Chapter 5:

I got up clutching my head. It still hurt from overusing my mana. When I opened my eyes, I saw a red haired, red eyed boy sitting beside me. He had 4 black horns sprouting out of his head, going towards his back, 2 scaly black wings and a black scorpion tail.

I was about to scream. but the boy noticed me and covered my mouth. He pointed outside of my half-built house. When I looked outside, I saw 4 griffons eating the corpse of the lion from before. I pulled off the boys hand, and stayed on alert. The griffons finished the lion before surveying the area. After about 10 minutes the griffons got tired and flew away. When the griffons left, the boy sat on his bottom and left out a sigh of relief.

I was still alert and I asked him " Who are you?"

The boy replied " Come on man, calm down, I ain't gonna attack you. I found your house while I was running away from those griffons. Luckily they were satisfied with the corpse of the lion. My name is Leon Ferrell, You can just call me Leon though. I came from the town Hurguston. What's your name?"

He said that while extending his arm out. I Identify him to make sure he isn't lying.

Leon Ferrell Level: ???

It seems, he's telling the truth, though I can't see his level which leaves me uneasy. I hesitate for a moment before retracting my claws and shaking hands with him, while saying " My name is Arjun Hunter, I'm from the town Luron."

Floor 0 has many different towns which each have a portal to enter the first floor. There are 2 types of safe zones, the true safe zones made by the dungeon (every 5 floors), and the man-made safe zones. If the floor permits it, the floor may have many different towns created by different races. Although it may attacked by monsters, it will be protected by the adventurers. These are the man-made safe zones, as they are towns on dangerous floors. Although every 5th floor is a safe zone, there are places you can rest on the other floors. The town I lived in was a relatively small town in floor 0, and it was pretty rural. Floor 0 is an extremely large floor which had empires, continents and oceans. Although it was huge, and the empires were strong, none of the people acted arrogant in the tower unless they had a backing. As for the town Hurguston, I had no idea where it is and how strong it is.

Leon asks me " What race are you? I'm half royal Satan, half Scorpion King."

This surprises me as he is a mix of 2 extremely strong races. Royal Satan's, are demons that have the capability to be the demon lord. Scorpion Kings on the other hand have extremely deadly poison and are really good with earth/sand magic.

Recovering after a moment, I reply " I'm half Black Tiger, half High Elf. My father's a pure-blooded Black Tiger, my mother's a pure-blooded High Elf."

Leon says " Oh nice, those are pretty strong races. Well I'm going to leave, I'm going to make a house nearby to yours. Is that ok?"

I think for a bit and say " Sure."

I think to myself I need to be on more guard these days. Leon leaves and I sit down to rest. My day just started, and it is already tiring. I rest while I check my notifications. I remember hearing the notification dings, but when I say the notifications, I became surprised.

Level Up!You are now Level 2. You gain 2 stat points.

You have understood the mind and esscence of a lion

You have gained 10 spirit

I gain 10 spirit? How the hell did this happen. I understand the mind of a tiger? That confuses me. I tried to remember what happened yesterday. I remember stabbing the lion and using Soul Manipulation on it to kill it faster. I check my skill Soul Manipulation, and what I saw shocked me.

Soul ManipulationYou can manipulate, move and shape your soul at will like an experienced soul mage. Using this skill, your soul is able to absorb the souls of other creatures. Absorbing a soul gives you an increase in your spirit. A whole soul rewards you with the 5% chance to gain something from their soul like exp, skill, memories, etc. Absorbing an incomplete soul or failing to absorb the full soul of a creature will only give you an increase in spirit. Getting interrupted when absorbing a soul causes you to take rebound damage. 15 mana/sec.

I can absorb the souls of my enemies to increase my spirit stat, and I had a 5% chance to gain something from their soul like exp, memories, skills, etc. This greatly shocked me, and I took a while to recover. I was extremely happy, and I realized that I was lucky enough to get the understanding of a lion's mind and its esscence, which even gave me 4 intelligence. You can only acquire special things if you absorb the whole soul if its incomplete, you can only gain spirit. After looking through my notifications, I went to the carcass of the lion. Although all the meat and organs of lion were taken, the hide and bones were still there. I brought both of the items back to my half-built house. I took out my claws and cut the hide making bandages out of it. I then wrapped it around my wounds to help prevent it from getting infected. Some of my minor cuts already healed. I then used the rest of the hide to create a shirt for me as my shirt got destroyed by the lion.

After I finished covering myself up, I thought about where I could put my 2 stat points. In the end, I put 1 into perception and 1 into agility. I chose agility because it is something that is innate to my race, and I chose perception to be able avoid dangerous situations better.

I took a look at my status sheet, before closing it.

Status Window Name:Arjun HunterLevel:2Race:Black Tiger/High Elf HybridGender:MaleTitles Reincarnated One2 Souls, 1 Body Merged Souls-Health Regen:1.2x fasterMana:328 / 328Mana Regen:1.75/ Sec-Strength:16Agility:27Vitality:22Dexterity36Intelligence:49Wisdom:33Charisma:30Luck:20Spirit110Perception 11

" World Clock"

Dungeon time is 10:09 Am. Date is January 1st. Year is 1380 ARP 

When I looked at the time, it seems I was unconscious for about 13 hours. ARP stands for After Race Peace. Before the races were at war, but now they all have a peace treaty and a new calendar started after the treaty was made. It was automatically implemented by the Dungeon when the races changed it.

I went back to finishing my house, which took about 2 hours to finish. My house used many trees to support it and was very sturdy. Since I wanted to camouflage my house, I took the leaves of the trees to cover it. I also smeared mud and dirt on the house as well, leaving only a little space on each side as a window. Finishing up my final touches for the house, I walk to distance not to close to my house, before checking out my new gains.

I first thought to the knowledge I acquired about lions. I felt emotions coursing through my body, I felt indomitable pride, I felt arrogance which is set in my bones, I felt amazing strength and I felt courage to face anything. These are the feelings of a lion, the king of the jungle, it is something innate to all lions. When I see something, I only see prey, I sneak to pounce on it, not because it's strong, but because it might escape. My only friends are my pack, only they are fit to belong by me side.

These thoughts overwhelmed me, and I felt my mana itching to move. I allowed my mana to move, the mana instantly flowed through me with vigor. All of my mana flowed to my right hand, along with all the feelings of a lion. The mana then began to appear on my hand before shaping itself into a lion. My claws extended out and became the teeth of the lion. When the lion fully formed, it let out a loud roar, before disappearing.

I fell onto to the ground sweating out a pool. That mana lion used up all of my mana and energy, and scared me as well. I heard a ding sound before a notification appeared in front of my eyes.

New Skill CreatedYou have created a new skill. You have the right to name it. When you have the name ready, use the skill and say its name.

Thinking about a good name for the skill I created, my memories from Earth surged up. A memory than separated from the rest, it was the memory of Luke reading a web-novel. That web-novel described of a mighty lion known as Regulus, also the brightest star of the constellation Leo the Lion. I thought about it for a while, I finally agreed it was a fitting name. I meditated before I used the skill again, before saying its name. It was pretty hard to use the skill, because I had to experience the same feeling as before. I named the skill Regulus's Snare. Now I can use the skill easily because it became an offical skill of the dungeon.

Regulus's SnareA skill using the essence of lions, mana and the soul to attack enemies. It will dig into the enemy and grab a tight hold on him/her/it. Then you damage the enemy both physically and spiritually. The skill provides protetion to the arm and brings fear to the enemy. The attack is very sharp and can break through armours more easily. 10 percent chance to take away 30 durability from armour, weapons, etc, after one hit. 30 mana/sec. You may shoot out the skill. 45 mana/shot.

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After naming the skill, I sat down to meditate. Since I entered the dungeon, the mana concentration will be much higher, which means I can recover using meditation. After meditation for 10 minutes, I gained the skill meditation.

MeditationMeditating will recover your mana 4x the normal speed. Healing injuries is 1.5x the speed and resting takes 3x less than normal.

I grinned crazily from obtaining such an useful skill. Since my recovered, I went onto something I always wanted to try, Elemental Magic.

To use magic like Fireball or Wind Cut, you have to understand the element to obtain the skill. I don't know exactly what to do, but I sat back down into the meditative stance. I then sent my mana into the soil beneath me and tried to understand it's properties. Every time my mana ran out, I would recover it using my meditation skill.

Time passed by, and I got hungry, so I got up and went looking for food. Wandering the forest, I found a bush full of berries. Just as I was going to touch it, I remembered to use Identify on it.

Poisonous BerriesThese berries are poisonous and makes the person who eats it to be paralyzed for 2 minutes. The effects from 1 hour to 2 hours to work.

"Tch"

I clicked my tongue in annoyance as I wanted to find something to eat fast so I can train longer. I went more in to the forest, when I noticed a Rabbit. I used Identify on it, and it was a Level 1 Snow Hare. 

Snow Hare Level: 1

I sneaked up on using the skill Sneak. My sneak wasn't as good as before as I had to limp on one leg. I picked up a stick, and threw it at the Hare. The Hare dodged to the right, and I charged it, my leg hurt a lot, but I still charged. I tried to strike down on it, but it jumped over my hand and started hopping away. I used Mana Roar which stunned the poor creature. I then used Regulus's Snare which let me have a tight grip on it. The life flowed out of the hare while I stole its soul. I gained 3 spirit out of the Hare.

You have killed a Snow Hare 15 exp

You have gain 3 spirit

When It fell limp, I dropped it before vomiting on the side. Even though I killed the lion before, it was for self defence and I fainted immediately after. This time I killed a defenceless creature and stayed conscious watching it die. This was a first, and I wasn't used to it.

Calming down a little, I took the dead body to my house. I then made a campfire and roasted the Hare. While it was roasting, Leon popped out of nowhere.

" Hey there Arjun, how's it going. I smell something nice, is it ok if I have some? I'll pay you back later."

I stare at him, thinking. I didn't want to give my hard work to him, but I didn't want an enemy so early into the dungeon. After a few moments of hesitation, I handed a leg to Leon. He just smiled back happily before taking the leg and sitting across from me. He started devouring the meat like a hungry pack mule.

I raised my eyebrow at that, and it seems he noticed. He gulps down his food before flashing his smile at me again and saying " I didn't have food before entering the Dungeon. I was too excited. Also, this is one of the best meat I ever tasted. I even got a strength buff from it. Are you a professional cook?"

I already got used to the praise from my cooking, as I practiced cooking at home, which my parents looked. Whenever I was home, my parents forced me to cook for them. The one thing that surprised me was that, the meat tasted extremely delicious even though I didn't do anything to it other than cooking it. It was also the first time someone got a stat bonus from my cooking. It seems only meat from the dungeon can give people stat bonuses. Although there are animals in floor 0, they never gave stat bonuses like the Hare.

I just replied " Nah, I just like cooking."

Not fully convinced, Leon stops questioning me before sucking in his food again. When he finished eating, he said "thanks," before leaving again. Even though he seems friendly enough, I still feel nervous and won't stay off my guard. After I finished my food, I went back to my house and restarted my attempt to understand the fundamentals of earth.

2 days passed on similar to this day, practicing skills, comprehending earth, hunting for food, sharing and talking with Leon. Today was going the same, until I felt something different when I was comprehending the laws of earth.

To be continued.

Status Screen:

Spoiler :

Status Window Name:Arjun HunterLevel:2Race:Black Tiger/High Elf HybridGender:MaleTitles Reincarnated One2 Souls, 1 Body Merged Souls-Health Regen:1.1x fasterMana:328 / 328Mana Regen:1.65/ Sec-Strength:16Agility:27Vitality:22Dexterity36Intelligence:49Wisdom:33Charisma:30Luck:20Spirit113Perception 12

Skill List:

Spoiler :

SkillsMana ManipulationIntermediate Level 3Mana/Soul ArmourBeginner Level 4Mana/Soul ClawBeginner Level 9IdentifyBeginner Level 9Mana/Soul RoarBeginner Level 6Cooking (passive)Advanced Level 1 Engineering (passive) Intermediate Level 3Parkour (passive) Intermediate Level 8Blade Proficiency (passive)Intermediate Level 4Firearms Proficiency (passive)Intermediate Level 2SneakIntermediate Level 5ScoutIntermediate Level 7Leadership (passive) Intermediate Level 9Picklocking Intermediate Level 1Disarm Intermediate Level 2Soul SenseIntermediate Level 1Soul ManipulationIntermediate Level 1Regulus's SnareBeginner Level 1MeditationBeginner Level 2

Author's note: Hey guys, I hope you enjoyed the chapter. I finished the double release, and can finally rest. This chapter was longer, and hopefully all the next chapter will be the same length. The poll is going, well, 21 people actually voted already. That surprised me as I thought I'll have 21 votes only by tomorrow. Remember to leave feedback, criticism, reviews and comments, it will make the story better.