"Calm down, boy. I'm here." Fenrir said
Ezra took in a deep breath and suddenly closed his eyes as he felt Fenrir roaming inside his body.
~BOOOM~
The space in Ezra's consciousness began to shatter, turning into an endless starry sky. Within the conscious, a seemingly large black wolf appeared.
Ezra was floating in the middle of his consciousness, the black wolf moved forward towards the threat. A blurry long strange creature wildly moved inside his consciousness, Fenrir looked at it.
~CRREEAAAK~
Two similarly dangerous monsters met in the conscious.
It felt as if the entire space had begun to crack due to their clash.
The core-crushing pressure finally faded as Ezra Zephyr gasped as if a heavy burden had been lifted from his shoulders. His heart thudded loudly as he looked towards the two behemoth existences.
"What exactly is this thing? To think that it is so frightening that even Fenrir is unable to defeat it." Ezra was inwardly shocked.
The black bolts wildly thundered around Fenrir as he howled at the other. It was due to this very black lightning that anyone who touched it faced terrible fates.
Every one of those attacks had ultimately been crushed by chaos force and every spirit was devoured by Fenrir.
This time, however, the monstrous wolf of Norse could not display an effect akin to a hot knife through butter.
Instead, the ancient creature had been able to withstand its might.
The two titans were stuck in a deadlock.
"The only thing I can do now is to wait."
There was nothing that Ezra could do. A clash of such proportions was not something a Qi Brightening stage like him could interfere in.
Therefore, he sat down and watched.
This lasted for only god knew how long, until even Ezra's mental power began to feel a little exhausted.
~BOOM~
Just as Ezra was no longer able to endure, a loud noise suddenly rang out. The prince hurriedly looked over, only to see Fenrir slowly backing away, before ultimately disappearing into his consciousness.
"Fenrir... what happened?"
On the other hand, rays of light exploded from the creature as it rapidly shrank. In the end, it transformed into a flash of light that descended from the sky and shot into Ezra's head.
At the bottom of the scaled pool. Ezra's tightly shut eyes finally opened at this moment.
A frightening ripple abruptly pulsed from between Ezra's brows the moment he opened his eyes. The pulse shook the bottom of the scaled pool, forming a gigantic whirlpool with Ezra Zephyr at its epicentre.
Endless golden light whizzed over, flooding Ezra's body.
~WHIIIIISH~
As the boundless golden light poured in, pitter-patter noises sounded in his body. His flesh and blood began to boil, while more and more golden light flowed into his core, causing the spiritual energy inside to grow steadily.
In a short period of several minutes, a layer of foul-smelling scabs appeared on the surface of Ezra's body. It was the impurities that had been expelled.
Ezra Zephyr shook slightly, breaking the scab layer, and revealing skin on which scales were formed. It was an extremely magical sight.
Dazzling light blossomed in Ezra's eyes as he felt the strong surge of power in his body, causing bliss to appear on his face.
The prince shut his eyes and began to examine himself. It silently sat between his brows, giving off a gentle glow.
Compared to before he had entered the scaled pool, his spiritual energy was undoubtedly more concentrated and corporeal and his body became strong.
"Boy, you are lucky, this was a body strengthening skill. A skill of a Martial Animal of the upper realm," said Fenrir.
Ezra was astonished, "Upper realm, how did it reach here?"
"I am unaware, equilibirium is unbalanced. However, you should jump for joy."
"What a crazy blessing. Body strengthening skills are very rare and powerful. This body, it feels like I am at the peak of 7th level." Ezra's heart was filled with joy.
Ezra felt the ancient powers and understood the essence of the skill, that creature of not any lizard but a real high bloodline golden dragon. Known as Mountain Guardian, Thoemios.
The skill is called Dragon Pelt, it had 5 stages. Each stage had different colours, from lowest to highest purple, red, orange, yellow and gold. Each stage will increase after consuming a certain set of unique ingredients and pills.
Ezra was at the first stage, he called the skill and his arms formed some purple-coloured scales.
In addition, a faint glow surfaced between the brows of Ezra's, an ancient imprint barely visible.
The rune was ancient, holy and sacred as if it had been born the moment the world was created.
"What is this strange imprint... another blessing?! I wonder what function this mysterious imprint has." Ezra Zephyr tried to activate it, only to discover that even after giving his all, the imprint merely brightened a little without any other response.
"Is it because my strength is lacking?"
The prince let out a bitter laugh. Evidently, a tremendous amount of power was needed to activate the mysterious spiritual imprint, which he was currently still unable to provide.
He inwardly shook his head, and temporarily gave up on the idea, turning his attention instead to his spiritual energy.
"The spiritual energy inside my body has upgraded."
Ezra peered into his core finding that the black lightning chaos force flickering within was more concentrated and abundant than before, a sign that it had already reached the peak of the 7th level of the Qi Brightening stage.
"As expected of the Spirity Bailiwick, a single blessing is akin to reaching the sky in a single step!"
Ezra's heart overflowed with happiness. His progress was nothing but amazing. His spiritual energy had grown more corporeal, while his realm had received a breakthrough again, ascending to the peak of the 7th level.
Most importantly, of course, he had obtained the mysterious body strengthening skill and a strange spiritual imprint. Although he had yet to discover its abilities, he just knew that they would surely be extraordinary.
"If I encounter Rolo Aur again now, I will finally be able to face him in battle!"
Battle intent burned in Ezra's eyes. The first foe he met in Spirity Bailiwick was Victor Brownmane, the latter's aura alone was pretty worth praising.
However, this did not make him depressed. Instead, each thrashing merely served to fuel his growth as the gap between them continued to shrink.
Until today. After him upper realm invaders, a strange enemy who holds a mythical hero as martial spirit, an entity similar to Ezra.
"It is time to hunt."
Iciness flitted across Ezra's eyes.
~CRAACK~
The sound of something shattering was suddenly heard at the bottom of the scaled pool. The prince looked down and saw the golden cauldron begin to crumble, turning into dust, while the creature-like archaic patterns on it also disappeared.
The prince touched his forehead. He knew that the skill and imprint had already been imprinted onto his brain.
Following the disintegration of the cauldron, Ezra Zephyr felt the golden light in the pool begins to dim as the golden water gradually returned to clearness. The mysterious scales which covered it also started to fade.
"Could the scaled pool's energy have come from the golden cauldron?" Mumbled the prince to himself.
With the body strengthening skill and mysterious imprint taken, it was naturally unable to distribute its energy, causing the scaled pool to become normal.
While Ezra Zephyr was still lost in thought, the pool waters rippled.
Skoll swam over, circling Ezra Zephyr twice as its beady eyes stared at the spot between Ezra's brows in amazement as if sensing something there.
"I almost died there," Ezra said with a sigh. The mysterious creature clearly possessed terrifying power. If not for Fenrir, not only would he have been unable to obtain the strange blessings, he would have likely instead by crushed by its terrifying pressure.
Fortunately, the prince had managed to ride it out and had even obtained an enormous reward.
Risk and opportunity always came hand in hand.
Hence, Ezra did not complain any further, beckoning Skoll as he swam towards the surface. After several minutes, he pierced through the water's surface with a plop and landed by the side of the pool.
"Your majesty, you are finally out!" Argus's voice was heard the moment he emerged.
The prince turned his head, and found Argus with a bowing gesture, eyes filled with respect as he stared at him in happiness.
"You've been in there for half a month," said Baron.
"Half a month?" Ezra was shocked.
"Hmm!?" Ezra's eyes caught a strange sight when he raised his head, hundreds of figures surrounded the mountaintop.
A figure came close and bent a knee. "Welcome back, your majesty." Greeted Zulfi Dimitry.
"You all arrived!"
"Half a month is a long time! Your majesty." Answered Zulfi with a grin.
"So, shall we begin our counterattack? Crown Prince of Bloodfang Kingdom." A male voice was heard.
Ezra looked, he recognised the face as he uttered. "Hello there, Fair Sword of Humanity"