Speedrun 17

The last five floors were a mix of ease and annoyance. We had entered what I would call the undead zone, and it seemed like we hadn't encountered any living, flesh-and-blood monsters in ages. The floors were swarming with various kinds of undead - zombies, weapon-wielding skeletons, shades, and ghosts.

During our descent, Fluffy had amassed sufficient biomass to envelop herself completely with the light-refracting scales. She had also modified her feet, equipping them with toe pads made of thin hairs that granted her the ability to scale steep surfaces and hang from ceilings. However, she was still struggling to master both abilities, occasionally experiencing mishaps like falling from the ceiling or inadvertently revealing herself to her targets when she didn't intend to.

It was quite amusing to witness the mutual confusion that ensued when her [Camouflage] failed unexpectedly, leaving both her target and herself stunned and gazing at each other in bewilderment. Though she had no difficulty dispatching her target, she was visibly embarrassed by her mishap and sulked for a good half hour, requiring me to offer plenty of head pats and reassuring words.

Her new [Camouflage] upgrade, however, proved to be utterly useless on our current floors, because the undead didn't rely on ordinary vision to locate their targets. Instead, they used something called [Sense Life]. Sadly, as they were mostly magical constructs rather than flesh-and-blood creatures, Fluffy couldn't gain any biological skills from them. That's where I stepped in to assist. Using [Assimilate] I swiftly stole [Sense Life] from two skeletons, effectively rendering them blind, then I created a skill orb and transferred the skill to Fluffy.

[Sense Life LVL: N/A]

- Grants the user the ability to passively perceive the essence of life within a range equal to their Perception.

She already possessed a similar inborn skill that allowed her to locate targets by sensing bioelectricity. However, [Sense Life] was a significant upgrade, offering an extended range and the ability to perceive even the life force of plant life, all without the need for traditional ocular orbs called eyes.

Despite being unable to use her new ambush predator ability against the undead, Fluffy remained far from useless in this situation. Her [Darkness Manipulation], [Atomic Breath], [Acid Spit], as well as her jaws, claws, and tail, proved highly effective against the horde of undead.

However, Fluffy soon realized that a single, well-placed strike to the head was enough to put down any of the undead creatures, making both of us quickly lose interest in these floors. So, instead of wasting more time here, even though the creatures provided Fluffy with plenty of experience, I used my abilities to propel us through three consecutive floors, landing us on the 65th floor right before a bridge that spanned a seemingly bottomless chasm.

It was the same bridge that technically marked the true beginning of the original story, the one where the edgy protagonist had been backstabbed during a life-or-death battle and had fallen to the bottom. I still couldn't quite fathom how he had survived the 36-floor fall, but I chalked it up to protagonist luck and narrative bullshitery.

As soon as our feet touched the stony bridge, a magical circle formed at its center. I accelerated my perception of time and swiftly approached it to get a better look at the spellform. I had hoped it was a summoning or monster creation circle, but my hopes were swiftly dashed. Technically, it was summoning magic, but of the teleportation variety, pulling a monster from deep within the dungeon and depositing it onto the bridge.

I could shatter the magical circle or even usurp it, but there was no real purpose in doing so. The monster it delivered might provide Fluffy with a good challenge if she was up for it. So, with a sigh, I returned to Fluffy's side and reverted my perception of time to normal.

With a blinding flash of light, a behemoth cheekily named Behemoth appeared before us. Its massive body stretched ten meters in length and reached a height of five meters. Resembling a triceratops, it had a bull-like head with two enormous horns protruding from its skull, and its eyes glowed a menacing red.

With a challenging "Moo" that echoed through the chamber, the monster recklessly charged at us. Each thunderous step shook the foundation of the bridge as it channeled magic directly into its horns.

A basketball cap appeared on my head as I squinted at the rapidly approaching Behemoth. I grabbed the brim and as I theatrically rotated it to the back, a grin spread across my face. Raising my hand, I pointed at the monster and shouted, "Fluffy, use Flamethrower!"

"Shaa?!" The bewildered little Nightmare hissed, giving me a look as if I had grown another head.

Suppressing a chuckle, I dismissed the cap and gazed at her while saying, "Just kill it if you want, if not, I'll take care of it."

She shook her head, hissing in exasperation, "Sha-ha-ha..." as if muttering, 'Why do I even listen to you?' Then, she surged forward, her pace rapidly increasing, her jaws wide open and emanating a brilliant blue light as she unleashed her [Atomic Breath] directly at the behemoth's eyes.

The behemoth flinched in agony as Fluffy's attack gouged out its left eye. The sudden pain caused it to lose its balance, staggering before crashing heavily onto the ground, cracking the bridge, and sliding tens of meters forward.

The beast, although much larger and heavier than Fluffy, couldn't deter her in the slightest. She accelerated to her maximum speed, an impressive 120 meters per second, and nimbly leaped onto the back of the Behemoth. Her front and back claws tore through its flesh with ease as her jaws bit down with gusto.

The colossal bovine protested with loud moos, its head and tail swaying back and forth. It unsteadily stood up, shook its body, and bounced around in an attempt to dislodge the Nightmare from its back. However, its immense size and quadrupedal form prevented it from doing anything to remove the Nightmare that was happily munching on its flesh.

With no other options, the Behemoth once again dropped to the ground and rolled and I watched with a deadpan expression as the creature toppled over the edge of the bridge, plummeting into the abyss below, while Fluffy casually leaped off, landing safely on the bridge's surface.

She hopped up to me with a spring in her step, her head swaying smugly from side to side, awaiting her well-deserved praise.

I couldn't help but roll my eyes, and let a chuckle escape my lips. Nevertheless, I rewarded her with praise in the form of a pat on her blood-soaked, scaly head. "You cocky little thing," I remarked with a smile. "I'm not sure if you intended to do just that, but nicely done," I added with a nod.

"Shaa-Shaa," she responded with a smug nod.

"All according to plan, you say?" I snorted, raising an eyebrow and she nodded in response, once again. "Good plan, although, I must say that you did waste quite a bit of biomass right there." I pointed it out.

My statement made her freeze mid-nod, her eyes widening, and a profanity-laced "Shaa!" echoed through the chamber, making me burst out laughing.

She squinted her eyes at me and hissed once again. "Oh no, no, I'm not laughing at you... I'm laughing with you!" I waved my hands, a grin spread across my face, but my words didn't seem to placate her as she looked away, sulking once again.

I ignored her theatrics and after calming down, picked her up, tucking her wiggling body safely under my armpit. Then, I walked up to the side of the bridge and jumped off, causing her to hiss in fright and immediately turn immaterial by sinking into the shadow of my armpit.

I rolled my eyes at her antics. Even if we impacted the ground at terminal velocity, not even she would be truly hurt. Not to mention, that this drop wasn't even enough for us to reach those speeds.

After about 12 seconds of freefall, my feet met solid ground, while the kinetic energy from the impact was simply redirected and safely dispersed into the atmosphere.

Despite my superhuman capabilities, I still enjoyed doing 'reckless' stunts like this. It was extremely fun, and I couldn't help but berate myself for not trying extreme sports before gaining so much physical power. Perhaps in the future, using the Limiter System, we could go on an everyday holiday to do some surfing or maybe even diving, but I wasn't sure if it would have the same thrill.

Anyway, after the 36-floor drop, we found ourselves at the bottom of the first and at the entrance to the second dungeon. Strangely, it seemed the Behemoth carcass had fallen directly on top of what I assumed was the floor boss—a five-meter-long, dinosaur-like creature with two heads.

I was fairly certain that the environment didn't match what I remembered from the series. Don't get me wrong, both settings resembled stony caves, but I was confident that the ex-protagonist hadn't ended up in a chamber with a one-hundred-meter radius. If I counted the disappearing floors correctly, we were on the 100th floor, whereas I was fairly certain he had ended up on the 101st floor, or should I say, the 1st floor of the second dungeon. However, I couldn't locate any way for him to have done so.

"Huh, maybe the cow's corpse and the bridge debris broke through the floor?" I mused aloud, as I was sure the cow didn't fall onto the same spot as it did in the series. "Well, whatever, it doesn't change too much..."

Noticing my mumbling and the absence of the sound of whooshing air, two lizard-like eyeballs popped up from under my armpit, scanning our surroundings and after spotting the two fresh carcasses, they widened, and Fluffy jumped out of my shadow, bolting toward the splattered corpses.

With a sigh, I shouted after her, "If you can carry them with you, do so, but I won't stand here and wait for you to gobble up fifteen tons of meat!"

That made her stop mid-bite, and I could practically see the gears turning in her head. After a moment of contemplating, her shadow exploded outwards, completely covering the enormous heap of flesh and bones. She flashed a smug smile as the mass of meat, with a bit of struggle, sank into her shadow.

"Huh, that could work, although, I don't think you have the mana regeneration to keep them there for too long."

"Shaa-Sha!" She hissed, and a tendril of darkness shot up from the ground, depositing a chunk of meat directly into her mouth.

"Well, I guess if you continue eating it during our descent, it won't be long until you finish it," I said with a shrug and began walking toward the large cave entrance on the other side of the boss room. "Come on, Fluffs," I beckoned her, "let's get you some additional abilities."

With that, we descended to the next floor, and that's where the true descent actually started.

The first floor of the Abyss, to my knowledge, only had three types of monsters: an extremely fast rabbit that could maneuver in the air, a twin-tailed wolf that could cover itself in electricity, and a bear-like creature that could send out wind blades with its claws. Fluffs was pretty compatible with all three... Well, at least two of these abilities... So I wanted her to integrate them into her being to raise her damage output even more.

However, I got bored of this dungeon and didn't want to waste any time hunting around. So instead of walking around and tracking down these creatures, I simply spread my senses across the floor, took ahold of the environmental mana, then killed the monsters and teleported the carcasses in front of the startled little Nightmare.

As the mana under my control made contact with their bodies, it meant I could remotely activate [Matter Manipulation], so I already had a full comprehension of their biological processes and makeup.

With that information under my belt, I turned to Fluffy, pointing at the white, red-eyed rabbit, and suggested, "Try recreating the mana channels inside the rabbit's paws. It should grant you the ability called Air Dance. It will passively increase your movement speed as well as grant you the ability to walk on air. For the best outcome, you should really recreate it on all four of your paws." I explained, and she nodded, gobbling up the rabbit in a single bite.

She froze for a moment, squinting her eyes, and as the environmental mana was still under my control, I could see her biology shift in real-time. New mana channels sprouted in her four paws, forming the same pattern the rabbit had.

She nodded to herself, and I felt mana gather inside her paws before she launched herself at incredible speeds right at the ceiling of the cave. She jolted, her head tugging itself in, as she expected to impact the stone, yet the impact never happened as I, with a deadpan expression, erased her momentum and levitated her back to the ground.

"Yeah... Let's leave testing the capabilities of that skill for after we're somewhere more open..." I said, giving her a pointed look, and making her avert her eyes shyly.

I shook my head and sighed, redirecting my attention to the massive white bear with its enormous claws. I pointed at it and said, "Next up, replicate the mana channels inside its claws, and add them to all of your claws. You can also try adding it to your teeth, but I want to be clear: do not test out the teeth enhancement right away. Do you understand?" I gave her a stern look, and she slowly nodded in response. She then bit and ripped off the bear's paw, before swallowing it, to gain a better understanding of its biology.

It took us a few tests, but as we descended through the dungeon, we learned that she didn't need to consume the entire body of a creature to replicate its ability. It was sufficient for her to consume the part of the body that possessed the desired ability. However, devouring the entire creature did enhance her understanding of its biology and provide her with ample amounts of biomass, so there were pros and cons of doing so.

It took her a few tries to successfully implement the changes from the bear. Her new claws were now equipped with intricate mana channels, allowing her to coat them with air affinity mana and shoot them out with ease.

She attempted to replicate the intricate mana channel patterns inside her teeth, but in the end, with a dejected look on her scaly face, she shook her head, unable to do so.

"Cheer up," I said, patting her head, not the least bit upset with her. Replicating and incorporating an ability was one thing, but completely altering its purpose was another. She would learn, and I had a feeling that as her [Alter] skill grew, we would be capable of that and even more.

After she gobbled up the rest of the bear, I finally turned to the white twin-tailed wolf carcass and grimaced. "This one will be a bit trickier. It's similar to the lightning ability you tried to replicate not too long ago," I explained, and she shuddered.

"But instead of coating only a body part, as the last one did, this ability will cover your whole body..." As I explained, she looked at me with a worried expression, and I shrugged. "Just eat it. On a few floors, there should be a monster with magic-resistant scales. I'm about ninety percent sure that if you incorporate it, you could replicate this ability without shocking yourself." I explained, and she nodded and hissed in understanding, swiftly moving to consume the beast with gusto.

While Fluffy enjoyed her 200-pound snack, I turned my attention to the beacon of mana I sensed not too far from us. I didn't need to investigate to know what it was; a single thought vanished from the earth covering it, and another plucked the crystallized mana out of the ground.

As I mentioned earlier, the environmental mana in this world behaved strangely, as if it had a mind of its own, and the crystal now rested safely in my palm was one of the strangest things this world had to offer.

The mana crystal, also known as a Divinity Stone, shone with a pale blue light and was already generating the miraculous liquid known as Ambrosia. This liquid was almost entirely pure mana, created by condensing mana into a liquid form without any compression.

To my knowledge, Ambrosia was capable of healing most wounds, ailments, and nullifying toxins. However, it also had its limitations; it couldn't remove the pain associated with a wound, nor could it restore severed limbs.

"Huh," I muttered as I analyzed the molecular structure of the crystal. It didn't make any sense. It was pure crystallized mana, aged about a thousand years. I was fairly certain that I could replicate it with ease. However, I also knew that when I compressed my mana into a solid state, this wasn't what I ended up with. Also, I doubted the environment could replicate the pressures I used to crystallize it, so it had to be something else.

"I need to analyze this a little bit more," I muttered to myself, scratching my chin, as I attempted to create my own Divinity Stone from my mana pool, only to repeatedly fail. "Whatever, I'll look into it later," I mumbled with dissatisfaction, then placed the crystal into my inventory.

I accelerated our descent even more, blowing holes into the floors and killing and teleporting any and all monsters I deemed useful for Fluffy's evolution. By the time we arrived at a large ornamental door guarded by two Cyclopes, which Fluffs swiftly decommissioned, she had amassed quite the list of abilities.

Her current form was far from what she started with. She now had [Gills] in addition to normal lungs, while her fingers were laced with [Interdigital Webbing], allowing for swift and precise maneuverability in a body of water.

Even her eyes had undergone a small change, gaining a green and gray sheen. With a minuscule application of mana, they could now use [Petrification] against her targets as well as enable [Night Vision]. In addition to her corrosive acid sacs and blood, she now possessed both [Paralytic Toxin] and [Toxic Venom], both of which she gained from spiders, and could be delivered from both her altered teeth, as well as the spikes on her back and tail.

Lastly, she had acquired a skill called [Subsonic Roar], achieved by altering her vocal cords and throat. This allowed her to emit high-frequency sounds that could cause confusion or disorientation in her targets.

Fluffy 

[Level: 47]

[Race: Nightmare | Tier: 2 | Ev. Stage: 0] [HS: Healthy]

[Domains: None]

Stamina: 18,203 (27/s) 

STR: 90

VIT: 109

DEX: 167

AGI: 220

PER: 230

INT: 58

WIS: 53

CHAR: 7

LUCK: 32

P. Res: 97

M. Res: 50 

Defence:

*[Corrosive Blood] *[Acid Spines] *[Camouflage] 

Offense:

*[Atomic Breath] *[Acid Spit] *[Corrosive Breath] *[Gale Claw] *[Petrification] *[Paralytic Toxin] *[Toxic Venom] *[Subsonic Roar]

Magic:

*[Darkness Manipulation 1>13] *[Mana Manipulation 1>9]

Misc.:

*[Alter 1>19] *[Amplified Smell] *[Amplified Hearing] *[Echolocation] *[Detect Bioelectricity] *[Toe-pads] *[Sense Life] *[Air Dance] *[Gills] *[Interdigital Webbing] *[Night Vision]

Titles:

[None]

With a hefty push, I opened the ornamental doors, revealing a little girl in the middle of the room, encased in a metallic cube made out of a material that could disrupt magic. The sound of our footsteps woke her from her slumber. Her eyes widened in surprise, and I could see tears starting to gather in the corners of her eyes.

"Look, Fluffs, a loli!" I exclaimed, feigning surprise since I already knew who and what she was. "Do you think she has some kind of bondage fetish?" I asked, looking at the little Nightmare with feign confusion.

"Shaa!" Fluffy replied, nodding her head and we both turned around, prepared to leave the room.

"Yes, you're right. We shouldn't disturb her during her play," I nodded in agreement, then began slowly making my way out and closing the door.

"Wait!" came a desperate, raspy shout from the other side. "Please don't leave me!"