<+394 Free Stat Points Obtained!>
"Woaaah... I reached level 91," Evangeline remarked with a wide smile, then began tapping the air, clearly adjusting her stat points.
As for Neraxis? He decided to open up his status screen and do the same.
Class: Sun Vampire (Mythic) [+]
HP: 2,020/2,020 → 2,760/2,760
MP: 2,200/2,200 → 4,200/4,200
Strength: 128 (+50) → 248 (+50)
Stamina: 202 (+50) → 276 (+50)
Mana Capacity: 220 (+100) → 420 (+100)
Free Stat Points: 394 → 0
—Fragment of Calamity Skill Tree (4/???)
Advanced Horizontal Slash (Epic)
Illusion Slash (Rare)
Despite the stat changes, one thing in particular truly intrigued him. And of course, it was none other than the plus sign beside his class.
Damn... can I actually get my race now? Neraxis mused in wonder. Nah... too good to be true.
But he wouldn't know until he pressed on it, so that's exactly what he did.
And soon, another bout of pop-ups appeared.
—You've become the pinnacle of the Sunfire Vampires!
<25% More Damage with Blood-based Attacks>
Not a big difference, but the skill itself, and damage increases are massive, Neraxis thought, and without wasting another second, inspected his new skill.
Blood Manipulation (Legendary)
—Freely manipulate your own blood and the spilled blood of your enemies. Damage scales with your total HP.
"Wow... your skill is a lot more interesting than what I got..." Evangeline muttered with a slight pout.
"What did you get?" Neraxis asked, holding back his excitement from showing.
Yet the corner of his lips couldn't help but slightly tilt upward, causing Evangeline's brows to twitch.
"At this point you're just bragging..." she sighed when all of a sudden, she summoned a weird red blob.
It seemed like any ordinary blood construct.
"It's not a slime," Evangeline replied, facepalming. "It's actually one of my former pets. It's the demon king of gluttony."
"So it's still a slime."
Evangeline squished the slime in her grasp and then gave him an annoyed look.
"Neraxis... when we get back, I'm going to make sure you know why I was once called the Abyssal Calamity."
He chuckled. "Right... anyways, what does that pet of yours do? Does it just eat?"
It seemed like she was trying to come up with a better analogy, but after just a few seconds, she gave up.
"...Yes." She nodded slowly and flexed her hand, releasing the squished slime as it suddenly jumped out of her palm and landed right on Neraxis's head.
It seemed cute at first, but...
"Bubub?" Neraxis asked, holding back a laugh. "I really don't understand anything about you. You said you were born in a cathedral. Then you went to literal hell, and now you're telling me you have a pet demon king?"
Evangeline puffed her chest proudly. "When I was younger, I used to explore a lot. I just so happened to pick up a few exotic things along my way."
Nonetheless, now that their small talk was done, they began walking back to Jane.
And of course, the Demon King of Gluttony, Bubub, remained on Neraxis's head. After all, it was a bit too weak to do anything, and it felt like he was getting a head massage.
Can't pass that up... a free massage slime is always welcome, Neraxis thought with a hum, and finally stopped, glancing at Jane, who was merely sitting on the ledge of the mountain, gazing off into the distance.
"What's wrong?" he asked. "We dealt with the three dire wolves. So what now?"
Jane didn't answer for a few moments, simply continuing to stare. Yet as the minutes passed, she finally glanced at the two of them.
"I was thinking that this might be a dud as well. Is that strange?" she said with a faint smile on her face.
"Why? You told us eleven expedition groups died here. But this place doesn't seem that dangerous, at least not to us," Neraxis remarked, turning to Evangeline.
"Yep. Don't worry, micro tits, we got this," Evangeline assured confidently.
Micro tits...? Did they get smaller?
[Nah, I just decrease her size every time she wallows in self-loathing. It might piss her off enough to care,] Evangeline replied with a giggle.
Yet despite the teasing, Jane simply stood back up and glanced at the two of them, a serious expression forming on her face.
"Remember when I said there were a total of 48 expeditions? I lied."
"Huh?" Neraxis's eyes widened. "But you seem pretty experienced for someone who lied about how many she has been on."
Jane tilted her head. "Do you think I was on fewer expeditions?"
"Ahh... you've been upgraded back to small tits for raising my curiosity," Evangeline said, stepping up and stopping right in front of Jane. "So what? How many have you been on?"
Instead of answering straight up, she turned to Neraxis and flashed a soft smile.
"You know... I was really grateful when you saved me 162 years ago. If not for you, then I would've died then and there alongside the rest of my people."
Neraxis's brows twitched. "162 years?"
Jane giggled. "Yes. Remember the city you found me in? It was once called Atrios. Now it's been renamed to Lumiara. It's not as bright as it sounds, but it's definitely less gloomy than Atrios, don't you think?"
The moment he heard that, gears spun inside his mind.
How could he forget Atrios? It was the same city he had to defend in the trial of the 9th floor.
The more he thought about it, the wider his eyes grew.
That meant the same girl he had saved only around a year and a bit ago was now more than 162 years old.
But more importantly...
"You see... I started going on these expeditions around 152 years ago," Jane commented, placing a finger on her chin in thought.
"Every year, hundreds of people go on these expeditions with me, and over the course of all these years, the number is quite... substantial."
Her dark eyes met his and without batting an eye, she spoke.
"I've been on 83,522... no, sorry, 83,523 expeditions now. And not once did we manage to make it to the end."
She stepped closer, grabbed Evangeline's hand, and then his own before looking down and mumbling.
"Will you still help me?"