[Ace POV],

'Ugh'

A groan escaped my lips, and I turned to look around. When I saw the familiar scene of my room in the alternate dimension, I slowly moved to sit on my bed.

I reached out to pet its head and it instantly began letting out weak squeaks as a series of emotions welled up inside of me.

I kept gently petting its head while I felt a mixture of weariness, a little discomfort, and contentment.

The fact that it could even move its body demonstrated that its circumstances were still favourable and that it was not in danger.

Just when will it awaken, I wonder.

I suppose I should prepare a meal for when Blue wakes up since I expect it would be hungry after all it had been through, but I suppose it's better if I just prepare it when it does wake up so the food is fresh when it eats it.

I stayed in my position after making this choice for a time before getting up to go take a very lengthy bath in the downstairs bathroom.

I'm not sure how long I was in the bathroom, but it was definitely longer than 30 minutes as I made sure to take a very nice bath to get whatever filth was on my body off of me.

For one, when I emerged from the den, my body was covered in dirt as a result of all the activities I had engaged in there, along with the dried blood on my skin.

Even after cleaning my body for more than 30 minutes, I still did not feel clean and felt rather uncomfortable, but I had to stop what I was doing and clean myself before leaving the bathroom because I still had other, more important things to be concerned about than occasionally cleaning myself.

The quest reward for killing the dragon phantom and stopping it from reviving was one of these crucial things, and the other was that I had successfully accomplished all of the criteria for my job.

The more significant of these two was my work, which I was looking forward to.

At first, I believed that evolving was just another stage of obtaining superhuman strength, but everything I observed in evolved humans—especially the ones who were incredibly strong—proves that evolving is much more than that.

For people with common jobs, it might only be a power boost, but for those with rare-grade jobs and above, it should be much more than just having power.

Even though I was 'higher' in level than them, I've seen people with rare-grade jobs like the oil puppeteer in the dungeon world and Andrew Dawn men who were still stronger than me.

The individuals who serve Andrew Dawn, in my opinion, have rare-grade jobs since, in some ways, their skills were equivalent to that of an oil puppeteer.

They were undoubtedly stronger than the oil puppeteer in a number of aspects, but my calculations show that they weren't any stronger beyond what a human with a rare grade job could manage.

Like the ice mages who were the first rank of humans I saw, although they were weaker in level and strength than the present power of Andrew Dawn men, if I were to estimate how powerful those girls would have been if they were similar in level with Andrew Dawn men, I would say that they would definitely not be lower in strength than Andrew Dawn men and should be equal or even more powerful than Andrew Dawn if my assumption that the ice mage job is a powerful job even among rare grade jobs.

I walked to my lab in the basement as I was considering these thoughts and sat down in one of the seats there.

Instead of instantly calling out the primordial chronicle in my head, I pulled some food from my storage ring and prepared it for eating.

Even though my physique was rank 1, I was ravenous, which clearly demonstrated how hungry I really was.

I ate what I wanted to eat and how I wanted to eat it, not caring about my appearance since I didn't care and because no one was here to even see me in the first place.

I didn't call out the primordial chronicle in my head until after this was finished and I had rested.

I disregarded the updates to my status when I saw the now-familiar blue panel in front of me and compelled my thoughts to focus on the previous messages the primordial chronicle had given.

Without giving it much thought, I checked the notice for the quest reward since I wanted to save the most significant one for last. I'm not sure if it was because the other notifications had been altered but there were only two that I could see.

Another panel related to the quest panel materialised in front of me as these thoughts ran through my head.

'The content is long though'

......

[Impromptu Quest: Dragon's Revival],

[Originally just a heart filled with vitality, the dragon heart, already imbued with potent life force, became a powerful catalyst for dragon revival when it gained access to a large amount of blood],

[Quest: Stop the revival of the dragon by destroying its phantom],

[Status: Completed],

[Receive reward?],

[Y/N],

...…..

As I read the text on the panel in front of me, I saw some familiar words as well as a few unfamiliar ones. After reading the whole piece a second time and concentrating on what was new, I willed my thoughts through the primordial chronicle to claim the reward.

...….

[Reward Received],

[Rank 2 Rare Grade Dragon Potion],

The dragon potion, which is primarily made of dragon blood, cleanses the impurities from one's body when consumed, improves physical prowess, and raises the likelihood that one's bloodline may evolve in the future.

...…

I was a little affected when I read about impurities in the potion's information after seeing the appearance of the blood-red liquid in the bottle in my hand.

The fact that the potion was related to dragons may have had little impact on me because I already had the blood of a real dragon in my storage ring, but I was still quite curious about how it would work.

I'm not sure how transforming blood affects a person, but I do have some knowledge about items that can purify a person's body of pollutants.

Even a pill for this existed, but only a rank 2 alchemist could produce it, and even then, it was still quite a distance for me.

I certainly did not think it was something that could be accomplished in a month, and I never anticipated that I would find something that could have the impact of eliminating impurities.

I was concerned about this for the same reason that I refrained from taking a pill to treat my injuries from my acts in the den, which caused injuries of varying degrees.

I was unable to estimate the number of impurities in my body, but I was positive that it should have entered the danger zone by now.

The knowledge in my head talks about how having impurities in one's body might influence them, particularly in cultivation, a field I knew little about.

I wasn't ready to put this information to the test and see what my body would do if it had too many impurities.

Even though my circumstances might not be that dire, it was still best to exercise caution in situations like this.

I observed the appearance of the potion in my palm while I considered these thoughts, and after considering a number of issues for a while, I opened the lid of the pill bottle and drank its contents.

I didn't feel anything at first, but little did I realise that the brief period of time when I was pain-free was only meant to get me ready for the anguish to follow.

The potion tasted metallic and bitter to me when I drank it, but nothing happened right away, so I let my guard down a lot and started to question if it was working or had failed until I felt a tingling feeling in my body, followed by pain.

I felt a sudden wave of intense pain surging through my entire body. It was as if my bones were being crushed and my muscles were being torn apart from the inside. I clenched my teeth, trying to endure the agony that seemed to last for an eternity.

My vision blurred, and I felt my body convulsing involuntarily. My mind was filled with a chaotic mix of sensations and emotions. I could hear my own screams echoing in my ears, but I couldn't stop them. My body felt like it was on fire, and my skin tingled with a burning sensation.

As the pain continued to escalate, I stumbled to my feet, desperately trying to stay upright. My muscles strained and trembled, and I could feel the sweat pouring down my face. Every fibre of my being screamed in agony, and I wondered if I had made a terrible mistake by taking the dragon potion.

Just when I thought I couldn't take it any longer, the pain suddenly subsided. I collapsed to my knees, panting heavily, my body covered in sweat. I looked down at my trembling hands, and I could see that they were changing.