Chương 61: 1-60 Lines and tendrils

What Josef found was a surprising jump in an ability he had already pushed to the back of his mind. ☆☆☆ Mentor's Feedback (Moderate) -> ☆☆☆☆ Teacher's Exchange (Inferior) Teaching is learning. You have taught and been taught in turn, Grasping the differences between two minds striving for the same conclusion. Translating concepts between familiar and summoner is marginally easier. It was a nice sentiment, he thought, even if the improvement it granted sounded like it was on the smaller side.

However, considering it took a complete jump in rank to gain even that much, he could only assume how difficult that translation was at its base. Well, he knew how hard it was, considering he had just gone through the effort of doing it himself. If it weren't for the sudden idea of likening pressure to the power of Pretzel's squeezing hugs, he wouldn't have overcome that difference in their mindsets. Was that how his newest upgrade would work? A sudden flash of inspiration?

It was another one for the pile of things that should concern him because of the influence they would have on his mind. And once again he would push it back into the deepest recesses of his brain. Otherwise, he could hardly push on with the existential crisis he would be suffering. No, he would just stay in the comforting embrace of links he had formed with his familiars, basking in the satisfaction that Pretzel was radiating, and pretend everything was normal upstairs.

"So, are you good to go?" Zippa asked, his scales having just barely cooled down after drying himself.

"Yeah, we're coming. Didn't want to cut into your bath time. You needed it," he teased, passing the lizard to continue on their path.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Zippa cried out, before quickly checking his own smell.

"Hold on, I was just joking about that month." As nobody bothered to answer him, he wailed after them.

"It was a joke!" Unconcerned, they pushed on, eventually getting back into the rhythm of culling the local monster population. With Josef and both of his familiars back in full focus, albeit refining their new spells, they progressed even faster than before. Linda too was proving her mettle with every fight, improving at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Just a day ago, he found it somewhat amusing that this posh lady was aiming to follow in the footsteps of some legendary elf, but now he could see where she was coming from. Her impact on fights was still a far cry from Aifreed's, but she was catching up quickly. Was this how people felt when they watched his own progress? Meanwhile, Bezzo continued to struggle his way forward, making up with persistence what he lacked in tools to counter the monsters on their path.

Even if immediate progress was eluding him, he at least got injured less as time passed. Just as he couldn't take them down, they couldn't hurt him either. It wasn't much, but it gave him and Zippa some peace of mind. Once they reached the halfway point towards their next boss, arriving on floor 25, Josef took quick stock of what he had gained during those last five floors. Level 30 -> 31 2 Free attribute points.

2 Dexterity, 2 Endurance, 1 Intelligence and 1 Wisdom gained As expected, this level was heavy on Dexterity, considering how much he was weaving around sharp limbs trying to gut him. The one time it had actually happened, alongside all the smaller cuts he had taken from near misses, had pushed his Endurance to boot. Not wanting his mental stats to lose out on such a balanced increase, he added his free points to them. 1 Intelligence and 1 Wisdom gained There, nice and even, just as he liked it.

✩✩✩✩ Water Jet (Moderate) -> (Advanced) ☆☆☆☆ Water Shot (Moderate) -> (Advanced) Speaking of even, his two newest water spells formed a perfect mirror, overtaking his Water Prison as their grade advanced. It was a bit of a shame, letting one of his original spells fall behind like that, but there just wasn't much use to it right now. It wasn't like he could crush or drown the elementals with the wet sphere.

While he could pin a limb from one of those disgusting Rachse, there just wasn't a point to it when his shots would send them tumbling, and the jet had turned into a short-range instant kill. The latter was still far from the devastating laser he had envisioned, but he could penetrate those creatures' flesh from about half a meter away. Combined, they made for a smooth fighting experience, allowing him to quickly decimate one monster after another all on his own.

He wasn't confident about tackling several of them at once, but as long as they didn't overwhelm him with numbers, he wouldn't have issues handling them. Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings. Which officially let Pretzel and Dusty team up to fight on their own, showing off what they were made of. With the serpent, it was mostly water, with a side of angry hissing, while the bunny was a little bundle of surprises and teeth.

Together, they spread violence and blood to any who would cross them. Except for the elementals, which Zippa handled most of the time. As disgusting as boiling them was, it was the most effective method they had. Not that the rest of them never tried their hand. Aifreed could do it rather easily, but he had to carve slice after slice from the body until he found the core. Linda followed much in the same vein, but lacked the coordination to make a concentrated effort.

Instead, she just kept swinging until her sword randomly caught on the creature's vital organ and dislodged it from sheer force. Technically, Josef himself could make quick and clean work of them, keeping pace with Zippa without the horrid stench. Unfortunately, that required him to plunge his hands into its body and drain mana like a parched man. Which wouldn't be so bad if the dried-up residue didn't stubbornly cling to his gloves afterwards.

The group might escape the smell as a whole, but Josef would have to deal with the localized smell and an icky feeling afterwards. Also, it was dangerous to lean over the sewage to establish physical contact in the first place, but that honestly took a backseat in his own personal reasoning. Which is why he was currently hard at work, annoying Bezzo once more, as he worked on yet another spell improvement. Although this one felt like a much easier challenge than the last one.

Josef wanted to use his Mana Drain at a range. The pieces were already there, considering his very first attempt at the spell had already used a sort of mana cable, connecting him to the mana he was trying to affect. Only now, he wasn't going to worm it through a body towards the mana core, but through the air to a creature made wholly from it. Similar enough on paper, but air proved to be a poor canvas for drawing consistent lines.

He always struggled with them, even when using Blink, spilling a lot of mana in his attempts to keep the line going where he wanted to. Desperately shoving his energy into one direction wasn't going to cut it for this one, though. He had to create something much less flimsy, maintaining a connection without letting it break up, or he would lose both the draining effect and whatever mana was already coming towards him.

The concentration needed was giving him a headache, and he barely managed a full second of stability before it wavered, cancelling the effect. It was like trying to press a button on your TV while sitting on the couch with nothing but a 3 meter long plastic ruler. Josef had to do that, then continue to press a new button every other second, as the ambient mana pushed his own around. If he didn't adjust his approach with a new idea soon, he might just bite his own tongue off while trying to concentrate.

At least it would be easy to regrow that muscle, as long as he didn't choke on it. It wasn't until the precipice of floor 36, when the dungeon held another surprise for them. A new monster made its first appearance, and for once, it wasn't utterly disgusting at first sight. Grasping Hunger - Level 38"Is that a flower?" Zippa was the first to question their newest encounter.

"No, while this appears to be a plant, it doesn't have the qualifying bloom for such a label." Aifreed explained thoughtfully.

"I'd say it's more of a bush. Maybe a berry bush?" Josef speculated, looking at the bushel of sickly green-brown leaves in front of him. Nobody would have ever mistaken it for a normal piece of greenery, though, as something just beneath its surface was clearly moving, giving it an almost pulsating appearance.

"If those are berries, then you can taste them first." Bezzo muttered, his mood about as foul as the fleshy bulb resting within the leaves before them.

"Well, at least this one should be easy to handle." Zippa ignored his younger brother's antics. Instead, he took a deep breath, scales gleaming from the heat building within. The torrent of flame he spat quickly enveloped the unlucky plant in front of him. That's when the screaming began. An unholy screech tore through the corridor, forcing them all to hold their ears shut. Or whatever hole counted for that in the two reptiles' case.

From the almost inconspicuously small pile of leaves, a dozen writhing tentacles erupted. All of them had an appearance similar to what lived inside the Rachse, forming those strange limbs. On top of those tendrils were the fleshy bulbs they had spotted before, that were now revealed to be tooth-filled maws, from which that unholy sound originated. Unlike Zippa's initial prediction, the plant didn't immediately combust upon being consumed by fire.

Instead, it was struggling fiercely, creating much chaos as its tendrils swung around wildly. Acting like biological flails, they impacted everything close to the creature, breaking pieces out of the surrounding brickwork. Aifreed quickly assumed position in front of the party, cleaving off one bulb that came swinging too close for comfort. Apparently, that thing was stretchy enough to reach them even at a distance, as more of its limbs homed in on them after the first.

With Linda taking a stance beside her loyal knight, they kept the things at bay well enough. Josef took on the first that made it past, catching its momentum with a Water Prison, after which Pretzel promptly blasted it open with a jet of her own water. However, Zippa handled most of those that broke through, as he had no qualms about catching the burning plant-flesh with his own claws.

Ripping the bulb from the tendril, he inspected it for a second before flinging it at the next limb with an annoyed click of his tongue.

"It's like they aren't burning for real. There's some kind of oil on them that burns, but the rest of it isn't affected. I don't think it's screaming from pain."

"Then why, by Sylvan's mercy, would they make this unholy sound?" Linda complained from the front, kicking away a freshly severed bulb.

"Maybe it's screaming for help?" Josef suggested.

"That's what I'd do if someone set me on fire."

"Why not put it out with water?" His familiar hissed in confusion.

"That's not the point I'm trying to make. What I mean is-""Incoming!" Bezzo was the first to pick up on what the plant had done. From between the broken bricks they emerged, just like the plants that had grown out of it ever since they had stepped beyond floor 20. Unlike the ambient not-quite greens, these didn't emerge slowly, nor were they small.

Like worms coming to the surface on a rainy day, countless wriggling tendrils emerged around them Burrowing Hunger - Level 32 They were unmistakably the very kind of creature living within the local Rachse. Going by their name, Josef doubted that the only thing they could bury into was the surrounding walls. These parasites were looking for a new home, and they had found a party of adventurers to try their luck with.