Chapter 23: CH 23

Reaching the base of the mountain range, everyone started looking for an old man. Lawrence decided to climb the mountain while Luke stayed at the bottom of the mountain. Catalinna and Vania decided to circle around the mountain range hoping to find the dragon. They searched for hours but there wasn’t even a single living thing in the mountain range. Lawrence decided to walk back only to see a wooden cabin in the forest. It has a single torch outside and there are crops planted in front of the cabin. It doesn’t look odd in any way and it’s quite homely. Lawrence decided to take a closer look as he found Luke looking around the cabin.

“Boss! This cabin is weird” Luke commented

“What do you mean”

“When I open my eyes, I can only see the darkness inside the cabin”

“I see…i’ll try opening the door” Lawrence replied as he opened the wooden door. He saw an old man sitting in the rocking chair with his eyes closed. He seems unbothered by Lawrence opening the door as Lawrence doesn’t know what to do. The old man is the same as what is described in the novel. Gray hair running to his shoulder wearing a white robe and having a long beard. Wrinkles covered the old man’s face as his bony arms rested on the armrest.

“Let’s leave for now since we don’t know what will happen if we wake him up” Lawrence whispered as Luke nodded. Leaving the strange cabin, they head back to the bottom of the mountain where they found Catalinna and Vania readying the camp. It’s already night as the stars sparkled in the dark sky. With the moon shining its light on the world.

“Did you find the old man?” Catalinna asked

“Yes but he appears to be sleeping. He’s resting inside a wooden cabin. He didn’t respond when we opened the door but we decided to leave for now.” Lawrence replied

“You do know dragons don’t need any rest right? Their body is completely made of mana”

“Your right little lady” before Lawrence can reply, an old man appeared in front of them as Catalinna yelled in surprise while Lawrence jolted. Luke wielded his dagger while Vania stared at the old man. Seeing if there is a hint of malice but she didn’t see any emotions inside this old man’s heart.

“No need to keep your guard up. I’m just here to talk. I do get bored staying alone in the mountains and I can’t exactly stay at any kingdoms since there’s a lot of fanatic dragon slayers.”

“Dragonslayers?” Vania asked as the old man stared at her before smiling gently

“Someone hoping to kill a dragon and possessing their innate powers by either drinking our blood or eating our flesh”

“Do they actually succeed?” Luke asked

“Depends what type of dragon and how strong they are. If they tried hunting me then it would take the whole of humanity their best heroes to have a chance of killing me” the old man smiled but everyone except for Lawrence gulped in fear.

‘What the hell? So do you mean even 7-star warriors and mages can’t even fight a dragon alone? Shouldn’t we run away now since if this dragon got pissed, we are so dead that even the plot armor that Cain has would be useless right? Calm down, the dragon seems to be accepting of humanity and if it wanted to kill us, we would be already gone’

The old man glanced at Lawrence with a nonchalant smile. Lawrence hopes that the dragon doesn’t have any mind-reading capabilities but he doubts it.

“Interesting, two intruders…the prodigal son of the wolf king and the manifestation of the goddess of beauty” the old man muttered

“You…” Luke glared at the old man as Lawrence noticed that Luke’s hands in shaking and gripping the dagger tightly that blood is dripping from his palm. He seems agitated

“Ohohoho…forgive me. I have the…tendency to gaze at someone’s soul to see who they really are.”

“What do you mean by manifestation of the goddess of beauty?” Vania asked

“Oh, you see. There was a goddess of beauty responsible for creating anything beautiful and giving love. There was a time when she was tired of her monotonous life and decided to descend to this plane. She was immediately attacked by primordial dragons and phoenixes and she was forced back to the realm of gods. The battle also sucked a portion of her power which created her own manifestation with a portion of her beauty and charm. You girl has the most portion of her power I have ever seen.”

“R-really?”

“Yes, i’m even surprised that these boys haven’t done anything to you” the old man chuckled as Vania gazed at both Lawrence and Luke. Luke didn’t take his glare off from the old man but Lawrence just stared at the old man.

“Are you a primordial dragon?” Lawrence asked but the old man simply smiled and didn’t reply.

“No wonder you are so confident against the heroes of humanity. Your soul isn’t in this plane meaning you are unkillable unless a large amount of mana is absorbed by a dimensional mage to hop to your plane. Despite all of that, it would be still a disadvantageous fight against the humans.” Catalinna commented as the old man’s eyebrow twitched. Surely surprised by her vast knowledge

“I see..You’re quite knowledgeable. Yes, in theory, that would be possible but the effort isn’t justified for the benefit.”

“You’re underestimating the human’s greediness” Catalinna replied before shrugging

“I don’t know..i guess the novelty of killing a dragon is important to you humans. Now, let’s get to the point. What is your purpose for visiting me?”

“Um…” Catalinna awkwardly looked at Lawrence as they know that they can’t just ask for relics or artifacts. Even for her, that would be extremely embarrassing.

The old man simply laughed before glancing at everyone.

“It’s alright to be greedy. It’s inside the heart of every living being. I see that all of you have the potential to shake this world. Positively or negatively. This can be considered as a small push” the old man chuckled before manifesting a sword. It’s a slim sword with unparalleled sharpness in it. It shone dangerously as everyone held their guard up.

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“Don’t worry, this is the weapon i’m worst at. Besides, I will be limiting myself to a four-star warrior. Just survive for 5 minutes and I’ll give you gifts suited for your needs.” the old man stretched his right arm while wielding the sword.

“Head back Vania!” Catalinna shouted but the old man is already beside her with his sword swinging towards her neck. There wasn’t any emotion on the old man’s face but Luke already made his way towards Vania. With his dagger, he parried the strike but the bones in his arms rattled from the force of the strike as he grabs Vania by the waist before jumping back.

Metal spears and daggers flew towards the old man who easily cut each weapon one by one with relative ease. Lawrence knew that this fight would take every mana he has for all of them to survive. With all of his steel weapons destroyed except for the axes, the only weapon he has is the cursed wood spear. Since he can’t use it, he has to rely on his gravity manipulation and the black material he has covering his arm.

The old man charged towards Lawrence but he reduces his weight by lessening the gravity holding him to the ground as he dodged easily the sword aiming for his chest by jumping to the side.

“Quite a talented fellow. You will surely become a shining hero of humanity in the future” the old man replied casually as Luke and Catalinna charged towards him.

“How dare you touch Vania!” Catalinna shouted before wrapping her arms in a fire. With a supersonic punch, the flame consumed the old man before exploding in a destructive fashion. Luke’s face is covered with deathly calmness as his qi circled in his dagger. It created four daggers which summoned four paws of the Fenrir which slammed into the exploding fire. The ground shook violently and it created a shockwave pushing everyone away.

“A four-star beast would die or get a huge injury from that coordination of attack. That means, i’ll be shortening the time to 4 minutes” the old man replied despite being crushed by the paws of Fenrir and consumed by continuously exploding flames.

“Is this even possible?” Catalinna asked while wiping her sweat.

“We just have to pin him down” Lawrence replied as the old man slashed the paws into pieces while walking outside of the range of the flames. There isn’t a sign of injury anywhere that he can find.

Luke didn’t speak and just charge once again. Lawrence noticed something odd about how Luke reacts after the old man told everyone that he is a prodigal son of the wolf king. Although it isn’t his problem, he can’t help but be curious.

“What the hell is he doing?! We just need to retreat and not fight that old man” Catalinna gasped but Lawrence dashed forward, shaping the black material on his arms into a spear. Luke attempted to strike the old man but it was useless. The old man easily parried each strike with ease before kicking Luke away as he crashes to the ground. Lawrence followed up with a fast stab towards the eyes but the old man grabbed the spear with his free hand before stabbing Lawrence on the stomach only to realize the spear he is holding melted and created a black shield. Protecting Lawrence from the sword.

“Impressive, you have quite a good control over Shadowbane. Although it isn’t awakened yet, it is still useful” the old man commented as the both of them heard a low growl. There, they saw a black wolf wielding a large sword on its mouth. Blue qi circled around its body as it pounced towards the old man. The old man simply blocked the sword but another wolf appeared behind him. As it uses its high agility to spin in the air before slamming the sword towards the old man’s back. Crashing him to the ground.

“Beast materialization..” Catalinna muttered as Lawrence nodded. Three wolves circled around the old man as it mercilessly pounced and slashed with terrifying speed and strength. One of the wolves is the result of Luke’s qi while the other one is the clone from the artifact Luke got from the three serpent’s dungeon.

Beast materialization is a spell that all beast kin can use but it depends on how talented someone is if the spell is useful or simply detrimental. Such example is the wolfkin which turns into giant wolves, they lose the ability to wield weapons but they gain immense strength and speed that balances the negative effects of beast materialization.

With a quick spinning slash, a large gash appeared in Luke’s chest as the clone and the qi manifested wolf vanished into a cloud of smoke.

“Hmm..you’re quite talented in the wolf swordsmanship. Only the elite forces of the beastkin empire can wield weapons while in beast materialization. It’s such a shame-before the old man can continue, Luke charged once more despite the blood covering his black fur.

“Luke! S-stop!” Vania shouted but the old man buried the sword towards Luke’s gash with a simple stab before kicking him away as the beast manifestation spell was removed. Leaving Luke on the ground, grasping his chest and breathing heavily.

Lawrence immediately made his way towards Luke but was stopped by the old man that even with the black shield, he was pushed away with a strike. Removing his chance to rescue Luke. He knew that Luke will surely die if they don’t heal him immediately. He gritted his teeth before shaking the space ring, revealing a black spear with blue vein-like lines running all over it. Before he can move, his hand is grabbed by Catalinna.

“Are you crazy?! You know the consequences right?”

“I know but i’ll shoulder it.” Lawrence tried shaking off her grasp but he realized that he can’t move his arms. He gazed at Vania to realize that he was charmed.

“Stand down for now boss” Vania commanded with a shy voice but Lawrence gritted his teeth, trying his best to remove her control over him but her magic was too strong than he expected.

“I knew your weakness is mental-based attacks” Catalinna smugly commented before smashing her fist together, revealing a fiery cape behind her back. Flames circled around her arms as they changed from red to white flames. Before, when using the white flame. Her skin would burn and she would be in a state of pain.

“Don’t worry. I got this” she added before dashing towards the old man. The old man swings his weapon in front of him but she immediately stopped before the pattern in her arms lights up in a blinding light. With a simple punch, all of the flames converged in her fist before creating a small ball of condensed white flame and explosion. The old man knew that he can dodge it if he removes his limiter to reach a 5-star warrior but he decided against it. The small ball hits the old man in the chest as the force of the condensed explosion pushed him far from where he stands. Immediately, Catalinna grabbed Luke only to realize that the gash on his chest is fully healed.

“Ohohoho, your friendship is quite wonderful.” the old man commented besides Catalinna as she immediately tried attacking only to hit an invisible barrier.

“No need to continue. I only tested to see if any of you would abandon each other. To see if you’re willing to sacrifice your allies for your own. If your greed is stronger than your camaraderie. Although everyone doesn’t trust each other, all of you are still willing to save your friends with no hesitation. Peculiar…” the old man added

“Forgive me boy for antagonizing you” the old man apologized to Luke who in turn nodded.

‘I guess we won with the power of friendship’ Lawrence chuckled inwardly as he glanced at Vania who profusely apologized for charming him.

“I-im sorry boss. Catalinna told me that it’s bad for you to use your moonlight powers” she apologized

“It’s fine, I can be quite reckless. Thank you” Lawrence replied

“So, who wants to be the first to receive their gifts?” the old man chuckled as everyone’s ear prick up.

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