Richard was in fact, not doing all right. He was currently being chased by a very disturbed drake.

Of course his day had not in fact, started like that. For the past few weeks, the gang had undergone major leveling, and everyone had grown ten levels, with the exception of one squirrel, who had gone to level 4. He was growing just a bit slower. And what were the stats like? Well:

Species: Octopulse

Bloodline: Kraken(dormant) Octopulse(active)

Level: 10/50

Health: 240/240

Spd: 58

ATK: 145

Mana: 1400/1400

Def: 38

Skills: Flash, camouflage, hypnotize, wring, ink blast, fog, hyperbeam, illusion, rapidfire

Species: Blood tick

Bloodline: Blood Tick(active)

Level: 10/25

Health: 39

Spd:24.5

ATK:38

Mana: 29/29

Def: 89

Species: Screecher squirrel

Bloodlines: Ratatoskr(active) Screecher squirrel (active)

Level: 5/100

Health:1000/1000

Spd: 160

ATK: 120

Mana: 240/240

Def: 240

Skills: Mock, shriek, sharpen, gnaw, erode, camouflage, tail whip,

Species: Lightning Dragon (Hatchling)

Level 10/25

Health: 318/318(+39)

Spd: 68(+24.5)

ATK: 78(+38)

Mana: 113/103

Def: 58(+89)

Skills: Scratch, Glide, Screech, Appraisal(lvl 4), fireball, rock smash, splash, vine whip, shock, icicle, stealth, heal, wind slash, molten claws, charge, lightning pulse, static, frost fang, frost smash, book of oaths, shapeshifting, berserk rage, hyper sense, lightning spear, thunder spear volley, storm , blizzard, rockslide, flame thrower, head smash

Mana circles: 0

Points: 1500

Skill Points: 7

[Inventory]

[Gacha]

[Shop]

The results were pretty satisfying overall, having worked hard to get to these levels. Despite having only gotten 5 levels, he was already on their level, which made Richard seriously glad that he had an evolution sooner than the rat did.

Richard had even managed to upgrade appraisal to a higher level, and he could now also see attack and defense. A huge improvement to before. And the others had learned the skills through improvisation and effort. Richard could save those points for the store, which could have something he needs.

Earlier that day they had ran into a weird creature. True, most monsters are weird, but most monsters don’t incur a request to kill the creature.

On a walk back home after exploring the nearby area, Richard was in for a rough surprise when something lunged out of the water and latched onto his arm. Immediately, Richard used berserk rage and activated thunder blast, which caused the creature to let go and roll off as soon as possible, as if reacting to the imminent danger.

The creature was firmly amphibian, that’s for sure. Slimy body and shaped like a salamander. What was abnormally weird however, was the creature’s head. The creature already looked a great deal like a salamander, were it not for the fact its body was twice his size, and the huge angular head. The teeth were horrific, for despite their stubby appearance, they hurt like hell. He knew, because they pierced through his skin easily, when most others met some level of resistance.

As he winced in pain, and Panda distracted the beast, Richard used appraisal. He found the beast was called:

Species: Acidic diplocaulus???

Level: 30/80

Hp: 3000/10000

ATK: 300

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

Def:80

[Alert]

[Quest has been issued]

[Investigate the reappearance of the Extinct Acidic Diplocaulus And Discover The Cause]

[Reward: 4 levels for player Richard and all familiars]

Richard squinted at the beast as he started realizing the significance of the creature. The system rarely approached him first, rather letting him come to it. It matched his desire to pursue knowledge. The fact that it wanted this creature to be investigated meant there was something special about it.

He would sadly have to kill it to find his answer. The creature had assaulted them by the river and showed no interest in talking things out. This was the wild and it was a kill or be killed situation.

…

The creature was rather hard to kill. They quickly discovered the meaning to acidic in it’s name when attempting to scratch resulted in painful sensations. That put panda out, and limited Krackle’s ability to act considering their physical capabilities.

Luckily, however, it was found that the creatures skin was extremely sensitive to fire and lightning. That changed things for sure. With panda continuously laying on the insults and Krackle now sticking to rapidfire and the blinding ink blast, Richards became the main attacker. By using a storm, resulting in the area becoming a constant barrage of rain and lightning, in turn with thunder spear volley, the poor diplocaulus found itself under a rain of pain.

The storm also helped conceal Richard and his team, with the storm fogging up the area and constant lightning and thunder being natural distractions, with the smoking gun of the occasional ink blast, the creature was constantly unable to see.

This didn’t mean they weren’t having trouble though.

The storm was a spell that required constant maintenance, and as a result was burning through his mana. Unlike the concrusher and the saber tooth rats, this creature could not be grappled to death. Even with molten claws on, Richard found himself stinging at the pain resulting from merely touching the creature’s skin.

Krackle was doing fine. 1000 mana meant it was fine in terms of mana use, and Atlas was really just lying on his back above all else. He didn’t have to do anything else besides be an addition to Richard’s stats.

Near exhausted, they finally managed to bring down the giant beast down after a few hours of thunder volleying and distracting the beast. Richard began looking at the beast.

Activating molten claw, Richard started digging through the beast’s intestine, looking for something that may give hints as to why it existed. True, the hint could’ve been somewhere else on the body, but Richard had already taken a quick look at the exterior of the creature. Besides some heavy damage some large chunks taken out of the beast, as well as a few fingers missing, there were no hints, nor any notifications that he had found something.

Digging through the intestines was obviously disgusting. Ignoring the fact that he had been allowing the others to eat the intestine, digging through the digestive tract was not a fun experience. Eventually though, he found it while scrounging through the brain, where he found a weird little stone. Despite being just a stone inside the beast’s brain (many monsters have weird organs) the little stone gleamed like nothing else. A mysterious black shard that gleamed with an unnatural light. Seeing as he hadn’t gained the quest reward, he decided to appraise to see if this is what he was looking for. When he cast appraisal though:

[Lxxarxx Stone]

[Your appraisal level is not high enough to identify this]

[Congratulations for completing the quest! 4 levels given to each member in the party]

Immediately Richards felt a surge in power as he went up 4 levels. Even though he was going up 4 levels though, the hatchling felt unsatisfied. What was this stone? Why was it classified to him? What could it do for him one day? With questions rising, Richard would have to put it aside. It seems in the battle between the weird critter, and them, that they had unknowingly been unaware of a dangerous presence stalking them.

Looming over them was a water drake, easily twice Richard’s size and very clearly peeved. Thinking about it, Richard quickly connected the dots. The diplocaulus hadn’t met them unscathed. It had been heavily injured. Quickly casting appraisal, Richard found out:

Species: Cave lake Drake

Level 100/250

HP:10000/10000

ATK: 600

Def:400

Richard could feel it, just looking at this creature. ‘Run’ he commanded his familiars immediately and they turned tail and fled. As Krackle quickly wrapped themself around him, he could feel pain and saw the drake tear a tentacle off Krackle as they fled, but Richard kept running, knowing they could deal with this later.

The drake was obviously playing with them as it leisurely chased them down, lunging at them from time to time, occasionally taking bites out of them. Exhaustion had begun setting in after the first few hours, and he was sure if stamina had been a stat, then Richard would already be low. They barely managed to get by using Panda’s taunts to redirect blows to it, and only barely missing. Tufts of fur were missing at this point though.

Richard wasn’t sure what he could do. Lure them to the rat’s base? Try escaping outside? Plunge deeper into the caves for a solution? As his mind raced, a presence entered his awareness, and he gulped, aware that the decision had been made for him.

…

Alexandria stirred as she sensed something fleeing in her direction. Normally, she’d have ignored it or even eaten it, considering the situation, but the whole flock fleeing in her direction were an amusing bunch.

The fact that an octopus was on land, wrapped around a thunder monitor was weird enough, ignoring the powerful bloodline pumping through it. Not as strong as hers of course, but strong enough to be worth keeping as a pet.

If the octopus spawnling had not been weird enough, the squirrel was extraordinary, for she could sense divine blood running through it, meaning that the squirrel had a divine patron. This was a rather extraordinary find. Getting close to anyone of such connection could only be beneficial.

Perhaps the weirdest of all of them though was the hatchling running in the forefront. Yes, the hatchling. Despite its best attempts, she could sense the draconic blood. And no matter how dumb the drake that lived nearby was, she was sure it could sense the same on a primal level. And based on her senses, it had no bloodlines, no ancestry. It was a mana spawned hatchling. The fact that it had managed to even survive was amazing, and it was allowing a blood tick to leech on, of all things. Such a crowd would not be ignored. Not when they could be such fun.

‘I’m sure this’ll be fun’ thought Alexandria.

She licked her lips in anticipation, and moved forth to lay claim to what she decided was hers. That drake had made one advance too many before this, and she decided it was time to be rid of such nuisance.

…

Richard could only hold his breath as she approached. A huge serpentine shape loomed out of the abyss, its scales were a beautiful shade of ruby, trailing all the way into the unknown. Her body was large, yet not thick, with a lean yet muscled shape, slim and well-toned. The head, like the arrowhead to the arrow, was a sharp and outstanding feature to the body. Her head ended in frills, with vivid yellow (perhaps orange) webbing.

Her eyes were a dark sapphire blue, with a diamond shaped pupil in the middle of this large and wonderous eye. Yes, the serpentine creature was easily meters long, though Richard could not determine how long.

Casting appraisal, Richard found:

Species: Storm Monarch Wyrm

Lvl:297/300

Hp:100000/100000

ATK:10000

Def:5000

Mana: 88000/88000

[Congratulations! Appraisal has reached lvl(5)! The mana stat is now appraisable!]

‘Not Helping!’ Thought Richard, as the wyrm turned towards him, and as its tongue flickered out, he swore she knew what he had done something, and a smirk snaked its way across the wyrm’s mouth.

Richard was both enamored and frightened, and he clearly wasn’t the only one. The cave lake drake stared up at the wyrm, reverence and fear shining through on it’s face.

Boom!

Those expressions would remain on its face for a second longer as the pulsing glow of a red spike of lightning reflected against the face of the beast, with the lightning bolt itself impaled through the beast’s brain. With a simple pop the cave lake drake’s head exploded, and all that was left was a headless corpse on the floor. An appetizing scent begun to leak from the body, but there was a far more pressing matter at hand.

The looming head of the wyrm, seemingly satisfied, turned towards him, and purred, the vibration shaking the nearby tunnels.

“ Now what will I do with you?” The scaled mistress asked, as her tongue flickered through the air.