Ivory Online - The Dragon Knight: A LitRPG saga Read online

  It displayed itself as a cosmic array of nebulas and star signs, each with a title below marking the skill in question. I quickly switched to the swords section and opened it up, observing as the camera focused on the heavenly gas and stars that represented the Sword’s perk tree.

  The first one was “Armsman” which increased the percentile damage of my sword attacks by 20%. I dropped one point into the perk, as the extra damage might be necessary. Four new lights lit up from there, listing four new branches of perks I could choose and their specific bonuses. There was “Swinger” which increased my swing speed by 10%, “Hack and Slash” which boosted my chances to decapitate an enemy by 5%, “Pinpoint” which increased my accuracy by 30% and “Mystic Bane” which increased my damage against magic casters by 10%.

  Knowing which one was the obvious choice, I chose Mystic Bane, investing one SP point into it. Two more branches opened up, but were both greyed out, meaning I needed to advance my swords skill to purchase them.

  I had 6 SP points remaining and an overpowered Shaman before me, so I thought about what next to buy quickly. I shifted from the swords tab to the Perception tab, opening up the page. Similarly to the tab before, it zoomed in on the gaseous mass representing the skill tree, albeit with far fewer choices than the other.

  The first perk was “Observation” which increased my chances of noticing a weakness in any design by 20%. I purchased the skill immediately, which opened up two new branches. The first was “Hawk eyes” which increased my range of vision in fogs and darkness by 50%. The second was “Clear view” which prevented me from being blinded by sand or smoke. Only Hawk eyes was available to me at this level, with Clear view requiring me to level the skill 3 more times before I could purchase it. Both skills were not useful to me right now however, so I chose to pass on them.

  Moving to the Light Armor skill page, I noted that it has quite a number of options, similar to the Swords. The first was “Mobile Warden” which boosted the total armor rating for my light armor pieces by 20%. I purchased that, opening up 3 new branches in the page. “Tight fit” gave me another 20% armor rating boost if I was wearing a full set of light armor. “Feather weight” reduced the weight of all equipped light armor pieces by 10%. “Strips and straps” increased my stamina regeneration by 10% for all light armor pieces worn. I purchased all three, since my scalable Lord’s attire was light armor – meaning there would be a very low chance I’d ever wear heavy armor – and these perks would have made the previous battle a lot less painful.

  With one last point remaining, I opened the fire magic tab and purchased the first skill immediately. “Beginner fire” which let me cast low level fire spells for half the mana cost. Not bothering to look at the rest, I closed the panel and focused on my enemy once again.

  “Done with your desperate allocations? I do hope you invested well. It wouldn’t do for you to die easily,” the Shaman remarked while stretching lazily. This monster was trying his hardest to belittle and goad me into rash action. Unfortunately, he did not have the skill Keith had at it, so it only served to make me smile.

  “Don’t worry, if there’s one thing I hate doing, its disappointing people!” I replied with a vicious horizontal swing, smiling savagely when my sword made a tiny but visible crack in the Shaman’s shield.

  “What is the meaning of this?” the Necromancer cried, his malevolent green eyes widening in surprise.

  “It’s called using your head, dumbass. Power is fine. Power is good. But the one thing those who are drunk on power always forget is that the existence of power is largely irrelevant. It’s all about how you use it,” I answered, widening the crack to a hole. “Like purchasing the right perks.”

  My Perception skill allowed to me see things sharper than I would otherwise and coupled with the Observation perk, I was easily able to see the red spot on his barrier that marked a weakness in the design. No barrier is flawless, whether magical or physical. I was able to make the crack on the first hit thanks to my increased damage against magic casters as well as my high strength stat.

  Now, I got to enjoy as the formerly overconfident Magician visibly panicked at the fact that a low level human could dent his defenses even slightly. I didn’t let up and continued hacking at my breach, widening it significantly with each hit. Even with his mana continually feeding it, it could not repair the defect in the configuration, as he would need to re-cast the spell to do it.

  “You think I’m defenseless?! You arrogant meatbag!” He shouted, pointing his finger right at my chest. A sudden ripple occurred in his barrier, with the aura at the back thinning out and focusing on a point in the front.

  Taking the hint, I tried to sidestep whatever attack he was preparing. With my high speed stat, I should have been able to avoid whatever it was. Unfortunately, he wasn’t casting from inside the barrier, but rather commanding the barrier to make an offensive move. The part of the green aura that had been moved formed a spike that pierced my abdomen easily, even with my increased Light armor stat as well as the perks I bought. Some might even say were it not for them – and my attempt at a dodge – the spike would have pierced my heart, killing me instantly.

  As it were, the Shaman’s desperate attack reduced my HP to 30 with the bar flashing red and a fast heartbeat sound effect playing in my ear. Despite the dire situation, I couldn’t help but laugh.

  “You find your demise amusing?!” The Shaman asked disbelievingly, unsure as to whether his mana barrier attack had some mental effect as well.

  “No… aagh… no… it’s just that… you’re bent so far over… you can’t see… that a sword is about to… go up your ass…” I coughed out through agonizing gobs of blood.

  The Shaman’s look was the definition of puzzlement, until a flaming red sword erupted from his mouth, spraying black blood all over me. With paramount shock, Gorm looked cross eyed to the weapon that had suddenly penetrated him – literally – not full comprehending how this outcome came about, so I chose to elaborate while his life plummeted.

  “My companion… and I… share the same… combat skills… so when I learned all those skills… he did too… he also gains… my perks… meaning… he was able… to kill the Warchief… faster than he would have… otherwise…” I elaborated, the Necromancer’s eyes going glassy the moment I uttered my final word.

  Master, are you alright?!?

  I’ll be fine love, don’t worry. It’s just a flesh wound.

  That does not look like a flesh wound!

  Tsk tsk Fei my sweet, you do not understand a man’s pride at all.

  I’m worried! The cooldown on my healing ability hasn’t come yet!

  I have one of my own… though it’s also on cooldown. Haha.

  What’s funny?!

  You’re so cute when you’re like this.

  I fell to the earth, covering my eyes from the blazing sun while I recovered health very slowly. Soon, I felt a weight settle on my chest, telling me that my agitated familiar was going to berate me for my carelessness. Not exactly relishing the prospect at having another pseudo-mother, I groaned and feigned intense agony.

  “Don’t worry Master, my ability will be ready in less than a minute! Then I can make the pain go away,” She chimed fretfully. I felt bad about manipulating her like this until I remembered that if I didn’t, I would be getting an earful.

  “He’ll be fine. So what should I do here? Should we clean up?” Clarent asked while wiping the blood off his blade.

  “Nah, just pick up the good loot from the dead. The game will sort out the rest,” I replied tiredly.

  “Game?” Clarent and Fei asked simultaneously.

  Realizing that they had no idea they were codified personalities given form, I waved their question away. For that matter, everything here was just glorified code by Vena’s team. I let myself get too immersed, almost confusing it with reality once or twice back there. I continued to laze about while my health restored itself slowly, only moving when the Dragon Knight tapped my
forehead.

  “I got all the necessary loot. There were a few chests here as well, so our take tallies to about 554 gold, 1974 silver and 3900 copper, 10 sets of armor ranging from light to heavy, 5 daggers of average quality, 1 uncommon ice dagger, 3 common swords, one uncommon sword of shocks and one common shield,” Clarent reported, holding the items in a crude bag slung over his shoulder.

  “Huh. Not too impressive, but not bad for the first haul,” I remarked, pushing myself off the ground now that my health was fully restored. Fei lifted off my chest and buzzed around for a bit, before settling in her favourite perch.

  Yes, while the money itself would’ve been a great boon at this stage, I had realized on the way here that money was in fact, not a problem for me. Thanks to my Seamless ability, I and my fledgling town were one. You could even say I was the physical avatar of my town - in a way. That meant that whatever my town earned from trade or taxes was technically mine to spend as well. Right now we had only 60 people, but if Mira’s projections were right and we got 3000 citizens by the end of the quarter, money would not be a problem for me anytime soon.

  Still, there was one thing to take care of. The second part of the RTS tutorial as well as a nice, hot bath.

  “It’s about time we head back to see how our town has fared without us, eh Hero?” I asked the Dragonkin with a smirk.

  “That we do, Hero,” Clarent replied with a smirk.

  Chapter 7

  Perverted Lord

  The moment we exited the forest, I received a prompt that I could not escape.

  Well done!

  You have completed your first adventure!

  Requirements: Obtain a class kit and explore a zone for more than an hour

  Rewards: Quests are unlocked

  Party functions unlocked!

  Keep fighting Adventurer!

  Interesting. Since I had nothing for it but to wait, I decided to deal with the mountain of prompts I acquired during the battle with the Goblins.

  __________________

  You have killed Goblin scout level 1 x 30

  Exp: 450

  __________________

  __________________

  You have killed Goblin warrior level 1 x 15

  Exp: 600

  __________________

  __________________

  You have killed Goblin archer level 1x 2

  Exp: 60

  __________________

  __________________

  You have killed Goblin archer level 3 x 3

  Exp: 360

  __________________

  __________________

  You have killed Goblin caster level 6 x 5

  Exp: 1000

  __________________

  __________________

  You have killed Goblin Fighter level 1 x 50

  Exp: 500

  __________________

  __________________

  Your companion has killed a Goblin Warrior level 1x 40

  Exp: 1600

  __________________

  __________________

  Your companion has killed a Goblin Scout level 1x 50

  Exp: 600

  __________________

  __________________

  Your companion has killed a Goblin Warrior level 1x 40

  Exp: 1600

  __________________

  __________________

  Your companion has killed a Goblin Archer level 3 x 10

  Exp: 1200

  __________________

  __________________

  Your companion has killed a Goblin Warchief level 40

  Exp: 20000

  __________________

  __________________

  Your companion has killed a Goblin Shaman level 55

  Exp: 35000

  __________________

  __________________

  TING-WHIRR!!

  You have leveled up!

  You are now level 15!

  +20 to SP

  +40 to HP

  +20 to MP

  +90 Ability points (Standard: 45 + Blessing of Vena: 45)

  +18 Skill Points (Standard: 9 + Blessing of Vena: 9)

  You have advanced in level. Apply your AP and SP points quickly, as they will be lost to the void if you die.

  “Well, isn’t my little puppet growing? How’s my gift coming along?”

  __________________

  __________________

  You have gained a skill level!

  Sneak has reached level 6

  Chance of detection reduced by 12%

  __________________

  __________________

  Well done! You have learned the skill ‘Swords’

  You are able to swing a sword without cutting yourself.

  “I wonder if this skill means I can use my ‘other’ sword to do damage, hurr hurr.”

  __________________

  __________________

  You have gained a skill level!

  Swords has reached level 10

  Damage with all swords increased by 10%

  Critical chance with all swords increased by 5%

  __________________

  __________________

  You have gained a skill level!

  Examine has reached level 4

  You can now examine targets over 100 yards away

  You can now examine targets over 200 yards away

  __________________

  __________________

  Well done! You have learned the skill ‘Fire magic’

  You are now a living lighter.

  “AHHH!! I’M ON FIRE!! I’M ON FIREE!!!!.... Wait a minute… I am fire!! I AM FIREE!!”

  __________________

  __________________

  You have gained a skill level!

  Fire magic has reached level 6

  Fire damage increased by 6%

  __________________

  __________________

  Well done! You have learned the skill ‘Air Magic’

  You can now cast air spells.

  “Ka….Me….Ha….Me…..”

  __________________

  __________________

  You have gained a skill level!

  Air magic has reached level 4

  Air damage increased by 4%

  __________________

  __________________

  Well done! You have learned the sub-skill ‘Counterattack’

  With the addition of fundamental elements of different games, the counterattack feature of single player combat games is available to all player characters by default.

  Note: This skill is available to player characters only. It is a sub-skill of ‘Swords’.

  Note: Thanks to your seamless ability, Clarent has inherited it as well!

  “I hope WB don’t sue us.”

  __________________

  __________________

  You have gained a skill level!

  Counter-attack has reached level 9

  You can now parry light attacks

  You can now perform knockdowns

  You can now parry heavy attacks

  You can now deflect dagger throws

  You can now deflect arrows aimed at your front

  Parrying an attack restores 10 points of stamina

  You can now parry two light attacks at once

  You can now parry one heavy attack and one light attack at once

  You can now parry two heavy attacks at once

  __________________

  __________________

  Well done! You have learned the skill ‘Light armor’

  You know how to make good use of light armor, making it almost like second skin.

  “Wow, this skill is functional! I can do everything from inside my armor! Shit, piss and bath! I’m blessed!”

  __________________

  __________________

  You have gained a skill level!

  Light armor has reached level 7

  Melee damage reduced
by 7%

  Magic damage reduced by 3%

  Movement speed increased by 3%

  __________________

  __________________

  Well done! You have learned the skill ‘Water magic’

  You can cast water and ice spells now!

  “Whew, being able to chill my drinks in this hot weather sure is a boon. I only wonder why it tastes like the blood of my enemies.”

  __________________

  __________________

  You have gained a skill level!

  Water magic has reached level 2

  Water damage increased by 2%

  __________________

  For killing scores of Goblinkin, you have been awarded the characteristic “Goblin’s Bane”

  10% extra damage dealt to all Goblinkin.

  10% chance to terrify any Goblinkin.

  __________________

  Well done! You have learned the sub-skill ‘Massage’

  Rubbing certain spots can release tension in any muscle.

  Note: this is a general sub-skill and has no parent skill.

  “Hoooh yah, that’s the spot. Right there… ooooohhh yes… right... right there!!”

  __________________

  __________________

  You have gained a skill level!

  Massage has reached level 1

  Restore 1 point of stamina per second

  __________________

  __________________

  Well done! You have learned the skill ‘Restoration magic’

  With the light of healing, you can mitigate almost any pain and restore any ailment.

  “If only I could heal your mental disability, thinking that Shapeshifters are attractive only after they transform!”

  __________________

  __________________

  You have gained a skill level!

  Restoration magic has reached level 1

  Restoration magic effectiveness increased by 1%

  __________________