บท 181: Don't die

As Hajime stared into the eyes of the great white bear, all he saw was death. It was a miracle he survived the fall, but now he was going to die here in the labyrinth. He awoke half submerged in water, leading him to believe he got caught in an underground stream somehow and survived that way. After drying his clothes, Hajime started to cautiously make his way through the labyrinth that he ended up in, not that he had a single clue how far down he was. He soon came across a what seemed to be a weird white rabbit, or at least he was trying to think of it in a less threatening way, until he watched it singlehandedly slaughter three wolves in less than a minute. Terrified, Hajime had try to back away but accidentally kicked a rock and alerted the demon rabbit.

What followed after was something that made Hiyama's bullying seem like child's play, in retrospect it probably was. The rabbit started by completely breaking one of his arms, then enjoyed the following minutes by toying with Hajime, completely aware it held his life in its hands. He then closed his eyes, waiting for it to deliver the final blow that curiously enough never came. He realized why when he opened them next however, and saw the giant white bear standing directly behind the white rabbit, which was looking at the bear as well with obvious terror.

The rabbit that toyed with both Hajime and the wolves with was then sliced into ribbons as it tried to run away, without the Bears claws even touching it. It then started eating the rabbit, not even concerned about Hajime. As he hysterically started trying to get away with his broken arm, he looked back into the Bears eyes and saw no sign of haste in them, it only looked at him as if it was looking at its next meal. As Hajime ran the bear raised its claw once more to use that invisible attack, but then Hajime felt something rush right by him, and heard something he never expected,

"Sorry but you can't have this guy."

BOOM!!

Hearing a humans voice in this place where he thought it was devoid of humans, Hajime turned around and looked at his savior. Behind him was a muscle bound figure that had dark spiky hair and a tail, Hajime first thought of a certain series from earth, but dismissed it since this was reality and not a manga. He decided this person was probably a demihuman, or a cross breed with a human since the only thing he seemed to have was the tail.

With a single hit the man had sent the Bear into the wall, effectively killing it and causing a crater to form from the blow. Hajime was stupefied from the attack, knowing that this bear was leagues above the behemoth that they struggled with, yet this guy killed it in one hit. Hajime suddenly realized that maybe if this person was willing to help him, he ,isn't be able to return to the surface again! Just as he thought that the guy turned around, and said,

"So you're one of summoned heroes, Hajime right?" Hajime was stunned by the guys words, as it seemed he actually investigated them, but felt the need to correct what he thought.

"I'm just the useless on- ouch!" He said as he grabbed his still broken arm. The man suddenly tossed something at him, which Hajime clumsily caught with his good arm. He held the ring in his hands with some confusion, until the man said,

"Firstly I'm Alex, secondly that rings a storage item with several things in it like medicine for your arm, and thirdly I watched the whole fight above earlier and I'd say you were the least useless one there. I wouldn't have saved you if I didn't think there wasn't worth doing so." As he tested the ring to see about the medicine for his arm, Hajime became a bit cautious at the mans words as it almost sounded as if he wanted something from him, why else would he save him. Summoning a jug of water, Hajime took a few eager gulps after realizing how thirsty he was before the man stopped him and scolded,

"That's part of your medicine, you're going to need a lot of it so don't waste it. If you're thirsty there's other water in there as well." This confused Hajime until he realized he was using his broken arm again. He then realized a couple things, Alex said there was worth in saving him, and that he'd need a lot of this medicine, he asked hesitantly,

"What do you want from me?" When he heard this question Alex smiled, and said,

"I want to recruit you." Hajime was dumbfounded, he was the useless one, the one nobody cared about. Well except for her, when Hajime thought of her he could recall the sound of her voice as she called out for him as he fell. Alex then continued,

"As I said I watched the whole fight up there, the only reason any of them lived was because of you. Though your strength may be lacking, you're the most capable one out of your class when it matters. As far as your strength is concerned, that's why I decided on a little test. Make it down to the lowest level of the labyrinth with your own strength, do that and you'll be rewarded for it and Ill extend a proper invite while explaining what my group is about." Hajime was stupefied at Alex's words, and almost shouted,

"And why would I want to join your group?! You did save my life, but I know nothing about you or your intentions, I just want to go home!" Alex shook his head, and said,

"So you intend to abandon your little girlfriend to her fate?" At his words Hajime froze. He never cared for Kaori that much(who else would Alex be referring to?) but he had always found it impossible to be rude to her. She had also been the only one to genuinely care about him after being branded useless, if something happened to her then what kind of man was he? But as Hajime tried to figure if Kaori would be in any kind of real danger, he thought of the fireball that came right towards him. Kaori's attention towards him was the only thing he could think of that would make someone make the attempt to be rid of him, if that was the case then Kaori herself may be in danger. Seeing Hajime waver in his decision, Alex decided to push him further,

"They already returned to the surface you know, I followed them for a while to see what they'd do. That girl is practically comatose right now from the shock of losing you, it will probably take several days before she wakes up. Meanwhile I also happened upon an interesting conversation, where the one who tried to kill you agreed to work with someone else who intends to betray your class, for the price of her as his plaything." Hajime was shocked as he tried to digest this, he didn't even bother trying to figure how Alex made the trip to the surface and back while he was out, but focused instead on what would happen if there were people plotting against the class. While he didn't care about the others, he did owe Kaori. However he couldn't help from here, and as much as he didn't want to admit it, he needed Alex's help to ensure her safety. Seeing the look on Hajime's face, Alex smiled as it seemed he was willing to go along with him now.

"That ring has water, medicine, and resources for weapons, you're a transmutation user so I'm sure you'll figure out something." He then turned to walk away, prompting Hajime to call out,

"Wait! What about food? And I can't use this worlds weapons, I've been training the last two weeks but I can't use them at all!" Alex turned back towards Hajime and smirked before saying,

"Who said you can only transmute weapons from this world?" Hajime was stupefied once more at his words, as Alex then picked up one of the wolves the rabbit killed, and tossed it to him.

"And here's this for food, make sure to take your medicine. Don't die." Alex then vanished into the abysses depths, whistling a tune as he went. Hajime didn't know what to think as Alex disappeared, but soon realized he was alone in the labyrinth once more. His first thought was to make a safe area, motivating him to use his transmutation to make a small room in the wall, while dragging the wolf corpse with him. Once he ensured his safety Hajime looked at the corpse, not even sure why he took Alex's words seriously. Monster meat was poisonous, with no known cases of survival upon consumption.

However he did have this super powerful medicine with him, no that'd be too dangerous. Hajime went back and forth, trying to come up with some kind of plan of his own, and to rationalize his situation, for several days even though he couldn't tell how much time passed in the labyrinth. The wolf had long since started to rot, increasing Hajime's hesitation to consume it. However finally he was unable to take the hunger anymore, and if the medicine would protect him from the poison of monster flesh in general, then it might protect him from the harm of rotted meat as well, right? Driven by his hunger Hajime carved off a bit of the flesh, and without the means to start a fire, started ripping into the raw and rotted flesh.

It tasted like complete and utter shit.

Hajime fought the urge to hurl the meat as he choked it down, and took his next bite. This went on for a couple minutes as he choked down as much as possible, before drinking some of the medicine. Then the pain hit. It felt as if his insides were being torn apart, before the miracle medicine did its job and healed the damage, before the monster flesh started breaking him down once more. This agonizing process repeated itself over and over, his body being torn apart before being healed. Hajime didn't know how long it took, but the pain finally stopped.

He then pulled out his status plate and saw his reflection in the metal. His hair had turned pure white, while red lines ran down his skin just like the monsters of this level. Once he activated his stats, Hajime had to fight to keep from laughing out loud. Two weeks of training only raised his stats by two, while this raised them by a whole lot. He even had several new skills, including one called 'lightning clad'. Hajime held out his hand, and soon crimson red lightning danced across it, looking completely beautiful in his eyes. He then had an idea, and started pulling out some of the resources Alex left him.

Hajime had tried working with them before, but the results were disappointing with his limited abilities. Now however, Hajime almost started chuckling evilly, as he got to work.