Nox stopped in the middle of the hallway and pulled up his stats. He had been walking around for an hour now following the boss monster's trail and frankly he was getting bored. Time to see what all that monster killing had actually done for him.
[Level: 8]
[Health: 160/160]
[Strength: 24]
[Agility: 19]
[Unallocated Points: 0]
Level eight. Not bad. He had put most of his points into Strength because punching things really hard seemed to work 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, 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 was 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 sarcastically.
He looked back at the girls who were standing around waiting for him to move. They looked tired and kind of 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.
[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 were weak as hell. Emilia had the highest Intelligence which probably meant her plant powers had the most 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. '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. "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. "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.
"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. "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 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.
"Alright," he said quietly. "There's three of them up ahead. You four are going to kill them."
"What?" Emilia whispered. "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.
"You have powers. Use them."
"Our powers suck," Kendra said.
"They suck because you're level one. 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?"
Vasa was studying the monsters. "What if we die?"
"Then you die. 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 reassuring," Emilia muttered.
"Look, 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 like they were having some kind of silent conversation. Finally Emilia nodded.
"Fine. But if we die, I'm haunting your ass."
"..."
They crept closer to the monsters. Nox stayed back and watched as the girls tried to figure out their strategy.
"Okay," Emilia whispered. "Vasa, can you freeze one of them?"
"I can try. But my ice powers are pretty weak right now."
"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. "I don't have any powers."
"Hit them with something heavy," Kendra said, picking up a broken piece of metal pipe from the floor. "Here, take this."
Yeda took the pipe and hefted it like a baseball bat. She looked terrified but determined.
"Alright," Emilia said. "On three. One... two..."
"Wait," Vasa interrupted. "What if—"
One of the monsters looked up and saw them. It let out a bark that echoed through the hallway and all three creatures turned toward them.
"Shit," Kendra said. "So much for the element of surprise."
The first monster charged straight at them. Kendra activated her armor power and her skin turned gray and hard like stone. The creature slammed into her and knocked her backward but she managed to stay on her feet.
"That actually worked," she said, sounding surprised.
Vasa pointed her hands at the second monster and ice crystals started forming around its legs. The creature slowed down but didn't stop completely.
"It's not working very well," she yelled.
"Just keep trying," Emilia shouted back.
She pressed her hands against the floor and vines started growing up through the cracks in the concrete. They wrapped around the third monster's legs and held it in place.
"Holy shit, it worked," she said.
Yeda ran up to the frozen monster and started beating it with the metal pipe. The creature snarled and tried to bite her but the ice was slowing it down enough that she could dodge.
"This is actually kind of fun," she said, whacking it across the snout.
The monster fighting Kendra was having a hard time. Its claws couldn't penetrate 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 basically 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. She was concentrating hard and sweat was 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 put both hands on the creature's head and ice started spreading across its skull. The monster's eyes went wide and then it stopped moving completely.
"Did I kill it?" she asked.
"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 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 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 multiple wounds.
"Little help here," she called out.
Emilia released her hold on the dead monster and sent her vines toward Yeda's target. They wrapped around its neck and started squeezing.
"Now," she 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 on her pipe. "That's disgusting."
"Haha, it sure is," Vasa said.
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. "We actually killed them."
Nox watched as his party interface updated. All four girls had gained experience and leveled up to level two. 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 were 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. That counts for something."
She smiled at that. "I guess it does."
"So what now?" Emilia asked.
"Now we find more monsters. 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."