Chapter 5

Theo sucked in air as he stared at the pile of ashes on the ground. He managed to absorb all the level one novice rank power cores as well as some level two ones.

Unfortunately, he recieved a notification from the system that he has reached a bottleneck and can no longer absorb power cores unless he levels up.

Not willing to give up this big fish, he stowed away the remaining power cores into his stolen Storage watch.

Not that Cosmo had a problem with it.

He opened his user interface.

-[HOST ATTRIBUTES]

»Name: Theo Dragonslav

»Title: None

»Class: Warrior

»Race: Dragon Warrior

»Level: Level 2 novice rank

»Energy: 70

»Mana: 70

»HP: 100

»Strength: 375

»Physique: 415

»Speed: 167

»Agility: 168

»Intelligence: 175

»Mental Fortitude: 40

»Charm: 10

»PHYSICAL DMG: 1,125

Theo grinned. A certain kind of confidence began to take root in his heart, he felt like he could take on anything.

"Preharps this system is toxic?" he wondered.

However, he quickly threw these thoughts into the back of his head. He had a boss level dire beast to go against.

* * *

At the deepest part of the Zeltic forest laid a certain forbidden region:. A cave.

Every direbeast living in the Celtic forest dared never to trespass because it was the abode of the strongest existence, the Silver Needle porcupine.

Currently inside a hole burrowed on a huge tree, a huge porcupine like dire beast munched on the flesh of a carcass.

The carcass was so mangled up that it's identity couldn't be made out.

The porcupine was so large that it reached 5'7 fts and had a bulky build, with sharp needle like spikes as it's hair.

It had sharp fangs dripping with blood, red glowing eyes and stood upright.

Suddenly it twitched and let out a warning shriek.

BOOM!

It's abode trembled like it was about to cave in. Angry for being challenged, the Silver Needle porcupine dashed out of it's abode.

Meanwhile outside, Theo stared at Cosmo in awe.

"You are a fire mage?" just now, Cosmo hurlf a fire ball at the Silver Needle porcupine's tree.

"Is that a big deal?" Cosmo shrugged.

Theo blushed in shame. Thinking of his newly awakened magic principle of illusion, he began to anticipate the time he would be able to cast magic skills.

"It's here!" Cosmo warnt.

At that moment, Theo saw a figure dash out from the huge hole on the tree, landing before him.

It was the Silver Needle porcupine.

Shriiek!

The porcupine sped towards Cosmo, sending a kick his way.

"Your opponent is me!" Theo disliked being ignored.

Dashing forward, he deflected the kick with a punch, using just half of his strength.

Unfortunately, he got too over confident. Like a rag, he got thrown flying backward. He began to bleed from his nose.

Not only that, he began to see his HP depleting gradually. He began to panic.

"Are you okay?" Cosmo rushed to his side.

"Fuck. How can that rodent be so strong?!" Theo cussed at his over confidence.

"Were you really thinking of going solo?" Cosmo was amazed at Theo's overconfidence.

"You have any health replenishing pills on you?" Theo asked urgently.

Cosmo tossed a white pill at Theo who popped into his mouth. He felt a soft sensation permeat his tongue and his originally depleting HP went back to normal.

He could even feel that some of the medical efficiencies of the pill wasn't used up yet.

"Let's attack this crap together" Theo took up a fighting stance, eying the Silver Needle Porcupine with caution.

Once bitten, twice shy.

"You are a fiend mage right. You are going to engage it in a frontal close ranged assault, while i back you up by sending long ranged attacks at it" Cosmo explained, fishing out a huge battle axe that had intricate designs on it.

"This is a primary rank weapon armament. It might come in handy" he gave Theo the axe.

Weighing the axe, Theo found it to be quite light like a feather, but hiding a strong power within.

"Primary rank? let's see just what sort of power you are hiding" Theo smirked.

Exploding with his full speed, he dashed towards the Silver Needle Porcupine, cleaving at it's neck.

The Rodent shook it's body, sending out seven needle like spikes soaring towards Theo.

"Die!!" Cosmo blasted a fireball towards the rodent, knocking it back by five metres.

"Scatter!!" Theo hacked at the needle spikes with the battle axe.

BOOM!

The needles got knocked flying backward. Theo landed on the ground, staring at the battle axe in shock.

So powerful!

The Silver Needle porcupine stood up, launching more needles from it's body. A shame that Theo easily deflected them all.

"Ourrgh!" it shrieked because a fireball from Cosmo landed squarely on it's chest.

"Go!!" Cosmo roared.

Reading the signal, Theo sped towards the wavering rodent, beheading it in one stroke.

Blood sprayed on his face. But he wasn't bothered to care. He patiently waited for the notification from the system.

-[PING! YOU HAVE COMPLETED HIDDEN QUEST; KILL SILVER NEEDLE PORCUPINE]

-[You have recieved +30 exp]

-[You have recieved +2 skill points]

-[You have unlocked new stat; SOUL]

-[You have unlocked new stat; ARCANE]

-[You have recieved +2 soul stats]

-[You have recieved +8 intelligence stat]

-[You have unlocked a new skill; STUN]

Theo whistled. What massive gains!

"Are you okay?" he felt a pat on his shoulder.

"Huh. Yeah. Yeah" he nodded, grinning sheepishly.

"That was crazy man. To think that you'd kill that rodent as easy as slicing pizza!" Cosmo stared at Theo with amazement.

"I wouldn't have done that without your axe. I should be returning it to you too" he tried shoving the axe into Cosmo's arm, but the latter grinned meaningfully.

"And who said i would be taking it back. You don't know the gravity of a favour you have just shown me by killing that rodent"

"But, those power cores.." Theo was starting to feel bad for his selfishness.

"They're just some powercores.." Cosmo shunned.

"Alright. I'll shamelessly accept your gift" Theo smirked wryly as he stowed away the axe.

"So this is where we part huh?" Cosmo sighed.

"Who knows?" Theo shrugged, tucking his hands into his pants pocket.

"Here" Cosmo tossed him a card.

"What's this?" Theo asked.

"A Referral card. If anytime you wish to become a Knight, you can use that card to buy a slot" Cosmo explained, picking up the Silver Needle porcupine corpse and stowing it into his storage watch.

"Till we meet again.. Theo"

* * *

When Theo arrived at his hostel, he found it empty. Looks like those two bullysome roomies weren't around.

He went to the bathroom and had a bath, washing off the blood stains from the battle. Then he brought out some roast beef from his storage watch, hungrily munching on them.

He belched and began to recall his experience at the Zeltic forest.

"It would seem like my absorption of power cores has a limit. Plus i can't absorb the power cores of existences powerful than me by a level"

"But i don't know if it's a daily limit. Buh, there's one way to find out"

He fished out a level two primary rank power core and tried absorbing it.

-[PING! HOST CANNOT ABSORB POWER CORE. HOST HAS REACHED AN EQUILIBRUM]

Theo laughed wryly. Nothing was perfect after all. Plus he wasn't a greedy sort. The improvements he made was more than enough.

With his strength and help of that primary rank axe weapon armament, he could even battle mid tier intermediate rank existences.

Acing through a mere enterance examination was a given.

"Izreel, can you hear me?"

-[What is it you brat?] Izreel's annonyed voice rang.

"I want to ask some questions. Aren't i your master? what's the big deal?" Theo rolled his eyes.

-[What do you want to know?]

"Can you give me a brief break down of the tabs in the system interface? how they work and so on. Honestly, i hate being kept in the dark.

-[Host Attributes like you know gives you the data of your power status. Title is given when you achieve a feat]

-[Usually, it has a buff attached to it. Class means what you specialize in. There are five classes. Tankers, Strikers, Defender, Warrior and Healer. Tankers rely on brute strength and strong physique. Strikers rely on long distance attacks and fast moves. Defenders are on the defensive side. Warrior is a combination of the Striker and Tanker class. Healer heal injuries and have mostly poor battle apptitude and lousy physique. Oh i wish you were of the Healer class]

Theo rolled his eyes.

-[I am sure you already know what races means. As for being a Dragon Warrior, let me put it this way, you are classified as half human, half dragon]

-[Level means your cultivation level. Energy means the raw energy output extended when doing physical damage. It can be replenished through eating]

-[Mana means the energy output extended when doing magic damage. It can be replenished through pills, potions, elixirs, food and resting. Health point refers to the amount of vitality you have. If it runs out, you are dead]

-[It can be replenished through pills, potions and elixirs]

-[As for your latest stat.. ARCANE. It serves the purpose as Mana and Energy, except it can be used when doing Spirit damage. It can be replenished through resting, pills, potions and elixirs]

"What's spirit damage?" Theo chirped in.

-[Brat. I hate being interrupted when speaking] Izreel snorted.

-[Strength stat means your raw strength. Physique means your body defense. Speed means your raw running speed. Agility means your ability to dodge and adapt to attacks. Intelligence means your Skill power. If you have two skill power stats, your skill will have an additional +2% increase in damage]

"It works just like those video games" Theo mused.

-[Soul means the raw power damage of your spirit skill. Mental fortitude means the raw defensive power of your soul in withstanding spirit attacks]

-[Comprehension means the number of principles and how well you have comprehended it. It comes with it's own base damage]

-[The bloodline tab gives you data of your bloodline as well as it's skills. The quest tab issues you quest to fulfill, ranging from hidden quests, daily quests, emergency quests, weekly quests, monthly quests, yearly quests, decade quests, century quests and millennial quests. It comes with both rewards and punishments]

-[Alright brat, i have done my part. Stop disturbing me okay?] Izreel snorted and went silent.

Just as Theo was musing over this new information, the door sprung open, revealing Ender and Ski.

"You!" Ender shrieked upon seeing Theo.

Somehow, he felt a cold sensation in his heart, causing him to take a step back in fright.

"Weakling" Ski snorted as he strode towards Theo.

"So you didn't die huh?" he sized him up.

"Were you expecting me too?" Theo grinned.

Ski frowned. Why was Theo acting strangely. The Theo he knew would always fret whenever in his presence.

"So, what's up, did you both miss me?"

"Hmph. Dreams of an idiot" Ski harrumphed and left the hostel. Ender swiftly raced after him.

To his horror, he saw Ski's leg trembling. He could even smell the stench of urine on his pants.

"You.."

"That Theo gives me a dangerous vibe. A.. a really bad one" Ski confessed with trembling lips.