Shinigami of Pallimustus

by FallenDispair

This is an alternate universe where Ichigo and the Bleach characters, along with their powers are integrated into He Who Fights With Monsters. A unique twist, making essence magic work like soul reaper powers. Better summary inside. The fate of two worlds will rely on Ichigo to save them. Rated M to be safe. IchigoxOrihime -she'll be more equal to Ichigo instead of a damsel.

1. Chapter 1

Shinigami of Pallimustus

A/U: This is an alternate universe of He Who Fights With Monsters incorporating Ichigo Kurosaki and the various characters/powers of Tite Kubo's universe but instead of their soul powers it will be essence magic -which is just the mean in which to tap the potential of the soul, so not that different. Mostly the world of HWFWM with several differences surrounding the astral and the forces therein. I really enjoyed Shirtaloon's work, but I can't stand Jason Asano. At first he was funny and had potential but he just ended up being an over-the-top, annoying MC that never develops past any issues. He repeatedly makes the same mistake and bringing up his issues of killing people and how he is evil. I honestly couldn't even finish book six it got so bad.

So many MCs of late are stupid and over-the-top like Jason and Monkey D. Luffy. Realistically, they'd have been put down hard and fast. I prefer the more serious but full of character Ichigo Kurosaki template that put effort in saving people, doing what needs to be done instead of running around yelling about how great they are and acting childish with no plans, lucking out of most situations. So Goodbye Jason Asano, hello Ichigo Asano.

There are hollows but mostly in the great astral as souls corrupted by the void, broken out of the normal cycle. The famous Shinigami of Bleach and the soul society won't appear for a long while as they'll serve the Great Astral Being: The Reaper, and are charged with the important task of maintaining the cycle of souls and purifying hollows throughout the great astral. The soul society and shinigami act on a much larger scale than single worlds; helping maintain all of reality through the balance of souls in the astral and the physical worlds. It was this or drastically nerf all the soul reaper captains and make all soul reapers into selfish humans hoarding magic power for just themselves.

Because of this drastic change, obviously Ichigo's father can't be a shinigami as they are astral entities themselves and thus can't directly interact with physical realities. For those that don't know about HWFWM astral beings are entities that are metaphysical, being made up of pure magic energy -which is explained as the manner in which the potential of the soul is unleashed. So when magic is brough up, think of it as the medium between flesh and the power of the soul. Astral beings have overcome the difference and are more soul than flesh -which can't survive being in the great astral that's composed of pure magic energy.

And yes, before anyone gets angry, Orihime Inoue, Yasutora Sado -aka "Chad" and Tatsuki Arisawa are still Ichigo's friends, just having met and grown up in New South Wales that makes up 33% of the 95 thousand japanese population in Australia. Uryu Ishida is still in Japan but will be reintroduced later on Earth as a part of the Network.

Character profile: Ichigo Asano Ichigo was born in Casselton Beach, New South Wales, Australia. Mother was Masaki Kurosaki(deceased), Japanese national who was part of a wealthy and powerful clan. She didn't want to marry a reasonably distant cousin her family arrange for her and was disowned. She moved to Australia and went to college on a scholarship where she met Isshin Asano and fell in love with him. Father is Isshin Asano, brother of Hiro and Ken Asano -yes, Jason exists as Ichigo's cousin and his whole background on Earth is the same, he's just not the MC going to another magical universe. Two younger twin sisters; Karin and Yuzu.

Character Profile: Orihime Inoue She was born in Japan, but was legally removed from her abusive parents and adopted by her much older brother Sora. He was hit by a car and died when she was fourteen. Luckily Sora had arranged for his little sister's guardianship to go to an old friend of his, Aghea Arisawa. She ended up living with the Arisawa family in Casselton Beach, New South Wales becoming best friends with their daughter Tatsuki, practically sisters with how close they are. Through Tatsuki Orihime befriended, became infatuated with Ichigo, eventually falling love with him. It was until their sophomore year of high that Ichigo reciprocated her feelings.

I don't own Tite Kubo or Shirtaloon's works or ideas, nor do I profit off of it.

---

Chapter 1: Cannibals, Iron Rank and Ritual Sacrifice

Ichigo woke up naked, face down in the grass. That was not how he expected to wake up, since he had gone to sleep in his own bed with his girlfriend. From the feel of the cool grass on his groin, he had been removed from his bed and Orihime both. The last thing he remembered was the celebration party in their single bedroom apartment in Melbourne, private accommodations being cheaper than on-campus ones. He was looking to become a translator and had enrolled and was accepted in foreign language, business and communications courses at the University of Melbourne.

Orihime had been accepted in their premed courses and to save on money they'd moved in together. It was also a big step in their relationship.

When the party filled with their friends and family ended, he and Orihime had retired to the bedroom. Where they'd stayed up late enjoying each other until fatigue took over and they actually went to sleep.

The grass he woke up on was weirdly comfortable, a dense bed of lush green softness. It wasn't like any grass he had encountered before.

Ichigo rolled himself over and sat up. He was feeling odd, there was a lingering spoor, but also a feeling of refreshed energy. He ran a hand over his head, only to be startled when he realized his hair was missing.

"Uh..."

He felt about his head with both hands, but his head was balloon smooth. Which was odd for he had a full head of spiky orange hair when he went to sleep. His hair color was unusual, especially seeing as he was of full japanese heritage. It'd caused him trouble throughout his childhood; getting local punks and senior students to become violent with him and teachers assuming he was a delinquent that dyed his hair. It'd have made his life so much easier if he just dyed it black or brown to match most everyone else's hair color, but it was one of the things his dead mother gave him. That made it important to Ichigo, like it was a part of his very identity.

He made a quick check with his eyes and hands, realizing there was no hair anywhere on his body. No eyebrows, nothing on his chest, or arms, or... other places.

"Did someone actually shave me bald even down there? That's disturbing... and clearly someone is asking for an ass-kicking. And where the hell is Orihime?"

He pushed himself to his feet and started assessing his environment. Casting his gaze to the sky, he saw that the sun was high, and the air was warm. The sky was unbroken blue, the blazing orb burning away so much as the merest hint of cloud. Sunburn, more than cold, was likely to threaten his exposed extremities. He really didn't want to know what sunburned genitals felt like.

Looking around, he saw that he was boxed in between two long, tall hedges. Glancing up and down the dead-straight lane, side-junctions headed off at sharp right angles in either direction. The lane itself was wide and grassy, with plenty of room for unconscious sprawling. The hedge walls were meticulously trimmed, professionally so in fact, or at least he assumed so.

Ichigo glanced down at his bald, naked body, seeing his lean muscle forged through years of karate practice and street fights with punks looking to attack anything different. He also had long limbs that matched his tall height, at least by japanese standards, topping out around 5'11" by time he graduated high school earlier that year. Only his best friend Chad was taller than him, reaching over 6'5" when they graduated.

Ichigo shook off his confusion and set off at random to explore and hopefully find some pants. He quickly discovered he was in a hedge maze, the living walls cultivated to almost twice his height. Ichigo's first thought was to climb one to get a better sense of his location, but a closer examination of the hedges changed his mind. Instead of the usual boxwood, the hedges were something very prickly, and he was very naked. He'd rather put off scrapping his tender bits for as long as he can. He looked up and down the path he was on, with neither direction looking any better than the other.

"What the hell is going on?"

As if in response to his question, something appeared in front of him. It looked like a touch screen, floating in the air, disembodied. He reached out to touch it with an experimental finger, the screen shimmering as his finger passed straight through.

"Hologram?"

He looked at the ground and the nearby hedges for some kind of projector, but as he started moving, the screen followed. There was text on the screen, which he read.

New Quest: [Stranger in a Strange Land]

You have awoken in a place you do not know. Explore the area to discover more.

Objectives: Explore the hedge maze 0/1.
Reward: Simple pants.

"Huh."

He looked around suspiciously. He carefully probed the pointy foliage of the hedge walls, looking for hidden cameras. Looking up at the sky, he didn't spot any camera drones. What he did notice was the moon, pale and easy to overlook in the daylight. Then he noticed another moon.

"That can't be right."

Ichigo looked down at the floating screen, then back up at the sky. Still two moons.

"Great. I've gone insane."

Ichigo sat down on the grass, unsure what to do. He kept glancing up at the sky and the extra moon. In front of him, the screen still waited patiently.

"This is crazy. I mean, a quest? I'm not a video game character."

Another screen appeared next to the first.

Ichigo Asano

Race: Outworlder Current rank: normal Progression to iron rank: 0% (0/4 essences)

Attributes:
[Power] (no essence): normal [Speed] (no essence): normal [Spirit] (no essence): normal [Recovery] (no essence): normal

Racial Abilities (Outworlder)

[Interface]
[Quest System]
[Inventory]
[Map]
[Astral Affinity]
[Mysterious Stranger]

Essences (0/4)

No Essence [No Attribute] (0/4)

No Essence [No Attribute] (0/4)

No Essence [No Attribute] (0/4)

No Essence [No Attribute] (0/4)

"Is this a character sheet? Am I meant to understand any of this?"

He shook his head in bewilderment. "Couldn't my insanity have at least gone with a game system I know." Not that he knew that many, video games were more his cousin Jason's obsession. He'd only played a few and mostly fighting games like Street Fighter and Tekken.

He looked over the screen again and read, "Map," latching onto something familiar. "I know what maps are. How do I see the map?"

A new screen obligingly appeared, but as it was the third screen, the space in front of him was getting crowded. He absently thought it would be convenient for the other screens to close, which they immediately did.

"Well... at least my insanity is being considerate," he deadpanned.

Things were getting harder to explain away, even ignoring the extra moon. Some kind of voice-command hologram was implausible, but not impossible. Mental command holograms were something else entirely.

"I'm becoming increasingly convinced that I've lost my mind. Also, I'm talking to myself a lot."

Hoping it wouldn't work, he started experimenting. He was able to open and close any of the windows with a simple thought.

"Maybe you're unconscious," he reassured himself. "Maybe you have a brain tumor and you're in a hospital somewhere. Or passed out on the floor. Hallucinating in an asylum. A nice one, with a big garden. But no hedge maze." He closed his eyes with a groan. "How is any of that comforting?"

Ichigo took a deep breath, letting it out slowly before opening his eyes again. The screens were still there, waiting.

"Just roll with the punches," he told himself. "Reserve judgment until more information is available. That's the rational approach."

He turned his gaze back to the map floating in front of him. It looked like a map from any video game, complete with a location listing.

Zone: Vane Estate (Hedge Maze)

Also like a video game map, it was mostly obscured. The only unveiled portion was the small section of the hedge maze he had already explored. He tried moving the map with mental commands, finding he could zoom it in and out as easily as he could open and close the disembodied screens.

Zooming all the way out he reached a world map that looked both familiar and unfamiliar. Although the details were obscured, he could decipher the outline of the continents. Disturbingly, they weren't quite the same as the ones he knew. Southeast Asia was a singular landmass, pushing Australia south and east where it looked to have consumed New Zealand. The Iberian and Arabian peninsulas were missing entirely, leaving Africa wholly disconnected from Europe and Asia. Sri Lanka was further south and several times larger, making for a huge land mass in the middle of the Indian Ocean. Japan looked to have absorbed north and south Korea into a single mass while being moved further south from China, forming a small sea between them.

"Well, that's not what the world looks like. Inaccurate cartography? An older map from earlier explorations of the world?"

According to the map, Ichigo was in south-west Africa, somewhere around inland Namibia. He looked at the rich, green hedges boxing him in. The lush grass felt cool under his feet. He felt the hot, but not dry, air on his skin. He gave what many had referred to as his trademark scowl.

"This doesn't feel like the Kalahari Desert."

He sighed, closing the map, "This is all sorts of strange." He pulled up the character sheet again.

Racial Abilities (Outworlder)

[Interface]
[Quest System]
[Inventory]
[Map]
[Astral Affinity]
[Mysterious Stranger]

"Shouldn't my race be human? What's an Outworlder?" Ichigo half expected another screen to appear, but nothing did, so he looked down the list.

"Interface seems obvious. Quest systems too, I guess. Inventory?"

A window appeared, dominated by an almost empty grid of icon slots. There were five spaces down and eight across, for a total of forty. There was also what looked like a currency counter at the bottom, depicting six different coins. Each coin had a counter that read zero.

"Well, that's certainly a classic inventory," Ichigo mused. "Can I really put stuff in here?"

There were two items in the inventory, occupying the first and second slot. One was some kind of blue icon, presumably representing an actual item, the other black.

"Alright, Ichigo. Time to see how lost you really are. How do I get this thing out?"

After some quick trail and error, he discovered it was as simple as plucking the icon straight out of the screen. The icon vanished and the item appeared magically in his hand. It was a medallion the size of his palm. It looked and felt like polished blue marble with red engravings on both sides. It was pleasantly warm to the touch. On one side the engraving was a picture of a fire bird, while the other had symbols reading 'Authority of the World-Phoenix.'

"Well, that just magically appeared out of thin air," Ichigo said. "That's not possible. Wait, why can I read this? I might have learned Japanese as my secondary language, but this most definitely is not english or japanese. I've even been studying various other languages of late. How can I read a language I've never even seen before?"

Ichigo tried putting the red tablet back into the inventory. His first attempt was to shove it into the screen, which surprisingly worked. It vanished from his hands and reappeared as an icon.

"That was disconcerting."

He repeated the process, but with the black icon this time. It was a medallion just like the blue one but made out of black marble that was cold to the touch. One side had the picture of a scythe, while the other had the same symbols but reading 'Authority of the Reaper.'

Ichigo's grip on reality was feeling increasingly tenuous. The screens were odd, but could conceivably, if implausibly, be the product of hidden hologram projectors. It was when they started responding to his thoughts that he started to get worried, and now he was pulling objects out of thin air. Not to forget his hairless body. He closed the inventory and pulled up his character sheet again. Next down the ability list was the map, which he'd already looked at, then astral affinity.

Ability: [Astral Affinity]

Increased resistance to dimension effects and astral forces. Dimension abilities have increased effect and transcendent damage is increased.

"No idea what that means. Next up is..."

Ability: [Mysterious Stranger]

Language adaptation.
Essence, awakening stone and skill-book absorption.
Immunity to identification and tracking effects.

"Language adaptation? Is that how I read the weird writing on the tablet?" He took the tablet out again. "What is this thing?"

Item: [World-Phoenix Token] (transcendent rank, legendary)

? (consumable, ?)

Effect: ?
Effect: ?

Uses remaining: 1/1

"Question marks. That's enlightening. Do I have to pay a wizard to identify items?"

Ichigo put the blue tablet back into his inventory and pulled out the second, back tablet with the same strange writing but was surprised to find it was legible.

Item: [Reaper Summoning Token] (transcendent rank, legendary)

Manifested spirit of the Reaper (consumable, summons).

Requirements: No absorbed divine essences. Uncorrupted soul.

Effect: Summons [Asauchi] that if it successfully bonds to the user's soul will be gifted or replace their full set of essences and abilities with ones from the Reaper.

Uses remaining 1/1.

You have absorbed 0 divine essences and your soul is uncorrupted.

You are able to activate [Reaper Summoning Token].

Activate Y/N?

"So, this will give me powers?"

Ichigo frowned at the description of the black medallion in his hands. "Reaper essence abilities. Sounds a bit sinister. How does that work, exactly?"

Help: Essence Abilities

Essence abilities are personal supernatural abilities. They come in a variety of forms, including passive abilities, special attacks and spells.

Compared to time-consuming and preparation-intensive ritualized magic, most essence abilities can be used spontaneously.

"There's a help function? Can you help me get home?"

You are able to activate [Reaper Summoning Token]

Activate Y/N?

"Is that a response or are you just too simple to properly respond?"

When nothing happened, Ichigo just sighed in defeat. This whole situation was insane. Looking closer, he noticed that the question about activating the token only appeared when he looked at the tablet while holding it. Putting it down would cause the prompt to disappear. While looking away or thinking about something else when holding the token would cause the window to shrink to the side.

He panned his head around the lush green hedge maze, thinking about his situation. He was lost, naked and hairless. His girlfriend was nowhere to be seen and wasn't certain if he was dead, in a coma or had lost his mind and was in a delusionary state. Would using the reaper summoning token push him deeper into that delusion?

Ichigo shook away the thoughts and decided he'd not use it. Whatever the Reaper was, which sounded like a death god, he didn't want to possible summon a piece of it. It could be an elaborate trail of the afterlife and if he lets it in, he'll die.

He put it away with its blue twin and closed all the open windows except for the map. "Alright then," he said, looking up and down the pathway he was on. Neither offered anything to recommend it over the other. "Well, without a clear direction to go, any will have to do."

He picked a direction at random and set off. "I really wish I had pants on."

---

Ichigo was walking through the maze, the map open in front of him. It was being unveiled as he walked. His current plan was to reveal enough that he could plot a way out. He froze when he heard a rustle in the hedges, then quickly spun towards the sound. His highly trained and experienced instincts flared out. Something was out there.

"Who's there?" he demanded, his body shifting into his well-practiced karate stance while trying not to think about how exposed his genitals were. He started panning his eyes around as he strained his ears for any sound of life, like a snapping twig or rustling of leaves.

There wasn't any response.

Ichigo has been ambushed enough times by high school thugs pretending to be a gangsters to have developed a sixth sense for them. Something was stalking him; he was sure of it. Besides his childhood friend Tatsuki who's skill in karate ranked nationally, though he'd surpassed her at the age of fifteen and Chad with his monstrous strength and endurance, he'd never met anyone that fought better than him.

New Quest: [No Shirt, No Shoes, No Service]

For unknown reasons, your immediate area has become infested with lesser monsters.

Objective: Discover the reason lesser monsters have infested the area 0/1.
Reward: Simple shirt.

Bonus Objective: Defeat ten lesser monsters 0/10.
Reward: Simple footwear.

"Monsters? That doesn't sound plausible. Was I hit by a truck and sent to another world or something?"

Ichigo was continuing to hold a ready stance while focusing on panning his head around when something small came hurtling from the bottom of a hedge. His hands shot out and latched around a mass of furry, snarling buck teeth snapping at him. It looked like a rabid hamster the size of his head. After being slightly put back from the sudden attack by an oversized hamster, Ichigo proceeded to jerk its head in one direction and its body in another. A resounding snap was heard before it went limp.

You have defeated [Potent Hamster]
Defeated lesser monsters 1/10

Ichigo released the creature, dropping its corpse to the ground before spanning around for another attack. After a few moments passed without a sound and no perceived movements, he relaxed. Turning back to the dead lump of the head-sized hamster, he got down on his hunches to get a better look at it.

"What the hell is happening? How could a hamster get that big? And why attack me? Are hamster's omnivores?"

Ichigo looked over the creature, its head now twisted into an odd angle. According to the window that popped up it was a lesser monster called a Potent Hamster. Extending his index finger, he poked at it.

Would you like to loot [Potent Hamster]?

Ichigo yanked back his hand, fearing it might trigger some sort of trap. "What in the name of kami is going on?"

Reading the screen again, and after standing back up to take a step back, uncertainly stated, "Yes?"

The body of the dead creature made a fizzing sound, like a rapid chemical reaction. The body started melting rapidly, first the flesh, then even the skeleton, all dissolving into rainbow-colored smoke. It seemed pretty until it hit Ichigo with a stench thick as cheese, like burned hair and rotting flesh. He scrambled back while pinching his nose to escape the rancid smell, hacking out coughs. It was by far the worst thing he has ever smelled in his life. Looking back down, he saw the creature's body had vanished, as if it never existed at all. He ignored the window that popped up, dropping back down to his haunches.

"Fuck, this sucks," he told the spot where the hamster used to be. "Monster hamsters attacking out of nowhere, naked and hairless, I have no idea where I am or where Orihime is -I hope she's okay- and said monster just puffs out of existence like out of manga or something. I can't think of any better explanation for what's happening than I've lost my damned mind."

He straightened up with a groan, reading the screen waiting for him.

[Monster Core (Lesser)] has been added to your inventory.

[Healing Unguent (Iron)] has been added to your inventory.

10 [Lesser Spirit Coins] have been added to your inventory.

"Oh, straight into the inventory. That place that lets me make things appear and disappear. I've definitely gone insane."

Now familiar with opening and closing the screens, the inventory window appeared with a simple thought. Two more of the forty grids were now occupied with little icons, while the currency counter now had the number ten listed over the first of the six coin symbols.

Ichigo took out the item labelled healing unguent. It was a small, round tin reminding Ichigo of an old ointment tin peddled by alternative medical shops offering to cure baldness or erectile disfunction.

He took a closer look at the tin in his hand.

Item: [Healing Unguent (Iron)] (iron rank, common)

Topical healing ointment. Inexpensive concoction ideal for superficial injures (consumable, healing).

Effect: Apply directly to injuries to heal. Effect reduced on bronze-rank or higher individual.

Uses remaining: 5/5.

Unlike the blue tablet, the magic screens had no problem identifying the tin. Ichigo pulled off the lid to discover it really did look and smell like the alternative medical ointments. There was a sharp, medicinal smell that cut through even the lingering stench of the dead creature. As for the contents, was an oily substance that looked like butterscotch sauce made from dubiously sourced ingredients.

"How did I get ointment from a hamster? And how did it come in a tin?"

After getting silence as an answer, Ichigo just let out a defeated sigh and sealed the lid back on to the tin. Hopefully he won't need it, but his family did run a small clinic so, he knew the importance of having medical supplies on hand for emergencies.

Ichigo placed the tin back in his inventory and pulled out the other icon. What appeared in his hand was a small, red-brown gem, in shape of a teardrop.

Item: [Monster Core (Lesser)]
(iron rank, common)

The magic core of a lesser monster (crafting material, magic core).

Effect: Common component for ritual magic and magic item creation.

"Oh, it's for magic rituals. I'm apparently in a video game, now, so of course magic is real." Ichigo sighed as he put the monster core back in his inventory. "Maybe I've had an aneurysm, and this is just my dying brain trying to sort things out as it shuts down."

He thought about that for a moment. Orihime would wake to find his body underneath her.

"Great. Now I'm actually hoping this whole, insane experience is real. That'd destroy her and devastate my little sisters. They'd barely made it through Okaan's death."

Ichigo looked at the coin counter in his inventory, "How do I take that out?" He tried tapping on the number.

You have 10 [Lesser Spirit Coins]. How many would you like to withdraw?

"Um. One," he stretched out in uncertainty.

A coin appeared in Ichigo's hand. It was a washed-out blue color, with a metallic sheen but feeling more like glass to the touch.

Item: [Lesser Spirit Coin] (iron rank, common)

An impure distillation of raw magic. (currency, crafting material).

Effect: Used to fuel lesser-ranked magic items or as a ritual component.

Ichigo peered at the figure embossed on the coin. Looking closer, he realized it was an image of himself, giving a scowl.

"I don't scowl that much, do I?"

He turned the coin to look at the other side, which was engraved with text.

Product of Ichigo,
Koonichiwa.

He ran a hand over his face. Somehow the coin itself was more ridiculous than the fact that he had pulled it out of thin air. "I've definitely gone insane."

---

When the slippery creature latched its teeth onto his inner thigh, Ichigo yelled more out of panic than pain. He still had no pants and that was much too close to his genitals. He grabbed the long, slippery eel by its head and pressed his thumbs down until he heard a crunch. His thumbs cracked through its skull and sunk into its brain, all the way past his second knuckles.

You have defeated [Flying Eel]
Defeat lesser monsters 9/10.

Ichigo carefully unhinged the eel's jaw from his thigh and tossed it to the side. Dropping to the ground, he pulled out a tin of healing unguent and started rubbing it on the wound, ignoring the blood coming out of it.

"Why can an eel fly?" he groused.

He looked down at the wound, high up the inside of his thigh. The eel had left some rather deep teeth indentations, so the stinging lingered as the wound slowly closed. Even so, the ability to watch an injury vanish in front of his eyes was amazing.

You have used [Healing Unguent (iron)]

Uses remaining: 1/5.

After nine encounters with different creatures, Ichigo only had to use one of the tins of healing unguent he's gotten. It wasn't until his fight against something called a malicious hedgehog that he even needed to use it, the previous three uses in fact. Apparently, fighting a mass of spiky barbs naked and barehanded was highly ill-advised. He really wished he'd at least had a knife, or a metal bat or even a well-sized stick would have done better. He was tempted to use the token if it was actually going to give him magic powers, but a spirit of the Reaper would be worse than even the spiky hedgehog.

One pleasant discovery was that he didn't have to stand in the stinking smoke that came off them after they were looted. So long as he touched the creature he could back away before accepting. Even if he was far away from the dissolving creature, the loot went straight into his inventory. The only problem was that any of the creature's blood that got on him would dissolve away as well, giving Ichigo a full dose of the stink.

Every creature Ichigo looted gave out one lesser monster core and exactly 10 spirit coins. Most also produced additional, often nonsensical rewards. Tins of healing ointment were mercifully common, but mostly he received animal parts. That would have been understandable enough, given that he was killing creatures, but they arrived in his inventory already cut and packaged. The bundle of spines he received from the malicious hedgehog was bound with string, while the meat of the tyrannical pheasant came neatly wrapped in deli paper. The animal parts were listed as crafting materials, some of which seemed to be for cooking. While he did enjoy trying new food, Ichigo wasn't quite ready to put monster meat on his plate.

While he waited for the newest wound to heal, he checked the map again. He had a decent-sized chunk of the hedge maze mapped out now, but it was quite large, and he'd met a lot of dead ends. He plotted out his next pathway and set out again.

---

There was a flower growing in the middle of the pathway, around a meter tall. With thick, gnarled stalk and ugly brown petals on a flower head looking like a fist full of knuckles. Everywhere else Ichigo had been, there was only uniform hedges and neatly cut grass. He watched it from a safe distance, but to all observation it was just a plant. Ichigo moved forwards cautiously; eyes glued to the flower. He gave it as wide a berth as he could, keeping at least two meters from it. Just when he thought he had passed without incident, the flower twitched, spraying spores all over him.

He got dizzy and fell to the ground, then felt a weight on his leg. A vine with a bulbous head had grown out of the ground near the flower stem and was now winding its way around his leg. His head was swimming, but he clenched his teeth, fighting through the haze. He grabbed the vine as it moved up past his leg with both hands, the bulbous head opened up, clamping down onto his hand like a lamprey.

Ignoring the pain, Ichigo started hauling on it. The ground under the flower bulged, soil spilling away as a grotesque shape emerged from the earth. It looked like a root vegetable but was the size and shape of a baby. The vine was attached to its stomach like an umbilical cord, while the flower grew out of its head. Getting up to his feet, he proceeded to hank on the vine and twist, so the creature slammed into the hedge. After it bounced off the hedge and hit the ground, Ichigo ran over and with a scream of anger, he stomped down on its head. With a sickening squelch, the plant monster's head broke apart like a potato that had been dropped off a building and hit concrete.

You have defeated [Carnivorous Mandrake]

Quest: [No Shirt, No Shoes, No Service]

Bonus objective complete: Defeat ten lesser monsters 10/10.

[Simple Footwear] has been added to your inventory.

Primary quest objective still available.

Ichigo just stood there for a few seconds, taking deep breaths to calm his anger. A baby plant monster just popped out of the ground and tried to eat him. It was impossible but it clearly happened.

"Come on. Get it together. I'm not becoming plant food."

Taking the footwear out of his inventory he discovered it was a pair of sandals. Although the thick grass was pleasant underfoot, Ichigo still put them on.

Looking down at his otherwise naked self, he sighed out, "I'd still prefer some pants... I think I might hate this place."

After he looted the carnivorous mandrake, it proved to be the most generous monster thus far with its loot, producing not only healing unguent, but also something new. Ichigo frowned at the object in his hand.

Item: [Trowel of the Blood Cult] (iron rank, uncommon)

A gardening implement enchanted to affect certain kinds of plants. (tool).

Effect: Improves health of carnivorous plants.

The trowel looked sinister, made out of some kind of black metal with a red sheen. It carried the wear marks of having been used as a planting tool, but also had a razor edge that seemed wholly unnecessary for gardening purposes.

"Blood cult?" Ichigo read unhappily from the item description. "Great. Trapped in a cult's hedge maze, butt-ass naked, and they seem to be centered around blood. Nothing bad can come of that," he deadpanned.

"On the bright side, I at least have a weapon...sort of. But it'll do."

Ichigo kept the sharp trowel in hand, on the lookout for more monsters, and more concerning, blood cultists. After checking his map again, he set off clutching his weapon. Still naked aside from a pair of sandals, he was very careful about where he held it.

Eventually he found a structure resembling an old European-styled well.

Ichigo looked at the well. It was a circle of bricks, the mortar aged and crumbling. There was a wooden bucket and crank, both weathered with age. It was the kind of rustically picturesque feature he could imagine someone putting at the center of their hedge maze.

Quest: [Stranger in a Strange Land]

Objective complete: Explore the hedge maze 1/1.
[Simple Pants] have been added to your inventory.

Quest complete.
100 [Iron Spirit Coins] have been added to your inventory.

Ichigo let out a sigh of relief and took the pants out of his inventory. They were made of plain white linen, with billowy legs and a very low crotch fit, held up by a drawstring.

"It kind of looks like the pants Majin Buu wore in DBZ. Am I in an anime?"

Putting aside fashion concerns, Ichigo slipped the pants on, walking around experimentally. They were sufficiently roomy that it didn't feel much different to walking around without them.

"I don't suppose I can get a quest for some boxers?" He waited for a few moments, but no window appeared. "Worth a try."

The wounds he suffered from the hedgehog and the flying eel left a wound on his thigh, calf, and arms, though they been healed. The pants immediately had two stains of red and unguent-yellow, the one on his thigh could be misconstrued with an accident involving his bladder.

With his nudity concern ameliorated, Ichigo was able to turn his thoughts to other aspects of his situation. He sat down on the edge of the well to think over his next move.

The things he was experiencing were clearly impossible, which broadly placed him in one of two situations. One, his faculties were significantly compromised and his understanding of what he was doing was massively detached from reality. Brain trauma, hallucinogens, some kind of severe mental break. His knowledge was too shallow, and his observation point too subjective to make any definitive assessment. To the best of his understanding none of those options made sense. He was too lucid, too capable of critical thinking. His consciousness wasn't skipping around, glossing over the inconsistencies of a compromised mental state.

The big point going for the mental-impairment hypothesis was that the alternative scenario required Ichigo's most fundamental understanding of reality to be somewhere between woefully incomplete and breathtakingly wrong.

Either way, his only real option was to get on with it. If it was all in his head, then it didn't matter what he did. Someone from the outside would deal with it, most likely his Otoo-san. He'll institutionalize and medicate him, eventually bringing him back to reality. Inversely, if it was real, and he ran around acting like it wasn't, he'd die. He took a deep breath, calming his nerves and focusing on the problem at hand.

"Alright," he said, steeling himself. "What's next?"

Sooner or later, he would need to find his way out of the maze, but the fact that his quest ended on reaching the well implied there was something special about it. He started by examining the wooden frame which had a simple crank and rope to lower a bucket, along with a little wooden roof to shield the mechanism from the weather. It only seemed to have worked to a degree, with a rope and bucket both looking worse for wear. The brickwork was likewise dilapidated, with mortar crumbling at his touch. He stuck his head over the well to look down. To his surprise, iron rungs had been affixed to the inside of the well, leading into the darkness below.

Next Quest: [Secrets of the Well]

You have discovered a ladder descending into the well. Do you have the courage to explore the depths?

Objective: Explore the well 0/1.

Reward: Awakening stone.

Bonus objective: Don't die 0/1.

Reward: Awakening stone.

"Don't die? What kind of bonus objective is don't die? That's kind of the main objective to living." He shook his head, "Forget that. There's obviously some sort of monster down there waiting to eat me."

Reject quest [Secrets of the Well]?

Ichigo was thinking over the quest and whether it was trying to force him into using the token when he heard voices coming from somewhere close within the hedge maze.

"I tracked the aura of the mandrake that took my trowel," a gravelly male voice said. "Someone had already killed it and my trowel was nowhere to be found."

"Someone with those adventurers we caught?" another man asked.

"I don't care who they're with," the first voice said. "I'm going to kill 'em, cook 'em and eat 'em."

"I wanted to try some of that elf girl, but the mistress said we're keeping them all for the sacrifice. Bloody waste, if you ask me."

"Nah, elves ain't good eating. Not much meat on them, and what's there is all stringy. That human girl, she's the one you want. Lean and tender."

"I don't know, Dougall; she looked pretty tough to me. And we always have humans. I just want a little variety, is all."

"Well, this lot is all spoken for, regardless."

Ducked down behind the well, Ichigo didn't let out a breath until the voices faded into the distance. He ignored the fact that they were talking about elves in the face of their casual discussion on the pros and cons of eating people. Cannibals. Guess he now knows what the Blood Cult is all about. All things considered; cannibals aren't too far out the realm of what's believable. Compared to real monsters, magic, and apparently elves existing, cannibalistic cults was nothing too odd. Horrible, but realistic and historically proven. He considered it some more as he started climbing down into the well.

"Great. This place just keeps getting better and better."

Ichigo wasn't exactly thrilled about his options. A quest with the explicit objective of 'don't die' wasn't great, but wandering a maze filled with cannibals seemed like the worse option. Sure, he was confident that he could take down the two men easily enough, so long as they aren't armed with something better than a knife, but they could have strange magic powers. Maybe if he took them by surprise?

The best option was to hope that he could find some sort of sewer system or underground tunnel leading away from this Blood Cult. The less anyone knows he was there, the better.

The well was quite deep, judging from the diminishing light coming from above. He kept a careful grip on the cold metal rungs, not only did several rungs shift as he went, the interior of the wall became dank, the sides slick and wet.

The light did not penetrate far down the narrow well, and Ichigo was soon moving entirely by feel. He descended cautiously, each foot carefully seeking out the next rung down. He would occasionally glance up at the shrinking blue circle that was all he could see of the sky, reassuring himself it was still there. He discovered he had reached the bottom when his foot met water instead of the next rung. Some experimental probing revealed it was ankle deep, enough to submerge his sandals in the icy cold. The bottom of the well was flat but, as it turned out, just as slippery as the walls. He slipped, catching the rungs to right himself and avoid falling into what he hoped was water.

Unfortunately, Ichigo did not find an exit tunnel. Though, with some patting around and his eyes adjusting to the dark, he found a hole, large enough to crawl through. He didn't know if it was the source of the well's water or some kind of drainage tunnel.

Ichigo looked up again at the bright circle of the sky, then the dark circle of the tunnel. "Uh. I'm going to have to go crawling down a tight, dank tunnel towards nowhere," he groaned out. "Or risk the maze filled with cannibals."

Ichigo slowly crawled his way into the dank tunnel, a circular pipe of wet and slimy brickwork. It was wide enough to push himself along, but tight enough that he was pressed against the clammy sides. Someone Chad's size would never have fit. The darkness engulfed him as he moved away from the meager light that reached the bottom of the well. Edging down the tunnel, touch was the only sense with which he could navigate. With the ubiquitous smell of wet rot, he wished his nose was as useless as his eyes, but it wasn't nearly as bad as the rainbow smoke.

"This had better lead to somewhere," he grumbled to himself.

If it turned out to be a dead end, he would be forced to shimmy backwards, the tunnel far too tight to turn around. The gloom of the well had seemed stifling, but the dark of the tunnel was much deeper. The claustrophobic vibe of the tunnel didn't make the experience any more pleasant.

He let out a breath of relief when his hand came down on slimy, wet wood instead of brick. There was no light, so he probed with his hands. He had reached the end of the tunnel but had no idea what kind of space it opened into. He sensed open space, but in complete darkness it could well have been his imagination.

His hands felt out some kind of platform made of wooden planks. It was wet and a little slimy, although it felt reliably solid under Ichigo's hands. The surface of the wood was rough, like sandpaper. Some kind of long-enduring adhesive had been used to apply sand or something similar, improving friction on the wet planks. Feeling around as he crawled free of the tunnel, he felt the planks were lined up to make a walkway, a meter and half wide.

It felt like there was enough room above to stand, but even with the sand coating he didn't trust the slick wooden path in the dark. He continued forwards as he had in the tunnel, hands exploring in place of his eyes. Just a short way down the path he found a vertical metal rod sticking out of the walkway, at the edge to his left. His hands traced the shaft upwards to a hooked end, from which was hanging some kind of metal box with a loop on top.

Item: [Crude Magic Lamp] (iron rank, common)

A simple lightened device fueled by low-level magic. (tool).

Effect: Cast light.

Current charge: 00%. Requires a [Lesser Spirit Coin] to replenish.

Ichigo tried using the glowing hologram window as a light source, but even pressed up against the lamp it failed to produce so much as a murky outline. He fumbled about to unhook the lamp from the pole.

You have acquired [Crude Magic Lamp]

Current charge: 00%. Requires a [Lesser Spirit Coin] to activate.

Expend 1 [Lesser Spirit Coin] Y/N?

"Yes."

When the lamp lit up, Ichigo discovered the hard way that he had been holding the front of it pointed directly into his face. He shouted out in annoyed irritation as he slammed his eyes shut and waited for the storm of light behind his lids to fade. Having turned the lamp away from his face, he slowly blinked his eyes open, giving his lids a rub with his fingers before fully opening them.

Holding the lamp up and out of his face, he recognized that he was in a natural cavern. It didn't have the conveniently smooth floors of a video game cave, which was presumably why someone had put in the walkway, raised on thick wooden posts. The walkway was about an arm's length above the cave floor.

Ichigo examined the lamp, careful not to blind himself again. As the name suggested, the crude magic lamp was a simple affair, looking rather like a miner's tin lamp. It had three boxy, metal sides, a glass front and a loop handle on the top. Inside, the light came from what looked like a round stone, glowing like a light bulb. He held up the lamp to get a better look at the cave; it had plenty of dark crevices and ominous shadows.

Since the beam of the lamp light lit up the cave like a lighthouse on a dark night, there was no point in being overly stealthy. He'd still stay as quiet as he can, the overly sharp trowel in his left hand and the lamp in his right, prepared for a potential attack. Hopefully the monsters that might be living down in this dark cavern will have eyesight developed for it and will be dazed by the sudden light. That'd give him an opening to cut them down with the trowel. If it turns out to be a cannibal cultist, he'll go with a flying kick to the head.

He started following the walkway, taking careful steps to avoid making noise and keeping an ear for anything that might be out there. Also, the sand coating had worn away in a lot of places, leaving patches of the wood slick and frictionless from years in the bleak, damp cavern. The cave turned out to be something of a natural tunnel, roughly speaking, through which the walkway followed.

He made his way slowly and carefully until it came to an end at a brick wall, set into the side of the cave. In the middle of the wall was a hefty metal door with a big wheel set into it, like a bulkhead door on a submarine. Both door and wheel were rusty and didn't look to have been opened in some time.

"Now were getting somewhere."

Setting down the lamp and returning the trowel to his inventory, Ichigo grabbed the wheel with both hands and twisted counterclockwise. It didn't budge. He adjusted his angle, putting his full might into the twist, and his feet firmly planted on the ground for leverage.

"Come on you rusted piece of junk."

He felt a little give, then a little more, each accompanied by an unwilling metal groan. Finally, the wheel jerked loose, and Ichigo was able to turn the reluctant mechanism. He proceeded to pull open the now unlocked door, but just like the wheel, it resisted. Having to put his shoulders into it, he was able to finally open the door with a shriek of rusted metal. His arms and shoulder felt a little sore, and had rust caked into his palms, but he was otherwise fine.

Quest: [Secrets of the Well]

Objective complete: Explore the well 1/1.
[Awakening Stone of the Reaper] has been added to your inventory.

Bonus quest objective (don't die) still available.

"Awakening stone of the Reaper? The same one from the token? I feel like someone is pushing me towards using it."

He retrieved the lamp from where he had set it down, pulling the new object from his inventory. It looked like a fist-sized black marble of absolute darkness. Like an endless void of nothingness.

Item: [Awakening Stone of the Reaper] (unranked, legendary)

An awakening stone sharing affinity with the Reaper. (consumable, awakening stone).

Requirements: Unawakened essence ability.

Effect: Awakens an essence ability.

You have 0 unawakened essence abilities.

You do not meet the requirements to use this item.

That seemed more complicated than Ichigo wanted to get into when there was a door right in front of him with the promise of (hopefully non-cannibal) civilization. He'd even take an exit leading far away from the cannibals. The interior on the other side of the door was dark, so he stepped inside and started panning the light beam of the lamp. It was a room, thankfully, not just more cave. It was just like a large parlor from a stately home, but after a tornado passed through. Furniture was upended, tapestries and paintings ripped down from the walls. Bookshelves had been toppled; their contents tossed around the room. There was an ornate chandelier that had crashed down from the ceiling, scattering shattered crystal across the polished floor.

Searching through the mess by the light of the lamp, he found an overturned couch in the middle of the room. Under it was a man unconscious. Heaving the couch off of him revealed that he was sprawled in the middle of an elaborate pentagram, set into the floor in brass or copper. The man was youngish, maybe thirty, clean shaven with an olive complexion and a handsome face. To Ichigo's eyes he looked rather Mediterranean, the good-looking kind with the dark wavy hair. Oddly, he was wearing what looked like wizard robes.

Ichigo set down the lamp to examine the man. He had a strong pulse and regular breathing but was showing early signs of extensive bruising and his body temperature felt way too high. As Ichigo was examining the stranger, his eyes flickered open.

"Hello, there," Ichigo said. "Looks like you took a nasty spill. Need any help?"

Ichigo offered his hand and helped the wizard-looking man to his feet. Despite having a slender frame, the wizard was surprisingly heavy for his size. Standing unsteadily on his feet, the wizard looked around at the room in disarray, then at Ichigo, his expression confused.

"Who are you?" the wizard asked. "How did you get here?"

"I'm Ichigo, and I have no idea how I got here. I went to bed at what I think was last night and woke up in some kind of alternate universe."

The wizard narrowed his eyes as he peered at Ichigo. "There's something off about your aura," the wizard analyzed. "You're not human."

"I was before getting here. Wait, auras are real?"

"You said something about an alternate universe?" the wizard asked, ignoring his question.

"That's just a guess," Ichigo answered. "I mean, the continents are different. Could be a crazy-far, time travel thing. Do you know anything about continental drift?"

The wizard's gaze moved to the magic circle on the floor, then back at Ichigo.

"It was you," he said angrily. "You're what went wrong with the summoning."

"Why are you mad? Do you have any idea how much your summons messed me up? I have no idea where I am, what's going on, and what was done to my body. So, I have a lot more to be angry about than you."

The wizard had a combined look of confused and angry, but as he was about to retort he went pale and stumbled in place.

"Crap, hold on," Ichigo said, moving to support him.

"GET OFF ME!"

The wizard staggered in the direction of a heavy writing desk. It seemed to have escaped major displacement by being the heaviest piece of furniture in the room. He almost tripped, still weak from whatever happened prior to Ichigo's arrival. The wizard opened a drawer, took out a small bottle and drained the contents.

"This isn't the right time to get inebriated," Ichigo chided.

"It was a recovery potion, fool," the wizard said, then winced with pain. "It seems the backlash will take more than a potion to fix."

He gave Ichigo a smile that gave Ichigo a bad feeling.

The wizard proceeded to pull a knife out of the drawer, "Since I can't recover mana right now, I'll have to do things the old-fashioned way. I've never tasted an outworlder before."

Ichigo's eyes narrowed as he subconsciously shifted his stance for what was most likely to come, "You're one of the cannibals."

Ichigo leaped towards the weakened wizard with his favored flying kick, catching the cannibal off guard. Ichigo's foot made contact with the surprisingly durable man, sending him stumbling to the side and into a cabinet. As the wizard regained his footing Ichigo was wincing from the pain shooting up his leg. Besides the supernaturally dense and strong Chad, Ichigo had never hit anyone that had felt so dense.

The wizard sneered and lunged, seeing the outworlder weakened, but he was also enraged that a bronze-ranker like him was having difficulty killing a normal person all due to the backlash. If it wasn't for that he could kill this stranger with a single ability as his magic was currently inaccessible. Even his superior attributes were weakened, making him slower and weaker than a bronze rank essence user should be.

Ichigo grabbed the arm holding the knife and yanked, saving him from being stabbed but wasn't able to break the wizard's grip on the blade. Wrestling back and forth, they tripped on a piece of the overturned furniture and fell to the floor, still struggling. The lamp was lost somewhere along the way, and they battled in shadows, each trying to seize control of the weapon. Ichigo has a grip on the wizard's arm, trying to keep the knife from digging into him. In spite of his small frame and apparent weakness after being knocked out, the wizard was stronger than Ichigo, on par with his friend Chad.

Ichigo was barely able to roll them over, putting him on top adding his weight towards pushing the knife away from his throat. The smaller man still proved too strong so, Ichigo went with a desperate move and jammed a thumb into the wizard's eye.

The wizard screamed in pain; blood already started to stream out of the socket around his thumb. This had the added effect of the wizard's arm going out, the combined struggle of Ichigo's one arm and his body weight slammed it down on the owner. The wizard suddenly went limp. Rolling off, Ichigo saw the knife was sticking out of the wizard's throat, but he was still alive, looking at Ichigo with a disbelieving eye. Ichigo snatched the knife out the cannibal's throat, afraid the wizard could magically recover, and blood sprayed over him, getting into his eyes and mouth. Recoiling, he spat out blood and rubbed at his eyes, the knife clattering to the ground. By the time his panicked flailing came to a halt, the wizard's body was still.

You have defeated [Vroshir Acolyte]

Ichigo pushed himself up with bloody hands, tripped on debris and fell back over. His breath came in ragged starts as he lay where he fell. Eventually he sat up, looking over at where the body had fallen directly into the beam from the lamp. He pulled his legs up and rested his arms on his knees, looking at his crimson stained hands with a dead look in his eyes.

He had no sense of how long he stayed like that, but eventually he pushed himself to his feet. He walked over to the bloody knife and picked it up.

Item: [Seal Knife] (bronze rank, common)

A dagger with the Vane family seal on the pommel. (weapon, tool).

Requirements: Bronze rank [Speed], bronze rank [Spirit]

Effect: When used to imprint a wax seal on a letter, the letter will be destroyed if opened by anyone other than the addressee.

Ichigo stared at the bloody knife in his equally bloody hand. After a few moments there was an unusual tingling, slowly rising to become pain. He tightened his grip until the pain became too much and the dagger clattered to the floor.

You do not meet the requirements to use this item.

Finally, he turned to the body. One of its eyes was open, face frozen in a final expression of surprise.

The room was still and silent, Ichigo's eyes locked on the corpse.

"You did this," he accused it. "You left me no choice."

His voice was cold yet trembled ever so slightly.

Ichigo's mind was nothing, but white noise as he stood over the body. When a new sound broke him out of his trance, unsure of how long it had been. The sound came from above, a metal ventilation pipe in the ceiling. There was a hollow, echoing timbre to the sound and it took Ichigo a moment to recognize it as a hissing noise. It was coming from the hole.

He watched the hole cautiously while walking backwards were he left the magic lamp and pulled out the trowel from his inventory. Either poisonous gas was going to start pouring out of that pipe, which he'd need to run out back into the cave or some kind of snake or wild animal was coming to the wizard's aid. In that case, having a sharp blade-like instrument in hand would be wise. His gaze sharpened when something came out of the hole in the ceiling as he gripped the trowel in hand. It was an enormous, pitch-black snake, head barely small enough to pass through the aperture.

Ichigo and the snake looked at each other, frozen for a moment. Ichigo could sense intelligence in its eyes, although he may well have been imagining it. Then the snake hissed at him and continued emerging from the vent shaft, body dangling down from the ceiling. Ichigo sprinted for the door back to the cave, reversing the trowel into a downward grip in his right hand.

New Quest: [Time to Run]

The familiar of the Vroshir Acolyte sensed its master's death and has come to investigate.

Objective: Escape [Umbral Mountain Snake] 0/1.

Reward: Iron-rank (rare) magical dagger.

Ichigo almost stumbled as the window popped up, having to will it closed. He bolted through the metal door and grabbed onto the wheeled handle, pushing the door closed, the rusty hinges groaned, leaving a gap. He left just enough room that his leg could squeeze through but kept the left side of his body pressed up against the thick metal door, waiting for the snake. He had a plan and it had nothing to do with escaping.

Ichigo listened, hearing the increasing sound of hissing and scales scrapping against the ground. Just as the snake's head popped out of the gap, Ichigo full bodily slammed into the door, pinning the snake between the door and the frame. It immediately started hissing, thrashing, and snapping its jaws at him.

He could already feel the monstrous strength of the snake pushing through the gap. Not wasting any time, Ichigo rammed the trowel's point down into the snake's head, aiming for its eyes as best he could in the dark. Its screeching increased as he felt the trowel dig into flesh, sometimes scrapping across scales as he continuously stabbed down with his right hand. He was desperately putting all his weight into the door as he just kept on stabbing into the black snake head over and over again.

One overly powerful slam by the snake caused the door to ram into his left shoulder with a sickening snap. Ichigo screamed in pain as he forcefully pushed through what must have been a shattered clavicle and dislocated shoulder to keep the snake from escaping the doorway. Every passing second the snake struggled against the door, worming its way out, it felt like searing pain was shooting through his entire left side, but he never stopped stabbing.

It wasn't until he was finally able to hit it right in the eye that the trowel finally felt like it did any real damage. A squelch sound and a pained hiss was the last sound the snake made as the trowel punctured its brain. Then it went limp, ending Ichigo's struggle against the heavy metal door. With a sigh of release, he slid down the door until he was seated on the floor. His shatter left shoulder and clavicle screamed even with the lack of the slamming pressure of holding down a snake that could have eaten a tiger.

You have defeated [Umbral Mountain Snake]

Would you like to loot [Umbral Mountain Snake]?

"Sure," he said wearily while pulling the trowel from the dead snake's eye socket, then froze. Belatedly, he remembered that monsters dissolved into stinking smoke when they were looted. To his relief and surprise, that didn't happen. All he felt was the snake shift a little against the door. He looked over the list of items he got from the snake.

[Night-Scale Leather] has been added to your inventory.

30 [Dark Quintessence Gems (Iron)] have been added to your inventory.

10 [Bronze Spirit Coins] have been added to your inventory.

100 [Iron Spirit Coins] have been added to your inventory.

Unlike every other monster Ichigo killed, the snake didn't turn into a stench cloud and didn't produce a monster core.

"I need to learn the rules of this crazy-ass place."

He took a look at the next screen.

Quest: [Time to Run]

Hidden objective discovered: Kill [Umbral Mountain Snake] 0/1.
Hidden objective complete: Kill [Umbral Mountain Snake] 1/1.
Main objective reward increased from rare magical dagger to epic magical dagger.

Objective complete: Escape [Umbral Mountain Snake] 1/1.
[Night Fang] has been added to your inventory.

Quest complete.
100 [Bronze Spirit Coins] have been added to your inventory.
1000 [Iron Spirit Coins] have been added to your inventory.

"Hidden objective? I was planning on killing it the whole time. There was no way I'd outrun a giant snake through a tight tunnel in the dark. This quest system crap doesn't make much sense."

Another window popped up.

Quest: [Secrets of the Well]

Bonus objective complete: Don't die 1/1.
[Awakening Stone of the Reaper] has been added to your inventory.

Quest complete.
100 [Bronze Spirit Coins] have been added to your inventory.
1000 [Iron Spirit Coins] have been added to your inventory.

"Well, if you're going to complete one bonus quest objective, 'don't die' is a definite must."

There were new items in his inventory, but his only interest was in something that could fix his broken bones. Looking over the icons in his inventory, nothing stood out that might help. Suddenly Ichigo remembered the wizard drinking what he called a recovery potion. With a grunt of pain, he placed the trowel back into his inventory and forced himself up off the ground. He held his left arm to his body with his right, seeing as every tiny movement of his arm cause pain to fire clean across his chest. Even breathing agitated his broken clavicle, making breathing difficult.

Leaning against the doors frame while standing on the dead snake, Ichigo leveraged the door all the way open with just his right arm. That unfortunately meant releasing his left arm, causing agony to fire through him the whole time. He'd broken a bone or two in his rough life of street fights, so it wasn't entirely unfamiliar and compared to the despair of losing his mother, it was nothing.

Not sparing more than a moment on the dead snake and his pain, he made his way to the desk he had seen the wizard get the potion from. It wasn't hard to find, being one of the few pieces of furniture not overturned. Ichigo's eyes avoided the body still on the floor as he navigated the debris of the trashed room. The drawer was still open, and inside was a small rack for vials like the one he had seen the wizard drink. Only one vial remained, and Ichigo carefully picked it up.

Item: [Recovery Potion (bronze)] (bronze rank, rare)

Potent potion with strong healing and mana recovery effects (consumable, healing).

Effect: Recovers health. Effect reduced on silver-rank or higher individuals.

Uses remaining 1/1.

The vial was small, about the size of a rifle cartridge. Ichigo pulled out the stopper and tipped it back in a gulp. It tasted remarkably like strawberry flavored sake his father had let him try once and Ichigo's unruly stomach, having been churning in discomfort since his clavicle broke, settled the instant the potion arrived.

"Ah. That's better."

The stinging sensation Ichigo now associated with magical healing started seeping into him, especially his clavicle and injured shoulder. It was worse than what he had experienced before, whether because of the nature of the injures or the potency of the potion. It didn't bother him; compared to the pain he was already in; this was nothing more than a tickle.

You have used a recovery potion, restoring health, stamina, and mana.

Until the remnant magic fully dissipates, consuming further health, stamina or mana potions will result in toxic side-effects.

By using a potion above your current rank the effect is increased, but residual magic will take longer to dissipate.

Ichigo returned to the floor, leaning his back against the desk as his bones mended and his shoulder popped back into to place with an audible pop. The pain was gone, and mobility was restored, but his entire left shoulder felt delicate and weak. In the periphery of his vision was a trio of small icons slowly shading over. When he focused on them, they grew larger for him to examine. They were all squares with a picture of a potion on each, one red, one yellow, and one blue. They were mostly greyed-out, but the grey was slowly dropping off as a timer underneath each counted down, with just under ten minutes remaining.

"Cooldown timers. That's useful."

He pushed himself to his feet, much easier now that he wasn't in agony with every movement.

"Alright," he told himself. "Still a bit raw, but back in fighting shape. So, what's next?"

He went and picked up the magic lamp to shine the light around until he found the dead body of the wizard and walked over to look closer. There was an eerie stillness to it that only came from death. An overly familiar stillness that brought flashes of a dead woman lying on top of a small boy, both with heads of vibrant orange.

Ichigo had to forcefully shake away the terrible memory.

"You chose this, not me," he told it. "Besides, you're a cannibal that was trying to eat me. You had it coming."

He knelt down and felt that the corpse was still warm, "Too soon to close his eyes... uh, eye," he sighed out.

Would you like to loot [Vroshir Acolyte]?

"What's a Vroshir Acolyte?"

He thought this place was filled with cannibal blood cultists. Maybe there are multiple cults in this...compound? Damn, he was too uninformed for his liking and really doesn't want to end up as some cultists next meal. He thought about the snake by the door, its long -now skinless- body still partially in the room.

"It won't skin him, will it?"

He took a step back.

"Alright," he said. "Loot the body."

[Landemere Vane's Key Ring] has been added to your inventory.

[Robes of the Astral Verdict] have been added to your inventory.

6 [Golden Spirit Coins] have been added to your inventory.

26 [Silver Spirit Coins] have been added to your inventory.

158 [Bronze Spirit Coins] have been added to your inventory.

537 [Iron Spirit Coins] have been added to your inventory.

328 [Lesser Spirit Coins] have been added to your inventory.

"Where were you carrying all that? That's about a thousand coins."

The robes the wizard was wearing had vanished, although he had been wearing a full set of clothes underneath. Ichigo pulled the robes back out of his inventory and held them up to examine. They were dark blue but covered in the blood of their former owner.

Item: [Robes of the Astral Verdict] (bronze rank, rare)

Robes designed for summoning. (armor, cloth).

Effect: Increases the damage dealt by dimension spells.

Effect: Summoned creatures have increased damage reduction.

Effect: Damage reduction against disruptive-force damage.

Requirements: Must be bronze-rank or above to equip robes.

You do not meet the requirements to equip this item.

Ichigo wasn't ready to wear the clothes he took from a person he killed, especially when they were still wet with his blood. He returned the robes to his inventory and started searching about for something to cover the body. There was a fallen tapestry he dug out and laid over the corpse. Partly because he felt it was the decent thing to do. Mostly though, he didn't want the body out in the open while he searched the room, always at the edge of his vision. He needed to find anything he could to aid his escape from this place and its cannibalistic inhabitants.

He started by examining the magic circle in the middle of the room. It was large, around three meters across, the metal set directly into the floor. The lines were intricate and complex, like someone had started with a pentagram and gotten severely carried away. It was also damaged. Some of the metal had been pried up, other sections warped as if by great heat, although there was no indication of burning anywhere.

The circle wasn't useful to him, so he started going through the rest of the room. He started with the big desk the potions had been in. There were no more potions, but there were a few tins of healing unguent, which he took. Unlike the plain tins he got from monsters, these tins were branded with some kind of logo.

"Greenstone Alchemy Association," Ichigo read from the bottom of the tin. "I guess alchemy is real too."

The rest of the drawers contained piles of notes and diagrams that seemed related to the magic circle. Oddly, Ichigo could read the individual words despite never having seen the language before, but they didn't make any sense to him as a whole. From what he could gather they were on some set of magical principles, as arcane to him as high-end theoretical physics. None of which were necessary for his studies to become a foreign translator.

He moved on, searching through toppled bookshelves and overturned tables. There was a variety of what looked like curios and display pieces, mostly tossed to the floor and broken, but nothing useful. He picked up a few of the books, flipping through the pages. There were a lot of them scattered around the room, their bookcases knocked over or even smashed. They seemed to be written in a variety of languages, but Ichigo had no problems reading any of them. Each new and unfamiliar text came as easy as if he'd been reading it his whole life.

"That's a little disconcerting, but useful. It'd be a real pain to have to learn how to read all these new languages but intriguing as well."

Although he could read the words, that wasn't the same as understanding it. Every book he picked up seemed to be about magic theory, making them as impenetrable as any advanced textbook from a field he knew nothing about.

Moving a large, overturned table from where it had been tossed against the wall, Ichigo discovered a display cabinet with a glass door. Despite the table that had crashed into it, the cabinet was wholly unaffected, the glass remaining clear and without a single crack. Inside were four books, each on its own small easel stand. Compared to the other books Ichigo found, these looked more impressive, with intricately embossed leather covers.

Trying to open the cabinet, he found it was locked shut. After a few attempts to break the surprisingly sturdy glass, he remembered the key ring he had looted from the dead body. Pulling it out of his inventory, Ichigo discovered it was like a dungeon keeper's key ring from an old movie, a huge array of keys dangling from a large metal hoop.

Item: [Landemere Vane's Key Ring] (normal rank, common)

The keys for various locks throughout the Vane Manor, as well as personal keys for Landemere Vane's possessions. A mixture of ordinary keys and magical keys. (tool).

Effect: Open specific locks.

Ichigo looked over at the covered body lying on the floor. "Was that your name? Landemere Vane?" he sighed. "Sorry I killed you, Landemere but you tried to kill me first."

He looked away from the covered corpse and focused on the task at hand. The keyhole on the cabinet door was quite small, so he tried the more delicate-looking keys until the lock clicked open. The cabinet wasn't very large but there were only four books in the entire case, set out for display rather than efficiency. The embossed leather didn't have titles, instead bearing patterns like the magic circle on the floor. Ichigo took out one of the books at random.

Item: [Astral Magic II] (bronze rank, uncommon)

A magical book that can impart the knowledge of intermediate level astral magic. (consumable, skill book).

Requirements: Bronze rank, ability to use skill books, basic ritual magic theory, intermediate ritual magic theory, basic astral magic theory.

Effect: Imparts intermediate astral magic theory.

You do not meet the requirements to use this item.

Ichigo was vaguely familiar with skill books from video games that instantly gave out spells or special abilities. He couldn't try this one because he didn't meet the sizeable list of requirements.

"Does that mean I can be a wizard if I find the right book?"

Ichigo started checking the remaining books. From the descriptions, it seemed the four books covered two different fields of magic, with one book at basic and intermediate level for each subject. Of the four books, Ichigo could only use one.

Item: [Ritual Magic I] (iron rank, common)

A magical book that can impart the fundamentals of performing magic rituals. (consumable, skill book).

Requirements: Ability to use skill books.

Effect: Imparts basic ritual magic theory.

You are able to use skill book [Ritual Magic I]. Use Y/N?

Reading the description, he lingered on the requirement of being able to use skill books, which he met. Remembering his character sheet, he pulled it up and started looking through the listings under racial abilities.

Ability: [Mysterious Stranger]
Language adaptation.
Essence, awakening stone and skill-book absorption.
Immunity to identification and tracking effects.

"Infinite language. That must be why I can read everything? That'll make becoming a translator easy."

The ability seemed to give him the power to use skill books, along with whatever essences and awakening stones were. He looked at the book in his hand. According to its description it would give him knowledge. That meant it would alter his brain, but didn't his ability to read weird languages mean it was already affected? Was it already affecting his decision-making processes?

For the time being, Ichigo stowed the books in his inventory. He could always look at them later. There didn't seem to be anything else he could make use of, so he decided to take stock. He found an undamaged chair and table, setting them up as far from the body as he could. There were a lot of tables for one room, although it was a large room.

After sitting down, he started pulling out the items he had picked up but not looked at yet, placing them all on the table. He began with the items he looted from the snake. Mercifully, the night-scale leather wasn't as drippy as the snake had been after it was skinned.

Item: [Night-Scale Leather] (bronze rank, uncommon)

The skin of an umbral mountain snake. (crafting material, leather).

Effect: Crafting material for clothing, armor and accessories.

It was dark and matte, thick and cool to the touch. It was also surprisingly flexible. Like the snake, the leather was much longer than it was wide, coming out of his inventory rolled up like a traditional bolt of cloth and bound by a length of thick cord.

"Did I loot the string from the snake too? That's weird, but no weirder than everything else that's happened to me lately."

The snakeskin was listed as a crafting material, as was the dark quintessence, which turned out to be small black gems.

Item: [Dark Quintessence] (iron rank, common)

Manifested essence of darkness. (crafting material, essence).

Effect: Crafting material for items with darkness attributes.

They had the look of uncut gemstones, but the shine of polished onyx. They even came with a pouch to hold them.

"This is conveniently weird."

The rest of the items he received as quest rewards, mostly from quests he completed by killing the umbral mountain snake. He thought the night fang would be crafting material like the others he had taken from monsters, but it turned out to be a wicked-looking dagger. It came in a sheath made of the same night-scale leather, which was also used for the dagger's grip. It was curved in the shape of a fang, and when drawn from the sheath, turned out to be made of bone. It had a wickedly sharp edge, tapering to a point.

Item: [Night Fang] (iron rank, epic)

A dagger made from the fang of an umbral mountain snake. The magic of the blade allows it to retain the power of the snake's poison (weapon, knife).

Effect: Inflicts [Umbral Snake Venom]

Effect: Attacks ignore bronze rank damage reduction and poison resistance.

[Umbral Snake Venom] (damage-over-time, poison, stacking): Inflicts ongoing necrotic damage until poison is cleansed. Additional instances have a cumulative effect.

The knife even came with a belt of the same leather but there were no loops for it on Ichigo's drawstring pants. He put it back in his inventory, along with the dark quintessence gems and the roll of snakeskin.

The remaining items were both quest rewards for exploring the well. The awakening stone of the Reaper was a smooth, rounded stone about the size of a fist. There were tiny speckles of ethereal light in the stone that seemed to move as he stared at it, although the effect was slight enough that it may have been his imagination.

Item: [Awakening Stone of the Reaper] (unranked, legendary)

An awakening stone sharing the affinity of the Reaper. (consumable, awakening stone).

Requirements: Unawakened essence ability.

Effect: Awakens an essence ability.

You have 0 unawakened essence abilities.

You do not meet the requirements to use this item.

"Two of these things from this Reaper guy?" Ichigo groaned. "I don't like being forced into things but if I'm going to be dealing with cannibal wizards, I could use something more than my fists."

He pulled out the [Reaper Summoning Token] and looked at the dark medallion he was holding in his hands. Despite the slickly smooth surface it had no sheen, not reflecting the lamp light at all. If anything, it almost seemed to be absorbing the light. Ichigo picked up the lamp and panned it around the room. The magic circle, the dead body, the double doors leading into the inevitably perilous unknown. His whole reason for searching the room was to find any advantage before he went through those doors. His gaze drifted back to the fist-sized medallion.

"Why not?" he said. "A few magic powers should be helpful." Ichigo also had a yearning for power. Power to protect. Protect people like his family and friends. Like he wished he could have to have saved his okaan.

But seeing as the token talked about summoning, he remembered a book that give him better understanding of what that entailed and pulled it out.

Item: [Ritual Magic I] (iron rank, common)

A magical book that can impart the fundamentals of performing magic rituals. (consumable, skill book).

Requirements: Ability to use skill books.
Effect: Imparts basic ritual magic theory.

You are able to use skill book [Ritual Magic I]. Use Y/N?

After some thought, he said, "Yes."

The book floated out of his hand and into the air. The cover flung itself open and the writing on it started removing itself from the page, changing from black to gold as the disembodied text floated into the air. The pages started turning, faster and faster, gold text pouring into the air. Turning pages flicked over in a rush as the golden text formed a corona around the floating book. Then the flutter of pages started slowing, until the last page turned, and the book fell to the ground, every page blank.

The cloud of golden text swarmed over Ichigo like angry fireflies, disappearing into his body as it landed on his flesh with stinging bites. His mind was bombarded with information too quickly to process, leaving it lost and adrift. The pain and disorientation finally passed, leaving him in general control of his faculties, but dizzy and confused. He had no idea if seconds or hours had passed. He was weary to the bone, limbs as heavy as his eyelids.

Your stamina is low.

Two horizontal bars appeared at the periphery of his vision. One was blue while the other was orange and about empty. Next to them was a silhouette of a person that was mostly green, but the left and shoulder, spreading just a bit into the chest, were yellow.

"Alright, so the yellow bar is stamina, the little body is health, and the blue bar is... something?"

Current mana: 100%

"Okay, I have mana. I think I'm getting a handle on this. What exactly is mana?"

Help: Mana

Mana is a resource required for many essence abilities. Low mana will lead to mental exhaustion.

Maximum mana is based on the [Spirit] attribute. Bind an essence to the [Spirit] attribute to increase maximum mana.

Mana recovery is based on the [Recovery] attribute. Bind an essence to the [Recovery] attribute to increase mana recovery rate.

Ichigo let out a yawn. He had gone through a lot, but he still had one more thing to do.

Now he had better understand of ritual magic and as concerned that whatever he was going to summon was coming from a realm beyond reality. That didn't change what he needed to do so, he steeled himself and continued on.

He stood up, took a couple of deep breaths, then picked up the [Reaper Summoning Token].

You are able to activate [Reaper Summoning Token]

Activate Y/N?

"Yes, activate the token."

The token suddenly turned sizzling-hot in his hands, and he dropped it to the floor.

"What the..?"

Dark, ethereal light started emanating from the token and Ichigo backed away. The black light coming off the token was rising up in narrow streaks, like black tendrils that grasped the air and lifted it up to his eyelevel. He took another uncertain step back, second guessing himself, but stopped and steeled his resolve. He nearly got taken out by an oversized snake, and considering how poisonous the blade made from its fang was, it would have taken just one bite to kill him.

"Man up, Ichigo. You'll need more than a knife to make it out this."

The tendrils swirled around the token to form a circle four meters in diameter, the token itself dissolving to fill in the circle with the ethereal darkness. Once it solidified, it peeled back to reveal a pair of shoji screen door. They opened immediately to reveal a three-meter silvery bone-white man with no defining features. It had no mouth, nose, eyes or hair. Just the vague shape of a man's face.

That was until the door closed behind it, disappearing form existence and the Asauchi opened its eyelids to reveal two small mouths instead of eyes. They breathed, had teeth and a tongue. It was creepy and Ichigo wondered if he'd made the right decision.

Suddenly Ichigo felt pressured on all sides, like he was in the grip of a god that was squeezing him for all his worth. Then it went even deeper, the mouth-eyes of the Asauchi somehow gazing at Ichigo, penetrating down to his very soul. It was scouring his soul, searching, learning and understanding Ichigo down to the fundamental essence of who he was.

Ichigo was gritting his teeth, biting down the pain and glaring down the creature in front of him. Not willing to show weakness to it. If this spirit from the Reaper was going to kill him, he'd met death with his head held high and resisting with everything he had until the end.

Then, just as suddenly as it started, the pressure stopped and the Asauchi knelt before him on one knee, head bowed. Some instinct from his soul told Ichigo what to do. He offered his right hand and the Asauchi took it without hesitation and Ichigo pulled it up to its feet.

The instant it rose to meet Ichigo's eyes it started to glow, and its skin peeled away in a shroud of darkness tinted blue. Before Ichigo could see what it looked like underneath the darkness, a shrouded hand pierced the center of his chest. Yet, instead of tearing flesh and splattering blood, a hole opened up into a vast dark void with a single blue sun floating there. The black coated hand of the Asauchi had a chain shoot out of it and proceeded to sink through the surface of the blue sun that was Ichigo's soul, straight to its core.

In that moment, Ichigo felt the Asauchi so completely, like it was a part of him. A missing part that had finally found its way home and completed Ichigo.

The chain connecting the Asauchi to his soul was rapidly drawn in, sucking it into the void in Ichigo's chest, like light being sucked into a black hole. The blur of darkness tinted in blue light was absorbed into the vibrant blue orb.

The sun in that void shimmered and grew brighter as the Asauchi was fully incorporated into it. The void hole in Ichigo's chest closed shut, leaving unblemished skin. Then a light started emerging from within his body. It was a strange, grey light, washing out the colors of everything it touched, from the covered corpse to the magic circle engraved into the floor.

You have successfully soul bonded with [Asauchi].

You have automatically absorbed the Reaper's [Dark Essence] from the [Asauchi].

You have absorbed 1 of 4 essences.

Progress to iron rank: 25% (1/4 essences).

[Dark Essence] has bonded to your [Recovery] attribute, changing your [Recovery] from normal to [Iron 0]. Master all dark essence abilities to increase your [Recovery] attribute.

You have awakened the dark essence ability [Shihakushoo].

Ability: [Shihakushoo] (Dark)

Ability type: Conjuration (darkness, garment, dimension).
Base cost: Moderate mana to conjure.
Cooldown: None.

Current rank: Iron 0 (00%)

Effect (iron): Conjures a magical garment of dead souls that can alter the wearer. Offers protection from magic based and incorporeal damage. Additionally increase resistance to soul attacks. Can blend into shadows. Allow the user to become intangible at a high mana-per-second cost, allowing immunity to all but transcendent damage. Garment allows the user to move through the air as if it was solid ground at a low mana-per-second cost. Cannot be given or taken away.

You have awakened 1 of 5 dark essence abilities.

You have automatically absorbed the Reaper's [Swift Essence] (Hohoo) from the [Asauchi].

You have absorbed 2 of 4 essences.

Progress to iron rank: 50% (2/4 essences).

[Swift Essence] has bonded to your [Speed] attribute, changing your [Speed] from normal to [Iron 0]. Master all swift essence abilities to increase your [Speed] attribute.

You have awakened the swift essence ability [Shunpo].

Ability: [Shunpo] (Swift)

Special ability (movement)
Cost: None.
Cooldown: None.

Current Rank: 00%

Effect (iron): This is a movement technique that allows the user to move faster than the eye can follow from point A to point B in the least amount of steps. Training and skill are what determine how fast a user can move.

You have awakened 1 of 5 swift essence abilities.

You have automatically absorbed the Reaper's [Magic Essence] (Kidoo) from the [Asauchi].

You have absorbed 3 of 4 essences.

Progress to iron rank: 75% (3/4) essences).

[Magic Essence] has bonded to your [Power] attribute, changing your [Power] from normal to [Iron 0]. Master all magic essence abilities to increase your [Power] attribute.

You have awakened the magic essence ability [Bakudoo].

Ability: [Bakudoo] (Magic)

Spell Cost: Varies.
Cooldown: Varies.

Current rank: Iron 0

Effect (iron): Supplementary spells which are a broad category of defensive spells which block/repel attacks or immobilize enemies. This class of spells include Kidoo Barriers & Seals. Requires specific training and skills to utilize.

You have awakened 1 of 5 magic essence abilities.

Three shimmering, incorporeal cubes, roughly 15 cm to a side, emerged from Ichigo's toros and started spinning around him in the air. The cubes were a black, colorless swirls and a rainbow colored but plainly lacking substance. The images converged in front of Ichigo, interposing themselves over one another. Once the three cubes merged into one, the result was a new cube, swirling with an ethereal black wrapped by red streamers.

The confluence of your essences had produced the [Shinigami Essence].

The immaterial image became solid before the ethereal darkness with red streamers pour out, wreathing Ichigo in a shroud of red and black. It then moved on Ichigo, sinking into his body.

You have automatically absorbed the Reaper's [Shinigami Essence].

You have absorbed 4 of 4 essences.

Progress to iron rank: 100% (4/4 essences).

[Shinigami Essence] has bonded to your [Spirit] attribute, changing your [Spirit] from normal to [Iron 0]. Master all shinigami essence abilities to increase you [Spirit] attribute.

You have awakened the shinigami essence ability [Zanpakutoo (Asauchi)].

Ability: [Zanpakutoo (Asauchi)] (Shinigami)

Conjuration (weapon, cleanse)
Base cost: None.
Cooldown: none.

Current rank: Iron 0

Effect (iron): This unnamed sword; Asauchi generated from you soul is capable of cutting spiritual bodies. The sword is a reflection of your power and soul and a sentient being unto itself. This sword does transcendent damage and any being killed by this weapon will have their soul cleansed and transitioned to the Great Astral. Does exponentially greater damage to all undead entities. This spirit weapon can only be used by you and cannot be taken away.

You have absorbed 4/4 essences.

All your attributes have reached iron rank.

You have reached iron rank.

You have gained damage reduction against normal-rank damage sources.

You have gained increased resistance to normal-rank effects.

You have gained the ability to sense auras.

You have gained the ability to sustain yourself using sources of concentrated magic.

Bonding with Asauchi has caused a racial gift evolution.

Racial gift [Astral Affinity] has evolved to [Soul Transfiguration].

Ability: [Soul Transfiguration]

Your body and soul have been combined into a gestalt entity both physical and spiritual in nature. This state grants inherent resistance to effects that utilize the soul-body disconnect and corruption. Additionally adds soul effects to all your essence abilities, allowing them to directly affect the soul.

The nature of your new body has rendered you immune to resurrection effects, including those of high-rank healing magic, with the sole exception of transcendent effects. If your body is discorporated, your soul will return to a purely spiritual state, unable to reinhabit a physical form or reenter a physical reality. This prevents the natural formation of an outworlder body on entering a physical reality.

The strength of your aura has significantly increased.

The strength of your attributes has significantly increased.

Your resistance to hostile dimension effects and disruptive force damage has been increased. This is an enhancement of the [Astral Affinity] ability.

The effect of your dimension effects and your transcendent damage has been increased. This is a legacy effect of the [Astral Affinity] ability.

You have gained immunity to all normal-rank effects.

The power of your soul has granted you immunity to all iron-rank poisons, diseases, curses and afflictions with increased resistances to higher ranked ones. This effect will grow in conjunction with your rank.

Ichigo leapt to his feet. He felt like he'd just been stabbed with a huge adrenaline needle, bursting with energy. He looked down at his own arms, the prompts having gone mostly forgotten to the new sensation. The light was shining right through his skin.

"I feel like I could climb a mountain or fight an army of monsters," Ichigo exclaimed.

The light started to diminish, drawing back inside Ichigo's body. As it did, he experienced a rising nausea, the sensation growing and growing as he resisted the urge to throw up. But he failed. He collapsed to his hands and knees, vomit spraying out of him. Red-brown pus started oozing from his pores, staining his clothes and coating his skin in oily filth. He kept vomiting and vomiting, bloody tears pouring from his eyes.

Finally, he fell unconscious, dropping into a pool of his own body fluids. A terrifying stench was coming off of him. Even in unconsciousness, pus and vomit fought their way free of his body.

His dreams were filled with the single most horrifying event of his life. His okaan had picked him up from karate practice, drying his tears from being hit by Tatsuki and putting on a vibrant smile that had split his face in two. It was a smile he reserved for her and one he'd lost that day.

It was raining and he was walking home, holding onto his mother's hand as she led the way under her umbrella. His Oto-san had told him his name means 'he who protects' and all he ever wanted was to protect his okaan and imoutos. Yet that day he knew he had to save a girl he'd seen about to walk off the bluff and into the raging ocean.

He'd ignored his mother's yell to stop as he ran towards the waterway and the girl. He'd blacked out just as he reached the small girl and woke to find his mother's bloody dead body lying on top of him.

Ichigo woke with a start, a god-awful stench making him gage. It was the worse scent he'd ever smelled, like a pig corpse that had rolled around piles of crap and trash sludge. He raised to get away from it, only for his head to hit something with crushing force. Ichigo saw through blurry eyes a man standing over him with a glowing shovel in his hands. Was that blood? His blood? Did this asshole just bash his head in with a fucking shovel?

Just as rage was starting to burn up in him, the shovel came down a second time and everything returned to black.

---

The circumstances in which Ichigo regained consciousness were unpleasant. He was cramped up in some kind of tight space, forced into a fetal position. His head was spinning; there seemed to be a little man inside it, taking a jackhammer to his brain. His nose was congested with what felt like a fistful of bees, and to top it off, he had an urge to vomit. It took considerable effort to keep it down, but he still ended up vomiting a little bit into his own mouth. With great, nauseating effort he swallowed it back down. As he tried scraping the taste from his tongue with his teeth, he noticed the head section of his health silhouette was now a warning orange.

"Great, I have a concussion and possibly a fractured skull. Ah. It's been a while since I last had one of those."

He heard a male voice, "He's woken up."

Ichigo's eyes swam into focus, although they felt puffy and didn't seem to open properly. He was in what looked like a dog cage, too small to stretch out his limbs. He could barely make out that his cage was on a dirt floor in some kind of cellar with how dark it was. The roof and walls were rough timber, and there was a pervasive smell of damp earth. There were four more cages in the cellar with him, each containing a person. One had a black guy, two had white girls. The last cage was bigger than the others, with thicker bars. Inside was an enormous, impossibly hairy man.

"A Wookiee?" Ichigo asked deliriously.

"What's a Wookiee?" the hairy man growled.

"Hey," the black guy called out to him. "Did they put a collar on you?"

"Wha...?" Ichigo's thoughts refused to walk in a straight line.

"Try and focus," the man said. "Looks like you were hit rather hard."

Ichigo ran his fingers over his face, feeling the dried blood thickly caked onto it. He grimaced in pain as his fingers brushed against what turned out to be his very delicate nose. He also pulled away the sludge that had poured out of his every orifice and pore.

"Ughh… what is this stuff?" Ichigo groaned.

"Did they put a collar on you?" the man asked again.

Confused, Ichigo reached up and patted his neck. "Yes," he croaked. "Why did they put a collar on me?"

"To suppress your essence abilities," the man let out in a disappointed sigh.

Ichigo banged his head against the cage accidently with how cramped it was in annoyance. He just gotten powers and now had them taken away. The accidental knock to his noggin had annoyed the man in his head who ramped up the jackhammer. That was the last thought Ichigo had on the matter as a stabbing pain in his head knocked him out cold.

---

Ichigo swam at the edge of consciousness, hearing two people talk.

"He was in the underground ritual chamber?" a woman asked, in a controlled, elegant voice.

"Yes, milady," a gruff male voice replied.

"You left him in quite a state."

"Actually, milady, that's not much worse than how we found him. He'd just hit iron rank and was in a pool of the usual filth that comes with rankin up."

"Did you put a collar on him?" she asked.

"Yes, milady. Even though Mr. Caruthers only procured the four bronze rank collars for the ones we were warned about, we still have a few iron rank ones on hand."

"A wise choice," said the woman. "His aura is stronger than a new iron-ranker's should be. He most likely has most of this first three essences' abilities. Still how did a mere iron rank essence user kill Landemere?"

"It seems the young master had mostly done himself in, milady. Summoning spell gone awry, from the looks of it."

"Is that why all those little monsters are running around?"

"It would seem so, milady."

Quest: [No, Shirt, No Shoes, No Service]

Objective complete: Discover the reason lesser monsters have infested the area 1/1.

[Simple Shirt] has been added to your inventory.

Quest complete.
100 [Iron Spirit Coins] have been added to your inventory.

Ichigo stifled a yelp and forced himself to stay still. He had been pretending to be unconscious when a bright blue screen appeared in front of him and his whole body went tense. The pair continued talking as if nothing had happened.

"So whoever this is got lucky and killed my son when he was at his most vulnerable?"

"Not that lucky, milady. He met me."

Ichigo wanted to argue that it wasn't all that impressive to bash in an unconscious man's head, but now was not the time. Plus, he shouldn't have used that token and fell unconscious. That was his fault.

"Just so, Dougall," she acknowledged. "Do we know what Landemere was trying to summon?"

"I had a bit of a potter through his notes, milady. It was one of them entities from beyond the void."

Ichigo heard the woman sigh.

"Astral beings," she muttered unhappily. "I told that boy it would be the death of him. We're a nice, traditional blood cult family. This nonsense about ineffable ancients from outside reality was never going to work out. What did you do with Landemere's body?"

"Mulch, milady."

"You mulched my son?"

"Well, he won't be mulched yet, milady. Composting isn't a quick process. I can fetch him out from the pile if you like, but milord won't be happy. He was quite specific as to the dispensing of the body."

"I don't care what my stupid husband thinks; he married into the family. This is my manor, my family, and we do things the traditional way. Goodness knows what poor Landemere will taste like after having gone in the mulch pile."

"I'll give him a good and proper wash before I bring him into the kitchen, milady."

"Thank you, Dougall. Excellent work, as always. Now, do we know where this man came from?"

"No idea, milady. He's too weak to be an adventurer and he wasn't exactly well-equipped. Besides the filthy clothes we found him in, he had nothing on his person. He apparently killed the young lord with his own knife."

"You don't think he's with them?"

"I wouldn't think so, milady. He wasn't up to much."

"Did he say anything?"

"I didn't give him the chance, milady, he walked into my shovel as he rolled through his own filth."

"Is that why you took his shirt?"

"He didn't have one, milady. Didn't have the chance to ask why, on account of his walking into my shovel again. Do you want me to send him to the kitchen as well?"

"No. If he really did kill my son, I don't want him trotting off to death with his soul intact and the impurities from his hitting iron rank are caked into his skin. I'm not wasting a bottle of crystal wash on the like of him. Put him with the others for the blood feast."

"Yes milady, although that will be one too many."

"I don't think the extra blood will be a problem."

"I was thinking about the high priest, milady. You know how he gets."

"Yes, quite right, Dougall. Very well. Pick one of the others you like and keep it for yourself."

"Very generous, milady. I'll take the elf, if milady has no objections."

"Are you sure, Dougall? Elves are quite stringy."

"Derrick was keen to try one, milady. I warned him, of course, but you know how young ones are."

"Oh, yes," she said. "They never believe you until they suffer the consequences for themselves. Just look where it got Landemere, and my daughter isn't much better. If it wasn't for the cult, I swear I never would have had children. Go fetch my idiot son's body before you take the elf. I don't want him picking up any more flavor than he already has."

"Of course, milady."

The pair left and Ichigo let out a long breath. He got a lot of useful information from those two cannibal cultists. Like the fact that the lady of the manor and blood cult was the mother of the man he killed, which won't end well for him. He was somehow able to feel how dangerous that woman was. He could even feel the man, Dougall, was dangerous, just not anywhere close to how dangerous the woman was. And now they plan on killing him so that his soul was destroyed or something. Ichigo never believed in kami or the afterlife, but he'd rather not risk his soul's destruction, that he now knew was real. He needed to get the hell out. He maneuvered about for leverage and tried to force the door open with his legs, but it wouldn't budge no matter how much strength he put into it.

"That's not going to work," the black guy told him. "These cages are made to hold bronze rankers, like us. An iron ranker like you is just wasting your efforts."

"Have you got a name?" Ichigo asked. "I'm Ichigo Asano, and just thinking of you as the black guy seems rude to me."

"Rufus," the man responded.

"Konnichiwa," Ichigo greeted. "If you've got a better idea, I'm all ears. I can feel my abilities, but they're blocked. I can't use them and even if I could, I only just got them. No idea how to use them or what they do."

"That's a shame, but nothing you should apologize for and I'm afraid not," Rufus replied. "Unless you've got some spirit coins tucked into those pants, you won't get the cage open that way."

"Spirit coins?" Ichigo asked. "Sure, I've got some, but how will that help? Do you want me to try and bribe that Dougall guy to let us out?"

"This guy's an idiot," one of the women said.

"Not helping," Rufus said through gritted teeth. "Ichigo, you don't happen to have a silver or gold ranked coin, do you?"

"Hang on a sec," Ichigo said, checking his inventory, which struggled to open. He had to focus and push to keep it open, which made his head throb in agony. There were 26 silver coins and 6 gold ones, all looted from Landemere Vane's body. He took out one of the silver ones.

Item: [Silver Spirit Coin] (silver rank, common)

A distilled quantity of raw magic. (crafting material, currency).

Effect: Used to fuel silver-rank magic items or as a ritual component.

Effect: Consume to briefly increase all attributes to silver rank.

"Oh," Ichigo dragged out in understanding. He had previously examined the lesser spirit coins, which didn't have an option to increase attributes. He vaguely remembered there was a strength attribute or something.

"So, I consume this to increase my attributes?" Ichigo asked for confirmation. "Consume, as in, eat?"

"Yes, Ichigo, it's very easy," Rufus answered simply. "You just put the coin in your mouth. Once you do, you'll only have a few moments to force open the cage."

"So these attributes," Ichigo replied, "I assume one of them is strength?"

"The power attribute increases strength, "Rufus explained. "The coin will increase them all, but only for a very short time."

Ichigo placed the coin uncertainly on his tongue, where it dissolved like a soluble tablet. His body was immediately flooded with a tingling sensation, and he felt an immense sense of power. His senses sharpened. Eyes, which had gained a blue glow to them unbeknownst to him, suddenly took in everything as if seeing it for the first time. His ears picked up ambient sounds he had previously missed. He could taste the blood, sweat and dirt on the air. It was amazing but a complete sensory overload that made him hesitate. It only lasted a fleeting moment before the world went back to normal, suddenly seeming dull and plain.

"Uh, Ichigo?" Rufus asked.

"Yes Rufus?" Ichigo replied absent mindedly. He'd never felt such things before, and it was discombobulating to his senses.

"Did you use the coin?"

"I did, yes," Ichigo's voice came out in awe.

"I don't want to pressure you, but did you, perchance, forget to open the cage?"

"Sorry. My senses were pushed to an extreme I've never experienced before, and it left me a bit overwhelmed."

"This is who you're relying on to save us?" the woman's voice spoke up again in exasperated disgust.

"Still not helping, Anisa," Rufus told her in an admonishing tone.

Ichigo took out a second silver-ranked coin and put it in his mouth. This time, as the sensation of power came over him, he placed his feet against the cage door, easily bracing himself in the tight confines. His feet pushed out with the temporary surge of strength, the hinges on the cage door warping. He pushed harder and the door fell away just as the strength drained out of him again.

He crawled out of the cage and stood up. Waves of dizziness washed over him, and he had to grip the cage to stay upright. His body felt weaker than it had when he woke up in the cage.

"Are there side effects to those coins?" Ichigo asked.

"You used a coin with more power than your body could handle," Rufus explained. "It will recover. A little more slowly, though, since you used two of them in quick succession."

Ichigo looked over at the other cages, and a screen popped up.

New Quest: [Escape!]

You have been trapped in the cellar of the blood cult and you need to get away.

Objective: Leave the grounds of Vane Estate without being caught 0/1.

Reward: Awakening stone.

Optional objective: Rescue your fellow prisoners 0/4.

Reward: One Awakening stone per rescued prisoner.

"Good job," Rufus said. "Now you need to find something to get the rest of us out. Giving us some silver coins would work, if you have more. That won't be enough for Gary's cage, though. You shouldn't use more coins yourself until you've recovered."

Ichigo pulled out the big key ring, swooning slightly from the added focus need to open his inventory. "I'm hoping this does the job. Couldn't reach the lock from inside the cage."

"Even better," Rufus replied. "I'd rather not have to fight our way out of here suffering the after-effects of using a coin."

Rufus pointed to the large, hairy man in the oversized cage, "Him first."

Ichigo went over to the big cage, getting a better look at its occupant. His body was the size and shape of a professional wrestler and the parts not covered by his clothes were covered in fur. His head looked like a lion, complete with a glorious mane.

"So, you're Gary?" Ichigo asked, He crouched down and started trying keys on the lock.

"That's right," the big man said. His voice had a deep, growling timbre.

"I'm Ichigo," he greeted. "You look like you can do some real damage even without magic powers. I never thought I'd met someone bigger than Chad."

"That's true. I'm good a destroying thing," Gary joyfully responded with a grin.

"I'd say good to meet you," Ichigo replied as he continued trying keys, "but the circumstances aren't terrific."

"Thanks for not just running off," Gary spoke out in a grateful tone.

"No thanks necessary, Gary. It's the right thing to do. Besides, I'm going to need you lot to help me get out of wherever it is we are."

"We're in a storage cellar."

"I can see that much," Ichigo replied dryly. "I meant this whole place. I have no idea where we are."

"You don't know?" Gary asked incredulously. "Did they kidnap you?"

"I'm not entirely sure," Ichigo admitted. "I think I might have been summoned by accident by a cannibal wizard. Woke up hairless and naked in the hedge maze."

Gary the lion-man's voice seemed to be growly as a default, seeing as he seemed to growl in thought.

"Look out!" Rufus called out and Ichigo whirled around to where he heard a door open, returning the key ring to his inventory.

There was a doorway that seemed to lead into another section of the cellar, through which the man Dougall had returned, shovel in hand.

"Cheeky little sod," Dougall sneered.

Ichigo had nearly fell over from dizziness just from whirling around on Dougall, the coin's after-effects proving to be more of an impediment than he feared. He'd barely dodged the shovel swipe to his head, but he was able to retaliate with a right hook to Dougall's chin, getting him to stagger back in surprise.

Not wasting the opportunity, Ichigo followed up with a straight kick to the cultist's gut, knocking the wind out of him with a grunt. Ichigo leapt forward and tried to rip the shovel out his hands, but Dougall raised a hand at him.

Blood red vines burst from the ground and restrained Ichigo, wrapping around his limbs and pulling them taut.

"You got some fight in ya," Dougall spat out some blood. "But you shouldn't have let havin hit iron go to yer head, boy. Ya can't use em all collared like as yous are."

The shovel came down on the restrained Ichigo's head and everything went black.

---

Orihime was trudging along the desert, hairless and naked, the manner in which she'd woken in. She'd reminisced about the last thing she had remembered was having passionate sex with her Ichigo-kun until they had fallen asleep. Then the weird holograms that showed her a character sheet from some of the video games she had played before. Then the quest it had given her to find shelter before dying of exposure or a random monster encounter. It'd give her a greatly needed yukata upon completion.

It was kind of fun to her, living in a video game. She even had two blue tokens from something called a world-phoenix that were so rare she only got question marks when she tried to identify one of them with her new powers. If not for her thirst and the sunburn she was getting, Orihime would have put this dream up with her top ten favorites.

"I wish there was at least some shade," Orihime grumbled less cheerily than she'd been earlier. She looked down at her reddening skin, at least what she could see past her sizable breasts, and added, "And some clothes to protect my skin. I don't mind a tan, but without a bikini it won't have the tan-lines Ichigo-kun likes."

She was also starting to wonder if this was really a dream as her feet burned on the hot sand and hard ground. She wasn't sweating as much now, which wasn't good. It meant she was near dehydration already. Though, she might have a heat-stroke before then.

Thankfully, she found a rocky outcropping to rest in the shadow of. She unfortunately didn't find a source of water. Not even plants. With thirst becoming worse and her skin starting to peel, she turned to the [World-Phoenix Summing Token], the only one of the two that had more than question marks.

Item: [World-Phoenix Summoning Token] (transcendent rank, legendary)

Manifested spirit of the World-Phoenix (consumable, summons).

Requirements: No absorbed divine essences. Uncorrupted soul.

Effect: Summons [Bennu] that if it successfully bonds to the user's soul will be gifted or replace their full set of essences and abilities with ones from the World-Phoenix.

Uses remaining 1/1.

You have absorbed 0 divine essences and your soul is uncorrupted.

You are able to activate [World-Phoenix Summoning Token].

Activate Y/N?

Orihime had chosen not to use it before because she wasn't stupid, despite what some assumed because of her cheery, bubbly nature. Some entity of some kind, probably the one that brought her to this strange world, had put her in a position where she'd have to use that token. It was a poison pill. Yet, it was one she'd have to eat if she wanted to live.

So, after cooling down a bit and lessening her throbbing head she took out the token.

You are able to activate [World-Phoenix Summoning Token].

Activate Y/N?

With a resolved breath she answered, "Yes."

The fist-sized medallion grew hot, forcing Orihime to drop the token with a hiss of pain. Instead of hitting the ground it floated into the air and burst into sapphire flames. Despite the possible danger, Orihime was entranced with the beauty of the flames. Even though everything she knew about fire said that she should distance herself from the heat, she remained still.

She actually moved closer; the sapphire flames weren't letting off heat but a refreshing sense of restoration. Her thirst faded, the peeling skin healed, and the sunburn disappeared altogether. Orihime felt better than she had since arriving in this world.

The sapphire flames grew and started shaping into a form. A large bird, twice Orihime's size made entirely of blue fire congealed into existence. It let out a screech that sung like a symphony of life, vitality and something deeper that rung in harmony with her soul.

"Beautiful," Orihime gasped in wonder, opening her arms wide for an embrace.

The Bennu didn't hesitate to accept her embrace, engulfing Orihime in its burning plumage. The phoenix morphed around her, taking the shape of a brilliant sapphire egg. Inside this beautiful gem Orihime was being consumed in blue fire. Her flesh reduced to ash, yet she never once screamed or felt any fear. Even when all that was left was her soul that drank in the restoring sapphire flames, growing brighter and stronger.

As time passed, the egg started to lose its vibrancy, the flames dissipated to reveal a solid light blue shell. Yet, glowing grey-blue light shined underneath, cracking the egg's shell. Then in a sudden flash of sapphire light, the egg exploded outward to reveal a human-sized sapphire phoenix of before.

But unlike the Bennu that was summoned from the token, this one had orange fire flashed through out it. Slowly the fire bird shifted, the orange fires becoming flowing long hair and the blue into a womanly figure. The fire congealed into Orihime, but unlike before she had her orange hair that had gained a radiance that resembled fire contained in each strain.

Even more striking than her hair were her eyes. Their irises have become crystalized pools of contained, swirling sapphire flames.

Orihime blinked her new eyes as if just waking from a long, deep slumber. As her focus returned and she woke completely, she was bombarded by prompts.

Your soul has successfully bonded with [Bennu].

You have been reborn as an iron rank essence user.

All your attributes have reached iron rank.

You have reached iron rank.

You have gained damage reduction against normal-rank damage sources.

You have gained increased resistance to normal-rank effects.

You have gained the ability to sense auras.

You have gained the ability to sustain yourself using sources of concentrated magic.

Bonding with Bennu has caused a racial gift evolution.

Racial gift [Astral Affinity] has evolved to [Nirvanic Transfiguration].

Ability: [Nirvanic Transfiguration]

Your body and soul have been combined into a gestalt entity both physical and spiritual in nature. This state grants inherent resistance to effects that utilize the soul-body disconnect and corruption.

The nature of your new body has rendered you immune to resurrection effects, including those of high-rank healing magic, with the sole exception of transcendent effects. If your body is discorporated, your soul will return to a purely spiritual state, unable to reinhabit a physical form or reenter a physical reality. This prevents the natural formation of an outworlder body on entering a physical reality. These restrictions will change on reaching diamond rank.

When suffering lethal damage, instead of dying, your new body will undergo a nirvanic rebirth, returning to a state of full integrity. This effect cannot be triggered again until you have increased in rank from the last time it was used. This ability will change on reaching diamond rank.

The strength of your aura has significantly increased.

Your resistance to hostile dimension effects and disruptive force damage has been increased. This is an enhancement of the [Astral Affinity] ability.

The effect of your dimension effects and your transcendent damage has been increased. This is a legacy effect of the [Astral Affinity] ability.

Physical reality around you is more stable. You are able to sense nearby astral space apertures and proto-astral spaces coterminous to your location.

You are able to traverse astral space apertures, including those that are closed or have been sealed.

You are able to directly enter proto-astral spaces coterminous with your location or directly leave a proto-astral space to a coterminous location.

While within the astral you will be able to create and maintain a small zone of physical reality around you. This does not grant the ability to enter or traverse the astral.

"Wow, that's a lot for just one ability," she mused to herself. "And I'm iron rank now. Does that mean I have magic powers now?"

Orihime pulled up her character sheet.

Orihime Inoue

Race: Outworlder Current rank: Iron.
Progression to bronze rank: 0% (0/4 essences complete)

Attributes:

[Recovery] (Renewal): [Iron 0]
[Power] (Shield): [Iron 0]
[Speed] (Dimension): [Iron 0]
[Spirit] (Restoration): [Iron 0]

Racial abilities (Outworlder)
[Interface]
[Quest System]
[Inventory]
[Map]
[Nirvanic Transfiguration]
[Curious Stranger]

Essences (4/4):

Renewal [Recovery] (1/5)
[Jinsei Boruto] (spell): [Iron 0] 00%

Shield [Power] (1/5)
[Santen Kesshun] (special ability): [Iron 0] 00%

Dimension [Speed] (1/5)
[Hougetsu Jigen-Tou] (special ability): [Iron 0] 00%

Restoration [Spirit] (1/5)
[Tsubasa No Sekai-Fenikkusu] (special ability): [Iron 0] 00%

Orihime could instinctually feel her new powers and what they could do. They also felt like they wanted to burst out of her and run rampant, like a wild animal. That it was more like holding them back than having to force them out. They wanted to be used.

She used her interface power to look at her new powers.

Ability: [Jinsei Boruto] (renewal)

Spell (healing)
Cost: Low mana.
Cooldown: None.

Incantation: Imbue with life.

Effect (iron): Deliver life energy through a projectile, giving a small burst of instantaneous healing. Damages certain targets that are inimical to life force, such as most forms of undead.

Ability: [Santen Kesshun] (shield)

Special ability (shield)
Cost: moderate mana Cooldown: 2 minutes.

Effect (iron): Summon a giant triangular shield which repels any attacks directed at you.

Ability: [Hougetsu Jigen-Tou] (dimension)

Special ability (special attack)
Cost: Extreme mana, extreme stamina.
Cooldown: None.

Effect (iron): This ability allows the user to postpone the dimension in which they exist and enables them to go through all matter and create the "ultimate blade" by moving back and forth between dimensions. It cannot cut if it cannot move. Additionally, it can be used to postpone the dimension of the user's entire body, allowing them to pass through walls and nullify an enemy's attack. This ability cannot be extended to others.

Ability: [Tsubasa No Sekai-Fenikkusu] (Restoration)

Conjuration (boon, recovery, dimension)
Base cost: Moderate mana.
Cooldown: None.

Effect (iron): Conjures magical sapphire wings that can alter the wearer. Increases effects of healing and cleansing abilities. Continuously recover small amount of health, mana and stamina while wings are active. Wings can reduce weight of the wearer for a low mana-per-second cost, allowing reduced falling speed and glide at a moderate mana-per-second cost. Cannot be given or taken away, although effects can be extended to others on very close proximity at an increased cost per individual.

Orihime focused with a hand raised forward and a large upside-down triangular shield of orange energy appeared in front of her. It was roughly three meters long at the wide top and narrowed to a point that just covered her. She felt she could angle it however she desired, so she'd have to use her judgement properly shield herself and others based on the attacks sent her way.

She then looked a one of the rocky outcroppings and decided to give her dimension power a go. With her first use of that power, she could noticeably feel the drain in her unlike the shield. She could feel the shield's drain on her mana but the hougetsu jigen-tou took much more mana and the drain on her stamina left her physically tired.

Testing its ability to allow her to move through solid matter, Orihime pushed her hand into the rock, passing through like it was water. She was so surprised by the action that she lost focus on using the ability and it stopped. Her hand snapped back into this dimension and the nearby rock surrounding her hand was erased from existence, leaving a fist-sized and impossibly smooth hole in the rock.

"That was shocking and neat," she said. "It could also hurt someone pretty bad." A frown marred her face at the thought of hurting people.

To test the sword aspect of it she had to utilize her hand by flattening it out with all fingers next to each other leaving no gaps between them. Then using her hand like a sword, she slashed towards the outcropping. Her finger sliced through the hard stone like it wasn't even there, leaving a hand deep gash on it.

Your mana and stamina are low.

She had bent over, resting her hands on her knees to catch her breath from the exhaustion she could feel. Taking several moments to let her mana recover enough to try her wings out next. They'd also have the added benefit of speeding up her recovery.

When she was ready, she willed them into existence. The wings immediately responded, as easy and natural as breathing. Sapphire flames burst from her upper back, between her shoulders. It wasn't discomfortable or painful at all but felt warm and refreshing. The flames coalesced into a pair of voluminous sapphire wings, spreading out two meters to either side of her body.

Orihime could feel the wings as if they were additional limbs. She could feel their power, restoring her spent mana and stamina while weakening the effects of the desert heat.

She instinctively understood how to use the weight reducing aspect of the ability and hopped up into the air with a flap of her wings. She went up much higher than she normally would have and dropped back down slower, gliding down to a soft landing.

"It's like I'm a bird," she exclaimed happily.

Seeing as the wings helped protect her from the sun and heat, she decided to keep them manifested. Heading out to hopefully find people and water.

As she crested a rise she saw in the distance, a mountain in the middle of the desert that tapered up to a towering height. The upper reaches were black and lifeless, while the lower portions turned to yellow stone and red earth, with patchy coverage of dry, yellow grass. What caught Orihime's undivided attention was that there were wagons near what looked like a crevice.

Quest: [Lost & Found]

You find yourself lost and alone in an inhospitable desert. Where might others be?

Objective: Find civilization and people 1/1.
Reward: [Simple Yukata].

Bonus Objective: Don't die 1/1.
Reward: Awakening Stone.

Objective complete.

[Simple Yukata] had been added to your inventory.

Bonus objective complete.

[Awakening Stone of the World-Phoenix] (unranked, legendary) has been added to your inventory.

"Yah!" Orihime cheered but choked as her parched throat protested.

Once her fit ended, she pulled out the robe. It was a plain light blue yukata, loose and made of light materials, ideal for this heat. Dismissing her sapphire wings, she didn't hesitate to put the yukata on, tightening the sash around her waist to keep it closed. She didn't want to run across anyone while naked. The only man she wanted seeing her naked was Ichigo. She'd die of embarrassment if some strange man saw what she reserved for her boyfriend.

"It could have at least given me some slippers or something," she huffed as she looked at the long trek through hot desert ground, she'd have to traverse to reach the wagons.

Her wings popped back, and to her great relief they didn't tear her new yukata. "At least I have these to help." She then took a running leap towards the wagons, adding a strong flap of the blazing wings to get some extra lift and glided down.

---

Orihime had finally, blessedly, reached the wagons by a cave entrance in a gentle glide but she did stumble a little on the landing. She dismissed the wings and held her hands out to catch herself from faceplanting. She barely succeeded, whipping her forehead off with the back of her hand in relief.

Instead of horses, she found large, four-legged scale cover lizard creatures with two heads that had the similar shape of a horse. They had the cutest horns on both their foreheads, like unicorns.

"Hey, there," she greeted the lizard creatures with smile and an offered hand.

The horse-like creature lowered its two scaly snouts and licked her palm with two snake like tongues. Their tongues tickled her skin getting Orihime to giggle softly and pat one of the heads gently, enjoying the slick smooth feel of its scales. The lizard thing made a contented screech-wine as she went from petting to scratching.

As she absently kept up the scratching, she looked around the other wagons, with their own scaly mounts. Yet, they were all empty and not a soul was to be seen but these creatures wouldn't be staying in their reins if it'd been long since they were left alone.

Orihime saw the dozen or so sets of footprints heading into the cave and decided to head in too. After giving the lizard-horse's other head an equal amount of scratches, she went and checked the backs of the wagons. There she found a waterskin filled with cool, refreshing water. She'd nearly choked as she gulped down its entire contents rapidly.

Once the waterskin was empty and her thirst was quenched, Orihime turned towards the cave and marched inside.

---

Ichigo was jerked back into consciousness as his body choked out blood caked vomit. His throat seared as his empty stomach tried to cast out what wasn't there, almost gagging him. His head was filled with stabbing pain and when he opened his eyes everything blurred like he was underwater. The only clear thing was the little silhouette showing his health, the head now a glaring red. His thoughts skittered about like a roach, dashing out of reach as he tried to pin them down.

Slowly, he came to something approximating his senses. There was a light source somewhere up ahead, but the light it put out was blood red. Otherwise, the tunnel was dark, making it hard to see but his increased attributes from his [Soul Transfiguration] helped him get by. He was once again in a cage, but bigger than the last. It was the same kind of heavy cage the lion-man had been in, thick, heavy bars. Apparently they didn't want him kicking the door open again.

His cage was being rolled down a wide, stone tunnel, on some kind of moving platform. It was more like a train tunnel than a cave, with an arched roof and flat floors. There was even a rail, like for a mining cart, with his platform being pushed along it. Three more cages were being pushed the same way, one ahead and two behind.

The people pushing wore bright red robes and ugly demon masks. More of them led the way up front, carrying lanterns with stained glass that produced the ominous red light.

Ichigo wasn't thinking about what to do, so much as desperately getting the pain in his head to subside. He was concentrating on his breathing, which reminded him that he was still coated in the sludge his body had purged as he caught a whiff of himself and nearly gagged. Then a screen appeared.

Quest: [Escape!]

Objective failed: Leave the grounds of Vane Manor without being caught.
Quest failed.

New Quest: [The Blood Feast]

You have been captured and are set to be sacrificed by a blood cult. You need to avoid becoming a sacrifice.

Objective: Avoid being sacrificed 0/1.

Reward: Awakening stone.

Optional objective: Save the other designated sacrifices 0/3.

Reward: 1 Awakening stone per rescued sacrifice.

The long tunnel ended in a pair of enormous stone doors into which impressive but grotesque images had been carved, depicting some kind of cannibalistic orgy. Four cultists stepped forward, two to a door, grabbing the handles and pulling back until the doors swung ponderously open. When they did, red light flooded the tunnel, accompanied by an incredible heat and a bitter smell. It washed through the doors and over the group like a wave, carrying with it a coppery taste that lay thick on the tongue.

"That can't be anything good," Ichigo mused.

A fist landed hard on the side of his cage.

"Quiet," a harsh voice barked.

Beyond the doors was a vast, circular chamber, like a great cylinder carved straight out of solid rock. Some twenty-five meters across and at least twice as high, it was enough to boggle Ichigo's mind. The walls were black, like some long-dormant magma chamber, but even starting from a natural cavern it would have been a monumental labor to bring it to its current state. Flat stone slabs, carved out of the same black stone, had been inserted into the walls like pegs. They made a punishingly steep set of stairs that wound their way up to the higher parts of the chamber.

Dominating the room was a red pool of roiling, bubbling liquid, taking up almost all the floor space. It was the source of the light, along with the heat and coppery stench of blood. The center of the pool churned, as if on the point of boiling. The sound of thick, sloshing liquid echoed up through the chamber. The red light shone from deep within the pool, washing the whole chamber in red as if everything was coated in blood.

"That isn't good." Ichigo heard from one of the other caged people. It sounded like Rufus. The lion-man, Gary, was there in his own big cage, along with one of the two women. The other was nowhere to be seen. One of the robed cultists bashed on the side of Rufus's cage.

"I said quiet."

"Or what?" Gary grumbled. "You'll sacrifice us in your creepy ritual pit?"

The other prisoners were also dirty and ragged, but nothing like Ichigo. He had no shirt, no hair, and there was blood and pus crusted all over him. His face was coated in blood from his broken nose and cracked skull, along with flecks of vomit. Even his pants were soaked to his legs from the sheer amount of sludge that came out of him.

The rail that had carried the cages on platforms through the tunnel ended at the door. The cultists lifted the cages off, two people to each small cage, and four to the large ones. They carried them up the steep stairs, audibly straining at the effort. The lion-man's cage was the most troublesome, even with four people lugging it. The stairs wound up and around the circular wall, the group pausing after a quarter turn. They had reached a platform, set into the wall like the stairs, but much larger. It extended well over the blood pit below.

"Leave the big one first," one of the cultists said. "No point carrying the heaviest one all the way to the top."

Ichigo recognized the voice of the woman he had heard in the cellar while pretending to be unconscious.

"Thank you, milady," one of the cultists said gratefully. Ichigo recognized the voice as the shovel-carrying man she had addressed as Dougall.

The cage holding the big lion-man was left against the wall. Dougall and another faceless crony walked over to the edge of the platform and took up a waiting position, facing out over the pool below. The rest continued on. The stairs continued to wind upwards beyond the platform, making another quarter-turn around the room before reaching a second platform.

"Leave the other big cage," the woman ordered.

"Isn't he the one that killed the young master?" one of the cultists asked. "You don't want to save that one for last?"

"I'm not going to make you haul that thing all the way up for my own satisfaction."

"Thank you, milady."

The four cultists roughly dropped Ichigo's cage up against the wall. As at the first platform, two cultists took up positions at the platform's edge while the rest of the cultists with the remaining two cages resumed the climb. Ichigo watched as they made another quarter-turn ascent to the next platform, which hid them from sight.

Ichigo took a look around. The platform he was on looked like rough-hewn obsidian, shiny and dark. He had no idea how the massive stone platform had been shoved into the wall like a six-ton peg. His best guess would be on magic because... well, it was magic.

Examining the cage, he found that the bars were much thicker than the last one he had been in. Looking closer, Ichigo realized there even seemed to be faint traces of magical engravings on them. Oddly, he recognized them as reinforcing magic. The knowledge from the skill book was making itself known. It was an odd sensation, remembering something he had never learned. He was certain the silver spirit coin he used before wouldn't be enough to break out, and he couldn't reach the lock through the narrow bars to try his key ring.

After pulling out one of the gold spirit coins, he turned it over in his hand. Unlike the ones he got from looting monsters, this one was embossed with the profile of a somber man on one side and some kind of crest on the other, along with the engraved word 'Greenstone'. His hope was that the gold coin would be powerful enough.

He looked up at the two people standing at the edge of the platform. He couldn't tell if they were men or women in their hooded robes, but neither were paying attention to him. Instead they were at the edge of the platform looking out. If he could escape the cage quickly enough, there was a chance to rush at least one of them right off the edge.

He took a deep breath, focusing on the coin in his hand. He placed it on his tongue. He had thought the silver coin had flooded him with strength, but that had been a meager trickle compared to the gold. It was like having a hurricane inside him and he lashed out with his feet, hoping it was enough to burst open the cage door.

Instead of opening, the door shot off its hinges like it was fired from a cannon, metal screeching as the whole front of the cage was warped. The door moved almost too fast to see, barely deflecting as it slammed into one of the cultists, sending them flipping off the edge of the platform. They didn't even scream, dead the moment the cage door crushed the top half of their body.

You have defeated [Blood Cultist]

Though surprised, Ichigo wasted no time in exiting the ruined front of the cage and to his feet. The other cultist had charged him and covered the distance quickly. Not having time to think, Ichigo instinctively punched with his fist with the lingering strength of the coin. To his surprised shock, his fist buried itself in the cultist's chest cavity. The cultist let out a gurgling sound and died, dropping off Ichigo's fist as the strength from the coin left him. He looked in shock at his own bloody fist.

You have defeated [Blood Cultist]

It wasn't just his newfound strength that left him as the power of the coin faded. The strain of the coin's power left him feeling enervated, barely staying on his feet. His eyes were drooping, his body sluggish and tired, but he was jolted back to full alertness by a powerful, roaring voice.

"THEY'RE COMING FOR YOU!"

Ichigo's head snapped up and saw multiple cultists running back down the stairs. Looking around, the pair from below were coming up as well. Peering over the edge, he spotted the door below, on the far side of the blood-red pool.

It was too far, even if he had a long running start.

Ichigo turned as cultists came from above and below, readying himself to put up as much as a fight as could. He'd take at least a few with him before he went down.

---

The tunnel that reminded Orihime more of a train tunnel than a cave was pitch black with no lighting of any kind. Thankfully, her blazing sapphire wings gave her all the illumination she needed to traverse the dark tunnel.

Eventually their was an eerie red glow and the tase of copper that stuck to her tongue. The light and smell was coming out of two massive stone doors. The ominous nature of the scene gave Orihime pause that only grew when a screen popped up.

Quest: [The Blood Feast]

You have come across an evil blood cults' sacrificial ritual and are set to sacrifice four innocents.

Objective: Save the designated sacrifices 0/4.

Reward: 1 Awakening stone per rescued sacrifice.

"That's bad," she muttered. "Really, really bad."

She took a deep breath and steeled her resolved and moved towards the blood chamber.

Orihime cautiously stuck her head around the door and peered into the chamber to the large winding stairway with intermediate platforms. The bubbling blood pit in the center was what drew her attention. That was until a body came falling down into it with a loud splash.

Without thought she ran forward towards the pool, hoping to save one of the victims of the blood cultists' ritual. The corpse never surfaced, and she expected a prompt to tell her that she'd failed to save one of sacrifices and only had three left to save.

Instead a loud roaring voice screamed out, "THEY'RE COMING FOR YOU!"

Looking up she saw a large cage with a lion man inside and hooded figures sprinting up the stairs. Then her gaze went further up and saw on the second platform with a bald-headed man looking away from her. He was hurt and being surrounded by the hooded figures. The mystery man's figure looked familiar but with no discerning feature she could see, Orihime let it go and rushed towards the lion man.

With a full force leap and flap of her fire wings she practically flew up the first flight of stairs and landed on the platform with the caged sacrificial victim in a matter of seconds. The cage had heavy bars and more than enough space for a full grown man, the lion-man barely fit.

"Hey, you," the lion man yelled at her, "I don't know who you are but you don't look like one of the cultists and I don't have any other options. Please get me out of here. He won't last long alone and collared."

There were loud shouts and screams as a fight started up on the next platform, getting both Orihime and Gary's attention. Which was broken as another hooded figure fell screaming to his death in the blood pit below.

"Hurry!" Gary insisted with rising panic for his would be rescuer. "If you can't break me out than help him!" Gary pointed to the platform Ichigo was fighting on.

Another voice was heard, "He's more dangerous than he looks. Bind him with your abilities, the mistress wants him alive."

Orihime quickly rushed towards the lion man's cage and ordered, "Move back. I'll cut open the lock."

The lion man squeezed as much of his bulk back as he could and Orihime use her [Hougetsu Jigen-tou] and slashed with hand where the locking mechanism met the cage and door. Her dimensional blade hand sliced through it like a hot knife through butter.

Gary gave an appreciative whistle before he squeezed his enormous frame through the door. Inside the cage, he had looked like a professional muscle builder. But now towering over Orihime, he looked like he'd eaten a professional muscle builder.

"Can you do that with my collar too?" Gary asked, pointing to his neck were a thick iron choker wrapped around his neck.

"What does that collar do exactly?" Orihime asked

"It suppresses all essence abilities," Gary answered. "Some race powers too, but not all of them. We need to hurry."

"I'm not sure," Orihime admitted. "I only just got the power today but I'll try. Lean down and tilt your head back. I don't want cut open your throat by accident."

Seeing the smooth cut through the metal, magically enforced cage he gulped but did as instructed. The fighting from above had already gone quiet. They were running out of time and he'll need his essence abilities.

Orihime activated the ability again, feeling her stamina fall drastically. She went slowly this time, lining just her fingertips with the collar's keyhole and swiped down. The collar snapped open, and a small trickle of blood flowed down the lion man's neck.

"Oh! I'm so sorry! I-"

"No, you did good," Gary stopped her. "This is nothing."

Grey light started sparkling around him, growing thicker until it formed a full set of metal armor, encasing his entire body. It was thick and heavy, made from dark steel plates held together with large bolts. Engraved into the surface were runes that looked to have been carved out with a blade, rough but radiating strength. Where the engravings dug into the dark metal, red forge light shone from within.

"Come on!" Gary shouted as he marched up the stair with metal clangs of his boots meeting stone steps. Orihime took a few deep breaths from the back-to-back usage of such an extreme stamina intensive ability, but followed after the lion man to rescue the next sacrifice victim.

Despite his size, Gary was quick on his feet, leaving Orihime behind as he crested the second platform and saw Ichigo being held down by two cultists and red vines wrapped around his wrists and ankles. One cultist nearest the stairs he'd just came up from turned and saw the huge lion man encased in glowing dark steel plates. He opened his mouth to scream but was cut off as a huge metal encased fist crushed his face in with one punch.

The cultists' corpse rocketed back and into the stairs across the platform with a sickening crunch.

"What in the name of the red table?!"

"It's the adventurer!"

"How'd he get his collar off?!"

"Attack!"

"Retreat!"

The cultists on the platform all started screaming out in panic at the appearance of the bronze rank adventurer. They were all iron rankers and only a handful had a full set of abilities with their essences. The didn't stand a chance against him.

Gary charged into the uncoordinated fray, taking out the ones that he sensed had the strongest auras. It never took more than one blow from the monstrously powerful lion man encased in magic steel.

Three were already dead on the ground with crushed skulls or huge holes in their torsos by time Orihime made it up to the platform. A young man who'd lost his demonic mask knocked into her, roughly turning her to the side as he bulled past and down the stairs, not looking back.

Before she could process that a cultist was escaping, her entire being froze upon seeing a bound, collar and injured Ichigo. Her love was bald, caked in filth and blood, eyes giving off a blue glow and a hooded cultist kneeled over him, holding Ichigo down with a knee to his back. Ichigo's eyes met hers and he said something, but Orihime couldn't hear it as the cultist also held a knife in their hand. It was poised to plunge its point into Ichigo's skull.

A look rarely ever seen on her face, one of pure determination carved from stone, took over her features. Orihime didn't think. She just acted to save the life of her beloved.

One leap forward, her wings blazing hotter than ever before to propel her as quickly as possible, and her hand held in a classic knife hand position lashed out. Before the cultist could react, their head flew off from their shoulders in a spray of blood that splattered across the cold beauty of Orihime's stony face.

You have defeated [Blood Cultist].

---

Ichigo was looking at Orihime's back through one eye with his head turned as he was still bound and on the ground. He'd taken a beating when the cultists swarmed him, only managing to shoulder throw one of them off the platform. They'd used their heads and Dougall wrapped him up with his red vines again, they started kicking the crap out of him. Stopping only long enough to ensure his hands and feet were still bound.

Then Gary had gloriously arrived in metal armor, killing one cultist right out of the gate with one hell of a punch. The rest understandably started panicking as the furry, metal monster that was Gary tore into their ranks.

Then his thoughts stalled, even ignoring the jerk kneeling into his shoulder blades, as he saw Orihime appear. He'd wondered, even hoped that she'd made it here with him but it still caught him off guard. She was a bit grimy, like she'd roughed it through the desert, but she still had her hair even though it looked like strands of orange flames going down her back. Then there were the sapphire flames coming out of her upper back like wings and her eyes that matched those blazing wings of fire.

Her beauty was undeniable but there was also an added edge of danger coming from her that wasn't there before. He'd called out to her in surprised shock, but she never responded. Orihime's eye were razor focused on the cultist above him and her face morphed from surprised shock to a cold fury he'd only seen once before.

It was when a group of guys jumped her and Tatsuki, tasing Tatsuki and stomping her into the ground. This was during a school trip to the Sydeny Opera House and the men were a part of a local gang. They'd prepared to rape Tatsuki and Orihime when he and Chad had found them, but before the pair could start kicking the bloody crap out of them, she reacted. Her face was same, cold stone as she broke one guys grip, crushing another's balls with a vicious kick and took the taser from him and fried a third. Ichigo and Chad had arrived by then to take out the remaining five from behind as she held them off while protectively standing over a battered Tatsuki.

Unlike then, she'd killed this time as the cultist's head splattered to the ground and caked her in their blood. Ichigo only then noticed the knife in their hand. He'd almost died, again, and hadn't even known it.

Orihime, the gentlest soul he'd ever met had killed someone to save him.

Several emotions wared through him. Ranging from guilt for making her have to kill, to gratitude for saving him, and love for how much she must love him to kill for him. But more than any of that was a growing concern for Orihime's emotional and mental state as she just stood their like a statue. She'd reached up with her right hand, the hand that just took a life, and touched her blood covered face. Pulling it back to see the crimson red of blood stained on her hand.

The plop of another corpse and the metal thump of huge feet indicated that the last of the cultists on the platform had died. Gary walked over to Ichigo and reached down, ripping off his restraints with ease.

"There you go," Gary said unbothered by the massacre surrounding them. There had to be half a dozen people lying dead on the platform.

Ichigo let out a quick thanks before he rushed to Orihime, who'd started trembling as she gazed at her bloody hand with a dead look to her eyes.

"Orihime," Ichigo gently called out to her. "Orihime? Hey." With her lack of response, Ichigo grabbed her by her arm, avoiding the fire wings, and forcefully turned her to face him. "Orihime!"

She jumped as she finally snapped out her daze to see the concerned look on Ichigo's face, his grip tightening on her upper arms. "I-Ichigo-kun?"

"Are you alright?" he asked, his eyes searched hers.

"I-I," she stuttered as tears started welling up in her eyes.

"You save my life and that's all that matters," Ichigo declared with absolute certainty. "That cold blood monster would have killed me and you and uhh… what's your name again?" he looked back at the lion man.

"Gary."

"And that human monster would have killed Gary too. You saved our lives."

"It's j-just that I-I... I killed someone," she choked out with tears falling down her elegant face.

"I've killed several people today," Ichigo replied morosely, getting her to look at him with shock and worry. Not at his actions but in concern for his own feelings.

"What do you think they dragged us out in cages for?" Gary asked, cutting in. "It wasn't to dance for their entertainment."

"I know and I'll do it again if I have to," Ichigo conceded, "but my family works towards saving lives, not taking them."

"And I'm training to become a doctor, to save lives. To take an oath to do no harm," Orihime added with guilt.

"That's a noble pursuit," Gary replied, "but sometimes the best way to help people is by killing the bad ones. Look out!"

Ichigo turned to see three cultists coming down the stairs, Orihime standing behind in stilled shock. Gary stepped forwards to meet them, grabbing the first pair each by the throat. He lifted them up, one dangling from each hand as he walked them over the edge and dropped them into the blood pool below. As Gary walked off, Ichigo was left face to face with the third cultist, still on the stairs.

The cultist tripped on his way down, most likely from the surprise of a huge, armored lion man snatching up his fellow cultists like they were ragdolls. Seeing the opportunity, Ichigo rushed forward and spun into a sidekick that landed into the side of the cultist's head, knocking him right off the side of the stairs.

You have defeated [Blood Cultist]

"Nice kick," Gary complimented.

Ichigo just nodded his head grimly. He was still worried about Orihime's reaction to killing for the first time. He was still torn up about killing himself but was able rationalize it as necessary. These people were monsters that were trying to not just kill them but destroy their very souls. They have it coming.

She was staring at him with her new crystalline sapphire eyes of fire, guilt, pain and concern plainly warring through them. She'd just witnessed him kill a person with an almost casual ease and Gary complimenting him for it.

Even Gary could see the state his savior was in and waited, not sure what more to say. He has long gotten past such naïve notions of killing being wrong. Life was not so black and white. It was filled with vast amounts of grey. So, he left it to Ichigo, who apparently was close to the woman with blazing sapphire wings.

Ichigo moved back towards Orihime to comfort her, but he winced in pain and fell from the last step, landing on his hands and knee. His head left like it was about to burst and the aftereffects of the gold spirit coin left him exhausted.

Seeing Ichigo hurt, gasping for breath, Orihime shook away her conflicted feelings about killing and that Ichigo has killed even more. He was hurt and she could help. She lifted her hand and aimed at Ichigo.

Imbue with Life.

A bolt of green life energy shot from her raised hand and struck Ichigo, instantaneously healing him a little.

You have been affected by a small healing spell.

Ichigo felt the pressure in his head lessen as he saw the prompt and the icon showing his health showed the red around his head lightening to orange.

Orihime chanted her [Jinsei Boruto] spell several more times before Ichigo stood back up and was restored to perfect health.

Gary gave a low whistle before he commented, "Healing magic is rare and highly sought after. You wouldn't happen to be looking to join a team?"

"Umm.. Huh?" Orihime asked in confusion.

"Never mind," Gary waved his own question off. "We need to free the others. Can you remove his collar like you did mine?"

"Hold on," Ichigo raised his hands up to stop them. "Let's see if one of the keys is for the collar." He fished out the key ring from his inventory, which still fought him but was much easier with his head no longer trying to explode with every thought.

Ichigo tried feeling around and push one key into the lock on the collar around his neck. After the third failed attempt, Gary told him to hand over the key ring. Ichigo handed over the key ring. It had an unhelpful abundance of keys and Gary started looking over them for what was needed. Despite his lion-like head, his hands were fairly human, albeit huge, and hairy. While he went through them, Ichigo looked around.

He moved to the cultist he'd punched a hole through with his fist and tapped him with his foot.

Would you like to loot [Blood Cultist]?

He gave a mental consent and the cultist's robes disappeared into his inventory along with a hundred odd iron spirit coins and a dozen of bronze rank ones. He noticed a white cube near his cage that he'd broken out of. It was like the transparent ones that had come out of him to make the confluence one but solid.

Item: [Feast Essence] (unranked, uncommon)

Manifested essence of feasts (consumable, essence).

Requirements: Less than 4 absorbed essences.

Effect: Imbues 1 awakened feast essence ability and 4 unawakened feast essence abilities.

You have absorbed 4/4 essences. Once absorbed, an essence cannot be relinquished or replaced unless they are divine essence.

You are not able to absorb [Feast Essence].

He shoved the cube into his inventory and moved to tap another of the cultist's corpse.

This kill was not yours.
You are unable to loot this cultist.

"Hey, Gary," Ichigo asked. "Can I loot this corpse?"

"Huh?" Gary was drawn away from his perusing of the keys. "You have a looting power?"

"Yeah."

"Sure," Gary replied, "you can loot them all," and returned looking through the key ring.

Ichigo tried again and was able to the cultist and all the rest Gary had killed, leaving various men and women in their underwear.

Orihime looked at Ichigo curiously, "Loot? You can loot people?" her voice sounded uncertain.

"Yeah, it's a part of my racial ability, interface. Do have that one?"

Orihime put a finger to her chin and though before nodding her head.

"Then you should be able to loot him," Ichigo informed while he gestured to the body of the cultist she had killed and winced upon seeing her flinch back at the reminder of her action.

"Sorry," he apologized. "You don't have to. That was insensitive of me."

Orihime took a few deep breaths and shook her head, "No. I-I'll try."

She froze for a moment when moved to loot the cultist, just staring at the headless corpse before steeling herself and tapped the body. She'd gotten the same prompt Ichigo had seen several times already and she nervously gave her consent. The headless body lost its robe, revealing that it was a man, and her eyes went wide upon seeing all that she'd gotten. Her face became a frown.

"I'm not sure I'm comfortable with looting the dead," Orihime stated.

"You can give what you looted to me," Gary supplied. "They don't need it anymore."

Orihime slumped at the reminder, getting Ichigo to glare at the lion-man, who shrugged it off.

"None of these are for a suppression collar," Gary informed. "Hey, uh..."

"Orihime," Ichigo supplied.

"Orihime, remove his collar with that amazing sword hand of yours," Gary commanded.

She'd forced herself out her funk and nodded her head before she moved to Ichigo, hand raised, "Hold still and raise your chin up, please, Ichigo-kun."

Ichigo complied and just as before, Orihime's dimension sword hand cut through the thick iron like it wasn't even there, managing not to cut him like she had Gary.

Your essence abilities are no longer being suppressed.

You can now use your essence abilities.

Ichigo could now feel his power, like hungry wolves wanting to be unleashed. Looking at his near naked, filth covered form, he conjured his shihakushoo. In a flash of pure dark energy that wrapped around Ichigo, he was dressed in a garment composed of a white shitagi (under clothing), a black kosode (small sleeve), a black hakama, a white hakama-himo, white tabi (foot pouch), and waraji. He looked like a samurai outside their armor.

The garment seemed more like an object of living darkness than fabric. Ichigo could feel it, not like a piece of clothing, but like one of his limbs. He could feel its power. With a thought, he turned intangible his feet starting to sink into the floor, but he ended with another thought. He could sense that he'd be fine despite being ankle-deep already as once he became solid his feet were shoved back out unharmed.

Ichigo also instinctively understood how to use the air-walking aspect of his robes but decided he didn't have time as Gary turned towards the stairs leading up to the third platform impatiently. Ichigo willed his Zanpakutoo into existence, manifesting on his back, a thick, wide brown leather belt wrapped across his torso from over his right shoulder down to his left side, attaching the sheath to his back. The hilt of the blade poked out from his right shoulder with two tassels that hung from the end of the red wrapped hilt. The blade was the length of his body in the shape of a Japanese katana but with a width of his hand from wrist to fingertips.

It was a truly massive blade.

Gary gave an approving nod and Ichigo moved to join him but stopped as Orihime was sweating and taking deep breathes.

"Are you alright, Orihime?" Ichigo asked.

"Fine, just tired. My hougetsu jigen-tou uses a lot of mana and stamina with every use," she breathed out a little unevenly. Her stomach started to growl to emphasize her exhaustion.

"Eat a spirit coin," Gary supplied. "When you have a full set of essences, you don't need to eat or drink anymore. You can, of course, but it's just for pleasure. We essence users of iron rank and above sustain ourselves with concentrated sources of raw magic. There are various was to get it, but spirit coins are the easiest."

"What about the aftereffects?" Ichigo asked. "Using those coins left me drained and weak."

"That's because you used coins over your limit," Gary informed. "You two are iron rank so should only eat iron spirit coins to sustain yourselves."

"Umm? Spirit coins? What are those?" Orihime asked.

"There should be a counter in your inventory, you have an inventory, right?" Ichigo asked/explained.

"Yes," she answered, "I have an inventory and..." she looked into space and was tapping at the air.

Ichigo wondered if he looked like that when he used his.

Orihime produced a crystal coin with the metal-grey color of iron, and she looked at for longer than necessary. Ichigo figured she was reading the description of what the iron spirit coin was.

"So I just eat this," she asked after looking up at Gary. "How?"

"Just put it on your tongue," Gary chortled.

Orihime placed it into her mouth, where it immediately dissolved with an intense fizzing sensation. It tasted like she had touched her tongue to a battery, tangy and energetic. She felt power flood through her body, washing away the hunger of moments before. A look at her status bars showed her mana and stamina had recovered a little but not as much as she had hoped. They were still climbing at a steady pace thanks to her wings' ability.

Ichigo had taken out an iron spirit coin with the intent of eating it, but Gary stopped him, "Don't. You'll still have the residual magic from the gold coin you used to escape your cage. Using a spirit coin even at your limit will not work and only prolong how much time it will take for the magic to leave your system."

Ichigo put the coin away, annoyed at not curbing his own exhaustion but accepted it as the cost of escaping his cage.

Gary led the way to the third platform, which was now unattended. Whoever had been manning it had either attacked Ichigo and were lying dead on platform two or had been thrown to the pit below.

Gary, Ichigo and Orihime walked over to the cage, which contained Rufus. Ichigo knelt down, having pulled out the key ring to open the cage. It took several tries before he got the right one. Rufus crawled out the door and stood up, giving Ichigo his first clear look at him. Rufus had dark skin, a bald head and was extremely handsome. Roughed up and grimy from his ordeal, he looked like an action hero heading into act three with masculine dirt stains reflecting enemies bested and challenges overcome.

"Sorry it took so long," Ichigo apologized.

"No need to apologize," Rufus countered, his voice like dark chocolate. "All that matters is that you've succeeded in freeing us."

"That's only thinks to Orihime's intervention," Ichigo stated. "Without her help I'd have been recaptured, again." There was a hint of disappointment and self-criminalization in Ichigo's voice.

"You did admirably," Gary insisted, trying to cheer him up.

Ichigo just crossed his arms and looked away.

Rufus turned to face Orihime and offered his hand, "Then I need to thank you as well, Miss Orihime."

Orihime put on the best smile she could considering the situation and grasped the offered hand, "It was nothing. I was just doing the right thing."

"Instincts of a hero," Gary commented.

Before she could protest the statement Rufus turned to Gary and asked, "How'd you remove your collar? Do you have they key?"

"Nope," Gary grinned. "Orihime here has a dimensional cutting ability and cut away our collars."

"You can?" Rufus asked, his eyes locked on the bashful looking young woman.

"Yes,"

She proceeded to cut away Rufus' collar, tiring herself more but with the reserves she had from reaching iron rank and the effect of her [Tubasa No Sekai-Fenikkusu] she still had a fourth of her total mana and stamina left.

Rufus let out a sigh of relief, thrilled to be able to feel the power of his essences again. Ichigo had noticed a bowl above Rufus' cage and when he checked it, he found a blood-red cube, that turned out to be a blood essence. He simply put it into his inventory and followed the other up.

Gary and Rufus lead the way up to the final platform and where their last friend and teammate waited. As they ascended the stairs, a lone cultist walked casually down to obstruct them. The cultist pulled her hood back and took off her mask, revealing long, dark hair and the face of a young woman. She pulled a short sword out from within the folds of her robes.

"I've got this one," Rufus ordered, stepping past Gary. Rufus then held out a hand, around which motes of golden light were gathering. The light coalesced into a sword in his hand, an elegant scimitar that seemed as much a work of art as a weapon. The hilt was a vibrant red-gold, as was the edge of the blade. The bulk of the blade was yellow-gold that shone like the sun, with red-gold inscriptions running down its graceful curve.

"Alicia Vane, I presume?" he asked.

"I was disappointed that I wouldn't get to cross swords with the famous Rufus Remore," she responded with a sneer. "Looks like I'm lucky after all."

Rufus didn't respond, instead lunging forward. What followed was a blaze of movement so fast Ichigo had, at best, a vague grasp of what was taking place. They bobbed and weaved, both restricted by the width of the stairs. Between them was a blur of motion, the silver of the physical sword against the yellow-gold of conjured sword. Rufus proved to be the better swordsman as he was pushing the cultist back. She was in tatters as he'd been getting through her defense, slashing away at her the whole time.

Alicia slipped on her own blood, spelling her own demise. At that very moment, Rufus' blade blurred and pierced her through the head. Alicia dropped her sword, eyes dead as her head slipped off his blade and her corpse fell off the stairs.

"You'll die in pain for that, Remore," a woman's voice came fiercely down.

Rufus led the way up to the final platform. The last cage, and the woman inside it, were against the wall like all the others. The platform was slightly longer than the one below, with some kind of ritual alter on the end. There were two figures standing in front of it. Rufus and Gary stepped onto the platform first, while behind them Ichigo drew his own heavy blade, having to angle his body to get the behemoth out of its sheath.

Ichigo held his nameless Zanpakutoo in both hands in a basic kendo stance. He'd seen it plenty of times and even gave kendo a try seeing as his father was an avid practitioner, but he never took to it. Karate spoke more to him, which he now regretted. Ichigo wanted to make up for his poor performance in trying to rescue them before.

The final two cultists had both removed their masks and hoods. The woman seemed much younger than Ichigo expected for someone with adult children. To his eye's she looked to be in her thirties, no older than her son Landemere. She was beautiful, with the same olive skin and dark hair as her daughter. The man next to her, in contrast, was plain. In his ceremonial robes looked like an accountant at a costume party.

Despite his appearance, the man quickly demonstrated his power was not to be dismissed. He threw out his arms and Rufus and Gary were both thrown back, slamming into the wall. Glowing chains emerged from the stone to wrap around their limbs, but only bound Gary in place. Though, the metal plated lion man broke free with ease, the red forge light growing bright in the process.

Rufus, on the other hand, was already gone.

There was swish noise followed by a flash of yellow-gold light and the man's head was removed from his body.

The woman was the first to noticed this and had turned to face the handsome, dark skinned killing machine.

"You'd only caught us by ambush, Cressida Vane," Rufus declared while leveling his blade at her. "Now, you'll die."

Her eyes were wide as she looked at his neck and swiveled her head to see that Gary was also collar free. "How'd you remove your collars?!"

"It's of little concern for a dead woman," Rufus answered coldly.

A blood red tint surrounded the cult leader as she shouted, "Don't think that because you killed my worthless daughter and that poor excuse of a head priest that-"

Her classic evil monologue was cut short as a massive blade cleaved down, splitting her skull in two.

Cressida had dismissed the two iron rankers, and thus, she failed to notice that Ichigo had leapt into the air, landing on it like it was solid ground. Where he proceeded to maneuver around the cult leader and used his [Shunpo] ability to bring his blade down on her head faster than the eye could see.

You have defeated [Blood Cult Leader].