As Benny landed, the noise woke the sleeping Cifer.
"KEEEE!!!!"
Grim Cifer screamed when it noticed Benny.
"Whoah!"
Benny instinctively took a couple of steps back. It wasn't like he was scared; it was just his body moving alone.
"Master, that scream was debuff. Since you are not accustomed to your insect-like senses, it will be hard to move properly."
Now Benny understood why his body moved like this. Benny also noticed this problem. Although his senses work primarily to his advantage, it sometimes moves his body when he doesn't even want to. As such, it hindered his strategy.
"Don't worry. There was no point in crying now. Let's get into it!"
"Yes, master!"
Vivian flew and turned herself into a shield on Benny's left arm. He also drew his sword in his right hand.
"KEEEE!!!!"
Grim Cifer screeched again and leaped toward Benny quickly. It covered over six meters in two seconds and answered the human guest with a strong punch.
BAM!
"Khuh!!"
This time Benny felt a strong force behind that power slam. He could have answered it with his sword, but his instincts compelled him to step back.
Grim Cifer didn't wait and attacked again with his claws, scratching the bug shield, but Benny evaded by jumping back. Fighting with Vivian as a shield taught him that slashing moves produces less kinetic energy than bludgeoning attacks.
The Mors again leaped forward to kill Benny. Benny blocked his sharp claws and swung his sword to finish Grim Cifer.
However, the Mors ducked the swipe and kicked Benny, which he blocked again.
This continued a couple of times.
"Master!"
"I am trying to land, but….!"
The attack won't land!
It wasn't like Benny wasn't trying to attack with his sword or shield. Grim Cifer was fast but not enough to forgive some chances for Benny to grab. However, his instincts were fast on blocking or evading then attacking the enemy. This created a gap in timing, so Benny missed every time he tried to attack Grim Cifer.
This shows Benny's immaturity with close combat. He never practiced with a sword, and the enemy he was fighting wasn't also the Mors Benny was fighting before. Grim Cifer was a full-fledged Mors with a keen instinct to kill humans.
The brawl followed for a few minutes before Vivian finally answered Benny's help.
"Master, I am ready!"
"Then here we go!"
Benny smirked, jumped several meters back, creating some distance, and pointed Vivian's head towards Grim Cifer.
Her head section glowed brightly before a ray of light beamed towards Grim Cifer like a laser.
BOOM!
An explosion caused Benny to cover his eyes as the light beam met with Grim Cifer.
It was Vivian's latest skill. It was called [Kinetic Bolt].
She stores kinetic energy and repels it in the form of magical power.
"Heh!" Benny smirked. It was the most powerful move in his arsenal. He wiped all six Mors on the third floor with the same attack, so he was sure it was his victory.
However, his smug expression soon evaporated into thin air when the dust settled down, revealing Grim Cifer standing with only his left hand missing.
"KEEEE!!!!"
The Grim Cifer screamed and, this time, launched its whole body towards Benny, with all four pointy legs formed in arrow.
"Master, watch out!!"
Benny gritted his teeth and shielded himself from the upcoming attack. At that time, Benny realized he had made a mistake.
"Khuah!!"
He was shot like a bullet, clouting hard on the wall.
"Master!"
Vivian cried and opened her wings. Grim Cifer was fast and slammed both of its fists on Benny, but Vivian took Benny in the air timely, evading the deathly blow.
"Master, are you alright?!"
Vivian asked with concern as she began healing Benny.
"Yes…"
Benny nodded as he stuck his legs to the room's ceiling and scratched his head. Thank goodness his body was resistant to physical attack, or he would have become dead meat.
"Master, I…"
"Don't be, Vivian. You only showed me the path, and I decided to initiate the attack. It is not your fault." Benny answered Vivian's unstated line.
He was hurt. Heck, it could have even ended his life, but he knew the risk all along, and to be honest, he did expect some beatings from this Mors.
'Hmm, this ability to crawl on walls sure is amazing.' Benny thought as he watched Grim Cifer from the ceiling.
Now that odds were running out and Grim Cifer was overpowering the human-bug duo, Benny wasn't sure how he could escape from this predicament.
"Master, I don't think we should fight him now. We should escape!"
Vivian spoke as she crawled towards Benny.
He sure could escape from the room, but who knows if he would reencounter this Mors.
"Nope. Running away is not an option."
He was done running away. After his parents' death, he gave up on his dream to get strong and become a Hero. He poured all his attention into the research of bugs and insects. He thought it was the true meaning of his life, but he was just running away from reality. He thought if he didn't bother anyone, no one would bother him, but he forgot how cruel this world is.
Sure the o0dds to win against this Grim Cifer were low, but they weren't downright zero.
There must be something that Benny could do.
"Oh, I know."
Amidst his thoughts, an idea popped into his mind.
"Vivian, how do your [Ladybug's Luck] work? I mean in combat?"
"It gives a party, you and me, an unseen buff to negate direct or critical attacks. Why you asked?"
She was curious at first but then widened her eyes upon seeing Benny's smirk.
"Master, a-are you sure…?"
"Yup~! I have to take the risk to test it. With my instincts going wild, I will repeat the same dog fight strategy."
"Then I am with you, master! I will keep my healing skill active!"
Vivian then flew and attached herself to Benny's back. Soon the duo slowly landed on the surface, taunting the attention of angry Mors.
"Hehe, didn't expect to apply shonen technique to gamble fights." Benny chuckled, and he held the sword with both hands.
"KEEEE!!"
The Grim Cifer screeched to scare off the human, but Benny didn't flinch this time. He remained calm and took a deep breath.
Vivian kept using her healing skill on Benny's back and awaited Benny's move.
Then Grim Cifer began to sprint toward Benny and finished off the human enemy once and for all.
Benny then lowered his blade backward and waited calmly.
4 meters, 2 meters, 1 meter! And then.
"HORA!!"
Benny clenched the grip of his blade and swung it, bypassing Grim Cifer's chest diagonally.
"…"
Grim Cifer stopped moving until a line formed on its chest, and its torso, the head, and right arm portion slipped from the rest of its body.
"Master! Master! You did it! You killed first proper Mors!"
Vivian exclaimed cheerfully, feathering around Benny.
"Heh!"
Benny smirked proudly.
It was a tricky part, but he killed Grim Cifer eventually.
"Master, the body doesn't have Mana Stone in it."
Vivian informed after searching into the carcass of Grim Cifer.
"Then it must be in the head."
Benny walked towards the other part Grim Cifer which he cut apart and reached his hand towards the head when Vivian screamed.
"Master, wait!"
But it was too late, and just as Benny had already removed the hood on the head, he found himself in an unknown place before he could act.
"What the…"
Benny was confused, but upon blinking again, he was back to reality.
'What was that?!'
He thought he was in the center of truth and lie, light and darkness for a second. It was a black and white world, speaking about both sides of the coin.
"Master! Master! Are you okay?!"
Vivian was asking, looking quite concerned for Benny.
"I am good."
Benny answered and then realized a marble he was holding. No, it was the Mana Stone of the Grim Cifer. Was one side dark while the other was white like a yin yang circle.
He also saw several notifications of him leveling up.
[You have leveled up!]
[You have gained 4 additional SPs.]
[You have leveled up!]
[You have gained 4 additional SPs.]
[You have unlocked a new Crawler Card.]
[You can now summon new Crawlers based on the Crawler Card you will acquire as you level up.]
And then a golden card appeared in his hand. An insect with wings was drawn on the card.
"Does that mean I will get more summons as I level up?"
"That's right, master. If you concentrate, you can summon my species card too."
Benny had no idea what Vivian was talking about until he concentrated and another golden card appeared in his hand.
It had a beetle drawn on it instead.
"Beetle Family?"
"As you can see, I belong to the beetle family. Hence, you can summon other beetle crawlers. You can use Crawler Card by placing them on Mana Stones. Careful though, the more you summon, the more mouths will be produced."
Benny got what Vivian meant to say. Of course, he wasn't stupid enough to start summoning Crawlers without considering their needs.
"Okay, then what about this card? It doesn't have any name on it."
The card with the winged insect didn't have the name of any insect family.
"I am also confused. I think it can either be a butterfly or a moth."
"That's what I also thought. Let's summon new Crawlers then."
Saying that, Benny placed the card on black and white Mana Stone, and then a window prompted in front of him.
[Crawler's Name: -
Crawler's Type: -
Crawler's Level: -
Crawler's Race: -
Crawler's Rarity: -
Crawler's Stage: -
Crawler's Role: -]
It seemed like he had to select the specifics of Crawler Servant he was supposed to summon. Kinda like Gacha, in his opinion.
The name has typing option.
The type has two options: Servant or Beast
Levels can be set from 1 to 20.
The race is a bit specific, like if he wants to summon a silk moth or a puss moth.
Rarity goes from 1 star to 5 stars.
The evolution stage was three.
And finally, role: fighting type, tank, caster, or speedster.
Benny thought about a moment before he started filling out the form.
"Can I ask what specifics did you select?"
Looks like Vivian cannot see the screen.
"Type is Servant, the level is 1, and role is a caster. I left rest unfilled."
He had a feeling that he must let fate decide.
"Master must put his heart to summon! Whether he wants a soldier to die for you or a family who cherish Benny Olbion.
Benny wants a family… like his parents. No, they are dead, but he wanted a similar family to them.
Just then, the Mana Stone began to radiate into solid light. However, what appeared to be a 'straightforward' summoning ritual, soon began to shape a climatic distortion in space. The force even shook the whole dungeon.
"Is summoning this dramatic?!!"
"No!!! I have no idea what is going on!!"
Benny didn't know how summoning went, but this was not the expected summon.
However, the blinding light soon died, and two creatures emerged from it.
Benny was stuck in awe when he saw those two tiny cute creatures.
"...Pa…Papa…"
"…Fat-father…?"
"Children?"