Three heavy breaths could be heard in the cold floor boss room. At the center, a glowing light fell upon a chest and scattered on the ground, a pair of minotaur horns, scattered armor pieces and a huge double bladed axe which still radiated faint traces of mana that had coated it for such a massive battle.

Stuck, face down, against the right wall from the door, Jin had shallow breaths while his ring was slightly bent and only one spirit hammer near him. His left arm was blooded and the bones of the elbow patrudded out.

Near the middle of the room, Storm was even worse off as cracks covered his back spike, horns and he was missing almost half of the spikes of his tail. His two hind legs were either cracked or outright broken but it wasn’t exposed. The green lightning traveled around that area closing off veins to stop internal bleeding. His dragon-like vitality wasn’t doing much because he didn’t have a great deal of mana compared to adult drakes.

Finally, Logan was collapsed behind the pile of items dropped by the boss.

His skin was ruptured, his left arm had been cleaved off and he was bleeding a lot.

He had several broken ribs and was lucky it hadn’t punctured his lungs during the fight.

Jade was desperately working and with a mix of all her healing skills she was treating Logan first to not let him get crippled.

She used acupoint needles to seal his blood vessels to the arm, used magic to hold the shoulder while she fused the cut bone of his shoulder and then pulled the joint together to seal that.

She stopped and drank mana regeneration pills and quickly began to use focused healing magic and first connected the veins and nerves before removing the needles.

The most important was to first allow blood to flow.

She took out specialized blood production medicine and fed Logan who had fallen unconscious. He had pushed himself to the limit with his clad. His body definitely handled it much better, he could safely use half of the output in the same manner that he used low output before but again, he needed maximum output and there was a clear reason for that. The boss was D rank.

It didn’t matter if he was the weakest D rank or just a little stronger, his speed was also D rank and that was devastating. They were only E rank.

Storm and Logan thankfully had lightning clad to buff their speed but the boss had immense combat experience.

This is also the reason why lower floors to this were so filled up, the 40th floor boss was that big of a power jump.

They only beat it because Logan, Storm and Jin had combined their powers to summon up a massive thunderstorm which Jin channeled into a mighty hammer that finally destroyed it. The boss had a monstrous regeneration ability. Minotaur is a very strange evolution for goblins but at the end of the day, it is actually a higher form of ogres and it has their immense regeneration capability.

What had won the fight was that the brain had been fried from the immense discharge and even then the boss still had fight left in him which left the three in this state until one final hit from Logan to the brain finished it.

Jade had managed to stay out of the path of destruction and used blessings and healing to sustain their endurance and at times she appeared with healing medication to aid the process.

That said, after it was done, the most vital thing to do was deal with Logan’s injuries. Jin was a mana body and returning him to the mana pool allows his body to return to a mana form and he can actively repair his own form. Storm on the other hand needed help right after but he had a burning vitality and had told Jade to deal with Logan first before fainting.

After nerves, she connected torn muscles and healed everything until finally connecting the skin.

Then she carefully turned him and removed the chest armor and took out surgical tools and began a field surgery instantly to reach the bones and put them into place while removing all the lost fragments and do a basic healing to make sure they are attached.

She was sweating as she was worried about Storm but after half an hour she got the bones realigned so she closed the openings she made and started using healing to make sure those did not remain open and finally examined the rest of his body. She had to heal some head injuries and check the legs but a lot of his bones were cracked but it was no problem.

She had some healing based identification magic and quickly found internal bleeding and used her needles to seal some veins and another needed to let the blood drain and healed those veins.

When she finished her first aid she was exhausted but he was stable.

She finally did a small spell and touched his forehead forcing his eyes open and breathing hard but she held his hands as he tried to fight.

“Master, calm down please. You’re safe now, we won. Please recall Jin before his injuries turn too serious.” She said and had him lay back down.

Logan looked around and saw Jin. his breathing was rough but after he registered what she said, he sighed and almost fell asleep until she slapped him a bit to wake up and recalled Jin.

The hammers also quickly followed him and returned to his mana pool where it was safe alongside Jin.

“Don’t move, master, I’ve done first aid but you still have a lot of bone damage that i need to take care of after I help storm.” She said and quickly got up and ran to Storm. She used sanitation mana to clean off all her equipment in case Logan and Storm’s blood reacted and caused more trouble. As for illnesses, she doubted anything with dragon type genetics would fall to something like that.

She quickly identified internal hermaging around the broken bones so with uncommon strength you would not expect her to have, she turned him to a more safe position.

She took needles and injecting mana, they lengthened as she activated her ability to see the mana channels and acupoints and along the entire leg, she paralyzed the flow. It instantly stopped the mana flow and caused the defensive power of the scales and hide to drop but in return, it also stopped the healing energy of the green lightning.

She didn’t really care because she quickly sealed all the damaged veins before she started to open the hide and muscles until she reached the bone. There were a lot of fragments that she had to gather up in the muscles before she put the bone in place and started a lengthy healing process to make the outer bone connect before fixing the veins inside the bone.

Then she sealed the opening she made and began to heal the veins after letting the internal blood drain. She had to do this several times until all his broken bones were fixed. The lost spikes she couldn’t do anything about, he would likely regrow them but she gathered all of them as they were mana crystals formed of his body. They were special and likely contained a lot of energy.

When she was done, she released all his vital energies and blood flow. The green lightning instantly began to gather at all the broken bones and surgery areas and heal them better.

She was honestly drained, surgery on a human and one dragon were totally different. A dragon’s body was immensely more powerful and had a higher healing rate you needed to basically combat against.

After she rested, she went to the back spikes and healed them completely, they were future wings and were extremely vital for a dragon as were the horns.

Finally she woke him up and asked what to do with the lost crystal spikes.

He turned his head and opened his jaw, “Toss them… in my mouth.” He said.

She did just that and he swallowed it all before mana began to gather as he began to slowly flow his mana. He was lucky to not get any limbs severed. Jade had to reconnect his mana channels and those points would need to be carefully treated for at least a month so that no lasting damage was left. She would also need to watch to make sure there was no lasting damage.

Thankfully she learned from a chiropractic therapist and could help him while his arm was healing.

She returned to Logan and carefully picked up Arashi with magic, because she still shocked anyone who grabbed her, she put it in his right hand that had been cut. It was vital since that was where the brand was but also to let the effect of her healing instantly take effect.

After that she started using full body healing magic and cast a healing regeneration blessing to improve his healing rate.

When all that was done, she finally decided to rest properly.

The two were down for nearly an hour until their injuries had healed enough to stand up. Of course, having broken legs, Jade instantly shouted at Storm and he was forced into his smallest form and she picked him up so that his recently healed hind legs would not be stressed.

Logan was able to stand up though and stumbled to the sheath, he put Arashi back and took the armor and drops.

“I am going to need new armor.” he muttered. “And higher ranked healing medicine.” he said with a sigh.

They went to the chest and the interior was quite rich.

First was a blue crystal, Logan sensed the energy and it was some kind of different colored lightning, it was something that could definitely upgrade Storm but no one was in any condition.

There were a few spell tomes on water and light magic which Jade took for herself, shockingly there was a skill book for bard skills with drums and lastly was a set of dual daggers that radiated dark mana.

“It is like the drops are specific.” He said.

“Aren’t they supposed to be like this, master? The loot is usually automatic in boss rooms and they usually reward each participant with items that help them grow.” She said.

“I didn’t know that.” He said.

“Yeah but only the first run of the boss room.” She said.

“Did you research that?” He asked.

Jade shook her head, “That is just knowledge is kinda just there from my time as a Dungeon monster. I think everyone has the same thing and knows the general trend of their home dungeon. I think it is only the main features though, like how monsters are made, how certain special features are and some smaller secrets like how boss loot boxes work.” she said.

“That is fine. This is good nonetheless.” Logan said and drew Arashi and put it against the two daggers and they were both pulled in but he didn’t want to waste time.

His body hurt like never before and his arm could barely move.

They finally entered the 40th floor city and were surprised that it was much smaller but it still had a lot of movement and much more dungeon monsters.

He didn’t really waste time and hobbled along to the nearest hospital.

They were shocked at his condition and quickly pulled him. Jade told them all the things she did initially and the doctors came and quickly examined them before administering proper healing to the arms and bone.

Jade watched amazed as the mana channel connection that would have taken a month to heal strengthened completely before it moved on to the nerves then the chopped bone.

Storm was equally healed but in a very large room where they had more professional doctors heal his broken bones.

Very soon the cracks fully sealed showing just how good professionals were still the doctors did say that her surgery had safed them a lot of time.

Cracked bones, healed veins and eventually they were in full health. She was examined in case of injuries but besides some exhausting of mana she was fine.

“Alright, avoid any fighting for about a day.” the doctors said.

“That is fine, we are leaving the dungeon today.” Logan said with a much healthier color.

“Oh, I see, that is good.” the doctor said.

What really hurt was the high prices for the healing but you can’t be expected to not pay a professional healer.

After that they walked out and without really looking back or going to explore, they simply headed to the teleportation area and went down.

Walking outside, Storm took a breath while Jade looked around extremely curious at all the many different things.

They walked a bit and she turned around and looked up. “Amazing, so this is my homeland from outside.” she said.

“Are you fine?” Logan asked.

“Yes master!” she said, turning and smiling brightly.

He smiled back and went to an inn and rented a room before looking at the ship schedule.

“Where are we going?” Jade asked.

“Let me see…” He said and began to mess with the device before it projected a map and he turned it facing the ground. The image instantly expanded until it reached the ground.

Storm came over and held it for Logan.

“This is where we are…” he said and pointed at a red dot before moving his hand to a northern area filled with desert. “This is where we are going. This is called Mortis Desert. It is the biggest desert on Nuntip mainly because of this large chain of mountains to the west.” he said.

“How come?” Jade asked.

“It is because of how the wind currents move.” he said. “Most wind currents come from the west so when they reach these mountains, they are forced to rise up and most of the water in clouds rain down here and are unable to reach the desert. Only in the few rare years when there is a shift when water from the eastern oceans right next to it heats up more than normal does rain fall in the desert but most of it only reaches near the shores. It would take several huge storms coming from all sides to eventually reach the center.” he said.

“Master, are we going because of what Helix said?” Strom asked.

“Yes, I want to purchase a supply of Holy water for Jade. Holy magic is infinitely stronger than light magic for healing. This is even greater when you use blessings because blessings generally mean that the power of heaven has blessed you.” He said.

“Where is that place then?” Jade asked.

“Right here.” Logan said and touched the very heart of the desert. “At the very center, the Saint Paladin established a home in a small oasis that existed there and built a small paradise that became a holy city. His branch of the water god’s religion now is regarded as nearly its own religion because of how different his branch is. He taught his own priests, trained his own paladin order and an angel descended to present him with a Holy Artifact and officially proclaimed him as a saint.” Logan said with clear admiration.

The title of saint isn’t something simple, officially getting this title means that this person was recognized by heaven and has equal standings to celestial servants of gods. When he dies his soul will be reborn into an angelic being and normally not weak ones.

There have been several counts of official saints descending once more after being reborn and their power is immense.

A saint is basically equal to special titles such as Sages.

They are people above the common masses and they have power that matches this.

“We won’t be able to enter without either going back to Eshen and charter a boat, or go to the south coast and travel north on foot. There are no mountains but the land here is just as dangerous if not more as there is still a lot of life in this area.” Logan said.

“Back to Eshen? Is that master’s home?” Jade asked.

“Yes, we both were born there but I am 17 years older than Storm while i raised him from an F rank breed.” He said.

He looked down and then asked for the device and pulled the Eshen map and it included the fill new map counting the taken territory and the archipelago.

“Let’s see, update disaster zones.” He muttered.

The device pinged and after a minute the map appeared.

“It’s already been 3 years in the dungeon and about 4 years since they took the initiative to obtain dungeon cores.” Logan said.

A lot of blue circles appeared.

“What are disaster zones?” Jade asked.

Logan smiled and explained the recent history of Eshen including his own past. Then showed her all the savage mana filled areas.

“Some years ago the country purchased about 3 dungeon cores that would stay within Eshen territory while borrowing 7 others.

Ten dots filled the map. “Dungeons have a vital role of gathering and injecting mana in the air into the earth. This causes mana to become more stable and less out of control. This point here, at the edge of the thunder forest is where i found Storm’s egg originally but in the last 4 years…” He said.

Instantly a red circle expanded from the dungeon spot and over 60% of the expanded forest zone had shrunk. “This is how much the dungeon cleared up mana in the area. It is unlikely that the full extent of the thunder forest will ever return back to the original size because it likely expanded. The higher mana in the area will also make it a bit more dangerous as higher purity mana is filling this area.

Other areas of western Eshen also expanded blue bubbles showing their original size and the present size.

“Hmm, the demonic anomaly is already resolved it seems. There are a few areas that are almost done.” he muttered. “It seems that besides thunder forest which was the biggest expanse of expanded lost land the rest are almost resolved. Within the next 2 years the land’s mana will probably finish stabilizing again.” He said.

“Does master want to go visit?” Jade asked.

Logan shook his head, “No, we will go to Eshen but we will get on the boat to the desert right after.” He said.

Jade found it weird but he was already purchasing all the required tickets.

They went to rest until their flight but Jade and Storm were free to wander. Storm climbed to the roof to get sunlight and Jade eventually found him on top of the inn.

“You worry for our master?” Storm asked.

“I don’t know as much of him unlike you.” she said.

“It makes sense. Before going to Helix, I was already with our master for about two years. We did not adventure because he learned that his father had kept knowledge of mana development from him and he believed just using mana was enough. As you might have noticed in some of his sister’s dialogue when we first met her, their relationship with their father is somewhat strained.” he said.

“So that is why he is not going to stay.” she said.

“Exactly, master is likely to only stay long enough to sell the lesser troll blood for a great sum of money before getting supplies, food, medicine and more for us to travel the desert.” He explained.

She nodded and understood that it was a topic better left untouched until the time to meet Maxwell came.

Soon their flight came and it was directly to the international airstation where they would stock up and head to one of the coastal desert cities.

After settling in, Logan took out the rule book of the Golden Lions.

***

Currently standing in a solemn atmosphere, the young demon prince looked into the room but dared not turn his head.

Growling while walking around, a massive dragon of several dozen meters long. Its scales black as night and the eyes, red as blood.

It walked around them before lowering the head near the two and the giant eyes looked at them.

“You foolishly wish to repeat history.” it said.

“It shall not be repeated, this time, we shall succeed where the first failed.” the father of the young prince said.

The dragon reared back and roared, releasing visible sonic waves and slammed it’s paw on both sides of both.

“You are ignorant of my lord’s greatness and his intent. However, you have already forcefully made a connection with that poor excuse for a demon sword.” he said and turned his head as he switched eyes looking at them. “Unlike you, the boy at the very least knows my lord more than you.” he said and pulled back.

A low grunting growl came from his throat.

This room was a sealing room for this immense being but it was possible to enter and has been entered several times by humans wishing to weaken and extinguish but this time, the demons came to obtain aid.

The clanging of chains that attached to the bones were the wings on its back once were shown how it was a prisoner. The dragon’s own immense power sealed it as its lifeforce kept this spell active.

The father wanted to look at his son to know what he was talking about but suddenly his body was grasped by magic and suddenly was thrown out.

“The generals of this boy, come.” A deep voice came from the dragon and after a moment, a group of children between 6 and 11 walked in and stood behind the young prince. “Your demon blood is awakened but that only makes it easier to find you now. You all must be aware of the legend. Do you wish to follow the path of my lord or the destruction of the delusion?” he asked.

The children frowned and looked at one another before looking at the prince’s back.

“We do not have the strength to sway how our people act. My father possesses that power.” he said.

“Yes, then should you get the opportunity to become your own people, would you repeat my lord’s war?” he asked.

The prince frowned, “The lord wished for peace to reign over the world but humans attacked his family for being a different race. Through the blood and the thirst of his demon sword, he lost the original intent he wished for his war to the thirst of the weapon.” the prince said.

Instantly the dragon grinned, revealing all the fangs. “Good, you are aware of that. The sword was made in an emergency on the day humans attacked the demons and the only magic smith of the time, a friend of the lord and the first magic smith, created his demon sword from the corpses of his lost brethren and he quenched the sword with his own blood. That was a sword of slaughter and it eventually affected my lord. Your weapon is not the demon lord’s and if you wish to follow in the true steps of my lord then you must never have the original sword. You shall be able to live as demons should, the untouchable demon continent in the sky, that is the homeland of demons and even to this day humans cannot penetrate it’s underbelly because demons no longer were limited to their bodies. I shall give you all one of my eggs which i have produced and supplied mana for the last 1,000 years to mature. They will be born unranked and they will possess the ancient demon lord’s mana development technique within their mind. Learn from them, if you truly wish to become the true demon lord who unites the world and brings peace, search for any surviving tribes of the Prana race. They are the true demon race of your origins and the easiest to make your servants.” he said.

One egg for each appeared and upon each egg was a demonic glowing magical symbol.

“Cut your hand and press it upon the symbol to form the bond.” he instructed.

Like that, they each cut their hands and bound the eggs. They all felt the bond.

The dragon finally turned and reached into a scale and within it, a black scroll with a bloody glow appeared and he presented it to the prince.

“Never read this, it is the original art of the order of legend smiths. It is the same as a magic tome of the highest order created from part of my own hide and drawn with my own blood. Choose only the most talented smith and teach him only after he becomes truly loyal.” He said and took out a bone altar. “The final thing, my lord's legend is connected through a blood ritual. A pact of loyalty to his cause and his generals a pact of loyalty to their masters. Only with this pact will the true legend of my lord connect to you. Beware because every continent has a force that is trained to fight true demons but they exist outside the control of any country. If you choose only to form a power in the demon continent, bringing peace and safety for demonkind there, that is your path. If you wish for war, you will discover that the hardships will be even greater than what my lord faced.” he said.

The prince nodded and followed the dragon’s orders and began the ritual.

“I form a pact with the world, to rebuild a home for demonkind and produce a truly peaceful place with or without human kind.” he said and cut his hand.

After that, each general pledged their loyalty and just like the golden lion altar, each obtained an altar.

“These are pact altars, the only people you should trust are those who pledged a blood pact with you. I shall pass you the knowledge of all the rules my lord went by and all the ranks of their loyalty, from these you shall be able to make your own.” it said.

They all collapsed in pain as their brains felt like something drilled inside but thousands of rules and laws set by rank filled their brains and at the end, he nodded.

“It is your future now, outside the delusional hands of those left here. Demons can now freely come and go so when you are ready, you can bring those in the human lands back to the land of demons and form an empire that even humans cannot ignore and must respect.” He said.

Suddenly his mana began to erupt, the chains began trying but a massive magical circle formed above the sealed chamber in the sky and under the children.

“Only a demon lord can survive in the savage lands of the demon continent, your demon bloodline will lead you to a tribe who will house you.” he said.

They suddenly shined and passed through the rock and into the huge one before it burst out and vanished into the sky.

The eyes of the dragon became vacant as the body stood for a moment before it crashed and the life force of the dragon was empty leaving only a corpse.

The heavy pressure was gone and the adults were instantly shocked and ran into the room shocked.

“Where is my son!?” The leader shouted and began to look around. “That magic? Wait, he spoke of something strange, is the demon lord’s legend different from what we know?” the leader said.

“No.” an elder said. He was the oldest among them and was clothed in full black. Red eyes shined as his voice reverberated in the room. “I have lived through the ages, even crippled I know my lord only desires the extinction of mankind who attacked our superior demonkind. They fear our power. They must be destroyed for the resurrection of the demon’s rule!” he said.

The eyes of the many powerful people turned vacant for a moment.

“That is right, the great sir would not lie.” the leader said.

“Yes, this dragon must have decided to ruin our plans but it now died and left behind hundreds of dragon eggs of different qualities! All these demon dragons are perfect for making a dragon army. This disgusting thing’s body is also perfect for making the strongest armor and the strongest legend weapon. Any scale can make a normal magic sword and its bones can create several legend swords alone! It has gifted us the power to make a demon army and we must only find the young prince.” An elder said.

“We must search but we cannot simply rely on a notion of finding him quickly. We shall use the dragon to make a new demon lord sword. When we find the young lord, we shall see which is stronger and the stronger one shall be the one left while the other will be swallowed.” The hidden demon said.

Under the hood, a savage grin crossed his face. The dragon caused him to feel desire, it was a beast it had desired since long ago and it now had the eggs of such a beast.

He walked forward but didn’t choose the biggest, instead he picked the smallest but it had the most hidden but pure magical presence but there were many magical powers protecting it.

He frowned as he saw this and it was clear that this egg was special.

He put it away to eventually break the restrictions and make it his own. He knew the dragon trained the lord’s technique meaning it must have passed along this knowledge to the unborn eggs.

With a powerful enough bond and slavery control, he could obtain it and repair his damaged body to equal or even stronger than the ancient demon lord. As for the prince, he ignored his existence, he had brought the information when he awoke years ago so that he could use the demon lord’s legend to once more reveal the ancient mana development. He would need help from the dragon to rebuild his mana pool which had been destroyed. As for who this was, it was one of the ancient demon lord’s generals who had not fully died but his mana pool was destroyed. To survive, in his last breaths, he cast a spell which forced his body into that of a demon core becoming like the wild ones and to recover. The bond with the lord was destroyed long ago. As for using the techniques of humans, he never thought of it. He despised humans and he looked down on the present demons who were hybrids of humans and demons. Even awakening that bloodline would require years of training to at least B rank to fully revert to pure demons without continuous stimulation from the demon lord’s legend.

He only desired his own rise. He was only lucky that his own innate abilities worked as the world’s mana moved to his control as all demon’s were capable of doing.

The corpse was butchered, then one scale for each egg stored to use as reverse scales and the meat stored in inventory boxes created by the smith. The rest of the scales were stored to be made into weapons and armor while the bones were sent to recreate a new demon lord and demon general swords so that the plans they set into motion would not go to waste.