21 Desperate measures
"There was a freaking dragon in there," Hans exclaimed as he looked at Emily's blank face.
But after thinking for a moment, he corrected himself, "Well, it was draconian to be exact."
Meanwhile, Emily's eyes were still wide open with shock from witnessing a dead person return and stand right before her.
Realizing that she didn't seem to have any idea, Hans walked closer to her before he brought his face close to hers and whispered, "Don't sell those, I need them," saying that, he fainted, leaving a slightly flushed Emily behind.
When he regained consciousness, Hans found himself lying on an uncomfortable bed while he was again staring up at the bland ceiling.
"The hospital huh? I guess I fainted," he mused.
_____
A while ago...
The dragon attacked the intruder in its territory, greeting him with a freezing onslaught.
A massive block of ice formed in the air and plummeted toward Hans's head, who didn't opt to waste any mana on parrying it and simply avoided the incoming spell.
A barrage of attacks followed– ice spears, frozen gusts, ice bombs, and blizzards, transforming the once beautiful, picturesque snow-coated forest into a frozen battlefield covered with ice spikes and carved out by the strong blizzards.
Almost fifteen minutes since the battle started, but Hans still kept on dodging and was now drenched in sweat and exhausted, nonetheless, he held onto the hope that the dragon's mana reserves would eventually deplete.
With that, five more minutes passed, followed by ten, fifteen, thirty…
Though the fight had been going on for over an hour, the monster still didn't show any signs of slowing down, on the other hand, Hans's body was at its limits and the young man couldn't evade or defend against the dragon's upcoming blows anymore.
'Why?! Why hasn't its mana run out?!'
"Pant… pant..." Hans gasped for breath.
"He should've been drained of it by now."
"Even if it possesses the skill {World's Affinity}, casting higher ranked spells should cost a huge chunk of mana, so just why? Why isn't that dragon out of its mana yet?"
All of a sudden, a realization hit Hans and he checked the creature's status one more time, using his {Piercing Gaze}.
And what Hans saw next made him want to cough blood as he cursed, "Sh*t!"
Although not many things had changed in the creature's status, there was a notable difference in a few aspects of its stats, and it was in the evaluations.
[Tier-3 Mage] ——>[Tier-4 Mage]
[Wisdom: 440]——> [Wisdom: 540]
[High Tier-C]——>[Peak Tier-C]
The reason why the dragon hadn't attacked the intruder in its territory back then wasn't because it felt pity or friendliness, rather, it was because the creature was on the verge of breaking through its fourth circle.
'What now?!'
Hans's previous plans crumbled to dust, he originally intended to exhaust the beast's mana so that it would remove the ice armor that defended it, but his plans couldn't work anymore.
"If it has come down to this!!!" Hans grumbled knowing that he had to do the only thing he wanted to avoid at all cost: a direct confrontation.
The dragon was already done playing around and also decided to get serious before finally casting the First (Tier-4) spell, something that Hans had never seen before.
The next moment, thousands and thousands of spikes manifested in the air, slowly congregating into a single ball, while on the other side, Hans released his: {Fire Arena} and started casting his newly acquired spell.
Hans first formed a {Fire burst} and then morphed it into the shape of a spear, simultaneously, he also started rotating the flames with the wind, ensuring that the spell would deliver more damage to the target.
A couple of seconds later, both the spells were ready to be fired and Hans started rushing towards the gate's boss with the fire spear in his hand.
Just when the dragon's spells formed completely, Hans jumped.
Meanwhile, an incredible amount of mana lingered in the air, enough to force a normal awakened vomit their soul out.
The spells came closer and closer, almost colliding with each other, right at the last moment, Hans used the spell {Breeze} to shift his body out of the way, avoiding sustaining any critical injuries, still, a part of the dragon's spell hit his torso, fracturing a few of his ribs.
Fortunately still alive, Hans managed to land on the dragon's nose and grappled on it with one of his hands, while the other hand raised the high flame spell, {Flame Javelin}.
"And with this…..you're dead!!!"
"Spluuut!"
The spear of fire went right through the dragon's eye, piercing into its brain.
A mournful roar erupted from the dragon's mouth as it felt the insane pain it had been tormented with due to Hans's spell.
Although its roar had a dragon's might imbued in it, Hans wasn't the prey, this time he had taken the role of the hunter, and the last scream of his prey brought him nothing but relief.
[You have killed this dungeon's boss!]
[You have gained an incredible amount of experience.]
[You have obtained the (Tier-4) spell tome: {Ice Armor}.]
[You have leveled up!]
[You have leveled up!]
[You have..
[You are now at level 73!]
"Haha… haha.."
Even though Hans was severely injured, he managed to salvage some of the dragon scales, claws, heart, and core before crawling out of the gate, barely clinging to his own life.
Outside, a woman stood bowing towards the gate, whom he recognized as the one who had sent him into that hellish place.
With his vision already blurry, before fainting, he pleaded with her not to sell the materials he had barely managed to bring out.
And now, here he was, staring at the ceiling, unable to move a muscle.
In front of his nose, the only thing that welcomed him every time after a disgrace: was the status window.
[You have closed the gate, Icy Mountains, due to its extreme difficulty; the rewards you receive will increase.]
[You have been rewarded with the passive D-Rank skill, {Body Restoration}.]
{Medium Body Restoration (D-Rank)(PASSIVE): Your body will recover 20% faster when outside a fight.}
[Your passive skill: {Mana Route}(Tier-1) has evolved into the skill. {Low Mana Restoration (Tier-2) due to your high affinity with mana and repetitive use of skill.]
'Hah, I got so hurt that even my regeneration skills took pity on me,' thought Hans.
Several hours passed and he could just barely move his fingers and the loud noise from outside prevented him from falling asleep, which further irritated him.
It wasn't until about four hours after waking up that he heard the door handle being pushed down as it opened.
The nurse entered, and following right behind her was the woman who had brought him to the emergency room: Emily.
This time, she seemed more like a friend rather than a business partner.
She had brought some fruits to aid his recovery and apologized for the inconvenience.
"Don't worry about the C-Rank gate raid; it will take place the day after tomorrow, so you probably won't even be able to move around like usual with that broken body of yours," said Emily before continuing, "We'll process the materials you brought out free of charge, so don't worry about those"
However, Hans interrupted her, "Thank you for your concern but I'll have to turn down both of your favors."
She immediately looked crestfallen, thinking that Hans had refused because he was still mad at her for where she had sent him, meaning he wouldn't want to have a relationship with the association anymore.
But Hans specified, "If you want to do something for me, appoint me as one of the team leaders in the gate raid. Can you do that for me?"
Emily was about to say something but stopped before agreeing, "OK."
With Emily gone, Hans now had some time to rest. He lay on the bed and didn't get up until the next morning when he could finally walk.
"Heeeup," he stretched his arms above his head.
When he was discharged and prepared to pay, the receptionist informed him that he was free to go since the association had already paid the bills which made Hans think with irony, "I guess I won't ever get to pay my hospital bills"
Unfortunately, this wasn't the Cityview Hospital where his family rested; otherwise, he would've stopped by to stay with them for a while.
However, he didn't have time that much time; Hans had two things he wanted to accomplish by the end of the day
The first was to learn the new spell {Ice Armor}.
And second, he wanted to absorb the draconian's heart.
After he returned home, a huge package with his name on it was delivered to his doorway. Upon carrying it to his apartment, he opened it and found all the materials he had obtained inside the gate.
The ten or so scales he managed to retrieve, the six claws, a core, and the heart that was kept in a mini refrigerator, were all in the package.
He ignored everything else and just took out the heart, which was as big as his head if not bigger.
{Draconian Heart (Rank-B)
Effect: ???
Consumption method: Eating
Description: Even with just a trace, the owner of this heart still holds some pure dragon blood. It will bestow immense power upon whoever consumes it.}
Without thinking much about it, Hans brought it to his mouth and started chewing.
It was truly revolting and as if that wasn't enough, it was hard to chew and digest. It took almost seven hours for the heart to be completely absorbed, but once he had done it, the results were evident.
[You have absorbed the B-Rank item {Draconian Heart}.]
[Your wisdom has increased by 10.]
[Your strength and dexterity has increased by 20.]
[Your constitution has increased by 30.]
[Due to the effect of the class skill {Almighty Knowledge}, all of your stats will be redirected to wisdom.]
[Your wisdom has increased by 80.]
[Current wisdom: 924]
