“You’ve already found it?” The wyvern spoke with an unsuppressed surprise. In truth, he expected it to take days to locate the thing, but instead it simply laid out in the open? He knew the dragon told the truth, it would never mistake the appearance of that stalk… But no part of him believed that it would be so easily found. “I need you to watch it until it is fully grown. Some beasts will accompany you to allow you to sleep.”

“That’s understandable. It’s only three days old so far, and will need about a week more to be capable of opening a portal.” This information mattered less, instead he just hoped that whatever bronze tiers accompanied him were somewhat strong.

“Additionally… It is a bit early but I will grant your reward for this matter,” he spoke thoughtfully, looking towards some steel tiers in the cave before switching to Beasten for the next breath of conversation. “Kav. Mor. You two will help him to kill the southern node tree lord, and try to give him the final blow so his level catches up.”

Two beasts, the upright sloth and a tiger with a dark black coat, moved over and joined the dragon. On their own this fight would be tough, but most had seen the dragon’s power, it could provide some useful support on top of the power of two steel tiers.

The tiger, named Mor from what he understood, was only somewhat larger than himself, and its almost pitch black coat stood out immensely in the snow. Combined with frightening yellow eyes with its slit-like pupils, he actually feared encountering this beast at night.

When extended, its claws couldn’t have been less than two inches, and no part of him dared test that sharpness. One almost unnoticeable part was the tiger’s tail as well, not only prehensile but containing a sharp-tipped bone which extended from its flesh, only hidden by the densely packed hairs around it. A surprise attack could very easily jam that into the neck or eye of an unaware opponent.

Furthermore, he had one clue on its innate abilities, something which absolutely included a sort of large-scale Darkness spell.

The sloth seemed far less interesting on the other hand, with large claws which only curled at their tips. Its grey-green fur didn’t look the cleanest, but with a light dusting of mana he saw that colouration switch to a near pure white like the snow around them.

He said, “Merge.” And the three raced off to the node tree, he was not surprised as the two steel tiers not only kept up with him, but seemed to be slowing themselves down at points, to instead maintain a tight cluster!

He was the one keeping up with them, and it felt strange given how fast the spirit often felt.

The group of three reached their target in minutes, and for the first time he saw the new node tree as a whole. The golden, metallic leaves reflected light cleanly, dyeing the branches around them in a golden glow as well, but in truth their colour was entirely different!

Instead, from its base to the highest trips, all the tree’s wood was entirely transparent! The golden light passed through and appeared to give the tree as a whole its mystifying glow, and he’d have agreed on its complete beauty if not for the flowing veins of purple which once more ran their way up the tree’s trunk.

From here he even saw how deep they penetrated, not merely scaling the surface, but spreading small tendrils and capillaries all throughout the innards to utilise the entire thing as an amplifier for its nightmare generation. This was how the fungus grew unabated and rapidly produced such nightmare stalks.

Below the tree, he finally caught sight of the owner for the first time. From the wyvern’s words he knew it to be the lord as well.

Unlike the snowy heaven trees, this one did not exist in a pit, he just never approached close enough to overcome the various mounds of snow which blocked direct sight of the tree. And so, once close enough, the group of three looked eye to eye with that beast, one of disproportionate sizes.

A fucking elephant.

And not just a normal one, which would’ve made it about half the wyvern’s size… But one at least comparable to their gold tier leader in that regard. Fortunately, this one was just a steel tier beast… But seriously?

Its massive tusks curled up and formed a sharp spear-tip point, the already white ivory gaining a sort of metallic shine. Its wrinkled grey skin contained hundreds of battle scars, and more concerning was how it so easily stood up at the sight of him. By the time all three of them saw this elephant, it began a charge right for them, moving no slower than his max speed with the spirit!

Besides the dull, grey-ish appearance, the elephant's small ears seemed disproportionate with an astounding trunk which most likely contained the ability to cast innate abilities. Additionally, the nails on each foot were dark like the night sky, however some strange gold swirls shone through them. A random look showed each of these swirls to be liquid, literally moving either within or from behind its nails…

Just what in the world was this thing?

The sloth and tiger easily evaded the charge, leaving him in the middle and the prime target… And so he jumped above. In mid-air, he noticed the elephant’s trunk following behind and some mana filling it, and after barely rotating himself, jumped again to barely miss a sharp blade of wind passing through the spot he would’ve been at.

That innate ability was stronger than his Sword wind… It would’ve bisected him instantly.

Without hesitation, he began casting the strongest spells he knew, starting with Lava spear as the best option to deal noticeable damage. Meanwhile, it was no surprise when a solid black ball began to grow in the tiger’s open maw, a considerable amount of mana went into the single innate ability before it blasted away so fast that a shockwave formed around it.

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In fact, it moved fast enough that he didn’t even get to react as it struck the ground between them all, sending their entire surroundings into pure darkness. His mana sense allowed him to track the elephant though, and as it blindly charged through the darkness in search of its opponents, a sudden wave of heat struck its side!

The bright orange spear at first stabbed it, and a small slit appeared in its side before the entire thing collapsed into a more liquid state. More than a little lava coated its skin, searing it instantly, but what concerned the elephant was the small bit which entered its body. The spear instantly burnt through blood vessels and threatened to solidify within, potentially cutting off the blood supply of an artery!

It did not hesitate to point its trunk to the wound and fire a miniature blade into it, cutting the half-cooled lava into small pieces and pushing them out with internal mana.

But how could the owner of this darkness remain idle?

A sense of danger came over the elephant as its eyes gleamed, and it rapidly turned with a thrusted head to stab at the new danger. However, its aim couldn’t have been more off as the sudden slash came from behind! The pair of claws scraped through its thick skin, and while it tried to kick with a hind leg, nothing stood there.

Instead, it barely was able to react as a second attack followed. Some sort of hard bone stabbed into the open wound on its side, slicing deep into tender flesh. Blood gushed out, but it continued to try and find its foes, surely such a huge ability could not be maintained that long?

No, this was stupid! Why was it simply standing in place, at least by running it could search for an exit or potentially a way to stop this ability.

But as it began to charge, it very clearly heard a crunching sound of snow right in front. A single moment of thought had it double down on its speed, aiming to stab right through whatever stood there, and as it reeled its tusks in, just a single move would skewer the enemy. Closer and closer, not even a second passed in this decision… And its head jumped upwards to stab through it!

… But it didn’t. Two hands gripped its tusks, holding them in place, and it felt the two of them slide forwards for a bit, but then come to a stop. No amount of pushing did anything, and it found its head locked in place.

The dragon looked in wonder as the sloth’s feet pushed against what should be fragile snow but held back the whole elephant with its strength. A creature of truly unbelievable strength going up against the uncompromising mass of its opponent.

He didn’t miss this chance to shower the elephant in lava spears, and neither did the tiger forget to attack.

With the three of them at once, it simply couldn’t fight back. But within, its mana unnerved him… Something about it jumped wildly and grew vicious by the second. In a way, its behaviour reminded him of the runed bones and their ability to control his body through mana.

He didn’t know what this was, but now was not the time to take risks. He shouted in Beasten, “Kill it quickly! Something strange is happening!” He unmerged the spirit and completed a cast of lava spear, at the same time throwing out some aura for it to use for an enhancement.

The originally orange lava spear gained a depth of colour and radiance, closer to liquid gold in appearance, yet still retaining its near-solid shape. He fired it off to the elephant stuck in place, and it easily cut through. The already horribly damaged skin parted like butter for the enhanced Apprentice true spell, and he saw its internals began to cook inside-out.

Yet its mana only continued to rise, and he saw something which made no sense…

A white light.

Light in a field of darkness elements.

The sloth suddenly found himself unable to hold back the elephant, pushed back with each moment and forced to let go before being flattened by the ginormous beast. But even worse, all of them saw how its eyes transformed into balls of fiery white light and the originally grey skin transformed to a black akin to the tiger’s fur. But it was those gold swirls which concerned them most, the ones which crept up its whole body and formed intricate markings all over.

Ones which the sloth did not recognise, but had heard of. Ones unlike the crab’s merely excellent innate ability.

All three beasts were forced away, watching as the elephant roared, its searing eyes pinpointing their exact position, and the blazing light destroyed the darkness around them. Sight returned, and the mana frightened them.

Gold tier. Without even the slightest doubt… their attempt to kill this elephant allowed this power to awaken, and the sloth couldn’t help but speak about it, stricken still in disbelief. “A legendary bloodline… But how could it exist here? Is that why… Get back to the lord right now!”

Legendary bloodlines? He’d heard of them, dragons made a special point of them for their young. Some rare beasts possessed the luck and ability to evolve so much that the power contained in their blood was monstrous, so much so that the level of power gained a special title.

No one really knew the requirements to obtain these bloodlines, but the simplest quality of them was shown right now. When inherited, it grants the ability to transform a creature into a more powerful form without any repercussions.

In that regard, perhaps the Volatile mutant bloodline barely made the cut to be called legendary… But with its severe side-effects of rapid mutations, he’d probably be laughed at for even comparing the two.

This steel tier elephant was no different from a bona fide gold tier… And the three of them combined weren’t even worthy of harming it.

Both the sloth and tiger made a break for it, and feared for their lives.

But the dragon had another choice to make.

A delicate glass lantern with its tinted flame appeared in his mouth, and his eyes locked onto the elephant’s. There was no intelligence there, its mind replaced with a bestial intelligence of that legendary bloodline. Who knew how the Nexus ranked it though, and so… He did it.

The flame within the lantern shrunk to a tiny ember, the glass shimmered in a faint white light from thousands of tiny runes suddenly activating. The beast sensed danger and immediately charged him, in a blink of an eye it crossed half the distance between them, and he couldn’t even merge with his spirit in time.

A flash of light blinded him, and the elephant’s eyes faded, dimming to a cloudy white. The pupils didn’t even return, but the beast’s feet stopped working at the same time.

It skidded against the ground, sliding and rotating until finally…

Face-to-face with the black-skinned elephant, he looked into its cloudy white eyes, and the dimming swirls of gold all over it. A small ball of light escaped its body, flying into the lantern and raised the small ember to a miniature flame. Akin to a candle flame in size.

[Killed level 24 Possessed Mountain trampling elephant! Received 112% EXP]

Too bad the elephant was intelligent in the end. No way it would’ve been level 24 if the Nexus automatically set its level, but no matter. Another level meant something at the least, and now he had this corpse.

Although… he wished that he hadn’t accidentally used two charges in that attack instead of one.

But it seemed there was just enough power left to use one more beam, so he had some security against any future gold ranks at the least. And one final matter.

Just how was he supposed to move this corpse?