Impotent Elite

Ugly

Yes, this was the word that had come into Aldrich's mind upon looking at that thing using his Divine Sense. The Crawler, though smaller than Bigfoot, was still around 8-9 ft. tall. Red Draconic Scales had covered its entire body and two huge bat-like wings had wrapped its frame. The Crawler had a goat-like head with two curved horns, two arms with 5 sharp claws each, and legs with cloven hooves like a horse. The creature had a forked tail whose sharpness couldn't have been any less than that of its claws.

But Aldrich had become warier after seeing its Stats.

[…

Record of Common Jersey Devil

Status: Healthy

Level: 10

HP: 546/546

SP: 448/448

MP: 860/860

Rank: Common

Attributes -->

Strength: 21

Defense: 26

Agility: 25

Vitality: 28

Perception: 30

Correspondence: 50

Active Skills -->

1. Fiery Breath

2. Devil's Rage

3. Intimidation

Passive Skills -->

1. Acute Sense

2. Ripper Claws

…]

After seeing the outrageous values, Aldrich realized something. That even if he were to assign all the Unassigned Attribute points to only Strength, he wouldn't be able to face this monster.

"I knew that the Quest's difficulty would differ for a Party and solo Dreamers, but this is just absurd," he spat. Aldrich assigned the 6 Attribute Points, which he had got from the last level up. And as per his usual personality, he took a few moments to make the preliminary plan. He had come here to hoard ExPs, and how would he be able to do it without at least killing this Elite? The time to use his trump card had come.

"If 10 grenades won't work, then I will use 20. If 20 won't work, then I will use 40." There wasn't any point in saving the expendable resources that he had brought with him. If he won't be able to use his Class-specific Skill by the time of Random-Allocation, then it was sure death for him, anyway. Aldrich approached a boulder about 100 meters away from the grotto's entrance. He took out 2 grenades and threw one at the grotto's entrance, ensuring that the waterfall wouldn't impede the trajectory. The grenade exploded just as it was about to cross the entrance.

ROARRR!!!

A heart-shaking roar resounded out of the grotto and the fallen rocks at the entrance got blasted apart outwards. Aldrich saw the monster stepping out of its den and it menacingly tried to find which miserable creature had disturbed its rest. Aldrich had expected this behavior. And with the cover of the boulder, guessing the range of its Divine Sense, he threw the other grenade in the opposite direction. The enhanced strength worked wonderfully, but the billowing wind restricted the distance. And the grenade could only travel for 400 meters before exploding.

The sudden sound of explosion caught the Crawler's attention, and with a single flap of its wings, it flew towards the site. The moment Aldrich saw it leaving the approximate range of its Divine Sense, he dashed towards the entrance. But unfortunately, the monster didn't go all the way, and just kept flapping its wings in the mid-air. Aldrich had been just about to enter the grotto when he saw the monster turning about.

"Damn luck!!!"

Aldrich saw a puddle just before the entrance and hastily dumped 40 grenades in it. Before the Crawler could see him, he had already entered the grotto. The inside of the cave was round and spacious. A serene pool of water could be seen on one side and the humidity had crossed the bearable limit for normal humans. Aldrich saw a crack in the wall opposite the area where the ground seemed scorched by intense heat and hid there. The Crawler soon entered the grotto, letting out sparks of fire from its mouth and laid down by the pool.

But in the next moment, it realized that something had infiltrated its den. The frustrated monster stood up, gnashing its fangs, and Aldrich came out of the crack. He had just wanted for the crawler to be away from the puddle at the entrance. If he had thrown the grenade when it had come, there was a big possibility that the monster would see it coming. Or even worse would have been to get stuck in the cave if the entrance would get blocked as the result of the explosion. Aldrich threw a grenade at the monster as a courtesy.

But the outcome wasn't in favor of Aldrich. The Crawler had only lost a few chips of its scales on the impact, but the shockwaves made it madder. The monster's rage had seemed to hit a threshold, and it took a long breath and sent a pillar of flames out of its mouth towards Aldrich. Aldrich had to hold down his momentum to keep himself from running into the flames. The flames were so hot that even after being away from it considerably, his skin almost got burned. Seeing the impudent being not getting caught by his attack, the monster let out a blood-curdling scream.

SHRIEKKKK!!!

Aldrich's mind jolted at hearing the thorny scream. The feeling had approached the borderline of calling it fear. He knew the Crawler had used the Intimidation Skill, but it didn't seem to work properly on Aldrich. The monster flapped its wings angrily and its body's frame was enlarging with a popping sound. Aldrich didn't want to waste even a single second anymore. Just as the monster dashed towards him, he had also put his plan in action.

"Target Lock."

Aldrich marked the boulder outside the grotto as his Target, and he streaked towards the entrance. The monster was caught off guard and slammed itself into the wall of the cave. Web-like cracks had spread all over the vast wall, but this didn't occupy the monster for long. And with a weird combination of using its hooves and wings together, it chased Aldrich. Contrary to the crazed monster, Aldrich had been enjoying the thrill of his increased Agility.

Another flaming pillar came towards him from behind, just as he was about to cross the entrance. Aldrich crouched down, and the monster couldn't see Aldrich dropping a live grenade in the puddle of doom. The Devil didn't seem to realize that its senses were being diminished by the usage of many Skills. Just as the monster was about to follow him out of the grotto, death descended to claim its prey.

BO**OOOOM!!!

The tremendous gurgling sound of the waterfall, along with whispers of the forest, felt lost in the explosion. Silence reigned over the valley for the next few seconds.

[…

You have killed 1 Common Jersey Devil

ExPs obtained: 1500

You have leveled up

…

You have leveled up

…

…]

Aldrich approached the ruined site and no one could tell if there had been a grotto of poetic beauty here a moment ago. Aldrich could see his rewards hovering outside the piled-up stones. And he could see two of those shiny jet-black objects. He couldn't wait anymore to know what the Crawler had dropped for him.

[…

Skill: Intimidation

Nature: Passive

Minimum Usage Condition: Perception 25

Consumption: 50 MP

Description: Dreamers can intimidate anything within the range of Perception. It can disrupt Skills before being executed.

Warning: The effect would increase or decrease based on the gap of levels between the Target and Dreamer

Do you want to equip the Skill?

…]

'A Passive!' thought Aldrich, taken aback by the first reward. Passive Skills were Not-upgradable by nature, but despite this, they were the most sought after. The reason was simple, they didn't have a cooldown period. This meant that if a Dreamer had ample supply of Mana then the Skill could have been spammed repetitively.

"Yes."

The black mass disappeared as fine dust particles. Seeing the unexpected and beautiful outcome from the first shiny ball, Aldrich thrust his hands towards the second one.

[…

Item: Ripper Claws

Type: Dagger

Rank: Common

Durability: 100/100

Minimum Usage Condition: Strength 21, Agility 21

Description: Strength +3, Agility +4

Warning: Item would be lost permanently if the durability is not replenished using Inventory

Warning: Item would occupy 1 Unit of Inventory

Do you want to equip the Item?

…]

Aldrich couldn't believe his good luck and his bad luck. The chance of an Item drop was pretty minimal but with no accompanying Skill, it would highly restrict the Item in its effects. Even after this undeniable fact, Aldrich didn't want to let it just go to waste, or he could just sell it later.

"Yes."

The black ball crumbled and two bright silver-colored 12-inch curved daggers took its place. They looked like the claws of the dead Crawler. Tiny red scales had covered the handles of the daggers, the rough feel of which gave a very soothing sense to Aldrich. He put away the daggers and the Mana core and finally focused on the Quest completion notification.

[…

Quest 2 (optional) has been completed

Rewards:

1. Skill Points +3

2. Skill: Beginner's Dagger Proficiency

…]

"HAHAHA…!"

[…

Skill: Beginner's Dagger Proficiency

Nature: Passive

Minimum Usage Condition: Dagger type Item

Description: Dreamer would obtain proficiency of using Daggers at a beginner's level

…]

And with that, it was time to use the Class-specific Skill.