Chimera Rising: Beast King Ascension [How a human-turned-lion went from Zero to Absolute Ruler]

'The individual insects were not too difficult,' Procyon told Dominic as they made their way back to the centre.

Both amesheks were being given the cold shoulder by Nyx now that she'd expressed both her relief that they had returned as well as her dissatisfaction that they had entered the dungeon when they knew that they were supposed to be guarding the territory and other Pride members. She hadn't hesitated in telling them that their actions had led to the deaths of several cubs, even if Dominic thought that that might have been a bit harsh – there was no guarantee that the cubs would have survived if they'd been present. Though there was a much higher chance that they would have. The two amesheks had taken the news with guilt and sorrow – Dominic suspected that they would be very careful around dungeons in the future. Which, he supposed, was Nyx's objective.

The leader of the amesheks in question was padding close to Dominic on the opposite side of him from where the male amesheks were trotting. Sekhmet was also sticking close to him, separating Dominic from the two male amesheks. Jenkins, on the other hand, was practising her flight up above, staying in contact with them through the Pride chat.

Procyon continued describing the amesheks' experience in the dungeon. 'Their armour was hard to bite through, but they proved vulnerable to our howls. Those become tiring after a while, though, and the problem was that when we attacked one insect, others would quickly come to investigate. It meant that we had to very quickly kill the insect we were dealing with and then clear out of the way quickly. And there were certain insects which were able to mark us with an unpleasant scent which would last a while. During the time the scent was active, insects would come from further away to kill us.'

'But the worst was the final cave with the biggest insects,' added Sirius. 'They were fast and strong and there were several of them. And the biggest insect, while not much of a fighter, was a healer and had some sort of power to make the other insects even stronger or faster. We succeeded several times but it was hard.'

'Stronger or faster – they weren't both?'

'No. Some insects became stronger; others became faster. The slightly bigger ones tended to become stronger, and the smaller ones faster, though there were times when it was the opposite.'

'Buffs of some sort?' Dominic commented quietly to Leo. 'And perhaps for the most part based on the type of insect?'

'Seems like it,' the lion grunted.

Dominic returned his attention to the two amesheks. 'Alright, thanks for that. Was there a limit on how many could enter the dungeon, do you know?'

The two amesheks considered that for a moment.

'I did not feel any restriction, not like in the previous dungeon,' Procyon offered. Sirius disagreed slightly.

'I think we could have taken in more but I don't think that we could have brought in the whole Pride.'

While that was still pretty vague, at least it gave Dominic more of an idea. And if they could bring numbers against numbers, this dungeon might be more feasible for lower levels than he'd feared. As it was, if it had posed even some difficulty for the level 26 and 27 amesheks, sending in beasts below level 10 would probably be tantamount to a death sentence unless they were escorted by higher levels. Maybe before he opened the dungeon to others diving it, he should explore it for himself – then he would have a better idea of what exactly they would be facing. And he could also see if they had any good Cores.

'Alright,' Dominic said again. 'And you haven't found any sign of the other dungeon that's due to be opening up in the forest?'

Both amesheks replied in the negative. Dominic huffed out a sigh – it was a pity. But he was sure they'd find it eventually. Hopefully not before it reached F-rank and became too difficult to be a beginner's dungeon, anyway. Or perhaps he needed to realise that the dungeons might be too difficult to use as he had himself, and build that into his plans.

If Procyon and Sirius took a party of their youngest and weakest Pride members into the dungeon, it would give the youngsters Prey Points while not putting them too much at risk. And he already knew that the dungeon reset itself quite quickly and that it was possible to stay in the caves and wait for the mobs to respawn. Or were there queens that spawned them organically instead of it being true dungeon mechanics?

The more he thought about it, the more he liked the idea. Plus, it was a perfect punishment for entering the dungeon when they shouldn't have and leaving the centre unguarded.

Reaching the centre didn't take too long and soon enough the two male amesheks were practically being mobbed by the others, though Dominic was surprised to see that a couple of the lionesses passed by to scold and snap at the amesheks too – one with her claws as well. When he recognised who the lionesses were, though, he realised that they were the mothers who had been left behind to guard the Place of Power – and who had lost cubs to the invaders in the amesheks' absence. He watched them warily, hoping that the amesheks weren't about to get mauled by angry lionesses, but saw that the others around were keeping it relatively calm. Both amesheks were already bleeding, but with their access to healing, that wasn't too awful as a punishment for their carelessness.

He took a few minutes to deal with the issues that had come up in his absence – nothing too noteworthy, fortunately – and then headed for the barrier now surrounding the Place of Power.

'What are you doing?' Sekhmet asked him through the Pride chat and Dominic was aware of several others looking at him. The attention made him feel a bit uneasy.

'I'm going to finally level up,' he told her privately. 'I don't know what is going to happen exactly so I'm going to do it under the barrier.'

'What barrier?' Sekhmet asked in confusion.

'Oh – one of the things I bought from the elves. It's made a barrier over the stone at the base of the tree,' Dominic explained. 'Just in case something happens that makes me vulnerable, I would prefer to level up under it.'

'I'm coming,' she announced immediately after, walking over to join him. 'If something happens, I will help.'

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'Alright, thanks,' Dominic agreed after a moment, hoping that whatever transformation might happen, she wouldn't think that he looked delicious afterwards – or like a threat. At least, not in any other way than normal, that was. He hesitated, but decided to add Sekhmet to the allowed list – that made a maximum of people he could add and answered his question about whether he counted as one of the three: he didn't.

Heading inside the barrier, Sekhmet lay down just outside it, facing away. Jenkins flicked her wings and soared over the distance between them. She landed with a small stumble but quickly perked up afterwards. Dominic eyed the rest of the Pride members who he could see through the arching roots – hopefully they wouldn't take Jenkins' example and come to join.

'What are we doing?' she asked curiously. Dominic just let Sekhmet answer.

'Dominic is growing in strength. I am guarding.'

'Why?' Jenkins asked, clearly mystified as to why Dominic would need a guard for something so normal as 'growing in strength'. Dominic chose to tune out of the conversation and instead called up the option to level up with a flutter of butterflies in his stomach.

'Ready?' he asked his ever-present companion.

'It is something we must face if we are to be the greatest Beast Lord ever,' Leo replied with more than a little fatalism. Clearly he was as nervous as Dominic was.

[Congratulations! You have reached your second half-step tier. As a reward for reaching this milestone, you may choose two extra options to enhance. The System will then choose a further two Aspects to enhance. Reach further milestones to gain greater rewards. Which Aspects of yourself would you like to enhance?]

Dominic had mostly been expecting that, though definitely hoped that that wasn't all there was to it. After waiting for so long to level up, if all that happened was that he got a couple of extra perks on level up, he would be highly disappointed. Though it was interesting that the System indicated that he'd actually get four extra perks in addition to his usual, even if he could only choose two.

'Do you think the System will choose them at random, or based on what we've previously chosen?' Dominic asked Leo even as he considered the advantages and disadvantages of going in whole hog on their Mana Heart and Soul.

'I have no idea,' Leo answered shortly. 'If it is like when we reached Tier two, it will be based on our fighting style.'

'Which seems likely,' Dominic replied thoughtfully. 'After all, what kind of reward is it if the System gives someone something they'll never use?'

'Unless it's intended to make those who have focussed purely on certain characteristics reconsider their approach,' suggested Leo, sending an image of their 'little brother' and the way he'd left glaring weaknesses in his strategy.

'I suppose,' Dominic agreed after a moment. 'Well, since we don't know what the decision is based on, we can't make a strategy around it. But we can consider where we're going to put the four perks that we can choose. I've been thinking –'

'Dangerous,' Leo commented.

'Shut up. What if we put all of them into Mana Heart? No, hear me out first,' he hurried to say when Leo seemed about to interrupt him again. 'I know it's putting all our eggs in one basket. I know that we could put them in speed or defenses or whatever, but I think that our mana pool is our weakest link at this point. Mana regeneration isn't great either, but we have a new way of replenishing that now with the potions, and we've seen that some carcasses even give us mana back too. But the amount we can hold at one time is really constraining both how many spells we can cast and the effect of spells like Lightning Discharge which depends on how much mana we assign to it.

'Now,' he continued, still not giving Leo the chance to get a word in edgewise. 'We've seen that adding a perk into Mana Heart gives us both more mana and reduces the penalty we suffer to the pool. And it seems like it reduces the penalty by greater amounts each time. Which means that each perk we put into it is worth more than the previous one. If we put four perks into it now, we might even clear the penalty entirely, depending on how much it reduces each time. Besides, we agreed before that we'd put perks into Mana Heart and Soul until they were all healed so it's really nothing new. Right?'

'Oh, now you want me to speak?' Leo demanded irritably, but he didn't maintain his ire for too long. 'It is a risk, but no more than we've done before. And it might mean that those spells you decided to waste our Challenge Credits on will actually be useful,' he added thoughtfully.

Dominic sent him an exasperated eyeroll.

'Alright, so four perks into Mana Heart it is.' He made his choice.

[You have chosen to enhance your Mana Heart alone. Apply changes?]

'Yes.'

Pleasure rolled through him and he rumbled happily even as it was accompanied by an odd feverish sensation that both heated and chilled him at the same time. Since he wasn't taking any new Abilities which required him to change his form, for once there was no pain. Knowing how rare that was, Dominic luxuriated in the pleasant level up for once even if the sense of a fever wasn't completely comfortable.

When it cleared away, Dominic checked his Aspects, curious to see what the System had chosen for him – he hadn't felt anything conclusive from the level up.

Scanning down the list for changes, he immediately noticed the three Aspects which had been affected.

- Brain level 7 -> 8 (Cognition speed standard measurement 8.5), (Perception processing speed standard measurement 6) (Concentration standard measurement 3 -> 3.5)

- Mana Heart level 3 -> 7 (47 -> 330 MP) - 67% -> 0% penalty

- Nervous System level 6 -> 7 (reaction speed +110% -> 130%)

'Interesting – it seems to have picked our highest level Aspects,' Dominic remarked to Leo.

'Though it gave us something new with our Brain,' Leo noted.

'Concentration? Is this the System telling me that I'm bad at focussing and need to get better?'

'I could tell you that – you constantly get distracted ,' Leo scoffed.

'Like you're any better, Mr 'As soon as a lioness in heat walks past me I lose all sense of anything else I should be doing',' Dominic retorted. 'Anyway,' he continued realising that they were getting distracted again – and proving the System right. 'I was right,' he told the lion proudly. 'Putting all four perks into Mana Heart was enough to get rid of the penalty completely. And look at how much mana we have access to now!'

'That does look more useful,' Leo allowed. 'And improving our reactions is always useful – we're still struggling to fully use our full speed in battle. We should have been able to match that crazy rabbit leader and not have been on the back paw at all, speed-dedicated or not.'

'True,' Dominic admitted. He closed his status which caused another notification to pop up. This was the one he had been hoping for – and dreading.

[You have made progress in the quest: Regain what is Lost. Receive rewards?]