Day 18

Sparks flashed between each blow as my skills were tested to their breaking point. The castle wobbled as supports bent to their breaking point before collapsing as the wind and telekinesis passively battled it out. Blood spouts appeared over the lake between clashes, edging close to the castle before collapsing into raining blood. Pieces of the castle fell away as floors caved in and the roof collapsed in places. Under the red haze of the ceiling above, our blows sparked in the darkness as we used our limited space to maneuver around each other, searching for a chance to take the upper hand.

Openings appeared only to turn into traps under the chimera rabbit's incredible speed. My arms ached as the battle extended beyond a few minutes, and I strained to keep up. Telekinetic blows bashed against my Fell Wind as blood poured over us, covering the ground between wrist-jarring blows. I had to adjust several times to keep in the fight. Giving her a weapon had been a bad idea.

"What did you mean by go with you?" She asked.

I sucked in a breath and tried to appear like the fight hadn't bothered me.

"I meant what I said; let's leave this dungeon together. You will become my companion." I said.

"You are a hideous abomination and an intruder. The last time we met, you cut me apart with the very blade you handed me. Give me a reason not to do the same." The rabbit chimera asked.

"I can grow carrots," I said.

"You are going to regret giving me this weapon."

It seemed charisma was a more valuable attribute than I thought. Then again, farmers and rabbits were natural enemies.

"Perhaps the next time we meet, you will have a different opinion."

"Not going to happen."

The wind picked up, and the chimera's eyes widened. She attacked, and I defended, taking her blows until I moved, and she slashed through an afterimage. A slash from me took her arm, and I caught her wrist before she could finish her counter-swing.

"You were hiding your skills this entire fight."

My blade pierced her chest, and I brutally ripped it free before taking her head for a second time. Deception was the only reason I won. Giving her what she wanted, a direct and predictable confrontation made her not only complacent but confident in her eventual victory. She used her skills more intelligently this time around and had a weapon to direct her telekinetic skill through. The might to rip apart a castle had been turned into speed and strength. Given more time and a chainsword skill, she might have beaten me. Next time she would be ready for my afterimages and Gemini Waltz. I sheathed both weapons and lifted the uncommon skill shard drop.

It was time to see to my loot.

Common Skill Shards

First Strike

Gemini Waltz

Final Blow

Fell Wind

Bond

Uncommon Skill Shard

Fell Whirlwind

Most of what I found were skills that had dropped before. Only First Strike and Bond were new, so I immediately used those skill shards.

First Strike showed me images of monsters slaying powerful enemies in fast single strikes before their enemies were ever aware. Bond was different; it showed a slow-building relationship built on trust between any number of monsters. Bond wasn't a taming skill; it was something far more natural.

First Strike lvl1

Bond lvl1

I left the castle and returned to the path to the boss and took another detour. Down the winding tunnel small gravestones covered the path leading to a small hill with a house sitting atop it. All along the hill, more gravestones covered the ground with only a small path clear. I walked the spooky path past the very blank gravestones to the cabin. Peaking in through a window, I saw the strangest thing imaginable.

Chicken monsters are ranked to appear almost human.

My map updated.

Ping!

Special Event: Slasher Movie

Rewards: Uncommon Skill Shard Drops Unique to this area.

So, I went from a medieval castle to becoming a movie villain. I took a good look at the teenage chickens inside the cabin. They looked almost human except for feathers instead of hair, beady black eyes, and a beak instead of lips and a nose. They were all wearing clothes, and the roosters were large red and black feathered monsters that easily stood seven feet tall. The metal talons on their legs looked like serious business. There was also a crow in the group acting like the life of the party.

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"Can you believe Courtney and Roger are fertilizing eggs upstairs? What a slut?"

"You're just jealous; no one wants to fertilize your eggs, Veronica, you Virgin." The other hens clucked as they ridiculed Veronica.

"Hey, watch what you say. Veronica is my kind of gal. I'm willing to wait for the right hen."

"By the Colonel, can you be more of a simp Roger." The larger rooster said.

The two birdmen turned on each other, flaring their feathers, seemingly ready to fight.

"Stop it; we're here to have a good time and read from this book," Veronica said.

She held up a recipe book that contained numerous ways to fry, bake, and roast chicken. My stomach growled at some of the pictures.

"Don't they say if you read from it, something bad will happen?" Another hen said.

"Don't worry, I'll be fine; nothing ever happens to the crow."

The hens started clucking. I was more than willing to kill them all by that point.

The secret to the colonel's famous fried chicken is." I stared up at the room above and knew they would probably be the easiest to get rid of. "Garlic," I jumped, grabbed the lip of the windowsill, and pulled myself up.

Through the window, I saw things I could never unsee between two giant chickens.

It wasn't that I was having second thoughts that forced my decision to climb down from the second floor. Dungeon diving as a whole, especially when alone, was a balance of risk and reward. How much I was risking for what reward was important. Enemy levels weren't immediately apparent. I didn't know how strong these chickens were, but I did know the event wanted me to take them on one by one, like in a slasher movie. That meant that they were probably at a high enough level to prove dangerous.

Going by the genre, the virgin hen was probably a mid-boss like the rabbit chimera. With that in mind, I dropped to the floor and started backing away from the house.

I was reminded of trying to kill wolves with my shovel instead of a real weapon. The process was messy, liable to damage the tool, and the end result took far more effort.

Tombstones lined the hill leading to a cabin that had electricity in the dungeon and a false night sky. There was even a moon overhead and, from the look of it, a lake in the distance. I even saw a dock and a little wooden boat. So, the dungeon had one medieval genre and a slasher movie scene in the same dungeon. I half expected ghouls to pop up out of the ground and start dancing like in the movie Return of the Living Zeds.

I saw that movie with the brain-hungry undead monsters around the same time I saw another movie about a powerful emerald wizard and a house that flew from a twister. By the foundation and basement, keeping the cabin on the hill and lifting it with the wind wasn't an option at my level with Fell Wind and Fell Whirlwind.

Whirlwinds were deadly, and they loved to lift objects before flinging them at incredible speeds. My hands reached out, and I felt the Fell Wind that gathered around me start to spiral. Only when I concentrated on the uncommon skill Fell Whirlwind did I realize I hadn't really used it? All the levels I gained since entering the dungeon were from learning more about the skill. Gestures were important, especially when I wanted to do something big.

Gemini Waltz added a new flavor to my gestures; thought it was a sword style, the footsteps transferred over into something synergizing. Under the pale moonlight, I felt Cosmic Tempo begin its rhythm along with First Strike and Final Blow. Strangely, I felt Bond's hand as well as my skills flowed together, creating an after image with Gemini Blitz as I picked up speed. My skills wanted to work with me as invisible currents of air gathered in the form of my dance partner.

The shutters on the cabin windows flew off their hinges as the winds picked up. All around me, the grass around the gravestones bent away from my dance to a Cosmic Tempo. In my arms, a pillar of black wind roared the heavens, spiraling around me, keeping pace with my steps but never quite taking me off my feet. The winds were mine at that moment before I released them to find a new partner.

Tombstones lifted from the ground as the whirlwind crept up the hill. Slasher movies were never what terrified me. I didn't pray to the Sovereign Omega after watching a movie like my sister Sasha. No, I knelt on my hands and knees when natural disasters came too close to our home and ripped a neighbor's house from the foundation when a tier 7 threw a tantrum.

A tombstone blasted through the side of the building, and from my system, the dungeon acknowledged a kill. First Strike was still active, along with Final Blow. I could feel the whirlwind I danced with as it traveled up the hill, ripping metal railing out of stone, rolling it into a ball, and shooting it through the second floor. Perhaps it was my Bond with the storm that made it act strangely. No tombstones launched in my direction. The crow jumped out of the window only for a tombstone to fly out of nowhere and crush its chest. Yet still, this wasn't considered the first Strike or last blow because the blow was still traveling. All that had happened, according to my skills, was the blow was on its way. Enemies dying from the debris was a happy accident.

Dirt ripped away from the hill exposing the basement. From the bottom of the hill, through the window, I saw only Veronica manage to descend while the rest were stunned by the effects of Fell Wind. After using the skill for so long, I forgot it wasn't an elemental skill at all but a psychic attack. When the two roosters broke into a cock fight, I understood the meaning of Fell Whirlwind.

It wasn't simply an elemental attack; it was a whirlwind of negative emotions like jealousy and rivalry.

Blood flew, staining the white feathers of the hens right before the floor above them collapsed. More tombstones smashed into the basement wall but they did no meaningful damage.

After I understood that more tombstones ripped into the whirlwind, but no more flew out of its funnel. Bond, the completely ambiguous skill, once more showed its power. A bulwark of cycling stone, psychic power, and wind smashed into the basement. As the whirlwind lost its strength, I felt something like worry, but that was ridiculous.

I must have been in the dungeon too long.

I followed the path of destruction up the hill and waited beside the hole leading into the cabin. The moment Veronica's head peaked out of the basement when she was sure the storm had passed, I reached out, snapped her neck, and let go.

She tumbled out of the basement and down the hill, hitting every tombstone. I noticed a book she dropped and picked up the colonel's guide to frying chicken. Then I gave the massive chicken a look over. She seemed a little livelier than a monster with a broken neck should have. I checked the monster's pulse and found it was still alive. Neck breaking wasn't a skill of mine, and I didn't have much practice with it growing up.

From what I could tell, she had been so surprised by my attack that she flew out of the basement and knocked herself out on one of the remaining tombstones.

With the ultimate guide to cooking chicken in my hand and a massive bird, I decided I was done for the day and used some rope from my bag to tie the monster up. With a little effort, I found two of the birds dead from blunt force but intact enough for a meal. There was only one problem: where was I going to find an oven big enough for them. The living hen could be used to farm chicken monsters and sell their massive eggs. After I left, I was certain the dungeon would spawn more birds. I could come back and farm the survivors until I had plenty.

From what I could tell, mid-bosses were all ranked 2 monsters on the low end. The boss was a rank 2 somewhere in the middle, stronger than that ogre of Tony's. Like if I wanted to rank Gwen up to a low rank 2 I would choose a Rain Deer. Attributes before ranking up were important in determining what a monster could become.

Rank 2 chicken eggs were more valuable than normal chicken eggs. Depending on the chicken's diet, the eggs could be used by high-level chefs and were something farmers could sell. Veronica was a worthy addition to my farm, and I could already feel something developing between us. Bond was a strange skill; even when it was from defeating an opponent or causing a natural disaster, it had some effect.

Ping!

I froze at the sound. My system would normally only chime after I left a dungeon to show me notifications. If it was happening in the dungeon, then it had to have something to do with the event.

Event Complete.

All Survivors were slashed, and Virgin Final Girl was captured.

Calculating…

Scenario Completion Time: 5 minutes 36 seconds

Virgin Final Girl was captured before her virginity was lost

Unique Actions Taken

Book of Colonel's Fried Chicken: acquired.

Reward

Rare Skill Shard Drop From Floor 3

Skill Shard: Fell Mastery (R)

Fell Mastery (R) lvl1

I let the memories from the skill shard flow through me. Only this time, it was different. Instead of images from monsters showing me how the skill could be used, I learned about the skill itself.

Fell was the reaction of psychic power impacting the world. It was an effect and, in my case, something I was manipulating without understanding until I gained the skill. Understanding what the pushing and pulling reaction was didn't change the fact I wasn't psychic, not even telepathic. Without the driving force behind my skill, I would always be weaker. My high Willpower could create small psychic waves thanks to my skill, but without the primary skills needed to power Fell Wind, I would never have reached my full potential.

I knew psychic was a rare skill, and only bosses and apparently events dropped them. As I headed for the exit I thought about turning back to try the boss to see what it would drop but held back.

Tomorrow was another day. I looked down at the dead chickens I had dragged with me. Once I de-feathered them, removed their guts, and cooked them over an open fire, I would have real meat for the first time in forever. The excitement was overwhelming.

Once I fed and grew stronger with skills and skill trees, I would wait for Tony to come back and break him into bits before giving him to the corn.