A Tamer’s Adventure

Amber’s spear dug into the flesh of the greater rock lizard, through the eye, and with a burst of mana, its head exploded from inside, splattering chunks everywhere.

Amber huffed, swinging her spear and removing the blood off its surface.

Martyn stood at an already dead rock lizard; this fight was relatively easy. Though they were greater rock lizards, they weren’t as tall as the boss they encountered.

“Do you think we could face the boss of this floor?” Amber asked.

“Maybe this fight was easy, but it's more reason to be cautious.”

Amber nodded, and they went further through the catacombs. A cry filled the air, and they stood on the guard, shield raised, with a magic ball in hand.

From above came a trio of large bats; they had thick skin and a coat of rock-like scales.

They screeched and dove down, slashing at them with their wings. Amber blocked with her shield, thrusting with her spear, only to miss.

Martyn jumped over the attack, turning in mid-air and launching a magic missile at the bat monster’s back.

It exploded, making the beast screech, but it didn’t fall.

‘Tough fucker.’ He frowned, landing gently on his feet.

Amber and Martyn stood back, each facing their monsters; the third bat above took a sharp breath, its lungs expanding. Their extrasensory skills flared up, and instinct told them to cover their ears.

It was the right action, as the leading stone bat let out an ear-piercing screech. Martyn covered his ears in a protective magic barrier and did the same for Amber; his sigils to dampen the sound weren’t as effective, but they kept them from losing their senses.

While doing so, the two bats circled them and charged in unison in a joint attack, their mana covering their bodies and their wings becoming sharp-like blades.

Amber pushed Martyn back and took both attacks with her shield coating it in a thick layer of mana, the bats colliding with her shield and bouncing off it.

As the bats recoiled, Martyn leapt above Amber, conjuring two heavy magic bolts and striking them in the chest. Their bodies sizzled in flames before turning to dust.

All that was left was the leading stone bat. Amber huffed, reeling her spear back into the water. Her mana flared, turning into water and covering her spear.

The monster screeched and dove at her, and she threw her water-coated spear.

It swerved past it, ready to claw at it with its legs. Amber blocked it with her shield, skidding back. It was preparing another screech until her spear swerved back, stabbing it in the back of the head.

It gagged for a moment before its body went limp.

“You didn’t have to push me aside,” Martyn said, collecting the dropped stone scales.

"True, but I am your knight; I should be taking all the hits,” she smiled, bending down to massage her stiff legs.

“Those hits were hard to take, though.” She huffed, sitting down. “I used a lot of mana quickly.”

As she rested, Martyn went to the rock bat that didn’t disappear. Smiling, he touched it, storing the monster's corpse in his inventory.

“That should be around fifty silver. These guys aren’t wanted.” Martyn said, kissing Amber on the cheek. “Good work.”

She flushed, her tail tapping against the floor. “Thanks; I’ve been meaning to ask how monster corpses are priced.”

As they went further, Martyn explained that monster corpses from dungeons were a rare drop, more so at the deeper levels, and depending on their quality, prices varied. D-ranked monster corpses and below could only go as high as one gold and fifty silver.

But it all depended on the state of the body; if it was to be butchered, the price would be cut down. As they entered the next catacombs, they stopped seeing another adventuring party of four.

"Ah, sorry, we were just passing through.” The leader of them said they were walking along the walls.

“It’s alright.” Martyn nodded, seeing the party leave. He stared at their exit path before deciding they were gone.

“Maybe we’ve been too on edge lately?”

“I don’t think so; better to be safe than sorry,” Amber said.

Martyn nodded as they went further, encountering more stone bats and rock lizards. There didn’t seem to be any Kobolds within the spaces.

As they hunted, they accumulated experience. Soon they encounter the boss's room; this floor had been easy, and as such, together they agree to kill the boss.

The doors were glowing blue, so with calming breaths, they opened the gate and marched in, the space inside expanding, matching a large cavern with glowing moss on the walls and trickling streams of water.

Immediately, they were hit with a horrid stench. The ground shook as the growing mass unfurled itself.

“What?”

The boss’s size took them aback; it looked more like a wyvern, with dark scales and strong hind legs with a purple underbelly. Quickly, Martyn appraised it as it rose, standing nearly three times his height.

“Is that a wyvern?”

"No," Martyn frowned; "it’s a winged rock lizard. I read about these; it's rare to come across something to do with them living with the stone bats.”

“What the fuck!?” Martyn cursed seeing the beast’s mana.

“What is it?" Amber asked, raising her shield and spear.

[Winged Rock Lizard, Level 3, Title: Miniboss, Mana Gifted]

» [Mana: 1,064/1,064] [Strength: 28] [Agility: 21] [Vitality: 23] [Arcana: 38] [Psyche: 22]

Martyn gave her his appraisal details as the beast opened its wings and, with a deep breath, roared at them, smashing its thick, spiky tail against the ground and clawing with its feet.

It had just as much mana as the two of them combined, and without hesitation, it unleashed a plume of green smoke. Together, Martyn and Amber formed a magic barrier.

“Its acid breath isn’t a magic attack, which sucks. I’ll draw attention to your attack.” He ordered.

Both covered their mouths with a piece of mana and nodded once the acid smoke vanished. They charged, Martyn to the right and Amber to the left.

He unleashed a twisting magic bullet at the boss; it spread its wings and took off, flying across the cavern stalagmites. Its tail slashed at them, causing them to all fall.

Martyn dodged one as it landed where he stood. The fragmented pike of the earth, as tall as him, kept moving as it cut more above him in an attempt to skewer him alive and doing so fired magic missiles at the boss.

Amber took cover and used half her mana, unleashing a twisting water spear. The magic swerved through the air towards the boss.

It roared, unleashing another acid-breath attack at the magic, and while doing so, Amber ran into the open, reeled her spear back, coating it in the remaining half of her mana, and threw it.

The breath attack clashed with the water spear exploding in smoke, and through it, her spear shot through, piercing it in the shoulder.

It roared, unleashing another breath attack. Amber rolled to the side and ran, the blast trailing behind her. Just as she got to Martyn, he created a magic barrier.

But the boss didn’t stop. It dove at them and swung at the shield with its tail; its spikes got through the barrier cracking it. It swings once more before unleashing another breath attack.

Amber pulled a spare spear from the inventory and two potions, one for mana and the other for fatigue.

The boss stomped with its hind legs, the ground cracked, and Martyn grunted, feeding more mana for the barrier to hold.

But on its next stomp, he let the barrier break like glass.

Their blades coated in mana, they stepped aside as its clawed foot landed between them and slashed at it from both sides.

A hollow screech left it as it swung its tail at Amber. She blocked it with her shield but went skidding across the floor before slamming into a boulder.

Her body felt numb, her muscles burned, and her breathing quickened.

Martyn couldn’t do anything as it let out another acid-breath attack. He crossed his arms, forming a barrier.

With a grunt, Amber shook her head quickly regaining herself and dashed to the boss.

Martyn’s barrier cracked, and the boss swung its wing down, breaking it. Martyn barely avoided its claw as its tail came from the side. With what little mana he had, he took the hit and went flying, landing hard.

Pain surged from his thighs, his head pounded, and blood reached his throat. He blinked and rose in a panic. Quickly, he pulled out a mana, health, and fatigue potion, drinking them all.

The left side of his vision was blurry and wet with blood trickling down.

Amber had jumped on the boss’s back, hissing in response; its wings flapped as it took to the air, trying to shake her off. Amber climbed gripping it with their claws and holding onto the spear she had thrown earlier, embedded in its back.

Standing, she kept herself steady, pulling out her other spear, she stabbed into its shoulder. She surged her mana through both spears, and the boss howled in pain. Amber felt its shoulders snap and dislocate.

Unable to fly, it fell, with Amber leaping off it.

Martyn, having recovered, saw the scene. He dashed, his mana coating his body like an aura, and he leapt high, catching the falling Kobold in his arms. They landed hard holding each other.

The boss landed harder, slamming into the ground, but still, it rose to hiss at the two, with a damaged leg and broken wing.

It was no longer the predator, as Martyn and Amber stood with weapons drawn; it had now become prey.

Infuriated, it inhaled. Martyn and Amber prepared for another breath attack but were met with a disorienting screech. The room spun, and they fell, clutching their ears.

Disoriented and still alarmed, Martyn grabbed Amber, pulling her close, and formed a mana barrier that, in doing so, shielded them from the breath attack it unleashed.

Amber was also in turmoil; the world turned upside down, but Martyn’s firm reassurance through their bond calmed her down, and she helped make the barrier.

Together, they took the onslaught, eventually regaining their senses. The attack stopped, and the boss heaved, catching its breath.

Sharing a look, they grabbed their weapons and sprinted towards it. Unable to move, it hissed at them, swinging its tail to stop them.

As they picked up the pace, their drowsiness faded, and both glared with predatory instinct.

Using half his mana, Martyn’s scimitar burned in blue light. He swung at the incoming tail and, at that moment, poured more mana into the blade as it met its tail.

Flesh snapped and blood splattered as he sliced its tail off, making it howl in pain. It failed to notice Amber’s presence at the last moment as Amber reached its face, spear in hand, swirling with mana.

With a cry, she stabbed it through the eye, the blade exploding with mana, turning its brain into mush and killing it.

The boss’s head fell hard with a thud, Martyn heaved in sweat falling on his back, and Amber just as tired dragged her feet to him.

“Catch me~” She cooed, falling on top of him on purpose.

Martyn chuckled, patting her head. Despite the potions he took, he still felt fatigued, more so considering he used a lot of mana in that last exchange.

“My muscles are screaming,” she laughed. “Can I please get a massage when we get back?”

“Heh, Oh yeah, I’ll give you the best massage when we get back.” Martyn laughed, looking at the ceiling.

"Oh, sure, you will. Then again, I wouldn’t mind what sort of massage you have in mind~" Amber cooed sitting up.

Martyn also sat up with a grunt.

“The corpse hasn’t disappeared,” Amber said with a grin.

“That’s a lot of silver coins.” He chuckled, and with intent, he pulled out the knives from his inventory. Not wanting to move, he controlled the dagger with his magic hand and bisected the boss from where he sat.

“Lazy.”

“It’s not laziness; I just want to stay by your side. And I’m so tired.” He leaned in on her.

Slowly, though, Martyn felt his body slowly heal from his fatigue. While they watched the levitating blades of their work, Amber asked.

“Should I eat its core? It’s one of the requirements for me to evolve.”

"Yeah, but if you eat it, you’ll be on a timer. I don’t think a month is enough for you to level up your water magic skills.”

At that, Amber smiled. She knew once she ate the core, she’d be on a timer, but that wasn’t the reason she wanted to evolve. It was something she held back from Martyn.

And when she began to explain she felt his thrill through their bond.

“That is so not fair!” He said his tail was flicking back and forth.

‘Cute,’ Amber chuckled and also agreed that it wasn’t fair for him as she was a monster.

Her idea was a simple abuse of the system’s ability to guide evolutions; right now, she meets the requirements to become a Greater Kobold, the next evolutionary line for her.

From their research, an evolution was akin to a level-up; the only requirement for a greater evolution was that she would need to eat the core of a stronger monster. As the core right now in her hand was D rank, she’d have to consume one from a C rank boss in the future.

But that’s beside the point; the abuse was that Greater Kobolds could also evolve into lizard-kin with only a change of requirements, but going the long way meant she’d get what is essentially two extra level-ups.

That was unfair to humans and certain races that couldn’t evolve; that’s why monsters were dangerous in their ability to evolve; that’s why that one slime girl was such a threat; she evolved an unknown amount of times, essentially levelling up beyond the normal capacity.

While the level cap was ten for everyone if you count evolutions as levelling as they give the same, if not greater, effects, Amber’s level cap would be twelve. Just those two extras from her evolution could mean day and night in a battle.

“Well, what are you waiting for? Eat the core.” Martyn urged her.

They were safe in the boss room, as no one could come in until they left.

She swallowed the core in one go, and a warm feeling spread through her as her status lit up revealing a line of texts and displays of her current possible evolutions.

[You have met the requirements to evolve! You can choose any time to evolve for up to a month, after which it will be automatically forced on you.]

[Possible evolution lines: Greater Kobold and Lamia]

Looking at each option, she gained a sense of how long it would take to evolve and a mental image of what she’d look like right after; surprisingly, the Greater Kobold only took around an hour, as it wouldn’t bring a lot of physical or biological change. The Lamia although she wouldn’t choose; it took a day.

“I’m going to evolve now; it’ll only take about an hour,” she said under Martyn’s watchful gaze, who nodded.

She made her choice. The screens vanished, her mind grew heavy, and she yawned. The last thing she saw was Martyn rushing over to catch her and then darkness.

“So it’s like a butterfly,” Martyn mumbled, caressing the tough, glowing layer of condensed mana.

When Amber chose to evolve, she fell unconscious. Her body went to the fetal position, and water surged around her, wrapping her in a cocoon-like layer. He couldn’t see her through it, as it was so thick and glowed blue.

There was nothing to do now besides returning to butcher the boss.

It was a big carcass, and he couldn’t fit all of it into his inventory—only about half of its body—so he sliced up the undamaged parts, storing them in his inventory.

“She’ll be hungry after evolving. Well, we’ve got monster meat; might as well put it to good use.”

Slicing the boss apart, he pulled out the cooking utensils he kept in his inventory. With a magic hand, a simple fire, and some seasoning, he prepared a multitude of pan-seared steaks.

All the while, he kept returning to the bond between him and Amber, looking for any sort of emotional or mental response, but he got nothing.

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