Arthur rested on the corner without knowing what was happening with him. It was not because of the transformation, but something else.

“The only thing out of the ordinary I did was use the Void Step. It has to be it.” thought Arthur.

Nefion warned him about the usage of such a technique. Perhaps he also suffered from something similar, but there was no way Arthur could ask him.

Claridge and the Doom Order were fighting, and no one knew who the winner would be. The Doom Order was at advantage, but Claridge and his group were mysterious, and maybe had some cards upon their sleeves.

“Can you hear me?”

A hoarse voice talked inside Arthur’s mind. It was the wyvern. Arthur nodded in response, as he had no way of talking with him.

“Good, good. They are absorbing the bloodline, and I think both of them will be okay. The room they are in has a passage to the outside, so you can go there with them and leave this place.”

“I can feel that you’re weak right now, and if I’m not mistaken, this is a type of curse. Don’t worry though, your dragon physique will expunge this in less than a week, but in the meantime, you can’t enter any fight.”

“I’ll let the door to the room open for you, but after entering it, I’ll lock it for good. So, if you want any treasures, this is the time.”

Arthur listened to everything carefully and went with the wyvern’s plan. It was a good thing he would recover from this illness eventually, but he was in a weakened state now, and that was deadly, considering there were enemies everywhere around him.

A long time ago, when he found Sully, Arthur also found a magical backpack that could store a lot of things inside. He always had been using it, but he barely had anything to bring along so it didn’t matter.

.

“The plants I got from where Sully was are still inside. I almost forgot them, damn!”

“Now, what should I choose? It has to be fast.”

Their goal of going there was to get money to start a crew, and not to get powerful combat treasures. The room had a lot of stuff, but it was impossible to tell if it was a treasure good for battle or only gold. So Arthur could only grab whatever was in his way and throw it inside the backpack.

Arthur had his hands full with gold coins, and candlesticks, golden plates, forks, all kinds of miscellaneous items. He also got a few daggers, a bow, a spear, and an enormous obsidian sword which was bigger than him.

Claridge had to focus on the fight and couldn’t go there to make Arthur stop.

“Damn it, kid. Are you getting everything?”

The Doom Order also didn’t like what Arthur was doing, and stopped their fight and kill Arthur first.

“Well, it is time to go now.” thought Arthur.

“Hey, old man. You lost to me in that inn and now here. What a loser, hahaha!”

Arthur ran to the door the wyvern talked about. It was not far, and even in his weakened state, he could still run fast. A few spells tried to catch up to him, but none of them could. Arthur locked the door behind him, and no longer could see the face of those bastards.

~~~~

It was a room like any other in the palace. Kai was on the ground with his eyes closed. Arthur saw his face of struggle, and after half an hour, Kai got better and better, until finally waking up.

Kai was completely different. His hair had lost its color, and was white, just like the wyvern’s scales. Kai’s skin also looked more vivid, and his body more in shape.

“Ah, I feel like new. Arthur? Did you kill these bastards already?”

“Unfortunately, no. I killed a few of them but ended up cursed. We need to leave now.”

When Arthur looked at the ground, he saw an egg. It was Sully. Sully was a beast before getting this bloodline, so for the change to occur and make him change into a wyvern, he had to hatch again, and grow up.

He got closer to the egg and grabbed it, putting it inside his magical backpack. Arthur took off a few of his clothing to keep the egg warm.

“Let’s go then. Ahhh, I can’t wait to start our training!”

Kai was not level 8 anymore but 12. It was not the level that mattered, though. Arthur knew Kai now had a body that humans couldn’t even dream of achieving.

There was a staircase that led directly to the surface. It was enormous, and would take them at least an hour to leave, but it was the fastest way. Before leaving, Arthur thanked the wyvern, who now could rest in peace…

~~~~

“Look, Arthur, light. We are almost there!” said Kai.

It was a lie. When looking from afar, it seemed they were close to the exit, but it was not the case. They went up, up, and up. Their legs were sore after climbing that stair for so long. But, as the universe felt pity for them, Arthur and Kai reached the surface.

The first thing both of them did was to lie on the ground for some time to get their legs a few moments of rest.

“Kai, we can’t use Sully for now to leave this island flying, so we need to get Claridge’s ship and leave.”

“You’re right. Let’s move. We can rest more inside the ship and far from this place.”

Finding Claridge’s ship wasn’t a hard. All they had to do was return to the shore, and it should be there. So they did just that, and the ship was there as it should be.

It was not impossible to sail a ship with only two people, but it made everything harder and tiring. Arthur and Kai jumped inside the ship, and cut the ropes that were tied around the trees.

As they were leaving with the ship, an earthquake happened on the island. The underground city collapsed.

“I’m sorry, Claridge. You weren’t that bad, but this was the only way for us to survive…”

~~~~

“An island, look, Arthur!” Kai jumped in joy.

After both of them left that island, it became clear none of them knew how to sail. Not sail itself, that they could somewhat do, but find the right direction was the hardest thing both of them encountered in their lives.

“An island? Hahaha, finally. We were almost out of supplies.” said Arthur.

They did not know what island that was, but it was their only option. Kai had told Arthur during their trip that some islands don’t have people living in them, or that the people in said island are not friendly.

“Let’s hope this island is not a living hell.”

The island they went on was tiny. One could travel from one side to the other in thirty minutes. And it was not empty. There were some houses scattered around the island, but nothing compared to a city. In fact, it was hard to call it a village.

Arthur tied up the ship to some trees to keep it there and then left with Kai. No one came to see who they were, or what they were doing on the island. Everyone only gazed at them from afar, hiding behind trees or inside their houses.

“They don’t seem to like us, Kai.”

“Yeah, it is understandable.”

“Well, let’s try our best to get some food around here, and leave as soon as possible to go somewhere else. Maybe someone on this island can at least give us directions.”

They ventured inside the island, which looked similar to almost all others, with trees, bushes and various types of animals. It would be hard to find enough food for them to leave, at least not in a short period.

“All boxes inside our ship have magical runes so the food doesn’t spoil, right? The only thing I can think of is for us to fish and fill these boxes with it.” Kai said.

“Good idea. We can fish from our ship, so there’s no need to find a place to sleep. But we still need two fishing rods and bait.”

Before they could do anything, Arthur felt a horrible pain all over his body, and he fell. Kai couldn’t understand what had happened.

Arthur rolled on the ground, and his eyes turned white. Some images appeared like dormant memories.

“I’m the Lord of Dragons!”

“You cannot win against me!”

It was Arthur, but in his dragon form. He was huge and had black scales that looked like the void itself. Arthur faced 8 mysterious people he had never seen, but these were powerful people. Almost all dragons died in their hands, and Arthur was one of the last.

“It is over, Placidusax. Hand us the key!”

“Never, you bastards. Fight me if you’re brave enough!”

Then Arthur woke up, clueless about what happened.