Chapter 58 Epilogue

"That really is a familiar ceiling."

Gazing once again at the luxurious crystal chandelier, Rean felt a great deal more comfortable and relaxed.

The heavy pressure and threat that had weighed upon him for so long had vanished; even the same scenery looked vastly more pleasing now.

"Lana, don't run! Why do you always like running around without clothes on?!"

That familiar voice outside also put Rean in a decent mood, though it probably meant he would have to wait a little longer before opening the door and heading out.

"This is quite exaggerated." Rean glanced down at his body, which was currently wrapped up in a manner rather akin to a mummy.

It seemed that when he emerged, the continuous bleeding caused by his numerous wounds had dragged his physical condition right to the brink of death from hypothermia.

Divine healing magic had its limits; the human body could not be driven to infinite self-healing.

Moreover, the journey back had not been smooth sailing.

While Rean was locked in a life-or-death struggle, the battlefields in other areas had never stopped.

Even Heick could call for reinforcements; when Maria and the great horned deer went berserk, the lesser beasts were naturally summoned to come to their rescue.

They had continuously tried to interfere with the battlefield between Rean and Maria, only to be intercepted and held back by others.

When Rean walked out of the battlefield, Dimon and a severely battered Talia were still locked in bitter combat.

To prevent the surging tide of beasts from affecting Rean's mortal duel, they could only block the entrance and fight to the death. Dimon, originally the only one not heavily injured at the time, had also ended up drenched in blood.

The second wave of reinforcements arriving from below could be considered official mercenaries. Their timing was rather delicate; they were intercepted and snared by the rampaging beast horde, making their advance extremely arduous.

Lacking a guide, most of their time was spent wandering around the mazes of the underground world, fighting to the death with those crazed little beasts. It was practically a wasted trip for them.

Yet, the death of the great horned deer seemed to herald the end of everything. Once Rean stepped out, those monsters became much more docile and weak.

Even so, the knight squad's journey back still required fighting their way through every step of the way.

Along the path, Rean had even encountered Larry, who had changed into a shinier suit of armor and ridden over on a giant sword-spider to provide support. To be honest, seeing the giant sword-spider directly blocking the tunnel with its aggressive posture was truly a disaster.

The sight of the giant spider blocking the passageway, baring its fangs and brandishing its claws at his group, made Rean immensely uncomfortable, almost causing him to overreact and draw his sword directly.

Fortunately, Larry's timely shout from behind prevented the bruised and battered knight squad from inexplicably plunging into another life-or-death crisis. It was entirely normal for a knight to lose to their mount, and the giant sword-spider was, after all, a formidable Tier 4 magical beast.

Upon exiting the cavern, Rean also met Saliman and the Radiant Guards guarding the entrance.

Their appearance meant the authorities had intervened directly, and the situation had completely escalated.

Forget about serial killer cases; this was now an official anti-cult and anti-rebellion campaign against evil forces!

Once these people began stepping in, the affairs inside practically ceased to have anything to do with Rean and his group.

The remaining beasts were naturally cleaned up completely. It was said that the Radiant Guards and the City Defense Army had sealed off that underground cavern; regardless of what else might be inside, it would all be thoroughly cleared out after a time.

The previous conjecture had been correct: there indeed existed a smuggled underground river that led to a cluster of underground ruins.

If Maria had really managed to follow the subterranean river and escape, all hope would have been completely lost.

And this river, along with the small boat upon it, also happened to help Rean solve a major problem.

"Fortunately, the gems containing the Heroes' Blood were all stored within the repository space of the illustrated compendium. As for the whereabouts of that bag of 'gems,' the Beast Cult should rightfully take the blame!"

Dead men tell no tales, and any matter could be pinned entirely on Maria and her cohorts.

From the perspective of all parties involved, those aid-delivering cultists were extremely suitable scapegoats.

It was said that Saliman and the others were also very happy to slap an exceptionally high bounty on their heads.

That bag of missing "Heroes' Blood" could also serve precisely as motivation for certain individuals to hunt down evildoers.

Of course, being able to settle this matter so swiftly also stemmed from Rean's willingness to make a sacrifice.

He tore off a tiny piece of the Heroes' Blood and dropped it into Heick's corpse... Isn't it only natural for cultists to take a little kickback? They weren't fearless Paladins, after all.

The layout he had casually set up beforehand could actually serve as decisive evidence when cleaning up the battlefield afterward.

"Anyway, the Ancient Beast Worshippers certainly won't stand up and declare that they didn't take it."

The knight squad's completely empty-handed appearance when they emerged completely cleared them of suspicion... Under normal circumstances, no one would suspect a Paladin of lying, let alone the fact that there were three Paladins present here.

As for Rean himself, it was said that when he came out, his complexion was already as pale as a dead man's.

Some even suspected whether he might drop dead on the spot at any moment.

He had no recollection of when he had actually passed out.

Yet now, Rean touched his chin, feeling that his condition was exceptionally good, entirely devoid of the weakness that follows massive blood loss.

[Biological Rank: Raw Stone. Status: Strength 8, Physique 9, Agility 6, Spirit 8 (18)]

It seemed it was not an illusion; during his slumber, he appeared to have completed a qualitative transformation.

He flipped through the records above, only to feel an increasingly subtle sensation.

[Dragon's Slumber initiated. The primary material, Dragon Soul, has been digested. Searching for auxiliary related evolution materials...]

[Silver-grade material Lion King's Tears (Sun) confirmed. Silver-grade material Dragon Soul (Volcano) confirmed. Dragon-attribute materials being decomposed and fused, Sun-attribute (Flame) materials being fused...]

[Racial trait, Dragon Breath enhanced.]

[Dragon's Slumber has ended. Current biological rank is Raw Stone tier.]

It appeared that certain materials stored within the compendium had been consumed.

"Sorry, Lana, your bride-price seems to have been used by me..."

During this Dragon's Slumber, the Heroic Compendium had consumed some materials to thoroughly help Rean break through the Raw Stone tier.

Thus, as a dragon-kin, having basic attribute values surpassing ordinary beast-kin by a significant margin also seemed quite normal.

After all, dragons were renowned for having inherently superior base attributes; it was only natural for a Raw Stone tier individual to reach the standards of others at the Bronze or even Silver tier.

And Rean subconsciously touched his chin once more... He always felt something was not quite right.

"Uh, scales?!"

Now, touching the hard object on his lower chin, Rean was completely dumbfounded.

He found a mirror, only to notice that pale red scales had unexpectedly emerged on the lower sides of his cheeks!

"...This seems like it could make disguising myself as a lizardman even easier... But, a red dragon?"

Dragon-kin were the descendants of giant dragons, yet dragons possessed far too many branches. The pale red dragon scales that had appeared during his dragon-claw transformation earlier had already hinted at the origin of Rean's bloodline.

"No wonder it was so easy to awaken Dragon Breath, and that Holy Flame Halo..."

A vocational path often had a direct connection to an individual's innate talents.

Since Rean was now a fire-attribute red dragon-kin, it was a logical progression for him to awaken the flame-attribute divine arts, which were rarely seen among Paladin spells.

"Uh, Dimon's first awakening should have been Cure Light Wounds. Does he have a strong talent for becoming a healing knight? Or is it a hint that he's actually a very kind person who dislikes fighting and killing?"

And because of his red dragon bloodline, it also seemed normal that his evolution digested the fire-attribute Dragon Soul, volcano, and sun-attribute materials.

He nodded, feeling that everything was normal... But whose Raw Stone tier consumes Silver-grade materials?! Whose fledgling dragon dares to consume top-tier sun materials of the flame attribute?!

Lacking relevant knowledge, he simply felt relieved by his advancement and did not think too deeply about it.

He stared into the mirror for a long time; these scales would be immensely helpful for his disguise.

"Next time I see that little dragon-hunting girl, I'll find an opportunity to ask her how she conceals her dragon-kin identity, and whether she also walks the path of a pseudo-dragon..." If he remembered correctly, that girl seemed to be a red dragon-kin as well.

The red dragon species truly lived up to its reputation as the dragon among dragons and the fighter jet among evil dragons, sowing seeds all over the world without the slightest hesitation.

"Click."

At that moment, the door pushed open.

Rean raised his eyes to look. Well, the whole cast was really here.

Talia hurried in at the very front, followed by Dimon, with Larry trailing behind.

"Hey, did you sleep well last night..." Before he could finish his sentence, Rean caught sight of three expressions of sheer joy.

Before Rean could even react, a wave of fragrance rushed toward him as he was pulled into an embrace.

Talia lunged forward and hugged him directly, and Rean even caught sight of tears of joy welling up in the corners of her eyes.

"Hey, isn't that a bit much?" Rean felt somewhat baffled. Wasn't it just sleeping for a night?

"...Just lie back down." The woman wiped the corner of her eyes without any nonsense and took direct action.

Without another word, Rean was directly scooped up and carried back to bed by Talia. From his angle, he happened to see the snake-woman outside the door staring coldly at him, before she let out a huff and walked away.

"You slept for at least thirty hours, and your breathing stopped several times in between. The doctor said you might not make it," Larry said, recalling yesterday's situation with considerable unease.

At the time, the doctor had almost explicitly stated that there was no saving him, and the priest had declared that healing divine magic had long since reached its limit.

So that was the reason Talia and the others were so emotional.

Rean hadn't just slept for a single night; he had slept through an entire day and two full nights!

After pondering for a moment, Rean still propped himself up into a sitting position and spoke with a smile.

"Thank you, and please rest assured, just as I promised before, I have returned safely."