Overwhelming Firepower

The following day, Lucen woke up with a weird feeling. Normally, he would feel more than energized when he woke up. In fact, every now and then, some of his stats would increase even while sleeping, back in his room in Ironhold, but now there was none of that.

He didn’t mind much when he was sleeping outside during a mission or when travelling, since he thought it was because of the bad bed, but now it seems like it was something entirely different.

He had always assumed it was the system rewarding good rest. But now, in a luxurious room in Caelhart, on a better bed, even. There was nothing, just silence.

’What’s different? What don’t I have here that I have in Ironhold?’ It didn’t take long for Lucen to realize what was missing. It was the heart of embers, the young fire dragon’s heart.

’Did it have such a function?...’

Lucen had so many questions, but like always, no one was there to answer him. Robert would probably leap at the theory, but Lucen didn’t dare tell him. Not unless he wanted a dozen questions about how he knew what effects his body had during sleep. And that meant talking about the system, and that was never going to happen.

Lucen didn’t want to explain things concerning his system, as that was his most important trump card he had in this world.

’Should I have brought it here?’ He thought to himself. Then yesterday’s events came flooding back—troll ambushes, poisoned arrows, whispers in shadows. ’No... It’s much safer in Ironhold.’

With a sigh, Lucen pushed the thought aside. There were other things to do today. Plans to make. Leads to-

BANG.

The door slammed open. And of course, it was Robert, grinning ear to ear, holding a frozen slab of giant troll meat like it was a prized relic.

”It’s time to eat!”

Lucen looked at the always manic alchemist, and his lips curled up into a smile. The messy thoughts he had seemed to clear up because of Robert.

”Have you already figured out how to remove the poisonous substances from the monster meat?”

”I have not,” Robert answered without hesitation. ”But that shouldn’t stop us from exploring the possibilities. What is a little poison in the face of ever-expanding knowledge!”

Robert tossed the giant troll’s frozen meat onto the nearby table. ”Now let us feast upon the knowledge that we will gain from taking a bite.”

”I see that you didn’t even bother cooking it,” Lucen said as he stared at the frozen meat.

”Of course not,” Robert replied, matter-of-fact. ”Who knows if the properties of the meat change once heat is applied? First, we eat it raw. Then we cook it. Seeking the truth like alchemy demands thoroughness.”

Lucen dragged a hand down his face. ”How can we continue to seek the truth if we die from monster poisoning?”

Robert waved dismissively. ”I’ve already prepared a few antidotes, I’m an alchemist after all. Besides, based on our earlier experiments on monster meat, the poison isn’t that lethal for people with mana or aura. Which, by the way, I already know you have both.”

Lucen blinked. ”... So you finally caught on to that, since when?” The only other person who knew the truth was his father.

”I noticed it when you were fighting those bandits during the journey here. It’s faint, but I know you have gained an aura.”

”Well, that’s surprising. You knew about it for that long, and you didn’t ask so many questions about it?”

”Well, it’s not like you’re the first one to have gained both mana and aura. There have been many cases in history of such people. Many of whom were true geniuses that either had both since birth, or gained the other once they reached the pinnacle of one.”

He paused, brow furrowing in thought.

”Now that I mention it... You are neither of the two, who gained both since birth, nor gained the other after mastering the one he has. Still, I did hear that the first Duke of Stellhart had also gained both aura and mana, but he was someone who had reached the near pinnacle of aura and forcefully formed a mana circle.”

Robert was once again in his own world, muttering to himself. Lucen knew that once Robert was like this, someone needed to intervene to make him stop.

’Should I just leave him here?’

The second Lucen thought about it, and was about to leave, Robert’s hand suddenly clutched onto Lucen’s shoulder, stopping him.

”Where do you think you’re going?”

”I thought you were going to continue mumbling to yourself, so I decided to give you privacy.”

”Nope, we won’t leave this room until we take a bite of the giant troll’s meat.” Robert snapped his fingers, and there was no visual cue, but Lucen knew a spell was activated.

”I used a barrier spell on the door. To be able to break it, you need power equivalent to a third-circle spell. I won’t deactivate the spell until we eat the meat.”

Lucen looked at the crazed eyes of Robert and sighed. The truth is, if Lucen wanted to escape, he could simply jump out of the window, since there’s no barrier spell there. He could also break down the wall if he used the explosive properties of his mana.

Still, he decided not to do any of that, since he was quite curious as to what kind of buff he could get from a giant troll. Since he already had a regeneration skill he gained from the dragon blood, maybe he could stack up other regeneration skills.

”Fine, let’s eat the meat,” Lucen answered while shrugging his shoulders.

”Now that’s the Lucen I know, come let’s eat.” Robert deactivated the spell that was keeping the meat frozen.

The second the ice melted, the two could smell a pungent scent coming from the giant troll’s meat, which just made it less desirable.

’If I hesitate now, I won’t be able to take a bite.’

While Lucen was hesitating, Robert had already taken a bite of the meat. Seeing that Lucen stopped hesitating, and also took a bite of the meat.

[You have gained: Minor Troll Vitality (Temporary)]

+ Small health regeneration

+ Resistance to blunt trauma

- Hunger

- Poisoned (Temporary)

Lucen was surprised by the screen that appeared in front of him. Normally, the system would only make a notification sound and tell him with those robotic words what he gained, but now it was clearly in front of him on a transparent screen.

Not only that, but there was an actual explanation of what Minor Troll Vitality was. He didn’t need to guess what the skill would be. If that wasn’t enough of a surprise, the duration of the minor troll vitality was only stated as temporary.

It didn’t give him a definite time frame like before, where each time he ate monster meat, the duration of the gained buffs only lasted a few seconds.

’Did the system upgrade at some point? Now that I think about it, it has been a while since I last checked my status window... There was no sound or notification. Is the system upgrading as I get stronger?’

The questions, when did it upgrade, or how did it upgrade, came to his mind, but he knew that, like all other questions he had about the system, no one would answer him.

So, as usual, he put those questions in the back of his mind for now and would try to figure out what was happening now.

When Lucen decided to check his status window, he was stopped because of the poison, which was finally taking effect on him. Robert, by his side, was already drinking a few antidotes, trying to see which one would work.

As Lucen was about to do the same as Robert and drink a few antidotes, he received another system message via the transparent screen.

[You have gained: Poison Resistance - Passive (Novice)]

The pain from the poison had lessened greatly, and in fact, it no longer felt like a problem for him, just to wait for the poison to disappear on its own. Lucen then took this chance, while Robert was busy trying to remove the poison, to open his status window.

[STATUS WINDOW]

Name: Lucen Thornehart

Age: 13

Class: Gun Mage

Level: 8

Health: 940 / 940

Mana: 273 / 273

Aura: Awakened (No Mantle)

Mana Core: First Circle

SKILLS

+ Bullet Creation – Active (Intermediate)

+ Gun Creation – Active (Intermediate)

+ Gun Knowledge – Passive (Novice)

+ Marksmanship – Passive (Intermediate)

+ Gun Kata – Passive (Intermediate)

+ Alchemy – Passive (Novice)

+ Battle Instinct – Passive (Intermediate)

+ Regeneration – Passive (Novice)

+ Flame Resistance – Passive (Novice)

+ Poison Resistance – Passive (Novice)

TRAITS

• Thornehart Lineage (Dormant)

• Foreign Soul (Unique)

+ Training Adept (Rare)

+ Grit (Normal)

+ Acting Adept (Rare)

+ Dragonkiller’s Resolve (Epic)

Monster Traits

+ Minor Troll Vitality (Temporary)

There were now plus signs before the traits and skills, except for the Thornehart Lineage and the Foreign soul.

’Those were the ones I was most curious about... Anyway, let’s see what happens if I press on the plus signs.’

Lucen pressed on Dragonkiller’s Resolve, and an explanation of what it does appeared before him.

Effects:

+ Immense resistance to fear and intimidation

+ Slight increase in physical stats when facing stronger enemies

+ Bonus effectiveness against dragon-type creatures

+ Your presence becomes more distinct to draconic beings

+ Trait may evolve if you slay another dragon

Lucen felt excited the second he saw more details appearing. Now he didn’t need to guess what each skill does. He can check it out.

The days of blindly guessing what each skill does by doing random things were over. Now he just needs to click on it, and he’ll know what they do.