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Chapter 298 - The Orchard 9 - Fruity

The final zone was in the center of the Orchard and was by far the largest area, bearing the highest density of trees. Each one had a Divine Fruit hanging from its boughs, and even Draco could not tell what kind of effects one would get from eating them raw.

Turning them into a fruit dish or a fruity drink would only strengthen their effects and make them more specialized. However, Draco would have to wait until he could become a God of Brewing or Cooking, which was 100 times harder than becoming a Grandmaster.

There were only 5 God slots for each Tradeskill, and becoming a God like that meant one would become a True God. This was the highest endpoint for all Tradeskill crafters, so its difficulty reflected its position.

The only way to rise after that would be to become a Primogenitor, a position only one person could ever reach.

If even the most talented combat players were trapped at Rank 6, how could Tradeskill players hope to become True Gods that easily? No, putting that aside, even becoming Grandmasters had been almost impossible for them.

In most MMORPG games, reaching the level cap would not be difficult. One usually just had to devote a lot of time into the game for a year or two and they would reach there eventually.

Boundless worked differently. It was not a game with an engine, generic NPCs with artificially manufactured histories and personalities, nor a moderated ’safe space’ for players.

It was a true world on its own, and players were like pioneers, only with slightly special benefits. No matter what they did, the world would develop on its own just like the real world, and the best they could do was slightly shift the trajectory of it.

Even the ’game devs’ did not do anything in this regard. As such, reaching a stage where he could manipulate divine forces or materials was too far off.

These wouldn’t be Draco’s first Divine materials. He still had 20 bottles of the Divine Amniotic Fluid from Rila’s birth, and he felt that its utility would be exemplary, but it was not a matter for today.

Draco continued to quietly rest with Qiong Qi and co, watching Fruity all the while. The giant bat seemed to be unbothered by the sunlight, but it would have been nonsensical if the Final Boss of the area would be weakened while residing in an open area.

Instead of beady black eyes, it had normal human-like eyes with a white cornea and black pupils.

Its eyes remained on their group throughout, but in an unfocused manner. In essence, it couldn’t actually ’see’ them, but could probably sense them. As such, it looked in the general direction from where it sensed their presence.

Draco found this normal. Putting aside the fact that Fruity was a Captain Rank monster at Rank 2, bats were known for their sonar abilities. Draco wasn’t sure how it worked in an open environment like this for Fruity, but that had to be the source.

Also, it was a given. If another player had been in Draco’s shoes, they would have tried to abuse the mechanics of the Orchard to their benefit.

Since monsters in another zone would not attack until a player entered, one could theoretically sneak in to yoink a fruit or two and rush back, then rinse and repeat.

This would be the common thinking from players back in the early 20’s, those know-it-all fellows who felt they sussed out every loophole.

However, just because they could bully old engine-based games didn’t mean they could do the same for a game governed by one advanced artificial intelligence.

You think you’re clever? The AI had already calculated 10,000 possible variations and outcomes of your actions as well as the abuse of mechanics. Loopholes that seemed obvious were just traps set by the AI to teach you a lesson!

Unless you could be on the level of Draco, possessing future knowledge and skills, do not even think about looking for loopholes, you will only disgrace yourself.

And since Draco was currently devising plans to deal with Fruity in an honest manner, it was clear that even he had been unable to find any secret loopholes to abuse. The fact that Fruity had his ’eyes’ on them was enough to warn him.

After a while, Draco got up and patted himself down. Qiong Qi and Clarent took this as a signal to continue. Draco also tossed them two Angel’s Kiss potions each.

"Use them when you’re in trouble. Our final enemy is a giant fruit bat with unknown abilities, but it has spotted us since a long time ago. We do not have the element of surprise, so we must hit it head-on."

The two fellows acknowledged Draco’s words and followed him into the final zone. They rushed towards the center, building momentum as they went.

Fruity noticed their advance and rose to its feet from its resting position. Taking a quick stretch, one could almost hear it say ’it’s Wednesday my dudes, let’s get this bread’.

Clarent was the first to arrive, and he immediately opened the battlefield with a fireball. Fruity gazed at the fiery projectile with a placid look and flapped his large wings lightly.

The fireball that was hurtling over with the intent to incinerate was dispersed by the wind from Fruity’s wings. A lazy flap from him rendered Clarent’s basic skill useless!

Clarent frowned but wasn’t bothered. If one of his fireballs would be enough to harm a Rank 2 Captain then the entity could only be a fraud. He then swooped back and waited for Qiong Qi as well as Draco to arrive.

Fruity did not seem to possess any intent to pursue him. It was almost like he was saying ’hurry up and gather your boys so we can end this’.

Qiong Qi reached before Draco, not because he was faster, but because Draco was still pondering how best to proceed. He didn’t want to give this boss a chance to defeat them, so he was contemplating entering one of his true forms, specifically which one he should use.

Qiong Qi arrived and roared at Fruity, which captured the bat’s attention. His previously lazy demeanor shifted as he sensed a dangerous and almost inexhaustible life force from Qiong Qi.

However, he was shocked to find that Qiong Qi only had a high life force, but very weak strength, even lower than most of the monsters in the Orchard.

This sparked Fruity’s greed. He felt that consuming Qiong Qi could bring him to the next Rank or even higher, so he immediately entered attack mode.

In truth, this was the reason why most monsters so far had immediately challenged Qiong Qi. It wasn’t because his face alone was the best taunt skill or whatnot, but simply because he was like a beacon to them.

It was like putting a treasury full of gold bars in front of a poor person. The only thing separating one from the endless gold was some thick iron bars. The person in this scenario did not have any tools to break it aside from their bare hands, but they would still try!

Not to mention that there were no guards, or threats to worry them, so they could spend as much time as they wanted to try and shatter the bars!

Qiong Qi began by using Lion’s Roar when Fruity swiped at him. This stunned the bat for 3 seconds and his dangerous claw stopped on its way to rend Qiong Qi apart.

In this frame of time, Clarent wisely activated flamepillar at Fruity’s location. Flamepillar dealt 45% fire damage for 5 seconds, and this would combine well with Qiong Qi’s stun.

Draco wasn’t idle. He used Angel’s Blessing immediately, but frowned since Fruity only received a <Slowed> status. While slow was great, it wasn’t something he expected.

However, Fruity was a named boss, so status effects had a naturally harder time clinging onto him. Were it not for Draco’s 100 points of Luck he might have gotten something worse or failed entirely.

He took out Hawkeye and Phoenix Cry on reflex. He then used Bow Skill 10: Overlord Arrow!

He pulled the string of Hawkeye so far back that the durability of the Legendary weapon dropped by an entire 1,000 points. One could see Draco clench his teeth from the strain of this, as a Legendary string being pulled this far was not something just anyone could do.

It would be impossible without his Control optimizing his strength and his own enhanced body from his bloodline, as well as his stats. As it were, he was pushing the limit.

After charging up like this for a few seconds, Draco pulled torrents of Worldly Energy into the arrow, making it glow with a blueish-green color. With how much he could pull, it would be enough for an impure low-grade Aether Crystal, which was valued at 50 platinum, though not many existed.

Even Fruity noticed this and was alarmed... but only slightly. He continued to focus on Qiong Qi, beating up the fellow brutally and trying to chomp him down.

Draco released his shot, and the Phoenix Cry Arrow flew with a loud bang that caused cracks in the space of the Treasury. Its speed was faster than Luxia, and it instantly arrived at Fruity before the bat could even process a few thoughts.

Draco had even activated the arrow’s active skill, Vermilion Fire, just to buff the technique. It pierced through Fruity’s head, which had been Draco’s target and sank halfway before stopping.

Just like with Sword Skill 359: Overcharge, Bow Skill 10: Overlord Arrow was the most powerful offensive active he had formulated, and he had naturally used the Sword Skill as a foundation for it.

It was a destructive technique that would harm anyone within range and even more so the target. When the arrow punctured Fruity’s skull, time seemed to stop.

All the acc.u.mulated energy entered Fruity’s skull, including the fire from the active skill. Draco, who was the only one who could move in this period of stopped time, called the arrow back.

He smiled bitterly when he saw it lost 200,000 points of durability. Apparently, even Legendary items would not be able to handle such a destructive technique, especially since it was not a natural attribute of the arrow.

Now, the arrow had less than 700,000 durability left. He had to be careful with how he used it in the future. However, he was more interested in seeing how powerful Overlord Arrow would be compared to Overcharge.

Soon, the energy that entered Fruity’s skull erupted, making time resume again. A magnificent explosion occurred with Fruity as the source, and Draco quickly covered Fruity in a natureless mana shield.

This was to contain the explosion and prevent the Divine trees from being harmed, though Draco was willing to bet his life that they wouldn’t even suffer the slightest scratch.

His mana shield was destroyed easily, and he spawned many more to cover the explosion and suppress it. It took almost 15 of these shields to contain it fully, and Draco was sweating heavily by the end of it due to the strain.

It was like trying to block a pipe of high-pressure water with cardboard, only that the cardboard was his mind. Even his nose bled a little, but he wiped it away and focused.

Soon, the dust settled and the results of the skill were visible. Draco’s eyes narrowed into slits when he saw that Fruity was still alive, even glaring at him with hatred and fear.

Half of its skull had been blown open, displaying some charred parts of its brain. Its body also had many burn marks and it looked like someone who had survived a petroleum explosion.

What shocked Draco though, was the amount of damage dealt.

It was only 1,200,000!