When Flavia came out of the Portal of the Pavilion, she stretched her limbs a bit and Tyran made himself comfortable on her head. She giggled at the small Dreorin's actions.
"I guess Rakna doesn't let you do that with him, does he?"
"Gao~" The small undead made a sound of mock hurt and nodded exaggeratedly.
"Hehe, well, he moves a lot when he fights and I'm sure he's a bit embarrassed even though he would never admit that it is one of the reasons," she said with a fond smile before exiting the room and the Pavilion. She lifted her hand to cover her face from the sun and promptly used her wind magic to fan the warm air away.
She looked around at the town which was overall the same as the one in the 10th. It was just a tad bigger and some buildings seemed more complex and made with more materials. Flavia stopped looking around and focused on her digital map.
She purchased the data for this Plateau, which she observed was at least twice as expensive as the one of the 10th Plateau, and tried to look for 'Marie's Dungeon' but to no avail.
"As expected, even after buying it, it doesn't appear on the map since it's a structure affected by the Reset," she sighed to herself while walking down the streets. "Let's see… that man told us that if we wanted to find 'mappers', we could look for them in the outskirts of a town…" She muttered.
Five minutes later, she was walking around the outer edge of the town when she finally spotted a man wearing a white desert cloak sitting on a pliable chair whilst reading something on some sort of holographic tablet.
She then noticed that his location was blinking on her map; something that her AI had told her Hosts and Locals could do if they wanted to. It was a feature that enabled the System to mark their position on others' maps. Generally, it was used as a way to send distress signals or get someone's attention.
Flavia approached the man but kept her distance. "Um, excuse me?" She tentatively said and the man raised his head. Half of his face was covered by a mask and he also had his hood on. She could only see his eyes that were shockingly unicolor. His pupils and irises had no distinction from one another and were of the exact same sky blue. Those eyes briefly landed on Tyran before locking on her. It was quite unnerving in her opinion.
"…customer?" He asked with a grunt.
Flavia blinked. "So, I was correct to assume you are a mapper?"
The man hummed positively. "Sort of… are you looking for somewhere specific?"
"A Dungeon. One called Marie's Tomb."
"Ah… that one. It is recurrent," he muttered indifferently. "I mapped it yesterday. You're lucky; it's just about two hundred miles away from this town. I'll give it to you for 2 500 Talys."
Flavia nodded. "I'm fine with that," the moment she said that a System window appeared on which an exchange agreement was presented to her. She accepted and her map was updated along with the slight decrease in her balance. "Thank you. I'll be on my way now," she said and didn't wait any further to fly off with her telekinesis.
The man watched her gradually get smaller in the sky and squinted his shadowed eyes. "There is a powerful smell on her… who does it belong to?" He mumbled. "And that beast… an Asura?"
He looked away from the horizon and stood up with a huff. He grabbed his chair and folded it. He put it under his arm. "Well, not my business," he whispered and started walking away.
A random passerby happened to glance at him at that exact moment but his eyes were blinded for a second because of the sun and when he barred the light with his hand, no one was there.
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* * *
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When Flavia reached the waypoint on her map, she was faced with an oval-shaped hole in space hovering above ground releasing a dim light.
She inspected it with a raised eyebrow. "What… is this? Kei."
[Answer; this is a Dungeon Tear. Also called Instance Dungeon. It will transport you to a separated dimension made exclusively for the Dungeon, much like Simulation Trials.]
The Chaos Witch hummed at her AI's explanation, which she couldn't help but compare to Alexa again in how the latter sounded significantly more human and warmer.
'Difference between Potential values, huh?' She thought to herself before reaching for the tear. The usual prompt telling her to choose a difficulty appeared and before she selected any, she grabbed Tyran and hugged him close.
'Kei, is there any risk for Tyran if I go in like this?'
[Negative. The being known as Tyrannos Mors will not be harmed by the Tear.]
"Then let's hope you go together with me," she uttered and chose the normal difficulty.
The entrance of the Dungeon then swallowed her in the blink of an eye and closed itself from other challengers until she came out.
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* * *
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"Ow…" Flavia groaned and rubbed her back. She had been transferred in midair and since she was taken off guard, she failed to stop her fall in time. She stood up and looked around intriguingly. She was surrounded by a vast cemetery sitting under a grayed sky.
Her eyes drifted to the many tombstones before she remembered something. "Ah, Tyran!" She exclaimed and spun on one foot before she heard a familiar cry from below.
"Gao!" The little Asura was standing right next to her legs.
Flavia crouched to his level and started patting him with a smile. "So, it worked after all. I wonder if this still counts as me being alone? Oh well, I guess we'll see. Though, Kei, any idea why he was able to come with me in the first place?"
[Hypothesis; the being known as Tyrannos Mors is an undead, not a pet. It has a master; the one who raised him after his death. But it does not technically bind him and he is independent for the most part if we do not take his loyalty to Rakna Xiorra into consideration. Conclusion; the Dungeon must have considered him as your pet when you entered together.]
"Hm? So, wait. Does that mean Tyran could become my actual pet? Like Pronos is to Rakna?"
[Affirmative.]
Flavia mused for a second before smiling. She extended her hand toward the fledgling Asura and he cocked his head to the side. "What do you think? From what I heard; Hosts can only have one pet at a given time. It's not like I'm stealing you from Rakna. So, will you be my pet? Or would you prefer Evelyn or Nyx?"
Tyran seemed to be pondering before he let out a cry.
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Undead Tyrannosaurus Asura Rex, Tyrannos Mors, wishes to be your contracted pet.
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Do you accept?
Yes/No
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Flavia let out a chuckle and accepted the inquiry. "I'll count on you from now on," she said and the little Asura cried out with a nod. "With that out of the way…" She trailed off while standing up and turned toward a sepulcher in the distance; by far the largest structure in the cemetery. "I suppose that's our next objective," she muttered and Tyran jumped on her head again.
He scrutinized the cemetery with a serious demeanor as Flavia approached the sepulcher whilst keeping herself clear from the tombstones. The Asura had been ordered to protect and that's what he was going to do. Even more now she was his second master.
When Flavia reached the housed grave, she carefully tried to open its door. She twisted the knob but it stopped halfway. "Locked…" She whispered then Tyran abruptly growled and jumped off.
She instantly turned around to where her newly contracted pet had already expanded himself to a height of three meters. She quickly understood why he had had that reaction when she witnessed the earth in front of one of the tombstones moving.
Soon after, a hand emerged and she blinked in surprise. It didn't stop there; at almost every other grave in the cemetery, the same thing happened and humanoid monsters slowly crawled out from underground.
Flavia raised an eyebrow. "Zombies?" She muttered then took a closer look at them. They did look like corpses with torn clothes but their skin looked extremely… glossy. It was as if they were made of plastic. She promptly user her Scan, which was close to max level, and looked through the status that popped up.
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Name: ---
Age: --- | Level: 50
Race: Zombie Doll
Affiliation: Marie's Dungeon
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Attributes:
STR: 35 | END: 50
SPD: 10 | DEX: 5
INT: 1 | LCK: 0.1
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Statistics:
STA: 150/150 | MP: 10/10
SWI: 22 | AGI: 20
SEN: 82.5 | ATC: 101.1
ATT: 180 | DEF: 240.5
MA: 3 | MR: 0.01
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Proficiencies:
- Tracking (Lv.4)
- Mana Control (Lv.1)
- Mana Sense (Lv.1)
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Magic Skills:
- None.
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Cognitive Skills (Passive):
- Physical Damage Resistance (Lv. Ex ⋆)
- Magical Damage Resistance (Lv. Ex ⋆)
- Aura (Lv.1)
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Spontaneous Skills (Active):
- Physical Limit Break (Lv. Max)
- Reinforcement (Lv.1)
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Unique or Racial Traits:
- Fatigue Immunity
- Pain Immunity
- Fear Immunity
- Enhanced Hearing
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Conditional Ability:
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Marie's Protection: The monsters of Marie's Dungeon will be given at all times a 99% effective barrier from all types of magic. Most spells will fizzle out upon contact and others that are weaker will fail to be cast in the first place if their target is a holder of this ability.
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"I see… So, this is this Dungeon's particularity. A Condition Ability… Rakna might be interested to know about this. Still, level 50 sounds pretty high for the normal setting of a Dungeon on the 13th floor…"
She muttered and waved Tyran down, who was about to charge into the zombies' midst. It would have undeniably ended up into a one-sided slaughter considering how physically powerful he was.
"Wait, let me try a few things on them first," she said and released a part of her mana. It coalesced into an arc of green light in front of her as the wind picked up. Her eyes flickered and the spell was launched at the closest zombie that was about to break into a sprint.
The instant it was about to hit its target, the wind construct was silently dispelled into hundreds of small particles as if it had self-destructed. "As expected," Flavia muttered but didn't stop her movements. "How about this then?" She muttered with calm curiosity.
She pointed her hand at the zombie and tried to snap its neck with telekinesis. Though as she had predicted, the creature was able to resist. She applied more force on other spots and watched as the zombie was forced to slow down until it collapsed on the ground when she immobilized its legs.
She did the same for the rest of the zombies and scowled at the expenditure on her spirit. "This is definitely not the way to go," she commented and waved her hands at two tombstones nearby and with a spin of her wrists, her telekinesis yanked them out of the ground.
"Let's see how you fare against this," she uttered and controlled her Nirvana Skill in a way that she hadn't had the occasion to test a lot. With a single thought, the tombstones were suddenly turned into spikes after half of their matter being ground into fine powder.
'Using telekinesis on small parts of the surface of the material in quick succession to break it apart…' She reiterated the process to herself and smirked before flicking her hands one last time.
The spikes flew with incredible speed, being boosted by telekinesis to the maximum point where she was able to keep it under control. She saw the two spikes pierce the heads of two zombies and kill them instantly as the notifications sounded.
"Well… enough experimenting," she said and the greatsword Rakna had forged for her appeared in her hand. After her statement, the zombies she was holding down with her invisible grasp were freed. She raised her sword with telekinesis and gravity boosting her every movement.
"Tyran," she called with a smile and the Dreorin glanced at her with a curious eye. "Go wild."
The Asura grinned and turned into the biggest version of himself. He roared at the wave of dolls closing in and kicked the ground; his four legs giving him more stability and agility than any other T. Rex could have.
He stomped on the first zombie and tore through its defenses in one go, effectively squashing it to death before he set his sights on the next one. Flavia followed after him and cleaved through the monsters with the terrifying force her telekinesis gave her whilst keeping herself airborne.
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* * *
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Meanwhile, a figure cloaked in white light was watching everything through some sort of mirror with an intent gaze. "You… will be perfect," it whispered.