Chapter 113: Great Treasure, Great Crisis

Countless Dragon Species thrashed their bodies. From a distance, they looked like the messy hair of a Giant dancing wildly in the wind.

They were, in fact, hair. Parasitizing the giant Lion’s head, they writhed their bodies as a mane that displayed its Majesty.

An ant-like black shadow leaped across the bodies of the Dragon Species. That tiny body could be crushed at any moment by the random collisions between the giant creatures, but the insignificant existence was as leisurely as if taking a stroll. The Dragon Species discovered him and spewed Flames and frost. Their attitude was as casual as if they were cleaning up, but the surrounding Dragon Species being "cleaned up" were not pleased and immediately fought back.

For a time, the Dragon Race tangled together like messy hair, attacking and biting each other. But to that giant Lion, this was nothing. It remained as calm as a massive city; that cluster of slaughtering Dragon Species was nothing more than a tuft of hair.

"Sixth one!"

Blaze pierced a Level 60 Wind Dragon’s neck with a single thrust of his Sword. The Black Wolfman behind him followed up with a punch to the hilt, driving the entire Twisted Greatsword deep inside.

[Lethal Execution] extracted all the Wind Dragon’s blood in one breath. The Wind Dragon let out a wail and collapsed limply.

Blaze had no time to catch his breath. He immediately fled his spot. In the next second, various Elemental Attacks rained down. Then, countless Dragon Species lowered their bodies to gnaw on the Wind Dragon’s corpse. This scene looked very much like the cells of a giant organism absorbing dead cells.

[Giant Sword Master Level 3 - Level 4]

"The Experience Value gained has decreased."

Blaze’s brain worked at high speed. While dodging the predatory attacks of the Dragon Species to his absolute limits, he tried his best to observe these beasts that had turned into hair.

The Dragon Species parasitized the giant Lion. While they extracted the Blood of the Evil God from the giant Lion’s body as nutrients, the giant Lion extracted souls from the Dragon Species as Experience Value, turning these Dragon Species into mere lumps of meat. The nobility of the Dragon Species was constantly being stripped away, and their Skills and Magic were also weakening. Therefore, the Experience Value obtained from killing them was becoming less and less.

With his back to the giant Lion, Blaze used the chicken’s ultra-long-range vision to observe the roots of the Dragon Species. These dragons were like real hair, rooted one by one in the pores, fully implanted into the giant Lion’s body from flesh to soul.

Those with flexible bodies had a high degree of hair-ification, and their souls had highly fused with the giant Lion. Killing them and absorbing their souls was equivalent to plucking the giant Lion’s hair; a single pluck would cause a [Stinging Pain] to the beast. Although the giant Lion wouldn’t wake up, the pain would be transmitted through the nerves to the surrounding Dragon Species, awakening them.

Such Dragon Species couldn’t be attacked; the targets had to be those with stiff bodies. These Dragon Species were equivalent to shedding hair; rubbing off a handful wouldn’t cause any sensation.

However, even among the stiff Dragon Species, one had to pick the easy ones. A Tyrant Dragon, with an out-of-place stature that invited mobbing, was the best target.

A Level 85 Tyrant Dragon was being ganged up on by dozens of surrounding Dragon Species. Unable to bear the pain of its flesh being gnawed, the Tyrant Dragon launched a counterattack. It spewed Flames from its mouth, cleaved Wind Blades with its claws, and blew poisonous winds with its wings. But its counterattack lasted only a brief moment; the Flames were extinguished, the Wind Blades were deflected by steel scales, and the poisonous gas was absorbed, turning into fuel to spew out scorching fire.

The Tyrant Dragon wailed, while a black shadow rapidly roamed across its body. In the instant it neared the neck, a hand gripping a Great Sword reached out from the black shadow.

[Dark Assault]

[Launch a high-speed strike in the dark, increasing the critical hit rate when striking a vital spot.]

The Twisted Greatsword easily pierced the Tyrant Dragon’s neck and, dragged by the momentum of the black shadow, tore open a massive wound. Before the Tyrant Dragon could react, its Life gushed out along with its blood.

Blaze darted out of the Shadow, slid down the falling Tyrant Dragon, and with a high leap, landed on the body of a Fire Dragon. The Black Wolfman, acting as his shadow, followed him, remaining completely Silent.

"We really make good teammates." Blaze tapped the Black Wolfman plastered to the Fire Dragon with his finger.

[Black Shadow Stealth E]

[Permits entry into one’s own shadow, but only those who have conquered their own darkness will not get lost in their own Shadow World.]

Entering one’s own shadow seemed useless, but if this shadow could move on its own and run incredibly fast, then it would be a Divine Skill.

But when it came to truly good teammates, it had to be these Dragon Species. They firmly pinned down the target’s aggro, allowing Blaze to constantly meet the conditions for using [Dark Assault], and drastically reducing the target’s Defense Power. They were practically Blaze’s closest friends. If only they could offer up their lives in the end as well.

Perhaps sensing Blaze’s thoughts, a Fire Dragon suddenly turned its head and spewed Flames at Blaze, who was clinging to its body.

Blaze immediately let go and slid down. A terrifying scene occurred: the Fire Dragon’s Flames did not heat its own body to a glowing red like the first Fire Dragon he encountered, but were instead reflected by its scales, turning into streaks of fiery meteors.

"A fully matured Fire Dragon?!"

Blaze clicked his tongue. The biggest trouble was actually that he couldn’t rely on the Black Wolfman. The Level 100 Black Wolfman could easily tear most of the Dragon Species to shreds, but precisely because of this Power, the moment it showed its head, it would override all aggro and be noticed by the surrounding—or perhaps all—Dragon Species. Blaze did not want to gamble on the chance that this Lion was actually bald and didn’t have much Dragon Species hair.

"Just maintain this rhythm; don’t act rashly," the chicken softly reminded him, deeply afraid that Blaze might lose his sense of propriety due to soaring emotions.

"Yeah."

Blaze nodded and adjusted his breathing, bringing himself down from the feverish excitement of successfully killing several Dragon Species. Ultimately, there was nothing to be proud of in defeating these living corpse-like dragons.

"But you can gather some materials while you’re at it. I saw that Wind Dragon’s wings were pretty good."

Blaze stumbled and almost slipped, while the chicken’s embarrassed laughter rang in his ears. Now, he profoundly understood why so many Foreigners, despite knowing they would be registered as mortal enemies by the Dragon Species, still searched for the Dragon Race’s Land of Eternal Sleep. Just these living corpse-like Dragon Species were enough to give the chicken wicked thoughts; wouldn’t the true dragons slaughtered by those people drive one to Madness?

When Blaze pulled the Twisted Greatsword out from the jaw of a Thunder Dragon, he finally accomplished his goal.

[Giant Sword Master Level 4 - Level 8]

[Conditions met]

[Hunter Level 1]

[Assassin Level 1]

The unexpected delight was unlocking [Assassin]. Because his "good buddies" madly drew the aggro, his sneak attacks were flawless.

"Hm? This is?"

Blaze blanked for a moment; a Crystal Ball dropped out of this Thunder Dragon’s jaw.

[Memory of the Fire Dragon]

[Upon use, randomly acquire the Fire Dragon’s Magic]

"Memory Crystal!?"

This was truly an unexpected delight. He hadn’t expected to obtain many materials, as he completely lacked the time and opportunity to dissect the dragons he had defeated. But these dragons gnawed on each other, and in the process, they would bite the materials into their mouths, perfectly allowing him to pick up the scraps.

"As expected, you really are my time-limited good buddies."

Gripping this pleasant surprise, Blaze raised his head and looked toward the giant Lion. His beautiful fantasy of simply taking up permanent residence here and shaving the Lion bald was instantly crushed.

[Nemean Giant Level 450]

[Leo Z///////]

There were a full tens of thousands of Skills. Anyone who saw this interface would immediately have this thought:

"This thing wants to become an omnipotent existence."

What was truly terrifying was that this city-sized giant Lion face began to throb as if mountains were collapsing and the earth was tearing apart.

It had been awakened.