Jake mulai bermeditasi dan membiarkan indranya terhadap dunia memudar, yang juga memberikan efek samping beruntung berupa hilangnya segala rasa sakit. Hal ini memungkinkan Jake untuk fokus penuh pada pemulihan sambil meninjau pesan-pesan dari sistem, yang jumlahnya cukup banyak.
Ia juga sedikit merenungkan percakapannya dengan bibi Yrelstromoz dan menyadari wanita itu memanggilnya pembunuh naga menjelang akhir. Sejujurnya, ia merasa hal itu sedikit aneh, terutama cara wanita tersebut mengucapkannya.
Itu terdengar seperti pujian sekaligus sedikit peringatan di saat yang sama. Ia menganggapnya sangat aneh, setidaknya sampai ia melihat notifikasi sistemnya dan menemukan satu notifikasi di posisi paling atas. Ia bahkan tidak menyadarinya sebelum sekarang... tapi rupanya, Pembunuh Naga adalah gelar yang benar-benar diakui oleh sistem.
Gelar Didapat: [Dragonslayer]
[Dragonslayer] – Bunuh seekor naga. Gelar ini menandai dirimu sebagai seseorang yang telah berhasil membunuh seekor True Dragon dalam pertarungan satu lawan satu. Kenakan dengan bangga, agar semua orang tahu tentang pencapaianmu, baik atau buruk. Para naga dapat secara alami merasakan bahwa dirimu telah membunuh salah satu dari bangsa mereka. Memberikan resistensi yang sangat kecil terhadap skill Bahasa Draconic.
Jake membaca deskripsinya dan menyadari bahwa gelar itu tidak benar-benar melakukan apa pun. Hal itu sedikit mengingatkannya pada gelar Kingslayer yang juga diperolehnya saat membunuh King of the Forest. Manfaat dari gelar Kingslayer terkenal sangat lemah, karena skill berbasis kebangsawanan cenderung tidak berfungsi pada orang-orang kuat, lagipula. Skill semacam itu biasanya berlaku untuk seluruh populasi, dan nyatanya, memiliki resistensi justru bisa merugikan daripada menguntungkan. Setidaknya Jake tidak pernah merasakan manfaat dari gelarnya sejauh yang ia tahu.
Namun, bukan berarti gelar Kingslayer itu tidak berguna... hanya saja itu tidak serta-merta membantu pemiliknya secara langsung. Sebaliknya, itu adalah gelar yang bisa dirasakan oleh orang lain, berfungsi sebagai peringatan. Seorang Raja yang diakui sistem dapat mengenali bahwa Jake pernah membunuh raja lain sebelumnya.
Dengan cara yang sama, skill ini akan memungkinkan naga-naga lain tahu bahwa Jake telah membunuh seekor naga. Rasanya lebih seperti tanda pada eksistensinya, yang memberi tahu naga lain bahwa ia adalah target potensial untuk balas dendam di atas segalanya, sedikit mirip jika seseorang dicap sebagai bidat.
Bukannya Jake terlalu peduli jika para naga merasa sakit hati karena ia membunuh salah satu dari kaum mereka. Ia sangat meragukan ada naga yang berani mempermasalahkan hal itu dengan The Chosen of the Malefic Viper, jadi Jake akan mengenakan gelar tersebut dengan bangga. Lagipula, gelar itu membuat Bahasa Draconic menjadi sedikit kurang efektif padanya, meskipun efeknya sangat kecil.
Secara keseluruhan, ia merasa gelar itu aneh dan akan bertanya kepada Villy tentang hal itu nanti.
Melanjutkan, Jake tentu saja juga mendapatkan sejumlah pengalaman, tetapi sebelum itu, ia memeriksa notifikasi pembunuhan karena ia penasaran berapa level Yrelstromoz sebenarnya. Ia memperkirakan wanita itu hampir tidak mencapai level D... dan tebakannya sangat tepat.
Kamu telah membunuh [Luxellian Dragon – lvl 350] – Bonus pengalaman diperoleh karena membunuh musuh di atas levelmu.
Ia memang baru saja berevolusi dan bahkan tidak mendapatkan satu level pun setelah menjadi seorang B-grade. Kemungkinan Path miliknya terlalu rusak, dan hanya berkat garis keturunannya saja ia bisa menjadi B-grade sejak awal, karena yang harus ia lakukan untuk sampai ke sana hanyalah tetap hidup.
Mengenai rasnya sebagai Luxellian Dragon, Jake percaya itu adalah salah satu ras naga paling umum dari Lumenflight – seumum mungkin bagi seekor naga.
Yrelstromoz tanpa ragu adalah seorang True Dragon yang lemah, tetapi ia telah membuktikan dirinya sebagai True Dragon pada akhirnya. Bahkan kutukan yang coba ia timpakan pada Jake pada saat kematiannya memiliki kekuatan yang nyata, dan jika bukan karena Eternal Hunger yang membuatnya hampir kebal terhadap kutukan pada level tersebut, ia pasti akan mengalami masa-masa sulit.
Sistem juga sepakat bahwa, terlepas dari kelemahannya yang relatif, itu adalah pembunuhan yang bagus. Setidaknya ia tidak akan mengeluhkan pengalaman yang didapat.
'DING!' Kelas: [Arcane Hunter of Horizon’s Edge] telah mencapai level 333 - Poin statistik dialokasikan, +50 Poin Bebas
…
'DING!' Kelas: [Arcane Hunter of Horizon’s Edge] telah mencapai level 337 - Poin statistik dialokasikan, +50 Poin Bebas
'DING!' Ras: [Human (C)] telah mencapai level 339 - Poin statistik dialokasikan, +45 Poin Bebas
…
'DING!' Ras: [Human (C)] telah mencapai level 341 - Poin statistik dialokasikan, +45 Poin Bebas
Lima level kelas, sementara sudah mendekati akhir level C, sangatlah bagus, terutama ketika seseorang mempertimbangkan mangsanya baru saja mencapai B-grade. Jake telah membunuh banyak B-grade dengan level yang lebih tinggi bahkan tanpa mendekati untuk mendapatkan level dari mereka.
Melihat kenaikan levelnya dan fakta bahwa rasnya kini sudah berada di level 341, ia bertanya-tanya apa yang akan dipikirkan Yrelstromoz jika ia tahu dirinya dibunuh oleh seseorang yang berada di level 338. Bagi seorang manusia level C untuk membunuh seorang True Dragon sudah merupakan pencapaian yang luar biasa, tetapi melakukannya bahkan saat belum mencapai puncak level C pasti jauh lebih mengesankan.
Meskipun sejujurnya, Jake merasa jika dirinya berada di puncak level C, pertarungan ini akan terasa terlalu mudah. Meskipun level-level itu tidak memberikan lonjakan kekuatan yang masif, mereka pasti akan sangat berarti.
Bukan berarti Jake berencana untuk membuktikannya. Ia tidak berencana memburu lebih banyak True Dragon untuk saat ini, meskipun siapa yang tahu tentang masa depan. Jake merasakan hal yang sama tentang True Dragon seperti halnya saat ia memburu manusia lain atau ras-ras tercerahkan. Rasanya aneh untuk melakukannya. Ya, Jake tahu ini sangat hipokrit, mengingat menemukan B-grade di luar elemental dan beberapa jenis monster langka lain yang tidak memiliki kesadaran adalah hal yang sangat sulit.
Bagaimanapun, Jake melanjutkan aktivitasnya karena ia masih memiliki satu hal penting lagi untuk diperiksa: hadiahnya karena telah membiarkan bibi Yrelstromoz mengambil jasad keponakannya. Jake tidak memiliki ekspektasi yang terlalu tinggi atau bahkan terlalu memikirkan loot dari pertarungan tersebut, terutama mengingat berapa banyak bagian naga yang langka dan mahal yang telah ia habiskan untuk meracik Racun Malefic Viper miliknya... namun ia mendapati dirinya terkejut secara menyenangkan ketika akhirnya mengidentifikasi benda itu.
[Light-touched Luxellian Dragon Heart (Mythical)] – Jantung dari seekor True Dragon Luxellian, disentuh dan diberi kekuatan oleh kaumnya beberapa saat setelah kematian. Berisi Records terfokus dari seorang True Dragon Luxellian, memberinya energi afinitas cahaya yang sangat kuat dan bahkan esensi sejati dari seekor naga. Memiliki banyak kegunaan alkimia, tetapi berhati-hatilah bahwa memanipulasi kekuatan inheren di dalamnya tidak akan terbukti mudah.
Biasanya, Jantung Naga yang digunakan Jake untuk alkimianya memiliki kelangkaan legendary, dan dalam banyak kasus, ia bahkan tidak menggunakan seluruh jantungnya melainkan hanya sebagian darinya. Ia memperkirakan akan melihat item legendary lain dari Yrelstromoz, tetapi tampaknya ia telah meremehkan efek dari apa pun yang telah dilakukan oleh sang bibi.
Mengenai untuk apa ia akan menggunakannya, Jake benar-benar tidak punya petunjuk sialan. Ia mempertimbangkan untuk memakannya dengan Palate, tetapi ia masih harus menyingkirkan setengah dari World Core yang dipenuhi desolasi terlebih dahulu. Meskipun itu adalah opsi untuk menyingkirkan core tersebut sekarang, dan itu mungkin bahkan menjadi langkah paling cerdas, Jake dengan keras kepala ingin tetap menyimpannya di sana dan setidaknya mendapatkan cukup manfaat dari memecahkan skill Palate-nya saat memakannya untuk membuat dirinya merasa sedikit lebih baik tentang pengambilan keputusannya yang meragukan.
Jake juga baru benar-benar berpikir bahwa ini mungkin pertarungan besar pertamanya yang tidak menghasilkan peningkatan skill apa pun. Biasanya, ia mendapatkan setidaknya satu peningkatan atau bahkan dua selama skenario seperti ini, tetapi kali ini, tidak ada sama sekali.
Bukan berarti itu harus mengejutkan. Peningkatan skill di tengah pertempuran dimaksudkan untuk menjadi hal yang sangat langka dan sesuatu yang bahkan tidak pernah dialami oleh beberapa orang. Jake ingat pernah berbicara dengan Dina di Nevermore, dan wanita itu menyebutkan bahwa hal itu tidak benar-benar terjadi padanya.
Sebagai gantinya, ia akan mendapatkan inspirasi untuk peningkatan skill-nya selama pertarungan, lalu mengkonsolidasikan wawasan tersebut menjadi sebuah peningkatan setelahnya — dan, seperti yang Jake pahami, ini sebenarnya disengaja. Itu adalah pendekatan terhadap peningkatan skill yang telah diajarkan kepadanya.
Hal itu mirip dengan bagaimana Jake sengaja tidak ingin meningkatkan skill Meditate miliknya sebelum langsung menuju ke peningkatan masif yang akhirnya ia peroleh. Orang lain membawanya ke apa yang disebut Jake sebagai titik ekstrim dan tidak ingin mendapatkan peningkatan skill apa pun tanpa pemikiran matang di baliknya. Dalam beberapa kasus, orang bahkan menghindari meningkatkan skill meskipun mereka bisa melakukannya karena mereka tidak ingin membawanya ke jalur tertentu.
Secara logis, hal itu masuk akal. Mendapatkan peningkatan skill yang
Jake entered meditation and allowed his senses of the world to fade away, which also had the lucky side-effect of removing any sense of pain. This allowed Jake to focus fully on recovery while also going through his system messages, of which he had quite a few.
He also reflected a bit on his conversation with the aunt of Yrelstromoz and noted that she called him a Dragonslayer towards the end. In truth, he had found that a bit odd, especially the way she’d said it.
It sounded like both praise and a slight warning at the same time. He had found it pretty damn weird, at least until he saw his system notifications and saw one sitting there right at the top. He hadn’t even noticed it before now… but apparently, Dragonslayer was an actual system-recognized title.
Title Gained: [Dragonslayer]
[Dragonslayer] – Slay a dragon. This title marks you as someone who has successfully slain a True Dragon in single combat. Wear it with pride, for all shall know of your feat, for better or worse. Dragons can innately sense that you have slain one of their kin. Grants negligible resistance to the Draconic Language skill.
Jake read the description and noted that it didn’t really seem to do much of anything. It reminded him a bit of the Kingslayer title he’d also obtained back when he killed the King of the Forest. The benefits of the Kingslayer title were notoriously weak, as nobility-based skills tended not to work on powerful people, anyway. Such skills tended to be population-wide, and in fact, having resistance could prove detrimental rather than beneficial. At least Jake had never benefited from his title as far as he knew.
However, that didn’t mean the Kingslayer title was useless… it just didn’t necessarily help the one who had it much. Instead, it was a title others could sense, serving as a warning. A system-recognized King could recognize that Jake had slain another king before.
In the same vein, this skill would allow other dragons to know Jake had killed a dragon. It felt more like a mark on his existence, telling other dragons he was a potential target for revenge more than anything, a bit like if one were branded a heretic.
Not that Jake particularly cared if dragons were butthurt that he’d killed one of their kind. He seriously doubted any dragons would dare raise an issue with the Chosen of the Malefic Viper over something like that, so Jake would wear the title with pride. Besides, it did make Draconic Language less effective on him, even if the effect was minuscule.
Overall, he found the title odd and would ask Villy about it later.
Moving on, Jake had naturally also gained some experience, but before that, he checked out the kill notification as he was curious exactly what level Yrelstromoz had been. He expected her to barely be B-grade… and he couldn’t have been more right.
You have slain [Luxellian Dragon – lvl 350] – Bonus experience earned for killing an enemy above your level
She had indeed barely evolved and hadn’t even gained a single level after becoming a B-grade. Likely her Path had been too broken, and it was only due to her heritage that she’d even become a B-grade in the first place, as all she had to do to get there was stay alive.
As for her race as a Luxellian Dragon, Jake believed it was one of the most common dragon races from the Lumenflight – as common as a dragon could possibly get, anyway.
Yrelstromoz had no doubt been a weak True Dragon, but she had proven herself a True Dragon in the end. Even the curse she tried to place on Jake at the moment of her death had some real heft behind it, and if not for Eternal Hunger making him borderline immune to curses at that level, he would have been in for a bad time.
The system also agreed that, despite her relative weakness, it was a good kill. At least he wasn’t going to complain about the experience gained.
’DING!’ Class: [Arcane Hunter of Horizon’s Edge] has reached level 333 - Stat points allocated, +50 Free Points
…
’DING!’ Class: [Arcane Hunter of Horizon’s Edge] has reached level 337 - Stat points allocated, +50 Free Points
’DING!’ Race: [Human (C)] has reached level 339 - Stat points allocated, +45 Free Points
…
’DING!’ Race: [Human (C)] has reached level 341 - Stat points allocated, +45 Free Points
Five class levels, while toward the end of C-grade, were pretty damn good, especially when one considered his prey had only just been B-grade. Jake had killed a lot of B-grades that were higher level without even getting close to getting a level from them.
Seeing his level-ups and that his race was now level 341, he wondered what Yrelstromoz would have thought if she knew a level 338 had killed her. For a C-grade human to kill a True Dragon was already a massive feat, but to do it while not even at peak C-grade yet had to be even more impressive.
Though truth be told, Jake felt that if he’d been peak C-grade, this fight would have been too easy. While those levels wouldn’t offer a massive boost in power, they would most certainly have mattered.
Not that Jake planned on putting it to the test. He wasn’t planning on hunting more True Dragons for now, though who knows about the future. Jake felt about True Dragons a lot like he felt about hunting other humans or enlightened races. It felt weird to do. Yes, Jake knew this was incredibly hypocritical, seeing as finding any B-grades outside of elementals and some rare other types of monsters who weren’t sapient was pretty damn hard.
Either way, Jake moved on as he had one more important thing to check out: his gift for allowing Yrelstromoz’s aunt to take her body. Jake didn’t have super high expectations or even put much consideration into his loot from the fight, especially not with how many rare and expensive dragon parts he’d gone through to make his Dragonsbane Poison… yet he found himself pleasantly surprised when he finally Identified it.
[Light-touched Luxellian Dragon Heart (Mythical)] – The heart of a Luxellian True Dragon, touched and empowered by her kin mere moments after death. Contains the focused Records of a Luxellian True Dragon, granting it incredibly potent energy of the light-affinity and even the true essence of a dragon. Has many alchemical uses, but be warned that manipulating the inherent power within will not prove easy.
Normally, the Dragon Hearts Jake used for his alchemy were of legendary rarity, and in many cases, it wasn’t even the full heart he used but just parts of one. He’d expected to see another legendary item at most from Yrelstromoz, but it appeared that he had severely underestimated the effects of whatever the aunt had done.
The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
As for what he would use it for, Jake legitimately had no bloody clue. He considered eating it with Palate, but he still had half a desolate-ridden World Core to get rid of first. While it was an option to get rid of that core now, and it would likely even be the smartest move, Jake stubbornly wanted to keep it in there and at least get enough benefits from breaking his Palate skill while eating it to make himself feel a little better about his questionable decision-making.
Jake also only really now thought about how this was probably his first major fight like this that hadn’t resulted in any skill upgrades. Usually, he got at least an upgrade or even two during scenarios like these, but this time, nothing.
Not that it should come as a surprise. Mid-combat skill upgrades were meant to be extremely rare and something some people never even experienced. Jake remembered talking to Dina in Nevermore, and she mentioned how that wasn’t really a thing for her.
Instead, she would get inspiration for her skill upgrades during the fight, then consolidate those insights into an upgrade afterward — and, as Jake understood it, this was actually intentional. It was an approach to skill upgrades she’d been taught.
It was similar to how Jake had purposefully not wanted to upgrade his Meditate skill before going straight for the massive upgrade he ended up with. Others took it to what Jake would call extremes and didn’t want to get any skill upgrades without proper forethought behind them. In some cases, people even avoided upgrading a skill even if they could because they didn’t want to take it down a certain path.
Logically, it made sense. Getting a “bad” skill upgrade could result in making it far harder to upgrade it in the future, especially if one got unwanted aspects mixed into the skill. Take Jake’s Arcane Powershot. If Jake got an upgrade where he mixed in, say, the dark affinity or something like that to make the arrow explode in a big cloud of smoke, the skill would now contain Records related to that affinity.
While that could make the skill stronger now, it would also muddy the skill’s future upgrade path and risk making it an amalgamation of too many things at once that didn’t necessarily work that well together. In instances like those, Arcane Powershot could even end up weaker than what Jake wanted it to do, despite being a higher rarity.
Not that all this logic had ever stopped Jake from mid-fight upgrades before. Jake had embraced his instinctual side when it came to upgrades, especially combat skills. While he could be the type to sit down and plan out upgrade paths to his skills, Jake just isn’t that kind of person and trusted that even if he messed things up here and there, he could always get back on the right track if he continued to trust in his own instincts.
With all that said, Jake would have liked a skill upgrade, but alas, if it didn’t come, it didn’t come. He was overall happy with how things had gone, and was especially pleasantly surprised by Event Horizon.
He’d barely even gotten to use it, but that one arrow he fired after using the skill kept replaying in his mind. The sheer level of speed and power the mythical skill added to his shot was unlike anything Jake had seen before, and the knowledge he was barely scraping the surface of what the skill would one day be capable of doing only made everything all the better.
The skill definitely also had some downsides, though. Firstly, there was the cost of resources. It had not been cheap to use and had drained Jake of way more stamina and mana than he’d first believed it would. Secondly, it was a skill that worked only on one target, and Jake believed it could even prove detrimental if he used it against multiple opponents at once. While a target was designated as his Event Horizon, Jake couldn’t really attack anything else using his ranged attacks, as everything sought toward the horizon automatically. Canceling the skill didn’t seem possible either, forcing him to wait for its expiration.
None of this would be a problem if Jake could do more than merely glimpse the Event Horizon, a day he was most certainly looking forward to.
For now, he was just happy with what he had as he sat in meditation while recovering. His new Meditate skill came in handy once more, and while he was tempted to take a peek at the Gate of Enlightenment, he held himself back, seeing as he was on a foreign planet in the middle of nowhere.
Hours passed as Jake recovered, his body healing pretty damn quickly. After about four hours, Jake felt a lot better, though he was still far from being in top form. Opening his eyes, Jake cracked his neck before standing up. He floated upwards to get out of the crater Yrelstromoz had formed when she crashed into the planet, and as he ascended, he got a good look at the devastation caused by the fight.
As far as the eye could see, the environment was completely destroyed. Craters and holes filled the ground everywhere, and several large fissures had opened up here and there. Looking into the horizon, he saw that several mountains had their entire tops cleaved off by one of Yrelstromoz’s beams. His choice to make her fight on the other side of this planet had definitely been a good one, because if they’d fought near the lake with the holiday resorts, there would no longer be any holiday resorts. Maybe not even a lake.
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