3 Chapter 03 : Ability Crystals

John had just left the washroom when heard noise coming from Drake's room.

'It's late in the night. He should be asleep. What the hell is going on?'

Being careful not to make any noise, he went up to the door of Drake's room and opened it slowly. What greeted him was a cold breeze coming from the opened wooden window.

Drake was nowhere to be seen.

'What the...! Where is he?'

He went up to the wooden window and then looked outside.

Fifty meters away, a little shadow stealthily trod on the street going in the direction of the Brightwood mountains.

***

"This isn't working. At this speed, I can't get anything done. I guess it's time to do the rest of the journey on paws." Said a frowning Drake.

Immediately, he started undressing himself and put all his clothes in a bag.

Red hair started growing on his entire body as his bones cracked and grew.

Before long, a five meter tall red wolf appeared.

He then bit on the handle of the bag on the ground and then kept it in his mouth.

After making sure he hadn't been seen despite the nagging feeling that something was off, he took off in the direction of the Brightwood mountains with his fastest speed.

***

John felt like he had been repeatedly struck on the head by an ancient mammoth. He couldn't understand what he had just seen. His general knowledge of things was being challenged at a level that he couldn't fathom.

He had been following Drake for quite a while now. When the latter had started stripping in the middle of nowhere he didn't find it weird. He thought that Drake had finally quit the habit of covering his entire body. Everybody in the village only wore loincloths.

When he saw Drake completely naked, he thought that that the latter was going for a swim or about to take a dump. He remembered that there was no body of water near the village and surely Drake didn't come all the way out here to take a dump either.

So, what was going on here?

What he saw next stopped his beating heart for a second.

A five meter tall red Wolf.

Did my wife cheat on me with a wolf? That's impossible. He almost wanted to kill himself for thinking that his wife had been unfaithful. It would be stupid to think that a wolf and a human could birth anything.

Then was this his bloodline ability manifesting?

But why not fire, earth or water? Why a beast?

A bloodline ability generally manifests because an ancestor had it. Was our ancestor a beast?

John felt like screaming in frustration. He recalled that he had no authority to judge on the matter as his knowledge was limited. The only thing he knew was hunting and some legends about immortals.

He decided to follow Drake's wolf tracks. He couldn't just sit still and let his five year old son brave danger on his own. He had to protect him but he wasn't really sure who would protect whom...it seemed obvious, didn't it?

On the way, he found dessicated corpses of class two and three beasts. It seemed that all their blood had been sucked dry.

The deeper he went, the more apprehensive he was. He had stopped counting the number of carcasses that were left in the wake of the wolf's brutality.

Could the red wolf be feeding on blood instead of meat?

That was the question that had been in his mind as he saw the corpses.

***

From class two to class nine, no matter how strong they were compared to him, Drake was safe as long as it was a living being that needed blood to survive.

After he noticed strange movements up ahead and feeling a feeling of dread, he decided to trust his instincts and then reverted back to his human self to attract less attention.

He advanced carefully for a mile until he saw a gigantic figure in the sky.

"Tsk, tsk... Dragons are still as majestic as ever no matter which world they are in. This one should be above class nine...I wonder how many level three purified blood crystals I can get from it. Maybe I can even try for level four...but I feel that I wouldn't be able to pull it off...my blood magic has a limit." Drake thought.

The thirty meter long Green Dragon was hatefully looking at a woman floating in the sky not far from it.

" You think that the Palace of Immortals can trample on my Dragon clan with impunity? Our Sages won't take this lying down. You better let me go or else prepare yourself for war." Said the Dragon in a deep shaky voice.

The young woman clad in a blue dress then said, "I have to decline. It's not often that you see a green dragon that had wandered out of the Dragon Lands. Relinquish you Dragon Core and then you can leave. This is the last time I repeat myself. Hurry up."

"I'd rather die."

The young woman smiled and said, " Suit yourself." She tapped on a pouch attached to her dress and a blue sword flew out. The sword floated around her on its own.

"Go" She pointed at the Dragon and then the blue sword followed her movement as it disappeared from sight and then embedded itself in the Dragon's shoulder where a patch of ice started spreading.

"You're not a fire Dragon so there's no way for you to melt that ice. You'll die frozen in a few seconds.

Seeing that its body was being frozen at a rate that it couldn't control, it decided to stake it all on its Nascent Soul.

A green transparent, three meter long dragon then flew out of the Dragon and then headed to the young woman.

The young woman looked like she had seen a ghost, "You're a Nascent Soul Dragon?" She had thought that the Dragon was a late stage Golden core. If that was the case, freezing it whole would be the best way to kill it. She, herself, was a middle stage Nascent Soul and what she dreaded the most was a detonation of a Nascent Soul. If the Dragon decided to bring her down with it, there was no telling what state she would end up in. If she didn't die, she would be close to dying.

Before she could bring out any defensive treasures, the Dragon was already in front of her.

BOOOOOOM

Her mangled body flew like a shooting star and ended up in a crater somewhere in the forest.

***

Drake was already near the frozen corpse of the Green Dragon thinking, " Good. No blood has been lost and there's no one to claim this Dragon corpse."

" In the first world I was born in, Dragons were all born with an innate ability that they could use from birth. I wonder if it's the same in this world...well I just need a drop of blood to confirm it."

He pointed at the corpse and a drop of blood came out and hovered on top of his finger.

He then put the blood on his tongue where it melted as he received a bundle of information about it.

Race: Green Dragon

Age: 147 years (adolescent)

Ability : Wood (only available at adulthood)

"It seems this Dragon wasn't mature enough to use that ability. In this world Dragons have to mature before their ability is awakened. I wonder why. Or perhaps this one is special... Well the good news is that I can extract that ability with all this blood at my disposal. I wonder how many ability crystals I can make."

He pointed his palm towards the corpse.

Blood Magic : Bloodline Ability Extraction

The corpse the floated in the air or in fact it was the blood inside being moved to float therefore bringing the body with it.

Sweat and tears appeared on his little face, showing how taxing the Blood Magic of that magnitude was on him. Had it been just a class nine beast it would have been a walk the park compared to this.

A minute later eight green crystals came out of the corpse.

"It seems the remaining blood won't be enough for another Wood Ability Crystal...I would just purify it now but I'm tired. Let's go see how she's doing first, I have a lot of level three purified blood crystals on me. I should save her at least and maybe she can teach me how to fly. I could do it on my own but growing blood wings shouldn't be that common I think."

He put the eight ability crystals along with all the purified crystals he had made in the Brightwood mountain in his bag. His bag was bulging with hundreds of crystals already since one beast could give more than two crystals at a time.

Drake then started hauling the Dragon towards the direction where the young woman had fallen.

When he arrived there, he was shocked to see how unrecognizable she was.

There was blood everywhere and her body was mangled. He wasn't sure how he was going to feed her the level three purified blood crystal.

"Who are you, boy? What are you doing here?" A voice said from behind him.

He turned around and saw a blue transparent version of the woman from earlier, except that she was tiny. At least one foot long.

"Hello there, Miss. I can to save your body...you still need it...right?" Said Drake amazed that she could still survive in soul form. That is her soul isn't it?

"Oh? How do you plan on saving my body?" Said the woman amused at the thought that a five year old mortal could save her.

Drake took out a level three purified blood crystal and then handed it to her, " Have your body eat that. It should be fine."

The Nascent Soul looked at the blood red crystal in her transparent little hand and then inspected it. She felt a huge amount of vitality. It was similar to the Great Vitality pill that the alchemists in the Palace of Immortals could make...but even a Great Vitality pill couldn't save her now. It only worked until Golden core. There was no healing medicine for Nascent Souls realm cultivators in existence yet.

"You have my thanks little boy, but this is too weak to heal me. Since you're a good boy, let me escort you home. It's dangerous out here." She said with some melancholy.

"Not strong enough? But that could bring a man on death's door back to life. How strong are you as a cultivator for your body to require such energy to heal?" Drake said.

The woman frowned, "You seem to know a lot. Are you perhaps a Nascent Soul that has possessed a kid's body?"

"No. Nothing of the sort ma'am." Cold sweat trickled on Drake's back.

"You can't fool me. You're not a normal kid. You mannerisms, your way of speaking, you sound like someone older than me and I'm only twenty-two years old this year."the Nascent Soul said.

"Think what you want. Since you can't be healed, I better go back. Oh...and I'll be taking the Dragon since you do not need it anymore. I've already helped myself to some of its blood..." Said Drake as he went back to where he had left the dragon a few meters away.

It was then that it dawned on the woman that the Dragon must've been dragged here by the boy. How strong could a five year old be? Was he really an old monster hiding in a boy's body?

It was then that she heard something from the boy, " What a pity. If I was just a bit stronger I could've saved her."

"Wait! Sir. What do you mean by just a bit stronger?" She asked thinking that maybe she could help and save herself from her current predicament.

Drake stopped in his tracks and then said, " I can purify blood. The higher the purification the better the effect. Right now, I'm only strong enough to purify up to level three. If we had a level four or five purified blood your body could be saved."

"I see, how strong is your soul?" She asked.

"My soul is normal. My power has nothing to do with my soul." Said Drake said.

She shook her little head as she said, " That's where you're wrong. All kinds of magics need a powerful soul to supplement them...here eat these pills and try using your magic again." She said as she handed over five white pills from her storage pouch.