Black Flames

"Moooo!"

They mooded to me. I know they look like cows but I didn't expect them to sound like cows too. Standing at around 4 meters, I had to look up to see their face. Not that I wanted to see their face anyway. It looked same as a cows. Except more fiercer, if you can imagine a cow being fierce. Their horn also curved upwards, almost like they wanted to pierce the very sky itself. Their torso was naked except thick chest hair. Every muscle bulged out and I could see every vein in their arms.

"Damn, they drank their protein shakes."

Their lower body was of a cow too. In their hands they held axes nearly as big as themselves.

"Minotaurs."

Probably one of the most iconic monsters. They came towards me while swinging their axes. While they had nearly no technique, they were fast despite their looks. When combined with their power that speed made their attacks dangerous.

"Time Alter."

Time slowed down for me. With Mind's Eye I saw how they are going to attack. Reinforcing my legs with aura I jumped. With Lightning Clad my jump created a sonicboom. I thrusted my spear right in to left ones throat.

"Huh!?"

My attack pierced the fur. But I couldn't go too deep. It swung its arm to swat me from its face. Creating a magic shield and using it to step in air I backflipped and dodged it. Landing on its head I stabbed the left eye. It stumbled while trying to escape. Despite all the shaking I hold on and rotated my aura into a sprial. Using it as a drill I pierced its brain. It fell to ground and I dodged other ones attack. Firing magic to distract it, I stabbed it in the groin. It screamed in pain and fell down to its kness. Focusing my aura to a sharp edged I beheaded it. I swung my spear to get rid of blood.

"Right in the family jewels. Sorry about it."

I only stabbed it in the groin because: A it was close to me. B it seemed like a vulnerable. Still I also am a man. So I kind of felt bad for it.

"Those guys are tough."

That's the thing I realized. They were tougher than other floors bossess. Except Calamity, of course. While normal mobs got stronger as I went down, difficulty jump was significant. I still had 3 floors to go, not counting this. If I spent to much on mobs itself…

"Also breaking down walls will be harder."

I had to break a wall down in a time limit. What if I just were about to finish it and monsters popped up? While I was killing them it would repair itself. Maybe not completely but…

"Breaking walls makes a lot of noise."

It was sure attract them. I slapped myself.

"It doesn't matter. Just keep going."

I knew that thinking about problems could rose was important. I knew that realizing you could lose was important. I knew that knowing you are not all-powerful was important. However, I couldn't just stuck on those things. If I worried about all the things could happen while I was living, I wouldn't have the time to live. There was a difference between being cautious and just being a fuss. So…

"I'll just need to move."

I said to myself as I started to break down another wall. Despite all the noise I created no monster came. I got through the wall without any problems.

"Maybe number of enemies are lower."

Since individual monsters were this strong, number of them were low. Made sense. This part was slightly open so I walked a little bit. This place felt dull. Walls weren't painted and ground was just dirt. I stepped a little harder. Maybe I could even dig through? But a magic field like in sky could also exists. While I was considering my options I saw a chest. It felt so out of place. I slowly walked towards it.

"Thinking about it, I never found any items."

Dungeons usually had artifacts. But I haven't found anything. As I got closer I felt suspicious. I heards that items usually had some kind of trap or monster guarding them. So I made the logical decision. I loaded my spear with aura and threw it. Blood sprayed from chest.

"What the fuck?"

I called back Basat. Chest slowly morphed. From its inside fangs and tendrils came out. Long and thin limbs popped out from sides and lower part.

"A mimic."

What a twist. Seeing its ugly form was enough for me. I quickly leaped and swung my spear. Just like with minotaurs, I couldn't finish it in one hit and had to dodge. I loaded my spear with even more aura. My aura formed into a five meters blade.

"Argh!"

I shouted as I swung it. I defeated it. When it stopped moving, it started to liquefy. As it slowly turned into red goo, I saw a shining object.

"I am not putting my hand into that."

I grabbed it using my spear.

"Sorry about it Basat."

Basat hummed with a red light. I looked at the object. A golden bell? Like the one farmers gives to their animals? I looked back at mimic which turned into complete liquid now.

"Did it kill one of the minoturs? Did it belonged to them?"

Looking at it, it was too small. What wore this should be around my size. No way in hell this could fit on minotaurs I killed. Plus, I can't see them wearing something like this. They wore earrings though. Maybe they also liked that kind of thing? Who I am to judge them?

"But size bothers me."

Only possible explanation I can come up with was this belonged to a baby or child minotaur. It was caught and eaten by mimic. I sighed. Monster or not children being killed…

"What a hypocrite I am."

Maybe one of minotaurs I killed back was its father. Yet I felt the need to feel bad for it.

(You found one of the possible quest items. Do you want to store it in the system until it is needed?)

What? This thing could be used?

"Yes."

It disappeared.

"If you could store things store this horn too!"

(Non-quest related items cannot be stored.)

I sighed again. Would it kill it to help me more than bare minimum? But that was interesting. There were extr quest I can take if I filled qualifications, huh? I wished I knew it earlier.

"Then again, do I even have time to complete them?"

Probably not. Or if only I can finish them while already conquring the floor. Still a change to get extra power-ups felt nice. I moved forward, breaking down walls and fighting monster when I met with them. I tried to talk and show the bell I got to minotaurs but they didn't reacted. They just blindly kept charging to me. So, I killed them.

"I need a good therapist after this shit ends."

Though I wasn't sure they would willingly treat a demon like me. No. I kept the idea of being monster out of my mind. Now I knew that I was a human before, this reptilian body felt… foreign. So I just kept going. While I travelled 24 hour cooldown of Devourer came back.

"Finally I can stop dragging this thing everywhere I go."

I touched it and activited my skill.

(You can devour Horn of Fafnir. You won't be able to get full skills of Fafnir due missing parts. Do you want proceed?)

"I just want to get rid of it, so yes."

Despite seeing it several times, seeing things getting devoured by Devourer still felt awkard.

(Active skill Fire Breath is being assimilating. Active skill Fire Breath is lost.)

Dragons were related to flames. Probably skill I would get was also fire related. So like the time Curse Resistance was absorbed by Abnormal Condition Resistance, Fire Breath would be absorbed to higher skill I will get.

(Active skill Black Flames of Greed was acquired. Due Fire Breath being absorbed to it, it became level 2.)

"Guh!"

I felt my body burning up. Like the time when I got Breath of Primordial, since the power I got was too much for my body to get used immediately my body burned. However, using Breath of Primordial I controlled my magic power. When I was first learning magic, I learned how to circulate magic power from Minerva. While it was enough at that time, this way of manipulating magic power felt more natural. It almost like difference between humans creating fires versus a volcano spewing magma. After concentrating around 30 minute I controlled it. I opened my palm and generated a black flame. I expected it to light around me but where I stood became darker and colder. Almost like flame absorbed light and heat around me.

"Greedy."

Fafnir was a dragon famous for its greed. My skill, which born from him also grow more while absorbing around it. I extinguished it and kept moving.