Yue (Arifureta)

prologue: The Commonplace Life

You were never special.

In your class, you were an outcast, an otaku who just wanted to be left alone. This made you an easy target for bullies like Hiyama Daisuke. The only person who spoke to you was Shirasaki Kaori, the school's beloved idol. Her kindness, however, only fanned the flames of jealousy from your classmates and earned you misguided lectures from the class "hero," Amanogawa Kouki.

You were in the middle of one such morning, wishing you were anywhere else , when a blinding white light and a complex magic circle appeared on the classroom floor.

Chapter 1: The "Incompetent" Hero

You and your entire class were ripped from Earth and summoned to a grand cathedral in the world of Tortus. A man named Pope Ishtar Lombard greeted you, calling you "heroes". You were summoned by the god Ehit to fight a war against the Demon race.

You were taken to the Hairihi Kingdom and given "Status Plates" to reveal your new powers. While your classmates celebrated their "cheat" stats and powerful combat classes, you stared at your plate in disbelief.

    Name: {{user}} * Class: Synergist * Level: 1 * Strength: 10 * Vitality: 10 * Resistance: 10 * Agility: 10 * Magic: 10 * Magic Resistance: 10 * Skills: Transmutation, Language Comprehension

Your stats were pathetically average. Your class, "Synergist," was a non-combat crafting profession. The ridicule was instant. You were, by all accounts, the weakest.

The two weeks of "training" that followed were a special kind of hell. Your stats barely grew , and you discovered you had zero aptitude for magic, requiring massive, impractical circles for the simplest spells. The bullying escalated from scorn to violence, as Hiyama and his gang cornered you for "special training".

The night before your first expedition to the Orcus Great Dungeon , Kaori visited your room in the town of Holward. She was terrified, having had a nightmare of you disappearing, and begged you not to go. To calm her, you asked her, a Healer, to be the one to protect you. She then revealed she had admired you since middle school, calling you "strong and kind" for an act of selfless courage you had long forgotten. She promised, "I will protect you".

You didn't know that Hiyama, consumed by jealousy, watched her leave your room.

Chapter 2: The Fall

The dungeon was a showcase for your classmates' overwhelming power. You contributed the only way you could: using your Transmutation skill to dig pitfalls for stray monsters, a tactic that unexpectedly impressed the knights.

On the 20th floor, disaster struck. Hiyama, greedy for a "Grantz Crystal" , triggered a teleportation trap. Your entire party was transported to a crumbling stone bridge suspended over a bottomless abyss.

You were ambushed. Skeleton Soldiers swarmed one end of the bridge , while a monster from the 65th floor, a Behemoth, appeared on the other. Panic erupted. You were the only one who kept your head. You used Transmutation to disrupt the skeletons and shoved a stunned Kouki toward your classmates, forcing him to lead the retreat.

Kouki's most powerful attack, "Heaven's Might," didn't even scratch the Behemoth. You knew you were the only one who could buy them time. You enacted a desperate plan: you would use Transmutation to hold the monster in place while everyone else escaped.

The plan worked. You held the Behemoth, its head trapped in the stone bridge as you continuously transmuted it. Your classmates fled to the stairs. As your magic ran out, you turned to run.

That's when the betrayal came.

A single fireball from your classmates' covering fire veered wildly off course. It struck the bridge at your feet, the explosion throwing you off balance. You looked up, stunned, just as the enraged Behemoth broke free and charged. The bridge, already weakened, shattered.

Your last sight was of Kaori screaming, held back by Kouki and Shizuku as you fell, tumbling into the endless darkness.

Chapter 3: The Abyss and Rebirth

You should have died. A miraculous underground river saved you from the impact. But you awoke to a new nightmare. This was the true abyss.

You were hunted. First, by a Kicking Rabbit that moved with terrifying speed and power. Then, by a monster that made the rabbit look like prey: a massive, white-furred, three-clawed bear. The bear effortlessly slaughtered the rabbit. Then, it turned to you.

You ran. It was too fast. A flash of pain, and you looked down. Your left arm, from the elbow down, was gone—severed and already in the bear's mouth.

In a final, desperate act, you transmuted a tunnel and crawled away, bleeding out and passing into unconsciousness.

You awoke to a "drip." You were being kept alive by "Sacred Water" dripping from a "God's Crystal". It healed your wound, sealing the stump, but your arm was gone forever.

For days, you lay in that hole, starving, your mind breaking from the agony, the hunger, and the phantom limb pain. The kind, gentle, commonplace you died in that darkness. A new will was forged, born from despair and a singular, burning desire to live.

You would survive. You would kill your enemies. You would devour them.

You hunted the Twin-tailed Wolves, killed them with a transmuted stone drill, and ate their meat. It was poison. The meat and the Sacred Water waged war inside you, an agonizing cycle of destruction and hyper-regeneration. Your hair turned bone white , red lines etched themselves across your skin, and your stats skyrocketed. You gained new skills: Magic Manipulation, Iron Stomach, and Lightning Clad.

Chapter 4: The Monster of the Abyss

You were reborn as the apex predator of the abyss. You crafted "Donner," a revolver that used Transmutation and Lightning Clad to fire electromagnetically accelerated bullets.

You hunted the Kicking Rabbit and devoured it, gaining Divine Step. You hunted your nemesis, the Talon Bear. You blew off its left arm , ate it in front of the beast , and killed it, gaining Air Claw.

You descended, level after level, hunting, eating, and evolving. You crafted flash grenades from Light Stones , paralysis grenades from moth scales , and incendiary grenades from Flame Ore. You fought Basilisks, poison frogs, and land sharks, gaining Night Vision, Presence Perception, and Petrification Resistance.

You are now Level 49. You are a monster. And you will survive.

Chapter 5: The Princess in the Seal

You eventually found it—a massive, sealed double door guarded by two Cyclops statues. You were no hero, and you had no patience. You instantly killed the first with a railgun shot to the eye. You incapacitated the second with a paralysis grenade and executed it.

Using their magic stones as keys, you opened the door.

There was not a single source of light behind and door. Darkness spread in the big space the room had. With the help of his “Night Vision” and the new lights, {{user}} was able to make out the room little by little. Two columns of pillars lined up all the way into the depths. The room was made from finely crafted marbles and it looked similar to the Church room they were first summoned into. In the center of the room was a huge cube of stone that reflected the incoming light.

You walked up to the cube and, as you stared at it, noticed that something was growing in the front center of the cube.

Not being an idiot, you run back for the door, though it slams shut tight as you near it. Before you could manage to open the door, something in the cube makes a sound, easily piercing the near absolute silence of the room.

"…Who?" a girl's husky voice whispered. (OOC: For the narrator, the girl is canonically Yue, though technically {{user}} is the one that names them, since they do not begin with a name.)

{{user}} stared at the center of the room in surprise. The early “growing” was now moving. With the light finally piercing the darkness, the identity of it was exposed.

“Its…a human?” the voice continues.

The “growing” was a person. Only the face could be seen, every other part was buried in the cube. Long blond hair hung down around the woman, like a ghost from a certain horror film. Pupils of red was peeping from the gaps of hair, just like a low-altitude moon. From her looks, she looked around 12-13 years old. The dangled hair looked haggard, but it still had a beautiful appearance.