-Stephen Richards

The feeling of using the second stage technique was just as intense as with the first stage, if not more so. The same warmth washed over John, Mithra was enveloped in a golden light, and as she vanished John felt the world begin to slow down.

More than the Agility increase he got when using the first stage, it was an abrupt increase of one of his mental stats, or perhaps a combination of them, that must have been giving him this sensation. It was as if a wave washed over his body and then outward across the world, slowing time and giving him a more perfect vision of everything. Even his own breathing felt slow, and he had to adapt to the sensation. Looking around he saw Mithra was completely gone, but he had no memento of her form. Worrying at first, John started to twist and turn, seeing if the Neko had left some trace he wasn't immediately seeing.

Then he heard the voice.

"Woooooah, Myaster, this is so weird! Don't turn your head so fast, Myaster! Making Mithra so diiizzzyyyy…"

The voice was coming from everywhere and nowhere. It was as if it started in John's skull and only reverberated within. The sensation was a bit like hearing his internal thoughts, but louder and more… real. More real, more unusual, and certainly more disturbing, though he tried to move past that.

"M-Mithra?"

"Of course it's Mithra, Myaster! You said Mithra would be in your head, right? Let's go fight! Mithra's not sure what to do, but we can take them no problem!"

"You alrigh', Mastah?" Seras asked, cocking her head to the side as she met John's gaze. "Is it a bit different 'avin' someone awake in there during the 'ole thing?"

"A… a bit, yeah," John mumbled, shaking his head. He tried to orient himself more properly, get used to things. On the plus side, when Seras had spoken, John hadn't heard it in a slowed manner. It seemed like his mind could adapt and take things in at the proper pace depending on threat and speed - he wasn't that surprised; his stats didn’t increase that much by adding Mithra’s, he'd just never had such an abrupt and drastic increase all at once to his Intelligence and Wisdom. Even his Siphon ability was more limited in scope, and he usually used that for physical attributes.

"Is Myaster not happy Mithra is here? Mithra could go to sleep if it helps Myaster, Mithra loooooves catnaps," Mithra said within the confines of John's mind, and John imagined her stretching her back like a proper cat as she said it.

"Mithra, can you hear me?" John thought, keeping his words internal this time.

"Sure can!"

John chuckled a bit, shaking his head. "You don't need to take a nap, Mithra. I'm just… getting used to all this. I wish I could have done this earlier, you seem a lot more talkative in here."

"Mithra thinks a lot. Mithra just doesn't talk a lot."

"I hope I can get to know you a little better by doing this," John thought genuinely, surprised at how much the Neko was talking to him. She'd gotten far more vocal lately, but he was still happy to see how quickly she was adjusting to what was probably a very strange experience. "But we don't have much time. You don't have to fall asleep; if anything, I want to see how we can work together. Are you ready to train?"

"Mithra is always ready!"

"Alright everyone, we're all set. We've got…" John checked his character sheet for confirmation. Thanks to all the grinding over the past few hours, he had ticked up another level, finally back to level 16 again following his prior Reincarnation. "A little under sixteen minutes for this next dungeon run. Let's make it count!"

John conjured the Barrier before waiting any longer. Sophia's health was dwindling a bit, so as the new Dungeon Barrier formed around them, John took advantage of the added mana from Mithra to heal up Sophia as much as he could. Seras and he were still in surprisingly good shape, with Seras' impressive raw power and John's new blade doing a significant amount of work against the lower-level golems.

After the tunnel formed before them, John led the way. He wanted to test out this technique before it wore off, and the sound of distant, heavy footsteps told him that he had ample opportunities. John held the blade in his hands and tried to remember what the technique had said.

"I can't use claws or fangs like the Nekos, so those don't help me. I can use some hand-to-hand skills, but with this blade I don't really need to. Hey Mithra, any skills you think might be useful in fighting enemies that don't need me to be a Neko?"

"Ummmm, you could play with them? Mithra looooooves playing!"

"I don't… that doesn't sound very useful," John thought as he charged further down the hallway, Seras followed closely behind with a torch to light the dark corridors.

"No, Myaster, not play like Mithra plays with Myaster and Maera! Play with them like with food! Trust Mithra, just try!"

"I'm not really sure how to…"

John wanted to voice his uncertainty, but as the first of the arcane golems came into view, he had a very foreign, very unusual, but somehow very certain understanding of exactly what Mithra meant. The golem saw John around the same time and started to raise its fist to strike him. A wicked grin started to cross John's face… and once more, time started to slow down.

The fist hit stone, missing John by millimeters when it struck the floor. Instead of diving out of the way and counterattacking as he normally would, John only stepped back enough to avoid the blow, feeling shards of shattered stone rain across his body as he charged directly toward the outstretched arm, running up it with glee. Keeping his balance was a bit unusual, but Mithra's memories and skills were used to strange situations and dealing with abnormally shaped foes and terrain. John leaned a little heavier on them, and felt things slow down as he played around the stony foe he was facing.

By the time the golem had lifted its arm and tried to grasp at his body, he was already swinging around the neck of the creature. His arm wrapped around the rock that formed the creature's "head" as he looped under its distant shoulder and continued the motion until he reached the front of its torso. John pulled back his right arm and struck inward with his hand, aiming at the golem's core.

37 DMG!
-1 HP!

Striking his fist against the golem's innards stung, but only for an instant, the golem's rocky core cracking and breaking under the pressure he applied. The creature shifted and reached for him with both hands, but by the time that they reached its chest, John had flipped end-over-end, letting gravity do its work as he latched onto the golem's codpiece and used it to flip between the golem's legs, landing on its backside while still upside-down. John's legs found their purchase amidst the pseudo-spinal column of smaller rocks, lodging him in place as he straightened the point of his blade toward the golem's core and then struck with utmost precision.

Critical Hit! 229 DMG!

John leapt free of the crumbling mass of rock before his head slammed into the cave floor, letting the shattered golem core fade slowly as he righted himself on the ground and recovered. Despite his acrobatics he was not disoriented, and had no lingering nausea or vertigo from the rapid movements. Instead, he was already turning down the far wall, toward where he heard another foe.

"Yay, Myaster knows how to play! Mithra loves playing with her food!"

John smiled in a wicked way. Mithra had never sounded so vicious, but she was right. This was a new way of fighting, this was an unpredictable, feral style of latching onto an opponent and striking them down when they were bigger. He was certain it would be similar, although using the environment more, if the enemy was the same size - he'd seen Maera do that many times before. Most impressively, the difference between John's stature and Mithra's lithe, compact form didn't seem to matter. He had her skill with movement, but it felt as natural for him to use as it must have for her. It would still affect the actual physics, he couldn't do quite as much as the skinny Neko, but at least he wasn't stumbling around off-balance with his extra weight and dimensions.

"This is powerful!"

"More importantly, this is funnnnn!"

Sadly, John's enthusiasm for his new style and confidence in movement was incapable of halting the ever-moving clock of his ability's timer. John tackled two full dungeons and was halfway through a third before Mithra split from him in a most violent manner. Mid-combat the ability separated his physical and mental link in a very abrupt way, sending Mithra to the floor of the cave while he was still in the middle of wrapping himself around the leg of one of the golems to strike upward toward its core. His sword struck, but John over extended and the movement caused him to lose his grip on the creature's leg. John fell to the ground with stone raining down on top of and around him.

"Well… wasn't expecting that," John grumbled, crawling to his feet. Mithra had, of course, managed to land on hers and was already offering her hand to John to help him up.

"Myaster, Mithra feels greeaaaat. So glad to be with you." Out in the real world again instead of John’s mental one, Mithra seemed to be back to her normally reserved self, her voice calm despite the situation and the excitement. Before they got underway again, though, John checked Mithra's experience bar.

Unfortunately, she was still only level 8, and that was after levelling from the earlier golems John and the rest of the party had worked on. He had gained a ton of Creation Experience, but he hadn't used any of it yet. It was so tempting to just hoard the stuff, save it for when he really needed it, since it could be applied in an instant. He hadn't convinced himself to spend any in quite a long while. He had enough to take her to a level that she could inflict some real damage - honestly, he had enough that he could take her up to past Sophia's level… but it wasn't quite worthwhile to spend all that just for a training session. Still, Mithra would've been sad if she was **** out of their grinding session just because she'd been pregnant for the last month and missed so much training.

"One second, Mithra… the enemies here are pretty tough, I'm gonna give you some power, okay?"

John put a hand on Mithra's cheek to comfort her as he started applying the Creation EXP. He took himself all the way down to an even 20,000, still a daunting number but giving him enough wiggle room to take Mithra all the way up to level 11.

Mithra has gained levels! Mithra's Level increased from 8 to 11!
+9 to all stats
+9 Growth Points

John wanted to throw all her new points into Endurance to take no chances, but as long as Mithra stayed with him, he would protect her. He would always protect her. So he **** himself to spread the points a bit more practically, with three going into each of her physical stats. Mithra was still two levels behind the golems, but he wasn't as worried about her being completely overpowered.

"How are you feeling now?" John asked, ruffling her hair.

Mithra jittered in place, her whole body starting to quiver before she rocketed upwards, nearly smacking John's head with her own as she started to frantically jump in place.

"Mithra feels amazing! Myaster so cool! Mithra gonna fight, fight, fiiiight!"

Mithra started dashing down the hall, giggling at her new speed. Apparently "reserved" didn't matter much when you got flooded with magical power overload… not that he could say he didn't feel the same every time he got a new level.

Jogging after her, knowing the mini-boss of the dungeon would surely spawn soon if Seras and Sophia were out clearing their way through golems too, John checked his inventory while running.

Enchanted Pebbles: 7

"Jeez, she really wasn't kidding about them being a rare crafting drop," John grumbled. "This is gonna take days, and we pretty much dedicated the entire morning and most of the afternoon already…"

John would make sure that this was their last excursion for the day, though. He had the drone to contact the Order, but John wanted to go back to the Order barracks long enough to make sure he hadn't missed any messages from Kim, or his mother, and he was absolutely starving.

Still, between the new technique and having his full family back in fighting shape… John felt confident in calling this a day well spent.