Soul of Searing Steel

As the presence unique to Joshua unfurled, almost all adepts above Gold tier inside Moldavia realized the fact.

"Wasn't gone for long this time."

"The liege had returned quite early."

"Wasn't it less than a month?"

Various similar discussions began across all corners of the territories, although after a brief moment of wondering that the warrior did not leave for long this time, everyone went back to work. After all, it was nothing new for the liege to leave his domain—on the other hand, it would really be news if Joshua really stayed for days without going out.

Meanwhile, Joshua and the others were quickly withdrawing their presence over the Great Ajax Mountains.

It had been necessary for them to be unleashing all their power. In the first place, they have to on guard constantly, paying attention to the movements of dimensional ripples and traces of dimensional windstorms, while having to resist the momentous pressure from the Void, never allowing them to relax.

However, there was no need to be so conspicuous now that they had returned to the Mycroft continent. In seconds, everyone withdrew their scent, with the almost-suffocated Lisa feeling much better at once.

"This trip had truly been rewarding, o friend of mine!"

"I have never been so fortunate my who life—Barnil, who would even believe our rewards we got this time?"

At present, the two Legendary mages were all-smiles as they quickly congratulated each other on their return to their homeworld, appearing very satisfied. It was not unusual since both Barnil and William met an Ancient Dragon in its true form and secured firsthand research materials regarding its species from the trip to Kronos. Indeed, they would carve down their names in history once they tabulated their discoveries in detail and wrote everything down as books.

The silver Ancient Dragon was known to the Drakonids on Kronos as the Dragon God and the God of Skies and Thunder, with William even learning through conversations with the dragon itself that they were also called the 'Dragons of Ancestry'. Still, according to how styles and titles were given on the Mycroft continent, those were all merely honorifics for Ancient Dragons—the formal name to be written down in encyclopedias would be the one given by the two: 'Eretomanek', master of electromagnetism, the dragon of lightning storms.

"There are great discoveries besides the Ancient Dragon as well—the first being quite a few civilizations around Mycroft, and one Void Behemoth that existed only in the lens of the Observatory. The Void Behemoth, Leviathan."

William summarized and nodded, pulling out a screen with a wave and spoke softly as he read the contents. "More importantly, we witnessed the Ancient Dragon's power of Creation."

At that, both mages turned at once to Joshua. "Though that seems too early for us," William continued, "but with research and gradual improvements, it's not like us humans could not grasp that power."

There was no question that the Authority of Searing Soul in Joshua's body had instilled great confidence in the two Legendary mages. Having those two powers would alter humanity from their roots and create possibilities of birthing living worlds, which was without question one of the most important elements for civilization.

—These two are saying all that for my benefit, huh?

Joshua listened to them silently, having generally grasped their meaning. Given that those data would be authored by them and in turn distributed around circles of spellcasters, the pair were now indirectly conveying the gist of it in such a manner, allowing the warrior to mention anything he found incorrect so that they could change it,

Still, Joshua found nothing requiring change and so silently agreed—and both Barnil and William breathed in relief in return. After all, the warrior's reaction was very important given that he was one of the chief parties involved, and everything was much easier since he had no problem with it.

"Joshua, although it's a little out of the blue, William and I will be leaving for the Skypiercing White Tower at once… Ultimately we are nominally hired there, and have to report in."

William stood in the sky over the Great Ajax Mountains, watching as Joshua left with the Draknoid girl. "Well we'll be leaving first, catch you next time!"

"It's been one pleasant trip, goodbye," William added.

Knowing that there would be much time they would see each other in days to come, Joshua waved with his back to them. Then, suddenly sensing something darting toward him with a ripple of mana, Joshua simply reached out and caught it with a backhand, finding that it was a bottle of unique half-liquid, half-gas substance that was akin to an electromagnetic cloud.

"Blood of the Ancient Dragon…" Even as Joshua muttered to himself, the Observer and the two Legendary mages left the skies above the Great Ajax Mountains for somewhere unknown after another massive wave of dimensional ripple.

Meanwhile, the warrior could not help frowning as he held on to the Ancient Dragon Blood while sensing the terrific animated vigor within. "Could Funa actually withstand such formidable power? Well, it's fine. I'm guessing Hill and the others would have prepared for that—it should be enough."

There was no question that Joshua was holding the blood of Kronos's Ancient Dragon, and neither was that typical blood but the most fundamental of energy essence. Joshua believed that if he shattered the white crystal bottle and allowed the shroud to spread, the bloodline of all aberrations and humans across the entire Great Ajax Mountains would mutate to some extent, becoming Ancient Dragon kin similar to Drakonids—or, in the very least, unlikely to stay or become pure-blood. It was how Ancient Dragons had influenced primordial life during creation, allowing them to evolve quickly.

And while Joshua pondered the importance of the blood in his hand, Lisa the Drakonid girl peered down in curiosity over the vast world. Syndicate, who had incidentally awakened as well, borrowed her vision to look at the Monarch's homeland.

"Heavens, so majestic…"

Though they were now right above the volcano of the Great Ajax Mountains, they could still clearly see the dense figures of humans within the mountains and forests. In the past few years, mining zones had been constructed over the countless mining points that the survey teams found, with complementary facilities and villages built above the former encampment of the survey teams. With that, the population who had come for resources either through mining or hunting unique monsters within the forest had established new settlements on soil their forefathers never conquered. It was also thanks to the outstanding functionality of magical armor that their development process was ten thousand times easier than their predecessors as well.

"Interested, Lisa?"

Noticing the excitement in the girl beside him, Joshua clapped on her shoulder and looked toward the busy crowd as well. "Magical armor had long since been ineffective for me, but it is a great help for regular folk. They won't have to worry about monsters or dangerous environments, while their bodies would be empowered, transportation accelerated and various little improvements. In a nutshell, any organization with more than ten magical armor would achieve ten times the ordinary work rate."

"It has also now been sold overseas, where research centers are developing fully-enclosed enchanted armors. That way, they could attempt exploration even into unknown foreign worlds—come to think of it, even if I can't use it, an armor might surprisingly fit you."

Even as he spoke, Joshua could not help pondering as he watched Lisa. The little girl who had fused with his Apostle possessed a pure bloodline from the Ancient Dragon and was born with a superhuman body, reflexes, and energy sensory—she could even manipulate electric currents, which in turn buffs magical armor considerably. If one were to put it that magical armor merely added to the strengths of typical humans, it multiplied Lisa's strength in much the same way!

Though there was a general plan in his mind now, Joshua did not mention it at once. It was merely a path of improvement he had thought of—she has to walk her own, and Joshua would at most enlighten here about those paths in days to come, allowing her to decide how she would advance.

Moreover, the rapid development of magical armor had in fact exceeded Joshua's expectations—in the very least, he never thought that the Northern Empire and the Seven Gods Church would take such a liking of that technology, and generously invested great capital, with other nations and factions willing to offer gold and labor as well.

It might have been the effect the Multiverse Sacrificial Grounds had on the present era. All factions could now see the possibility of living in places faraway, which was precisely why they did not shy off from investing, while respective strife across the continent had gradually calm when they realized the vast worlds that existed in that realm of possibility. After all, instead of waging bloody wars against familiar opponents where losses were inevitable, why not try their luck in the Multiverse, and see if there was an uninhabited otherworld ripe for development?

"There are more people here than back in the village… what's the word? Bust…ling? Ow!"

Lisa spoke in wonder beside Joshua as he looked toward the settlements and mines amidst the mountains, biting her own tongue after having barely learned Basic. However, before Joshua could explain, the balrog in her body said with a tinge of embarrassment, "Alright, Lisa—that is just the suburbs, to call it bustling now is really…"

Compared to Lisa who did not really understood civilized worlds, Syndicate had seen demonic civilizations and cities even if he never went to other living worlds. That was why it knew that the vibrant forests here were just a corner of this world, and that the true ability of humans was far beyond that.

And those enchanted armors… Syndicate stared at the armors thoughtfully. It was aware that previous demonic invasions had essentially always been successful most of the time because every single demon were soldiers, and fundamentally advantaged compared to most races. While there were some civilizations and armies that could stand up to them, peasants could never do so, and under the scorched earth tactics maintained by the demons, few armies could hold on as their peasantry were maimed—and broken armies such as those were no different from peasants.

The quality of the Mycroft people was above average, but remain far inferior to demons due to their living environment. That armor, however, greatly improved the resistance even of ordinary humans—if every family had one in the future, even demonic invasions would face unexpectedly strong resistance.

No, that's wrong. If that thing really became widely used, would there even be a turn for the demons to invade worlds? These monsters would surely have invaded them already!

Syndicate's spirit abruptly throbbed halfway through his thoughts. He quickly understood the fact, and so looked reverently toward Joshua.

—As expected of the Monarch. He was not as simple as he appeared to be!

Joshua smiled in return when he noticed the demon's gaze. "Syndicate, I will come up with something about your body," he said. "You have simply fused with Lisa after all and isn't completely without a body, so it's not too difficult since there's no need to build a new body."

"Although there's the chance you won't be a demon when you're reborn."

—Who wants to be a demon anyway?!

Syndicate almost took control of Lisa's body and prostrated in reverence—were there anyone who really wanted to become demons, worlds that desired to become Abyss? Others notwithstanding, were there any demons serving Goliath, the Abyssal Liege of Lava Inferno or the Sixth Abyss that wished to continue living like that? Did they not put everything on the line to invade and spy upon the Ancient Dragon's power because they wished to become a normal race in a normal world once again?

"Alright, Lisa—get ready. Now I will take you to see a so-called city."

Joshua shrugged, and took the Drakonid girl by her hand as they flew in the skies.

The warrior' flight was swift, but it was not unendurable for Lisa who had risen to a higher level through Actuate Bolt. Hence, the girl looked over the land with interest high above as mines, harvest points, and villages darted past, and she certainly did not miss the silhouette of the powerful monsters in the Great Ajax Mountains.

"Those monsters are really powerful!" She promptly exclaimed in shock.

But soon, something that astonished her further appeared.

At the edge of the horizon to the south of the Great Ajax Mountains, a circle of silver white illumination faintly arose.

There were lights. Lights from pyroxene. Magical radiance flickered; those were lights that symbolized civilization.

"Lisa."

Joshua could not hold back a smile as he stared toward the completed colossal city cluster. He turned toward the Drakonid girl and demon who were left gaping and awestruck, and said with slight pride, "Welcome to the world of Mycroft."

"Welcome to Moldavia."

Even so, Joshua never expected that someone he never expected was waiting for his arrival in the liege's residence.