Chapter 760 Obsession
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The dwarf was an inch short of four feet (1.2 meters) but his stature did not deprive him of a powerful presence. His body was thick with muscle, that much was clear even under all the hair that covered him, and his braided bear that was nearly as tall as him radiated an impressive aura of its own, as if a hidden power lay within.
The dwarf was in the Golden core realm, and Lex could tell that if he were in his prime condition he would be a level above normal human Golden core cultivators. But Lex was not a human cultivator to begin with, let alone the fact that the dwarf was now completely drained of energy as well as thoroughly beaten.
The dwarf looked at Lex and grimaced, the dirt and blood on his face only serving to make him look more detestable. Lex, on the other hand, began wondering why he once again found himself in a situation where he felt like a villain. Did he have some kind of affinity with being evil? Should he give it a try?
"Me bones are shattered, and if I don't fix them soon the weight of the Dragons Might might just end up killing me directly. If you want anything from me, you're gonna have to fix me first," the dwarf finally said before aggressively spitting out some blood.
Lex raised an eyebrow. Well, at least it was a start. He quickly thought of how he could help the dwarf. He had learned some very basic healing techniques that could be used on others, but they were just barely enough to save someone's life in a critical situation. They could not be used to actually heal.
He had a few boxes full of painkillers in his spatial bangle now, as he had decided he got injured all too often despite his ridiculous defense and no longer wanted to deal with a lot of pain. He had a few herbs that could serve as a healing agent, but their effects weren't too strong…
Shaking his head, Lex decided to keep things simple. He threw a high quality spirit stone at the dwarf, indicating he should replenish his energy a little so he doesn't immediately die, and simultaneously began to form an array.
"There's no need to be so grumpy. It's not like we're enemies or anything. I just have a few questions. I can help you out as long as you give me answers."
The array was completed, and was one of the simplest ones he knew for healing purposes. It did not actually 'heal' at all, but just added a bit of vitality to a being, allowing their body to naturally heal itself, or to not die so quickly based on the circumstances.
"What do you take me for?" the dwarf asked angrily. "Give me proper medicine and-"
Before the dwarf could complete its sentence, he found a foot pressing down on his throat, and Lex's amicable smile had withdrawn. Instead, Lex now wore a look of complete indifference as he looked down on the dwarf, a trace of an oppressive aura leaking from him despite the Dragons Might destroying all auras in the area.
"Do not take my politeness for subservience. If you do not want to cooperate, then I see no reason to let you live."
His tone was placid and uninterested, as if the dwarfs' life or death meant nothing to him. In actuality, Lex was just trying out the 'evil' persona he had been wondering about earlier. Although Lex did not see himself as a villain, or an evil person, his recent experiences in the Crystal realm made him realize that, to a degree, being civil and polite sometimes made him seem like a pushover.𝓵𝒊𝓫𝓻𝓮𝓪𝒅.𝓬𝓸𝙢
When he was in Valesco, no matter what, if he had had enough deterrence that Crystal race member would not have attacked him. Similarly, when the Kraven attacked his tavern all of his workers and many of his guests had been injured, but the Earth immortals he had been meeting with never really bothered to lend him a hand, and the two birds even began negotiating with the Kraven right in front of him. Although things had ended well for him eventually, that bitterness and frustration had lingered, if only just a bit.
So, while Lex had no real interest in being harsh with others, he also wanted to try and do things differently, and see what the results were. After all, he was just 24 years old, and it was alright if he was still figuring himself out.
The dwarf was not an easily intimidated person, usually, but looking at Lex's eyes, he really felt like the other would kill him without any hesitation if he tested his limits. Although getting answers might be helpful to him, it was not important enough that he would tolerate the dwarfs misbehavior.
The dwarf felt a chill in the back of his spine, and he suddenly stopped resisting. No matter what his identity was normally, right now he was just an injured dwarf held down by the other person's shoe - he needed to adapt to his new reality quickly.
"Ask… ask your questions," he said hoarsely, before he finally felt the pressure from the others' foot on his neck decrease.
"That's more like it. Let's start with something simple. What's your name?" Lex asked, a hint of a warm expression returning to his face.
"Terrol… Terrol Folkinson," the dwarf said, hoping that the other might recognize his name, but alas, Lex knew nothing of dwarfs, and so the name meant nothing to him.
"See, that wasn't so hard now was it?" asked Lex as he removed his foot from the dwarfs neck completely.
"You look pretty beaten up Terrol, and your friends didn't look much better either. What happened?"
Terrol clenched his teeth as the recent memory filled his mind, tormenting him.
"The… the Frigal royal family was supposed to be gone. This level of the castle was supposed to be clear, as, theoretically, no one else could get this close to the dragon. Unfortunately… we ran into an unexpected problem. The King has a bastard child who inherited the royal family's genes, but he's too weak to go out into the field. He was staying here, which should ont have been an issue, but the King had assigned him a royal protector for some reason.
"We ran into the kid, and a fight with the protector erupted. Fortunately, since we were not interested in the kid, we were able to escape. The protector didn't follow us either, since he had to stay with the child. But even so, escaping was not so easy."
Lex nodded his head. Not only was he studying the dwarf using his instincts and sixth sense, he also used the Fancy contact lens to completely analyze the dwarfs equipment. Despite his relatively low cultivation level, his gear was no joke. If he had been reduced to such a state in spite of all his preparations, that protector must have been quite powerful. Either that kid was very special to deserve such a powerful protector, or the level of the royal family's guards was very high.
"It seems to me like you guys have made a lot of preparations for your trip, Terrol. It's not so easy to resist the Dragons Might, and there's something unusual going on that messes with the spirit, and causes one to be completely lost in thought. Do you mind explaining to me how you resisted both, and especially what the latter is?"
The dwarf grit his teeth. This was all valuable information, and revealing it might get them in trouble later. But if he died right now, there would be no later to worry about, so he had no voice but to divulge all that he knew.
"Resisting Dragons Might is not all that hard. The dwarves and the elves have been enemies for many millennia, but they recently buried their bitter hatred to join hands together to face the domineering and deadly dragons. With dwarven engineering, and elven enchantments, we have designed many treasures specifically designed to take on dragons. The chestplate that I'm wearing has an enchantment that will erase or reduce the effects of Dragons Might, as long as I have enough spirit energy to feed it.
"As for the spirit pull… it's a common phenomenon that occurs with any treasure that a dragon obsesses over! The influence of a dragon's attention is far from simple, let alone the effects of its obsession. All dragons are natural born treasure hunters, and any place they call home is bound to be full of treasure.
"But, although this planet has valuable ores, it is nowhere near valuable enough to attract a dragon. The spirit energy is poor, and it is far from a star and so is cold. Considering the overall poor quality of the entire planet, there must be some exceptionally valuable treasure here that attracted the dragon, and now has been tinged with the dragons obsession, affecting one and all!"
Chapter 761 Dragons' Hoard
The dwarf had somewhat regained some spirit energy in his body after absorbing it from the spirit stone, although that only made him more sensitive to the horrible condition his body was in. Silently, he cursed the stupid dragon, then audibly he cursed again, "filthy stupid stinking dragon!"
Since the dwarf no longer dared to cross Lex, he could only change the target of all his hatred and anguish to the dragon itself.
"The dragon's obsession is much stronger than anything we expected. Even with all our protection and preparation, we still lost ourselves to the spirit pull!"
"Speaking of the dragon, aren't you at all worried about aggravating the dragon? Or are you so sure that the dragon is actually dead? Were you the ones who spread that news?"
"No, no we weren't the ones who spread the news, but they are working with us," the dwarf said and he suppressed the urge to moan. The little vitality Lex had provided him was far from enough to heal anything at all, but there was not much he could really do about it.
"I don't know how or why… only Barley, the leader of our group, knows the details, but the dragon is for sure dead. Otherwise, we would never agree to go and steal from a living dragons' hoard. Even if we cannot get our hands on the treasure that has been tainted with the dragon's obsession, any random item will be worth the risk. A dragon's hoard… to be honest, I cannot even estimate how much it would be worth. All I can say is that it should be worth a lot."
"Why did you spread the news of the dragon's death? Wouldn't you end up getting more competition if the knowledge is spread? In contrast, if you keep the knowledge hidden, you have a greater chance to take all the loot for yourself."
"No, no we can't face the strength of the royal family on our own. Spreading the news is dangerous, as it could attract other races as well, but it also presented us with an opportunity to infiltrate the palace. The various noble families attacked the royal family with the desire to get their hands on dragon blood. With that, they can change their own fate, and replace the royal family. Maybe they could even cause a mutation and transform into a real dragon, since they are dragon descendants at the end of the day. Such a conversion is still possible.
"Only when the royal family is busy fighting the other nobles, and the defenses of the castle are focused on the outside would we get the chance to sneak inside. We didn't count on a simultaneous invasion by the icy abomination at the same time, which only helped our chances even more. But we still don't have much time, as we have reports that Elven ships are already on their way here. We absolutely cannot risk staying too long, and are supposed to escape the planet today."
"What are these abominations? I've heard them mentioned multiple times already."
"Again, I don't know too many details. What I can say is that their existence is very unusual, and that they did not exist on this planet even just a year ago. All I know is that they seem to be made of ice and that they naturally hate everything to do with heat. Frigals, as descendants of a dragon, have extremely hot blood and so are frequently targeted by them. But my original impression was that these… monsters have no intelligence, yet the act of laying siege to a castle does not fall in line with that belief. There may be something more going on."
Lex pondered for a moment about what to do. All the signs pointed to the fact that the treasure he was looking for was right here, and was most likely the one infected with the dragon's obsession. But he was not immune to its spirit pull ability, and had constantly fallen prey to distractions.
While such a thing was not inherently dangerous, it did pose some risks. Somehow, the dragon had mysteriously died, but that did not reduce the danger in Lex's eyes. If anything, the danger had only increased, for he could not imagine what could so silently and secretly kill a dragon. Moreover, there were some mysterious enemies targeting the Frigals, and possibly the dragon as well, not to mention the elves on their way to this planet.
After some consideration, he concluded that while there was danger, it was not enough to deter him. Having made up his mind, he threw a golden key towards Terrol.
"If things get desperate and you really need medical attention, crush that key. You'll be fine," he said, already walking away. He wondered what awaited him behind the massive door. Was that the entrance to the dragon's treasures? That would be too easy, right? As it turned out, behind the doors what awaited Lex really was the dragon's treasure hoard - or the very beginning of it.
Mountains of gold were pilled randomly on the floor, though there seemed to be a walkway between the endless coins, nuggets, raw ore and massive bricks, leading somewhere deeper.
Curious, Lex picked up some of the gold and discovered this was far different from the gold he was used to seeing on earth. A quick scan from his Fancy monocle revealed over 216 different types of gold!
In the universe, gold was valuable as well, though not because it could be used to make jewelry. No, the value of gold came from the fact that it was a phenomenal conductor for spirit energy, and each different type of gold before him had a few different traits or uses.
Lex looked at the mountain of gold on his right, then at the one on his left, then he scratched his head.
"Mary, how can I teleport things directly to the Inn?" he asked, knowing that the system would never give him an easy time. If he had to put everything in his bangle and then teleport to the Inn to drop it off every time… he would be here for a while.
Occasionally missing content, please report errors in time.
Chapter 762 Spirit pull
"Well, you can send workers from the Inn to the connected planets now. You can send some over and hope they teleport somewhere nearby, after which you can have them come here and collect it," Mary replied sheepishly, knowing that that wasn't the answer Lex was looking for.
Lex thought of various answers on his own. The most ideal citation would be if he could connect to the Inn like he connects to his spatial treasure. That he could teleport anything he wanted directly to the Inn. But that wasn't possible, whether because it was actually impossible or because the system did not want to cooperate with Lex.
The next best option was to get the most massive spatial treasure possible. This was actually quite hard, as he already had some of the largest spatial treasures available, whether it was his bangle or the container for Silent Wanderer.
He could place an order at the emporium for an even larger one, but that would surely take a lot of time, not to mention be very expensive on its own as well. Ironically, the liquidity he would need to pay for such a treasure seemed to be right in front of him, but it was out of reach because Lex lacked exactly such a treasure.
He shook his head and made a decision. Although he was a greedy capitalist who would never say no to money, especially free money, he was not blind to what was actually precious.
Once, just to sate his aching heart, he filled his bangle with gold, teleported to the Inn, deposited it and then returned, but then he did not continue to do so. He had barely taken a drop from the hoard, and transporting all of it would surely take ages. Chances were that the treasures he would encounter deeper in were much more valuable than these mountains of gold right at the start.
With one last wistful glance to satisfy himself, Lex walked forward on the winding path through the mountains of gold all around him. After the first couple of mountains, Lex encountered glowing gems buried within the gold, illuminating the hoard.
Eventually, Lex started to jog as it was taking too long to navigate around the mountains. He was also concerned about the fact that although the dwarves had entered only a few minutes before him, he could not find any trace of them at all.
Every now and then, Lex would once again get lost in thoughts, but with Mary checking up on him constantly, he kept waking up.
Finally the trail reached a descending staircase and so Lex entered the 2nd layer of the treasure hoard.
Contrary to what Lex was expecting, the next layer actually consisted of a large garden. There were hundreds of thousands of fairies flying around, tending to countless flowers and plants. Instantly, Lex was able to tell that these were both very valuable, and also very toxic.
Holding his breath, Lex rushed through this room as well, completely undisturbed by the fairies. In fact, they seemed to not even sense his existence as they carried on with their tasks in unusual silence - though admittedly, a reason they might not have detected him was his suit as well.
The garden was well lit, showing a new pattern of illuminated chambers contrary to the rest of the planet which was completely dark. The plants also did not seem to mind the increasing heat, which by now was causing Lex to sweat visibly. He was very grateful that his suit would not suffer from any sweat stains!
After finding another staircase, Lex descended to the third level. This level looked more like a museum than a hoard or collection. There were countless stages or pedestals built on both sides of the path with each containing items or treasures.
Although Lex wanted to ignore these as well, since he could not identify most of them even with his lenses, he was forced to stop by an overwhelming attraction his body felt towards a particular vial containing a dark purple liquid. Lex almost lost control of his own body, so strong was the attraction.
But, ultimately, he managed to control himself. He only placed the vial in his spatial ring and didn't immediately drink it like he wanted.
The strangest thing was how each of these treasures were so easily accessible, with no formation or protective glass even. To try it out, he randomly picked up a sword and a shield that was also placed nearby and encountered no obstruction at all.
Speaking of which, he wondered what that sword and shield were made of. To be a part of a dragon's collection they must be valuable. Were they incredibly strong, or did they perhaps only have collectors' value? Did dragons care about such things? What if…
"Lex, it's been a couple of minutes, you alright?" Mary asked, suddenly waking him from his stupor.
"Yeah, thanks, I'm fine…" he had only begun to say when he realized that he did not recognize his surroundings at all. Although he was still in the hoard, as he could tell by the countless spirit stones and fountain of spirit water, he had long passed the stages and podiums.
"Lex! LEX! Wake up!" Mary's voice suddenly woke Lex from yet another stupor, and he immediately realized his surroundings were different once again. Fear gripped his heart as he suddenly realized he was losing track of time. Maybe he should return to the Inn.
Speaking of the Inn, Lex had had a dragon there as well. Would it have had the same effect if the system hadn't been suppressing the harmful effects of its aura?
Despite his best efforts, Lex completely lost himself to the influence of the spirit pull, and walked through the massive dragon's hoard like a zombie. Mary, who had noticed his strangeness, had been yelling at him for hours, but it stopped working long ago.
He did not even notice when he crossed the corpses of a couple of dwarves, nor did he notice when he started walking over a puddle of freshly spilled blood.
Chapter 763 Assaulted by a pervert
The hoard of a dragon was much vaster than anything Lex had imagined, and he would have been extremely surprised by how deep he descended into the planet were his mind not occupied by random thoughts. Besides the usual gold, jewels, treasures, herbs and spirit stones, there was also art, music, sculptures and other entities that Lex lacked the senses to even observe.
This particular dragon's favorite part of its hoard, however, was at the lowest level, and Lex was about to approach it. Currently, the chamber he was walking through was the second to last, and was the part of the hoard where the dragon collected members of various races!
Throughout the universe there were countless unique or mystical races who had unparalleled power or unbelievable abilities that made them extremely special as well as valuable. They too were a part of the dragons collection!
Various prisons lined the walls that Lex walked by, most of them made of glass so that the prisoner, or rather the 'specimen' was visible. Some, however, for extremely unique or unusual races required special prisons that were made from other more protective materials.
Though they were all extremely different, currently many of them shared one thing in common: they were extremely weak!
They were deprived of spirit energy inside their prison cell, and since the dragon had died many months ago, no one had fed them either. A few of the prisoners had even died. But, one prison cell made out of an unusual gray material even the Fancy contact lenses could not identify, had a broken wall.𝑙𝒾𝒷𝘳𝑒𝑎𝘥.𝒸ℴ𝓂
Lex, however, did not notice any of that as he continued to walk. Lex had been extremely confident in his cultivation technique and even himself, which is why he opted to continue the exploration. He was not wrong to be confident, for his defense and self protection abilities were truly phenomenal. But, ultimately, there was a limit to what they could protect him from.
The spirit pull ability, technically, did not harm Lex in any way which is why his spirit's self defense failed, although the matter was more complex than just that. In the beginning, his strong mentality allowed him to retain lucidity, but the closer he got to the dragon, the worse it became.
Although Lex had numerous times even survived an attack from an Earth Immortal, if he were lucid now, he would be able to feel that the aura being radiated from the final chamber was much stronger and deeper than any Earth Immortal he had ever met. In fact, it was even greater than Ragnar's, and he was a Heaven Immortal!
So then, how could he, a Golden Core cultivator, stand a chance?
But, since spirit pull was just a passive ability brought about by the strength of the dragon's obsession, and was not purposefully focused on attracting everyone, there was a chance to break free. For example, the various dwarf corpses that Lex had crossed. In their final moments, right before they died, the threat of death had woken them up. But by then, it was much too late.
As Lex crossed the final dwarf corpse which belonged to the leader of the dwarves, he attracted the attention of a massive creature. It had eight legs, with four on each side of its body, much like a scorpion, but that is where the similarity ended. It had a long protruding neck covered in purple scales, a maw filled with rows of teeth dripping with blood and twelve reptilian eyes, each one suddenly focused on Lex.
The creature did not have arms or claws, but it did have unusually shaped wings protruding from its back, and the joints in the wings could readjust at a whim, making them dangerous weapons as well. It also had a long, thick tail that it could exert perfect control over.
The creature was extremely skinny at the moment, as if it had been starved near to the point of death, and feasting on dwarves did not seem to have done much for it.
But Lex's body… his body radiated an aura so attractive that the creature dropped the body it was currently feasting on, and slowly approached him. Unlike the rest, the creature was immune to the effects of spirit pull. In fact, were it near full strength, it would not have wasted even a glance on such pathetic prey. But the dragon had starved this particular creature for years, and so it was at its weakest.
It would not die so easily, but at the same time it could not exert all its strength either. Otherwise it would not have hid from the King every time he crossed, and would have preyed on him instead. But it did not matter. Slowly and steadily, the creature would regain its strength.
lightsnοvεl.cοm After studying Lex thoroughly, and concluding that he was only in the Golden core realm, the creature pounced. Like the dwarves, it expected the threat of death to wake him from the effects of spirit pull in the last moment, but oddly enough, that did not happen.
The creature did not ponder over what that was and furiously bit at his neck, its teeth digging in… something odd happened. There was no gush of delicious blood in its mouth, or the taste of flesh.
The confusion had barely registered when it felt an otherworldly grip around its neck, nearly causing a fracture in its current frail bones. Its face was forcefully pulled back, and what awaited it was a gaze filled with raging fury.
"Were you licking my neck, you creep?" Lex asked between gritted teeth as he struggled to understand what happened. He felt like was just assaulted by a pervert, and the sticky sensation of the creature's saliva on his neck grossed him out so much he finally woke from the effects of the spirit pull!
Before the creature could respond, or more likely retaliate, Lex could no longer hold on to his revolution! Still holding onto the creature from its neck, he picked it up and slammed it onto the ground!