CH.735 Beginning of Chaos in the Past
Following Hajime eventually led me to a small town. I didn’t know which town it was, so we couldn’t compare it to our map.
While Hajime entered a few stores, trying to sell some stuff from his Inventory, I flew around town, hopefully figuring out where we were. Sadly there were no solid landmarks or anything.
After getting a bit of money, Hajime headed out of the town. I assumed he may have stayed for the night, but admittedly, with his flight speed, he can easily reach other towns or cities before the day is done.
It is interesting that he sold a bit of stuff here, but maybe he is trying to avoid selling too much in one place.
Before the day was done, Hajime stopped in two other towns, again selling small things. He also had a meal in one of them. He kind of has to. Sure he has Inventory, but that can’t keep your food fresh. And I’m not sure how good Matter Manipulation is at making food. It probably would work, but it might be too challenging.
… Okay, probably not. Hajime turned himself into an Elf, so he should be able to manipulate food. Maybe he only has a limited amount and doesn’t want to burn through it yet? Could be.
I also enjoyed a meal, but mine was a pre-packaged meal from Storage. And HomeBase cooking is definitely better than whatever he is eating.
“Speaking of, we don’t have snacks.” Alice pointed out.
“Well, we don’t get hungry here.” Lua said.
“Then why is Brian’s arm in your mouth?” Alice asked.
“... because he tastes good.” Lua answered.
“And I’ve missed it.” I added. “But you have access to Storage, just take out some snacks. There should be plenty. I didn’t really eat many snacks in the past.”
Alice did just that, bringing out some potato chips, sweets and a few other things.
“Oh and can you pour me some cola?” I asked. “Haven’t had any in … a few years.”
“Why not?” Alice asked.
“... forgot I had some in Storage.” I admitted.
The following days were quite similar. Hajime is just going from town to town, collecting some money. He seemed to avoid large cities, as we passed by a few. And ‘large city’, is a questionable term. There aren’t that many big cities in this area yet.
And yes. I’ve managed to figure out where we are. We are currently in Narra Kingdom, heading south. Most likely towards the island that will in the future be known as the Hero’s country.
But as I said, there aren’t many large cities yet. That is because the three Kingdoms aren’t a thing yet. This era was still ruled by smaller nations, like the ones in the north. They were basically just a few towns that joined with a single larger city to form a small nation. Generally to form a united front against powerful monsters.
The three Kingdoms we know today only came about because of the demon lord. His forces threatened the people living in those areas, so they had to unite even larger forces to stand up to him. And then the Hero went around solidifying those nations, and some say he even picked the Royal families. But the Royals haven’t shared that information and the Hero’s diary doesn’t say anything about that, so I doubt it is true. I think it might just be a rumor spread to make them seem more important.
Eventually we reached the island that held the Castle Dungeon. Not that it is known by that name just yet.
There are actually no people living on the island. Well, no land folk. The island is ruled by a few aquatic tribes. Mer-folk, Octopus-folk, Shark-folk and a few other aquatic races live in the waters, and with no bridges to the central island, no regular person would want to go there.
But that didn’t bother Hajime. He simply flew over all those troubling things.
The dungeon didn’t have an entrance. It was one of the defense mechanisms of the Chaos God Dungeons that were under System control. As this at the time was. So Hajime had to use a mix of Earth Magic and his unique skill to dig it open. He then covered it behind him.
I didn’t think he would, but he did. I’m not sure why, but maybe it is to protect against invasions.
Hajime then cleared the dungeon. With his level and skills it wasn’t all that difficult. Especially since the castle dungeon is laid out differently from HomeBase. HomeBase is one long continuous dungeon, whereas the castle dungeon has a larger, mace-like area at the start, followed by a ‘boss rush’ of ten boss rooms, each more difficult than the last.
But you can easily make it to the boss rush rooms in a day if you know the way, and Hajime seemed to know it. Even more proof that he has the Mental Map unique skill.
The boss rush wasn’t that big of a challenge for him either. Simply put, Hajime is too strong. And his unique skill demolished anything that dared to touch him.
The only thing that caused him even a bit of difficulty was a phantom creature which didn’t have a physical body he could kill with his Matter Manipulation. Against it, he used quite a bit of magic, taking it down. But that one was an opponent where I’m decently sure I could have dealt with it faster and easier.
After getting to the core room, Hajime put his hand on the dungeon core. The core reacted to his touch, becoming his. Hajime became the Dungeon Master of a Chaos God Dungeon.
And then, we waited.
For a long time.
Had it not been for Laura, Tahlia, Fantasia and all my monsters in the Factory, I would have lost my mind from waiting for something to happen. It got to the point where I considered my eternal crystal strategy, just to get to the time when something would happen.
But I wanted to know everything Hajime did, so I stayed with him.
It was more than seventeen years later when Hajime finally did something. During those years, things with him had deteriorated. And with me. Well, I was able to keep my sanity. Having people to talk to made all the difference. Even if Laura is ‘just a System Support’, Tahlia and Fantasia are ‘just skills’ and my monsters are just ‘a byproduct of a skill’.
And I didn’t waste all of that time. I leveled myself up. A lot.
My overall level was now 999, the current limit I had hit. I’m not sure if it was the absolute limit, but it might be. Limit Break was stuck at 10 and could no longer be leveled up. And a lot of my skills were in the 90s, with my most used ones now at an even 100.
“What!?” I heard that yell for a second time. But this time it was just Unika.
“Yeah. Not a fun time, but I had to do it.” I told her.
“You really are level 999?” Unika asked.
“Yes. I’ll show you my status later.” I promised.
“... is that why you were careful when you appeared?” Cailie asked.
“Yes. I think Alice realized it.” I said and Alice nodded in confirmation. “My stats are … high. And I’ve been living with Intangibility and Invisibility on for a good part of a century, so I wasn’t sure how much strength I should use. Even with daily training in the Factory.”
“Just how long were you in the past?” Alice asked.
“About 80 years.” I answered. “The entire time Hajime was there and then … actually, no spoilers.”
“Then how do you look that young!?” She exclaimed.
“Probably my level.” I theorized. “Or maybe my race. I did notice that I don’t age at about the two year mark. It was when I was seriously considering the eternal crystal strategy. I had already reached level 800 and I was sure I could take on Hajime at that point.”
“How did you notice it?” Lua asked. “That you don’t age.”
“Hair growth. And nail growth. My hair grew so little in the two years that I began to theorize that I don’t age. Confirmed it over the next few years.”
“It could also be because of your Intangibility.” Janina said. “Maybe time itself couldn’t touch you.”
“Still had to eat and relieve myself, but possible. Or maybe I did micro evolutions thanks to my Draconic and Demonic skills. Those might have ‘reset’ my age a bit.”
But as I said, Hajime had deteriorated. And not just his mentality, but also his level. When he came to this time, he was level 570, but because of a curse he had gained around the 13 year mark, he was now just level 513. The curse being a curse of hebetude. [Could also be called the curse of mental lethargy. Or maybe the curse of boredom. Basically, since Hajime has spent all this time alone waiting for something, he is beginning to lose his mind. He has isolated himself at the bottom of the dungeon, and nothing is happening.]
Hajime had survived on whatever food he brought with him for as long as he could. Which I found strange, since a Chaos God Dungeon can produce food. But Hajime refused to use the core for anything. He didn’t even produce himself a good bed, instead relying on a monster corpse he turned into a makeshift bed.
And even his food supplies were running out. He no longer seemed to have any meat, so he boiled bones for soup and ate bread that had gone stale. He did fix the bread with his skill, but it wasn’t the same.
You might think I have the same problem, but I really don’t. Unlike him, I can leave the dungeon whenever I want. I just set up a Spacial Observation spell to keep an eye on him, fly somewhere real quick, buy or hunt some ingredients, cook the food, and return. Instant Meal is a lifesaver in that, as I can mass produce simple meals with it.
I recalled how Tamaki described the demon lord. He secured the core and waited. But what did Hajime wait for?
I have a theory. He waited for the demon lord. Hajime hadn’t realized he was the Demon Lord.
The States must have sent him back in time to join forces with the Demon Lord. Hajime would have had the level and the skills to really assist the Demon Lord, maybe to the point where the Demon Lord would have never been defeated.
I do question why. Why would they do that? What do they gain out of the demon lord winning? It just makes no sense.
“Did you ever figure that out?” Lua asked.
“Kind of, but it is stupid and I’m not even sure it is true. He may not have been in his right mind when he said it, but during the final battle… sorry, spoilers.”
Theorizing aside, after 17 years of sitting on the Chaos God Core, Hajime finally began using it. And he used it a lot.
First he changed the dungeon, redoing the insides to make them even easier to traverse. He then used the core to expand the reach of the dungeon, making the entire island a part of it.
That wasn’t the case in the future, so that must have been changed back later.
Hajime then began building a castle at the top of the dungeon. He did this by using both the dungeon’s power and his own unique skill.
After he had a castle, he began enslaving the aquatic races that lived around his island. He did this by using both dungeon core made slave collars, as well as drawing slave marks, the old forbidden kind, on them.
He also began attacking nearby settlements, capturing people, enslaving them and then using them for experiments. At first, horrific monsters were born, but eventually Hajime got better, and actual functioning people were ‘born’. More like reborn.
And at some point, the first vampires came to be. Sure the experiments Hajime did left them outside of the System, being nothing more than people turned into humanoid monsters, but because of that, they were a lot stronger than they were before the ‘improvements’.
Hajime grew his forces, connecting the Demon Lord’s castle to three different directions with land bridges, and used his forces to invade even further lands. To the point where, after 43 years of us being in the past, the other System Gods finally decided that enough was enough.
Hajime had brought the core of the Castle Dungeon to its limits, and it was ripping apart the dimensional barrier to keep up with his demands. He had become an enemy of the world, and he was declared as such.
And a request for assistance was sent out by the three Gods. To Gods outside the System. To anyone who could help in keeping the world together.
Meanwhile, the All-Mighty did nothing, letting Hajime do what he wanted.