5: Skills

Jason backed up slowly and Boris moved straight to the front. A huge shield red as his armor appeared in his hand. It had the shape of an elongated octagon and he slammed it into the ground.

The wolf king growled lowly. Thousands of sparks appeared. They rushed towards it. Boris spat. This was the most dangerous thing about a boss monster. They almost always had greater authority over the nearby mana than any hunter.

This essentially meant that if a hunter wanted to fight a boss he would have to do so with mana stones. This was no loss as the boss would inevitably drop mana stones, enough to profit, but they were still a limited resource until the monster was slain.

“We doin this cap?” Boris asked as he raised his axe.

Amelie took out her sword then crushed a stone, “Of course, this is our quickest route to the doll.”

Jason brightened. Of course! You might kill wolves all day without the doll actually dropping but the wolf king had a 100% drop rate!

He faced forward. This was a raid boss meant to be fought by twenty people. He was not just strong but also fast and smart. He wouldn’t dumbly focus on Boris, no matter what his skills.

Boris took a braced stance and glared at the boss, his eyes flaring the bright orange of fire, “Come on little doggy!” he called. This was a taunt skill, not activated by his voice but by the exact movements of his body.

It crept around him then leapt straight at Jieun.

“Come here!” Boris roared as he swung his axe. A fiery chain shot from it with a blazing grapple at its end. It was another skill! It shot straight for the wolf king’s neck.

He quickly dodged.

Boris bared his teeth and yanked his axe. The grapple reacted, jerking back and striking the wolf king with lightning speed. It lodged firmly in his neck and Boris pulled hard.

The wolf king flew toward him as flames of fury ignited in its eyes. Boris stood still for half a second and a white healing light fell over him.

Jason was amazed. Jieun was amazing! She never so much as flinched, and her heal landed with perfect timing, her glowing staff extended.

The wolf king growled again but the chain bound it to Boris. It could move but not more than twenty feet from him. This was the true mark of a tank. Taunt skills worked wonders on dumb beasts but control skills were far more reliable. They were much harder to implement but once struck it didn’t matter how smart the monster was, they could not escape.

“Attack,” Amelie ordered calmly.

Everyone moved. John and Mark blasted arrows, glowing wind green, Jieun cast another heal, Lira charged like a blue bolt, Samba leapt high, and Amelie shot, straight forward.

Fiery light covered her sword and watery blue her body and she struck down hard upon the wolf king’s back leg.

It yelped in pain and the halo on her sword vanished. She had depleted its entire mana reserve in one strike!

Jason checked the boss’ HP bar. It had barely fallen by a sliver. Bosses didn’t mess around! The wolf king lunged at Boris and his entire body was covered in a solid golden halo while he shield glowed brightest of all.

The wolf slammed into it and Boris stumbled back, his shield unmarked. This was the strength of the Earth element!

Speaking of which… he poured more strength into his own cells and charged.

Roar!!! The wolf king suddenly thrashed and a red aura covered it. It pulsed larger and shook off Boris’ chain like so much scrap. It rounded upon Amelie. Jason saw her smile.

“Come on then? You think I’m weaker?” she taunted.

His heart skipped.

It leapt straight for her. She slipped between its legs like flowing water. She was at its side.

Her sword glowed anew and she struck hard upon its ribs. Its bar fell by another small chunk.

It whirled again but again she was nowhere to be found. Bang! She struck again.

“Accursed!” the wolf growled and it charged straight at John. The young man was calm and turned straight around, fleeing across the prairie.

He was far too slow and the wolf king flew like the wind. He caught up to him. He slammed his figure to the ground. Suddenly he was gone and the wolf king pawed at the ground, finding nothing.

Jason whistled. This was a truly rare skill, ‘phantom wind,’ that hunters could use to escape, creating a phantom while becoming briefly invisible themselves.

The wolf king rounded in fury only to see Boris charging at him. “Think you can escape!?” he roared and the wolf leapt at him.

“Who is escaping!?” it demanded and Jason smiled. This was the greatest weakness of all monsters, their vanity. Of course you had to rile them up a bit to properly exploit it. This was just a fact of life, the more angry a person or monster was, the stupider they were.

Boom! The boss slammed into his shield and he stumbled back five steps. Arrows pierced while Samba and Amelie struck viciously and Lira relentlessly.

Boris grinned. He glanced toward Jason, “You fighting or not?”

The boss was almost half dead and Jason nodded. He couldn’t let them do all the work. He imbued endless earth into his body and sword. To his way of thinking this was necessary. What point was there in great strength if your sword was just going to break?

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He rushed forward and the wolf king spun towards him.

“Come here!” Boris roared and his chain shot out again, thicker and stronger than ever. It caught the wolf king directly in the snout and he yanked it back.

“Accursed!!” the wolf roared and Jason leapt. With all his strength he struck down upon its neck and its protective aura split. His sword bit directly into its nape.

Blood sprayed and it let out a painful yelp. Its HP bar fell by a 20th. It pulled hard on the chain and Boris grunted. Jason could actually see the chain warping, stretching, about to break again.

“Stupid dog! Die!” he roared as he slashed down again, this time on the wolf’s cheek. It yelped again and Amelie leapt high. She held no sword but a silver spear. “Pierce to death!” she commanded and it burst into silver flames. It split the air with a hair raising whistle.

It pierced through, straight to the heart, and the wolf king’s bar fell to a tenth.

John and Mark fired, Samba struck, and Jason leapt. His sword came down one last time. It struck upon the wolf king’s nape and cleaved halfway through. It’s bar hit zero and it collapsed with an unwilling cry.

Boris sank to one knee and healing lights began falling over everybody, Jeiun waving her staff over and over.

A light fell over Jason himself and he laughed breathlessly. It wasn’t nearly enough. He had really pushed himself to deliver such punishing blows. He wiped his mouth then poured healing mana through his cells.

He glanced to Amelie, “So what do you think, cap? Is my mana strong enough?”

She was unmoved. “Time will tell.”

“Does that mean you intend to spend a lot more time with me?”

Lira glanced between them with bright eyes, “Good idea cap, lock him down before another team grabs him.”

Amelie rolled her eyes, “Never mind another team,” she looked straight at him, “if his magic is real the whole world will be fighting over him.”

He smiled faintly but said nothing. Everyone was nearly recovered and he walked to the corpse. He gave it a tap. It quickly faded into oblivion and five items dropped lightly to the ground.

They laid in a rough circle, four surrounding one, and Jason looked at the center item. It was a pristine doll in a lace trimmed blue dress. He picked her up.

Her bright face captivated him. It spoke so eloquently, of happiness and innocence, that his heart suddenly hurt. He cleared his throat and tapped on her chest.

Porcelain Doll

A beautiful little lady. Perhaps you can find out more about her in Redstone Village.

He stared at the doll, squeezing it a little tighter. Triggering a main scenario was simple, completing it not so much… so much so that even after two hundred years, no hunter in any dungeon had managed it. Every floor of every dungeon had a different scenario, but they all had that one thing in common, the abject failure of the human race to complete a single one of them.

His blue eyes were sharp in the sunshine and Amelie watched him. Things were going to change, the world was going to change. Both he and Kyrios would see to that.

He put it away and turned to the other items. A certain drop caught his attention. It was a one handed sword, straight and double edged with a wolf’s head pommel. Lightning flickered up and down it and he took it in hand. He immediately felt lighter on his feet. He tapped its fuller and the item panel appeared.

Wolf’s Bane

Grade: Rare

Type: One Handed Sword

Level Requirement: 1

+2 Strength

+4 Agility

+1 Perception

Active Skills:

Lightning Burst: All Lightning element mana amplified by 70%

Duration: 3 seconds.

Cooldown: 8 minutes

Passive Skills:

Blessed by Lightning: Lightning element mana will inflict 15% less damage on all cells.

Boris clicked his tongue, “That’ll sell.”

Jason nodded. The great thing about item skills was that all they required was a voice command, calling out the skill’s name. Personal skills had to actually be learned from a skill book. Of course they didn't function like an ordinary book but they still took a great deal of time to master. The system would tell you how close you were to perfecting the skill, giving you a percentage score, but it could take decades to master. This was why so many ordinary hunters never really developed any skills, despite their extreme efficacy.

He lifted the sword, blue lightning reflecting in his eyes. It felt good in his hand and he spun it thrice, grinning like a kid.

Samba smiled, “It’s not that good,” he said and Jason raised his eyebrows

He wasn’t sure what he meant and Amelie came near. “It’s very useful to you but you’re overestimating the value of level 1 gear. The fact is that 30% of hunters never venture past the first floor. It’s only level one gear that’s always overstocked.”

He blinked. He understood her point. With such a surplus of low level hunters the price of level 1 gear would naturally fall. Most level 1 bosses were much weaker than the Wolf King, meant to be fought by teams of five to seven, and many bosses would end up being farmed by various guilds.

Still, he was amazed, “Then 30% of hunters live all their lives never even trying to level up?”

They looked amongst themselves. Samba spoke up, “You’ll see when you go higher just how much scarcer and deadlier the monsters are, and how much harder it is to make a profit.”

He supposed he would and rubbed his jaw. He knew many things about the main scenarios but it seemed he was missing quite a lot of unrelated information.

“Then what about this? How valuable is it?” he asked.

She thought about it, “Maybe 20,000 sc?” she sighed heavily, “I shouldn't have agreed so quickly. We really are taking a heavy loss.”

He laughed, “Alright, maybe I could make some concessions, in the interest of future relations. What did you have in mind?”

She pointed at his cloak, still burning about him. “I want a hint, does that cloak have something to do with the source of your power?”

He spun the sword again, “Alright, I’ll simply tell you this, my power is not my own but was granted to me. As for this cloak, I created it merely as an imitation of his own.”

Her eyes flickered, “You say this power is not your own. Does that mean it’s the result of a spirit contract?”

He was surprised. It was well known that spirits could provide many unusual powers but none of them even hinted at Original Magic, nor would any of them ever strike a covenant with such a low leveled hunter. “You’re not wrong, but not nearly right,” he answered. It was true that he had a covenant with Kyrios, but it was nothing like those struck by hunters with various other spirits.

She stared at him. There were still so many questions but he had already more than delivered.

He handed his borrowed sword back to her and swung Wolf's Bane three more times. He was glad to have it. The main scenario was no place for a common sword.

“Let’s keep going then,” she said.

“You sure you don’t want to hear more?” he asked.

“If you’re willing to tell.”

“Later,” he promised, and she breathed deeply.

“Very well.”

“Lots of nonsense anyways,” Boris muttered and she frowned then turned to the remaining items. There were two rare grade potions, Agility and HP, and a velvet gem bag containing 32 common mana stones. She collected them all.

“Ready?” he asked.

“Yes.”

“Then let’s go.”