Battlefield of Memories

The sky had only just begun to brighten when the reassembled envoy convoy drove out of camp.

A guard unit made up of twenty Storm Knights parted ways with the main group there, tasked with escorting the wounded and the bodies of their fallen comrades back to Farum Azula, while the others headed northeast toward Kallen City in an even tighter formation.

In the reorganized party, the ancient dragon elder Merrell led the way at the very front. The flying dragon elder Atok, who had suffered some minor injuries the night before, was assigned to hold the rear. As for Guerel and Ekzykes, each rode a Dragonscale Horse, guarding Lucia's carriage on either side without leaving it for even a step. With defenses on this level, even a demigod would not be able to easily break through the line and threaten the ancient dragon prince.

Inside the carriage, Lucia laid his Dragonscale Blade and Samuel's Godskin Stitcher across his knees. As his palm passed over the two sharp blades, the life-and-death battle from the night before kept replaying in his mind.

This was the first time he had seen a "hero"-level figure from The Lands Between go all out in reality. Samuel's strength, speed, the divine power contained within his body, and the might of his battle arts and incantations had crushed him across the board, even slightly surpassing Elder Atok. If the forty-eight elders of Sky City were all regarded as belonging to the "hero" tier of combat power, then that Godskin Noble was undoubtedly in the upper ranks among them.

Using that as a baseline and extrapolating upward, Lucia now had a rough idea of the strength of the various demigods in the Shattering War, and even of those of still higher status, such as "Eternal Queen" Marika, "Golden Order" Radagon, and "Warrior King" Godfrey.

In short, they were all very strong—and strong far beyond what the game had shown. When it came down to it, Lucia's so-called "understanding" of them was only built on countless duels across two thousand hours of game experience, but in reality, the powerful figures of The Lands Between would never be limited by game mechanics or presentation. For example, Radahn, the strongest demigod who would later become famous for sealing the starry sky—after witnessing Samuel's formidable combat power, even if Radahn could truly unleash a move on the level of Chibaku Tensei, it would not be surprising.

As he thought, Lucia once again summoned his status panel on the level of consciousness. During the period right after he had crossed over, he had spent who knew how much effort studying its specific functions, but the conclusion he had reached was that—aside from accurately reflecting his attributes and skills, the damned thing was useless.

Yet this time, the instant his gaze fell on the panel, a thunderous boom suddenly rang out in his mind. For a moment, it was as if countless great bells and bronze chimes were pealing in unison deep within his soul. The scenery before his eyes shifted in streams of light and flashing shadows, and a vast, boundless starry sky slowly unfolded before him!

"This... what the fuck?"

After his brain crashed for a full half minute, Lucia began to examine his surroundings. The ground beneath his feet was pitch-black like a mirror, stretching endlessly toward the edge of the world. He then turned his gaze toward the starry sky. The firmament above him was dim and deathly still, with countless stars large and small spread across the air, like burned-out remnants, and like solemn, majestic tombstones.

In this space, his soul and body both seemed so insignificant, like a speck of dust in a vast sea. And so, when Lucia looked up at the starry sky, his entire mind was unknowingly seized by it, sinking completely into that sorrowful yet magnificent atmosphere.

He did not know how long had passed before he suddenly snapped back to his senses. He took deep breaths to calm his pounding heart, and at the same time, he could not help staggering half a step backward.

Just then, his leg suddenly bumped into something hard, and his body naturally sat backward. When he turned his head to look, it was actually a chair that had caught his backside—the very high-backed chair he had placed in his study in Sky City. And when his arm dropped, another familiar desk appeared out of thin air, just in time to support his wrist!

After staring blankly for quite a while, a thought stirred in Lucia's mind. He reached out and grasped at the air, and a teacup immediately appeared between his fingers, filled with more than half a cup of fragrant warm tea. He tentatively took a sip. The temperature and taste of the tea were exactly the same as in the outside world.

Next, he made a whole series of attempts. As long as it was a material that existed in the reality of The Lands Between, the vast majority would turn into reality the moment the thought arose in his mind, projected into this space. The scope included not only all kinds of common items, but even some extremely rare mineral materials, and even weapons and armor forged through special craftsmanship.

As long as he wished it, he could even create living beings within a certain limit of power level, such as "Storm Knights," "Raya Lucarian Sorcerers," and "Trolls." However, these creatures seemed to have no souls, merely hollow shells.

But when the level of the test was raised again, targeting famous heroes and even demigods of The Lands Between, this creation function failed. Not only that, even the various weapons wielded by these figures that contained their special abilities could not be replicated, such as Radahn's Starscourge Greatsword, the Gloam-Eyed Queen's Godslayer's Greatsword, Marika's Hammer, and so on.

Soon, Lucia realized the source of all these anomalies. His mental power in this space seemed to have been greatly strengthened, almost to the point of "whatever he imagined came true." Aside from those high-level existences that touched upon the laws by which the world operated, everything could be mimetically constructed by him using his vast, abyssal mental power.

After reaching this conclusion, he slowly exhaled and once again carefully observed this space from a scrutinizing perspective, constantly making various probes with his mental power. Facts proved that the ground beneath his feet and the surrounding environment could all change according to his will. Only one place did not respond: the "extinguished" starry sky above his head.

In just a few short minutes, Lucia had already tried more than a dozen methods. He could make the curtain of the heavens behind those stars glow, and he could also completely cover the extinguished stars with a normal starry sky, but there was no way to light them up themselves.

"Isn't there even one normal star shining?" Lucia muttered.

At that exact moment, he, who had been staring at the sky all along, suddenly noticed two extremely faint glimmers of starlight. One star was located at the very center of the sky, while the other was in the northwestern border. However, though they were called "glimmers," in reality, the two stars only released the slightest, almost imperceptible speck of light after a very long interval. It was only because Lucia's current mental power was truly too powerful that he could distinguish them from the surrounding stars.

When Lucia focused his mind on the star in the center, it suddenly shot out from the starry sky with a whoosh, turning into a meteor that swept before his eyes. Looking at it up close, the star was entirely composed of a glass-like material, and sealed within it was actually the illusory image of a silver-white ancient dragon!

Lucia's expression shook—that ancient dragon was none other than his own dragonified state!

At the same time, countless rays of radiance poured out from that star, weaving into a screen of light in midair—

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Name: Lucia-Sancus

Race: Ancient Dragon (Royal Family)

Level: 60

Available Rune Points: 15

Attributes: Vigor 30, Mind 15, Endurance 15, Strength 25, Dexterity 20, Intelligence 9, Faith 15, Arcane 10

Skills: Ancient Dragon Battle Arts (unranked), Storm Swordsmanship (unranked)

Legendary Abilities: Dragonblood Inheritance (locked), Memory Battlefield (unlocked)

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The instant he clearly saw its contents, a storm of shock surged through Lucia's heart—this was the very status panel he had looked over countless times these past few days, but only now, at this very moment, did he see the entry for "Available Rune Points" for the first time!

Among the two legendary abilities, "Dragonblood Inheritance" was the potential possessed by every ancient dragon royal with the name Sancus. As an ancient dragon grew, so long as their mental power reached a level sufficient to bear the inheritance, they could undo the seal deep within their bloodline on their own and begin learning the contents of that inheritance.

As for this "Memory Battlefield," Lucia looked around. It was probably referring to this space, right? From the looks of it now, the status panel's newly unlocked leveling and point-allocation function was probably also one of this space's effects.

Suppressing his excitement, he seriously considered how to allocate his points. Since he was currently still unclear on how Rune Points increased, he had to make sure the points he had were used where they mattered most, maximizing his current combat power. Otherwise, if he ran into another round of assassination, the enemy might not necessarily be another Godskin Noble who just so happened to be knocked down by a single Uplifting Aromatic from him.

"First, raise Vigor to 40!" After a moment, Lucia made his final decision.

Ancient dragons were powerful beings already known for their physical qualities. The ancient dragon scales covering their entire bodies naturally provided them with a layer of defense that was almost invulnerable to blades and spears. Assuming that the upper limit for a single attribute was still 99, putting Vigor up to 40 should at least ensure that he would not get inexplicably one-shot by some powerful figure, right?

As for the remaining 5 points, Lucia also followed the idea of maximizing his strengths and put them all into Strength, raising it straight to 30 in one go.

After the final confirmation, a surging current of heat immediately swept through his entire body. With the support of the Memory Battlefield's mental power, Lucia distinctly felt the force of his heartbeat in his chest rise greatly. As his blood surged, the feedback from his bones, muscles, and meridians all became stronger.

Beaming with satisfaction, he admired his level 75 status panel. Suddenly, the corner of his eye caught an extremely discordant number, and his good mood instantly vanished into thin air.

"Damn it, I forgot to at least raise Intelligence to double digits!"