Cherreads

Chapter 3 - 3. Rest In… My Stomach

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You have slain [Dungeon Jumping Spider, Level 14]! Experience up!

You have leveled up! +5 Attribute Points!

"Finally a level up! One step closer to my second talent..." Luke spoke, dropping his shield as the [Dungeon Jumping Spider] before them dropped to the ground.

A playful scoff was heard through the group.

"Come on, you're not even level thirty yet... You still have over twenty levels left." Arjae said, sheathing his long and skinny curved sword into it's hilt on his hip.

"Whatever man, just because you're almost there doesn't mean I can't be eager..." Luke replied, pouting through Arjae's criticism

"Don't worry Luke! It's okay, we'll all get there soon... We've made a good team we're progressing fast! Crazy to think we only became adventurers ten months ago right? At this point maybe we could hit B-rank in a couple of years!" Jess cheered him on, healing up the singular scratch left by the monsters claw.

"Yeah! Level 29 is still an accomplishment!" Clara laughed, patting their tank on the back.

"Blegh... We can't all be level 41 [Battle Mages] like Arjae." He rolled his eyes, as their leader approached the corpse.

Arjae scoffed at the joke, watching as Ryan walked up to the corpse using his [Monster Converter] to split the corpse into important parts. The rest of it dispersed into particles of light, returning back to the dungeon.

"Yeah, yeah... That's one kill closer to keeping the dungeon at bay. Remember, we're killing the lesser spiders to draw out the miniboss mothers. With the mothers gone, the dungeon spawn rate massively slows, spiders wont group up the same, and we can wait for the mothers to be rebuilt to spawn kill them for a bit. We'll gain some more experience because all of us are close to a level up minus Luke now. Then we can challenge the boss, defeat it, then re-enter and do it again." He explained.

"Gotcha!" Jess replied, wiping the small bead of sweat from her face.

"Yeah, lets try to get Jess a few kills here. There's thousands of mobs crawling around. We could use her extra level for her heals... And you'd finally reach the level requirement for a D-rank badge!" Clara clapped at the thought, Jess smiling as well.

"Level 21 here I come!" The girl waved her staff happily.

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Jora slid underneath the beast, throwing an uppercut at its under belly. It screeched in response, bouncing away and repositioning itself towards him.

He spun around, having been facing the opposite direction.

"Not that nimble are you?" He taunted.

That felt right.

With his stats, he was multiple times stronger and more durable than the average low level creature. He could tell his starting stats—preallocation—was much higher than a normal human. Likely because of the [Demonized] adjective...

Even putting that aside, he could feel mana raging through his veins, pumping up all his capabilities, even his thinking.

'Why am I so weak? Why do I have all this fake experience with no memory?... Why is everything so...' He bubbled.

"BLANK?" He dashed forward once more, the spider screeching. A couple of it's legs faltered, before it leapt forward.

Jora dodged to the side as it landed, stabbing at the ground. He was forced into a back pedal, avoided each of the spiders advancing attacks. Leg after leg stabbed into the ground, one of them grazing his chest.

"Tch." His brows furrowed even further.

"That hurt." Another leg stabbed downwards, narrowly missing him. There was a brief period of resistance as the spiders leg had gotten stuck in the ground, and Jora took that chance.

He regained his balance, his two hands gripping at the spiders leg.

And then he kicked.

SCREECH! ~

The leg bent in, the spider faltering deeply, it's right side falling closer to the ground.

"[Devour]." Jora's maw opened, his upper body bulging upwards and biting cleanly through a massive chunk of the spiders body.

"[Integrate]." 

Lacking sufficient mass! Lacking sufficient information! Integration failed!

"Ah, I should've known." He spoke, watching as the spider swayed. It's body seemed to be failing, lacking a huge part of itself, being overwhelmed with pain, and even fright.

With broken legs still within his grasp, he channeled his strength and fury.

"Hmph!" There was a popping squelch as the leg detached from the spiders body.

"[Devour]." He consumed the leg.

"[Devour]." He chomped down on the spiders body once more, taking two more legs from that side.

"[Devour]." He took the last leg and a large portion of its rear.

"[Devour]." It's back was gone.

"[Devour]." It's middle.

"[Devour]."

There was nothing left before him. The only evidence of battle being the small holes in the ground, and the blue blood on his hands, mouth, and even chest.

You have slain [Dungeon Jumping Spider (Mother), Level 22]! Experience up!

You have leveled up! +5 Attribute Points!

You have leveled up! +5 Attribute Points!

You have leveled up! +5 Attribute Points!

His fury calmed, passively exiting the skill state.

A small, but noticeably larger wave of exhaustion hit him. Though, it was quickly overpowered by the coursing energy and warmth within his stomach.

"[Integrate]."

You have leveled up! +5 Attribute Points!

You have leveled up! +5 Attribute Points!

You have leveled up! +5 Attribute Points!

-[Pick your choice]-

|Name: La'Kiej |

|Monster Type: Dungeon Jumping Spider |

|Level: 22 (67.3%)|

|Talent(s): [Stab]|

Health: 380 Mana: 85

| Vitality: 38 ! || Strength: 30 (+10) ! |

| Agility: 21 (+5) ! || Intelligence: 17 ! |

| Wisdom: 13 ! ||(+4 Hidden)|

| -Sensitivity: 2 ! || -Capacity: 0 ! |

| -Defense: 0 ! || -Luck: 0 ! |

Passive Skill(s):

[Strong] Lv 2, [Agile] Lv 1, [Dark Vision] Lv 2

Active Skill(s):

[Leap] Lv 4, [Venom Bite] Lv 1, [Stab] Lv 5, [Lurk] Lv 2,

 

[Venom Bite] Level 1:-Description: Inject a slow acting magic venom into the target through a bite.]

[Stab] Level 3:-Description: Infuse a weapon or appendage with mana, reinforcing and quickening the attacks stabbing motion.]

[Lurk] Level 2:-Description: Lighten bodily movements and sounds, becoming less disruptive and mildly masking your presence.]

"So you were pretty aware... Rest in... my stomach." Jora muttered, picking the attribute and skill that he felt paired together. It wasn't the easiest pick, but he was sure he would find more spiders to make up for the few options he had now.

Successfully integrated 5 Strength Points!

[Stab] Level 3, has been successfully integrated!

Skill [Devour] has leveled up!

Skill [Integrate] has leveled up!

A smile emerged as he felt a warmth course through him once more...

"First..."

Thinking about his newly gained skill as he clenched his fists, he could feel the recollections in his mind.

The memories of quickly activating the skill, hardening his hand and stabbing at enemies... Drilling through them with added ease, not phased by the possibility of his fingers just crumbling and bending against his foes.

Because they didn't, and they wouldn't.

Unless trying to stab at some metal beast or something of the like...

He extended his four fingers, bringing them together and folding his thumb into his palm.

"[Stab]." He chanted.

His hand drilled downwards, hitting the ground and bouncing back with a quick movement.

Looking down, he saw an indent in the stone, evidence of his fingers drilling roughly two inches into the ground.

"Nice..." He smiled happily, opening and closing his palm. He didn't bother to check his mana, for he didn't care. He could already feel the world replenishing him, and his meal had surprisingly refreshed quite a bit of his reserves, despite it not being mentioned in the skill description.

[Devour] Level 2:-Description: Devour and instantaneously digest living things. Use their energy as nourishment, overfilling health and mana.]

[Integrate] Level 2:-Description: Observe the devoured. Integrate up to two normal skills, a small percentage of one stat, and a portion of the lifetime experience of the devoured.]

His eyes hovered over the new descriptions, his legs moving back towards where he had been posted prior to this battle.

The words did shed light on his skills, but he was already able to understand them better than they were described.

[Devour] already nourished him, shown in the warmth he felt after both meals. It was just that now he seemed capable of spilling over his parameters, storing extra health and mana.

"Useful for sure." He noted.

[Integrate] is what really got a big boost.

Two skills? His growth speed was already skyrocketing. With more skills came more meals, with more meals came more skill levels, which meant more skills and more meals.

Soon, his growth would burst beyond what he was sure was already abnormal.

From both the fights he effectively gained double the experience. The natural experience from killing, and then the portion of experience from eating his opponent.

Glancing over his level now, he felt satisfaction.

"From level 8 to 16 in just an hour. Only two fights... Maybe I should grind? This is a dungeon after all..." He grinned devilishly.

"But... What does that mean? A dungeon?..." Anger flashed across his face.

"Too many questions... Let's save them for later... For when I get out of here. For when I get a source of information..." He spoke to himself, reaching the corner he had once sat at.

He peered around the corner, peeking into an even longer corridor.

He could hear the distinct clicking of mandibles coming from afar, and his smile reemerged.

"But first I need more power... Information isn't free."

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