Garen's first plan was to slay the Double-Horned Flood Dragon.☠🐲 💝🐻
The first reason, of course, was to gain experience.
The second was that he had his eye on the dragon's sinews.
It was said that Double-Horned Flood Dragon sinews were incredibly tough, making them the ideal material for bowstrings.
After honing his archery skills in the Magical Beast Mountain Range, Garen had long since mastered them. But his Purple Dragon Bow could no longer keep up with him, and needed an upgrade to meet his demands when facing Saint Realm magical beasts.
At the heart of the Blazing Sun Desert, jagged rock formations rose dozens or even hundreds of meters high, encircling the area. In the center, a python-like flood dragon with a pair of horns on its head glared upward at the humanoid tiger monster standing atop a Golden Sun Eagle.
The Saint Realm Twin-Horned Flood Dragon sensed the Saint Realm auras of the monster and the Golden Sun Eagle beneath him.
"Human? This is Douglas's territory. Are you looking to start a fight?"
Although the Double-Horned Flood Dragon sensed the Saint Realm auras coming from both Garen and the Golden Sun Eagle, he didn't flee. With the bloodline of the Dragon race, he instead tried to drive Garen away.
Garen sent a telepathic message to the Golden Sun Eagle.
"When the fight starts, use your judgment and sneak attack it from the side."
The Golden Sun Eagle had only recently advanced to the Saint Realm, and its realm had yet to stabilize. Still, it should be able to help out in a fight between Saint Realm opponents.
Garen didn't bother talking to the Double-Horned Flood Dragon. He drew the God-Slaying Blade and flew toward it at speed.
Waves of tangible baleful aura enveloped Garen, making him seem like a demon god descending upon the world.
As Garen approached, the snarling Double-Horned Flood Dragon felt the baleful aura disrupt its body and internal energy. Its overall strength immediately dropped by thirty percent.
Even so, it showed no fear. It opened its mouth and instantly unleashed a level-nine spell, Meteor Shower.
Countless fireballs, each five or six meters across, came raining down straight at Garen.
The Golden Sun Eagle reacted quickly, conjuring countless Wind Blades over a meter long.
"Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh..."
"Boom, boom, boom..."
The Wind Blades collided with the fireballs. Most were destroyed and burst into scattered sparks.
But the Double-Horned Flood Dragon controlled several to crash into Garen. He struck several times in succession, and a flash of blade shadows shattered every fireball, costing him a few precious moments.
When he looked back at the Double-Horned Flood Dragon, its entire body was already covered by armor like diamond, as though it had put on a transparent garment.
What the hell? Magical beasts could use Saint Earth Guardian Armor too?
Garen wasn't surprised for long. Wind gathered beneath his feet, and in the blink of an eye, he crossed several hundred meters.
"Violent Slash"—a move created using the Profundity of Explosion, a Mystery of Fire.
The God-Slaying Blade blazed with black and red light as he brought it down on the Double-Horned Flood Dragon's head.
"Crack, crack."
The might of that single strike was terrifying!
The diamond-grade Saint Earth Guardian Armor, its strongest defense, split apart beneath the blow.
Before Garen could attack again, the Double-Horned Flood Dragon suddenly reared up, its enormous body rapidly coiling in on itself.
"Death Coil!"
The ultimate killing move of serpent-like magical beasts.
Garen was startled. He unleashed his speed in an instant and flashed a hundred meters away.
"That was close. If that enormous body had wrapped around me and squeezed me tight, I wouldn't have been able to move or bring my physical strength and battle qi to bear. I'd really have been in danger."
Now that he was wary of the Double-Horned Flood Dragon's move, Garen began to make full use of his speed advantage.
Black silhouettes flashed across the Double-Horned Flood Dragon's body. Garen struck once and immediately pulled back, never wasting a motion. He moved so fast that more than a dozen afterimages appeared.
In no time, the diamond-grade Saint Earth Guardian Armor shattered.
Harried by Garen's speed, the Double-Horned Flood Dragon lost all composure. Its huge head snapped out again and again, but every bite caught only an afterimage.
Before long, the Double-Horned Flood Dragon was covered in wounds from the God-Slaying Blade, its flesh mangled. But it was simply too large; even wounds more than a meter deep weren't enough to kill it.
Garen tried to focus his attacks on one spot, but the Double-Horned Flood Dragon kept twisting, leaving him no choice but to wear it down.
"No wonder magical beasts that reach the Saint Realm are considered equal to peak Saint Realm humans. Their huge bodies give them tremendous physical strength and defense, and they store several times more energy than humans. Their basic attributes alone are ten times stronger than ours."
If Garen kept wearing it down, he could certainly kill the Double-Horned Flood Dragon. But even with the Blessing Gem in his White Tiger Armor, he was already consciously conserving battle qi. He would probably run out before he could finish the beast.
Just then, Garen received a telepathic message from the Golden Sun Eagle, and his heart leaped with joy.
After pretending to be short on battle qi and making a few feints, Garen suddenly flashed aside.
"Whoosh..."
A sharp, piercing sound rang out. Fine cracks appeared in space as the attack followed right behind Garen, who had just moved away.
Wind-style forbidden spell, Dimensional Blade.
"Slice!"
The Double-Horned Flood Dragon had been completely focused on Garen and had long forgotten the Saint Realm magical beast in the sky. Already covered in wounds, it was caught off guard and cut cleanly in two.
After its tail thrashed a few times in unwilling defiance, the Double-Horned Flood Dragon's soul was still dragged away to the Underworld.
Ding: You killed the Saint Realm magical beast Double-Horned Flood Dragon and gained 2,239 experience.
Garen ignored the experience. He had noticed a glowing orb float up from the Double-Horned Flood Dragon's corpse.
"I wonder what kind of great gear a Saint Realm magical beast will drop."
Garen flew over, his heart filled with excitement and apprehension.
Ding: Congratulations! You obtained one Soul Golden Bead.
"What the hell? Really? A Saint Realm magical beast dropped a Soul Golden Bead? That's incredible!"
A Soul Golden Bead was a treasure that could strengthen the soul. They were almost impossible to refine at the Saint Realm, except for members of special races. Even among God Realm beings, only a tiny fraction of those who had studied the soul could refine them, and the process consumed a great deal of resources and took a very long time.
Soul Golden Beads were extremely valuable even to God Realm powerhouses. In the Higher Plane, a Low-level Divine Artifact was worth just a few Ink Stones, while a Soul Golden Bead was worth a hundred thousand.
But Garen figured the system had probably given him a good drop because it was his first time killing a Saint Realm magical beast, like a first-kill reward for a boss in a game. He probably wouldn't get so lucky again.
After putting away the Soul Golden Bead, he dug out the Double-Horned Flood Dragon's Magic Crystal Core and extracted its sinews. He placed the Saint Realm Magic Crystal Core and the sinews in his Space Ring, then sat down where he was and tried to absorb the immense Soul Power inside the Soul Golden Bead.
Threads of Soul Power flowed into the Sea of Consciousness in Garen's mind. He felt wonderfully refreshed, and his thoughts grew much clearer. He also sensed the Wind Element Law and the Law of Fire Explosion much more clearly.
As his Soul Power increased, his mental strength gradually grew stronger as well. Garen sensed that his Magic Level was slowly rising.
After absorbing less than one-thousandth of the essence in the Soul Golden Bead, Garen felt that the Soul Power in his Sea of Consciousness had reached saturation.
He checked his stats.
Warrior Level: 9 (373,474/1,000,000 experience)
Wind-style
Laws and Mysteries: "Wind Element" (990,000/20,000,000 experience)
Fire-style
Laws and Mysteries: "Profundity of Explosion" (1,260,000/50,000,000)
Transformation Level: Saint Realm
Magic Level: 9 (150,000/1,000,000 experience)
In just this short time, his comprehension of the Laws and Mysteries had gained several hundred thousand experience, and the boost to his mental strength had also added over a hundred thousand experience to his Magic Level.
The soul really was important. No wonder that, after reaching Low-level God and strengthening their souls, people comprehended laws hundreds or thousands of times faster than they had in the Saint Realm.
Thanks to "Letting the Wind Carry Me" for sending six recommendation votes every day, and thanks to everyone else who voted, too. I wrote a chapter this morning, and I'll be watching the match this afternoon. Anyone following the S13 finals?
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