As far as Abel knew, the Dragon God was the embodiment of the Dragons’ spirit. He should be invincible and fearless!

“Everyone, I will be frank with you. My power reached its limit twenty thousand years ago. Us dragons are powerful in our foundation, but it is already amazing that we have five God Ranks with our population!” the Dragon God said softly.

No one else made a sound, continuing to listen.

“It is much harder for us dragons to level-up after that. For many millennia I’ve used a special method and much Faith to reach Rank 44, but I’ve been stuck ever since!” the Dragon God continued.

Abel finally understood. No wonder the Dragon God was called a god. He was using Faith!

“I have heard Basham has already reached rank 45, which means he is on the Demon from Beyond’s level. Still, the Demon from Beyond wields a more powerful energy. After thousands of years of healing, it is no longer the being it was!” the Dragon God sighed.

It was a huge revelation , but everyone kept silent.

Meanwhile, Abel’s eyes began to sparkle. Although he was still a long way from Rank 44 or 45, he was confident that he could reach it eventually. He had the Dark World on his side, so he might be able to reach even higher Ranks!

The Dragon God shook his head and laughed, “But when I saw Little Bro today, I had a revelation. We are actually not that weak!”

“My Dragon God, Wizard Basham might have a higher Rank than you, but it’s still unknown who would win in a fight!” Headmaster Eugene also laughed.

After all, the dragons did have more powerful bodies!

Abel bowed and asked, “My Dragon God, can I go watch the fight tomorrow?”

“Abel, are you worried about my safety?” The Dragon God smiled. He then handed Abel a golden scale and said”Take this and hide Little Bro’s energy. If not, Basham and the Demon from Beyond might team up to kill him before the fight even begins!”

Abel held the scale in his hand. It was pulsing with gold dragon energy.

“A Godly Relic scale!” Abel gasped.

“Good eyes, that’s my scale. They’ve been with me since I reached God Rank, but even stronger ones grew out of me after I reached Rank 40!” the Dragon God smiled.

An admiring gaze emerged from the eyes of the other Dragon Headmasters.

They knew it was no ordinary scale; it was a dragon wing scale! The toughest scales on a dragon’s body, responsible for protecting their most vulnerable areas!

When Abel placed the scale on Little Bro, his body began to shrink from four meters down to two meters, just like a normal human.

If Abel was not soul-bound to him, Little Bro would feel exactly like a gold dragon.

The Dragon God continued to smile. He had just given out his most precious scale. Although it didn’t have much use to him, it could give the user the defense of a Rank 40 Dragon!

“Thank you, my Dragon God!” Abel quickly bowed.

He knew the danger of bringing Little Bro to watch the battle, so at first he was not planning to take him along. After all, his Dark Energy was too provocative.

However, the Dragon God had a different idea. “I want you to bring Little Bro with you as a secret weapon!”

Abel nodded, but since the Dragon God still needed to prepare for the fight, Abel soon said his goodbyes and returned to the Golden Castle.

———

It was night time.

Abel looked into the sky with a heart full of excitement.

Three of the most powerful beings in this world would fight tomorrow. It was the perfect opportunity to see what an Inner World was truly capable of.

This way, he would be much more confident in himself.

Suddenly, the golden oak tree symbol on his forehead sparked. Abel felt his heart drop and he quickly focused all his attention onto it.

It seemed like it was trying to connect with something, but it was too far away to do so.

However, Abel knew what it was, so he quickly Flashed into his training room and activated a Scroll of Town Portal to the Rogue Encampment.

—

As soon as he stepped out of the Portal, he sensed joy and excitement coming from the Oak Tree.

Since Abel was the god of the Dark World, he waved and a dimensional rift appeared in front of him.

He stepped through and arrived in front of the Oak Tree.

The Oak Tree was shaking, just like the symbol on Abel’s forehead. Soon, a great energy sucked Abel into the Oak Tree, and they merged together.

Abel saw a strange world made out of five continents, the rest was covered by water. He was looking down like a god from a strange dimension.

The whole place was surrounded by a thin veil of gold.

He sensed the heartbeat of this world, which was totally aligned with his own heart. It was a strange feeling, but it was so real.

He could sense every inch of grass, stone, soil, and the water flowing underground. The fish in the water, the clams on the sea beds. They were all welcoming him!

Abel was dumbstruck. He was feeling everything at once. He felt like there was nothing he couldn’t do with only a wave from his hand.

He suddenly sensed a dark gold light and focused on it. It was a Dark Gold Shield!

With a single thought, he felt something heavy appear in his hand. It was that Dark Gold Shield.

Even without the World Stone, he could sense through the Oak Tree symbol that it was called the Blizzard Shield, a powerful Dark Gold Shield!

It was indestructible and it could absorb 35% of any physical damage. If he could have gotten this a few years ago, he would have been jumping up and down in excitement.

Just that defensive attribute alone was enough to soften up most powerful attacks!

It might even have done something during his battle with Baal, but it was too late. All the Hell creatures were dead, and professionals in the Central Continent didn’t really use physical attacks.

Dark Gold Gear was the same rank as Holy Gear in the Central Continent. The main difference was that they focused more on increasing attributes instead of giving out special powers.

One unique thing about Dark Gold Gear was that they never wear out.

However, Abel had never really found that much Dark Gold Gear, even after exploring every inch of the Dark World. Where could they have gone?

Soon Abel had an idea. Maybe this Blizzard Shield was the answer!

Dark Gold Gear wouldn’t boost the attributes of Hell creatures. Abel knew about this after looking at Little Bro.

Therefore, maybe those Dark Gold Gear were thrown away like trash and slowly hidden underground as time went on.

Abel quickly began to scan through the underground of the continents with his new power. If he had to do this physically, it would have taken him countless years.

Indeed, he was soon discovering a new piece of Dark Gold Gear every ten seconds. Piles of them quickly appeared beside him.

They included Rings, Gloves, Helmets, Belts, Weapons, and Armor, but most of them didn’t attract Abel too much.

He only picked the most powerful ones. This included the Wind Cyclops Helmet, the Spider Web Belt, the Bloodfist Gloves, magic Leather Boots, and the Bul-Kathos’ Wedding Band.

Abel happily examined his new Gear and looked around. It seemed he had dug up every single piece of Dark Gold Gear in the Dark World!

By this point, he was truly at one with the Dark World. A strange energy reached out from his body, connecting to everything around him

It was the reason why he had sensed a heartbeat in the Dark World. There was actually no heartbeat in the Dark World, it was just the Dark World being in total harmony with him!

“This is my world!” he mumbled.

As he kept looking down like a god, he sensed the world slowly merging with his body.

It was a strange feeling, but Abel decided to exit this state. His vision quickly shrank and he returned to the side of the oak Tree.

The Oak Tree sent him a message through the soul.

“I’ve become the World Tree!”

“The World Tree?” Abel had never heard of it, but it had to be a level up from a Tree of Life!

The Oak Tree started off as a Tree of Being with extraordinary talent, and it had become a Tree of Life after it obtained the knowledge from the Central Continent’s Tree of Life.

However, Abel still didn’t understand. How come the Oak Tree had grown so much in just a hundred years, while the Central Continent’s Tree of Life had remained the same for thousands of years?

Abel didn’t know about the struggle the Central Continent’s Tree of Life had gone through. There had been countless attempts to destroy it, and it had lost its High Elves. It barely hadenough energy for survival.

As for the Dark World, it had the perfect mana environment and there was no danger. Also, Abel was there to use Full Recovery Potions and Soul Potions to help it grow.

After obtaining all the World Stones, it had gained the power to control the world, thus turning it into a World Tree!