Heaven's Greatest Professor

"Good hunting," Nina chimed as Warden's figure flashed towards the largest and lonesome peak in the dungeon that dwarfed all the others in its singularity.

Even a child could guess that this was probably the lair of the final boss of the dungeon. The others probably had the same thought, though none had voiced it or offered ideas. Honestly, Warden wanted just to take a glimpse of the final boss first. The iron rank matriarch was already huge, but the silver should dwarf all the others like the mountain did.

It's not like he was a maniac who only knew how to fight. He would simply take a look and come back.

Five minutes into his scouting, Warden activated the void shroud with limited efficiency, which barely provided a thin layer of obstruction around his form. This would help him move unobstructed through the volcanic terrain, and save him from all the corrosive ash that was flying around. It was like a minefield, as any missteps or wrong placements could cause magma to spurt out and engulf him whole.

The path to the highest peak was more treacherous than he had believed. Thankfully, his prior mistakes hadn't cost him much, as with quick reaction, he managed to pull up the legendary cloak of void resistance to obstruct the spurts of liquid fire.

Not that he thought he would die. With high attributes and his new physique, he could withstand the fire with some burns that would need serious healing. But with his regenerative ability, it would be a minor problem. Not that he was sadistic enough to test that.

Weirdly, he found no drakes in the vicinity. There were other lesser creatures around, but those were weak opponents at the copper rank and only a few at iron. Hunting copper and early iron creatures at his level would be a waste of his time. Even the others didn't dirty their hands with their taint.

After moving around and searching for half an hour, he found an opening to the terrible volcanic peak. It wasn't the opening of a blackened crater; instead, he could feel the aura of terrible heat emanating from within.

Warden changed his approach and channelled more energy into the cloak to solidify the shroud. He moved in more stealthily, sword in hand, ready for anything to jump at him.

After walking for a few minutes in the fiery heart of the terrain, the temperature seemed to only rise as he pressed onward. He finally found what he was looking for, though it surprised him greatly.

Inside, it was a stream of lava where dozens of huge boulder-like drakes lay dormant. From the aura they were radiating, Warden could easily guess none of them were below in power compared to those peak elite drakes. And there were—Warden counted them roughly—twenty-two of them. Their scales were so tough that the temperature of the molten lava had barely any effect on their bodies.

Moreover, from the look of it, they seemed to be thriving in it, somehow managing to absorb the elemental power sported within the lava to increase their prowess. But where was the final boss?

Warden searched every nook and cranny of the lava stream and couldn't find the matriarch. Then his eyes wandered into the center of the stream, which was empty with all the rest of the elite drakes dozing around.

Could it be? He wondered. Was it deep within the lava?

Then suddenly he had an urge to check it out. But to swim in the stream of molten flame?

Why not? He thought. After all, his Void Vanquishing Physique could survive the space, and this was merely lava where creatures he could easily kill were napping.

Without making the slightest noise, Warden slipped into the lava stream. The slothful Drakes noticed nothing as Warden emitted a slight flow of energy through his legs to slowly move into the center of the stream.

Even there, he found nothing. And the molten lava was too thick for his eyes to make out anything other than the outlines of the closest drake. Warden could feel the heat which was being filtered through his defence. If he wanted he could obstruct it all, simply running the shroud at full capacity. But there was hardly a need for it.

With a thought, he let his spiritual awareness slip deep into the molten lava.

It was something June had taught him. According to her, spiritual awareness was a natural ability of a silver-rank Ranker, but she deemed his spirit was strong enough to learn it. She had imparted the basics to him within a couple of days, as the familiarity of the skill made him aware that he probably learned it before his amnesia as well.

Still, he was far from being a master in it. Just so that even the system had not acknowledged him having the skill. A high mental stat was highly required for this ability, and with his impaired mind attribute barely standing stagnated at 25 points, he could barely use the ability.

Now Warden could only make out an obstruction in his path. There was no way for him to make out the outline, much less visualize what it was with his low mental stat. But through perseverance, he held on. After swimming down a dozen or so metres into the depths, his free awareness finally picked out something unnatural.

There was something deep in the pool that was circulating the elemental power of the fire around itself at a vastly superior rate. Warden grew another dozen metres closer to it and stopped to study its form. He could make out a round, boulder-like existence. This could forcibly be the Drake Matriarch, the silver-rank existence of this dungeon, though he found no limbs or a long neck around it.

Warden moved a little more as finally, he could make out what it exactly was: an egg.

A humongous egg, rightly so in shape, like a boulder. Without these tight swirls of fiery energy around it, Warden could have mistaken it for a huge boulder.

Warden wondered whether this was really the final boss or her offspring. He had no way of knowing, even after searching around a bit. Then another thought crossed his mind. He wondered if the omelette would taste good if he could fry the boulder-sized egg.

That was a funny line of thought. Warden could imagine the look on June's face when he presented it to her to make an omelette with it. That would be epic, he thought.

And with that came the urge to take it away with him. The Drakes in the vicinity were slothful, enthralled in absorbing the fiery energy in their sleep. Warden had just the weapon to claim the prize without any of them noticing. After all, he would not have to carry it around like an obtuse thief or robber.

Warden visualised the gate to his subspace opening, positioned just below the shaped egg, as a thin smile curved on his lips. He moved closer to the egg, when the gate opened, and pushed it into the subspace. The boldness-shaped egg was just slightly smaller than what could be pushed down into the subspace, though a lot of molten lava got inside along with it.

Thankfully, that did not create much disturbance inside the stream for the inert drake protectors to notice.

With his job done, Warden slowly came out of the lava stream. He gave the sleeping drakes a glance before exiting the final layer of the dungeon. He guessed there was no need to hurry up in the dungeon.

"Well, you're in a happy mood now?" Jason said the moment Warden came back to their camp. They had prepared the food in the meantime. It was the same monotonous roasted weave and meat, and some vegetables. "Did you find our next target? Wait, did you take care of it on your own?"

"Something like that," Warden said with a smile. "Let us just rest for now. You guys have worked really hard. I will stay awake to watch for any more attacks during the night."

Though they all agreed, most of them stayed with him after they finished their meal.

***

"Are you looking for something?" Jason asked after Warden came back from his third round of scouting.

Warden had been vigilant for any incoming attacks throughout the night, sadly the slothful drakes failed to deliver any righteous rage from missing their matriarch.

"I thought there would be an attack, but it looks like without their matriarch, the Drakes are rather foolish and dull."

He had been prepared to fight the elite drakes on his own if they woke up from their slumber, even if they didn't contribute much to improving his attributes unlike the drake matriarchs. But so far, he had been disappointed.

"Maybe I should go back and wake them up from their sleep," Warden said.

Jason frowned. "What are you talking about?"

Warden turned to face him again. "I'll tell you later after I deal with this."

With that, Warden left again on his way to the lava stream.

***

There was a huge volcanic eruption from the lonesome peak a few minutes after Warden's departure. The sheer disturbance of it woke up the two helpers from their sleep. They lurched to their feet ready for a battle, but that didn't happen. Well, not immediately.

A couple of minutes later, Warden came in running at his top speed. "You need to get out of here..."

"What, what happened?" Nina asked flabbergasted.

"No questions," Warden said. "Run back to the gate... or you might not get the chance for it."

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