Getting Weaker

The monster stared at Helkep who had barely managed to escape from its claws alive.

The monster had two long blade like arms. With a small circular head, on which three black bead like eyes were glistening in the dark. It's wasn't standing upright but leaning its body, like a grasshopper. It had four legs protruding from its spider like back. It was a wonder how its thin legs could carry its weight.

Helkep was more surprised at its speed then anything else. He wasn't even able to notice a blur when the monster charged towards him, he just felt his instincts guiding him and he followed it without hesitation. If he had just stood there before, he would likely be dead right now.

'How did I suddenly appear in the dungeon? Something seems wrong. And what monster is that? It seems a bit familiar.' Helkep eyed the monster from top to bottom, he just couldn't point at what it was but he new it was something he knew.

The monster was getting a weird feeling from the being that was standing in front of it.

The longer that being continued to silently stand there the more its unease grew.

Eventually it started feeling threatened by the pressure the being was releasing and feeling its might questioned, it did the only thing it could, fight.

"GRRR!!" Helkep jumped away the moment he heard the roar. Looking at where he was standing previously he was thankful he did what he did, otherwise he would be laying in his pool of blood in three pieces.

The monster looked at the ground where its sharp arms had made two large dents but it was unable to find the body that it was intending to cut. It turned its head and saw the weird being standing perfectly fine, moreover it was starting to release an even more deadlier pressure.

"Grrr!" The monster released a low growl and once again rushed towards the weird creature.

Helkep feeling a deadly aura, jumped away once again but he wasn't unscathed, the monster's blade like arm had grazed his arm.

As he looked at the blood flowing from the small cut, he felt himself getting light headed, his mind stopped functioning as he felt a deep and dark darkness approaching him, the darkness contained more than just maliciousness it contained an otherworldly wrath.

But before that darkness took over, he felt something dangerous approaching him, desiring to take his life. Snapping out of his daze, Helkep jumped away without hesitation.

He looked at the monster standing where he was a while ago then he looked at his left arm, he could make out the shape of his bone.

In his daze, he had failed to react quickly. The monster stuck mercilessly and his left arm had to suffer, one of the monster's arm had cleaved away a whole chunk of the meat on his left arm to the point that the bone was barely visible.

'It isn't going to stop anytime soon, is it? Then I will just have to deal with it but how? 'Ground Shaker' no, it can run away from the skill's range before the skill does its magic.' Helkep jumped away once again, as his instincts warned him of the danger coming.

'Not good, my stamina won't last like this... Stamina, I can use martial skills, the skills that didn't fool me like the mana skills.' Helkep licked his lips as a notification ringed inside his brain.

«Ding! Your stamina will be consumed more speedily to keep the skill 'Body Forceful Improvement' activated.»

A smile appeared on Helkep's face, as he jumped away from his position. This time he didn't rush or he didn't need to rush as his speed was far higher than before.

When the monster looked around, to see where the annoying being had disappeared, it found nothing.

It circled around and could find no trace of the being, it begun to count the chances of having crushed the creature into dust.

As if to kick the monster out of its fantasies, a heavy punch came banging on its round head.

Boom! Raising its head from the ground, it saw the creature quietly standing in front of it. It hatefully glared at the creature and used a skill to enhance its speed and rushed towards the arrogant being.

Helkep calmly moved out of the monster's way, causing it to ran past him. 'It has weak defense but high speed. But I can put up a fight now, with my current control of my body I can at least make sure to take a piece of it down with me.' Helkep analyzed the monster who was currently glaring at him with hate.

The monster activated a charging a skill to boost its speed even more and rushed towards Helkep.

Helkep felt his senses tingling but before he could jump away the monster was right in front him, Helkep smiled wearily and bared the impact but as he was lifted into the air he grabbed the monster from its neck and took it with him.

Just as he was about to crash into the ground he pulled the monster's head forward, making it take the brunt of the impact.

Without wasting time Helkep distanced himself from the monster, the monster wasn't waiting like a good child when Helkep had grabbed it from the neck after all, the monster had waved its arms wildly making deep cuts on Helkep's body.

He smiled wearily as he saw the blood leaking from his wounds, but he couldn't do anything other then taking the monster with him.

If the monster had remained on the ground then Helkep would have no one to absorb the impact for him and he would be the one to crash into the ground and even the most stupidest monsters wouldn't sit back when its prey was laying helplessly on the ground. In simple words, if he hadn't done what he did then he would be dead.

Helkep felt his senses warning him of danger but he was too late, the monster was right in front of his face.

Helkep in this dreadful moment did the most unusual thing, it was even more unusual for me, he was... grinning. He was grinning when his death stood in front of him.

But as if time had frozen, Helkep's grin remained the same and the monster had stopped where it was.

Not moving an inch or more appropriately it couldn't move as a grey hand with black claws and with spikes coming out of the knuckles had grabbed the monster by its head.

This hand belonged to none other then the hidden boss, he was enjoying the show between the monster and Helkep the whole time but when Helkep was about to die it felt the annoying connection doing its annoying job of annoying him again.

Giving up on resisting the feeling, he decided to intervene in the two's fun.

Helkep's grin vanished when he noticed the monster being stopped in its track. He sighed and sat down on the ground.

The hidden boss seeing that Helkep had turned off his excited mood simply crushed the monster's head, ending its measly life.

Helkep laid down on the ground and heard the notification ringing in his brain,

«Ding! The skill 'Body Forceful Improvement' has been deactivated.»

Helkep felt his whole body aching, Body Forceful Improvement was a skill that enhanced control over the body, that control enabled one to increase their speed, constitution or anything related to their body, on a small margin.

He was able to increase his speed when he needed and his constitution when needed that's how he was able to take on the monster for so long.

He had also used this skill when the investigators from the guild had came. He had used the skill to increase the beating of his heart and sometimes slowed it down, that's why the investigator was unable to read the aura from his heart, as it was constantly increasing and decreasing.

No one ordinary would be able to bear such a change in blood flow, it was Helkep who had gotten too accustomed of bearing pain and stuff. As he was accustomed of running on less blood in his body, he was able to bear the change in blood flow quite easily.

'I wonder how long has it been... since I last fought like this. it has been a long time since I activated my martial skill as well. I was so bad at using it, I remember being able to enhance five things at the same time.' Helkep thought.

Using 'Body Forceful Improvement' was difficult, as it required extreme concentration. To the point that you would need to be fully concentrated on one particular thing to enhance it but in a battle concentrating on a single thing wasn't the best, the opponent would destroy you without hesitation when he see's you distracted from the fight. Using the skill in a fight was only possible for highly skilled people, who had practiced it for thousands of times.

'Why did I fight even? Shouldn't I have just sat back and waited for the monster to kill me? Why did I resist?... That isn't like me. I should have just waited for my life to end. It seems that fighting with Noil wasn't a good idea after all. I just hope I don't change. I am tired, I don't want to try anymore. I am tired of all these changes, I am fine... with the way things are.' Helkep looked at the dark ground and slowly felt himself losing consciousness, he had lost a lot of blood after all.

After about an hour he finally woke up. The first thing he did was to examine his wound and found himself mostly healed.

Only some scars were left, which were healing.

He looked around and saw the hidden boss calmly sitting on a pile of monster corpses.

He got up and started examining the surroundings, 'This can only be a dungeon. How I got here is a mystery. But since this is a dungeon, there must be an exit. And… I guess I should just get moving and I will eventually find it in this straight path.' Helkep gave the markings on the wall one last look and started walking.

The hidden boss jumped from the pile of corpses and started walking behind Helkep.

It didn't matter if they either walked on the front or the back, as the teleportation circle could be anywhere, they just had to get moving to find it.

After walking for a while they encountered a monster.

Helkep was pretty tired so he ordered the hidden boss, "Kill it."

The hidden boss… yawned.

"..." Helkep was left wondering, why wasn't the hidden boss doing as he had ordered.

'So I can't order him around? Does my control stop at forcing him back inside my shadow?… Well that kinda makes sense. After all I am so much weaker then him. Maybe I can only order him around when I am around his league.' Helkep felt that everything made sense.

When the monster charged towards them, the hidden boss finally reacted and flicked the monster on its head. Finishing the poor thing without it even realising what had happened.

'Hmm! Seems like he, for some reason can't let me die. But… why does he always seem to be… getting weaker? Every time he appears to save me, he gets weaker... What is the reason?' The hidden boss felt weird when Helkep eyed him so… strangely.

Helkep decided to think about this later and continued moving. On their way they encountered a lot of monsters but the hidden boss took care of every single one.

After walking back and forth for an unknown amount of time, Helkep finally stood in front of the teleportation circle.

'Sigh! I was beginning to think if I was ever going to find this.' Helkep clicked yes on the system notification in front of him and finally the blue light enveloped him.

Soon he stood outside of the black cave and in an open area but the place was still dark as it was nighttime.

He looked around and saw that the dungeon's surroundings were sealed by walls. Proving that it was under the guild's jurisdiction.

As he walked towards the exit, he wondered about the chances of the guards realising that he hadn't walked inside from the gate.