Something inside that gem called to him so strongly that he barely even noticed the system’s message. He stepped closer, climbed onto the soft bed, and reached out, his fingers stretching toward the glowing stone as he prepared to tear it free.

"Stop!"

The moment Gertrud realized what he was doing, she rushed at him on all fours, her face pale as a sheet.

Yet Max did not listen, not to her voice, not to her cry, not even to the raw terror flooding her eyes. He was too drawn in, too consumed by the unnatural pull of the gem.

"If you touch that, you will die!" She shrieked. "We will all die!" His death itself was not what terrified her most. What she feared was the ancient legend tied to that thing.

Max’s fingers stopped only inches away. His gaze dropped to her, and only then did the trance loosen enough for the rest of the system message to force its way into his mind.

[Requires Ancestor-level Wind Dragon bloodline purity, or Progenitor-level purity of any dragon race...]

[Your current bloodline: Human...(Deluded)]

Gertrud clutched at her chest in relief. The terror in her eyes was so raw, so genuine, that Max immediately understood this was no act.

"What is this thing?" He asked, more to himself than to her.

"It’s called the Tear of the Dragon of the Wind." Her voice fell low, almost to a whisper, as if she feared even the walls might overhear.

"That gem protected and powered our empire for thousands of years. It was left behind by the dragon progenitor, the very first Wind Dragon. If a mortal touches it without the proper bloodline, the mana sealed inside will detonate. Only someone with terrifyingly pure blood can withstand it, let alone wield its power."

A cold shiver ran down his spine. Just imagining that he might have unleashed a power on the level of the dragon progenitor, the same disaster he had barely escaped through absurd luck and abilities that defied common sense, made him want to cut off his own fingers and never let greed guide him again.

"Thank you," Max muttered as he stepped down from the bed and extended his hand toward Gertrud.

She hesitated.

Her fingers reached toward his hand, only to pull back again and again, as if even touching him might drag her deeper into whatever nightmare had fallen upon her home. For several long seconds, she could not bring herself to do it. But in the end, she slowly placed her hand into his.

Max felt how soft and delicate her skin was. It carried the same purity he had noticed in the other women he had touched before, but there was something even more fragile about her, something that made her feel less like a warrior and more like a sheltered treasure that had been locked away from the dirt of the world.

"Lead me to the treasure room," he said, pulling her with him, though he tried to keep the force in his grip restrained.

Though reluctant, she obeyed.

She led him down from the children’s room and into the deeper halls of the citadel. The further they went, the quieter the palace became. Their footsteps echoed through long stone passages that twisted and branched like a maze, each corridor colder and older than the last. The light from the torches grew dimmer here, as if even fire hesitated to burn too brightly in this buried part of the palace.

It took them nearly half an hour to finally arrive before a massive door hidden deep underground.

It was unlike anything else in the citadel.

The stone was dark green, almost black in the shadows, and the entire surface had been carved into the shape of a coiled dragon. Its body formed the outer frame, while its wings stretched wide across both sides of the gate.

In the very center sat a thick circular ornament shaped like a dragon’s head, its jaws slightly parted as if waiting to devour whoever dared stand before it.

Gertrud’s face grew even paler as she stepped closer.

"I need some time to unlock it. Please stand behind me," she said firmly, gently pushing Max back.

She pressed her palm against the dragon ornament. Wind energy burst from her hand with terrifying pressure, so dense and pure that even Max instinctively narrowed his eyes. It did not spread wildly like a normal gust.

It flowed in a narrow current, slipping into the ornament through the dragon’s open mouth. The moment it entered, the carved eyes above her hand lit up with a brilliant green glow.

A deep pulse ran through the door. It was as if something ancient inside the stone had woken up.

The glowing eyes brightened, and thin veins of green light spread outward across the carved dragon body, racing along every groove and line in the door until the entire thing seemed alive. The stone trembled. A low grinding rumble echoed through the underground hall as hidden mechanisms deep within the walls began to shift.

The dragon’s jaws slowly opened wider.

At the same time, the two halves of the massive door began to part, dragging against the stone floor with a deafening groan.

Beyond the opening, a bright golden shimmer flooded his eyes. Piles of gold stretched before him, a treasury vast enough to support an empire, mountains upon mountains of wealth stacked deep within the chamber.

His lips slowly curled into a smile. No matter what kind of rule a man wished to build, money was always one of its greatest necessities, and now that he was a king, he needed exactly this kind of fortune. Using the captives he had gathered as unpaid labor would make transporting it all back to Voidstar far easier. 𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂

Max stepped inside, examining the countless artifacts scattered among the treasure. His gaze soon stopped on five strange orbs placed at the highest point above the golden piles, almost as if they had been given a place of honor over the rest.

"What are those?"

"They’re the Orbs of the Wind Element," she answered quietly. "We use them to grant wind affinity to children who lack the bloodline. With bloodline purity growing more and more scarce, we only have five left..." As she spoke, she could feel something shift in Max, something that made him seem less like a king and more like a bandit staring at a prize he had already decided to steal.

"Get them for me." He grinned and patted her shoulder.