King of the Mountain

Chapter 19: Bloodlines

As I step into the dungeon zone of the black dot dungeon I see the following message.

“Welcome to the Blood Lines Dungeon. Recommended level 50+ dependent on bloodline selected. User may select Random and be guaranteed at least a rare bloodline if they survive. Please select Bloodline now.”

A list of dozens of different animals and plants appears.  Level 50+? Well I should be fine. I may only be level 35, but like I said I hit at a much higher level due to all my titles. I’m going to try it. Since I do not know which bloodlines are the best I think I will take the random option to make sure I at least get a rare bloodline, time to try out my luck stat.

I mentally select random from the screen.

“Eliminating all non-compatible, common, and uncommon bloodlines. Randomizing selections. Please spin wheel.”

It actually took all the selections and put them on a virtual spinning wheel. It looks like some selections have a bigger pie wedge than others. That must mean they are more common even if they are “rare” bloodline. Well here goes nothing. I give the mental equivalent of a giant spin. Come on luck stat show me what your worth. The bloodlines are whirring by quicker than I can read them. The wheel is starting to slow down. There goes vampire, lycan just passed by, ooh titan that could have been fun. Still slowing, goodbye archmage, never liked high elves any way, the whole next section looks similar.

As it gets closer the wheel slows down, let’s see it looks like these are all versions of dragons? Yes dragon heritage! How many games, books, and movies deal with draconic heritage. My inner geek is just screaming with glee. The colored dragons go by first as the wheel slows down to almost a stop. Red, green, black , gold, etc. Here comes eastern dragon, sky dragon, and finally the arrow stops on elemental dragon. I am not sure what an elemental dragon is but who cares, it is still a dragon.

“Checking compatibility, since user has the designation Quadelementalist the Legendary Bloodline elemental dragon can be upgraded to “King of the Elements Dragon Bloodline” a unique bloodline. Does the user wish to test for this upgrade?”

Of course I want to test for a unique bloodline. My luck stat has finally paid off big time.

I mentally select yes and receive the following message.

“Elemental King of Dragons test, recommended level 150+ will start in 5, 4, 3,…”

Level 150+, I take it back that’s too much, cancel, stop, no no no.

“Enjoy the test.”

I feel the familiar tug of teleportation and know that next is yep, I black out. I wake up in a featureless room about 10m X 10m. On each of the four walls is a door with a drawing on it. One has a mountain which I assume stands for the “Earth” element, one has a flame “Fire”, one has a cloud “Air”, and the final one looks like waves “Water”. After I examine each door a screen pops up.

“User must defeat a dragon of each element before being recognized as worthy of being from the “King of the Elements Dragon Bloodline”. There is no time limit to the tests. User may exit after defeating 2 or more dragons and accept a lower bloodline or complete all 4 stages.”

Huh this sounds extremely similar to the test I took during the beta test trial, just with dragons instead of golems. I honestly do not know if my luck is good or bad. I mean I get the chance at an awesome bloodline, but I could also die horribly. I guess most of this is my fault for being greedy for a rare or better bloodline. I should have realized that the rarer the bloodline the harder the test.

Nothing to do now but do my best. Ok, time to gear up. Stick with light armor, better to be fast and not get hit. I should probably customize my weapons for each dragon. Let’s see if I fight the water dragon first I need to replace all ammunition with fire based stuff. Elements are usually weak against opposites. So pistol on each hip, a fire and lightning enchanted Warhammer to break scales on my back, my personal favorite Mr. Boom Boom, on a sling on my front. Mr. Boom Boom was my attempt at a grenade launcher. It sort of looks like an old school pump action paintball gun, just with a much larger caliber. I can adjust the amount of mana in each “shell” but have never tried putting more than 500 mana. Why, mostly because I thought I might blow myself up. It only has a range of 50-100 meters and 500 mana is already an explosion about 20-25 meters wide with a corresponding shockwave and crater. It looks awesome, but I don’t know if it has any penetrating power. Never really tested that aspect of it out. Last but least, is the trusty MA 12.

Sooner started, sooner done. I walk to the door with the wave on it and open it and step through. The door disappears behind me. In front of me I see a coastline reminiscent of Northern California or Oregon, big crashing waves and an awesome scenic view. What I don’t see is a water dragon. Maybe I have to search for it? Just as I think that I hear a roar in the distance and see what looks to be a large bird dive towards the ocean and come up with a fish.

As it flies back to the coast I realize my large bird is the dragon and its fish is a large seal. It must be at least 25 meters long and that seal has to weigh in excess of 200 kilos. Note to self, do NOT let it dive on me. I watch it disappear into what must be its sea side cliff lair.

I can easily see why the difficulty is set so high. However, I like to think outside the box and if what I am planning works, this should not only be easier than I thought but should not be that dangerous for me. I scout out the lair over the next couple of days and prepare my ambush plan.

The next time the water dragon leaves I scramble as fast as I can and enter its lair. The first thing I do is use my earth magic to tunnel an escape route out of this cave. Next I set up Mr. Boom Boom’s older brother at the entrance. No name for this one, but who knows but the end of the day it might be called dragon killer. This lovely is just a one shot mortar or artillery piece. I set its angle and hide to the side. You see there is only one way into the lair and while carrying its food the dragon has to flare its wings right before it lands. This leaves it totally exposed for a split second. If this works I will launch the shell right into its stomach from just about point blank range.

Aww crap, point blank range. Man am I glad I talk these things out in my head, that could have been horrible. Quick dig a trench, insert self and artillery into trench, make air holes. Ok now reposition artillery piece, at least now I shouldn’t blow up with the dragon. Now it’s a waiting game. About an hour later I hear the dragon approaching. I peer out of the trench. I have to time this perfectly. In 3, 2, 1, now. I pump 750 mana into the shell, overkill is better than no kill. I see surprise in the dragon’s eyes as the shell launches towards it. Then the entire world erupts in flame. I hear the dragon scream over the sound of the flames and after a couple of seconds a distinct thump.

Once the world returns to a normal temperature I peek my head out to investigate the situation. Twitching and thrashing at the base of the cliff is the water dragon. It’s wings are destroyed and its chest is a mess of broken and shattered scaled but it is still alive, although barely. OK 750 mana was not overkill. Now I feel bad, I did not want it to suffer. I put the newly christened dragon killer back into my inventory and take out my sniper rifle. 10 shots, it took 10 more shots for it to stop moving. I mean that is just ridiculous. I realize that it is a dragon but come on. I can only hope that a lot of that movement was involuntary from something that was already dying or almost dead, otherwise this might not be doable.

I am so glad I went with an ambush plan and not a frontal confrontation. I am just going to leave it down there for now in case it is faking. I’ll just explore the lair while I wait. I loot everything I see and put it into inventory except one thing, a dragon egg. I do not know if I will even be able to hatch it or raise it, but the idea of a dragon pet is awesome. However I still do not have the skill to keep living things in my inventory. I make a little nest inside of my regular backpack and climb down towards the body of the one I killed. I throw a few rocks at its head and then put the whole carcass into my inventory.