Game’s Dogma

Never mind, better not overthink it.

Drako Yau then clicked ‘Elementary Grasp of Ice and Fire’ on his skill tree.

He still had several skill points at his disposal. Wanderer maxed out at Level 10, meaning it could increase his movement speed by 10 per cent. It wasn’t a lot, nor did it seem very useful, but he felt his points weren’t wasted after noticing it had an effect on Empyreal Dragon Step as well.

Spear Mastery was another skill he had to max out, though it could wait; he was already satisfied with a 15 per cent attack buff to spear attacks for now. More importantly, his priority was to learn Godly Spearmaster skills. It was his first-ever active skill after all!

Once he learnt ‘Elementary Grasp of Ice and Fire’, it showed ‘Max Level’ right away, meaning it maxed out at Level 1. There weren’t any numbers in its skill description either, just the plain text ‘Increases sensitivity towards ice and fire’.

The Tempestuous Thunder branch turned grey the moment he learnt Elementary Grasp of Ice and Fire, so it was only possible to pick one of the two branches. Deep down, however, he had a weird feeling about his new class. Why would it have an Icy Flame branch, a perfect match for his ice and fire elemental internal powers, coincidentally otherwise?

Drako Yau then learnt Snowy Doorstep and Fiery Dance by investing a point in both skills. He unloaded the spear from his back to try out Fiery Dance.

A tiny flicker of fire sprouted from Moon Breaker’s tip, rendering him speechless. That’s a mere spark, not a flame, is it? Even his thumb was larger than the spark. He shook his head—strength was more important than looks anyways.

He also used Snowy Doorstep with no particular target in mind. Moon Breaker swept across his front with such great momentum that it seemed like it could crush an army while snow and frost manifested at where his spear had passed through. Seeing that Snowy Doorstep was a proper active skill, he got a bit emotional.

Thank the heavens, it’s my first active skill!

The difference between active skills and basic attacks was that the former’s damage was incomparably higher than the latter. If Drako Yau hadn’t invested points in Spear Mastery, it wouldn’t have mattered how good his spearmanship was when up against other players or in dungeons. It was similar to a kid going up against a giant; no matter how skilled the kid was, he wouldn’t be able to injure the giant in any way, while the giant could turn the kid into minced meat with a simple punch.

After learning both newly unlocked skills, he had two skill points left, though he wasn’t in a hurry to dump points into one of the two skills. He had to test out Fiery Dance and Snowy Doorstep further before deciding which skill he should invest in, not to mention he’d learn new skills at Level 23.

After he was done with the Godly Spearmaster skill tree, he was in no hurry to leave. No player would ever wander their way to such a remote location anyways; it was a good opportunity to sort out and get a hang of his skills.

Drako Yau took out the golden secret skill book from his item bag and clasped his hands on it. The skill book disappeared, while something seemed to have sprouted within his mind.

He immediately opened up his skill tree. Indeed, apart from the ‘Wanderer’ and ‘Godly Spearmaster’ skill trees, there was a new skill tree: ‘Special’. The entire skill tree had one lonely skill which had a dragon claw-shaped icon.

‘Dragon Capturing Hand: Through materialising internal power, the user may telekinetically wield objects or injure enemies with incredible force. It is Kiu Fung’s secret skill along with the Eighteen Dragon Subduing Palms.

Level 1 (Max: Level 5): 1-minute cooldown.

Fire off a 5-metre-long dragon claw aura in a straight line in the specified direction. Stuns and drags the enemy towards the user when landed.

A sneak attack has a 100 per cent chance of triggering the drag effect. If the target struggles, drag distance will be adjusted depending on how much the target is struggling. Stun effect will trigger upon landing.’

Drako Yau read through its skill description. Surprisingly, the skill was much more powerful than he had expected, and its skill description also had some interesting points.

Because the enemy would be stunned when hit by Dragon Capturing Hand, it was practically impossible for them to struggle, yet the skill description still explained its effects and restrictions. In that case, the description was meant for classes which could remove negative ailments and debuffs, such as Paladin, Priest, Berserker, and Weaponmaster. Stun would also lose its effect when the stunned target received an attack, so there were ways to get rid of it through teamwork.

Even though there were solutions against it, that wasn’t enough to dismiss Dragon Capturing Hand’s greatness. Imagine if Drako Yau dragged the enemy’s priest over in a five-versus-five team fight then ganged up on the lone priest…

After seeing its level up requirement, though, he was left speechless.

‘Next level: Level 2. Requires 10 skill points.’

Ten skill points were enough to level up Spear Mastery’s buff to 25 per cent.

Guess I won’t be levelling Dragon Capturing Hand any time soon.

Drako Yau stood up and pointed his right hand at a tree some distance away from him—Five-Clawed Golden Dragon!

A golden dragon-shaped burst of air gushed out from his palm, whizzing through the air towards the tree. When the flying dragon dug its teeth into the tree, Drako Yau pulled his arm back and broke the tree into two halves, one of which flew towards him.

He scurried away to dodge the flying trunk. It smashed heavily into the ground, scattering soil everywhere and covering him in dust. However, he was clearly overjoyed.

Overpowered! This is way too overpowered!

Kiu Fung lived up to his reputation indeed; he gave away a long-lost technique as a gift!

While Dragon Capturing Hand also dealt a bit of damage, it wasn’t a lot by any means. Its strength lay in its ability to control a single player. Just how many players could withstand Drako Yau’s spearmanship once he pulled them into melee range?

Ding. A message notification popped up; it was Zephyrwolf.

‘Boss, where ya slacking off at? Something big’s going on!’

‘What’s wrong?’

‘The Mercenary Guild of course, everyone’s racing for a higher mercenary rank.’

‘What Mercenary Guild?’

‘Boss, stop joking around, it’s the new system implemented in yesterday’s update.’

‘The update yesterday?’ Drako Yau only got more confused. He realised something was off.

Zephyrwolf was already suspecting that Drako Yau was messing around with him at that point. ‘Boss, did ya not see the announcement yesterday?’ He then sent a text message over to Drako Yau.

‘System update: Dungeon system modification. When clearing a dungeon, death is now allowed. Upon death, players will respawn at the dungeon’s starting point. Once the team death count exceeds the death limit, players will truly die and receive normal death penalties. Death limit is set to 3 for Easy and Normal, 2 for Difficult, and 1 for Hell.

‘New system: Mercenary system. Mercenary Guilds are now available in all major cities.

The Mercenary Guild is a mysterious organisation that has withstood the trials of time on the continent. Anyone can become a mercenary and receive mercenary quests. Mercenary experience will be rewarded based on quest difficulty, and players can level up their mercenary rank by filling up their mercenary experience bar. There are seven ranks, with Rank 7 being the highest rank. All mercenaries will start at Rank 1.’

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