Soul of Searing Steel

Although the shrine of the Sacred Mountain looked huge, the altar, the emblems, and other things made its hall look narrower than the main hall of the liege’s residence.

After leaving their home for a long time, everyone had finally set foot into the vast rock castle before them as they walked into the warm and welcoming main living room of the mansion. Unlike the blazing hot distant south, the North remained a little cold even though it was already September. The firewood in the fireplace installed in the wall had already been lit up. It was burning slowly, releasing comforting warmth and the scent of burning wood.

“Have you eaten?”

Ever since Joshua and the others had set foot into the liege’s residence, 03 had been giving orders to the maids and the servants in the mansion to take care of the luggage and clean the dust. It was actually quite awkward because the warrior was often not at home, he was unable to recognize all the members he hired to take care of his own mansion. On the other hand, the Artificial Intelligence lady was very familiar with them. Her voice and her movements showed that she looked more like the owner of the mansion.

After receiving answers from Joshua, 03 immediately gave the order to the kitchen as the servants got ready to make some lunch. While they were waiting, a series of thuds suddenly echoed across the main living hall from the stairs that led straight to the second floor. Two little girls, who the warrior was very familiar with, appeared.

“Uncle Joshua!”

“Uncle Josh!”

The two daughters of Brandon and Vale Dani came down and greeted the warrior enthusiastically. After that, both of them ran off again. ‘Thud thud thud.’ They had treated Moldavia like their second home since day one. Now, the two sisters were headed to the backyard to play.

Joshua smiled and waved at them. After that, he turned around and looked doubtfully at 03. 03 nodded slightly and explained immediately, “Ruins and relics of ancient times have emerged in Moldavia. There have been many people with unknown backgrounds gathering over there. There are also quite a number of Gold-tier champions among those strangers. Mr. Brandon thinks that the territory is not that safe at the moment. So they sent their daughters over to Master Nostradamus. The master had brought the two little girls to us.”

… It seems that my place has become a nursery.

Shaking his head, Joshua sighed as he could not find any words to describe his feeling. He turned around and instructed Ying and Ling, “Go take care of them before accidents happen.”

“Alright.” The divine armament siblings were used to following the warrior’s instructions. They nodded and replied the warrior as usual. After all, both of them were responsible of taking care of the two little girls in the past.

“Huh—Wait a minute… what a familiar presence. However, I haven’t met this person before, right?”

03 focused on Black and Suralno who were behind the warrior. The black draconic girl greeted the Artificial Intelligence with a joyful smile. The blue dragon forced a smile like he was having a stomachache.

That blue-haired ‘elf’ was a stranger that 03 had never met before. He was currently following Joshua like a follower of his. 03 could tell with her eyes. However, that black-haired girl felt familiar. But, the memory vault did not seem to have any information on her. That was really strange for 03.

Joshua reached out his hand and rubbed Black’s. He sneered and said, “Her? Let’s talk about the incident from the beginning…”

After settling down Suralno at the living room next door, the warrior, Black and 03 found a spot by the window and sat themselves down. Then, Joshua began describing his journey.

Ever since Joshua brought 03 back from the world of Karlis to the Mycroft Continent, he described each of his adventures and expeditions to the A.I girl. The warrior could see that 03 had always wanted to have a look at the prosperous Mycroft Continent. However, she was not able to move as freely as she wanted to due to her body form. Hence, the warrior did that while waiting to complete her human body.

Joshua was definitely not skilled in telling his own stories. His words were direct and he rarely described or used adjectives that could evoke the emotions in his stories. A breathtaking journey sounded like a story of him going to a bar to have a glass of beer. Despite that, 03 listened to his stories intently. She even felt emotional from time to time. She would feel surprised and asked the warrior for more details.

She had also learned the identity of the black-haired girl—it was actually the black draconic mount of the warrior. That made 03 a little jealous.

“I see… brain-eating words, right? That was indeed an extremely perilous situation even for you. However, you did not have to act so rashly and just dig it out from your head.”

After hearing the story about the warrior battling against Mandagar and Nolan on the plane of the Blood Moon in the Dark Abyss, the A.I straightened up a little. She disagreed with the warrior’s method in solving the problem, “You actually left such a huge opening when a Supreme-tier abyssal dragon was spying on you… Oh, right, you shouldn’t have killed that alchemist just like that.”

She sounded a little regretful after hearing it, “Judging from what you just told me, she should have a unique gift that we can use to create a new system of alchemy. After all, she was a prodigy in the art of Alchemy. You should have squeezed that knowledge out of her before killing her, you know…”

The Artificial Intelligence possessed the ability to gather information and knowledge. 03 would always feel unfortunate and regretful when it came to incidents like that.

“Never mind, I’ll never be touching a system that would burn your money and resources.”

Joshua shook his head and casually said, “I already have you. I don’t need anyone else.”

The Superior Refinery System in the art of alchemy was in fact excellent. However, the Alchemy System back in the world of Karlis was very powerful—that was a powerful civilization that could be used to create moving fortresses and cities, or even a Void Battleship. The energy core that contained powerful forces and the Integrated Central Control had already surpassed the technical capabilities of all current forces in the Mycroft Continent. As a result of the civilization of the Karlis World, 03 was actually the greatest treasure there was. With her around, Joshua would never feel unfortunate about looking the Superior Refinery System of alchemy.

However, Joshua felt weird as he did not understand why 03 suddenly lowered her head and stopped talking.

The projection of the girl with a long blue hair shivered as if she was about to break down. The two wings of the Avian race back in the Karlis World vibrated violently.

However, that strange situation only lasted for a few seconds. A few seconds later, the Artificial Intelligence lifted her head up with a neutral expression. The warrior, who felt a little weird about it, shrugged before he continued to describe his adventures.

From the Blood Moon to the Sacred Mountain, it was already the battle with the Berserk Dragons. Joshua roughly described how he was pushed to the brink of death by the attack from the Longsword of the Ashlands and how the Naturalist Instructor aided him in regenerating his entire body.

That was not a long story, but it was an interesting one. The warrior described that part of the story seriously while 03 listened to him.

Time passed.

A few days later.

Starfall Yea 833, September 8, Morning.

The territory of Moldavia, Main City, the liege’s residence.

Joshua stood on the roofless top floor of the mansion. He looked right through the morning mists and the morning dew straight at his own territory and his city.

Compared to many large cities in the main capital of the Imperial Kingdom and the lands across the distant South, the main city of Moldavia was much more peaceful. The small city was populated with hundred thousands of citizens. The city did not possess any special products, nor any obvious advantages over its geographical location. In short, it was a normal city. For those who were interested in fighting to gain fame and glory, this uninhibited outdated and ordinary territory would not be that bad. But, it was also not good at all.

However, Joshua was not the kind of person who would bother himself with that sort of thing. He did not even show the slightest interest to conquer the world. Even if he did, he could rely on his powerful iron fists to do it. He would not need to be concerned with whether a territory is good or bad.

After looking at the surroundings of his territory and confirming that there were no cultists nor demon summoners lurking in dark corners of his territory, the warrior moved his attention away and focused on looking at his attribute tab.

After being back in Moldavia for a couple of days, Joshua did not remain idle. Firstly, he met with Nostradamus and Artanis. Then he returned to Winter Fort Academy to observe and give his speech. As most of the baby dragons had been hatched, Joshua confirmed the founding members for his Dragon Knight Order as a start. Then he sorted out the list of his own knight order. The warrior had spent quite a lot of energy and focus on doing all that. As for now, he finally got a chance to relax and finally examine the rewards he obtained from the battle with the berserk dragons.

[You have defeated the Celestial Blue Dragon—Windrider Suralno]

Sweeping his eyes across the first line on the system, the warrior felt a glimpse of fortune—thanks to Suralno, Joshua had learned about how terrifying an energetic baby dragon could be. They were just like Black when she first learned how to transform and completely cannot control their own strength. They would unintentionally spit out their Dragon’s Breaths from time to time, causing havoc to people and places around them. Other than that, their tough bodies made most of the baby dragons to be hyperactive. Those little fellows seemed to never stop moving. They were even moving while they were sleeping at night.

The blue dragon who was tasked by the warrior to nurture those ‘demonic’ babies instantly hit the bottom of despair. Suralno, who did not even have a soul mate, was completely inexperienced in taking care of these baby dragons during their infant stage. However, that was no longer something that Joshua concerned himself with.

[You have slain the Crimson Red Dragon—Flamewalker Evian]

[You have discovered a Forgery Divine Equipment (Forgery)]

[You have Counterfeit Divine Equipment!]

[You have discovered the counterfeit divine equipment—Longsword of the Ashlands!]

[You have been struck by the attack of a divine equipment and survived!]

[You have completed an achievement—The Immortal]

[You have been struck by an attack that could have definitely killed any ordinary man. You have also wandered across the realms between the living and the dead. However, your strong will, your unyielding soul, your immortal flesh and your unrivaled good fortune have made it possible for you to survive again and again. Once you have returned to the world, your enemies fear your strength, and your comrades praise your life. You have obtained the highest form of Battle Constant (Skill). As long as your brain and your heart are not crushed, your life will not be terminated.]

Battle Resume. After Joshua noticed that ability, he slightly furrowed his eyebrows. That ability would… for now, do nothing good to him because the warrior had entered a realm where his brain and his heart would never be destroyed. That being said, he would forever be in the realm of life. In other words, he was already an immortal. Furthermore, the Azurite had the ability to heal him during battles. Because of that, it became almost impossible to kill Joshua. Unless someone could give the warrior a blow as powerful as the detonation of the Nuclear Star. Only then would the Battle Constant be removed.

However, it was always better than getting nothing in the end. Joshua thought that, if he no longer possessed the Azurite one day, then the ability ‘Battle Constant’ would become unexpectedly useful to him. After thinking that, he turned to the next page of the attribute tab.

[Name: Joshua van Radcliffe]

[Form: Hero]

[Designation: Enemy of the Giant Dragons (Defeated and slew over 20 different types of giant dragons and draconic beasts.)]

[Race: Human ???]

[Race Skill” Divinity (?)]

[Level: LV66 Intermediate Supreme-Tier]

[Level Challenge: LV63]

[Attribute:…]

[Charm: -252]

As for the negative value on his charm, Joshua no longer bothered himself with it. Since the people who were close to him were not affected by that charm of his, and powerful people also had the resistance against it, at least the Supreme-tier clergy back on the Sacred Mountain did not behave cautiously against him because of his charm. Instead, the draconic beasts with the lower wisdom were affected the most.

Currently, the warrior’s level, gift, skills and all sorts of achievements were enough to fill up a couple of pages with thousands of words. Naturally, Joshua was lazy to look at all that. He just ignored that as he looked straight at the new skills.

[Stoner Sunshine (62%)]

[Originated from the supreme flame coming from the Nuclear Star. A skill that compresses and gathers positive energy, then transform it into an extreme-heat impact. The impact of the skill is extremely horrific.]

[Skill has yet to be fully mastered. Without the fragment of the Nuclear Star as a support, the user will not be able to gather positive energy to launch his attacks.]

That was a skill the warrior obtained after detonating the Nuclear Star (Ao’s Light) which belonged to the Emperor and also sustaining the impact from the fragment of the Nuclear Star of the red dragon. After seeing that skill, Joshua subconsciously gathered a mass of spherical golden fireball in the palm of his hand as he indulged himself for a while. “Indeed, although I already know the trajectory of the energy flows when the Nuclear Star was detonated and I could completely compress it without any problem, the step to transform it though… it seems that I have to train very hard from now on.”

He was determined to do it. He was ready to find free time for himself so that he could go to the wasteland of the North to train himself in mastering the Stoner Sunshine technique. Now, he knew a wide variety of skills and techniques. However, he has yet to possess any Ultimate Skill that could decide the outcome of the battle with a single hit. Stoner Sunshine was undeniably the most suitable option for the warrior at the moment.

That was about everything he could find on the information displayed on system screen. Joshua moved his eyes away from the system and looked at the city.

He saw the residents who were going out to work early in the morning. He thought about a scene he saw a few days ago when he was teleporting from the top of the Great Shrine to the main gate of his liege’s residence.

The origin of the Dragon’s Calamity, the Pentashade Dragon God who made a deal with the Liege of the Dark Abyss was actually on the same spot with the Seven Gods of the human race, Metal Dragon God and the other Gods of Mycroft Continent. They seemed to be guarding themselves against some unknown existence. Even though it was obvious that all of them were not on the same page, they were not treating each other like enemies.

That situation was truly extraordinary. If any other people had seen that, they would think that it was just an illusion. However, Joshua was confident that his senses were normal and was sure that he saw that with his own eyes.

—What kind of existence is intimidating enough to bring gods that were once enemies to join forces against it?

—Could this be the existence that delayed the battle between the Pentashade Dragon God and the Seven Gods in the past life?

Joshua did not know the truth, but he could vaguely assume.

Even the cruel and ruthless Pentashade Dragon God had its races and spawns. The only existences that could cause the gods to set aside their differences in the past in order to join forces together … could only be Chaos that was called the Evil Gods, which were wandering in the void.

As the warrior was deep in thoughts, footsteps came from the stairs that led straight to the top floor of the liege’s residence.

No need for sight and smell, the warrior could already tell who was running up the stairs just by listening to the vibration on the rock stairs caused by the footsteps.

“Suralno, why are you back from Winter Fort now?”

The warrior turned around and curiously asked the humanoid blue dragon, who appeared calm, “Do you have something to report to me?”

“That’s right.”

The surprising thing was that Suralno actually responded the warrior cheerfully, “I have just thought about some things… and I think that I should tell you.”

He paused for a moment, then the blue-haired ‘elf’ inhaled and sighed out loud.

“Lord Count, do you want to hear about the history of the dragon race?”