BAM. BAM. BAM. BAM.
Little Ezel couldn’t help but wake up surprised and came crawling to my side as he heard the loud banging and the roars. Of course that meant he woke me up to. I was more than used to them though so I could sleep through them, but it was definitely a first time for him. I just told him to relax and stay under the cover and that nothing was going to happen to him, that it was normal. Usually, I use this time to also satisfy my typical teenager necessities but it was kind of weird with Ezel by my side so I decided not to. It wasn’t like I was missing much since I didn’t last like my brothers did.
Considering that the guys were occupied, I thought this was the right time to take Ezel out from the room. There was only one place only I could get access to and no one else. I got up and got my shoes on and a hoodie. Ezel kept staring at me and I couldn’t help but look him back. He didn’t have anything besides those kind-of sporty pants, thus I decided to give him one of my other hoodies. Quickly, he followed my example and wore it. The kid learned fast, but I was taken aback at how well it fit him. Honestly, I was a bit jealous of the fact that he, a baby, was able to wear my clothes without issue.
Once that was out of the way, I told him to follow me in silence and thus we went down as my brothers and my dad kept fucking and jerking off. When we got downstairs, I could tell Ezel was a bit mesmerized for all the new stuff he was seeing, but we didn’t have time to stay there for too long. I took him by the hand and dragged him to the dungeon, where I knew he wouldn’t be found out by my family. Again, he showed signs of getting used to the place, but couldn’t really say anything besides the word “master”.
What I really needed right now was for him to be able to talk, so I told him to follow me quietly. Apparently, he didn’t seem to have issue with it and did so with a little smile on his face. I followed the path I had taken the time before and decided to go for a different branch of the dungeon. I didn’t feel like going to the red zone yet, so I was going to focus on this part for now. It took us a while to find a new section, especially considering that the marks I had done before were quite small and not easy to see from a distance. Eventually though, we were able to find a ratman again.
Ezel’s reaction was to immediately turn from his “human” form into his real appearance, claws and horns coming out. I repeated his order of standing down and hence stood back, but didn’t change to human again. Quickly, I took care of it and came back to check Ezel’s stats, but it looked like he hadn’t leveled up with just the one ratman. He did, however, with the second one.
I found incredibly interesting how I was the one allowed to decide his stats instead of his own. Considering that I was going to focus on magic, I expected him to be my warrior so I ended up adding everything in STR. Then, I sort of went out of my way to compare our stats.
Player: Hunter Atwood.
Age: 16
Class: Mage – 5
HP: 70/70
MP: 170/165
STR: 10
DEX: 12
INT: 25
CHA: 12
Skills: Identify lvl 3 – Mana Strike lvl 4 – Enlarge Object lvl 1 – Summon Familiar lvl 1
Familiar: Ezel
Race: Ezerant
Age: Less than a day.
Class: Commoner – 2
HP: 110/110
MP: 60/60
STR: 20
DEX: 10
INT: 10
CHA: 10
Skills: Shapeshift lvl 1
I felt a little bit lame after noticing that Ezel was only 9 stat points weaker than me. It would be only 3 points were it not for the fact that I’ve had a bit more time to train and get more stats out of doing stuff. It was definitely a humbling experience and made me realize that indeed genes were very important. My dad and my brothers were a daily reminder of that of course.
I didn’t hesitate to continue moving forward and kept on exterminating the rats as Ezel followed. Then, by the time he had reached level 5 and I got to level 8, I had increased his strength stat so high that I asked him to fight. He seemed very willing to do so even though I was a bit worried about it, but his stats didn’t lie. I mean, his HP pool was huge and his STR was basically on par with my Int. If I could 1 hit the monsters, I thought he could too.
After looking for a while to find our next victim, I gave him the signal to try and defeat him. Quickly, the boy ran and gave the ratman a slash with his claws. Despite the fact that rats were supposed to have a resistance to cuts of that type, the monster ended up becoming ash instantly. I couldn’t say I was actually impressed since the stats were not lying, but it did made me feel way better knowing I was not here alone now and that we could, in fact, keep exploring. Considering that Ezel needed level 20 and that time appeared to be frozen outside of this place, I decided to continue exploring everything.
Turns out, there wasn’t much to explore, but I did get a new spell and Ezel a new skill as well. I got Stretch, which basically allowed anything to be enhanced and to be able to be stretched like rubber or something of the sort. I thought it useful if I wanted to practice my mana strike against a specific surface… like my closet. Ezel got the Dash skill, which increased his speed the longer he ran in a straight line.
Slowly but surely we continued leveling until there was no other option but to go to the red zone. At this point, I wasn’t really that concerned about what might have been waiting for us there, but about Ezel’s still lack of communication. I mean, he was already level 8 and still no sign of change. It was… odd to say the least. Moreover, he was still a commoner class and despite the fact he had such a huge boost to his strength, he still looked the same.
It just seemed weird. I mean, my dad was supposed to be level 5 and I imagine his strength should be through the roof, but I highly doubt he has more than 30 points in strength. It just would be weird I think. So, why was little Ezel still the same? I think it was a great question, but I wanted to go for level 20 so we continued onward. I could tell he was hungry but didn’t voice anything. That was also strange, I just knew he was feeling it. Thinking that we would go back right before breakfast, I thought on just moving forward until I could save some food for him.
Once we made it to the red zone, I noticed there weren’t any ratmen in the hallways, but everything changed in the rooms. Apparently, this could be described as the inner sides of the dungeon and it literally looked like a rat’s nest. There wasn’t just the normal ratman now, but also different versions with different capabilities. Some faster but weaker while others stronger but slower. Since using mana strike was consuming too much mana to just kill one when there were so many enemies, I would make Ezel throw a big rock and I would use Enlarge Object on it to take out several of them rats with haste. Though Ezel was now taking the brunt of the battle since he was so strong. Some of the rats were faster than him but none as strong. The other good thing about this place is that the rats were all level 5 and 6, so the experience improved much more.
I was actually excited about the fact of reaching level 20 soon, though I wasn’t quite there yet, and the goal was for Ezel to reach that level, not me. I hoped we could finish that before we starved but going room through room kept us busy and our minds completely out of our personal needs. Eventually, we noticed that there weren’t any more rooms left except for one. We weren’t able to find more scrolls or any kind of object in the last section of the dungeon so I pictured there was only the boss room left. I was level 15 now and Ezel was in 12, though he was probably close to leveling up.
I told him to prepare himself for probably a tough battle. Despite the fact that he nodded, I wasn’t quite sure he actually knew what I meant or what was probably waiting for us. I just knew I was going to be careful since this was my very first boss. I gulped and after calming my breathing a bit I opened the big doors to the last room of the place. There, far in the distance, was a big rat, around 6 or 7 feet tall seating in a throne and wearing a crown. Surrounding him were 6 rats in each side.
Taking out the little buggers was easy, but the king was a whole other story since it was using some very big claws to fight. I had Ezel fight him while I took out the other ones. I noticed that Ezel did indeed have more strength but the king was faster and was bigger too, so the fight was strained until I was able to join him. Once I had his back, it took us a while until the King was finally turned to dust. Ezel had suffered some damage and had a few cuts along his face, but according to his stats it was nothing too serious and his HP regeneration seemed to be doing enough.
The best part was that, out of that battle, I got 3 levels and he got 4. I thought for a moment that it was due to how much effort we put each in the battle, but I attributed the difference to the fact that I was higher level, thus I required more experience. Now I was level 18 and he was 16 but sadly we had to go back. I could tell it was affecting him the fact that he hadn’t eaten anything and I was already sweating buckets after walking so much. Though I could tell that the effects of his new stats had made a huge difference on Ezel, as I knew he was strong enough now to carry me all the way home with ease if I asked, though that would have been weird.
I must say, however, that I couldn’t invest everything in Strength only. Although I loved seeing him become stronger and that his little fist could actually destroy rock, I was afraid that if I didn’t add points into Intelligence he might never be able to express himself or fully understand me. I also added a few points into charisma, though I wasn’t quite sure what it did. I pictured it would make him more attractive but I wasn’t really able to measure that or see any direct changes.
Ezel and I made our way back to the entrance of the dungeon, once there I went through the door to check if my brothers were around but I could still feel them banging. My eyes went straight to the clock of the kitchen and noticed that not even 5 minutes had passed, it was still 7 in the morning. Besides, since it was Sunday and everyone had had practice yesterday, I knew they would stay in bed until late.
“Come on buddy, let’s go”
I nudged Ezel to follow me back to my room. However, the second he left the dungeon, his body started to shine very bright.
“Dude, what are you doing!? Are you shapeshifting or something!?”
I whispered, though he just looked to me with a strange expression and continued to shine. Quickly, I pushed him up the stairs to my room, closed the door behind him and did my best to cover the edges of the door so it wouldn’t look I had a flashlight on from the inside.
“Ezel! What’s wrong!?”
I turned and asked though now the little guy was a pure ball of light, it was so bright I couldn’t even see his figure anymore. I couldn’t help but close my eyes and hide them with my arms as the light kept getting brighter. I heard some weird sounds and some thudding, but not stronger than what my family did. The moans of my brother’s girlfriend were loud enough to drown what was happening here, but I knew she wouldn’t last long.
Luckily, the light started fading away and slowly I started to open my eyes again. Once I got adjusted again to the normal light of the environment and I checked what was going on, I realized I still couldn’t see anything.
“Master!”
Suddenly my whole body was swept from the floor and I started spinning in the air while not being able to move on my own. I was completely locked as this huge power kept on keeping me in the air.
“W-wait! Stop! What’s going on?”
That’s when everything stopped and my feet touched the floor once more. I took a few steps back and tried to make sense of what just happened. There, staring me with a happy smile was a mountain of a man looking down at me from in between his heaving pecs. He was as tall as my big brother and had big thick muscles all over, though he was thicker on his upper and lower body than Adam. Actually, I could tell he was way more powerful than my dad, as his bulging muscles were way bigger. After years of admiring the big men in this house, I could tell even the slightest difference in their physiques and easily compare them with everyone else.
I couldn’t keep my eyes from him, the guy was gigantic and he looked so strong. But what my eyes couldn’t believe is that I actually recognized him. The claws on those thick fingers and the white hair on top of his head and now spread in plenty of areas of his dark skin.
“Ezel!?”
“That’s right Master”
“Y-Y-You’re so big! W-wait, you can talk!?”
“Well yes, of course. I’m a teen now.”
That’s when it hit me. When we were in the dungeon, time seemed to be frozen, so of course any physical changes wouldn’t happen until he left that area. And, since he was an Ezerant, a race that was meant to reach adulthood at level 20, I imagined that it was the equivalent to being 20 years old. Since he’s level 16 now, it’s basically as if he was a 16 year old. What was kind of disturbing but also very exciting to me was that we both were basically the same “age”. Yet he was so much bigger than even my dad.
“Master? Are you okay?”
He crouched and then with one arm lifting my butt and the other going behind my back, he pushed me against his thick, firm, and slightly hairy pecs while he looked at me in concern.
“Wow, sorry buddy, I was just thinking”
“Oh, I’m so sorry Master, shall I put you down?”
“N-No! I-I like that you hold me like this”
My daddy stopped holding me like this a couple of years ago and I really missed it. Now I had another huge giant man holding me tight. He also smelled incredible, he had a very strong manly scent that I knew I wasn’t going to forget anytime soon. But we had a problem now…
“Dude! How am I going to hide you from my dad now?”
“Ah-I’m sorry Master, I don’t think I can make myself smaller”
“You think you can later on?”
“Yes, my shapeshifting ability will eventually allow me to change my size, but right now is quite low”
“Damn, I can’t even hide you under the bed”
“I’m sorry Master”
“Don’t be, Ezel. I love the way you look”
“Really? I love you too Master!”
Then, he proceeded to give me a tighter hug while he caressed his face against mine. What is that? Stubble? Fuck, he was so manly and his voice was so much deeper now. His attitude still seemed very childish, but maybe it’s because he’s a summon and hasn’t been exposed to too much of the world.
“P-put me down for now, I need to keep my head straight. Need to think of something.”