30 (30) A Year passed by

In the blink of an eye, a whole year had almost passed.

It only took four months from meeting Kraton for Lysine to level up to reach level 9, and when she did, Kraton also amended the contract, making it 60% to 40% of experience shares. Of course, Kraton took 60%. However, after a year of sharing a dungeon, a suprising notification came from the dungeon itself. This message was sent to their data rocks, how a dungeon sent it was unknown, some theorists believed that dungeons were sentient, others believed that it was a similar mystical occurance to how loot was dropped.

The dungeon's message was as followed: "Due to the resilience of surviving the hardships whilst sharing the dungeon for a year, this dungeon now multiplies experience, knowledge and spoils of war dropped by players, for as long as their is a contract between multiple bosses sharing this dungeon.

<Dungeon amplification = 150%>"

This suprised both of the Bosses, although it was only +50%, with Kraton and Lysine working together, they would undoubtedly be more successful at beating the players which flocked their dungeon, furthermore the level of players that would enter their Boss room would rise, higher level meant more experience, therefore their levelling rate would be similar to other Bosses, maybe even faster if they were lucky.

On the fifth month, Kraton started to help Lysine decimate the players which raided the dungeon. During this month, they didn't lose a single battle, and it was only towards the end of the month whne Kraton stopped using 'Conceal'.

Soon after, another Appraiser visited the dungeon; both Bosses were beaten black and blue. But the Dungeon Rating was once again raised, to 'Level 9, 5 Star'. The high level also showed how much the Nagas - and even the Gargoyles, had improved. The Nagas had by now adapted with impeccable teamwork, and the Gargoyles had adapted to hit-and-run Guerrilla tactics, as well as stuffing the room with statues and crude rocks.

The pair of Bosses were the Dungeon's core, their differences were shadowed by their teamwork, which nearly matched the twin Dragon's infamous synergy. Kraton was the brute, as well as the formation breaker. Whilst Lysine caught the humans off-guard with her explosive speed and accuracy, the pair of them were a nightmare to challenge, however this didn't stop the humans from entering the slaughterhouse. In fact, it seemed to garner more and more attention, boosting Florid Boulevard's popularity.

At the start of the tenth month, Lysine recieved her invitation to the Novice Boss gathering, she had only just recieved it because she was a 'Forest/Wild Boss' before, this meant her kills before she started to reside in Ophid Crypt was not counted towards the 25 000 kill requirements. If one did the maths, this meant she had killed more than 80 humans per day! It was unknown if Kraton's assists also counted, but it was highly likely it was as since they were joint-Bosses, the Data Rock shared the Dungeon's records and kills.

As the New Year approached, Kraton had reached level 16 and had learnt a new skill at level 11. This skill was one of the basic skills; 'Harden'. Though normally used as a defensive skill, turning the user's hair, skin and flesh tough and durable for a period of time, the skill could also be used in many different ways.

Kraton had not experimented the effects of 'Harden' himself, but had asked the omniscient Psychi, this discussion also dragged in Kim. Psychi hadn't learnt this skill at Level 11 as it wasn't Base Skill for his species, instead he had learnt a passive skill 'Elemental Roots'. Kim had taught Kraton how 'Harden can be concentrated in one area, but this also meant it would have less of an effect on the other areas. She normally used it to harden her tail so that it would pierce through armour easier. When she did need it for defence, her quick reaction helped her concentrate it on the area where the weapon or attack was about to hit, this was more effective than using the skill all over her hide.

Kraton started to use 'Harden' around his fists after getting used to the effects first-hand. This skill complimented his specialisation in speed and power (as well as his innate talent of strength), the enhancement given by the skill easily broke or reduced the durability of player weapons and armour significantly.

Kraton's skill 'Hide' also recieved an upgrade: the base duration now lasted longer, as well as gaining a lasting passive effect 'Silence'. 'Silence' activated when using 'Hide' and lasted for 10 seconds after 'Hide' had been deactivated. The effect of 'Silence' was self-explanatory; any movement or action would make almost no noise, even if Kraton jumped, it would only sound as loud as if he jumped into a sponge mat, if the sponge mat was as tall as a building that was.

Other than these new skills, Kraton's Knowledge points also rose, quite drastically in fact. He had reached 540 K.P, and he was only at level 16! Once could call Kraton a genius just by looking at this piece of data, however in reality, all this K.P came from being able to party-wipe with Lysine. Most of it was Subconscious Knowledge, not advanced.

Lysine had also made a major breakthrough, she had passed level 10 on the seventh month, and was now at level 12. With the help of Kraton, she had understood the concept of specialisation and had seemingly invested most of it into her wing power and tail muscles. At level 11, Lysine had learnt the Base Skill 'Dash'. 'Dash' was normally a base skill for quadrupeds and other beast-type monsters which relied on speed, but since Lysine wasn't a quadruped, it meant the skill also helped with her lunge speed with her arms, as well as the speed in which she could beat her wings and her land movement speed from her tail.

The night before the Novice Gathering, the pair of them spent some time with the Nagas. This had become a regular occurrence and there was no awkwardness between Kraton and the swarm anymore. The same couldn't be said for the Gargoyles.

Kraton had gotten to know most of the Nagas by now, the friendliest Naga to him was Calea. What was interesting was that although Calea was one of the youngest in the swarm, she was already level 8. Compared to how she was only level 3 when Kraton first met her, and how the highest level Naga was Level 9, it led Kraton (and the rest of the swarm) the believe that Calea was an Elite Monster.

There were still some uncertainties though, as apart from her rapid levelling, Calea didn't seem to possess any outstanding attributes compared to other Nagas at her level. They could only wait until the Dungeon had a Tablet Foundation to see.

New Year's day came, and Lysine set off to Hell's Dungeon in the early morning, Kraton also closed the Boss Room, and would hide if anyone was to come in. During this day, he planned to increase his forging capabilities, but to do this, he needed a better workspace.