CHAPTER 20

"Well, to be frank, these crystals are quite useless." The alchemist revealed with a shake of her head, studying the crystal in her hand.

"Huh?" Sapphire exclaimed in shock. "You are telling me that something extracted from such a strong dragon is worthless?"

"Not exactly, but what they are used for isn't something accessible by many people, and so they are usually just sold for very high prices. Yours would easily sell for more than 500 gold coins." The alchemist explained with a wave of her hand.

Sapphire tilted her head, both in confusion and to glance at what was happening in the adventurer's guild. The alchemist has been called for many things, but the other people who were supposed to be here for their work were late so the alchemist didn't mind helping out Sapphire first, till they arrived that is.

She was a fairly old women as the receptionist informed, though she looked very young still. Her hair was brown in color and she wore a white hoodless robe. Her eyes were a grayish-blue in color. Despite being old, the alchemist was still stronger than any other person Sapphire has seen yet, stronger than even the ancient dragon.

"Hidden (female), level 236, Status Appraisal failed."

I am nowhere close to being the strongest, Sapphire sighed. And what's with the hidden, I never knew someone can hide their species.

"These types of crystals are generally used to imbue legendary weapons and relics with the powers of these crystals. This crystal will grant poison-based skills to the weapon and the user. Along with imbuing, these crystals also upgrade those weapons, the only known way to upgrade legendary relics." The alchemist explained as she placed the crystal back on the table.

"How does the upgrading work?" Sapphire inquired.

"It's nothing much, you need to simply bring the crystal in contact with the relic or weapon, and the crystal will be absorbed into it. Some of the stronger crystals, like stage 5 and above remain even after, but stage 1 crystals like this disintegrate instantly."

"It's... stage 1? Okay, got it. I... will take my leave now." Sapphire said getting up and walking away with the crystal.

The alchemist waved slowly as Sapphire walked away. "Wish you luck in your endeavors, little wolf."

Sapphire snapped her head around and stared at the alchemist for a moment, who simply smiled back and slowly waved. Pulling her hat lower Sapphire walked away, stepping into an isolated but fairly lit up street she used Shadow Movement to teleport to a dark area near the corner of the village.

As she walked towards the edge of the village to depart she noticed a familiar scent. She decided to follow the scent closer to the source so to figure out whose scent it is. The scent led her to a large red tent, a small opening on one side, though it appeared that it could be opened from other sides too.

Wait, this scent? But it can't be. No, it can very much be just what I am thinking it is, so it is better to check.

As Sapphire got closer to the tent she heard a loud brief howl from inside the tent and froze in horror. The howl was abruptly cut off, forcefully, from the way it stopped. Her fear and worry quickly turned to anger and she was more than willing to kill anyone involved. As she approached the tent, two people standing at the entrance noticed her and exchanged glances. Sapphire walked while looking to the ground, breathing from her mouth to calm herself.

"Stop right there, where do you think you are going?" One of the two questioned.

Sapphire remained silent and slowly raised her right hand upwards, her palm open. She formed a fist and punched the ground in an instant, both the people falling to the ground a moment later.

"Dark Magic: Echoes of horror.1" Sapphire whispered as she stood back up.

While neither of the two were able to move, the look of complete horror was evident on their faces. After moving the two humans away with Shadow Movement Sapphire slowly walked into the tent. Her anger only rose at the sight of the inside of the tent. There were twenty-four humans inside the tent, all seemingly setting things up. Sapphire counted fourteen wolves on a side of the room, all females and older than her.

All fourteen of the wolves were collared and chained to the ground. From their faces it was evident that none of them had any hope left of being saved, some lifeless eyes suggesting they probably wished to simply die by now. Sapphire bared her teeth, prepared to slaughter everyone in the vicinity, but she held herself back, regaining her composure with a few deep breaths. All of the wolves were looking directly at her, a slight look of curiosity on their faces. They exchanged glances and shrugs between each other. There were three Midnight Wolves, five Winter Wolves, five Blood Wolves, and one Storm Wolf.

Some of the humans noticed her and informed each other, talking amongst each other as they wondered who the intruder is.

"Where is your boss? I wish to discuss a deal with them." Sapphire announced calmly as she looked directly at one of them.

Some of the humans nodded understandably and got back to work, one of them approaching her. "The boss will be here anytime now with many other people who wish to discuss deals, you will have to offer more than them." He grinned at her, a gap from a missing tooth visible in his grin.

"I can offer more than what you can dream of." Sapphire replied taking out the poison dragon crystal. 

Everyone inside the tent looked at the crystal wide-eyed, chatting loudly amongst themselves as they discussed about the crystal and its value. Even the wolves were curious about the strange crystal from the looks of it.

Sapphire slightly pulled her hat up and glanced at the wolves, showing them her eye for what it was worth. Nearly all of them gave uneasy glances, except two of the Midnights, which exchanged shocked glances with each other, clearly recognizing her, mainly due to blue eyes being extremely rare in Midnight Wolves.

Sapphire waited on one side of the tent for the boss to arrive. From the looks of everything the people were setting up an elevated stage and a lot of chairs. Everyone stopped their work as some people entered the tent.

From the looks of it, all of them were very rich people, possibly even royalty. A fat middle-aged man was leading them and explaining things to them. After leading everyone inside he gestured to the chained wolves with a broad evil smile. Everyone else gave looks of appreciation before examining the wolves with fairly similar creepy smiles. The trader gave Sapphire, who stood silently on one side, a curious glance before asking his men about her. After hearing from them he approached her.

"I believe you have come here to buy these fine slaves we have gathered?" The trader asked.

Sapphire gave a slight nod.

"Then please, this way." The trader offered leading her to the seats.

"Oh no, that won't be necessary, I simply required everyone involved to be present here." Sapphire said with a smile.

"What might you mean by that?" The trader questioned.

"What I mean is, you all have to die, sadly, and preferably in a painful way." Sapphire said while raising her hat higher and glaring at the man.

As the man took a step back in shock she jumped and kicked him in the stomach, sending him tumbling to the other people. All the workers rushed there instantly, a total of forty-three people by the man's side, including the workers. They helped him up and prepared their weapons, the wolves silently and curiously watching everything unfold. One of the workers, a mage, tapped his staff on the ground, erecting a barrier that covered the entire tent.

"Now you are trapped in here." The trader smiled as he clapped his hands.

"Oh you have the wrong idea about this, you all are trapped in here with me." Sapphire replied coldly as she tossed her hat and cloak away, revealing her ears.

"A Midnight Wolf?" The trader gasped as he turned to his men. "Well, this is only better, I will add one more to my collection."

Sapphire cocked her head to her right and glared at him while activating her intimidation skill. Everyone took a fearful step back under her glare, the look of confidence being wiped off the trader's face.

"Attack her!" The trader ordered.

As the people cautiously approached to attack her, Sapphire closed her eyes and focused on her breathing, preparing to attack. They circled around her, gesturing to each other to attack.

"Requirements have been met, acquired the custom skills: <Dark Breathing Mastery> level 1 and <Dark Sword Style Mastery> level 1."

Five people carrying swords charged at her in unison, Sapphire allowing them to get closer and attack. They all swung their swords at her at the same time, to not give her any room for escape. Sapphire jumped the second the swords got close to her. Tilting herself upside down in the air she spun her body and unsheathed both her katana, slashing all the men with dark slashes.

Landing back on her feet Sapphire turned her attention to the remaining people. She slowly walked towards them, noticing that none showed any will to fight. The mage that erected the barrier disabled it and bolted for the exit.

"Conditions satisfied: <Child of Destruction> level 4 activated."

The moment the mage reached close to the exit Sapphire jumped out of the ground right in front of him, landing a punch right on his face. He fell to the ground screaming, half of his head slowly disintegrating. Everyone stared in horror and looked around for any escapes.

"Barrier." Sapphire announced, just loud enough for everyone to hear.

"Expended 200 skill points to acquire the skill: <Barrier > level 1."

A thin barrier was erected around the tent, fairly weak, but still enough to keep anyone from escaping. Claws sprung out from the back of Sapphire's palms and attached themselves to the back of her fingers as she activated the Wolf Claws skill. From that point on it was a simple massacre as Sapphire ripped every single one of them to shreds with her claws and bites, blasting a few with shadow pulse even. Within five minutes she killed everyone in the tent, except the wolves, who were all staring at her in fear and shock.

She smiled at them in the most appealing way she could, having calmed down fairly after getting to rip everyone to shreds. She slowly walked to all the wolves, who were exchanging scared glances. She stopped right in front of a Winter Wolf who looked up at her. Sapphire turned her right hand into a knife shape and stared at the wolf for a moment.

"Destruction Attack." Sapphire said as she drove her hand towards the wolf.

All the others let out scared gasps and shrieks while the Winter Wolf froze in fear. A moment later, with a satisfied smile, Sapphire moved on to the Winter Wolf right next to that one. Everyone exchanged confused glances as the first Winter Wolf sat there, breathing heavily and rapidly. Sapphire did the same with the next seven wolves before anyone noticed what she did. The one to notice it was a Winter Wolf, the one that was sat in a corner and seemed to be quite badly wounded.

"You are removing our collars?" She questioned, glancing between Sapphire and the remaining collars.

Everyone else stared at each other's neck and let out relieved gasps. Sapphire quickly removed the collars of the remaining six, much quicker since now they were cooperating. After removing their collars Sapphire destroyed their chains with destruction attacks, somewhat surprised on realising her hand did not disintegrate like the knife did.

"Seems like you have been working hard." A familiar voice whispered from behind, causing Sapphire to jump slightly as she turned and faced the owner of the voice.