Free Web NovelChapter 16: A Monster in the making
–Chapter 16–
Title>> A Monster in the making
Stab!
The stainless dagger slid through the forest troll’s skull with almost insulting ease.
Xavier then twisted the blade with a quick turn of his wrist before pulling it free.
The monster’s HP bar blinked once in surrender before vanishing completely, and the troll collapsed without making a sound.
"That’s two... three more!" Xavier muttered.
Already moving to his next victim without a second to spare.
It turned out travelling from the Realm of Untold Tales to Stockholm Village was surprisingly easy, even without a steed or any ride at all.
Because even though the forest that bordered the two locations was thin, long and rough...
It was nothing like the Scar Swamp. No fog. No mud. Nothing in the terrain that restricted or slowed down movement.
Except the occasional need for the Warden’s Medallion to avoid triggering some inconveniences along the way.
Right now, it was just trees, undergrowth and the one thing that made it familiar to the Scar Swamp. A steady stream of creatures that were clueless to what they were walking into.
Somewhere above, birds burst from the canopy every few minutes before settling again just as quickly. The deeper Xavier pushed into the forest, the quieter it became. Not because the wildlife had disappeared... but because it was slowly learning to avoid the trail of death he left behind.
Slash!
The dagger’s short reach came into play again. Xavier stepped in swiftly, slashing through the soft tissue beneath a creature’s jaw.
Tearing through the throat of another Forest Troll that had emerged from the undergrowth beside him.
Xavier had been at this for close to twenty minutes now...
And at this point, the tip of his dagger was coated in different colours of ichor from the variety of creatures he had been killing.
Naturally, by now he should have felt tired, but he didn’t. On the contrary, his body felt like it needed more.
The repeated sequence of stab, twist, pull and move was beginning to feel like second nature.
Moving further towards his destination, his ears twitched.
Almost instinctively, Xavier moved, but this time he didn’t even bother with the dagger. Or maybe he was simply too fast for his own thoughts.
Snap!
His fist connected with the side of the Marsh Stalker’s skull, sending the head of the creature, which looked like a mutated boar, flying.
The rest of the body followed half a second later, tumbling through the undergrowth before coming to rest against a tree.
It was definitely not getting up from that.
Nothing in the forest was getting up from that...
Looking at his bloodied hand as though it had been kissed by a god.
"Fucking hell..." Xavier screamed inwardly.
It was hard to believe a human could become this strong in less than an hour.
This feeling in his muscles, the explosive response of his reflexes, the raw burst of power he could produce at a moment’s notice... it was still something he hoped to get accustomed to.
After all, this wasn’t like before, when he had been sitting on the other side of a screen with a controller in hand.
Every choice, every movement... everything... was completely his, and truthfully it felt somewhat scary...
...But it was definitely real.
He flexed his hand again, his eyes still wide with shock. Strength was indeed addictive.
Now he was beginning to understand why dragons ruled the sky instead of sharing it.
Walking closer to the creature, the system rewards from its demise floated in front of him, but just as he was about to go through them...
Another creature came at him in a blur. It was smaller and more nimble than the Stalker.
The orange cursor above its head displayed [Wolf-Kin Scout Lv. 6]. Its jaws snapped at Xavier’s arm before he could pull back.
The weight of its bite clamped down on his forearm, threatening to tear it off at first glance.
Xavier’s eyes twitched at the impact. He braced for the pain, the loss of HP and the inevitable bleeding debuff.
But none of it came.
Instead, the wolf’s teeth scraped across his skin.
Sparks flew.
Nothing.
The beast froze.
Even its animal instincts seemed unable to understand why its fangs hadn’t pierced flesh.
However, a soft shimmer ran just beneath the surface of Xavier’s skin. It was barely visible and lasted for less than half a second.
But it was enough to repel the bite, leaving the wolf’s teeth unable to break through.
Noticing its sneak attack had failed, the wolf tried to retreat, but it was too late.
Xavier had already moved. The tip of the stainless dagger buried itself directly into the wolf’s eye, claiming the experience points.
With the Level 6 Wolf-Kin dead and dissipating, Xavier inspected his arm again.
This had nothing to do with the enhancement of his Constitution stat or the increase in HP that the Dragon Bloodline gave him.
This was something else...
...Actual physical resistance.
And to top it all off, it was a passive trait.
This bloodline trait wasn’t just making him stronger. It was making him significantly harder to kill, especially in the early game.
Trying not to get lost analysing how this Bloodline was single-handedly the best, and yet the most annoying one he had ever started with.
Xavier shifted his attention to the blue screen in front of him.
[Rewards: Wolf-Kin Pelt ×3 (Common), Scout Fang ×2 (Common), Wolf Tendons ×4 (Common).]
[Copper Coins ×90]
The rewards weren’t that bad, especially for the type of creatures he had been killing so far.
This Wolf-Kin Scout was the highest-level creature he had killed so far. The others were merely Level 5 and Level 4.
Practically easy pickings...
Ding!
Finally...
The familiar golden-bordered notification appeared.
[Absolute Drop Authority Activated]
[Scanning...]
[Most Valuable Possession Identified]
[Item Acquired: Wolf-Kin Amulet (Uncommon)]
[Description: A necklace bearing an amulet shaped like a wolf’s fang.]
[Effect: +3 Spirit. Minor mana regeneration during combat.]
[Note: This item has a 0.6% drop rate.]
Xavier grinned.
There it was.
His favourite notification.
The prompt soon appeared...
[Equip]
[Yes / No]
Without hesitation, Xavier chose Yes. He felt a faint hum spread across his skin before the amulet materialized in his open palm.
Xavier turned it over between his fingers.
A crude leather cord.
A single white fang with a hollow center where something blue glowed faintly.
He slipped it around his neck, letting it rest beside the Warden’s Medallion.
The next thing on his agenda was the elephant in the room.
The stack of level-ups and attribute points that had been piling up since he left the Realm of Untold Tales and entered the forest.
***
[You have defeated Forest Troll Lv. 4 ×5]
[You have defeated Marsh Stalker Lv. 5 ×2]
[You have defeated Wolf-Kin Scout Lv. 6]
[Level Up!]
[Level Up!]
[Level Up!]
[Current Level: 7]
[Attributes available to share: 11]
[You have obtained +1 point to All Attributes from your Title]
Xavier still had five points left from before, with another six from leveling up and the bonus from his first Title.
A grin spread across Xavier’s face. He was progressing goddamn fast.
Honestly, with all the attributes he had amassed from this grind and the additional three to all stats from his Bloodline...
He was fairly certain he could challenge a low-tier dungeon even though he was only Level 7.
Or maybe...
Wait.
Xavier’s grin disappeared, replaced by a frown as he remembered one of his biggest shortcomings.
"I don’t fucking have an offensive skill," he cursed inwardly.
Swiping his hand through the air, he immediately pulled up his character profile.
It was time to start arranging his build and decide the path he wanted to take. Right now he fought more like an assassin thanks to the Greaves and the Cloak.
But with an Origin Bloodline, he could finally feel ambient mana.
Which meant magic was finally within reach.
---
[PROFILE]
[Name] Xavier Hunt
[Player Name] Hunter X
[Race] Human
[Status] Irregular (Partial Integration)
[Level] 7
[Experience] N/A
[Titles]
The First Tale
[Sacred Name]
N/A
[Class]
N/A
[Bloodline Class]
Dragon Sovereign [Locked]
[Condition]
Claim your First Territory.
[Aspect]
Faith
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Attributes]
Strength: 8 (+7)
Agility: 12 (+14)
Constitution: 10 (+8)
Spirit: 7 (+3)
Intelligence: 12 (+7)
Luck: ???
HP: 200/200
Mana: 70/70
Reputation: 100 (Remembered)
Currency: Copper Coins ×1,090
Free Attribute Points: 11
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Bloodlines]
Slot I
Dragon [Faith]
Purity: 15% | Drakeling | Active
Slot II
Demon [Cruelty]
Purity: 8% | Demon-Touched | Dormant
Slot III
Empty
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Traits]
Dragon’s Resilience
• +3 to All Attributes
• minor fire Resistance
Dragon Hide
• An insignificant layer of skin that protects against attacks.
Pain Suppression(Demon)
• Pain does not hinder combat performance.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Skills]
Bloodline Skills
• Restore | Mastery: 0%
Class Skills
None
General Skills
None
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Talents]
Absolute Drop Authority (EX)
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Equipment]
Stainless Dagger (Uncommon), Flayer’s Vest (Common), Strider Greaves (Uncommon), Dread Cloak (Rare), Warden’s Medallion (Token), Wolf-Kin Amulet (Uncommon), Luminiera’s Shard (Unclassified)
[Inventory]
Minor Healing Pill ×4, Bog Tendons ×10, Wolf-Kin Pelt ×3 (Common), Scout Fang ×2 (Common), Wolf Tendons ×4 (Common)
---
Xavier stared at the screen for a long moment.
A slow grin returned.
"Let’s build a monster."
–End of Chapter–
A/N: We finally got a contract on this... 🎉 🎉 Now I’m looking forward to give y’all prime Action, lore, and interesting Characters.
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