Chapter 74: Ten thousand beasts clawing at my ankle, I can only press onward.

“Well, how is it going?” asked Edward, not all that worried about the wolf since it’s earlier performance.

“With the speed it’s killing lizards, you will probably reach level ten until the morning.”

“Huh? Really? That would be great.” Edward got excited at the prospect of leveling up without having to work for it and turned towards Azure to resume discussing his mana problem.

“Well, it’s not all rainbows and sunshine. I forgot to take in consideration the distance the wolf would travel inside the floor. If it continues like this you will probably wake up surrounded by lizards in the depths of the floor.”

Edward also forgot to consider this problem. Smiling wryly, he said: “Well, let’s just hope he starts going into circles at some point or something.”

“It’s only been an hour and he has killed around 3000 monsters while only heading further in.”

Edward sighed and returned to his discussion with Azure. Worrying about it at this point was useless and he could only wait for the morning to see how to get out of this predicament.

———

“It’s about time for you to wake up.” Said Fenrir in the morning, breaking the discussion between Azure and Edward.

“How is it? Am I dead?” asked Edward half-jokingly.

“Well, I have both good and bad news. The bad news are that you are indeed as deep as one can get inside the floor.”

“And the good news?”

“You are only a few minutes away from the boss room…”

“Wait, you’re not suggesting…” Edward knew that if the boss was killed, a passageway will open towards the safe zone on floor nine, but what she was suggesting was madness.

“The boss is only level ten. You should be able to deal with it, maybe.” Added Fenrir, not sure herself how it would go.

When Edward was about argue with her some more, he woke up back in his own body surrounded by both dead and living lizards.

“Fuck.” Having no other choice, he quickly turned and started rushing towards the boss room following Fenrir’s directions. There was a horde of lizards chasing after him and he knew that his chances to make it back towards the safe zone was only a pipe dream.

What surprised him was the increase in his agility, all the lizards feeling extremely slow right now. As far as he knew, a level difference wouldn’t give him that much of an advantage, but he had no time to check right now.

After reaching the staircase leading to the boss room, Edward noticed that the lizards stopped following and canceled his transformation.

Sitting down on the stairs which were considered safe zone as well, Edward pulled out his status tablet to check the wolf’s gift. He hoped it would at least be worthy of all the trouble.

<Name: Edward Black>
<Class: Beginner Water Mage>
<Sub-class: Shadow Walker>
<Sub-class: Night Hunter>
<Sub-class: Swordsman>
<Sub-class: Shape-Shifter(Unique)>
<Mana: 681/1558>
<Stamina: 1095/1102>
<Strength: 21>
<Dexterity: 22.5>
<Level: 10>
<Level Life Force: 1/450>
<…>

He couldn’t notice anything at first sight so Fenrir clarified it for him.

[There was no increase in level past level ten since the monsters were one level beneath you, but the wolf didn’t have that problem. The more he ate the stronger he got and so did you. That’s where the increase in strength and agility is coming from. I didn’t get the chance to tell you before you were pulled back, but the wolf has killed around 25000 monsters last night. He didn’t consume them all, but it ate every single core that dropped.]

“That indeed helps a lot when facing the boss. Do you really think I have a chance?” asked Edward as he fixed his eyes on the darkness at the end of that stairs.

[Your only option of making it back to the others is to defeat the boss, wait until tonight and hope the wolf runs back or let me take over.]

“Can you beat the boss if I let you take over?”

[I don’t know that either. I’ve never really seen how strong a dungeon boss compared to the other monsters inside.]

Turning back into his wolf form, Edward summoned his status tablet again. As his level increased he noticed something concerning. His wolf form was supposed to double his parameters, but while he got a small noticeable increase, it was definitely not doubled.

<Name: Edward Black>
<Class: Wolf (Temporary)>
<Under Yggdrasil’s suppression>
<Mana: 681/1558>
<Stamina: 1094/1102>
<Strength: 23>
<Dexterity: 24>
<Level: 10>
<Level Life Force: 1/450>
<…>

‘Yggdrasil’s suppression? What he hell is that? Did that fucking tree just nerfed me?.’

“Fenrir, what the hell is that?” asked Edward after turning back into human form, feeling quite cheated.

[It appears that the Mother Tree has started suppressing the increase in parameters provided by the wolf form.]

“I can see that, but why would it do that and since when?”

[If I had to guess, ever since you first checked your status in the wolf form. Since the status tablet is made out of a piece of the mother tree, it probably took notice right then and cast it’s suppression upon you. You never checked it again after that first time.]

“That’s so bullshit. Any way to get around it?”

[The only way I can think of is to escape it’s influence, but that’s not something you can ever hope to do. If I manage to recover the strength I had in my prime..]

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‘At least I still get some small increase.’ Edward consoled himself and started making his way down.

The end of the staircase was nothing like he has expected. There was only a giant white open set of doors that led into a dark room. Since it was pitch black inside, Edward couldn’t really tell the size of the room but from all the games he has played in his past life he knew the boss must be inside.

Walking up to the edge of the door, he closed his eyes and took a deep breath. When he opened them again, the hesitation from before was gone, replaced by a look of determination.

‘No one to help you or protect you. You’re on your own now. Training wheels off.’ Edward clenched his fists tight and stepped inside.

The doors behind him snapped closed and the room started brightening slowly. The body of a 50 feet tall lizard slowly appeared in the middle of a large circular room and fixed it’s green vertical pupils on Edward.

Activating his wolf form, he looked quite comical in compassion to the giant lizard, but there was also an aura of heroism around him. Focusing his eyes on the lizard as well, Edward stood there and waited for it to make the first move. Against an unknown enemy, rushing straight in was akin to suicide.

The lizard stared at Edward for a moment before it finally moved.

‘Fast.’ Was the first thought that popped into Edward’s mind. For such a tall lizard it’s speed was completely abnormal. Jumping backward, Edward dodged the first strike that in his eyes looked nothing more than a white blur.

The lizard opened it’s giant maw and a fireball started taking form. Since he was in midair, Edward had no choice but summon a water platform to barely dodge the unexpected spell.

A sizzling sound and the smell of burnt flesh made Edward realize how close he was to dying, not even a few seconds in the fight.

With no time to contemplate, a swooshing sound from the side prompted Edward to quickly create another platform in front of him and pushed himself backwards.

The tip of a huge tail passed right in front of his eyes, missing him by a few inches, and Edward landed back on the ground. He almost get hit twice in a matter of seconds.

‘I need to get closed.’ Edward understood he had no chance at this range and started running forward while the lizard was still pulling it’s tail back. He had to take advantage of his small size in this fight.

Sliding under the tail, Edward reached one of it’s hind legs and tried to slash at it using his claw.

*Clang* with the sound of metal hitting metal, Edward’s entire limb started shaking from the impact.

‘Too hard..’ Thought Edward as he agilely dodged the lizard’s try to stomp him. The shaking of the chamber caused him to lose his footing for a brief moment, falling flat onto the floor and what came next terrified him to no end. The lizard jumped slightly into the air and was trying to slam him using it’s entire body.

‘How can it jump? It probably weights a few tons.’ Seeing death approaching him from above, a sudden idea came to him and he summoned his status tablet on the floor.

There was nowhere further down to descend, but the floor was still part of the dungeon and a one feet deep hole appeared under him just in time to shield him from the lizard’s body slam.

With a loud bang, the earth started shaking all around and light disappeared from the small hole.

‘I can hide here while thinking of a plan…’ before he could even finish the thought, light returned to his small hole, along with a sudden increase in the temperature of the air.

Edward quickly cast a water barrier, blocking the space right above him. The barrier broke a few seconds before the heat wave but the main part of the attack has already passed and it only managed so slightly burn his body.

‘Good thing that wasn’t aimed at me or I would be dead..’

Edward jumped up and moved from under it’s belly, already having learned his lesson. He next tried to bite onto one if the lizard’s legs, but it proved just as useless. The scales covering it’s body were too hard for Edward’s fangs or claws to leave a dent.

Dodging another stomp from the lizard, he next tried to his her leg with a water whip. It managed to cut one of the lizard’s scales, but the damage was too low for it to me anything more than a waste of mana. Keeping the whip curled around his body, Edward started looking for other options.

As he was getting frustrated, the lizard lifted itself on two legs and opened it’s mouth to shoot another fireball. Edward moved quickly directly in front of one of it’s legs, wishing to use its own attack against it, but the lizard actually canceled the spell and fell back to the ground on all fours.

‘It’s also not completely dumb…’ he kept moving around and dodging it’s attacks while trying to think of a plan. He had about 300 mana left to work with and that wasn’t giving him a hell lot of possibilities.

Coming up with a new idea, Edward rushed towards it’s back side. When the lizard tried to crush him by stomping it’s tail on the ground, Edward used his water whip to push himself to the side first before climbing on top of it’s tail.

Using the tail as a bridge, he quickly reached the top of it’s head. The lizard started lifting itself once more on two legs. Not knowing what it was planning, Edward quickly created another water whip and slashed both of it’s eyes at the same time. He knew that no matter how hard it’s scales were, if he managed to hit the eyes would for sure hurt it.

A cry of pain resounded through the room, coming from the lizard underneath and it slammed it’s head onto one of the walls of the room. The impact broke all of Edward’s four legs and many other bones, but also injured the lizard’s head and they both fell to the ground.

Edward vision was blurry from all the blood covering his eyes and it was hard to even keep himself conscious when he started feeling the temperature around the room increasing slightly.

He knew it was a fireball from the lizard and getting hit would definitely spell the end of him. Closing his eyes completely since they served no purpose, he focused in sensing where the heat was coming from. The training Eddena put him through finally showed it's worth as Edward was able to quickly spot where the heat was coming from.

Using his remaining mana, Edward summoned two water platforms right in front of the fireball and hoped for the best. That was all he had left.

*Boom**Sizzle*

A loud explosion followed right after and the shock-wave resulting from it slammed Edward’s body into the wall once again, making him instantly fall unconscious.

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