Starting out as a Dragon Slave-Chapter 19 - : Levelling

Isaac straightened his head, the first golem had fallen.

But there were still two left.

Around him, the rest of the group caught their breath, observing in turn the broken body of the monster and Isaac, who looked strangely different.

- Are you all right?" asked Erik, panting slightly.

Isaac blinked, realizing that his body was still shaking from absorption. But he nodded.

- "I'm ready to go on."

His tone was cold, determined.

He had no more time for weakness.

The two remaining golems, motionless until then, suddenly came to life, their stone eyes gleaming with a spectral glow.

- "They're coming!" shouted Mikhail as he sprang back to guard.

Isaac inhaled deeply, activating Stone Skin again.

His skin instantly hardened, taking on that familiar mineral hue.

- We repeat the same technique. Target a single point until they fall."

The group nodded without question. The plan had worked once, it would work again.

The battle resumed.

The hunters surrounded a second golem, concentrating their attacks on a single point on its chest.

Isaac, faster and more resilient than ever, positioned himself in the front line, narrowly dodging the heavy stone fists coming at him.

One blow came too close.

He had just enough time to raise his arm.

BAM!

A dull impact resounded, his Stone Skin absorbing the shock.

He recoiled under the force of the blow, but... no wounds.

The golem's gaze seemed to hesitate, as if he'd just realized that this hunter wasn't as fragile as before.

Isaac smiled.

Taking advantage of his moment of inattention, Erik sprang to his side, bringing his hammer down with all his might on the same crack as before.

CRACK!

The stone cracked a little more.

- Keep going!" shouted Isaac, charging forward.

Their assaults intensified.

Blow after blow, the golem's chest gave way... until its core appeared.

Isaac didn't waste a second.

He leapt to his feet, brandished his katana...

And struck.

BAOUM!

The core exploded beneath the blade.

The golem froze, as if realizing its existence was at an end.

Then it collapsed with a deafening noise.

- Second shot!" exclaimed Malia.

Isaac didn't reply.

A new system panel had just appeared.

[Monster absorption available]

[Absorb physical stats]

[Absorbing physical skills]

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His body demanded again.

It was a drug.

A delicious poison.

He selected the second option without hesitation.

A burning shock passed through him as he absorbed a fraction of the monster's hardness.

His skin seemed even more solid.

More resistant.

- The last one!" barked Erik, drawing Isaac back to reality.

The third golem was already charging.

But this time... Isaac knew exactly what to do.

- "Let's finish him off quickly."

They pounced on him, repeating the same process.

Blows rained down.

The attacks piled up.

And once again, after a fierce battle, Isaac delivered the fatal blow.

The golem fell with a dull roar.

Its body disintegrated into a heap of dead stone.

And before Isaac's eager eyes...

[Monster absorption available]

His hand trembled as he chose skills again.

[Stone Skin (active) → level 2]

Cost reduced to 0.7 stamina per minute. Increased durability.

A shiver ran through him.

He was getting stronger.

Erik put away his hammer and glanced at the dark tunnel before them.

- "Shall we continue?"

- Let's get going!

Silence reigned in the tunnel. Only the echoes of their slow, tired footsteps disturbed the oppressive stillness. The smell of damp stone saturated the air, sticking to the skin and throat like invisible dust.

Isaac felt his body grow heavier with every step. His breath was ragged, his heart still beating too hard in his chest. His clothes were soaked with sweat, sticking to his back and arms. His katana, sticky with the sand that covered the golems, almost slipped through his fingers.

They'd killed nine of them.

Nine monsters.

Nine times the same slow, brutal confrontation, where they had to lash out like scavengers at a single point on their stony bodies. Nine times the same bloody ritual, where the blade wore itself out by striking the same spot again and again until the golem finally collapsed.

Isaac had absorbed as much as he could.

Sometimes statistics, other times physical skills. He could feel his body changing, becoming stronger, faster, more resistant...

Isaac ran a hand over his sweat-soaked face. His fingers trembled slightly. He felt like throwing up. Not because of exhaustion, not because of the fighting... but because of how he felt.

He wanted another monster.

Just one more.

Just one more.

Then another.

And another.

He had to stop.

He had to...

- "Isaac."

He almost jumped.

It was Erik. He was looking at him with a raised eyebrow, his massive hammer resting on his shoulder.

- "How long are you planning to stand there?"

Isaac realized he'd stopped in the middle of the tunnel.

He shook his head, trying to restore some semblance of order to his thoughts.

- "Sorry."

He quickened his pace to join the others.

At last, they came to a huge stone door.

It stood in the darkness, imposing, menacing.

Erik placed his hand on it, an exhausted sneer on his lips.

- "This is the boss's room."

Malia collapsed against a wall, her chest heaving heavily.

- "Let's rest for five minutes before we go in."

He took the opportunity to glance at the system interface. His stats had risen considerably.

[Status]

Name : Isaac

Race : Human

Hunter Rank : E

Statistics :

- Strength: 19 → 30 (+11)

- Agility: 21 → 35 (+14)

- Endurance: 19 → 34 (+15)

- Senses: 16 → 27 (+11)

- Dexterity: 15 → 29 (+14)

- Intelligence: 19 → 23 (+4)

Acquired skills:

- Stone Skin (Active) [Lv. 3]: Consumes 0.7 Endurance every minute to strengthen skin to the solidity of stone (Enhanced effect).

Isaac grinned, finally able to think of himself as something other than a piece of shit! He'd moved up to E rank!

- End of break! We're off! Erik shouted.

Isaac placed his hand on the massive door in front of him. The dark wood, worn by time and humidity, was marked with cracks and unfamiliar symbols. A strange energy pulsed through, almost alive, like a beating heart behind a stone wall.

He exchanged glances with the others. Erik nodded, looking concentrated. Jonah clutched his gun, his features tense. Malia took a deep breath.

Then, without further ado, Isaac pushed open the door.

A deafening creak echoed through the tunnels as the passage slowly opened, revealing the boss's lair.

An immense stone hall stretched out before them.

The walls, carved from shiny black rock, seemed to absorb the light from the torches fixed along the path. The floor was made of cracked, weathered slabs, covered in dust and rubble.

But most impressive of all... was the ceiling.

Above them, a crushing vault, supported by massive pillars carved with faded runes, rose until it disappeared into oppressive darkness. Fine cracks ran through the stone, as if the weight of the world rested on these columns.

In the center of the room, a colossal abomination crouched on a throne of fractured stone.

Its skin, abysmal black, seemed to absorb light like a bottomless pit. Her body, made of a titanic assemblage of ebony boulders, was perfectly still, like a statue forgotten by time.

Until his eyes opened.

Two blood-red orbs, burning with a menacing light, lit up in the darkness. A muffled roar rose from his bowels, echoing throughout the room like an earthquake in the making.

And he was not alone.

Around him, six other massive figures emerged from the shadows.

They were smaller than their master, but still much taller than a man. Their bodies, carved from the same black stone, looked rough and cracked.

Their appearance was different from the golems they had faced in the tunnels. More imposing. More menacing. More... alive.

And then...

Their eyes lit up red.

One by one, they awoke.

The sound of crushing rock echoed as they began to move, their stone limbs scraping the ground with a sinister creak.

Isaac felt a cold sweat run down his back.