14 Dragons or Potatoes?
The self-inflicted crisis over, Rialyne used Sap on the fallen monster. A few seconds later, she gained the following stats: 201840 HP, 22008 MP, 28860 PATK, 7812 MATK, 5475 PDEF, 3756 MDEF, 1633 SPD, and 2739 FLX.
Although she had expected it, Rialyne was still shocked at seeing the PATK number. If the wyrm hadn't underestimated them, and really tried crushing them from the beginning, they would've stood no chance.
However, seeing as its agility was lower than Rialyne's, she was still able to outmaneuver it. So in the worst case scenario, they would be able to escape mostly unscathed.
But even with this high number of absorbed stats, the best part of the risky fight still laid in the most basic of aspect of power and growth—experience points, or simply, leveling. Rialyne gained a whopping 490 billion EXP from the wyrm!
The automatic system announcements flashed by. Level 27, 28, 29, 30… And now it prompted her whether she wanted to evolve or continuing leveling with an overfilled experience bar of 480414390038/10737418240. With this amount, she could level several more times. Fighting higher ranked monsters…was absolutely astounding!
Rialyne felt almost drunk on all the experience. Initially, she thought she would have to use five energy stacks to restore her HP to above 90%. This was quite the hefty recovery expense, so it would have prevented her from taking on more opponents that were as formidable as the wyrm.
Of course, Kyferne would have been quite happy with this decision. But as the situation now stood, the idea of power-leveling to Rialyne was very tempting indeed…
Forgoing the continuation of levels, Rialyne eagerly immediately pressed [ Yes ] on the evolution inquiry.
Similar to before, a brilliant light emanated from the Dielweiss Tree. But Rialyne couldn't see this as she was now in Kyferne's body. This physical separation from the tree didn't affect the Evolution process, however, as Rialyne, the soul user of the tree, would always be connected to it.
「 Evolution is successful. The Lv. 30 Dielweiss Tree has evolved into a Lv. 35 Eldarine Tree. 」
"Level 35..?" Rialyne murmured confusedly before realizing, "….The extra experience points!! Amazing! It levels up this much! It doesn't even feel like I was reborn this time!"
She immediately set about allocating her free attribute points, and her mind stirred frenetically. Rialyne's fervor was sensed by Kyferne who was now resting leisurely back on the ledge. "What happened?" he queried.
"KYY~~ Look at this, look at this!" Rialyne displayed her new status window proudly.
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Soul Inhabiter: Rialyne
Host: [ Eldarine Tree ] Lv. 35
Rank: [ Mysterious ]
Evolution at 40 levels.
Next Level: 136,817,006,370 / 343,597,383,680 EXP
Domain: 335,283,496,296 HP (617,253 Self)
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— STATS —
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HP: 3600 (613653)
MP: 784 (43980)
PATK: 280 (38691)
MATK: 444 (13588)
PDEF: 260 (13890)
MDEF: 342 (12171)
SPD: 226 (11287)
FLX: 226 (12876)
Absorbed Stats: 760,136
————————
Basic Attributes:
STR: 105 [ + 35 ]
AGI: 88 [ + 25 ]
INT: 122 [ + 100 ]
VIT: 105 [ + 15 ]
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Special Attributes:
LUCK: 13 [ + 16 ]
CRIT: 19 [ + 11 ]
ARM: 16 [ + 11 ]
BLK: 13 [ + 16 ]
PEN: 13 [ + 16 ]
————————
Resistances:
FIRE: 49 [ + 30 ]
ICE: 49 [ + 30 ]
WATER: 122
EARTH: 73
WIND: 122
DARK: 88 [ + 5 ]
LIGHT: 88 [ + 5 ]
_________________________________
Kyferne's eyes nearly popped out of their sockets. Level 35?! Over 300 billion HP?! And the tree itself was now almost three quarters of a million itself with over eleven thousand in each stat?! He knew that the Monarch-ranked monster would bestow great rewards, but this was just TOO good! Even if he was able to defeat the monster himself, he didn't have such a broken skill like Sap.
For a fleeting moment, Kyferne almost wished he was a tree, too. But in the end, being a human was a challenge in itself, and he loved surpassing both his personal and species limit. Not to mention, he highly valued freedom. He never wanted to experience the horror of his confined childhood days ever again…
Shaking away his shock and reminiscence, Kyferne asked what the next plan of action was in this valley. Rialyne almost gained back the HP that she had lost in the fight from Sap, Evolution, and leveling. So even if she still didn't have a full health bar, the current, almost four hundred thousand heart points was sufficient enough to explore.
But to be on the safe side, and knowing that she wouldn't be able to resist fighting against more monsters, Rialyne used three energy stacks to fill her health bar back up to over 90%.
After this, they decided to make a beeline toward the unmissable chasm which was too much of a curiosity to not investigate. On the way, they ignored and avoided most of the monsters. But they stopped for a few weak ones so that Kyferne could train a little too.
Just as Kyferne wiped the sweat off his forehead from an especially tricky fight, a sudden feeling of imminent danger gripped his battle-attuned senses. Springing three meters backwards, a beam of blazing electricity scorched a jagged line through the thick undergrowth where he had stood.
Startled and on high caution, the two turned their eyes to the sky. Seeing another beam heading straight toward them, Rialyne used her greater agility to dodge the attack. A loud roar reverberated through the air, and a dragon burst out of the now evaporating clouds. The heat emanating from its body dissipated the billows while making the air shimmer like on a scalding summer day.
"Ria! That's a dragon! A bloody real dragon—!" Kyferne couldn't tear his eyes away from the epitome of all mythical beasts, the top of the food chain, the commander of the azure. He had seen plenty of dragons in books and pictures; even when he saw their shapes from far away on the ledge, he still didn't fully believe it until the monster was nearly bearing down on him with those fearsomely stunning, glowing electric blue eyes…
"KY!! Move the hell away from the dragon! It's about to land on us like potatoes!"
"—Potatoes?" Ky momentarily was distracted by the odd choice of words. And Rialyne yanked his body away from the nosediving dragon.
"You damn idiot! It took you potatoes to snap out of your freakin' daze?!"
"What the hell is a potato?"
"You don't know what a potato is?!!" Her voice reached an indescribable pitch at the earth shattering realization that potatoes didn't exist in this world.
Before Ky could respond, their out of place discussion was cut short by the pall of kicked up dirt, scorched vegetation, and crumbled rocks.
「 - 14 HP - 21 HP - 17 HP - 30 HP - 19 HP - 25 HP - 18 HP - 27 HP - 23 HP - 16 HP - 24 HP - 31 HP - 19 HP - 15 HP - 26 HP - 22 HP - 20 HP - 14 HP - 25 HP - 18 HP 」
"What the heck? It injured us just from it landing?!" Rialyne exclaimed in disbelief. Indeed, the dragon had created an enormous crater from its descent. Although such debris would usually be harmless against Rialyne's defenses, the mere force of the dragon's descent propelled the rubble enough to cause damage.
They were several meters away from the gigantic reptilian monster who now stared them down with fierce, ominous orbs. The whole of its body was layered in metal plates like angular, long scales. When it moved, the sound of scraping metal was grating and yet also somehow captivating. It like the sound of all consuming dominance that dared to challenge and conquer everything, the sound of approaching victory and death.
"Not too bad for an outsider, avoiding my attacks thrice. However, as you have slain my kin, so I shall now slay you." The dragon spoke with dignified authority.
"HOLD YOUR HORS-er scales? wings? ANYWAY, WAIT!! The one who killed me was not this boy!"
The dragon's pupil's suspiciously glinted. "You speak as if this is not your body? Who are you, a demon possessing this human boy?"
"A demon? Oooh, that would pretty cool~! But nope, I'm—" Rialyne paused for a moment. It felt pretty deflating and anticlimactic to say she was a tree in this epic standoff. Nevertheless, she had no reason not to be truthful. "—a tree."
The dragon's eyes dimmed a little… "…" ...What?
Seeing the dragon's glazed over look, Rialyne reassured the veracity of her statement. "Really! I'm a tree! This boy is just a temporary contractee, and he technically wasn't the one who killed—Wait, who of your kin did I exactly kill anyway?"
Although Kyferne had killed a few monsters in the valley, none of them could be considered as even the distant kin of the almighty dragons. The only monster that could considered related to the dragons that she had killed was the——wyrm. Comprehending the connection, Rialyne piped up before the dragon could inform her of anything.
"Oh!! You mean the wyrm? The Archaic Stygian Wyrm of Destruction?"
The dragon glared at her with mild contempt for speaking so casually of the children of dragons. That specific wyrm wasn't directly the offspring of his particular dragon species, but in this valley, he could easily sense when a fellow kinsman had been slain, especially a dragon child.
"Yes. An unforgivable deed!"
Rialyne chucked tensely. "Ah that. I didn't actually think I'd be able to kill it at first, but then it just sorta happened."
The dragon's eyes burned with held-back rage. "But you would've killed it if you could?" Electrified flames surged up around his fore-claws. "Astonishing as it was when you claimed to be a tree, I could perceive no lies. But tree or demon, I will still have to slay you in vengeance!"
"HOLD UP!" Rialyne could already feel Kyferne starting to perspire under the torrid aura that the dragon was giving off in preparation for its attack.
"Are you really going to kill this innocent human? Where is your pride and honor as a dragon?!" She sincerely hoped that by its stately manner of speech and bearing that this dragon was one of the virtuous ones found in heroic stories.
Sure enough, she hit the nail on its head, for the dragon visibly hesitated.
"Tree, you sure know how to talk your way out of your demise and ensnare me with your words. Human, can you speak? Or are you too scared or unable? I swear to Aionos and on my dragon's heart that I can break the chains which bind you to this despicable…plant!"
Kyferne internally sweat-dropped. How could he explain to this dragon that he wasn't forcefully possessed by a plant and still have the both of them escape alive?
