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Chapter 437 Delusional?

Dilan didn't really like that the system had forced the Slaves onto him but that was not something he could change anymore.

He could tell that it was possible to remove the Slave Marks on the slaves but Dilan was not really sure if that would be a good decision.

His knowledge about slaves was close to zero, and he had no idea if some of the slaves were criminals. They were now his subjects but Dilan didn't know anything about them. That was only obvious but it was a little bit frustrating nonetheless.

That was also why he thought about a few things while looking around him, just to take the simplest conclusion into consideration.

Dilan cleared his throat while motioning all of the Slaves to gather in front of him.

"Because I don't trust any of you guys, I won't free you right away but I can still kill you if you don't desire to stay alive anymore. In the future, I might consider freeing you from enslavement, but I don't want to set free a potential psychopath. My reasoning shouldn't be hard for you all to understand. " Dilan declared while the gaze of all his slaves lingered on him.

There were more Slaves than expected and all of them had stats that rivaled existences at the Peak of the second Tier. That was pretty interesting and it could be made use of as long as the Slaves desired to stay alive.

Dilan didn't really like the concept of slavery and he was strong enough to make sure that the Slaves wouldn't get the chance to kill him if he were to set them free, but he also knew that there were certain situations that had to be avoided by all means.

This included the potential repetition of the incident that had eradicated Shiron. Too many people had died because he hadn't been decisive enough, and Dilan wanted to make sure that there was no way for the incident to repeat itself, not because of him at least!

Procuring the Orb of Mantras was a necessity Dilan had yet to complete but he had been distracted by the sudden actions of the System.

"I will give you guys enough time to reconsider my offer but I won't be waiting forever. If you guys are not sure whether you want to die or not, I will consider this as a subconscious reaction of your body telling you not to give up yet," Dilan spoke calmly in front of his new subjects before adding, "I won't promise to be different than the masters you all had before me, but I can say that there are a few things I just cannot stand. Ask her, if you're curious!"

Dilan pointed toward the Dark Elf from earlier, who had also come to meet her new master. She had found some clothes to cover her body with but that hadn't been enough for her to regain the self-esteem she had before a bunch of humans had nearly raped her. The memories were still fresh in her mind, the wounds raw that made her flinch whenever she recalled what would have happened without Dilan's intervention.

It was a little bit confusing that Dilan had been capable to gain control of all Slave Marks without intending to actually do so, but the Dark Elf was quite happy about that.

She didn't want to die yet, even after what had almost happened earlier, and Dilan was probably the best Master she could have wished for. At least, that was what the Dark Elf thought after she had witnessed his actions and attitude on the battlefield.

"Either way, you guys come up with a decision, while I get my hands on this annoying Orb of Mantras!" Dilan ordered before activating [Thunder Step] and [Second Acceleration].

There was actually no need for him to activate two Agility-boosting abilities, right now. Even one Agility-boosting ability was currently an overkill. However, even if it was an overkill, Dilan felt that it was a necessity for him to reveal to his Slaves that they were not powerful in his eyes.

In the eyes of Regilav Gaul, the slaves might have been strong and useful, but in comparison to Dilan's terrific combat prowess, theirs was insignificant.

And that was something Dilan revealed quite obviously as he shot toward the most-crowded area within the large settlement.

It was only once that he had perceived the fluctuations of the Orb of Mantras and he knew what it looked like. That was more than enough for him to find it again.

In the worst case, he would just search for the woman, who had wielded the Orb of Mantras earlier. If she was still alive, she would know where it was located, and if she had already been killed by the Nightmares, her corpse wouldn't be far from the Orb of Mantras. That was, at least, what Dilan thought.

It might not necessarily be right but that didn't matter because he had more than enough time to do whatever he wanted.

Disappearing from the spot he had been located earlier, Dilan zoomed away and his speed shocked his Slaves to the core. Their eyes flew wide as a powerful air current impacted on their body. Some of them were even forced to retreat a few meters, which caused their jaws to hit the ground.

They had rarely encountered beings capable of achieving the same feat as Dilan had unleashed seemingly without any effort, and that included the time before they had been pushed aside by the Drakins as if they were trash.

"Is that our master's real strength?" One of the Slaves asked quietly. He was the first one to speak after witnessing the shocking scenario that had unveiled itself in front of them just seconds earlier. The Slave, who had spoken, was the strongest amongst all, and even he was terrified about the power their new master had shown to them.

"I guess…" Another Slave said, just for the Dark Elf from earlier to clear her throat.

"He is very powerful, and he saved me earlier from getting….from facing a very dangerous situation," The Dark Elf corrected herself midway, leaving out the part that she had nearly been raped. Oddly enough, she was extremely proud that she had been the first one to have come in contact with their new master.

The others saw her reaction but they were not sure what to think about it.

"Will he really kill us if we ask him to kill us?" Another female Dark Elf asked, realizing what must have happened to her friend. All male humans had the same, or a very similar gaze in their eyes when looking at her beautiful friend. They stared at her with lust and it was only obvious what had happened to her friend.

In fact, the majority of men looked at female Slaves as if they were mere tools to quench their lust. It was disgusting and getting violated was definitely not something anyone would ever want to face, whether it was a slave or someone whose freedom hadn't been restricted.

"I think that he's different from other humans. He didn't look at me with lust…" The Dark Elf from before said quietly as if the fact that every male feeling lust for her was an indicator of how 'good' a person truly was.

Many Slaves stared at her with a frown, just to shake their heads at her command.

'Is she delusional?'

Chapter 438 Orb Of Mantras

Dilan didn't really have a plan in mind but that was not necessary because he was strong enough to make everything work.

The Nightmares around him were wreaking havoc, while he passed through the crowded streets unharmed. Men and women were crying out in despair as they scampered around like mice trying to escape the terror that hailed down on them.

It was only a matter of time before all the Ascenders in the settlement would die at the hands of the Nightmares. After their death, Nightmares would be given birth by the deceased. This made it look as if an Undead Spirits were crawling out of the Ascenders' dead bodies.

Dilan found this to be quite fascinating because the entire battlefield around him was filled with despair, rising Nightmares, and death. The Nightmares tore the Ascenders into pieces, thrashed their skulls, and mutilated their bodies beyond measure.

"This Demon is pretty strong…as expected," Dilan mumbled. He looked around and spread out his Mana to search for the woman, who had wielded the Orb of Mantra before.

He figured that it would be easier to find her than the Orb of Mantra because it might as well be stored away in a storage ring.

However, finding anyone in the mess all around him was quite difficult.

The desperate and pained screams made it hard for him to focus and Dilan had to access the power of the Blood Eclipse Necklace to control the Nightmare Demon. That was what he decided to call the Demon he had summoned before.

It didn't take the Nightmare Demon long to appear next to him.

"What the hell do you want?" The Demon asked in a hoarse voice.

Dilan could tell that the Demon was annoyed and wanted nothing more than to be left alone. However, Dilan couldn't care less about that.

The Demon had to listen to him of his own volition, otherwise, Dilan would use the power of the Blood Eclipse Necklace and force the Nightmare Demon to pay heed to his commands.

"Tell the Nightmares to stop killing, to collect all Essence crystals from the Ascenders they killed so far and to bring me all female Ascenders in their late 20s, who have short brown hair and freckles, including the dead ones to me!" Dilan ordered.

The Nightmare Demon looked at him for a moment but he didn't say anything and followed the order he was given.

He swung his arm in the air, which caused a semi-translucent blackish shockwave to burst through the surroundings. The Nightmares stopped moving and they remained in the same position for several seconds as if they had been temporarily immobilized until they started moving again. They stopped terrorizing the Ascenders and retreated to collect the Essence crystals and search the bodies to find the person Dilan was looking for.

He was not sure if that woman was dead or alive, thus he gave clear instructions to help them bring all the women who fit the description given by him.

Dilan looked at the people in front of him with a faint smile on his face as the Nightmares clamored on the battlefield to complete the task. He received stares from hundreds of pairs of eyes that were overflowing with terror, disbelief, and confusion.

Hundreds of dead bodies littered the ground around the young man, who stood calmly next to the most terrifying existence they had ever seen.

The humans stared at Dilan with trembling legs and tried to fathom what was going on but that failed miserably.

"Do you guys know why this is happening to you?" Dilan asked all of a sudden.

His voice was quiet but it rang through the ears of all humans around like a thunderstorm.

Nobody dared to speak to Dilan in fear that he would target them next, that they would die if they said something he disliked.

"Your leader, I forgot his name again, attacked my group and he killed thousands of innocent people.

They were not even strong enough to fight some Tierless Zombies, yet, your leader labeled them criminals and cruelly slaughtered them. Some of you might be innocent as well, but why should I care about your life?" Dilan asked calmly but he only received silence as an answer.

Dilan was not fazed by that and he just smiled. That smile was more than enough to cause some weak-minded humans to collapse on the ground. Their legs had turned to jelly while their mind was overwhelmed.

"From the looks in your eyes, most of you seem to know how shady your little leader was, but you guys were too afraid to revolt against him because he was stronger than you. You seek his protection and he is allowed to do whatever he wants to, isn't that how it works?" Dilan asked, not expecting an answer from anyone. He was just trying to buy his fleet sometime as they worked hard.

It took a while until the Nightmares returned but Dilan didn't mind that. He could tell that the Nightmares brought more corpses than living women but that was to be expected.

The Nightmares had been ordered to kill all Ascenders at first, after all. There were only five women that fit the description Dilan was looking for but that was more than enough. He only needed one woman and she was alive, which was a great fortune.

The woman screamed at the top of her lungs when she was brought in front of him. She tried to escape the iron-tight grasp of the Nightmares, and to prevent them from dragging her all over the place so as to run away. However, all of her efforts were for naught and the woman ended up on the ground, her face digging into the dirt.

"Tell them to release her and to stop searching for the woman. I've found her," Dilan ordered as he squatted down to the ground, grabbed a fistful of her hair, and moved her head upward, forcing her to look into his eyes.

"Long time no see!" He greeted her with a devilish smile on his face.

The woman stared at him in terror and disbelief. She opened her mouth to speak but words failed her.

"You're probably wondering how I'm still alive, and what I'm doing here, but don't even try, I won't answer your questions," Dilan continued in a cheerful voice. He let go of the woman and gestured to her to get up.

She followed his order and pushed herself up after a bit of effort. Her entire body was trembling and she was staring down at the ground, trying to avoid Dilan's ice-cold gaze.

"Give me the Orb of Mantras and I will allow you to die quickly. But if you like getting tortured, I can comply to that. The Nightmares are more than willing to slowly rip off your skin, pull out your nails, hair, teeth, eyes, and so on," He continued to vividly describe her fate as she shuddered uncontrollably.

There was no need for him to move because his words and presence were already enough for the woman to understand that she would die one way or another.

It was not possible for her to escape this fate!

However, the woman was not strong enough to accept reality. Tears welled up in her eyes and it was clearly visible that she faced an internal dilemma. Numerous thoughts wreaked havoc in her mind but Dilan didn't give her any time to figure out what to do and how to escape.

"Do you want me to start killing the ordinary people, whom I've spared until now? If you didn't realize, I only ordered Ascenders to be killed because all of them participated in the killing process of my people, didn't they?" Dilan asked.

He could tell that it was not easy to activate both the Paralyzation Domain and the Meteor Shower domain, and the leader of the ten thousand Ascenders had reaffirmed this theory.

All Ascenders living in this settlement had given their mana to empower the Orb of Mantras to activate two Tier-4 Domain Mantras and kill his people. Thus, there was no need to show any mercy to them.

"And you should know best that it would only be fair if I were to torture you in the worst possible way. After all, you activated the Orb of Mantras, killing everyone!" Dilan's voice grew colder with every spoken word and the woman in front of him fell to the ground.

​ She kneeled down in front of him and started to cry bitterly.

"I'm sorry….I'm so sorry!!" She wailed but Dilan could only shake his head.

"Being sorry won't bring back the dead!"

Chapter 439 Weird Demon

It was not difficult for Dilan to get his hands on what he wanted.

The reddish Orb of Mantras fit perfectly in his palm and by inserting bits of mana inside it, he was able to figure out a few things.

The Orb of Mantras had stored Mantras inside it, and each of them could be used just once.

The Paralyzation Domain Mantra was not accessible anymore. That was a bit sad because Dilan had already thought of a few ways to help the Undying Group become much stronger in the shortest possible time.

He felt that it was a shame but there were more than enough unique Mantras to make use of in the future. They could become a lifesaver if one learned to use them properly.

Mantras could be considered an upgrade of Magic Scrolls and using them required tremendous amounts of mana.

"If I were to say that I'm sorry for killing you, it would be a lie. Just know that your death won't make up for your crimes," Dilan said while stretching out his hand.

A ginormous black broadsword appeared in the hand and Dilan circled it around himself before he slashed out. He didn't show any hesitation or pity on his face as the body of the desperate woman in front of him was cut in half.

Her upper body flung through the air leaving behind a trail of blood that splattered on his clothes.

The people around him froze as they watched the scene that unfolded in front of them. None of them knew why they had believed that Dilan was only capable of making cruel orders or intimidating others, but that was exactly what happened.

The people around Dilan had been certain that he wouldn't have the heart to kill the woman, who had been crying and begging for her life.

However, Dilan didn't even feel any remorse. He knew that he was not a good person or a saint at heart but that was something he could easily accept.

It didn't matter that he was a hypocrite because he had the necessary strength to actually accept being one. Nobody would dare to openly question his behavior or decisions as long as he had the necessary strength to back his decision.

Others might like to use logic, empathy, or other means to make sure that people would understand them and act accordingly.

In the end, everyone had to live with the consequences of their actions, whether they liked it or not. Some people were able to accept that not all actions would end in a great result and that some actions might even cause a devastating domino effect that would destroy much more than one could fathom.

With that in mind, Dilan ended up turning around when the woman's eyes turned lifeless.

"Attack all Ascenders, kill them!" He ordered coldly before he heard a repressed sigh from the Nightmare Demon to his right.

The Nightmare Demon paid heed to his command waved his hand, and thousands of Nightmares began to move once again.

What followed was death and destruction as the Nightmares rushed over to the crowd of humans that had formed all around them.

The last group of Ascenders was in that crowd and they were torn apart without mercy. Dilan watched their deaths calmly while he accessed the Orb of Mantras to investigate the Mantras it had stored within.

They were pretty useful and they caused him to start smiling.

However, that was what caused the ordinary humans to think of Dilan as a monster, a demon who loved the spectacle of injuring humans in the worst possible way.

But even then, Dilan didn't touch the ordinary humans, who were completely ignored by the Nightmares.

Nonetheless, blood spurted all over them and their eyes saw things that no human was supposed to see, not before the Primordial Ascension at least.

Dilan averted his attention from the Orb of Mantras after a while. The Nightmares had finished slaughtering the Ascenders inside the large settlement, leaving not even a single one alive.

They had even collected all the Essence crystals that they amassed in front of him.

"Go wherever you want. You are on your own. Be happy that I'm in a better mood now," Dilan said, understanding that the ordinary humans were now completely on their own.

There was not a single soul with the capabilities to protect them and if they wouldn't start fighting for themselves, it would only be a matter of time before all of them would be turned to corpses.

Dilan knew that this was the result of his massacre but he didn't intend to give these humans the chance to become stronger at a fast pace. They should learn to fight for themselves, and not be always dependent on being protected by someone else. This would be a great and very important lesson they had to learn if they wanted to survive.

The situation in the settlement clearly showed him that it was necessary to either join a 'good' group, live independently or become a powerful enough Ascender and be able to do whatever they wanted.

However, Dilan's kindness to allow the human survivors to stay alive was not appreciated. He was looked at in fear and desperation and it was obvious that the unleveled humans thought that Dilan subjected them to a worse fate than giving them an easy and quick death.

"You don't want to kill them?" The Nightmare Demon asked all of a sudden. Dilan turned around, just to see that the Demon looked down toward him in confusion.

He understood the meaning behind the Nightmare Demon's words and smiled weakly.

"It will already be hard enough for them to survive after what I've done, but I know that it's a mistake to spare their lives. They can try to face me if they survive everything that will be thrown at them, I don't care either way!" Dilan declared. He shrugged his shoulders and smiled lightly, knowing that his strength would increase a lot in the future.

His growth would accelerate exponentially, that was something Dilan was confident with. Thus, even if the unleveled humans were to attempt fighting them, they would inevitably fail. Dilan could promise that!

"Hmm, whatever. My work here is done, right?" The Nightmare Demon asked, impatiently tapping his fingers against his stomach.

"Do you have a date or an urgent meeting to attend? Just why the hell are you so impatient?" Dilan looked deep in the black eyes of the Nightmare Demon, trying to figure out what was going on with the impatient Demon.

"That's not your business. Do you have another task for me, or can I go?" The Nightmare Demon retorted.

Dilan frowned but he shrugged his shoulders.

"Just leave already," He ended up saying while waving his hand to manifest the huge black gate so that the Nightmare Demon could leave for good.

"Finally! Took you long enough!" The Nightmare Demon began to laugh and Dilan's frown deepened, just to be forced to keep listening to the Nightmare Demon's words,

"Don't summon me again, or I will eat your children alive!"

After The Nightmare Demon said this, he rushed through the black Gate while his Nightmares exploded, turning into black miasma that dispersed with the wind.

"What children though?"

Chapter 440 Beating Heart

There was actually not much left for him to do after all Ascenders inside the settlement had been killed.

Dilan collected all Essence crystals and he absorbed them without hesitation. The Essence crystals of humans were exceptional because they provided status points in all possible situations.

That was quite advantageous as it made things a lot easier for Dilan. He received quite some Essence and status points even if the Essence crystals were mostly Tierless and Tier-1, rather than Tier-2 crystals.

[4721 Tierless Essences, 7325 Tier-1 Essences, and 495 Tier-2 Essence crystals have been absorbed→ +6.1 Strength, +3.9 Health, +7.5 Mana]

[Essence pool has been filled. Host reached Level 26(Tier-2)! +1.0 Status points can be allocated!]

[Essence pool has been filled. Host reached Level 27(Tier-2)! +1.0 Status points can be allocated!]

"That's more than I expected," Dilan mumbled to himself as he left the settlement. He left all the unleveled humans behind without taking any of the equipment that had once belonged to the Ascenders which the Nightmares had torn apart.

Some ordinary humans would definitely be able to defeat Tierless opponents. However, even if that were not to be the case, Dilan couldn't be bothered about the fate of the people of the settlement.

He had other things to take care of, such as making sure that the remaining people of his group would be safe from the Hordes of Chaos and Destruction.

There was no time to waste and Dilan returned to the Sanctum after he stored the Orb of Mantras in his storage ring. He had finished what he'd planned to do and it was now time to level up again.

His stats had to increase and he was in dire need of powerful Essence crystals. Being in possession of an ability similar to the Nightmare Demon's powers would be great but Dilan was not sure if he should consider looking for an ability like that as his last active ability.

'Time will tell what ability will be my last one,' Dilan thought when he arrived in the Sanctum.

But the moment he stepped in and even before the others could greet him, he felt that something was odd.

Two system notifications popped up along with the tiny black heart, the Soul Collector of the Drakins, that appeared in front of him.

[The Soul Collector has fully matured. Descension of the Dragon Temple will be initiated!]

[The Host has 100 Minutes to find a suitable location for the Dragon Temple. If no place has been allocated in the given time, the Dragon Temple will descend at the location of the Soul Collector!]

"That….is unexpected…" Dilan blurted out while he grimaced. He stared mindlessly at the tiny black heart that had begun to beat and a deep frown appeared on his face.

"What's the matter, Dilan? Did something go wrong?" Xenia was the first one from his group who saw Dilan. She had approached him without letting him realize, just to see his deep frown. It looked like Dilan was contemplating something.

That usually meant there was trouble somewhere, which was bad, obviously.

"What place would be the most suitable for Dragons, or beings with the blood of dragons running through their veins to spawn?" Dilan asked as he lifted his gaze to look straight at Xenia's face. She was confused but tried to make sure that nobody could see how baffled she actually was.

"Most suitable place for dragons to appear? I don't know…do you want them to have a hard time, or do you want them to have it easy and comfortable?" Xenia enquired even though she was truly confused.

Dilan smiled at her response before he shrugged his shoulders.

"Ask the others to join us. We need to hold a meeting in ten minutes," Dilan said, turning serious as he added, "It's an emergency so tell them to hurry!"

Xenia didn't know what was actually going on but she nodded her head and followed his commands. It was not difficult to gather everyone because they could call each other using various means.

By now, the Undying group was in possession of numerous magic devices that could be used in various ways. This included various effective and speedy means of communication.

In less than 10 minutes, everyone, who was close enough and could reach the meeting spot, appeared in their gathering place. The large office was usually used for the group meetings, which made it an ideal place for the given situation.

Seeing that Dilan was alive, all the higher-ups of the Undying Group were relieved and happy. Some had expected the worst and their loud sighs of relief could be heard clearly.

They had many questions in their mind but Dilan didn't intend to give them the necessary time to ask anything. He signaled everyone that he had to tell something, which was enough to quiet them all.

"Let me get straight to the point. A race called Drakins reached out to a group of humans, they collected souls of all kinds of living beings using this object and I received these notifications around ten minutes ago!" Dilan summarized the most important facts shortly before he showed the black, beating heart and the notifications to everyone.

All present Ascenders were given permission to read the notifications and they began to frown one after another.

"There is not much time to decide what to do, so we will have to come to a decision in the next 30 minutes at the latest!" He informed and the others nodded.

After half an hour, they would have a whole hour to make sure that the plan they had to come up with would work out. 60 minutes were more than enough for Dilan to run far away. It was possible for him to go far enough to prevent encountering whatever would come out of the Dragon Temple.

However, the most important question was if that was truly necessary. There were many things they could potentially do with the Dragon Temple and the right to decide where exactly it would emerge.

"Do you think that the Dragon Temple will allow the arrival of monsters or Drakins that are powerful enough to defeat you? The fact that they use a unique way to bring over a temple to Milarn is a bit worrisome!" Sven asked Dilan.

It was obvious that Dilan was extremely powerful but he had heard from Victoria and the others about what exactly had happened to him before. He was not invincible, which was something that became even more obvious now after the incident in Shiron.

Sven didn't want to take any risks, especially with the threat of the Hordes of Chaos and Destruction getting closer. The Ascenders of the Undying group were quickly getting stronger but sometimes it was better to take it slow to prevent biting off more than one could chew!

"I doubt that the Dragon temple will be given the authority to bring over existences at Tier-4, but I cannot promise you that it will be easy to kill everyone in the Dragon temple if they have some special means of protection. It's possible that they can use Mantras similar to the ones that nearly killed me, or that the Divinity Fragment installed in the temple will restrict my strength, or increase the power of the beings inside the temple," Dilan tried to prepare his people for the face-off.

He knew that there were many uncertain factors that couldn't be ignored. That was the whole reason behind this gathering.

If Dilan knew what he had to do to achieve the best possible result, he wouldn't have wasted the short time they'd been given to gather everyone and discuss things, to begin with.

"So what are we going to do?"

Chapter 441 The Plan

Creating a proper plan about what they should do with the Dragon Temple was certainly not easy.

They had to consider the possibility of the Dragon Temple being something advantageous like the Scorpio Temple. The Undying Group could grow stronger at a shocking pace using both the Realm Gate that led to the Blood Monarch's Instance Dungeon and the Scorpio Temple.

The Shop of the Scorpio Temple had been very useful and the Scorpionmen had come to an agreement with Sven and the other humans of the Undying Group.

Dilan didn't have to force the Scorpionmen into submission anymore or pressure them to make sure that they wouldn't attack his people, which was a huge relief. The Scorpionmen had gained a lot from all the sacrifices humans made to gain Poison Points.

With that in mind, they would rather have a win-win situation than be oppressed by Dilan, or attempt to eradicate the Undying Group. If they were to annihilate the Undying group and kill Dilan as well, they were bound to incur losses that couldn't be made up in a short period.

All their plans would fail miserably and that had to be prevented by all means.

Nobody could say if the chances of creating a similar relation with the Drakins as they had with the Scorpionmen were high but the chance was definitely there.

Unfortunately, the same could be said about the exact opposite. It was not unlikely that the Drakins would attempt to oppress the Undying Group, or exploit them. The Dragon Temple could turn out to be the same or even worse than the Sun Temple had been.

This would be rather annoying and Dilan wanted to avoid such a troublesome situation if possible.

He had so many things to pay attention to that he could only think of making sure that his Undying group wouldn't be bothered by the Dragon Temple in any way.

Thus, they came up with a specific plan that made everyone feel relieved to a certain degree.

"Are you sure that there will be enough water?" Kathrine asked in the group. She was currently the most skeptical about the given plan. Her worry was clearly visible but Dilan could only shrug his shoulders.

"I have no idea but that's the best plan we could come up with in such a short time, don't you think?" Dilan responded after a second.

Their plan was to use the humongous crater that had once been Shiron to let the Dragon Temple emerge there. Dilan would face whatever would happen once the Dragon Temple had been fully constructed without anyone by his side.

With the possibility to use the environment that had been created due to the Meteor shower domain, Sven had come up with the idea to use the Orb of Mantras for the first time if something were to go wrong.

One of the stored mantras was called [Deep Sea Tsunami], and they were in possession of certain Magic Scrolls that were directly related to highly potent poison that was the strongest when diluted with alkaline Deep Sea water.

They didn't have any aquatic biologists in the Undying Group, which made things a little bit more difficult because they had to come up with the best possible plan to potentially eradicate the Dragon Temple if something were to go wrong.

Alkaline toxicity though rare could cause lots of medical issues. Their group wanted to make use of this by using the Mantra [Deep Sea Tsunami]. In most oceans, pH decreased the deeper one went. Afterward, it would either stabilize at a certain degree or increase gradually as the depth increased.

There was no specific description when it came to the Deep Sea Tsunami Mantra but all of them hoped that the water was highly alkaline and fit for the poison-type Magic Scrolls in their possession as their potency increased the higher the ph!

"It's a good plan if we were to face the worst-case scenario… I'm just worried that something will go wrong…again…" Kathrine worried at her lip but Dilan just smiled. He patted Kathrine's head gently before he stepped back once again.

"I don't think that anything bad will happen. Even if it does, Shiron is far enough from you guys. I won't die, either way, so you guys should pay attention to yourself and focus on increasing your strength rather than worrying about me!" Dilan suggested.

He turned around and headed outside the office, ready to go all in when he saw that a young woman from the Trading Hub came running over.

She was holding a storage ring and handed it over to Dilan after she gave him a shy smile.

"All Essence crystals we have in the Trading Hub are inside there. I hope that they are enough," The woman spoke slowly while trying to control her racing heart.

Dilan smiled lightly at her before he accessed the storage ring. What awaited him inside the storage space of the ring were countless Essence crystals that could be used as a catalyst to activate the Orb of Mantras.

They could use the Essence of the Essence crystals to replace the Mana of ten thousand Ascenders, which made it a lot easier to activate the Orb of Mantras.

He didn't have to bring his Ascenders everywhere to use the Orb of Mantras in that case!

"They should be enough, thanks for bringing them over!" Dilan said before he turned back to the small batch of higher-ups from his group. He saw the worry lining their faces but he didn't say anything in return.

Instead, Dilan merely turned to the front again before he went his way. There was not much he had to say, either way.

Thus, he left the Sanctum and he rushed back to Shiron, where a humongous crater awaited him. Dilan jumped down to the center of the crater and he put down the tiny black heart whose heartbeat had accelerated drastically.

[Does the host desire to erect the Dragon Temple at the current location?] A system notification appeared in front of Dilan but he didn't give his permission right away.

There was a lot of time left before his time would run out and Dilan wanted to make use of every single second of it.

Lots of monsters had emerged from Gates near the Shiron crater. Hunting them could be quite advantageous to get a few more Essence crystals, increase his stats a little bit, and so on.

With more than half an hour left, Dilan could set himself up to make sure that everything would go according to his plan. At the first sight of danger, he would use the Orb of Mantras to activate the Mantra [Deep Sea Tsunami] and kill everything in the vicinity.

The amount of water should be more than enough to fill the entire crater, turn it into a sea and cover the Dragon Temple.

At least that was what they'd planned to do before adding some highly potent poison created with the use of high-tiered Magic Scrolls.

With that in mind, Dilan hunted various monsters for the next half an hour before he set up his storage ring. He tested a few things and made sure that everything would work out smoothly before he waited for the last minutes on the timer to be over.

"I hope that you guys like humans, that's for your own sake!"

Chapter 442 Rainbow Miasma

The tiny black heart kept expanding. It was beating rapidly and looked like it was going to explode any minute.

Yet, instead of being afraid of the inevitable, Dilan observed the situation deep down in the Shiron crater with interest.

'Now that I think about it, I've never seen how a temple is constructed.' Dilan thought and he recalled that it was the exact same for Instance Dungeon.

He knew that they existed but he had never really seen them being constructed from scratch.

However, that was not exactly important. It was of much more important that the Dragon Temple was about to emerge and that he had to remain fully focused to ensure that there wouldn't be any problems even if powerful Dragons were to emerge.

"Show me something, you bitches!" Dilan screamed out, feeling ready to rumble. Even if he didn't hope that the Dragon temple was something necessarily bad, Dilan was pretty sure that they wouldn't be lucky.

He couldn't imagine that the Drakins were a good race, especially with the weird gut feeling he had!

The black heart kept expanding and its heartbeat created tiny shockwaves that crossed the entire Shiron crater. They reached Dilan, who began to smile at the sight that unfolded in front of him.

The Dragon Temple was being constructed with the help of the Soul Collector that burst open, revealing a glorious sight.

The colors of a rainbow spread through the Shiron Crater and it took only a while until the entire crater was filled with it.

When Dilan was unable to see anything through the thick miasma that was swept through by all colors of the rainbow, he tensed up. Something huge was happening behind the rainbow miasma but Dilan was not able to tell what exactly this 'something' was.

His mana was blocked by the rainbow miasma, which was enough to make him worry a bit. It was not too long ago that he had faced an intense, life-threatening situation at this exact location and Dilan wanted to do everything he could to make sure that nothing bad would happen again.

That was also why he activated both [Thunder Step], and [Second Acceleration] to make sure that his Agility was high enough to encounter all kinds of situations.

He changed his stance as, one hand curled around the hilt of the Cursed Dagger, and his other hand reached for the Orb of Mantras.

Dilan accessed the storage ring on his left hand as well to be prepared to throw out all Essence crystals if that was necessary. He squinted his eyes, circulated mana through them, and focused on the miasma in front of him.

Yet, instead of seeing a humongous monster emerging from the rainbow miasma, he witnessed an unexpected scenario.

The rainbow miasma receded and a humongous Gate appeared in Dilan's sight, exactly where the black heart, the Soul Collector, had exploded.

"So that's what the Soul Collector is doing; creating a stronger Gate to allow either more, or stronger, or maybe both more and stronger monsters and Drakins to emerge on Milarn?" Dilan mumbled, realizing that the situation was pretty interesting.

There were many creative races using unique and unpredictable ways to make their way to Milarn. By now, Dilan was fully aware that the Primordial Ascension was something numerous races considered to be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

If they could awaken the supporting system of the Primordial Ascension, their strength would inevitably increase by leaps and bounds.

However, that was not the main reason for most races to give their utmost to activate the Primordial Ascension's supporting system. All races had certain boundaries, and thresholds they couldn't overcome easily.

Thankfully, by activating the supporting system of the Primordial Ascension, they were provided with the necessary means to break through these thresholds with much more ease.

If that was not good enough, the supporting system was even strong enough to give pointers to allow ordinary mortal existences to become terrifying Gods with unfathomable powers no mortal was ever supposed to attain, to begin with.

Dilan had learned all of this from Ariel Silvertale, who had somehow become quite a good friend for him to chat with. It was easy to ask her numerous questions because she answered the majority of them provided Dilan was ready to answer all questions she asked him.

His answers didn't even have to be overly explicit for Ariel Silvertale to accept them. This was pretty helpful, and it allowed both sides to gain various benefits as their knowledge increased substantially.

Dilan kept staring at the humongous Gate in the center of the Shiron crater and he imagined a huge Red Dragon, like the one his group had run from when they drove away from the Rian mountainside hospital.

However, this was nothing but his imagination and the reality was that a three-meter-tall, red-scaled lizard with tiny wings emerged from the gate.

The monster's wings were not powerful enough to allow the lizard to fly, which caused Dilan to smile lightly.

He had expected something worse to happen so seeing a Peak Tier-2 monster appear from the Gate made him chuckle.

But just when Dilan was about to lower his guard, reality struck him right in the face.

A seven-meter-tall, two-legged lizard with huge wings emerged from the Gate. It lunged out toward the Lizard with short wings and its razor-sharp maw crushed down on the monster that was ripped to shreds.

"Tier-3 Wyvern!" Dilan exclaimed, recognizing the monster that had emerged from the Gate.

It took him no effort to figure out that the monster in the center of the Shiron Crater was at Tier 3 and that it was a Wyvern. It had two legs at the end of the lizard's body, huge bat wings, a powerful neck, razor-sharp teeth and claws, the power to breathe fire, and a lengthy tail that crashed down on the remnants of the now torn apart body of the short-winged lizard.

The Tier-2 monster had died in an instant and the huge Wyvern didn't hesitate to gobble down its head to devour its Essence crystal.

The Wyvern roared out triumphantly and it shot in the air with mighty flaps of its wings.

"Taming one of these would be quite interesting, that's for sure…" Dilan couldn't help but mumble and it was merely a minute later that the head of the large Wyvern shot in his direction.

Dilan was merely in the mid of the second Tier, and the huge Wyvern was definitely at the mid of the third Tier. With [Power Appraisal] of his Headring, Dilan could clearly tell that its average stats were at 250 Units.

This was definitely not something Dilan had to be afraid of, especially with the equipment he wore.

His Agility was extremely high after [Thunder Step] and [Second Acceleration] had been activated, meaning that his Agility was at the Peak of the 3rd Tier even without the tremendous increase his agility received from the equipment.

The Cursed Dagger was fully unleashed as [Blood Sacrifice] had been activated, increasing the stat amplification by 50%!

Dilan smiled at the Wyvern and he couldn't help but feel that the opportunity in front of him was even better than expected.

"Maybe, I should just start slaughtering you guys!" Dilan exclaimed as he activated [Short distance traveling].

And just a moment later he disappeared into thin air!

Chapter 443 Dragon Temple

Dilan had disappeared from the large Wyvern's sight when it was less than 200 meters away from him.

This was exactly the distance he wanted to test the full extent of his Armor-Set's abilities properly.

He reappeared above the head of the Wyvern, whose eyes immediately flicked upward. Though its eyes were ridiculously fast and sharp, the remaining body was not fast enough to keep up with the speed of its eyes as Dilan unleashed his power.

There was no sign of hesitation in his movements as four Basic Elemental Spirits merged with the Cursed Dagger, which Dilan slashed downward the moment the Wyvern's eyes looked straight into Dilan's eyes.

'Sorry but you're too late!' Dilan thought as the tip of the Cursed Dagger pierced through the first layer of the Wyvern's flesh.

He dug deep into the monster's flesh, skull and brain without meeting any resistance as electricity currents, wind gales, and searing flames emerged from the Spirits that had fused with the Cursed Dagger.

Dilan's attack caused tremendous damage that was enough to immediately kill the large Wyvern. The monster was not even able to release a final scream because it was not even able to sense the danger before it was already way too late.

It didn't feel any pain either and just died, entering the eternal abyss of the afterworld.

Because of the tremendous force, Dilan had utilized, they were smashed into the ground. Dilan landed on top of the Wyvern's body and his hand immediately dug deep inside the head of the monster to absorb its Essence Crystal.

However, it was a moment before he actually reached the Essence crystal of the Wyvern when he saw that numerous things were happening at the same time.

More monsters and human-like Lizards of various sizes, colors, and shapes were emerging from the large Gate that seemed to have become the origin of a foundation made out of reddish stone.

Stones emerged out of nowhere and they attached themselves to the other stones that had already emerged before. A gigantic hall was created around the large Gate and Dilan lost sight of what was happening as walls shot upwards from the hall's foundation.

There were a total of five holes in the large hall. One of them was the ceiling, and the four others were located in one direction each. They were exactly in the center and created a symmetrical hall that looked the same from all directions.

Dilan moved quickly. He returned back to the top of the Shiron Crater and looked down to take a proper look at the situation down below.

What he saw was pretty interesting but it was not as frightening as he had imagined.

The Dragon Temple was being constructed out of nowhere and hundreds of monsters emerged from the large Gate. The power level of the monsters was high in comparison to most things that had emerged on Milarn but to Dilan, they were just a means of becoming stronger.

It was not necessary for him to go all out to defeat the monsters and Drakins that ranged from Tierless up to the Mid of Tier-3. Most monsters that had emerged from the Dragon Temple's Gate were certainly powerful but Dilan didn't have to be bothered about that.

He looked down at the monsters that were gathering outside the Dragon Temple and he wanted to know what they would do upon seeing him.

Thus, he ignored the Dragon Temple that was being constructed at a ridiculously fast pace and cleared his throat while using mana to amplify the noise he created.

This made things a lot easier because the noise he had created reverberated through the entire Shiron crater, attracting all the monster's attention.

While the Drakins were only looking at him with a hint of curiosity, the monsters within the Shiron crater didn't hesitate to attack him the instant they saw him.

Some were flying all over the crater to rush toward him at a rapid pace. They were ready to tear him apart and flexed their sharp teeth at him, growling menacingly.

Some were even roaring in the air, trying to intimidate Dilan and make him realize that he was the weaker force.

However, Dilan could only smile lightly as he crushed the Essence Crystal that had appeared in his hand. The monsters hadn't seen the Essence crystal before but they could clearly perceive that it was a Tier-3 Essence crystal.

This allowed the monsters to realize that Dilan had somehow gotten his hands on a Silver Tier-3 Essence crystal. Little did they know that Dilan had actually just killed a Wyvern before they had emerged from the Dragon Temple's Gate.

It was already way too late by the time they saw the corpse of the Mid Tier-3 Wyvern corpse and Dilan had disappeared once again.

He had used both [Master of Gravity], and [Short distance traveling] to appear in the air, where he was now hovering with a faint smile on his lips.

The Cursed Dagger was shrouded in electric currents, wind gales, and searing flames, enhancing the dagger's power drastically.

In addition to that, Dilan activated [Mana Slash] by using a total of 50 Units of Mana. This made things a lot easier because the Cursed Dagger began to glow, Dilan altered his mana and he released a mana slash toward his opponents, cutting them in half.

His attack power was tremendous and he activated [Mana Slash] two more times to make sure that all the monsters in the air would be killed.

Their bodies were cut in half, blood splattered through the surrounding, creating a grotesque and scary image in the air before the intestines followed suit. The sight of the monsters getting cut in half from three mere attacks was quite shocking, especially after knowing that most of them had been Tier-3 monsters.

Looking at Dilan, the hint of interest the Drakins had felt before turned into confusion.

Was that really the same person they'd given the Orb of Mantras and the Soul Collector, using a tremendous amount of precious resources? They had no idea because they had never seen the group of humans, who had gotten into contact with them.

However, seeing that the human in front of them was not even trying to befriend them, it looked almost as if he had accidentally come across them and that he was killing everyone who attacked him without mercy.

The Drakins didn't feel much when they saw the Wyvern and other aerial monsters die in the air, but it was quite obvious that they felt a little bit unsure and wary after witnessing that his combat prowess was so terrifying.

Dilan's power exceeded everything they had gotten to know about Milarn and that was something they didn't like. At the most, they had expected a few Tier-2 existences with an okayish combat prowess to be in existence but that was already it.

Dilan just smiled when he landed on the ground and he ignored the system notification he had gotten about the Wyvern's Essence crystal which he had absorbed just moments before.

Looking over to the Drakins that were not too far away from him anymore, he couldn't help but smile lightly.

"Hey party lovers, how about you guys talk a little bit to me? I need to learn your language!" Dilan declared, pointing at the Drakins, who returned his look without saying a word.

'I wanted you to speak to me, not to punish me with silence?!'

Chapter 444 Water

Dilan was trying to make the Drakins talk and communicate with them but that was certainly not easy. He looked at them in an imposing manner to make sure that they wouldn't attack him.

However, this had the opposite effect and the Drakins considered this a threat. They unsheathed their weapons before shrouding their body with the elemental affinity they had been born with to charge at Dilan.

This looked quite formidable and it would have bothered Dilan a lot if the Drakins that had already emerged from the Dragon Temple Gate were stronger than the Mid Tier-3 Wyvern.

Even if they were, Dilan would have been quite happy about it.

The stronger his opponents, the faster he could grow after absorbing their Essence crystal. It was as simple as that!

Nonetheless, Dilan wanted to try talking to the Drakins at least once before he would do something to make sure that the Drakins couldn't bother him or his group.

"Yoo, Lizardmen, how about you talk a little bit with me?" Dilan asked the Drakins, who began to look at each other in confusion.

"Kissschatazzzz mirazzzz lakossss!" One of the Drakins addressed the group, which caused Dilan to give him a thumbs up.

"That's exactly what I want!" He declared with a faint smile on his face.

Unfortunately, the situation turned awkward afterward.

The Drakins turned silent and they looked at him for quite a while without uttering a word.

'Looks like I was too impatient,' Dilan figured before he smiled hesitantly.

There was no need for him to be impatient at first because there were not really troublesome existences in the surrounding, but that quickly changed as a monster towering over ten meters emerged from the Dragon Temple Gate.

Dilan just saw its brown scales and the humongous horns that protruded out of the head of the bulkily built huge lizard.

"An Earth Dragon?" Dilan wondered at the sight of the towering monster.

A big smile appeared on his face and he was ready to give his all to ensure his survival when he noticed that there were reigns around the neck of the monster he presumed to be an Earth Dragon.

Not only reigns but a small mud hut was located on the lengthy back of the Earth Dragon and Dilan could clearly tell that the monster was tamed.

This was quite interesting, but Dilan didn't really have much time to spend watching the scene in front of him in awe as two things happened at the same time.

First, a huge serpentine eye was constructed at the top of the innermost building, the centerpiece of the Dragon Temple; The Golden Dragon Eye Tower!

The Eye stared straight at Dilan, and it detected him as a being that was not benevolent to the Drakins' Ideals.

Their ideals and mission were something that would most certainly obstruct Dilan, and the Golden Dragon Eye could perceive this precisely.

Dilan sensed that his head began to ache the moment the Golden Dragon Eye stared at him.

But that was not everything that happened. The Earth Dragon opened its huge maw and a small pebble-sized mass of energy formed.

The mass of energy enlarged in size and a beam filled with a Dragon's Essence was being unleashed.

A brownish-translucent beam shot straight at Dilan, who looked at the situation in front of him with a trace of interest.

"It doesn't look like they want to make friends," Dilan said a bit ruefully as a faint smile emerged on his face.

"In that case, let me have some fun!" He exclaimed, turning into countless golden specks just before the Dragon Beam would have collided on him.

Dilan had used [Short distance traveling] twice more to make sure that he would land outside the Shiron crater.

Because [Master of Gravity], [Thunder Step], and [Second Acceleration] were still activated, Dilan could shoot to the right side of the crater where a small pit was located.

Next, he quickly accessed his second storage ring, and countless Essence crystals emerged in front of Dilan at once.

The Essence crystals landed inside the pit and Dilan accessed all of them at once, using his high mana aptitude.

A strand of essence was pulled out of all the Essence crystals.

Yet instead of desiring to absorb all Essence crystals, Dilan led the strands of Essence toward the Orb of Mantras.

He charged the Orb of Mantras with the Essence and intended to activate the Deep Sea Tsunami Mantra as soon as it was fully charged.

It was only a matter of time before it would be fully charged and Dilan knew that the next three seconds were the most important. As long as he could fully charge the Orb of Mantras most trouble revolving around the Dragon Temple and the Drakins would be taken care of for quite a while.

That thought was motivating and it caused Dilan to activate [Bearer of Pain] to replenish his Mana at once. His Life force was drained in return but that was not something Dilan was worried about.

His Life force had already been drained so many times that he felt almost accustomed to it by now.

Ignoring the pain of getting his life force drained, Dilan made use of his lowered Health stat to make sure that his stats were properly augmented.

After all [Bracing Pain] would augment his stats drastically the lower his Health stat would be.

This was something Dilan made use of as his Mana increased even further.

He made sure that his mana stat reached an extremely high degree to accelerate the charging process of the Orb of Mantras.

This was possible by inserting traces of his Mana into the strands of Essence that were quickly pulled inside the Orb of Mantras.

Thus, even before the Earth Dragons beam that was empowered with the Essence of a Dragon ended, a tremendous pressure began to weigh down on all existences within the Shiron crater.

Everyone looked in Dilan's direction as he stretched the Orb of Mantras that had turned blue into the air.

"Dive into the Abyss of the Melphyrim, reach out to the Darkness, and bring down the terror of the Ocean!" Dilan screamed at the top of his lungs just before masses of water shot out all around him.

Dilan smiled at the situation that unfolded all around him and he was ready to make sure that everything would go fine as a golden hue emerged all around the Golden Dragon Eye.

"You are pretty troublesome, aren't you?" Dilan mumbled but his smile never dissipated.

Rather, he was pretty satisfied that the Drakins were not easy to defeat as he saw that the masses of water he created were being blocked by a golden semi-translucent come that had emerged around the partially constructed Dragon Temple.

A total of four different types of Magic Scrolls manifested around Dilan.

He took a deep breath and activated [Bearer of Pain] once again, replenishing all of his mana before he made use of [Switch] and the fact that his Mana was already extremely high after [Bracing Pain]'s augmentation.

Reaching close to 1000 Units in Mana, Dilan imagined that he was able to see something all around him, but he didn't have the time to think about this.

It was time to wreak havoc with some Dragons, and Dragonbloods!

Chapter 445 Dome Down

With four Magic Scrolls hovering around him, Dilan didn't have much leeway to move around. It was already difficult enough for him to make sure to control the output of the Deep Sea Tsunami.

Thus, Dilan ended up staying at the same spot while accessing a total of four Magic Scrolls that were about Poison Creation, Reverse Dilution Effect, Poison Augmentation, and Defensive Breaking Poison.

The four Magic Scrolls had a very powerful effect even when used alone but overlapping them with one another allowed Dilan to merge the most terrifying effects of them all!

Because of that, Dilan had to use up all his Mana at the same time. It was highly exhausting to have his entire mana taken at once but he endured it.

Gritting his teeth, he witnessed the water around him turn greenish on one side and yellowish on the other side. The colors merged and it was only a matter of time before the lower half of the Shiron crater was fully submerged in water.

The golden, semi-translucent dome that protected the Dragon Temple had already begun to grow weak and it started to flicker.

Dilan smiled when he saw this but he also witnessed that many beings with the blood of Dragons, Dragonbloods, had emerged from the flickering golden dome.

They targeted Dilan, whose entire being was surrounded by the high-pressure waves of the most terrifying tsunami mankind had ever witnessed.

Yet, even though Dilan was surrounded by the high-pressure waves of the Deep Sea, he was still completely dry. The water avoided him completely and burst straight into the Shiron crater that was filled rapidly. Following the huge influx of water, the various Dragonbloods scampered around to escape being drowned and their high-pitched shrieks could be heard all around him.

Dilan was completely unbothered by those screams as he continued to maintain the effect of the four Magic Scrolls and the Tier-4 Mantra.

He made sure that nothing would come in between the completion of his mission, even if that meant he would have to suffer quite a bit.

No sooner had he thought about this than a barrage of arrows shot out of the flickering golden Dome. The Dragon Temple's Drakins weren't going to go down without giving Dilan a tough fight and doing everything they could to defeat him.

Thus, they readied their long-range attacks, meaning arrows, bolts, and elemental attacks to eliminate the human threat at the top of the Shiron crater.

Dilan didn't have the means to defend against the attacks right now because his mana was fully drained and he was still forced to make sure that the effect of the four Magic Scrolls and the Deep Sea Tsunami Mantra were maintained and doing exactly what they were supposed to do.

Achieving this would be best, especially because he didn't really want to get wet and drown in the water.

Yet, when the Elemental attacks shot through the water that surrounded Dilan in its entirety, droplets of the altered water touched him.

Dilan's skin started to burn and he frowned deeply.

'Roughly as painful as my lifeforce getting drained…it's fine, I guess,' He thought just as a bunch of elemental attacks burst through the water, impacting straight on him.

The arrows and bolts grazed his skin while the elemental attacks were ripped apart, attempting to wreak as much havoc in his body as possible.

However, it was to their misfortune, that Dilan's natural Health stat had increased to more than 900 units after enough Life force had been drained from him to unleash the strongest form of [Bracing Pain].

All his stats were augmented by 50%, the power of his special trait [Iron Skin] was fully revealed and Dilan had activated [Burst Regeneration] to make sure that he would survive all kinds of problems that could occur with his low Life force.

​ His Stamina was rapidly drained the more he moved with low Life force but that was something he could accept quite easily.

The arrows and bolts were easily blocked by his bare body, while the elemental attacks were not even strong enough to tear through the Hyel Destructo armor. At least the arrows and bolts that had been shot at him were strong enough to achieve this!

Looking at the situation in front of him, Dilan stretched out his hand. He touched the poisoned mana with his bare hand and figured out just how painful it would be to throw himself inside the Deep Sea Tsunami and unleash it without any restraint.

Maintaining control of the Mantra and the four Magic Scrolls might be helpful for everything to stay somewhat in control but Dilan's thoughts were going astray.

He closed his mouth, and activated [Undying] using the bits of mana his body had replenished before he decided to take a rather risky and drastic decision.

"My Immunity ability merged with Regeneration, so I should be fine one way or another!" Dilan told himself before he took a deep breath as he let loose the Deep Sea Tsunami that erupted a mere moment later.

He took a dive straight into the water and let the Tsunami pull him downward to make sure that he could reach the base of the Shiron crater to kill the injured monsters and Drakins and collect their Essence crystals.

His skin began to itch and he felt a little bit uncomfortable, but he was far from harm. He didn't feel like his skin was corroded or anything like that. Even his eyes were doing okay. The itchiness got a little bit worse but that was still fine.

As long as he kept [Undying] activated, the potency of his poison immunity increased drastically. Dilan could spend as much time underwater for as long as he could hold his breath.

This was a lot different for the Dragonbloods, who were struggling to survive much less fight. A searing hot pain spread through their entire body as their skin peeled off their bones before their flesh decayed.

The sight of the monsters and Dragonbloods getting melted alive right outside the golden domain was quite horrifying but Dilan didn't waste his time with them.

Instead, he used all his might to stay in the water currents and move closer to the golden dome. After tightly grasping the Cursed Dagger, Dilan thrust it forward in an attempt to penetrate the golden dome. Unfortunately, his strength was not enough to pierce through the golden dome.

Dilan thus used both [Power Up] of his Chestplate of Hyel Strength and Endurance to increase his Health and Strength drastically and [Breaker] of the Gloves of Destructo and Power.

Breathing in some of his remaining oxygen, he prepared himself to give his all. There was no time to hesitate, it was do or die!

With that in mind, he grasped the Cursed Dagger even tighter than before. His Gloves of Destructo and Power began to glow brightly as the tip of Xealtron impacted cleanly on the golden dome.

At this moment, a new wave of the Deep Sea Tsunami swept toward the golden dome, providing Dilan with the opportunity he needed to pierce the dagger's tip through the wildly fluctuating golden dome.

And it was just moments later that numerous cracks spread through the golden dome!

Chapter 446 Drowning

Spider web-like cracks spread through the whole golden dome. It flickered wildly, followed by an ear-piercing sound to reverberate through the surrounding the moment the golden dome burst apart.

A bunch of several hundred-meter-high waves shot toward the previously well-protected area of the Dragon Temple, where thousands of powerful existences were waiting for their doom.

Dilan was not able to see much in the Deep Sea water even though his eyesight was exceptional. He could see through the darkest places, but right now, his sight was drastically obstructed.

However, that was not a problem because it was pretty easy for Dilan to perceive his surroundings and to know where to go.

It didn't take much for him to perceive where powerful existences were located.

Following the water flow, Dilan was swept to the center of the Shiron crater, where the Dragon Temple was located. With a few powerful movements, Dilan was able to break through the surface of the water to take a few deep breaths before he was pulled down once again.

With enough oxygen to survive for quite some time, Dilan was ready to rumble. He tightened his grip over the Cursed Dagger and swam forward with powerful strokes.

His Life force might be quite low right now but he was doing exceptionally well despite being in the highly poisonous water that hurt everyone else tremendously.

'As long as a Mid Tier-4 Monster would not suddenly emerge, every single Dragonblood, who is not immune to highly potent poison and unable to swim will die!' Dilan thought in his mind, feeling that his plan had worked perfectly fine as he witnessed the tremendous damage the Tier-3 Earth Dragon had to face.

The tamed Earth Dragon was one of the strongest existences he had encountered in Milarn until now. Only the Red Dragon had been more powerful, but that existence was at Tier 4, and it was bound to become even stronger now even though its growth was severely restricted in Milarn. This was because there were simply no powerful existences with potent enough Essence Crystal to allow the Red Dragon to grow stronger.

Dilan swam vigorously toward the centerpiece of the Dragon Temple, the Golden Dragon Eye Tower. It radiated a powerful golden light, which attracted most monsters and Drakins towards itself, giving them the opportunity to gather up.

Dilan perceived more than 30 powerful beings that were trying to get to the Golden Dragon Eye, which was the Divinity Fragment that belonged to the Dragon Temple. The powerful beings hoped that the Divinity Fragment would release some of its remaining power to protect them. After all, they had sworn allegiance to the God, who had created the Divinity Fragment.

Yet, contrary to their hopes, the bright light of the Golden Dragon Eye was slowly diminishing!

The Golden Dragon Eye was trying to preserve its power and come up with a better solution to save the Dragon Temple rather than the loyal followers as they were bound to die one way or another.

Every Divinity Fragment could attain some sort of artificial intelligence as long as it had been nourished enough. Armed with that knowledge, it could communicate with the other Divinity Fragments and gain enough knowledge to figure out what it could do to counter the given predicament.

There were several things for the newly created Divinity fragment to do to ensure that the Dragon Temple in the Shiron crater wouldn't end up getting destroyed but figuring them out was not something a newly created Divinity fragment could do easily. It had merely been awarded a tiny trace of artificial intelligence thanks to the support of the Soul Collector that had been nurtured from a large mass of collected Souls.

Dilan didn't know that Divinity Fragments of a Temple could attain sentience, or be born with an artificial intelligence, which is why he swam toward the Golden Dragon Eye without any qualms. He emerged right in front of the eye and looked into it, trying to figure out if he could devour the Divinity Fragment in any way.

It would certainly be advantageous to make use of the Divinity Fragment if it was possible for him to absorb one, to begin with.

He reached out with his hand, intending to test out a few things when a shockwave reverberated through the turbulent water of the Deep Sea Tsunami.

The entire Shiron crater had been filled with water, yet, the Deep Sea Tsunami Mantra was not over. Water flooded the surrounding areas, they destroyed everything and it was only a matter of time before the monsters, the plants, and even the rich and nourishing soil around the Shiron crater would change drastically.

And all of this was just because Dilan wanted to make sure that the Dragon Temple would cease to exist. The four Magic Scrolls had been way too powerful in combination with the Deep Sea Tsunami Mantra. Thus, he destroyed the entire ecosystem in a radius of tens of kilometers just to make sure that the Dragon Temple would cease to exist.

He had plenty on his plate to take care of, and having countless Dragonbloods roaming around everywhere was certainly not something Dilan wanted to face at any point in the near future.

The Hordes of Chaos and Destruction were his biggest problem for now, and Dilan felt that they were not even the biggest issue. In fact, their appearance ought to help Milarn to grow up faster, which was essentially something pretty good.

Now that he saw all kinds of troublesome things with his own eyes when he was pushed back from the golden-colored shockwaves, Dilan recalled his Slaves.

'I just left them behind on their own, didn't I?' He recalled and he cursed himself.

'They should still be alive…maybe they were even fighting for their survival and accidentally helping the ordinary humans to become stronger like that…' Dilan wondered at this point.

He had never wanted any slaves under him, which is why he just forgot about them. Because he never gave them a specific order about what they should do, they were basically free to do whatever they wanted.

However, Dilan didn't know what kind of basic commands Slaves were given. With that in mind, he didn't even know if it might have been quite dangerous for him to leave them behind.

Maybe they would have stayed close to their master if he had not given them any orders, and by being too far away, they would suffer unimaginable pain!

Dilan's expression changed at this thought but he didn't really have much time to think about their problems because he encountered a wide-open maw that was slowly being corroded.

Despite the corrosion, the huge Earth Dragon wanted to sink its sharp teeth into Dilan or crunch him to death.

Little did it know that everything was for naught and that its death was either at his hands or the Deep Sea Tsunami!

Dilan made a swift motion with his arms and legs. He jumped up in the air, coming face to face with the Earth Dragon's snoot, which he grasped tightly with his free hand and pulled himself closer to the head of the huge Dragonblood.

Given the opportunity, Dilan pierced the Cursed Dagger deep inside the Earth Dragon's eye before he twisted it. Simultaneously, he released a small [Mana Slash] after he had summoned as many Basic Wind Spirits as he could summon.

A sudden shockwave originated from his dagger and the head of the already mortally injured Earth Dragon burst open.

It died, coloring the Deep Sea water red.

Chapter 447 Forgetting Something

His control of the Wind Spirits was the strongest but Dilan had never really focused on that.

He had always been a lot concerned about the overall efficiency of his Rings of Infinite Elements Constitution and the Mantle of Elements ability rather than the efficiency of only one Elemental Spirit.

That's why he didn't question why the Wind Spirit was powerful enough to easily burst the head of the Earth Dragon open when he attacked using it.

Afterward, Dilan left everyone behind because they would die whether he intervened or not. It didn't really matter.

Dilan swam around the Shiron crater and checked each and every corpse to make sure that he could collect all Essence crystals.

He absorbed the Essence crystals and his stats increased drastically. Being a Level 27 Tier-2 Ascender was his biggest advantage.

He would receive lots of Status points and his strength would reach a new height even if his stats were higher than his opponents. Within the next hour or so, Dilan focused on collecting lots of Essence Crystals and his level and stats increased quite a bit.

After the vast majority of Essence crystals had been absorbed, Dilan wanted to head toward the Golden Dragon Eye once again.

However, what confused him once he arrived there was the fact that the power radiating from the Golden Dragon Eye had decreased drastically.

The power had decreased to the extent that Dilan didn't feel intimidated, let alone pressured by it in any way.

The Divinity seemed to have been turned off and its energy had been deprived. Thus, Dilan could touch it with no problems even though he had been skeptical about doing the same before.

His hand was still itching because of the water's effects yet he still reached out for the Golden Dragon Eye for the first time.

'I would love to take it with me, but that seems quite difficult,' Dilan thought, feeling a little bit sad but he quickly got the hang of himself and chose to leave the Shiron crater.

There was nothing else for him to do inside the Dragon Temple that hadn't even been completely formed yet. It was constructed less than 50% and Dilan had basically destroyed everything with his effort to combine his Magic Scrolls and Mantras.

The effect of the Mantra had worn off and the potent power of the Magic Scrolls poison was still in effect.

In fact, the poison was getting stronger with time and the damage that had been inflicted on the surrounding area was tremendous.

This was something Dilan noticed only when he returned to the surface.

His clothes were drenched and he had to swim a bit to get back to the land.

Only then did he realize what was going on.

"Looks like I fucked up the ecosystem more than anyone else…oops," He smiled weirdly but ended up shrugging his shoulders.

Turning in the direction of the Sanctum, Dilan waited for a moment and pondered about his next move.

'Do I really have to get them?' He wondered but went ahead anyway.

'Even if I don't like having Slaves, letting them die while being their master is not exactly nice…' Dilan figured and he activated [Thunder Step], [Second Acceleration], [Master of Gravity], and [Mantle of Elements] to summon only Wind Spirits.

When he made use of the Wind Spirits' power, powerful wind currents shrouded his whole body and he dashed toward the place that had once been the settlement of Regilav Gaul.

His speed was extremely fast and he was astonished to notice that the gusts of wind became stronger the more time passed.

'Is my control of the Wind Spirits improving? That shouldn't be possible though…' Dolan wondered, just to make a big realization.

"Green Magic? Is that it?" He blurted out at a point. Dilan slowly realized that the special trait of Green Magic was connected to the comprehension of the wind. This made things a lot easier, especially when he had a constitution, a special trait, and an ability that had to do with the wind affinity to some extent.

'I should really start learning more about Green Magic. That way I can probably become a proper powerhouse even without the extraordinary help everyone receives from the system,' Dilan thought when he arrived inside the settlement. He was pretty sure that the system of the Primordial Ascension would assist him but he didn't want to rely too much on it.

It might allow him to become a lot stronger than what he could have achieved without the system's existence but it was certainly better to make sure that one was innately powerful and not only due to the system!

With that in mind, he entered the settlement.

When it came to the settlement, Dilan was not interested in anything else but the Slaves, who were still at the same place as before.

They looked at him with expressions that confused Dilan a lot, as if their gazes held a trace of blame and a feeling of being wrong, thinking that he had abandoned them.

"Why are you guys looking at me like that? I just…forgot about you guys for a short time…" Dilan offered a lame explanation and the eyes that looked at him changed once again.

They looked at him like abandoned puppies, which was something that caused Dilan to frown deeply.

"Why are you guys not happy that I finally came back to you all?" He thus asked straightforwardly. It was not important for him to care about their opinion of him.

"The Slave Mark makes us feel certain ways," the Dark Elf woman from earlier answered his question and Dilan nodded his head in response.

"So if I order you guys to behave normally as if the Slave Mark doesn't exist, that would work as well?" He continued questioning with a glint of interest but most Slaves just shook their heads in denial.

"Unfortunately, that's not how it works. In the end, the basic orders of the Slave Mark will make sure that we stay loyal to our master and nobody else. The moment we think about disobeying our master, we will face severe consequences. That being said, the moment you abandon us, the Slave Mark will deem us useless and take our lives," The same Dark Elf from before explained while looking at him pitifully.

'The Slave Mark is just a big mess, isn't it?' Dilan thought in frustration, wondering how to get out of the mess.

He didn't really feel like having a personal Slave army but now he was basically forced to take them with him if he didn't want to be the reason of their deaths.

'They're quite powerful, so they can become guards in the Sanctum or something like that?' He scratched his chin and decided what to finally do with the huge number of Slaves staring at him hopefully.

"You guys come with me then. Tell me about your abilities, if you have some vacancies left and what your 'occupation' was. I need to know what you guys were good and bad at. If you guys are not yet well versed with the human language, just try your best for now," Dilan offered a solution, hoping to make the best out of it.

Everyone looked at him and they understood every word he said. Most of them were not able to understand the human language but that was not necessary to begin with.

The bond between a master and a Slave served as a great communication medium to ensure sure that they could understand one another.

Furthermore, the Dark Elf woman could understand and speak the human tongue, which made things a lot easier.

Chapter 448 Rest?

"So…you not only took care of the Dragon Temple, but you forgot to bring some…slaves back to the Sanctum?... Are you being serious right now?" Kathrine asked while moving her hands wildly in the air.

She looked at the Dark Elves and all the other Slaves, who stood behind Dilan in a disciplined manner. The Slaves stood in attention and would kill their master's opponent the moment someone was to direct killing intent toward him.

"Yeah, what's the problem?" Dilan asked in return. He looked straight into Kathrine's eyes, unable to see why she was being so fussy. Dilan didn't like the situation but the situation was his issue, not Kathrine's.

"What's the problem? W…y….ARGhhhh!" Kathrine screamed in frustration and it looked like she was having a meltdown, but thankfully she calmed down when Yvonne intervened.

She pulled back her elder sister and tried to talk to her, but that failed miserably.

"Well whatever," Dilan mumbled mostly to himself before he averted his attention to Sven and Williams.

"The Slaves belonged to some Drakins and then had been handed over to the leader of the settlement that I've basically razed to the ground. I was somehow automatically given the control of their Slave Mark and they'll learn our language before teaching us some of their combat style. Their combat style includes a rather professional version of using weapons and abilities together and in perfect sync. Learning from them will help all of us a lot!" Dilan summarized the situation rather quickly and the two men nodded their heads.

Kathrine seemed to have calmed down as well and she turned her attention back to Dilan and the situation ahead.

"They'll also share their knowledge about various things with you guys. As long as everyone is willing, this will certainly help you guys to learn various facts about your abilities, the Primordial Ascension, and much more!" He shared before his attention turned to something else, "How is the situation with the Werewolves, the Vampire Lord, and the Scorpio Temple, right now?"

Everyone looked at Dilan as if he was some sort of a freak or a supernatural existence.

He was not sure what problem his question caused and the others noticed his nonchalance, which caused Sven to smile. Williams on the other side couldn't help but squint his eyes as he kept watching the young man in front of him.

"You don't want to take a break for a few hours, half a day or a few days to rest and relax especially after everything you've encountered in the recent days?" Williams asked to make sure that Dilan understood why they were staring at him like this.

There was no way that Dilan was unaffected by the situation he had faced when the Meteor Shower had killed everyone around him before turning its hateful gaze at him and crush his body in ways he didn't even think were possible to get crushed.

Nobody could truly fathom how Dilan survived the impact of the meteorite after they had seen the humongous district-sized meteorite he had stored and brought to Old Jeff, who was supposed to make use of it.

However, what everyone could fathom was that the reason for Dilan not to return to the Sanctum for a duration of two weeks was not because he didn't want to but because he was simply not able to do it. Their earlier fear that he had abandoned them and went on a solo journey had been for naught.

It was only days after the two-week period had elapsed that Dilan had finally reached the surface and emerged from the pits of the ground. At that time he had been in pretty bad shape and it took him an additional four days to fix his body. Just the thought that someone with an Origin ability that focused on the increase of his Health and natural regeneration was not enough to heal him faster than the total of three weeks he had been away from the others showing clear enough that Dilan's situation had been more than grave.

Dilan didn't want to make a fuss out of it, but the others seemed to have a different opinion.

"And what do you think I should do after taking a few days off? I don't really have anything else to do but to improve my knowledge, the ranking of my abilities, my level, stats, and equipment. We don't know how much time we are left with until the Hordes of Chaos and Destruction will reach us either. So…please answer my question and we can continue doing our utmost to make sure that we will survive this mess!" Dilan shared his opinion in a rather simple manner.

It was not difficult to understand his mindset regarding the given situation and the circumstances that revolved around it.

Thus, Williams could only give up and sigh deeply, while Victoria stepped forward.

Her blue eyes darted toward Dilan but she held herself back from saying lots of things. It hadn't been long before she came to a few conclusions about Dilan, how to treat him after everything she had found out about his past, and the fact that she had figured out that he was not exactly interested in her.

Dilan was not disinterested in Victoria either but his romantic interest in her was definitely not to an extreme degree and whatever he had felt for her before had quickly evaporated.

"As we already told you before, the Werewolves are currently packing their stuff. They are preparing to leave the Sanctum and return to their homes. As for the Vampire Lord, he disappeared not too long ago. You probably missed him by a day or so, meaning that there is no problem with the Werewolves or the Vampires," Victoria explained simply before her expression changed a bit.

"Unfortunately, I cannot say the same thing about the Scorpio Temple. Some Werewolves and human Ascenders from our group had been in contact with them before and it looks like a particular group stirred a lot of trouble when they told the Scorpionman that they wanted them to work for the group of humans and werewolves!" Victoria added quite simply, and there was not even the need for Dilan to hear the rest before he knew what was going on.

"Obviously they didn't like being ordered around. That means I have to clean up some of the mess created by my people…again…" Dilan intervened before Victoria could finish. She just nodded her head and didn't say anything else.

However, Dilan felt a little bit frustrated.

'Am I supposed to stay behind and sort out the mess my people leave all the time? Isn't a group supposed to help one another…' He thought before he quietly blurted out something everyone around him could clearly here.

"When are they going to be useful instead of being a burden??"

Dilan spoke in frustration but that was only obvious. He already had a lot on his plate and the things he had to do in the near future continued to increase in number. There was definitely no need for others to keep doing stupid things to increase his workload.

Unfortunately, that was exactly what some of his people were doing, which was what frustrated Dilan to no end.

"Master, if you want us to act, we will take care of everything," The Dark Elven woman, whom he had rescued from rapists, offered.

Everyone turned in her direction, just for the young woman to add something.

"This includes taking care of the useless people in your group as well…"