Vaan cleared the area and placed the black cube in the center before pressing the button to activate the magic tool.

In that instant, the black cube expanded, turning into a giant gateway with numerous blue runes lighting up and charging.

The surrounding mana was sucked into the center of the giant gateway before a spatial portal was opened, connecting to the other side.

Shortly after, Vaan stepped through and entered the Red Dragon Clan's First Peak.

At the same time, Astarot was quickly informed of the spatial gateway's activation and flew over as soon as possible to receive him.

"Welcome back, Supreme Leader!" Astarot greeted, though it had only been less than fifteen minutes since he had sent Vaan off. "Is there a problem on the other side?"

"There indeed some issues, but they aren't urgent. Still, I need an expert in information extraction," Vaan mentioned. "I've brought four prisoners for the information extraction. There's a high chance they contain some important knowledge related to the Devil's Contractors."

"However, two of them seemed to have something cast on their souls. It might be some sort of anti-confession spell. Thus, it'll be good if you have a way to bypass it. Even better if there's a way to extract information directly from their minds."

"After all, keeping their eyes and ears will only risk exposing the Red Dragon Clan if we use standard interrogation methods to extract information from them," Vaan stated.

"Don't worry, Supreme Leader. There is indeed a spell that can read their memory and extract information from their souls directly. So we don't require them to speak," Astarot assured.

"Also, I agree, Supreme Leader. If there's any chance they worship the seven Great Devils, it's best if we cripple their vision and hearing."

"I thought as much," Vaan nodded and said, "I'll be back."

Shortly after, he returned to the forest on the other side of the spatial gateway before ruining his prisoners' vision and hearing with fire.

Smiling Knife and the others naturally woke up from the pain, but Vaan knocked them all out with chops again.

Afterward, he brought them back to the Red Dragon Clan's First Peak.

"Well then, I'll leave them in your capable hands to extract all their information, Lord Astarot," Vaan stated, passing his human kebab stick to the first dragon lord.

"With honor, Supreme Leader. Just leave it to me," Astarot promised to get the job done perfectly before he asked, "Is there anything else you require?"

Right then, the dragon lords from the other eight mountain peaks arrived one by one after sensing Vaan's initial presence.

Vaan acknowledged their presence before nodding to Astarot's question.

"I do, actually," Vaan admitted before saying, "It seems I'll be requiring the service of the young elites sooner than expected."

"Has any young dragon achieved the adequate level?" Vaan directed the question to all the dragon lords.

However, the dragon lords all revealed apologetic looks.

"My apologies, Supreme Leader. Your talent is peerless and rarely seen in a chaos cycle. It's not easy for our young elites to reach Rank 5 in such little time," Astarot mentioned.

"However, my son, Zodreg, has the highest talent among the younger generations and has already reached the peak of Rank 4. With your blessings, raising him to Rank 5 in the shortest time would be possible."

"Then, we shall focus on him," Vaan acknowledged before asking, "What are the requirements to raise him to Rank 5?"

"If we can concoct a Rank 5 Fiery Lotus Potion enhanced with five drops of the Fire Dragon God's blood essence, any peak Rank 4 can be raised to Rank 5," Astarot answered.

"There should be a Rank 5 Fiery Lotus available. I'll be back," Vaan stated.

Shortly after, he made a quick trip to the Trial by Fire and procured the required resource from the black pyramid.

After he used Emerald's ability to create the seeds of new Fiery Lotuses and planted them in the blood essence pool, he returned to First Peak.

"One Rank 5 Fiery Lotus and ten drops of the Fire Dragon God's blood essence. Use what you need to raise Zodreg to Rank 5. You may keep the leftover blood essence as a reward," Vaan stated.

"Thank you, Supreme Leader! I won't fail you!" Astarot replied ecstatically.

historical

The other dragon lords revealed their envy when they saw the good stuff go to the first dragon lord. Still, Vaan noticed their thoughts and made them a promise.

"You will all get equal opportunities," Vaan assured before glancing at Narvim. "Oh, right. Lord Narvim, I have left a surprise for you inside the memory crystal. Have you seen it?"

"A surprise inside the memory crystal?" Narvim revealed a doubtful look before he shook his head. "No, I have not."

"Then you should check it out when you get back," Vaan suggested before informing all the dragon lords, "I still have matters to settle in Sunpeak Town. So, I will return first."

"I will check back later when you have the information extracted from the prisoners and ready for me, Lord Astarot."

"Yes, Supreme Leader."

Shortly after Vaan returned to the forest north of Sunpeak Town, the spatial gateway closed, and the dragon lords dispersed soon after.

Khaleesi followed Narvim to his cave to check out the surprise together. They quickly found the memory crystal before Khaleesi dibbed the first look.

Knowing the Red Dragon Clan had twelve main dragon exercises, Khaleesi was immediately surprised to discover an unfamiliar thirteenth dragon exercise among the memory bubbles.

'Formless Dragon Exercise?'

The unfamiliar dragon exercise only contained texts and no demonstrations, but Khaleesi was quickly drawn to it.

The further she read, the more astonished she became.

Having mastered all twelve dragon exercises, she could tell the essence of the twelve dragon exercises had been skillfully incorporated into a single dragon exercise, making the Formless Dragon Exercise profound and unfathomable.

She wanted to memorize the text and put it into practice right away.

However, her deep concentration was suddenly interrupted when Narvim made a sudden outburst right next to her.

"K-Khaleesi!"

"What is it?"

Khaleesi glared at Narvim, causing the latter to hesitate for a moment. But he quickly mustered the courage to speak.

"I.. I've been robbed! My mana stones are all gone!"