CHAPTER 40: DRAGONBLOOD METEORIC CORE (2)

The Fire Python then activated his skill (Blazing Cataclysm). A storm of crimson fire spiraled outward, melting stone and turning the air itself into a scorching blaze.

Nyxrael barely had time to raise his sword when the massive serpent lunged at him, murderously fast. Its jaw opened wide, revealing a vortex of fire ready to swallow him.

Cassian’s eyes sharpened as he saw an opening. Then he immediately used his Luminous Severance and Flash Step skills.

Light exploded in the cave as a radiant burst, leaving afterimages burned into the air. Cassian reappeared directly above the Fire Python’s exposed neck.

His sword lifted high, brilliance gathering along its edge like a crescent moon forged from sunlight.

"Die."

He swung his sword down, shooting a radiant wave of pure light downward, slashing through flames, flesh, and scale as if slicing through air.

Swoosh!

The attack instantly decapitated Fire Python, killing it in an instant.

Cassian landed lightly beside the corpse, the glow of his blade fading slowly. He flicked the blood from his sword and sheathed it calmly.

"It’s dead now," he said calmly, as if he hadn’t just slain a Peak Legendary beast with a single strike.

Cassian glanced toward the fist-sized red mineral atop the rock.

"Let’s take our treasure." He said with a satisfied smile.

After he looked at it for a few moments, Cassian gave up on identifying it and threw it away to James.

As James looked at the red fist-sized mineral flying toward him, he heard the system’s voice explaining its information.

This small thing was called Dragonblood Meteoric Core, a mineral formed where dragon blood once splattered onto molten rock. It could stimulate those at the Peak Epic Rank’s life force and strengthen their body, helping them to step into the Legendary Rank.

Using this thing to break through into the Legendary Rank actually made their bodies far stronger compared to others at the same rank as long as they could bear the violet energy until the end.

"Dad, can I have this?" James asked hesitantly since he knew the real value of this thing, which could be considered as an extremely precious treasure that money couldn’t buy.

Cassian raised an eyebrow. "Do you know its uses?"

"Yeah." James nodded with a bitter smile.

"You can have it then." Cassian waved his hand casually as if it was nothing.

"Thanks, Dad." James smiled brightly, genuinely feeling grateful that his father didn’t even ask how he knew about it, etc.

He planned on letting Nyxrael take it when he reached the Peak Epic-ranked knight since it was still a long way for him to reach that rank anyway.

His current plan was to roam around, experiencing the outside world after he reached Platinum Rank Knight and surpassed those young masters from the other ducal houses.

At that time, it was enough for him to not stand out too much by just reaching Platinum Rank Knight. At most, people would either speculate that the Steelhearts were hiding James’s real talent and he was really good at acting or that he might have stumbled upon something that changed him completely.

That’s why what mattered the most when he roamed around was not his strength but Nyxrael’s, since Ghost knew that someone might even have an idea about him at that time.

"When you reach the Peak Epic Knight, use it to break through to the Legendary Rank Knight. Don’t forget to drink the golden liquid while using this so that there won’t be any incident." James tossed it to Nyxrael casually.

"Thank you, My Lord." Nyxrael cupped his fists and bowed slightly, expressing his gratitude that James asked for the treasure for him instead of using it himself.

"Is it to help someone in breaking through to Legendary Rank?" Cassian raised his eyebrows, as he had never expected such an effect.

"Yes, Dad. Not only that, their physical body will get strengthened and become far stronger than those of the same rank." James explained and smiled bitterly. "Do you want to use it on Uncle Gareth instead? It’ll be fine for Nyxrael even if he doesn’t use it to break through into the Legendary Rank anyway."

Cassian knew James’ worry and immediately waved his hand with a smug smile. "Don’t underestimate your uncle. The reason why he’s still in the Epic Knight and hasn’t even reached the peak yet is entirely because I threw all the work to him while I’ve been focusing on improving my own strength, as this was the best scenario that we could do at that time."

Now that his father had mentioned it, James realized that his father was usually away and barely at home. Back then, Cassian was guarding at the border most of the time under the pretext of cultivating in the cave with Armand.

"Just use it, Nyx. The stronger you are, the better it’s going to be since I’m counting on you to take care of my son." He patted Nyxrael’s shoulder with a satisfied smile.

"Don’t worry, I’ll protect him with my life on the line. And, thank you for giving away such an opportunity." Nyxrael replied.

Cassian responded with a bright smile before waving his hand and saying, "Let’s head back home now since we’ve somewhat accomplished our objectives coming here and even obtained a priceless treasure."

Subsequently, they headed back but went through a different route, as they wanted to try their luck while avoiding people’s eyes in case some people were stationed in the Steelhearts’ surroundings.

On the way back, they seemed to have run out of luck, as they didn’t come across many things, and James didn’t even detect anything useful.

That was until... They were a few minutes away from reaching the Steelhearts’ manor when James suddenly heard a system notification and instantly stopped and looked toward the location that the system pointed at.

It was oakmoss around a fist-sized big rock near a tree.

"Finally found another one." James smiled satisfiedly because he had found two ingredients that could be used as fixatives.

The other one was from the cedarwood oil, which could be made from the cedar tree.

The cedar trees themselves were the most valuable thing he had found so far because from them alone, he could obtain two things.