It was at around six in the morning when everyone managed to drag their asses out of their beds. We needed to clear this dungeon today so we can make some actual progress in getting home.

I wasn’t the only one to make some good progress last night. Rowan managed to upgrade both of his Aeons to full power, though he wasn’t able to make any progress on creating his third. Magnus finished clearing his Stomach Meridian, bring him to body rank five on his cultivation. He even used his last Meridian Cleansing Pill to kick-start the clearing of his Dermal Meridian. When I asked him about it, he told me he really needed to create a defensive technique to round out his combat tools. It made sense, and I left him to it.

Even Cody managed to make some gains. While borrowing Magnus’s weight lifting equipment, Cody managed to increase his strength and endurance by one each. Aside from skill gains and training his attributes, Cody couldn’t progress much until after he completed his quest, then he would rank up and all his abilities would grow stronger.

When we exited my Ki forge, we left our sleeping gear inside to leave more room in our storage rings. Fortunately, as we left the cavern full of columns, the Hellcats didn’t respawn. We made our way back to the tunnels and took the left fork. The tunnel continued around a bend for a couple hundred feet. At the end of the bend, the path forked once again. Maintaining our previous pattern, we went to the left, and only fifty feet further in was another enormous cavern.

As we approached the entrance to the next cavern, Rukia froze. She lifted her head and sniffed at the air, her tail wagging. She looked up at me. Manic excitement danced in her eyes. Oh, no… before I could grab her or tell her no, she darted forward into the cavern.

“GODS DAMNED IT RUKIA. NO! COME BACK HERE!” I shouted as I ran after my dog. She only gets this way when one of two things happens. When she sees kids and wants to jump up and play with them, or when she comes across other dogs. And with this being a hell themed dungeon, I had the feeling we were about to meet some Hellhounds.

Echoing off of the domed ceiling, a deep resounding “WOOF” followed by a truly series of growls, coming from the throats of several large doglike creatures.

When Rukia finally came into view, I could see her crouching down, tail wagging and big doggy grin on her face. She was in her playful bow, that she does right before she springs forward to roughhouse.

Three gigantic wolves stood about fifteen feet away from Rukia. They made Rukia look small. They had to be at least five feet tall at the shoulder. Their greyish black fur had glowing red highlights that matched their burning coal like eyes. Smoke rose from their backs and their fangs bare. They did not look happy to be seeing a playful husky appear Infront of them out of nowhere.

Dungeon Hellhound

Level 6

HP: 119/119

Stamina: 238/238

Mana: 120/120

Defense: 22

The lead Hellhound let out a snarling vicious series of barks at Rukia. Tongues of flame curled off of its fangs and extended out of its mouth with each bark. Rukia’s tail stopped wagging and she let out a yelp as she darted away right before the hellhound lunged at her.

I pushed Ki through my hand and into my spear shaft. The Ki lighted up the double helix pattern and flowed down to the spear head where it gathered at the point and along its cutting edge. Once all the Ki gathered and condensed in a golden shimmering light, I launched it at the Hellhound that was just giving chase.

Instead of being a sphere of condensed Ki, it held the triangular form of the Spear’s cutting edge, just without the baseline. It looked like a long arrowhead with two long prongs extending behind it.

The hellhound let out a startled and pained yelp as my Ki projection impacted its side. It managed to pierce through most of its hide before detonating. The detonation threw the Hellhound to the side, and it fell in a tangle of limbs.

Dungeon Hellhound

Level 6

HP: 50/119

Stamina: 238/238

Mana: 120/120

Defense: 22

Damn, using thirty Ki through the new formations in my spear managed to deal out sixty-nine damage even with the Hellhound’s twenty-two defense considered. The detonating Ki attack left a gaping hole in its side. It whimpered as it struggled to get back to its feet. It never had the chance, as Magnus appeared out of nowhere and caved its head in with his hammer.

Rukia huddled behind me, confusion filling her previously excited eyes. I realized this was the first dog-like creature we came across, and most of the dogs he knew before the apocalypse loved to play as much as she did. I felt bad for her. She desperately wanted a playmate, and I was sure she missed Balder, her brother.

Before I could comfort her, I had to deal with the two other Hellhounds barreling down on me. The lead one opened its mouth wide, and a crimson glow emanated from deep in its throat. With a roaring bark, it exhaled out a gout of fire right at my face. An icy blue mist billowed out from behind me. I could feel the cold infused Ki suffusing it. Rukia was covering me with her power to protect me.

The fire tried to consume the mist, but Rukia kept pumping it out. Somehow, I didn’t take any damage as these two K-9s fought for supremacy. Fortunately, fire seemed rather weak against her ice power, which gave her a decided advantage. I could feel the deep rumble of a growl emanate from her chest. Shy may have been confused before, but these dogs were trying to hurt her human, and that was something she wouldn’t stand for.

I shook my head for a moment at the sudden and intense feelings coming from Rukia. Our bond was definitely growing stronger over time, or maybe it was growing stronger as we progressed in our cultivation? Possibly both.

Rukia stepped out from behind me, Ice spikes growing on her fur and fangs. She was ready to rip the throats out of these bad dogs.

An arrow buzzed through the air and hit the haunch of the other Hellhound, distracting it before it could unleash its own breath weapon. With a quick glance over my shoulder, I saw Cody with his bow out and lining up another shot. Rowan stood behind him, working at summoning one of his Aeons. It looked like it would take a lot longer than before.

Rukia and the Hellhound that tried to burn me, let’s call that one hellhound two, were circling each other. Neither one was willing to back down, each one trying to assert dominance. Rukia may have been half the size of Hellhound two, but her icy aura and spikes all over her body helped to keep the bigger fire-based dog from wanting to directly engage.

While those two were tied up, Cody launched another arrow at Hellhound number three. The second shot didn’t manage to strike deep, but managed to attract its attention. Before it could spring after Cody, I thrust my spear into its side. The sharp point managed to pierce its hide with only a bit of resistance. Once it pierced through, the sharp edges sliced cleanly, sliding between its ribs. I accidentally thrust too deep, forgetting for a moment that I didn’t have the crossbars to stop the thrust.

I tried to pull the spear back, but with how the Hellhound twisted from my attack, the spear’s blade caught on its ribs. The hellhound snapped at the wooden shaft as I tried to jerk my spear loose. While my strength was higher that human norms now, this creature’s bones were stronger than a normal hound, they would not break loose.

Hellhound number three tried to breathe in deeply to bathe me in fire, but I must have punctured a lung. The hound hacked out clumps of smoking blood instead of fire. Since I couldn’t get my spear free this way, I dumped twenty Ki into the Projection channels and launched my Ki bullet, should I call it a Ki arrowhead now, through its internal organs. The results were devastating, with no defenses preventing any damage inside. The hound’s other side exploded out in a shower of gore.

The Hellhound slumped to the ground, and I could twist my spear and pull it back out of its ribs. Once my weapon was free, I looked up and saw Hellhound number two had Rukia by the scruff. It wasn’t enjoying the grip, her ice spikes stabbing into the hound’s mouth, but it wasn’t willing to let her go.

Right as I was about to spring forward to stab the last hound standing, a bolt of electricity struck the Hellhound. Both the dogs shuddered under the impact, leaving them stunned. Magnus’s Hammer slammed into the hound’s shoulder, knocking the hound down and separating it from Rukia. The hammer then flew back to Magnus’s outstretched hand, like Mjolnir and Thor from the MCU.

A few seconds after the Jolt, Rukia managed to shake off the stun and lunged at the still stunned hound, sinking her ice-covered fangs easily into its throat and shaking her head vigorously until I could clearly hear a snap, leaving the Hellhound limp.

I looked over at Rukia once the fight was over. She only had some minor injuries that were already closing up. I looked her in the eyes and tried to convey my meaning through the bond and with words, “Don’t you ever run off like that again. You could have been seriously hurt. We could have been seriously hurt. I could have been seriously hurt. I know you just wanted to play, but this is not the time or place. We will be home soon. You can play with Balder when we get home.”

Rukia’s ears laid down, her tail drooped. I could feel through the bond the sorrow she felt over putting me at risk. She felt like a bad girl, and I could sense in her the resolution to never do that again. “You’re a good girl, Rukia. A very good girl,” I said as I scratched her between the ears and even gave her belly some good attention for a moment.

Her ears and tail perked back up and her tongue flicked out to lick me in the face. Her mood measurably improved with the loving attention. The resolute sense remained though. She had learned her lesson, and with her higher intelligence showing, she wouldn’t forget it.

We slowly cleared the cavern of Hellhounds. They seemed to run in packs of three to five, except for the pack that contained the Alpha Hellhound. The Level nine Alpha had nine other hounds with it. They circled us quietly, then harried and chased us. Their coordination was better than any of the other packs and managed to drive us right to the Alpha.

The Alpha Hellhound topped the others by over a foot at the shoulder. It was as big as a damned Clydesdale horse, its coat didn’t just hold burning highlights, but actual flames licked up all over its hide. A puff of smoke and fire accompanied each breath it exhaled.

We didn’t get away from that fight unscathed. Cody had to use his Paladin’s Armor ability. Sparks exploded, though not after dealing out some horrendous damage with its upgraded breath weapon.

“Wh- What the hell was that?” I asked, trying to regain my breath. “That thing was way too smart.”

Magnus sat slumped on the ground. Burn marks covering most of his exposed flesh, his armor still smoking from the last fire attack. “Gods, that hurt. Give me, give me a few minutes. I need to cultivate a bit.”

Rukia lay next to Magnus, using her icy aura to help cool down the metal armor he was wearing. The wooden shield Magnus used lay in charred chunks next to him. He took his self-appointed role as group tank seriously and suffered far more than the rest of us because of it.

Rowan didn’t even answer. He just waved his hand at me vaguely as he dealt with the headache from bottoming out his mana pool.

Cody was a real lifesaver. With the change in how his abilities worked, he could use his healing ability more often than before. Each of his abilities cost one Divine Charge now, and as rank two on the path of faith, each of his active abilities provides two usable charges for his pool. He wanted to heal us more than he did, but we convinced him to only use them in dire emergencies. Even then, he used half of his daily divine charges in this last fight alone.

As we rested, and after looting all the mobs, I doled out a piece of my cooked boa meat. It was more energy dense than the boar we had been eating and it helped perk every one up.

After eating spirit beast meat for about a week, I finally reached some kind of threshold as I felt an intense upwelling of Ki saturate by being. It was almost like when I opened a new meridian, but less localized. I could feel Ki saturating my organs, my muscles, my bones, my… everything. I shuddered from the strange sensations coursing through me, then the prompt appeared.

Congratulations. After consuming and cultivating sufficient quantities of Ki infused food, your bodies cultivation has progressed. You have gained +1 to all attributes.