Meal Time!
Hajime POV - Tortus, Great Orcus Labyrinth - 2013
I look at the rabbit as he lets out a victory cry, and with a dry smile and dread in my heart I mutter "Mommy, tell me it's a lie...", and as fear causes my body to grow stiffer, I think, 'Isn't this dangerous? The Traum Soldier that my classmates had trouble with looked like toys compared to this bunny... This rabbit may be even stronger than the Behemoth, who could only do simple monotonous attacks!'.
I know that if I'm caught by the rabbit, it would be certain death, so I unconsciously take a step back, but I also unknowingly kick a pebble near my feet that falls and created that racket, 'Such a cliché grave mistake!!', and as that noise echoes throughout the whole cave, a large amount of cold sweat streams down my face, and at the same time, the rabbit turns its head like a machine that wasn't oiled to the point of origin of the sound, me, 'It definitely saw me!!'.
I look in terror as it's ruby red eyes narrow as it locks on me, and my body freeze like a frog hypnotized by a snake, and alarms bells starts to go off in my head and my soul told him to run for his life, but my body doesn't listen to me, as it remains struck in place.
Finally, the rabbit that had only been looking back at me with its head turned, orientates its whole body towards me, and at the same time, it starts to pour energy into its legs, and I yell "It's coming!", instinctively knowing that it is about to attack.
The Rabbit explodes towards me, it dashes at me at an absurd speed that left afterimages behind it, and when I noticed it, I jump aside with all his might in hope of dodging the lethal blow, and as I roll, I feel the earth rumble, as if the place where I was just at exploded like a cannonball had just struck it, gouging out the ground as it detonated.
I stop with my backside on the floor, retreating from the epicenter with a pale face, and look as slowly the rabbit stood up with a slack attitude, and soon after it continues with its assault and I quickly construct a stone wall with my transmutation.
The stone wall meets the rabbit's kick and easily the kick pierced through it, and I, by pure reflex, bring up my left arm to block, "Augh!", the next thing I know is that the impact launches me to the ground as pain courses through my left arm, still laying on the ground I quickly look at my left forearm, and see that it is broken and bent in a funny angle, it looks like it was totally crushed.
While I'm writhing in pain, I desperately seek out the rabbit's figure, and what I see is the rabbit walking in a relaxed manner, a total inverse of its earlier attitude, 'It must be my imagination, but its eyes seem to stare at me in a condescending manner... Looks like it is having fun messing with me!'
And soon, the rabbit is standing in front of me, it looks down on me, like I am some worm crawling on the earth, and brandishes its foot to show it off, and unable to do anything, I think 'I wonder if this is the end…', as despair assails me, I look up in a daze and giving up any form of resistance, I look as the rabbit swings the kick of instant death, while at the same time, I close my eyes in horror and prepare myself for the eventual pain.
But no matter how much time passes, the expected blow never comes, so I fearfully open my eyes and in front of my face I see the rabbit's foot, close enough to occupy my whole sight, the kick was stopped just before it made impact with me, and in despair and fear I think, 'It can't be, is it still playing with me and trying to instill even more anguish in me?', but the next moment, I notice something as I look closely the rabbit, it is trembling as if afraid of something.
I am too much in shock to fully realize what is going on, but anyway I try to find a reason, 'W-What? Why is it trembling…it seems scared… No, not "seem", it really was afraid!', seeing this as a chance I try to run to the right passage, but the next instant, I see of a new menacing monster waiting behind me, and huge, is one of the words that could describe it, the monster is 2 meters tall and its whole frame is covered in white fur, like all the other monsters I met here, this beast also has pulsating dark red lines wrapping its body, If I can compare it to another animal then a bear quickly comes to mind, but one differences are that its arm extended all the way down to its feet, and these arms have 3 sharp claws protruding out almost 30 centimeters long.
Before I could realize what is going on, that bear is already nearby, while it glares at its prey, and causes the whole area to fall silent with its imposing presence, meanwhile, both I and the rabbit are frozen and unable to move in front of a superior predator.
Soon, I hear the bear make a low grolw, "…Gururu", clearly tired of the situation, and this causes the rabbit to return to reality and it quickly turns tail and instantly retreats at top speed, all that speed it used to crush its enemies is now being used to escape, but using speed that didn't suit its size, the bear aims its sharp claws at the rabbit, and attack it by swiping it long arm.
The rabbit uses its agility to twist his body to dodge the blow, and I'm sure of the fact that the rabbit was able to dodge it, but when it lands on the ground, blood starts to gush from its body as multiple cut wounds emerge on its body, and more and more blood pours out of its wound until I notice that its body wasn't whole anymore, piece by piece sections of the rabbit slipped off in a different direction and a fountain of blood sprayed when the largest section is set free.
I can only feel disgust at the gory show, but also extreme fear, 'A rabbit monster that powerful was taken down so easily without it being able to do anything, now I know why it was so scared... That bear monster is extraordinary... This guy would destroy any person I know of...', at the same time, lumbering its huge body, the bear approaches the fresh corpse, and soon sounds of gorging can be heard coming from the bear.
I still can't move, consumed by fear, as the beast eyes pins me down, and soon nothing was left of the rabbit after the bear took 3 mouthful of it, and it turns around and growled at me, the beast's eyes say it all, "You are next!", and presented with the eyes of a predator all I can do is despair, but then something snaps in me, and I can finally move again.
And so I run in the opposite direction of the bear while screaming madly and forgetting about my broken arm, but then I hear the wind howls and from my left side I feel pain explode in his body as I'm flung against the wall, "Gah!", the blow has knocked all the air out of my lungs, and the next moment I trails down the wall as I collapse into a fit of coughs.
I'm swaying from the impact but I keep my eyes on the bear, and at that moment, I notice that the bear is chewing on something, 'What the hell is it chewing on? The rabbit was already consumed... Somehow the arm it is eating is very familiar...', I'm confused by the event, then I feel lighter on my left side, to be precise, my left arm, and my face stiffen as I mutter "W... What?", and my thoughts swirl around as I can't make sense of what just happened 'Why is there no arm? Why was blood spurting out?'.
Then the reality of the situation finally hits me, as the pain is the reminder that this was no dream, "Ahhhhhhhh!!!!", everything below my left elbow has disappeared, and soon I notice that the bear finished with his meal, and starts to slowly advance towards me, its eyes are not condescending like the rabbit's, it just looks at me as food, and then the monster extends its forelimbs toward me.
Seeing this, and feeling death coming closer, I instinctily chose to rely on the only skill I have, so I raise my remaing arm, and while tears and mucus flows, and drool escapes from my mouth, I yell "T... Tra... Trans... Transmute!!!!", transmuting the wall behind me, generating a hole 50 centimeters in height, 120 centimeters in width, and 2 meters in depth, at the same time, I roll into the hole and narrowly escaped the bears paws reaching towards me.
Then I hear the bear howl "Guruaa!!", it is clearly overwhelmed with anger from losing a prey, and see the monster cast its Special Magic while it roared, aiming its magic towards the hole I made, and finally realize how it killed the rabbit and hit me, the monster is able to fire streaks of sharp wind from its claws, and I quickly see the terrible destruction that follows its attack as the wall is being shaved off by the powerful wind claws.
Panicking as the monster is gradually getting closer, I turn around and yell "Ahhhh! Transmute! Transmute! Transmute!", and start to continuously cast my magic and delved deeper into the wall, I did not even bother to look back, I only recklessly repeated the magic, and advanced with a crawl, All my pains or any other thoughts were put in the backseat, mana was consumed over and over again as my survival instinct has took control over me.
Still slowly moving further away I think for an instant, 'How much did I progress?', but I do not know the answer, I couldn't hear the terrible sounds anymore, but I keep going, as I can't feel anything except the fear that keeps me moving forward "Transmute… Transmute… Transmute… Transmute…", but soon no matter how many times I chanted, the wall did not change anymore.
My magic ran out before my body gave out, and exhausted, my hand fall from the wall, I fall on my back and my last strand of consciousness was going out, I just aimlessly stare at the ceiling, but all I see is darkness, at the same time, I recall some of my past memories, my life flashes before my eyes, various memories floods my mind until my last memory, in that bedroom illuminated by the moonlight, the chat I had with a goddess and the promise we made, her smiling face.
After remembering that beautiful sight one last time, the darkness engulfed me but just before sleep claimed me, I feel a drop of water on my cheek, like someone had shed a tear for me.
Jayr POV - Tortus, Great Orcus Labyrinth - 2013
I look as everything goes almost the same way I remember reading, only the monster bear seems really focused on Hajime, as it keeps clawing at the wall, making it bigger so that it can reach the poor Hajime, seeing that the bear isn't stopping, I quickly move in front of it briefly stunning it, and before it could react, I punch it on its most sensible spot, hoping that the similar apparance to the animal means that it has a similar anatomy and so weak spots "Gruaaa!?".
And it seems that I'm right, as soon after hitting the snout, the bear monster let out a painful growl, as it hold its snout and stops attacking, for a brief moment, a moment, that I take advantage of to continue my attack, I quickly move behind the bear that now is in standing position and start to choke it with my arms, and soon the monsters tries to fight back, as it starts struggling, but even with its long arm it can't reach me, and soon it is knocked out, and I stop.
Looking down at it I think 'I do not want to take Hajime's revange from him... But first I have to make sure that Hajime survives this ordeal', and so I enter the hole Hajime made and slowly crawl through it, luckily it is only a 20 meters long tunnel as it seems that at the moment Hajime's transmutation magic only allows him to change around 2 meters of his surroundings each time he cast it.
Anyway, I soon see him laying unconscious in a small pool of his blood, but I can clearly see that he is alive, as the wound caused by his missing arm is already closed, and so I focus on the object stuck on the ceiling a big spherical crystal that emits a pale blue light, the Divinity Stone, and try to remember everything I know 'The Divinity Stones are formed when large clumps of Mana pool together and crystallize over the span of around 1,000 years, then, after several centuries, the saturated mana is liquefied and secreted as a potent healing elixir called "Ambrosia"... The liquid that is falling on Hajime at this moment and that saved his life...'.
Seeing that everything is set up for his survival, I get out of the tunnel and notice that while I was checking on Hajime, the monster bear, woke up and went away, so I decide to finally move on, and start to search around for a prey, and after walking around these tunnels, I finally find some, or more precisely they find me, as I find myself surrounded by a small pack of 5 twin tailed wolves, that growls threatening at me while sparks of electricity is being generated by their tails, "Grrr...".
I do not wait for them to attack, and make the first move, I rush at the nearest wolf and taking a page from the Eddie Gordon rabbit's book, quickly kill it with a powerful kick to the head, but it seems that my kick has more power than the rabbit, as the rabbit was only able to break its neck, while as soon as my kick hit the wolf head, it exploded, sending blood, brain matter, and pieces of bones flaying everywere, and of course drenching me in it at the same time.
But I ignore it for now, and quickly take a side step, to dodge the lighting bolt shoot at me by anothers 2 wolves behind me, while the remaining 2 pounce on my sides in a pincer attack in hope of biting me to death, but I can easily follow their movement, and so, I dodge both with a jump and twisting my body mid-air, I hit their mid-section with two heel kicks, this time, I control my power better , and the only thing I can hear are their howls of pain and the sickening sound of their spine breaking as they crash on the ground, now unable to move.
I land on the ground and feel that the remaing 2 wolves use their special magic again, and so before the lighting bolts could hit me, I grab one of the paralyzed wolves and throw it, behind me, making it an impropt shield, "Awwooo!", and while it is being fried by the magic of its own pack, I rush at the ramaining two, I hit one with a spartan kick that send it crashing against the rocky wall killing on the spot, and while it is trailing down the wall, I grab the other one and quickly break his neck.
I look around to check if there are other threats, but I only see the paralyzed wolf whimpering, while the other 4 are dead, so I quickly move toward it, and finish it as painlessly as possible, then I put all the wolves carcass in my Territory check the mess I made 'Damn! It's like one of those splatter movies... Better return back to the river to wash my clothes... and myself... Just one day in this Universe and I was covered in monster blood twince... Damn it! I feel it even in my brief, it is worse than sand!'.
And so, after tracking back to my starting point, and washing myself and my clothes in the cold river, removing all the blood, brain matter, and other pieces of those poor wolves, I enter my Soulbound Territory totally naked, and the first thing I do is put on a clean brief, and check on Eri Nakamura, but she is still sleeping, so I focus on the next task, I move toward the monster carcasses, and start butchering them, and after that, I freeze 4 of them inside a Freezing Coffing, 'Worst use of this technique ever... But a convenient freezer nonetheless...', then I start cooking the remaining one while thinking 'With this I should be able to overcome one of my weak points, my "weak" human body... And I should also gain the ability to accomodate, generate and use Mana...'.
I simply fry their meat with some olive oil, salt and pepper, and of course to be sure that it doesn't lose its propeties, I make sure that it is medium-rare, I put the cooked meat on the plate and start to pray, "My dear bouncy Goddess Athena, thanks for this probably disgusting meal... Hope to see you soon...", I then cut a piece and start to eat it while at the same time, I use the Dark Resurrection technique to heal all the damage that this will cause.
After munching and swallowing the meat, I groan "Eww... This thing is nasty... Why do all the things that gave you incredible power taste bad... Monster Meat... Devils Fruits... Seeds of Evolution... Wait... I can see some kind of pattern now...", but soon I feel my stomach protested violently, assaulting me with a gripping pain, but I ignore it and continue to eat knowing that the meat is having the intended effect.
After finishing cooking and eating the entire wolf, "Ugh...", all of the sudden, my entire body is struck with severe pain, it is an extremely unpleasant feeling as if I am being eroded from the inside of my body, and the pain only intensified as time passed, 'Well... I had gone through much worse... In fact Milo, Thanatos, and Hades techniques hurts a lot more that this... on my scale of pain... this is just a 5 borderline 6 out of 10... menagable...'.
Even so the pain continues to get stronger and stronger, and my body constantly twitches, but I only let out a grunt from time to time as the pain suddendily increaseses in intensity, my body began to convulse in sync with the pain, my entire body is pulsating, giving off audible popping sounds everywhere.
But in the very next instant, the Dark Resurrection technique takes effect and cures the abnormality, but soon after, the intense pain strikes once more, but is healed again, at the same time the pain keeps increasing, and I grit my teeth and think 'Okay... Now it is a 7.5... On the same level of 9 of Milo's Scarlet Needles...'.
I continue to silentily endure, but notice that my body truly starts to change, my muscles and skeleton grow thicker and tougher, with several thin reddish black lines appearing within my body and I also feel that my blood changed, I can clearly feel the Mana circulating through my whole body making it stronger and sturdier, at the same time I notice that I'm growing even taller reaching the 1,90 meters, my bones and muscles even denser.
Destroy, recover, destroy, recover, my body pulsates as it changes, as though undergoing a metamorphosis in which I discard my fragile human body, and soon the pulsations finally cease, the pain disappears, I stop using the Dark Resurrection, and get up, as I feel the changes in my body, it is strangely light and I feel my entire body brimming in power, I also feel the new energy circulating in my body, the magic power, also know as Mana, then I take my Status Plate and say "Open Status".
Name - Pucci Jayr
Age - 16 Years Old
Gender - Male
Level - 5
Class - Adventurer
Strength - 1000
Vitality - 1000
Resistance - 1000
Agility - 1000
Magic - 300
Magic Resistance - 300
Skills - Martial Arts Mastery, Cooking Mastery, Drawing Mastery, Healing Arts Mastery, Music Mastery, Science Mastery, Smithing Mastery, Weapon Mastery, Language Mastery, Chemisty Mastery, Tailoring Mastery, Water Element Affinity, Ice Element Affinity, Dark Element Affinity, Magic Manipulation, Iron Stomach, Lightning Clad, Blessing of Culture, +Improved Learning, +Improved Teaching, +Improved Libido, +Affinity for the Arts...
Seeing the new status and the changes I've gone throught, I smile and say "All according to the plan... Now I can finally use magic! Now better see what also changed... I hope that the white hair thing is only because Hajime was a normal highschooler that couldn't handle a little pain and not a norm of those who eat the monster meat...", and so I move toward a mirror, and let out a sign of relief, my hair are still in their beautiful dark blue color, not the chunni white, but I quickly notice the changes, as I'm currentily still circiling the Mana through my body, I can clearly see several thin reddish black lines appearing on my body, reminding me of Gilgamesh's tattoo, and my eyes color changed to crimson red, I also makes a small cut and check my blood and see that its color is darker it has almost a purple hue.
(Image Here - Jayr Mana)
I stop using my Mana and see the linees receed back, also my eyes return back to their original green color, amused by this I again use my Mana, and the eyes return crimson red, then moved by curiosity, I try to use Mana and Cosmo at the same time while running the Dark Resurrection technique as backup in case I mess up badly and explode, and I feel them starting to mix together easily as an enormous explosion of energy course through me, I notice that the tattoo-like lines became golden, and the same happened to my eyes, 'Goddamit! This energy feels infinite... it keeps expanding and expanding without limits... I feel at the same level of Hades and Poseidon... In fact now I can also clearly feel Saori's Cosmo across the Omniverse, the signal is weak but it is there... With this much energy and senses If I want I can easily teleport back to her now... But this energy is too strong and it is straining my body... Right now, from what I feel I can stay in this state for another minute before I explode with such power that I'm sure I can destroy this whole Universe... And maybe even some others nearby...'.
(Image Here - Jayr Cosmo-Mana Mix)
Before stopping, curious to see if something changed, I again check my Status Plate, and in surprise I exclaim with a whistle "Holy... !".
Name - Pucci Jayr
Age - 16 Years Old
Gender - Male
Level - 5
Class - Adventurer
Strength - ??????
Vitality - ??????
Resistance - ??????
Agility - ??????
Magic - ??????
Magic Resistance - ??????
Skills - Martial Arts Mastery, Cooking Mastery, Drawing Mastery, Healing Arts Mastery, Music Mastery, Science Mastery, Smithing Mastery, Weapon Mastery, Language Mastery, Chemisty Mastery, Tailoring Mastery, All Elemental Affinity, Magic Manipulation, Iron Stomach, Lightning Clad, Blessing of Culture, +Improved Learning, +Improved Teaching, +Improved Libido, +Affinity for the Arts...
Feeling that I'm about to reach my limit, I stop using both energies and see that the lines recedes, and my eyes turns back to their original green, and suddendily I realize 'What the fuck! I'm a fucking traffic light! Green and Red and Yellow... With Yellow being the one that lasts the least and makes everyone rush in haste!'.
After that, I again check on Eri and notice that she is still in deep sleep, and seeing her state, I can only conclude that she will continue to sleep until tomorrow, so I gentily pick her up body still warped in the blanklet and take her inside the Athena's Bidoof, enter the cabin and lay her on the bed without disturbing her sleep, then seeing that the sky in the Territory is turning dark as it keeps mimicing the one outside, I decide to go to my cabin and sleep, 'Yeah... No matter how strong I become, I still feel the need to sleep, eat and fuck... You know the things that make life worth living...'.