"Congratulations, child of mine, on overcoming the Sea of Mystic Snakes and passing the Test of Strength. You have relied on nothing but yourself to accomplish what many of my descendants failed to since time ancient. You might think I am wrong, but the runic weapon and your doppelganger are a part of you."
An archaic, manly voice echoed in the chamber, ringing their ears.
Roy and Shadowless thought that he was indeed right.
"We can be counted as a part of your strength," Shadowless said to Roy.
"I know." Roy nodded at him.
What they didn't know was that they had misinterpreted his words.
Of the three, only the righteous knight didn't misunderstand him.
'Ye Olde soul, It isn't something he should know before blooming." The righteous knight glared at the floor, a throaty sound sounding similar to a man clearing his throat coming out of his mouth. "Don't mess it up."
"I won't!" The archaic soul's voice could only be heard by the Righteous Knight and vice versa.
Roy and Shadowless were unable to determine where it originated from as it sounded in multiple places simultaneously.
Thus, they looked around in search of the source of the sound but failed to find it.
Roy scrutinized every inch of the chamber, even the giant egg, but as if some power was interfering with his skill, he failed to inspect even the simplest of walls.
It sounded in their ears once again.
"Child... you have impressed me by overcoming a hundred and thirty thousand familiars of a Water Celestial, each one to two stages above you."
Suddenly, something resembling a will-O-the-wisp rose from the ground, hovering close to Roy. It was excluding dense murderous intent. It was so dense that it could be felt. The rusty, bitter smell of blood filled the air. Shadowless instinctively took him as a threat to his creator's life and attacked him immediately. The soul, as if it could see everything happening in its surrounding, merely released a hum. Heat waves gushed out of it, forcing Shadowless a hundred feet backwards. Not a single one hurt Roy and rather enveloped him in a fatherly hug. He felt as if he was hugged by his grandfather, the man who ran the orphanage back on Earth, and his eyelashes trembled. He came to a realization that this soul wouldn't harm him.
Shadowless, who had lost his calm due to its murderous aura, intended to attack it again.
"Stop." However, Roy waved his hand at Shadowless, stopping him from releasing magic at it. "He means us no harm."
The soul stopped radiating intense heat and floated closer to Roy, sitting on his shoulder as if he was an old man that needed support to stand up.
"I have only seen that happening a few times in my life. It makes me happy to see that I have a descendant like you, one who is fated for greatness." The soul said to Roy as wings popped out of it.
Slowly, it transformed into a tiny dragon.
The dragon was red, having many sharp scales of the same color. It had a small horn on its head, and its claws and feet were small like a baby's.
All in all, it looked cute, like a hamster, and not at all majestic.
Roy guessed who it might be, but because of how it appeared to look, he found it hard to believe what he guessed.
"Umm, so you are my ancestor?" Roy questioned the unknown little dragon.
The tiny dragon nodded at him, "I go by many names, but I am most famously known as the Master of Eternal Flames, the Crimson Dragon renowned throughout the Thousand Great Worlds. You may best know me as the creator of this trial ground or your Great Ancestor, Yulran Tragon, the Great Deva!"
Many years ago, this crimson dragon was forced to abandon his cave. He flew from one world to another to run away from his enemies, and they chased after him relentlessly, wanting to slay him.
After a great battle, he dropped to Far West Major Realm, injured and so exhausted that he was forced into his human form.
A young maiden picked his injured self from a forest, thinking he was a human, and took care of him.
Eventually, he fell in love with her and mated with her.
Thereafter, he started a clan with her.
That clan was known as Baldwin.
He named them after his grandfather.
Roy's eyebrows raised at him in surprise, which quickly turned to dissatisfaction.
If this guy was still alive, where the heck was he when the Baldwin Clan faced disaster and their numbers dwindled to a mere three hundred? Where was he when his descendants were hunted by Voss in the place he himself created? Why was he still to clean up the ancestral land of corrupted souls? Why was he letting them kill his leftover descendants?!
"An evil god called Voss has infiltrated this land centuries ago, hunting down pure-blooded for their bloodlines. That thing orchestrated the death of no less than 28 members of our clan. Why haven't you dealt with it?"
Roy's hands curled into a fist.
Yulran could feel Roy would punch him if his answer didn't satisfy him.
"This is just a wisp of my soul, incapable of suppressing Aura Masters, and that damned devil Voss is stronger than Grandmasters."
"What about the true you?"
"Just the gaze of my True Body is enough to deal with that bastard, but I can't fly back to the Far West Major Realm. No one can. Death… that bastard… is sealing the way in and out of it!"
"Death?" Roy's eyebrows raised, feeling like he was on to a deepest, darkest, and greatest secret. "Who is it?"
"He… it's best if you don't know of him." The dragon scratched his head. "Now that you know he is an entity, you shouldn't causally think of him. Better yet, outside this trial ground, don't think about him at all and don't call out to him either, or his gaze will be directed to you, and then... endless trouble will be drawn to you."
Roy nodded at him. "I understand."
Curses and stuff existed in this world, so he didn't find it strange to believe that thinking of Death would attract his attention his way now that he knows he exists in Far West and is an entity living in the realms of the living.
"Enough chit-chat. The energy in this wisp of my soul is running dry. I don't have long to live. So I will go straight to the main point. I have rewards for you. Accept them!" Yulran Tragon said to Roy in a hurry.
"What reward?"
Roy's eyes lit up in joy. Anything that a dragon has to give was bound to be all-powerful, no? He was looking forward to it!
The dragon raised its tiny claws and clenched them.
All the carcasses in the chamber disappeared, dissolving into nothing.
That's what Shadowless and the righteous knight saw.
However, because of the special effect of his passive title, Roy saw a completely different scenery than them.
It looked like they vanished when in actuality, they just transformed into streams of a blue and gold color.
The blue streams merged with one another, fusing, becoming a river.
In an instant, it rushed into Shadowless, entering his sea of magic, rapidly nourishing it.
『Ding! Congratulation. Your sea of magic that you have blessed to Shadowless has increased to the size of a rank-3 mage!』
『10000 units of mana can be stored in it』
The same thing happened to the golden streams. It's just they bypassed both righteous knight and Shadowless, entering Roy and nourishing his inner world.
『Ding! Congratulation. The size of your inner world has increased tremendously.
『Your aura storage capacity now rivals a Peak-Level Aura Master!』
『You can store a hundred thousand units of aura in your body!』
