It has been a full week since I left Kate behind at the academy, Verod said we are approaching the Desert however for the final stretch he will be moving much faster. the Desert is where he lives, it is a continent made of sand and glass, the glass is only there because of the heat... understandable when you have oceans of lava. the entire place normally is littered with sand storms as high as mountains, the only cover for miles is his cave. or so I am told, it is his cave, or go ask another dragon, however the dragons are not a nice as he is...

"Ok, John. I will now show you one of a Dragon Slayers strongest abilities because if not we will spend a month getting to the place let alone training. so don't freak out" Verod said with a smile.

"what do you mean by that?" I asked with a shaky tone, when someone as powerful as he is says that you know your in trouble.

"Oh it is nothing much, you have heard it before on a blue screen, Dragon Form" Verod said and... at first nothing happened, however he started to grow a tail and wings. his skin grew scales that looked like they were made of gold, his hands and feet became... all feet? he transformed into a HUGE golden dragon, unlike the one I fought it was a true full grown adult dragon. Eyes were glowing gold, his underbelly was white however no difference in defence, he was a walking fortress. maybe it makes him slow. however one thing I know is the Golden Aura looks epic and I want it.

"Get on boy, this is something not even Kings get the Luxury of so make it count while I can be bothered to take you" The huge dragon said, its voice projected straight into my head. the weight of its words was unbelievable. but not the most unbelievable part.

[Divine Dragon]

[Level 900,800]

[Verod Dragonsbane]

please tell me that he is going to tell me how to do that. Me want big dragon form. but first... I jump on top of the big indestructible dragon and grab on tight. he then stretches out his wings that are 4 times bigger then he is. he then launches us both a few miles into the sky. I could not believe it, I thought he would be slow but he is so fast that even this high up the trees below us are being shaken because of how fast he is going. and in the distance I can see. the seventh layer of hell... oh joy. a second later we are at the aforementioned seventh layer of hell and well into it. lakes of lava. check, sand storms, check, huge dragons flying around, check. my chances of survival, inconclusive.

"Verod" I said getting the golden dragons attention.

"Yes boy?" He said looking at me not bothering to look where he was going.

"Will I become stronger here?" I asked, wondering If I can actually get any training in such a hell hole.

"Absolutely. even stronger then me with your ability, I even have some of those skill books for you to absorb, they are only a copy of the original however exact replicas so you can absorb as much as you want" Verod said, still not looking at where he was going. he then landed. right outside a small cave, this cave had a door on it. we walked over to the door and entered. unexpectedly it looked nice, there was a bathroom living room, kitchen and a bedroom. the bath was odd though, it did not have water, but it did clean you. with lava... and the beds were also hot, they were made of rock and you could cook things on them... but the kitchen had a weapon's forge, mainly for the heat, you cant cook dragons meat with ease. thus you did it the hard way. burnt it with lava until it was cooked.

"you know... I have to thank Kate for burning me all the time, I may survive this with my resistance to all things that melt your skin off." I said looking around as Verod looked at me confused before he realised what it means for me to get burned and the resistance I develop quickly, he then laughed, when he laughed the entire house shook and I swore I heard some dragons screaming and running away but I cant be sure.

"you have an interesting ability to get heat resistance from flames that cold" Verod said... COLD? maybe for you since you take bathes in lava like a normal person would a normal bath. "However I have something better then just normal heat resistance. follow me" Verod said in a tone that sounded like he was a kid that found a new toy to play with.

we enter a room, this room contained multiple books that Verod gestured for me to absorb. I though that it would help.

[Flame Immunity: fire, Lava, Magma, hot air, plasma, hot water, heat. anything hot you can no loner feel any pain or be hurt from. however you become weak to the cold. heat resistance = irrelevant. Cold resistance -100.]

Kate. you are not killing me when I get back but I will make it look like I am suffering because I know it will get me out of any other torture you can think off. however the resistance to cold being lower scares me, if I have to deal with an ice mage I will be screwed. maybe Verod could help me with ways of getting around that.

[Advanced Flame Magic: Flame magic, now controls all things hot and you can now create explosions however your resistance to the cold is decreased, cold resistance -150]

ok, 1 point of cold resistance is the difference of 5 degrees. at this rate, I will be unable to even touch an ice cube for fear of loosing health, maybe I can warm things up with fire magic?

[Signal Flair: a highly powerful fire magic that turns a small ember into a huge explosions of fire that remains lit for seconds, it does little damage however it will light up the area alerting anyone who can see it of your position, costs 100 Mana]

maybe this could be useful? I will have to see.

[Fire Absorption: you can now absorb fire and convert it into mana. if you do this Fire Mirror, Fire Battery and Fire Conversion will not work]

ok some abilities I have not heard of, fire conversion? maybe this will let me convert fire into Lava or something?

[Fire Form: become fire and physical damage no longer effects you, however you can be put out by water killing you instantly]

I would say I would save this technique for a rainy day, but that would kill me, maybe Verod can teach me the best times to use this one. maybe in short bursts to avoid a swords swing and then back to normal before they have the time to use water magic?

and last book to absorb

[Burst Mode: you can not learn Burst Mode, requires all physical stats to be at 100.

"Verod, how long would it take me to get all my stats to 100?" I asked before turning to verod, who atatched weighted training gear to my hands and feat, maybe for strength?

"I dont know, give me a minuet" Verod said before he Kicked me so hard I exited his cave through the roof and fell to the sand below, only to be punched in the gut.

with each hit.

[-4000 HP]

[+4000 HP]

[1 Vitality]

ok that hurt a lot. after about half an hour of being kicked around By verod my Vitality is not at 20. giving me 20,000 HP. meaning Verod would Kill me in 5 hits, my strength improved to 16 from lifting the weights the entire time. and my Dexterity is now at 14 from trying to run away from him like my life depended on it. even though he healed all the damage he dealt it hurt like hell. if not for Gamer's Body I would have multiple Broken ribs right now. Verod was told all about my ability so he knows how to deal with me. however I think he gets to much satisfaction from doing so.

"Oh I most likely should have asked, why do you need all your physical stats at 100 anyway?" Verod said as he was still punching me into the ground.

"To learn that book on Burst Mode" I said with a simple retort, Verod stopped punching me and froze. "Is something wrong Verod?" I asked waving my hand in front of his face, he remained unmoving. after a moment he fell to the ground laughing.

"I should have known, I put that book in there because it was unreadable but supposedly contained great power, and you can read it just fin you just cant meat the requirements to learn it, I think it is time to step your training up a notch." Verod said with a smile, I was getting ready for more pain then ever. but it did not come. huh?

"you do know Dragon Slayer Aura right?" Veron said looking at me, I realise he was using Dragon Slayer Aura so I decided to do the same.

[Aura: Dragon Slayer]

At that moment He kicked me in the face so hard I thought I would die.

[-19,999 HP]

[+19,999 HP]

[+2 vitality]

This is going to hurt.

(37 Hours Later)

Vitality is now at 123, I am no longer in as much pain because when it reached 100.

[Vitality is now at 100, 2 new skills have been added]

[Physical Resistance Mastery: all physical damage is reduced by 5%, percentage increases with Vitality and Skill Level]

[Pain Threshold: you now feel 5% less pain then you normally would, percentage increases with vitality and Skill Level]

however Verod is still a monster when it comes to damage. I am only left with 1 HP after every hit. he also told me that in this world there are people that make him look weak, so before I leave he wants me stronger then him or as close to his strength as possible, and if I do that I may be around the Level of Kate by the time I get Back to the Academy, not that Kate is that strong now however he said that they will be getting stronger at a very fast rate.

my Dexterity is now at 72 from running away and now I can evade 1 out of 80 punches he throws. not much but I am getting there.

my strength was now at 98 though so that is closer, he also increased the weight I am lifting so I am now a lot slower. but I have never gotten this much stronger so quickly before. however I have also never been in as much pain before. also a thing to note the heat is no longer bothering me, He kicked me into Lave one time and It felt like I was relaxing in a warm bath with someone kicking. not sure if that is a good representation? but that ever, also the Sandstorms are not a other either, I don't need to breathe so that is a plus. Verod does need to breath as he is not a Gamer however he says he is used to the Desert so it does not bother him.

(1 week later)

I finally have all my physical stats at level 100 and then some, Verod said Burst is very painful on the body so he wanted to give me some extra stat points for safety. now is the moment of truth. I walk towards the book and absorb it.

[Burst Mode: shorten then time you can fight for. the reward is the more you shorten the time you can fight for the more power you can use in the remaining amount of time. if you can fight for 10 hours with 100 points in strength you can now fight for 1 hour with 1000 points in strength. after using Burst Mode you will be physically drained and exhausted to the point you will not be able to stand for a while]

Now I have my trump card for all fights... wait I cant get tired. I could fight forever in theory. I wonder what would happen If I used Burst Mode?

"Now John, we shall fight to see what happens when someone like you uses Burst mode, I am curious" Verod said with a childish grin, he does not want to see that, he just wants a fun fight. oh well, he wouldn't kill me so soon would he?

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Chapter 21 - Burst Mode

enjoy