Galaxy's First Ruler

Huff! Huff!

Aldrich's breathing was rough and the Buster-Sword that was in his hand was nowhere to be seen.

The surrounding ruins didn't exist anymore. To the furthest eyes could see, all things had got ripped apart and pulverized. The thunder-like sound from the Shockwave had annihilated everything in its path with Aldrich at the center. Aldrich guessed from the aftereffects the Skill he had just used was only equivalent to an atomic bomb with 8-10 kiloton yield.

"Such a shame!"

Aldrich scoffed himself and stood up, not even a bit satisfied by the overwhelming blast. The Stone Splitter had consumed all his 200 points of Strength. But it only resulted in a blast half as effective as the atomic bomb 'Little Boy' used in World War 2. Aldrich calculated and came up with the number of Strength Stat he would need to reach the maximum capability of Megaton Crusher.

200000!

Not only impractical but also incomprehensible.

Aldrich took a deep breath and took out many SP and HP potions from FIR. The Skill combined with the penalty had almost drained him of his stamina. As he gulped them down one by one, he finally got time to look at the flashing notifications.

[…

The Experience Points are halved as per the Penalty

You have killed 1 Basajaun

ExPs obtained: 40000

…

You have killed 1 Basajaun

ExPs obtained: 160000

You have leveled up

You have obtained 24 Attribute Points

You have obtained 3 Skill Point

…

You have leveled up

You have obtained 24 Attribute Points

You have obtained 3 Skill Point

…]

Sigh!

Aldrich sighed, seeing the ExPs from hunting a Viscount and a Baron Crawler. If it wasn't for the penalty, he hoped to get near to the next Rank.

From the last fight, Aldrich found his basic Stats extremely lacking compared to the Crawlers of the same level and Rank. So, with no further thought, he equally distributed the 48 AP to Stats other than Perception and Correspondence. The 6 Skill Points he got, he saved them for his Class-Specific Skill.

Aldrich emptied the last vial of potion and regained his original strength. But the aftereffects of the tiring battle and the thrashing of the hammer had left scars on his body. And some of those scars were psychological in nature. As he approached the three hovering black balls, he contemplated the meaning of Perception and the 'feel' Sha had kept talking about.

"The thing to notice was that I could see the rocks and roots in the earth, but I couldn't sense the female Giant at all. Hmm, Sha?"

The mask on Aldrich's face jumped off and morphed into a sensualizing beauty with white hair and a tight black leather dress. Her blue eyes had a tinge of red from tiredness and anger. Aldrich knew the stone hammer had spared no part of his body and the mask on his face got thrashed along with him, too. He put his hand on Sha's head and patted her.

"Tell me more about how you could sense the female Giant and that creature outside the Dungeon."

Aldrich touched the first reward as Sha kept tapping her chin, probably thinking about what to say.

[…

Item: Basajaun's Megalith

Type: Weapon

Rank: Baron

Durability: 7000/7000

Minimum Usage Condition: Strength 100

Description: A Bazooka that can fire Mana Cannonballs

Item-specific Skill: Mana Blast

Item-specific Skill consumption: 300 SP 300 MP

Item-specific Skill's Detail: Once aimed and fired accurately, the Mana Cannonball will auto-lock on the target

Warning: If fired continuously, the Bazooka will heat up and there are chances of self-destruction

Do you want to equip the Item?

...]

"Yes."

Gulp!

As the black ball crumbled and a heavy 10 ft tall megalith appeared in front of him, Aldrich saw Sha drooling at the sight of the oversized weapon. He had fed her many Baron and even Viscount level Items, but weapons felt tastier to her somehow. He still remembered her first Baron-ranked weapon on earth, the spear Beast Slayer. Although her intelligence had not reached this point during that raid.

"First tell me, then you can have it."

Aldrich saw Sha wiping away her drool as his words brought her out of the fantasy of feasting on the Item. Sha crouched down and picked up the fine sand in her small fist.

"Daddy… Mmm… Earth is… earth. She… wasn't… earth."

"This…"

Aldrich's eyes became wide as Sha's words echoed in his mind. For a being who had spent hundreds of thousands of years meditating on Laws, a few broken sentences were enough to understand the crux of the problem. The point of him being a Class Generalist had always been a mighty factor, too.

"Hahaha! Such a simple logic… Sigh! Earth is earth, and she was not earth. Brilliant! No wonder I couldn't sense her, huh!"

A wry smile came upon Aldrich's face as he thought about the unforgivable mistake he had been making so far. He was using the Divine Sense to scan air within the air, to scan water within the water, and to scan earth within the earth. The only thing that kept him from not knowing his fault was the existence of two dead Crawlers who could mimic the element.

"No, not mimic. It was like they had become a part of the Earth and Wood. I need to dive deep into the working principle of Divine Sense again from a fresh perspective."

Aldrich touched the second reward and saw Sha involuntarily walking towards the Megalith Item. He shook his head in defeat and let her enjoy the meal.

[…

Skill: Intermediate Bazooka Proficiency

Nature: Passive

Minimum Usage Condition: Bazooka Item

Description: Dreamer would obtain Proficiency in Bazooka based weapons at an intermediate level

Do you want to equip the Skill?

…]

"Yes. Sigh! Now isn't that a waste of a Reward, tsk!"

Aldrich had prepared himself for such a situation when he created the All Proficiency Skill. And as that was a Skill created using Metacreativity, he couldn't level that up to use Intermediate Proficiencies. He was waiting for the ExPs to pile up to update or create a new Skill which would make him use all Intermediate Proficiencies in the RECORD.

Aldrich eyed the last reward and with half-dead expectation, brought his hand towards it.