If you wanna read ahead of my stories, you can check out the advanced chapters on my subcribestar, at the same username - 0Jordinio0
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A roar shook the air, rippling and resounding across the vast space.
She paused at the top of the stairs she just reached the top of, a familiar deep white fog enshrouding her view.
'An Infant Dragon?' her head cocked to the side.
She could recognise the roars of a dragon anywhere. A roar so similar, yet vastly louder more terrifying plagued her dreams quite often after all.
That and on the eleventh floor, Infant Dragon's were the only beast that could spawn that was capable of unleashing such a roar.
Wyvern's did not start appearing until the next floor. Unless it was one that chased someone up to the eleventh floor.
Though, with how big they got, it would be hard pressed to fit, so most likely, it was an Infant Dragon.
Unbidden, her feet took her towards the sound of the roar in a dash of speed most wouldn't even be capable of seeing.
It was usually frowned upon for an adventurer to interfere in the fight of another against a monster, it went against the general unwritten rules of adventurers.
But an Infant Dragon was capable of slaughtering a party of Level 1's quite handily most often.
So, she was checking just in case.
She arrived at her target mere moments later and ground to a halt, and stared.
She was correct.
It was an Infant Dragon.
….Or rather, was an Infant Dragon.
"That's it?" a boy, her age huffed, maybe a bit younger going by his face, but tall and well built, near Bete in height but broader in the shoulders looked down at the Infant Dragon, its head currently pinned beneath his foot clad in a shiny blue armoured boot.
And dead.
Her eyes flickered to his hands, crossed almost contemptuously across his chest, clad in gauntlets of the same make as the armoured boots he was wearing, reminding her of the shiny gleaming crystal armour of a Crystal Mantis, though the fingers on the gauntlets were razor sharp at the end, like beastial claws.
From the clawed gauntlets, blood dripped steadily, and she noted across the Infant Dragon's throat, was a multitude of large claw shaped gouges, as if some giant beast had torn its throat out.
…Or a boy with claw shaped gauntlets.
She frowned. Was he not a level one then? He didn't look any worse for wear, in fact, beyond the gauntlets and boots, he was clad in casual clothing and not a weapon in sight.
He had to be at least level two if he came down to this point so lightly armoured.
No…even a level two might not be enough, was he a level three? But she did not recognise him and he was pretty young. Someone that young at that level would be pretty famous, right?
There was less than five hundred Level Three's in all of Orario, she did not claim to know all of them, but her familia kept an eye out for anyone rising up the ranks quickly just in case.
The boy sighed, shaking his head, his short and spiky black and blonde hair bouncing with the motion, "Guess I really will have to go deeper if I want a good fight," he clicked his tongue, "So much for being a dragon, what a let down. I thought you guys were supposed to be stronger than even Minotaur's, what are you doing getting one shot by a level one? In your next life, try and be reborn as at least a Green Dragon." with those words, said, he uncrossed his arms, reared one back and thrust forward, plunging it deep into the chest of the dead dragon monster and tore out its magic stone, the corpse of the monster dispersing into black smoke and disappearing as he did, while in its place, a large piece of red scaly hide was left behind.
The boy shrugged, grabbed it as well and walked away.
Ais stared.
Her eyes ever so slightly widened in shock at his words, '…Level….one?' she blinked.
That was…impossible.
Right?
A level one couldn't so casually crush an Infant Dragon. That just wasn't right. They were called the Monster Rex of the early floors because their strength was so much greater than the monsters within the area and surpassed even many on the middle floors.
In fact, alone, an Infant Dragon was the strongest monster one could encounter right up until the Great Wall Of Sorrow where the Goliath was born.
Perhaps she was not one to talk, for when she was a level one, she had killed a black enhanced species of Wyvern which was stronger than an Infant Dragon by a small margin, but she almost died in the process and that was with both Ariel and her skill, Avenger.
…This boy on the other hand, looked bored and seemed to have casually done the beast in.
Once again unbidden, her feet carried her towards the direction where the boy went.
…How was he so strong as a level one? Was it some kind of powerful skill? Was he some masterful strategist like Finn?
Did he have some secret method for gaining strength? Was it possible for her to replicate it?
She had to know.
It did not take her long before she found him again, her footfalls silent as she observed him.
She stared once more, confused.
He was walking towards a tree where what looked like a Killer Ant was stuck to it, by what appeared to be the same material his gauntlets and boots were made of?
Though, something was off. It looked…bigger. And its body was wrong in colour. Usually a Killer Ant had a body of a deep burnt rustic red, almost blood-like in colour.
This one…was black.
'An enhanced species?' she wondered.
It struggled and thrashed against its bonding, but could not break free. It was fine for the moment, but…why was it here?
"Looks like you really are my only hope for a good and proper fight right now," the boy casually spoke to the monster as he approached it, idly tossing the magic stone of the infant Dragon in his hand up and down through the air, "Otherwise, I'm gonna need to go pick a fight with the Goliath and gonna be honest, not liking my odds with that thing buddy."
'He's looking for a challenge.' Ais realised. Then…did he make the enhanced species? Did he drag this Killer Ant down here and feed it the magic stones of other monsters he killed.