The second floor of the dungeon that Aurora and Rejoke entered. At the moment, the whole floor was in chaos—at least a part of it.
Next to a large lava lake, a black wolf was fighting a huge golem-like creature made out of some strange molten rocks. The black wolf was obviously Rejoke, who was currently struggling with getting close to the large stone monster.
Every time he got close enough to attack, the golem would swing one of its large arms, forcing Rejoke to retreat. On the other hand, the wolf's magic had little to no effect on the large monster. This resulted in a stalemate between the two sides, with neither being able to attack the other.
Meanwhile, Aurora watched all this happen from the distance. If she were to fight the golem, the fight would end under three moves if she were to fight seriously. But she had basically nothing to gain from defeating such a monster.
By her estimate, the golem was somewhere around level 20, meaning that it would probably only get her a single level. Since this was the case, she decided to test Rejoke out a bit, forcing him to fight this monster alone.
Of course, Rejoke would never disobey an order from Aurora, so as soon as he understood what she wanted from him, he charged into battle.
Even if he knew that the monster was stronger than him, he would rather die fighting than to reject an order from his alpha.
However, what he didn't expect was his inability to even hurt the large monster. All his attacks either couldn't reach the golem or were simply ineffective against it.
This greatly frustrated the black wolf, but ever since his battle against Aurora, he understood that losing his temper wasn't a good idea during a battle. Still, that didn't mean he had complete control over his emotions; he was just able to hold them back slightly.
Yet, even if he knew that none of his attacks had any effect, he kept on fighting. Why? Because he trusted his alpha's judgment. She wouldn't send him into a losing fight; at least that was his conviction.
And so he refused to stop or back down, keeping on the pressure on the golem.
However, nothing changed. The battle went on, with neither side being able to land a solid hit on the other one. And while the golem didn't care much, Rejoke knew that in a battle of wits and endurance, he would be the one to lose.
Growing more and more desperate, Rejoke began to try some risky and desperate moves, but nothing worked. It seemed like he had too much faith in his own strength.
He even activated his strength-boosting skill, but it hardly helped him. Thanks to the skill, he got much stronger than the golem, physically at least. But all that was in vain if he could not get close to his enemy.
Just as he was thinking that he would fail the expectations his alpha had for him, his eyes suddenly shined with a strange glint. He got an idea—an idea that could help him win.
He had always observed the way Aurora fought and was always impressed by her ability to defeat opponents much stronger than her. He realized that there was something more to battling than just strength.
And so, in an Aurora-like fashion, he dodged the descending arm of the golem by jumping sideways. Without waiting around at all, he spent a lot of his mana to create a tentacle made of darkness out of the golem's shadow.
He then waited for just the right moment, and when the golem was about to take a step forward with its right leg, Rejoke moved the tentacle and wrapped it around the golem's rising leg.
The sudden change made the golem trip, falling straight to the ground. The tentacle broke apart under the weight of the rock monster, but it had already served its purpose.
Making use of the time he bought himself, Rejoke used all his strength and agility to propel himself towards the golem.
Then, after being at just the right distance, the black wolf jumped into the air with all his might. And like a descending meteor, he dove straight for the middle of the golem's torso.
The combination of Rejoke's absurd strength, his momentum, as well as the gravitational pull allowed the wolf to go straight through the golem's abdomen, leaving a large hole in the place where the monster's core once was.
[Your subordinate Rejoke has defeated the Lava Golem level 22.]
'And that's it, huh?' With a satisfied smirk, Aurora made her way over to the large corpse of the Lava Golem.
Right, she was very satisfied with the combinational attack that Rejoke used to defeat the monster. It was exactly the type of attack she wanted him to use, and he didn't disappoint.
On the other hand, the wolf in question was ecstatic. He did; he defeated that annoying golem all alone! He felt truly happy right now, as in the end, he didn't fail his alpha.
Seeing Aurora approaching, he quickly tried to calm down, getting off the golem's corpse. However, no matter how much he tried, the overwhelming excitement in his eyes was very obvious.
Aurora didn't mind this at all. Actually, it was good that he was happy about his success. So, with a simple nod combined with a light smile, Aurora walked past the excited wolf and walked over to pick up the orange gem, as well as the bracelet that dropped from the golem.
After crushing the basic fire crystal, she walked back over to Rejoke, where she proceeded to hand him the bracelet. But this action only confused the wolf, as he didn't understand why Aurora would be giving this strange circular item to him.
Seeing his confusion and hesitation, the little fox narrowed her eyes and literally forced the bracelet onto the wolf's front left paw.
Before Rejoke could even wonder what was happening, he suddenly felt a surge of power enter his body, confusing him even further.
By the time he came out of his daze, Aurora was already standing back in front of the golem's corpse and was converting it using her skill.
[You have unlocked a new system entry.]
[You have met the requirements to unlock the title Knowledge is Power.]
'Huh? A title? But I did nothing, right?' Confused, Aurora opened up the description of the new title she suddenly received.
[Knowledge is Power]
– A title given to those who see and obtain knowledge.
[Requirements to obtain:
- Unlock 100 different archive entries.
[Effects:
- System descriptions become less vague, allowing the user access to more specific and useful information.
- Probabilities will now be displayed in a specific numerical value instead of a phrase.
- Unlocks a title-specific skill: Inspect
'Well, an unexpected surprise, but it's not one I would ever reject.' Chuckling internally, Aurora felt satisfied by the sudden surprise.
The title didn't do much, and it basically didn't increase her combat power at all, but it was definitely a nice utility title. Moreover, she especially liked the part that mentioned the chances.
The not-so-helpful descriptions of chance-based parts of her skills really annoyed her, so if this title worked as she thought it did, it would be very helpful.
So, without even looking at the effects of her new skill, Aurora opened up the descriptions of some of the skills she already had before. And, just as she thought, there were some very welcome differences.
All the probability phrases like 'very small chance' and similar were now replaced with percentage values. Very small became 5%, small 10%, low became 15%, and high became 75%.
'Finally, this thing is exactly what I needed!' She may be overreacting a bit, but this was truly an inconvenience that troubled Aurora for quite some time by now.
While she more or less knew what chance meant higher than another, seeing the actual values helped a ton. So, with her mood even better than before, she closed all the screens about skills and opened up the one about her new skill.
[Inspect]
- Level: Max
- Grade: Exclusive
- Skill type: Active
- Attribute type: None
– A skill that allows the user to learn even more than they ever could.
[On activation:
- Allows the user to view information about any non-living items under the system's influence.
- The user must be directly touching the item to view its description.
'Are you for real!? This is even better than I hoped it would be!' Aurora exclaimed internally, excitement washing over her.
Just like the title itself, this skill held no value in combat but was an absolutely amazing utility skill that she desperately wanted. Until now, the only way for her to see what the items she obtained did was to equip them and then deduce the effects. But now, none of that was necessary, as she could just use this skill to see the information directly.
'Hmm, I know what the things I have on do, but what about this one?' With a single thought, Aurora pulled out a light blue cape out of nowhere. This was precisely the Snow Cloak she had obtained from that yeti a few days ago.
She didn't know what the item did as she only had it in a fake slot, meaning that the cape had no effect on her whatsoever. This also meant that she had no way of seeing its effects, but now that was no longer the case.
[Snow Cloak]
- Grade: Uncommon
– A cloak made out of the silk of spiders known as Ice Weavers. The thread it is made of is incredibly light, as well as nicely cool to touch.
[When equiped:
- Increases agility by 25 points.
- Slightly increases the wearer's ice affinity.
'It really works! Though seeing its effects, I want to equip this cape even more than before.' Feeling a strange mixture of excitement and disappointment, Aurora didn't dwell much on the feelings and instead gazed forward.
Her gaze was steady and as calm as a lake as her eyes stared into the distance. There, across the large lava lake, stood a dark-looking temple, similar to the one they found on the first floor.
'That's the place with the boss, no doubt about it. The question is, how do we get across the lava?' Aurora began to think calmly, falling silent in thought.
Noticing the seriousness of his alpha, Rejoke also finally calmed down and walked over to her, stopping a few steps away. Not wanting to disturb the small fox, he remained silent, simply observing her.
'This is a problem. Unlike the wall, we can't simply climb, or in this case, swim over.' Aurora clicked her tongue, feeling stumped about the current issue.
With the wall, it was pretty obvious what they could do, but here, it was much more difficult to figure out a way across the molten lake. After all, she wasn't stupid enough to go for a swim in lava. She may be fire-resistant, but there's a big difference between fire and lava.
'It's a bit risky, but it's probably our only option.' With a heavy sigh, Aurora began preparing herself. From the start, she had thought up one option, but it truly wasn't one she hoped to use.
'Alright, let's do this.' She looked back, her eyes locking with Rejoke. As if her gaze said everything he needed to know, the wolf nodded in response.
Getting her confirmation, Aurora wasted no more time and jumped towards the lava lake with all her might, quickly followed by Rejoke who did the same.
Before the two could touch the lake surface, a thin ice platform appeared under their feet. Using the split second they had before the ice would melt, they both jumped forward once again.
Yes, this was Aurora's plan. Use the single moment her ice was able to withstand the lava to jump across the lake. A plan that was incredibly risky, as one slip-up could mean death.
However, with perfect timing from both of them, and about 30 long jumps later, the two made their way across the lake.
In total, it cost Aurora 100 points of mana just to create enough platforms for them to get across.
'There's no way I'm going to risk fighting a boss with just this much mana. Let's wait a bit first.' With that, Aurora released the air she held back and lied down on the ground, planning to take a short break.
Rejoke obviously didn't mind this, as he quickly followed suit, lying down as well.