Arthur killed Luvon and the two orcs before gazing at the strange creature in chains.

“Who are you?”

That was Arthur’s first question; it felt most important to him.

“A man, just like you.”

“What do you mean?”

“What I mean is, I am what you call human.”

The first sentence coming from that creature was already shocking but did not make sense to Arthur.

“How can you be a human? Look at your appearance?”

“Kiddo, do you know about mages?”

“I do, yes. I am one myself.”

With a wave of his hand, Arthur changed to his original appearance, which he had not used in a long time. Black eyes and black hair, a slim yet toned body.

“Oh, you are? What tier of spells can you cast?”

Arthur already understood the mage ranking, as the Bone Lord had talked with him about it.

He was a different case, using the world’s essence to strengthen his spells. Using it, he could easily cast tier 6 and 7 spells, but without any help, Arthur could only release tier 5.

Still, a 5th circle mage at a young age was quite impressive, and Arthur was sure no one had the body strength he had and the mana pool.

“I can cast tier 7 spells with the help of essences, but without it, only tier 5.”

Arthur did not know if it was the right decision to talk about his essence, but he was not expecting anyone to know about it, plus that human was chained.

“What? Can you use essences? This is… strange.”

The room went quiet for some time until the human finally spoke again.

“You heard about dragons. When I was still around, they were also here and probably turned into a legend for your people,”

“Almost all individuals can somehow absorb the essence, even humans. A normal type of human mage in this realm can have one essence. Well, that is considering they even reach the rank of a true mage,”

“I brought up the dragons because any one of them can have at least three different essences on their bodies,”

“Off all dragons, there is one known to have 8 essences, Placidusax.”

That creature spoke a lot of things, and these were things Arthur did not know.

“Wait, humans can have essences too?”

“Well, getting your first essence is a requirement to leave the 10th circle and reach the first rank of an official mage.”

“How does one absorb the first essence?” Arthur said.

He trained differently than the human mages, as he had the techniques passed down to him from the dragons and his system that helped him in that regard.

“Well, you must know that a mage meditates to absorb the mana from the atmosphere, and as they keep absorbing mana, their mana pool will get stronger, making them able to cast higher tier spells,”

“After one gets strong enough to cast a tier 10 spell, one needs a meditation technique that allows you to absorb the essence and convert it to power,”

“You know why there are no 7th circle mages and above here?”

Arthur did not know, and that question never even crossed his mind.

“No idea.”

“Well, after one reaches the 7th circle, the mana from this part of the planet is not enough to make you cross to the 8th circle, so most mages leave this part of the planet, going to the central continent,”

“Also, that is the only place where you can find the techniques to make you able to absorb the essence and eventually leave this realm, this planet.”

“What rank are you?”

“Me? Hehe, a secret. Listen, I don’t know how you have the same energy as me. You know, the ‘demon.'”

A new world opened up for Arthur as if he was a bird trapped inside a cage, finally able to see the outside.

“I am not an ordinary mage but a warlock. We use the bloodline of the Monlog Giant. As such, only members of my family of warlocks are supposed to have this power, yet you have, and I have never seen you before this.”

“Warlocks? Monlog Giant? I never heard anything about it, either. Let me ask you; you know why this black energy makes me go crazy?”

“You already used the power of our bloodline? It makes sense now. Only official mages of at least rank 1 can utilize a small portion of the Monlog Giant bloodline. No wonder you went insane after using it has the strength of a 7th circle mage,”

“Still, how did you manage to absorb essences in the first place?”

“Well, that is my secret.”

Even more, questions rose inside Arthur’s mind. Was he part of the Monlog bloodline? How was that possible, as he came from Earth and was a regular guy back there?

The system he had only spoke about him being Placidusax, and considering everything that happened till now, Arthur has this legendary lord of dragons. Still, at the same time, he was a regular guy from Earth.

But now? He was not only a regular guy from Earth, a dragon, but also part of the Monlog bloodline. What was that?

“Do you know anything about the ‘gods’?” Arthur said.

“These **ers. They are the reason why I am here. A long time ago, a rumor spread in the upper realms, saying that a strange portal to another dimension appeared in this place, on this planet. That is the reason why the dragons came, the Monlog bloodline came, and many others from the higher realms, including these so-called ‘gods,'”

“They aren’t real gods, but just powerful mages, really powerful.”

Arthur already knew precisely what portal it was. The same one he used to leave Earth and go to that place. But did he say the rumors about this portal are from long ago? Did that mean others crossed through the same portal as Arthur?

“Hey, kiddo. I promise you I am not the bad guy here. If you release me, I can help you leave this place and find the answers you are looking for.”

“I can help you if you and I make a pact.”