Hajime Nagumo

Hajime Nagumo (ハジメ) is the main protagonist of the Arifureta Shokugyou de Sekai Saikyou series.

After being called incompetent and betrayed by one of his classmates, Hajime falls into the abyss where his journey to become the strongest begins.

Appearance
In the beginning of the story, Hajime had black hair, brown eyes, and a slim body type. He also had a kind face and attitude. After falling into the abyss and eating the twin-tailed wolf monster, his body began to wither away. After he drank the ambrosia in the abyss to counter the effects of the monster meat, his body began to heal and grow stronger in the process. Due to the stress of this repeated revitalization, his hair turned white, a condition called. His eyes also turned red and his body gained tattoo-like red veins and as well as his normal red blood cells turn into a purple spiked blood cells, a sign of becoming a demonic monster. These red marks also grant Hajime the ability to use magic without needing to use chants or incantations. He also grew 10 cm in height and gained a muscular, toned figure. The huge change in his appearance (along with his personality and abilities) made it difficult for those who knew Hajime before to recognize him at first, only recognizing him because of his voice and facial features (and that's only after taking a closer look).

Shorty after falling into the abyss, Hajime lost his left arm to the Claw Bear on the first floor. He would later lose his right eye during his battle against the Hydra. After completing the Great Orcus Labyrinth and gaining creation magic, Hajime would replace them with a mechanical arm and an artifact called the Demon Eye, respectively.

After he returned to Earth, Hajime's hair and eyes reverted back to their original color due to Kaori's restoration magic. He decides, however, to keep his mechanical arm and demon eye, which are disguised to look like his original arm and eye to keep his secret from his parents.

Personality
"I'll protect you, and you'll protect me. As long as we watch each other's backs, we'll be stronger than anyone. We'll beat down anyone who stands against us and burst our way out of this shitty world!"

- Hajime to Yue

Hajime was originally a weak and average person with a timid and tolerant personality but with an extremely kind and gentle heart. While mild-mannered, he has a special type of bravery and strength of heart that would allow him to sacrifice his own dignity and well-being to protect a child from harm. Kaori noted that it would be easy to be a hero to fight against evil if one were already strong, but it takes true strength to go against evil if one knows that they are weak. His strength of heart is evident by his ability to keep calm when his class faced perilous dangers from a Behemoth, while Kouki had momentarily stood paralyzed by fear until being snapped out of it by Hajime. He had a Motto of "Hobbies First" and would put his hobbies over everything else despite ridicule by his peers. He was also considered mature.

After the betrayal of a classmate and falling in into an abyss, Hajime begins his descent to madness. The fear of dying and the pain of losing his arm coupled with days of starvation pushed him over the edge. His iron forged will to survive made him extremely ruthless and capable of killing any person who wants to cause him misfortune or get in his way, he outright stated that he will mass murder all the Humans and Demons and even destroyed Tortus itself if he had to and will show absolutely no mercy even towards his own classmates if they dared to cross him which he later proved by ruthlessly brutalized Daisuke Hiyama for attempting to make Kaori his undead sex slave in front of them and had no qualms letting monsters devoured him alive, an act that traumatized most of them and make them truly terrified of Hajime despite the fact he had saved them from Eri's death trap, even Shizuku and Aiko acknowledged that they will be slaughtered by Hajime if they were to attack him at the instigation of Heiligh Kingdom and Holy Church. He would also smile in front of danger which made Shea call him a new species of monster called "Predator". He may be merciless, but he deeply cares for his comrades which is the last and only fragment of his lost kindness. As the series progresses, Hajime eventually does prove himself willing to help the helpless, particularly if his companions coax him into it, though he continues to demonstrate a cold demeanor. His methods, however, are usually pragmatic, frequently to the point of brutality, and he is stubbornly resistant to guilt trips and appeals to his moral compass, as Kouki repeatedly encounters, and refuses to acknowledge.

Due to the hardships he had suffered, Hajime developed a firm belief in independence of relying on one's own abilities to solve personal problems and overcome obstacles independently as he had to in order to escape the Orcus Dungeon when all of his classmates with the exception of Kaori believed he was already dead. Thus, when he was safe guarding Shea's family and clansmen, Hajime opted to trained the Haulia Rabbitmen so that they can learnt to be strong enough to protect themselves rather continued to protect them himself for an indefinite period. Due to this newfound belief of independence, Hajime absolutely refused to do anything about Ehit's manipulation of the people of Tortus, stating to Miledi that it is their own problems to solve and he has no intention to risked his life for their well being as she and her fellow Liberators had as well as outright refusing Chase attempts to persuade him to rejoin them or at least teach the Heiligh Kingdom's Synergists how to manufacture firearms to aid them in their war efforts. In Volume 6, when Kouki stated Hajime could convince him of Ehit's true nature as an Evil God by thoroughly explained it several times, Hajime simply called Kouki stupid fiercely criticizing him and his other classmate's delusional and naive beliefs that he himself must always risked life and limb to protect and help them simply because they are classmates, stating that because they keep holding onto such ridiculous idealistic thinking is what had allow Eri and Hiyama to backstab them, nearly leading to their own deaths and also becoming zombified into Eri's undead puppets as Meld and Kondou had. Hajime also told Shizuku to stop being so protective of Kouki, Ryuutaro and Suzu in the Shunee Great Labyrinth as they must learn to overcome their own trials by themselves in order to attain Age of God's Magic to realize their respective goals.

Hajime also believed it is strong resolve and determination that allows one to realize their goals rather than power and abilities as which Hajime proven when he who was despised by the Holy Church, Heiligh Kingdom and his classmates as a completely useless weakling was able to conquered the extremely difficult feat of conquering the Orcus Great Labyrinth as well as Aiko who without any combat experience had managed to conquer the Divine Mountain Labyrinth after she had resolved to help Tio fight against the Holy Church for the sake of her students and later Shizuku as well as Ryuutaro and Suzu who had managed to conquered both Haltina Great Labyrinth and the Shunee Great Labyrinth despite the latter two's initial failure in the Haltina Labyrinth. Therefore, when Kouki questioned Hajime's refusal to defeat Ehit and saved Tortus, Hajime took the chance to criticize Kouki's weak resolve and will in his naive idealism by correctly pointing out that despite being blessed by Ehit as the strongest out of them at the beginning, he keeps screwing up during desperate moments when it is truly important due to his indecisiveness such as Cattelya's ambush and Eri's death trap.

During the Shunee Great Labyrinth, it's revealed that he has some doubts over whether or not he can live in Japan due to how strong he became and was scared of being referred to as a monster. Unlike other's who fall victim to the labyrinths doubt inducing traps, Hajime is able to endure the psychological torment.

As Kaori and Shizuku noted, despite his new found strength, confidence and courage, Hajime is always desperate to protect his comrades and to fight against any potential dangers that may befall him, a trait he has carried even before his fall into the Orcus Dungeon. Hajime is immensely cautious in all matters he handles, willing to take any possible precaution necessary to prevent even the slightest disadvantages from happening such as his absolute refusal to part with his technomagical firearms and artillery as shown in Volume 3 when More Nos wanted to buy his weapons or when Chase tried to persuade him to help the Heligh Kingdom mass produced firearms for their war due to knowing that with Ehit's absolute influence over the people of Tortus, giving up his weapons to the Holy Church and Heiligh Kingdom is an extremely risky mistake as he knows that they will all eventually become his enemies since Hajime is the only one who has learnt about Ehit's true nature and will definitely try to thwart his journey to return home by manipulating his worshippers to turn against him. Hajime even went as far as to give Chase a death threat if he ever tried to steal Donner for the Heiligh Kingdom Synergists to reverse engineer to mass produced it much to the shock of Aiko and his classmates who were present. Hajime also took the opportunity to told Aiko of what he learnt about Ehit in order to warn her firsthand and also to gain her help and support in warning his other classmates about it to minimize the chances of his classmates turning against him under Ehit's manipulation knowing that Aiko's popularity with her students will allow her to have a better chance at convincing them. Hajime also reluctantly agreed to Kouki's party members requests in supporting them to gain Age of God's Magic as a precaution in case he needed their help to fight against more of Ehit's Apostles. Hajime also admitted to Shizuku he preferred resolving problems early rather than at the last minute before it went out of control, also lamenting that Kaori's murder and nearly became an undead sex slave by Hiyama's hands was traumatizing even for himself.

While Hajime is usually blunt and cold to most people after his transformation and is not above expressing his annoyance with even those close to him, he is very spoiling towards those he loves and his family. Though he is usually cold towards people he meets, he is not above showing respect and behaving courteously towards people he finds interesting. While he usually scoffs at figures in positions of authority and power, he is shown to express respect to authority figures that are competent, cunning and who are willing to help others such as Catherine, Ilwa Chang and Lanzwi Feuward Zengen.

Initially, he had eyes for Yue and Yue alone, but after the incident at the Haltina labyrinth, where his feelings for his comrades (harem) were reversed, he realized how much they truly meant to him and subsequently started to accept the romantic attempts of the others around him. This is often shown in how he would flirt with Yue and later his other wives without concern for his surroundings. While he was against Myu calling him Papa, he quickly became a doting and overprotective father to her. When around his in-laws, Hajime is more respectful and patient than how he with his own birth parents, using polite language when talking with them, something his wives are still not used to.

One other trait that remains unchanged about Hajime is that he still remains an otaku, something Kaori points out. Hajime bases most of his creations and even his appearance off of things from animes, manga, and video games. He's even gone out of his way to create massive and extremely difficult to make Artifacts simply because it would be cooler. Hajime feels very self-conscious about this as he's fully aware it's all true. Being a Synergist at heart as well, Hajime can become so passion about what he decides to make that he won't stop or compromise until he finish what he started. This has led him to go overboard on more than one project and add many pointless but cool features to his Artifacts.

Physical Abilities

 * Mystical Mutation - In the Great Orcus Labyrinth, Hajime devours numerous powerful Demonic Beasts, manages to survive the lethal process due to the Ambrosia and his iron forged will. As a result, Hajime's constitution was mutated by the magic of the monster granting him a tremendously high status, even breaking pass the level 100 limit.
 * Immense Strength - After continuously devouring many powerful Demonic Beasts, by the end of conquering the Orcus Labyrinth, Hajime gained tremendous superhuman physical power that is completely monstrous. Even without resorting to weapons, he can overpower the strongest humans, beastmen, and monsters with pure physical might. Hajime can throw small harmless objects such as sugar cubes with enough force to knock down knights. He can break human's bones as if they were twigs such he broken almost all of Hiyama's bones as he brutally beaten him up and gripped his neck. After killing Ehit, Hajime now holds the power to kill gods or immortal beings with his newly reputation as the "God Slaying Demon King".
 * Immense Speed - Hajime's speed and reflexes are also augmented to be extremely formidable, supplemented with his speed-oriented skills, making it impossible for most enemies to detect his movements in battle. Even to his overpowered classmates couldn't so much as sense Hajime's movements.
 * Immense Durability - Hajime has gained superhuman physical durability, capable of withstanding attacks that would prove fatal for most people. He doesn't got any source injury from attacks from both Kouki Amanogawa and Daisuke Hiyama. When using his defensive abilities, Hajime's body becomes strong enough to handle attacks from one of God Apostle while only receiving minor injuries.
 * Immense Endurance - Due to his countless brutal experiences in the Orcus Labyrinth from the agony of consuming monsters to withstanding numerous life threatening injuries from fighting all the powerful monsters, Hajime has attained tremendous tolerance to grievous pain. Augmented with his mystically mutated vitality and defense status, Hajime can withstand most attacks with only minimal discomfort.
 * Enhanced Senses - After continuously devouring many different types of monsters throughout Orcus Labyrinth, Hajime has developed superhuman senses. From having to fight different types of enemies that could completely hide their presence throughout Orcus Labyrinth, Hajime has honed his senses to the point where he can easily notice things before almost everyone else, with only Shea having better hearing due to her long ears.
 * Immense Mana - After continuously devouring many powerful monsters throughout Orcus Dungeon, Hajime's mana developed to extremely powerful and massive levels, far surpassing Atavists such as Yue, Shea and Tio, all of whom have powerful mana themselves. His original sky blue mana changing to crimson color. When he releases his mana, its powerful enough to block the immense mana pressure released from Noint, God Apostle, protecting Aiko who was about to fall unconscious. When enraged, he was able to cause all his classmates, who had overpowered cheat abilities to freeze in sheer terror.
 * Genius Intellect - While his intellectual ability in academic studies is average, Hajime has proven himself to be an extremely clever genius in engineering. He has immense scientific knowledge which was self-taught from manga, anime, movies and video games. Hajime's intuition is also extremely accurate and spot on, as he was able to correctly deduce that one of his classmates is purposely responsible for the misfired fireball that led to his fall into the deepest depths of the Orcus Dungeon and the reason being jealousy towards Kaori's infatuation towards himself and would also commit any horrific atrocities to force Kaori to become his sex slave when Hajime warned Aiko about it. He would later be proven correct when Hiyama had assisted Eri in massacring and zombified all the Knights of Heligh Kingdom and also the death trap for their classmates and even murdered Kaori herself in order to make her his personal undead sex slave, a fact which even the extremely sharp minded Shizuku had noticed only when it was too late. Hajime was also the first to noticed that the Humans and Demons of Tortus were actually worshipping the same Evil God Ehit, who is actually posing as two different gods in order to manipulate the two race into fighting and killing each other for millienias after learning about Ehit's callous apathy towards the destruction of the Heligh Kingdom, who were supposed to be his most faithful worshippers, from Noint and that Ehit would send even more Apostles after him. This would be proven when Hajime succeeded in slaying Noint and stopping Freid Bagwa's invasion of the Heligh Kingdom, Ehit send five hundred Apostles to support the Demons as reinforcements to not completely annihilate the Humans who were Ehit's worshippers but also to eliminate Hajime. Hajime has also shown to be an acute judge of character, as he noticed the real reason why Tio joined his party was because she was hoping to uses him in her revenge against the gods, something the others only realize after she confessed it herself. Hajime also chose to confide in his teacher Aiko about the true reason of his refusal to rejoin them by telling her the secret he learnt from Oscar about Ehit's true nature as a twisted Evil God as he fully understands that Aiko who is extremely devoted to her students will absolutely believed his words as he is also one of her students whom she prioritized above all else and later Kaori since she held immense love towards Hajime will also believed him. When Kouki questioned why he had not told them about Ehit's true nature earlier when they reunited in the Orcus Dungeon, Hajime stated that Kouki will never want to believed him by elaborately pointing out his misguided sense of justice, inability to differenate between good and evil and most of all his habit of conveniently twisting and interpreting things to fit his worldview and will even get angry at him for seemingly slandering the god who had chose him to be the Hero, a statement which even Kouki himself could not deny.
 * Master Inventor - Hajime is an extremely resourceful and innovative inventor, combining his scientific knowledge learned from countless manga, anime, and movies with his transmutation skill to create various powerful technomagical weapons and other advanced magic-powered machinery. Hajime has shown to be an extraordinarily talented firearms designer, having managed to make firearms and artillery with unique customizations such as Donner & Schlag break action revolvers designed for mid-air reloading customized with make-shift swing out cylinders to incorporate the greater firepower of swing out revolvers, incorporating shotguns into Oscar's magical prosthetic arm artifact as well as Shea's Drucken War Hammer, modified the new Schlagen anti material rifle to function as a sniper rifle by mounting a telescopic scope to shoot from long distances, designed Metzelei as a handheld portable Gatling Gun. Hajime is also a self taught genius in vehicle engineering, having designed Steiff motorcycle, Brise pick up truck, a submarine and most of all Fenrir airship.
 * Master Craftsman: Hajime has trained his craftsmanship as a Synergist to uttermost perfection, due to his earliest attempts to create modern firearms which are extremely difficult to create in comparison to swords and armors, eventually succeed after countless trial and error. With unrivaled precision and dexterity in his craftsmanship, Hajime became an outstanding master gunsmith. Combined with Age of God's creation magic, Hajime can create technomagical artillery of tremendous power. In addition to guns, Hajime can also apply his skills into crafting melee weapons of the highest quality including refining them to be much more powerful as well as perfectly repair ancient artifacts. Hajime's masterpieces as a Synergist include his signature revolvers Donner and Schlag, Shizuku Yaegashi's Black Katana, Shea Haulia's Drucken War Hammer, and Suzu Taniguchi's Tessen Folding Fans. He is currently considered the best craftsman on Tortus, so much that all of the Heligh Kingdom's finest Synergists including Volpen wanted Hajime to accept them as his apprentices after appraising his craftsmanship in Shizuku's Black Blade Katana and perfectly restoring the Heligh Kingdom's barrier artifact in a matter of seconds.
 * Master Tactician - Hajime is an extremely pragmatic tactician, relying on unorthodox yet extraordinary strategies allow him to outsmart most enemies including the God Apostle Noint. He managed to come up with a cunning lie that deceived most humans to turn against the God Ehit. Before his transformation, Hajime make cunning uses of his Transmute ability to first immobilize his target before killing it, something that impressed the knights who didn't expect him to be of much help at the time. This tactic worked even in the true Orcus Labyrinth, where the monsters were stronger and weren't weaken by someone beforehand. During the battle against the Behemoths, Hajime was able to quickly figure out a way to hold it back so his classmates could launch a barrage of magic attack against it when they were ready, which mostly worked if it wasn't for Daisuke trying to kill him.
 * Master Marksman - Hajime has outstanding marksmanship in dual wielding his technomagical revolvers, Donner and Schlag to destroy large numbers of powerful enemies in quick succession with deadly accuracy. During his battle against Noint, Hajime was able to aim at a certain point on her swords and repeatedly shot at it during their mid-air, high-speed close-combat fight until her swords snapped. Hajime can also wield his larger, more powerful firearms with equally amazing accuracy, even when he's holding them with one arm each. Hajime can ricochet his bullets off surrounding walls, allowing him to hit targets from their blind spots.
 * Master Hand-to-Hand Combatant - Hajime trains extremely extensively to incorporate kicks into his fighting style, which he combines with his monstrous superhuman physical prowess and leg enhancement skills, allowing him to overpower his enemies without any effort. He was able to brutally overpowers Hiyama Daisuke, a summoned Hero with enhanced abilities without resorting to his guns. He can fight Shea, who has become extremely skilled at martial arts, on equal footing in a pure contents of hand-to-hand. When Kouki went berserk at the Frost Cavern of Schnee and fused with his powered up copy, Hajime was able to easily beat up the hero without any trouble or trying to kill him, despite all of Kouki's stats being increase enough to rival Hajime's own. This was mostly due to Kouki tattered mental state.
 * Stealth Expert - Due to his mastery of his "Hide Presence" skill, Hajime is capable of masking and manipulating his presence to avoid detection. He capable easily infiltrating into secure prisons as we demonstrated when he rescued Aiko an later Cam and the other Haulia from their imprisonment.

Combat Styles & Techniques

 * Gun Fu - This is a martial arts where the user uses firearms to fight.
 * Polygonal Shot - Hajime shoot's a bullet that ricochets.
 * Shotgun punch - An attack where he uses a shotgun on his prosthetic arm's to make his punch stronger.
 * Oscillation Smash/Fracture - An arm thrust at high speed that is capable of pulverizing a large boulder in a single blow using the prosthetic arm.
 * Pursuit - Magic that allows anything thrown by the user to become a homing object.
 * Weaver Stance - Hajime's right arm thrust straight forward and left arm’s elbow slightly bent. His feet, one positioned forward and one backwards. It was the shooting posture, the pose to accurately fire Donner.
 * 108 Harassment Demon king-style  - It is one of the harassment styles developed by Hajime after the battle with the Ehit in order to deal with the problem. There are total 108 harassment styles but only a few of them are revealed so far.

Notable Harassment
The metal dust that had invaded into the body penetrated until inside the blood vessel, shredding the target from inside. If Hajime wanted, he could also use the crow type artifact "Ornis" as relay point to adjust the dust using "Convergence Transmutation", making the metal dust inside the body to react and give intense pain without killing the target. By the way, the crimson light was optional! The metal dust was clad with crimson light, becoming heavy fog that covered the world. The living organism inside that territory would have the inside of their body within the grasp of the demon king, at the same time their right to live or die was also wrestled away from them. "Gag Bullet" even though the impact was terrific, by using regeneration magic the target would be able to stand up again in three seconds as though nothing had happened, it was a bullet to make gag situation in real life. (The classmate's naming → You cannot escape from the demon king-sama!) It was a simple harassment done by simply making several hundreds Cross Velts Laying out super wide range space isolation type barrier. the space in a radius of three kilometers around Hajime as well as until the height of three kilometers was completely isolated. It was first used when the illegal agents of a certain country in earth tried to make a move against the returnees. At that time, Shinji and Yoshiki who carelessly entered the range kept yelling? "Let us out~, let us out from here~?" while hitting on the invisible wall. With the cooperation of Tio who was the best in using metamorphosis magic, Hajime succeeded in developing the Grim Reaper - Bio Hazard version that he was completely fixated upon. And he released them inside the barrier at that time, so the two's reaction was understandable. The Tyrant was especially popular. To the degree that several people completely lost their SAN value. This harassment is carried out with the help of Bel Agartha, where Hajime would kill the target then revive him with Bel Agartha and then kill him again, repeating this process over and over again until the target surrender himself. It is a small trick carried out by Hajime using space isolation to completely isolate his presence, and amplified presence within isolate space using Coercion, after space Isolation was dispelled. What appeared was a bursting crimson magic power with the Hajime grinning widely at the center. Hajime uses arachnee golems while using telepathy to forcefully make the listener have the experience of something gradually approaching, and amplifying their sense of fear using spirit magic. Harassment Hajime uses by using an artifact that reproduces a pseudo “Divine Statement” by applying and enchanting spirit magic. which makes it's target’s act chūni for a period of time. He pounded countless random Meteor Impacts from outside the stratosphere to attack the target mercilessly. The trajectory and speed of the meteors are adjusted using gravity control, turning all of them into a suitable meteor shower before ending it with a final super giant meteor. It was said that if a mistake was made this harassment could even made the planet totally broken. It brainwashes a person into thinking that they are a pop star. Hajime first uses it against some government agents that try to spy on him. It attaches a rocket to the target and leaves them stranded in the sky while changing their focus into something completely different from before.
 * 108 Harassment Demon King-style - "The Demon King is So Red Like"
 * 108 Harassment Demon King-style - "Gag Bullet"
 * 108 Harassment Demon King-style - "Welcome to My Battlefield"
 * 108 Harassment Demon King-style - "Everyone Died Here You Know"
 * 108 Harassment Demon King-style - "I Won’t Say Just Once, Want To Try Dying No Matter How Many Times?
 * 108 Harassment Demon King-style - “Peek-a-Demon King!”
 * 108 Harassment Demon King-style - "Maou-san’s Phone Call"
 * 108 Harassment Demon King-style - "From Today You Too Are Haulia"
 * 108 Harassment Demon King-style - "Wish Upon a Star"
 * 108 Harassment Demon King-style - “Make a Contract With Me and Become a Magical Girl! (Forced)”
 * 108 Harassment Demon King-style - “Up, up! 4 km high!"

Skills
Hajime has high compatibility with this magic and uses it to make full uses of the other Ancient Magics.
 * Transmute - The base skill of the "Synergist" Job class. It allows the user to control, transform and manipulate any kind of ores, minerals or materials in any way or shape the user desires. In order to Transmute any object, the user has to be in contact with the object within the maximum range of 3 meters.
 * Ore Appraisal/Mineral Appraisal - Allows the user to identity and understand the basic structure of ores, minerals and materials. In some cases, properties like magical affinity or hardness of the ore or mineral is also notified in numerical range of "1" (weakest) to "10" (hardest).
 * Precision Transmutation/Precise Transmute - Increases the precision of transmutations.
 * Ore Perception/Mineral Probe - Allows the user to sense and locate any kind of ores, minerals and materials within a certain range.
 * Ore Desynthesis/Mineral Isolation - Allows separation of ores and minerals.
 * Ore Synthesis/Mineral Fusion - Allows fusion of ores and minerals into alloys.
 * Duplicate Transmutation - Allows the user to create duplicates of an already existing transmuted object or item. It's possible to also replicate an item created by someone else.
 * Compression Synthesis - Allows compression of transmuted items
 * Composition by Imagination - magic circles can be created just by imagining it.
 * Mana Manipulation - (This skill was gained upon consuming Monster Meat). Allows direct manipulation of mana without the need for a magic circles or incantations to enhance his body or use special magic.
 * Mana Discharge - Allows user to focus and emit mana from their body.
 * Mana Compression - Allows the user to compress and expel mana.
 * Remote Manipulation - Allows the user to control the emitted mana.
 * Iron Stomach - (This skill was gained upon consuming Monster Meat). Allows the user to withstand the side-effects of consuming Monster Meat by mutating the body to adapt to it. If the monster's strength and ability is equal or higher than the user, then the user will gain the power and Skills of the Monster consumed.
 * Lightning Field - (This skill was gained upon consuming Monster Meat). Allows the user to produce an electrical/lightning field from their own body. Can't be expelled directly from the body, but redirected external if proper conduction is used.
 * Air Dance/Air Walk - (This skill was gained upon consuming Monster Meat). Increases the base reaction speed of the user, and the ability to move at high speed.
 * Aerodynamic/Aerodynamics - Allows the user to create small barrier-like plates of compressed air under their feet, to use as foothold to move around in the air.
 * Supersonic Step/Flash Step/Quick Step - Allows quick high-speed movement.
 * Steel Legs - Allows the user to reinforce their legs and increase the power and strength of their kicks.
 * Riftwalk - The final derivative of the "Air Dance" Skill. Allows the user to move at extreme high-speed, and increases the ability of all the five senses to the maximum to allow better focus and process all information easily while in extreme high-speed mode.
 * Gale Claw/Spirit Claw - (This skill was gained upon consuming Monster Meat). It allows the user to create pressurized blades of wind/mana upon an object to attack at close range. The blades are really sharp enough to cut through almost anything. Hajime usually lays this skill upon his Guns for close-quarter combat.
 * Night Vision - (This skill was gained upon consuming Monster Meat). Allows better vision in dark or night conditions.
 * Far Sight - (This skill was gained upon consuming Monster Meat). Allows an increased range of vision by focusing mana into the eyes.
 * Sense Presence - (This skill was gained upon consuming Monster Meat). Allows the user to gain a better understanding of the surrounding and sense life signs along with being able to sense beings who can utilize basic camouflage abilities. Has a range about 10 meters radius.
 * Precision Sensing - Allows focused target search and tracking.
 * Detect Magic - (This skill was gained upon consuming Monster Meat). Allows the user to detect and perceive the flow of mana and activation of hidden or ranged spells and magic.
 * Precision Sensing - Allows focused target search and tracking.
 * Sense Heat - (This skill was gained upon consuming Monster Meat). Allows the user to track and detect heat emitted around. Helpful in tracking warm-blooded creatures.
 * Precision Sensing - Allows focused target search and tracking.
 * Hide Presence - (This skill was gained upon consuming Monster Meat). Allows the user to hide/mask their own presence, to avoid tracking and detection by others.
 * Illusion Waltz - Allows the user to leave behind after-images while masking their own presence.
 * Poison Resistance - (This skill was gained upon consuming Monster Meat). Increase resistance to poison status.
 * Paralysis Resistance - (This skill was gained upon consuming Monster Meat). Increase resistance to paralysis status.
 * Petrification Resistance - (This skill was gained upon consuming Monster Meat). Increase resistance to petrification status.
 * Fear Resistance - (This skill was gained upon consuming Monster Meat). Increase resistance to fear or panic status.
 * Elemental Resistance - (This skill was gained upon consuming Monster Meat). Increase resistance to magical elements to a certain degree.
 * Foresight - (This skill was gained upon consuming Monster Meat). Allows user to predict and perceive the movements of the opponent.
 * Diamond Skin - (This skill was gained upon consuming Monster Meat). Coats the user's body in a hardened shell of mana, which increases the user's defenses and protects them from all attacks to a certain degree. The hardened shell of mana has of a diamond-patterned structure, hence the name.
 * Diamond Protection
 * Focused Hardening
 * Steel Arms - (This skill was gained upon consuming Monster Meat). Allows the user to reinforce their arms and increase the power and strength of their punches, elbows, chops and etc.
 * Intimidate - (This skill was gained upon consuming Monster Meat). Allows the user to cast Fear or Panic status to beings around, by amplifying the user's presence proportional to the amount of mana used to activate the skill.
 * Telepathy - (This skill was gained upon consuming Monster Meat). Allows the user to communicate with others by a transference of thoughts in from their mind. Has a limited range.
 * Tracking - (This skill was gained upon consuming Monster Meat). Allows the user to mark places or beings using their own mana and track them. Helpful to maps or get the general idea of a different region, than the user's current location.
 * Increased Mana Recovery - (This skill was gained upon consuming Monster Meat). Increases the mana recovery rate of the user.
 * Mana Conversion - (This skill was gained upon consuming Monster Meat). Allows the user to convert mana into stat bonus for a certain period of time, thus allowing them to boost their own strength.
 * Stamina Conversion - Converts mana into stamina.
 * Healing Conversion - Converts mana to boost natural self-healing rate.
 * Shock Conversion - Converts mana into pure force.
 * Limit Break - (This skill was gained upon consuming Monster Meat). Allows the user to temporarily boosts their base stats by three times of normal for a limited period of time. But has a risk of leaving the user seriously fatigued after the duration is over. Also repeated usage of the skill could damage the body of the user.
 * Overload - a skill greater than limit break - it multiplies the abilities of the user by five times with more damage recoil to the user than the normal limit break.
 * Creation Magic - one of the "Ancient Magic" originating from the "Age of God", which grants control over any object, structure (be it physical or magical) or mineral, allowing the user to shape or transform them in anyway they wish. It is the only form of magic which allows the creation of an "Artifact". The true power of this magic is the ability to 'interfere with any inorganic material'.
 * Gravity Magic - One of the "Ancient Magic" originating from the "Age of God", it gives the user control over gravity. The true power of this magic is the ability to 'interfere with the energy of star', and just not gravity. Theoretically, it could also interfere with things like earth vein or terrestrial heat, bedrock or magma; and it isn’t impossible to use this magic to purposefully generate earthquake or volcano eruption.
 * Spatial Magic - One of the "Ancient Magic" originating from the "Age of God", it allows the user to manipulate the space around themselves, allowing them to either bend or expand the space near them or move themselves to another space or location. The true power of this magic is the ability to 'interfere with the boundary'. Meaning it can allow the user to manipulate anything, like the elimination of race-creature gap, or formulating new boundary to create a spirit world; it's possible to achieve those kinds of things.
 * Restoration Magic - One of the "Ancient Magic" originating from the "Age of God", which allows the user to restore the state of anything to either its previous or original condition. The true power of this magic is the ability to 'interfere with the time', meaning it has the ability to manipulate the time of anything, anyplace or anyone to a point the user desires to.
 * Spirit Magic - One of the "Ancient Magic" originating from the "Age of God", which allows the user to manipulate the soul of a living being directly. It's possible to revive a living being back from the dead (time restriction applicable), or transfer the soul of a living being from one body to another, or even into a non-physical body as well, practically granting any living being immortality. The true power of this magic is the ability to 'interfere with the negative material possessed by living thing'. To be more specific, this magic could also interfere with things like energy inside the body that was magic power, heat, electricity, then thought, consciousness, memory. Those who have mastery over this magic can even create an artificial consciousness, and allow it to inhabit anybody they wish.
 * Evolution Magic - One of the "Ancient Magic" originating from the "Age of God", which allows the user to enhance or evolve all other forms of power, be it strong or weak. It can work on even other "Ancient Magic" as well, boosting their power and scope. The true power of this magic is the ability to 'interfere with the information about existing things'. This magic enhances or evolves an ability or power by a stage of 1, by interfering with the targets information, and the increased it one-by-one stage. Hajime has used this magic to further improve all his Artifact, making them all far stronger.
 * Metamorphosis Magic - One of the "Ancient Magic" originating from the "Age of God", which allows a user to remake the form of a normal being and reform them into a different form. Normally it's used to remake a normal organism and turn it into a monster, or even manipulate the magic stone of a monster and remake them. But the true power of this magic is the ability to 'interfere with any organic material'. Meaning not only animals, but it's also possible to remake plants or intelligent beings, and reform their structure as needed. Even byproducts of organic material, like paper or food, can also be manipulated by this magic. The magic stone which gets created during the process is just a byproduct of the process.
 * Concept Magic - It is a form of "Ancient Magic art" which is a combination of many other ancient magics. The main ability of Concept magic is that allows one to interfere with the laws of the world and impress concepts upon it. By raising up a powerful wish or desire with Spirit Magic and Evolution Magic, it can be raised to a level of a concept before being forcefully materialized with magical power. However, since the user's desire at of the time of use, is used as the base of the magic, to raise up and create the concept, the spell may not remain stable in subsequent uses, thus a single spell can only be used once under most circumstances. However if the desire is still needed, it can be used more than once, like in the case of Hajime's crystal key which had the concept of "I want to return home" in it, was destroyed by Ehit he was still able to recreate the crystal key again because his desire of wanting to return home was still there. It should be noted however that concept magic requires the user to concentrate on raising up their wish in order to materialize the concept, as such it wouldn't be useful in a battle where the user is under attack. Also, some concepts aren't possible to materialize by the user on their own, for example, Hajime could only make degraded versions of the crystal key without Yue.
 * Language Comprehension - A base skill granted to all those who got Summoned. It gives the user the ability to understand any language and be proficient in it.

<!-- * Transmutation - Hajime's first ability as a Synergist when he arrived in Tortus. It allows the user to control a mineral or transform it. Hajime has trained and mastered his transmutation skills to uttermost perfection due to constantly using it in his earliest attempts int the Orcus Dungeon to create firearms and artillery which are extremely difficult to create compared to armours and melee weapons such as swords and spears which he eventually succeed after numerous trial and errors, granting him unrivalled precision and dexterity in crafting weapons. Combined with creation magic, Hajime can create extremely powerful artifacts, including weapons of the highest quality such as Shizuku's Black Katana, Shia's Drucken War Hammer. This extends to other objects such as repairing ancient artifacts.
 * Mineral Appraisal - An ability which allow the user to learn the mineral name, It hardness level which is shown in a numerical value from "1" to "10" while "10" been hardest, and it magical property. this ability can determine the value of product. only if a mineral is used to construct that product.
 * Precision Transmute - Allows the user to transmute precisely.
 * Mineral Investigation - An ability that only focus on analyzing the information of an item, it magical property, the mineral used to construct it, the type magic that is infuse in the item, the number skill that the item hold, and how to use the item, the advantages and disadvantages of that item can also be learned using this ability
 * Mineral Extraction - Ability to separate minerals.
 * Mineral Fusion - Ability to fuse minerals into alloys.
 * Transmutation Reproduction - Ability to replicate the transmuted items, it is also possibly to replicate the items which is already transmuted by someone else.
 * Transmute Compression - Ability to compress the transmuted item.
 * High-Speed Transmutation - Ability to transmute at a fast rate.
 * Automatic Transmutation - Allows Hajime to automatically transmute minerals until the magic power filled into the engraved magic circle ran out, even when the caster went away it would automatically continue to create.
 * Mineral Decomposition - Ability to unbound mineral bonds. It’s possible to decompose up to the smallest unit, but is time-consuming. Unusable in combat.
 * Imagination Composition - Allows Hajime to use transmutation without a magic circle.
 * Convergence Transmutation - An ability that let the user to use transmute even without touching the mineral, it also allow the user to gather the metal from surroundings and control that metal as they wish, it is also possibly to create any kind mineral or metal as longest the user remember it chemical component.
 * Magic Consumption Reduction - Reduce the consumption of magic power when transmuting.
 * Iron Stomach - the ability obtained by Hajime after his body was mutated which enable him to eat any monster. If Hajime eat's a demon which is equal or higher than him, he can take in the opponent's inherent magic or skill for himself.
 * Magic Manipulation - Having his body mutated by Demonic beast magic, Hajime gain the ability to manipulate magic without the help of Magic Circles and Magic Stones similar to Demonic Beasts
 * Magic Radation - Ability to emit magic can be used to make a shout stronger.
 * Magic Compression - Ability to compress magic and shoot it.
 * Remote Control - Ability to control the magic emitted.
 * Body Strengthening - ability to strengthen the whole body by using magic. (He uses BS at the Haltina Great Labyrinth).
 * Possibly immortality - (Due to his body being more monster than human, Hajime isn't sure he even has a lifespan.
 * Lightning Clad - magic obtained by Hajime after eating a wolf-like monster which makes his body able to produce lightning.
 * Lightning Resistance - Ability to resist lightning.
 * Output Increase - Ability that increase the power of lightning.
 * Divine Step - Magic obtained by Hajime after eating a rabbi- like monster which has two variants. The first one is named air walk which allows him to make wall-like barriers in the air as stepping stones. The other one is called Flicker which makes the user move very fast which looks like a flicker if your eyes are too slow.
 * Air Walk - Allow the user to make an invisible foothold in midair, so the user could walk over the panel creating an illusionary effect that the user is walking in the midair.
 * Ground Contraction - Makes the distance shorter a skill similar to a teleportation.
 * Grand Kick - Ability to release a very powerful kick.
 * Light speed - Ability to move at the speed of light a variant of Divine Step and can drain the energy of the user at a fast rate.
 * Wind Claw - The ability Hajime acquired after eating the meat of the monster-like bear that can leave sonic boom strikes after attacks.
 * Triple Claws - Whereas the old bear claw would fire one, this fire three identical wind blades.
 * Flying Claws - wind blades now fly.
 * Night Vision - As the name implies night vision allows for Hajime to see in the dark. It's acquired after eating the basilisk.
 * Far Sight - ability to see from afar.
 * Physical Perception - the skill that is acquired after eating basilisk monster, these skill allow to perceive the hidden enemy.
 * Focused Perception - an ability that is possible to catch only a specific presence among a crowd, and identify a presence among many.
 * Heat Perception - Perceives the heat of any creature within 10 meters.
 * Focused Heat  Perception - an ability that is possible to catch only a specific heat among a crowd, and identify a single heat among many.
 * Magic Perception - Ability that allows the user to perceive magic.
 * Focused Magic Perception - an ability that is possible to catch only a specific magic presence among a crowd, and identify a single kind magic among many.
 * Hide Presence (Sign Interception) - Ability acquired from the tar shark to hide presence.
 * Phantom Step - ability to leave behind after images and a variant of Hide presence.
 * Poison Resistance - Ability to resist poison.
 * Paralysis Resistance - Ability to resist paralysis.
 * Petrification Resistance - An ability acquired from basilisk that make user resistance from any kind of petrification magic or skill
 * Panic Resistance - Ability to resist panic.
 * All Element Resistance - Ability to resist all types of element attacks to a certain extent.
 * Prediction - ability to predict anyone or anything's movement.
 * Vajra - An ability he acquired from a cyclops which makes the user hard or neigh invulnerable but unable to move.
 * Strength Endowment - Derived from vajra passes the ability of vajra to others or things.
 * Specific Strengthening  - is an ability to precisely focus vajra in a certain part of the body.
 * Concentrated Strengthening - is an ability to concentrate vajra to a fixed point in the body.
 * Great Arm - An ability taken from a gorilla-like monster releases strong attacks like punches, elbows, chops and etc.
 * Coercion (Pressure) - A skill that amplify user presence, proportional to the amount magic used to active the skill. all the people near caster can menace coming from him
 * Telepathic Communication - its allow the user to communicate with people by transference of thought in their mind within a certain range.
 * Tracking - can be used to mark places or animals. If used in places he can create maps while on animals he can track them
 * High-Speed Magic Recovery - Allows the user to heal magic at a fast rate.
 * Magic Absorption - ability to absorb magic. (Hajime created artifacts with magic absorption after clear the Haltina Great Labyrinth).
 * Magic Conversion - allows the user to convert magic into stats or skills.
 * Vitality- ability to convert magic to stamina a variant of magic conversion.
 * Healing - ability to convert magic to healing a variant of magic conversion.
 * Conversion Impact- a peculiar magic Hajime acquired, a derivation from “Magic Power Conversion.” The effect was just as the words expressed, it converted magic power into impact.
 * Recovery - Self-regeneration magic and a variant of magic conversion.
 * Limit Break - to go over one's limits; amplifying their power by three times one's basic stats, but this power comes with a rebound - once used the user will be heavily fatigued. Using it for long periods of time will damage the user's body.
 * Overload - ability greater than limit break - it multiplies the abilities of the user by 5 times with more damage recoil to the user than the normal limit break.
 * Language Comprehension - Ability to understand any language.
 * Creation Magic - One of the "Ancient Magic" originating from the "Age of God", which grants the ability to imbue a magical properties to minerals, creating a new ore with special traits. It is the only form of Magic which allows the creation of an "Artifact". Creation Magic requires one to have the transmutation magic to fully utilizes it's true capabilites which is why Yue did not intend to learn it at first as it was useless for her. The true power of this magic is the ability to 'interfere with any inorganic material'. Hajime has maximum compatibility with this magic.
 * Gravity Magic - One of the "Ancient Magic" originating from the "Age of God", it gives the user control over gravity. The true power of this magic is the ability to 'interfere with the energy of star', and just not gravity. Theoretically, it could also interfere with things like earth vein or terrestrial heat, bedrock or magma; and it isn’t impossible to use this magic to purposefully generate earthquake or volcano eruption. Hajime has limited compatibility with this magic.
 * Spatial Magic - One of the "Ancient Magic" originating from the "Age of God", it allows the user to manipulate the space around themselves, allowing them to either bend or expand the space near them or move themselves to another space or location. The true power of this magic is the ability to 'interfere with the boundary'. Meaning it can allow the user to manipulate anything, like elimination of race-creature gap, or formulating new boundary to create spirit world; its possible to achieve those kind of things. Hajime has limited compatibility with this magic.
 * Regeneration Magic - One of the "Ancient Magic" originating from the "Age of God", which allows the user to restore the state of anything to either its previous or original condition. The true power of this magic is the ability to 'interfere with the time', meaning it has the ability to manipulate the time of anything, anyplace or anyone to a point the user desires to. Hajime has limited compatibility with this magic.
 * Spirit Magic - One of the "Ancient Magic" originating from the "Age of God", which allows the user to manipulate the soul of a living being directly. Its possible to revive a living being back from the dead (time restriction applicable), or transfer the soul of a living being from one body to another, or even into a non-physical body as well, practically granting a living being immortality. The true power of this magic is the ability to 'interfere with the negative material possessed by living thing'. To be more specific, this magic could also interfere with things like energy inside the body that was magic power, heat, electricity, then thought, consciousness, memory. Those who have mastery over this magic, can even create an artificial consciousness, and allow it to inhabit any body they wish. Hajime has limited compatibility with this magic.
 * Evolution Magic - One of the "Ancient Magic" originating from the "Age of God", which allows the user to enhance or evolve all other forms of power, be it strong or weak. It can work on even other "Ancient Magic" as well, boosting their power and scope. The true power of this magic is the ability to 'interfere with the information of existing thing'. This magic enhanced or evolved an ability or power by a stage of 1, by interfering with the targets information, and the increased it one-by-one stage. Hajime has limited compatibility with this magic. [Information Manipulation - Evolution Magic was originally thought to simply make things evolve, however after discovering Concept Magic, Hajime realized that its true function was to "sublimate reality" by interfering with the information that makes up all things. By the after stories it seems Hajime can use Evolution Magic freely, using it to manipulate the internet on a global scale so that no one would be able to discover his identity after single-handedly wiping out a terrorist organization]
 * Metamorphosis Magic - One of the "Ancient Magic" originating from the "Age of God", which allows a user to remake the form of a normal being and reform them into a different form. Normally its used to remake an normal organism and turn it into a monster, or even manipulate the magic stone of a monster and remake them. But the true power of this magic is the ability to 'interfere with any organic material'. Meaning not only animals, its also possible to remake plants or intelligent beings, and reform their structure as needed. Even byproducts of organic material, like paper or food can also be manipulated by this magic. The magic stone which get created during the process is just a byproduct of the process.
 * Concept Magic - It is a form of "Ancient Magic art" which is a combination of many other ancient magic, the main ability of Concept magic is that allows one to interfere with the laws of the world and impress concepts upon it. By raising up a powerful wish or desire with Spirit Magic and Evolution Magic, it can be raised to a level of a concept before being forcefully materialized with magical power. However, since the user's desire at of the time of use, is used as the base of the magic, to raise up and create the concept, the spell may not remain stable in subsequent uses, thus a single spell can only be used once under most circumstances. However if the desire is still needed, it can be used more than once, like in the case of Hajime's crystal key which had the concept of "I want to return home" in it, was destroyed by Ehit he was still able to recreate the crystal key again because his desire of wanting to return home was still there. It should be noted however that concept magic requires the user to concentrate on raising up their wish in order to materialize the concept, as such it wouldn't be useful in a battle where the user is under attack. Also, some concepts aren't possible to materialize by the user on their own, for example, Hajime could only make degraded versions of the crystal key without Yue.-->

Spells/Attacks

 * Deny All Existences - A "Concept magic" created by Hajime, through Evolution magic, overwrites other's information from "Exist" to "Non-Exist" and fill it into thin thread-like chains created with transmutation. Everything that touched by the chain will be erased and feel a great agony and pain even if the target should not feel any pain.

Before the "Fall"
Hajime's base stats growth rate before his "fall" in Orcus Labyrinth.

After the "Fall"
Hajime's base stats growth rate after his "fall" in Orcus Labyrinth, and by consuming monsters.

Note :-
 * The base stats given above aren't Hajime's current stats, as the last time the author provided stats for him in the Web Novel was before he acquired "Evolution Magic" from the Haltina's Labyrinth.
 * Hajime's base stats increased because of his usage of Skills "Limit Break", which triples his base stats and "Overload", which quintuples his base stats. He can also further boost his base stats with the help of "Evolution Magic" and by using a mineral supplement drink which he created, named "CheatMate", that has the ability to double a person's base stats.

Quotes

 * (To Ilwa Chang): "A piece of paper can be a good shield if you use it right. My job’s Synergist, you know? My duty is to make sure anything that can be useful is made useful. Don’t worry, I’ll make good use of your support."
 * (To Cattleya): "I’ll kill anyone that makes themselves my enemy, even the gods themselves. I can’t imagine someone stuck as their pawn is much of a threat."
 * (To Kouki Amanogawa) : "It’s my policy to kill anyone who becomes my enemy. Unless I have a good reason not to, I’ll make sure to kill them. It doesn’t matter whether they’re good or evil, or whether they can resist or not. The moment you show mercy is the moment you die. I learned that the hard way at the bottom of the abyss. Those are just my values though, and I have no intention of pushing them on anyone else. Still, if you plan on standing against me just because you don’t like that, then... Even if you are my former classmates, I won’t show you any mercy."
 * (To Noint): "I’d like to see you try, God’s Puppet!"
 * (To Noint): "Looks like this ‘Irregular’ was more than you could handle."
 * (To Daisuke Hiyama): "Don’t pin the blame on other people. You’re the one who decided to stoop to this level. Both here and in Japan, you’ve always been the loser. You didn’t lose to other people. You’ve lost to yourself. You never once tried to take responsibility for anything. All you ever did was sit on the sidelines and insult everyone else, when the real loser was always you."
 * (To Kouki Amanogawa): "If I have power, I should use it for justice? It’s because you think like that that you always end up messing up when it really matters. Personally, I think power should be wielded with a clear intent. You don’t do something because you have the power to. It’s because you want to do something that you obtain the power necessary to achieve it. If you really think you’re obligated to do things just because you have the strength to, then for you, strength is nothing more than a curse. You lack resolve, Amanogawa. Anyway, I’m not going to argue with you about the path I’ve chosen. If you keep pissing me off I’ll send you flying out of here like I did with Hiyama."
 * (To Shea Haulia): "You’re irreplaceable to me, Shea. I don’t want to hand you over to anyone else. Now that you’ve become special to me, I won’t ever let you go. I hope you’re ready."
 * (To Kouki Amanogawa): "First, I decide what it is I want. Then, I decide what it is I need to do in order to make that happen. After that, all that’s left is to do it. There’s no point in worrying about whether I can do it or not. If I have time to worry, I have time to think about what my next move should be. I’ve decided. I’m going to back home to Japan with Yue and everyone. I’m going to show them all the cool things Earth has, and introduce them to my parents. That’s what I’m putting my life on the line for. I don’t have time to care about ‘what ifs’ that even my own subconscious doesn’t have the answers to."
 * (To Kouki Amanogawa): "I know better than anyone I’m just putting the problem off instead of solving it, and that this isn’t a very human line of thought to begin with. But that’s still no reason to stop here."
 * (After defeating his doppelganger): "No matter what future’s waiting for me, I won’t stop struggling."

Trivia

 * Hajime's last name means "south cloud" (南雲).
 * Most of Hajime's inventions are named in German.
 * Hajime's inventions are based on the anime he watched.
 * Hajime is quite sensitive being called a  and a .
 * Due to his mutation and due to drinking with his father before his transfer to Tortus, Hajime is immune to the effects of alcohol.
 * Hajime is a skilled artist due to assisting his parents with their work for years.
 * Before his transformation, Hajime has the same mana color as Shea and Miledi Reisen.
 * In the Light Novel, Hajime's Demon Eye has a faint blue glow, but in the Anime it's red.
 * Other names Hajime considered for Yue included "Tsukuyo", "Luna", and "Selena".
 * Hajime's English voice actor, Matt Shipman, also voiced Hiro from . He was romantically involved with Zero Two, who was also voiced by Yue's english voice actress Tia Ballard.