The abyss didn't feel endless anymore.
It felt… map-able.
Hajime stood on nothing—Air Walk holding him a few meters above the sloped rubble outside his makeshift base. Eyes half-lidded, he let Resonance pulse through the stone beneath him. Mana threads extended like invisible sonar, fanning through the cavern in steady, rhythmic waves.
Every pulse returned with shape, density, pressure—cleaner than ever.
He saw the basin in his head as if rendered in wireframe:
Sheer drops vanishing into black. Slanted shelves hugging the walls. Dozens of tunnel mouths, arranged like a circle of waiting jaws.
Good. Predictable. Understandable.
He lifted one hand and pressed it against the stone. A small spiraling sigil formed beneath his fingertips—transmuted directly into the wall. No one but him would ever feel it through Resonance, but that was enough.
A waypoint. A return node. Home.
"Objective: down first," he murmured. "Bottom, then out."
He dropped from the invisible foothold, boots crunching softly on rubble. Predator stirred faintly at the edge of his mind, tasting distant mana signatures and whispering hunger. It obeyed quickly when he pushed back.
Later.
Not now.
He scanned the ring of tunnels. Some sloped upward—wrong direction. Others stretched horizontally—aimless labyrinths. Only one descended in a long, clean slope, its angles too precise, its spacing too regular to be natural.
"Designed," Hajime murmured. "Perfect."
He checked Donner and Schlag—both fully loaded, lightning channels steady. His armor fit snugly, the reinforced Behemoth hide moving with quiet confidence. Knife, Ammo, cartridges, glowstone flash bombs, Granades —all accounted for.
He stepped into the tunnel.
---
The air changed—thicker, heavier with mana. Every breath carried the taste of latent lightning. Glowstones flickered weakly along the walls, but his eyes adjusted, and when they didn't, a quick mana pulse lit a pocket-stone in his hand with clean white light.
A low rumble echoed ahead.
Hajime stopped. Resonance flowed out like a ripple.
A bulky shape lumbered into view—boar-like, plated with overlapping stone scales, the size of a small truck. Orange eyes glowed faintly behind jagged tusks humming with compressed earth mana.
The creature stamped once. The floor cracked open.
"Earth Charger," Hajime noted. "Appropriate."
The creature screamed and lunged, the entire tunnel shuddering under its charge.
Hajime didn't move for two heartbeats.
On the third, he stepped sideways—onto the wall. Air Walk braced his foot against nothing, and Supersonic Step threw his body into a blur. The boar thundered past him at lethal speed, tusks cutting only air.
Before it could turn—
He drew Donner, aimed downward, and squeezed the trigger.
A harsh crack split the tunnel. Red lightning wrapped the barrel, vanishing with the projectile. The rail-gun bullet slammed through the boar's flank, punching through armor, muscle, and back out in a blast of stone fragments and blood within second.
The beast shrieked, skidding across the tunnel until it cratered into the opposite wall. Dead
Another one staggered up—limping, having been caught in the crossfire, enraged. One tusk glowed brighter, mana spiraling toward its tip.
"Magic-augmented tusk," Hajime muttered. "Cute."
It charged again.
This time he didn't evade.
He cought the boar by the tusk while simultaneously activating the skill he gained from bahemoth increasing his weight, the ground sank around him at the sudden weight increase. The Charger slammed into him full-force. The tusks cracked under the pressure, hajime used transmute to pierce the boars head using a stone spike.
Calm. Efficient.
The Earth Charger convulsed once, then fell still.
Blood seeped into the tunnel floor.
He placed his palm on the corpse.
"Predator. Meat and core."
Flesh unraveled into motes that flowed into him; bones and plates clattered cleanly to the floor. A new heavy, grounded thread wove into his Soul Core—momentum, mass, stability. Very close to the thread of the bahemoth.
"Good boost," he muttered. "Welcome aboard, pigs."
He stored materials and continued deeper.
---
Hajime twisted, red lightning gathering along his arm. He let the creature clamp down—
—and discharged lightning point-blank.
It convulsed violently.
Donner's muzzle pressed into its side.
Bang.
It fell limp.
The remaining two shrieked and retreated into the ceiling shadows.
"Good instincts," he said. "Won't help."
He placed a hand on the corpse.
"Predator."
Warm mana flowed. A new thread—buoyant, slippery, ceiling-cling instinct—slid into his core.
He walked on...
Then stoped.
Because the stone changed.
Patterns emerged—regular spacing in the density shifts. Too consistent. Not erosion.
Architecture.
He slowed.
The tunnel opened into a broad ledge overlooking a lower chamber.
Hajime stepped to the edge, then onto invisible footholds, peering down..
A low grinding rumbled through the stone.
The wall dissolved into motes of fading light.
Beyond stretched a wide spiral staircase carved into the earth—descending into soft glow.
A true labyrinth entrance.
He stepped into it—
—and froze.
A familiar mana signature trembled deeper down.
Something massive. Something territorial. Something he recognized.
His hand lowered to Donner by instinct.
"...You're still here, huh?"
The Claw Bear.
The thing was always at the edge of his perception, the thing that ate more than 60 % of the bahemoths corpse.
And the first guardian of the path below.
He descended steadily to the bosses laire.
---
The chamber opened wide at the bottom—a broad cavern lit by natural glowstone veins. The air tasted thick with tension.
And standing there, hulking before a collapsed segment of the engineered wall—
—was the Claw Bear.
Two meters tall. White fur stained with old blood. Claws warped by innate wind magic.
The king of this floor.
It stared at Hajime, breath fogging the air.
Hajime smirked.
"Sup, bear," he said. "Like the taste of my loot?"
The Claw Bear roared—fur bristling, bloodlust exploding out like a shockwave.
Hajime lifted Donner.
Pulled the trigger.
Bang.
The Claw Bear flinched—not from the impact, but from instinct reacting to his killing intent. It dodged—massive body rolling with unnatural agility. The bullet grazed its shoulder, carving out a slice of flesh.
Good Instincts.
The bear glared, now seeing Hajime not as prey—but as an enemy.
It roared and charged.
The floor cracked under its legs, the cavern thundered.
Hajime grinned.
"That's right. Face me this time."
He fired both this time —aimed at its forehead and arms.
The monster twisted mid-charge, rolling aside with absurd agility. The bullet tore a groove into the wall behind while taking small chunks of the bears flesh.
The bear was too fast. And its claws—
The moment he sensed mana shift. Hajime jumped back using both Air-steps & Supersonic steps.
A gale ripped through the space he'd occupied, wind-claws slicing clean grooves into the ground.
"Tch—that would have hurt."
The Claw Bear lunged again, claws crossing—
Hajime shot upward with Air Walk, Aerodynamic catching him and helping keep his balance midair. He fired a few shot in that position.
But the bear pivoted instantly—claws digging into the floor to hurl its body sideways. It launched another wind cross upward.
Warning bells exploded in Hajime's mind.
He layered Air step and Supersonic Step at once, flickering out of the trajectory by inches.
Wind ripped through his thigh, slicing blood.
He hit the ground in a stumble, pain flaring—but regeneration kicked in, sealing the worst of it within a few seconds.
"Persistent bastard," he hissed.
The bear lunged again.
Hajime fired—once, twice.
One bullet grazed its temple. The second ripped into its flank.
It staggered, veering off-course—but its momentum still slammed into him like a truck.
"Ghah—!?"
He flew backward, crashed, rolled, skidded.
Lungs burned.
But Donner & Schlag was still in his grip.
He checked the chamber—one bullet left in each.
Good.
He threw Donner into the air and reached into Inventory—
—pulling out a small emerald sphere.
"I'm proud of this one. Don't blink."
He threw it at the bear's feet.
Three seconds.
The bear's attention followed the object instinctively—
The flash grenade exploded.
A violent emerald burst filled the cavern.
The Claw Bear shrieked blindly, staggering, swiping wildly in panic.
Hajime snatched Donner out of the air and fired.
The electrically-charged barrel fired a railgun round and hit its left shoulder—
—and tore the entire arm off.
Blood exploded from the stump like a fountain.
The severed limb spun through the air.
Hajime stared at it for half a heartbeat, his multiversal awareness activated for a instance showing him things he wasn't supposed to know. After he understood the situation he smirked.
"How poetic."
He wasn't aiming for the arm—but fate seems to have a sense of humor. He took revenge for another and less fortunate verson of him or perhaps the original Hajime revenge he had not been reincarnated in his place.
The bear swung blindly, disoriented but still lethal.
Hajime reloaded Donner and Schlag, he reloaded the bullets directly from inventory to the cylinder, it was lightning-quick.
He fired again.
The bear—warned again by his bloodlust—dodged instinctively, leaping aside.
Fine.
Hajime dashed for the severed limb.
The bear glared at him—vision still blurry, fury burning.
Hajime lifted the bear's own left arm—
—and bit into it.
Flesh tore. Blood dripped.
The Claw Bear froze.
Watching.
Confused. Horrified. Terrified.
Hajime chewed, swallowed, grimaced.
"Still tastes like crap," he muttered. "Though… slightly better?"
Pain spiked—raw, sharp, familiar.
"Gh—!?"
He fell to one knee, clutching his chest.
Predator surfed. New power tried to integrate. Ambrosia-blood surged.
The bear roared and charged.
Hajime grinned through pain.
Right on cue.
He slammed his hand to the ground—lightning coating his arm.
The blood-soaked floor erupted in sparks—
The bear stepped straight into its own electrified blood.
A burst of lightning engulfed it—flesh burning, nerves frying. It dropped to its knees, convulsing violently.
Hajime stood, staggered, walked forward.
Donner lifted. Pressed against the bear's forehead.
"You're my prey now."
Bang.
Silence.
The Claw Bear collapsed, head obliterated, body going still.
The echo faded through the chamber.
Hajime stared down at the corpse.
No joy. No sorrow. Just necessity.
He breathed out slowly.
"I'll survive," he whispered. "I'll get home. Whatever it takes."
"Predator 'eat'" it consumed the bears core and skin leaving only the skeleton waring the bears skin. Which went into my inventory.
He stepped toward the spiral staircase waiting at the far end.
He took hits, yes. He bled.
But he never felt cornered.
His regeneration erased minor wounds in seconds and major wounds in minutes. His reactor-heart thrummed in steady, calm cadence, mana cycling in smooth, controlled surges.
Only once did he brush the edge of real strain. His chest tightened, vision buzzed, and his Soul Core pulsed in alarm, pushing Ambrosia-blood circulation and mana realignment to prevent overload.
Hajime leaned against the wall, breathing until the fuzziness faded as the upgrades from the bears core settled in him.
"Note to self," he muttered. "Reactor's tough, not infinite."
When the buzzing finally went still, he continued.
Because something ahead had changed.
The stone… felt different.
Less chaotic. More ordered.
Resonance detected repeating patterns—regular density shifts every few meters. Precise rhythm. Worked structure. Not nature.
Someone built this.
The tunnel opened onto a broad ledge overlooking a lower chamber.
Hajime stepped to the edge, then onto invisible footholds, angling himself to look downward.
He froze.
Below, a platform jutted from the far wall—not rough hewn, but smooth, carefully worked. Angular designs traced its perimeter, faded but still structured. Mana flowed through them—weak but unmistakably artificial.
Magic circles. Wards.
Ancient.
He descended in three quiet steps, boots landing on carved stone for the first time since falling into this hell.
The air felt different here—heavy with intention.
Part of the platform had collapsed, stone blocks scattered in awkward tilts. Behind the rubble, half-buried, an archway stood—its outline still clear with age. Symbols traced the curve of its frame, more complex than anything he'd seen above.
Hajime brushed away dust and debris with a sweep of his hand, Transmuting larger rocks aside. More runes emerged.
Ancient script spiraled around the keystone.
He couldn't read it in full—yet—but Resonance let certain concepts flicker through his mind as faint impressions.
[Boundary]
[Trial]
[Depth]
A slow grin tugged at his lips.
"Promising."
He spent several minutes clearing the collapse. He reinforced the platform so nothing would crumble further, then eased the rubble aside stone by stone.
The archway stood fully revealed.
Inside it: a solid wall of stone.
But Resonance told a different story.
Behind that stone—mana dropped sharply. A hollow space. A shaft spiraling downward far below any earlier ping he'd sent. The wall itself hummed with dormant magic—a locked door waiting for input.
Hajime pressed his palm against the central block.
His Soul Core flared.
For a moment, faint ghost-light illuminated the runes along the arch as something in the stone recognized a challenger. Circles spun beneath his hand—patterns long forgotten—then sank inward.
A grinding sound rumbled deep in the rock.
The "wall" dissolved—dust turning to motes of light before fading.
A wide spiral staircase lay beyond, carved straight into the stone, descending into a soft, steady glow far below.
Designed.
Maintained.
Not a natural cave.
A true labyrinth.
Hajime stood at the threshold for a moment, listening.
No monsters close.
No traps springing.
Only the low hum of ancient magic and deeper mana currents flowing like a buried river.
Upward from here would eventually lead back to Floor 60 and whatever chaos awaited him there.
Downward…
Downward led to answers.
Down led to the architect who built this system.
To the truth of this world.
To the secret at the bottom of Orcus.
His reactor-heart beat once, heavy and calm.
"The secret's not halfway," he murmured. "It's at the bottom."
He tightened Donner in its holster.
Checked his spare cartridges.
Shifted the weight of his armor—perfect fit.
Felt his Soul Core hum, aligned and ready.
Hajime stepped through the arch.
Onto the first stair.
The magic circles lining the walls flared faintly as he passed, then dimmed again—as if recognizing him, verifying him, granting passage.
Average had died on a broken bridge far above.
What now descended into Orcus's backend wasn't average—and it wasn't lost.
Hajime glanced down into the spiraling depth and allowed himself a thin, sharp smile.
"Alright," he whispered. "Let's aim for the source code."
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Author: "Anyone got stones?"
Reader: "Nah."
Author: sits in burning Webnovel comment section "This is fine." 🔥🐶
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