What is beyond the end?
Alice’s POV:
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Two days later we left the resting room and entered the seventeenth level. It was indeed a world of snow and ice. It had a mountainous terrain which combined with the cold and the snow, made it hard for us to progress. That is the reason why instead of struggling, we controlled the terrain around us by using Ice and Water magic to make our travel smoother.
Of course, we had to spend our Space Energies to do so, but luckily, we had quite large ‘Energy Tanks’. In those two days, we spent in the resting room, I also made jewelry for Hiro, which increased the regeneration speed of his mind power. Alright... since he doesn't like wearing jewelry, I made a little tattoo on his arms, which had the same effect, though he doesn't like tattoos either...
This time, before entering this frosty ice world, we didn’t see any kind of requirements to descend to the next floor. Most likely it was hidden and since Evan didn’t say anything about this, probably he didn’t know about it either, though now that I think about it, he didn't say anything about the wooden keys either.
It’s very likely that those who reached the seventeenth level didn’t say anything about it to the other beastmen. At this place, the weakest monster was at the early ninth stage, which means that what we heard was probably true about these worlds.
[It seems like we are going to have a harder time here. We don’t even know where to go or what to do. Although the world itself isn’t too big, but this might take quite a long time.] Hiro said grumpily with an annoyed face as he kept on stumbling in the big snow. He looked quite stupid, but I was the same.
[That’s true. Maybe we should go towards the top of the mountain? I think that the ‘boss’ should be there right? I mean, on the sixteenth floor the boss was at the center of the world. If it’s like that this time as well, then we might learn something about what we are supposed to do here.] I answered him while thinking about what should we do with my fingers on my chin.
[Alright. Then let’s go towards the mountain. Seeing such a big mountain it’s likely that there is a cave maybe the boss is also going to be inside that...] Hiro said as he came next to me and gave a kiss on my face. I felt happy upon feeling his lips and his love. After walking up to the half of the mountain, we indeed found a cave entrance.
[See? I told you. I’m the best!] Hiro said sarcastically. I laughed upon hearing his words as I told him to stop bullshitting and go into the cave. Upon entering the cave, we felt that the temperature dropped by at least thirty degrees.
[I think that this cave is going to be really cold at the center. Come here, let’s huddle together and keep our bodies warm.] Hiro initiated with a perverted grin as he spread out his left arm. Even though I wanted to say the same...
[O-Okay. But we should still use some fire element too later on. I think.] I answered him as I went next to him and he embraced my back. His body felt warm, no, hot! It made me feel peaceful and calm and I couldn't stop myself from smiling. Seeing my smile, Hiro chuckled and we moved on in a good mood.
Our bodies are much more resistant to the elements than normal humans. Outside it was about minus fifty degrees, but considering how much elemental essence was integrated into our bodies, we didn’t mind it even in the slightest. The cave was completely covered in a thick layer of ice, so it felt very cold inside.
Inside the cave, it was minus eighty degrees celsius. We are still alright, but it is likely that it’s going to be even colder later on. Cultivators at the fourth realm where their elemental bodies are completed are able to completely resist any kind of element. That is the reason we are integrating elements into our bodies. It's necessary to do so, or else we can't advance to the fourth level!
Like that, we can stay even in cold space if we have enough air, or we can walk in volcanoes as if we would be walking in warm water. This meant that the more elements we integrated into our bodies, the more resistant we are going to become! Out of this reason, anyone above the third level is completely immune to these elemental attacks.
But cultivators at the fourth level would still die in space because they had to breath! When we reach the fifth level, only then can we fly around freely in space since we would have our own worlds, which would provide us with the necessary oxygen. Not like we'll need it that much...
When we reach the sixth level, we don’t even need to breathe anymore, but that’s still far away from us. Our bodies were quite resistant to the elements making it possible for us to walk around freely even in a coldness like this. At most, we had to assist our bodies with a bit of fire elemental magic.
We didn’t have to walk for long before we ran into a monster, which was completely made out of ice. It roared and charged at us, but we quickly killed that stupid mongrel. After killing it, we started restoring our spent energies, but something unexpected happened! As we recovered, we felt that our energies became unstable, which meant that it was time for breaking through!!
Since we killed a monster just now, it was likely that we won’t be attacked again for a while. These monsters didn’t have blood which would attract other monsters to this place so we didn't have to worry about such things either. Hopefully, the dungeon isn't evil enough to personally send monsters for us...
Both of us sat down back to back and started collecting Univers Energy. Each stage meant that our bodies would be filled with more elemental power. Elemental essences were slowly filling up our bodies and cells, making us stronger in the process. Since we ate the Earth pill on the fifteenth floor, we didn’t have to collect Earth Energy, so we focused on cultivating the other elements.
Since this was a world of ice and water, those two were the easiest to collect. Our bodies were covered by a thin layer of ice because of the amount we consumed. Training in a world like this was very beneficial for our bodies when it came to water or ice element, though contrary to that, collecting fire and nature element was quite hard.
This place didn’t have any vegetation so nature element was scarce as well. When we finally had enough fire element collected, our cells collapsed and then rebuilt themselves in the blink of an eye, which meant that we successfully broke through to the seventh stage. Thanks to that, we could kill monsters at the ninth stage quite easily, making our progression much faster. Both of us stood up happily and after giving a high-five, Hiro said.
[Fuck yes! Finally! We have been stuck at the sixth stage for quite a while. In my past life, I’ve never understood what a bottleneck really is... Now I know how it feels! I’ve been really annoyed by it, but now it’s finally broken! Tonight we are going to celebrate by…] He didn't finish his sentence and started sending perverted thoughts towards me instead.
[You know that I can hear your thoughts right?] I questioned him while I started coiling a lock of my hair around my fingers. My face was quite flushed as well, probably.
[Fufu, yes I know my love.] Hiro answered me shamelessly as he came next to me and gave a kiss on my lips. I couldn't help but kiss back as I started expecting something good... Now that we broke through to the seventh stage, our strength increased to a hundred and thirty golems! (1 golem = 7500 kg.) We had only five less strength in our bodies than a normal cultivator at the peak of the ninth stage. Once we go back to the surface, hmph... we are going to be unmatched!
We could freely go anywhere for the time being and kill anyone! Of course, this didn’t mean that we were going to massacre everyone since we didn’t have a reason to. But knowing that now we could kill even an army of ninth stage experts we were naturally happy.
Those people would run out of energy, but we wouldn’t. I made a shit ton of pills, which would be enough for us to fight for a whole week without stopping and it’s not likely that we would attract such a big army considering that we could kill about five people in a minute at most, at the ninth stage...
And with so much strength, we didn’t even have to care about our defense. We didn’t have to fear people who had the same amount of strength as we had because our bodies would be immune to their attacks. We have tough bodies... It’s just that, up till now, we were fighting enemies who were more powerful than us. That’s the reason we had to dodge and defend, but now we could recklessly fight as long as we had energy!
After breaking through, we went deeper into the cave. The deeper we went, the colder it became and the more monsters we found at the ninth stage. Just considering the amount of them, it is very likely that the group that reached this floor was a group of geniuses otherwise a normal group of ninth stage cultivators would have been exhausted by now.
If we wouldn't have broken through, then it’s likely that we would have had to turn back and come here later when we reach the seventh stage. Luckily for us, our breakthrough came at the best moment. After walking in the cave for about fifteen minutes the temperature dropped by another fifty-celsius degrees reaching a shocking coldness of minus one hundred and thirty degrees!
Although after breaking through they could still be alright with about -100 degrees but at such a coldness they had to use some of their energies to keep themselves warm. Though they didn’t bother to hide their lustful nature as they both snuggled up to each other and separated only while fighting.
But there came an unexpected case. The cave which was coiling and turning before but it was still in one line, now separated into two lines. One of them seemingly went downwards while the other one upwards. It was an intersection. Seeing this we looked at each other with furrowed brows. “...No chance that we are separating. I’m telling you right now clearly.” Hiro said with exasperated hand movements while shaking his head sideways.
“What are you talking about? Of course, we aren’t. I wouldn’t leave my mate just like that. We can simply go to one of them first and then go to the other one afterward. It’s likely that one of them is the road to the boss. I'd rather spend four times as much at this place than to separate," I said with loving eyes as I hugged him and gave a kiss on his lips.
“Hmm. then let’s pick one. Considering that we had to move downwards while descending to lower floors, it’s likely that the boss is down there and we have to do something at the top.” Hiro kissed me back and then said with a thinking face as he put his hands under his chin while he thought over the possibilities. Not that there were many...
“I thought so. Then let’s move upward first.” I answered with a nod and a small smile on my face, believing in our truth. As we went up, we found the boss, which was separated from us by a thick ice wall, which was somehow unbreakable... This clearly showed that we had to do something at the bottom, so we went back down towards the other intersection. After about half an hour of walking downwards, which meant at least two thousand meters considering our speed, we finally found a lava room.
All of this walking up and down took about an hour... [I bet that the dungeon core is laughing at us now... All of this just so that it could play around with us... Maybe we should destroy its core?] Hiro thought grumpily. Our belief was for naught... Stupid dungeon. Hiro didn’t say it out loud fearing that it might make things even harder for us.
[If we get good enough ‘compensation’ then it should be alright...] I proposed, hoping to get something which would make it worthwhile for us to come here.
[You are quite the greedy one eh? Hehe.] Hiro thought with a stupid face and a stupid laugh in his mind. Hearing his remark, I couldn't help but retort to his words and mention that he is greedy as well. [What do you mean? I’m not greedy. I'm just-... Okay I’m greedy.] He tried defending his 'purity', but upon seeing my look, he stopped his bullshit and admitted his crime.
"This dragon blood... Greedy dragons" Hiro started mumbling silently, but my ears picked up on his words.
“I clearly heard it! Your race is even worse so shut up!” I retorted to his words once again after hearing his unjust words and I brought light upon myself by pushing his race into the darkness. After having a thoughtful look on his face for a short moment, he clapped together his palms as he said - "However I think about it, in the end, it's true! Now let's go!" Hiro started walking as if nothing has ever happened. I quickly ran up to him and embraced him.
In the room which was covered in lava at some places, we found a board which stated:
There is a lava heart in the room. You have to find it and take it to the boss and insert that lava heart into its hollowed out place. By doing so you will be able to fight the boss. If you are able to kill it then the door to the next floor is going to open up here.
“...” I couldn't say anything upon reading this shit and I was left with widespread arms, eyes, and wide opened mouth.
“I’m telling you this dungeon is playing with us! You foul creature!” Hiro shouted angrily as he kept shaking his fists in the air.
“Hahaha!” We suddenly heard a laughing which came from all around us.
[*Grr* See? I told you! We should really destroy it!] Hiro grumbled in his mind upon realizing that we were led around by this idiot dungeon. It was playing with us!
[Calm down honey~ It’s alright.] I tried soothing him, even though I was just as angry if not angrier. Hiro also remarked on why am I not angry, but after checking out my suppressed feelings through our bond, he quickly realized the gravity of the situation. I was about to explode along with this whole damned hole! This pit of shit!
[Alright you are even angrier than me. Then let’s go, I’m gonna destroy what’s annoying you!] Hiro quickly came up with a good idea to soothe my anger. I love him~ This stupid dungeon doesn't know whose anger did it call upon!
We searched around and soon found a heart looking thing, which was very hot. We didn’t even have to use fire element to keep ourselves warm any longer. It was enough to be near the lava heart. After going back up, which took another hour... We inserted the lava heart into its place and the thick ice wall slowly started melting.
It took ten minutes and we used that time to meditate and recover our spent energies. As the ice wall finally melted down, we went inside the boss room where we found our long lost friend; an Ice Minotaur! Ever since killing our first monster, which was a minotaur we didn’t see another one up till now.
These monsters had high endurance and vitality so it was quite hard to kill them. Unluckily for the minotaur, it was still only at the ninth stage. Although it was much more powerful than a normal monster at the ninth stage with a hundred and forty-five golems of strength but we had powerful skills and such a difference wouldn't be enough, against us, so in a few moves, we killed the monster.
The minotaur died and it transformed into two Fire Pills! It seems like that at least the dungeon wasn’t just enjoying our suffering but was also rewarding us for entertaining it. This at least soothed our rage a bit. Since we were in a world of ice, we were quite short on fire element and it was hard to restore it as well.
Stolen novel; please report.
When we broke through, our fire element also stayed behind a bit. By consuming these pills, we will be able to not only restore our fire source completely but also advance the fire element integration in our bodies to a complete state. This is going to enhance our cultivation speed greatly. Now we have to cultivate only eleven elements till reaching the fourth realm.
If others would learn of this then they would probably spit blood on us... Both of us greedily swallowed those pills and like last time, again after about fifteen minutes, we were done with the refining. We felt that our bodies were filled to the brim with fire element and earth element. We could also create magma or lava by using these two!!
If we could get pills like these from all elements then that would mean that we wouldn’t even have to cultivate until reaching the fourth level!? Just the thought of it felt terrifying! The talent was really well paid here! Of course, that wasn’t the case since in the Domain Space Realm we have to learn how to create and control our domains as well. That's the base of everything, which is related to space in the future!
In these domains, our fighting powers are going to increase while our enemies would become weaker. That is the reason why we aren’t sure if we are able to kill the monster at the end of this dungeon even if we reach the ninth level. If it’s really at the first stage of the Domain Space Realm then it has a domain!
At least we have two elements which are cultivated all the way, so they give us more chance at winning. Every percent counts! When we were done, we went to the resting room and stopped in the doorway. we indeed felt that every mob was at least in the middle of the ninth stage and we also sensed by using our mind powers that there were quite a lot of them at the peak of the ninth stage.
We went in killed a few monsters. Since we would be still able to advance, we decided to not stop training for now. Maybe at the next level. We went straight to the eighteenth floor and slaughtered all of the undead and ghosts that stood in our way. We soon reached the middle of this world where we encountered three undead. Although they were beyond the ninth stage, but they still had much more strength, reaching a hundred and sixty golems. All of these were in a single group.
Most likely they were something like a boss group. We fought a hard battle with them as those three because they were much stronger than us, but after a long fight, we were finally able to kill all three of them. As those three died two of them turned into two-two pieces of elemental pills. One of them helped us out in cultivating the Death element, while the other one did so with the Dark element. We happily took both of those.
Now they only had to cultivate nine elements! The last item was actually a flower with two leaves. Interestingly enough, the dungeon always gave us things in pairs making our wrath subside. It was indeed very generous of the dungeon core. Of course, it was only because both of us were equally powerful. Had one of us been weaker, then most likely we would have had to share everything.
As Hiro took hold of the flower with two leaves, information flowed into his mind about it. If consumed whole, then it would make every element integration complete, but if consuming only half of it, then it would become worthless. Clearly, the dungeon wanted to test our ‘love’ for each other. In its eyes, it was likely that now we would start fighting over this flower.
We could complete our elemental bodies! It meant limitless future for us! If we can eat this flower whole then all we have to do at the third level is to learn the Domain and then upgrade it. Who would leave out such an opportunity just for some ‘love’ which we could find later on too? Probably it thought such things.
What the dungeon didn’t expect was that Hiro immediately tore it into two pieces vertically and then gave one-half to me while swallowing the other half. He did so without any hesitation or thinking, nor without any remorse on his face. He clearly didn’t even think about fighting over it or sneakily consuming it all by himself. "At least we can try out its taste if nothing else, haha~" Hiro laughed uncaringly with a shrug of his shoulders and then continued with a small chuckle.
“Haha, nice joke dungeon. Do you think our feelings for each other is as shallow as the thing, others call ‘love’ in this world? There is no way we would ever fight over something and especially not over worldly possessions. At most, we have to train for a longer time. Who cares? We can be together for a longer time! I’d never hurt Alice in any way so do you think we would fight over some shitty flower?” Hiro stuck out his chest and shouted proudly towards the nothing. Of course, the dungeon would hear it.
“I’d rather destroy even the most prominent treasure than to hurt my love in any way.” He added at the end. I wasn't saying anything before because of... “💗 Oh, Hiro, be careful because I might melt tonight~ Such a romantic speech coming from you~ 💗” I said in a sexually provocative way as I licked my wet and pink lips while I felt happy to hear such words.
Hearing him talk about me with so much love, stirred my feelings and I felt overjoyed. I never feared moments like these. I knew all too well his personality. No matter what I would always be the first to him. He was the same for me. I would have never thought about keeping it only for myself or fighting over it. I might be a greedy dragon when it came to treasures, but my mate was above all. Sharing or wasting, it didn't matter if it came to Hiro.
But knowing something and saying it aloud is always different. Everyone knows many things, yet until it isn’t said aloud, it’s there pressing our hearts because we don’t dare or just don’t want to say it out loud. I didn’t have to wait for things like these to be said out loud because we were connected. I felt and knew it, but when he said it out loud in front of the dungeon it still made me feel good.
I’ll really have to reward him later. I might be greedy, but I’m sure to reward at least my lover, I won’t spare effort to make him feel good~ 💗
[Ehm- I can hear your thoughts too. Even if you don’t ‘talk’ to me through our bond. I could indeed not listen in on you, but since I've got used to doing it... Who would have thought that I’m going to find something like this here? Now I’m really looking forward to our night!] Hiro exclaimed happily with an expectant face as he gave a kiss on my lips.
[Hehe, don’t worry. I’ll make you feel good.] I answered him as I returned his favor. “Ugh. hey, let’s move. Now I can’t wait any longer!” Hiro said anxiously, or more like hornily... Unexpectedly, we felt something moving inside our bodies. It was the herb! Our elements started being filled with elements and every element reached half conversion! This bastard lied to test us... So it works but with only half the effect. Just like other pills...
Knowing what is to come, Hiro became anxious and wanted to leave this floor so that we could make love sooner... We entered the resting room and we spent a long and loving day there... Since the monsters were at the peak of the ninth stage from this point on and even above, we didn't enter the next floor and stayed there for half a year, cultivating, training and getting battle experience.
We were ablet to reach the ninth stage, which meant that we had a hundred and seventy golems of strength. We entered through the doorway. The nineteenth one was a world of living hell full of lava and fire! The monsters were mostly made out of fire or lava. Now that we have gained more strength, it was easier for us to proceed, especially here since the fire element was fully integrated into our bodies so we didn’t have care about the extreme temperature where a normal human would burn to the death in just five minutes.
The temperature was about a hundred and eighty degrees making the air scorching hot. After killing about fifty monsters, we reached the boss. These fifty monsters were all that were on this floor. This showed that the dungeon was really at the end of its power when it came to spawning monsters which were so powerful. It couldn’t create too many monsters at this power level.
To gain experience we killed all of them. Interestingly enough none of these dropped anything. Considering their power even if they were just ‘mobs’, they still should have dropped some items. This meant that maybe at the end something super good is going to drop? Hiro only feared that it would all go to waste if we couldn’t share it...
Before fighting the boss, I gave him a big, wet French kiss. He was surprised by my sudden attack as he opened his eyes widely and put his fingers on his lips. After a little more 'AFK', he remarked upon my action. “Ugh- I’m telling you that you aren’t a Dragon God but a Succubus! Someone screwed up the description!!” I laughed upon hearing his words and gave him another one.
The boss that was in front of us had about a hundred and ninety golems of strength and it was a three headed dog. “By the way... This thing is totally a Cerberus." Hiro remarked while looking at my face with a stupid face as he scratched his chin. “I think so,” I answered him, followed with a small chuckle, which I wasn't able to suppress.
As we saw the monster and its entourage, we grumbled... The three undead we killed on the eighteenth floor were all powerful. Now that there is one at the peak of it as well, this is going to be even harder... Beside the Cerberus, there were two imps. But thinking about the rewards made it all the sweeter!
[I think that we should first kill the two imps then we can fully concentrate on the Cerberus.] I said as while sneaking glances on our enemies as I thought about what should we do.
[That’s true, but I can only wonder what might we find on the last floor. I'm sure that it's going to be at the first stage of Domain Space Realm!] Hiro thought slightly anxiously. He wasn't afraid of it, he was only fearing for my safety. How sweet~
[Whatever, that’s for the future to worry about, now let’s concentrate on the matter at hand. So? Which one do you want to do? Play with the big guy or kill the little ones?] I diverted the conversation about something useless and questioned him about his role. He shrugged his shoulders, indicating that I can decide.
[Then I’m going to choose... The Cerberus. Considering the memories of your past life, I don’t feel safe when fighting imps... They seem to be perverted. Just look at their stupid face...] Hearing my reasons, Hiro quickly remembered and his eyes went into slits as he rolled his fingers into fists. [Yes. I’ll fight the imps, no question, you can’t go near them!] He denied every way for me to go close to them, fearing for my charity. Even thought that was taken by him long ago~ Hehe~
After talking over the things, we went towards the monsters. This time we couldn’t sneak attack them since they were on the top of a little hill, which could be approached only from one way because it was surrounded by lava from the other sides.
I shot a ball of water at the Cerberus, taunting it by doing so and leading it off of the hill. I started battling with it while defensively. It kept shooting lava and fire at me and it even tried to bite me! A dragon! Luckily for me, it wasn’t that hard for me because I was immune to fire! Since the fire integrated fully into our bodies, the fire element didn’t work on us anymore!
Earth, Death and Dark magic were the same! Indeed this trip was already well worth it to us! After realising that it couldn’t use its fire against me, it started chasing me with a mad face as it kept trying to bite me in the ass and chew me into minced meat. I shouted playfully as I dodged its bite with my arms raised while I kept running. "Hirooo~ Save me~ I'm being bullied!"
Hiro was fighting with the imps and the imps faced the same problem. Their fire was worth shit in front of my dear. Since they lived in a place like this, all they were really good at was using fire and lava. Now that none of those worked what could they even do? They had to use their claws and try killing us in such a primitive way.
So they started fighting with Hiro, but when they pounced on him, he used the Blast rune on his weapon, which caught them unprepared and made the imps fly into the air. Using this moment Hiro charged at them and was swift enough to slash one of the imps into two halves. It didn’t even have time to scream as it died on the spot.
Now that it turned into one on one, the whole fight became much easier. They had only five golems of difference in strength since the imps had a hundred and seventy-five. Hiro easily filled that much with skill. He quickly beheaded the other little devil as well and crushed its core. When he looked down the hill, he saw me being chased by the Cerberus. Seeing this he ran to help me and after joining up, in about twenty minutes, we were able to behead the Cerberus three times...
We wanted to puncture its heart, but it was so good at defending its chest that we could attack nothing else but its neck. When the three bosses died, they turned into three streams of energy and transformed into smoke...
“What?! HEY WHAT’S WITH THIS! THEY ARE ALWAYS SUPPOSED TO GIVE SOMETHING!” I shouted out with a lot of anger in my heart with a red face while I threw threatening hand movements into the air. After a few seconds, the dungeon started speaking.
“Hello, adventurers. So the thing is that you have two choices now. Firstly, I can transform that smoke back into something useful but then you won’t get to fight for the best gift I could give to you. Secondly, you use your trump cards which are your battle forms and fight with my strongest boss on the twentieth floor and you take all or nothing.”
“Also, if you choose the second option then you won’t be able to escape from the twentieth level because I’m going to close its entrance after you enter. No going in and out. So what do you say? I’ll give you five minutes to think about it.” It said with a serious and uncaring voice.
Hearing this we were startled. Firstly, the dungeon knew about our races and that we had battle forms? Secondly, if we choose the second option, then it’s likely that we are before a very hard battle! But would we cover from a battle just like that and go for the easier way? Of course, we wouldn’t! After thinking about it for a bit, I declared that we are choosing the second option.
“We choose the second option but I hope that we won’t be misled. Not even a storage ring would worth as much as fighting with a monster at the first stage of Domain Space Realm. I mean, we'll probably have to face such an enemy, right?” I questioned with my brows raised as I put my hands on my hips. Hiro also put his hands on MY hips and kissed my neck. "Ahn~ You are attacking from behind!" I chuckled as I said so playfully.
“Yes, that’s how it’s going to happen... Since you accepted it I can tell it to you. Also, don’t worry it’s going to be better than a storage ring. That’s only going to be a ‘side dish’. Hehe.” The dungeon had a weird sound after probably seeing our little play, but it soon turned serious, or not... It also turned playful as it remarked on how good the thing we are going to get is.
After hearing this we were a bit happy but worried at the same time. We went towards the resting room and meditated to restore all of our spent energies. These resting rooms were always filled with all kind of elements, making it easy for us to recover. One hour later, after reaching their peak and releasing a bit of ‘stress’, we went to the twentieth floor fully prepared.
There we saw a dragon at the mid-first stage of Domain Space Realm glaring at us. This was the smallest floor we have ever seen, but this was also the hardest one. This floor was completely made up of simple but hard stone. Hard enough to bear the incoming battle.
One layered Domain will decrease our strength by ten golems. Yes, the further we advance, the more powerful our domains will become. If we the monster would be at the second stage and have a two-layered domain, then our strength would be decreased by thirty golems and if WE were to have a one-layered domain, then our strength would decrease only by twenty golems. This was because only the one-layered domain decreased the other cultivators' strength by ten. The others did it by thirty, meaning thirty, sixty, ninety...
Since this was a fire dragon, we at least didn’t have to worry about its fire elemental attacks. But since the dragon had two hundred and fifteen golems of strength and ours would be decreased by ten. This meant that even though we would have had a hundred and ninety-five golems of strength in our battle forms originally, but now we are going to be left with only a hundred and eighty-five.
Our battle forms increased our strength by fifteen percent for now. But this was a dragon which had thirty more golems of strength. It had dangerous sharp and hard claws, not to mention its tail, wings, and mouth!
We didn’t wait for even a single moment as we activated our battle forms. Both of us became covered in black scales as the green liquid like energy was flowing among our scales. On my forehead, two long and straight horns, reaching towards the sky, grew out, meaning that I was at the second level. At the tenth level, I'm going to have ten horns. I have also grown a bat-like pair of wings on my back.
Thick and sharp claws that grew out on my hands and feet, which were at least ten centimeters long. My eyes went into slits and a primal and ancient aura surrounded my body, which was much more powerful than the dragon's. I was a Dragon God no less. This was just an overgrown lizard in my eyes, which was created by a stupid dungeon!
Hiro, on the other hand, has grown four horns straight, we mostly looked the same. He has grown four horns because he had four minds and he was supposed to have four heads, but since he wasn't able to transform into his true form yet, he was left with only more horns. Since he is a Twelve-Headed Hydra, he will be able to transform into a five-headed one on the third level.
Hydras were known about their high vitality. He had five heads and five hearts meaning five life... That’s the reason why I always thought that he is unfair. Of course, he didn't have five heads in his battle form and I wasn't any weaker because dragons were almighty creatures, but he was still a stupidly overpowered monster. My head would be bigger and stronger in my monster form, but it was only one.
Maybe I would be able to destroy a few of his heads, but considering how quickly he could grow them back, it’s likely that I would die before killing Hiro, though that was completely irrelevant because I'd never hurt him. My dear~
Right now Hiro has grown four hearts in his chest. Although these hearts were almost as big as a normal sized heart, but it fit into his body because when transforming into our battle forms, our body structures were also changing to become able to intake the new organs, to increase our defense and vitality, along with the mass of our muscles and strength. I wasn't any different in that aspect.
I also restructured my whole body and I too have grown another heart. Till reaching the tenth level I would gain an addition three hearts, reaching five. Dragons didn’t have high vitality only because of... nothing. It was because our blood and body regenerated much quicker and since we had more hearts, even if all of them were to be punctured, we could still live on as long as at least one of them is alright. Destroying five of my hearts considering the things that are going to be at the higher levels? There is no chance that someone who is at a similar stage compared to mine, has any chance against me or Hiro.
This all took a second and as soon as we were done, we charged at the dragon. It swiped with its wings, trying to cut us into two halves with its sharp wing, but we rolled on the ground dodging the attack in the process. We spared no effort as we activated the Confusion Runes on our weapons.
Although it was at the third level, so it could defend against mind attacks and also launch them since it had mind power, but our mind attacks would still be able to stop it for a moment. Since it was attacked at the same time by two mind attacks, it stopped for long enough for us to reach it and try to thrust our blades into the dragon’s side.
But unexpectedly, these attacks only left two scratches and it probably felt a bit of pain as well, but nothing serious. This was bad. If we could break through, then we could keep up this form forever, but right now about two hours were the maximum. We can’t drag this out. Meanwhile, the dragon gained back its control and used its front paws to swipe at us.
We dodged it, but we were slightly scratched by its swipe. If we wouldn’t be in our battle forms, then it’s very likely that we would have been heavily wounded. This was indeed a mythical creature. We rushed forward and while Hiro was taking it on from the front, while I tried to jump on its back to attack it from there, but I was hit by its wings while I was in the air.
I fell to the ground with a small grunt but I was alright. At this time if it would have had parallel minds like Hiro had, then it would have been able to attack Hiro as well at the same time. Hiro is going to gain one more mind with each level. Right now he was able to control all of his body parts with his four minds.
While fighting a human this would be very much advantageous, but right now it didn’t add up to much. He needed powerful attacks to penetrate this dragon’s scales and make some damage so while it concentrated on me to defend itself, Hiro collected Space Energy from his body and formed a four-headed hydra which he released towards the dragon.
I sprung up with a flip and ran after Hiro's Hydra's Head. Just as the dragon defended itself from the attack, I used the Blast enchantment to shake the dragon's balance. Hiro and I as well used Confusion on it and while it was again stunned for a moment I poured a huge amount of Space Energy into my sword, which strengthened it greatly as I pierced the neck of the dragon.
Of course, this wouldn’t kill the monster. All it did was scream out and it fought while being enraged. Like this, we kept on bickering and fighting for one hour and fifty minutes. Our scales had a lot of scratch marks on them. Hiro also had a few more serious wounds before, but thanks to his cheating high regeneration speed, he has regenerated those long ago... Truly unfair! But I'm very happy about it.
Knowing that it’s soon going to come to an end, the dragon gave its all. We mostly tried to attack its chest to reach its core. It was covered in quite a lot of deep wounds at that place. After thinking about it for a bit, we decided on a finishing tactic while the dragon was sizing us up before its last charge.
Who would perish, it didn’t know but we did! With my remaining energy, I rushed towards the dragon. Hiro used all of his energy to create the most powerful Hydra’s Head he could. The dragon poured energy into its body, making it even stronger and tougher, knowing that right now this was the key to its victory. If we couldn’t pierce it, then later it would be able to kill us with its superior strength. Hiro shot his Hydra’s head towards the dragon while I ran towards the monster.
As it took the shot head on, it was pushed back, but it was fine, meanwhile, I slid under it and thrust my scimitar with all of my remaining energy and strength into the huge body of the dragon. As my weapon pierced into its body, it screamed out in pain, but I still wasn’t able to reach its two hearts, deep inside its body. But what happened next; it surely didn’t expect. I activated the Devour rune on my weapons, which were right under the two hearts of the dragon!
As the beast cried out, Hiro making sure that it was killed, pierced his swords into its back and also used Devour. The rune didn’t hurt its owner meaning us, but it was a completely different thing when it came to anything else. This move destroyed both of its hearts and its core, turning it into a big corpse. It collapsed to the ground dead on top of us, but we wouldn't be hurt from its weight alone.
Its weight quickly disappeared because it turned into a stream of swirling energy, but what was it? I didn't know because I fell unconscious along with Hiro.