Birth Of The Crafts-God

On the face of the cliff, there was a tiny cave barely capable of fitting an adult. Although the cave was dark, it was quite shallow, which made it possible to see the inside of the cave.

As Lucas stared at it, he could make out a silhouette inside the cave. There was a little figure hidden inside the cave. He surmised the figure to be a child, but as for how they got here, Lucas didn't know.

'A survivor from the village raids?' Lucas wondered.

The desolate ape and Jaburian fought ferociously, so for the moment, the child hidden in the cave was safe. But there was no telling for how long this would be so.Nôv(el)B\\jnn

Although he didn't call himself a hero, Lucas found it difficult to just sit still while an innocent child was at risk. He couldn't see the figure properly, but for some reason, Lucas was reminded about his past life.

As Yohan, Lucas had lived three years, from the age of eleven (11) years, all on his own in a forbidden forest. Back then, Lucas had to be on the lookout for magical beasts, vicious monsters and deserters who wandered in the forest away from public screening. Any one of those characters could have easily killed him and they wouldn't take pity on him, Yohan had to be extremely careful.

That period was a dark and lonely series of months for Lucas; a period he tried his best to forget. However, seeing the little silhouette, Lucas was reminded of the time when he was just as weak.

Just as Lucas was lost in his memories, the desolate ape and the Jaburian 's battle was already heated up, but still far from the end.

"Roar!"

The desolate ape lunged at the Jaburian, irritated by the countless attacks it had made being dodged by the latter.

The Jaburian was aware that while it possessed immense strength, it couldn't compare to the desolate ape. At the same time, its defence wasn't up to the task of holding out, unlike the desolate ape. So, the monster hurried to retreat out of the path of the desolate ape. With its speed, this didn't prove to be difficult for it.

Once again, the desolate ape was enraged. It was aware that it was the stronger of the duo, but due to its lower agility and dexterity, it could do nothing to the Jaburian. The ape roared, stretching out its hands and grabbing a tree trunk, before uprooting the entire entity from the ground and swinging it as a weapon.

Such attacks still did nothing to the Jaburian, but it succeeded in forcing the monster back as it found it difficult to approach.

'This won't do.' Lucas thought as he stared at the two.

With the way things were going, the battle would only end when either of them ended up tired. But that would take far too long for Lucas. The longer he stayed here, the more at risk he was. This was because the battle of the two desolate beasts was becoming very loud, and it would soon attract attention; not just that of the military's drones, but the other vagabond desolate beasts.

At the same time, there was also the fact that the Jaburian looked to be the most likely winner. What's more was that it would achieve this feat while taking little or no serious injuries. If that were to happen, even if it was tired out, it would be very difficult for Lucas to win unless he used one of the more powerful Bronze cards (he currently has three: a third, fourth and sixth level cards).

Lucas decided to level the playing field and make the battle even and more dire.

"Retrieve."

The ever-familiar pair of craftsman gloves appeared on Lucas' fists, but this was just the start.

"Retrieve."

The gauntlets which made their debut at the Bayena Plains appeared once again today. Made with a combination of Devil Mark stones, Purple Iridium metal, and Gretac-Titanium alloy for the framework, with Violent Sun ores and Red Iris stone for the runes.

Compared to its previous form during the Bayena Plain event, there were slight changes to the gauntlets. This was because Lucas had acquired the knowledge of stellar circuits since then, so he added a few to the gauntlets to boost its power.

Having the same thickness as that of an adult's waist, the power of the gauntlets were not to be underestimated. Just its brute force was enough to make a massive dent on a vehicle. As for the grade of the vestiges, it was naturally Grade 3, the highest that Lucas could make at the moment. However, a combined effect could be generated using both gauntlets.

The power effect created could easily compete with a Grade 4 vestige.

But that still wasn't enough.

"Retrieve."

A pole appeared in Lucas' arm. The weight of the pole was immense and it immediately acted on Lucas' arm right away. He hurried to support the pole with his free hand while frowning his face.

'Damn, this stuff is heavy.'

The pole was a new vestige he designed, explicitly for hunting desolate beasts. It was a projectile weapon and had firepower equivalent to a Grade 4 vestige. However, the other features of the vestige were substandard, even for a Grade 3 vestige. The speed of the projectile was roughly the same as a standard Grade 3 bow.

Its recoil was immense; requiring at least a third level stellar practitioner to support it with their full strength. Finally, the durability of the vestige was low; it could only handle 10 shots before breaking down, if repairs weren't made. Even with consistent repairs, the vestige could only tolerate thirty shots before the material would fail.

The reason for this fault was the lack of an appropriate material as well as Lucas' low skill level at the moment. Purple Iridium metal was a good option for the base metal and Lucas had a lot of it. However, he couldn't handle much of the material without enough stellar energy. Even the gauntlets only used half an ingot, which was the max Lucas could use in a vestige with his current strength.

Despite its flawed design, the vestige was very powerful. As was previously mentioned, it could unleash firepower equivalent to a fully activated Grade 4 vestige. That was enough force to take down a sixth or even seventh level Apertures Opening stage desolate beast. It was currently Lucas' strongest vestige in his arsenal.

However, the slow firing speed of the vestige made it unusable against desolate beasts that strong. By the time he had fired the vestige, they could easily dodge the projectile.

Regardless, it was just about enough to take on these fourth level desolate beasts; that was as long as Lucas didn't go head on against them.

'Shooting the ape isn't worth it and would bring the battle to a close. It would also alert the Jaburian, and it might escape. The Jaburian is quite fast, and it would be hard for me to get a clean shot after that.'

Lucas sighed recalling that his target was a creature that could reach top speed equivalent to the fastest animal on Earth.

'Aiming for the Jaburian is also a difficult task.'

The recoil of the vestige was too powerful for him to handle even with the gauntlets on. He might be able to get a shot in with the right circumstances, but its accuracy would be about seventy percent even then.

'I still have to try.'

Lucas switched positions just in case the desolate beasts might have sensed him but pretended not to. Although they were called beasts, they couldn't be compared to the same creatures on Earth that operated based on instincts. From the third level and above, desolate beasts got smarter and could scheme.

Even animals on Earth were quite smart, so one could imagine the intellectual capacity of a fourth level desolate beast.

After relocating to a new spot, Lucas hid himself and aimed the weapon at the battle zone. His plan was to try and get both monsters with one shot, but if he couldn't, it would then be to injure the Jaburian just enough to weaken it greatly.

The reason for this pick was that the Jaburian had been dodging the attacks aimed at it while dishing out attacks on the desolate ape, resulting in the latter being riddled with injuries. Although none of them were serious, the desolate ape was constantly losing blood from the wounds and would soon be tired out. Enjoy more content from empire

From this, it was clear that the Jaburian was aware of the strategy of tiring out an opponent, but this wasn't strange; even lions used this tactics while hunting a larger and stronger prey.

Since the desolate ape was injured and would soon be on its last legs, added to the fact that it was never Lucas' target to begin with, it was only right for him to have the vestige aimed at the Jaburian.

Lucas adjusted the attack power of the weapon in order to boost its attack speed. This was a feature he had designed with smaller opponents in mind. There was a setting to decrease the power and increase, within the range of power for a fully activated Grade 2 vestige and a fully activated Grade 4 vestige.

Lucas adjusted the output to match a fully activated Grade 3 vestige, which in turn resulted in the rest of the excess power being channeled into the firing chamber. This meant that the attack speed was now boosted from a standard Grade 3 bow, to a high quality Grade 3 bow. In comparison, a Peregrine Falcon at top speed would easily be shot down.