Chapter 133: Taming a Pre-Calamity Monster, Finding the Third Fragment

A few days passed and the expedition team moved with minimal stops and rests.

Old-Shell slammed his calcified dome against the subterranean bedrock. The earth finally gave way miles beneath the Southern Badlands. Millions of tons of neutral dirt collapsed inward to reveal a sprawling, hollowed-out cavern. Six petrified Treants slid down the massive crater behind him, scraping their iron-wood branches against the stone walls.

The Southern Vault resembled a subterranean megastructure lost in absolute darkness. Colossal pillars of oxidized Star-Iron supported a ceiling hidden in shadows. Skeletal remains of multi-headed serpents and winged leviathans rested in eternal suspension across a floor of crushed bone and fused glass.

Old-Shell paused near a shattered obsidian altar holding two distinct artifacts. A glowing, emerald-colored crystalline organ rested beside a sealed, translucent geode containing a swirling vortex of primordial plasma.

Up in the Void, Red zoomed his camera in on the objects.

[ ITEM DETECTED: WORLD-BEAST HEART-CORE. ]

[ EFFECT: MASSIVE PASSIVE REGENERATION AND CARAPACE HARDENING FOR COLOSSAL CREATIONS. ]

[ ITEM DETECTED: PRE-CALAMITY GENESIS GEODE. ]

[ EFFECT: CATALYST MATERIAL. CAN BE INFUSED IN UNHACHED CREATION TO GRANT ANCIENT LINEAGE TRAITS. ]

“A catalyst,” Red muttered, his eyes tracking the swirling plasma inside the geode. “I can use that for the creation forge.”

Red highlighted the Genesis Geode and transferred it directly into his digital inventory for future forging. He then shifted his cursor to the emerald core.

[ Consume the core. ] Red transmitted into Old-Shell’s mind.

The Shell-Kin snapped his massive jaws over the crystal. Emerald light flared across the weeping burn scars left by the Forgecaster. The melted Star-Iron plating fused flawlessly into his organic scales, reinforcing his damaged dome and expanding his physical mass by twenty percent.

The sudden burst of emerald light illuminated the far end of the vault. A colossal pile of petrified bones violently exploded outward.

An Elder Ash-Drake rose from the ruins in a state of blind, berserk fury. The Pre-Calamity guardian possessed a body forged entirely from molten obsidian and sharp volcanic glass. Liquid fire dripped uncontrollably from its jaws as it thrashed against the Star-Iron pillars. Six crimson eyes snapped open, blazing with a feral hostility completely detached from logic or reason.

The beast operated purely on corrupted survival instincts.

“It’s a pre-calamity guardian,” Red noted, pulling up the creature’s fluctuating health bar. “But the isolation broke its mind. Perhaps, because he just woke up from a slumber.”

The Drake lunged across the cavern. It bypassed the Treants entirely and slammed its burning skull directly into Old-Shell. The impact cratered the vault floor. Old-Shell roared, digging his massive claws into the bedrock, and shoved the drake backward in a shower of sparks.

Two Treants whipped their petrified branches around the Drake’s hind legs. The Guardian snapped its jaws and incinerated one of the iron-wood limbs in a blast of white-hot fire. The Drake spun, whipping its bladed tail across the cavern to shatter a Star-Iron pillar. The collapsed metal buried another Treant under tons of debris.

Red observed the structural integrity of the Guardian on his primary screen. He identified a cluster of cracked obsidian plates near the base of the Drake’s violently thrashing neck. Red extended his telekinetic grip just enough to pry the cracked plating apart by a few inches to create a viable target.

[ Strike the exposed core. ] Red commanded.

Old-Shell surged forward through the sea of flames. The colossal reptile drove his newly hardened, emerald-infused horn directly into the widened gap. The horn pierced deep into the Guardian’s molten neck. The Ash-Drake shrieked, thrashing wildly before collapsing onto the crushed bones. The erratic burning in its crimson eyes flickered and died.

Old-Shell pulled his horn free and planted a massive foot on the Drake’s chest. The Guardian made no attempt to rise. The feral hostility completely vanished from its posture. The beast looked up at the towering Shell-Kin and the surviving iron-wood Treants.

The Drake lowered its smoking head to the stone floor, recognizing the ancient biological lineage of its conquerors, and offered its neck in absolute submission.

[ ENTITY TAMED: ELDER ASH-DRAKE (PRE-CALAMITY GUARDIAN). ]

[ FACTION VANGUARD EXPANDED. ]

The Ash-Drake shifted its massive bulk aside to reveal a raised obsidian pedestal. A slab of dark stone rested on top. The surface actively absorbed the ambient light of the cavern. Chaotic, spiraling runes scarred the rock.

Red accessed his terminal and synced the visual data through the game engine.

[ OBJECT DETECTED: ??? ]

[ SCANNING… ]

[ ERROR: DIVINE SIGNATURE UNRECOGNIZED ]

[ ERA: PRE-CALAMITY ]

Red activated his Translation Matrix. He commanded the system to merge the new data with the previous two fragments. The interface flashed violently before stabilizing into a crisp block of text.

[ ITEM: FRAGMENT OF THE FORGOTTEN (3/???) ]

[ TRANSLATION MATRIX: UPDATED ]

[ …THE HUNGER… THE VOID BETWEEN STARS… HE WHO EATS THE LIGHT… ]

[ …THE BEASTS OF THE EARTH WERE FED THE SHARDS TO CONTAIN THE PLAGUE… ]

[ …THE LEVIATHAN SWALLOWED THE SECOND LOCK… ]

[ …THE HYDRA GUARDED THE FIRST… ]

[ …THE ASH-DRAKE BURIED THE THIRD DEEP WITHIN THE WOMB OF THE WORLD… ]

“That’s three,” Red muttered. “Even if I go by a guess that there is one fragment in each part of the continent, there would be four fragments. But I found two of them in the eastern hemisphere, so my guess could be wrong.”

Red opened the continental map and scanned it for other vaults, fossilized bones, hollow mountains, and deep valleys, but nothing abnormal popped up.

Suddenly, Red’s eyes widened as he noticed something.

Bastion was exactly at the center of the continent.

“Hmm~ Interesting.” He rubbed his chin.

Red didn’t realize it before since he only had access to the eastern hemisphere and couldn’t see the entire continent or its shape and size.

And the void eater had also consumed some parts of the continent, so it was easy to miss.

“So if I give my guess the benefit of the doubt, there should be one fragment on each side, so that’s four fragments. And let’s assume the fifth fragment was at the center of the continent. I found one fragment in the east, one at the south, and the third at the center. So there should be one fragment in the west and north. I guess we will find out when Gorak and Iron-Scale gets there.”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep