As we agreed upon, Hazel and I spent the next four days hunting the creatures of the mountain. Icarus was still a little too weak to participate, but he would sometimes have enough time to dash in and out with a quick attack, just so he could get a share of the XP.
The first type of monster we encountered, after exploring the mountainside for a few minutes, was something called a Harpy. They traveled in packs of seven and resembled a mix between a human female and a bird. Some of them had bright-colored wings while a few didn't, though the ones that had ordinary wings proved to be much harder to fight.
When we first noticed them, I was leading the group and instantly used『 Appraise 』on them.
﹃
Harpy
Race: Monstrosity
HP: 100
MP: 70
AC: 60
DMG: 40
Rank: D
Harpies are known as a monstrosity that was born of an ancient curse that combined bird and woman. Ever since then, they have used their sweet song and voluptuous bodies to prey upon unsuspecting men.
﹄
'Gross,' I thought to myself as I looked at their bodies. The harpies, which had the feet and arms of a bird, had their naked human torso's revealed. However, despite the open chest area and revealing pubic area, I found myself rather disgusted. So, to get rid of that disgust, I quickly burned them to the ground.
The harpies couldn't do much against my『 Fire Breath 』, mainly because it completely dominated their max HP. Even the fastest harpy wasn't able to dodge the attack, but there were far too many for me to take out with a single attack. So, after my first attack, I took out three. Now that my MP was down to five hundred, I quickly realized that I would need to be conservative with my MP usage. Otherwise, I'd have to get close to them and physically tear them to shreds, which brought out a gagging reflex on my part.
Now that three of the seven harpies were done for, that left only four, even better than the perfect amount of flame breaths I had remaining. The four harpies that survived instantly flew through the air, hoping to get an attack in from their talons. However, much to their surprise, I was much faster.
I quickly dodged to the side, using my fire breath to scorch another harpy in the process. Their attacks completely missed, so they returned to the air and turned their gazes toward me.
They didn't even notice Hazel or Icarus, who were both watching from the sidelines. Now the harpies were down to three and I was down to three hundred MP, I began to take the fight a little more seriously. I was still good, by the looks of it, but I also had to consider future enemies. I didn't have the time to regenerate all of my MP after a single fight, nor was I planning to use all of it in a single fight. Unless I managed to scorch all three with my next fire breath, I would have to submit and attack them with my tail.
The harpies looked at me and screeched, then charged in once more. I looked at their predictable attack and sighed in disappointment. I quickly jumped into the air again, flapping my wings once to generate enough speed to easily put the harpies to shame. Then, before the harpies had enough time to realize what was going on, I opened fire once again and consumed all three of them with my attack.
Once I landed back on the mountain ground, I nodded in satisfaction and looked at the influx of XP rushing into me through my notifications.
『 +500 XP 』
『 +500 XP 』
『 +500 XP 』
『 +500 XP 』
『 +500 XP 』
『 +500 XP 』
『 +500 XP 』
『 Level up! 』
The humongous amount of XP I gained shocked me to my core. Even during my fight with the Caldwell group, when had killed nearly twenty people, I didn't gain anywhere near this amount of XP. Just in that single fight, I managed to pull in 3500 XP, a completely unbelievable number.
I even leveled up, which was something that should've taken me several days of grinding. Although I couldn't see the stats of my human form, I had no doubts that the numbers were beyond satisfying to look at. Although, thanks to the level-up, even my dragon stats changed.
﹃
Arthur Aureys
Race: Dragon
Form: Young Red Dragon
Level: 8
HP: 505
MP: 705
AC: 250
DMG: 170 FIRE
Rank: SS
Titles: Dungeon Master
Skills: Appraisal, Morph, Summon, Flight, Dungeon Visit, Fire Breathe
Skill Sets: Flame Manipulation
Status Effects: Flame Immunity
﹄
As I looked at the monstrous amount of XP I was awarded, I quickly began to wonder why I was given this much. Was it because I was in my dragon form? No, probably not. I looked back at the harpies and appraised them one more time.
﹃
Harpy
Race: Monstrosity
Deceased
Rank: D
Harpies are known as a monstrosity that was born of an ancient curse that combined bird and woman. Ever since then, they have used their sweet song and voluptuous bodies to prey upon unsuspecting men.
﹄
'Damn, it looks like I can't look at the stats of a dead thing. If I remember right, weren't their stats much higher than an ordinary D-ranked adventurer? With 100 health, 70 MP, 60 AC, and 40 DMG, any D-ranked adventurer would have immense difficulty in dealing with just one,' I thought to myself, 'Yet I managed to defeat seven on my own, so I got the XP that should have normally been split up between an entire raid party. That makes sense. Monsters have more XP because they're supposed to be fought by a group, but that doesn't apply to me. How delicious.'
I turned to Hazel, smiling as our eyes met. Hazel looked at me in confusion as I rejoined the group. Of course, though, I couldn't explain why I was acting this way. Hazel would just have to find out the hard way.
So, after we left the first group of harpies to rot on the ground as we rose into the air, Hazel and I flew further up the mountain as Icarus was carried safely in my front legs. The harpies were strong, much stronger than Icarus was capable of going up against, so I quickly understood that he would need some help defeating even one.
Ten minutes later, long after the first group of harpies disappeared from our vision, we encountered our next group of harpies. This time, Hazel was the one that fought. This group had eight, so I instantly brought one harpy from the group and lured it closer to Icarus and me while Hazel dealt with the others.
Once the lone harpy was separated from the main group, Icarus began his attack. He instantly charged forward, though his speed was slower than the harpy's. She rose into the air and struck down, but Icarus narrowly dodged her first attack as he followed up with one of his own.
He opened his mouth, then let out a small stream of fire that was incomparable to my own. However, it still did the job. Because it was an attack made out of fire magic, AC only negated half of its damage. Therefore, even though Icarus was still a wyrmling, he had successfully damaged the harpy by aiming the stream of fire toward her neck.
The fight continued for a few more minutes. Now and then, I would intervene and protect Icarus from an attack. I let him get injured, every now and then, just to allow him to understand the seriousness of battle, but I knew his injuries would heal quickly. Whenever Icarus was unable to dodge that attack that would prove to be lethal, I would strike out my wing and block the attack. When faced with my son's endangerment, even the gross bodies of the harpies weren't enough to pull me away.
Then, after a full ten minutes of fighting, Icarus finally defeated the harpy and claimed the 500 XP reward that was rightfully his. Although I intervened to save his life once or twice, I never actually injured the harpy.
The harpy didn't appear to realize it was being used for practice, even though I was nearby and wasn't attacking it, so it proved as the perfect target for beginners. After the fight concluded, I inspected both Hazel and Icarus, hoping to gain some insight into how well they did.
﹃
Hazel Conley
Race: Dragon
Form: Young Black Dragon
Level: 6
HP: 450
MP: 300
AC: 250
DMG: 200 CURSE (+)
Rank: S
Titles: Curse Dragon, Partner of the Dungeon Master
Skills: Morph, Curse Magic, Curse Breath, Flight
Status Effects: Flame Immunity
﹄
﹃
Icarus Aureys
Race: Dragon Wyrmling
Level: 6
XP: 477.4/3200
HP: 35
MP: 40
AC: 15
Rank: A
Titles: Son of the Dungeon Master
Skills: Flight (LOCKED), Dragon Fire, Fire Breath, Respawn
Status Effects: Flame Immunity
﹄
Both of them had leveled up, though Hazel had managed to raise her level a staggering three times. I was glad to see she was no longer that far behind me, though there was still an enormous amount of XP between the two of us.
'Four more levels to go,' I thought to myself as I looked at Icarus, 'Until he evolves. How exciting.'