The abyss is otherness as such. Unknown and unknowable. This otherness is what we must think – must and should, one more time. For whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. For if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you. Man looks in the abyss, there's nothing staring back at him.
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Hard winds passed him by as he landed on the ground faster than it should be due to weight of his preparations but proceeded to roll as to not hurt himself.
He had been falling for a few minutes but the darkness surrounding him felt like eternity. Ken quickly removed his backpack and equiped his Ground Panoramic night vision goggles as well as his all black digital solar wrist watch and proceeded to survey his immediate surroundings as he knew perfectly what this place was. A place for the strong, an opportunity, death but that's what he signed up for.
"Ah!... ...whew it's dead but surprisingly in good shape after falling this height especially with it's size and weight" murmurs Ken as he looks at the corpse of the one's great monstrosity that the strongest humans aboveground were very much afraid of.
He then looked at it's huge size and exclaimed,
"The monster is too big and strong for even a level 65 outer beast. Am guessing it's from these inner parts as that would explain the summoning circle it crawled out from or maybe it spawns out of nowhere. Well not that it matters anymore since it will be my first monster on the road to an OP hybrid but as always preparation first which is in the form of Hagime's whereabouts"
Ken approached the monster's forearm and tried to use a dagger to remove it's hard skin but it broke on the first try and is forced into a different option.
' I've tried it in secret on normal objects but never one this big and strong, well here goes nothing... '
"I command thee as a minister of magic!, let all things that occupies space heed my will"
[DECONSTRUCTION]
' Well what do you know, it worked fine!'
Ken chanted the matter manipulation spell with his hands making contact as he breaks down the hard skin of the behemoth revealing it's meat and blood which was not red by the way.
He then used his claymore to cut a huge chunk of meat and tied it with his robe he removed from his parachute and looked around through his goggles and thought as he pointed to a certain part of the labyrinth's wall.
' There, that will be my hideout as I proceed to evolve'.
"I command thee as a minister of magic!, let all things that occupies space heed my will"
[DECONSTRUCTION]
A huge space appeared after he spelled the wall, controlling his mana he managed to create a cave with a small entrance and a big enough interior. Ken stroke the cave wall with his broken dagger, using it as a hanger to hang the meat as blood dripped of it and left his backpack in.
' Now I should look for Nagumo who is the key to my provision'
It had to be said that, the inner parts which was beneath the first hundred levels which is the outer labyrinth, looked different from the obvious man-made structure above. The underground world here felt and looked completely natural and untouched by man until today.
Ken left his cave with his plastic bag and placed his hand on the ground near it's entrance and chants another spell of matter manipulation magic.
"I command as a minister of magic!, let all things that occupies space heed my will and move with haste"
[RECONSTRUCT]
He then drinks a mana recovery potion as the spell he used on the behemoth drained alot than he imagined. The deconstructed rocks arranged in formation as to block the entrance as he moved to look for Nagumo in this dark place with few light sources.
After 2km of searching and marking, he found an underground river and in it laid Hagime with a few scratches here and there. He moved closer while on the lookout as he saw crystals emitting light embedded in the ceiling.
He then touched Hagime's side of the neck with his two fingers looking thoughtfully.
' He's out and might be like this for half a day. Well as you'd expect from an MC his luck is impeccable, falling into water from that height will not save most people and laying unconscious for this long without being eaten by a monster in this place is a miracle even if he loses his arm later'.
He then refilled his water sacks after first drinking some which he found cold.
"Now where is it?" murmured Ken as he looks around Nagumo and put on a calculating look.
' When he wakes up, he loses his arm to a monster and crawls to hid nearby. That's why I didn't save him inorder not to miss the place he found by chance. He cannot go that far soo... it must be there then'.
Ken pointed at a rock formation a few steps away from Nagumo and makes his way to it. He deconstructed parts of it as he moved inward and soon found a small opening the size of five rabbit homes combined with a shining crystal in the ceiling as 'water' drips from it into a small gathering below.
' Found it. This thing goes with many names but I prefer 'Mana gathering crystal', as it gathers natural energy and liquefies it, and with it I can evolve without dying. Let me take a few bottles and leave some for Nagumo. Am a good guy after all'.
After filling what he viewed was enough, he went back while reconstructing the pathway he created. He looked at Nagumo bowed wishing him luck which was either genuine or an act to quell his guilt of leaving him.
Ken then proceeded to go back to his cave by following his markings and took a look at the behemoth as an idea popped up. He walked to the corpse and touched the belly part of the monster, then used a matter manipulation spell to sublime the metal-like skin into a gaseous nano metal shards. The behemoth's guts pour out and he walks into in cave with a smile and closes off the entrance.
' If am lucky a monster might take the bait and give me a new abilities'.
.....