Dung woke up with red eyes, feeling annoyed, because he was apparently kicked awake

- Won't you let me sleep for a while more?

He inquired grudgingly

- You...shameless, you drooled on my thighs

Elise complained with red face

- Mm? Oh, couldn't be helped, I found the comfy spot for sleeping, ouch, alright, don't beat me~

With droopy eyes and bumps on his head Dung yawned as he followed the still sulking Elise

In truth Dung was pretending and testing Elise and was astonished to find such pure hearted soul in apocalyptic world.

- Elise 11, why did you name yourself as such?

He tried changing topics

- Humph, because Elise and Elise 1-10 was taken

Dung's eyes twitched

- Is that your real name?

- Of course

Elise answered proudly

- Um, you know you could use nickname in the game right, I bet you didn't even fiddle with character customization?

Dung asked with weird face

Elise flinched and answered

- Wh, what's wrong with going with the real name and appearance, why would I make myself something that I'm not?

Silently face palming, Dung kept following her. Suddenly she turned around and asked

- You, did you change your appearance too? Also, why are you hiding your name?

Cold sweat trickled Dung's forehead as he answered while stuttering

- N, no, I mean yes, my appearance is just about 60% of what I look like in real life, I just made myself more innocent looking

Elise chuckled at unexpected answer, but remembered she was still angry and asked with her ''harsh'' tone

- Ok, and what about your name?

,, Fuck me, why did I name myself as such? ''

Dung regretted, but there was no medicine for regrets. It was not possible to change his name

- My name is Jake, you can call me that

Feeling his evasiveness Elise grew even more curious

- No, show me your name

- No

- Hey, come on, you're being childish

- No~

After some bickering Elise tricked Dung into showing his name, but before that, Dung made her promise she would call him Jake

- Come on, don't show me that weird face, it was a mistake

Dung pleaded with tears

- Why would you name yourself as such?

,, Exactly! Why! ''

- It was a mistake, alright?

Despite feeling doubts Elise nodded and said

- Don't worry Jake, I won't laugh at you, though naming yourself that was silly, no, idiotic, no, masochistic? Seriously why would you name yourself Dung?

- Aaaah, leave me alone!!!

The duo left the village and according to the map departed towards Santos city, which was supposed to be more secure, but to get there, they would need to pass through some hard terrains and travel for around a month

Fortunately, Dung had huge amount of fishes stored, along with clean water, while Elise had looted everything she deemed valuable.

- What are you looking at?

Dung was caught ogling at her ass which swung from left to right. He forced down his embarrassment and made an excuse

- Why are you wearing that tight outfit anyway, are you seducing me?

Elise rolled her eyes

- Who wants to seduce you? These give me some nice attributes, can't be helped

- Yes, yes, I was checking those attributes, I would say they are...pretty high

- Go die!

Dung remembered she received only about 10 damage from his shadow bolt yesterday, so her tight black armor which outlined her curves should really have some value.

Through bickering with her, his mood also improved, but remembering his master's death, he turned silent and grieved in his heart

Along with caring master, these sweet bonuses were also gone. He passively trained his vampirism domain yesterday for about 8 hours on that remaining single dummy without 5x proficiency gain bonus. Though this skill of his was passive, it could be activated at will and just like other passives didn't require anything. He could even have it on for years and wouldn't feel the stain but to control the domain and whom to attack would require his concentration

Vampirism domain was higher rank skill, so it required more proficiency to level up, but it improved quite fast as the skill did DOT damage on its own. By the end of that 8 hours, this skill of his reached level 6, dealt 18 DOT damage per second and its range increased by 1,5 meters, reaching 5,6 meters in total. Leveling it up further would require much more exp, so he stopped his training, besides, he wanted to leave the dead village fast as it made him uncomfortable

Now, to completely resist his domain, opponent would need at least 54 willpower, which was hard to come by in lower leveled people and even monsters. Only some specific classes, which was minority focused on improving willpower. Mainly magic and strength were the most popular attribute focused on

With this skill, Dung felt more reassured. Though it had limited range and would not work on enemies who fought from long range, the skill had great potential and could improve its range by constantly practicing it and rising perception

In his domain, his senses were heightened, which was another bonus of this skill. He was wholly satisfied with it and felt the week of idle training didn't go to waste

Elise saw Dung absentminded and didn't interrupt his thoughts along the way, but when they reached certain point she stopped and woke him up

- Jake, the forest ends here, be more careful, there's swamps ahead which we have to go through.

Dung nodded as he remembered contents of old Wade's papers concerning Varamon swamps

The place was the haven of rattan lizards. They stood on two legs like humans, used their tails trickily like whips, had tough hide and good physical defense, but weaker tenacity. The ground was also needed to be looked out for, but he didn't worry about stepping on wrong place, because of his increased perception in his domain

The rattan lizards weren't swamps' only residents, but surely they were the most numerous. There were many other strong monsters hiding in there and their level range was as high as 10-25

It was dangerous move for the duo to cross this swamps, but they had no other choice, besides, they were not weaklings

- Remember, you only live once, hide behind me if enemies appear, I will deal with them

Dung realized he was being underestimated. After all, his appearance was not dependable and his level was 1, a total newbie

Dung chuckled and said

- Alright

He really loved the feeling of being underestimated