Danmachi: Scavenger

"Haah," Rex sighed as he slowed from a run to a walk. He was currently on the ninth floor, and the three little helpers he had traveled with from the twelfth floor to the tenth were nowhere to be seen. 

He had made his escape on the tenth floor when they got into a fight with a group of imps and a bad bat. While they were distracted, he took the opportunity to slip away. It wasn't that they couldn't handle the situation—he knew that much after glancing at their stats, which were… interesting. 

Especially the fox's, but that was a thought for another time. After escaping, he had made his way to the ninth floor and immediately had to fend off five killer ants. However, he dealt with them easily, as even in his injured state, he still outclassed them by a significant margin. In fact, he wasn't even injured anymore.

During the fifteen minutes he had spent walking with the girls, he had been using his magic periodically whenever his mind regenerated. Now, the only remnants of his injuries—if you could even call them that—were his bald head, ears, and tail, and the multiple scars scattered across his body, leftovers from the third-degree burns and claw attacks he had endured. Even those burn scars were healing as he continued to use his magic.

Technically, he was back in full condition, but he was far from his peak. The mental exhaustion weighed heavily on him. 'I need to sleep, man,' he thought, massaging the bridge of his nose. He literally had to force himself to stay awake in the dungeon. It seemed that healing himself didn't just drain his mind, but also his physical and mental strength, leaving him with barely any energy to spare.

Unfortunately, he couldn't just leave the dungeon as he was. If he went up now, one gust of wind, and the world would see everything he had to offer, so, he was currently on the hunt for a dead body to strip for clothes. Yes, it was evil and disgusting, but it wasn't like he could just walk up to a random adventurer and say;

'Ayo, give me your pants or face your doom!' or something along those lines. Even a skirt would do... 

"Let's just do this," He mumbled, removing his cloak-dress and wearing it like a ragged shirt that reached down to his ankles, tying it around his waist and his utility belt above it. "It's not like I will be the only shirtless male adventurer," he shrugged.

No one would bat an eye at a shirtless chienthrope wearing a skirt and boots, and just as he had predicted, no one paid him much attention as he climbed out of the dungeon. To them, it was just another day, and even the burn scars around his body didn't make him stand out much. He was just another adventurer.

With his bag in hand, Rex made his way back to Chandra. He took a quick shower before heading straight to bed with only boxers, not even having the mental strength to eat. He was about to drift off when he suddenly sat back up, crossing his legs.

'If I sleep without fully healing the scars on my body,' He looked down at his arm and his bare chest, 'they would undoubtedly become permanent.'

As much as people liked to say 'scars are cool,' that sentiment only applied to anime or fictional characters. In reality, scars on a human body looked disgusting, especially third-degree burn scars. He didn't want those littering his body.

"Time for closed-door cultivation," Rex thought, closing his eyes and activating his magic in his heart. While his magic worked to heal his body, he decided to try meditating to regenerate his mind.

He had never tried meditation before, but after a few seconds, he found it wasn't particularly difficult. It was similar to resting your body to regain stamina, except this time, he was resting his mind. So, while he used his mind to create the Blue Papilio Powder to heal his body, he meditated to regenerate his mental energy.

It was a 'simple' task of multitasking—something that 'everyone' and 'anyone' should be able to do.

An hour in, all the scars on his body had healed, and he was as good as new. Even the hair on his head and the fur on his ears and tail had regenerated. However, he didn't lay down to sleep. Instead, though he stopped using his magic, he remained in that meditative state because he had entered a 'trance.'

Technically, he was now asleep, but he remained fully aware of his body and the world around him, as if he were awake. And in this state, it only took him four hours to feel fully rested, instead of the six to eight hours it would have taken him otherwise.

He opened his eyes and stretched his arms over his head with a groan, feeling the best he had in years. "Damn, that was nice," he mumbled as he laid back down on his bed to stretch some more. "Was that 'reverie'?"

Reverie is a state of sleep that elves in D&D enter. It was exactly like what he had experienced—a state of meditation that refreshed the elves' bodies and minds, similar to sleep, but they remained aware of the outside world. 

"Yeah, I definitely achieved reverie," he mumbled, staring at the ceiling. "This world really is fascinating. I don't think I've really taken the time to digest the fact that there's magic in this world." 

If he didn't have memories that made it seem like he had lived in this world his entire life, he would have been more fascinated than he was now. A part of him was angry that he didn't get to experience the 'fascination' of being in a fantasy world where gods walk among men. 

'Whatever.' He shrugged, deciding it was time to take stock of everything he had gained. 

Apart from the dragon scales, he had accepted everything else. As much as he liked the idea of having dragon scales and becoming a 'dragonborn,' it would be extremely stupid for him to accept it. He would 100% be treated as a monster and killed. If it had been a 'transformation based' physical property like the claw, he would have taken it.

'Then, there's the claw,' he thought, raising both hands above him in front of his face. 

With a thought, the veins along the back of his hands and forearms bulged slightly, and his nails rapidly lengthened to about half the length of his middle finger, tapering into fine, razor-like points. They maintained a sleek, almost polished appearance, resembling hardened obsidian, and the sharpened edges gleamed, reflecting thin, razor-like glints of moonlight from the gap in the curtains.

"Eh," he muttered, quickly sitting up and looking down at his fingers. "This is not what I was expecting." He had been expecting something more like the dragon's claws—long and curved—not slightly longer fingernails. "Would these even be good for attacking?" 

He lightly ran his right index fingernail across his left palm… and it drew a long, thin line. "Holy shit!" It was much sharper than he had thought. "Is this thing as sharp as my dagger?" he mumbled, holding his right palm in front of him, with thin red blood flowing down the obsidian-black nail on his index.

'Even if it's sharp, how durable is it?' he wondered, staring at it before letting it drop, the veins returning to normal and his nails shortening. 'I'll test it out the next time I go into the dungeon,' he decided, holding his left palm in front of him and moving his right fingers above the wound on his palm, sprinkling his blue dust on it to quickly heal the wound.

The next ability, Fire Body, was more interesting. If his Fire Body was on par with the infant dragon's, then he should be virtually immune to any heat unless it was enhanced by magic of a higher-level adventurer or monster. He should be able to handle the heat from the breath attack of an infant dragon if it was as strong as he thought it was.

Then there was Fire Breath. Standing up, Rex walked over to his mirror and stared at himself. 'Only this remains.' 

Out of all the scars on his body, only one remained—a single diagonal one that crossed his torso. What was funny was that this attack from the infant dragon wasn't even that deep, being one of the 'weaker' attacks it landed, yet it left a scar.

'I guess it's because it healed it last so it left a scar.' he thought, touching the scar, which felt slightly bumpy under his fingers. "Eh. At least this one looks 'cool.'"

Lowering his hands, he turned his attention back to what he had come to do. Taking in a breath through his nose, he let it out through his mouth, and with a simple thought, a wisp of flame followed the breath.

"Hehehe," he chuckled, staring at his reflection. 

He grinned, his sharp canines showing, and he stepped back from the mirror. With an outward breath through his teeth, multiple weak streams of fire emerged from the gaps, briefly lighting up the dark room and casting dancing shadows.

After the fire died, he made a decision. "I need to return to the dungeon." He needed to test out the full extent of his new magic, which was undoubtedly cooler than his Blue Papilio Powder.

I mean, it's fire breathing, for god's sake!

"What time is it?" Rex looked at his window, noticing the moon through the gap in his curtains. He had returned home around six, and if he had slept for as long as he thought, the time should be around ten or eleven pm. "So I'm doing a night shift today?" he muttered to himself.

— — — — — — — — — —

Rex Magnus

Level 1 (Can Level Up)

[Strength] SS1045 | [Endurance] SS1100 | [Dexterity] SS1034 | [Agility] SS1063 | [Magic] C609

[Skill]

"Scavenger"

— Harvest stats, skills, magic, properties, or treasure from corpses and evaluate quality. (Skill: Powerful Body, Fire Body), (Magic: Blue Papilio Powder, Fire Breath), (Physical Property: Sharp Retractable Claw)

"Indomitable Will"

— Completely immune to psychic, mind control, or corruption‐based powers.

— Your unwavering will fortifies body and spirit—incrementally raising physical and magical potential—after an extremely major trial, their

— Maintain multiple complex tasks at once through mental compartmentalization and rapidly master new skills.

— When in a pinch, suppress pain, bolster mental fortitude, and unleash a massive boost to all physical and magical stats.

— — — — — — — — — —

"I can level up?" That was the first thing Rex noticed. 'I guess that battle with the Infant Dragon gave me high-rank excelia to level up.' 

He wasn't that surprised. If that fight hadn't given him enough to level up, he didn't know what else would have. After all, he had solo-killed a monster capable of wiping out an entire team of high-stats level 1 adventurers and even killing a recently leveled level 2.

'With my current stats and magic, I should be equal to a level 2,' he thought as his eyes moved down to his skill. "Indomitable Will." This…

This surprised him. 

He knew why he got the skill, but he didn't know 'why.' I mean, he doubted he was the only adventurer who had been in a situation where they had to force themselves to stand up and keep fighting. So, if he got a skill like this just from pushing himself through a dragon's fire breath or forcing himself to wake up after being knocked out, shouldn't everyone have this skill?

'I guess forcing yourself awake after being knocked out isn't something anyone can do,' he grinned at the mirror. "That was some main character type shit…" 

He chuckled and struck a dramatic Jojo pose, shifting his weight onto one leg while angling his body slightly to the side. His right hand rested near his face, fingers elegantly spread, while his left arm bent across his torso. 

"Come to think of it, I am the protagonist!"

"..."

"That was cringe," he cleared his throat, a slight blush creeping onto his cheeks. And the skill itself was… Overpowered. It came with immunity to all mind‐altering effects + incremental stat growth + multi‐tasking + a big "panic button" buff.

"Is this skill the reason my stats look weird?" If he remembers correctly, he had gained about three hundred stat points from absorbing the infant dragon's magic stone, but it looked like he gained 400+ points in magic. 

His magic was about 200 when he last checked before fighting the infant dragon, and his other stats definitely went higher than the single digits he saw when he absorbed the magic stone. Look at Endurance, that thing went up by over seventy points!

"I now have two skills that would speed up my growth." He mumbled, staring at the skill. "But this one looks more like it only works when I face a near-death experience." 

The 'extremely' next to the 'major trial' told him enough. He will need to put himself in a situation similar to his fight with the infant dragon for it to work. He is not a masochist so he will only use Scavenger for his normal stats growth and only go for a 'near-death experience' when he wants to level up. 

And then there is the 'Last‐Stand Surge.' "Does this have a cooldown or…" He decided not to think of it but something else came to mind. 

If he got around 200 points in magic with each Infant Dragon magic stone he absorbs, then… "I can't believe I'm going to say this," he covered his mouth with his left hand, staring into his own amber iris. "I need to hunt down two infant dragons and absorb their magic stone."

It was an absurd thought for a Pseudo level 2 like himself, but he was genuinely considering it. He needed their stones to give him the magic stats he had been missing. And he had killed one already, so it should be easier this time…

"Would it?" he questioned himself, looking up at the ceiling as he thought. Yes, his stats had gone up a bit, but his fire-breathing magic would be virtually useless against the infant dragon…

"No, it won't," he corrected himself, remembering the fight when he had used his dagger to disrupt the dragon's fire breath charge. 

That move had dealt considerable damage to its insides, and it was what had brought their fight to an 'equal ground.' If he managed to do that again by shooting a fireball into its mouth, he should be able to win against the infant dragons. "Easier said than done," he sighed, running his fingers through his hair.

To do or not to do, that's the question.

And the answer is…

Yes. That's his decision.

"Fuck them lizards," he grinned at his mirror, "Rex Lapis, the God of Contracts, Commerce, and the Warrior God, will kill two Infant Dragons." Just a few hours ago he had almost died to one and now he was going to actively hunt them. What a turnaround.

He paused. "But I can't go without any weapons," he muttered. His trusty longsword was gone, and his magic sword would be useless. And he did not trust his 'claw' since he hadn't tested it out. 'Do I have to buy a new weapon?' he sighed. 

He currently had about eleven thousand valis, which was nowhere close to the price of his now-broken sword, which had a market value of 80 thousand. 'I should be able to get enough money from selling the drop items I got from my eight-hour shift in the dungeon and the dragon's drops.'

He nodded and came to another decision. "First, the guild, then I need to buy a brand-new weapon to hunt lizards with, some healing potions, then the dungeon."

With that, he started getting ready for his night shift in the dungeon, quickly dressing in gray pants held up by his utility belt, a long sleeve shirt with one of his old leather breastplates, gloves, his trusty boots, and picked up his adventurer bag. As he left the room, a thought crossed his mind.

'Can I level up on my own or do I need my god to do it?' He called up his status, looking at it. 'I mean, Scavenger automatically updates my status, but it didn't automatically level me up so is leveling up different from normal update?' He tried mentally clicking on the level up beside his name but nothing happened. 'I guess I will have to have my god update—'

*GROOOOWL*

He looked down at his stomach. 'I need to eat first.' He headed to the kitchen for a late-night snack. 'The last time our module would ring you. Like a lunar bell. I'll see you on the Moon until we meet at Tycho. And follow the trail.' He started singing waltz in e major op 15 moon waltz in his head while humming the tone.