Emperor of Solo Play

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 hell 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 bastards 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.