"That's the last of them from this one," Terrence jumps up onto the small cliff, landing lightly on his feet beside me. "That was kind of fun. Went up to Level 80, too. That's a gain of eight Levels total from this pit."
We rested longer than anticipated, then came to one of the other side nesting pits for the air lizards. I watched from up here as Terrence battled it out against the beasts, and there were no unexpected surprises. Twenty-four total air lizards, or roughly three beasts per Level for him.
He probably could have gotten a few more Levels due to how close in power they were to him, but Terrence figured out a trick that made killing them significantly easier. Pin their tails into the ground with a [Stone Spear], then blast them with a [Stone Bomb].
That didn't kill them on its own, but when he pinned several of them down together and then blasted them, a few [Stone Bolt]s and another [Stone Spear] or two was sufficient enough to finish them off.
"Good job," I tell him. "Let's go back to our packs."
We turn to start walking away, and as I go to ask him if he wants to rest up before we return to Silvia's home, a barrier forms around the two of us.
This barrier is unlike any I've seen so far. It's not made up of an element, but instead, of glowing white patterns. The barrier is a dome-like one that fully surrounds us and even continues to circle down past the cliff's edge to connect to the cliff there, sealing us in. The upper-half of the dome bears the same crest that was in the summoning circle, though it lacks the runes. Outside of the crest, the dome consists of a sort of flower-like pattern.
No, a tree-like pattern. Those are leaves.
Flowers bloom on the ground beneath us, and I suddenly feel much more powerful than I was before. Judging by the look on Terrence's face, he's as shocked and confused by this as I am – and likely just as enhanced.
"What-" Terrence starts to ask, only for something to impact the barrier, which shatters immediately after.
The buff to my might, however, doesn't.
It takes a moment for me to realize what hit the barrier, and when I do, I realize just how fucked Terrence and I are. At least, how fucked we would be without the barrier.
A dragon-like creature, but without forelegs, little claws at the tips of its wings. Grey leathery skin and no scales, no horns atop its head, and silvery eyes full of malice. The wyvern is soaring away in a curve, likely to come back around.
This thing must have waited until we had our backs turned and were unprepared before attacking. It was quiet, too, which is how it was able to come up behind us without even Terrence's woflkin senses picking up on it.
Silvia said she was planning on taking care of this one she reached Level 150, which would put her at a little bit less than me in terms of her Attributes. With the Slip, the wyvern is even stronger than that – no doubt significantly stronger than I am.
We must have drawn its attention with the bomb spells we were setting off, and the beast decided we would be a good meal. Or it just wanted to kill us.
This buff I've received, however… it's potent enough that I may be able to handle the beast.
"Just this once, [Archon]," a boy's voice whispers in my ear, and Terrence's twitches as he looks at me. "Will I intervene. Your coming here was unavoidable, but your death against such a creature would incur a wrath best avoided. I cannot intervene too much, but I have brought you up sufficiently enough that you should be able to handle the beast. The wolfkin as well. My blessing to you will fade once the wyvern is dead or five minutes have passed. Use it well."
"Who are you?" I ask, but receive no response.
"That was…" Terrence shakes his head. "That voice… it sounded like a child."
"Yeah," I access my Status. We still have a few moments before we'll need to attack or defend. "Terrence, check your Status."
[Blessing of ??? Active] Archon Name: Reid Krezvil Age: 16 years Species: Human Sex: Male Level: 67 Experience: 79.93% Mana: 2,500/2,500 Mana Regen: 2.500/second Strength: 2,500 Constitution: 2,500 Agility: 2,500 Perception: 2,500 Magic: 2,500 Vitality: 2,500
So our Statuses do show our buffed stats rather than our actual ones with the buffs displayed beside it or something. This also means the mysterious kid's buffs actually set our Attributes to these values, rather than simply increased them by a certain amount or something. All of them being the exact same value pretty much declares that as fact.
"Let's amp this up a bit more," Terrence toss me a potion vial, and I quickly down it, tripling my Mana Regen for five minutes. "I feel so powerful."
"Yeah," I conjure up my [Air Armor] around myself an an [Air Barrier] in front of us, the wyvern slamming into the latter.
Severe cracks form on the barrier, but they manage to hold as the wyvern starts to fly off.
"I'm at nearly double my stats," I tell him. "Which means this wyvern is more than double its own thanks to the Slip. It's got flesh, so go with spear spells. If I call for a barrier, stop your attacks and cast an [Air Barrier] in front of us."
We both conjure up [Air Spear]s and start launching them at the wyvern. Terrence aims for the left side, while I am for the right. Our initial goal is to take out its wings, and even as a few rips form in them, the wyvern continues to fly.
Don't tell me this thing doesn't actually need them? Either that, or our rips are just too small and too few to actually bring it harm at the moment.
The beast soars back to us, and Terrence and I both conjure up an [Air Barrier] to stop its attempted charge-flight at us. This time, the beast jerks back some after impacting it, beating its wings toward us to move itself back. Once it's a few yards back, the wyvern screeches at us.
Terrence winces, his barrier faltering a little. Wolfkin ears are definitely not something that should be dealing with a screech like that.
"Release the barrier," I tell him. "Then cast again as soon as I've thrown."
We release our barriers at the same time, and I throw two spells toward the wyvern as the beast starts to fly upwards. Terrence immediately conjures up a thicker [Air Barrier] in front of us, and I detonate the [Stone Bomb] first. It was flying in front of the [Air Bomb] I threw, and a fair bit of its shrapnel hits the latter spell.
That impact triggers my [Air Bomb], which then releases a concussive wave of compressed air. That wave ensures that all of the shrapnel from the air bomb is thrown away from us. Screeching once more, the wyvern tries to soar out of the blast range.
It doesn't make it in time, the [Air Bomb] causing a further acceleration of the shrapnel, which then tears through the wyvern's wings and pepper its body with holes. Blood drips out of the dozens of wounds as Terrence's barrier cracks from the force of the [Air Bomb].
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Then the [Air Bomb]s wave hits the wyvern, only a few moments behind the accelerated shrapnel. The wyvern is knocked off-course and starts to drop.
"Now!" I call out.
Terrence drops the barrier and we start launching more [Air Spear]s at the beast before it can recover. Quite a few of them strike, slicing through its wings further or piercing into its body. Unfortunately, that isn't enough for us to down it and the wyvern finishes recovering, twisting around to soar back at us.
We each throw up an [Air Barrier], only for the wyvern to change directions and start soaring upwards faster than I can get it. My launched [Stone Bomb] and [Air Bomb] both detonate, but neither of them impact the beast. The damn thing flew upwards far too fast.
"Tch!"
"That's weird," Terrence frowns. "Why's it-did it just stop?"
"It does look like it," I say as I examine the wyvern. "What's it doing?"
As if to answer my question, the wyvern tucks in its wings and allows itself to drop, spinning slightly as it descends.
"Oh, shit!"
Terrence and I both jump out of the way, and just in time, too. The wyvern's dive takes it to us in just a few seconds, crushing the barriers we'd conjured before the beast slams into the ground, throwing up dirt, moss, stone, and dust. I'm thrown backwards from the sheer force of the impact, my [Air Armor] thankfully withstanding the attack without issue.
"Terrence!" I call out.
"I'm good!" He groans from the other side of the wyvern. "Wish I had your [Air Armor], though."
The beast shakes its head as it finishes returning to its feet at the same time I manage to. It turns to face me, fixing its gaze on me as it snarls.
"Oof!" Terrence grunts. "Tail whips from a wyvern hurt!"
Snarling, the wyvern lunges at me, and I conjure an [Air Barrier] in front of me as I summon two [Air Spear]s. I send them around the barrier before spreading it into a full dome around me. This thing separated us so that I can't use that bomb trick again.
Or so it thinks.
"Stop hitting me with your tail!" Terrence exclaims as I strike at the beast with my spears.
The wyvern refuses to move around my barrier to try to strike at other spots, no doubt so that it can keep Terrence at bay as well. Smart. Ensure we don't have the ability to group back up. How it can tell where he's at, I'm not sure, but it's not too smart.
After all, Terrence can just move out of the beast's tail range and loop back around.
"It can use [Air Slash] out of it's tail!" Terrence calls out as I hear and see several trees in the distance breaking and falling.
There goes that plan.
As the wyvern stops one of my spears with the foreclaws on its right wing, the other one glances off its side. Not enough force behind that one to cut too deep, but the wyvern still hisses at me. Terrence comes into view, having jumped up into the air. He thrusts his hands forward and a trio of [Air Spear]s appear and shoots forward, slamming into the wyvern's back.
"Porcupine," I stick my tongue out at the wyvern as I conjure another spear to replace my broken one.
The beast hisses at me again as it flicks its tail upward enough I can see it. A green-tinted blade of compressed air shoots out of the tip of the tail, aimed right at Terrence from behind.
Before I can call out a warning to him, the wolfkin twists his body around to face it, an [Air Barrier] forming between the two. His barrier shatters, but the attack is dead. Okay, so I don't need to worry about him.
He tries landing on the beast as I continue my attempts at skewering it, and the wyvern uses its tail to flick him off, shifting its body to ensure he falls behind it. Maybe this thing isn't so stupid, after all.
Terrence continues his attempts to turn this thing into a porcupine from behind as I continue to attempt to skewer it from in front. He's using [Stone Spear]s now rather than [Air Spear]s, making me wonder what his plan is. As for me, any attempts at moving my position is met with an [Air Slash] flicked out of the beast's tail or a lunge by the beast.
We're about three minutes into the mysterious being's buff when Terrence sends me a signal. A flash of two [Air Barrier]s conjured up in a small orb rather than around himself. Though that's pretty vague and we haven't discussed signals, I know exactly what he's signaling.
I dismiss both of my [Air Spear]s as I layer up another [Air Barrier] over my current one. The wyvern seems to immediately realize that something is going on, and it turns its head to face Terrence.
At the exact same time that Terrence casts a [Stone Bomb] and an [Air Bomb] before jumping onto an [Air Barrier] and flipping backwards, doing the same a second time before conjuring one around him. He stands in it, the bubble-shaped barrier allowing him to remain up in the air.
Even having realized immediately that there was a threat coming from behind, the wyvern didn't react in time. The [Stone Bomb] detonates and sends shrapnel in all directions, causing the [Air Bomb] to trigger.
Then stone shrapnel blasts into the wyvern, the [Air Bomb]s wave of compressed air accelerating them further. Even more, the [Air Bomb]s compressed air strikes the [Stone Spear]s still sticking out of the wyvern's back. This forces them further into its body, finishing the plan Terrence had with switching to those.
Crying out in pain, the wyvern squirms as its forced to the ground by the compressed air. An idea comes to me, and I find myself grinning as I dismiss my barriers and cast a [Stone Bomb] and an [Air Bomb] out, then immediately recast the pair of [Air Barrier]s.
Already disoriented and unbalanced, the wyvern is knocked back some, and Terrence follows my attack up with another pair of the bomb spells. We begin doing this repeatedly, not giving the wyvern a chance to recover from the effects.
Even after it stops moving on its own, simply being thrown about by the compressed air from the [Air Bomb]s, we don't receive an Experience notification. This thing is still quite tough, and even badly wounded like this, it lives.
Then I see another signal from Terrence after his tenth batch of the bombs. I nod, and we drop our barriers simultaneously before casting another spell and conjuring up another pair of barriers to protect ourselves.
These spells are similar to [Air Bomb]s, except that rather than looking like just an orb of compressed air, they look like an orb of arc-shaped blades of compressed air that are swirling around each other, always aimed outward. That's probably because that's what [Air Razor Bomb] is.
Our spells impact against the wyvern almost simultaneously, and blades of compressed air shoot out in all directions. My barriers are strained against the slashes but manage to remain, my ability to repair them just enough to keep them from falling.
The wyvern cries out one last time before going completely still, its body covered in damage. A notice appears in my vision only a few seconds later, before the last of the arc-shaped blades of compressed air dissipates into nothing.
+3,220.07% Experience! You have gained 33 Levels! You are now Level 100. You will no longer earn Experience until a Rank Advancement Trial is completed. [Blessing of ???] has ended [Blessed by ???] earned! [Mythic Beast Killer] earned! [Mythic Being] earned!
As I read the notification, a sort of green aura forms around the wyvern's corpse.
"Oh, awesome!" Terrence exclaims, and I look over in his direction to see him grinning excitedly at the wyvern's body, tail wagging in the most excitement I've seen in him yet. "Loot drops!"
Loot drops? That can happen?
Almost as if answering my question, the glowing aura becomes opaque, forming into a sort of dome around the beast. When it fades away, the wyvern is missing its hide, but the hide itself is folded up neatly beside it. I don't see any damage to it, either.
Terrence rushes over to examine the loot, and I walk over to examine it with him. There's a pair of matching daggers among it. The blade of each dagger is carved from a tooth of the wyvern's, the hilt made of wyvern bone and the grip wrapped in leather. Set into the pommel of the daggers are a green air crystal, and the crosspiece is shaped like a pair of tiny wyvern wings.
The last piece of loot is a pair of amulets, with leather cords and mostly carved of bone from the wyvern. There's a little bit of metal as a clasp on the cords, and the wyvern-shaped carving has a pair of tiny, green emeralds for its eyes.
Despite the air crystals, there's no actual magical effects on the daggers. The amulets appear to be just a fashion statement as well.
"You got excited about the loot," I tell Terrence. "How common is it?"
"Very rare," he tells me. "But stronger monsters have a higher chance of it. Having more Titles also increases the chances."
More Titles equals a higher chance of a loot drop? Was this drop chance calculated before or after we earned those Titles? Did it factor in both of us at the same time? Only one of us? Each of us separately?
I doubt Silvia has the answers, she probably would have told me yesterday with how much we were talking.
"Hey!" Terrence exclaims. "Do you want to keep any of this? Or should we go back to town and sell the loot? Either way, we can split this fifty-fifty."
"It doesn't mean much to me long-term," I tell him, and I notice his ears drop a little and his tail droop. "But I might need resources while I'm here. Selling it works for me. Do you want both daggers? I'm not much of a physical fighter unless I have to be."
"Sure!" Terrence says. "I'll make sure you get the worth for the one! Now to figure out how to get it all back to the town… we should head there first since the hide is raw."
"We can do it like this," I create an [Air Barrier]. "And then just fly back with that."
Moving an [Air Barrier] around isn't easy, and it takes more Mana than keeping it in roughly the same spot or around the same spot, but I have more than enough Mana Regen to handle it.
"Alright!" Terrence exclaims. "Let's load it up and go!"