I pushed open the doors at the end of the hall of sloth, one hand still awkwardly holding onto the rusted metal sword that I didn't even have a sheath for.
I stepped forwards into the chamber cautiously, looking around for potential enemies. Rufi stilled and settled into place on my shoulder, staring out into the darkness.
I made out the shape of a huge mound slowly rising and falling in the darkness. Is it asleep? I wondered as I continued to approach slowly.
Finally I got close enough to make out details–a strangely translucent, gooey skin, coated over thick bones, the face remarkably reminiscent of…A dragon. A chill went through my spine. I'd only fought wolves and low-level dungeon mobs, how the hell was I supposed to fight a dragon? Thankfully it was asleep, otherwise I was sure I'd already be dead. Am I not supposed to be here? Surely there's a way to get through this, this is a training dungeon after all…Am I just supposed to go round?
I looked around the chamber for an exit, but there didn't seem like there were any doors in the chamber except for the one that we had come through. Hmmm I had just raised a hand to my chin to ponder our options when Rufi leaped off my shoulder and shot a dark ball of fire from her mouth at the sleeping dragon.
"Wai—" There wasn't any time for me to do anything before the ball of fire hit the dragon's side, wreathing a section of his goopy, slime-like skin in dark flames. I watched horrified expecting the dragon to wake up at any moment. To my surprise he continued slumbering as if nothing had happened.
"Rewr!" Rufi chirped and summoned more dark balls of fire that she shot at various portions of the dragon's side.
I guess this is how we fight it…I followed Rufi's lead using my dark magic to summon balls of dark flame that I shot at the dragon's side. After a few minutes I halted, breathing heavily as my mana grew dangerously low. Seriously, how much health does this guy have? Rufi and I had been alternating throwing balls of dark flame at the dragon as fast as we could summon them, and he didn't even show any signs of waking, much less being on the brink of death. Though with such a slimy, undead dragon, the signs of life weren't exactly clear.
After a few moments of silence, as I continued catching my breath, trying to think about what we could try next, a great golden eye opened on the side of the dragon and looked right at me. "Eee!" I jumped back, expecting some monstrous attack any moment. But the dragon only looked at me, blinked, and then slowly rolled over onto its back.
"Uh, what?" Rufi chirped excitedly in the air, and I watched in shock as the slime around the dragon's exposed chest melted away in a gaping hole to reveal a faintly beating heart between its massive rib cage.
"It just…rolled over?" Rufi summoned another ball of dark flames and shot it at the dragon's heart. It lit up like a torch, and then just as quickly the flames were snuffed out by the slime of the dragon's body melting rapidly from the dragon's bones and pooling out into the floor. In another minute nothing was left but its massive skeleton. "It…let us win? Damn, but that feels kind of cheap." I approached the dragon's skeleton and crouched down, touching the slime disappearing into the ground without really thinking.
"AHHHH!" I leaped back and watched in horror as the tip of my hand crumbled into dust. Previously I hadn't felt any pain in my skeleton form, but the pain from the slime seemed to sear even my soul. "Holy f*ck, that's dangerous. I can't even imagine how I'd beat that guy if he hadn't let me kill him. This whole divine dungeon thing feels like a serious cheat."
"Wait, what's…" I felt a sudden surge of vitality flowing through my body like a warm river, my vision blurred and I felt like something was lifting me gently off the ground. I closed my eyes, soothed by the soft sensations, and before I knew it I was waking up to Rufi's licks on my cheek as I lay unceremoniously on the stone ground of the boss chamber.
"Woah, was that…?" I lifted up my arm quickly to check. Instead of bleach-white bone I found a black skeletal hand that glittered subtly in the light. "What the…what am I? Status." I quickly called, eager to check.
[Name: #)(@*]
[Race: Night Skeleton]
[Sex: #] [Age: %1]
[Lvl. 6]
[HP: 525/525] [MP: 290/340] [SP: 460/470]
[Skills: Dark Slash lvl. 5, Dark Vision lvl. 9 Dark Magic lvl. 7, Improved Balance lvl. 5, Improved Reactions lvl. 8, Corrupting Touch lvl. 10, Evernight Touch lvl. 1, Evernight Well lvl. 1, Summon Weapon lvl. 2, Living Form lvl. 1]
[Titles: Undead, Blessed of Melphinoe, Dragon-Slayer, Contracted Familiar: Rufi]
Holy…crap, that's a lot of goodies. Still only level six, evolution resets my level? I guess it has to, because two levels wouldn't give me that much stat increase…Tons of new skills as well, and…oh, corrupting touch is glowing? What does that mean?
[Corrupting Touch lvl. 10 -> 2 evolution paths available, please select evolved skill pathway]
[Skin of Decay: Corrupting Touch will automatically activate when registered threats make skin contact, skin becomes more resistant to magical and physical damage]
[Corruption Magic: A field of spells that deal Necrotic damage]
So offensive vs. defensive specialization, huh? Skin of Decay almost sounds a little like what that dragon had, I wonder if it had some crazy upgraded version of that. Well…since I don't want to turn into a crazy slime monster maybe the magic version is better. I selected Corruption Magic, and took another look through my new skills.
Evernight Touch and Evernight Well seem to be the undead version of healing magic. One's like a Lay on Hands spell, the other produces a healing liquid, though at my level it quickly loses its effect so it can't be stored. Summon Weapon seems pretty useful, since it's not like there's an item store here. I wonder if my rusted sword was like an early version of that skill inherent to skeletons. Living Form is…Holy crap, I can look human again! Though right now, I can only do it for an hour at a time…And then there's…I looked at my new title. Dragon-slayer…now that just doesn't feel deserved. 'Can emanate a threatening aura…' well that feels even less deserved, but, whatever, a dragon's a dragon, I guess…
I skipped over the other stuff pretty quick because I was eager to try out my new living form and see what I looked like. I looked around the chamber for anything that might be reflective, and caught sight of a new door that had opened up in the other side of the wall.
"Merw!" Rufi chirped, bounding towards the door. I came close and found stairs leading downwards, a breeze of cold air flowing up out of the door. I turned back towards the room, but still didn't see anything reflective, so I shrugged and followed Rufi down the staircase. Maybe there'll be something reflective on the next floor…