CHAPTER 37: ROAMING THE BLACKFANG MOUNTAINS

"You don’t need to think too much about it. He’s just an entitled crown prince," Cassian snorted, clearly feeling irritated. "Who does he think he is? He didn’t even send an official notice and just tossed us an informal message saying he’ll be visiting the Steelhearts within a few days without even telling us the reason why."

"Do you have a plan in mind regarding our current situation and what we’re going to do with the crown prince later on?" James asked, as he wanted to know the plan ahead so that he could act accordingly.

Then, Cassian explained the plan to James while walking back toward the pond’s location.

Afterward, they came back to the pond. Cassian immediately found a place and started to recuperate from his injuries, as he had gone through a lot today. As for James, he also used this time on absorbing the energy from the liquid as much as he could while waiting for the day to change and get another daily reward.

Yesterday, when he was on the way back to the Steelhearts after recruiting Eldric, he received the daily reward as they camped in the forest mid-journey. However, the reward he had received was something worthless that he didn’t even want to talk and think about.

That’s why he hoped that the next daily reward was something at least he found useful.

Around eight hours later, James heard a notification from the system that he had been waiting for.

However, after checking the reward, he was disappointed to find that it was just another trash. It was an ugly robe made out of Silver-ranked Wolf’s skin.

Seven hours later, everyone opened their eyes and looked toward a middle-aged man with short black hair and a beard. He was one of the two knights who had mastered the 5th Move.

"Cole is breaking through to Epic Rank Knight!" Someone blurted out.

"Silence!" Cassian said in a low voice, reminding everyone to not disturb at this critical time.

The energy in the surrounding area gathered toward Cole as a vortex of energy could be seen above his head.

A few moments later, a burst of energy erupted from Cole’s body the moment he opened his eyes.

"Congratulations on becoming the first among us to step into the Epic Rank." A Peak Platinum knight walked toward him and congratulated him, followed by the others.

"It’s merely luck, you guys will catch up sooner or later anyway." Cole waved his hand modestly while scratching his head.

Then, he bowed deeply toward Armand and Cassian as he expressed his gratitude. "Thank you for giving me this opportunity. I’ll never forget this kindness."

Armand and Cassian waved his hand and told him to not make things awkward by doing such things, as they could be said to be a family who has gone through thick and thin together.

A few moments later, Cassian looked at Gareth and said, "Brother, you and Halden should return first and wait for the crown prince. I’m going to accompany my son for a while. Gather two-thirds of our knights and hunt in the outer regions of the Blackfang Mountains until the crown prince leaves our territory."

He then glanced at Cole. "Your first task as an Epic Knight is to oversee them. Make sure nothing happens."

Cole immediately stood up and cupped his fists. "Yes, Duke!"

Cassian shook his head helplessly and chuckled. "Not literally right now, you need to stabilize your rank first."

"Alright, that’s it... Let’s go, James." He clapped his hand and waved his hand at James.

Cassian, James, and Nyxrael went outside the cave and roamed around under Cassian’s lead.

This time, James wasn’t being carried by Nyxrael, as he said that the search could only be done slowly. The system told him that the system had the scanning function, as they could scan things within James’ surroundings depending on his strength, meaning that the stronger James’s strength was, the wider the system’s range.

He actually knew what kind of liquid it was the moment he scooped a handful of it, as the system had informed him about it, but he had to act as if he didn’t know since it would be impossible for him to know when his father and grandfather had no idea what it was.

Apparently, the golden liquid was something that the system described as Spiritual Essence Dew.

Spiritual Essence Dew was formed when the spiritual energy in an area became so dense that it could no longer remain in its gaseous state. Once the concentration reached a critical point, the excess energy naturally condensed into droplets of pure liquid essence.

However, this Spiritual Essence Dew was not an ordinary one. The system told him that the reason why it contained healing properties was because there should be an abundance of spiritual herbs on the other side.

Their medicinal essence should’ve seeped into the surrounding energy over time, and when that energy condensed into dew, it naturally carried the herb’s restorative power.

That’s why James was eager to unravel the real treasure ground, as there should be a spiritual herb garden that’s filled with high-level spiritual herbs.

While they were roaming the Blackfang Mountains, they occasionally met a few beasts at the Epic Ranks. But since their time was tight, Cassian showed his power and scared them away.

After searching quite deep into the mountains, James noticed many huge trees ahead of them. At first glance, he didn’t recognize what they were, but after coming closer, he noticed that they looked like cedar trees, with the only difference being their huge size.

The cedar trees ranged from around 40 meters to 75 meters. The moment James was around 10 meters away from the cedar trees, his mind was buzzing with a series of notifications from the system.

Ding!

Ding!

Ding!

When he checked the notifications, he instantly stopped and opened his eyes wide. Naturally, Cassian and Nyxrael also stopped and looked at James curiously.