I only got up on the second day, and I was still mentally exhausted. Close combat battles were fun, but a one-sided massacre wasn’t. Much less when your opponent can cut your arm like butter. I needed to increase my physical strength, but I also needed to increase my mental limit. In the end, I opted to put those on the same level. I needed to be versatile since I didn’t want to rely on others.

The number of monsters inside that ruined city had increased since we also killed all harpies, and I used them to repair my mechanic arm. It took the entire morning, but at the end of it, my mechanic arm was brand new.

After that, I analyzed my options. Challenge the dungeon and face a foe much stronger those three harpies and perhaps obtain an item as powerful as the core of the frozen world. Or finish my job and search for other survivors. The first was too appealing, but a bit unrealistic, I only killed Tinemouth because he was tired of living alone. I couldn’t get ahead of myself, so I just registered the position of that dungeon with a memory stone, and we flew once again to the west.

On the next day, I found a new memory stone and a note inside my backpack. Martin used his brain even though I didn’t ask for a new memory stone. Anyway, I only read the first sentence of his note; he had written that he wanted to talk. I threw his note away because he joined the group of people who wanted to bother me.

On the night of that very same day, I received one hundred thousand evolution coins. Angela and the others discovered the price for the crossbows and decided to pay instead of sending the crossbows back. And I was honestly thankful for that because the selling price was smaller than the price to create it. I still had the other fifteen rapid-fire crossbows, but I decided to keep them. My copies couldn’t use skills, so that kind of weapon was what they needed.

The next few weeks passed rather anticlimactically, I didn’t find any other dungeons, and the few survivors that I found, were too desperate to cause problems. My hometown was the exception, but I couldn’t find any more than thirty survivors in all the other survivors’ camp. But, I managed to train and increase my arsenal using the new magic arrows. So, I was okay with that.

In any case, after two months, I found other seventy survivors and sent them to Harry. After five months of searching carefully for survivors in all the cities I came across, I finally reached the west coast. I completed my job, but Harry still didn’t send my payment, and I would make him regret it… but that was the least of my worries. Along with the ocean, I found another ruined city, a volcano, which I was pretty sure didn’t exist in that area, and a dragon flying around that same volcano.

Dragon – HP: 750000 MP: 750000 STA: 750000

Physical Limit Lv 60, Mental Limit Lv 60, Sensorial Limit Lv 01.

Skills: Fire Breath Lv 10, Frost Breath, Earthquake Lv 10, Shock Breath Lv 10, Magic Resistance Lv 10, Physical Resistance Lv 10, Fly Lv 10.

Evolution Orbs: 458536/900000

Evolution Coins: 458536

‘… Why is that thing's status different from the previous dragon? Maybe that one is intelligent… come to think of it, the dragon we faced was just an illusion, even though I obtained a dragon’s heart.’

In any case, I was getting excited. Although I only broke my limit two times in the last two months, I was sure that I would be able to put my mental limit at level twenty after killing that dragon. Besides, it would be a one on one battle. So, it wouldn’t be as annoying as my battle against the three harpies. The difference in status was big, but a surprise attack and my new arrows would do the trick. However, I still needed to be careful that dragon could use earth magic, so earth arrows wouldn’t help like before.

‘I wonder why that thing is just flying around the volcano… is protecting it? I bet there is an entrance of a dungeon in that volcano… holy crap… is there a world full of dragons on the other side of the dungeon? But why only one dragon is outside the dungeon?’

I felt a terrible headache, but I managed to calm down and not jump to conclusions. I couldn’t say that was the case before seeing with my own eyes. But first, I had to take care of that dragon.

It was a dangerous thing to exist, but it was also very convenient. Dragons’ hearts were valuable, I was pretty sure that by using them, I would be able to evolve my skills, but it couldn’t be the only thing it could be used for. Anyway, to gain time, I left Stella in another city to make her kill the nearby monsters. After that, I returned to the city where the dragon was while invisible and registered the place using a memory stone, and then I returned to where I left Stella.

‘Let’s see… that dragon has half of Tinemouth’s HP, but its magic resistance will negate half of the effect of my arrows. However, I have the frozen world’s core… I guess if I create an arrow combining the properties of ice and wind for three and half days will be enough to kill it.’

It was rather boring doing calculations to finish an enemy on the easy way, but I didn’t have time to worry about my pesky combat instincts. I had to confirm if there was a dungeon nearby and what was on the other side of that possible dungeon.

And without ceremony, I started the creation of that arrow, I wished I could have done that before, but my backpacks were already full. The next few days passed rather slowly, I couldn’t move from that spot, nor could I eat. I needed to keep myself concentrated to combine the power of two magic arrows. Otherwise, I would lose control of the arrow. I left Stella, protecting my surroundings, but after three days she couldn’t stay near me anymore. The arrow was freezing everything ten meters around me, even my own body. That kind of power was beyond me, and that was why the cold alone was enough to damage my body.

Without much choice, I had to use the hot blood skill once in a while. Otherwise, I would become a snowman because of my own arrow. Only after four days, I had completed the arrow, the arrow was only five meters long, but I was satisfied with the result. Right at that moment, the country was in the middle of spring, but it was snowing around me. Well, almost. The coldness of the arrow was freezing the moisture in my surroundings, and even while I was still using the hot blood, I could sense my health deteriorating.

‘I have to finish this soon, or I will die of hypothermia… and I’m too hungry.’

Using my invisibility with an arrow that could literally freeze anything near me was meaningless. So, I just used the memory stone, after I recovered my mana, and reappeared in the city where the dragon and volcano were. But to my surprise, the dragon wasn’t alone anymore. Two dragons were flying around the volcano.

“Are you fucking kidding me?”

I was three kilometers away from the dragons; from that distance, I was nothing but an ant in the middle of a ruined city. But the dragons still saw me; instead, they felt my arrow. Both of those looked at my direction, but only one flew toward me.

“Although I’m thankful for that, it is annoying being looked down on…”

The dragons were pretty much the same, forty meters long oversized lizards covered with black scales. But the status of the second was different.

Dragon – HP: 500000 MP: 1000000 STA: 750000

Physical Limit Lv 50, Mental Limit Lv 70, Sensorial Limit Lv 01.

Skills: Fire Breath Lv 10, Frost Breath Lv 10, Shock Breath Lv 10, Magic Resistance Lv 10, Physical Resistance Lv 10, Fly Lv 10, Dragon’s Roar Lv 10.

Evolution Orbs: 53625/900000

Evolution Coins: 53625

‘Well, at least the one which is less resistant is coming first.’

Those weren’t copies, or if they were, they were copies of different dragons. In any case, it didn’t matter if they were copies or not; their strength was absolute. While the beast was flying toward me, I wondered what I should do. Kill that dragon and then get out and ask for help, kill that dragon and came back later with another arrow, or kill both of those.

I didn’t want to ask for help, and if a dragon appeared after four days, another dragon could appear again in the next four days. While that was fine as long as they can be killed, my main objective was to investigate why they were flying around the volcano. I could get strong a lot fighting those dragons, but until when I will be able to fight a dragon one-on-one? Until when I will have time to create those arrows? I wanted power, but I couldn’t put my life on the life if there were a chance of me fighting against two or more dragons. That was simply something crazy.

‘Well… I guess I will kill both of them and fill my belly with their meat.’

The first dragon opened its mouth when it was two hundred meters away from me. An obvious bad move, but it didn’t have time to regret it. On the next moment, my magic arrow entered its mouth, and for the next few seconds, I saw the dragon becoming an ice sculpture falling from the sky and shattering into pieces once it hit the ground.

You have obtained 200000 Evolution Orbs.

You have obtained 253625 Evolution Coins.

You have obtained a Dragon’s Heart.

“Congratulations, you broke your mental limit for the twentieth time. Now you will receive a random mental skill… your new skill has been selected; you obtained the skill Poison Shot.”

Poison Shot: You can shoot a sphere of poison that can cause damage and decrease the target defense by 2% for ten seconds. You can use this skill every five seconds.

Cost: 10

I ignored those messages because the other dragon was already flying toward my direction, and I created another arrow combining ice and wind magic. However, the second dragon didn’t open its mouth. It tried to smash me with its weight, and since I didn't have other choices, I shot the arrow toward its right eyes. The arrow shattered and froze the dragon’s eyelids, but only for half a second.

‘I didn’t expect less…’

The dragon collided against the spot I had been, but I teleported to its back before it could hit me. I didn’t want to teleport to its mouth again, I could surprise that creature like that, but I didn’t want to depend on the same trick forever.

Thanks to the impact, the dragon stopped on the ground, and I used that opportunity to attack their nape with my mechanic arms. I wanted to see if my strength alone and my new weapon would be any effective against the dragon’s physical defense. But after five seconds and twenty punches, I saw only a small crack on the scale I attacked.

‘I’m still too weak…’

I would probably end up destroying the hidden blades, so I decided not to use it. But I continued to punch after activating the hot blood skill, the dragon took off, but I kept hitting the same spot until the monster’s speed almost made me fall. I used all my strength to keep myself on the dragon’s nape by holding on one of the dragon’s scales.

‘Come to think of it… my new skill can’t be used here?’

While I was trying not to fall, I used the poison shot and hit the same scale I had attacked, but it barely did anything. I tried to punch a few more times, but the increase of damage was almost meaningless. The skill was too weak.

‘It’s only level one… it can’t be helped.’

Sensing me on its nape, the dragon tried to make me fall. However, it failed even when it flew upside down. Without much choice, the dragon tried to smash against a ten meters tall building. But I teleported to midair to evade the attack again; I saw the pieces of that building falling on the dragon, and then I had an idea.

I sent a dark arrow toward the dragon, the effect had been weak thanks to its magic resistance, but the building pieces hit the dragon and made the creature fall on the ground again. Dark arrows were really useful, even when those weren’t directly effective on the targets.

The dragon looked at me furiously, and then I had another good idea. I shot a poison shot toward its eyes, and right behind it, I threw a spiritual knife. The dragon blocked the poison shot with its eyelids, but the spiritual knife hit the eyes. However, it didn’t cause much damage; it only reddened a little bit the dragon’s right eye.

“Human! How dare you!” The dragon shouted.

“So, the cat didn’t eat your tongue, huh.”