Chapter 29 – Lethal Wound

"Did you guys level up?" (Dream)

"No." x2

Neither of the girls leveled up. Though they got most of the experience, it was also split.

"If we can kill several more of these, we should be good." (Dream)

"Ya. But they're pretty far apart. We only found these two after so long." (Iris)

Dream nodded at that. Going at this rate, they might barely be able to get their classes before night falls.

"Oh well. Luna, take this knife and if you could skin the bears, please. We still need the hide." (Dream)

"No problem." (Luna)

Luna took the knife Dream gave her and went to work on the bears. Iris also helped her.

As they were doing that, Dream walked over to the bear he shot. He wanted to check something.

When he shot the bear, he actually noticed that there was no brain splatter. This could only mean one thing.

Dream bent down and inspected the bear's head.

"Sure enough. I only see an entry wound. No exit. So even this railgun couldn't punch through the skull entirely. Though...This side of the skull is weak. The bullet must've still shattered the skull from the inside. Interesting. Hey Sophia, what are the projectiles for the railgun made from?"

[The projectiles for the heavy sniper are a lead core with a steel plating. The steel likely either warped or peeled away when it pierced through the bear's skull and since it lost its point, it only impacted the other side.]

"Makes sense. Those materials are barely good enough to get through mana infused bear bone. Not to mention the skull. I really can't wait to start studying new materials. When Luna skins this bear I'll take a look at the bullet."

Dream stood up satisfied. He finally knew the limits of his weaponry and where to start improving. If he came out here with gunpowder guns, the bullets would likely just ricochet off the bone.

Now he just needed to take care of the girls and their skills.

"Hey Scarlet! I'm gonna take a wild guess and say that you gain stats by eating strong animals. Am I correct?" (Dream)

"More or less." (Iris)

"Sweet. Since we have the luxury of not needing their meat, it's all yours. I'll throw the meat in my inventory and you can eat it when we get back. Since stuffing yourself here wouldn't be the best."

"Okay!"

"And since we're on the topic, does Devour digest food faster? And how much does expanded stomach, well, expand your stomach?"

Dream asked Iris hoping to get an idea on how fast she can eat her food. It would help for when they killed bigger monsters.

"Devour does digest food much faster. It's actually not really regular digestion, more like destroying whatever is in my stomach. The meats from the restaurant a couple of days ago were digested in several minutes. My expanded stomach is also more like a spatial stomach. I can fit almost 10x the size of a regular stomach in there." (Iris)

"...That's a lot. So you would have no problem eating that whole bear today?" (Dream)

"Maybe both if I started now. But yes tonight I would be able to eat that bear." (Iris)

"Well...If it won't hinder you, do you want to eat some now? With the time it takes to skin them and search more to fight, you should be able to get through a lot. I also don't know if you prefer it cooked or raw, but you can do that." (Dream)

"Really? Hmm. I guess I can. I usually cook it because its not as messy but since its right now, I guess I can eat it raw."

"Okay. Transform as well, I'm sure it's easier. I'll take the skins from Luna when she's done."

When Dream gave her the green light to start eating, she transformed into her fox form and began chowing down on the bear that Luna was almost done skinning. She didn't bother cooking any of the meat, and there was much blood that, if she didn't end up drinking it, it just splashed on her fur. 

Now if it were Luna doing that, it would be a little more gruesome since she has white fur. But Iris had her pitch-black fur which made the blood on it stand out less. In fact, one could say that it looked natural. As if her fur was meant to be blood red.

'Her skill probably affects many things such as taste and appetite to accommodate for the fact that she will eat many things. Though, I wonder if her menu is limited to just meat?'

Dream pondered if Iris' skill could have much more potential than they thought it would. He asked her just in case.

"Scarlet. Have you ever tried eating more than just the meat? Like the bones or the brain?"

"Bones? Mmm, no? I've never tried. But that really isn't food is it?"

"Not necessarily. The brain is probably where you'll get most of the animal's magic and the bones...well, they have bone marrow. It wouldn't hurt to try, especially if you get more stats out of it."

"Alright! I'll eat the meat and try a bone."

"Maybe we should try the bones tonight, but yes make sure to save them. Though I'm not actually sure about the brains since I shot them. Oh well. While you guys do that, I'll go search for more enemies. Don't get caught off guard while I'm gone."

"Okay!"

Iris waved him goodbye with a mouthful of meat and Dream shot off into the distance to scout for more bears.

Turns out that the bears really are just that scarce because it took him another 30 minutes to find some. Though this time it was 3 bears instead of 2. 

Dream talked to Luna over their connection to get a status update.

'How are you guys doing?' (Dream)

'I've finished with skinning. Iris is sitting and digesting food. She was able to eat all the meat of one bear before finally getting full. We saved the bones as well.' (Luna)

'Alright. I'll head back to you guys.'

Dream spoke to her and started making his way back. He didn't need to worry about losing the bears because he had Sophia for that. She could perfectly remember exactly where everything is. Like a map in his head.

It only took several minutes for him to get back where he then stored the skins, flesh, and bones in his inventory. They all started walking over to the bears to give Iris time to digest more.

"Since your stomach is a spatial one, does it affect your movement at all? Like with any added weight?" (Dream)

"No. It works like your inventory. But I still know when I'm full." (Iris)

"Very cool. Then we don't need to worry about your performance being affected. There's three bears this time, though they weren't eating any prey like previously. I can take out one before the fight starts, and then both of you will each face one. I will support while you guys fight. The biggest thing affecting strategy is what element they are. There might even be multiple elements, so we need to be extra careful."

"If they aren't in one place then you should go find them. Make sure to not lose them. We'll catch up with you." (Iris)

"Alright."

Dream took her suggestion and ran off towards the bears. 

He only ran for a little before finding the bears again. Though, when Dream took a closer look at them, he noticed the size of the bears.

'One of them is quite a bit bigger than the teenage ones. It's probably an adult. I wouldn't be surprised if it's over level 70 too. So it's the same fight as last time just with an adult added. This might be more difficult than I thought.'

Dream saw the adult with its presumably two children. He started planning how he was going to deal with it.

The only problem was that he didn't know if his bullet could get through that skull. It might barely be able to. He would just need to pack in as much mana as the bullet could handle. He should be good that way, then it'll be the girls against the teenagers, while he can help.

When Dream looked towards the teenagers though, he saw that one of them looked different. The ones they fought before were both white. And right now, the adult and one teen were also white. But the other teen was brown.

'Could it be the earth element? While the others are air? It'll be interesting to see what it can do.'

Dream waited for several minutes before the girls arrived. Before they started approaching though, Dream told Luna to stay back so he could take a shot first.

'I want to take out the adult first. I'm thinking I can just go up the eye socket but I want it still for that.'

While the girls were still a couple hundred meters away, Dream took aim.

He put the reticle right on the adults eye, though it moved around quite a bit so he had to wait for the best time. 

Dream was perfectly still for over a minute until the bear finally faced his direction. He didn't miss the chance and took the shot.

*DSHH*

*Thud*

The bullet blasted straight through the eyeball and turned the bear's brain to liquid. It was dead before it hit the floor.

And as he thought, the bullet didn't come out the other side. Which means it couldn't pierce through the skull. Though this made sense when Dream saw the notifications.

<You have killed Lvl 84 Adult Air Bear!>

<You have leveled up!>

<You have leveled up!>

'Huh. No wonder the bullet didn't come out. If I had shot that anywhere else it wouldn't have done anything. '

When Dream killed the adult, the teenagers beside it were befuddled. What just happened? Why did mom fall?

The girls also didn't miss this chance and started moving in. It wasn't long until the bears noticed them. When they did, they seemed to understand something and directed their oncoming rage towards the ones who killed their kin.

*Roarr!!*

The white and brown bears gave a pissed off roar and started running towards the girls. 

As they ran, Iris decided to take on the brown bear while Luna took the white. 

When Iris began getting close to the brown bear, she noticed that the ground began getting soft. Sure enough, as she began to slow down in wariness, the ground gave in and she sunk down to her knees. The ground then suddenly hardened and trapped her. 

The brown bear never slowed its approach and went to kill its trapped prey, but Iris wasn't so easy to kill. She raised her hands and began to torch the bear when it got close.

The bear was taken very off guard by the blazing fire and couldn't react before its face was seared.

*ROOOOAAAAA*

The bear screamed in pain as it was blinded just like the last bear they fought. It backed away and Iris took this chance to get herself out of the dirt while maintaining her torch

Luna on the other hand was having a difficult time with her bear. 

When they had first made contact, Luna began to trap the bear with her earth magic and sink its feet into the ground. She was actually successful, and began approaching it to drop a lance on it. The only problem was that she underestimated the bear's strength.

The bear was able to rip its claw out from under the ground and take a swipe at Luna. This would have been fine as she made some distance, but the bear used a skill with its air magic, wind blade.

The wind blade came right from its claw and slashed across Luna's body. It wasn't a dull blade at all and left a deep slice on her forearms which she threw up to block with. Not only that, but the power behind the blade was also great and she was thrown back several meters.

Luckily she didn't need to take the fall as someone was there to catch her.

*thud*

"Arghh!!" (Luna)

"Oof! Damn you got me right in the gut..." (Dream)

Dream tried to be as accommodating as possible but there's not much you can do to gracefully catch a flying body. Luna was also surprised by the catch and grunted in pain. She then looked to see who caught her.

"Dream?! M-My arms..."

"You have healing, right? I suggest you get started. I'll take care of the bear, at least until you get back." (Dream)

"O-ok." (Luna)

Luna nodded her head as Dream set her down by a tree. She began channeling mana to heal herself. There was already a lot of blood coming from her arms and she would get dizzy if she waited too long.

Dream also started walking towards the bear that had just freed itself from the earth trap.

'It'll be pretty difficult to kill this thing with my guns. The skull will just deflect them and they might not even get past the muscle of the body. I guess I'll try melee.'

Dream steeled himself for a bloody battle and activated his armor suit. He ejected his arm blade and dashed over to the bear.

It only took a split of a second for them to get face to face. The bear attacked with another swipe of its right claw backed by a wind blade. It was aimed for his neck.

Luckily, the bear wasn't too fast. Dream was able to avoid both the claw and blade coming for his head by ducking really quickly. He then entered that opening and jammed his left arm blade into the bear's armpit.

The blade successfully entered and lots of blood immediately spurted from the wound. Unfortunately, Dream couldn't revel in his success.

Although the bear was in lots of pain, it only fueled its rage. The opposite arm of the bear came from the side as it jammed its claws straight towards Dream's gut. This is also when Dream started regretting his decision. 

'Fuck! I can't dodge that. Hopefully this armor can hold.'

Dream tried to twist his body and prayed to the armor gods in hopes of blocking successfully. Unfortunately, he severely underestimated the power and sturdiness of the nearly foot-long claws.

*Crack*

*pui*

The claw totally bypassed the super high tech armor and entered Dream's body. It instantly shattered several ribs as it entered next to his abs and exited his back. Blood immediately started pouring out.

The bear didn't stop there. Though, Dream also wasn't one to just take it lying down.

The bear followed up by biting down onto his right shoulder. The teeth of the bear tore through the armor like scrap and shattered all the bones in his shoulder and collar.

At the same time, Dream retaliated by using his free left arm and stabbing the bear straight in the neck. 

When he did that, the bear finally panicked from a lethal wound and threw Dream away like a ragdoll. The blade also exited the bear's neck and blood spurted out like a fountain.

Dream was in no better shape, however. When he hit the ground, a pool of blood was quick to form as the wounds gushed out blood uncontrollably.