Emperor of Solo Play Chapter 172:
Chapter 172 – Bone Dragon (2)
5 .
[Bone Dragon]
– Proficiency : Rank F
– Use : A Dragon Type monster has to be sacrificed for the Bone Dragon to be summoned .
– Miscellaneous : If you want a more detailed description of the skill, please open the Skill .
The description was very short, but it was enough to shock Hyrkan to no end .
‘This Skill really exists . ’
Bone Dragon .
The Death Knight Summon Skill was akin to a blooming flower for a Necromancer . On the other hand, the Bone Dragon Skill was akin to a fruit . The Bone Dragon was a dream-like Skill .
It was described as dream-like, because there was no substance to it . No one had definite proof that the Bone Dragon Skill existed or not . Even the Rich Lich from before didn’t have this information .
Of course, at the time, Hyrkan had been so desperate for money that he had bought lottery tickets for a chance to return to the game . During this period of time, level 300 and above Users had appeared . Moreover, the 3rd Advancement had appeared . The Bone Dragon Skill could have made its appearance then, but Hyrkan didn’t have the interest or the luxury to pay attention to such information . Anyways, the Bone Dragon Skill wasn’t present in Hyrkan’s memories .
Yet, it had appeared right now .
‘The Skill Level is 230? Why is it so low?’
Moreover, he thought the Bone Dragon Skill was supposed to be a 3rd Advancement Skill . It was supposed to be a level 300 Skill, yet it had a level 230 requirement . It meant it was a 2nd Advancement Skill .
‘Was it always at this level?’
There were a good number of Skills that Warlord Users bypassed without realizing it . This was especially true with the unpopular Classes .
There was a level 230 Bone Dragon Skill in existence, yet it wasn’t strange that no one knew about the Skill .
The Necromancer Class had gotten popular thanks to Hyrkan . Now 2 out of 10 Users picked the Necromancer Class . It was seen as a promising Class, but this hadn’t been true in the past . In the past, 1 out of 10 Users picked the Necromancer Class . Moreover, the Class was mostly chosen out of mistake or curiosity .
‘Well, since I received it, I should be thankful . ’
Of course, Hyrkan didn’t have to worry too deeply about the minute details of the Skill .
The most important part was that an amazing Skill had made its appearance .
Hyrkan immediately looked at the subsection . Unlike the other Skills, the Bone Dragon Skill’s subsection was more substantive .
Moreover, several characteristics listed caught his eyes .
‘The Bone Dragon’s Level is equal to the Monster’s Level . ’
One had to use Dragon type monster bones to summon the Bone Dragon, and when it was summoned, it would have identical Stats to the monster . Moreover, the Special Ability of the original monster couldn’t be used . As expected, there would be a penalty for having a low Rank, but the Stats would go up as the Skill increased in Rank .
‘If I use the Boss Monster as Ingredient, the cost will be immense . ’
Of course, if a Dragon type Boss Monster would be used as ingredient, the penalized basic Stats would still be immense . The best class of monster to summon was the Boss Monsters .
‘The Blaze Slime Dragon… It doesn’t have any bones . ’
The Bone Dragon couldn’t use the Special Skills of the sacrificed monster, but it possessed its own Special Skills .
The most eye-catching feature was the Riding Skill .
‘I’ll finally be able to travel on a decent ride . ’
In truth, the Riding Function was available on the Golem . Hyrkan had the Clay Play Skill ranked up to Rank A, so he could fly into the sky by using monsters like Wyverns as sacrifice .
‘That isn’t flight . It is just moving along the ground . ’
The problem was the altitude!
The Wyvern Golem couldn’t fly high into the sky . At the same time, the process in getting it to fly and changing direction was unilaterally against the rider . It would allow one to move at the speed of a car on a highway at an altitude of 100 meters . However, if a problem occurs during the flight like being attacked by someone, one would free fall towards the ground . Since the Golem’s body was made out of stone, its ability to recover its balance and altitude was the worst .
If one wanted to use it, one could use it . However, it was more dangerous to use it in the hunting grounds than one would think . There would be some monster attacks, but the biggest danger were the Users . When most Users saw a flying Golem flying at low altitude, they would attack first and ask questions later . From Hyrkan’s perspective, he would go nuts if he kept being attacked in such a manner .
It would be better to use a four-legged beast as ingredient . It was a more efficient and safer mode of travel . In truth, there wasn’t much difference in using a Wyvern Golem and a Wolf Golem . The difference in arrival time wasn’t that large .
‘There is no way this one has that stupid altitude restriction, right?’
Of course, there was a chance that Bone Dragon’s Riding Skill was similar in nature as the Golem’s Riding Skill . Maybe, the Warlord System itself put a restriction on all flight by Users . This was a likely scenario .
‘Acid Breath… It’ll be able to use it at Rank B . ’
Aside from the Riding Skill, the Bone Dragon had several skills it could use as its Rank increased . At Rank C, the Stats penalty was lifted . At Rank B, it gained the Acid Breath . At Rank A, it could use the Dragon’s Fear .
‘There might also be two other additional skills . ’
The two Special Skill for the Skeleton Knight like the Chivalry and Commander was gained through Skill Books . There was a good chance that he’ll be able to increase the Bone Dragon’s Skills through the same method .
‘There is still a lot of places where I have to spend money on . ’
Hyrkan clicked his tongue in dismay when he thought about the money he had to invest to get the Chivalry and Commander skill .
“Huh?”
However, the worry for money was cleanly blown out of the water when he saw the fourth line in the subsection .
‘Wait a moment . What the **** is this?’
– Bone ingredients equal to a whole Dragon is needed to be able to summon the Bone Dragon .
‘What the hell?’
The most expensive Skill in Warlord had made its appearance .
6 .
Ggoo-oh-oh!
The Bone Wyvern, which was only made out of bones, let out a cry . The forest was full of tall and thick trees, which was reminiscent of buildings . The Bone Wyvern started dropping towards the forest .
Shweeee!
It was like an arrow descending towards the ground after reaching its peak . Moreover, it was solely made out of bones, so the Bone Wyvern was angular . It led with its beak as it dived in a terrifying manner .
Poo-hwaht!
The leaves of the large trees were covering the ground like a roof, and the Bone Wyvern broke through as if it was breaking under the surface of the water . The target of the Wyvern’s beak was the monster named Wood Devil . It was fighting a fierce battle with the Death Knight, Skeleton Knights, and the Skeleton Warriors .
The monster was 7 meters tall, and it was massive . It had the legs of a goat, and the body and head of an Orc . Moreover, it was made out of a mixture of dirt, rock and trees . The Wood Devil was a powerful monster .
It was only a mid-sized monster, but its difficulty rivaled the large monsters . Moreover, it also gave similar EXP as the large monsters .
The Bone Wyvern unhesitatingly drilled its beak towards the Wood Devil .
Puh-uhk!
Both the penetrator and the penetrated suffered a brutal cost from the collision .
The Wood Devil’s head blew up like a watermelon . The Bone Wyvern’s beak pierced through the head to lodge itself on top of the Wood Devil’s shoulder .
The Wyvern was stuck, and it was in rough shape .
It was akin to throwing a boiled egg at a rock .
It became increasingly more bizarre when the two, who had suffered massive damages, displayed signs of life .
The Wood Devil didn’t have anything that could be called a head, yet it plucked out the Bone Wyvern stuck on its body with its left hand .
Kwah-jeek!
It used its incredible grip strength to break the Bone Wyvern in half, and it threw the Bone Wyvern to the floor as if it was throwing away trash .
Poo-hwaht!
The Bone Wyvern had already been in rough shape, but now one couldn’t even tell what it originally looked like . Amongst the wrecked body, the bones were showing signs of activity . The Bone Wyvern was trying hard to keep its body together, while it struggled in vain . It attempted to fix each bone one at a time .
As if it wanted to avenge its comrade, the Death Knight’s Skeleton Steed rammed its head into the Wood Devil’s body . The Death Knight swung down towards the headless Wood Devil as if it was splitting wood .
“Ah, really? What the hell!”
There was someone stuck to the back of the Wood Devil and this being was busily stuffing Bone Explosives into the monster’s body . Hyrkan shouted in an annoyed voice .
‘Do you realize how much I paid for that!’
The Highwood Forest was located on the northern parts of the Black Continent .
It was a forest located on the outskirts of the Red Desert, and it was considered to be the most effective hunting ground to level up for Users over level 230 . The difficulty in hunting the Wood Devil was high, but the EXP gained was high too .
However, Hyrkan was visiting the Highwood Forest, because of a quest .
‘Shit . The Bone Explosives, and the offerings for the Bone Dragon… . This is driving me nuts . ’
When he found the trace left behind by the Archmage Bokan in the Ancient King’s Tomb, he immediately received the quest called ‘Ancient King’s Artifact’ . He had to meet the Blacksmith Olf to progress in the Quest .
Of course, he had no idea where the Blacksmith Olf was located at . This particular NPC never stayed in a single location . He had questioned everyone at the Subjugation Association, and he was able to locate a hint that said the Blacksmith Olf had crossed over to the Black Continent . He was told that the Blacksmith Olf was currently journeying towards the Red Desert .
Naturally, the Red Desert became Hyrkan’s destination, and the Highwood Forest was on the path towards the Red Desert . Of course, he would hunt earnestly as he traveled there .
The hunt was very good . The Wood Devils were as advertised . They guaranteed he would gain a really good amount of EXP . Moreover, the Ingredients dropped by the Wood Devils could be used in producing Unique Rank Items . The monster had good EXP, and it was a money maker . His profit steadily rose as he caught this monster .
However, his profit was smashed into pieces as the Bone Dragon broke apart .
‘Shit!’
Bone Dragon .
It was a good Skill . The Bone Dragon allowed one to summon Wyverns and other miscellaneous Dragons . All these Dragon type monsters had excellent offensive capabilities .
However, problem arose from the fact that the summoned Bone Dragon was too reckless, and its Skill Rank was too low . Moreover, the level gap between the monster he sacrificed, and the monster he fought was too large .
‘I’m only catching a Wood Devil, so I can’t use the Bone Ingredients of a level 200 Boss Monster…’
For his first summon, he had used a level 170 monster called Gray Wyvern to summon the Bone Wyvern .
It wasn’t a low level monster .
The Gray Wyvern was still considered to be hard monster to kill in Warlord .
However, Hyrkan was currently hunting the Wood Devils, which were at level 240 .
It was a 70 level gap . Moreover, since the Skill’s Rank was F, his Bone Wyvern had received a Stat reduction penalty .
It all culminated to bring about the moment from a moment ago .
The Bone Wyvern had worked hard in its own way, and at times, it was quite effective . However, the Bone Wyvern had paid a price for its action .
This part of the equation was easy to accept, and it was understandable . He had used a level 170 monster as Ingredient, so it would have been strange if it was capable of taking down a level 240 monster .
The problem was the price .
‘Still, it cost me 1,000 gold to summon a Bone Wyvern . This is too much . ’
This was the cost of summoning a Bone Wyvern .
In the case of the Gray Wyvern, it dropped 8 Ingredients where one could make decent Items . If one added up the Bone Ingredients used in this venture, it was around 1,000 gold .
Actually, it wasn’t that expensive . If one divided the 8 pieces, the Bone Ingredient needed to produce an Item came out to be around 120 gold .
It was a pretty low price for an Ingredient that was used to make an Item used by many level 170 Users .
However, it was a different story for Hyrkan . He had to buy a large quantity of the Ingredient, and it could only be used once .
‘So one summon was worth a supply of 100 Bone Explosives…’
It was worth 100 Bone Explosives .
Moreover, the Bone Dragon wasn’t too compatible with the Death Knight’s Undying skill .
It wasn’t as if the Skill didn’t work on the Bone Dragon . The sticking point was the special characteristic of the Undying Skill . The Undying Skill only worked if the Skeleton was near the Death Knight . However, the Bone Dragon regularly moved away from the effective range of the Undying skill .
This was the case right now .
The Wood Devil had extracted the Bone Wyvern, and it had thrown it outside of the range of the Death Knight’s Undying Skill .
[Bone Wyvern has returned to earth . ]
In the end, the Bone Wyvern failed to regenerate and recover . It returned to being dirt .
“Fuck this shit······ . ”
At that moment, his one thousand gold had turned into dirt .
The part that made his insides hurt more was the fact that he would have to repeat doing this . He had to invest a ridiculous amount of gold in order to increase the Bone Dragon Skill’s Rank .
‘I never expected to lose money in this fashion . ’
On the other hand, it strengthened his resolve .
‘I have to quickly take these **** down, so I can make up for my loss . ’
It flamed Hyrkan’s desire to hunt down the Wood Devils .
It was reminiscent of the time he started this game for the first time .
7 .
V&V, Big Smiles, Blossom, Sweepers and Moonlight guilds were the 5 guilds within the Five Stars guild . They had used their overwhelming number to extend a great deal of influence towards north and south of the Black Continent .
Their expansion was unlike the Stormhunters, who were simply using regions as hunting ground before they moved on . The Five Stars were now occupying and controlling the good hunting grounds they ran across . In recent days, the high level Users had gone past level 230, and the Highwood Forest was a very attractive hunting ground for Users, who were getting close to the higher level Users . It was a hunting ground worthy of controlling as one of the main hunting grounds .
The Highwood Forest was under the control of the Big Smiles guild .
Of course, it was practically impossible to govern a high level hunting ground with brute force . If the guild wanted to catch level 230 and above monsters, the guild’s highest level Users had to be mobilized . Their main forces had to be brought forth . This was why the weak guild members couldn’t be permanently stationed there to observe and control this region . The monitoring and management of the hunting ground was out of the question . The lower level Users were more likely be sent back through a special delivery called Game Over to the Heard Fortress ruin town by a passing Wood Devil .
In truth, this wasn’t a location that was suitable for being managed . This wasn’t a stage meant for the low level Users . The Users, who were able to frequent this place, had skills and a certain degree of fame . It was hard to talk or come to an arrangement with these Users . The guild would have to use a very big stick to be able to deliver a big punishment to those, who intruded in the forest .
– How long are we going to let the Hahoe Mask operate in the Highwood Forest?
However, there was a User where none of the normal conventions worked .
He was a high level User, and words didn’t work on him . Moreover, he wouldn’t consider cutting any deals, and the big stick approach also didn’t work on him . He didn’t have a guild that could be pressured, and no forms of pressure seems to work on him .
“We’ve already decided internally not to mess with the Hahoe Mask… Didn’t you agree about that part, Mr . Heh-bibin?
– Still, there should be a limit to our patience . The Highwood Forest is our main hunting ground under our management!‘
Hahoe Mask .
He ignored all authority as he hunted in the Highwood forest . Moreover, he wasn’t just hunting there .
– Moreover, the Hahoe Mask is flaunting the fact that he is hunting at the Highwood Forest!
He is hunting out in the open!
It was as if he was advertising himself!
– The video he uploaded, in regards to the Highwood Forest, just went past 10 million views . It just took a single day!
To make things worse, the Hahoe Mask had uploaded a video of himself hunting inside the Highwood Forest . He had uploaded it the next day with minimal editing .
The Hahoe Mask was a youtube star that could gain millions of views just from uploading a simple video of Skeletons dancing inside the game . We was the mega star of Warlord .
He was such a figure, so there was no way his Wood Devil hunting video would have a low view count . It was popular enough to breeze past 10 million views in a single day .
Moreover, as the Hahoe Mask’s success continued, the Big Smiles guild looked more and more inept . They had touted the Highwood Forest as being under the strict control of the Big Smiles, so of course, they came out looking ridiculous from this situation .
– You have to look at the comments below the Hahoe Mask’s recent Highwood Forest hunting video . About half of the comments are ridiculing the Big Smiles .
As a sub-guild master of the Big Smiles, this was the reason why he was angry .
In truth, Heh-bibin didn’t want to pay attention to the Hahoe Mask anymore .
Didn’t he always take a loss every time he messed with the Hahoe Mask?
This was why he hadn’t disagreed when the guild made an internal policy not to interfere with the Hahoe Mask .
However, the current situation was a whole different matter .
– We are one of the 30 great guilds . We are China’s greatest guild . If we allow the Hahoe Mask to treat us like this, we’ll suffer incalculable damage .
He didn’t care if a crazy dog barked out in the yard . He didn’t care if the crazy dog was ignored . However, if the crazy dog entered the house to make a mess, it was a completely different story .
Heh-bibin’s words weren’t wrong . When Sinclair heard his words, he agreed with Heh-bibin’s words .
“I understand . However, the risk is too high . If we want to catch the Hahoe Mask right now, we would have to shift a significant portion of our troops present here on the Black Continent . ”
It wasn’t as if they couldn’t catch the Hahoe Mask . The Hahoe Mask was amazing, but in the end, he was alone . If they wanted to, they would be able to kill him .
– Sinclair . You…
“So you want me to go out and fight the Hahoe Mask? Is that what you are trying to say to me?”
In the end that was the sticking point . It was the price one needed to pay to kill the Hahoe Mask . A frightening cost had to be paid to catch a terrifying genius of Solo Play . Even if one was willing to pay the price, it would be a problem . If one paid the price, someone had to sign the receipt . If the receipt printed out a loss, the one that signed the receipt would have to be responsible for that loss .
“Policy is policy . I won’t mess with the Hahoe Mask . ”
– I can’t believe those words came out of your mouth, Killer .
“The Five Stars agreed to it, and the Hyrdra guild also agreed to it . We don’t touch the Hahoe Mask . ”
– Sinclair . While you were with the Hands guild, you were a User on par with the Matador Chev and the Storm Queen Shir . If there was an obstacle, you broke through it . You used your Skill in the shadow, and many lamented this fact . This was why many guilds had sent you love calls .
Sinclair could clearly see this venture would come out at a loss, so he didn’t want to sign the receipt .
No, to be precise, he couldn’t do it .
His employer, who had hired him, wouldn’t allow it .
– This is why I’m curious . What decision would the Matador or the Storm Queen make right now?
“I’ll accept your words as a compliment . ”
Sinclair ended the call with Heh-bibin after he got in the last word .
‘Heh-bibin’s real aim is for me to fall at the hands of the Hahoe Mask . He want my influence to lessen . ;
After ending the call, Sinclair let out a bitter laugh .
Sinclair could guess why Heh-bibin had tried to bait him . Heh-bibin wasn’t really trying to punish the Hahoe Mask . When the Big Smiles reformed with Sinclair as the centerpiece, Heh-bibin had become isolated within the guild . He needed a plan that will reverse his fortune . Sinclair was well aware of this fact .
‘Shit . ’
This was why he had turned down the request .
“Shit . ”
Currently, Sinclair tried to convince himself that this was why he had turned down the request .