Recovered from the paralysis, the Earth Dragon roared nonstop in fury. As a high-rank Yao monster, it was a humiliation to be bridled due to a mere moment of negligence.

“Raaaarghhh!”

With a hysterical roar, the monster abruptly sprang up, hurling its back towards a rocky boulder nearby. It apparently intended to smash Fatty, who was clinging on its back, to death.

“Feisty, I like!” Fatty shouted and rolled to the side, hanging off the lower part of the creature’s back to avoid the fate of being crushed into minced meat.

“Baby, just give in to Lord Fatty,” yelped Fatty while he tossed Taming in a frenzy on the Earth Dragon.

Back in the base siege when he had fought the Unicorn boss, Fatty had subdued the holy creature with brute force. This time, the old way was impossible. Fatty had to coordinate using Taming with the Brutal Saddle.

Taming was a skill that Fatty learned in Black Tortoise City, spending 1,000 gold coins. That skill was just the perfect complement for the Brutal Saddle.

Waves of light that represented the effect of Taming streamed out from Fatty’s hand. However, they instantly vanished upon contact with the Earth Dragon, indicating the skill’s failure.

Normally, when players subdued a mount, they’d beat the monster until it was half-dead before trying Taming because the success rate would be higher that way. However, the lazy Fatty relied on the Brutal Saddle and simply cut to the chase.

Whoosh, whoosh. Sitting on the saddle with his two legs tightly clipping the monster’s back, Fatty persistently cast Taming despite the countless failures.

The Earth Dragon kept roaring in rage. It cast all sorts of skills, trying to kill Fatty.

“RAAARGHH!” A thunderous roar suddenly resounded, dealing a three-second stun to Fatty.

Whoosh. A yellow light flashed, followed by a layer of earth-yellow screen that fully enveloped the Earth Dragon’s body. The yellow screen knocked Fatty up from the creature’s back. At the same time, a huge mouth opened wide below him, waiting to tear and devour Fatty alive.

Fatty regained his ability to move while mid-air. Lightly tapping his feet against the rocky mountain’s wall, he deployed the Zephyr Wings and dodged the monster’s attack.

Commanding Wheat and Inky to attract the Earth Dragon’s attention, Fatty once again landed on the monster’s back with a bam and resumed casting Taming on it.

During the process, Wheat died thrice and Inky died five times, all smashed into meat paste by the monster’s huge claws.

“Raaarrghhh… Wuuu!”

After a long period of roaring, the Earth Dragon’s voice suddenly changed to a whiny. It no longer attacked Fatty, and instead nuzzled its head, which was as big as a person, against Fatty’s body. Taming finally succeeded.

“Hahaha, awesome!” With the Brutal Saddle’s effect, not only could Fatty attack while mounted, his mount could attack at a portion of its original power as well. Just like that, it was akin to having three pets fighting at once.

Fatty spotted another Earth Dragon. This time, it was much less troublesome. Fatty only needed to steer the mount forward. While the two Earth Dragons fought, Fatty, Wheat, and Inky cheered as onlookers.

BA-THUD!

Over two hours later, an Earth Dragon fell with a last roar, stomping up a sky of dust. As expected of a rich monster, it left a floor full of items.

Too bad that Fatty’s Earth Dragon was on the verge of exhaustion with little HP left after the fight. Inky started to heal the huge mount with all its might.

“Violet armor, Violet war saber, six Gold items. No wonder it is a high-rank Yao monster.” With a brief scan, Fatty immediately got the gist of the loot quality. He stowed away the good ones and fed the trashy ones to the Elemental Skill Book.

After cleaning the drops, it was time for the most crucial moment–

“Hah! Harvest!”

In a yellow flash, a torn pelt appeared in Fatty’s hand.

Earth Dragon Pelt

Advance Crafting Material

Great defense. Can be used to make high-rank equipment.

Good stuff, but it wasn’t Fatty’s goal.

Again.

Whoosh! This time was an inner core. Thinking for a bit, Fatty stowed the core away instead of feeding it to the Elemental Skill Book. The Elemental Equipment and Elemental Sword needed refining with elemental materials to rank up, and inner cores were the best choice for this.

At the third Harvest, Fatty finally gained a tendon. The tendon was a dozen or so meters long, arm-sized and super elastic, a great material for a bowstring.

Shoddy Dragon Tendon

Advanced Crafting Material

A superb material to make bowstrings.

“OK!” Fatty nodded in satisfaction. Who cares if it’s shoddy as long as it’s usable?

Placing the tendon in his inventory, Fatty cast Harvest several more times and acquired stuff like a jaw, etc. Until there was nothing else to gain anymore, he finally let the pitiful corpse off.

“Again.” Once Inky fully healed the Earth Dragon, Fatty swung his hand, ordering his pets to pull another monster.

……

“Hello? Is there anyone here?” A day later, Fatty visited the Imperial Capital’s Smithy with ten Shoddy Dragon Tendons in hand.

He had planned to build the Plenilune Ballista himself, but the blueprint required an Advance blacksmith, and Fatty didn’t qualify. Moreover, there was no time for him to practice right now, so he could only seek an NPC at the Smithy.

“You blind or something? I am this big of a person and you can’t see me at all?” An NPC with the name “Karl” above his head angrily turned away from his fire stove and berated Fatty.

“Heheh, please don’t be angry, teacher. I couldn’t spot you for a moment there.” Fatty grinned.

“What’s up?” Karl grabbed a tattered towel to wipe his hands and shot Fatty a glance.

“I’m seeking to build a piece of equipment.” Fatty quickly took out the Plenilune Ballista Blueprint. “Please take a look at this, sir. Can it be built?”

Karl received the blueprint and swept a quick glance, then snorted.

“Did you come here especially to mock me or something? This kind of kid toy and you ask if I, a Grandmaster blacksmith, can build it?!”

“Ahh, it’s best if you can!” Fatty didn’t mind the blacksmith’s words and immediately said. “Then, please build me one, the fee can be negotiated.”

“Let’s not worry about this for now.” Karl sat down on a rickety chair and gestured Fatty to take a seat as well. “This Plenilune Ballista Crossbow might seem powerful at first sight, but considering the price, it’s simply not cost-effective. You also had that feeling after you gathered all the materials, didn’t you?”

“That’s right, but what can I do about it?” lamented Fatty, a little anxious in his heart. He was in a hurry to complete the mission.

“Don’t be impatient, young man. No matter how urgent you are, your problem simply won’t be solved right away.” Karl waved his arms. “If you want a ballista, I can show you a much better one than this.”

“Oh? What is it?” Fatty looked at Karl skeptically. He didn’t believe in fortune that just fell from the sky.

“Follow me.” Leading Fatty through a series of turns, Karl arrived at a basement, inside which stood a seriously damaged ballista.

This ballista greatly differed from the Plenilune. It looked like a big bed, so “bed crossbow” would be a much more correct term to call it. The ballista was covered in magic runes – the majority of which greatly damaged, as well as other carvings that Fatty didn’t understand.

“This name of this ballista is God Destroyer Crossbow.” Karl gently caressed the ballista as if it was his beloved person. “This ballista is so powerful that they said it could even hunt down Gods. Pity it was damaged during a grand war millennia ago. I have always longed to fix it, but the unfortunate lack of materials leaves me no choice but to store it here in this basement.”

“Lack of materials?” Fatty keenly caught the keywords. “What are the required materials?”

“Required materials? Heh, none that you can collect at your current strength.” Karl waved his hand dismissively and brought Fatty back to the ground floor.

“Why the hell did you tell me about it then? Hurry and help me build the Plenilune Ballista!” said Fatty, displeased.

“Young man, you are too impatient.” Karl wasn’t offended one bit. “Even if you can’t collect them now doesn’t mean you can’t in the future. If you help me gather the materials, I can give you the ballista after I fix it.”

“For real?” Fatty looked dubiously at Karl.

“I’m not a fighter, so what would I keep that thing for? What I’m after is the process of making powerful weapons. After I succeed, those weapons are of no use to me.”

“We have a deal. Tell me the materials.”

“As I’ve already said, don’t be so impatient. The God Destroyer Crossbow is said to be able to shoot down even Gods. The materials it requires aren’t anything the current you can gather. I’ll first build the Plenilune Ballista for you. Let’s leave the materials for later when you get stronger.”

Karl took the Plenilune Ballista Blueprint and walked to his stove. With a tremble of his hand, the blueprint was set ablaze. Then, from the pile of materials that Fatty had brought, one Mystical Gold Ore after another flew into the stove and was dissolved into liquid.

“Crafting equipment is actually very simple. You only need patience, attentiveness, and perseverance; and you can create something to your contentment in the end.” While refining the ores, Karl even had the leisure to teach Fatty some details about smithing.

After spending over three hours to dissolve 1,000 Mystical Gold Ores into liquid, Karl let out a loud shout. The liquid floated up, swirling and flowing in mid-air. Very soon, the liquid formed the structural outline of the Plenilune Ballista.

“The attack is barely so-so, and there’s virtually zero mobility. Why would you want such a bulky and useless thing?” Karl shook his head, his tone filled with contempt for the Plenilune Ballista.

“Alright.” Amidst Fatty’s silence, not only had Karl finished crafting the Plenilune Ballista, but he also carved some magical patterns on it.

“These patterns can increase the crossbow’s shooting speed and range.” Catching Fatty’s dubious gaze, Karl indifferently explained.

The ballista was finally completed after five hours of crafting. Fatty carefully observed the creation. It looked like a Plenilune Beast standing straight on four limbs, the head raised as if gazing at the moon, and a wide open mouth. Ten tendons seamlessly connected inside the ballista’s beast jaw where the bolts would be shot from.

“I’ll have to trouble you with the bolts as well.” Fatty took out the Cold Iron Ores.

Karl nodded without a word. Using an hour, he refined eight bolts with the Cold Iron Ores mixed with some other ordinary ores.

“Alright. Now let’s talk about the God Destroyer Crossbow.” Wiping his hands with the tattered towel, Karl said, “Are you willing to help me gather the materials to restore the God Destroyer Crossbow?”

Ding.

System Notification: Do you want to accept the mission “Restoring the God Destroyer Crossbow”?

Accept.

Ding.

System Notification: You have accepted the mission “Restoring the God Destroyer Crossbow.”

Mission Requirement: Gather 100 Meteor Iron Ores, 10 Mega Dragon Tendons, 1 Mega Dragon Skeleton, 100 logs of Fire Paulownia Wood,…

Time limit: 3 years

Reward: God Destroyer Crossbow

Mission Details: Rumor has it that this extremely powerful crossbow ballista once shot down Gods. It’s currently damaged beyond use. To restore the might of the God Destroyer Crossbow, and also to find himself a chance of breakthrough to the Grandmaster rank, Master Blacksmith Karl’s has set his heart on fixing this ballista.

“So that’s how it is.” Fatty swept Karl a glance.

“Young man, don’t overthink it.” Karl seemed to know what Fatty was thinking about. “There’s finally a rare occasion when people flock to the Imperial Capital, yet they actually all go to watch that worthless competition. Otherwise, this mission wouldn’t have landed on you.”