As Daren licked the gem with ferocity, he could feel it melting in his mouth as the warm liquid went down his throat. He could feel a warm sensation that went through his bloodstream. It felt oddly comfortable.
This comfortable feeling soon turned into a blistering pain as it felt like his blood was boiling. Daren's facial expression did not twitch at all. The pain he had received from the attack on his soul was worse.
He also had this feeling that's something similar to what is happening now, had been experienced by him in the past. This feeling came directly from the hidden depths of his soul. Even if he could not access his memories yet, he could surely tell that there was something nostalgic.
[ Bear with it. There is no danger. ]
The system decided to reassure him because of the small doubts he had. Daren was not very trusting of most things or people but he did trust the system and more importantly his cute daughter.
It only took about 3 minutes for the gem to completely melt into Daren's mouth. His hands were empty but the strawberry aftertaste of the gem was noticed by him.
'Hmm. Not a bad taste at all. It tastes like strawberry milkshakes.' Daren thought that he would not mind having a couple more if he could find them.
"What's this weird energy." Daren said out loud as he stretched his hand out to control a new form of energy inside his body.
A clear red liquid that resembled blood floated out of the tip of his index finger. The blood energy was much like blood but it had a thinner consistency while the color was also lighter.
As the streams of this energy continued to flow out, Daren started to feel weak and fatigued while his face started to become paler by the second.
"Daddy! Stop! Take the energy back in." Chloe ordered her father with a scared voice and worried expression.
"What is this power and why does it feel so familiar?"
"That's blood force. Your original element."
"Why is it so draining?"
"Because it's supposed to use the blood of your enemies, not your own blood."
Daren knew that his original body had a force element called' blood' but he didn't understand why it would show up after eating that gem. GHe didn't get time to ask other questions as he heard dozens of footsteps hurrying up the stairs.
The first to arrive at this confusing scene was a group of 4 maids. right behind them were 2 young men in blue mage robes and crystal staffs.
"Madam!" exclaimed one of the maids as she looked on the floor.
The maids quickly noticed the fainted Penelope and attended to her by trying to pull her up and using noise to wake her.
The mage's that came behind them paid attention to the place where smoke was wafting from. They looked at each other in confusion as they could feel no intense heat in the surroundings or a large amount of fire force particle either.
"Seems like a fire melted down the door and then dissipated without burning anything else." said one of the mages. This guy had brown hair, blue eyes, and a long, crooked nose.
"The fire seemed oddly selective. Had to have been someone without a power variation of a fire elemental force. They seemed to have insane control over too as they did not burn the surrounding at all else or the whole house may have burned down."
This was the other blue-robed mage speaking. He had dark blue hair and brown eyes. His face was average and there wasn't anything particularly attractive or charming either.
"Should we check up on the Dragon Feeding Crystal so we can add it to our very short report."
"Sure. You wanna grab lunch after?"
"Yeah. I should as Lea and her friends to come with us."
The two mages then walked towards the melted remains of the door and glanced at two people standing in front of it. They saw the handsome Daren and bowed their heads towards him for a second. It was proper etiquette to do so towards people with high status such as guests invited personally by the emperor.
Everyone in the place knew where these guests were staying. Before they could walk into the room, a certain shiny object caught the eye of the blue-haired mage.
'That kind of looks like the crystal. Heh. No way. It's probably just a similar-looking gem. Why is the little girl eating it like it's some sort of candy?' The blue-haired mage was confused by what he just shrugged off as some strange habit.
He had seen stranger things ever since he had become a mage.
The two mages then walked past the charred remains of the metal door and entered a wood floor room. It had no windows and had walls made from gray stone bricks.
In the middle of the room was a squarish pillow that people sat on while meditating. It is also used by cultivators so their buts did not get sore from sitting down and collecting force for hours.
In front of the pillow is a stone altar with countless, small magic circles that were carved in with a thin yet sharp tool. In one squarish altar, there was a small indent that was meant to house a large crystal.
"Uh. You seein what I'm seein." asked the brown-haired mage as beads of sweat dripped down his forehead. His face twisted in an ugly expression.
The blue-haired mage was not in a better situation them him since his eyes turned bloodshot and looked like he was going to break down in tears.
The two mages almost pissed their pants.
"No way... there's no way that it's gone. It cant be. I'm too young. I don't wanna die."
"I haven't even proposed to Andrea yet. I want her to have my babies."
The two mages' knees buckled and they fell to the ground while crying. They could not believe that such a precious gem had gone missing. There was no sign of a thief and they didn't know who to blame.
If they were chosen to be the sacrificial lambs to cover up the disappearance, all they could hope for was a painless death.
"Oh wait a second. That girl. She was chewing on something that looked exactly like a piece of the crystal." said the blue-haired mage. In his despair, he looked for ways out of his predicament and found the answer.
"But we can't integrate them ourselves, we are just lowly, level 2 mages. They are the emperor's guests."
"I should have an image crystal. I'll take a picture of her chewing on it as evidence. Our boss can interrogate them with it." The blue-haired mage took out a white, cylindrical crystal and ran out the room with his buddy in tow.
'Hehe. I've found a way out.' he thought as he approached Daren and Chloe who were about to walk down the stairs.
When he looked towards Chloe, his hope was once again crushed as he fell to the floor, face first.
Chloe was hopping around with a radiant smile. Her small hands were empty and devoid of any signs of the crystal even being there. The other mage beside him also noticed this and was about to break down again.
He quickly shook his head though. if they wanted out of this dilemma, they needed to have a cool head. He realized that there was fainted maid here when they arrived. She must have seen something.
"Calm down Dominic. There was a maid that fainted. she must have seen something related to the crystal."
"Your right!" The blued haired Dominic got up with the support of his friend and tied up his clothes. "Jonathon, let's get back to headquarters and rush boos over here. As long as we mention the Dragon feeding Crystal, he should rush over."
The two mages nodded at each other and took out a white pebble from their pockets. It had a singular, blue magic circle on it. They crushed the rocks with their bare hands as it was very soft and crumpled like powder. A blue glow surrounded the two as they flew out of an open window like ghosts.
Darena and Chloe noticed what was happening as they could both hear all the conversation the mages had. Daren was a bit startled by the floating mages.
"You sure we won't be in trouble?" asked Daren sincerely as he looked at the giddy Chloe.
"Um.... well that crystal is not worth much where we come from but it could be worth something to the people of such a poor nation." Her answer was very vague as her mindset was still geared to her original nation in the faraway dragon realm.
She did not know the availability of resources in this area but assumed it was lower after seeing the dread on the faces of the two mages when they realized it was gone.
As the father and daughter lacked information, they just shrugged it off and planned to deal with it when it came to them. The two were similar in this way they always made plans on the fly.
What they didn't realize was that the disappearance of the so-called 'Dragon Feeding Stone' had caused the gazes of a dozen, powerful individuals to shift towards the manor.
"Hmph. Not even a day within the palace and they have already set up the foundations for an annoying commotion."
The emperor was seated in his room drinking red wine from a golden chalice. His ethereal, silver hair ran all the down to his waists and his majestic, silver eyes gazed at the manor from afar.
"They are exactly what I asked for. The wishing altar has not disappointed me. I hope the sacrifices I made were worth it. Prove yourself to me, oh insane and mysterious family."
The emperor just smiles as he enjoyed the bitter taste of the high-quality wine that he had bought the other day from an auction.