Level 1 to Infinity: My Bloodline Is the Ultimate Cheat!
Chapter 291 - 291: The Ambush at Hollowshade Peak

Ethan's senses were stretched to their limits, every nerve attuned to the slightest disturbance in the air around him. His instincts screamed of unseen threats, yet the forest remained eerily still—no flicker of movement, no telltale shimmer of stealth.

The tension hung thick for several heartbeats before dissipating, leaving no trace of the rogue or shadowblade he had feared might be lurking. Even the Apex Predators guild members had ceased their assault, their weapons lowered as if waiting for an unseen signal.

The obsidian ridgeback's health bar flickered weakly, its massive form now reduced to a sliver—barely thirty thousand hit points remained.

"Strategos, MelancholyEgg—now!" GapInDefense's voice cut through the silence like a blade.

Ethan reacted instantly, muscles coiling as he dropped into a defensive stance. For a split second, he thought they had spotted him—that they were halting their assault on the beast to eliminate him first before he could interfere.

But then—

Strategos and MelancholyEgg? That necromantic summoner and the berserker shaman LongerThanLuffy mentioned?

Two streaks of golden light erupted from the ranged positions, arcing through the air—not toward him, but toward the wounded ridgeback.

Ethan's breath caught.

'Oh, you bastards.'

He recognized those items instantly.

'Soulbinding Collars.'

Their purpose was singular: capturing wild creatures as pets.

When a tamable beast's health dropped below fifty percent, tossing one of these had a chance to ensnare it—the lower the health, the higher the odds.

No wonder they brought an entire raid party. They hadn't come to kill it, they'd come to break it.

Six hundred thousand hit points whittled down to a pathetic thirty thousand—this wasn't just an opportunity. It was a guarantee.

But success wasn't instant.

Once collared, the creature would frenzy, locking onto its would-be captor with murderous intent. Survive its onslaught long enough, and the contract would solidify, binding the beast as a companion. Fail, and the collar shattered—along with any hope of taming it.

The duration of the struggle depended on the collar's tier and the creature's strength.

For a draconic monstrosity like this? It should take about half an hour, at least.

The first golden collar from strategos descended.

Clang!

It bounced off uselessly.

The necromancer's face darkened as the system notification flashed: Capture Failed.

Ethan almost smirked.

Those collars weren't cheap. Guild resources, wasted in an instant.

He could piece together their plan easily enough. Their scouts must have discovered this cave, stumbled upon the injured ridgeback, and rallied for the kill—only for the Ethereal system's maintenance to delay them. Then, with the new pet system going live today, they'd gambled.

Why settle for random drops when they could claim a living weapon?

What they didn't know was that draconic creatures always dropped at least one dark-gold item—sometimes more.

But their logic wasn't entirely flawed. A dragon-class pet would be devastating.

The weight of their gamble pressed down on MelancholyEgg's shoulders as he recalled the frantic rush back to Ember City, the way his fingers had trembled while purchasing those damned collars. Seven thousand gold—enough to bankrupt lesser guilds, enough to make even Apex Predators' treasury gasp under the strain.

Each collar had cost them three thousand five hundred gold.

Two collars. Seven thousand gold.

The memory of their guild's ascension to Tier Six still haunted them. They'd bled themselves dry for it—emptied coffers, liquidated assets, sacrificed personal dreams. GapInDefense had sold his newly renovated townhouse, the one he'd painstakingly prepared for a future that now seemed laughably distant.

"Not like I have a wife yet, there's no point keeping a house fresh. Besides, the market's up now, so selling's no loss."

The words had been delivered with that infuriating, unshakable confidence of his, but they all knew the truth. That house had represented years of grinding outside the game, a life beyond the screen. And he'd tossed it into the guild's coffers without hesitation.

A gamble, a damned reckless gamble. But it had paid off—until now.

Strategos's collar had failed, which meant everything rode on MelancholyEgg's.

The necromancer's fingers twitched as the second golden ring spiraled through the air, its hum deeper, more resonant than the first. The sound set his teeth on edge.

Please. Just this once—

Snap.

The collar locked around the obsidian ridgeback's thick, scaled neck.

For a heartbeat, silence prevailed.

Then—

"Third Brother!" GapInDefense's voice cracked like a whip.

"It worked—but—" MelancholyEgg's throat went dry as the system prompt seared across his vision.

"But what?!"

"I have to survive… forty minutes."

The words tasted like ash.

Forty minutes.

With one minute to spare before the Ethereal servers forced them offline.

---

Ethan's grip on his dagger turned white-knuckled.

They actually did it. Those bastards actually captured it.

Beneath him, the earth trembled as the ridgeback's massive form shuddered, its wounds knitting together beneath a creeping lattice of crimson energy. The beast's ragged breaths became guttural growls, its muscles coiling like loaded springs.

Ethan didn't wait.

He slid back, silent as a shadow, every instinct screaming at him to run.

A frenzied draconic was bad enough. A frenzied draconic with a personal vendetta?

Suicide.

But just as he prepared to retreat, that familiar, crawling sensation returned—the unmistakable weight of being watched.

Sharper this time, closer.

His head snapped up.

'There.'

At the cavern's jagged ceiling, perched along the uneven lip of stone, something hulking crouched in the shadows. Distance blurred its form, but its eyes—

Oh, hell.

Twin embers of blood-red light burned through the darkness, fixed not on him, but on the ridgeback below.

A new kind of dread coiled in Ethan's gut.

No. No way—

The ridgeback's roar split the air, a sound that shook stalactites loose from the ceiling. Its front legs tensed, claws gouging furrows into the stone as it heaved itself upright.

GapInDefense and his shield tanks braced, they raised their weapons , ready to weather the storm.

MelancholyEgg, ever the pragmatist, had already bolted for the farthest wall, calculating survival over valor. Just keep running. Just stay alive.

But then—

The ridgeback moved, and every single person in that cavern froze.