Inside the Dragon Mount Field Zone, which was rumored to have a certain connection to the legendary Ancestral City of the Dragons, there were some sub-zones featuring ruins.
Of course, these ruins were probably leftover signs of habitation by a group of Dragons, or sub-dragon species. After all, only True Dragons could legally reside in the Ancestral City. Every other species was only there on a timer.
Hundreds of millennia had passed, so there was not much left of it to discern the kind of aesthetics, culture, and style the Dragons of old patronized, but what was left was enough to leave Fitter Cleric and Essence Stalker speechless.
"Damn, those guys from the old era were living it up! Just look at how fancy the material for these buildings were! This wall was made with Aetherum, a special mineral only produced by the Ancestral Dragon City!" Fitter Cleric exclaimed as he picked up a cracked and dull piece of metal that was about to turn into dust.
Essence Stalker was shocked by Fitter's words and checked the material out for himself. It kinda resembled Aether Crystals, in that it had the concentrated greenish-blue coloration as well as the glossy sheen.
It was likely that the production of this metal had a lot to do with Aether Crystals. However, after the sand of time had done its part to it, it had become useless. Neither Fitter nor Essence could tell the use of this metal, or its special characteristic, after so long.
On the other hand, Essence Stalker turned to Fitter Cleric and astutely asked: "How the hell do you know that?"
Fitter Cleric wore a neutral expression as he replied coolly. "I saw hints of it in my past life."
Essence Stalker gazed at his buddy with disdain. Who did he think would believe this bullshit? Since when could this lucky bastard see into the history of the universe and himself?
However, he did not have the time or will to discipline the fellow and make him more honest. They had come to this place as a sort of investigative squad, sent by Riveting Night and Loving Aunt.
Admittedly, Riveting Night had basically said: "Head to the place closest to the Ancestral Dragon City and snoop around there for as long as you need. Don't come back until you find something special!"
And Loving Aunt had coquettishly added: "Not a bad idea. The lucky one acts as a homing beacon and the draconic one acts as the key. This should be interesting."
Due to the Luckmancer's dogshit luck, he had acquired many powerful items and skills from chests and draws. As such, he had amassed quite a few skills that were very useful in many situations.
For one, there was this;
｢Locate Treasure - Active skill
Effect: Using your extreme Luck, concentrate, and be guided to the location of the nearest thing of the most value within 1 mile.
Note 1: Can only be used outside of combat.
Note 2: The success rate is 10% at Rank 1.
Note 3: Luck only determines the quality of the treasure, not the success rate.
Cooldown: 1 day｣
This was an Epic skill that Fitter Cleric had learned from one of his three Epic Chests for surviving the Emergency Quests back then. The others had received one Epic growth item and 2 Rare items in order to curb their growth, but the AI could not defeat the almighty Fitter in terms of loot draw.
After all, every gacha game company had a picture of the fellow's face on their gun ranges and dartboards. Some even went as far as wanting him extradited so that he could be tried on the crimes of being too lucky.
Interestingly, those very same claims always would be lost in transit, or the judge who was to decide on it would fall sick.
Essence Stalker could only attribute his current Epic class to Fitter's lucky skills, which had led them to the place where he found the reverse scale.
However, Essence was currently frowning deeply because Fitter had consistently used his locator or luck tracking skills for the past few days, and they had only gotten failures.
As such, the best friend duo had ended up here in due time. They had searched around for quite a bit, but were unable to find anything useful altogether... until they naturally chanced upon these ruins.
That 10% success rate was quite the bummer. Fitter didn't have the time to Rank up since the Lady Boss had sent him out with this buddy of his. Her reasoning was that Fitter was to use the Class Up feature of the Training Hall when he came back to receive something even better.
That did make sense. After all, if he tried to Class Up now, no one knew what he would get or whether he would succeed. He couldn't go to Rank 2 because that would be a total waste, and he couldn't reach for the stars because he might lose what made him valuable in this situation.
As such, the duo had to make do. Fitter once again activated his locator spell lazily since the thing had just come off cooldown. He expected it to succeed this time after failing for so long, but he once again came up with nothing.
This slightly frustrated and irritated him. Could it be that the Goddess of Luck had gotten wind that she was no longer his main babe? Was she jealous of Slim Fatty, or by any chance did she leave him for another man better than him? That was impossible! No one could ride on Luck as he could!
"Uh, buddy. We seem to have run into something problematic." Essence Stalker said with a hushed voice to his distracted friend.
Fitter Cleric raised his head up and saw a large dome-like building that was cracked and ruined in many places. It was actually the most intact of the buildings in these ruins so far, and the architecture was definitely something worth exploring and taking a photo of.
However, Fitter could not find it in him to wake up his inner artist or archaeologist at this moment, for he was gazing into a building that had been turned into a den of werewolves.
These strange nocturnal creatures were living in the darkness that the large dome building provided, but that didn't mean that they were afraid of the sun. No, it only meant that they preferred to sleep during the day and hunt at night.
But hehe, if free meat was to bring itself to them, why wouldn't they partake? After all, the price for ordering delivery with Werewolf Eats nowadays was far too steep!
As such, they had come out of their little den and surrounded the duo long ago. It couldn't be blamed on either of them, as the senses of a human were shit compared to a human-wolf hybrid.
Fitter and Essence had already been detected by them as soon as they entered the area, so the werewolves had simply spent the time maneuvering themselves into place to surround the feast... and now it was time to devour them!
Fitter Cleric cursed under his breath. "Damn, how did you not sense them, Essence? Didn't you tell me that one of your bloodline abilities is Telesthesia?"
Essence Stalker calmly withdrew his halberd and entered an amazing as well as a perfect stance with his weapon held horizontally behind him while his body was crouched like a panther about to leap.
"It only works when I'm in combat, as it drains too much energy to use it outside of it. I don't have Control, but the Lady Boss said I could easily grasp it in due time."
Fitter Cleric rolled his eyes. "How is that going to help us now? Anyway, can you kill these snarling beasts? They are radiating a menacing vibe… not mention that there seemed to be a stream of Japanese like-writing surrounding their aura… and… are those spirits behind them??"
Fitter's eyes bulged. "Damn, why are they posing in such a fabulous way now?! Still, they are looking quite fresh with such legendary poses. I feel the urge to kowtow…"
Fitter turned to Essence Stalker and was immediately blown into a nearby wall while spitting blood at what he saw. His best buddy had also adopted a supremely magnificent pose and there was a buff 'spirit' of sorts behind him that also posed majestically.
It was so powerful that it had dealt him physical damage while the werewolves howled in fear and awe. They immediately began to kowtow to the fabulous Essence Stalker, as he laughed in a heartwarming voice.
"How tiring it is to be the pinnacle of awesomeness… will there never be anyone to match me?" he said with lament.
Fitter rubbed his eyes carefully and shook his head. When he opened them, he noticed that he was still beside Essence and his buddy was still in his battle stance, ready to kill his way out.
The werewolves also approached them closer with their claws outstretched and their drool dripping from their mouth. They also snarled and growled lightly in order to intimidate their prey.
Fitter shook his head and wondered if he wasn't getting enough sleep recently, which might have been why he saw such strange bullshit. He quickly pulled out the newest addition of his arsenal, gifted to him by Riveting Night herself.
｢Pandora's Box - Unique Item
Rank: Legendary
Effects:
Passive 1 - Metronome: Depending on the user's luck, their auto-attack will manifest random effects.
Passive 2 - A Little Hope: Depending on the user's luck, destiny might grant them a second way out in fatal situations.
Active 1 - Lucky Draw: Depending on the user's luck, one random active skill of any type would be used. Cooldown: 1 minute.
Description: This is a box that was never meant to be opened, but was yet unsealed by little Pandora. After releasing its contents, it now manifests random abilities depending on the luck of the wielder.｣
With this, Fitter turned into anything ranging from a God on this earth to the weakest mouse, all depending on his luck at the moment. He moved behind Essence and got ready to start the fight.
As for Essence, he was watching the monsters quietly. There was a tight tension in the air as the werewolves continually closed in on them, flexing their claws and staring their prey down in order to induce a <Fear> status, making the hunt easier.
When they noticed that it had only briefly worked on the cloaked one but not on the armored one, they decided to strike! With a blood-curdling howl, they dove into their enemies in order to rip them to shreds!
Essence Stalker spun like a top from his crouched pose, striking all wolves that were leaping towards him away in one-shot. This was a basic knockback technique he had learned when battling Clone Draco in order to keep that speedy bastard away when he couldn't see, but could sense him.
Essence Stalker gathered power in his legs and leapt upwards, spinning like a thrown knife as he brought the blade edge of his halberd down on top of the head of an approaching werewolf.
(Author's Note: The move is visually similar to Ike's Aether.)
The werewolf that was struck by this move had its skull cracked open and lay beneath the halberd and howled in agony. It twitched lightly in order to escape this fate, but was rendered weak by the damage.
Essence Stalker retrieved his halberd forcefully, ripping it out from where it was lodged in the werewolf's skull, which also tore out more of its cranium and worsened the wound.
It was only alive because the game had yet to hit Update 4, so as long its HP was not bottomed out, they would hang on with a breath of life.
He then eyed the other werewolves that were already about to hit his body. He could only strike one of them away, but another that had advanced at the same time, struck him on the face with its claw, leaving deep marks on his right cheek.
Essence staggered a bit and recovered himself. He touched the blade dripping down his face and felt the searing pain that erupted on his cheek.
Then, with a wide grin, he flourished his halberd masterfully and pointed it at the werewolf who struck him. "For a dog the size of a man, you hit like a puppy!"
