Chapter 279 - 273 : The Sacrifice To First

'Berserk Skill [Gratitude of Races].'

[[ System notification :

[Gratitude of Races] skills has been used.

[Gratitude of Races] : Active Skill

Receive a temporary boost to abilities and skills +1

All attributes +5

Defence increases by 10

Attack Speed increase by 10

Damage dealt multiplies by 1.5

Healing Speed x1.5

Duration : 15 seconds

Cool-down : 3 days

System description : The gratitude of a race shouldn't be taken lightly much less that of multiple races.

Note : This skill is upgrade-able so far as certain conditions are met.

]]

*Clang*

The 5 metres long buster sword suddenly halted in mid-air. No matter the amount of force the Blood king used on it, the sword couldn't proceed forward even by an inch.

"Hehe."

Sato grinned as he looked the monster straight in the eye.

In his hand was a sword but it wasn't the silver coloured [Astral Blade].

'I never thought that this piece of junk would save my life.'

[[ System interface :

First (Rigged Steel long-sword) : Mid Tier Mortal Rank : Level 5 : Durability 23/30

Requirement : Level 5 || 5 [Strength]

[Physical Attack Power] +10

[Attack Speed] +7

[Strength] +3

]]

The Rigged Steel long-sword in Sato's hands was one of the finished products he had made back at the Blacksmith Guild's workshop during his Blacksmith exam. While it was a finished work, the strength of the weapon was too weak for Sato to use, especially when compared to his [Astral Blade]. Even for a Mid-tier Mortal rank sword, it was barely up to market standard. But this couldn't be blamed on Sato as he was just an apprentice Blacksmith without much experience.

While this sword was indeed too weak for his use, if not useless, the sword ended up being Sato's lifesaver at the last moment.

"How?!" Varg stared at the young man holding the sword in front of it.

It couldn't understand how the player who happened to be on his last leg, suddenly experienced a turnaround and was able to block its attack despite having been injured by its [Blood Glare].

What was even more imaginable was the fact that the young man before it pulled this off with a low level weapon that was similar to the ceremonial swords it had.

Everything had an aura; be it animate or inanimate, they all did. For weapons, the aura they had determined the rank and tier of the weapon and the rank and tier of the weapon also determined the strength of its aura. The Rigged Steel long-sword, though forged with a peak 2 star material, had a weak aura to it due to the barely passable forging skill used on it. Because of this, Varg couldn't understand how it had stopped his sword that was on par with a high quality Upper tier Mortal rank sword.

Sato however, could guess why.

Even though the long-sword wasn't made with the best of Blacksmithing skills, it was still made with an impressive material as the foundation and was still a bona-fide Mid tier Mortal rank weapon. The main material used was Rigged Steel, which was a peak 2 star material that rivaled even a few 3 star materials in terms of hardness.

Apart from that, the magic crystal Sato had used in the process of forging was a wood elemental magic crystal. Part of the elemental energy entered the sword and granted it a slight affinity to wood energy. The wood energy within the long-sword passively conflicted with Varg's blood energy and while it didn't have the upper hand, it still managed to lessen the power of the sword by just a bit.

The most important change had to do with Sato's skill, [Gratitude of Races], which increased his stats to be even higher than the Blood king's and so, being capable of taking a full blow from it head-on. At this point, even if it was just for a while, Varg was no longer Sato's opponent.

Feeling the boundless aura being radiated from Sato's body increasing, the Blood king began to feel fear for the first time. Even when it was trapped by the Mystical lock spell, it wasn't as worried as it was now.

Aura was the realization or manifestation of one's strength. The abrupt increase in Sato's aura was as a result of the abrupt increase in strength brought by his skill. Sato's [Astral Might] was a passive ability that constantly made him exude a boundless might. The strength of this aura mostly depended on Sato's strength and as he constantly leveled up and increased his attributes, it would also increase in intensity and effect.

Right now, even the Blood king had difficulties facing this aura that seemed to want to devour it whole.

"What are you?" Varg asked with slight fear in its eyes.

"Doesn't matter. You're going to be the first sacrifice to my weapon so just die."

Sato swung his sword to the side, pushing the Blood king's blade towards the side.

Instead of using that small interval to retreat and take a health potion, Sato pushed forward and brandish his sword at the monster, not giving it the time to think out its next move. While this sounded like a dumb move for Sato, who pretty much had low health after the [Blood Glare], it wasn't.

Actually, Sato didn't necessarily need a health potion anymore. [Gratitude of Races] had added 5 points to each of his Main attributes including [Vitality]. 5 points to Vitality was the equivalent of 50 HP and with that amount of HP, Sato could tank one more [Blood Glare] from the monster. As for the other attacks, with his increased defense and movement speed, it would be a major challenge for Varg to land a hit his shadow much less his actual body.

However, with his increased attributes, Sato's Attack speed was more than twice that of Varg's and his Movement speed was also higher than the monster. So, landing a hit on the 7 metres tall monster was as easy as hitting a piñata with your eyes open.

-51 (582/2000 Blood king Varg's HP)

While the attack power of [First] was sorely lacking when compared to [Astral Blade], Sato didn't put much thought into it. This was because in the end, the Blood king was nothing more than a dead man in his eyes. The Blood king stood no chance and couldn't turn the battle around. The only thing was that Sato would need to put more effort into the battle, but that in itself wasn't much of a problem.

"Roar!"

The Blood king roared in anger before slapping its left hand towards Sato.

"Too slow."

Sato stepped on its body and propelled himself backwards just before the palm could arrive. As a result, the Blood King ended up hitting itself. However, the monster wasn't dumb so it had slowed down and reduced the force of the palm leading to t not inflicting any injuries on itself.

Even after creating some distance between himself and the monster, Sato didn't take a breath as he launched himself once more at it, not giving it a chance to attack. With the duration attached to the skill, Sato intended to finish the battle as fast as possible even if it meant taking some risks.

"Human, you have made me mad!" Varg roared as the blood mist around it thickened in intensity.

Following that, its aura also increased and 6 inches black spikes jutted out from its collarbone. The two horns on its head also increased in height as they approached 12 inches from their previous 8 inches height.

'[Enraged] mode?'

In Infinite Realm, once a monster's HP goes below a certain mark, they would usually enter an [Enraged] mode, which was similar to the berserk mode seen in most games. The HP mark for the [Enraged] mode differed from monster to monster. Some had theirs at the 15% mark while others at the 25% mark. However, players had managed to discover that a majority of monsters had theirs below the 30% mark. As a result of this, it was officially accepted by the IR player community that once a monster's HP went below the 30% mark, they should all be at their toes for a sudden surge in power for the monster.

Seeing the Blood king now showing signs of increase in power, Sato frowned but didn't stop his movements. Only an idiot would wait for the opponent to finish transforming before attacking.

'Lets' make this quick.'