The road to Shreveport was even more deserted than Ryan had expected. Aside from a few crashed cars and some signs of blood, Ryan didn't identify any signs of humans. Even though he passed through a couple of communities along the way…

It didn't take long for Ryan to see Shreveport from a certain distance, and much to his surprise, he didn't see any dragons flying near it. Truth to be told, he had hoped to see a few ones, and perhaps the fear would make him change his mind. Despite that, the smoke was still rising in several parts of the city.

"It looks like the dragons finally left, but the city isn't free of monsters…" Ryan muttered. "That means there are still survivors there."

As expected, Ryan found a few giant bees along the way, but he quickly killed them before they could get too close by using Flame Arrows. He tried to drive the vehicle and then aim his iron crossbow by using his left hand alone, but he wasn't skilled enough to drive without using his hands.

"They make it look so easy in the movies…" Ryan sighed. "Well, it shouldn't be a problem as long as I have mana potions. Which reminds me… I can use Appraisal on the monsters."

It wasn't a good idea to spend mana by using Appraisal on monsters that he could easily kill, but considering that the information would increase by leveling up the skill, he had no other choice. However, the result had been unexpected in many ways.

Killer Bee

"Boy, oh boy…. It is worse than I imagined," Ryan frowned.

At level one, Appraisal could only show him the name of the monster and nothing more. Still, leveling up that skill would be easy since the monsters wouldn't be able to notice him using it if Ryan hides somewhere. Besides, he has Meditation, so he was confident that after one day or two, Appraisal would become useful.

However, such thoughts disappeared from Ryan's mind when he finally arrived at Shreveport. He finally understood why he didn't see many people coming from that place… it was because the whole city now was surrounded by a river of magma. It was crazy, but without a doubt, that had been the work of the dragons.

"Shit… those freaking monsters have the power even to melt asphalt," Ryan bit his lips.

Ryan didn't know how deep the river of magma was, nor did he want to know. All that he knew that anyone touching the magma would die screaming in agony and that the river was twenty meters large. It was big enough to destroy any vehicle that the citizens of the city might try to use in order to cross that obstacle. However, weirdly enough, Ryan couldn't see any signs of survivors in all directions. He couldn't see monsters either.

"Something is off…" Ryan rubbed his chin.

The city was destroyed, and Ryan could barely see buildings that were had more than three floors still standing, but even so, he didn't see many signs of battles. Maybe he was counting too much on his eyesight, but he had hoped to see the corpses of the people who tried to escape the chaos the dragons created.

There were some burned down cars near the magma river, but the number was too low, considering the city's population. It wouldn't be hard to imagine that the shock of seeing dragons breathing fire made everyone unable to think, but… Ryan shook his head. What happened wouldn't help him in any way. Knowing how people reacted wouldn't change a thing either. So, Ryan decided to focus on the problem in front of him.

Since the dragons destroyed almost everything on sight, Ryan couldn't use many places to hide. So, choosing a roundabout way would be too dangerous. The best option was for him to jump over the river of magma.

"Usually, magma would cool down after a while, but I can't wait for that," Ryan muttered. "Besides, there is a chance that the magma won't cool down at all since it was made by using mana…. Anyway, can I even jump over something this larger?"

Ryan's physical strength increased slightly, but he still couldn't imagine himself succeeding in such a feat. He was crazy enough to consider that idea but not stupid enough to think that he could easily do it. Cole's motorcycle was running out of fuel, so Ryan's options were really limited.

"Well, let's hide it just in case…" Ryan said and then used some bushes to hide the motorcycle.

After doing that, Ryan began to test his body and see if he could actually jump over the river of magma. In the end, he somehow managed to jump over a distance of ten meters… he just needed to double that. If he could jump over ten meters with ten points in strength, Herculean Strength would increase that amount by two meters. He also could increase that amount without relying on status points, but Ryan would have to abandon some of his things.

After tossing away his dirty clothes, some iron bolts, his wooden crossbow, and his wooden bow, Ryan managed to increase the distance by fifteen meters. However, he couldn't throw away anything else.

"I guess I need to level up some skill and put some points into strength…" Ryan sighed. "I guess this is a good opportunity to see the skills that I learned when I obtained the Elementalist class."

He would have to use too much mana if he uses those spells alongside his iron crossbow, so Ryan decided to enchant the short spear he had before throwing it away. Much for his surprise, when he enchanted the weapon with fire, the spear easily burned the ground when it touched. The scent was quite strong even though there was no fire, and the tip only glowed, emitting a red tone.

"Interesting… I like this," Ryan smirked while thinking about new ways of using those skills."