Chimera Rising: Beast King Ascension [How a human-turned-lion went from Zero to Absolute Ruler]

The rest of the pride were party-poopers, letting Dominic approach the chest all by his lonesome.

‘Come on guys,’ he complained. ‘Have some anticipation here!’

‘Why?’ asked Procyon with genuine confusion. ‘It is a large stone.’

‘It’s not a stone, it’s a box. And in particular, it’s a box with things in it,’ Dominic corrected, ‘and that makes a lot of difference. I got my storage item from one of them.’

‘Really?’ asked Sekhmet, sounding dubious. ‘Unpleasant space came from here?’

Dominic abruptly recalled that she hadn’t liked going in the storage space – it was Jenkins who had liked it.

‘Not just storage items are here,’ Dominic started trying to explain, then paused. Why was he wasting time on trying to convince them? He might as well just show them. Besides, he was eager himself to find out t what was inside, he eyed the chest carefully. It should contain their rewards, but this dungeon had proved itself very tricky in the past – would it consider loot chests as off-limits for traps, or was nothing sacred here?

There were no traps that he could see, though. No cleverly-camouflaged snakes or lizards or anything else ready to leap out at him. His Spatial Awareness helped him determine that as much as his ears and eyes did. Whether there were any traps inside the lock, or inside the chest itself, he couldn’t tell. Or perhaps the chest itself was the trap. It was possible, though it would be disappointing if so.

Carefully prodding at the chest, he prepared to leap away at the slightest sign of danger. When nothing happened, he prodded at it again, and then harder. Feeling slightly more reassured that nothing seemed to be about to attack, he started trying to actually open the chest. He remained cautious, though – for all he knew, something was waiting to jump out at him as soon as he let his guard down. Or the chest would prove to be one of those mimic creatures he’d heard about.

Last time, the chests had been part of the scenery – stored within the stone altars of the rooms and opening with them. This time, the chest looked more like a traditional wooden box with a lock and was closed.

This was bad news for Dominic since he definitely didn’t have the finger dexterity to be able to open a lock. Fortunately, it appeared he didn’t need to – the chest was unlocked. With the help of his claws, he was able to drag it open sufficiently for the lid to fall to the floor with a bang that made Dominic leap backwards, his fur standing on end.

‘Nervous?’ Leo chuckled in his mind as Fang and Sekhmet sent amusement in the chat. Apparently the little embarrassing moment was enough to rekindle the lion’s good humour. Typical that it would come at Dominic’s expense.

‘Maybe you haven’t explored my memories of movies and books enough,’ Dominic snapped back a little testily. ‘If you had, you’d know that an apparently innocent-looking box is often nothing of the sort!’

‘Temper, temper,’ the lion teased him. Dominic ignored him with a force of will – nothing had jumped out of the box. The box hadn’t turned into anything either; that meant there was loot. And he wasn’t going to let his pain-in-the-neck companion ruin the anticipation for him.

Stepping forward carefully, Dominic peered into the box.

‘Awesome!’ he exclaimed. There were multiple items in there and he pulled them out one by one, offering a running commentary to his party members.

First of all were three health potions which he recognised from his last time in this dungeon. Those would be useful for sure. He quickly checked what strength they were by asking for information on them.

[Health Potion (moderate, T1)]

[This health potion offers an immediate healing of up to 150 HP and its accompanying wounds (starting with most life-threatening). It also offers a small boost of +15% to healing over the next 20 minutes. Single use.]

Dominic couldn’t remember the exact details of the potions he’d gained last time, but he was pretty sure this one was similar, or identical, to the one he’d gained at the end of the dungeon. It seemed like the dungeon was stepping up the rewards a bit which, considering how much harder the enemies had become, seemed fair. The health potion probably wouldn’t be hugely useful for Dominic himself, but for the weaker members, it could be a literal lifesaver.

Confirming that the other two health potions were identical, he pulled the next object out. It was a bracelet.

Information, he thought at it.

[Leather slot-storage bracelet (non-standard, Beast, T1)]

[This is a Common leather bracelet which has been worked to give it the capacity to be worn by a Beast. In exchange for this, the bracelet only has 6 storage spaces instead of nine. Each storage space can hold a single item type. Identical item types can be stacked up to 10. Bracelet allows for quick consumption of potions.]

‘Now that will be useful for one of our pride,’ Dominic said to Leo.

‘It’s not as good as our storage space,’ remarked the lion.

‘It’s different,’ Dominic disagreed. ‘There are no defences on it, no, but its ability to stack items could end up being better than our own storage space if the items are big. And that last comment of ‘quick consumption of potions’ could be pretty useful if it means the wearer doesn’t have to actually lift the potion to their mouth – not to mention uncorking it.’

The lion just hummed in response, indicating to Dominic that he agreed, but didn’t want to say that he did.

‘Who should we give this to, then?’ Dominic asked.

‘Perhaps the female,’ suggested Leo. ‘She is sensible.’

‘You just don’t want to give it to one of the males,’ Dominic commented wryly. The lion was silent. ‘We will be sharing loot with them,’ he warned his companion. ‘They’re as at risk as anyone else, they’re contributing as much as anyone else. They deserve loot if there are items here they can use.’ The lion was grumpy again, the feeling drifting over from his part of their shared mind. But this was a point Dominic refused to move on – the lion would have to challenge him and win to change that.

‘As it happens, though,’ Dominic continued, ‘I think that giving it to Sekhmet is actually a good idea. She’s been a leader in the pride since she reached Tier two – if she can carry some potions or whatever, it’s a good idea.’

‘It’s good that you agree,’ replied Leo a little stiffly. Dominic mentally rolled his eyes at his companion’s occasional recalcitrance. Or maybe less than ‘occasional’.

‘Here, you have this,’ Dominic told Sekhmet, nudging the bracelet towards her.

‘What is it?’ she asked curiously, sniffing at the item, then prodding it with a paw as if it was about to bite her.

Dominic gave a quick explanation of what his request for information had told him and left her to experiment a bit with how it worked. He stayed watching just to make sure that Sekhmet could indeed put something in and take it out again before he went back to the loot.

Looking back in the box, he found two orbs of smokey glass. Asking for information again, he found out that they each held an Ability.

[Ability orb: Spatial Awareness (T1)]

[Ability orb: Hypnotise (T1)]

‘Score!’ Dominic exulted. Although he wasn’t interested in the first of the orbs since he already had that Ability, he was definitely interested in the second. ‘What is an Ability orb?’ he wondered.

‘Ask for information about it,’ Leo told him impatiently.

‘I was about to do that,’ Dominic shot back, getting irritated with his companion’s current attitude. What’s crawled up Leo’s arse and died all of a sudden?

[An Ability orb offers a single, predetermined ability. This ability can be directly absorbed and used by the holder*, or can be used in crafting to add an Ability to a piece of equipment. The chances of the craftsman successfully imbuing the equipment with the Ability is guaranteed as long as the craft is successful and the craftsman is at least the same Tier as the Ability.]

[*The holder is only able to absorb the Ability from an Ability orb because he is a chimera with this perk.]

Very interesting. Unlike the last time they’d been in the dungeon, it looked like he would be guaranteed to get the Ability in the orbs – and apparently his ability to directly absorb Abilities from Cores was even more cheat-like than he’d thought it was.

The first orb wasn’t particularly exciting – he already had that Ability. The second, however, was a lot more interesting. Dominic immediately absorbed that one, very glad that they’d put off the level up as Hypnotise reached 100%. The other orb went straight into his Inventory – no one here apart from him could benefit from it, but it might come in useful later.

There were three more items in the box. In terms of sheer numbers, this was already double the number of rewards that he’d received in the first two rooms in the previous dungeon. Dominic guessed that it was either because of the higher level of the dungeon or, more likely, the fact that this time he was here with a party.

The last three items were a bit of a disappointment, though. At least, for their party. The first was a sword which made the fantasy-nerd within Dominic drool a bit. Unfortunately, without hands, there was no way any of them could wield it except possibly awkwardly in their mouths.

The sword wasn’t anything particularly special – no ornate gems set into its handle or intricate engravings on its blade, no fancy guard. It wasn’t damascus steel with its beautiful metallic patterns – probably just basic steel. What it was, however, was a tool designed to kill things. Its two-edged blade was sharp and shiny, its hilt was made of bound leather, and its pommel was a simple steel ball.

The second item was a scabbard and belt that went with the sword. On its own, the belt might be at least a little useful for someone, but since it was a standard item, Dominic wasn’t sure if any of them would be able to use it.

[Leather and steel scabbard and belt (Common, T1)]

[This is a Common belt and scabbard set which has been created multiple times by the same craftsman. The belt offers +10% to movement speed; +15% when paired with the scabbard it was made for. The scabbard offers -10% to draw time; -15% when paired with the belt made for it.]

Curious, Dominic tested it, focussing on equipping the item. To his disappointment, but not particular surprise, it didn’t work. The belt and scabbard attached to it just sat on the ground in a pile.

Dominic tucked the sword and scabbard away into his storage space along with the last item – a chunk of some sort of silvery metal apparently called ‘dragoncite’. His request for information didn’t give him any more than that – he guessed that it was again some sort of crafting material.

Sekhmet had managed to get the bracelet on and had worked out how to put items in and take them out. Dominic passed two of the health potions over to her.

‘Keep these and either use them if you need to, or give them to someone who needs them,’ he instructed her. ‘But make sure to only use them if it’s really needed – only if someone is dying and Lionel isn’t able to help them, OK?’

‘OK,’ Sekhmet answered easily.

‘What about the rest of us?’ Fang asked, his mental voice a mixture of nervous and defiant.

‘When we get something you can use and which will benefit you, you’ll get it,’ Dominic assured him, looking over at Lionel, Sirius, and Procyon as well. Since he hadn’t found any doors or obvious exits anywhere in the room while killing the minions, nor had anything shifted after everything was dead, there was only one option he could see to do now.

 ‘Alright, let’s just check that there’s nothing else in this room of interest. After that, much as I hate to suggest it, I think we need to check out the other room.’ He grimaced internally: walking into a trap – lovely. 

While the others got on with that, Dominic decided to do something else urgent: finish the levelling up he’d never completed. As long as exiting the process early hadn’t caused some major error, that was. 

Proof is in the pudding, he said to himself. Here goes.