he would need to make a choice about what to do if he couldn’t find it. That choice was whether or not to delve deeper instead. 
“...Another dead end. At this point I’ve investigated all the pathways. What on earth is going on here?” Hajime sighed tiredly, forced to accept that he wasn’t going to find a staircase leading up. Resigned, he began heading back to the room where he’d found the staircase leading down. 
The staircase he’d discovered two days ago was very roughly carved. It was closer to a bumpy slope than an actual staircase. Moreover, there was no green glowstone lighting the way, and the descent was steeped in darkness, giving off an ominous atmosphere. The darkness and shape of it made the entrance resemble the gaping jaws of some humungous beast. It felt as if once he entered, he would never be able to come back out. 
“Hah! Bring it on! I’ll devour anything you throw at me!” Hajime ridiculed himself for his trepidation, and smiled fearlessly. And without any further hesitation, he stepped foot into the darkness. 
Once he started down the staircase, the darkness enveloped him fully. While it generally made sense for an underground labyrinth to be dark, every floor he had passed so far had been lit with glowstone. Even if it hadn’t been bright, it had never been so fully dark that Hajime couldn’t even see his hand in front of his face. 
However, there was no glowstone lining the staircase. Hajime stopped for a while, hoping his eyes might adjust, but no matter how long he waited, all that his eyes took in was black. 
Left with no choice, Hajime dug around in his makeshift rucksack, created from bear leather and transmuted wire, and pulled out a green glowstone to light his surroundings. 
Carrying a light source in the darkness was tantamount to suicide, but Hajime reasoned that he had no other means of moving forward. However, he decided to make sure to at least keep his right hand free, so he tied the glowstone to the stump of his left arm. 
After a while of walking forward, Hajime saw something glint in the darkness, deeper down the passageway. He strained his senses, suddenly vigilant. 
Sticking to the shadows as much as possible while he advanced, he suddenly felt an ominous feeling approach from his left side. He quickly jumped to the side, then pointed his left stump at the source of the feeling. Illuminated in the ghastly green light was a massive two meter long gray lizard, and its golden eyes were staring right at Hajime. 
The lizard’s golden eyes flashed brightly. An instant later... 
“Huh!?” With a strange cracking noise, Hajime’s left stump began turning to stone. The fossilization spread to the glowstone, and seconds later the petrified glowstone made a cracking noise and crumbled away. Without his light source, Hajime was once more surrounded by darkness. The petrification had continued, reaching all the way up to his shoulder. 
Hajime clicked his tongue, pulled out a vial of Ambrosia from the monster fur and transmuted thread holster strapped to his breast, and downed it in one gulp. As he had hoped, the petrification came to a stop, and slowly began reversing back down his left arm. 
Now you’ve done it! Hajime pulled a flash grenade out from the pouch at his waist and flung it at where he’d last seen the lizard. He saw another flash of golden light appear from the darkness. Despite his inability to see clearly, Hajime quickly used Supersonic Step to dash away. 
When he glanced back, he saw the rock behind where he’d been had changed color, looking far more weathered than it once was. That literally petrifying gaze was going to be quite troublesome. The lizard closely resembled the kind of basilisk Hajime saw in RPG games. 
Hajime pulled Donner out of its holster, and held it in front of his face while tightly shutting his eyes. A second later, the flash grenade exploded in a riot of green light with a quiet bang. 
“Kraaaah!?” The Basilisk probably hadn’t ever experienced light so bright before, and writhed around in bewilderment. When he opened his eyes, Hajime could barely make out its silhouette in the darkness. 
He fired without delay. His bullet found its mark, tearing through the skull of the basilisk, pulverizing the contents contained within. The bullet passed cleanly through the back of the basilisk’s head and drilled deep into the rock wall behind it with a loud hiss. Because his bullets were electrically accelerated, they came out at a very high temperature and burned everything they passed through. It was only thanks to taur’s resistance to heat that he was able to fire such powerful rounds. 
Wary of his surroundings, Hajime carefully approached the basilisk. Once he confirmed it was dead, he quickly cut up its flesh and retreated to safety. He could hardly eat it there, where he couldn’t even see what was around him. Hajime decided to prioritize scouting the new floor first. 
He continued walking through the darkness. He searched for dozens of hours, but was unable to find a staircase leading down. He continued defeating enemies and picking up the rocks he found on the way, and before long he found himself laden with more things than he could easily carry. That was when he finally decided that it was time he made a base for himself. 
He put his hand on a nearby wall and transmuted it. The wall opened up easily enough, and he walked into the passage he had made for himself. Hajime continued transmuting the area around him until he had a space about six tatami mats wide. Then, before he forgot, he took the basketball-sized pale blue crystal out of his rucksack and placed it onto a cavity he had carved out for it. He had, of course, brought the Divinity Stone with him. He had also brought along containers to hold the Ambrosia that he set underneath the stone. 
As Hajime was unaware of the stone’s real name, he had taken to calling it the “potion rock” and the Ambrosia that spilled from it “potions.” While it was true that potions were the standard healing items in most games, Ambrosia’s effects far surpassed that of a measly potion. The insultingly basic moniker he had chosen just showed how little thought Hajime had put into naming it. 
“Now that I’m all settled in, it’s time for a feast.” Hajime took all the meat he had collected out of a stone container he had fitted to his rucksack using transmutation. Then he grilled it all with Lightning Field. The day’s menu consisted of roast basilisk meat, roasted whole owl with half its feathers still sticking on, and roasted whole six-legged cat thing. There were no seasonings. 
“At least I have food.” As he worked through his meal, he began feeling that familiar pain in his body. The pain meant his body was being forcibly strengthened once more. Which meant that the monsters here were at least as powerful as the Claw Bear had been, if not more. That made sense, as the combination of their special magic and the darkness had made each of them quite difficult foes to face. However, Donner was able to pulverize anything it hit, so Hajime hadn’t really noticed that they were that much stronger than their counterparts on the floor above. 
He drank some more Ambrosia and ignored the pain as he continued eating. He had suffered so much since losing his arm that such a measly level of pain didn’t even faze him. 
“Mmmf, haah, thanks for the meal. Now then, let’s see how my stats changed...” Hajime took out his status plate as he said that. His current stats were as follows... 

Hajime Nagumo Age: 17 Male Level: 23 
Job: Synergist 
Strength: 450 
Vitality: 550 
Defense: 350 
Agility: 550 
Magic: 500 
Magic Defense: 500 
Skills: Transmute [+Ore Appraisal] [+Precision Transmutation] [+Ore Perception] [+Ore Desynthesis] [+Ore Synthesis] — Mana Manipulation — Iron Stomach — Lightning Field — Air Dance [+Aerodynamic] [+Supersonic Step] — Gale Claw — Night Vision — Sense Presence — Petrification Resistance — Language Comprehension 

As he had expected, his stats had risen dramatically. And he had learned three new skills. As he looked around, he realized he could indeed see a little better in the darkness. 
Must have been the effect of Night Vision. It might not have been a very useful skill for the rest of the monsters in this hell, but for the floor he was on at least, it was a godsend. His other new skills did as their names suggested. Though Hajime was somewhat disappointed that he had gotten Petrification Resistance, and not the basilisk’s actual petrification skill. He wondered why that was. 
“Man, it would have been so cool to get ‘Basilisk’s Eye’ or something...” Hajime lamented dejectedly. 
Once he finished his meal, Hajime began transmuting new supplies for himself. 
Crafting even a single bullet took a great deal of concentration. His bullets needed to be extremely precise. In order to make use of Donner’s rifling, he had to get the size and shape exactly right. And he couldn’t make a single mistake in compressing the blastrock packed within them. Each bullet took about thirty minutes to make, but Hajime was still proud of his skill with the craft. Humans really are creatures that display a terrifying amount of strength when they’re desperate, Hajime thought, impressed with himself. 
Besides, though it took time, his bullets were powerful enough that he had no reason to complain, and each one he made trained his transmuting ability to new heights, so it really wasn’t a waste. 
Thanks to his training, he was now able to purify any mineral or ore of impurities, and he could even decompose an alloy into its composite parts. He also had the power to fuse ore together to create new alloys. Hajime’s current transmutation skill was on par with the kingdom’s best blacksmith. 
He silently continued his work. So far, he had only descended a single level from his starting point, and he had no way of knowing how much further this abyss continued for. He planned on returning to his search the moment he finished transmuting. If he wanted to get home, he couldn’t afford to waste time lounging around. 
Once he resumed his search, Hajime stopped only when he needed to return to base and replenish his supplies. He had no way of knowing how long his search would take if he let himself rest while searching. Thanks to his Night Vision, he no longer had any problem seeing in the dark, and Sense Presence let him know when there were any monsters within a ten meter radius. His scouting of the floor progressed swiftly. 
Finally, he discovered the stairs leading down to the next floor. He stepped forward without hesitation. 
The ground of the floor below was sticky, like tar. In fact, the entire floor resembled a huge swamp. His legs easily got stuck in the ground, and Hajime had a hard time moving. He frowned as he saw how difficult it was to move, then proceeded to climb up a protruding boulder. From there he used Aerodynamic to advance through the sky. 
As he continued moving forward he constantly used Ore Perception to look for new minerals. Among the ones he discovered on this floor, one was of particular note. 

Flamrock: A glossy black mineral. When heated, it melts into tar. It melts at 50 degrees Celsius, and catches fire at 100 degrees Celsius. When it burns, it can reach temperatures of up to 3000 degrees Celsius. The length it burns depends on the quantity of tar. 

“...Seriously?” Hajime grimaced and raised one of his legs. As he did so, the tar he had stepped in numerous times since setting foot onto this floor squelched loudly as it dripped off his shoe. 
“N-No fire, got it...” He doubted it would ignite that easily since 100 degrees wasn’t so easily reached, but on the off chance it did, it would set off a chain reaction that would literally have this floor engulfed in fires hotter than hell. Even the Ambrosia wouldn’t be able to save him from that. 
“That means I can’t use my railgun or Lightning Field, either...” Donner was one of his most powerful weapons. Even without Lightning Field to accelerate his bullets, the combustive power of blastrock alone was still quite formidable. 
However, that was only as far as normal monsters were concerned. For example, Traum Soldiers would easily be pulverized with just the power of blastrock. Even the Behemoth would have taken a considerable amount of damage from it. However, the monsters that inhabited this deep abyss were different. They were of a completely different caliber than the monsters on the floors above. Which was why Hajime wasn’t sure blastrock alone would be enough to kill them. Despite this predicament, Hajime still grinned eagerly. 
“So what if I can’t use Donner? What I need to do hasn’t changed. I just have to kill and devour my enemies.” He pressed on, even with his Lightning Field and railgun sealed. 
Eventually, Hajime found himself at a three-way fork. He marked the wall and began walking down the left-hand path. 
But just as he moved forward... Fwoosh! 
“Wha—!?” A shark-like monster suddenly leaped out of the tar, countless rows of razor-sharp teeth visible in its mouth. It snapped down, aiming to take Hajime’s head in one huge bite. He managed to duck in time, but a shiver of fear still ran down his spine as that horrifying mouth closed inches from his head. 
Sense Presence wasn’t able to pick up on it! Ever since he had acquired it, Hajime had been using Sense Presence constantly. And the skill was supposed to be able to sense anything within 10 meters of him without fail. Despite that, he had been unable to sense that shark until just before it had attacked. 
Having failed to take out Hajime with its first bite, the shark plopped back into the sea of tar with a splash. 
Shit, I can’t tell where it is at all! He ground his teeth at his lack of information. However, he realized standing still would get him killed, so he quickly used Aerodynamic to keep himself moving. 
As if it had predicted his actions, the shark leaped high this time, reaching all the way up to him. 
“Don’t underestimate me!” Hajime somersaulted in the air and while hanging suspended upside-down, he fired directly at the shark. The bullet fired from Donner’s muzzle rushed forward, eager for blood. And with perfect aim, hit the shark square in its back. However... 
“Tch! It doesn’t have enough power to penetrate!” The bullet created a small dent in the shark’s skin, and then, as if it had encountered a wall of rubber, it bounced off. It appeared the shark’s skin was resistant to physical attacks. 
“Guh!” It nimbly leaped past and dived back into the sea of tar. Then, with that same agility, the shark aimed for Hajime’s landing point, jumping at him once more after he finished his somersault. 
He managed to twist his body at the last minute, avoiding being torn in half, but the shark still managed to gouge a tiny chunk of flesh from his side. The impact caused Hajime to fall into the sea of tar. His entire body was covered in black goo, but he quickly leaped back to his feet and jumped into the air. A second later, the shark’s jaws opened up where Hajime had just been lying, then closed down with a snap. 
Cold sweat ran down Hajime’s back as he kept himself in the air with consecutive uses of Aerodynamic. But his fearless smile never left his face, despite how easily he was getting cornered. 
“Bring it!” He kept himself aloft with Aerodynamic, always moving from place to place, while he waited for the shark to attack once more. 
His powers of concentration, which he had honed through weeks of relentless transmutation, served him well here. As he focused, his surroundings slowly came into clearer view, and he could even make out colors. 
So what if I can’t find it with Sense Presence? To begin with, I handled myself just fine even when I didn’t have it. Even if I can’t see where it is, it has to show itself when it attacks. Focused, Hajime moved to leap into the air once more, but as he did so, his footing grew unstable and he lost his balance as he jumped. The shark wasn’t one to let that opportunity go past. It leaped out from behind Hajime, right where his blind spot was. 
“Well, I’m glad you’re so simpleminded!” His supposedly failing balance suddenly recovered, and he jumped to the side, avoiding the shark’s attack. At the same time, he swung his right hand, with Donner still held tightly in it, at the shark. 
A huge gash appeared in the shark’s side, and blood sprayed everywhere as it fell back into the tar. It floundered around in the tar, flailing in pain. 
Hajime had purposely pretended to lose his balance, in order to lure the shark into attacking from his blind spot. Then he had wrapped the Claw Bear’s special magic, Gale Claw, around Donner as he had swung it. 
Hajime swooped onto the flailing shark and swung Donner down at its head. The Gale Claw split its head cleanly in two. Though he had only one claw instead of three, its sharpness was unmatched. It was the perfect skill for close combat. 
“Now then, time to find out why I wasn’t able to sense your presence.” Hajime licked his lips in a predatory fashion as he said that. 
He stored the shark meat in his bag, then continued searching. He found the exit to the next floor before long, and descended to the level below. 

Hajime Nagumo Age: 17 Male Level: 24 
Job: Synergist 
Strength: 450 
Vitality: 550 
Defense: 400 
Agility: 550 
Magic: 500 
Magic Defense: 500 
Skills: Transmute [+Ore Appraisal] [+Precision Transmutation] [+Ore Perception] [+Ore Desynthesis] [+Ore Synthesis] — Mana Manipulation — Iron Stomach — Lightning Field — Air Dance [+Aerodynamic] [+Supersonic Step] — Gale Claw — Night Vision — Sense Presence — Hide Presence — Petrification Resistance — Language Comprehension 

Hajime continued conquering the labyrinth. 
He descended down floor after floor, until he had gone another 50 floors past the one that had the Tar Shark. He had lost all sense of time down in the dungeon, and had no way of guessing how many days had passed. Though it still took time, it was clear he was progressing through the labyrinth at a ridiculously fast pace. 
While progressing, he had countless brushes with death and had to fight all sorts of unbelievably powerful monsters. 
Among them were a huge rainbow colored frog that could spit poison and a giant moth that, oddly enough, looked a lot like Butterfree. The frog he had encountered on a floor that had a faint poisonous mist spread throughout it, and the moth had the ability to spread its scales through the air. Scales that paralyzed anything they touched. Had it not been for the Ambrosia he was constantly drinking, Hajime would have died countless times searching through the labyrinth. 
The poison spit by the frog had assaulted his nervous system and hurt almost as bad as the first time he had eaten monster meat. It was only the tiny Ambrosia vial he kept attached to his back teeth that had saved him. The vial he had attached there was crafted from a weak rock that would easily break with a single bite. He was eternally thankful that he had prepared that as a last resort for emergency situations. 
He had, of course, eaten both the moth and the frog. There had been some reservation to eating the moth, but he reminded himself it was to make him stronger, which helped him power through that meal. Hajime had remembered feeling somewhat vexed when he’d discovered that the frog had actually tasted better than all the other monsters so far. 
And though he was deep underground, he had even gone through a floor that resembled the Amazon Jungle. It had been incredibly humid and the air hung thick around him. That had been by far the worst floor he had traversed. The monsters he had faced on that floor had been giant centipedes and living trees. 
Hardened as he was to most things, even Hajime had been completely creeped out when a giant centipede had come crashing down from a high up tree branch. It was the most disgusting sight he’d ever laid his eyes on. And the centipede had split itself into various segments to attack him, too. What he had thought was just one enemy suddenly split into thirty, like an army of cockroaches coming out of a particularly disgusting kitchen. 
Hajime had fired Donner as fast he could to destroy them, but sadly there had been too many. As reloading would have taken far too long, he resigned himself to butchering them with his Gale Claw. But even that wasn’t enough to take them all out, so he had to resort to kicking, which was not his forte at all. When that battle had finally finished, Hajime had sworn to himself that he would work on improving his reload times and kicking skills. He was tired of being bathed in the centipede’s purple, disgusting blood. 
The tree monsters of that floor were basically the Treants he had seen in RPGs. They used their roots to attack from underground, while also flinging their branches around like whips. 
Though the real strength of those fake Treants didn’t lie in such simple skills. When they were in trouble, they would start shaking their heads wildly, flinging crimson fruit at their enemies. The fruit they threw didn’t hurt, and just to test it, Hajime had tried eating one. When he had, he had stood rooted to the spot for almost an hour. The fruit had contained no poison. In fact, it had tasted delicious. It was sweet and refreshing, like watermelon. Despite expectations, it was nothing like an apple. 
The fact that the floor was the most unpleasant one he had encountered yet completely flew out of Hajime’s head. Even his resolve to conquer the labyrinth temporarily left his mind. It was the first time he had eaten anything aside from monster meat in months. His eyes became that of a hunter, and he spent a great deal of time hunting down the fake Treants. By the time his craving for their fruit had finally been sated, the Treants had been hunted to near extinction. 
And so, he continued progressing through the floors until he had passed 50 of them before he knew it. And still the labyrinth continued endlessly downward. For the record, Hajime’s current stats looked like this. 

Hajime Nagumo Age: 17 Male Level: 24 
Job: Synergist 
Strength: 880 
Vitality: 970 
Defense: 860 
Agility: 1040 
Magic: 760 
Magic Defense: 760 
Skills: Transmute [+Ore Appraisal] [+Precision Transmutation] [+Ore Perception] [+Ore Desynthesis] [+Ore Synthesis] [+Duplicate Transmutation] — Mana Manipulation — Iron Stomach — Lightning Field — Air Dance [+Aerodynamic] [+Supersonic Step] [+Steel Legs] — Gale Claw — Night Vision — Farsight — Sense Presence — Detect Magic — Hide Presence — Poison Resistance — Paralysis Resistance — Petrification Resistance — Language Comprehension 

He spent some time in the base he had created for this floor, the fiftieth since the Tar Shark, training his shooting, kicking, and transmutation skills. He had already discovered the stairs leading to the next floor, but there was a location on this floor that seemed distinctly different to him. An ominous atmosphere seemed to pervade the space around it. 
At the very end of one of the side passages was a room which contained a set of majestic double doors, each three meters tall. On each side of the door was a statue of a cyclops sunk deep into the recesses of the wall. 
When he had tried to step into the room, Hajime had felt chills run down his spine, and had beat a hasty retreat, deciding that room was dangerous. Of course, the retreat was only temporary. He was going back to prepare, and had no intention of skipping past that room. After all, it was the first thing he had run into these past 50 floors that was “different.” There was no way he wasn’t going to check it out. 
He was filled with both expectation and trepidation as he thought about the door. However, once he opened it, he knew some kind of disaster awaited. Still, it was also an opportunity to call forth the winds of change in this never-ending hell. 
“It’s just like Pandora’s Box... Now then, I wonder what kind of hope awaits me when I open it?” He mentally ran through his abilities, his weapons, and his skills. He checked over each one of them, making sure he was in peak condition. 
When all his preparations were complete, Hajime slowly pulled Donner out of its holster, then slowly pressed it against his forehead as he closed his eyes. He had already steeled his resolve long ago, but there was no harm in spending a few minutes to steel it some more. Hajime searched deep within himself, giving voice to his dearest desire once more. 
“I want to survive and make it back home. Back home... to Japan. Anything getting in the way of that goal is my enemy. And enemies are to be... killed!” He opened his eyes, and with his ever-present fearless smile, set off toward the unknown. 
Hajime’s footsteps grew steadily more wary as he attempted to enter the room with the double doors. He made it all the way to the door without encountering anyone. 
Upon taking a closer look at it, Hajime realized the craftsmanship of the doors was even more impressive than he had initially thought. And that there was a magic circle carved into a tiny hollow on each of the two. 
“Huh? That’s odd. I studied quite a bit back at the castle... but I still don’t recognize this inscription.” Back when he had still been ridiculed as worthless, Hajime had spent all his time studying to compensate for his lack of combat ability. Of course, he hadn’t had enough time to learn everything there was to know about this world, but it was still unsettling that he couldn’t recognize a single symbol on the circles. 
“Does that just mean this spell’s really old?” Hajime pondered over the magic circles as he investigated the doors, but he was unable to discover anything of note. The conspicuous placement of the circles just screamed “trap” to Hajime, but he didn’t have enough knowledge to derive any hints from his investigation. 
“Guess my only option is to transmute it like always.” He had already tried pushing and pulling on the doors, but they hadn’t budged. And so, he had turned to his trusty transmutation skill. He placed his right hand on the door’s surface and began transmuting. 
But the moment he started pouring mana into his hand... Zap! 
“Uwaah!?” A bolt of red lightning ran down the door, blasting Hajime’s hand away. Tendrils of smoke rose up from his hand. Cursing, he drank some Ambrosia to heal himself. A second later, he heard a deep roar. 
“Uoooooooooooooooh!!!” It reverberated throughout the entire room. 
Hajime backpedaled away from the door and lowered himself into a crouch with his hand on his holster, ready to draw at a moment’s notice. While waiting he heard the sounds of something moving mixed in with the roar. 
“Wow, this is a cliched as it gets.” Hajime smiled sardonically as he watched the two cyclops statues suddenly spring to life and start destroying the wall that held them. Their petrified skin rapidly regained its color, going from gray to dark green. 
The cyclopes fit the fantasy description for them to a T. They each wielded swords nearly four meters long that they had pulled from god knows where. Currently, they were struggling to free their still–entombed lower halves, determined to eliminate the unwelcome intruder. 
Hajime fired Donner directly at the right cyclops’ glaring eye. With a ferocious bang, the electrically accelerated taur bullet pierced through its eye, made mincemeat out of its brains, and pulverized the wall behind it as it exited the back of its head. 
The cyclops on the left stared blankly at its now deceased companion. On the other hand, the dead one twitched for a few seconds before collapsing forward, which made the entire room shake as its huge frame crashed into the ground, raising a massive cloud of dust. 
“Sorry, but I’m not a nice enough guy to wait for you to break free.” The dead cyclops hadn’t seen that coming, in more ways than one. For Hajime, who had survived through countless life and death struggles, it was merely a natural course of action to take. Yet... he still felt a twinge of pity for the cyclops. 
It probably wasn’t anything more than a humble guardian that had been sealed and tasked with protecting the doors. It must have spent an eternity waiting for someone, anyone, to pass by. 
Then finally, someone capable enough of surviving so long in the pits of hell and looking to delve even deeper had appeared before it. It’s quite possible he(?) had been overjoyed to finally have a purpose. But then, before he could even begin to fight, his opponent crushed his prized eye and killed him instantly. If that’s not pitiful, then I don’t know what is. 
The remaining cyclops had a bloodcurdling expression on its face as it turned to look at Hajime. Though it didn’t speak, its face was clearly screaming, “How dare you, you bastard!” 
Hajime stared at the remaining cyclops, completely unmoving as he met its gaze. It was acting cautious due to his unfamiliar weapon and crouched low to the ground, ready to dodge in any direction, as it glared at him. Ten seconds passed, then twenty... Eventually, it grew tired of the staring contest and with a deafening roar, the remaining cyclops charged Hajime. 
But before it even made five paces, it faceplanted into the ground. 
The moment it had rushed forward, all the strength had drained from its limbs, and it careened to the ground. Confused, the cyclops tried to struggle back to its feet, but it was able to do little more than flail helplessly on the ground. 
It roared, unable to comprehend what had just happened, while Hajime slowly walked over to it. His echoing footsteps were like a countdown to the cyclops’ demise. He stopped inches from its face, and put his gun to its head. Then, without any hesitation, he pulled the trigger. 
Bang! The sound of a gunshot echoed throughout the room for a second time. 
However, something unexpected happened just then. The cyclops’ body glowed briefly, after which its skin repelled the bullet that should have killed it. 
“Hmm?” Hajime guessed that it was because of its special magic. From what he could tell, it temporarily gave the cyclops a massive defense boost. Though it was still face-down on the ground, the cyclops smirked contemptuously at him. 
Unfazed, he retracted his gun and aimed a kick at the cyclops’ head. Thanks to his Steel Legs skill, Hajime’s kicks were as powerful as the Kickmaster Rabbit’s had been. His foot traced a neat arc through the air before slamming into the cyclops and turning it over on its stomach. He then pressed Donner to its eye. 
Though he couldn’t be sure, it looked as if the cyclops was panicking. Still, he paid it no mind and mercilessly pulled the trigger. As he expected, the body hardening didn’t extend to its eye, and the second cyclops had its brains blown out just like the first. 
“Hmm, it took around twenty seconds this time. That’s slower than usual... Is it because it has a larger body?” Hajime mumbled to himself, analyzing the results of his experiment. 
Why had that cyclops suddenly collapsed earlier? That had been thanks to the power of his stun grenade. He had made it using the scales he’d harvested from the Butterfree lookalikes. By utilizing a small, controlled blast, he could spread the scales throughout a room, paralyzing everything in it. The instant the cyclops on the left had been distracted by the death of its companion, Hajime had thrown it into the air. 
“Well, whatever. Guess I’ll harvest the meat later...” As he glanced back to the door, an idea sprouted in his mind. 
He used Gale Claw to cut open the cyclopes and extracted their mana crystals. Ignoring the fact that they were dripping with blood, he carried the two fist-sized mana crystals over to the double doors and placed them in the two indents. 
They fit perfectly. After a brief delay, they began pouring gouts of dark red mana into the magic circles. The sound of something snapping echoed in the distance and the light began to fade. Mana started diffusing through the room at the same time, making the surrounding walls glow with a bright light. The room was suddenly filled with more light than Hajime had seen in ages. 
He blinked at the sudden brightness, then pushed open the door, clearly on the lookout for any traps. 
The room on the other side of the door was pitch black, with not a single light source to be found. However, a combination of his Night Vision and the light spilling in from the room outside was enough for him to dimly make out his surroundings. 
The interior of the room was composed of the same marble-like substance that Hajime had first seen 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 center 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. 
Hajime took a closer look at the cube, noticing there was something that glowed faintly jutting out from the center of its front face. It looked almost as if it was sprouting out of the rock. 
Intent on getting a closer look, he threw the doors open wide, and looked for something to hold them in place. He didn’t want to make the classic horror movie mistake and enter only to find the door shut behind him. 
However, before he could fix them in place, whatever was in the center of the cube stirred. 
“...Who goes there?” He heard a faint, hoarse, female voice. Startled, Hajime looked over to the center of the room again. The “something” he had seen earlier was squirming slightly. The light pouring in from the other room revealed that something’s true form. 
“A... person?” The something sprouting from the rock was indeed a person. 
The girl was buried in the rock from the neck down, and her golden-blonde hair dangled limply in front of her face, much like the ghost from a certain famous horror movie. Eyes as red as the blood moon peeked out from between gaps in her hair. She looked to be rather young. Still, despite her haggard appearance and her hair covering the better part of her face, it was still clear she was quite beautiful. 
Hajime stiffened in surprise; he hadn’t expected to see another person so deep in the labyrinth. It seemed the girl was just as surprised to see him too, as she was staring at him in dumbfounded shock. After a moment of silence, he took some deep breaths to steady himself, and then resolutely said... 
“Sorry. I’ll just leave now.” He went to go and close the doors again. But before he could, the blonde-haired red-eyed girl hurriedly called out to him once more. Her voice was hoarse and weak, most likely from years of disuse, but the desperation in it was clear. 
“W-Wait...! Please...! Help me...” 
“Don’t wanna.” Hajime replied curtly, then returned his attention to the doors. A truly heartless reply. 
“Wh-Why... Please... I’ll do anything, so...” She really was desperate. Though she could barely move her neck, she still raised her face up to look at Hajime. 
But even then, Hajime only gave an irritated reply. 
“You know, I really doubt it’d be a good idea to free someone that’s clearly been sealed all the way down here in the deepest pits of hell. That just spells trouble. As far as I can tell there’s nothing but the seal in here... and it doesn’t look like that’ll help my escape at all, so...” It was a fair argument. 
However, there were few people so devoid of sympathy that they could so easily ignore a girl’s pleas for help. It was clear that the old, kind Hajime had long since perished. 
Though he had refused her so bluntly, the girl continued hopelessly calling out for help. 
“No! Cough... I-I’m not anyone bad...! Please wait! I...” He continued pulling the double doors closed, but just before he shut them completely, he ground his teeth. Had he been a bit faster he wouldn’t have had to hear those last words of hers. 
“I was betrayed!” He heard, through the tiny crack of the still open door. 
The creaking doors ground to a halt. A miniscule sliver of light was all that illuminated the darkness within. Ten seconds passed, then twenty. Finally, the doors began opening once more. Standing behind them was Hajime, scowling unhappily at the situation at hand. 
No matter what she had said, he hadn’t planned on helping her. He figured there must have been a very good reason someone was sealed all the way down here, far below the light of the sun. And there was no proof that she wasn’t dangerous, either. In fact, it was likely that she was just some evil creature that was trying to deceive him into releasing her. He should have just left her. 
Seriously, what the hell am I doing? Hajime sighed to himself as that thought passed through his mind. 
“I was betrayed!” —To think those words would stir his heart, the heart he thought he’d long since buried. He thought he had already forgotten about the classmate who had flung that fireball at him. He thought he had already thrown away paltry feelings like hatred and sympathy. In order to survive in this cruel world, he had to. 
But the fact that the girl’s words had shaken him so deeply meant that he hadn’t completely buried his old self. Enough of the old, kind Hajime still lived that he could sympathize with this girl’s circumstances, which were so very similar to his own. 
He scratched his head uncomfortably and walked up to the girl. Of course, he still remained vigilant. 
“You said you were betrayed? But that still doesn’t explain why you’re trapped here. If you really were betrayed, how come they sealed you in this rock?” The girl seemed shocked that Hajime had actually come back. 
She stared fixedly at Hajime through her dirty golden locks, crimson eyes gleaming in the darkness. He began growing impatient at her continued silence. 
“Hey, are you listening? If you don’t want to talk, then I’ll just head back now,” he said brusquely and turned on his heel. The girl came back to her senses with a start and quickly began speaking. 
“I am one of the original, atavistic vampires... because of the extraordinary power I was gifted with... I worked hard for the sake of my country and my people. But then... one day... my retainers all... said I wasn’t needed anymore... My uncle... said that he would be king in my place... I...was fine with that... but because I had so much power everyone was afraid of me, they thought I was dangerous... They couldn’t kill me... so they decided to seal me here instead... That’s why...” 
She spoke haltingly but desperately, her parched throat making speech difficult. Hajime sighed as he heard her tale. She had certainly suffered a cruel fate. However, during the course of her tale he heard some things that nagged at him. He felt an inexplicable, complicated feeling well up within him, so he asked the following: 
“So does that mean you were some kind of royalty?” She nodded furiously at his words. 
“What do you mean they couldn’t kill you?” 
“...I heal automatically. No matter what kind of injury it is, it’ll just heal by itself. Even if you cut my head off I’ll regenerate eventually.” 
“Th-That’s quite the ability... So that’s the power everyone was afraid of?” 
“That too, but... the main thing was that I could control mana... directly, without a magic circle.” 
Hajime nodded and replied with a simple, “I see.” 
After consuming monster flesh he had become capable of freely manipulating his mana as well. He needed no chants or magic circles to enhance his body, or use the special magic he had acquired. Same with his transmutation skill. 
However, Hajime had zero affinity for magic, so even if he could manipulate his mana directly he still needed a huge magic circle to actually cast anything, meaning he effectively couldn’t use it for much. 
But with this girl’s magical affinity, being able to directly manipulate mana turned into an insanely powerful asset. Because while everyone else had to waste time preparing circles and chanting their spells, she could just blast off magic like nobody’s business. Frankly, it wouldn’t be much of a fight if she chose to take someone on. And to top it off, she was immortal. It probably wasn’t perfect, and there was most likely some way to actually overcome it, but even then it was a cheat level skill far surpassing that of any hero’s. 
“...Please, save me...” She begged softly as she watched Hajime sink deep into thought. 
“Hmm...” He stared unblinkingly at her. She stared right back. They spent what felt like an eternity gazing into each other’s eyes. Finally, Hajime scratched his head awkwardly and breathed a long sigh. He then placed his hand on the cube holding the girl. 
“Ah.” Her eyes opened wide as she realized what he was doing. He ignored her and began transmuting. 
His mana, which had turned a dark red, or rather more of a deep crimson since ingesting the wolves, began flowing down his arm. 
However, the cube he was trying to transmute remained unchanged, as if it was resisting the force of his mana. Just like the bedrock that lay between each floor of the labyrinth. However, unlike those it wasn’t as if his magic was being completely nullified. Little by little, Hajime’s power began seeping into the cube. 
“Guh, this thing’s tough... but I’m not so weak anymore!” He poured yet more mana into his spell. It was enough mana that it would have taken six verses to chant out, were he not able to manipulate it freely. Finally, he felt his magic start taking effect. The tremendous volume of mana dazzled bright crimson, illuminating the entire room in a fiery red. 
And yet Hajime continued pouring mana into his arm. Seven verses worth, then eight. The part of the rock encasing the girl began to tremble at that point. 
“I’m not done yet!” He pushed even harder, pouring a ninth verse’s worth of mana into the stone. At that point he had burned enough mana to cast some of the most advanced spells in existence and still have some left over. The girl stared at him fixedly as his mana grew brighter and brighter, determined not to miss a single moment. 
Cold sweat poured down his back as he kept going. This was the first time Hajime had tried to cast such a large-scale spell. If he lost focus for even an instant, the massive amount of mana he was wielding would go berserk. But even after all that, the cube refused to budge. Desperate, he threw all the mana he had into the spell. 
Hajime wasn’t sure why he was going so far for a girl he had just met. 
But for some reason, he just couldn’t leave her alone. Even though he had sworn to himself to eliminate all obstacles in his path and to live only for the sake of his goal, he still continued transmuting. Seriously, why the hell am I doing this? He mentally admonished his actions, but then he reasoned that everyone makes exceptions sometimes and stubbornly thought, I decided to do this, so there’s no way in hell I’m quitting halfway! 
He was burning so much mana that his entire body glowed crimson. He was using up every last drop of mana just to free her. With a doggedness that surprised even himself, he kept resolutely transmuting with every ounce of spirit he had. Finally, the portion of the cube entrapping the girl began to melt like hot butter and dribbled to the ground, slowly releasing her from her stone prison. 
As the rock slowly fell away, her modest breasts were fully visible. Next came her waist, then her hands, her thighs, and finally the cube melted away entirely and she was free. Her completely naked body was clearly emaciated, but it still had an alluring charm to it. She slumped to the ground in an exhausted heap as soon as her body was fully free. It seemed she wasn’t strong enough to stand. 
Hajime sat down in front of her. He was panting heavily. Using up his entire reservoir of mana had clearly exhausted him greatly. 

With a trembling hand he tried to pull out a vial of Ambrosia, but before he could the girl put her hand over his and grabbed it. Her small, slender, and frail hand trembled as it entwined with his own. He gave her a sidelong glance, and realized she was looking right at him. Though her face was expressionless, a wealth of emotions dwelled within her crimson eyes. 
In a small and trembling, but powerful voice, the girl conveyed her feelings. 
“Thank you.” Hajime wasn’t sure he could ever express the emotion he felt at those words. He just knew that the heart he thought he’d discarded began glowing with a faint, but resolute light. 
He sat there quietly, his hand in hers. He wondered how long she must have been trapped there, suffering. As far as Hajime knew, the vampires had gone extinct hundreds of years ago. At the very least, that was what had been written in the history books he had read in the royal library. 
Even when she had been talking to him earlier, her face had remained expressionless. Which meant that she had at least spent a long enough time in this solitary dark cell to forget how to speak, and even how to show emotions. 
According to her tale, she had been betrayed by someone she trusted too. It was a wonder she hadn’t gone insane. Perhaps that had been due to her healing factor? But if that really were the case, that meant she had been tortured for centuries by her own abilities. Unable to even sink into the release of madness. 
Guess drinking the potion can wait, Hajime smiled wryly as he thought to himself, squeezing the girl’s hand back as he did. Startled, she jumped slightly, and then strengthened her own grip. 
“...What’s your name?” she whispered to Hajime. His smile grew awkward as he realized they hadn’t told each other their names yet. He replied quickly, without a hint of hesitation in his tone. 
“Hajime. Hajime Nagumo. What’s yours?” She muttered “Hajime” to herself over and over, as if carving it into her memories. After she finished repeating it she opened her mouth to answer his question, before hesitating for a moment and thinking better of it. 
“...Give me one.” 
“Huh? You want me to name you? Don’t tell me you forgot your actual one?” 
Considering how long she had been imprisoned here it wasn’t impossible, but the girl shook her head slowly. 
“I don’t need a name from the past... I’m fine with whatever name you give me, Hajime.” 
“...Haah, It’s not so easy to just think up a name...” The reason she wanted a new name was probably similar to the reason Hajime had reforged his heart. She wanted to throw away her old self and be reborn. Hajime had practically been forced to change by the pain and starvation, but it seemed she wanted to be reborn of her own free will. And the first step toward that transformation was getting a new moniker. 
She looked expectantly up at Hajime. Hajime scratched his cheek as he thought, before finally christening the girl with her new name. 
“What do you think of Yue? I’m not really good at the whole naming thing, so I can try thinking up a different one if you don’t like it.” 
“Yue...? Yue...Yue...” 
“Yeah. Where I come from, it means ‘moon.’ When I first came into this room your golden hair and red eyes reminded me of the moon, so I just... Well, what do you think?” She blinked in surprise at his words. It seemed she hadn’t expected him to have a reason behind picking the name. And though her face remained as expressionless as always, her eyes were sparkling with happiness. 
“...Hmm. Then from today onwards, I will be Yue. Thank you.” 
“Glad you like it. Anyway...” 
“Huh?” As the girl, now Yue, expressed her thanks, Hajime untangled his hand from hers and took off his coat. She watched him in mild confusion. 
“Here, wear this. Can’t have you running around naked forever.” 
“Oh...” Yue reflexively took the coat offered to her, and looked down at her own body. As Hajime had said, she was stark naked. Every bit of her was completely exposed. She blushed and pressed the coat against her body before looking up at Hajime and saying, 
“Hajime, you pervert.” 
“Uh...” He realized anything he said would only make things worse, so he wisely chose to remain silent. Yue happily donned the coat he gave her. As she was a mere 140 centimeters tall, it was a bit too big for her. Hajime smiled as he watched her try and fold the right sleeve back enough for her hands to poke through. 
While she was wrestling with his coat, he drank some Ambrosia. He felt strength return to his body, and his mind began working again. He used Sense Presence to check his surroundings... and instantly froze. There was one hell of a powerful monster in the room with them. 
And it was... right above them. The same time he noticed its presence, it chose to drop down from the ceiling. 
He quickly got to his feet, scooped up Yue with one arm, and used Supersonic Step to dash away as fast as possible. He looked back just in time to see the monster crash into the ground right where they’d been sitting a second ago. 
The monster was nearly five meters long, and possessed four arms that all ended in razor-sharp scissors. It had a further eight legs that clacked noisily as it scuttled around. It also had two tails, each of which ended in stingers. The closest thing it resembled was a scorpion. Hajime assumed the two stingers contained poison. It was clearly far more powerful than the monsters he had faced so far. Cold sweat began running down his forehead. 
His initial Sense Presences when he first entered the room hadn’t discovered anything, but the one he had used mere moments ago had. Which meant that the scorpion thing must have entered the room after he had released Yue from her seal. 
In other words, this was the one last trap her captors had placed to keep her from escaping her cell. If it was a trap designed for Yue, Hajime could escape if he left her behind. 
He spared a quick glance at the girl he held in his arms. She was ignoring the scorpion thing entirely and looking only at Hajime. Her eyes were a sea of calm, showing nothing but the resolve to accept her fate. They spoke volumes more than words ever could. Yue had decided to place her life in Hajime’s hands. 
When he saw those eyes, Hajime’s lips naturally curled up into his usual fearless grin. Though he had told himself he would never care about other people again, he had ended up sympathizing with Yue anyway. She had lit the fire in his heart, a heart he thought he had long since abandoned. And despite the terrible betrayal she had suffered, she chose once more to place her trust in someone. If he didn’t help her, then he didn’t deserve to be called a man. 
“Bring it, you bastard. Kill me if you think you can.” Hajime slung Yue over his shoulder, pulled another vial of Ambrosia out of his bag, and thrust it into her mouth. 
“Mmmgh!?” The rejuvenating fluid spread throughout her body. Tears formed in the corner of her eyes at the sudden intrusion of something hard into her mouth, but her eyes opened wide as she felt the Ambrosia heal her emaciated body. 
He then skillfully swung Yue around, situating her on his back. Weakened as she was, Yue was nothing more than dead weight, but Hajime knew if he just put her down somewhere the scorpion thing would probably go for her first. Still, fighting a monster that strong while protecting someone was going to be tough. 
“Hang on tight, Yue!” Though she was far from fully healed, she had enough strength in her body that she was able to cling tightly to his back. 
The scorpion’s legs clacked on the ground as it scuttled over to them. He felt Yue’s slender arms clutching tightly to his back, and with the fearless grin still on his face, Hajime boldly proclaimed his intent. 
“If you try and get in my way... I’ll kill you and eat you!” As if responding to his challenge, the scorpion thing attacked first. One of its tails swelled up and shot a stream of purple liquid at him. The stream traveled surprisingly fast, and Hajime quickly leaped away. The purple liquid sizzled as it hit the ground, melting the area around it. Hajime suspected it was some form of acid. 
He spared the liquid a brief glance before drawing Donner from its holster and firing it. 
Bang! He fired at full power. A bullet traveling at three kilometers per second slammed into the scorpion thing’s skull. 
Hajime felt Yue stiffen on his back. She was surprised to see such an unfamiliar weapon, and surprised even more when she saw it fire off an attack that hit instantly. On top of all that, though, she hadn’t sensed Hajime use magic. However, there was a small amount of electricity running down his right arm; he had created it without chanting a spell or using a magic circle. In other words, Yue realized that he had the same kind of mana manipulation ability she did. 
He was the same as her, and for some reason he, too, was stuck in the depths of hell. Though she knew now was no time to be distracted, she couldn’t help but pay more attention to Hajime than the scorpion. 
Meanwhile, Hajime continued leaping through the air with Aerodynamic, making sure to constantly stay on the move. For once, his expression was actually grim. The reason being that Detect Magic and Sense Presence had told him that his bullet hadn’t fazed the scorpion thing in the least. 
As proof, its other tail was swelling up as it took aim at him. Then, once it had built up sufficient pressure, it shot its stinger out at him. He tried to dodge, but the needle burst in midair, splintering into numerous sharp shards that sped toward him. 
“Gah!” He screamed in pain, but continued shooting down the jets of liquid with Donner, kicking them away with Steel Legs, and blowing them off with Gale Claw. He somehow managed to survive the onslaught and returned fire with Donner. He then threw Donner into the air, pulled out a grenade from his pouch, and threw it at the scorpion thing. 
It withstood Donner’s second shot, preparing to fire another buckshot of needles and set of acid spray in return. But before it could, the eight-centimeter-long grenade that had rolled next to it exploded. And as it exploded it sprayed burning black pitch all over the scorpion. 
This was his incendiary grenade. He had made it out of the flamrock he discovered on the tar floor. Right now the scorpion was being engulfed in 3000-degrees flames. 
It looked like even the scorpion thing couldn’t withstand flames that hot, as it began flailing around, trying to scrape the tar off it somehow. Hajime used this time to land back on the ground and reload Donner, which he had already caught in the air. 
By the time he finished reloading the effects of the incendiary grenade had died down, and the flamrock had mostly burnt out. However, the flames had definitely succeeded in doing some damage, and the scorpion thing screeched in rage. 
“Kshaaaaaaaaa!!!” It charged Hajime, all eight legs scuttling rapidly across the ground. The four scissors attached to its front legs suddenly extended forward as if they had been shot out of a cannon and sped toward Hajime. 
He dodged the first with Supersonic Step, then jumped over the second with Aerodynamic. He managed to kick the third one away with his Steel Legs, but that threw him off balance as the fourth one headed for him. 
However, an instant before it collided with him, he fired Donner and used the recoil from the shot to propel himself backward. By twisting his body, he just barely dodged the fourth scissor claw. Yue was groaning uncomfortably at his violent movements, but she just had to bear it, since Hajime was at his limits just dodging. 
He leaped through the air again, this time landing on the scorpion thing’s back. He somehow managed to keep his balance on the rampaging beast’s back, and fired Donner into its shell at point blank range. 
Bam! With a deafening explosion, the bullet forced the scorpion to the ground. 
However, even a direct hit at point blank range wasn’t enough to pierce its shell, so the bullet had merely scratched it. Hajime ground his teeth in frustration, then swung down with a Gale Claw. However, it bounced off with a metallic clang, not even scratching the shell. 
Fed up with the human on its back, the scorpion thing fired a round of needle buckshot at its own back. 
Hajime swiftly jumped back up into the air, firing another bullet at the joint where the tail connected with the stinger while he was in motion. The high speed bullet hit with perfect accuracy and flung the tail back... but even the tip of the tail was protected by the same thick shell, so the bullet did no lasting damage. Hajime just didn’t have enough power to damage it. 
As he fled into the sky, the four scissor arms attacked him once more. He flung another incendiary grenade in desperation and jumped away to safety. The scorpion was engulfed in flaming tar for a second time, but Hajime knew he was just buying himself time. 
He put some distance between him and the scorpion thing and tried to think of a plan. But before he could even begin, he heard another piercing scream come from its mouth. 
“Kiiiiiiiiiiiii!” Chills ran down his spine as he heard that, and he tried to use Supersonic Step to put even more distance between him and the scorpion... but it was already too late. 
As the scream echoed throughout the room, the ground around him began to warp, and with a thundering roar, spiked cones flew out one after another. 
“Dammit!” This was a completely unexpected attack. 
He desperately took to the sky once more, only to discover that there were spikes closing on him from behind too. In order to protect Yue, he twisted his body around, but that completely destroyed his balance. He still managed to repel the remaining spikes with Donner and his Steel Legs, but he was forced to stop moving, giving the scorpion thing time to aim another buckshot. 
His face stiffened in horror. 
An instant later, a barrage of acid and spiked needles came hurtling toward him. He made a snap decision. He realized dodging both in his current situation would be impossible. 
Using Aerodynamic, he jumped out of range of the acid spray and covered his vitals with his right arm and left stump. His face he protected with Donner’s barrel. Then, using his mana manipulation ability, he strengthened his body to the limit and clenched his muscles. 
Moments later, dozens of needles pierced through Hajime’s body. 
“Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!” He screamed in pain once more, but he managed to avoid taking a hit in any vital areas. Because Yue was clinging to his back he made sure to stop the needles with his body and keep them from piercing her as well. 
The force of the impact flung Hajime backward. Assailed by pain, he slammed into the ground and rolled over and over. The impact threw Yue off his back too. 
Ignoring the pain of the countless needles that pierced his body, Hajime clenched his teeth and pulled out a flash grenade that he threw at the scorpion thing. It flew in a neat arc through the air before exploding right in front of its eyes. 
“Kshaaaaaaaaaaa!!!” It screamed in pain as the light seared its retinas, and took an involuntary step back. Considering it had followed Hajime with its eyes this whole time, he had guessed, correctly, that it mainly used sight to track its prey. 
Hajime bit down on the vial of Ambrosia he kept in his molar and pulled all the needles out at once. 
“Guuuuuh!” He bit down on his lips from the searing pain, and a moan escaped his lips. But he withstood the pain. He had suffered so much already that he was used to it. Something of that level was nowhere near enough to break his spirit anymore. 
As he continued to pull needles from his body, he looked around, searching for Yue. But before he could find her, she found him. 
“Hajime!” She ran over to him, worry etched on her face. Her usually expressionless mask had crumbled and she looked like she was about to burst into tears. 
“Don’t worry, I’m fine. More importantly, that thing is way too damn hard. I can’t think of any way to beat it. If I try to go for its eyes or mouth, those stupid scissor things’ll get in my way... Do I have no choice but to try for a suicide rush and just accept that I’ll take some damage?” He put Yue’s worried face out of his mind for the moment and concentrated on finding a way to defeat it. But he became distracted when he heard Yue’s murmured words. 
“...Why?” 
“Huh?” 
”Why don’t you run?” Yue’s words implied that Hajime should already have realized he could leave her and escape by himself. He looked at her, evidently dumbfounded. 
“Don’t be ridiculous. I haven’t fallen so low that I’d leave you behind to die just ’cause the enemy we ran into’s a little stronger than usual.” 
In order to survive, Hajime would use anything at his disposal, whether it was ambushes, tricks, traps, lies, bluffs, and all sorts of other cowardly tactics. Aside from the one fight he had with the Claw Bear, he honestly thought fighting head-on was just moronic. Hell wasn’t so nice a place that you could survive with a code of honor. Nor did he feel guilty about his chosen fighting style. That was just how much he’d transformed over the course of his time here. 
Still, he hadn’t sunk so far that he’d abandon someone. Even now, after all this time, he still had some semblance of morality. No, rather it was more accurate to say that he had regained some semblance of morality. And the one who had reminded him of that, of who he really was, was none other than Yue. 
Hence why abandoning her was not an option. When she had given him that look, a look that told him she had placed her life in his hands, he had made his decision. At the critical turning point that decided whether or not he became as terrible as the monsters he consumed, he had chosen to remain human. 
Yue saw in his expression the words he didn’t say and nodded in understanding before suddenly hugging him. 
“H-Huh? What’s up?” Hajime stuttered, confused. Considering the circumstances, her actions seemed oddly timed. The effects of the flash grenade would wear off any minute. Plus, Hajime’s wounds had finished healing. He needed to return to the fray as soon as possible. 
Yet in spite of all that, Yue wrapped a hand around his neck. 
“Hajime... trust in me.” As she said that, Yue kissed the nape of his neck. 
“Wha—!?” No, not kissed. Bit. 
Hajime felt a tiny pinprick of pain. Following that, it felt as if the energy was being sucked out of his body. He was about to shake her off, when he remembered Yue had said she was a vampire, and realized she must have been sucking his blood. 
When she had said “trust in me” she meant she wanted him to put aside his initial fear and revulsion at having his blood sucked. 
Smiling wryly, Hajime wrapped his arms around Yue and supported her tiny body as she drank his blood. She twitched in surprise, but after a moment she hugged him even tighter and buried her face into his neck. It might just have been his imagination, but it looked as if Yue was happy he did that. 
“Kshaaaaaaaaaaaaa!” The scorpion thing’s roar echoed throughout the chamber. It appeared the time he’d bought with the flash grenade had run out. It must have found them already, as the ground shook once more and began to warp. This must have been its special magic. It could freely control the earth around it. 
“Unfortunately for you, that’s my specialty too.” Hajime placed his right hand on the ground and began transmuting. The ground stopped warping in a three meter radius around him, and instead rose up to form walls that protected him and Yue. 
Myriad spiked cones slammed into the walls, aiming for Hajime, but his barriers kept them at bay. Each wall was only able to withstand a single attack, but he transmuted a new one after each broke. 
The scope, strength, and offensive power of the scorpion’s earth manipulation were far above Hajime’s, but his transmutation speed was far faster. The range of his transmutation ability had stopped growing at three meters, so he assumed it had reached its peak. Also, he still couldn’t fling spikes or do anything purely offensive with the skill, but when it came to defense, there was none better. 
Hajime focused his all on defense, keeping the monster’s attacks at bay until Yue finally removed her fangs from his neck. 
Her face was flushed as she licked the last few drops of blood off her lips. Despite how young she appeared, the gesture, combined with her flushed face, looked rather seductive. In the span of a few moments, her emaciated body had become healthy, and her porcelain-white skin glowed with new vitality. Her cheeks, once gaunt, were now a rosy pink. A warm, gentle light dwelled within her crimson eyes, and she caressed Hajime’s cheek with a slender hand. 
“...Thanks for the meal.” Suddenly, Yue got to her feet and brandished a hand at the scorpion thing. As she did so, a tremendous amount of mana, golden in color, poured out of her tiny body, chasing away the darkness. 
Then, clad in a wondrous golden light, with her golden hair fluttering around her, she muttered a single phrase. 
“Azure Blaze.” A massive blue-white fireball, at least six or seven meters in diameter, appeared directly above the scorpion’s head. 
Though it didn’t score a direct hit, the fireball must have still caused quite a bit of damage, as the beast backed away, screeching in pain. 
However, the vampire princess of the abyss did not allow it to escape. She stuck an elegant finger out, waving it around like a conductor’s baton. The fireball then followed her finger faithfully, chasing after the fleeing scorpion... and slammed into it. 
“Gagyaaaaaa!?” It screeched in pain, letting out a noise Hajime had not heard before. It was clearly suffering. As the fireball smashed into its target, the entire room was filled with a blinding white light, temporarily robbing everyone of their sight. Hajime covered his eyes with his arm, and gazed dumbfounded at the grand display of magic. 

Eventually the magic wore off and the pale blue fireball vanished. Once the flames disappeared, Hajime could see the scorpion writhing around in pain, its shell pulsing an angry red, and noted that parts of it had fused together from the heat. 
Hajime wasn’t sure what was more praiseworthy: Yue’s magic, which had harmed the shell neither his 3000 degrees Celsius incendiary grenade nor a point blank railgun shot from Donner could even scratch, or the monster’s shell, which had somehow managed to withstand the blast. 
He heard a soft thump and tore his eyes away from the wondrous spectacle to look back at Yue. She was slumped on the ground, breathing heavily. It seemed she had used up all her mana. 
“Yue, you alright?” 
“Mm... Just very... tired...” 
“Haha. But man, you really did it. Thanks for the save. I’ll handle the rest, so you just rest.” 
“Mm, good luck...” Hajime waved at Yue, and then used Supersonic Step to close the distance between him and the scorpion in one bound. It was still in surprisingly good shape. Though it was howling in pain and rage at having its shell fused together, and when it saw Hajime approach it instantly fired its needle buckshot. 
For his part, Hajime swiftly pulled another flash grenade from his pouch and flung it at the scorpion. He then blew away the buckshot with Donner before it had a chance to separate. After that, he fired a non-railgun powered shot at the falling flash grenade. 
Having gotten used to this move already, the scorpion wasn’t fazed this time. It screeched in annoyance at its temporary blindness, but it still continued seeking out Hajime. 
But no matter where it looked, it couldn’t find him. As it glanced about in confusion, Hajime fell from the sky and landed on its back. 
“Kshaa!?” It let out a surprised hiss. That was no surprise. After all, its prey had escaped its senses and suddenly showed up behind it. 
Hajime had used Hide Presence and the flash from his grenade to escape the scorpion’s senses. 
The red hot scorpion’s shell burned Hajime’s skin. However, he ignored the pain, placed Donner directly above one of the damaged sections, and emptied the gun’s entire chamber. Having already lost some of its hardness from Yue’s earlier fireball, the scorpion’s shell was unable to withstand a barrage of point blank rail gun enhanced bullets, so it finally shattered. 
Heedless of the damage it might cause itself, the scorpion thrust at Hajime with both its tails, but he was faster. 
“Take this, you bastard.” He pulled another grenade from his pouch, then thrust it deep into the hole he had made with Donner. He ignored his burning flesh as he dug his “present” in as deep as he could. Then, before the scorpion could attack him with its tails, he fled to safety using Supersonic Step. As he fled, it turned around to chase him down with a projectile attack. 
However, the moment it finished turning— 
Boom! A muffled explosion resounded throughout the room, which made the scorpion thing twitch. The frozen scorpion and Hajime stared at each other as silence reigned. 
Finally, the scorpion crumpled to the ground with a resounding crash. 
Hajime finished reloading Donner and slowly walked up to the unmoving scorpion. Just to make sure it was dead, he fired three bullets into his mouth before nodding in satisfaction. It had become his policy in recent times to make sure he thoroughly finished any foe off. 
As he turned around, he found Yue sitting on the ground staring at him, expressionless as always. Despite her poker face, it seemed to him that she was happy. He had no idea when he’d finally escape the wretched labyrinth he was currently trapped in, but at least he’d found a reliable partner to travel with. 
According to myth, Pandora’s Box had contained all of the world’s evil, but also a tiny bit of hope. Though he had jokingly referred to the room as Pandora’s Box before, it had turned into a more accurate analogy than he had ever expected. Thinking happily to himself, Hajime slowly walked over to Yue.