Over on the other side of the Central Continent, the Dragons had achieved complete domination over the Western Forest. Not only had they subordinated a few of the powerful Beast clans but they had taken it a step further to enslave or kill the rest.
It was extremely brutal but it couldn't be helped. Dragons were innately arrogant and they were very dominating, this led to them being very territorial. Add on the fact that no one else could contest with them then you get a group of apathetically ruthless individuals.
Fortunately, the Humans in this Forest had been taken as subordinates because of their great control over their bodies and 'minor' ability to create things.
Although the Dragons had conquered the entire Forest, they were mainly seen flying around a shockingly huge mountain that had managed to actually bypass the clouds like it was nothing.
On this mountain there were 15 peaks with a built in cave and ledge on each one as if they were designed for some kind of flying Beast to inhabit them.
This was obviously not a naturally formed mountain, in fact, there was no such thing left after the World was almost destroyed prior to Eridel's appearance. This was something Eridel made when he knew he was going to be housing Dragons. Eridel wasn't exactly sure but he guessed that Dragons loved high places so he decided to give them this minor gift.
And he wasn't wrong in doing so.
Unsurprisingly, the Dragons had been rallied under their very own Beast King, or to be more specific, the Dragon King. It was the largest Alpha Dragon who had been bestowed with the razor sharp spike at the tip of its tail as soon as it had evolved in the Magical Outburst. And it was this Dragon who was housed in the cave at the highest peak.
But what 𝘸𝘢𝘴 surprising was the aura of Metal that this particular Dragon radiated as he sat upon his proud peak.
It was extremely rare for ANYTHING to have affinity with the Metal Element since there were barely any Metals in the entire World, so how could someone gain enlightenment? There should be no one with Metal Affinity for thousands of years unless Eridel chose to speed up the process.
But here was one lucky Dragon who had managed to make a fortunate encounter.
The truth was that when this Dragon was proudly exploring his cave, he had encountered a bunch of glowing purple 'rocks' that were emitting a lot of essence. Thinking that they would make him stronger just like Magic Herbs, he decided to eat them.
To no avail of course.
Beasts were only capable of absorbing essence from flesh and Herbs. In fact, that was the only way they could become stronger. There were very, very few cultivation techniques that Beasts could use and more often than not, they weren't that great anyway. Nevertheless, you would rarely see such things outside of a Law World.
As compensation, Beasts had an outstanding efficiency in absorbing the essence from Flesh and Herbs. Only someone with Jörma with her Earth Devouring Bloodline could absorb a percentage of essence from whatever she ate. This ability only grew stronger as her bloodline evolved but that's besides the point.
Enlightened Species and others could absorb energy from the air through techniques, but their ability to absorb the essence from flesh and herbs was just too low. Fortunately, they could make pills with Alchemy, saving a lot of essence from a herb, but there was nothing they could do about the meat.
The only reason the Blood Fiends had such a shockingly high efficiency in absorbing blood was because the amount of essence in blood was incomparable to what was in the flesh. So although it was still unfairly high, it wasn't so balance-breaking. But if they ever encountered a species that contained their essence in their blood...
As for the Monster Species, they grew stronger by… K̦̖̙̱̮̐̌i̵͓͙̱͚̎͟ḻ̸͈ͧ͑̓̓̀͡ȍ̸̢̢̮͚̐̚i̵͓͙̱͚̎͟n̷̶̯͉̊̽̐ͦ͘g̴̶̛̮̣͙͠
Of course, Eridel could have changed things but he was fine with how they were. He liked how all the different factions had different ways of cultivation.
What? You want to know about the Monsters? Hehehe~ more on that later!
Back on the Dragon King, he decided to eat these so-called stones that were actually Magic Crystals intending to absorb the essence inside of them. But these were Crystals that had evolved when the magical outburst had occurred.
Not only were they products of the World, meaning anything under Realm 4 was incapable of damaging them, they were also magic metals, making them even harder.
As a result, the all-mighty Dragon King lost a good amount of teeth.
After howling in pain for a few minutes, the Dragon King finally calmed down. But instead of being resentful, the King was actually ecstatic. He could sense that other than magic energy, there was some other kind of essence.
And it was of course the Metal Essence.
His brethren had already decided to comprehend other elements like Water, Wood and Air but most commonly fire. How could they comprehend fire you say? Well, the Dragons had discovered a mysterious never ending violet-coloured flame in the Dragon Mountain's biggest cave.
The flame was extremely hot and not something they could come close to without suffering severe consequences. But more on the truth of this flame later.
The Dragon King was also one of those that studied these flames and eventually gained the qualifications to absorb the smallest of residues from the flame, gaining a fire affinity just like the others who had done the same thing.
But unlike others, he felt that he could comprehend another element. This was not something that was normally possible. When you gained an elemental affinity, the truths of other elements were forever barred until you gained the mental capacity.
Only the genius amongst the geniuses could gain another affinity whenever they wanted. Keep in mind that being born with 2 elemental affinities wasn't the same as being born with 1 and comprehending another.
The latter was just too rare and way too hard to accomplish.
Yet here we were, discussing another of this Dragon King's ridiculous talents.
The Dragon King could have chosen something else to study like water or earth but his pride prevented him from doing so. Such things were so common and their capabilities were so 'low' so how could he content himself with that?
Discovering this hidden Metal element was like a godsend to him and he refused to waste this opportunity.
So a situation where a Dragon held a glowing crystal in his hand and stared at it as if it contained the truths of the World occurred for 5 years.