[You have defeated the Wolf of Fire Boreus level 50.]
[You have reached level 15]
[You have...
...
...
[You have reached level 20]
[You have received an Advanced Fire Crystal.]
[You have received the Flaming Ruby Earring.]
[Congratulations! You have defeated the boss of the second floor and are now able to move onto the final floor.]
'Phew.' Seeing all the messages appear in front of her eyes, Aurora let out a slight sigh in relief. Thankfully, she was able to kill Boreus before things could get tricky.
'Though I must say, these guys are really good exp bags. With this one, I went all the way up to level 20 already.' With a light chuckle, she was about to jump down from the second floor, only to realize that the lava lake still covered the arena.
'Wait! What about my items!?' Realization dawned on her, causing her to quickly panic.
There was no way she would lose an advanced attribute crystal as well as a most probably really powerful item in such a way so easily.
But just as she was about to do some really reckless things, Boreus's body began to disappear, bursting into particles of mana. And as if responding to its boss's disappearance, the temple glowed slightly, and all the lava began to slowly disappear.
Soon all the lava from the arena was gone, once again replaced by the original stone floor. And in the middle of the repaired arena lied two shiny, small items.
Seeing the two glistering dots of light, Aurora quickly jumped down from the second floor, rushing over to pick up her spoils of war. With how quickly she did everything, it looked like she was afraid that the two items might disappear any second.
Her tiny paws swiftly snatched both the crystal and the earring, tightly grabbing them. The strength of her grip alone caused the fire crystal to crack, and soon it began to leak energy—energy that entered her body right after.
[Your fire soul vessel has reached level 4.]
Feeling her fire soul vessel grow more powerful, Aurora merely smiled slightly and looked at her right paw. The light of the shiny red ruby reflected in her aquamarine eyes, and she couldn't help but be momentarily taken aback by the gem's beauty.
Even though she already had quite a bit of various accessories, one of which was a similar earring she got from Aurus, she never really took her time to appreciate how masterfully made some of these simple accessories were.
However, she soon shook her head, realizing that she shouldn't get caught up on such things right now.
'Actually, how about I look at what this thing does before equipping it?' Aurora smiled slightly, activating her title skill.
[Flaming Ruby Earring]
- Grade: Rare
– A simple earring made out of pure astral silver. The ruby embedded in the earring's construction is a special gem with high fire properties.
[When equipped:
- Increases both intelligence and mana by 20 points.
- Increases the wearer's fire affinity.
'Hmm, it truly is a counterpart to the other earring.' Aurora thought as her eyes fell once again on the beautiful piece of jewelry.
She couldn't help but think that it wasn't a coincidence that she received these two earrings in particular, much less so considering she got them from two bosses of the same dungeon.
However, she didn't linger on that thought for two long. It was absolutely possible that the drops received from a boss were predetermined, so she didn't pay it much mind. Instead, she merely just equipped the earring and called it a day.
'My fire and ice soul vessels are now on the same level, and the increase in the respective affinities granted to me by my accessories is also equal.' Aurora smirked internally. With this new earring, her magic has once again reached a new height.
'Now that I think about it, I'm also sitting on top of a lot of free points, aren't I?' Thinking of her magic and stats, Aurora seemed to remember a small detail that she had forgotten about.
After her evolution to the first rank, her level-up rewards have gotten increased. Even if we were to ignore the title she had gotten for becoming a unique being, just being a rank 1 beast granted her a free stat point per level up.
Considering that she was now at level 20 and had never used her free points before, she should have a decent amount saved up.
[Status]
- Name: Aurora
- Race: Fiery Icebloom Kitsune
- Rank: 1
- Level: 20
[Energy:
- HP: 224/224
- MP: 275/275
- SP: 224/244
[Stats:
- Health: 72 -> 114 (+10)
- Intelligence: 83 -> 135(+60)
- Mana: 83 -> 135 (+40)
- Strength: 70 -> 112 (+20)
- Agility: 77 -> 119 (+15)
- Defense: 67 -> 109 (+15)
[Free points: 38
'Holy! I haven't realized my intelligence was already this high! If I were to add just a few of my free into it, I could reach a total of 200 points of intelligence.' Seeing her current status, Aurora couldn't help but exclaim internally.
She had grown exponentially in quite a short period of time. Heck, all her stats were already above at least a hundred points, not to mention her intelligence that was almost touching the 200-point mark.
However, Aurora had also noticed one thing. Namely, her free stat points. She had a total of 38 free points, which checks out if you do the math. At least, that would be the case normally. However, she possessed a title that increased her natural stat growth by 10%.
Looking at her normal stats, they had all increased by 42 points instead of 38. This more or less checks out, because if you increased the number 38, you would get somewhere close to the number 42.
'So the title's effect doesn't apply to free points but only to my normal stats. That makes me wonder...' Aurora fell in thought as she tried to figure out what exactly the systen meant by 'natural stat growth'.
If she used up all her free points and added them to, let's say, intelligence, would that value get increased by 10% or not? This was something she could easily test out by simply using her free points; however, she really wasn't curious enough to waste her points.
She didn't need to use them up right now, and who knew when they might come in handy? Using them now rashly could end up badly for her, so she just pushed her earlier thoughts to the side. There was no point in dwelling about such a question; she would get an answer to it sooner or later anyway.
In the end, Aurora just simply closed all the system windows she had opened up and looked forward, her gaze locking onto a familiar blue vortex.
The swirl of mana looked exactly the same as all the ones she saw before, but even then, it was different. This portal would take her to the final floor of the dungeon, where she would probably have to face one last challenge.
Despite knowing what kind of danger this portal represented, Aurora's gaze was as firm and calm as ever. There wasn't a single trace of nervousness or worry in her eyes.
The same could, however, not be said for a certain black wolf that was standing about a meter away from the small fox. Rejoke was very clearly hesitant about entering the portal. Both Aurus and the even more powerful Boreus were terrifying enemies in his eyes. One could only imagine what kind of danger awaited them on the other side.
Rejoke was afraid; of course he was. The bosses of the first two floors were beasts he couldn't even dream of fighting against with his current strength. If the boss they would have to get through on the final floor was even stronger than that, he truly didn't want to see such an enemy if that were the case.
But he also knew he didn't have much of a choice. There was basically zero chance that Aurora wouldn't go through the portal, which meant he would have to follow her. Not to mention that the final flood was probably the only way out of the dungeon.
Still, even if he realized all that, his instincts wouldn't calm down no matter what. They screamed in fright, telling him not to go anywhere near that magical gate.
Yet, as he saw his alpha walk fearlessly towards the blue vortex, he found himself unconsciously walking forward as well. No matter what danger awaited them, he would follow the small white fox anywhere she went, even if it meant he would lose his life.
Completely oblivious to Rejoke's internal struggle, Aurora stepped through the blue portal, soon appearing in a completely different space from the arena.
A long hall stretched out in front of her, dimly illuminated by lanterns glowing with golden light. Despite them being lit for who knows how long, the flame inside the lanterns was still burning brightly.
The walls of the long corridor were styled in a Japanese fashion, seemingly made out of equisite paper. The red wooden pillars were lined with gold, resembling flaming patterns as well as snowflakes.
Everything about this hall seemed to be made with the utmost care and precision for even the smallest details. The design not only looked elegant but also gave off a sense of grandness.
'Sure looks like a place worthy of a final boss.' Aurora couldn't help but marvel over the craftsmanship of the interior of what was probably a palace.
She had a feeling that unlike the previous two floors, on this one, she wouldn't have to look for the final boss. Proof of which was the lack of any presence in this palace. Even after she stretched her aura out as much as she could, she couldn't sense anything alive in this place. Anything except one.
Just straight ahead, maybe about a hundred meters, she could feel an incredibly powerful aura. What's more is that while the aura didn't lose in power to her own at all, it actually even felt supressed.
If a supressed aura was already as powerful as hers, just how powerful was the being of such incredible presence? Aurora didn't know the exact answer, but she knew one thing. Whatever that thing she was feeling was, it was absurdly strong.
'There's no way I can beat that. Even if I use everything I have, the chances are still so slim that it wouldn't be inaccurate to call them nonexistent.' Aurora lamented internally, feeling some apprehension.
She knew. She knew that if she fought whatever that thing was, she would lose 99.99% of the time no matter what she did. Maybe, and only maybe if she did everything perfectly and executed each action during the fight without any mistakes, then she might have a shot of surviving the confrontation.
That's right. Surviving, not winning. That's just how powerful that beast in front of her probably is, which meant one thing.
'That thing is evolved. It's already in the second rank. No matter how strong I may be in the first rank, there's no way I can compare to second ranks.' Aurora sighed internally, feeling truly helpless.
This was the first time she had encountered such a powerful being. A being of the second rank. How powerful were those who evolved two times already? Aurora didn't know, at least not until now.
With a heavy heart, Aurora looked over her small body, her eyes falling on the black wolf standing behind her. Obviously, Rejoke followed her in as soon as she stepped into the portal.
However, the instant he emerged from the rift, he immediately froze up, unable to move an inch. It wasn't some kind of magic or a spell. It was something much simpler. Fear.
As soon as he appeared in this place, Rejoke felt only one thing. Death. He felt as if the reaper's scrythe was looming over his head. The fear he felt was so intense that his brain couldn't even process anything that was happening and simply froze up.
With a heavy sigh, Aurora turned back and faced forward. As she stared into the long hall, all she felt was helplessness and, surprisingly, anger. She wasn't afraid; she was just angry. Angry at her own weakness.
'Here I thought that I finally gained some strength. But now, in the face of such a beast, I'm nothing but the same helpless fox that couldn't do anything to that tree back then.' With a complicated gaze, Aurora took a step forward, making her way towards the source of that aura she felt.