Chapter 3 – Mini Fucking Dragon

In his own world, Mason had rarely been in fights. Sure, he had been beaten up a few times for running his mouth, but he had always managed to get a few good punches in and took pride in the fact he never backed down when someone threatened him or someone he considered a friend.

In this case, Mason turned and ran for his life.

*Ding*

Status effect: Affliction – 'Chicken Shit' has been added – all stats -5%

Blinking it away immediately, Mason was struck with the thought, 'There is no fucking way you are penalising me from running away from a fucking mini dragon'.

His minimap still in the corner of his vision, he could see that the Drake was represented by a red circle moving toward him as he sprinted in the opposite direction. The beast chasing him was fast. Far faster than it had any right to be. The only reason that Mason could keep any distance between them was that it had very short legs and seemed to have a lot of trouble turning corners, whereas Mason could use his map to judge when and where would be best to turn.

Weaving in and out of trees, he slowly increased the distance between them. The only problem was that the Drake didn't seem to be getting tired, whereas Mason could see his Stamina bar in the bottom right corner showing the current value to be 20/120. He could also feel that he was running low on energy, his breaths were coming more frequently, and he could feel his heart beating out a heavy metal drum solo.

He pushed himself harder, knowing he didn't have much time. Running as fast as he could, something popped up and blocked his view of where he was going. He tripped. While airborne, Mason managed to read.

*Ding*

Achievement unlocked! Run Forest Run!

You have run faster than ever before.

Reward 2 points added to agilityBefore he could fully process the words, he felt the impact of his face slamming into a tree at high speed.

He had one thought before slipping entirely into unconsciousness, a threeway thought dedicated to the system notification, the Drake and the tree, 'You absolute wankers.'

Moments later, Mason woke up face down with a mouthful of dirt, with the worst headache he'd had that day. He heard the Thump Thump Thump of the Giant Drake walking over to him, only now catching up. Mason attempted to stand, only to feel the Drake's whip-like tail slam him down again. Feeling like he had been hit by a semi-truck, Mason just lay there, convinced he was going to die.

Turning his head, he could see the beast standing beside him. As a last resort, Mason raised his arm towards the monstrous creature, and before he could shoot off a Magic Bolt, the creature moved quick as lightning snapping his jaws down around Mason's Arm.

Screaming in pain, he could feel the Drake slowly biting down. It was playing with its food, inflicting as much pain as possible before devouring its prey. Mason was in agony. He could feel each creature's teeth sink into his flesh, breaking through the skin, then the muscle. Before it could reach the bone, Mason let out a guttural scream and shot Magic Bolts over and over into the Giant Drake's mouth, willing as much mana into each one as he could.

He felt mental exhaustion hit him for the second time that day. He felt the pain in his arm lessen as the Drake opened his mouth and stepped back. He could still see the creature, but his vision blurred with each second. Moving slowly to avoid passing out, Mason opened his Inventory and selected one mana potion and one health potion. He hardly noticed when they appeared in his hand. Afraid that he would die of blood loss if he passed out again, he downed the health potion first.

It felt like nothing he had ever experienced before. Warmth flooded every inch of his body, and he felt a sense of fullness and rightness engulf him. He didn't even realise he had been healed until the warmth faded. Apart from the tiredness from his mana still being low, he felt better than he could ever remember feeling. Chasing the rush, he went to drink the Mana potion but got a notification when he put the bottle to his lips.

Warning! Drinking more than one potion at a time will cause the Toxic effect. You can currently drink one potion every 20 minutes. Increase your Resilience stat to reduce this cooldown.

'You never let me have anything good', directing his thought at wherever the notification came from.

Coming down from the adrenaline/potion rush, he looked to where the giant Drake had been. It was still there, not moving. Mason carefully edged towards it, wary of it being a trap.

"You better not be fucking with me", Mason shouted at the beast while still a few feet away. It flicked its tail in reply, 'So, still alive, but injured.' Mason, keeping his distance, edged around so he could see its face. He used identify on it again, hoping it might tell him something new.

Beast – Level 21 Giant Drake (Dying) – These temperamental creatures are extremely territorial. If you come across one, you better hope it doesn't see you. Too bad for you; this one has 100% seen you.

Update:

Discovered weakness: Its magically enhanced scales are almost impenetrable for anyone under level 20, but its insides are extremely vulnerable to all magic attacks.

Looking at the creature, Mason could see that it didn't have a scratch on it, but going by the updated description, his Magic Bolts must have really done a number on its insides. Relaxing slightly, he approached closer, trying to think of a way to put the Giant Drake out of its misery, but he needn't bother as he soon heard a series of 'Dings' along with 4 new system messages.

*DING*

Notification 1/4

You have slain – Beast – Level 21 Giant Drake.

You have received 210 XP.

Level up

Level up

Notification 2/4

You have reached level 3.

Stat points allocated.

Notification 3/4

Mandatory Quest Update – Giant Drake, Giant Problem - You have wandered into the territory of a Giant Drake. The way it sees things, it now has the right to kill and eat you.

Objective – 'Survive.' complete.

Quest reward – You get to live! Yay you!

Hidden bonus objective – 'Kill Giant Drake' complete.

Bonus Reward – Dagger of the Drakes (Rare) – This dagger is made from one of the fangs of the Giant Drake you killed. While luckily for you, it wasn't venomous, it does contain a portion of the magic that enhanced the Drake's body, making this dagger incredibly sharp and durable.

Status effect: Affliction – 'Chicken Shit' has been Removed.

Before moving on to the final notification, he felt something drop to the floor in front of him. Assuming it was the dagger, he moved on to the following message.

Notification 4/4

Achievement unlocked! The bigger they are, the harder they fall.

You have managed to kill a creature more than 20 times your level. That's insane!

Reward – Boots of the Lucky Bastard (Rare) – These boots were once worn by a leprechaun who travelled the world stealing gold and treasure until he one day met his end at the hand of a king who didn't appreciate having his treasury plundered.

Effect - while incredibly comfortable, these boots also make you marginally luckier. That may sound like a shitty effect, but when whether or not getting hit by an arrow comes down to luck, you'll be sure to appreciate them, you ungrateful bastard. They also increase the amount of coin you find when looting.

'I'd like to think all these rewards were worth it, but that was terrifying, and I'd very much not like to do that again.' Opening his eyes, he saw the Dagger of the Drake by his feet. As the description had said, the blade was one of the monster's fangs in front of him. The handle was made out of the blackest wood he had ever seen. It was smooth to the touch and glistened in the sunlight. The dagger was incredibly light and made Mason somewhat regretted not picking the one-handed weapons skill.

Taking the last few steps toward the now-dead Drake, he looked down at it and, as expected, saw a prompt.

Loot Corpse? Y/N?

As this was the first time Mason had killed something larger than a rat, he felt a slight tinge of sadness looking down at the creature whose life he had ended but wasn't going to say no to free shit, so he gave his assent.

Loot Received:

Drake hide (Uncommon)

2 silver coins

2 health potions

Exiting the notification, he saw that the Drake had been skinned, but the loot was nowhere to be seen. He waited a moment in case it, for some reason, just took a second. Nothing happened.

"That's weird. Where's my shit?" The dagger had appeared as soon as he finished reading the message. He felt cheated. He had risked his life to get away from the thing and even managed to kill it, he didn't necessarily have any immediate need for any of the stuff listed, but it was his god dammit!

Tired of this whole game system crap that was going on, he raised his dagger and stabbed the creature's corpse. "Give. Me. My. Shit." Each word punctuated by a stab, "Stupid. Fucking. Lizard. Who's. Smirking. Now." He reached into the beast's body, feeling around, thinking in his deranged state that maybe the loot was still inside the thing.

"Um, are you ok?"

Freezing mid-stab, covered in sweat that was his and blood that wasn't. Mason slowly turned around to see an attractive young red-haired woman looking at him with a bored expression, as if this was an average Tuesday for her.

"Is… this a sex thing because I can totally leave if you need some privacy?" She said with a slight smirk.

Sputtering slightly, completely shocked and the sudden appearance of another person, Mason's only reply was, "Huh?"

Mason had never had much luck with women. He didn't think he was unattractive but more stunningly average. He had had girlfriends, but they never seemed to last very long. They either cheated on him, or the relationship quickly fizzled out. He had no problem talking to women. However, the woman in front of him was just so gorgeous, and this was such a ridiculous moment for her to appear that he was, for once in his life, at a loss for words.

Shaking his head to clear his thoughts, he continued, "err, no…no, I was supposed to get loot?"

"Do you have a storage power?" She asked him with a tone of voice usually reserved for small children and people with learning difficulties. "Did you check there?" She continued after he gave her a nod.

Opening his Inventory, the stuff he had gotten from the Drake was indeed there.

"Shit… Thanks, in my defence, I have had one weird fucking day." Mason said with a grimace.

"Yeah, I can see that. You managed to kill a baby Drake. They can be a bit of a handf…."

Before she could finish her sentence, Mason cut her off by almost shouting, "THAT WAS A FUCKING BABY?"

Achievement unlocked! Infanticide

You killed a baby. I hope you're proud of yourself.

Reward – Baby killers don't get rewards.