Chapter 11

I didn't need much time to meet something new on my way. This time it was a field mouse. The only difference from those I know from Earth... This particular one weighs a kilo for sure.

I quickly dodged her attack while my hands held the gathering fire-dark magic. I've learned that it's better to wait a bit and attack with one big attack instead of several smaller ones.

"Meet monsters:

- Common earthworm x35 (easy, worthless)

- Common earthworm+ x12 (easy, fangs worth collecting)

- Field mouse x1 (easy, fur worth collecting and edible meat)"

No, I will don't eat this... And the fur is destroyed because of my attack. I just left this one behind. Soon after, I encountered some earthworms that surrounded the mouse.

The rodent attacked one of them, and the worms took advantage of this to attack the mouse. Her life ended quickly. I watched this and gathered the energy to attack. After this attack, the worms were also dead.

I feel like my magic has improved a bit. This confirms the beneficial effect of dungeons on magic skills development. If only I didn't have this horrible pain all the time...

If I'm lucky, I'll find a phoenix feather in later parts or something else that can heal me. I found soon another side tunnel. I ate some berries again. I don't want to be out of strength for the next big fight.

This tunnel is much wider than the previous one. I found some edible glowing mushrooms on the walls. I collected them. I feel more comfortable eating mushrooms than eating rodents.

A growl broke the silence. I immediately looked in that direction and saw a strange dog.

It was the size of a dachshund. His skin, however, was covered with scales, glowing saliva dripped from his mouth, and his eyes were completely white. Ugly dog!

Just in case, I took out my knife and I didn't manage to grab it securely when the animal jumped on me with surprising force. At the last moment, I pierced the animal's head with a knife, and it began to struggle with a shrill screech.

I caught the knife wrong because I had not enough time. At last, I was able to defend myself. I threw it against the wall and I threw a fireball when it tried to get up.

I used the knife again and drove it into the animal's chest. It's finally dead.

"Lesser basilisk pup (medium, magic ingredient, worth collecting)"

I left it behind. I'm not prepared to store something like this. I only have 10 don't-go-bad containers.

I'll fill them with something normal to eat if I'm lucky. At the end of the path, I found another lesser basilisk pup and I killed it without hesitation. They are still living creatures, but most were dungeon-made, and their goal is only to kill and grow.

And what I found here is... A tiny egg. It is only a centimeter in size. I wonder what creature it belongs to, but in the case of eggs found in dungeons... It is possible to tame animals that hatch from them.

Being a tamer is one of the professions that fascinated me. I also liked the battle magic, advanced elemental magic, healing, and magical crafting... I want to try everything I can. But everyone advises me not to deal with many things at once.

I fell into deep thought. After a while, however, I plucked up a fair amount of moss, filled one of the pockets in my bag with it, and placed an egg in it.

Placing hatching eggs in don't-go-bad containers would result in delayed hatching... But in this place I want it to hatch as fast as possible. Maybe it won't turn useless. The tablet is not able to ID this.

During the following hours, I found more earthworms and mice, including those in an enlarged size. I also found a small bush of pinkberries.

"Meet monsters:

- Common earthworm x68 (easy, worthless)

- Common earthworm+ x26 (easy, fangs worth collecting)

- Field mouse x11 (easy, fur worth collecting and edible meat)

- Field mouse+ x2 (medium, fur worth collecting and edible meat)

- Lesser basilisk pup x2 (medium, magic ingredient, worth collecting)"

I very like this counting and difficulty rating feature. However, I have a feeling that for an Exceed at my age, defeating such creatures would not even require a slight effort.

I do what I can during training, but the only thing I can show off is agility, which helps me a lot on obstacle courses.

Aria assures me that I'm making really fast progress in learning magic. But how am I supposed to feel when even the kids are still better than me? Maybe this dungeon is not a curse, just to be or not to be? My chance?

I felt much better with this new approach. But I would like so much to heal my wounds... But how? When I slowly got my hopes up, I noticed THIS.

Directly above me, a large specimen of fern hung brazenly from the ceiling. I tried to jump... Ended up in even more pain. It's too high. I tried to throw a knife at it... It got stuck in the ceiling.

I had to struggle with throwing stones for several minutes. I finally got my knife back! And the next throw at the fern turned out to be accurate. I almost cried with emotion when I ate the phoenix feather. Although it could just as well be crying because of the awful taste and burning stomach.

The plant was very large, so it took me a while to chew it... Fortunately, after 10 minutes it was all over... Painful wounds became large but delicate scars, and the ribs did not seem to bother me anymore.

I lay down for a moment with a happy smile. I'm sure I'll be better now. I'm not completely healthy, but enough not to feel stabbing pain with every movement. After half an hour my rest was interrupted. Another lesser basilisk puppy has arrived!

I decided to use magic and shot a fireball at it. The share of darkness in it is getting smaller and smaller when I focus on it. The animal was badly burned, but it lunged at me with even more fury. I stabbed this with my knife to end its life. Again fast kill.

If it wasn't for the fact that they attack me as soon as they see me, I would avoid most of them. I have walked about 15 kilometers for sure. I'd love to go to sleep, but I'm not sure where or how...

I managed to reach the steep descent down. It will probably be harder and more dangerous there. I decided to go back and practice more on the weaker animals.

One thing caught my attention soon. The moss looks a little different in one place... It hangs!

I immediately checked what was behind it and I discovered a very small passage to a larger corridor. It is exciting! I took a deep breath and after a while, I made it to the other side.

The walls, for a change, are covered with grass here, which, unlike the green moss, glows blue here.

The first creature encountered here turned out to be a large larva - the size of a loaf of bread. I don't know what creature it belongs to, but it looks uglier than earthworms.

I quickly burned it with my fireballs. All this animal did was make a strange creak... I realized what it was. Calling for help! But it's too late now. The first thing I noticed was the ugly hairy legs, then the beaked mouths... It's the ugliest fly I've ever seen!

And that wasn't the only one. Soon after it more f them showed off. 5... 8... No! 26 of them! Data from my crystal tablet showed that they are a medium difficulty for me. The name is not very inviting too. Corpse-eating fly!

I took a deep breath and exhaled, releasing the biggest flame I could. I felt my magic running out. Did I free that much at one time? I did not expect such a big effect! I was breathing painfully. It was too much for what I was capable of.

The handy thing is that... Everything was burnt here! All the flies! I used up all my supply of energy berries and moved on. None of the material from these creatures was useful.

Only after eating this amount, I felt good.

At the end of the tunnel, I saw a huge corpse-eating fly! 2 meters long? For sure! "Corpse-eating fly mother". I thought it was the queen. But the term "mother" had a different connotation.

It was still alive, but it was seriously injured by my flames... How powerful were they? It tried to move, but its legs were like burnt sticks - brittle and breakable. I got very close to try to kill her with my knife.

I was too careless. A small ball of energy appeared in front of her head and I got hit in the leg! Right! Stronger monsters can use magic!

I was very close now... I quickly grabbed the creature's head and cut it off with a knife. I sat down and a very displeased grimace appeared on my face. I'm seriously injured again. Material used to make my pants is strong, but not created to withstand magical attacks.

I look around the room. There were numerous bushes here, but I damaged them quite badly... There are also a lot of dead larvae in one of the corners.

After a while, I forced myself to get up and picked up all the pink berries...

One bush, however, turned out to have a different kind of berry. The berries are also pink, but they are covered with small black spots. Pink-spotty berry. It has a weak healing effect! I ate them all. They taste good...

The wound is mostly healed and scars from older injuries are almost gone. Magic. I love it. And I also hate it.