The councilors proved to be an effective governing body for Celestia, leaving Imri mostly free of the mundane operations. Emery was the youngest of the three, though he was still in his mid-forties with a shaved head and a well-manicured beard. He was the boldest of the three, often proposing radical departures from a pre-integration city, despite having been on the city council for the pre-integration Minneapolis. This was in stark contrast to Laura, the sole woman on the council and the oldest of the three, having recently retired only to have her retirement years taken by the system. She was reasonable, but having run a successful company for most of her life made her convinced there was little reason to deviate more than was strictly necessary. Steve rounded out their group, a quiet slightly overweight man who had been in a senior position at a large corporation when the integration happened. He was ruthless in his pursuit of efficiency, focusing on the details of operations instead of the big picture.
It was near midday on the second day since the hunting parties had left for the plains. Imri had been discussing several proposals that rose above the typical mundane management when a pair of panicked-looking prospectors came running up.
“It’s Lenny, that fucker killed Lenny. Blew him to bits like he was nothing,” one of the prospectors rambled, tears streaming down their face.
“Calm down man, we can’t help you like this,” Emery said, looking around the table at Imri and his fellow councilors, worry evident on everyone's faces.
“It’s like he said, one of those lizards came out of nowhere. It slammed into Lenny so hard, there wasn’t much left of him. We ran as fast as we could and came straight here,” the second man explained, being slightly more level than the first, though still clearly shaken from the experience.
“We’ll handle the situation. If you could refrain from spreading this news until we can properly explain it to everyone, that would be most appreciated,” Laura said calmly, though a faint crack in her voice showed she wasn’t entirely unshaken.
“I thought you said we would be safe here. Looks like more of the same fucked up shit,” the distraught man shouted.
No one had any answers, Imri had assumed the giant lizards would leave them alone, preferring larger prey. He guessed that Lenny had just gotten unlucky to run into a particularly hungry or temperamental one of their kind.
“We’ll do our best to make Celestia as safe as possible, but nowhere is truly safe at the moment. Everyone needs to remain vigilant,” Imri said. It was apparently the wrong thing to say because instantly the two tensed and even his fellow councilors looked at him like he was an idiot.
“What was he supposed to do? The thing came at him like a small plane. It probably came from almost half a mile away in a few seconds. Even you, the almighty space mage would be a puddle right now,” the prospector shouted.
“We’ll do what we can to properly honor Lenny. You have the council's word on that,” Steve said.
Eventually, the two men left, after a protracted discussion about what was to be done. It was heated enough that Imri doubted there was any point in trying to delay news getting out, half the settlement probably knew already. Instead, Imri excused himself, setting off towards the site of the attack. He was the only person remotely equipped to handle the Cliff Drakes, especially since most of their most powerful fighters were on the hunting expedition.
The location was near the cave entrances, near a sheer cliff that would be impassable for humans to climb, even with a proper setup. He scanned the cliff wall for the lizards using a pair of binoculars, nearly passing over them as their coloring blended into the rocks. They looked as sedate as they normally did, seemingly disinterested in the ground below as they soaked in light. Imri also used the binoculars to find Lenny’s remains. That too took a bit of time, as there wasn’t much of him remaining.
Imri took a steadying deep breath, then moved towards the scene of carnage, his eyes remaining fixed on the cliff face and the intervening sky. Now that he knew where they were it was easier to make out the lizards, especially when using his mana vision.
Suddenly, one of the drakes pushed off the cliff face, spreading its limbs so the wing-like membrane caught the air, allowing it to glide forward while still descending at a rapid rate. It seemed utterly indifferent to the speed at which it approached Imri, approaching him with reckless abandon toward the impending crash with the ground below. It was akin to base jumping, not true flight.
Imri didn’t have much time to react, in mere moments he would share Lenny’s fate. He activated a necklace of Time Dilation, one of the more recent creations that had been optimized. His own spell casting would still have been more powerful, but he couldn’t spare the mana or the attention to maintain the spell. Everything moved 5% slower, though this was quickly offset as the lizard creature continued its descent towards him with increasing speed.
The creature was even bigger than Imri expected, almost eight meters from snout to tail. It more closely resembled a crocodile than any other reptilian creature, though it was wider and with longer limbs, with chitinous-like scales covering the majority of its body. Imri quickly identified the creature.
Creature Tier/Rank Level Description Cliff Drake 1D 36 A reptilian creature capable of gliding at high speed. Has high constitution and strength with resistance to fire and physical attacks.
Imri faltered and nearly lost his composure as he saw its rank and level. Fortunately, he managed to regain his wits and used Boundless Step just before it would have crashed into him. He appeared several meters away from where the creature had estimated him to be. Inertia couldn’t be overcome, and the Drake slammed into the ground with tremendous force, creating a small shockwave from the impact.
Despite the violent collision and tremendous force exerted upon the creature, it recovered quickly, spinning around faster than a creature of its size should be able to. Imri brought his hand down in a chopping motion as the creature's jaws opened, revealing rows of sword-sized teeth. At the same time as his hand moved, a thin meter-long dark tear appeared in front of Imri as he channeled mana as fast as he could. Imri anchored the tear to his motion and then released it, sending the void forth, traversing through the Cliff Drake like a hot knife through butter. For a brief moment, Imri panicked as the monster seemed unaffected by his spell that had taken the majority of his mana. Then, as the dark line faded, the Cliff Drake split in two, cleanly bisected vertically into almost symmetrical pieces.
Imri was forced to dodge out of the way, ending up on the ground as he ungracefully dove out of the way. The momentum of the creature carried its two halves forward, unaltered by the spatial tear that didn't exert any force, slamming into the ground where Imri had been a moment earlier. The Cliff Drake must have had an almost inexhaustible HP pool because it continued to show signs of life, even though its body had been bisected. Fortunately, whatever HP and regeneration it had could not overcome the extreme trauma it had experienced, dying moments later, though it seemed some of the injuries had started to heal. If Imri had tried a conventional fight and hadn’t overwhelmed it with damage immediately, its monstrous HP would have prevented normal wounds from even slowing it.
Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
“You can come out now,” Imri said absently as he rose unsteadily to his feet, slightly dizzy from the migraine-like effects of low mana. He inspected the corpse as the pair of angry prospectors, who had followed him since he left the nexus, approached with trepidation. Imri had easily spotted them with his mana sight. They now regarded him with a mix of terror and respect.
Imri poked the dead creature’s hide with his knife, noting that its chitinous scales were solid enough his knife couldn’t even nick them. “We’ll need to get the carcass back to Celestia, I won’t be able to break it down further,” Imri explained to the confused and skittish prospectors.
“What was that thing you did?” one of the men asked, ignoring Imri’s request for the moment. Imri did his best to explain the Spatial Tear spell, though he could tell by their confused expression it wasn’t sticking. Imri just shook his head and focused on the task at hand. He sent them back to the settlement, telling them to bring enough help so they could get the carcass back to Celestia before nightfall. Imri took the opportunity to review his gains when he was certain that no more Cliff Drakes would be diving at him, though he did step back a bit.
Achievement Upgraded Rank New Stats | Improvement Solo Hunter 22 2.2%(+2%) New Achievement Rank Stats/Rank Description Grade Above 2 .15% Solo kill a creature of a higher grade than your heritage, 1 rank/grade difference.
Imri Padar has reached level 17 in Relativity Mage (1E) Imri Padar has reached level 17 in Primordial (1F) Primary Stats Gained New Value +3 Strength 119 +2 Agility 92 +3 Constitution 106 +6 Intelligence 165 +5 Willpower 144 +2 Charisma 97 Secondary Stats Gained +8 HP 131 +5 FP 99 +24 MP 281 +24 Mana Efficiency 288 +26 Crafting Efficiency 309
Trait Ranked Up Improvement Spatial Manipulation F to E Gives a rudimentary understanding of spatial concepts, helping improve the rate at which spells and skills related to the concept of space are learned by 5.12% (+.12%). Increases the effectiveness of space based skills and spells by 1.53% (+.03%). Spell Ranked Up Spatial Tear F to E +2.5% Mana Efficiency for the spell.
Quest Updated Progress Relativity Mage Rank Up E to D Learn new space or time spells 3/5, space or time spells Ranked Up 5/5
Imri’s fear of stagnation disappeared in an instant. He had gained 3 levels in a relatively easy, albeit dangerous fight. The greatest improvement came from a massive achievement boost, giving a full 2% more to all his primary stats just from the massive number of ranks gained in Solo Hunter. The Grade Above achievement was a small boost, but he supposed it was on top of what would always be a sizable increase from Solo Hunter. While he had bemoaned the fact that his Spatial Tear would be ineffective against large groups of monsters, due to its incredible mana demands, it had more than made up for it with its unmatched ability to destroy anything. Putting his spells and skill to effective use against a theoretically far stronger opponent also appeared to be a great way to rank them up, with Spatial Tear going from F to E in its first practical use.
By the time a group was able to bring the carcass back to Celestia, night had fallen. News of Lenny’s death had spread, but so too had Imri’s response. People looked at him with awe, respect, and no small amount of fear. Imri did his best to ignore the rumors that swirled, some of which were truly outlandish, some even saying he ripped the beast in two with his bare hands.
The flying crocodile, as the Cliff Drake was colloquially being described, was butchered for its meat. That proved a daunting task, as its bones and hide were too tough for even the butcher's sturdiest cleavers. What meat they did manage to extract was prepared by the chef, and an impromptu feast was had. Imri dedicated the feast to Lenny, deflecting any attempts to make the celebration about him. A good portion of their remaining alcohol was consumed, though Imri didn’t feel in the mood. Instead, he focused on business, spending his time conversing with Caroline about what she would be able to make.
She was hesitantly optimistic that she could make another elixir from various parts of the Cliff Drake. Her main concern was that the beast parts were too high level for her skill to take advantage of. This also made the elixir more difficult rather than less, the D-grade materials would be more suited for a D-grade elixir. After studying the corpse for a while, she declared that a scale, a tooth, and the heart would be the best part of the monster to use for her purposes.
The other craftsmen were even more skeptical of their abilities to work with the monster parts. The tanner was especially despondent, knowing the hide would likely be tough enough to stop Umbral Tiger bites with ease, but the utter inability to put a scratch in the creature's hide made it impossible to skin. They had a bit more success with the creature's teeth, using a pickaxe to dig them out of the creature's gums, and even this took several miners chipping away for the better part of an hour. Similarly, they were able to pry a few loose scales for Caroline's purposes using a crowbar.
Somewhat defeated, Imri took the rest of the carcass to Christoph. The merchant put one hand on the merchandise and one hand on the nexus. He normally quickly replied, being able to calculate the percentages for both parties in a second. However, this time he took out a pen and notepad, scribbled some numbers, and stared at them for a long while.
“With my skill, I can give you 149,919 credits,” Christoph said after double and triple-checking his math. Imri understood why it had taken him so long, that was an incredible sum. He wasn’t even sure what he would do with that many credits, and he would have preferred the parts be put to proper use. Still, there was no other immediate way to break it down further and no convenient way to preserve it for future use.
“Do it,” Imri said. A moment later the monster was gone and Imri was a rich man. Not only that, the huge transaction had leveled up the settlement.