Dungeon Cleared

The monster started to grow bigger.

Everyone started to get worried that this was some sort of hidden second stage of the boss, but it was actually just my spell.

What I'd done was basically concentrate everything I had into one singular beam that would concentrate in one spot once it had gone as far as it had and then gather all of the energy and explode.

This should hopefully kill the damn thing or at the very least, burst its internal organs to the point where it's writhing in painful agony.

Soon, it had swelled up to twice its original size, some of its scales peeling off due to the flesh beneath being stretched apart. It then started shaking as I believe the energy inside was now ready to explode.

And explode it did.

*BOOOMMM*

It didn't quite erupt into lumps of flesh and bone all over the place, but rather. The blood inside of it pierced through the now exposed flesh pressurised beams of liquid, which everyone started dodging.

Then, the monsters organs started to be thrown out from its own mouth as it began to deflate and slump onto the floor.

It gave off a couple of groans before the light finally left its eyes and it finally died.

[Ding!]

[You have successfully killed the [Nature Wyvern: LvL. 70] and earned +40,000 EXP.]

[You have devoured several fragments of a [Nature Wyvern: LvL. 70]s soul and earned +27,000 Soul EXP.]

[Error. Due to your soul being at its current maximum level, excess Soul EXP will be converted into [SP] instead.]

Oh yeah, I forgot about that. I can evolve my soul. Ah, I also still have some stat points to use also.

"Oh good, it didn't blow up." I heard Kane say in relief.

I looked over at the walking talking corpse with a blank look on my face. He felt my gaze and turned to look at me.

"What? Look its the optimal outcome for me in this scenario. Do you even know how long I would've had to spend putting it back together if it DID blow up?" He then went on a spiel about the process of raising undead and the effort he would need to put in to stitch it together to even reanimate it.

I of course stopped listening to him shortly after he started talking.

I then focused back on myself and the EXP I got from the kill.

[You will instead receive +20 [SP] per 1,000 Soul EXP.]

[+540 SP]

[SP: 17,840 (+2,000)]

A small boost to my Soul Power, nice. I suppose I should use my stat points while I'm at it. I suppose I should put it into SP because I used quite a lot of it just now, I even almost ran out.

[Ding!]

[+1,125]

[SP: 19,965 (+2,000)]

That takes care of that I guess, now I just need to see what this Soul evolution thing is all about.

[Ding!]

[You can now evolve your Soul!]

[Please make sure that you are in a safe place before undergoing any evolution.]

[Would you like to evolve your Soul now?]

[Y/N]

I obviously pressed N as I didn't want to evolve my soul here, I'd rather do that at home.

"ARE YOU EVEN LISTENING?!?!" I heard the necromancer shouting as he realised I wasn't paying attention to him.

I continued ignoring him and went over to Cythistia to rest for a bit, but when I came over, I saw her with a downtrodden look on her face, a pensive aura around her, and she was shaking slightly.

I slinked up next to her and gave her a warm hug and a kiss to hopefully cheer her up.

"Mmm." She hummed as I gave her some love, but she still seemed down even then.

'Is everything okay?' I asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine… It's just that… well, a couple of people got crushed by the wyvern when it fell from above." She began to say.

'It fell?' I asked interrupting her and going on to say, 'You'll have to explain in detail as I wasn't paying attention to the fight.'

She sighed and explained that she lost control over her spell when she saw the necromancer shouting angrily at me, causing it to be free and fly up into the air, where it then got its wing torn up and it then fell, crushing a few of our men.

That was what was plaguing her mind, as she believed that she was the reason they died, because she let it go free because of a lack of concentration.

I continued hugging her and telling her that it's okay and that everyone makes mistakes, even me.

'Sometimes, our emotions just do things like this to us, and we do things we don't want to do that can end up like this, but at the end of the day, yes you may have been the cause of this, but no one's going to blame you just because you have emotions.'

'And if you didn't have those emotions, you wouldn't be you, and I wouldn't have become enamoured by your adorable personality.' I finished explaining with a boop on her nose and a cheery smile on my face.

She gave a small chuckle and smile lightly back at me. She still seemed down, but at least she was feeling a little happier. She pulled me close for another hug and I gladly gave it to her. Hugging seemed to help her out a bit as she calmed down a bit more and stopped shaking.

We hugged for a bit until everyone was called to gather around.

"Ladies, gentlemen, we have successfully cleared this dungeon. And although we may have lost a few along the way, we must make sure that their sacrifices won't be in vain."

"To ensure this, we will erect a memorial for all of them back in the city. As for you lot, you will be rewarded accordingly, some of you will obtain more than others based on merit, but regardless of that, you will all be paid."

"Now that we are done here, we shall collect the dungeon core and return home."

He finished his speech and called for several people to come forth and help him extract the dungeon core, after which, we would all be immediately teleported outside the entrance.

_

_

_

It took a little while but eventually all of us felt our bodies being pulled to another location, most likely the entrance to the dungeon.

During that time, I just stayed with Cythistia and comforted her, making sure that she knew that she wouldn't be blamed for what happened.

When the pulling sensation faded, I opened my eyes and sure enough, we were outside the entrance to the dungeon, except, the tree that acted as the gateway seemed to have collapsed and fallen over. Half of it turning to dust and the other half being rotten grey wood that looked like it wasn't far off from becoming dust itself.

I turned my head to a source of bright light that I could see in my peripheral vision, and saw Denosin holding an emerald green crystalline orb. Most definitely the dungeon core.

"Alright everyone, time to head home." He commanded.

Everyone got up and we all began our journey back home to Athenela.

It took a few days, but we could soon see the blooming silver city in the horizon.