Hajime’s walkthrough of the Dungeon continues.
Since the tar level, he had advanced 50 levels deeper. Because Hajime did not have a sense of time there, he did not know how much time had passed. But the progress he was making was being done in an astonishing speed.
During that time, he was in a desperate struggle. Countless times he had encountered stronger demons and battled for his life.
For example, one level had a thin poisonous fog covering the whole floor. There was a 2m frog (Rainbow colored) that spit poisoned sputum at him, and a moth that spread scales that caused paralysis. If he didn’t drink his “Potion”, he would have died just from being on that level.
The iridescent frog’s poison was an agent that targeted the nerves and lit it up with pain. His experience with the pain was comparable to the pain from his first taste of demon flesh. He would have died if he didn’t consume the “Potion” in his molar. Hajime had placed a small chewable container behind his molars that contained “Potion”. He was happy he prepared just in case of emergencies.
Naturally, he had consumed two of them. There was friction when he ate the moth, because of the supercompensation pain, he resolved it by consuming the “Potion”. Vexed at the fact that the moth tasted better than the frog.
There was also a floor that looked like a dense forest, how it came to be in an underground labyrinth puzzled Hajime. Hajime thought this was the most unpleasant place so far because its extremely hot temperature and dense humidity. The demons of this level were a huge centipede and sentient trees.
When he was traversing the jungle, a huge centipede suddenly fell from atop the trees. Hajime felt sick at the sight of it, and developed goose bumps on his whole body. Each time a section it was hit, it would separate. Fight one of these centipede was like fighting 30 monsters*. Donner was blazing from use, but there were too many for it to deal with. Reloading was taking too long, so he switched to his “Air Claws”. He even started to throw inexperienced kicks because of how desperate he was. After this encounter, Hajime was determined to develop his speed loading and kicks. This was decided while he was washed away the purple fluids from the centipede.
[T/N: *There was a description with this sentence but I did not know how to translate it. The literal translation was a monster like G black kitchen. I thought it was maybe referencing something from monster hunter because of the G, but I did not know what to make of the black kitchen.]
The tree demons were like Treants from RPG games. Its underground roots would thrust out from the ground and vines acted as whips for them. However, the biggest feature of the treants were not these trivial attacks. When they were in a pinch, they would hurl the red fruits that littered their heads. There was not any offensive ability to it, but Hajime though to try it out. He was rigid for a few dozen minutes. It was not a poison. The fruit was insanely delicious. Sweet and fresh the red fruit was comparable to a watermelon. Not an apple.
The unpleasantness he felt on this level was blown away. Every thought vanished from his head temporarily. After many dozen days he had eaten something other than meat. Hajime’s eyes were completely of a hunter, his prey were these treants. After he was satisfied he continued his journey, though the treant-like demons almost went extinct.
With that feeling he advanced through 50 levels. There is still no sign of an end. Hajime’s current status…
Hajime was inside the base he created for this 50th level. He was stacking up his training for his transmutation, firearm technology, and kicks. Even though he had discovered the next stairs, he did not take them. Because he had discovered a foreign area on this level.
The space around the area was eerie. At the end of this side area was a solemn majestic double door about 3m in height. On the flanks of the doors were two one-eyed giants sculptures enshrined into the walls; only their upper bodies were sculpted it seemed.
Chills ran down his whole body the moment he set foot there. Temporarily he had a dangerous feeling about this. He did not have the intention to avoid this and prepared his equipment. Eventually a “change” appeared. Do not go and check it.
Hajime was feeling expectation and unpleasantness at the same time. If he opened the door, he was sure that a disaster was waiting to meet him. However, a new wind blew into this Dungeon.
“As if it was a Pandora’s box…I wonder what aspiration it contained.”
His current possessed weapons, martial arts, and skills. One by one he checked and prepared them to make sure they were in perfect condition. When he finished this task, Hajime unholstered Donner. He closed his eyes gently. Already he had decided to be resolute. It wasn’t bad to repeat his resolution. Hajime looked into himself and took an oath.
“I am going to survive and return home. To Japan, to home…I’ll return. Those who are obstacles are enemies. To enemies…kill!”
Hajime opened his eyes and daring smile graced his face.
Vigilantly, Hajime came to the rooms with the door and advanced. Without incident he arrived at the door. More and more wonderful decorations could be seen on the door as he neared. At the center, two magic formations were drawn in the recesses.
“I don’t understand. I’ve studied a lot, but I have never seen these formulas.”
When he was called incompetent, Hajime had laid emphasis on knowledge to make up for his low physical abilities. He didn’t finish learning all he could, but it was weird that he had never seen any magical formulas like the ones presented to him.
“Is it an old system?”
While guessing, Hajime examined the door, but he was not able to understand anything new. Because it was very important, he was alert for any traps. Hajime was not going to be able to decipher any of this with his current degree of knowledge.
“Can’t be helped. Let’s go with the usual transmuting.”
He tried to pull and push the door to no avail. As usual, he tried to force a way in with his transmuting. Hajime put his right hand on the door and started to transmute.
However, immediately…
Crackle!
“Uwa!?”
A red electric discharge runs through the door and into Hajime’s hand. Smoke bursted out from his hand. Swearing, he quickly swallowed some “Potion”. Immediately an accident occurred.
Oooooooooh!!
Suddenly, a deep voice cry echoed throughout the room. Hajime gained some distance from the door by backstepping. He placed his hand on his waist holster to prepare to use Donner at anytime.
The cries continued to echo, and the identity of the voice began to move.
“Well, that was a cliche of a cliche.”
While Hajime was muttering and smiling to himself. The sculptures of the two giants that flanked the door started to crumble. Gray skin that was assimilated with the wall soon turned dark green.
The one-eyed giant looked exactly like a fantasy cyclops. A 4m large sword appeared in its hands, though he didn’t know where it came from. It turned its eyes towards Hajime and was freeing its buried lower body to eliminate the intruder.
At that moment,
Dopan!
A bullet made of Tauru ore, which was accelerated through a railgun, pierced the cyclops only eye. It stirred around its brain for a bit before it bursted out of its head, and pulverized the back wall. The left cyclops blankly stared at what happened to the dead cyclops. After it was shot, the cyclops body was still convulsing, while it lean forward and fell. The shock created from the impact shook the whole room, and thick dust danced around the room.
“Sorry, I’m not the type of bad guy to sense the mood or wait around.”
Exactly like a devil. No, given the carnage Hajime experienced it was just a natural reflex. Still…pity for the cyclops (right).
Probably, it was a guardian for the door that is sealing something. Furthermore it was in a place at the bottom of the abyss, there wasn’t many visitors. When it finally answered the call of duty. Maybe it was filled with joy. Without even seeing much of the other party, its head was blown apart. If you can’t call this pity, what would you call it?
An expression of horror was on the cyclops’ (left) face as it gazed at Hajime. Its eyes seemed like it was conveying “What the heck did this guy do?” Hajime was glaring at the unmoving cyclops. The cyclops did not know what guns were so it stayed vigilant and lowered its waist to prepare to move at any time. Soon a roar escaped from its lips, as the cyclops lost its temper at the unmoving Hajime.
Shortly after, its face dived to the ground.
The moment it stepped forward it lost strength in its leg and fell forward. Confused, the cyclops tried to violently stand up and to move, but he couldn’t gather any strength.
Hajime slowly approached the growling cyclops. The steady footsteps were like a countdown. Taking the gun he placed the muzzle onto the cyclops head. Click, the trigger was pulled without hesitation.
Dopan!
A gunshot resounded through the whole room. However, an unexpected event happened. The cyclops body illuminated for just a moment, and in that moment its skin cause the bullet to repel.
“Mu.”
Hajime guessed that it used Special Magic. Its inherent magic was increasing its defense significantly.
His mouth contorted at the fallen cyclops that he thought was foolish. Hajime took the muzzle away from the cyclops and drove a kick into its head. “Grand Kick”. The kick he delivered was just as beautiful as the kick from the rabbit. It forced the cyclops to face up on its back. Again, the muzzle was pressed against its exposed eye.
Hajime felt like the cyclops was saying “Wait a moment” but he ignored it and pulled the trigger. As expected, the bullet penetrated through its head; guess it wasn’t able to strengthen its eye.
“Hmm, Approximately 20 seconds. A little slow…because of the size?”
Hajime watched the cyclops to analyze the experimental result. Why did the cyclops suddenly fell over and was unable to move? Because of the “paralysis grenade”. The grenade was made by gathering the scales from the moth and placing it in a grenade. It is then released from the grenade with a small-scale blast; the results could be seen on the cyclops. When the cyclops (left) started at the other cyclops was the time Hajime released his grenade.
“Well, its okay. I’ll harvest the meat later…”
Hajime considered glancing at the door. Using “Air Claws”, Hajime took the magic stone out of the cyclops body. Without minding the blood, he craved both cyclops for their magic stone and approached the door to compare these fist-sized stones to the two recesses. They were a perfect fit.
Instantly, red magic sprouted from the stone and poured into the magic square. The light settled after a moment and an opening sound could be heard. Simultaneously, the magic speared into the surrounding walls and emitted light; like Hajime had not seen in a long time.
Hajime’s eyes twinkled a little, he cautiously and quietly opened the door.
There was not a single source of light behind and door. Darkness spread in the big space the room had. With the help of his “Night Vision” and the new lights, Hajime was able to make out the room little by little. Two columns of pillars lined up all the way into the depths. The room was made from finely crafted marbles and it looked similar to the Church room they were first summoned into. In the center of the room was a huge cube of stone that reflected the incoming light and lustered.
Hajime was staring at the cube, when he noticed that something was growing in the front center of the cube.
Trying to confirm what he saw, Hajime pushed open the door and checked the vicinity. Like a horror film, the door would slam closed when you were in trouble.
However, before Hajime could fix the open door, it moved.
“…Who?”
A husky voice belonging to a frail girl. Hajime stared at the center of the room in surprise. The early “growing” was now moving. With the light finally piercing the darkness, the identity of it was exposed.
“Its…a human?”
The “growing” was a person. Only the face could be seen, every other part was buried in the cube. Long blond hair hung down around the woman, like a ghost from a certain horror film. Pupils of red was peeping from the gaps of hair, just like a low-altitude moon. From her looks, she looked around 12-13 years old. The dangled hair looked haggard, but it still had a beautiful appearance.
Hajime unexpected stiffen, her red eyes was staring at him. Hajime took a deep breath and with a determined expression said:
“I’m sorry. I was wrong.”