That night Theodore reached Level 2, after hours of diving in the dungeon like a madman. He came out with the steel longsword floating beside him. He had received two stat points with his level up, which he assigned to his Intellect. [Accumulate Luck] had reached level 2 from all the use, and it accumulated luck much faster than before. Requiring less items to be converted to luck, to reach Blue tier items.
Having found nothing else of value, he continued to sell items on the Shop, and keep any armor he found. He had already replaced his chest piece with a new item.
[Enchanted White Button-Up (Blue) obtained.]
The enchanted shirt gave him a +1 to Intellect, and also a +1 to Charisma. When his Intellect reached 5, he received a new message.
[Five Intellect has been detected, the user will receive photographic memory.]
Theodore briefly looked through his messages, before pushing them all away. He walked to the door of the room next to his, and slowly opened the door. He saw Hailey still laying down, sleeping peacefully. He breathed a sigh of relief when he saw his right hand had returned to normal. The empty bottle on the bedside table indicated that Hailey had woken up at some point and saw his note.
Closing the door, making sure not to disturb her, Theodore headed back to his room. When he arrived, he collapsed on the bed in exhaustion, not realizing the mental burden he was carrying earlier. He had worked himself like a maniac, and not eaten anything since the day before. Staying in the Dungeons, and being in combat constantly will drain any sane person. However, now that Theodore knew Hailey was safe, he was finally able to relax and sleep.
**** Hailey's POV ****
"Haah haah haah." I was running for my life. I had been having an easy time in the Easy dungeons, and felt my progress was great. I decided to go into the Normal Difficulty dungeon on my 10th run, to see if I would get a better reward. I thought this would be just as easy with maybe one or two hard fights.
I was so wrong. In the Normal Difficulty there was an Alpha wolf. It led the other wolves to corner me, and wittle me down slowly by exhausting my stamina. I was able to kill all the other wolves, but the Alpha was the problem. My rapier couldn't pierce his fur, which meant I had no way to damage him.
I was running, looking for anywhere I could hide and rest for a bit. Suddenly a black blur flew by me, and my back felt hot and wet. He had clawed my back as he ran by me. I put my back against a tree, and stared at the Alpha with my rapier pointed at him.
'I refuse to die to the hands of a mutt! What about the Shop? Maybe there is something there that can kill him?' As I stated at the Alpha, and navigated the store. I found a few items but they were all too expensive. Finally, I found one that might be what I needed.
[Small Magic Bomb (Green)] [500 gold]
I bought the bomb, and it was a small handheld sphere. I put it in my inventory, because I had thought of a plan, a reckless one. The Alpha was just standing in front of me, waiting for me to pass out from blood loss or make a mistake. So I created a mistake.
I threw my rapier at the Alpha, I knew it was too fast to get hit by it, but I still did it anyways. The moment it saw the rapier leave my hand, it dodged quickly to the left, and then bent its legs and charged straight at me. I extended my left hand, and watched as time seemed to slow down for me. I watched the wolf's gaping maw slowing close in on my outstretched hand.
'It's now or never... I want to see Theodore again, no matter what.' Hailey thought, before she did something insane.
The bomb, materialized in her outstretched hand. The moment the Alpha bit down, she activated the bomb. With a muffled explosion, the feeling in her hand was cut off, along with the Alpha exploding into pieces. Hailey was blown into the tree again, knocking the wind out of her. The system then began to bombard her with notifications, however the moment she returned to her room she opened the door, and went looking for Theodore.
She trudged downstairs, bleeding onto the floor.
'I'll have to pay him back for the carpet, haha.' Hailey joked. She heard him in the kitchen, and came in leaning on the wall. She was running out of energy, and willpower at this point. He ran over as she fell down, catching her, and she looked up at his face.
'He always seems to glow more and more everytime I see him. Haha, he is such a big cry baby, but it's nice to see this weak side of him.' At this point Hailey could see his lips moving, but she couldn't hear anything.
"I-I'm glad. Glad that I got to see you one more time..."
She saw him take out a skillbook, and she tried to refuse. However he was so persistent she couldn't say no looking at his face. She set her hand weakly on the book, and activated it.
'I'm sorry that all I do is cause problems.. Please don't leave me Theodore...'
After that, her vision turned dark, and she passed out. She slept for an unknown amount of time, but when Hailey woke up she found herself in her bed. When she looked around, she found a bottle and a note on the table next to her bed. She read it, and then drank the bottle. She knew this ordeal costed a lot of gold to resolve, and that Theodore had provided these things for her.
She noticed the visible change to her mangled hand, that apparently had grown back. She looked at her skills and read the description of the skill, it was definitely a good lifesaving skill. It would bring anyone on the brink of death back to a state that they could find ways to restore their bodies to full function. It must have been worth a lot of gold...
She then decided to look over the system notifications from earlier. She had indeed reached system level 2, which made her able to use gold to unlock random blueprints. She also thought deeper about what skill she could create with the ticket she just received. She had regained her sense of caution in the Dungeons, and realized that she was too fragile. Too defenseless.
She didn't like that realization, and she wanted to change that. She thought more and more about it, and figured with her talent she would acquire better gear. Things that could augment her attack power. However defense would always be invaluable. So she decided on a very different route than before.
[Battle Hardened (Unique)(Evolving)(Passive)]
By experiencing battle, you temper your body. Your resilience and Regeneration will grow with each hard fought battle you experience. Growth will increase depending on how tough the battle was. Your current defense and Regeneration will be decreased.
She confirmed the skill. She would buy the [Berserker] skill she saw in the shop. She bought a (Grey) two hand as well. She decided to sleep, and let her body recuperate, but she didn't stop worrying about Theodore. He didn't reply to her text just now, so she figured he must be in the dungeons... Working hard, for her sake. She felt guilty and powerless.
With tears in her eyes her body's demand for rest took over, and she fell back into a deep slumber.
When Hailey woke up again, it was still quiet. She felt much better, and so she got out of her bed. She changed out of her bloody clothes, took a hot bath, and left her room. She opened the door to Theodore's room, and saw he asleep on top of the sheets. He was still wearing his shoes, he must have just collapsed on his bed when he came back. Hailey checked the time, and saw that it was 4 AM. She walked in, took off Theodore's shoes and socks, and left a note on his bedside by his phone. She then went back to her room, and entered the Easy dungeons. She wouldn't overestimate her abilities anymore, she would slowly build up her strength.
That day, Hailey was able to reach Personal Level 2, and allocated her points into Strength. Hailey had began to crush the Dungeons, relying on brute force, however making sure she challenged herself. She learned how to use the new weapon in her hand through trial and error, and she accumulated many cuts and bruises.
This would be the day the Slaughter Queen was born.