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The day after the Mana Training and Life Treatment sessions in the Igni Kingdom, Ervas and Veronica had decided to explore a dungeon that they thought could give them enough experience to finally reach level 100 in their Jobs. Although to level up their Ranks they would have to fight something of very high strength or at least of Rank 8, as their Ranks were leveling incredibly slowly even after killing many Rank 7 monsters.
?
The dungeon was the 'strongest' that they could find in all of the vicinity of their surroundings without having to travel for too many hours towards unknown territory to even the beastmen that inhabited this large forest.
The dungeon was named 'The Windstorm Wyvern Abyssal Nest' and it was filled with reptile-type monsters, with the boss being a large Wind-Attribute Wyvern of Rank 8… but none that inhabited this forest had ever managed to defeat it nor putting a fight at all.
"Guuooonnn!"
Giant Turtles of the size of cars began to spin continuously while rushing through the paved floors of the dungeon, their shells were completely dark and covered in countless spikes, and in the sockets where the turtles saved their limbs, red-colored flames came from them, increasing their spinning speed.
A group of five of such turtles was cornering Ervas, as the boy stood still while waiting for the combined charge of the Giant Spinning Turtles, Rank 6 monsters.
Flash! Flash! Flash!
The five turtles rushed towards Ervas with great speed, leaving trails of flames as they mercilessly tried to take the life of a young and innocent boy such as Ervas.
"Telekinetic Barrier," said Ervas with an expressionless face.
Flash!
Suddenly, a large amount of his Mana created a transparent barrier of strong telekinetic energy that protected him from the five turtles.
Clash! Clash! Clash!
The five turtles clashed against the barriers but were thrown out by the impact force that was slightly bounced back towards them!
"Guoon?!"
"Teleki- No, let's try to practice with the other things… Bone Claw" said Ervas, as he manipulated his Inner Skeleton and infused Mana into it, making it grow disproportionally out of his flesh into a small explosion of blood, flesh, and skin. The bones on his hands grew like long and macabre claws, slashing the turtles away.
Clash! Clash!
Ervas giant claws fought against the turtles but easily broke into pieces due to the turtle's combined counterattack and their incredibly hard shells, revealing the red bone marrow inside Ervas' bones as they cracked.
"Ouch," said Ervas, as he infused more mana into his own bones alongside using a few spells to regenerate his bones back… his bones were already not those of a human, and unlike those of Gaius or Anna, which he couldn't regenerate quite simply. Ervas bones after evolving last time had turned into something similar to an Undead, which could be regenerated easily.
"My bones are still fairly weak… Do I need to level up the skill to make them stronger?" wondered Ervas, as he once again used his large and grotesque bone claws to slash the turtles, who kept breaking apart the bones.
"Ervas, do you need some help there? If you can see that your bones are not working, why don't you finish them off with your Telekinesis?" asked Veronica.
"But I want to use my bones… isn't it the new power I acquired? If I don't use it how can I make it stronger?" said Ervas, as he managed to trap a turtle with his bone claws made into a cage, and then managed to kill the turtle by inserting the sharp finger inside the sockets where the turtle limbs were.
"Guueeh…!" cried the giant turtle as it died with a bit of horror over Ervas weird bones.
"See? I killed one" said Ervas.
"Why don't you try out covering your bones with your Telekinesis Armor?" asked Veronica.
"…I didn't think about that," said Ervas, who wanted to break apart his bones until they somehow got tougher… but that's not how it worked.
"Telekinesis Armor Coating," said Ervas, chanting an Armor Technique that combined Telekinesis and No-Attribute Magic, using the semi-transparent coating of telekinetic energy and mana to cover his grotesque bone claws, giving them a new tougher exterior.
"Bone Claw Slash," said Ervas, using his new and strengthened Bone Claws to unleash a simple Unarmed Fighting Technique he created with the acquisition of his ability to control his bones.
Clash! Clash! Clash!
This time the bones managed to penetrate the hard shells of the turtles, breaking them apart into pieces with much ease. The difference in strength was quite overwhelming when he used his Telekinesis, as Telekinesis used his Magic stat to calculate damage instead of his bones alone that only used his Strength stat, which wasn't low, but not enough to break apart the turtle's shells, who had outstanding Defense stat.
"I did it! …And the Experience Points are… not enough" said Ervas, seeing how little the bar of Experience Points advanced towards his next level, he needed to fight something that offered a larger challenge, it seemed.
"Let's keep advancing to the lower floors… it seems that the rest of the party is done," said Veronica, as she glanced behind her, seeing Jason, Ismene, Amelia, Anna, Acathea, Pekorina, Aqua, and many other tamed monsters and plant-type monsters, who had accompanied the two to this 'dangerous' exploration. Most of the other fighters were not suited for this dungeon and preferred to level up in other dungeons instead, such as Gaius or Lilith and her sisters.
"Ervas, what are you doing? Don't use your bones to fight!" said Jason, running towards Ervas with his club shredded in blood, he had recently beaten to death a large Lesser Fire Wyvern, a Rank 6 monster, by himself.
"It's fine father, don't worry," said Ervas, retracting his bones, which released cracking noises as they did, which would be painful to hear for most people.
The bones then went back into Ervas flesh as it quickly regenerated.
"See?" said Ervas.
"Yeah but still! Doesn't it hurt you, my son?" asked Jason.
"A bit, but you get used to the pain when your Health Points begin to increase," said Ervas.
Due to the Status System, almost every living being (or undead) possessed Health Points, which would reflect how much a being was capable of taking damage, as it increased, the damage became more sustainable as one had larger Health Points, and the pain also became dimmer due to this.
Unless the damage was dealt on a dangerous area of the body such as the head or directly into the heart, beings with large amounts of Health Points were more than capable of taking many hits or damage that would seem lethal, this also included blood loss.
This, coupled with Ervas Rapid Healing Skill and the healing spells he possessed, made him almost immune to pain, so he could easily make his bones grow out of his own flesh without many problems… even those of his ribs could be used as large spider legs if Ervas desired…
"Are Liches even capable of doing what Ervas does, peko?" asked Pekorina while cleaning the blood in her greaves.
"Not that I remember… I think that it is because Ervas has a lot of Mana, so he can infuse it all into his bones and forcibly manipulate them or hasten their growth" said Veronica.
"That's right, it is just because I am me," said Ervas proudly, although he still was expressionless.
"Gubo, gubo! Mama Veronica! I defeated a big dragon, take the scales!" said Aqua, bringing the corpse of a Lesser Fire Wyvern that she defeated.
"Oh? Yet another great find, Aqua!" said Veronica as she patted Aqua.
Veronica butchered it in a few seconds with incredible precision and then saved the scales inside her Item Pouch, while covering the butchered corpse in her metallic threads, giving them to a carrier-type Clone to carry for them.
Veronica was accumulating various materials from high ranked monsters to use to strengthen the power of her Armory equipment once again, so she appreciated Aqua remembering it. She also ended up collecting the shells of the turtles.
"Sigh… Okay, I guess… I can't fight this anymore… just… take care, okay?" said Jason, giving up on his son recklessly ripping his flesh apart to use his bones… after all he was still a two-year-old child.
"It's fine, father… this is a power inherited by my ancestors. I have to master it well" said Ervas.
"The boy is probably the one with the craziest family tree I've ever imagined possible," said Ismene.
"I wonder what he will evolve into later on…" wondered Acathea.
"Didn't Jason said that Ervas also had something like Banshee ancestors? And Beastmen too!" said Pekorina.
"Beastmen? So Ervas could become one of us!" said Amelia.
"I wonder if I would ever awaken the beastmen bloodline…" said Ervas. Now that he had become the King of three beastmen races, there was the possibility of this being a hidden condition of sorts in the Samsara System… well, only a possibility.
"Alright, let's keep advancing, we'll be reaching the last floors in a bit!" said Veronica, leading the march with the rest of the party at her back.
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