Mystical Journey

“Go bring that soul back here,” The voice spoke.

All of a sudden, a black thread shot forth inside the cave. This black thread quickly wove itself into a round ring in mid-air, and then the center of the ring slowly split apart, forming a mirror inside.

The surface of the mirror was as bright as new, and it slowly began to reflect a line of white Dragon Whelps. There were four of them, hiding inside a cave and chatting idly.

The green flames in the Knight’s eyes flickered for a moment, and then they instantly locked onto one of the Dragon Whelps.

This white dragon was well-proportioned, with strong muscles and scales that seemed brighter and cleaner than the other white dragons.

It bowed toward the depths of the cave and then turned around and walked out of the cave, clattering as it went. There was an extremely complex golden screen turning slowly at the mouth of the cave, blocking off all the threats that might walk out of the cave.

But the Knight seemed to be completely oblivious to it, walking straight toward the golden screen at the mouth of the cave.

As soon as the Knight walked into it, the translucent screen lit up with a whoosh, and a large cloud of black smoke was absorbed out of its armor.

The Black Knight walked out determinedly and managed to get past this golden screen eventually. Its foot stomped hard into the deep layer of snow outside.

Once it walked out, however, half of the many tadpole-like glyphs on its armor vanished, leaving only a small portion, and even those gave off an impression of aged fragility, as though it could fall apart at any time.

The Knight paid that no heed at all and just stood at the cave entrance, figuring out the direction. Then, it strode boldly in one direction. After a few steps, it actually began to fly.

Roar!!

A Giant Frost Iguana Elder rushed straight at it, racing at the Knight from underneath the snow. It was probably because the Knight had intruded into its territory. But when it saw the glyphs all over the Knight’s body, the Elder Giant Iguana’s pupils dilated abruptly.

“An Undead! Agony Knight!! Forgive me!!” It screeched in terror, an armor of ice instantly enveloping its entire body. This was Level Six Ice Armor, but at the same time it actually turned around and ran outward, showing no intention to resist whatsoever.

But before it got very far, a bolt of black light shot down from the sky. It was a spinning black Greatsword, the terrifying weapon three whole meters long, emanating large clouds of black smoke from all over its body as it spun rapidly downward.

Psst.

As easily as slicing through tofu, the black smoke Greatsword cut through the Elder Giant Iguana’s neck. And then it spun once above the snowy ground, before returning to the Knight’s hand in mid-air.

The Giant Iguana Elder’s large head rolled onto the floor, the thick Level Six armor had put up no resistance whatsoever. Without any chance of fighting back, a Level Six Giant Iguana Elder was killed by the Black Knight, just like that.

“A boring, insignificant soul…” The Knight gripped the Greatsword, and the black smoke from the blade seemed to pull something out from the Elder Giant Iguana’s body. The black smoke was a lot thicker than when it first came out and was currently flowing ceaselessly into the cracks in the Knight’s armor.

After killing the Giant Iguana, the Knight did not even look at the corpse beneath it. It just flew in the direction it had decided on.

It did not move very quickly, but wherever it went, all the Giant Iguanas avoided it in terror. No living creature dared to stand in its way.

In fact, some Giant Iguanas actually got onto their knees and began to kowtow at it.

*********************

On the third day, Garen finally finished absorbing that Level Five Crystal Core before leaving.

As he expected, the Crystal Core he had risked his life to obtain gave him one Attribute Point.

And after a night’s rest, his injuries had healed slightly and his average fitness returned to half its original value. Add that to his killing move, Ice Pressure Blade, and his combat power was about equivalent to Saszt’s now.

After departing on the third day, the four Dragon Whelps moved at a significantly faster speed. They were pretty lucky this time, since they met two Level Four Giant Iguanas consecutively, both of which had gone astray from the pack. They were easily finished off with a few Dragonfire Spells.

Boris also tried to attack some Level Four Giant Iguanas head-on, but unfortunately, once it was weakened by the Level Four Ice Armor, the power of the Dragonfire Spell was not strong enough to harm the Giant Iguana’s tough hide. Under these snowy conditions, the Level Four Ice Armor demonstrated its full power, whereas the Dragonfire Spell was drastically weakened. The increase on one side and decrease on the other meant that head-on Dragonfire Spells were practically useless.

The Giant Iguana soon released its Ice Armor again.

They could release their Ice Armor five times a day. It was a spell they were born with, so it did not consume too much of their power.

The group of Dragon Whelps kept moving from one location to another. Going through a long and narrow tunnel in the icy valley, they finally encountered another team of Dragon Whelps for the first time.

“Leona? Boris!” Outside the tunnel, the four Dragon Whelps stood together, discussing something. When they saw another group of Dragon Whelps walk out of the tunnel, the sturdiest-looking Dragon Whelp instantly started yelling.

“Toni!? How lucky, to think we’d meet you first!” Boris was instantly overjoyed, and he ran up to meet them.

“Toni, what are you guys doing here?” Leona asked as well. Clearly, she knew this Dragon Whelp.

“The way ahead is blocked,” said Toni, depressed. “I’m waiting for other teams to catch up, maybe we can gather together and eat these few Giant Iguanas.”

She looked left and right, and then approached Leona, whispering into her ear.

“There are two more Dragon Whelp teams around, but they’re all hiding now.”

“If there are so many Dragon Whelps here, we don’t necessarily have to take this path, do we? Are you waiting for something in there?” Garen asked in a soft voice.

Toni instantly looked at Garen, surprised. This one reacted really quickly, he could guess the truth even with so little to go on. He was almost on par with the cunning humans!

“Impressive!” She expressed admiration at Garen’s reaction. “There’s an Ice Stalagmite in there…”

“Whoa!” Boris and Leona gasped in unison.

The Ice Stalagmite was one of the rare and precious resources to come from this land of ice and snow. To Frost-type Creatures, that was a true treasure of the earth. A complete Ice Stalagmite could provide enough Frost Power to increase one’s power by one whole level. It worked on all Frost-type Creatures that were Level Six or below.

This was also the second reason the white dragons let their Dragon Whelps come here to hunt. They wanted the young ones to fight among each other, until only the strongest were left standing in their fight for the Ice Stalagmite. Only then could they truly become passable warriors.

“Looks like those Giant Iguanas are here to fight for the Ice Stalagmite as well,” said Garen softly.

“Yep. Two Level Fives, Four Level Fours. They’re split into two groups and standing off against each other now, but it’ll be any time now. There are at least Dragon Whelp Teams, including us, and we’re no match for them in a head-on fight. If both sides are left weakened after the fight, though, things might be different.” Clearly, it was not Toni’s first hunt either, her tone was very experienced and assured.

Garen had also noticed that the aura coming from Toni was stronger than Boris’. Looking at the shape of her muscles, he guessed that she was at least equivalent to Saszt in level. If she also had equipment fixed with Level Five Spells, she would truly be formidable.

Toni led the other dragons, including Leona and Boris, into the circle they had decided on before, and everyone banded into a temporary team. All of them were quietly awaiting any changes from up ahead.

It seemed as though Garen’s team was the last one, no more Dragon Whelps came after them.

The other two Dragon Whelp Teams never showed up, nobody knew what they were planning.

Bam!!

All of a sudden, there was a large explosion of snow from up ahead, sending the snow flying everywhere.

Roar!

There was a tremendous, explosive roar from a Giant Iguana. This was followed by several more consecutive roars.

There were a bang and a dull thud. The Giant Iguanas on each side had evidently started fighting.

Garen hid in the circle of Dragon Whelps, listening to the sounds from up ahead. Since he had fought a Level Five Giant Iguana hands-on, he could tell almost immediately. The first roar had probably come from a Level Five Giant Iguana.

Not only did Level Five Giant Iguanas have Level Five Ice Armor, they also had a powerful non-discriminatory attack, Earthquake. They were also much faster and stronger than regular Giant Iguanas. That made them extremely powerful.

There were so many Giant Iguanas in front of them, killing each other. There were two Level Five Giant Iguana Crystal Cores right there, if he could get his hands on them, it would help him greatly!

“I just have to be careful.”

He glanced at Leona and the other dragons. She was discussing something softly with Boris and Toni.

He knew how powerful Level Five Giant Iguanas were, so he understood how improbable it would be to kill Level Five Giant Iguanas with this group of Dragon Whelps. The only way would be to exhaust themselves using Level Five Spells, putting their own lives on the line.

But the Dragon Whelps would never be so coordinated, nobody would be willing to go there and be grievously injured from the swipe of a tail. It would be very dangerous to sustain serious injuries in a place like this.

Even Leona’s Dragonheal Spell could only heal three Dragon Whelps at once, and it could only heal light injuries at that. After all, the Dragon Race’s Magic Defense was too high, even Dragon Whelps would have their spell efficiency reduced by one level. This reduction applied to both positive and negative spells.

“But if I want to get those two Level Five Crystal Cores, it’d be a bit troublesome with so many Dragon Whelps around…” Garen added the recently-obtained Attribute Point to his Vitality without hesitation.

Instantly, he felt a cool comforting sensation flow out of his brain and spread to the rest of his body. He watched his status go from injured to barely injured, on the brink of recovery.

Looks like even if it was a whole potential point, it still was not as easy to completely heal a body as powerful as a dragon’s as compared to when he was a human. Once the foundations were strong enough, the power needed to recover would naturally increase as well.

Well, at least he had regained his combat power. Garen bent down.

Boom!

All of a sudden, there was an intense jolt from up ahead. Garen could immediately tell that it was probably the Level Five Giant Iguana’s Earthquake. And it was not just one either, both Giant Iguanas had used it at the same time.

As the Giant Iguanas wailed out, a Dragon Whelp from a hidden Dragon Whelp Team nearby could not help but fly up to see the situation. The Giant Iguanas could not see far anyway, so they were not worried at all.

“They broke the Ice Stalagmite!?” the Dragon Whelp roared loudly as soon as it glanced over.

The Ice Stalagmite was broken?!

Just then, Garen abruptly felt an immense potential aura surge out of the snowy area ahead of him.

“This potential aura!!!” His heart pounded madly. This potential aura was more than ten times that of a Level Five Crystal Core, if he could just get his hands on it!

Green light rose in his eyes. No matter what, he needed to get that Ice Stalagmite!!