They had ended up carving out more than he expected. There was a library, training room, armory and parlor as well as the kitchen, bathrooms and bedrooms. They didn’t have to worry about electricity or plumbing since the lich organised magic for everything. Caspian carved and enchanted runes onto all the necessities. Both [THUMPER] and [MIFFY] seemed to be interested in the processes and magic being used. The sovereign had a feeling that the lich might have two potential students on his hands.
It turned out that before exiting the prison mansion back in Thrallton, some of the former prisoners had found storage bags or jewelry and ransacked the place before he burnt it to the ground. Apparently, the estate had had quite the book and armor collection, which had been nicked and kept for safe keeping by those who shall not be named. Now all the so-not-stolen property had a new home. With the new residents established in their homes and the original members happy with the arrangement, the sovereign stayed an extra night to hang out with his family and make sure they were all properly taken care of.
Snuggling together with the rest of his family sure was nostalgic. It helped to ground him from his thoughts of the nightmares that came every night. As a vampiric being, he didn’t need to sleep as much, but it was still necessary. Despite this, the sovereign stayed awake for as long as possible. He constantly wanted to hold out just another moment more, to prevent the nightmares from beginning. They happened every night. Every time he closed his eyes, there she was, calling out in her sing song voice, ‘wakey, wakey’. Then the seemingly never-ending pain would start. Even if his resistance skill had curbed most of the pain after a while, he would never forget those first few horrifying hours. The rabbit shivered in remembrance. In reality, he hadn’t spent all that long with the bitch, but the time he had with her would always haunt him.
When he had been cornered in the bottom floor of the prison she had deflected all his attacks with ease while also taunting him. The rising despair he had felt in those moments had been almost as bad as the torture itself. The thoughts that had slowly crowded his mind as she had dealt with him like a disobedient child throwing a tantrum. In that moment, her look had reminded him of a mother that was disappointed in their child’s behaviour. A cruel mother. Her overwhelming power had slowly drained him of any hope in escaping. The terror of realising he would soon be back in that room, that she would continue her work on him like nothing had happened. In his dreams, there were no rodents to find the key. In his restless sleep, there was no [DEEPSOUL WIGHT] to take her out. It was just him and her in that endless loop.
He gave another shiver of terror. Then a voice called out softly, washing away the looping memories. It was quiet, so as to not wake the others, but also angry.
“Someone hurt my baby. Who? No. What?”
“I’m alright Mother. It’s been dealt with. There’s no need to worry” he replied tiredly.
Mother carefully stepped around the others to rest beside him. She nuzzled against him, her worry clear.
“It’s a mother’s job to worry about her children. For now, rest easy. Your mother won’t let anything happen to you. I’ll protect you.”
The storm rabbit smiled softly while resting his head against her side and closing his eyes. This was a true mother. His true mother. Not the one that had abandoned him in his previous life. Nor the bitch that had transformed his very nature. The nurturing, angry, protective mother cuddled up to him right in this moment was the only mother he had ever needed or wanted. She was his mother. And he was her son. With these new thoughts running through his head, he slept soundly for the first time since his escape.
****
When morning came the rabbit set off in his original form. Down he went through the first seven floors that he had already cleared. It was now time to face his water dinosaur fears. Surely sea monsters couldn’t be that bad? He’d levelled up a lot after all. Right?
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Wrong. They were still gigantic monsters with gnashing teeth that could swallow him whole and not even realise it. However, he was now a much higher level than they were. This did curb some of his anxiety as he used [WATER] magic to bound across the surface of the sea. It took less than a minute for some of the key monsters to notice him. As soon as they did the real hunt began once again.
Monster – [KRONOSAURUS] – [LEVEL 46]
Monster – [MEGALODON] – [LEVEL 48]
Monster – [BASILOSAURUS] – [LEVEL 48]
Monster – [LESSER LOCH NESS] – [LEVEL 50]
As one would expect of water dinosaurs, they were all red-blooded mammals. This means they had blood. It also means that the vampiric rabbit was having an easy enough hunt. It didn’t take the carnivores long to realise that the small fluffy monster they had been chasing was predator, while they had been the unsuspecting prey. His journey to the other side of the small ocean was intermittently interrupted by nearly one hundred sea monsters. Though even with all the kills he racked up, the bunny didn’t earn a single level. Made sense since he was now [LEVEL 62]. These small fries, a least level wise, didn’t give him much experience. Reaching the other end quite quickly, he descended to the ninth floor.
Monster – [GREATER YOKAI TANUKI] – [LEVEL 53]
Monster – [YOKAI BAKENEKO] – [LEVEL 53]
Monster – [GREATER GORISTRO DEMON BEAST] – [LEVEL 54]
Monster – [HEZROU DEMON BEAST] – [LEVEL 54]
Surprisingly, the lower levelled monsters of the next floor gave him a bit of trouble. The two yokai monsters seemed to be constantly shifting in and out of reality. The tanuki was a racoon type creature while the bakeneko was a large cat. Though they didn’t work together specifically, they did play off each other’s attacks striking from the ethereal one after the other. Not even summoning his storm magic could help him against them properly since it could only affect reality. Wherever they went was currently beyond him. [BLOOD] magic was also mostly useless. Their partial spirit form gave them a great resistance. His [BLOOD PERCEPTION] could sense their blood, however, it felt like the blood was both present and not present. It was very annoying.
Luckily the demon beasts were the complete opposite. They were definitely all there. The problem was their [STRENGTH]. So much so that he began to wonder what steroids they were on. The goristros were basically red, bipedal bulls with razor sharp teeth and claws, along with the snout of a pig. Hezrous on the other hand were spiked and bulky creatures with no neck. They were also red and bipedal, however, instead of hoofed feet and clawed hands, they had three fingers and toes extending from each limb. Their claws were much shorter and half of the face was a very wide mouth like a frogs.
He had tried to be careful, but one of the Hezrous had landed a nasty blow while he was dodging mid-air. He landed on one of the nearby rocky mounds like a pancake. While his [ENHANCED REGENERATION] was handy, he wasn’t sure he could’ve survived without his altered [RACE] and the [SURVIVE] skill. As soon as his brain had healed enough the bunny used [MIRAGE] to conceal himself before moving to bury himself underground. He was a powerful vampiric monster with healing abilities, yet it still took him over an hour to fully heal from the blow. He’d felt some resistance in the healing process and cast [CLEANSE] before trying to sense out what might be wrong. Turns out Hezrous empowered their strikes with [FIRE] and [EARTH] magic. Maybe [MAGMA]? Anyway, the foreign mana which had stuck around had been eating away at his own active mana. He really should have gotten the hint earlier from their fists glowing red in the dark and the barrier of mana he had felt around their bodies preventing him from using [BLOOD] magic. Thankfully, it only took a few more casts of [CLEANSE] to entirely remove the intrusive mana. His body’s regeneration went much faster after that.
Using [MINOR TELEPORT] throughout the fight hadn’t been sneaky enough. Keeping this in mind he activated [MIRAGE] and [STEATH] right from the get go. If he could just get close enough, he would have an easier time using their own blood against them. He had already tried [STORM] magic on them, but they were just too tough. The bunny was confused about why he was having so much trouble with these monsters. His level was far superior and even with his loss of some stats he was much smarter and had better evolutions. So why was clearing this floor so hard? His best guess was in some of their [RACE] names. The ones he was having the most trouble against were those with ‘greater’ in their tag. All well, he had most of their fighting patterns down pat now. Testing was over. It was time to actually gain some levels.