Chapter 380: The Skeleton of A Dragon (Part 2)
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
“There is a dragon skeleton outside,” Banchajanna knew that he could not hide so he spat out the truth.
“Dragon skeleton?” Saleen knew that a dragon exoskeleton was the shedded skin of a dragon. The sea depth was more than two thousand meters, which was two miles. The pressure was strong and the sea water was strongly corrosive. A dragon skeleton that was in the sea for more than a hundred years would be fragile. This was not the dragon dimension and if it did not have anywhere to go before it died, its dragonshard would be eaten by powerful magic beasts.
Magic beasts that swallow a dragonshard would normally die of explosion of their bodies, but a minority of them would mutate. Regardless of the circumstances, if the dragon skeleton before his eyes was more than ten years old, the quality would have dropped to the standard of a normal magic beast. If it was more than fifty years old, there was no need to retrieve it. If it was more than a hundred years old, even the dragon horns would have corroded.
It was not weird to see a dragon’s skeleton in a place that was filled with grade-8 or grade-9 magic beasts. After the dragon was captured by human beings to be released on the Myers Mainland dimension back then, it was not restricted. The Dragon could fly well and live in any tough environment. Places like the Oceanic Ice Block were not dangerous to a dragon, but were rich with plentiful food.
After the dragon died, if it did not have a special hidden place, its skeleton would turn into other magic beasts’ snacks. That was the Myers Mainland, the dragon was at the top of the food chain, but it lost its dignity after it died.
The one before their eyes was weird, Saleen took a thorough look. The crack on Banchajanna’s forehead was not serious, but taking in consideration of the fact that Banchajanna’s skull was harder than magic nucleus, that one attack was tough. If it was the Pan’s Turtle alchemical boat, it might be a one foot deep crack.
“Is it that the spirit of the dragon has yet to dissipate?” Saleen asked casually. Banchajanna shook his head. If the spirit of the dragon had yet to dissipate, he would be extremely careful. He, as a spirit of the death, was extremely sensitive towards spirits and especially the strong ones.
“Soldier, do not go close. Send the bone spirits to look into it.” Saleen said carefully. There were not any magic beasts around the area and the bottom of the sea was filled with sand rocks, so there was not even a plant with weak magic. That kind of situation was similar to the surrounding of the lightning dragon’s nest, all kinds of life needed to stay away.
The bone spirits were death creatures that could be grown from the death pool everyday, their level would not be too high. Any high level spirit pool would not be able to breed any stronger bone spirits. The bone spirits had all the characteristics of a death creature. They were the best to send for probing.
A few bone spirits that were like lizards went out from the head of the ship and went forward along the sand and rocks on the seabed. Saleen did not ask the winged skeleton to use the eyes of the dead because it would cause energy ripples if it were to extend its examination distance and that would reveal the ship.
The image transferred by the bone spirits was monotonous, but it could roughly put together the target that Saleen wanted. The skeleton of the dragon was complete, which was rare in the Oceanic Ice Block. There were lives all over the sea, from a normal magic beast that had no level to magic beasts up to grade-9. A lot of magic beasts that specifically ate dead bodies to survive; flesh, blood, and also the bones.
The skeleton of the dragon was hard, common magic beasts would not be able to eat it, but there were some small creature that were not able to be seen with the naked eye but had magic. They would slowly decompose the skeleton of the dragon and turn it into nutrients required by these small creatures. Any tough skeletons that went through long periods of corrosion and decomposition would turn soft.
Finding a set of magic beast’s skeleton on land, even after decades, one would gain a small fortune. In the sea, if it was not a fresh skeleton, it had basically no value.
The set of skeleton before his eyes was not. The bone spirit was too small and it required images transferred from more than twenty bone spirits to piece together the entirety of the dragon’s skeleton. The skeleton of the dragon was about two hundred meters long, most likely tens of thousands of years old. The horns on its head were extremely sharp. What was weird was, there were not any branches on the horns and they looked like two bended spears. The eyes of the dragon was missing from the eye sockets. The legend said that if a dragon lived more than five thousand years, the dragon eyes would be a treasures, they would be indestructible like a dragonshard.
Below the skeleton, there were three pairs of thick and strong thigh bones. At the ending of thigh bones, the dragon claw sunk into the sand rocks, not showing the number of toes. A pure blooded dragon was like a human, it had five toes. Saleen was convinced, even if it was a tiago dragon, it was not considered as pure blood lineage as it was found by human beings at the south sea. It was severely injured, so it would not be considered the strongest dragon. The skeleton of the dragon had another six legs!
That bloodline could only be found in the dragon dimension and dragons that were captured in the dragon dimension and brought to the Myers Mainland. All dragons with four legs after the second generation. This dragon skeleton was unexpectedly left behind by the first generation dragon.
No wonder Banchajanna was convinced too. If there was only one bone that was not damaged, it could be used to make an extremely good equipment. Even a tiago dragon was not its match. The only pity was that the dragon skeleton would not stay long underwater as there were many shell parasites on the dragon bones. Even if it was not damaged, the spirit within the dragon skeleton would be gone, leaving the tough material that the small creatures could not decompose behind.
If the dragon spirituality was within, it could be easily made into a semi godly item.
Just when he was thinking, there were two thread of black light like swordlight that stroked into the bodies of two bone spirits from inside the dragon’s skull. The two bone spirits twitched and turned into a cloud of mist and dispersed along the wave.
“Sword spirit!” Saleen was completely blown away. Banchajanna’s wound, was actually caused by the sword spirit hidden among the dragon skeleton. The sword spirit was something cultivated by a Golden Grand Swordmaster. The sword spirit among the skeleton should be owned by an ancient dragon knights. No doubt that the dragon knight reached the limit of one’s power as the sword spirit cultivated was still guarding the dead body of the dragon after tens of thousands of years.
Banchajanna could live solely because he was a death creature. Banchajanna’s scepter also bonded his spirit and at the same time protected his spirit. With one attack by the sword spirit, even if there was not any crack on Banchajanna’s skull, his soul flame would died out.
To bring a sword spirit under control was troublesome and Saleen could not use it nor sell it. If he were to sell it to a Golden Grand Swordmaster, and to be absorbed by one, the Golden Grand Swordmaster would become a vital threat to mages. Even a grade-9 mage would not be able to take one attack by the sword spirit.
To make it straight, the thing was like a seal of divine power. Even if Saleen went through all the trouble to get his hands on it, he could only keep it as he absolutely would not be able to use it. With the guard of the sword spirit, the skeleton of the dragon definitely had no damage. Saleen was extremely delighted as he had always envied the big ship at Devil’s Horn that was made entirely from magic beasts’ bones and could fly above water.
The spirituality of the dragon skeleton had fully dispersed, but the toughness of it was rarely seen. To make a same ship, that would be much tougher. If he was lucky, its dragonshard should still be intact.
After some thinking, Saleen decided to have the winged skeleton retrieve the remaining bone spirits and discussed how to deal with the sword spirit.
If he were to take action himself, he was quite confident. The owner of the sword spirit had died, no matter how strong a dragon knight was, he would not have a mage’s lifespan. The sword spirit was sharp, but no one was manipulating it. It could be brought under control with a dimension stone.
The problem was the speed of sword spirit was too fast. The one who was going to bring forth the sword spirit might be killed . Saleen was not willing to take the risk himself, he was not willing to send Sika or Nailisi out either. Only Banchajanna could move around in deep sea. As for the winged skeleton, Saleen needed him to drive the ship.
“Banchajanna, that’s a sword spirit. Do you dare to try to retrieve it again?”
Banchajanna found information related to sword spirit in his memory and he felt helpless. “No wonder I couldn’t feel the sign of spirit wave. The sword spirit is not a real life so there wasn’t any character of a spirit and the speed of its attack was faster than magic.” That was his disadvantage. If he knew that sword spirit was hiding there, he had dimension stones in his hand then and he could have kept it in the dimension stone according to his experience.
Banchajanna had a lingering fear from the attack earlier. He wanted to refuse Saleen’s order, but he was afraid that Saleen would be angry so he was dithering.
“Banchajanna, I am looking forward for you to guard the city for me, why would I send you to die?”
“But…” Banchajanna pointed at the crack on the top of his skull, his very first time pleading in front of Saleen. He was bonded by Saleen and he could not return to the death dimension. The crack was difficult enough to mend. If he were to go and catch the sword spirit, it was inevitable that he would be attacked multiple times. When he was injured all over, his ability would decrease tremendously. Relying on the green spirit given to him by Saleen would not help him recover his body. To let the crack disappear, he would need to sleep in the green spirit for three to five hundred years.
There was no spirituality in the skeleton of the dragon. Even if Saleen was generous enough to give him a bone, he could not use it to mend his body.
“Hurry up, if you bring the sword spirit under control, I will give you a spiritual dragon bone to mend all your cracks!” Saleen was not polite then, he was pressing Banchajanna. He did have tiago dragon’s bones. They might not be as tough as the ones before his eyes, but they could be used to mend the body of a spirit of the dead. It was a great deal for Banchajanna.
“Is it true?” Banchajanna was at loss as to what to do. “That bastard, Saleen! He doesn’t even blink when he lies.” How would he and his brothers be at where they were otherwise?
Saleen had no alternatives. He took out a piece of dragon bone from the demonic ring and passed it to Banchajanna. Banchajanna held it in his hands and felt the power of life within the dragon bone. “This dragon died not long ago! Saleen can kill a dragon?” Banchajanna was surprised by Saleen again. The tiago dragon and his level was similar, but that was according to the calculation in death dimension. In the current dimension, he definitely could not kill a tiago dragon.
“The evil human being must have used a treacherous method.” Banchajanna kept his comment to himself and left the ship dutifully. As he could mend his body and his spirit was difficult to be disappeared entirely, Banchajanna felt more confident. Even so, he mended his original form in the water. His six arms were holding onto the one dimension stone that was given to him by Saleen and he was ready to bring forth the sword spirit.
Saleen looked nervous, he did not have much confidence. If Banchajanna was killed, he had no other way to deal with the sword spirit. In the deep sea that was two thousand meters deep, this was an area where most human beings were unable to move around.