Seeing the gateway to getting out of this place excited Michael. Compared to everyone else, he was the real winner of this event despite the treasures disappearing after the sky garden. He was told by Gaya that each day a treasured place would appear except it didn't.
"Lightning Dash" placing his hand on his chest pocket, he activated the speed spell turning his body into a golden bolt of lightning. The people inside the cave were still unaware of this gateway and still fighting over the skeleton.
"Hey snake, are you there?" Michael willed the earpiece to connect to Gaya and asked.
"Wait a minute...move that aside you dumb bastard! You! What the hell are you doing? Did I ask you to put that there?" she was screaming inside his head making him almost switch off the earpiece. He could tell the snake is bossing around everyone which she loved to do.
"Hiya human" after a few moments, Michael heard her voice, this time, there were no buzzing sounds of people working or Gaya screaming at somebody.
"Hiya, Snake, you seem happy without me," He said 'Hiya' chuckling,
"Of course I am and how are you still alive?" She teased him, trying to hide the delight in her heart of hearing his voice after so long.
"Don't get used to it, I'm coming home"
"Really?!" there was an elevation in her voice yet soon, she pretended not to be happy of him returning and continued to tease him, "oh, So soon? why don't you stay there a bit longer?"
"The portal has already opened, you ungrateful snake, I'm currently heading out there to get the hell out of here,"
"Shit, hey!" she suddenly screamed again, " I'm gonna rip off your hands and attach them to your butt!"
"You should go, I can't hear you scream in my ears no more"
"Yeah, you do that, I have to babysit these stupid bastards or they might put the meat in the sewers" she cut off the line while he continued to run towards the portal. He couldn't wait to see the renovation works as well as his new restaurant that Gaya was boasting about. If he wants to keep a healthy and respectable relationship with Aragoth and major powers in the Elon Continent, he had to keep his base of operations presentable to people. The Sunrise sect he left was barely presentable as it could be looked at as a ruin. With these renovations, he hoped to receive a good amount of badass points every month as the system said.
For badass points, he got the Sunrise sect and the restaurant could provide him with a steady flow of Gold Coins. No matter which world he was in, the rich liked to spend their time and money in a place suited to their taste and status. His two henchmen Daniel and Ricky were currently handing out flyers and hiring bards to promote the new restaurant, although he had only one competition worth noticing, he didn't hold off his gold coins but ordered Gaya to spend as much as she wants to promote their restaurant.
Thinking about his new schedule, he took a deep breath. In the daytime, he needed to be at the Majestic making pills and potions for the Majestic, oversee the restaurant and play with the baby dragon. In the nighttime, he had to terrorize the kingdom by killing criminals and such to keep the legend of Lucifer spread across the kingdom. However after he leaves this place, he should lay low because killing Jane brought the frickin Church and attracted the king's notice according to Gaya.
He was running towards the light beam on the horizon for hours but it felt like he was running on a treadmill, not getting closer to the light beam.
"Huhuhu" Meanwhile, the baby dragon woke and clawed his chest to make him stop running.
The golden bolt of lightning slowly faded away revealing Michael.
"Huhuhuhu" it began to sower him with wet kisses, rubbing its little head against his chin.
"Alright, we'll take a little break" Compared to everyone else in the Body Refining stage, he had triple the amount of Arch Energy in his body. Yet he was not an exception to getting tired of using all the Arch Energy in his body for example using spells like Lightning Dash.
In the daytime, powerful Netherels rarely made an appearance, at least to his knowledge. During the night time, he did detect a bunch of Core Formation and even a few Core Strengthening Netherels in his Environmental scanning. Nonetheless, he knew even with the masking effect and stealthy approach, it would be impossible to hunt these powerful creatures.
Having a system doesn't mean he should get into fights half-cocked.
"Are you hungry again?" Sitting under the shade of a huge tree, he asked the baby dragon playfully.
"Huhu" those vertical slit pupils of the scaly creature instantly transformed themselves to those of a puppy looking at the juicy red slice of meat in Michael's hand.
"Here you go," he said after throwing the piece of meat a few meters away from him. He didn't want to spoon-feed the baby dragon spoiling the dragon.
"Hu" the baby dragon threw a little temper tantrum before hopping towards the piece of meat.
"System, open the pet window again" he willed the system, soon, the bluish interface filled his vision.
Pet Name : []
Race: Forrest Dragon
Trust: 94%
Power: Arch Sensing Stage 1
"I'll come up with a new name soon and system, is there a way to change my dragon's race?" This question sounded so stupid in his head, however, the system did boast that it could do anything given enough Badass points.
So why the heck not?
[System level is too low to answer the host's question] he sighed seeing the greyish notification box in front of him. According to Abras's memories, this world seemed to have four dragon bloodlines, Inferior Dragon, Forrest Dragon, Grim Dragon, and the noblest of them all, Royal Dragon.
Rarity and Power increased respectively from Inferior Dragon to Royal Dragon, the latter was rare to the point that only a handful of people in this world had seen them with their own eyes. If this was only Rarity and Power, Michael wouldn't have worried about the race much but it was not. The Inferior Dragon could only reach the Core Strengthening stage, not one stage above. Forrest Dragon could reach one stage above them, the Soul Refining stage except most of them would die of old age. Only the dragon with either Royal or Grim bloodline had the chance to step into the half immortal or to the stages above them.
According to Abras's memory, Grim Dragons were the cheeky, pervy ones who loved to kidnap princes and princesses just for fun.They also loved to horde anything that shines in the light and to expand their treasure horde, they would usually terrorize a settlement making them hand over the valuables to it. They were practically the bandits of the dragons.
With no care of its bloodline, the baby dragon munched on the meat while occasionally letting out small burps.
"I've been calling you Baby Dragon, what's your gender?" He wondered trying to see if there's any genitalia in its body yet after staring at the baby dragon for a couple of seconds, he sighed and let go of this unfruitful search.
System version 2.0
Host: Michael
Cultivation Level: Body Refining stage, level 10
Experience Points: 180000/200000 (1,110,000 Experience points remaining to be consumed)
Badass Points: 70000
Skills & Spells:
Wind Blast - LVL 2
Responsive Shield - LVL 3
Environment Scanning - LVL 2
Ignitia - LVL 2
Lightning Dash - LVL 2
Energy Devouver - LVL 1
Death Range - LVL 2
Techniques: Swords of Destiny - 88% Mastery
Occupation: Core Disciple of Sunrise Sect
The Guardian of Sunrise Sect
Lord Lucifer of the Abyssal
Status: Healthy
Goals: Control the world
Rebuild the Order of Death
Utility Function: Banker - LVL 2 (Ratio - 1000 gold coins: 5 badass point(s))
Wealth: 685,000 Gold
Special Trait: 5-Star Alchemist
Subordinates: Gaya (loyalty level 95%)
Base of Operation: Sunrise Sect
The Abyssal
The number of Badass pints and Experience points immediately brightened his face. He became one step closer to reach the top of the food chain. The first thing he wanted to do after getting out is upgrading the system to level 3 because it keeps telling him the system level is too low to answer many of his questions.
Thirty thousand badass points seemed humongous when he upgraded the system to level 2 but now, he could spend this amount without batting an eye.
Michael was positive that Celina would come looking for him doubting him for Jane's death. At that time, he wouldn't be the same person she attacked at the waterfall, this time, he would have the strength to return the favor in case she tries to attack him.
"Come on baby dragon, let's go" he stood up looking at the light beam again as the baby dragon came hopping to him. It then clawed its way to Michael's shoulder. In his focus at the portal, he failed to notice the greyish scale on the dragon's belly which was crimson red before.
Eventually running for another two and half hours, finally, the light beam seemed closer to him. On the distance around the light beam, he could see a few camp tents and people who were packing up their stuff to leave the Nether Realm.
************
Now that we have finished with the Nether Realm arc, we can finally get into the interesting parts. How about an adventure?