Breaking the Shell

I walked across the dungeon floor with a loud silence between us. He wasn't the type to chatter, and I couldn't find any reason to push him into speaking.

Freya saved my ass, though not directly. She sent Ottar, who found me all bruised and beaten up. "Bruised" would be an understatement for what horrors Ottar probably saw, but I was thankful that she cared about me.

My emotions disappeared a little bit after I regenerated, suggesting that feeling emotions must be some kind of side effect of my evolution. I still had to explore my possibilities and powers, so there must be some side effects until I got used to them.

Either that or Azathoth was just making fun of me. I wouldn't be surprised if that were the case, but something told me it was not.

I side-eyed Ottar as he continued looking straight ahead without any obstacles in his way. That was until a pair of smaller raptors ambushed us from the bushes. They were easy for me to kill, so it wasn't a problem, but I wanted to keep my powers a secret if possible.

Of course, I couldn't keep them a secret forever, but I had no freedom to do as I pleased because my level was too low. Ottar, fortunately, isn't the type to snitch; he would only tell his goddess, and Freya would keep that to herself.

"Go, fight, and show me what you've got." I stared up at the giant man who had just told me to deal with this all by myself.

Ottar had a strong respect for adventurers who risk their lives to grow, those who fight stronger foes than themselves. He believed that no adventurer could grow if they refused to break out of their shell, which was true.

Seeing this unavoidable situation where I had to show my powers, I sighed and went ahead of Ottar. He stared down at me, looking at me with a bit of anticipation and interest.

The raptors charged at me with their sharp teeth bared, ready to tear my flesh just like half an hour ago. There were three of them in total, with blue skin and orange stripes, like simple raptors.

Although they are considered one of the weakest dinosaur monsters, they have a talent for speed and agility. Lone adventurers had to be very careful if attacked by a group of these beasts, as they could tire them out and then eat them alive.

PHEW BOOM

I pushed the three raptors away before crushing them while they were frozen in the air. Once agile creatures, they were now just powder. My stats growth from half an hour ago had boosted me significantly.

"Hm... very interesting," Ottar quietly murmured, just loud enough for me to hear. I turned back to see his pleased face. He looked truly proud of the power I possessed. I could never hate this man, despite who he served.

A couple more raptors jumped at me from the bushes, and all of them were met with a powerful force, crushing them from the sides. But then I remembered a notification I'd gotten before: I had unlocked a new ranged ability.

A bloodsaurus appeared fifteen meters from me. It was as tall as an entire house, so it was quite easy to spot. It stared down at me and Ottar while slowly approaching us. This time, I wanted to test my new power out.

"Let's see how this power works." As I said that, Ottar glanced over at me with an amused look in his eyes, though his face remained stoic.

I charged up the power inside me, and a glowing orb formed in front of my hands. It was a dark sphere with circling energy around it. Each second, the sphere grew stronger until it couldn't charge anymore, and I had to fire it.

BOOM

The darkly charged bolt shot from my hands directly at the bloodsaurus. All went quiet after the detonation until an amusing sight beheld us.

"That... that is good magic you've got there," Ottar commented, seemingly unable to contain his amusement any longer.

Only half of the monster remained after I blasted it away using my power. Turning my head to Ottar, I confirmed his statement with a nod.

We continued moving forward until we reached a small circular area surrounded by trees. To our surprise, no monsters were nearby.

Ottar scanned the area for a moment before signaling me to follow him with a nod. I followed the man through the vegetation, leaves constantly hitting my face, and even some bugs managed to get into my hair.

As I threw off one small bug, I quickly noticed that Ottar and I had arrived at a small opening in what looked like a cave. Judging by Ottar's neutral expression, I guessed that no monster was inside, as his level 7 senses would detect any monsters inside for sure.

"It looks like the monsters don't spawn in there. You need to rest." He turned toward me, and I nodded.

The cave entrance was wide enough for Ottar to crouch and enter while I had no trouble getting inside. My eyes didn't need to adjust, thanks to being a higher being or whatever; a nice view welcomed me inside.

Inside the cave, there was a medium-sized room with a flat floor. It looked like a safe zone in the middle of a jungle hell. Seeing that this was nothing but a safe room inside the dungeon, Ottar sat down and closed his eyes.

"Sit down. You need to rest until you're fine enough so we can continue. A long way awaits us until we reach the surface, so we may as well take any chance the dungeon gives us to rest."

He spoke stoically, keeping his eyes closed, with his heavy swords on the ground close to his hands. His whole presence radiated Kratos energy to me; I wouldn't be surprised if he called me 'BOY!'.

"Alright then... the weird thing is that the dungeon makes a place like this after... well after it constantly tries to kill us."

Ottar opened one of his eyes for a moment before closing it again and spoke, "The Dungeon is very mysterious; it is unknown even to the Gods, so trying to understand it is unnecessary for adventurers like us."

Ottar then raised an eyebrow and asked me, "Speaking of, how is it that you don't sweat or leave a smell?"

His keen demi-human senses picked up abnormalities in me. There was no point in trying to hide it further, as it would only lead to a difficult situation.

"I was born different; that's all I'll say." My answer didn't seem to satisfy him, but he refused to push me any further.

"I'm going to rest my eyes for a bit. Watch over me until I wake up." I turned my back to Ottar and closed my eyes, needing time to think.

Ottar remained silent without making any noise. Now, the only thing I needed to do was rest my eyes, but for some reason, they started feeling heavy.