I bore my claws into the squishy floor and entered the corridor. For some reason, I had a feeling which told me we were in some kind of creature’s body. I looked at Elena from the corner of my eye only to see her do the same. I knew she was contemplating whether she should sit on my back or not.

I could say that it was one of her bad habits, but since I didn’t mind her sitting on my back and didn’t tell her not to, she got used to it. She is like a little monkey.

“Hey! I’m not a monkey!”

“But they too climb onto their parents’ backs.”

“You aren’t my parent, though,” she stuck out her tongue.

“Whatever, just get on.”

“Hooray~”

After taking her usual place, Audrey entered my shadow and I picked up my pace. The pungent smell was getting stronger and stronger in the corridor and after running a few kilometers, we ran into a crossroad. Both paths split into another three directions, which made it obvious that we entered a labyrinth.

“I can’t sense any sort of mind magic, so we probably have to find the way to the other side and kill the monsters on the way,” I said as I turned to the right.

“That seems to be the case. We should mark where we’ve been with something,” Elena replied. After a moment of thinking, she formed a bigger rock in her hand and threw it on the ground. Seeing that it didn’t disappear, I moved on. Elena did nothing but throw rocks, while I killed the ogres we met on the way.

---

“Argh, even after half an hour, we are still here! We have no time for this!” Audrey jumped up behind me and made a huge fireball. She threw it towards the wall, but it just sizzled as the fireball disappeared, leaving a human-sized burnt part in its place.

“Audrey, could you repeat this? But use water magic right after and don’t forget to make it cool,” I said as I transformed into my bear form. With the help of cosmological constant, I turned my front paws into hands and took Elena off of my back. My body was so large that I barely fit the corridor and even my hand was big enough to hold Elena at her waist.

“You look like the beauty and the beast,” Audrey remarked as I pulled back my right hand and got ready to strike. I looked at Elena and then myself and couldn’t help but nod.

She hit the wall in the right order and I followed up with a punch. I put my whole body into it, but the wall broke down easier than I imagined and I fell face first into the next corridor. There were two ogres on my right, both at the same level as the giant ogre, but their battle prowess was much weaker. One of them stomped on the ground next to my head, only because I dodged its foot, and then roared like some wild animal.

I stood up from the floor and roared back as I grabbed the ogre’s shoulder. “Uhm- I’m sorry to interrupt your chatting, but don’t you want to put me down?” Elena leaned on my hairy finger.

“No.”

“You are like a gorilla at this point, do you want to look like a monkey this much?”

“I’d have put you on my back if I wanted-” I replied but seeing the ogre swing its club towards my head, I stopped talking and grabbed it midair and pulled it out of its hand.

I used synthesis to decompose the club and reverted my right hand into its original form. I swiped across the ogre’s chest and bashed the other’s skull, which stood next to it. Shoving the wounded to the side, I lunged at the one in the back and bit off its head.

“Being large is fun!” I remarked with a feeling of newfound happiness. Humanoid bodies were perfect for combat due to their coordination and weapons and although a big body had many disadvantages, if I didn’t have to fear my opponents, it was the best choice.

“You should move then because the hole is closing behind us. If you don’t want to go the conventional way, we can fight our way through,” Elena urged me. She shot a fireball followed by a waterball and then I broke the next wall. It still took another five minutes till we reached the exit and killed our way through the labyrinth. To top it all off, we arrived at a wrong side of the room at first and had to follow the main walls to find the exit.

At the end was another giant ogre, but this one was twelve levels above ours. “This boy is going to net us at least a level!” Elena jumped off of my shoulder and used shadow step to get behind the ogre.

It responded quicker than its size let me think and turned around by the time Elena appeared. Elena dodged its kick while I also appeared behind the ogre in the same manner and bit into its shoulder. I saw its metal club fly towards my face, so I quickly raised my right paw to defend. My skull was probably harder than that club, but I didn’t want a concussion of my brain. I felt it hit the bone in my arm, but my thick fur and muscular body were enough to absorb the strength behind.

I was surprised to see it let go of its club and raise its knee. I used my elbow to protect my belly and then pushed the ogre as I created a small boulder behind its legs. It stumbled and fell backwards, straight into the earth spikes that Audrey made. But before falling into its death, it swung its arm and broke off the spikes.

Although it was a nice try, Audrey rained hell upon the ogre. She used the drip element, so I quickly jumped away and in the next moment, a smaller explosion obliterated both the ground and the ogre. Even its metal club disappeared, but soon another formed in its place, with a staff next to it. We didn’t need new weapons, but they came in handy for synthesis.

You have levelled up to Lv. 554!

“Did you?” I looked at Elena and then Audrey. Seeing them nod, I looked around in the room in search of an exit. ‘Experience’ wasn’t something we gained by simply killing monsters. It just took the average of our stats and probably compared it to other people’s.

Theoretically, we could create material and ‘fake lives’ like these dungeon monsters with the help of cosmological constant since everything is made up of mana. But we couldn’t since it was something regulated by the Abyss, which was also the overlord of the universe. It was the Abyss that controlled the world system, our status windows, and even the dungeons. But it didn’t mean that we wouldn’t get rid of it if we reached that level… of course, only if we would be able to.

“Here it is!” Audrey shouted from another part of the room. I ran up to her and saw another passage.

“I hope the dark scars are going to be fine,” she said.

“Don’t worry, I believe they are strong enough to get through this dungeon and they are five,” Elena remarked as she climbed my back and sat on my shoulder.

“I think so, now let’s move,” I entered the corridor, leading to the fourth floor. I wasn’t sure how many floors the dungeon had, but I didn’t care about it either. We had to level up and gain as much strength as possible and from now on, the ogres would feed us with useful genes as well.

---

We had to go through many other rooms, all with different challenges. The level of the monsters was increasing continuously and after some time, even the regular ogres were at the five hundred sixty-fifth level. There was a chance to leave the dungeon every five floors where we ran into the dark scars, but we all proceeded towards the end.

Thanks to levelling up many times, the threat the dungeon posed was also decreasing and went from ten to five. But all good thing comes to an end and the bright room deep underground with a huge ogre standing in the middle was proof of it.

“What a good looking specimen,” Elena grunted, looking at the ogre’s pig face and long tusks.

“You took the words right out of my mouth,” Audrey nodded her head in agreement.

It was at least twenty meters tall and had a shield and a sword in its hands which was by no means usual. “Do you think it can use it?” Audrey whispered.

“I hope it can’t, ogres should be stupid, no?”

“How should I know? The ones I met were brainless idiots!”

“Shh- you’ll draw its attention,” Elena soothed her.

“Why don’t we send Dred? He is going to take its hits anyway, won’t he?” Audrey put her hand on my back and wanted to push me out of the corridor and make me enter the huge arena.

“I’m not going to take a shit! If that thing hits me, I’m dead,” I pushed her hand away and stepped behind her.

“Come on, go brum-brum in your bear form and fight it. How am I supposed to use my magic otherwise? It’d notice the changes in the mana flow and then it’d smash me! Also, I must be careful not to destroy the whole arena,” she still wanted to make me go.

"I don't think I ever made that kind of sound," I shook my head.

We may have had high stats, but they were mostly evened out, while that ogre was likely to have much more strength than intelligence or wisdom.

“Elena, give me some of your blood, I’m getting hungry for it,” she added.

“Hmm? Then here,” she stuck her finger into Audrey’s mouth and then looked at the ogre. “Happy or not, you’ll have to draw its attention and I and Audrey will attack its back.”

“You girls are so nice to me.”

“Why are you complaining?”

“I’ll reward you once all is done, so work hard!” she continued in my mind.

“Huh? But is it a reward if I can get you anytime?”

“What the fuck? I’m not an easy woman!” she shouted through whisperings as she grabbed the back of my head.

“You aren’t, but we both know that neither of us would say no, so…” I clarified my meaning and felt her grip loosen.

“Ugh, well, that’s true, but I’ll make it better.”

“Hahaha, it’s not like that’s the only thing that could motivate me, but if that’s what you want,” I couldn’t help but laugh.

“If that’s what I want, you say? But you too…”

“Well, you offered it and I didn’t even ask anything of the sort. You’re just a pervert,” I stated the truth.

Gritting her teeth, she turned away, “Fine! If that’s how you want to play! I’ll make you go so wild that… that you-”

“That I’ll make you feel good, I know. Don’t worry, Elena. Well, drawing the boss’s attention is my job in Cor’s absence, so I’ll go and do what I have to,” I shrugged my shoulders and then transformed into my bear form.

“You, I really want to kick you right now,” this time she said aloud. After pulling out her finger from Audrey’s mouth, she wiped off the blood and then waved her hand. “Go, go!”

“What were you talking about?” Audrey asked in confusion.

“Se-”

“Nothing,” Elena cut into my word and kicked my ass. Although my fur would have absorbed the power of her kick, I let her push me down and used the strength packing up her kick to jump down into the arena.

“You are just a pervert,” I heard Audrey and soon landed in front of the ogre. It turned around to look at me and followed up with a loud roar which made the ground and the walls of the rocky arena tremble.

“Be careful, dear,” I heard Elena’s voice in my head.

“Mhm, you too.”

The ogre smashed its shield into the ground and then pushed it towards me. Splinters of rocks flew through the air like bullets and bounced from my body as the shield got closer and closer to me. I stepped to the side in a hurry to avoid it, only to see its sword flying towards me from the side, ready to cut me into two halves.

I changed into my panther form and since my height decreased, the sword flew past me. I changed back into my bear form, seeing its foot almost upon me and held out my arms. I jumped back to go along with its leg and crashed into the wall. Although the wall caved in behind my back, it was nothing much for my current physical resistance.

I hopped onto the ground and cast my magic to create five layers of earth with vines woven into them. The ogre’s sword cut through my shield quite easily, but it lost some strength. I raised both my paws and took the sword head on. I still fell to my knees from the strength behind the sword, but I was glad to see that the ogre’s toes turned black coloured.

When it kicked me, I used inner-devour, but it was more effective than I imagined. “Its magical resistance seems to be weak,” I told Elena.

“I know, I’ve been sucking it dry, its back has got a few black spots,” she replied.

“I didn’t have the luck to see it yet,” I answered as I broke off a part of its sword. Since it was touching my body, I was able to use inner-devour and make it rusty in a very short time.

The ogre pulled back its sword and looked at it with a seemingly surprised face, though I couldn’t tell for sure.

“You hurt sword!” It shouted.

“Ooh! So it can talk!”

“Elena, I wouldn’t mind if you two joined in instead of watching from the sidelines…”

“What? I’m using devour and don’t worry, I’m going to join at the right moment,” she replied.

“Are you offended?”

“Hmm? No, I’m really just waiting,” she replied, her voice steady and calm.

“Good then, now if you excuse me-” The ogre bashed its shield into the ground and wanted to crush me, but I managed to get out from below the shield. I hopped onto the shield when the ogre pulled it back up and gave myself a ride onto the ogre’s arm.

“Tiny creature go off!” it raised its huge hand, ready to slap me.

“I’m here~” Elena appeared on the ogre’s shoulder. Her arms and legs turned into nothing but shadows. As she grabbed the ogre’s neck, its skin rotted and its flesh followed soon after. Realising that its life was in danger, it ignored me and slapped its neck. Elena turned into her shadow form to avoid its attack, but the time she gave me was enough to reach the ogre’s other shoulder.

I too used inner-devour to wound its neck and the ogre reacted in the same manner, except for that it had a layer of pure mana covering its hand.

“Dred! Run!” Elena shouted.

I reverted my arms to their normal state and jumped off of the ogre’s shoulder. I bore my claws into its black and then started to climb back. Of course, the ogre wasn’t happy to feel pain so it threw itself onto the ground back first.

Although it hurt a bit, the ogre’s weight alone wasn’t enough to hurt me physically. Using the chance, I mustered up all my strength and raised the ogre into the air. Elena jumped off as well and cut her way through the ogre’s neck.

“Audrey, cancel it!” I shouted, feeling that she was waiting for us to leave the area.

“What?! But if I cancel my spell now, it’ll mean that I stood here for no reason and did nothing!” she replied.

“It doesn’t matter, this thing is dead meat, you don’t have to blow it up. Come here instead,” Elena waved her hand. “Oh, and make that disappear,” she pointed upwards.

Following her finger, I noticed a mini-sized star above our heads. Did she plan to blow up that?

“But!”

“No buts! Don’t worry, we didn’t expect that it’d die so soon either. Its magic resistance was rather weak.”

“Fine…” Audrey sighed and the star above our head faded out.

“RAAAAA!” The ogre jumped up with a loud roar, probably feeling its end, but it mattered not.

“Stop,” Elena commanded and the ogre did as told. Before I could do anything, a long blade of wind and fire flew towards the ogre’s neck and combined, on the way. In the next moment, the ogre’s head fell to the ground right next to me and rolled into a corner of the room. Due to the temperature of Audrey’s blade, no blood came out since the wound burnt as well.

Our shadows spread out and covered the whole room. We devoured every drop of blood and cell the ogre had, leaving only the tattered and broken room.

Name: Dred Syracia

Race: Devouring Panther(Legendary) / Archfiend (Epic)

Level: 589

EXP: 7 239 557 / 8 115 000

Class: ShadowMoor (Exclusive)

Specialization: Stealth

Health: 303 000

Mana: Cosmological Constant

Titles: The Only One; Blood Drinker; (Bear Form +10% Strength)

(1)Strength: 58 500 (+5 850)

(1)Vitality: 60 600

(1)Agility: 58 460 (+5 846)

Will: 100

(1)Intelligence: 50 249

(1)Wisdom: 53 223

Elemental Magic:

Common Elements (Mastered)

Cosmological Constant (Mastered)

Eon (Mastered)

Drip Element Lv.1 (15%)

Void Lv. 25 (83%)

Resistances:

(1)Magical: 53 223

(1)Physical: 32 175

Poison: 100 000 / 100 000

Passive:

(1)Stamina: 303 000

(1)Precision: 321 530

Skills/Spells:

Mana Control Lv. 84 (44%)

Shapeshift (Mastered) =>(Bear; Wyvern; High-Demon)

Necromancy (Mastered)

Mark of the Wild (Mastered)

Racial Skills:

Devour Lv. 92(34%) / Summon Lv. 65 (8%)

Passive Skills:

Ambush (Mastered)

Poison (Mastered)

Allegiance Lv. 100 (5% Bonus)

Symbiosis (Mastered)

“I could use some more strength,” I clicked my tongue. “But we have much better chances this way.” I sat down on the ground and looked at the thing that appeared in the ogre’s place.

“I know what you’re talking about,” Elena sighed as she put her chin on my shoulder and took a closer look at the sword I was holding. “It’s a fancy piece, but it’s worthless for us.”

“Mhm, so much for a boss fight.”

“But you two killed it pretty easily,” Audrey leaned forward and checked it out as well. “Eh? This is really not worth our trip here.”

“An uncommon sword with an enchantment to make it sharper, well, we didn’t come here for the reward anyway. If we wanted that, we shouldn’t have devoured the ogres and level up too much. Dungeons don’t reward easy-won items, after all,” I muttered.

“Yeah, if only Padinyss was a dungeon boss, he’d definitely drop something great for us,” Elena pulled the sword out of my hand and decomposed it. “Oh, it gave me quite a lot of physical resistance. It must have been made from some good material, at least.”

“Is that so? Then that’s good at least, though the world system doesn’t list the stats we get from synthesis.”

“I’m envious of your ability, you know? Why can’t I have something like that?” Audrey pouted.

“Because you have a different class. Anyway, let’s go,” Elena pulled me onto my hind legs and made me stand.

“What is it?” I asked, seeing them look at me with strange eyes.

They looked at each other and then Elena said, “Well, although your claws and huge body are rather intimidating, you look like a cute and fluffy teddy bear.”

“...”

“But really!” Audrey confirmed as if I didn’t understand.

“I’m not cute.”

“But you are in this form,” Elena hugged me.

“Waa~ so soft and silky. Your fur is great!”

Tsk, I shouldn’t have cleaned my body with my mana.

Ignoring her koala-like position on my back, I went through the portal that opened in front of us. We felt that our blood servants were still alive so we weren’t concerned. After getting out, we made a small camp and caught a few smaller and edible monsters. Elena cooked for everyone while I and Audrey sat down to meditate.

An hour later, the dark scars finished the dungeon as well and their levels averaged at around five hundred and eighty. Not many people reached the maximum level due to the lack of mana, but we weren’t lacking in that thanks to the ring of lightning. With their teamwork, I believe they’re going to be able to take on the united army. What I’m the most concerned about are the numbers. If it was only Padinyss, I’m sure we could take care of him with the other’s help, but things weren’t as simple.

When it turned nighttime, Elena entered our little tent made of sticks and leaves and embraced my back.

“What is it?”

“I’m worried.”

“You shouldn’t. It’s going to make the others feel worried as well,” I said.

“Mhm, but I’m afraid we can’t win without losses.”

“Haah- I know, that’s why we’ll have to do our best and take care of Padinyss as soon as possible. We have only three days left, so we best go to sleep and rest. We’ve got to be ready for the battle.”

“I know. Could you hug me?”

Turning around, I pulled her into my embrace and then laid down.

“Have nice dreams,” I whispered as I gave a kiss on her forehead.

I shortly fell asleep.