125: Dungeon (4)

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Chapter 125: Dungeon (4)

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The people around Neji slowly stood up, some growling in rage and some wiping their tears.

Mursha was the first to walk to Neji. She wasn't crying, she was the type who was growling.

"They say the White Tiger is the weakest of the Four Beasts, battle power-wise." Mursha said to Neji, who was observing the two stones on his hands. "But I should have expected it to be as annoying as the other three Beasts because of its mental abilities. I had underestimated that statement and hadn't expected its mind magic to be this strong. But luckily, I have never underestimated you, my liege."

At first, she couldn't believe Neji and his Familiar were completely immune to such a strong mental attack. But her shock didn’t last long, as High Humans surely had many tricks up their sleeves.

Neji stood up from the ground. "Glad that we won at least." He gazed over her side. "Though we seem to have lost quite a few people."

Some died by the Tiger's electricity attack, and many died from that mental attack. Especially the wolves, who didn't have strong enough minds.

Neji eyed the Dominator of Wolves looming over his dead subjects while wearing a grim expression. "Mursha, go talk to Andrius. I will talk to him later, I have someone more important to talk to first."

Mursha nodded, already knowing who he was talking to. Then Neji picked the now small Kurai from the ground and flew to Kimi.

He dropped beside Kimi, where she was lying on the floor face first.

Kurai jumped off his shoulder with a worried meow and Neji flipped Kimi around.

She was just unconscious.

He slapped her cheeks softly and then seeing she wasn't waking up, he tapped a few acupuncture points on her neck.

"Ah?!" Kimi jolted awake. "W-what's happening?"

Neji held back a sigh and ruffled her hair. "Nothing's happening. The battle has ended, and we got what we needed."

There were quite some more rewards, but some were so useful that Neji wouldn't have passed on in any other situation. But many of his people had died, so the least he could do was to give the living ones the rewards they fought for.

Neji helped Kimi wash her face with a bottle of water he had in his inventory, while Kurai rubbed her small head on Kimi's leg.

After the cleaning was done, Kimi seemed to look more miserable.

"I...I am sorry." She sighed and bit her lips. "I didn't think things were this dangerous in here… so you have to fight enemies like this on daily occasions to get all those magical items?" She asked, but it was a question to herself. "Yet, we wasted so many of your health potions on small wounds before…"

"It's fine." Neji waved his hands. "Anyhow, I hope you'll keep what happened here a secret from Nejire and Momo. I am sure you understand why?"

Kimi nodded slowly. "I won’t tell them, don't worry."

Kimi could tell, Neji had a greater reason to do all this. It wasn't just because of the magic items, she knew him too well for the reason to be that simple. She didn't know why, and she didn't feel like he would tell her if she was to ask. But the two little girls won't understand that. They'd simply worry about his safety, instead.

But…

Kimi sighed again, rubbing the back of her neck. "...Well, guess I have only been doing you harm huh. From your younger days, untill now, I have only been leeching off you."

He had gone so far just to cure her phobia… Yet, she could only cry, yell, and scream from the sidelines.

"I am-”

She was about to say something, but Neji leaned over swiftly and stole her lips momentarily, before leaning back.

"Nyagh!" 

...Kurai from the side, had goosebumps on her fur as she turned around immediately and hopped off down the stairs.

"I-I will give you two some private space!"

"..."

"..."

Neji cleared his throat. "...Looks like she is getting to that age. Anyhow, I was just saying don't feel so down. I know you have trauma and stuff, but remember, back then you didn't have me by your side." He put a hand on her shoulders, looking at her seriously. "Do I sound cringe?"

After a short silence, Kimi burst out laughing before hugging and kissing him passionately. She brought her face back and stared into his eyes. "You do~ But I like it."

Neji laughed too and then presented her the silver stone shaped like a bean. "This is a [Mind Stone], the exact thing you need to cure your Hemophobia."

[Mind Stone (High Grade): A magical stone that gives the consumer 100% resistance against anything below Divine-Level Mind Spells, while also healing any mental illness and disorders the consumer might have. The consumer will always have a top-notch mental state and would be immune to any kind of mental attack even if it's not magical.]

Kimi reached out to take the stone from Neji's hand before she started to inspect it.

"Okay… but what do I do? Put it in my mouth?" She asked with a tilt of her head. "Do I eat it?"

Neji nodded. "Usually, that's how you consume these types of things. So yeah, try."

Kimi nodded and threw the bean-like stone inside her mouth. She couldn't even gulp the thing as it simply melted in her mouth in a burst of magical energy.

Kimi shuddered, her body trembling softly for a few seconds before she released a puff of smoke with relaxed eyes.

"Ah… feels great…"

Everything felt calm and chill on her mind, as if she was dipping in a spa. All her worries, all her bad memories, all her nightmares that she could even see in daylight, and the vision she saw just a few minutes ago… all melted away, leaving her mind refreshed as if she was just born.

Neji smiled at her and took out his phone from his inventory, then played a video on it.

He presented the video in front of her, a video that featured a gory car accident where a family of four died. It was bloody enough to make anyone uncomfortable, and Kimi almost jumped back after seeing it. But slowly, surprised that she didn't feel fear or even… disgust, she slowly turned to the video and stared at it.

She stared at it intensely, seemingly frozen in time.

"Alright." Neji threw the phone back in his inventory. "That's enough. I believe you're cured now."

Kimi blinked at his face, blinked again and again, before she leapt at him and hugged him tightly. "I love you so much."

"Ah, okay. Don't squeeze me."

"Is it because of this thing I just ate? I feel my love for you much better now." Kimi kept speaking in his ears, brought her face back to look at his face, and hugged him again. "Why do you look so handsome today?"

Neji chuckled, flowing with her conversation while nibbling on her ears.

After a long time, she cancelled the hug and cleared his throat. "Ahem, anyway. I have something else to give you, too. So let's continue this later on, okay?"

Kimi looked a bit dejected, but she simply nodded while staring at his face as bewitched. "Okay."

Neji then took out the glowing white orb with black stripes and presented it to her. "This is a [Mythical Evolution Stone], something useful that'd awaken your quirk."

[Mythical Evolution Stone: An evolution stone dropped by the Mythical Beast, White Tiger. 

The person who will use this stone will have their race changed, evolving to bear some of the powers of the White Tiger.

Note: A person from a feline race would harvest the greatest benefit from this.]

The last past, along with the fact that he would lose his magical semen, was the reason why Neji wasn't taking this himself. Kimi was a better host for this.

Kimi slowly took the orb in her hand and stared at it again. "Evolution…? Let me guess, will eating this turn me into a white tiger? Plots like that were quite common in mangas back in the day." She said, "So do I eat this too?"

This was a bit smaller than the size of a tennis ball, which would make it harder to swallow. So she wasn't sure if she should eat this too.

"Yeah, do it."

Neji said and watched with his arms crossed as Kimi smiled wearily before throwing the orb inside her mouth, barely gulping it whole before spitting out her saliva.

"Yuck, tastes like tiger dung-"

She couldn't finish her words because a huge amount of magical energy burst out of her body in an instant, causing her armour to burst in a 360° area, and her body to float over a few inches in the air. Her hair blew upwards as Neji watched her blonde hair visibly turn pale and paler, and at one point turn into pure white.

Neji's eyes widened in horror. "No, my blonde maid!"

The process continued further, but Neji couldn't do anything because he didn't want to hurt her unintentionally.

Kimi was forcefully pushed into her Supercat form, which was now white too. The front of her body was fairly skimmed, while everywhere else her skin had turned pure white. That wasn't the end, as black stripes started to crawl on her skin, and slowly she was encircled by them which ended at the tip of her tail.

The transformation attracted everyone else's eyes there and watched the process happen with shocked expressions. It lasted for a minute, and finally, Neji watched Kimi's Tier 5 become Tier 6, after which her feet touched the ground.

Kimi curiously looked at her hands and inspected her body, squeezing her breasts once before looking at other things.

Neji, wearing a dejected expression, took out a dress from his inventory and pushed it into her naked body, which immediately wrapped around her by itself.

"I will forever remember you, blonde Kimi." He muttered under his breath, which Kimi noticed and gave him a worried stare.

Her lips, imitating the 'ω’ of a cat, moved. "Do I not look good?" She asked nervously. 

"I was just joking." Neji laughed it off. "Your Super cat form looks better than before… maybe you should call it Super Tiger?" He added. "Just not sure what your human form would look like. Maybe a long haired 2B…"

Kimi's eyes sparkled hearing the last part as she immediately nodded. "Okay... let mya turn this off."

Kimi took a deep breath in and released it. At the same time, as if getting out by her breath, her transformation slowly got cancelled. Her claws retracted back into normal nails, her skin went back to its usual tone, and her silver eyes went back to blue. At last, even her white hair turned back to its usual blonde as she rapidly shook her head.

The only visible new change was her tail, which had golden stripes on them now. There was also white at the end of her hair, though that only made her look more exotic.

[Image Here]

"Ooh, so you didn't become an albino like me," Neji said. "Good good, I want my blonde cat girl to stay blonde."

Kimi scratched her chin. "Well… I can probably turn my hair into white even in this form, though. Like some kind of partial transformation… Though, I am more interested in seeing what new powers I got."

Neji took in her words and activated his Observe.

[Name: Kimi Sugihara

Age: 33 years and 3 months old

Tier: Six

Race: Half-blood White Tiger

Racial Abilities: White Tiger Physiology, Electricity Generation, Camouflage.]

'That's interesting… So her quirk was amplified by the evolution stone which evolved her entire existence rather than just awakening her quirk, which would have usually happened.'  Neji thought, before focusing on her Meta Abilities.

[White Tiger Physiology: This allows the user to transform parts of her body or her whole body into a white tiger.

Allows great speed, great strength, and great reflexes.]

[Electricity Generation: A common power of the White Tiger, allowing the user to wield the power of destructive electricity anytime.]

[Camouflage: One of the user's previous powers, now more enhanced by the bloodline of a predator, who needs to lurk around the bushes to catch her swift enemies.

Allows the user to blend with her surroundings, almost like an illusion.]

Neji spoke the abilities outright, giving Kimi an impression of what she was now capable of.

"Looks like it increases your strength greatly, too," Neji said. "Kinda cringe. You're not supposed to grow this strong."

Then again, he has gained 10 levels along with 50 additional stat points. He was certain he could do a better job against her than last time, despite her new power-up. Thinking so, he glanced at his status.

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[          —Status Page—            ]

Name: Neji Hado

Age: 15

Class: The Gamer

Title: Knight in a White Armour

Level: 130

Race: [High Human]

–

HP: 2750/2750

SP: 2750/2750

–

STR: 276

END: 275

DEX: 275

INT: 170

WIS: 165

CHA: 255

LUC: 265

–

HP REG: 1100/minute

SP REG: 1100/minute

Stat Points: 50

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He put all the points in DEX, which was his system’s equivalent of Agility, to not get shamefully beaten by his own girl.

Fortunately, 50 stat points were more than enough.

He waved the status page off, with a mental command, and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Also, I am planning something big soon so I will surpass you, meaning don’t feel too happy." He winked at her. "Anyway, we should return outside."

Kimi had a smile on her face, happy at her newfound strength as she jumped on Neji. "Hey! Why do you sound so unhappy? I am strong, and now I am not… mentally ill anymore. I can finally be a proper bodyguard, no?"

Neji shrugged his shoulders and turned to his subjects below him.

"Good job everyone, let us celebrate a little before I go back."

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Author’s Note: By the way, Fetishes aren’t considered a Mental Disorder. So… ahem.