Fair warning, the gore is fairly descriptive in this chapter. Look out for the X-x-X and skip to the line break.

Stay sane y'all.

~MindsandMirrors

'Hajime' sat up in an eddy of icy water. He groaned softly and held his head, a pounding synchronized with his heartbeat ringing through him and it grew worse as his body heat warmed the water clinging to him. Slowly, he opened his eyes, his memories shrouded in a hazy fog. He half expected to be sitting in his room at the capital, or perhaps the room at the inn they were staying at, in spite of the icy water flowing around him. He was disappointed, however, when what greeted him was neither of those things and instead the rough stone walls of an underground cavern.

'Where am I...?' He pondered to himself.

Barely able to see, what little he could was thanks to various luminescent crystals, such as Greenlight Stones, a mineral he had never seen before, and Glanz Crystals- he laughed at the irony, slowly remembering what had happened an indeterminate amount of time ago.

Slowly, his whole body aching, he climbed to his feet in the icy-cold stream and groaned in mild agony, his joints and flesh stiff from the low temperatures. He forced himself out of the pool of water and climbed onto the stone shore. He placed a hand on the ground and stammered out the command to transmute the earth, whatever mana that the potion hadn't regenerated from his fight with the behemoth recovered in the time he was unconscious. Spiraling out from his hand, the formula for a simple fire magic was carved into the ground. He frowned in concentration as sweat beaded upon his brow. The lines were only a few millimeters deep into the ground, but it took all his effort to carve the sigils into it, as if it were the ceiling of a dungeon.

Once finished he was panting in exertion and his mana reserves were nearly empty.

"... What the hell...?" He asked in confusion. He knew that the 'true' walls, ceiling, and floor of a dungeon were nearly-indestructible but there was usually a good few meters of normal stone atop it. A quick [Appraisal] revealed that it was a composite mineral of something he couldn't identify- something he would have to look into- and Taur ore, something he hadn't yet seen but had read about in the books of the Royal Library. Taur was one of the hardest ores in the world of Tortus, surpassed by only a few other ores such as Azmanthium and ores that interacted with mana. It seems that combining it with whatever the secondary mineral was made it into something that was nearly beyond his ability to manipulate.

He placed his hand on the meter-and-a-half sigil and fed it the last of his mana, stripping his clothes off to dry while the fire still burned, the process expedited by the loss of his armor. He shuddered as the damp, cool air struck his wet skin and shuffled closer to the fire. 'Hajime' clenched his jaw to stop his chattering teeth and rubbed his arms, doing a few exercises in order to get his blood flowing.

Once his clothes were sufficiently dry he put them back on quickly, making sure that nothing was missing or lost, save for his armor. The white oilcloth duster-type jacket with a red cross on the back he had special made was tattered towards the bottom now, and the slit that once terminated below his waist now ascended to the bottom of the cross placed in the middle of his back, but it was still serviceable. Similarly, the palms of his long leather gloves had been worn thin after taking such a beating. Even the silvery metal inscribed with a transmutation circle was dented and scuffed, but clearly still worked; even if the rivets binding the glove and metal together were failing it would still do its job for a while longer. He pulled the fingerless gloves tight, steel-reinforced leather going back across his forearm and under his coat sleeve before he wrapped a leather belt just behind the wrist to bind both the white-and-red sleeve and glove to his body. Similarly, he had leather belts cinched above and below the joints of his arms and legs to keep his clothing close to his body and act as a tourniquet if needed.

His boots were durable enough, having survived his fall and subsequent swim with minimal damage, so he laced them up tightly, making sure his pants were tucked into the tops firmly. His pants themselves were sturdy canvas that had been treated to be relatively weather-resistant enough so that rain or snow wouldn't soak him to the bone in a normal situation. But they were still a little damp- as were his underclothes- when he put it on but he wouldn't be experiencing hypothermia anytime soon. Next was to check what equipment he still had on him.

'Knife and canteen, check. Tourniquets and cotton, soaked through but check. Alcohol?' While it wasn't the greatest thing to clean wounds with, it was what he had access to, and worked well enough. But, as he stuck his hand into the pocket that held several vials of oilcloth-wrapped alcohol, he just cut his finger, pulling the digit out and placing it to his mouth he began to suck on it. A moment later he pulled his finger away from his lips to find it already scabbing over. Another benefit to being a 'Hero'; small wounds like that healed almost instantly.

Rather than dig through glass shards for a possibly-intact bottle, he instead checked the opposite pocket on the inside of his jacket at hip-level, wondering if the extra rations he had packed survived. He unraveled the oilcloth package to find that it had been soaked-through, and that the hardtack and salt-pork were wet. He hummed and left the rations by the quickly-dying embers of his magical fire to dry out. It could very well be his last taste of actual food (as loosely as he used that term in reference to his rations) for a while to come, so he did his best to save them.

He knew he could go without food for a month, maybe, depending on his amount of physical activity. But he also knew that the longer he went without food, the worse his condition would get, eventually his body would begin cannibalizing his muscle mass for nutrients to sustain itself, further reducing his chances of survival. He shook his head. Now was not the time to get caught up in those thoughts. There was a river here, chances were that he could catch some fish, and that would sustain him for a while. If they weren't poisonous, he could eat them raw, and that alone would keep him alive until they left the area...

But what after?

He slapped himself. The atmosphere of the dungeon must be messing with me, he thought. Heroes were resistant to the depressive effects of residing in the dungeon, but who knew how long 'Hajime' had been down here. Staying here for too long would risk driving him mad. Best to just find the stairs and teleport circle, that'd make the whole problem moot. So, after rewrapping and gathering his supplies, he began walking, guided by the light of Greenlight stones and Glanz crystals as he searched for edge of this floor. The flat stone plains eventually gave way to a steep wall. Now he could go either way, hoping to find the stairs or teleport circle, but noticed a hole carved into it and decided to investigate. Warily, he took a few steps forward until he could peer down into the darkness.

He couldn't see very far into it, only a few meters, but as he kicked a stone into it, he knew that it was much deeper than that. In fact, he could almost see something like a light down at the bottom...

Suddenly he shivered and turned around, wary of any suspiciously friendly bald men around with a penchant for kicking people into deep holes.

Fears assuaged, he got began to lay down so that he could peer over the edge without fear of losing his balance and falling in. He squinted and tried to get his eyes to adjust to the deep, inky blackness that filled the hole in its entirety, but all he managed to confirm was that there, indeed, was a light deep down there. That made it a tempting prospect to enter, as perhaps it would lead to the teleport circle, but a sense of foreboding was emanating from it. Perhaps it was his imagination- or perhaps it was some kind of intuition- but right now he had plenty of choices, and that hole could very well be a one-way-trip.

So, 'Hajime' stood and carefully moved away from the hole, filing it away in the back of his mind. After that, he turned and began walking along the wall, eyes carefully observing the floor and walls ahead of him so that he wouldn't fall prey to any traps or ambushes. It was difficult, though, to keep his eyes from flitting around to whatever purple shadows danced in the corners of his eyes, but he managed.

H didn't make it far before he realized that each step brought him further into the darkness, as the Greenlight Stones and Glanz Crystals grew quickly dwindled, taking the light with them. It grew more difficult to see, but his eyes adjusted to it quickly enough. But if it continued like this, then he knew that it would eventually become too dark to see. That made it a tempting prospect to take one of the stones with him, but he refrained, knowing that it would make him stand out like a beacon to whatever demon beasts resided in this dark pit.

He decided that if it did in fact grow too dark to see, then he would immediately go back and retrieve a Glanz Crystal, as it was dimmer than a Greenlight Stone, because he figured that being visible to anything in the vicinity was better than being unable to see, though even that was preferable to encountering a demon beast or something similar.

Looking back on it, Hajime would think that it was the greatest fortune of his life that he encountered what he did that day.

It was a rabbit, if you could call it that. The front half was normal enough, save for its beady, almost-luminescent red eyes that were turned away from him, but its hindquarters were grossly overdeveloped, bulging black veins visible behind its snowy white fur, fading and receding beneath its skin the closer they got to its face. 'Hajime' froze, swallowing thickly. He knew that whatever resided down here was dangerous, more so than anything he had encountered before save for the Behemoth but even then... even then, he didn't expect to meet something with such an amazing level of power. Even without specialized detection skills, 'Hajime' could feel its power. Slowly, he began to back away. He couldn't defeat this thing. Not in a hundred years. He wasn't a combat class in any way, shape or form. Neither being a Synergist or Doctor would help him take this thing down.

So, he crept away, going unnoticed, hoping that he wouldn't be seen in the dim light, staying close to the wall.

Unfortunately, it was that very thing which led him to being seen as he slid his hand over a Greenlight Stone, making it flicker and drawing the rabbit's sensitive eyes. 'Hajime' immediately froze, its ice-cold gaze boring into him with unrestrained bloodlust. No, it wasn't that, it was simple killing intent. It did not hate him, nor did it view him as something to be killed, it just viewed him as food, as something so far below it, he wasn't even worth killing. Just, devouring.

It leaped towards him, flipping in the air and extending one leg out in a kick. In a moment of desperation, 'Hajime' threw one arm out in a block, trying to protect himself from the attack as well as he could. He understood the strength that this rabbit had, even if only on the simplest level, and understood he was essentially sacrificing his left arm by doing this, but knew it was better to lose one arm than to lose his life. Besides, he was holding onto the hope that he could make it back to where the rest of the Hero Party was and if he did, he'd be able to get something like this healed in just a few hours.

Unfortunately, even a Divine Priestess was incapable of regrowing limbs.

X-x-X

As the rabbit's foot came into contact with his arm, flesh was ruptured and burst, bone shattered and veins torn. His face was dyed red in his own blood, shrapnel made from both steel and bone pelted him, opening up any number of wounds on his face. Somehow he survived and was thrown back as he clutched at his barely-hanging-on arm. It was obvious that his radius and ulna completely pulverized whilst only the barest scraps of connective tissue held his hand to his arm, blood spurting out of the gaping wound. Screaming, he wrapped a tight hand around it in a vain attempt to slow the bleeding even as he writhed in agony.

The now blood-soaked rabbit leisurely hopped up to him, looking down at his pain-ridden form without sympathy. What else could he expect; after all, he was just food to it in the end.

"Ghrk..." He rolled onto his front, clenching his jaw so hard he swore he felt some of his teeth crack, and glared at it, tears and snot and saliva streaming down his blood-soaked face. Even if it was just in some small way, he'd retain some shred of dignity.

Languidly, as if it had all the time in the world, the rabbit raised one foot up in order to crush his skull. Afterwards, it would likely enjoy his corpse to the fullest. Unless, of course, it decided he tasted bad and left him to rot like roadkill.

It began to bring its foot down with an easy power, only for it to freeze much like 'Hajime' had. It began to twitch, eyes darting across the dark, blood-soaked stone plain, as if looking for something.

Suddenly, it leapt away, fleeing from something. 'Hajime' felt something fly above him and saw the rabbit get bisected by some invisible force. 'Hajime' didn't know what it was, but if it was capable of killing a beast like that then 'Hajime' knew he had no chance against whatever launched that attack. Slowly, waves of agony pulsing through him, he turned around, coming to sit up and face a great, lumbering bipedal beast. It was well over ten feet tall and covered in thick, white fur. Its underbelly and face were black as coal. At the end of each arm it had four, razor sharp claws almost a foot long each. It eyes were a luminescent, predatory yellow and they were locked squarely on 'Hajime'. Perhaps drawn by the unusual prey or the thick scent of human blood, the beast drew closer to him while its overwhelming presence left 'Hajime' frozen where he sat. It easily grabbed him by his one whole arm and picked him up, making him cry out as the rough movements jostled what remained of his other arm. It brought his face to its, sniffing deeply before running its rough tongue over his face, tasting the blood that covered him. Once 'Hajime' opened his eyes he found that this creature was staring directly into his eyes, visible enjoyment of his torment clear.

"A-ah... ah..." He gasped, expressing the pain resulting from the rough handling the only way he could with his body frozen as it was.

After that, it brought him further into the air, eyes locked onto his limply-hanging arm. A touch of feeling made its way into his legs and he vainly kicked against the beast. Although even the attacks had more than enough force to break the bones of an ordinary human, it was nothing against this monster who warded the attacks off by shattering one of his legs with a backhand. He screamed in pain. Feeling his vocal cords strain, he felt it work his arm into its mouth and stopped just around his wrist. Knowing what was about to happen he resumed struggling. He kicked with his one operable leg before it could begin chewing, but the attacks were simply ignored. Then, he felt it.

Crunch

"GYAAAAHHHH!" He screamed as its teeth cleaved through flesh and bone, what little blood remained in the nearly-severed appendage spilling out into the beast's mouth and making its way either down its throat or onto the floor. Unfortunately, as it swallowed his hand its rough tongue probed into the wound that still wept blood freely. He screamed louder. Satisfied with its exploration, it bit into his arm once again. As its teeth cut through his elbow, above the dividing wound, 'Hajime's' screams cracked. He was still uselessly kicking at it as it worked its way to the middle of his bicep and began to chew. At some point he had stopped screaming. Perhaps his vocal cords has broken or he just didn't have the energy for it anymore; he didn't know.

Once it finished enjoying his arm, it pulled away and threw him, seeming to relish the snapping sounds his ribs made and eliciting a fresh round of screams.

Slowly, it began to lumber towards him with hunger and sadistic enjoyment evident in its eyes. Inside of 'Hajime', he realized that he didn't have any chance. This thing was just too strong. It didn't matter how far he fled, how well he hid. It would find him and devour him and enjoy each and every drop of blood it spilt as he screamed in agony, like Hannibal Lector dining on high society to the sound of violins.

He realized that, understood it. And yet... his one arm still reached out and pulled him along, away from the beast in a futile effort of escape, his one non-broken leg pushing against the stony ground in an attempt to expedite the process even as he left far too much blood behind him, crimson handprints smeared across the stone floor as he dragged himself forward heedless of the sharp stones that dug and cut into him. He could hear the beast's great, lumbering steps behind him, shaking the ground and growing ever so slightly closer with each passing moment. It was toying with him, it knew he wasn't a threat, so it had decided to play with its food. 'Hajime' knew that, knew that this beast could kill him whenever it decided to. And still his body ached for pointless survival. So he pushed on, agony pulsing through him with every motion, each wave of pain accompanying a spurt of blood leaking from his many wounds.

At several moments, his consciousness faded only for him to awaken moments later, still in the motion of pushing his half-dead body along the floor. Eventually the bloodloss caught up with him, unfortunately. He wasn't certain of the exact time but knew that it couldn't have been more than ten minutes- less with the sheer number of wounds dotting his body. But just as he was growing cold, just before he passed out and was devoured, he saw it.

He saw salvation.

A small hole carved into the wall of the dungeon four feet wide and five feet tall. The edges were rough and it immediately fed into a steep slope, dropping off into a cavern that held a light at the bottom. 'Hajime' didn't know how deep it was, but figured cracking his skull open on a rocky floor was better than dying to a beast that would devour and discard his remains like three-week-old leftovers.

As he plunged headfirst into the hole, 'Hajime' had barely a moment to regret his decision before he was knocked unconscious by a stone striking his skull as he tumbled down into the pit.

...

...

...

'It's cold...'

'Hajime' opened his eyes slowly to reveal that everything around him was awash in various shades of dull, shifting color, making his head spin for a moment before he adjusted and realized that one eye was submerged in a shallow pool of startlingly clear water. He slowly began to push himself up only to fall back into the water with a splash, falling onto his side as one arm failed to respond to directions. He grunted in discomfort as he fell on his own arm and rolled onto his back so that he could breath without inhaling water.

"Urgh..." He groaned as, outside of the cool water, an ache in the center of his forehead began to throb. He reached up to rub it with his left while he pushed himself into a sitting position with his right. As he did so he could swear he felt the slight pressure of his fingers on his face only for it to fade a moment later. "Eh...?" He murmured as he drew his hand away in confusion and opened his eyes while fighting past the pain that stabbed into his brain from the many shining crystals in the small cave he found himself in.

But what pulled his attention away from the light was the lack of arm.

"E-eh? Wh-where is...?" 'Hajime' asked himself as he looked around as if he had perhaps just misplaced his arm. His hand drifted to his stump and gently held it, feeling the way the flesh encapsulated what remained of his bicep and humerus, the jagged edge of the bone able to be felt through the scarless flesh. In fact, as 'Hajime' looked down at it he would have thought it had always been like that, had it not been for his vivid memories of having two hands.

Suddenly, 'Hajime' screamed and gripped the stump of his arm as ice-cold lances of sheer, nerve-tearing agony ripped up through his shoulder in synchronicity with the phantom sensations of teeth tearing through the flesh and bone of his forearm, his headache forgotten as he was submersed into the waves of icy agony. He threw himself forward face-first into the water and began to scream, the pain making his core tighten immediately and slam his head the stone floor of the pool. For a moment he hoped he would fall back into unconsciousness from the blow but was given no such mercy.

He screamed as he dug his fingernails into the flesh of his stump which dyed the water around him pink. Slowly the lancing agony began to dull and lessen, turning into an ache that he tolerated until it left him, hacking up the lungful of water he had inhaled. As the pain from his missing limb gradually faded his coughing fit also subsided and from his half-submerged position he watched as the blood from his self-inflicted wounds floated through the crystalline water in an attempt to focus on something other than the pain which still lingered, before tilting his head in amazement and confusion as the pinkish-red fluid slowly faded into the same clear water as the pool, either filtered away or diluted until it wasn't noticeable- something which shouldn't have been possible in a seemingly-stagnant pool.

"Where... ish the water comin' fr'm?" He wondered, slightly slurring his words, as he looked up and around.

Drip... drip... drip...

Looking up, 'Hajime' realized that one of the crystals was not the same as the others; although it glowed just as brightly- or perhaps even more brilliantly- than the others embedded into the wall its face was cracked. Motes of light escaped from the fractures as water slowly leaked out, gathering at a slightly peaked center and forming into droplets before those droplets gathered enough mass to break free of their origin. As they fell, 'Hajime' traced their path and found that they landed into the pool he now sat in. He looked back down into the water and sat back on his heels, careful of the soreness plaguing his body. He tried to use both arms- and flinched as he saw only one come into view- to scoop up the water. With a quickly draining pool gathered into his palm he stared intently into it in an attempt triggering one of his innate skills.

[Appraisal] was a skill he had received upon landing in this world. And it was not only essential to his 'secondary class' as he called it, but was one of the skills he had the hardest time using at-will. [Transmutation] was much more like a muscle in that it was something he could flex and control with some difficulty- until he exercised it a bit, that is. Now it hardly took a thought to trigger the skill and manipulate matter to his will.

But [Appraisal] required much more focus and concentration, as well as the intricacies and complexities of projecting mana from his eyes and allowing the natural mana emanating from the object to interact with his own. Thankfully the skill handled the translation automatically so he wasn't required to understand what the subtle variation in the waves of mana meant as they resonated with his own.

?

Now that... was unusual. Normally if a material was beyond what one might find in a large town's market a person would have to level up the skill in order to understand it, but as a Hero 'Hajime' was privy to an exclusive version of the skill that allowed him to examine all materials of the world- in a simplified manner, at the very least.

Or, that's what was believed.

Did that mean that this was something rare beyond even Azantium, something on the level of Amanogawa's Holy Sword? That was... astounding. Now that 'Hajime' was paying a bit more attention to it he could feel the waves of mana flowing out from the water and crystal, filling the cavern and washing over him. And now that he thought about it, when he had awoken on the shore of the river he had encountered a mineral that couldn't be appraised but he hadn't been in a state of mind to think about it. Now realizing he should have spent a moment thinking about it 'Hajime' stared intently at the walls of the cavern he was in.

Composite Mineral

Composed of Taur Ore {Hardness level 8} and ? {Hardness level Unknown}

Hardness level of resultant Composite Mineral is level 8.5

Properties include resistance to structural change.

'Hajime' blinked blankly and got closer to the wall, letting the water fall back into the pool. He stumbled out of the shallow body of water and placed his hand on the wall while focusing intently on it, trying to probe deeper into the mineral with his own mana. But as he poured more and more into the Skill, he realized that he wouldn't be getting any further. Whether that was from his own lack of proficiency or the waves of mana radiating off of the crystal in the middle of the room was up for debate. He gathered a few more details, mainly the atomic density and the symbol for the periodic-table-equivalent that existed in this world. He sighed and moved away from the wall, turning to the steep cliff wall that he came from.

He swallowed thickly as he heard something stomping about and roaring near the top entrance. In his mind, 'Hajime' could see It, roaring in frustration as its easy meal escaped. The thought brought a small chuckle out of him, a smile accompanying it as he heard the beast lumber away. Its seemed surprisingly ready to leave in spite of the anger evident in its roars. 'Hajime' swallowed warily, doubting it had truly given up. The beasts of this hellish pit seemed to be smarter compared to their surface-equivalent. Enough to express enjoyment and sadism, at the very least.

'Hajime' remained frozen, his body unwilling to listen to his commands until the beast was long-silent. For the moment, 'Hajime' decided to examine his current residence.

Now that he looked closer at the walls they were much too smooth to be natural, and several Glanz Crystals seemed to be placed strategically in order to fully illuminate the room. The basin was smooth, lacking any signs of having been eroded over time and instead seeming to be far more artificial. 'Hajime' gave out a confused hum, running his palm along the basin, trying to find any sign of tool or magic-use that might signify an artificial creation. He found none, and for all intents and purposes it seemed that the basin was entirely natural.

Once more, 'Hajime' looked up to the ceiling and frowned, focusing on the crystal. Unsteadily getting to his feet, he crouched down, supernaturally strengthened muscles tensing as he leapt into the air, his hand reaching out to grasp the crystal.

Although he largely missed his target, he managed the barest, most insignificant amount of contact against the cracked face of the crystal, the very fingertip of his glove sliding between the cracks in its face and catching for just a moment.

In that instant, that barely perceptible moment, 'Hajime' felt it.

And overwhelming, undeniable surge of magic that left him reeling, his unsteady legs sending him sprawling into the liquid pool of what 'Hajime' now knew to distilled mana, magic in its purest, most refined form. It is what miracles were made of, a single drop enough to cure a man on his deathbed or to reattach a severed limb.

A jolt of pain ran through 'Hajime' at the thought, but it was quickly drowned out by mirth at his situation.

Stranded, alone and without supplies, and yet not all hope was yet lost. He had a God's Crystal on his side, and with it a near-limitless supply of mana and healing. He looked to the stone ceiling around him.

'Resistance to structural change, huh? Well, guess we'll have to see how far that goes, won't we?'

Hope bloomed in 'Hajime's' chest, for the first time in weeks.

He soon came to regret it.

You all know the standard spiel. Follow, favorite and review if you wouldn't mind. I had fun writing this, but I wish it didn't take so damn long. Oh, well. Hope you guys enjoy it, and take a look at some of my other stuff if you've got the time. I just posted a new story that I hope everyone will enjoy.

Stay sane y'all.

~MindsandMirrors