20 Ice king

{DEATH CRY}

"Ooooooouuu!"

Face-to-face with death, the bear unleashed a horrifying scream, assaulting the eardrums of all the creatures in its vicinity while the overwhelming pressure emanating from that otherworldly cry scared the owls to death.

Instinctively, they shot a barrage of spikes that erupted in all directions.

The sheer number of spikes, shot by over thirty behemoths, was enough to rival the flurry of snowflakes that descended from the winter sky.

Hans, too, wasn't safe and found himself under attack.

Despite erecting a {Barrier}, dozens of spikes pierced his body, freezing him in place. Now confronted by an army of monsters, Hans attempted to flee, but it proved to be his gravest mistake.

Even though scared, the owls perceived Hans as a smaller prey that was trying to run away, triggering their predatory instincts once again, and making them start pursuing Hans relentlessly.

As he desperately ran, his speed lessened over time due to the icy chill that was creeping through his body while the behemoths thundered right behind him, tearing down the trees like a natural disaster.

Just when Hans started doubting his chances of survival, the monsters abruptly stopped, letting him slip away.

Now that he was back at the ice lake, Hans simply wanted to return outside and planned to try his luck the next day.

While Hans was searching for the hole he had created to get out of the ice where he first arrived after entering the gate, a tremor rattled the entire frozen surface beneath his feet.

Soon, cracks started to spread not far from where he stood.

Wary of falling into the unknown waters below with this current condition, Hans sprinted as fast as his condition allowed.

From the cracked section, a massive chunk of ice emerged, slowly ascending into the sky, then, he saw a claw grip onto the layer of ice that left the lake, the claw was of a monster that was coming out of the freezing water.

It was a majestic and colossal…ice dragon

With its maw opened, the dragon emitted a casual roar akin to the bear's death cry.

[You have been affected with the skill: {Dragon's Might}]

[You are now under a status effect: (Slight Fear)]

[All of your stats have been reduced by 10%.]

Hans was terrified.

If it hadn't been for his high wisdom, he probably would've passed out then and there.

{BOSS MONSTER

Race: Ice Draconian

Name: None

Level: 99

Strength: 223

Dexterity:190

Endurance: 182

Wisdom: 440

Race Skills:

{Dragon's Might (Tier-4)

Description: Even if of partial blood, a dragon is still considered the king of monsters. Just a roar from it is enough to scare off all the enemies as long as their wisdom is on par or lower than the dragon's.

Effect: Induces fear in enemies based on their wisdom.}

{World's Affinity (Ex-tier)(PASSIVE)

Due to the dragon blood running through his veins, it is blessed by mana and can cast spells up to two tiers higher than its own.

Has a high affinity with all elements}

{Ice King (Tier-4) (PASSIVE)

Description: A skill acquired by reigning over and living in the ice regions for all its life.

This has helped it to increase its mastery and affinity with the ice element, giving it access to many active ice spells.}

Description: A young draconian with minimum dragon lineage, cannot be underestimated.

Feeds on ice mana residing in the frozen lake, currently a Tier-3 mage.

Evaluation: High-Rank C.}

"F*ck," Hans, who was once scared of the owls couldn't help but think that they were nothing but insignificant ants compared to this dragon.

In the face of a power that he couldn't beat, the notion of just giving up crossed his mind.

'Is this, how I die?'

Without any further action, perhaps because of its laziness or because of the other side's inability to cause it any harm, the dragon silently returned to the depths of the lake, leaving Hans petrified on the almost broken ice.

A day passed…

During this time, Hans regained most of his powers while he strived to level up and remain alive.

By now, he had thrown away his tattered clothes and had replaced them with the fur of the monstrous bear, wrapping two straps around his arms, two around his legs, one like a hoodie while the biggest served as a cloak.

The previous day, After the encounter with the dragon, Hans slowly returned to the site where the bear hunt had taken place, took out the freezing spines from his body, and started healing the frost with his fire spell.

Upon discovering the bear's carcass, Hans scavenged it using its own claws and made some clothing out of its hide.

After recuperating, the hunt resumed. He relentlessly went around hunting behemoths nonstop, roasting their meat over his flames to feed himself.

[Current level: 52

Wisdom: 739(+10]

As the monster began to lessen, Hans realized that he no longer had the chance to grow, this was because if he wanted to get out of the gate, he would need the power to beat that monstrous draconian that guarded the gate's entrance.

He still felt that he wasn't ready.

Therefore, Hans decided to seclude himself inside a cave to avoid being interrupted by anything during the attempts he was about to make.

Soon, Hans lay on the floor and began to cast various spells, repeatedly practicing them {Fireball} {Fireball} {Fireball...

Several fireballs materialized, but instead of shooting them, Hans made them hover in the air, wanting to see how many he could conjure at once while simultaneously maintaining them.

"8…9"

"Come on…. Another one...T…en"

"Pant… pant.."

[Congratulations on overcoming the master level in the basic spell {Fireball}]

[The (Tier-0) spell {Fireball} has evolved into the (Tier-1) spell {Flame burst}]

"So it works if I practice like this huh?"

Hans smirked, "Just wait for me you oversized lizard."

Despite trying to upgrade all of his current techniques, unfortunately, other than the {Fireball} only the {Fire Veil} managed to evolve into a (Tier 2) skill: {Fire Arena}.

Back to the present...

"It's still not enough, if I want to beat that draconian, I need an ultimate move, one that will finish the battle. But how to do it?"

"Maybe I could try upgrading the {Breeze} spell and then fuse it with the new {Flame burst}."

"But that would take too long, and I'm not even sure if it might work…"

After a moment of contemplation, an idea popped into his mind as he exclaimed, "Then, ohhh, I could do that."

The following morning.

Hans stood proudly near the frozen lake, eager to test his newly created spell.

He was really happy just thinking about the spell he managed to create overnight, which would allow him to do more than just possibly win the fight.

Forming a {Flame burst} in his hand, Hans prepared to launch it into the lake planning to provoke the draconian. However, before he could act and release the flame from his hand, a deafening roar resounded throughout the mountains while the mouth of the ice draconian emerged from the lake.

At a rapid speed, the mouth rose to the sky, showing the monster's body first followed by its wings, and finally its tail.

There, in the air just before Hans, hovered a colossal ice dragon, emanating terror.

Hans, who was already mentally prepared for this, barely managed to brush off the fear curse and prepared himself for the fight, while the dragon, which didn't seem as calm as it had a couple of days ago, attacked the intruder that had barged into its territory.

_____

Meanwhile, in the association's office, on the thirteenth floor of the building, a young secretary bashed in, leaving the door wide open and interrupted the woman who was seated at her desk and reading.

"Sorry for the interruption madam but I have an urgent report!"

The woman looked at the secretary before nodding, "Go ahead."

"Madam, Hans Richter, the young man you sent to clear the D-rank gate"

"Yes, what about him?" the woman asked.

"He…he died in the gate."

"…"

_____

Standing before the entrance of the large gate, Emily stared inside, however, her thoughts were elsewhere.

'I-I'm sorry, I shouldn't have sent you in there, I knew damn well that the gate's difficulty was high, but I thought you were just concealing your true strength.

Since you cleared so many gates in that little time, I started thinking that you were a high-ranking awakened at the top of C-Rank, or maybe even a B-Rank.'

She bowed, offering her last respects and then thought to herself, 'I am really sorry, I didn't intend to.

But don't worry Hans Richter, I'll take care of your family for you, and when they wake up, I'll ensure that they learn that you lived a life without regrets and died heroically for our country.'

While she was sending her last regards to the presumed dead, the gate sparkled, and a human-like figure walked out.

It was none other than Hans.

His abdomen was badly injured and some of his bones were also broken, nonetheless, he was still alive.

He only wore a fur skirt and a cape on his body while on his back was a white ball also made of fur.

When he placed it down, Hans saw the association lady being regretful and was still bowing with her eyes closed.

Deciding to annoy her a bit for all the trouble she had put him through by recommending him to this gate, he snickered, "Ah you association bastards, you must really want me dead!"

Emily quickly raised her eyes after hearing the familiar voice, which opened as wide as saucers to confirm if what she was seeing was indeed real.

"Oh, maybe you like irregulars," Hans continued.

"Irregulars?" repeated Emily, confused by what the young man meant.

"Yeah irregular: there was a freaking dragon in there," Hans mentioned, causing Emily to stare at him with a blank look.

Meanwhile, the gate closed behind Hans' back.