Chapter 190: A Name

Arthur felt his body fall into the shadows as the giant rhino came rushing his way. His skill, shadow swap, activated again as he fell to the shadows for a moment and reappeared behind the rhino under a giant tree. 

[Shadow Swap Skill has evolved.] 

The message came suddenly but Arthur dismissed it. He jumped high in the air as he interlocked his fingers together and used his rune. He then threw his hands out as a fire net surrounded the rhino. 

As it was engulfed by the fire, the rhino came rushing toward Arthur with its scorched body. Arthur took a deep breath and punched using his Release rune. As the rhino's head and the skull collided, there was a giant shockwave before a distinct crack came from the monster's head. 

It fell after its orifices started bleeding out. After it gave a low sound, the rhino was dead. Arthur sighed as he flicked his hand. A golden rune appeared as the message appeared again in his mind. 

[Strength has increased by 1.] 

[Strength has increased by 1.] 

He smiled in satisfaction as he opened his legacy. After he came back from the capital, he started hunting near the fortress. They were hiding in the wilderness between the Yalveran Union and Halin, so there were a lot of monsters he could hunt. 

[Scholar Guardian's Legacy]

[Level: 31 (55%)]

[Legacy Points: 10]

[Stats Points: 0] 

[Strength: 178]

[Agility: 170]

[Stamina: 162] 

[Perception: 160]

[Mana: 250/250]

[Abilities: Beginner Runes Wordsmith (58%), Useable Runes: 22]

[Skills: Lesser-Mana Breathing Skill (F – 60%), Poison Strike (F – 36%), Camouflage (F – 21%), Earth Manipulation (E – 30%), Bladeless Wind Slash (E – 99%), Shadow Space (D – 0%), Monster Claws (D – 23%), Iron Skin (D – 10%), Goblin's Bond (Unique – 89%)] 

[Arts: The Art of Creation – Part One]

He had seen a slight increase in his stats after he started absorbing the monsters' essences and cores. However, there were a little less than ten days left for college and he was going to get every stat point he can. 

The major change is that his skill, Shadow Swap, has finally evolved. It has remained as a skill even though it has evolved, clearing some of Arthur's confusion. 

This means that his skills need to reach their utmost potential for them to evolve into runes. So, shadow swap had more potential to grow stronger before it becomes a rune. 

This had an upside that his skills will grow stronger before he gets their rune and the downside of them taking too long to do so. As he touched the words 'Shadow Space' that was in front of him, Arthur received more explanation from his legacy. 

[Shadow Space: Shadows are one entity and this skill would allow the user to hide in them and travel across short distances.] 

This was a huge leap in its ability and Arthur couldn't help but gape. This was perfect to hide or sneak into spaces. Furthermore, this was unrestricted by the space-locking devices. He would enter a different, smaller, dimension and travel across it to another location. 

He used his skill and his body fell into the shadows he stood on. There was nothing but emptiness in front of him and he realized he couldn't breathe. He held his breath as he traveled across the darkness. Luckily, he could feel the connection this shadow space made with the outside world. 

After he had traveled a certain distance, Arthur realized that the more he moved, the more mana he used. Even with his creation mana, which made his skills use less mana, it was still a lot. 

He stood in place and realized that the mana stopped being drained by a lot. He left the shadow space and appeared in another location, a distance away. 

"Well, this is convenient." Arthur smiled as he returned to take the core of the Rhino. It was a high-tier monster but on the lower ranks of it. He took out the core and absorbed it, earning another point in mana. 

As he was about to look for another monster, a voice appeared in his mind. 

'Hungry…' It was a weak and childish voice but Arthur knew who it belonged to right away. He sat under a tree and ordered the young dragon to come out. 

It left Arthur's body and turned to its physical form on the ground. Eyes still closed; the dragon yawned after it awoke from its slumber. It opened its eyes slowly, as black as night, and looked around before its eyes rested on Arthur. 

"Hello, little one." Arthur smiled as he stroked its nostrils. The dragon closed its eyes and frowned at Arthur's touch as it tried to pull away. "Be nice or I won't feed you." 

The dragon, reluctantly, obeyed and allowed Arthur to pat it. Arthur felt the sharp edges and smooth surface of the scales. He marveled at the shape of its wings and how small its claws were. It was barely a meter tall, making it quite surprising that this was one of the strongest monsters. 

Arthur knew that the age of dragons has faded into the annuals of history. Their evolution didn't account for the fact that one day, artifacts and runes wouldn't be that common to find. Their strong bodies didn't reach their full potential by devouring the essence of the monsters, but rather the essence of the world. 

"Maybe that's why your mother left you with me." Arthur stroked it with his left hand as a rune appeared on his left. The dragon's tail stood up in alarm as its wings spread. It opened its eyes and looked at the rune greedily. "Can you eat this?" 

The dragon nodded its head. It opened its mouth as a vertex appeared and started sucking the rune into the dragon's mouth. Arthur felt like someone was tugging on his fire rune and released the connection. 

The rune flew from his hand and was eaten by the dragon. Its body glowed slightly as it looked at Arthur again, with more affectionate eyes. 

"Greedy fella." Arthur laughed. Even though he didn't consume a lot of mana just by summoning his rune, the dragon still drained a portion of it when it ate the rune. Nonetheless, he used the rune again to feed the dragon. 

After three more times, the dragon was finally full. It looked around as it started beating its wings but failed to levitate. Arthur saw its belly protrude as it burped out flames, almost burning Arthur's hair in the process.

"Woah, careful there." Arthur backed away. The dragon fell on its butt in frustration and Arthur walked over and crouched to its eye level. "It'll take time, don't rush the inevitable." The dragon looked at him with confusion. 

The dragon was like a toddler since it couldn't understand a lot of what Arthur was saying. It kept trying to fly despite Arthur's words. In the end, Arthur gave up and sat down as he waited for the dragon. 

"Oh right, I haven't named you yet." Arthur realized. "Did your mother give you a name?" 

The word name made the young dragon perk its head up toward Arthur. It looked at Arthur and at his hand, which had the dragon's tattoo given by its mother. Seeing its behavior, Arthur remembered its mother's words. 

'Dragons don't have names.' 

The dragon looked, at that time, like it wanted to say something more. However, it asked Arthur to take their child with him. This means that names are something important, or either didn't matter at all.

'I need to name it.' Arthur started thinking of a name. If this was important, then he needed to do it. If it wasn't, then there was no harm in doing it. 

"Come here, little dragon," Arthur called out but the dragon ignored him. With a sigh, Arthur used his connection to order it. The dragon came over reluctantly and stood in front of Arthur. 

Choosing names was never Arthur's forte. Most people said he sucked at that. Even the Tower of Yearning mocked the name he chose with love and care, but Arthur was convinced that his names were the best. Kira, Mero, Nero, Ven, Ken, and Ben were a testimony of his naming sense.

"Well, should I call you something longer?" Arthur pondered. "However, it'd be harder to keep calling you that. Let's go with something shorter. You're so little…" Arthur squinted his eyes, examining the dragon. 

"There's a flower I once saw that has the same color as your scales. It's called Lily, and that name fits how little you are. Let's call you…" 

"…Lilo." 

As soon as the word left his mouth, the tattoo on Arthur's hand shone brightly. Arthur and the dragon were enveloped in bright light together as Arthur's mana began leaving him. 

Feeling that Lilo was absorbing his mana, Arthur didn't stop it. He also used his runes and pushed them toward the dragon and Lilo absorbed them as well. 

The process didn't take long, but Arthur's head began to spin as the loss of mana continued. Before he could stop the flow of mana, he lost balance as his consciousness faded. He felt his body fall forward but something caught him in time.