"Why are... why are you insane?" Anduda asks.
"I made the mistake of putting a bunch of points into potency when I first started. My spells became so instable that any high levels spells had like a 75 percent chance to kill me." I shrug.
"How did you fix it?"
"Spent a week casting my high level spells until my Familiarity went up high enough to cast stuff normally."
"A week? Like, in-game week?"
"Ha! Fuck no... An actual week, in real hours, just casting until it killed me than running back to the field to try again, slowly getting better at it." I shiver remembering how long that took.
"I would go insa- oh..." She says before it clicks.
"Yep, that's why they reacted like that, it wasn't fun, but it helped me cast better spells after I was done." I shrug.
"Yeah, and put you far ahead of everyone else." Inglis says.
"It didn't help that much." I shrug.
"It did... A lot, I think you might be one of the only players with maxed out Familiarity..."
"Okay?"
"You can cast high level spells that are crazy strong perfectly! Yes! It did help that much..!" Inglis sighs, "Now I know why you are so overpowered..."
"I... just don't know what to say to that..." I say, turning back to Anduda. "Well, go ahead and put in the points you want to. If you want to save a few for when you figure out exactly how you want to play that's fine."
"Okay." She does a decent spread over the stats I recommended, leaving a few points unassigned for later. To my relief, she didn't put any points into Potency.
"Alright, now lets take a look at your skill page." She flips over to it, the long and spider web like menu causing her to lean back against me and sigh. "It's not as confusing as it looks, trust me." I look down at her and smile, she looks up at me judgingly, then sighs and looks back to the menu. "The skill or spells power increases as you go up, you will have to spend at least one point in a skill that has a connection to unlock the one above it."
"I remember that part... I just didn't like how confusing this menu was, and it looks like it got bigger..." Her voice trails off as her hand hovers in place.
"You okay?"
"Hmm? Oh, yeah, I just... I just saw a spell I was interested in..."
"Which one?"
"It's an upgraded form of my wolves... They are called Darkflame Guards..." She says shily. Why are you acting like that? It's just a spell.
"Then why don't you get it?" She should have enough points to get it, it's not that far away from her spells she already has.
"I... um... yeah... I'll get it..." She spends the points to get it and upgrades it as much as she can. I guess she really wanted it.
"Why don't you test it out?"
"Is it safe?"
"They are your summons, they wont hurt anything that you don't want them to." At least, they shouldn't...
"Okay..."
She summons them in front of us, two large, pitch black wolves with glowing white eyes and black flames in a white outline going down their spine, their tail, coated in that same flame. Well I understand the name now, but they are a lot bigger than I thought they would be.
They look around, inspecting the environment before setting their eyes on Anduda, starting to walk over. You little fuckers better be gentle or I am ripping your eyes out and using them as headlamps... They get to us, Anduda looking up at them as I am eye level with them, but Anduda is slightly smaller while on my lap. It leans down and licks her face, causing her to giggle and start to pet it. So you thought they would be cute and were excited about it...
"They are pretty cute." I say, reaching out and petting it.
"Mhm..." She nods. "Wait, no! They're cool damnit!" Pffttt that's how you are trying to play it off?! It's fine if you consider something cute.
"Yeah yeah, they're cool." I say with a grin. "They still probably can't survive here, you can always re-summon them later though if they do die."
"I would rather not put them through that." She says, waving goodbye to them as she cancels the summon.
"You always had a soft spot for animals." I say.
"They can feel pain just like us, they shouldn't suffer." She says, leaning back against me.
We sit like that for a moment before Leo speaks up. "Everyone ready to continue?" We all confirm and begin the dive into the dungeon again, Anduda is noticeably more calm then before, but still on edge. The packs of enemies have started to become a mix of bone wolves and golems. The strategy we are using is the tanks halt their movements, while Leo, Melina, and Reggie focus on the wolves, and Inglis and I are focusing on the golems. Nabe has been sitting in the back and occasionally healing the tanks when they receive some chip damage.
Anduda has slowly loosened up as we have proceeded, I think she is getting to a high enough level where it's not a 'get away from here' reaction. I think it's just 'I don't like it here' now. She seems to be getting back to her old self, it's good that it is wearing off. Still going to tease her...
"Alright everyone, you all ready for the boss?"
We all nod. While this dungeon might be one of the more linear ones, the EXP you get and the materials are nice. It just sucks that it is so mind-numbing to run...
"Good, I assume we can let you take over if things get hairy?" He asks me.
"Um... I guess? You seem to have a lot of faith in my abilities right now." I say.
"I wouldn't have us go in if I didn't think we could beat it." He shrugs. "Alright, lets do this."
He pushes open the door, the dark room revealed as we make our way in. The door closes behind us, leaving us in the dark. Typical, it's how it worked in- huh?
The room shakes slightly as a large, spider creature descends from the ceiling. Eyes riddling its whole being, its chitin clicking as it shuffles and turns to stare at us, flashing its glowing red eyes. The room lighting up as white flames ignite revealing its blue shell.
No... no no no! Please tell me this is actually a dream! This isn't how it was in-game! This was never the boss here! When did this happen- it had to have been from the change, but why a spider!? Where can I go?! The exit is closed! I wanna go home! It's disgusting! It's vile! Get it the fuck away from me! Can I kill it!? I can kill it right!? The party won't mind if I delete this dungeon from the map- right!? Surely they won't right!
A hole in space appears above the spider, black tendrils reaching from the void and down to the spider. It wraps around each limb, sinking through it as it eats away at the shell. The spider screeches in pain, attempting to move, only having the tendrils cut through it faster. The legs are all cut from it, the tendrils wrapping around the body while lifting it towards the sphere, floating in the air. Its last screech is cut short as it is pulled into the void, the sphere collapsing in on itself and leaving nothing but a pile of cut up chitin and unrecognizable insides.
"Uh... Camaella?" Anduda asks, looking up at me. I shakily turn to her.
"Mmmhhmmmm?"
"Are... are you okay?" She squeezes my hand.
"Hmmmm..." I hum, "Yeah... Lets go back now..." I smile at her, she nods quickly.
We walk back out of the dungeon, startling the transport that Leo hired to take us to and from the dungeon.
"Sir! Are you done already?" The man calls while hopping down off of the cart.
"Yes... Yes we are..." Leo glances at me, I just smile back.
"Did you clear it?" He asks.
"Yes, we didn't collect any materials. If you would like to quickly run through and grab things as a bonus, you have about 45 minutes."
"We will gladly take you up on that offer!" He grabs a few things, grabbing the other guard and dashing into the dungeon.
"Be careful!" Leo calls as they run in. "Ugh... whatever, they know what to look out for." He walks over to me.
"Are you feeling okay?" He asks.
"Yes, why do you ask?"
"Why did you kill the boss like that?"
"What do you mean?" I smile and tilt my head.
"You... whatever... I understand that wasn't the boss we were expecting but you didn't have to kill it right away."
"Oh yes, yes I did." That thing didn't deserve to live any longer then I allowed it.
"What are you..? I am not going to get a straight answer out of you, am I?"
I sigh, "I'm... I have arachnophobia, that thing just... You know..." I look down.
"Ah... I get it." He says. "If that thing was a snake I probably would have thrown you at the thing so you would kill it." He shrugs, walking back over to everyone else and explaining what happened.
Anduda rubs my hand, "Are you feeling better?" I look down to her.
"Yeah, I just... needed a second to calm down."
"Lets go sit in the cart then. It'll be better than standing out here while we wait."
"You're right, lets go."
We walk over to the cart, she growls in frustration as I help her into the back of it. I crawl up into it, and we sit down. I shiver as I remember that things noises and look, causing Anduda to look up at me.
"Are you sure you're okay?" She asks.
"Yeah, I'll be fine..." That thing is going to be burned into-
My vision blurs slightly, Anduda smiling maliciously at me as she rubs one of my horns.
You... Little... Shit...