The Golden Dragon opened its mouth wide, and all the gathered energy converged within, which it absorbed completely. Satisfied, it nodded.
Then, it slowly vanished from the spot. Before disappearing, it glanced at the place where Mako was hiding.
After a distortion in space, Mako appeared where the Golden Dragon had been. He looked around the consciousness world, which had returned to normal, and murmured:
"What exactly are you? System? Deity/God?"
"Ugh! Never mind! I was just a nobody before anyway. Let it do as it pleases! At least I'm still me, so why bother thinking so much?
If I don't live each day to the fullest in this world, how can I face myself? I've already gained so much, and experienced so many different things. What more could I want?
Do whatever you want! I'm just a mortal, a great being! If you don't want me to do anything, then I'll just keep playing!"
Mako shouted the last sentence towards the place where the Golden Dragon had disappeared.
After speaking, Mako immediately disappeared from the world of consciousness. Before leaving, he seemed to hear a cold snort!
Mako slowly opened his eyes in front of the giant ice pillar, still retaining the posture of wielding his sword and slashing just now.
Although it felt like a long time had passed in the world of consciousness, it seemed as though nothing had changed in the real world.
Mako violently pulled out his knight's broadsword, and the giant ice pillar instantly shattered into a sky full of flying ice crystal powder.
Then, all the ice pillars in the entire space began to slowly dissipate. In just over a minute, only the skeletons of some animals and humans remained.
Moonshadow, a member of the Children of the Forest, rode over on a Shadow Lynx. Mako had kept her hidden behind during the recent battle.
Seeing the changes here, she finally couldn't contain her excitement and ran up.
She said to Mako, "Human who speaks the Old Tongue! Thank you. My sisters told me that the souls they were bound to have left here, and some of the longer-lived beings have also escaped their bindings!"
Mako didn't feel any change in the air, so he asked Moonshadow, "I don't feel anything different! I was just following the Deity's guidance to cut down this icicle. What does this have to do with those souls?"
Moonshadow closed her eyes slowly after hearing Mako's question, as if sensing the unknown presences around them.
However, when she opened her golden eyes, Mako found them filled with sorrow, as if she had learned of some painful past events.
Moonshadow composed herself and slowly told Mako everything that had happened here. The Old Tongue's unique, song-like tone made Mako's eyes moist as he listened.
The Old Tongue seemed to have the magic to move people's souls and emotions. Every time Moonshadow used it to tell a sad story, Mako would be unconsciously affected.
It turned out that before Moonshadow and her fellow Children of the Forest went into hiding, this place had been a nest of Wights. These Wights used blood sacrifices to please an unknown entity.
During The Dawn War, a portion of the Children of the Forest and the First Men's forces attacked this stronghold, and a great battle took place here.
Finally, a very strange-looking Wight used powerful magic to destroy everything here, and the remaining powerful individuals were all frozen by this magic.
This magic was incredibly strange, even binding the deceased around it, slowly absorbing them into the massive ice pillar at its center.
For thousands of years, the surrounding ice pillars had been devouring the flesh and souls of the frozen creatures, while the great ice pillar tormented the absorbed souls.
The conscious monsters within the great ice pillar emerged in this way, constantly consuming and battling each other.
A year ago, a Child of the Forest accidentally entered this place and was ensnared by the strongest monster within the great ice pillar. After the Child of the Forest left, the ice pillars here grew increasingly powerful, and their absorption abilities intensified.
For thousands of years, that Wight had been clinging to life by relying on the energy generated by these conscious monsters. After that battle, it had remained frozen.
Today was the day it was supposed to break free from the ice and awaken. The remaining souls had thought they would never see the light of day, but they hadn't expected a human to find this place.
The Wight, weakened from its long period of dormancy, couldn't unleash its full power. And so, this once-mighty being, which had suppressed everything, fell to Mako's soldiers, dying a miserable death.
Now, these souls could finally return to the earth, especially the Children of the Forest, who had been tormented for far too long.
These creatures, who by nature loved to sing praises to all things, felt like they were in hell every single day they were here, suffering immensely.
In a daze, Mako seemed to hear their singing again. Their voices were full of joy, as if they were celebrating their own liberation.
"Ding! Congratulations to the host for completing the hidden quest, 'Liberation of the Children of the Forest'. You have obtained the building blueprint, 'Fairy Tree'. You can choose a suitable location in the wild to place it!"
"Ding! Congratulations to the host for obtaining the initial treasure, the Necromancer's Helmet."
"Ding! Due to unknown factors, the treasure's attributes have changed. Please check the new treasure information."
"Necromancer's Helmet. The +2 Knowledge attribute has been eliminated and is now converted to +2 Necromancer-exclusive skills."
"Eternal Enslavement, the Necromancer's class ability, enhances the resurrection magic effect of hero undead, increasing the number by [Summon Magic Level + Hero Level]. The host can currently resurrect 15."
"Soul Link, the Necromancer's class ability. Heroes gain the special combat ability 'Soul Link'. After using it, the hero will link their soul with the target creature (It is recommended that the host chooses weak creatures or system soldiers)."
"If the target creature is injured, the hero can gain some mana by feeding on their suffering."
A flash of light appeared, and Mako found a helmet in his hand. The front of the helmet was a metallic skull-shaped mask, with a red cloth tied at the back.
This strange helmet could cover the entire head. The skull mask was very peculiar. Mako examined it for a moment before trying it on.
After putting on the mask, Mako felt a surge of energy entering his consciousness. He immediately opened his spellbook panel and found a Soul Link spell icon on the special magic page.
Mako, wanting to give it a try, used the spell to link with the Shadow Lynx. An invisible stream of energy instantly connected him to it.
This allowed Mako to sense the faint energy fluctuations within the Shadow Lynx, which were similar to life energy.
Mako realized that this energy seemed unique to this world, and he considered it might be the source of magic in this world.
Because the magic used in the world of Game of Thrones seemed to use this energy as a medium. No matter what magic was used, it was always related to blood and fire.
Especially with resurrection spells, the effect seems only to restore vitality, but damaged limbs cannot be repaired.
Mako felt this was related to life energy. The spellcasting process was just a medium, and the role of this medium was to allow life energy to be injected into the host, allowing it to revive!
Mako could feel that as long as the Shadow Lynx produced a strong emotional reaction, it would intensify the life energy on its body, and this intensified energy would feed back to him through the Soul Link.
Mako had experimented before, and his blood was indeed full of life energy, and there seemed to be a converter in his consciousness world that could convert this life energy into mana.
After a while of experimenting, Mako retracted the Soul Link. He found that this skill could also probe a part of the linked creature's thoughts.
After he linked with the Shadow Lynx for a while, he heard this "gossipy little thing" talking bad about him again.
This time, it was constantly telling Moonshadow that Mako had the aura of a skeleton, and that Mako was already dead. It wanted to eat Mako's liver, because it thought Mako was so big, his liver must be big and delicious.
Although this time the Shadow Lynx deliberately stayed away from Mako by a large distance, by chance, Mako still discovered its "little actions."
Mako listened to this guy's antics, feeling helpless. He really wanted to go over and kick him.
After hearing the Shadow Lynx, Moonshadow also looked at Mako. She first closed her eyes and listened for a moment, and after getting a response, she hurried over and said to Mako:
"Ma! Ko! Er! Your name is strange. Wouldn't it be better to call you the human who speaks the Old Tongue? No, no! That's not it! How do you have the aura of those servants of the false gods?
Ugh! Wait! This aura seems to be emanating from your mask. Ugh! It's so ugly! Take it off! It's so much better to be close to nature like me! Why do you like such a strange thing?
Right! The sisters who passed away just told me that they left some things nearby that can be used to deal with those servants of the false gods!"
Mako first glared at the Shadow Lynx beside her. The other party also growled at him angrily, expressing its dissatisfaction.
Mako shook his head helplessly, then explained to Moonshadow, "This is a divine artifact bestowed upon me by my Deity. It allows me to have the ability to fight against these Wights, and I will use it later.
Moreover, now that I have this, it just so happens to be able to hide my face. I will always wear it in the future. Alright! Let's not talk about this anymore, let's go to that place you mentioned!"
Moonshadow had been planning to ask more questions, but seeing Mako's words, she had to suppress them.
She was born after The Dawn War and had only heard about humans, mostly from her sisters.
Her sisters had told her that humans were full of change; they could be as noble as the Gods or as cruel as wolves! She must keep her distance when interacting with them!
However, the time they had spent together made Moonshadow feel differently about Mako. Mako always seemed to prioritize her safety, which deepened her trust in him!
Just now, the departed souls had told Moonshadow about a place, a mountain cavern not far from here, where the Children of the Forest and the ancient warriors stored their weapons.
Mako was quite interested in these things. He had heard before that the ancient people would engrave runes on their armor. He wanted to see if these weapons still existed after thousands of years and if they would still be as magical.
Under Moonshadow's guidance, Mako and his group arrived at the mountain cavern, and the location was extremely hidden.
One might not have found it if they weren't specifically looking for it. Moonshadow pulled a few branches of the yew-wood from the ground, and a mountain cavern entrance over 2 meters high gradually appeared.
After Henk and the others went inside, they carried out more than ten large boxes. Moonshadow said that these boxes were all made of yew wood.
Looking at the boxes, Mako felt that he was going to make a fortune this time. These items were preserved using such good materials, and Mako felt that there must be something special inside.
So, under Mako's orders, the Snow Bear Knights opened the boxes one by one. After so much time had passed, the boxes showed no signs of decay or dust accumulation, and they looked as good as new.
Mako looked at Moonshadow with a questioning gaze. Moonshadow slowly walked over and reached out to touch the patterns inside the box, carefully observing them.
After finishing, she explained to Mako that the inside of the box was engraved with a special rune. It was the protection of these rune magic that had allowed these items to be preserved until now.
After learning the answer, Mako was very satisfied. Then he turned to start inspecting his spoils.
The first three boxes contained Obsidian Arrows and daggers. These weapons were completely different from those made by Mako's Rockspawn. Mako could also feel the scorching fire elemental energy within them.
The middle three boxes contained armor and weapons, all of which were old-style bronze armor or copper armor. The only difference was that they were all engraved with runes.
The bronze longsword also had some runes engraved on it, looking incredibly strange. Mako could faintly sense a trace of magical fluctuation from them.
Mako found that these weapons and armor seemed to contain fire-attribute energy. He just didn't know if they would burst into flames like the red-robed monk's weapons!
Further along, in the next three boxes, were some obsidian-studded maces and small hammers. Some gold and silver items were scattered about, along with bronze helmets, arm guards, and greaves.
The contents of the three boxes were quite messy, as if someone's storage cabinet. Mako guessed that these things should have been collected by the ancient warriors. The Children of the Forest wouldn't collect gold and silver.
After examining these items, Mako turned his gaze to the last four boxes, because he actually felt the fluctuation of magical energy inside.
These boxes were filled with palm-sized pieces of obsidian, packed to the brim. Four completely different, faint energies emanated from them.
Mako picked up a piece of obsidian. He sensed a trace of suppressed fire element energy within it. Moonshadow, who was beside him, took a piece and played with it in her hand.
Then she said to Mako, "These are dragon crystals blessed by the Deities/Gods. Only I and my sisters can use them, but since you also know the Old Tongue, you should be able to use them as well."
"Originally, these dragon crystals could unleash powerful magic, but it's been too long. Their power probably isn't what it used to be!"