Chapter 14 : Chapter 14
Chapter 14: Magic Core
“Boss! What happened?”
One-Eyed Dragon Barrett, gripping a rust-covered logging axe, rushed over with a dozen of the most formidable refugees.
They wore only brand-new leather armor, clutched short axes in their hands, but their eyes carried the ferocity of men backed into a corner.
Having finally glimpsed hope of survival, no one wanted to return to their former days.
When they saw Roland standing like a mountain at the tent entrance and Caesar safe and sound inside, Barrett visibly relaxed.
His single eye swiveled around Caesar's body, then his face broke into an obsequious smile.
“As long as you're alright, my lord. That commotion earlier—I thought it was an earth dragon turning over.”
Caesar offered no explanation.
He simply took a deep breath, as if trying to inhale all the cold air of this wasteland into his lungs.
“Barrett.”
“Yes, sir!”
Barrett immediately straightened his back.
“Our food—how many more days will it last?”
Caesar's voice was calm.
The smile on Barrett's face froze. After a moment's hesitation, he answered honestly.
“If we ration carefully, ten days at most. If we eat our fill… even five days would be pushing it.”
“The brothers digging the wall need strength. If they can't eat enough, they simply won't hold up.”
“Warriors need meat, and the camp needs morale.”
Caesar's gaze traveled past them toward those perilous peaks wreathed in clouds and mist, his voice cold and clear.
“And I need a whetstone to test my new power.”
He extended a finger, pointing toward a shadowed region deep within the mountain range.
“Barrett, from your men, select twenty who fear death the least and have the best archery. Bring all our crossbows and arrows.”
“Roland, you will accompany me.”
“Target: the Blackspine Mountains.”
The corner of Caesar's mouth curved into a bloodthirsty arc.
“It's time to collect some taxes from this land's original inhabitants.”
Half an hour later, a hunting party of twenty-two assembled at the camp entrance.
The twenty refugees selected by Barrett each carried a poorly maintained crossbow on their backs, short swords hanging at their waists, faces mixing excitement with fear.
In the wasteland, hunting magical beasts was a nine-deaths-one-life trade, but the rewards were equally rich.
Before hunger, fear meant nothing.
Roland had changed into lightweight chainmail, the massive two-handed greatsword strapped to his back, his eyes calm as he followed half a step behind Caesar.
Caesar himself wore fitted leather armor with an ordinary knight's longsword hanging at his waist.
He walked at the very front of the group, his deep purple eyes devoid of their usual restraint, retaining only the sharpness of a predator.
Upon entering the Blackspine Mountains, the light rapidly dimmed.
Unknown tall black trees blocked out the sky, the ground covered in thick rotting leaves that could swallow one's ankles with a single step.
The air was thick with a damp, decaying smell.
“Everyone stay sharp, damn it!”
Barrett lowered his voice, snarling at his subordinates behind him.
“String your crossbows! Keep your eyes peeled, your ears up! If you die here, nobody's collecting your corpse!”
Caesar ignored the commotion behind him. His enhanced senses were now operating at full capacity.
The wind carried moisture from a distant waterfall, the soil mixed with the rank smell of some large beast, and he could even hear the hissing of a venomous snake flicking its tongue in the canopy overhead.
“Left front, three hundred meters.”
Caesar suddenly stopped, speaking quietly.
Roland immediately placed his hand on his sword hilt, gazing warily in the direction Caesar indicated, but he saw nothing, heard nothing.
“My lord?”
“Something's coming. Large build, heavy footsteps.”
Caesar's tone brooked no argument.
“Barrett, find cover and prepare to shoot.”
“Yes!”
Everyone immediately scattered in a flurry, each seeking trees and rocks for cover, the creak of drawing crossbow strings rising one after another.
Caesar and Roland remained in place, like two statues.
Heavy footsteps approached from far to near, the ground beginning to tremble faintly.
A creature the size of a rhinoceros crashed through two small trees, bursting from the dense forest.
It was a wild boar—a wild boar disfigured beyond recognition by magical corruption.
Its body was completely hairless, covered in a layer of black keratinous armor rough as stone, two tusks like rusted iron bars curving upward, gleaming with an ominous dark red light. In its small eyes burned flames of violence and hunger.
“Tomb Iron Boar.”
Roland's expression remained calm, though his brow furrowed slightly.
“A First-Order. Its trait is thick skin and meat—somewhat troublesome.”
“My lord, please step back. Leave this to me.”
“ROAR—!”
The Tomb Iron Boar spotted them. It pawed the ground, releasing an ear-splitting roar, foul drool dripping from its mouth and corroding the rotting leaves on the ground with a sizzling sound.
Its blood-red eyes locked onto the two men standing foremost, its four hooves suddenly exerting force as it charged like a runaway battering ram with savage fury!
“Loose arrows!”
Caesar calmly ordered.
WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH!
Twenty crossbow bolts instantly left their strings, shooting toward the boar.
CLANG CLANG CLANG!
The arrows struck the boar's stone-like hide and mostly bounced off. Only a sparse few hit its relatively vulnerable belly and joints, but even these only penetrated shallowly, instead thoroughly enraging the monster!
“Protect the lord!”
Two refugees instinctively moved forward.
“Stop!”
Caesar halted them, then said to Roland beside him.
“No, Roland. This one is mine.”
Roland froze, but seeing the unquestionable determination in Caesar's eyes, he silently nodded and stepped back half a pace, gripping his sword hilt.
His duty was to guard. Since the lord wished to personally test his strength, then his task was to sever any threat the instant the lord faced danger.
In this critical moment, Caesar moved.
He didn't retreat but instead stepped forward, his body sinking slightly, a black-gold cyclone flashing around him and vanishing.
His entire body slid several meters to the right like a phantom, evading the boar's lethal charge.
“Barrett, shoot its eyes!”
Caesar's voice rang through the forest.
Barrett, called out by name, gave a start and immediately raised his crossbow to aim.
Several quick-reacting archers followed suit.
The boar's attack failed. It furiously wheeled around and charged again.
Caesar refused to meet it head-on. Relying on speed and reflexes far beyond ordinary men, he moved through the forest like a matador taunting a bull, continuously luring the boar into ineffective charges.
WHOOSH!
A crossbow bolt successfully struck the boar's eye socket. Though it failed to pierce through, it caused the beast to roar in pain, its movements showing a trace of hesitation.
Now!
Light exploded in Caesar's eyes. The instant the boar turned, the Battle Energy within him circulated madly, his speed surging to the extreme. Like a bolt of black lightning, he instantly closed on the boar's other flank!
His target was the boar's ear—the only soft spot on its skull!
Dragon scales gleaming with obsidian luster rapidly surfaced and overlapped on his left forearm, forming in the blink of an eye a perfect vambrace that emanated an ancient, heart-chilling aura.
He didn't use his sword.
Under the momentum of his high-speed charge, he twisted his waist, thrust his hips, gathering his entire body's strength into his left fist. That dragon-scaled fist, like a howling black meteor, aimed at the base of the boar's ear and slammed down with savage force!
BOOM—!!!
This punch was like striking an ancient bell stuffed full of wet mud!
A muffled sound pushed to the absolute extreme exploded through the forest!
The Tomb Iron Boar's massive body, as if struck by an invisible giant hammer, had its huge head violently wrenched to one side, its entire body losing balance. It didn't even have time to release a dying cry before it crashed sideways to the ground, crushing countless shrubs.
A stream of black blood mixed with brain matter gushed from its ear canal.
One punch!
Just one punch!
The Tomb Iron Boar that moments ago had displayed such fierce might, making everyone's hearts tremble, had been killed with a single blow by their seemingly slender lord!
Everyone was stunned.
Barrett's jaw dropped, his crossbow clanging to the ground.
Their worship of Caesar rose once again to an entirely new height.
Caesar shook his somewhat numb left fist, the dragon scales quietly receding.
He walked to the still-twitching boar, drew his longsword, and cleanly pierced its eye socket, the blade sinking to the hilt, thoroughly ending its life.
Then, using the sword tip, he skillfully pried open the boar's skull, extracting from within a fingernail-sized gray crystal core emanating a faint earth-yellow glow.
【Inferior Earth-Element Magic Core: Contains weak magical power, can be used for enchantment or direct absorption.】
【Absorbable energy detected. Absorb?】
Caesar's movements paused.
He clearly remembered that when he'd killed the Howling Wind Wolf King previously, it had also dropped a Magic Core, but the system had shown no reaction then.
“Is it because I advanced?”
Caesar mused internally.
“Or because… the concentration of dragon blood increased, giving this body the instinct to devour?”
He didn't absorb it immediately, instead storing this Magic Core in the system space, planning to study it together with the Wolf King's core after returning.