I Found a Door to the Elven Realm-Chapter 32: Refusal to Floor 2

Inside the final chest were more gold coins than any of the previous chests, several health potions that glowed faint red, and two items that immediately caught everyone’s attention.

The first was another skill book, identical to the one from the first chamber except the claw mark on its cover was a little bit different and more aggressive.

[Skill Book - Beast Claw (Uncommon Grade)]

Emily picked it up and smiled at the male wolf cub. "Looks like you get one too."

The quiet cub’s ears perked up. He’d been watching his sister use her new skill for hours, and Eren could see the jealousy in those amber eyes even if the cub tried to hide it.

[Really? For me?]

"Yeah, buddy," Eren said. "Your turn."

The male cub took the book carefully in his mouth. Unlike his sister’s excited chomp, he was gentle, almost reverent. The book dissolved into the same golden light, flowing into him.

He shivered, then extended his claws. They began glowing with a deep crimson light, darker than his sister’s red trails.

[This feels... powerful.] His voice, usually so quiet, had an edge of excitement Eren rarely heard.

His sister immediately pounced on him, starting a playful wrestling match. Both cubs’ claws left glowing trails in the air as they tumbled across the chamber floor.

One cub had a common claw skill and her brother got uncommon version but their skills didn’t show Evolution League tag. Maybe it was a racial thing. Beasts and Monsters had their skills with more basic categories but humans, elves or other races had League tiers.

He asked both cubs but they didn’t say anything about tiers. They just knew one had common grade claw skill and male one got a uncommon rank version.

While wolves were having fun, Eren looked into his skill list.

1- Door Master - First Evolution League

2-Evon Universe Welcoming Gift - Unique Language Pack

3- Poison Resistance (Passive) - First Evolution League

4- Wolf Eyes (Passive) - First Evolution League

5- Love Love Love! (Passive) First Evolution League

6- Love Shot (Passive) - First Evolution League

7- Lovely Eyes (Active) - First Evolution League

Eren had found a few chances to use his own skills. Mostly tried his poor bow management with Love Shot and Lovely Eyes in important moments.

By now he knew how important even a simple attack skill could be.

The Lovely Eyes skill, which could affect creatures with a weaker change of Charm trait, was very overpowered. Since Eren used it actively, he’d used that two-second confusion on creatures that threatened him a lot. But he also knew learning how to use this bow was going to be very crucial in winter time.

Meanwhile, Emily watched the cubs with amusement, then pulled out the second item from the chest. It was a silver ring with strange engravings that seemed to shift when Eren looked at them directly.

[Ring of Minor Wisdom (Common)]

[No Description]

[Intelligence +3]

"This is actually good," Emily said, examining it closely. She handed it to Eren. "You need all the mana and magic boost help you can get."

Eren slipped it onto his finger next to the uncommon ring he’d gotten from the slimes weeks ago. The two rings looked mismatched, but he could feel a faint warmth from the new one.

He felt smarter even if the ring didn’t change anything too dramatic. Eren loved entertaining himself mentally.

The feeling of getting stronger, having a pregnant elven beauty by his side, being in a dungeon....he was very satisfied with his life.

As the cubs continued their play-fight, Eren watched them use their Beast Claw skills with increasing confidence. An idea formed in his head. It was probably stupid, but the more he thought about it, the more sense it made.

"Hey," he said to the cubs. "Once you guys master that skill, could you teach it to me?"

Both cubs stopped wrestling immediately. Emily turned to stare at him.

"What?" Emily asked.

"I mean, they already taught me the Wolf Eyes skill before, and what they said was that once you master a skill, you can teach it to another beast, right?" Eren shrugged, trying to look casual even though his heart was beating faster.

This could be amazing and completely broken. But that depended on cub’s attitude. He hoped they didn’t think he was using them or something.

The female cub tilted her head. [It takes too much time for active skills to be mastered. Hırr..]

The siblings looked at each other, having one of their silent conversations. Then the male cub nodded.

[We can try. When we get good enough, we will teach you.]

"No pressure." Eren grinned. Having claws of his own would be incredible. Even if it didn’t work, it was worth trying.

Emily was still staring at him with an unreadable expression. "That’s... actually a really smart idea. I never thought about trying to learn beast skills even after you said they gave you a passive one. Maybe I should have given that skill to you. I never even considered that. Sorry."

"Don’t worry. They killed more than us and deserved those skills. Also we took all the items so it’s only fair. Also I gave the second one to him while knowing I could use it." He was rushing for strength but also needed to tame these cubs permanently.

Eren knew what was important for now. Then he wondered about something.

"Want to try learning their wolf vision skill?" Eren suggested. "You know, the one where they can see in the dark better?"

Emily’s eyes lit up. "Can they teach me that?"

Eren looked at the cubs. But the cubs looked uncertain. [We can try?] the female said.

[But we don’t know how to explain it. My mothers taught it to us and it was already mastered when we have it. Then they kicked us out...]

For the next few minutes, they attempted one of the strangest training sessions Eren had ever been part of. The cubs tried to explain how their vision worked, Eren translated, and Emily attempted to replicate it.

Nothing happened. Emily concentrated hard enough that her face scrunched up adorably, then opened them. "Anything?"

"Nope," Eren said. "Still just pretty elf eyes."

They tried different approaches. The cubs demonstrated by hunting invisible prey in the dark corners. Emily mimicked their head movements. She even tried growling like a wolf, which made Eren bite his lip to keep from laughing.

Emily stopped trying and looked at him thoughtfully. "Evon recognizes you as something beast-adjacent. Not fair!"

"I thought you said that as a joke before, but you might have a point."

"Apparently." Emily sat down on a rock, thinking. "My mother used to tell me stories about beast-affiliated humans, but I thought they were just legends. People who could learn skills from the creatures they bonded with. Not like you. Your situation is way more absurd."

The male cub padded over to Eren and sniffed him thoroughly. [You smell like beast to us. But also like forest. And like us after learning out skill.]

"What’s he saying?" Emily asked.

"That I smell weird," Eren translated with a smile.

But Emily wasn’t smiling anymore. She was looking at Eren with that analytical expression she got when figuring out monster patterns. "You know what’s strange? You get eight- no nine stat points every level. I get one. The cubs..."

She trailed off and looked at the wolf cubs. "How many do you two get when you level up?"

The cubs looked confused by the question. Eren helped translate it better, explaining what stats were in wolf terms.

[Oh! We get stronger and faster,] the female said. [Sometimes very stronger, sometimes just stronger.]

"Two or three points per level," Eren guessed. "Depends on the level?"

"That’s... actually normal for beasts," Emily said slowly.

Female cub explained.[Low-level forest creatures like rabbits get one point. Wolves get two or three depending on their bloodline strength. Elves get one. Humans from your world probably get one naturally too, but you a dwarf...]

She didn’t finish but Eren understood. He was getting eight times-plus free distributing one so 9 stats. Even for a beast, that was ridiculous.

"Maybe the portal door did something to me," Eren said. "When I first came through."

"Maybe." Emily stood up and brushed off her clothes. "We can figure it out later. Right now, we should decide if we’re going deeper."

[Deeper?] Both cubs perked up.

"The dungeon has a second floor probably third or even four." Emily explained. "Harder monsters, better loot. But we’ve been here for hours and..." she looked at Eren’s mentally exhausted face, "I think we’ve done enough for today."

Eren wanted to argue. Part of him wanted to keep going, to see how far they could push. But his arms ached, his legs felt like jelly despite the level-up energy boost, and he could see Emily was getting tired too, even if she hid it well.

"Yeah," he admitted. "Let’s head back."

[Aww,] the female cub whined. [But we were having fun!]

"We can come back another day," Eren promised. "This dungeon isn’t going anywhere."

As if responding to their decision, a system notification appeared.

[Would you like to proceed to Floor 2?]

"No," Emily said firmly to the air.

[Party has declined to proceed] 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

[Calculating exit route...]

[Exit portal active in Chamber 8 for 10 minutes]

A swirling blue portal materialized on the far wall, humming with energy. Through it, Eren could see the forest outside, though it looked darker than when they’d entered. Had they really been in here that long?

They gathered their loot, made sure the cubs weren’t leaving anything behind, and stepped through the portal.

The forest air hit Eren like a cold slap. After hours in the musty dungeon, the clean smell of pine, sun flowers and dirt was almost overwhelming. He took a deep breath and felt his head clear.