Nox stopped in the middle of the hallway and pulled up his stats in his head. He'd been walking around for an hour now, following the trail of destruction the boss monster had left, and frankly, he was getting bored. Time to see what all that monster-bashing had actually done for him.
[Level: 8]
[Health: 160/160]
[Strength: 24]
[Agility: 19]
[Unallocated Points: 0]
'Level eight. Not bad.' He had dumped most of his points into Strength because, let's be honest, punching things really, really hard seemed to be working out pretty well so far. His Agility was decent, too, which explained why he could move so fast compared to everyone else.
'Wait a minute,' he thought, mentally scrolling through more of his interface. 'What's this mana thing?'
[Mana: 0/0]
[Mana Regeneration: 0 per minute]
[Magical Affinity: None]
'Zero mana. That's interesting.' He had been wondering why he couldn't do that glowing power thing like Ava and some of the other students. Apparently, there was a reason.
'System, why can't I use magic?'
[User has not undergone magical awakening. Mana channels remain sealed.]
'And how do I get this magical awakening?'
[Unknown. Awakening triggers vary by individual.]
'Helpful as always,' he thought, a sarcastic edge to the thought.
He looked back at the girls, who were standing around waiting for him to move, looking tired and kinda useless. Not their fault, really, but dragging around four Level One teammates wasn't exactly speeding things up.
'Let me check their stats,' he thought, focusing on each of them in turn.
[Emilia - Level 1]
[Health: 25/25]
[Strength: 3]
[Agility: 4]
[Plant Manipulation: Basic]
[Vasa - Level 1]
[Health: 30/30]
[Strength: 4]
[Agility: 3]
[Ice Manipulation: Basic]
[Kendra - Level 1]
[Health: 35/35]
[Strength: 5]
[Agility: 2]
[Armor Skin: Basic]
[Yeda - Level 1]
[Health: 20/20]
[Strength: 2]
[Agility: 5]
[No Abilities]
'Yeah, they're weak as hell.' Emilia had some decent smarts, which probably meant her plant powers had potential, but her Strength was pathetic. Kendra was the toughest but slow as molasses. Vasa was balanced but not particularly good at anything. And Yeda didn't even have powers yet.
'This is pointless,' he thought, a familiar frustration building. 'At this rate, we'll never find the boss monster, and they'll just get themselves killed the first time we run into something serious.'
"Nox?" Emilia said, her voice pulling him out of his thoughts. "You've been staring at nothing for like, five minutes. What are you looking at?"
"Your stats," he said without thinking.
"Our what now?"
"Never mind." He started walking again, a new plan forming in his head. "We need to find some monsters for you guys to fight."
"Why?" Kendra asked, jogging to catch up. "I thought we were looking for this boss thing."
"We are. But you're all Level One and basically useless right now. If we run into anything dangerous, you're going to get torn apart."
"Thanks for the pep talk," Vasa said dryly from behind him.
"I'm being practical. You want to survive this? You need to get stronger. That means killing monsters and gaining experience."
"Experience?" Yeda spoke up, her voice a mix of confusion and curiosity. "Like in video games?"
"Exactly like in video games." He turned down a side corridor where he could hear something moving around. "Apparently, whoever designed this system has a sick sense of humor."
They walked for a few more minutes until they came across a group of three dog monsters sniffing around some lockers. Perfect. Not too many, but enough for the girls to practice on without getting completely overwhelmed.
"Alright," he said quietly, motioning for them to stop. "There's three of them up ahead. You four are going to kill them."
"What?" Emilia whispered, her eyes wide. "We can't fight those things. They're huge."
"They're not that big. And there's only three of them. You outnumber them."
"But they have claws and teeth and we have… what, exactly?" Kendra hissed, clutching her makeshift pipe.
"You have powers. Use them."
"Our powers suck," Kendra said, blunt as always.
"They suck because you're Level One," he shot back. "The only way to make them not suck is to level up. The only way to level up is to kill things. See the problem here?"
Vasa was studying the monsters, her expression calm and analytical. "What if we die?"
"Then you die," he said flatly. "But if you don't try to get stronger now, you're definitely going to die later when we run into something worse."
"That's… really reassuring," Emilia muttered.
"Look," he sighed, running a hand through his hair. "I'm not going to let you get killed, okay? If things go really bad, I'll step in. But you need to at least try to fight them yourselves first."
The girls looked at each other, a whole silent conversation passing between them in a few seconds. Finally, Emilia gave a small, determined nod.
"Fine. But if we die, I'm haunting your ass."
"..."
They crept closer to the monsters. Nox stayed back, leaning against a wall, and watched as the girls tried to figure out a plan.
"Okay," Emilia whispered, her eyes darting between the three dogs. "Vasa, you think you can freeze one of them? Or at least slow it down?"
"I can try," Vasa replied, her voice steady. "But my ice powers are pretty weak right now. It won't hold for long."
"That's fine. Just slow it down. Kendra, you're the toughest, so you get in front. Yeda and I will try to help from behind."
"What am I supposed to do?" Yeda asked, her voice trembling a little. "I don't have any powers."
"Hit them with something heavy," Kendra said, picking up a broken piece of metal pipe from the floor and handing it to her. "Here, take this."
Yeda took the pipe and hefted it like a baseball bat. She looked terrified but also determined.
"Alright," Emilia said, taking a deep breath. "On three. One… two…"
"Wait," Vasa interrupted. "What if—"
Too late. One of the monsters looked up and saw them. It let out a sharp bark that echoed through the hallway, and all three creatures spun toward them, growling.
"Shit," Kendra said. "So much for the element of surprise."
The first monster charged straight at them. Kendra yelled, "Get behind me!" and activated her armor power. Her skin turned a dull, hard gray, like stone. The creature slammed into her, knocking her backward, but she managed to stay on her feet, gritting her teeth.
"That actually worked," she said, sounding surprised.
Vasa pointed her hands at the second monster, and a spray of ice crystals started forming around its legs. The creature slowed down, its charge turning into a clumsy stumble, but it didn't stop completely.
"It's not working very well!" she yelled.
"Just keep trying!" Emilia shouted back.
Emilia pressed her own hands against the floor. A network of thin vines started growing up through the cracks in the concrete. They snaked around the third monster's legs, wrapping around them and holding it in place.
"Holy shit, it worked!" she said, a look of pure shock on her face.
Yeda, seeing her opening, ran up to the monster Vasa was slowing down and started beating it with the metal pipe. The creature snarled and tried to bite her, but the ice was slowing it down just enough that she could dodge out of the way.
"This is actually kind of fun," she said, whacking it hard across the snout.
The monster fighting Kendra was having a hard time. Its claws just scraped uselessly against her armored skin, and every time it tried to bite her, she punched it in the face. She wasn't very fast, but she didn't need to be. She was a walking tank.
"Come on, you ugly piece of shit," she taunted. "Is that all you got?"
The creature Emilia had trapped was struggling against the vines, but they were getting thicker and stronger by the second. Emilia was concentrating hard, sweat running down her face.
"I don't know how long I can hold this," she said through gritted teeth.
"You don't need to hold it long," Vasa said, moving closer to the trapped monster. "Just keep it still."
She placed both her hands on the creature's head. A thick layer of ice started spreading across its skull, covering its eyes. The monster's struggles went wild for a second, then it just stopped moving completely.
"Did I… did I kill it?" Vasa asked, pulling her hands back.
"I think you froze its brain," Nox said from where he was watching. "Nice work."
Kendra's monster was getting desperate. It reared back and tried to claw at her face, but she caught its paw and twisted. There was a loud, sickening crack, and the creature howled in pain.
"That's for all the nightmares I'm going to have about you fuckers," she said, then punched it hard in the throat. The monster collapsed and stopped moving.
Yeda was still beating her monster with the pipe. The ice was starting to melt, but the creature was definitely hurt. It was moving slower and bleeding from a dozen different wounds.
"Little help here!" she called out.
Emilia released her hold on the dead monster and sent her vines slithering toward Yeda's target. They wrapped around its neck and started to squeeze.
"Now!" Emilia yelled.
Yeda brought the pipe down as hard as she could on the monster's skull. There was a wet, cracking sound, and the creature went limp.
"Ew," Yeda said, looking at the blood and brains on her pipe. "That's… disgusting."
"Haha, it sure is," Vasa said, a hint of a smile on her face.
They all stood there, breathing hard and looking at the three dead monsters. None of them could quite believe they had actually won.
"That was terrifying," Emilia said.
"But we did it," Kendra added, a wide, triumphant grin on her face. "We actually killed them."
Nox watched as his party interface updated. All four girls had gained experience and leveled up. Their health bars were fuller, and he could see slight improvements in their stats.
"Your powers are already getting stronger," he said, walking over to them. "Emilia, your vines were way more effective than they would have been an hour ago. Vasa, you actually managed to freeze that thing's brain. Kendra, you took hits that would have knocked you out before."
"I do feel… different," Emilia said, looking at her hands. "Like there's more energy flowing through me."
"Same here," Vasa added. "The ice came easier that time."
"What about me?" Yeda asked. "I still don't have any powers."
"You beat a monster to death with a pipe," Nox said. "That counts for something."
She smiled at that. "I guess it does."
"So, what now?" Emilia asked.
"Now we find more monsters," Nox said. "You're all Level Two now, but that's still not strong enough. We need to get you up to at least Level Five before we go after the boss."
"How many more monsters are there in this place?" Kendra asked.
He checked his system interface. The dungeon counter had dropped from over a hundred to ninety-three. Not bad progress.
"Enough," he said. "Trust me, we're going to be here for a while."