Chapter 82: Nidhogg

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(Veronica)

[Experience Points have reached the required level!]

[Individual 'Rank' has increased from level 7 to level 15!]

[Furthermore, the Individual's 'Job' has increased from level 15 to level 26!]

[The Levels of the [Charge; Level 3], [Javelin Technique; Level 2], [Thread Reeling Technique; Level 2], [Artillery Technique; Level 2], [Slime Binding Technique; Level 1], and [Superhuman Strength; Level 2] Skills have increased!]

In less than five minutes, the Rank 4 Earth Worm, the feared Boss of the 'Earth Worm's Hive' was defeated by a series of slashing, artillery, and magic attacks.

Its body was cut into large pieces, filled with gaping and bloody holes due to Aqua and Veronica's projectile attacks. Most of its skin and the scales covering it was also burned due to the strong Light Rays conjured by Shade.

"Uwaah! Auntie, you're so strong!" said Acathea, praising Veronica and rising her ego by a bit.

"Ah, that was nothing, little Acathea! …Wait a second, wasn't I going to tame this thing? Oops"

Indeed, Veronica had come to this dungeon to tame a strong monster, but it seems that she was too indulged in the expectation of its flavor, instead of making a friend of it.

"Don't worry auntie, it will respawn in a few hours!" said Acathea, as she used her superhuman strength to carry a large piece of the Earth Worm as if it were nothing.

"Gishishishi," said Charlotte, she didn't want the little Acathea to carry things, so she took the pieces of the worm and tightly packed them in her threads, sticking them into her large, car-sized abdomen, which was already carrying dozens of corpses.

"Now what do I do? Should I tame another thing? Or wait?" wondered Veronica, taking a slice off the Earth Worm and eating it up with her soul.

It was sweet, meaty, and juicy. If one were to ignore the slimy green blood and ooze, it was a delicacy.

With each bite, Veronica felt like she recovered the Mana used in the fight. Of course, usually, people would not recover mana by simply eating, but because she had the 'Digestion' Skill, and she did not need any nutrient, anything she ate would be converted into the only fuel she needed, Mana.

"Ah, this is good… I don't regret killing it, to be honest," she said.

"Maybe you could tame that one?" asked Shade, flying around her. His crimson iris pointed to a giant worm that surged from within a hole in the cave of the boss.

"Ah, this is strange, monster usually don't appear in the boss room…" said Acathea.

"Well, perhaps this one was drive by the delicious smell of the boss corpse" added Veronica, rushing towards the giant worm using 'Charge' repeatedly.

Flash!

Using 'Appraisal' she found out that it was a Rank 3 Venomous Scales Earth Worm. It was level 83, about to rank up.

Veronica saw that it could have a more promising future than the Earth Worm, as it was a rarer breed.

"Grriishaaaa!"

The Venomous Scales Earth Worm towered over four meters, glancing at Veronica from above. It opened its gaping jaw, revealing a spiral of countless sharp fangs.

"You look promising," thought Veronica, jumping towards the air, and expanding her body like liquid metal, entangling the worm with her own body.

"Grrrryaaaa!"

"I need to incapacitate it without killing it first… I don't think it would happily agree on becoming my tamed monster out of nowhere," said Veronica.

Then, she gently used her fist and punched the worm in the head several times, until it became dizzy and fell to the ground.

It was still alive, as it was breathing, but it seemed to have its Health Points lowered dramatically.

"Grriii…"

Aqua then brought a large chunk of the Earth Worm Boss, slimy and juicy, it looked appetizing for the starving and weakened Venomous Scale Earth Worm.

Veronica took the piece and showed it to the beast.

"Are you hungry? Do you want this?"

"Grisha! Grisha!" said the worm, trying to escape Veronica to eat the piece of meat.

However, Veronica had it tightly wrapped on her own liquid metal body, and the worm quickly gave up.

"Grisha…"

"You can have it if we become friends!" said Veronica, with a bright smile on her phantom form face.

The worm seemed rather intelligent despite its first impression of Veronica and understood what she meant.

If he wanted to survive and to eat that delicious piece of meat, it needed to become her lackey.

"Gishiii…" it said.

Veronica smiled, giving it the piece of meat.

"There you go!"

"Grishaa… Nom, nom, nom… Grisha!"

The giant worm seemed captivated by the meat and by Veronica.

"Alright, easy there big boy… or girl? Tame!"

Veronica activated the skill 'Tame' while touching the head of the creature, a dark glow appeared from within her soul, which covered the worm's body for a small amount of time… she didn't remember this happening before.

"Eh? This is new…"

Ding!

[You have tamed the [Rank 3: Venomous Scales Earth Worm] monster!]

The dark shadows dissipated as the creature was fully tamed. It seemed to have gained a strange look on its twelve eyes as if it had gained a bit more of thoughtfulness. Veronica was aware that the monsters she tamed would quickly develop their intelligence, so this might have been related to this.

"Grisha…"

Veronica glanced at the worm's status with a bit more time and discovered that it was male.

"Although he is not a dragon, Nidhogg was described to be a giant worm that breathed poison. Well, in those times anything that was long and lacked limbs was considered a worm… Your name will be Nidhogg then" said Veronica.

"Grisha!" said Nidhogg, dangling around happily, it seemed to have quickly recovered its Health Points while absorbing Veronica's Mana.

"Nidhogg? What an odd name, is it from that Earth?" asked Shade.

"Yes, it was also called the 'Dread Biter' on its mythology… well, later on, it was described as a long dragon or snake more than a worm. But it was also said to be a worm by the creators of its myth, so I will stick with them because it's more convenient for me," said Veronica.

"I see…" muttered Shade, he did not understand half of what Veronica was referring to.

"Gishishishi!"

"Welcome, gubo"

Charlotte and Aqua welcomed Nidhogg in the party, as he dangled around and entangled them with its long body.

Ivy and the other plants also introduced themselves to Nidhogg… but Ivy seemed to be strange with Nidhogg.

"Shaaa!"

"Grisha?"

"What's going on with Ivy? Is she being aggressive?" asked Acathea.

"I think it's the start of a rivalry. Both are long and limbless… so I guess that's Ivy's reason?" wondered Veronica.

Nidhogg did not seem affected by Ivy's intimidation whatsoever.

Nick, the Live-Dead, introduced itself alongside Gwendolyn, but Nidhogg was quite confused, as he felt like Nick was a monster, but he looked like a human.

After introductions, Charlotte glowed in bright white light and ranked up to a Rank 5 Crimson-Eyed Armored Black Widow. It seems that the Experience Points given by defeating the Earth Worm Boss were enough for her to break through the last levels

When everyone was done, Veronica decided to quickly harvest a few materials growing in the boss room, such as jewels of various colors, precious metals, and other things. Shaping her gloves into a pickaxe-like shape (although it barely resembled that).

However, she was not planning on using them for crafting things, she absorbed them as materials and used each one to strengthen her spear.

[The materials [Magic Iron Ore], [Magic Gold Ore], [Reinforced Tungsten], [Crimson Ruby], [Mana Crystal] and the [Generic Copper Long Spear] weapon have been synthesized into the [Golden Magical Ruby Long Spear] weapon!]

Finally, being able to upgrade her spear with special ores made Veronica rather happy.

Even more when she considered the idea that she could generate as many as she wanted… and arm the entire tribe with them. Although it would cost a ridiculous amount of Mana, she should be capable of doing this with Ervas's ridiculous Mana pool.

"A copper spear is way too weak; it can even break to the scales of a Lizardman. But this new and upgraded spear should be capable of penetrating the scales and leave a deep wound,"

[The Levels of the [Digestion; Level 3], [Armor Rearrangement; Level 3], and [Absorption Healing (Mineral, Materials, Armor); Level 3] Skills have increased!]

[You acquired the [Mining; Level 1] Skill!]

"Ah, even with all the exp, I couldn't reach the max level in the Job?" wondered Acathea.

"Well, it seems that the babysitting ended with your first progression wall! You will have to hunt on your own now, Acathea. Well, I will help you out a bit," said Veronica, patting the half bear and half squirrel girl as they walked back to the tribe.

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[Name: Jason

[Race: Human.

[Age: 24.

[Titles: None.

[Type: Human.

[Job: Magic Fire Warrior.

[Job History: Villager, Apprentice Farmer, Farmer, Experienced Farmer, Apprentice Warrior, Warrior, Fire Attribute Mage, Magic Warrior.

[Level: 001/100

[Health Points: 481/481 > 806/806

[Mana Points: 368/368 > 573/573

[Strength: 361 > 506

[Defense: 251 > 342

[Magic: 150 > 355

[Resistance: 123 > 238

[Agility: 290 > 460

[Passive Skills]

[Health Points Enlargement; Level 3]

[Strengthened Physical Power when equipped with Farming Tools; Medium; Level 2]

[Mana Control; Level 3]

[Mana Enlargement; Level 2]

[Automatic Mana Recovery; Level 2]

[Increased Defense While Equipped with Metallic Armor; Small; Level 3]

[Active Skills]

[Hardworking; Level 2]

[Butcher; Level 2]

[Cooking; Level 2]

[Farming; Level 3]

[Surpass Limits; Farming; Level 2]

[No-Attribute Magic; Level 2]

[Fire Attribute Magic; Level 3]

[Spirit Magic; Level 2]

[Unarmed Fighting Technique; Level 2]

[Club Technique; Level 4]

[Shield Technique; Level 3]

[Armor Technique; Level 3]

[Surpass Limits; Blunt Weapons; Level 2]

[Magic Fighting Technique; Level 2]

[Throwing; Level 1]

[Archery; Level 1]

[Unique Skills]

[Iron-like Resiliency; Level 4]

[Befriended Spirits]

[Gnome, Young Spirit of Earth]