Dungeon of Pride, Laplace

As he approached near the body of the dragon, the bedrock strangely became faster. At this moment, he was finally able to notice the mysterious fluctuations coming from the Earth Shattering Lower Dragon that dispelled some of his conundrums.

"So it was like this… no wonder I wasn't able to master it. I guess I must thank you for this" Simon muttered to himself, a unique look of enlightenment dawned on his face.

He came to halt around a hundred feet away from the Earth Shattering Lower Dragon and released the sword from his grasp and let it fall on the ground. Now that he had stopped, the bedrocks quickly came over from all directions, imprisoning him and burying him in between.

This time, however, Simon did not dodge them, a sea green bracelet appeared in his hand just before the bedrocks entombed him inside.

BANG… the deep rumbling sound once again echoed across the surrounding. Just the sound from the bedrocks colliding was already so dreadful one did not have to imagine much what kind of state the being that was crushed in between them would be.

Forget about remaining alive, everything would be smashed into a bloody splatter and ground to dust. It would be amazing if the demon managed to survive that. So were the thoughts of Earth Shattering lower dragon, it clearly felt the demon getting crushed by the rocks this time.

It made a victorious face and issued a deep growl of triumph towards the sky. Although it was injured this time because it was careless, the victory still belonged to him in the end.

CLANG… CRACK…

Just when it thought about turning around and leaving, it heard a slight cracking noise and a surge of infernal heat assaulting its body. Its outer body was protected by numerous stony scales and a thick layer of hardened skin thus it did not damage him much other than feeling a searing hot pain.

However, it was not the pain nor the infernal heat that caused its expression to crumble, it was the faint cracks that were appearing on the biggest stony rock on its back.

It needs to be mentioned that the toughest part of its body, was not its stony scales or its hide but those huge rocks on its back. They were not just ordinary crystals but crystallized mystical energy that it had been accumulating and condensing deep inside the earth all these years.

It was the source of its powers and the efforts of years of its struggle. Seeing it crumble apart like that, how could it not be devastated? In the blink of an eye, the cracks on the largest on its back intensified and it watched with an ashen face as it broke apart.

Years of its hard work and perseverance broke apart just like that.

"It's that sword…" the Earth Shattering Lower Dragon was going through a great sorrow when suddenly it spotted a sword completely crimson in colour from the corner of its eyes.

Those eyes were lost for a while when suddenly it realised that it had seen this sword in the hands of that demon. The damage on its crystallized rocks was clearly due to this sword.

It had already defeated the demon, so why is it that this sword was still suspended in the air?

"Could it be?" at that moment, a thought struck him and it quickly turned its gaze towards its front where numerous bedrcoks had crushed a figure within it.

TIk… TAK… CLACK… a small pebble rolled down and made some noise. Immediately afterwards, all of the substrata started shaking and with a great force, all of them were pushed back revealing a black figure inside it.

Extreme emotional turmoil like a tsunami, went through the heart of the Earth Shattering Lower Dragon as it watched the figure come out with little damage after being crushed between those enormous bedrocks.

The scene of blood splattered bloody scene did not happen, instead, a figure walked out with all of his blood and bones intact. A pale yellow barrier that barely stood standing was enveloping their body.

"How is that possible? How can the demon still be alive after that?" the Earth Shattering Lower Dragon's eyes trembled with disbelief.

The attack that it had used earlier was one of its strongest attacks so how was it possible for that demon who was only an ant in front of its eye to still be alive and kicking?

While the Earth Shattering Lower Dragon was going through an emotional upheaval, Simon who pushed open the gigantic bedrocks from around him and walked out, wiped the traces of blood from the corner of his mouth.

Both of his hands were bleeding severely, and he had suffered great internal injuries. If not for the barrier around him he might have been completely crushed by the force.

Simon quickly purchased a couple of elixir of healing from the shop and gulped down on it. Only after feeling its effects boosting his [High Speed regeneration] skill and various other recovery abilities, did he sigh in relief.

"But I must say, this bracelet came into use at this critical moment" Simon glanced at the sea green bracelet in his left hand. Although the thing appeared ordinary in fact it was not.

It was an ancient item that he had gotten as one of the rewards after clearing the third trail in the forbidden trail grounds. The barrier around him was the ability of this bracelet.

Item Name- Stone Guard Bracelet

Rank- [B]

Temporarily grants the user immunity to Tremor Magic, the intermediate tier of Earth magic. Duration- 10 minutes

Cooldown- 27 Hours.

The item had the ability to make him immune to the Tremor magic for a short period of time. It was thanks to this ability that he was able to survive the attack from the Earth Shattering Lower Dragon.

However, even then the barrier wasn't able to completely negate the full power of that attack. The bracelet had the ability to make him immune from the tremor magic but not from its advanced form, the seismic magic.

From what Simon could tell that kind of absurd ability to lift the entire bedrock from the ground, was only possible with advanced magic. Thanks to the barrier standing between him and the seismic magic, he was able to somehow survive that attack.

Nevertheless, he still underestimated that attack somewhat and had paid a heavy price for it. Simon's internal organs were in a mess, his arms were numb not to mention the Stone Guard Bracelet had broken after that.

Simon sighed looking at the faint crack in the sea green bracelet. Perhaps it was too much for it to guard against an advanced tier magic. The Stone guard bracelet might work again if it was restored in the future.

Simon kept the bracelet in his inventory and turned his attention back on the Earth Shattering lower dragon. From its expression, he could tell that the latter didn't expect him to survive that attack of its much less retaliate and make it suffer an even greater loss.

Simon beckoned with his hand and the sword immediately flew towards him. There was no mysterious runes on the sword nor on his hand, he was clearly not using the [Dominator's control] technique.

So how was he able to manipulate the sword like that?

The answer to that was something that he had figured out while fighting the Earth Shattering lower dragon. He came to an epiphany and finally understood how the dragon controlled all of the bedrocks after pulling them out with its advanced magic.

[Mana Flow]… clearly, the dragon was also able to use it.

Simon observed the unusual mana fluctuation around the bedrocks and immediately came to a realisation. The other party knew the skill he was struggling with. At that moment, he made up his mind and decided to take on the attack.

Although it was kind of putting all of his eggs into one basket kind of thing, an extremely high risk high gain decision. He still went with it and used the other party's attack to advance his own skill.

While being crushed by the pressuring force of those bedrocks, Simon diverted a portion of his attention towards the mysterious fluctuation. That was when he finally understood the mysteries barring him from acquiring the skill.

A profound understanding descended onto him and he used this newfound discovery to manipulate the sword that he threw onto the ground earlier. He had chosen to attack the moment he saw the rock on the Earth Shattering Lower Dragon's back, dimming down a little.

The huge crystals on its body was the crystallisation of its power and incredibly sturdy but at the same time also its weakness. While trying to use magic, it would be lit up and emit a berserk amount of mana into the surrounding.

This made the Earth Shattering lower dragon unable to move for a while not only that when those rocks like crystals on its body dimmed, that was when it was in its most weakened state.

Simon who was noting every quirk and movement of his opponent since the battle started, came to that realisation after a while. And he was spot on.

Although it was extremely risky to do something like that based on some assumption, it had paid off. Simon did not know how important those crystal like rocks were for the Earth Shattering Lower Dragon but he at least understood that with that gone it would no longer be able to control those bedrocks anymore.

Involuntarily, Simon had dealt a great damage to the earth shattering lower dragon.

"This can't be. How are you alive demon? How did you survive that?" the dragon roared out, his thundering voice reverberating across the place. The arrogance of the dragon was finally snuffed out after facing Simon.