Chapter 293: Luck Bonus, Unearthing Dragon Hunting

Chapter 293: Chapter 293: Luck Bonus, Unearthing Dragon Hunting

HISS~

The moment the ball of light touched the flame, it was like a drop of water falling into hot oil. It instantly vaporized with a faint hiss.

Immediately after, an invisible current of faint warmth fed back from the Melting Furnace, quickly flowing through Lance’s entire body.

Lance immediately opened his system panel to check the buff that had just been generated.

[Successfully incinerated a minor suffering.]

[A matching "Miracle’s Afterglow" temporary status has been extracted for you.]

[Effect Evaluation: Due to a small, unfortunate incident that shouldn’t have happened, you wasted extra time and energy. The worldline has been slightly corrected in the afterglow of the incineration.]

[Attribute Bonus: Luck Value (Temporary) +2.]

[Status Description: Your Intuition has become a little sharper. For the next ten minutes, the occurrence rate of low-probability positive events will be forcibly increased by 6%.]

[Duration: 10 minutes.]

’A temporary +2 to Luck Value for 10 minutes...’

Lance stared at the data on the panel. Although the numbers seemed insignificant, he couldn’t help but suck in a sharp breath.

’What an incredible feat!’

After all, in this world, a hidden Attribute like Luck was extremely difficult to influence with external forces.

Lance’s mind began to race.

’If this kind of suffering can be exchanged for a Luck buff...’

’...then what if, in a future life-or-death battle, he suffered a severed limb, was crushed by a powerful enemy, or even fell into a near-death state?’

’If he threw that kind of suffering into the Melting Furnace to be incinerated...’

’Just how monstrously powerful would the resulting "Miracle’s Afterglow" be?’

However, as he watched the countdown on his Luck Value bonus, he suddenly remembered something very important.

’I still have 50 Satori Essences I haven’t used!’

Lance’s eyes instantly lit up.

Satori Essence was a resource used to uncover the potential of Skills.

’If I take advantage of this Luck-increasing buff to delve into the Dragon Hunting Breathing Combat Technique right now... could it increase the probability of unearthing a Specialty more suited to me?’

He immediately put his thought into action.

Without any hesitation, Lance sat cross-legged on his bed.

He sank his consciousness into the Ethereal Melting Furnace.

In a corner of the Melting Furnace, 50 transparent crystals emitting a soft halo floated quietly, like a miniature galaxy.

’Activate!’

Lance commanded silently in his mind.

The 50 Satori Essences were instantly activated. They erupted with a dazzling light within the Melting Furnace before transforming into a meteor shower, shooting out of the furnace and slamming into the sea of Lance’s consciousness.

BOOM!

Lance’s consciousness was instantly plunged into chaos.

Immediately after, he felt as if he had been pulled into an illusory space.

He seemed to have returned to the day he first encountered the Dragon Hunting Breathing Technique, practicing the domineering Combat Technique from the very beginning, one breath at a time.

However, this satori experience was different in many unusual ways.

Vague and varied images began to flash continuously at the edges of his vision.

In those images appeared several figures, drenched in sweat and enduring the agony of their bodies breaking down. They were all pioneers from throughout this world’s history who had come into contact with and practiced the Dragon Hunting Breathing Combat Technique!

But while the images flickered by quickly and seemed to show many people, many of them were actually repetitions of the same individuals.

’One, two, three, four, five...’

Lance counted silently in his mind.

He had a sudden realization.

In the long river of human history, it seemed that only these five people had ever truly cultivated this Breathing Technique to the realm where a Specialty could be produced!

And he.

Lance.

...was the sixth successor, standing in this long river of historical inheritance!

As the satori deepened, the images flickered faster and faster.

Suddenly!

The images of four of the figures shattered and vanished in an instant, as if they had been erased!

In the entire illusory space, only one image remained, zooming in infinitely.

It was a middle-aged man with a blue, wolf-tail hairstyle.

The image of this man transformed into a solidified point of starlight, carrying a massive stream of information, and slammed directly into the deepest part of Lance’s consciousness.

Immediately after, Lance felt his soul being violently ripped from his body.

When his vision cleared, he found himself in a volcanic mountain range that resembled Purgatory.

The sky here was completely obscured by thick, dark clouds, without a single ray of sunlight.

The rain falling from the sky was a viscous black.

The land, which should have been earth, had long since melted completely, becoming a boundless sea of boiling lava that rolled with a searing red light.

In the center of this apocalyptic sea of lava, a single, un-melted black reef stood alone in the sea of fire.

On that reef stood the same blue-haired, middle-aged man Lance had just seen in the image.

The heavy armor on the man’s body had long since been shattered and fallen away in a previous battle, revealing a powerful upper body covered in countless horrific scars.

What shocked Lance beyond belief was that he could see the man’s heart was completely different from a normal human’s!

It was a ’furnace’ burning with a colossal amount of Energy.

With the man’s every breath, that ’furnace’ would pulse with a blinding light, bright then dim, from beneath his skin.

Following the man’s gaze, Lance finally noticed that in the roiling sea of lava directly in front of the reef, a terrifying creature, as massive as a mountain range, was coiled!

It was a Giant Dragon.

An ancient Giant Dragon, truly capable of blotting out the sky and sun.

When it spread its wings, they were like clouds hanging down from the heavens, instantly plunging the already dim volcanic range into absolute darkness.

The Giant Dragon was covered in thick, dark scales, each one as large as a castle gate.

Between the gaps where the scales rubbed together, high-temperature flames a thousand times more dazzling than the lava below flowed.

"Valerian, the cursed Hunter."

Just then, a voice like rolling thunder suddenly boomed between heaven and earth.

The Giant Dragon had spoken.

"Even with the blessing of Legend, the protection of gods, and even the glory of many great feats upon you."

The Giant Dragon lowered its castle-sized head, its vertical pupils staring down at the ant-like man below.

"But your mortal shell has reached its limit, has it not?"

"You, too, will finally reach the end of your life."

Hearing the Giant Dragon’s judgment, Valerian showed not a single trace of Fear.

Instead... he smiled.

COUGH COUGH...

With every heavy gasp for air, a blast of white steam would erupt violently from his mouth and nose, then rapidly dissipate into the air.

He slowly raised a hand covered in burn marks and casually wiped away the blood dripping from his chin with the back of it.

Then, he raised his head and looked directly into the Giant Dragon’s vertical pupils.

"A Giant Dragon’s lifespan can easily last for thousands of years."

"But our human lifespans, even after stepping into the Extraordinary realm, are a mere hundred years."

Valerian’s voice was extremely hoarse, as if his throat had suffered a heavy blow, but Lance could still hear the defiance within it.

"It sounds truly unfair, doesn’t it?"

As he said this, Lance, relying on his own foundation in the same Breathing Technique, sensed that Valerian was using a peculiar frequency to forcibly adjust his own breathing, which was already on the verge of collapse.

Following his adjustment, Lance saw that the furnace of light in his heart, which had been flickering erratically due to his severe injuries, began to slowly contract inward, becoming more and more contained, more and more stable.

"But that also means..."

The smile on Valerian’s lips grew wider.

"You long-lived species have long grown accustomed to squandering your lives away slowly."

"But what about us insects with our short lives, in your eyes..."

"We can, without any hesitation..."

"...take everything we have accumulated over our entire lives..."

At this moment, the contained light in his heart erupted, the glow flickering as if it were burning frantically!

"...and in this one brief moment, burn it all to ash!!!"