Classless Awakening; My Dragon Is Legendary-Chapter 33: Growing Mystery

Royal Knight unsheathed his blade carefully, his eyes remained on the baby ahead of him.

’What is this thing?’ Royal Knight asked himself, a slight chill crawling up his spine.

The child slowly turned its head and locked eyes with him, and a creepy smile stretched across its fac

The infant jumped towards Royal Knight, with its arm outstretched, and strange black energy inside its mouth.

Just before the child could touch Royal Knight, it exploded in flames, followed by a pained screech.

Royal Knight didn’t even flinch, he had activated an enchantment, which caused the baby to burn.

There was no look of remorse or pity on his face, he knew whatever that creature was far from being a baby.

He was too trained to fall for the trick of looks, one which had cost most hunters and warriors their lives.

Royal Knight’s eyes remained fixed on the charred corpse before him, studying the wretched creature, making sure he had killed it.

He was about to move forward when something else caught his eye, a strange glistening object.

’Is that... A crystal?’ Royal Knight asked himself, unable to believe his eyes.

Royal Knight stretched his hand, and the crystal flew into his hands.

’A beast core?’ He asked himself, unable to believe what he was holding.

Royal Knight was familiar with this core, in fact, he had seen it more times than he could count.

A beast core was often described as the heart, soul, or life force of a dark beast.

It was the concentration of pure dark mana into a solid form, and it could be found in the body of every dark beast.

Royal Knight stared at the crystal once more, unable to believe what he was seeing.

Beast Crystals were only found in dark beasts. Finding them in what used to be a human baby was a first for him.

’What is going on in this town?’ he asked himself, taking a deep breath, now that he was no longer at full power thanks to the barrier, he knew he had to be careful.

Royal Knight stepped out of the house, he placed the crystal into his spatial pouch, hoping to give it to one of Dravania’s scholars later on, for further inspection.

Royal Knight entered the next house and was met with the same thing. Everyone inside had turned to something else thanks to whatever was spreading.

Thankfully, they were still in a fixed spot, unlike the baby from earlier, which gave Royal Knight more chance to study them.

Upon closer inspection, he noticed something else; the bodies. They looked like they had been dead for days.

And that wasn’t the strangest thing. The bodies seemed to be held in place despite their rapid decomposition.

For example, the body of a boy who had attempted to escape through the window remained frozen mid air.

Royal Knight approached the strange sight with caution, his face completely void of emotion, despite the gruesome scene around him.

He had seen far worse in his many years of service.

Without any hesitation, he stuck his hand in the boy’s chest, searching for another crystal.

The squelch of the boy’s rotting corpse broke the silence, but Royal Knight still didn’t react.

If he found a beast crystal inside this boy, then he would know if the baby was an isolated incident, or it affected everyone inside this barrier.

No matter how hard Royal Knight dug, he couldn’t find anything.

He muttered a small spell, and bright blue flames appeared atop his palm.

He thought about burning these people, but decided not to.

He had a theory he wanted to test, and for now, it was best to observe.

He searched the rest of the house, unable to find anything or anyone of interest.

Royal Knight stepped out of the house once more, and he instantly noticed it: The dead cows which were lying in the field a few minutes ago had changed positions, and one was nowhere to be found.

’Whatever is inside here must know I’m onto it, and it’s trying to hide its secrets.’ Royal Knight deduced.

He pretended not to notice the cows. He wanted to see what game the witch or wizard controlling this place was playing.

Royal knight moved into the next house, and once again, he was met with the same thing, just dead bodies, no crystal.

’What is the pattern here?’ He desperately needed to know if the baby was an isolated incident.

He wanted to know why some creatures moved, while others didn’t.

Royal Knight once again moved into another house. This time, he found quite an interesting sight.

A boy in his late teens, was standing before a girl of the same age, who was on her knees.

"Kids," Royal Knight sighed. When he was at that age, he had slain his first magical beast.

He stretched his hand, and burned the corpses, still not taking any chance.

He turned to walk out of the room, but as soon as his hands rested upon the handle, Royal Knight could sense it, a third person in the corner of the room running to meet him.

Royal Knight drew his blade and steel met steel. And sparks flew, allowing him to see the twitching fingers of a different boy.

Royal Knight flipped backwards, creating space between him and the child who tried to attack him.

It looked no older than seven, and the rot surrounding his body was severe.

’That thing’s proficiency with a sword is no joke.’ Royal Knight could tell from the strike earlier, the thing fought like a master.

The creature charged forward with a loud shriek.

Royal Knight remained motionless, and unconcerned, whatever stood before him, was too weak to cause him harm.

The creature raised its sword above its head, aiming to end Royal knight’s life in a single attack.

Royal Knight simply drove his hand into the chest of the creature.

The young creature’s eyes widened in shock, Royal Knight’s hand was wrapped around its beast crystal.

A smirk appeared on Royal Knight’s face before he pulled it right out.

The creature fell to the ground lifeless, and its body turned into nothing.

Royal Knight turned his head to look at the couple, who were beginning to show signs of movement.

The boy’s hands were moving, and the girl’s head was twitching rapidly.

They were acting like creatures that had just been born and didn’t know how to move yet.

Royal Knight didn’t hesitate, he burnt both of them to nothing but ashes.

He got on his knees and searched through the ashes, hoping to find a beast crystal, but he didn’t, at least not a real one.

What Royal Knight discovered were two obsidian pebbles, each no larger than a pea.

"What could these be?" Royal Knight murmured, using his finger to touch the first pebble.

The moment his hand made contact, a blinding spark erupted, followed by a deafening explosion.