Karl looked at the advancement task he received with a surprised expression, his eyes narrowing as he reread the glowing panel in front of him.

He stayed frozen for a moment, trying to make sense of what he was seeing.

Once again, he had received the "hardest" advancement task available.

But this one was different, and Karl felt that immediately.

It wasn't like any task he had ever gotten, not even in his past life.

It demanded that he acquire a strange item, an item he had never heard about before.

Karl frowned slightly.

'I have no information about this thing,' Karl thought, annoyed, 'Damn…'

He hated going into something blind, especially something as important as an advancement task.

It would decide the next evolution of his class, after all.

But right now, he couldn't do much about it.

He would have to figure it out later, probably once he reached [Moon City] or once he started asking around discreetly.

For the moment, Karl closed the panel with a wave of his hand and turned his attention back to Moonless' body lying motionless on the ground.

From her corpse, only one item had dropped.

But from the way it gleamed faintly on the stone floor, Karl already expected it to be something worthwhile.

Bosses like Moonless always dropped something valuable, and zone bosses even more so.

So when he walked toward the item and crouched down to reach for it, he was already hoping for something big.

He grabbed it carefully and inspected it.

Ding!

[Moonless has acknowledged your strength.]

---

[Mount Bell (Moonless): Only given to those who prove themselves to her, upon usage, you will be able to summon "Moonless, The Lunar Beast" to aid you. Requirement: Level 25]

---

'Holy shit.'

Karl's jaw almost dropped at that. A mount.

Not just any mount, either! Moonless herself.

Mounts were an essential part of [Gods Ascension].

Every player who reached the later stages had at least one mount, sometimes more depending on their class and needs.

They could be used to fight, to drastically speed up traveling, and some even provided attribute boosts or special passive abilities to their owner.

Getting one early was already amazing, but getting one like this?

'Getting such a [Mount] this early,' Karl's eyes widened even more, 'Incredible.'

Mounts had different conditions to obtain them.

Some could be bought with credits. Others could be tamed.

And rare ones required extremely specific tasks.

But the rarest and strongest mounts always demanded that a player prove themselves in battle or task.

Moonless was one of those.

She didn't acknowledge anyone unless they directly defeated her under the system's conditions.

And since no one had ever managed to kill her before this… It was safe to say the requirement was extremely difficult.

'I'll have to test it out later,' Karl grinned as he held the mount bell tightly in his hand, 'But for now…'

He looked back at Moonless' corpse.

Even if she only dropped one item, Karl knew there was something else he needed.

Something that hadn't dropped on the ground because it was still physically attached to her body.

He stepped forward until he reached her large head and looked at her forehead.

Just as expected, the crystal embedded there was still glowing faintly, even though the beast was dead.

'Perfect.'

Karl immediately jumped up slightly and reached for it, grabbing the crystal with one hand and pulling it out in one clean motion.

It came out much easier than he expected, almost like it had been waiting to be retrieved once the boss died.

And holding it in his arms, Karl realized something surprising.

The crystal was huge, almost half of his own size.

'These things are big.'

And right as he inspected it…

Ding!

[You have acquired a "Moon Crystal"]

'Bingo, I bet that's linked to the [Crystal Key] too.'

[Return to Oliver to complete the Special Quest.]

That was the crystal he needed for the quest Oliver had given him.

Karl stored the massive [Moon Crystal] in his inventory and then looked forward toward the end of the zone.

The reward chest was sitting there silently, glowing with a faint golden light.

[Legendary Chest].

That name alone meant that the item inside would be legendary-rank no matter what.

Karl reached the chest and placed his hand on it, pouring mana into it without hesitation.

Click!

The chest opened slowly, revealing a book inside.

[You have opened the "Legendary Chest" and obtained the "Bloom Curse" skill book.]

Karl immediately reached inside and pulled out the item.

[Skill Book: Bloom Curse (Legendary). Requirement: Level 25]

He didn't even hesitate, he learned it instantly.

Ding!

[You have learned the skill "Bloom Curse"]

---

[Bloom Curse (Legendary): Use on a player or NPC's corpse within five seconds of death to curse them with the "Flower".]

[The "Flower" will grow on their bodies and absorb their lives for 30 seconds at a rate of 1 life per second.]

[The flower has 500 HP, and if it is destroyed, the user will not get anything unless it blooms.]

---

Karl understood immediately why it was called the [Bloom Curse].

A strange, useful, and definitely unique ability.

He didn't even bother trying to fuse it with anything.

It wasn't an attacking spell or a defensive one, it was something special.

Something that had its own purpose.

And honestly, Karl preferred for it to stay exactly as it was.

He had never seen a skill like this in his past life.

Sure, some spells could drain [Lives], but none did it in this kind of way.

None involved a flower growing on corpses and absorbing lives over time.

It had to be a reward tied exclusively to the [Moon Tower], something that simply didn't exist anywhere else.

'Good,' Karl grinned.

Fwish!

A portal appeared at the end of the cave.

It was the exit, a direct teleportation out of the zone.

But Karl didn't leave yet.

He had one last thing to do before stepping through it: testing out the newly acquired [Mount Bell (Moonless)].

Unlike most items and equipment, mount bells were stored in their own special panel within the system.

That meant once a mount was acquired, a player could summon it instantly without worrying about inventory space.

But since Karl still had the bell physically in his hand, he didn't need to move it yet.

With a flick of his wrist, he shook the bell.

Ding!

A silver glow filled the air around him, and slowly, a figure began forming in front of him.

'Hah.'

Moonless materialized completely.

She was still the same majestic beast Karl had fought, though she had shrunk drastically.

Instead of her towering four-meter height, she now stood at about two meters tall.

This was normal. Mounts scaled down so their owners could actually ride them.

The larger, more colossal mounts were only available much later in the game.

Moonless looked almost identical to her battle form, wolf-like, silver fur glowing faintly, sharp jutting teeth, and four eyes.

She looked elegant and dangerous at the same time, even without the [Moon Crystal] on her forehead in this form.

The beast sat down and looked directly at Karl, calm but alert.

'Hm.'

Judging from her size, she could probably carry two or three players at once if needed.

And more importantly, she had her own status screen.

Karl opened it immediately.

---

[Moonless, The Lunar Beast (Level 25)]

[Rank: Legendary]

[Loyalty: 50%]

[Sprint (Passive): Runs at very fast speed to reach a destination.]

[Jagged Bite (Active): Moonless lunges toward her opponents and bites them.]

[Claws Strike (Active): Moonless focuses her power on her paws then strikes repeatedly, may cause bleeding.]

---

"Nice."

So she could fight too. That was perfect.

The [Sprint] passive would be incredibly useful for long-distance travel, and the offensive abilities meant she could assist in combat as well.

Karl was already imagining the possibilities.

Having a mount was great already, but having a powerful one like this so early in the game was unbelievable.

He also noticed the loyalty meter.

'I'll have to increase it.'

---

[Note: Treating your mount well is essential, as failing to do so may result in the mount's loyalty to grow weaker, and for the "Mount Bell" to disappear.]

---

Every mount had a unique personality.

Each one required specific care to raise their loyalty.

Karl would have to figure out Moonless' preferences later, but that was a problem for another time.

Without hesitation, he unsummoned Moonless and stored the [Mount Bell] in the system panel.

Then he turned toward the exit portal.

'Time to return to [Moon City],' he thought with a grin.

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