Biter

"The southern continent of Ayeth, made of vast plains of uneven purple grass, mountains, and woodland, holds the secrets of the last demon kingdom, now the remaining forces are sparse and independent, unaligned as their monarch of old has disappeared. The Celestial beings designate ancient beings of good and evil, cardinal forces that the Monicker "Hero" designates.

160 years prior held the most recent Hero of the Demons, Hero of the Elves, Hero of the Dwarves, and The Hero of the Humans. A war that lasted twenty-five years began at sea, where naval attacks were sent toward coastal States, like the Northern continent's Disel, or the Southern continent's Ostar, before magical alternatives were created, like Teleportation Grenades, Griffon drop squads, and torture methods that Prisoners of war would receive that would fundamentally change who they were as mortals, like Runic Augmentation of the Skeleton (RAS).

The birthplace of the Demon King has been studied since the war's end, the lands have been blighted and wartorn, as if internal strife broke about, however, the blight in and of itself seems to be a manifestation of entropy that seems to be devoid and destroys the richness of the world. Crops die, disease is born, and people die, Humans, Elves, Dwarves, Giants, Orcs, Fey, Infernal Beings, even the monsters themselves can't sustain themselves upon the malice that grows from the purple mana hungry blight, making it a universal necessity to destroy the birthmother of the blight."

- Demon King by Serril Zale.

Ayeth is considered to be a No Holds Barred, Banditry, Arson, Battery, Fraud, Manslaughter, Hardcore Drugs, and Gambling can be found in the open, while more heinous crimes are held within the dark. Civilization thrives within Ayeth, the old blight fallout that was once the Demon King's domain has since equalized with the ambient mana, besides areas where Dungeons have manifested; it seems that the world stabilizes somewhat when those little freaks make way into the ground and take root.

"Echo, quit looking off into the distance, what's wrong with you?"

Echo, looks over to her grandfather, a one-horned infernal human, he's all wrinkly and old but has shiny and bright black hair that's reminiscent of a young man. He wears a blue shawl that covers his upper body while wearing a pair of overalls.

"Echo quit starin' at me with them big ol' eyes, are you going to help me on the property or not?"

"Of course I will, if I don't who knows what'll happen when you throw out your back again!"

"Who taught ya how to be such a smartass?"

"Youuu did~"

"Is that right? I'll need to have a chat with this "You" guy, seems like a bad influence on ya"

Echo giggles and follows her grandfather, the fields hold a few dozen creatures that are reminiscent of dairy cows, however, the sickly red flesh on them is akin to burn scars that have healed in their entirety, while their spots take an armored sheen akin to obsidian, they also have two heads.

Echo places a hand on the side of one of the cow's faces, and scratches the beast on the chin, it licks the air in delight, its eyes going wide, while the other head stares at a bug that flies past.

"Echo you gotta quit playing with those things, just feed 'em kiddo."

"Like I haven't seen you laid out in the barn, sleep with the beasts?"

"There's nothing wrong with that, Booth is scared of the dark, can you blame him?"

Echo laughs at her grandfather once again, and succumbs to his whining, pulling out a massive haybale from a shed on their property, the beasts rip at it with flat fangs that remove the bundle of dried grass happily, one even flares a small flame from its nostrils.

The pair spend two hours tending to the livestock before Echo is released from her duty on the farm.

"Alright rat, you're good to go."

"Don't call me a rat!"

"But you're so cute, just like a rat." Her grandfather smiled at her with a fierce grin full of a serrated maw.

She pouted and fled the fields past the farm, where her daily adventuring could begin. Daily activities like throwing rocks at gang members, stealing fish from the mariners, or just general kid activities that she could partake in, however, the major issue was that she didn't know what to do.

Echo pulled out a small satchel, that held an amorphous white blob inside, it didn't leave any residue behind in her bag, fortunately, but it also didn't appear to have any notable features.

[Dungeon Slug (Level 1)]

[Unnamed]

[Unbonded]

"You're a very ugly baby, even for a slug," Echo said while holding the blob up in her hands, viewing it from all angles while turning it over in her hands, "I haven't a clue what to begin to call you..."

The monster flopped around in her hands as she rotated it, it was a featureless, oval-shaped blob, it had no eyes, nor any orifices to make any sort of noise.

She shrugged and placed the beast back in her bag while whistling with her fingers. A sudden noise began to rapidly rush towards her, and from within the brush of the nearby forest, a large two-headed dog with a forked tail came out of the woods, snarling with slobber that covered its jowls.

Echo placed her thumbs and forefingers in the shape of a square, where the two-headed pup sat within it.

[Orthos (Level 5)]

[Bear]

[Bond {100%}]

Echo turned her hands towards the demonic animal, placing her finger guns with Bear in their sights, and said "Bang!"

The two-headed monster flopped about and groaned and an echo came from each growl as their body landed on its back, one of the heads had a tongue sagging out of the side of its mouth. Echo placed her hands on the beasts' stomach, giving it several thousand pets per second until it was time to get up.

"Bear what have you possibly gotten into to get you to level 5?"

Bear barked in response.

"Really? Is that so?"

Bear confirmed the information, with a second, assuring bark.

"Lead the way then big bear!"

Echo was brought along by an excited two-headed puppy throughout the hillside of Ocath's wilds, where several dozen miles of hilly terrain were traveled, vaulting over rockfaces, and passing through packed wooded brush led Echo to a small door, that couldn't be taller than her when slouching down.

"Bear what did you bring me to?"

"Bark!"

"That doesn't help, you know I don't know what that means."

The Orthos rolled his eyes, all four of them, and proceeded to scratch dirt out of a small corner where both heads of the pup managed to squeeze through, Echo, fortunately, was much smaller than the pair, and followed afterward, looking down into the slanted tunnel that began to light up as Bear dashed forward, each sconce parallel to his position suddenly lit up.

A small world was revealed to Echo, a small space that was made of familiar flora from the surface, as if a pocket of preserved landscape, inside the pocket space a massive blue crystal orb floated in the air of the small stone brick altar.

Bear ran ahead of Echo, who was taking in the sights of the small paradise, a few vines hung from the ceiling, entwined with roots. A circle of wooden trees held the altar in the air, appearing manufactured compared then the open cavern of forested jungle, while small bugs flew around the humid space. Echo held her hands up towards the sphere atop the stone and wood altar as if holding the object inside of the small square she made with her thumbs and pointer fingers.

[Dungeon Core]

[Break the Dungeon Core to receive bountiful rewards.]

“Hey Bear!” Echo yelled at her companion, the strange twoheaded black dog looked over at her with a slack jaw and flopping tongue while the other head held a small rat in its maw, slurping it up with ease, “Up please!”

Bear came bounding over, making a massive jump that resulted in their tumbling fall, causing a small giggle from Echo.

“Over here, silly boy.”

The beast parked its rear at the foot of the tree trunk alter, while allowing Echo to climb up him. She took a careful approach, making sure that her proper footholds wouldn’t result in her falling, she was certain she would be caught by her companion but wasn’t willing to risk squishing her friend.

When finally atop the alter, she peered at the reflective globe that hovered up and down, looking inside of it, it was purely massive, the same size as her head, she could see her black hair, along with her very long scar that spanned the top of her head to the lower side of her chin, she grabbed the ball from its floating stasis, and it took considerable effort before the object would move.

When finally freed, Echo whimpered and tried to right herself on the steep alter but ultimately fell off, bracing for pain, but only landed sloppily on Bear. She composed herself and smiled at the pup, rubbing the back of its right head, while the left barked at her. She relented and began rubbing the pup’s head as well before a massive clump of dirt landed in front of the pair.

“Crap, RUN BEAR!”

The orthos began its mad dash towards the entrance with its rider holding on for dear life, weaving around flying rubble while Echo was forced to use the massive sphere to beat small rodents that attempted to grab onto the beast.

[Notice: Kill confirmed, Level 0 Lesser Rat]

[Notice: Kill confirmed, Level 0 Lesser Rat]

[Notice: Kill confirmed, Level 0 Lesser Rat]

“Sorry!” She yelled as the small creatures finally let go of her friend.

Bear barked at her.

“I know, we’ll worry about it later.”

A huge glow of blue flames was created, halting the escape of the dungeon thieves, a mass of dirt grew from the falling obstacles, taking on the form of a humanoid shape that hardly fit within the small underground space. It had to crawl, each time it tried to stand upright, its body would crash into the ceiling, and dirt and trees would be dislodged from the surface, crashing down around the pair.

Echo screamed as a massive swiping arm launched its way across the room, Bear dashed forward, beneath the crotch of the titanic golem, only to be blocked by the slow-moving titan’s leg that sat in front of the sconced tunnel. Echo held onto the neck of her pet as it ran across the back of the golem’s leg, making his way to the tunnel entrance, where he began digging, Echo helped, albeit not as much as Bear would have liked.

The titan grasped for the pair, and Bear lunged at her, getting grabbed by the massive hand made of twig, rock, and soil. A yelp brought Echo back to attention from her tumble, she looked out and saw a massive hand squeezing her pet, in defiance of the massive creature’s assault, she slung the orb at the massive monster, and a resounding crack was heard as it landed on a stone, several paces before its intended target.

Echo watched as the titan writhed in pain, and made an effort to pick up the nearest hand-sized rock and return to the now cracked globe. An ear-shattering wail was heard, something that sounded like an intense vibration that hurt Echo’s ears, not to mention her pet that had both paws on its head while flopping around.

Echo continued to slam the rock onto the orb and eventually had to stop due to the noise the monster was making. Bear grabbed her by the back of the neck and dragged her to the tunnel’s entrance while she clutched the sphere.

Echo crawled forward through the small entrance and hugged Bear once the dog joined her outside of the tunnel.

“Thank you, Bear.”

The Orthos pup licked at the blood that was coming from her ears, while she lifted the fractured sphere, and slammed it directly into the metal door that was the intended entrance. A pop was heard as five objects fell to the ground, mixed in with dungeon core shards.

[Notice: You have destroyed a core of a Level 0 Dungeon]

[Solo Clear Bonus]

[Rewards: 2x , 1x , 1x , 1x ]

Her bag went haywire as if the once-inert creature that simply lay in her satchel began to flop about inside.

“Calm down!”

She held up the skill orb to her bag, but no new response came as the object came closer, Bear yawned as she repeated the process with every single object that came from the dungeon core, only when placing the small fragments of the broken core nearby did the monster settle down.

“Oho~? You want it?”

The creature in her bag made no effort to hide it.

“Maybe if you become my partner, I’ll think about it, I went through a lot of trouble for this you know.”

[You have sent a Monster Contract to Level 1]

[Waiting…]

[ Level 1 has accepted your Monster Contract]

[You are now bonded to Level 1, You may give it a name.]

A grin grew on Echo’s face as she gave the small slug a blue fragment of the dungeon core, it ravaged the piece she gave it with a small tentacle that launched forwards from its body. She giggled as she kept feeding the nasty creature crystal bits.

“... What to call you…”

Echo pet Bear while she made a mental effort to name the creature.

“Ooough… this is hard.”

“Bark!”

“No that's silly, who would name a slug “Slimy?”

“Bark!”

“Of course you would.”

[Confirm the Name:” Noodle”?]

[Yes] [No]

The creature happily fed on core fragments, while Echo inspected the objects that came from the prize sphere.

[Liquid Experience Vial]

[Consume to increase your Experience Values.]

[Skill Orb]

[Crush to gain a new Skill, Used in Skill Evolution.]

[Lowest Rank Elixir]

[Drink to increase your Attribute Values.]

Echo held the pair of vials in her right hand while she placed the Skill orb and Elixir in her pocket, she peered into the star-dotted yellow liquid that shimmered within the glass. She tipped the glass down her throat and waited as multiple mental notifications came.

[Notice: You have consumed , Your Level has increased]

[Demonkin Level 1 -> Level 2]

[Demonkin Level 2 -> Level 3]

[Demonkin Level 3 -> Level 4]

[Demonkin Level 4 -> Level 5]

[Demonkin Level 5 -> Level 6]

[Demonkin Level 6 -> Level 7]

[Demonkin Level 7 -> Level 8]

[Access. 35 Stat Points are available for Distribution.]

“Oh wow, Here drink this bear!”

The Orthos sniffed the air where the potion sat and turned its nose, making a dissatisfied face.

“Oh don’t give me that Bear, I saw you eat a fucking rat today in one bite.”

Bear grumbled in protest but sat with one of its mouths open, where the potion poured inside.

Echo focused her vision on a small square made of her fingers and viewed her companion.

[Orthos (Level 11)]

[Bear]

[Bond {100%}]

She grinned saddled up on her ride, and pointed into the distance, and yelled “HI HO, BEAR! TAKE US HOME!”

Dashing through the forest on the back of an Orthos, Echo held her arms to the sides, letting the wind rush through her face as her ride made a mad dash to the valley at the foot of the hilly forests, where her grandfather’s Farm was built.

Echo was dropped off by the front door while Bear made his way through a small broken board behind her grandfather's shed. She entered the small cottage and saw her grandfather eating a small steak sandwich while reading a newspaper. He looked up at his granddaughter, smiling.

“Did you have a good day exploring the outback?”

“I wouldn’t call it the best day…” She said with a grin