Chapter 156: The Dragon Antelope Ranch, Bloodline and True Spirit

In the year 1258 of the Starlight Calendar, during the month of Dawn (March), the Dragon Bone Tower was finally fully restored.

Sunan immediately began the process of relocating the base.

Primarily, this involved Base 1.

The facilities found in Base 1 were mostly present in the Dragon Bone Tower, but in a more comprehensive and complete form.

For facilities like the insect nest, which weren't available, a room could be selected and modified to accommodate these needs.

The overall relocation process went very smoothly.

Henceforth, the apprentices would live, train, and study within Dragon Forest.

At the top of the Dragon Bone Tower.

Sunan stood in front of the control center, his eyes fixed on the three-dimensional model.

[Ecological Park: Dragon Forest]

[Grade: Large (Damage: 48.23%)]

[Current Remaining Energy: 95.23%]

[Intelligent Auxiliary Life: Steward No. 1]

[Zones: Zone 1, Zone 2, Zone 3]

[Facilities (Dragon Bone Tower): Residential Area, Warehouse Area, Laboratory Area, Training Area, Workshop Area, Modification Area Control Center, Elemental Pool (Micro), Insect Nest]

[Servants: Clay Golems ×423, Flower Spirits ×52, Children of the Forest ×3, Red-Eyed Ravens ×67, Gremlin ×1]

[Defense Device: Large Space Barrier]

[Combat Device: Golem Army (Stone Golems ×426, Double-Blade Spiders ×85, Elite Stone Golems ×20, Iron Golems ×5)]

Sunan nodded in satisfaction at the data annotated beside the 3D model.

After more than half a month of charging, the elemental pool was nearly full.

The restoration of Zone 2 had already begun.

Although only just starting, with the assistance of clay golems and flower spirits brought from Base 1, the restoration speed should significantly improve.

"Zone 1, when maintained at optimal operation, uses 35.12% of the energy cycle."

"After Zone 2 is restored, before introducing new dragons, it will only need to maintain the minimum operation, requiring 53.66% of the energy cycle."

"In total, that's 88.78%."

Nearly ninety percent of the energy ratio!

Including the minimum 3.06% energy needed to maintain Zone 3 operations, which covers the Dragon Bone Tower's daily facility operations like lighting, experiments, transformations, etc., the ratio exceeds ninety percent.

Beyond this, energy usage depends on the experiments and production of potions, magical items, and golems by wizards (and apprentices).

This aspect theoretically has no upper limit.

Sunan checked past energy consumption records through Steward No. 1.

During Dragon Forest's peak energy consumption a thousand years ago, the Dragon Bone Tower used up to 47.23% of the energy cycle!

This nearly led to an energy cycle collapse in Zones 1 and 2.

"Fortunately, there's no need to worry about that now."

Sunan murmured to himself.

Currently, the base only had him as a third-level wizard apprentice, with barely any second-level ones.

The energy used for experiments and production couldn't possibly exceed 10% of the energy cycle.

With Zone 2 not yet fully operational, energy sufficiency wasn't a concern.

"Military strength has also increased significantly."

Previously, Dragon Forest had only 100-plus stone golems, but with the base's garrison joining, the total number of golems had surpassed 500.

However, an increased military presence wasn't particularly useful.

Dragon Forest was a semi-dimensional space, partially isolated from the material world, and inaccessible except through the teleportation channels controlled by Sunan.

Only a wizard powerful enough to tear through the spatial barriers and possessing Dragon Forest's spatial coordinates could enter.

Such a figure couldn't exist on the current Starlight Continent.

Thus, there was no worry of external enemies attacking Dragon Forest.

Perhaps for this reason, the original creator hadn't built combat devices for external defense, only stationing a small number of golems.

These golems were likely used to capture sub-dragons within Dragon Forest.

As a result, the advanced stone golems and elite double-blade spiders from Base 1 were transferred to the Star Alliance.

Now, Base 1 was essentially an empty shell, apart from the magical plantation.

However, Sunan didn't plan to abandon Base 1.

It would serve as a transit station for material transfer between Dragon Forest and the surface world.

Base 2 would serve a similar purpose.

With Dragon Forest's teleportation array, Sunan could now travel rapidly between the surface and the underground world, eliminating the need for an additional Base 2.

The facilities from Base 2 had been moved into Dragon Forest, leaving only the magical plantation and a spatial portal to Dragon Forest, serving as a transit station for material transfer between Dragon Forest and the underground world.

"Having a single base means no more constant shuttling back and forth, making many things much more convenient."

Sunan smiled lightly.

"There's no need for additional magical plantations either. Allocating a section of Zone 2 will suffice for planting magical plants."

Dragon Forest, unlike the outside world, could maintain a high energy particle density with continuous energy supply, meeting magical plant growth needs.

A patch of land in Zone 2 could match the size of over a dozen magical plantations outside.

"The domestication of sub-dragons should also be prioritized."

Sunan waved a hand through the air, revealing an image.

The image depicted a steep mountainside filled with caves, where creatures covered in shiny golden scales, resembling a cross between dragons and antelopes, flew in and out.

Dragon antelopes, a powerful and elegant sub-dragon species.

They were tamed by many legendary knights a thousand years ago.

Dragon antelopes were straightforward sub-dragons, loyal to their masters and very powerful in combat.

An adult dragon antelope had first-circle legendary strength, growing stronger with age, reaching up to third-circle legendary.

When Sunan discovered the numerous sub-dragons in Dragon Forest, he conceived the idea of forming a dragon cavalry.

After careful selection, he settled on dragon antelopes.

Besides their loyalty and formidable combat abilities, dragon antelopes preferred living in secluded caves away from civilization and had a natural affinity for dark environments.

This meant they wouldn't weaken even in the dark, damp conditions of the underground world.

A dragon antelope cavalry—just the thought was exciting!

However, taming sub-dragons was a time-consuming and laborious process.

Adult dragon antelopes were nearly impossible to tame; taming had to start from the juvenile stage.

Sub-dragons inherited some dragon traits, including very slow growth.

Even using growth catalysts, raising a juvenile dragon antelope to adulthood would take at least ten years.

"The knight guard's strength is still too weak; there's not even a grand knight yet. They need time to grow."

"Starting to tame dragon antelopes now means that in over a decade, when the knight guard's strength has caught up, they can pair well with the dragon antelopes."

After some thought, Sunan settled on a plan, designating an area on the 3D model as the future site for taming dragon antelopes.

"Let's call it the Dragon Antelope Ranch."

With the site designated, Steward No. 1 would naturally arrange for clay golems to handle the specifics. 

Sunan then proceeded to the main laboratory in the modification area, his personal large laboratory.

The Hidden Dragon was already waiting inside. Seeing Sunan arrive, it crawled up close and affectionately nuzzled his chest.

"Sorry to keep you waiting," Sunan chuckled, patting the Hidden Dragon's head.

With ample high-tier dragon blood, the Hidden Dragon's bloodline had advanced rapidly.

Its bloodline concentration now exceeded 50%, with combat strength reaching third-circle legendary.

The bloodline and strength boost had also enlarged the Hidden Dragon's physique.

Its length exceeded thirty meters, and even crouching, its height was nearly four meters.

Without its phasing ability, moving inside the Dragon Bone Tower would be very restrictive for the Hidden Dragon.

"The highest dragon bloodline concentration in Dragon Forest is the Tyrant Dragon at 85.37%."

"Once surpassing this threshold, the Hidden Dragon's bloodline growth will slow significantly."

"Raising it to 90% should allow it to break through to fourth-circle legendary."

As Sunan pondered, his actions were swift, skillfully performing the bloodline fusion procedure for the Hidden Dragon.

The Hidden Dragon now underwent the procedure about three times a month, using the intervals to assimilate the bloodline power.

This high frequency of bloodline fusion also greatly increased Sunan's proficiency in the [Biological Modification] skill.

Sunan estimated that in two to three months, the [Biological Modification] skill would likely reach level 4.

Time flew by, and soon it was the month of Fiery Flow (July).

Just after the first ten days, Sunan successfully constructed the sixteenth star ring.

[Sunan Anyesite, Human Male]

[Mental 50.93 / Physical 45.88]

[Skills]

Star Ring Meditation Lv17 (130 / 5000000)

Potion Making Lv4 (8635 / 10000)

Biological Modification Lv4 (529 / 10000)

Golem Crafting Lv5 (1023 / 20000)

Magical Item Creation Lv4 (5477 / 10000)

"Two more star rings to go."

Sunan exhaled in delight.

His daily proficiency gain in the Star Ring Meditation had increased to about 4800 points with his growing mental power.

At this rate, constructing the seventeenth star ring would take about two more years.

"Within eight years, I should construct the remaining two star rings."

"By then, even if my mental power hasn't reached 60, it should be close."

With the pure divine energy from the Death Knell Beetle, Sunan's mental power growth was much faster than before.

"I need to find ways to further enhance my physical strength."

Last month, Sunan gathered the materials to craft another magic core, successfully creating the fourth magic core.

But now, the issue was that his mental and physical attributes couldn't support a level 4 magic core, so he hadn't fused it yet.

A level 4 magic core required 51.22 mental and 54.39 physical attributes for fusion.

Mentally, Sunan estimated that after at most two more rounds of divine energy absorption, he'd meet the requirement.

Physically, though he was further off, with dragon blood fruit, it was easy to enhance.

Currently, at 45.88 physical, he was only at a mid-level grand knight's level, far from a legendary knight.

"Without a fused bloodline, physical enhancement is still slow."

Nonetheless, given the choice, Sunan would rather slowly strengthen his body with dragon blood fruit than hastily fuse a bloodline.

While bloodline fusion could quickly boost power, the cost was a significantly narrowed future growth potential.

Take the Death Knell Striker as an example: once fused with its bloodline, further power increases would hardly surpass the source of the Death Knell Striker's bloodline, the ancient beast Screeching Horror.

Due to this limitation, the wizard's advancement path split into two routes: bloodline and true spirit.

Sunan's goal had always been the true spirit path.

Only a True Spirit Wizard could reach the highest realm.

"The research on alternative metals for the magic core is nearly complete."

Of the eighty-nine alternative metals needed for the magic core, besides the twenty purchasable with gold, Sunan had researched sixty-seven of the remaining sixty-nine, leaving just two.

At most, it would take another month or two to complete.

Afterward, as long as his mental and physical attributes kept pace, he could indefinitely enhance the magic core.

Late at night, in the Forest Cabin.

Moonlight streaming through the windows illuminated the room.

Around the large table sat eight people.

Except for the Hunter, all other members of the Forest Cabin were present, a rare occurrence.

Surprisingly, the Traveler was also there.

"How unusual, didn't expect you to show up," the Staff remarked, eyeing the Traveler with surprise.

"I thought you'd died in some corner," the Remains added with a hint of malice.

Ignoring the Remains, the Traveler shrugged at the Staff, "I encountered some trouble, but thanks to the Player, it's resolved. I'll attend gatherings regularly now."

The group glanced at Sunan in surprise, not expecting the two to meet outside the Forest Cabin.

"What about the other new member?" the Traveler asked, looking around and frowning in disappointment, "Not here?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Black Forest replied indifferently, "Probably caught up in something."

In the Forest Cabin, this was normal, and the group didn't mind as they proceeded with the transaction process.

When it was the Traveler's turn, he looked at the Staff, sincerely saying, "Staff, I want a Starlight Tower key. It's crucial for me. If you could, please name your price. I'd like to trade for it."

The Staff hesitated, then shook his head, "Sorry, the Starlight Tower key is important to me too. I don't plan on trading it."

"Don't bother, Traveler," Black Forest said openly, "If the Staff was willing to trade, I would've acted long ago. You wouldn't have a chance."

After learning the Hunter offered a Starlight Tower key during their first gathering, Black Forest, like the Traveler, regretted missing it. He later attempted to trade with the Staff, but was flatly refused.

Hearing this, the Traveler sighed in disappointment but didn't press, placing several bottles of dragon's blood on the table.

"If anyone wants it, make an offer."

Everyone turned to Sunan.

In past gatherings, Sunan invariably acquired any dragon's blood available.

Over time, they knew Sunan was determined to get dragon's blood and stopped competing.

But to their surprise, this time, Sunan shook his head.

"I don't need it."

The group exchanged puzzled glances.

Only the Traveler knew that with an entire ecological park at his disposal, Sunan no longer lacked dragon's blood.

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