Everyone gathers around on one side of the wall of earth and faces me.
"Let's dig into this wall." I say with a wide smile.
Ah
Don't look at me like that.
"Um...let me explain." I start up again. "This wall here was made by the bear."
"Bear?" a sibling asks
"The monster inside. I'll explain later." I say quickly cutting off that familiar pattern. "If we keep attacking the wall, we will get stronger."
"Will it?" Little Sis #7 asks. "Will it make us stronger?"
It will make us stronger, and in a natural way as well.
Problem is explaining to them how it increases their skills level.
I don't think they know what skills are.
Even if they do, I doubt they'd understand it all if I explained it to them.
I hardly know about skills myself.
It'd end up being a downward spiral of questions.
Even that would take all day to explain how it works.
The best thing to do here is to have them just trust me, but...
"Little Bro." Big bro #1 say
He's looking me straight in the eye.
"This will work, right?"
I look at him blinking a bit.
"Huh?"
"Sharpening our claws on this wall. It will work right?" He asks me.
I look a bit dumbfounded at him and nod. "Yeah, it will work."
He smiles and turns to the others.
"It will work." He says with a smile. "He's weird but he's smart. If he says it will work, it will work."
"I trust my brothers!" Big sis #5 says happily.
"Yeah, I trust them too." Little Sis #6 says
"Me too Me too!" Little Bro #9 chimes out
"Both of them are so strong. So if we do it as well..." Big Sis #2 muses
"Hmm." Big Bro #3 hums out with a nod.
Little Sis #7 huffs before looking off to the side. "If you say so."
She's already going through her moody phase?
Anyways, I'm glad Big Bro #1 helped me out.
He definitely has this way of getting the others to follow him so easily.
"Okay. We'll start as two groups and scratch at the wall bit by bit." I start explaining the plan.
After a bit of explaining and moving around, everyone was lined up on the wall.
We leaned up on the wall with claws out.
I looked left and right against everyone and took a deep breath in, then out.
"Okay...Go!"
With that roar of mine, everyone begins to scratch and claw at the wall with all their might.
It was tough.
It was hard.
Marks were being left behind and small rubble pulled away.
I focused on clawing the earth in front of me.
Skill Gained
Male Magma Dragon Wyrmling (Variant) acquired 「Dig」
I learned Dig.
Well when you think of it, this was to be expected.
I am using scratch on a wall, but it's not like that's the only thing I'm doing.
Skill Up!
「Dig」has reached Level 2
Oh wow.
It leveled up just like that.
I guess I have the talent for it.
Hrmph.
Seems like I'm starting to make progress.
Skill Up!
「Scratch」has reached Level 6
Alright.
Seems like scratch does improve if we do this over time.
My claws do feel a bit tougher now.
And clawing at this wall feels a bit easier.
If I put more strength into it, will it make things easier for me to cut into the rock?
Crack Crack!
That wasn't me.
I pull away from scratching to see what that noise wa-
I'm not the only one to check.
What I see is Big Bro #3 and his large hole he was digging out.
"Whoa! Look at big brother." a sibling says
"He made a hole in the wall." another states
"Was big bro always this strong?" I ask aloud
"Yeah. He's even stronger than me." Big Bro #1 say with a grin.
Stronger than Big Bro #1?
Really?
「Observation」
Male Magma Dragon Wyrmling (Big Bro #3)
HP: 85%
MP: 100%
SP: 76%
ST: 80%
ATK: Equal
DEF: High
SPD: Low
He did get a bit stronger.
At least as strong as I am
When compared to Big Bro #1 though.
「Observation」
Male Magma Dragon Wyrmling (Big Bro #1)
HP: 82%
MP: 100%
SP: 68%
ST: 77%
ATK: High
DEF: High
SPD: Equal
Like I thought.
Overall, he's stronger than I am.
Using myself as a baseline, he's at least faster and stronger that Big Bro #3
Still, from when i checked Big Bro #3 last time, he definitely seems stronger now.
I won't lose to either of my older brothers though.
I return back to scratching the wall with more energy than ever.
ScratchScratchScratchScratchScratchScratchScratchScratch
Even as I eagerly scratch at the wall, I feel a bit of heat coming from my claws.
Well I have Flame Nullification, so it won't hurt no matter how much they heat up.
Or so I thought.
With some of my scratches my claws start to leave sparks behind them.
Skill Up!
「Scratch」has reached Level 7
Alright another level up.
My claws scratch against the rock now leaving deeper gashes into the stone.
I peak at my siblings to see how they're doing.
I just see more stone around me.
Heh, seems like I'm deeper than I thought.
Pulling back a bit I see everyone is still scratching as well.
I don't see a few of us, but the scrapping and dirt noises make me think that those missing are just digging in deeper than I am.
Better get back to it for me.
Skill Up!
「Dig」has reached Level 3
Dig went up in level.
Since I have some moments to myself, I can organize my thoughts a bit.
First off let's start with my 「Observation」 Skill.
Even though I leveled it up and kept observing things it hasn't been going up as much.
I would think with all these new things it would go up in level by now.
Tree's, animals, weather; this stuff raised 「Observation」before
Making assumptions about my current predicament and situations I'm in also helped in that regard.
I wonder if there's other ways to level it up
Skill Up!
「Dig」has reached Level 4
I also wonder about my 「Fire Resistance」and 「Fire Nullification」
「Fire Resistance」is at level 10 so that should turn into「Fire Nullification」
However, reaching level 10 in 「Fire Resistance」 merely gave me 「Fire Nullification」, so now I have both skills at my disposal.
Normally in these situations 「Fire Nullification」would replace 「Fire Resistance」, since I don't need both of them.
Skill Up!
「Dig」has reached Level 5
Could there be a reason for me having both?
It seems redundant to have two of the same skills that act and behave the same.
It makes no sense.
Could they be used for separate things?
I wish I could test it out, but I hardly know anything about my skills to begin with.
Skill Up!
「Dig」has reached Level 6
Skill Up!
「Scratch」has reached Level 8
I'll have to ask Farris about this later.
Grah!
My thoughts are interrupted by a small yelp like roar.
I look up and see stone walls around me from my tunnel I made.
I think I'm my entire body length inside.
I crawl out and quickly move around to see what the noise was about.
By the time I get their I see Big Bro #1 and Little Bro #8 digging...
Oh no
Oh god no
I see a large pile of stones
There's a chunk missing where the pile came from as well as a hole where it was made.
I moved over to start helping my brothers dig.
I was panicked and started to dig.
It took a minute but we managed to free our buried sister.
She layed on the ground and feared the worse.
「Observation」
Female Magma Dragon Wyrmling (Little Sis #6)
HP: 23%
MP: 100%
SP: 30%
ST: 12%
ATK: Equal
DEF: Low
SPD: Equal
Big Bro #1 nudged her a couple times.
She eventually coughed a bit before shaking her head.
She was covered in a few scratches here and there, as well as dirt from the rubble that fell on her, but overall she was fine.
Haaah...thank goodness she's alright.
I didn't even realize how long I was holding my breath.
My mind sort've just...blanked out there for a second.
Still, I'm glad she's safe now.
I should've noticed how dangerous digging into a wall like that could be.
It would've been fine if we had something to support the wall itself.
I didn't even think of the wall collapsing.
I have to be more mindful of things like this in the future.
"Let's go back." Big bro #1 says "We've already hunted a bunch and I don't want to hurt the others"
Every looks around at each other
"I agree" Big Bro #3 says
"After what happened. I'm not sure about continuing either." Big Sis #2 agrees
"But, we just started." Big Sis #5 starts up. "As long as we're careful..."
"Big Bro's right." I agree. "We should head back."
"Little Brother?"
"They're right. We already have enough food to eat for the day and we're all pretty tired already. No need to push ourselves anymore then necessary."
It's a painful thing to give up on this plan, especially given how well it was going. All things considered though, I'd rather everyone be safe then.
Big Sis seems a bit upset, but a couple pets on her head cheer her up.
Skill Up!
「Comforting」has reached Level 3
「Danger Detection」going off causing me to light up.
"Somethings coming! Run!" I yell.
The wall of earth starts to rumble as the ten of us run away from it.
I look back to see it burst open and the bear from before roaring out from the hole.
Doesn't this thing ever give up?
Let's see what「Observation」says on you.
Adult Star Bear
HP: 60%
MP: 25%
SP: 20%
ST: 46%
ATK:Equal
DEF:High
SPD: Equal
Tsk, it's mark vanished and it recovered its status.
Thankfully its HP didn't increase, but taking it down in this state seems like a bad idea.
I look around at our siblings running away with me and then look at the bear.
It's looking in our direction.
If it chases us or walks away will be a deciding factor.
It roars in our direction and starts toward uus on all fours.
Damn bear, just leave us alone already.
I stop and turn to face the bear.
Seems like I'm not the only one.
Big Bro #1, Big Bro #3, and Big Sis #5 do so as well.
"Run for the cave" Big Bro #1 tells the others. "We'll hold him off here."
"Shouldn't you guys run back as well?" I ask my older siblings
"Like we said before, we're not letting you run off on your own" Big Bro #1 says
"Stick together." Big Bro #3 say.
"Any ideas brothers?" Big Sis #5 asks
I look at my siblings and then down at myself.
"I have one." Big Bro #1 says "But we need to drop its barrier down again."
I smirk remembering my 「Weak Point Search」and 「Sneak Attack」skills.
"I think I have an idea for that." I say glancing at my siblings. "But I'll need your help to do so.