'Alright, I have good news and bad news… I'll start with the bad news so the good news later leaves us on a positive note.
I can't use the ash spirit I got from the MHA dungeon currently. Lacking sufficient Mana for that.
Sucks, I know, but what can I do about it. I most likely will be able to do it after the level up though, so that's something to look up to.
Good news, the quirk Anivoice worked like I hoped it would. I can hear monster speech with it. And being able to do that inside the dungeon was a cheat on its own.'
"So… tell me why the fuck you are attacking every fucking adventurer you guys see. Don't you got something like any dungeon law in here." He demanded answers from a War Shadow he had pinned down under him.
This was the 8th monster he had captured to talk to. Apparently, not all monsters inside the dungeon talk. By now, he understood the general rule. If a monster is closer to humanoid, then chances are they can be logical and intelligent, like Kobolds or Goblins.
Other monsters, however, like horned rabbits or dungeon lizards, are mindless ones. They are only driven by instincts.
"Shaaa eat… Human eat." shrieked the monster, who looked like a black shadow or a graphic design gone wrong.
Another thing about these monsters was that even the more sentient ones, with thoughts of their own and not completely driven by their primary instincts, couldn't hold complex thoughts.
Most of the time it's quite basic, like food, or because other adventurers attacked them first and now they have just learned that killing the human first is arguably the only way for them to survive.
Interesting, isn't it.
To anyone else, this would look like madness, an adventurer trying to talk with a monster. To them, the War Shadow's screams would be just that, screams. Only Orion's inner mind knew, however, what the monster was trying to convey. Even from thoughtless monsters, he could sense emotions.
It was indeed a cheat inside the Dungeon if he played his cards right.
But there was more. Another power of Anivoice was being able to give commands to animals, and he desperately wanted to know whether he could do that with monsters.
The answer is… well, it depends.
He outright can't control monsters who have even a touch of self-thought and self-thinking. As for thoughtless, mindless ones, it depends on whether they see you as just another something they can't eat or whether they see you as food.
As long as Orion wasn't in the food category, their instincts wouldn't go against his command, and there is likely a chance that they will listen to him.
Not if there is too big of a power gap, though.
"Okay, guess that's all I'll get out of this one, huh…" He sighed, and with a simple clean cut, killed the War Shadow.
[This power thou hast gained is… curious indeed. Tell me, what dost thou intend to do now, having had thy fill of sport? Are we to return once more to that thieving goddess's abode?]
'Thieving goddess…' Orion had a sweat drop. He knew Hestia low-key tried to convert him to her familia, but is she still sour about that.
Shaking why women could be so petty at times, he genuinely gave what to do next a thought. He could go back up, however, along the way he was hunting down monsters to test his new quirk, he did run across some adventurers.
Turns out that time hadn't passed much since he entered that MHA dungeon, like at all. Not even that 30 or so minutes he spent inside the dungeon. It hadn't been even an hour since he left this morning for the dungeon. It was still bright daylight up there in Orario.
So turning around didn't make any sense. He decided to hit the rest of the levels today, making his way down.
[So, are we going up?]
"Nah, I'll go hunt."
Marika just shrugged. [As you wish.]
"Cool."
From that moment on, Orion did not linger.
The lower levels of the dungeon welcomed him with damp stone, warped corridors, and enemies far less polite than gods or humans….
Well, at least some gods and monsters. At least monsters don't try to judge you by what kind of booze you're drinking. This particular one was especially important, since Orion didn't drink any.
If the upper floors tested patience, these depths tested survival. All the while, he kept trying to talk with any new kind of monster he came across. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it backfired spectacularly, making every monster in the vicinity target him especially.
The first boss awaited him in a circular chamber scorched black by old burns. A man stood at its center, robe singed, beard wild, eyes gleaming with manic focus. He folded his arms and laughed—then hurled a fireball the size of a cartwheel.
'Holy shit…' Orion's eyes widened like saucers at how fast he had to dodge that incoming attack. Orion didn't question it. He just rolled.
Flames roared past where his head had been a heartbeat ago, blasting stone apart. The wizard shouted something about "elixir efficiency" and lobbed another spell.
'I swear to god I have seen this guy somewhere…. I'm sure he's from one of the games I played or an anime I forgot.' He grumbled, and started rolling around the wizard in circles, trying to dodge the incoming fireballs.
The wizard surprisingly only used one spell, fireball, like Bell Cranel reincarnated. Once Orion got a hang of his casting timing and projectile speed, he made a move.
Orion closed the distance between explosions, blade flashing once, twice.
'Unsheathe.'
Holy steel cut through cloth, spell, and bravado alike. The fire died with a surprised yelp and a body hitting the floor.
"Man, everything's easy after going against that damn Nomu." Orion muttered, stepping over the smoking staff.
!Puff...
Suddenly, the fallen body of the wizard on its own combusted into smoke and left behind a small squarish box with precious-looking emerald gems inside. About 25 of them.
The shine in Orion's eyes upon laying them on the gems was bigger than Marika's grace.
"Green is the new gold."
[I do not appreciate jests of that sort.]
Marika's eyes narrowed dangerously. Nothing could be said against her radiance or golden order. Sigh…
But Orion didn't care. He had just become a rich man. He just had to figure out how much they were worth.
However, he suppressed the thought of quickly taking them to the surface and instead, after storing each gem in his inventory with more care than he had ever shown to his own testicles, he still went deeper.
As deeper as he went, the danger increased. The air itself felt changed. Moist. Foul. The walls felt alive, or more accurately, like things were creeping onto him through them.
He just realized that he was already on level 10.
And with what he knew, from level 10, bigger monsters start showing up.
As if his thought was a signal, a giant pig-headed monster with a huge belly and three times Orion's height showed up.
"An Orc…"
[Ugly beast]
Marika too sneered at the foul smell the pig-headed monster emitted.
[Just get rid of him.]
"Sure, sure…" Orion rolled his eyes and dashed forward. While big and strong, the monster was slow and mostly predictable. Orion first cut open his leg tendons to bring it down and then, with a single stab of his blade, ended it.
Phew…
'Let's continue.'
Before Orcs, though, there was nothing new on this floor. He just kept going. Eventually, he encountered a few more of those ugly big boys, and he took them down just as easily.
Finally, the floor end was in front of him, which came with another fog gate.
'Here we go again…'
As he passed that fog gate, a creature rose—an obscene fusion of corpse and fungus, its body split open by blooming orange growths. It shrieked, sound echoing like cracked lungs tearing apart.
Orion felt his stomach tighten. It smelled worse than his cooking when he was more focused on multitasking over actually cooking. This thing wasn't throwing spells. It rather rushed him.
"Last of Us… can't be anywhere else. I recognize that fungus-type monster anywhere… meaning I gotta be careful of getting infected…" He decided to wait and learn its patterns first.
He danced backward, dodging grasping limbs and snapping jaws. Spores burst into the air; he immediately backed off like a man desperate for pure uncontaminated air. One mistake here, one breath too deep, and it would be over.
At least he wasn't sure turning into one of those was considered dying. What if it wasn't? What if he turned into one of those things and had to roam around here until some poor adventurer finally gave him a rest.
'Damn, how long even is that gonna take. No, I'm not taking chances.'
So, he waited, patiently, for a chance to end the fight.
A feint to the left. A roll under a swinging arm. Then a decisive strike, blade glowing faintly as it carved through the swollen core at the creature's chest. The plant screamed, collapsed, and burned from the inside out, holy light purging rot and fungus alike.
Orion leaned on his sword, breathing hard, sweat dripping from his chin.
Lower levels, stronger monsters. Stranger worlds bleeding into one another.
He straightened, eyes sharp once more.
'Gosh… that felt like an eternity…'
He had just completed level 10. That was awesome. Time for level 11.
However, just as he was about to move on, he remembered that he hadn't updated his status after coming back from the dungeon.
'I should have done that first thing.' He cursed. Updating status in this world meant actually growing stronger. He should do it.
So he did just that. Finding the nearby Grace, he sat down and had Marika inject him with her divine grace.
—<>—
[STATUS]
Name – Orion Star Storm
Familia – Marika Familia
Level – 1
[Stats]
Strength – A 872 > S 991
Endurance – A 812 > S 990
Dexterity – A 844 > S 998
Agility – S 909 > S 999
Magic – B 768 > S 903
[Magic]
[Incantation]
Light Of Dicus
Heal
Order's Blade
[Skills]
Soulslike…
Elden Lord…
Animus Ignus…
Anivoice…
—<>—
'Woh… they all are in S rank. I'm basically ready to level up…' His mouth went wide.
'Seems like fighting that Nomu alone really paid off in the end after all.' He grinned.
And that's when a notification hit him.
—<>—
Level Up Available!
Do player wish to challenge the level boss to level up to level 2?
Yes/No
—<>—
'…huh?'
"What do you mean challenge? Can't I do it without doing that?"
—<>—
Player needs a significant accomplishment to level up…
—<>—
Orion honestly wasn't expecting a response. But hey! What do you mean by significant accomplishment. Didn't I just beat a Nomu?
He voiced his disagreement, but this time there was no response.
…sigh, seems like this time he won't get a response.
"Better get ready, we are facing a strong one this time." He called Marika, who blinked upon hearing this.
[How do you know that?]
'Ah, of course she can't see the notification…'
"Just a hunch."
Marika didn't sound convinced by that answer. However, she didn't say anything. A lot of things didn't make sense in this world. Mostly how her Tarnished knew almost every major enemy he faced like he had fought them before. However, his actual skill and power before this Falna were nonexistent. She would wait. One day he shall tell her on his own. For she was his goddess.
After a bit of stretching, Orion was ready. He hit the Yes option and waited for some sort of change, like a monster emerging or another dungeon gate.
What he didn't expect was for the ground under him to suddenly collapse.
'Shit…' Before falling into the abyss, he let out a horrifying curse, something related to the system being an F***** something.
xxx
A/N : So ! how did you like the chapter, another boss fight coming up if it wasn't obvious. Level up boss would be different than normal boss fights though. Let enjoy...
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