Aldred walked closer and sat down next to the dragon. His divine senses were telling him that the dragon was emitting a very weird aura.
"How long do you intend to stay on this island?" the dragon asked.
"As long as I get the treasure," Aldred replied.
"I see." The dragon caressed his thin strands of beard. "You are a powerful boy, so there is no doubt you will get the treasure."
They were relieved when they heard that. They had confidence in Aldred, but when an extremely powerful Dragonborn said that Aldred would get the treasure, their certainty increased even more.
Herakas, the Dragonborn, chatted with Aldred about his days. In between, he also taught Aldred how to control his magic and improve his swordsmanship.
In return, Aldred told his journey as well.
"Hmmm. This year's treasure hunting seemed to be harder than anything I have ever seen."
"Seriously? This is the hardest?" Aldred asked.
Stella nodded. "I have that thought as well."
"Well, for one. There shouldn't be any Platinum Rank monster involved."
"What about you? How come you are here?" Aldred asked.
"This is my home."
"It's not the first time the world use the home of a powerful entity as an obstacle," Stella said. Her home was Mount Fargon.
"I have never seen your kind before. It was nice meeting you, but we have to leave now," Aldred said.
"Wait. Let me give you something." The dragonborn reached out with his hand, and a golden light lit up on top of his palm before a scroll appeared.
[Scroll of Meditation]
Aldred took the scroll and read about its information. "This scroll can reduce all damage by 90%, but in return, I cannot move at all when I used it."
The dragonborn laughed. "This scroll is supposed to be used to cleanse your mind, body, and soul. But yes, it can be useful in battle as well. Try it."
Aldred nodded before he opened the scroll. He took off his hands from it and it floated as it released green mist that swirled around him. It was such a refreshing energy. So soothing, and so calming. Aldred began closing his eyes, and feet began to levitate.
He sat in mid-air with a lotus position, end began meditating.
[All damage received will be reduced by 90% in Meditation State]
[You cannot move in Meditation State]
[Scroll of Meditation]
Entering a state of meditation will regenerate your loss health points over time, and reduce any damage taken in this state by 90%. When entering a state of meditation with full health, the maximum limit of health points will be increased.
It was such a wonderful item. If Aldred kept on meditating with full health, his maximum health points would increase. How amazing was that!
Aldred continued to meditate as his maximum health points increased. After about two hours passed, Aldred woke up as if he just had a nap. His entire body felt refreshed as he got up to greet Herakas.
"Not bad. There is almost no impurity within you." The Dragonborn smiled.
Aldred looked down at his feet and noticed a tiny speck of black goo.
"By the way. There is a spirit tree in a cave nearby. You should go there."
"Spirit tree?" Stella asked. "Aldred, we should go there. Spirit tree can produce spirit fruit that can increase our strength significantly."
"Alright." Aldred nodded.
Then they followed Herakas' distraction to visit the cave that contained an ancient Spirit Tree. In front of it was a dead giant spider.
Stella readied her magic staff while Aldred summoned his Phantom Doomblade.
"It's that spider who fought against the tree monster," Aldred said. "Maybe this is its home, but it died because it was wounded."
"That can be the case," Stella replied.
Aldred activated his godly eyes. "Wait no. The wound is fresh. Something killed it just recently."
Stella stared at him with curiosity. "Something? What do you mean by 'something'?"
"I don't know what or how did it kill the giant spider. But I feel like something was here not too long ago and attacked that creature," Aldred said as he used his godly eyes. He scanned every inch of the area and then he saw the presence. A human mana aura was coming from inside that cave!
"Let's get inside.
"There's someone in there!" Stella pointed out, when they were still outside the entrance to the cave. The two could sense danger coming towards them so quickly that they rushed into the cave to find the source of threat.
Then they saw something. A man. He was wounded as he breathed up and down, struggling to survive.
The man noticed them, and tried to force a word to come out of his mouth. But because he stopped focusing on his breathing, he died.
Aldred approached the corpse.
"Wait, Aldred. It might be a trap."
Aldred summoned one of his undead to run around area. When he confirmed it was safe, he finally approached the corpse. "Bruises, internal wounds, broken bones, shattered teeth, cracked skull. Whatever the thing that killed this man used blunt weapons.
When they had given some thought to it, they decided to go deeper into the cave.
After entering the cave, he found himself in a spacious area that was similar to the cave when he fought that Behemoth. There were, however, a dozen silver-furred apes and a massive glowing tree in the middle of this spacious area. Many of the Silver Apes were asleep around this gigantic tree, which reached nearly 90 meters in height, with a few of them playing on its thick branches.
"I don't know what's going on here but I'm sure we have stumbled upon an unusual situation." Aldred walked closer while activating his divine senses. Then his godly vision allowed him to see magic energy flows through these creatures' bodies as well as their spiritual body.
These were not ordinary apes that was for sure. 6 of the apes seemed to be the alpha amongst them. They had the bigger body and higher level. They were also the only ones that had female partners while the rest could only look in jealousy.
Aldred sighed. "Welp, its killing time." Phantom Doomblade appeared in blazing flame inside his hand.
The apes noticed.
"Ook-ook! Eeek-aak-eek!"
"Aak! Aak!"
They immediately woke up all the Silver Apes that were sleeping when they spotted Aldred's presence on the tree.
The leader of Silver Ape roared at Aldred with a deep sound. The entire area vibrated due to how powerful the roar was. Even the ground beneath Aldred's feet quaked. The other apes began to make a great fuss, creating even more noise than before.
Aldred replied with a loud yell, and then a magical spell was created from his staff, which caused the trees around them to bend and break. Not the Spirit Tree though. It seemed that tree was sacred for them.
"Are you guys, ready?" Aldred asked.
His friends brandished their weapons and entered a battle stance.
The Silver Apes made another huge ruckus as they charged forward in order to fight against this enemy. They puffed their chest and pounded their own chest as a show of force. However, the majority of those apes were far too weak compared to Aldred. But despite being weaker, these apes didn't give up fighting without any hesitation. They ran towards the group of intruders while throwing rocks, logs, or branches.
