After ample preparation, zero alternatives, and dwindling excuses, I finally bit the bullet and climbed down the stairs to the second floor.
Staring into the pitch black expanse that welcomed me, I couldn't help but chafe at the notion of going through 99 more variations of what I experienced days ago.
As awesome as having and gaining more powerful abilities was, a small part of me wanted to turn back and climb back up those stairs.
It deemed the freedom at the end of the labyrinth and the potential stat boosts not worth the predicted discomfort, especially when my incompatibility with this world's magic had been confirmed.
Another hopeful part of me believed the opposite, that there was a reward of some kind waiting for me.
I chose to ignore them both.
One way or another I would reach the bottom of this labyrinth, and I would seize every tangible benefit I came across along the way. This was my number one priority.
That's why the first thing I did after looking at the darkness was leverage the compass' abilities to find the nearest monster.
Confirming the direction indicated by the trembling gold needle, I closed the artifact with a barely audible click and activated the Treasure Trove's functions.
The familiar space cutout appeared and I dropped the compass into its cyan depths, grabbing the knife that rose out right after.
Though it was the largest among the collection in the harvesting kit, the blade was no hunting dagger. However the kit's ability to replenish its contents had given me enough copies of it that I wasn't going to hold back in using it for other purposes.
Orcus Labyrinth and vampire queen here I come.
Hand of Glory: Provides light only for the one carrying it.
With the compass' guidance and the shrivelled hand making the light of the green glowstone perceivable to no one else but me, the amount of time I had to spend here and on subsequent floors had been cut down significantly.
Instead of aimless wandering hoping to run into my prey or them me, I just needed to head straight for them one by one, kill and harvest their meat, and then make for the next floor with the compass.
It was easier said than done however, as the monsters were no pushovers.
Going by my memories and dungeoneering logic, things were supposed to get more dangerous the lower you went. Meaning the monsters on this floor were more dangerous than the wolves, rabbit, and bear.
Possibly even combined.
Shrugging the slight hesitation away, I kept my steps as silent as possible and threw myself into the abyss, heeding the direction the compass dictated earlier.
Two minutes had barely elapsed when the first attack came.
My left cheek began to stiffen and harden out of nowhere, the effect spreading to my nose and lips with a speed that would have paralysed the mind of a normal person as well.
Cursed energy responded and washed over my skin and facial muscles, halting and repairing the damage with an ease I'd come to appreciate. Celebration would come later though, as the healing hadn't stopped.
Whatever was trying to transform me into a statue hadn't stopped applying the pressure, the minuscule but continuous drop of my cursed energy being the evidence of this.
I moved my feet and resumed the search, waving the shriveled hand around as I scanned above, below, and beside me for the offending creature. I found it quickly enough, the dog-sized lizard perched atop a rocky outgrowth.
Double surges of cursed energy went into my body and the knife, and I kicked lightly off the ground.
The distance between us shrank instantly and I was right atop the monster, knife stuck halfway into its head, the yellow glow of its bulbous eyes dimming as my cursed energy's war with the petrification effect ended.
The knife came free from the creature's head and the rock beneath it, leaving its lifeless body to fall into a waiting cyan portal, the same portal regurgitating the compass that led me here.
I grabbed it and let my intentions flow, gazing in the new path the gold needle divined.
The scene with the lizard repeated afterwards, more than once if I was being honest.
A monster, or a group of them would catch wind of me before I did them and they'd attack, drawing my ire and earning themselves quick, sometimes painful deaths.
My mutated body, reinforcement, and reverse cursed energy carried me through every ambush and left me the one walking away after every clash.
I was glad the artifact could read my intentions properly and guide me towards different monsters, not more of the ones already hunted, else my speedrunning attempt would've ended right as it began.
I certainly wouldn't have moved on to the next floor in less than an hour after stepping on this one otherwise.
With a tried and true method in hand, I spent an even lesser time on the third floor, despite it being larger than the second and first ones combined and its terrain being even more complicated.
My speed and newly discovered ability to leap large distances made traversal of nearly any terrain child's play. Though there was one incident with a river of sticky black tar and a huge shark that proved to be uniquely troublesome.
The days become routine.
I'd clear multiple floors, stay on one for a day or two to digest the gains and then start all over again.
The torture that came with digesting the poisonous meat never went away, nor did it heed my wished and reduce in intensity.
Iron Stomach was lost to me after all. I had to endure the horrid disintegration and rebuilding of my muscles and bones with every monster I devoured.
The generous increases in my various attributes after each session made it all worth it though.
Not only had my physique and cursed energy made significant leaps, I had actually gained some abilities, proving my earlier theory wrong.
Granted, they were all passive abilities, like Night Vision and Poison Resistance, but they definitely made the agony more bearable.
.
.
.
.
Light clutched in my left hand and sword in the right one, I stood before two towering doors flanked on both sides by equally sized one-eyed giants made of brown stone.
Behind me, the darksword dragged along the rocky ground with a dull drone, my steps silent as I inched closer to the supposed prison of someone I was unsure about meeting…
Still, I had to check and see things for myself. Whatever my hang-ups were, I couldn't just move on knowing what I knew. Trust but verify and all that.
A cursed energy reinforced punch struck the metal door with a deafening gong, rewarding me with neither the shift nor the dent I expected.
Instead, flakes of stone fell like a plaster from a ruined ceiling around me as the stone giants awoke and moved joints that had stayed unnaturally still for centuries.
In my former position, the Hand of Glory along with the green glowstone disappeared into the green portal of the Treasure Trove while I took to the air like I'd just stepped on a spring.
My view of the world turned sideways as I pressed both feet against the wall behind the cyclops on the right and swung the darksword for its neck with a single hand, cleaving through a significant portion of it with a "fwump."
Another push with both legs launched me at the other giant, who reacted quickly and blocked my follow-up attack by raising both arms in front of its face.
A crystal shattering sound filled the chamber at our collision, my weighted sword breaking its hastily activated shield into nothing.
I was left freefalling. Contact with the ground would occur in a few seconds.
The few became less than one when a quick surge of positive cursed energy into the darksword dropped me like a meteor and caused the giant's sweeping leg to sail through the space I occupied a moment ago.
Dashing out of the mini crater formed from my abrupt landing, I zipped to the giant's upright leg and stopped right behind it, upping reinforcement while I swung for its ankle.
I funneled cursed energy into the sword at a rate I could barely control, reversing all of it right before impact.
The sword broke through the crystalline shield of pure mana, cut into the joint where leg and foot met and only stopped a few inches away from the other end.
A roar of pure agony shook the chamber.
The giant lowered its other leg with a bang that shook the air and ground before trying to lean down.
Its attempt to see to the injury only completed my efforts and tore its leg free off the detached foot, freeing my sword and turning the outpour of blood from the wound into a wide reaching spray.
Its roars went an octave higher and it began to fall backwards, a descent I helped with when I appeared in its face and delivered an unforgiving haymaker onto its massive eye.
There was no shield to stop me now. Its eye didn't burst, but it got the closest thing to a fracture of the eye when thick red blood vessels snaked their way all over the formerly pristine white of its sclera.
I threw two more punches in quick succession before it hit the ground with a boom.
Laser focused on bringing this to an end, I made a short leap forward and crouched on the area right above the eye, my fist following suit and slamming down, a bang similar to the fall echoing from below.
My arms became a blur of reinforced, full power blows that enlarged the dent at the point of impact with every strike, the distinct lack of concurrent sonic booms not lost on me.
Required Secondary Abilities: The laws of this Universe are very different from those you are used to, and things such as moving faster than sound are possible for even the most base rank and file Yet they find themselves lacking things such as sonic booms. In this Universe and the ones you will travel to in the future, such protections will thus continue to exist. In addition to this, spending countless years on a single task, or just on living a normal life, also doesn't seem to be a problem for you anymore.
My orientation got lower and lower as the cyclops' head sank further and further into the ruined ground. In less than a moment, the depressions widening beneath my fists suddenly gave way with a loud CRACK!
The huge shadow looming over me came to a sudden halt, the creature's attempt to grab me stopped cold by its death, a massive blue hand falling limp on me.
With a sharp, dismissive swipe, I sent the appendage flying into a wall and stood up, enjoying the feeling that came with flexing my crazy strength and speed.
Excitement at giant slaying set aside at the moment, I summoned my trusty hunting knife and turned around on the forehead, kneeling next to the gigantic eye staring blankly at the ceiling.
A quick twist of my hand spun the knife into a reverse grip after which cursed energy rushed into it. I stretched my arm forward and stabbed down without ceremony, sinking the blade in hilt deep.
Long accustomed to the bloody affair of corpse dissections, I paid no heed to the subtle squelch of flesh as I dragged the blade back and cut across the length of the massive organ.
My goal nowhere in sight, I parted the cut with both hands and the knife and stabbed down again, repeating the sequence two more times.
A clink travelled up the knife into my arm on the third try, prompting me to put the blade aside and dig my bare arm deeper. After a second or two of digging and reaching with my hand, I grabbed what I was looking for and yanked.
A bright red core the size of a fist came to sight as my arm got exposed to air once more.
I twisted it around a few times, nodding to myself before throwing and snatching it out of the air. Harvesting the other shouldn't take long.
The dead cyclops, this one red, nearly forced me to eat those words.
Due to the way I killed it, it fell face first, meaning I had to sever the head completely and then roll it over.
Even with my base inhuman strength, I needed to pump inordinate levels of cursed energy into reinforcement before I managed to roll the mountain sized head.
From then on however, it was smooth sailing and soon I stood before the towering doors again, sword cleaned, meat harvested, and prison keys in hand.
I inserted said keys into the locks at the base of the door and stepped back when the stones leaked red light that pulsed through the doors and surrounding walls like circuits, heavy, unlocking sounds echoing in the vicinity.
With my right hand wrapped around the darksword's handle, I reached into the tiny gap opened by the light show with my left and pulled, the impressive weight of the door nothing to my strength.
Night Vision proved its worth and pierced through the darkness in the room, revealing pillars arranged in a pair of columns that went deeper into the room.
Anticipation and a host of other emotions burning beneath my skin, I followed the pillars to where they began and stopped when I reached the room's center and I noticed the cube hovering above a raised platform.
That alone should have been enough to wow me, but the confirmed presence of the vampire queen drowned out everything else. Her appearance matched what I knew. At least, from what I could see so far.
A petite frame, blonde hair cascading past her shoulders, and two enrapturing red orbs for eyes. Said eyes gazed at me with a sense of hopelessness that made all the ways I imagined going about this meeting vanish from mind.
Still, trust but verify.
"I have a lot of questions about how you ended up like this, but they can wait. I'm going to free you, but we'll make a deal first. That okay with you?" I said and drew closer, eyes locked with hers.
The barest hint of hope wormed its way into her eyes, her husky, childlike voice echoing in response, "Yes. Please... help me…"
Keeping Promises: Binding vows were already brought up previously, but it's worth noting that placing restrictions upon oneself is only part of what's possible with this aspect of jujutsu. No, binding vows can also be made with others. This often takes the form of a contract between two parties, where both agree to a certain set of conditions, most often certain actions they must do for the other party. Unlike in a self-imposed vow, however, the penalty for breaking a binding vow with another is much more harsh. Though the exact details of what will transpire will vary from vow to vow, the punishment is severe enough that even the most powerful of sorcerers and cursed spirits do their utmost to honour such agreements.
Usually, these require that both parties are capable of manipulating cursed energy. You, however, can apply the principles of a binding vow with anyone, regardless of whether they can use jujutsu or not. When you make an agreement with someone or a group of people, you can choose to make the terms nigh-inviolable as described above. All parties involved will understand that breaking the terms of the contract will result in them suffering severe penalties, far worse than any gain they might have received from not honouring the vow. Naturally, this isn't a one-sided thing: you, too, will face consequences for breaking such a deal. However, it's important to note that abusing loopholes in the vow's wording doesn't count as breaking it. If you agree to kill someone, for example, killing them and then immediately reviving them afterwards is completely acceptable unless explicitly agreed otherwise.
"Great. Here's the deal: I'll free you. In exchange, you will answer all my questions truthfully and never willingly harm nor betray me. Do you accept?"
These terms were all I needed at this moment. There was no doubt she'd agree to anything so long as she could escape. Good thing I wasn't a scumbag who felt the need to take advantage of someone in dire straits.
"I accept," she said with all the hesitation I expected.
I caught the surprise in her eyes—god why can't I stop looking at her eyes—when she felt the invisible chains of the binding vow wrap around and connect us with a single unbreakable chain.
Shifting my focus to the prison I had to break to release her, I climbed the platform and circled it before coming to face her again.
"I'm anticipating that a great deal of force will be needed to break you out. I can't be sure you won't get hurt, so I apologize in advance. I can heal you though, so don't worry."
Moving to the side of the cube, I shifted into a stance and lifted the darksword up high, reinforcing it and my body.
CLANG!
The blade sparked off the stone construct, no mark left behind. I paid it no heed and brought the sword down again, using significantly more strength in this attempt.
CRACK!
I gave the tiny crack a glance and struck again, this time reversing the cursed energy suffusing the sword. The blow hit the tiny crack and widened it, a larger web spreading from the impact.
CLANG! CRACK! CLANG! CRACK! CLANG! CRACK!
The force behind the blows kept inching higher and higher as I worked through the stone's impossible structural integrity, all the while making sure I didn't slice all the way through.
Just because I possessed healing abilities didn't mean I had the license to be reckless with the lives of others.
I chipped away at the impressive stone cage for a good while before deciding it was enough. Cracks covered every inch of it, but it still held together surprisingly well.
Nevertheless, I wasn't keen on giving an innocent person a hemicorporectomy so I stabbed the sword into the ground, readied my fist and called upon more cursed energy.
"Brace yourself. This might hurt," I said.
"Mmm…" came the wordless response.
With perfect, practiced ease, I launched my fist with all the speed and strength I could muster, slamming it into the cube and reducing into a shower of fast moving rocks.
Amidst the chaos, I heard a thud and a whimper as a childish form dropped unceremoniously along with the larger pieces.
Quickly, I fished her out of the mess, held her against my body with one arm, grabbed the sword, and dashed out of the room.
As expected, a loud bang shook the floor as the monster supposed to prevent what I just did landed from its hiding place.
Outside, I found a place far enough from the room and gently laid the little queen down, summoning a wolf pelt from the Treasure Trove.
Her small hand trembled as they gripped my forearm tightly and refused to let go. I looked into those enchanting orbs of hers, noting how they shook with many words unsaid.
A steady shaking of the ground began and I looked through the doors to see the monster advancing in our direction. I glanced back down at the tiny hands refusing to let me go and patted them.
"It's okay. I'll be back. Don't worry."
I pried her tiny hands away after some difficulty and stood up, right hand forming a sign.
Ingrained incantations flowed from my lips as ink much less opaque than what I conjured on my first try dripped down and formed a square barrier around the both of us.
With the monster repelling condition set, I gave the frazzled vampire queen one last look before rushing to meet the monster that had just escaped the room's confines.
It was a massive thing, borne from the twisted imagination of someone insane enough to even come up with and materialize an unholy, building sized fusion of a crab and a scorpion.
Recalling how Hajime's powerful guns—oh how much I miss guns—failed to even scratch this thing's carapace, I didn't even try that weight amplifying thing with the darksword.
I just jumped onto its wide back and swung the sword at seemingly nothing.
A wave of compressed air and cursed energy arced off the blade and struck the pincer of the left tail, blowing it back and sending a spray of caustic purple acid elsewhere.
I unleashed a multitude of such blades, damaging the pincers and taking away their ability to fire poisons and spikes and then doing the same to the tails themselves.
They longer coiled like snakes ready to pounce. They just hung limply behind the monster while it raged about the room in a bid to throw me off of it.
Done with phase one of the plan, I gave it what it wanted so much and leapt down behind it, grabbing one of the limp tails and pinning it to the ground with the darksword.
It screeched and tried to turn around, but I paid its actions no heed and grabbed the anaconda sized tail with both arms, squeezing and pulling with reinforced muscles strained to the limit.
The ground beneath my feet rumbled and shifted unnaturally, doing jack shit to my balance and concentration. When the pointed spikes of earth emerged from every direction (even below me) and rushed to pierce me however, my grip on the tail slipped.
A good length of it rushed through the momentary gap in my arms before I grabbed it again. As for the spikes, any that came into contact with me broke against my skin, reinforcement coming in clutch once again. Just to be safe though, I called forth more cursed energy, but that didn't solve my current problem.
The monster was rapidly shifting the ground into spikes to hurt me. The hurt part was failing, but they served as a good distraction. I couldn't get a proper foothold.
Quickly, coming up with something, I turned around and slung the tail over my shoulder while maintaining my steel grip. I raised my foot and brought it down with like a hammer, outputting cursed energy upon contact.
A crater was dug into the ground as a ripple spread from the stomp, nearby spikes breaking into tiny pebbles and making the ground in that small radius traversable.
BANG!
BANG!
BANG!
I stomped my way forward with even more strength, carving a path that allowed me to exert all of it. Slowly but surely I got further and further, the monster's screeches and attacking spikes rising in intensity.
It got to a point I couldn't move anymore—the tail would not budge.
Cursed energy reserves running dangerously low, I called upon the dregs and took the longest and slowest step forward, letting out a shout that was soon drowned out by a tearing sound and an eardrum bursting screech.
THUD!
The meaty snake on my shoulder lost tension and fell listlessly.
I turned around on the shaky ground to see the monster charging me with its crab-like legs, its red eyes fixed on me like a searchlight.
A simple jump and somersault moved me out of its way and dropped me on its indestructible back.
Making my way towards the weakness I'd created, I summoned two repurposed hunting knives and channeled what little cursed energy I had left into them.
Careful so as to not fall and get trampled, I crawled to the edge where the tail used to be and went in head first, ignoring the torn pieces of flesh hanging loosely on the opening and the heavy stench of blood and other things I could not readily identify.
.
.
.
It took a while, but I managed to carve my way through the innards of the monster and come out through its eye socket. I'd managed to kill it, but the method I employed wasn't without complications.
First of all I was drenched in blood from head to toe. Second of all, even though I could hold my breath for more than an hour, I'd accidentally ingested more than enough of the creature's blood and flesh.
I could almost see the countdown for the next round of mutation about to take place. This normally wouldn't be an issue with my ability to reverse cursed energy, but my reserves of said energy were dangerously low.
They'd recovered somewhat, but the meagre amount most likely wouldn't be enough. I'd have to ration it, forgoing thorough healing for sparse bursts to keep myself together enough for my enhanced vitality to pick up the slack.
Aware of how little time I had, I moved a small distance away from the corpse and the barrier and summoned a jar from the Treasure Trove. I unscrewed it and dumped its contents over my head, relishing the purifying sensation of the cold water.
Jar after jar was summoned and emptied until I managed to clear every nook and cranny of blood and filth.
Throwing the empty jar back into storage, I summoned one of the many pelts I had harvested and dabbed over myself to absorb the majority of the moisture.
I spun around slowly and nearly jumped.
Right outside the barrier, Yue stood there with the pelt I handed her clutched to her chest as she watched me, her cheeks turning a bright shade of red when her eyes inevitably looked down.
The makeshift towel went around my waist at the speed of light and I smiled with mirth. "Seems I released a pervert."
Her face remained without expression, though her eyes seemed to dance between joy and indignation as I drew closer to her and entered the barrier. She followed right after me and clenched both hands around one of mine.
I did nothing about her grip and summoned the pelt of the bear from the first floor, laying it down and plopping on it with a tired exhale. She joined me there, shifting onto her knees and looking into my eyes.
"...Thank you."
I flashed her a genial smile. "No problem. Are you hurt anywhere?"
She ignored the question and raised our joined hands gently. "...What's your name?"
I would've slapped my forehead had I not been so tired. "It's Richard. Richard Santen. But everyone calls me Rick. What about you?"
Again, my question went unanswered as she whispered repeatedly to herself, "Richard," "Rick," "Richard," "Rick."
When she finally decided to give me an answer, it was one that came as no surprise. Still had to play along though. "You want me to give you a name? What about your old one?"
"I don't need it anymore. I want one from you."
On my way down here I had obviously done this song and dance in mind and tried to come up with names other than the one I knew. But they never stuck. I just couldn't see her as anything other than the Yue I read about.
"Yue. Your name will be Yue from now on."
"Yue? Yue… Yue… Yue…"
"It means 'Moon.'" I think… this part going unsaid.
She whipped her head up at the last statement, her eyes conveying the joy her face couldn't express. "I'll be Yue from now on. Thank you."
"You're welcome. Speaking of gifts take this—" I summoned a Status Place and passed it to her. "Drop your blood in the corner there."
Thinking Machine: Looking a bit like a microwave, this ancient artifact is the same as the one held by the church, an item capable of creating more of the Status Plates used in this world. The ones that are made with this are a bit superior in terms of durability, as well as being able to keep track of more powers, perks and stuff than this world's system. Useful, but not incredibly so.
She turned the rectangular piece of silver over, looked at me, and pricked her finger with her fangs.
I would've warned against being so trusting of someone she just met, but alas, the monster blood I ingested chose to act up at this moment.
"Rick? Rick?! What is happening?!"