Chapter 4

It's been two weeks since the transformation of our three friends, and they've managed to improve. After the wolves, they hunted the newly named Jackrabbits, and gained the Aerodynamics skill. And when they were hunted to extinction, they were attacked near the river by a strange fish monster- which gave them the ability to breathe underwater and swim.

Since it looked like a catfish and was very fierce in its attacks, they named it the Fierce Catfish[1]. Since then, they also included seafood in their diet, as the Catfish was the tastiest monster they ate so far. Then, once while the girls were asleep, Hajime sneaked out and defeated the Trio-named[2] Claw Bear, on his own. The girls woke up to see Hajime enjoying some meat while next to a dead Claw Bear. Needless to say, all three of them finished the Bear off, and gained the Gale Claw skill.

Also needless to say, Hajime's eardrums were close to rupturing at that time- not just from the shriek that they released, but from the verbal onslaught that one Kaori Shirasaki subsequently delivered at point-blank range while he was held at sword point by one Shizuku Yaegashi. It covered his recklessness in hunting it alone, and his sheer idiocy in eating the meat before informing them of it. That last part was mostly because Kaori had taken to eating anything that they hunted first, to check that it wouldn't hurt Hajime- not that she needed to, as we know from an alternate timeline, Hajime could've gone this alone without problem till the last boss, even without the additional job changes.[2]

Talking of changes, Kaori had become overprotective and a bit erotically inclined towards Hajime. She had also learnt ruthlessness at the hands of the Labyrinth, which leads to the loss of her kind personality. She hasn't completely lost it though, as she is willing to consider the possibility of sparing their classmates for the act of bullying her beloved, even without the specifics that Hajime had refused to mention at the time.

Shizuku had changed as well, losing her naivete in the Labyrinth (she wasn't that naïve to begin with), and her feelings for Hajime also forced some changes in her- one of which being that she had started acting a little spoiled when safe (relatively speaking) and her protectiveness towards Hajime, while not as disturbing as Kaori, was as overbearing as her best friend's attempts.

Hajime, of course, had the biggest changes- he was as ruthless- if not more than- Kaori, and was now as skilled as Shizuku with a sword. His skills extended to unarmed combat as well, out of necessity.

Weapons were a problem for both Kaori and Hajime. Neither had good weapons for close range combat. Hajime thus Transmuted a shield for her, with the property to change shape into a halberd and a shotgun (Safety's sake) and named it Speerundschild, which Kaori subsequequently nicknamed Schild-chan.

For Shizuku, though it was unnecessary, he created a katana with the capability to shoot lightning and change into a silenced pistol (again, Safety's sake), and named it Valkyrie, but Shizuku refuted the name and called it Raikiri. "Whatever floats your boat" was Hajime's answer.

Hajime was easily the most versatile of the trio, so he made two pistols which had railgun-acceleration using Lightning Field, and could change into a sword, due to a blade extension. He called these guns Blitzschneidendekugel, although he wanted to name it Donner.[3]

He even made bullets for it from Taur Stone, with Blastrock for gunpowder. Blitzschneidendekugel (Hajime called it Blitz for short) is also capable of acting as a magic focus in any form. This made him scary as hell.

Due to this, the trio had no problem in clearing the floor of monsters. They even found a set of stairs leading to the next floor. After hesitating for an amount of time, clearing the floor while at it, they descended.

Unlike most staircases in the Labyrinth, this one had no Glowstone to light the way. It was dark enough that they couldn't see their hand in front of them, forcing them to walk shoulder to shoulder

At the bottom of the staircase, they advanced cautiously, since the darkness extended to the floor, but at a certain point, Hajime had stopped without a sound. This caused the girls to bump into him and chaos ensued.

"What the- Shizuku, get off!"

"Once you let go of my breast, maybe!"

"Then… Who's touching my dick!?"

"Fuhehehe… Little Hajime is not so little!"

"Is that so, Kaori? Lemme cop a feel"

"I've let it go, so don't do that, Shizuku! And Kaori, stop doing that, I don't need one right now!"

"Maybe later then?"

"JUST LET GO!"[4]

Of course, after that, Hajime decided to be risky and use his Glowstone. Of course, he also fashioned a container for the Divine stone and it's Ambrosia and brought it with him, safe in a large rucksack that was made from the Claw Bear. He also made clothes for the three of them from the Wolves and Jackrabbits.

Now, since they could see, they decided to be careful, fearful of the monsters. Shizuku noticed a lizard on the rock in front of them, and killed it using Presence Manipulation to hide herself. They ate that monster and gained the Petrification Resistance, Night vision, Sense Presence and Petrifying Gaze skills. The Trio named it as the Gorgon Lizard. Shizuku lost her Sign Perception skill in the process, but Sense Presence was an upgrade to it, as she quickly discovered.

In the middle of all this, Hajime had started to fall in love with the girls. And he was desperate to keep the status quo till they reached a safe point outside the Pits.

Thanks to the Gorgon Lizard, the second floor, as they recognized it, was easy to conquer.

They did have to be close together though, which caused Hajime to cover his manliness, lest the two of them ravage him.

[1]- Here, I'm referencing a web novel that I read called 'Living in this world with Cut&Paste. It's a relaxing slice-of-life type which really satirizes the entire idea of OP greatness in a subtle way, at least that's how I see it.

[2]- Narrator Fourth Wall Break FTW, I'm chronicling this fanfic as if Hajime and the others have given me interviews and thus the comments from me.

[3]- I quite understand that Hajime used German as a language of choice but Donner, in French, means to give, which really goes against his new philosophy, as he won't give anyone anything without reason or recompense.

[4]- I'll thank Void's Record not to go after me as I stole his scene (many of them, in fact) in the making of this fic. Pls don't wreck me.