[Ding!]
[Skill frame established]
[Name: Glideframe]
[Type: Active/ Null]
[Level: (3-star)]
[Description: A skill that manipulates localized gravity to let the user hover a few to several inches above ground. While active, it temporarily enhances Agility by 600%, making movements far more rapid and fluid through terrain. Not usable for complete flight.]
[P.E Cost: 2 P.E per minute]
[Cost: 700 SP]
To smoothly traverse a place like the Primordial Forest, a gravity manipulation skill was quite essential.
With spontaneous terrain and overbearing thickets, a skill like this would make Darien's navigation a piece of cake.
He had initially considered a super-speed type skill, but that kind of skill would only make him faster in a straight line. He might run into obstacles, exhaust stamina much more quickly, and even create noise that could attract stronger beasts.
[Are you sure you want to spend 700 Skill Points to create the skill:
'Yes.'
[Successfully created a new skill!]
The Skill Book appeared, and he happily absorbed its content without wasting time.
[Ding!]
[You have acquired new skill:
[Level: (3-star)]
As soon as the skill settled in his arsenal, Darien immediately activated it.
The feeling was surreal as his feet grew light, his body weightless like a feather.
Slowly, he lifted himself off the ground by a slight height, using his conscience and the instincts of his hands to guide and adjust the gravitational pull around him.
'Good...!'
Instantly learning the skill, Darien smoothly glided forward. It felt like he was part of the stale breeze in the forest, more like drifting smoke from a burning site.
Having Agility increased by 600% evoked the feeling that he was already a bird, soaring and gliding low as if in search of a rodent to feast on.
'There… a magical beast.'
Just as Darien planned, the new skill proved its worth within moments of swooping through forest leaves and branches.
A magical beast was right there in plain sight, creeping down from a thick log that fell from the shattered window of a crumbling building into the undergrowth of the forest.
(Verdant Vixen)
(Affinity: Wood)
(HP: 150)
(Rank 1 Stray!)
Darien activated
Descending in silence, he landed softly, quieter than the faintest whisper.
While the magical fox nibbled at an opening in the log, the human's hand moved with veracity.
In a flash, a katana was drawn, and in that single strike, the beast's head dropped to the mossy ground. An instant kill by a weapon.
[Congratulations! You slayed a Rank 1 Beast]
[You get 500 Skill Points and 5 Attribute Points]
'Hmph. No loot? I'll keep moving then.'
Not far from where he slayed the Verdant Vixen, Darien encountered a more ferocious danger.
He was gliding casually through the forest canopy and was completely unaware of a slithering menace below that had spotted him.
A fiery, serpentine magical beast nearly twice the size of a normal cobra coiled itself beneath a veil of leaves.
When the Adventurer glided overhead, it attacked him without any warning. Its mouth gaped wide, releasing a roaring fireball straight at him.
'Fire?'
Darien felt the intense heat before it was able to strike him. His reflex was a sharp twist while in the air, but despite that, the edge of the blast still grazed him.
A pain shot through his ribs as his side was seared by the ball of fire that went on to annihilate a young tree.
(Blazewyrm)
(Affinity: Fire)
(HP: 350)
(Rank 2 Stray!)
'Wow. This is the most powerful so far.'
Darien thought, his eyes gleaming with excitement.
Although he was bummed by the damage the magical snake had inflicted on him, he was intrigued by the beast nonetheless.
But he didn't let the unexpected hit rattle him for long as he gripped his bladed weapon tighter, hovering high and facing the flaming serpent without a specter of fear.
The magical beast was a wild and feral one indeed, starting from the moment it attacked the Adventurer first.
It looked obsessed with him, targeting him with hisses that translated as death promises. Before Darien could reposition and think of a strategy, the creature's abdomen inflated portentously, signaling another blast.
A loud hiss followed, and that fiery torrent was once again unleashed.
This time, Darien was aware. So, he tilted his body sideways and effortlessly eluded the fireball that whooshed past him.
'Very fast and slim beast. It is just as agile as I am.'
Darien thought as he parried close with the smooth aeronautic support of
He tried to catch the beast and close this fight quickly with a single swing of his weapon, but the Blazewyrm slithered away slickly in deception.
'A bladed weapon's going to be hell against this one. A discharge-type skill would end this quick…!'
Seeing how the Rank 2 magical beast operated, Darien reckoned none of his current skills had the capability to slay it.
He even activated
How convenient.
By all means, Darien could never reach for the serpent's head without getting blasted in the face by a fireball.
Darien grimaced as he ducked under a hot tail swipe boosted by an arc of flame. He was grateful for
But the venomous serpent had its own natural merits embedded in its biology. With each attempt to close in on the beast, it always coiled away or opened its mouth and released a blast in desperation.
'I can't afford to waste my stamina or hitpoints. I need a new skill, and this magical beast is going to get it.'
[Ding!]
[Skill frame established]
[Name: Ice Spear]
[Type: Offense / Discharge]
[Level: (3-star)]
[Description: A conjured spear of pure ice hurled at high speed. Upon impact, it deals piercing damage and releases a freezing burst, immobilizing targets within a 5-meter radius for 30 seconds.]
[P.E Cost: 10 P.E]
[Cooldown: 30 sec]
[Cost: 500 SP]
[Are you sure you want to spend 500 Skill Points to create the skill:
'Positive!'
[Successfully created new skill]
[Ding!]
[You have acquired new skill:
As the notification confirmed the successful creation, Darien raised his hand in authority, and in a flash of cold light, a sleek spear of pure ice materialized with frost crackling all over its length.
The spear was two times as long as Jakob's bamboo spear, and unarguably a hundred times sharper and more powerful.
It appeared like clear frozen glass and was surprisingly light and balanced in the wielder's firm grasp.
'This will do.'
The Blazewyrm and the human squared off again. As usual, the magical beast relied on its most powerful skill.
It began to swell once more with that dreaded fiery charge from the depths of its Life Core. Instead of preparing to escape, Darien used this opportunity to attack.
He hurled the ice spear at the beast. Pinpoint accuracy wasn't exactly needed so long as the beast was within the five-meter burst zone. Darien made sure of that as the ice spear left his grasp and went airborne.
The spear struck with a crystalline thud, and instantly, frost erupted outward, coating the area in a freezing wave.
In its charge to release the fire blast, the Blazewyrm's body got frozen in time, encased in thick crystals of ice.
'Haa...'
Darien descended in triumph. He had no uncertainty that he had won this battle as he revealed his katana and cleaved the sharp, thin blade straight through the creature's frozen head.
The fight ended with the swift slice. After that, the other frozen parts shattered into several fragments.
[Congratulations! You slayed a Rank 2 Beast]
[You get 2000 Skill Points and 10 Attribute Points]
[Congratulations! You can retrieve:]
[Blazewyrm Scales (Lv.2) Blazewyrm Fang (Lv.2) Beastbone (Lv. 2)]