Chapter Twelve: Dungeon Things

The spider, Peter, turns his eyes towards Quasi and immediately leaps towards his shoulder, settling nicely with a bit of webbing.

Thorous looks at the spider, her mind trying to explain the situation, but ultimately she gives up as she looks at the corpse.

Too much work to transport, even if the meat is fresh. Better to find another target.

Signaling the group, she heads deeper into the watering hole. Around the hole is the presence of a soft glowing fungus that is creating a slight iridescent light. Around the fungi are many crystals indented into the ground while a few crystalbacks can be seen slowly consuming the rather distasteful fungus.

As the group approaches closer, the crystalbacks, noticing them, quickly indent themselves into the ground, making it impossible for normal predators to get towards the meat, a usually successful defense against even swarms of desbats.

Sighing, Thorous chooses a crystalback and walks towards it, the larger males of her group quickly converge, sheathing their weapons.

Thorous taps the crystal, eliciting a slight movement. She points at the monster.

The men converge and move their hands underneath the shell, taking hold. As one, the eight males strain as they slowly lift up the two thousand pound monster, revealing its squishy body underneath.

With a quick movement, Thorous unsheathes her blade and slices the monster's neck before it elongates and attempts to scream.

Immediately, the beast thrashes as its green blood flows out of its neck in heaps, quickly covering the ground.

Unfortunately, it's erratic movements forces its head to slam into one of the males, making him lose his grip. This immediately causes the others to let go from the increase in weight which in turn finds the two thousand pound monster slamming on one of the males' legs, ripping scales and cracking bone.

A pained howl escapes his lips before one of the others can close his mouth shut.

The sound emanates from the clearing, forcing the entire group to stop, their eyes looking around.

And just as Thorous thought the close was clear, the sound of wing beats can be heard.

Quickly turning towards the sound, a desbat makes its presence known as its wings flap in the air. The monster, a beast with a wingspan of twenty feet, looks down towards the group, it's dark beady eyes finding several prey.

Its lungs quickly engulf with air as its chest expands… and the monster croaks, its lungs and throat had been pierced by several sharp bones.

Thorous turns to Quasi, finding the young man staring at the flying monster, several sharp pieces of bone floating around him as his hands are folded around his chest, a curious and confident smile on his face. The female next to him, apparently blind in the darkness, holds on to the hem of his robe in abject fear, her eyes trying to make see what is going on.

As the desbat is about to attempt to flee, several bones floating around the man accelerate at extreme speeds, ripping apart the leathery wings of the monster, forcing it down on the ground.

Thorous, finding the beast grounded, immediately springs into action, her twin blade scythes unsheathing from her back as she activates her skill.

"[Accelerated Strike]," she says in a whisper, allowing her body to move at an incredible speed as she glides through the ground, quickly slicing the grounded desbats head clean off its body.

Its movements quickly cease as Thorous notices several sharp pieces of bones jutting out from the monsters joints in its arms and legs, making it unable to move or fight back anyhow.

The bones that had penetrated the corpse quickly flow out of the body, flying back towards the [Necromancer], flowing back into the undead behind him, into a bag filled with many holes.

His piercing glowing purple eyes turn towards the corpse of the crystalback which had bled out completely and is still crushing one of her men's legs.

Having avoided a dangerous situation, Thorous turns away from the desbat corpse and moves towards the crystalback, hoping to save the fool's leg before he becomes a cripple like Zorren.

But then she stops as the corpse lifts itself on its own. Its head elongates, the eyes of the turtle-like monster glow a powerful purple as blood continues to seep out of its neck.

"Damn, that cost a shitton of mana."

____

Holy crap I just lost more than ninety percent of my mana.

I steady myself as I will the feeling of outright puking away. Apparently, when mana quantity dips to extremely low levels, several negative effects are felt.

Taking a deep breath, nausea quickly subsides as my mana regenerates into safe levels, my eyes turning towards my new undead.

Crystalback Zombie Level 46

One of the residents of the dungeons first floor, these herbivore beasts roam in packs, constantly looking for sources of water and food. Though they lack any way to fight off predators, these monsters are able to defend against such predators by burying their soft underbodies into the ground while their backs deter any predators. Such a mechanism has evolved to the extent that they can go several months without needing to eat or drink, thus most predators grow tired and leave.

This crystalback has been recently revived and is currently under the control of entity Quasi Eludo. -0.1 mana regen

Probably useless in a fight, but at least i can use it for transport considering its sheer size… unfortunately it seems that head removal makes creating undead impossible.

I turn towards the dead desbat, frowning at the dismembered head.

Desbat Level 83

The Desbats are the alpha predators of the dungeons first level. These beasts will hunt for prey using echolocation. When prey is found, they will first make eye contact before calling the others of their species to swarm and feed.

This specific monster is a fully grown adult but its lack of a head makes it incapable of being revived.

Stupid game logic.

Shrugging my shoulders, I finally notice the eyes of the entire hunting group on me, especially the women, which seem to look at me with a deep hunger.

I'm pretty sure I'm controlling my aura… or did I let it slip? Shit…

Grabbing Jessica's hand, I lead her to the Gejan who is on the floor nursing his rather destroyed leg.

"What happened?" Jessica asks, the illumination of the fungi giving her enough light to see the injury.

"His leg was crushed, can you heal it?" I ask.

She bites her lip, looking at the leg, frowning at the Gajan as he makes eye contact with her.

"I will need to set the bone before I can heal," she explains, her eyes focusing on the destroyed leg and the several bones jutting out.

As she moves her hand towards the wound, the Gejan growls at her, showing his teeth.

Jessica jumps back, right behind Quasi, her eyes looking fearfully at the injured Gejan who enjoys her reaction. A rather primal instinct towards a prey's fear.

"You."

The injured, hearing a voice behind him, looks up.

Zorren, taking the opportunity, flings out his good arm and slams it into the Injured Gejans face, destroying teeth, scales, and slamming the Gejans head into the ground.

Zorren, finding the man unconscious, ignores the other Gejan as they unsheathe their weapons, turns towards Jessica," Heal him." he says with authority.

Jessica just takes a long look at him, noticing that the [Berserker] makes no other expression. Doesn't bare his teeth, just stares expectantly at her.

Biting her lip, she focuses once more towards the injured leg, ignoring the bleeding face of the Gejan, something she believes can be healed naturally, and begins to reconstruct the leg, stopping several times due to the difference in anatomy.

Noticing several misalignments in the legs structure, I sit beside Jessica, assisting her in moving the bones towards the correct areas.

Weird, I feel like instinct is driving me to place the bones correctly… kinda like bone engineering or something. I just seem to know it.

Once the bones have been set and the leg does not have meat flapping out, Jessica activates her skill [Minor heal], a seemingly simple spell that to me seems to attempt to merely increase cell regeneration, but at the last second, the last formation, it changes.

What the fuck just happened. The spell just got significantly more complicated.

And indeed it did as I watch mana enter the wound, moving towards specific injured parts, forcing reconstruction at a rapid level.

I stand up, my help is unneeded as I turn towards the staring Gejan.

"It's going to take a few hours to fully heal his leg," I explain, getting nods of recognition and respect from the Gejan, possibly even a respectful smile from Zorren.

Thorous walks up to me, her gaze lingering momentarily on my crotch.

Fuck

"The undead," she says, pointing towards my new zombie, "how many can you create?"

I frown, mentally doing the math in my head, "Ten would be a safe amount for me." I answer, not wanting to restrict my mana regen too much, especially since my regeneration is restricted by each and every summon I have.

She nods, turning towards the women," I want all of you to protect her from any possible threats while she heals. In the meantime, we will be hunting more crystalbacks.

And then she walks off, her tail swishing confidently as the other men follow her.

I also follow her, doing my best to ignore the hungry looks of the female Gejan staring at me as I leave.

Thank god this robe is large.

_____

The [Gejan Guards] which have been standing at attention immediately start to panic at the sight of a veritable small swarm of monsters. Only relaxing once they notice the hunting group which is currently walking alongside the ten crystalbacks while eight desbats fly through the air, blood leaking from fresh wounds across their bodies.

Leading the procession is none other than Thorous, her trademark reddish skin glistening while she wears a confident smile on her face.

Right behind her is a crystalback carrying an unconscious gejan, his body crammed between crystals jutting out of the undead's back.

Even so, one of the guards runs off to find Anathema as such a situation is rather unnatural.

A few minutes later and Thorous, the hunting group leader walks up, taking a look at the guard who so adamantly stands at the entrance, unmoving.

"The hunt was a success, move aside," she says cooly, watching the guard flinch but stand his ground.

"This situation is abnormal, "he says, eyeing the monsters with glowing eyes, "I must ask you to wait for Anathema to make her way here," he says, undeterred by her slowly angering expression.

Thorous takes a long look at the [Gejan Guard] and slowly nods. She turns around. "Anathema will be here soon. We will wait alongside the undead," she yells, getting nods from her hunters who seem to be quite happy that such a hunt was actually relatively easy.

Zorren, instead walks forward, passing Thorous and walks around the guard who keeps his mouth shut, unwilling to provoke the [Berserker].

_____

The ground churns around Anathema as she melts out of the city wall, finding a rather interesting sight.

Immediately the hunters straighten, their eyes revealing both fear and respect for their leader.

Anathema, takes one glance at everyone until her eyes settle on Quasi who is happily sitting atop a Desbat which is flying in place.

"Quasi, It seems your first hunt was a resounding success," she says, her voice loud but extremely clear as she activates the skill [Loud Voice].

Quasi, nods from above," Indeed it was," he says, activating his own [Loud voice] skill.

Anathema, noticing the casual usage of the skill, smiles back, showing her teeth.

"Good," she turns towards the guard.

"Allow them in. Those monster are under his control."

The guard immediately nods and moves out of the way, clearing the entrance which seems to barely be big enough for the crystalbacks to fit through.

She turns to Quasi," when you are done, meet me in my chamber."

And with that last statement, she turns around and walks into the wall, disappearing instantly.

_____

I watch Anathema meld into the wall like walking through a liquid. My gaze follows a trail of condensed mana as it disappears under the city at an incredible speed.

Shaking my head, I order my undead to head into the city.

The crystalbacks as one walk forward, their massive weight and number creating a loud thumping noise, a noise which had attracted several Desbats on the trip back. Luckily, quick usage of my boneshivs had allowed me to cripple the monsters lungs before clipping its wings. As powerful as I may be, several hundreds of Desbats would be rather problematic to deal with.

I turn to another Desbat zombie floating next to me, watching a panicked look on Jessica's face as she grips my undead, fearing heights.

With another mental command, I order the Desbats to land in the central area inside the wall where a great deal of gejan with the [Butcher] classes can be seen, their eyes widening in curiosity at the mobile monsters.

Mentally parking the crystalbacks in a line, I order the desbats to land beside them.

Upon landing, Jessica immediately hops off of the monster, her legs wobbly as she sneaks me an angry look.

Smiling back at her to show that I understand, I elegantly off my mount. Once landed, I look towards the crystalbacks.

With a mental command, the beast's eyes stop glowing, my connection with them fading as they fall on the ground, shaking the floor and causing many of the gejan nearby to lose their footings.

From the corner of my eye, Thorous gives me an annoyed look before turning back towards the bewildered [Butchers] to explain the situation.

Ignoring the situation, I pull up my interface, rereading the several new levels and skills I had gained.

Level Up x 7

You are now a level 21 Necromancer

Two skills awarded:

[Undead Eyes]: As a Necromancer, you have the ability to see through the eyes of your undead.

[Undead Enrage]: Target undead will have all offensive stats tripled for a time based on undead type and structure.

Level Up x 1

You are now a level 30 Hero

Hero Ranking have been unlocked!

You are currently the highest level hero in existence.

Ok, so the Necromancer skills are pretty good. Being able to see from the metaphorical eyes of my undead is pretty neat, but the [Undead Enrage] skill is rather overpowered. Triple stats is not a small amount.

And then there's my Hero class, which is currently the highest level hero class in existence… and is probably the only hero class in existence… unless there are other heroes like myself… something to think about later. But first.

"Jessica, did you gain any levels?"

She turns to me, her gaze moving away from the gejan which are ever so slowly dismantling the crystalback using crude bone hammers and blades.

"How would I know?"

Oh… right, she needs the stone.

"I see, want to go check it out," I say, pointing at the dimming light.

She looks towards the light and nods slowly.

______

The walk towards the dungeon stone was… uneventful to say the least. No kids were seen in sight… which makes sense considering the large intake of food which had been brought in today.

Courtesy of me.

Walking past the two guards which protect the dungeon stone, I place my hand upon its smooth surface, frowning at the lack of new information.

I guess it should be expected. I barely leveled anyhow.

"I GAINED TWO LEVELS," Jessica yells, her hand resting on the stone next to him.

Her face, an amazed smile blazing brightly upon her lips as she stares at the stone.

She turns to me," How? All I did was just heal a little."

She shakes her head, her smile still plastered upon her face," I even gained a skill," she frowns," but I don't know what it does. I've never heard of it before."

So two levels are huge? I mean, I gained like 21 in my necromancer class in merely a few days.

"What's the skill?"

She pauses, unsure if she should disclose her new skill, a rather taboo thing to ask, especially considering how private it is.

And then she realizes that the person asking is a [Hero]

"[Anatomy]... I gained it when I obtained level 40 in my [Priestess] class."

Really? That's a skill?

I pull up my hand," Jessica, how many bones are in my hand?"

She looks to my hand,"twenty seven." she says casually.

And then her eyes widen.

"Yup, your new skill seems to give you the knowledge to understand bone composition."

I then point at the guard which has been listening in to our conversation," do you know their bodies too?"

She takes a long look and slowly nods, her new skill allowing her to just instinctively know the internal bone structure.

Such a weird skill. It's like she took several college classes in anatomy… on every body imaginable.

"But it seems like a useless skill." she explains, still staring at the guard who is doing his best to not make any eye contact with her.

"Mmmmm, that's the thing. Earlier today, you didn't know how to set the bones correctly on that Gejan to properly heal him. Now, that should not be a problem anymore."

"I… I guess you're right," she says, biting her lip.

Seriously? That's such an amazing skill. What is she so upset about?

"It's an amazing skill and one that has an enormous amount of potential," I tell her.

Jessica immediately brightens at my words, her smile returning at full force.

God, she is so simple.

Shaking my head, I turn towards Anathema's home. A smile forms itself on my face as I remember the offer.

"Alright, let's go back. I need to level up another class I have."

Jessica just nods, happy to just follow the [Hero] along.

Not that she has much of a choice otherwise.

______

Sitting on the relatively soft bed of my room, I take one glance around me. Jessica is sitting on a chair, staring curiously at me. Mule is right outside the room, looking all menacing like… and that's it. The whole building is empty. Apparently, Anathema has not returned yet.

Taking out my enchanted steel dagger, I admire its rather simple creation and then activate my [Advanced Mana Sense] skill.

Which immediately hits me with a plethora of colors and diagrams all throughout the steel of the blade. Circles, squares, lines, all of these forms are prevalent throughout the blade, its complexity abysmal.

But even still.

I take out a dagger of bone, cut precisely to be the same length and width of the steel dagger.

I release my mana, mentally ordering it to converge and cover the bone. Once done, I begin forming my mana into the exact same shapes of the steel dagger, copying its form and function exactly.

Which proves to be far more difficult considering how hard it is to get the mana to stick on bone.

Luckily my supply is quite large.

After several minutes of concentration and almost my entire pool of mana, I finally finish, immediately using [Advanced Analyze] on the bone dagger.

Bone Dagger of Bloodletting.

Created by a low level enchanter, this dagger has the ability restrict the clogging of blood when used to penetrate flesh.

Due to the low quality of the material and the lack of a mana stone substrate, this weapon must be recharged after every use. Mana 173/173

Shit, so materials actually matt--

Level up X 23

You are now a Level 23 [Enchanter].

Two Skills awarded:

[Copy Enchant]- Duplicate any enchant from an item to a similar item. Effects may vary.

[Enchant Deconstruction]- destroy an enchant on an item to gain a better understanding of the enchantment.

I just broke the game… again.

"You know, you have a very evil conniving smile on your face."

Jessica, sitting on the chair, watches me as I work, her eyes looking closely at the bone dagger on my hand.

I would hope so. [Enchant Deconstruction]

The enchanted bone dagger in my hand disintegrates. A moment goes by and a large amount of information is slammed into my head. Information on why certain parts of the enchant work. What they do. How they do it.

I understand like five percent of the enchantment… but that's the thing, I can repeat this another nineteen times.

Level Up X 3

You are now a level 26 [Enchanter].

"Muahahahaha."

Jessica raises an eyebrow, watching as he takes out another bone dagger from his robe.

***************

"Why is your mother so loud!" Thorous yells, glaring daggers at her friend Tessa as they both sit in her home right below Anathema's.

Tessa, for her sake, just looks down, blushing furiously as her own mother is expertly slammed in bed. Her orgasmic hisses and screams are loudly heard through the stone walls of Thorous' home.

"You weren't even as loud as her!" Thorous yells, continuing her tirade.

Granted, hearing the sound of mating is fine and normal in Gejan culture, but most of the time it only last for ten minutes at most.

"How long does he last?" she waves her tail exasperatedly, walking back and forth in her room, "It has been half the cycle already. Will I ever get any sleep?" she seethes.

Tessa just scrunches up, her tail wrapping around her leg while she listens to her mother having continuous orgasms.

Shaking her head, Thorous plops her butt down on the bed, her hands moving to her face, "You know, I can't really blame her. I think I'm probably just jealous… that Quasi is amazingly powerful. He took down several desbats with such ease, it was quite impressive… and then there's that feeling I get when I look at him… to mate... to lay eggs."

*Sigh*, "I might be overthinking it." her tail swishes across the ground in frustration.

"Whatever," she turns to her good friend Tessa, "what do you think?"

Tessa at that moment releases a muffled scream and then falls on the floor, her body twitching.

"Did… did you just orgasm?"