Mukurric didn't decide to keep training Azotreh through crushing their aura. With the several days it had taken for Azotreh to recover not just from her aura assault but also from the absorption of several monster cores, she had fully realized that force wasn't the most productive way to train.
Azotreh was still young, and while putting them in the dangerous wild would yield results, she had more to give than that. Especially since Azotreh was treading ground with things she wasn't aware of herself.
She had a guess as to where the new blessing had come from. One of the myriad dimensions beyond the reaches of their planet. She had an understanding that such places had their own powerful entities, like the gods of the continents. But she had never heard of Azrael, or received an epic system boon from all but one of her blessings.
She carried the ruby blessing of something called Fenris, which had also granted her an epic system boon when she'd acquired it. She had a couple of other blessings, but none except that of Fenris granted an epic system boon in addition to the blessing itself.
She, Anthei, and Dur had decided that Azotreh should instead be pushed deeper into the world under supervision. The trio knew that two of the three other entities bound to Azotreh's dungeon nexus had already ventured into the depths. Though neither had reached more than a kilometer underground, and both had died in the process, they did not doubt that with their presence, Azotreh would not be killed by the depths.
Kurdan had also been convinced to join their noble cause, though he had no interest in such things. He was a scholar and mage first, with only an academic understanding of combat beyond his spell weaving. All orcs knew how to fight with their hands, as most grew up brawling with the children their age, but beyond the fact that the wrist could be broken if one punched wrong, Kurdan had no expertise in the matters of the fighting arts.
Atu had also joined their little expedition. She was the only member of the group Azotreh actually trusted with all their heart. She also needed training if she were to continue along with the path of her adopted candidate. She had sparred a couple of times with Dur, the orc specialized in the overwhelming power of her own body. Atu had lost each time, but was able to hold on slightly better than most. She had genuine combat experience against monsters from the depths and some of the animals on the surface due to her origins with the Lord Rabbit. She was rusty, since her raw strength had long outgrown most animals on the surface, but not bad.
Dur was looking forward much more to teaching her to fight, simply because her style of a sword and hammer was much easier for Dur than what she feared Azotreh would have to learn.
Her fears were brought to the fore when they encountered their first tin-rank monster. Some kind of facsimile of a stone elemental made from venom slate. The monster had the appearance of a boulder covered in three-fingered hands. Atu would gain nothing against the lower-ranked monster, and Dur needed to see what she was working with when it came to Azotreh's existing fighting capabilities. So she sent the diminutive dragon child forward to fight the mass of rock.
Before sending Azotreh forward, she had the foresight to do something they should have done a long time ago.
[Mukurric, Dragon Guardian of the Cursed Pyramid, has invited you to a party!]
Azotreh looked at the notification for a moment before cautiously accepting.
[You have joined the party of Mukurric. Current members: Mukurric, Anthei Quazax, Dur Bloodskull, Kurdan Bloodskull, Atu Nightshade, Azotreh Nightshade]
[You have reached maximum party size. Purchase party extensions for SP to increase maximum party size]
Atu was also visibly confused by the new part of the system she had never seen before. She'd been told by the Lord Rabbit that higher rank provided additional system benefits, but he'd never explained all the ones he'd gotten.
Mukurric didn't explain anything, so neither did any of the others. Instead, Dur just gestured for Azotreh to attack the monster.
Azotreh moved quickly while pulling all except Fuzem into the conflict. Their aura flattened out as the cold awareness began its work, stopping the monster from noticing their approach.
Black scales grew up Azotreh's arms, and glimmering claws grew from the ends of their fingers. An additional pair of limbs emerged from their back, ripping their shirt and revealing round scars around where the new limbs emerged, quickly transitioning into clawed wings of an oceanic blue color.
It wasn't quite the struggling all-ripping form they'd entered when their life was on the line, but it was certainly peculiar. It also wasn't very coordinated.
The fight with the mass of rock was not quick, as the claws only left scratches on its body. Only after the third eye on their temple grew and activated Eye of the Cerulean Dragon did they start striking more accurately.
Their tail lashed at the arms holding the stone aloft while the two clawed wings reached over the top of Azotreh's head to attack some of the arms reaching to grasp the ceiling. Their other two arms would extend and retract like clawed whips to hit the rock from multiple angles. The clawed whips hit the wings more often than not, but Azotreh clearly didn't care.
It was brutal, with the clawed hands of the rock striking back against Azotreh. Of course, they were unwieldy in their own right, smashing into each other over and over to hit Azotreh only a couple of times. But the rock definitely held the toughness advantage over the child.
Eventually, Azotreh did finally manage to leave enough scratches to pierce its outer shell and break through the slightly softer stone beneath. As it turned out, the venom slate was surrounding a layer of nightshade gneiss, which Azotreh simply shaped out of their way before grasping the core and ripping it free to kill the monster.
The tail reached around again to touch the body so they could loot it, and Azotreh returned to the group as the corpse dissolved into gray and red smoke. They all got the same notification as it died and was then looted.
[Party Member: Azotreh Nightshade has slain Hekaton Venomous Stone Elymental]
[Base EXP: 10]
[Grade Disparity Bonus: 1x]
[Rank Disparity Bonus: 1x]
[Azotreh Nightshade has earned 10 EXP]
[Azotreh Nightshade has earned 12 DX]
[Azotreh Nightshade has leveled up!]
[Azotreh has looted Hekaton Venomous Stone Elymental]
[Azotreh has received 10 tin-rank alchemic coins]
[Azotreh has received 1 tin-rank monster core]
[Azotreh has received 5kg of venom slate]
[Azotreh has received 10kg of nightshade gneiss]
[Azotreh has received 5g of crushed earth essence crystal]
[Azotreh has received 10 earth quintessence]
Azotreh returned to the group and pulled out a cube of brown crystal. They all got the results of their analysis due to the party link.
[Earth Quintessence - Common Crystal, Tin-Rank, Material]
[A refined gemstone created from pure earth essence. More useful than its unrefined form in rituals and crafting. This crystal was refined into a cube by the basic function of the Skill System]
[New Record: Quintessence (0.001%)]
[New Record: Earth Quintessence (30%)]
While Azotreh was curious about the crystal, Dur looked at them with a disapproving look.
"Is that the best you've got?" She said, her voice flat.
Azotreh looked up at her, eyes wide at her tone. They didn't respond, unsure how.
Atu turned to Dur at her tone, "What do you mean, is that the best they've got? They're not a master of combat."
"That's no excuse. An F-Grade, even in tin-rank, should easily be able to outmatch a regular human in coordination and strength."
"That monster wasn't a regular human." Atu pointed out.
"But it was a clumsy one. It had one hundred hands and no eyes. Azotreh's flat aura should have stopped it from predicting attacks. Azotreh, how many attack-based skills or abilities do you have?"
Azotreh paused and looked over their status before saying, "One."
Dur's eyes became wide as saucers, "And what is it?"
"Astral Bolt."
"Did you use it?"
"No…"
Dur sighed heavily before turning back to the other three. Anthei seemed disappointed, while Mukurric had a thoughtful expression. Kurdan seemed far more interested, at least.
"Kurdan, you and I will be taking Azotreh back up to the dungeon for some specialized combat training. The three of you can do whatever you want."
The giant orc then reached down, grabbed Azotreh by the back of their throat like a stray kitten, and carried them back into the dungeon. Kurdan followed close behind. The remaining trio looked at each other in confusion before deciding to return to the dungeon as well. Anthei was still curious about the way Azotreh's aura suffused the space, while Atu was simply worried for Azotreh's safety. Mukurric had begun to plot out the skills she needed to impart to Azotreh before their training of the kid was completed to set them on their own path.
Nicholas and Errazorrus left Azotreh's prime avatar as it re-entered the dungeon. The cold consciousness remained, but seemed more determined to train Azotreh's aura. Dur's words about the monster apparently using its aura as its primary sense had reminded the cold consciousness of its desires.
Errazorrus was still waiting for the puma's form to be complete. It had been three days since the puma champion had been slain, and he didn't want to occupy a different entity.
Nicholas instead had another plan. Azotreh was missing combat skills, and while Dur would be directly training them, Nicholas still wanted to confirm his theory about the theoretical punching skill, and perhaps others.
The reminder about the way they fought had also pushed him to Fuzem. She was still trying to break through a brand new bottleneck, the advancement of their inferior mutation specialization perk from nine to ten. She was sure something would change when it hit ten, so the rest hadn't bothered her.
But now he had to, because that fight with the hekaton earth thing had made him realize something obvious. Azotreh's fighting style was reliant not just on what a normal person could do, but also on their capacity to change their shape with Gelatinous Body.
But Fuzem simply refused to listen when Nicholas occupied the same champion, leaving him stuck. So, he simply took up the second slime avatar–the one not left beyond the edges of the dungeon–changed it into a form much like his original human body, before beginning to punch the wall of the core chamber. He wanted to figure out his theory on punching and possibly advance mining as well. The core chamber was rather cluttered since they stored all non-perishable items here instead of leaving them in the inventory.
Nicholas may have become a hoarder in their new world, which was only encouraged by Fuzem and especially the draconic nature of Errazorrus, but he still wanted to be an organized one.
Dur felt Azotreh's flat aura weaken by half in a moment. She looked at them curiously, only to notice their eyes. They still swirled with two pupils, one a fiery red and the other the crimson of blood. But she distinctly remembered there being an additional two, one emerald green and one black, like their scales.
"What happened to your eyes, kid?" She asked.
Azotreh didn't respond, just shaking their head slightly. She didn't push. She had plenty of secrets and wasn't going to press for theirs.
Instead, she took them back to that training room Mukurric had made Azotreh carve from the smooth stone around them. Kurdan stood to the side to watch as Dur created a humanoid dummy from her wool magic. She gave it four arms and pulled some claws she'd looted from a local monster and placed them inside the wool of each hand.
She then used some fangs from some giant serpent monster to augment its face and give it a positively evil grin. It was all because she wanted to, rather than because it was necessary.
She turned to Azotreh and said, "Hit it."
Azotreh looked at her with evident confusion. She simply repeated herself in response, "Hit it."
Only after the third time she said it did Azotreh get closer and strike it. It was a puny hit, not even enough to damage the wool of the dummy. But she immediately saw why.
She crouched beside them and grabbed their shoulder and fist.
"You're doing it wrong, kid. Punching isn't about the hand, but about the impact. Here, pull back your shoulder."
Azotreh did as instructed.
"Now, your hips, turn them to the right."
Azotreh's upper body moved as if on a swivel, and she placed her hands on their hip to correct it back to a relatively human place.
"Strike it from here. Turn your hip into the punch." She also made Azotreh step back to properly extend their arm into the hit.
This time, there was a soft thump as the fist slammed into the magically hardened wool.
"Good, now do that another hundred times."
Azotreh didn't question and didn't complain; they simply did as she asked.