My painfully throbbing legs gave out and I plopped down on my butt right there, staring at the System's message. I grinned through the full body pain and opened my System main menu.

Ria Moore

D Rank

Level 10

EXP to Next LV 140

HP 26/109

MP 38/127

Strength 17 (+2)

Magic 21

Constitution 17 (+2)

Agility 21

Perception 17

Intelligence 20

Abilities:

Regen (Limited)

Bubble (10 MP)

Water Manipulation (10 MP)

Skills:

Power Swim

I gaped at the stats, reading it again and again. Oh my god, I was a D ranked Hunter now? That was awesome! I wanted to jump around and celebrate, but I couldn’t muster the strength. My knee was the only place I was bleeding, which was still covered with Levi's water band aid, but blunt force trauma was seriously no fun. My whole body creaked like an old woman every time I moved.

Determined, I tossed my arms in the air and quietly yelled, "I made it to D rank!" I didn’t dare make too much noise. What if the sounds of the fight drew another monster to the area? Curious, I checked Levi's stats. Sure enough, since our EXP was shared, he leveled up exactly the same.

Levi slithered over to me and watched me celebrate by myself, perplexed.

I grinned at him. "That's a good thing you know. If we can make it up to A rank, you might turn into a dragon again." After all, the only reason he was small was because of our low rank.

His eyes widened with shock. Longing emanated from him, wishing to be big again.

"Every time we kill a monster, we get stronger and our rank goes up," I explained. "So let's work together and get stronger together."

I replayed our fight with the slime. We weren't too coordinated in the beginning, but it felt like we were getting into a groove by the end. Hopefully, the more we fought, the better we worked together.

"Are you okay?" I reached out and carefully picked him up. "You took a big hit." I turned my hand, trying to get a good look at him. Just like me, he didn't have any bleeding cuts, but it didn't change the fact that his HP was only at fifty percent.

Levi struggled out of my hands and dropped back to the ground. He lifted his head as if his injuries were nothing, mentally scathing me for not worrying about my own injuries.

I sighed and smiled at the same time. "Okay, okay, you're a big, strong snake. Sorry I asked."

He leveled me with a look and flicked me with the tip of his tail. It made a loud pop on my shin guard, but didn't actually cause any damage.

Well, if he was spirited enough to be a brat still, he was fine.

I glanced at the floating water rings hanging around my head and the water blade that shimmered on my sword. The water came from inside me. Was there a way to make it go back? Maybe if I just released the magic...?

As soon as the thought came to mind, my magic responded. The water evaporated into a blue miasma and flew to me and absorbed into me. The empty hole in my gut didn't ache so bad, now that there was something inside, but I could tell that it wasn't as full – or strong – as before. So the water that I lost in the fight had a lasting effect. And the only way to fix it was to cultivate more.

I had a feeling I was going to be cultivating a lot. Hm, did cultivating in a bathtub have the same effect, or did I have to be outside to do it? Either way, it was a lot more convenient than needing to carry around my water.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

I paused and looked down at Levi. The water that I gave him during the fight was still floating around the little blue snake, like a shapeless alien. I understood why. The water was a weapon for him, and once he let it go, the water would fall into the ground and disappear. It was hard to let go of something that can protect yourself, especially when you feel so weak. But he seriously couldn't hang onto the same water ball all day, could he?

I glanced around and spotted the empty bottle the water came from. Groaning like an old person, I got up and retrieved the bottle. “We need to figure out a better way to get you water. We won’t be around all the time, and I can’t carry a jug of water everywhere.” I guess I could keep it in my Items Bag, but Levi would stay dependent on me to pull it out at the beginning of every battle. Not every fight came with a heads up. What about if we get ambushed?

Levi nodded in agreement and funneled his water into the bottle. I put it away, to which he immediately complained about. Just like I expected.

It wasn't safe to stay here, but I needed a moment to let Regen work. Even though my HP went up when I leveled up, I was still battered and bruised all over. After ten minutes, I climbed to my feet and limped back to the unknown dragon's carcass.

I still wanted that sample. The gaping hole the unknown came out of was completely unusable. With the nature of a slime monster, everywhere it touched probably contaminated the unknown's flesh. I needed to choose a place where the slime didn't touch just to be sure. After all, what the point of going through all this work to get a sample if I brought back a contaminated one?

I wiped my hands with a wet wipe, put on latex gloves, then took the empty vial and small knife out of my Items Bag once again. This time, the unknown's carcass stayed still when I approached it. Holding my breath so I couldn't taste the rotting air, I leaned in and used the knife to scoop the coagulated blood leaking out of the hole into the vial.

Levi wrapped around my leg and climbed up my body, sending shivers down my spine. He draped across my shoulder and leaned forward, watching me work. He glanced at me, his eyes asking what I was doing.

"Hang on," I muttered, while trying not to breathe and working as much blood as I could into the vial. It wasn't easy, since the blood was solidifying faster than a normal monster's would. And Levi's head kept weaving in front of my sight. Very much not helpful. Finally, I twisted the cap on and stored the vial in my Items Bag.

Once that was done, I walked away from the carcass to finally breathe and answer Levi's question. "There's something wrong with this monster. It's not natural. And it's the second one I've found like it. So I'm taking a sample to my uncle. He knows a lot about monsters and what he doesn't know, he knows someone who does. Maybe they can figure out what's wrong with it." I paused. "Maybe even why it was hunting you."

Levi's eyes narrowed, his tongue flicking in and out quickly.

When I didn't feel like puking anymore, I walked back to the carcass. "Now for the fun part," I muttered and drew my sword. "I just hope this works."

Honestly, I was only about forty percent certain that I could cut a piece of flesh off. Maybe the blood vial was enough for the DNA scientist to work with, and they didn't even need a strip of flesh, but I was still going to get one, anyway. If only I had one of Uncle's A ranked carving knives with me. Then I could take back a sample of the unknown's armored skin and let Uncle experiment with it. Who knew, maybe it was a great weapon or armor making ingredient? I mean, Levi's scales were and the unknown was a dragon type. But I couldn’t; all I had was an E ranked sword.

"I need a better sword," I muttered. As much as I adored my miao dao, it wasn't practical anymore. It was a great training sword and for fighting E ranked monsters, but in the wilds, it just didn't cut it. Literally.

I paused, the blade inches from the old, dead flesh. After another thought, I cast Water Manipulation over the blade and focused, morphing the water as sharp as possible. If this didn't cut the unknown's muscle, nothing I had on me could. And it would protect my sword from getting chewed up in the process.

"Here goes nothing." I stabbed into the muscle. The sword came to an abrupt stop before it sank an inch into the pink flesh. Big surprise – not! I grunted and pushed, trying to force the sword deeper. It moved a fraction.

Levi shifted on my shoulder, watching. He clearly wasn't impressed as he watched me struggle. After all, he killed this thing just yesterday. And he was happy to let me know exactly how cool he was while doing it.

"Not helping," I gritted out and wiggled my sword. It was like trying to flay a chicken breast with a spoon. Maybe if I just kept stabbing it, a chunk would eventually fall out. Since I didn't have a better plan, that’s exactly what I did. I wanted to sing hallelujah when a dime sized piece fell off. I caught it before it landed on the ground, secured it in a vial and stored it away.

The late morning sun beat down on my back. Between the heat, the sweat I worked up from fighting with a slime and, well, meat, not to mention a bit of dried blood that splashed on me in the process, I was ready for swim to rinse off.

"God, that was gross," I muttered and stepped away.

As I did, a glint of light flashed in the corner of my eye. Instantly, my sword was in hand and I was ready to pounce. My adrenaline pumped through my blood as I turned towards the light. I didn't see or sense anything moving. Then again, I couldn't tell the slime was there until it literally crawled out of the carcass. So where did the light come from?

"Do you sense anything?" I asked Levi.

He shook his head, looking at me like I was insane.

The light came from the slime's gaping hole in the unknown's chest. Please tell me there wasn’t another monster in it? It was a big carcass, but just, ew. Although I did need to find another monster to complete my daily task, I didn't have the energy, HP or MP to take on another slime.

But why would a slime glint like that? It reminded me of light on metal. But why would something like that come from an unknown dragon's carcass?

My steps were cautious as I moved to the gaping hole. Frowning, I peered into the darkness, trying to see what caused the light, but I couldn't see anything in the dim hole. Maybe I was just seeing things.

I stepped back and turned away. As I did, another light glinted in my eyes. I froze. This time I knew I wasn't seeing things. In a second, my orb torch was on and I leaned in the hole again. I didn't know what I was expecting to find.

It wasn't this.

The glint of light came from something metal half buried in the unknown's muscle. No, it was a large rectangular steel box with just the end barely exposed end sticking out of the flesh.

"What ... the hell?"

*****