"How will you accomplish this though?" William asked in a skeptical tone.

"I have my ways duke William. I can just assure you that you'd have the perfect reason to charge duke Danver and he'll be forced to announce your grandson to be the successor."

"How should I believe you? What if after taking the stone, you vanish altogether, never to be seen again?"

"I won't take the reward until the job is done. After I prepare the stage and leave you the final act, you can then give me the stone. I'll ask nothing before that." Jekyll said.

William went into thought. After some contemplation, a wide grin spread on his face.

"Alright. I accept your offer. But no matter what you do, I'm not involved in any of that. Whatever you do, you'd have done on your own accord. You get it right?"

"Yes. I understand completely." Jekyll smirked. The plan had now set into motion.

"But just out of curiosity, what are you gonna do?" William asked.

"You'll see duke William. But let me give a small introduction of the plan then." Jekyll said as his lips curved into an evil grin.

****

Luke slowly opened his eyes and found himself levitating inside a golden sphere of mana. He was shocked and started struggling to pull himself out of it, but just then an ancient and raspy voice came from his back.

"It's a healing sphere. Don't worry about it." The dragon man said.

Luke hurriedly turned around and saw the man standing behind him with his hands folded behind his back. the horns on his head made him realize that this was a dragon man just like the warrior he fought in the third trial.

"Who are you senior?" Luke asked respectfully. He could feel the ancient aura radiating out of him, and the almost imperceptible pressure from his dragon eyes was making him shiver.

"I'm the guardian of this tower and the trials. I'm called Stormbreaker. I've been keeping an eye out on you the moment you entered this realm." He said with a smile.

Luke was shocked. He couldn't perceive what realm of cultivation this man in front of him was, if he had such a wide range of perception.

"What is this tower senior Stormbreaker? Is it associated with the dragons. And if it is, how was I able to take the tests?"

"Because you have dragon blood inside you."

"What!? It means…duke Argon was right?" Luke was stupefied. Even if duke Argon had said previously that he has dragon blood in him. he didn't believe it. He thought the dragon stone was reacting to him because of his special cultivation method, the chakras. But why would the dragon senior lie, and him being able to take the tests were proof enough.

"But I don't have any ancestor who's a dragon. Even my sisters are human. Then how could I have dragon blood senior?" Luke asked, his confusion rising.

"You definitely had an ancestor who was a dragon. Sometimes, the bloodline stays dormant and awakens in someone from a certain generation. Maybe in this generation, you were that lucky one."

"Then why was I born with a shattered circle? The dragon blood should have made me far stronger and given me a far sturdier and stronger mana circle."

"You were born with a shattered circle? How can that be possible? Even if you did, the dragon blood in you should have repaired it after birth, unless…"

"Unless what senior?" Luke asked impatiently.

"Unless someone deliberately broke it when you were just born." Stormbreaker said.

His words struck Luke like a bolt of lightning. His hair stood on end as a name struck in his mind immediately upon hearing those words. Hela.

Anger boiled inside him. he knew this was just an assumption. But if it really proves to be true, then just because of jealousy and greed of someone, he had to suffer fifteen years of his life.

"It's just an assumption child. Don't think too much about it. The complexities of the universe are infinite, nothing can be said to have been definite."

"I understand senior." Luke calmed himself down as he respectfully bowed to his words. he realized that he couldn't blame someone just on assumptions.

"Congratulations on passing the trial with perfect scores. You're the first one in three hundred years to pass this trial with a perfect score." He said with a wide smile.

"Perfect score? Then what was the lowest threshold to pass senior?" Luke asked skeptically.

"Just reaching the final trial and enduring the pressure for a minute is enough. I didn't imagine that you'd be able to endure the pressure this whole time."

Luke was stumped. He thought he had to endure till the timer goes off. He didn't know that just one minute was enough. He felt like his loss rather than a win.

"Hahaha! Don't worry. Scoring perfect also has its perks. You can have the maximum tier of reward for getting the perfect score."

"Really?" Luke's face brightened as excitement rose inside him.

Stormbreaker removed the healing sphere and Luke slowly levitated back on the ground. Another door appeared out of thin air in front of them. it opened up, revealing a blinding light from the other side.

"Follow me." Stormbreaker said and started moving as Luke followed him. both of them then passed through the door which then slowly closed and disappeared into dust after the two of them were inside.

After coming out, they were inside a huge hall with rows and rows of weapons floating above cylindrical columns and covered with a thin film of golden mana.

"You can choose three weapons, gears or potions of your choice from this treasury." Stormbreaker said.

Luke was a bit taken aback. There were more than a thousand weapons in the treasury. Each and every one of them releasing intense pressure. Choosing one among all these powerful weapons was very hard.

"Take a look around. You can take as much time as you need. There's no limit."

Luke nodded and started checking out all the weapons and gears as the flame letters appeared on every item, describing it when he looked at them.. After a long search, his eyes fell on a shield and just then something clicked in his mind as he turned towards Stormbreaker.

"Can I ask you something senior?"

"Go ahead."

"Can these weapons and gears be used by someone who doesn't have dragon blood in them?"

"They can. But their effectiveness will be reduced by half. So, it's better they don't use it rather than using a debuffed gear."

"Well, it would be a different matter if they have the dragon core potion. It would evolve their circles to dragon mana circles, while retaining their humanity. Since a human infusing dragon blood in them will kill them instantly." Stormbreaker said.

"I see…wait a minute…then is the dragon core potion also here senior?" Luke asked with shining eyes.

"It is."

Luke's face brightened with the confirmation.

"What will happen if someone born without a circle takes the potion senior?"

"If he's able to endure the backlash, then he may awaken mana and form dragon mana circles in his heart, and if he can't then death is the only outcome."

Luke's face got serious. After taking a good look around the treasury, he found nothing to his liking. There were mostly swords, spears, shields, mana enhancer necklaces, dimensional rings and other accessories and weapons. But he was a fist fighter and already had his blood armaments that will grow with him.

After a bit of contemplation, he thought about Noah and Shane. They were a bit down with their growth slowing down and Shane was fully dependent on his mechanical weapons. If they could be strengthened then raising their team rank would not be that hard.

Hearing about the potions, he immediately considered taking it for the two of them. but the risk of death made him shriek back and hesitant.

"Nothing comes easy in life. You have to take risks if you want to rise and break the chains shackling you." Stormbreaker said with a smile on his face.

Luke was taken aback. He realized that Stormbreaker could guess what he was thinking right now. his shook his head and chuckled at himself. How can he take decisions for them. It was their choice if they wanted to take the risk or not. He smiled and made up his mind.

"I'll take two dragon core potions then senior."

"Have you thought it through?" he asked.

"I have." Luke said firmly.

He smiled at his firm answer. "Alright then. What about the third treasure then?"

"I'll take the ring of teleportation." Luke said pointing at the ring in front of him. after carefully consideration, he decided to take it when he read the description the flame letters were showing

RING OF TELEPORTATION

INFUSE MANA INTO THE RING AND TELEPORT FROM UPTO 1 METERS TO 1 KILOMETER DISTANCE WITHING YOUR VISION, DEPENDING UPON THE AMOUNT OF MANA SUPPLIED

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