I drove Scalebiter through the skull of the fourth undead troll, then leaped off, somersaulting away just before a boulder smashed through the troll corpse, exploding it in a spray of black gore before it could even fall to the ground. Sticking the landing, I glanced up at the roof of the 80-foot stone tower nearby and the huge 35-foot tall monster standing on the roof.

"Blightcrusher Troll. Elite. Level 52. This battle-hardened troll kills as easily with his overwhelming strength and ax as he does with his risen undead troll minions."

The giant monster wore a black boiled-leather vest and shorts, the outfit leaving his enormously muscled arms and legs bare, covered in thick, grainy blue hide. He hefted a battle ax as long as my huge ogre club, capped with a gigantic half-moon blade that looked like it weighed a metric ton.

I'd been right. Over the past 2 days as we'd fought our way up the valley, the monsters had indeed gotten stronger. The troll hefted another rock in its other hand and hurled it at me like a meteor. I dodged and the boulder detonated when it struck the hard-packed earthen ground nearby in a shower of stinging stone bits. To my left, the undead troll minions I'd killed sprawled in boneless heaps across the yard.

To my right, Nigel was tearing through 3 more of the creatures. He'd shifted to the giant lion size he'd added to his repertoire last night, and the murder kitty was truly terrifying in that form. Even standing on all fours, at 5 times his previous biggest size, his shoulders reached 25 feet, his head bigger than my torso, his sabre-like fangs as long as swords.

The Blightcrusher troll roared at me, pumping his giant ax into the air, then leaped off the tower. He landed nearby with a crash that shook the valley, his huge ax whistling down at me, driven by all the momentum of his jump. If it caught me, it would have split me like a melon.

I dove and rolled to the side and the ax head buried itself 6 feet into the hard ground. As awesome and mighty as that attack had been, it was slow and ponderous. The monster was strong and wielded more magic than most of the dozens of monsters we'd faced in our long slog up the high mountain canyon.

That made it a much more interesting opponent, and I was tempted to rush in and fight it with my blades, but resisted the urge. It would be more fun to try something different. The many fights against powerful monsters in our two-day slog-fest had given Nigel and me the perfect chance to fine-tune our fighting styles and for me to experiment more with my class spells.

Time for another experiment. I cast Mana Beam that I'd harvested from Ashkaroth.

"Mana Beam. Rare. Unleash a focused beam of convergence mana to interrupt a target's mana."

At the same time I focused on my Spellweaver ability while also tossing in a potion of Iron Grip and unleashing my most recently-acquired mimicked spell.

"Convulsion Shackles. Uncommon. Area of Effect. Target all marked enemies within 10 yards with chains of pure energy that bind and deliver lightning-like jolts of power that render movement difficult."

I'd never used one of those potions in a synergized spell. Elemental Harmony only allowed me to easily combine elemental-based potions. I sensed Spellweaver would allow the new combination to work. Hopefully it would produce an interesting effect.

Mana poured out of me and I got a message, as I'd hoped.

"Congratulations, Lucas! You have created the new synergized spell Crushing Mana Claws."

Instead of a beam of mana punching toward the troll's heart, a giant glowing fist appeared over the monster and swatted it to the ground with a crash that shook the area worse than when the troll landed from jumping off the tower. The hand wrapped around the troll, binding it tight, then the glowing fingers elongated like spectral claws and punched through the monster's boiled leather jacket and thick hide.

It roared in pain and fury, thrashing its huge, ugly head, but unable to break free. That spell was fantastic! I got a second message.

"Congratulations, Lucas! Crushing Mana Claws has successfully transformed Blightcrusher Troll's mana pool to convergence mana."

The troll roared again, enormous body convulsing in its glowing restraint as I took control of its mana. That had to hurt like a mother.

The claws of the spell fused with the monster's converted mana, extending through its mana channels. Then with a single giant heave, I compressed those magical claws, tearing out every last mana channel.

The troll howled with pain as blood spewed from its mouth. Then it sagged back, totally inert. I clearly felt its own mana, now converted into crushing claws, tear through its organs, including its heart, lungs and even up into its brain. It was as disgusting as it was inspiring.

"Congratulations, Lucas! You have defeated Blightcrusher Troll. Bonus experience gained for defeating a higher-level enemy. Experience doubled for killing an enemy in an even more creative way than usual."

"Congratulations, Lucas! You have reached level 24. Stat points allocated, plus 1 free point."

I raised my fists in triumph and shouted as I triggered Loot and Soul Feed. I resisted the urge to trigger Harvest. Over the past 2 days and nights as Nigel and I fought our way up through the long, winding valley of monsters, I'd harvested many spells. I used them one after another on the next monsters we faced.

I wanted to keep Mana Beam for the next time I faced Alpha or had to fight Noctarus, so I'd made a point of burning through all the uses of my other harvested spells to open another slot for a new one without replacing Mana Beam. I'd just gotten a good one called Ravening Bite that I hadn't gotten to use yet, so for the first time in a while, I didn't harvest another new one.

"Ravening Bite. Unleash an invisible swarm of teeth against a single target. All organic tissue is consumed, resulting in double experience gains."

Nigel landed on my shoulder in his tiny kitten size, then flopped onto my shoulder in a boneless heap. With an exhausted sigh, he moaned, "I need steak, or I will die."

"Yeah, I need a break too."

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Nigel slid forward off my shoulder like a mass of furry Jell-O. I caught him, handed him a steak, and set him on the ground. He gobbled it up before I even straightened, his big eyes begging.

I chuckled. "All right. I know. You earned it."

I fed him one steak after another as I checked the loot I'd gotten from the Blightcrusher troll. A few mana crystals and an interesting pack of 10 new potions.

"Ages Past. Potion. Rare. Will melt all undead flesh, returning it to the grave where it belongs."

Nice. Those could come in handy against Noctarus's zombies if it came to a fight. I also got the troll's big, half-moon battle ax. Turned out, it was one of the few weapons I'd looted over the past couple days with an enchantment, making it penetrate with 20% more force damage. I'd keep that one, but sell the rest of the weapons and mostly-useless gear I'd pilfered.

Scooping up Nigel, I used Tether Slide to shoot up to the roof of the tower. There I sat on the edge, my legs draping over the side as I enjoyed a welcome rest and surveyed the long, winding valley we'd climbed in our long hunt. We'd left a trail of destruction in our wake, from destroyed towers like the one we sat on to burned cabins.

I tossed Nigel his 6th steak, then pulled out a donut for a quick burst of energy, followed by a roast beef sandwich. Nigel had added the giant size to his quiver of options while fighting a nasty trio of bull-headed minotaur giants with momentum-based charge attacks. The huge size gave him enormous power, but he could only maintain it for a few seconds and it left him exhausted and ravenous afterward.

I needed a rest too. For the past two days, Nigel and I had hunted and fought our way up that long, winding valley, clearing one walled section after another. We stopped to rest when we needed to, but otherwise pushed ahead with the next assault. Every walled sector housed some kind of giant monster. Most of the monsters lived alone, although we found a few pairs, and even a couple groups of 3 or 4.

They were all different too. After the first giant, we encountered ogres and trolls and titans and colossus. They all possessed overwhelming strength, and many used a wide variety of magical abilities.

Like the nasty Toxic Sporemother, a personal not-favorite. It had poisonous fungus growing all over its body, and unleashed clouds of spores that tried to sprout in our lungs. Then there was the Shadowcleaver Collossus that could walk through shadows and wielded an obisidian scythe that dealt as much spiritual damage as physical. It even summoned spectral shadowy chains to try binding us. That one had hurt. Too bad I'd destroyed that scythe before managing to kill the Shadowcleaver.

We ran into several elemental-based monstrosities too, from a Frostbound Ogre to an Infernal Mauler, and so many more I lost count. We faced them all and defeated every last one.

Now I sighed as I devoured my snack, then finished a half gallon of crisp, hot fries, savoring every bite of ketchup. I washed it all down with a huge stein of Sam's weak ale, then paused with my eyes closed, face tilted up to the late morning sun warming my face.

"How are you feeling?"

Nigel sighed, licking his chops. How the tiny kitten could eat so much steak was still a mystery I hadn't solved. "Starving."

I tossed him another steak. "Good work with those undead trolls."

"They tasted terrible, but it is very satisfying to defeat so many monsters who are so much larger even than you."

Nigel might be exceptionally tough and strong due to borrowing a percentage of my own stats, but he'd started the hunt as a level-10 baby Mammoth Lion after gaining several levels in the dungeon. He'd racked up 28 more in the past 2 days. He now radiated a vastly deeper strength than before. I scratched behind his ears and he paused mid-munch to purr.

"You've gotten really good swapping between sizes."

"I do not believe I will need more than 4."

Nigel was as fierce as he was agile, and his increased raw power, coupled with his razor claws and long fangs proved deadly to one giant foe after another. I didn't even fear letting him face Alpha by my side any more.

Once he topped level 25, he'd evolved into an Elite Mammoth Lion, gained a new ability to toughen his hide like armor for short periods, and could trigger a burst of speed, making him even deadlier and harder to kill.

I'd experimented with my class spells and abilities and my various weapons until I could shift from one to the next with fluid ease. One of the coolest things I'd figured out was with my sword, Echo. I found an item in my inventory I'd totally forgotten about.

"Upgrade scroll. Upgrade a single weapon with the ability Double Tap."

"Double Tap. Effect. Uncommon. Use your enemy's own vitality to fuel double damage of any successful strike. Cooldown: 5 seconds."

When I applied it to Echo, it transformed an already-powerful weapon into a monster of destruction. I'd discovered that using my Spellweaver ability to synergize spells, I could stack all 3 of my class spells at the same time through my weapon to unleash pure devastation, and Echo proved the perfect choice.

First I applied Elemental Harmony, magnifying the blade with potions for additional elemental damage. Then I stacked on Spell Forge to add whatever mimicked spell I'd just picked up from a monster onto the weapon too, and topped it all off with a random extra force effect using Cascading Force.

The resulting hit changed as the spells intermingled, but the results always unleashed overwhelming devastation that was instantly echoed with a second strike at 60% force. Then the Double Tap ability doubled the damage again. More than once, a single multi-stacked attack like that finished off a monster that should have survived even quite a few normal hits.

Scalebiter served as my finisher when all else failed. I could stack up penetration damage so fast, none of the monsters could stop it even though they'd grown progressively stronger, ranging in levels from 42 to 58. I still thought of Fang and Soulrend occasionally, but I'd made peace with my new blades through constant conflict that helped me find catharsis.

As we fought through the oversized monsters, I'd let them hit me with their magic to help build up my various resistances more and so Mimic could pick up their spells, allowing me to use their own abilities back against them.

Two days of constant fighting against big, dangerous monsters, all with levels in the 40s and 50s had proven not only amazing for fine-tuning my fighting style, but also leveling. In addition to gaining 3 full levels, my Stick and Knife fighting jumped 4 levels to level 10, while Knife Throwing jumped to level 4.

Despite practicing with mana manipulation whenever I could, I hadn't made much progress, and none of my mana abilities had leveled up. Still, I felt I was close to a breakthrough with forming tangible strings of mana. More strange, I hadn't gotten any good loot boxes from our hunting and killing spree.

I did pick up a bunch of loot, most of which I just planned to sell. It was almost all common or uncommon, although I did also get 3 entire tier-6 mana crystals. And now I had a big battle ax. The fact that I could easily swing the enormous weapon drove home the fundamental and vast changes to my body more than almost anything else had. When I struck anything with that ax, it would be like hitting them with my giant ogre club. Things hit that hard ceased to exist. With it, I could wield pure devastation.

I grinned with a crazy idea. Could I double-wield the ogre club and the troll ax? The insanity of the idea made me laugh. Nigel looked over, one ear flopping forward in question.

"Never mind. Just a dumb idea." The biggest problem with it was that I couldn't fit my tiny human hands far enough around the hafts. What if I carved smaller handholds into the hafts? Or maybe bought some kind of enchanted giant's hand to wear like a glove while wielding oversized weapons? Hmm. Not a bad idea, although I'd end up looking like one of those anime characters from the shows Jane liked to watch.

No, the ax was a welcome addition to my arsenal, but the loot had otherwise been pretty sparse. It was like Cyrus was waiting for something big to happen.

Now that I'd reached level 24, I was only 1 level away from another big milestone. Cyrus seemed to be following his old patterns again. Not in withholding my experience, thankfully, but in setting me up for something big to get that last level and all the loot I should have gotten working my way up through the valley. He'd forced me to face Bristleback as my final test on stage 1. What kind of test would he make me do on stage 2?

As if in response, a deep basso roar thundered from the top end of the valley. The sound echoed back and forth between the high cliff walls hemming in the valley on both sides. I turned to face that way with a sigh. "Here we go."

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