I continued moving further inside the dungeon, keeping my eyes wide open while also making sure to keep my guard up in case of a sudden surprise attack.
The tunnel I had entered, was the same one as that Lesser Fenrir I killed earlier had come from, so I assumed that there was going to be some monsters deeper inside.
However...
So far at least, it was the same as when I entered the dungeon for the first time.
Absolutely no monster in encounters.
Honestly, what was the deal?
Why couldn't I find any monsters at all?
Even that Fenrir, it only appeared after the group of those human students came down into the same room of the dungeon as me.
I didn't really want to believe my hypothesis I had, with monsters only appearing when humans are near, however seeing how deep I was inside the dungeon now and I had only seen that single lesser fenrir - I was slowly believing my hypothesis more and more.
It actually was a big annoying if I had to be honest. The whole deal with not encountering monsters was making every part of me want to turn back around and leave.
'I know I said this was exciting... But if no opponents show up, all I'll have ended up doing is wasting my time..'
I sighed before looking around, trying to spot perhaps some other way to go.
I kept slithering forward for a bit, before reaching a more open room inside the dungeon. Examining the inside, the sound of what sounded like growling dragged my attention.
Looking over to the direction from where they growling was coming from, I saw around what looked to be 7 Direwolfs and then... Another Lesser Fenrir?
'Better to confirm what they are.'
I thought before using my skill 'Inspector' on the group of monsters. The 7 smaller monsters, were indeed Direwolves, however they were Superior Direwolves.
They ranged from level 28-29.
And the massive one?
A Greater Fenrir. Level 34.
....yeah.
Despite the fact that every single one of the monsters was a higher level than me - the Greater Fenrir being almost 10 Levels higher - I didn't really feel all that scared or worried.
Was it because I, despite being only level 25, had high stats and was already used to fighting higher levels..?
'Not going to lie... I'd love to know what their stats look like..'
I thought before sighing.
I had wasted enough time - it was around time I eliminated all these wolves and continued on.
The Greater Fenrir howled, seemingly ordering the Superior Direwolves to launch at me - which they did a moment afterwards.
'I guess time to put my new skills to use.'
I thought before quickly using one of the new skills I had acquired earlier in the dungeon - 'Shadow Step'.
Upon use, I vanished instantly from the wolves view, causing a mass amount of confusion among them.
I then reappeared directly above the Greater Fenrir, before using another one of my new skills - 'Shadow Call'.
Upon use, two monstrous figures appeared from my shadow, dwarfing the Greater Fenrir in size. The two figures then proceeded to hit the Fenrir, causing a pretty decent amount of damage, before sending it flying back, while also leaving the Superior Direwolves in a state of surprise and seemingly, slight fear.
'So that's what it does..'
I thought before smiling awkwardly. I was best to only use this skill, when I was in a sticky situation. Landing to the ground, I just barely managed to dodge an incoming attack from one of the direwolfs, who was then immediately killed in one hit by one of the monstrous figures I had summoned.
"These things are strong... So that means that the Fenrir simply has a lot of HP to survive a hit."
I noted, before using Shadow Step to dodge another direwolf, who, just like the last one, immediately got killed by the monstrous figures afterwards.
I kept on dodging through the use of 'Shadow Step' until all 7 of the Direwolves was killed off by the two figures.
After the 7 Direwolves were dead, the figures disappeared back into my shadow, as only me and the Greater Fenrir remained standing.
The beast was seemingly angry - growling at me quite loudly.
I, on the otherhand, was pretty confident. The only dangerous part of this whole room, was really the outnumbered scenario I was in.
The Greater Fenrir by itself, was no more powerful than the Lesser Fenrir I killed earlier.
That is, to me it was no more powerful - to someone who didn't have stats like me, this thing probably was a nightmare.
The monster howled loudly, before its eyes turned a fuming red colour.
'A skill perhaps?'
I thought.
I could try and use 'Inspector' to try and figure out what kind of skill it was, if it even was one, however there wasn't any guarantee that it'd work.
'I suppose it's worth a try..'
Before I could finish my thought, the beast charged at me. Reacting quickly, I used 'Shadow Step' to quickly get into the air above it.
'Definetely a skill. This thing was not all that fast before.'
I thought.
Although, I don't really know how fast it was before, since it was mostly standing in the back while I massacred the direwolves.
Deciding to not use Inspector, just to not risk anything, I shot up the same purple teeth barrage into the air - covering the whole ceiling in the teeth.
The Greater Fenrir looked at me furiously, before attempting to leap up towards me, going in for a ferocious attack.
"Sorry, but you're too slow."
I laughed, before quickly using 'Shadow Step' to get back onto the ground. I almost immediately looked back up at the monster, who turned its head slowly towards me in rage.
"Venom Pour Down!"
I shouted, activating my skill.
Immediately, the purple teeth burst into the same purple liquid, before completely drenching the whole room, filling it up to the top.
For a few moments, the room was flooded in my skills liquid, before the liquid slowly disappeared.
Experience threshold has been reached.
You have risen to level 28.
Through the use of the skills '' Shadow Step '' and '' Venom Pour Down '' you have acquired a new skill.
Rare Skill '' Venomous Bamboozle '' acquired.
'A new skill acquired from using two of my existing ones?! I can do that?!'
I thought before using my body to hop up and down like a spring in excitement.
Fighting this Fenrir really was worth it after all!
I then proceeded to use a quick 'Devourer' on all the corpses in the room.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mass amount of Magical Energy has been absorbed.
Excess Magical Energy will be turned into skills..
Success.
Common Skill '' Trickster '' acquired.
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Three skills from one battle?!
Am I lucky or what!
I then thought for a moment. Maybe I should check my stats...
"Open status."
I said, opening the stat window. Upon seeing my new stats, my jaw almost hit the ground.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Name: Faofa Shin
Species: Inferior Serpentine
Age: 0
Level: 28
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Stats:
HP; 9200
ATK; 1200
MAGEN (MAGICAL ENERGY); 1320
STAMINA; 1105
INTELLIGENCE; 500
OVERALL POWER; 1890
Skills:
-Inspector; Common Skill
-Devourer; Individual Skill
-Hunter; Common Skill
-Venom Pour Down; Rare Skill
-Megalomaniac; Rare Skill
-Persistent; Rare Skill
-Presence Erase; Common Skill
-Shadow Step; Common Skill
-Shadow Call; Rare Skill
-Beasts Will; Individual Skill
-Venomous Bamboozle; Rare Skill
-Trickster; Common Skill
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Are you serious right now?!
I'm only level 28 and those are my stats?!
I know I get shocked about this every time, but, can you blame me?!
I sighed before closing the status window.
'I should get used to seeing those unreal stats at my level... They're not going anywhere..'
I thought before looking around the mayhem I had caused. All the dead direwolf corpses and the dead Fenrir, really made it look like some beast had been through here.
But there was no beast - only a single, rather adorable, small snake, that has stats mirroring that of a max level player in an RPG or something.
"Should I go in deeper?"
I mumbled to myself, before looking around. There was only one way to go... Again.
It felt like the whole dungeon was a sort of linear path that just went in a forward straight line.
However, I didn't mind that fact.
As long as the dungeon kept going straight and only had one path, it saved me the trouble of thinking which way to take.
Wait... Think..
Now that I think about it, my intelligence stat has stayed the same since it hit 500.
Did I need to do something specific to increase it?
Well, if I did, it'd figure it out later. Right now what mattered, is that I kept going.
I then resumed my way, slithering on deeper into the dungeon, leaving the spoils of my little "battle" for anyone to find.
Hell, maybe those human students will find them and it'll be enough to send them back out of the dungeon.
...
A while passed as I kept moving forward. Strangely enough, I had been just going down a straight tunnel all this time - no room had been encountered since the last one where I massacred all those direwolves inside of.
I also haven't ran into any other monster since that room.
So basically, things had returned back to how they were before I entered that previous room. However, I didn't really mind it this time around.
While my skills weren't using that much magical energy - and to be fair, I had an absurd amount of it - I did feel like I was a bit exhausted.
Which was strange, since I had not felt exhaustion or even tiredness since I had left the Ruins where I met Arabor inside of.
'I wonder why I feel this exhaustion...'
I thought before shaking my head lightly.
Even though the exhaustion was rather strange, I probably was overthinking it and there really wasn't much to it.
I kept moving forward, before finally entering another room. Luckily for me as well, this room had some monsters in it.
Or... Atleast it had one monster in it.
It was a rather large monster - however, not a wolf this time around.
The monster was more of a.. bird one. That's the best way to put it.
The "bird" monster flapped its wings at me, before making some pretty absurd noises, almost like it was trying to intimidate me.
'Don't mind me... Just gonna us a quick Inspector on ya..'
I thought before using my skill on it.
Monster - Elder Terraflon.
Level - 38.
'Oh? Level 38? I suppose that's more impressive than the Fenrirs of the other rooms.'
I thought before sighing. Although I said it was more impressive than the fenrirs, in actuality, this thing was only 4 levels higher than that Greater Fenrir.
Honestly, was it even worth wasting my time here? Should I just finish it with one or two 'Venom Pour Downs' and keep moving forward?
As I thought about my best course of action, the monster suddenly launched what looked to be an air attack at me.
"WOAH!"
I exclaimed, barely dodging with 'Shadow Step'.
'That didn't look much like a skill... Magic perhaps?'
I thought before dodging yet another air attack from it. The attacks it was sending towards me, looked kinda like.. blades made or... Air? I guess?
They kind of reminded me of Rimurus 'Water Blade' he acquired while inside Veldoras cave.
Strange.. I have referenced the story of Rimuru multiple times now... I guess everything I'm going through is quite similar to his story.
I quickly slithered underneath the monster, who, noticing me, squealed at me, before taking flight into the air.
'It can fly?...'
I thought before hitting myself with my tail.
It's a bird type monster - of course it can fly, you idiot!
Quickly thinking of something new, I used 'Shadow Step' to get above it in the air, while also managing to dodge yet another one of its air blade attacks.
Once above it, I first thought about using 'Venom Pour Down' on it - just as I have done up until now, however after a quick second thought - Maybe I should let some of my other skills have time to shine.
Thinking back to my skills, I remembered the 'Venomous Bamboozle' skill I had acquired from simply using 'Shadow Step' and 'Venom Pour Down' close to one another.
'May as well give it a shot.'
I thought, before using the skill.
I lit up with a light purple aura, as the monster noticed me and sent 3 of its air blade attacks at me. Instead of dodging, I stood in place, mid-air, simply allowing the attacks to connect.
However, the moment the attacks were about to hit, I vanished from its field of view. Before the monster could react, I sliced right through it with a clean movement, killing it instantly.
Experience threshold has been reached.
You have risen to level 30.
'So that is what it does.'
I thought, before landing onto the ground softly. Moments later, the monsters corpse fell to the ground, crashing on it.
I assumed that it only killed this monster instantly, simply because of my ridiculous stats.
Under normal circumstances, it most likely would do a light cut and poison my opponent - or, atleast that's what I assumed it did.
Looking at the monster, I smirked.
"Well time for my Devourer bonus.."
I commented, before menacingly approaching the corpse.
However, I then stopped suddenly, as sudden dizziness hit me.
'What the hell..?'
I thought.
Attention:
You have met the required level for evolution.
Commencing evolution from '' Inferior Serpentine '' to '' Lesser Serpentine ''.
'An evolution..? Now..?'
I thought, as the dizziness got stronger. I tried to fight it to the best of my ability, knowing that if I passed out in here, the middle of the dungeon, without my 'Presence Erase' skill active - I'd be dead meat.
However, the dizziness was too strong to overpower and eventually, after a few more moments, I passed out.