Chapter 35: Second Advancement

The Python that finally broke free of the storm was every bit as monstrous as the buildup promised.

Ten meters of coiled muscle, thick as a barrel at its widest point, scales the size of a grown man’s palm catching what little light filtered through the snow pale, glassy, the color of ice that had never once seen a thaw.

Its head crowned in a ring of jagged frost spikes, each one long enough to run a person through.

[FROSTSCALE PYTHON] (Gold-Tier Boss)

Level 25 | HP: 50,000

ATK: 607–643 | Magic Power: 551 | DEF: 582 | Magic Resist: 543

Skills: Tail Sweep, Fang Frenzy, Death Coil, Frost Bite, Icebound Scales

Kael looked the numbers over and felt something close to amusement settle behind his mask.

One tier above my own two. Under the class passive, that gap closes to nothing.

Either the General or the Behemoth, standing alone, could have gone stat-for-stat with this thing and barely blinked. Together, with him adding fire from range, the outcome had never really been in question.

The Behemoth had spent the entire day feasting its way across the Ridge, and it showed health now sitting north of eighty thousand.

Its frame grown to something that dwarfed the treeline around it, each footstep sending a visible shudder through the snowpack.

It closed the distance in two strides and simply stepped down, pinning ten meters of furious, writhing serpent flat against the ground like it weighed nothing at all.

No amount of thrashing budged it an inch.

The General followed a half-second behind, spear driving into gaps between scales, opening one dark, weeping wound after another along the Python’s flank.

Kael held position at range, bow drawn, arrows finding whatever soft tissue the assault exposed.

Three attackers. One completely outmatched boss.The fight lasted minutes, not hours.

A final shriek tore loose as the Python’s scales cracked and split, its massive body finally going still against blood-soaked snow, loot scattering in every direction as it dissolved.

Gold light washed over all three of them at once Kael and both companions crossing the threshold together in the same instant.

Level 20.

Two chimes rang out across the sky in quick succession.

"Server Announcement: Player Unrivaled has claimed the server-first kill of the Gold-Tier World Boss, Frostscale Python. Rewards: +300 Reputation, +1,000 Gold, +3 Luck, Item Unlocked [Ancient Sealed Egg]

(Legendary)."

"Server Announcement: Player Unrivaled is the first player server-wide to reach level 20 and complete Second Class Advancement. Rewards: +500 Reputation, +3 Luck, +2,000 Gold, Item Unlocked [Bloodline Evolution Stone] (Legendary)."

The forums, predictably, imploded on contact.

"Called it. Called it days ago. First Gold-tier kill was ALWAYS going to be him."

"And he stacks it with the second-advancement reward on the exact same day? Two Legendary items in one breath?"

"Hang on the #2 spot on the level leaderboard is still sitting at 16. He’s at 20 AND already advanced twice. How is this even math anymore?"

"It’s a snowball. Every reward feeds the next reward. He’s not just ahead, he’s actively pulling further ahead every single hour."

"Guy’s eating the whole meal solo and not leaving crumbs for the rest of us."

"At this point somebody just needs to accept it’s over and start a fan page."

Kael scrolled past none of it he wasn’t even looking. His attention had already locked onto the wall of text unfurling across his own panel, and nothing outside it mattered right now.

"Level 20 reached. Class Advancement complete: Beastlord Master."

"Stat growth increased: Free attribute points per level, 20 → 40."

"Companion capacity increased: 3 → 4."

"Class skill unlocked: Beast Avatar."

"Feature unlocked: Reality Extraction."

"Primordial Bloodline integration continuing current progress: 11%..."

The counter kept climbing before his eyes.

"Primordial Bloodline integration continuing current progress: 20%. Skyborn Bloodline has advanced."

"Bloodline Effect: All skill cooldowns reduced by 50%."

Kael read that line twice, just to be sure it said what he thought it said.

Half the cooldown. On everything.

The implication landed a beat later, and it landed hard.

Mana had always been the real leash on his output not power, not access, just the raw math of how often he could actually throw a skill before the meter ran dry.

Cut every cooldown in half, and the ceiling on his output effectively doubled overnight, so long as the mana pool could keep pace.

He didn’t need to run the numbers twice to know what that meant for everything downstream.

The new class skill waiting alongside it only sharpened the picture further.

[BEAST AVATAR]

Grade: S

Effect: Conjure an elemental duplicate of a chosen companion 70% of its full stats and skill kit lasting 5 minutes.

Cost: 500 mana | Cooldown: 10 minutes

A second body, fighting alongside whichever companion he needed most, on demand.

And with the bloodline effect already halving that ten-minute cooldown down to five exactly matching the duplicate’s own uptime there was functionally no gap left at all. One clone, retiring, replaced instantly by the next.

Kael sat with that for a moment, thoroughly pleased with how the day had unfolded, before turning his attention to the two Legendary rewards waiting in his inventory.

The Bloodline Evolution Stone came first its purpose blunt and enormous. force a companion’s bloodline tier upward, no grinding required.

This early into launch, most of the server hadn’t so much as glimpsed a Gold-tier boss, let alone anything that dropped a reward at this rarity.

Priceless doesn’t begin to cover it.

The question was where to spend it. Between Elara already Legendary in her own right and his two remaining companions, only one candidate made real sense.

He weighed it for a moment, then settled on the General.

The Behemoth had already claimed its role, immovable and absurd, exactly the wall it was built to be.

What the roster actually needed more of was damage, and nothing in his current lineup delivered it cleaner than the General already did.

He drew the stone from storage, selected his target, and confirmed.

Light burst from his palm, gathering into something blinding, and poured itself entirely into the Skeleton General’s waiting frame.