"Okay! Let's go!" (Link)
Link shouted in an energetic tone.
He seems to be quite excited to find the secrets that this orb holds so deeply inside it.
As planned, Ellie turned into her dragon form and everyone else got to ride on her back.
"hehe, so this is how it feels to ride on a dragon's back!" (Riya)
Hearing Riya's praise, Liam smiled happily and replied in a proud voice:
"Yup, Ellie is an amazing dragon!" (Liam)
Meanwhile, Link brought out the transparent orb from his space ring and embedded his mana into it.
When triggered by mana, the orb trembled and started to float in the air. All of a sudden it flew in the North direction and led the way forward for them.
Seeing the orb flying ahead, Link glanced at Liam and nodded his head as a sign of departure.
Liam nodded back to Link and then used telepathy to talk to Ellie.
[Okay, now we just have to follow that orb, Ellie] (Liam)
[Understood!] (Ellie)
Ellie spread her massive wings out and flapped them with great momentum.
The winds howled and Ellie flew into the sky at a very fast speed.
She followed right behind the floating orb.?The orb took many turns in the air and changed directions many times, but Ellie easily followed behind it without any problems.
"Woah! The wind breeze feels so nice! Dragons are amazing!" (Riya)
Feeling the wind breeze everyone felt refreshed and happy.
Link looked at Ellie with a complicated look on his face.
'Should I catch a dragon of my own... that way I can ride on it with Riya whenever she wanted...' (Link)
(Link is just daydreaming. Dragons are prideful creatures they don't allow random people to ride on their backs at all.)
Moreover, it's nearly impossible to capture a dragon in the first place.
Even the younger dragons are taken care of by their mothers for several years, and every adult dragon is at least an S-rank being, trying to steal a dragon's egg is like bringing calamity to your own family.
...
Rio tilted his head and glanced at Lia who was enjoying the wind breeze, she had a smile on her face.
All of a sudden a sudden idea appeared in Rio's mind, he brought out his sword and used his 'sword intent' to warm up his hands. (He is using Fire aura to warm his hands, his control over his skills is insane...)
Then he stretched out his hand towards Lia and asked in his usual emotionless tone:
"If you are feeling cold, you can hold my hand..." (Rio)
Lia rolled her eyes at Rio's question.
"Uh...okay..." (Lia)
She saw the whole process. She knew that Rio was using 'sword intent' as a hand-warming technique and was quite bewildered at its absurdity, but didn't say anything.
(Even Lia knew that it was absurd to use the legendary technique 'Sword Intent' as a hand warmer...)
Lia shook her head, stretched out her hand with a slight blush on her face, and held Rio's hand tightly.
A smirk appeared on Rio's face.
Obviously, he didn't let this rare chance go to waste, he immediately pulled Lia closer to him.
He put his right hand on her cheek and kissed her on the lips immediately.
Lia's eyes widened in shock due to those sudden actions and her face turned as red as a tomato.
She hurriedly pushed Rio away from her.
"Idiot! Perv! Hmph!" (Lia)
Lia pouted her cheeks in anger and dodged Rio's eyes, but Rio wasn't going to let go so easily.
He whispered in her ears.
"Delicious isn't it....' (Rio)
"Perv!!" (Lia)
Everyone else averted their eyes when they noticed the duo's flirtatious actions.
Even Riya covered her eyes with her small hands and a blush appeared on her cute face.
Her eyes widened in shock as she peeked from between her fingers.
"Cough cough! These two are showing off! Damn it!!" (Link)
The mood became awkward for the whole journey after that and no one talked due to what they witnessed just now.
...
While everyone was enjoying a ride on the back of a dragon only one person was having a really bad time.
"F*ck! Is it really necessary to hang me here! I am gonna die!!" (Fade)
Fade who was hanging in Ellie's claws, screamed at the top of his lungs, but due to air pressure, his voice never reached the people sitting above.
He could only shake his head in helplessness.
Liam didn't want to let Fade ride on his dragon, thus he asked Ellie to just capture Fade in her claws and hang him down for the whole journey.
'Just you wait! Once I become strong! I will beat you all rich bast*rds to a pulp!' (Fade)
...
After an hour.
Core Area, A large crater.
An extremely huge crater appeared in everyone's view. It seems to have been formed from a meteorite impact.
The floating orb descended into the wide and deep crater at an extremely fast speed.
The whole crater was filled with searing hot magma and it looked extremely dangerous at the very first glance.
Ellie stopped in the sky and continued to fly over the magma-
filled crater.
Liam glanced at Link and said in an awkward tone:
"Uh… it seems the orb has entered the magma… Ellie said that she can detect the presence of some kind of mechanism below this magma…" (Liam)
Before Liam could say anything else to complete his sentence, Link replied in a loud voice.
"Okay, then I will lead the way!" (Link)
Link immediately jumped down from the back of the dragon and directly dived into the magma with a wide grin on his face.
"What!?" (Riya)
Riya was shocked to see Link jump into the magma. Only when Liam explained that it was 'okay' did she relax a bit.
(She nearly fainted from shock when Link jumped down. She thought that Link fell down from Ellie's back by mistake… she nearly thought that Link was burnt alive at that moment…)
After a few minutes of wait, the ground started to tremble and the magma in the crater started to disappear into thin air. (This magma is made up of pure mana, it's not the real magma which is made up of molten rocks…)
When the magma disappeared, a huge altar appeared in sight.
Liam asked Ellie to descend onto the altar.
When everyone got down, Link was standing near a large lever. (He already changed into new clothes, he didn't want to embarrass Riya…)
Riya immediately ran towards him and checked him all over for any injuries, but Link just smiled loudly.
"No way I will get injured by that, it wasn't even that hot, hehe" (Link)
While Saying that Link glared at Rio with a wide smirk on his face as if saying:
'Even you can't do it right!' (Link)
But Rio totally ignored Link's provocation.
...
Seeing that the group was getting off-topic again, Liam clapped his hand and brought everyone's attention towards himself.
"Everyone, this isn't the time for chit-chat, this altar that we are standing on, is nearly a kilometer in diameter…. This thing is extremely suspicious..." (Liam)
"There's no way such a large altar would appear for no reason at all..." (Liam)
"Let's investigate it thoroughly!" (Liam)
Hearing Liam's voice, everyone nodded their head in agreement and spread all over the place to look for clues.
Rio glanced at Link who was standing beside a giant lever that was connected to the altar and had several mana circles carved into it.
"Did you use that lever to make the magma disappear?" (Rio)
Link nodded his head in agreement.
"Yep, when I pulled this lever down, all the magma in the area seems to have disappeared…" (Link)
Rio contemplated in his mind for a while and said:
'Perhaps, that magma is actually just a defensive mechanism to protect this altar from enemies… it might reappear if we pull this lever down again…' (Rio)
"Link, you stay here and make sure no one pulls the lever down again… it would put everyone in danger if someone pulled it by mistake…" (Rio)
"Okay!" (Link)
Link nodded his head at Rio's advice and stood beside the lever as if he were guarding it with his life.
...
Meanwhile, Liam took the transparent orb in his hand and placed it in the center of the altar to see if something happens.
And sure enough, When Liam put the orb in the central area, it immediately shined brightly and started to rotate at an extremely high speed.
The orb descended slowly and entered the altar's core without any resistance.
Seeing this, Liam immediately signaled everyone to come over.
The whole altar started to shine brightly and a huge magic circle appeared on it after the orb entered the core of the altar.
Suddenly, the lever that Link was guarding disappeared into thin air, thus he also walked over toward the center.
Everyone was clueless as to what was happening. They all looked at each other's faces in confusion.
Liam tilted his head in doubt and mumbled in a low voice.
"This doesn't look like a teleportation altar, what is this place even for…" (Liam)
Just then, Kira who was standing with a stiff look on her face until now, said in a solemn tone.
"Uh… I think I know what this altar is for… I have seen a similar looking magic circle in one of the books in the academy's library…" (Kira)
…
…
Yo! It's your beloved Author here! An unexpected moment of romance appeared which even I wasn't expecting, but well unexpected things happen right…
Question of the day.
Do you think Link will be able to get a dragon of his own?
14:48
1.Yes
2.No
By the way, don't forget to use those power stones and also leave a review if you like the story. Comment your opinion about the chapter. Your support is my motivation.