The First Legendary Beast Master

Chapter 1256: Risk Vs Reward

{Congratulations on your successful completion} The system informed the group with glowing golden letters in the air above the bosses’ bodies.

The dragons smiled as new items appeared in their inventories, and Karl chuckled as he saw what it had given him.

[Greater Consecrated Ground] Epic Grade Holy Defensive ability. Reduces damage taken by 50%. Increases all damage done by Holy attacks by 50%. Deals constant holy damage to targets in range.

He already had the base version of the spell, and Tessa had a version of it that had been upgraded by Skill Master. But even the original had been Epic Grade, so Karl wondered if the range might be significantly larger on this version, or if it was just a mediocre upgrade.

But it wasn’t the only reward that he had gotten. There were a number of Rare Grade Immortal Rank armour pieces, and some mythic rank crafting materials.

”Did you get an Epic Immortal item?” The War Cleric asked.

Karl shook his head. ”I got an Epic Grade Holy Skill instead. Greater Consecrated Ground.”

The dragon sighed in disappointment. ”Don’t tell me that you’ve already used it.”

”Do you have Inscriptionist as your trade skill?” Karl replied.

The War Cleric nodded and Karl patted him on the shoulder as he used the Skill Book and activated [Follow Me, Little One].

The dragon’s eyes went wide, and he staggered back a step, pointing at Karl.

”What did you do? I know the skill! You taught me a skill that you know?” He stammered.

”You see, I am a Beast Master Champion, and the gods are relatively loose with their definition of what is a beast. Dragons count, Guild Members all count, even most of the beastkin are valid targets. In fact, the limiting factor appears to be that you need to be compatible with the skill.” Karl agreed.

The War Cleric activated the skill, and a circle of holy light extended out from him into the trees surrounding the boss fight area.

That was significantly larger than the original, for sure.

The damage reduction and extra holy damage were better as well, but that extra range would be incredible in a large-scale battle.

”I got some Rare Grade Immortal armour as well, but that’s not the big ticket item.” Karl added.

Then the System popped up another notification.

{Damage Calculated. Bonus Rewards Granted.}

These didn’t appear in their inventory. Instead, they were granted a loot chest. It appeared at their feet, a simple silver chest at Karl’s and a bronze one at everyone else’s.

”Well, it looks like we didn’t really impress the dungeon. None of us earned a gold prize.” One of the Shamans laughed.

Karl shrugged. ”Free prizes are never a bad thing.”

He carefully picked up the silver box, and lifted the lid to see what was inside.

The content was a simple crystal flask, a potion of some sort.

[Potion of Understanding] Immortal Rank. Permanently improves the imbiber’s affinity to a Fundamental Rule they are compatible with on use.

Remi stared at the potion in envy. It was beyond her ability to analyze with her Alchemy skills, even if she had a sample to work with.

She did wish that she could learn the secrets of it because it would not only help the Myths on their way to Immortality, it would also help the Totems with a latent affinity of a Fundamental Rule but no understanding of it to advance toward Myth status.

Even her potion that could help people advance to Overlord status wasn’t worth nearly as much as that one.

The other boxes all contained an Immortal Rank Epic item, which immediately drew the attention of the dragons back to the potion that Karl was holding.

The lure of new knowledge, of what the System could deem to be worth more than an Immortal Rank Epic item, was irresistible. None of them had any ability to analyze the contents of the potion, though the System was happy to tell them what the effect should be.

So, the real data collection would be when Karl drank it.

”That’s probably not something you should take out of the Dungeon.” The War Cleric noted.

The other three nodded in agreement. Super rare consumables were best used immediately so that you didn’t bring envy or robbery attempts down on your Guild Alliance.

Being able to remove that risk, while still providing the knowledge to the Blue Dragons, was the epitome of perfection in this situation. At least in their minds because the followers of the God of Knowledge despised the fact that most of these situations ended with them never finding out.

Karl nodded and tipped the potion into his mouth.

{Fundamental Rule Comprehension} Mana Manipulation ⇒ 50%

But the power didn’t stop with Karl.

It flowed through his mind, and through the beast spaces in it, and then echoed back to him as the beasts improved.

{Fundamental Rule Comprehension} Fire ⇒ 20%

{Fundamental Rule Comprehension} Divinity ⇒ 11%

{Fundamental Rule Comprehension} Order ⇒ 1%

That last one made Cara laugh. The potion was completely incompatible with her, anathema to the whole concept of Chaos. But that rejection had helped her understand Chaos a bit better, even as it helped Karl understand a bit about order.

It also helped Karl realize that he really should have checked his compatibility rates before taking the potion, so he would have exact numbers.

That was alright, he would make some up for the dragons to keep them happy.

”The effects definitely feel like knowledge from our God. They have the unique aura of the blue dragon to them.” One of the Shamans noted.

The others nodded in agreement and added notes.

Karl had been too busy trying to sort out the new understanding that was still scrambling his brain, looking for a proper place to be stored.

The echo from the beasts had been an unexpected bonus, and much of the knowledge overlapped with what the potion had initially granted to Karl. So, it was fading more slowly than usual, but none of them knew that.

They just assumed this was how the potion usually worked.