This chapter is translated by Japtem and edited by Icy Kitten on 12th July 2019.

Two months had passed since Yue showed Hajime the dignity of a senior, and various breakthroughs were made that night. As for Hajime, who continued enhancing his body and heart against the crazy monsters in the abyss, lost to Yue’s onslaught. He decided to take it seriously and accept it.

Hajime was aware of Yue’s feelings, and on top of that, he did promise to take her with him. His reason for withstanding her approach was his stance on not allowing something take his attention until he achieved his objectives. Now he had conquered the dungeon and established a secure base. His goal was partially achieved when he discovered information and a plan to return home, so now his mind was allowed to think about other things. His fragile reason couldn’t oppose Yue’s approach. Moreover, his reason didn’t exist anymore.

The two of them made full use of the base. If anyone saw from the side they would likely yell: “Riajuu should explode!!”¹ everyday. Far away, a Hannya mask floated around a female student. Her best friend had been frequently frightened by the situation, but that’s another story. These were the preparation for the bloodshed in the near future.

“…Hajime, does this feel good?”

“Yeah, it does.”

“Hehe…Then, here?”

“Ah, that’s good too.”

“Then, I’ll make you feel even better.”

Currently, Yue was giving Hajime a massage. They weren’t doing anything erotic. Hajime’s left arm was the cause of this, and they did it on a regular basis because his body had yet to become fully used to the prosthetic he was using.

His prosthetic arm was an artifact, and it could feel like a real arm with the direct manipulation of magic. The arm had a pseudo neural mechanism, so it allowed Hajime to feel things as if it were his real arm, although not as effectively. This was achieved by sending magic signals to his brain to trick his senses. For its appearance, the arm had a silver luster with black lines running along it. On certain parts of the arm, there were magic formations and patterns engraved on it.

The arm was fitted with a large number of gimmicks. He had designed it similar to the items in the studio that were Orcus’ works, but Hajime added some of his own original elements into it. A lot of special ores made with Creation Magic were used. If it was out in the world, this artifact would no doubt be an article of rare beauty that would be a national treasure. Of course, ordinary people couldn’t use it because you needed direct magic manipulation to operate it.

In two months their abilities and equipment were enhanced; they weren’t anything like their previous selves. Hajime’s current status.

Levels showed the current degree of growth and the limit was 100 for a person. However, did his body change too much after eating so much demon flesh? The level stopped changing but his stats kept going up. Finally, it displayed ??? for his level.

Hajime’s growth after he consumed demon flesh was very abnormal, especially when you thought about his initial values and his growth rate. When his body went into its alteration it seems his growth limit also increased; just like his stats increased. He guessed that the Status Plate was no longer able to measure his limits.

By the way, the limit of Kouki’s Hero class was 1500 for all stats. He could temporarily triple his stats with “Limit Break”, but it still abysmal compared to Hajime’s stats. Moreover, Hajime could quintuple his stats with his skill and magic manipulation.

For comparison, the normal humans of this world had stat limits of 100-200. If they had a class then it could be 300-400. The Devils and Demi-humans, depending on the tribe traits, could range from 300-600 as their limit. If a Hero was cheat, then Hajime was more or less a monster. This wasn’t really a mistake though, because his body and mind had changed…

In regards to new equipment,

First, Hajime obtained a storage device that he dubbed “Treasure Box”.

This was a ring type artifact that Orcus kept. There was a 1 cm red jewelry attached to the ring, and this jewel could make a space where it could store items. In short, it was like a hero’s tool bag. Hajime didn’t know the exact size of the space, but it was a considerable size. There seemed to be free space still after putting in all the equipment, tools, and materials. Anything can be deposited or withdrawn by just pouring magic into the formation on the ring, and withdrawn items could be placed anywhere within a 1 m radius.

It is an extremely convenient artifact, especially useful for the one armed Hajime. If the ring could transport anything to any place then Hajime thought he could use it to reload. When he tested it, it was half a success. As expected, it didn’t have the precision to directly transfer the bullet into the magazine. The limit was that the transfer had a certain range it could align the bullet’s orientation. He might be able to use it when he became more skilled with the transmission.

Hajime decided to train to load a magazine with this transferring skill in the air. The important note is he was reloading in the air, and Donner was a revolver that had a cylinder that swung out. Naturally, because the exposure of the cylinder was less than that of a top break revolver, it would require a superhuman technique to reload in the air. He wanted to use it in actual combat, not as a street performance, so it became more difficult. Hajime thought about remodeling it to a top break style but decided against it because it weakened the intensity in the trial.

After intense training for one month, Hajime had mastered this aerial reloading. He was able to do this solely because of his skill “Light Speed”. This Special Magic had the ability to raise the user’s cognitive functions. With this, he was able to slow the world down in his mind and aerial reloading became possible. There was a large burden to his body when he used it, so he couldn’t use it for very long. However, it was perfectly fine to use it for his fast reloading.

Next, Hajime manufactured “Magic 2-Wheel Drive and 4-Wheel Drive”.

Literally, these were 2 and 4 wheels driven by magic. The two-wheel was an American-like Motorcycle, and the four-wheel was designed like a military vehicle Hummer type. He used the tar shark’s resilience skin for the wheels because of its excellent elasticity. Taur Stone was the basis for all the parts. In the studio storage was Azantium Ore, at least that’s what Oscar’s book called it. Surfaces of the parts were coated with this ore, known as the world’s hardest ore. Even Donner’s maximum output probably wouldn’t be able to pierce through that durability. There was no complex structures like engines. The vehicle was driven by Hajime’s own magic or the magic stored in the fragment of God’s Crystal. Speed was proportional to the amount of magic.

In addition, there were devices fitted to the bottom of these two vehicles. When magic is poured into these devices, it starts to level the ground with transmutation magic. This would allow them to travel off-road in most places. Also, the vehicles were fully loaded like some spy car. Hajime was a boy. He was passionate about anything related to military. When he was too absorbed in it, Yue would pout, but her mood would improve when he spoiled her in various ways.

“Devil Eye” was another tool he developed.

Hajime lost his right eye when he fought the Hydra. His whole eye was evaporated by the heat of the Aurora attack, and he couldn’t get it back with sacred potion because he had lost it before he drank it. Yue was worried about it, so she devised and made “Devil Eye”.

Even with Creation Magic, it was not possible to make a normal “eyeball”. However, using Creation Magic, she was able to apply “Magic Perception” and “Foresight” to the God’s Crystal. The Devil Eye was successfully created and it gave a very unusual but special sight.

Using the same pseudo nerves used in the artificial arm, the Devil Eye could send images to the brain to perceive. The Devil Eye did not grant normal vision though, Instead it could recognize the flow, strength and attribute of magic by color. He could see the core of the invoked magic.

The magic core is what maintains and operates invoked magic. After invoking the magic, the magic is operated by the magic formation; he knew that. However, he had never thought about how the formula was linked with distant magic. None of the books and instructors had even mentioned anything about it. Hajime was probably the first person to realize its existence. Even Yue the magic expert didn’t know anything about it.

The normal “Magic Perception” was the same as “Perception”. It was only able to perceive a vague sense of number and location. Monsters that could hide their senses affected the effectiveness of the skills. With the Devil Eye though, he would be able to know what magic and how strong the magic the opponent is using. Hajime could even destroy the magic if he was able to pierce the core of the magic. However, shooting it would be like putting a bullet through a pinhole; it would require immense accuracy on Hajime’s part.

God’s crystal was used because it could retain these skills better than other materials. Hajime guessed that the reason was its ability to contain a vast amount of magic. Since he was still inexperienced with Creation Magic, he wasn’t able to grant three or more skills to a single item. With the God’s Crystal potential, they may be able to install far more magic into it when he obtains the required skill; at least, Hajime hoped.

Because they used the God’s Crystal for the Devil Eye, it constantly gave off a pale light. Hajime’s right eye constantly shined. There was no way to stop the glowing, so Hajime reluctantly put on a black eyepatch made of thin cloth.

White hair, artificial arm and an eyepatch. Hajime had completely became a Chuuni character. Calm down left arm! His figure seemed to say. When he saw himself in the mirror he despaired and entered an orz ² state. He stayed in bed for a whole day, and Yue tried to comfort him through various methods… neither of them wanted to talk about it.

About new weapons, Schlagen was revived after it was destroyed by the Hydra. The gun was strengthened using Azantium ore. Since he no longer had to worry about carrying it, he lengthened the barrel to 3 m. A scope was created with “Far Sight” installed and attached to the gun. This increased its maximum effective range to 10 km.

Hajime remembered the struggle he had when he was chased by the horde of raptors. The result was him developing a gatling railgun: Metsurai, which fires 30 mm caliber rounds at 12,000 rounds per minute through its 6 barrels. The barrels were created from special ores that had cooling effects installed by creation magic, but it still couldn’t be used for more than 5 minutes continuously. If it overheated, it would need a 10 minute cooling period.

For surface supremacy, Hajime developed a rocket and missile launcher: Orca; purely because it was his interest. In the back was a 12-round rotary magazine for continuous fire, and it had an elongated barrel. He also had various kinds of rockets.

He even created another revolver to pair with Donner: Schlagen. Hajime could use both now that he had his artificial left arm. Using both at the same time, Hajime would be able to use Gun Kata³ as his basic tactics. With Yue as the typical rear guard, he often used close combat to efficiently cooperate with Yue. However, Hajime could be an all-rounder if he was properly equipped.

Other various equipment and tools were developed. However, contrary to being fully equipped, the God’s Crystal was finally depleted of its sacred water. Only 12 tube containers were left of the sacred water. They tried to pour magic into the God’s Crystal, but failed in extracting sacred water. Maybe after many years of concentration it would flow again.

Throwing away the God’s Crystal would be a waste. It had saved his life…his lucky stone. Good luck piled up with good luck, and he would be dead if he didn’t arrive at this crystal. Hajime was extraordinarily attached to it because of that. Loneliness was unbearable to a survivor and painted a visage on his belonging. It was about the same as giving it a name and admiring it.

Hajime used the crystal’s ability to contain enormous amount of magic; to make necklaces, earrings, rings and other accessories with transmutation. He gave them to Yue. She was able to use very powerful magic. Her most powerful spells consumed a lot of magic, and just one shot would leave her depleted. If she was able to stock up her magic in a battery, she could use those superlative magic in rapid succession and not get magically exhausted.

He named the accessories set “Magic Crystal Series” and gave it to Yue. Her reaction at that time…

“…A proposal.”

“Say What?”

Yue jumped at the first time hearing Hajime unintentionally using Kansai dialect with his Tsukkomi.

“It prevents magic exhaustion. I thought this would surely protect Yue from now on.”

“…It is a proposal.”

“No, that’s wrong. Just new equipment.”

“…Hajime, you’re shy…”

“…Recently, you’re not listening to people.”

“…Even shy in bed.”

“Will you stop!? Seriously, such a thing!”

“Hajime..”

“Ah, What is it?”

“Thanks…I love it.”

“Oh.”

Please, really explode already! These two were creating their own atmosphere. They were ready for everything in a lot of ways.

Ten days after that, Hajime and Yue were setting off for the surface.

While they were activating the magic on the third floor, Hajime told Yue in a quiet voice.

“Yue…My weapons, and our powers are heresy on the surface. The church and countries will not remain silent.”

“Nn…”

“They will demand our weapons and artifacts. There is a high possibility they will coerce us into participating in their war.”

“Nn…”

“This may be a dangerous trip that turns the world against us. No matter how many lives you have, it might be insufficient.”

“And you say this now…”

Hajime wryly smiled at her words. He gently stroke her fluffy hair, and she stared straight at him.

Yue squinted her eyes from the pleasant feeling. He took a moment’s pause, and stared back at the sparkling red eyes. Hajime put his wish and resolution into words, as he inscribed it into his soul.

“I will protect Yue, Yue will protect me. So we are the strongest. All will be mowed down, and we will cross worlds.”

At his words, Yue grasped both hands in front of her chest tightly; almost like a hug. Her expressionless face vanished to reveal a blooming smile. And answered like always,
“N~!”

1. ’Riajuu’ Is basically just the opposite on an Otaku.
2. ‘orz’ is supposed to look like a man kneeling down and slamming his hands against the ground, but it’s pretty hard to see.
3. https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/GunKata