Changing Tactics

After we arrived in our new home, I started increasing my skills constantly. I had so much to train now too, I could fight boredom quite easily. I was looking forward for the hunting part now but only because I could increase some of my skills even further this way. I barely did the hunting myself, almost like the past leader of the colony. Instead, I was giving my bat minion orders and the rest followed him naturally. It took a few attempts for the others bats to understand what I wanted but with a bit of patience, it went rather smoothly. At that point in time, I didn't want to increase the number of my bat minions however. I wanted to tame better monsters.

My magic skills increased steadily. I eventually reached my goal and tried to cast " Shadow Magic ". Turns out, the first levels weren't very useful. I didn't give up on it however, it was after all the only magic I could use right now. Each level gave a new spell to practice and I was hoping the higher levels of that magic would be more useful. Eventually, to my satisfaction, I got " Solid Shadow " at level 5. In those dark tunnels, shadows were everywhere. I already had a few ideas to make that spell useful...

One of the advantages off training my magic was that I gained magic related skills as well! But of course, magic was not the only skill I kept training. I trained every skills I could train...

My " Taming " skill quickly became the skill " Summon ". With it, I could summon a tamed monster from almost anywhere! Very useful but the distance and number of possible summons increased by the rank of the skill. My own minion strength increased too... but I wasn't very satisfied with it. I wondered if I took a young one and train it, I could maybe make it evolve into a Sonic Bat like myself. I wasn't keen in getting another bat minion but the experiment was worth trying. I found an acceptable one who was LV.8 and made it my new minion. I made sure to train it so that he would evolve quickly during the hunts. I was satisfied when I was given the option to make it evolve into a Sonic Bat, which I did. I made the pack gather food for it as I knew the poor thing would be hungry when it wakes up.

I was wondering if I could break the link between me and my very first minion now as I knew full well he wouldn't evolve anymore. In any case, once my second minion become stronger, I'll just make it in charge of the colony. I made sure to give it the skills needed for that though he learned them slowly. I figured just improving his "Wailing" skill would be enough though. I took him on private training session, increasing both our " Wailing " and " Heresy Resistance" in the same time. It was the best way to make sure he will replace me when I'm gone.

Such thoughts made me realize something however... I didn't want to stay as the leader of those bats. Don't get me wrong, my life in the colony was now comfortable (especially since I could use my Divine Medicine skill to relieve my hunger)... but I missed the countryside and the open sky above my head.

Such thoughts had become more and more frequent recently and improving my skills was no longer enough to distract me from them. One day, I finally decided I would need to leave the bat's colony soon. My level didn't increase much compared to my skills recently because I didn't beat enough monsters. I figured I should start either aiming for the other floors or see if I can follow the humans to the outside world.

I decided to first try to venture on the floors below to see the strength of the monsters there. I wanted to test my new skills and ability against something a bit more challenging. I figured that if I could face one of those winged lion for example, I could probably face some of the humans on my own if needed. I also wondered what my next evolution would be if I had one.

I finally decided to go on a special hunt down to the layers below. My " Fire Resistance" had become high enough so the heat wasn't affecting me. After a while, I noticed the tunnel curved slightly and I could see at the other end a red light. The heat from this place made my " Fire Resistance " skill rise up two times, it was that intense! The smell of sulfur had become stronger too, I could already guess I was heading to a volcanic area.

Sure enough, the floor opened in a huge hole with what looked like an ocean of lava and rocks. I was flying above the hole, trying to detect a hostile presence below... when a shiver down my spine called my " Danger Perception " skill warned me of something coming from ... behind me!

I used my Summon skill and called my first minion, the Adult Cave Bat, to act like a shield while I ducked below the hole. I barely heard a shriek from my minion before sensing something heavy landing on the ground behind me. I didn't need to turn around, my " Blindsense" skill told me it was a gigantic spider monster. My minion didn't stand a chance, it was swallowed even before that huge monster landed on the ground.

Everything after that happened very fast. A colony of monsters in the lava swam toward the spider intruder. I could sense they had either not noticed me or chosen to ignore me compared to the new threat. I slowed down and turned around to see the resulting fight. I moved slightly closer to use Appraisal on one of the minions of the big dragon in the front, who seemed like the big boss of this troop. The one I chose looked like a big black sea horse. Turns out he was higher level than me but that he was very lacking in skills. I was pretty sure I could defeat it from a distance but if its corpse felt in the lava pit, I wouldn't be able to retrieve it. But also... that was only on the condition it was alone. There was too many monsters to try anything and the dragon-like creature in the front was most probably too high level for me to handle.

The fight between the giant spider monster and those lava monster was horribly short. It only took one giant spell from the spider monster to kill most of the monsters in front of it! It gave me some cold shiver down my spine. If I had being just a tiny bit slower, I would have being killed earlier! The giant spider monster left calmly toward another hole in the ground nearby. I saw everything, shivering in fear. I didn't expect the middle level of this labyrinth to be so scary!

No, that spider monster is the scary one. It went back another level below. Im sure some of the monster here must be manageabe but I'm clearly not strong enough to go further down below!

" Skill profiency reached. Skill "Predicting LV.9" became "Predicting LV.10 "

" Conditions Met. Predicting LV.10 has become Foresight LV.1 "

Ok, that's sweet and all but what should I do now?

I was starting to wonder if I should just head back up the hole I came down from when I noticed the fire dragon from earlier wasn't dead. He seemingly spotted a small spider monster I didn't spot at first nearby. They proceeded to battle each other. I wondered what to do before noticing a few monsters who I thought were dead were actually squirming and trying to swim away. One of them was lying on the ground, far from the battle of the fire dragon. It seemed to be a smaller version of the fire dragon. The huge magic explosion from earlier knocked it back on the shore and it was clearly severely injured. Breathing heavily, it was trying to crawl back to the lava...

This was my chance! I flew at top speed toward it, no time for stealth. I wasn't sure the spider monster would be able to last long but I could recognize a good opportunity when I saw one. Appraisal told me that monster was a drake and that it was normally way stronger then I was. Right now however, it was very low on HP and I was confident to defeat it in one or two blow. It spotted me but it couldn't match my speed. It tried to use a fireball attack against me but I dodged it easily and counterattacked using my Wailing skill... but to my surprise, it didn't made it unconscious! Using Appraisal, I realized he had two rank in " Heresy Resistance " so it could endure the blow.

The creature now seemingly understood I was more dangerous then it thought. It retaliated with a tail whip. The attack was even faster then the fireball! I could see that if it missed me, it would land in the lava, sending lava all over and maybe even push the creature into the lava lake. I couldn't allow it to happen so I would have to endure the blow and catch the tail... not an easy task as a lightweight! On top of that, it released a stream of flame in my direction once its head had flipped at the right angle. Such move proven it was veteran battler. Fearing I was biting more then I could chew, I activated a new skill I got while training my magic: " Magic Act ". Then, using my Shadow Magic, I hardened the shadows around me:

SHADOW ARMOR!

It looked outright sinister. I created this with a lot of practice. I could only use it when my Magic Act was active for now but I suspected it would be easier once I became more familiar with it. Although the shadow around me had hardened, it was also extremely light so it wasn't affecting my movement.

Not wasting time, I dodged narrowly the stream of flame but realized too late I couldn't dodge the tail completely because of it, even with my skills. It was probably due to that drake " Probability Correction " skill. I braced myself for the impact, biting hard while my own tail grappled the tail of the beast to make sure I wasn't throw away by the impact into the lava below. The hit was stronger then what I expected, it took half of my HP! Fortunately for me, my armor absorbed most of the impact and my " Diamond Tooth" skill was high level. It literally cut the tail in one bite! Hailing in surprise and agony, the creature lost balance and fallen on the side. Full of adrenaline and not wanting to give it a chance to rise up again, I dived to it's neck and gave one final bite. The drake twitched, only once, before it died.

Wow, two bites and it was down! How anticlimactic! I was hoping... Nah, forget it.

I realized it would be lying to myself if I thought I wanted an epic battle to try my new " Shadow Armor" magic. It proven to be quite effective though, it had blocked the tail whip damage quite effectively.

I looked back at the battle between the fire dragon and the spider further ahead... It seem it was still going?!

Wow, how strong is that little spider?!

I had no time to ponder though. I didn't want to stay and face either of them for now. Beside, the mysterious voice announced me I gained so many levels and a lot of skills rose up in ranks! I was very satisfied of the results of my exploration... but what interested me the most was this: "

" Proficiency reached. The skill " Fighting Spirit LV.1" have being gained. "

" Condition met. Title " Drake Killer " received. "

" The effects of the title " Drake Killer ": " Life LV.1 " and " Drake Power LV.1" have being received. "

I was excited from it but in the same time, I was worried for the bat colony above. I used my Stealth skill to fly back where I came from and flew upward toward the colony. I was hoping they were safe...

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Sorry for the delay, again. But life is hard on my lately. Lots of stress. I have to move away, will be in training for a new job, etc. I have not given up on my two fanfics however. I just don't know when I'll have the time for it during the incoming summer. Also, I know he gained " the " Drake Power " title quite easily but it's because he had the golden opportunity to kill a high level drake who was almost dead. He just recognized a golden opportunity when he saw it... but their is another reason, something that will be revealed in a later chapter.