Arifureta: From Commonplace to World's Strongest Vol. 1 (Premium)

by Ryo Shirakome

  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 month
s, 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 S
tone 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.