161. The Night Fran Hit Level 44

「Hah!」

「Aaahh!」

Fran swung me straight at the Dirty Wisp, but my blade ended up passing through its body.

It looked like it used Dark Magic in order to defend itself. Specifically, it used a spell that made it momentarily immune to physical attacks.

「Fire Javelin!」

「Aaaahhh!」

『Tsk. Damn this thing’s fast.』

The Dirty Wisp had managed to create a Dark Shield and fend off Fran’s attack. It was not only swift as a coursing river, but also able to cast its spells at an extraordinary speed.

『Fire Arrow.』

『Fire Arrow.』

『Fire Arrow.』

I adapted to the Dirty Wisp’s traits and fired off a larger number of spells in order to make sure it wouldn’t be able to defend itself. I figured that the barrage I shot at it would finally allow us to take it down, but apparently I was in the wrong.

「Aahh!」

『It disappeared…? Wait, no! The damn thing teleported!』

The Dirty Wisp appeared about 3 meters away from its prior location.

It didn’t seem like it was capable of teleporting long distances, but still, it was a pain in the ass to deal with. We honestly probably could just spam at it till it died if we wanted, but we might end up breaking its magic stone if we used anything with too much power behind it. Destroying the thing we were after would kinda defeat the whole purpose of us hunting the thing down in the first place.

The issue we were plagued with was one that stemmed from the fact that the Dirty Wisp was actually quite weak. Stronger magic beasts would have harder magic stones, and thus, we could hit them harder without having to worry about smashing their cores to bits.

In that case, the best thing for us to do would be…

『Let’s focus on speed and hit it before it can react.』

「Nn.」

『Urushi!』

「Woof! Growl!」

『Fire Arrow!』

「Aaahhh!」

The Dirty Wisp dove into the shadows in order to escape our attacks, and, in doing so, danced right to our tune.

Despite being quick as hell, the Dirty Wisp didn’t have access to Chant Shortening, so it wasn’t capable of teleporting in quick succession. In other words, all we needed to do was hit it the moment after it teleported.

We made use of our detection skills in order to predict where it’d teleport to, a feat only made possible through the experiences we gained throughout our exploration of Ulmutt’s eastern dungeon.

「Ha!」

Fran’s right hand flashed as she wreathed me in flame and cleaved straight through the Dirty Wisp.

『Nice!』

「Nn!」

『Alright, let’s keep this up and have ourselves a wisp hunt!』

「Woof!」

***

And so, three hours flew right by.

『Fran, Urushi, dinner’s ready.』

「Nn!」

「Woof!」

We set up camp in one of the 19th floor’s corners.

The combination of the tent we looted off Solas and the barriers Urushi and I put up practically made our little campsite the dungeon’s safest spot.

We accomplished a lot today. We hunted ourselves some Dirty Wisps, got the skill we wanted, and even grinded Fran all the way up to level 44.

Tomorrow, we would finally reach reach the dungeon’s 20th floor and maybe even have Fran hit her max level.

That was all fine and dandy in and of itself, but there was something I had to tell her before she capped.

『Hey, Fran. You got a bit?』

「Nn?」

『You’re on the verge of hitting level 45.』

「Nn.」

『Appraisal’s telling me that level 45 is also your max.』

「I know.」

『So uh… yeah…』

It was a bit hard for me to actually say it, but still, it was better to disappoint her now than later.

Hence, I steeled myself and decided to just be honest.

『I don’t actually think hitting the level cap will let you evolve.』

It was just a prediction, but one I felt I simply had to say to her nonetheless.

I knew that the Black Cat Tribe was weak, but that didn’t necessarily mean that all of its members were just flat out incapable of combat. She can’t have been the only one to have ever hit level 45.

In order words, Black Catkin probably needed to do more than just hit the level cap if they wanted to evolve.

「Nn.」

Fran simply responded to the concern I voiced by nodding. She didn’t seem particularly upset.

「Same as other beastkin. Satisfied conditions required for evolution. Example, fox tribes’ conditions well known.」

High level foxkin were only able to evolve if they happened to possess Fox Fire, one of the tribe’s inherent skills. Black Catkin also likely had some sort of restriction that would gate from evolution unless they managed to fulfill it.

「Don’t know details, but heard White Wolf also needs special condition.」

『Really?』

「That’s why want to talk with Gramps. Might be able to get hints.」

『So I’m guessing that’s why you accepted his request?』

「Nn.」

I really should’ve realized that Fran was thinking more about her evolution than I was. It’d been her goal this whole time.

『Well, alright. All’s well so long as you’re aware.』

「No issues.」