Kotori who had waited a week for a lizard to spawn had gone off to kill it with Shu and Umi in tow

She cast a mana buff with the help of Umi's mana flow.

Sato Kotori

Race: [Human] Age: 8

HP: 60 (+39!)

Mana: 1/ 21

Agility: 52 (+39!)

Strength: 49 (+39!)

Defense: 46 (+39!)

Karma: -100,009,647

Skills: [Magic Musician], [Hunter], [Desire of Monte Cristo](Removed)

Traits: [Spirit Seer], [Monte Cristo] [MANA BUFF] (TEMPORARY 5:59)

...

Dirt Spirit (Shu)

Race: [Spirit] Age: 2

HP: 54 (+39!)

Mana: 10

Agility: 46 (+39!)

Strength: 44 (+39!)

Defense: 44 (+39!)

Karma: 10

Skills: [Rock Bullet]

Traits: [Earth Spirit] [MANA BUFF] (TEMPORARY 5:59)

...

Water Spirit (Umi)

Race: [Spirit] Age: 0

HP: 49 (+39!)

Mana: 1/20

Agility: 45 (+39!)

Strength: 41 (+39!)

Defense: 44 (+39!)

Karma: 0

Skills: [Water blade] [Mana Flow]

Traits: [Minor Water Spirit] [MANA BUFF] (TEMPORARY 5:59)

After playing her flute, which once again played the stirring orchestral theme Kotori's body seemed to hum with energy and she felt extremely powerful. Shu and Umi had changed appearance. Shu's body had thickened, become rocky, and grown larger than his previous appearance; He looked more like a turtle than the dog he once was. Umi had elongated. Her slippery fur melting away into shimmery scales. She looked like a large great teal snake.

Evidently, both spirits seemed very happy with their appearance. Umi excitedly showed Kotori her beautiful scales and Shu seemed to enjoy his newfound durability.

Then they began to seek out the King Lizard from before.

It wasn't very hard. They only had to look at areas where the animals had run from and follow the source. It wasn't long before they found the king lizard plodding along.

Dungeon monsters had no set purpose and many simple attacks on anything on site. Thus they tended to roam until their mana expired or they were killed.

She quickly checked its status

King Lizard

Race: [Dungeon beast] Age: 0

HP: 102

Mana: 0

Agility:  24

Strength: 68

Defense:  36

Karma: [N/A]

Skills: None

Traits: None

[Nothing seems to be different]

The King Lizard was no different. It plodded around with no rhyme or reason.

Kotori chucked a nearby stone at it. She was surprised to see the stone go rather far and hit the King Lizard squarely on the head. It even seemed to do a little damage based on her observation.

Its eyes immediately turned blood red like all dungeon monsters when it aggroed and began to charge Kotori. Although the beast was fast it only had an agility stat of [24] and thus Kotori with a buffed agility stat of [52] easily dodged out of the way. She felt her head whip to the side and the lizard rumbled past her.

Her body almost seemed to glide away as she misjudged the strength she needed to dodge. She ended up finding herself flying several feet farther than she anticipated. She had completely missed a chance to land a counterattack.

[Whoops, Gotta be careful of my own strength] she thought

This was the first time Kotori had buffed herself to such an extent and was not sure of her own strength.

The lizard ended its charge and clumsily ran around to charge again. Its gangly legs barely manage to stay upright after unexpectedly missing its initial charge. The forest shook with each heavy step.

Roaring, the lizard barreled towards Kotori again.

Kotori leaped away again but this time her timing was slightly late.

[I'm going to get hit!] cursing herself

Indeed Kotory would've been hit except Shu unexpectedly ran in front of Kotori and blocked the charge.

Shu's large Turtle-like body took the full brunt of the lizard's charge. His legs dug into the ground. Sliding, he absorbed the charge with no hesitation. Unfortunately, Shu was still blown away by the overwhelming strength of the lizard. With a strength stat of [68]; the lizard still could easily overcome Shu's defensive stats of [44].

He took a solid chunk of damage and slammed into a nearby tree stunned and dazed. The tree itself was left with a Shu shaped crater marred its bark and had several cracks appearing in it as if it was about to break.

[Sheesh, this lizard is still no joke] Kotori thought

The action Shu took was extremely reckless. It seemed he overestimated his new capabilities and sought to protect Kotori. Still, Kotori put more of the blame on herself; she should've just dodged out of the way faster.

[No more playing] She resolved herself

The lizard ignored Shu and ran at Kotori again. This time as the lizard ran towards her she landed an overhand punch on its head, smashing it to the ground. Without the buff, this hit would feel like a soft breeze to the lizard, but now that Kotori was in her mana buffed state her hit did a solid amount of damage. The lizard who was struck down slipped on the forest floor and landed on the ground with a thud.

Watching it struggling to stand up again, Kotori readied another hit on its head. Just as the lizard's legs gained purchase on the ground and began to stand up. Its head went tumbling down into the dirt with a satisfying crunch sound along the way. Its skull was cracked and its horns were snapped off upon impact.

Leaping back Kotori took a few breaths. The heavy blows were quite tiring to land. She put her whole weight into them and her strength stat still wasn't high enough to be able to land the blows consistently. Even though they would normally snap off her arms it seems in her current state her defensive stats protected her and thus she only felt a dull throb from her knuckles to her elbow.

The lizard screeched in anguished pain. It was shocked at this sudden downturn in its luck, and the realization that its prey was much stronger than it was.

It scrambled along the ground and began to use the downtime between Kotori's punched to run away.

As it ran with blood streaming down its head. Umi quickly slithered beside it and using her body, whipped its legs causing it to trip again. The lizard fell to the ground leaving a small pile of dust in its wake.

Kotori jumped forward and landed another blow to its head. The lizard once again roared in blind rage and pain.

Right before she landed the killing blow Kotori paused.

[What happens if I give it to Umi] It seemed that Kotori stats had stagnated recently and even killing the lizard again wouldn't give her anything meaningful.

She quickly directed Umi to land the killing blow.

Umi seemed to be delighted in the opportunity and quickly used the last bit of her mana to cast as a water blade that gouged the lizard.

The bleeding lizard gave one more pathetic roar and collapsed into a heap on the ground

Kotori looked at the dead lizard. She was proud of how far she had come and felt an extreme sense of purpose.

She heard a voice in her head and a console prompt appearing

"[Hunter] skill activated, begin absorption of unstable mana element?"

[Yes/No]

Bewildered by the voice Kotori selected Yes

[What could this mean?] she thought as the skill began to take effect