Chapter 32 : Crimson Claw Strike

Ragna's eyes flashed with determination as he performed a set of incantation gesture toward the corpse of the Shadow Wolf. His curiosity increased when he saw the blood was slowly being extracted from its Body. Strangely, the blood wasn't red colored. It was black!

Ragna was a bit startled when he saw the Black Blood. Of course, being surprised was another thing. He couldn't afford to lose his concentration there. Suddenly, he felt that the blood was becoming increasingly stronger.

At first, the process was similar to when he refined the essence from the Black Wolves. Then, he felt that the blood begin to throb wildly. Finally, the throbbing escalated into a powerful resistance which was as mad as the wolf itself. Savage, ferocious, but cold.

Sweat oozed down from his forehead. Ragna had somewhat expected the current outcome and had prepared his mind. Unfortunately, the resistance was far more powerful than he imagined. When all the blood in the wolf's body was extracted, it transformed into the shape of a wolf and roared silently!

Ragna felt his mind spinning, he couldn't hold it any longer! The essence was too berserk!

It was at this moment that suddenly his bag glowed with blood colored radiance. He quickly inspected the source and found the 2nd Black Wolf's Blood Essence in his bag throbbing in an excited manner. The difference was that it actually seemed like it wanted to merge into the frenzied essence.

Ragna felt a strange impulse to merge both of them. It came from the depth of his soul as if telling him it was the right thing to do. It seemed like he inherited the instinct of the Blood Master itself.

He immediately willed the 2nd Blood Essence to fly into the wild essence in front of him. He made the 2nd Blood Essence to act as a form of containment toward the struggling essence. In no moment, the 2nd Blood Essence started to stretch into some sort of blanket, covering the wild essence within. After a few moment of fierce struggle, the Shadow Wolf's Essence lost its power and thoroughly merged into Ragna's 2nd Blood Essence.

The 2nd Blood Essence started to transform. Its blood red colored surface was now tainted with a bit dark line. A wolf-like symbol emerged at the center of its round shaped surface.

Ragna heaved a sigh of relief. He had succeeded in refining the Shadow Wolf's blood!

You have successfully refined an item :

Shadow Wolf's Blood Essence

Even though he managed to successfully refine it, he was still unsure regarding his method. If he didn't have another Black Wolf's Essence in his bag, the outcome would be very different. The Shadow Wolf's Essence was too berserk, it needed some sort of containment and luckily the Black Wolf Essence in his bag could act as one.

What if it was another Boss? One which wasn't related to any other species unlike the Shadow Wolf. Ragna couldn't make any conclusion. He needed to do more experiment to uncover the secret of his Blood Essence Refinement skill.

Even so, he reaped a lot of benefits from all the fights he had that day. Set equipment, Rare cloak, and a BOSS-type Essence.

A sense of satisfaction rose when he looked at the crimson colored essence in his hand. Without a second thought, he quickly gulped it in one go!

As expected, A surge of energy suddenly flowed within his body. It was slightly hotter than the Black Wolf's Essence he had earlier that day. Naturally, it showed that the Shadow Wolf's Essence had better potency and effect.

You have absorbed the Shadow Wolf's Blood Essence.

Effect : Permanently Increase Strength and Agility by 3

A part of the Shadow Wolf's power was absorbed into your body, you have learned a new skill "Crimson Claw"

Crimson Claw Strike

An attack born from the blood-stained claw of a darkness consumed wolf. Can be used as a melee or ranged attack. Have a chance to induce 'bleeding' effect when it hit the enemy. The chance will be higher when used as a melee attack.

Damage : 200% Normal Attack

Special Property : Small chance to induce 'Bleeding' state

Skill level : Beginner Level 1

When he saw the notification screen, Ragna couldn't help but exclaim loudly.

Holy sh*t!

Free skill!

In Maya, gaining a good skill was a hard thing to do. There were a lot of quests which could reward skills to players, but it usually only gave them the useless ones. To gain a truly powerful skill, one need to spend a lot of effort and time. Of course, luck also played quite a big role in it.

Even though stat increases wasn't too different compared to the Black Wolf's Essence which he had consumed earlier, the Shadow Wolf's Essence compensated him with a skill. A skill was priceless and was incomparable to the stat increases.

Actually, he was doing a bit of gamble when he chose to consume the essence. There were a lot of secrets inside the essence which he had yet to uncover. In fact, there may be a way to use it by means other than consuming it.

But now, he didn't feel the slightest hint of regret. In fact, he was grateful!

Ragna tried very hard to suppress his joy, he needed to check whether if everything was true.

"Status Screen!"

Ding!

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Status Screen Name Ragna Level 16 Class Ancient Blood Mage Title Brave Challenger (25%) HP 640 MP 450 Soul 102 Magic

Attack 191-195 Attack 203-207 Defence 74 Strength 67 (+40) Endurance 29 (+36) Agility 25(+40) Dexterity 24(+35) Intelligence 61 (+35) Wisdom 25 (+35) Skills :

Essence Mastery (Innate)

Stone Blood (Passive) : Beginner level 4

Blood Essence Refinement (Active) : Beginner Level 3

Blood Orbs (Active) : Beginner level 3

Soul Strike (Active) : Beginner level 5

Essence Manipulation (Active) : Beginner level 2

Earth Mastery (Passive) : Beginner level 3

Hand-to-Hand Combat Mastery (Passive) : Beginner level 5

Magic Combat Mastery (Passive) : Beginner level 4

Crimson Claw Strike (Active) : Beginner level 1

After absorbing the Blood Essences from Silver Clawed Bear, Black Wolf, and Shadow Wolf, Ragna gained an additional 5 Strength, 5 Agility, and 1 Endurance. The amount was equal to raising one level. In Maya, as the game progressed, raising one's level from hunting would keep becoming harder and harder. Having an extra stats that was comparable to a level was an advantage. That was why equipment which could give players extra stats were in hot demands.

Of course, equipment with extra skills was far more precious. Those items weren't even available on the market. They were highly contested even in the realm of top players.

However, equipment was just equipment. The skills would be lost if the player unequipped it. It couldn't compare to free skills.

Ragna also progressed quite far in his Mastery Skills. Those skills showed up when he hit level 10, the normal point for job changes. It would increase his damage according to the Level and the Mastery type. Ragna had both because he constantly used them in battle.

Hand-to-Hand Combat Mastery

Effect : Increase physical damage from Fist-Type attack by 15%

Skill level : Beginner level 5

Magic Combat Mastery

Effect : Increase physical damage from Magic-Type attack by 14%

Skill level : Beginner level 4

Those skills were different from his Earth Mastery because they increased his damage, while Earth Mastery reduced his mana usage on Earth Related Spells. Also, Earth Mastery gave players a new skill for every few skill levels.

Naturally, the player had to meet the level requirement to be able to learn the skill. Player Level, Skill Level, and Wisdom had to reach a certain point before the skill could be gained. In this aspect, Ragna was far behind in his Player Level.

Ragna was satisfied with his current stats. He was a cheat character for low leveled player. However, he was still a bit far from reaching the realm of top players. Equipment was an important aspect, and Ragna currently had none except for his Blood Glove.

"Well, let's close it for now" He was about to close the screen when suddenly he caught something strange in his status.

Wait !

My soul! It increased to 102!

After the fierce battle against the Shadow Wolf, Ragna's Soul Point increased by 2 points. He was startled because his Soul Point never changed from the moment he received it. It was unprecedented!

The Soul was indeed a strange stats. Still, At least he could pick up some clues about it because of the strange development.

Ragna looked at the setting sun. The day was about to be over. Hunting in the night was completely different compared to the day, especially in unfamiliar places.

Just when he was about to think on what to do, a sudden announcement appeared on the screen in front of him.

The Army have finished preparing for the base and are now preparing to return to the City. Players who didn't follow will not be able to log out in a safe place.

Time limit until The Portal close : 30 Minutes

"Well, it seemed like I have to end this day. I already reaped a lot anyway. Wait, I need to tell Lily first" He was humming happily while opening his Menu Screen. Just when he was about to hit the Call button, he suddenly remembered something important.

He forgot to sell the Potion!

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Author Note : Hi! Sorry for the ultra late release! My internship ended last Friday and I've been on vacation since. I have all the ideas in my head but have no time to write them lol. Here a 1600+ words-long chapter to compensate!

Have no idea for another Indonesian Fact, will be halted until iIhave one in mid lol