22 Episode 22

The secret room was not small, it was roughly half the size of a basketball court. Don looked around and discovered a small pond in the middle of the room. There, he saw a bird's nest like structure made out of some type of stone he had never seen before. The color of the stone was dark blue and in the center of it was a black egg, which was roughly the size of a ten year old child. The egg was placed on top of some crystals that were shining. The brightness from these crystals seemed to be less than the ones attached to the ceiling. Confirming the area around him, Don discovered that the room was almost identical to the one on his map.

How did he know all this? "I was told this was an unsearched territory which is why we were sent here, but something seems fishy for sure. I don't know what it is, but I will definitely get to the bottom of it. After all, I need to avenge Tony and Hina". He slowly walked up to the water and saw it was clear. The pond was shallow, coming up to his waist.

Don bent down and sniffed the water before cupping a handful to drink it. Without him noticing, his anxiety level dropped after drinking the water. After a few handfuls of water, Don fell asleep for five hours. When he woke up, he was shocked to feel that his body didn't seem to be in too much pain. At first he was terrified that he had actually passed out, but upon seeing there was no one else around him, he finally calmed down.

What he didn't know was the water he drank could be considered a Low Grade Healing Elixir. After being around the Dragon Crystals for so long and in a pure place, free from blood shed and other worldly affairs, the water absorbed the leaking energy from the Dragon Crystals, hence becoming a Natural Treasure. The effects were similar to a Low Grade Healing Elixir, it would reduce fatigue and heal surface wounds. The healing abilities of the water were not that great, but it would help anyone in a time of need, even restoring a portion of Spiritual Energy for cultivators.

Don looked around while taking off his clothes. After confirming that there was nothing in the room besides the black egg, he started to swim towards the small land where the black egg laid. As he got closer, he felt the stones under the eggs were familiar. Once reaching the land, he got a closer look at the stones and realized that the stones were the items his Senior Brother requested. He quickly jumped to the stones after coming onto the land. Unbeknownst to him, the stones were the legendary Dragon Crystals. An item even the famous Sects would covet and wage war to obtain.

However, to his shock, he could not remove the Dragon Crystals no matter how hard he pulled or pushed them. Getting angry, he started to push the egg with all his might before he started to punch it out of frustration.

"Bang! Bang! Bang!"

***

*

"The Gnome Mint Berry has expanded your Dantian, how many did you eat?" The Black Dragon asked Jacq who was sitting down in a lotus position.

"I ate only one berry. There weren't anymore near by, or I would have tried for three total, but you know the rest. The werewolf showed up, yada yada," Jack replied with his eyes closed. Currently he was circulating the Quasi God's Cultivation method to make use of the remaining energy in his body. He had wasted two tenths of the berries energy while running. At first he was upset, but later on Nero told him that it was almost impossible for people to run while cultivating. Otherwise he would have lost more than sixty percent of the berries energy while running for his life earlier.

"Since you are helping me, I too should help you become stronger for the fight. As a dragon, I have a long life span and in my younger days, I collected a lot of treasures. Feel free to look for any weapons that may be helpful to you while I search for a Sacred Treasure I once discovered," the Black Dragon spoke sincerely. It could be seen that this Black Dragon was a creature who would not cheat those who helped him. He reminded Jacq of the dragons he had read about in fantasy novels.

"Alright then!" Jacq replied enthusiastically. He had always wanted to get an item from the Dragon's Treasure Horde. It was a dream he had many times, to find peerless treasures and items within the loot of the "Final Boss". A final boss was as it's title said, the final boss of any dungeons in games. The loot would be multiple times better than the regular bosses.

While Jacq looked around and swung a few swords he found, the Black Dragon called out to him as he placed a small porcelain bottle in front of him, "This is the Sacred Treasure, it is called the "Banora Tree's Nectar". It has the ability of the Gnome Mint Berry but even better. Just a small sip of this will allow your Dantians to fully expand to the max. Even if you have taken pills or the Gnome Mint Berry, it will cover up the short comings that they missed. This tree grows in different sizes at random locations around the galaxies and dies after a week."

"Oh wow, this is really a Sacred Treasure, a step above a Heavenly Treasure. You should take this chance and make up for the loss of that twenty percent of the berry you lost Jacq!" Nero's voice sounded out in Jacq's head and judging from the tone, he seemed very happy and excited.

"Thank you for this Sacred Treasure! I know this is a little late but may I know your name?" Jacq just realized that he had never asked the Black Dragon his name.

"Ah right, with so much happening I forgot to introduce myself. I am called Nelza Ol' Sygan the Black Dragon, you can call me Nelza or just Nel. I started Cultivating around a little more than three thousand years ago. Me and my wife came here after we got in a fight in our home land, we barely escaped from the pursuits of our enemies. After arriving to this planet, we both entered a deep slumber to recover our wounds. That alone took fifteen hundred years! Look at my scales! See how dim they are? I am at the end of my life span. The injuries were too much for us."

"The whole reason for the battle was due to a cultivation resource me and my wife found. I don't even remember what the item was, all I know is that we were able to enter enter the Full Cultivation of the Spirit Gathering Realm from the Lower Level. Due to that, we were hunted down. The path of cultivation is a ruthless one. People will betray you for benefits, so that they may live longer, by obtaining your resources if you are too weak. When we were able to move about on this planet, we discovered more resources. This was a blessing for us, or so we thought. After spending a few dozen years, we entered the Lower Level of the Spirit Building Realm.", Nel paused while he reminisced about the past.

Hearing the story of Nel so far, Jacq was petrified. Didn't this mean that Nel was in the Spirit Foundation Realm now or even higher?!

"We discovered that our good fortune had run out. No matter how hard we tried, our cultivation got stuck at a bottle neck. After spending five hundred years, we both lacked that one push to enter the Spirit Refining Realm. Half Step stage, this was our final result. No matter what we tried, we could not break past it. Around this time, the resources were useless to us and that was due to our age. We had spent too long slumbering and missed our cultivating time. We also had the egg around then because we realized there was no point in trying to cultivate any longer. A few hundred years later, I found the Banora Tree's Nectar, then my wife passed away and I became the guardian of this cave. Well enough about me! You should drink and refine that Banora Tree's Nectar and start your journey as a cultivator."

"Well it is a pleasure to meet you Nel, and thank you for the help!" Jacq opened the cap of the bottle before drinking it. He had already determined that Nel wouldn't harm him, after all he was the only one who could save his child. The energy flowed in Jacq's body and while using the Quasi God's Cultivation method, Jacq was able to feel the lower, middle and upper dantian sizes change. There was a burning feeling throughout his body, but it was multiple times better than the time he ate the Gnome Mint Berry.

"That's because the higher a cultivation resource is in term of Spiritual Power, the more pure it is. Refining a pure source of Spiritual Power will be a lot smoother," Nero explained the situation to Jacq.

"Bang!"

Muffled bangs sounded in Jacq's body as his three dantians made a break through and expanded by ten times the size of a normal dantian. Following which, Jacq kept circulating the energy from the Banora Tree's Nectar with the Quasi God's Cultivation method. He spent a solid six hours to refine every last bit of the energy.

According to his knowledge he obtained so far from the books and Introductory book, no matter how pure the energy is, a cultivator would never be able to absorb more than sixty percent of it. Forty percent of the energy is always lost, regardless of the situation. If someone else had been in Jacq's shoes when he was running from the werewolf, they would have only obtained around fifteen to twenty percent of the energy from the Gnome Mint Berry!

Jacq on the other hand refined the full one hundred percent of the energy. This caused his dantians to be full with Spiritual Energy and allowed him to enter the Spirit Gathering Realm. He had done it, finally he became a mythical existence, a person who could walk on air if he was strong enough and shatter the land with a wave of his hand!

Ding! The host has became a cultivator! Unlocked Special Skill: Inventory!

Special Skill: Inventory- The host is able to place any items in this inventory menu with the exception of living things.

Storage limit: Endless

"Oh! An inventory space? Like the so called item box?" Jacq murmured to himself.

"Yes, it is the same copy of it, but better. I don't know much, but I seem to recover some of my memory each time you unlock something and this time I remembered that this Inventory can actually be upgraded. Once upgraded, it can hold living things!" Nero said after hearing Jacq's comment.

"Hey Jacq, why did you only enter the Lower Level of the Spirit Gathering Realm? If I gave this Banora Tree's Nectar to anyone else, they would have went straight up to the Peak Level of the Spirit Gathering Realm if not to the Lower Level of the Spirit Building Realm." At this moment, Nel asked Jacq a question with a very serious tone.

"Oh? I don't know...," as Jacq replied, he opened his status menu to take a look.

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Name: Jacq Gremni

Title(s): Holder of The God System, (Unlock more titles by gaining reputation across the universe. Certain actions give certain titles.)

Age: 14

Race: Human

Cultivation: Spirit Gathering Realm (Quasi God's Cultivation Method)

Battle Power: Lower Level

Body Cultivation: Spirit Gathering Realm Middle Level (Quasi God's Cultivation Method)

Experience Points: 0/2,000 to Spirit Gathering Middle Level

Skills: Inventory

Current Apothecary Progress: 3 (Learn about herbs and their uses to increase. When a certain amount of information is obtained along with experience in using the herbs to make pills, the Progress Bar will increase.)

Apothecary Level: Tier 0

Current Blacksmith Progress: 3 (Learn about ores and their uses to increase. When a certain amount of information is obtained along with experience in using the ores to make equipment, the Progress Bar will increase.)

Forging Level: Tier 0

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"I know why!" Nero's cheerful voice sounded at this time.