It didn’t take very long for Lone to get to work immediately on raising his acid and corrosion resistances. To him, that was more important than even the quest which had brought them down here.
Of course, they were slowly killing the little slimy monsters, just at a rate far slower than they were actually capable of. Up to this point, Lone had gotten both skills to beginner-level-five.
Right now though, some far larger variants had shown up and attached themselves to Lone, much to his pleasure since they were even better for his skill level-ups.
Congratulations! The host's passive skill [Acid Resistance] has levelled up! It is now Beginner Level 6.
Congratulations! The host's passive skill [Acid Resistance] has levelled up! It is now Beginner Level 7.
Congratulations! The host's passive skill [Acid Resistance] has levelled up! It is now Beginner Level 8.
Congratulations! The host's passive skill [Corrosion Resistance] has levelled up! It is now Beginner Level 6.
Congratulations! The host's passive skill [Corrosion Resistance] has levelled up! It is now Beginner Level 7.
Congratulations! The host's passive skill [Corrosion Resistance] has levelled up! It is now Beginner Level 8.
"This is probably enough for the day. I have a feeling that if we continued, we'd run into a chief or maybe even a king slime. I don’t know about you, but I’d rather not do that when my mana's so low from blowing these things up and supplying my Basic Regeneration with enough mana to stop me from melting," Lone said as he used two final Fireballs on the baby slimes that were trying their best to eat through his flesh.
Congratulations! The host's active fire magic skill [Fireball] has levelled up! It is now Beginner Level 5.
They hadn’t been down here for all that long, but Lone’s Fireball had already levelled a total of four times, which was encouraging.
Sophie nodded. "Very well. We have not gained any levels from this 'adventure’, and we were also hoping you would rank up, but we are sure you are happy with your skill progress regardless, yes?"
Lone smiled back at her through the dimly lit sewer pipe that they were in. "You bet your ass I'm happy. It's a shame the slimes didn't hurt me enough to warrant a Basic Regeneration level-up though."
Sophie just shook her head upon seeing Lone's goofy smile, she then spun around on her heels and began walking towards the exit that they'd entered from.
"Hey, gimme a sec to collect their cores, would you?" Lone requested in complaint before he quickly harvested the slimes' cores then caught up to the armoured girl.
Lone squinted his eyes through the darkness and as soon as he had caught up with Sophie, he sighed and said, "Ah, fuck. I got shit water on my tails. I really needed that light of yours to avoid that-"
"We have company," Sophie said in a quiet voice.
Lone immediately shut up and wore a serious expression. "Slimes?"
Shaking her head, she replied in a whisper, "Worse, Humans. There are 24 of them within 150 metres of us. Right at the end of this tunnel, there is one looking right at us. I think he has a skill to see in the dark. What do we do? You do not wish us to expose our Teleportation to the public, correct? If we kill them all we assume that would not be an issue."
Lone frowned in worry. "No, I don't and yeah, I guess that’s right but murdering two dozen people hardly sounds ideal... Are they hostile? Can you tell that?"
"Well, the looks on their faces do not particularly evoke feelings of friendliness, and they are not dressed like adventurers... more like... well-to-do beggars," Sophie explained as she handed the lantern over to Lone and then requested, "Our swords, now. We suspect we shall require them."
Lone immediately pretended to reach into his ‘Adventurer’s Pouch’ and pulled out Sophie's swords from his Dimensional Storage.
Taking them, Sophie wore a concerned expression under her helmet. "We do not think that we can murder over 20 humans in such a tight tunnel. Having shortswords will help, but we do not doubt that we will be overwhelmed very quickly. We trust you are fully prepared to end another sapient life, Lone? Four Mental Destructions - all on the ranged attackers - will be incredibly helpful. Luckily, there are only three men wielding bows and a single one holding a crossbow."
"I'll keep that in mind," Lone said in a tone that wasn't at all pleased. "Stand behind me. We'll see if this is a misunderstanding first or if I can talk us out of this. If it goes tits up, I'll kill four as you said, then harden my tails and impale as many as I can. That should ease your burden, right? I'm low on MP, and my swordspear is far too long for this tunnel, so I doubt I'll be of much help after that."
"Oi, oi, oi, seriously?" A big burly man said mockingly as he held a hatchet over his shoulder and grinned while he approached Lone and Sophie. "Even though we were bein' so sneaky like, you still detected us and got all cautious? Man, what they say about you Golden Foxkin must be at least partially true. You've got ears that can hear for miles around, and if ya focus, you can even hear an ant breathin', huh?"
'Another stupid legend... Really, who started these legends and caused them to be widely spread? I wanna ask them some very pointed questions. These 'legends' have caused me nothing but trouble thus far,' Lone complained internally before he forced a smile onto his face. "Forgive us for being so jumpy, but it's hardly normal to run into a group of over 20 men in these slime-infested sewers, isn’t it?"
"Ahaha, rightcha are, pal," the burly man replied as he flashed a toothy and dangerous grin.
Lone's smile cracked slightly. "I don't suppose that you guys simply need to go through this tunnel, do you? We don't mind squeezing up against the wall and letting you lot through if so. We were actually just leaving after having completed a quest from The Adventurer’s Guild."
The man slowly shook his head. "While I'd love the chance to surround yous, that could backfire and you could kill a handful of us while we play nice, so no." He then took out two slave collars from a pouch on his waist. "Now, here's what's gunna go down. You two're gunna slap these bad boys around yer necks, then you're gunna come with me and my boys back to the boss, 'kay?"
Another man snickered. “Look at the confusion on his face! Fox doesn’t even know how much money’s being offered fer ‘im! The girl ain’t got a bounty on her but plenty o’ folk out there looking for an attractive blonde woman to warm ‘er beds.”
'Fuck. There’s a bounty out on me? I guess that makes some sense given I’m a rare breed of foxkin, but fuck does it leave a bad taste in my mouth. A taste almost as foul as the one left by this cunt objectifying the woman I love,’ Lone thought in both anger and disgust.
He glanced at his side to Sophie who was already poised and ready to start severing heads from spines. ‘Is the only option here to murder them all? I don't want to shove a slave collar on myself... I'll have to use up one of my three remaining unique skills slots just to override the contract magic... Fuck... what do-'
Interrupting Lone's thoughts, the leading man of the group grinned and said, "I'll take yer silence as a 'yessir'. It's always good when demis know their place."
Lone felt his anger rising even further at that remark.
Stepping slightly closer, the muscular man stroked his chin with his free hand and he eyed the armoured Sophie from top-to-bottom. "I bet she's a real beaut' under all of that steel... There are rumours, but nothing confirmed. Well, either way, her body looks good enough even if she’s as ugly as a horse. Me and the boys were just needin' a way to relieve our stress, so this is perfect since the employer only wants you, Fox."
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Another of the men grinned with lust oozing out of his expression. “We’re gonna keep ‘er instead of sellin’ ‘er? Yer too good to us, boss.”
Any scraps of hesitation that were still remaining in Lone’s mind died right then and there. "Mental Destruction. Mental Destruction. Mental Destruction. Mental Destruction."
Like dominos, four of the men in the back who were holding ranged weapons all toppled over as blood spilt out of every one of their facial orifices.
Before any of the other rotten beggar-lookalikes could react, Lone leapt forward and cast another skill. "Tail Spear!"
Two of his tails went right through the burly man's torso and head like they were made of paper. The other seven tails skewered three more men, only leaving a little under 20 alive.
Sophie wasted no time and used her Teleportation to get behind their attackers. She immediately began shredding the men to pieces.
Many of them tried to fight back, but either she was too agile, she teleported away just in time to avoid a blow, or she moved her body perfectly so the attacks would harmlessly bounce off her armour.
Naturally, Lone was far less skilled at dodging every attack coming his way, but with the few dregs of Mana Points he still had left, he was able to boost Basic Regeneration to heal himself as quickly as he was being hurt.
If that wasn't bad enough, he had also picked up the now-dead burly man's hatchet as well as another man's shortsword, and he was using them along with his tails to kill anyone that he could get close enough to.
It was a bloodbath. Not a single person was spared.
Lone was breathing raggedly and his eyes were bloodshot. A powerful throbbing was coming from the pocket in which he kept the mysterious black orb, but his entire body was pumped full of adrenaline, so he could hardly notice what was going on with the thing right now.
It took him over two minutes to calm down, and once he had, the throbbing from his pocket had also stopped, leaving Lone none-the-wiser.
"I feel sick," Lone said.
Sophie shrugged. "You get used to it. We should collect the bodies and find a well-lit space to inspect them. They may have some clues on them in regard to who this 'employer' of theirs was."
Lone frowned. "I never want to get used to this, but you're right. Keep watch and feel free to use up these guys' weapons on any slimes that show up while I store the corpses."
Sophie nodded before picking up two iron shortswords and then returning her two steel ones to Lone.
----------------------------------------
Congratulations! The host's racial skill [Tail Spear] has levelled up! It is now Beginner Level 2.
Congratulations! The host's racial skill [Tail Spear] has levelled up! It is now Beginner Level 3.
Congratulations! The host's racial skill [Tail Spear] has levelled up! It is now Beginner Level 4.
The host has developed the passive skill: Hand Axe Mastery.
The host has developed the passive skill: Hatchet Mastery.
The host has developed the passive skill: Shortsword Mastery.
The host has developed the passive skill: Dual-wielding Mastery.
"A bunch of useless skills since I'm best suited for swordspears..." Lone mumbled as he continued to look through his notifications.
Congratulations! The host's unique skill [Basic Regeneration] has levelled up! It is now Advanced Level 10.
Lone was a bit regretful that he hadn't been hit just a little bit more so he could rank this skill up, but on the flip side, he was happier that he and Sophie had killed those men as quickly as they possibly could given the gruesome nature of the attack.
He sighed faintly and then looked at his newly updated status.
Status Name: Lone Immortus Sex: Male Age: 24 Level: 99 Species: Foxkin Rank: F Race: Golden Foxkin HP: 17,950/17,950 [+6,040] SP: 4,113/24,970 [+5,070] MP: 4,322/38,460 Basic Stats Strength: 1,603 [+475] Vigour: 2,497 [+507] Dexterity: 1,592 [+360] Agility: 1,842 [+402] Vitality: 1,795 [+604] Luck: 106 [+8] Bonus Stats Charm: 77 Charisma: 49 [+3] Magic Power: 3,846
Lone frowned as he lay there on his and Sofia’s bed in their room at the Amberbark Inn. "So murdering people really is the best way to gain stats, huh?"
Sophie who was in the middle of taking her blood-soaked armour off nodded. "We told you so, did we not?"
Lone frowned. "Yeah... you did... Well, I doubt I'll ever gain enlightenment from a large group of weak people, and I didn't get a single point of Charm nor Magic Power, but every other stat got a boost, most of which were massive."
Sophie smirked. "Have a taste for blood, now do we?"
Lone glared at her. "No. I'd much rather kill a mindless monster any day over people... even shitty people. I wish I could have talked us out of that..."
Sophie shrugged. "Unless Persuasion can reach a point that it allows you to literally bend people's minds, you will never be certain that things shall not descend into a senseless bloodbath."
Lone nodded at that and put his hands behind his head. "I really wish I could learn that skill the foxkin kids used to disguise themselves as humans... It's such a fuckin' shame that that was a racial skill..."
"Ah? Is that what that was? We just assumed you did not want to ask children for a skill and reveal that you could learn anything after experiencing it only once," Sophie said nonchalantly as she stripped off her underwear and wandered over to a dressing cabinet to grab a new pair.
Lone kept his eyes glued to her lithe hour-glass body as he replied, "Well, yeah, that's also true. But thinking about how useful the skill looked since we only found out thanks to Soph seeing their actual shapes via your Mana Sensing, I thought I'd research it a bit and ask the matriarch of the Crimson Foxkin Clan to teach it to me. That's when I found out it was a racial skill and can only be learned by the Crimson Foxkin Clan, so I'm pretty confident I can't obtain it. Just like how no matter how much you trained, you’ll never earn Tail Spear."
Sophie glanced over and noticed him unashamedly staring at her nude body. Grinning mischievously, she asked, “Like what you see?”
Lone nodded. “Always have, always will. By the way, do you know the most commonly documented racial skill for humans?”
“Bold of you to assume we bother reading when you do more than enough of that as it is for the both of us,” Sophie replied as she turned away, seemingly upset at not being able to successfully tease him.
Smiling, Lone replied, “I don’t know its name, but apparently, it makes a human far, far, far more virile. It’s why humans are one of the more prolific species on Altros and why they can have kids with a handful of non-human species.”
"Of course. A skill to make oneself horny? As if we need that considering the current state of our relationship. Regardless, getting back on topic,” Sophie said with a roll of her eyes.
“But I love being off topic,” Lone fake complained.
Sophie ignored him as she continued, “It may be worth looking into more illusion magic. Surely there is a skill you can earn that achieves the same thing as their racial skill.” She then walked to the foot of the bed and slapped Lone's foot gently. "Anyway, shall we have a bath now? We wish to rid ourselves of the foul smell covering our body."
"Sure," Lone answered as he sat up and collected his thoughts.
It had been a long day, so some rest didn't sound all that bad before they had to return to the guild and hand in the slime cores.