It was an odd sensation, the combination of the [One Man Army], [One Who Slaughters], [Big Game Hunter], [Undead Slayer], [Dragon Slayer] and [Annihilator of Demonic Beasts] titles working together to reassure Fran that she was the hunter and that the Chimera, powerful as it was, was nothing more than prey.
She felt absolutely no fear at all. The difference of power between them wasn't so great as the gap that had existed between her and the Demon she had fought in her first Dungeon. No doubts about victory clouded her mind, and despite the fact that the monster was just as fast as she was, it was unable to catch her off guard and she was used to fighting against opponents much faster than she was from her time with Amanda.
Honestly, Fran wished she could just ignore the creature and focus her efforts on beating Archer's location out of that worthless pile of bones, but even if she didn't feel afraid of it, she could rationally understand that the three-headed beast wasn't something to be ignored.
Because of its [Dragon Arts], magic erupted from the monster's body with every move it made, making already hard to dodge attacks impossible to escape unharmed. Even as Fran used a quick faint to avoid the creature's claw and launched her counterattack, the raging wind, fire and lightning elements batted against her body, threatening serious damage.
Lumiose struck against the creature's tough body, as Fran tested the waters to see just how much damage the sword would do. The results were as Fran expected. While Lumiose had no trouble with the Oricalcum armor of the Legendary Undead, the Undead Chimera's body was harder than even the legendary metal. Her blade slowed as it pushed into it, with only Fran's boosted strength stopping the blade from getting stuck all together as the muscles clenched down on it.
Fran had left a long gash in the beast's arm, but it was not damage that would persist, as the monster's regenerative abilities were too strong. Whereas the exchange had left a much larger burn on Fran's own right arm, as the flames licked at her.
The girl only grunted as she continued to speed about, letting Rani take care of healing her wounds as she focused on trying to stay in spots where the beast couldn't reach her as she prepared her next attack.
The target of her next attack was the beast's back leg, aiming for the leg joints. She hit the gas, burning mana as she slammed Lumiose full force into the leg. Her plan was to use [Mana Drain] and [Mana Thief] in order to steal mana back from the monster with each exchange, until it could no longer keep up with the damage she was doing to it.
Flesh gave way before the blade until she hit bone which absorbed most of her momentum. The bone cracked, but didn't give as Fran pulled her sword out of the cut, which was already trying to close itself.
Just like before, fire, wind and electricity slammed into Fran during the short exchange, but to the girl's surprise, it hadn't hurt her like before.
{12 Self-evolution Points have been consumed. Upgrading [Fire Resistance] to maximum level. Upgrade complete. [Nullify Fire] lv1 obtained.}
{24 Self-evolution Points have been consumed. Upgrading [Lightning Resistance] to maximum level. Upgrade complete. [Nullify Lightning] lv1 obtained.}
{12 Self-evolution Points have been consumed. Upgrading [Wind Resistance] to maximum level. Upgrade complete. [Nullify Wind] lv1 obtained.}
{18 Self-evolution Points have been consumed. Upgrading [Physical Resistance] to maximum level. Upgrade complete. [Nullify Physical] lv1 obtained.}
{3 Self-evolution Points have been consumed. Upgrading [Magic Resistance] to maximum level. Upgrade complete. [Nullify Magic] lv1 obtained.}
{20 Self-evolution Points have been consumed. Upgrading [Automatic MP Recovery] into the Unique Skill [High Speed MP Recovery]. Upgrade complete. [High Speed MP Recovery] obtained.}
{20 Self-evolution Points have been consumed. Purchasing the Unique Skill [Dragon Breaker]. [Dragon Breaker] obtained.}
Rani had spent another 109 Evolution Points in order to boost up their damage resistance related skills and had activated their higher level forms in order to nullify the damage, protecting Fran from getting hurt.
On top of that was the [Dragon Breaker] skill, which protected against [Dragon Arts] and reduced the power of [Dragon Arts] of any dragon attacked by them.
Against a pureblooded Dragon, [Dragon Breaker] turned one into a natural predator, but against a hybrid monstrosity like the Chimera, it only had a minimal effect offensively and offered some resistance against its wild magic energy.
(Rani, don't use Nullification skills. Depletes too much mana.) Fran told the sword's other spirit.
Nullifying that singular attack had cost nearly a thousand mana, far more than they had been able to absorb from the monster. It seemed that while the passive resistance skills were free reductions of damage, the nullification skills were extremely expensive.
{Weirder Fran, it is best to make use of my mana supply to negate the Undead Chimera's magic rather than using Lumiose's [Moonlight Magic].} Rani replied.
While there were ways to cheat out more mana out of Archer/Rani's sword, the mana inside of Lumiose was not going to be refilling anytime soon, and as soon as the mana stores dried out, Fran would be losing the edge the sword's buffs were giving her and her stats would be nearly halved.
With [Moonlight Magic], Fran would have been able to not only negate the incoming magic attacks, but reflect them as well. But then it would be Lumiose paying the price, rather than Rani, and the Sword of Dreams would be drained of every last drop of mana within ten attacks.
(Won't use [Moonlight Magic], but don't use Nullification either.) Fran replied. (Chimera's magic won't kill straight out. Just heal the damage.)
{...That is going to hurt.}
(I can take it.) She was not afraid of pain. She would accept it if it could give her an advantage against her enemies. After all, her bones and muscles had been repeatedly breaking and tearing throughout the fight due to her overly boosted strength and speed, without an equal boost to her endurance to balance it out. She could stand a few burns and some electrocution. (Let the enemy burn my flesh and then I take their heads.)
It wasn't exactly the words that Archer had used, but she was paraphrasing.
{...If those are your orders, Master.} Rani replied, lacking Fran's certainty, though she did as she was told and unequipped the nullification based skills.
"Nn!" Fran said before rushing in again, ready to accept the pain in exchange for her victory.
'So cool!'
The Lich couldn't help but shake with excitement as he read the Black Catkin Adventurer's thoughts. Her determination in the face of overwhelming pain sent a shiver up his skeletal spine.
The Noble Necromancer, the Skillful Doppelganger and the Unyielding Black Catkin, each of them was so damn cool. Not only that, the Catkin girl was in possession of a mythical Intelligent Weapon.
It took a little while for the Lich to realize just what it was that the girl was talking to in her mind, giving her information about her enemies and status reports about her situation. Part of that was because of how difficult it was to read her mind.
It appeared as though the Catkin girl and Demoness were wearing equipment that protected against mental manipulation. [Mind Reader] was a tricky skill, and their resistances appeared to be more keyed towards resisting hypnosis and mind control rather than preventing eavesdropping, so he was still able to read their thoughts, it was just a little more difficult. The girl even managed to find an opening against him and bite off a few of his fingers. The cold stare she gave him as she spat the bones out had almost made the Lich break character to squeal at the coolness.
The Lich had spent the last ten years building up his dungeon, waiting for the day that Jean Dovy would return to challenge it once again. He had specialized the entire place in order to give his idol the greatest challenge possible, so that the noble Necromancer could show off his brilliance, and his senpai had not left him disappointed. All of his traps and his twisted labyrinth had been nothing but a joke before the 'Greatest Explorer of the Netherworld' as he led his small group through the Lich's dungeon in a matter of hours, when it should have taken at least a few months for a group five times its size to make it to the final floor, given the accumulated monsters from the past 10 years.
The Lich was in awe of Jean's enginuity and the way he used his undead, and even though the Lich's stats and skill levels were higher than that of the Devilkin's, the Lich couldn't help but to feel he had so much to learn from this legendary adventurer. It was only by dumb luck that the Lich happened to possess a skill to stop Jean from annihilating him in an instant. The fact that he was willing to exchange his very lifeforce in order to make use of his staff's divine power made the Lich feel giddy.
Normally speaking, Divine Energy ignored the rules of the mortal world, being above normal skills and stats. A shield made from Divine Energy could easily withstand the attack from a being with ten times the stats of the user, and would ignore the effects of any skills that said otherwise. It was only because the Lich could bend space to prevent the attack from reaching him that allowed him to survive.
Jean Dovy really was an amazing and resourceful Necromancer, even better than he had been those ten years ago. But this time, he hadn't come alone.
While Jean had provided the resourcefulness for the party of adventurers to get them through the labyrinth and its traps, his other members provided him with the muscle needed to smash through even the toughest of his monsters. A Demon Illusionist and a Magic Sword Girl, each of them having unbelievable strength and stamina and flawless teamwork. Then there was the Doppelganger, whose combat skills simply defied all worldly logic.
Watching their progress through his dungeon and playing the villain for them had made him feel a joy that he hadn't felt in years. He hadn't felt this happy since the first time he had spotted Jean inside of his dungeon and had learned just how cool a Necromancer could be. He couldn't help but to wish that they would somehow make it out of this alive. That they would live to go on more adventures.
*Thud!* *Thump!* *Thud!* *Thump!* *Thud!* *Thump!*
If the Lich had a lip, he would have bitten it as he felt the darkness within him rave against his optimistic thoughts. He struggled against it, that thing that had been festering inside of him for the last fifteen years, ever since he had first become a Lich.
The [Principle of an Element (Impurity)], an Extra Skill born from the dark emotions of the hundreds who had died in the horrible experiments which had created the Lich in the first place. It was a skill that had a will of its own, and desired nothing more than destruction and vengeance.
It was only because of the Goddess of Chaos's blessings upon her Dungeon Master that the Lich kept his sanity for so long against the overwhelming darkness, but he had realized not long ago that he was at the end of his ropes. In the last year, entire days would go by that the Lich would have no recollection of, as the other personality would take control over him.
Deep down he could feel it. He knew that after today, the kind hearted slave boy he once was would be lost completely. At any moment, he would be swallowed up by the darkness.
'I hope that they can defeat me.'
Fran's battle against the Undead Chimera raged on, with Fran striking several blows on the monster, while maintaining a high enough speed to stay out of the way of its attacks. Powerful as it was, and with the innate battle sense from its combat related skills, it was far too predictable to keep up with a girl who had been trained by Archer. Fran wasn't even making constant use of her [Instantaneous Movement] and [Super Herculean Strength] skills, as to save Mana where she could.
After killing and gathering the stones of the 10 Legendary Skeleton Mages into her pocket dimension for later use, she was sitting on fifteen stones. She was somewhat hoping that killing the ones that had fueled its summoning would have hampered the Chimera, but it seemed completely fine. The beast was as lively as a giant rotting corpse could be.
So annoying.
Fran needed to bring down the monster, but its [Instantaneous Regeneration], [Automatic MP Recovery] and [Automatic HP Recovery] made slowly draining it of its stamina next to impossible, and its thick hide made targeting its magic stone also not an option. She supposed that she should be glad that [Dragon Breaker] had sealed the increased regeneration rates it had received from [Dragon Arts] as well.
She herself was in a sort of equilibrium at the moment, draining and recovering as much MP as she spent, while the Undead Chimera's was dropping from its inability to stop itself from using its [Dragon Arts], having its MP stolen, and the need to recover from injuries. Fran could only hope that after draining the giant corpse of its MP, she would have a better chance to hack her way to its core and finish it.
Dodging a lung made towards her, Fran aimed a slash at the monster's foot, cutting off one of its toes, which itself was the size of a human torso.
The giant zombie let out a scream, more of frustration than pain, and whirled about, sending up wind, flames and bolts of lightning, as it once again trained its six eyes on its target.
The giant monster jumped towards the small child, bearing down on her with all three of its heads, with the child just staring straight at it, only for the child to disappear at the last moment.
The Chimera was confused as it looked about itself, trying to figure out where the girl had gone to, when its left and right heads spotted the child off to the side, each one attempting to charge towards her… only to pull in different directions.
The Chimera continued to try to fight against itself, crying in frustration, until it felt a blade get driven into its side.
Confused, it turned to look to see another copy of the child running off after having once again damaged the monster's stomach. Only for the girl to once again disappear in a haze, to be replaced by three more.
(Looks like it has three heads, but no detection based skills among them.) Art said smugly through her connection to Fran and Rani. (You just focus on dish out the damage, I'll keep it distracted for you.)
Art might not have had the strength to participate in the fight herself, but if she could remove the need for Fran to use high speed movements to evade attacks, she could decrease the girl's MP expenditures.
However, her private message to Fran didn't go unnoticed.
"Oh, so you want to distract my pet, do you?" The Lich said with an evil cackle. "How about I give you its undivided attention."
With a flick of one of his boney fingers, the giant Chimera seemed to have a shiver go up its spine before it turned its attention towards Art and Jean.
Its magical presence surged and the blood drained from Art's face, turning her already pale complection to a chalky white. A powerful glow grew in its three mouths as it readied a devastating breath attack.
The Zombie Chimera was at the peak of A-rank, a monstrosity bordering on S-rank. Despite being strong for a C-rank Demonic Beast, Art was powerless before this creature's strength and its intimidation had caused her to freeze up.
'Move. Move you idiot! Move!' Art screamed in her own head, but her body refused to cooperate. It should have stung her pride as a Demon, to be so terrified that she couldn't even move, but fear had dumped sand on her pride. The only thing she could think of was that she and Jean were about to die as the Zombie Chimera unleashed its attack, a swirling blast of wind, fire and lightning combining into a devastating beam of pure destruction.
Fran appeared in front of them, sword raised.
Lumiose glowed with the power of the moonlight mana that had been collected within it as Fran used Moonlight Magic to erect a barrier between her friends and the incoming attack.
The Chimera's [Dragon Arts] breath attack slammed into the barrier with a force that shook the entire room, perhaps even the entire dungeon and Fran had to strain herself against the first impact. She had expected the assault to be short lived and for most of the attack to be reflected. But the blast just kept coming, and what was reflected only served to weaken the surge that came after.
The glow surrounding Lumiose flickered as the sword's mana reserves were drained, but Fran could do nothing but keep the shield up as best she could.
{6 Self-evolution Points have been consumed. Upgrading [Regeneration] to maximum level. Upgrade complete. [Instantaneous Regeneration] lv1 obtained.}
{27 Self-evolution Points have been consumed. Upgrading [Instantaneous Regeneration] to maximum level. Upgrade complete.}
{10 Self-evolution Points have been consumed. Using [Skill Specialization] to upgrade [Instantaneous Regeneration] LvMax to [Instantaneous Regeneration SP]}
{10 Self-evolution Points have been consumed. Using [Skill Specialization] to upgrade [Transformation] to [Transformation SP]}
{12 Self-evolution Points have been consumed. Upgrading [Divine Shield Techniques] from lv1 to lv5. Upgrade complete.}
{16 Self-evolution Points have been consumed. Upgrading [Thread Techniques] from lv1 to lv9. Upgrade complete.}
{Moving to defend Wielder: Fran.}
Rani rapidly consumed 81 more Self-evolution Points in order to unlock new, more powerful skills, before using [Transformation SP] to transform her hilt into a pair of massive wings composed of metal threads, which she folded in front of Fran, guarding the group and allowing Fran to drop her [Moonlight Magic].
Between the layers of resistances, [Perfect Barrier], the level 5 [Divine Shield Technique] [Magic Force Conversion] and the level 9 [Thread Technique] called [Magic Coated Threads], Rani massively increased the defense of her shield, but even so, the giant monster's attack ate away at her durability, making her use [Instantaneous Regeneration] in order to stop her blade from shattering under the force.
{This system can only intercept this attack for 14 more seconds.} Rani reported.
[Magic Force Conversion] allowed the user to convert some of the incoming magical energy back into mana, which Rani could use to play for the other skills, but even if her mana would hold out, her spirit would not.
Rani's primary purpose was to manage skills and perform the necessary calculations to maintain them, but actually using all of these skills and mana was placing a tremendous strain on her. She was even starting to experience that thing the mortals called 'pain'.
She wondered how Nameless had always managed to push his portion of their combined circuitry to the edge of destruction without going crazy, and wished that he was there to help her.
Nameless had always been an unusual case, as while the human souls that had been tried in the past had been unable to adjust after being made a part of their sword, requiring them to be released back into the cycle of reincarnation before they went insane, Nameless didn't merely integrate with the sword well, it was as if he was more stable as a sword than as a human. His essence had accelerated Rani's own recovery.
[Principle of an Element(Swords)]. A skill which represented Nameless's vary soul. Not only was it related to his magecraft, it made him sturdier in spirit and allowed it to recover from damage, reforging itself. Rani wished that she had such a skill at the moment, but with Nameless gone, his skills disappeared with him.
"Nn." Fran nodded, confirming that she had heard.
Moving out of the way wasn't an option. The Chimera would only end up targeting Art and Jean again. She needed to kill it in order to remove the threat.
She canceled the [Moonlight Magic] and redirected all of the remaining power within Lumiose in order to activate the sword's finishing move. "[Pseudo-Godblade Release: Sword of Dreams: Lumiose]!" Fran called out as she raised her sword straight up, causing a shining beam of light to erupt from the blade.
[Pseudo-Godblade Release], the cheap knock off version of the Godblade's [Godblade Release], which would unseal their divine powers.
While more than a match for any mortal weapon in their sealed state, a Godblade couldn't always demonstrate its full potential, if only because doing so would surely kill the wielder.
A Godblade's full divine power wouldn't be used without a price, and that price was almost always some form of human essence, whether that be human lifeforce, spirit, love, experience, or sanity. A price would be paid, greatly limiting the duration that the blade could be used for.
Not wanting Fran to be bled dry, Archer had designed the sword to make use of human prayers which the blade would passively gather. Thus its name, the Sword of Dreams.
This was Fran's first time releasing the blade's true power, and it was so intense that it almost knocked her out right away. Her arms felt as though they were going to snap and tears started to appear in her armor.
Fran barely managed to hang on long enough to swing the sword downward, letting the [Moonlight Blade] cut straight through the ceiling above them, making a gap to one of the higher floors of the Dungeon. Rani split apart before the beam of light could make contact with her shield, letting the two blasts do battle for supremacy.
It was not a battle that lasted long, as the Chimera's breath attack was easily pushed back and the monster that had performed it was cleanly sliced in half, its dragon's head completely destroyed as the other two gave looks of shock before the two halves of its body fell away from one another to the floor.
The beam had continued on towards the Lich, but like all other attacks, it couldn't reach him and changed directions, cutting a large gash in the floor of the room.
Half a second, that was as long as the attack lasted, but once it was complete, Fran could no longer hold up Lumiose's blade.
The cracked and damaged sword, drained of all of its power, slipped through Fran's fingers and clattered against the floor. For what must have been the hundredth time, all of the bones in Fran's arms had shattered, but this time it felt much worse, as none of her skills which helped with pain seemed to be working.
{[Greater Heal]. [Greater Heal]. [Maximum Heal]. [Healing Magic] is having minimal effect. Divine element detected within the injury. Switching to [Angelic Magic].} Rani reported as she attempted to heal Fran's injuries. Her cables shot out towards the corpse of the Zombie Chimera, into its magic stone as the undead creature tried to regenerate itself, having as little luck of Rani had been having.
Self-Evolving:
(Rank 30 | Magic Stone Value 43774/46500 | Memory 445 | Points 821)
ATK: 1302 MP: 22050 Durability: 21850 Mana Channel: SS-
[Title(s) gained: Chimera Slayer, Dungeon Smasher, Emperor of Skills]
{[Angelic Restoration]}
While outside of the Between World, the spell was much more difficult to cast, and placed a larger strain on the sword, costing almost half of Rani's giant mana tank. But it was effective, removing the backlash that Fran had received from releasing all of Lumiose's power in one shot.
Strictly speaking, this same spell could have recovered Jean's injuries as well, but Rani had ran the numbers and determined that the Necromancer was not currently worth the expenditure.
{Are you alright?} Rani asked her.
(Nn.) Fran responded as she got to her feet.
She looked down at Lumiose, which was seriously damaged and out of mana. It would no longer be providing her with any more benefits in this fight. Archer's hard work was nearly completely ruined.
She hoped he wouldn't be too upset about it, but knowing him he'd probably just sigh and throw it in the trash.
Her heart gave a small sting as she wished he was with them, before she returned Lumiose to her pocket dimension.
The sound of clapping brought Fran back as the Lich cackled his annoying laugh, appearing amused that his monster had been defeated.
"Wondrous! Truly wondrous! To think that you would even defeat the monster Chimera that those Reidosean fools were so proud of! You truly are amazing!" The Lich said before his clapping suddenly stopped. "But what are you going to do now? One of your super swords is out of power, and the other is now running low as well, and has no more magic stones to restore its power with. If I don't summon any more undead for you to leech off of, how much longer can you last?"
Fran's tail twisted at the undead Dungeon Master's words, wondering how he had known about Archer's sword's ability.
"Fuhahaha! You want to know how I know!? Well, you were the one who told me! You've been thinking about it every time you gathered a stone!" The Lich said, pointing towards the girl.
"Mind reading." Fran said, her eyes widening ever so slightly.
"That's right." The Lich chuckled. "You must have realized by now that you cannot win, so why not give up? I'd rather not have to damage my soon to be slave."
"...I will never be a slave." Fran spat, drawing Rani and readying herself for more battle.
The memories of her life as a slave momentarily flashed through her mind, giving the Lich pause. "...I see. Reidos is your enemy just as much as it is mine then." The Lich said, tilting his skull to the side. "Perhaps you would like to cooperate with me then, alive, rather than as an undead. I'd be willing to show you mercy if you join me in my veng…"
"Don't need you." Fran said, cutting the Lich off.
The Lich's vengeance probably didn't account for 'freeing' the millions of people who had been enslaved in Reidos. Fran would deal with Reidos in her own time, once she was strong enough, but she wouldn't do it with this monster.
"You know, a smarter person would have at least pretended to agree." The Lich pointed out.
"You can read minds."
"Fuhahaha! So I can! Good point!" The Lich laughed, before turning serious. "Well, if negotiations are off the table, I'll just make you my servent by force."
Fran grunted and then charged forward, not ready to give up the fight.
Compared to before, the match was completely one sided.
Without the buffs from Lumiose, and without a means to restore Rani's mana, Fran's functional strength and speed had been cut down from 5,000 to only 600.
They were still stats comparable to an A-rank adventurer, but they were proving to be not enough against the powers of the Lich.
Art watched helplessly as Fran was taking her beating, barely able to defend herself against the Lich's [Time/Space Magic].
The Demon tried to throw out illusions to confuse the Lich, but the undead Dungeon Master simply ignored them, like they weren't there at all, and any attack she threw was simply redirected, putting Fran in more danger, rather than helping her.
Art gasped as Fran took a serious blow to the stomach, being tossed through the air and coughing up blood. The girl got back to her feet as the Lich slowly walked towards her, amused by her bravery, wanting to take his sweet time and draw this out.
"Dammit!" Art cried, tears streaming from her eyes as she fell to her knees and punched the ground. "Power. I need more power." She said, cursing her weakness. "Please Goddess. Please give me the power to help my friend."
(Well, if that is what you want. I guess I could stand to give you a little push.) A teasing voice said in the back of Art's head. It was then that Art noticed a burning sensation growing inside of her chest. Power was coursing through her, so much power that she felt like she would burst. (With the defeat of the Undead Chimera, you have reached your max level, and I, the Goddess of Chaos, have recognized your determination. So evolve, my child, and show them the meaning of Chaos.)
Fran swung at the Lich with all of her strength letting Rani grow longer in hopes of having her blade reach him, but the attack fell short, space bending in such a way that there was no chance of her hitting the undead monster.
For her troubles, Fran received a fist to her face, knocking her down and leaving her nose bloody.
Rani healed her, but even so, Fran was struggling to get back to her feet when the kick to her stomach came, followed by a spell that bound her to the ground, stopping her from getting back up.
"It has been fun, young Adventurer. But I am afraid our game ends here." The Lich said, drawing a twisted looking knife. "It is time for you to join my army." He raised up the knife and made to slash at Fran, when a hand grabbed onto his wrist midswing. "Huh?"
The Lich turned his head to see a fist covered in black and white mana rushing towards his face. He attempted to bend space so that the attack would be redirected away from him, but his spell was disrupted by the chaotic mana.
"[Chaos Control]!"
The fist slammed into the Lich with the force of a rampaging dragon, and the undead master was thrown through the air, his skull cracking from the impact.
"You stay the hell away from my Fran." Art spat angrily as she stood proud next to her master and friend.
"Art?" Fran said, surprised as she looked up at the Demon Baroness… no. Not a Baroness. Not anymore.
Name: Art
Race: Demon (Demonic Beast)
Status: Normal
Level 40/75
HP: 1802 MP: 2130 STR: 1302 END: 1417
AGI: 1510 INT: 652 MGC: 1663 DEX: 1307
Skills: Acting: Lv9, Darkness Resistance: LvMax, Nullify Darkness: lv4, Light Resistance: LvMax, Nullify Light: lv1, Poison Resistance: LvMax, Poison Immunity, Wind Magic：LvMax, Gale Magic: Lv2; Dark Magic：LvMax, Darkness Magic：Lv5, Light Magic：LvMax, Radiant Magic: Lv2, Illusion Magic：LvMax, Phantom Magic: Lv3, Chaos Magic：Lv7, Sword Arts：Lv8, Sword Technique：Lv7, Presence Concealment：LvMax, Perfect Presence Concealment: Lv1, Shadow Lurk：LvMax, Shadow Traveral：Lv4, Dread：Lv5, Flash Step：Lv5, Action Muffling：LvMax, Silent Movement: Lv3, Mental Resistance：Lv8, Night Cover：LvMax, Shorten Chant：LvMax, Night Vision, Automatic HP Recovery, Automatic MP Recovery, Shapeshift, Disguise Voice, Disguise Appraisal, Hardened Skin, Magic Manipulation
Unique Skills: Predatory Assimilation, Chaos Control
Extra Skills: Racial Mimicry
Innate Skills: Demon Arts: Lv5, Flight: Lv7, Royal Aura: Lv5
Titles: Demon Princess, Familiar of the Sword, Familiar of the Wolf God, Cadet of Hell's Training, Spider Tyrant, Loyal Friend, Chosen of the Goddess of Chaos
After all of the Undead that had been killed in that room, Fran's level had maxed out at 45, and with her level being at its max, all of the experience had been funneled to Art through their contract. With how many high level enemies there were, Art had leveled up more than a dozen times over, and she had evolved.
Her appearance had changed from before.
She had grown about an inch, and her short blue hair had grown to waist length, with the tie from her old ponytail holding it together at the bottom. The horns above her now pointed ears were gone, replaced by four short little horns that barely poked out from behind her bangs, which parted in the front so as to not get in the way of her new third eye. Her gray skin had become a more human if still pale color and a second pair of bat-like wings had grown from her back.
It wasn't just her appearance, Art's stats, which had always been high for a C-rank Demonic Beast, given her training and her Predation Absorption skill, with the exception of her INT, had all increased by 150%, giving her borderline A-rank stats as a freshly minted B-rank. Her Unique Skill of Predation Absorption was upgraded into Predatory Assimilation, and joined by another Unique Skill, 'Chaos Control'.
Art was now stronger than ever.
But her smile, the infectious smile that Fran had always known was still the same as ever. "Come on Fran, let's kick this guy's boney butt."
"Nn!"
I think I need to update half of this story if I wanted to keep up with the new canon from the last 3 years. So I won't.
Spoiler warning for the main series, but apparently Jean's mom is some kind of S+ ranked individuals (One of the Seven Sages), who not only has access to a Godblade, but can also summon Heroic Spirits, up to 7 at once. She also apparently looks just like Jean, only a woman, and is named Jane. She's also apparently the queen of the Devilkin. ...I shit you not.
...Bruh, why didn't you ask for your mom's help taking out the dungeon? She would have steam the Lich. Was it just too embarrassing for you?
The Beast King also apparently has over 3000 STR after his god beast transformation and is surrounded by divine flames that destroy everything they touch and prevent regeneration. He's only real weakness is that he lacks a weapon capable of handling his overwhelming power. Another one of the S-rank Adventurers has 4500 STR after he goes berserk, plus a Godblade.
The S-ranked people are nuts. Apparently, after you reach level 70, all stat gains from level increase by 1000%, and going from level 69 to 70 is even more. Fran got 100-200 in all her stats at level 70.
The Canon for this series annoys me, because it can't keep things consistent.
-Undead don't have souls. Turn your head and look at Stephon and the Lich, and Jean doing all of his farewell stuff.
-Intelligent weapons have to be made by Gods, because mortals can't move around souls... there are like 4 cases of them that say otherwise.
-Unique skills are those given by Gods... that never stayed consistent either.
-Release Potential is an extremely dangerous skill that will kill you in seconds. Bad guys use it for hours.(I think the excuse was they had a potion, but that must be one OP potion.)
-Only Supreme Spirits take on human form, and they are the highest level of spirit equivalent to an A-rank monster. No, any spirit can do that (Sorry to anyone who liked that girl being human and not having had horrible things done to her mind and body. (I wonder if the LN is going to keep that canon. I hope so, only so that Fran can have the horrible moment when *************. God that is going to be tear jerking.)), and did we mention Divine Spirits exist?