The First King of Beasts

After increasing the intelligence stat, Dustin found a place later to lay his head and sleep, as to see if the effects would happen after he slept. He had strong hopes that this would be the case, so he placed the results on that.

After he woke up, Dustin immediately came to his senses on why he even slept to begin with, so he just sat down there on the spot waiting for something that would indicate that he had become more intelligent happened, but just like expected, there was no such thing. He wasn't just going to know whether or not he had become smarter, so he needed to do a test.

The fact that Dustin didn't finish school was also a problem, since he wouldn't know some mathematical questions to structure and ask himself, so the process was dull. Instead of that, he tried to do something within his grasp, so he tried understanding how the ignition of fire using fire magic works.

While taking care of some dungeon quests, Dustin had run ins with various dungeon mobs that could use magic, and fire magic was a staple. The undead mage was one, and he also fought a goblin shaman that used fire to attack. After trying to think of how this was possible, what Dustin found was quite the result.

Of course, he hadn't gotten Einstein level intellect with just one nap, but still, he could say that something there had increased. The reason why he chose to thing about this topic was simple, it was because he had thought of the same thing when he ran into the skeletal mage. Though he did come up with some theories then, this time it took less time, and his theory of how this fire magic worked became a little different and more clear.

It was evident that anybody that did something more than once would get better at it, so Dustin went on to try answering some questions that he would normally just shrug off since it was just high level stuff.

After a lot of tests and hypothesis, Dustin was finally convinced that the increase in stat did actually make him stronger. Normally a magician would have to do a lot of studying in order to understand their craft so as to become better at it, and even further the development in that field, and in the process, become more intelligent and wiser. Dustin however, could cut the process in half.

'However I think of this, this system is just too overpowered.'

At this point, Dustin was starting to get second thoughts about his style of fighting. At the beginning of everything when they were dumped in the forest, no one had a choice, you either swung your sword, or you die. Naturally, this would only breed warriors and swordsmen, as the ones who couldn't use the sword to defend themselves all died anyway. The problem is among these people that died, there must have been at least one whose magic talent would be very high, but now they were dead and that was the end.

From what Elva had told him when he was doing his regular snooping around, it seemed that magician were stronger than swordsmen or warriors that used their bodies to fight. He had countered this argument with his knowledge from earth, as he could easily imagine Goku sweeping the floor with any mage before the mage could even say to cast any magic spell. Elva revealed that there were certain people who indeed reached such a level of strength without relying on magic, but these people were long dead. The last two that remained from who anyone in this era would be able to learn from were nowhere to be seen. No one knew their where about, and though people have tried, they could never find them no matter how much they searched.

"There are two choices. Either I learn magic and become a mage, or I stick to my fists and weapons." Dustin said, as he stood up and began moving, riding one of the tigers.

It was evident just how versatile magic was. He could not only use it to kill and do battle oriented things, he could also use it for a variety of other things. He did a lot of research about fighting in this world to see if there were some form of fighting technique that would make him stronger and harder of an opponent to beat, and after everything he did find some. The problem was these fighting styles and techniques were something that could only be used against humans, and none of them was so grand. As far as he was concerned, if he was strong enough, the technique or style meant nothing, as it was something he had tested.

'How about I just do both? After all, I'm not a normal person to begin with. With the system here, I should be able to practice magic while still being physically strong to break mountains.' Dustin said in his mind, as a little sinister smile appeared on his face.

"Whatever, that is till I get out of here before I can think of any such thing. Of all the people, I just had to be the unlucky one and fall into a stupid trap."

Dustin from this point one decided to travel on his won for a while and put all his tamed beasts back inside. He had noticed that there were periods of time where the night crawlers would calm down a little and not attack as frantically as they do, but right now that period of time was over, and the beasts had began their usual attack. Dustin whose EXP was soon to reach the required number for his next level up was a bit determined to level up, so he wanted to take one the monsters by himself until he at least levelled up.

"Let's go boys, let's see what you've got."

...

Back at the second floor of the dungeon, other people were starting to reach the second floor as more and more people found the identical magic circle and used it. For the most part, the second level of the dungeon was of similar structure and design to the first, the only difference were the monsters, apparently.

The first level had some weird and disgusting looking monsters with abilities that spelled bad news for new swordsmen, and a total wall for those that fought using their bodies. For whoever made it to the second level, they were just glad they could finally face new monsters and forget about the ones above, well, that is if they still had their weapons.

The willow group that met with Dustin a moment ago were moving together with them as they explored this dungeon level, and even with more eyes and legs, they still couldn't find any monster or anything of the sorts. It was as though the second level was completely dry. This was true for the others as well, as they moved while constantly being on guard, but in the end nothing to guard against.

"Will we even find any monsters here?" Kim said, as she let out a sigh with an exhausted look on her face. Apparently, fighting wasn't the only tiring thing, not fighting was also tiring.

They kept moving as a team, but like it was, they were no monsters for them to even kill, so they couldn't even pretend to be that cautious and vigilant.

"Hey Dustin, how about you give us a briefing on what you've experienced down here, you seemed t have gotten here before us to begin with anyway." Raven said.

"We-well, nothing much just like you've seen yourself. The whole place is dry and there are no signs of monsters around." Dustin answered.

Raven would throw random questions around from time to time, but in fact, it wasn't because she needed the answers. Aria was with Dustin for most of the time, while the rest stayed together.

No matter how she looked at it, Dustin seemed a little different from normal, and if anything seemed to have undergone a very big change. From the first time Raven met Dustin to the point where he had become somewhat friendly with them, he had never been one to curry favour or act in a submissive manner for no reason. Yet, this Dustin before them had shown all these traits. The fact that she could talk to him in a rude tone and manner and he still apologized only helped to paint a clearer picture.

"Everyone, stop for a moment." Raven said.

The moment everyone stopped, Mizu just dashed forward at Dustin and thrust her sword right into his chest, before kicking him away after it went through the whole way. Her kick was strong enough to send him flying a couple metres backwards before his body crashed into a protrusion on the side of the wall bring him to a stop.