111. Tyran

❮◈❯ Raise Undead has leveled up! ❮◈❯

Rakna stepped back as his skill did its wonders. The body of the T. Rex twitched and its wounds healed at a visible speed. The flesh knitted itself back together as if it was made of self-mending worms. Then, its eyes opened and their color had changed from auburn to an icy blue.

It quickly got back on its feet after waking up and roared at the sky. Rakna watched it with a raised eyebrow. ‘The wounds were healed, like with the ogres… but it seems to be a one-time thing. Raise Undead makes sure to bring back the corpses to a perfect state before reanimating them, huh?’ He thought and the T. Rex stopped roaring.

It then did something unexpected and rubbed its head against the werewolf with what seemed to be the sound of purring. Rakna blinked and returned the gesture by petting it with mixed feelings.

“{How interesting. This one seems to have retained some amount of ego and it transformed the loyalty it should have toward you into affection,}” Higure analyzed.

Rakna nodded numbly and the T. Rex stepped back a bit and tilted its head innocently to look at a glaring Pronos. The little snake maintained the staring contest before abruptly jumping on the dinosaur’s head. He hissed happily and raised his body.

“{Fufu, look at him. The fledgling Ouroboros has found himself a steed.}”

Rakna snorted and cast Appraisal on the large prehistoric animal.

❮ ◈ ❯

Name: None

Age: 13 | Level: 50

Race: Undead Ancient Dreorin – Tyrannosaurus Rex

Title: King of Dreorins

Master: Rakna Xiorra

Attributes:

STR: 60 | END: 65

SPD: 24 | DEX: 15

INT: 32 | LCK: 3

Statistics:

DE: 229/229 | MP: 320/320

SWI: 112 | AGI: 54

SEN: 136 | ATC: 199

ATT: 311.5 | DEF: 331.5

MA: 96 | MR: 1.92/min

Proficiencies:

- Tail Swipe (Lv. Max)

- Bite (Lv. Max)

- Mana Control (Lv.8)

- Mana Sense (Lv.7)

- CQC Mastery (Lv.3)

…

Magic Skills:

- Fire Magic (Lv.7) => [Ersatz Nova (T.6); Fire Breath (T.7); Fire Shell (T.8); Fireball (T.10)]

- Wood Magic (Lv.4) => [Deep Roots (T.7); Emergence (T.9)]

Cognitive Skills (Passive):

- Physical Damage Resistance (Lv. Ex)

- Magical Damage Resistance (Lv. Ex)

- Aura (Lv.7)

Spontaneous Skills (Active):

- Reinforcement (Lv. Max)

- Intimidation (Lv.6)

- Scan (Lv.4)

- Stealth (Lv.2)

- Elemental Reinforcement (Lv.2)

Unique or Racial Traits:

- Ancient Scales: +30% DEF.

- Lesser Regeneration

Note: A direct descendent of an ancient race of monsters. A powerful bloodline courses through its veins, indicating its legitimate right to hold the title of King of Dreorins.

Additional Note: As an undead raised by the Hex Item, Necromancer’s Rule, it can level up like normal creatures and it also can be healed with its master’s mana, which will automatically be converted into Death Energy by the Hex Item.

❮ ◈ ❯

“As expected, what a frightening defense value,” Rakna commented. “If it wasn’t for Cross Sight, it would have been considerably harder.”

“{Praise me more.}”

“You did nothing,” he retorted with a blank tone. “If anyone should be praised, it’s me. Not you.”

“{Aww…}”

Rakna sighed. The lioness’ serious and playful moods were starting to mix. He could only assume that it was the result of them getting comfortable with each other, though, if it was a good thing or not was debatable.

As Pronos was having fun with his ‘steed’, which the T. Rex surprisingly didn’t mind and even went along with it, he opened the description of his new sub-spell.

❮ ◈ ❯

Koschei’s Needles (T.7): Koschei the Immortal, or the Deathless, was a figure from Russian Folklore most known for hiding his soul inside nested objects to protect it. His legend would go like this; to kill the Deathless, find the needle hosting his soul, which is in an egg, inside a duck, inside of a hare, in an iron chest, buried under a green oak tree, on the island of Buyan.

When invoking this spell, the caster is able to summon as many star-energy needles as their mana pool allows. The needles will be infused with a small piece of the caster’s soul and will become homing projectiles for whatever target the caster locks on.

If the caster decides to conjure ten needles, he has the choice to make them all hit the exact same spot with 0.1 mm accuracy. Different targets can also be assigned simultaneously.

Cost: 5% of Mana Pool for each needle. (Soul Core Correction – Limit of the Percentage Basis Reduction Reached: 1%)

Attack: User’s Magic Attack multiplied by 2.

Cooldown: 30 min

Note: This is a spell that was created by a practitioner of soul power. While devising it, they unknowingly integrated its properties into the spell. Thus, soul power will be consumed when casting it. However, thanks to this addition, the needles will not need guidance to strike.

❮ ◈ ❯

“Limit of Percentage Basis…” Rakna mumbled. “In other words, I guess it means that when a spell requires a percentage as cost, Soul Core’s reduction will be directly subtracted from it, but never go below 1%... or perhaps that limit is different for each spell,” he concluded. “Which also confirms the fact that the reduction behaves differently when it’s a percentage or a numerical cost.”

“{Which, if I may, is incredibly broken,}” Higure remarked.

“Really? To be honest, it was pretty easy to learn Soul Core. Is it not common in the System?”

“{Looks like you need a crash course,}” the lioness said. “{First of all, the answer is no. Soul power in itself is not common. I’m not going to say it’s the rarest thing either, since veterans tend to at least get a grasp of it after a few years of practice, mostly without even focusing on it. What you have is a soul organ.}”

“{Once again, it’s not common, but not on the extreme opposite either. However, what you have is a high-grade soul organ. Nearly all cultivators normally develop the organ called Soul Heart, after extensive training on top of that. The reduction that this skill can provide doesn’t go higher than 5%. I would know since I had it as well. That makes your Soul Core extremely rare.}”

“Soul Heart… Verias had it now that I think about it,” Rakna remembered the skill he had quickly gotten a glimpse of when he had inspected the Téras’ status. “I see. Thanks, Higure.”

“{You’re welcome.}”

“Good to see you’re not just a pervert. I like you better this way.”

“{Now, now, devourer of mine, it’s lines like those that will only serve to intensify my teasing.}”

“…forget I said anything,” he groaned and she chuckled. He read the note of the spell, which in fact confirmed what he had already suspected. Ever since he had learned Soul Breath, his soul power was freely circulating in his body, sometimes bolstering his attacks and perception on its own.

“Anyway, while I’m here, let’s test a few other things. I should be able to learn the skill I bought as well since my mana control reached level 9. But, before that…” Rakna trailed and looked at his surroundings with an almost embarrassed mien. There were corpses everywhere and the smell of blood was starting to attack his nose.

He sighed. It didn’t feel right to leave it all like that. Even if it might get taken care of later on by the System itself either during the reset or by some sort of mechanic he didn’t know about.

“I might as well clean it up,” he uttered and used the superior strength of his werewolf form to move every carcass to a pile while storing the more precious ones. He also collected the Talys and items that had been dropped by them all at the same time when the Stampede was over. Though, all of it was quite lackluster compared to what he already had.

And, for some reason, the T. Rex had dropped Talys on death but no items. But he didn’t have anything to complain since he had gotten himself a powerful undead. He also took the occasion to preserve and store the hearts of the stronger monsters in the area.

When he was done doing that, he looked back at his two non-human allies. His face was as blank as it could be as he watched Pronos and the T. Rex chase butterflies. Yes; butterflies.

“{What a picturesque sight,}” Higure snickered.

Rakna shook his head and opened his mouth to say something before realizing something. “Ah, I need a name for you,” he muttered to himself and by some miracle, the T. Rex managed to hear him and snapped its head toward him at light speed. “I can’t just call you T. Rex forever. Especially if you’re going to stay with me.”

He hummed and tapped his forehead in thought. “While I wouldn’t mind just calling you Rex, that would be a bit too simple and we already have Rexam with a similar name … What about Tyrannos Mors? In other words, it would mean Death Tyrant, for both your undead state and your tyrannical strength.” The large Dreorin seemed to ponder the name before he nodded enthusiastically.

“It’s settled then. I’ll call you Tyran though. Tyrannos is a bit of a mouthful,” Rakna added and both the Dreorin and Pronos looked at him with expressions that screamed ‘why didn’t you just choose that then?’.

“Don’t look at me like that. I wanted his name to mean something instead of just appearing like a short version of Tyrannosaurus,” he shrugged. “Just think of it as a nickname. Now back to what I was going to say; Tyran, can you burn this for me?” He asked whilst pointing at the mountain of dead bodies behind him.

The Dreorin nodded in understanding and walked to the pile before inhaling. Flames appeared around his mouth and were sucked inside his mouth and nostrils. Then, with a guttural roar, he let out a concentrated wave of fire powerful enough to smolder the entire pile. Some of the smaller corpses even turned to ashes in just a few seconds.

Rakna watched in a cold sweat as the large bonfire was lit in front of him and Tyran puffed, content with his handiwork. “…thank god I didn’t get hit by that.”

“{Indeed.}”

“And he even has a Tier 6 spell that is probably even more destructive than this,” Rakna said and glanced at the undead dinosaur who returned to chasing butterflies with Pronos. “Okay… let’s change places. The smell of burnt flesh isn’t really pleasant,” he uttered and deployed his wings.

He was about to call the two creatures before sighing. “You know what, Tyran, Pronos, just play together until I come back. Got it?” He raised his voice so they could hear him and they nodded at him. He grunted and used Flash Step to gain elevation before flapping his wings.

Half a minute later, he landed on another plain and consequently turned back into a therian since he didn’t need his other form anymore. “All right, there are two things I need to try out. First,” he mumbled and a skill card appeared between his fingers.

“[Graduating Mana. Hexing Damage. Buffering Integrity. Set, Shape, Shatter. None All Nil.]”

Rakna finished the chant that oddly sounded like a password sequence and the card fused with him as a new line appeared in the list of his spontaneous skills.

He clenched his hand to a fist and channeled his mana into it. An emerald light spilled through the gaps between his fingers and when he opened it, a hexagonal barrier, barely bigger than his palm, flashed into existence.

It was transparent and green, seemingly composed of many smaller hexagons, and if you tried to look at it laterally, you would notice that it was even thinner than a piece of paper.

Rakna waved his hand and the shield floated away from him before expanding until it was taller than him. ‘It feels like an extra limb…’ He thought. He then stretched it horizontally and vertically to determine the maximum size.

❮◈❯ Gradation Hex Buffer has leveled up! ❮◈❯

After a bit of experimentation, he discovered that it could only be made five meters wide, while keeping other proportions, before he would start to lose control over it, making it unstable.

“That’s one of them…” He whispered and focused on his mana again. He created a second barrier in less time than the first one and when he finalized it, his face creased in pain and the other barrier he was controlling stopped moving.

“I see what they mean now,” he groaned while rubbing his temple. He waited a bit for the headache to calm down before trying to move the two barriers. It certainly wasn’t impossible, and it was actually easy to operate, but it was overpowering his consciousness. The toll on his mind would probably multiply every time he summoned an additional one.

He ultimately dismissed them and he felt the mana he had used on them return to him. “Overall, it feels like a very unoptimized software. It’s like there’s a flaw in the conception, making it use way more RAM than it should whenever a new object is added.”

“{That is a very astute comparison. In all seriousness, you truly have remarkable knowledge and wisdom. Is there someone who taught you all of this?}” Higure couldn’t help ask. “{Just from the names you gave us, even if it was only a few words, you proved to have proficiency in at least three different languages. I don’t know what the standard is for humans, but that is quite impressive for someone as young as you.}”

“My uncle taught me,” Rakna responded. “He not only coached me in martial arts, but also basic strategies, science, and several miscellaneous subjects, languages included. Also, the old man had a collection of books of all kinds and I happened to read all of them. That’s why I know a lot about mythology and learned some Greek and Latin in passing.”

“{You must have an outstanding memory then.}”

Rakna shrugged. “I guess. Though, it’s nothing compared to Allan. He has eidetic memory so he could literally flip a few hundred pages and remember them all to the last detail. Sadly, that idiot doesn’t like reading.”

“{What a waste of talent,}” Higure lamented.

“I agree,” Rakna snorted. “But it’s one of the things that makes him who he is,” he said and sat down cross-legged. “Enough chatting, I still have one thing to test before going back. Let’s see what Elemental Reinforcement does to me.”