POV : Exedra
After another brief flash of light, we were once again in an icy cave surrounded by darkness.
If it weren’t for the metallic scent of blood assailing my nose I’d think we were at the entrance again.
Once I observed that Bekka was right behind me, we began our journey into the second floor of the dungeon.
We traveled in utter silence since Bekka was slightly exhausted from her work on floor 1 and I wanted her to rest her mind and body on this floor as much as possible before we got to the third floor.
Suddenly, the sound of low growls and claws scraping the floor entered my ears.
A pack of ice wolves had appeared in front of us from the walls of the cave and was circling us like we were prey.
Each of the wolves were the size of a horse with glowing blue eyes and razor sharp teeth.
They looked like they were going to lunge for us at any second but.. why would I let them move first?
“Gaia’s retribution.” As soon as my spell was activated, spears of earth shot up from the ground to pierce the legs and paws of the wolves rendering them immobilized.
While their yelps of pain filled the cavern I took out a khopesh style sword from my storage ring and proceeded to behead all of the wolves in the blink of an eye.
< x 10 Beta snow wolves killed.
– 1,000 SC gained.
< 1 Alpha snow wolf killed.
– 200 SC gained.
< Host leveled up!
“Woah!” Bekka was clapping proudly with an awed expression on her face that left me slightly embarrassed.
‘System what’s SC?’
< SC is shop currency.
Ohh so I get currency for killing monsters? That makes me even more excited.
As I looked at all the corpses of the beheaded wolves a glint of disdain flashed in my eyes.
‘Haaa at this rate I won’t be able to learn much. This’ll be way too easy.’
< Lack of proper challenge for host has been acknowledged.
‘Come again?’
< Sending request to entity €#%¥$@* for an upgrade of dungeon difficulty or a suitable alternative.
‘What the fuck?’
As if on cue the ground beneath us began to shake furiously.
“W-what’s going on?” Bekka in a rare moment of nervousness had instinctively come to my side and took my hand.
“I don’t know, just hold on okay?”
She nodded furiously as we waited for the ground to stop shaking.
Suddenly, a blinding white light engulfed Bekka and I and we lost consciousness shortly after.
–
“What the fuck has that psychotic god done now… I can’t believe mother even allows this madness.”
As I was coming to, I heard the voice of an old man chattering on about something I could barely make sense of.𝗈𝒱𝗅xt.𝔠𝓞
“Ugh my head…” I was still slightly groggy and delirious. I wasn’t sure of exactly where I was but I knew I was laid out on the ground.
My eyes flashed open when a thought crossed my mind. ‘Bekka!’
I sat up and looked around in every direction.
I appeared to be in an empty Roman style colosseum made entirely out of ice.
Snow was lightly falling from above onto the sandy ground beneath me.
“Bekka?!”
“Bekka!!”
My wife was nowhere to be found.
My mind began to run at a thousand miles a minute and I was so angry pressure was leaking off my body in waves, cracking the ground at my feet.
‘SYSTEM WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO!?’
< System functions are currently unavailable.’
ROOOOOAAAAAAAARRRRRRRR
Before I knew it, the angry roar of a dragon escaped my throat and shook the walls of the colosseum.
“Can you shut up you damn mistake? Your wife is fine, I just didn’t bring her here.”
I spun around desperately looking for the one the voice belonged to and my eyes focused on a figure sitting at the very top of the colosseum.
He was…weird.
He wore elaborate golden robes that looked like something Duke would’ve picked out for me to wear, and where his head should’ve been was instead a snowflake.
I couldn’t focus on his weird fashion choices or fucked up face for now so I just asked the burning questions in my mind.
“Where is she?! What is this place?!” I roared.
“What an insufferable little mortal you are.” The entity gave an exhausted sigh before he began to answer my questions.
“She is back at my dungeon, resting peacefully and free of danger.”
“And this place..” he raised his arms out and spoke in a tone filled with pride “This is your proving ground!”
I frowned upon hearing this. “Who are you that I should have to prove anything to you?!”
“I’d like to tell you but unfortunately an unevolved being like yourself hearing my name would turn your brain into pudding.”
“Then send me back or say something fucking useful.”
Hearing my words the snowflake man’s voice suddenly became as cold as the harshest winter. “Insufferable wretch.. if I didn’t know any better I’d think you were their real grandchild.”
Before I could ask him what he meant, he snapped his fingers and in front of me appeared ten warriors made of ice.
Each one carried a weapon and was almost three meters tall.
“Listen up mortal, you find my dungeon to be lacking? Fine. I owe a favor to the one who brought you here anyway and this will be a fun way to repay it.
You are going to compete against fourteen waves of warriors. If you survive, then I’ll give you a very good reward and return you to your sleeping mate.”
As soon as he finished informing me of what was about to happen, the warriors moved to attack me with their weapons drawn.
I hastily pulled out my khopesh again as took an elegant stance as I prepared for the inevitable clash.
“Do try not to die, I don’t want to owe that damn psychopath any more favors nor do I want to piss off that fucked up family of yours.”
–
The first six waves of warriors were relatively easy to bring down.
But the seventh wave is where things got really complicated.
Instead of being regular warriors in armor, the snowflake man changed them into werewolf warriors and doubled their numbers.
They were bigger, faster, stronger and twice as deadly.
They would come at me as many as four at a time, leaving me virtually no room to breathe or make the slightest mistake.
Honestly? My magic combined with my weaponry is the only reason I’m still upright.
The ice these things were made of is special so even my flames don’t work.
‘And this is only the seventh wave’ I thought bitterly.
Bang!
I delivered a swift kick to one of the werewolves and sent it tumbling into another a fair distance away.
I’d now taken down about half of these damn soldiers but I still had more to go.
I twirled my weapon in my hand before I rushed forward and began exchanging blows with another group of wolves.
I’d been using my khopesh to gradually leave small wounds that accumulated over time but things were growing dire.
My mana was all but spent, and my mental fatigue was gradually accumulating.
Slash!
“Damn it!” I reflexively grew my wings and shot up into the air.
One of the wolves finally got me and slashed it’s claws across my chest.
As my blood flowed out of the wound I became even more enraged at the absurdity of all of this.
I couldn’t even focus on the battle because I was too worried a dungeon monster would come across Bekka while she was asleep and start nibbling on her.
“Oi, you fucking mistake! That’s cheating!” I heard snowflake man scream another one of his annoying taunts but before I could retort the gravity on my body increased drastically and I plummeted towards the ground.
Bang!
Damn it… DAMN IT!!
This is pathetic.
I’m too weak.
This is embarrassing.
‘How laughable.’
As I sat there with both knees in the dirt I looked forward to see the nightmarish ice sculptures had recovered and were closing in on me.
I bitterly closed my eyes and waited for the final blow that never came.
–
When I opened my eyes, I was floating in another black space.
Honestly I’m getting tired of waking up like this.
“You’re pathetic.”
Suddenly I hear a voice that’s eerily familiar behind me.
I turn around and I see… me.
Well old me.
“What is this?” I sneered showing my obvious disdain for this current situation.
“This is your intervention.” The old me materialized a chair out of thin air and sat down.
“Look at you, giving up already. What the hell’s wrong with you? Or parents used to beat us worse than this.”
I simply said nothing and continued to listen.
“Do you know what your problem is?” My clone leaned back leisurely in his chair and stared at me pitifully. “You don’t know what you’re fighting for.”
“So what if your combat experience is lacking.”
“So what if your flames don’t work on them.”
“So what if you’re running out of mana.”
“As long as you’re still breathing you still have a chance to end the battle on your own terms. “
“It doesn’t matter if it’s not decisive, cool or praiseworthy. “
Hearing those words my anger began to reach a boiling point.
He didn’t stop talking and instead continued, “For right now all that matters is that you struggle.” He looked at me seriously.
“You want to live? You want to become an abomination that strikes fear into the souls of others? Then struggle.”
“Keep crawling forward until you can fly.”
He stood up and walked towards me.
“We are living out our wildest dreams in this world. You will not bring our weakness from our last life into our new one.”
“Because the reason why we fight…” He got so close to me I could see that his eyes were not my own and instead just pools of black as empty as they were endless.
“Is so that we are never forced to live as we once did again.”
I agonized over his words for a long time.
I realized he was right.
Subconsciously I was still treating this like some sort of game or story where I was the hero and all victories would conveniently fall at my feet.
Only now do I realize how foolish I’ve been.
I am merely thankful that I realized this before I was in a truly dire situation.
Just imagining a scenario where I could not protect my wives and daughter makes my blood boil.
“Do you finally get it?”
I said nothing and simply nodded.
I will never end up on my knees again.
–
When I opened my eyes again, the monsters were still rushing towards me but I felt incomparably calm compared to my previous self.
It was as if I was looking at puppies instead of wolfmen.
That sense of hopelessness that assailed me before has vanished like dust in the breeze.
“Alright… let’s be serious now.”
< Skill : True Demonic Transformation, activated.
< All stats + 10,000