Chapter 165 - Hikari's Growth 5

Draco and Hikari left the poolside as they continued to move through the Land of Riches. After being filled with his seed and experiencing the pleasure that came from s.e.x, Hikari's whole outlook on the world had changed.

She felt like her eyes had been opened to a lot and she saw many things differently. She began to ask Draco questions about more important stuff, like monster habits and how loot worked.

Draco smiled and took his time to explain everything to her. He told her about the different ranks of loot, the value of money and what it could buy, as well as the strength of Umbra and why people were hesitant to mess with the guild.

Hikari listened to all of this without interjecting and felt her understanding of the world begin to broaden, especially towards how society functioned.

Eventually, they came upon another Captain Rank Field Boss in the plains area.

｢Name: Magic Hind - Captain Rank monster

Level: 47

HP: 175,000/175,000｣

It was like a deer the size of a truck. Its antlers were long and beautiful, while its fur was sleek and blue. Greenish lines ran through its skin in different circuits, giving the monster an ethereal feeling.

There was no doubt that the Magic Hind was a thoroughly beautiful monster. Hikari ogled the beast with surprise, as she had never expected to see something this sleek in her life.

Draco though, became somewhat serious as he spoke to Hikari: "Focus casting White Barrier on me whenever the cooldown elapses. Try to stay back as far as possible so that you don't risk attracting its aggro."

Hikari swallowed her praise for the monster when she remembered that they were going to hunt it in order to make her stronger. She could only say a small prayer for it inwardly as she got into position.

Draco pulled out Hawkeye and the Phoenix Cry arrow from his inventory and nocked it. He activated the Star Shot Technique - which was still at level 1 - and charged up the shot as long as he could.

TWIP!

The arrow shot out at impressive speeds and Draco even activated the Vermilion Fire active skill of the arrow. It could be said that he utilized his Archery to the max in this one shot, which was a lot more powerful than what he sent at the C.o.c.katrice.

Why was this so? After all, this Magic Hind wasn't a named boss and its health was much lower than Kilean's. Even its State of Being was far, far lower compared to the C.o.c.katrice.

What were deer? They were prey animals.

A C.o.c.katrice was a predator animal, so these two different species had different strengths and weaknesses. A C.o.c.katrice had high offensive strength and skills that allowed it to dominate, so it would actively seek a fight... unless it felt threatened in which case it would fly away.

A deer, however, had low defense, low offense, and very little in the way of useful skills. Even if this Magic Hind could use magic, it still wasn't on the level of Kilean.

Well, the main strength of deer was proven when the Magic Hind detected the Phoenix Cry arrow which was hurtling towards it.

The Sonic Cry passive of the arrow grazed it lightly, dealing 2000 damage to it, which was how it noticed so early. The Magic Hind jumped to the side and watched as the arrow passed by it with tearing force.

The arrow had an amazing power behind it as a Legendary item. However, it was meant to be used against a large throng of enemies, not in surprise attacks. Still, any arrow fired with the Star Shot Technique moved with a prohibitive speed which should be extremely hard to dodge.

Yet the Hind had just done so.

How? It was simple. Deer were one of the most agile and speedy prey animals in existence. They had incredible jumping strength and could even flee from the various big cats who loved hunting them.

They had impressive senses. No matter how well you snuck up on a deer, it would detect you once you reached a certain radius around it. This was important for them to display their greatest strength, which lay in their reaction speed.

These animals could react to leaping predators from the bush with incredible speed, dodging the leap while sprinting away with impressive speed.

Not only was the Hind a Captain Rank monster, but it was also of a magical variety, meaning all of its strengths were boosted and it could use magic to boot.

Draco, as an Avenger, could confirm that the most annoying enemy to deal with was not necessarily one of great strength, but one high speed.

Kilean had been an idiot with a bird brain, so his overpowering strengths had been wasted. The Magic Hind wasn't as foolish, as all prey animals were naturally cautious.

It wouldn't rush at him, especially since it could use ranged attacks, which would allow it to flee faster. Lo and behold, the Magic Hind fired out a Magic Bolt, which was a Common classless spell for magic users.

｢Magic Bolt – Active Skill

Effect: Shoot out a concentrated blast of mana. This deals 10x damage where x is your INT.

Cooldown: 5 seconds｣

The Magic Bolt hurtled towards Draco, but the fellow simply smiled. The Common spell hit the White Barrier Hikari erected around him and lost 50% of its damage while 20% of the initial value was used to heal Draco.

-300! +1800!

What a joke! The Magic Bolt did such a pitiful amount of damage while the healing was 6 times higher than what hit Draco!

How was this so? The math was simple.

The base damage of the Magic Bolt from the Magic Hind was 9,000. For scale, most players at Draco's level had between 8,000HP - 17,000HP depending on their class and items.

That meant that two of these Magic Bolts - which had a meager cooldown of 5 seconds - could kill a player in two hits. Without a Mage Guard player in the team, it would be hard to raid this Field Boss.

When the Magic Bolt hit the barrier, its 9000 damage was shaved in half to 4500. At the same time, 20% of that 9000 damage - which was 1800 - was sent to heal Draco's HP.

The remainder that hit Draco now had to cross the barrier that was the Dragorugio armor. The evolvable set was already at Epic Rank, meaning that its defense was outstanding.

The result was that the 4500 magic damage was reduced to a measly 300! What the frick!

That was what the Magic Hind thought as its eyes bulged. It may not be a genius, but its instincts as a beast were telling it that Draco would be a hard foe to fight.

As such, it dug in its feet and channeled mana into its antlers before striking them into the earth.

Earth Spike!

｢Earth Spike – Active Skill

Effect: Channel mana into the earth to shape it according to a pike that attacks a targeted enemy from their blindside within 50 yards. This deals 30% earth damage.

Cooldown: 20 seconds｣

Draco's eyes flashed as his Control warned him of the change in the earth's shape near his lower left. He had long since gotten used to following these warnings unconsciously, so his body automatically twisted to avoid this attack with ease.

The Captain Rank Magic Hind was frustrated by this and continued casting magic without hesitation. As a Captain Rank monster, but more importantly, as a magic species, its mana consumption and reserves were incomparable to normal races.

It could easily continue casting multiple spells without having to worry about running out. In fact, when it realized that Draco had that perverse barrier and keen senses, it decided to unveil a technique that very few talented mage players had managed to grasp since the launch of Boundless.

Double casting!

Wind Blade!

Fireball!

｢Wind Blade – Active Skill

Effect: Create a blade-shaped by the wind and fire it at a target within 50 yards. This spell deals 50% wind damage.

Cooldown: 30 seconds｣

｢Fireball – Active Skill

Effect: Shoot a ball of fire at a target within 50 yards. This deals 15% fire damage.

Cooldown: 7 seconds｣

It was a mixture of two different but complementing elemental spells. The fireball shot at Draco from the left while the wind blade came hurtling in from the right.

It was clear that the Magic Hind wanted to trap him with an attack from both sides. Wind Blade was an Uncommon spell with higher damage and while fireball was a Common pyromancer spell.

Draco noticed that his White Barrier only had one more second before it would elapse, then he would have to wait 25 seconds for the cooldown to come to an end.

As such, Draco smirked. He nocked the Phoenix Cry arrow once again and fired it with all his power, however, the Vermilion Fire active skill was still on cooldown.

The thing with combat in Boundless was that it mostly occurred much faster than in real life, so cooldowns that were ranged in the seconds may seem extremely good, but in the heat of battle, they were like years to combatants who relied on them.

The Sonic Cry passive damaged the Magic Hind once again, as that was unavoidable. It took away another 2000 HP, but the arrow itself did not hit the Magic Hind.

Draco also easily dodged the spells of the Magic Hind. He then recovered the Phoenix Cry arrow and shot it out again. The Magic Hind also set itself and fired off more spells.

As such, a battle of attrition was being waged between the two. Draco continually fired the Phoenix Cry arrow and relied on the AoE damage to lower the Hind's HP. On the other hand, the Hind couldn't even hit Draco.

For the next five minutes, this battle continued as such. Originally, it should've lasted only a little more than a minute since Draco fired the Phoenix Cry arrow every second.

Each attack dealt 2000 damage and the Magic Hind had 175,000 HP. It would require slightly over 85 hits to bottom out its HP.

However…

Extreme Heal!

｢Extreme Heal – Active Skill

Effect: Restore 35% or 45,000 HP whichever is greater, instantly. The target must be within a range of 50 yards.

Cooldown: 30 seconds｣

This was one of the best healing spells that required high Healing Mastery to learn.

Instant Healing was a cheat skill that had no mastery requirement, but only a class-based one.

Instant Healing restored 30% or 15,000 HP, whichever was higher, with a cooldown of 2 minutes. Yet Extreme Healing restored more than that and had 1/4th the cooldown.

It was clear that the best spells and skills in Boundless were locked behind barriers called 'Mastery'.

At 2,000 damage per second, Draco would deal 60,000 damage in 30 seconds. If the Magic Hind were to rely on the 45,000 restored HP per half-minute, it would eventually die to Draco after a slightly less than ten minutes of continuous battle.

However, the problem was that 35% of the Magic Hind's HP was 61,250. This was slightly more than the damage Draco could deal in 30 seconds, so the battle entered a true stalemate where neither side could easily kill the other.

Draco would love to summon a Draconic claw to smash the Magic Hind into paste, but he had a feeling it would be able to dodge that too.

Even if the Hind couldn't dodge in time, the truth was Draco couldn't summon the claw, as he had sacrificed Bloodline Source to i.m.p.r.e.g.n.a.t.e Hikari.

He simply did not have enough total Bloodline Energy to do so at the moment.

If Draco were able to actually hit the damn monster, this wouldn't be a problem. Alas, both of them boasted extreme evasion abilities, so this became a stalemate of sorts.

However…

"This should be enough training," Draco said with a smile as he evaded another double-cast spell.

After all, Draco had only recently become an Archer. He had a plethora of skills that could make this battle easier, but how many times would he find such an agile enemy to practice his Archery on?

Thanks to the Magic Hind, the second level of the Star Shot Technique was 50% complete. Draco was really looking forward to when it was done, as he could begin to create Bow Skills at that level.

(Author's Note: Not official bow skills like Rain of Arrows, but something like his 360 Sword Skills.)

Draco immediately cast a few skills that turned the table.

Necrotic Hands!

Evil Curse!

Black Dragon's Roar!

First, the Magic Hind was bound in place by the many arms that emerged from the ground and grabbed at a part of its body while locking it down. These hands had a <Necrosis> effect, so they dealt damage over time.

Evil Curse placed a random status effect on the enemy that was unblockable. This time, the Captain Rank monster got the <Confusion> effect, which rendered it delirious.

For the first time since Draco got them, these two skills worked in perfect synchrony. Since the Magic Hand was confused, it was unable to cast its dispel skill to get rid of the hands.

Necrotic Hands lasted for 30 seconds and Evil Curse lasted for 1 minute. It was more than enough time for Draco to carve the monster into pieces.

As such, Draco blinked right beside it and took out Dragorugio as well as Fragarach. With all the speed of a madman, Draco began to cut into the monster like it was his worst enemy.

Black Dragon's Roar dealt 125,000 damage to the Magic Hind, leaving it with barely 50,000 HP. With its body being tied up and unable to move, how could it possibly resist Draco?

-15000! -20000! - 17000!

It took Draco just a few cuts to send the Captain Rank monster to the otherworld.

Draco's base damage wasn't too great compared to their large HP pools, but the Seal of Camelot made Draco a true Sword God, unlike some others who were fake.

Field Bosses didn't despawn, unlike their Dungeon counterparts and all other types of bosses. If one had the knowledge, either from experience or from the appropriate Tradeskill, they could harvest a Field Bosses' carcasses for parts.

Draco wasn't interested in doing that, rather concerning himself with the drops.

He checked them out and was quite impressed. Apart from the currency, which amounted to 65 gold, 89 silver, and 14 bronze, the items were great.

｢Extreme Heal – Active Skill

Rank: Rare

Effect: Restore 35% or 45,000 HP of a target within a range of 50 yards.

Note: 500 Healing Mastery required.

Cooldown: 30 seconds｣

｢Mana Barrier – Active Skill

Rank: Rare

Effect: Create a barrier that negates 10% of incoming damage.

Note: Magic class required

Duration: 10 seconds

Cooldown: 15 seconds｣

｢Mana Source – Consumable

Rank: Rare (50% effectiveness)

Effect: Permanently increase mana limit by 10%｣

｢Magic Hind Heart – Material

Rank: Epic

Use: Alchemy｣

｢Magic Hind Hooves – Material

Rank: Epic

Use: Blacksmithing｣

｢Magic Hind Blood – Material

Rank: Epic

Use: Brewing｣

Draco gained more than a few good kinds of stuff from the Magic Hind, especially in regards to the spells. It was clear that the poor Captain Rank monster hadn't gotten a chance to show its full prowess in this fight.

However, what it had shown so far was enough to prove that the even the Legends like Noble Soul and Gentle Flower would unconditionally die if they tried to raid this monster, even if they had a full party of elites.

Of course, that was only at this stage of the game. Other players could not resist level suppression in the same way Draco could.

(Author's Note: unofficial player rankings are like this "average players are privates, above-average players are specialists, semi-pros are sergeants, pros are lieutenants, elites are captains, experts are majors, legends are colonels and God-tier players are generals".)

Draco pocketed all this stuff and planned to distribute them among his guild members later. Skill books at this level did not have the kind of price tags that players could afford, so he would have to give them out.

Draco received 297% experience for killing the monster while Hikari received 765%. Draco put all of that into Pair Dadeni, which brought it up to 1,014% out of 50,000%.

He could only sigh when he thought of how long it would take him to grind and upgrade all his items by one rank. He realized that he might not be able to send them all up, especially the Legendary items like Fragarach.

Hikari reached level 26 and was thus extremely close to getting her next skill. However, the closer she got to Draco's level - and the limit of Rank 1 - the more she would slow down just like Draco had.

Still, she would earn more than him because Avengers earned slightly less experience per kill than other classes as a form of balancing.

(Author's Note: no, this is not new. It was stated in chapter 2 or 3 but never really brought up because it had little effect on him till now.)

Draco then proceeded to lay waste to the area by harvesting anything that looked even slightly useful. His inventory that had almost been full was now crying to be freed from this beast called Draco.

He only looted about 30% of the area before he reached his cap. Draco could only sigh with regret.

However, Field Zones were not like dungeons. Dungeons were instanced, meaning only the party who entered could clear it.

After they left, that instance would be destroyed unless they had previously selected the Neo-Modern playstyle involving dungeons, which was to clear checkpoint by checkpoint.

So if Draco left, his 'progress' wouldn't be lost unless another party came here. Field Bosses had a one week respawn time, meaning Kilean and the Magic Hind wouldn't be back when he returned.

Draco grabbed Hikari's waist and blinked away with her. It took the duo more than 10 blinks to travel from the Land of Riches to Vita Capital City.

At this point, Draco was eagerly awaiting the Mage's Association's work in building a top-class Portal Center.

With that, similar long-distance movements like what Draco and Hikari had traversed would become much easier and allow other Umbra members to enjoy it.

When they appeared before the Aether Hall, Draco saw a few well-dressed dark-skinned men standing before it with angry looks on their faces.

All eyes turned to him at that moment, especially since Vitae was hovering before the Aether Hall with his arms crossed.

Draco smirked.

It seemed as if the Indigenes had finally decided to pay him a visit.