'Six hours? That should be plenty of time, I'm more concerned with the second option.' I thought as I was at least grateful there was no timer for killing the boss. 'Where are those pesky moles hiding?' Was the question that kept passing through my mind as I searched long and hard for more. After what felt like half an hour of searching I found another dead end where two moles were sleeping with their noses just barely above the ground.
'This is perfect. I won't have to take the time to use the boulder method. I should be able to take both of them out myself!' I covered myself in dirt once more and got in a sprinting position. I then bolted forward and jumped with all my might and while I was in the air I extended my wings and flapped as hard as I could launching myself towards the unsuspecting prey.
*SHICK* The mole towards my right had my claws within its neck as I had to stab through the ground precisely. However, stabbing with my right arm threw my momentum off and my left claw just scratched the mole's nose and face as well as making rivets in the ground.
[You've received 23 exp from killing a dungeon mole]
'Damn'. I immediately jumped off the wall I landed on after zooming past the moles but the second one was already trying to retreat. 'Not again!' I crammed my arm down the hole it had made and grabbed on to its small round body while my claws were exploring the inside of its guts. I pulled it out and ripped it in half just to make sure it was dead.
[You've received 20 exp for killing a dungeon mole]
"YEEEAAAHHHH! I DID IT!" I screamed as loud as I could, not caring if I scared every mole within a thousand miles. 'Who cares if I'm still so weak I struggle to kill beginner mobs, anyone who saw that would say it was awesome! My adrenaline is still pumping!' I kept hyping myself up from my feat and sat down to relish the moment.
My mom didn't come out of hiding but I knew she was still watching and celebrating just like I was. My stamina took quite a blow from that fight and all the exploring so I needed to rest for a bit. 'While I'm sitting here I might as well check my stats.'
'Stats'
[STATS]
Name: Sphar
Species: Nyre (1st evolution)
Level: 1 (64/100)
Hp: 75/75
Stamina: 1/6
Mana: 15/15
Strength- 3[+]
Agility- 8[+]
Dexterity- 5[+]
Intelligence- 10[+]
Vitality- 3[+]
Attribute points: 0
Condition: Tired/regenerating
'I'm getting closer!' I thought while wondering how everyone else is doing. 'Miraculously I haven't run into anyone else yet. Maybe the parents are keeping us separated intentionally. That would explain why it's so hard to find any moles, or maybe dungeons are always like this and I just suck.'
After relaxing for a bit I got up and started searching for more moles. I'm not sure whether it's because I traveled a bit further in the cave or the author being lazy but I stumbled upon a group of 4 moles who were all eating some weird fruit. 'Where did they even find that? I've seen nothing but dirt. Anyways time to initiate plan drop the bomb.'
------------------------
[You've received 85 exp for killing dungeon mole *4]
[LEVEL UP]
All stats have been increased by +1. You've received 2 attribute points. You've received 1 skill point.
[QUEST COMPLETED]
You have completed [Kill 6 dungeon moles within 2 hours] You've received 50 exp. You've received 1 attribute point.
'stats'
[STATS]
Name: Sphar
Species: Nyre (1st evolution)
Level: 2 (99/184)
Hp: 85/85
Stamina: 8/9
Mana: 20/20
Strength- 4[+]
Agility- 9[+]
Dexterity- 6[+]
Intelligence- 11[+]
Vitality- 4[+]
Attribute Points: 3
Condition: Slightly tired/excited
"I'm beat. Hey mom can you show me the way back?" I asked while sitting against the wall. "Sure sweetie, just follow me." As we were walking back I noticed the remains of my fighting from earlier. The chunks of ceiling that fell, the scrapes on the floor, the holes the moles dug. 'I hate moles.' After around 10 minutes of walking, we made it back out. It seems that everyone else had already left as the old man gave me an admiring look before saying "You sure took your time. So how many kills did he get?" He asked my mom who responded with an over prideful voice saying "7".
"Not bad. Not bad at all. Most of the others got 4 at most, good job. Don't let it get to your head though." He said while giving me a stern look but one of praise at the same time. "I won't." I said and nodded my head. My mom and I then walked back to the main area and she told tales of my amazing feats, especially using the ceiling to my advantage the way I did. No one else had come up with that idea. In fact, most didn't come up with any sort of plan.
I just woke up several hours ago so I'm still wide awake but my body is tired. I planned on resting for a while before heading back into the dungeon. 'Should I allocate my attribute points now? I need to raise my strength and vitality so I can fight without using time-consuming tactics in the dungeon. I also need to raise my agility so it will be easier to catch those damn moles.'
On that note, I flew up to my sweet old den that I had grown accustomed to over the past couple of days. I walked to the furthest part of the den and layed down. I then called out my menu but instead of instantly arranging my stats I decided to check out the system shop instead as I have been putting it off for some time.
'Shop'
[SHOP]
-Accessories
-Potions
-Equipment
-Skills
'Wait, everything costs bronze, silver, and gold??? I thought it would cost experience or something...Looks like I have yet another reason to escape this place soon. I hate to leave my mom like this but I have to do it.
.
.
.
Augh! I can't bring myself to do it. She doesn't deserve to lose another person she loves. Damn you morals!' My thoughts were all over the place. "I'll tell her when it's time." I then opened my stats and with the 3 extra attribute points I have, I added 1 into vitality, 1 into strength, and 1 into agility in an attempt to balance my stats out a bit more.
'My intelligence isn't going to help me much right now as I have no attacking magic and dexterity can wait a bit. I need to be faster but I also want to keep my stats close to one another. I'll need to do some serious farming later. It seems raising my vitality doesn't directly affect my hp, so I can safely assume my Intelligence and mana are the same way.'
'If I had to guess what all my stats do, I'd say strength affects the condition of my muscles, agility will affect my speed and duration of which my stamina lasts, dexterity will affect my flexibility and weapon proficiency, Intelligence will affect the rate of which mana regenerates, control, and effectiveness of my magic, and vitality will affect my defense and regeneration of stamina and hp.'
'I'm just gonna relax for a couple of hours then I'm gonna ask the old man if I can venture back into the dungeon. Surely with my kill count, he'll trust me to go in alone. I want to level up a couple more times so I can use my transformation magic. I'm gonna hold on to my skill point for now as I don't know if it's worth putting it into my transformation skill or not yet.'