Drip…Drip… the water trailed down hajime's cheeks and most of it went into his mouth. Hajime who had been passed out slowly started to come back into consciousness, he felt himself coming back faster and faster until he sat up quickly.

"Gah!" Hajime who sat up very quickly hit his head on the top of the tunnel he transmuted. He forgot that he made it lower so the bear couldn't move into the cave. 'I'm alive? Did someone help me?' Hajime started to move but screamed as he saw that one of arms was missing. It was just a stump he reflexively grabbed his left arm only to realize the wound had been closed.

"H-How? It was bleeding so much…" Hajime had been lying in a pool of his own blood. The amount of blood he lost was much more than the human body could lose. Yet he was still alive.

"Don't tell me.. this is what saved me?" Hajime was still a little lightheaded from the blood loss and phantom pain pangs, but he reached his hand out to the source of the water and transmuted the earth around it. Still somewhat unsteady he continued to transmute. The rock that was oozing out liquid clearly wasn't liquid Hajime drank some and interestingly enough it replenished his mana. Hajime kept drinking the liquid until he finally stopped and sat down. Though Hajime didn't know it, the crystal was actually a "Divinity Stone." Divinity Stones were rare crystals, and considered to be one of the world's greatest historical treasures. Modern day people thought them a lost legend.

Divinity Stones were created when a large clump of mana pooled together and crystallized over the course of a thousand years. They ranged from thirty to forty centimeters in diameter, and then over the course of a few hundred years their saturated mana liquefied and poured back into the earth.The liquid they secreted was known as Ambrosia, and it healed all wounds. It couldn't regrow missing limbs, but supposedly it extended one's life so long as they continued to drink it, and was also referred to as the elixir of life. Legend claimed that Ehit healed the masses with this very Ambrosia.

The realization that Hajime had barely escaped death had caused him to tremble. He hugged his trembling body and leaned on a wall. He no longer had a desire to escape or the constant stress and fears had finally broken his spirit. The same boy who'd been able to shrug anything off with a smile had now given up.

If it was just enemies he had to face, then he might have managed somehow. He would have rejoiced at the fact he was still alive, then gotten back up. But those eyes the bear had looked at him with broke him. Those were the eyes of a predator that saw Hajime as nothing more than food. The eyes most humans, who stood at the top of the food chain, never even had to dream about. Those eyes, and the sight of the bear chewing on his own arm, had completely crushed Hajime's spirit. Someone... anyone... Please save me... But he was deep within the pits of hell, so there was absolutely no way his thoughts would reach anyone. He didn't know how long he sat there. But for the longest time, he just huddled in a fetal position, begging for salvation he…. Knew would not come.

1 week has now passed since Hajime had fallen.

He barely moved. Only moving to get the liquid from the divinity stone. Even though the ambrosia could keep a man alive from the heinousness of injuries, it did nothing for hajimes hunger and thirst. Though he couldn't die Hajime had to endure constant pangs of hunger and the phantom pain that came from his missing left arm.

A question had been running constantly in hajimes mind.'Why is this happening to me.' He couldn't sleep due to the pain and whenever he drank the ambrosia it merely made him feel the pain more vividly. Over and over, his fatigue would always bring him back to the edge of

consciousness, only for the pain to bring him back wide awake.

Due to this constant pain Hajime had just stopped drinking the ambrosia. Wishing he would just die so the pain can end.

If all that awaits me is eternal pain... then I might as well..." He muttered to himself, clearly defeated, and let his consciousness slip away.

1 week after that.

The pain which had passed a certain threshold had abated for a while, but that was simply the calm before the storm. His starvation

came back in full force, and excruciating hunger pangs continuously wracked his stomach. The phantom pain continued as well, tormenting Hajime all the while. It felt as if his fingernails were slowly being peeled off one by one, and then salt was dumped in the open wounds.

'I'm... still not dead yet...? Aaah... Please, please... I just want to live…'

While craving death, he still instinctively clung to life. His thoughts began to contradict themselves. Hajime was no longer capable of rational thought. His delirious mumblings no longer made any semblance of sense.

Yet another week passed.

Without the ambrosia Hajime would die very soon. He had eaten nothing, the ambrosia did nothing for his thirst. So both the pain of hunger and the thirst had been coming at him continuously

3 days have passed.

On the first day, The change in hajimes thinking had finally taken a turn. Hovering between wishing for death and praying for salvation, his mind had begun to warp, and dark thoughts began welling up from Hajime's subconscious. Like slime, it had slowly oozed into the cracks in his heart caused by his suffering, and slowly eaten away at his soul.

'Why do I have to suffer so much...? What did I ever do to deserve this? Why me... Why did it end up like this? God just kidnapped me and dropped me off at this place... And then my classmates betrayed me... I was looked down on by a rabbit... And then that bastard ate my arm…'

His thoughts continued to grow darker. Like black ink slowly spreading through white parchment, Hajime's pure heart slowly grew sullied.

Someone was at fault, someone had pushed this unfairness on him, someone had hurt him like this... His mind started searching for an enemy to hate. The pain and hunger and darkness all slowly eroded away Hajime's sanity. His dark thoughts continued to grow.

'Why isn't anyone coming to save me? If no one's going to save me, what should I do? How can I make this pain go away?'

By the 2nd day, Hajime was trying to find a way out of his predicament.Thoughts of how to escape the pain were all that filled him, and even anger and hatred were slowly being worn away. There was no time to be trapped by such petty feelings. Because no matter how much he raged against his foes, Hajime's pain never lessened. In order to escape the absurd and unreasonable situation he was stuck in, unneeded feelings had to be discarded.

'What is it I want? I want to live. And what's stopping me from living? The enemy. And just who is the enemy? Everyone and everything that gets in my way, everything that pushes this unreasonable fate onto me. So what is it I should do? I should... I should…'

Finally on the third day was the snap. Both hatred and anger had vanished from his heart. The unfair god that thrust him into this world, the classmate that betrayed him, the monsters that wanted to kill him... even the smile of the girl who said she would protect him... they all ceased to matter.

Compared to the pressing need for survival, such tiny feelings meant nothing. Hajime's will resolved into a hardened point. Like the tip of a sword forged from the fires of hell. Sharp, strong, and able to cut through anything.( also since I didn't include it the original talk between kaori and Hajime did happen but kaori isn't the main focus. Sorry abt that)

And his will desired to... Kill them. There was no hatred, hostility, or anger in those words. Just a simple statement of fact. In order to live, he had to kill. Anything that threatened his life was an enemy. And all enemies were to be... Killed. 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.

In order to escape the relentless hunger, he had to kill them and eat them. It was at that moment that the kind, quiet Hajime Nagumo, the Hajime who blew everything off with an apology and a smile, the Hajime Kaori had come to admire, ceased to exist.And a new Hajime Nagumo, one who was willing to mercilessly slaughter anything that stood in his path, was born.

His shattered soul had reformed once more. And it was not as a mere patchwork, hastily repaired soul. No, this was a soul reforged in the darkness and despair of hell, a soul tempered in pain and instinct. A soul harder than steel.

Hajime dragged his weakened body over to the cavity where the Ambrosia had spilled, then lapped it up like a dog. His hunger and pain still remained, but his body regained its vigor. Then he roughly wiped his mouth, his eyes sparkling ferociously as a wicked grin spread over his face. His canines peeked through his cruel smile. It was a complete about-face from the kind of person he had been before.

Hajime got up and started transmuting with only one thing in his mind.

"I'll kill them."

(This whole part is basically just the same except made to be longer. Also the way he kills the wolves is the exact same basically almost everything is the same except the amount of time he spent near the divinity crystal. )

Twin-tailed Wolves made their dens in certain parts of the labyrinth floor. They usually moved together in packs of four to six. Alone, they were among the weakest of the monsters that roamed the floor, so they always acted in groups. This pack was no exception, and was a group of four.

They skirted from boulder to boulder, vigilant of their surroundings, searching for a suitable hunting ground. Twin-tailed Wolves generally preferred to ambush their prey. They wandered the corridors for a while until finding what they deemed a suitable hunting spot and all hid behind different boulders.

All that remained was to wait for prey to fall into their trap. One of the wolves slipped between a small crack in a nearby boulder and the wall, then erased its presence. It licked its lips in anticipation, imagining the flesh it would soon feast on, when suddenly it felt a rather odd sense of unease.

As the wolves' key to survival was their cooperation, the members of a pack all shared a peculiar link with each other. It wasn't as straightforward as telepathy, but they were basically able to tell what the rest of their pack was doing and where they were. And it was that link that tipped the wolf off. They were a pack of four, and yet the wolf could only sense two of its other companions. The wolf that should have been lying in wait on the other end of the corridor suddenly vanished. Suspicious, the wolf slowly rose on its haunches, when suddenly another one of its comrades howled. The wolf that was hiding on the same side of the wall as the one that had disappeared was feeling.

The wolf jumped over to where the wolf should've been only to fall into a hole. It yelped as it was about to jump back out only to hit a rock on its head. It looked only to see a faint light and its wolf companion also right beside it. The wolves didn't know what trapped them just thankfully the other two wolves that they could sense disappeared as well.

They had no idea what was happening nor did they see anything after all the one who did it was, of course, Hajime who had trapped the four wolves. Ever since he had resolved to strike back, he had spent each day in ceaseless training, ignoring his pain and hunger. The Ambrosia extended his life and restored his mana, so he was able to focus on his transmutation twenty-four seven. He worked on his speed, his precision, and his range. He knew then that had he gone outside with his current level of skill, he would have died instantly.

So he made his base where the Divinity Stone was, and honed the only weapon he possessed. That weapon was, of course, transmutation.

Though he had ignored his pain while he trained, it only continued to grow as time passed. But that pain only spurred his determination, and he redoubled his efforts to improve his transmutation. Thanks to his focused training, his skills increased far more rapidly than they had been until now, and he was able to transmute from over three meters away now. Unfortunately, his talent for earth magic itself had not grown at all.

Once he had decided he'd trained enough, he created a small stone container in which he scooped up some Ambrosia, and began wandering the dungeon, transmuting, searching for his first target.

That was when he had found the pack of Twin-tailed Wolves. He had followed them silently for a while. Of course, he was nearly spotted numerous times, but every time he managed to transmute walls around him and remain inconspicuous. Then, the moment the four split up to head to their ambush points, he had transmuted the wall and dragged one of the wolves into it.

Hajime had tried to use a spike with transmutation but of course his job wasn't meant for combat and he wasn't able to kill the wolves.

"Now then, still alive, are we? Well, I can't kill anything directly with transmutation, I suppose. I could maybe make spikes come out of the earth, but they wouldn't have enough force to kill monsters this deep in the labyrinth." Hajime grinned wolfishly as he peered down at the trapped monsters through a small hole at his feet. The wolves were all trapped within the wall itself, and couldn't budge an inch. They were all whimpering softly, panic evident in their eyes.

" I could just cut off any air from getting in but I'm way too hungry to wait." Hajime had made a spear and started stabbing the wolf. The hide in the wolf was very tough so Hajime had to struggle but he didn't stop. Then finally he was able to pierce through using his body weight.

"Gahhhhhhhh!!!" The wolf howled in pain.

"Hurts doesn't it! Well not like I care. Just hurry up and die!" Hajime spoke to the wolf while he was slowly piercing it deeper and deeper with the spear. Finally the wolf spasmed and grew still it no longer moved.

"Okay finally I have food." Hajime smiled happily as he did the same thing to the other three wolves. After that, driven by his hunger, he began to devour them. He cut a ghastly figure as he tore into their flesh, illuminated dimly by the green light of the crystals. The green light that defined his hell. He greedily devoured the wolf, every bit the animal he had just killed.

"Agah... Gah, tastes like shit!" He spat curses, but that didn't stop him from eating the wolf. His entire mind was focused on his meal.

The flesh was tough and stringy, and the fresh blood clogged his throat, but he tore at the meat and swallowed it all happily nonetheless. It was his first time tasting food in two weeks. His stomach protested at the sudden infusion of flesh, and resisted its ingestion.

But Hajime didn't care what his stomach thought, so he continued wolfing the wolf down.He looked just like a feral monster. Any human from earth would've found his current appearance disgusting.

The meat smelled raw and disgusting, bringing tears to his eyes, but Hajime felt the food relieve his excruciating hunger pangs, and compared to those, such minor inconveniences were nothing. He had never imagined eating meat could be such a euphoric experience. He ate and ate and ate.

Hours passed, and still he continued to consume. He gulped it all down with Ambrosia, and had the priests of the Holy Church known his barbaric meal was accompanied with such a sacred drink, they would have fainted. However, around the time he was finally starting to feel full, Hajime began to notice a change occurring within his body.

"Gah!! Ahh! What the!" Hajime crumpled down in pain, his body was hurting everywhere, the pain of his arm couldn't even come close to the pain he was experiencing now. It was like something was destroying his body from the inside.

With a trembling hand, Hajime pulled a stone vial out of his pocket, ripped the cap off, and poured its contents down his throat. The Ambrosia did its work, and the pain began to recede, but then, eventually, it returned once more.

"Ahh…gahhh. Damn…. It! Why.. won't … it heal!!!?"

Along with the pain Hajime began to feel his body throb. It began to pulse, like one big organism. In fact, he could hear his body creaking too.However, an instant later Ambrosia kicked in again and began repairing his body. Once the healing finished, the pain returned. Then he was healed again.

Thanks to the Ambrosia, he couldn't even faint. Its healing powers had backfired on him.Hajime screamed incoherently, smacking his head against the wall over and over, but the pain showed no signs of ending. He begged for someone to end his pain, but of course no one granted his wish.

Finally hajimes body began to change. The first change was his hair turned pure white. It was probably due to the amount of pain he was feeling.

Then, his muscles and bones began to grow slightly, giving him a toned appearance. Red veins ran down the inside of his body, though he wasn't aware of that at the time. There existed a phenomenon known as overcompensation. When one attempted muscle training, their muscles actually tore, and the body simply regrew them a bit stronger to overcompensate. And that same thing was happening to Hajime.

A monster's meat was poisonous to humans. Because of the mana crystals distilled into their blood, a monster's specialized organs allowed them to directly interface with magic, and give them superior physical strength. The mana that circulated through monsters affected even their bones and muscles.

This transformed mana allowed monsters to use magic without incantations or magic circles, though no one knew exactly how. Regardless of the particulars, a monster's mana was poison to humans, and killed any who tried to ingest it. It would eat a person away from the inside, destroying their very cells.There were people who had tried to eat monsters in the past and they had all, without exception, died. In fact, Hajime had read all about this, but his extreme hunger had led him to forget.

Had Hajime just eaten the wolf's flesh, he would have died an agonizing, but swift death. But there had been something that prevented that. And that was Ambrosia. It healed him every time his body was destroyed. As a result, his body was forced to evolve at an unnaturally rapid pace.

It was broken, then repaired. Broken, then repaired. With each cycle, his body slowly changed. Almost like a reincarnation of sorts. His frail human body was forcibly transformed into something stronger, and he went through a ritual of rebirth. It could be said Hajime's screams were akin to the cries of a newborn.

Finally the pain receded, and Hajime slumped to the ground. The hair on his head had turned white, and underneath his clothes, veins of dark red mana ran down his body. Just like the Twin-tail Wolves, or the Kickmaster Rabbits, or the Claw Bears.

Hajime's arm twitched. His closed eyes opened slowly. He pushed himself up with his right hand to assume a sitting position.

"Haha. I forgot you're not supposed to eat monster meat. Can't believe I'd do something so retarded." Hajime laughed dryly and then looked towards him arm.

"Whoaaaa that's disgusting!" Hajime saw a dark red vein peeking out of his now toned muscles. He jumped straight up and noticed his body was more toned than usual. He also felt a bit taller. He was 165 cm before but now he felt he grew 10 more. He felt like he could control the vein he focused very hard and was able to make it disappear.

"Maybe my status plate could tell me something?" Hajime, finally done messing around with the vein, decided to check the status plate.

It went as follows.

Hajime Nagumo Age: 17 Male Level: 8 Job: Synergist

Strength: 400

Vitality: 600

Defense: 300

Agility: 350

Magic: 900

Magic Defense: 900

Skills: Transmute — Mana Manipulation — Iron Stomach — Lightning Field — Language Comprehension

"What in Tarnation!!" Hajime had yelled in surprise in a very weird accent. His stats made a huge boost. He also had other skills than transmutation.

Mana Manipulation?" If he took it literally, that would mean Hajime had gained the power to directly control mana.Could that weird sensation I've been feeling be mana? Hajime thought, and attempted to activate his Mana Manipulation skill.

"Oooooooh!!" He felt the mana running through his body and there dark red veins came up.Then, suddenly, his mana poured into the magic circle inscribed on the glove he was wearing without him having to say anything. Surprised, Hajime attempted to transmute something. The ground rose up without him saying a word.

"No way. I didn't even need to chant an incantation? I thought direct mana control wasn't supposed to be possible for anyone except monsters...? Does that mean I absorbed a monster's special abilities by eating it?" That was indeed the case. Hajime had acquired the power of monsters. He then moved to try out another of his new skills, Lightning Field.

"Umm... how am I supposed to use this? Since it says Lightning Field, it must have something to do with electricity, right? Could it be? Do I have the same skill the wolf used when it gathered electricity in its tail?" He tried various things, but none of them seemed to do anything. Unlike Mana Manipulation, he couldn't physically feel the skill inside him, so he wasn't exactly sure how to go about activating it.

While pondering to himself, he remembered that when he was transmuting, he always needed a mental image of the effect he was trying to produce. The less one relied on a magic circle to define the characteristics of a spell, the more they needed a mental image to guide its creation.

"Okay so all I have to do is just think about it." Hajime concentrated very hard and finally he was able to make red lighting come out of his hand.

"Oooh! So that's what I have to do than." Hajime was only able to produce it; he couldn't fire it off like the twin tailed wolves had done. Hajime made the conclusion that he could wrap himself in lightning and shock anything that touched him. He grabbed a piece of the meat and used lightning field on it until it was finally cooked. Hajime was weary since he had endured that pain last time but decided to take a bite anyways. 2 minutes went by. Than 5 than 10. Hajime didn't feel the pain.

"Perhaps it's because of this skill." Iron stomach was a new one and it probably meant exactly what the name meant.

"Hmm I guess that's extremely useful." Hajime said while continuing to eat the meat.

???? POV

???"So he is our chosen one than?"

???"yeah I mean we won't be alive after this and I find him interesting."

???"why do you find him interesting? He's just a mere mortal."

???"I don't really care. I just want someone to carry on my blessing so let's just do it."

???"listen ?? He won't abuse it and cause chaos like the last one. I know he won't. He's a strong soul and their is not loss in giving him this blessing. We won't be here to see what he does but I do know he'll make the people around him happy.

???" ….. Fine if you say so. This is the end after all." The mysterious figure finally agreed to the other.

???" Thank you. Well we were the last of the true, ??? Now let's commence the procedure.

The mysterious figures all formed a circle and linked hands. Then a brilliantly bright light exploded sending shockwaves to every world. Finally the bright light diminished leaving only darkness as it was before.