Chapter 15 – Dungeon Improvement
[The White Dog in Normal Dungeon improved. Skill learned – Grab] the system notified Lucas.
The dying white dog grabbed Fury and did not want to let go but a few seconds later, it stopped moving. The white dog died.
"… Can the monsters in the nursery dungeon upgrade?" Lucas asked Sery. He had no idea that the monsters could learn new skills too. From the way Sery said earlier about how weak and inferior the monsters in the Normal Dungeon were, he had a feeling that Sery did not know or forgot to explain to Lucas.
[… I don't know. I just get the information that in some special circumstances, they can…] Sery was speechless too.
"Isn't this your power? How can you not know?" Lucas asked.
[Well… I told you before that I am not almighty. I don't know everything. So, this is one of the cases. Master's influence in the nursery dungeon made it possible for the dungeon to grow. In this case, the white dog is now stronger with a new skill] said Sery.
"Does that mean when the other monsters are in the same desperate situation as the white dog, they will improve too?" Lucas asked.
[Yes, they will] Sery replied.
Fury came to Lucas's side and stared at him. He wanted to know his next order. Lucas petted Fury's head and said, "Good job. Let's look for more opponents," said Lucas. Fury did not get any injury from the battle thanks to the defense of the Fur Guard skill.
After that, they met another white dog. Just like the announcement said, the white dog had a new skill, Grab. Fury used Fur Guard to repel the white dog. It worked the first time but the second time the white dog met the Fur Guard, it used Grab and latched on the Fur Guard.
Holding tight on the Fur Guard, the repel effect failed, shocking Lucas and Fury. However, Lucas immediately came to a counter. He ordered Fury to use the bounce effect of the Fur Guard and launched in the air.
Once Fury and the white dog were in the air, Fury released the Fur Guard and the white dog lost the thing to grab on and fell to the ground. Fury did not let the chance go and used Tackle on the white dog. Once the tackle hit, everything else followed as usual.
Roll and Tackle. Roll and Tackle. These two were enough to deal with the white dog after that.
After that, they continued meeting more opponents and Lucas tried many other things too. After fighting many of the Rank 4 monsters, they got used to them and the fight became easier and easier. However, when things got easier, the difficulty suddenly increased when the monsters started improving themselves by learning more skills.
Once they learn a new skill, all the same species of monsters will unlock that skill too. After the skill unlocks, they all would immediately gain the skill at a higher rank and level.
[The White Cat in Normal Dungeon improved. Skill learned – Triple Scratch]
[The White Slime in Normal Dungeon improved. Skill learned – Fluid Shot]
[The White Sheep in Normal Dungeon improved. Wool Guard improved – repel effect added]
[The White Furball in Normal Dungeon improved. Skill learned – Fur Needle]
[The White Dog in Normal Dungeon improved. Skill Learned – Dash]
The improvement came the more desperate the monsters became. Although the difficulty increased, Lucas was not unhappy. He was elated because this would give more challenge to them.
Other than the skill improvement, the monsters became smarter too. There were some with higher stat points but had lower skill levels and there were some with high skill levels but lower stats. Even so, there were some with high stat points and high skill levels.
According to Sery, the monsters in the dungeon were learning too. In the beginning, Fury was too weak to influence the monsters. However, Fury was not a common and weak furball. He was now the strongest furball in the dungeon.
Not only his power exceeded other furballs but he was much stronger compared to other monsters too. This gave them pressure and made them want to improve.
The improvement would make the dungeon's difficulty increased but more so the progress of the pet training inside the dungeon. Sery mentioned that pets training in this dungeon would go through faster growth compared to before the dungeon went through the improvement.
If Fury were to reset all of his stats to the beginning, it would make him faster to improve his stats and skills. His progress would be faster than before. This was good news for Lucas.
"Fury, I need you to learn the Fur Needle too," said Lucas. Since the common furball in the normal dungeon could learn Fur Needle, Fury could do the same too. The skill had two modes. Single target mode and area of effect (AOE) mode. The AOE mode was the one Lucas wanted.
Now that the monsters in the dungeon improved, the Rank 4 zone was too dangerous for them. There were many times they needed to Synchro to win the battle. Even after they synchro, the battle was still difficult. It was understandable because both of them were Rank 1.
Lucas and Fury went back to the danger-free zone. Lucas wanted Fury to learn the Fur Needle skill while he decided to breakthrough through Rank 2. He had delayed it long enough. He would let Fury break through when he had maxed out the Fur Needle level.
Since the nursery would open soon, it was possible for him to get busy and had less time to train. Thus, he decided to breakthrough now. As for Fury, he had all the time he needed because he did not need to tend to the nursery.
Lucas sat under a tree and started cultivating. Using the Universe Body Cultivation Technique, he started breaking through to Stage 1 Rank 2. The breakthrough would be easy because this was at the lowest rank. Not only that, but the cultivation technique Sery provided was also one of the best in the world. Lucas would not encounter any wall to break through.
It did not take him long. An hour later, he broke through to Stage 1 Rank 2. Lucas checked on his stats.
Name: Lucas
Age: 15
Lifespan: 120 years
Potential: E
Capture Power: Tier 1
Status
Health: 11 (Max 20)
Energy: 11 (Max 20)
Soul: 11 (Max 20)
Physical
Attack: 11 (Max 20)
Defense: 11 (Max 20)
Speed: 11 (Max 20)
Mental
Intelligent: 11 (Max 20)
Comprehension: 11 (Max 20)
Cultivation – Universe Body
Stage – 1
Rank – 2
"I breakthrough," said Lucas.
[Master, you need to break through fast before high school starts. You need to be at least Stage 1 Rank 8 or else you will get bully in school] said Sery and he added, [If you focus on yourself for the rest of the winter until the start of high school, you can at least reach Stage 2 Rank 3]
Humans could only start cultivating and owning a pet when they were 10 years old. They have had the system since birth but they could only start cultivating starting from 10 years old. There was no exception.
Usually, common people would be at least Stage 1 Rank 8 when they entered high school. Those that had cultivation lower than that would be looked down upon and got bullied.
Since the appearance of the monsters, the world favored the strong more than the weak. Even so, that did not mean that the weak would be mercilessly trampled. They had their rights too and they also had their roles in society.
Most strong people would not treat weak people badly but some used their power to trample on the weak. This situation rarely happened in the adult world but often happened in high school.
Most of those in high school were going through puberty and they were immature. Once they got the taste of power, they became arrogant and thought those below them were ants. Puberty plus immature, we get arrogant strong teenagers. These guys were usually the bullies.
These situations rarely happened in the adult world because they were more mature and had seen more of the world. They knew what was right and what was wrong. Although some of them were bad, most of them were good-natured. The high schooler had yet to know more about the world, so they became arrogant.
Since Lucas started his cultivation five years late, he needed to work harder. Luckily, he had the cheat system. He had the chance to pass through the barrier of being bullied. If he did not get the pet nursery system, he would get bullied throughout high school.
Sery did not want his master to get bullied and thus, he reminded Lucas of his cultivation. Lucas knew of Sery's concern and felt like he should not delay his cultivation anymore. Once Fury had learned the Fur Needle skill, he would train Fury to improve the skill.
Once that was done, he would focus on his training and let Fury go through the training automatically. He would not guide Fury and let him train by himself.
Their training continued inside the dungeon. Fury learned the Fur Needle skill in two days and Lucas started training Fury to improve the skill.
A few days later, Fur Needle was improved. Penetration stat was added to the skill. Thanks to the penetration stat, the power of the skill increased tremendously. After that, Lucas let Fury level up the skill and it only took a few days.
Once all the matter with Fury was settled, Lucas let Fury to breakthrough. Fury had no problem to breakthrough and he was now the Newborn Stage Rank 2. Lucas sent Fury back to the free zone and let him raise his stats and skills to the maximum.
Lucas had finally settled Fury's matter. Other than increasing in rank, there was nothing else he could train Fury. If he wanted Fury to go further in rank, he would need the tier breaker item to increase Fury's tier. That would be another matter in the future.
Fury went on his training and Lucas started focusing on himself. A few days later inside the dungeon, Lucas decided to end the training of the day and got out. Once he got out of the dungeon, he checked on Fury's stat. Fury was halfway through in maxing out his stats.
After that, he went upstairs and took a shower and rested on his bed while Katheryn prepared for dinner.
"Lucas~ Dinner~" Katheryn shouted from the dining room. Lucas got out of his room to the dining room. They started eating.
"Mom, is there anything that will need my help for tomorrow?" Lucas asked. The nursery would officially open tomorrow and there must be many things needed to be done.
"Hmm~ There is not much you need to do. Sery has been helpful all this time and everything is going smoothly," said Katheryn. "Oh! I need you and Fury tomorrow," said Katheryn.
"??? Why Fury too?" Lucas asked.
"Since we are new to this business, our customers do not know what we can do. We need Fury to convince them that our training service is top-notch," said Katheryn while smiling.
[All you need to do tomorrow is show what Fury can do. I think even showing Fury using the Fur Guard and Fur Ball is enough to convince them because there is no furball with that kind of skill. They are known to be weak and useless] Sery added. Lucas nodded. He knew what they wanted.
"How about the nursing and care service?" Lucas asked.
"We will let them have a taste of the service first. If they are not satisfied with our service, we will refund them," said Katheryn. "But I don't think we will have any problem with these two services. So, there is no need to worry about them. They are cheap too, so many people will get attracted to these services," Katheryn added.
"Then, Mom. What should I do? Brother gets to show off Fury. What should I do?" Hailey wanted to help too.
"You can help me transfer the pet card for training, heal and care service," said Katheryn. She would be at the front desk dealing with customers. Hailey was too young to do this job. "Pet cards are fine right? They are not monsters," said Katheryn while smiling. Hailey nodded.
Hailey was fine with pet cards but not the living pet. She had yet to warm up to Blue. She did give blue a few glances but never tried to get closer to Blue. Her fear of them was still big.
They continued their dinner and Katheryn thought about something. "You guys, when our customer asks you who trains the pets, make sure you said it is your grandfather," said Katheryn.
"Said that your grandfather was a retired pet trainer. He gets bored doing nothing at home and establish this pet nursery. He wants to help training people's pets and thus, the cheap prices," said Katheryn while smiling. "We don't want people to know about Sery's existence. That will cause a lot of trouble later," Katheryn added.
"Okay," Hailey did not think much of it. She understood what Katheryn was saying. Although she was young, she was not insensible.
"…" Lucas did not say anything and nodded. He understood Katheryn's concern. After that, they finished their dinner.
41st Winter, Month 2, Year 3400
It was morning but Lucas had woken up earlier than usual. He got into the bathroom and stared at the mirror. "I hope that there will be many customers today," said Lucas while smiling. He was nervous and excited.