NOVEL NEXT Chapter 18: Irritation
Status of Dominic Martin Cole / Leo
Species: Lion (body) / human (mind), Two-Souled
Level: Half-step Evolved Beast Level 8 (Path of Evolution)
Progress to Evolution: 256/162 PP level up
Hunger level: 100%
Thirst level: 100%
Quests: A Noble Endeavour; Regain what is Lost
Acquired Abilities:
Quick Strike (T0) level 2 (57% to level 3) – 3 SP for +25% speed; 6 SP for +40% speed
Powerful Kick level 1 (44%)
Crushing Bite level 1 (30%)
Rage level 1 (24%)
Defensive abilities:
- Fur level 3 (6-8 Slicing damage reduction, 1-2 Piercing damage reduction, 3-4 Crushing damage reduction, 1-2 Tearing damage reduction)
- Skin level 3 (2-3 Slicing damage reduction, 1-2 Piercing damage reduction)
Offensive abilities:
- Claws level 2 (6-11 Slicing damage, 6-8 Tearing damage, 3-5 Piercing damage)
- Bite level 2 (32-50 Crushing damage, 35-63 Tearing damage, 28-40 Piercing damage)
General abilities:
- Muscular Body level 4 (max speed 24mps; max speed duration 13s) (32/77 SP)
- Carnivore Constitution level 2 (246/350 HP) +20% regeneration
The first thing Dominic looked for was which ability the boss trodil had offered progress towards. His heart leapt as he saw that Rage had reached 24%. Though, am I going to get any more opportunities to earn it? Dominic wondered.
Pushing the thought out of his mind – he either would or wouldn’t, no point worrying about it – he noticed with pleasure that he had earned enough Prey Points to level up again. Is this too fast? he wondered. Then he shrugged mentally, letting out a huff of air. Maybe the early levels came quickly for everyone.
And he needed to not forget that he’d been fighting practically constantly for the last how many hours. In fact, I should probably take a nap before actually opening the temple door, he decided. It hadn’t escaped his notice that his maximum stamina was down to 77 SP instead of 80 SP.
I remember that being the case before, after I’d hunted all the roaming trodils. His maximum had returned to normal after he’d slept for a bit, so maybe that would work again here. Maybe stamina will only refill to a certain point by using bodies of ‘slain foes’ to recuperate my losses, he theorised. Maybe actual sleep could only be delayed by so much.
Anyway, he had the five keys now, so there was no harm in taking it a little easy for a time. Though first, levelling up.
Activating the process, he perused the list again.
[Heart – improve your stamina]
[Muscles – improve your speed]
[Eyes – improve your sight]
[Touch – lengthen your whiskers or improve your sensitivity to touch]
[Sinuses – improve your sense of smell]
[Mouth – improve your bite power or sense of taste]
[Teeth – sharpen, lengthen, or strengthen your teeth]
[Digestive system – widen your diet or improve your constitution]
[Claws – sharpen, lengthen, or strengthen your claws]
[Coat – thicken, lengthen, or harden your coat]
[Mane – thicken or darken your mane]
[Vocal cords – enhance your roar]
[Feet – harden or soften your pads]
[Bones – strengthen or grow your bones]
[Skin – render your skin harder or more flexible]
[Strike – improve your speed and power when attacking]
What was I lacking in that last fight? Dominic asked himself. Then again, was it a good idea to always prepare for the last fight? Wouldn’t it be a better idea to prepare for the next one?
The problem there was that he didn’t know what the next battle would entail. Would there be more trodils of even higher level behind those doors? Or a different animal? Or something else entirely? From what Dominic had read, being attacked by creatures was only one of the challenges a dungeon could throw at a person.
Traps, puzzles, moral conundrums…there were a number of other potential things he could face through those doors. Better natural weaponry, defences, speed, or stamina could only help with some challenges, but not all. Actually, that’s an interesting point, Dominic thought as he scanned through the list again.
All the things he could enhance were to do with physical aspects. There was nothing about enhancing his intelligence. Heck, it doesn’t even mention ‘brain’ even though it talks about a number of my other body parts. Dominic would have thought his brain would rank higher than things like his mane in terms of aspects to enhance.
But would I choose it even if it were actually there? the human-turned-lion wondered. He sighed heavily. The issue was once more not knowing what he was going into.
In this room, it had been simple enough. He’d known what the next fight was, and since the next fight was just more and higher-level opponents compared to his previous, it had been easy to work out what he needed more of. Now though…
I need to open the doors and at least take a peek, he decided. Even if he needed to shut them in the face of some dangerous monster, seeing what was there would give him more idea of what to choose to enhance.
Decision made, he picked up his key pieces. At least, he tried to. It turned out that adding a fifth piece to the already-awkward four was the straw that broke the camel’s back. Only, in this case, it wasn’t about breaking his back, but about testing his patience as he lost one key piece after another while reaching for the next. Like trying to put too many peas on a fork.
Seriously System, give me some sort of storage. Please! An inventory. A backpack. Hell, I’d take a fanny pack at this point. The image of a lion with a strap tied around his hindquarters, its little attached bag hanging between his legs and bashing his balls with every step made him grin mentally. If nothing else, it helped relieve some of the irritation he felt as he kept trying and failing to pick up the five key pieces.
Finally, after more time than he wanted and no little frustration, the young lion succeeded in trapping all five pieces within the cage of his teeth. His tongue had to work quite hard to both stop them from falling out or disappearing down his gullet.
I’m going to be glad to get rid of these, he thought grumpily as he trotted through the savannah grass, heading for the temple in the centre of it. Once more approaching the oddly-shaped doors, he placed the key pieces down in front of it.
Stilling, he used more senses than just sight. He wanted to work out if he could gain any sort of idea of what was behind the doors – the sound of growling or snarling, shifting feet, the scent of something he recognised – but he detected nothing.
In fact, it was pretty eerie. Even when he’d entered the dungeon, there had been noise. Although there had never been any significant air movement, the trodils moving through the grass had created a small amount of noise. The trodils which had been in the camps had been pretty quiet, but even so odd growls or yelps had broken out here or there.
Now that he’d killed all the trodils, everything was completely still. Silent. Unnaturally so. Dominic actually felt a bit uncomfortable, neither he nor Leo being accustomed to such utter stillness. Dominic was used to the stimulation overload of modern life where Leo was used to the natural sounds of the savannah. This...it unnerved them.
While Dominic knew he should rest and recoup his stamina, he was too unsettled to do so. As a result, he started putting the key pieces together. At least, he attempted to.
Just like with trying to fit them in his mouth, he found that this task was significantly more difficult without opposable thumbs. In the end, he decided not to bother with fitting the pieces together first: there was no way he was going to be able to manoeuvre them as a single piece.
Instead, he started trying to fit them one by one into the slot. It was about head-height on him, bridging the gap between the two doors. As a lock, it was pretty obvious what he needed to do. Doing it was more difficult.
Once more he cursed his lack of proper hands. The puzzle wasn’t hard – it was literally just about slotting vaguely triangular shapes with funny edges together: child’s play. For his paws, however, it was almost impossible.
In the end, he succeeded by moving the pieces one by one with a combination of his paws and mouth. It was awkward, difficult, and way too finicky, and when the final piece eventually clicked into place, all he could feel was relief that the ordeal was over with.
Before his eyes, the key pieces shimmered and disappeared. For a moment Dominic panicked, wondering whether he’d done something wrong. If he had to go and hunt down the key pieces again, he’d probably leave the whole dungeon in pure disgust.
Fortunately, that didn’t seem to be the case. Although the lock didn’t change visibly, he heard a loud clunk from the doors which he could only guess was the lock disengaging.
Opening the doors was another challenge, but Dominic remembered how he’d tried to open them before. Once more slotting his paws behind one of the handles, he pulled at it. Unlike before, the door pulled open immediately with practically no resistance.
Walking backwards awkwardly on his back paws, Dominic released the handle as soon as he could, using the door as something of a shield as he peered into the dark space. Even for his excellent night-vision, changing suddenly from bright daylight to gloomy darkness wasn’t an instantaneous process.
While his eyes adapted, he strained his hearing to the max, desperately needing to know whether he ought to jump out of the way of something charging at him in attack. However, nothing but brooding silence met his ears.
No hooves, no claws, not even the barely-there padding of a predator such as himself. That didn’t mean it was safe, of course: something could be waiting patiently to ambush him. He’d probably do the same himself. Or Leo would, anyway.
For a moment Dominic wondered whether he should be concerned about how easily he was adapting to thinking and hunting like a lion, to the point where he was starting to be unsure which instincts and inclinations were his, and which were the lion’s. Then he dismissed it. Did it matter? I’m a lion now, he told himself. I may get my body back at some point, but until then I’m going to have to be a lion. If his thoughts and instincts started aligning properly with his body, perhaps it was for the better.
Because right now, that was all that kept him alive.
His vision adapting itself to the dark conditions inside, Dominic was able to see that there were no obvious threats. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. I’ve come this far already. Taking a few small steps forward, Dominic advanced on the dusty space.
Time to see what this temple has in store for me.