Tom tried to reach Jay across the room, but there were still too many smaller bats to make it to him quickly. Tom tried using Identify on the creature to see what they were up against.

Elder Bat Abomination

This creature is the result of an experiment by the Mad Scientist who has been working with DNA splicing to create monsters of horror to unleash on the world. By combining the DNA of a human and a bat, the Mad Scientist achieved something that should never have been created. Growing to human proportions, this monstrosity is the culmination of decades of work and should never be let loose.

HP

895/1250

MP

400/500

SP

450/500

Attacks

Claw, Vampiric Bite, Ultrasonic Blast

Tom could only see pieces of the fight through the slit Jay had carved in the monster's wings.

"Someone get to Jay now!" Tom called out as he punched bats out of the air with his fists of fire.

Bodies littered the floor from the tattoo that Tom had activated and walking was becoming treacherous. Kevin suddenly bolted across the room, heedless of the bites and scratches he received, and barreled into the large bat, grabbing it and wrapping it in a bear hug. The pair rolled off of Jay, who had his hands over his face to protect it from attack. Tom could see gashes on Jay's torso and his clothes were bloody.

Swatting two more bats out of the air, Tom let of of the Eldritch Blast spells loose at another target and cast Dark Healing on Jay. This time though, he began to channel some of the excess energy into the spell accidentally. As he continued, trying to fend off the bats with one hand and beginning to take bites, Tom received a prompt.

Dark Healing has Evolved!

Through your use of this spell and the application of other magical principles, Dark Healing has evolved to Dark Restoration! You can now channel mana into the spell to heal more damage. The longer the spell is active, the more mana it will need to stay active.

Tom minimized the prompt quickly to review later and grabbed a bat off of his shoulder with his flame-covered hand. It sizzled and screamed from the burning before he tossed it away. Suddenly Jay shot up from the floor, looking around with wide eyes.

"SHUT IT OFF!!!!" He yelled at Tom. "I feel like someone injected adrenaline straight into my heart! HEEEERRRRAAAAAAAAAGGGHHHH!!!"

He let out the final bellow as he dashed toward the Elder Bat and began punching it in the stomach like a boxer going after a speed bag. Tom cut off the healing spell and instead used his Fear skill. The bats flying at him suddenly changed directions screeching at his presence. Tom could see the fear in their human eyes as they tried desperately to get as far away from him as they could.

Many of them became confused and began to fly into the walls or each other. The Elder Bat was beginning to get mad at the punches Jay was landing. Fortunately, he saw this and switched to punch daggers. With the blades between his middle and third fingers, he began stab-punching the monster instead, ripping his hands to the sides instead of straight back as Kevin switched his grip to a full Nelson instead of a bear hug to expose the creature more.

Gash after gash appeared on the monster's body until it began to sag in Kevin's grip from blood loss. Soon its head fell to its chest as it lapsed into unconsciousness. Kevin began to let go and pulled its head back to look at its face. Seeing it wasn't quite dead yet, he grabbed it by the chin, then placed his other hand on a shoulder and pulled as hard as he could. The creature's head ripped completely off the body, pulling a small amount of the spine out with it as it did. Blood didn't fountain out of the body as expected due to Jay's previous draining.

The remaining bats in the room went apeshit crazy at the Elder Bat's death. They began flying even more fervently as they continued to die by the dozens from Tom's Tattoo. Soon, there were only a few left fluttering around, and the team quickly picked them off.

"Fucking hell! We need more AOE shit for these damn swarms," Jay commented as he slumped to the ground against a wall, the excess energy he had absorbed burned off now.

"Agreed," Tom said as he too sat down to recover momentarily. "Next time we are back to the guild we look for something in the vending machines."

After resting for a minute or two longer, the team got up to loot the bats. The smaller bats didn't have anything worth taking with them. Tom moved to look around the room and found that the Elder Bat had several gemstones hidden in a nest behind the statue it had been purchased on.

"What are these for?" Tom asked, holding up a sapphire the size of an orange to inspect it.

Infused Sapphire

This sapphire has been infused with mana to be used in either crafting or smithing projects to give the item a boost in power as well as possible skills.

Rarity

Epic

Clarity

Flawless

Cut

Excellent

"Great. Just one more set of things I don't understand about this system." Tom thought to himself as he held the gem.

It was an absolute monster of a gem. The first thought Tom had was that he struck it rich with such a treasure. Then he remembered that money was dead and Monster Cores were king of the currency now, so that dream died almost immediately. Maybe Roland could make something with these. He grabbed each one and placed them in his inventory.

Seeing nothing else of value, the team returned down the hallway to where Kiera and James were waiting. James was still sitting on the floor and was now rocking back and forth. When he looked up and saw the others, he stopped moving and began to stand up.

"You got them?" James asked.

"We killed them. You don't have to worry about that anymore. And you probably shouldn't do this dungeon again." Tom said, placing a hand on James' shoulder.

"Yeah, I don't want to see that again. Hopefully, there aren't more of them." James said looking down at his shoes.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

"We'll handle them if there are. But for now, let's head on to the next area." Tom assured James as he pulled him in for a hug.

James hadn't been expecting the hug and froze for a moment before putting his arms around Tom as well.

"Thank you," James said quietly in Tom's ear.

Pulling away, they turned to head to the next hallway. Further down and on the right, the team turned into the hall and Jay took point with his flashlight again. When they got to the end of the hall, the room was lit with torchlight, so Jay put away his flashlight. Inside were a bunch of conch shells that were large enough to give Tom pause. What kind of snails could grow to be so large? Remembering seeing some of the videos about African Giant Snails on the internet, Tom couldn't help but wonder how invasive a species this size might be.

Each one stood about five feet tall and eight feet long. They just sat on the floor with no signs of movement.

"What the hell are these things?" Kiera asked placing a hand on one of the shells. "They are very pretty."

Tom used Identify on the shells.

Giraffe Conch

These creatures are another abomination of the Mad Scientist in his attempt to find more dangerous creatures to unleash on the realms. They have an incredible reach and can be very deadly.

HP

400/400

MP

10/10

SP

50/50

Attacks

Poison Missile

"That's weird," Tom commented, looking at the information the system provided about the creature.

Derek walked over and used Identify as well to see the stats.

"Why would they have such odd stats? This seems like...AH!" Derek suddenly said as something hit his armor with a loud ping sound and knocked him off balance.

Looking at the creatures, Tom saw a yellow and brown tube pulling back into the shell of the creature closest to them. On the floor was a six-inch-long spike with purple liquid dripping off of it. Picking up the spike Tom inspected it as well.

Giraffe Conch Spine

This spine was shot from a Giraffe Conch and is coated in one of the most toxic poisons in the world. One drop of this poison is enough to kill over one hundred adult males of species not resistant to poison.

"Oh, shit," Tom said, almost under his breath.

Suddenly giraffe heads and necks began protruding from the conch shells as the team took a few steps backward.

"Watch out for the spines they shoot! They're deadly poisonous!" Tom called to the others.

Just as Tom said this, the giraffe heads began to inhale and lean back one at a time.

"DODGE!" Tom yelled, seeing the movement and recognizing it as a similar motion to what he had done as a child spitting watermelon seeds in the field with his friends.

Spines began to fly at them from the mouths of the giraffes. Jumping out of the way, the team managed to dodge all of the projectiles. The necks just sat there after releasing a volley and stared at them.

"Was that it?" Jay asked.

"Maybe we should..." Tom began but broke off suddenly as he saw a lump rising up the neck of one of the giraffe heads. "What the hell is that?"

Pointing at the giraffe he had been looking at, the others followed his line of sight to the giraffe's head in question. When the lump got to the head, a small tip of a spine showed out of the mouth.

"So, there's a tell," Derek said looking at the creature with a new gleam in his eye. "Looks like they take time to reload. When they fire the spines, attack while they reload."

Preparing to dodge again, everyone dove out of the way of the spray of spines launched at them again. As soon as they recovered, they charged at the creatures, hacking, and slashing at the necks. In less than a minute, all the heads were lying on the floor and the creatures were dead. They left purple blood behind that seemed to be staining the floor as well.

Jay pulled a mason jar out of his inventory, picked up as many of the spines as he could, and placed them inside.

"What are you doing with those?" Tom asked him.

"Saving them for poison making. Might come in handy one day. You never know." Jay said and then moved over to one of the conch shells and stuck his hand inside.

"Oh, that's just gross, now what are you after?" Tom asked him again, seeing Jay up to his shoulder in the creature.

"Poison gland. They all have to have one. Can use that too." Jay replied sticking his tongue out of his mouth slightly in concentration. "Aha! There it is!"

Jay pulled out a small purple sack filled with a liquid that made it look like a water balloon. He took another mason jar out of his inventory and placed it inside. When he had filled this jar as well he motioned for them to head back to the hallway.

The next path diverted to the left. Inside the room, they found a room filled with raccoons that had rattlesnakes for tails. These creatures really weren't very effective, except for the bites from the tails. Derek told the others to stay back and just went on a stomping spree, his armor keeping him completely protected from the snake bites. No one wanted anything from this room, as the creatures had nothing but shiny rocks stored in a hole they had dug in the side of the dungeon wall.

The last room in the hall before getting to the end, was on the right. When they entered this room, twelve men were standing in the room. Confused, Tom inspected them.

Minotaur-Centaur Hybrids

A failed experiment of the Mad Scientist, this experiment was designed to give the centaurs horns and sturdier legs so they didn't break and cause the creature to need to be put down. Unfortunately, every offspring of these hybrids were just regular humans.

HP

250/250

MP

100/100

SP

300/300

Attacks

Punch, Kick, Bite, Scratch

With no real danger here, the team made short work of the rabid men in the room. They attacked with the ferocity of animals but had none of the finesse or instincts they did. It appeared as though they had never been taught to interact with other humans, so they retained some sort of feral behavior.

With the men dead, the team headed onto the last room at the end of the hall. Nothing could have prepared them for what they saw when they entered.