-time skip- -Hero party fighting monsters in the Great Orcus Labyrinth 19th floor-
Kouki ran forth towards the monsters and his blade began to shimmering with a golden glow before slashing it down at the wolf monsters using his skill [Slash of light!]
a bit away both Kaori and Eri where chanting a joint spell" Black flame, swirl forth into a coil. Launch and burn away our enemies reduce them to ashes and return them to the earth [Spiral Blaze]! "(I know there's someone else there on the manga panel but I forgot who that was so I'ma pretend I don't see them)
Aio stared at the his fighting classmates before turning his attention to the group of monsters charging in his direction activating his skill [Biomorphing] Aio's body began to experance change his muscles changed to that of an Ogre becoming naturally stonger then a humans of the same level which in Aio's case provided a strenght buff. Aio then changed his bone marrow to that of a trolls increasing his own regeneration factor to that of a trolls. Next Aio's skin changed to that of a Minotaurs granting him better defense. And lastly Aio altered his Bone structure to that of a Red wolf in addition to gaining there red fur as additional protection.
Finishing his transformation Aio went on the offensive at first he was in a boxing stance sending punch after punch at the monsters which quickly devolved to him grabbing, throwing and biting the monsters with his powerful jaws.
Hajime touched the floor and using his [Transmute] skill send earth spikes in every direction piercing the monsters surrounding him.
This sort of fight went on for 20 more minutes as the monsters kept coming in waves towards the hero party making them all grow quickly even Aio gained 2 levels from the whole ordeal.
Meld watched the heroes deep in thought'they have all grown exponentially specially those too' he thought looking at Hajime and Aio ' I never thought you could use Transmute as an offensive skill everyone was always stuck on the idea it could only be used for crafting but using Transmute he could mimic earth magic so perfectly'
"Man that was hard! Hey captain meld how many more floors do we have to go to?" Aio asked
Snapping out of his thoughts Meld looked at the heroes before speaking " just one more floor the we will each the 20th floor but for now we will rest her and the knights and I will keep watch then we will continue to the 20th floor after which we will return to the surface."
The class hummed in acknowledgement and began to lay against the walls of the labyrinth talking or resting. Hajime, Shizuku and Kaori looked at Aio curiously as he approached the monster corpses.
using his skill [selective grasp] he began to eat a heart and a brain took from the corpses using his skill. Aio finished eating the organs only to turned to see the three of them looking at him curiously.
"What?" Aio asked with a head tilt
"Nothing its just were kinda curious how does your skill work? You know eating monster meat and transforming i mean" Kaori asked
Aio Hummed "It was strange at first having to eat monsters which at first was nothing but repulsive but they don't taste like anything to me so i got over that pretty quick, and as for transforming its complicated"
Shizuku then spoke "can you tell us about im a bit curious myself"
Aio turned slightly to look at shizuku before responding "Well it can be partial or a full transformation, by that i mean i can entirely turn into one monster or partially turn my body parts into those of different monsters."
"Is there a limit?" Hajime asked
Aio took a bit to respond being deep in thought "Yes and no i can replace all my organs but also add different organs from monsters i've eaten I found this out when I ate a monster called a battle ape why it's called that I don't know when it looked like a gorilla on steroids with 4 arms. But anyways when I ate I found out I could also make it's other arms."
"If you can make 4 arms why don't you?" Kaori asked curiously
"Hmm ooh I want to challenge myself and test different combinations also the four arms seem to confuse the monsters in this Labyrinth removing any challenge they might have offered before" Aio admitted with a nerves chuckle.
With a blank stare Hajime stated "in other words you've become a battle junkie"
"Of course not I'm just bored there isn't a lot to do here other then read and train" Aio retorted.
-40 minutes Later- -20th floor-
Currently the hero party where walking having finished dealing with another wave of monsters in the 20th floor only a few minutes ago. This floor like most before it was several kilometers in length and filled with either traps or dead ends, this room in particular however looked like a stalactite cave with stalagmites present around the room (for those who don't know what that is it's those stone spike looking things you sometimes he in caves stalacites are in basic terms the stone spikes that form on the ceiling of a cave and stalagmites form on the cave floor.) The party was currently walking around slightly relaxed after not encountering monsters for several minutes atleast until Captian Meld and Kouki both stopped and tensed. An a moment later the others in the party also entered fighting stances.
"They're Rockmounts keep a look at your surrounds these monsters have a [camouflage] skill but thats not all as they are Gorilla type monsters they have strong arms so be careful of close range!" Commander Meld advised.
"Hai" The class said in unison, a moment later several spots around the room discolored and then changed dark brown the monster identified by captain meld began to pound there chests like a drum and then they pounced. Ryutaro was the first to become locked in combat with a rockmount exchanging punches one after another, atleast until Ryutaro punched it in the stomach sending it a bit away. Aio watched as it bent down and holded its chest for a second before taking a deep inhale and "GAAAAAAAA!" an intense roar rang out causing the whole room to shake and most of the party to become paralzyed. Another skill they possesed [Intimidating Roar] a skill that aio attributed to be similar to a lions roar with petrified its prey into a similar state by vibrating there muscles and bones. The Rockmounts noticing there friends skill worked took this chance to lift what looked like several boulders and throw them at the rear gaurd. Kaori and the others in the rear gaurd expect Hajime prepared to cast several magics to block the boulders only to stop in shock when they saw they where not boulders but several rockmounts the girls yelled in what seemed to be panic as they appoarched and Hajime seeing the others stop placed both hands on the floor before yelling in a paniced voice [Transmute]! then a large stone wall covered in spikes sprung out of the ground and interspected the rockmounts causing them to impale themselves on it.
Kouki being his righteous and misunderstanding self mistook there yells of disgust for fear of there deaths raised it holy sword in anger which seemed to shine in response. "A Thousand Feathers Sore, And at heaven they arrived. [Heavenly Swing!!]"
"You idiot stop it now!!" yelled captain meld but it was already two late as Kouki's holy sword released a slash of light after drawing a curve with the blade, which proceeded to bisect the surviving rockmounts without resistance. The slash of light continued to move on until it bit the wall, causing debris to lightly fall from the now damaged wall. Kouki exhaled and gave the girls in the rear gaurd a sparking smile. And he began to walk to the girls only to stop when he saw captian meld begin to walk towards him with a smile before he smacked him.
"Ow" Kouki said in suprise, Meld then proceeded to scold Kouki over use of powerful skills in these kinds of rooms within the labyrinth and Aio shuffled a laugh at Kouki's perdicument.
Shifting his gaze Aio watched as the girls from the rear (Kaori, Eri and Suzu) appoarched Hajime and began to thank him leaving Hajime kinda flustered, Aio smiled when he noticed several of the boys glare daggers at Hajime specifically Daisuke causing Aio to think 'Karma is a bitch' at Daisuke's inconvenience at losing the girls attention to Hajime. Aio then shifted his attention at the corpses of the Rockmounts and began to use [selective grasp] to grab there brain, heart and vocal cords.
"Eh? What's that sparkling on the wall?" everyone shifted there gaze at where Kaori was pointing at even Aio as he began to munch on the heart of the rockmount causing some near by students to give him the side eye but Aio ignored it.
"Ah- That's Grantz Crystal. One this big in size is rare." Captian Meld informed, The so called Grantz Crystal, was an ore that looked more like a jewel from captain melds explanation the crystal itself did not have any special effects, but appearance made it popular among the noble ladies. they where normally turned into Rings, earrings, pendants, and other jewelries processed from these crystal are very well received. It was also one of the top three choices as proposal rings.
"Lovely..."
Hearing Commander Meld's explanation, Kaori's cheeks blushed slightly and she took a glance at Hajime without anyone noticing. Anyone expect Daisuke and Aio that is.
"If that's the case, we should retrieve it!"
Daisuke said and abruptly moved toward it everyone watched him approach the wall that was embedded with Grantz Crystal, and climbed up causing tiny rocks to fall. Captian Meld then shouted in panic.
"Hey! Don't just do what you want! We haven't confirmed if it's safe!"
Daisuke ignored Meld's order and reached for it. It was at that moment Aio's transformed red wolf ruf began to stand on end and a near by knight finished his analysis of it. Aio watched as his face instantly paled before yelling " Captain its a trap!" the warning was to late however as Daisuke already touched it and a magic circle speard aross the room causing Aio to deactivate his transformation in a panic a momment later however light filled the room. For an instant the party felt like they where floating before falling on there asses, Captian Meld and the knights where the first to rise and observe there surroundings. They where teleported to a huge stone bridge which appeared to be a hundred meters in lenght and ten meters width, looking up however the ceiling appeared to be twenty meters tall, there was no watet source under the bridge only a bottomless abyss making it seem likely that if any of them fell they would parish.
Captain Melds expression turned grim as he yelled out orders "Everyone get up immediately! we must head towards the stairs Hurry!" hearing his orders everyone who was still on the floor got up immediately and began to run towards the stairs going up, they stopped however when they saw several magic circles emerge from the floor and moments later several skeleton monsters appeared from them. And then from behind them Captian Meld paled slightly before muttering "it- it couldn't be- a Behemoth?"
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