Chapter 62: Second Evolution (4)

TL: Haku

Editor: Hungry Panda

Ian, who heard the name of Ddukdae's evolution, momentarily thought of something.

'Abyss? It sounds familiar… Ah! Bbookbbook!'

He had remembered that Bbookbbook's original name was 'Abyss Turtle'.

'Ah-ha, does that mean that monsters related to the Abysmal Island gains the modifier abyss once they become a Unique-rank?'

And while Ian was thinking of this and that, another system message that made him feel good popped up.

The Proficiency of the Intermediate-level Training skill that didn't go up no matter what he did had gained EXP from the evolution and the skill finally turned into a High-rank Training skill.

Ian wanted to enjoy his happiness and check Ddukdae's changed stats, but the bandits wouldn't let him be.

"Die!"

Ian internally grumbled.

'Ah, I want to check Ddukdae's information window quickly, but these things are bothering me.'

And Ian, who pulled his bowstring, had to observe a surprising sight.

Bang- Ba-Ba-Bang-!

Suddenly, Ddukdae had spread his fist. And as Ddukdae's fist as the centre, a incredibly large earthquake wave spread forward.

On top of that, the bandits, who stood where the earthquake wave pa.s.sed by, all began to be drawn towards Ddukdae.

Specifically, they were drawn towards the blue vortex that appeared in front of Ddukdae.

Ian's jaw dropped.

This was because the floundering bandits, who were inflicted by the Abyss Hole that Ddukdae casted, were helplessly sucked in.

Each of the damage values that popped up were only around 1-200, so it wasn't that high, but because the damage quickly went in 2-3 times per second, the attack had reduced their Vitality by over a thousand in an instant.

And shortly after, along with a large boom, the vortex of the abyss that Ddukdae had created had spread out and caused a large explosion.

"Wow…"

Along with the explosion, all the bandits that surrounded Ddukdae had turned into a grey light and disappeared.

It was a spectacle that could be called magnificent.

'Of course, I had continuously fried them with Current Proliferation so they didn't have much Vitality left to begin with, but…'

He still hadn't been able to check the information window, but he didn't doubt that the evolved Ddukdae's performance would exceed his expectations.

"Ly, let's catch the sorcerer!"

Grr-!

Ian and Ly easily caught the sole sorcerer, who was working hard in casting a fire-type magic skill.

Only when there were bandits protecting it nearby was the sorcerer a pain to face; a sole sorcerer was actually an easier opponent to catch compared to the normal bandits.

Like that, the battle was finished, and Ian plopped onto the ground.

"Hoo, tiring, I say, tiring. Still, Ddukdae even evolved, so I'm satisfied."

Ian was incredibly pleased with the result of his hunting that was driven to its limits.

"Speaking of which, Ddukdae probably evolved because he leveled up, right? And the evolution requirement was to hit lv 65."

There was no other way to explain it besides that.

If that was the case, that meant the evolution requirement for Ly, who evolved at lv 20, was below lv 20.

'Firstly, let's check Ddukdae's information window.'

Ian opened Ddukdae's information window with an expectant heart.

Level: 65

Cla.s.sification: Golem

Rank: Unique

Personality: Simple-hearted

Evolution impossible

Offensive Power: 625

Defensive Power: 1464

Agility: 113

Intellect: 154

Vitality: 31,456/31,456

Mana: 4765/4765

Inherent Ability

Both arms are spread forward and a shock wave in the shape of a cone is shot out in a 20-metre scope.

After the shock wave is shot out, a vortex of the abyss will be created for ten seconds, and enemies within its range will be sucked into the vortex for its duration.

The enemies that are inflicted by the vortex will receive damage equal to 35% of their attack power every 0.4 seconds, and once the duration of the vortex is over, the vortex explodes and deals damage equal to 150% of the enemies' Defensive Power to every enemy within a 10-metre range.

(Cooldown Time: 5 minutes)

Defensive Power increases in proportion to the reduced Vitality.

Once Vitality reaches below 10%, a s.h.i.+eld equivalent to 50% of the maximum Vitality will be invoked for 10 seconds.

A guardian of the ancient times that protects the Abysmal Lake.

Its enormous in size and has a strong destructive power.

Ian, who saw Ddukdae's information, became slightly sullen.

This was because the words 'evolution impossible' caught his eyes first.

'Ly still had an evolution possible option attached again even after he evolved, so it's a little disappointing.'

However, the disappointment was truly for just a moment. This was because aside from that, all of his stats were truly magnificent.

Firstly, for his rank, he had skipped the Rare-rank altogether and evolved straight into a Unique-rank.

'Kyah, his Defensive Power is crazy! It's not as much as Bbookbbook's… But at this rate, even a decent Offensive Power won't be able to lodge an attack in.'

It wasn't just his Defensive Power. As he evolved, his Vitality has gone over 30 thousand, and his Offensive Power was now useable.

Ian suddenly wanted to compare with Ly's stats.

'Shall we open up Ly's information window?'

And as he compared the stats, his surprise grew.

"Wow, its definitely incomparable now with a rank difference."

Of course, Ly's stats were incredibly magnificent as well.

It was a situation where his Offensive Power was almost at 900, and his Agility was over 700.

However, it was the truth that his Defensive Power at 1461 was comparably lower to Ddukdae's.

'And Abyss Hole? Was this the skill he just used?'

Abyss Hole was the skill that appeared in place of Ice Wave, which had disappeared.

He had already checked how powerful this skill was, but now that he saw the more detailed information, he liked it even more.

'The cooldown time isn't too long… It looks like a skill that I can make good use of.'

Finally, he was also pleased with the characteristics of Protection of the Abyss.

As they were characteristics that further reinforced Ddukdae's already incredible tanking skills, he had created something like an insurance to withstand a truly important final moment.

In other words, he would be able to use Ddukdae's tanking a little more comfortably.

"Keu… Good, good."

Ian, who momentarily rested as he checked evolved Ddukdae's information, stood up from his spot.

He felt he was surging with unknown strength.

"Now, shall we go wipe the military headquarters?"

Since had lured and caught quite a large number of troops, there wouldn't be a lot of troops left in the headquarters now.

Ian moved with immensely lightened footsteps.

And Ian, who gained immensely improved fighting power thanks to Ddukdae, suppressed the headquarters in an instant.

If it was according to his original plan, he should have continued to lure them to the canyon and defeat them one by one, but thanks to Ddukdae, he was able to opt for a more daring choice.

"Let's rest a bit and heal."

Ian, who caught all the bandits in one camp, casted the First-Aid skill and sat on a rock afterwards.

As he did so, Bbookbbook, who was hanging onto Ian's back, came down and crawled over to sit in front of Ian.

Bbook-!

As Bbookbbook demanded with a raised head, Ian smirked and pulled out a meatball from his inventory.

"Bbookbbook, you know that this is the last meatball for this afternoon's quota, right?"

At Ian's cold words, Bbookbbook became sullen.

Bbook- Bbook-

"There's no point in making such a pitiful expression."

Ian pa.s.sed him the meatball, and Bbookbbook approached the meatball with a broken-hearted expression.

How sad those words were, that this was today's last meatball.

Still, as Bbookbbook began to eat the meatball, Ian smirked as he watched Bbookbbook's expression immediately brighten.

'This cute thing, next time I meet Harin, I should ask her to make something a little more delicious.'

It seemed as though the meatb.a.l.l.s he received from Harin would be gone now within about a week.

Ian thought that he should meet Harin once before he went over Forcal Mountains.

'Since I already bought a Return Stone to a village near the mountains.'

Ian, who rotated the First-Aid skill and completely recovered all of his Familiars' Vitalities, started to move again.

"Firstly, before that, the top priority is to hit lv 70."

His destination was the centre.

Ian, who headed towards the centre while hunting the monsters he ran into at random, was fortunately able to discover the Rare-rank monster 'Clopia' on the mountainside.

It was truly a coincidental encounter that he wasn't even expecting.

The Clopia was a large rapacious bird-like monster that had white feathers, and it was well-known as the monster that was hard to find as it only inhabited Forcal Mountains and its population was incredibly low.

Originally the reason why the Clopia was well-known between users was because there was a special item that only Clopia dropped.

That item was called the 'Clopia's Feather Ornament', which occasionally dropped when hunting Clopias, and on the feather ornament there was a special option attached that allowed Magicians' magic casting speed to quicken.

Because the fact that the casting speed for magic quickening had something in common with the amount of damage dealt by Magicians increasing, there was a time when most Magicians searched for Clopias with fire in their eyes.

'Because there are a lot of other items that increased the casting speed besides Clopia's Feather Ornament now, its faded a bit.'

Ian mumbled to himself as he caught the Clopia.

As it was a Rare-rank monster that was over lv 70, he had a little bit of difficulty catching it, but at the end of wrestling with it for about 15 minutes, he succeeded in capturing it.

'Whew, now I don't have a lot of spare Leaders.h.i.+p.'

He always had sufficient Leaders.h.i.+p for a while, but as it was a Rare-rank and a higher level than Ian, it needed quite a lot of Leaders.h.i.+p.

Then, he naturally thought of the stats of the sealed 'Dragon Tamer's Feather Ornament'.

'I need to quickly release all of the seals attached to the head ornament…'

Ian mumbled as he checked the information window of the Clopia.

Level: 72

Cla.s.sification: Rapacious bird

Rank: Rare

Personality: Timid

Evolution impossible

Offensive Power: 467

Defensive Power: 275

Agility: 1052

Intellect: 347

Vitality: 15,760/15,760

Mana: 7950/7950

Inherent Ability

Clopias have the ability to feel the texture of the wind.

If they aren't attacked while flying for over 5 seconds, their movement speed increases by 70%.

A rare bird that inhabits Forcal Mountains.

It has beautiful, white feathers.