In Arventia, there were two main types of damage.
Physical damage. As the na suggested, swinging a normal sword or firing a normal arrow inflicted physical damage. The final number depended on how high the attacker’s physical attack stat was, reduced by the enemy’s physical defense.
Magical damage. The sa principle applied here. It scaled with the caster’s magical attack stat, reduced by the target’s magical defense.
But there were also rarer, more dangerous forms of damage. For example: soul damage, which directly scarred a person’s very essence; poison or burning damage, which slowly ate away at life through damage over ti (DOT); and in this case—pure damage.
Pure damage was perhaps the rarest and most terrifying type of all. Why? Because it carried one property that broke every rule of battle:
DEF IGNORE.
Yes—pure damage completely ignored defense. No matter how high the enemy’s armor or resistance, a pure damage attack always struck with its full, unmitigated power. It didn’t matter if the target was clad in steel, wrapped in magic, or shielded by monstrous endurance—pure damage cut through it all like paper.
Thus...
If Emilia could sohow convert her sword strikes into pure damage, she would instantly bypass the undead’s ridiculous defenses. That would make cutting down these undead monsters far, far easier!
And so—
***
"Flam! Please, can you try using Fire Attack Enchantnt on Emilia’s sword?" Mimi owed her command.
Flam flickered in response, its flas dancing with excitent, then shot forward like a streak of living fire.
It wrapped around Emilia’s weapon—
FWOOOM!
Her blade erupted in roaring black fla, divine and sinister all at once. The heat rippled through the air, warping it, and the sword itself seed alive, humming with destructive power.
"WOAAAH!" Emilia gasped. She stared at the blazing weapon, its dark light reflecting in her wide eyes, then turned back to Mimi in disbelief.
"Mimi, this is—"
"ow!" Mimi raised her tiny paw with a proud, bright grin.
And Emilia understood.
"So this is another one of Flam’s spells... and you want to try it?"
"ow!"
Exactly!
At that exact mont, the forest trembled—the ground quaking beneath heavy steps as two massive Lesser Death Bears crashed through the trees. Their blood-red eyes glead with hunger, jaws snapping, each stride splintering branches and shaking loose showers of leaves.
Aha!
"Perfect! Looks like our test subjects just arrived. Let’s try this, Mimi!" Emilia exclaid, her lips curling into a fierce grin.
"OW!"
And so, with Flam’s divine black fire blazing along her blade, Emilia surged forward like a streak of lightning, eting the Death Bears head-on!
***
"Silvermoon Sword Art... MOON SLASH!"
Emilia aid straight at the bear’s abdon.
SLASH!
Her blade carved a brilliant arc—blue moonlight entwined with Flam’s black divine fire—forming a blazing crescent of steel and fla.
FWOOOM!
The empowered strike tore through flesh and bone as though they were paper. The bear’s body split apart at the waist, its upper half shearing away and slamming to the ground with a thunderous thud!
"OH MY HEAVENS!!" Emilia gasped, her eyes wide, her breath caught in disbelief. Even she could hardly fathom the devastation she had unleashed.
But there was no ti to marvel—the second bear ca barreling forward, its roar shaking the trees.
Despite her mont of shock, Emilia’s body moved on pure instinct.
FWOOOM!
Another slash blazed through the air, this ti cleaving straight down the center. The black-flad arc split the beast from crown to belly, a river of fire and steel ripping it apart!
As a result, blood erupted in a grotesque fountain, spraying across the clearing in a rain of steaming, foul crimson that hissed as it touched the burning ground.
"Damnnn!!" Mimi’s eyes widened too.
Yeah... she already knew turning Emilia’s strikes into pure damage would solve their problem. But this... this was on a whole other level!
Normally, it took Emilia five, maybe six desperate slashes to cut down a single blood-moon-enhanced Lesser Death Bear. But now? She was one-shotting them! Carving through those hulking monsters as if they were nothing more than ripe tomatoes under a razor-sharp knife!
It was brutal! Brutally easy! Terrifyingly easy!
And yet... Sothing is wrong though...
How the heck Master’s attacks can be so strong like that? Mimi wondered.
And right at that mont, Mimi realized sothing else...
Oh right!
Master has that skill too!
Fire Mastery level 2!
No, it’s actually level 3 now, as Emilia had just leveled up a little after killing so many undead monsters!
In truth, Fire Mastery was a skill that permanently boosted fire resistance, fire spell amplification, and fire control. Each level increased fire resistance by 10% and fire spell amplification by 15%.
So at Level 3, Emilia now received a 45% boost in spell amplification! And since Flam’s enchanted sword strikes sohow counted as fire attacks as well, they were also boosted by Emilia’s Fire Mastery!
DAMN!
This is insane!
Who could have thought that, in such a dire situation, they would stumble upon such a broken skill combination?!
"ow!" Mimi cheered.
Well done, Master! Well done, Flam!
As Emilia steadied herself, the black fire on her sword blazed brighter, then flared, drinking in the lingering soul energy of the two fallen foes.
[Flam grows a little!]
[Flam EXP 50!]
[Flam EXP 50!]
[Level up! Level 6 → 7!]
[Flam is now Level 7!]
Haha, Flam is leveling up so fast, it’s like we are power leveling her!
And Emilia? She had already reached Level 23! Another level-up added to her strength.
Emilia grinned, her hand trembling faintly as she gazed at it with an expression of renewed confidence. She must have seen her own system notification too. Probably...
Suddenly—
[Ding! You have level up! Level 1→2!]
[You are now level 2!]
For a mont, Mimi froze in disbelief.
Then—
OH YEAAAAHHHH!
She let out a joyous ow. At long last, she had leveled up!
So her hypothesis was correct!
Since in combat, only those who contribute would receive a share of EXP. Flam’s combat contribution had actually flowed into Mimi!
Haha! Mimi had finally found a way to beat the system!
Though... it was still painfully limited. Her curse still cut down 99% of her EXP gain.
"Let’s see... Five Enhanced Death Bears or Wolves gave 100 EXP, huh? That ans each one normally gives around 2000 EXP! That’s insane—considering a normal, un-enhanced Death Bear only gives about 500 EXP if I assu my contribution factor is 50%..."
Mimi’s gaze lingered on the mangled corpses, her fur bristling.
Deadly, relentless, terrifying as they were... these monsters were also... a goldmine of EXP farming!
Suddenly...
"Hey, Mimi..." Emilia whispered. "Now I’m thinking... maybe we don’t even need to go to Duskwald. Not yet."
Oh?
Mimi tilted her head, ears perking.
Then she saw it—Master’s eyes. They glead with a faint, almost feverish light. Her grin curled just a little too wide, a little too wild. Though Emilia tried to suppress it, Mimi could feel the tremor in her hand, the restless excitent in her chest, pulsing through their bond.
I see...
So Master must have realized it too.
This event... the Blood Moon and the Blood Rain. At first, it seed like a disaster, a curse that dood them. But now... it revealed itself as a hidden blessing. A chance wrapped in blood.
If they could slaughter more of these monsters, Emilia’s strength would skyrocket. They could level up like crazy—growth that would normally take months or even years to achieve. This was a once-in-a-lifeti opportunity.
But the risk... oh, the risk was imnse.
Soon, they wouldn’t just be facing three or four monsters at a ti. Soon, waves of undead would co crashing down upon them in endless tides. When that happened, Emilia would be standing alone against a horde. And at that point, if she faltered even once, it would all spiral out of control, and at that point of no returns, only death awaits.
It was a gamble—
Survive, and they would ascend, gaining terrifying new power.
Fail, and they would die here. Torn apart. Devoured alive.
Emilia looked down, her hand stroking Mimi’s soft fur. Her grin widened, her voice low and trembling with barely-contained thrill.
"I can feel it. You’re getting excited too, aren’t you?"
"ow!" Mimi answered without hesitation.
Emilia chuckled softly, eyes burning like fire.
"So... what’s it going to be? Do we stay here and fight—grind for power while risking our lives? Or do we play it safe, head for Duskwald, and take shelter? I’ll leave it to you, Mimi. ow once, and we stay. ow twice, and we continue to Duskwald."
A mont of silence...
The two spoke only through their eyes, their heartbeats syncing, their breaths falling into the sa rhythm. On Emilia’s blade, Flam burned fiercely, its black fire pulsing like a living thing.
Well... given that both Master and cat were battle junkies and hopeless high-risk takers... this was inevitable.
"OW!" Mimi cried out confidently!
"ALRIGHT! THAT’S MY MIMI!" Emilia bead, her voice ringing with pride before bursting into bright, fearless laughter.
She turned back—her grin sharpening—just as five Death Wolves burst out of the shadows, their snarls echoing through the blood-soaked forest as they charged straight at them.
"Flam! Mimi! Are you ready?"
"OW!!"
And so, with a sharp cry, the two threw away their original plan.
Forget Duskwald. Forget safety.
They were staying here.
They were going to fight!
After all, this opportunity was so hard to co by!
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