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*GRAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!!*
A huge beast roared in rage as it rammed itself against the Crusader with all of its might, causing the machine to retreat two steps. This magical beast was known as the [Earth Dragon] belonging to the Emperor class. To Add, its appearance was very similar to the large theropod dinosaurs back on Earth. It had a large, elongated skull with giant jaws filled to the brim with half a metre long bone crushing teeth. Its strong forearms were tipped in claws which could tear through metal like a hot knife going through butter. At over seven metres tall this was one of the strongest beasts in its class.
This beast was called a dragon, but it was not a real dragon per say, it would be fair to call it a very very distant relative of mythical dragons. Add was exploring the forest, when suddenly the sensors picked up a large creature approaching the mech at a great speed. He immediately launched two missiles and prepared to face the threat. The missiles hit the [Earth Dragon] but were unable to stop it. The giant beast was only wounded lightly its tough skin protecting it, as it came hurtling through the trees with ferocious roars. The plasma cannon fired a few shots, but they only made glancing wounds on its body.
Sylvia who was sitting atop the mech, jumped off as soon as she felt the Earth Dragon approaching, and retreated away from the mech. A few seconds later, it rammed into the mech and tried to bite the Crusader's arm but the power fist grabbed its upper jaw, and no matter how much it struggled, it was unable to bite down. Its jaws were unable to crush the power fist, and its sharp claws were only able to leave shallow scratches in the Crusader's armour. The Crusader was also struggling to hold down the large beast, the mech was being rattled by the bests struggles. the beast's strength was nothing to scoff at.
"Damn it… This thing is so strong…"
All this happened within moments, while trying to keep the mech steady, Add revved the chain-sword at maximum torque and rammed it into the beast's side. The blade lodged itself just behind one of the beast's arms and the teeth began flaying its skin away, digging into its flesh as they grinded and cut meat and bone alike. To cause even more damage, he pushed the sword into its body with all the strength the mech could muster. But its hide was more resilient than Add had expected, the chain-sword even at its full power was cutting very slowly, as if it was cutting through some metal alloy instead of skin.
*GRAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!!*
The Earth Dragon roared in pain and rage, as it tried to free itself from the Crusader's grasp. Although the chain-sword was cutting slowly, it was indeed cutting deeper into its body. Unable to free its mouth, the Earth Dragon used the sharp talons on its arms to tear apart the mech, but it was only able to leave shallow scratches on the armour. In desperation, it used its mana to release a breath of fire upon the Crusader. Add was surprised by its ability to breathe flames like this, the bright yellow flames covered the mech, making it difficult for Add to see clearly.
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"Above 1500? These bloody flames can even melt steel!"
Add used the power fist and pushed the thrashing beast away from the mech. The mech's armour could withstand these temperatures as they were made with alloys that could tolerate such temperatures, but many of the sensors and camera's were fried. Add's display was also affected by the loss of some cameras, but he was still able to get a sufficient view. As the dragon was pushed away, the Crusader immediately went on the offensive not giving it the time to react. The power fist punched right onto its head, sending the Earth dragon crashing onto the ground. It still didn't die, and tried to stand up again but the chain-sword attacked its leg, cutting into muscle and it collapsed again. The Crusader then raised one of its legs and stomped directly onto its body, smashing its ribs in and finally killing the beast.
This sudden battle had once again shown to Add just what kind of place this forest was. The Earth Dragon was the first Emperor Class magical beast he had encountered and it had proved really challenging. He looked at his damaged mech and sighed, there were many deep gashed on the armour, which although less than ten centimetres deep at their best, were proof that the Crusader Mk VII was no longer a guarantee of safety. While King class monsters and below were quite easily dealt by him, against magical beasts of the Emperor class, he had to be very careful and he did not even want to test the higher ranked beasts.
Those creatures of Calamity class could probably tear the Crusader in half before he was able to put up a decent fight. It was unwise to continue travelling deeper into this forest. According to his estimates, he had only gone a little over five hundred kilometres into the forest of Waldestien which itself spread for over four thousand kilometres across. There were countless dangers lurking in there and even Add and Sylvia with all their caution and strength had faced many a life threatening situation on their way. Going even further was just needless risk, as all the magical beasts that he needed could all be found within this range.
"I have already gathered enough cores… Emperor class beasts are really dangerous, it would be foolish to keep moving forwards. I was lucky that this time I was able to win without taking much damage, but there is no telling about the next time."
He quickly made his mind to retreat. After harvesting the mana core from the Earth Dragon, and repairing the damages to the Crusader with a few million CP he began returning the way he came. This trip's goal had already been achieved and there was no need to take unnecessary risks.
"Sylvia, we are heading back."
"Alright."
The Spider queen returned atop the mech, inside her mind she was replaying the previous battle. While Add was quite alarmed by the strength of the Emperor class beasts, she on the other hand was shocked at his strength. Although the Emperor Class was just one rank higher than the King Class, they could not really be compared with each other. Even the weakest Emperor class monsters could tear apart two to three king class monsters alone. If she were to face that beast, she would be dead in a minute. In the time she had spent with this mysterious human, she had seen him eradicate hundreds of beasts, and kill things which she could not dream of even hurting with her strength.
"Just what kind of being are you?"
She thought, sliding her hand over the smooth metal of the Crusader. Add was a man of few words, and he usually talked only in small sentences, and only when required. She basically knew nothing about him and this frustrated her a lot.
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After wandering the forest for over two months and hunting hundreds of Magical Beasts and collecting their cores, it was time for Add to return. He had completed his mission of obtaining the various monster cores many days ago, but planned to leave only after he had collected some more CP. But after the battle with the Earth Dragon, he chose to call it quits. Aside from the beasts he encountered on his way back, he did not actively hunt for any magical beasts. The Spider Queen Sylvia for her part never really had to engage in battles herself.
Add only needed her guiding skills and he was not going to let precious CP go to waste by making her kill monsters for him. As a result, she mostly spent her time, sitting atop the Crusader, or watching from a distance while it fought and killed the magical beasts. Due to this, ever since she became a servant, she had began spending most of her time in her humanoid form and usually changed back only when she felt like it. Thanks to her being familiar with the forest and guiding him, he was able to reach his goal in less time than he had predicted.
After exiting the forest, he returned to a region on the outskirts which was relatively safe. He had stored the Crusader back in his inventory which was filled to the brim with weapons and materials from the various beasts he had killed over the past few months. He had filled his inventory to the brim with high class meat from the magical beasts and various body parts such as scales, horns, bony armour plates, leather etc. These things could become very use full in the future or he could simply sell them for high sums of money.
After setting up a camp along with two tents to rest, he told Sylvia to guard him, and no matter what happened she was not allowed to step into his tent. The beasts in this area were normally knight class with a few general class beasts in between, nothing she could not manage. The Arachne watched curiously as he went inside his tent and wondered what he was up to. Once Add had submitted all the monster cores to the system, the cores vanished from his inventory and the following which a prompt appeared…
[Ding! Requirements for upgrading magical talent met. Since the host's physique is not suited to efficiently store and use mana, the System will now make changes to the host's body. It is recommended that the host find a safe place before this process begins.]
[Do you wish to start the process now? Yes/No]
Once he was sure that everything was in order, he clicked on the Yes button. The very next moment, a horrendous burning sensation filled his entire body. His head was even hurting the most as if someone was hammering a stake in his head. The pain was stronger than anything he had experienced before. Even the six gene enhancers put together did not hurt this much. It was if his body was being torn into pieces and then being put together only to be torn apart again and put together again. It was so very painful, that despite his now inhuman body and will, he was unable to tolerate the pain beyond a few seconds and fainted.
During this time, his body was being broken down and rebuilt at the cellular level, as the system remodelled it to be able to store and use mana. When seen by another person, his entire body was sweating heavily and it appeared as if his entire body was churning and collapsing upon itself over and over again. The skin appeared to be crawling and it appeared that hundreds of tiny creatures were squirming underneath it. The process continued, and every once in a while the unconscious boy would moan in agony. Sylvia who was guarding him frowned hearing these screams. She could only wonder as to why he was making such pained sounds. Since she had been told to stay away and that she did.
It was only after an entire day of being unconscious that Add finally woke up. The very first thing he felt after waking up was an intense thirst. He quickly took out many bottles of water from the inventory and drunk a lot of water in one go. After his thirst was quenched, a feeling of ravenous hunger assaulted him, he took out a dozen of concentrated nutrient solutions and gulped them down like he had been starving for months. It took a while before his hunger was finally satiated. After that he began inspecting his body, which felt the same for the most part, except he had a feeling that there was something new in his body. It felt foreign, but it gave him a warm and comforting sensation.
(So this is what mana feels like?)
It was a strange feeling similar to air, he couldn't see it or trace it but he could feel that he had it inside him. He opened his status to look for any changes.
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STATUS
Name : Add (Adolf Kaiser Weismann)
Race : Human
Credit Points : 575,000,000
ATTRIBUTES :
Vitality : 250
Strength : 400
Agility : 220
Dexterity : 200
Defence: 180
Intelligence : 15
Wisdom : 15
Stamina : 240
Charm : 20
Magic Aptitude : Enhancement Magic (Excellent)
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His magic aptitude which was previously low, had now become excellent, which according to the System, was beyond the boundaries of what a human could hope to achieve. He smiled wryly.
"Well, I cannot really call myself a 'human' now can I? With all those genetic enhancements, I am practically a new species already…"
In general, the amount of mana a person could hold in their body, was depended on their race and individual aptitude, while the efficiency and control required to absorb mana into the body was determined by the person's mental ability, which in Add's case were the Intelligence and Wisdom stats. Mana could be used for a variety of purposes, but the amount of mana a person could hold was limited and would exhaust just like a fuel tank of a vehicle ran out of fuel with continuous usage. The mana could be restored naturally by the bodies of creatures over time, which continuously absorbed mana from all around them, or they could absorb it from items such as monster cores, mana crystals etc.
As for magic attribute, it referred to the type of magic a person or creature could use. There were 7 major attributes : Water, Fire, Earth, Wind, Light , Darkness, and Neutral. A creature with Water attribute could use water type spells and so on. The Neutral attribute was what majority of creatures in Iseria had, their mana had no special attribute and they usually could not use any powerful spells of other attributes, although there were few exceptions. These 7 major attributes also had many branching sub attributes, for example Water included Ice, Light included Recovery (Healing) etc. Occasionally there were talented mages that could use magic of more than one attribute, but they were very very rare.
Now that he had obtained the ability to utilise mana, his overall combat strength would greatly increase. He had previously purchased some books from the System which taught how to utilise mana efficiently an optimally. Now that he had access to this power, he began to study diligently on how to control and use it. Over the next few days, he familiarised himself with the usage of mana, learning to use it as [Mana Equip].
It was quite tough, but he was making good progress. The books were very costly, but they guided him nicely, and soon he was able to smoothly control the mana flow in his body. He could channel in into particular locations like his arms and legs, or cover his entire body as a whole. Although, the status did not show any numerical value of his mana reserves, he could feel how much mana he had within him at any given time.
Other than that, he also inquired Sylvia about things of interest in the Forest. For instance, she had once mentioned during their travel that there were many races like Elves, Werebeasts, and others hidden within the dense woods of Waldestein. However Add had not come across any of them, and he had no interest in visiting such places, for now. Still he kept it as mental note for the future. There were also many other interesting places in this forest like ancient ruins, and those treasures people often spoke of. It seemed that the forest was worth returning to after all.
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