Arthur literally drowned the stick with his own blood, and waited. His body was ragged, full of many wounds all over it. He was exhausted more than before, but he just waited there anticipating the result.
"How are my dragons doing?" he asked while coughing blood. The next thing he did was to spray fire over his body, and even his fire seemed weak and intermittent from his exhaustion.
Yet the fire coming out did help him in treating a little of his wounds, making him able to stand straight after a couple of minutes.
'Ding! They are fine, just focus on what's coming out of that hall,' the system said.
"What hole?" Arthur glanced at the front where only a golden aura appeared taking the shape of a giant ball.
'Ding! In the center of this golden aura, there is a big and deep hole stretching down to the heart of this world.'
Arthur glanced all around, the rumbling never stopped and the quaking of the earth kept happening all the time. He wiped out a long trail of blood from the corners of his mouth before saying: "Be ready to move me away if things got ugly."
'Ding! Count on me.'
Arthur waited for an hour, during this time his wounds were partially healed. He took out many meat and ate them without reservation, replenishing part of his consumed strength.
"Any changes yet?" he muttered.
'Ding! Still nothing.'
"Strange," Arthur was feeling weird, as minutes ago the trembling ceased and the golden aura started to show signs of calming down. Its surface was like boiling water before, and now it was turning into a still lake.
"Can you scout the hole?" he asked, trying to find ways to understand what was going on.
'Ding! No, this golden aura blocks most of my powers,' the system replied, 'Ding! I believe if I used the scout ability it won't penetrate hundred meters even.'
"Hundred meters is better than none," Arthur muttered before adding, "use it now."
'Ding! Alright.'
The system then went into silence for couple of minutes before returning to say:
'Ding! I found something strange.'
"What?"
'Ding! There are long stairs on the side of that hole, leading downwards.'
Arthur paused before muttering, "asking us down? Instead of showing up? Weird."
'Ding! I suggest against going down.'
Arthur glanced over the golden ball for a moment before muttering: "And leave all this after reaching so far and paying all this cost? Let's venture there together."
'Ding! It seems awkward.'
"Just chill out, you are here and you can move me any moment a danger approaches me," Arthur smiled before watching his body. "But my body is still weak, sigh," he shook his head before deciding to wait for a couple more hours.
He recuperated as much as he could, dealing mainly with his depleted energy and most severe wounds. After all these hours of healing, his body was back to over seventy percent of his top shape. "Time to see what's all this about," he muttered before heading towards the golden ball.
He stood just in front of it while unable to see through. "Will this make a difference?" he raised the stick covered with his blood while glancing closely over it.
He tried to use it many times, even repeating the same words that the old man used and mimicked the way he used the stick before; yet nothing happened.
His system told him many times this stick was now connected to him, but it was dormant. Per system description, this stick was waiting for the right stimulus to be activated.
And Arthur had this simple idea about such a stimulus.
"Let's hope my thoughts are correct," he pointed to the stick to touch the golden ball and watched closely for any changes.
"Rumble!"
The moment the stick touched the ball, a sudden rumble occurred in the entire place. He didn't see any more changes than this rumble, yet his system gave him the answer after a couple of minutes.
'Ding! The ball is shrinking.'
"What?" Arthur glanced again at the ball and added, "I can't see that!"
'Ding! That's because you are standing so near,' the system explained, 'Ding! The stick is absorbing the golden aura, holding it still and waiting. This will take some time.'
"Tsk, nothing happens fast these days," he sighed while waiting with the stick held in front of him. After an hour, he finally noticed the decline in the size of the ball.
"Having such desire with slow actions, you should learn from me and be more aggressive," he muttered to his stick yet his words didn't manage to change anything.
He waited for four hours before the ball was finally absorbed by the stick. After the disappearance of the ball, he now could perfectly see the hole in the ground, and those stairs his system spoke of.
"They are old," he muttered when he examined them closely for a while. "Very old," he added as he could see green color covering parts of it, and many parts were already lost from many stairs.
"Is it safe using it?" he muttered.
'Ding! It seems not safe to enter this dark gloomy hole,' the system answered.
"Yet I'll enter it, but…" he glanced again at the stick before adding, "this stick didn't show any changes even after taking all these aura."
'Ding! It's still linked to you, and that's the most important thing.'
"Tsk, linked and useless, what's the point then," he shook his head before heading to the stairs. "Keep using the scout ability all the time," he said while carefully descending the steps.
The steps were broad and thick, able to withstand his heavy dragon body. Yet he planned to cancel it and return to be human again if he couldn't venture deeper.
He thought of flying the entire way downwards, but the size of the empty area here didn't match his big dragon body.
So he refrained and kept descending for hours.
The sourc𝗲 of this content is free(w)ebnov(𝒆)l