Chapitre 26: Kujak

"Kujak Ulminus... I will never forget it."

Kujak gave a toothy grin as streams of blood flowed down his cheek.

"Taking the egg with you will be quite difficult with it being this eye-catching, especially with those people looking for it. I'll use the rest of my power to give one final gift to the young one."

Kujak glowed an ethereal blue colour before concentrating it in the palm of his hand.

Lykos looked at the dragon with shock.

'He can't be. He's willing to go this far? I understand why, but still…'

Arvell looked at Lykos curiously.

'What's he doing?'

'He's using the entire power of his soul to do this. Unfortunately, using this kind of power would end up consuming his soul. He won't be able to reincarnate again. This life is the last for him.'

Arvell looked at Kujak with a gaze filled with sadness and pity.

'Don't pity him. Pitying him is the same as looking down on him. Just make sure to protect that egg with everything you've got. That's the only way you can live up to his sacrifice

Lykos's words brought Arvell out of his daze.

Reflecting on Lykos's words Lykos, Arvell took a deep breath and changed his pitying gaze into one filled with admiration and respect.

Similar to the one Lykos had.

Lykos saw the ball finish forming in Kujaks hand.

'It's almost complete.'

Kujak struggled as he concentrated the ball from the size of a basketball to the size of a pebble.

He weakly brought the ball to the egg and touched it, allowing for the ball to sink into the golden egg.

As if in response to the foreign energy, the egg lit up before changing colour.

If before the egg looked as if it was made from solid gold, the egg now looked to be a normal egg with a pale white shell.

Apart from their similar shape and size, the two eggs looked completely different.

Handing the egg to Arvell, the dragon weakly fell to the ground.

The light was beginning to fade from his eyes.

(Gasp)

"I gave the unborn one a portion of my powers. Being an expert at illusion magic, the unborn one will also possess the ability to disguise itself. Even after hatching. This is the only thing left that I can do. Please take care of it and keep it safe. Please bring it back home."

Kujak took one more breath and then ceased breathing altogether.

His eyes completely glossed over.

The black dragon king that drove fear into the hearts of his enemies was now dead.

Arvell and Lykos both bowed their heads and gave a moment of silence in respect for the dragon.

'May he rest in peace.' They both thought at the same time.

Arvell looked at the egg and then tried to put it in his inventory, but realized he couldn't.

Lykos turned to him and explained.

'Eggs contain life and aren't classified as inanimate objects. You aren't at the level where you can store living beings yet.'

Naturally, Arvell knew this, as he tried experimenting by trying to store live fish.

He had wanted to eat them fresh, so killing them right before he ate them seemed ideal.

Unfortunately, that wasn't possible, as they didn't go in.

However, he never experimented with eggs before, so he never found out if he could store them.

Until now that is.

'I guess I'll have to make up some convincing story on how I got this egg to Zen,' He thought to himself.

He sighed and gently put the egg in his backpack while padding the surroundings with the soft clothes he stored in his inventory.

As for the contents that were in his bag already?

Arvell just dumped them into the inventory.

As long as Zen saw his bag was full, that's all that matters.

He can't just waltz around without a bag and then pull his tools out of his inventory.

Zen would realize something was wrong.

Thus Arvell put a portion of the stuff from his inventory into his backpack, made it look full and carried the rest of his stuff in his inventory.

After storing the egg and making sure that it was as secure as possible, Arvell walked over to Kujak's grave.

'A dragon's corpse is a treasure trove of useful materials, everything from his claws to his scales, and even his heart are legendary class treasures. However, taking from his body would be the same as desecrating it…'

Arvell was in a dilemma.

He knew how rare finding the corpse of a dragon was due to their secluded nature, and he could already tell that Kujak's was one of the best even among other dragons.

He did refer to himself as one of the nine 'Heavenly Dragon Kings'.

Well, it was the eight Heavenly Dragon Kings now.

The nine Heavenly Dragon Kings were the nine loyal retainers of the Celestial Dragon Emperor.

Their bodies were bound to be among the greatest of their race.

Unfortunately, Arvell's consciousness refused to desecrate the body of a man who gave up his very soul for this unborn child.

Thus he was stuck in his current predicament.

Take the resources to ensure his survival, but desecrate the body of someone he respected?

Or let the body of the dragon finally rest, and risk his survival.

After thinking of his current situation in terms of these 2 options, Arvell's choice seemed clear.

'I'll take the body. If I use his body to protect the egg, he would certainly be fine with it. After all, if he was willing to give up being reincarnated and let himself be erased from existence for the egg, he should be fine with me using his body for it as well. Though I admit it leaves a sour taste in my mouth.'

'I agree with your decision,' Lykos looked pained, but he nodded his head at Arvell's decision. 'It's better if you use his body to accomplish his dying wish. Someone like him would be fine with this.'

Arvell looked at Kujak's massive corpse.

He was around 85 metres from his nose to his tail, with a wingspan of 20 metres.

There was no way he would fully fit in Arvell's inventory even if he dumped out the contents.

During Arvell's five-month-long training, while not focusing on it, he was still able to increase his Aether Core to the second stage of the 1st circle, while improving his Nether Body to the first stage of the first refinement.

While this didn't seem like much, he was still able to kill middle first rank beasts such as the iron horned deer quite effortlessly when going all out.

Unfortunately with Zen around, he couldn't reveal his full power.

After he upgraded his Aether Core, Arvell was able to increase the storage in his inventory from a sphere with a radius of 5 metres to a sphere with a radius of 20 metres.

He decided to simply take Kujak's claws, teeth and a portion of his scales to create weapons and armour.

After spending close to an hour delicately removing them from his body, Arvell used temporal manipulation as well as his summoned undead to bury the rest of Kujak's body.

He cupped his hands and offered a silent prayer.

After making his way back to the underground river, he turned to Lykos who was calmly hovering beside him.

'Let's get back to the campsite, Zen's probably worried.'