Bennett was a bit nervous, unsure of what to expect as his timer quickly ticked down.
(You should probably stay a bit away from the others as we get closer… ) Maya warned, shifting around. (I’m going to go prepare, since this isn’t exactly going to be nice on you. You’ll have a really nice bed though… so that’s an upside.)
Bennett tried to not squirm at her words, instead wiggling his toes in his shoes. Yelena noticed his nervousness as he stared into the darkness that was the entrance to the Dungeon’s first floor. She poked his cheek and he looked at her, realizing that he’d probably made a mistake not saying anything about this timer for days now.
“Why are you so nervous, Ben?” Yelena asked, her face in front of his. “And don’t say you’re not. You’re a horrible liar.”
Bennett frowned. “I think I’m a pretty good liar, actually, as long as it’s not you I’m lying to, since you have some sort of seventh sense for sensing my lies.”
“What happened to the sixth sense?” Juli grumbled.
“That’s our sense of MP. Learned about it back in Year Two of Basic Academy,” Yelena said. After answering Juli, she looked back at her brother. “Now speak.”
He looked at her with a flat expression. “I’m not a dog. I don’t follow commands like ‘speak’-”
As she gave him an annoyed expression, he completely backtracked, coughing into his hand. “Well, it’s a bit difficult to explain. Firstly, let’s just say I have somewhat of a timer ticking. Not that I have any clue what it does-”
(A great amount of things-)
Please do not now. I am trying to have an important conversation with my sister, Bennett interrupted Maya, not willing to argue with her.
(... M’kay.)
“Meaning…?”
Bennett shrugged. “I dunno. I have some sort of timer and I dunno what it’s going to do when it hits zero in… roughly eight minutes.”
“Excuse me?! How long exactly have you had this timer?”
“...A while?” Bennett dodged the question, trying to not seem suspicious, and failing.
“How long is ‘a while’?” Yelena pressed, leaning closer as he leaned away. “Tell me now.”
“Uh… ever since I got my Class?” he continued.
His sister glared at him and he held back a gulp. Some would definitely find him being scared of someone nearly seven inches shorter than him hilarious, but this was his sister. She was certainly a force to be reckoned with… well, not really, but better to let her think that.
“Any reason why you never said anything about it?”
“Er…”
His sister shook her head in disappointment. “Seriously? You-”
(Bennett, please detach yourself from the lol- small girl,) Maya muttered. (I’d also put your clothes somewhere, as you’re definitely not going to be able to keep them during this.)
Bennett blinked. Looking at his timer, he nearly fell on his face, watching the final two minutes quickly count down. “Shit. I have a minute left before something happens-”, he cursed, trying to stand.
Before he could continue, Maya suddenly burst out of his back and slowly began spreading across his body… but she didn’t look normal. More of something like… silk.
Silk? Maya, what’s happening?!
(Calm down. You’ll be okay. All you have to do is sleep. I’ll do the rest.)
Yelena leaned back in confusion, watching Maya in confusion. “Bennett, what’s happening?! Why’s-?!”
Luna had scooted away when Maya had come out initially, but was now starting to stand as his vision started to go fuzzy, confusion and worry beginning to crawl its way through her mind to his. With a force of will, he managed to take his pack off and toss it somewhere, hearing a hiss of annoyance as it clearly clocked Juli in the face. As Maya’s strange, silky form covered his body, he slowly lost all awareness, slowly walking over to a dark corner of the room that looked very comfortable…
___
Metamorphosis Commencing… Due to certain circumstances, metamorphosis has been accelerated. 12 hours remaining.
While in this state, you cannot be interrupted. Anything that attempts to harm you will be heavily punished. You will not be able to me moved while in this state.
Good Night.
___
He could suddenly feel himself in what felt like some sort of liquid, but he knew he was in his mind. A pair of arms wrapped around him, as if trying to comfort him, but he only wanted to rest. He closed his eyes, the world turning to black.
“Sleep. Soon, you’ll wake up better than you were before.”
…I hope I have extra clothes in my bag.
“... Of course. Thanks for ruining my sense of mystery.”
Bennett pulled Maya closer and he felt the both of them slowly fall asleep.
***
Luna looked at the strange, dark red, cocoon that held Bennett within it. It seemed to be made out of some sort of silk. Luna, despite herself, couldn’t help but feel immensely worried, finding herself sitting next to the cocoon in the dark corner. Yelena had her hand pressed against it, speechless and hair burning due to her obvious terror at her brother being encased in… something. Luna was unsure herself of what was happening, but she knew he was in peace. She could feel him sleeping, relaxed. He seemed a little bit scared, but he was safe, at least as safe as one could be in a place like this.
“12 hours like… this?” Yelena whispered, her hand pressed close to the cocoon, which was quickly growing hard. She shook her head. “I already hate this.”
Juli sighed. “Hm. I guess that’s fine. Though I don’t see the point of being depressed at that. He’s just going to come back stronger.”
“...That’s completely furthest from the point here. We can’t go out there and leave him here. I refuse to do that.”
“...So you’re going to stay here for 12 hours just… waiting for him to come out? What if he doesn’t?” Juli snapped back, frowning at Yelena.
Luna could see Yelena taking a step back, unsure of how to respond. Her hair was flickering, which Luna had gotten used to at this point, but was still wary of. Her face was filled with worry, traces of anger, and sadness, her expression contorting. Luna was mildly better at keeping her emotions in check, but was still worried about Bennett, despite the fact she knew he was in peace.
“I just hope he’s not in pain…” Yelena muttered. “He sure seemed to constantly be in it, though.”
Luna looked at the cocoon before shaking her head and looking towards the entrance to the Dungeon.
Now… I need to see something. She thought, walking over to the entrance, but leaving a Water Duplicate behind to watch over Bennett. She thought about staying there herself, but she knew that it’d be better if she only allocated a small part of herself to watch over and a larger chunk of herself to investigate.
“What the-!? You can do that?” The other “Luna” nodded at Yelena’s surprise before looking up at the cocoon and holding back a sigh. “Wait, wait. How come you’ve never done this before? What else can you do that we don’t know about?!”
“Honestly, I’m curious as well…”
Their voices slowly faded away as the actual Luna managed to snag Bennett’s bag before taking a breath, preparing to push herself, just slightly, before seeming to disappear.
***
Luna found herself face-first in a wall, a cloud of dust surrounding her as she coughed.
OW! She thought, wanting to punch the wall. Well, it didn’t really hurt, but my point stands! Stupid wall.
Luna had sped down a few hallways faster than even Bennett could run before some sort of Dungeon fail-safe trigger and a wall appeared in her path, causing her to smash directly into it, and went through two feet of stone. She’d barely managed to surround herself with her tentacles in a panic, but she could feel them throbbing still from smashing into a wall at close to the speed of sound. She looked at the Luna shaped hole in the wall behind her before huffing and kicking the second wall, the one she’d crashed into, in annoyance. After taking out her anger on the wall, she found herself walking through the Dungeon, strangely not seeing a single monster. She poked some bioluminescent moss that seemed a bit springy before shaking her head and continuing down the hall, unsure of where she was going. Of course, she remembered every twist and turn she’d made, but she wasn’t really focused on that at the moment. A few minutes later, she found herself in front of a very badly hidden Mimic.
She raised her eyebrow at the Mimic, which seemed to be trying to evade her notice, but failing horribly, the back of the chest-shaped monster shaking, just barely. Luna did have to commend it though. Any normal person, like Yelena and possibly Bennett, wouldn’t have noticed, but it was a bit unfair… seeing as she wasn’t fooled by many things.
She fished a random gold coin out of Bennett’s bag before tossing it to the Mimic, which seemed to finally give up before snatching it out of the air, giant teeth and tongue covered in slobber. She shook her head before going over to the second chest next to it and, ignoring the lock, forced it open, a loud screech coming from said lock before it broke at the force of her tentacles. Inside sat what seemed to be a fair bit of Gold, along with a a necklace and ring that she could tell were enchanted-
Hm? I smell a curse. Luna thought, looking at the ring closely, staring at the miniature array carved on it. It’s some sort of… life eating curse? This is not enough information for me-
___
Curse(s) Discovered!
Life Devouring (Ring)-
Whenever the wearer is healed, 40% of the healing will instead be siphoned into item and stored. For every 15% HP within this, the user will gain 2% Universal Damage Bonus and gain 1.5% Damage Taken Multiplier, up to 200% and 150% respectively.
Masochist (Necklace) -
When above 50% HP, Damage Taken Multiplier is increased by 15%. When Below 50% HP, Damage Taken Multiplier is decreased by 15% For every 10% Damage Taken in one battle, gain 5% Universal Damage Bonus.
___
Huh. When it comes to Bennett, these aren’t really Curses, now are they? I mean, to anyone else they are, but Bennett could weaponize them… Though, I can’t exactly compensate for 165% more damage taken. I could only really heal to compensate for it, but that’s still him taking 2.6 times more damage… Wait, there could be some beneficial Enchantments on them as well.
___
Enchantment(s) Discovered!
Siphoning (Ring) -
When dealing Damage, user will heal for 15% of Damage Dealt and HP% healed in this way is put in a tally. When this tally reaches 50%, the damage of the next attack launched is increased 50% and will additionally inflict Sunder. Sunder increases Damage Taken Multiplier by 15%, stacking twice.
True Strike (Necklace) -
5% of Damage Dealt by the user will ignore all defenses. When Dealing Ultimate Type Damage or in an Ultimate State, this is increased to 10%.
___
Nothing revolutionary, I think? These are pretty useful, though it’s even better for Bennett with these “curses”... but he’s a bit indisposed, so he can’t use them.
She pocketed the charms before walking away from the mimic. Half an hour later, she found herself in a large room with a fountain in the middle, but she could tell it wasn’t exactly clean, so she didn’t touch it. She went around it, studying the room to find some sort of difference.
After a little bit, she sighed.
What am I even doing here? Luna thought, sitting down with her back against a wall. I seriously ran off the moment Bennett was incapacitated! What’s wrong with me? Why would I even…
She stopped, reevaluating her thought process. She then shook her head and pulled her knees to her chest as she thought.
Right. Despite always saying that I’m oh-so-different from Cthulhu, I still have the same tendencies as she does. I’m not all that different from her, am I? Though, to be fair, I’m not exactly making an active attempt to be different. But… the question is if I can be different? I think? According to her, I’m already pretty different. But, I still act in some of the same ways…
But, a bigger question is, who do I want to be… what do I want to be, if I want to change?
~~~
Luna eventually returned, the necklace and ring pocketed. She found the other two, along with her duplicate, clearly searching for something. Juli noticed her first.
“Look at that, your clone or whatever’s back. Did she take Bennett’s bag or something?”
Luna held back a sigh before walking towards her clone, then into it as she melded back together with it, and was met with a few memories, which didn’t consist of anything important, so she only kept the ones that remotely matched anything to do with Bennett’s condition. She then handed Yelena Bennett’s pack, but not before taking out the ring and necklace and sitting next to Bennett’s Cocoon, which seemed to slightly pulse at her approach.
“Hm? What’re those?” Yelena asked, scooting next to her.
Luna was unsure of how to explain it to Yelena and thought for a moment before pushing the necklace and ring at Juli, who slightly flinched.
“You want me to [Ey-], er, Identify them? Sure, I guess,” Juli grumbled, looking closely. She then frowned at the contents she discovered.
After reading both the Curses and Enchantments, Yelena laughed slightly at the absurdity.
“Those sure are perfect for someone like Bennett, who seems to be getting hurt every three seconds,” she whispered. “I just wish… he wouldn’t hurt himself so often. I love him, but it gets really worrying when he does rash things…”
She seemed to think for a moment before looking up. “I think, seeing how close you are to him, you should probably know a few things.
“Starting a few years back, Bennett would come home injured a lot. At first, I thought it was simply just because he got injured in normal ways, so I didn’t really think much of it. But… one day, when he came home with burn marks all over him, I knew something was wrong; he sometimes came home with other injuries, like slash marks that couldn’t have been from animals, like he told Mom, and even signs of bruises that he couldn’t have gotten from falling or stuff like that. I knew, at that point, that people were hurting him. Now, I’m sure Mom knew too. It probably explains why some Nobles mysteriously went missing a few times. I… dunno how to really feel about it except angry. Bennett’s so nonchalant about a lot of things, even about getting hurt… it’s like he couldn’t care less about dying, if it meant that-”
This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
“Stop it,” Juli suddenly interjected, glaring at Yelena. Both Luna and Yelena looked up at her in confusion and Juli sighed.
“Firstly, anyone could tell he’s the last person here who wants to die. The thing is that he’s willing to die, if it means that you won’t. He literally could care less about himself. He cares so little about himself that he'd do literally anything to keep you safe. I’m sure you’ve noticed how stressed he’s seemed to be. Of course, I don’t confront him about things since it’s his personal life, but I’ve seen him in the library far past curfew, researching everything he can about dungeons, no matter how annoying the books here are.”
After Juli’s short speech, she yawned. “Anyways, since you two are going to sit here and just wait, you have fun. I’m gonna go to sleep now, since this place is actually really comfortable…”
Nine seconds later, Juli was out, her snoring louder than Luna would’ve thought. Yelena frowned. “Huh… I don’t think I’ve ever seen her sleep before. However… Do you think she’s right? About Bennett?”
Luna recalled everything she could remember about Bennett before eventually coming up on a blank, realizing just how little she actually knew about him. Luna knew the basics about him, maybe some more complicated things, but she, overall, didn’t know much about him…
Gods damn me… I have this intricate bond with him, yet I don’t even understand anything about how he thinks? Am I that bad of a friend?
As frustration seemingly leaked over to Bennett, she was met with muted confusion, then a warm comfort rolled into her mind, and she blinked in confusion.
He’s still conscious in there?
In response, she sent him back something akin to reassurance and he relaxed, going back into a deep sleep. Finally looking back at Yelena, she shrugged, not able to do much more to communicate. Luna looked up at the cocoon for a long few moments before some sort of realization dawned upon her. She grabbed Bennett’s bag and shoved her arm in, searching.
Yelena frowned at her, unsure of how to respond to this sudden movement. After a moment, Luna pulled her hand out, holding a vial of blood, filled with what looked like Abyssal Beast Blood, which apparently, it didn’t matter what it was made of as long as it was blood. Luna opened the vial and poured it onto the silk structure, which shivered slightly. A few moments later, the blood was absorbed and she checked the timer.
___
Eclosion in 10 hours, 20 minutes
(20 minutes deducted. Maximum of five deductions. Rarer Blood will deduct more time. Cannot use the same type of blood multiple times.)
___
“You know what, nevermind, I’m not sleeping anymore, I hate dreaming- what are you two doing?” Luna heard Juli grumble, waking from her sleep of a total of a minute in duration. However, she wasn’t paying attention.
Oh! Huh… I wonder what would happen if I used my own blood… Actually, in hindsight, that’s a horrible idea. He could just explode…
Yelena looked at the cocoon in surprise, baffled at this new development. “Wait… this is amazing! If we can get this to go faster… Maybe he could get out sooner! But, where are we supposed to get rare blood-?”
Before Yelena could finish her sentence, Juli sighed before standing up and seemed to be about to cut herself. Luna managed to grab her before the blood dripped onto the cocoon, but nearly regretted it as the girl’s blood sizzled on her skin. She grit her teeth before moving the hand away and quickly letting go, forcing back a hiss.
Juli seemed to immediately realize her mistake, but wasn’t able to say anything before Yelena yelled, “Are you trying to kill him?! What the hell?!”
Yelena stood in front of Juli, who stepped back, who wrapped a bandage around her hand from somewhere. “I wasn’t thinking. I just wanted to try-”
“But you’ve already seen that it hurts him! I mean, my skin is still steaming, just from the ambient, ‘Abyss’, right? What made you think your blood wouldn’t just immediately kill him?”
Juli seemed conflicted, clearly unsure of how to interact with Bennett’s very pissed off sister. She seemed to want to back away from her, and, preferably, disengage. Luna looked at her slightly painful arm before huffing and healing it over, which took a slight bit more MP than usual… not that she was running out anytime soon. She wasn’t full on MP, but it was quickly rising still.
Either I have so much Mana, I have no clue what to do with it, or I have none.
Looking within herself, she could see the planet still filling back up, not even close to being empty. For a moment, she viewed the very laid-back looking Cthulhu, who looked up at her with one eye closed before raising her middle finger at her.
Yep, Earth has definitely had an influence on her… and me, to be fair. Wait, wasn’t Yelena angry at Juli? Also, wasn’t Juli just sleeping? Was she just acting?
Luna looked back up from her trance to find herself in the middle of a very intense looking staredown. She blinked in confusion, looking between the two girls, who seemed to be at each other’s throats.
Is this really my problem to be worrying about them not getting along? Should I worry about them not getting along?
…Honestly, probably. Can’t have them angry at one another forever.
Luna then tried to come up with some way to ease the situation that didn’t include forcibly putting them to sleep for nearly a minute straight before looking at the ground in internal defeat.
Great gods, am I really that old that I can’t think of any way to de-escalate a situation that doesn’t include either drugging them (Though it’s not really drugging if it’s not actually making them breath or eat it, right?), or hitting them hard enough that they stop? …This is the time that Bennett would probably just get between them and stare down Yelena, who’d probably stop. Or he’d… I dunno actually. Bennett’s still a bit of a wildcard in of me trying to predict his next move… though it usually ends up in him getting hurt somehow.
Luna then just decided to let them at it, as she had no good ideas, and sat down next to Bennett, who’s cocoon was pulsing slightly as Maya seemed to do… something to him.
Wait. Maya. Doesn’t she act somewhat like a…
~~~
Ten minutes later Luna’s clone happily waltzed back into the room, a few vials of Mimic blood in her arms… as well as being covered in it while holding a Mimic Core with one of her tentacles.
Well, I wanted to be clean about it, but it wasn’t exactly the easiest thing in the world to do, now was it? I don’t like it when things struggle… that sounds a little sadistic, now doesn’t it? How could I phrase that a little better- oh hey, is that two mimic cores? I found another one? Cool. Wonder how I’m going to explain a mimic core to Bennett though… Additionally, I was thinking about it for more than a second, so why does Abyssal Beast Blood work, but Abyssal doesn’t? After all, they’re both Abyssal in nature… though it may be because it has something to do with the Dungeon Core creating the Beasts…
Anyways, Mimic blood.
Luna grabbed one vial while Luna (Second Edition) began to put the rest away. She them walked over to Bennett and poured the Blood onto the Cocoon, which immediately shook strangely as it absorbed it. As the vial emptied, she raised her hand, catching another Mimic blood vial that her duplicate had thrown to her, emptying it out as well, responding to the strange feeling she’d suddenly gotten from Bennett. After the fourth vial, the cocoon stopped accepting the blood and she checked the timer again.
___
Eclosion in 6 hours.
(4 hours deducted. Maximum of five deductions. Rarer Blood will deduct more time. Cannot use the same type of blood multiple times.)
Warning: Continuing to deduct time in quick succession will cause harm to Bennett Yasmine (Blood Aracne/Godling Hybrid) and may have adverse, near permanent effects on the body within.
___
Okay, that was far more effective than I expected- huh?
“Huh? Blood Aracne?” Yelena said aloud, mirroring Luna’s surprise. “How in the world- What even is that? It sounds faintly familiar, as if I’ve read about it somewhere…”
Juli frowned at her. “Even I haven’t heard about that, and I know about a lot of niche things. Is it like some sort of extinct race or what? But if it’s in books, then it must be pretty recent…”
While the two of them were wondering what exactly a Blood Aracene was, Luna was simply trying to process this new information.
First of all, the Blood Aracne left even my radar long before the “System” came along, but for some reason, I can’t remember the exact details. I can faintly remember seeing one in my nightmares, but I can’t put my finger onto why, other than me being in contact with one again, but that can’t be possible, I’d definitely have known. But this has to be related to my nightmares…
Hold on a second. Could this have to do with Maya? Is her soul… one of a Blood Aracne? If that’s the case… then the red eye… my dream… Mother-
Suddenly, as if some sort or realization dawned upon her, some sort of primal terror quickly began to override her mind, and she backed away. Her hair pulsed rapidly as her breathing sped up.
No. I didn’t. We didn’t. We’d never.
Never.
Never.
NEVER.
NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER-
___
System Overload detected. Suppressing Memories related to Maya, [Information Suppressed] in Cthulhu (Luna Yasmine).
Suppression Success.
___
Luna blinked in confusion, wondering why she’d just started to have a mild panic attack. There was no way Maya was in any way related to her dreams. That’d be too much of a coincidence. And Luna wasn’t a [Information Suppressed], that’d be ridiculous. Plus, she’d never kill her [Information Suppressed], that’s even more absurd.
Luna looked up at the very concerned Yelena who was hovering over Luna like she was her mother. “Luna, what just happened? Why was there a System warning that had your name? Something to do with Maya?”
Luna gave her an even more confused look. What System warning was she talking about exactly? I didn’t get any.
Juli simply looked between Luna and the cocoon, as if putting some sort of puzzle pieces together.
***
Bennett opened their eyes to the dreamscape, annoyed their rest had been interrupted-
“I am confused why I am having trouble referring to myself as myself,” He snapped to the air, as if interrupting some sort of omnipotent writer who was trying to warp his thoughts.
Suddenly, the strange feeling passed and he shook his head in confusion. He then looked down at the head pressed against his bare chest, snoring loudly. As he looked down at Maya, she seemed to notice his gaze and she slowly woke up herself.
“Whaaa?” she grumbled. “You shouldn’t be awake? Did something wake you up? Bad dream? No, that can’t be it… what woke you up then?”
“I dunno… I feel like the System tried to send some sort of message, but couldn’t get through.”
“Huh… that’s stupid. Go back to sleep. You still have to rest your mind, y’know.”
“... Why are you talking like Yelena right now?”
“Am I? That prolly means our minds are getting too muddled together. Gimme a sec…”
There seemed to be a mental pop and Bennett’s head immediately cleared up. He blinked in confusion, looking around to find himself in his and Yelena’s room back home.
“And I’m back to normal. I do not like talking like someone that I’m not… though, that brings up the question, why exactly is your sister ever-present within your mind?” Maya sighed, sitting up next to him while stretching.
For a few moments, he stared at Maya, trying to deduce why he wasn’t completely embarrassed to see her completely nude before shaking his head in dismissal.
“She’s my sister. Of course I’m worried for her- What the hell?” Bennett started as he sat up as well.
Something strange was poking out from his sides. Six very strange things, in fact. Very similar to Maya’s legs, in fact.
They were very atypical from the normal spiders’ legs, being smooth and very much devoid of hairs, almost made completely of carapace, with the exception of the ends of the legs, which had the small claw-like hooks that were clearly meant to help climb walls or even ceilings. However, it seemed like he could make them retreat inside the leg to make the leg a bit more pointed. Each leg had three segments, the longest attached to his back, and the shortest at the ends. He could move each leg fluidly and separately, which, strangely, didn’t take much effort.
Even stranger, he didn’t seem to be breathing normally, instead breathing through his skin… in a way? More like…
“Diffusion of oxygen in the air directly into your bloodstream. Much more efficient than puny lungs. And, just to clarify, if you didn’t realize it already, you don’t have skin,” Maya said, poking his chest. “It may feel like it when you’re relaxed, but if you’re tense a bit, your body gets way harder, and it’s much harder to hurt you.”
Bennett then noticed something else; his sense of smell was much better than before. Definitely way better. He could smell something weird coming off of Maya, which was clearly too complicated for him as not a single bit of it made sense. He shook his head, making an attempt to ignore it.
As he moved around his new legs, Maya shifted closer to him, letting out a small breath of air. “Like my present? You have no clue how much I had to fight you to change you into an Aracne. Your latent Divinity did not like me residing within you, but could tolerate it. But forcibly changing you into a Blood Aracne wasn’t really in the terms. So I fought it for the entirety of the business week we’ve known one another.”
Bennett frowned for a second. “Oh damn. It’s really only been a week? That’s… concerning.”
“You’re a bit right. It felt like nearly a month. Time really is an enigma,” she mumbled. “You’ve still got an entire lifetime to deal with me, so you better prepare yourself…” She yawned, leaning against him. “Alright, time to go back to sleep…”
Bennett was suddenly hit with a wave of exhaustion he hadn’t realized he was holding back. He fell back, already half asleep…
***
Yelena stared at her brother’s cocoon, worry permeating every pore of her being… yet she felt like she was wasting time. Bennett’s time had been cut in half, but she couldn’t help but feel like she was wasting time just waiting for Bennett to come out. It took nearly an hour of the trio waiting in near silence before she finally stood up.
“I can’t sit here anymore. We’ve gotta do… something,” she said to herself. “We… should go into the Dungeon.”
Juli frowned at her. “Did your brain finally kickstart itself? Took far too long-”
“Would you please… just not right now. I don’t know what you’re trying to do right now, but I don’t want it.” Yelena looked over at Luna, who was slowly waking up from sleeping against Bennett’s cocoon before shaking her head.
“If you really don’t want to leave, you can just stay there Luna-”
Luna stopped in the middle of standing up, seemed to think for a second, then plopped back down next to Bennett, one of her clones forming out of nowhere and walking over to them, looking a bit bored. On a whim, Yelena decided to Identify the clone.
___
Name : *#&$^#* (Luna Yasmine) - Level Unable to Calculate
*&@*#%% ^$**#^ (Seaborn - Zenith)
Alignment : Water-
Error! Re-evaluating…
Name : Luna Yasmine - Level ??? (Level Hidden)
Seaborn - Zenith | Water Duplicate
Alignment : Water
A somewhat mysterious girl who seems suspiciously close to your brother. She’s unable to speak, but also seems to have some sort of way to converse with Bennett Yasmine. It’s unsure how strong she is as you haven’t seen her fight before, but she could be either a major threat or harmless, based on her current mood.
Threat Level : Low - RUN!
___
“What the-” Yelena snapped her mouth shut, trying to process the information she’d gotten… or the lack of information. She’d forgotten that Identify only really told her what she already could infer from a person, or (very loosely) put together pieces that she already had… well, at least when it’s used on a person.
But from the very cryptic wording of her strength and threat level, Yelena was definitely right about some things. Luna was a wildcard that was far too close to her brother. And, knowing her brother, he’d probably never used Identify on her, as he found using it on people disrespectful.
Juli seemed to see Yelena’s pensive expression as she muttered, “Finally decided to Identify her?”
“You’ve known?” Yelena responded, still a bit miffed at her attempted murder of her brother.
“Not really. Even my [Eye-], Identify couldn’t get much out of her. She’s truly an enigmatic encounter, especially to me.”
After a few moments, Yelena frowned. “I feel like there was some sort of reference in that sentence.”
Juli snorted. “Oh, there sure was. You wouldn’t get it. Anyhow, let’s continue.”
~~~
After killing yet another Abyss Beast, Yelena let out a huff of annoyance.
“Level 20, 20, 18, and 19. This seems too easy.”
“Well, clearly your Hellfire is effective against them,” Juli grumbled. “Though, there’s far fewer Beasts than I expected there to be. Probably means they’re more crowded in the floors below. We’ll need to gain a lot of levels down here.”
“Well, let's thank the amazing multipliers down here then-” She stopped mid-sentence, raised her hand while stacking an extremely overkill 30 Explosive Chain-Bursts at the Beast that had tried pouncing on her.
There was an ear-splitting explosion as the Beast was knocked back, but quickly got back up with a growl.
“Yelena, that’s a Level 25, an entire Tier- er, Rank above you. Let me-”
Yelena shook her head. “No. I want to try. It can’t possibly be that bad,” she said, her Flame Armour Flickering on.
The Beast gave her a mildly curious look before letting out a huff and… disappearing? She looked at where it had been a moment ago, confused.
What the hell? Where’d it go? How’d it just… poof!? Did it run away?
She studied the area around her, noticing that Juli and Luna had backed away to give her space. She was confused for a few moments until she saw telltale signs of dust moving around oddly a few yards to her right. Without missing a beat, she flung a whip at the beast, just barely grabbing its leg, and attempted to pull it off balance, nearly pulling something in her arm as it reappeared and she barely moved its leg, but it was just enough. She slashed at its left front leg, the one she hadn’t grabbed, just barely able to make a gash.
Damn, it’s more durable than I thought.
She managed to dodge the feline beast’s claws, letting out a huff of annoyance as she pulled on the leg again, nearly knocking it over. She released the whip while making a second one with her other hand, the one with her sword and wrapping the whip around the hilt. As she slid under it, making it directly under its tail, she grabbed the tail, letting the beast whip her into the air. She grabbed the whip from around her sword and managed to make it stretch long enough to wrap around the cat and pull herself onto its back, plunging her sword in between its shoulder blades. It let out an ear piercing roar which left her in an immediate daze. She kept her grip on her sword though, as hard as it was to do, slowly pulling it out as she fell.
After hitting the ground, her senses seemed to come back to her and she looked up, noticing a maw about to chomp down on her face. She managed to pull out a Chain-Burst right in front of her face, again with the maximum bursts within, blowing it up inside its mouth.
It flew up, hitting its head on the roof and she took that moment to use War Flag and then Overwhelming Firepower to launch herself upwards at the Beast, stabbing it in the chest with a flaming sword. She could smell it burning its insides as it roared in pain. She managed to let go of her blade as they fell, but she didn’t have the time to use a Burst to move away as they both hit the ground, Yelena under the beast.
Pain unlike what she’d ever felt before wracked her whole body, the weight of the beast crushing her against the floor. She was unable to scream, already wishing she was in the Seventh Circle. She could feel her ribs cracking as she tried to create a Chain-Burst, but failed, the pain overriding her concentration.
As pain wracked her body as the beast crushed her, some switch in her flipped, and the world went dark…
A few moments later, she found herself standing over the dead beast, it burning with Hellfire beneath her.
What… the hell. She thought as she looked at the loot message in front of her, her body still throbbing. How’d I…?
Before she could think too much on it, she face-planted into the ground and blacked out, the last thing she saw being a screen she approved of very much.
___
You have killed [Unknown Abyssal Beast : Dungeon Variant | Elite] - Level 25.
Applied EXP boosts:
10 Levels Above : +100%
Dungeon Bonus : +25%
Abyssal Defeat : +50%
Elite Defeat : +100% Base EXP Drop
1 Rank Over : Final EXP * 2, Two Levels
+6 Levels (89%)
+30 Strength, 30 Dexterity, 18 Mind, 18 Intelligence, 30 Unaligned Stats
WARNING! CRITICAL HP!
___
Damn it… Well, Ben can’t be the only one constantly getting hurt… was Yelena’s thoughts as she fell into a dreamless sleep.
