I woke up feeling refreshed, I double checked that I had all my equipment on me and did some final preparations. I was going to use the system to its limit now.

“Open System Store”

[System Store Opened]

A dark panel appeared in front of me, looking just like an online shopping service. However, instead of showing daily items, it contained armour and weapons. I had 600 coins to use in my inventory and needed to get some sturdy equipment.

The first step was to acquire a sword. I scrolled down the list of swords and found one that was cheap but reliable:

{Fancy Slicer:

Uncommon Weapon

Enchantments:

Blood-clean, Sharpness

A reliable blade for intermediate adventurers, won’t break easily.

Cost: 80 Coins }

The next thing I needed was some reliable armour, I had some leeway with spending here so I looked at the pricier items. Nothing was as valuable as my life. I finally found a suitable set of armour that wasn’t too basic but not too gaudy too:

{Bandit King Set

Rare Armour

Enchantments:

Swiftness, Stealth, Protection

Armour designed for the ruler of bandits himself, legend says he who wears this armour will find a life of adventure and riches

Cost: 300 coins }

Finally, I stocked up on 10 Mana and Healing potions each that were available at the store:

{Mana Potion:

Rejuvenates 1000 mana

Cost: 10 coins }

{Health Potion:

Heals 500 health

Cost 10 coins}

I now had a grand total of 20 coins to my name, but I managed to get the necessities for this fight. I checked my status one last time to confirm my growth, after all, I had killed a bunch of worms and wyverns during these various tests I was holding.

{ James,

Health 5800 Mana 29 400

Race: Mana Being

Job: Player Lv 24 Exp 30%

Title: Rookie Dragon Slayer

Base Status

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Strength: 41

Stamina: 29

Agility: 41

Endurance: 29

Intelligence: 24

Allocatable Stat Points: 86

Active Skills: Stealth Lv 4, Navigation Lv 4, Analysis Lv 4, Power Strike Lv 3, ▛█▚▆ Lv ▪▪▪

Mastery Skills: Beginner Blunt Weapon Mastery 100% , Beginner Martial Arts 59%, Beginner Spear Mastery 100%, Beginner Blade Mastery 100%, Sharpshooting 100%

Passive Skills: Status Resistance Lv 2, Laplace Authority Lv 2, Parallel Thinking Lv2, Speed Processing Lv2, One with Mana, Mana Control Lv 5

Spells: Hellfire Marble, Elemental Rain }

I was no longer the little boy running away from ghouls.Now I would be challenging the boss of this entire desert filled with wyverns and sand worms. I spread out my mana as far as I could, close to a 25 km radius, in search of this unknown being. After a few minutes I spotted an energy signature larger than those of the usual monsters. The target was finally spotted, and he wasn’t that far either, only a few kilometres away from the shelter. I started running at my top speed and used some entros particles coupled with stealth to hide myself.

I approached the location where I found the energy signature yet there was nothing above ground. Naturally I started using geo particles to look underground, and finally, I spotted a creature under the sand….sleeping?

I was sure that this creature was the boss so I readied a preemptive strike against it with three of my hellfire marbles. After I launched the marbles they landed at the spot above the boss and exploded in a fiery storm of destruction.

The explosions managed to wake the boss up while also dealing some preemptive damage. What I wasn’t prepared for was the absolute size of this beast. I activated my analysis while steeling my nerves against the panic welling up inside of me:

{ Egyr, The Deserted Ruler Lv 50

Race: Young Sand Dragon

Strength: 61

Stamina: 39

Agility: 51

Endurance: 68

Intelligence: 34

The “pinnacle race” as some have termed it, the dragons are the strongest species equaled only by spirits and the divine. The older a dragon is, the stronger its powers over nature become.

Weakness: ???

}

The dragon finally stood, reaching its full height of about 3 stories from the bottom of its feet to the base of its wings. Although its wings were nowhere near large enough to allow flight, its legs were definitely strong enough to carry it. The dragon’s head was larger than a small car. Its majestic scales blended in with the surrounding sand, but that didn’t help much in hiding its enormous mass. Unexpectedly, it opened its mouth and a low rumble came out, which I was surprisingly able to understand.

“Mortal, have you come to challenge me on my own turf? You have some guts to attack a sleeping dragon. I'll give you that.”

I ignored his attempt at communication and readied my sword in a fighting stance fit for warriors. I charged with all my powers, too fast for the naked eye, but much too slow for the dragon’s iris.

All of a sudden, I felt the sand rumble beneath my feet, then shoot up like geysers from a hot spring. I nearly lost my footing but I managed to side-step the geysers. I approached the dragon’s head, but not before he tried to swallow me up. I had to thank my Laplace Authority for saving me this time. The dragon’s eyes shot in surprise all of a sudden.

“Hey mortal….wait, what even ARE you. Your existence was obscured for a second but now that I’ve taken a moment to look, you’re quite the anomaly”

I tried my best to ignore its cryptic words that were most likely to distract me from the fight. I slipped under its torso and readied my blade. As I was about to slash at the underbelly of this enormous dragon, a chill travelled down my spine.

I sensed some mana moving to my right and jumped ahead, only to be struck by the real attack. A sand wave struck me straight in the chest, it was so strong I was pushed back from under the dragon while out of breath. I stood back up, but I felt very unbalanced for some reason. When I looked over, I realised why.

My left arm was missing…