The Stonehearted Knight
Chapter 300: The changes within (1)

Chapter 300: The changes within (1)

Hex entered a wisp of his senses inside the crystal.

With the layer of Will removed from his path, nothing obstructed his path forward. Hex intended to take a cursory glance inside. Digesting every ounce of information inside the crystal would require far longer.

As soon as the wisp entered, it faced a mountain of blurry images and overlapping layers of murmurs. The chaos inside would have overwhelmed him if he hadn’t experienced going through the Crack himself. But having experienced it, he wrapped his senses inside his heartbeats before venturing deeper inside.

He knew he couldn’t stay too long inside but still walked to the mountain of blurry images and tried to form a clear visual. Despite failing miserably on his first try, he didn’t feel discouraged.

After a short rest, he tried again. And again. It took a few tries before he managed to create one clear picture. He watched the Sand Burial Monarch using the Earth element to hide his tracks. Although it didn’t help with gaining a deeper understanding of the element, Hex learned a few tricks that could help him navigate through places where the ground was a bit loose or prone to cave in.

Such tricks might not sound impressive, but remember that this came after viewing just one image. There were thousands, if not ten thousand, of such images inside the crystal. Sifting and assembling them into something of significance would require time and effort. Hex considered it well worth the investment, considering the reward being a complete or a semi-complete circle.

After a last glance, Hex withdrew his senses from the crystal. He was quite pleased with the outcome. Not only did he gain entry into the crystal, but his understanding of Time and Space improved by bounds and leaps.

Some things remained a mystery though.

’But how did I get a circle out of it? As far as I know, mastery over a certain element is required to form the circle.’

Hex knew his limits but even if he didn’t know, he still wouldn’t believe his understanding reached mastery as far as Time was concerned. There had to be some kind of secret behind it. The Saint did mention SpaceTime. Perhaps, it had to do with that. All he could do for now was to hope that the Saint didn’t forget to explain it to him.

’Who knows I might end up with more circle by the end of our visit to Wrixia.’

The possibility of gaining yet another circle in such a short time made him giddy with joy. Yes, he needed to consolidate and apply all his elements. However, gaining elemental circles was deemed the hardest aspect of training during the Refined Stage. Yet, he was breezing through it.

Only one person could thwart his plans to do so – Old Perl. Hex knew it was but a matter of time before the Enlightened Knight recovered after they reached Wrixia.

Headquarters or not, ancient organization or not, it didn’t matter. No force could afford to lose an Enlightened Knight. They were the peak of what the world allowed to exist in the Fifth Age.

The relics of before that might be around but Hex doubted they numbered into three digits. No one spoke of it but Hex even suspected some sort of suppression on those above the Enlightened Stage. There had to be. Why else weren’t they ruling the world?

’If I can get a month or so, I will gain the most out of it.’

It didn’t help to worry about it right now, so Hex threw the problem to the back of his mind. He would deal with it when it cropped up. For now, he observed the Crack again.

Having discovered the trick, he looked around without suffering any repercussions.

His senses, hidden inside his heartbeat, marveled at the wondrous sight. Light distorted inside the layers of chaotic energy, creating a mesmerizing sight of several colors.

He searched for the Crack’s exit but the same sight of diffracted light filled his vision to no end. Having completed the major part of his task, he didn’t feel the urgency to leave this place.

With the crystal refined, he reduced the flow of chaotic energy flowing through his body. Even a treasure like the World Stone faced difficulty in refining such a huge amount of energy. Hex had been sensing some discomfort in his inner space as the process continued, which is why he adjusted the flow.

But even then, the discomfort didn’t disappear. On the contrary, it increased. He felt the space subjected to a gradually increasing pressure. It was as if it could burst open. The feeling was new to him.

Curious and apprehensive, he willed himself to enter the space. He barely adjusted his senses upon entry when he discovered the source of the discomfort – the hatchling Frost Dragon. Only, it wasn’t a hatchling anymore.

The last time, which was earlier that day, he saw her, she was still a lizard of a couple of meters, wrapped around the monolith.

Ever since Hex learned about the Frost Dragon’s corpse inside the ruins of Notresol, he studied as much about them as he could. Although most information regarding these majestic creatures remained a secret, he did learn some of the basic stuff about them.

According to the books, it took a long time for Dragons to grow and mature. Although there were some discussions, the consensus among the specialists was that a Dragon grew a meter every ten years.

Another source he chanced upon compared the growth of Dragons to those of humans. If Hex remembered correctly, that expert claimed that a Dragon of around fifty to a hundred meters could be considered a teenager. Up to three hundred meters it could be considered an adolescent and longer would indicate an adult.

The hatchling grew at a speed visible to the naked eye. Hex watched in awe as the hatchling floated in the air and absorbed golden specks. He couldn’t help but be mesmerized at the sight of seeing its pristine white-blue skin bathing in golden light.

She was growing. From two meters to twenty, and then to forty...fifty. Once she crossed the length of fifty meters, her wings unfurled, easily spanning fifty meters. These were all estimates but Hex with his enhanced senses believed he was fairly accurate with the numbers.

As she continued to grow, her wings grew, and the pressure inside the inner space increased. He felt it vibrate but as the one in control, he gritted his teeth, withstanding it. For some reason, his intuition told him, that if he released the pressure, the growth of the Dragon would be impeded. He didn’t wish to see that. Who knew when she would get another chance to experience such rapid growth?

After some time, Hex noticed something peculiar. The pressure didn’t remain constant. It built up, causing the inner space to tremble but every time he managed to withstand the pounding pain, the pressure alleviated for some time.

Curious, he started to study the phenomenon. It took him two rounds of such pain and pressure release to understand the cause behind it. There were two phases it would seem.

During the first phase, under his control and the absorption of the Dragon, the space filled with immense amounts of chaotic energy and SpaceTime elements. The Dragon absorbed the chaotic energy – beasts and some other creatures could do so due to their superior physical powers – and the golden specs of Time. That left the Silver particles of Space inside. After some time the particles heaped up enough to exert pressure on their surroundings.

Having Space elements inside one body didn’t feel pleasant. Space elements tended to expand and stretch whatever container tried to hold them. Hex read in the Scroll examples of Space element users that just burst open or splintered due to negligence.

Usually, the average Space user tended to store little in their body and use gems and other tools to store the majority of the elements. But Hex wasn’t the average person. To be honest, even Hex didn’t know how special he was. He was starting to learn though.

Where others exploded after absorbing a huge amount of Space elements, Hex had to withstand tremendous pain and maintain his control. Because each time he managed to do so, his inner space fused with the excess Space elements and grew!

Yes, it grew. Hex couldn’t believe it at first too. It took two rounds before he believed it himself. The inner space grew half a meter. He knew it had some limit to how much it could grow but every centimeter was welcome.

"Haha–cough."

He laughed in happiness but burst into a fit of coughs. Blood splattered on the snowy ground. At the same time, Hex felt a pain unlike anything before. Even the injuries suffered in his clash against the King didn’t hurt as much.

"What’s hap–"

ROAR!

Hex looked up in shock. Not far from the Dragon, his Dragon Bear Soul roared. It had stood still, causing Hex to ignore it.

But now, seeing its white fur falling off, while it seemed to be in pain – Hex realized at once he suffered the pain due to their shared connection – he couldn’t ignore it. At a glance, he knew what his Soul was up to. It didn’t wish to lose to the Dragon. His Soul shared the same Will as he. And it willed to grow!

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