Chapter 47: Level up
Astonished, Carl quickly sensed everything within his range using his [Dragon Sense] skill, searching for any sign of intrusion.
Sure enough, he detected faint, unstable mana waves stepping into his range and closing in on him at a terrifying speed.
"Damn!"
Just half a second later, Carl swiftly raised his sword and spun around, blocking the unseen blows without even looking. Both hands gripped the sword tightly, but the momentum behind the battle axe’s strike was overwhelming, forcing him back a few steps before he managed to steady himself.
Balancing on the spine of the undead fire dragon, Carl’s face darkened as his eyes locked onto the creature standing before him.
"Hobgoblin? ... No... It’s different."
The hobgoblin, with red skin and a rough face, stared at Carl with its narrow vertical pupils. It quickly shifted into a fighting stance after the failed ambush. The attack should have been flawless—but for some reason, it had failed.
In fact, Carl had blocked it even without seeing it in advance, as if he had known beforehand... or had eyes on his back.
Yeah, the hobgoblin could never know...
Carl gritted his teeth, a chill running down his spine as he imagined what would have happened if his earlier move had failed.
The short hobgoblin blinked and began to utter in a strange tongue, and in an instant, all the flames around Carl seemed to become harmless to it.
A spell? Or a prayer before the hunt?
Whatever the short hobgoblin had done to nullify Carl’s flames, he could tell one thing — this creature was intelligent. Even the makeshift armor strapped across its frame was enough proof of that.
Carl frowned and dove toward the short hobgoblin.
He’d thought of using his invisibility cloak, but after seeing the monster’s good senses — and realizing his mana was running low from keeping the flames wrapped around the undead fire dragons — he decided against it.
For that reason alone, he abandoned the idea of using the item. His top priority was maintaining the flame blanketed in the undead dragon until they approached the mana barrier, not defeating all the monsters at any cost without thinking about the consequence.
Now, he had to take down the short hobgoblin as fast as possible. Leaving such an intelligent monster near the place where they were controlling the undead fire dragon and guarding themselves was a stupid choice — unless they wanted to surrender themselves to the horde of hunting, starving beasts below.
The undead fire dragon was their only safe fortress.
However, things were not going the way Carl had expected. After just a few clashes, he could already tell something more.
The short hobgoblin wasn’t just an intelligent being, but also an experienced and nasty monster.
"Such bad luck! Why does a monster like that even exist?"
Carl gritted his teeth and thrust the swift, fatal blows at the creature, but it was far less effective than he intended. Most of his strikes were blocked, and the rest missed entirely because of the monster’s abnormal movement style.
The short, nasty creature hunched down and dove straight into the gaps between the undead fire dragon’s ribs to dodge Carl’s onslaught, then leaping up from its inner skeleton frame and aiming its battle axe at Carl’s head with clear intent.
It wanted to finish Carl off in the most brutal way possible.
"You wicked little shit." Carl’s face twisted as he watched the monster’s skilled and slippery movements.
He quickly countered with several slashes, deflecting the creature’s attack. Of course, Carl showed almost no fear or hesitation—only mild surprise at meeting a monster whose fighting style could rival that of soldiers from the Big Family. It was as if this filthy creature had been formally trained.
"What kind of absurd things are happening in this world?"
Normally, Carl’s technique could easily overpower monsters, but things were different this time.
On one hand, Carl’s opponent was a monster, not a human, so it ignored all the wounds Carl inflicted on it, even the relatively serious ones. The monster attacked Carl like a wild animal, even it went berserk as if sensing its own impending death.
On the other hand, the monster was Rank-D... truly, Carl managing to cause any wounds at all on a Rank-D monster was a big achievement for a student.
And, on top of everything, Carl still had to fight the other monsters — a lot of them — all aiming for the undead fire dragon, as if some unseen force was drawing them to the battle.
"Curse it!"
Carl leaped into the air, swinging a series of blows at a Harpy, an ugly humanoid bird creature. He then balanced and shifted his weight, landing on the spine of the undead fire dragon while evading the hobgoblin’s attacks and others.
"System! Split the points: 60% into Strength, 30% into Agility, and 10% into Vitality!"
"Use all!"
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[Attributes] (★★)
Strength : 45×2->132x2
Agility : 49×2->87x2
Vitality : 43×2->58x2
Intelligence : 43×2
Wisdom : 45×2
Available stat points: 0
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Instantly, Carl felt a difference in his body and mind. Everything happened in a blink, but briefly. He felt like he could defeat anything.
All the stat points he had saved from the first dungeon were now used properly. Even if he was just an F-rank , bathing in the blood of holy dragons had boosted his power to match a Rank-E with the same two-star dragon souls. At this moment, he felt himself growing even stronger.
The bastard was in a berserk state, so he needed to kill it as quickly as possible. Clearly, this wasn’t a matter of speed for Carl, but of strength. He had to finish the monster off with as few blows as possible, without using the [Dimensional Slash] skill, since the monster barely gave him a moment to breathe.
In a rush of euphoria, Carl charged at the berserk monster, landing atop it and swinging a horizontal, lightning-fast slash.
As expected, the monster did not dodge in a manic frenzy and managed to block Carl’s blow with brute strength — a big mistake. Carl’s slash cut through the battle axe and eventually sliced through the monster’s body as if it were a piece of tofu.
[System]: You have slain a Goblin Captain.
You have received a 150x Monster Card.
"Tsk! You’re done. Bastard" Carl said with a smile, watching the half-cut monster fall from the undead fire dragon’s spine.
Unfortunately for the monster, its limited intelligence barely allowed it to sense the strangeness in Carl’s power. Instead of that, it trusted its natural instincts, it made a poor choice.
It was a weakness of monsters: they could never adapt to the shifting tides of battle.
"But it’s not over yet."
Carl savored the sense of victory for a moment, then refocused on the situation around him.
Roy was still alive, rapidly drinking the mana potion to recharge his mana.
The seventh undead fire dragon continued rampaging through the monsters below. No Rank-D or lower monsters could stand against the dragon’s flame-amor might, amplified by Carl’s power.
The vibration and deafening screams of the dying monsters were, to Carl, a strangely beautiful scene.
Of course, the announcement chimes rang in his ears:
[System]: You have slain a Goblin.
You have received a 1x Monster Card.
...
[System]: You have slain a Goblin.
You have received a 1x Monster Card.
...
[System]: You have slain an Orc.
You have received a 20x Monster Card.
"What a slaughter!" Carl said with a smile, glancing at the barrier in the distance. At this rate, they would soon reach it, just as in the initial plan.
"Just a matter of time."
Carl nodded in satisfaction and resumed his work, dancing across the spine of the undead fire dragon while onslaughting the monsters that dared challenge his power. Each precise movement delivered death to the monsters below. The scent of blood and the agonized screams of the dying spread with every step he took.
[System]: You have slain a Dire Wolf.
You have received 10x Monster Card
...
[System]: You have slain a Dire Wolf.
You have received 10x Monster Card
...
[System]: You have slain a Dire Wolf.
You have received 10x Monster Card
...
[System]: You have slain a Goblin.
You have received 1x Monster Card
...
Ting!
[System Announcement ]: "Level Up – Rank E."
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Attributes] (★★)
Strength : 132x2->182x2
Agility : 87x2->137x2
Vitality : 58x2->108x2
Intelligence : 43×2->93x2
Wisdom : 45×2->95x2
Available stat points: 0
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
...
[System]: You have slain a Dire Wolf.
You have received 10x Monster Card
...
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Name]: Carl Ryan
[Age]: 18
[Class]: Stoker
[Rank]: E [1302/13000] (Requires Monster Card)
[Soul Rank]: ★★ Dragon (Progress: 32%)
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[Skills]
Soul-Devouring Flame — Rank: EX
Flame Breath — Rank:F->E
Plasma Breath — Rank: F ->E
Draconic Physique — Rank: F->E
Basic Swordsmanship — Rank: A
Dimensional Slash Skill — Rank: C
Dragon Senses[Passive] — Rank: F->E
All-Seeing Eye Skill –Rank: F
The Will of the Primordial Dragon God[Passive] — Rank: Unique (∞)
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"Great! Finally! That sound!" Carl laughed as the sound he had been waiting for most finally arrived.
After many months, he finally achieved his goal, each step bringing him closer to the horizon.
[System notice]: Congratulations, my husband. I’m so happy for you.
Carl lifted the corner of his lips.
"I’m truly thankful, my love."
He had intended to say more sweet words, but Roy’s shout echoed nearby.
"What the hell are you babbling about? Focus on the barrier! You’re almost there, bastard!"
Carl clicked his tongue and looked toward the barrier ahead. Just a few seconds remained before they would reach the mana barrier.
"Fine, boy."