Earth Golem --- LVL 15

Earth Golem --- LVL 15

Dungeon Core --- LVL 3

I activate Sense Vulnerability, casting it on all three enemies, and feel a significant chunk of my mana disappear. Multiple targets suddenly popped up in my vision, indicating what I assume to be the weak spots of analyzed creatures.

The golems had their weak spots at their hips, and also at their shoulders, surprisingly enough. No target appeared on the dungeon core though, sadly.

With Body Enhancement still active, I dash to the right so that the golem came in between me and the core. The golem began turning, quite a bit faster than before, but still too slow compared to the now evolved me.

I slash across the target with my claws, empowered by Earth Manipulation as well, and watch in amusement as almost a third of the golem’s torso came flying off. Did those targets let me do extra damage? Or was it just because it was their weak spot? Oh well, more damage is more damage!

By this time, the other golem had arrived, and began charging up its smash attack. A split second later the arms came crashing down, but I had already dodged in between its legs.

*ZAP*

Oh shi-ARGH!

I forgot about the core! Luckily the beam of energy it shot grazed me, but still. Fuck it hurts.

As the core started charging up another beam, I turn around, raking my claws across its torso and the target before turning on the core.

I jump forth, opening my mouth wide and catching the core in my jaws. I bite down hard, scratching at it as well as I feel more and more mana build up within the core. After another couple seconds of floundering, I release the core and jump back towards the golems.

*ZAP*

My body instinctively shivered as the beam of energy missed me by a hair’s breadth. Mmm… it didn’t feel like I dealt any damage to the thing while I was biting and scratching it, why is that? My mulling is abruptly interrupted by the two golems crouching down low lunging towards me while doing some sort of hugging attack. Luckily, my reflexes are on point and I managed to jump back just in time, though in the split second I had misjudged how much power to use and I ended up slamming my back onto the wall, dazing me for a second.

Damn, I’m not all that used to my new body, I have to pay attention! Standing up, I shake my head, clearing it as much as possible, before readying myself once more to face the core and the golems, or at least it should have been like that if it wasn’t for a giant fist moving at alarming speeds towards my face. I drop down and try rolling between its legs, but with my new body all I managed to do was an awkward tumble followed by a scramble to get upright.

Damnit! I didn’t get hurt this time around, but I don’t know about next time. The golems circle around me, while the core continues to charge up a shot. Mm? The core’s taking an awful long time to charge up, I wonder why is that?

Oh, shit. It’s making the golems regenerate.

I watch in distaste as stone flew up from the ground and began filling the large missing chunks around the golems’ torso. Well this is great, ain’t it? At least the core can’t charge up its attack that fast while doing this!

Not wasting any more time, I rush forward once again, sidestepping the golem at the last second and slashing as hard as I can with my empowered claws. Skidding to a halt, I turn around and deliver another empowered slash before the golem could react. Luckily, I this attack managed to split the golem in half; its regeneration hadn’t been fast enough to rebuild enough mass to prevent me from destroying the rest of its torso.

You have slain Earth Golem LVL 15.

I watch as the golem collapse down into a heap on the floor with a smirk on my face. One down, two to go.

I spot the second golem approaching, its torso had already been completely rebuilt as well as what seems to be extra stone armor around that general area. Fuck.

I won’t be able to cast Sense Vulnerability again; my mana pool is too low for that… I guess I’ll have to go for its shoulders.

I ready myself once more as the golem begins to charge towards me. I lower my stance and ready myself to jump. I’ll have to jump above its charging body and hit it while in midair, else I won’t get the chance to hit it again since the core’ll be firing at me now.

3…

2…

1…

JUM-

*SMACK*

AAARRGH!

*SLAM*

I slide down from the wall in a whirthing pile. Ah fucking damnit! I slipped! I haven’t gotten used to the changes to my feet and positioned it wrong. Arrrrggggh! Hit straight in my left shoulder… Thank god it was slightly off. My shoulder probably would have been broken if that weren’t the case…

I crawl up, my legs shaking. My shoulder was throbbing as waves upon waves of pain made its way through my body.

On second thought, it probably did break my shoulder, or at least fractured it…

I activate Regeneration, breathing out a small moan as I feel a strange tickling sensation around my shoulder.

I look up and spot the golem slowly getting up. Seems like when it hit me it too had tripped over. The core also seems to be struggling with… something, luckily enough for me.

I pace around slowly, keeping both the core and the golem in my line of sight, while focusing as much mana as I could spare into my shoulder.

I watch as the golem slowly turn towards me once more, then breaks into a dead sprint towards me.

I blink. What the fuck? It could do that? I’m momentarily frozen, but I quickly regain my composure.

I gather some mana into the floor below my feet, raising the earth at my heels into a pair of crude starting blocks. This time, I’m really ready.

3…

*THUMP*

2…

*THUMP*

1…

*THUMP*

As the golem begins lunging towards me, its arms out wide, I duck down and push off of the starting blocks as hard as I can with my legs, curling up into a ball in the process.

I wince as a sudden pang of pain shot through my shoulder, but the feeling of the air pressure above my head took my mind off of it real quick.

Landing of my good shoulder, I roll forward onto my feet and stood once more. Taking a second to orient myself, I turn around and rake my claws across the staggered golem’s shoulder, taking a fair chunk of it out. A sudden burning sensation at my lower back made me jump to the side. The damn core!

I turn around once more, this time to face the core who was, in the meantime, beginning to charge up another shot.

I start sprinting towards it in a zig zag fashion. The core, after another couple of seconds, fires off its shot, but missed. This thing really ain’t a good shot, thankfully.

I got to the core before it managed to shoot another one of its blasts and swipe at it. Like before, the attack slid off of it doing nothing, but this time, whatever was keeping it safe felt… weaker.

Mulling over this feeling, I turn back to the golem, preparing to strike or dodge at a moment’s notice… but it is still on the ground. I rush over and deliver another blow. This time my claws cleaved straight through it like dried dirt, causing the entire thing to collapse into a pile of, as you would expect, dirt and pebbles.

Did I… kill it?

…

……

I didn’t get a pop-up, so I really don’t have a clue as to what the hell’s happening…

I shake my head. Oh well, it’s dead. All that’s left is the core!

Looking back at the core, I see it is, as expected, floating there on its little pedestal. Its mana feels a lot weaker though. A LOT weaker. Did I beat-

*RUMBLE*

I flinch at the sudden loud sound and begin looking around frantically. The room shook for another second, then stopped. Another loud rumbling sound starts emanating from the core. I snap my head around and look at it.

The pedestal. It’s slowly sinking into the ground. What in the…

Oh.

Is the core trying the escape?

I dash forward and snatch the core in the arms, ignoring the pain in my shoulder.

Oh no you don’t you piece of shit. I’m killing your ass!

I continually bite and scratch at its smooth surface, but its weird protective shield of sorts keeps on protecting it, and the force the core’s exerting on me to get back onto its descending pedestal is slowly but surely increasing. I have to kill it fast!

I continue clawing and biting it, this time with renewed vigor, tuning my Body Enhancement to full blast and trying to use both of my manipulation abilities to do some kind of damage. But nothing was working! The attacks still bounced off, even as sparks fly off of my claws and teeth from my attacks the damn thing still looks as scratchless as it was at the start of this whole ordeal.

Wait a minute. Sparks?

I can make the sparks with my claws. And use those sparks and my Fire Manipulation to make fire! Maybe magic will do more damage to this thing!

I scratch the core, trying to spew out some sparks, and finally getting some after the third attempt. Focusing on the quickly fading spark, and pump mana into it, willing it to become a large flame and engulfing the core.

The spark begins glowing brighter and brighter as I continue pouring mana into it. After another second of concentration, the spark suddenly blows up into a ball of flame, enveloping the core and my hands. I wince at the heat, but overall it didn’t do much damage because of my Heat Resistance. The core, on the other hand, didn’t take it all that well. I feel barrier fade away under my claws as they sink, surprisingly easily, into the now unprotected core.

You have slain Dungeon Core LVL 3.

Fire Manipulation has leveled up to level 2.

You have gained the title “Core Slayer".

You have gained the title “Novice Mage".

The core shatters into glitter-like dust in my claws.

I… I did it?

*RUMBLE*

The room rumbles around me as the wall that the core had made to trap me in crumbles down. Is this place collapsing because I killed the core? I turn and jump out of the room just as a particularly large piece of ceiling collapsed and I begin running down the hallway back outside of this dungeon.

I weave my way through the falling rocks as I sprint full speed down the way I came, my Body Enhancement still on full blast as I feel my mana continue to drop. I had already stopped channeling mana into my shoulder for Regeneration, but even with Body Enhancement alone my mana’s being consumed at an alarming rate.

Wait a minute, isn’t it being consumed slower than before? I could have sworn during the fight the mana consumption for Body Enhancement was a lot higher than it is now. Is it from one of the titles I’ve gained?

Core Slayer:

A being that has slain a Dungeon Core.

Novice Mage:

A being that has begun their delve into magic.

Damn Identify, not telling me if these titles do anything! If I had to take a guess I’d say it’s the ‘Novice Mage’ title that’s affecting doing this. Either way, it works for me. Makes life a bit easier. Especially in this situation.

A short while later, with my mana pool on the brink of depletion and a very bad headache settling in, the sound of rumbling and of falling rocks has finally faded away behind me.

Talking a few more steps, I slump down on the ground and roll onto my back, all the while panting like an overexcited dog.

I try to slow my breathing and calm my body, but my headache isn’t doing much to help. I open my eyes slightly and notice that I’ve reached the hallway where all of the Earth Golems had been before I killed them all.

I close my eyes once more and slip into a trance-like state, trying to relax as much as I can as I let both my mana and my shoulder regenerate.

The seconds turned to minutes, which then turned to I don’t really know since I’m basically half asleep at this point, but when I snapped out of my state, my mana had fully replenished and my shoulder was as good as it was before.

Standing up, I stretch a bit. My body is still quite sore from both that fight and that escape. Looking back in the direction of the core room, I see that most of the tunnel leading there has collapsed. Even all the way here, there were debris everywhere.

Yikes.

Night Vision has leveled up to level 6.

Ayy, Night Vision leveled up!

Now that I think about it, did I level up at all for killing that core and those two golems?

Nameless Lesser Gyaroraptor; Level 1

Status Effects : Tired [Decreased stats]

Unspent Skill Points : 0

Skills :

Identify: LVL 2

Night Vision: LVL 6

Heat Vision: LVL 3

Venom: LVL 6

Regeneration: LVL 6

Camouflage: LVL 3

Hemophilia(passive): LVL 1

Sense Vulnerability: LVL 1

Body Enhancement: LVL 9

Enhanced Hearing: LVL 2

Enhanced Olfactory: LVL 2

Earth Manipulation: LVL 8

Fire Manipulation: LVL 3

Magic Manipulation: LVL 3

Resistances :

Heat Resistance: LVL 2

Fear Resistance: LVL 2

Earth Resistance: LVL 5

Physical Resistance: LVL 3

Traits :

Bi-blooded

Small but Mighty

Heightened Stamina

Titles :

Reincarnated One

Reverse Slayer

Upholder of Morals

Ŵ̸̨͙͂̈́̇̀̽̑ư̶̩͇̼̩̹͚̰͜z̸̧̮͖̅͆̽͑ͅe̵̪̝͔̽ͅx̶̡̪̼̰̲̦̫̓̉͝ͅm̶̧̭͆̒̽͂͊̈̋̋k̴̗͘q̵͙̻͓̗̊̕d̵̢̧͖̬̀̐̓

Core Slayer

Novice Mage

…Nope…

What the hell, game system! I killed a dungeon core! Aren’t they powerful bosses in this world? Did video games lie to me?

Grrr! Y’know, it almost killed me! Multiple times!

Argh, forget it. I’m not gonna get anything from all this complaining…

…but you’re still a piece of shit for not giving me a level, game system…

I turn back and start making my way back to the large hole. Time to finally go out!

* * *

The trip back wasn’t eventful. My body stopped aching as badly, and I feel a lot more refreshed than before. The midday sun almost blinded me when I stepped into the room. Ahhh… sun…

SUNBATHING TIME!

I bolt down the incline and up the rubble pile and into the outside, savoring every inch of sunlight on my skin.

Aaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh…

Yeeeeeessssss…

Oh Sun, I’ve missed you and your warm embrace so!

I look around frantically for a nice sunned stone to lie on and finally enjoy this feeling to its fullest after spending ages in that damn cave.

The area is sparsely populated by those large savanna trees with the occasional large rock jutting out from the landscape, perfect for relaxing. I can also hear running water over to my left, and a couple of steps takes me to a river.

I head down to the river and drink with fervour, having just now noticing how thirsty I’ve become. After I’ve had my fill of water, I straighten up and pause.

The river was pretty wide, though not too deep, at most coming up to my shoulders.

…

I really wanna…

…

Fuck it.

*SPLASH*

I jump into the river and splash around, drenching everything within a 6 foot radius of my entry point.

Ahhhhh. This is what it feels like to be alive! This is what it feels like to finally be tall! As a lizard, I probably would have drowned if I had tried this, but as a literal dinosaur, I’m able to doggy paddle pretty well with my claws, and either way if I needed to I can just stand up.

Mmmm…

I swim back to the shore and shake myself. Once more, everything within a 6 foot radius of me got showered. I look down at my soggy feathers and sigh as I make my way over to a nice rock to sunbathe. I hope these guys dry faster that long hair does. Haaaahh…

- - - - -

“Ah… look at this bloody mess!” Siggard clicked his tongue. Before him was a bloodbath. The rotting and half-eaten corpse of half a dozen gyarian lizards lay before him. “What the fuck did this?”

The lupusgriff alpha growled.

“He says the small one did.” Robert’s voice echoed out from inside the cave. “Hey, Siggster, help me with this one, ‘aight? It’s a tylapera and frankly I don’t want to carry this by myself.”

“For fucks sake, Robert.” Siggard sighed. Crouching down, he entered the cave, immediately wrinkling his nose and covering it with his arm as the stench of rot hit him in the face. “Argh, fucking hell, it smells like Death herself came down here and took a fat shit!”

“Quit complaining Sig and help me with this big guy.” Robert grunted through the thick piece of cloth tied across his nose and mouth. The leather armor he was wearing was completely ruined, being covered in rotting lizard blood and bits of rotting flesh. “I want to get out of here as much as you do, so get on it.”

“Alright alright,” Siggard walked up to the mostly eaten tylapera’s head as Robert positioned himself at the tail end.

“Lets go!” Robert grumbled as the two men each grabbed a relatively solid part of the tylapera and began dragging it out of the cave.

It took them five painstaking minutes to drag the fire tylapera’s body out, all the while the alpha sat back and watched the two in mild amusement.

“Shit, this smell’s gonna stick, isn’t it? Godsdamnit.” Siggard coughed, walking away from the pile of corpses to hopefully get some fresh air.

Robert clicked his tongue and snorted. “Of course, asshat.”

“...You made me go down there just to do this?” Siggard turned and looked Robert straight in the eyes.

Robert held his gaze. “Yep. You deserve that, making me carry all those corpses alone… this leather set was brand new as well!”

“Well if somebody did his job right, we wouldn’t need to be here in the first place! We wouldn’t even be one pup down!”

“I told you there was nothing I could do.” Robert shugged, grinning at Siggard’s gruff face.

“Arrgh… you know I have to deal with the General, right? Fuck’s sake, Robert.” Siggard shook his head and sighed as Robert continued to smugly grin at him.

“Go… go find us a river or something so we can wash up. I can’t fucking deal with any more of you today.” Siggard exasperatedly said, waving Robert off as he himself turned and looked for somewhere further away (and preferably less smelly) to sit down and brood.

Still grinning, Robert snapped him a perfect soldier’s salute. “Aye aye, Captain!” he proclaimed loudly before running off, activating a couple of his enhancement skills.

Siggard face palmed and sighed again before continuing his search, only to be rudely interrupted by more snorting. Looking back again, he spotted the lupusgriff alpha chuckling with a big grin on its face.

“Oh fuck you too, stupid dog.”