Yan Mei hesitated to move as Fei Lei lost consciousness, her heart felt like it was going to burst from her breast when she looked over to see Hina lying in a pool of her own blood.
Shaking in fright at the injuries on her friend and loved one, Yan Mei slapped her cheeks and quickly rushed over to Hina's side before she started pouring some potions that June gave her.
The expensive healing potion doused her wounds and began working its magic while Yan Mei forced Hina to drink a pint of it in order take care of the internal injuries.
After checking her over, Yan Mei breathed a sigh of relief as she ran over to Fei Lei while carrying Hina on her back.
Fei Lei couldn't keep his eyes open any longer, and as he passed out, he felt a stinging feeling coming from his ankles. If he could see the condition of them he would have known why.
Fei Lei's leg muscles had literally blown up, the muscles and tendons were slowly starting to come back together, and it would heal given enough time, but, the damage was so severe that it would without a doubt leave long-lasting sequelae if surgery wasn't performed first.
Yan Mei gave Fei Lei the same treatment and cast her featherweight spell as she hauled Fei Lei on to her shoulder and took off.
Fei Lei and Hina were then carried to a remote cave system in a hillside near the dungeon walls.
Inside one of the caves, was a one-armed June, and an almost dead Terry, they both had barriers of light surrounding them that was slowly healing their bodies. June seemed to be struggling to keep conscious, she pointed her staff at Yan Mei while her prepared spell was constantly flickering in and out of existence.
Seeing Yan Mei was the one coming in, June let down her guard and fell asleep after stabilizing the both of them, Yan Mei looked at the last of her healing potions and frowned as she poured them on both Terry and June.
The two winced in pain as they started to feel themselves recover, and after a few minutes, June had managed to wake up.
Feeling around at the nub where her forearm was supposed to be, June began to cry.
Yan Mei looked over her and sighed before asking, "Can you heal Fei Lei?"
June looked over and saw his condition, Fei Lei's leg muscles were barely attached and many of his nerves were still exposed to the air.
June whipped off her tears and said, "I can only heal some of the damage, but the one on his leg is beyond me."
Yan Mei shook her head, "It doesn't matter, just help him regain consciousness."
June nodded her head and shouted, "Level-3 Healing."
Fei Lei's body glowed when June suddenly felt her mana levels dropped like a bag of bricks and shouted, "Why is it costing so much mana to heal his body?"
"Because his body is special," Yan Mei replied while avoiding giving her a direct answer.
As Fei Lei was being healed, halfway across the dungeon Eriks party had killed their way to the core and were forced to retreat.
Using a level 3 Wind Step Spell, a superior type of wind movement spell that allowed him to move incredibly fast, Eriks managed to escape without a single casualty.
As Eriks ran through the forest carrying an unconscious Udo on over his shoulder, a wounded Momo who was clinging to his back while pouring all her support magic him, and Hachi whose face had turned pale from blood loss while being carried like a sack around Eriks's arm.
A constant drip of blood leaked out from Eriks's armor as he grunted and said, "Damn it! What the hell is that thing doing in a dungeon?"
He looked to the distance to see a flock of fire-birds flying towards him, with his only free hand, Eriks quickly drew his pistol before shooting them all down with a water bullet.
Holstering his revolver he caught himself from falling and he felt his muscles scream out as they began to tear.
Eriks ignored the pain before gritting his teeth together and charged on. While heading towards the dungeon entrance he repeated the mantra in his mind, "Have to make it to the recovery zone!" over and over again.
Back with Yan Mei, she frowned at how slow Fei Lei's body was being healed and said, "We have to return to the recovery zone. I'll cast Lightweight on everyone, June, you carry Terry and I'll carry Hina and Fei Lei."
June nodded her head as she picked Terry up and then said, "I don't know any movement spells."
Yan Mei frowned as she cast a Level 1 Wind-Speed Spell on June, and said, "Keep up!"
The two Mages took off in the direction of the upper-floors while carrying their allies in hand.
It took them a while but along the way, Yan Mei's group rejoined with Eriks and the rest of the Sky Wardens.
"You guys okay?" Yan Mei asked seeing their wounds.
Eriks nodded his head and kept the blood from spilling out his mouth as he replied, "Yeah, for now. You guys ran into some trouble too?"
Hina nudged her head towards the injured on her side before she said, "Yep. We managed to at least kill the 5-Star Beast responsible for this.
Eriks's eyes widened a bit as he responded, "I see. Must have been a tough fight."
Seeing the stairs within reach, they ran to their destination with all of their might.
Yan Mei gave Eriks some help by casting a Lightweight spell on them.
"Thank you!" Eriks said as they continued to move as fast as they could.
They were halfway there when Eriks noticed that Yan Mei was beginning to suffer from Mana Drain. She was sweating and felt like she was lugging around a 2-ton weight, but Yan Mei persisted and fought through her weariness.
Minutes passed as the two Mages climbed the stairway, and when they felt like they couldn't go on, a small light appeared in the distance.
Yan Mei and Eriks rushed up the stairs and breathed a sigh of relief as they had finally managed to reach the Recovery Zone.
They both fell down panting heavily and their friends tumbled with them to the ground as they passed out.
Several Hours later, Fei Lei awakened to seeing his friends all battered and bruised.
He noticed they had returned to the Safe-Zone of the dungeon when an incredible pain surged from his legs, he noticed that the bone and muscles had been severely damaged, and were starting to die off.
"Lucky me, the properties of this place have kept the cells in my muscles from dying completely." Fei Lei then turned to Yan Mei and kissed her.
"It's because of you that I can save my leg, thank you, Yan Mei," Fei said before he formed a scalpel out of telekinetic energy.
Fei Lei numbed the pain by flooding his body with dopamine before quickly amputating the necrotic tissue, he then yelled out in pain waking up both June and Eriks, even with the numbing agent, Fei Lei still felt a lot of pain.
When June saw him cutting away at his leg, her eyes then rolled back into her head and with a pale expression, she fainted.
Eriks watched as Fei Lei gritted his teeth as he began to sever off all the dead tissue, Fei Lei then pulled out the 5-Star Hippo-Rhino meat, and began to eat it raw.
He quickly activated his Sigil and sent the new material in his body to repair the damage.
Bone, muscles, nerves, and flesh, all began to recover to peak condition before Eriks's eyes.
After ingesting almost 10 times his body weight in 4-Star meat, Fei Lei let out a loud burp before wiping the blood from his mouth and standing up.
Fei Lei then around and noticed that everyone was still recovering, only Eriks was awake, staring at him in amazement.
"Non-Elemental Casters are never simple," Eriks laughed out before he looked at his two teammates, smiled, and passing out again.
Fei Lei carried the unconscious mages to their chosen rooms and moved to the lake to wash the blood off his body.
He was about to jump in, but stopped himself, "No, we drink from this. Better use that water I collected from the lake below."
Fei Lei moved away from the waterfall and pulled a chunk of ice from the lake the Rhino-Hippos were swimming in.
Holding the lump of ice in the air with his telekinesis, Fei Lei then pulled out his Clear Mist Sword and ignited it.
The blazing heat of natural fires surrounded the ice and started to melt it back into a single floating sphere water.
After a while, the flames heated water heated up to boiling before cooling it back off. Fei Lei then splashed his body in the warm water and used his telekinesis to clean both his clothes and body.
Once all the blood and filth had been removed from his body, Fei Lei couldn't help but notice the water was practically made of Mana.
"No wonder those Hippo Rhinos were so pissed off when Hina froze the lake. This water must be special," Fei Lei thought as he ran his fingers across his lips.
The taste of the water was still fresh on his tongue, and he could feel his mana levels buzzing; as if it had recovered somewhat.
Fei Lei took out a small cube of ice and heated until it boiled into steam. Once he killed off all the bacteria in the water, Fei Lei then captured the steam in a telekinetic bubble and turned it back into a mouthful of water before swallowing it.
Fei Lei felt his body suddenly inflating with Mana. Not only did his mana start to recover quicker, but his maximum capacity had also increased by a tiny margin.
He then went back inside the house to check up on everyone and noticed that Yan Mei's mana was still near rock bottom, Fei Lei quickly cleaned some of the Mana Water he had collected and lifted her back on to his knee.
As he poured it down her mouth making her drink it, Yan Mei's Mana started to recover, and only when the color returned to her face did Fei Lei relax.
Fei Lei then proceeded to do the same for everyone else in the party, giving them only a single mouthful of the water tonic.
Seeing them all start to recover their Mana quicker, Fei Lei relaxed and gave Yan Mei a kiss before he walked back outside.
Walking over to the edge of the stairs he looked down and thought, "I think it's time for my next compression. Since everyone is sleeping, I don't have to worry about prying eyes."
Fei Lei sat down in the lotus position and started to use his Breath of the Nature Gods to acclimate his body to its fullest potential.
After an hour he started to compress his giant muscles down into his second layer, and once again, Fei Lei's bones began to make creaking sounds as they fractured.
Fei Lei pulled out a 100 pound Bone Pill from his spatial ring and started to break every bone in his body.
Swallowing the pill, Fei Lei felt like a rock had hit the bottom of his gut.
The pill began to break down and spread to the inner marrow of his bones. Fei Lei's entire skeleton started to turn into a charcoal-black color as the influx of collagen, calcium phosphate, and carbon; rapidly increased the density of his bones.
Fei Lei's blood suddenly turned ruby-red and carried a gem-like shine to them. His white blood cells were more transparent now and carried the same gem-like sheen. His entire body felt like it was soaking in lava as he continued to push pass his pain with the use of his natural pain killers dopamine, adrenalin, and trace amounts of morphine.
Fei Lei's body began to shine golden, and as he continued to practice his breathing technique, impurities came flooding out of his bones turning them from a rough charcoal-black into a glossy black steel-like texture.
Suddenly, Fei Lei's body began to rumble and quake.
It was as if the air around his body had suddenly been shaken, Fei Lei opened his eyes and breathed in, filling his lungs with more air than humanly possible.
He then gently breathed out and stood up.
His pants almost fell down as he forgot that he was in his thin and boney form.
Before he tightened the belt around his waist, Fei Lei felt his newfound strength coursing through his veins. An improvement to the skeleton was an improvement to his core blueprint as a lifeform.
His body temperature was a full degree higher than every other human now, and his blood thicker and more robust. Fei Lei's physical strength didn't just grow stronger, but his organs and every last cell in his body have experienced a similar power-up.
His skeleton was able to handle even more pressure now, so he didn't have to worry about crushing them every time Fei Lei flexed his muscles.
Although his metal-like carbon bones were heavier, Fei Lei's new muscles weren't only just tough enough to handle the weight, but it did so with the grace that made him feel like he was weightless again.
Fei Lei looked back inside the house to check up on all of his fellow Mages, once he saw that everyone was still unconscious, he breathed out a sigh of relief, thankful that no one saw him compress his body.
Fei Lei glanced at his own frail-looking physique, letting out a depressed sigh, he then decided to run downstairs in order to fight continuously so that he can build up new combat muscles in the process.
With a flash of incredible speed, Fei Lei moved to the bottom of the dungeon floors like a ghostly image fading in and out of reality.
Leaving constant after images as he took large leaps towards his destination, Fei Lei dashed down the staircase and proceeded to get closer to his the bottom floor at insane levels of speeds.
While he ran, Fei Lei's entire body turned into a blur and it only took him around a minute to reach the forested area once again.
Fei Lei pulled out all the meat he had gathered thus far and began to chow down until he looked fat, after dispersing it into energy he noticed that the muscle-building compound he made from the Rhino-Hippo's flesh was intensely stronger than the meat from a 3-Star Beast.
"Interesting. The chemicals in the higher-ranked creatures are all supercharged, too bad that Moneky went ahead and became an item," Fei Lei thought as he dashed into the forested region.
Loud booms and explosions of dust popped up all over the forest as Fei Lei fought and killed many other magical beasts.
He was like an unstoppable force of nature, Fei Lei didn't feel any pressure on his body while he kept his boost on Level-0 and went wild.
Fie Lei kicked, punched, slapped, and strangled dozens of 3 and 4-Star magical beasts, and along the way, he discovered another lake full of Hippo-Rhinos.
This time, Fei Lei made a loud noise to purposely alert the creatures, and as they all looked up, poking their heads out of the water, Fei Lei flash froze the lake and sealed the creature's necks above the frosted terrain.
"Let's see how my body handles a level 1 boost," Fei Lei said as he tripled his base strength and ran through the crowd, poking his fingers into their skulls as he passed by their faces.
Taking the entire lake into his spatial ring, Fei Lei dashed away while saying, "Incredible, all I feel is a mild irritation at Level-1, like being bitten by a mosquito. Let's try a Level-2 Boost now."
Fei Lei laughed as he felt like his muscles where only strained slightly, with him being able to quadruple his physical parameters, Fei Lei felt like a beast in human skin.
After killing and fighting while building up his body again Fei Lei noticed that it was much easier to build these new super-muscles with higher ranking beast meat.
It only took him 3 hours to start to show muscle growth.
Fei Lei continued his hunting for almost a full day, collecting a few hundred 3 and 4-Star Mana Cores in the process. Once his body had returned to an acrobatic-type build, he noticed that it became increasingly harder to build up his new muscles.
If he wanted to make more progress, he would need more 4-Star Beast Meat and above.
Seeing that he couldn't really make any more headway here, Fei Lei decided to return to his allies, as took off in an insane bout of speed, he stepped back into the Recovery Zone in record time and noticed that everyone had awakened.
Yan Mei, being the first to see him, ran into Fei Lei's arms while holding back her tears as she kissed him, she then looked into his eyes and said, "I told them you were okay. I knew it!"
Fei Lei held his arms around her back and placed his forehead against hers before he said, "Yeah, I'm okay, better than ever, in fact. Notice anything different?"
Yan Mei looked over Fei Lei and noticed his muscles weren't as large as they were before and asked with a shocked expression, "Did you finally go through your second compression?"
Fei Lei smiled and nodded his head in confirmation as he said, "Yep! The change far surpassed my expectations, you have no idea how much my body has changed on a fundamental level."
"I never thought I'd be jealous of a Human Transfiguration Sigil," Yan Mei said as her hands explored Fei Lei's body.
Hina walked up next to him while wearing an ashamed look on her face as she tried to joke, "Hey, um, can you get a room?"
Yan Mei's face turned red as she moved away from Fei Lei and noticed the embarrassed expressions of the remaining party members.
Fei Lei could hear the self-deprecation rolling off Hina's voice, he felt a tinge of regret in letting her get hurt as he bowed his head low and said, "You saved my life, Hina. I owe you."
Hina turned around and hid her self-loathing expression and tried to sound chipper as she said, "It was nothing."
Yan Mei shook her head, "I saw your injuries, it wasn't nothing, you almost died!"
Hina smiled and turned back around with a red face and said, "Well if you're going to praise me, keep them coming."
Fei Lei sighed and could see that Hina was still covering up her pain, she didn't want to be weak, and in that manner, she was just like Fei Lei. They both didn't want to lose people that were close to them and would put their lives on the line to protect their loved ones.
Eriks walked over to Yan Mei and Fei Lei before holding out his hand and saying, "Your woman helped save me and my companion. You have a good mate."
Eriks then turned to Yan Mei who's face was turned red from the mate comment, and said, "I'll pay you back."
Yan Mei nodded her head and shook his hand while the rest of the mages came over to thank them as well.
"June and I will be heading back, we're dropping out of this dungeon raid, too many weird things have happened," Terry said looking disappointed in herself as she bowed to them and walked away.
"Thank you for saving our lives, should you ever need healing you can visit the City Novan, and I will do my best to heal you or one of your friends," June said as she bowed and caught up with Terry.
Fei Lei scratched his head and struggled with whether or not to stop them before saying, "Hold on!"
The two Mages halted and turned around.
Fei Lei then looked at them and said, "I'm about to end this dungeon, are you sure you want to leave?"
Eriks then spoke out, "I don't know if we can beat the dungeon boss."
Fei Lei furrowed his brow and said, "If it's a 5-Star Beast then I'm sure that I can take him now, I'm quite a bit stronger than yesterday."
Everyone was shocked beyond belief when Eriks shook his head and said, "It's a 5-Star Tyrant Beast."
"That's impossible!" June shouted holding on to her nub arm.
"How can a Tyrant Beast exist in a dungeon, there should be no time for it to form a Tyrant Core to form, the dungeon has only been open for a few days," Terry shot out in total bewilderment.
"You calling my captain a liar?" Hachi shouted.
"No, I know of the Sky Wardens honor, and I know you wouldn't lie about something like this. It's just that it's so farfetched, are you sure you saw a Tyrant?" Terry asked with a frightened look on her face.
"Yes, and it's a Dragon-Type," Eriks announced with a downcast expression on his face.