"Light!"

The cave was so dark that even with Dante's Lieutenant level eyesight, he could only see a few meters away, so he decided to cast a spell to brighten up his surroundings.

However even after doing so he still couldn't see the end of the cave.

Contrary to Dante's expectations the cave was actually a pretty warm and comfortable place and as Joseph said it had extremely rich mana which made it really suitable for breaking through.

"Strange, I wonder why mana is gathering here..."

While nearing the cave Dante could feel the mana in a radius of 5 km flowing in direction of this cave.

"I feel a strange presence coming from this cave, I should leave quickly after breaking through."

Taking out a red Meditation mat, Dante got himself a very good spot after casting a couple of times the 'Clean' spell.

"I should find some time to advance to the 2nd circle, with my 1st circle I can cast 2nd circle spells only thanks to my high connection with mana and even then it's a bit strenous."

After some thinking Dante decided to leave this matter for later.

"Let's begin with the Iron-Blood fruit, I will take the Crow-fire pills to aid my momentum. The bottle of pills I bought should be enough."

Dante took out the Iron-Blood fruit from the medicine box, it shone with an alluring blood red lustre which tempted Dante into eating it whole.

"Hehehe, if someone were to eat it whole his blood would be sucked out by the fruit and used as nourishment, unless he were at the General level.

The correct way of consuming it is by drawing out its juice which contains all the medicinal powers of the fruit."

Dante used his spiritual power to draw out all the juice, condesing it in a globe.

After taking a deep breath Dante gulped it down.

The moment it neared his dantian, the globe suddenly split up into countless particles which spread until they covered every inch of Dante's body.

After a few breaths the particles began absorbing Dante's blood and spiritual power, if he didn't do anything what would be left of him would be a dried up corpse with another Iron-blood fruit on it.

"Now."

Without wasting any time Dante gulped down 5 Crow-fire pills.

The moment the pills dissolved into his dantian a reaction occured.

The countless particles which had been absorbing everything suddenly went on fire.

The blood and spiritual power they had absorbed were now condensed and showed signs of coalescing into a core.

This process went on for eight hours, with Dante taking 5 pills every two hours.

The mana in Dante's surroundings was being greedily absorbed by him to replenish the loss of spiritual power.

Normally that would have been dangerous as mana still had some impurities which needed to be purified by cultivators, but Dante was in a special situation were the Crow-fire pills were doing the job of burning all impurities.

"What an excruciating pain... This is the reason that it's called Iron-blood fruit..."

If someone didn't reach the Iron level of mental state he could only die under the pain brought by this fruit, that was why even if it was one of the top treasures for breaking through to Commander level it was relatively cheap compared to others.

Before entering the Dungeon Dante's Mental state was already at the Bronze level which is the lowest tiered one as commoners were at the White level.

During those eight hours Dante's blood and spiritual power were being condensed by the Crow-fire pills while the Iron-blood fruit would replenish his blood and strenghten his constitution by going through cycles of destruction and reconstruction.

He could feel his bones' density rise while his cells were filled with more and more life-force.

After another hour Dante felt his condition stabilize, a large part of the medicinal powers of the Iron-blood fruit had been expended.

"It's time to finally breakthrough."

Using the remainig medicinal power, Dante began to revolve his spiritual power through his meridians at a mad speed.

"Condense!"

With a shout, all of Dante's Spiritual Power began condensing into a sphere.

When breaking through to Lieutenant level one's spiritual power would liquify granting a cultivator deep reserves of energy.

The breakthrough to Commander level meant condensing all the spiritual power into a golden core which would become the essence of a cultivator.

"Condense!!"

With another shout half of Dante's blood condensed into Blood Essence.

The Blood essence slowly fused with the golden core which now became tinted with red.

Dante was branding his golden core.

Because he was too focused on the branding process Dante didn't feel that strange substance in his body slowly dissolving in his blood.

Before Dante began condensing his blood, the substance's color had been grey and it was flowing calmly in Dante's blood, inert.

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The moment in which Dante condensed his blood, the substance seemed to have been awakened from its slumber as it changed to a deep blue color and began dissolving in Dante's blood.

Even Dante's previously scarlet Blood Essence slowly turned purple in color.

"What is happening?"

Dante was puzzled by this sudden change, never in his wildest imaginations had he thought that strange substance to do anything, so he didn't even bother looking at it.

He just carried on with the branding as he thought it was simply something he wasn't aware of.

As Dante kept fusing his Blood Essence with his Gold Core he felt his whole self going through a complete evolution.

"Now I only need to manifest my Bloodline Ability..."

Dante felt bittersweet, the breakthrough had been smooth and fast as the Merchant told him.

Normally breaking through to the Commander level would require several days, sometimes even a week, but Dante did it in just nine hours!

However now he would have to manifest his Bloodline Ability...

"I hope it isn't too bad."

Just as Dante was preparing himself for the manifestation, something unexpected happened.

A sixth of the deep blue substance had completely dissolved into Dante's blood.

A bang resounded through Dante's head as he felt himself merge with his surroundings.

"What the fuck!?"

Dante's consciousness grew larger and larger as it enveloped the cave and the jungle.

He felt his mind go cold as his thinking speed grew faster and faster.

A feeling of wholeness enveloped Dante as he saw and felt everything in a radius of 80 km.

That amount of information would have been enough to make the head of a King level explode but Dante's consciousness had already left his body.

He saw an enormous five-horned python lying in the depth of the cave he was in, the pyton felt Dante's gaze as it awoke from its slumber.

"Interesting, the legacy of the Ender has found a worthy successor...

I'm sowing karma by returning your counsciousness to your body, if you were to remain in that state your weak counsciousness would slowly dissipate in the world.

I'm reaping karma by having you take care of my most promising descendant, after you manifest your bloodline ability I will have him follow you.

I wonder which of those old monsters will leave his inheritance to you...

Hehehe, this experience will become really useful for you when comprehending your Dao.

We don't have much time... The Outsiders have been moving in the shadows for centuries, you have to get stronger quickly boy!"

Dante felt his consciousness being pushed back in all directions by a gentle force as he returned to his body.

He savoured that feeling of wholeness as he etched the words of the python in his mind.

"The ancient war..."

However before he could think of anything, his consciousness was pulled in by his Purple Gold Core.

...

"Where am I?"

Dante was in a white space, around him were a multitude of flames of different colors.

Some of them emanated a chilling presence, some were bigger than the others, but they all radiated an aura of absolute supremacy.

Dante felt really comfortable in this space, it made him remember the long-forgotten feeling of his mother's embrace.

"Mom..."

It was only a word but it contained all of Dante's sorrow.

After a long while he managed to calm himself as he began inspecting his surroundings.

"What are those flames?"

Dante had never heard of anyone being transported to another place to manifest his bloodline, much less seeing flames like those.

Dante neared one of the fiery flames and noticed that it wouldn't burn him no matter what he did.

While he was testing what he could do Dante's hand unintentionally touched the white flame.

Suddenly the flames around Dante disappeared as the white space quickly changed.

Dante was now in a valley, in front of him there was a young man with a pair of horns on his forehead.

He was bare-chested and had a wild feeling to him, his unkempt silver hair were moving with the wind.

After a while the young man spoke.

"I know that my race has been destroyed, but I still want the Legacy of the Beastmen to survive...

Accept this power on your quest to protect your loved ones.

I hope you succeed where I have failed young hero..."

A look of regret and sorrow briefly flashed on the young man's face before being replaced by relief as if a burden too heavy for him had been lifted from his shoulders.

The young man broke up into countless particles of light which were absorbed by Dante as a gentle wind blew on his face.

He didn't know why, but he found tears streaking down his face.

The valley began dissipating as Dante found himself in that white space again.

This time he had something more with him.