While Ophirian had been on his vengeance-hunting trip, Duke had remined focused on improving his runescripting. Days had passed but Duke had lost track of just how long it had been. Instead, his focus was entirely on the runescript and how to shrink it down to the size he needed. His concentration and focus had been intense until Ophirian appeared in front of him again.
The serpent had the most smug look Duke had ever seen as he slithered up to him. Beyond the smug look, Duke immediately noticed that the serpent was at least twice the size it had last been. How the hell can he grow that fast? What has he been eating?
“Welcome back, Ophirian. From the look on your face, the hunting trip was a success?”
“Oh yes. I killed the entire village of my attackers. Vengeance tastes so sweet.”
Duke didn’t want to ask, but he had no choice, “Tastes sweet – as in you ate the entire village?”
“No, of course not. I eventually got full.”
Duke silently reminded himself that he was not dealing with a person and not to judge the serpent by his own standards. “Well, congratulations. I see that you tiered up as well. That’s great!”
“Yes, tiered up and that is what I wanted to talk to you about. What should I do with my Tier up options? So many things I could do. Too many choices.”
“I’ll ask you a few questions and see if we can get to an answer for you. First question is what have you considered already?”
“I considered taking a different Ability or advancing one.”
“You didn’t consider a new Ability?”
“I did, but I don’t know what I could make.”
“That can be quite the dilemma. You are fast and immensely strong as well as tough. You have a deadly venom and can constrict prey too. What are you missing?”
“I miss nothing. I can sense my prey long before it senses me. I strike with accuracy and speed. None can evade my strikes.”
“Not the point I was trying to make,” Duke cradled his head in his hand for a moment before continuing. “How can you strike at a foe who is outside of the range of your fangs?”
“I TELEPORT the foe to my fangs and they die.”
The statement was so matter-of-fact that it actually gave Duke pause and caused him to consider what his bond had actually said. “Are you saying that you TELEPORT your foe directly onto your fangs and not so close you can bite them?”
“Of course. Why would I waste the motion of biting them when I can just put my fang where they are going to appear?”
“That’s…that’s a good point but not how TELEPORT is supposed to work. You shouldn’t be able to TELEPORT something into solid matter – something to investigate. Call it an interesting development. What if they are too big to TELEPORT to you?”
“Then I TELEPORT to them. You ask foolish questions.”
Duke steadied himself, allowing his frustration to dissipate before beginning again, “How about giving yourself the Ability to spit your venom at a foe? That way you can reach a foe without having to move it or yourself.”
“That’s actually a really good idea. Why didn’t you say that at first?”
Duke held in his response for a breath, “I was using the Socratic method to try and get you to come to the same conclusion I did.”
“The what? Don’t talk in circles. Just say what you mean. You’re very strange. It’s a good thing you are strong, or I would just eat you too.”
“Yeah. Good thing, huh? Well, go learn your new Ability and then go back to hunting. You are still too weak to survive with me where I am going.”
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Ophirian didn’t answer Duke but instead coiled up in the corner of the cavern and began to create his new Ability. Duke, for his part, went back to work on his runescripting and did not even notice when Ophirian slithered out of the cavern to resume hunting.
Ophirian continued to hunt the caverns, gaining strength and power. Every organized group he encountered fascinated him in how they resisted his incursion into their territories. Most did not even know he was there until he decided to show himself but the few who detected him were the ones he most enjoyed dealing with. He learned that power was the ultimate answer. When they sent dozens to attack him all at once, he used a combination of VENOM SPITTING and TELEPORTATION to keep the group from pinning him down.
But he was starting to run into a problem that he had not anticipated. He was growing too large to fight in such enclosed spaces. Food had been more than plentiful and his growth had gotten extreme. With reluctance, he returned to the origin cavern yet again, showing off his Tier Three body to Duke.
Duke put aside the compacted console that he had managed to reduce to the size of his torso to marvel at his bondmate. He could see that the serpent had continued leveling and was now a Tier three creature. But what was more amazing was the sheer size of the serpent. He now took up nearly half of the cavern. How the hell am I going to travel anywhere with him this size?
“You have grown larger than even I expected. And Tier Three as well.”
“I have grown too big to hunt these tunnels and caverns. The prey is…unsatisfying.”
“Oh, have I got just the thing for you.” With focus and Ability, Duke expanded the caverns and tunnels making them tremendous in scale and changed out the existing creatures for all manner of giant-kin, allowing the dungeon free reign to increase to as high as Tier Five.
Ophirian noted the expansion of the tunnel leading to the cavern and quirked his head at Duke, “You have altered the caverns?”
“Indeed, I have. Go have fun hunting but be warned, you are likely to encounter foes who are your match or even beyond your match out there.”
Duke hadn’t finished speaking before the serpent enthusiastically slithered down the tunnel. He chuckled at the tip of the serpent’s tail as it disappeared down the hall.
Turning back to his work, he checked his system clock and noted that it had been a bit over one hundred days since they came to the cavern complex. The quick calculation in his head translated it to one full day outside. I have at most two hundred more days before I have to leave here and get back to preparing for the Contest. Nothing to do, but to do it.
Duke’s Abilities and Skills continued to increase as he worked. When his RUNESCRIPTING Ability finally broke into the Initiate rank, his progress began to accelerate. Since he was working the same runescript construct over and over again, his aptitude with this particular runescript far outpaced his Ability to the point that on the 215th day of dedicated focus, he had finally managed to shrink the script down to where it would fit in the palm of his hand. His shout of joy and triumph echoed down the tunnels and was picked up by numerous creatures who decided to come and investigate.
When the first giant emerged from the tunnel, Duke smiled. It resembled the giant he had encountered in the forest so long ago – the giant that had very nearly killed him. He stood in the center of the cavern with his arms crossed grinning at the monster.
“You want some of this?” Duke chuckled. “You really don’t but if you think you do, by all means, come and get it!”
Duke’s taunting elicited a roar and a charge, the giant cocking its arm holding a stalactite cocking back to smash him. I guess this isn’t one of those smart mobs that is supposed to be running around here.
The giant charged forward, swinging its stone club down with all the force its arm could put into its strike, the wind whistling with the speed of its descent. Duke did not dodge. Instead, he reached up and caught the descending mass of stone in his hands. The impact was tremendous, sending spidering cracks propagating outwards from Duke’s feet as he was driven several centimeters into the floor of the cavern.
His fingers dug into the stone of the club as his feet hooked themselves into the floor of the cavern. He held tight as the giant attempted to pull his club back up. The floor, splintered and cracked as it was, did not hold for long, but long enough to resist the giant’s initial pull. The giant gripped the stone club with both hands and pulled for all he was worth, and Duke simply let go, TELEPORTING to the side of the giant.
With all its might, the giant pulled on his club and met no resistance. The club rocketed upwards and back over its head, the entire momentum of the giant pulling upwards and backwards. Without the expected resistance, it overbalanced and fell onto its back, slamming its head into the floor of the cavern with a tremendous boom.
As the dazed giant cleared its head, Duke flew up in front of its face and shook his head at the brute, “You didn’t consider who you were attacking, did you? Not very smart.” Duke slammed his tonfa lengthwise into the giant’s forehead. The crack of bone echoed throughout the cavern as the giant blinked, stunned again. Duke rose back into the air, moving out of the giant’s reach.
Shaking its aching head, the giant rose to its feet, its club barely gripped in its left hand. With a third shake, its eyes refocused on Duke, narrowing as it studied the man floating in air before him. Duke saw the moment the decision came to the giant’s eyes. With a snapping of its tremendous muscles, it threw the club at Duke with the force of a freight train. Duke TELEPORTED out of the path.
When Duke looked back to where the giant had been standing, all he saw was the rapidly retreating form of the giant. Duke laughed as he watched the brute run away. For a moment, he considered pursuing but decided against it. He had the next, and potentially hardest stage of his project to work on.