Chapter 13: The Rise of the Dragon Knight

Chris stared at the portal for a moment before taking out the Uncommon Health and Mana Potions from his System reward storage. He gave one Health Potion and one Mana Potion to Azreon before drinking his own.

Instantly, the wounds covering his body stopped bleeding and began closing, while his depleted mana recovered almost completely.

Chris moved his body around, checking himself. If the wounds had been any deeper, he doubted an Uncommon Health Potion would have been enough to fully heal them.

The scratches covering Azreon’s body disappeared as well, leaving the dragon looking almost as good as he had before the battle.

Chris then took out the Rare Chest and opened it.

Inside were two items. A sword and a set of leather armor, similar to the one he had been wearing, except this one was completely intact.

He picked up the sword.

[Iron Sword - Rare - Enchanted.]

[Attack: 60.]

[Enchantment: Bleed II.]

[Bleed II: Afflicts the target with the Bleed status effect, dealing 10% of the weapon’s Attack as damage per second for 5s.]

He then looked at the armor.

[Light Leather Armor - Rare.]

[Block: 60.]

Chris stared at the items.

"This is better than what I had. The Bleed enchantment on the sword is also better... but..."

The sword didn’t have the Recall enchantment his previous sword had. That enchantment had been extremely useful, and Chris didn’t want to give it up so easily.

He looked at the ruined sword in his hand. Only the hilt had remained after the Dark Spirit shattered the blade.

Chris put it into his backpack.

Once he returned to civilization, he would find a weapon enchanter and have them analyze it. Maybe they would be able to understand the enchantment and eventually replicate it.

He threw his old armor away. It was completely useless now.

After putting on the new armor, he moved toward the corpse of the Dark Spirit.

Chris slashed into the head to retrieve the monster core, but he was stunned when he found two different cores inside.

One was red and looked like a normal beast core, and the other was completely black.

He picked up the black core and opened his System.

[Dungeon Boss Core - Level 40.]

"So that’s it! That’s why this Dark Spirit was so much higher level than the others."

Chris had read about Dungeon Boss Cores in the past, although he had almost forgotten about them.

Dungeon bosses had an additional core inside their bodies that gave them much greater strength than normal monsters. That explained why he had encountered a Level 40 monster while all the other Dark Spirits were much weaker.

He took both cores and stored them in his backpack. They should be worth a good price once he returned to civilization.

"Azreon, let’s go."

They headed toward the portal and walked through it.

Everything went dark, and in the next moment, Chris found himself in a familiar place. It was the same place where they had entered the portal while escaping from the wolf pack.

He looked around but couldn’t find the portal anymore. It seemed the dungeon had disappeared after they cleared it.

Chris found a fallen tree nearby and sat down, starting to think.

Should he return to civilization? It had been too long since he had seen another human or spoken to anyone.

Returning could also give him opportunities to join a strong guild and enter dungeons, allowing him to increase his level much faster.

There was also a chance he would meet the higher-ups again. They would surely be interested in him now.

He was no longer the defective Beast Tamer they had once believed him to be, and they would probably offer him resources and opportunities to improve.

Chris remained silent for a moment before shaking his head.

"No... I won’t go back yet. I won’t ask for any help from anyone, and I won’t try to curry favors with those rotten people."

He wouldn’t forgive those who had disregarded him and marked him as defective.

He would show them otherwise, but he would do it on his own.

"First, we need to reach Level 30. We’re very close to it, and I have a feeling Azreon will have another great evolution. This time, traveling through the Wilds will become much easier."

Chris hoped Azreon would grow bigger and stronger, allowing him to carry him more easily through the Wilds. Then they could go even deeper and search for stronger monsters.

He decided to reach at least Level 40 before thinking about returning to civilization. By then, he would be even stronger than many A-Rank class adventurers who were Level 50.

Chris looked at Azreon.

"Time to hunt again, buddy. Look for those wolves that chased us earlier. Once you find them, let me know."

Azreon roared and took off into the distance.

Chris remained sitting on the fallen tree with a smile on his face.

A few minutes later, Azreon returned and pointed in a direction.

"Good! Let’s go."

Chris stood up and started running through the forest, with Azreon flying ahead and giving him directions.

Soon, they reached a clearing in the forest. Chris immediately spotted a large pack of wolves lying across the grass.

Looking at them, most were Level 20 or higher, with some reaching Level 30.

The leader of the pack was even Level 35, but they were still only B-Rank monsters.

There was nothing to worry about.

"Azreon, attack."

Azreon quickly flew toward the pack.

Chris jumped onto a nearby tree and took out his bow, releasing one arrow after another.

The wolves were instantly alarmed and stood up, ready to fight, but they had no chance of competing.

Azreon remained out of their reach and spat fire at them from the air, reducing the wolves to ashes.

Chris continued raining arrows down on the pack while they tried to escape the flames. Some wolves attempted to rush toward him, but his arrows stopped them.

Others tried to flee, only for Azreon’s flames to catch them.

In just a few short minutes, all the wolves were dead.

Then the familiar System notifications appeared.

[Level Increased.]

[Requirements for evolution met.]

[All attributes increased: x1.5.]

[Contracted beast’s level increased.]

[Requirements for evolution met.]

[All attributes increased: x1.5.]

Chris once again felt the sensation of his strength increasing greatly.

This time, the feeling was even stronger than before.

He looked toward Azreon, who was already floating in the air with a fiery cocoon surrounding his body.

Chris watched with anticipation.

After several minutes, the cocoon began dissipating until Azreon was revealed.

As expected, he had grown much larger again.

His claws were much longer and looked far more deadly.

Azreon was now bigger than a fully grown horse, with the height of his back almost reaching Chris.

The dragon spread his wings and let out a powerful roar. The sound shook the nearby trees.

His roar was much more frightening and powerful than before.

Chris opened his own attributes as well as Azreon’s and allocated the newly gained attribute points evenly across all of them.

He then approached Azreon and raised his hand, wanting to pat his head, but his hand couldn’t reach.

Azreon’s head was too high now.

The dragon seemed to understand and lowered his head toward him.

Chris laughed and patted his scales.

"Hahahaha! At this rate, how big are you going to be when you reach a few more evolutions? You’re amazing as always!"

His praise came from the heart.

But in the next instant, another System notification appeared.

[Requirements met.]

[Hidden Sub-Class - Dragon Knight - unlocked.]

Chris froze for a moment before opening the Sub-Class description.

[Sub-Class - Dragon Knight.]

[Abilities: Fire Dragon Heart, Dragon Vision, Dragon Scales.]

[Fire Dragon Heart: User gains passive mana recovery and ability to use fire elemental mana.]

[Dragon Vision: User gains Dragon Vision when activated, boosting vision and perception.]

[Dragon Scales: User creates a layer of Dragon Scales over his body, boosting defenses.]

"This is amazing!"

Chris extended his hand and concentrated.

A small fireball appeared in his palm.

"This is too awesome!"

He was able to use fire elemental mana now. Before, he could only use his mana to add power to his attacks and increase his physical abilities.

Now, he could actually create fire.

Chris added more mana into the fireball, and it began growing in size.

He pointed it toward a tree standing nearby and threw it.

*BOOM!*

A strong explosion erupted around the tree.

In the next second, the entire tree had been reduced to ash.

"This is so strong!"

But in the next moment, he noticed something even more surprising.

His mana pool was beginning to recover on its own.

Chris stared at his hands.

People couldn’t simply recover mana passively without doing anything. They needed to eat and sleep to recover, use Mana Potions, or have a Healer-Class expert restore their mana.

But now, he could recover it on his own.

Chris became even more excited. These abilities were too good.

He then focused on his eyes and tried to activate Dragon Vision, and his vision immediately sharpened.

He could see much farther away and much more clearly. His senses and perception increased several times as well.

Chris deactivated the ability and focused on his body, trying to activate Dragon Scales.

In the next moment, thick black dragon scales began appearing around his body. They covered his armor as well, spreading across his arms, legs, chest, and neck.

Sharp claws appeared on his hands.

The skin on his face seemed to straighten, and two black horns appeared on top of his head.

Chris felt almost invincible.

He took out his new sword and carefully slashed it across his arm.

*Screech!*

The sword scraped against the scales, leaving only a scratch. Chris felt that his defenses had become much stronger.

But in the next moment, weakness spread through his body and the dragon scales began disappearing.

Chris immediately understood.

The ability consumed too much mana and could only be used for a short time.

He sat down and waited. Within only a few minutes, his mana had completely recovered. He marveled at his new mana recovery.

Chris then activated the Dragon Scales again, this time focusing only on his right arm.

The arm became completely covered with black dragon scales, with sharp claws forming over his fingers.

He could still feel how quickly the ability consumed his mana. Even while focusing only on his arm, he could keep it active for only a few minutes before running out of mana.

But this was still very useful. He could use the ability to defend himself against attacks in battle, and once he became stronger and expanded his mana pool, he should be able to maintain it for much longer.

Chris was shaking with excitement. These abilities had increased his fighting power and defenses by several times.

He happily stood up and approached Azreon, jumped from the ground and landed on the dragon’s back.

Azreon was finally big enough to carry him properly.

"Let’s go, buddy. Let’s see if you can carry me longer now."

Azreon roared and flapped his wings, and immediately flew into the air at great speed.

Chris was stunned and nearly got thrown from his back by the sudden rush of air hitting his body.

"Hahahaha! Amazing! Seems like you have no trouble carrying me in the air anymore."

He grabbed onto Azreon’s scales.

"But please, buddy, slow down a bit. I don’t want to get thrown off this high in the air!"

Azreon roared and slowed down slightly before continuing to rise.

Chris looked down and watched the forest beneath them become smaller and smaller. He then activated Dragon Vision and looked around.

He could see many kilometers in every direction. Countless beasts wandered through the forest below.

’It’s a pity. Most of these beasts are below Level 20, and they won’t give me any XP by hunting them.’

He would need to search for stronger beasts if he wanted to continue increasing his Level.

Chris looked toward the abandoned fortress. It was too far away to see clearly, but he could still make out its shape in the distance.

’It’s better not to go near that place for now. Who knows how strong those beasts are. They even managed to take over the military fortress. The soldiers there were surely very strong.’

He looked in another direction.

’My map is useless now. It doesn’t show any locations this far away, and even the areas it does show are vague.’

Chris looked toward the sky. It was getting darker, and night would soon fall.

He pointed farther north, away from the fortress.

"Azreon, head there. Let’s fly farther away from that fortress and find a cave to spend the night."

Azreon roared in agreement and flew in that direction.

Chris enjoyed the feeling of flying above the forest. He had spent years walking and running alone, escaping beasts at every turn.

Now, everything had changed. He closed his eyes and enjoyed the air hitting his face.

A few minutes later, Azreon suddenly roared.

Chris opened his eyes and looked down. There was a large cave below them.

He squinted his eyes and activated Dragon Vision.

Looking closely at the cave, something felt strange. He could see tracks around the entrance as if someone had recently used it.

But they didn’t look like beast tracks.

"Are those... human tracks?"

Chris was stunned. What were humans doing this deep in the Wilds?

He had never encountered another human since entering the Wilds. Strong adventurers usually went into dungeons to become stronger and avoided the Wilds.

There were powerful beasts sleeping throughout the Wilds. They usually remained quiet, but if humans attacked them in large numbers, those beasts would surely fight back.

Chris knew that humans didn’t want to start a war with the Wilds. That was why he had never expected to find another human this deep inside.

While he was still thinking about it, a yell suddenly came from the distance, followed by the roar of a beast.

"AAARGHH!"

*ROAR!*

Chris looked in that direction, but the forest was too thick for him to see anything.

"Azreon, let’s go there!"

*ROAR!*

Azreon roared and immediately changed direction, flying toward the source of the sound.