Once the scorpion carapace armour was locked in around his chest, with the large sword, Severance, at his side, Merownis honestly looked rather imposing. Arguably he was imposing in a different way while naked, but I had done my absolute best to ignore that truth until I could fix it. Seeing him now, he truly looked like a character from a TV show or video game.
Standing at around my own height, if you ignored the ears, he was already quite different from the cowering kitten of a Sundercat I had met a few days prior. The rising levels and increased strength looked healthy on him. Merownis’ orange fur was lustrous, his stripes pitch black in contrast to the bright colour. His yellow eyes were clear and keen at all times, but softened currently by his apparent good mood. A smile full of very sharp teeth was lazily locked on his face.
In a way, his appearance helped keep me from becoming too grounded myself. Not that there was much risk with the constantly changing situation, but having a literal humanoid tiger cracking jokes in my ear was a surprising uplift to my mood. It wasn’t that everything had gone to shit, it had just become ridiculous. I could work with whimsy easier than crushing despair, so I rolled with it.
“Go on then,” I prompted, “tell me what I’ve missed.” A lot could happen in a night within the dungeon. Now I had been made aware of how long I worked, the truth of it was evident. Not only from the sun already sitting in the sky but from my own body. Although my attributes allowed me to ignore the issue somewhat, exhaustion was slowly creeping into my bones. Naea hovered around me with a disapproving look. She seemed exactly the same.
As for Merownis? He looked well enough, but had clearly been fighting. He carried the healthy glow of a few levels up. Even having gained one myself, I felt a little jealous. Not only is his soul lighter than mine, the Party Leader bond made it so he received more experience by virtue of my higher level making it easier for him to “catch up”.
“I mostly kept a perimeter of the forest plateau, ranging around a mile or two outwards. My body feels like my own after the evolution, finally. Severance is an immaculate weapon, though a little costly to use. It doles out death well enough, but my largest growth was in Magic Missile.” An excited smile
Aside from being jarred by the fact that we were technically on a massive yet short plateau, I just nodded along, taking in the new information. It was interesting that his skills levelled faster, even ones I had no knowledge of myself. I wasn’t sure how that worked but it seemed impressively useful. “The quantity of scorpions to fight was falling noticeably. It just wasn’t worth the effort to chase down small pockets and going into the tunnels below was out of the question.” Merownis continued before sighing. “That boost you give is serious, though. It felt like I had to stop myself from gaining strength too quickly.”
That also caught my attention. I had similar feelings, but when presented by someone else they sounded as ridiculous as they truly were. “Why? Why not get as strong as you can, as fast as you can?”
For a moment, Merownis looked confused at the question, before that same confusion turned inwards. “Actually, you’re right. Why did I…?”
“Oh silly uncultured boys of mine. If only someone could illuminate this bizarre occurrence.” Batting her eyes liberally, the fairy began floating in a circle over our heads. Naea took a special delight in revealing the System’s secrets once I had uncovered enough of the truth to know about them, so I indulged her by leaning forward and making my eyes wide.
“Gee,” I joked, “I sure would love it if you could share this information with pathetic, stupid ol’ me.” Naea scoffed at me and Merownis just looked even more confused, which in turn made me laugh instead. He may have spent a week with her, but he clearly didn’t know her like I did. I found that I quite liked the special bond once I noticed it.
“Alright since you asked so nicely, it’s a mental barrier to stop you from blowing up.” As though that explained everything, Naea nodded to herself. Considering her job finished, she proudly returned to my shoulder. I dumped her off unceremoniously and told her to keep talking. “Fine,” she rolled her eyes. “Basically, there’s no real limit to the amount of experience you can get at once but there is a limit to how much your body can take. You keep trying to level up without settling the gains and your core goes pop.
“What does pop mean?” I asked, worried. I had lost track of myself on more than one occasion, gaining levels without noticing. Had I risked this danger without knowing, only to be pulled back by some unconscious message from the System?
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“Don’t worry about it,” Naea said casually, “just don’t overdo it if you feel like you’re stronger than you can handle.”
We probed a little more but Naea wouldn’t spill any more details. After a while, Merownis returned to his story. He pushed himself for a little while longer before he returned to the forest. The first thing he had done was check the arena. “It had been repaired by some of the denizens of the forest without us knowing,” Merownis told me, and for some reason I felt touched.
“I know it’s not our arena or anything, but it was nice of whoever to fix it up…” I imagined the Attack Animals would likely have had something to do with it. I was vaguely interested in the disciples of the late Master Thorn but hadn’t taken the time to seek them out. Merownis grunted in agreement before his face became serious.
“The situation in the forest is… changing,” he said. Naea sat herself on my shoulder as we moved over to the large chairs. I removed a few drinks and sandwiches from the Xaverweave Pouch and laid out an impromptu lunch which I quickly began devouring.
“How so?” I asked, mouth full of bread, chicken and lettuce. “From what to what?” I had only been half listening as he explained all the intricate ways he could now control his Magic Missiles, but now he had my full attention. This was an issue which had begun to tickle in my ears when there were no other sounds around. I was connected to the forest zone in a similar way as I was to Merownis. It wasn’t a detailed back and forth, just a sensation which I was slowly understanding.
“It is difficult to know,” Merownis shrugged, “but I think… It is likely a good thing. The forest is… Tense. There are still new creatures appearing, but they do not have the desire to seek you out to fight. But at the same time, there is uneasiness.”
I hadn’t really thought about what would happen to the zone once I claimed it, but the fact that it was still growing and changing was interesting. I couldn’t say it was a good thing, as I would have honestly preferred if it just became quiet and stagnant. Then again, unpredictability was basically a hallmark of the System at this point. “Over what?”
“There’s no clear master to the place.”
“Isn’t that meant to be me?”
“We hardly made that clear.” Merownis just held up his hands, as though to say these weren’t his thoughts. Was that why the crowd had been gathered as it was? Did they think that Merownis might defeat me and claim the forest as his own? I wasn’t really interested in the power struggle of the place, but it was good to know where loyalties lay. The System might consider me the owner of the forest area, having defeated the other claimant, but only the Attack Animals had really been witness at the time. “When the Scorpion Prince attacked before we could begin…”
Merownis trailed off but I understood. The denizens of the forest had seen me fight for my own life and then disappear for days. More than that, thanks to my obsessive crafting session. Though, it wasn’t like we had done badly. “We killed it, though,” I argued half-heartedly.
“Yes, we did.” Merownis’ eyes were firm, demanding that I understand the implication he was making. I did, but I wasn’t sure Merownis had followed the line of reasoning to the end.
“Are you saying it wasn’t clear how much stronger than you I am? You want to fight me again?” I playfully swirled my mana around, moving it through my skill patterns and tracing my channels with the energy. In the most gentle way possible, I had outgrown the challenge which Merownis could pose to me quickly. I was a little sad that I would likely not be able to have a true fight with Merownis now. I was changing too quickly.
“Honestly, not at all. Your growth is explosive.” Almost wistfully, Merownis wondered aloud. “If the ambush where we met had just been a little faster, this dungeon might have been over already.” I waited for him to smile at the joke, but he just continued looking off into the middle distance, imagining a victory over me.
I narrowed my eyes at the morbid wishful thinking but let it pass. I didn’t like this line of thinking either. We had been decently matched in our last fight but the difference between us now was a wide gap. One which would only get larger, I hoped. It wasn’t that leaving Merownis behind was my goal, but the quicker I became stronger than everything around me, the sooner I would be safe. My eyes found Severance, sitting against the tigerman’s hip. “Would any large show of strength be enough?”
Tapping his chin thoughtfully, Merownis nodded. “It would have to be against a worthy enemy, though. I’m not sure there are any in the forest with that claim anymore.”
“Ah, don’t worry,” I laughed, “there’s a worthy enemy alright. Get some rest while I clean up here and then we’re going out again.”
“Oh yeah?” Merownis yawned. “What’s the plan, boss?”
I chuckled and picked up the large sword, channelling mana into it. I doubted this would ever feel like my weapon, especially with the Jingu Bang working so well, but it was powerful. In some ways, far more powerful than anything else I had found. “We’re going to give the System a bloody nose. The forest needs a show of force to calm down and trust me? I can give it that.”