21. Training Montage!

While exploring the tower Leon was asking questions to his new and improved system. It turns out he's also not able to get into any of the other locked door. The system advised he would have to obtain more cores to unlock parts of the tower.

"This is really starting to feel like a video game or something."

One of the things he asked about was the large sigil on the ground in front of the throne.

~This is a teleport sigil, when activated it let's you travel instantly to other sigils or directly out of the front door of the tower. ~

"It's good to know we won't have to climb up and down the tower every time we leave."

"Actually now that I think about it, I still have the C rank core from the spider Queen and a few leftover E rank cores."

"System, what can I get with these cores?"

~With the amount of cores you have right now, you could unlock the master bedroom. ~

~The master bedroom basically acts as a living quarters for you and your companions. ~

~It contains multiple enchanted beds that while resting will help you recover wounds and your mana at an accelerated rate. ~

While listening to the system his expression went from normal all the way to shocked in a matter of moments.

"Enchanted beds sound like a cheat. Of course it depends on how fast it actually helps you recover. Either way, every little bit helps." He ponders.

After a moment of silence he reaches into his pack and pulls out all the unused cores.

"Okay system, I'd like to unlock the master bedroom please."

~As you wish master. One moment.... Success! ~

As soon as the system finalized the transaction, a door just behind the throne swung open with an unlocking click sound.

Stepping inside the room, it's just as the system said. There is a large luxury bed up against the back wall of the room. The more he looks at it the more it draws him in. Before he knows what he's doing, all of a sudden he wakes up while laying on the bed.

"When did I get here....?"

~As soon as master entered the room you crashed on the bed and fell into a deep sleep for exactly 3 hours and 30 minutes. ~ The system explains.

"I don't remember anything after stepping inside. Ugh, oh well it can't be helped I guess. I should go check on Alexis."

He realizes when he crawls off the bed that he actually feels refreshed, more energetic even. His little vampire dog wakes up just the same as Leon and hops up on his shoulder. It seems it's belly shrank back down from when it drank his blood.

Actually, after it drank his blood he's been able to feel a sort of invisible bond or tether connecting them. It almost like he can feel it's thoughts. He can't read its thoughts exactly though. It's more like a vague feeling.

It nuzzles it's cute face on his next as a show of affection. He uses his finger to stroke its tiny head.

Squeak! Squeak!

His heart almost melted from cuteness. How can such a scary vampire creature be so adorable?

When he leaves the master bedroom he takes a quick look around but Alexis is nowhere to be seen.

~Master, your companion is inside the mana room. ~ The system informs him as if reading his mind.

It can't read his mind right? He shivers from the thought.

"Is that so? Thank you." He replies after a moment.

For a second there he felt like the system was really happy about something. He is not sure if it was his imagination or not. It must have been, right?

He carefully enters the mana room as to not disturb her. Alexis is sitting in the middle of the room surrounded by mist with ava just across from her.

After checking in on them to make sure they're okay, he walks back to the main area with the giant glowing crystal and the throne.

"Hey system, what is this crystal for exactly?"

~This crystal is the heart of the tower. Think of it as an engine that powers everything inside. ~

"I guess that's why it's so big huh. It would take at least a few thousand normal cored to reach the same size."

Just as he finishes the though, Alexis emerges from the mana room with ava close behind her. At first she was able to have ava on her shoulder but ava has grown so fast that now she is the size of a car tire.

" Ava sure is growing fast. Look at her, just a little while ago she was the size of my hand."

"I know right, I wonder how big she will get whens she's fully grown!" Alexis says excitedly.

"Now that I think about it, maybe we should stay here until these two are stronger. If we get in to trouble outside I wouldn't want them to get injured."

Alexis nodded in agreement. She also wanted to strengthen and train her new pet. With the benefits of the tower they should be able to sky rocket there growth fairly quickly. The only thing Leon is worried about is the lack of knowledge about how to raise these little guys.

He wouldn't want to waste the potential of there pets due to his incompetence.

....

Just like that, an entire month passed since they first entered the tower. They have been diligently training there new pets as well as themselves. The rich dense mana in the mana room has helped them increase there overall strength by quite a lot.

Sitting on the bed next to Leon was a completely black dog with bat ears and fangs. During the time they spent training Leon was trying to think of a good name for the little guy.

It took a while and a lot of indecisiveness, but he decided to call him Onyx. Since his fur is as dark as the night he found it to be a fitting name.

"Onyx, up!"

Hearing it's masters order, it jumped up from the bed and flew over to Leon latching on to his shoulder. Well, he can't actually fly, but he has webbing on his sides so he can glide around fairly quickly.

By staying inside the tower for so long they had eventually ran out of food. Thankfully though, they found out that they can rest on the enchanted bed and it not only recovers their energy and health but it also gets rid of hunger.

For some reason when he first got Onyx when he was an egg, the system wouldn't show any information. Now with the new and improved system he was finally able to see Onyx' info page.

Turns out his species is called bloodsucker. They are mostly nocturnal and they glide from tree to tree when hunting in the wilderness. Once they latch onto something they inject a paralysis poison and suck every last drop from there prey.

Sadly it seems like he won't be getting much bigger than he is now. On one hand that's a good thing as he can just carry him on his shoulder but on the other hand combat will be more difficult with his lack of strength.

With Onyx sitting comfortably on Leon's shoulder like a scarf, they head over to the mana room. Alexis spends most of her time in there nowadays.

The door opens when he places his hand on it. What greets him just in the other side is a horrifying spider creature the size of a motorcycle. The spider is none other than Ava. Her growth has been astronomical with Alexis' help.

After spending every waking moment with Ava, she was unknowingly getting a boost from the spider crown Alexis is wearing. With that and the mana room it increased her growth speed beyond its normal limits.

Leon reaches out and pats Ava on her head.

"You've really grown a lot. I wonder how good you are in a fight now."

Skitter!

Ava makes a weird clicking sound in response.

While entering the room Onyx jumps off his shoulder and skillfully glides around the room with Ava chasing behind playfully.

"Leon, me and Ava are ready to go on an adventure!"

"You think so? I guess we have spent quite a while in the tower training. Then get some supplies packed and we'll head out."

"Okay~"

Alexis ran off to go pack her things and Leon did the same. 20 minutes later they were both standing in the middle of the rune on the ground.

"Okay system, teleport us to the entrance of the tower please."

~Commencing rune activation. Standby... ~

~Rune activation complete. ~

Suddenly they became blind temporarily. After a few seconds they felt the sun on their skin and a chilly breeze in the air.

Leon slowly opened his eyes. Even though it hasn't really been that long since they have seen the sun, it still feels like they spent years inside.

It looks like a tornado ran through the city. The buildings are crumbled, abandoned cars litter the streets and decomposing corpses strewn randomly here and there.

Its a depressing sight to say the least. It only took a couple of days before all of society collapsed.