Bai Shi sat cross-legged on a rock by Agheel Lake.
He watched Moroga undertake the massive project of skinning the dragon while pondering the information he had just learned from him.
From Moroga, Bai Shi had learned a great deal about Dragon Communion, as well as matters concerning Caelid.
While most of the information could be overlooked, there was one piece of news that Bai Shi could not ignore.
The combat festival in Caelid was apparently about to begin.
It was a festival held for the demigod, General ‘Starscourge’ Radahn.
General Radahn was a peerless warrior, the strongest of the known demigods.
He stood at the very pinnacle of all warriors in the Lands Between.
This festival was a dirge dedicated to him, and also the funeral prepared for him.
The person who killed Radahn in combat would become the festival's champion and inherit his Great Rune.Even knowing there could be only one victor, warriors would still flock to the festival one after another.
As a warrior, it didn't matter if they couldn't personally slay Radahn; just the chance to cross blades with him was a mark of valor.
With the opportunity to face Radahn right before them, no one could refuse.
Bai Shi was no exception.
"When the stars fill the sky, the combat festival will begin."
This was the news that had come from Redmane Castle.
Bai Shi didn't know when the stars would fill the sky, but Moroga said it wouldn't be long.
It would likely be within the next month or two.
Bai Shi estimated that if he were to head to Liurnia first, he would miss the festival.
The Academy of Raya Lucaria and the Carian Royal Family were there, but there was no urgent business requiring his presence, so it was fine to put it off for now.
But if he missed Radahn's combat festival, it would be gone for good.
Bai Shi did not want to miss this festival.
He wanted to face Radahn head-on and offer the general his respect.
If he couldn't experience Radahn's strength firsthand, it would be a major regret for him in the Lands Between.
Even if he were to find the one who inherited Radahn's Great Rune later and take it from them, it would not make up for this regret.
Bai Shi immediately decided to change his route.
He would first finish the matters at hand, learn some sorcery from his teacher Sellen, and then head to Caelid to await the festival's opening.
During the wait, he could visit the sorcerous town of Sellia and see if he could find the sorceries there; it was home to many practical spells.
At the same time, he could spar with the local sorcerers to hone his magical skills.
The sorcerers of Sellia were all assassins, and their targets were fellow sorcerers.
Their spells were created specifically to kill their enemies.
Moreover, the Town of Sorcery, Sellia, had an inseparable connection to the underground Eternal City, which was also worth exploring.
Speaking of which, there was a young woman in Caelid waiting for Bai Shi to rescue her as well.
—
Even with Moroga's skilled hands, dealing with such a colossal dragon carcass took a great deal of effort.
Moroga separated the last link between the hide and the flesh, letting out a breath.
The skinning was finally done.
Next, he just needed to carve the meat from the bones and clean the skeleton.
Although it was exhausting work, Moroga was not the least bit dissatisfied.
His hunt was originally supposed to have been fruitless, yet now he had obtained a dragon's corpse.
Once this work was finished, he would receive the corpse of the smaller dragon, which even contained a dragon heart. This was far safer than preparing for another hunt.
The dragon heart was what he needed most.
With a dragon heart, he could perform Dragon Communion again and continue to grow stronger.
It was just a bit of physical labor, much simpler than the preparations for a dragon hunt.
However, Moroga felt a sliver of doubt arise about his chosen path.
Dragon Communion was nothing more than obtaining power from a dragon's body.
Where would this path ultimately lead? Could he become as powerful as Agheel?
He wasn't even sure if he could reach Agheel's level of strength.
But even Agheel, so powerful that it had nearly killed him in a single encounter, had been like a toy in Bai Shi's hands.
Was the power he pursued so insignificant?
Moroga shook his head repeatedly, dismissing the stray thoughts.
What he sought was strength. As long as he was stronger than the man he was yesterday, it was enough.
If he were to abandon his path now just because he had witnessed an unreachable power, his conviction would be far too weak.
—
Moroga had peeled off the dragon hide as completely as possible.
Some areas had been too badly damaged by Bai Shi and couldn't be helped, so they were skinned off in smaller pieces.
The vast majority of the scales were still firmly attached to the hide, and any that had fallen off during the battle had been picked up and saved by Moroga.
The dragon meat was piled up like a small mountain, and the skeleton, with shreds of flesh still clinging to it, soaked coldly in the lake.
The dragon's blood had almost entirely drained away during the process, staining the entire surface of Agheel Lake a faint shade of pink.
The warhorse that had been bathed in dragon blood lowered its head near Agheel's corpse and drank deeply from the lake.
It wasn't that it didn't want to drink the dragon's blood directly, but its master had specifically warned it not to touch the blood or meat from this dragon.
These were not their spoils of war, and they should not risk angering Bai Shi.
After finishing his work, Moroga reported to Bai Shi, then raised his axe and brought it down on the chest of the smaller dragon, carving out an opening just as before.
He crawled inside the carcass and used a small knife to make continuous incisions from within, allowing the dragon's blood to pool in the chest cavity.
The blood submerged him. The entire dragon corpse was like a bathtub, allowing him to soak completely in its blood.
Seeing this, Bai Shi recalled some of the things Moroga had told him about Dragon Communion.
Dragon Communion wasn't just performed with the heart.
Soaking one's entire body in dragon's blood would strengthen the body's constitution and make the skin tougher.
There was also the dragon meat. Consuming it would likewise strengthen one's physical body, and one might even gradually grow dragon scales.
Furthermore, as the strengthening progressed, the body would continuously transform toward that of a dragon. The first thing to change was the blood, which would grow searing hot and gradually become dragon's blood.
Once the concentration of dragon's blood in the body became high enough, one could harness its power in various ways.
The bloody barrier that had blocked Agheel's flames earlier was formed from the dragon's blood within Moroga's body, capable of creating a temporary shield.
Bai Shi stared at the massive pile of dragon meat, pondering what to do with it.
Even without performing Dragon Communion, just eating dragon meat could grant power, and in the Lands Between, this kind of power was not weak.
Although it didn't grant the power of incantations like Dragon Communion did, a simple boost to one's physical strength was incredibly valuable to the natives of the Lands Between.
Even for the Tarnished, who could strengthen themselves with Runes, many would covet this power if given the chance.
After all, who would complain about having more strength?
Besides, the vast majority of people had no other choice. So what if they gradually became less human?
When the opportunity presented itself, they would not let it go.
If this dragon meat were used to train his soldiers, it would be enough to form a powerful army.
Strengthened by dragon's blood, their quality would not be inferior when facing the soldiers of other factions.
But Bai Shi was hesitant about whether to proceed.
A powerful army, but the price would be their gradual addiction to dragon's blood, eventually transforming them into non-human beings.
In the end, Bai Shi decided not to interfere with their choices. Those who wanted to consume the dragon's blood and flesh could sign up voluntarily.
If they desired this power of their own free will, Bai Shi would not stand in their way.
If he didn't have his Fengling Yueying system, he would probably be using every power available, clean or not, to make himself stronger.
There was no such thing as power without a price in this world. They should know the cost of this power when they made their choice.
If you don't fight, you can't survive. The Lands Between was just such a cruel place.
Compared to a potentially grim future, not becoming stronger meant no future at all.
The convoy from Stormveil had already appeared in the distance, sent to transport these materials.
Bai Shi gave them their instructions, watched them load the supplies onto the wagons, and then entered his grace-space.
Forging armor naturally required blueprints. Bai Shi couldn't draw, but as it happened, Melina was very skilled at it. She had drawn all the previous maps with remarkable detail.
"Melina, could you help me draw the blueprints for a set of armor?"
Melina's form materialized, looking a little puzzled.
"Me? But I've never drawn blueprints for armor before. I don't know if I can do it well."
"It's alright, I believe in you."
Melina agreed and took out a pen and paper.
"Then describe to me what kind of armor you want. I'll do my best to draw it, and you can suggest changes based on my draft."
Drawing from his memory, Bai Shi began to describe the set of armor he had yearned for.
It was from a story in a distant world.
A nameless king, who once bore the title of the Dragon-Slaying War God, had hunted countless powerful ancient dragons and was undefeated in battle.
His armor was forged entirely from dragon scales and bones, a medal for his dragon hunts.
The equipment Bai Shi wanted to create this time was a replica of the armor once worn by this nameless king.
Ever since becoming the Lord of Stormveil, Bai Shi had placed this armor set on his short list.
The recent dragon hunt provided the perfect opportunity.
Although a wyvern was somewhat lacking in status, it was the best material he could acquire at this stage.
Worst case, he could always reforge it later with materials from an ancient dragon, or even the Dragonlord himself.
After all, the highest-tier smithing stones—the Ancient Dragon Smithing Stone and the Somber Ancient Dragon Smithing Stone—were merely scales from the Dragonlord's body.
Forging armor directly from the Dragonlord's materials would surely create the most powerful defensive gear imaginable.
—
The Roundtable Hold was unusually lively today.
At a certain moment, the entire Hold was suddenly filled with the stench of blood and a lingering, oppressive aura.
When everyone gathered to see what was happening, they discovered that Bai Shi had brought a massive dragon hide, a pile of dragon bones still flecked with flesh, and a giant horn.
Bai Shi had only brought a portion of the hide this time. If he had brought the whole thing, it would have been far too large to carry and would probably have filled Hewg's entire workshop.
When Bai Shi dragged all these wyvern materials into Hewg's room, the blacksmith was stunned.
Wyvern scales were not hard for someone of Bai Shi's current status and position to acquire.
But Hewg hadn't expected Bai Shi to actually go out and slay a dragon for it. Judging by the length of the horn, it must have been a famous and anciently powerful wyvern.
Bai Shi placed the items in Hewg's room and asked:
"Master Hewg, can these be used to forge equipment?"
Hewg ran his hand over the wyvern's hide and scales, remarking with praise:
"These are excellent materials. They will surely forge very powerful equipment."
"Do you want to infuse them directly into your old Storm Knight armor?"
Bai Shi first nodded, then shook his head.
"Yes, I do want to infuse them into my old Storm Knight armor, but I also want to forge an additional set."
"A brand new set of armor, exclusively for me."
"That set might be very large. I don't know if you're able to forge it."
Hewg looked at Bai Shi.
"How large?"
"Perhaps large enough to fit a body three to four meters tall."
In the past few days, Bai Shi had sent people to collect more Rune Arcs. Although the number was small, only four or five, it was still a harvest.
The arc beneath his Great Rune had filled up a little more.
Each of his attributes had increased by another point, bringing the total to a +7 bonus for all stats. At the same time, the potential size of his body had also increased.
Bai Shi estimated that once the arc was completely filled, his maximum size would be around four meters.
Hewg was somewhat taken aback that Bai Shi wanted to forge such massive equipment.
But then he considered that Bai Shi was now a wielder of a Great Rune, so possessing a colossal form like a demigod was quite normal.
However, forging such enormous armor would indeed be difficult for Hewg. His own size made it inconvenient.
It was best for a set of armor to be forged in one go. Forging it in separate pieces wasn't impossible, but it would never be as good as a single-piece creation.
"Hmm, it can be forged, but the armor itself will be a challenge."
"If it were just a matter of infusing the dragon scales, that would be no issue, quite easy in fact."
"But for armor of that size, I might not be the most suitable craftsman. After all, my size is what it is, and I primarily forge weapons."
"Of course, if you don't have a suitable blacksmith, then I'll do it. I will do my best to forge it well for you."
Bai Shi thought for a moment and ultimately decided to seek out Ranni's blacksmith, Iji.
Iji was massive in size, and as a giant blacksmith, he was surely adept and experienced at forging such large armor.
"In that case, I'll have to trouble you with the weapon. Please use this giant horn."
"I would like to forge a swordspear."
Bai Shi intended to make use of this giant horn as well.
The horn was incredibly hard in texture; with a little sharpening, it would become extremely sharp.
Bai Shi wanted to forge the Nameless King's Dragonslayer Swordspear as well.
A colossal body required an even more colossal weapon. This would be a weapon so huge it would stand out even among other colossal weapons.
It was a terrifying weapon that only a massive body like a demigod's could wield.
With Hewg forging the weapon and Iji forging the armor, by combining the skills of two great masters, they would surely be able to create a powerful set of equipment that would leave its mark on the history of the Lands Between.