by Chuuni Suki
( KILL, KILL, KILL, KILL, KILL, KILL, KILL, KILL, KILL, KILL, KILL, KILL, KILL, KILL, KILL, KILL, KILL, KILL, KILL, KILL, KILL, KILL, KILL, KILL, KILL, KILL, KILL, KILL, KILL, KILL, KILL, KILL, KILL, KILL, KILL, KILL, KILL, KILL, KILL, KILL, KILL, KILL, KILL, KILL, KILL, KILL, KILL, KILL, KILL, KILL, KILL, KILL, KILL, KILL, KILL, KILL, KILL, KILL, KILL, KILL, KILL, KILL, KILL, KILL, KILL, KILL, KILL, KILL, KILL, )
To escape this feeling of starvation,
( Kill and Devour! )
At this moment, the mild and gentle, apologizing with a bitter smile at any sign of conflict, the Hajime that Kaori thought was strong, utterly fell from grace.
A new Nagumo Hajime came into existence. A Nagumo Hajime that would ruthlessly eliminate any who stood in his way of survival. His broken heart broke again. This new heart however was not a weak heart that was roughly patched up. No, his new tough heart was re-forged by the fires of agony, despair and darkness.
Hajime starts to move his completely weakened body. For the past few days he had slurped on the accumulated sacred water like a dog given a drinking bowl. The hunger or phantom limb pain did not disappear, but it revitalized his body.
His eyes shined glaringly, his watery mouth needed to be wiped and his face broke out into a fearless grin. The canines in his warped mouth gained a glint. Certainly his expression had a sudden change just like his thoughts. Hajime arose to proclaim a transmutation and he muttered again…
"KILL"
* * *
In the labyrinth there was a pack of two-tailed wolves. A pack of wolves usually consisted of 4-6 members. Because they were the weakest demon on this level, they compensated by cooperating in a group. The group Hajime saw was no exception, they totaled four in number.
Cautiously, he observed his surroundings from his hiding spot near the wall and waited for the best hunting ground. The most fundamental hunting method was setting up an ambush. He let the wolves wander for a while until the perfect ambush site was discovered, this site had rocks covering the four corners. Now he waited for the prey to come. The moment one of them showed up, it was going to get butchered by being sandwiched by a rock and the wall. Hajime was practically salivating at the thought of his prey, until he felt something was off.
Since their most important survival tool is their cooperation, they had an almost telepathic link with each other. Packmates would not be able to directly communicate with each other, but they would somehow know where each were and what they were doing. However, something was something wrong. They were gathered into a group of four but somehow the leader could only sense three left among them. One of the wolves' signature that was at the opposite side of the wall disappeared.
It harbored doubts, when he put in the effort to raise from his prone position, it heard one of its packmate scream. Restlessness was conveyed from one wolf that was near the companion that disappeared. The comrade was caught and stuck between something and could not slip out. Two wolves on the opposite side rushed up to rescue him. However, the sign of that struggling animal disappeared.
Confused, it quickly went to the wall and checked the area, but nothing was there. The remaining two puzzled wolves used their noses to sniff around the area the two other wolves disappeared from to get a hint.
At that moment, the ground depressed, and the walls protruded out to cover them. When they were about to jump aside, the depressed floor suddenly reverted back to its original state. This would make escaping the trap an easy task for the wolves. If it had not been confused with encountering such a new experience, they would not have been caught so easily. The assailant had already planned for their confusion and that single moment of hesitation. That was a good enough opportunity to catch them.
"Guru-ua!?"
The two wolves screamed as the walls swallowed them….then nothing was left.
Hajime was the one to catch all four of those wolves. Fighting back with determination, he was able to oppress his hunger and phantom limb pains. The sacred water had sustained him so far, it was a good thing he trained earnestly repeatedly his transmuting and mana capacity.
His transmuting was more quick, more accurate and more extensive now. If he went out right now, he might die. He had accumulated training when he was in the room with the God's Crystal. Hajime wanted to polish his weapon even if slightly, and of course his weapon is transmutation.
Even if it was possible for him to endure the pains, they still assaulted him. These pains were probably what made Hajime concentrate to such an extreme manner.This allowed him to perform several times faster than normal, and his transmuting range was three meters now. Of course he did not have an earth attribute magic that could be used offensively.
He had a small container filled with sacred water and started to look for his enemies. Using his transmuting he was able to find the four wolves. Hajime decided to tail them. Many times he was almost found out, but he was able to lose their trail by hiding in spots he constructed with his transmuting. That was when he sprang his trap and using his transmuting he dragged them into the wall.
"Now what? My transmutation has no direct killing power. Both the speed and power of my transmuting did not seem to be enough to kill the demons."
Hajime looked through a tiny peep hole with his glistening eyes. The motionless pack growled while they were in the wall.
Looked like he was right, the wolves had not died. Previously, he had attacked them with the splintering stone but it seemed that there was not enough power and speed to harm them. This was probably because of the earth here. His magic was only used to process minerals, so using such a power to kill seemed to be out of reach. Thus, restraining them was the best he could do.
"I wonder if I should suffocate them...but I can't wait for that."
Hajime's eyes started to grin as it gained a predatorial glint. He press his right arm against the wall and casted his magic. A piece of stone was cut off and slowly he transfigured it while he concentrated on an image. When it was done the stone had been turned into a thin spiral spear. Furthermore, it had other parts added on to it, like a handle.
"Now then, to dig!"
The spear was stabbed towards the ground where the wolves resided. Hard fur and skin made contact with the tip of the spear.
"After all I can't stab you. That confirms my hypothesis."
Why didn't he use a sword or knife? Because it is widely known that the stronger the demon the harder it becomes. There were a few exceptions to it. Hajime had studied a lot to overcome his uselessness and from what he had gathered a normal sword or knife would be useless against these guys.
Thus, Hajime started to rotate the handle on the spear. The spear spiraled to match Hajime's actions. He was using this spear as a drill to pierce through the demon's hard skin.
Applying his weight to turn it, and eventually it started to slowly dig into the beast's skin.
"Guru-aa!!"
The wolf screamed.
"Does it hurt? I won't apologize. I'm doing this to live. Don't you guys eat me too? We both feel the same."
While talking, he had constantly been rotating the drill. The wolf tried to struggle desperately, but it was impossible because it had not a single gap to work against.
Finally, the drill had broken through its tough skin layer. The drill mercilessly destroyed the wolf's innards. A death cry escaped from its mouth. It screamed for a bit but soon it twitched for a bit and finally stopped moving.
"Alright, let's secure the food first."
Laughing gleefully, he butchered the other three in the same manner. When he was done, the carcasses was recovered using transmutation. The fur on them was removed with some trouble, he only had one hand.
His hunger stimulated his desire to consume.
Chapter 10: Weapon Creation
In the darkness, the light stones illuminate the surrounding area.
The light projected a few shadows. One of the shadows, provided a silhouette of someone crouching in front of a beast while chewing could b
e heard.
"Augh, Guu, This seriously sucks."
Hajime ate the wolf meat with a curse. The meat was very tough, and blood dripped off as he took a bite and swallowed. This had been his first meal for the past weeks. The stomach was surprised to suddenly receive the meat. Pains shot through his body at the stomach's protest. Hajime knew he would get such a response and ignore it to keep eating.
His appearance looked so feral. If any of the civilized humans saw what was going it they would be repulsed. The disgusting smell and taste would cause them to lose their appetite. Hajime did not even consider such a thought because he was happy to have a meal. He continued to eat in a daze.
After eating so much of this meat that his belly swelled and drinking the sacred water that the Church of Saints would be envious of. An unusual phenomenon struck his body.
"Ah?...Augh!?"
An intense pain suddenly wracked his body. Erosion, that was the best word to describe what horrible sensation he felt going through his body. The pain intensified as time passed.
"Guaa! W-What...Guu!"
Excruciating pain corroded his body. Hajime thrashed on the ground. This pain was so strong that it blew away his phantom limb pain.
With his trembling hands, Hajime reached into his breast pocket and took out a test-tube made of stone. He quickly chewed the edge of the tube and drank the contents inside. The sacred water quickly went to work and the pain subsided, but a short time later the agony continued.
"Higugaa! What the...it didn't help? Augh!"
His body started to pulsate with the pain. Thump, Thump, his body pulsed. Even the sounds could be heard coming from his body.
However the next moment, the sacred water's healing properties started to restore his body. When it was done healing him, the pain returned. Then it was repaired again.
Even the sacred water could not stunt the effects. The tremendous healing ability was actually backfiring here.
Hajime screamed as he floundered on the ground. He banged his head repeatedly against the wall at the unending sight of his hell. Even if he wanted to die, there would be noone to grant his desire, so he had no choice but to endure it.
Changes started to form on Hajime's body. First, his hair lost all color. Maybe because of a pain that broke his threshold, or another cause, his black Japanese hair turned white. Next, his muscles and skeleton started to thicken. Crimson lines started to emerge all over his body.
There is a phenomenon called overcompensation. This is the process the body goes through when training muscles. The muscles are broken down from the severe use and in order to compensate and adapt to the strain it creates stronger and more muscle when the body recovers. The same happens to the skeletal system. Hajime's body was going through this phenomenon.
Demon meat was a deadly poison for humans. All of them had Magic Stones in their body, and this allowed for their wonderful physical ability with their magical power. Inside his body this magic was strongly permeating his muscles and bones.
This magic was the Special Magic that did not require the magic circles or incantation to cast, and his magic was getting altered. This kind of alteration would be fatal to a human. From the inside of the body the poison would erode the body and destroy the cells. In the past, anyone who had consumed demon flesh was broken to pieces and died. Hajime knew of this, but his starvation had caused him to be unable to recall this knowledge.
If Hajime had just ate the demon flesh than he would have collapsed and died. However, there was an elixir that prevented that. Sacred water, it will restore immediately what once was broken. Because of this constant breaking and restoring, overcompensation, his body strengthened at an unbelievable speed.
Destroy, Repair, Destroy, then Repair. The body changed while pulsing. It looked like he was being reborn. A ceremony of birth to throw away the body's weakness,a metamorphosis. Hajime's screams was like the first cry of a newborn.
When the pulsation stopped, Hajime went limp. Pure white was his hair color now, and crimson lines formed on his body. He was just like the monsters that plagued this level.
Hajime's right hand twitched. The closed eyes were opened slightly. His unfocused eyes settled onto his right hand. Grasping his hand into a fist, he scratched along the ground. Hajime slowly clasped and unclasp his hand to prove he was still alive. When he finished checking if he had control of his body, he stood up slowly.
"...Oh, yeah. You weren't suppose to eat demon meat...I'm an idiot...but he couldn't help but eat it."
Completely exhausted, Hajime just snorted. Both his hunger and his phantom limb pain disappeared after this incident. On the contrary, his body felt strangely light and overflowed with power. Even though he just went through that, it was in its best condition. The most clearly developed muscles was his arm and abdomen. Hajime heights also increased by 10 cm, bringing the total height to 175 cm.
"What happened to my body? There is some strang feeling…"
Not only had his external body changed, but he felt something out of place inside. The strange feeling felt cold and hot at the same time. When more of his awareness came, he focused on the crimson lines on his arm.
"Wow, how unpleasant. Makes me feel like a demon….What a joke. Oh yeah, the Status Plate!"
Exploring through his pockets, he searched for the forgotten status plate. Good thing he did not lose it. There on the plate was displayed Hajime's current condition. Maybe it would show if something was wrong with his body.
Name
Nagumo Hajime
Age
17 Years Old
Gender
Male
Level
8
Class
Transmutation Artist (Synergist)
Strength
100
Vitality
300
Resistance
100
Agility
200
Magic
300
Magic Resistance
300
Skills
Transmutation
Magic Manipulation
Iron Stomach
Lightning Clad
Language Comprehension
"...Say What!?"
Like always, whenever he is astonished he switches to Kansai dialect and performs a Tsukkomi. All his stats had increased significantly, and he had three new skills. He couldn't believe it, and he was still just level 8. Levels were considered the amount of progression a person had, for Hajime, this meant he had a lot of potential to grow.
"Magic Manipulation?"
He wondered if he could directly control magic then. Hajime pondered if the earlier sensation he felt was magic. To verify his thoughts, he concentrated to attempt this "magic manipulation." The crimson lines emerge again when Hajime concentrated on that sensation. He imagined an image where that sensation gathered into his right hand. Slowly the sensation returned and he could feel the movement of magic.
"Whoa!"
When he attempted to raise his voice at the sensation, the magic started to gather around the magic formation on his glove. The surprised Hajime tried to transmute, and the ground rose easily.
"Seriously? I don't need to chant? But the principle of magic said that direct manipulation of magic was impossible. Only demons could perform it. Maybe after consuming demon flesh I obtained the ability?"
Right on the dot! Hajime had for sure gotten the ability of the of the demons. He wanted to test out "Lightning Clad" next.
"How do I use it? If you mention "Lightning Clad", it has to deal with electricity. Was it what the wolves casted with their tail?"
He tried different ways to invoke it but nothing changed. Hajime did not know how the magic felt like, so he did not know what to do. Groaning, he remembered when he learned how to transmute, and recalled that imagination was important. Magic was not just about making a magical formation, another part was the image formed.
Hajime imagined an image of static electricity
crackling. On the tips of his right hands emitted an electric burst.
"Oh! It came out. Now I see. For demons, the most important part was to imagine its magic."
After he got a hang of it, he repeated created a discharge of electricity. Unlike the wolves, he could not launch his lightning. Maybe this is why it was called "Lightning Clad", he was able to clad his body in lightning. Practice was necessary to control the current and voltage.
Lastly, the "Iron Stomach" skill. Maybe next time he ate demon flesh, he wouldn't be wrecked with pain. There was no food in the labyrinth. Does he take starvation or the pain? This skill can maybe solve this question for him, and he anticipated it.
Hajime took a piece of wolf meat and fired it with lightning. After his starvation was cured, he did not want to eat raw meat. He fired it until it was brown.
Making up his mind, he swallowed it. 10 seconds...1 minute…10 minutes passed and nothing. Hajime started to grill more meat and consumed them. There wasn't any pain that assaulted him. He wondered if it was because of the skill or had he just developed a tolerance for it. Hajime did not know, but he rejoiced. With this he did not have to taste hell everytime.
Hajime ate until he was full, and decided to return to base. He finally had the possibility to beat that bear demon. Determined, he decided to work hard to develop his new skills.
Other wolves were carved for their meat. Compared to his first time with them, this time it was easy. He returned to the area with the God's Crystal and created a storage to store the carved meat with this transmuting.
* * *
A few days have passed since Hajime returned to the base, and all this time he had been training his transmuting and new skills.
Everything was going well, and all his skills were progressing well. His transmutation skill went through a change. The skill had acquired a derived skill from itself. "Mineral Appraisal" was the name of the skill. In the Royal Capital of the Kingdom, only high-ranking smiths had this skill.
Usually the magical formations needed to power appraisal magic are much bigger than the formations used for offensive magic. The facilities that could perform these huge magical formations were limited. For those that had the skill, they could easily analyze any mineral with just a chant and magic formation as long as they touch it. This derived skill was acquired by training the transmutation skill for many years, it was not an innate skill.
