← Ch.010 | Ch.012 → |
Fortunately my idea worked, I guessed that it had faced off with the dragon before, so in principle, the dragon hide should be able to resist the acid attack without melting. Looking down at the floor, I realized that If my guess had been wrong I would have melted and disappeared without leaving any trace.
'Now it's time to counterattack. '
"Fireball! Fireball! Inferno! Inferno!"
"Corpse Explosion! Corpse Explosion! Corpse Explosion!"
I used up all my MP spamming spells in combination with the sulfuric gases surrounding the approaching King.
Previously, I had simply sent out small spells to ignite the gases but this time I let it all out, aiming for the gaps where the gas was seeping in from, causing an enormous explosion.
Boom! Bang! Ka-Boom!
Kueeeeeek
Kuoooooo!
The cave collapsed under the unprecedented scorching red fire storm. I was completely covered in the Dragon skin, but I was still sent tumbling and rolling dozens of times while I embraced the baby dragon protectively.
After some time, the dust finally began to settle and I could see King buried beneath the rubble, I checked its status hoping to have done a lot of damage. Unfortunately, against all expectations, it was already back to full health, what insane regeneration power. At least it appeared to be stuck and unable to move under all those heavy rocks.
'Little bastard, you surprised me with that trick but it's not enough to finish me off. I'll simply call over my minions to help me remove these rocks, you have no way of hurting me. '
He was right, even now the King still held the upperhand because as soon as those rocks were removed, we'd be back to square one. Luckily it was currently unable to move its head around, so it couldn't use it's glands to spit out acid, one of its greatest weapons was temporarily neutralized.
Putting the young dragon down to the side, I pulled out two triangular shaped objects from my bag.
'What...what is that?'
I held the objects in each hand and approached it without answering.
Zaaap Zaaap!
At the last moment, from the horn on his head, the King shot out a lightning bolt in self defense.
Tzzzzz!
[You have learned Lightning resistance Lv1]
[You have learned Stun resistance Lv1]
The lighting didn't affect me because of the dragon skin, it simply bounced off on contact and hit the floor.
'So nice, I learned two skills without suffering any damage!'
Reading the messages which appeared, I was once again thankful for the protection the dragon skin provided.
Shick Shick
The last hurdle were the king's large mandibles. It was worried about my approach so it lashed out in self-defense.
Although it's size is enormous it still has the body of an insect so the joints are it's weakness. I got close and aimed directly at the joint under its chin.
"Fireshock! Fireshock!"
The two spells hit the sensitive joint almost simultaneously making the King flinch and give off an involuntary shudder lasting just 0. 6 seconds. I used that short opening to jump up, using it's jaws as a step and stabbed the sharp triangular object I was holding into its eye.
Kuoooooo!
It was a large tooth I had scavenged from the dragon. Even if its eyes were tough, it was by far the weakest point on its body and I thought it would be possible to penetrate it with a dragon's tooth.
Pak Pak Pak
Kuuooooooo!
I was holding a tooth in each hand and using them like pickaxes, trying to dig through the King's tough gelatin like eye, seeing it twist and squirm in pain. As it tried harder and harder to resist and break itself out it simply created more shockwaves, causing more stones to fall down, further sealing him in.
'Are you sure you want to do this?' It threatened.
'Is this enough?'
I had completely dug out the entirety of one of its eyes and stood in front of the large groove.
"Inferno!"
The fire burned the soft inner flesh widening the hole and causing some melted liquid to ooze out.
'Kuooooooo! Kuoooooo!
The King moaned in incredible pain but I payed him no heed and continued to rained down spells with his hollowed eye. The more he struggled the more rocks fell down on him. I climbed into its eye socket and crawled as deep as I could.
'Is it about time to cause some serious damage?'
'You...what are you trying to do!?'
I ignored any of the messages he kept sending telepathically to my mind. Even if he knows what I was up to there was nothing he could do about it. I finally had a method to kill him and I wasn't going to stop.
Pak Pak Pak!
I was using the tooth to make a hole and dig deeper in the corner of the eye socket.
"Inferno!"
I concentrated all of its power within the deep, narrow hole.
'Kuooooooo'
Ignoring the King's wails of suffering, I continued to dig through his body with a combination of spells and the dragon tooth.
'I'LL KILL YOU!"
His crazy threats resounded in my mind but I didn't waver, until finally it was silent, it had finally died.
[+ 17, 721, 152 experience points]
[Acquired?Title: Ant Exterminator Lv14?]
[Acquired?Title: Giant Slaughterer Lv1?]
[Acquired?Title: Wizard of the Pit?]
[Obtained ownership of the?Jungle Pit?]
[Level increased 24? 32]
[You can now own a Familiar]
'What? Ownership? Familiar?'
There were some new messages that I wasn't able to comprehend. Looking around I was able to clearly see the entire terrain of the Jungle Pit despite it being behind a wall of stone. Also, all living beings within it appeared as translucent shapes with their statuses readily available.
'Is this what it meant by ownership?
In the various status windows I could also see that all living creatures were either neutral or friendly towards me, including the information about Gwyn and Ian.
'What's this?'
[Erase]
Curious, I decide to try it out on one of the giant termites. Immediately the surrounding companions rushed towards it and chopped it up into small pieces, its status window disappeared.
'This... this... I the power over the life and death of any creatures in my area?'
I seemed to have inherited this position after I killed the previous ruler, the King of the Pit.
I had just realised the incredible powers attached with ownership in this world.
'Huh?... wait what's going on there!'
I was surprised to see that a horde of termites were assaulting the small fortress I had created for Ian. It seems like she was already un direct attack and her health was dropping rapidly.
'No...no way. '
I couldn't forgive them after all the effort I had gone through to protect her.
I used [Erase] on the termites in her immediate vicinity, but her health was still declining.
Pak Pak
"Inferno!"
I was trying to rush out of the dead King's corpse as quickly as possible. After digging for some time I came out from her butt.
Shick Shick
The path was now almost cleared because the minions had been put to work previously by their King. Running towards the teepee, I was ignored by all termites because we now had a friendly relation.
'No! You need to hold on!'
Ian was down to only 20 health and it seemed to still be dropping due to a bleeding state, I didn't think I could arrive in time.
'What could I even accomplish if I get there, if I get near her won't it just be worse?'
It was a difficult situation, and I didn't exactly have any healing spells.
I was able to quickly arrive just outside the teepee and look inside. The surrounding moat which I had dug was filled the corpses of dead giant termites. She was still breathing, laying in a pool of blood among insect corpses.
'This is...'
Faced with so many termites, she had been surrounded before she could run away. Although she had tried to use her magic and succeeded in killing a few with fire, it wasn't enough.
'What should I do?'
I thought about an ability I had just gained, it was a longshot but possibly her last hope. What if she became my familiar, perhaps in that case she could be healed. This world seemed to follow the settings of an RPG and in many games familiars shared some of their master's abilities.
Still, she was a person, so maybe her free will would be too important to her. If it would follow an RPG setting, then it's possible for her personality to change into one of servitude.
'Well, you're certain to die this way, so it can't be helped. I'll let you choose your own fate. '
[Ian has accepted to be your familiar]
[Human Ian has been registered as your permanent familiar]
[You have learned Possession Lv1]
'Huh? Permanent? Possession?'
"Thank you, I didn't expect to see you again."
Ian barely opened her eyes and whispered before losing consciousness.
I didn't want to risk absorbing her lifeforce so I was keeping my distance. Her bleeding state disappeared and her health was slowly rising.
[Your Familiar Ian has transformed into a Witch]
Taking a look at her status, under the class section it had indeed changed to Witch.
'This... finally is it good for her? It was the only option, so I had to save her from dying. I didn't want to imagine what would have happened otherwise. '
She had lost her friends in the Catacombs recently, an ordeal she barely survived. She was once again assaulted by termites now but she survived and somehow became a witch.
I was keeping an eye on her status and saw her health was improving.
Leaving her behind, I went back towards the tunnel to pick up the baby dragon. Some termites had dug their way through the rubble and were gearing up to attack the baby dragon, I used [Erase] and they quickly became corpses. If I grilled them I wouldn't need to worry about feeding the little glutton for a long time.
Kueeeeeeek!
Catching sight of me the dragon began stampeding towards me with his little legs, his tongue slopping about. I fed it a huge piece of meat which I had succeeded in roasting after a few attempts before placing him in the bag behind me.
Kueeek
It was feeling better already, after the regular swaying of the bag and the rhythmic sound of my footsteps it easily fell back asleep.
'Having just saved this little guy, I should go back and check on Ian. Oh right, why don't I take the chance to pay Gwyn a visit as well. '
Having just survived a difficult ordeal, I was looking forward to seeing her, she was after all my first companion in this world.
Chomp Chomp!
"Oh! Chompy is it you? Chompy! I'm here! Did you come over?"
I using the sound of my jaws biting down to call out Gwyn. She quickly rushed out, but I remind her with a hand gesture to keep her distance.
"Hey Chompy, is that a new look? It's... I mean, it looks great! Ehehehe! Are you doing well?"
I nodded, it was always nice to hear her praise. I know her compliments comes naturally without any hidden agenda. I listened to her for a long time while she narrated her story about her life here by the stream. Her small and simple stories brought a sense of calm and peace to my heart which was filled with death and pain.
In the meantime, I noticed that Ian had woken up and was walking around so I bid Gwyn goodbye.
"Chompy! Will you pass by to visit me again? I'll keep waiting for you!"
I nodded my head to her and walked off. Ian was up and looking around when she caught sight of me, staring from behind.
"Oh!"
The sudden encounter exposed my skeleton appearance. Shocked and somewhat frightened, she hid behind a tree, staring at me carefully from a distance.
"Are you the one that saved me?"
I nodded back.
"You're not human." she said somewhat hesitantly, unsure how to continue.
'Not only am I not a human, I'm an enemy of humanity. '
"Enemy of humanity?"
[Familiar Ian the Witch has learned Spiritual Connection Lv1]
'What? Spiritual Connection?'
It seems that as my familiar we had naturally formed a connection and she could read my thoughts.
"Was it you that saved me?"
'That's right. '
"Did you save us last time?"
'Yes. '
"Why did you you save your enemy?"
She stepped out from behind the tree and approached.
I realised she was getting too close and quickly thought.
'You can't come near me, I'll absorb your lifeforce. '
She stops walking and takes a good look at me.
"Are you a skeleton?"
'Right, a Lich to be exact. '
Her facial expression turned sour for a second before composing herself.
"You need to absorb other's life force to survive right?
I shooked my head. 'Although it's a passive skill it isn't necessary to my survival. '
"Then why are Liches mortal enemies of humans?"
She asked me with a curious expression. I shrugged my shoulders, unsure. All I knew was that in RPG's, Liches were always mortal enemies with humans, dark and blasphemous creatures.
"What should I call you?"
'Well, my friend gave me a nickname but it's a bit childish, Chompy'
"Maybe I could give you a different name."
I had high expectations, hoping she'd give me a good name.
I gently nodded.
"Johra! How's that? I just came up with it!"
I agreed happily, finally a normal sounding name.
[Second Name 'Johra' has been selected]
My favorite message to date appeared before my eyes.
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