Book 2: Chapter 167

Lukas recalled the passage he’d read in the book.

[The corpse of an Ancient Dragon can only be described as a treasure trove. It is a valuable treasure in itself, but many parts of it can also be used as unparalleled elixirs, or supreme ingredients.]

[There is no confirmation of this fact, but it is stated that the heart of an Ancient Dragon has miraculous properties. Only a handful of those who try to refine it would be able to handle the immense power contained within…]

Then he looked at the corpse of the Ancient Dragon that was currently before him.

Bones, teeth, claws, scales.

It was a huge mountain of treasure that blacksmiths would sell their souls to get even a single portion of.

However, in all honesty, Lukas didn’t feel like this Ancient Dragon’s corpse was a treasure trove.

After all, the Ancient Dragon’s body had been broken into pieces. This was natural because it had been turned into a giant ice statue before being shattered with lightning. Not to mention the fact that the magical bombardment it suffered had greatly damaged its prized scales.

Animal hide was always worth more the less it was damaged.

That was why it was usually difficult to obtain good quality hide from powerful beasts. It was very difficult to kill a beast that was struggling to survive without doing any damage to its hide.

Therefore, Lukas felt that the value of the corpse of the Ancient Dragon he’d slain would be rather low.

Of course, that didn’t matter to him. What he was after was its core, not its shell.

Lukas looked at the Ancient Dragon’s heart. It was as black as its scales, and one rubbed it gently with their hand, they would find themself with a handful of ash.

The heart was also much larger than Lukas. It was about as large as a small cabin.

‘I need to control the ice so it doesn’t melt.’

Lukas also had fairly deep knowledge about alchemy. He knew that if he were to let the ice around the heart melt, it would gradually begin to lose its vitality, which would, in turn, mean that it would lose value.

‘Can I really refine this?’

This thought appeared in his mind for a moment, but he shook his head after thinking about it.

He didn’t think he would completely fail the refinement at all, but on the other hand, he wasn’t 100 percent confident in his success either.

After all, he knew nothing about the biological structure of Ancient Dragons, nor did he know how their parts should be handled.

Such things were better left to the professionals.

Refiners.

His current priority would be to find someone who could purify and refine the heart of the Ancient Dragon for him.

Of course, if he couldn’t find one, then he would have no choice but to research on his own and figure it out himself…

But that was only a last resort.

* * *

“None of it should be thrown away.”

Bargan spoke in his normal cold tone.

But despite his voice, his eyes shined with respect and admiration.

Not really paying attention to it, Lukas said.

“What do you mean?”

“The Ancient Dragon my Lord defeated.”

“…”

“The rights to deal with the Ancient Dragon’s corpse goes to the one who defeated it. I will keep an eye on it so that no Dragonman tries to touch your property.”

After saying that, he turned to stare at the Dragonmen who were wandering around the Ancient Dragon’s corpse. When they felt his gaze, they flinched as though they had been pricked by something.

“Do you not trust Igaru and Ashstar?”

As for the wandering Dragonmen, they were naturally the surviving members of Igaru and Ashstar’s squads.

Bargan shook his head at those words.

“Those two are proud. They will only pay respect to my Lord’s achievement and will never try to take your spoils unjustly.”

“Then…?”

“Don’t you intend to move the parts? As I said before, no part should be thrown away.”

His gaze then turned to the carriages pulled by the flying dragons.

“However, even if we were to remove all the cargo from the carriages and use all the available space, we still wouldn’t be able to load the entire Ancient Dragon.”

That was natural.

The Ancient Dragon was the size of a small mountain.

The carriages they came with were relatively large and the luggage compartments were spacious, but as the name suggested, they were made to store luggage. As Bargan said, even if they used up all the available space, they wouldn’t be able to fit even a single one of the Ancient Dragon’s arms.

“Both squad leaders have called for reinforcements from their respective cities.”

“Ah.”

Lukas finally understood.

Flying a carriage in the middle of the night wasn’t particularly dangerous, but the chance of encountering a wild flying dragon was definitely higher than during the day.

Nevertheless, the squad leaders could not wait for daytime.

“They might have just called for backup and to report the situation, but there will definitely be vehicles capable of transporting the Ancient Dragon’s corpse in the group. It’s even possible that the respective City Lords will also make an appearance. And they will definitely fight to decide whose city the Ancient Dragon’s corpse is moved to.”

“Is moving a corpse that important?”

“It’s very important.”

Bargan nodded several times before he explained.

“After moving the corpse to the city, won’t you try to sell the parts? After all, you can’t keep such a huge corpse by yourself.”

“That’s true.”

“A black dragon the size of the one you slew is enough to equip hundreds of Fighters.”

“I see.”

It was that he understood what Bargan was trying to say.

“Would that increase the average level of the Fighters in the city?”

“It wouldn’t just increase, it would increase explosively.”

Lukas knew a bit about the subtle relationships between the cities on Combat Island. While they weren’t exactly hostile towards each other, there was still a certain level of competition between them.

‘The level of the Fighters in the city represents the strength of the city.’

This relationship would be even more strained than usual since the ‘Championship’, a competition that would determine the strongest in the realm, was soon approaching.

“My Lord, in this kind of situation, you slew an Ancient Dragon. I’m not too sure about the details, but I can guess that the value of this black dragon will be beyond imagination.”

“I’m not sure if I agree. It’s quite damaged.”

Lukas looked back at the corpse as he said this, but Bargan’s expression became a bit strange.

“Is it even possible to kill an Ancient Dragon without damaging its hide? In addition, the damage to its body is limited to its scales at best. The claws are still intact, and the bones are still in good condition except for the cute ones. I think this can be considered a top-quality material.”

Bargain knew.

Just how much manpower, effort, patience, and luck were required to defeat an Ancient Dragon.

The subjugation rate of Ancient Dragons was generally considered to be less than 10 percent, and even if they succeeded, the Ancient Dragon’s corpse was usually no better than a damaged wet rag. Nevertheless, such corpses were still viewed as incredible treasures, not to mention the one Lukas had killed, which suffered practically no damage except for its scales.

Lukas nodded slightly.

The dozens of spells he casted had thoroughly damaged the Ancient Dragon’s scales, but most of them had failed to penetrate its flesh and cut its bones. And naturally, its claws were fine because it hadn’t even gotten a chance to use them in the fight.

“And above all, the skull… I heard that the skull of an Ancient Dragon was comparable in strength to that of mythical metals. And that part has been perfectly preserved. The value of that alone would be enough to make anyone cry out.”

Bargan’s voice was filled with confidence as he spoke.

Even so, Lukas simply listened at the side without much change in his expression.

He naturally did have a need for a certain amount of money, but on the other hand, if he received an exceedingly large amount, then he wouldn’t have anywhere to spend it.

Of course, there was a saying that as far as money went, the more you had the better, but that was just one of the tricks spread by those obsessed with coins.

‘I don’t know if I’ll even require such a large amount of money.’

Lukas looked up at the sky as he had this thought.

A dim orange glow was beginning to spread from the horizon.

The long night had finally come to an end, and dawn had come.

To be honest, at that moment, Lukas was still underestimating the achievement of slaying an Ancient Dragon.

He didn’t expect that it would create a storm that would affect the cities near where he had single-handedly defeated an Ancient Dragon, no that would affect the entirety of Combat Island.