Galaxy's First Ruler

[…

You have killed 1 Sugaar

ExP obtained: 420000

You have leveled up

You have obtained 24 Attribute Points

You have obtained 3 Skill Point

You have leveled up

…

…]

Aldrich could hardly believe the insanity of the situation that had just taken place.

He was at the bottom of the crater a moment ago, and just as he dashed at the Crawler, he reached into the sky. It was true he was planning to smash into the Crawler, and finish it in the next move. But the fact that he couldn't even see and remember how the Crawler had succumbed to his hands truly baffled Aldrich.

[…

10 seconds are over

Reinstating Penalty…

…]

HAHAHA!

Aldrich saw the last lines and let out a burst of resounding laughter. Not only he had hunted the Crawler but also got the full Experience Points without Penalty. And he knew what awaited him to do now.

Shouuuuuuu!!!

The air rippled around Aldrich, hitting his bare chest and other things. The free fall made it almost impossible for him to open his eyes. Through the wetness, Aldrich saw a dark point on earth. He didn't need to guess that it was the crater atop the mountain. From his maximum height and the distance between him and the crater, Aldrich approximated he had covered around 30000 feet in one jump.

Aldrich decided to use his Rumok's Push effect to slow down his descent just before hitting the mountain. But a Katana came rushing towards him halfway. Its sharp tip was pointed at his face, and it looked like it was going to pierce his brains out in the next second. But just as the Katana and mask came into contact, the sword melted into blobs of shadows and merged into the mask.

Zuuuu!!!

Two bat-like wings spanned out of Aldrich's back, slowing him down gradually. Aldrich didn't know if the Almighty Push was even enough to counter such a fall and he didn't want to raise his Defence to face another penalty. Somehow the Change Skill had gone into Cooldown after his incredible ascent to the Plaza's starry sky.

Aldrich flapped his wings and hovered around the flattened peak above the clouds. The twelve pillars had vanished, and the witches were nowhere to be seen. In the middle of the destroyed platform, hovered 4 black balls. A smile came upon Aldrich's face, seeing the non-penalized rewards from the Crawler. But these weren't the only thing Aldrich had gained by killing Viscount Sugaar.

One more notification was flashing in front of him.

[…

Quest 2 has been completed

Rewards:

1. Skill Points: +6

2. Sugaar's Antivenom: +2

…]

Aldrich collected the 2 vials of antivenom and dripped one on the mask while gulping down the other one.

The Crawler had already bitten off and injected a copious amount of venom into the Shadow Homunculus. Aldrich felt the reason Sha hadn't responded to him since now was because of this. And the venom had affected him too because of the ball of green lightning, just not to that extent.

Aldrich had all the equipment to make an antivenom if it was needed. But there was no reason to waste time when the rewards were so targeted, to begin with. There were more things Aldrich wanted to focus on.

Because of the strange event, Aldrich had leveled up 3 times. And he knew the number of Experience Points was enough for him to go beyond the initial levels of Viscount. But the number of Skill Points wasn't enough to update the Class. Aldrich checked out the selective Stats of his Record and contemplated what to do next.

[…

Record of Aldrich

Time Left: 00:00:00 hrs

Status: Cursed

Level: 30 (620500/112000 ExPs to next level)

Warning: ExP overflow

…

Rank: Baron

Class: Generalist, Blessed Scholar, Spawn of Darkness

Title: Locked

Attributes -->

Strength: 82

Defence: 79

Agility: 82

Vitality: 72

Perception: 280

Correspondence: 25

Unassigned Attribute Points: 72

Active Skills -->

1. Metacreativity: Lvl 1 (Baron) [0/9 Skill Points to next Level]

2. Target Lock (Common)

3. Banish: Lvl 2 (Rare) [0/7 Skill Points to next Level]

4. Flaw Detection (Rare)

5. All Proficient (Rare)

6. Summon (Rare) [Bonds: 1]

7. Supreme Tamer (Baron)

Unassigned Skill Points: 27

Passive Skills -->

1. Shared Vision

2. Intimidation

3. Beginner's Dagger Proficiency

4. Intermediate Bazooka Proficiency

…

…]

Aldrich assigned the Attributes Points among the Attributes other than Perception and Correspondence.

The only thing he needed now were the Skill Points. From the pattern he had observed so far, Aldrich approximated he would need 34 Skill Points to upgrade Metacreativity to the next Rank. Seeing that the Quest had given him a reward of 6 Skill Points, even though he didn't like it, Aldrich had high hopes for the Hidden Quest.

Putting the matter of his abnormal speed to the back of his mind, Aldrich approached the rewards. He first collected the Viscount Mana core hovering among them and found it covered in wind and a few ethereal bolts of lightning coiled around it.

"Sha, are you listening? One more core for the Rumok, haha!"

Aldrich called out, but there was no response from Sha. It seemed like the effect of the venom was more severe than he had thought. He hadn't analyzed the antivenom, so he didn't know how much time it would take for it to kill all the aftereffects.

From the rewards of first Plaza, Aldrich had got to know that the Penalty not only was affecting the quantity but even the quality of the rewards. So when he saw the four little wormholes begging him to touch them, Aldrich couldn't help but frown.

He didn't want another letter or anything to deliver to somebody, even if it somehow resulted in a Hidden Quest. These Quests brought too many unknown factors into the Raid. And Aldrich didn't want to take chances until he had dealt with the matter related to his home planet.

Aldrich took a deep breath and touched the first reward. All the while thinking about only one thing.

"Don't turn out to be a lover. Don't…"