"Grandmaster… Grandmaster? You are also a freaking Grandmaster? What? How? When?" Alex was completely dumbfounded.
"I gained a few things in the elven territory, thanks to my disciple." Liam gave Lyana a nod and then smiled.
"It didn't show up on the ranking list because I was not there in the usual territories. I am assuming that just like how I wasn't able to communicate with you guys, this one also did not get updated."
"Right." Alex gulped, but she still continued to stare at Liam in shock. She was feeling a lot of things at the moment.
On one hand, she was happy, but on the other, her competitive spirit was killing her. Every second, the person in front of her was simply pulling away from her at lightning speed. Would she ever be able to catch up to him?
"Alright. I have some things to do. So are you going to stay or leave?" Liam asked her again.
"Ah…" Alex dumbly stared. That was right. She had asked if she could watch him forge the souls. But her gaze then fell on the elf sitting in the corner.
Clearly, she only had eyes for Liam, as the elf didn't look away even for a second. She was observing him with deep reverence and an obviously infatuated look… like a groupie.
Alex immediately became self-conscious and embarrassed and ran away. "Sorry, I have a lot of shit to do."
"That's fine." Liam shrugged. Now that he was finally free to get some work done, he summoned Crawford to keep an eye on things and started.
He took the black bead in his hand. He tried to sense the soul inside and grab it just like he had done for the numerous lizardmen's souls. However, as soon as he did, he instantly felt a searing pain in his head.
The wyvern souls were not the same as the lizard souls. While the latter were simply common thugs, the former was a draconian beast. They were not so obedient. There was a lot of leftover anger, resentment, and unwillingness. They wanted to attack Liam even when they were dead.
Liam gritted his teeth as his head started spinning. This was clearly not something he could handle. He decided to let go of the chunk he tried to hold on to and try again later, but how could it be so simple?
As if the wyverns understood his intentions, they started doing the opposite. They readily jumped out of the bead and grabbed Liam. Right now, if he let them go, then he would lose them forever.
"Damn it." Liam gritted his teeth as the pain became increasingly difficult to handle. He knew forging these draconian beasts would be difficult, which was why he had practised a lot but in the end, everything was still useless.
"What is happening?" He had done everything properly, and yet the weight on his mind at the moment was unimaginable. It was as if… he was dealing with a horde of beasts.
Liam suddenly realized what was happening. Instead of one wyvern soul, the damn beasts were coming to him three at once. He was pulling three souls at the same time!
Because he stored the souls in the black bead first without directly forging them, the three souls were sticking to each other like glue. These were probably the strongest of the wyverns if they were capable of doing this.
And, unfortunately for Liam, he was now dealing with the most difficult ones first! And that too, three at a time!
Already handling the draconian beast's soul was taxing on his body, mind and soul but now he had to deal with three souls at the same time? Impossible!
At the same time, if he did not somehow get through this, then three souls would be wasted. If he lets the juicy wyvern souls in his hand go to waste like this, there probably won't be another chance to obtain souls like this before the tutorial shuts down.
Liam madly churned his mana core, sending blasts of mana to all parts of his body and filling himself to the brim with energy.
The forging room in the S-Rank guild residence was also of top quality. The room itself had strong, nourishing waves of mana, and Liam tried his best to suck everything dry. He was trying anything and everything to get through this.
In the corner of the room, Luna finally woke up when she felt the huge mana vortex in the room. "Master!" She worriedly looked at Liam. When she went to sleep, everything was fine, and now she had woken up in the middle of a war zone? Kyuuu?
Lyana also inched closer, sensing that Liam was in trouble. She wanted to help him somehow but she had no idea how to.
In a hurry, she took out all sorts of potions and items she had stored away in her spatial ring, hoping that something could help him. However, at this moment, it felt as if none could even reach him.
A strong and terrifying aura seeped out of the black bead and enveloped Liam completely. From within this cocoon, blood-curdling screams emerged.
Liam once again found himself in a nightmare that he never wanted to visit again. Blood and destruction surrounded him; he felt utterly helpless and despondent; there seemed to be no escape, and the only way forward was death.
When his mind was at its weakest, the three wyverns tormented him with his worst memory. Liam did not know if one of the wyverns possessed a mental attack ability because this was too strong, and the image appeared like it was yesterday.
It was like he was being shoved into an endless loop. For others, this might be a mere nightmare, but for him, it was something that he lived through.
Combined with the pain that was searing through his body, this made him shiver. He was barely holding on as it was, and now, this pushed him over the cliff.
Liam collapsed on the ground and started twitching. The wyvern souls began rejoicing. However, the next instant they realized that it was too early to be celebrating because… even though he was twitching wildly, Liam was still holding onto them!
He clutched them with whatever he had left, not letting them go even at this moment. The three wyverns were completely shocked. Just as they were about to send in another wave of attack, suddenly the other thing in the room started acting.
The Black Dragon sword that Liam had placed next to him started rattling against the floor, and from within it, a loud roar erupted. The wyverns instantly shivered.
They could clearly sense the oppressive pressure coming from that sword. There were countless draconian souls within that sword! In front of these souls, the three wyvern souls were nothing in comparison. They were petrified.
And Liam only needed this small chance.
He was constantly fighting against the hold these three souls had on him, and the moment they were distracted by the Black Dragon sword, he immediately regained his senses and grabbed the momentum.
Ten gigantic mana hammers appeared in the room, and as they thudded down onto the unruly amalgam of three souls, a blasphemous roar emerged.
