Soul of Searing Steel
chapter-52

It was a white, silvery unknown egg-like object that was attached close to the heart of the beast. As the purplish blood oozed out of the round object, it glowed with a dim grayish glow.

Joshua held the object in his palm and tugged with all his force. A loud 'pop' was heard and the egg-like object was in his hands, beating hard like an actual heart.

Standing in the pool of blood, the beast that was in front of Joshua twitched violently for a second before completely returning as a corpse. The warrior took the egg-like object and observed it for some time. Besides a weirdly suction plate and a long tube behind the object, there was nothing else that seemed out of the ordinary.

With his many years of experience, he was not able to identify the object's true nature or anything that bore a resemblance to it.

"Strange… Here I thought that the beast only went berserk due to the virus, and was incubating a Corrupted Black Dragon inside him, forcing him to attack the city in a suicidal manner. Little did I know that there's this little thing?"

Joshua talked to himself and tried to squeeze the object. Even though it looked like an egg; a fragile looking egg at that, it was extremely solid and tough. The force that he used to squeeze the egg was not strong, but it was adequate enough to break an unripe peach. If the object was able to withstand the force and remained unbroken, it would only mean that it was not of a normal object.

Could it be a monster's egg? A demonic parasite? It grew near the heart and even had a tube attached to it… It should not be a mere tumor… After thinking about it for some time, Joshua knew that it would be useless to just keep on throwing random guesses. He then remembered that he had the 'system' with him. Without delay, he summoned the system menu and used the 'Appraisal' skill on the object.

[… Identifying object… Life form evaluation success, Ancient Knowledge evaluation failed, Mystical Knowledge evaluation success.]

[Appraisal Report:]

[Marine Abyssal Spawn – Modified. Ancient Mystical Item]

[Being: In the Deep Sea of the South of the Mycroft Continent, there were many surviving ancient beings that roamed the seabed. One of them was the colossal Marine Abyssal Dragon. Legend has it that the beast was a giant serpent that grew up to 400 meters long. It was also said that the beast was not originally from Mycroft. It came from an unknown continent, an underwater world. It fed mainly on other colossal sea kings. However, due to its slow movement speed, it failed to hunt for food. Hence, the Marine Abyssal Dragon evolved to create a new uncommon hunting method, the Marine Abyssal Spawn.]

[Ancient: The Marine Abyssal Dragon was once part of an underwater civilization. However, as the Astral Dragon evolved…]

[Mystical Item: The Marine Abyssal Spawn will continue to release a sort of hormonal essence before being inserted into the body of another being. The Marine Abyssal Spawn will be able to draw in another beast to consume it. After ingestion, the Marine Abyssal Spawn will attach itself to the part of the living being which had the best blood flow to increase nutrient absorption. As such, it will also release a potent aggravation catalyst. The effect would be the same as a Berserk Potion, capable of eliminating Intelligence and conscience of a being with Spirit Sense 30 points and lower. During active effect, the infected being with have increased strength and the tendency to challenge a being with the highest combat power.]

[Combination: Modified being of a higher intelligent being. The essence of the Marine Abyssal Dragon is faint.]

A complicated series of text appeared in view.

"Huh. Marine Abyssal Dragon… I recalled that it was one of the inferior beings of among the Pentashade Dragons. When the Pentashade Dragon God was expelled to the physical world by the co-operation of both the Metal Dragon God and the God of Justice, the Marine Abyssal Dragon was killed for inciting the Berserk Dragon's Calamity by the Metal Dragon and the religious group of the Sacred Mountain of the far seas."

Joshua frowned. He had finally found the reason why he had no idea what was the item. The Marine Abyssal Dragon species, were not in existence in his previous life before he traveled among the seas. All the Marine Abyssal Dragons were killed in the [Berserk Dragon's Calamity]. As such, he had never encountered one, much less killed it. That was why he had no knowledge of the beast.

However so, it would be even strange. Why would an underwater species hunting method would appear in the body of a colossal beast in the northern land's Dark Forest? It was even modified by a higher intelligent being… Wait a minute!

At that moment, a mountain of information flowed in his brain. After some time, that information was linked and connected together to form an answer.

Corrupted Black Dragon, Berserk Dragon Virus, Dark Tide… Pentashade Dragon, Deep Sea Demonic Dragon… The future Berserk Dragon's Calamity…

Why would the God of Justice help the Metal Dragon God to defeat his enemy, expelling the Pentashade Dragon God to the mortal realm and to cooperate with the remaining six gods of humanity to conduct genocide on all related species?

Why would the Pentashade Dragons, that originated from the Astral Realm expel the Old World Dragons that were in large numbers and incite the Berserk Dragon's Calamity on the entire world?

His brain was clicking but the answer was nowhere to be found. Joshua knew that there was something there but he could never link them together. It was then he had regretted the fact that he had not spent more time in the forums to research about the game. If he had, he would not be in this predicament. Being half-assed in something made him rather irritated. Then again, who would spend extra time to read about an item description when all the player has to know was the rough idea of the world setting.

In reality, Joshua only played the game due to the game's 18+ setting to enable the blood and gore. There were even more players that were interested in the game because of the beautiful game sceneries. No one would trouble themselves to research on the world's background… It would be too troublesome.

"I should change my perspective. The world has changed too much due to my presence. I should not remain rigid about my knowledge of the game…"

If he had not traveled through the dimension…

Without the experience from his legendary warrior character, Joshua from this world could have died in the world, or perhaps even not. However, if he did survive the orc war, he should be fighting with that bastard uncle Danlya for the title of count.

If that was the case, without Gold-tier guards in Dark Forest Fortress to face off the Dark Tide and the Gold-Tier colossal beast that he had just killed, the damage would be devastating. Over tens of thousands of daemons would have swarmed into Moldovia and cause uncountable causalities. Perhaps even the city itself would have been reduced to ashes. In fact, other territories in the north would have suffered the same fate.

The Cathedral of St. Laurent was the strongest church of the God of Justice and Strength. Most of the citizens that lived in the north were staunch followers. Hence, the oracles should not stay on the sidelines if something were to befall the land.

Besides the north, the Empire's central and southern territories had been suffering from attacks caused by the Dark Tide that was caused by the Berserk Dragon Virus. As such, even they would have rallied their army from central to seal off all the exits and eliminate all the daemons from within.

"If that were the case, that Corrupted Black Dragon was the experimental object that was created by the Old World Dragons that were being controlled by the Pentashade Dragons, and not because of the expulsion of the Shagaru Magala. That would make sense then…"

Such a possibility would require more evidence to support his own hypothesis.

To do so, he would need to find the unknown Corrupted Black Dragon and kill him, check his body for scars of being modified by the Marine Abyssal Dragon and prove whether his hypothesis was true or false.

"Interesting… I see that history of this world has been changed the moment I had set foot in this world."

Joshua smirked but shook his head. He had decided to put this thought aside at the moment to think about it again in later days. He then morphed the greatsword in his hands to became a statuette and stashed it in one of the pockets around his waist. The pulsating Marine Abyssal Spawn was in the warrior's left hand, and a tusk, attached to the severed head of the dead colossal beast in his right hand. He dragged the gigantic head of the dead colossal beast towards the Dark Forest.

Along the way, his killing intent intensified. All the surrounding daemons instinctively moved aside and much more growled at the sight of Joshua. After one of the daemons that seemed to be the leader of the entire pack growled, the entire pack of daemons followed and withdrew back to the Dark Forest. Even the daemons that were still climbing on the far end of the fortress' wall jumped down and ran towards the Dark Forest.

Like a fortress that is easily destroyed without a Gold-tier warrior defending it, without a Gold-tier daemon pressing the attack of the daemons, they were easily crushed by a Gold-tier fighter. That was the instinct that all the daemons felt then. Unlike the infested Gold-tier mammoth that lost all its consciousness and attacked anyone mindlessly, even though those daemons were rampaging madly, they were not mad enough to knock on death's door by attacking Joshua.

As such, after a few minutes, the ever-chaotic battlefield was left with nothing but corpses and mangled bodies. Joshua stood among the mountains of corpses as he lifted the head of the dead mammoth to display his victory to the surviving soldiers of Dark Forest Fortress.

Silence spread throughout the fortress but was broken with loud cheers.