I left the shrine with a small bright green tarantula on my shoulder. She was chatting happily in my ear about all of the awesome things about her new body. She did not seem distressed at all, and actually seemed rather happy.
I quietly slipped into the guild hall, taking the stairs in quickly ascended to the topmost floor. My mother's for was open, and she was alone inside. I closed the door behind me. Laurel was rather happy to see me, and questioned about the location of Hylia. I pointed out the spider who was now crawling around on her desk.
I told her the entire story, and my mother listened while she nodded. "Unfortunately, as of right now Hylia cannot be considered an adventurer. She is alive. and the system still recognizes her. Her stats have been updated on her card if you notice. But the dungeon only recognizes people of level 10 or higher as actual adventurers. So, until she levels up to level 10 you will not be able to enter. Fortunately, once she evolves, she will have met the requirement, so when she once again becomes level one it won't be a hindrance."
I nodded as I listened. I actually already had a plan in mind for this. With my business with the guild over I left the guild house and went home. It was finally time to look over my rewards from the recent dungeon trip.
Unfortunately, I did not receive any levels, as all of the energy had gone into the creation of the [Life Bound Contract] with the spider. I did not regret this however, as it allowed for Hylia to live on.
The system did not give me any coins or money either. Rather had given me a single skill and a spell.
[Bone and Poison Short Sword] (spell)
Summons a sword whip. Does non elemental bone damage equal to 2x intelligence. Attacks leave the opponent poisoned doing intelligence damage per second for 10 seconds. stacks infinitely. Cost: 1000 mana to summon, 10 mana per second to maintain.
[Short Sword Mastery]
Your proficiency with sword whips had reached the state of mastery. Your attacks do 3x damage and attack speed is increased to a 5.
It seems that the dungeon has decided I need a melee skill, and this one was actually rather perfect. I did not need to rely on strength at all, rather the damage was based on my intellect. My agility and dexterity stats were rather high, so the speed and accuracy of my strikes would not be inferior to an actual close ranged fighter.
The damage was less than my bullets, but the overall cost was much lower. I would be able maintain it indefinitely once summoned. I had the dual casting skill, but not the dual wielding skill, so I would only be able to maintain one at a time. My off hand could continue to be used for my bullets and grenades.
It seemed my combat style had evolved once again, but I would need practice to actually make it work. The skill [Short Sword Mastery] had transferred all of the theoretical knowledge to my brain, however I still needed to practice to actually use the weapon. The skill was merely a cheat guide, I had to practice the basics myself, even though their knowledge was already in my head.
I summoned the blade to experiment and was greeted by a short sword made out of a spine. The blade was serrated, and reminded me of the scythes the mantis had.
The weapon was rather nice, and felt like it should have always been in my hand. I swung it a few times to get the feel for it, and felt the wealth of knowledge that had entered my head guiding my hand.
I nodded in satisfaction, and prepared to depart town, my destination was none other than the cave I had been born in.
The Journey out was much more enjoyable than the journey in, and in was actually able to notice the scenery around me. The forest that surrounded the city was not made out of pine. rather a type of tropical plant. Now that I noticed it the weather around the city was always rather hot and humid, so this kind of tree made a lot of sense to me.
Hylia told me that there were legends that the forest had once belonged to a dryad, but had been corrupted by a strange evil force. Only the area closest to town had been able to stay free from the contamination.
I could tell when we had crossed the boundary because the corrupted presence in the air grew thicker. With each step we took the wood essence from the forest grew more space. My core felt like it was suffocating, its rotations becoming slower.
It was not this bad when I had left previously. My eyes darted around the forest and noticed the oddities. The once abundant vines could no longer be seen. I quickly hid Hylia under my cloak as I entered stealth. Nothing about this situation felt right, and I would need to investigate it thoroughly.