Previously, in the Dungeon Core room.
*
*
William knew the humans were fucked. The Dungeon Core was about to spend all its energy in a massive explosion. He hoped George could save his female and the lightning-aspect rabbit-wolf-reindeer-eagle pup. It would break William's heart to lose another friend like Tom, who fell into a slime pit. Well, they were already running away. William hoped they could run fast enough.
Facing the other side of the Core opposite to the angry human, he stood on his rear hooves and braced his horn against the crystalline lifeform. There. It could explode all it wanted, and William would be safe.
"What are you doing, you dumb beast?" The haughty human asked with rage in his voice. William thought what a dumb creature the human was because he was pounding the crystal with his non-dominant soft paw, instead of using his head or metal-clad hooves. Feet. These poor, soft creatures didn't even have the mercy of being born with hooves.
"Bahhhhh!" William sighed.
"Oh, I see! You want to brace the core so my strikes can deal more damage! All right!"
Dumb human.
William wouldn't spend another bleat to tell him how wrong he was. No, sir. He would just keep his horn touching the Core so he would survive the explosion. It would be cool if he timed his move to touch the Core with his horn at the last moment but fuck that! William hadn't survived as long as he did by playing it cool. He did it by playing it safe.
The Core got more and more brittle as it reached the inevitable destructive apotheosis. It was chipping and flaking as it vibrated against William's horn, releasing damaging energy. The human's gauntlets chipped and so did his hands. But in such a maniacal state, he didn't stop pounding even when his hands broke. It was as if William was a battering ram that collided dozens of times per second. He pushed against the Core to make sure he had contact at the right moment.
Then, to nobody's surprise, BOOM. The Dungeon Core exploded. William's first ever Perk, "Hornficiet Parry" shielded him from the blast, making it flow around his body. The human... let's not talk about what the blast did to the human. William didn't see it because he was temporarily blinded by the flash. But he jerked his head and bashed the core at the exact right moment. He heard two screams and then nothing.
When the light disappeared, it was all dark, so he still didn't see the human. He smelled burnt flesh but it was the boss slug back there. Yeah, definitely the boss slug and not the arrogant human who had disappeared. Bones? What bones? William had more to worry about than some bone shrapnel against the far wall. The blast also caused a cave-in. He used his second Perk, "Hoofect Step" to jump from rock to rock as they fell, staying on top of the pile.
The System chimed its praise, as always.
> You gained the achievement, Dungeon ('s feelings) Breaker.
> You can select any two species evolution you qualify for.
William had two Legendary choices and they were the highest-rarity ones. He picked both, replacing his current species and triggering an Ascension. After all that, he had to rest and evolve.
*
*
The flashback is over. Back to our normal programming.
*
*
William and I waited until Kara and Sleepy woke up naturally. Only then did I use my Class' new trait to check my bonds' Status.
Name: William Olɿ Species: Silver-Square-Eyes Phantom-Thief Tityron Rarity: 2x Legendary Level 36 Strength 941 Dexterity 1195 Endurance 2327 Intelligence 260 Wisdom 244 Clarity 145 Charisma 253 Health (HP) 47083 Mana (MP) 1141 Stamina (SP) 1816
Traits:
> Chimeric Strength: Like all chimeras, your flesh is 20% stronger for each fused base animal (currently 40%) you are made out of.
>
> Weather-Hoof Wool: Your wool has an innate ability to regulate temperature. You treat all environmental temperatures as sqrt(Endurance) degrees Celsius closer to your comfort zone. You take 75% less damage from cold and fire attacks.
>
> Capricornucopia: You can store up to sqrt(Endurance+Strength+Clarity) kilograms of mass in a dimensional pocket. Time does not pass inside.
>
> Ghoast Mode: You can toggle an immaterial state at will. While immaterial: You exert no pressure upon fluids surrounding you. Physical attacks deal no damage while energy attacks deal 50% more damage. You can move through solid objects and creatures. Attempting to become corporeal again while inside solid matter shunts you to the nearest open space, dealing severe damage to both you and the solid matter as you are shunted.
>
> Goathon Hand: You have a spectral fifth limb that is detached from your body. It is invisible and incorporeal but can manipulate objects as well as a hand with half your Strength and Dexterity score can. The Goat Hand can send items it can lift into your Caprinurcopia storage.
>
> Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.
>
> M-Bleathril Horns: Your horns are laced with Mithril, granting them great resilience. They deal double damage to creatures vulnerable to silver, truesilver, and/or mithril. This Mithril reverts to ordinary silver if separated from your body.
>
> Square-Cube Eyes: Spend MP to Change the inertia, kinetic energy, and momentum of objects and creatures in your sight.
>
> Bleautiful Eyes: Enemies who stare into your square eyes are stunned for sqrt(Strength+Clarity+Charisma+Endurance) milliseconds. They become immune to this effect for the next 24 hours.
Perks:
> Hornficient Parry: Increase your Dexterity score by 50% when parrying with your horns. Attacks and effects successfully parried by your horns deal no damage to you.
>
> Hoofect Step: Reduce all penalties by 50% when performing acrobatic jumps.
>
> Woolesome Armor: Reduce damage from attacks and effects that touch your wool by 34% before it is applied to your HP. Your wool is immune to burning and corrosion.
>
> Impala-ing Horns: Your piercing attacks with your horns have a 10% odds of scoring a critical hit, ignoring the target's HP, if any.
>
> Billy Jean is not my Goat: If you so desire, you may appear exactly as an ordinary Tityron.
>
> Smooth Goatminal: While immaterial, you may become invisible for a small MP cost.
>
> Just Bleat It: You can taunt enemies with a bleat. Enemies suffer a 50% accuracy penalty if they target your allies while you are still active in combat.
>
> Beast of Burden: When carrying or pulling heavy loads, you move as if it were 75% lighter. Your carrying capacity is unchanged.
>
> Pushcart Expert: When pulling a cart, it has 75% lesser inertia. Wheels ignore 50% of any terrain movement penalties.
>
> Luggage Preservation: Luggage in your care is water and oil-proof; it also enjoys Hardness equal to 20% of your Endurance score. Perishables in your care deteriorate sqrt(1+Endurance/50) times slower.
What a cheater His HP was way over nine thousand! Five times! William became way stronger than me. Bloody hell, look at that Endurance score! He was basically immune to steel weapons, for sure. And why do several of his Features sound like puns or song titles? William's Attributes were too high until I figured it out. His Attribute Efficiency points also doubled when he gained the Core Breaker achievement, making his growth seem exponential.
I could only imagine what would happen if the Redscale Basilisk managed to claim the Core if that is what happened to William. It wasn't strong enough to defeat the Molluskull but it would surely gain heaps of levels grinding the Dungeon until it was strong enough to tackle the boss and claim the Core. William's steep power climb was a sobering reason to keep monsters from becoming Dungeon Breakers. The power scale was off the charts. I could guarantee that any person without the Dungeon Breaker achievement under level 80 would lose to William in a fair fight.
*
*
I also checked Sleepy's Status, to see what the little guy had going on for him.
Name: Sleepy Species: Wolfertinger Rarity: Legendary Level 32 Strength 297 Dexterity 558 Endurance 646 Intelligence 106 Wisdom 237 Clarity 558 Charisma 45 Health (HP) 4625 Mana (MP) 2533 Stamina (SP) 1641
Traits:
> Chimeric Strength: Like all chimeras, your flesh is 20% stronger for each fused base animal (currently 80%) you are made out of.
>
> Wolf's Hunger: You can consume up to sqrt(Endurance/10) kilograms of food before your stomach becomes full.
>
> Rabbit's Reflexes: Increase your Dexterity score by 50% for evasion purposes.
>
> Reindeer's Red Nose: Immune to ice and cold damage. Reduce heat and fire damage received by 50%. When temperatures drop below zero Celsius, your nose starts to glow. An area with a radius of sqrt(Clarity) meters has its temperature set to 5ºC. Ice and Cold attacks that come into contact with this area are weakened by 50%.
>
> Hawk's Acrobatics: When flying, double your Dexterity for maneuverability and speed purposes. You require less wingspan to fly.
>
> Al-Mi'raj's Impaling Horns: Al attacks made with your horn deal 50% more damage and may cause critical hits.
>
> Jackalope's Lightning: Immune to Lightning damage and Stun effects. MP costs for lightning spells are reduced by (N/2)% where N is the percentage of your antlers that remain intact.
>
> Wolpertinger's Immunities: Immune to poison and acid damage. Immune to diseases and parasites.
>
> Wolfertinger's Tenacity: Reduce bleeding damage by 80%. You may ignore fatal and incapacitating wounds for sqrt(Endurance) seconds. The latter effect has a 4-hour cooldown if you survive.
Perks:
> Last of your Kind: You are the last Wolfertinger alive. Once per day, when dealt a fatal wound, you take only half the physical damage.
>
> Fast Budding: Your antlers, fur, and feathers grow sqrt(Endurance/100) times faster if they aren't yet at maximum size.
>
> Rejuvenating Sleep: You heal and recover resources sqrt[(Endurance+Clarity)/100] times faster when sleeping.
>
> Ball Lightning: You may cast lightning spells as an AOE effect centered on you. This AOE effect deals 25% less damage to each target.
>
> Mostly Harmless: Increase your Charisma by 50% when engaging in non-hostile social interactions.
Compared to evolved William, Sleepy's Status now looked lackluster. But he still had double the Attribute points a Rare person his level would. My guess about his Perks and HP pool was about right. And what about all those Immunities and survival features? Was that how he survived the Rescale Basilisk's bite?
But when I read the "Last of your Kind" Perk, I became really sad. At least I could tell Alice to stop the search for more Wolfertingers.
That was superb. I was so proud of my two bonds. I feel like I was the one holding them back now.
*
*
I closed their Status windows. Then, I spent a long while staring at the Tityron's cube eyes. "Bloody hells. You broke the damn Core. It didn't violate the contract because I didn't order you to do that and Hector wasn't a combatant anyway. Nobody would ever expect a monster of all people to get it. Is that why you stayed behind?"
"Bahhhhh!" William said.
"I see," I lied. I didn't understand shit. "Damn. Nobody can know this."
"Bahhhhh!" William said with a roll of his eyes.
"You cannot use any powers from your evolutions. Just be a normal Tityron. Can you do that?"
"Bahhhhh!" William said.
"Okay, bud. You do you."
That double Legendary monster was a potential heap of trouble. I didn't mind that he was giving me these many Attribute points. Seriously, between my two bonds, I was getting almost ten points per level, and that meant two full rarity levels. Not accounting for my PP, I had the same Attribute Points per level as a Mythic rarity, the biggest one publicly known.
"Show me what you can do, William. Wraithform!"
The Tityron became transparent, like a ghost. I waved my hand through him, feeling a shiver climb up my spine.
Next, we tried his dimensional storage and phantom thief powers. He could store around half a cubic meter of stuff. The things he could steal were light but seeing him manipulate the objects in the air opened several new options for both combat and daily life. No longer the lack of thumbs would hinder William.
His Chilling Horns attack left frostbite on the tunnel walls when he rammed them. His horns had grown extremely hard and resilient. When I tried scratching them with a knife, the silvery horns left dents on the knife and showed no signs of even a scratch. I found a line of metal but it was the residue left from the knife.
I patted the side of his neck. "I'm so glad you are alive, William."
"Bahhhhh!" William licked me. His tongue had these tiny cubic shapes in place of the taste buds. Or these were his taste buds.
"Now, seriously. Try to stay as normal as possible in front of other people. And keep Sleepy safe. He's the little guy now."
"Bahhhhh!" William said as if it was obvious he would do that.