Chapter 24. The New Master of the Snowy Mountains
The Gelu-Drake’s cervical spine lay fully exposed through the wound Kai had carved into its neck.
Piercing the Gelu-Drake’s hide with my bare hands was difficult, but my Strength stat of 22 was more than sufficient to tear out a cervical spine that was already hanging loose.
Cr-cr-crack—!!
The sound of bones breaking erupted, exactly as the words implied.
The Gelu-Drake struggled against me.
However, the Gelu-Drake had already exhausted nearly all its strength.
Having even used its final trump card, Ice Breath, its resistance was utterly feeble.
I continued exerting strength and tearing out its cervical spine.
Only after the vertebrae connected to it were ripped out as well did the Gelu-Drake topple to the ground.
Kuuung!
Its massive body sank into the snow, causing an enormous tremor.
Almost simultaneously, translucent messages appeared one after another before my eyes.
◆You have defeated the Gelu-Drake!
◆You have acquired 8,180 combat experience points!
◆Your level has increased!
◆Your level has increased!
◆Your level has increased!
This signified the Gelu-Drake’s definitive death.
“Haa...!!”
Only then could I finally relax.
The moment the tension left my body, all my strength drained away.
Even though Regeneration [B-] had restored my damaged body, I didn’t have an ounce of energy left.
I sprawled out on top of the Gelu-Drake’s corpse and examined the messages that had appeared.
But....
The amount of experience points was extraordinary.
Until now, none of the monsters I had hunted had granted more than 200 experience points.
An Ice Troll granted 120 experience points.
A Dermexus granted 200.
An Alakron and a Rex granted 100 and 80 respectively.
But the Gelu-Drake had granted a staggering 8,180. And that was the experience gained from hunting just one.
This alone made it clear that the Gelu-Drake was a monster the current me should never have been capable of hunting.
It wasn’t called the Master of the Snowy Mountains for nothing.
I had truly come close to dying this time.
As I breathed heavily with a mixture of relief and joy, another translucent message appeared before my eyes.
◆You have completed the Sudden Quest [You Think You’re That Strong?! Follow Me to the Snowy Mountains!]!
◆You have acquired 16,500 quest experience points!
◆Your level has increased!
◆Your level has increased!
◆Your level has increased!
◆Your level has increased!
◆Your level has increased!
[Level] = Level 21
[HP] = 26
[MP] = 0
[Stats] = Strength: 22, Agility: 8, Stamina: 15, Mana: 1
[Experience] = 22.8%
<Bonus Stat Points +8>
Completing the Sudden Quest that had appeared when I encountered the Gelu-Drake allowed me to gain an incredible number of levels.
There were so many messages that checking them individually was overwhelming, so I immediately opened the “Player Information” window.
Despite sacrificing sleep and fighting the cold while hunting for the past two weeks, I had only managed to gain five levels.
As a result, I had been Level 13 before hunting the Gelu-Drake.
But by subjugating a single Gelu-Drake, I had gained eight levels.
That brought my current level to Level 21.
Furthermore, experience points were not the Sudden Quest’s only reward.
== [Player Information] ==
[Name] = Adrian White Wolf
◆Oh-Oh my goodness!!!!!!!!
Excitable messages filled with exaggerated enthusiasm appeared one after another before my eyes.
◆You stood your ground instead of fleeing and seized victory!!!
◆And you did it against the Gelu-Drake, known as the Master of the Snowy Mountains!!!
◆Oh my goodness!! What are we going to do about this!!!
◆Such an astonishing achievement has us leaping this way and that!
◆Our jaws are dropping open in amazement!!!
◆As a reward, you have received the “Title—<Master of the Snowy Mountains>”!!!
‘A Title?’
The <Master of the Snowy Mountains> Title had been awarded as a reward for the Sudden Quest.
As though it had read the question in my mind, translucent messages appeared one after another before my eyes.
[A [Title] is an honor bestowed upon a [Player] who accomplishes a great feat considered virtually impossible.
The difficulty of acquiring a [Title] varies greatly depending on the impossibility of the achievement. Some [Titles] possess effects that increase the Player’s stats, Attack, Defense, or other numerical values.
The lower the acquisition difficulty, the weaker the applied effects will be.
For example, a Title such as <I Had a Feeling Today Would Be My Lucky Day>, awarded to a [Player] who dies after being struck by lightning in the field, is merely an honorary Title without any special abilities.
A [Player] may acquire and possess multiple [Titles] simultaneously, but the Player may select only one Title whose effects will be applied.]
I thought I understood the general mechanics.
With that in mind, I examined the <Master of the Snowy Mountains> Title I had just obtained.
== <Master of the Snowy Mountains> ==
[Acquisition Condition]—Subjugate the Gelu-Drake.
[Effect 1]—Terrifies every monster inhabiting the Snowy Mountains. Terrified monsters have all their stats reduced by 15%.
[Effect 2]—Increases all the Player’s stats by 5.
◆You have completed the Affinity Quest [Don’t Misunderstand. This Alliance Is for This Battle Only]!
A translucent message suddenly appeared before my eyes.
It announced that I had completed Kai’s Affinity Quest, which I had never intended to complete.
The Title’s effects were….incredible.
Effect 2, in particular, increased my stats by a combined total of 20 points.
In other words, a single Title possessed an effect equivalent to gaining a staggering twenty levels.
‘Isn’t this ridiculously overpowered?’
Its effect was so absurd that those words came to mind naturally.
The quest had not made such a fuss for nothing.
Just as I was admiring the effects of the <Master of the Snowy Mountains> Title—
◆Kai’s Affinity toward you has increased significantly!
◆Kai’s Affinity toward you has entered the [Anger] state!
◆A character in the [Anger] state harbors negative feelings toward you.
◆The character will find fault with everything you say and do.
◆However, unless you take any unusual action, the character’s emotions will gradually subside over time and eventually enter the [Conflict] state.
◆You have acquired 32,320 quest experience points!
◆Your level has increased!
◆Your level has increased!
◆Your level has increased!
◆Your level has increased!
◆Your level has increased!
The messages appeared one after another of their own accord, and I received even more experience than I had gained from hunting the Gelu-Drake.
‘What’s going on all of a sudden?’
Just as that question entered my mind—
“What exactly are you?”
Kai approached me with a grave expression.
* * *
Kai’s mind was in complete turmoil.
His thoughts were an utterly chaotic mess, like a bubbling cauldron of confusion.
The reason was, of course, Adrian.
More specifically, it was because Adrian had displayed enough combat power to confront the Gelu-Drake.
He was on an entirely different level from the Adrian Kai had known.
Of course, judging by his recent behavior, Kai had already realized that Adrian had changed to some extent.
But that did not mean he had changed enough to contend with a Gelu-Drake.
The Gelu-Drake was a monster classified as “impossible to subjugate”.
The only known strategy for dealing with it was to avoid trespassing within its territory.
It was a ruler of the North against whom even Kai estimated his chances of victory at only thirty percent.
Yet Adrian had single-handedly managed to hold the Gelu-Drake in place.
And he had done so with his bare hands.
‘That was….impossible.’
Unlike knights who used swords and other long weapons, there were people known as “Martial Artists” who used their bodies as weapons.
The combat abilities of martial artists were by no means inferior to those of knights.
They were people who had fundamentally studied and trained in the art of killing.
They systematically researched and developed more efficient ways to take lives, constantly striving to improve.
At first glance, Adrian’s fighting style resembled that of such a martial artist.
However, martial artists also used Aura.
The human body wielded by a martial artist was inherently unsuitable as a weapon.
Therefore, the Aura techniques of martial artists had developed with a focus on strengthening the body.
Their enhanced bodies could easily block Aura Swords and sometimes even shatter them.
The hand-to-hand combat techniques of a martial artist who had reached the level of Master were comparable to those of an Ogre.
Therefore, Adrian could not be called a martial artist.
After all, Adrian was incapable of manipulating Aura. Forget Aura—his talent for Mana itself was practically nonexistent.
Kai could state that with certainty because he had witnessed it with his own eyes.
During the battle against the Gelu-Drake, Adrian had not used the power of Aura or Mana in any way.
In other words, Adrian had confronted the Gelu-Drake using nothing but his physical body.
And that wasn’t all.
There was another, more important reason for Kai’s confusion.
‘How did he withstand the Ice Breath….?’
Adrian had blocked the Ice Breath entirely by himself.
Even Kai was incapable of doing that.
Kai had been able to stop avalanches in the Snowy Mountains. But he had no confidence that he could block Ice Breath.
Even drawing out the power of his Aura to its absolute limit would not make it possible.
Yet Adrian had openly blocked the Ice Breath without using any Aura whatsoever.
“What exactly are you?”
What in the world was Adrian?
He was far too different from the Adrian Kai had known.
It was almost as though….he had become an entirely different person.
That was particularly evident in Adrian’s order to withdraw the soldiers.
Instead of using the soldiers as sacrifices, Adrian had volunteered to become the sacrifice himself.
Crush!
Kai had even thought Adrian had abandoned him as bait and fled, but that had also been wrong.
Crunch!
Even when his life was at stake, Adrian had not run away.
It was difficult to admit, but—
They had worked together seamlessly.
Even without speaking, each had understood exactly what the other wanted.
Crack, crunch!
It was as though they had been partners entrusting their backs to each other for decades.
While fighting the Gelu-Drake alongside Adrian, Kai had even experienced an inexplicable thrill.
Craack!
Perhaps that was why he had begun to acknowledge him, if only slightly.
Crunch!
Adrian was no longer merely someone who had ceased being the delinquent of the Count’s family.
Kai had begun to acknowledge Adrian himself, even if only a little—
Crunch! Cr-crunch!
“.....?”
Kai’s head tilted involuntarily.
His swirling thoughts abruptly stopped.
Cr-crunch!
That bizarre sound had been continuing for some time.
When Kai slowly raised his gaze, Adrian was nowhere to be seen. Adrian had unquestionably been standing before him only moments ago.
Had he somehow shot into the sky?
Of course not.
Then had he sunk into the ground?
Naturally, that couldn’t have—
Crunch! Cr-crunch!
....That was partially correct.
The bizarre sound came from the Gelu-Drake. Every time the sound rang out, the Gelu-Drake’s body twitched.
It wasn’t because the Gelu-Drake was still alive. The Gelu-Drake was unquestionably dead.
Which meant—
“Don’t tell me....”
Kai’s expression went completely blank.
Just as a dreadful suspicion began rampaging through his mind—
Crunch.
“That sound” came faintly but clearly from inside the Gelu-Drake’s body.
* * *
Kai had called out to me and was now simply standing there.
His gaze was lowered slightly, and he appeared to be mulling something over.
It looked as though he had something to say to me.
I had no idea what he wanted to say, but whatever it was, I didn’t have time to listen to that nonsense.
The Gelu-Drake’s corpse was rapidly cooling.
I could not consume any Genetic Factor through Predation from a heart that had completely lost its vitality.
I had already wasted considerable time checking the quest rewards.
If I delayed any longer, I might not be able to consume any Genetic Factors at all.
After everything I had endured to hunt this Gelu-Drake, how could I let it go to waste?
Therefore, I didn’t care what Kai was saying.
I wasn’t interested, either.
Unfortunately, my sword could not cut through the Gelu-Drake’s hide.
An ordinary sword without Aura could not leave so much as a scratch on it.
I had no choice but to dig through its severed neck.
I would have to enter the Gelu-Drake’s body myself, locate its heart, and extract it.
Crunch, cr-crunch!
Its body was nearly ten meters long.
It took quite some time merely to reach the heart.
Still, as proof that it had not been dead for long, the inside of the Gelu-Drake’s body was incredibly warm.
After considerable effort, I finally dug my way into its chest, where the heart was located.
Following a great deal of trouble, I managed to find it.
Fortunately—
‘It’s still fine.’
The heart’s vitality had not completely faded.
Because I had fought desperately to protect it, the heart was also in excellent condition.
Without hesitation, I brought the Gelu-Drake’s heart to my mouth.
And then—
Crunch!
The moment I crushed the heart between my teeth—
◆Kai’s Affinity toward you plummets sharply!!
Kai’s Affinity suddenly plunged into the abyss.
◆Kai’s Affinity toward you has entered the [Disgust] state!
◆A character in the [Disgust] state dislikes and hates you!
◆The [Disgust] state does not result in active aggression toward you. The character merely displays passive rejection and does not wish to remain near you.
Good grief. Make up your mind.
‘But it hasn’t entered the Hatred state?’
◆What a relief!!!
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