Chapter 63 – Alicia’s Growth (1/2)

The three of us continued on through the dungeon, speeding our way past the weak monsters while I looked forward to facing off against something strong or unusual. It had been quite a long time since I had been challenged, and I didn't count that hydra as one considering the state I was in.

<High Orc Warrior level 73, Captain level 78, and Bruiser level 72. The captain has [Leadership III], but otherwise there are no remarkable skills.>

Alicia's voice reverberated in my head while the monsters' stat pages appeared in the corner of my vision. Ever since Alicia discovered she could use [Scan], she had started practising its use, and as soon as she could started to give me combat advice however she could.

At first it took quite some time for her to find the section to display the monster's status. Part of it was my fault, as I just flew past all the mobs and only engaged the bosses because I had to. Even then I generally just took them out with a simple shot of magic.

For the first six floors, that was basically all I did. But when I got distracted admiring the shape and colour of a red leaf that was falling from above, a lone orc started charging at me in the autumn forest themed boss room. Out of nowhere, a window of the monster's stats opened up front in centre of my view.

<I did it! It's an Orc Fighter!>

Of course it was blocking my view of the boss. Not like it was really a problem for me when the opponent was so low level. Just feeling its presence, I gauged the distance it was from me, and simply sidestepped out of the way when it got within striking range. As I could at least see its club from beyond the edge of the status window, it wasn't a problem predicting the direction of its swing.

<Umm, so its level is 36, and its HP is really high, but doesn't have much MP. Strength and constitution is also really high at...>

<I can see it so you don't have to tell me all of it.>

<Oh, right, I already sent it to you.>

<You did.>

She had, and it was still blocking my view of the monster. But for the first time, I knew what I was fighting before actually taking it on. Even if I had let it charge at me with its overbearingly ponderous steps.

In fact, she was able to locate and snip out its status page much faster than I could've found it. It was only then that I realized that she must've been quietly practising it with the monsters we were encountering along the way.

<I gotta say, this is pretty impressive.>

<Really?>

<Yea, at the very least, I couldn't have done it myself, at least not so fast.>

<Yay! Hehehe.>

<Congratulations Alicia!>

<And while the monsters so far are too weak to be much of an issue, this information would be really handy in a tough fight, especially since I wouldn't have the leeway to find it on my own.>

heheh. I'll make sure to practice a whole ton and do my best then!>

<Just, see if you can make the information show up in the corner of my view. If it shows up in the middle against something strong, we'd be in a ton of trouble.>

<Oh, ah, alright.>

With that little acknowledgement, that was exactly what she had done. By the time we reached the 18th floor, she was able to make the status screen show up somewhere convenient within moments of encountering a monster. Even for the ones I avoided, as long as I looked at it for more than a split second, Alicia was able to show me its information at will.

It made me wonder if the lack of a physical body made it easier for her to concentrate her entire being into that single task, allowing her to do it so quickly and efficiently.

But not only was she fast and efficient, but she learned to cut out unimportant information, and presented me only the things she felt were important for me to know. For example, if a monster was armed with a weapon, I didn't need to know its skill in that weapon or weapons it didn't have, unless if there was a special reason to know like the skill being unusually high ranked, or could be used to surprise me if the fight lasted long enough.

Not only that, but she had started to tell me the most relevant information so that I only needed to glance at the monsters' status page if I wanted to get more information. Even though it was against monsters that I didn't need even the slightest amount of help with, I had no doubt that the ability to get that sort of information was tremendously useful, and would probably save my life sometime in the future.

Going back, as I looked at the high orcs in front of me, I was reminded of the taste of their blood I had back home. Last time I had any it was still quite delicious, so before I knew it, I was licking my lips.

The three high orcs came charging at me with the captain waiving a crude stone axe as long as I was tall while roaring. While whatever it yelled was incomprehensible to me, it seemed to be understandable enough for the other two orcs, and their charge increased in speed and ferocity. Most likely, a part of it was due to the captain's [Leadership] skill. The warrior held a smaller stone axe up high while holding the broken trunk of a tree in the other in front of it, while the bruiser held both hands in front of it like a crude mockery of a boxer's pose. In place of boxing gloves, the bruiser had stone slabs held in place on its knuckles with dirty looking strips of some animal's hide.

Being lighter, the bruiser reached me first and swung with its fist. Faster or not thought, it was still slow to me, and trivial to duck under the big and heavy fist. Kicking out a foot, I shattered its ankle, causing the large green-skinned brute to topple like a felled tree.

Even before the bruiser hit the ground, I moved to the warrior. It tried to swing down its axe in panic, but I simply stepped inside of its swing, then with a light hop, I brought myself in range of the orc's neck and bit down, sucking hard to fill myself as fast as I could.

The high orc tried to swing its weapon at me a second time, but due to being inside its range, it was unable to land a hit with the heavy blade, and instead bopped my back with the hilt. Realizing that I was too close to use its weapon effectively, the monster dropped its weapon and log, and instead tried to punch me off of it. But by that point, I had sucked enough blood out that it couldn't bear its full strength and its slow movements felt more like it was just teasing rather than actually trying to hurt me.

After two tries, the high orc warrior was too weak to stay on its feet, and limply fell to its knees.

<Ah! Scarlet! Behind you!>

Already aware of it without Alicia's warning, I simply let go of the warrior and let gravity take me as a massive fist flew, or rather sauntered, over my head, dryly smashing into the orc warrior's chest. Despite the monster's chest bursting open from the impact, the lack of blood in the body prevented it from splattering in all directions and instead its chest caved inwards, leaving a crater from the impact.

As the bruiser pulled back in frustration, I took advantage of the opening and pushed off of the long dead orc, sliding across the floor between the bruiser's legs. Unfortunately I got a face full of unwashed unmentionables forcing me to suppress the urge to hurl.

I hoped it wouldn't negatively effect Alicia's upbringing.

Pushing myself off of the ground, I leaped up and spun around before biting into the second high orc's neck, quickly draining it as it tried to grasp over its shoulder to pull me off. Within moments, the monster's efforts grew weak and in a few seconds it too fell lifelessly to its knees before toppling over entirely as I kicked off of its back.

Last, and while not least, certainly not very impressive, the high orc captain roared in fury. As its delay when it gave the other two instructions forced it to get a late start and was now all alone before it even got within melee range.

The captain swung its weapon with all its strength, but I simply sidestepped the wild swing, slightly annoyed at all the dirt that was sent flying and pattered against my robes as the stone weapon created a small crater in the grassy dirt. Without slowing down, I shifted towards and around the orc as it tried to follow up its attack with a quick back swing, but by the time it raised its weapon over its shoulder again, I was already behind it, and simply hopped up, a bit higher than with the previous orcs, and bit into its neck, quickly draining it as it thrashed around, trying to dislodge me.

Soon, I was the last one standing, as the high orc captain's body lifelessly collapsed onto the ground.

<Thanks for the warning Alicia.>

hehe. No problem!>

As the monster bodies disappeared, I grabbed the drops. Unlike the beginning, the drops might have been worth a decent amount of money, or had special uses that I wasn't aware of, so even things that I wasn't aware of its use went into my bag.

<Umm, so it's an earth mana crystal and high orc meat from the warrior, another earth mana crystal and high orc tusks from the bruiser, and again an earth mana crystal from the captain.>

As I picked each up item the monsters had dropped, Alicia identified them all swiftly. Having her do that was quite convenient as it was too much effort for me to bother doing on my own, and the results were quite useful. I had found something truly convenient more than once. For example, a vial of a dark green liquid ended up being a form of healing potion, or a spear had a fire enchantment on it. Not like I'd use either, but it was something that I was really appreciative to know at least.

Not least of all, Alicia really enjoyed identifying the items as well. The joy in her voice every time she did it made it hard to avoid smiling all the time.

The last item I picked up was a pair of meaty orbs, roughly as big as tennis balls. For a moment I thought they might be kidneys, but they weren't quite the right shape and most likely far too small for a creature as big as that high orc captain.

<Scarlet, what's a testicle?>

<Huh?! Where did that come from?!>

My mouth gaped open as the unexpected question came.

<Apparently those are high orc testicles, but what are testicles?>

<They're what?!>

I immediately dropped them and jumped back to make some distance. I could still feel their weight and squishyness in my hand, and it almost felt like my hand was soiled. Without a moment to lose, I conjured up a ball of water and rubbed my hands in it. Then I took out a bar of soap and scrubbed my hands as thoroughly as I could as I repeatedly rinsed and rewashed them.

In the end, I used up half the bar before I was even remotely satisfied.

<Are you alright Scarlet?>

<Ah, umm, yea, I am.>

<Really? What happened?>

<Ah, no, it's nothing. Just...no, it's nothing.>

<Umm, if you say so.>

It really wasn't something I wanted to explain. Even starting to would open an endless can of worms filled with things that was way too early for Alicia to know.

<So, umm, those things, it says that those things enhance fertility and virility.>

<No! It's okay now Alicia! You don't need to read anymore! I know enough already!>

<Master! That sounds great! Wouldn't those things be perfect to help achieve your dream?>

<Really? Then you should pick them up Scarlet! If it's so important for you, you shouldn't be dropping them!>

I glared at the dark spirit.

(I thought you were my ally!)

<Scarlet! Hurry! hurry! You don't want them to be taken by the dungeon right?>

<Umm, yea.>

All I could do was sigh as I used magic to float the orc testicles over and dropped them into my bag, careful to avoid touching them.

<Master! With this, you're one more step closer to being able to give birth to Alicia's new body!>

<Really? It's used for that?>

<I think so! Don't forget Master! You need to eat them entirely to maximize the effects!>

<That's right Scarlet! For the sake of becoming my mommy, you need to eat every bite of it when it's time!>