Game’s Dogma

The renowned Mask was currently duelling the skeleton king in the Hell-difficulty Demon City dungeon.

Indeed, Drako Yau was clearing the dungeon alone. Because Hell difficulty could only be fought once a day, it had become part of his daily routine at this point. It boosted his experience at a fairly decent rate, though that was because he was only Level 24.

When average players were at Level 25 and Zephyrwolf’s group were between Level 26 and 30, Drako Yau was still at Level 24. It wasn’t that he was lazy; it was all thanks to the experience-devouring treasure on him, the God-Slaying Demon Extermination Armour.

He had estimated that he’d be Level 26 already if not for the armour leeching his experience. It went to show how much experience the armour was taking up, but there wasn’t anything he could do about it.

After it acknowledged him as its new master, he could no longer remove the armour, so he couldn’t put a stop to the experience leeching either. However, only a bunch of question marks showed up whenever he inspected the armour’s details. He had no idea when the forced labour was going to end. After a month, though, he was gradually getting used to it.

Thankfully, after a day of serious negotiation with the God-Slaying Demon Extermination Armour, it now temporarily allowed Drako Yau to put on another piece of armour over it. In other words, he now had the ability to equip two chestplates—though one of them only had 1 Defence…

Drako Yau persuaded it with a simple reason: if you don’t agree, I’ll die. If I die, you probably can’t find another master.

Drako Yau was starting to get a bit anxious and impatient as he fought the skeleton king. Even though he had been in the game for so long, he had yet to find a single clue about how to get out of the game. As for those nutrition pods or fluids or whatnot, he hadn’t paid them any heed after meeting the old geezer that time because he guessed he was probably forcefully logged into the game using a ‘special’ method.

Even so, he was still worried about how he could leave the game. No matter how realistic the game was, it wasn’t the world he grew up in and was used to.

The troubled Drako Yau almost took a hit from the skeleton king. He quickly settled down his mind and ceased his pointless thoughts. He couldn’t escape from the game any time soon, so all he could do was follow the old geezer’s advice: become stronger, then he could handle anything that went against him.

After being in the game for a good while, Drako Yau had improved vastly, especially his ability to circulate the two forces within him. His success rate had gradually gone up, and he felt that it was all thanks to his class progression into Godly Spearmaster and learning Elementary Grasp of Ice and Fire.

He also named the two forces. He named the ice elemental force which heightened his five senses ‘Frost Form’ because once he entered that state, even his breath turned frosty and froze up his Mask of the Hidden Dragon.

As for the fire elemental force which buffed his physical capabilities, he named it ‘Flame Form’. The reason was that flames would erupt from his body when he circulated the force to its peak performance. It was a bit like his ‘Fiery Dance’ skill in a sense.

As for using Frost Form and Flame Form together… Drako Yau didn’t dare to use it, because he had once tested it out. He could feel that every time he used both forces, they’d damage the Cryoflame Jade and the ghost flame, accelerating his countdown timer.

Over time, Drako Yau no longer dared to use them together. It could wait until he got proficient with both forms. Better not bite more than he could chew—he knew at least that much.

After gaining a basic understanding of Frost Form and Flame Form, he turned his focus to his skills, not Snowy Doorstep though because there wasn’t any special technique about it to speak of.

He had learnt two new skills at Level 23, one fire-based and one ice-based.

‘Level 23 skill: Soaring Flames. Flick the spear upwards, suspending the target and triggering the power of flames, dealing explosive damage.’

The second skill was a passive skill.

‘Level 23 skill: Icefrost. Applies a layer of frost on the target each time an ice-based skill is landed.

First layer: Decrease movement speed by 20 per cent.

Second layer: Decrease cast speed and movement speed by 20 per cent.

Third layer: Freezes the target for 1.5 seconds. Once the third layer is triggered, frost can only be applied on the same target after 10 seconds.’

As someone who used to design games, he knew it wasn’t that simple to completely get a hang of a skill, so he underwent a series of detailed experiments for his current skills. The test subjects were naturally his poor subordinates; Idyllic Poet was exempted by claiming she was a delicate lady though. Greenstone was also exempted because he had to heal those white rats… no, test subjects.

After trampling over Windstrider, Danting, Sasaki, and Zephyrwolf, he finally discovered the hidden attributes of his skills.

First was the relationship between Fiery Dance and Soaring Flames. He had always found Fiery Dance borderline useless, but because it was a permanent skill which didn’t cost any mana when triggered, he simply left it alone. Now, he realised that whenever he triggered Fiery Dance’s effect on a target, the subsequent Soaring Flames on the same target would be a certain critical hit and would deal 20 per cent more base damage—a terrifying number.

Based on the assumption that elemental skills were related to one another, Drako Yau tested out his ice-based skills.

The only ice-based active skill he had was Snowy Doorstep. It could inflict slowness on the enemy, decreasing their movement speed by 10 per cent for three seconds. Meanwhile, Icefrost’s first layer of frost decreased the target’s movement speed by 20 per cent for ten seconds.

If he couldn’t apply the second layer on the target within ten seconds, the first layer’s effect would disappear. By landing Snowy Doorstep a second time within ten seconds, effects of the first and second layer would stack up and last for ten seconds and so on.

It meant that the target would be frozen, slowed, and receive a cast speed and attack speed debuff at the same time if he could hit the same target with three consecutive Snowy Doorsteps within the said time frame. It was a wonderful control skill to have.

After he was done with his Godly Spearmaster skills, he turned his focus to Dragon Capturing Palm.

It turned out the skill wasn’t that easy to use in actual combat. It took time for the dragon aura to materialise and fly towards the targeted destination. Good fighters wouldn’t just stand there and let him grab them, so he had to predict their movements when casting it.

He decided to use birds as practice targets. At first, he failed time after time, failing to catch a single bird with the skill. After a while, he gradually got a feeling for it. Birds were no longer a challenge for him before he knew it.

He then changed his practice target to the skeleton king. It was a good opponent for him. Unlike the fire crystal giant master in the Blazing Cave, the skeleton king was a boss with skills and technique. He felt like duelling a real person when up against it. He didn’t keep it as a secret either; after he told his companions about the benefits of fighting the skeleton king, duelling the boss was now a daily assignment for them as well.

Drako Yau lowered his body to duck the skeleton king’s horizontal slash and responded with a similar slash.

Snowy Doorstep.

Scattering tiny snowflakes, the tip of his spear landed on the skeleton king, slowing its movement speed by 30 per cent for three seconds (Snowy Doorstep’s slowness effect and first layer of frost). He then followed up with several thrusts. Flames abruptly burst from the skeleton king, bringing a smile to his face.

Fiery Dance was triggered. Drako Yau immediately used Soaring Flames and flicked his spear upwards, suspending the skeleton king into the air while the flames erupted from within its skeletal frame like a barrel of gunpowder, sending black smoke all over the place.

Snowy Doorstep’s cooldown had just ended. Casting and landing the skill once again, the skeleton king was as sluggish as a snail after being inflicted with two layers of frost.

Drako Yau continued to rain down slashes and thrusts at the skeleton king. Under the effects of Might and Spear Mastery, his attacks weren’t just fancy-looking—they dealt considerable damage as well. Unfortunately, his attacks didn’t trigger Fiery Dance’s burning effect.

The moment its cooldown ended, Drako Yau used Snowy Doorstep for the third time. He sent the frozen skeleton king flying with a kick before extending and putting strength into his right arm. A dragon aura howled as it bit onto the skeleton king and pulled it back to him.

Moon Breaker’s tip awaited the skeleton king as it flew across the air.

The ground shuddered as the skeleton king dropped to the ground, while Drako Yau coincidentally levelled up to Level 25.​​​​​​​

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