My Wine!

Ellis quickly opened up his TowerCard to see what the ding was from.

[Magic Mastery has advanced to Tier 1]

[Magic Mastery LV. 10] -> [Magic Mastery Tier 1 LV. 0]

Tier 1? Does that mean it was tier 0 before? In any case, it feels like I can control the flow of anima around my body a lot easier. Maybe it'll make using anima easier for some skills?

Ellis activated Partial Lightning State to test out whether it had increased the effectiveness of his anima usage. To his surprise, the usage of anima was much more controlled and flowed more evenly instead of just gushing out as it did before. He could now hold Partial Lightning State for triple the amount of time he could before. So now instead of being able to stay in Partial Lightning State for the 40 seconds he could previously he could now keep it up for 2 minutes straight, which was a huge deal.

I wonder if I can use Lightning State over my entire body now without all my anima drying up in less than a second.

Ellis began to coat his entire body in his lightning enhancement which he hadn't been able to successfully do before and low and behold he could do it now, granted it only lasted 10 seconds, but his strength in this full Lighting State felt ten times stronger than how it felt in his Partial Lighting State.

Ding!

As the ding sounded, Ellis already knew what it meant. He had successfully coated his entire body in lightning, so it had to be a skill related to that. Ellis opened his TowerCard to confirm his hunch.

[Lightning State]

Awesome! With this skill, I might even be able to go toe to toe with the Ice Naga now. Well for now I should focus on getting to the ruins. I'm only a couple of days away from there now.

Ellis set off once again for the ruins. A few days later Ellis could see the silhouettes of ruins off in the distance ahead of him. Soon, he arrived at the entrance to the ruins.

Ah, finally! Let's make sure no monsters have wandered down into the underground ruins first because I did make the hole plenty big enough for any normal sized monster to fit in.

Ellis lit a torch and tossed it down into the hole and into the underground ruins. He watched as the torch fell down and then landed onto the stone mossy steps below which sent a couple of sparks flying. The dancing flame from the torch illuminated the immediate area around the torched and everything looked clear from above but there was no telling if there were monsters farther into the ruins.

Ellis jumped down into the ruins carefully with his halberd at the ready just in case anything decided to ambush him. Luckily, he didn't see anything in the immediate area, so he picked up the torch from the ground and cautiously began to move down the stairs to the main room. As he inched down the stone staircase, he could hear a scratching noise echoing from where the main room that contained the bronze door was.

I guess a monster did find its way down here. The only monsters in the area are bug type monsters and Horned Rabbit's so it's likely to be one of those, so it shouldn't be too much of a problem. Although, walking around with just a torch as a light source is making this scarier than it really is.

Ellis clenched his teeth and shivered as he continued down the large stone stairs until he made it to the room with the large bronze door. The door was still lit up on the left side and faintly glowing blue. As he looked around the dilapidated room, he couldn't see any monsters nor could he hear the scratching sound anymore. He then noticed the two small barrels of wine which he had left in front of the door. The lid on the one on the right was askew which was definitely not how he had left it. The barrel which he was looking at suddenly moved and he could hear the wine inside sloshing around.

No! A monster has gotten into my wine!

Ellis's eyes widened as he realized what the sound had been coming from earlier. It was the monster scratching the barrel and trying to get the lid off. It had successfully made its way into the barrel.

Hopefully, it hasn't drunk too much of the wine. I'll get rid of it quickly and try and save as much of the wine as possible.

Ellis approached the barrel of wine cautiously as he wasn't sure if the effects of the wine would also increase the ability of any monster that drank it, but he assumed that it would be the case. Ellis's halberd was too big to be able to efficiently dispatch any monster in such a small barrel, so he pulled out his utility knife and held it in his and in a reverse grip, ready to stab anything that jumped out of the barrel at him. He had used knives the entire time he was on the first floor, so he was plenty skilled enough with them to take out whatever small creature was inside the barrel. As he got closer to the barrel the shaking and sloshing suddenly stopped.

He waited above the wine barrel for a few seconds ready for whatever it was to pop out, but nothing popped out, and instead, he began to hear a faint snoring sound coming from inside it.

"Damn monster! You're really going to drink my wine and then fall asleep in it?"

Ellis quickly pulled the top off the barrel, looking inside ready to pull whatever it was out so it wouldn't contaminate his wine any further and he could kill it. As Ellis looked inside, he saw a small monster that he had never seen before sleeping peacefully with its mouth wide open. It was a small black fox with long ears and a bushy tail. It was kind of cute and defenseless, so Ellis picked up it up by the scruff of its neck, as it was floating on its back at the top of the wine barrel with its eyes closed like it was at a spa.

"You're kind of a little cute."

Kyuu!

As Ellis lifted the monster up to his face to get a better look, the monster woke up and growled at him in a very high pitched almost cute sound. The monster swiftly bit Ellis's finger with enough force to make Ellis bleed before pushed its way out of his grip and landing on the floor below.

"Damn, it bit me. I guess that's what I get for not being careful. It is still a monster."

Ellis looked at the small black fox monster on the ground in front of him wobbling around as it tried to stand up straight and its beady dark purple eyes trying to concentrate on Ellis.

[Kukan Fox]

[HP: 200]

So, this drunk little guy is called a Kukan Fox. I haven't seen any monsters like it since I've been here, it must be some sort of rare monster or something.

Ellis walked toward the Kukan Fox slowly as it wobbled around, trying to back up but tripped on a small rock and fell onto its back.

Kyuu! Kyuu!

The monster growled at Ellis as he walked over to it and squatted down next to it.

"Look little guy, as mad as I am about you getting into my wine, it'd leave a bad taste in my mouth if I killed you while you were drunk and defenseless. Here I'll give you some food, it will help diffuse the wine faster."

Ellis pulled his backpack off and dug into it to retrieve some jerky as the monster stood back up, staring at him cautiously with its dazed beady purple eyes.

Ellis put a few pieces of smoked meat on the ground in front of the fox who stared at it warily before looking back up at Ellis.

"It's safe to eat."

Ellis put a strip of the meat in his mouth and ate it.

"See. It's fine."

The fox wobbled forward and sniffed the meat while not breaking eye contact with Ellis. It then nibbled at a piece before scarfing all the meat down quicker than Ellis thought possible for a fox of its stature.

Ellis smiled and slowly stuck his hand out toward the fox who watched intently to make sure Ellis was trying any funny business. Ellis slowly touched the fox's head who surprisingly let him and let out a cute noise.

Kyu!

The drunk monster then licked Ellis's finger with its small tongue before yawning and blinking its eyes slowly at Ellis.

"I guess all I needed to earn your trust was some smoked meat and good intentions."

Ellis smiled slightly at the simplicity of the small black fox as it shakily walked up to Ellis's boot and curled up into a ball before quickly falling asleep.