Some days after we roped in Marc, we finally reached the road up the Yanxiong mountain range. This road was build after the capital inside the mountains was built, so there's no way to get lost. On the other hand, it means that the bunch of smaller mountains before the capital turns to true dens of evil, with [evil = monsters].
"Not that we're after those monsters. We're after the crafters in the capital." I said to myself while steering the carriage.
"You said something?" - Mira
"Nothing. Just thinking out loud." - Garami
Must be the view from up here. The road is showing the majesty of the mountains and cliffs while being wide enough to fit two carriages, or a carriage and a dragon, plus walkways. I heard that the Yanxiong capital had some of the greatest crafters on Noterra, and if it were them that build this road, then those rumors are underrated big time.
"Hey, Marky! You have to see this!" - Lily
"Urk, no way. Too high." - Marc
Poor Marc has been in bad shape since we started going upwards the mountain. I first thought that he had a fear of heights, but it turned out that he was simply too much of a city child. His body ain't used to traveling as much as he has done these last few days. And then there's the other problem...
This is all he has progressed after three days? The future is looking bleak...
Well, what should I expect? The two levels came from him leaching the EXP of the few monsters that tried to challenge Levi on her hunts. Then there's the horned rabbit that Levi brought back alive yesterday, so Marc could finish it off. He took the [Cooking] skill after that, not as a reward for beating his first monster, but cause he wanted to make the most out of the poor rabbit's life.
And for those who wonder why [Cooking] is his best skill when it's also the newest one, it's cause skills that one is more familiar with gets proficiency easier than skills that you're not familiar with. Let's say that a boy trained with a sword during his childhood, then he would find it easier to level up [Swordsmanship] than [Spearsmanship]. Lucky for Migrants, since they just need to take skills related to what they were good at on Earth, or wherever they came from, to get easily high-leveled skills.
"Take a nap then. We're soon reaching a place with an inn, so just save your energy." I said to Marc, who nodded to my words and tried to catch some z's. After he went to sleep, Mira climbed to the driver's seat and whispered to me.
(You sure he's gonna be alright?) - Mira
(In what way? His lack of stamina, or his skills?) - Garami
(Both. It doesn't matter if he's not gonna be out in the field or not, if he can't survive even traveling between cities, then-) - Mira
"It's more likely his body couldn't handle the sudden change in his environment." - Garami
(Oi! Your voice-!) - Mira
I cut her off by pointing behind me, towards Marc who was in a deep sleep. By the way, Lily had jumped out of the carriage so he could sleep in peace, and was now walking with Levi in front of the carriage.
"...[Magic Sense], was it? Talk about a sneaky skill." - Mira
"It takes some training to get used to it. Your skills are easier to use, so I'm kinda jealous." - Garami
"I used most of my childhood to learn those skills, so don't call 'em 'easy'." - Mira
Ouch, I made her mad. Not that she's in the wrong though. 'People's abilities ain't due to their skills. It's the skills that are the manifestation of people's talent and effort', was something Bermuda once told me. Wise words. It explains why his Gambler class' stuck on LV1. But still...
[Haunt Conqueror] [Monster Slayer] [Sea Slayer] [Kin of Garami] [Undead Slayer] [Skeleton Slayer] [Reptile Slayer] NEW2Mira has hunted many reptile-type monsters in her childhood, as her birthplace was infested with them. The turtles that attacked Velantas was the final push she needed for this title. [Dungeon Conquer] NEW
...She's... gradually turning into a bigger pervert. I can't say it to her, as I'm one of the reasons for that. But there's one thing I can't stay quiet about! My journalist-soul is screaming to tell the world the truth!
"Why the heck did you pick Dancer?" - Garami
"Don't appraise people just like that! And I picked it cause I heard about a class called 'Sword Dancer', or 'Sabre Dancer', or-" - Mira
And the excuses came pilling on after that, but it was enjoyable to see her flustered like that, so I let her keep it up.
"And if we're talking about strange skills, look at Lily 'n Levi!" - Mira
"Don't group people as a set like that. And putting aside the chimera for now, how's Levi any weird?" - Garami
"A dragon that takes up [Pottery] and the Hunter class can't be anything BUT weird!" - Mira
How's that so weird? You can't blame Levi for wanting to do the same as us. That she picked [Pottery] was something I didn't expect.
"But I can't disagree that Lily's turning weird," I said while looking at the chimera girl further up the road.
"...Just how weird?" - Mira
"To the point where she's gotten [Bite], [Flee], [Poison Enhancement], [Sand Walk], [Sense Heat], [Digging], [Running], and some more according to her. She's yet to pick another class. Saying something that she wants to save the points to when she fulfills the requirements to a really rare one, whatever that may be." - Garami
"What would that be? 'Chimera Warrior'?" - Mira
"Don't say that to her, or she'll start looking for something like that. We have one already that needs to get a rare class already, so don't add another one already." - Garami
"If you say so. But 'Item Meister', who the heck thought of that one?" - Mira
Whoever it is, I'll help Marc giving a tribute to them as a thank you gift for making a class he can use.
"GYAAAAHH!!" - Lily
Lily came screaming back to us, followed by Levi and... a rolling boulder!? Why did the workers overlook something that big of a danger to the traffic?
I jumped out of the driver seat and ran towards the boulder. The thing's big enough to cover the whole road, but there's a small gap to each side. I passed Lily and Levi, jumped to the left open side of the boulder, the one that faced the mountain wall, and released a Hydra from that position.
The all-familiar Poison Dragon crashed into the boulder, sending it flying off the road. Just cause it's poison doesn't mean it doesn't pack a punch.
Double up! Not only did Hydra finally level up, but so did [Poison Element]! I knew that it had increased when I was helping Marc leveling up his new crafting skills, but who would have believed it would happen at this timing?
My luck-bringing boulder fell down the cliff. I'll never forget-*CRUNCH*-...This is a new one.
A part of the boulder had parted from the rest of it, for then extending to grasp the edge of the mountain road. Who are you? The next pirate king?
The boulder(?) lifted itself back to the road again. Then other parts of its body started to spread out, revealing the true identity of the boulder.
I knew that this region was popular with bears, but this much? It looks like a bear wearing an armor made of rocks on top of its dark-grey fur. It looked a little like an armadillo, so maybe they're distant relatives? And ain't the pelt good enough defense for you?
Its skills are kinda like a combo of the usual bear moves, like [Heavy Strike], [Pelt Armor], and [Disease Resistance], but it also had skills similar to the Glavras turtle, like [Camouflage] and [Withdraw]. True to its previous actions, it has the [Rolling] skill and [Fall Resistance], along with the so far unknown [Rock Armor] and [Rock Limbs] skill. It was the former one, along with [Rock Synthesis], that had created the extending limb phenomena. It had made a fake arm on top of its own, and it was this who had dragged it up on safe grounds.
But the worst news about him is his titles. The first three are [Ruthless Killer], [Humanoid Slayer], and [Wanted Monster]. You can figure out the first two, but the [Wanted Monster] title is similar to the criminal titles.
If someone from the authorities wants a monster dead, they send a sample from the beast to the gods, and they again put this title on the monster. It's so that adventurers and soldiers can see that this thing is on the wanted-list, and so that everyone else knows this one is too dangerous for regular folks. Even people without [Appraisal] can see the wanted-status above the monster's head if they focus their attention to it, making the title less of a power-up, and more as a warning for others.
But the real problem is the last title. [Lord of the Mountain].
It's a title given to the area boss of an area on a mountain. Not only does the owner of the title get an additional 10% boost to all its stats except life-stats, INT, and LUC, it also removes their status limits. This isn't visible on the status screen, but it has practically over 460 STR. That's half a T-Rex in strength! And the bear haves better stats in the other categories as well.
To think there would be a day when the T-Rex loses to a simple bear...
It withstood the Hydra due to its high [Disease Resistance] and RES stat, but it still got more than half of its HP shaved off. I started the second round by bombarding the beast with Dark Bullets so it couldn't start rolling again. But the bear simply tanked the blows, and without even rolling up, it came charging at me. It was too big to hit me, but when the bear's paw hit the mountain wall, the wall exploded into many big blocks.
*Thunk!*
The force of the attack had me caught off guard, so one of the blocks hit me right in the head. I shook my head to remove the stars floating around my head, and thanks to [Parallel Minds] taking over the body while I was star-struck.
Ah, I had almost forgotten about that one. After getting my mind out of the daze thanks to the skill leveling up, I jumped back to dodge the Claw Arts from the bear.
I kept on retreating up the road, and the bear kept on spamming Claw Arts, including Claw Shot, the long-range Art that Levi used against me on the bridge when I first met her, Crush Claw, which gives the claw an additional blunt-attribute (crush-attribute sounds more logic), and the Broad Claw Art. It increases the area of the strike, while also increasing the power of it. It was this move that busted the mountain wall.
The bear was getting visually annoyed at me who kept on dodging the attacks all the time, and even more so when I counter-attacked with Dark Bullet and [Ultima Thread]. Not that getting angry will help you here.
"Sure it's a good idea to keep on chasing me?" - Garami
The bear stopped when it heard my taunting, but before it could react, it was attacked by Mira's Water Cutter and Levi's quadruple breath of fire, lightning, poison, and corrosion.
That shaved even more HP, but not enough. The bear turned around to face Levi with a Crush Claw, but I attacked the back of its knees with a Bloody Ambush3A Dagger Arts that requires one to attack a target's weak points 100 times to obtain. Inflicts the Bleeding condition on them. More damage if the opponent is not suspecting the attack, similar to how [Hidden Strike] and [Surprise Attack] works. If it hits the target's weak spot, then they're VIT stat will get a debuff., which made the bear fell on its butt.
Mira and Lily joined up with Levi, and they assaulted the bear off with a combo the Collapse Fall, Echo Fist, and Crush Claw. Mira had stored a Water Cutter into her blade with [Magic Weapon], and after that, she used a move from [Magic Sword Art], namely Ocean Divider. An Art unlockable if you have [Water Element] at LV30 or higher.
The Boulder Bear's face was cleaved by the raging water that came from the sword, probably reaching its brains even. After finishing her Art, Mira jumped back from the bear, as it fell to the ground.
Just like that?! We needed to clear a Haunt three times for the same amount of points, but now we needed only to take care of one guy?
"Hey! What's going... Seriously! What's going on here!" - Marc
So sorry, mister sleeping beauty. But you would be useless against this rock monster. Hmm... wonder if he knows any good recipes for bear meat?
Greydra
Kigal-Note/Class/Artisan Class: Item Meister
Class: Item Meister
Unlock requirements:
Effect:
The Item Meister is the ultimate amongst the medium-ranked classes in how to use consumable items. They create loads of items with the purpose of using them as disposable weapons. They are also referred to as Item Jugglers.
Item Meisters are capable of drawing out 120% of an item's potential, which is usually only so that they can blast the enemy to kingdom come. A strange type of artisan-class, that is capable of fighting on their own, while dedicating themselves to crafting.
The special skills of the Item Meister class are [Enhcant Item], which increases the effect of the item by using MP, [Magic Workshop] that allows them to use crafting tools usually limited to a workshop while out in the field, and the class-unique skill, [Items Return]. By using MP, the Item Meister can make a used consumable item return to how it was before it was used. This has a probability to fail, and it increases if the item has a high rank.
One can obtain the following items with the Item Meister class:
Each entry on the list is available when reaching a class level of a tenfold. The first two items are received the moment one obtains the class. In the case of Item Meister being selected as the Main class, one will get the three first items instead. The final item is therefore only obtainable for those with Item Meister as the Main class.
Lily's comment: ...When Garami's looking for skills and classes, she ain't fooling around.