A system notification chid softly in Marcus’s ears.
"Ding! Congratulations, Stonehaven, for successfully gathering Superior Horse Hide. Gathering skill proficiency increased."
Superior Horse Hide: Interdiate Material. Can be used to craft Light Armor and Cloaks.
The corpse of the Level 30 Wild Steed had yielded nothing more than useless horse bones. Even the Wild Steed Leader, which he had expected more from, had only dropped a single hide that did not seem particularly valuable at first glance. Still, Marcus did not mind too much. Loot was loot.
Then his eyes caught a faint golden glint near the body.
A ring.
Marcus paused, surprised. Rings, necklaces, and accessories were notoriously difficult to obtain, even for players with decent Luck. For soone like him, with an exceptionally high Luck stat, finding one was still rare. Finding a Golden Ring was nothing short of a windfall.
He picked it up imdiately and cast Appraisal.
Success.
Having the Appraisal skill was genuinely satisfying. Watching an item’s attributes unfold clearly before his eyes never got old, and more importantly, it ant he did not have to drag himself back to town, pay the Old Man at the appraisal shop, and endure that sour, impatient scowl. Marcus found quiet joy in that small freedom, and he could not wait for the day his Appraisal skill reached an even higher level.
"Ding! Congratulations, player Stonehaven, on a successful appraisal. You have acquired the Horseshoe Ring."
His Appraisal skill was only at the Basic tier, with a sixty percent success rate when dealing with Golden equipnt, but Marcus was confident. With his Luck stat as high as it was, failure felt like a distant concern.
Horseshoe Ring: Golden Equipnt. Requires Level 30. A horseshoe-shaped ring specially commissioned by a horse lover from a blacksmith.
Attack increased by 50
Defense increased by 50
Movent Speed 2
Attack Speed 1
Additional Effect: Health 200, increases the chance of Stun and Knockback by 10%.
Marcus let out a quiet breath. Now this was truly a good find.
Not only was it Golden equipnt, it was clearly top-tier even among Golden items. The stats were balanced, powerful, and practical, with no wasted bonuses. Anyone who saw this ring would imdiately understand its value.
As he stared at the glowing text, a familiar realization settled in his mind. The first ti he killed a monster, the chances of it dropping exceptional loot seed noticeably higher. Combined with his Luck, the items he personally killed and looted were often far better than average.
That ant one thing.
He needed more adventure.
He needed to explore places no one else had mapped yet, hunt monsters others had never faced, and claim the rarest gear before anyone else even knew it existed. The thought alone stirred sothing restless and eager in his chest. That, Marcus decided, was what a life well lived inside Dominion truly looked like.
The Horseshoe Ring required Level 30, so for now he placed it carefully into his Inventory. With that settled, he turned back toward the open plains, where the distant thunder of hooves was already returning.
The Wild Steeds were coming.
Marcus charged forward once more, launching into battle alongside his Shadow-Stained Gryphon King. The two of them moved with practiced ease, cutting down wave after wave of enemies as they waited for the Wild Steed Leader to respawn.
---
By now, the repeated failures were becoming humiliating.
Marcus refused to give up.
He was determined to Taming the Wild Steed Leader, determined to erase the embarrassnt of his countless failed attempts, and determined to ride a proud, magnificent steed worthy of Dominion’s top expert. Anything less felt like an insult to his own reputation.
Two full days passed.
By the end of the second day, even Marcus’s confidence was starting to crack. The bold declarations he had made to himself earlier were slowly giving way to exhaustion and frustration.
He had been camping on the plains for two straight days, slaughtering Wild Steeds almost without pause. His Shadow-Stained Gryphon King had reached Level 25, while Marcus himself was now sitting at eighty-three percent of Level 29. During that ti, he had killed the Wild Steed Leader twice more.
And just like the first ti, his Taming skill failed over a hundred tis each encounter.
Every ti the surrounding Wild Steeds were about to respawn, he was forced to abandon the attempt and kill the Leader again, watching the chance slip through his fingers once more.
If it were not for his absurdly high drop rate, Marcus would have started questioning his own competence. In just three days, he had obtained over a hundred pieces of Level 30 Blue equipnt, along with two low-level Golden items, all from ordinary Wild Steeds.
The loot was phenonal, almost unbelievable.
Still, the failed Tamings gnawed at him.
To be sure the problem was not entirely his own, Marcus had spent five hours the previous day deliberately testing his Taming skill on normal Level 30 Wild Steeds. Even then, he had only succeeded once, capturing a mount with a Movent Speed 4 bonus.
When he considered that the Wild Steed Leader was six levels higher than him, the miserable success rate suddenly made grim sense. As frustrating as it was, the system was simply working as designed.
Marcus sighed heavily.
Maybe it was ti to give up.
He could return to Pegasus Citadel, swallow his pride, and spend eight million gold coins to purchase the best Fla Charger available at the Horse Market. Faced with the system’s brutally unforgiving Warhorse chanics, compromise might be unavoidable.
Still, even as the thought settled in, another idea took shape.
There was profit here.
Major Guilds would eventually need Knight Orders if they wanted true battlefield dominance, and Knight Orders required Warhorses. High-quality Warhorses, at that. The demand would be enormous.
If he could sohow raise his Taming skill to the Interdiate or Advanced tier, or even obtain a specialized taming skill, Marcus was confident he could make a fortune by selling Warhorses below the system’s absurd prices.
Still, he knew it was mostly a fantasy.
Warhorse trading was a core economic pillar built directly into the system itself. The barriers were intentionally brutal, and carving out real profit as a player would be anything but easy.
"Hiss..."
The Wild Steed Leader respawned.
By now, Marcus could handle it with his eyes closed. The routine had beco second nature. He swept through the surrounding Wild Steeds first, eliminating the smaller mobs thodically until the plains fell quiet once more, leaving only the Leader standing alone.
The fight itself was effortless. The Wild Steed Leader’s health dropped steadily, and soon it fell below ten percent.
Marcus took a breath and began his Taming attempts again.
"Ding! Stonehaven, your Taming skill has failed."
"Ding! Stonehaven, your Taming skill has failed."
"Ding! Stonehaven, your Taming skill has failed."
The notifications stacked one after another, cold and rciless.
Marcus clenched his teeth. The system was shaless, and Dragonfly Corp was even worse for designing Warhorse Taming to be this punishing. His frustration had long since crossed into anger.
"Co on, you stubborn bastard!" he muttered under his breath. "Just let Ta you. Co with and I’ll give you the best food, the best stables, all the luxury you could want. This empty Atlan Plains has nothing for you. I might even find you a beautiful mare soday."
He barely realized he was speaking out loud.
"Hiss!"
The Wild Steed Leader suddenly reared up violently. Its massive body tensed, and it released a sharp, piercing cry that echoed across the plains. The fiery red mane along its neck stood straight up, glowing as if it were about to ignite. A fierce, oppressive aura burst outward, carrying raw dominance and fury.
Marcus froze.
The Wild Steed Leader was evolving.
His muttered complaints had not softened the beast at all. Instead, they had enraged it, pushing it past a threshold and triggering an unexpected evolution.
"So this is how it goes," Marcus thought bitterly. "Nothing about these horses ever goes right for ."
"Roaring Charge!"
The Wild Steed Leader launched forward like a blazing cot.
-520.
The impact sent Marcus flying backward. He slamd into the ground and rolled several tis before coming to a stop, pain flashing across his vision.
He forced himself up, but by the ti he regained his footing, it was already too late.
The surrounding Wild Steeds were about to respawn, and the Leader’s evolution was accelerating. Uncertain of what would happen next and unwilling to risk being overwheld, Marcus abandoned the Taming attempt entirely and prepared to kill the evolving beast instead.
But the Wild Steed Leader sensed his intent.
Before Marcus could close the distance, its entire body erupted in a dazzling red glow. Flas seed to surge along its form, illuminating the sky above the Atlan Plains like a burning beacon.
Then the heavens responded.
A bolt of Purple Celestial Lightning tore through the clear blue sky with a thunderous crack, descending at terrifying speed before striking the Wild Steed Leader directly.
"Hiss!"
The shriek that followed shook the plains.
Every Wild Steed within sight stopped in its tracks. Even the Level 45 Zephyr Steeds, along with other higher-level horses roaming the region, turned their heads toward the source of the cry, fear etched into their movents. The sound carried far beyond the plains, reaching even Pegasus Citadel, where trained Warhorses and Pegasi grew restless, stamping and snorting in unease.
Marcus felt a chill crawl up his spine.
"Is this... a Divine Beast being born?" he wondered.
Without hesitation, he recalled his Shadow-Stained Gryphon King, keeping it safely out of the chaos. His full attention remained fixed on the still-evolving Wild Steed Leader.
Yet beneath the tension, a surge of excitent rose within him.
No matter what the Wild Steed Leader beca, Marcus was not truly afraid. He still had the three seconds of absolute invulnerability granted by his Ring of Resurrection, along with the terrifyingly effective escape skill Run for Your Life. Even if the Leader evolved into a Divine Beast, the system itself would not allow it to kill him outright.
With that certainty anchoring him, Marcus steadied his breathing.
Whatever this creature was about to beco, he was determined to see it with his own eyes.
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