Galaxy's First Ruler

The Plaza of Almenara had always been a place full of storms and thunder, and a moonless sky filled with stars.

But for the first time, a green sun seemed to come up, shining the farthest corners of the Plaza. There was no sunrise, and apparently, no sunset. The sun's existence was like a lone snowflake, appearing and vanishing, ever-elusive from eyes. Only a greenish hue lingered as the starry night, dense clouds, and ghastly atmosphere came back within the Plaza.

Atop of the mountain, the twelve pillars still towered, but the limestone floor had disappeared. The Disco Light had vanished, and even the boombox couldn't be seen anywhere. At the center of the vast platform, surrounded by the pillars, Viscount Sugaar hovered with its tail covered in coils of wind. And under its tail was a crater, hundreds of feet deep. A few green lightning bolts and howling of wind could be seen and heard coming out of the crater.

Shuuuuuuuu!

A black blur, like a trail of smoke, came rushing towards the Crawler. The Lord of Storm and Thunder was about to look around, following the echoing voice, but it was already too late.

All things went dark for him even before he could know what had happened.

*

4 seconds before

Just before the first ring of condensed wind could hit him, Aldrich activated his Skill, but the result was out of his expectations.

"Change."

[…

Devil's Oldest Change has detected a Divine presence

5% increase in the effectiveness of Item-Specific Skill

…

Title 'Enemy of Crawlers' is effective

10% increase in all Attributes while facing Non-Boss Crawlers

…

Defence: 317 (+7 +231)

Perception: 77 (-231)

…]

The first ring touched him, and it was like a blow of air coming out of someone's mouth.

Second, third, fourth, and to the twelfth, the ferocious rotating rings of winds lunged at him, like a circular saw cutting wood. But not one of them could make him flinch from his position. Then came the ball of lightning, ripping apart everything in its path in all directions. Even the air outside the reach of the lightning ball got affected and turned into plasma. The ball brought with it a sizzling sound, thunderous cracks, and an odorless green gas.

For the first time, Aldrich's feet broke the limestone floor under it an inch deep. He could feel the enormous pressure, but not the pain. The green snakelike lightning opened its mouth and bared its fangs before slamming into him from all directions. With every hit, the ground under him burst apart, burying him deeper and deeper. But any bolt that touched him got blasted apart on the impact. By the time the last traces of the lightning vanished, Aldrich was already hundreds of feet deep in the mountain's heart.

Aldrich looked down and couldn't find a spot of cloth on his body. The lightning was deadly enough to even devour half the Devil's aura he had gathered out of Sha. The remaining half kept coiling around his body, trying to affect him somehow.

"Tsk!"

Aldrich tsked as it would take him a long time to gather that amount of Devil's aura again. Ignoring his naked condition, he craned his neck up and saw a black spot hovering above him. It was Viscount Sugaar, the Lord of Storms and Thunder. Aldrich had been counting the seconds and knew it was time to wrap things up.

He narrowed his eyes at the Crawler and crouched down.

"Change. Target Lock."

[…

Agility: 414 (+8 +231 +95)

…]

Aldrich had always been reluctant to use Metacreativity for creating Skills. He didn't want to see the unwanted changes RECORD might put them through. And that's why the sole reason he made Items, was to put Item-specific Skills within them. Along with high restrictions came low consumption of Experience Points and almost the desired result. But it all made the naturally obtained Skills even more valuable.

Aldrich wasn't overly dependent on these Skills, but even he felt that two of his Skills were just too out of proportion. 

They were Banish and Target Lock.

Aldrich had yet to update the Rare Ranked Banish Skill to bring about a qualitative change in it. But it was still one of the deadliest Skills if used correctly. The only issue was one needed to understand a Law to banish it, of which the Skill mentioned nothing. Aldrich even believed if presented to other Dreamers randomly, the Skill was one of the most useless ones.

The other was even worse, a Common Ranked Skill. Target Lock was a trash Skill if one were to think about the restriction placed on it. 30% increase in Agility was mind-boggling, but only in one direction. One needed to have a Perception high enough to sense a Dreamer from hundreds of meters away. And if one were to mark a visible target from miles away, a 30% increase in Agility wasn't nearly enough to reach it before the target's probable disappearance.

Only a Dreamer like Aldrich could make these trashy things into the Galaxy's deadliest Skills. There was a reason he always used "Change" before activating "Target Lock". The 30% increment in Agility wasn't in the original value, but the total value after transferring points from Perception.

Shuuuuuu!

Aldrich had never experienced such a speed. Even during climbing the Everlasting Tower, his Agility hadn't crossed a value of 350. How could he have known what reaching an Agility of 400 signified? How could he have known the sound coming out of his body was a trait of a particular Rank and Boundary?

Even before Aldrich could have known what had happened, he found himself among the stars, overlooking the entire Dungeon. He looked up and there was a Mana film, just under the Sky. His heart thumped as he looked down slowly. He couldn't even see the mountain from where he had come up. Only a notification kept flashing in front of him.

[…

You have killed 1 Sugaar

…

…]

Aldrich stared at the word rows of words and exclaimed out.

"What… What just happened?!"