Chapter Twenty Five

Elysia blinked awake to a world of fluffy white. Figuring it was Ione, she sleepily attempted to lift her off her face, only to find she couldn’t. Lucidity snapped into place at this, causing her to push with much more force.

Instead of moving, a deep rumbling purr vibrated through her fluffy white world. Excitement and pride flooded her bond with Ione as images flashed through her mind so fast it almost looked like a movie. Unfortunately for the sender, Elysia’s mind was still sluggish from sleep and the surprise heavy ball of fluff burying her.

Upon noticing her mother’s lack of attention, her excitement dimmed to disappointment as she stood up, freeing her mother. She towered over Elysia’s prone form as her mother blinked against the bright light.

After adjusting, Elysia’s gaze gravitated toward the pair of slitted violet eyes staring down at her. Shock radiated through her as she took in the much bigger Ione. “Ione, is that you? How did you get so big? Wait, what happened to the birds? Did we kill them?”

Helplessness pumped through their bond, causing her question barrage to pause. “Right, you can’t talk. Or can you?”

She received annoyance this time as Ione shook her head, which looked unusual with Ione’s feline features. After a moment to collect herself, she sat up to find they were at the beginning of the dungeon.

About as far away as they could be in the clearing, the Chrotile trio huddled together, conversing among themselves. At first, confusion reigned, but upon catching Ione’s narrow-eyed stare at the trio, she came to a conclusion. Ione must feel protective of me. Especially now that she was big. How did she grow so big? Did she eat all the birds? That shouldn’t be possible. There were hundreds of them. Even at her current size, she would explode if she tried to eat all of them. Something else must’ve happened. Maybe she leveled up a ton from being her bond?

This thought triggered rapid firing notifications, most of which were kills. The sheer amount caused her mind to throb, but fortunately, as if sensing the overload, the kill notifications collapsed to five categorized by level.

Killed! Calhong Juji Level 85 X 167.

Killed! Calhong Juji Level 87 X 136.

Killed! Calhong Juji level 88 X 112.

Killed! Calhong Juji level 90 X 87.

Killed! Calhong Juji level 100 x 5.

She let out a whistle. How many levels was that? Did she shoot to the next evolution in one go? No. She didn’t. But it had to be a ton of levels. Unable to resist her curiosity any longer, she waved away the kill notifications for the next batch of notifications, trying to force their way into her vision. Again, a ton of notifications flooded her vision, then collapsed. Why show her everything in the first place? She doubted anyone could handle hundreds of kill notifications displayed in their vision at once. Much better to just organize it behind the scenes.

Due to distance from group, all kills counted as solo.

Bonus of 10% for 100% damage on 100+ kills within a minute.

Bonus of 20% for 100% damage on 200+ kills within a minute.

Bonus of 30% for 100% damage on 300+ kills within a minute.

Bonus of 40% for 100% damage on 400+ kills within a minute.

Bonus of 50% for 100% damage on 500+ kills within a minute.

Practically vibrating with anticipation, her eyes shifted downward.

Level up! Path of lightning level 15.

Level up! Path of lightning level 41.

She froze. Over twenty-five levels? She knew she killed hundreds of the birds but that many levels? Did the bonuses stack? If it did, she got over double the experience. Greed flashed a moment later. Could she run the dungeon again to push the second evolution?

But if she did, would she gain any more levels during the rest of the dungeon island? The cut off was just before the second class evolution, which she was only nine levels away from so, probably. She doubted she would find many enemies, if any, over 100. Though if she didn’t get kicked out, she could use that time to improve her control.

Wait, if they were still in the dungeon, did they clear it? Were there more birds to slaughter?

Ione watched her mother’s changes of expression, pride welling up in her as she felt the strength of her mother. Together, they would crush anything. They could leave the scaly treats behind. They were useless anyway. She just had to find an opportunity. Her mother wouldn’t abandon the scaly treats, so she needed a valid reason.

An idea sparked a moment later, prompting her to send images of the disgusting but valuable crystals through their bond, causing Elysia to pause her thoughts. As extra motivation, she also sent an image of the pile of throwing knives, then her backpack lying next to them.

Despite having several more notifications to look over likely several snide comments from the system, she waved them away for later as the excitement and hope formed. Ione was hard to ignore, especially when accompanied by the images of crystals.

Upon climbing to her feet, she drew the attention of her teammates, but one look at Ione kept them away. What did Ione do to them? Even Thauzo looks terrified of her. Whatever it was, they would probably get over it. They probably just fear her new size. Speaking of her size, she still needed to question her kitten. Could she even be considered a kitten anymore? She sure hoped not, because if she still was, she would get bigger. She really hoped she didn’t grow to the size of that serpent, though that would be hilarious to sick on people. Instead of a sea serpent ascending from the sea, a massive cat would instead.

Her right hand shot to her mouth to smother a giggle, only to make another discovery. How did her right arm survive? She remembered it blowing up. Even her armor appeared fine, though that might be because it allowed the lightning through. So many questions and the only one that could answer can’t even speak. Though she was pretty efficient in communicating with images. Maybe her new size increased her intelligence too. Yet again, more questions.

Before she became overloaded, she focused on the current objective, which Ione seemed pretty adamant about as she kept sending the same sequence of images over and over.

She turned to her teammates, who were all staring at her. “I’m going to go for a walk. I need to retrieve my daggers.”

They moved to fall into formation with her only for Ione’s glowing violet eyed glare to freeze them solid unnoticed by Elysia, who had already turned toward the path.

Elysia walked down the path unafraid of anything attacking her, knowing everything was dead with Ione silently trotting just behind her, tail proudly raised and an excited gleam in her eyes.

A frown formed as Elysia noticed a suspicious lack of dead birds she left on the path. She glanced at the likely culprit, but only a giant innocent kitten and eyes met her, which, despite her increased size, still looked adorable.

So much for the feather nest. All the more reason to run this dungeon a second time. Actually, it would probably be better to wait till they almost had to leave. Then she could use her ring to store a bunch of bird corpses. She didn’t want to put herself at a disadvantage, carrying around hundreds of birds in her ring. Would her ring even hold that many? She had to do some testing at some point, but now is probably not the time.

Upon reaching the pile of knives, Elysia flicked off the soot to reveal undamaged blades before sheathing them. Impressive durability. Those human made ones would have melted to nothing if they worked at all. It was nice to have reliable gear for once.

Her eyes gravitated down to the whip still coiled on her right hip. She still needed to put the whip to use. It had yet to prove its worth. Maybe she should have ordered more throwing knives instead. Now that Ione was so big, she doubted she needed a melee weapon, especially one as unreliable as a whip. Still, she would give it a chance.

Ione prodded their bond for attention, drawing Elysia’s eyes to the jungle to the right. Several glowing crystals caught her attention, which she bent down to collect. A whistle escaped her as she found ten of the twenty mana crystals to be the high-grade variety, while the other half were medium. However, the crown jewel of their loot was a palm sized glowing rainbow-colored crystal. Even without an inspection skill, she knew what it was as there was only one skill the birds used.

A shiver ran through her just thinking about letting that crystal fall into the wrong hands still greed won out as she moved to stash it in her backpack still lying on the path. She paused over the pocket reserved for their group loot only to open the bigger pocket, then popped it in with her other skill crystals.

Guilt filled her, but it didn’t stop her from stashing eight of the ten large crystals in her personal horde as well.

She did all the work she deserved most of the reward. It was easier to take them now and ask for forgiveness if they found out later. Though she doubted they would fight her on this. If they did, she could always give up her share from the previous dungeon.

Once she stowed the remaining crystals in the group pocket and strapped the backpack on, she turned back to the jungle, curiosity driving her forward. With most of the leaves burned away, Elysia easily wiggled her way toward the devastated clearing. She glanced at several still smoldering trees laying against other charred trees around the blackened ground. One thing she noticed right away was the lack of corpses. Again, she sent a look at the likely culprit who was silently following her.

How did she eat everything, feathers included? Even with her increased size, she should have left something behind. More and more mysteries. If only she could talk, though from the way she was sending smugness through their bond, she doubted she would get an answer. She wasn’t sure how she felt about that. Ione was obviously intelligent and so had the right to keep her secrets, but it was annoying. Based on her overprotectiveness, she trusted the feline to tell her if it was important, at least she hoped she would.

With a shake of her head, she banished the absurdity of her formally house cat sized bond.

After a circle of the fire and lightning devastated clearing, her curiosity dimmed, prompting her to leave.

On her way back to her team, the thought of her level ups caused her an itch to spend some attribute points, but with a force of will, she held off. She had a ton of points, so she needed somewhere safe to recover from any backlash and adjust.

Though as long as she spent them in smaller chunks, she should be fine, but still she didn’t want to keep her team waiting on her any longer. Sure, she practically soloed the dungeon, but she could have been unconscious for hours. They looked ready to leave and were only waiting for her.

Still, she couldn’t resist the temptation to look at the rest of her notifications. While bracing herself for the snark, she sent a mental command to bring them up.

Achievement! Genocide.

“Wow, I didn’t think you had it in you, impressive.”

Reward: Five attribute points, Upgrade to Chain Lightning.

Chain Lightning has received an upgrade! Add extra power to Chain Lighting to increase its power and chaining ability.

Wasn’t that what she did? How was that an upgrade? Maybe now that it was part of the skill, it would be easier. If only she had something to test it on. Hopefully, the next dungeon gave her the opportunity.

She thought lightning would be a single target focused high damage element but apparently chain lightning was pretty effective though the birds might have been weak to lightning. Actually, they seemed weak to just about everything. Even Ione had no problem killing one with one bite while the size of a house cat. She doubted Chain Lightning would’ve been as effective against the triceratops, but maybe she could add it as extra damage. Smite would probably stay as her go to killing skill, especially with her massive jump in level and charge.

Achievement! Kill Chain.

“While impressive and efficient, overcharging a skill so much was risky.”

Reward: +5 Lightning Affinity.

Was it her, or was the system becoming nicer? Well, she did just kill over five hundred birds and gain a ton of levels. If that was what it took to mellow the snark she was doomed as she just knew the snark would return the moment she made a mistake. To make it worse, such mistakes were usually avoidable if the stupid system would tell her the supposed basics instead of insulting her after the fact.

Before she got too worked up, Elysia took a deep breath, releasing it with a sigh.

Unable to hold off any longer, she pulled up her status.

Status:

Name: Elysia Arashi

Race: Level 41 Nascent Lightning Elemental.

Class: Level 41 Path of Lightning.

Charge: 8570/8613.

Attributes:

Available Points: 298

Strength: 42

Dexterity: 80

Endurance: 42

Intelligence: 80

Perception: 80

Proficiencies:

Novice Spear Level 8.

Novice Throwing Knives Level 4.

Affinities:

Tier 2 Level 6 (11) Lightning

Resistances:

Death Resistance Level 1

Water Resistance Level 1.

Poison Resistance Level 2.

Mental Resistance Level 5.

Bonus

+70% (100%) Damage with Lightning.

+10% Damage to Undead.

+10% Damage to Arthropod.

+15% Damage to Ladybugs.

+10% Damage to Calhong Juji.

Skills

Electrify Level 1.

Electrify Self Level 1.

Lightning Bolt Level 1.

Chain Lightning Level 5.

Smite Level 1.

Bonds

Sereia.

Umbra.

Ione.

Her stride froze mid-step, eyes widened in disbelief. “8000 Charge!?” Could even be considered a limited resource anymore? She doubted she would have charge issues anymore, though who knew maybe if she hit the max level for the dungeon island and stopped leveling up, she might run out of charge. Still was nice not have to worry about charge with every skill used.

Past her shock, Elysia scanned the rest of her status, eyes landing on her attribute point hoard, but having expected the pile, she moved on without much thought. Her gaze paused on the resistance section, confused. When did she gain mental resistance? She didn’t remember getting a notification for it, but to be fair, it probably happened when she was loading up her chain lightnings. The mental attack must’ve been stronger than she thought for it to jump all the way to level 5.

Now curious what else changed without a notification, she continued down the status. 10% damage to Calhong Juji? Sure, it was nice to gain more damage, but it didn’t seem like she needed any and unless she ran the dungeon again, she doubted she would run into them again. Though maybe if she massacred other birds, the bonus might combine like the arthropod one.

Lastly, she spotted her chain lightning skill at level 5. Finally, one of her skills leveled up. What did it take to level up a skill? She used her smite a ton, but it never leveled up yet, her chain lightning level up five times. Did it take the extraordinary feat? If so, wouldn’t the smite kill on the boss spider with the Thrazk count? Maybe it had to be unassisted. As usual, more questions.

Done with looking at her status for now, she closed it and continued walking down the path toward the exit.

If only she had time to dump some attribute points. Solo delving had its perks, like not having to account for others. The extra protection was nice, though. If it were just her and Ione, she would find a comfy spot to relax, then spend her attribute points.

Now that Ione seemed to be determined to be her guard cat, she even had protection if she incapacitated herself, though she wasn’t sure how capable Ione was. She doubted the feline could fight a triceratops or a raptor, nor did she want Ione to risk herself like that, but it could come to that. As determined as Ione was, Thauzo made for a better guard.

Soon she found herself back in the first clearing. One look at her team confirmed her thoughts. All three of them sent glances at the open exit between nervously observing the jungle as if something would jump out at them, even though they knew the dungeon was cleared.

She approached them with Ione on her heels. Guilt flared again, but she squashed it. “We found the crystals. The dungeon gave us two high-grade and ten medium mana crystals, but no skill crystals.”

All three perked up at the mention of high grade, but it didn’t quell their desire to leave.