[LEVEL UP! You have reached Level 462.]
[You have gained 0.5 attribute points to distribute.]
[LEVEL UP! You have reached Level 463.]
[You have gained 0.5 attribute points to distribute.]
[LEVEL UP! You have reached Level 464.]
[You have gained 0.5 attribute points to distribute.]
Reidar dismissed the notifications for now. He would check them later when he had time to properly judge his options. Right now, he needed to leave the volcanic zone before the environmental damage killed him.
His health had dropped to thirty percent, and the constant five damage per second was adding up. He turned and walked toward the edge of the zone, keeping his Sky-Hunters to top off his mana.
When he crossed the boundary, the heat vanished and got replaced by the uncomfortable warmth of the badlands. The damage notification disappeared, and Reidar used his healing skills to heal.
It didn't take much before he got full of health again.
He sat down on a rock and took several deep breaths. His body ached, and he was worn out, but he had done it. He had killed a level 532 creature. It took 6 hours in the end, but he did it. Luckily, no monster dared come to the volcanic zone, which meant that Reidar actually had a way to safely farm levels while he stayed on this planet.
Regardless, he was already almost at level 500, so hunting for levels was not his immediate concern. Though doing it would make things easier for him when dealing with Lena, and once he went back to Earth.
<That worked better than I expected. >
The strategy worked. If he found more high-level creatures, he could use the same method—lead them into the dangerous area and let the environment kill them.
Reidar opened his inventory, and the screen appeared in front of him. The usual grid of boxes showed up, but several new items had been added at the bottom, glowing to show they were new loot.
He selected the first item.
—[Ancient Stone Plate (Legendary)]—
Description: A piece of hardened stone armor that fell from an Ancient Stone-Eater Behemoth. This material is extremely durable and has self-repairing properties. It can be used in crafting to make armor or shields with high defensive capabilities.
—[END]—
Reidar examined the plate through the interface. It was rather large, far larger than his entire body, with a dark grey surface that showed faint crystal veins running through it.
It was also heavy, and he had collected twelve of them from the Behemoth's corpse.
The next item was different.
—[Crystalline Behemoth Tooth (Epic)]—
Description: A tooth extracted from an Ancient Stone-Eater Behemoth. Its crystalline composition holds residual energy. Suitable for enchanting or weapon forging to imbue equipment with elemental attributes.
—[END]—
He had six of these. Each tooth was about the length of his body. The material wasn't good for his current professions. Crystalline teeth seemed better suited for weaponsmithing or alchemy, neither of which he had.
Reidar continued through the loot.
—[Behemoth Hide Scraps (Rare)]—
Description: Durable hide taken from an Ancient Stone-Eater Behemoth. The material is hard to process but offers superior defense against environmental threats. Suitable for use in leatherworking.
—[END]—
This was more promising. He had eight pieces of hide, each about 6 feet square. The material was thick and had a rough texture that reminded him of tree bark. If he could figure out how to process it with his tailoring skills, he might be able to create good armor. Although hides were better used in leatherworking, which Reidar didn't have.
The fourth item made him pause.
—[Core Fragment (Legendary)]—
Description: A fragment of the core of an Ancient Stone-Eater Behemoth infused with the life force of the beast. The fragment contains concentrated earth mana. Can be used in enchanting to create powerful earth-based enchantments.
—[END]—
He had one of these. The fragment was roughly the size of his fist and glowed orange from within, like a piece of coal that had not quite finished burning.
This was definitely useful for enchanting, but the level requirement to work with legendary materials was probably higher than his current enchanting skill.
Reidar closed the loot window and opened the quest notifications he had dismissed earlier and selected the title to read its details.
—[Giant Slayer]—
Description: Title awarded for completing the quest The Apex of the Wastes. Grants 25% increased damage against creatures that are at least 100 levels higher than you and are classified as "Giant" or "Behemoth" type enemies.
—[END]—
The title was situational but powerful. A twenty-five percent damage increase would have made the fight against the Behemoth easier, though he had not known what it did until he got the title.
The restriction to giant-type enemies meant it would only activate against specific threats, but those were precisely the kind of threats he needed to worry about on this planet. The only problem was that the damage increase would come only if the creature was at least 100 levels higher than him.
In that case, the damage Reidar would be able to do would be pitiful to begin with, and a 25% increase wasn't going to do much.
But if the same situation as today appeared in an area where Reidar would not be able to take advantage of environmental hazards—meaning he couldn't rely on volcanic heat or other natural dangers to slowly wear down his opponent—at least having this title would give him something more to work with, even if the bonus damage was still relatively modest compared to the overall difficulty of fighting such high-level creatures.
The most important thing was that the title already increased his ability to kill these monsters within a timeframe that was manageable and sustainable for long combat.
It took Reidar a full 6 hours of continuous fighting to kill the behemoth, keeping constant attention and mana management throughout that entire period, which was far too much time to give to a single fight, especially considering the risks that accumulated over such a lengthy battle.
6 hours meant that the battlefield should have turned into a large-scale war. The only reason that didn't happen, at least based on what Reidar assumed, was because he lured the monster into the volcanic area, and it looked like most monsters kept away from there.
<It must be because of the heat. The Ancient-Stone Behemoth most likely roams around here because it has a lot of health points, and the heat is not as problematic as it is for other monsters. Stone is pretty resistant to heat, after all. Yet, it killed it too.>