The First King of Beasts

Dustin stood his ground, though he wasn't completely confident if the clothes he was wearing would hold up against the heat from the fire.

The drake continued pouring out the fire until thirty seconds were up, before it stopped. As the fire ceased, the drake couldn't help but react in a slightly fearful and more agitated way. Before it's eyes and out of the fire, came a humongous snake that was bigger than the drake.

Dustin had never seen a dragon with his own eyes or really knew what it was really like, so he didn't want to take chances. If the creature he was battling with was of lower rank than A, then he might have considered it, but the drake was A rank, and there was a possibility of the skill not being very effective.

The drake growled at the snake which had mysteriously appeared before it instead of the one it was just fighting some moments back, and just when it was about to attack, it felt a little pressure come over it as an immense bloodlust was directed towards it. That split second of hesitation was what Dustin needed as he pulled out his new weapon he bought just before leaving for the journey.

Dustin jumped from where he stood with as much power as he could towards the drake's throat, and while the drake was still affected by the bloodlust and something else that kept it from breaking out of the shock, Dustin's weapon dug into the drake's throat and sliced clean through it.

The drake tried to move, but it quickly collapsed to the ground, and the huge snake that stood before it gradually disappeared like it was never there, just like an illusion.

Over by the side, Dustin had landed on the ground, and was moving towards the drake with his new sabre resting on his shoulder, held by his right hand.

The drake seemed strong, and Dustin would have loved to tame it, but the experience points it offered was enticing enough.

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(A/N: To make it easy and simple enough to follow, and also easy for me to write, each rank of beast will give a certain amount of experience point when they killed. It might be different from the previous ones, but don't think about it too much and lets follow this one from now.

Rank F: 10 exp

Pseudo Rank E: 25 exp

Rank E: 50 exp

Pseudo Rank D: 65 exp

Rank D: 100 exp

Pseudo Rank C: 150 exp

Rank C: 300 exp

Pseudo Rank B: 500 exp

Rank B: 1000 exp

Pseudo Rank A: 2000 exp

Rank A: 5000 exp

Pseudo Rank S: 7,500 exp

Rank S: 15,000 exp

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With each rank he passes, the amount of exp he gets from killing the immediate lower rank becomes reduced by 10%. Past the immediate rank below him, the amount of exp he gets from two to three ranks below his becomes reduced by 50%. Beyond that he gets nothing.)

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[You have killed a drake]

+5000 exp

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Dustin looked at the experience points he got from it, and certainly, it was worth not running away. His greater speed helped him well against the drake that was much slower, and his title of 'Slaughterer' added the needed cheery on the cake.

He moved towards the dead drake, and after some seconds of inspection, it was quite clear to him that the knowledge of what were the important parts of the monster were not with him. Of course there were the obvious teeth and skin, and the rest, but apart from that he knew nothing else. In order not to waste time there, Dustin placed the body of the drake in his inventory and moved on. He couldn't place a live body in the inventory, but a corpse was different.

Ultimately, Dustin just counted himself lucky this time. The drake wasn't one that had much of its strength based on magic, so it was weak to magic oriented attacks or effects, so Dustin used that to his advantage.

After taking the drake's body, Dustin continued forward deeper through the gate looking stones. After about thirty minutes of walking, Dustin emerged on the opposite side of where he came from, and the mist had also cleared now. Before him, there really wasn't anything different from what he had been seeing up until that point. The entire region before him was still the same lava field, the only difference being the change in the structure of the environment.

The entire place as far as his eyes could see looked like some kind of underground city made of giant rocks and so on. Definitely not for humans, but for large creatures that were definitely intelligent.

At this point, Dustin wasn't sure anymore if he was going the right direction. He came to find some people, then got temporarily distracted by some murder, and now he's here. He was definitely deep into the volcanic region, and something in him was telling him that those he came to save might not have made it this far.

He had already gotten to such a place that might even be considered a historical place, so he decides it wouldn't hurt to explore a little bit.

..

After roaming the place for a bit, Dustin was sure that this was a waste of his time, and just started walking back towards the two touring rocks. If anything, the city was completely dead and probably of some ancient civilization. Nothing was left in it except the buildings carved out of rocks, or carved into rocks, and the sizes were also probably for giant creatures.

Dustin didn't spend anymore time there and left through the same way he got there, through the mist filled path. When he saw the mist and all, he thought the place was hiding some kind of secret or something interesting, but it turned out to be some old defence mechanism or formation left behind by whatever...

'I still haven't found the creature that murdered the bodies I found, but I can't read memories, so it would be useless even though I find it. Whatever...' Dustin just continued on, this time running through since he now knew there were no traps or anything he needed to be afraid of.