Guided by Mana Perception, Su Yao and Fulin arrived near the area where magic was abnormally concentrated.
Clusters of giant Magic Crystals, only slightly shorter than the dragon’s ribs, were scattered everywhere.
Unlike the cyan-blue of Water Source Stones, these magic ores were an eerie blood-red.
‘Fire Crystal Stones?’
No, the color of those magic ores was similar to the orange-red of flames.
While high-purity Fire Crystal Stones did tend to turn pure red, at most they could only be described as a bright red.
These magic ores were less like Fire Crystal Stones and more like the Crimson Stones from a certain game — or perhaps they should be called Blood Crystal Stones…
Wait, they really were Blood Crystal Stones! And they were this large?
In that case, the place ahead was —
“Fulin, stop dazing off. Keep swimming forward. The Magic Source is still deeper in.”
Su Yao led the silver-haired fairy over the clusters of blood-red giant crystals, continuing toward the Magic Source…
The two swam to the center of the area.
Here, the ominous red light grew increasingly piercing, forming a sharp contrast with the deep, dark blue-black of the surroundings.
Surrounded by a ring of giant Blood Crystal Stone clusters, Su Yao saw the true form of this abnormal Magic Source — a massive, compact, bright red fleshy mass.
It pulsated powerfully, like the heart of some creature.
Tentacle-like vines, also emitting an ominous glow, spread out from beneath the mass.
Some climbed the blood-red ores, while others covered the lake floor around the “heart”…
“What is that thing!?”
“If I’m not mistaken, it should be the heart of the Dragon Fafnir.”
“What? Mistress Fu Na’s… heart?”
It wasn’t just the silver-haired fairy; if Su Yao didn’t have experience playing certain games in his original world, he wouldn’t have dared to imagine what this giant, throbbing mass was.
The scene before them was truly bizarre.
Even for a dragon’s body, the passage of thousands of years should have turned it into bleached bones. So why was this heart still beating to this day?
‘Was it because of some so-called “grudge”? What would happen if I touched this heart?’
Before he could think further, Fulin’s voice rang out in his mind.
“Look there! There seems to be something.”
The silver-haired fairy pointed at an inconspicuous “small black dot” on the massive heart.
If not for the few bubbles constantly leaking from it as the heart beat, they probably wouldn’t have noticed the abnormality.
Compared to the dragon’s heart, that black dot was as small as an ant.
To see exactly what it was, they swam toward the side of the heart.
The black dot in their vision gradually grew larger. It was only when they could clearly feel the repulsion force of the water currents caused by the heart’s beating that the black dot revealed its full appearance.
It was the hilt of a sword. The blade had long since been corroded beyond recognition, but the inscriptions carved into the spine of the sword were clearly visible under the red light.
Su Yao felt a sense of déjà vu regarding the style of the inscriptions.
However, after remembering that the Sword in the Stone he had sent out from his Dungeon had similar inscriptions, he didn’t think much more of it.
“Fulin, can you read what the inscriptions say?”
He had very little research on the characters inscribed on weapons in this world.
Furthermore, such craftsmanship had been lost for a long time, so he naturally didn’t recognize these inscriptions.
It couldn’t be helped. This sword was likely an ancient weapon left in the dragon’s heart when it died.
Although Fulin might not necessarily understand it either, his only option now was to ask her as a last resort.
“Confused, aren’t you? The sword kept in our kingdom also has these Rune Characters. To understand them, I specifically asked Mistress Fu Na for guidance…”
“Stop talking nonsense and just tell me the contents of the inscriptions,” Su Yao couldn’t help but urge.
He didn’t know how much longer this fairy planned to linger in front of this eerie heart, but he didn’t really want to stick around.
Even though he knew Fafnir was a kind dragon, everything before him gave him a chilling sensation…
“You really are impatient. Let me see. What’s written on it seems to be ‘Ha… des… Soul… Eater…’ I don’t recognize the rest.”
‘Hades Soul Eater?’
Clearly, it was meant to be Hades. He hadn’t expected this black sword to have such an ominous name…
He observed the surroundings for a moment.
He noticed that some kind of gas was escaping from where the black sword contacted the dragon’s heart.
He hadn’t been able to see it clearly from a distance, but upon moving closer, he discovered that these escaping bubbles carried a somewhat familiar white color…
White? Wasn’t that the White Mist that had made him faint before!
“Hey!”
“Don’t be noisy, it’ll be ready in a second!”
‘This black sword is related to that cursed white mist!’
But he wasn’t sure if he should pull it out. After all, on the surface, it seemed like this black sword was plugging the white mist inside the dragon’s heart.
“Hey! Forget the sword for a second! Below! Run!”
“I already said, in a second…”
Su Yao wanted to complain about the noisy Fulin interrupting his thoughts at a critical moment.
But “run”? From what?
The answer came quickly. A cold, slimy sensation came from his calf. He shuddered. That disgusting tactile feeling…
He looked down. No, not just below — the blood-red vines at the base of the dragon’s heart and around it had come to life. No, they weren’t vines at all; they were tentacles!
A scene from a battle with a certain Demon God flashed through Su Yao’s mind. Fulin was right — run!
The blonde loli and the silver-haired fairy swam desperately toward the surface of the lake.
The Tentacle Monster beneath the dragon’s heart opened its eyes. It was actually an octopus with a body comparable in size to a large ship!
The Giant Octopus waved its dense mass of tentacles, constantly trying to wrap around him.
One of them accidentally struck the black sword stuck in the heart of the Dragon Fafnir.
Instantly, a large amount of thick White Mist drifted up from the lake floor around the heart.
Su Yao, witnessing the source of the White Mist, hadn’t even had time to feel relieved at his previous calmness in not pulling the sword when, in the next second, the milky-white lake water submerged him.
“Hey!”
Fulin anxiously activated Telepathy.
She couldn’t just watch as Su Yao was knocked unconscious by the Curse.
However, after applying High-level Poison Resistance and High-level Curse Resistance to both of them, the blonde loli still fainted.
The butterfly wings behind the fairy were flapping so fast they were practically afterimages, but her strength was still insufficient to drag Su Yao quickly back to the surface.
The tentacles, which had turned grayish-white, continuously wrapped around the blonde loli.
No matter how slippery they were, with the help of suckers, the explosive force they exerted was not something a delicate fairy could withstand.
In less than a moment, the golden figure disappeared into the white expanse of lake water.
Fulin was on the verge of tears, but she had no other choice.
Gritting her teeth, she swam toward the surface alone…