CH15

Day 19

Gwen watched her human look through possible rank-up options for her, always stopping at a hideous shape. A sage deer would be preferable to the rain deer Tony continues to stop on. Rain that can heal wounds and grow crops would stick her in a support role far from her favored skills. Lunar variants were what she was after; anything with moon or chaos in its name was bound to help her move forward, but Tony didn't seem to get that. He was only interested in what would bring him profit because June the lizard was his long-range combatant.

It wasn't fair, and there wasn't anything she could do about it. She refused to speak up until he recognized her in conversation.

Tony hadn't even consulted her when he invited a mercenary party to inspect the dungeon on that human's farm. She knew something would go wrong involving other tamers, but she refused to say a word.

Her ears perked up when she heard the woosh of a bird type. A firebird with thick legs and massive wings landed on a hill three days' travel from the farm. Tony didn't couldn't handle the winds from Mt. Red unlike what he was clearly able to handle before.

"Sandy, pay attention. I'm going to show you how a real tamer does business." Tony said.

Gwen rolled her eyes at the name but watched closely as Tony walked up to the team of three tamers disembarking their firebird.

"My name is Tony Graves nice to meet you all. Before we get started I thought we would have a battle to help introduce each other's monsters. How does one on one sound?" Tony said.

A tall man dressed in a flowing feathered robe wearing a bird mask glanced at his companions. He looked to who she thought was the leader, a massive dark-skinned man with a bow on his back, two quivers tied to his belt, and a long, hooked nose. The party had a mage who busied himself staring at a tablet and hadn't looked up.

"I don't waste my time training monsters when there are dungeons to explore. Unless you want me to burn your monsters to a crisp, I won't participate." The mage said.

She thought about reading his mind for more information but thought better of it. The big man shrugged his shoulders and tapped his summon bank. A monster appeared with a deer skull for a head, massive antlers, and glowing red eyes on the body of a frost-bitten corpse. The summer heat retreated in favor of winter's chill.

"The name's Scout Hunt and I'm the pathfinder of the party," Scout said.

She wanted no part in fighting the creature the human summoned. There were rumors of undead that had requirements for ranking up. One was replacing their head with that of another monster. The monster in question was called Wendigo.

"You'll regret using something so scrawny against my Loki." The ugly but strong ogre appeared, flashing his green skin and wielding a club. The Wendigo drew a battle ax. "Begin, bash it, Loki," Tony called.

Loki moved at astonishing speed for a monster of his size and weight. The moment his club was raised, Scout gave his order.

"Feast," Scout ordered.

The monster roared and seemed to vanish. One moment, Loki was swinging his club; the next, a massive chunk of the ogre's bicep was gone. The Wendigo held the hunk of meat in his free hand and consumed it.

"That isn't allowed in a monster battle," Tony said.

"You wanted to establish yourself in the pecking order, didn't you. Well, now you know. I'm the weakest in our party, which means you're on the bottom."

"Stop the nonsense. Tony is our client we don't want another bad review. I thought we agreed to let this one win." The bird masked man said.

"My fault, boss. I thought showing how strong we are would put him at ease. After all, we were paid to keep him alive in the dungeon. Since his strongest monster is down, he will need us even more." Scout said.

Tony sprayed a healing potion on Loki's bicep, and the flesh bubbled while Loki tried to keep his eyes on the monster still eating a piece of him. Blood dripped from the monster's mouth and hand. Its eyes shifted from Loki, and a shiver went down her spine. 

"I'm very glad I am getting my money's worth. The farmer who owns the land is rather stubborn, but shouldn't be an issue for any of you to deal with." Tony said.

Gwen felt frightened more than before but didn't know why.

…

Day 17

I washed the blood off and tried to sleep. A cold wind blew around my tent, and it wasn't the monster on Mt. Red. Once I started controlling Fell Wind, it was hard to stop, and soon, I would have the stamina to toss around Fell Whirlwinds. That was the real prize.

Struggling to my feet, I pushed off the blanket and saw it was well into the night. A few brave crickets were chirping at a distance, but no biting insects dared get close. Fell Wind had multiple uses, one of which was a bug repellent. I could almost feel where my skill touched, like another sense, until I felt pressure above my right eye. Then, all I felt was a throbbing headache.

The time had come. I needed to take stock of my gains from the dungeon to see if it was worth risking my life.

Ping!

Berserk lvl28, Regeneration lvl27, Adapt lvl25, Training lvl25, Lingering Will lvl29, Gemini Waltz lvl21, Final Blow lvl13, Gemini Blitz lvl9, Blitz Kick lvl5, Crow Step lvl10, Fell Wind lvl11

Skill Points: 93

+2 Strength 

+1 Focus 

+3 Dexterity 

+2 Agility

+1 Perception 

+1 Willpower 

New Skill Tree: Dancing With Stars 0/50

I stared in awe at my gains and thanked my lucky stars. I made the purchases when I did. They might not seem like much, but the solid attribute gains would matter in the long run. Not to mention, the higher I leveled Adapt and Training, the more skill levels and attribute points I would gain. Fighting at my limit carried exponential benefits.

The dungeon was clearly the best choice to go to for gains until I could afford proper gym equipment or other training equipment. With my gains, it was time to finish off a skill tree and hopefully gain another skill or lots of attributes.

Of the skill trees I had, I thought Dancing With Stars was the most likely to drop a skill.

Ping!

Skill Tree Completed: Dancing With Stars 50/50 

+2 Willpower 

+3 Agility 

New Skill: Cosmic Tempo lvl1

Description: Move in time with the song only you can hear while carrying the momentum in battle. Automatically move into skills and attacks that will benefit your goals while in control of a fight. Gain a greater lead with higher levels in this skill. 

My body felt like my nerves were spasming as my agility increased, and my head throbbed more with the Willpower growth. Cosmic Tempo might not sound like a great skill, but I had a feeling it would be up there with Final Blow. Skills that helped me keep my lead and finish fights were great in my book.

I still wasn't done with my skill trees. I had enough points left to finish the Beginner Adventurer skill tree. There would be points left over for Embers of Fallen Heroes as well.

The 25 points went in, with the rest falling into Embers of Fallen Heroes, and I waited.

Ping!

+3 Perception 

+4 Willpower 

New Skill: Mapping lvl1 

Description: Create a map of dungeons to allow the user to find areas more easily and notice changes in the environment. At higher levels, the map becomes more detailed, showing monster encounter percentages. 

That would actually be useful. I gripped my face as my eyes burned, and my latrine was suddenly too close to my tent. For an hour, I waited, almost crippled by the sudden increase in perception. Even my hard, leathery skin felt much more sensitive like the lightest touch would feel like a heavy blow. I waited for the sensations to pass before slowly getting out of bed.

My changes were happening more often. That was both good and bad. It was good that it would be harder to kill me but bad because I would start feeling less human. People weren't meant to have all their attributes above a certain threshold.

Soon enough, I would be strong enough to rip someone apart if I'm not careful; that would also bar me from having sex with most of the human population. Eventually, if I stayed on this path, I could only be with monsters with high attributes of their own, meaning my children would likely be monsters.

That wasn't what I wanted, but it wasn't like it would matter for some time. I wasn't exactly spoiled for women of any species offering themselves to me.

I got out of bed in the middle of the night and found the stars were more than enough to see by. Under the new moon, I picked corn and the peppers growing and soon sold 10,000W worth of both. My body wasn't exhausted like I expected after harvesting dozens of acres. Attributes were the real game changers they made me stronger and more successful and separated me from normal people.

Tamers could focus on Willpower and Perception for most of their lives and still be able to date normal humans. I was different already, and I barely increased my attributes. There was no reason to wear gloves when weeding when my skin was tougher than the cheap pairs I could afford.

I sucked in a breath and let it out. My taste had improved to the point I could taste the peppers in my hand without putting them in my mouth. I could smell the markings of animals slightly when I concentrated.

How much more would I change in a month or a year? Vitality increased lifespan; if I got enough, I could live for multiple centuries. Some skills could also increase the efficiency of attributes. My life could extend further, and if I kept gaining attributes in Vitality, I could live forever. That was a terrifying thought because who wanted to live alone forever?

I missed Gwen, I missed my family, and I missed Mai. I cut off communication with them, and it might not be too late. They couldn't help me, but maybe someone would listen and have an idea of what I was going through.

My hand shook as I stared at my satellite phone. Their numbers were in it; all I had to do was apologize and accept that what they did was necessary. Winds whirled around me, charged with psychic energy.

"Betrayal can't be forgiven," I said.

The phone fell out of my hand. I would not be the first to break. They could have called at any time and checked on me, but I had no missed calls.