Chương 67: Chapter 64: The Core and the Clutch

I dismissed the notifications and turned back to Mike who was still lying on his back and breathing heavily. His armor was ruined and I could see patches of burned skin on his chest and left arm. When my heal spell was off cooldown again, I hit him again. His breath slowed significantly, and I could see the burned patches of skin slowly sloughing off as the fresh skin was regrown. I pulled him up into a sitting position and wrapped him in a hug.

"What were you thinking, son?" I asked as tears of fear and joy streaked down my face.

"I was thinking I didn't want to watch my father die in dragon's fire," Mike replied with a pained chuckle. We were joined by the rest of the team as Alex knelt down and asked Mike if he was OK.

"I'll live," Mike said. I looked over and grabbed Alex into the hug as well and asked if he was injured, but he was not. I hit Mike with another heal and asked Pete and Joe if they were OK.

"We're fine," Joe said.

"You two took the brunt of the wyvern's attacks. Honestly, until Mike and Alex locked the beast up, I wasn't sure how we could bring it down. The AR's were less than ineffectual and my. 308 wasn't doing much more damage. The first true damage we did was your sword cut and Mike's daggers to its eyes."

"Well, we're definitely walking out with those scales," I replied.

"Those are going to make great armor."

"I'm walking out of here with a ton of meat too," Joe said with a big smile.

"Fair enough," I said with a knowing chuckle.

"But we're going to pop out that core first, just as soon as Mike is healed up completely." Mike only needed two more healing spells and his HP was topped off again. He took out a second pair of black cloths from his ring and started peeling out of his burnt armor and clothes. I dumped out another full set of armor taken from the kobolds. I also dumped out the other knife belt from the Rogues we looted at the school. Once he was dressed and armored again, the team approached the dungeon core.

The core was on a three foot tall pedestal near the back of the room. It was softball sized and shown with power. At the base of the pedestal was a golden chest that sparkled brightly under the light of the core.

"See," I said with a big smile.

"Golden chest in a dungeon. I told you guys it was a thing." However, in front of the chest was an egg the size of a soccer ball. There was also a large number of broken eggs, where small embryos could be seen inside the mess spilling out onto the floor.

"No wonder the wyvern didn't go far from the center of the room," Alex muttered.

"And also why it got pissed off when you got behind it. It was protecting its clutch."

"Looks like it broke its own eggs while thrashing around," Pete replied.

"Good thing there's still one left," Joe said.

"I'll bet Wyvern eggs make tasty omelets."

"Absolutely not," Alex answered forcefully.

"You're not touching that egg. I'm taking that egg back with us and hatching it."

"The hell you are," Mike said.

"You're not going to raise one of those things where we all live."

"That's exactly what I'm intending to do," Alex argued.

"When I became an elemental druid, I gained an animal familiar ability. Similar to Dad's tame animal ability, except it will be bound to me."

"My tame animal ability forces me to work against the animal's will. Does your animal familiar ability also make you pit your will against whatever animal you're trying to bond with?"

"It does," Alex responded.

"But, with our new levels we got today and whatever levels I can get before it hatches will greatly increase my chance. Plus, it will be an infant Wyvern. There's no way it will have the willpower of a full grown wyvern. Plus, your tame animal can be broken if you mistreat it. It can and will turn on you. If I bond with the Wyvern, it will be bound to me for life. AND…" Alex continued before anyone else could pose anymore arguments.

"If I can bind it to me for life, its offspring will likely be able to be bound to other people in our faction more easily." With that information, everyone else silently pondered the possibilities.

"Okay fine," I said.

"But if you can't bond with that thing when it's hatched, you have to put it down before it becomes a threat to us. I mean, I love the idea of a whole township of dragon riders, but I'm not willing to put our families in danger, understand?" Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"Yes Father," Alex replied.

"Alright, let's claim this thing," I said. With great anticipation, I walked over to the dungeon core and placed my hand on it. Congratulations, you have touched a dungeon core. Plus 15 to all attributes, plus 25% to all skills, double exp. Do you wish to claim? Caution: Claiming this dungeon core will permanently disable the dungeon. The dungeon will no longer repopulate. Claim?

Yes/No Instantly a giant rush of power engulfed my body as all the experience from the dungeon core and defeating the wyvern, along with all the stat and skill increases took effect. This was by far the largest increase I've received to date. The euphoric feeling was like nothing I'd ever felt before. Needless to say, completing dungeon dives was definitely a viable means to power leveling. I minimized the selection and called for the team to come over and place their hands on the core as well.

I saw that they too had glazed-over eyes and had huge smiles on their faces as they read their notifications. I pulled up the screen for the dungeon core again and this time I accepted the choice to claim the core.

"HOO-LY Crap," I exclaimed. Exiting my notifications and placing the core in my ring, I looked at the rest of the team.

"I'm assuming y'all got the same prompts and level ups I did."

"Oh yeah," Mike said with a grain.

"We need to find more dungeons to complete."

"Agreed," said Joe, with nods from Pete and Alex.

"Most definitely," I replied.

"But first things first, let's finish this dive and loot that chest then start skinning that wyvern. Mike, check for traps and open the chest. The rest of us will start with the Wyvern. Alex, you might want to move your egg away from the chest in case there are traps on it." With everyone getting to work, I glanced at my updated stats screen.

STATUS: Name: Derrick Miller Race: Human Level: 21 Class: Ranger Specialization: Shadow Ranger Attributes: Strength: 44 Dexterity: 48 Constitution: 45 Intelligence: 40 Wisdom: 39 Charisma: 39 Health: 450/450 Stamina: 480/480 Mana: 400/400 Carry Capacity: 440lbs. Armor Class: 112.

5 Skills: Hand to Hand: Beg 8 Blunt Weapons: Apr 1 Axe Mastery: Apr 8 Sword Mastery: Apr 9 Bow Mastery: Jour 4 Daggers: Apr 0 First Aid: Jour 5 Building: Mas 0 Crafting: Mas 0 WLDNS Survival: Jour 8 Sneak: Jour 7 Herbalism: Beg 7 Alchemy: Beg 7 Inspect: Beg 9 Dodge: Apr 7 Arcane: Minor Heal: Apr 5 Tame Animal: Apr 3 Spike Growth: Apr 0 Dark Vision: Jour 1 Ambush: Beg 5 Hunter's Mark: beg 8 Marksman: beg 9 You have 12 unassigned attribute points. You have 8 unassigned skill points.