Chapter 18: Opening Pandora's Box
As Hajime and Selena walk down the floor Selena took out her scribe's broad cross line to make a total 50 floors they have gone through.
See that Hajime huffs, "Really, I don't know what you expect to keep count like this." 'She seems more excited to be on this floor in particular, given that she is smiling more than usual.'
'Yes, yes! Best loli vampire will soon come to an emo Hajime near you' she thinks with a skip in her step.
"You don't need to get your shorts in a twist. I have a good feeling about this floor!!"
"Ya, what makes you say that? Like floor thirty with those oversized bugs. You kept blowing bits and guts with ice bombs. You spend an extra long time in the water trying to clean yourself from the smell."
"Ugh if only it had ended their recall of the worst part of that floor."
With a sadistic smile he remembered how he forced her to eat those bugs for the poison resistance skill they both got now.
"You meany!" She says as she casts a quick water ball and throws it at Hajime's face. He gracefully leans back, dodging the projectile. Remembering how Naruto gathered chakra into his hand, she had spent the last fifty floors trying to gather chakra to her fingertips just like the Hyuga clan. This is a skill she would need for future ideas she had in mind for her own ice release, but she needs to make it second nature first. "Okay but what about floors forty we didn't leave till we ate all those yummy fruits." Drool came from Selena remembering the first real meal they had in a long time.
"You stole more of them from me after I killed those treants for you."
"I plead the fifth.."
Hajime, exasperated at Selena's denial at something so stupid, changed the topic. "Want to make a bet?"
"Mmm sure why not, hehe I bet you get something you never knew you needed!"
Hajime was confused at that odd bet, although he didn't mind, "Okay, it will be worth one favor then." Both them shake hands on it. 'Why do I have a sinking feeling come all of a sudden.'
"Well I can at least say your ice spike and bomb techniques have become fast enough to rival my gun shots at the very least, but still, leave those bigger techniques for when you master them to the point that they can cast almost instantly."
"Ya well I can't help it with our mana stats are always increasing with every floor we've been in. I can't really control it so easily. Why do you think most nights I'm there just blowing ice spears out of our make-shift camps you always make after I get our water source for us? Creating some of the big stuff is harder when my mana stats are at three hundred compared to six hundred. It is like I am trying to create, let's say, forty ice spears while with big mana stats it tries to force it to push a hundred instead making it very wasteful."
"I see, so since you aren't chanting, it's almost like you lost your train wheels since, while chanting, all work is done by the circle."
"Exactly! See, you can be taught."
Selena reaches behind her and pulls out her own partner, Abraxos. "If I run into something more problematic I can always go gun blazin'."
"You need to work on that aim though. You always lean more towards the right when firing."
"Yes dad, I will work on shooting on the next floor." Saluting him like a good little soldier.
"Tch, you know what I mean. Your mana or chakra isn't infinite even though we got a skill to replenish them faster, don't rely on only one skill." 'I'm jello that she got magic…' Hajime says, clicking his tongue.
"I know that," Selena says while smiling genuinely at Hajime. Huffing he picked up his pace not wanting to show his embarrassed expressions at Selena.
All the time they both have been on the alert to kill small patches of bats and spiders that were trying to sneak on them with gunshots and ice spears to their face. If only their class could see how the once weak Hajime was now stronger than all of them. His only equal was the person standing next to him.
After a while they came up on an ominous door with two big orc statues looking as if they were going to open the door.
"Well, it looks like I won," Hajime smirked.
"No, we need to see what is inside first before you can say who the winner is."
"Okay. So can I open it with a transmute?"
"I'm not sure. We will see when we get to the door," Selena responds as they walk towards the door. Knowing what will happen from the anime, Selena looks at the orc to her left.
"Okay, here it goes." As Hajime activated his skill to attempt to force the door open, both of the orcs came to life for about a second, since one was immediately shot and the other got an ice spear shot through its eye.
"Man, I feel bad…"
"It's not like we are going to fight fair. It is kill or be killed Selena."
"I know, but they didn't even see it coming."
"You are probably right." At that moment the orc's head was ripped off, given that the body was too heavy for it to be held up by the ice spear. That gross see the decapitated head of the orc with mouth half torn off. Seeing the body on the ground made getting the mana crystal a whole lot easier. As he cut his orc stomach looking for the crystal. "Get yours now so we can see what is inside."
"You know I hate this so much. Blood, it's so red and it is hard as hell to clean off without you since you can separate the blood off."
"Ya ya hurry up."
Huffing, she quickly used a wind claw on her hand to cut into the stomach looking for mana crystal. "Ewwww how is so slimy in here." Her stomach was getting ready to turn over at the sensation she was feeling no matter how many times she could never get used to it. 'I miss the smell of my books from past life over small blood and guts'
"Thanks". Take the mana crystal Hajime was about to go towards the door.
"Wait stupid."
"What now?"
"I want you to put our stuff on the side behind one of your walls to keep our stuff safe since we are not sure what is going to happen. I don't want to lose my stuff once again," recalling the yeti.
See the reason both him and Selena went far left and Hajime transmuted the cave mouth to fit their backpacks. They only took what they thought they would need, a fast loader for his bullets, grenades, and a few vials of heal water. While Selena pulls out katana, grenades, few vials heal water and fast loader for guns as well.
After closing the hole they walk back to the door.
Hajime this time put the first crystal into the door. And when the second went in, the door started to shine bright red. But at that moment they heard noise coming from the mouth of the cave that they came from.
"So, it looks like you open up a Pandora's box."
"Ya looks like it." smiling "So will it be salvation or hell that is inside do you think?"
"No need to ask, we bet on hehe go head see what inside I'll welcome our guests."
"Are you sure?" Look for any sign of hesitation from Selena.
At that moment she already started to weave her hands to summon ten ice spears for the opening volley.
Wholly focused on the cave mouth that the noise was coming from. "Just keep an open mind about things. Sometimes things aren't what they seem to be."
Find her word choice odd. He walked into where the love of his life was waiting for him.
— Selena POV—
As the doors close, I turn back to face the oncoming monster tide. 'I didn't recall this happening in the original Arifureta but guess these were some of the changes that the god had told me about.'
A few seconds afterwards, the first of the monsters are visible. Rushing at me are bat-like monsters, spiders and new rock golem I have not seen yet. With my opening volley I had killed all her targets but golem even after losing their heads continued to walk towards me.
Seeing that the enemy were getting closer I performed the Breaking ice fist technique, soon around my hands were covered in ice. I rush at golem leading the charge in one punch break through the chest making all rocks fall apart due me sensing the most amount of mana come from its chest.
The spider monster starts shooting their web at me and tries to trap me in place. Seeing the incoming attack, I use mana on my vocal cords and roar at incoming attacks making them fall to the floor harmlessly. Right after using a quick step to get into the group spiders I smashed them and kicked them to death.
While that was going on, the bat above me started to use their special magic to create wind blades that came at me. I dodge the wind blades to the best of my abilities, but was still hit with some every once in a while. As I was doing that, the other monsters were starting to encircle me as well, so I used a quick step and air step to escape it but not without leaving a gift, I launched my left ice fist while also throwing one of Hajime's grenades at the horde.
Boom was all that could be heard, killing all nearby golem and damaging the spider with the debris. Seeing no point I launched my other ice fist at one of the bats and it avoided it. "Tch," grabbing Abraxos I shot at all of the flying pests, in the hope of one bullet one kill. "See I clearly missed half my shot." I knew it was my fault since they were faster than the bats could see. "I hate you Hajime!!"
The monsters weren't idle all this time. I was leading them around in the air while taking pot shots at them. Seeing the monsters on the ground were growing in number once again, I holster my partner and pull out my sword. Turning, I dashed into the horde of golems and spiders that were launching attacks or pulling their fists back and getting ready to strike back at me. I activated a lighting field on myself to keep burning up spider webs and imbued gale claws on to my katana so as to rip through the rock golem as fast as possible. At the same time the last attack coming from some of the golems still had momentum and hit me regardless.
Man now I know what it feels like to be there in the middle of those big anime fight scenes.
My sword traced from a horizontal slash down to a vertical slash, killing the enemy in front of me. My body moves with it and, as the slash finishes, I stab forwards, killing a spider with a cut into the head, only to pull out my blade as I charge my mana into my voice once again howling into the horde. With the help of my skill I charged forward in the direction of the spider I stabbed, making sure I didn't get encircled by my own hands. It wasn't a perfect defense by any means. While moving in and out of the fight I have gotten cuts and scrapes, but none of it was life threatening but I must look like a tomato face with all of the blood from the monsters. See as I was slowing down, I took out the elixir and drank it while running around trying not to get hit with many wind blades coming at me since I left the bats alone now for too long. Taking a mental check I could feel that I only had one full clip left in Abraxos, two grenades and two heal elixir.
As that was going on something big was coming for her at the edge of her Presence Sense. 'I guess I need to use big moves to get ready for big boy.' I stop putting all my magic into my legs and jump as high as I can while using air step to further boost myself to get above all of my enemies. However, in doing so I took a lot of damage by walking into wind blades. Luckily the elixir was still actively healing some of the new wounds. All the while my hands moved like never before. Trying to hurry up, but since this was one of the strongest ice release ninjutsu that the god had given to me, there were a lot of hand signs. After completing eighty hand signs, my body was becoming sluggish from both the cold and exhaustion, but when I finished the last sign, I took a deep breath, "Ice release: Blizzard!" my hands clapped together as a very cold wind swept through the cave we were in, quickly freezing all the bats since they were close to this attack. The spiders ran away, trying to save themselves but the golems seem entirely unaffected to temperature dropping. At the same time the golem could feel the newcomer, and if they could show fear it would be now, since they run towards where they came from.
Feeling a bit light headed I fell towards the ground like a bullet. Luckily a fall like this was nothing to me with my new and improved body and stats. At the moment I came across the gigantic scorpion with twin stingers and my body froze in place. The only thing I could see was the behemoth from floor sixty five of the false labyrinth and how small I felt back then.
"Kshaaaa!!!" With a swing of its claw, it landed a blow on Selena in the stomach, launching her through the double doors that Hajime had just gone through not too long ago.
—With Hajime—
Let go back as Hajime went in the door leaving Selena to handle the monster tide. Why was she so instant on her taking it on herself when both of us could take it out in no time. Were the thoughts running through his mind. But at the moment the room that was so dark had all the light turned on and he saw a girl embedded into some cube looking thing. At a loss of what to think as the odd sight, he stood there not moving closer but not out right turn away just yet.
In a raspy voice that clearly hadn't been used in a long time. "P- p-.. please *cough* help me," the young blond girl asked Hajime.
"Why should I?" he says looking at her with a deadpan face. "You clearly were locked up down in the pit of hell for a reason," Still not moving he stood there in place. 'Tch, Selena, that's why you said that earlier.' He was ready to walk away but he was hesitating to make a choice. Booming explosions and a girl yelling could be heard, but neither the blond girl or Hajime paid it any mind.
"Cough…. I'm down here because I was betrayed."
Let out a breath he had been holding in unknowingly. "Fine, but if anything hurts me or my friend we are going to have a problem." Walking to the Seal rock he began to try to transmute it off of her.
'Friend who is that?' Her thoughts were abruptly brought back to Hajime when she sees his brought red mana sparking on her prison.
"Tch" he could feel the drain on his mana but the rock wouldn't budge. "Fine, you want more, I don't mind it." He says out loud to motivate himself and prove to himself he wasn't the same person as when they started this trip down to hell. He had pumped three verses worth of mana trying to change it and barely started to mold it differently.
"Grraahh!!!" growing annoyed, he pumped in another four verses worth of mana and stone started decomposing to the right of him. The blonde girl all the while was captivated at the scene as she watches someone use their mana directly just like her. On the ninth verse worth of his mana he was finally able to bend it to his will, able to fully release her.
'That is my good deed for the year Selena.' he thought as he pulled out an elixir he had on him and drank it to try to recover his lost mana he almost had been tapped out trying to change the stone. Grabbing his hand as drank it, Hajime looked at the blonde girl. "What's up, do you want some?"
"No, what is your name?"
"Hajime Nagumo." He said with a calm look, trying not to focus on her naked body.
"Hajime, Hajime, Hajime," she says to herself trying to burn the name into her very soul.
"Do you have a name?"
Growing oddly excited she came up to his face. "I want you to name me. I don't need my old name. I want one you choose for me."
Knowing where she was coming from, he remembered how he had to rebuild himself in order to survive. "Umm," he looked into her red eyes, "how about Yue."
"Yue, Yue, Yue," just like when she chanted his name, she was carving the new name into herself always wanting to remember it. Before they could continue, a big boom came to the door and Selena was sent flying into the wall right behind the pair.
Pulling herself from the wall, Selena looks at them and smiles with blood coming from her body. "Picking up girls in a dungeon huh Hajime, you sly dog." With the shit-eating grin he was all too used to. Yue stared at her with a bit of awe and trepidation. Soon after Selena drank the last elixir she had in breast pocket.
As she was drinking, the boss-like scorpion broke the wall down and walked in. seeing what could send Selena flying, he understood it wasn't wholly her fault. He wanted to get back at her and call her weak for petty revenge for a bad one liner.
"Hajime spinning death!!" Jump at Hajime with her arm stretched out and want him to catch her.
"That is such a crappy name for such a cool move," he yells at her as he uses his arm to catch her while pivoting his legs to spin the two of them. Yue, all while was dumbfounded at the spinning death move they were performing. Releasing Selena on the third spin she used lightning field to the max output she could manage at the moment looking like an orb of lightning all while using gale claw on her blade as she held it.
Scorpion uses its magic to create an earth wall to try to slow down the incoming attack. "OH no you don't!" Seeing what it was trying to do, Hajime pulled out Doner and shot all his rounds at the newly made walls to break through them, allowing Selena's momentum to continue towards the beast. Seeing that its walls were breaking, it used its stinger and launched the last gambit of spikes at her only to see them be deflected away.
"Aaahhh!!!" she broke through its defense from the mouth. Selena then ran a muck inside its body, only to stop mid way only to cook the beast alive after cutting a lot of organs on her way in.
Seeing that all her momentum had stopped she was in horror at the fact she had to go back the way she came since she didn't want to get near its ass. 'The move was so awesome, but I never want to go inside a beast ever again. I was hoping that I would go right through it like all of the shows I watched.' As she finally came out of the scorpion's mouth "Ugh, next time you are the human missile Hajime."
"Haha it worked out great, just like you said." Hajime laughs, not able to hold it in after seeing Selena covered in blood and guts of the monster.
"You know, in my mind I was going to go right through the other side clean as a whistle."
Yue just stared at the two with only one thought running through her after seeing the scar on her face was shown with her hair all pulled back, 'wow she looks so domineering like a wolf.'
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
Fuuka_Stich
Fuuka_Stich The scorpion dies to two big fireballs and a shot through the head, why can't it die to spinning death?
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone