Fight. Level. Survive.

Chapter 72 - (Almost) Over 9000

Mason skimmed over the dozens of kill notifications he had received, noting that with the experience he had gained from his kills, Mayry’s kills and the elemental’s kills, he had gained just under 9000 experience! That felt like a buttload of XP, but it only equated to two level-ups bringing him to 30; he immediately dumped the 6 six points he got into Intelligence.

Making any sort of progress felt amazing, but he was concerned; the amount needed for every new level was growing worryingly fast. Almost 9,000 experience felt like it should be enough to net him four or five levels, not two! He dared not think about how much experience it would take to level when he was in the 50s or even 100s.

He felt like he was making good progress but wondered how he was going to be able to maintain it in the long run.

The fact that he gained all the experience from both his summon’s kills and now from Mayry’s kills, too, made him feel slightly better. Especially given that the elemental had killed by far the most abominations and Mayry the second most.

To be fair, he had needed to run off early to save Nina… even if Mayry had finished the boss off for him as well….

Ding!

Quest updated! The smell of the Dungeon

Quest Objective - Kill all monsters in the dungeon and rescue the test subject before it is too late. - Complete

Reward - Even though you had your woman do most of the fighting, you still get the reward! Loot the dungeon for a unique potion.

He had gotten distracted. He turned his attention to the update and relayed it to Mayry.

At first, he had hoped that he would just need to loot the boss monster’s corpse to get the potion, but the list of loots only contained the decapitated parts of the various creatures the monster had been made up of. The length of the list and the disturbing amount of detail it provided made him nauseous.

His next thought was that maybe there was an illusionary wall somewhere, but annoyingly, Mayry’s magic sense didn’t reveal anything.

The three of them started searching the old fashion way, using nothing but their eyes.

“I still don’t understand!” Nina complained, “How do you even know that there is a potion!?”

For the first while, Nina happily chatted away with them while helping them look around. It took a surprisingly short time before she grew bored, stopped helping search and started peppering them with questions.

“I told you, I have an ability that tells me when there are good items nearby,” Mason tried not to let any annoyance he felt leak into his voice; the girl had just gone through something pretty traumatic, so he felt like cutting her some slack. “It just isn’t very specific.”

She replied with a grunt, then went quiet and wandered off to keep looking.

They continued to search the cavern. Mason's mind raced with possibilities. Maybe the potion wasn't physical but a metaphysical concept—a source of power hidden within the boss monster's remains? No, that was stupid. Or maybe it was a concoction brewed from rare ingredients scattered throughout the dungeon. No, that didn’t sound right either…. He inwardly swore to his system that if, after all this, the potion was the friends they made along the way, he was going to give himself a lobotomy just to get rid of the system.

Lost in thought, Mason barely noticed when Nina's voice broke the silence again. "Hey, guys? I think I might have found something!" she shouted over to them excitedly. The girl was staring up at the cave’s ceiling.

Mason snapped out of his reverie and followed Nina's gaze, trying to discern what she had spotted. The cavern ceiling was adorned with stalactites, some of which were dripping with moisture, but apart from that, he didn’t see anything.

"What is it?" Mayry asked, joining them, squinting up at the ceiling.

Not answering, Mason studied the ceiling intently. He scanned the area carefully, his eyes darting from one formation to another, searching for any irregularities or signs of manipulation.

Then, just as he was about to tell Nina that he didn’t see anything, he noticed a faint glimmer of light reflecting off a single stalactite. It was subtle, easily overlooked amidst the cavern’s dim illumination, but once he caught sight of it, he could tell it was distinctly different from the others around it.

Nina pointed excitedly at the stalactite. "There! Look, do you see it?"

Mayry followed Nina's gesture, frowning. “I don’t see anything. It’s too dark and way too far away.”

“I… think I see what you mean…” Mason said distractedly, trying to see if any of the other stalactites had the same glimmer to them; as far as he could tell, none of them did.

“I don’t suppose either of you can fly?” Nina asked hopefully.

Both Mason and Mayry replied that they couldn’t. The question did make Mason wonder what Nina’s ability was. If she was able to see so high up, one of them had to be some sort of enhanced sight, but surely the girl hadn’t become a hunter with that as her only ability.

He was about to ask her about it when the girl sighed and asked, “How important is it that you get this potion?”

“It’s not life or death… but it’s probably pretty valuable.”

“Urgh, okay… I can get it for you, but I really, really hate doing this, so I want a cut of whatever the potion is worth. Deal?”

“Hate doing what?” Mason asked before deciding it didn’t matter. “No, never mind. Yeah, okay, deal. I don’t know what the potion does until we get it, so I don’t know how valuable it is, but I’m sure we can work out a fair price.”

The girl still seemed very unsure and hesitant. She almost seemed scared when she added, “And you’re going to have to fight me…”

He stared at her, not entirely sure he had heard her correctly. He knew that she didn’t know much about him, but she must have heard about his fight with Gael or even the Basilsik. Even if she hadn’t, the girl was tiny, 5’1, maybe 5’2 and didn’t look like she had an ounce of muscle on her! He didn’t want to be that guy… especially since he didn’t know what her ability was but… “Nina, there is no way I’m fighting you,” he tried to hold it back, but a bit of a chuckle made it through.

She scowled at him. Her expression immediately changed from reluctant and shy to irritated and annoyed.

She took in a deep breath and let it out. “If you’re worried about hurting me, don’t be. I’m tougher than I look. I need to fight so my power- you know what?” She smiled, “It’s easier to just show you.”

The girl lunged at him, her hand transforming into a claw midway. The girl was bloody fast, but compared to some of his other fights, she just didn't measure up. He dodged her almost without a thought. He smirked at the surprised look on her face, which, in turn, seemed to annoy her even more as she attacked him again, this time more viciously.

He dodged each of her attacks repeatedly. “Why… are… we… doing… this… again?” Mason said after each successful dodge.

He had to hand it to her that she was very fast and definitely knew her stuff; if she ever managed to land a hit, he was sure he would feel it. Apart from the sudden appearance of claws, he still wasn’t sure what her ability was or how it was going to help her get the potion. He was quite enjoying how mad the girl was getting.

The more they fought, the faster the girl seemed to get; maybe she had a power like Lyvan’s; the longer they fought, the stronger and faster she got. Though that wouldn’t explain the claws….

Nina’s stance changed, and the next punch she threw came at him like a bullet; he dodged it barely, but the sudden dramatic change in pace left him open, so when she launched a kick at him, he had no choice but to take it in the chest.

The kick pushed him back a few steps and made him look at her in a new light. Had she been holding back? No… She had definitely come at him with everything she had right from the start. Her ability was making her more powerful the longer they fought. That had to be it.

“Ouch,” Mason said, half annoyed, half impressed. This would be the last time he underestimated someone because of their size. In a world with all sorts of magical abilities, it had been incredibly dumb of him to make the assumption.

Mayry had wandered over to the boss abomination’s corpse, used a jet of water to wash it off and sat cross-legged on it enjoying the fight. She shouted, “Woo! Nina kick his ass!”

Now that there was a slight pause in the fight, he noticed the changes were far more significant than just her strength and speed. Her skin had started to take on a greenish hue and become more scales-like.

Her 5’2ish frame had grown by at least a foot and had bulked out, so she now looked closer to a woman wrestler than the small, timid girl that she had been before.

He wasn’t usually a prideful person, but he really didn’t want to be beaten up by a girl in front of his girlfriend. This wasn’t a real fight, but still, he needed to up his game. He went on the offensive.

He ran at her. She let out a squeak of surprise when she saw he was going to stop just dodging and actually fight back. He threw a punch at her, starting at 10% of full strength. He expected her to dodge, but she didn’t. The punch landed and hit Nina squarely in her stomach. She barely even flinched.

He looked up at her and, for a split second, saw her smugly grinning before her fist hit him squarely in the face.

The strike knocked him back but hadn’t hurt. Despite just being decked in the face, he found he was actually having fun. He hadn’t really had a friendly fight with anyone since he trained with Lyvan, and that always just consisted of his getting the absolute crap kicked out of him while Lyvan shouted at him to dodge.

He jumped back into the fight; every time he thought he was getting a handle on how she moved, the girl surprised him. She was always a second faster than he anticipated or hit just a bit harder.

The fight intensified. Each exchange of blows pushed Nina further into her transformation. With each strike, she grew stronger, her once-human form shifting bit by bit into one more monster than human. Now fully covered in green scales, she was hunched over with what looked like a tail starting to form behind her.

Part of him wanted to go all out just to see what the end result of the transformation would be, but the other, larger part of him was afraid that if he really went all out, he would end up hurting or even killing the girl.

The fight stretched on; Nina was now taller than he was, and despite her massive increase in size, she was just as fast, if not faster, than she had been before.

Nina’s last attack had left Mason no choice but to teleport out of her way. His instincts told him that if that particular strike had landed, it would have been bad. He was giving back as much as he got. He was hitting her hard enough now that she was definitely feeling it; some of her scales were cracked, blood trickling from them.

Mayry, still perched on the boss abomination’s corpse, watched the confrontation with amusement, occasionally cheering on Nina or booing Mason whenever he managed to land a hit.

Mason was doing his best to stay calm and focused, not wanting his Emotion damage skill to activate. He wanted to see how far long he could last with just his fighting skills… and teleportation

Having to teleport again, he appeared behind her where he noticed tiny wings had started to ground from her back. The scales, the tail and the wings… no fucking way. If she was turning into what she thought she was turning into, then he was very jealous.

He was just about to launch another series of attacks when Nina roared, “Rhoaarp!” Her face and throat were too far transformed for her to form words properly. It took him a moment to figure out she was trying to say, ‘Stop’. He was slightly disappointed; he had really been getting into the fight. She had said she hated doing this, so he doubted he would get many more chances.

He relaxed, breathing heavily. He rested his hands on his knees and stared at the thing in front of him, which used to be Nina. He didn’t think the transformation was fully complete, but he was right. She had transformed into a fucking dragon!

While he had never seen a dragon before, he assumed real ones would be a lot bigger. Still, at the size of a small car, Nina had absolutely lucked out when she got this ability. Sure, it took a very long time to fully ramp up, but once it did, she would be almost impossible to beat.

She beat her wings a few times before jumping into the air. The ceiling was pretty high, but it only took her a few seconds to reach it. Her hands were completely inhuman now, but Nina surprised him by showing great finesse. She couldn’t grab in her giant claws, but she could use them to slash through the stalactite, sending it falling to the ground.

Mason jumped out of the way a moment before he would have gotten impaled and sent a dirty look up at the dragon, who he thought was grinning at him.

Nina landed and rapidly started to change back to her human form. He watched on with awe at the very strange sight. He looked away when he remembered he wasn’t sure what had happened to her clothes when she had transformed. He sneaked a peak and saw she mostly back to her old self and fully clothed. It seemed her ability transformed her clothes along with her body.

He walked over to Mayry as Nina started her descent. “Did you know she could do that?!”

“Did I know that someone living in my Town could turn into a dragon? Yes, Mason, I was aware.”