Day 3

Do you ever get that feeling that the universe is out to get you? Like no matter what you do, the universe is just gonna say "No" and then make something terrible happen to you for even thinking you could do anything good?

No? Lucky you.

Anyway...

The effect of the venom has worn off. Dracul has been puking for the last two HOURS! So the reincarnated komodo crocodile dragon can proudly say that he'd have never done drugs before. But now that record is gone all because of some stupid venom.

He was not puking from the venmon no. The killer whale flesh apparently has severe side effects on crocodilian species. The effect is much worse than rabies. Not only that, but his stomach was actually killing him from inside and making him vomit more as well.

Shortly after letting his HP regen passive heal him up, Dracul came across another dark worm, but it was very different from before. The komodo crocodile dragon didn't bother to pay what the monster looked like or why the fact these worms have Brooklyn accents. But as it saw him, the dark worm ran as fast as its tentacles would allow and fled into a nearby cave. Dracul followed close on his trail and found himself in a dark cavern that seemed to be filled with bones of various kinds. The light from the entrance wasn't enough for the dragon to see well, so he flew ahead and looked around with his infrared vision until he stumbled upon something that widened his eyes. There was a large pile of treasure which included an amulet, diamond necklace, gold coins and many other things.

Dracul picked up one of the golden coins and looked at it closely. It had been stamped with the face of a man who looked like a king with a crown on his head. He felt sure that this coin must have come from someplace far away and wished he could find more of them. But he was a monster and did not care about any kind of wealth. So instead, he left the cavern without taking anything.

Dracul walked outside and finally managed to find a place where he could rest from all the pain his body was experiencing.

"Diee!"

A grey wolf howled as he sent it flying through the air with a Tail Smash. It slammed against a tree and slumped to the ground dead. This creature was, as its name suggested, a grey wolf. The creature's fur was jet black, making it look quite menacing despite its small size. The wolf also had glowing red eyes, though whether they were bloodshot or demonic remained unclear.

[886 points of EXP have been acquired, and stats have been added]

[Because of the effects of Title Skill [Dragon Queen's son]. Another 866 experience points were obtained.]

[Congratulation! You've reached level 2]]

Since waking up, the other monsters attacked Dracul much more aggressively, but his level wasn't really going up that much. The gap between his levels is just plain stupid.

In just about any RPG, JRPG, MMO, and MMORPG with a level system, players will try to make the game easier via grinding or exp exploit. Unfortunately, most games only gently discourage this by simply making each level take longer to reach than the one before it unless you're actually going through the game at the intended pace.

Sometimes, however, developers (EA) decide that they really don't want you to level grind like that, so they'll take more measures to prevent it. For example, they may simply make it so hard to get your rank higher than the one they want you at that even a dedicated level grinder would give up in disgust or resort to a cheat device, or they might make it actually impossible to level past a certain point before you get to the next part of the plot. Welcome to the world of Anti-Grinding.

The gods upstairs must really hate him. That or lady luck must have a giant hate boner for his person.

The scars on his leg muscles can confirm this. After a few hours of running around, Dracul discovered that there were many ways he could gain EXP. His attacks could cause damage to his opponents, while landing critical hits would grant him extra EXP as well. However, the amount of EXP granted depended on the attack power of the opponent as well as the difference between the player's level and the opponent's level. While the latter effect was the main source of his current problem, it seemed that if Dracul wanted to continue levelling up, then he would need to focus more on getting stronger.

But what does he know? He's never played a JRPG before. He'd quite FF 13 on the ulgy face boss.

Dracul decided that he should train himself until he became strong enough to kill whatever monster gave out the highest EXP per battle.

The scent of this weird looking water bison reminded Dracul of another animal from his old home. But because of how much the new food tasted better than the old one, he let the memory slip away.

[You've smelled the scent of a Poison Bison]

[886 points of EXP have been acquired, and stats have been added]

[Because of the effects of Title Skill [Momma's Boy]. Another 866 experience points were obtained.]

Because of the effects of Brain Upgrade [NZT], you have detailed knowledge about the Poison Bison.

[Odor Profiling has created the profile of "Poison Bison"]

Dracul stared at the strange creature. The bison didn't seem to notice his presence as it drank the water.

The bison had small black horns growing out of its head with little tufts of hair on the top. Its tail was covered by two large blades of sharp bone that made it look like some kind of sword. This weapon allowed it to cut down trees as easily as if it was cutting paper. It also looked like it could kill humans quite quickly, but due to how rare these creatures were, Dracul couldn't tell whether or not it could do so.

The most striking feature of the creature was definitely the tusks it carried. They were very long and pointed, which caused them to curve outward towards the back. In fact, they almost resembled fangs, and it looked like they were lined up to create a mouthful of teeth.

Bison (Poison Bison)

Species: Monster, Undead

Size: 4 meters (Large)

Weight: 180 tons

Intelligence: Animal

Strength: Superior

Description: Bison is born from the union between a Bison and a Ghost. These Boivin creatures have a strong resistance against the Poison mist thanks to their thick furry hides and their layers of blubber and can even survive against Zombie Taipan venomous bite. They are incredibly fast and robust and have a high agility score. They will defend themselves by using their powerful horns to attack enemies. In addition, their long, sharp tusks allow them to destroy buildings easily. Because of their amazing defence, many people consider them to be noobie animals.

The bison fell limp into the water with no effort.

Dracul used his body to push the bison to shore, where he immediately started to gorge himself. He gulped down the whole thing and went back for more. Dracul would continue to eat until his belly was completely full before walking onwards. After a few hours of eating, he felt satisfied and stopped.

But something else caught his attention. It was the smell of the bison he had just eaten. Following the scent like a bloodhound Dracul soon find the corpse of another bison with two swords lodged into its chest.

"Hey! Who did this?!" The dragon growled as he tore the heads of both bison apart and ripped the sword blades out of the corpses' chests. There are a lot of different insects, such as big flies flying around the corpse. In addition, Dracul sees two bizarre insects the reincarnated monster has never seen before. Well, never on earth.

One is a tiny black insect that looks like a dung beetle with a snail shell. The other one on the corpse was a centipede. My old mother would have screeched to high heaven seeing this. The centipedes have tiger stripe patterns covering their bodies up to their heads. Dracul guesses that they are either venomous or poisonous since they are purple. Both of these things must've come from somewhere because they don't look natural at all.

The dragon stomped on the corpse and forced the remains of the beast's head to roll across the ground. Then, overcome with the urge to eat, Dracul devoured the flesh of the beasts as well as the remains of the insects.

[You've consumed/flesh the blood of a Poison Bison]

[1,732 x 2 points of EXP have been acquired, and stats have been added]

[Because of the effects of Title Skill [Dragon Queen's Son]. Another 1,732 x 2 experience points were obtained.]

[Profiling skills have reached LVL: 2]

[Profiling has advanced the profile of "Poison Bison"]

[666 points of EXP have been acquired, and stats have been added]

[Because of the effects of Title Skill [Dragon Queen's son]. Another 666 experience points were obtained.]

"Holy shit!" Dracul exclaims after noticing the change in his status screen. His exp bar shot up to four bars right away without even grinding! What the hell is going on!? How does this happen? Does it make sense for his proficiency to go up so quickly?

"And that much exp for drinking blood?! So that means I'm supposed to get dead animals until my evolution?" Dracul mumbled to himself.

So good! Dracul keeps eating the corpse. After this, he decided he was going to take a herd down after studying their habits, of course.

In five minutes, the komodo crocodile dragon has eaten the entire bison.

[You've consumed the blood of a BQX Bug] x500

[32 points of EXP have been acquired, and stats have been added]

[Because of the effects of Title Skill [Dragon Queen's Son]. Another 32 experience points were obtained.]

[Blood Profiling has created the profile of "BQX Bug"]

[6 points of EXP have been acquired, and stats have been added]

[Because of the effects of Title Skill [Dragon Queen's Son]. Another 6 experience points were obtained.]

[You've tasted the meat of a BQX Bug] x500

[1 point of EXP has been acquired, and stats have been added]

[Because of the effects of Title Skill [Momma's Boy]. Another 1 experience point was obtained.]

[Taste Profiling has advanced the profile of "BQX Bug"]

[1 point of EXP has been acquired, and stats have been added]

[Because of the effects of Title Skill [Momma's Boy]. Another 1 experience point was obtained.]

Why does he have a feeling that this is something bad?

[Resistance Ability Learned [Rot Resistance Lv - 1] acquired] [Resistance Ability Learned [Decay Resistance Lv - 1] acquired]

"Oh shit, that's not going to be good for me." The crocodile dragon grimaced as he thought about how those two new resistance abilities might affect him in the future.

No shit... You have earned the title [Gross Eater] and have the BQX Bug's Rotting Proteodolytic Venom and Tipan Centipede's Decaying Necotoxin Poison has been added to your poison network.

That was the last thing Dracul heard before passing out again! This better not be a running gag. He really hoped that he wouldn't wake up from his latest nap with a large sword shoved into his chest or some other stupid plot device that would cause him to die.