-Vol 5: A New Life-

-Battle against a Dragon(3)-

“Thank you!” Joy coughed twice before wincing as his body still had a lingering sense of pain, even though he was healed completely. By now, he had already recovered enough to stand with his own power, with a bit of time he could also fight with his own strength.

“Don’t mind. We are on the same team, I can’t just let someone die in front of me!” Kenshin said as he gave a grave look at the glaring monster, which was yet to make a move, setting everyone on edge.

“Thanks…That must be a [Health Potion] with higher efficiency, that must have cost a lot. I will never forget this kindness from you!” Joy solemnly said before hobbling to a side of the yacht where one of his brass knuckles had fallen off when he was wounded just now. Kenshin threw a curious glance at the man before shaking his head with a smile and glaring back at the snake.

[Ding* Replication has leveled up and become level 16. Two empty slots for replicating is now available.]

[+18,000 EXP to next level up]

[Ding* Tirelessbody gained a level]

[+12,000 EXP for next level up]

[Ding* Passive Regeneration gained a level.]

[+24 HP/sec 30 STA/sec]

‘It's too long since I have seen Tireless Body and Passive Regeneration level up. After coming from the north, and even before that, I have become meticulous, so I was getting lesser wounds in battle. No wonder Passive Regeneration didn’t level up faster.’ Kenshin thought as he saw the two skills leveling up. His cautious nature as well as his rapidly growing power, and the fact that he had yet to fight an opponent who would be a threat to him, Kenshin hadn’t received wounds since a long time. As a result, his [Passive Regenerain] only gained trivial EXP all this time.

Today, due to this dragon’s thunder attack, he had gained injuries, even with a few layers of defenses. As a result, his [Passiev Regeberation] gained a large amount of EXP, leveling it up finally. Not only, due to repeated usage of [Replication], he had gained some EXP to [Tireless Body]. As a result, increasing its level by 1.

Along with these two skills, his [Stone Skin], [Sturdy Body], [Magic Damage Resistance], [Mirror Reflection] had all gained some EXP, few of them were even a single digit EXP away from level up. If he levels ups all this skill, his strength will increase by a small margin. In this situation, even a little increase in strength was good for him.

After retrieving his knuckles, Joy came back and stand near Kenshin, clenching his fist tightly as sparks traveled through them. But unlike before, the small tiny snake-like sparks held a bluish tint on them, unlike before where it was purely white.

Noticing Kenshin’s sidelong glances, Joy smiled and explained “Due to that thunder strike, my item, [Thunder Giant’s knuckels], absorbed some natural lightning and increased its power by a few folds. Now the lightning generated by this knuckle would have a touch of nature in them.”

“Congratulations. You have finally obtained ranked equipment!” Kenshin whispered, in case others might hear it and find trouble for the man. No matter who they were, ranked equipment would always be adored by everyone. With their ever-increasing demand, even by selling it, one can buy an entire island near. That’s how precious a ranked weapon is.

“Thank you. But you don’t have to worry, this brass knuckles are a bit special. I don’t have to worry about being stolen or snatched.” Joy understood the meaning behind Kenshin’s actions, so he smiled again and explain.

Seeing his smile and hearing his reason, although Kenshin wanted to know more, he didn’t ask. The monster’s glare was getting uncomfortable to bear. If they just stare at each other, sooner or later they would all driven mad from anxiousness. Nodding his head, Kenshin prepared to launch an attack.

From the moment this monster appeared, he was in passive. Kenshin’s specialty didn’t lie with defense but with offense and myriad of Skills and their usage. The last thunder attack had nearly wounded him seriously, as such Kenshin held a bit of resentment towards the snake pretending to be a dragon.

Narrowing his eyes, he glared at the damn thing, before jumping off the yacht and towards the snake’s face like a bullet fired from a gun. The yacht shook as it was pushed back from the force of his jump. In a split second, he reached near the snake’s face. At that time, he used a [Earthen Slicer] and sent it towards the snake’s eyes.

A formless crescent-shaped sword energy emerged from the edge of his sword and raced towards the snake. Like before, a pink barrier appeared to block the damage. The pink barrier eventually broke, but it offsets the more significant damage value of his Skill, allowing a mere 400 ATK to scratch its scales. Which was not enough to do anything to it.

At that time, one of its clawed hands came at Kenshin, which was glowing yellow. Just before, it could touch him, Kenshin used his [Air Step] to leap over it, then doing a roll in mid-air, he slashed at the wrist of its hand. The dragon’s claw was big enough to grab him like a doll, so even if he didn’t a right center of balance, he still had enough space for an attack. Unfortunately, its scales were as hard as steel. The sword just slid off it with a grinding sound, producing red sparks.

Using the claw as a pivot, he flashed towards its face. The dilong didn’t expect that a human would be brave enough to attack it head on, quite literally, and at close combat to boot. Rotating once more, Kenshin adjusted his flight with a slight use of [Opposites] and pointed his sword tip at its face.

At the same time, he used the offensive trait of the sword, the one that increased the ATK by 500%. With equipment bonus, Kenshin’s ATK had already surpassed 2000, 5 times more increased the ATK by another 10,000; making his total ATK 12,000. When an attack force of 12,000, boosted by the speed of 1000+ AGI, the force of friction started to hit the air. A millisecond later, the sword arrived near the soft skin just below the left eye of the dragon.

This time again, a pink barrier appeared. Unlike anything last time, this pink barrier was thick and more robust. It was also partially opaque, giving an impression of a solid glass. But Kenshin who had already experienced barrier like this during his pentagram destroying missions back on the North had prepared another surprise.

He had seen this pink barrier long enough to understand its property and the way it works. So, just before his sword touched the barrier, he used [Opposites] again, reversing the property of the barrier. Without any resistance, the sword went through the thick pink barrier, like a knife going through soft cheese. A fraction of seconds later, the same thing happened with its hard skin too. The sword entered until its guard just below the snake’s eye. After that Kenshin pulled it out and using its face as a pivot, he jumped back towards the yacht. Now that he had injured the beast, there was no reason for him to remain near it.

A second later, an earth-shattering roar rocked the whole sea as the dragon roared in pain towards heaven. A geyser of blood spurted out of the puncture wound created by Kenshin as it fell to sea like rain, painting it red.

[Ding* Critical Strike succeeded.]

[X10 ATK]

[Total ATK: 250,000]

“WOW!” Kenshin shouted as the message. At the same time, he scanned the snake and found its HP bar which was like a red spear just a few minutes ago, had dried up to the point of leaving a tiny red dot on the left corner of the bar.

In other words, more than 98% of its total HP reduced in a single strike.