A new dungeon discovery (12)

"How the heck! Damn, Kiera you're really strong, I didn't think you'd be able to do that, sorry I guess." Adam said looking at me with wide eyes and a small smile.

"It's fine. Think what you want of me." I replied.

"Kiera, you seem stronger than before, What kind of hellish training have you been doing?" Iris asked as she rubbed her shoulder on the side she held her sword with.

"That is something that doesn't need to be said, do you want a break before going to the boss since we just fought or can we keep going, I don't want people trailing behind and hindering our pace." I said glancing between Iris and Mio.

"I can still move so whatever everyone else is up for." Mio said, looking at Iris for her answer.

"I can move as well. I won't be too slow anyway so we will move at a decent pace." Iris said.

"Okay, we will be travelling north then since it's the location of the boss. We need to go get Catherine and Scarlet though, they are still by the walls." I said, walking to the walls that Scarlet and Catherine were behind.

"How did you know the location of the boss?" Catherine asked once I got to the other side of the wall and to her hiding place which isn't very hidden. I had told both Scarlet and Catherine we were travelling north as it was the direction the boss of this dungeon was located.

"I asked a cursed corpse." I replied.

'Now that I think about it, the system hasn't shown the EXP yet. System? Can you show me how much EXP I got?' I thought to myself.

..

<*ping*>

< You have killed 77 Cursed corpses >

< You have gained 6,237 EXP >

< You have levelled up >

..

'81 EXP per corpse. That's a good amount.' I thought. 'What level am I now? System.'

..

<*ping*>

Name:[Kiera]

Age:[6]

Race:[Black elemental wyrm]

Gender:[Female]

Level:[6/250]

EXP:[753/2500]

HP:[1034/1034]

MP:[1324/1324]

SP:[1099/1099]

..

Strength:[1031]

Intelligence:[1158]

Endurance:[1089]

Mental force/power:[ERROR]

Agility:[1046]

..

Skills - [Scratch] , [Thrust] , [Inspect] , [Bow mastery] , [Perfect aim] , [Elemental breath] , [Bloodlust] , [Elemental master] , [True dragon] , [Copy] , [Spacial storage] , [Sword mastery] , [Fire blade] , [Transform] , [Chef] , [Scythe mastery: 41%] , [Wind enhancer] , [Inferno] , [Poison manipulation] , [Fire resistance] , [Telepathy], [Override], [Limit breaker], [Black flames], Skill set: [Flames of destruction],

..

Passive skills - [Night vision] , [Mastered spacial awareness] , [Steal] , [Regeneration] , [Elemental resistance] , [Polyglot]

..

Armours - [Armour bent from the flames of death],

..

Body modifications - [Armoured scales - activated]

..

Titles - [The anomaly]

..

Blessings - [Blessed by goddess of reincarnation] , [Blessed by goddess of space]

..

'Hm okay, level 6. It is out of 250 though. Still a long way to go. Since the cursed corpses gave me 81 EXP per corpse I wonder how much the boss would give me. In the thousands? I remember an ogre gave me over 100 EXP before so I don't know. This is assuming the boss gives more EXP than the rest of the monsters in the dungeon.'

Catherine's voice brought me back from my thoughts, "And the cursed corpse just told you where the boss was? I don't believe that, it must've asked for something, right?"

"I swore to the heavens to ignore it no matter what or the heavens will strike me down on the condition that it told me all it knows about the boss." I replied.

"So you just let it go?"

"No, I got Tess to kill it."

"Good."

There was a small moment of silence between us before Scarlet spoke, "Let's get moving then, to the north, yes?"

"Yes, to the north of here." I said, replying to Scarlet.

"Okay, we should get moving soon then." Scarlet said, adding onto the end, "What did the corpse say about the boss?"

"The boss is a corrupt ogre with the fire affinity and some others that are unknown to the cursed corpses. It is around the strength of an A - rank adventurer and it's to the north of here, that is all it knows."

"A corrupt ogre? And the strength of an A - rank, hmm.. Kiera, you could probably beat it depending on if it has a move like that bear from before, if it has a move like that I want you to stay away from it. Don't attack it and stay back. If not then it's fine. I could beat it and maybe Mio, Iris and Tess could. Jayden as well but I'm assuming he ran off since he isn't here?"

"Correct, Jayden has ran off. He drew attention of most of the corpse and went off somewhere after-"

'I know where though but I'd rather not travel with him. I don't care what he does.'

"Mio, Iris and Tess could probably kill the boss though I'd have to see the boss first and then decide if they can or can't. Also, I don't care if the boss has a skill like the one from before. It won't break me again." I said.

'Unless it destroys the seal, if the seal is destroyed and my emotions flow out then I will probably be the same as last time.'

"Sure? I'd rather stay on the safe side and not let that happen again." Scarlet said.

"I will fight." I replied.

'I'm going to fight no matter what she says. I need to see how much EXP it will give me, also if I don't fight then Tess will and she will definitely get injured without being in her true form. I said I'd protect her. In order to do this I need strength, the amount I have now isn't enough.'

"Fine, alright. If it looks bad then I'm taking you out immediately." Scarlet said in a firm tone, making it clear it wasn't a debate. It was solidified and my opinion wasn't going to affect it.

The rest of the group looked between me and Scarlet with curiosity brimming in their eyes.

"I'm not saying what happened so don't ask." I said getting sad sighs as a response.

"We should find Jayden." Scarlet said, looking around to find traces of where he went.

"Just leave him behind." Adam spoke up, "He put the group in danger and then left, it's his fault what happens next so let's just leave."

"*sigh* Alright, we will go straight to the boss then. He will be taken out of the dungeon at the same place from where we entered automatically anyway so unless he dies he will be fine." Scarlet said, moving north with the rest of us trailing behind her.

Nothing has attacked us and the boss monster hasn't come into my spacial awareness yet even after four hours of non stop walking so we probably won't find it for the rest of the day.

My guess is that the boss is at the massive volcano in the distance. From the pace we are moving and the distance between the volcano and us, from my guess, it'll take us maybe two and a half days of walking with no breaks. Five and a half, pushing six days if we do take breaks.

"Kiera, the corpse said to the north right? You didn't hear it wrong?" Terry said, looking back at me with a tired smile.

"I am sure of what I heard. The corpse said to the north but not how far away. My guess is that big volcano that looks like it's about to erupt at any minute is our destination." I replied.

"How long do you think it'll take?" Iris asked.

"Two and a half days of we walk non stop and nothing slows us down and five pushing six days if we take breaks. That's also counting on if nothing interferes with us while walking. At worst maybe a week and a half? That's if there are lots of interruptions and breaks along the way."

"That's a long time." Terry sighed, "And this is just your guess?"

"Yes, it's only a guess. I don't have enough intelligence to know the exact time it'll take especially with unknown variables that could be thrown in at any time." I said looking Terry straight in the eyes.

Terry replied with a nod and went back to focusing on walking.

Tess then looked at me and tapped her head twice, I assumed she wanted to speak through telepathy.

'What is it, Tess?' I asked with the slightest tilt of my head.

'What is your strength at? You seem to be getting stronger really fast.'

'The value or what rank I'm in?'

'Both.' Tess replied.

'The value is at 1031 and my ranking would be at A - rank, about middle A - rank almost in the high A - rank. Why do you want to know?'

'.. that's really high. You're six.'

'Well what are you at?'

'714, A - rank, low A - rank.'

'I thought you were higher?'

'Why would you think that.'

'You're older than me and you have a high standing at the school. You can keep up in fights well and you're a dragon. Is my growth speed really that fast?'

'Kiera, you seem to be an anomaly. I'm a little higher than normal for a dragon and you're just abnormally high in dragon standards.' Tess replied.

'Is this not good? I can protect you and my family.'

'.. protect me? .. thank you, Kiera. Although I love that part of you, I want to stand by your side and fight along side you, I don't want to be weak and fall behind. I too wish to protect you.'

'Then should I help you?' I asked.

'If Tess wants to protect me and fight with me than it'll be easier for me to protect her as well. If she doesn't want to fall behind then can't we train together?' I thought to myself.

'How could you help?' Tess asked.

'I can train with you. We can progress at the almost the same speed that way and since you want to fight with me, which I have no problem with, we could work on our coordination.' I responded through telepathy.

'That.. that might work, thank you Kiera! I'll try and not let you down!' Tess said with a cheery voice.

We cut off the connection.

The remainder of the walk before our break was unremarkable with nothing happening along the way. None of us spoke much, only small chatter when we got bored and the rest was done in silence.

Tess and I didn't speak after our chat through telepathy so I thought she might just not want to talk at all. She did ask me a question about how many monsters that were in our vicinity every now and then to be on guard but other than that it was just silence between us, verging on being awkward.

After she did speak with me though I did notice the very tips of her ears were slightly red though I'm not sure what that's all about.

"We will take a break for two hours and eat something, once we have done we will continue walking until nightfall before setting up camp. Kiera will be on duty with Mio. Does anyone want to hunt for the food?" Scarlet asked once we all sat down for our break.

Nobody answered as they were all tired so I got up.

"I'll do it since everyone is tired. Is there any preference for what you want?"

"Rabbit."

"Bird."

"I'm not fussy."

"Venison."

"Wolf."

"Anything, just hurry I'm starving."

"Whatever you can find."

"Food. Anything edible. Something that gives me energy? I don't know."

"I'll just get a different range of animals then. I'll be back as soon as I can." I said as I leaped onto the tree branches and began my search.

..