Abyss Lord's Emergence!

A figure sped down the labyrinth corridors so fast that he appeared no more than a blur.

That figure was, of course, Rob Freeman. Having completely mastered Air Dance, he was using Supersonic Step to dash off the walls, while sometimes also using Aerodynamic to create mid-air footholds for himself. He traversed the labyrinth at high speed, seeking out the strongest monster inhabiting this floor, the Bear.

Seven days had passed since Rob fell into the abyss and underwent Monsterification. Even though day and night had no meaning in that place, it was almost noon outside the labyrinth.

In the past week, Rob had been busy. Apart from hunting the Wolves a few days ago, he had been focusing on training his skills, crafting weapons to arm himself, and training his proficiency in using his new weapons.

Rob had never slept, not even a wink. He took the advantage of the restorative effect of Ambrosia to replenish his stamina and magic power to keep going without a short break or a proper rest.

Rob wanted to conquer the Great Orcus Labyrinth as quickly as possible, but he didn't want to be in such a rush that he neglected his safety. Even though he preferred to finish this labyrinth as quickly as possible, it would mean nothing if he ended up dying from his haste.

Regardless of what happened in the past week, let's go back to that moment. Rob ran into a pack of Wolves. However, those Wolves were not aware of his existence since he was under the influence of Presence Isolation and Minimum Mind.

His presence-isolating skills were capable of hiding Rob from the detection of the Wolves and Rabbits inhabiting this floor. It was a very unfair advantage that Hajime couldn't enjoy in the original story.

Nevertheless, Rob ignored the pack of Wolves and continued to look for the Bear. A few moments later, he found his quarry.

Crouched in the middle of the labyrinth corridor, the Bear was chewing on the remains of what appeared to have been a Rabbit.

While there were hordes of Wolves and Rabbits, the Bear was the only one of its kind. It was the strongest monster to appear on this floor. In other words, it was the boss of this floor.

As the Boss of this floor, it was acknowledged as the strongest monster by other monsters. The other monsters even took great pains to stay out of its way, and if they ever encountered it, they ran as fast as they could in the other direction.

Rob landed on the ground softly and carefully, not letting the Bear sense any signs of his arrival as he didn't want to alert it. The distance between him and the Bear was a little over ten meters. It wasn't far, but if he distanced himself more than that, the rocky terrains would block his vision.

Rob preferred to have a visual of his opponent despite having other means to track its whereabouts.

Finally, Rob quietly took his sword and revolver out of the Item Box. He held his sword in his right hand and his revolver in his left hand.

As Rob observed the Bear from afar, he thought of a way to kill his quarry. His Wild Intuition warned him that the Bear was far stronger than him despite his current stats.

'Okay, fighting it head-on is a stupid thing to do,' Rob conceded in his mind.

Then, he raised his revolver in his left hand and pointed the muzzle at the still eating Bear that was oblivious to the danger threatening its life.

He invoked his Electrokinesis skill, converting his magic power into the electricity needed to ignite blastrock powder and increase the speed of the bullet that his revolver would launch.

As Rob uses his favorite skill, the Bear stopped eating. It finally realized that it was not alone.

The Bear lifted its head and turned in Rob's position. It could feel the built-up magic power but couldn't see the source of it- wait a minute!

The Bear squinted its eyes. Then, it finally noticed a blurry silhouette clad in red sparks.

Alas, it was a little late.

Rob pulled the trigger. His revolver shot a bullet at the Bear with a loud *bang!*. The bullet flew at the Bear, leaving a trail of a thin, straight red line.

However, what happened next made Rob's jaw drop in incredulity.

The Bear tilted its head. Its movement was simple but so fast that it seemed like a video with skipped frames. It managed to dodge the bullet that should have penetrated its head and reaped its life.

"What the fu-"

Rob couldn't finish his sentence because the Bear suddenly... moved.

Like a video with skipped frames, the Bear moved in the blink of an eye. It appeared in front of Rob in an instant.

'Fast!' Rob shouted in his mind.

The Bear raised its right hand which had long and sharp like claws that seemed like draggers. The claws were also covered in ominous red magic power.

Its red irises gleamed with a cruel glint. Its intention was obvious. It wanted to tear Rob apart with its claws for interrupting its meal.

Rob felt a sinking feeling in his stomach when he realized the Bear's intention. He was also surprised that the Bear was able to move so quickly betraying its size and body shape.

Facing the threat of death for the first time, combined with the Bear's terrifying presence that slammed at him from a zero distance, Rob froze in place.

'Am I going to die here?' Rob wondered in his mind.

Time seemed to slow down into a crawl as his entire life in his original world, and what happened to him since he transmigrated as Kousuke Endou, flashed through his mind.

In his life in the original world, he had never experienced a life-threatening incident. After transmigrating as Kousuke Endou, he had never experienced an incident that endangered his life for real.

His experience of fighting monsters for the first time came under the watch of the kingdom's knights and mages. Besides, the monsters were restrained she he killed them, so he wasn't really in any danger.

Meanwhile, the expedition to the Great Orcus Labyrinth a week ago had not put him in any real danger either. At that time, he was not alone, and his abilities kept him safe.

After falling into the abyss, he was lucky to find the remains of the Rabbit on the first floor. And when he hunted the Wolves to get their meat, he wasn't in a life-and-death situation because of his isolated presence and blitzkrieg ambush.

Indeed, it was the first time he had experienced a life-and-death situation.

Freezing up in such a situation was absolutely stupid, but he couldn't help it.

His situation at that time was like when someone got threatened with a gun or saw a truck speeding towards him. If someone experienced that, they would have two kinds of reactions.

The first reaction, they would freeze in shock and fear while their mind blanked out. The second reaction, their bodies would enter into a survival state and subconsciously seek a way out of the situation, either moving to a safe place in a knee-jerk reaction or staying silent but assessing all possibilities to find a way out.

Unfortunately, Rob experienced the first reaction at this moment. His body froze, and his mind turned blank.

'No! I don't want to die! Move, damn it! Move!'

The part of his mind that was miraculously still able to think tried to force his body to dodge the Bear's attack. However, his body betrayed him at that crucial moment.

The Bear finally swung its arms downwards, and its sharp claws, shrouded in ominous red magic power, rushed over to Rob's body. An instant later, the claws tore Rob's body like a hot knife cutting through butter.

Dark liquid spilled from Rob's body which was torn apart by the Bear's claws. Its eyes gleamed in cruel satisfaction.

However, a development that surprised and confused the Bear occurred. Rob's body that it tore apart suddenly exploded, dispersing a jet-black gaseous substance.

The Bear backpacked. Then, it tilted its head in confusion. It had never witnessed such a thing when killing other monsters in its life.

"Fuuuh~."

A snort sounded suddenly, and the Bear turned towards the source. It saw the annoying two-legged being that should have been torn apart by its claws standing without any sign of damage in distance.

Indeed, Rob had managed to avoid his gruesome end in the Bear's claws.

However, he seemed different. His presence seemed to have changed, giving off the haughty feeling as if he was looking down on everything. He wasn't even facing the Bear instead showing his side to it.

"From the darkest of the most darkest corners of the omniverse!" He suddenly monologued with a posh and haughty tone. His pose changed into Eagle Stance that often appeared in some old Kung-Fu movies.

"From the absolute depth of the deepest abyss!" He threw his revolver up, making it spin above his head in the air. At the same time, he pointed his sword at the confused Bear.

"The time of true salvation is nigh!" His supposedly empty left hand held the frame of the sunglasses he got out of nowhere. He then brought the glasses to his face and put them on.

"Crave this moment in your soul, O Pitiful Beast!" He caught his revolver right in the handle with his left hand. He then spun clockwise in his place.

"Dread it!" He pointed the muzzle of his revolver at the Bear. He then spun counter-clockwise before stopping and pointing his sword at the Bear.

"Run from it!" He spun again. This time, clockwise. After a couple of twirls, he stopped and pointed his sword and revolver at the Bear.

"The abyss arrives all the same!" He crossed his arms in front of his face and invoked his Electrokinesis, cladding his body in ominous red sparks.

He made a T-pose and declared loudly, "For you're in the most sublime presence of I, Rooob~ F. Abyyyyys~ Looord~!"

He lowered his hands to his sides after that. He finally ended his bizarre, silly, pointless, and over-the-top behavior with "Oh, yeah!" and a smug grin.

Indeed, something did happen to Rob. When he sensed the imminent threat of death, his Abyss Break derivation skill activated automatically. As a result, Rob Freeman became Rob F. Abysslord.

On another note, Rob F. Abysslord isn't an alter ego or an entirely different entity separated from the person known as Rob Freeman. He's still the same person. He's just under the influence of the Abyss Break derivative skill that turns him into a Cuunibyou.

It's like when you have an unbearable impulse to do something, and you can't help but do it since it's so irresistible. On a scale of one to ten with ten being the highest, this impulse is on a scale of 100. Thus, it's impossible not to follow it.

Regardless of the mechanics behind Rob's changes of behavior, it was quite surprising that the Bear didn't attack Rob. After all, he had just monologued and showed some silly poses that showed many openings.

At first, the Bear witnessed Rob's ridiculous actions out of curiosity. However, it became stunned into inactivity when it saw how cringey Rob's actions were.

After all, that cringe value was over 9000!

His cringey actions even affected the Bear that had the intelligence of an ordinary animal. For the Bear, watching Rob's silly behavior was no different from watching a trainwreck or a car crash.

You're horrified by it, but you're incapable of tearing your attention away from it while freezing on the spot. The Bear had experienced such a thing when Rob did that all.

Therefore, the moment Rob's silly actions ended, the Bear broke off the spell that froze it. It immediately snarled with hatred as it felt offended by Rob's actions. Then, it rushed at Rob while brandishing its claws, intending to tear him apart due to his unforgivable transgressions.

Instead of showing any sign of fear, Rob welcomed the Bear with a fearless smirk and proclaimed, "Foolish little beast! Let me teach you the meaning of PAIN!"