Chapter 595: Into the Ten-Thunder Mountain
As Marcus scrolled through the forums, he found that the blurry images of the Divine Beast Phoenix had already set players everywhere buzzing with excitement. The same thought seemed to be spreading across the game almost overnight: work harder, fight harder, and maybe one day a Phoenix could be theirs. Owning a Divine Beast had suddenly become one of the biggest goals players could imagine.
Meanwhile, Marcus was steadily closing the distance between himself and the two princesses riding the Immortal Phoenix.
Blackie was a Divine Beast as well, and unlike many powerful beasts, he was a mount built for speed. With Marcus’s absurdly high Agility boosting his performance even further, the Nightmare Dragon Steed could move through the sky at a frightening pace.
Princess Phoenix was far stronger than Marcus, and her Immortal Phoenix had a natural advantage of its own, but the difference in speed was not enough to keep Blackie behind forever. Little by little, he continued eating up the distance.
Just then, a message came through the Mercenary Group system from Drunkard. "Calling Stone, calling Stone! Something big happened!"
"What is it?"
"You’re famous again, man!"
The Drunkard’s excitement was obvious even through the short message, and Marcus, still flying through the sky and completely unaware of the commotion he had caused back in Ironstone Citadel, frowned in confusion. "Famous again?"
"Check the forums!"
Marcus opened the forum, and his first thought was ’Whoa.’ The entire front page was practically drowning in Phoenix-related threads.
My Date with the Phoenix...
I Own the Nightmare Dragon Steed, I’ll Tell You About This Quest!
How to Get Close to Princess Phoenix
Shocking Secret: The Beauty Riding with Princess Phoenix Is...
Marcus stared at the titles for a moment before feeling a headache coming on. ’No way.’ This was exactly the kind of attention he had not wanted.
Both Drunkard and Invincible Strong immediately chimed in again. "See, Stone?"
"Yeah." Drunkard snickered. "You get it now, right? Everyone wants to know where Princess Phoenix is headed."
"Exactly!" Invincible Strong added. "And don’t forget to record the Phoenix tearing into that Mythic Beast Heavenly Thunder Leopard. We could probably sell the footage for a hundred and fifty bucks a pop."
"Heh heh..." The three of them laughed together.
"Got it!" Marcus activated his recording function and increased his speed, catching up with the Immortal Phoenix. As he drew closer, he noticed Princess Celeste repeatedly craning her neck to look back at him, clearly wanting to talk.
As he flew, Marcus could not help feeling rather pleased with the speculation spreading across the forums. His plan was already progressing smoothly. Alana was helping the Phoenixwood Tree recover, and once he opened Twin Wing Island so Princess Phoenix could obtain the True Flame Cloud she needed, the tree would be completely restored.
"Heh heh..." The rewards for the quest were practically his already.
When Blackie finally pulled alongside the Immortal Phoenix, Princess Celeste immediately called out to him. "Stonehaven! Your mount! That’s the Nightmare Dragon Steed, the number one mount on the leaderboard!"
"Yeah!" Marcus reached down and proudly patted Blackie’s head. This steed was one of his greatest treasures, and even now, the memory of obtaining him at Star Lake still made Marcus marvel at how fortunate that encounter had been.
Princess Celeste leaned closer, her eyes shining with excitement as she examined Blackie. "Sister, it really is the Nightmare Dragon Steed."
Although Blackie shared certain characteristics with the Nightmare King of the Demon Clan, there was something distinctly draconic about him as well. His enormous body possessed an imposing majesty, while the single horn atop his head pulsed with a strange, prismatic radiance.
Princess Celeste possessed a unique talent that allowed her to perceive the nature of elemental energies. As she examined the horn, she gradually realized that it contained more than just powerful Elemental and Dark energies. Hidden within that darkness was an unmistakable trace of sacred Holy Light.
Darkness and Light existed together within the same creature, and the discovery fascinated her.
"Stonehaven," she finally asked, unable to hold back her curiosity, "I’ve never heard of a Nightmare Dragon Steed before. Did yours evolve or mutate?"
"Yeah!" Marcus nodded proudly. "Blackie’s a fusion of the Nightmare King and a Five-Element White Dragon that had evolved into a White Dragon Steed."
"The Nightmare King? The Five-Element White Dragon?" Princess Celeste stared at him in astonishment. "Those are both Divine Beasts! Then that means your mount is a Super Divine Beast!"
Seeing Marcus’s unmistakably smug grin, Princess Celeste became even more incredulous. Across the entire Dragon’s Peak Citadel, there were only four Super Divine Beasts, including Princess Phoenix’s own Immortal Phoenix and the Five-Clawed Divine Dragon that served as the city’s guardian.
And now she had discovered that this mysterious rogue knight possessed one too.
If Princess Celeste had known that Blackie was not the only extraordinary existence whose fate was tied to Marcus, she would have been even more shocked. The legendary Wyvern Saint Knight Lyanna and the Vixen Queen Camillo were also companions whose very existence depended on him.
Unable to resist her curiosity any longer, Princess Celeste suddenly summoned the Divine Artifact given to her by the Dreamland Temple. "Holy Light Wings!"
A pair of brilliant wings appeared behind her, woven entirely from radiant Holy Light. They fluttered gently in the air like clouds made of rainbow-colored light, surrounding her petite figure with an ethereal beauty that made her look almost otherworldly.
With a few gentle beats of her wings, she flew from the Phoenix to Marcus’s side and began circling Blackie, looking him over from every angle.
"Stonehaven, Blackie is amazing, and the name suits him perfectly. He’s strong and majestic, just like you."
Marcus’s heart immediately lifted at the compliment. Strong and majestic? Princess Celeste actually saw him that way? ’Nice!’ He had not expected such praise from her, and the satisfaction was written all over his face.
Then his rogue instincts took over. "Princess, Blackie has quite a temper. He doesn’t usually let strangers ride him..." Marcus put on an expression of solemn sincerity, as though he were the very embodiment of honor. "However, he can carry two riders. So how about you sit in front, and I’ll show you his stats..."
Before he could finish, a streak of frost-colored flame flew straight into him. Boom! Princess Celeste had casually hurled the attack from her Five-Element Staff, and Marcus’s health dropped by more than three thousand.
"Pervert!" Princess Celeste glared at him furiously. "I’m not riding with you! Keep talking like that, and Sister will cut you down!"
"Hmph!" She turned around and flew back to the Immortal Phoenix, settled into her seat, then shot Marcus several irritated looks before deliberately turning away from him.
’Ugh.’ Marcus was completely baffled. What was with this girl? One moment she was sweet and innocent, and the next she was as sharp as a cat. He had thought he could tease her a little, but apparently he had been far too confident in his ability to read her.
What really surprised him, however, was her strength.
Marcus already knew that Princess Phoenix was no ordinary expert, but Princess Celeste looked so young and harmless that he had not expected her to casually hit him with an intermediate spell capable of taking more than three thousand health from him. That was considerably more damage than the Level 80 Silver-tier Iceflame Black Serpent Man had been able to inflict.
No wonder she was so confident about accompanying her sister to hunt a Mythic Beast. She genuinely had the strength to back it up.
Marcus was itching to use Insight on the two princesses. He would have loved to see their attributes and determine just how powerful they really were, but if the skill failed and they noticed what he was doing, any chance of maintaining a good relationship with them could disappear immediately.
He could only hold himself back. "Heh heh..." Still, he was not about to give up. If he could not inspect their attributes directly, he would simply have to find another way to figure out their strength.
Marcus nudged Blackie closer to the Immortal Phoenix, ignoring Princess Phoenix’s aloof silence and Princess Celeste’s lingering pout. He put on his most concerned expression and spoke in a serious tone.
"Princess, shouldn’t we bring more troops with us? It’s dangerous for just the three of us to fight a Mythic Beast. Once the battle begins, I might not be able to protect you."
"Protect us?" Just as Marcus had hoped, Princess Celeste immediately forgot about being angry and turned toward him in disbelief. "Knight Stonehaven, your job is to stay alive. Keep your distance so you don’t get in our way. Don’t get yourself eaten!"
She puffed out her chest proudly. "My sister is a Phoenix Knight. With Little Phoenix, she can fight a Mythic Beast and even contend with a low-level Divine Beast. She’s one of the top ten experts on the entire Dreamland Continent. And I’m a powerful Arch-Sorcerer!"
She gave him a rather smug look. "Stonehaven, do you even understand what you’re getting yourself into?"
So that was where her confidence came from. Marcus finally understood. She was actually stronger than Liam Windrunner.
He glanced toward Princess Phoenix. She was a mature and alluring woman whose beauty was difficult to ignore, and she had spent five hundred years alongside the Immortal Phoenix. With multiple Divine Artifacts at her disposal and a Super Divine Beast fighting beside her, it was hardly surprising that she possessed such terrifying strength.
"Wow, you’re really that strong? Impressive, impressive." Marcus nodded earnestly, playing along. "So, Princess, exactly how strong are you? You know, I’m pretty tough myself. I’ve taken down quite a few powerful enemies..."
He kept talking, asking questions and occasionally boasting about his own achievements, and Princess Celeste soon found herself unable to maintain her anger. Before long, the two were chatting as though they had known each other for years, and the atmosphere between them gradually became much warmer.
She still called him a rogue knight whenever he annoyed her, and she still pouted whenever he said something particularly shameless, but it was obvious that she enjoyed talking to him. More than once, Princess Phoenix glanced back at the two of them with a faint look of surprise. She had clearly not expected her usually guarded little sister to become so engaged in conversation with a man she had only just met.
With the combined speed of the Immortal Phoenix and Blackie, they flew across one endless mountain range after another. More than ten hours passed before the enormous Ten-Thunder Mountain finally appeared ahead of them.
Dark clouds covered the mountain range like a vast black sea, while streaks of lightning tore through the sky and illuminated the jagged peaks below.
During their earlier conversation, Marcus had learned more about the place they were entering. Ten-Thunder Mountain had once been the site of an ancient Divine War that had taken place ten thousand years ago. The immense power left behind by that battle had permanently altered the spiritual energy in the region, creating a violent storm that raged across the mountains year-round.
A single lightning strike could take ten percent of a player’s health, while monsters above Level 60 could be found throughout the region. For ordinary players, it was practically a death trap. Yet Ten-Thunder Mountain was also filled with treasures and relics left behind from the ancient war, so adventurers continued to risk their lives entering the region.
Besides the Heavenly Thunder Leopard, Princess Celeste had another objective here: the divine-grade Violet Thunder Jade Fruit.
As they approached the mountains, the two princesses brought their mounts lower. The higher they flew, the more violent the lightning became, so continuing through the upper sky would only make things unnecessarily dangerous. Once they reached a relatively safe area, they dismounted and prepared to continue on foot.
Princess Celeste took out a small bottle and handed Marcus a pill. "Here, Stone. It’s a Thunder Pill. It’ll increase your Lightning resistance."
After several hours of conversation, Marcus had finally managed to get close enough to her that, after some shameless persuasion on his part, she had stopped calling him Stonehaven and started calling him Stone. In return, he had given her the nickname Celie , which she had complained about at first but eventually stopped objecting to.
Princess Phoenix, however, remained as distant as ever. She had barely spoken to Marcus throughout the journey.
"Yeah." Marcus accepted the pill and examined it.
—
Thunder Pill: High-grade consumable. Crafted by the Imperial Physicians of the Dragon Dynasty. Increases Lightning resistance by 30% and reduces the chance of being paralyzed by Lightning by 5%. Duration: One day.
—
That was a pretty good pill. Marcus swallowed it, and the two princesses did the same.
Once they were prepared, the three of them entered Ten-Thunder Mountain. With the map he had obtained from Silas as his guide, Marcus took the lead and carefully guided the two princesses through the storm-ravaged terrain.
Their destination was Red Thunder Valley. That was where the Black Locust Thunderwood trees grew, and where their journey toward the Heavenly Thunder Leopard would truly begin.