Side Story 2: A Promise


In an underground riverbed, a young boy is crawling out of the river while coughing out the water out of his lungs. His appearance is a mess, wounds can be found on his body especially his left arm.

"Where am I?" Okta said. He looks at his surrounding. He's inside a cave with strange stones in the ceiling that emits light faintly but enough for him to see.

"If I remember correctly, I fell down from the bridge after the Behemoth smashed it," Okta said. "I can't found Behemoth anywhere, maybe because I was drifting away by the river current."

He's glad that he's still alive. When he fell, he already sure that he would die but it seems his fate says otherwise.

"I fell deeper into the dungeon, which floor is this?" Okta said. It's true that the dungeon has 100 level if you go deeper the monster would be stronger then the previous floor. With his condition, he wouldn't hold a candle to the lower floor monster. He has to avoid any contact with any monster or he would be in a serious trouble.

"I need to find a way out," Okta said before she starts moving from the riverbed after he secured some water for later.

As he walks through the cave, he tried to pick one of the stones and use his Skill to appraise it.

"Luminescent Stone, a stone that will emit light if you poured a mana into it," Okta said. "It could break and release the light within if you overload it with a tiny bit of mana. So in another word, a flashbang huh?"

He keeps the stone in one of his magic pouch, an item that he received from the kingdom. Its capacity is about the size of a room. It's a pretty valuable asset for the kingdom. The kingdom really values the Heroes as that give their all to train and gave them various magic items that are considered as the kingdom treasure. They even gave Shizuka the Holy Sword of the previous hero. Well, at least he got two magic pouch.

But the kingdom isn't that generous to give a fair amount of attention towards the Heroes. They favor the promising candidate over others and him being the weakest didn't appeal well in their eyes. Fortunately, he already used to this kind of thing, so he just shrugged it off. He used the kingdom library to learn various things about this world. A wise man said, "With strength, you can kill a person but with the knowledge, you can save the world,". If he weak in strength, at least he could cover it with useful knowledge.

After some time walking he finally meets a monster. He quickly hides as he examines his enemy. The monster is similar to a rabbit but with longer legs, different fur and red vein-like lines on its body. Something bothering him, he feels that this monster, even though it's smaller than the wolf he defeated, its stronger than the wolf. Much stronger. But the most important things is that...

"I don't know anything that monster," Okta muttered. Yes, the books he read never mentioned about this kind monster. He assumed that he's in a level that hasn't been reached by anybody. If he remembers correctly, the lowest floor that has been ventured is 78, that means he's in a level lower than that. But the truth is... He already fell beyond floor 100. Those 100 level were actually a normal dungeon, appearing because of the concentration of mana from the true dungeon. So, in other words, it's not the true Hans's Great Dungeon.

"I have to avoid it," Okta said. He carefully moves between the rocks, using them as a cover. Just when he was about to leave the beast rabbit, suddenly he feels strong gushes of wind flew pass him before something crashed against the wall in front of him

"W-What?" Okta said before he saw what's in front of him.

Standing there is none other than the Demonic Rabbit from before. It jumped to intercept him. The Demonic Rabbit set its gaze on Okta, determining its enemy.

"It won't just let me go, isn't?" Okta said as cold sweat starts to drip from his forehead.

The rabbit launched itself towards Okta as he draws his dagger to block its kick, but he was overpowered due to him using only one hand. Okta fell to the ground as the rabbit do a somersault in the air using an invisible platform before dropping a kick to him which he dodged by rolling. The rabbit kicking at him as he could just parry it.

'Shit... this thing is way stronger than any monster I ever met. I need to find a way to escape!' Okta thought. He quickly gets to his feets as he readied his weapon in front of him. He locked his gaze at the rabbit, carefully examining its movement.

The rabbit once again launched itself towards Okta, but he didn't dodge and just hold his dagger with both of his hand as he thrust it forward. The rabbit feet met the dagger as its kick was reflected, the rabbit can't stop itself as the dagger stabbed its body. Okta didn't have enough power to deliver one-hit kill to the rabbit, so instead, he used the rabbit own momentum to be able to pierce it. He had to use both hands to hold against the momentum, while his plan succeeded it also worsen his injury.

He sits leaning on a nearby wall as he pulled out his dagger from the rabbit. Actually, he shouldn't be able to pierce the demonic rabbit's skin with his dagger. He used his Transmutation to reinforce the dagger so that it was able to pierce through it.

"Ha... it's a luck that it doesn't possess much intellect or else my plan may have failed," Okta said. He knows that Demonic Beast didn't possess any kind of intellect, but a high-level one like dragon and etc possess it.

But he has no time to relax, he has to find a way out of this place. He was about to leave before suddenly he heard something coming towards him. He quickly hides behind one of the rock, leaving the rabbit corpse on the ground. Not too long after, a demonic wolf with black fur, red eyes, two tails and same red lines all over its body just like with the rabbit.

The wolf sniffed the air before it found the rabbit corpse, lying on the ground. It walks closer towards the corpse. The wolf sniffed the corpse after it confirmed that it's dead, the wolf ate the rabbit corpse. Then Okta remembered something terrifying, the wolf has a great sense of smell. That means it could track him especially if he's wounded.

"I have to patch my wound before it sniffed my blood," Okta muttered. He silently cut a part of his coat and patched his wound. Fortunately, he read a book about basic treatment in his free time, so there's no problem with it.

Suddenly the wolf howled as crimson lightning shoots out of its body and go towards the rock where Okta hides. The rock exploded into pieces, revealing the bewildered Okta. He got no time to be flustered, so he quickly entered a battle stance as he draws his dagger.

His opponent opened its jaw, revealing the fangs covered in blood. They locked their gaze with each other. After a moment of silence that feels like an eternity, the wolf finally made its move by running towards him while opening its jaw. He quickly dodges to the side before the wolf swings its paw towards him which he blocked using his dagger. It tried to bite him but failed as he dodges it by a hairbreadth. His opponent is agile but not as agile as the rabbit.

The wolf swings its tail at Okta, clearly hitting him in the abdomen. He got on his knee because he couldn't stand the pain. The wolf saw this chance and leaped at him. Okta closed his eyes as he lifts both arms to guard against the attack.

.

..

...

The attack never came. He slowly opened his eyes as a terrifying sight meet him. The wolf has been decapitated. Its head was severed cleanly as fresh blood coming out of it. He was confused, who did this? Then he saw it, a demonic looking bear with the same characteristic as the wolf and rabbit but its fangs and claw in its front paws were elongated. There are 3 of them on each one of its front paws. Glaring its red eyes at the wolf corpse, the bear examining the surrounding before its gaze meet him.

Okta couldn't stop sweating as the bear opened its jaw as if forming a grin. It probably thinks that it has found a good prey. It lifted one of its paws and swings it horizontally, Okta dodges it but then he realized that his left shoulder was hit.

'I should've dodged it! its special skill?'

Yes, it was just as he thought the bear has a special skill called Air Claw, it could create an invisible air blade from its claw approximately 30 cm in length. The bear tried to bite him but failed as Okta dodge. It lifts both of its paws and swings it towards Okta, forming an X in the air. Getting attacked by both sides Okta couldn't dodge it and blocked it with his dagger. The claw meets the dagger as it breaks the dagger into two and sends Okta flying 10 feet away before he crashed against the wall.

"Argh!" He couldn't move his body because of the pain. While the bear started to walk towards him, his consciousness is getting hazy each moment.

'Is this the end for me? Am I destined to die in this place?' Then memories of his life start to flash through his mind.

The memories when he first met Shizuka, his memories with his family, his memories with Endou, the bullying by Hitayama and co, and when he fell into the abyss. But then when he was about to give up certain memories came up. A memory of a certain blond-haired girl.

'Don't you dare die on me or I'll slash you with Heavenly Strike!' Yes, It was his memories of his promises with his childhood friends. He never breaks a promise and he intends to keep it that way.

"That's right..." Okta muttered. He slowly gets on his feet, surprising the bear for a second. He resolved to survive this battle but his opponent isn't something that he could defeat. His weapon is already gone, but he still has it. Another weapon that shouldn't exist in this world. He grabbed the Luminescent Stone he had picked earlier with his right hand while his left hand still inside his magic pouch.

The bear starts to run towards him but Okta didn't flinch. Instead, he threw the stone between him and the bear as the stone releasing the light contained within it after Okta overload it with his remaining mana. The light is enough to blind the bear for a few seconds but the bear didn't stop and keep marching forward with its jaw open. Even with its eye blinded, it still can smell Okta's blood.

The bear fiercely bites Okta's left arms.

Okta winced in pain as his entire left arm were inside the bear mouths. Okta grabbed the bear upper jaw and press it even further. The bear didn't sense any fear inside him, instead, it feels the strong will to live. A will to not back down until his last breath, it's all because of one simple promise.

'I already promised to live... so I can't die here...' But he couldn't defeat the bear. Not without sacrificing something.

'I need an arm to grab her...' Then if he wants to survive, there's only one way.

'I need two legs to walk alongside her...' He starts to press the jaw even further.

'I will definitely survive and return to my world... So take it...my left arm!' Finally the bear bite off his left arm. He sacrificed his left arm which holding a grenade. He created a grenade before but when he tested it, it was too strong. If he used it inside a cave it would definitely collapse and buried him alive. So his only option is to make the bear swallow it to reduce the damage to the surrounding. But of course, it won't just swallow it so he had does devise a plan. He used the Luminescent Stone to blind the bear momentarily while he used his injured left arm to grab the grenade and let the bear bite it off.

Okta leaned himself against the wall before he smiled as the sound he was waiting for arrived. His bitten off hand finally let go of the grenade.

*Kaclick*

Such ridiculous sound resounded inside the cave. The bear doesn't know, that it was the sound of its impending doom when suddenly the grenade finally exploded inside the bear.

*BOOM* The bear was exploded into tiny pieces as the shockwave shocked the cave. Okta covered his eyes with his arm as blood splattered everywhere. Suddenly he sees one of the bear claw flying at him at high speed. He closed his eyes in reflex as the claw barely missed him and embedded into the wall not too far from his head.

"Plan... success..." Okta said weakly as he leans all of his weight against the wall. His plan succeeded with a great sacrifice, his own arm. He's glad that he could survive against the bear. He could live another day or so he thought

Sadly the harsh truth is coming towards him.

"The bleeding won't stop..." Okta said as he looks at his severed left arm. He lost quite the amount of blood when the beard bites him and now, he's still bleeding. He already ran out of healing potion nor anything to stop the bleed. At this rate, soon he will bleed to death. To make it worse, most of the arteries in the arm are located in the left arm, if only he had sacrificed his right arm he would've sustained less fatal injuries.

"It's no use...I'm losing my consciousness," His eyes are getting heavier by each moment's pass. His body is already numb from the pain.

Just when he was about to close his eyes, a single drop of water trickled down from the bear's claw. The water flowed down from his head and into his mouth. He unconsciously gulped the water.

"Water?" Okta muttered. It seems his consciousness is coming back, the haziness in his mind is gone. His senses are returning and his body is getting better gradually. His mana is recovering.

"My blood...has stopped?" Okta said as he looks at his severed left arm. The bleeding is stopped and his wound is already closed but he still feels the phantom pains of his lost arm. He is confused. The water is still dripping from the claw. Curious, he pulled the claw out and transmute the wall, revealing a beautiful hand-sized blue gem shining brilliantly.

"What is this?" Okta said. He tried to Appraise it but only question marks appear in its description. He appraised it for several times but the results are still the same. But at least he knows something, the water from the gem is what saved his life so he assumes that it has healing properties within. Unknown to him, the gem is actually forged by condensing mana for 1000 years and it took another 1000 years to be able to overflow, resulting in the overflow mana to become a water capable of healing any wound and disease. The gem is called God's Stone.

He stored the gems and claw in his pouch. He intended to make a new weapon from the claw. He can't leave this place without fighting, so a weapon is a necessary.

"Somehow, I'm starting to feel hungry," Okta said as his stomach growled. He tried to grab his other magic pouch, containing some ration before realizing that the pouch is disappeared. He looks around at found his missing pouch on the ground. It was opened and most of the contents were scattered all around.

"It maybe fell when the bear bites off my arm," Okta said as he grabs his left upper arm. Everything from the elbow down was bitten off by the bear. The fresh meat he had prepared as a decoy, water bottles, some kind of weird dried foods and such were scattered all around.

Before he came to this dungeon, he already prepared everything he couldn't possibly think of. He has three days worth of rations inside his magic pouch.

He sighed. It seems trouble comes one after another after he came to this world. He wonder if the god of this world has anything against him.

"Well, it's no use crying over spilled milk," Okta said before he starts to collect his scattered supplies. Having only one hand, really decrease his speed. He was about to take it slowly when he heard a howl. He grabs anything he can and leave the place immediately. He doesn't want to sacrifice anything more than his left arm.

After running for a while he stopped to take a breath.

"I need to find a shelter," Okta said. But he couldn't just roam around, he can't risk encountering one of that beast. He looks at his hand, his mana is already recovered. Maybe he can use his transmutation to make a hideout. Then he transmutes the wall and creates a hole before he continues transmuting it until he formed a small cave. He decided to rest here for the time beings before he could find a way out.

"For now let's eat, I haven't eaten anything since this morning," Okta said. He takes the dried food he had bought before and eaten it. It tastes terrible. Well, it's dried food after all so he just shrugged it off and keep eating. But even after eating those foods, he still feels hungry. He picked the fresh meats he has. He wants to eat the meats but there's one problem.

The problem is he doesn't have anything to be able to cook the meats. He sighed, if only he had the Combustion Stone then he could cook it. He lay down on the ground as he stares at the ceiling. There is a gemstone in the ceiling that act as sources of light. But then he sees something among those gems that don't emit light, a red gem.

"Is that..?" He gets up and picked the stone from the ceiling before he uses Appraise. "No way, a Combustion Stone?"

Yes, that red gems is the stone he needs to cook the meats. He heard that a dungeon is a place where you can found various magic stones but if he's not mistaken, Hans's Great Dungeon doesn't possess Combustion Stone. But that's only in the fake dungeon, not the true one. The true dungeon, however, posses many magic stones with different effects that have yet to be discovered just like the dungeon itself. For a Transmutation Master like him, this dungeon is a treasure cave.

"Does beating that bear improve my luck? I don't know but with this, I can cook the meats," Okta said. He made a traditional stove using transmutation and placed the Combustion Stone in the middle. He channels his mana into the stone as the stone starts to emit fire. He added more mana to make the fire bigger to the point where it could be used to cook. He starts to cook the meat.

Not too long after the meat color has turned into splendid brown, a sign if the meat is ready. He ate his meat while he's thinking about how to get out of this godforsaken place. He took out another meat but something strange it's still covered in blood.

"Did the seller forget to clean it when I bought them? Maybe it got covered by the bear blood. It also stinks a little," Okta said. Then, he decided to clean the meat using water before he put it on the stove. While he cooks the meat, he took out the gems out of his pouch.

He wonder what the gem is. He never saw anything about it in the books that he read before. He's sure that this gems could help him to get out of this place. But the gems only give him trickle by trickle, then he thought of making a container so that he could drink it when he needs it. He made a stone tube using the transmutation and place the gems above it, to collect the water from the gems.

Using Transmutation with one hand is proved to be difficult but if he didn't sacrifice his arm he doesn't know whether or not he would survive. Even Shizuka would have a bad time dealing with that bear, so he considers himself lucky to be able to survive that. But what he would tell to his parent if they see their son lost an arm.

"Well, there's nothing I can do about it," Okta said before he checks the meat. The meat is already cooked and ready to eat. He picked the meat and take a quick taste of it.

"It's pretty good," He said before he continues eating it.

After a few minutes, he had eaten the meat and his hunger is gone.

"That's the best meat I ever ate since I got in this world," Okta said.

Yes, it was truly delicious for him but little did he know if that mean isn't from his pouch. But it came from his dead archenemy, the demonic bear. There's one thing that everyone in this world knows not to do, that is to not eat the meat from demonic beasts.

An unusual phenomenon struck his body. An intense pain suddenly wrecked his body. Erosion is the best word to describe the excruciating pain inside his body.

"Agh!...ARGH!" He trashed on the ground because of the enormous pain that made him forget about his phantom limb pain.

His body is breaking apart, he grabs the stone tube that he uses to collect the water from God Stone and drink the content. The water starts to heal his body as the pain subsided but not too long after his body is starting to breaking again. The pain grew as the time passes. Every part of his body is on the verge of destruction but then the water effects heal it.

Even the water healing properties can't stun the effect. The pain is immeasurable. His body is breaking from within, there's no safe spot in his body.

The water effect is overlapping with the deterioration of his body. Breaking, then restored, and breaking again, and restored again. While he was suffering from the pain, his body, however, had begun to change. There's a case when a muscle was torn because of severe use, the muscle would develop a new stronger muscle to adapt to it. This phenomenon is called overcompensation.

His body began to grow bigger and taller. Then his hair loses its color, turning his hair from black to grayish white similar to Marie Antoinette Syndrome. Crimson lines start to form on his body while his eyes start to turn red, the same traits as the demonic beast.

Demonic beast meat is a deadly poison because of the Magic Stone that it contained within. That's why the demonic beast could use their unique power without any need of incantation or magic circle because their own body is the catalyst, enabling them to use magic directly.

The same magic is altering his own magic. Usually human would die if their magic was altered by demonic beast magic but thanks to the water's effect, he won't die no matter how much his magic is altered.

Then the pain is gone. Okta gets up while holding his head, a little dizzy.

"What was that? Did I accidentally ate a demonic beast meat?" Okta said before he look at his arms, surprised by what he see. "What the...?"

"What's happened to my body? These red lines... just likes the demonic beast," Okta said as he checked all over his body and found more red lines. His body had changed, he felt powers flowing through his body. A power that human wouldn't normally be able to obtain.

"Ah right, the Status Plates," Okta said. He search for his Status Plates in his pocket and thankfully it still there. Then he opened his status. "Status open,"

-Name: Sakurai Okta
-Race : Human
-Age : 16
-Job : Synergist
-Level : 7
-Stats :
STR : 100
VIT : 300
DEF : 100

AGI : 200
MAG: 300

RES : 300

[Skill]
-Transmutation
-Mineral Appraisal
- Iron Stomach
-Divine Step (+Flicker, +Air Walk)
-Lightning Clad
- Wind Claw
-Direct Magic Manipulation
-Language Comprehension

"What?" Okta said as he look at his Status Plates, all of his stats are increased. "What with these skills?"

First, he tried Lightning Clad and just like the name implies, it only clad his body in a crimson lightning. He remembered that the demonic wolf also has the same skill, confirming that he ate a demonic beast. He obtains the skills from the demonic beast he ate. (AN: Okta actually just ate the demonic bear meat but since the demonic bear ate the wolf which ate the rabbit, he acquired the skill that the demonic bear obtained.)

"These powers, it's the same as the demonic beast," Okta said. "I probably got Iron Stomach when I accidentally ate the demonic meat," He smiled wryly at his fault for not carefully picked his belongings and mix the demonic meat, almost caused him to death. Thanks to the water, he's alive and undergone a transformation. A transformation that makes him similar to the demonic beast.

He stares at his hand and clasping his palm. 'This newfound power, above status effect, and new abilities that I gained from eating the demonic beast. I'm sure this has some sort of use. This is a chance...a chance to escape!'


Unknown Floor, Han's Great Dungeon

In a dark room, there's a silhouette of a person. A woman with a beautiful face that would charm any male, a delicate body and mystical long white hair with a teal accent reminiscent of the night sky. The woman was trapped inside a huge cube with only her half upper body left untrapped. She was trapped for a long time, a very, very long time, waiting the day for someone to save her from this abyss. Little does she know that day won't be long. The day where the fallen Valkyrie meet with the Mage of Cherry Blossoms.


And done! That took a lot of time I don't have much to say in this chapter but as usual please leave your review especially regarding this chapter. About the Mage of Cherry Blossoms, I think you know who it is and if you interested regarding the person in the end of the chapter, try to look for the legend of Sigurd and search for the fallen Valkyrie, then try to relate it to a game.

As always please leave a review if you feel like it, Denliner Hakerz here, and I will see you in the next chap. Jaa na~.